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BLACKWOOD'S

EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

NO. CCCLVI. JUNE, 1845. VOL. LVII.


Transcriber's note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved
to the end of the article. The index for Volume 57 is included at the
end of this issue.


CONTENTS.


PUSHKIN, THE RUSSIAN POET. No. I.,                             657

THE NOVEL AND THE DRAMA,                                       679

MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART XVII.,           688

LEBRUN'S LAWSUIT,                                              705

CENNINO CENNINI ON PAINTING,                                   717

AESTHETICS OF DRESS. NO. IV.,                                   731

SUSPIRIA DE PROFUNDIS: BEING A SEQUEL TO THE CONFESSIONS
OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER,                                     739

HANNIBAL,                                                      752

STANZAS WRITTEN AFTER THE FUNERAL OF ADMIRAL SIR DAVID
MILNE, C.G.B.,                                                 766

STANZAS TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS HOOD,                          768

NORTH'S SPECIMENS OF THE BRITISH CRITICS. NO. V.--DRYDEN
ON CHAUCER--CONCLUDED,                                         771

INDEX,                                                         794


EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; AND 22,
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SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.




BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

NO. CCCLVI. JUNE, 1845. VOL. LVII.




PUSHKIN, THE RUSSIAN POET.

NO. I.

SKETCH OF PUSHKIN'S LIFE AND WORKS, BY THOMAS B. SHAW, B.A. OF
CAMBRIDGE, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE IMPERIAL
ALEXANDER LYCEUM, TRANSLATOR OF "THE HERETIC," &C. &C.


Among the many striking analogies which exist between the physical and
intellectual creations, and exhibit the uniform method adopted by
Supreme Wisdom in the production of what is most immortal and most
precious in the world of thought, as well as of what is most useful and
beautiful in the world of matter, there is one which cannot fail to
arise before the most actual and commonplace imagination. This is, the
great apparent care exhibited by nature in the preparation of the
_nidus_--or matrix, if we may so style it--in which the genius of the
great man is to be perfected and elaborated. Nature creates nothing in
sport; and as much foresight--possibly even more--is displayed in the
often complicated and intricate machinery of concurrent causes which
prepare the development of great literary genius, as in the elaborate
in-foldings which protect from injury the germ of the future oak, or the
deep-laid and mysterious bed, and the unimaginable ages of growth and
hardening, necessary to the water of the diamond, or to the purity of
the gold.

Pushkin is undoubtedly one of that small number of names, which have
become incorporated and identified with the literature of their country;
at once the type and the expression of that country's nationality--one
of that small but illustrious bard, whose writings have become part of
the very household language of their native land--whose lightest words
may be incessantly heard from the lips of all classes; and whose
expressions may be said, like those of Shakspeare, of Moliere, and of
Cervantes, to have become the natural forms embodying the ideas which
they have expressed, and in expressing, consecrated. In a word, Pushkin
is undeniably and essentially the great national poet of Russia.

In tracing, therefore, this author's double existence, and in essaying
to give some account of his external as well as his interior life--in
sketching the poet and the man--we cannot fail to remark a striking
exemplification of the principle to which we have alluded; and as we
accompany, in respectful admiration, his short but brilliant career, we
shall have incessant occasion to remember the laws which regulated its
march--laws ever-acting and eternal, and no less apparent to the eye of
enlightened criticism, than are the mighty physical influences which
guide the planets in their course, to the abstract reason of the
astronomer.

Alexander Pushkin was born (as if destiny had intended, in assigning
his birth-place--the ancient capital of Russia, and still the
dwelling-place of all that is most intense in Russian nationality--to
predict all the stuff and groundwork of his character) at Moscow, on the
26th of May 1799. His family, by the paternal side, was one of the most
ancient and distinguished in the empire, and was descended from Ratcha,
a German--probably a Teutonic knight--who settled in Muscovy in the
thirteenth century, and took service under Alexander Nevskii,
(1252-1262,) and who is the parent root from which spring many of the
most illustrious houses in Russia--those of Pushkin, of Buturlin, of
Kamenskii, and of Meteloff. Nor was the paternal line of Pushkin's house
undistinguished for other triumphs than those recorded in the annals of
war; his grandfather, Vassilii Lvovitch Pushkin, was a poet of
considerable reputation, and was honoured, no less than Alexander's
father, with the intimacy of the most illustrious literary men of his
age--of Dmitrieff, Karamzin, and Jukovskii.

But perhaps the most remarkable circumstance connected with Pushkin's
origin--a circumstance of peculiar significance to those who, like
ourselves, are believers in the influence, on human character, of
_race_, or _blood_, is the fact of his having been the grandson, by the
mother's side, of an African. The cold blood of the north, transmitted
to his veins from the rude warrior of Germany, was thus mingled with
that liquid lightning which circles through the fervid bosom of the
children of the desert; and this crossing of the race (to use the
language of the course) produced an undeniable modification in our
poet's character. His maternal grandfather was a <DW64>, brought to
Russia when a child by Peter the Great, and whose subsequent career was
one of the most romantic that can be imagined. The wonderful Tsar gave
his sable protege, whose name was Annibal, a good education, and
admitted him into the marine service of the empire--a service in which
he reached (in the reign of Catharine) the rank of admiral. He took part
in the attack upon Navarin under Orloff, and died after a long and
distinguished career of service, having founded, in his new country, the
family of Annibaloff, of which Pushkin was the most distinguished
ornament, and of whose African origin the poet, both in personal
appearance and in mental physiognomy, bore the most unequivocal marks.
To the memory of this singular progenitor, Pushkin has consecrated more
than one of his smaller works, and has frequently alluded to the African
blood which he inherited from the admiral.

In 1811, Pushkin obtained (through the interest of Turgenieff, to whom
Russia is thus, in some sort, indebted for her great poet) admission
into the Imperial Lyceum of Tsarskoe Selo, where he was to receive the
education, and to form the friendships, which so strongly , not
only the literary productions of his whole career, but undoubtedly
modified, to a considerable extent, the personal character of the poet.
This institution, then recently established by the Emperor Alexander,
and always honoured by the peculiar favour and protection of its
illustrious founder, was modelled on the plan of those _lycees_ which
France owed to the genius of Napoleon; and was intended to confer upon
its pupils the advantage of a complete encyclopedic education, and, not
only embracing the preparatory or school course, but also the academic
_curriculum_ of a university, was calculated to dismiss the students, at
the end of their course of training, immediately into active life. The
Lyceum must be undoubtedly considered as having nursed in its bosom a
greater number of distinguished men than any other educational
institution in the country; and our readers may judge of the peculiar
privileges enjoyed by this establishment, (the primary object of whose
foundation was, that of furnishing to the higher civil departments in
the government, and to the ministry of foreign affairs in particular, a
supply of able and accomplished _employes_,) from the fact of its having
been located by the emperor in a wing of the palace of Tsarskoe
Selo--the favourite summer residence of the Tsars of Russia since the
time of Catharine II. It is to the last-named sovereign, as is well
known to travellers, that this celebrated spot is indebted for its
splendid palace and magnificent gardens, forming, perhaps, the most
striking object which gratifies the stranger's curiosity in the environs
of St Petersburg.

The students of the Lyceum are almost always youths of the most
distinguished families among the Russian nobility, and are themselves
selected from among the most promising in point of intellect. The system
of education pursued within its walls is of the most complete nature,
partaking, as may be concluded from what we have said, of both a
scientific and literary character; and a single glance at a list of the
first course (of which Pushkin was a member) will suffice to show, that
it counted, among its numbers, many names destined to high distinction.
Among the comrades and intimate friends of Pushkin at the Lyceum, must
be mentioned the elegant poet, the Baron Delvig, whose early death was
so irreparable a loss to Russian literature, and must be considered as
the severest personal bereavement suffered by Pushkin--"his brother," as
he affectionately calls him, in the muse as in their fate. Nor must we
forget Admiral Matiushkin, a distinguished seaman now living, and
commanding the Russian squadron in the Black Sea. We could specify a
number of other names, all of more or less note in their own country,
though the reputation of many of them has not succeeded, for various
reasons, in passing the frontiers.

From the system of study, no less than from the peculiar social
character, if we may so express it, which has always prevailed in the
Lyceum of Tsarskoe Selo, we must deduce the cause of the peculiar
intensity and durability of the friendships contracted within its
bosom--a circumstance which still continues to distinguish it to a
higher degree than can be predicated of any other institution with which
we are acquainted; and we allude to this more pointedly from the
conviction, that it would be absolutely impossible to form a true idea
of Pushkin--not only as man, but even as a poet--were we to leave out of
our portrait the immense influence exerted on the whole of his career,
both in the world of reality and in the regions of art, by the close and
intimate friendships he formed in the Lyceum, particularly that with
Delvig. Few portions of poetical biography contain a purer or more
touching interest than the chapter describing the school or college
friendships of illustrious men; and the innumerable allusions to Lyceum
comrades and Lyceum happiness, scattered so profusely over the pages of
Pushkin, have an indescribable charm to the imagination, not less
delightful than the recital of Byron's almost feminine affection for
"little Harness," or the oft-recalled image of the Noble Childe's boyish
meditation in the elm-shadowed churchyard of Harrow.

During the six years which Pushkin passed at the Lyceum, (from 1811 to
1817,) the intellect and the affections of the young poet were rapidly
and steadily developing themselves. He could not, it is true, be
considered as a diligent scholar, by those who looked at the progress
made by him in the regular and ostensible occupations of the
institution; but it is undeniable, that the activity of his powerful,
accurate, and penetrating mind found solid and unremitting occupation in
a wide circle of general reading. His own account of the acquirements he
had made at this period, and of the various branches of study which he
had cultivated with more or less assiduity, proves that, however
desultory may have been the nature of his reading, and however unformed
or incoherent were his literary projects, he possessed, in ample
measure, even at this period, the great elements of future fame; viz.
the habit of vigorous industry, and the power of sustained abstraction
and contemplation.

His personal appearance, at this time, was a plain index of his
character, intellectual as well as moral. The closely-curled and wiry
hair, the mobile and irregular features, the darkness of the complexion,
all betrayed his African descent; and served as an appropriate outside
to a character which was early formed in all its individuality, and
which remained unchanged in its principal features during the whole of
the poet's too short existence. Long will the youthful traditions of the
Lyceum recall the outlines of Pushkin's character; long will the
unbiassed judgment of boyhood do justice to the manliness, the honour,
the straightforwardness of the great poet's nature, and hand down, from
one young generation to another, numberless traits exemplifying the
passionate warmth of his heart, the gaiety of his temper, and the
vastness of his memory. In all cases where circumstances come fairly
under their observation, the young are the best judges of internal
character, as well as the most unerring physiognomists of the outward
lineaments of the face. Pushkin was extremely popular among his
comrades--the generosity of his character had peculiar charms for the
unsophisticated minds of the young; and the vigour of a body never
enfeebled in infancy by luxurious indulgence, enabled him to obtain, by
sharing in their sports, no less consideration among them than he
derived from the play of his penetrating and sarcastic humour. His
poetical existence was now already begun: to the Lyceum period of
Pushkin's life we must ascribe not only a considerable number of short
pieces of verse--those first flutterings of the bird before it has
strength to leave the nest--but even the conception of many poetical
projects which time and study were hereafter to mature into
masterpieces. The short and fugitive essays in poetry to which we have
just alluded, appeared in a literary journal at various periods, and
under anonymous signatures--a circumstance to be deplored, as it has
deprived us of the means of examining how far these slight attempts,
composed in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth years of his age,
gave promise of future excellence. In themselves, they were probably so
crude and _unlicked_ as to justify the poet in the indifference which
prevented him from claiming these early compositions, and allowing them
to be incorporated in the collections of his writings. During his
residence at the Lyceum, however, he undoubtedly meditated the plan of
his charming romantic poem, "Ruslan and Liudmila," and probably even
composed the opening of the work. To this period, too, are to be
assigned some stanzas of great merit, entitled "Recollections of
Tsarskoe Selo," and an "Epistle to Licinius"--both works exhibiting
considerable skill and mastery in versification, but by far too much
tinged (as might indeed be expected) with the light reflected from the
youthful poet's reading to deserve a place among his original
productions. For the amusement of his comrades, also, he wrote a number
of ludicrous and humorous pieces, which derived their chief merit from
the circumstances which suggested them; and were calculated rather to
excite a moment's laughter in the merry circle of schoolfellows, than to
be cited as specimens of the author's comic powers, particularly when we
reflect, that the broadly humorous was never Pushkin's favourite or even
successful manner of writing: in the delicate, subdued, Cervantes tone
of humour, however, he was destined to become perhaps the most
distinguished writer of his country--but let us not anticipate. One
production, connected with the Lyceum, is, however, too important (not
perhaps in itself, so much as in the circumstances accompanying it) to
be passed over in a biography of our poet. This is a didactic poem
entitled "Infidelity," which Pushkin composed and read at the public
examination at the Lyceum, at the solemn _Act_, (a ceremony resembling
that which bears the same name at Oxford and Cambridge, and which takes
place at the conferring of the academical degree.) It was on this
occasion that Pushkin was publicly saluted _Poet_, in the presence of
the Emperor, by the aged Derjavin--the greatest Russian poet then
living, and whose glory was so soon to be eclipsed by the young student
whom he prophetically applauded. It is impossible not to be affected by
the sight of the sunset of that genius whose brightest splendour is
worthily reflected in the sublime ode, "God"--one of the noblest lyrics
in the Russian, or, indeed, in any language--thus heralding, as it were,
the dawning of a more brilliant and enduring daybreak; even as in the
northern summer the vapoury evening glow melts imperceptibly into the
dawn, and leaves no night between.

This event, so calculated to impress the vivid and ardent imagination of
the young poet, has been most exquisitely described by himself in the
literary journal, "Sovremennik," (The Contemporary,) vol. viii. p. 241.

On quitting the Lyceum, in October 1817, Pushkin entered the civil
service, and was immediately attached to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Young, noble, cultivated, possessed in the highest degree of
those talents which are certain to enchant society, he plunged, as might
naturally have been expected, with all the ardour of his African blood,
into the pleasures and amusements of the capital. His success in
society, and the eagerness with which he was welcomed every where, might
easily have been foreseen, particularly when we keep in mind the
universal hospitality which distinguishes the higher classes of Russian
society, and the comparative rarity in this country of literary
celebrity, which tends to render merit of that nature certain of a
respectful, if not exaggerated appreciation. "The three years," to quote
the words of one--himself a personal friend of the poet's--who has
succeeded in seizing with admirable fidelity the principal features of
Pushkin's intellectual physiognomy, "the three years which he passed in
St Petersburg, after quitting the Lyceum, were devoted to the amusements
of the fashionable world, and to the irresistible enchantments of
society. From the splendid drawing-room of the great noble down to the
most unceremonious supper-table of a party of young officers, every
where Pushkin was received with exultation, and every where did he
become the idol of the young, who gratified both his vanity and their
own by the glory which accompanied his every step."

The eagerness with which the young poet plunged into the glittering
stream of fashionable life, must not be attributed only to the natural
thirst for pleasure in a young man just released from the bonds of a
school life, and to the first vivid sense of liberty excited in the mind
of a youth, who had been passing six years of his life in a spot which,
however beautiful, was still but a beautiful seclusion. We must keep in
mind the different constitution of society in Russia, and particularly
the fact, that the absence (at least for social purposes) of a middle
class in that country, renders the upper ranks the only section of the
social system in which intellectual pleasure can be sought, or
intellectual supremacy appreciated. Pushkin himself always attached no
inconsiderable importance to his success in the _beau monde_; and it is
incontestably to his friction (if we may so style it) with that _beau
monde_ that he owed some of the more attractive, if not the more solid,
qualities of his genius, and much of the refinement and good taste which
distinguish his style. Like all men of the higher order of
intellect--like Scott, like Cervantes, and Michael Angelo--Pushkin was
endowed by nature with a vigorous and mighty organization, bodily as
well as mental: and though he may appear to have been losing much
valuable time in the elegant frivolities of the drawing-room, he was not
less industrious at this period of his career in amassing a store of
observation derived from a practical study of human character, than
successful in filling up--in the short intervals of ball and
festival--the poetical outlines which he had roughly sketched at the
Lyceum. He worked in the morning at his poem, and passed the greater
part of his nights in society; very short intervals of repose sufficing
to repair, in so vigorously constituted a being, the loss of energetic
vitality caused by the quick succession of intense intellectual labour,
and equally intense social enjoyment. It was at this period that the
enchanting creations of Wieland and Ariosto were first presented to his
young and glowing imagination. These poets are emphatically and
essentially the poets of the young: the "_white soul_" of youth, as yet
untinged with the colouring reflected from its own peculiar fantasy, or
the results of reading, mirrors faithfully the fairy splendour of their
magic style, even as the Alpine snow the rosy light of dawn: and
Pushkin, with the natural desire of imitating what he so well knew how
to admire, conceived the happy thought of transporting Armida and Oberon
to a scenery admirably adapted for their reproduction--to the world of
ancient Russia. The popular superstitions of the Sclavonic races, though
naturally possessing a tone and local colouring of their own, and
modified by the nature which they reflect, are neither less graceful nor
less fertile in poetry than the delicate mythology so exquisitely
embodied by the great German or the yet greater Italian: and the poem of
"Ruslan and Liudmila"--the result of Pushkin's bold and happy
experiment--may be said to have been the very first embodiment of
Russian fancy, at least the first such embodiment exhibited under a form
sufficiently European to enable readers who were not Russians to
appreciate and admire. The cantos which compose this charming work were
read by Pushkin, as fast as they were completed, at the house of his
friend and brother poet, Jukovskii, where were assembled the most
distinguished men of Russian literary society. In 1820 the poem of
"Ruslan and Liudmila" was completed, and its appearance must be
considered as giving the finishing blow to the worn-out classicism which
characterizes all the poetical language of the eighteenth century. This
revolution was begun by Jukovskii himself, to whom Russian literature
owes so much; and he hailed with delight the new and beautiful
production of the young poet--the "conquering scholar," as Jukovskii
affectionately calls Pushkin--which established for ever the new order
of things originating in the good taste of the "conquered master," as he
designates himself.

The ever timid spirit of criticism was, as usual, exemplified in the
judgments passed by the literary journals upon this elegant innovation.
Some were alarmed at the novelty of the language, others shocked at the
irregularity of the versification, and others again at the occasional
comic passages introduced into the poem: but all forgot, or all dared
not confess, that this was the first Russian poetry which had ever been
greedily and universally _read_; and that, until the appearance of
"Ruslan and Liudmila," poetry and tiresomeness had been, in Russia,
convertible terms.

Immediately on the publication of "Ruslan and Liudmila," the poet,
becoming in all probability somewhat weary of a life of incessant and
labouring pleasure, left the capital and retired to Kishenev; he took
service in the chancery (or office) of Lieutenant-General Inzoff,
substitute in the province of Bessarabia. From this epoch begins the
wandering and unsettled period of the poet's life, which occupies a
space of five years, and concludes with his return to his father's
village of Mikhailovskoe, in the government of Pskoff. The effect upon
the character and genius of Pushkin, of this pilgrim-like existence,
must be considered as in the highest degree favourable: he stored up, in
these wanderings, we may be sure, effects of scenery and traits of human
nature--in fact the rough materials of future poetry. Fortunately for
him, the theatre of his travels was vast enough to enable him to lay in
an ample stock not only of recollections of the external beauties in the
physical world, but also a rich supply of the various characteristics of
national manners. He traversed the whole south of Russia--a district
admirably calculated to strike and to impress the warm and vivid
imagination of our poet; and "he took genial tribute from the wandering
tribes of Bessarabia, and from the merchant inhabitants of Odessa, and
from the classic ruins of the Tauride, and from the dark-blue waves of
the Euxine, and from the wild peaks of the Caucasus."

It was at this epoch of Pushkin's career that the mighty star of Byron
first rose, like some glittering, but irregular comet, above the
literary horizon of Europe. The genius of the Russian poet had far too
many points of resemblance, in many of its most characteristic
peculiarities, with the Muse of the Noble Childe, for us to be surprised
at the circumstance that the new and brilliant productions of Byron
should have a powerful influence on so congenial a mind as was that of
Pushkin. When we allow, therefore, the existence of this influence, nay
more, when we endeavour to appreciate and measure the extent of that
influence; when we essay to express the degree of _aberration_ (to use
the language of the astronomer) produced in the orbit of the great
poetic planet of the North by the approach in the literary hemisphere of
the yet greater luminary of England--we give the strongest possible
denial to a fallacious opinion, useless to the glory of one great man
and injurious to the just fame of the other, viz. that Pushkin can be
called in any sense an _imitator_ of Lord Byron. In many respects, it is
true, there was a strange and surprising analogy between the personal
character, the peculiar tone of thought, nay, even the nature of the
subjects treated by the two poets: and to those who content themselves
with a superficial examination of the question--those "who have not
attayned," as Sir Thomas Browne quaintly phrases it, "to the
deuteroscophie or second sight of thinges"--these analogies may appear
conclusive; but we trust to be able to show, that between these two
great men there exists a difference wide and marked enough to satisfy
the most critical stickler for originality.

The next production of Pushkin's pen was a brilliant "Epilogue" to the
poem of "Ruslan and Liudmila"--in which he replies to the strictures
which had appeared in the various literary journals. This piece was
immediately followed (in 1822) by his "Prisoner of the Caucasus," a
romantic poem, which breathes the very freshness of the mountain breeze,
and must be considered as the perfect embodiment, in verse, of the
sublime region from whence it takes its title. So deep was the
impression produced by this splendid and passionate poem, that it was
reprinted four times before it was incorporated into the edition of the
author's collected works;--the impressions having been exhausted in
1822, 24, 28, and 35. The reader, in order to appreciate the avidity
with which the poem was read, must bear in mind the small amount of
literary activity in Russia, as compared with England, with Germany, or
with France. We shall not attempt to give, in this place, any analysis
of this, or the other works of Pushkin, as it is our conviction that
short and meagre fragments--all that our space would admit of--are very
unsatisfactory and insufficient grounds on which to judge a work of
fiction, and particularly a work of poetry in a language absolutely
unknown to almost all our readers, many of the chief peculiarities
depending too upon the nationality of which that language is the
expression and vehicle. It is, however, our intention, should the
specimens of lyric poetry presented in the translations accompanying
this notice be favourably received in England, to extend the sphere of
our humble labours, and to endeavour to Daguerreotype, by faithful
versions, portions of the longer poems (and in particular the narrative
pieces) of the great writer whose portrait we are attempting to trace.
We shall, we trust, by so doing succeed in giving our countrymen a more
just idea of the merit and peculiar manner of our poet, than we could
hope to do by exhibiting to the reader the bare anatomy--the mere dry
bones of his works, to which would be wanting the lively play of
versification, the life-blood of fancy, and the ever-varying graces of
expression.

Between the first of these two remarkable poems ("Ruslan and Liudmila")
and the second--"The Prisoner of the Caucasus," the mind of Pushkin had
undergone a most remarkable transformation; "there is hardly any thing,"
to use the words of the elegant critic whom we have already quoted,
"common to the two poems, except the beauty of the verses." There is not
a greater difference between an early and a late picture of Raphael; and
what is interesting and curious to remark, is the circumstance, that
poet and painter (in their gradual advance towards consummate excellence
in their respective arts) seemed to have passed through the same stages
of development. In the earlier work all is studied, elaborated,
carefully and scientifically _composed_; worked out from the quarry of
memory, chiselled by the imagination, and polished by a studious and
somewhat pedantic taste: while the imagery, the passion, and the
characters of the later production are modelled immediately from Nature
herself. The reader perceives that the young artist has now reached the
first phase of his development, and has thrown aside the rule and
compass of precedents and books, and feels himself sufficiently strong
of hand and steady of eye to look face to face upon the unveiled goddess
herself, and with reverent skill to copy her sublime lineaments. We
cannot better express our meaning, than by allowing Pushkin himself to
give his own opinion of this poem. In the latter part of his life, he
writes as follows--"At Lars I found a dirtied and dog's-eared copy of
'The Prisoner of the Caucasus,' and I confess that I read it through
with much gratification. All this is weak, boyish, incomplete; but
there is much happily guessed at and faithfully expressed."

The indomitable activity which we have mentioned as forming a marked
feature in Pushkin's intellect, though exhibited most strikingly
throughout his whole career, was never more forcibly displayed than at
the present period. Although the first fervour of his passions was now
in sole degree moderated by indulgence, and by that satiety which is the
inevitable attendant on such indulgence, it is not to be imagined that
the poet, in retiring from the capital, intended by this to seclude
himself from the gayer pleasures of society. We know, too, how absorbing
of time is the wandering life which he led--and many have learned from
experience, how difficult it is for a traveller to find leisure for
intellectual pursuits. Some idea, therefore, of Pushkin's activity may
be formed from a knowledge of the circumstance, that during this roving
period he had not only been storing his memory with images of the
beauties of nature, taking tribute of grandeur and loveliness from every
scene through which he wandered, but found time to pursue what would
appear, even for an otherwise unoccupied student, a very steady and
incessant course of labour. During the whole of his life, he made it his
practice to read almost every remarkable work which appeared in the
various languages he had acquired. That this was no easy task, and that
the quantity of intellectual food which he unceasingly consumed, must
have required a powerful and rapid digestion to assimilate it, we may
conclude from his own statement of his occupations and acquirements. On
quitting the Lyceum, he was acquainted with the English, Latin, German,
and French languages; to this list he managed to add, during his
wanderings, a complete knowledge of the Italian, and a competent
proficiency in Spanish.

But let us hear his own account of these studies, extracted from a poem
written in Bessarabia--

    "In solitude my soul, my wayward inspiration
    I've school'd to quiet toil, to fervent meditation.
    I'm master of my days; order is reason's friend;
    On graver thoughts I've learn'd my spirit's powers to bend;
    I seek to compensate, in freedom's calm embraces,
    For the warm years of youth, its joys and vanish'd graces;
    And to keep equal step with an enlighten'd age."

We cannot refrain from quoting in this place a passage from another
poem, written at this period; our readers will be pleased, we think,
with so graceful a tribute to the glory of the great exile-bard of Rome,
whose fate and character had so much in common with those of Pushkin
himself--

    "Sweet Ovid! Love's own bard! I dwell by that still shore
    Whither thine exiled gods thou broughtest--where of yore
    Thou pour'dst thy plaints in life, and left thine ashes dying;
    With deathless, fruitless tears these places glorifying.

       *   *   *   *   *   *

    Here, with a northern lyre the wilderness awaking,
    I wander'd in those days, when liberty was breaking--
    Roused by the gallant Greek--her sleep, by Danube's tide;
    And not one friend would stand, a brother, by my side;
    And the far hills alone, and woods in silence dreaming,
    And the calm muses then would list with kindly seeming."

The influence exerted upon our poet's mind and productions by the
Byronian spirit, to which we alluded a few pages back, may be traced, in
very perceptible degree, in the next poem which he gave to the public,
"The Fountain of Bakhtchisarai," a work in which is reflected, as
vividly as it is in the storied waters of the fount from which it takes
its name, all the wealth, the profuse and abounding loveliness, of the
luxurious clime of the Tauric Chersonese. The scene of the poem is one
of the most romantic spots in that divine land; and the ruined palace
and "gardens of delight" which once made the joy and pride of the mighty
khans--the rulers of the Golden Horde--is perhaps not inferior, as a
source of wild legend and picturesque fairy lore--certainly not
inferior in the eyes of a Russian reader--to the painted halls and
fretted colonnades of the Alhambra. The success instantly obtained and
permanently enjoyed by this exquisite poem must be attributed to
something more than the profusion and beauty of the descriptive
passages, so thickly and artfully interwoven with the action of the
tale--a species of wealth and profusion, it may be remarked, which suits
well with the oriental character of the story, and with the abounding
loveliness of the scenery amid which that action is supposed to take
place. In this poem, too, we may remark the first decided essay made by
the poet towards delineating and contrasting, in an artistic manner, the
characters of human personages. The dramatic opposition between the two
principal characters of the tale, Maria and Zarema, is well conceived
and most skilfully executed. This poem first appeared in 1824, and was
reprinted in 1827, 1830, 1835. The powers of dramatic delineation which
may be seen, as it were, in embryo in this work, were to be still
further developed in Pushkin's next production, which was begun in the
same year, (1824,) and appeared in 1827. Those powers, too, were
destined to be exhibited in their full splendour in a historical
tragedy--perhaps the finest which the Russian literature can be said to
possess. The work to which we have alluded as being the second trial of
his wings in the arduous regions of dramatic creation, was the short but
exquisite tale entitled "The Gipsies." This tale, which is esteemed by
the Russians a masterpiece of grace and simplicity, is a poem in
dialogue; the persons being only four in number, and the action a wild
yet simple catastrophe of love, jealousy, and revenge. The _dramatis
personae_ are gipsies; and it is difficult to select what is most
admirable in this exquisite little work--the completeness and
distinctness of the descriptions of external nature--the artful
introduction of various allusions, (particularly in one most charming
passage, indicating Ovid's exile in the beautiful country which is the
scene of the drama,) or the intense interest which the poet has known
how to infuse into what would appear at first sight a subject simple
even to meagreness. Poets of many nations have endeavoured, with various
qualifications, and with no less various degrees of success, to
represent the picturesque and striking features of the nomad life and
wild superstitions of the gipsy race: none however, it may be safely
asserted, have ever produced a picture more true or more poetical than
is to be found in the production of Pushkin. He had ample opportunities
of studying their peculiar manners in the green oceans of the southern
steppes. It is at this period that Pushkin began the composition of his
poem entitled "Evgenii Oniegin," a production which has become, it may
be said, part of the ordinary language of the poet's countrymen. The
first canto appeared in 1825, 1829. This work, in its outline, its plan,
in the general tone of thought pervading it, and in certain other
_external_ circumstances, bears a kind of fallacious resemblance to the
inimitable production of Lord Byron; a circumstance which leads
superficial readers into the error (unjust in the highest degree to
Pushkin's originality) of considering it as an imitation of the Don. It
is a species of satire upon society, (and Russian fashionable society in
particular,) embodied in an easy wandering verse something like that of
Byron; and so far, perhaps, the comparison between the two poems holds
good. Pushkin's _plot_ has the advantage of being (though sufficiently
slight in construction, it must be confessed) considerably more compact
and interesting than the irregular narration which serves Byron to
string together the bitter beads of his satirical rosary; but, at the
same time, the aim and scope of the English satirist is infinitely more
vast and comprehensive. The Russian has also none of the terrible and
deeply-thrilling pictures of passion and of war which so strangely and
powerfully contrast with the bitter sneer and gay irony forming the
basis of the Don; but, on the other hand, the interest of the reader
(scattered, in Byron's work, upon the various, unconnected, and somewhat
monotonous outlines of female characters in Julia, Haidee, Gulbeyas,
&c.,) is in "Evgenii Oniegin" most powerfully concentrated upon the
heroine, Tatiana--one of the most exquisite tributes that poetry has
ever paid to the nobility of woman. To show the difficulty of judging of
this work, we need only mention, that while many compare it to "Don
Juan," others consider is as rather resembling "Childe Harold;" while
the author himself professed that it was rather to be placed in the
category of "Beppo."

On leaving Odessa, (in 1824,) Pushkin, who appears to have loved the sea
with all the fervour of Shelley himself, bade farewell to the waves with
which he had communed so earnestly, and whose deep voices his verse so
nobly echoed, in some grand stanzas "To the Sea," of which a translation
will be given in a subsequent part.

It is to this epoch that we must ascribe the first outline of the
historical tragedy to which we have alluded; but which did not appear
till a much later period. We shall recur to this work when we reach the
date of its completion.

As the composition of "Evgenii Oniegin" extended over a considerable
space of time, our readers may not be displeased at our reverting
occasionally to the progress of this work and to the character of its
merits. This production must be considered as the fullest and most
complete embodiment that exists in Russian literature, of the
nationality of the country. It will be found to be the expression of
those apparently discordant elements the union of which composes that
hard riddle--the Russian character. A passage of Pushkin's dedication
will not incorrectly exhibit the variety of its tone:--

    "Accept this heap of motley traits,
    Half gay, half sad, half false, half real,
    Half every-day, yet half ideal,
    The careless fruit of idle days,
    Of sleepless nights; slight inspirations
    Of unripe years, of wasted art--
    The reason's frigid observations,
    And sad conclusions of the heart."

During the most tranquil and laborious portion of Pushkin's life, which
passed principally at Mikhailovskoe, and which occupies the period from
his leaving Odessa at the end of the year 1824 to 1826, he continued to
labour upon his tragedy, and to produce the second and third cantos of
"Evgenii Oniegin," in addition to which, our indefatigable poet found
means to collect and publish a number of smaller poems, some of which
will be found among the translations which we are about to offer; and to
aid his friend and brother-poet Delvig in an annual volume of prose and
verse (illustrated after the manner of our Keepsakes, &c.) entitled
"Northern Flowers." This publication was commenced in 1826, and
continued to appear, always enriched with something by Pushkin, till its
existence closed at the early and lamented death of the projector and
editor.

Pushkin's life at this period was characterized by intense industry, and
an uniformity of exertion modified and compensated by variety of
occupation. He has left a minute description of the manner in which his
time was distributed between labour and repose; and even if we did not
possess his letters, it is described with sufficient accuracy in the
fourth canto of "Evgenii Oniegin," to enable us to transcribe it here.
He was in the habit of rising early, and of devoting the morning and
forenoon to those parts of his literary occupation which demanded the
exercise of the intellectual or reasoning powers, the memory, &c. &c.
Before dinner (whatever was the state of the weather) he took somewhat
violent walking exercise; he then dined, (it should be remarked that the
dinner-hour is earlier in Russia than is usual in England,) and having
passed the evening in society either at home or at some neighbouring
country-house, he returned to his poetical labours, which he sometimes
continued far into the night.[1] He has frequently repeated that he
found himself more perfectly disposed to composition in the season of
autumn; and that his poetical vein flowed most generously and
abundantly on a dark and stormy night. To those who are acquainted with
the climate of Russia (particularly of that part of the Empire where
Pushkin now resided) this will not be surprising; and the abundance and
splendour of the descriptions of the autumnal season introduced into his
various works, will show that his mind and imagination had something in
harmony with that which is, in our opinion, the most poetical portion of
the year. Like many persons of a highly nervous organization, the
brilliant sunshine of spring-tide produced in Pushkin's temperament an
impression of melancholy, which he explained by a natural tendency to
consumption.

In autumn 1826, Pushkin re-entered the government service in his
original department, viz., that of the foreign affairs; and in 1827 he
printed, besides the third canto of "Evgenii Oniegin," the "Gypsies," a
new poem of inferior merit entitled the "Robber-Brothers," and a comic
tale, also in verse, which, though slight in construction, is a
masterpiece of graceful and elegant satire. It is entitled "Count
Nulin," and describes the signal discomfiture of certain designs
meditated by the count (a most delightful specimen of a young Russian
coxcomb) against the virtue of his hostess, a fair chatelaine, at whose
country-house the said count passes a night in consequence of a disabled
travelling-carriage.

To this period, too, must be assigned the composition of "Poltava," a
work, the proper title of which would be "Mazepa," but which received
its name in order that the public might not confound it with Byron's
tale, the hero of both being the same historical personage. It is almost
unnecessary to state that there is no resemblance whatever between these
two remarkable works. While the production of Byron is rather an
admirable development of certain incidents, either entirely invented by
the poet, or only slightly suggested by passages of the old Kazak
Hetman's biography, the _Mazepa_ of Pushkin is a most spirited and
faithful version of the real history of the romantic life of the hero;
the actual events adopted by the Russian poet as the groundwork of his
tale, being certainly not inferior in strangeness, novelty, and romantic
incident, to the short fiery tale, dawning rosily in mutual love, and
finishing with the wild gallop on the desert steed, which thrills us so
deeply in the pages of Byron.

In 1829 was given to the world an edition of Pushkin's collected works,
arranged in chronological order; and the author had another opportunity
of visiting the East--those climes whence he had drawn, and was to draw
again, so much of his inspiration. He once more crossed the Caucasus,
and leaving in his rear his beloved Georgia, he followed the movements
of the Russian army in its campaign, and accompanied it as far as
Arzeram, receiving, during this journey, the most flattering attentions
from Marshal Paskevitch, the commander-in-chief of the expedition. We
may judge of the delight with which he seized this opportunity of
indulging his taste for travelling, and of the vast store of
recollections and images which he garnered up during this pilgrimage--so
peculiarly attractive to a poet, as combining the pleasure of travelling
with the splendour and picturesque novelties of a military march--by the
letters in which he has described his impressions during this
interesting period. These letters are models of simplicity, grace, and
interest, and have become classical in the Russian language.

In 1830, Baron Delvig commenced the publication of the _Literary
Gazette_, an undertaking in which Pushkin took as active and zealous an
interest as he had done in the _Northern Flowers_, edited by his friend
and schoolfellow. He not only contributed many beautiful poems to this
periodical, but also several striking prose tales and other papers, in
which, by the elegance and brilliancy of the style, and the acuteness
and originality of the thoughts, the public found no difficulty in
identifying Pushkin, though they appeared anonymously. He now visited
Moscow, in order to superintend the printing of his _Boris Godunoff_,
the tragedy which he had been so long engaged in polishing and
completing, and respecting the success of which he appears to have been
more anxious than usual, as he determined to write himself the preface
to this work. The subject of this tragedy is the well-known episode of
Russian history which placed Boris upon the throne of the Tsar; and
writers have taken various views of the character of the hero of this
scene, Pushkin representing Boris as the assassin of the son of Ivan
IV., while the ancient chroniclers, and the modern historians in
general, as Ustrialoff, Pogodin, Kraevskii, &c. &c., concur in asserting
that that prince was elected by the clergy and the people. Whatever may
be the historical truth of the design, Pushkin has given us in this
tragedy a dramatic picture full of spirit, of passion, of character, and
of life; and some of the personages, particularly those of the pretender
Dimitri, and the heroine Marina, are sketched with a vigorous and
flowing pencil. The _form_ of this play is ostensibly Shakspearian; but
it appears to us to resemble less the works of Shakspeare himself, than
some of the more successful imitations of the great dramatist's
manner--as, for instance, some parts of the Wallenstein. As to the
language and versification, it is in blank verse, and the style is
considered by Russians as admirable for ease and flexibility. At this
time Pushkin's life was about to undergo a great change; he was engaged
to a young lady whom he afterwards married, and retired, in the spring
of this year, to the village of Boldino, in the province of Nijegorod,
in order to make preparations for his new existence as a married man,
and in this spot he remained, in consequence of the cholera breaking out
in Moscow, until the winter. In spite of the engrossing nature of these
occupations, he seems never to have been more industriously employed
than during this autumn. "I must tell you," he writes, "(but between you
and me!) that I have been working at Boldino as I have not done for a
long time. Listen then! I brought with me hither the two last cantos of
'Oniegin,' ready for the press, a tale in octaves, (the _Little House in
the Kolomora_,) number of dramatic scenes--'The Stingy Knight,' 'Mozart
and Salieri,' 'The Feast in the Time of the Plague,' and 'Don Juan.'
Besides this, I have written about thirty small pieces of poetry. I have
not done yet; I have written in prose (this is a great secret) five
tales," (Ivan Bielkin's Stories.) The year 1831 began afflictingly for
Pushkin. On the 14th of January Baron Delvig died. All Pushkin's letters
in which he makes any allusion to this loss, breathe a sentiment of the
most deep and permanent sorrow. The following is extracted from a letter
to a friend, dated the 31st of this month:--"I knew him (Delvig) at the
Lyceum. I watched the first unnoted unfolding of his poetic mind--the
early development of a talent which we then gave not its just value. We
read together Deljavin and Jukovskii; we talked of all _that swelleth
the spirit, that melteth the heart_. His life was rich and full--rich,
not in romantic adventures, but in the most noble feelings, the most
brilliant and the purest intellect, and the fairest hopes."

But the grief caused by this great and irreparable loss--a grief which
threw its dark cold shadow over the whole of Pushkin's subsequent
existence--was not unrelieved by feelings of a brighter tone: the void
caused by friendship was filled up with love. In February of this year
he was married, at Moscow, to the lady to whom (as we have mentioned
above) he had been some time engaged. Mlle. Gontchareff was of an
ancient Russian family, and a person of singular beauty. "I am married,"
(writes the poet to one of his friends, in a letter dated February 24.)
"I have now but one desire in the world, and that is, that nothing in my
present life be changed. This existence is so new to me, that I feel as
if I had been born again. The death of Delvig is the only shadow in my
bright existence." Pushkin was desirous of editing a volume of the
"Northern Flowers," in the following year, for the benefit of the family
of his departed friend, for which he now began assiduously to collect
materials. This labour detained him until the month of May in Moscow;
and, before his migration to St Petersburg, the tragedy of Boris
Godunoff was printed. Among all the works of Pushkin there is not one
which exhibits so high a degree of artistic skill, or so vigorous and
powerful a genius, as this drama, in which every word, every dialogue,
seems to unite the certainty of study and meditation with the fire and
naturalness of a happy improvisation, and in which there is not a
character nor an allusion which destroys the truth and vigour of the
composition, viewed as a faithful mirror of Russian nationality, Russian
history, and Russian character. The remainder of Pushkin's short, alas!
but laborious life, however filled with the silent activity of
intellectual occupation, offers but few materials for the biographer: it
was passed principally at St Petersburg, varied by occasional journeys
to Moscow, and the usual _autumnal_ retirements, which we have mentioned
as having been so favourable for the execution of the poet's literary
tasks. We shall content ourselves with giving a slight account of the
principal works in which Pushkin employed his great powers--powers which
had now reached their highest point of vigour, retaining all the
freshness and vivacity of youth, while they had acquired the maturity
and solidity of manhood. The subjects of these works, however, being for
the most part historical, are of a nature which renders them less
susceptible of analysis in our pages--and indeed their local nature
would cause such analysis to be devoid, in a great measure, of interest
to the English reader. There is, however, one episode in the poet's
life, which must possess peculiar interest to those who delight to watch
that fond fidelity with which genius returns to the scenes where it was
first developed, and which brought back Shakspeare, loaded with glory,
to pass the calm evening of his life amid the native shades of
Stratford. On quitting Moscow for St Petersburg, Pushkin passed a winter
at Tsarskoe Selo. "This was a most blessed thought," he says, in a
letter of 26th March; "I can thus pass my summer and _autumn_ in a most
enchanting and inspiring seclusion; close to the capital, in the circle
of my dearest recollections. I shall be able to see you every week, and
Jukovskii also. Petersburg is within an hour's drive. Living is cheap
here. I shall not want an equipage. What can be better?" And, in fact,
it is certain that he never was so perfectly happy in his society and
his occupations, and in himself, as in these summer and autumn months
which he passed, as he says:--

    "In those bright days when yet all ignorant of fame,
    And knowing neither care, system, nor art, nor aim,
    Thy tutelary shades, O Tsarskoe! were flinging
    Gay echoes to _his_ voice, the praise of Idlesse singing."

The beautiful retirement of Tsarskoe Selo was at this period dignified
by the presence of two great poets, each producing works worthy of the
imperial groves under whose shade they were meditated. Pushkin and
Jukovskii were not only residing here together, but they were engaged in
a friendly rivalry, and each writing so industriously as though
determined never to meet without some new poetic novelty. The deep
impression produced by Jukovskii's patriotic stanzas, written at this
period, entitled "Russian Glory," was worthily responded to by the noble
poems written by Pushkin, "To the Slanderers of Russia!" and "The
Anniversary of Borodino,"--all these works being spirited and majestic
embodiments of national triumph and exultation.

It is curious and delightful to remark, too, that the poets of Tsarskoe
Selo were occupied, at this period, with the composition of two similar
works of another and no less national character. These were "tales" or
legends in the popular taste of the Russian people, that of Jukovskii
was entitled "The Lay of the Tsar Berendei," and Pushkin's, "The Lay of
the Tsar Saltan."

In this year, too, was printed Pushkin's small collection of prose
tales, under the assumed name of Ivan Bielkin, which appeared with a
biographical preface, describing the life and character of the supposed
author. The tales are of extraordinary merit, remarkable for the
simplicity and natural grace of the style, and the preface is a specimen
of consummate excellence in point of quiet Addisonian humour.

In the year 1831, Pushkin girded up his loins to enter upon the great
historical task; which had so long attracted his imagination, and
which, difficult and arduous as was the undertaking, he was probably
better calculated than any literary man whom Russia has yet seen, to
execute in a manner worthy of the sublime nature of its subject. This
was the history of Peter the Great. He now began to set seriously about
preparing himself for approaching this gigantic subject, and passed the
greater part of his time in the archives, collecting the necessary
materials for the work. In his hours of relaxation he produced the third
volume of his smaller poems, and superintended the publication of
another volume of the "Northern Flowers," which appeared in 1832. But
these must be considered as the results rather of his play-moments, than
as the serious occupation of his time. His mornings were generally
passed among the records preserved in the various departments of the
government, from whence, after the labours and researches of the day, he
usually returned on foot to his late dinner. He was an active and
indefatigable walker, prizing highly, and endeavouring to preserve by
constant exercise, the vigorous frame of body with which he was blessed
by nature. Even in summer he was accustomed to return on foot from his
country residence to his labours in the city, and was in the habit of
taking violent corporeal exercise in gymnastics, which he would continue
with the patience and enduring vigour of an athlete. These walks (it
should be remarked that a taste for walking is much more rare among the
Russians than in England, from the severity and extreme changes in the
climate of the North, the heat in summer rendering such exercise much
more laborious than with us, and the cold in winter necessitating the
use of the heavy shuba of fur)--these walks were Pushkin's principal
amusement, if we except bathing, an exercise which the poet would
frequently continue far into autumn--a season when the weather in Russia
is frequently very severe.

In the prosecution of his great historical labour, it was evidently
difficult for the lively imagination of Pushkin to escape the temptation
of being drawn aside from his chief aim, by the attractive and romantic
character of many episodes in Russian history--to wander for a moment
from the somewhat formal and arid high-road of history, into some of the
"shady spaces," peopled with romantic adventure and picturesque
incident. It was under the influence of some such attraction, that he
conceived the idea of working out in a separate production, the detached
epoch rendered so remarkable by the rebellion of Pugatcheff. Finding
that he had already performed the most serious portion of the drudgery
of collecting materials for his principal historical enterprise, he
drew, with a wonderfully rapid and lively pencil, the vigorous sketch of
the events of that extraordinary conspiracy, and has left us a work
which, whatever be its imperfections and slightness, viewed as a work of
history, cannot be denied to be a most admirable and striking outline of
the picturesque and singular events which form its subject. Convinced of
the importance, to an author of history, of a personal knowledge of the
scenes in which his events took place, Pushkin, when the history of
Pugatcheff's rebellion was already on the verge of completion,
determined (before his work was published) to examine with his own eyes
that eastern region of European Russia, which had been the theatre of
the strange drama of that singular pretender's life, and to enable
himself to infuse into a narration founded upon dry records, the life
and reality which was to be obtained from questioning the old
inhabitants of that country, many of whom might remember the wild
adventures of which, in their youth, they had been witnesses or actors.
In 1833, Pushkin was enabled to gratify this natural curiosity; and the
result of his visit to the scene of the rebellion enabled him to
communicate to his already plain, vigorous, and concise narration, a
tone of reality, a warmth of colouring, and a liveliness of language,
which renders it impossible to leave the book unfinished when once
opened, and which no elaborateness of research, and no minuteness of
detail, could otherwise have communicated.

During the first two years of its existence, the periodical entitled
"The Reading Library" was honoured by the appearance in its pages of
that division of Pushkin's smaller poems, afterwards published
separately as the fourth volume of his collected works, in the year
1835. In this journal, too, were printed his two prose tales "The Queen
of Spades" and "Kirdjali," the former of which has, we believe, appeared
in English, and of the latter a translation has been attempted, together
with several others of his smaller prose works, by the author of the
present notice. A journey which he made to Orenburg gave him the
materials for fresh prose tales. The most remarkable of these, the
beautiful and well-known story, "The Captain's Daughter," first appeared
in the periodical entitled "The Contemporary," which is justly
considered as the chief miscellaneous journal that appears in Russia,
and which partakes of the nature of what we in England call the review
and magazine. In all his writing, prose or verse, Pushkin is most
astonishingly unaffected, rational, and straightforward; but in the
last-named story he has attained the highest degree of perfection--it is
the simplicity of nature herself.

This period must be considered as that in which Pushkin had arrived at
the summit of his glory. He was now enjoying the universal respect and
admiration of his countrymen, a respect and admiration shared by the
sovereign himself, who distinguished the great poet by naming him
"gentilhomme de la chambre;" he was in the very flower of health, life,
and genius; he had completed the laborious part of his great task, in
collecting materials for the history of Peter the Great--all seemed to
prophesy a future filled with bright certainties of happiness and glory.

But the end was not far off; the dark and melancholy event which was to
put a sudden and a fatal conclusion to this glorious and useful career
was near at hand. The storm which was to quench this bright and shining
light was already rising dimly above the horizon; and the poet's
prophetic eye foresaw--like that of the seer in the Scripture--the
"little cloud like a man's hand," that was rising heavily over the calm
sky; he seems to have had an obscure presentiment of the near approach
of death, little suspecting, perhaps, that that death was to be one of
violence, of suffering, and of blood. He had, a few months before, lost
his mother, and had himself accompanied her last remains to the
monastery of Sviatogorsk, and had fixed upon a spot where he wished to
be buried by her side; leaving for this purpose a sum of money in the
treasury of the monastery.

It is, we believe, generally known, even in England, that Pushkin was
mortally wounded in a duel, on Wednesday 27th January, and that he died,
after lingering in excruciating[2] torment during two days and nights,
at half-past two in the afternoon of the 29th of January 1837.

Respecting the causes which led to this melancholy conclusion of a great
man's life, and the details which accompanied that sad and deplorable
event, it is not our intention to speak. Under any circumstances, to
dwell upon so lamentable an affair would serve no good purpose; and
would rather minister to a morbid curiosity in our readers, than in any
respect illustrate the life and character of Pushkin; but the propriety
of avoiding more than an allusion to this sad story will be evident,
when we reflect that the poet's dying wish was, that the whole
circumstance should if possible be buried in oblivion. Respect, then, to
the last desire of a dying man! Respect to the prayer of great genius,
whose lips, when quivering in the last agony, murmured the generous
words, "Pardon, and Forget!"

The foregoing brief notice is presented to the English reader less in
the character of a complete biography of Pushkin, (a character to which
it has evidently no pretensions,) than as a kind of necessary
introduction to the translated specimens of his poetry, which it is
intended to accompany. For a perfect biography, indeed, of the poet, the
materials, even in Russia, are not yet assembled; nor, perhaps, has a
sufficient period of time been suffered to elapse since his death, to
render it possible to attempt a life of Pushkin, with any hope of
preserving that _distance_ and _proportion_, which is necessary for the
successful execution of a portrait, whether traced with the pencil or
the pen. The artist may be too near to his original in _time_ as well as
in _space_.

The general accuracy of the preceding pages may be depended on; the
materials were obtained from various sources, but principally from two
persons who were both acquainted--one intimately so--with Pushkin. We
should be indeed ungrateful, were we to let pass the present opportunity
afforded us, of expressing our deep obligations to both those gentlemen
for the assistance they have given us; and we cannot deny ourselves the
gratification of publicly and particularly thanking M. Pletnieff, rector
of the Imperial University of St Petersburg, not only for the kind
manner in which he facilitated the composition of these pages, by
supplying us with a copy of his own elegant and spirited critical sketch
of Pushkin's works and character (a short but masterly article,
reprinted from the "Sovremennik," or Contemporary, a literary journal of
which M. Pletnieff is the editor,) but for the many delightful and
intellectual hours which we have passed in his society.

                              THOMAS B. SHAW.

    St Petersburg, February 5th/17th, 1845.


THE LAST HOURS OF PUSHKIN.

LETTER FROM JUKOVSKII TO SERGEI PUSHKIN, THE POET'S FATHER.

                              _February 15th/27th, 1837._

I have not till now succeeded in mustering up the courage to write to
you, my poor friend, Sergei Lvovitch. What could I say to you,
overwhelmed as I am by the national calamity which has just fallen upon
us all, like an avalanche, and crushed us beneath its ruin? Our Pushkin
is no more! This terrible fact is unhappily true, but nevertheless it
still appears almost incredible. The thought, that he is gone, cannot
yet enter into the order of common, evident, every-day ideas; one still
continues, by mechanical habit as it were, to seek him; it still seems
so natural to expect to see him at certain hours; still amid our
conversations seems to resound his voice, still seems to ring his lively
childlike laugh of gaiety; and there, where he was wont to be seen in
daily life, there nothing is changed, there are hardly even any marks of
the melancholy loss we have undergone--all is in its common order, every
thing is in its place; but he is gone from us, and for ever. It is
hardly conceivable! In one moment has perished that strong and mighty
life, full of genius, and glowing with hope. I will not speak of you,
his feeble and unhappy father; I will not speak of us, his mourning
friends. Russia has lost her beloved, her national poet. She has lost
him at the very moment when his powers had reached their maturity, lost
him when he had reached that climacteric--that point at which our
intellect, bidding farewell to the fervid, and sometimes irregular force
of youth agitated by genius, devotes itself to more tranquil, more
orderly powers of riper manhood, fresh as the first period, and if less
tempestuous, yet certainly more creative. What Russian is there who does
not feel as if the death of Pushkin had torn away one of his very
heart-strings? The glory of the present reign has lost its poet--a poet
who belonged to it, as Derjavin belonged to the glory of Catharine, or
Karamzin to that of Alexander.

