Chapter XV: Act II (5)

The plot of the “Bride in Heaven” is briefly this:—Many years before
the opening of the play, Major Huser had killed Baron Van Bergen in a
duel. There was no personal enmity between the men,—indeed they were
intimate friends; it was only public opinion and a barbarous etiquette
that forced on this ending to a trifling dispute. Huser was
broken-hearted at the way it ended: he accepted the charge of Van
Bergen’s only son as a sacred trust; and when he died, shortly
afterwards, made his own son, Gustaaf, promise to be a friend to young
Van Bergen at any sacrifice. Van Bergen turned out wild and
dissipated, and Gustaaf redeemed his promise by taking on himself a
forgery committed by his friend when in desperate straits for lack of
money at the university. No one knew the truth of this affair but
himself, Van Bergen, and the latter’s worthless valet, Frans. The
proofs of the whole were contained in certain letters in Van Bergen’s
possession. Huser disappears from society, and is supposed to have
fled the country. As a matter of fact, he is getting his living as a
music-master, under the name of Holm, and as such he is introduced to
us in the play. His principal pupil is Caroline, daughter of a high
government official named Van Wachler,—a shrewd, honourable, and
upright man, of simple tastes, meeting with little sympathy from his
fashionable and affected wife, with her would-be French manners, and
the aristocratic connections she will not allow him to forget. Mevrouw
Van Wachler is young Van Bergen’s aunt, and exceedingly anxious to
marry her daughter to the scapegrace, who, for his part, is not
unwilling to accept such a way of escape from his embarrassments. Her
husband is less dazzled by the match, and declares his intention of
letting his daughter choose for herself. He questions her, and finds
that her affections are set on Holm. Holm, who has meanwhile awakened
to the fact that he is in love with Caroline, has made up his mind
that he must leave without a sign; but Van Wachler’s genial kindness
wins his secret from him, and, finding that the statesman respects him
for himself, and is willing to take his position and his past for
granted, and that all he has to do is, to consent to the engagement,
he can only shut his eyes for the moment, and accept the offered
happiness. In the second act, which, with a few unimportant
abridgments, is given entire in the text, General Van Weller, brother
to Mevrouw Van Wachler, and the elder Huser’s old friend and comrade,
returns from the Indies, determined to clear up the mystery of Gustaaf
Huser’s disappearance, and is unwittingly helped on to the right track
by Frans. In the third act, Holm and Van Bergen meet—the best side of
the latter comes uppermost, and he has a passing mood of repentance
and reconciliation. But Frans’ influence is too strong; he is
persuaded to take a base advantage of his rival, and tells the Van
Wachler family, in Holm’s presence, that the latter is not only
passing under a false name, but is an outlaw and a convicted felon.
Holm (who had previously made up his mind, for the sake of their old
friendship and his promise to his father, to renounce Caroline, in the
hope that her love—could he succeed in winning it—might save Van
Bergen) is stunned and driven to despair by this treacherous attack,
goes home to his lodgings, and is about to commit suicide, when he is
interrupted by a visit from a man whose children he saved from a fire
a year ago, and who has now brought them to see him. This man (Wolf)
discovers his purpose, and does not leave till he has persuaded him to
forego it. Scarcely has he gone, when Caroline comes in. She tells
Holm that she has come to bid him farewell, but that nothing that has
happened can make any possible difference to their love. If she may
not belong to him on earth, she will be his bride in the other life,
and wait for him there. So they part.

Van Wachler is full of indignation at the way in which he considers
himself to have been deceived by Holm, but Van Weller arrives in time
to explain everything,—tells the whole story, sends for Holm, or
Huser, and sees his old friend’s son triumphantly righted, while Van
Bergen retires in disgrace. (See _A Rascally Valet_, p. 65.)

Footnote 3:

Strictly speaking, “Dominie,” in Holland, is a title reserved for
ministers, the old-fashioned designation of the schoolmaster being
simply “Meester.” But as the former title has, with us, become
inseparably attached to the latter profession, it has been thought
best to use it as the translation of “Meester.”

