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    662 ®itt ftcairer. [Satomuy,

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    €n Irts

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    VALERIA. The long-expected Valiria was p...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    S K E T Cues From Li E E. B V Iiauuikt M...

    * ' But the cows are very little better . They say there is much disease among the cows this year . Every morning I expect to hear that we have lost two or three cows in the night . We have had to throw away the greater part of the milk for this fortnight past . " Bill asked his brother whether anything was going well with him . Except the turnips and potatoes , everything seemed to be pure loss . He was told that he should go out upon . the hills tomorrow , and see the stock ; some of the cattle were very fine . The next morning was lovely . When the uncle looked forth from his window he saw that Rosa

    had already been busy , for there was a row of linen on the line on the green . A calf was doing mischief , however , munching away at a pretty blue cotton gown of the maids ' , varying its repast with a bite at an apron of Rosa ' s . As soon as the alarm was given the girl burst out , with the great whip , and had the frolic of a run round and round the green . But , as soon as she was again within doors the calf returned , and now with a companion , to the tempting blue gown . Bill went himself , when dressed , to drive away the creatures more effectually , and his niece came out to him . She beckoned to him to come to a spot she pointed out , under an elder bush which stood between the green and the

    garden . "Do you see this ? " she asked , with a face of anxious gloom . " See what , my dear ? Those elder flowers ?" " Yes ; a second flowering , uncle . I know what it means . It was . so last year . Either father or I shall die , and never see another year . " Her uncle stared ; but she went on : —" You see we are so low-spirited , I declare I dread the winter coming on . It is an omen , you see , the elder bush , flowering twice . Last year it did so , and our very best man , you know , was thrown in the yard , coming from watering the pony , and his brains were dashed out against the great elm . I saw it , uncle , and I shall never get over it , and now I know it will be father or me . "

    No reasoning was of any avail ; and the only satisfaction was in finding that this was the cause of Rosa ' s depression and irritability ; and that there was no clandestine love affair at present . It still appeared too probable that some daring low suitor would carry her off if her father would not hear of more suitable addresses ; but just now Rosa ' s thoughts were more full of death than of marriage .

    Her father stood on the threshold , chewing tobacco , when they went in to breakfast . His news was , that a fine young bullock , worth £ 7 , which he had meant his brother to admire , had been bogged in the night , and found dead this morning . The indifference with which all these losses were , mentioned compelled the brother to believe that , after all , Bob must be rich . It certainly required some wealth to conduct farming in this style .

    After breakfast Bill was asked to be ready in an hour to go out upon the bills . His brother was busy for an hour . His business was to go into the lane , and knock down rabbits for dinner . He took a cleaver and a cudgel , and stole forth , as if he were going to commit murder , —waiting till his sons were out of sight . In two hours he stole home with something under his coat . His dog had pulled down a leveret . It was a sad pity , because the steward might hear of it ; but as the leveret lay there , it was as well to bring it home . There

    were two rabbits also , each with a chop acrosn the rump , they having been not quite quick enough in getting into holes through the wall . Dozens more were visible as the brothers went forth , little white tails jerking everywhere among the gorse in the sandy lane . Then , when the brothers turned into a field , a hare was scouring along under the fence . Then , in the oat-patch above , they Htarted a covey of ' partridges ; and they themselves were startled , in the woods beyond , by the whin ing of two Ah the

    pheasants , which burst out from the ferns . shortest way to the fell where the cattle were , they crossed the ridge of the deer park . A bunch of Hlender necks , with dark heads to them , moved a little among the heather and ferns . The inoor-( rurae were beginning to look about them . On a rock , in the hottest sunshine , sat a half circle of five rabbits , all on their haunches , —all exactly alike and looking absurdly meditative . A few steps ' further , and a noble herd of red deer appeared i » a hollow , and , taking fright , scampered ofl 1 to tho next ridge , turning once more to look , before

    the tall antlers disappeared on the other side . Bill remarked on the quantity of game they had seenj and his brother spoke with pride of its being a fine game country ; and of the pleasure that was to the Duke and his friends , though it might be said to be a bad thing for the farmers . It was true , no farmer need thjnk of growing grain just hereabouts ; but it was certainly a fine game country .

