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    116 mtw 3Leatict. [Sat - ussa?, ¦ * ,

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    AMERICAN ART. The publication of Felix B...

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    THE LYRIC DRAMA. It may appear strange t...

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    THE DRAMA. Fkench Plays.—M. Samson and M...

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    SCRAPS OF THOUGHT. XVIL A book is good, ...

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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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    The Aristocratical. In These Days Of Com...

    when these legions abandoned Gaul and Britain ? The game as the Moors did after : they repaired their losses by piracy . I have seen black hair taken from the tomb of a Norman . Hie Danes and Angles were universally fairhaired , although not the Swedes ; but the Swedes had worked enough at home , withholding them from invasions . Families in Ireland might , if they were idle and silly , claim descent from those who conquered our island , before the valiant and politic conqueror invaded it from Neustria . Their position makes them exelusives , not their pride . They know that the best blood of man is merely the blood of oxen , sheep , and swine , percolated through his veins and arteries ; these make Us in strength and wealth ; these are our sustenance until we become the sustenance of viler things . Walter Savage Landor .

    116 Mtw 3leatict. [Sat - Ussa?, ¦ * ,

    116 mtw 3 Leatict . [ Sat - ussa ? , ¦ * ,

    American Art. The Publication Of Felix B...

    AMERICAN ART . The publication of Felix Barley's illustrations to Rip Van Winkle , which Mr . Cnndall has recently undertaken , introduces an American to our notice whom we are glad to recognize as a genuine Artist—as a man who can do the thing he dreams , whose Art is not a mere aspiration but a creative power . These six designs display real pictorial conception , and such nice yet unobtrusive observation of details , that the more you look at them the more the conception fills your mind . We are conscious of a certain " set" look in the figures ; but how few modern painters can give the sense of motion ! Observe the frontispiece ; the shrewish wife wants vehemence and impulse in figure , though with a sort of thin energy and aggressiveness in the face ; but how admirably observed is the sleek bewilderment of the comfortable neighbour interposing between the distress

    wrathful wife and her listless husband—what a strange incompetent wrinkling her fat face ! Rip himself seems to us ratheT sheepish , as if his wife s tongue had made him idiotic ; but the tale presents him as a docile S °° ^ - natured anything-for-a-quiet-life sort of man . The expression is better caught in the second plate , where Rip is depicted amusing the children—a charming and natural picture , full of minute observation and infantile grace . The solidity of the figures here is worth noticing . That boy lolling on the bench and looking down upon the paper boat is a bit of Mulready . Masterly in design and character is plate three . The stolid expression of the old man reading the paper and clutching it as if to wring out the sense more certainly than his slow brain would let him ; the dull look of the deaf man , and above all the marvellous weight and lumpishness of that Daniel Lambert of a Duchman , heaped up between two chairs with an expression of bestial beatitude and after-dinner

    content weighing down his fat eyelids , while his double chin and ventripotent corporation hang lax , show in the artist a perception of character and mastery of form which greatly excite our curiosity to see his other productions , ihe next plate is an imitation of Ketsch . The fifth is scarcely up to the text . The sixth is as good in its way as No . 3 , —full of character delicately indicated , truthful , and beautiful in design . As a specimen of graceful naturalness look at that young woman listening to the tale , and holding the little child , who seems impatient to be off . Nothing can be better than the variety of the thiee listeners . In short , the designs are such as to give a favourable idea of the American Art-Union which issued them . In the present publication Mr . Cundall has had them reduced by Daguerrotype and etched on steel , and has added the text , thus making a delightful drawing-room book .

    The Lyric Drama. It May Appear Strange T...

    THE LYRIC DRAMA . It may appear strange that the opera of Mose in Egitto should be so little known in England , but when we consider the prejudices to be overcome before any sacred work can be placed in an operatic form before an English audience , we cease to wonder that lessees of fashionable Opera-houses should not wish thus to shock the respectable notions of their subscribers . In an oratorio a gentleman in a fashionable white waistcoat and white kid gloves may represent any sacred person he pleases ; but dress him in appropriate costume , surround him with acencry , and place him upon the stage-forthwith the thing becomes rank blasphemy , and down comes a thunderbolt , launched from the dread oihee ot the Lord ChamberlainThe directors of the lloyal Italian Opera , feeling that

