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Leader (1850-1860), 31st July 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 16, 782 THE LEADER. [SAtftRDAV ,

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      782 The Leader. [Satftrdav ,

      782 THE LEADER . [ _SAtftRDAV ,

      Tittxahxt.

      tittxahxt .

      Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . — Edinburgh Jievietv .

      Justice—Which Is Love In Action : —All M...

      Justice—which is Love in action : —all men feel to he the high prerogative of our race ; and when it is outraged there is no one hearing of it whose cheek does not feel the mounting flame of virtuous wrath . Unhappily our prejudices so often distort our vision that we cannot always see injustice to be what it is ; or else how could men tranquilly permit such _things as are daily being transacted before them ? Out of the many we single one . The aged and respectable Nees von Esenbeck , the friend of Goethe and of Schelling , one of the great names among living botanists , who for thirty years has been the upright servant of the state , the loved Professor at Bonn , and Director of the Botanical Gardens , whom the late King of Prussia honoured and rewarded , is now , at the age of seventyeight , dismissed by a paternal Government " on account of his political opinions "—the dangerous doctrinaire ! the anarchial Botanist ! the terrible corrupter of youth ! At seventy-eight he is thrown upon the world and the world ' s sympathy , because his opinions are not well received b _} r those in power . A subscription is set on foot in Germany , which we trust will be ample enough to take away at least the material harm of this dismissal ; meanwhile the Germans in London , and others of our sympathetic readers may be glad to contribute their offerings . We shall be happy to receive any subscriptions : they may be addressed to our Office , or to Mr . Franz Thimm , German Bookseller , 88 , New Bond-street .

      We Have Somewhat Neglected German Litera...

      We have somewhat neglected German literature of late , there have been so very few publications worth announcing . In the small activity there has been , we have noted , with some satisfaction , that Theology and Metaphysics have retired into silence and insignificance ; two works recently published , however , deserve a passing mention . The first is a volume attributed by vague rumour to Schelljng , upon what authority we cannot say , and bearing this comprehensive title , Ueber den Geist und sein Verhaltniss in der Natur—running rapidly through the whole circle of the sciences physical and social ; the second is a history of German Philosophy since Kant , by Fortlage of Jena—Genetische Geschichte der Philosophie seit Kant . He is a popular expositor , arid as his work embraces Kant , _Jacobs Fichte , Schelling , Oken , Steffens , Cabus , Schleiermacheb , Hegel , Weisse , Fries , Herbaet , Beneke , Reinhold , Trendelenbuug , & c , it will be interesting to students of that vast logomachy named German Philosophy . In science we have to note one or two decidedly interesting publications . A massive , cheap , and popular exposition of the Animal Kingdom , by Vogt , under the title of Zoologische Briefe—the numerous woodcuts to which , though very rude , are well drawn and useful as diagrams : Vortiscii Die J ' dngste Katastroplie des Erdballs , and Lotze Medicinisehe Psychologic oder Physiologie der Seele will attract two very difFerent classes of students . While the lovers of German Belles Lettres ( w e presume there are such curiosities of intellectual desire ) will learn with tepid satisfaction that a new work is about to appear from the converted Countess IIahn-IIaiin , under the mystical title of Die I / tcbhaber des Kreuzes , find a novel also by L . Muhlbach ( wife of TiiEODoiuc Munot ) upon Frederick the Great , called liund i

      Bern Sans Souc , which Caklyle is not very likely to consult for his delineation of the Military Poetaster . Can you not anticipate the scorn with which Carlyle will dismiss the ambitious mediocrity of Frederick ' s verses—he who is tolerant of no man ' s verse ? and it must be confessed that Frederick ' s poem was the " Seven Years' war , " not the French verses he composed to captivate Voltaire . One may apply to him the pleasant lines of Mo Li ere , — " Je 1 c tiens galant lioinmc en toutcs les manieres llominc do qualite , de merite , et do eu > ur , Tout ce qu'il vouh plaira , inais fort mediant auteur . " What strange passion is it that thus seizes conquerors as well as coblers , deluding them into the belief that they are poets ? Are poets , then , really such happy , godlike beings , that , as Goethe pathetically notes , no man is content to be a shoemaker , every man insists on being a poet . " Nicnmiid will ein Schuster _seyn Jcderiuun _oin Diehter !" or do they simply want the golden crown without the victorious agony which wins it—the song without the suffering—the splendour of success without the gloomy shadows of neglect ? Even so . It i . s not the poetic nature , but the poet ' s reward they desire . They would not at all appreciate the noble pride ; so finely expressed in _Hornio ' h Orion ( we go on heaping quotation on quotation , us is our wont wlien once we begin , abstinence being so much easier than temperance ; and perhaps across the far seas Horn re will feel this extended hand of friendship , —for is not quotation , so to speak , a literary slinking hands ?) " Tho poet of tho future knows his place , Though in tho present shady bo his neat , And all his laurels deepening but the shade . "

      We Have Somewhat Neglected German Litera...