Footnote 4:

Equivalent to the French _garde-champêtre_ and the German
_Feldschütz_,—an official who is something between a gamekeeper and a
policeman. His duty is to patrol the fields and orchards with a gun,
and see that nothing is stolen.

Footnote 5:

Readers of Motley will not need to be reminded that this was the name
of William the Silent’s murderer.

Footnote 6:

“Wethouders:” corresponding to the “selectmen” of a New England
village.

Footnote 7:

_Doe wel en zie niet om_ (Do well, and don’t look behind you), was the
motto of the Knights of the Union. King Louis of Holland (Napoleon
I.’s brother) was but an indifferent Dutch scholar, and the tradition
goes, that, having to preside at a chapter of the above Order, he was
provided with a French phonetic version of their motto, as follows:
_Doux lainsi nid d’homme_. With the aid of this guide to pronunciation
he is said to have acquitted himself all right; but on another
occasion he came to grief by describing himself as the “friend and
rabbit” (Konijn, _quasi koning_, king) of his audience.

Footnote 8:

The Dr Watts of Holland.

Footnote 9:

A society at Amsterdam, which, besides fulfilling the usual functions
of a club, holds picture exhibitions and gives concerts, and founded
the zoological gardens in that city (hence often referred to as
“Artis,” _tout court_), to which its members have free right of entry.
Membership in “Artis,” as implied in the text, is a trustworthy
guarantee of respectability.

Footnote 10:

The hierarchy of Dutch etiquette is as follows, beginning from
above:—_Mevrouw_, _Juffrouw_, _Vrouw_.

Footnote 11:

_I.e._, confirmation.

Footnote 12:

Erroneously so. For, even though this is _not_ humour, it is quite
true that jokes of this sort are given out as such; and Master
Pennewip’s question can only have referred to this. The wig’s doubts
are therefore unfounded, and I would recommend to it the attentive
perusal of Professor Oosterzee’s treatise, “De Sceptici mo caute
Vitando.”

Footnote 13:

Two outlying districts of Amsterdam.

Footnote 14:

“_L’eau de reine_,” _i.e._, “eau de la reine de Hongrie,” known in
England as “Hungary water,” a fashionable perfume and restorative when
eau de Cologne as yet was not. Dutch ladies used to take it to church
with them instead of smelling-salts. Juffrouw Pieterse’s version of
the word is pronounced as spelt, the _y_ being long like that in the
English word _my_.

Footnote 15:

Intended for “marchand de parapluies.” The words in the above form
were the refrain of a favourite Amsterdam street song some seventy
years since.

Footnote 16:

The official known in a Dutch church as _Kerkmeester_ combines in
himself functions analogous to those of the English clerk and
churchwarden, or the Scottish beadle and precentor.

Footnote 17:

The Nes is a low part of Amsterdam, full of taverns and music-halls of
the worst description.

Footnote 18:

20 stivers = 1 florin = 1s. 8d.

Footnote 19:

5 stivers.

Footnote 20:

Two Leyden theological professors in the early part of this century.

Footnote 21:

The “Authorised Version” of Holland, published by order of the States
General, and in consequence of a resolution of the Synod of Dort, in
1610. It was completed in 1634.

Footnote 22:

“Rederijkers” (_i.e._, “rhetorikers”) Kamer is the name given to the
literary societies which still flourish at the Dutch universities. The
name has come down from the fifteenth century, and the most famous
societies were those of “In Liefde Bloeiende” and “De Eglantier,”
further reference to which will be found in the Introduction.

Footnote 23:

There are two provinces of Limburg; one of them being part of Belgium,
the other of the Netherlands. In the latter (which is the one meant
here) the people are Romanists and call themselves Flemings, not
Hollanders.

Footnote 24:

Fourth part of a _stuiver_.