The first terrible moments of agony and bereavement are over for you;
you can now listen to me and weep. I will describe to you every detail
of your son's last hours--details which I either saw myself, or which
were related to me by other eyewitnesses. On Wednesday the 27th
January/8th February, at ten o'clock in the evening, I called at the
house of the Prince Viazemskii, where I was told that both he and the
princess were at Pushkin's, and Valueff, to whom I afterwards went,
addressed me on my entrance with the words:--"Have you not received the
Princess's note? They have sent for you long ago; hurry off to
Pushkin's: he is dying." Thunderstruck with this news, I rushed
down-stairs. I galloped off to Pushkin's. In his antechamber, before the
door of his study, I found Drs Arendt and Spasskii, Prince Viazemskii
and Prince Mestcherskii. To the question, "_How is he?_"--Arendt
answered me, "He is very bad; he will infallibly die." The following was
the account they gave me of what had happened: At six o'clock, after
dinner, Pushkin had been brought home in the same desperate condition by
Lieutenant-Colonel Danzas, his schoolfellow at the Lyceum. A footman had
taken him out of the carriage, and carried him in his arms up-stairs.
"_Does it hurt you to carry me?_" asked Pushkin of the man. They carried
him into his study; he himself told them to give him clean linen; he
changed his dress, and lay down on a sofa. At the moment when they were
helping him to lie down, his wife, who knew nothing of what had
happened, was about to come into the room; but he cried out in a loud
tone--"_N'entrez pas; il y a du monde chez moi._" He was afraid of
frightening her. His wife, however, had already entered by the time that
he was laid down completely dressed. They sent for the doctors. Arendt
was not at home, but Scholtz and Zadler came. Pushkin ordered everybody
to leave the room, (at this moment Danzas and Pletnieff were with him.)
"_I am very bad_," he said, as he shook hands with Scholtz. They
examined his wound, and Zadler went away to fetch the needful
instruments. Left alone with Scholtz, Pushkin enquired, "_What do you
think of my state--speak plainly?_" "I cannot conceal from you the fact,
that you are in danger." "_Say rather, I am dying._" "I hold it my duty
not to conceal from you that such is the case. But we will hear the
opinion of Arendt and Salomon, who are sent for." "_Je vous remercie,
vous avez agi en honnete homme envers moi_," said Pushkin. Then, after a
moment's silence, he rubbed his forehead with his hand, and added, "_Il
faut que j'arrange ma maison._" "Would you not like to see any of your
relations?" asked Scholtz. "_Farewell, my friends!_" cried Pushkin,
turning his eyes towards his library. To whom he bade adieu in these
words, whether it was to his living or his dead friends, I know not.
After waiting a few moments, he asked, "_Then do you think that I shall
not live through the hour?_" "Oh no! I merely supposed that it might be
agreeable to you to see some of your friends--M. Pletnieff is here."
"_Yes, but I should like to see Jukovskii too. Give me some water, I
feel sick._" Scholtz felt his pulse, and found that the hand was cold,
and the pulse weak and quick; he left the room for some drink, and they
sent for me. I was not at home at this moment, and I know not how it
happened, but none of their messengers ever reached me. In the meanwhile
Zadler and Salomon arrived. Scholtz left the patient, who affectionately
shook hands with him, but without speaking a single word. Soon after
Arendt made his appearance. He was convinced at the first glance that
there was not the slightest hope. They began to apply cold fomentations
with ice to the patient's stomach, and to give cooling drinks; a
treatment which soon produced the desired effect; he grew more tranquil.
Before Arendt's departure, he said to him, "_Beg the Emperor to pardon
me._" Arendt now departed, leaving him to the care of Spasskii, the
family physician, who, during that whole night, never quitted the
bedside. "_I am very bad_," said Pushkin, when Spasskii came into the
room. Spasskii endeavoured to tranquillize him; but Pushkin waved his
hand in a negative manner. From this moment he seemed to have ceased to
entertain any anxiety about himself; and all his thoughts were now
turned towards his wife. "_Do not give my wife any useless hope_;" he
said to Spasskii; "_do not conceal from her what is the matter, she is
no pretender to sentiment; you know her well. As for me, do as you
please with me; I consent to every thing, and I am ready for every
thing._" At this moment were already assembled the Princess Viazemskii,
the Prince, Turgenieff, the Count Vielhorskii, and myself. The princess
was with the poor wife, whose condition it is impossible to describe.
She from time to time stole, like a ghost, into the room where lay her
dying husband; he could not see her, (he was lying on a sofa, with his
face turned from the window and the door;) but every time that she
entered, or even stopped at the door, he felt her presence. "_My wife is
here--is she not?_" he said. "_Take her away._" He was afraid to admit
her, because he did not wish her to perceive the sufferings which he
overmastered with astonishing courage. "_What is my wife doing?_" he
once enquired of Spasskii. "_Poor thing! she suffers innocently. The
world will tear her to pieces._" In general, from the beginning to the
end of his sufferings, (except during two or three hours of the first
night, when they exceeded all measure of human endurance,) he was
astonishingly firm. "I have been in thirty battles," said Dr Arendt; "I
have seen numbers of dying men; but I have very seldom seen any thing
like this." And it is peculiarly remarkable that, during these last
hours of his life, he seemed, as it were, to have become another person;
the tempest, which a few hours back had agitated his soul with
uncontrollable passion, was gone, and left not a trace behind; not a
word, not a recollection of what had happened. On the previous day he
had received an invitation to the funeral of Gretch's son. He remembered
this amid his own sufferings. "_If you see Gretch_," said he to
Spasskii, "_give him my compliments, and say that I feel a heartfelt
sympathy in his loss._" He was asked, whether he did not desire to
confess and take the sacrament. He willingly consented, and it was
determined that the priest should be sent for in the morning. At
midnight Dr Arendt returned. Whatever was the subject of the
conversation, it was evident that what the dying man had heard from the
physician tranquillized, consoled, and fortified him. Fulfilling a
desire (of which he was already, aware) on the part of those who had
expressed a touching anxiety respecting his eternal welfare, he
confessed and took the holy sacrament. Down to five o'clock in the
morning, there had not taken place the slightest change in his
condition. But about five o'clock the pain in the abdomen became
intolerable, and its force mastered the strength of his soul: he began
to groan; they again sent for Arendt. At his arrival it was found
necessary to administer a clyster; but it did no good, and only seemed
to increase the patient's sufferings, which at length reached the
highest pitch, and continued till seven o'clock in the morning. What
would have been the feelings of his unhappy wife, if she had been able,
during the space of these two eternal hours, to hear his groans? I am
confident that her reason could not have borne this agonizing trial. But
this is what happened: she was lying, in a state of complete exhaustion,
in the drawing-room, close to the doors which were all that separated
her from her husband's bed. At the first dreadful cry he uttered, the
Princess Viazemskii, who was in the drawing-room with her, darted to her
side, dreading that something might happen. But she still lay immovable,
(although she had been speaking a moment before,) a heavy lethargic
slumber had overcome her, and this slumber, as if purposely sent down in
mercy from above, lasted till the very minute when the last groan rang
on the other side of the door. But in this moment of most cruel agony,
according to the account of Spasskii and Arendt, the dying man's
firmness of soul was shown in all its force: when on the point of
screaming out, he with violent effort merely groaned, fearing, as he
said himself, that his wife might hear it, and that she might be
frightened. At seven o'clock the pain grew milder. It is necessary to
remark, that during all this time, and even to the end of his
sufferings, his thoughts were perfectly rational, and his memory clear.
Even at the beginning of the terrible attack of pain, he had called
Spasskii to his bedside, ordered him to hand him a paper written with
his own hand, and made him burn it. He then called in Danzas, and
dictated to him a statement respecting a few debts which he had
incurred. This task, however, only exhausted him, and afterwards he was
unable to make any other dispositions. When, at the arrival of morning,
his intolerable suffering ceased, he said to Spasskii, "_My wife! call
my wife!_" This farewell moment I dare not attempt to describe to you.
He then asked for his children; they were asleep; but they went for
them, and brought them half asleep as they were. He bent his eyes in
silence upon each of them, laid his hand on their heads, made a sign of
the cross over them, and then, with a gesture of the hand, sent them
away. "_Who is there?_" he enquired of Spasskii and Danzas. They named
me and Viazemskii. "_Call them in!_" said he in a feeble voice. I
entered, took the cold hand which he held out to me, kissed it. I could
not speak; he waved his hand, I retired; but he called me back. "_Tell
the Emperor_," he said, "_that I am sorry to die; I would have been
wholly his. Tell him that I wish him a long, long reign; that I wish him
happiness in his son, happiness in his Russia._" These words he spoke
feebly, interruptedly, but distinctly. He then bade farewell to
Viazemskii. At this moment arrived the Count Vielhorskii, and went into
his room; and he was thus the last person who pressed his hand in life.
It was evident that he was hastening to his last earthly account, and
listening, as it were, for the footstep of approaching death. Feeling
his own pulse, he said to Spasskii, "_Death is coming._" When Turgenieff
went up to him, he looked at him twice very earnestly, squeezed his
hand, seemed as though he desired to say something, but waved his hand,
and uttered the word "_Karamzin!_" Mademoiselle Karamzin was not in the
house; but they instantly sent for her, and she arrived almost
immediately. Their interview only lasted a moment; but when Katerina
Andreevna was about to leave the bedside, he called her and said, "_Sign
me with the cross_," and then kissed her hand. In the mean time, a dose
of opium which had been given eased him a little; and they began to
apply to his stomach emollient fomentations instead of the cold
effusions. This was a relief to the sufferer; and he began, without a
word of resistance, to perform the prescriptions of the doctors, which
he had previously refused obstinately to do, being terrified by the idea
of prolonging his tortures, and ardently desiring death to terminate
them. But he now became as obedient as a child; he himself applied the
compresses to his stomach, and assisted those who were busied around
him. In short, he was now apparently a great deal better. In this state
he was found by Dr Dahl, who came to him at two o'clock. "_I am in a bad
way, my dear fellow_," said Pushkin, with a smile, to Dahl. But Dahl,
who actually entertained more hopes than the other physicians, answered
him, "We all hope; so you must not despair either." "_No_," he cried;
"_I cannot live; I shall die. It seems that it must be so._" At this
moment, his pulse was fuller and steadier. A slight general fever began
to show itself. They put on some leeches: the pulse grew more even,
slower, and considerably lighter. "I caught," says Dahl, "like a
drowning man at a straw. With a firm voice, I pronounced the word
_hope_; and was about to deceive both myself and others." Pushkin,
observing that Dahl was growing more sanguine, took him by the hand, and
said--"_There is nobody there?_" "No one." "_Dahl, tell me the truth,
shall I die soon?_" "We have hopes of you, Pushkin--really, we have
hopes." "_Well, thank you!_" he replied. As far as it appears, he had
only once flattered himself with the consolation of hope: neither before
nor after this moment did he feel any trust in it. Almost the whole
night (that is, of the 29th, during the whole of which Dahl sate by the
bedside, and I, Viazemskii, and Vielhorskii, in the next room,) he held
Dahl's hand. He often would take a spoonful of water, or little lump of
ice, into his mouth, doing every thing himself: taking the tumbler from
a shelf within reach, rubbing his temples with ice, applying himself the
fomentations to his stomach, changing them himself, &c. He suffered
less from pain than from an excessive feeling of depression. "_Ah! what
depression_!" he several times exclaimed, throwing his hands backward
above his head; "_it makes my heart die within me_!" He then begged them
to lift him up, or to turn him on his side, or to arrange his pillow;
and, without letting them finish to do so, would stop them generally
with the words--"_There! so, so--very well; so it is very well; well
enough; now it is quite right_;" or, "_Stop--never mind--only pull my
arm a little--so! now it is very well--excellent_!"--(these are all his
exact expressions.) "In general," says Dahl, "with respect to my
treatment, he was as manageable and obedient as a child, and did every
thing I wished." Once he inquired of Dahl, "_Who is with my wife?_" Dahl
answered, "Many good people feel a sympathy with you; the drawing-room
and the antechamber are full from morning to night." "_Oh, thank you_,"
he replied; "_only go and tell my wife that all is going on well, thank
God! or else they will talk all sorts of nonsense to her there, I
suppose._" Dahl did not deceive him. From the morning of the 28th, when
the news that Pushkin was dying had flown through the whole town, his
antechamber had been incessantly crowded with visitors; some enquiring
after him by messengers, others--and people of all conditions, whether
acquainted with him or not--coming themselves. The feeling of a
national, an universal affliction, was never more touchingly expressed
than by this proceeding. The number of visitors became at last so
immense, that the entrance-door (which was close to the study where the
dying man lay) was incessantly opening and shutting; this disturbed the
sufferer, and we imagined the expedient of closing that door, by placing
against it a chest from the hall, and instead of it opening another
little door which led from the stair-case into the pantry, and
partitioning off with screens the dining-room from the drawing-room,
where his wife was. From this moment, the pantry was unceasingly
thronged with people; none but acquaintances were admitted into the
dining-room. On the faces of all these visitors was expressed a most
heartfelt sympathy; very many of them wept. So strong a testimony of
general affliction touched me deeply. In Russians, to whom is so dear
their national glory, it was not to be wondered at; but the sympathy of
foreigners was to me as gratifying as it was unlooked for. We were
losing something of our own; was it wonderful that _we_ should grieve?
But what was it that could touch _them_ so sensibly? It is not difficult
to answer this. Genius is the property of all. In bowing down before
genius all nations are brethren; and when it vanishes untimely from the
earth, all will follow its departure with one brotherly lamentation.
Pushkin, with respect to his genius, belonged not to Russia alone, but
to all Europe; and it was therefore that many foreigners approached his
door with feelings of _personal_ sorrow, and mourned for _our_ Pushkin
as if he had been _their own_. But let me return to my recital. Though
he sent Dahl to console his wife with hope, Pushkin himself did not
entertain the slightest. Once he enquired, "_What o'clock is it?_" and
on Dahl's informing him, he continued, in an interrupted voice, "_Have I
... long ... to ... be tortured thus?... Pray ... haste!_" This he
repeated several times afterwards, "_Will the end be soon?_" and he
always added, "_Pray ... make haste!_" In general, however, (after the
torments of the first night, which lasted two hours,) he was
astonishingly patient. When the pain and anguish overcame him, he made
movements with his hands, or uttered at intervals a kind of stifled
groan, but so that it was hardly audible "You must bear it, my dear
fellow; there is nothing to be done," said Dahl to him; "but don't be
ashamed of your pain; groan, it will ease you." "_No_," he replied,
interruptedly; "_no,... it is of no ... use to ... groan;... my wife ...
will ... hear;... 'tis absurd ... that such a trifle ... should ...
master me,... I will not_."--I left him at five o'clock in the morning,
and returned in a couple of hours. Having observed, that the night had
been tolerably quiet, I went home with an impression almost of hope; but
on my return I found I had deceived myself. Arendt assured me
confidently that all was over, and that he could not live out the day.
As he predicted, the pulse now grew weaker, and began to sink
perceptibly; the hands began to be cold. He was lying with his eyes
closed; it was only from time to time he raised his hand to take a piece
of ice and rub his forehead with it. It had struck two o'clock in the
afternoon, and Pushkin had only three quarters of an hour left to live.
He opened his eyes, and asked for some cloud-berry water. When they
brought it, he said in a distinct voice,--"_Call my wife; let her feed
me._" She came, sank down on her knees by the head of the bed, and
carried to his lips one, and afterwards another spoonful of the
cloud-berries, and then pressed her cheek against his; Pushkin stroked
her on the head, and said, "_There, there, never mind; thank God, all is
well; go._" The tranquil expression of his face, and the firmness of his
voice, deceived the poor wife; she left the room almost radiant with
joy. "You see," she said to Dr Spasskii, "he will live; he will not
die." But at this moment the last process of vitality had already begun.
I stood together with Count Vielhorskii at the head of the bed; by the
side stood Turgenieff. Dahl whispered to me, "He is going." But his
thoughts were clear. It was only at intervals that a half-dosing
forgetfulness overshadowed them; once he gave his hand to Dahl, and
pressing it, said: "_Now, lift me up--come--but higher, higher ... now,
come along!_" But awaking, he said, "_I was dreaming, and I fancied that
I was climbing with you up along these books and shelves! so high ...
and my head began to turn._" After pausing a little, he again, without
unclosing his eyes, began to feel for Dahl's hand, and pulling it, said:
"_Now, let us go then, if you wish; but together._" Dahl, at his
request, took him under the arms, and raised him higher; and suddenly,
as if awaking, he quickly opened his eyes, his face lighted up, and he
said, "_Life is finished!_" Dahl, who had not distinctly heard the
words, answered, "Yes, it is finished; we have turned you round." "_Life
is finished!_" he repeated, distinctly and positively. "_I can't
breathe, I am stifling!_" were his last words. I never once removed my
eyes from him, and I remarked at this moment, that the movement of the
breast, hitherto calm, became interrupted. It soon ceased altogether. I
looked attentively; I waited for the last sigh, but I could not remark
it. The stillness which reigned over his whole appearance appeared to me
to be tranquillity; but he was now no more. We all kept silence around
him. In a couple of minutes I asked, "How is he?" "He is dead!" answered
Dahl. So calmly, so tranquilly had his soul departed. We long stood
around him in silence, without stirring, not daring to disturb the
mysteries of death, which were completed before us in all their touching
holiness. When all had left the room, I sate down before him, and long
alone I gazed upon his face. Never had I beheld upon that countenance
any thing like that which was upon it in this first moment of death. His
head was somewhat bent forward; the hands, which a few moments ago had
exhibited a kind of convulsive movement, were calmly stretched, as if
they had just fallen into an attitude of repose after some heavy labour.
But that which was expressed in the face, I am not able to tell in
words. It was to me something so new, and at the same time so familiar.
This was not either sleep or repose; it was not the expression of
intellect which was before so peculiar to the face; nor was it the
poetic expression; no! some mighty, some wondrous thought was unfolded
in it: something resembling vision, some full, complete,
deeply-satisfying knowledge. Gazing upon it, I felt an irresistible
desire to ask him, "What do you see, my friend?" And what would he have
answered if he had been able for a moment to arise? There are moments in
our life which fully deserve the epithet of great. At this moment, I may
say, I beheld the face of death itself, divinely-mysterious; the face of
death without a veil between. And what a seal was that she had stamped
upon him, and how wondrously did she tell her secret and his own! I most
solemnly assure you that I never beheld upon his face an expression of
such deep, majestic, such triumphant _thought_. The expression had
undoubtedly been latent in the face before; but it was only displayed
in all its purity then, when all earthly things had vanished from his
sight at the approach of death. Such was the end of our Pushkin. I will
describe in a few words what followed. Most fortunately, I remembered,
before it was too late, that it was necessary to take a cast of the
mask; this was executed without loss of time. His features had not yet
entirely changed. It cannot be denied that the first expression which
death had given them, was not preserved in them; but we now all possess
an attractive portrait, a fac-simile of the features, and which
images--not death, but a deep, majestic slumber. I will not relate to
you the state in which was the poor wife--many good friends remained
inseparably with her, the Princess Viazemskii, Elizabeth Zaguajskii, the
Count and Countess Stroganoff. The Count took upon himself all the
arrangements for the funeral. After remaining some time longer in the
house, I went away to Vielhorskii's to dinner; there were assembled all
the other persons who, like myself, had seen Pushkin's last moments; and
he himself had been invited, three days before, to this dinner ... it
was to celebrate my birth-day. On the following morning we, his friends,
with our own hands, laid Pushkin in the coffin; and on the evening of
the succeeding day, we transported him to the Koninshennaia (the
Imperial Stables) Church. And during the whole of these two days, the
drawing-room where he lay in his coffin was incessantly full of people.
It nay be safely asserted that more than ten thousand persons visited
it, in order to obtain one look at him: many were in tears, others stood
long immoveable, and seemed as though they wished to behold his face;
there was something inexpressibly striking in his immobility amid all
this movement, and something mysteriously touching in the prayer which
was heard so gently and so uniformly murmured amid that confused murmur
of whispered conversation. The funeral service was performed on the 1st
of February. Many of our greatest nobles, and many of the foreign
ministers, were in the church. We carried the coffin with our own hands
to the vault, where it was to remain until the moment of its being taken
out of the city. On the 3d of February, at ten o'clock in the evening,
we assembled for the last time around all that remained to us of
Pushkin; the last requiem was sung; the case which contained the coffin
was placed upon a sledge; at midnight the sledge set off; by the light
of the moon I followed it for some moments with my eyes; it soon turned
the corner of a house; and all that once was Pushkin was lost for ever
from my sight.

                              V. JUKOVSKII.


The body was accompanied by Turgenieff. Pushkin had more than once said
to his wife, that he desired to be buried in the monastery of the
Assumption at Sviatogorsk, where his mother had recently been interred.
This monastery is situated in the government (province) of Pskoff; and
in the riding of Opotchkoff, at about four versts from the country-house
and hamlet of _Mikhailovskoe_, where Pushkin passed several years of his
poetic life. On the 4th, at nine o'clock in the evening, the corpse
arrived at Pskoff, from whence, conformably to the excellent
arrangements made by the provincial government, it was forwarded on the
same night, and the morning of the 5th, through the town of Ostroff to
the Sviatogorsk monastery, where it arrived as early as seven o'clock in
the evening. The dead man glided to his last abode, past his own
deserted cottage, past the three beloved firs which he had planted not
long before. The body was placed upon the _holy hill_ (_sviataia gora_,
from which the monastery takes its name,) in the cathedral church of the
Assumption, and a requiem was performed in the evening. All night long
workmen were employed in digging a grave beside the spot where his
mother reposes. On the following day, as soon as it was light, at the
conclusion of divine service, the last requiem was chanted, and the
coffin was lowered into the grave, in the presence of Turgenieff and the
peasants of Pushkin's estate, who had come from the village of
Mikhailovskoe to pay the last honour to their kind landlord. Very
strangely to the ears of the bystanders sounded the words of the Bible,
accompanying the handful of earth as it was cast upon Pushkin--"_earth
thou art!_"

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: His fondness for books was absolutely insatiable; he was
supplied with all the new publications as fast as they appeared; and he
would devote the last money in his purse to this purpose. His
extravagance in this article of expense he excused by comparing himself
to the glazier, whose trade renders it necessary for him to purchase a
diamond, an article which a rich man will frequently abstain from
buying.]

[Footnote 2: The last hours of Pushkin have been minutely and eloquently
described by the most distinguished of his friends and brother poets,
Jukovskii, in a letter addressed to Pushkin's father. As this letter
contains one of the most touching and beautiful pictures of a great
man's death-bed, and as it does equal honour to the author and its
subject, we append a translation of it. It is undoubtedly one of the
most singular documents in the whole range of literature.--T. B. S.]




THE NOVEL AND THE DRAMA.

(SOME ADVICE TO AN AUTHOR.)


You tell me, my dear Eugenius, that you are hesitating between the novel
and the drama: you know not which to attack; and you wish me to give you
some suggestions on the subject. You are candid enough to say that it is
not point-blank advice that you ask, which you would probably heed just
as much as good counsel is generally heeded by those who apply for it;
but you would have me lay before you such ideas as may occur to me, in
order that you may have the picking and choosing amongst them, with the
chance of finding something to your mind--something which may assist you
to a decision. Artists in arabesque get an idea by watching the shifting
forms of the kaleidoscope; in the same manner you hope--if I will but
turn my mind about a little--that some lucky adjustment of its fragments
of observation may help you to a serviceable thought or two. At all
events, you shall not have to complain of too much method in what
follows.

If I could only, my dear Eugenius, persuade you to leave them both
alone!--drama and novel both! But this is hopeless. The love one bears
to a woman may be conquered--not indeed by good counsel, but by speedy
flight; but the passion that draws us to poetry and romance can only die
out, it cannot be expelled; for in this passion, go where we will, we
carry our Helen with us. She steals upon us at each unguarded moment,
and renews in secret her kisses upon our lip. Well, if I cannot persuade
you to leave both alone, my next advice is that you attack both; for if
you endeavour to express in either of these forms of composition all
that is probably fermenting in your mind, the chance is that you spoil
your work.

And by all means lay your hands first upon the drama. True, it is the
higher aim of the two, and I will not pretend to augur any very
brilliant success. But still it is the more appropriate to the first
ebullitions of genius, and the spasmodic efforts of youth. The heart is
at this time full of poetry, which, be its value what it may, must be
got rid of before the stream of prose will run clear. Besides, the very
effort of verse seems necessary to this age, which disdains a facile
task, and seeks to expend its utmost vigour on its chosen labour.
Moreover, to write a good novel one should have passed through the
spring-time and enthusiasm of youth--one should be able to survey life
with some degree of tranquillity; neither wrapped in its illusions, nor
full of indignation at its discovered hollowness. At two-and-twenty,
even if the heart is not burning with fever heat of some kind--some
enthusiastic passion or misanthropical disgust--the head at least is
preoccupied with some engrossing idea, which so besets the man, that he
can see nothing clearly in the world around him. At this age he has a
philosophy, a metaphysical system, which he really believes in, (a
species of delusion the first to quit us,) and he persists in seeing his
dogma reflected to him from all sides. This is supportable, or may be
disguised in poetry; it becomes intolerable in prose. Add to all which,
that the writer of a novel should have had some _experience_ in the
realities of life, a certain empirical knowledge of the manner in which
the passions develop themselves in men and women. The high ideal forms
of good and evil he may learn from his own heart; but there is in actual
life, so to speak, a vulgar monstrosity which must be seen to be
credited. I can figure to myself the writer of a drama musing out his
subject in solitude, whether the solitude of the seashore or of a garret
in London; but the successful novelist must have mingled with the world,
and should know whatever the club, the drawing-room, and, above all, the
boudoir can reveal to him.

Of course it is understood between us, that in speaking of the drama we
make no reference to the stage. Indeed, you can hardly contemplate
writing for the stage, as there is no stage to write for. We speak of
the drama solely as a form of composition, presented, like any other, to
the reader. I have heard the opinion expressed that the drama, viewed as
a composition designed only to be read, is destined to be entirely
superseded by the novel, which admits of so great a variety of material
being worked into its structure, and affords an unrivalled scope for the
development both of story and of character. To me it seems that the
drama, especially in its more classic form, apart from its application
to the stage, has a vitality of its own, and will stand its ground in
literature, let the novel advance as it may.

All the passions of man represent themselves in his speech, the great
prerogative of the human being; almost every thing he does is transacted
through the medium of speech, or accompanied by it; even in solitude his
thoughts are thrown into words, which are frequently uttered aloud, and
the soliloquy is wellnigh as natural as the dialogue. Give, therefore, a
fair representation of the speech of men throughout every great
transaction, and you give the best and truest representations of their
actions and their passions, and this in the briefest form possible. You
have all that is essential to the most faithful portrait, without the
distraction of detail and circumstance. With a reader of the drama the
eye is little exercised; he seems to be brought into immediate contact
with the minds of those imaginary persons who are rather thinking and
feeling, than acting before him. To this select representation of
humanity is added the charm of verse, the strange power of harmonizing
diction. If the drama rarely captivates the eye, it takes possession of
the ear. May it never lose its appropriate language of verse--that
language which so well comports with its high ideal character, being one
which, as a French poet has happily expressed it, the world understands,
but does not speak--

             "Elle a cela pour elle--
    Que le monde l'entend, et ne la parle pas!"

The drama is peculiarly appropriate to the ideal; and it seems to me
that the very fact, that whatever appertains to the middle region of
art, or requires the aid of much circumstance and detail, has found in
the novel a far more perfect development, ought to induce us to purify
the drama, and retain amongst us its most exalted type. It is in vain
that it strives to compete with the novel in the intricacy of its plot,
in the number of its _dramatis personae_, in the representation of the
peculiarities, or as they used to be called, the _humours_ of men. These
have now a better scene for their exhibition than the old five-act play,
or tragi-comedy, could afford them; but the high passions of mankind,
whatever is most elevated or most tender, whatever naturally leads the
mind, be it good or evil, to profound contemplation--this will still
find its most complete, and powerful, and graceful development in the
poetic form of the drama.

The novel and the drama have thus their several characteristics. Do you
wish to hurry on your reader with a untiring curiosity? you will, of
course, select the novel. Do you wish to hold him lingering, meditative,
to your pages--pages which he shall turn backwards as well as forwards?
you were wise to choose the drama. Both should have character, and
passion, and incident; but in the first the interest of the _story_
should pervade the whole, in the second the interest of the _passion_
should predominate. If you write a novel, do not expect your readers
very often to stand still and meditate profoundly; if you write a drama,
forego entirely the charm of curiosity. Do not hope, by any contrivance
of your plot, to entrap or allure the attention of your readers, who
must come to you--there is no help for it--with something of the spirit,
and something of the unwillingness, of the student. What some man of
genius may one day perform, or not perform, it were presumptuous to
assert; for it is the privilege of genius to prove to the critic what is
possible; but, speaking according to our _present lights_, we should say
that the sustaining of the main characteristic interest of the novel, is
incompatible with the more intense efforts of reflection or of poetry.
One cannot be dragged on and chained to the spot at the same time. Some
one _may_ arise who shall combine the genius of Lord Byron and of Sir
Walter Scott; but till the prodigy makes his appearance, I shall
continue to think that no intellectual chymistry could present to us, in
one compound, the charms of _Ivanhoe_ and of _Sardanapalus_.

I should be very ungrateful--I who have been an idle man--if I
underrated the novel. It is hardly possible to imagine a form of
composition more fit to display the varied powers of an author; for wit
and pathos, the tragic and the comic, descriptions, reflections,
dialogue, narrative, each takes its turn; but I cannot consent that it
carry off all our regard from its elder sister, the drama. In the novel
every thing passes by in dizzy rapidity; we are whirled along over hill
and valley, through the grandeur and the filth of cities, and a thousand
noble and a thousand grotesque objects flit over our field of vision. In
the drama, it is true, we often toil on, slow as a tired pedestrian; but
then how often do we sit down, as at the foot of some mountain, and fill
our eyes and our hearts with the prospect before us? How gay is the
first!--even when terrible, she has still her own vivacity; but then she
exhausts at once all the artillery of her charms. How severe is the
second!--even when gayest, she is still thoughtful, still maintains her
intricate movement, and her habit of involved allusions; but then at
each visit some fresh beauty discloses itself. It was once my good
fortune--I who am now old, may prattle of these things--to be something
a favourite with a fair lady who, with the world at large, had little
reputation for beauty. Her sparkling sister, with her sunny locks and
still more sunny countenance, carried away all hearts; she, pale and
silent, sat often unregarded. But, oh, Eugenius! when she turned upon
you her eyes lit with the light of love and genius, that pale and
dark-browed girl grew suddenly more beautiful than I have any words to
express. You must make the application yourself; for having once
conjured up her image to my mind, I cannot consent to compare her even
to the most eloquent poetry that was ever penned.

Undoubtedly the first dramatic writer amongst our contemporaries is
Henry Taylor, and the most admirable dramatic poem which these times
have witnessed is _Philip van Artevelde_. How well he uses the language
of the _old masters_! how completely has he made it his own! and how
replete is the poem with that sagacious observation which penetrates the
very core of human life, and which is so appropriate to the drama! Yet
the author of _Philip van Artevelde_, I shall be told, has evidently
taken a very different view of the powers and functions of the drama at
this day than what I have been expressing. In his poem we have the whole
lifetime of a man described, and a considerable portion of the history
of a people sketched out; we have a canvass so ample, and so well
filled, that all the materials for a long novel might be found there.
But the example of _Philip van Artevelde_ rather confirms than shakes my
opinion. I am persuaded that that drama, good as it is, would have been
fifty times better, had it been framed on a more restricted plan. You,
of course, have read and admired this poem. Now recall to mind those
parts which you probably marked with your pencil as you proceeded, and
which you afterwards read a second and a third and a fourth time; bring
them together, and you will at once perceive how little the poem would
have lost, how much it would have gained, if it had been curtailed, or
rather constructed on a simpler plan. What care we for his Sir Simon
Bette and his Guisebert Grutt? And of what avail is it to attempt,
within the limits of a drama, and under the trammels of verse, what can
be much better done in the freedom and amplitude of prose? Under what
disadvantages does the historical play appear after the historical
novels of the Author of Waverley!

The author of _Philip van Artevelde_, and _Edwin the Fair_, seems to
shrink from idealizing character, lest he should depart from historic
truth. But historic truth is not the sort of truth most essential to the
drama. We are pleased when we meet with it; but its presence will never
justify the author for neglecting the higher resources of his art. Do
not think, however, that in making this observation I intend to impeach
the character of Philip van Artevelde himself. Artevelde I admire
without stint, and without exception. Compare this character with the
Wallenstein of Schiller, and you will see at once its excellence. They
are both leaders of armies, and both men of reflection. But in
Wallenstein the habit of self-examination has led to an irresolution
which we feel at once, in such a man, to be a degrading weakness, and
altogether inconsistent with the part he is playing in life. It is an
indecision which, in spite of the philosophical tone it assumes,
pronounces him to be unfit for the command of men, or to sway the
destinies of a people. Artevelde, too, reflects, examines himself,
pauses, considers, and his will is the servant of his thought; but
reflection with him comes in aid of resolution, matures it, establishes
it. He can discuss with himself, whether he shall pursue a life of
peaceful retirement, or plunge into one of stormy action; but having
once made his election, he proceeds along his devoted path with perfect
self-confidence, and without a look that speaks of retreat. A world of
thought is still around him; he carries with him, at each step, his old
habit of reflection--for this, no man who has once possessed, can ever
relinquish--but nothing of all this disturbs or impedes him.

Do not you, Eugenius, be led by the cant of criticism to sacrifice the
real interest of your _dramatis personae_. Some dry censor will tell you
that your Greeks are by no means Greek, nor your Romans Roman. See you
first that they are real men, and be not afraid to throw your own heart
into them. Little will it console either you or your readers, if, after
you have repelled us by some frigid formal figure, a complimentary
critic of this school should propose to place it as a frontispiece to a
new edition of Potter or of Adam--applauding you the while for having
faithfully preserved the classic costume. I tell you that the classic
costume must ruffle and stir with passions kindred to our own, or it had
better be left hanging against the wall. And what a deception it is that
the scholastic imagination is perpetually imposing on itself in this
matter! Accustomed to dwell on the points of difference between the men
of one age and of another, it revolts from admitting the many mere
points of resemblance which must have existed between them; it hardly
takes into account the great fund of humanity common to them both. The
politics of Cicero, it is true, would be unintelligible to one unversed
in the constitution and history of Rome; but the ambition of Cicero, the
embarrassment of the politician, the meditated treachery, the boasted
independence, the doubt, the fear, the hesitation,--all this will be
better studied in a living House of Commons, than in all the manuscripts
of the Vatican. Sacrifice nothing of what you know to be the substantial
interest of your piece, to what these critics call the _colour_ of the
age, which, after all, is nothing better than one guess amongst many at
historic truth. Schiller fell a victim, in one or two instances, to this
sort of criticism, and, in obedience to it, contradicted the natural
bias of his genius. In his _Wilhelm Tell_, instead of the hero of
liberty and of Switzerland, he has given us little more than a sturdy
peasant, who, in destroying Gessler, follows only a personal revenge,
and feels the remorse of a common assassin. If this were historic truth,
it was not the part of the poet to be the first to discover and proclaim
it. Was he to degrade the character below the rank which ordinary
historians assigned to it? We do not want a drama to frame the portrait
of a Lincolnshire farmer; it is the place, if place there is, for the
representation of the higher forms of humanity.

After taking note of the distinctive qualities of the drama and the
novel, it were well--O author that will be!--to take note of thyself,
and observe what manner of talent is strongest within thee. There are
two descriptions of men of genius. The one are men of genius in virtue
of their own quick feelings and intense reflection; they have
imagination, but it is chiefly kindled by their own personal emotions:
they write from the inspiration of their own hearts; they see the world
in the height of their own joys and afflictions. These amiable egotists
fill all nature with the voice of their own plaints, and they have ever
a tangled skein of their own peculiar thoughts to unravel and to ravel
again. The second order of men of genius, albeit they are not deficient
in keen susceptibility or profound reflection, see the world
outstretched before them, as it lies beneath the impartial light of
heaven; they understand, they master it; they turn the great globe round
under the sun; they make their own mimic variations after its strange
and varied pattern. Now you must take rank, high or low, amongst this
second order of men of genius, if you are to prosper in the land of
fiction and romance. Pray, do you--as I half suspect--do you, when
sitting down to sketch out some budding romance, find that you have
filled your paper with the analysis of a character or a sentiment, and
that you have risen from your desk without relating a single incident,
or advancing your story beyond the first attitude, the first _pose_ of
your hero? If so, I doubt of your aptitude for the novel. I know that
you have some noble ideas of elevating the standard of the romance, and,
by retarding and subduing the interest of the narrative, to make this
combine with more elaborate beauties, and more subtle thought, that has
been hitherto considered as legitimately appertaining to the novel. I
like the idea--I should rejoice to see it executed; but pardon me, if
the very circumstance of you being possessed with this idea, leads me to
augur ill of you as a writer of fiction. You have not love enough for
your story, nor sufficient confidence in it. You are afraid of every
sentence which has in it no peculiar beauty of diction or of sentiment.
A novelist must be liberal of letter-press, must feel no remorse at
leading us down, page after page, destitute of all other merit than that
of conducting us to his _denouement_: he writes not by sentences; takes
no account of paragraphs; he strides from chapter to chapter, from
volume to volume.

"Verily," I think I hear you say, "you are the most consolatory of
counsellors; you advise me to commence with the drama--but with no
prospect of success--in order to prepare myself for a failure in the
novel!"

My dear Eugenius, you shall not fail. You shall write a very powerful,
exciting, affecting romance. Pray, do not be too severe upon our
sensibilities, do not put us on the rack more than is absolutely
necessary. It has always seemed to me--and I am glad to have this
opportunity of unburdening my heart upon the point--it has always seemed
to me, that there was something _barbarous_ in that torture of the
sympathies in which the novelist delights, and which his reader, it must
be supposed, finds peculiarly grateful. It really reminds me of that
pleasure which certain savages are said to take in cutting themselves
with knives, and inflicting other wounds upon themselves when in a state
of great excitement. I have myself often flung away the work of fiction,
when it seemed bent upon raising my sympathies only to torture them.
Pray, spare us when you, in your time, shall have become a potent
magician. Follow the example of the poets, who, when they bear the
sword, yet hide it in such a clustre of laurels that its sharpness is
not seen.

To take very common instance--All the world knows that the catastrophe
of a romance must be inevitably postponed, that suspense must be
prolonged, and that the two lovers whose fate we have become interested
in, cannot possibly be made happy in the first or even in the second
volume. But the expedients employed to delay this term of felicity, are
sometimes such as the laws of a civilized society ought really to
proscribe. I will mention the first example that occurs to me, though
your better memory will directly suggest many more striking and more
flagrant. It is taken from the work of no mean artist; indeed, none but
a writer of more or less talent could inflict this gratuitous anguish
upon us. In the novel of _Rienzi_, a young nobleman, Adrian, goes to
Florence, at that time visited by the plague, to seek his betrothed
Irene, sister of the Tribune. Fatigue, the extreme heat, and his own
dreadful anxiety, have thrown him into a fever, and he sinks down in the
public thoroughfare. It is Irene herself who rushes to his assistance.
Every one else avoids him, thinking him struck by the plague. She and a
benevolent friar convey him, still in a state of unconsciousness, into
an empty and deserted palace which stood by, and of which there were
many at that time in Florence. She tends him, nurses him day and night,
aided only by the same pious and charitable friar. In his delirium he
raves of that Irene who is standing by his head, and who thus learns
that it is to seek her he has exposed himself to the horrors of the
plague. At the end of this time the friar, who had administered to the
patient some healing draught, tells her, on leaving, that Adrian will
shortly fall into a sound slumber--that this will be the crisis of his
fever--that he will either wake from this sleep restored to
consciousness and health, or will sink under his malady. Adrian falls
accordingly into a sound sleep, Irene watching by his side. Now we know
that the patient is doing well, and our hearts have been sedulously
prepared for the happy interview that is promised us, when, on awaking,
he will see beside him the loved Irene whom he has been seeking, and
recognise in her the saviour of his life. But this sleep lasts longer
than Irene had anticipated; she becomes alarmed, and goes away to seek
the friar. The moment she has left the room, Adrian wakes!--finds
himself well and alone--there is no one to tell him who it is that has
preserved his life; nor has Irene, it seems, left any trace of her
presence. He sallies forth again into the city of the plague to seek
her, and she is destined to return to the empty chamber! Taken to a
hideous sort of charnel-house, Adrian is shown the body of a female clad
in a mantle that had once been Irene's, and concludes that it is the
corpse of her who, for the last three days and nights, has been tending
on him. I recollect that, when I came to this part of the novel, I threw
the book down, and stalked for five minutes indignantly about the room,
exclaiming that it was cruel--barbarous--savage, to be sporting thus
with human sympathies. To be sure, I ought to add, in justice to the
author, that, after exhaling my rage in this manner, I again took up the
novel, and read on to the end.

I do beseech you, Eugenius, do not give us a _philosophical_ novel.
Every work of art of a high order will, in one sense of the word, be
philosophical; there will be philosophy there for those who can
penetrate it, and sometimes the reader will gather a profounder and
juster meaning, than the author himself detected in his fiction. I mean,
of course, those works where some theory or some dogma is expressly
taught, where a vein of scholastic, or political, or ethical matter
alternates with a vein of narrative and fictitious matter. I dislike the
whole genus. Either one is interested in your story, and then your
philosophy is a bore; or one is not interested in it, and then your
philosophy can gain no currency by being tacked to it. Suppose the
narrative and didactic portions of such a book equally good, it is still
essentially two books in one, and should be read once for the story, and
once without. We are repeatedly told that people are induced to peruse,
in the shape of a novel, what they would have avoided as dry and
uninteresting in the shape of an essay. Pray, can you get people to take
knowledge, as you get children to take physic, without knowing what it
is they swallow? So that the powder was in the jelly, and the jelly goes
down the throat, the business, in the one case, is done. But I rather
think, in gaining knowledge, one must _taste the powder;_ there is no
help for it. Really, the manner in which these good nurses of the public
talk of passing off their wisdom upon us, reminds us of the old and
approved fashion in which Paddy passes his bad shilling, by slipping it
between two sound penny pieces. To be sure it is but twopence after all,
and he gets neither more nor less than his twopenny-worth of
intoxication, but he has succeeded in putting his shilling into
circulation. Just such a circulation of wisdom may we expect from novels
which are to teach philosophy, and politics, and political economy, and
I know not what else. But such works have succeeded, you will tell me.
What shall I say to _Tremaine?_--what to _Coningsby?_ In _Tremaine_, so
far as I remember, the didactic portion had sunk like a sort of
sediment, and being collected into a dense mass in the third volume,
could easily be avoided. As to _Coningsby_, I deny that it any where
calls upon the reader for much exercise of his reflective powers. The
novel has some sparkling scenes written in the vivacious manner of our
neighbours, the French, and these we read. Some Eton boys talk politics,
and as they talk just as boys should talk, their prattle is easily
tolerated. Besides, I am not responsible for the caprice of fashion, nor
for those adventitious circumstances which give currency to books, and
which may sometimes compel us all to read what none of us heartily
admires.

Certainly, if I were admitted to the counsels of a novelist, I should
never have finished with my list of grievances, my entreaties, and
deprecations. I will not inflict it upon you. But there is one little
request I cannot help making even to a novelist in embryo. I have been
annoyed beyond measure at the habit our writers of fiction have fallen
into, of throwing their heroes perpetually into a sort of swoon or
delirium, or state of half consciousness. That a heroine should
occasionally faint, and so permit the author to carry her quietly off
the stage--this is an old expedient, natural and allowable. What I
complain of is, that whenever the passions of the hero himself rise to a
certain pitch; or whenever the necessities of the plot require him to do
one thing, whilst both his reason and his feelings would plainly lead
him to do another--he is immediately thrown into a state of half frenzy,
has a "vague consciousness" of something or other, makes a complete
nightmare of the business; is cast, in short, into a state of _coma_, in
which the author can carry him hither and thither, and communicate to
him whatever impulse he pleases. In this sort of dream he raves and
resolves, he fights or he flies, and then wakes to confused memory of
just what the author thinks fit to call to his recollection. It is very
interesting and edifying, truly, to watch the movements of an irrational
puppet! I do beg of you, when you take up the functions of the novelist,
not to distribute this species of intoxication amongst your _dramatis
personae_, more largely than is absolutely necessary. Keep them in a
rational state as long as you can. Depend upon it they will not grow
more interesting in proportion as they approximate to madmen or idiots.

And so, dear Eugenius, you are resolved, at all events, in some form or
other, to be the author! This is decided. What was that desperate phrase
I once heard you utter--you would strike one blow, though you put your
whole life into the stroke, and died upon the broken sword!

Ah! but one does not die upon the broken sword; one has to live on.
Would that I could dissuade you from this inky pestilence! This
poetizing spirit, which gives all life so much significance _to the
imagination_, strikes it with sterility in every thing which should
beget or prosper a personal career. It opens the heart--true, but keeps
it open; it closes in on nothing--shuts in nothing for itself. It is an
open heart, and the sunshine enters there, and the bird alights there;
but nothing retains them, and the light and the song depart as freely as
they came. You lose the spring of action, and forfeit the easy
intercourse with the world; for, believe me, however you struggle
against it, so long as you live a poet, will you feel yourself a
stranger or a child amongst men. And all for what? I have that
confidence in your talent, that I am sure you will make no ridiculous
failures. What you write for fame, will be far superior to what others
write for popularity. But these will attain their end, and you, with far
more merit, will be only known as having failed. And know you not that
men revenge on mediocrity the praise extorted from them by indisputable
celebrity? It is a crime to be above the vulgar, and yet not overawe the
vulgar. There are a few great names they cannot refuse to extol; men of
genuine merit, of a larger merit than they can measure, who yet cannot
confessedly approach to these select few, they treat with derision and
contempt.

But suppose the most complete success that you can rationally
expect--what have you done? You have added one work of art the more to a
literature already so rich, that the life of a man can hardly exhaust
it; so rich, that it is compelled to drop by the way, as booty it cannot
preserve, what in another literature, or at an earlier period of its own
career, would have been considered invaluable treasure.

But the question of success or failure is not, after all, the first or
most important to your happiness. Could the hope of literary fame, could
the passion for it, could the esteem even of its possession, keep a
steady place in your mind, there were but little danger in admitting
this species of ambition as the ruling spirit of your house. But, alas!
whilst it is the most tenacious, it is also the most fluctuating of
passions. It rises all radiant with the morning, and before the sun is
in the zenith, it forsakes you, and the bright world at your feet is as
a glittering desert. But if you should make good resolutions to reform
and eject your tyrant, it will not fail to return before the night
descends to dash and confound them.

I remember meeting somewhere with the complaint of a young poet who had
made trial of his muse and failed; the style was perhaps somewhat
quaint, but it spoke the language of truth, and I copied it out. I will
transcribe it for your edification, and so conclude this wandering
epistle. You must not ask me for the title of the book, for I am not
sure that I could give it you correctly. Besides, it would be of no use,
as the work I know is out of print.

     "I could do better," says the poet in reply to his friend, who
     had been suggesting the usual consolations and lenitives
     applicable to the case, "but I could not so far excel what I
     have written, as to make all the difference between obscurity
     and fame. It is not a brief and tolerated existence in the
     world of letters that can be a sanction and motive to my
     endeavours; and since a noble immortality is denied me, I am
     willing to sink at once into oblivion. The sentence has been
     passed. I have not that obstinacy of hope which can make an
     appeal to the decision of posterity. My labours have been
     futile--my whole being has been an error--my life is without
     aim or meaning."

     "I sought it not," continued the disappointed bard, "I sought
     not this gift of poesy--I despised not the ruder toils of
     existence--I strove to pursue them, but I strove in vain. I
     could not walk along this earth with the busy forward tread of
     other men. The fair wonder detained and withheld me. Flowers on
     their slender stalks could prove an hindrance in my path; the
     light acacia would fling the barrier of its beauty across my
     way; the slow-thoughted stream would bend me to its winding
     current. Was it fault of mine that all nature was replete with
     feeling that compassed and enthralled me? On the surface of the
     lake at eventide, there lay how sweet a sadness! Hope visited
     me from the blue hills. There was perpetual revelry of thought
     amidst the clouds, and in the wide cope of heaven. This passion
     of the poet came to me, not knowing what it was. It came the
     gift of tranquil skies, and was breathed by playful zephyrs,
     and fell on me, with many a serene influence from the bright
     and silent stars.

     "I saw others pursuing and enjoying the varied prosperity of
     life--I felt no envy at their success, and no participation in
     their desires. I could not call in and limit my mind to the
     concerns of a personal welfare. I had leaned my ear unto the
     earth, and heard the beating of her mighty heart, and the
     murmur of her mysteries, and my spirit lost its fitness for any
     selfish aim or narrow purpose. I stood forth to be the
     interpreter of his own word to man. Alas! I myself am but
     one--the poorest--of the restless and craving multitude.

     "Gone! gone for ever! is the pleasant hope that danced before
     me on my path, with feet that never wearied, and timbrel that
     never paused! Oh, gay illusion! whither hast thou led me? and
     to what desolation has the music of thy course conducted? I am
     laden, as it were, with the fruitage of cultivated affections,
     but I myself am forlorn and disregarded. I kindle with
     innumerable sympathies, but am shut out for ever from social
     endearments--from the sweet relationships that make happy the
     homes of other men. I am faint with love of the beautiful, and
     my heart pants with an unclaimed devotion--but who may love the
     poet in his poverty?"

The disappointed bard, who, I should mention, was an Italian, resolves
to quit Rome, and books, and meditations; he goes to a seaport town,
becomes a mariner, and is soon advanced to the rank of captain of a
small trading vessel. The same friend to whom he had poured out the
lamentation I have already transcribed, encounters him in this new
character, and he then gives the following account of himself:--

     "I worked hard with the men, and studied diligently with the
     captain. One voyage to the Levant was speedily followed by a
     second; I gained experience; I have earned promotion--go to--I
     have earned money! Here I am, master of this vessel, which
     shall carry you to the mouth of the Tiber, or the port of
     Genoa."

     "Then you have quite merged the poet in the sailor?" said his
     companion.

     "Quite! quite! These hands are hard," replied the poet, gaily
     exhibiting his swarthy palms; "they have tugged at other than
     the cordage of a lyre. I, who used to burden the passing clouds
     with many a pensive sentiment, now ask of them what weather
     they predict. I, who was wont to give a thousand utterances to
     the winds of heaven, enquire from what point of the compass
     they are blowing. I, who could never behold the ocean without
     lapsing into dreamy emotions or endless speculations, now study
     its tides, and sound its shallows, and know it as the high-road
     I travel on. Yes," he continued, pacing the deck with
     animation, "I am no longer that commiserated mortal, whose
     musing gait marks him out for the mingled ridicule and,
     compassion of all observers; who burns with a passion for fame
     which renders him at once the most solitary and the most
     dependent of men. Me--I belong to the multitude--I am one of
     themselves. They cannot point the finger at me. I am released
     from that needless necessity to distinguish myself from
     others--from that pledge, given unsought to a heedless world,
     to leave behind an enduring memento of my existence. I can be
     filled with daily life, as with daily bread. Life is indeed a
     freedom--I can give _all_ to death."

     "I think," said his friend with a smile, "I trace something of
     the leaven of poetry even in this description of your
     unpoetized condition. Fear you not that the old fever will
     return?"

     "No; I resist--I fly from all temptation. If leaning,
     perchance, over the side of the vessel, and looking down on the
     troubled water, my mind grows troubled also with agitated
     thoughts, I start from the insidious posture. I find something
     to tug--to haul. A rope is thrown to me, and I am saved! Or I
     seize the rudder--I grasp its handle, grown smooth by its
     frequent intercourse with the human palm--and, believe me,
     there is a magic in its touch that brings me back instantly to
     the actual world of man's wants and of man's energies. I feel
     my feet press firm upon the boarded deck; I look out and around
     me; and my eye surveys, and my ear listens to the plain and
     serviceable realities of this our habitable globe."

This seems like a case of cure. But the symptoms were deceptive. The
next time we meet the poet-sailor he has embarked all he possessed in an
expedition of discovery in the new world which had recently been laid
open by Columbus; and this, not from love of gain, nor love of science,
nor even the ardour of enterprise, but purely from the restlessness of a
spirit which, ejected from its home in the world of thought, could never
find another amongst those "serviceable realities" of life, which he
knew so well how to applaud. He set sail from the port of Genoa, and was
never heard of afterwards. The moral of which is, that you take timely
warning, Eugenius, lest your poetic culture end in a voyage of discovery
to New South Wales!




MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.

PART XVII.

    "Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
    Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
    Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
    Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
    And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
    Have I not in the pitched battle heard
    Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"

                              SHAKSPEARE.


The speech of the Opposition leader decided the question. No man on his
side would venture beyond the line which he had drawn; and the
resolutions of Government were triumphantly carried, after a brief
appeal from me to the loyalty and manliness of the House. I placed
before them the undeniable intention of the cabinet to promote the
public prosperity, the immeasurable value of unanimity in the parliament
to produce confidence in the people, and the magnitude of the stake for
which England and Ireland were contending with the enemy of Europe.
Those sentiments were received with loud approval--my language was
continually echoed during the debate, I was congratulated on all sides;
and this night of expectancy and alarm closed in a success which
relieved me from all future anxiety for the fate of the Government.

The House broke up earlier than usual; and, to cool the fever which the
events of the night had produced in my veins, I rambled into one of the
spacious squares which add so much to the ornament of that fine city.
The night was serene, the air blew fresh and flower-breathing from the
walks, the stars shone in their lustre, and I felt all the power of
nature to soothe the troubled spirit. Some of the fashionable
inhabitants of the surrounding houses had been induced by the fineness
of the night to prolong their promenade; and the light laugh, and the
sound of pleasant voices, added to the touching and simple charm of the
scene. A group had stopped round a player on the guitar, with which we
made a tolerable accompaniment to some foreign songs. My ear was caught
by a chorus which I had often heard among the French peasantry, and I
joined in the applause. The minstrel was ragged and pale, and had
evidently met with no small share of the buffets of fortune; but,
cheered by our approval, he volunteered to sing the masterpiece of his
collection--"The Rising of the Vendee"--the rallying-song of the
insurrection, a performance chanted by the Vendean army in the field, by
the Vendean peasant in his cottage, and which he now gave us with all
the enthusiasm of one who had fought and suffered in the cause.


THE RISING OF THE VENDEE.

    It was a Sabbath morning, and sweet the summer air,
    And brightly shone the summer sun upon the day of prayer;
    And silver-sweet the village bells o'er mount and valley toll'd,
    And in the church of St Florent were gather'd young and old.
    When rushing down the woodland hill, in fiery haste was seen,
    With panting steed and bloody spur, a noble Angevin.
    And bounding on the sacred floor, he gave his fearful cry,--
    "Up, up for France! the time is come, for France to live or die.

    "Your Queen is in the dungeon; your King is in his gore;
    On Paris waves the flag of death, the fiery Tricolor;
    Your nobles in their ancient halls are hunted down and slain,
    In convent cells and holy shrines the blood is pour'd like rain.
    The peasant's vine is rooted up, his cottage given to flame,
    His son is to the scaffold sent, his daughter sent to shame;
    With torch in hand, and hate in heart, the rebel host is nigh.
    Up, up for France! the time is come, for France to live or die."

    That livelong night the horn was heard, from Orleans to Anjou,
    And pour'd from all their quiet fields our shepherds bold and true;
    Along the pleasant banks of Loire shot up the beacon-fires,
    And many a torch was blazing bright on Lucon's stately spires;
    The midnight cloud was flush'd with flame that hung o'er Parthenaye,
    The blaze that shone o'er proud Brissac was like the breaking day;
    Till east and west, and north and south, the loyal beacons shone,
    Like shooting-stars, from haughty Nantz to sea-begirt Olonne.

    And through the night, on foot and horse, the sleepless summons flew,
    And morning saw the Lily-flag wide waving o'er Poitou;
    And many an ancient musketoon was taken from the wall,
    And many a jovial hunter's steed was harness'd in the stall;
    And many a noble's armoury gave up the sword and spear,
    And many a bride, and many a babe, was left with kiss and tear;
    And many a homely peasant bade "farewell" to his old "dame;"
    As in the days, when France's king unfurl'd the Oriflame.

    There, leading his bold marksmen, rode the eagle-eyed Lescure,
    And dark Stofflet, who flies to fight as falcon to the lure;
    And fearless as the lion roused, but gentle as the lamb,
    Came, marching at his people's head, the brave and good Bonchamps.
    Charette, where honour was the prize, the hero sure to win;
    And there, with Henri Quatre's plume, the young Rochejaquelin.
    And there, in peasant speech and garb--the terror of the foe,
    A noble made by Heaven's own hand, the great Cathelineau.

    We march'd by tens of thousands, we march'd through day and night,
    The Lily standard in our front, like Israel's holy light.
    Around us rush'd the rebels, as the wolf upon the sheep,
    We burst upon their columns, as the lion roused from sleep;
    We tore the bayonets from their hands, we slew them at their guns,
    Their boasted horsemen flew like chaff before our forest-sons;
    That eve we heap'd their baggage high their lines of dead between,
    And in the centre blazed to heaven their blood-dyed Guillotine!

    In vain they hid their heads in walls; we rush'd on stout Thouar,--
    What cared we for its shot or shell, for battlement or bar?
    We burst its gates; then, like the wind, we rush'd on Fontenaye--
    We saw its flag at morning's light, 'twas ours by setting day.
    We crush'd, like ripen'd grapes, Montreuil, we tore down old Vetier--
    We charged them with our naked breasts, and took them with a cheer.
    We'll hunt the robbers through the land, from Seine to sparkling Rhone.
    Now, "Here's a health to all we love. Our King shall have his own."

This song had an interest for me, independent of the spirit of the
performer. It revived recollections of the noblest scene of popular
attachment and faithful fortitude since the days of chivalry. I heard in
it the names of all the great leaders of the Royalist army--names which
nothing but the deepest national ingratitude will ever suffer France to
forget; and it gave a glance at the succession of those gallant exploits
by which the heroic peasantry and gentlemen of Anjou and Poitou had
gained their imperishable distinction.

But the streets of a capital, itself almost in a state of siege, were
not the scene for indulging in romance by starlight; and one of the
patrols of soldiery, then going its rounds, suddenly ordered the group
to disperse. The Frenchman, unluckily, attempted to apologise for his
own appearance on the spot; and the attempt perplexed the matter still
more. The times were suspicious, and a foreigner, and of all foreigners
a Gaul, caught under cover of night singing songs of which the sergeant
could not comprehend a syllable, was a personage in every way formed for
the guard-house. The startled Frenchman's exclamations and wrath at
discovering this purpose, only made the sergeant more positive; and he
was marched off as a traitor convicted of guitar-playing and other
traitorous qualities.

I interposed, but my interposition was in vain. My person was unknown to
the man in authority; and I was evidently, from the frown of the
sergeant, regarded as little better than an accomplice. My only resource
was to follow the party to the guard-house, and see the officer of the
night. But he was absent; and half-laughing at the singular effect of
the report in the morning, that I had been arrested as the
fellow-conspirator of a French mendicant, I called for pen, ink, and
paper, to explain my position by a message to the next magistrate. But
this request only thickened the perplexity. As I approached the desk to
write, the prisoner bounded towards me with a wild outcry, flung his
arms round my neck, and plunging his hand into the deepest recesses of
his very wayworn costume, at length drew out a large letter, which he
held forth to me with a gesture of triumph. The sergeant looked graver
still; his responsibility was more heavily involved by the despatch,
which he intercepted on the spot, and proceeded to examine, at least so
far as the envelope was concerned. He and his guard pored over it in
succession. Still it was unintelligible. It was a mysterious affair
altogether. The Frenchman and I begged equally in vain to be allowed to
interpret. Impossible. At length the subaltern on duty was found; and on
his arrival I was released, with all due apologies, and carried off the
captive and his despatch together.

The letter was addressed to me, in French, and in a hand with which I
was unacquainted. To obtain any knowledge of its contents on my way
home, and from its bearer, was out of the question, until, with a
hundred circumlocutions, I had heard the full and entire hair-breadth
'scapes of Monsieur Hannibal Auguste Dindon. He had been the domestic of
Madame la Marechale de Tourville, and had attended her and the countess
to England in the emigration; in England he had seen me. On the
reduction of the Marechale's household he had returned to his own
country, and taken service with the Royalist army in the Vendee. There,
too, he had suffered that "fortune de la guerre", which is ill-luck with
every body but the elastic Frenchman. He had been taken prisoner, and
was on the point of being shot, when he saw the countess, a prisoner
also in the Republican hands, who interceded for his safety, and gave
him this letter, to be delivered to me if he should escape. After
following the march of the armies, a defeat scattered the Republican
division along with which they were carried; he procured a conveyance to
the coast of Britanny, and they embarked in one of the fishing vessels
for England. Again ill-luck came; a storm caught them in the Channel,
swept them the crew knew not where, and finally threw them on the
iron-bound shore of the west of Ireland. Clotilde was now actually in
the capital, on her way to England!

If ever there was wild joy in the heart of man, it was in mine at that
intelligence. It was a flash, bright, bewildering, overwhelming!

I longed to be alone, to hear no sound of the human tongue, to indulge
in the deep and silent delight of the overladen heart. But M. Hannibal
was not a personage to be disappointed of his share of interest; and, to
avoid throwing the honest prattler into absolute despair, I was forced
to listen to his adventures, until the blaze of the lamps in the
vice-royal residence, and the challenge of the sentries, reminded him,
and me too, that there were other things in the world than a
Frenchman's wanderings. The substance of his tale, however, was--that
his resources having fallen short on the road, and resolving not to
burden the finances of the countess, which he believed to be scarcely
less exhausted than his own, he had made use of his voice and guitar to
recruit his purse--a chance which he now designated as a miracle,
devised by the saint who presided over his birthday, to finish his
perils in all imaginable felicity.

Giving him into the care of my servants, I was at length alone. The
letter was in my hand. Yet still I dreaded to break the seal. What might
not be the painful sentiments and sorrowful remonstrances within that
seal? But Clotilde was living; was near me; was still the same
confiding, generous, and high-souled being.--Sorrow and terror were now
passed away. I opened the letter. It was a detail of her thoughts,
written in the moments which she could snatch from the insulting
surveillance round her; and was evidently intended less as a letter than
a legacy of her last feelings, written to relieve an overburdened heart,
with but slight hope of its ever reaching my hand. It was written on
various fragments of paper, and often blotted with tears. It began
abruptly. I shuddered at the misery which spoke in every word.

