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Leader (1850-1860), 20th July 1850, Edition Town of 1, Page 403, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      whereas Racine is great among the greatest , and in the one quality most prized in Shakspeare—masteryover passion—he ranks next to Shakspeare . A pauper unpoetical language , and the peculiar impress of the Court taste of Louis XIV ., may be drawbacks to our English appreciation of those works ; but whoever can pierce through the outer trappings and accidents of time to the inner spirit animating a work ( and this he must do with all ancient works ) , will recognise in the plays of Racine that mastery over elemental passion , and that felicity of style which keep works eternally young , preserving their freshness through all the changes of centuries , carrying with them the same charm to-day they had two hundred years ago .

      We will touch upon a single point . It is frequently asserted that the greatest superiority of Shakspeare lies in his wonderful discrimination of character—his power of individualizing types . Racine nowhere exhibits the like prodigality , but he exhibits the like power . Shakspeare ' s fools , dotards , and villains all belong to a class , yet each is individual . " Iago , " " Richard III ., " and " Edmund " are three cold , subtle , intellectual villains ; yet no one ever confounds them with each other ; the same language could not indifferently be awarded them . This is not the case in Calderon ' s plays . His types

      are iterated with scarcely a variation ; in JEl Pintor de su Deshonra , in A segreto Agravio segreto Venganza , and in El Medico de su Jwnra , it is impossible to discriminate the characters of the three wronged and avenging husbands . But in Racine we see the subtle discrimination and power of individualizing critics noted in Shakspeare . He has paintedin " Hermione , " " Roxane , " and " Phedre , " three women in love and rejected , jealous of their fortunate rivals , and carried away by their headlong fury to the destruction of their lovers and themselves ; and yet so delicately and firmly are these characters discriminated , so manifestly

      different are their individualities , that no one ever thought of confounding them—nay , we doubt whether the fact has even been observed ot their being so similarly situated . The rage of the wronged Hermione is not the imperial anger of the wronged Roxane ; the slight variation in the circumstance , viz ., that Roxane has ingratitude as well as indifference to punish , is very properly suffered to operate a material variation in the feeling . Moreover , the scorn of Hermione , Phedre , and Roxane , though so similar in position , is so various in expression , as to become the utterance of three distinct minds :

      Hermione is innocent and despised , Phedre is guilty and despised , Roxane is guilty and despised , but does not acknowledge her guilt . O snubbed but much respected reader ! if you have suffered your naturally keen intellec t ( it is keen , is it not ?) to be dazzled by the fireworks of criticism which that adroit showman Augustus Schlegel has let off , and which , when the smoke and light have passed away , will be found to leave a poor residuum of blackened paper—if , we say , you have been bamboozled by that archimagus , it will greatly astonish you to see Racine thus elevated above Calderon , who

      is so Shaksperian ! " Nevertheless , we are very serious . Calderon has been familiar to us for some dozen years , and we began the acquaintance with every prepossession in his favour—for why should we not confess that we , too , were bamboozled by Schlegel , until experience had opened our eyes ? But the result has been uniformly this : —Extended knowledge and reflection have proportionally lowered our estimate of Ualderon and exalted that of Racine . Take up the Andromaque for yourself and read it . You may not , perhaps , taste the flavour of its verse : that requires far deeper feeling of the language than

      is generally supposed ; it is not enough to understand the meaning of poetry , you must also feel its music . But making all allowances , and assuming even that the poetry is " so French" and frigid , look at the dramatic power displayed in that piece . It has no incidents , you say ? No , not one . " Business" was unknown to , or despised by , the French tragic writers : they never thought of stage tact , they thought only of emotion . If they could fill five acts with the development and fluctuations of a passion , they had achieved their aim ; and this Racine has achieved in Andromaque . the " construction" of

      which , if looked at with eyes capable of perceiving essentials , is surpassingly fine : the progress and movement of the story , the truth and fluctuations of passion , the culmination of interest , and the widegathering sweep of the denouement , indicate the thought of a consummate artist . Could actors be ound capable of adequately representing this traedy it would be one of the grandest sights in the world . Oreste was a great part of Talma ' s ; and when he played it the piece was subordinate to

      him as it now is to Rachel ; but Andromaque is almost as fine a part as Hermione , and needs a groat actress : here , then , throe first-rate actors arc required , and we are fortunate if we can get one ! Rachel has played better than she did on Monday ; but her worst is worth a journey to see . There were several passages which seemed to us wide of the meaning ; but , inasmuch as we do not remember her to have delivered them so on former occasions , we would fain believe ill health had something to do

