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Leader (1850-1860), 10th January 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 19

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      Eoeus.Andjbla^Iabists: Alexander. Smith ...

      lake ; to a . diver inijhe pearly seas , She like a swimmer who las found his Forward he stoop'd over the airy shore , giotrad ,. And . plunged . alL noiseless into the deep Game rippling nip a silver strand of cloud nighfc ( "Hyperion . " ) Andiplunged from the other side into the night . ( p . 52 : ) THis is . very close . Yet there are touches of originality .

      - •© Sorrow , ¦ y . dost . borrow Alas tliat years should harry . The natural hue of health . fromvermeiL Gloss from life and joys from lips , lips ? ...... Love-lustres from the eyes of Glari ! Tha lustrous . passion from a falcon eye ? ( p . 61 . ) C'Endymlon , " B . 4 . ) "Z" may discover plagiarism in this , as he does in so inany other instances ; We leave him- in , full possession of such sa . ga . city . Of . the same character-are tlie following from Shelley : —•

      - ——A Power Thou art a rock , Girt round , ¦ with ¦ weakness . ... I a . wealc wave would break on tbee and A ^ breafcing ! billovr 5—even whilst . we speak ; die . ( p-3- ) L » it not broken ? ( " Adonais . " ) ——All deadly sbape 3 were driven Across thy soul dark herds of demon Tuurultuously across her sleep . dreams . ( p . 180 . ) ( " Marianne ' s Dream . " ) And this , from Leigh Hunt : — The . birds-.. . . As darts a . bright bird in and out the Sung and . dkrtedin ; and ; out ; the boughs- leaves . ( p . 159 . ) _ (" Birninj , " B . iii . ) N-oone , of course , ever observed a bird darfc in and out of trees until Leigh Hunt observed it ! But so resolute is " Z" to " refer to their original sources ? ' any passages or words he iinds in Afexander Smith , that he actually instances the folLowing" as examples .:

      —ECere are ( inr ore out' of ' season ) Jove , Bacchus , Mercury , Dian , Cupid , Venus , Apollo , Hercules , Orion , — -Caesar , Marc Antony and Cleopatra ; Hero and Leander , — Bacchanals , Nymphs , ISFaiades , Memnon , the Sphynx , Egypt ' s Gods , Adam and Eve , Mows ' s- Serpent ; Loves of the Angels , Jacob and Rachel , Absalom , Satan , Dives , — Paradise , Hesperides , Labrador , Ind , Indian air , Gauges , Indian morn , Cub of Ind , — lutes , timbrels ; swans doves * falcons , larks , panthers , leopards , fawns , water-lilies , daisies on graves ' , " like April unto May , " " populous witb bees , " " bathed in sunset , " moon whitening o ' " paled sheaves , " wine-cups , heart-pants , queenly maidens , crowns , palaces ' , haunted springs , worlds of greenery , purple nights , blue days , thro-bbing starsj spooming seas , old gods , old kings , great queens , earls , " wild-eyed " persons ; singing- rills , ancient woods , windy woods , brooding thunder-eaves , braying trumpets , —orbing , ringing , reeling , broadening , far-splendouring , grandeuring , — mlghtf Bards , Poets of the Age , Poets' deaths , Poets' fames , " O Fame 1 Eame ! Farae ! "" " Poesy 1 Poesy ! " <& c . & c . Is "Z a lunatic ?

      Eronx Leigh Hunt . three passages are said to be plagiarized—a charge winch we are quite sure the veteraa will energetically disclaim . They are very fine passages , and Alexander Smith ' s passages , also fine , bear a faint , very faint , ressmblance to them ; but if such be plagiarism deserving public reprobation * "woe upon the poets to corue !—And flung — . — scattering . The foam beHrhd , as though he scorn'd "With scornful breath the kissing , flattertbe sea ; (*• Hero and Leander . " ) ing foam . ( p- 179 . ) The wind is mad upon the moors , The terror-stricken rain And comes into the rocking town , Flings itself wildly on the window-panes , Stabbing all things up and down , Imploring shelter from the chasing wind . And then there is a weeping rain ( p . 208 . ) Huddling ' gainst the window-pane . ( " Captain Sword and Captain Pen . " )

      ghastly prison , that eternally An old fort like a . ghost upon the hill Holds its blind visage out to the lone sea . Stare in blank misery through the blind-( " Power and Gentleness . "^ : ing rain . - ( p . 237 . ) We cannot go through the list of examples ; but we have given specimens of all kinds , and now we ask our readers what they think of a writer producing sucli evidence , and on the strength of it sa ying : — In all these instances the appropriation is simple and' direct . Mr . Smith has not troubled himself to smear the faces and change the garb of the stolea-children . But a favourite secret of his composition seems to consist in taking three or four passages from various writers and marrying them together—not in immortal verse . ° Was our interference in such a case justified , or not ?