"I am, at this hour, in the lowest depth of wretchedness. I have but one
consolation, that no life can endure this agony long. After being
carried from garrison to garrison, with my eyes shocked and my feelings
tortured by the sights and sufferings of war, I am at last consigned to
the hands of the being whom on earth I most dread and abhor. Montrecour
has arrived to take the command of Saumur. I have not yet seen him; but
he has had the cruelty to announce that I am his prisoner, and shall be
his wife. But the wife of Montrecour I never will be; rather a thousand
times would I wed the grave!----

"This letter may never reach your hands, or, if it does, it may only be
when the great barrier is raised between us, and this heart shall be
dust. Marston, shall I then be remembered? Shall my faith, my feelings,
and my sufferings, ever come across your mind?--Let not Clotilde be
forgotten. I revered, honoured, loved you. I feel my heart beat, and my
cheek burn at the words--but I shall not recall them. On the verge of
the future world, I speak with the truth of a spirit, and oh, with the
sincerity of a woman!----

"From that eventful day when I first met your glance, I determined that
no power on earth should ever make me the wife of another. To me you
remained almost a total stranger. Yet the die was cast. I finally
resolved to abandon the world, to hide my unhappy head in a convent, and
there, in loneliness and silence, endure, for I never could hope to
extinguish, those struggles of heart which forced me to leave all the
charms of existence behind for ever.

"The loss of my beloved parent gave me the power of putting my
resolution into effect. I returned to France, though in the midst of its
distractions, and took refuge under the protection of my venerable
relative, the superior of the convent at Valenciennes. My narrative is
now brief, but most melancholy. On the evening of the day when I heard
your love--a day which I shall remember with pride and gratitude to the
closing hour of my existence--we were suffered to pass the gates, and
take the route for Italy. But, on the third day of our journey, we were
stopped by a division of the Republican forces on their march to the
Vendee. We were arrested as aristocrats, and moved from garrison to
garrison, until we reached the Republican headquarters at Saumur; where,
to my infinite terror, I found Montrecour governor of the fortress. He
was a traitor to his unhappy king. The republic had offered him higher
distinctions than he could hope to obtain from the emigrant princes, and
he had embraced the offer. Betrothed to him in my childhood, according
to the foolish and fatal custom of our country, I was still in some
degree pledged to him. But now no human bond shall ever unite me to one
whom I doubly disdain as a traitor. Still, I am in his power. What is
there now to save me? I am at this moment in a prison!

"I hear the sounds of music and dancing on every side. The town is
illuminated for a victory which is said to have been gained this morning
over the troops of Poitou, advancing to the Loire. The stars are
glittering through my casement with all the brilliancy of a summer sky;
the breath of the fields flows sweetly in; laughing crowds are passing
through the streets; and here am I, alone, friendless, broken-hearted,
and dreading the dawn.----

"I spent the livelong night on my knees. Tears and prayers were my sole
comfort during those melancholy hours. But time rolls on. Montrecour has
just sent to tell me that my choice must be made by noon--the altar or
the guillotine. An escort is now preparing to convey prisoners to
Nantes, where the horrible Revolutionary Tribunal holds a perpetual
sitting; and I must follow them, or be his bride!--Never! I have given
my answer, and gladly I welcome my fate. I have solemnly bade farewell
to this world.----

"No! My tyrant is not so merciful. He has this moment sent to 'command'
(that is the word)--to command my presence in the church; as he is about
to march against the enemy, and he must be master of my hand before he
takes the field. The troops are already preparing for the march. I hear
the drums beating. But one short hour is given me to prepare. Would I
were dead!

"There are times when the soul longs to quit her tenement; when the
brain sees visions; when the heart feels bursting; when a thousand
weapons seem ready for the hand, and a voice of temptation urges to acts
of woe.--Marston, Marston, where are you at this hour?"

The letter fell from my hands. I had the whole scene before my eyes. And
where was I, while the one to whom every affection of my nature was
indissolubly bound, this creature of beauty, fondness, and magnanimity,
was wasting her life in sorrow, in captivity, in the bitterness of the
broken heart? If I could not reproach myself with having increased her
calamities, yet had I assuaged them; had I flown to her rescue; had I
protected her against the cruelties of fortune; had I defied, sword in
hand, the heartless and arrogant villain who had brought her into such
hopeless peril? Those thoughts rushed through my brain in torture, and
it was some time before I could resume the reading of the blotted lines
upon my table. I dreaded their next announcement. I shrank from the pang
of certainty. The next sentence might announce to me that Clotilde had
been compelled by force to a detested marriage;--I dared not hazard the
knowledge.

Yet the recollection, that I was blameless in her trials, at length
calmed me. I felt, that to protect her had been wholly out of my power,
from the day when she left Valenciennes; and, while I honoured the
decision and loftiness of spirit which had led to that self-denying
step, I could lay nothing to my charge but the misfortune of being
unable to convince her mind of the wisdom of disdaining the opinion of
the world. I took up the letter again.

"Another day has passed, of terror and anguish unspeakable. Yet it has
closed in thanksgiving. I have been respited.--I was forced from my
chamber. I was forced to the altar. I was forced to endure the sight of
Montrecour at my side. A revolutionary priest stood prepared to perform
the hateful ceremony. I resisted, I protested, I wept in vain. The
chapel was thronged with revolutionary soldiers, who, regarding me as an
aristocrat, were probably incapable of feeling any sympathy with my
sufferings. I was hopeless. But, during the delay produced by my
determination to die rather than yield, I could see confusion growing
among the spectators. I heard the hurried trampling of cavalry through
the streets. Drums and trumpets began to sound in all quarters. The
tumult evidently increased. I could perceive even in the stony features
of Montrecour, his perplexity at being detained from showing himself at
the head of the troops; and with senses wound to their utmost pitch by
the anxiety of the moment, I thought that I could perceive the distant
shouts of an immense multitude advancing to the walls. Aide-de-camp
after aide-de-camp now came hurrying in--each with a fresh summons to
the general. He alternately threatened, insulted, and implored me. But
no measure or entreaty on earth could make me consent. At length I heard
a heavy fire of cannon, followed by the shattering of houses and the
outcries of the people. The batteries of the town soon returned the
fire, and all was uproar. Montrecour, gnashing his teeth, and with the
look and fury of a fiend, now rushed towards me, and bore me to the feet
of the priest. I felt the light leaving my eyes, and hoped that I was
dying. At that moment a cannon-shot struck the roof, and dashed down a
large portion of its fragments on the floor. The priest and his
attendants, thinking that the whole fabric was falling, made their
escape. Montrecour, with an exclamation full of the bitterness of his
soul, flung me from him, and swearing that my respite should be brief,
darted from the chapel, followed by the soldiers. What words ever
uttered by human lips can tell the gratitude with which I saw myself
left alone, and knelt before the altar covered with ruins!----

"I am now on my way once more, I know not whither. The battle continued
during the day; and the sights and sounds were almost too much for the
human senses to bear. At night the Royalists stormed the outworks of the
fortress; and, to prevent our release on the capitulation, the prisoners
were sent away in the darkness. As our carriage passed the gates, I saw
Montrecour borne in, wounded. The spirit of the insulter was in him
still. He ordered the soldiers to bring his litter near me, and in a
voice faint through pain, but bitter with baffled revenge, he
murmured--'Countess, you shall not have long to indulge in your
caprices. My hurts are trifling. You are still in my power.'

"What a hideous desolation is war! We have just passed through one of
the forest villages, which, but a few days since, must have been
loveliness itself.--Vineyards, gardens, a bright stream, a rustic chapel
on a hill--every thing shaped for the delight of the eye! But a
desperate skirmish had occurred there between the retreating Republicans
and their pursuers, and all that man could ruin was ruined. The cottages
were all in ashes, the gardens trampled, the vineyards cut down for the
fires of the bivouac, the chapel was even smouldering still, and the
river exhibited some frightful remnants of what were once human beings.
Not a living soul was to be seen. A dog was stretched upon the ground,
tearing up with his paws what was probably the grave of his master. At
the sight of the escort, he howled and showed his teeth, in evident fury
at their approach; a dragoon fired his pistol at him--fortunately missed
him; and the dog bounded into the thicket. But when I looked back, I saw
him creep out again, and stretch himself howling upon the grave.

"I write these lines at long intervals, in fear, and only when the
escort are sleeping on their horses' necks, or eating their hurried
meals upon the grass.

"Last night the Royalist army crossed the Loire; and the firing was
continued until morning. The heights all seemed crowned with flame. The
forest in which we had stopped for the night was set on fire in the
conflict, and a large body of the Royalist cavalry skirmished with the
retreating Republicans till morning. It was a night of indescribable
terror; but my personal fears were forgotten in the sorrow for my
honoured and aged companion. She often fainted in my arms; and in this
wilderness, where every cottage is deserted, and where all is flight and
consternation even among the soldiery, what is to become of her? I gazed
upon her feeble frame and sinking countenance, with the certainty that
in a few hours all would be over. How rejoicingly would I share the
quiet of her tomb!"

My eyes filled, and my heart heaved, at a reality of wretchedness so
deep, that I could scarcely conceive it to have passed away. The paper
fell from my hands. My mind was in the forest. I saw the pursuit. The
firing rang in my ears; and in the midst of this shock of flying and
fighting men, I saw Clotilde wiping the dews of death from the brow of
her helpless relative.

The illusion was almost strengthened at this moment, by the flashing of
a strong and sudden light across the ceiling of the chamber, and the
trampling of a body of troops by torchlight, entering the Castle gates.
A squadron of dragoons had arrived, escorting a carriage. Even my glance
at the buildings of the Castle-square could scarcely recall me to the
truth of the locality; until an aide-de-camp knocked at my door, with a
request from the viceroy that I should see him as soon as possible.
Safely locking up my precious record, I followed him.

There was a ball on that night in the Castle, and our way to the private
apartments of his excellency leading through the state saloon, the whole
brilliant display struck upon my eyes at once. By what strange love of
contrast is it, that the human mind is never more open to the dazzling
effects of beauty, splendour, and gaiety than when it has been wrapt in
the profoundest sorrow? Are the confines of joy and anguish so close? Is
there but a hair's-breadth intervention of some invisible nerve, some
slender web of imagination, between mirth and melancholy? The Irish are
a handsome race, and none more enjoy, or are more fitted by nature or
temper, for all the ornamental displays of society; a Castle ball was
always a glittering exhilaration of lustre and beauty. But I had seen
all this before. To-night they mingled with the tenderness which the
perusal of Clotilde's letter had shed over all my feelings. As the dance
moved before my eye, as the music echoed round me, as I glanced on the
walls, filled with the memories of all the gallant and the great, whose
names lived in the native history of hundreds of years, I imagined the
woman with whom I had now connected all my hopes of happiness, moving in
the midst of that charmed circle, brilliant in all the distinctions of
her birth, admired for her accomplished loveliness, and yet giving me
the whole tribute of a noble heart, grateful for the devotion of all its
thoughts to her happiness. I involuntarily paused, and, leaning against
one of the gilded pillars of that stately hall, gave unrestrained way to
this waking dream.

My conference with the viceroy was soon concluded. The prisoner had
commanded a body of insurgents, who, after some partial successes, had
been broken and dispersed. The leader, in his desperate attempts to
rally them, had been severely wounded, and taken on the field. From the
papers found on his person, an important clue to the principal
personages and objects of the revolt was promised; and I proceeded to
the place of temporary detention to examine the prisoner. What an utter
breaking up of the vision which had so lately absorbed all my faculties!
What a contrast; was now before me to the pomps and pleasures of the
fete! On a table, in the guard-house, lay a human form, scarcely visible
by the single dim light which flickered over it from the roof. Some of
the dragoons, covered with the marks of long travel, and weary, were
lounging on the benches, or gazing on the unhappy countenance which lay,
as if in sleep or death, before them. A sabre wound had covered his
forehead with gore, which, almost concealing all his features, rendered
him a hideous spectacle. Even the troopers, though sufficiently
indignant at the very name of rebel, either respected the singular
boldness of his defence, or stood silenced by the appalling nature of
the sight. All hope of obtaining any information from him was given up;
he was evidently insensible, and all that I could do was done, in
placing him in the care of the medical practitioner in attendance on the
Household, and ordering that he should have every accommodation
consistent with his safe-keeping for the time.

I returned to my chamber, and was again lost in the outpourings of a pen
which had all the candour of a dying confession. Clotilde was again
murmuring in my ear those solemn thoughts, which she believed that she
was writing only to be trampled in the mazes of a French forest. Her
last words were--

"Marston, Marston, we shall never meet again! In my days of
wretchedness, I have sometimes wept over the resolution by which I tore
myself away from you. But every calmer thought has strengthened me in
the consciousness, that I could give no higher proof of the honour, the
homage, the fond and fervent affection, of my soul. I dared not be a
burden on your tenderness, or an obstacle to your natural distinction.
What could I, helpless, houseless, fortuneless, be but a weight upon
that buoyancy and ambition of eminence which marks superior natures for
the superior honours of life. I relinquished the first object of my
heart, and in that act I still take a melancholy pride. I showed you of
what sacrifices I am capable for your sake. But what sacrifice is too
vast for the heart of woman? Farewell! you will never see me more.

                              "CLOTILDE DE TOURVILLE."


During that night I found it impossible to rest; I continued alternately
reading those fragments, walking up and down my chamber, and gazing on
the skies. The cavalry torches still illumined the Castle-square; the
blaze from the windows of the ball-room still poured its steady radiance
on the gardens; and the pure serenity of a rising moon shone over all.
Captivity, luxury, and the calm glory of the heavens, were at once
before me. Feverish with pain and pleasure, pressed with the anxieties
of state, and filled with solemn and spiritualized contemplation, I
continued gazing from my casement until the torches and the lights of
the fete had decayed, and the moonbeams had grown pale before the first
flush of dawn. The sounds of life now came upon the cool air, and I was
again in the world.

The eventful day was come--the day which I had longed for with such
ceaseless impatience through years of trial--the day of which, among
scenes the most disturbing, the most perilous, and the most glittering,
I had never lost sight for a moment--the day which I had followed with a
fond and fixed eye, as the pilgrim gazes on the remote horizon where
stands the shrine he loves--it was come at last; and yet, such are the
strange varieties and trembling sensibilities of human feelings, I now
felt awed, uncertain, and almost alarmed, at its arrival. Before its
close, I was to see the being in whom my existence was involved. When I
had met Clotilde last, her sentiments for me were as devoted as were
those expressed in her letter; yet she had repelled my declarations,
sacrificed my happiness to a high-toned enthusiasm, and rejected all the
supplications of an honourable heart, under the promptings of a spirit
too noble to be called pride, yet with all the effect of the haughtiest
disdain.

Still the hour advanced, and I sent a note by her attendant, soliciting
an interview. Her hotel was within a short distance; yet no answer came.
I grew more and more reluctant to approach her without her direct
permission. There are thousands who will not comprehend this
nervousness, but they are still ignorant of the power of real passion.
True affection is the most timid thing in the world. At length, unable
to endure this fever of the soul, I determined to make the trial at
once, enter her presence, make a final declaration of all my hopes and
fears, and hear my fate once for all.

I was on the point of leaving my chamber for the purpose, when a message
from the viceroy stopped me. The prisoner whom I had seen brought in
during the night was to be examined before the privy council, and my
presence was essential. Fate, or fortune, seemed always to thwart me,
and I followed the messenger. The prisoner was led into the council-room
just as I entered; and at the first glance I recognised him as the
unhappy being whom I had so strangely met in the North, and whose
romance of rebellion had so deeply excited my interest. His features,
which, in the night, disfigured with dust and blood, I had been unable
to distinguish, now exhibited their original aspect, that cast of
mingled melancholy and daring which marked him at once as conscious of
the perils of his career, and resolved to encounter them to the
uttermost. His tribunal was formed of the first men of the country, and
they treated him with the dignity of justice. His conduct was suitable
to this treatment--calm, decided, and with more the manner of a
philosopher delivering deliberate opinions on the theory of government,
than of a desperate contemner of authority, and the head of a stern and
fierce conspiracy against the settled state of things. He cast his deep
and powerful glance round the council-board; as if to measure the
capacities of the men with whom he had once prepared himself to contend
for national supremacy; but I could not discover that he had any
recollection of me. I knew him well; and if ever painter or sculptor had
desired to fix in canvass or marble the ideal grandeur of magnificent
conspiracy, there stood its model. He spoke without the slightest
appearance of alarm, and spoke long and ably, in explanation of his
views; for he disdained all justification of them. He acknowledged their
total failure, but still contended for their original probability of
success, and for their natural necessity as the restoratives of Ireland.
He was listened to with the forbearance alike arising from compassion
for the fate he had thus chosen, and respect for the singular talent
which he displayed in this crisis of his fate. Man honours fortitude in
all its shapes. The criminal was almost forgotten in the eloquent
enthusiast; and while, with his deep and touching voice, and eager but
most expressive gesture, he poured out his glowing dreams, revelled in
brilliant impossibilities, and created scenes of national regeneration,
as high- as the glories of a tropical sunset; they suffered him
to take his full range, and develop the whole force of that vivid
imagination, whose flame alike lured him into the most dangerous paths
of political casualty, and blinded him to their palpable dangers. He
concluded by declaring a total contempt for life; pronouncing, that with
the loss of his political hopes it had lost its value, and making but
one request to the council, that, "since fortune had flung him into the
hands of their law, its vengeance might be done upon him with the least
possible delay."

He was now removed; and a feeling of regret and admiration followed his
removal. But his crime was undeniable, the disturbance of the public
mind was too serious to allow of any relaxation in the rigour of
justice; and I gave my unwilling signature to his final consignment to
the state prison.

I was now once again disengaged from the fetters of office; and,
resolved not to spend another day of suspense, I drove to the hotel. I
found it crowded with families which had fled from their houses in the
country in the first alarm of the insurrection; and in the midst of the
good-humoured but unmanageable tumults of a great household of Irish
strangers, was forced to make my own way at last. In passing along the
gallery, my eye was caught by a valise laid outside one of the parlours,
and corded, as for an immediate departure. It was marked with "La
Comtesse de Tourville." I knocked gently at the door. I was unanswered.
I touched it--it gave way, and I stood on the threshold. Before me, at a
table, sat a female figure writing, with her face turned from me, and
apparently so deeply engaged as not to have heard my entrance. But I
should have known her among a million. I pronounced her name. She
started up, in evident alarm at the intrusion. But in the next moment,
her pale countenance was flushed by nature's loveliest rose, and she
held forth her hand to me. All my fears vanished with that look and the
touch of that hand. All the language of earth would not have told me
half what they told at that moment. Of this I say no more. It was the
golden moment of my life; I make no attempt to describe our interview,
to describe the indescribable.

I returned to the Castle a new being. The burden which had weighed so
long upon my spirits was removed. The root of bitterness, which
continually sent up its noxious vegetation in the midst of the most
flattering hopes of my public existence, was now extirpated; I was
secure in the full confidence of one of the loveliest and the
noblest-hearted of human beings. And yet how narrowly had I escaped the
loss of all? Clotilde, hopeless of ever hearing of me more, had formed
the determination to leave Ireland on that day; and weary of
disappointed affections, and alienated from the world, to change her
name, abjure her rank, and take the veil in one of the Italian convents
connected with her family. I should thus have lost her for ever. She had
waited on this eventful day only for the return of her domestic. His
arrest on the night before had deranged her plans; and when he had
returned, his mixture of French verbiage and Irish raptures, his
guard-house terrors and his Castle feasting, formed a melange so
unintelligible, that she was compelled to believe him under the
influence of a spell--that spell which is supposed to inspire so much of
the wit and wisdom of one of the cleverest and most _bizarre_ regions of
a moonstruck world. Even my note only added to her perplexity. It was
given by Monsieur Hannibal with such a magniloquent description of the
palace in which he found me, and which he fully believed to be my
own--of the royal retinue surrounding my steps--of my staff of
glittering officers, and the battalions and brigades of my body-guard;
that while she smiled at his narrative, she was perfectly convinced of
his derangement. But all this had luckily produced delay; and the hour
came when her past anxieties were to be exchanged for the faith and
fondness of one who knew her infinite value, and was determined to
devote his life to embellishing and cheering every hour of her
existence.

We were married; and I had the delight and honour of introducing
Clotilde into a circle of rank and lustre equal to the highest of her
native country. The monarchy of France was long since in the tomb; its
nobility were wanderers over the face of the earth. The fortunes, the
hopes, the honours, all but the name of her distinguished family, had
gone down in the general wreck. But now was given to me the joyous duty
of replacing, by the purest and fondest of all rights, all that the
chances of the world had taken away. I thought her countenance lovelier
than ever. It exhibited some slight evidence of the deep and exhausting
trials which she had so long endured; it was pale, yet the paleness
reminded me of the exquisite hue of some of those fine sculptures which
the Italian chisel has given for the admiration of mankind. Its
expression, too, had assumed a loftier character than even when its
first glance struck my young imagination. It had shared something of the
elevation of a mind noble by nature, but rendered still loftier and more
intellectual by being thrown on its own resources. Yet all this was for
society. Her courtly air, inherited from an ancestry of princes; her
manners, which retained the piquant animation of her own country,
combined with the graver elegance of high life in ours; that
incomparable taste in dress, which seems the inheritance of French
beauty; and the sparkling happiness of language, scarcely less the gift
of her native soil, made her conspicuous from the first moment of her
introduction to the circle of the Castle.

But it was in our quiet and lonely hours that I saw the still more
captivating aspects of her nature; when neither the splendid Countess de
Tourville, nor the woman of brilliant conversation was before me, but an
innocent and loving girl--no Armida, no dazzling mistress of the spells
which intoxicate the heart by bewildering the mind; but a sweet and
guileless creature in the first bloom of being, full of nature, full of
simplicity, full of truth. How often, in those days of calm delight,
have I seen her fine eyes suddenly fill with tears of thankful joy, her
cheek glow with fond gratitude, her heart labour with the unutterable
language of secure and sacred love! What hours can be placed in
comparison with such hours of wedded confidence! It was then that I
first became acquainted with the nature of the female heart. I then
first knew the treasures which the spirit of woman may contain--the hope
against hope, the generous faith, the unfailing constancy, the deep
affection. How often, when glancing round our superb apartments, crowded
with all the glittering and costly equipment of almost royal life, she
would clasp my hand, and touchingly contrast them with the solitude of
the cell, or the anxieties of the life of trial "from which I alone had
rescued her!" How often, when we sat together, uninterrupted by the
world, at our sumptuous table, would she, half sportively and half in
melancholy, contrast it with the life of flight and fear which she had
so lately led, with the rude repast snatched in forests and swamps, in
the midst of civil war, with desolation round her and despair in
prospect, imprisoned, in the power of a tyrant, and, at every step,
approaching nearer to the place of a cruel death! Then a look would
thank me more than all the eloquence in the world. Then I saw her eyes
brighten, and her cheek bloom with new lustre and beauty unknown before,
until I could have almost fallen at her feet and worshipped. I felt the
whole supremacy of woman, with the whole homage of the heart of man.

A change in the British cabinet, by the death of one of its leading
members, now produced a change in the viceroyalty; and the charge of the
government, during the interregnum, necessarily devolved on the
secretary. I never felt business more irksome than at this juncture, and
I had, more than once, grave thoughts of casting aside the staff of
office in spite of all its gilding, withdrawing from the disturbances of
public life, and, with Clotilde at my side, finding some quiet corner of
England, or the earth, where we might sit under our own vine and our own
fig-tree, and forget revolutions and court-days for the rest of our
lives.

But against this my young and lovely partner protested, with all the
spirit of her ancestry; declaring that, though nothing would give her
more unfeigned delight than to quit courts and cities, and fashion and
fetes, for ever, if I quitted them along with her--she could not endure
the thought of my allowing "the talents which nature had given to me,
and the opportunities which had been so liberally offered by fortune,"
to perish useless to the world. I had no answer to offer but that I had
made her the arbitress of my fate, and she was welcome to do with me as
was her sovereign will. Accordingly I left her, looking like Hebe in her
bower, to plunge into a chaos of undecipherable papers, to be deafened
with a thousand impossible applications, to marshal lazy departments, to
reform antiquated abuses, and, after spending twelve hours a-day in the
dust and gloom of official duty, to spend nearly as many hours of the
night battling with arrogant and angry faction in the House of Commons.

But this toil, like most other toils, had its fruits; it gave me an
extraordinary increase of public influence, and that influence produced,
in the natural course of such things, an extraordinary crop of
adherents. If I could have drunk adulation, no man was in more imminent
hazard of mystifying his own brains. I began to be spoken of as one
equal to the highest affairs of the state, and to whom the viceroyalty
itself lay naturally open. But I still longed for a return to England.
Delighted as I was with the grace of the higher ranks, amused with the
perpetual whim and eccentricity of the lower, and feeling that general
attachment to Ireland which every man not disqualified by loss of
character must feel, my proper position was in that country where my
connexions, my companionships, and my habits, had been formed. A new
viceroy was announced; and I solicited my recall. But I had still one
remarkable duty to undergo.

The northern insurrection had sunk, and sunk with a rapidity still more
unexpected than the suddenness of its rise. The capture of its leader
was a blow at the heart, and it lost all power at the instant. In the
Castle all was self-congratulation, and the officials talked of the
revolt with as much scorn as if there existed no elements of discord in
the land. But I was not quite so easily inclined to regard all things
through the skirts of the rainbow which had succeeded the storm; however
unwilling to check the national exultation among a people who are as
fond of painting the world _couleur de rose_ as the French; laugh as
much, and enjoy their laugh much more--my communications with England
constantly warned ministers of the hazard of new insurrections, on a
broader, deeper, and more desolating scale. Even my brief tour of the
island had shown me, that there were materials of wilder inflammability
in the bosom of the south than in the north. The northern revolt was
like the burning of a house--the whole was before the eye, the danger
might be measured at a glance, the means of extinction might operate
upon it in their full power, and when the materials of the house were in
ashes, the conflagration died. But the southern insurrection was the
burning of a coalmine--a fire ravaging where human skill could scarcely
gain access, kindled among stores of combustion scarcely to be
calculated by human experience, growing fiercer the deeper it
descended, and at every new burst undermining the land, and threatening
to carry down into its gulfs all that was stately or venerable on the
surface of the soil.

I continued to represent that the north had revolted only on theories of
government, metaphysical reveries, pamphleteering abstractions--food too
thin to nurture the fierce firmness by which conspiracy is to be carried
forward into triumph; while the south pondered on real or fancied
injuries, which wounded the pride of every peasant within its
borders.--That the one took up arms for republicanism, the feeblest of
all temptations to national resistance; while the other brooded over a
sense of wrong, in visions of revenge for hereditary rights, and the
hopes of restoring the fallen supremacy of its religion--motives, in
every age, the most absorbing among the wild impulses of man. I
repeatedly warned the Irish cabinet against an outbreak, which, if it
succeeded, must convulse the empire; and which, even if it failed, must
cost the heaviest sacrifices to the country. My advice was answered by
professions of perfect security, and magnanimous declarations of the
wisdom of extinguishing peril by exhibiting the absence of fear! My part
was now done, and I was thenceforth to be only a spectator. But the
course of things was not to be controlled by the confidence of cabinets.
The sun went down, notwithstanding the government conviction that it
would shine through the whole twenty-four hours; the political night
came, as regularly as the night of nature, and with it came the march of
tens of thousands of political lunatics, as brave as lions, though as
incapable of discipline. My prediction was formidably fulfilled: the
firebrand and the pike ravaged the land; blood flowed in torrents; and
when the country returned to its senses, and the light of common sense
once more dawned, ministers and people alike had only the melancholy
office of burying the common offences in that great resting-place where
the faults of the past generation are marked by tombs, and where the
wisdom of the future is to be learned only from inscriptions recording
the frailty of all that lived before.

The conspiracy which it had fallen to my lot to extinguish had been
brief and local. The half-Scottish population among whom it broke out,
were among the most sharp-witted and well-informed subjects of the
empire; and they had no sooner made the discovery, that government was
awake, than they felt the folly of attempting to encounter the gigantic
strength of the monarchy, and postponed their republican dreams to a
"fitter season." The time now approached when the leader of the Northern
insurrection was to be brought to trial; and hostile as I was to the
effects of his enthusiasm, I took no trivial interest in the individual.
Still, to set him at liberty was palpably impossible; and my only
resource was, to give him such aid in this extremity of his career as
could be given by lightening the severities of his prison, and providing
him with the means of securing able counsel. I had now an opportunity of
seeing, for the first time, the genius of this singular people displayed
under a new and brilliant form--the eloquence of the bar.

In England the Bar holds a high rank; from its essential value to the
maintenance of public right in a country, where every possession,
property, and principle of man comes continually in the shape of a
question of right, and where the true supremacy is in the law. But in
Ireland, the spirit of the nation compensated for the deficiency of
power in the law; and the bar was, _par excellence_, the profession of
the gentleman. This gave it the highest tone of personal manners. But it
had another incentive, still more characteristic. The House of Commons
was in the closest connexion with the bar. It was scarcely more than a
higher bar. All the principal men of that House had either been educated
for the profession, or were actually practising barristers; and as the
distinctions of the senate were more dazzling, as well as more rapidly
attainable, than those of the law, the force of the profession was
thrown into parliamentary life. The result was, a reflected influence on
both; the learning of the bar invigorating the logic of the debates, the
eloquence of the debates enriching and elevating the eloquence of the
courts of law. At this period the Courts abounded with eloquent men, who
would have been distinguished at any tribunal on earth; but, while some
might exhibit keener argument, and others more profound learning, the
palm of forensic eloquence was universally conceded to one. Need I
pronounce the name of Curran? Take him for all in all, he was the most
extraordinary example of natural faculties that I have ever known. All
the chief orators of that proud day of oratory had owed much to study,
much to circumstances, and much to the stimulus of great topics, a great
cause, and a great theatre for their display. When Burke spoke, he had
the world for his hearers.--He stood balancing the fates of empires; his
voice reached to the bosom of all the cabinets of civilized nations; and
with the office of a prophet, he almost inevitably adopted the majestic
language, and seized the awful and magnificent views of the prophet.
This is no depreciation of the powers of that immortal mind; for what
can be a higher praise than that, with the largest sphere of duty before
him perhaps ever opened to man, he was found equal to the fullness of
his glorious task? Sheridan, too, was awakened to a consciousness of his
own powers by the national voice raised against Indian delinquencies. He
had a subject teeming with the loftiest materials of oratory--the
sufferings of princes, the mysteries of Oriental superstition, the wild
horrors of barbaric tyranny, the fall of thrones, once dazzling the eye
and the mind with all the splendours of Oriental empire; himself the
chosen pleader for India, in the presence of the assembled rank,
dignity, and authority of England. There can be no question of the
genius which showed itself competent to so illustrious a labour. But the
materials were boundless; the occasion was a summons to all the energies
of the human intellect; never was the draught of human praise, the spell
of that enchantress which holds the spirit of men in most undisputed
sway, presented to the lip in a more jewelled goblet.

But Curran spoke almost wholly deprived of those resistless stimulants;
his topics were comparatively trivial--the guilt of provincial
conspiracy, incurred by men chiefly in the humbler ranks of life, and in
all instances obscure. No great principles of national right were to
live or die upon the success of his pleading; no distressed nation held
him as its advocate; no impregnable barrier against oppression in Europe
or Asia was to be inscribed with his name. He was simply the advocate in
the narrow courts of a dependent kingdom--humiliated by the hopeless
effort to rescue a succession of unfortunate beings whose lives were in
the grasp of justice--compressed on every side by localities of time,
habit, and opinion; and thwarted alike by the clamour of prejudice and
the frowns of authority. Yet his speeches at the bar are matchless, to
this hour. His creative powers seemed to rejoice in the very emptiness
of the space which they were to fill with life, lustre, and beauty. Of
all the great speakers, his images arose from the simplest conceptions;
while they rapidly wrought themselves into magnitude and splendour. They
reminded me of the vapours rising from the morning field--thin, vague,
and colourless, but suddenly seized by the wind, swelling into volume,
and ascending till they caught the sunbeams, and shone with the purple
and gold of the summer cloud. This trial of the unfortunate rebel leader
gave him a signal opportunity for the exertion of his extraordinary
faculties. It had excited the deepest interest throughout the country.
Thousands had flocked from all parts of the land to be present at a
crisis which involved the national feelings in the highest degree; which
involved the personal safety of individuals, perhaps of a much superior
rank to the accused; and, above all, which seemed to fix the stamp of
public justice on the guilt or impunity of opinions long cherished by
the mind of Ireland. As the day of the trial approached, physiognomies
were seen in the streets, which showed that individuals were brought
together by the event who had never been seen in the metropolis before.
The stern, hard, but sagacious countenances of the north contrasted with
the broad, open, and bold features of the south; and those again
contrasted with the long, dark, and expressive visages of the west,
which still give indelible evidence of their Spanish origin. Many of
those men who now filled the busy thoroughfares of the capital, had come
from the remotest corners of Ireland, as if to stand their own trial.
The prisoner at the bar was their representative; his cause was their
cause; his judgment the decision of the tribunal on their principles;
his fate an anticipation of their own.

As I pressed on to the noble building where the trial was to take
place--one of the stateliest examples of architectural grace and dignity
in a city distinguished for the beauty of its public buildings--it was
impossible to avoid being struck with the general look of popular
restlessness. The precaution of government had called in a large
military force to protect the general tranquillity, and the patrols of
cavalry and the frequent passing of troops to their posts, created a
perpetual movement in the streets. The populace gathered in groups,
which, rapidly dissolving at the approach of the soldiery, as rapidly
assembled again, when they had passed by; street minstrels of the most
humble description were plying their trade with a remorseless exertion
of lungs; I heard the names of the Parliamentary leaders and the
government frequently transpiring in those rough specimens of the
popular taste; and from the alternate roars of fierce laughter and
bursts of wild indignation which arose from the groups, it was evident
that "men and measures" were not spared. The aspect of the multitude in
the vicinity of the Law Courts was still more disturbed. Rebellion has a
physiognomy of its own, and I had by this time learned to read it with
tolerable fidelity to nature. It always struck me as of a wholly
different character from that of the vice or the violence of the people.
It wears a thoughtful air; the lips seem to have a secret enclosed, the
eye is lowering, the step unsteady, the man exhibits a consciousness of
danger from the glance or tread of every passer-by. His visage is
sullen, stern, and meditative--I can scarcely allow this conception to
be a work of fancy, for I have never been deceived in my readings of
that most expressive of all betrayers of the inner man. And on this day,
I could have predicted the preparation for some general and reckless
rising against government, on the first opportunity when it should be
found slumbering on its post: and my prediction would have been true.

The court was crowded, and it was with no small difficulty that I was
enabled to reach the seat beside the judge, which had been provided for
me. The arraignment and preparatory routine of the trial gave time for
the court to subside into order; and the address of the principal
law-officer for the prosecution, though exciting the deepest anxiety,
was listened to in the most respectful silence. The case was strong, and
was ably dealt with by the attorney-general. The evidence was clear and
complete, and the hope of an acquittal seemed to be gradually abandoned
in the expressive gloom of the spectators. The prisoner at the bar, too,
seemed more dejected than I had presumed from his former intrepidity;
and the few glances which I could suffer myself to give to a being in
his calamitous condition, showed me a frequent writhing of the lip, a
clenching of the teeth, and a nervous contraction of the features, which
looked like despair. At length the counsel for the defence rose. It was
the first instance of my seeing the memorable Curran engaged in his
profession. I had met him from time to time in general society, and felt
the delight which all experienced in his unfailing spirits and brilliant
pleasantry. I had hitherto enjoyed him as the wit. I was now to be
dazzled, delighted, and overwhelmed by him as the orator.

Curran was the last man to be judged of by appearances. Nature had been
singularly unkind to his exterior, as if the more to astonish us by the
powers of the man within. His figure was undersized, his visage brown,
hard, and peasantlike, his gesture was a gesticulation, and his voice
was alternately feeble and shrill. His whole effect was to be derived
from means, with which that little meagre frame and sharp treble had
nothing to do. But he had a singularly vivid eye. It was of the deepest
black, and such was the intensity of its expression in his more
impassioned moments, that it was scarcely an exaggeration to say that it
shot fire. Still, a stranger would have regarded him chiefly as a
humorist, from the glances of sly sarcasm, and even of open ridicule
which he cast round the court during the pleadings of some of his
"learned brethren." But, in that court his true faculties were known;
and the moment of his rising, careless as was his attitude, and listless
the look which he gave as he turned from his brief to the jury, was the
signal for universal silence, and the fixing of every eye upon the great
pleader.

He began by sweeping away the heap of useless facts and forensic
prolixities with which his predecessors had encumbered the case; and
nothing could be more admirable than the dexterity with which he seized
on the most casual circumstances tending to clear the character of the
accused. But it was when he arrived at higher topics that he displayed
his genius.

"_Nunc in ovilia, mox in reluctantes dracones._" It was when, from
developing the ignorance and contradictions of the informer by whom the
charge of conspiracy was sustained, he rushed to the attack on the
general system of the Irish government, that I saw him in full vigour.
He denounced it as the source of all the tumults which had of late years
shaken the "isle from its propriety." "Here was the fount," said he,
"from which flowed the waters of bitterness, not the less bitter that I
can trace its wanderings through centuries of national desolation,
through fields of blood, through the graves of generations." After
giving the most daring outline of what he termed the evils of the local
sovereignty of Ireland, he surprised me into sudden acquiescence and
involuntary admiration, by a panegyric on the principles of British
government in the more favoured island--on "the majestic supremacy of
the law, extending over all things, sustaining all things, administering
life and health and purity to all; a moral atmosphere, and though
invisible, like the physical, yet irresistible in its strength,
penetrating through the whole national existence, and carrying on
undisturbed and perpetual, in the day and night of empire, all the great
processes of national animation and prosperity." Then, suddenly darting
away from this lofty and solemn view, he indulged in some wild story of
native humour, which convulsed the whole audience with laughter. Yet,
before the burst had subsided, he touched another string of that harp
which so magically responded to the master's hand. He described the long
career of calamity through which an individual born with a glowing
heart, brilliant faculties, and an aspiring spirit, must struggle, in a
country filled with the pride of independence, and yet for ages in the
condition of a province. Some part of his pathos in this sketch was
probably borrowed from his own early difficulties; and I heard, poured
out with the touching vehemence of painful reality, probably the very
meditations which had preyed upon the heart of the student in his
chamber, or darkened his melancholy walks in the cloisters of the
Temple. But he suddenly started on a new train of thought; and
reprobated with the loftiest rebuke, that state of the law which, while
it required two witnesses for the proof of treason in England, was
content with one in Ireland. This he branded with every name of
indignant vituperation, frequently adopted, according to his habit, from
the most familiar conceptions; yet, by their familiarity, striking the
mind with astonishing force. He called it "playing at pushpin with the
lives of men"--"the reading-made-easy of judicial murder"--"the 'rule of
three' of forensic assassination;--given, a villain, multiplied by a
false oath, the product, an execution!" He now revelled in the boldest
extravagances of imagery and language, expressions which, written, might
resemble the burlesque of a public jester, or the wildness of a
disturbed mind, but which were followed by the audience, whom he had
heated up to the point of passion, with all but acclamation. Still he
revelled on. His contrasts and comparisons continued to roll out upon
each other. Some noble, some grotesque, but all effective. After one
dazzling excursion into the native history, in which he contrasted the
aboriginal hospitality and rude magnificence of the old Irish chieftain,
the Tir-Owen or O'Nial, with the chilling halls of the modern absentee;
he suddenly changed his tone, and wandered away into a round of
fantastic, and almost frolicsome pleasantries, which shook even the
gravity of the bench. Then, suddenly checking himself, and drawing his
hand across his brow to wipe away a tear--for even the hard-headed
lawyer was not always on his guard against the feeling of the moment--he
upbraided himself, and the bystanders, for the weakness of being
attracted by any lighter conception, while the calamities of Ireland
were demanding all their sympathies. And even this he did in his
characteristic manner. "Alas!" said he, in a voice which seemed sinking
with a sense of misfortune, "why do _I_ jest? and why do _you_ smile?
Or, are we for ever to be the victims of our national propensity, to be
led away by trivialties? We tickle ourselves with straws, when we should
be arming for the great contests of national minds. We are ready to be
amused with the twang of the Jew's harp, when we should be yearning for
the blast of the trumpet. You remind me, and I remind myself, of the
scene at one of our country-wakes. It is the true portrait of our
fruitless mixture of levity and sorrow. We come to mourn, and we are
turned to merriment by the first jest. We sit under the roof of death,
yet we are as ready to laugh as ever. The corpse of Ireland is before
our eyes: we fling a few flowers over its shroud, and then we eat,
drink, and are merry. Must it be for ever pronounced--that we are a
frivolous and fickle race--that the Irishman remains a voluntary beggar,
with all the bounties of nature round him; unknown to fame, with genius
flashing from his eyes; humiliated, with all the armoury of law and
liberty open to his hands; and laughing, laughing on, when the only echo
is from the chambers of the grave?"

The orator dropped his head on his clasped hands as he spoke the words;
and there was an universal silence for a while. It was interrupted by a
groan of agony from the prisoner. All eyes were instantly turned to the
dock, and the spectacle there was startling. He seemed writhing under
intolerable torture. His hands clung eagerly to the front of the dock,
as if to sustain him; his lips were as colourless clay, but his features
and forehead were of the most feverish crimson. At first the general
impression was, that he had been overcome by a sense of his perilous
state; but it was soon evident that his pangs were more physical than
moral. Curran now flung his brief upon the table, and hurried to his
side. A few words passed between them, inaudible to the court; but they
had the unexpected effect of apparently restoring the sufferer to
complete tranquillity. He again stood erect; his brow, and it was a
noble one, resumed its marble smoothness; his features grew calm, and
his whole aspect returned to the stern and moveless melancholy of an
antique statue.

The advocate went back to his place, and commenced a singularly
dexterous attempt to avert the sentence, by an appeal to the national
feelings. "If," said he, "my client had been charged with any of those
crimes which effect their object by individual injury, I should disdain
to offer a defence, which could be accomplished only by confounding the
principles of right and wrong. But here is an instance in which the
noblest mind might err, in which the highest sagacity might be
perplexed, in which the most self-denying virtue might discover nothing
but a voluntary sacrifice." The problem before his client was "the
proudest that had ever occupied the mind of ancient or modern times. It
was, by what means a patriot might raise his country to the highest
possible elevation. What are the essentials for such a purpose?
Intrepidity, independence of heart, the steadiest perseverance, the
manliest fortitude; all the great qualities of the head and the heart.
Those are the tributes which he must bring to the altar of his country.
But the priest must be prepared himself to be the sacrifice. Is it the
hands of his countrymen that are to bind him to the horns of the altar?"

A sense of this hazardous line of observations, however, soon struck the
keen understanding of the great pleader; and he admitted in all its
fulness the necessity of respecting public tranquillity, of
relinquishing doubtful projects of good, and of studying the prosperity
of a nation, rather through the "microscope of experience" than by
"vague, though splendid, telescopic glances" at times and things beyond
our power. "The man," said he, "who discovers the cause of blight in an
ear of corn, is a greater benefactor to the world than the man who
discovers a new fixed star." From the glow on his countenance, and the
sudden brightness of his eye, I could see that he was about to throw
himself loose on some new current of rich and rapid illustration, when
he was suddenly stopped by a shriek from the dock; the prisoner had
fallen with his head over its front, and seemed gasping in the last
pangs. The drops of torture stood thick on his brow, his eye was glazed,
and his lips continued to quiver, without the power of utterance. The
advocate approached him; the dying man caught him by the hand; and, as
if the touch had restored his faculties at the instant, said, with a
faint smile, and in a low tone, yet so clear as to be audible to the
whole assembly, in the words of Pierre--"We have deceived the senate!"
In the utterance he fell back and died. To escape the ignominy of the
scaffold, the unhappy man, before he came into court, had swallowed
poison!

I speak of Curran, only as I see him through the lapse of years. Time
has had no other effect on my recollection, than raising my estimate of
his genius. I admit, too, that in judging of an extraordinary man, time
may exalt the image as well as confuse the likeness. The haze of years
may magnify all the nobler outlines, while it conceals all that would
enfeeble their dignity. To me, his eloquence now resembles those
midsummer night dreams, in which all is contrast, and all is magical.
Shapes, diminutive and grotesque for a moment, and then suddenly
expanding into majesty and beauty; solitudes startling the eye with
hopeless dreariness, and at a glance converted into the luxury of
landscape, and filled with bowers of perpetual spring. The power of his
contrasts still haunts me; Aladdin's palace, starting from the sands,
was not more sudden, fantastic, or glittering. Where all seemed barren,
and where a thousand other minds would have traversed the waste a
thousand times, and left it as wild and unpeopled as ever; no sooner had
he spoken the spell, than up sprang the brilliant fabric of fancy, the
field was bright with fairy pomp, and the air was filled with genii on
the wing.

Next morning, I was on my road to London.




LEBRUN'S LAWSUIT.


In France, even before the Revolution, less regard was paid to the
decisions of a court of law, than to public opinion. That tyrant of our
modern days had already seized the throne, and his legitimate authority
and divine right were never doubted by the most anti-monarchical of the
sons of liberty. The only check on the insolence of the noblesse, and
the only compensation for the venality of the judges, was found in a
recourse to the printer. A marquis was made to imitate the manners of a
gentleman by fear of an epigram; a defeated party in a lawsuit consoled
himself by satirizing the court; and from Voltaire down to Palissot, all
the people who could write, and could borrow ink and paper, had pen in
hand, ready to appeal from prejudiced juries, overbearing nobles, or
even _lettres de cachet_ and the Bastile itself, to the reading,
talking, gossiping, laughing, quick-witted, cold-hearted citizens of
Paris. The consequence was that the whole city was overrun with
pamphlets. Ministers of state, marshals, and princes of the blood, were
as busy as any Grub-street garretteer. Literary squabbles employed the
lifetime of all the literary men--and some of them, indeed, are only
known by their squibs and lampoons on their more popular brethren. But
so great at last seems to have been the rage for calling in the public,
that it was not even expelled from the consulting chambers of counsel
learned in the law. If a case came before an advocate that gave any
scope for his talents as a pamphleteer, his opinion immediately took the
shape of a little _historiette_, and in a few days was in print. The
attorney was no less literary in getting up his brief; and innumerable
were the sage labours of _avocats_ and _procureurs_ which rushed into
type before the trial was over, and did duty, very much to the reader's
satisfaction, as a tale of fashionable life. In fact, a very amusing
collection might be made, of the memorials of counsel which appeared in
Paris about the middle of last century. The writings, for instance,
which secured the fame of witty Beaumarchais among the gossips of the
capital, were not the _Barber of Seville_, or his comedies, but the
briefs which he composed in his lawsuit with the Goezmans and the Sieur
Bertrand. All the laughers were on his side; and though he was beat in
the trial, his triumph was complete; for it was not in the nature of
Parisian public opinion to believe a man guilty who was so prodigal of
bon-mots; or that the opposite party had right or justice on their side,
whose pleadings were as uninteresting as a sermon. But Beaumarchais was
not the only author who owed his notoriety to his legal proceedings. One
of the great lyric poets of France, who is placed by his countrymen upon
the same level as Pindar--Denis Leonchard Lebrun--was the town-talk for
several years, during his action against his wife for the restitution of
conjugal rights. And as his _Memoire_, or pleading, gives a view of
French life at the period, (1774,) of a grade in society omitted in the
_Memoires_ and _Souvenirs_ of dukes and princesses, we propose to give
some account of it, and also of the hero of the process, whose strange
eventful history was not drawn to a close till 1807. He was born in
1729, in the house of the Prince de Conti, in whose service his father
was. His talents soon recommended him to the notice of the prince; and,
before he was thirty, he had established his reputation as a poet of the
first order by an ode on the earthquake at Lisbon. Acknowledged as a man
of genius, and feared as a man of wit--for his epigrams were even more
celebrated than his lyrics--and placed in easy circumstances by the
kindness of his master, who bestowed on him the title and salary of his
"Secretaire des Commandemens," nothing seemed wanting to his felicity
but a wife to share his glory; and, accordingly, in the year 1760, he
married. If we believe his own account, he was the happiest of Benedicts
for fourteen years; but all of a sudden, without warning, without
reason, and (though she was a poetess) without even rhyme, his
household gods were broken, and all his happiness engulfed. It was a
second edition of the Lisbon earthquake. The opposite party denied the
fourteen years' felicity, and talked wonderful things about cuffs and
kicks bestowed on the spouse--and maledictions of more force than
elegance; but both sides agree that the matter came to a crisis when a
certain Sieur Grimod--a sort of Cicisbeo--Platonic of course--was
requested to leave the house, and discontinue his visits to Madame
Lebrun. This simple proceeding let loose all the winds of heaven; poor
Lebrun was pounced upon by the whole female sex. Even his old mother
turned against him; even his sister, a sour vestal of thirty-seven,
sided with her injured sister-in-law; and what had the wretched poet to
say for himself? He suspected nothing improper--a good easy man--he
adored his "Fanny"--he wanted her to come back--but that horrid fellow
Grimod!--he would not have Grimod within his door. So Fanny would not go
within it either; and off to the _avocat_ rushed Lebrun, to force her to
come back by legal process; and off went Madame, accompanied of course
by the Sieur Grimod, to _her avocat_, to resist the demand; and then
followed paper upon paper--love, regrets, promisings, courtings, on one
side; hatred, defiance, and foul names, _ad libitum_, on the other. And,
finally, the whole case was put into a _Memoire_, with the help of
Monsieur Hardoin de la Regnerie, _avocat_; and every tea-table--but
there was no tea in those days--every card-table in Paris was as well
able to decide the cause as the Parliament itself.

The _Memoire_ commences with some general reflections on the advantages
possessed by a pretty woman, in all cases of a quarrel with a man. And
when, in addition to her prettiness, she has the art to appear ill-used,
there is no resisting her attacks. A halo of sympathy gathers round her,
while a cloud envelopes the unfortunate antagonist; and people at last
think that they are performing an act of pure and disinterested justice,
when they kick him into the Seine. Impressed with this disagreeable
conviction, (from which we gather that Madame Lebrun was a handsome
woman, while the husband was nothing to boast of--at all events compared
to the Sieur Grimod,) he hurries on to the facts--and they rather alter
the appearance of affairs.

It was in the year 1760, as we have said, that the Sieur Lebrun married
the Demoiselle de Surcourt. Interest and ambition had nothing to do with
the match. Love was the only fastener of the bond. The Sieur Lebrun and
the Demoiselle de Surcourt had been acquainted--had been lovers--for
three years. And that passion, born of a sympathy of tastes and
sentiments, had grown in mystery--a secret correspondence was its
aliment and interpreter--a delicious correspondence--where the
Demoiselle de Surcourt knew how to combine the sallies of imagination
with the soft outpourings of the soul, or the burning expressions of her
love! Pardon the Sieur Lebrun if he transcribes a few passages from her
letters; Madame Lebrun, above all, ought to excuse him. It is not
betraying her secrets; it is recalling her to herself, and to a
sentiment she would never have forsworn, if she had been allowed to
follow the dictates of her heart:--

    "From my bed, this Tuesday evening.

"If it is flattering to be loved by those we love, it is still more so
when the loved object is you, my dear Misis. 'Twould make me vain to
think I pleased you really as much as you say I do; but I feel my
happiness too truly to give way to pride on account of it. Is it true,
then, that you think of me, and prefer my remembrance to the gaieties of
society? Ah! why am I not in the room where you remain for my sake? You
make me wish more--I wish I could be with you wherever you think of me.
You are right in saying our hearts are made for one another; they have
the same sentiments, they burn with the same fires. That charming
harmony is the work of love; but nature had created a sympathy between
them that seems to tell us they were made to love and to be united. Yes,
my dear Misis, they must love for ever; but in the mean time will you
consent to languish in absence and constraint? I would not remind you
of your unhappiness, since you have interdicted me from the subject, if
you did not complain yourself; and your complaints make me wretched.
They reveal to me your sufferings, and awaken all my affection. Do you
think, if I had an opportunity of seeing you, that I would not seize it?
Ah! you ought to feel assured of all I would do for you if I had it in
my power. But we can't help hoping what we desire so much. Reproach me,
therefore, no more; tell me rather again that you are convinced of my
affection, and promise to love me all your life. I ought to be sure of
it already; but every time you reproach me, I make you repeat the
promise by way of expiating your fault. Good-night, my dear Misis; I
hope you will think of me in your dreams. Why must I say good-night so
far from you?"

Of the same period is the following:--

    "From my bed, this Wednesday night.

"What! you scold me in sober truth! You write me a scrap of a letter--in
the coldest, gravest style. Yes--you were sad--I see you were. Do you
fancy that the lecture you gave me makes up for my grief at losing you?
Ah! if I had not recalled your eyes glowing with love, and all our
mutual endearments, I should have been angry with you. How strange that
your very recollection pleads your excuse! Whatever may be your fault,
you have but to show yourself to be forgiven. But do not presume, upon
this confession, to add to your faults. Alas! if ever you deserve a
punishment, its bitterness will all belong to me. Fortune befriended us
when last we met; but don't you find time pass too quickly when we are
together? I have always a thousand things to say to you; it is not,
perhaps, the shortness of the time--it is, that the more I say to you
the more I wish to say. In the same way, the more kisses I give you, the
more I wish to give; all the feelings you inspire are in extremes. How
you ought to love me if you wish your tenderness to equal mine! And
since it is always on the increase, how cruel that we can never give way
to the sentiments we feel, and express them to each other! What pleasure
we are deprived of, dear Misis! why are you not beside the couch where I
am now writing? Our silence alone would be more eloquent than all our
letters. The kisses I would give you would no longer be in dreams,
though my happiness would perhaps make me think it one. Adieu! the more
I think of it, the more I feel the misery of being separated from you.
It is near one o'clock. Are you in bed yet? Think of me!"

This secret correspondence lasted for three years; but, at last, a
letter was opened by a servant, and the secret was discovered by the
Sieur de la Motte, who passed for the Demoiselle de Surcourt's uncle,
and with whom she lived. The Sieur Lebrun had but to whisper marriage,
and all would have been arranged. Under other circumstances the word
would have been easy--but there was a bar between them: the Demoiselle
de Surcourt was of illegitimate birth. Love, however, laughed at the
obstruction. The Sieur Lebrun hurried to the house of De la Motte;
demanded the hand of the lady he loved; and the Demoiselle de Surcourt
became his wife. The marriage contract will prove his disinterestedness.
The portion he obtained was small; consisting but of eighteen hundred
francs a-year. The Sieur Lebrun, secretary of the domains of the Prince
de Conti, with two thousand livres a-year, might have looked higher--at
all events he might have bargained for a settlement in his favour; but,
so far from that, he made no claim upon her fortune, but settled all he
had upon her. Is this the man whom Madame Lebrun accuses of having
married her from interested motives?

Alas, sometimes, for the marriages which have been preceded by too
violent a love!--illusion gives place to sad reality. The boy and girl
love without having learned to know each other; and cease to love when
that knowledge comes! But the attachment of the Sieur and Madame Lebrun
experienced no revolution of the kind. Fourteen years passed away in
uninterrupted union. Though converted into a husband, the Sieur Lebrun
did not cease to be Misis; the wedded De Surcourt continued to be
"Fanny"--charming names--ingenious disguises--chosen by two lovers to
perpetuate the memory of the times of courtship!

More than three hundred letters, written by Madame Lebrun during that
time, were in the hands of her husband--irrefragable proofs of their
mutual affection; but she has found means to get away the greater part
of them; enough, however, remain to make his justification complete.
Never was a union more harmonious--a wife more petted and indulged. It
seemed that felicity, resting on such foundations, could never be
disturbed; but one single moment was sufficient to overturn the work of
seventeen years!

The Sieur and Madame Lebrun had been intimate for some years with a
certain Sieur Grimod, who held an appointment from the king, and lived
as if his office was of great value. The Sieur Lebrun is not astonished
that his wife was pleased with the acquaintance, for he prized it very
highly himself; but a time came when he thought it better for all
parties that it should cease. The Sieur Lebrun believes in his wife's
virtue as in his own existence. What! if he had _not_ that belief, would
he be here to reclaim her by course of law? But it is not enough for a
woman to have the reality of virtue--she must have the appearance also;
and every man has a right to be in that respect a Caesar. Already some
indiscretions of Madame Lebrun, which the openness and purity of her
mind could alone render excusable--her portrait drawn without her
husband's knowledge for the Sieur Grimod--a letter from that individual
to the lady, written in a style such as no one would use towards a lady
he respected--had begun to inspire the Sieur Lebrun with a certain
coolness. The whisperings at last, unjust as they were, no doubt, of a
malicious public--the advice of his friends--his own susceptibility,
made it imperative on him to come to a rupture, in which Madame Lebrun
should have been glad to join. And here is the letter he wrote to the
Sieur Grimod:--

                              _This 15th January 1774._

     "There are a thousand circumstances, Sir, which every day make
     it a man's duty no longer to see the persons who have
     previously been most highly prized. I experience this myself in
     declining an acquaintance with you, which in other respects I
     greatly valued. You know better than any one else how much I
     lose by this step. Madame Lebrun unites her regrets to mine,
     and begs me to assure you, and also Madame Grimod, of her
     affectionate thanks, ('de ses plus tendres remercimens.') I
     have the honour to be, with perfect truth, and for the last
     time," &c.

And the Sieur Grimod immediately replied--

     "Your letter, Sir, did indeed surprise Madame Grimod and me,
     who believed ourselves among the number of your friends, after
     the many years we have had the honour to know you. We do not
     know the motives for so sudden a quarrel; if you were pleased
     with our society, we were no less so with yours. The number of
     true friends we retain, does not hinder us from regretting
     those we lose, in you and Madame Lebrun, to whom we beg you
     will express our regret. We have the honour," &c.