      with it . Her last act ' was much feebler than usualbut , observe ! the feebleness of a Rachel ! Had any other actress played in that style we should have pronounced it great . Her finest scenes were the two interviews with " Andromaque" and " Pyrrhus" in the third and fourth acts . In the former her withering sarcasm—so calm , so polished , so implacablewas beyond all description and above all praise ; in the second she showed what an incomparable actress she is when passion , scorn , grief , and defiance are called forth . In her eyes charged with lightnings , in her thin convulsive frame , in the broken spasms of her voice as it changes from melodious clearness to a hoarsness that makes one shudder , in the grace , the fire , the fury , and the terror of that scene , she reminded us of a panther , beautiful yet terrible ! How true and touching her uttrance of the lines : — " MalgTfi la juste horreur que son crime me donne Tant qu'il vivra craignez que je ne lui pardonne . Doutez jusqu ' a sa mort d ' un courroux . incertain : S'il ne tneurt aujourdhui , jepuis Vaimer demain . " In that last line she crowded a world of unutterable sadness and a secret wish amidst it all de Vaimer demain . And , in describing how she herself will avenge the insult to her beauty by slaying " Pyrrhus , " the audience wa 9 roused to transport by this line : — " Je percerai le coeur queje n ' aipu toucher ?" which was uitered with a wail so low , so musical , piercing down into the very depths of pathos , that it rung in our ears for an hour afterwards . The whole scene , as we said before , was a triumph of passion rising into that grand culmination of jealous rage when she bids him hasten to his " Troyenne "" Va , cours ; mais crains encore d ' y trouver Hermione . "

      Untitled Article

      Mrs . Glover took her farewell benefit last week , but too late in the week for us to chronicle it ; and now we have to chronicle not merely that farewell but a more solemn farewell from the stage of IAfe , whereon hers was an arduous part . On Friday night an affecting triumph—gathering into a tumult of applause , the accumulated admiration of years—and on the following Tuesday all was darkness ! Her loss will be felt in our impoverished dramatic world , for to the last she retained one quality which belongs to all fine actors , but which now becomes rarer and

      rarer—that , namely , of modulated elocution , which by its varied intonations gives the play of li ghts and shades of meaning , and constitutes the one charm of recitation . It is in this quality that Rachel excels all living actresses . Now Mrs . Glover is gone , there is but Ellen Kean whom we could name as thoroughly mistress of the music and the meaning which lie hidden in fine poetry . Mrs . Glover had more gusto and less manner than Ellen ; but she wanted the pathos and caressing tenderness—the tears in the voice—which give to Ellen the undisputed empire of our stage .

      Upera Houses nas oeen any novelty of interest . The " Black Malibran " turned out to be a very black Malibran , whom all the force of puff preliminary could not make the public accept . Gardoni has appeared in the Puritani , but is not equal to it . At Covent Garden the Prophete continues its success . Viardot is a Mater Dolorosa , whose pathos , truth , and intensity we are never wearied of ; and Mario looks handsomer and sings with greater energy than ever .

      Untitled Article

      DESTRUCTIVE FIRES . It is melancholy to think how much property is yearly consumed in England by fire , how many lives too are lost by it . A man can scarcely say when he goes to bed that he shall not be burned out of it . We rely on the kindness of our fellow-creatures , on their soundness of mind , and on their memory . We

      have a trust that the foolish light-hearted youth that has been showing himself careless of everything appertaining to property or his own life during the day shall at night , with great care , put his candle out . We have trust in the memory of the servant girl who goes a message and forgets all that has been said to her , and we believe that she will put out her candle ; we have trust in the action of coals , and are certain

      that they will never extend their burning heat fur beyond the grate . Now , much as we value faith , we cannot help thinking that this is going a little too far . Would it not bo better were we to trust only to certainty ? A house on fire is a painful spectacle , there is no good done to any one ; the main result is , that the fruit of long accumulated labour suddenly becomes annihilated . It is time that science were

      devising some mode of living securely , and having a fireproof house without all the encumbrances of present fireproof-building . The substances used for building in the interior part of a house are very combustible ; there is a great deal of wood , the furniture also is combustible , and when a fire begins , there is no hope of having it put out . A plan was lately devised of saturating the wood with , silicate of potash , a soluble glass , as it is called , but this would not do ,

