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    1110 THE LEADER, [Ko. 497. Oct. 1, 1859

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    NEW EXEGESIS OF SHAKESPEARE.— IJiTTERPRE...

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    NEW NOVELS.

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    WAIT AND HOPE. By John Edmund Keade, aut...

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    Mr. Antonio Panizzi, Of The British Muse...

    their object the protection of property in works of thought and art . These instructions are followed by a detailed analysis of the twenty-eight conventions concluded between France and the principal states of Europe . The Critic has received a catalogue of the valuable library of the late Edward A . Crowningshleld , of Boston , U . S ., which is to be sold by auction on the 1 st of November next . For a small collectionthere are little more than a thousand lots altogether —it comprises an extraordinary proportion of rare and valuable books , choice editions and fine copies , and will , no doubt , tempt many of our collectors to send over commissions . Mr . Crowningshield has rarities

    long been known as a collector of choice ; His collection includes many rare and curious tracts connected with the history of America , and historical treatises by early New England writers , such as Cotton Mather , Norton , Amos Adams , Cushman , and others ; also some valuable editions of early voyages and travels ; first editions of Froissart , Coryat , Purchas , Hakluyt , Shakespeare , and Milton ; a copy of the " Bay Psalm-book , " the first book ever printed in America ; Elliott ' s " Indian Bible ; " Mather ' s " Magnalia , " and other

    rare and curious books . The same publication announces the first instalment of a work likely to be of great service to literature . It is a " Bibliography of the United States , " or catalogue raisonnee of all the works in existence which throw light upon any part of the United States ; The classification is according to States , and this instalment of twenty-two pages professes to give all the books relating to , or connected with , the State of Maine , and makes mention of about two hundred and seventy-five separate works . "

    1110 The Leader, [Ko. 497. Oct. 1, 1859

    1110 THE LEADER , [ Ko . 497 . Oct . 1 , 1859

    New Exegesis Of Shakespeare.— Ijitterpre...

    NEW EXEGESIS OF SHAKESPEARE . — IJiTTERPRETATIOST OF HIS PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS AND PLAYS ON THE PRINCIPLE OF RACES . — Adam & C . Black . It is an old observation that the Shaksperian characters are translueences of the universal in the individual . The author of the above work has modified this idea ; and accepted them as types of the nations and races to which they belong . He

    seems not to have perceived that this minor conception was included in the general assumption . His discovery is , therefore , something ' of the mare ' s-nest kind ; but in the treatment of his subject he rises in pur esteem , and his remarks especially deserve notice . Notwithstanding what we have just said , the author has considerable philosophic perception , and understands well the sources of illusion in the acted drama .

    The theatre and ; time being , as he contends , of the province of the senses , while the action of the p lay can only be pursued by the intellect , such illusion commences , says be , not on the floor , but on the stage , and takes place not in the senses , but alone in the imagination . The word "Ulu ^ sion , " too , is improperly used , and adapted only to the point of view of the senses . * ' But with ihe intellect in the stage of imagination , and even of reason , it is the objects of the senses that , on the contrary , are illusory : in the arts , and even the sciences , it is the ideal that is real , the abstract that is true , the harmonious that is natural . "

    Such a statement of opinion , we repeat , increases our respect for the author , and for his assumption that " the interest of the drama , as of all art , ranges in proportion to the purview of the age or audience . " Proceeding on this assumption , he states that—• 'Accordingly while Eschylus and , 'the ancient drama generally kept the sphere of action to the limits of the family , the similar founder of the modern Advanced it to larger groupings , in obedience to popular progress in the knowledge of men and nature What Asia Minor and more Greece were to the demos of Athens , entire Europe and its confines were to the

    British of the Renaissance . The spring of action , the range of character which have been furnished to the ancients by the primitive and the extraneous causation of theology , came , in the moderns , to be widened and consequently deepened ; into thohuman and . intrin-Blcfattvlisin | of organization . What to Eaehylus wore the houses of the Pelopidoa and the Labdoeidse , became to Shakespeare the Teutonio , the Italic , the Celtic races Such , at all events , is the consequence of the principles suggested , and to verify the foot is the object of the volume . "