After two such polite epistles, the reader would naturally expect that
the Sieur Lebrun and the Sieur Grimod, with their respective wives,
would toss their heads at each other when they met in the street, and
give the cut direct with the utmost unanimity. But another glance into
the _Memoire_ will soon convince him of his mistake. The Sieur Lebrun
may probably look vastly majestic, and pass the Sieur Grimod with a
contemptuous jerk; but sorry are we to say that Madame Lebrun joins in
no such dignified proceeding. She cuts the magnanimous Lebrun instead;
she stirs up against him the wrath and indignation of all his friends
and relations; she continues her intimacy with the Sieur Grimod; and, as
a finish to her connubial obedience, she goes one morning with three
hackney coaches, and carries off every article of furniture the unhappy
little man possesses. A pleasant specimen of a wife of the middle class
in the year 1774! A duchess could scarcely be more sublime. Now, who was
this Sieur Grimod, and what manner of rank was his considered? He had
nothing to do with the noblesse; he kept no shop; he had no private
fortune; but he was one of the true causers of the French Revolution,
the rascally collectors of taxes, the underlings of the atrocious
_fermiers generaux_, who wrung the last farthing from the already
oppressed peasant, and made the whole realm of France as sterile,
hopeless, and wretched, as a nation must inevitably become, if it is
allowed to be the prey of an O'Connell in every parish. His nominal
salary was under a hundred a-year; but we shall see the style he lives
in, as we get on in the account--his country-houses--his carriages, and
even his politenesses to Madame Lebrun; and we shall hear in every one
of these luxurious enjoyments the sharpening of the guillotine axe.
Madame Lebrun the wife, Madame Lebrun the mother, and Mademoiselle the
sister, are all in the same story. The old lady, whose virtuous
indignation towers above her sex, has no patience for the insufferable
tyrant who won't let his wife see her best friends, ("qui vouloit
l'empecher de voir ses bons amis.") They trump up all manner of stories
against him; and even maintain, in their first paper of accusation, that
he threshed and kicked his tender-hearted spouse, and put her in bodily
fear. But when the magistrate looked at our diminutive friend, and
compared his powers of threshing and kicking with the tall majestic
figure and full chest of the complainant, he dismissed the charge "avec
une sorte d'indignation," as the Sieur Lebrun triumphantly declares; and
we think the magistrate was quite justified in so doing. No, no--the
Sieur Lebrun was bad enough, as you shall hear in the sequel; but he
never had the cruelty, not to mention the courage, to attack so stately
a woman as his wife. But, alas! from the magistrate's decision there lay
a power of appeal. The three ladies--with the help, no doubt, of the
irresistible Sieur Grimod--carried the cause into a higher court. They
brought it before the bailliage of the Temple; but the Sieur Lebrun had
some misgivings as to the impartiality of the court, and he carried it
before the judges at the Chatelet. In this court, Grimod and his party
knew they had no chance, suffered the case to go against them by
default, and finally appealed to the Grande Chambre. And the Sieur
Lebrun did all this to get back a woman that had robbed, and pillaged,
and slandered him, and preferred her _bon ami_ the Sieur Grimod, and her
_bonne amie_ the Dame Grimod, to her Misis, in spite of his ode on the
earthquake at Lisbon, and his being ranked by the Parisian critics as a
little above Pindar.

Well, to it they go, reply, replication, rejoinder--till at last we are
verily persuaded the little man tried to get her into his power again
for the express purpose of murdering her at his leisure. And what our
verdict in such a case, if we had been upon the jury, would have been,
we are not prepared to say.

The lady, in the course of her accusations, proved too much. She brought
witnesses to state, that for the whole fourteen years of her wedded life
she had been thumped and bullied worse than Cinderella; accused of
trying to poison her lord and master; and, in short, had led a life of
perfect misery. Oho! cries the Pindar of the reign of Louis the
Fifteenth, you are a pretty woman to talk of misery and ill-treatment
for fourteen years! Why, never was such a merry, happy, careless being
in France. For fourteen years you did nothing but amuse yourself and
worship me, as a good wife ought. I buried myself in my books, and wrote
astonishing odes and epigrams, corresponded with Voltaire, and
discovered grand-daughters of Corneille, and got up subscriptions for
their benefit; and all the while you attended every party, went to all
the theatres, and never missed a single masquerade. No, 'twas when I
forbade the visits of Grimod----But at that name his eloquence leaves
him, and he descends to facts. There is one fact, he says, against which
the whole plot of this separation will fall to pieces. It is the harmony
which always reigned between man and wife till about six weeks before
she went away. The witnesses of the Sieur Lebrun to this fact are
indubitable. They are her own letters--those, be it understood, which
she left behind, or rather, which she was not able to carry away with
her. By the perusal of some of her notes before marriage, we have seen
the vivacity of sentiment which united the Demoiselle de Surcourt to the
Sieur Lebrun. That vivacity is traceable, in all its force, in a letter
she wrote to him after the marriage, when he had left her for a short
time in the August of 1760.

"I heard yesterday from my dear Misis. I have not heard to-day. It
brings back all my uneasiness. Has he slept well to-night? is he not
fatigued? I hope he has nothing else to complain of but ennui. My dear
Misis, I do not doubt that you think of your dear Fanny, of her grief,
her love, her impatience. Tell me the day, then, the day I so long for,
that is to bring you back to me again. All my thoughts turn only to you.
Nothing has any interest for me that is not in some way or other
connected with you. I rejoice in seeing the fine weather, for I think
you can now enjoy a walk. I hate the heat, for it keeps you from
exercise, and may make you ill. The moment I feel the slightest zephyr,
I long to send it to you. I wish there was even a tempest for your sake.
I would make the very elements do your bidding. I wish that every thing
in nature may only serve to make you happy, my dear Misis. How much does
she not owe him, since he has painted her so well? He makes her still
more beautiful by the light of his own soul--that soul fired at once by
genius and by love. You write such beautiful things, and I can't see
them! I have no pleasure in life. I have no consolation left, but the
hope of our meeting soon. To-day I passed the morning with your mother.
She pities me. We spoke of nothing but you. She told me some anecdotes
of your childhood that amused me much. You must have been interesting
even then. At four years old, I really believe I should have fallen in
love with you. I like every thing that belongs to you; I feel as if they
brought me nearer to yourself. She and your sister send you a thousand
loves, and your brother also, who supped here this evening. They talked
a great deal of Homer, Greek, Latin, &c. My dear aunt and uncle were
delighted with him, and think him very clever. It is now midnight. I am
in my couch--my solitary couch--far from thee. Alas! nothing which you
see where you now are can remind you of love. Love dwells not in
palaces. I have nothing but your heart to rely on to recall me to your
mind. Adieu, my dear Misis--adieu, my little man! I send you a thousand
kisses. Ah! Why am I not in your arms?

"This morning, when I was just going to seal my letter, Murgi brought me
yours. Ah, how sorry I am! I feel more than ever that my heart is not
made for these lengthened separations. No, I can't exist absent from
what I adore. I tried to reason myself into submission for five days;
but how am I to endure the fifteen that it will be now? Pity me, dear
Misis. It is delightful to me to see that your regret is equal to mine;
but the more you make me love you, the greater is my grief. If any thing
could lessen the sorrow caused me by your letter, it is to hear that you
are well. The assurance of that gives me one grief less. Take care of
yourself, for my sake. I can't understand how the letter I wrote you on
Sunday has not reached you yet. Write to me often, if 'tis but one word.
I embrace you again--Your Fanny."

Thanks to the wise precaution of Madame Lebrun, there is a blank of
seven years in her correspondence with her husband. But if we lose the
pleasure of reading a multitude of letters worthy of those we have
transcribed, the cause of the Sieur Lebrun is no loser by the omission;
for we find, at the end of those seven years, the Dame Lebrun still
unchanged--a clear proof that no change has, in the interval, taken
place in the Sieur Lebrun. _Voici_, continues the _Memoire_--behold the
letter she wrote to him on the 17th September 1767, from the
country-house of--who do you think?--the Sieur Grimod.

"I flatter myself, my dear little man, that I shall have a good report
of your health. I am told you started in first-rate condition; no doubt
the open air, and the pleasures of such agreeable society, will keep you
in good case. I need not wish you any new enjoyments. I have only to
congratulate you on those you possess. Let me enter into them, for the
description of yours will make me more fully appreciate my own. I hope,
at the same time, you will perceive that there is a something wanting,
and that you will have the same feelings on the subject as I have. The
country agrees with me admirably, and I am in wonderful health. We walk
a great deal, and musicate ('musiquons') a great deal more. We lay all
the elements under contribution for our amusement. We have a gondola for
our water parties, a swing for the air, and we only want Torraeus and his
Acheron to take a trip through fire. We have made parties to go fishing,
and we intend making one to go fowling with nets and looking-glasses, as
it is so beautifully described by a poet of my acquaintance, (the Sieur
Lebrun himself.) I hope the same accident won't happen to us that befell
the bird-catcher in the fable. It is for you to be on your guard, if you
enter into such amusements; for love keeps constantly prowling in the
scenes frequented by the Graces. We are, therefore, in safety here, in
spite of his wings. We expect the family of M. and Madame Grimod at the
beginning of next month. They have charged me to invite you to come, and
take your place on the famous jonquil sofa. They send you a thousand
compliments, and expect you early next month. We have half made up our
minds to go and see the king hunt at St Hubert. Adieu, my dear little
man! I embrace you with all my heart. Write me immediately. My respects
to the ladies, and a thousand remembrances to M. le Comte de Turpin, and
M. le Comte de Brancas. Tell him that I was highly flattered by his
indignation, though it was altogether unjust. We return you your
brilliant 'epistle.' We have answered it with a song; don't lose it. The
invalid (Julia) sends you a lot of messages."

Poetry itself was employed by the Dame Lebrun to paint the feelings with
which her husband had the happiness to inspire her.

The proofs brought of this latter assertion are very convincing; but
before we give extracts from the poetical declarations of her connubial
bliss, let us see what a curious insight this gives us, into the style
of life among French poetasters and their wives in the middle of last
century. We have seen that the irate Lebrun had a settled income of
about a hundred and eighty pounds a-year, equal, with little pickings
and stealings, to perhaps three hundred pounds at the present time. His
wife, evidently a clever, brisk coquette, sends friendly messages to two
of the first nobles in France, the Count de Turpin and the Count de
Brancas, and in the house of the latter nobleman the Sieur Lebrun is
domiciled at the time she writes. In the meanwhile, she is spending
months at a time in the country mansion of the too fascinating Grimod,
whom we have presented to the reader as a sub-collector of taxes. A
sub-collector of taxes! Wait till the next payments are due for the
income-tax, and watch the countenance of the respectable individual who
will give you his receipt. Is that a man to awake jealousy in the soul
of Pindar, or get up private theatricals, or even take a prominent part
in an acted charade? His soul is set upon a hot beefsteak, and he thinks
strong ale. He wouldn't give twopence for all the poets in England, and
still less for their wives. But the Sieur Grimod is made of different
metal. Less lead, but a great deal more brass--more polished, but less
useful--a pinchbeck imitation of the lords and ladies who were waltzing,
flirting, acting proverbs, and writing pasquinades, at the very moment
when the first great throes of the "portentous doom" were beginning to
shake France to her foundations, and the cloud was gathering that was to
fall down in the blood and horror of the Revolution. A sub-collector of
taxes! in his country-house--with his friends' wives about him, in
addition to his own--giving parties of the most gorgeous
magnificence--splendid masques in honour of a birthday, like _Comus_ at
Ludlow Castle--bird-huntings, where ladies, with attendant squires,
sallied forth in fanciful array, armed with silken nets to catch the
prey, after having wiled them from the trees by blinding them with
polished mirrors--horns sounding, and music stationed in woody
dells--and all carried on with a grandeur like the cavalcades of the
duke and duchess in _Don Quixote_. A sub-collector of taxes, we say,
doing all this, shows very clearly that some change or other was
needed; and we will only say, that the moment we see similar proceedings
going on in the same rank of life in England, we shall emigrate to some
happy island--not Tahiti--where poets and poetesses, and sub-collectors
of taxes, are utterly unknown. We shall extract from the
_memoire_--which, we again remind the reader, is a strictly legal
document, though rather different from the dull concerns our Solons in
Lincoln's Inn are the authors of--at some length; for we shall gain a
very tolerable idea of the interior arrangements of a _maison de
campagne_, on a fete-day in 1768.

The day of St Denis was usually chosen by the Dame Lebrun for a charming
party, to which she lent all the charms of her muse. In that which she
gave on the eve of St Denis, at the house of the Sieur Grimod, she had
introduced all the deities of Olympus to pay compliments to her husband.
First appeared Love and the Graces; then Flora, then Diana--who all sang
songs in character. Apollo followed, who presented his lyre to the Sieur
Lebrun, and said--

    "The suffrages of all you claim,
      The gods themselves your talents prize;
    Through endless ages may your name
      Partake their immortalities!
    Take from Apollo's hand this lyre,
      To sound upon the sacred hill;
    And while your finger wakes its fire,
      They'll say, 'it is Apollo's still.'"[3]

After Apollo, Pomona immediately came; it was the character which the
Dame Lebrun had reserved for herself; and her couplet would have been
out of place in any person's mouth but her own--

    "Let gods their crowns bestow--
      An orchard is my all:
    Yet poor gifts richer grow,
      When from the heart they fall.
    If of Pomona's store
      To taste you kindly deign,
    Trust me, I'll give you as much more
      When autumn comes again."[4]

The divertisement ended with a dance of Bacchus and Bacchantes. The
Sieur Grimod enacted the part of Bacchus in full costume, with his head
ornamented with a cap and bells!

We suspect the head of the counsel assisting in getting up this memorial
had been so long surmounted with a wig, that he did not remark upon the
absurdity of the masquerade of the Sieur Grimod. A cap and bells on the
head of wild Bacchus! It is evident, even from the couplet chanted by
the fascinating sub-collector of taxes, that he appeared in a very
different character from the youthful conqueror of India; though we
confess that heads, of which a cap and bells would be the fittest
covering, are not altogether unknown among the heroes and conquerors of
the gorgeous East. It is clear, from the verses, that the great Grimod
appeared, "for this night only," in the character of Folly.

    "To set every thing right,
      'Tis on that I am bound;
    To put sorrow to flight
      The true secret I've found!
    All these poor silly gods,
      With their bouquets held so,
    With their songs and their odes,
      Without me are no go!
        Folly flings
        From its wings
      A new light on each day.
        It incites,
        It invites,
      To be happy and gay."

Well may the learned barrister close his account of this festival with
the remark--that the life of the Dame Lebrun was a continued series of
amusements; and this cruel husband, when he was not the object or the
cause of her pleasures, was at least made the confidant of them all. As
a proof of this confidence, a history is given of certain proceedings in
the ninth year of their marriage, in which it will be seen that the
Bacchus of the divertisement is not kept entirely in the background. In
the month of February, in 1769, she paid a visit to Havre to see the
sea. To show the terms they were on, it would be necessary to quote the
letters of the Dame Lebrun at full length. It will be seen how
unreservedly she entered into the pleasures of the place, and how
minutely she recorded them all to a man, whom she well knew that her
descriptions would enable to share them as if he had been at her side.
But in the absence of the entire correspondence, which it would be
tedious to transcribe, we content ourselves with copying out the
passages, where the friendship and intimacy that then united the husband
and wife are most strongly marked.

"We arrived in perfect health, my dear friend, on Tuesday, at two
o'clock. I trust you also are flourishing. Take care of yourself, and
write me how you are. M. and Madame Grimod, as also M. Sieuve, charge me
with a thousand messages. M. Grimod insists on your coming as soon as
possible, that you may see the sea. I also wish you could see it. In
looking at it, I have often thought on the effect it would have on you;
and I should be delighted if you could enjoy the prospect along with me.
I tell you I now eat fish as you do. This very day I have eaten a dozen
oysters, a bit of skate, some smelts, and some fresh cod--I think I
shall finish by devouring all the fish in the sea. I wish I could send
you some of the oysters of this place: they are as large as your hat.
Adieu, my dear friend; I embrace you from my heart. I have told you all
I have seen, and I will tell you all that may occur worth talking of
when I arrive. _Friendly regards to Julia. I hope to find her in good
health, and that she has taken care of yours._"

With a wonderful knowledge of the effects of small type, the poetical
Lebrun and his counsellor have printed the "Advice to Julia" in italics.
What! the Dame Lebrun send friendly regards ("bien des amities") to
Julia! Why, isn't this the woman they trump up a story about, as having
been a perpetual source of jealousy to the neglected wife, and
monopolizing all the tenderness and pretty speeches of the once faithful
and still too conquering Misis? For our own part, we think it is a
shocking instance of female audacity, for the devourer of such
boat-loads of fish, and the visiter of M. and Madame Grimod, to affect
jealousy of Julia or any one else. Let her be contented with her Grimods
and oysters, and leave Julia to listen to the harpings of Apollo in
peace. We have another letter, dated a few days after the first, and
still from Havre.

"I received your letter, my dear friend, when I was on board a ship, and
read it on deck. We laughed amazingly at your epigrammatic witticisms;
your reputation is already established here. You are known as a man of
genius; so you may judge if they listened to your letter. M. Grimod,
from the first, has been the trumpeter of your talents and wit; and the
best of the joke is, that on the strength of his descriptions of you,
they insist on believing that I am a person of infinite cleverness as
well. I am delighted to hear such good accounts of your health. I was
anxious to hear how you were. M. Grimod insists that I travel merely for
curiosity, and not for the sake of health; and this moment, let me tell
you in a parenthesis, he interrupts me to say he is sure I am writing my
best, I look so pleased in writing to you. To-morrow we are going to
breakfast in a ship, where the captain gives us a collation of all fine
things, among others chocolate; then we prepare to go to Rouen where we
shall stop two or three days to see the lions. We do nothing but go out,
change the scene, dress ourselves, and pack up our trunks. It is a
delightful life; we have scarcely time to breathe. But in spite of that,
I am grown very fat. I eat like four, and can't do without oysters. I
wished to bring you some present from this part of the country, but
there is nothing remarkable except the fish. Adieu, my dear friend! I
shall be delighted in relating all my experiences when we meet. I hope
some day you will visit these beautiful scenes, or others as beautiful;
and that the house-dove will take its flight to see all the beauties of
nature, which he knows so well how to paint. You will see that there is
no danger, and that I shall come back to you without any accident to my
wings."

Now, be it known that the last sentence is an allusion to an incident in
Lebrun's poem, _De la Nature_, of which some specimens had been
published before this time, but which the grief brought on him by his
wife's behaviour prevented his finishing--a great loss, says the
disinterested author, to the world, for it was a transcendant work! In
the month of April of the same year, the house-dove also took its
flight. The Sieur Lebrun took a journey to Marseilles, and the tender
solicitudes of his wife accompanied him.

After a few of her usual enquiries about his health, and recommendations
to enjoy himself as much as he could among "les habitans aimables de
cette ville," she pays him a few compliments.

"I beg you to say in rhymed prose, to M. Menier, a thousand things for
me, which will become beautiful spoken by your lips, and heard by his
ears. I am as much astonished as pleased with your punctuality in
writing. Every post-day we are all on the look-out. Madame Grimod begs
her compliments--and so do all the family, whom I delight with the
reading of your letters. They are so witty and clever! If you employ
much of your time in writing them, we spend a great deal of ours in
reading them."

But the trips of the year 1769 are not over yet. Scarcely, says the
_Memoire_, had the Sieur Lebrun returned from Marseilles, when the Dame
Lebrun set off, in company with M. Grimod, to visit it. She spent six
weeks there, during which she wrote several letters to her husband, and
cherished his answers as before. But we shall not follow the example of
the _Memoire_, in repeating all these tit-for-tat endearments, but
pursue our own object, which is to trace the style of occupation of
people of their rank. And here we must observe, that, as far as we see
in this process, the whole occupation of the Grimods and others was to
make tours for their pleasure, and get up fetes for their amusement.
Wherever they are, there is always something or other going on--a
breakfast, a dance, or a masquerade; and in spite of the protestations
of the Dame Lebrun, of her sorrow at being separated from her little
man, it is evident she never allows her grief to have any effect upon
her appetite. It rather seems as if, in all her distresses, she applied
to the cook, and measured the extent of her sufferings by the quantity
she could dispatch at a meal.

"How delighted I should be with but one quarter of an hour of your
charming conversations with Madame la Comtesse de Brancas! But from
intellectual feasts like that, I am doomed here to the most rigorous
abstinence; and, to make up for it, I am forced to throw myself on the
mullets, sardines, sprats, and tunnies, with the wines of Cyprus and
Syracuse; so that I have always the body full and the mind empty. You
sent me an admirable piece of wit. I laughed at it amazingly, and wished
to read it to some of the people here; but I soon perceived that their
appreciation of letters is limited to letters of exchange. In spite of
that, they are never tired of praising you, and holding forth about your
talents."

In a letter of the 25th October, after a very spirited description of a
marriage-feast, and a dance to the sound of tambourines, she says:--

"We have been oppressed with the innumerable kindnesses of all this
amiable family. One after another, every body was full of regrets that
you were not of the party, declaring that a man of such wit and genius
as you was exactly made for society. If ever you return to this country,
you will be splendidly received....

"Amuse yourself as much as you can. Go and dine often with your friends.
I should be sorry if I thought you were alone. Don't be surprised at my
scrawl. I danced all last night, and had got to bed very late. It is now
eleven o'clock, and I am obliged to be dressed by one so, you see, I
have not much time to spare."

And her letter of the 22d November brings us to the end of the year '69,
and also of her residence at Marseilles. Even the _Memoire_ grows tired
of the gaieties of the Dame Lebrun, and passes over a long detail of
dinners, suppers, balls, and fetes, to tell us that, "fatiguee de bonne
chere," and "lassee de plaisirs," she wrote to her husband, who was
contenting himself with a Welsh rabbit and Julia at home--"One would
need four stomachs in this county. I envy your frugality, and long for
the little, quiet suppers we used to have at the fireside."

Now, this regret for the domestic broiled bones--though evidently caused
by a momentary surfeit--is dwelt upon by the enraptured Lebrun as a
triumphant disproof of the accusations of cruelty and violence, brought
against him by the Grimods and his charming wife. "She regrets their
quiet suppers! And yet we are told by the Dame Lebrun, and some of her
witnesses, that these quiet suppers never passed off without the most
horrible altercations, or nearly being stained with blood from murderous
blows!" From all we can make out, this accusation of the "petit homme"
attempting to pummel the lady with four stomachs, and capacity for
oyster-eating that must have thrown the late Mr Dando into despair, is
nothing more than an attempt to make the whole affair ridiculous, and
allow the conduct of the defendant to escape the obloquy it deserved,
under cover of the laughter excited by so ludicrous an image. If there
were any "coups meurtriers" in the case, we will venture the long odds
that the mark of them was left in the ogles, or other undefended
portions of the countenance of the Sieur Lebrun. She is constantly
complaining of delicate health; and yet undergoes more fatigue than a
washerwoman. We have now traced her for nearly ten years. She must by
this time be two or three-and-thirty; and yet, we will venture to say,
no girl of eighteen ever panted so earnestly for her first ball, as the
Dame Lebrun did for six or seven of those entertainments every week. We
can imagine no greater misery to her, than one of the quiet suppers she
talks of; and if, in the agony of her disgust, she occasionally gave the
Sieur Lebrun a slap in the face, we have not the slightest doubt he
deserved it, and that she enjoyed the rest of the evening with the
soothing conviction in her own mind that she was a much-injured woman,
and had vindicated the honour of her sex. We have seen, from one of her
letters, that it took her two hours to dress--that she thought nearly as
much of eating and drinking as even of Monsieur Grimod; and we shall
shortly perceive, that clothes, and love, and gluttony, don't interfere
with the powers of poetical compliment, and that her husband--perhaps on
the principle of poetry succeeding best in fiction--is still the object
of them.

The St Denis's Day of 1770, says the _Memoire_, was celebrated, like the
former ones, by a fete, designed and composed by the Dame Lebrun. The
room represented a lawn, with a grove, fountains, &c. Naiads, hidden in
the reeds, chanted these lines in honour of her husband:--

    "Ye naiads smiling round,
      Sing Nature's poet in your lays!
    Let echoes, till they're tired, resound
      With his harmonious praise!
        Oh, let your fountains flow
        On the greensward below;
        And with their notes prolong
        The birds' full-throated song!

    "Thou, Flora! spread thy mantle round
    All this enchanted ground!
    Pour blessings on these happy, happy hours!
    Laurels, and you, ye myrtles, amorous flowers!
    With loving hand I pluck you now,
        Stripping your leaves adown,
        To be a glorious crown,
    Of a new god to decorate the brow!"

In the next year, another fete owed its _eclat_ to the talents of the
Dame Lebrun; but the object of it was no longer the Pindaric poet, but
the sub-collector of taxes. But as it was impossible to keep the Sieur
Lebrun entirely away from any of the haunts of the Muses, he was
enlisted in the corps of subject personages, and performed the Co-too to
the Sieur Grimod in the character of a satyr! And this was the more in
keeping, as the scene was a wood, and the hero of the entertainment
enacted the part of a sort of Orson, under the name of Sylvanus. In
1772, the gaieties of the Dame Lebrun suffered no abatement, except from
an attack of illness; and, for the recovery of her health, she spent the
greater portion of the year at the country-house of the Sieur
Grimod--sometimes with her husband, says the _Memoire_, and sometimes
without. The following spring was passed, as usual, in balls and
masquerades. The house of the Sieur Grimod was again the scene of a
splendid entertainment; but, on this occasion, the object of the fete
was neither the Sieur Bacchus, nor the Sieur Sylvain, but Madame Lebrun
herself. The indefatigable Bacchus, however, if not the principal
personage of the day, was the chief performer. There was a procession in
boats. The Sieur Lebrun did the honours of the enchanted island to his
wife. Dressed as a sailor, he conducted her, disguised as Flora, in an
ornamented barge, all festooned with garlands, and illuminated with
 lamps. It was a truly fairy scene, and the Dame Lebrun did not
at that time look on the composer of the spectacle as a malignant
cobold, the enemy of her repose.

In January 1774, she wrote letters to her husband as full of gaiety, and
as expressive of affection, as any of the others; and on the 5th of
March she sued for a separate maintenance! Such is the history,
contained in a lawyer's brief, of fourteen years of the wedded life of a
French family of the middle rank, or rather below it. And from incidents
contained in the account, we perceive that this actual labour of
enjoyment, these balls, and fetes, and entertainments of all kinds, were
the usual mode of life of most of the people they associated with.
Imagine the same scenes going on in England;--women, after thirteen or
fourteen years of marriage, going dressed up as heathen goddesses in
boats, and being attended round enchanted isles by Bacchuses and Orsons,
dressed in shaggy skins, and chanting doggerel till echo was dead beat!
Bacchus, a secretary, at a salary of a hundred a-year--Orson, a
sub-collector of taxes! But more than all--let us think that the fault
of the Sieur Lebrun does not seem to have consisted, in the eyes of his
mother and sister, in allowing the intimacy between his wife and the
friends, but in putting a stop to it. When such things are the fashion
in England, let us prepare for the National Convention.

The demand of the Sieur Lebrun for restitution of conjugal rights, was
rejected; he appealed against the decision, wrote bitter epigrams on the
judges, and celebrated his wife in some elegies worthy of Tibullas,
under the name of Fanny. From court to court he carried his cause, his
epigrams, and his elegies; till finally, in 1781, the Parliament decided
against him, and the Dame Lebrun was freed for ever from the matrimonial
claim, and the little suppers beside the garret fire. But not for ever
was Grimod free from the vengeance of the virtuous Lebrun. And not for
the last time was heard the shrill voice of the complaining husband by
the fastidious ears of Fanny. A few years passed on--Louis the Sixteenth
was hurried to the scaffold--the golden locks of Marie Antoinette were
defiled with the blood and sawdust, which Young France regarded as the
most acceptable offering to the goddess of liberty; and who is that
sharp-featured little man, sitting in the front row of the spectators of
those heaven-darkening murders, with a red cap on his head, and a
many-stringed harp in his hand, chanting the praises of the murderers,
and exciting the drunken populace to greater horrors? Lebrun. Yes, the
French Pindar is appointed poet-laureate to the guillotine, and has
apartments assigned him at the national cost in the Louvre. Whenever an
atrocity is to be committed, an ode is published, "by order of
authority," to raise the passions of the people to the proper pitch.
When the atrocity is over, another ode is ordered to celebrate the
performers, and congratulate the people on their triumph. When Grimod
was brought before the Convention as one of the oppressors of the
people, and parasites of the aristocracy--a woman, old and trembling,
was leaning on his arm--his personal crimes, if any, were so little
known, that he was on the point of being dismissed from the bar for want
of an accuser. Pindar, in his red cap, with his many-stringed harp in
his hand, was there; and all Helicon glowed like molten lead in his
vindictive heart when he looked at the miserable pair. "What sentence
shall we pass on the person called Grimod, ci-devant sub-collector of
taxes, and the woman beside him, who has aided and abetted him in
several attempts to escape from the censorship of the Committee of
Public Safety?" The accused looked timidly round, in hopes that no
answer would be returned to this routine enquiry, in which case their
safety would have been assured; but red-capped Pindar struck his hand
hurriedly over the chords, and cried, in the shrill sharp tones, that
both the prisoners remembered too well, "A la mort! a la mort!" and in
ten minutes their bodies were lying headless, side by side, amidst the
hootings and howlings of ten thousand demons, exemplifying to astonished
Europe the perfection of civilization and philanthropy. Little more
needs to be said of the Sieur Lebrun. He lived through the dangers of
the Revolution; wrote odes and satires indiscriminately on friend and
foe; worshipped power to the last, and was the sycophant, and would have
been the murderer, of Napoleon, as he had been of Louis and Robespierre;
and died at last in receipt of a pension from the state, member (like
Lord Brougham) of the National Institute of France; and had his
panegyric pronounced on him by his successor, as if he had united the
virtues of Aristides to the genius of Homer. Whereas, we take him to
have been the true type of the Frenchman of his time--a monkey, till he
got the taste of blood, and then a tiger.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: In case we should have done injustice to the poetical
inspiration of the Dame Lebrun, we give the originals--

    "Tu captives tous les suffrages,
      Tes talens sont cheris des dieux;
    Puisse ton nom, dans tous les ages,
      S'immortaliser avec eux!
    D'Apollon recois cette lyre,
      Pour chanter au sacre vallon;
    Dans tes mains meme on pourra dire,
      C'est toujours cette d'Apollon!"]

[Footnote 4:

    "Que les dieux te courronnent;
      Moi, je n'ai qu'un verger;
    Mais le coeur assaisonne
      Les presens des bergers.
    Si des fruits de Pomone
      Tu devenais friand,
    Je te promets, a chaque automne,
      De t'en offrir autant."]




CENNINO CENNINI ON PAINTING.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY MRS MERRIFIELD.


So long ago as 1839, in the June number of this Magazine, we noticed M.
Merimee's posthumous work on oil-painting. It was ushered into the world
with no little parade, under the sanction and strong recommendation of a
committee of the Royal Institute of France; and in this country with the
somewhat authoritative and permitted dedication to the President of our
Royal Academy, by the editor and translator, Mr Sarsfield Taylor. We
should have cared little about reviewing such a work, had we not felt
persuaded that the public, and more especially artists, required some
caution, under the high influence of the mode of its publication, how
they should receive a work whose direct tendency was to misguide
them--to mislead them from the path towards the practice of the old
masters, and to confirm artists in the evil practice of mixing varnish
with the oils with which their pigments are ground.

The work was the more insidious, as it professed to take the excellence
of the old masters as the attainable object. We believe that we
satisfactorily showed that M. Merimee was so predisposed in favour of
copal varnish, that in his researches he would make every thing bend,
even the most stubborn facts, and most opposing sense of passages quoted
by him, to that prejudice. We exposed the numerous, we had almost said
wilful, mistranslations from the Latin and Italian--especially the
former--with which the volume abounded. We showed how entirely and
frequently original passages had been distorted from their plain
meaning, as if with a systematic purpose, to uphold a fanciful theory.
We offer a specimen:--The monk Theophilus, who wrote in the tenth
century "De Arte Pingendi," mentions a "Gummi Fornis." This, though M.
Merimee confesses it does not resemble it in consistence, he still will
have to be copal. Theophilus says, "Hoc glutine omnis pictura
_superlinita_ lucida fit et decora, ac omnino durabilis."--"Every
picture _smeared over_ with this gluten becomes lucid and beautiful, and
altogether durable." It might be thought almost impossible to
mistranslate this. But the varnishing over, or smearing over, being a
direct contradiction to the mixing with the pigments, with the view of
rendering it according to the writer's prejudice, the passage is thus
translated--"Pictures _prepared_ with this _varnish_ are brilliant, and
remain without any alteration."

Again, M. Merimee, speaking of M. Tingry, the able professor of
chemistry of Geneva, affects to regret that he did not apply his
scientific knowledge to the practice of the art, in painting pictures.
But the fact is, that the professor does give his attention to the
subject, not only by his experiments on oils and varnishes--the vehicles
of picture painting; but as one who was well acquainted with the nature
of varnishes, he very distinctly warns artists against the practice
which it is M. Merimee's object to establish. The passage is so
important (and the authority of Tingry so undeniable) that we are here
tempted once more to quote it:--

"Some of the English painters, too anxious to receive the fruits of
their composition, neglect these precautions. Several artists even paint
in varnish, _and apply it with their colours_. This precipitate method
gives brilliancy to their compositions at the very moment of their being
finished; but their lustre is temporary and of short duration. It
renders it impossible for them to clean their paintings, which are,
besides, liable to crack and to lose their colour. In a word, it is not
uncommon to see an artist survive his works, and to have nothing to
expect from posterity." But lest it should be said, as M. Merimee did
say, that Tingry, the author of the above passage, wrote _only_ to house
painters, he adds thus--"Nothing that relates to the house painter is
foreign to the artist of a higher order who paints compositions; in like
manner, the precepts admitted by the celebrated painters deserve the
attention of the varnisher, to whom the painter entrusts his greatest
interests. The observations contained in this note are the brief result
of some instructive conversations I had with Saintours, a celebrated
painter, my friend and relation."[5]

We revert to our review of M. Merimee's work, as preliminary to our
notice of the beautiful volume of Mrs Merrifield's translation on
Tambroni's edition of _Cennino Cennini_, because the subject of vehicles
is here again brought before the public; and we know of no subject more
important, as it regards the interests of art, for the consideration of
this and of every other country. For it appears incontestable that there
was a period when the art of painting, through the discovery of a
vehicle, broke forth into uncommon splendour and beauty, which splendour
and beauty remain in works fresh and perfect to this day; and that there
was a subsequent period at which this particular vehicle was lost. We
therefore thank the authoress (for her notes are important, and demand
that we should give her this title in addition to that of translator)
for again bringing this subject before the public in so attractive a
manner, by the elegance of the type, illustration, and binding of this
volume, so agreeable to the eye; and for the addition of many of her own
judicious remarks. So that, through this feminine grace and good sense,
an interest and attention are awakened, which the bare recipes of
Cennino Cennini would hardly have commanded.

Cennino Cennini has frequently been partially quoted from Vasari
downwards; partially quoted, but little read. He finished writing his
book on the arts the 31st day of July 1437; was born soon after 1350;
had been twelve years the disciple of Agnolo Gaddi, who died 1387; son
of Taddeo Gaddi, the disciple and godson of Giotto, the "father of
modern art." The precepts which he delivers are therefore those
acquired in immediate succession from that great first master, and as
the secrets of his art. We grieve to add that the work was written in
prison, dated from the Stinche in Florence, at eighty years of age, and
in extreme poverty; a proof among many, that the patronage of the arts
in those days was not a mantle of charity of adequate dimensions to
cover the wants of the numerous professors of the art; while it tells
somewhat unfavourably for the gratitude of the contemporary world to
know, that the one work alone of this deserted old man, the Virgin in
the Hospital of Bonifacio Lupi, (so well , says Vasari, that it
is to this day in good preservation,) would produce a sum that would
probably not only be sufficient to have paid his debts, but to have
equalled the wants of no small portion of his prolonged life. The work
itself seems to bear testimony to an earnest, amiable, and religious
mind; there would appear, therefore, no moral fault to which to
attribute his unfortunate condition. We must suppose that struggles with
the world's difficulties, incompatible though they seem with art, are
necessary; and that the cradle of genius must be first rocked by
Want--that necessity is the great "Magister Artium;" for we find it has
ever been so, even to the present enlightened age. A few favourites
occupy the Goshen of patronage, who at their death are not remembered,
and whose works _do_ "follow them;" and then, the works of those who
have lived neglected, lived, worked, and died in penury, are eagerly
sought after at any price. Such men, whilst they lived, were yet
teaching a lesson in taste which the world were _slow to learn_; for it
is in the nature of genius to be before the age, and in some respects to
teach a novelty, which the world in not prepared to receive. Genius
works on by the compulsion of its own nature, and the world is improved
by it when it can no longer reward it but by a too late admiration, that
reaches not, as far as we know, the dead. The complaint of Horace has
been ever justified, and is still, in the eager search after works of
our Wilson and Gainsborough--

    "Virtutem incolumem odimus,
    Sublatam ex oculis quaerimus invidi."

This edition of Tambroni is not from an original MS. or printed copy,
but from a transcript about a century old, discovered by Angelo Mai
among the Ottobonican manuscripts. Two other copies of Cennino Cennini
are known to exist; we are curious for their examination, the present
rescript _may_ in some respects be deficient. As Cennino Cennini
completed his work 1437, and the discovery of Van Eyck is said to have
been 1410, it might have been expected that we should find some notice
of Van Eyck's vehicle. We rather lament than are surprised that we find
none. Those were the days for secrecies. Cennino himself speaks of many
of his recipes as great secrets; and we are told that Van Eyck only in
his old age taught his secret to Antonello--and the whole story goes to
show the profound secrecy with which this vehicle was retained; nor is
there any reason to doubt that it occasioned the murder of Domenico,
said to have been perpetrated in 1470, thirty-three years after the
writing of Cennino Cennini. Vasari says positively, that "John Van Eyck
would not let any one see him work, nor would he teach the secret to any
one--but being old," &c. This is certainly an argument against those who
would affirm, if Van Eyck had discovered a vehicle, it would have been
universally known. Such secrets are slow in progress, independent of the
caution to keep them so. Artists did not formerly spring up self-taught;
they were bound to masters, and learned their art from the beginning,
and slowly, and learned not many of their secrets till after years of
servitude, for such we must call it. They had then to make as well as to
grind their own colours, to make their own brushes, tablets, and cloths.

Mrs Merrifield and Tambroni certainly do not agree in their opinions
respecting this discovery of a vehicle by Van Eyck. The Italian is
rather foolishly sensitive for the honour of his country, and his
sensitiveness seems to bias his judgment. He would not that a foreigner
should have the merit. Tambroni believes, and probably truly, that
Vasari never thoroughly read Cennino; but he bears testimony to the
_noble_-mindedness of Vasari--"Whence," says he, "we are constrained to
believe that he merely glanced lightly over the titles to the chapters
of part of the manuscript; and that, thinking it useless, he did not
care to examine and investigate the whole work. For this reason it
cannot be supposed that this noble-minded man, so zealous for the honour
of his country, and whose every effort had been directed to make it
pre-eminent, would withhold from one of his fellow-countrymen the just
fame which he deserved by so valuable a work. Nor do I intend here to
reprove him, or to lessen his glory. I shall only say that he committed
a great error in not having examined the work of this old master: for
then, perhaps, he would not so easily have given the credit of those
things to strangers which certainly were known in his own beautiful
Tuscany, and in all Italy, as I shall hereafter study to prove." Yet he
does not hesitate after this to charge "this noble-minded man" with
fabricating "a romance or tale of the imagination." But he misquotes
Vasari. As Mrs Merrifield justly observes, "he takes only part of
Vasari's account into consideration, instead of stating the whole, and
reasoning on it as Lanzi has done. Vasari does not limit Van Eyck's
discovery to the simple fact, that he had discovered that linseed and
nut oils were more drying than any he had tried; but he adds, "these
then, _boiled with his other mixtures_, made the varnish, which he, as
well as all the other painters of the world, had so long desired." It is
very singular that this most important passage should have been entirely
omitted by the editor, (Tambroni.) It is in _these mixtures_ that the
secret consisted, not in using the oils; and we may certainly conclude
that the process of Van Eyck was very different from that of Theophilus
and Cennino, both of whom used linseed oil without the mixture of any
other substance. "It will be observed that lake even was used by Cennino
without any addition to increase its drying qualities. The only dryer he
mentions (as such) is verdigris, which he used for mordants only. The
difference in the texture of pictures painted in the Flemish (that is,
Van Eyck's manner) and those painted with oil alone, or with the modern
megilp, (oil and mastic varnish,) is so well known that it is scarcely
necessary to allude to it.

"Picture-cleaners are perfectly aware of this circumstance, having been
instructed by observing the manner in which different solvents act upon
such pictures, (spirit-of-wine, for instance, will dissolve old
pictures, but it has no effect on pictures painted with oil only.--See
_Lanzi._) Vasari gives no clue by which we can discover of what those
_mixtures_ consisted; but we know that what Vasari calls _vernice
liquida_ did not form part of them, because _that_ had been tried and
disapproved of.--See Vasari's _Lives of Antonello da Messina, and Alesso
Baldovinetti_. It is probable that the ingredients were common and
cheap, or they would not have been accessible to the greater part of
Europe; and they appear to have been equally successful in the sunny
clime of Italy as in the fogs of Holland."

The translator here entirely agrees with the learned and indefatigable
Lanzi, who, aware of discrepancies of dates, ascribes the "_perfect_"
method to Van Eyck. He gives full credit to _the facts_ as stated by
Vasari, and speaks of the difficulties he lay under in obtaining any
certain dates, particularly with regard to Venetian matters. That
painting in oil was known long prior to Van Eyck, no one who has read
the documents upon the subject can for a moment doubt; but it was, in
the common way, so inferior in brilliancy, and probably in facility of
use to other methods, that it ceased to be in use. It seems pretty clear
that this "perfect method" came from Flanders, first to Naples, then to
Venice; and probably by means of Antonello da Messina, (however some
dates may disagree, or it may be possible there were two of that name to
have given some confusion to the dates.) In fact, no dates but the
strictly historical can be depended upon. There are pictures at Venice
with the name of Antonello, and dated 1474--years after his supposed
death. We can scarcely suppose that the "noble-minded" Vasari would have
fabricated an epitaph for Antonello, if none had ever existed; we know
how easily not only epitaphs, but the very monuments that bear them,
are removed to give place to others. Vasari does not say, in quoting
this inscription, that Antonello was the first who painted in oil, but
the first who gave splendour, &c. "Sed et quod coloribus oleo miscendis
splendorem et perpetuitatem Italiae contulit." And Hackert says, that
this Antonello lived some years in Venice, receiving payment from the
state. "Ob mirum hic ingenium Venctiis aliquot annos publice condutus
vixit." His celebrity arose from the introduction of the Flemish manner
into Italy. The murder of Domenico at Florence, to whom it is said
Antonello had imparted the secret, cannot be denied; it was notorious,
and must be confirmed by public documents; nor can we imagine so
"noble-minded" a writer as Vasari would have mentioned the disclosure of
the murder by Castagno himself, if the fact had not been notorious. We
set aside the labyrinth of dates, which, with regard to the same
persons' lives and deaths, are inconsistent and irreconcilable; still
there remains a continuous story, not only probable as to its facts, but
confirmed by works that exist at this day; for whatever may have been
the oil-painting of an earlier age, (and it must be observed, as Lanzi
remarks, that there is no certainty that many of the works said to have
been in oil, were of that vehicle, for chemists have doubted, and some
have been of contrary opinion,) the oil-painting of that precise period
when it is said by Vasari to have been introduced into Italy, and as it
continued subsequently, is quite a different thing--and exactly agrees
with the description of it given by Vasari, and as it was practised in
his time. Vasari was but a little more than a century after the supposed
discovery of Van Eyck, and was born soon after the death of Raffaelle,
and must have known that he was speaking of a vehicle that was not oil
alone. It may be here worth while to put down what Vasari does say with
respect to Van Eyck's vehicle--that John of Bruges having cracked a
picture by exposing it to the sun to dry, being "filosofo e filologo a
sufficienza," made many experiments, and "trovo che l'olio de lino e
quello de noce erano i piu seccativi. Questi dunque bolliti con altre
sue misture gli fecero la vernice ch' egli, e tutti pittori del mondo
aveano lungamente desiderata"--"found that linseed and nut oil were the
most siccative. These, then, boiled together with his other mixtures
made the varnish, (vehicle,) which he and all the painters of the world
had long desired." Lanzi here well observes, that the expression "long
desired," shows that there must have been many attempts to make oils
properly subservient to the painter's use, and that there was none
successful until Van Eyck's "solo quella perfetta;" which, as Vasari
says, "secca non teme acqua, che accende i colori e gli fa lucidi, e gli
unisce mirabilmente"--"which when dry does not fear water, heightens the
colours and makes them lucid, and unites them in a wonderful manner." We
have a picture by this Van Eyck in our National Gallery; he must have no
eyes who will believe that it was painted with oil alone. We have the
Correggios--we say the same of them--we have the proof from the
experience of picture-cleaners, the hardness of the old paint, and the
test of spirits-of-wine, which, as Mrs Merrifield states, solves the
paint of old pictures, and leaves the modern untouched. In a former
paper, in which we dwelt much on this subject, we mentioned that we had
the report of a very scientific friend, who had spent nearly a life of
leisure and competence in experiments on pictures, that the paint of the
old masters _fused_, not only where white lead had been used, but in
every part; and we ourselves saw him try the experiment upon the
background of an old picture, by means of the blow-pipe, and the result
was a fused substance--a glass. We here leave the question of the
discovery of a vehicle by Van Eyck, or by any other person, satisfied
that there was a discovery by some one at some time, of a vehicle
different from the first painting with oil, and from any of modern use.
To dispute this fact, appears to us as absurd as if any one should deny
the discovery of America, because there may be disputes as to dates and
persons of the first discoverers. We are only surprised that Tambroni
and others do not take any notice of the chemical differences in the
substances of old and new paint--we mean subsequent to the supposed
discovery; and we confess we are surprised at the unworthy,
unsatisfactory, and ambiguous manner in which Tambroni settles the
matter. "Now, being willing to act with generosity towards this noble
writer, and to believe that his religion was not overcome by deception,
we should perhaps be able to admit that we were indebted to John of
Bruges for the practice of tempering colours with both nut and linseed
oils, and to Antonello for having used and made common, through all
Italy, a method which, in beauty, greatly exceeds distemper-painting,
which, until his time, had always been preferred." Does he really mean,
or believe, that this new method consisted only in the use of linseed
and nut oils? Is he acquainted with the works of John of Bruges, or with
that picture of Andrea del Castagno, the supposed murderer of Domenico,
which is called by Guarienti "the wonder of painting;" and which, by the
description of its finish, _particularly of the room in which the action
is represented_, is supposed to have been an imitation of the style of
the Flemish master? If it be asked, how could any good practice in any
art be lost? we have only to answer that we are not bound to _account_
for a notorious fact with regard to arts in general. Many have been
totally lost; but the troubles, the plague, and dispersion of artists in
Italy, and the charm of novelty, may be sufficient to account for these
changes. Lanzi every where laments them, and tells us that Nicolo
Franchini became famous for detaching pieces of paint from old pictures
of inferior value, to match deficiencies in more valuable.

Although we would here willingly end the discussion as to the discovery,
we feel ourselves irresistibly led by the importance of the subject to
make a few observations, and perhaps throw out a few hints, presuming
that they are nothing more than hints, which suggest themselves upon
paying some little attention to the actual words of Vasari; and this we
do solely with regard to vehicles. Why, we should ask, did Van Eyck dry
his picture in the sun, and which seems to have been the practice? As
far as we know the nature of gums, there is no difficulty in their
drying, without the necessity of resorting to any injurious practice.
Were these gums in any degree mixed with undrying substances? Why does
Vasari say "che secca non teme acqua"--"which, dry, does not fear
water?" Why does he mention water at all? for, supposing that he knew of
oil-painting without these "altre sue misture," there would appear to be
no occasion that he should mention, as a distinct property of this new
vehicle, that which was common with that and the older practice. Here a
suggestion seems to let in a glimmer of light. Did he convert these oils
into a soap, which, when dry, was no longer soluble in water? Will this
be the case with saponaceous oils? Unquestionably. One of the objections
made by Lanzi to the changes from the good old method was, as when he
speaks of Maria Crespi, that the paint was common and _oily_, and
elsewhere complains of "oily appearances." The "colori oleosi" is
perfectly descriptive, too, of our modern paint, notwithstanding that
our painters try in vain to disguise the "oily" appearance by the
admixture of varnishes, and that not a new practice, as we find from
Cennino, but one rejected. But can oil be deprived of this appearance?
We presume it was deprived of this quality by that process by which,
when dry, it did not "fear water"--"secca non teme acqua." Oils are
rendered saponaceous by alkalis. We mentioned in former papers
experiments of our scientific friend, P. Rainier, M.D. of the Albany,
and his use of borax with the oil. The borax he vitrified; and it was
because the paint mixed with this oil and borax vitrified also, after
the manner of the paint of the old masters, he so used it; but nothing
occurred to him about water. We suggested that if this, his medium,
resembled the old, it was probably miscible with water, as water would
seem to have been introduced into the Venetian practice. Upon this we
tried it, and found we could at pleasure dip the brush in this medium,
or in water, and then into the paint, and work with great facility, the
greater use of the water giving that _crumbly_ appearance so often
perceptible in the Venetian school; and this effect we found might be
increased or omitted at pleasure. And this medium, made by mixing water
with the oil through the agency of borax, when dry might be washed even
with warm water with perfect impunity. _When dry it did not fear water_;
though a saponaceous medium, it was not again soluble in water. What
does Vasari mean by "che accende i colori"--"which heightens the
colours?" Borax is an alkali. Alkalis are known to heighten colours, "e
gli fa lucidi;" now, linseed and nut oil _alone_, particularly the
former, takes away the _lucid_ character from paint. Had Vasari been
describing the working of this vehicle of P. Rainier, he could not have
better described it than in the very words "gli unisce mirabilmente;"
for it is astonishing how nicely to the hand, and to the degrees
desired, these repugnant liquids unite the colours. It is singular
enough that soda, which is a form of borax, is the actual constituent
part of some of our most permanent colours--we need but mention
ultramarine; and here we are tempted to transcribe a passage from the
translator's preface, which exactly falls in with this our view.--"The
use made by the early Italian artists of lyes (lisciva) is deserving of
our notice and consideration. Cennino does not inform us how this lye
was prepared; but it has been ascertained that lyes produced from
pouring water on wood-ashes, from solutions of borax, and also of soda
in water, were then used. We find from Cennino's book that ultramarine
(of which soda is a constituent part) was prepared with it; that it was
also used in preparing _azzuro della magna_, (an ore of cobalt,) and
_zafferano_. It has been likewise ascertained that soda has a preserving
influence on red, yellow, and black pigments; and the result of
experiments on these colours has been so satisfactory, that a certain
quantity of soda--or, to speak more correctly, of _soap_, which is a
compound of soda with fat or oil, (but not drying oil)--is now used in
preparing pigments for painting sails for the British navy. It is also
used in the manufacture of printing-ink; and we have now Cennino's
authority for using it with _blue_ pigments. Sir Humphrey Davy informs
us, that the Vestorian or Egyptian azure, the excellence of which is
proved by its duration of 1700 years, may be easily imitated by
carbonate of soda, opaque flint, and copper filings. The translator has
made many experiments on the effect of the alkalis and neutral salts
when mixed with colours, and has every reason to be satisfied with the
addition of soda, when properly used." We have not ourselves tried
sufficiently soda with oil, and have suspected it would not have the
effect of rendering the paint hard; but that borax does render the paint
very hard we have abundant proof. We have subjected a picture painted
with it to the razor to scrape it down, and could with difficulty
succeed, though the picture had not been long painted; and we have
rolled together masses of paint so mixed, and they have been thought by
persons into whose hands we have put them, stone. We have heard artists,
who have tried this mixture of borax and oil, declare it had the
contrary effect; but, on enquiry, found that they procured the vehicle
from colour-makers, who sold them, we have good grounds for believing, a
mixture of their own, in which, if borax formed any part, mastic varnish
formed a much larger. Among our papers we found one sent us by Dr
Rainier; we were not chemists enough to make it intelligible, and for
that recipe which we give in a note,[6] we are indebted to our friend
Mr C. T. Coathupe of Bristol, on whose chemical and general scientific
knowledge we have great reliance, and who much confirmed our view, or
rather Rainier's, of the advantage of rendering the oils saponaceous by
the means of borax. In consequence of our communication with him, Mr
Coathupe published in the _Art Union_ one or two very valuable papers in
1842. In speaking of this vehicle we do so the more boldly as it is not
our own, nor do we claim the least merit on account of it; it is solely
the discovery, or re-discovery, be it which it may, of our ever valued
friend Rainier, now no more. Without saying that it is or is not _the_
old one, "che tutti i pittori del mondo aveano lungamente desiderata,"
we do not hesitate to say that it is a good one, and does obviate those
"oily appearances so disagreeable to the eye"; and we are the more
confirmed in our belief in its beneficial quality, by the authorities Mr
Coathupe and Mr Field, the well-known scientific author of
"chromatography;" and we are much gratified to be able to offer an
extract from a letter from Mr Field upon the subject:--"I am accordingly
ready to admit all the uses of Mr Rainier's medium, and go with him in
believing the old painters may have employed it--the Venetians in
particular, who were at that time the medium between Europe and India,
in the latter of which countries borax had been employed in painting
time immemorial." It should here be remarked that Mr Field, in one of
his valuable publications, mentions a mixture of lac and oil by means of
borax in certain proportions. They do not, however, readily mix,
especially in cold weather. The translator does not seem to be aware
that borax is the solvent for lac; she mentions "sulphuric or muriatic
acid," but water with borax alone will dissolve lac before it boils.[7]
We would venture to recommend some experiments with lac dissolved in
borax to water-colour painters. It is by no means improbable that some
of the old Greek paintings are in gum lac; the hardness ascribed to
them, and their brilliancy too, and that they rather chip off than
crack, seem to answer the properties of lac; and it is curious that lac
so dissolved is durable, and not again soluble in water. It _may_
therefore be worth while to try experiments with it, both for solid
painting with white lead, as likewise as an addition of power partially
used for water-colours. We know not if the ancients had any means of
discharging the colour, (though a weak solution, in cases of solid
painting, may not be very objectional,) but shell-lac can now be
rendered perfectly white.

The reader will be disappointed if he expects to find in "Cennino
Cennini" a treatise on art. It is nothing more than a book of
receipts--very minute and circumstantial as to most particulars, while
here and there is a provoking omission; as, for instance, he speaks of a
varnish, but omits to say of what materials composed. However curious
much of the matter may be, the modern painter, who has to send to the
nearest colour-maker for his tube colours, and French brushes, will
think the greater part superfluous, and will smile to be told--"Take the
tails of the minever, (for no other are good,) and these tails must be
baked, and not raw." Nor will he trouble himself with Cennino's list of
colours, though it would perhaps be better for him if he did enter a
little into their chemical properties. Cennino mentions twenty-four
pigments; but the best he considers to be but twelve. It is curious that
among them are no browns. We have always been of the opinion that the
old masters, for the most part, made their browns with blacks and reds
and yellows, and gave them depth by glazing over with the same; and we
are pretty much of Wilson's mind, who, when told of a new brown, said "I
am sorry for it." Very many of our modern pictures are ruined by the
violent contrasts of the asphaltum and similar browns with less
obtrusive pigments. The very transparency is, in our eyes, an objection.
Asphaltum, for instance, besides that it is a changeable and never
thoroughly drying pigment, _is too transparent_ for depth. It was a
mistake of Gainsborough when he said that with asphaltum he would make a
Tartarus; the depth would be but a little way from the surface; depth is
not always intensity of darkness, and never of colour. There is a style
of flashy painting which entirely depends on these transparent browns;
but it is nevertheless not a good style; it is flimsy, and the _depth_
aimed at is missed. The more simple the palette, the better will be the
picture. We are taught by the practice as well as words of Titian, who
said that "whoever would be a painter, should be well acquainted with
three colours, and have a perfect command over them." There are some
excellent observations on this subject in the translator's preface, who
quotes from Sir Humphrey Davy on colours. "If red and yellow ochres,
blacks and whites, were the colours most employed by Protogenes and
Apelles, so are they likewise the colours most employed by Raffaelle and
Titian in their best style. The St John and Venus in the tribune of the
gallery at Florence offer striking examples of pictures, in which all
the deeper tints are evidently produced by red and yellow ochres, and
carbonaceous substances." Cennino's argument for the use of fine gold
and good colours, will be read with more attention by the modern
Germans, who have, it is said, for the purposes of their art joined the
Catholic Church, than by our English artists, with whom it will but
raise a smile, that the artist should be liberal in both, for that if
his patron pays him not, our Lady will reward him for it in soul and
body. If the practice of poor Cennino was in accordance with this
recommendation, he must have been very pious in his resignation, for his
reward was a prison in his old age. Cennino acquaints us how to make and
prepare pannels, cloth-grounds, cements, and glues; and doubtless some
of his recipes will be found practically useful. For temperas (vehicles)
many recipes are given. There are two kinds of egg tempera deserving
attention mentioned, and the practice of painting in the egg tempera,
and afterwards glazing in oil-colour. The translator particularly
recommends in a note this mode of painting, and quotes from Mr Field's
Chromatography the following passage:--"Mr Clover has successfully
employed the yolk of egg for sketching in body colours, in the manner
and with the entire effect of oil, which sketches being varnished have
retained their original purity of hue, more especially in the whites,
and flexibility of texture, without a crack, after many years in a
London atmosphere." The translator recommends it from her own practice
and experience.

