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    90 THE LEAP^B, [fro. 357, Saturday,

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    THE WANDERING JEW. The Legend of the Wan...

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    OLIVER CROMWELL. Oliver Cromwell: a Stor...

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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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    Pre-Raffaellitism. Pre-Raffaellitiwi ' ,...

    sentence will prevent many readers from venturing much beyond it . It -would have arrested us , if we had not been bound to proceed as a matter of stern duty- We can at least warn every one else not to trouble themselves with this refutation of Mr . Raskin . As a convenient example of Mr . Young ' s philosophical capacity , and a test of his power * in dealing with subjects so comp lex as those of Art , let tis consider his definition of Poetry . After noticing the tinsatisfactoriness of all previous attempts to answer the question , What is Poetry ? he is led to this astounding revelation that " Poetry appeals to the Imagination . And -with his accustomed felicity he adds : — Of poetry it may be said truly , as of Goldsmith it was said epitaphically , " mhil Utiitguod non ornaxit" ( he touched nothing lie did not adorn ) , —it is in its nature . "

    g Mr . Young , we may be certain , will not understand why we read with extreme weariness a writer who expresses himself in language such as that ; but our readers will understand why we do not think it necessary to examine the arguments of such a writer . Had not the the title of this work been one to attract attention we should have wasted no space on it ; but as * tasters' for the public we are bound to say of Mr . Youug " epitaphically " nihil tetigit quod non maculavit .

    90 The Leap^B, [Fro. 357, Saturday,

    90 THE LEAP ^ B , [ fro . 357 , Saturday ,

    The Wandering Jew. The Legend Of The Wan...

    THE WANDERING JEW . The Legend of the Wandering Jew . Illustrated by Gustave Dortf . Translated by G . W . Thornbury . Addey and Co . Gustave Doufi has illustrated with twelve magnificent designs the legend of the Wandering Jew , Pierre Dupont has supplied the versified story , Paul Lacroix the bibliographical notice , Beranger the ballad version , Mr . Thornbury the English rendering , and some critical notes . For this translation , and the remarks accompanying it , not much is to be said . But the illustrations , from the original French plates , are superb . They have all the characteristics manifested by D ore in his previous works—the conceptions of vast and . cloudy architecture , the miraculous pine-tree shadows , the quaint groups , the wondrously-aged figures , storm , sacred horror , comedy , mingled in one picture . Only such an artist could interpret fitly such a legend . Only such an artist could render tolerable the contrast of the ass nibbling at the beard of the majestic Jew . What is merely quaint when M . Dore * presents it would be ludicrous presented by a less creative fancy .

    M . Lacroix ' s bibliographical notice will be -read with even more interest than M . Dupont ' s metrical version , which , together with Beranger ' s ballad , has suffered much in the hands of the translator—necessarily so , perhaps , because Dupont , no less than Beranger , is generally untranslatable . The'legend of the Wandering Jew was current during the whole of the Middle Ages , and even now prevails among the population of a great part of Europe . The Jew is still believed in , and his return is still expected . Long before the commencement of the thirteenth century , certainly , the idea was set afloat that the curse , upon the Jewish nation falling upon the head of one individual would drive him in undying misery round' the world , until the Judgment-day . M .. LacroLx adopts the suggestion that the myth arose from some preacher ' or poet ' s allegory , personifying the Hebrew race , without

    home and without repose . The Crusaders , perhaps , brought it from Palestine . At all events , it is of older date than the Crusades , for the unconicious originators of the legend would not have assigned to the Jew a period of wandering ¦ which must have been terminated before the story had become popular . The year One Thousand had been the terror of the Catholic Church . Then was to come Antichrist , then the last Judgment , when the Jew would cease from his terrible travels . At that time , doubtless , he was p ersonated by numerous impostors , who disseminated the tradition of his curse , and collected the alms of the charitable in his name . Theologians , of course , took up the tale , and attached to it more than one ingenious commentary . Some said the Jew was Malthus , whose ear Peter had cut off in the Garden of Olives ; others , that he was