Footnote 25:

This story appears to have several morals, the reader being left free
to choose the one most in accordance with his own views. The author
himself is strictly impartial. Perhaps the most obvious is, that it is
not good to match your wits against those of the Roman Catholic
clergy, unless you have capital to back your opposition, and not
always even then. M. Seipgens does not obtrude his own views, and we
are not quite sure whether the conclusion is meant to be serious and
edifying, or whether there is an underlying _pointe d’ironie_. The
story gives a lively picture of life and manners in the Limburg
district, that picturesque and little known region which, though part
of Holland, is in some respects so un-Dutch. The language spoken there
is less like Dutch proper than some broad and harsh dialect of German,
such as they speak about Cologne. After some hesitation between the
two, we have given this sketch of Seipgens’ in preference to “Kobus
Mulders’ Vote,”—which also turns on politics and clerical influence,
and is, in some respects, more characteristic; but the crisis—when
Mulders and his family are cut off by the flood—comes too near tragedy
for such a book as this.

Footnote 26:

The scene of this play is laid on what is now the frontier between
Holland and Belgium,—the time is 1830,—when the southern provinces of
the Kingdom of Holland revolted. The Liberal (French) party allied
itself with the Clerical Ultramontanes against the Government, and the
news of the Paris Revolution precipitated the outbreak of a riot at
Brussels (August 25), which soon spread over the country.

Footnote 27:

This is an allusion to one Kissels, who had been getting his living by
exhibiting a whale’s skeleton at Amsterdam, and joined the Belgian
side on the outbreak of the war.

Footnote 28:

A Flemish expletive.

Footnote 29:

“Up with Orange!” the Dutch national war-cry.

Footnote 30:

_I.e._, is born to be hanged. The site of the gallows is the
_Rabenstein_ in old German ballads.

Footnote 31:

“Grease” here has the sense of what is figuratively called “palm-oil.”

Footnote 32:

An illustration of comfortable, “Philistine” selfishness. The pumping
is supposed to be going on either on board a leaking vessel, or at a
break in the dykes.

Footnote 33:

_I.e._, cotton and pepper.

Footnote 34:

This is puzzling at first sight, but apparently is a comparison
between the three nations in point of foresight and prudence,—the
knife standing for anything needed in case of emergencies. The
Hollander is always prepared, the Frenchman never, the Scot makes
assurance doubly sure.

Footnote 35:

Another uncomplimentary proverb has it that the Portuguese apprentice
wants to cut out clothes before he knows how to sew.

Footnote 36:

Lit. “Madam my consort.”

Footnote 37:

This marriage would be legal in Holland.

Footnote 38:

Two-wheeled trap or dogcart (a Malay word).

Footnote 39:

Chinese trader.

Footnote 40:

_Kabaja_ is a long loose jacket, and _sarong_ the Malay petticoat,
forming the usual morning dress of Dutch ladies in the Indies.

Footnote 41:

_Njo_ is the Malay title given to the eldest boy in a family (like
_baba_ in Hindustani); for a girl it is _Nonnie_.

Footnote 42:

“No.”

Footnote 43:

_Sambal_ answers to the curry of British India, and is as various in
its composition.

Footnote 44:

Broth.

Footnote 45:

The Javanese equivalent to “ayah.”

Footnote 46:

_See_ Introduction.

Footnote 47:

She was Everdine Huberte, Baroness Wynbergen, a portionless orphan of
good family, whose property, seized by rapacious relatives, afterwards
cost him a series of lawsuits. Having picked up a lady’s handkerchief
at a ball, he chose to interpret the initials worked on it as “Eigen
Heard Wel Waard” (“A hearth of one’s own is worth much”) and at once
declared his intention of finding and marrying the owner. She is the
_Tine_ of “Max Havelaar.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------

LIBRARY OF HUMOUR

_Cloth Elegant, Large Crown 8vo, Price 3/6 per vol._

_VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED._

THE HUMOUR OF FRANCE. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by
Elizabeth Lee. With numerous Illustrations by Paul Frénzeny.

“From Villon to Paul Verlaine, from dateless _fabliaux_ to newspapers fresh from the kiosk, we have a tremendous range of selections.”—_Birmingham Daily Gazette._

“French wit is excellently represented. We have here examples of Villon, Rabelais, and Molière, but we have specimens also of La Rochefoucauld, Regnard, Voltaire, Beaumarchais, Chamfort, Dumas, Gautier, Labiche, De Banville, Pailleron, and many others.... The book sparkles from beginning to end.”—_Globe_ (London).

THE HUMOUR OF GERMANY. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by
Hans Müller-Casenov. With numerous Illustrations by C. E. Brock.