We have ourselves, in this Magazine, on a former occasion, spoken of a
sort of distemper painting--though to give it that name is not very
highly to recommend it. We have, nevertheless, found it very good, and
admirably adapted for getting in a subject, as affording means of great
rapidity of execution. We allude to the admixture of starch and oil--the
less oil the more like distemper will it be; or, we should rather say,
fresco, which it much more resembles; but oil may be used with it in any
proportion. The starch should be made as for domestic use, with water
saturated with borax, and the oil added by degrees, and the whole
stirred up together while warm; and, in this medium, the colours should
be ground as well as worked. It is curious that here, too, the borax is
of use; for it not only enables the oil to mix with the water of the
starch, but it gives the starch a consistence and toughness, which
without it it never possesses. We have found colours retain their hue
and purity remarkably well with this vehicle. The whole bears out
equally, but without shining. The second painting may produce any
desired richness. It is not unpleasant to paint upon a wet ground made
with this vehicle, when the picture and ground will dry and harden
together.

There is no colour concerning which we are more at a loss in looking at
old pictures, than the blues. Three are mentioned by Cennino--indigo, a
cobalt, and ultramarine. With regard to the sparing use of the latter,
as the most expensive, some practical hints may be met with. We have
often wondered with what blue their deep-toned cool greens were made, as
in the landscapes of Gaspar Poussin. It was probably Cennino's _azzuro
della magna_ (German blue or cobalt.) Prussian blue is of recent
invention. We believe Mr Field considers it a good colour. It is made of
so many hues that it is difficult to procure good, and it is said to be
affected by iron. We have heard indigo complained of as a fugitive
colour; Cennino mentions it for skies with a tempera of glue. He
mentions, likewise, a green cobalt, or _azzuro della magna_. White lead,
according to him, may be used with all temperas. He says it is the only
white that can be used in pictures; the whites in the old pictures are
very pure, so that we may be satisfied of its durability. Many artists
have doubted if the white of the best painters was white lead, and many
substitutes have been proposed. We may rest assured, by the authority of
Cennino, that the fault is not in the lead, but in the vehicle, whenever
it changes. There is a letter of Titian's, in which he laments the death
of the maker of his white; it was made, therefore, we are to suppose,
with particular care, as the principal pigment for light.

Orpiment, which was so much in use in Sir Joshua's time, the ill effects
of which is visible in the President's "Holy Family" in our National
Gallery, was no great favourite in the olden time. In the note upon this
pigment, the translator takes occasion to speak of powdered glass, in
reference to a remark of Dr Ure, that powdered glass is mixed with it,
which renders it lighter. Mrs Merrifield infers from this, that it,
powdered glass, is opaque. Undoubtedly it is so in its dry state, and
probably with the glue tempera, which alone, according to Cennino, is
its proper vehicle--but mixed with oil it is transparent--and mixed in
much body with pigments, will give them great richness, and that degree
of transparency, even to pigments rather opaque, which we observe in the
substance of the pigments of the best time. China clay, and magnesia
too, are opaque in their powdered and dry state, but mixed with the
pigments, vary their power _ad libitum_, precisely by the transparency
they afford. These two latter substances have likewise a corrective
quality upon oils, and we are assured by Mr Coathupe, and have certainly
found it to be so, that magnesia is a dryer. We have boiled magnesia and
oil together, very thick and jelly-like, and leaving the pipkin exposed,
have been surprised to find no skin upon the surface. Mrs Merrifield
certainly errs in thinking glass, when mixed with oils, opaque. The
blacks of Cennino are from a stone, and opaque; from vine tendrils,
("very black and transparent;") from skins of almonds and kernels of
peaches, ("a perfect and fine black;") and lamp black, from the smoke of
linseed oil. Mr Field observes, that all carbonaceous blacks mixed with
white have a preserving influence upon colours, owing chemically to the
bleaching power of carbon, and chromatically to the neutralizing and
contrasting power of black with white. Leonardo da Vinci in his palette,
the account of which is so unfortunately broken off for lack of paper,
mentions the mixing every colour with black. Yet we have met with many
painters who totally reject it, and fancy it makes their pictures black.
This is very absurd, for black mixed with any other pigment ceases to be
black; and an artist may paint very black pictures without the use of
that pigment. What Titian recommends, one who would be a colourist need
not reject. It seems there was of old much caution that iron should not
touch the colours. Yet there is, we believe, much iron in ochres. Mr
Coathupe has clearly shown, that even Naples yellow does not suffer from
contact with iron, otherwise than by abrasion, by which the steel of the
knife becomes itself a pigment, as on the hone. Modern science has much
enlarged the colour list. There is thus the greater temptation offered
to make endless varieties. It has been remarked in language, that the
best writers have the most brief vocabulary--so it may be, that the best
colourists will have the fewest colours. The rule has been verified in
the old masters of the best time. Cennino Cennini, who always begins
from the beginning, recommends drawing with the pen--his pen, for that
also he tells you how to make, had no slit. O days of Perryian
innovation! It was very well, a vast improvement, almost equal to that
of adding the shirt to the ruffles, to invent one slit--we have them now
with two and with three.

Very strict studies in anatomy were not much in vogue among the early
painters. Our author recommends drawing from nature, and lays down his
canon of proportions of the human body, which will be little heeded by
our academies. The old Italian is not very complimentary to the sex. Mr
Etty will open his eyes with alarm, to find he has been practising all
his life in a wrong direction, when he reads "leave that of woman, for
there are none perfectly proportioned." We are not quite certain, if
some of Mr Etty's stay-spoiled figures are taken for examples, but that
the opinion of the old Italian may be in some credit. We spoke in the
commencement of this paper, of the "Gummi Fornis," which M. Merimee
concluded to be copal. The translator, in a note, offers a conjecture,
not without its probability, that it may have been sandarac, the
"Vernice da Scrivere" of Cennino, and quotes Raffaello Borghini in his
"Reposo." If you would have your varnish brilliant, use much
sandarac--it makes certainly a very hard varnish--it is difficult to
combine it with oil. We suppose it to have been one of the condemned
novelties as a vehicle for painting, from its being included in the
condemned list of trash, as only fit to polish boots, that moved the
satirical pen of Boschini:--

    "O de che strazze se fa cavedal!
    D'ogio d'avezzo, mastice e sandraca,
    E trementina (per no dir triaca)
    Robe che ilusterave ogni stival."

                              MARCO BOSCHINI.

Much has been said of late of "Encaustic Painting." It must have been
discontinued before the time of Giotto, as shown by the experiments of
Lanzi--no wax has been found in pictures painted after the year 1360. We
know that Sir Joshua Reynolds frequently used it, as have some painters
since his day. We cannot suppose that, mixed with oil, it would ever
give pigments their proper hardness.

Dryers are not mentioned by Cennino, excepting _verderame_ (verdigris,)
and that as a mordant. How were the oils made to dry? Will the sun be
sufficient? In the summers in Italy their mixed oils readily dry. But in
Holland, as in England, for at least a great part of the year, they will
not dry of themselves; and it is certain that the longer the pigments
are subjected to the action of the oil, the greater is the change. White
lead is by no means the best drying colour; and if lead, as a dryer, is
so injurious as some will have it to be, to colours in general, why do
we not find it so in white lead? Cennino recommends garlic pounded to a
juice, and cleared, as a mordant. It is supposed that it gives a drying
quality to oil. The practice of the old masters in drying their pictures
in the sun--was it only to effect the drying? We believe exposure to the
atmosphere is most beneficial to newly painted pictures. We have now a
picture before us which was disagreeably oily, and yet did not well bear
out. We laid it on the grass, face uppermost, where it lay for about ten
days during heat and cold, day and night, dry weather and wet, and in
some few burning days exposed to the sun; during these hot days, we had
it frequently, plentifully washed with water, left on for the sun to
take up. We have this day removed the picture to the easel. The "oily
appearance" was gone, it was very dry, but pure, and clean, and bore out
equally, but rather like distemper. It is a question worth considering,
whether the atmosphere did not take up the impurities of the oil, which
always come to the surface.

There is proof enough of this. A picture, unless it be painted with very
little oil indeed, will become, in a few days after being painted,
greasy--it will not take water on the surface--in fact, "secca teme
acqua" will not bear water. If, in this state, the surface be lightly
rubbed over with common sand and water, this greasiness will be removed,
and the surface will not only be clean, but beautiful; this greasiness
will, however, in a day or two come again. If the process of sanding be
repeated, _until the greasiness does not_ come again, we conjecture that
we have done for the picture what time, but a long time, might do--we
have removed _all_ the impurity of the oil. We believe that pictures
after that do not undergo further change, and if the paint be tolerably
hard, may be varnished--and that they will become much sooner hard; for
it is more than probable that this greasiness in the oil is the main
cause of retarding the drying. We have followed this practice many
years, and always with the same results. It is surprising how soon after
painting you may sand--even coarse red sand will not remove paint, that
is yet tacky--it much remedies the "colori olcesi." The translator lays
much stress in the preface upon the importance of white grounds. In the
olden time, it appears, that when they were not of gold, they were
white; and Leonardo da Vinci thus lays down _his_ precept--"Sempre a
quelli colori che vuoi che habino belleza preparerai primo il campo
_candidissimo_, e questo dico de' colori che sono transparenti, perche a
quelli che non sono transparenti non giova campo chiaro." And yet
Leonardo is said to have painted occasionally on the canvass without any
other priming than a coat of glue. His pictures so painted are said to
be durable, and worthy his great name. We should have doubted if Titian
did always paint on a white ground--and should fix upon the "Peter
Martyr" as the subject of doubt. It is said to have been the practice of
Correggio; if so, he did not always derive the benefit from the ground
which white grounds are said to confer, for his painting is so generally
solid, and the transparency so much the effect of his glazing, that
there seems to be no reason why he should have given the preference. It
is said the Flemish School used white grounds--probably Rubens did so
generally, not all other painters. Teniers used a light drab, and, if we
were to judge from some of his skies, painted upon it when that thinly
 ground was wet. Unless a great body of colour be used, even in
the most transparent painting, white grounds are apt to give a weakness
and flimsiness. Gaspar Poussin, and perhaps generally, Nicolo, painted
on red grounds; the former probably often upon a vermilion ground,
though most commonly on one of a deeper tone; the advantage of this, in
landscapes, such as his, is evident. There is no colour so good as red
to set off greens; and in fact, to make tints appear green, that on
another ground would not so be; and, moreover, a red ground, from its
warmth, makes those greens appear cool, deep, and refreshing, which is
so strong a characteristic in the colouring of that great Italian
landscape painter, Gaspar Poussin.

The most important recipes of Cennino Cennini may be those which relate
to fresco-painting; and as that is now likely to be nationally revived,
this publication is well-timed. So much has been said and written of
late upon this subject, that we think it best simply to refer to the
text and notes. To those who mean to practise fresco, they may be
important. Besides the value of the recipes of Cennino, there are
incidentally some curious things not unworthy of notice. All persons
must have been surprised in pictures of grave subjects, and we might
especially mention those of Paul Veronese, that dogs are introduced as
attendants on feasts, and we find them gnawing bones on very fine
floors. But we find in Cennino Cennini that it was the practice to throw
their bones under the table. Cennino recommends them to be gathered and
selected for black pigments. We have heard it said that Murillo was
partial to the pigments made from beef bones taken after dinner.

There is a practice, or we should say happily there was, in the days of
these old painters, which did not tend very much to raise the
profession. "Sometimes, in the course of your practice," says Cennino,
"you will be obliged to paint flesh, especially faces of men and women."
He recommends the painting them with egg tempera, with oil, and with
_oil and liquid varnish_, "which is the most powerful of temperas." He
proceeds to tell how the paint is to be removed. Chapter 162 is entirely
devoted to the ladies, and offers a caution now happily unnecessary, but
it is so quaintly given, that we quote it:--

"It sometimes happens that young ladies, especially those of Florence,
endeavour to heighten their beauty by the application of colours and
medicated waters to the skin. But as women who fear God do not make use
of these things, and as I do not wish to render myself obnoxious to
them, or to incur the displeasure of God and our Lady, I shall say no
more on this subject. But I advise you, that if you desire to preserve
your complexion for a long period, to wash yourself with water from the
fountains, rivers, or wells; and I warn you, that if you use cosmetics,
your face will soon become withered, your teeth black, and you will
become old before the natural course of time, and be the ugliest object
possible. This is quite sufficient to say on this subject."

A modern painter with whom we are acquainted, declares that he has _very
often_ been called upon to paint "under the eyes" of certain "young men
about town"--we presume of the Titmouse grade--that they might appear
the more decently before the public and their employers.

If poor Cennino had entertained no other fears but the displeasure of
the fair sex, he would have passed a happier old age. We know not that
he condescended to paint faces, however, in his most abject condition.
There was ever from the beginning a complaint of the little favour
bestowed upon artists in general. Was the art considered a slavish
practice? Grecia Capta taught it to the Romans, with whom,
notwithstanding the force of some few high names, as of Fabius Pictor,
it was at no time in very high repute.

The indefatigable Gaye says of the fluctuations incidental to the
profession of arts--"While, on one hand, painters, sculptors, and
military engineers flourish as ambassadors, magistrates, and
correspondents with princes, others live overwhelmed with debt, and
pleading for subsistence." A tax return of Jacopo de Domenico, painter,
gives this sad account of himself--"Ever since 1400, have I gone on
struggling, and eating the bread of others, until 1421; after which I
returned to Florence, where I found myself plundered, and in debt, and
totally destitute." The reader will be surprised at his remedy, and the
modern Poor-law Commissioners, those "Indociles pauperiem pati," will
deny the test of destitution, and feel a separating impulse; for he
continues--"I took a wife, and went to Pisa, where I mended the roads
about the gates, and staid four years." The tax returns afford curious
documents. We have that of Massaccio:--"Declaration of the means of
Tommaso di Giovanni, called Massaccio, and of his brother Giovanni, to
the officers of the fisc, detailing their miserable means, inability,
and liability--We live in the house of Andrea Macigni, for which we pay
ten florins a-year." "The son of this Andrea bound himself apprentice in
the studio of Nendi Bicci for two years, in 1458, aged seventeen, to
have fifteen florins and a pair of shoes yearly."[8]

It was the custom of writers, in the time of Cennino, to neglect the
precept of Horace. They did not rush "in medias res"--Cennino in
particular. He not only begins with the beginning of every particular
thing, or invention, or practice; but thinks it necessary to commence
his work on the arts with a much earlier fact than the production of
Leda's egg--even with the creation of the world--and immediately deduces
the art of painting from the fall of Adam, who was from that event
compelled to labor; hence invention--hence the art. His book is,
however, written in a pious spirit; nor have we now-a-days any right, in
good taste, to ridicule his mixing up with his reverence for the
Creator, and the Virgin Mary, and all saints in general, and St
Eustachius, and St Francis, St John the Baptist, St Anthony of Padua,
"the reverence of Giotto of Taddeo, and of Agnolo the master of
Cennino;" nor do we in the least doubt, nay, admire his happy zeal, when
he says that he begins his book "for the utility, and good, and
advantage of those who would attain perfection in the arts." We said
that this is a beautiful volume; the few plates and illustrations are
not the least of its charms: they are drawn on stone by the translator.
We hail the republication of every old work on the arts; and although as
yet we have not been so fortunate as to discover the vehicle of Titian
or Correggio, we do not despair. In a former paper, if we mistake not,
we mentioned a treatise of Rubens--"De Lumine et Colore"--said to have
been, somewhat more than half a century ago, in the possession of a
canon of Antwerp, a descendant of Rubens: surely it may be worth
enquiring after. It is said to be in Latin, which, not being a living
and moveable language, is the best form from which we could have a
translation upon any subject relating to the arts.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: See TINGRY'S _Painter's and Varnisher's Guide_. 1803.]

[Footnote 6: Take two pounds two ounces and a half of borax, and one
pound of acetate of lead, dissolve each in at least a pint of hot water,
mix together the two solutions, and allow the precipitate to subside.
Pour off the supernatant liquor as soon as it is clear, add some fresh
water (rain water is preferable) to the precipitate, and agitate. Then
pour the precipitate, whilst it is distributed throughout this last
addition of water, upon a filter of white blotting paper, and when the
water has passed through the filter, add more water. These fresh
additions of water must be repeated three or four times, merely for the
purpose of washing away all traces of the liquor which was retained by
the first precipitate, and which was formed by the first admixture of
the two solutions. The precipitate, when well washed, is to be placed in
a Hessian crucible, and exposed to a red heat for half an hour. A clear
glass will be formed; which must be reduced to a very fine powder.]

[Footnote 7: "As the very peculiar property which a saturated solution
of borax possesses, of uniting so readily with oil in any proportions,
has never yet been noticed by chemical writers, I experimented with its
constituents, boracic acid and soda, separately, with a view to
determine whether the results were to be attributed to the acid, to the
alkaline base, or to the particular salt formed by their union.

    "One hundred parts of borax may be said to consist of:--

                             Parts
          Boracic Acid,      35.80
          Soda,              16.85
          Water,             47.35

Consequently, 24 fluid ounces of water, holding in solution 1 ounce
(avoirdupois) of borax, will contain about 4.16 per cent of borax, or
0.702 per cent of soda only.

"I first tried the effect of a saturated aqueous solution of boracic
acid with linseed oil. They would not unite. I then prepared some
caustic soda by boiling a solution of carbonate of soda with quicklime,
decanting the clear caustic liquor, evaporating in a silver crucible,
re-dissolving in alcohol, and then distilling the spirit, and heating
the residual pure soda to redness. Even in this state, soda contains 23
per cent of water, and only 77 per cent of _pure anhydrous soda_.

"Ten grains of this soda were dissolved in 1000 grains of distilled
water. But as 10 grains of this soda contained only 7.7 grains of
_anhydrous soda_, the 1000 grains of water would contain just 0.770 per
cent of soda--a quantity that differs very little from that contained in
the saturated aqueous solution of borax.

"Seven measures of the soda solution were added to four measures of
linseed oil. This mixture differed so little in appearance, that it
might have been mistaken by any casual observer as identical with that
produced by a similar proportion of the solution of borax. It had,
however, a more soapy odour; and a considerable separation of its
constituent parts occurred almost immediately after agitation. This
separation increased for many days. The lower liquid was of a foxy brown
colour, and, after a week's repose, it amounted to 38 parts out of 59.
The upper 21 parts were white and saponaceous. I tried other proportions
of soda solutions with oil, but none resembled the results obtained from
solutions of borax with oil.

"Fancying that solutions of the bi-carbonate of soda might be more
analogous to those of the bi-borate of soda in their effects upon oil,
than solutions of caustic soda, I tried many mixtures of solutions of
the bi-carbonate with oil; but they were all dissimilar, in appearance,
odour, and properties, from like mixtures prepared with the bi-borate of
soda."--_Letter from C. Thornton Coathupe, Esq., on Vehicles for
Pigments. Published in the Art Union of February_ 1832.]

[Footnote 8: We are greatly multiplying artists, by "the promise to the
ear," and by our Art-Unions; whether we are like to have such returns to
the Commissioners of the Income-tax as those we have quoted, as a
consequence of our forced and hot-bed encouragement, remains to be seen.
Lord Brougham objects to the railroad mania, on account of the beggary
to be induced when the employment they give rise to is over. When the
ferment of patronage shall again have settled down to a selection of a
few favourites, may we not entertain somewhat similar fears?]




AESTHETICS OF DRESS.

No. IV.


MINOR MATTERS.

It is not to be supposed that a man is to be styled "dressed" when he
has only got a proper coat on his back; something more than this is
necessary ere he can claim a place in the _beau monde_, or can decently
figure in a _bal pare_. There is no one, indeed, but your mere
Hottentot, who considers himself the pink of fashion solely from the
fact of throwing something, more or less becoming, over his shoulders;
though, by the way, we once heard of a <DW64> chief who, in a state of
unclad majesty, clapped a gold-laced cocked-hat on his head, and then
strutted about with an air of intense satisfaction at the result of his
habilimentary effort. He was not a well-dressed man this chief, any more
than our friend the Frenchman in the diligence; but we will tell you
this aesthetic story, gentle reader.

It was our destiny once--as it has been, too, of many a son of
perfidious Albion--to be journeying across the monotonous plains of
Upper Burgundy, _en route_ for the gay capital. 'Twas a summer morn, and
the breezy call of the incense-breathing lady, as Gray the poet calls
her, came delightfully upon our heated forehead, as we pushed down the
four-paned rattling window of that clumsy typefication of slowness,
misnamed a diligence, to escape from the stifling atmosphere of the
_rotonde_. Our fellow-travellers consisted of a couple of greasy,
black-haired, sallow-faced cures, two farmers' wives with a puking child
each, our own portly self, and the sixth passenger. Now, this sixth
individual, who was in reality the eighth Christian immured in this
quasi Black-hole, was one of those nondescript Parisian existences, to
define whom is almost impossible to those who have never witnessed the
animal. He might have been a _commis-voyageur_, or a clerk in the
passport-office, or the keeper of a small cafe, or an _epicier_, but he
did not look stupid enough for the last. Be this as it may, he was short
rather than tall, lean rather than fat,--in a shabby brown
surtout--smoked and took snuff--had been in Dauphine--thought the
Germans a set of European Chinese--considered a national guard as the
model of a good soldier--kept spitting out of the window from time to
time--stretched his legs most inconveniently against ours--tied his head
up at dark in a dirty bird's-eye blue cotton _mouchoir-de-poche_, and
snored throughout the night. He told us that he had not washed or shaved
himself since leaving Lyons, two days before; and in the morning, just
as we were opening the window, Monsieur yawned, stretched, rubbed his
eyes, spat and spoke--"Sacre nom de cochon! Conducteur! conducteur! vous
m'avez donc oublie! il fallait me faire descendre la bas!--la bas! la!
la! nom de Dieu!"--"Plait-il?" said the _conducteur_ as he came round to
the door, taking his pipe out of his mouth, "qu'est ce que vous voulez,
M'sieur?"--"Je vous avais dit qu'il fallait me faire descendre chez M.
Dubois, et maintenant nous voila a----ou sommes-nous, par exemple?"
"Imbecile! il y a encore trois bonnes lieues a la Pissotte!" and the
angry _conducteur_, who had been roused from his sleep, and climbed over
and round the lumbering vehicle to the back-door, now climbed round and
over again to the _banquette_. The sixth passenger squeezed himself back
into the corner, and resumed:--"M. Dubois ne m'attend pas: d'ailleurs je
ne le connais pas: c'est egal; je me nicherai chez lui pour une huitaine
de jours: j'y ferai de bonnes affaires." All this was of course as
unintelligible to the other passengers as it would have been
uninteresting if we had cared to listen to him:--"Puisqu'il peut y avoir
des dames," he went on, "il faut faire ma toilette." So saying, he took
off his pocket-handkerchief from his head, and wiped his face well with
it, yawned a good deal, and spat incontinently; opened his coat, spread
back and jerked down the lapels; shoved his fingers comb-fashion and
comb-colour through his matted hair till it stood up _a la_ Bugaboo; and
then looked round for admiration. "Ah! je l'avais oublie!" he exclaimed.
Upon this he pulled out a large shabby green pocket-book from his coat;
took off a greasy black stock, displaying a collarless shirt and neck,
upon the tinge of which it would be needless to descant, and then
extracting from the pocket-book two curvilinear pieces of dirty white
paper, which had been folded more than once, and had an ink spot or two
on their surface, applied them to his chin, holding their corners in his
mouth, buckled on his stock again over them, adjusted these pseudo
collars by aid of his watch-back, grinned a mile of approbation, and
exclaimed, "Me voila propre!"

It is not enough to be _propre_ in one article of dress only: you must
preserve a certain aesthetical _tournure_, or else set yourself down
among the frampy multitude for ever. This must be our apology, dear
reader, for thus detaining your attention, and for setting before you
"things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme," which may tend, if properly
applied, to the inappreciable beautification of your own valuable
person. Descend we therefore from the head and trunk of man--a curious
bathos--to his understandings and unmentionables; you know what we mean.
And herein, as in duty bound, draw we a distinction. "We know how to
call all the drawers by name," (if we may so take a liberty with friend
William's prose;) and let us therefore premise that we shall notice the
unmentionable trews, _femoralia_, or _periscelemata_--as the Greeks
would probably have called them, only they wore them not, but like
Highland laddies preferred their own hides--of the virile portion of the
community only. As for those tantalizing appendages of the better
portion of her Majesty's subjects, we leave them in their proper
concealment. We could easily write a volume or two to show that the
custom came on Ormus, or Ind, or Araby the Blest; but criticism would
not be tolerated, and besides--

            ----"Levius fit patientia
    Quidquid corrigere est nefas."
    "On s accoutume a tout!"

Go, therefore, aesthetic reader, to Trajan's column at Rome, and amid the
barbaric costumes which adorn it, you will find the prototype of the
modern trouser. Or you need not travel so much out of your way. In the
Townley Gallery there is the figure of Mithras with a fashionable
pantaloon on his legs; and in the Louvre there are two or three
disconsolate-looking barbaric captives, with their trousers flapping
about their shins, and tied round their ankles: these are the originals
of our modern what-d'ye-call'ems. As for the good old buckskins of our
venerated grandsires and governors, they arose in Roman times.
Field-marshal Julius Caesar wore something very near of kin to them under
his military kilt, in that pretty little skirmish wherein he first had
the honour of exchanging stones and darts with our British ancestors;
and from those days down to the present time has this garment maintained
its ground, and proved its utility, with undying pertinacity. Now, we do
not approve of the barbaric trews: that tying of them round the ankles,
though it kept out the cold, was decidedly a Sawney practice: it
militated against the curves of the leg, and destroyed all firmness and
dignity of gait. Far better was the fashion of the middle ages, when the
trouser became a real pantaloon--_a pantalon_ collant, as modern artists
call it, and when the full symmetry of the limb was displayed to the
utmost advantage. This was, no doubt, the acme of perfection that the
garment in question was capable of; and it is to be lamented that the
mode has not kept its position in society more universally. For all
purposes of ceremonial or ornamental dress, this form should still be
rigidly adhered to. Utility and ornament here go hand in hand, or rather
inside each other. No disguisement of natural form is attempted; and a
man's appearance is judged of at its true value. The tight pantaloon is
at once simple, useful, and beautiful. So far for its form. But there is
an immense difficulty in the choice of its substance. If too elastic,
the knee will soon make for itself one of those provoking pudding-bags
that have tended, more than any thing else, to bring the fashion into
disfavour. If too rigid and too frail, you know the catastrophe! We
still remember the case of a fat friend of ours at a fancy-ball! British
manufacturing ingenuity should bestir itself to invent a stuff fit for
satisfactorily solving this vestimental problem of the greatest strain;
and the pantaloon might then once more resume its paramount sway. To
revert to the old buckskin: it is a perfectly respectable, useful, and
satisfactory affair for the purposes to which it is now applied, and
worn with a stout top-boot, and thrown over the side of a gallant horse,
has no superior in the world. It is also a very good thing to put on if
you are going to a new tailor's in town, especially if you can write
Harkaway Hall as your address. The man will set you down for a real
country-squire, and will give you tick for the next twenty years. But if
you want to avoid having your pocket picked, don't wear buckskins as you
go along Piccadilly; buckskins and tops, on foot, are so truly Arcadian
in their appearance, that the swell mob cannot resist the temptation,
and you are pretty sure to be victimized. As for the unmeaning black
things worn with white silk stockings on court-days, and gloried in by
all the beaux of the eighteenth century, they ought to be sent to the
right-about as neither useful nor becoming. It may be all very well for
Spanish matadors and Castilian dancers to wear them; but they were
originally intended to have boots beneath them--so Charles I. wore them
until he borrowed a foolish fashion from France--and from the very cut
and nature of them, they should be worn so still, or abandoned
altogether. We quarrel with them, not on the score of form so much as on
that of inutility and undue contrast of colour. If the thing be dark,
and the stocking light, an effect of cleanliness is attained; but the
magpie appearance immediately prevails. The case is the same as that of
a white waistcoat and a black coat; too glaring, _trop prononce_. If
they are both of the same colour, then the tight and continuous
pantaloon is far more reasonable and becoming, and, for use, any thing
else is better--_experto crede_. The only exception in its favour that
we can make, is for the sportsman and the farmer; for him who joins on a
stout legging or a gaiter, whether of cloth or leather; or, if you wish
to do a bit of Jerry Hawthorn to some friend's Tom or Logic, here is
your garment _de rigueur_;--put on your leggings, your green coats, and
your white hat, and you are complete; but unless you wish to be mistaken
for your friend's butler, or a waiter from your club, do not venture on
the black _culotte_.

The trouser, then--the modern trouser--what are we to say of this? Why,
that it is the most useful, the most comfortable, the most economical,
and one of the least ugly garments ever invented by man. We almost
remember the day, dear reader, when as yet trousers were among the great
unborn; it was only the Duke, and those dashing fellows at his heels,
who imported the idea, we believe from Germany originally, though _they_
used it in the Peninsula. After the battle of Waterloo, no man of any
spirit at all ever wore any thing else for common use. It existed,
certainly, among our honest tars long previously to this epoch; but the
_fashion_ did not come from them; the rage originated with the
Peninsular troops, and was confirmed by the examples of the brilliant
staffs that accompanied the Allied sovereigns to this country in 1814.
It is true that the trouser did not assume its definite and rational
form, such as it now has, all at once; it went through a round of
vagaries indicative of a most diseased state of public taste. At one
time it was all _a la Cosaque_, and you might have made a greatcoat out
of a pair; at another, it was half up the leg, and more than two feet in
circumference; by degrees it got strapped down and cut away into a
sensible kind of shape; and now it has attained the _juste milieu_,
making a happy compromise between the tight symmetry of the pantaloon,
and the flaunting of the sailor's ducks. An immense step in the
improvement of this garment has been made by the introduction of all
that beautiful variety of plaids, and checked patterns, which are so
commonly used; those in wool for winter wear are truly delightful; while
for summer use, the trouser recommends itself to our untiring favour by
the multiplicity of soft light substances which are every where
employed. The trouser is to the pantaloon as the foraging cap is to the
hat--good for all kinds of use, and likely to remain so for an
indefinite period; good for all ranks and for all ages. One canon,
however, should be laid down as to the cut:--no pockets should be
tolerated on any account whatever: they make a man look like a Yankee.
'Tis the most slovenly custom on earth to keep your hands in your
pockets--you deserve to have them sewed in if you indulge in it. And
therefore, to avoid this disagreeable penalty, have your pockets sewed
up.

The next step downwards in the scale of dress brings us to the basis,
foundation, and understanding of mankind--we mean boots and shoes; and
here, being approvers of both "men and women's concise recti," as old
Joe used to say, we must give a word of advice to both sexes; and ye who
groan under the torments of corns, ("bunions" is a nasty word, we always
think of onions when we hear it,) attend to our dictum. If any thing
imperatively demands that utility should be consulted before ornament in
its construction, it is the covering of the foot; whoever goes hunting
in a dancing-pump is a fool, and whoever dances in a shooting-shoe is a
clodhopper. There can be no doubt that the human mind speedily adopted
normal rules of design when first the idea of protecting the foot was
started in the world--and, on the whole, less absurdity has been
evidenced in the pedal integuments than in most other matters of dress.
The old tragic buskin, and the comic sock, the military sandal,
_caliga_, and boot, all did their duty excellently in ancient times: we
have not a word of reproach for them--and their successors in the middle
ages acquitted themselves of their duties in a tolerably satisfactory
manner, though not without some curious flights of fancy. Thus the cross
gartering of the Saxon buskin, boots, or gaiter, or whatever else it
might have been, looks to us truly absurd and uncomfortable, judging
from the caricatured figures of ancient MSS.; but the peaked and tied-up
points of the 14th century, when the toe was fastened to the knee,
strikes us as the _ne plus ultra_ of human folly. How Richard II.'s
courtiers must have gone slopping and spirting about in the mud that
befouled their streets as well as ours! What queer figures they must
have cut on horseback in a rainy day, with the water running off from
the pendulous tips of their shoes! Nevertheless, there was something
good in the arrangement of the upper part of the shoe or half-boot of
those times, and even of earlier days, as any one who reads the
_Art-Union_, or who knows the history of British costume, can tell. It
formed an appropriate termination to the tightly-dressed limb; and when
not too much pointed, prolonged the natural shape of the foot into a
gracefully-curving support. Shoes, in the present sense of the term,
were not then worn: every thing was limited to the elastic half-boots:
but for the huntsman or the horseman, not armed for the tented field, a
sort of brown leather boot coming up to the knee was in common use. This
had no falling tops, and was far removed from the ridiculous Spanish
boot of after days. It was a plain and useful servant to the cavalier,
and became him much better than the ponderous jack-boot of later times.
It is to the Spaniards that we are indebted, if "indebted" be a suitable
term, for the wide-topped falling boot of the sixteenth century; that
inconvenient, no-service thing--good for the stage-players, fancy-ball
men, and fellows like old Hudibras, who crammed a portable larder and
wardrobe into its unfathomable recesses; but for the rough-riding
horseman or the active hunter, a nuisance beyond all description. Boots
such as these may look admirably well in pictures; for when delineated
by a Vandyke, any thing would become graceful; but for actual practice,
they would serve only to catch the rain, and to gall the legs of the
wearer. Their descendant, the top-boot, has reformed itself wonderfully,
and nearly all the inconvenience has been got rid of. Still, the brown
colour of the top, which is no longer the inside of the boot turned
down, as it was once, is an anomaly, and the boot itself ought to be
merged in the plain single- boot which is now much used on the
Continent, though in England patronized only by the Meltonians. For
positive use, the boot ought to come up fully to, or above, the knee, in
order to stand the wear and pressure of the saddle; but for ornament, it
may well be allowed to rise only partially up the leg, and to be, in
short, the beautiful Hessian or Hungarian boot--far the most graceful
covering ever put on the leg of a modern European. That such a truly
elegant boot, so gentlemanlike, so dressy, and yet so thoroughly
serviceable, should ever have gone out of fashion, is to us a
melancholy, though not a needed, proof of the sheer caprice by which
men's fancies are commonly swayed. We suspect, however, that if any
cause more ostensible than mere accident can be alleged for this change,
it is to be traced to some knock-knee'd or spindle-shanked fellow, who
was ashamed to show his mis-shapen legs, and therefore concealed them in
loose trousers. These boots, it is true, were not so well calculated for
campaigning as the smaller ones which still bear the great man's name;
and this may have had something to do with their disuse; nevertheless
the change is to be lamented aesthetically, for the perfect union of
utility and ornament was never so well exemplified as in the Hessian
boot.

With all due respect to the dancing world, or to the world of
dancing-masters, we beg leave to anathematize the light shoe or pump; it
is an ugly, inconvenient, unsuitable thing, fit for a man with a white
waistcoat, gold chain, knee-breeches, &c., but not for a gentleman. The
true aesthetical article is either the elastic half-boot of the middle
ages; fitting on to the pantaloon, or else the thin Wellington boot of
the present day under the trousers. We do not care to see your ribbed
and open-worked silk stockings; such display is not for the sterner sex;
even in his highest moments of ornament, a man should always bear about
him a trace of the useful. To illustrate what we mean--a man is not born
to be a dancing-master, nor a tavern-waiter; a gentleman, more
especially, is intended, from the moment he can run alone, to be ready
for feats of gallantry and hardihood. He should dress accordingly; and,
as a fundamental rule, the reason for which lies deeper than most people
think, a gentleman should always be so attired as that, if occasion
demands, he should be able to mount a horse on the instant and ride for
his life. Now, your modern exquisite in pumps, or your old beau of the
last century in high red-heeled shoes, could do nothing of the kind
without much previous preparation; and we take it to be a sign of their
degenerating manhood. Nine-tenths of the men who take pleasure in shoes
and pumps, are but tailors on horseback; and the old fox-hunter, or the
old dragoon, (good types both in their way of what a man should be,)
love their boots next to their bottle. A slipper and a dressing-gown are
excellent companions, agree well together, and never give their master a
moment's uneasiness; hence their value; similarly, a stout high-low and
a good leathern legging, buttoned well over the ankle beneath, and the
knee above, will carry a man through heather or gorse, on foot or on
horseback, and will prove "marvellous good wear;" they ought to be, as
indeed they commonly are, dear friends to "whoever loves his country."

As for the ladies, truly we have little to say; they have always done
pretty well in the matter of their feet. For them shoes are
indispensably necessary, and, indeed, highly appropriate and
becoming--so, too, are half-boots--and, fixed between these limits, the
fair sex never have gone, nor, perhaps, can go, far astray. The nearer
they keep to the form of nature in the clothing of their feet the
better--it is a rule as true as the day, that a woman can seldom, if
ever, artificially _improve_ her form. But there is one curious
circumstance connected with ladies' shoes, which, it appears, our fair
countrywomen are not competent judges of--at least we appeal to every
man in England not beyond his grand climacteric, and with two eyes in
his head, for the correctness of our views in what we are going to
assert:--a lady's shoe, worn with crossing sandals, gently curving over
the instep and round the ankle, is immeasurably superior to the plain,
quaker-like, old-maid affair, worn with the old-fashioned tie or button.
Did women but know how much these slender lines of riband add to their
appearance, how well the contrast sets off the anatomical beauties of
their feet, they would never put on a shoe without such an appendage. In
the same way, the nicely fitted boot, displaying the exact form of the
arching foot, and deliciously-contrasted in colour with the robe or
stocking, gives a prestige to a lady's foot, which can only be compared
to the effect produced by the Hessian boot upon their lords and masters.
We have nothing to say against the prevailing fashion of ladies'
_chaussures_ worn--even down to the clog and pattern, every thing is
elegant, every thing is proportionably useful.

One hint let us give to all. The secret of a well-fitting shoe, or
rather of a good-looking shoe--and it is upon this principle that all
French shoemakers proceed, but all English cobblers do not--is, that it
should be much longer than the foot itself--at least an inch or an inch
and a half longer. And for these two reasons: first, that, since a
squat, broad, dumpy foot is much uglier than a long thin one, therefore
you may always diminish the _appearance_ of breadth, by adding to the
_reality_ of length; and next, that when the shoe is long, the toes have
plenty of room, and commonly 'tis here that "the shoe pinches." No one
has corns on his heels or the sides of his feet, let his shoes or boots
be as narrow as he can well bear them: it is upon those poor, pent up,
imprisoned, distorted joints of the toes, that the rubs of the world
come, and that the corning process goes on. If you would cure yourself,
reader, of the most obdurate corn, or if you would guarantee your
children from ever having any, let them, and do you yourself, wear
French _chaussures_; or else have the boots, &c., made fitting well to
the foot at the side, and with exactly one inch, at the least, to spare
in length, when standing in them. We'll bet you a hundred to one on the
result: and you may ask any _cordonnier_ in the Rue de Richelieu.

English shoemakers, be it observed, are nearly a century behind their
Gallic brethren in the craft; they work more clumsily--with less art,
less means, and less desire to please; they have no invention in the
higher parts of their science, and they are abominably dear. We do not
wish to disparage any thing in our native country--far from it; but take
the hint, gentle reader; whatever your friends may say about it, always
buy a French shoe or boot in preference to an English one; if of equal
quality, the cut of the French is sure to be better; if not quite so
strong, yet the goodness of the fit makes the thing wear longer. Above
all, whenever you go to Paris, lay in as large a stock of these things
as your purse will allow; they never get worse for age, and they are
cheaper and better there than in any other part of the world. The next
time you meet us in the Park, we'll show you a pair of boots made for us
by Legrand in 1841, which we have ridden in and walked in now three
winters; there is not a crack in them; they, like their master, have
never lost their _soles_, (we can't say so much for our _hearts_,) they
fit us like our own skin, and they cost less than a pound sterling.
_Dear_ old Hoby may go and hang himself!

From the regions of mud, dust, leather, and blacking, we will now
reascend to the higher localities of the human person, and will fasten
ourselves round the reader's neck. Do not be alarmed, we only want to
_catch_ your attention; we will not extend the word to any thing else.
Here, too, ladies are exemplified by their especial privilege from our
impudent scrutiny; their necks when unadorned are adorned the most; if
they are cold, let them put on their boas, or a _fichu_, or muffle up
with their shawls; let them eschew all false collars, let them delight
in good lace, and the matter is settled. But for a man with a bad tie!
we could take him by the throat and throttle him! Here it is our duty
freely to declare our candid opinion, that Beau Brummell and George IV.
were not benefactors to the human race by introducing stiff cravattes
and endless swathes of linen round the region of jugular veins and
carotid arteries; if a man wishes to be comfortable any where, it is
surely in his neck; let old gentlemen with scrofulous chins muffle
themselves up to suffocation if they please, but why should we, who have
nothing the matter with us, and wish to turn our heads _ad libitum_, be
thus girt about and half stifled? Our climate, no doubt, requires some
protection for the neck, and while beards are not worn, a cravat of some
kind or other may be said to be necessary; but if comfort and use can be
combined with elegance and good taste, and yet the old starched thing
got rid of, so much the better. Let us remark, therefore, that we have
done wrong in quitting the fashion of the seventeenth century as to
cravats; we have adopted a stiff and a common material, and we have lost
all opportunity of enjoyment, as well as of ornament. If you ever
indulge in a white choker, good reader, only reflect for a minute on
what you have round your neck--a yard and a half of stuff, the intrinsic
value of which may be a couple of shillings, _plus_ a pennyworth of
starch, _plus_ a neck as thick as an elephant's leg, and as stiff as a
door-post, _minus_ all grace, _minus_ all comfort. But go and look at
the Second Charles at Hampton Court--see how the merry monarch managed
his neck on gala-days. You will observe that he had half a yard of the
finest cambric, as soft as a zephyr, and as warm as swan's-down, tied
once round; and ending before in long deep borders of the most precious
Mechlin lace, worth a guinea or two a-yard, falling gracefully on his
breast, or placed for convenience into a fold of his coat. How much more
sensible, how much more ornamental, how much more noble, such a scarf or
cravat as this, which no shopman's boy could emulate, than the cheap and
ugly thing in which many a man still seems to delight! How admirably did
these bands of rich lace contrast with the silken coats or the polished
cuirasses of their wearers! how truly aristocratic was their appearance!
how entirely without effort, without pretension, and yet how very
distinctive of the type of their wearer! But you will say, if we fail in
the matter of white cravats, surely we excel in that of black-silk ones
and brocaded stocks! We _might_ excel, we allow; but we do not know how
to wear these things. We ought either to limit ourselves to the smallest
possible bow in front, or else we ought to let the square ends of the
scarf be pendant and unconfined. Instead of this, we either put on a
stock with a sham tie, (now all _sham_ things, of what kind soever,
militate against good taste,) or else, to make the most of our scarf, we
fill up the aperture of the waistcoat with an ambitious quantity of
drapery, and we stick therein an enormous and obtrusively ostentatious
pin. This is both vulgar and foolish. If we want a stock, it should be
_perfectly plain--a la militaire_, for it is, in truth, an article of
military attire, worn for the express purpose of giving stiffness and
smartness to the figure. If we want a scarf, do not let us misconceive
the nature of its form, the law of its curves, and huddle it up into an
untidy, unmeaning mass, fit for nothing but to serve as a field of
display for what is commonly cheap and bad jewellery. We may be wrong,
but we strongly suspect that the tie-stock and the large silk scarf were
brought into use by some dirty fellow, whose linens would not stand the
test of public examination; and, indeed, whenever we see a man more than
usually adorned in this way about the neck, we conjecture that all is
not right beneath. A small black or judiciously  cravat, with a
very small bow, and just sufficient stiffness to give dignity to the
head--this should be the morning wear of the real gentleman; in the
evening, let him put on the finest fabric of the flax-loom, and the most
expensive lace he can afford to purchase--they will be very becoming,
and will be duly appreciated by the ladies, who know the cost of such
things; all silks and stocks let him leave to men-milliners.

Which side are we to take in the collar question--ups, or downs, or none
at all? We confess ourselves to be practically in a dilemma; although,
aesthetically speaking--and, indeed, from motives of comfort--we have no
hesitation in saying, turn down your collars; they never were meant to
be turned up. But it is now become so much of a French and English
affair, that we shall be suspected of want of patriotism if we do not
say, keep up your collars, and uphold the national dignity! As for the
no-collar view of the subject, much may be said for and against it: it
depends a good deal on your complexion, reader, and also on the colour
of your cravat. If you have got on your cambric and your lace, you need
no further contrast for your physiognomical tint; but if you are wearing
a black kerchief, and you are of a bilious brown and yellow hue, pray
let us see half an inch, at least, of white beneath the lower jawbone.
This point of contrast is the real reason why the collar should, as a
matter of taste, be allowed to lie down on the cravat. It produces
greater effect--it looks cleaner--it is certainly more comfortable. If
the majority of freeborn Englishmen shall ever so far surmount their
prejudices as to take a hint from France, (for 'tis an invention of _la
jeune France_,) we will walk over from our side of the house, and, in
face of the nation and our constituents, will join them.

Collars are connected with wristbands just as the two ends of the
electric telegraph are by the communicating wires, and the satisfactory
intelligence disclosed by the one, that the wearer is a good friend to
his laundress, is, or should be, simultaneously repeated by the other.
Believe us, reader, there is no more distinctive mark of a correct man
than a snowy-white wristband, _always_ to be visible. Here again we must
establish another aesthetical rule of proportion, viz. collars are to
wristbands as laced cravats are to ruffles; and therefore, if you decide
upon taking our advice and indulging in Brussels lace while you sip your
claret, you must also buy lace enough to adorn your wrists, and you will
not repent of the expense or the effect. It is, in truth, a pretty and a
graceful fashion, which, for evening dress, should entirely be
re-introduced, and we anticipate that the ladies would be unanimous in
their approbation.

A few more words on odds and ends of dress, and we have done with civil
costume. Always keep yourself well supplied with gloves; wear them
neither of a blue, nor yet of a green, nor even of a red colour: any
other kind of tint you may, under various circumstances, indulge in.
Always use white, and the finest cambric, pocket-handkerchiefs: you can
thus neither take snuff, nor avoid using a considerable number; do not
regret the expense--the ladies will reward you with their approbation,
and you cannot be mistaken for an American. Whether you be male or
female, gentle reader, do not wear much jewellery--beware of being taken
for one of the swell-mob and the doubtfuls; but if you are a lady, and
wish for jewellery in the evening, choose between pearls and diamonds;
better have a few of these, and good, than whole caskets of topazes and
amethysts. If you are a gentleman, wear only two rings--one for your
lady-love, the other for your armorial bearings--if you have a gold
chain to your watch, keep it, but the less you show of it the better.
Avoid a foolish custom now springing up, of fastening the coat with a
couple of supplementary buttons, attached by a metallic link. This is
the trick of some scoundrel tailor, who sent home a coat too small for
the wearer, and thus persuaded him (he must have been an ass) to tie two
buttons together, and so make both ends meet. It will do very well for a
commercial gent, but not for a gentleman. We need hardly say, be not
fine on a Sunday: dress plainer then than usual, if you would maintain
your dignity; and be not ashamed of an old coat--only let it be clean,
_portez-le bien, soyez bien chausse, bien gante, bien coiffe et vous
n'aurez jamais l'air d'un bourgeois_. Above all things, whether you be
man, woman, or child, remember, that the more you approximate to
uniformity of colour for the whole of your dress, the better. Whether
you prefer white to black, blue to green, or brown to red, no matter.
Stick to the law of aesthetic unity--retain natural and undisguised
contour, breadth and mellowness of colour, ease and dignity of movement,
and you will approximate to perfection.




SUSPIRIA DE PROFUNDIS: BEING A SEQUEL TO THE CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH
OPIUM-EATER.

PART I. CONCLUDED.


THE PALIMPSEST.

You know perhaps, masculine reader, better than I can tell you, what is
a _Palimpsest_. Possibly you have one in your own library. But yet, for
the sake of others who may _not_ know, or may have forgotten, suffer me
to explain it here: lest any female reader, who honours these papers
with her notice, should tax me with explaining it once too seldom; which
would be worse to bear than a simultaneous complaint from twelve proud
men, that I had explained it three times too often. You therefore, fair
reader, understand that for _your_ accommodation exclusively, I explain
the meaning of this word. It is Greek; and our sex enjoys the office and
privilege of standing counsel to yours, in all questions of Greek. We
are, under favour, perpetual and hereditary dragomans to you. So that
if, by accident, you know the meaning of a Greek word, yet by courtesy
to us, your counsel learned in that matter, you will always seem _not_
to know it.

A palimpsest, then, is a membrane or roll cleansed of its manuscript by
reiterated successions.

What was the reason that the Greeks and the Romans had not the advantage
of printed books? The answer will be, on ninety-nine persons in a
hundred--Because the mystery of printing was not then discovered. But
this is altogether a mistake. The secret of printing must have been
discovered many thousands of times before it was used, or _could_ be
used. The inventive powers of man are divine; and also his stupidity is
divine--as Cowper so playfully illustrates in the slow development of
the _sofa_ through successive generations of immortal dulness. It took
centuries of blockheads to raise a joint stool into a chair; and it
required something like a miracle of genius, in the estimate of elder
generations, to reveal the possibility of lengthening a chair into a
_chaise-longue_, or a sofa. Yes, these were inventions that cost mighty
throes of intellectual power. But still, as respects printing, and
admirable as is the stupidity of man, it was really not quite equal to
the task of evading an object which stared him in the face with so broad
a gaze. It did not require an Athenian intellect to read the main secret
of printing in many scores of processes which the ordinary uses of life
were _daily_ repeating. To say nothing of analogous artifices amongst
various mechanic artisans, all that is essential in printing must have
been known to every nation that struck coins and medals. Not, therefore,
any want of a printing art--that is, of an art for multiplying
impressions--but the want of a cheap material for _receiving_ such
impressions, was the obstacle to an introduction of printed books even
as early as Pisistratus. The ancients _did_ apply printing to records of
silver and gold; to marble and many other substances cheaper than gold
and silver, they did _not_, since each monument required a _separate_
effort of inscription. Simply this defect it was of a cheap material for
receiving impresses, which froze in its very fountains the early
resources of printing.

Some twenty years ago, this view of the case was luminously expounded by
Dr Whately, the present archbishop of Dublin, and with the merit, I
believe, of having first suggested it. Since then, this theory has
received indirect confirmation. Now, out of that original scarcity
affecting all materials proper for durable books, which continued up to
times comparatively modern, grew the opening for palimpsests. Naturally,
when once a roll of parchment or of vellum had done its office, by
propagating through a series of generations what once had possessed an
interest for _them_, but which, under changes of opinion or of taste,
had faded to their feelings or had become obsolete for their
understandings, the whole _membrana_ or vellum skin, the twofold product
of human skill, costly material, and costly freight of thought, which it
carried, drooped in value concurrently--supposing that each were
inalienably associated to the other. Once it had been the impress of a
human mind which stamped its value upon the vellum; the vellum, though
costly, had contributed but a secondary element of value to the total
result. At length, however, this relation between the vehicle and its
freight has gradually been undermined. The vellum, from having been the
setting of the jewel, has risen at length to be the jewel itself; and
the burden of thought, from having given the chief value to the vellum,
has now become the chief obstacle to its value; nay, has totally
extinguished its value, unless it can be dissociated from the connexion.
Yet, if this unlinking _can_ be effected, then--fast as the inscription
upon the membrane is sinking into rubbish--the membrane itself is
reviving in its separate importance; and, from bearing a ministerial
value, the vellum has come at last to absorb the whole value.

Hence the importance for our ancestors that the separation _should_ be
effected. Hence it arose in the middle ages, as a considerable object
for chemistry, to discharge the writing from the roll, and thus to make
it available for a new succession of thoughts. The soil, if cleansed
from what once had been hot-house plants, but now were held to be weeds,
would be ready to receive a fresh and more appropriate crop. In that
object the monkish chemists succeeded; but after fashion which seems
almost incredible; incredible not as regards the extent of their
success, but as regards the delicacy of restraints under which it moved;
so equally adjusted was their success to the immediate interests of that
period, and to the reversionary interests of our own. They did the
thing; but not so radically as to prevent us, their posterity, from
_un_doing it. They expelled the writing sufficiently to leave a field
for the new manuscript, and yet not sufficiently to make the traces of
the elder manuscript irrecoverable for us. Could magic, could Hermes
Trismegistus, have done more? What would you think, fair reader, of a
problem such as this--to write a book which should be sense for your own
generation, nonsense for the next, should revive into sense for the next
after that, but again became nonsense for the fourth; and so on by
alternate successions, sinking into night or blazing into day, like the
Sicilian river Arethusa, and the English river Mole--or like the
undulating motions of a flattened stone which children cause to skim the
breast of a river, now diving below the water, now grazing its surface,
sinking heavily into darkness, rising buoyantly into light, through a
long vista of alternations? Such a problem, you say, is impossible. But
really it is a problem not harder apparently than--to bid a generation
kill, but so that a subsequent generation may call back into life; bury,
but so that posterity may command to rise again. Yet _that_ was what the
rude chemistry of past ages effected when coming into combination with
the reaction from the more refined chemistry of our own. Had _they_ been
better chemists, had _we_ been worse--the mixed result, viz. that, dying
for _them_, the flower should revive for _us_, could not have been
effected: They did the thing proposed to them: they did it effectually;
for they founded upon it all that was wanted: and yet ineffectually,
since we unravelled their work; effacing all above which they had
superscribed; restoring all below which they had effaced.

Here, for instance, is a parchment which contained some Grecian tragedy,
the Agamemnon of AEschylus, or the Phoenissae of Euripides. This had
possessed a value almost inappreciable in the eyes of accomplished
scholars, continually growing rarer through generations. But four
centuries are gone by since the destruction of the Western Empire.
Christianity, with towering grandeurs of another class, has founded a
different empire; and some bigoted yet perhaps holy monk has washed away
(as he persuades himself) the heathen's tragedy, replacing it with a
monastic legend; which legend is disfigured with fables in its
incidents, and yet, in a higher sense, is true, because interwoven with
Christian morals and with the sublimest of Christian revelations. Three,
four, five, centuries more find man still devout as ever; but the
language has become obsolete, and even for Christian devotion a new era
has arisen, throwing it into the channel of crusading zeal or of
chivalrous enthusiasm. The _membrana_ is wanted now for a knightly
romance--for "my Cid," or Coeur de Lion; for Sir Tristrem, or Lybaeus
Disconus. In this way, by means of the imperfect chemistry known to the
mediaeval period, the same roll has served as a conservatory for three
separate generations of flowers and fruits, all perfectly different, and
yet all specially adapted to the wants of the successive possessors. The
Greek tragedy, the monkish legend, the knightly romance, each has ruled
its own period. One harvest after another has been gathered into the
garners of man through ages far apart. And the same hydraulic machinery
has distributed, through the same marble fountains, water, milk, or
wine, according to the habits and training of the generations that came
to quench their thirst.

Such were the achievements of rude monastic chemistry. But the more
elaborate chemistry of our own days has reversed all these motions of
our simple ancestors, with results in every stage that to _them_ would
have realized the most fantastic amongst the promises of thaumaturgy.
Insolent vaunt of Paracelsus, that he would restore the original rose or
violet out of the ashes settling from its combustion--_that_ is now
rivalled in this modern achievement. The traces of each successive
handwriting, regularly effaced, as had been imagined, have, in the
inverse order, been regularly called back: the footsteps of the game
pursued, wolf or stag, in each several chase, have been unlinked, and
hunted back through all their doubles; and, as the chorus of the
Athenian stage unwove through the antistrophe every step that had been
mystically woven through the strophe, so, by our modern conjurations of
science, secrets of ages remote from each other have been exorcised[9]
from the accumulated shadows of centuries. Chemistry, a witch as potent
as the Erictho of Lucan, (_Pharsalia_, lib. vi. or vii.,) has extorted
by her torments, from the dust and ashes of forgotten centuries, the
secrets of a life extinct for the general eye, but still glowing in the
embers. Even the fable of the Phoenix--that secular bird, who
propagated his solitary existence, and his solitary births, along the
line of centuries, through eternal relays of funeral mists--is but a
type of what we have done with Palimpsests. We have backed upon each
Phoenix in the long _regressus_, and forced him to expose his ancestral
Phoenix, sleeping in the ashes below his own ashes. Our good old
forefathers would have been aghast at our sorceries; and, if they
speculated on the propriety of burning Dr Faustus, _us_ they would have
burned by acclamation. Trial there would have been none; and they could
no otherwise have satisfied their horror of the brazen profligacy
marking our modern magic, than by ploughing up the houses of all who had
been parties to it, and sowing the ground with salt.

Fancy not, reader, that this tumult of images, illustrative or allusive,
moves under any impulse or purpose of mirth. It is but the coruscation
of a restless understanding, often made ten times more so by irritation
of the nerves, such as you will first learn to comprehend (its _how_ and
its _why_) some stage or two ahead. The image, the memorial, the record,
which for me is derived from a palimpsest, as to one great fact in our
human being, and which immediately I will show you, is but too repellent
of laughter; or, even if laughter _had_ been possible, it would have
been such laughter as often times is thrown off from the fields of
ocean[10]--laughter that hides, or that seems to evade mustering
tumult; foam-bells that weave garlands of phosphoric radiance for one
moment round the eddies of gleaming abysses; mimicries of earth-born
flowers that for the eye raise phantoms of gaiety, as oftentimes for the
ear they raise echoes of fugitive laughter, mixing with the ravings and
choir-voices of an angry sea.

What else than a natural and mighty palimpsest is the human brain? Such
a palimpsest is my brain; such a palimpsest, O reader! is yours.
Everlasting layers of ideas, images, feelings, have fallen upon your
brain softly as light. Each succession has seemed to bury all that went
before. And yet in reality not one has been extinguished. And if, in the
vellum palimpsest, lying amongst the other _diplomata_ of human archives
or libraries, there is any thing fantastic or which moves to laughter,
as oftentimes there is in the grotesque collisions of those successive
themes, having no natural connexion, which by pure accident have
consecutively occupied the roll, yet, in our own heaven-created
palimpsest, the deep memorial palimpsest of the brain, there are not and
cannot be such incoherencies. The fleeting accidents of a man's life,
and its external shows, may indeed be irrelate and incongruous; but the
organizing principles which fuse into harmony, and gather about fixed
predetermined centres, whatever heterogeneous elements life may have
accumulated from without, will not permit the grandeur of human unity
greatly to be violated, or its ultimate repose to be troubled in the
retrospect from dying moments, or from other great convulsions.