      CEAKLES _MATHEWS AND THE _FEEJSfCH _DRAMAMSTfe . Letter from Mr . Charles Mathews to the . Dramatic Authors of _France . Translated from himself by himself as a specimen of " Fair Imitation or Adaptation" accord ing to the terms of the International Copyright Convention . John Mitchell " Those who have seen our best of comedians in one of his gay , easy , offhand characters , making effrontery charming by the good-humoured elegance of his manner , and the imperturbable not-to-be-beaten readiness of his wit , will recognise him in this * extremely amusing Letter to the Dramatic Authors of France . We shall require so much of our space for extract , that we must abstain from . criticism . It was originally written in French , and in that form receives the critical admiration of Jules J & _nin , a competent authority in matters of wit and style ! The French is reprinted here with a translation done by Charles Mathews— " by himself from himself as a specimen of fair imitation . " See how he makes his bow : — " Gentlemen , —I am a weasel . Don't be astonished , I am telling you the simple truth ;—a guilty but repentant weasel , who comes to compliment you on your having succeeded at length in putting a ring through his nose . Yes , gentlemen , you see before you ) one of the dramatic weasels of the ' Perfide Albion , ' who have so long sucked the eggs of your Gallic nightingales , and I am here to offer you my congratulations on your having at last asserted your rights in the British dominions . I congratulate you with all the sincerity of the old fox who declares himself delighted when he hears that his bosom friends the geese have at last been clapped safelunder iron At the moment when I longer steal

      y coop . impunity , am I seized with an irresistible desire to become honest . I have robbed you , plundered you , disfigured you , maimed you , assassinated you ; _t admit it all ; and the love of virtue only enters my head at the very foot of the gallows—a kind of repentance by no means uncommon in this wicked world . " Seriously , gentlemen , I am the manager of an English theatre , and I throw myself at your feet to implore your forgiveness and ask your advice . Manager , did I say ! more : manager-author-actor . Manager of the Lyceum , author of several of your pieces , actor of all the good parts I can get . I know too well the odious light in which this triple character , this tria juncta in uno , is looked upon by the single-nibbed professors of the dramatic art , and I am very sorry- ; but what can I do ? Here I am like Cerberus , ' three gentlemen at once , ' and I can't help it . I have consequently a triple task to perform—first , to write your pieces ; secondly , to accept them ; thirdly , to act them . Nay , I beg pardon , there ' s a fourth I had nearly forgotten—I've also to pay the piper and run the risk . Thus , you see it is clear that I have a three or four-fold interest in the new Dramatic Convention , and if you ' ll only grant me a quarter-of-an-bour , I should like to talk it over with you in a friendly manner , and point out one or two difficulties I foresee in the way of its execution . " He then proceeds to enumerate the twenty-three theatres of I / ondon , giving the prices of admission ( a table not without its interest ) , and then examines these theatres seriatim to see what chance there is of French plays being serviceable to them . We cannot extract the whole , but here are some amusing passages : — " Drury Lane , the other ex-national house , is , alas ! more like an omnibus than a theatre , a huge omnibus running short stages at a very low price , but with plenty of noise , changing its coachman every other day , and in order to entice the mob , ( though without succeeding in the attempt ) printing the slang of the cads upon the way-bill . Authors have but little to hope for here . The present manager , poetlibrettist , dreams of nothing but English operas , marble halls , and ballets . Drop a tear , gentlemen , and pass on in silence . It is the mausoleum of ShaJcspeare .

      • 7 _T "A * * R" * Jv" "W * * TV" * S " " The Victoria is a model house , the type of a school to which it gives its name . It is the incarnation of tho English ' domestic drama , ' or rather of the drama of English domestics . There you will always find the truest pictures of virtue in rags , and vice in fine linen . There flourish the choicest specimens of all the crimes that mnkc life hideous—robbery , rape , murder , suicide . It is a country abounding in grand combats of four—a region peopled with angelic maid _serva _' nts , comic house-breakers , heroic sailors , tyrannical masters , poetical clodhoppers , and diabolical barons . The lower orders rush there in mobs , and in . shirt sleeves , applaud frantically , drink ginger beer , munch apples , crack nuts , call the actors byi their Christian iiiiinesand throw them leel und jIbwajyof _hnuqiiutwFl ?

      , orange > : n >>< _- « y - y , g _«« _tlcincn , this i . s no place fbr you , —you are only known here as frog-eating foreigners , whose armies arc easily put to the rout by a couple of stage tars and a heroine with a , horse pistol . There ' s not the ghost of a chance for you . They live upon roaHt beef and plum pudding , and abominate French kickshaws . " The Marylebone and ( ho City Theatres are- thus characterized : — " Though more in the country , it in not on that account more simple in its tastes . Tho gentle shepherds of ' Portman Market have no love for tho Idylls of Gessner , nor for the pastoral idealities of Georges Sand . They prefer Belling mutton to tending sheep , and Kobin _Iloughhead lias no notion of paying his money to look at himself . Why should he P lie can do that all day long , and has enough ol it , as well as of shepherdesses mid lambkins . He must have powerful excitement of an evening— -assassins , wolves , tigers , by way of change . His object is to got away from himself Ho csui't _indulge his taste- for bull fights without going to Madrid , and tho state of his exchequer forbids that , so lie is obliged to bo satisfied with the playhouse us the nearest approach to his favourite- amusement , and ol course , the more brutal and ferocious the exhibition , and the more his _horseluughter is excited , the happier ho goes away . Neither M . Scribe nor M . Alfred do Mussot would be able to tickle his fancy at any juice . ' Un verre il ' ean , ' would be literally ' a _^ luss of wafer' to him , a thing lie never wishes to touch an long as h pot of beer is to ho had for money ; and if you were to give him a translation of ' ftfaid (/ u ' _tiiif ! forte , soil ouverle on fermcc' it would merely amount in his eyes to the self-evident truism that ' a door must be either open or shut , ' and his advico ' to the _nmnagcr would be to shut it if ho had nothing better than that to ninuHO him with . " Wo will now turn to the ci ( y . "At tho head of the theatres them is Sadler ' s Wolls ( No . 17 ) , and u vory different _, place it is from any we lmvo yet spoken of . The classical , tho stately , tho stilted , banished from its natural homo , finds _rofugo within its walls . The National drama has retired hvrv , as to a _ivalering place , for the benf \ flt of its health . Th «

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 31, 1852, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31071852/page/16/