An excellently representative volume.—_Daily Telegraph_ (London).

“Whether it is Saxon kinship or the fine qualities of the collection, we have found this volume the most entertaining of the three. Its riotous absurdities well overbalance its examples of the oppressively heavy.... The national impulse to make fun of the war correspondent has a capital example in the skit from Julius Stettenheim.”—_New York Independent._

THE HUMOUR OF ITALY. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by A.
Werner. With 50 Illustrations and a Frontispiece by Arturo Faldi.

“Will reveal to English readers a whole new world of literature.”—_Athenæum._ (London).

“Apart from selections of writers of classical reputation, the book contains some delightful modern short stories and sketches. We may particularly mention those by Verga, Capuana, De Amicis.... Excellent also are one or two of the jokes and ‘bulls’ which figure under the heading of newspaper humour.”—_Literary World_ (London).

THE HUMOUR OF AMERICA. Selected, with a copious Biographical Index of
American Humorists, by James Barr.

“There is not a dull page in the volume; it fairly sparkles and ripples with good things.”—_Manchester Examiner._

THE HUMOUR OF HOLLAND. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by
A. Werner. With numerous Illustrations by Dudley Hardy.

_VOLUMES IN PREPARATION._

THE HUMOUR OF IRELAND. Selected by D. J. O’Donoghue. With numerous
Illustrations by Oliver Paque.

THE HUMOUR OF RUSSIA. Translated, with Notes, by E. L. Boole, and an
Introduction by Stepniak. With 50 Illustrations by Paul Frénzeny.

THE HUMOUR OF SPAIN. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by S.
Taylor. With numerous Illustrations.

To be followed by volumes representative of ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, JAPAN, etc. The Series will be complete in about twelve volumes.

BOOKS OF FAIRY TALES.

_Crown 8vo, Cloth Elegant, Price 3/6 per Vol._

ENGLISH FAIRY AND OTHER FOLK TALES.

Selected and Edited, with an Introduction,

BY EDWIN SIDNEY HARTLAND.

_With Twelve Pull-Page Illustrations by_ CHARLES E. BROCK.

SCOTTISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES.

Selected and Edited, with an Introduction,

BY SIR GEORGE DOUGLAS, BART.

_With Twelve Full-Page Illustrations by_ JAMES TORRANCE.

IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES.

Selected and Edited, with an Introduction,

BY W. B. YEATS.

_With Twelve Full-Page Illustrations by_ JAMES TORRANCE.

IBSEN’S PROSE DRAMAS.

EDITED BY WILLIAM ARCHER.

Complete in Five Vols. Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 3/6 each. Set of Five
Vols., in Case, 17/6; in Half Morocco, in Case, 32/6.

“_We seem at last to be shown men and women as they are; and at first
it is more than we can endure.... All Ibsen’s characters speak and act
as if they were hypnotized, and under their creator’s imperious demand
to reveal themselves. There never was such a mirror held up to nature
before: it is too terrible.... Yet we must return to Ibsen, with his
remorseless surgery, his remorseless electric-light, until we, too,
have grown strong and learned to face the naked—if necessary, the
flayed and bleeding—reality._”—SPEAKER (London).

Vol. I. “A DOLL’S HOUSE,” “THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH,” and “THE PILLARS OF
SOCIETY.” With Portrait of the Author, and Biographical
Introduction by WILLIAM ARCHER.

Vol. II. “GHOSTS,” “AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE,” and “THE WILD DUCK.” With
an Introductory Note.

Vol. III. “LADY INGER OF ÖSTRÅT,” “THE VIKINGS AT HELGELAND,” “THE
PRETENDERS.” With an Introductory Note and Portrait of Ibsen.

Vol. IV. “EMPEROR AND GALILEAN.” With an Introductory Note by WILLIAM
ARCHER.

Vol. V. “ROSMERSHOLM,” “THE LADY FROM THE SEA,” “HEDDA GABLER.”
Translated by WILLIAM ARCHER. With an Introductory Note.

The sequence of the plays _in each volume_ is chronological; the
complete set of volumes comprising the dramas thus presents them in
chronological order.