      it became a mere powder , and fell down , it was like mixing sand and wood , there was no reason why the wood should not burn , although it was impeded considerably by the sand or silicate . Another plan proposed consisted in saturating the wood with sulphate of iron ; this does very well , and we see no reason why it should not be used . The saturation is effected by means of putting the wood in a boiler , exhausting the air by an air-pump , and allowing then the entrance of the solution . A third plan , which answers well , is the saturation of the wood with different

      sulphate of ammonia . The theory of this is from that of any of the others . The sulphate by being heated , is decomposed , ammonia comes off , and nitrogen along with a little water and sulphurous acid . These gases act as fire quenchers , preventing air from coming to the wood , by surrounding the wood with an atmosphere of incombustible gases . When these gases escape sulphuric acid remains , and this is of all things the most perfect destroyer of fire . This plan has also many advantages , although it seems to have one evil , that if left wet it encourages mould , which , however , is destroyed by the use of a metallic salt .

      But , perhaps , it will be unnecessary to _ adopt any of those methods as long as chloride of zinc can be used , a substance which prevents fire and decomposition at the same time . When we think that a ship may be so built that it cannot take fire , that a fire made on the deck itself will not enflame it , that the shavings taken from the wood will not burn , and that hay and straw itself will not burn in union with these substances , we cannot help feeling surprised that we should have warehouses built of combustible

      wood , and ships liable to burn out the passengers with a few minutes' notice . We have insurance companies feeding on our misfortunes , and we take no heed whatever to the inventions made . And yet we must be excused , there are so many inventions we find it impossible to make use of them all . This matter , however , should be a first necessity among architects and builders ; but builders do not want security , it is to their interest , under the present system , that buildings should not last long . If a warehouse were fireproof a man might leave his goods and be assured that he would not be a beggar in the morning , even although he did not spend large sums on insuring .

      It is even now within the power of art to plan matters so that the emigrant may retire to rest without fear , even although his neighbour should not be able to resist the self-indulgence of a pipe of tobacco . And it is also possible to prevent the man-of-war from taking fire even although a redhot bullet be planted on its deck . At present we are a prey to the merest accidents ; we play a kind of game of chance with the destructive fire , and we pay to keep off the evil , or to provide against loss , but there is no pay for the suffocated children in the nursery , or the mangled bodies of those who have jumped from the housetops to escape a more painful death , and for the painful fate of those who , to avoid the horrors of a death by fire , have saved themselves from it by the awful alternative of drowning . .

      There have been modes devised of putting out fire : none are perfect . Water , as it is used , does little good . A warehouse with a hundred thousand pounds ' worth of cotton , linen , and silk , takes fire and burns down in a hour . The amount of heat in such a rapid combustion is really too great to calculate , it must be such as to dissipate enormous quantities of water . Water poured on a house on fire , when it is of such dimensions as this , is a mere mockery . The utmost that can be done is to prevent the next house from

      burning . A simple jet of water , such as a man can hold , ought now to be superseded by something more substantial . A little river is wanted to put out such flames as occur . Firemen expose their lives , and all their gain is praise in the newspapers for what has done good to no creature whatever ; the fire has consumed everything . Carbonic acid has been proposed ; nothing puts out fire better than this , but it is difficult to know how to apply it , and it is troublesome to get ready . If houses could be built with tight-fitting covers to the windows , it might be managed even without carbonic acid—the air could be all excluded . This

      might be done in some cases , but it would not be a general convenience . The so-called Fire Annihilator can put out large fires by using sudden discharges of incombustible gases ; but this , also , is a thing not to be relied on , as the substances used are not likely to protect the property around it , being themselves combustible and destructive , and difficult to manage on a great scale . The bust mode must certainly be first prevention . This does appear the easiest of all . Next , the

      cure by the use of water , which is an innocent substance , which might bo ao managed as to be at hand readily , and can bo got cheaply . When water is supplied on high pressure and in great abundance , every house can be supplied with a safeguard against fire ; and when houses and ships shall bo built with fireproof materials , fire shall cease to bo an evil which can be numbered among human calamities . This we hope to see growing rapidly more and more popularly interesting ,

      Untitled Article

      July 20 , 1850 . ] ®! J * ^ LtatteV * 403

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), July 20, 1850, page 403, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1847/page/19/