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    RICHELIEU AND THE FRONDE. Richelieu et l...

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    Latxer-Day Poetry. The Age Of Feud: A Sa...

    themes and topics food for mirth" - —which as simply false 5 and , with , respect to one living- writer , statements are hazarded , as to matters of fact , of the most astounding inapplicability . " Pasquin" is not morely spiteful , but ignorant ; and he does not redeem these faults by any literary virtues or intellectual qualifications . His judgment is poor and passionate ; liis style ¦ confused , weak , and redundant ; hia versification conventional when correct , 4 iud , when hieorrect , like that of a tyro who thinks he has done enough if he has chopped out his five feet to the line , and tagged on his rhyme to the « nd ; and his efforts at sublimity are purely traditional and according to rote . . His footman soul is sufficiently manifested in the horror he seems to feel at Leigh Hunt having called the Princess Royal , in a poem ¦ written 011 her birth , " a sweet ignorant thing . " " Why , this is flat perjury , as ever -was committed , " to call a Princess ignorant , even though , she be only an lio-ur old . The spirit of Dogberry has been revived in " Pasquin ; " but the

    world will hardly be content to receive judgments from the mouth of an ¦ ' •' ancient and most quiet watchman . " If this be " the age of lead , ' here is a veritable specimen of the dull and drowsy metal . London . Lyrics . By Frederick Locker . With an Illustration by George Oruiksbank . ( Chapman and Hall . )—The " Lyrics" of London , if undertaken by a hand worthy of the subject , might be one of the finest collections of short poems yet put forth—a collection ranging through great zones of 2 > assion , pathos , picturesqueness , humour , misery , and splendour ; touching on various epochs of time , from the London of the . savage Britons to the London of to-day ; and exhibiting a picture of humanity not to be surpassed in variety and interest . Such ., however , is not at all the character of Mr . Locker's volume ; yet his verses are lively and pleasant , and often combine a fluttering spirit of humour with tender pathos and affectionate feeling , in a manner which reminds us of Thomas Hood . Some of them have no reference -whatever to London ; but others have , and all exhibit a , light , graceful spirit , great elegance of fancy and language , and easy versification . Thus the London Lyrist sings of Piccadilly : —

    Gay slops , stately palaces , bustle and breeze , The whirring of -wheels , and the murmur of trees , By night , or by day , whether noisy or stilly , Whatever my mood is—I love Piccadilly . Wet nights , when the gas on the pavement is streaming ' , And young Love is w atcliing , and old LoVe is dreaming , And Beauty is whirl'd off to conquest , where shrilly Cremona makes nimble thy toes , Piccadilly ! Brigbt days , when I leisurely pace to and fro , . And meet all the iieople I do or don ' t know . Here is jolly old Brown , and his fair daughter Lillie ;—No wonder some pilgrims affect Piccadilly ! See yonder pavr , fonder ne ' er rode at a canter , — She smiles on her Poet , contented to saunter ; Some envy her spouse , and some covet her filly , He envies them both—he ' s an ass , Piccadilly 2 Now were I that gay bride ,-with a slave at my feet , I -would cboose me a house in my favourite street . Yes or No—I vt ould carry my point , -willy , 11 illy ; If "INo , "—pick a quarrel , if " , " - —Piccadilly . Thus the high frolic by—thus the lowly are seen . As perched on tbe roof of yon bulky machine . The Kensington uilly—and Tom Smith or Billy Smoke doubtful cigars in ill-used Piccadilly . George Cruikshank ' s frontispiece—" Building Castles in the Air" —is touched in bis best style of quaint and airy fancy ; and the poem which it illustrates is a dainty trifle . Antennae : Poems by Llewellyn Jewitt , F . S . A . ( Longman and Co . ) , are -avowedly put forth as " feelers , " the author being doubtful whether or not he possess sufficient of the poetic faculty to justify him in going on in the cultivation of imaginative art . AVe should say that he has a feeling for nature , a command of words ( though not a power of choosing them subtly and delicately ) , a generous sympathy with his fellow creatures under affliction , and a lyrical instinct . But he is diffuse , and often coniinonplace ; and must study and think deeply if he would do anything of inark .