“The art of prose translation does not perhaps enjoy a very high
literary status in England, but we have no hesitation in numbering the
present version of Ibsen, so far as it has gone (Vols. I. and II.),
among the very best achievements, in that kind, of our
generation.”—_Academy._

“We have seldom, if ever, met with a translation so absolutely
idiomatic.”—_Glasgow Herald._

Crown 8vo, about 350 pp. each, Cloth Cover, 2s. 6d. per vol.

Half-polished Morocco, gilt top, 5s.

COUNT TOLSTOÏ’S WORKS.

The following Volumes are already issued—

A RUSSIAN PROPRIETOR.

THE COSSACKS.

IVAN ILYITCH, AND OTHER STORIES.

MY RELIGION.

LIFE.

MY CONFESSION.

CHILDHOOD, BOYHOOD, YOUTH.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WAR.

ANNA KARÉNINA 3s. 6d.

WHAT TO DO?

WAR AND PEACE. (4 VOLS.)

THE LONG EXILE, AND OTHER STORIES FOR CHILDREN.

SEVASTOPOL.

THE KREUTZER SONATA, AND FAMILY HAPPINESS.

Uniform with the above.

IMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIA

BY DR. GEORG BRANDES.

BOOKS AT 6/–.

VAIN FORTUNE. By GEORGE MOORE. With Eleven Illustrations by MAURICE
GREIFFENHAGEN.

MODERN PAINTING. A Volume of Essays. By GEORGE MOORE.

PEER GYNT: A DRAMATIC POEM. By HENRIK IBSEN. Translated by WILLIAM and
CHARLES ARCHER.

AMONG THE CAMPS; OR, YOUNG PEOPLE’S STORIES OF THE WAR. By THOMAS
NELSON PAGE. (Illustrated.)

THE MUSIC OF THE POETS: A MUSICIANS’ BIRTHDAY BOOK. Edited by ELEONORE
D’ESTERRE KEELING.

THE GERM-PLASM: A THEORY OF HEREDITY. By AUGUST WEISMANN, Professor in
the University of Freiburg-in-Breisgau.

DRAMATIC ESSAYS.

EDITED BY

WILLIAM ARCHER AND ROBERT W. LOWE.

_Three Volumes, Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 3/6 each._

Dramatic Criticism, as we now understand it—the systematic appraisement from day to day and week to week of contemporary plays and acting—began in England about the beginning of the present century. Until very near the end of the eighteenth century, “the critics” gave direct utterance to their judgments in the theatre itself, or in the coffeehouses, only occasionally straying into print in letters to the news-sheets, or in lampoons or panegyrics in prose or verse, published in pamphlet form. Modern criticism began with modern journalism; but some of its earliest utterances were of far more than ephemeral value. During the earlier half of the present century several of the leading essayists of the day—men of the first literary eminence—concerned themselves largely with the theatre. Under the title of

“DRAMATIC ESSAYS”

will be issued, in three volumes, such of their theatrical criticisms as seem to be of abiding interest.

_THE FIRST SERIES_ will contain selections from the criticisms of LEIGH HUNT, both those published in 1807 (long out of print), and the admirable articles contributed more than twenty years later to _The Tatler_, and never republished.

_THE SECOND SERIES_ will contain selections from the criticisms of WILLIAM HAZLITT. Hazlitt’s Essays on Kean and his contemporaries have long been inaccessible, save to collectors.

_THE THIRD SERIES_ will contain hitherto uncollected criticisms by JOHN FORSTER, GEORGE HENRY LEWES, and others, with selections from the writings of WILLIAM ROBSON (The Old Playgoer).

The Essays will be concisely but adequately annotated, and each volume will contain an Introduction by WILLIAM ARCHER, and an Engraved Portrait Frontispiece.

_Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 6s._

MODERN PAINTING.

By GEORGE MOORE.