      ¦Yaarom^ - Ioy Lssfr.J . The I^ E> A D E...

      ¦ yAarom ^ - IOy lSSfr . J . THE I ^ E > A D E U . 4 g

      Memoirs Oe Kichard Cumberland. Ifeirioir...

      MEMOIRS OE KICHARD CUMBERLAND . Ifeirioirs of Rukard Cumberland . Written by Himself . " With Illustrative Notes by Henry Wanders . TrUbner ami Co . The Memoirs of RicJiaH' Cuml > erlcuid—Gouvt \ evy Poet , Dramatist , and Philosopher—were published some years before his , death , but never reached a second edition . They , or © largely interspersed , with anecdotes of the men of his time , with most of whom he was intimate ; The cumbersome style , however , in which the events he has to record , and the gossi p he has to narrate , aro placed before the . reader , condemned the work . to an oblivion from ybnchalittlo humour and sprightlinesawould have rescued it . In vain we look fthe

      or witty aur of Walpolo . Another characteristic which the work possesses is not calculated to detract from , its dulnoss . It is evidently written with a view to apologize for the author ' s many ill successes ; and a work written to patch up a man ' s character must always be tinted with a false colour-in" - In America , however , the " Memoirs" have been revived . They are recommended , in the short notice which prefaces this edition , as bcin ^ peculiarly interesting to the American student of history , inasmuch ns * thoy relate the episodical career of Cumberland as British envoy in Spain at a time When the ex-President ; Jay , wns-Ministor of the struggling republic at the same court . x CumberldndL ' reccived his early education at Wes-tminster , where he lmd Warren . Hastings ,, Column , Lloy . d , and Vincent as schoolfellows ; From

      Westminster he removed to Trinity College , Cambridge , and , whilst only a student , had the good fortune to obtain the office of Private Secretary to Lord Halifax , then First Lord of Trade and Plantations , and afterwards Lord-lieutenant of Ireland . This connexion with his lordship procured him the offer of a baronetcy , , which ,, being but , a hollow honour , he declined . On the death , of Lord Halifax , he received the Secretaryship of . the : Board of Trade , and . signalized himself by a steady discbarge of its formal duties . His next step was a failure : Being sent on a mission to Lisbon to treafc .

      with the Spanish court , then at war with us , on the articles of-a peace , he exceeded his instructions , and proceeded to Madrid . Considerable mystery bangs over the causes which led to his recal . . Some affirm his advancing into Spain was the real ground ; others maintain that he was not sufficiently ' firm in carrying out the injunctions of the Ministry ^ the cession of Gibraltar being laid down by them as the basis of any negotiation * Whatever was the cauBey . it is generally admitted , that he was harshly treatedboth in his recal and on bis return . He therefore retired to Tunbridge Wells ,, where he spent the remainder of his life in writing plays , epics , and operas .

      How difficult is it to keep silence under a delusion of wrongs ! The account of the " Spanish Mission" affords many a complaint wiich might find a parallel in the heart-burnings of our late gallant Baltic A-flmiral . Cumberland , receives letters from the Foreign Office . — - " If the enclosed letter was not altogether what I hoped for , the covering letter vvas most decidedly what I had not deserved , for it conveyed a more than implied reproof for my having written to the Spanish Minister , and at the same time acknowledges that my paper was cautiously worded , and that I had most certainty succeeded in my argument . " Again : — "If , in any one part of my conduct or conversation , I had . advanced a step beyond the line of my instructions , or varied from them in a single instance , 1 should not have sought to shelter myself under the peculiar difficulties of uny situation \ I must have , met the reproof I merited . " But whether under the lash for his political or literary conduct ^ Cumberland always manifested a most sensitive disposition—so sensitive , indeed , that he was nicknamed by Garrick " the man without a skin , " caricatured by Sheridan in the character of" Sir Fretful Plagiary . "