    the impenitent thief nailed with Christ upon the cross ; others , that he was Pilate ; while , in an old tract which M . Lacroix seems to have missed , we remember having seen him identified with Jscariot himself . Far and wide , however , the report of an Armenian archbishop was accepted , declaring him to have been Cartaphilus , who struck Jesus in the judgment hall . But this version gradually gave way to another , still popular , that the shoemaker who refused Christ a moment ' s rest at his door , when fainting under the cross , was the Wandering Jew . His judgment was in these terms : — " Thou hast refused me rest ; thou thyself slialt never rest again until the Last Day ! " Matthew Paris and Philip Maeskes , of Tournay , nevertheless , relate the history in its Armenian form , as applying to Cartaphilus , or , in later centuries , to Ahasuerus , the same person , under an altered name . In

    June , 1564 , some good Catholic of Hamburg , writing to a friend , declared , uj » on great authority , that , in the winter of 1542 , the theologian Paul of Eitzen , being in a congregation at Hamburg , saw an old man , with a prodigious beard and bare feet , who turned out to be the Wandering Jew . He had been present , by his own account , at the death of Christ , and added some minute particulars to the evangelical history . He had driven Christ from his door , he said , and , upon the words being uttered , " I shall rest , but you shall go on , " set down his child , walked to Calvary , witnessed the crucifixion , and ever afterwards wandered , under divino compulsion , over tlw earth . He always spoke the language of the country m ™* ch he happened to sojourn . He eat , drank , and spoke little , never started , and ccruld not endure blasphemy . In 1575 two envs from

    , oy Holstein met him m Spam ; some years later he was seen in Strasburg , and in 1 G 04 in Franoe , on a road in Gaecony . Indeed , not long afterwards , an erudite lawyer recognised him in Paris , near Notre-Damo . At otfher times , people in England , Italy , Sweden , Austria , Poland , and itnssia , declared , they had met and conversed with him He was certainly at Leipsic in 1 G 42 , if ocular testimony be of any value , and as certainly he was at BruBsola in 1640 , for two citizens saw him ! In the same . year he appeared in the forest of Soignes , and he ought to have appeared not long afterwards in London , According to the calculations of the learned ; but it was not until the second half of tho eighteenth century , or the 22 nd of April , 1 T 72 , that h « was seen by unspiritual eyes . At sir

    o clock in the evening , two burghers of Brabant met him in their town . He conversed with them , drank wine with them , related his history , and passed on . He is now , probably , among the recesses of the Andes , and , while we await his return , his memory is kept green among us by the ten French pieces which bear his name , by numerous poems Edgar Quinet ' s among others—by Beranger ' s noble song , by Sue ' s novel , M . Ernest Dore ' s music , and ¦ M . Dore ' s illustrations , worthy In all respects of the artist , who -worthily illustrated Rabelais . First , the moment of the malediction is presented ; the Jew has heard his doom , the wild tumult passes on " and he is away on his centuries of wandering . Next , just emerging from an antique town , with a tempest in the sky , and dreary shadows deepening over the earth , he passes a wayside cross , and shrinks as his eye turns to it in helpless fascination . Then in a town of Belgium , rich with towers , « ablpq

    balconies , strange bartisans , bell-turrets , and jutting windows . He is invited to rest awhile in an inn , which , strangely enough , he consents to do Butnot long . In the fourth picture he is seen breaking away from his companions for an hour , the angel drives him on , he hurries along the Rhine and Rhone ; among forests , rivers , and mountains , and now in light , now in shadow , now in the glancings of the water , the figure of Christ bearing the cross continually meets his eye , with his own figure in an attitude of reviling . Then he enters a black and damp churchyard and groans in envy of those who lie in their graves . Still the trees and the clouds and the tombstones mock him with the image of the Cross . He rushes on among the hifh Sivisa valleys , the pines and stones talce hideous shapes , the beautiful but relentless angel follows with her goad of fire . Even amid the mountains of the highest