    The reader has now the whole design and Sup pose , of the work before him . In intuoduoing Is argument , the author condemns the critical © ommonrplaco that Shakspeare constantly attributes , to hi * personages of all countries the manners of hie own ; observing that the dictum

    will be found afterwards to rest a good deal more on their own ignorance of Shakspeare ' s meaning than on Shakspeare ' s on the laws of costume . He commenced with the internal fashion of the mind , as governed by the laws of race . The characters selected for exegesis are Iago , Othello , Hamlet , Macbeth , Shylock . The part of Iago ^ our author regards as the type of the Romano-Italic race—a juxtaposition which may appear insulting as well as paradoxical— -but only through a common misconstruction of both Iago and the Italians . It is impossible for us to follow the writer through his very ingenious reflections—we must be content with an excerpt : —

    " Iago is supposed to be a villain of the vulgar stamp ; one tramples upon conscience , upon honesty and hnmanity , with , desperate defiance of their ordinary opposition . But it is now seen that the first of these influences is wholly absent , and the others deeply modified , in the Italian race . As representative of this race , then , Iago would be less perverse . He would have acted more from negative than positive impulsion , more from moral insensibility than brutalized depravity . And this must be consistently the point of view of the character . As commonly interpreted , it would be undramatic ; for nothing is dramatic that is brutal or vulgar . To wade deliberately through all crime in prosecution of selfish ends could excite only disgust or horror ,

    and would at best be merely monstrous . But to do so with a . latent sentiment of the legitimacy of the course , and under influence of a particular view of morals , is full of interest . For this unfolds . to cusiosity a new vista in human nature , and self knowledge is the spring of public interest in the drama . Such , accordingly , is the sentiment excited by Iago , not at all disgust or horror , notwithstanding his reckless villanies . And so the fact of the special interest of this play becomes a proof , that the true import of the character can only be a type of race ; that is to say , not a perverted individual , which suggests nothing , but a cast of organization and a stage of social progress that reveal to different races a latent phase of the common species . at all

    " Nor , it seems evident , was Shakespeare unconscious of this import . Too great a painter not to execute as studiously by shade as light , not to characterize his personages by omission as well as action , he makes Iago say as little about himself and do as much , as he makes Hamlet , for example , say much and do little : it is a case of the lawof contrast which will hold generally of these races—the race of preaching and agitation , and the race of intrigue and conspiracy . But notwithstanding this obserof the gentilitial character , Iago is made to open the following , glimpse into his principles—And what ' s ho th « n that says , I play the knave ? When the advice I give is free and honest , Probable to thinking , and indeed the course To win the Moor again .

    Here the speaker is made to vindicate , sincerely as in soliloquy , against the prevalent morality , a partioular system—a system based on the external circumstances , irrespective of the motive . The occasion is the counsel which Iago giyeri to Cassio to ask the mediation of Desdemona with her husband The cashiered lieutenant was " free" to take the counsel or not . To court the favours of men in power through such a medium was becoming—that is , "honest" in the sense of the Italians as the Romans ; for the poet has shown a nicer understanding of the word honestus . than the pedants who debate his Latin have yet done of his English . Beside , the result must " seem probable to Cassio himself ,

    who thus would act from his own reason , not ; the "knavery" of any one , In fine , Iago , believed that it was " indeed the course . " Where could therefore be the ground for supposing him a " knave ? " Singly and solely , in the motive of the advice . It is . the only element omitted by the poet , who doubtless . meant to show that with Iago it wont for nothing , whereas it was the whole with the public of Shakespeare . In this contrast lies the play and . the profundity of the portraiture . Iago could not think that what was objectively irreproachable might be altered in its . moral laws by the , state of his private consciousness ; this criterion is of force but with the of personality , with whom the conscience in morality ,

    the private judgment in religion , and the ego in philosophy , or rather metaphysics , hold tho laws of both divine and physical nature in contlngence . The Italian sees naoh potencies but in a " speolal Providence . " And there being , in this instance , no dew ex maoftina , Iago was obliged to doom the counsel he gave Gaseio to have continued good and moral in itself . Then , if ho had the secret view that it would servo himself ulteriorly ,, this end , besides being also good and moral In tocjA-thQ vindication of his family honour and elevation , of his ranh—this selfish end was , in the first place , a matter very difficult , and which Tould uee ( j eOme logic to link it morally with the counsel , and , In tho next : place ,