    . the music of Moai was too good to be killed by the subject , have bethought themselves of an expedient at once simple and satisfactory—that is merely to call all tho characters by different names . The opera certainly remains the same ; the real personages come unmistakeably before us , with all the aid ot Egyptian scenery and costume—but the " blasphemy " is gone at once , and tho boxes are consequently filled with rank and fashion . Moses and Pharaoh , and the Israelites arc all thcre-but Moses is called " Zoru , Pharaoh is called " Merismane , " and the Israelites arc called the " Bactnans , and that ot course is a very different thing . In this state , therefore , the opera was

    successfully produced on Saturday evening . . . The name of Rossini is so little associated in the English mind with the grand and mnssivo style of writing requisite for an opera like the Mose , that few , indeed , amongst the audience could have anticipated the effect produced by the broad choral writing so plentifully scattered throughout the work , lo say that it is really an opera of the highest class would bo a manifest absurdity , seeing with what company wo must then associate it—but we really feel that in truth of colouring , and unity of design , it far surpasses the Semiramidc . Ihe school dash of the brnad nncl

    jnay bo culled that of the sacred-Italian , with a strong energetic Gorman character , especially in the choruses and recitatives , lno music of Zora is stamped with an individuality throughout , and tho calm and hopeful character of the Hadrian choruses is finely contrasted with tho stern nnd overbearing stylo of thoso of tho Assyrian army . M . Zelgcr , who made his cl 6 but in tho part of Zora , has a buss voice of remarkably tine quality , but of limited compass . His conception , of tho character was perfect , and ho sang throughout with tho utmost care ; but his voice occasionally failed him when ho most wanted it ; and in tho great finale to the third act , his solo was marred by

    the attempt to roach the high K . . Signor Tamberlik sang the music of the love-sick Amenofi like a truedisciple of the school of " Young Italy , ' creating a groat of Foe t in tho duet -with lumburini , " Parlar , spicgar , " by joiking out the upper A and 1 $ from tho chest ; a feat which he wns called upon to repeat . If Signor Tamberlik is in the slightest degree presuming upon tho position which our contemporaries have so promptly assigned him , wo would wish to mix our praises of the past with caution tor the future , and to assure him that u pure and legitimate stylo will yet be demanded of him , ere ho can occupy tho post of first tenov at the Royal Italian Opera . Si ^ nor Tamburini gave the music of the Assyrian King with the utmost dramatic energy , and , despite a little oddity of costume , looked the part well . Madumo Castellan , in Ariais , again charmed us by her fresh and artless vocalization . Her improvement since lust season is maml'est in every character she lias assumed .

    The choruses were sung throughout the opera with a precision highly creditable to all concerned . "We doubt whether the finale to the third act is not one of the finest specimens of choral singing ever heard on the stage , not even excepting the " Benediction of the poignards in the Huguenots . Ihe audience could not be restrained in their applause even to the conclusion , and at the fall of the curtain there was a simultaneous burst from evey part of the house . The prayer in G minor , " Dal tuo steliata soglio , " which concludes the opera , although well sung , went somewhat coldly . This might be accounted for by the enthusiasm created at the end of the third act ; and we have some doubts whether Rossini , in the course of the alterations he is said to have recentl y made , might not have effected some judicious change in the climax . The opera , as it stands , however , is exceedingly effective , and we hope that at will be as

    attractive as it deserves to be . m On Thursday La Donna del Lago was revived with a most powerful cast . The part of " Roderick Dhu" is admirably suited for the energetic style of Si" -nor Tamberlik , and he sang the music with much effect . M . Zolger , in ° " Douglas , " fully confirmed the favourable impression he had produced on Saturday evening ; and Mademoiselle Cotti , in the small part of " Albina , " sang throughout with much judgment . The opera was put upon the stage in the careful manner to which we are now becoming accustomed ; the picturesque scene of the gathering of the clans producing a most powerful effect .

    At Her Majesty ' s Theatre , the only event of any importance has been the appearance of Signor Baucardi , a new tenor , in the part of " Oronte , " in Verdi ' s noisy opera I LombardL To a voice of the purest quality he unites a sound and legitimate stvle of vocalization , and his success was most decisive . "We must , however , impress upon vocalists the necessity of making first appearances in parts which demand the highest artistic requisites , if they wish to attain anything beyond mere temporary popularity .

    The Drama. Fkench Plays.—M. Samson And M...