    regions the same accursed vision is repeated . He rushes into a battle and no one can kill him . He plunges into theocean , stirred into great whirlpools by a hurricane , and does not drown , so that even the faces of the dead are turned to him in wonder ; he travels to the Andes , in the midst of wild beasts , serpents and gaping river monsters , and does not find the death he seeks . At last the trumpet of the Judgment sounds . The Jew , with a shout of delirious laughter , leans against a stone , strips off his dust-worn shoes , and prepares for the rest of the Eternal . Such is this extraordinary legend , on which the illustrations confer a new vitality . Often grotesque , always exaggerated , Dore never appears to exceed the grotesque exaggerations of his subject His fancies are marvellously varied , surprising , 'Rabelaisian . Mr . Thornbury calls him a painter of dreams . This he is , literally . His castles , his valleys , his seas , his battles , his street perspectives , have all the shadowy idealism of dreams , yet they are never confused or indistinct .

    The illustrations seem to have Been taken from the original French plates . They are accompanied by the legend and the critical notices , boldly printed on folio pages . M . Dupont ' s version has been carefully , if not very effectively , translated by Mr , Thornbury , whose Tendering of Beranger is , however , an unmistakable failure . The prologue has been ' done into ' elegant and forcible English by Mr . John Stebbing .

    Oliver Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell: A Stor...

    OLIVER CROMWELL . Oliver Cromwell : a Story of the Civil War . By Charles E . Stewart . 2 vote . Smith , Elder , and Co . A portrait of Oliver Cromwell , drawn by Charles Stuart , would rank among historical curiosities . To the novel by the Charles Stewart of this title-page , however , we scarcely know what rank to assign . It is a neatlywritten , moderately-interesting book . There are some subjects , in . fact ,

    which cannot again be rendered more than moderately interesting , unless by authors with new materials at ^ , heir command , or new interpretations to suggest . Such subjects are : —the French Revolution , the English Civil Wars , the subjugation of India , and others of that class . Of compilations and romantic paraphrases we have had more than enough . Let Mirabeau and Robespierre rest until something new can be said ; let us wait for Clive ' s account of Plassey , . and , until then , be content with our existing political and military histories ; above all , save us from historical romances in

    connexion with the Roundheads and Cavaliers . We have already enough of them to furnish a Brighton Library . What would be acceptable is a thoroughly-sifted Life of Cromwell , on a moderate scale , to be classified with the histories of Blake and Penn , and the biography , when any one has written it , of Vane . Who would care for Blake : a Story of the Seventeenth Century , or Penn : a Romance of the Neio World ? and wlio caves now for Oliver Cromwell : a Story of the Civil War F A very small number of persons , we venture to say . Then , why should Mr . Stewart attempt to do justice to the King or the Protector in a form so trite as that of the novel ? "We beg

    him to walk no more in the paths of James and Ainsworth—to whom no disrespect is intended—but to write history or fiction , instead of confusing the two . To this protest against all whom it may concern , —all who , directly or indirectly connive at ? historical romances' about the Civil War , —we will add that Mr . Stewart ' s volumes are by no means unreadable . Though not striking in manner or matter , they bear the impress of a thoughtful mmd , which never stagnates in dull digressions , or long reaches of speculation . Readers who can tolerate a new " Story of tho Civil War" find them entertaining .

    Mr . Stewart ' s theory of breakfasts may be disputed . We may not , in these days , eat " a potent and majestic dinner" and aix o ' clock in tho morning ; but Mr . Stewart may be assured that the Queen ' s Guards do not live upon soda-water , cliumpngne , and sweet cakes . Nor arc pasties utterly banished ; nor is coffee pure " namby-pamby ism . " Bacon and Burleigh may have fed upon beef , ale , and strong wine ; but it is doubtful whether our gout-smitten ministers and chancellors diet themselves in tho aerial w « y of which the novelist complains . They built fine houses in tho Elizabethan ago , but whether they dined or breakfasted hotter is at least questionable .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 24, 1857, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24011857/page/18/