    would moreover , like all ends with the Italian appear sufficient to justify the necessary means . " ' This may serve to show the intelligent student the manner in which the author deals with his proposition , arid how he supports it in analysis and argument . The latter breaks off ; and divaricates in manifold directions , in ¦ which it baffles pursuit . Sometimes , in its protean changes , it takes a very subtle form , as in the definition given 'of . tlie word " reputation , " in the Italian sense , and as used by Othello , Cassio , Iago , and Roderigo . " We , moreover , think the definition quite correct ; " with which opinion of ours , we doubt not that the author will be exceedingly gratified . The same may be said of his clever explanation of the " very stuff o' the conscience , " of which Iago speaks .

    The author next considers Hamlet as the type of the Teutonic race : — " The leading marks of this powerful race will be admitted to be these . In the highest or mental order , the faculty of Reflection as distinguished from the passive receptivity of the senses . Id morality , the test of Conscience as against religious tradition ' . In politics , the strife of Liberty in opposition to authority , and of the interests of the person against

    the interests of the public . In philosophy , Metaphysics , as contrasted with scholastics , or , in the native phrase , the subjective in preference ta the objective . In fine , in body , the Muscularity befitting this complex struggle , arid in manners a correlative degree of roughness and insensibility . In all things an organical introversion upon Self , in opposition to the Roman race , whose gaze was outward upon nature . "

    It is not necessary to verify the resemblance of Hamlet ' s individuality with these characteristics . The reader will find it exquisitely worked out in the essay or chapter before us . Of the race of Shakspeare himself the author ' s opinion is , that it was Celtic . Altogether , this is a very remarkable book .

    New Novels.

    NEW NOVELS .

    Wait And Hope. By John Edmund Keade, Aut...

    WAIT AND HOPE . By John Edmund Keade , author of " Italy , " " The Light of other Days , " & c . 3 vola . —Hurst & Blackett . FBANK MAINLAND'S MANUSCRIPTS ; OR , MEMOIRS OF A MODERN TEMPLAR . By Frederick Brandt . —J . F . Hope . HMET ST . JOHN , GENTLEMAN , of ' . ' Flower of Hundreds , " ia the icounty of Prince George , Virginia . A Tale of 1774-75 , By John Eaatcn . Cooko , author of "Virginia Comedians , " " Leather Stockings and Silk , " " The Last of the Foresters , " & c , & c—Sampson Low and Go . MY THIRD BOOK : a Collection of Tales . By Louise Chandler Moulton , author of " This , That , and the Other , " and "Juno Clifford . "—Sampson Low & Co .

    If " Wait and Hope " is not a good story , it js at least an average fiction . Thai Mr . Kearle has been leas fortunate in his present effort , is because lie has mistaken his subject . " Wait and Hope belongs to a class of notion of which the story ana construction of the plot are made the secondary consideration ; the author ' aim being to present his readers with sketches and manners of everyday life . That it is more creditable to write sucb a fiction than one on " fashionablo life , or 01 doubt

    " thrilling interest , " few people will . Because to write a work of this description m three volumes—to keep the reader interested throughout , tho writer must bo a shrewd observer , and have ft vast knowledge -of human Me ana character . Wow here and there , in " Wait and Hope , " we detect this ; but in the greater partoi his work , Mr . Reade has got his material from second-hand sources , as in tho case of tho revolting tale of Jane Feversham , and tho consequence is . his work lacks realitv . Tho life depicted in jus

    pages is only artificial , and tho characters are more vehicles , through whom tho author gives ms opinions without paying much attention asi w whether what they say is true to hie , or consistent with their nature . Again , there are too «» any characters in tho book for the writer to carry out Ms plan . A npvol relying on row life for interest should have very few characters , aa it leaves the writer greater ehonoo of imnnt , them off with truthfulness . Wo nro borne out in this by the fact that whon Mr . AWaao narrates the fives of his oharaotors eopftratojy some of the story of their £ Jives is to a wwn truth , and always with interest . Mr . ltoado scows

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 1, 1859, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01101859/page/18/