      Cumberland ' s public life presents three distinct phases—its . political , its dramatic , and literary phases . His political life threw him into the society of the court politicians of the day , and we have in " The Memoirs , " as has already been observed , sketches of many characters known to history . His dramatic and literary career is that upon which his reputation will longest last . By his connexion with the stage and the press he became acquainted with Garrick , Foote , Kenible , Bannistei-j Mrs . Siddons , Miss Farren , Johnson , Burke , Goldsmith , Reynolds , and others . It is unnecessary to enter deeply into the merits of Cumberland as an author . He tried his hand at almost every kind of composition in prose and poetry . He wrote an . epic , making Milton his model ; but who ever hears of the " Calvary" now ? He gained great eclat as a Greek scholar and essayist , and his " Observer" has been

      incorporated into the popular edition of the " British Essayists- ; " but since it has become known how-much he was indebted to Bentiey ' s MSS ., even his character as a . Greek critic is no longer sustained . " Axundel , " a story in two volumes , principally sapports his claims as a novelist , and at the time of its publication obtained a considerable circulation . His principal reputation , however , is based upon his powers as a dramatic - writer ,, and on this it will continue to be based . In this branch of composition he exercised his inclination for variety , and produced pieces of every description , from tragedy and comedy down to the broad farce and the light vaudeville . Of his numerous productions , however , only " The Brothers , " " The West Indian , ' " The Jew , " and " The Wheel of Fortune" are noiv to be found in the repertoires of theatrical managers .

      Here is a characteristic anecdote of Johnson , which we give as a specimen , of Cumberland ' s style : — At the tea-table he had considerable demands upon bis favourite beverage , and I remember when Sir Joshua Reynolds at my house reminded him that he had drunk eleven cups , he replied , " Sir , I did not count your glasses of wine , why should you number up my cups of tea ? " And then laughing in perfect good humour , ho added , " Sir , I should have released the lady from any further trouble if it had not been for yourrcmarks , but you have reminded me that I want one of the dozen , and I must request . Mrs . Cumberland to round up my number ! " When he saw the readiness and complacency with -which my wife obeyed his call , ho turned a kind and cheerful look upon her , and said , " Madam , I must tell you for-your comfort you have escaped much better than a certain lady did a -while ago , upon whoso patience I intruded greatly , more than I have done on yours ; Imt the lady asked-mo for no other purpose but to make a . zany of me , and set me gabbling" to a parcel of people I kuew nothing of ; so , madam , I had my revenge oh her , for I swallowed five-and-twenty cupa ; of hertea , and did not treat lier with as many words . " I can only say my wife would havo made tea for him as long as the- New llivcr could have supplied her with

      . In the following , both Garrick and Foote figure : — I remember full well when Garrick and I visited him , poor Footo had something worse than , a dull man to struggle with , and matter of fact brought home to him in a . way that for a time entirely overthrew his spirits , and most completely frighted him from his pToprict 3 ' . Wo had taken hinx by surprise , and of course were with him some hours before dinner , to make sine of our own , if wo had missed of his . He seemed overjoyed to-see us , engaged us to stay , walked with us into his garden , and read to us some scenes roughly sketdied for his u Maid of Hath . " His dinner was quite good enough , and his wino superlative . Sir Robert Metohcrwho had nerved in

      , the East Indies , dropped in before dinner , and made the fourth of our party . When we had passed about two hours in perfect harmony and hilarity , Garrick called for his tea , and Sir Robert rose to depart : there was an unlucky screen in the room , that hid the door , and behind which Sir ltobort hid Mmself for some purpose , whether natural . or artificial 1 know not ; but Footo , supposing him gone , instantly began to play- off his ridicule at the expense of his departed guest . I must confess it was ( in the csmt phrase ) a way that ho had , and jiiat now a very unluck y way , . for Sir ltobort , bolting from behind thoscreen , cried out , U I am not gone , l'ooto ;; spare mo till I am out of hearing ; and now , with your JeAve ,- I will stay till these gentlemen depart , and then you shall amuao mo at their cost , as you hayo amimeiJthem at mine . "

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 10, 1857, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10011857/page/19/