Such a convulsion is the struggle of gradual suffocation, as in
drowning; and, in the original Opium Confessions, I mentioned a case of
that nature communicated to me by a lady from her own childish
experience. The lady is still living, though now of unusually great age;
and I may mention--that amongst her faults never was numbered any levity
of principle, or carelessness of the most scrupulous veracity; but, on
the contrary, such faults as arise from austerity, too harsh perhaps,
and gloomy--indulgent neither to others nor herself. And, at the time of
relating this incident, when already very old, she had become religious
to asceticism. According to my present belief, she had completed her
ninth year, when playing by the side of a solitary brook, she fell into
one of its deepest pools. Eventually, but after what lapse of time
nobody ever knew, she was saved from death by a farmer, who, riding in
some distant lane, had seen her rise to the surface; but not until she
had descended within the abyss of death, and looked into its secrets, as
far, perhaps, as ever human eye _can_ have looked that had permission to
return. At a certain stage of this descent, a blow seemed to strike
her--phosphoric radiance sprang forth from her eye-balls; and
immediately a mighty theatre expanded within her brain. In a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, every act--every design of her past life lived
again--arraying themselves not as a succession, but as parts of a
coexistence. Such a light fell upon the whole path of her life backwards
into the shades of infancy, as the light perhaps which wrapt the
destined apostle on his road to Damascus. Yet that light blinded for a
season; but hers poured celestial vision upon the brain, so that her
consciousness became omnipresent at one moment to every feature in the
infinite review.

This anecdote was treated sceptically at the time by some critics. But
besides that it has since been confirmed by other experiences
essentially the same, reported by other parties in the same
circumstances who had never heard of each other; the true point for
astonishment is not the _simultaneity_ of arrangement under which the
past events of life--though in fact successive--had formed their dread
line of revelation. This was but a secondary phenomenon; the deeper lay
in the resurrection itself, and the possibility of resurrection, for
what had so long slept in the dust. A pall, deep as oblivion, had been
thrown by life over every trace of these experiences; and yet suddenly,
at a silent command, at the signal of a blazing rocket sent up from the
brain, the pall draws up, and the whole depths of the theatre are
exposed. Here was the greater mystery: now this mystery is liable to no
doubt; for it is repeated, and ten thousand times repeated by opium, for
those who are its martyrs.

Yes, reader, countless are the mysterious handwritings of grief or joy
which have inscribed themselves successively upon the palimpsest of your
brain; and, like the annual leaves of aboriginal forests, or the
undissolving snows on the Himalaya, or light falling upon light, the
endless strata have covered up each other in forgetfulness. But by the
hour of death, but by fever, but by the searchings of opium, all these
can revive in strength. They are not dead, but sleeping. In the
illustration imagined by myself, from the case of some individual
palimpsest, the Grecian tragedy had seemed to be displaced, but was
_not_ displaced, by the monkish legend; and the monkish legend had
seemed to be displaced, but was _not_ displaced, by the knightly
romance. In some potent convulsion of the system, all wheels back into
its earliest elementary stage. The bewildering romance, light tarnished
with darkness, the semi-fabulous legend, truth celestial mixed with
human falsehoods, these fade even of themselves as life advances. The
romance has perished that the young man adored. The legend has gone that
deluded the boy. But the deep deep tragedies of infancy, as when the
child's hands were unlinked for ever from his mother's neck, or his lips
for ever from his sister's kisses, these remain lurking below all, and
these lurk to the last. Alchemy there is none of passion or disease that
can scorch away these immortal impresses. And the dream which closed the
preceding section, together with the succeeding dreams of this, (which
may be viewed as in the nature of choruses winding up the overture
contained in Part I.,) are but illustrations of this truth, such as
every man probably will meet experimentally who passes through similar
convulsions of dreaming or delirium from any similar or equal
disturbance in his nature.[11]


LEVANA AND OUR LADIES OF SORROW.

Oftentimes at Oxford I saw Levana in my dreams. I knew her by her Roman
symbols. Who is Levana? Reader, that do not pretend to have leisure for
very much scholarship, you will not be angry with me for telling you.
Levana was the Roman goddess that performed for the newborn infant the
earliest office of ennobling kindness--typical, by its mode, of that
grandeur which belongs to man every where, and of that benignity in
powers invisible, which even in Pagan worlds sometimes descends to
sustain it. At the very moment of birth, just as the infant tasted for
the first time the atmosphere of our troubled planet, it was laid on the
ground. _That_ might bear different interpretations. But immediately,
lest so grand a creature should grovel there for more than one instant,
either the paternal hand, as proxy for the goddess Levana, or some near
kinsman, as proxy for the father, raised it upright, bade it look erect
as the king of all this world, and presented its forehead to the stars,
saying, perhaps, in his heart--"Behold what is greater than yourselves!"
This symbolic act represented the function of Levana. And that
mysterious lady, who never revealed her face, (except to me in dreams,)
but always acted by delegation, had her name from the Latin verb (as
still it is the Italian verb) _levare_, to raise aloft.

This is the explanation of Levana. And hence it has arisen that some
people have understood by Levana the tutelary power that controls the
education of the nursery. She, that would not suffer at his birth even a
prefigurative or mimic degradation for her awful ward, far less could be
supposed to suffer the real degradation attaching to the non-development
of his powers. She therefore watches over human education. Now, the word
_educo_, with the penultimate short, was derived (by a process often
exemplified in the crystallization of languages) from the word
_educo_, with the penultimate long. Whatsoever _educes_ or
developes--_educates_. By the education of Levana, therefore, is
meant--not the poor machinery that moves by spelling-books and grammars,
but that mighty system of central forces hidden in the deep bosom of
human life, which by passion, by strife, by temptation, by the energies
of resistance, works for ever upon children--resting not day or night,
any more than the mighty wheel of day and night themselves, whose
moments, like restless spokes, are glimmering[12] for ever as they
revolve.

If, then, _these_ are the ministries by which Levana works, how
profoundly must she reverence the agencies of grief! But you, reader!
think--that children generally are not liable to grief such as mine.
There are two senses in the word _generally_--the sense of Euclid where
it means _universally_, (or in the whole extent of the _genus_,) and a
foolish sense of this world where it means _usually_. Now I am far from
saying that children universally are capable of grief like mine. But
there are more than you ever heard of, who die of grief in this island
of ours. I will tell you a common case. The rules of Eton require that a
boy on the _foundation_ should be there twelve years: he is
superannuated at eighteen, consequently he must come at six. Children
torn away from mothers and sisters at that age not unfrequently die. I
speak of what I know. The complaint is not entered by the registrar as
grief; but _that_ it is. Grief of that sort, and at that age, has killed
more than ever have been counted amongst its martyrs.

Therefore it is that Levana often communes with the powers that shake
man's heart: therefore it is that she doats upon grief. "These ladies,"
said I softly to myself, on seeing the ministers with whom Levana was
conversing, "these are the Sorrows; and they are three in number, as the
_Graces_ are three, who dress man's life with beauty; the Parcae are
three, who weave the dark arras of man's life in their mysterious loom
always with colours sad in part, sometimes angry with tragic crimson and
black; the _Furies_ are three, who visit with retributions called on the
other side of the grave offences that walk upon this; and once even the
_Muses_ were but three, who fit the harp, the trumpet, or the lute, to
the great burdens of man's impassioned creations. These are the Sorrows,
all three of whom I know." The last words I say _now_; but in Oxford I
said--"one of whom I know, and the others too surely I _shall_ know."
For already, in my fervent youth, I saw (dimly relieved upon the dark
background of my dreams) the imperfect lineaments of the awful sisters.
These sisters--by what name shall we call them?

If I say simply--"The Sorrows," there will be a chance of mistaking the
term; it might be understood of individual sorrow--separate cases of
sorrow,--whereas I want term expressing the mighty abstractions that
incarnate themselves in all individual sufferings of man's heart; and I
wish to have these abstractions presented as impersonations, that is, as
clothed with human attributes of life, and with functions pointing to
flesh. Let us call them, therefore, _Our Ladies of Sorrow_. I know them
thoroughly, and have walked in all their kingdoms. Three sisters they
are, of one mysterious household; and their paths are wide apart; but of
their dominion there is no end. Them I saw often conversing with Levana,
and sometimes about myself. Do they talk, then? Oh, no! Mighty phantoms
like these disdain the infirmities of language. They may utter voices
through the organs of man when they dwell in human hearts, but amongst
themselves is no voice nor sound--eternal silence reigns in _their_
kingdoms. _They_ spoke not as they talked with Levana. _They_ whispered
not. _They_ sang not. Though oftentimes methought they _might_ have
sung; for I upon earth had heard their mysteries oftentimes deciphered
by harp and timbrel, by dulcimer and organ. Like God, whose servants
they are, they utter their pleasure, not by sounds that perish, or by
words that go astray, but by signs in heaven--by changes on earth--by
pulses in secret rivers--heraldries painted on darkness--and
hieroglyphics written on the tablets of the brain. _They_ wheeled in
mazes; _I_ spelled the steps. _They_ telegraphed from afar; _I_ read the
signals. _They_ conspired together; and on the mirrors of darkness _my_
eye traced the plots. _Theirs_ were the symbols,--_mine_ are the words.

What is it the sisters are? What is it that they do? Let me describe
their form, and their presence; if form it were that still fluctuated in
its outline; or presence it were that for ever advanced to the front, or
for ever receded amongst shades.

The eldest of the three is named _Mater Lachrymarum_, Our Lady of Tears.
She it is that night and day raves and moans, calling for vanished
faces. She stood in Rama, when a voice was heard of lamentation--Rachel
weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted. She it was that
stood in Bethlehem on the night when Herod's sword swept its nurseries
of Innocents, and the little feet were stiffened for ever, which, heard
at times as they tottered along floors overhead, woke pulses of love in
household hearts that were not unmarked in heaven.

Her eyes are sweet and subtle, wild and sleepy by turns; oftentimes
rising to the clouds; oftentimes challenging the heavens. She wears a
diadem round her head. And I knew by childish memories that she could go
abroad upon the winds, when she heard the sobbing of litanies or the
thundering of organs, and when she beheld the mustering of summer
clouds. This sister, the elder, it is that carries keys more than Papal
at her girdle, which open every cottage and every palace. She, to my
knowledge, sate all last summer by the bedside of the blind beggar, him
that so often and so gladly I talked with, whose pious daughter, eight
years old, with the sunny countenance, resisted the temptations of play
and village mirth to travel all day long on dusty roads with her
afflicted father. For this did God send her a great reward. In the
spring-time of the year, and whilst yet her own spring was budding, he
recalled her to himself. But her blind father mourns for ever over
_her_; still he dreams at midnight that the little guiding hand is
locked within his own; and still he wakens to a darkness that is _now_
within a second and a deeper darkness. This _Mater Lachrymarum_ also has
been sitting all this winter of 1844-5 within the bedchamber of the
Czar, bringing before his eyes a daughter (not less pious) that vanished
to God not less suddenly, and left behind her a darkness not less
profound. By the power of her keys it is that Our Lady of Tears glides a
ghostly intruder into the chambers of sleepless men, sleepless women,
sleepless children, from Ganges to the Nile, from Nile to Mississippi.
And her, because she is the first-born of her house, and has the widest
empire, let us honour with the title of "Madonna."

The second sister is called _Mater Suspiriorum_, Our Lady of Sighs. She
never scales the clouds, nor walks abroad upon the winds. She wears no
diadem. And her eyes, if they were ever seen, would be neither sweet nor
subtle; no man could read their story; they would be found filled with
perishing dreams, and with wrecks of forgotten delirium. But she raises
not her eyes; her head, on which sits a dilapidated turban, droops for
ever; for ever fastens on the dust. She weeps not. She groans not. But
she sighs inaudibly at intervals. Her sister, Madonna, is oftentimes
stormy and frantic; raging in the highest against heaven; and demanding
back her darlings. But Our Lady of Sighs never clamours, never defies,
dreams not of rebellious aspirations. She is humble to abjectness. Hers
is the meekness that belongs to the hopeless. Murmur she may, but it is
in her sleep. Whisper she may, but it is to herself in the twilight.
Mutter she does at times, but it is in solitary places that are desolate
as she is desolate, in ruined cities, and when the sun has gone down to
his rest. This sister is the visitor of the Pariah, of the Jew, of the
bondsman to the oar in Mediterranean galleys, of the English criminal in
Norfolk island, blotted out from the books of remembrance in sweet
far-off England, of the baffled penitent reverting his eye for ever upon
a solitary grave, which to him seems the altar overthrown of some past
and bloody sacrifice, on which altar no oblations can now be availing,
whether towards pardon that he might implore, or towards reparation that
he might attempt. Every slave that at noonday looks up to the tropical
sun with timid reproach, as he points with one hand to the earth, our
general mother, but for _him_ a stepmother, as he points with the other
hand to the Bible, our general teacher, but against _him_ sealed and
sequestered;[13]--every woman sitting in darkness, without love to
shelter her head, or hope to illumine her solitude, because the
heaven-born instincts kindling in her nature germs of holy affections,
which God implanted in her womanly bosom, having been stifled by social
necessities, now burn sullenly to waste, like sepulchral lamps amongst
the ancients;--every nun defrauded of her unreturning May-time by wicked
kinsmen, whom God will judge;--every captive in every dungeon;--all that
are betrayed, and all that are rejected; outcasts by traditionary law,
and children of _hereditary_ disgrace--all these walk with "Our Lady of
Sighs." She also carries a key; but she needs it little. For her kingdom
is chiefly amongst the tents of Shem, and the houseless vagrant of every
clime. Yet in the very highest ranks of man she finds chapels of her
own; and even in glorious England there are some that, to the world,
carry their heads as proudly as the reindeer, who yet secretly have
received her mark upon their foreheads.

But the third sister, who is also the youngest----! Hush! whisper,
whilst we talk of _her_! Her kingdom is not large, or else no flesh
should live; but within that kingdom all power is hers. Her head,
turreted like that of Cybele, rises almost beyond the reach of sight.
She droops not; and her eyes rising so high, _might_ be hidden by
distance. But, being what they are, they cannot be hidden; through the
treble veil of crape which she wears, the fierce light of a blazing
misery, that rests not for matins or for vespers--for noon of day or
noon of night--for ebbing or for flowing tide--may be read from the very
ground. She is the defier of God. She also is the mother of lunacies,
and the suggestress of suicides. Deep lie the roots of her power; but
narrow is the nation that she rules. For she can approach only those in
whom a profound nature has been upheaved by central convulsions; in whom
the heart trembles and the brain rocks under conspiracies of tempest
from without and tempest from within. Madonna moves with uncertain
steps, fast or slow, but still with tragic grace. Our Lady of Sighs
creeps timidly and stealthily. But this youngest sister moves with
incalculable motions, bounding, and with a tiger's leaps. She carries no
key; for, though coming rarely amongst men, she storms all doors at
which she is permitted to enter at all. And _her_ name is _Mater
Tenebrarum_--Our Lady of Darkness.

These were the _Semnai Theai_, or Sublime Goddesses[14]--these were the
_Eumenides_, or Gracious Ladies, (so called by antiquity in shuddering
propitiation)--of my Oxford dreams. MADONNA spoke. She spoke by her
mysterious hand. Touching my head, she beckoned to Our Lady of Sighs;
and _what_ she spoke, translated out of the signs which (except in
dreams) no man reads, was this:--

     "Lo! here is he, whom in childhood I dedicated to my altars.
     This is he that once I made my darling. Him I led astray, him I
     beguiled, and from heaven I stole away his young heart to mine.
     Through me did he become idolatrous; and through me it was, by
     languishing desires, that he worshipped the worm, and prayed to
     the wormy grave. Holy was the grave to him; lovely was its
     darkness; saintly its corruption. Him, this young idolater, I
     have seasoned for thee, dear gentle Sister of Sighs! Do thou
     take him now to _thy_ heart, and season him for our dreadful
     sister. And thou"--turning to the _Mater Tenebrarum_, she
     said--"wicked sister, that temptest and hatest, do thou take
     him from _her_. See that thy sceptre lie heavy on his head.
     Suffer not woman and her tenderness to sit near him in his
     darkness. Banish the frailties of hope--wither the relentings
     of love--scorch the fountains of tears: curse him as only thou
     canst curse. So shall he be accomplished in the furnace--so
     shall he see the things that ought _not_ to be seen--sights
     that are abominable, and secrets that are unutterable. So shall
     he read elder truths, sad truths, grand truths, fearful truths.
     So shall he rise again _before_ he dies. And so shall our
     commission be accomplished which from God we had--to plague his
     heart until we had unfolded the capacities of his spirit."[15]


THE APPARITION OF THE BROCKEN.

Ascend with me on this dazzling Whitsunday the Brocken of North Germany.
The dawn opened in cloudless beauty; it is a dawn of bridal June; but,
as the hours advance, her youngest sister April, that sometimes cares
little for racing across both frontiers of May, frets the bridal lady's
sunny temper with sallies of wheeling and careering showers--flying and
pursuing, opening, and closing, hiding and restoring. On such a morning,
and reaching the summits of the forest-mountain about sunrise, we shall
have one chance the more for seeing the famous Spectre of the
Brocken.[16] Who and what is he? He is a solitary apparition, in the
sense of loving solitude; else he is not always solitary in his personal
manifestations, but on proper occasions has been known to unmask a
strength quite sufficient to alarm those who had been insulting him.

Now, in order to test the nature of this mysterious apparition, we will
try two or three experiments upon him. What we fear, and with some
reason, is, that as he lived so many ages with foul Pagan sorcerers, and
witnessed so many centuries of dark idolatries, his heart may have been
corrupted; and that even now his faith may be wavering or impure. We
will try.

Make the sign of the cross, and observe whether he repeats it, (as, on
Whitsunday,[17] he surely ought to do.) Look! he _does_ repeat it; but
the driving showers perplex the images, and _that_, perhaps, it is which
gives him the air of one who acts reluctantly or evasively. Now, again,
the sun shines more brightly, and the showers have swept off like
squadrons of cavalry to the rear. We will try him again.

Pluck an anemone, one of these many anemones which once was called the
sorcerer's flower,[18] and bore a part perhaps in his horrid ritual of
fear; carry it to that stone which mimics the outline of a heathen
altar, and once was called the sorcerer's altar[18]; then, bending your
knee, and raising your right hand to God, say,--"Father, which art in
heaven--this lovely anemone, that once glorified the worship of fear,
has travelled back into thy fold; this altar, which once reeked with
bloody rites to Cortho, has long been rebaptized into thy holy service.
The darkness is gone--the cruelty is gone which the darkness bred; the
moans have passed away which the victims uttered; the cloud has vanished
which once sate continually upon their graves--cloud of protestation
that ascended for ever to thy throne from the tears of the defenceless,
and the anger of the just. And lo! I thy servant, with this dark
phantom, whom, for one hour on this thy festival of Pentecost, I make
_my_ servant, render thee united worship in this thy recovered temple."

Look, now! the apparition plucks an anemone, and places it on an altar;
he also bends his knee, he also raises his right hand to God. Dumb he
is; but sometimes the dumb serve God acceptably. Yet still it occurs to
you, that perhaps on this high festival of the Christian Church, he may
be overruled by supernatural influence into confession of his homage,
having so often been made to bow and bend his knee at murderous rites.
In a service of religion he may be timid. Let us try him, therefore,
with an earthly passion, where he will have no bias either from favour
or from fear.

If, then, once in childhood you suffered an affliction that was
ineffable; If once, when powerless to face such an enemy, you were
summoned to fight with the tiger that couches within the separations of
the grave; in that case, after the example of Judaea (on the Roman
coins)--sitting under her palm-tree to weep, but sitting with her head
veiled--do you also veil your head. Many years are passed away since
then; and you were a little ignorant thing at that time, hardly above
six years old; or perhaps (if you durst tell all the truth) not quite so
much. But your heart was deeper than the Danube; and, as was your love,
so was your grief. Many years are gone since that darkness settled on
your head; many summers, many winters; yet still its shadows wheel round
upon you at intervals, like these April showers upon this glory of
bridal June. Therefore now, on this dovelike morning of Pentecost, do
you veil your head like Judaea in memory of that transcendant woe, and in
testimony that, indeed, it surpassed all utterance of words. Immediately
you see that the apparition of the Brocken veils _his_ head, after the
model of Judaea weeping under her palm-tree, as if he also had a human
heart, and that _he_ also, in childhood, having suffered an affliction
which was ineffable, wished by these mute symbols to breathe a sigh
towards heaven in memory of that affliction, and by way of record,
though many a year after, that it was indeed unutterable by words.

This trial is decisive. You are now satisfied that the apparition is but
a reflex of yourself; and, in uttering your secret feelings to _him_,
you make this phantom the dark symbolic mirror for reflecting to the
daylight what else must be hidden for ever.

Such a relation does the Dark Interpreter, whom immediately the reader
will learn to know as an intruder into my dreams, bear to my own mind.
He is originally a mere reflex of my inner nature. But as the apparition
of the Brocken sometimes is disturbed by storms or by driving showers,
so as to dissemble his real origin, in like manner the Interpreter
sometimes swerves out of my orbit, and mixes a little with alien
natures. I do not always know him in these cases as my own parhelion.
What he says, generally is but that which _I_ have said in daylight, and
in meditation deep enough to sculpture itself on my heart. But
sometimes, as his face alters, his words alter; and they do not always
seem such as I have used, or _could_ use. No man can account for all
things that occur in dreams. Generally I believe this--that he is a
faithful representative of myself; but he also is at times subject to
the action of the god _Phantasus_, who rules in dreams.

Hailstone choruses[19] besides, and storms, enter my dreams. Hailstones
and fire that run along the ground, sleet and blinding hurricanes,
revelations of glory insufferable pursued by volleying darkness--these
are powers able to disturb any features that originally were but shadow,
and to send drifting the anchors of any vessel that rides upon deeps so
treacherous as those of dreams. Understand, however, the Interpreter to
bear generally the office of a tragic chorus at Athens. The Greek chorus
is perhaps not quite understood by critics, any more than the Dark
Interpreter by myself. But the leading function of both must be supposed
this--not to tell you any thing absolutely new, _that_ was done by the
actors in the drama; but to recall you to your own lurking
thoughts--hidden for the moment or imperfectly developed, and to place
before you, in immediate connexion with groups vanishing too quickly for
any effort of meditation on your own part, such commentaries, prophetic
or looking back, pointing the moral or deciphering the mystery,
justifying Providence, or mitigating the fierceness of anguish, as would
or might have occurred to your own meditative heart--had only time been
allowed for its motions.

The Interpreter is anchored and stationary in my dreams; but great
storms and driving mists cause him to fluctuate uncertainly, or even to
retire altogether, like his gloomy counterpart the shy Phantom of the
Brocken--and to assume new features or strange features, as in dreams
always there is a power not contented with reproduction, but which
absolutely creates or transforms. This dark being the reader will see
again in a further stage of my opium experience; and I warn him that he
will not always be found sitting inside my dreams, but at tines outside,
and in open daylight.


FINALE TO PART I.--SAVANNAH-LA-MAR.

God smote Savannah-la-Mar, and in one night, by earthquake, removed her,
with all her towers standing and population sleeping, from the steadfast
foundations of the shore to the coral floors of ocean. And God
said--"Pompeii did I bury and conceal from men through seventeen
centuries: this city I will bury, but not conceal. She shall be a
monument to men of my mysterious anger; set in azure light through
generations to come: for I will enshrine her in a crystal dome of my
tropic seas." This city, therefore, like a mighty galleon with all her
apparel mounted, streamers flying, and tackling perfect, seems floating
along the noiseless depths of ocean: and oftentimes in glassy calms,
through the translucid atmosphere of water that now stretches like an
air-woven awning above the silent encampment, mariners from every clime
look down into her courts and terraces, count her gates, and number the
spires of her churches. She is one ample cemetery, and _has_ been for
many a year; but in the mighty calms that brood for weeks over tropic
latitudes, she fascinates the eye with a _Fata-Morgana_ revelation, as
of human life still subsisting in submarine asylums sacred from the
storms that torment our upper air.

Thither, lured by the loveliness of cerulean depths, by the peace of
human dwellings privileged from molestation, by the gleam of marble
altars sleeping in everlasting sanctity, oftentimes in dreams did I and
the dark Interpreter cleave the watery veil that divided us from her
streets. We looked into the belfries, where the pendulous bells were
waiting in vain for the summons which should awaken their marriage
peals; together we touched the mighty organ keys, that sang no
_jubilates_ for the ear of Heaven--that sang no requiems for the ear of
human sorrow; together we searched the silent nurseries, where the
children were all asleep, and _had_ been asleep through five
generations. "They are waiting for the heavenly dawn," whispered the
Interpreter to himself; "and, when _that_ comes, the bells and the
organs will utter a _jubilate_ repeated by the echoes of Paradise."
Then, turning to me, he said--"This is sad: this is piteous: but less
would not have sufficed for the purposes of God. Look here: put
into a Roman clepsydra one hundred drops of water; let these run
out as the sands in an hourglass; every drop measuring the
hundredth part of a second, so that each shall represent but the
three-hundred-and-sixty-thousandth part of an hour. Now, count the drops
as they race along; and, when the fiftieth of the hundred is passing,
behold! forty-nine are not, because already they have perished; and
fifty are not, because they are yet to come. You see, therefore, how
narrow, how incalculably narrow, is the true and actual present. Of that
time which we call the present, hardly a hundredth part but belongs
either to a past which has fled, or to a future which is still on the
wing. It has perished, or it is not born. It was, or it is not. Yet even
this approximation to the truth is _infinitely_ false. For again
subdivide that solitary drop, which only was found to represent the
present, into a lower series of similar fractions, and the actual
present which you arrest measures now but the thirty-sixth millionth of
an hour; and so by infinite declensions the true and very present, in
which only we live and enjoy, will vanish into a mote of a mote,
distinguishable only by a heavenly vision. Therefore the present, which
only man possesses, offers less capacity for his footing than the
slenderest film that ever spider twisted from her womb. Therefore, also,
even this incalculable shadow from the narrowest pencil of moonlight, is
more transitory than geometry can measure, or thought of angel can
overtake. The time which _is_, contracts into a mathematic point; and
even that point perishes a thousand times before we can utter its birth.
All is finite in the present; and even that finite is infinite in its
velocity of flight towards death. But in God there is nothing finite;
but in God there is nothing transitory; but in God there _can_ be
nothing that tends to death. Therefore, it follows--that for God there
can be no present. The future is the present of God; and to the future
it is that he sacrifices the human present. Therefore it is that he
works by earthquake. Therefore it is that he works by grief. Oh, deep is
the ploughing of earthquake! Oh, deep," [and his voice swelled like a
_sanctus_ rising from the choir of a cathedral,]--"oh, deep is the
ploughing of grief! But oftentimes less would not suffice for the
agriculture of God. Upon a night of earthquake he builds a thousand
years of pleasant habitations for man. Upon the sorrow of an infant, he
raises oftentimes, from human intellects glorious vintages that could
not else have been. Less than these fierce ploughshares would not have
stirred the stubborn soil. The one is needed for earth, our planet--for
earth itself as the dwelling-place of man. But the other is needed yet
oftener for God's mightiest instrument; yes," [and he looked solemnly at
myself,] "is needed for the mysterious children of the earth!"

END OF PART I.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 9: Some readers may be apt to suppose, from all English
experience, that the word _exorcise_ means properly banishment to the
shades. Not so. Citation _from_ the shades, or sometimes the torturing
coercion of mystic adjurations, is more truly the primary sense.]

[Footnote 10: "_Laughter from the fields of ocean._"--Many readers will
recall, though at the moment of writing my own thoughts did _not_
recall, the well-known passage in the Prometheus--

    [Greek:----oonlion te chymapon
    'Anezithmon Gelasma.]

"Oh multitudinous laughter of the ocean billows!" It is not clear
whether AEschylus contemplated the laughter as addressing the ear or the
eye.]

[Footnote 11: This, it may be said, requires a corresponding duration of
experience; but, as an argument for this mysterious power lurking in our
nature, I may remind the reader of one phenomenon open to the notice of
every body, viz. the tendency of very aged persons to throw back and
concentrate the light of their memory upon scenes of early childhood, as
to which they recall many traces that had faded even to _themselves_ in
middle life, whilst they often forget altogether the whole intermediate
stages of their experience. This shows that naturally, and without
violent agencies, the human brain is by tendency a palimpsest.]

[Footnote 12: "_Glimmering._"--As I have never allowed myself to covet
any man's ox nor his ass, nor any thing that is his, still less would it
become a philosopher to covet other people's images, or metaphors. Here,
therefore, I restore to Mr Wordsworth this fine image of the revolving
wheel, and the glimmering spokes, as applied by him to the flying
successions of day and night. I borrowed it for one moment in order to
point my own sentence; which being done, the reader is witness that I
now pay it back instantly by a note made for that sole purpose. On the
same principle I often borrow their seals from young ladies--when
closing my letters. Because there is sure to be some tender sentiment
upon them about "memory," or "hope," or "roses," or "reunion:" and my
correspondent must be a sad brute who is not touched by the eloquence of
the seal, even if his taste is so bad that he remains deaf to mine.]

[Footnote 13: This, the reader will be aware, applies chiefly to the
cotton and tobacco States of North America; but not to them only: on
which account I have not scrupled to figure the sun, which looks down
upon slavery, as _tropical_--no matter if strictly within the tropics,
or simply so near to them as to produce a similar climate.]

[Footnote 14: "_Sublime Goddesses._"--The word [Greek: semnos] is
usually rendered _venerable_ in dictionaries; not a very flattering
epithet for females. But by weighing a number of passages in which the
word is used pointedly, I am disposed to think that it comes nearest to
our idea of the _sublime_; as near as a Greek word _could_ come.]

[Footnote 15: The reader, who wishes at all to understand the course of
these Confessions, ought not to pass over this dream-legend. There is no
great wonder that a vision, which occupied my waking thoughts in those
years, should re-appear in my dreams. It was in fact a legend recurring
in sleep, most of which I had myself silently written or sculptured in
my daylight reveries. But its importance to the present Confessions is
this--that it rehearses or prefigures their course. This FIRST part
belongs to Madonna. The THIRD belongs to the "Mater Suspiriorum," and
will be entitled _The Pariah Worlds_. The FOURTH, which terminates the
work, belongs to the "Mater Tenebrarum," and will be entitled _The
Kingdom of Darkness_. As to the SECOND, it is an interpolation requisite
to the effect of the others; and will be explained in its proper place.]

[Footnote 16: "_Spectre of the Brocken._"--This very striking phenomenon
has been continually described by writers, both German and English, for
the last fifty years. Many readers, however, will not have met with
these descriptions: and on _their_ account I add a few words in
explanation; referring them for the best scientific comment on the case
to Sir David Brewster's "Natural Magic." The spectre takes the shape of
a human figure, or, if the visitors are more than one, then the spectres
multiply; they arrange themselves on the blue ground of the sky, or the
dark ground of any clouds that may be in the right quarter, or perhaps
they are strongly relieved against a curtain of rock, at a distance of
some miles, and always exhibiting gigantic proportions. At first, from
the distance and the colossal size, every spectator supposes the
appearance to be quite independent of himself. But very soon he is
surprised to observe his own motions and gestures mimicked; and wakens
to the conviction that the phantom is but a dilated reflection of
himself. This Titan amongst the apparitions of earth is exceedingly
capricious, vanishing abruptly for reasons best known to himself, and
more coy in coming forward than the Lady Echo of Ovid. One reason why he
is seen so seldom must be ascribed to the concurrence of conditions
under which only the phenomenon can be manifested: the sun must be near
to the horizon, (which of itself implies a time of day inconvenient to a
person starting from a station as distant as Elbingerode;) the spectator
must have his back to the sun; and the air must contain some vapour--but
_partially_ distributed. Coleridge ascended the Brocken on the
Whitsunday of 1799, with a party of English students from Goettingen,
but failed to see the phantom; afterwards in England (and under the same
three conditions) he saw a much rarer phenomenon, which he described in
the following eight lines. I give them from a corrected copy: (the
apostrophe in the beginning must be understood as addressed to an ideal
conception):--

    "And art thou nothing? Such thou art as when
    The woodman winding westward up the glen
    At wintry dawn, when o'er the sheep-track's maze
    The viewless snow-mist weaves a glist'ning haze,
    Sees full before him, gliding without tread,
    An image with a glory round its head:
    This shade he worships for its golden hues,
    And _makes_ (not knowing) that which he pursues."]

[Footnote 17: "_On Whitsunday._"--It is singular, and perhaps owing to
the temperature and weather likely to prevail in that early part of
summer, that more appearances of the spectre have been witnessed on
Whitsunday than on any other day.]

[Footnote 18: "_The sorcerer's flower_," and "_the sorcerer's
altar_."--These are names still clinging to the anemone of the Brocken,
and to an altar-shaped fragment of granite near one of the summits; and
it is not doubted that they both connect themselves through links of
ancient tradition with the gloomy realities of Paganism, when the whole
Hartz and the Brocken formed for a very long time the last asylum to a
ferocious but perishing idolatry.]

[Footnote 19: "_Hailstone choruses._"--I need not tell any lover of
Handel that his oratorio of "Israel in Egypt" contains a chorus
familiarly known by this name. The words are--"And he gave them
hailstones for rain; fire, mingled with the hail, ran along upon the
ground."]




HANNIBAL.[20]


Two thousand one hundred years ago[21] a boy was born at Carthage, whose
name and exploits have rendered his country immortal. His character
stands forth with unparalleled lustre even on the bright pages of
ancient story. It is hard to say whether he was greater as a patriot,
statesman, or a general. Invincible in determination, inexhaustible in
resources, fertile in stratagem, patient of fatigue, cautious in
council, bold in action, he possessed also that singleness of purpose,
that unity of object, which more than all is the foundation of great
achievements. Love of his country was his one and ruling principle.
Hatred of its enemies his lasting and indelible passion. To these
objects he devoted throughout life his great capacity: for this he
lived, for this he died. From the time that he swore hatred to the
Romans, while yet a boy, on the altars of Carthage, he never ceased to
watch their designs, to contend with their forces, to resist their
ambition. Alone of all his countrymen he measured the extent of the
danger with which his fatherland was threatened by the progress of their
power. Alone he stood forth with the strength of a giant to combat it.
But for the shameful desertion of his victorious army, by the jealousy
of the rival faction at Carthage, he would have crushed the power of the
legions, and given to Carthage, not Rome, the empire of the world. As it
was, he brought them to the brink of ruin, and achieved triumphs over
their armies greater than all other nations put together. After he was
overthrown, it was comparatively an easy task to conquer the world. For
this he received in life exile, disgrace, and death: for this he has
since obtained immortality. At his name the heart of the patriot has
thrilled through every subsequent age. To illustrate his virtues, genius
and learning have striven in every succeeding country; and the greatest
praise which the world can yet bestow on warriors is to compare them to
Hannibal.

No name, even in the majestic annals of Roman victories, stands forth
with lustre equal to that of the Carthaginian hero. They were made by
their countrymen, but his countrymen were made by him. Scipio, Pompey,
Caesar himself, did not evince equal capacity: they had lesser
difficulties to contend with; they owed more to the support of others,
and did not do so much by the strength of their individual arm, by the
energy of their individual will. The institutions, the laws, the ideas,
the manners, the very language of the Romans, were made for conquest:
they sprang up from the earth a race of armed men. Virtue with them was
derived from "manly valour:" an army was designated by a word which
signified "exercised:"[22] their generals were borne aloft to conquest
on the shields of the legions. Such was the spirit of the soldiers, that
they were fairly compelled to victory by the presence which urged them
on; such the determination of the people, that the armies were pressed
forward to the conquest of the world as by a supernatural power. The
purposes of Providence, mysterious at the time, apparent afterwards,
never were more clearly evinced than in the peculiar impress
communicated to the Roman institutions. But the Carthaginians were a
race, not of warriors, but of colonists. They rose to greatness, not by
their military spirit, but by their commercial prosperity; their
outposts were, not the fortified camp, but the smiling seaport.
Extending as far as the waters of the Mediterranean roll, they spread
inwards from the sea-coast, not outwards from the camp; the navy was the
arm of their strength, not their land forces. Their institutions,
habits, national spirit, and government, were all adapted to the
extension of commerce, to the growth of manufactures, to the spread of a
colonial empire. What, then, must have been the capacity of the man who
could, by his single efforts, alter the character of a whole people;
chain victory at land to the standards of a maritime republic; and bow
down to the earth, on their own territory, that rival power, whose
legions erelong triumphed over the armies of all the military monarchies
of the world?

The auxiliaries formed a considerable part, in point of numbers, of the
Roman forces; but the strength of the legions was to be found in the
Roman citizens. It was that indomitable body of men, ever flowing out,
yet ever full, animated with fiery passions, but directed by consummate
prudence, panting for rapine and conquest, but patient of all the toils
by which they were to be attained, which constituted the strength of the
armies which conquered the world. But the Carthaginians had no body of
citizens capable of forming such a force. They were nothing but a great
and powerful seaport town, with its adjacent villas spreading along the
coast of Africa. The people of Dido had not, like those of Romulus,
established off-shoots in the interior. No three-and-thirty colonies
awaited the commands of the senate of Carthage, as they did of the
consuls in the time of Fabius, to recruit the national armies. Twenty
thousand native citizens was all, at its last extremity at Zama, that
this mighty republic, which had so nearly achieved the conquest of the
Capitol, could fit out to defend their country. The strength of the
Punic armies consisted in what was merely an accessory to the Roman, the
auxiliaries. It was the Numidian horse, the Balearic slingers, the
Spanish infantry, the Gaulish broadswords, which proved so formidable in
the ranks of Hannibal. It was literally, as Livy says, a "colluvies
omnium gentium," which rolled down from the Alps, under his direction,
to overwhelm the Romans on their own hearths. Twenty different
languages, Polybius tells us, were not unfrequently spoken at the same
time in the Carthaginian camp. What, then, must have been the capacity
of the general who could still the jealousies, and overcome the
animosities, and give unity to the operations of a vast army, composed
of so many different tribes and people, and mould them all into so
perfect a form, that, for fifteen years that he remained in Italy after
the first great defeats, the consuls never once ventured to measure
their strength with him in a pitched battle?

If there is any thing more astonishing than another in the history of
the Roman Republic, it is the unconquerable spirit, the persevering
energy, the invincible determination with which, under every calamity,
and often in the very extremity of adverse fortune, they combined to
struggle for the superiority, and at length attained it--not so much by
conquering as by wearing out their adversaries. In no period of their
long and glorious annals was this transcendent quality more strikingly
evinced than in the second Punic War, when, after the battle of Cannae,
Capua, the second city of Italy, yielded to the influence of Hannibal,
and nearly a half of the Roman colonies, worn out by endless exactions
in men and money, refused to send any further succours. The heroic
spirit the Roman senate then evinced, the extraordinary sacrifices they
made, may, without exaggeration, be pronounced without parallel in the
annals of mankind, if we reflect on the length of time during which
these sacrifices were required. But while this invincible spirit
augments our admiration of the Roman character, and makes us feel that
they indeed deserved that mighty dominion which they afterwards
attained, it takes much from the merit of their individual commanders.
It was almost impossible to avoid ultimate success with such armies to
lead, and so heroic a people to sustain the efforts and furnish the
muniments of war. But the case was very different at Carthage. So
vehement was the spirit of party which had seized upon its inhabitants,
in consequence of the great accession of democratic power which had been
conceded, fatally for the state, as Polybius tells us, a short time
before to the people, that Hannibal could rely on no assistance on his
own government. Though he brought the Romans to the very brink of ruin,
and placed final victory within the grasp, as it were, of his country,
yet they would not put out their hand to snatch it. They were more
jealous of him than afraid of their enemies. Though he descended to the
southern extremity of Italy, and drew near to Sicily, in order to obtain
from the African shores the necessary succours to recruit his armies,
wasted by the very number of his victories; and though they had during
great part of the time the superiority at sea--yet he received no
supplies of men or money from home during the fifteen years he carried
on the war in Italy, with the exception of the army which his brother
Hamilcar raised in Spain, and led across the Pyrenees and the Alps to
perish on the Metaurus. What he did, he did by himself, and by his own
unaided efforts. It was the contributions levied on the cities he
conquered, which furnished his supplies; it was the troops who flocked
to his standard from the provinces he wrested from the Romans, which
filled up the chasms in the ranks he led from Saguntum. Not more than
twenty-six thousand men descended with him from the Alps; of forty-eight
thousand who fought at Cannae, thirty thousand were Gaulish auxiliaries.
There is no example recorded in history of a general doing things so
great with means so small, and support from home so inconsiderable.

Every great commander of whom we read in military annals, possessed in a
considerable degree the art of securing the affections and inspiring the
confidence of his soldiers. Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charles XII.,
Napoleon, exercised this ascendancy in the highest degree. The anecdotes
preserved in the pages of Plutarch, and which every schoolboy knows by
heart, prove this beyond a doubt of the heroes of the ancient world; the
annals of the last century and our own times demonstrate that their
mantle had descended to the Swedish and French heroes. The secret of
this marvellous power is always to be found in one mental quality. It is
magnanimity which entrances the soldier's heart. The rudest breasts are
accessible to emotion, from the display of generosity, self-denial, and
loftiness of purpose in their commanders. When Alexander in the deserts
of Arabia, on his return from India, poured the untasted water on the
sand, he assuaged the thirst of a whole army; when Caesar addressed the
Tenth Legion in mutiny by the title of "Quirites," the very word, which
told them they were no longer the comrades of their general, subdued
every heart; when Charles XII., on his officers declaring themselves
unable to undergo the fatigue of further watching, desired them to
retire to rest, for he would go the rounds himself, he silenced every
murmur in his army; when Napoleon yielded up his carriages to the
wounded in the Russian retreat, or drew aside his suite to salute,
uncovered, the Austrian wounded conveyed from Austerlitz, and said,
"Honour to the brave in misfortune!" he struck a chord which vibrated in
every heart of his vast array. No general, ancient or modern, possessed
this key to the generous affections in a higher degree than Hannibal;
and none ever stood so much, or so long, in need of its aid. In truth,
it was the secret of his success; the magic power which so long held
together his multifarious array. We have few anecdotes indicating this
ascendancy; for the historians of the Romans, or their subjects the
Greeks, were in no hurry to collect traits to illustrate the character
of their enemy. But decisive evidence of its existence, and almost
supernatural power, is to be found in the fact, that without the aid of
reinforcements, and scarce any remittances, from Carthage, he maintained
the war in the heart of Italy with mercenary troops collected from every
country of the earth, against the native soldiers of the bravest and
most warlike people on the earth. We read of no mutinies or disobedience
of orders among his followers. It were hard to say whether the fiery
Numidian, the proud and desultory Spaniard, the brave but inconstant
Gaul, or the covetous Balearic, was most docile to his direction, or
obedient to his will. Great indeed must have been the ascendency
acquired by one man over such various and opposite races of men, usually
the prey of such jealousies and divisions; and whom the most powerful
coalition in general finds so much difficulty in retaining in
subjection.

Of Hannibal's political wisdom and far-seeing sagacity, ancient history
is full. Alone of all his contemporaries, he clearly, and from his very
infancy, perceived the extent of the danger which threatened his country
from the insatiable ambition and growing power of the Romans; alone he
pointed out the only mode in which it could be successfully combated. He
was at once the Burke, the Pitt, and the Wellington of his country.
Beyond all doubt, if his advice had been followed, and his enterprises
duly supported, Carthage would have been victorious in the second Punic
War. It was because his countrymen were not animated with his heroic
spirit, nor inspired with his prophetic foresight, that they failed.
They were looking after gain, or actuated by selfish ambition, while he
was straining every nerve to avert danger. When he swore hatred to the
Roman on the altar at nine years of age, he imbibed a principle which
the judgment of his maturer years told him was the only means of saving
his country. To the prosecution of this object he devoted his life. From
his first entrance into public duty till his last hour, when he
swallowed poison to avoid being delivered up to the Romans, he never
ceased to combat their ambition with all the powers of his gigantic
intellect. If history had preserved no other proof of his profound
political discernment, it would be sufficiently established by the
memorable words he addressed to the senate of Carthage on the probable
fate of Rome:--"Nulla magna civitas diu quiescere potest. Si fores
hostem non habet, domi invenit; ut praevalida corpora ab externis causis
tutae videntur, sed suis ipsa viribus conficiuntur. Tantum nimirum ex
publicis malis sentimus quantum ad res privatas attinet, nec in eis
quidquam acrius quam pecuniae damnum stimulat." If anyone doubts the
truth and profound wisdom of these remarks, let him reflect on the exact
demonstration of these truths which was afforded two thousand years
after, in the British empire. "Si monumentum quaeris, circumspice."

He constantly affirmed that it was in Italy alone that Rome was
vulnerable, and that by striking hard and often there, she might be
conquered. He did not despair of effecting the deliverance of the world
by a conflict on their own shores, even after the battle of Zama had to
all appearance decisively settled the conflict in favour of the Capitol,
and nothing remained to combat the legions but the unwarlike soldiers of
the Eastern monarch. His own campaigns demonstrate that he was right:
the Gauls and the Carthaginians in different ages brought the Romans to
the brink of ruin; but it was by victories on the Tiber that Brennus and
Hannibal penetrated to their gates. Nor is it difficult to see to what
cause this comparative weakness at home of so great a military power was
owing. Rome was not merely a powerful state, but the head of a great
military confederacy; the resources which, partly by force, partly by
inclination, and the natural appetite of mankind for victory and
plunder, were ranged on her side, were in great part derived from
foreign states. When she carried the war into foreign states, this
formidable mass of auxiliaries doubled the strength of her legions; when
she was assailed at home, one half of them were lost, or appeared in the
ranks of her enemies. The same cause appeared at a subsequent period in
the campaigns of Napoleon: his armies were innumerable, his force
irresistible, as long as he headed the forced confederacy of western
Europe, and he invaded Russia with five hundred thousand men; but when
the disaster of Moscow, and the resurrection of Germany, brought the
Russians into France, the boasted strength of the empire disappeared,
its allies passed over to the other side, and the mighty conqueror was
reduced to a painful defensive with fifty thousand men on the plains of
Champagne.

The Roman historians affirm that these great military virtues were
balanced by corresponding vices. Every scholar knows the inimitable
description of his character drawn by Livy. "Has tantas viri virtutes
ingentia vitia aequabant:--inhumana crudelitas; perfidia plusquam Punica;
nihil veri, nihil sancti; nullus deoram metus, nullum jusjurandum, nulla
religio." This, however, was his character as drawn by his enemies; and
by enemies who had suffered so much from his ability, that they were
incapable of forming a correct judgment on the subject. But the truth of
modern history has dispelled the illusion, and gathered facts sufficient
even from their prejudiced sources to demonstrate that the moral virtues
of Hannibal equalled his intellectual capacity. Certain it is, by their
own admission, that his generosity on several important occasions
afforded a example which the Romans would have done well to imitate, but
which they shewed themselves incapable of following. It was the
judicious clemency which he showed to the allies, which at length won
over so many of the Italian states to his side; and if this is to be
ascribed to policy, what are we to say to the chivalrous courtesy which
prompted him to send back the dead body of his inveterate enemy
Marcellus, surprised and slain by his Numidian horsemen, to obtain the
honours of sepulture from his countrymen? The Romans complained of his
cruelty; but men feel cruelty keenly when it is exercised on themselves;
and there are no instances recorded of his exceeding the established and
universal customs, ruthless as they were, of ancient warfare. Certain it
is, that nothing he ever did equalled the savage and cold-blooded
atrocity with which they tortured and massacred the citizens of Capua
and Syracuse, when they were again subdued by their arms. Hannibal's
disposition appears to have been gay and cheerful; there are many
instances recorded of his indulgence, in presence of danger, in a gaiety
of temper more akin to that of Henry IV. than the usual stern
determination of ancient warriors. On one memorable occasion, when his
army was in danger, and the spirit of his troops unusually depressed, he
indulged in mirth and jests to such an extent in his tent, that he set
his whole officers in a roar of laughter; and these joyful sounds, heard
by the soldiers without, restored confidence to the army, from the
belief that no anxious thoughts clouded the brows of their chiefs.
Hannibal, it is known, preserved a diary, and wrote a history of his
campaigns, which was extant at a very late period in the ancient world.
What an inestimable treasure would the journal of the private thoughts
of such a man have been! Modern times have no more irreparable loss to
mourn.

The just pride and elegant flattery of the French historians has often
led them to compare Napoleon's passage of the Great St Bernard to
Hannibal's passage of the Pennine Alps: but without detracting from the
well-earned fame of the French general, it may safely be affirmed that
his achievement will bear no sort of comparison with that of the
Carthaginian hero. When Napoleon began the ascent of the Alps from
Martigny, on the shores of the Rhone, above the lake of Geneva, he found
the passage of the mountains cleared by the incessant transit of two
thousand years. The road, impracticable for carriages, was very good for
horsemen and foot passengers, and was daily traversed by great numbers
of both in every season of the year. Comfortable villages, on the ascent
and the descent, afforded easy accommodation to the wearied soldiers
both by night and by day; the ample stores of the monks at the summit,
and the provident foresight of the French generals, had provided a meal
to every man and horse that passed. No hostile troops opposed their
passage: the guns were drawn up in sledges made of hollowed firs; and in
four days from the time that they began the ascent from the banks of the
Rhone, the French troops, without losing a man, stood on the Doria
Baltea, the increasing waters of which flowed towards the Po, amidst the
gardens and vineyards, and under the sun of Italy. But the case was very
different, when Hannibal crossed from the shores of the Durance to the
banks of the Po. The mountain sides, not yet cleared by centuries of
laborious industry, presented a continual forest, furrowed at every
hollow by headlong Alpine torrents; bridges there were none to cross
these perpetually recurring obstacles; provisions, scanty at all times
in those elevated solitudes, were then nowhere to be found, having been
hid by the affrighted inhabitants on the approach of the invaders; and a
powerful army of mountaineers occupied the entrance of the defiles,
defended with desperate valour the gates of their country, and, when
dispersed by the superior discipline and arms of Hannibal's soldiers,
still beset the ridges above their line of march, and harassed his
troops by continual hostility. When the woody region was passed, and the
vanguard emerged into the open mountain pastures, which lead to the
verge of perpetual snow, fresh difficulties awaited them. The turf, from
the gliding down of newly fallen snow on those steep declivities, was so
slippery, that it was often scarcely possible for the men to keep their
feet; the beasts of burden lost their footing at every step, and rolled
down in great numbers into the abysses beneath; the elephants became
restive amidst privations and a climate to which they were totally
unaccustomed; and the strength of the soldiers, worn out with incessant
marching and fighting, began to sink before the continued toil of the
ascent. Horrors, formidable to all, but in an especial manner terrible
to African soldiers, awaited them at the summit. It was now the end of
October; winter in all its severity had already set in on those lofty
solitudes; the mountain sides, silent and melancholy even at the height
of summer, when enamelled with flowers and dotted with flocks, presented
then an unbroken sheet of snow; the blue lakes which are interspersed
over the level valley at their feet, were frozen over, and
undistinguishable from the rest of the dreary expanse, and a boundless
mass of snowy peaks arose on all sides, presenting apparently an
impassable barrier to their further progress.

But it was then that the greatness of Hannibal shone forth in all its
lustre. "That great general," says Arnold, "who felt that he now stood
victorious on the ramparts of Italy, and that the torrent which rolled
before him was carrying its waters to the rich plains of Cisalpine Gaul,
endeavoured to kindle his soldiers with his own spirit of hope. He
called them together; he pointed out the valley beneath, to which the
descent seemed the work of a moment. 'That valley,' he said, 'is Italy;
it leads us to the country of our friends the Gauls, and yonder is our
way to Rome!' His eyes were eagerly fixed on that point of the horizon,
and as he gazed, the distance between seemed to vanish, till he could
almost fancy that he was crossing the Tiber and assailing the
Capitol[23]." Such were the difficulties of the passage and the descent
on the other side, that Hannibal lost thirty-three thousand men from the
time he left the Pyrenees till he entered the plains of Northern Italy;
and he arrived on the Po with only twelve thousand Africans, eight
thousand Spanish infantry, and six thousand horse. Napoleon's army which
fought at Marengo was only twenty-nine thousand, but he had lost no men
in the passage of the Alps, and only a few in the difficult passage
across the precipices of Mont Albaredo, opposite the fort of Bard, in
the valley of the Doria Baltea. It is ridiculous, after this, to compare
the passages of the Alps by Napoleon to their crossing by Hannibal. The
French emperor has many other titles, too well founded, to warrant a
comparison with the Carthaginian hero, to render it necessary to recur
to one which is obviously chimerical.

It is a question which has divided the learned since the revival of
letters, by what pass Hannibal crossed the Alps. The general opinion of
those who have studied the subject, inclines to the opinion that he
crossed by the Little St Bernard; and to this opinion Arnold inclines.
He admits, however, with his usual candour, that, "in some respects,
also, Mont Cenis suits the description of the march better than any
other pass[24]." After having visited and traversed on foot both passes,
the author of this paper has no hesitation in expressing his decided
conviction, that he passed by Mont Cenis. His reasons for this opinion
are these:--1. It is mentioned by Polybius, that Hannibal reached the
summit of the Alps on the _ninth_ day after he had left the plains of
Dauphine. This period coincides well with what might have then been
required to ascend, as the country was, on the neighbourhood of Grenoble
or Echelles; while the ascent to the summit of the Little St Bernard,
would not require more than half the time. 2. The narrow defile of St
Jean de Maurienne, which leads from the plain of Montmelian to the foot
of Mont Cenis, corresponds much more closely with the description, given
both in Livy[25] and Polybius[26], of that in which the first serious
engagement took place between Hannibal and the Mountaineers, two days
after they had left the plains of Dauphine, than the comparatively open
valley which leads to the foot of the Little St Bernard. 3. From the
summit of the Little St Bernard you can see nothing of Italy, nor any
thing approaching to it; a confused sea of mountains alone meets the eye
on every side. Whereas, from the southern front of the summit of Mont
Cenis, _not only the plains of Piedmont are distinctly visible_ at the
opening of the lower end of the valley of Susa, which lies at your feet,
_but the Appenines beyond them can be seen_. To settle this important
point, the author made a sketch of both on the spot, on the 24th
October, the very time of Hannibal's passage, which is still in his
possession. How precisely does this coincide with the emphatic words of
Hannibal, as recorded by Polybius, showing to them the plains around the
Po, ([Greek: "ta peri ton Padon pedia,"]) and, reminding them of the
good disposition of the Gauls who dwelt there, he further showed them
the situation of Rome itself.[27] The Appenines, beyond the plain of
Piedmont, seen from Mont Cenis, might correctly be taken as the
direction, at least, where Rome lay. 4. The steep and rocky declivity by
which the _old_ road formerly descended to the valley of Susa, and where
the travellers descended in sledges, till Napoleon's magnificent
_chaussee_ was formed, which makes great circuit to the westward,
corresponds perfectly to the famous places mentioned both by Livy and
Polybius, where the path had been torn away by a recent avalanche, and
the fabulous story of the vinegar was placed. This place in Mont Cenis
is immediately below the summit of the pass, and may now be seen
furrowed by a roaring torrent, amidst dark ledges of rock; the
corresponding chasm on the southern side of the Little St Bernard is
_below_ the reach of avalanches.[28] 5. On the summit of Mont Cenis is
still to be seen a "_white_ rock" called the "Roche Blanche," which
answers to the [Greek: "leuchopetron,"] mentioned by Polybius, on the
summit of the Alps which Hannibal crossed, whereas there is nothing like
it on the Little St Bernard, at least of such magnitude as to have
formed a place of night refuge to Hannibal. 6. What is perhaps most
important of all, it is expressly mentioned by Polybius, that "_in one
day's time_ the chasm in the mountain sides was repaired, so that there
was room for the horses and beasts of burden to descend. They were
immediately conducted down, _and having gained_ the plains, were sent
away to pasture in places where no snow had fallen. * * * * * Hannibal
then descended last, with all the army, and thus, on the _third day_,
gained the plains[29]." This description of the distances tallies
perfectly with the passage by Mont Cenis, for it is only half a day's
journey to descend from the summit of that pass to Susa, at the head of
the wide and open valley of the same name, where ample pasturage is to
be found; and short day's journey more brings the traveller to the plain
of Piedmont. But it is utterly irreconcilable with the idea that the
Carthaginians passed by the Little St Bernard; for from its summit to
the plains of Ivrea is four days' hard marching for an army, through the
narrow valley of Aosta, destitute for the most part of forage. 7. This
valley of Aosta is very rocky and narrow, and affords many positions
where a handful of men can arrest an army; in one of which, that of
Bard, a small Austrian garrison stopped Napoleon for twenty-four hours;
yet Polybius and Livy concur in stating, that after he descended the
mountains, the Carthaginians experienced no molestation on their way to
the Insubrians, their allies, on the banks of the Po. This is
inexplicable if they were struggling for three days through the narrow
and rocky defiles of the valley of Aosta, but perfectly intelligible if
they were traversing in half a day the broad and open valley of Susa,
offering no facilities to the attacks of the mountaineers.

But if Napoleon's passage of the St Bernard can never be compared to
that of Hannibal over Mont Cenis, it is impossible to deny that there is
a marked and striking similarity, in some respects, between the career
of the two heroes. Both rose to eminence, for the first time, by the
lustre of their Italian campaigns; the most brilliant strokes of both
were delivered almost on the same ground, immediately after having
surmounted the Alps; both headed the forces of the democratic party in
the country whose warriors they led, and were aided by it in those which
they conquered; both had a thorough aversion for that party in their
hearts; both continued, by their single genius, for nineteen years in
hostility against a host of enemies; both were overthrown at last, in a
single battle, on a distant shore, far from the scene of their former
triumphs; both were driven into exile by the hatred or apprehensions of
their enemies; both, after having reached the summit of glory, died
alone and unbefriended in a distant land; both have left names immortal
in the rolls of fame. It is no wonder that such striking similarities
should have forcibly struck the imaginations of men in every land. It is
remarkable that many of the greatest patriots who ever existed have died
in exile, after having rendered inestimable services to their country,
by which they were persecuted or betrayed. Themistocles, Hannibal,
Scipio Africanus, Belisarius, Napoleon, belong to this bright band. It
is not difficult to see that the cause of it is to be found in their
very greatness itself. They were too powerful to be tolerated by their
countrymen: they were too formidable to be endured by their enemies.