    THE DRAMA . Fkench Plays . —M . Samson and Mademoiselle Denain are making way with the public : the former as an accomplished man whose intelligence supplies in finish and subtlety what may be wanting in force and breadth of humour ; the latter as an actress formed upon fine models , with considerable tact in appropriating to her use the traditions of good comedy . Her voice , gesture , and deportment are very agreeable , and always verging on fascination . In that lively little comedy La Marqidse de Senneterre , she was seen to great advantage as the

    timid affectionate wife ; but in the sudden assumption of coquetry she made the common mistake of passing at one bound from rustic simplicity to finished coquetry . This was not in keeping with the character . She has come to Marion de l'Orme to learn the art of captivating men , and Marion has given her but a few of the most common precepts , whereupon she at once , and without an effort , presents herself as a model of the art she came to learn . Now it strikes us that a little gaucherie might very artistically have been made to appear underneath this assumption , which would have rendered it more piquant and more

    vraisemblable . Two more of Samson ' s comedies have been produced : TJne Belle-Mere et un Gendre ( the original of My Wife ' s Mother ) , in which he played " Uncle Foozle " with sleepy truth and naturalness ; and that admirable little Famille Poisson which , however , is poorly cast at this theatre : to see it as played in Paris by Provost , Iiegnier , and Samson , is indeed a treat ! On Wednesday Moliere ' s Misanthrope was given : a serious mistake on the part of the management with such a company . These high French comedies require fine and peculiar acting to render them effective even to French audiences ; but to English audiences , who have the slenderest possible appreciation of the art , and who understand but little of their language ( which is not— " The French of Stratford attc Bow , " )

    nothing short of exquisite acting can make them intelligible . M . Samson is not equal to the part ; and if Mademoiselle Denain is nearer the mark , the others are all deplorably wide of it . A word of advice , Mr . Mitchell ! Stick to vaudevilles and little comedies .

    Scraps Of Thought. Xvil A Book Is Good, ...

    SCRAPS OF THOUGHT . XVIL A book is good , not for what it tells us , but for what it elicits and inspires , XVIII . Montaigne was a sceptic in mood ; Hume a sceptic in mind . XIX . Religion deals with the Deity Present , Philosophy with the Omnipresent Deity . The aim of true wisdom is to make the Omnipresent Deity in our mmd , ami the Present Deity in our heart , one beautiful harmony . Act when thou hast attained this harmony , and thou art the holiest of heroes . XX . Our arenas invented the means of doing without invention ; and we cannot have a more signal proof of its degradation than that it is so proud of this its only ( liscovGrv . XXI . Those bigots to whom the form U so much dearer than the spirit prefer the chaff , because it retains the semblance of the grain , to the grain itself made into nourishing bread , but crushed out of its original shape in order to be the titter tor XXII . The lowest order of the critical faculty is the discernment of differences , the highest the perception of the relations and proportions . It is the . absence of this highest order of the critical faculty which is one main cause of our age ' s barrenness .

    XXIII . The cry of men at the present day is for more light ; this they seek witti feverish eagerness in Irvingite visions and similar quackeries . But is not the Sr antl and only vital want that men should act up to the light which already is in the world . XXIV . Egoism and egotism are often in inverse proportions . A man may talk little about himself merely to conceal his egoism or to accomplish its objects ; while another man , from the very excess of a frank , earnest , generous nature , may talk of himself incessnntly . , XXV . The four things to be reconciled in all Religion and in all Philosophy are God , the Universe , Man , and the Individual . In proportion as one of these is preponderant is there a one-sided Religion and a one-sided Philosophy . XXVI . The rule of a purist is consistency , that of a brave and true man persistency . XX . VII . In religion the more the person of tho Deity is distinct , the less there is ot relknon ; in morality , however , the person of Deity cannot be too distinct . XXVIII . Noble is he who assails rhe iniquities of his age ; nobler he who holds up

    a hiurh ideal to his age ; noblest , he who does both . XXIX . Why should we rouse a man out of sleep by a blow on the face when we can do so better by a touch on the shoulder ? And why , when a giant is to be slain , employ the impotent touch when we should strike the omnipotent blow ? But nro not all our living reformers as maladroit in awakening as they arc weak in combating . Thus they make far more enemies than they need , while they have not the strength to ovrrcnnie even one . , XXX . It shows a want of poetry in ourselves not to see poetry in all things , even me m <>* t tiMchanical . . XX . XI . It requires far greater generosity lo know how to treat one of our brethren after wr have dune him a kindness , than to do him the kindness itself . XXXII . Minerva was the goddess of wisdom and of war ; which signifies that the highest of all wisdom is that which is bought by struggle and conflict . .. .

    XXXIII . Apollo wa- the god of music and poetry , and likewise of medicine ; whereby we are taught that poetry and music ate the best mediciue for the troubled soul—sometimes even for the troubled body .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 27, 1850, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27041850/page/20/