    Some of the cattle on the fells were fine ; but most of the sheep were in bad plight . It had been a bad spring for the sheep ; and the farmer had thought of going to Falkirk this week to buy both sheep and cattle . But he was not up to such doings as he once was : he was not what he had been . He could not make up his mind . "Why not send Tom ? " his brother asked . " Was not Tom near thirty by this time ?"

    Yes . Tom was nine-and-twenty ; but he had no experience , and so forth . As it was clear , however , that Tom would never have experience unless he set about getting it , the decision was arrived at , that Tom should go to Falkirk fair , and buy stock . Tom opened his eyes wide when told of this ; and his unawakened heart opened , more than it had ever done before , during the really solemn scene of his being invested with his commission . It really was asolemn scene . It was in the evening , and in the presence of the farm-servants . The young man stood before the table , on which his father , with trembling hands , untied his canvas money bags , and counted out £ 50 in five pound notes , and £ 100 in gold , and made Tom count them after him .

    " Do you mean , " inquired the uncle , that Tom is to carry his money in that shape , all the way to Falkirk ?" " That ' s what I say , uncle , " exclaimed Rosa : " I can't bear to think of it . There will he be among a dozen drunken drovers ; and I shall have no peace till he is back again . " Timid as the father was , no persuasions would induce him to have the money put in a more portable shape . As for bank dealings , he knew nothing about them . With a faltering voice , he said there

    were dangers everywhere ; but he had come safe through . He had been yearly to Falkirk ; and he was safe , they saw ; and it was most convenient to have one ' s money about one . So he gave Tom his blessing , very solemnly , and wished him good fortune . Everybody was silent . Rosa rocked herself over her work : her father tried to clear his throat , and choked ; and Tom sighed up to tho rafters . His uncle had 1 great mind to offer to go with him ; but he thought it better to let him gain experience in his own way . So he invited Tom to visit him on his return , as his father had often done .

    Tom did pop in on his uncle , on his return ; but it waa only to excuse himself from staying even one day . He was in great affliction . He had done everything for the best , and bought as fine a flock of sheep as he had ever seen , —supposing them fattened , as they would soon have been . But more than half of them had fallen sick on the road . After waiting several days , he had determined on taking home the sound ones , and seeing what his father would have him do about the rest . The daily expense , where they were , was great ; and he doubted whether any one of them would ever get an ineb further on the road .

    His uncle was much concerned . He even said , " The truth is , Tom , I never saw anything so unlucky as your farming . The money seems to be draining away from you on all sides , every day . " " That ' s what I say , " exclaimed Tom , eagerly . " I don ' t see , " pursued his uncle , " but that you must all be ruined , if you go on in this way . " " That ' s what I say , " declared Tom , solemnly , " We didn ' t want the Corn-laws done nothing to . " " . Stuff ! " cried the uncle , "I had my opinion about the Corn-laws , like other men . But what on earth has that to do with those losses of yours , — with this disgraceful mismanagement of yours , Tom ?"

    Tom turned very red , and his manner was extremely dogged when he answered : ¦ - - " You used to think as father did . And father has farmed all his life ; and father didn't want tho Corn-laws done nothing to . " The sheep died ; and probably it was their fate that was foreshown by the elder bush : for Rosa and her father lived through the winter . The undo is meditating another visit . lie despairs of instituting any other change ; but the family have Buffered so much by the elder lm < sh , that he thinks ho may persuade them to let him cut it down .

    662 ®Itt Ftcairer. [Satomuy,

    662 ® itt ftcairer . [ Satomuy ,

    €N Irts

    € n Irts

    Valeria. The Long-Expected Valiria Was P...