It is hard to say whether Hannibal's military capacity appeared most
strongly in strategy, that is, the general direction of a campaign, or
in tactics, that is, the management of troops on the field of battle. In
both he was unrivalled in ancient times. His wonderful ability in
strategy, and in preparing his multifarious forces for the grand
enterprise for which they were destined, appears from the very outset of
his military career. Devoted to the destruction of Rome from his youth
upwards, and steady in the determination to over-throw that inveterate
enemy to his country, he had yet the difficult and apparently hopeless
task of accomplishing this by land warfare, when Carthage had no native
born army in the slightest degree commensurate to its execution. To form
such an army was his first object, and this he accomplished by his
successes in Spain, before the second Punic War began. In the interval
between the first and the second of those dire contests, he was
assiduously employed in conquering, organizing, and disciplining the
forces by which his great object was to be effected; and such was his
capacity, that, notwithstanding the untoward issue of the first Punic
War, the Carthaginians gradually regained the ascendant in the
Peninsula, while his manners were so winning, that erelong he attracted
all its military strength to his standard. The Roman influence was
limited to the narrow and broken territory which lies between the Ebro
and the Pyrenees, and forms the modern province of Catalonia, while all
the rest of the Peninsula obeyed the orders of Hannibal. It was in Spain
that he formed that great military force which so soon after shook to
its foundation the solid fabric of Roman power; he there erected the
platform on which his engines of assault were placed. When he began his
triumphant march from Saguntum to attempt the conquest of Rome, after
surmounting both the Pyrenees and the Alps, he was at the head of a
splendid army of ninety thousand foot, and twelve thousand horse, with
forty elephants; the most powerful array, if the quality and discipline
of the troops is taken into account, which Europe had yet seen. Of this
great force, not more than a fourth part were Carthaginian soldiers; so
mightily had the military force of Hannibal increased with the
prosperous issue of his Peninsular campaigns.

Had the Carthaginian general succeeded in reaching the banks of the
Tiber with the half even of this force, the fate of Rome was sealed, and
the glories of the Capitol were extinguished for ever. But he had
innumerable difficulties to contend with--physical, warlike, and
moral--before he reached the Italian plains. His march from the Ebro to
the Po was a continued combat. The mountain tribes of Catalonia,
celebrated in every age for their obstinate and persisting hostility,
were then firm in the Roman interest. The mountain strength of the
Pyrenees; the rapid currents of the Rhone; the cruel warfare, and yet
more dangerous peace of the Gauls; the desperate valour of the
inhabitants of the Alps; the inclemency of the weather on their snowy
summits, all required to be overcome, and they thinned his ranks more
than all the swords of the legions. Instead of ninety thousand foot, and
twelve thousand horse, with which he broke up from Saguntum, he brought
only twenty thousand infantry, and six thousand horse to the fields of
Piedmont. No less than seventy-six thousand men had been lost or left to
preserve the communications, since they left the Valencian plains. So
slender was the force with which this great commander commenced, on its
own territory, the conflict with a power which ere three years had
elapsed, carried on the war with fourteen legions, numbering an hundred
and seventy thousand combatants, between the auxiliaries and Roman
soldiers. It is in the magnitude of this disproportion, and the
extremely small amount of the reinforcement which he received from home
during the next fifteen years that the war lasted, that the decisive
proof of the marvellous capacity of the Carthaginian general is to be
found. It is a similar disproportion which has marked the campaigns of
Napoleon in Italy in 1796, and in France in 1814, with immortality.

The first necessity was to augment his numbers, and fill up the wide
chasm in his ranks, by fresh enrolments in the territory in which he had
entered. The warlike habits and predatory dispositions of the Cisalpine
Gauls afforded the means of obtaining this necessary succour. The
victory over the Roman horse on the Ticino, when the superiority of the
Numidian cavalry was first decisively displayed, had an immediate effect
in bringing a crowd of Gaulish recruits to his standard. The
Carthaginian general was careful in his first engagement to hazard only
his cavalry, in which arm he was certain of his superiority. The battle
of the Trebia which followed, and which first broke the strength of the
legions, excited an unbounded ferment in Lombardy, and brought the
Gaulish youths in crowds, to follow the career of plunder and revenge
under his victorious standards. Recruits speedily were not awanting; the
only difficulty was to select from the crowds which presented themselves
for enrolment. It was like the resurrection of Prussia in 1813, against
the tyrannic domination of the French emperor. Winter was spent in
organizing these rude auxiliaries, and reducing them to something like
military discipline; and so effective was their co-operation, and so
numerous the reinforcements which their zeal brought to his standard,
that in the following spring he crossed the Apennines, and traversed the
marshes of Volterra, at the head of nearly fifty thousand men, of whom
above one half were Gaulish recruits. And when the Consul Flaminius
attempted to stop him on the margin of the Thrasymene Lake, where the
stream still called "_Sanguinetto_" murmurs among the old oaks, the
children of the soil, the total defeat of his army with the loss of
thirty thousand men, lost the Romans the whole north of Italy, and
carried consternation to the gates of the Capitol.

After so great a victory within a few days' march of the Tiber, and no
considerable army intervening to arrest the advance of the conqueror, it
may seem extraordinary that Hannibal did not advance straight to the
capital, and terminate the war by its destruction: still more
inexplicable does it at first sight appear, that, instead of doing so,
he should have turned to the left, and passing Rome, moved into the
south of Italy; thus losing in a great measure his communication with
Lombardy, which had hitherto proved so invaluable a nursery for his
army. But it was in these very movements, more perhaps than in any
others of his life, that the wisdom and judgment of this great general's
conduct were conspicuous. The chief difficulty he had now to contend
with in Italy was the reduction of its fortified towns. The innumerable
wars which had so long prevailed in the southern parts of the Peninsula,
between the Etruscans, the Romans, and the Samnites, had studded the
declivities of the Apennines with castles and fortified burghs, the
walls of which in great part still remain, and constitute not the least
of the many interesting objects which Italy presents to the traveller.
Towards the reduction of those cities, the tumultuary array of the
Gauls, numerous and efficient as they were in the field, could not
afford any assistance. Engines for assault or the reduction of walls
they had none; funds for the maintenance of a protracted methodical
warfare were not to be looked for, in their savage and half-cultivated
plains. The communication with Spain by the circuitous route of the
Pyrenees and Alps, had been found, by dear-bought experience, to be
difficult in the extreme. It could only be opened again, by an army
nearly as powerful as that which had first penetrated through it, under
the guidance of his energetic will. It was in the south of the
Peninsula, amidst its opulent cities and long-established civilization,
that the resources for a war of sieges could alone be looked for. It was
there, too, that the most direct, the shortest, and in fact the only
secure channel of communication with Carthage could be opened: to a
Punic as to a British army, the true base of operations is the sea, the
worst possible base for that of any other military power. Beyond all
question, it was to the judicious choice of the south of Italy as his
stronghold, and the combined skill and policy by which he contrived to
detach a large part of its rich republics, with their harbours and
places of strength, from the Roman alliance, that the subsequent
protraction of the war for fifteen years is to be ascribed.

Such, however, was the terror of the Roman arms, and the influence
acquired by the combined steadiness and severity of their rule, that
this irruption into the south of Italy was not at first attended with
the desired effect. In vain he had, in all preceding engagements sent
back all the prisoners from the allies without any ransom, and treated
them in the most generous manner; in vain, in all preceding marches, he
had cautiously abstained from pillaging or laying waste their lands.
Still the Roman influence was predominant. Not one state in alliance had
revolted: not one Roman colony had failed in its duty to the parent
state. The Gauls alone, who now formed half his army, had repaired in
crowds to his standard since he had descended from the Alps. A long
season of inactivity followed, during which the Romans were too prudent
to hazard a conflict with Hannibal in the field, and he was too weak in
siege artillery to attempt the reduction of any of their fortified
cities. But the time was not lost by that indefatigable commander, and
the following passage from Arnold will both show how it was employed,
and serve as a fair specimen of the style of that powerful and lamented
writer:--

     "Never was Hannibal's genius more displayed than during this
     long period of inactivity. More than half of his army consisted
     of Gauls, of all barbarians the most impatient and uncertain in
     their humour, whose fidelity, it was said, could only be
     secured by an ever open hand; no man was their friend any
     longer than he could gorge them with pay or plunder. Those of
     his soldiers who were not Gauls, were either Spaniards or
     Africans; the Spaniards were the newly conquered subjects of
     Carthage, strangers to her race and language, and accustomed to
     divide their lives between actual battle and the most listless
     bodily indolence; so that when one of their tribes first saw
     the habits of a Roman camp, and observed the centurions walking
     up and down before the praetorium for exercise, the Spaniards
     thought them mad, and ran up to guide them to their tents,
     thinking that he who was not fighting could do nothing but lie
     at his ease and enjoy himself. Even the Africans were
     foreigners to Carthage; they were subjects harshly governed,
     and had been engaged within the last twenty years in a war of
     extermination with their masters. Yet the long inactivity of
     winter quarters, trying to the discipline of the best national
     armies, was borne patiently by Hannibal's soldiers; there was
     neither desertion nor mutiny amongst them; even the fickleness
     of the Gauls seemed spell-bound; they remained steadily in
     their camp in Apulia, neither going home to their own country,
     nor over to the enemy. On the contrary, it seems that fresh
     bands of Gauls must have joined the Carthaginian army after the
     battle of Thrasymenus, and the retreat of the Roman army from
     Ariminum. For the Gauls and the Spaniards and the Africans were
     overpowered by the ascendancy of Hannibal's character; under
     his guidance they felt themselves invincible; with such a
     general the yoke of Carthage might seem to the Africans and
     Spaniards the natural dominion of superior beings; in such a
     champion the Gauls beheld the appointed instrument of their
     country's gods to lead them once more to assault the
     Capitol."--Vol. iii. 131-132.

It was the battle of Cannae which first shook the fidelity of the Roman
allies, and by opening to the Carthaginians the gates of Capua, gave
them the command of a city in the south of Italy, second only to Rome
herself in wealth and consideration. Of this great and memorable battle,
when upwards of eighty thousand Romans fell, and their power was, to all
appearance, irrecoverably broken, Arnold give the following interesting
account:--

     "The skirmishing of the light-armed troops preluded as usual to
     the battle; the Balearian slingers slung their stones like hail
     into the ranks of the Roman line, and severely wounded the
     consul AEmilius himself. Then the Spanish and Gaulish horse
     charged the Romans front to front, and maintained a standing
     fight with them, many leaping off their horses and fighting on
     foot, till the Romans, outnumbered and badly armed, without
     cuirasses, with light and brittle spears, and with shields made
     only of ox-hide, were totally routed and driven off the field.
     Hasdrubal, who commanded the Gauls and Spaniards, followed up
     his work effectually; he chased the Romans along the river,
     till he had almost destroyed them, and then, riding off to the
     right, he came up to aid the Numidians, who, after their
     manner, had been skirmishing indecisively with the cavalry of
     the Italian allies. These, on seeing the Gauls and Spaniards
     advancing, broke away and fled; the Numidians, most effective
     in pursuing a flying enemy, chased them with unweariable speed,
     and slaughtered them unsparingly; while Hasdrubal, to complete
     his signal services on this day, charged fiercely upon the rear
     of the Roman infantry.

     "He found its huge masses already weltering in helpless
     confusion, crowded upon one another, totally disorganized, and
     fighting each man as he best could, but struggling on against
     all hope, by mere indomitable courage. For the Roman columns on
     the right and left, finding the Gaulish and Spanish foot
     advancing in a convex line or wedge, pressed forwards to assail
     what seemed the flanks of the enemy's column; so that, being
     already drawn up with too narrow a front by their original
     formation, they now became compressed still more by their own
     movements, the right and left converging towards the centre,
     till the whole army became one dense column, which forced its
     way onwards by the weight of its charge, and drove back the
     Gauls and Spaniards into the rear of their own line. Meanwhile,
     its victorious advance had carried it, like the English column
     at Fontenoy, into the midst of Hannibal's army; it had passed
     between the African infantry on its right and left, and now,
     whilst its head was struggling against the Gauls and Spaniards,
     its long flanks were fiercely assailed by the Africans, who,
     facing about to the right and left, charged it home, and threw
     it into utter disorder. In this state, when they were forced
     together into one unwieldy crowd, and already falling by
     thousands, whilst the Gauls and Spaniards, now advancing in
     their turn, were barring further progress in front, and whilst
     the Africans were tearing their mass to pieces on both flanks,
     Hasdrubal, with his victorious Gaulish and Spanish horsemen,
     broke with thundering fury upon their rear. Then followed a
     butchery such as has no recorded equal, except the slaughter of
     the Persians in their camp, when the Greeks forced it after
     the battle of Plataea. Unable to fight or fly, with no quarter
     asked or given, the Romans and Italians fell before the swords
     of their enemies, till, when the sun set upon the field, there
     were left, out of that vast multitude, no more than three
     thousand men alive and unwounded, and these fled in straggling
     parties, under cover of the darkness, and found a refuge in the
     neighbouring towns. The consul AEmilius, the proconsul Cn.
     Servilius, the late master of the horse M. Minucius, two
     quaestors, twenty-one military tribunes, eighty senators, and
     eighty thousand men, lay dead on the field of battle. The
     consul Varro, with seventy horsemen, had escaped from the rout
     of the allied cavalry on the right. The loss of the victors was
     only six thousand men."--ARNOLD, iii. 140-143.

The dreadful battle of Cannae bears a close resemblance in many important
particulars to two of the most important which have been fought in
modern times--those of Agincourt and Aspern. The close agglomeration of
legionary soldiers in the Roman centre, the tempest of stones which fell
on their ranks from the slings of the Balearic marksmen, and the laying
bare of the huge unwieldy mass by the defeat of the cavalry on their
flanks was precisely the counterpart of what occurred in the army of
Philippe of Valois in the first of these memorable fields, when the
French men-at-arms, thirty-two deep, were thrown into confusion by the
incessant discharges of the English archers, their flanks laid open by
the repulse of the vehement charge of their horse by Henry V., and their
dense columns slaughtered where they stood, unable alike to fight or to
fly, by the general advance of the English billmen. Still closer,
perhaps, is the resemblance to the defeat of the French centre under
Lannes, which penetrated in a solid column into the centre of the
Austrian army at Aspern. Its weight, and the gallantry of the leading
files, brought the huge mass even to the reserves of the Archduke; but
that gallant prince at length stopped their advance by six regiments of
Hungarian grenadiers; the German artillery and musketry tore their
flanks by an incessant discharge on either side; and at length the
formidable column was forced back like an immense wild beast bleeding at
every pore, but still combating and unsubdued, to the banks of the
Danube. The repulse of the formidable English column, fourteen thousand
strong, which defeated in succession every regiment in the French army
except the last reserve of two regiments of guards at Fontenoy, and the
still more momentous defeat of the last attack of the Imperial Guard at
Waterloo, also bear a striking and interesting resemblance to the rout
of the Roman centre after it had penetrated the Carthaginian line at the
battle of Cannae. In truth, the attack in column, formidable beyond
measure if not met by valour and combated with skill, is exposed to the
most serious dangers if the line in its front is strong and resolute
enough to withstand the impulse, till its flanks are overlapped and
enveloped by a cross fire from the enemies' lines, converging inwards,
as Colborne and Maitland did at Waterloo on the flank of the Old Guard;
and thence it is that the French attack in column, so often victorious
over the other troops in Europe, has never succeeded against the close
and destructive fire of the English infantry; guided by the admirable
dispositions with which Wellington first repelled that formidable onset.

Arnold, whose account of Hannibal's campaigns in Italy is by much the
best which has been given in modern times to the world, and more
scientific and discriminating than either of the immortal narratives of
the ancient historians, has clearly brought out two important truths
from their examination. The first is, that it was Hannibal's superiority
in cavalry, and, above all, the incomparable skill and hardihood of his
Numidian horse, which gave him what erelong proved an undisputed
superiority in the field; the second, that it was the strength of the
towns in the Roman alliance in the south of Italy, and the want of siege
artillery on the side of the Carthaginian general, which proved their
salvation. So undisputed did the superiority of the invading army
become, that, after the battle of Cannae, it was a fixed principle with
the Roman generals, during the thirteen subsequent campaigns that
ensued in Italy, never on any occasion, or with any superority of force
whatever, to hazard a general battle. Such was their terror of the
African horse, that the sight of a few Numidian uniforms in the fields
was sufficient to make a whole consular army stand to its arms. So
paralysed was the strength of Rome by the slaughter of Cannae, that Capua
soon after revolted and became the headquarters of Hannibal's army; and,
out of the thirty Roman colonies, no less than twelve sent in answer to
the requisitions of the consuls, that they had not a man or a penny more
to send, and that Rome must depend on its own resources. Never, not even
when the disasters of Thrasymene and Cannae were first heard, was such
consternation apparent in Rome, as when that mournful resolution was
communicated in the Forum.

In truth, such was the prostration of the strength of Rome by these
terrible defeats, that the republic was gone but for the jealousy of the
Carthaginian government, which hindered them from sending any efficient
succours to Hannibal, and the unconquerable spirit of the Roman
aristocracy, which rose with every disaster which ensued, and led them
to make efforts in behalf of their country which appear almost
superhuman, and never have been equalled by any subsequent people on
earth. Republican as he is in his ideas, Arnold, with his usual candour
as to facts, admits, in the strongest manner, those prodigious efforts
made by the patricians of Rome on this memorable occasion; and that the
issue of the contest, and with it the fate of the civilized world,
depended on their exertions. Out of 270,000 men, of whom the citizens of
Rome consisted before the war, no less than seventy thousand were in
arms in its fourth year. No such proportion, has ever since been heard
of in the world. One in a hundred of the whole population is the utmost
which experience has shown a state is capable of bearing, for any length
of time, in her regular army. "As Hannibal," says he, "utterly eclipses
Carthage, so, on the contrary, Fabius, Marcellus, Claudius Nero, even
Scipio himself, are as nothing when compared to the spirit, and wisdom,
and power of Rome. The senate, which voted its thanks to its political
enemy Varro, 'because he had not despaired of the commonwealth,' and
which disdained either to solicit, or to reprove, or to threaten, or in
any way to notice the twelve colonies which had refused to send their
accustomed supplies of men for the army, is far more to be honoured than
the conqueror of Zama. Never was the wisdom of God's providence more
manifest than in the issue of the struggle between Rome and Carthage. It
was clearly for the good of mankind that Hannibal should be conquered;
his triumph would have stopped the progress of the world. For great men
can only act permanently by forming great nations, and no one man, even
though it were Hannibal himself, can, in one generation, effect such a
work. But where the nation has been merely enkindled for a while by a
great man's spirit, the light passes away with him who communicated it;
and the nation, when he is gone, is like a dead body to which magic
power had for a moment given an unnatural life; when the charm has
ceased, the body is cold and stiff as before. He who grieves over the
battle of Zama, should carry on his thoughts to a period thirty years
later, when Hannibal must, in the course of nature, have been dead; and
consider how the isolated Phoenician city of Carthage was fitted to
receive and to consolidate the civilization of Greece, or by its laws
and institutions to bind together barbarians of every race and language
into an organized empire, and prepare them for becoming, when that
empire was dissolved, the free members of the commonwealth of Christian
Europe."[30]

Such was Hannibal; a man capable by his single capacity of arresting and
all but overturning a nation, destined by Providence for such mighty
achievements, such lasting services to the human race. His combat with
Rome was not that of a general with a general, of an army with an army;
it was like the subsequent contest between Napoleon and England, the
contest of a man with a nation; and in both cases, the nation, after
being reduced to the most grievous straits, proved victorious over the
man. But Hannibal was not supported as the French emperor was during the
great part of his splendid career; no nation with forty millions of
souls laid its youth at his feet; no obsequious senate voted him two
millions of men in fifteen years; he did not march with the military
strength of the half of Europe at his back. Alone, unaided,
unbefriended, with the Roman legions in front, and the jealous
Carthaginian senate in rear, without succour, reinforcements, or
assistance from home, he maintained the contest for fifteen years in
Italy, against the might, the energy, and the patriotism of Rome. Such
was the terror inspired by his name and exploits, that it rendered even
the fierce plebeians of Rome, usually so jealous of patrician
interference with their rights, obsequious even in the comitia to their
commands. "Go back," said Fabius, when the first centuries had returned
consuls of their own choice, whom he knew to be unfit for the command,
"and bid them recollect that the consuls must head the armies, and that
Hannibal is in Italy." The people succumbed, the votes were taken anew,
and the consuls whom he desired were returned.

After the battle of Cannae had rendered hopeless any further contest in
the field, the war in Italy degenerated into a mere succession of
attempts to gain possession of fortified towns. Hannibal's total want of
siege artillery left him no resource for this but stratagem or internal
assistance, and in gaining both his great capacity was eminently
conspicuous. Capua, Beneventum, Tarentum, and a great many others, were
successively wrested or won from the Romans; and it at one period seemed
exceedingly doubtful whether, in this war of posts and stratagems, the
Carthaginian would not prevail over them, as he had done in the field.
This war, and from the influence of the same necessity in both cases,
much resembled the wars of the League and Henry IV. in France; and the
military conduct of Hannibal bore alternately a striking resemblance to
the skill and resources of the chivalrous king of Navarre, and the bold
daring of the emperor Napoleon. The gallant irruption, in particular, of
the Carthaginian general, by which he relieved Capua when closely
besieged by the Roman forces, bears, as Arnold has observed, the most
remarkable resemblance to the similar march of Napoleon from Silesia to
relieve Dresden, when beset by the Allied armies under the command of
Schwartzenberg in 1813. Nor did the admirable skill of the consul
Nero--who took advantage of his interior line of communication, and
brought a decisive superiority of force from the frontiers of Apulia to
bear on the army which Hamilcar had led across the Pyrenees and the
Alps, to aid his brother in the south of Italy, and thus decide the war
in Italy--bear a less striking analogy to Napoleon's cross marches from
Rivoli to the neighbourhood of Mantua in 1796, to the able movement of
the Archduke Charles on the Bavarian plains to the banks of the Maine,
which proved the salvation of Germany in 1796, or to the gallant
irruption of Napoleon, first into the midst of Blucher's scattered
columns on the plains of Champagne, and then against the heads of
Schwartzenberg's weighty columns at the bridge of Montereau in 1814,
during his immortal campaign in France.

Eight years have now elapsed since we had the gratification of
reviewing, on its publication, the first volume of Arnold's Rome; and we
then foretold the celebrity which that admirable writer was qualified to
attain.[31] The publication since that period of two additional volumes
has amply verified that prediction; and augmented the bitterness of the
regret which, in common with all his countrymen, we felt at his untimely
death. It is clear that he was qualified beyond any modern writer who
has yet undertaken the glorious task, to write a history of the Rise and
Progress of the Roman Republic. What a work would eight volumes such as
that before us on Hannibal have formed, in conjunction with Gibbon's
immortal Decline and Fall! His ardent love of truth, his warm aspiration
after the happiness of the human race, his profound and yet liberal
religious feeling, as much gave him the spirit requisite for such an
undertaking, as his extensive scholarship, his graphic power, his
geographical eye, and brilliant talents for description, fitted him for
carrying it into execution. It is one of the most melancholy events of
our times, which has reft one of the brightest jewels from the literary
crown of England, that such a man should have been cut off at the zenith
of his power, and the opening of his fame. Arnold was a liberal writer;
but what then? We love and respect an honest opponent. He was candid,
ingenuous, and truth-loving; and if a historian is such, it matters not
what his political opinions are, for he cannot avoid stating facts that
support the conservative side. His errors, as we deem them, in politics,
arose from the usual causes which mislead men on human affairs,
generosity of heart and inexperience of mankind. He could not conceive,
with an imagination warmed by the heroes of antiquity, what a race of
selfish pigmies the generality of men really are. No man of such an
elevated cast can do so, till he is painfully taught it by experience.
Arnold died of a disease of the heart, which physicians have named by
the expressive words "_angina pectoris_." They were right: it was
anxiety of the heart which brought him to an untimely grave. He died of
disappointed hope, of chilled religious aspirations, of mortified
political expectations of social felicity. Who can estimate the
influence, on so sensitive and enthusiastic a disposition, of the
heart-rending anguish which his correspondence proves he felt at the
failure of his long-cherished hopes and visions of bliss in the Reform
Bill, and all the long catalogue of political and social evils, now
apparent to all, it has brought in its train?

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 20: _History of Rome._ By THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D. London: 1843.
Vol. 3.]

[Footnote 21: Hannibal was born in the year 247 before Christ, or 2092
before this time.]

[Footnote 22: _Virtus_ from _vir_--_exercitus_ from _exerceo_.]

[Footnote 23: Arnold, iii. 89.]

[Footnote 24: _Ibid._ iii. 486, note.]

[Footnote 25: Livy, xxi. 33.]

[Footnote 26: Polybius, iii. 52.]

[Footnote 27: _Ibid._ iii. 54.]

[Footnote 28: "The way on every side was utterly impassable, through an
accident of a peculiar kind, which is peculiar to the Alps. The snows of
the former years _having remained_ unmelted upon the mountains, were now
covered over by that which had fallen in the present autumn, and when
the soldiers feet went through the latter they fell, and slid down with
great violence."--POLYBIUS, iii. 54. This shows the place was within the
circle of perpetual snow; whereas that on the Little St Bernard is much
below it, and far beneath any avalanches.]

[Footnote 29: Polybius, iii. 54.]

[Footnote 30: Arnold, iii. 64, 65]

[Footnote 31: See Arnold's Rome, Blackwood's Magazine, July 1837.]




STANZAS WRITTEN AFTER THE FUNERAL OF ADMIRAL SIR DAVID MILNE, G.C.B.

BY DELTA.


    Another, yet another! year by year,
      As time progresses with resistless sweep,
    Sever'd from life, the patriots disappear,
      Who bore St George's standards o'er the deep;--

    Heroic men, whose decks were Britain's trust,
      When banded Europe scowl'd around in gloom;
    Nor least, though latest Thou, whose honour'd dust
      Our steps this day live follow'd to the tomb.

    Yet, gallant Milne, what more could'st thou desire,
      Replete in fame, in years, and honours, save
    To wrap thy sea-cloak round thee, and expire,
      Where thou had'st lived in glory, on the wave?

    From boyhood to thy death-day, 'mid the scenes
      Where love is garner'd, or the brave have striven,
    With scarce a breathing-time that intervenes,
      Thy life was to our country's service given.

    A British sailor! 'twas thy proud delight
      Up glory's rugged pathway to aspire;
    Ready in council, resolute in fight,
      And Spartan coolness temper'd Roman fire!

    Yes; sixty years have pass'd, since, in thy prime,
      Plunging from off the shatter'd Blanche, o'erboard
    Amid the moonlight waves, twas thine to climb
      La Pique's torn side, and take the Frenchman's sword.

    And scarcely less remote that midnight dread,
      Or venturous less that daring, when La Seine
    Dismay'd, dismasted, cumber'd with her dead,
      Struck to the ship she fled--and fought in vain.

    And veterans now are all, who, young in heart,
      Burn'd as they heard, how o'er the watery way,
    Compell'd to fight, yet eager to depart,
      The Vengeance battled through the livelong day--

    Battled with thee, who, steadfast, on her track,
      Not to be shaken off, untiring bent;
    And how awhile the fire from each grew slack,
      The shatter'd masts to splice, and riggings rent,--

    And how, at dawn, the conflict was renew'd,
      Muzzle to muzzle, almost hand to hand,
    Till useless on the wave, and carnage-strew'd,
      The foe lay wreck'd on St Domingo's strand,--

    And how huzza'd his brave triumphant crew!
      And how the hero burn'd within his eye,
    When Milne beheld upon the staff, where flew
      The Tricolor, the flag of Britain fly!!

    And yet once more thy country calls!--beneath
      The towers and demi-lune of dark Algiers
    The Impregnable is anchor'd, in the teeth
      Of bomb-proof batteries, frowning, tiers on tiers.

    Another day of triumph for the right,--
      Of laurels fresh for Exmouth and for thee,--
    When Afric's Demon, palsied at the sight
      Of Europe's Angel, bade the slave go free!

    But when away War's fiery storms had burn'd,
      And Peace re-gladden'd Earth with skies of blue,
    Thy sword into the pruning-hook was turn'd,
      And Caesar into Cincinnatus grew.

    The poor's protector, the unbiass'd judge,
      'Twas thine with warm unwearied zeal to lend
    Time to each duty's call, without a grudge;
      The Christian, and the Patriot, and the Friend.

    Farewell! 'tis dust to dust within the grave;
      But while one heart beats high to Scotland's fame,
    Best of the good, and bravest of the brave,
      The name of Milne shall be an honour'd name.




STANZAS TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS HOOD.

BY B. SIMMONS.


    I.
    Take back into thy bosom, Earth,
      This joyous, May-eyed morrow,
    The gentlest child that ever Mirth
      Gave to be rear'd by Sorrow.
    'Tis hard--while rays half green, half gold,
      Through vernal bowers are burning,
    And streams their diamond-mirrors hold
      To Summer's face returning--
    To say, We're thankful that His sleep
      Shall never more be lighter,
    In whose sweet-tongued companionship
      Stream, bower, and beam grew brighter!


    II.
    But all the more intensely true
      His soul gave out each feature
    Of elemental Love--each hue
      And grace of golden Nature,
    The deeper still beneath it all
      Lurk'd the keen jags of Anguish;
    The more the laurels clasp'd his brow,
      Their poison made it languish.
    Seem'd it that like the Nightingale
      Of his own mournful singing[32],
    The tenderer would his song prevail
      While most the thorn was stinging.


    III.
    So never to the Desert-worn
      Did fount bring freshness deeper,
    Than that his placid rest this morn
      Has brought the shrouded sleeper.
    That rest may lap his weary head
      Where charnels choke the city,
    Or where, mid woodlands, by his bed
      The wren shall wake its ditty:
    But near or far, while evening's star
      Is dear to hearts regretting,
    Around that spot admiring Thought
      Shall hover unforgetting.


    IV.
    And if _this_ sentient, seething world
      Is, after all ideal,
    Or in the Immaterial furl'd
      Alone resides the Real,
    FREED ONE! there's wail for thee this hour
      Through thy loved Elves' dominions[33];
    Hush'd is each tiny trumpet-flower,
      And droopeth Ariel's pinions;
    Even Puck, dejected, leaves his swing[34],
      To plan, with fond endeavour,
    What pretty buds and dews shall keep
      Thy pillow bright for ever.


    V.
    And higher, if less happy, tribes--
      The race of earthly Childhood,
    Shall miss thy Whims of frolic wit,
      That in the summer wild-wood,
    Or by the Christmas hearth, were hail'd
      And hoarded as a treasure
    Of undecaying merriment
      And ever-changing pleasure.
    Things from thy lavish humour flung,
      Profuse as scents are flying
    This kindling morn, when blooms are born
      As fast as blooms are dying.


    VI.
    Sublimer Art own'd thy control,
      The minstrel's mightiest magic,
    With sadness to subdue the soul,
      Or thrill it with the Tragic.
    How, listening Aram's fearful dream,
      We see beneath the willow,
    That dreadful THING,[35] or watch him steal,
    Guilt-lighted, to his pillow.[36]
    Now with thee roaming ancient groves,
      We watch the woodman felling
    The funeral Elm, while through its boughs
      The ghostly wind comes knelling.[37]


    VII.
    Dead Worshipper of Dian's face,
      In solitary places
    Shalt thou no more steal, as of yore,
      To meet her white embraces?[38]
    Is there no purple in the rose
      Henceforward to thy senses?
    For thee has dawn, and daylight's close
      Lost their sweet influences?
    No!--by the mental might untamed
      Thou took'st to Death's dark portal,
    The joy of the wide universe
      Is now to thee immortal!


    VIII.
    How fierce contrasts the city's roar
      With thy new-conquer'd Quiet!
    This stunning hell of wheels that pour
      With princes to their riot,--
    Loud clash the crowds--the very clouds
      With thunder-noise are shaken,
    While pale, and mute, and cold, afar
      Thou liest, men-forsaken.
    Hot Life reeks on, nor recks that One
      --The playful, human-hearted--
    Who lent its clay less earthiness
      Is just from earth departed.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 32: In his beautiful _Ode to Melancholy;_ originally published
in Blackwood's Magazine.]

[Footnote 33: See his _Plea of the Midsummer Fairies_, a poem perfectly
unrivalled for the intimate sense of nature, tender fancy, and pathetic
playfulness displayed in it.]

[Footnote 34:

    "Pity it was to hear the Elfins' wail
    Rise up in concert from their mingled dread,
    Pity it was to see them all so pale
    Gaze on the grass as for a dying bed.
    But Puck was seated on a spider's thread
    That hung between two branches of a brier,
    And 'gan to swing and gambol, heels o'er head,
    Like any Southwark tumbler on a wire,
    For him no present grief could long inspire."

    _Plea of the Midsummer Fairies._]

[Footnote 35: Witness the terror of Aram _after_ his victim lies dead
before him--(we quote from memory.)

    "Nothing but lifeless flesh and bone
      That could not do me ill!
    And yet I fear'd him all the more
      For lying there so still;
    _There was a manhood in his look_
      _That murder could not kill._"

    _Dream of Eugene Aram._]

[Footnote 36:

    "For Guilt was my grim chamberlain
      Who lighted me to bed,
    And drew my midnight curtains round
      With fingers bloody red."

    _Dream of Eugene Aram._]

[Footnote 37: See his impressive poem on _The Elm-Tree_. It appeared, a
couple of years back, in _The New Monthly Magazine_.]

[Footnote 38:

                   "Before I lived to sigh,
    Thou wert in Avon, and a thousand rills,
    Beautiful Orb! and so, _whene'er I lie_
    _Trodden_, thou wilt be gazing from thy hills.
    Blest be thy loving light, where'er it spills,
    And blessed be thy face, O Mother Mild!"

    _Ode to the Moon, published likewise in Blackwood_, 1829.]




NORTH'S SPECIMENS OF THE BRITISH CRITICS.

NO. V.

DRYDEN ON CHAUCER.--_Concluded._


Dryden's poetical power appears most of all, perhaps, in his
translations; and his translation of the most vulgar renown is that
which unites his name to that of the great Roman epopeist; but it is not
his greatest achievement. The tales modernized and paraphrased from
Chaucer, and those filled up into poetical telling from Boccacio, as
they are the works of Dryden's which the most fasten themselves with
interest upon a mind open to poetry and free from preconceived literary
opinion, so do they seem to us to be, after all, those which a versed
critic must distinguish as stamped, beyond the others, with the skilled
ease, the flow as of original composition, the sustained spirit, and
force, and fervour--in short, by the mastery, and by the keen zest of
Writing. They are the works of his more than matured mind--of his waning
life; and they show a rare instance of a talent so steadfastly and
perseveringly self-improved, as that, in life's seventh decennium, the
growth of Art overweighed the detriment of Time. But, in good truth, no
detriment of time is here perceptible; youthful fire and accomplished
skill have the air of being met in these remarkable pieces. Chaucer, in
his last and greatest labour, the _Canterbury Tales_, first effectually
creating his own style, and his translator, Dryden, at about the same
years, excelling himself to infuse renovated life into the _Canterbury
Tales_--are brought singularly together.

The age of Chaucer was widely and variously different from that of
Dryden. Knowledge, taste, art, had advanced with strides between the two
dates; and the bleak and stormy English political atmosphere of the
fourteenth century had changed, notwithstanding the commotion of the
later civil war, into a far milder and more settled element when the
seventeenth drew towards close. Genius, likewise, in the two poets, was
distinguished by marked differences. Strength, simplicity, earnestness,
human affection, characterize Chaucer. Dryden has plenty of strength,
too, but it shows itself differently. The strength of Chaucer is called
out by the requisition of the subject, and is measured to the call.
Dryden bounds and exults in his nervous vigour, like a strong steed
broke loose. Exuberant power and rejoicing freedom mark Dryden
versifying--a smooth flow, a prompt fertility, a prodigal splendour of
words and images. Old Chaucer, therefore, having passed through the
hands of Dryden, is no longer old Chaucer--no longer Chaucer. But the
well-chosen, and well-disposed, and well-told tale, full of masculine
sense, lively with humour, made present with painting--for all this
Chaucer brings to Dryden--becomes, by nothing more than the
disantiquating and the different hand, a new poem.

Place the two side by side, and whilst you feel that a total change has
been effected, you shall not always easily assign the secret of the
change wrought. There then comes into view, it must be owned, something
like an unpractised awkwardness in the gait of the great elder bard,
which you less willingly believe, or to which you shut your eyes, when
you have him by himself to yourself. The step of Dryden is rapid, and
has perfect decision. He knows, with every spring he takes, where he
shall alight. Now Chaucer, you would often say, is retarded by looking
where he shall next set down his foot. The old poetry details the whole
series of thinking. The modern supposes more. That is the consequence of
practice. Writer and reader are in better intelligence. A hint goes
further--that which is known to be meant needs not be explicitly said.
Style, as the art advances, gains in dispatch. There is better keeping,
too, in some respects. The dignity of the style--the purpose of the
Beautiful--is more considerately maintained. And perhaps one would be
justified in saying, that if the earnestness of the heart, which was in
the old time the virtue of virtues, is less--the glow of the fancy, the
tone of inspiration, is proportionally more. And if any where the
thought is made to give way to the straits of the verse, the modern art
more artfully hides the commission.

In our preceding paper, in which we spoke at large of the genius of
Chaucer, we gave some very noble extracts from Dryden's version of the
Knight's Tale. But we did not then venture to quote any long passages
from the original, unassured how they might look on our page to the eyes
of Young Britain. Having good reason to know that Young Britain desires
some veritable Chaucer from the hands of Maga, we shall now indulge her
with some specimens; and as we have been given to understand that
Dryden's versions of the same passages will be acceptable for
comparison, they shall be now produced, while the wishes of Young
Britain shall be further gratified with an occasional running commentary
from our popular pen on both poets. We shall confine ourselves to the
Knight's Tale, with which all who love us are by this time familiar.

Let us lead off with one or two short specimens, and be not frightened,
Fair-eyes, with the seemingly strange, mayhap obsolete-looking, words of
the ancient bard. Con them over a few times, and they will turn into
letters of light.

    CHAUCER.

      Thus passeth yere by yere, and day by day,
    Till it felle ones in a morwe of May,
    That Emelie, that fayrer was to sene
    Than is the lilie upon the stalke grene,
    And fressher than the May with floures newe
    (For with the rose colour strof hire hewe;
    I n'ot which was the finer of hem two)
    Er it was day, as she was wont to do,
    She was arisen, and all redy dight,
    For May wol have no slogardie a-night.
    The seson priketh every gentil herte,
    And maketh him out of his slepe to sterte,
    And sayth 'arise, and do thin observance.'

      This maketh Emelie have remembrance
    To don honour to May, and for to rise.
    Yclothed was she fresshe for to devise.
    Hire yelwe here was broided in a tresse,
    Behind hire back, a yerde long I guess.
    And in the garden at the sonne uprist
    She walketh up and down where as hire list.
    She gathereth floures, partie white and red,
    To make a sotel gerlond for hire hed,
    And as an angel hevenlich she sang, &c.


    DRYDEN.

      Thus year by year they pass, and day by day,
    Till once--'twas on the morn of cheerful May--
    The young Emilia, fairer to be seen
    Than the fair lily on the flowery green,
    More fresh than May herself in blossoms new,
    For with the rosy colour strove her hue,
    Waked, as her custom was, before the day,
    To do the observance due to sprightly May;
    For sprightly May commands our youth to keep
    The vigils of her night, and breaks their sluggard sleep;
    Each gentle breast with kindly warmth she moves,
    Inspires new flames, revives extinguish'd loves.

    In this remembrance, Emily, ere day,
    Arose, and dress'd herself in rich array;
    Fresh as the month, and as the morning fair,
    Adown her shoulders fell her length of hair;
    A ribband did the braided tresses bind,
    The rest was loose, and wanton'd in the wind:
    Aurora had but newly chased the night,
    And purpled o'er the sky with blushing light,
    When to the garden-walk she took her way,
    To sport and trip along in cool of day,
    And offer maiden vows in honour of the May.

    At every turn she made a little stand,
    And thrust among the thorns her lily hand
    To draw the rose; and every rose she drew,
    She shook the stalk, and brush'd away the dew;
    Then party-colour'd flowers of white and red
    She wove, to make a garland to her head.
    This done, she sung and caroll'd out so clear,
    That men and angels might rejoice to hear.
    Even wondering Philomel forgot to sing,
    And learn'd from her to welcome in the spring.

What can you wish more innocently beautiful than Chaucer's--what more
graceful than Dryden's Emelie? And now look at Arcite--how he, too, does
his observance of the May.

    CHAUCER.

    The besy lark, the messenger of day,
    Saleweth in hire song the morwe gray;
    And firy Phoebus riseth up so bright
    That all the orient laugheth of the sight,
    And with his stremes drieth in the greves
    The silver dropes hanging on the leves,
    And Arcite that is in the court real
    With Theseus the squier principal,
    Is risen, and loketh on the mery day.
    And for to don his observance to May,
    Remembring on the point of his desire
    He on his courser, sterting as the fire,
    Is ridden to the feldes him to play,
    Out of the court, were it a mile or tway.
    And to the grove of which that I you told,
    By aventure his way he 'gan to hold,
    To maken him a gerlond of the greves,
    Were it of woodbind or of hawthorn leves,
    And loud he song agen the sonne shene.

    O May, with all thy floures and thy grene,
    Right welcome be thou faire freshe May,
    I hope that I some grene here getten may.


    DRYDEN.

    The morning lark, the messenger of day,
    Saluted, in her song, the morning gray;
    And soon the sun arose with beams so bright,
    That all the horizon laugh'd to see the joyous sight.
    He, with his tepid rays, the rose renews,
    And licks the drooping leaves, and dries the dews;
    When Arcite left his bed, resolved to pay
    Observance to the month of merry May:
    Forth, on his fiery steed, betimes he rode,
    That scarcely prints the turf on which he trode:

    At ease he seem'd, and prancing o'er the plains,
    Turn'd only to the grove his horse's reins,
    The grove I named before, and lighting there
    A woodbine garland sought to crown his hair;
    Then turn'd his face against the rising day,
    And raised his voice to welcome in the May:--
    For thee, sweet month, the groves green liveries wear,
    If not the first, the fairest of the year:
    For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours,
    And Nature's ready pencil paints the flowers:
    When thy short reign is past, the feverish sun
    The sultry tropic fears, and moves more slowly on.
    So may thy tender blossoms fear no blight,
    Nor goats, with venom'd teeth, thy tendrils bite.
    As thou shalt guide my wandering feet to find
    The fragrant greens I seek my brows to bind.

In Chaucer, Arcite's address to the "mery May" is but of three plain
lines, and they suffice; in Dryden, of ten ornate, and they suffice
too--"alike, but oh! how different!" The plain three are more in
character, for Arcite was thinking of Emelie all the while--but the
ornate ten are in season now, for summer has come at last, and recite
them to yourself and Amaryllis in the shade.

But now for a loftier strain. Palamon and Arcite are about to fight for
Emelie--and lo and behold their auxiliar kings!

    Ther maist thou se coming with Palamon
    Licurge himself, the grete king of Trace:
    Blake was his berd, and manly was his face.
    The cercles of his eyen in his head
    They gloweden betwixen yelwe and red,
    And like a griffon loked he about,
    With kemped heres on his browes stout;
    His limmes gret, his brawnes hard and stronge,
    His shouldres brode, his armes round and longe.
    And as the guise was in his countree,
    Full high upon a char of gold stood he,
    With foure white bolles in the trais.
    Instead of cote-armure on his harnais,
    With nayles yelwe, and bright as any gold,
    He had a beres-skin, cole-blake for old.
    His longe here was kempt behind his bak,
    As any ravenes fether it shone for blake.
    A wreth of gold arm-gret, of huge weight,
    Upon his hed sate ful of stones bright,
    Of fine rubins and of diamants.
    About his char ther wenten white alauns
    Twenty and mo, as great as any stere,
    To hunten at the leon or the dere,
    And folwed him, with mosel fast ybound,
    Colered with gold, and torettes filed round.
    A hundred lordes had he in his route,
    Armed full wel with hertes sterne and stoute.

    With Arcite, in stories as men find,
    The gret Emetrius, the King of Inde,
    Upon a stede bay, trapped in stele,
    Covered with cloth of gold diapered well,
    Came riding like the god of armes, Mars.
    His cote-armure was of a cloth of Tars,
    Couched with perles, white, and round, and grete.
    His sadel was of brent gold new ybete:
    A mantelet upon his shouldres hanging,
    Bret-ful of rubies red, as fire sparkling.
    His crispe here like ringes was yronne,
    And that was yelwe, and glittered as the sonne.
    His nose was high, his eyen bright eitrin,
    His lippes round, his colour was sanguin,
    A fewe fraknes in his face yspreint,
    Betwixen yelwe and blake somdel ymeint,
    And as a leon he his loking caste.
    Of five-and-twenty yere his age I caste.
    His berd was wel begonnen for to spring;
    His vois was as a trompe thondering.
    Upon his hed he wered of laurer grene
    A gerlond fresshe, and lusty for to sene.
    Upon his hond he bare for his deduit
    An egle tame, as any lily whit.
    An hundred lordes had he with him there
    All armed save hir hedes in all hir gere,
    Full richely in alle manere thinges.
    For trusteth wel, that erles, dukes, kinges,
    Were gathered in this noble compagnie,
    For love, and for encrease of chevalrie.
    About this king ther ran on every part
    Full many a tame leon and leopart.

What a plenitude of brilliant and powerful description! Every verse,
every half verse, adds a characterizing circumstance, a vivifying image.
And what an integrity and self-completeness has the daring and large
conception of either martial king! And how distinguishably the two stand
apart from each other! But above all, what a sudden and rich addition to
our stock of heroic poetical portraitures! Here is no imitation. Neither
Lycurge nor Emetrius is any where in poetry but here. Not in the
_Iliad_-not in the _AEneid_. You cannot compose either of them from the
heroes of antiquity. Each is original--new--self-subsisting. The monarch
of Thrace is invested with more of uncouth and savage terror. He is
bigger, broader. Might for destroying is in his bulk of bone and muscle.
Bulls draw him, and he looks taurine. A bear-skin mantles him; and you
would think him of ursine consanguinity. The huge lump of gold upon his
raven-black head, and the monster hounds, bigger than the dog-kind can
be imagined to produce, that gambol about his chariot, all betoken the
grosser character of power--the power that is in size--material. The
impression of the portentous is made without going avowedly out of the
real. His looking is resembled to that of a griffin, because in that
monster imagined at or beyond the verge of nature, the ferocity of a
devouring, destroying creature can be conceived as more wild, and grim,
and fearful than in nature's known offspring, in all of whom some
kindlier sparkles from the heart of the great mother, some
beneficently-implanted instincts are thought of as tempering and
qualifying the pure animal fierceness and rage.

The opposed King of Inde has also of the prodigious, within the limits
of the apparently natural. He is also a tremendous champion; but he has
more fire, and less of mere thewes, in the furnishing of his warlike
sufficiency. There is more of mind and fancy about him. His fair
complexion at once places him in a more gracious category of
death-doers. Compare to the car drawn by four white bulls, the gallant
bay charger barded with steel, and caparisoned with cloth of gold.
Compare to that yellow-nailed, swart bear-skin, the coat-armour made
with cloth of Tars, the mantelet thick-sown with rubies; for the locks
like the raven's plumage, the curls like Apollo's tresses. He is in the
dazzling prime of youth. Black Lycurge, without question, has more than
twice his years. The beard that yet springs, joined close to the voice
that is like a trumpet, is well found for raising the expression of
native power in that thundering voice. The laurel wreath for the
ponderous golden diadem--the white eagle on the wrist for the snowy
alauns, are all studied to carry through the same opposition. Emetrius
is a son of chivalry; Lycurge might be kin or kith, with a difference
for the better, of that renowned tyrant Diomedes, who put men's limbs
for hay into his manger, and of whom Hercules had, not so long ago,
ridded the world. _His_ looking, too, is paralleled away from humanity,
but it is by the kingly and generous lion. Observe that the companions
of the two kings are described, whether through chance or choice, in
terms correspondingly opposite. The Thracian leads a hundred lords, with
hearts stern and stout. The Indian's following, earls, dukes, kings,
have thronged to him, for the love and increment of chivalry. The lions
and leopards, too, that run about him have been tamed. They finish the
Indian picture.

How does Dryden acquit himself here? Grandly.

    DRYDEN.

    With Palamon, above the rest in place,
    Lycurgus came, the surly king of Thrace;
    Black was his beard, and manly was his face:
    The balls of his broad eyes roll'd in his head,
    And glared bewixt a yellow and a red;
    He look'd a lion with a gloomy stare,
    And o'er his eye-brows hung his matted hair;
    Big-boned, and large of limbs, with sinews strong,
    Broad-shoulder'd, and his arms were round and long.
    Four milk-white bulls (the Thracian use of old,)
    Were yoked to draw his car of burnish'd gold.
    Upright he stood, and bore aloft his shield,
    Conspicuous from afar, and overlook'd the field.
    His surcoat was a bear-skin on his back;
    His hair hung long behind, and glossy raven-black.
    His ample forehead bore a coronet
    With sparkling diamonds, and with rubies set;
    Ten brace, and more, of greyhounds, snowy fair,
    And tall as stags, ran loose, and coursed around his chair,
    A match for pards in flight, in grappling for the bear.
    With golden muzzles all their mouths were bound,
    And collars of the same their necks surround.
    Thus through the field Lycurgus took his way;
    His hundred knights attend in pomp and proud array.

    To match this monarch, with strong Arcite came
    Emetrius, king of Inde, a mighty name!
    On a bay courser, goodly to behold,
    The trappings of his horse emboss'd with barbarous gold.
    Not Mars bestrode a steed with greater grace;
    His surcoat o'er his arms was cloth of Thrace,
    Adorn'd with pearls, all orient, round, and great;
    His saddle was of gold, with emeralds set;
    His shoulders large a mantle did attire,
    With rubies thick, and sparkling as the fire;
    His amber- locks in ringlets run,
    With graceful negligence, and shone against the sun.
    His nose was aquiline, his eyes were blue,
    Ruddy his lips, and fresh and fair his hue;
    Some sprinkled freckles on his face were seen,
    Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin.
    His awful presence did the crowd surprise,
    Nor durst the rash spectator meet his eyes,
    Eyes that confess'd him born for kingly sway,
    So fierce, they flash'd intolerable day.
    His age in nature's youthful prime appear'd,
    And just began to bloom his yellow beard.
    Whene'er he spoke, his voice was heard around,
    Loud as a trumpet, with a silver sound;
    A laurel wreath'd his temples, fresh and green,
    And myrtle sprigs, the marks of love, were mix'd between.
    Upon his fist he bore, for his delight,
    An eagle well reclaim'd, and lily white.

    His hundred knights attend him to the war,
    All arm'd for battle, save their heads were bare.
    Words and devices blazed on every shield,
    And pleasing was the terror of the field.
    For kings, and dukes, and barons you might see,
    Like sparkling stars, though different in degree,
    All for the increase of arms, and love of chivalry.
    Before the king tame leopards led the way,
    And troops of lions innocently play.
    So Bacchus through the conquer'd Indies rode,
    And beasts in gambols frisk'd before the honest god.

Dryden, you will have noticed, smooths down, in some places, a little
the savagery of the Thracian. He has let go the fell gryphon, borrowing
instead the lion's glances of Emetrius. For the more refined poetical
invention of the advanced world, the opposition of the two animals for
contrasting the two heroes, had possibly something of the burlesque. To
Chaucer it was simply energetic. Or Dryden perhaps had not taken up a
right view of the gryphon's looking, or he thought that his readers
would not. He compensates Emetrius with plainly describing his eyes, in
four very animated verses. Lycurge's combed eye-brows are a little
mitigated, as is his ferocious bear-skin; and the ring of gold, as thick
as a man's arm, has become merely a well-jewelled coronet. The spirit of
the figure is, notwithstanding, caught and given. Dryden intends and
conveys the impression purposed and effected by Chaucer.

If the black and sullen portrait loses a little grimness under the rich
and harmonious pencil of Dryden, the needful contradistinction of the
two royal auxiliars is maintained by heightening the favour of the more
pleasing one. Throughout, Dryden with pains insists upon the more
attractive features which we have claimed for the King of Inde. Grace is
twice attributed to his appearance. He has gained blue eyes. His
complexion is carefully and delicately handled, as may be especially
seen in the management of the freckles. The _blooming_ of his yellow
beard, the thundering of the trumpet changed into a silvery sound, the
myrtle sprigs mixed amongst the warlike laurel--all unequivocally
display the gracious intentions of Dryden towards Emetrius--all aid in
rendering effective the opposition which Chaucer has deliberately
represented betwixt the two kings. Why the surly Thracian should be
rather allied to the knight who serves Venus, and the more gallant
Emetrius to the fierce Arcite, the favourite of the War-god, is left for
the meditation of readers in all time to come.

The two opposed pictures are perhaps as highly finished as any part of
the version. The words fall into their own places, painting their
objects. The verse marches with freedom, fervour, and power. Translation
has then reached its highest perfection when the suspicion of an
original vanishes. The translator makes the matter his own, and writes
as if from his own unassisted conception. The allusion to Bacchus is
Dryden's own happy addition.

Now read with us--perhaps for the first time--the famous recital of the
death of Arcite.

    CHAUCER.

    Nought may the woful spirit in myn herte
    Declare o point of all my sorwes smerte
    To you, my lady, that I love most;
    But I bequethe the service of my gost
    To you aboven every creature,
    Sin that my lif ne may no longer dure.
    Alas the wo! alas the peines stronge
    That I for you have suffered, and so longe!
    Alas the deth! Alas min Emilie!
    Alas departing of our compagnie!
    Alas min hertes quene! alas my wif!
    My hertes ladie, ender of my lif!
    What is this world? what axen men to have?
    Now with his love, now in his colde grave
    Alone withouten any compagnie.
    Farewel my swete, farewel min Emilie,
    And softe take me in your armes twey,
    For love of God, and herkeneth what I sey.

    I have here with my cosin Palamon
    Had strif and rancour many a day agon
    For love of you, and for my jealousie.
    And Jupiter so wis my soule gie,
    To speken of a servant proprely,
    With alle circumstance trewely,
    That is to sayn, trouth, honour, and knighthede,
    Wisdom, humblesse, estat, and high kinrede,
    Fredom, and all that longeth to that art,
    So Jupiter have of my soule part,
    As in this world right now ne know I non
    So worthy to be loved as Palamon,
    That serveth you, and wol don all his lif.
    And if that ever ye shal ben a wif,
    Foryete not Palamon, the gentil man.

    And with that word his speech faille began.
    For from his feet up to his brest was come
    The cold of death, which had him overnome.
    And yet moreover in his armes two,
    The vital strength is lost, and all ago.
    Only the intellect, withouten more,
    That dwelled in his herte sike and sore,
    Gan faillen, whan the herte felte deth;
    Dusked his eyen two, and failled his breth.
    But on his ladie yet cast he his eye;
    His laste word was: Mercy, Emilie!
    His spirit changed hous, and wente ther,
    As I came never I cannot tellen wher.
    Therefore I stent, I am no divinistre;
    Of soules find I not in this registre.
    Ne me lust not th' opinions to telle
    Of hem, though that they writen wher they dwelle.
    Arcite is cold, ther Mars his soule gie.
    Now wol I speken forth of Emilie.

    Shright Emilie, and houleth Palamon,
    And Theseus his sister toke anon
    Swouning, and bare hire from the corps away.
    What helpeth it to tarien forth the day,
    To tellen how she wep both even and morwe?
    For in swiche cas wimmen haven swiche sorwe,
    Whan that hir housbondes ben fro hem ago,
    That for the more part they sorwen so,
    Or elles fallen in swiche maladie,
    That atte laste certainly they die.

    Infinite ben the sorwes and the teres
    Of olde folk, and folk of tendre years
    In all the toun for deth of this Theban:
    For him, ther wepeth bothe child and man:
    So gret a weping was there non certain,
    When Hector was ybrought, all fresh yslain
    To Troy: alas! the pitee that was there,
    Cratching of chekes, rending eke of here.
    Why woldest thou be ded? the women crie,
    And haddest gold enough, and Emilie.

The death of Arcite is one of the scenes for which the admirers of
Chaucer feel themselves entitled to claim, that it shall be judged in
comparison with analogous passages of the poets that stand highest in
the renown of natural and pathetic delineation. The dying words of the
hero are as _proper_ as if either great classical master of epic
propriety--the Chian or the Mantuan--had left them to us. They are
thoroughly sad, thoroughly loving, and supremely magnanimous. They have
a perfect simplicity of purpose. They take the last leave of his Emelie;
and they find for her, if ever she shall choose to put off her
approaching estate of unwedded widowhood, a fit husband. They have
answerable simplicity of sentiment and of language. He is unable to
utter any particle of the pain which he feels in quitting her; but since
the service which living he pays her, draws to an end, he pledges to her
in the world whither he is going, the constant love-fealty of his
disembodied spirit. He recalls to her, with a word only, the long
love-torments he has endured for her, exchanged, in the hour when they
should have been crowned with possession, for the pains of death. He
heaps endearing names upon her. He glances at the vanity of human wishes
imaged in himself, and he bids her farewell. That is his first
heart-offering towards herself. Can a death-severed heart's elocution be
imitated more aptly, more touchingly? He then turns to praising his
rival. The jealousy, which had so long been the madness of both, filling
the two kindred, brotherly, once-affectionate bosoms with hate, has, in
his, melted away with life, thence melting away; and Arcite, with his
last intelligible breath, describes Palamon briefly, point by point, as
he knew him when he best loved him. He does not implore Emelie to remain
for his sake single. He does not pretend, if she shall marry, to govern
her choice; but he simply requests her, if the season shall ever arrive
of such a choice, that she will not "forget Palamon." But the
death-frost creeps on--his eyes darken--and the suspiration which
finally wafts the soul from the body, beseeches the favour of her, only
to earn whose favour he lived, and with earning whose favour he dies.
Her name leaves his lips last. Could Shakspeare have helped Chaucer? The
whole speech is admirably direct and short. We shall presently have to
deal with one from the same poem, which wants that virtue.