_SOME PRESS NOTICES._

“Of the very few books on art that painters and critics should on no account leave unread this is surely one.”—_The Studio._

“His book is one of the best books about pictures that have come into our hands for some years.”—_St. James’s Gazette._

“If there is an art critic who knows exactly what he means and says it with exemplary lucidity, it is ‘G. M.’”—_The Sketch._

“A more original, a better informed, a more suggestive, and let us add, a more amusing work on the art of to-day, we have never read than this volume.”—_Glasgow Herald._

“Impressionism, to use that word, in the absence of any fitter one,—the impressionism which makes his own writing on art in this volume so effective, is, in short, the secret both of his likes and dislikes, his hatred of what he thinks conventional and mechanic, together with his very alert and careful evaluation of what comes home to him as straightforward, whether in Reynolds, or Rubens, or Ruysdael, in Japan, in Paris, or in modern England.”—Mr. Pater in _The Chronicle_.

“As an art critic Mr. George Moore certainly has some signal advantages. He is never dull, he is frankly personal, he is untroubled by tradition.”—_Westminster Gazette._

“Mr. Moore, in spite of the impediments that he puts in the way of his own effectiveness, is one of the most competent writers on painting that we have.”—_Manchester Guardian._

“His [Mr. Moore’s] book is one that cannot fail to be much talked about; and everyone who is interested in modern painting will do well to make acquaintance with its views.”—_Scottish Leader._

“As everybody knows by this time, Mr. Moore is a person of strong opinions and strong dislikes, and has the gift of expressing both in pungent language.”—_The Times._

“Of his [Mr. Moore’s] sincerity, of his courage, and of his candour there can be no doubt.... One of the most interesting writers on art that we have.”—_Pall Mall Gazette._

WORKS BY GEORGE MOORE.

_Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 3s. 6d. each._

TWENTIETH EDITION.

A MUMMER’S WIFE.

“‘A Mummer’s Wife’ is a striking book—clever, unpleasant, realistic.... No one who wishes to examine the subject of realism in fiction, with regard to English novels, can afford to neglect ‘A Mummer’s Wife.’”—_Athenæum._

“‘A Mummer’s Wife,’ in virtue of its vividness of presentation and real literary skill, may be regarded as in some degree a representative example of the work of a literary school that has of late years attracted to itself a great deal of notoriety.”—_Spectator._

EIGHTH EDITION.

A MODERN LOVER.

“It would be difficult to praise too highly the strength, truth, delicacy, and pathos of the incident of Gwynnie Lloyd, and the admirable treatment of the great sacrifice she makes.”—_Spectator._

SEVENTH EDITION.

A DRAMA IN MUSLIN.

“Mr. George Moore’s work stands on a very much higher plane than the facile fiction of the circulating libraries.... The characters are drawn with patient care, and with a power of individualisation which marks the born novelist. It is a serious, powerful, and in many respects edifying book.”—_Pall Mall Gazette._

_Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 6s._

VAIN FORTUNE.

With Eleven Illustrations by MAURICE GREIFFENHAGEN.

_A few Large-Paper Copies on Hand-made Paper, Price One Guinea net._

A VOLUME of ESSAYS by GEORGE MOORE.

_Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 6s._

MODERN PAINTING.

_Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 5s._

THE STRIKE AT ARLINGFORD.

PLAY IN THREE ACTS.

_COMPACT AND PRACTICAL._

_In Limp Cloth; for the Pocket. Price One Shilling._

THE EUROPEAN
CONVERSATION BOOKS.

FRENCH
SPANISH
ITALIAN
GERMAN
NORWEGIAN

CONTENTS.

_Hints to Travellers—Everyday Expressions—Arriving at and Leaving a
Railway Station—Custom House Enquiries—In a Train—At a Buffet and
Restaurant—At an Hotel—Paying an Hotel Bill—Enquiries in a Town—On
Board Ship—Embarking and Disembarking—Excursion by Carriage—Enquiries
as to Diligences—Enquiries as to Boats—Engaging Apartments—Washing
List and Days of Week—Restaurant Vocabulary—Telegrams and Letters,
etc., etc._

The contents of these little handbooks are so arranged as to permit direct and immediate reference. All dialogues or enquiries not considered absolutely essential have been purposely excluded, nothing being introduced which might confuse the traveller rather than assist him. A few hints are given in the introduction which will be found valuable to those unaccustomed to foreign travel.

London: WALTER SCOTT, 24 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 4. Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscript character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.