    VALERIA . The long-expected Valiria was produced on Wednesday , and achieved a noisy success . Clever the play undoubtedly is , full of " incident" and " situation , " abounding in those attractive , but essentially vulgar , qualities—mystery and surprise , and affording the great tragedian an opportunity of displaying her versatility . But to confess the truth I found it an ignoble spectacle . As a drama there was something painful to me in seeing the old routine of the Dumas-Maquet school thrown back into Rome of the Caesars ; and the second act with its double action going on in two different parts of the stage , reminded me too forcibly of Jonathan Bradford , or the Murder at the Roadside Inn , ' Say what you will there is a necessary " keeping " in all styles .

    " Le style le moins noble a pourtant sa noblesse , " but the Fast School in a Toga does not impress me favourably . As a cleverly complicated intrigue , ValSria is worthy of the collaborates of Dumaa j but this application of the principles of Le Thi & tre Historique to Roman life is to me revolting . How I longed for the austere simplicity of Racine , trusting more to lovely verses than to startling surprises , caring more for the emotions of his audience than for their sensations , and respecting Rome as a city not to be profaned by the intrusion of the barbarians ! In this Valeria the authors have

    undertaken to paint the frivolity , stupidity , and pedantry of Claudius , and something of the corrupt condition of Rome . Tacitus and Juvenal have made this epoch eternally odious — they have pitilessly exposed the horrors of that age—but it remained for MM . Lacroix and Maquet to make it thoroughly vulgar and ignoble . Nor is that all . It being a tendency of the age to find materials for Art in any cloaca , as it is to find pathos in infirmities fitter for the Hospital , the authors may be excused their picture of

    imperial Rome , as a farce to please the " groundlings ( pretty subject for a farce !) , but nothing can excuse such stupid violation of history as their deliberate attempt to rehabilitate Messalina . The force of paradox can no farther go . I am willing to believe that Messalina was calumniated , and that Agrippina set much of the scandal on footfor the same reasons as we know that Egalite slandered Marie Antoinette . I am pretty sure that Catiline was by no means the daemon Sallust and Cicero would have us believe . I have a suspicion

    that the Gentleman in Black himself is not ao black as he is painted . " But after all I do not consider Catiline—or the Gentleman just alluded to— -to be models of respectability and propriety , nor should I permit any dramatic poet quietly to assume the fact of their purity . That Messalina was a lascivious , reckless , cruel , vicious woman is beyond a doubt ; the satire of Juvenal might be disregarded , but the Annals of Tacitus are precise and explicit . Nihil composition miraculi causa , verum audit a scriptaque senioribus tradam . «» e says , " I invent nothing for the sake of narrating extraordinary things , I but relate that which aged men have written or said . "

    You remember that Messalina was wont to leave the sleeping Claudius attended by a single slave , her dark hair hidden beneath a yellow covering" ComiteancillA non amplifts unii , Et , nigrum flavo crinein abscondente galero , Intravit calidum veteri centone lupanur . "

    What follows I forbear to quote ; Juvenal ' s Sixth Satire not being adapted for family reading . I " these nocturnal orgies she assumed the name o » Lysisca ; and our authors , with admirable coolness have chosen to make Lysisca , the courtezan , a rj " person , so like the Empress in appearance , tn ^ every one mistakes them for each other . \\? n all tlif . debaucheries of which Messalina is accuse "

    fall away from her , amd she is as pure as ice ! fT this resemblance the piece rests . Valeria ( authors were afraid to call her Messalina !) ^ the victim of her resemblance to a c < ) urtez . ' ' , " her reputation through posterity is to suilcr li ° ^ the same cause , until two chivalrous dralnatjstH r . (! H ( ' fl () her from opprobrium ! But the paradox : w frivolous it will not bear a moment ' s exull ""' "j tll ' tho most cursory glance over the pagan of ift ^ j will acquaint any one that—granted the ox 1 i | reK ,,, Lysisoa , granted her resemblance to the ftin | ^ granted that she must bear the weight of « J lupanarian caprices , there still remains tho i >» 1 j by daylight and her debaucheries unUwft One phrase in Tacitus lets me into the secret u

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 12, 1851, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12071851/page/18/