The clamorous outbreak that follows, first of the private, and,
supervening upon that, of the public grief, if not altogether couched in
Homeric phraseology or numbers, has an air, however, of the Homeric
painting. But, indeed, neither is the language deficient in fanciful
significancy, nor the measure in good old melody.

    DRYDEN.

    No language can express the smallest part
    Of what I feel, and suffer in my heart,
    For you, whom best I love and value most:
    But to your service I bequeath my ghost;
    Which, from this mortal body when untied,
    Unseen, unheard, shall hover at your side;
    Nor fright you waking, nor your sleep offend,
    But wait officious, and your steps attend.
    How I have loved--excuse my faltering tongue!
    My spirit's feeble and my pains are strong:
    This I may say I only grieve to die,
    Because I lose my charming Emily.
    To die when heaven had put you in my power!
    Fate could not choose a more malicious hour.
    What greater curse could envious fortune give,
    Than just to die when I began to live?
    Vain men, how vanishing a bliss we crave,
    Now warm in love, now withering in the grave!
    Never, O never more to see the sun!
    Still dark, in a damp vault, and still alone!
    This fate is common; but I lose my breath
    Near bliss, and yet not bless'd, before my death.
    Farewell! but take me dying in your arms,
    'Tis all I can enjoy of all your charms:
    This hand I cannot but in death resign;
    Ah, could I live! but while I live 'tis mine.
    I feel my end approach, and thus embraced,
    Am pleased to die; but hear me speak my last.
    Ah, my sweet foe! for you, and you alone,
    I broke my faith with injured Palamon:
    But love the sense of right and wrong confounds;
    Strong love and proud ambition have no bounds.
    And much I doubt, should Heaven my life prolong,
    I should return to justify my wrong;
    For, while my former flames remain within,
    Repentance is but want of power to sin.
    With mortal hatred I pursued his life,
    Nor he, nor you, were guilty of the strife;
    Nor I, but as I loved; yet all combined,
    Your beauty, and my impotence of mind;
    And his concurrent flame that blew my fire;
    For still our kindred souls had one desire.
    He had a moment's right, in point of time;
    Had I seen first, then his had been the crime.
    Fate made it mine, and justified his right;
    Nor holds this earth a more deserving knight,
    For virtue, valour, and for noble blood,
    Truth, honour, all that is comprised in good;
    So help me Heaven, in all the world is none
    So worthy to be loved as Palamon.
    He loves you, too, with such a holy fire,
    As will not, cannot, but with life expire;
    Our vow'd affections both have often tried,
    Nor any love but yours could ours divide.
    Then, by my love's inviolable band,
    By my long-suffering, and my short command,
    If e'er you plight your vows when I am gone,
    Have pity on the faithful Palamon.

    This was his last; for Death came on amain,
    And exercised below his iron reign.
    Then upward to the seat of life he goes;
    Sense fled before him, what he touch'd he froze:
    Yet could he not his closing eyes withdraw,
    Though less and less of Emily he saw;
    So, speechless for a little space he lay;
    Then grasp'd the hand he held, and sigh'd his soul away.
    But whither went his soul, let such relate
    Who search the secrets of the future state:
    Divines can say but what themselves believe;
    Strong proofs they have, but not demonstrative;
    For, were all plain, then all sides must agree,
    And faith itself be lost in certainty.
    To live uprightly, then, is sure the best;
    To save ourselves, and not to damn the rest.
    The soul of Arcite went where heathens go,
    Who better live than we, though less they know.

    In Palamon a manly grief appears;
    Silent he wept, ashamed to show his tears.
    Emilia shriek'd but once; and then, oppress'd
    With sorrow, sunk upon her lover's breast:
    Till Theseus in his arms convey'd, with care,
    Far from so sad a sight the swooning fair.
    'Twere loss of time her sorrow to relate;
    Ill bears the sex a youthful lover's fate,
    When just approaching to the nuptial state:
    But, like a low-hung cloud, it rains so fast,
    That all at once it falls, and cannot last.
    The face of things is changed, and Athens now,
    That laugh'd so late, becomes the scene of woe:
    Matrons and maids, both sexes, every state,
    With tears lament the knight's untimely fate.
    Nor greater grief in falling Troy was seen
    For Hector's death, but Hector was not then.
    Old men with dust deform'd their hoary hair;
    The women beat their breasts, their cheeks they tear:
    Why wouldst thou go, (with one consent they cry,)
    When thou hadst gold enough, and Emily?

Dryden, you observe, exhibits various changes. Are they for the better
or the worse? In the first place, he introduces a new motive into the
conduct of Arcite--remorse of conscience. When fate has declared against
him, and he finds that he cannot enjoy the possession of the prize which
he has wrongfully won, his eyes open upon his own injustice, and he
acknowledges the prior right of Palamon, who first had seen Emilie.

Does this innovation make good an ethical want in the rough and
unschooled original? Or does it perplex the old heroic simplicity with a
modern and needless refinement? By right of arms, by gift of the king,
with her own gentle consent, Emelie was Arcite's. Death unsinews the
hand that held her against the world. Let a few winged moments fleet,
and she is his no more. He bows, conquered by all-conquering, alone
unconquerable necessity. His love, which had victoriously expelled his
cousin's from the field of debate, he carries with him to the melancholy
Plutonic kingdom, and leaves the field of debate still--Palamon victor,
and Emelie free. Really there seems to be something not only simpler in
art, but more pathetic, and even morally greater, in the humble
submission of the fierce and giant-like spirit to inevitable decree--in
the spontaneous return of the pristine fraternal appreciation when death
withdraws the disturbing force of rivalry--and in his voluntarily
appointing, so far as he ventures to appoint, his brother in arms and
his bride to each other's happiness--than in the inventive display of a
compunction for which, as the world goes, there appears to be positively
no use, and hardly clear room. Loftily viewing the case, a wrong has
been intended by Arcite to Palamon, but no wrong done. He has been twice
hacked and hewed a little--that is all; and it cannot be said that he
has been robbed of her who would not have been his. Indeed, the current
of destiny has so run, that the quarrel of the two noble kinsmen has
brought, as apparently it alone could bring, the survivor to wedlock
with his beloved. We suspect, then, that the attribution of the motive
is equally modern with the style of the not ill-contrived witticism
which accompanies the first mention of it--

    "Conscience, that of all physick works the last,
    Caused him to send for Emily in haste."

But that which, upon the general comparison of the two speeches,
principally strikes us, is the great expansion, by the multiplying of
the thoughts to which expression is given, by Dryden. With old Geoffrey,
the weight of death seems actually to lie upon the tongue that speaks in
few interrupted accents. Dryden's Moribund runs on, quite at his ease,
in eloquent disquisition. Another unsatisfactory difference is the
disappearing of that distinct, commanding purpose or plan, and the due
proportion observed upon in the original. That mere cleaving desire to
Emelie, felt through the first half in word after word gushing up from
a heart in which life, but not love, ebbs, gets bewildered in the modern
version among explications of the befallen unhappiness, and lost in a
sort of argumentative lamentation. And do but just look how that "in his
colde grave," the only word, one may say, in the whole allocution which
does not expressly appertain to Emelie, and yet half belongs to her by
contrast--is extended, in Dryden, as if upon recollection of Claudio's
complaint in "Measure for Measure," until, like that complaint, it
becomes selfish.

But there is small pleasure in picking out the poetical misses of John
Dryden. It was to be foreseen that he would be worsted in this place of
the competition; for the pathetic was not his _forte_, and was
Chaucer's. So, too, instead of the summary and concise commendation of
his happier cousin to the future regard of the bereaved bride, so
touching in Chaucer, there comes in, provoked by that unlucky
repentance, an expatiating and arguing review of the now extinct
quarrel, showing a liberty and vigour of thought that agree ill with the
threatening cloud of dissolution, and somewhat overlay and encumber the
proper business to which the dying man has now turned himself--made
imperative by the occasion--the formal and energetic eulogy on Palamon.
The praise, however, is bestowed at last, and handsomely.

Have we, think ye, gentle lovers of Chaucer, rightly understood the
possibly somewhat obscure intention of the two verses at the beginning
of our extract--

    "But I bequethe the service of my gost
    To you?"

We have accepted "service" in the sense which, agreeably to our
erudition, it eminently holds the old love-vocabulary--homage, devotion,
LOVE; the pure and entire dedication by the lover of his whole being to
his lady. In this meaning, the heart continually _serves_, if there
should be no opportunity of rendering any useful offices. You will see
that Dryden has taken the word in what strikes us as an inferior
sense--namely, available service; but then his verses are exquisite. And
why, gentle lovers of Chaucer, why think ye does the expiring Arcite, at
that particular juncture of his address, crave of his heart's queen
softly to take him in her arms? Is it not that he is then about pouring
out into her ear his dying design for her happiness? Received so, the
movement has great originality and an infinite beauty. His heart yearns
the more towards her as he is on the point of giving utterance to his
generous proposal. He will, by that act of love upon her part, and that
mutual attitude of love, deepen the solemnity, truth, power, impression
of his unexpected request. Will he perchance, too, approach her ear to
his voice, that grows weaker and weaker?

The two verses appear by their wording to intimate something like all
this.

    "And softe take me in your armes twey,
    For love of God, _and herkeneth what I sey_."

If Chaucer had any such meaning, it vanishes wholly in Dryden's version.

On re-surveying the matter at last, we feel the more that the passing
over of Emelie from the dead Arcite to the living Palamon, in Chaucer,
is by much more poetical when viewed as the voluntary concession and
gift of the now fully heroic Arcite, than as, in Dryden, the recovered
right of the fortunate survivor. However, the speech, as Dryden has it,
is vigorous, numerous, spirited, eloquent, touched with poetry, and
might please you very well, did you not compare it with the singular
truth, feeling, fitness of Chaucer's--that unparalleled picture of a
manly, sorely-wrung, lovingly-provident spirit upon its bed of untimely
death.

The process of dying has been considerately delineated by Chaucer. Death
creeps from the feet upwards to the breast--it creeps up and possesses
the arms. But the intellect which dwelled in the heart 'gan fail only
when the very heart felt death. Then dimness fell upon the eyes, and the
breath faltered. One more look--one more word--and the spirit has
forsaken its tenement. Dryden generalizes all this particularity--and
therein greatly errs. But the last four flowing verses of the
death-scene are in his more inspired manner, and must be held good for
redeeming a multitude of peccadilloes and some graver transgressions.
Read them over again--

    "Yet could he not his closing eyes withdraw,
    Though less and less of Emily he saw;
    So, speechless for a little space he lay;
    Then grasp'd the hand he held, and sigh'd his soul away."

When years rolling have in a manner exhausted the tears due to the
remembrance of the heroic Arcite, a parliament, held upon matters of
public interest, gives occasion to Theseus of requiring the attendance
of Palamon from Thebes to Athens. The benign monarch, however, is
revolving affairs of nearer and more private concern. The national
council is assembled; Palamon is in his place, and Emelie has been
called into presence. His majesty puts on a very serious countenance,
fixes his eyes, heaves a sigh, and begins unburthening his bosom of its
concealed purposes. He "begins from the beginning" in this fashion:--

"When the First Mover established the great chain of love, in which he
bound the four elements, the mighty ordering proceeded of high wisdom.
The same author, himself inaccessible to alteration, has appointed to
all natural things the law of transiency and succession. The kinds
endure; the individuals pass away. Nature examples us with decay. Trees,
rivers, mighty towns, wax and wane--much more we. All must die--the
great and the small: and the wish to live is an impiety. Better it is to
fall in the pride of strength and in the splendour of renown, than to
droop through long years into the grave; and the friend who survives
should rejoice in his friend's happy and honourable departure.
Wherefore, then, shall we longer mourn for Arcite?" This is the copious
preamble. The conclusion is more briefly dispatched. Emelie must accept
the hand of her faithful servant Palamon. He wants no persuasion; and
the knot of matrimony happily ties up at last their destinies, wishes,
and expectations, which the Tale in its progress has spun.

The royal harangue is long; and marked, doubtless, with a sort of
artificial solemnity. However, it has a deliberative stateliness and a
certain monarchal tone. _We_ do not now, in the Speeches from the
Throne, begin regularly from the Creation--but that is a refinement.
There has been eloquence of which Chaucer's deep display of philosophy
and high deduction of argument is no ill-conceived representation. There
is a grandeur in the earthly king's grounding his counsels in those of
the heavenly King; and in his blending his own particular act of exerted
kingly sway into the general system of things in the universe. The turn
from the somewhat magniloquent dissertation to the parties immediately
interested--the gentle disposing, between injunction and persuasion, of
Emelie's will, and the frank call upon Palamon to come forward and take
possession of his happiness, are natural, princely, and full of dramatic
grace. Thus,--


    CHAUCER.

    Lo the oke that hath so long a norishing
    Fro the time that it ginneth first to spring,
    And hath so long a lif, as ye may see,
    Yet at the laste wasted is the tree.
    Considereth eke, how that the harde stone
    Under our feet, on which we trede and gon,
    It wasteth as it lieth by the way;
    The brode river some time waxeth dry;
    The grete tounes see we wane and wende;
    Then may ye see that all things hath an end.
    Of man and woman see we wel also,
    That nedes in on of the termes two,
    That is to sayn, in youth or elles age,
    He mote be ded, the king as shall a page;
    Som on his bed, some on the depe see,
    Som in the large field, as ye may see;
    Ther helpeth nought, all goth that ilke wey;
    Than may I say that alle things mote dey.
    What maketh this but Jupiter the king?
    The which is prince, and cause of alle thing,
    Converting alle unto his propre will,
    From which it is derived, soth to telle.
    And here againes no creature on live
    Of no degree availeth for to strive.
    Then is it wisdom, as it thinketh me,
    To maken virtue of necessite,
    And take it wel, that we may not eschewe,
    And namely that to us all is dewe.
    And who so grutcheth ought, he doth folie,
    And rebel is to him that all may gie.
    And certainly a man hath most honour
    To dien in his excellence and flour,
    Whan he is siker of his goode name.
    Than hath he don his friend, ne him, no shame;
    And glader ought his friend been of his deth
    Whan with honour is yelden up his breath,
    Than whan his name appalled is for age;
    For all foryetten is his vassalage
    Than is it best, as for a worthy fame,
    To dien when a man is best of name.
    The contrary of all this is wilfulnesse.
    Why grutchen we? Why have we heavinesse,
    That good Arcite, of chivalry the flour,
    Departed is, with dutee and honour,
    Out of this foule prison of this lif?
    Why grutchen here his cosin and his wif
    Of his welfare, that loven him so wel?
    Can he hem thank? Nay, God wot, never a del,
    That both his soule, and eke himself offend,
    And yet they mow hir lustres not amend.

    What may I conclude of this longe serie,
    But after sorwe I rede us to be merie,
    And thanken Jupiter of all his grace,
    And er that we departen from this place,
    I rede that we make of sorwes two
    O parfit joye lasting evermo;
    And loketh now wher most sorwe is herein,
    Ther wol I firste amenden and begin.

    Sister (quod he) this is my full assent,
    With all the avis here of my parlement,
    That gentil Palamon, your owen knight,
    That serveth you with will, and herte and might,
    And ever hath done, sin ye first him knew,
    That ye shall of your grace upon him vew,
    And taken him for husbond and for lord:
    Lene me your hand, for this is oure accord.

    Let see now of your womanly pitee.
    He is a kinge's brother's sone pardee,
    And though he were a poure bachelere,
    Sin he hath served you so many a yere,
    And had for you so gret adversitie,
    It moste ben considered, leveth me.
    For gentil mercy oweth to passen right.

    Then sayd he thus to Palamon the knight:
    I trow ther nedeth little sermoning
    To maken you assenten to this thing.
    Cometh ner, and take your lady by the hond.

    Betwixen hem was maked anon the bond,
    That highte matrimoine or mariage,
    By all the conseil of the baronage.
    And thus with alle blisse and melodie
    Hath Palamon ywedded Emilie.
    And God, that all this wide world hath wrought,
    Send him his love, that hath it dere ybought.
    For now is Palamon in alle wele,
    Living in blisse, in richisse, and in hele,
    And Emelie him loveth so tendrely,
    And he hire serveth all so gentilly,
    That never was ther no word hem betwene
    Of jalousie, ne of non other tene.

    Thus endeth Palamon and Emilie
    And God save all this fayre compagnie.

The whole oration is rendered by Dryden with zealous diligence in
bringing out the sense into further effect, and with a magnificent sweep
of composition. If there is in the fine original any thing felt as a
little too stiffly formal, this impression is wholly obliterated or lost
in the streaming poetry of the translator. Dryden may not, on his own
score, have been much of a philosopher; but he handles a philosophical
thought in verse with a dexterity that is entirely his own. The
sharpness and swiftness of intellectual power concurring in him, join so
much ease with so much brevity, that the poetical vein flows on
unhindered, even when involved with metaphysical notions and with
scholastic recollections. The comparison of the following noble strain
with the original now quoted, decisively and successfully shows the
character of an embellishing transformation, which we have all along
attributed to Dryden's treatment of Chaucer. The full thought of the
original is often but as the seed of thought to the version, or at least
the ungrown plant of the one throws out the luxuriance and majesty of
leaves, blossoms, and branches in the other. The growth and decay of the
oak in the two, and still more of the human being, are marked instances.
Dryden does not himself acknowledge the bold license which he has used
in regenerating; he does himself less than justice. The worth of his
work is not the giving to modern England her ancient poet, without the
trouble of acquiring his language, or of learning to sympathize with his
manner. It would almost seem as if that were an enterprise which there
is no accomplishing. Rightly to speak, it was not Dryden's. He really
undertook, from a great old poem lying before him, to write a great
modern poem, which he has done; and in the new Knight's Tale, we see
Dryden, the great poet--we do not see Chaucer, the greater poet. But we
see in it presumptive proof that the old poem worked from was great and
interesting; and we must be lazy and unprofitable students if we do not,
from the proud and splendid modernization, derive a yearning and a
craving towards the unknown simple antique. Unknown to us, in our first
studies, as we read upward from our own day into the past glories of our
vernacular literature; but which, when, with gradually mounting courage,
endeavour, and acquirement, we have made our way up so far, we find

    "Worthy to have not remain'd so long unknown."

So, Dryden has done honour and rendered service to his mighty
predecessor--truer honour and better service--not by superseding, but by
guiding and impelling towards the knowledge of the old Knight's Tale.

    DRYDEN.

    The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees,
    Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees;
    Three centuries he grows, and three he stays,
    Supreme in state, and in three more decays:
    So wears the paving pebble in the street,
    And towns and towers their fatal periods meet:
    So rivers, rapid once, now naked lie,
    Forsaken of their springs and leave their channels dry:
    So man, at first a drop, dilates with heat;
    Then form'd the little heart begins to beat;
    Secret he feeds, unknowing in the cell;
    At length, for hatching ripe, he breaks the shell,
    And struggles into breath, and cries for aid;
    Then helpless in his mother's lap is laid.
    He creeps, he walks, and, issuing into man,
    Grudges their life, from whence his own began;
    Retchless of laws, affects to rule alone,
    Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne;
    First vegetive, then feels, and reasons last;
    Rich of three souls, and lives all three to waste.
    Some thus, but thousands more, in flower of age,
    For few arrive to run the latter stage.
    Sunk in the first, in battle some are slain,
    And others whelm'd beneath the stormy main.
    What makes all this but Jupiter the king,
    At whose command we perish, and we spring?
    Then 'tis our best, since thus ordain'd to die,
    To make a virtue of necessity;
    Take what he gives, since to rebel is vain;
    The bad grows better, which we well sustain;
    And could we choose the time, and choose aright,
    'Tis best to die, our honour at the height.
    When we have done our ancestors no shame,
    But served our friends, and well secured our fame,
    Then should we wish our happy life to close,
    And leave no more for fortune to dispose.
    So should we make our death a glad relief
    From future shame, from sickness, and from grief;
    Enjoying, while we live, the present hour,
    And dying in our excellence and flower.
    Then round our death-bed every friend should run,
    And joyous of our conquest early won;
    While the malicious world, with envious tears,
    Should grudge our happy end, and wish it theirs.
    Since then our Arcite is with honour dead,
    Why should we mourn that he so soon is freed,
    Or call untimely what the gods decreed?
    With grief as just, a friend may be deplored,
    From a foul prison to free air restored,
    Ought he to thank his kinsman or his wife,
    Could tears recal him into wretched life?
    Their sorrow hurts themselves; on him is lost;
    And worse than both, offends his happy ghost.
    What then remains, but after past annoy,
    To take the good vicissitude of joy;
    To thank the gracious gods for what they give,
    Possess our souls, and while we live, to live?
    Ordain we then two sorrows to combine,
    And in one point the extremes of grief to join;
    That thence resulting joy may be renew'd,
    As jarring notes in harmony conclude.
    Then I propose, that Palamon shall be
    In marriage join'd with beauteous Emily;
    For which already I have gain'd the assent
    Of my free people in full parliament.
    Long love to her has borne the faithful knight,
    And well deserved, had fortune done him right;
    'Tis time to mend her fault, since Emily,
    By Arcite's death, from former vows is free.--
    If you, fair sister, ratify the accord,
    And take him for your husband and your lord,
    'Tis no dishonour to confer your grace
    On one descended from a royal race;
    And were he less, yet years of service past,
    From grateful souls, exact reward at last.
    Pity is heaven's and your's; nor can she find
    A throne so soft as in a woman's mind--

      He said: she blush'd; and, as o'erawed by might,
    Seem'd to give Theseus what she gave the knight.
    Then, turning to the Theban, thus he said:--
    Small arguments are needful to persuade
    Your temper to comply with my command:
    And, speaking thus, he gave Emilia's hand.
    Smiled Venus to behold her own true knight
    Obtain the conquest, though he lost the fight;
    And bless'd, with nuptial bliss, the sweet laborious night.
    Eros and Anteros, on either side,
    One fired the bridegroom, and one warm'd the bride;
    And long-attending Hymen, from above,
    Shower'd on the bed the whole Idalian grove.
    All of a tenor was their after-life,
    No day discolour'd with domestic strife;
    No jealousy, but mutual truth believed
    Secure repose, and kindness undeceived.
    Thus Heaven, beyond the compass of his thought,
    Sent him the blessing he so dearly bought.

      So may the Queen of Love long duty bless,
    And all true lovers find the same success.

The time is come in which a curious and instructive chapter in English
criticism--a long one too, possibly--might be written on the
Versification of Chaucer, and upon the history of opinions respecting
it. Tyrwhitt laid the basis, in his edition of the _Canterbury
Tales_--the only work of the ancestral poet that can yet fairly be said
to have found an editor--by a text, of which the admirable diligence,
fidelity, skill, and sound discretion, wrung energetic and unqualified
praise from the illaudatory pen of Ritson. But the Grammar of Chaucer
has yet to be fully drawn out. The profound labours of the continental
scholars, late or living, on the language that was immediate mother to
our own, the Anglo-Saxon, makes that which was in Tyrwhitt's day a thing
impossible to be done, now almost an easy adventure. Accomplished, it
would at once considerably rectify even Tyrwhitt's text. The Rules of
the Verse, which are many, and evince a systematic and cautious framing,
no less than a sensitive musical ear in the patriarch, would follow of
themselves. In the mean time, a few observations, for which the
materials lie at hand, are called for in this place, by the collision of
the two great names, Chaucer and Dryden. Dryden says--

     "The verse of Chaucer, I confess, is not harmonious to us, but
     it is like the eloquence of one whom Tacitus commends, it was
     _auribus istius temporis accommodata_. They who lived with him,
     and some time after him, thought it musical; and it continues
     so, even in our judgment, if compared with the numbers of
     Lidgate and Gower, his contemporaries:--there is the rude
     sweetness of a Scotch tune in it, which is natural and
     pleasing, though not perfect. It is true, I cannot go so far as
     he who published the last edition of him; for he would make us
     believe the fault is in our ears, and that there were really
     ten syllables in a verse where we find but nine; but this
     opinion is not worth confuting; it is so gross and obvious an
     error, that common sense (which is a rule in every thing but
     matters of faith and revelation) must convince the reader that
     equality of numbers, in every verse which we call heroic, was
     either not known, or not always practised in Chaucer's age. It
     were an easy matter to produce some thousands of his verses
     which are lame for want of half a foot, and sometimes a whole
     one, and which no pronunciation can make otherwise. We can only
     say, that he lived in the infancy of our poetry, and that
     nothing is brought to perfection at first. We must be children
     before we grow men. There was an Ennius, and in process of time
     a Lucilius and a Lucretius, before Virgil and Horace; even
     after Chaucer there was a Spenser, a Harrington, a Fairfax,
     before Waller and Denham were in being; and our numbers were in
     their nonage till these last appeared."

Strange to say, by the changing pronunciation of the language, there
grew with time upon the minds of men a doubt, whether or no the Father
of our Poetry _wrote verse_! The tone of Dryden, in the above passage,
when animadverting upon Speght, shows that that editor, in standing up
for ten syllables, put forth an unusual opinion; whilst the poet, in
alleging the deficiency, manifestly agrees with the opinion of the
antique versification that had become current in the world. _He_ taxes
Chaucer, it will be observed, with going wrong on the side of
deficiency, not of excess; nor does he blame the interchange even of
deficiency and excess, as if the syllables were often nine and often
eleven. His words leave no room for misconception of their meaning. They
are as definite as language can supply. "Thousands of the verses are
lame for want of half a foot, or of a whole one." In this sense, then,
he intends: "That equality of numbers, in every verse which we call
heroic, was either not known, or not always practised in Chaucer's age."

But as Dryden has been severely taken to task by some insignificant
writers of our day for the above passage, let us, not for his
vindication, but excuse, take a moment's glance at Speght's edition
(1602,) which, in Dryden's day, was in high esteem, and had been at
first published on the recommendation of Speght's "assured and
ever-loving friend," the illustrious Francis Beaumout. In his preface,
Speght says--"and his verses, although in divers places they may seem to
us to stand of unequal measures, yet a skilful reader that can scan them
in their nature, shall find it otherwise. And if a verse here and there
fal out a sillable shorter or longer than another, I rather aret it to
the negligence and rape of Adam Scrivener, that I may speak as Chaucer
doth, than to any unconning or oversight in the Author. For how fearful
he was to have his works miswritten, or his verse mismeasured, may
appear in the end of his fifth book of Troilus and Cresside, where he
writeth thus:--

    'And for there is so great diversitie,
    In English and in writing of our tongue,
    So pray I God, that none miswrite thee,
    Ne thee mismetre for defaut of tongue'" &c.

How Speght made up the measure to his own satisfaction does not appear;
nor what those methods of pronunciation may have been which Dryden
tried, and which left some thousand verses deficient by half a foot, or
a foot.

But believing Speght's text to be accurate, Dryden could not but believe
in the artlessness and irregularity of Chaucer's versification. Speght's
text is most inaccurate, and altogether undeserving of his own very high
opinion, thus expressed in the Dedication to Sir Robert Cecil--"Now,
therefore, that both by old written copies, and by Master William
Thynn's praiseworthy labours, I have reformed the whole worke, whereby
Chaucer for the most part is restored to his owne antiquitie." In _his_
Chaucer, Dryden met every where such lines as these--

    "When that April with his shours sote."

    "And small foules maken melodie
    That slepen all night with open eie."

    "It befell that season on a day."

    "Ready to wend in my pilgrimage."

    "That toward Canterbury would ride--
    The chambres and stables weren wide."

    "To tell you all the condition."

    "Full worthy was he in his lords warre."

    "Aboven all nations in Pruce."

    "For to tell you of his array."

We suspect that there was all along a lingering tradition amongst the
learned about the virtue of the Mute E's. Vestiges of the use occur in
the poets of Elizabeth's time. Wallis, the celebrated grammarian, says,
that "with our early poets it is found that that (final) E did or did
not constitute an additional syllable, just as the stricture of the
verse required it." Urry, whose edition of Chaucer was published, not
long after his death, in 1721, knows for vocal the termination in ES, of
genitive singular and of the plural--also the past tense and participle
in ED, which, however, can hardly be thought much of, as it is a power
over one mute E that we retain in use to this day. The final E, too, he
marks for a syllable where he finds one wanted, but evidently without
any grammatical reason. Urry was an unfortunate editor. Truly does
Tyrwhitt say of him, that "his design of restoring the metre of Chaucer
by a collation of MSS., was as laudable as his execution of it has
certainly been unsuccessful." The natural causes of this ill success are
thus severely and distinctly stated, "The strange license in which he
appears to have indulged himself, of lengthening and shortening
Chaucer's words according to his own fancy, and of even adding words of
his own, without giving his readers the least notice, has made the text
of Chaucer in his edition by far the worst that was ever published." One
is not surprised when Tyrwhitt, the model of gentlemanly and scholarly
editor, a very pattern of temperate, equitable, and merciful criticism,
cannot refrain from closing his preface with this extinguishing censure
of his wilful predecessor--"Mr Urry's edition should never be opened by
any one for the purpose of reading Chaucer."

Morell, a scholar, published in 1737 the Prologue and the Knight's
Tale--and he, too, marked at need the Mute E's in his text, but by what
rule Tyrwhitt does not intimate, nor do we now distinctly recollect. He
courageously holds that the numbers of Chaucer "are always musical,
whether they want or exceed the complement." But that cannot well be;
for except in very peculiar cases--such, for example, as the happy line,
"Gingling in the whistling wind full clear"--if the MS. have it so--a
line of nine syllables only must be a _lame_ one--and their frequent
recurrence would be the destruction of all music.

Tyrwhitt urges the reason of pronouncing the final E; namely, that it
remains to us from a language in which it formed a syllable. So from the
Norman French we have _fac_-E, _host_-E, _chang_-E, &c. This is basing
the matter on its true ground. It must, however, be acknowledged with
some sorrow, that this well-schooled, clear-minded, and most laborious
editor did not feel himself bound, for the behoof of his author, to
master, as far as the philology of the day might have enabled him, the
Saxon tongue itself, and learn from the fountain what might, and what
could not be--the language of Chaucer. Imperfect as the study of the
Anglo-Saxon then was, he would thus have possessed a needful mastery
over the manuscripts, upon which, as it was, he wholly depended; and he
would have been saved from some unguarded philological assertions and
whimsical speculations. Wanting this guidance, the work, so well
executed as it is, is a monument only the more to be wondered at of his
indefatigable industry and extraordinary good sense.

Upon any where opening Chaucer, of the many seemingly defective verses,
(Dryden in saying thousands may have exaggerated the number even in
Speght,) by far the greater part will be found recoverable to measure by
that restitution of the Mute E which we since, too exclusively perhaps,
connect with the name of Tyrwhitt. The confidence felt in his text,
however--the only one upon which a metrical scholar dares work--in some
sort justifies the honour. Meanwhile, this metrical theory, from his
time, has been generally received; and the renown of the founder of our
poetry settled on all the wider and firmer basis, when he appears as the
earliest skilled artificer of the verse itself--the ten-syllabled or now
national verse, of Shakspeare, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, and Pope.

One starts, therefore, to find a name of such distinction as the late
Laureate's formally opposed to Tyrwhitt, and committed to the opinion
which may seem to have been Dryden's, that the verse of Chaucer is
"rhythmical, not metrical." This hardly self-explicating distinction of
Dr Geo. Fred. Nott's, Southey in his Life of Cowper has explained in set
terms--a verse for which the number of beats or accents is ruled is
rhythmical--for example, the verse of Coleridge's _Christabel_. In that
beautiful poem, the verse is fixed at four beats or accents, but is free
syllabled, having six, seven, ten, twelve, or fourteen. Southey cannot
believe that the prudent and practical Chaucer would have placed his
verse, intended for general reception, in the jeopardy of a reader's
discretion for determining when the verse required the sounding, and
when the silence, of a vowel, by its nature free to be sounded or left
silent, as exigency might require. But he misapprehends the proposed
remedy; and the discretion which he supposes is not given. In the two
languages from which ours is immediately derived, the Anglo-Saxon and
the Norman-French, there are found many final syllables, entirely
dropped in our pronunciation, and many of them in our writing, but which
in the time of Chaucer were all still written, and all with the same
vowel E. The metrical hypothesis, to which Tyrwhitt's labours gave a
lustre, much heightened by the Anglo-Saxon studies abroad and at home of
the present century, bears--first, that in the language of Chaucer's day
these syllables were still audible; and secondly, that Chaucer
consequently employed them in his verse, like any other syllables, with
the due metrical value:--herein not, as the Laureate thought,
overruling, but conforming himself to the use of his mother tongue. To
this more than plausible view, which, if the late studies that have been
taken in the intelligence of Alfred's speech had been made in Tyrwhitt's
day, would not have waited till now for its full establishment, no
objection has yet been raised that seems to deserve the slightest
attention. The Laureate's vanish upon the mere statement. For Dr Nott,
on whom he triumphantly builds, and whose proofs he seems to adopt--he
is the weakest and most wrongheaded of all possible prosers; and, what
is more, his opinions, if they deserve the name, differ _toto coelo_
from Southey's. For we have seen that Southey's ground of distinction is
the number of syllables unrestrained or varying, as in _Christabel_. But
Nott says repeatedly, that the number of syllables is fixed, namely, to
ten; and of the five beats he says not a word.

To extricate Nott's argument (in his edition of Surrey) from
entanglement would not repay a tithe of the trouble; suffice it to say
that he holds that as English verse, before Chaucer, was rhythmical, it
is not likely that Chaucer all at once made it metrical. We answer
first--the question is of a fact offering its own evidence, not of an
anterior likelihood. Secondly--Tyrwhitt's theory that Chaucer, from his
intimacy with the more advanced French and Italian poetry, adopted their
measure, and stamped art upon a poetry till then rude and helpless, has
high natural probability, and agrees to the vehement early extollings of
Chaucer as sovereign master of art. Thirdly--we desire a better proof
and explanation of the difference between rhythmical and metrical verse
than Dr Nott has given, who has placed some extracts from these anterior
poets at the side of some from Chaucer, which prove just nothing.
Fourthly, there _was_ metrical verse in England before Chaucer,
eight-syllabled and _fifteen_-syllabled--if no others. Mr Hallam
(_Introduction to the Literature of Europe_) writes with more
commendation of Dr Nott's accomplishments than they merit; but in the
following excellent passage he shows his usual knowledge of his subject,
and his usual judgment.

     "It had been supposed to be proved by Tyrwhitt, that Chaucer's
     lines are to be read metrically, in ten or eleven syllables,
     like the Italian, and, as I apprehend, the French of his time.
     For this purpose, it is necessary to presume that many
     terminations, now mute, were syllabically pronounced; and where
     verses prove refractory after all our endeavours, Tyrwhitt has
     no scruple in declaring them corrupt. It may be added, that
     Gray, before the appearance of Tyrwhitt's essay on the
     versification of Chaucer, had adopted without hesitation the
     same hypothesis. But, according to Dr Nott, the verses of
     Chaucer, and of all his successors down to Surrey, are merely
     rhythmical, to be read by cadence, and admitting of
     considerable variety in the number of syllables, though ten may
     be the more frequent. In the manuscripts of Chaucer, the line
     is always broken by a caesura in the middle, which is pointed
     out by a virgule; and this is preserved in the early editions
     down to that of 1532. They come near, therefore, to the short
     Saxon line, differing chiefly by the alternate rhyme, which
     converts two verses into one. He maintains that a great many
     lines of Chaucer cannot be read metrically, though harmonious
     as verses of cadence. This rhythmical measure he proceeds to
     show in Hoccleve, Lydgate, Hawes, Barclay, Skelton, and even
     Wyatt; and thus concludes, that, it was first abandoned by
     Surrey, in whom it very rarely occurs. This hypothesis, it
     should be observed, derives some additional plausibility from a
     passage in Gascoyne's 'Notes of instruction concerning the
     making of verse or rhyme in English,' printed in 1575.
     'Whosoever do peruse and well consider his (Chaucer's) works,
     he shall find that, although his lines are not always of one
     selfsame number of syllables, yet being read by one that hath
     understanding, the longest verse, and that which hath most
     syllables in it, will fall (to the ear) correspondent unto that
     which hath fewest syllables; and likewise that which hath
     fewest syllables shall be found yet to consist of words that
     have such natural sound, as may seem equal in length to a verse
     which hath many more syllables of lighter accents.'

     "A theory so ingeniously maintained, and with so much induction
     of examples, has naturally gained a good deal of credit. I
     cannot, however, by any means concur in the extension given to
     it. Pages may be read in Chaucer, and still more in Dunbar,
     where every line is regularly and harmoniously decasyllabic;
     and though the caesura may perhaps fall rather more uniformly
     than it does in modern verse, it would be very easy to find
     exceptions, which could not acquire a rhythmical cadence by any
     artifice of the reader. The deviations from the normal type, or
     decasyllable line, were they more numerous than, after
     allowance for the license of pronunciation, as well as the
     probable corruption of the text, they appear to be, would not,
     I conceive, justify us in concluding that it was disregarded.
     These aberrant lines are much more common in the dramatic blank
     verse of the seventeenth century. They are, doubtless, vestiges
     of the old rhythmical forms; and we may readily allow that
     English versification had not, in the fifteenth or even
     sixteenth centuries, the numerical regularity of classical or
     Italian metre. In the ancient ballads, Scots and English, the
     substitution of the anapaest for the iambic foot, is of
     perpetual recurrence, and gives them a remarkable elasticity
     and animation; but we never fail to recognize a uniformity of
     measure, which the use of nearly equipollent feet cannot, on
     the strictest metrical principles, be thought to impair."

Mr. Guest, in his work, of which we hope erelong to give an account,
brings to the story of English verse far more extensive research than
had hitherto been bestowed upon it; and that special scholarship which
was needed--the Anglo-Saxon language, learned in the new continental
school of Rask and Grimm. His examination of our subject merges in a
general history of the Language, viewed as a metrical element or
material; and hence his exposition, which we rapidly collect _seriatim_,
is plainly different in respect of both order and fulness from what it
would have been, had the illustration of Chaucer been his main purpose.
He follows down the gradual Extinction of Syllables; and in this
respect, our anciently syllabled, now mute E, takes high place, and
falls first under his consideration.

This now silent or vanished Vowel occurred heretofore, with metrical
power, in adopted FRENCH Substantives, as--eloquenc-E, maladi-E; and in
their plurals, as--maladi-ES. And in Adjectives of the same origin,
as--larg-E.

It remained from several parts of the ANGLO-SAXON grammar.--From A, E,
U, endings of Anglo-Saxon substantives--as nam-A, nam-E; tim-A, tim-E;
mon-A, (the moon,) mon-E; sunn-E, (the sun,) sonn-E; heort-E, (the
heart,) hert-E; ear-E, (the ear,) er-E; scol-U, (school,) scol-E; luf-U,
lov-E; sceam-U, sham-E; lag-A, law-E; sun-U, (a son,) son-E; wud-U, (a
wood,) wod-E.--(To Mr Guest's three vowels, add O:--as braed-O (breadth)
bred-E.)--From the termination THE; as--streng-THE; yow-THE.--From a
few adjectives ending in E; as--getrew-E, trew-E; new-E, new-E.--From
adverbs, formed by the same vowel from adjectives; as from beorht,
(bright,) is made, in Anglo-Saxon, beorht-E, (brightly,) remaining with
Chaucer, as bright-E.--Inflexion produces the final E. In substantives,
the prevalent singular dative of the mother speech was in E. Chaucer,
now and then, seems to present us with a dative; as in the second verse
of the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, from rot, (root,) rot-E. And Mr
Guest thinks that he has found ONE instance of a genitive plural E from
A; namely, from the earlier ath, (an oath,) genitive plural, ath-A; with
Chaucer--oth, oth-E.

The German family of languages exhibits a fine and bold peculiarity--a
double declension of its Adjectives, depending on a condition of syntax.
The Anglo-Saxon adjective, in its ordinary (or, as grammarians have
called it, Indefinite) declension, makes the nominative plural for all
the genders in E; and this remains as the regular plural termination of
the adjective to Chaucer. Thus we have, in the more ancient
language--eald; plural, eald-E; with Chaucer--old; plural, old-E, &c.

The rule of the extraordinary (or Definite) declension, is thus
generally given by Mr Guest for Chaucer. "When the adjective follows the
definite article, or the definite pronoun, _this_, _that_, or any one of
the possessive pronouns--_his_, _her_, &c.--it takes what is called its
definite form."--(Vol. i. p. 32.) From the Anglo-Saxon definite
declension (running through three genders, five cases, and two numbers,)
remains, to the language that arose after the Conquest, ONE final E.
_E.g._ Indefinite--strong; definite, strong-E;--indefinite--high;
definite--high-E.

The Verb ends the first person singular, and the three persons plural,
of the present tense, and makes imperative and infinitive, in E. The
past tense generally ends in DE or EDE; (Mr Guest has forgotten TE;)
sometimes in ED.

As for those two principal endings, the genitive singular in ES, which
is the Anglo-Saxon termination retained, and the plural in ES, which is
the Anglo-Saxon ending obscured--they happen hardly to fall under Mr
Guest's particular regard; but it is easily understood that the
Anglo-Saxon hlaford, (lord,) gen. sing. hlaford-ES, had, in Chaucer's
day, become lord, lord-ES;--and that scur, (shower,) plural scur-AS, of
our distant progenitors had bequeathed to his verse--shour, shour-ES.

Legitimate scepticism surely ceases when it thus appears that ignorance
alone has hastily understood that this vowel, extant in this or that
word, with a quite alien meaning and use, (--_e.g._ for lengthening a
foregoing vowel--softening an antecedent consonant,)--or with none, and
through the pure casualty of negligence or of error, might at any time
be pressed irregularly into metrical service. Assuredly Chaucer never
used such blind and wild license of straightening his measure; but an
instructed eye sees in the Canterbury Tales--and in all his poetry of
which the text is incorrupt--the uniform application of an intricate and
thoroughly critical rule, which fills up by scores, by hundreds, or by
thousands, the time-wronged verses of "the Great Founder" to true
measure and true music.

To sum up in a few words our own views--First, if you take NO account of
the mute E, the great majority of Chaucer's verses in the only
justifiable text--Tyrwhitt's Canterbury Tales--are in what we commonly
call the TEN-syllabled Iambic metre.

Secondly, if you take account of the metrical E, the great majority of
them appear, if you choose so to call them, as ELEVEN-syllabled Iambic
verses, or as the common heroic measure with a supernumerary terminal
syllable.

Thirdly, if you take NO account of the disputed E, a very large number
of the verses, but less apparently than the majority, appear as wanting
internally one or two syllables.

Fourthly, if you take account of the said troublesome E, almost
universally these deficient measures become filled up to the due
complement--become decasyllabic or hendecasyllabic, as the case may be.

Fifthly, if you consent to take account of this grammatical metrical E,
no inconsiderable number of the verses--ten-syllabled or
eleven-syllabled, by technical computation--acquire one or two
supernumerary syllables distributed, if one may so speak, _within_ the
verse--and to be viewed as enriching the harmony without distorting or
extending the measure, after the manner of the _Paradise Lost_.

Finally, (for the present,) whether the verses in general fall under our
usual English scheme of the one-syllabled ending, or end, as the Italian
for the most part do, dissyllabically, has been disputed by those who
agree in the recognition of the metrical E. To wit--shall the final E of
Mr Guest's rule, ending the verse, and where it would, consequently,
make a hypercatalectic eleventh syllable, still be pronounced--as
Tyrwhitt, although not anxiously, contends? If the grammatical rule is
imperative within the verse, as much, one would think, must it be so at
its termination. That Chaucer admits the doubled ending we see by
numerous unequivocal instances from all moods of the verse, mirthful and
solemn; these show a versification friendly to the doubled ending; and
must go far to remove any scruple of admitting Tyrwhitt's conception of
it as generally hendecasyllabic.

Let the position of Chaucer in the history of his art be considered, and
it will be seen that those who maintain a systematic art in him have a
relief from objections greater than those who should enquire concerning
perhaps any other poet. In the formation of his verse, and the lifting
up of a rude language, more than Dante himself, a creator! What wonder,
then, if he should sometimes make mistakes, and that some
inconsistencies remain at last irreducible? If the method undertaken
draws the irreducible cases into a narrower and a narrower compass, that
sufficiently justifies the theory of the method against all gainsayers.

This copious, and, possibly, tedious grammatical display of this once
active metrical element, was forced from us as the only proper answer to
the doubt revived in our own day on the versification of Chaucer. We are
too prone to believe that our forefathers were as rude as their speech,
and their speech as they; but this multitude of grammatical delicacies,
retained for centuries after the subjection of the native language by
conquest, and systematically applied in the versification of the great
old poet, shows a feeling of language, and an authentic stamp of art,
that claim the most genial and sympathizing respect of a refined
posterity, to their not wholly unrefined, more heroic ancestors.




INDEX TO VOL. LVII.


About a bonnet, 242.

Aden, town of, 206.

Advice to an author, on the novel and the drama, 679.

AEsthetics of dress:
  --A case of hats, 51
  --No. II. about a bonnet, 242
  --No. III. the cut of a coat and the good of a gown, 608
  --No. IV. minor matters, 731.

Affliction of childhood, the, by the English Opium-Eater, 274.

Agriculture, Practical, 298.

Almaden, the quicksilver mines of, 186.

Anacreon's grave, from Goethe, 175.

Apparition of the Brocken, the, by the English Opium-Eater, 747.

Ariosto, remarks on, 404.

Arnold's history of Rome, vol. iii., review of, 752.


Betham's Etruria Celtica, review of, 474.

Blind girl, to a, 98.

Bonnet, about a, 242.

Book of the Farm, review of, 298.

Borodino, an ode, 30.

Bravo, character of, 601.

Breeze, the, from Goethe, 173.

British critics, North's specimens of, No. I. Dryden, 133
  --No. II. Dryden and Pope, 369
  --No. III. Dryden, 503
  --No. IV. Dryden on Chaucer, 617
  --No. V. the same, concluded, 771.

British history during the eighteenth century, 353.

Brothers, the, from Goethe, 176.


Cairo, town of, 210.

Calm at sea, the, from Goethe, 173.

Campagna of Rome, the, 546.

Case of hats, a, 51.

Cattaro, sketches of, 34.

Cavalier's choice, from Goethe, 174.

Cennino Cennini on painting, 717.

Cervantes, remarks on, 8.

Ceylon, sketch of, 204.

Chapman's Homer, remarks on, 381.

Chaucer, Dryden on, 617, 771.

Chosen rock, the, from Goethe, 177.

Coleridge and opium-eating, 117.

Comfort in tears, from Goethe, 170.

Confessions of an English Opium-eater, a sequel to. Introductory notice, 269
  --Part I. The affliction of childhood, 274
  --Part I. continued, 489.
  --Part I. concluded, The Palimpsest, 739
  --Levana and our Ladies of Sorrow, 743
  --The apparition of the Brocken, 747
  --Finale to Part I., Savannah-la-Mar, 750.

Critics, the British--_see_ British.

Cuba, insurrection in, 605.

Cut of a coat, the, 608.


Dance of death, from Goethe, 167.

Dante, characteristics of, 2, 9.

Death trance, from Goethe, 177.

Delta, stanzas written after the funeral of Sir David Milne, by, 766.

Desert, journey across the, 204.

Draining land, on, 299.

Drama and the novel, the, 679.

Dress, aesthetics of, a case of hats, 51
  --No. II. about a bonnet, 242
  --No. III. The cut of a coat and the good of a gown, 608.

Dryden as a critic, 133, 369, 503--as a translator, 511--on Chaucer, 617,
771.

Dumas, M., the three guardsmen by, 59.


Egypt, sketches of, 286.

Englishwoman in Egypt, the, 286.

Etruria Celtica, review of, 474.

Etudes des Sciences Sociales, review of, 529.

Evening, from Goethe, 173.

Exculpation, from Goethe, 179.


Fairest flower, the, from Goethe, 168.

Fasti of Ovid, translation from the, 94.

Forced sale, the, 99
  --Chap. II., 103
  --Chap. III, 107
  --Chap. IV., 111.

France, state of manners, &c., in, before the Revolution, 705.

George III., review of Walpole's memoirs of, 353.

German-American romances
  --The Viceroy and the Aristocracy, or Mexico in 1812
  --Part I., Introduction, 251
  --Chap. I., 257--Chap. XI., 262
  --Part II., 331
  --Chap. XVIII., 333
  --Chap. XIX., 340
  --Chap. XX., 345
  --Chap. XXIII., 349
  --Part III., 561
  --Chap. XLI., 572
  --Chap. XLII., 575.

Gillman's life of Coleridge, strictures on, 117.

Glance at the Peninsula, 595.

Goethe--_see_ Poems.

Good of a gown, the, 608.

Grant to Maynooth, the, 647.


Hannibal, 752.

Hats, a case of, 51.

History, on translating, 507.

Holy family, the, from Goethe, 178.

Homer, on the translation of, 507.

Homer, Dante, and Michael Angelo, 1.

Homeward bound, 18.

Hood, Thomas, stanzas to the memory of, by B. Simmons, 768.

Husbandman, the, from Goethe, 175.


Isabel, Queen of Spain, character of 598.


Janus, from the Fasti of Ovid, 94.

J.D. To a Blind Girl, by, 98
  --Stanzas by, 314.

Juvenal, remarks on, 516.


King in Thule, the, from Goethe, 166.


Lebrun's Lawsuit, 705.

Leon, General, 606.

Letters of the Dead, by B. Simmons, 114.

Levana and our Ladies of Sorrow, by the English Opium-Eater, 743.

Lopez, character of, 601.

Love's Hour-Glass, from Goethe, 176.

Lucretius, remarks on, 517.


Malmesbury's Diary and Correspondence, review of, 315.

Malta, 215.

Marriage unequal, from Goethe, 178.

Marston; or, Memoirs of a Statesman
  --Part XV., 75
  --Part XVI., 461
  --Part XVII., 679.

Matanzas, insurrection at, 605.

Maynooth, 647.

Merrifield, Mrs., translation of Cennino Cennini on Painting, by, 717.

Mesmerism, 219.

Mexico in 1812
  --Part I., 251
  --Part II., 331
  --Part III., 561.

Michael Angelo, 1, 15.

Midnight Watch, the
  --Chap. I., 424
  --Chap. II., 431
  --Chap. III., 439
  --Chap. IV., 444.

Milne, Sir David, stanzas written after the funeral of, by Delta, 766.

Milton, critiques on, 5, 503.

Modern Political Economy, remarks on, 529.

Mohammed Ali, 215.

Montenegro, a ramble in, 33.

Muse's mirror, from Goethe, 179.

My first spec in the Biggleswades, 549.


Narvaez, characte of, 599.

New love, from Goethe, 179.

North's Specimens of the British Critics, No. I., Dryden, 133
  --No. II., Dryden and Pope, 369
  --No. III., Dryden, 503
  --No. IV, Dryden on Chaucer, 617
  --the same, concluded, 771.

Novel and the Drama, the, 679.


O'Donnell, governor of Cuba, 605.

Opium-Eater, a sequel to the confessions of the, introductory notice, 269
  --Part I. The affliction of childhood, 274
  --Part I. continued, 489
  --concluded; the Palimpsest, 739
  --Levana and our Ladies of Sorrow, 743
  --the apparition of the Brocken, 747
  --Finale to Part I., Savannah-la-Mar, 750.

Overland passage, the, 204.

Ovid's Fasti, translation from, 94.


Painting, Cennino Cennini on, 717.

Park, the, from Goethe, 178.

Parting precepts, by B. Simmons, 114.

Pauperism, increase of, 531.

Peel, E. Borodino, an ode by, 30.

Peninsula, a glance at the, 595.

Perfect bliss, from Goethe, 176.

Philomela, from Goethe, 177.

Phoebus and Hermes, from Goethe, 179.

Ping-Kee's view of the stage, 415.

Poems and ballads of Goethe, No. III. The waterman, 165
  --the king in Thule, 166
  --the dance of death, 167
  --the fairest flower, 168
  --sorrow without consolation, 170
  --comfort in tears, ib.
  --to a golden heart, 171
  --welcome and departure, 172
  --evening, 173
  --a calm at sea, ib.
  --the breeze, ib.
  --the cavalier's choice, 174
  --retribution, 175
  --poems after the manner of the antique; the husbandman, ib.
  --Anacreon's grave, ib.
  --the brothers, 176
  --Love's hourglass, ib.
  --warning, ib.
  --solitude, ib.
  --perfect bliss, ib.
  --the chosen rock, 177
  --the death-trance, ib.
  --Philomela, ib.
  --sacred ground, ib.
  --the park, 178
  --the teachers, ib.
  --marriage unequal, ib.
  --holy family, ib.
  --exculpation, 179
  --the muses' mirror, ib.
  --Phoebus and Hermes, ib.
  --a new love, ib.
  --the wreaths, 180
  --the Swiss Alp, ib.

Poetry:
  --Borodino, an ode, by E. Peel, 30
  --Janus, from the Fasti of Ovid, 94
  --to a blind girl, 98
  --Vanities in verse, by B. Simmons, 114
  --the tower of London, by Thomas Roscoe, 158
  --the poems and ballads of Goethe, No. III. 165
  --stanzas by J. D., 314
  --stanzas written after the funeral of Sir David Milne, by Delta, 766
  --stanzas to the memory of Thomas Hood, by B. Simmons, 768.

Poetry, on the translation of, 507.

Political economy, remarks on modern, 529.

Pompeii, 218.

Poole's Englishwoman in Egypt, review of, 286.

Pope, critique on, 369.

Practical agriculture, 298.

Pushkin, the Russian poet, No. I., by Thomas B. Shaw, 657.


Race, the, a Red River recollection, 21.

Ragusa, sketch of, 41.

Ramble in Montenegro, a, 33.

Raphael, characteristics of, 17
  --critique on, 411.

Rector's daughter, the Chap. I., 580
  --Chap. II., 582
  --Chap. III., 585
  --Chap. IV., 588
  --Chap. V., 590
  --Chap. VI., 592
  --Chap. VII., 593.

Red River recollections, Chap. I., homeward bound, 18
  --Chap. II., the race, 21
  --Chap. III., the stag-hunt, 26.

Red Sea, navigation of the, 208.

Retribution, from Goethe, 175.

Revelations of Spain, by an English resident, review of, 595.

Reviews:
  --Gillman's life of Coleridge, 117
  --Widdrington's Spain and the Spaniards, 181
  --Griffith's journey across the desert, 204
  --Townsend's facts in mesmerism, 219
  --Mrs Poole's Englishwoman in Egypt, 286
  --Stephens' book of the farm, 298
  --Lord Malmesbury's diaries and correspondence, 315
  --Walpole's memoirs of the reign of George III., 353
  --Vestiges of the natural history of creation, 448
  --Betham's Etruria Celtica, 474
  --Sismondi's etudes des sciences sociales, 529
  --Revelations of Spain, by an English resident, 595
  --Cennino Cennini on painting, 717
  --Arnold's history of Rome, vol. iii., 752.

Revolution, effects of the, 355.

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 16.

Rome, causes of the decline of, 546.

Roscoe, Thomas, the tower of London, by, Part I., 158
  --Part II., 161.


Sacred ground, from Goethe, 177.

Savannah-la-Mar, by the English Opium-Eater, 750.

Scott, Sir Walter, critique on, 8.

Settled at last, or Red River recollections;
  Chap. I., homeward bound, 18
  --Chap. II., the race, 21
  --Chap. III., the stag-hunt, 26.

Shaw, Thomas B., sketch of the life of Pushkin, by, 657.

Simmons, B., vanities in verse by
  --letters of the dead, 114
  --parting precepts, 115
  --stanzas to the memory of Thomas Hood, by, 768.

Sismondi, 529.

Slavery in the Spanish colonies, 605.

Solitude, from Goethe, 176.

Sorrow without consolation, from Goethe, 170.

Spain as it is, 181
  --present condition of, 595.

State, Ping-Kee's view of the, 415.

Stag-hunt, the, a Red-River recollections, 21.

Stanzas to the memory of Sir David Milne, by Delta, 766
  --of Thomas Hood, by B. Simmons, 768.

Stephens' book of the farm, review of, 298.

Superfluities of life, the, a tale from Tieck,
  Chap. I., 194
  --Chap. II., 198.

Suspiria de profundis; being a sequel to the confessions of an English
Opium-Eater.
  Introductory notice, 269
  --Part I., the affliction of childhood, 274
  --Part I. continued, 489
  --Part I. concluded, the Palimpsest, 739
  --Levana and our Ladies of Sorrow, 743
  --the apparition of the Brocken, 747
  --Finale to Part I., Savannah-la-Mar, 750.

Swiss Alp, the, from Goethe, 180.


Tasso, critique on, 405.

Teachers, the, from Goethe, 178.

Three guardsmen, the, 59.

Tieck, the superfluities of life by, Chap. I., 194
  --Chap. II., 198.

To a blind girl, 98.

To a golden heart, from Goethe, 170.

To Livia, by B. Simmons, 114.

Tower of London, the, by Thomas Roscoe, Part I., 158
  --Part II., 161.

Townsend's facts in mesmerism, review of, 219.

Translation, remarks on, 507.


Vanities in verse, by B. Simmons
  --Letters of the dead, 114
  --parting precepts, 115.

Vestiges of the natural history of creation, review of, 448.

Viceroy and the aristocracy, or Mexico in 1812
  --Part I., 251
  --Part II., 331
  --Part III., 561.

Virgil, remarks on Dryden's translation of, 520.

Virgil, Tasso, and Raphael, 401.


Walpole's memoirs of the reign of George III., review of, 353.

Warning, the, from Goethe, 176.

Waterman, the, from Goethe, 165.

Welcome and departure, from Goethe, 170.

Widdrington's Spain and the Spaniards, review of, 181.

Wreaths, the, from Goethe, 180.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._






End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume
57, No. 356, June, 1845, by Various

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