    The Spirit of Home ' , by Sylvan ( Saunders and Otley ) , is a long , magniloquent poem , broken up into separate subjects , each two stanzas in length , and having reference to the greatness of England , the valour of English soldiers , the virtues of the English people , and the good effects of emigration , especially to Australia . Un the last subject , the author discourses at some length in his Preface , making extracts from " the latest news ' in the Times , and . then passing on to a brief indication of whnt he conceives to be the most crying evils of the day , which he hopes the Legislature -will speedily tuke in hand . When a poet is so didactically inclined as this , tho question arises-, why he writes verse at all , and not political pamphlets . Humbug Attacked , in Church , Law , Physic , Army , ami Naoy . A Poem . By Mr . John Bull , Jwn . ( Mountcastle ) . —The author here enters on a very wide field ; but exhibits little else than affection and d elective metre .

    Jacob Morbid s Pilgrimage : to which is added Morbid Sentiment t «¦ Burlesque Dramatic Fragment , ^ § -c . Hy D . 11 . M . ( Longman and Co . )—These aro amusing mock heroic verses , indicative of no high faculty on tho part of the writer , but aiming at nothing more than the beguilement of idle time . The Island : a Venetian liable . Zone ' s Fortunes ; a Druniatique . And other Poems . By "WilLiam Cvples . ( llanley : . Roberts . )—One of the reasons stated for putting- forth this volume is , the desire of tho author to show that bis district " can produce Poetry as well as Pottery . " Mr . CVyples bus a certain richness of imagery , but it is sometimes exaggerated and morbid . How can he reconcile it with good tasto or reverence to call the aim God ' s coat of firms emblir / . oiicd on the sky ? But tho * e are striking passages in his book , and we are not without a hope that ho may improve with time and cure .

    Mr . James Little , the ( jjlasgow shoemaker , whose previous productions we luvvo already noticed , sends us a fresh volume of versos—The Last March aud Other Poems . ( Glasgow : David Jack . )—It exhibits the same creditable

    features which we noted in the former work , and shows a greater refine ment of thought and expression . Youthful Echoes , by A . S . Vf . are the productions of a young ¦ gentleman who appears to have a tendency to kindly thoughts and a love of intellectual culture . The subjoined titles refer to volumes which do not present any noticeabl e features for criticism : —The Indian Roc oil . By Frederic . E . K . Hooper In Two Parts . Part I . ( Hardwicke . ) - —Mjjnt . ; or , the Hose of the Bus I . j Tale ofthe . Afghan War . In NT ine Cantos . ¦ By Ella Haggard . ( Lou ^ maii and Co . ) - —Poems , Original and Translated , by Charles llami Kennedy , Jtsq and Tico Poems , by the Itev . Raim Kennedy . New Edition . ¦ ( Walker . ) -U Short Occasional Poems . By the Rev . J . E . ] 3 ode , A . M ., author . of '' ¦ . Ballads from Herodotus . " ( Longman . ) —Palestine Revisited , and other PoviU * By T . Mitchell , MA . ( Webster ^

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    JSgfr _ ___ ¦_^_^ Lg _ g L _ gA J ^ J ^__; l __ jrg ° jL 427 / Mat 29 , 1658 .

    Richelieu And The Fronde. Richelieu Et L...

    RICHELIEU AND THE FRONDE . Richelieu et lei ' Fronde . By J . Michelet . Paris : CUamero ' t . Thikty years of war pass under M . Michelet's eye in this singular volume . Richelieu is the central figure ., but Galileo and Gustavus Adolplnis are the heroes of the period . From Italy and from the North conies almost the only light that breaks the gloom of that great conflict . To create Galileo Poland had contributed Copernicus , Germany Keppler , Holland . lier mechanism , France her Calculus ; Florence gave the man and the genius , and the gifts of Venice were Courage and Liberty . This is M . ^ lichelet ' s introduction of the Tuscan ' artist to his reader . Then , " Was Gustavus Adolphus the Galileo of the war ? Not precisely ;• ' but he was a hero of the purest type , in whom ambition never became a crime , and he possessed the genius which creates its own opportunities . The third personage of the

    drama is llicheheu , an inferior being , a man more cunning than wise , 'vho regarded life as a game of hazard , who needed chances to be thrown in his way , but who knew how to use when he found them . Mazarin gambled in politics still more deliberately , and these two cardinals flung the dice while they lived , sometimes in their own favour , but now aiid then to the advantage of their enemies—the foreign potentates , or the queens at Paris . In contrast Avill stand forth the image of AVallenstein , and JM . Michelet ' reprobates the apposition of that . " -scourge " , -with the King of Sweden . AVallenstein , he thinks , was a heartless speculator , a most illustrious aoquin , an epicure whose table was spread with a hundred dishes , and . who had a hundred carriages in his train . He was an Attila when drinking the blood of Europe , but not an Attila . when feeding from a golden platter , for the Hun served his courtiers upon massive plate and cat his own meal from a -wooden bowl . . ,

    IS otwithstanding that M . Michelet devotes his principal admiration to Gustavus Adolphus , the character of Richelieu he has drawn in this volume is the most interesting of the ample series ; and the least exaggerated . - He does not call him Messiah or Satan ; he docs not rank him above "humanity or below it . Ue has been'fascinated by Gusta / vus Adolphus , and he hates YVallenstein ; but he appears , to comprehend Richelieu . Consequently , as an historical study , his delineation of that churchman and statesman is of unique and original value . Jt is not a calm analysis ; it is not a critical examination ; it is not the panorama of a public career , processional in its grandeur and dignity ; but it opens up by a series of swift transitions , ia which the links of circumstantial relation are never lost , the policy and personal idiosyncrasies of the cardinal . As a picture of Court manners , moreover , this volume is of rare interest , for though St . Simon was nut yet there to lay up every anecdote and incident in an incomparable treasury of sketches , there were writers of memoirs , letters , and monographs who contributed their fragments , to the archives whence M . Michclet's authorities

    have been drawn . Certainly , the account of Mademoiselle do llautefort ' s planned crusade against the asceticism of Louis XIII . is one oi' the most characteristic episodes in the royal chronicles of France . It cui » - > iest : > a marvellous contrast with the tone of mind into which Louis XIV ., by servile historians surnamed the Great , fell when he used to ciaiu his carriage with women , whom he took as much pleasure in torturing as in seducing . His spirit was congenial to that of the Lower Roman . noble , who invariably ilogged his female slaves almost to death after he had debauched them .

    M . JMichelet's summary of history during the epoch of the Thirty Years ' War is additionally interesting as a close and independent view oi tin' ramifications of French policy through Europe , and the eflect , <> f French domestic events upon the general affairs of the Continent . Humiliatingllichelieu as he does to tho level of it great political trickster , ho does not conccul the surprising power with which the ecclesiastical niiuistiM' disposed of men and profited by events , even converting to his own advantage the victories of Gustavus Adolphus , and sparing France , so far as . sin ; was spared , from the exhaustion of the internecine war of Europe . It \ v ; is left to his successor , and to the successor of Louis XIV ., to raise up monuments and bequeath an . impoverished realm to a corrupted dynasty . Hut M . Micholet does not occupy himself principally with state papers and public archives ; lie understands , and develops , the importance of the personal and

    domestic part of history : he knows what a window of light may lie opened by a single anecdote , and what a flow of colour may burst from the disclosure of any historical scandal . Tims , his narrative , written as usual in sparkling , often astonishing , and sometimes repulsive epig rams , includes : i variety of details to which writers of his cluss do not always condescend ; but it i . s , on that account , the more brilliant and the more impi-c ^ ivc . Ji ' having many tunas characterized M . Michclut as an historian , we must ivcui to general criticism , it ia impossible to avoid Haying that ho nuw . s his narration by extravagances , by startling conceits , by antitheses so violi-nt as ( o be grotesque , by passages in which tho boldness of the allusion is iis only merit , Jind by occasional figures of speech wliich in uny language appeivT profane . Saying this , and adding that M . Michelet is not Ichs personal iti opinion than in style , wo haw 0 still to describe him as one of the most remarkable and suggestive writers of his time .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 29, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29051858/page/18/