Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 30th November 1850, Edition Town of 1, Page 859, Untitled Article

Page 859
Page 19
19 of 24

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • ^ t < T\ X. (8bJT t jUXtB* ^ m
  • Text (5)
  • Transcript

    • 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.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      Ions ostentation : content to labour in the difficult attempt of translating , and not make themselves ridiculous by this trash of annotation . Far greater scholarship and far greater sense than Mr . B urges has shown would not absolve the intrusion of emendations in such a place ; but to have the intrusion , and to have it contemptible in quality , is more than the most forgiving can forgive .

      Untitled Article

      BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Cicero ' s Three Books of Offices , or Moral Duties , $ c . Literally translated by Cyrus 11 . Edmonds . ( Bohn ' s Classical library ) . H . G . Bohn . This is an example of what prose translations should be . It is accurate , yet not servile ; and the notes are really valuable , being not only explanatory but also illustrative , taken as they are from the writings of moderns— -some of them lying out of the common track of reading . If Mr . Bohn compares the obvious utility and entertainment of these notes with the vexatious inutility of those to his third volume of Plato , he will see at once which of his editors understands the

      real office . The present volume contains the treatise "De Officiis , " a commonplace affair indeed , but with some fine passages , and always interesting as expressive of Roman views of life—the " Cato Major , " an Essay on Old Age , very nobly written—*• Lteuus , " an Essay on Friendship— the " Paradoxes "— " Scipio ' s Dream "and the Letter to Quintus " On the Duties of a Magistrate . " A bust of Cicero is prefixed . The Odes and Epodes of Horace . Translated Literally and Uhythinically . By W . Sewell , B . D ., Fellow and Subrector of Exeter College , Oxford . H . G . Bohn . Of all the translations of Horace we hare yet seen this is incomparably the best , for , without aiming at adequate

      transfusion of the Roman elegance into English verse , it is more accurate than any other , and often more felicitous from its accuracy . Useful as a " crib , " it is also poetical . Mr . Sewell justly insists on the indispensable quality of word for word accuracy , which is the first thing to be secured ; having secured that he also justly insists upon the accuracy being of a higher kind than mere dictionary exactness , and demands that it shall be poetical—a translation of the spirit as well as of the letter . Success in the first department is within reach ; but perfect success in the second is impossible : all we can demand is an approximative success , and this Mr . Sewell has achieved . We will give but one specimen . In the ode to Pyrrha , Horace

      asks" Cui flavatn rehgas comam Simplex munditiis ;" which Francis translates" Pyrrha , Avhose unwary heart Do you , thus dressed with careless art . Your yellow tre * se 3 bind ? " —a weak evasion of the original . Milton , with stiff literalness , thus : — " For whom bindestthou In wreaths thy golden hair . Plain in thy neatness ? " Leigh Hunt , with freer movement , escaping literalness : — " For whom are bound thy tresses l > right With unconcern most exquisite 1 "

      Of these versions Milton ' s only grasps the words of the original , and yet he lets the spirit escape . Mr . Sewell ' s hits both points : — " For whose pleasure art thou binding Back thy flowing locks of gold . Artless in graceful niceties 1 " The difficult phrase simplex munditiis seems to us felicitously given in that " artless in graceful niceties . " To the student this version of Horace is warmly recommended . Discourse on the Method of rightly conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences . By Deacartes . Translated from the Frenchwith an Introduction .

      , Sutherland and Knox , This fascinating Discourse on Method ^ which formed an epoch in the history of philosophy , and which would lure any one into the study if nothing elBe would , is well translated , and prefaced by a thoughtful introduction , which will fitly prepare the student for the Discourse itself . We envy the youth who has now to read it for the first time . Scripture Lands ; described in a series of Historical , Geographical , and Topographical Sketches . By John Kitto , D . D .

      This volume of Mr . Bohn ' s illustrated library arose in the following manner . An Atlas of Biblical Maps was to be published , and Dr . Kitto was applied to furnish a memoir to accompany the maps . It grew under his hands into this rich volume of geography , wherein all that modern research has brought to light is systematically arranged . It is profusely illustrated with woodcuts , four-and-twenty maps are comprized in the Atlas ; and a copious index is affixed . On a future occasion we shall enter more into detail respecting the execution of this work j our present note is merely to indicate its nature . Thu Revolution which Began in Heaven ; or , Ccelo-Tarlaro-Terro . A Dramatic Vision of Time . Front the 4 a » o / the Jlngcls to the Redemption of Man . By H . Lucas . Watson . This is a work which contains many useful views , occasionally well put , but intermixed with much not m good taste . The language often wants the dignity befitting the assumed speakers .

      Untitled Article

      THE DUCHESS OF MALFI . Among the pardonable errors of my youth , I count the belief that our old English Dramatists -were worthy of study as men of true dramatic genius . Pardonable , I say , because I was lured into it by a reverential regard felt for Xiamb , Hazlitt , and others , as fine critics , and by the unmistakeable beauties of the scenes and passages they quoted . My days and nights were given to Marlowe , Deckar , Webster , Marston , Kyd , Greene , Peele , and the illustrious obscure in Dodsley . Enthusiasm , however , was tamed bv the irresistible mediocrity of these plays : no

      belief in their excellence could long stand up against the evidence of their dreariness and foolishness . I underlined fine passages ; copied apophthegms and beauties into various note-books ; wrote foolish articles in magazines expressive of my admiration : but the thing could not last , and I silently gave up my former idols to the scorn of whoso pleased to vilify them . Looking backwards to the days of Lamb — especially bearing in mind his peculiar idiosyncracies—the admiration he felt , and tried to

      inspire others with , is perfectly intelligible ; but , as I said some months ago in these columns , the resuscitation of those dramatists has been a fatal obstruction to the progress of the drama , and has misled many a brave and generous talent . It has fostered the tendency and flattered the weakness of poets , by encouraging them to believe that mere writing suffices for a drama—that imagery will supply the place of incidents , and that tragic intentions which boldly appeal to the imagination , are enough .

      Nothing was needed to burst this bubble but the actual revival of a play or two upon the modern stage . Marston ' s Malcontent was rudely tried at the Olympic ; and now The Duchess of Malfi , by John Webster , the most admired of the company excepting Marlowe , has been elaborately prepared by It . H . Home , and produced at Sadler ' s Wells with all the care and picturesqueness for which that theatre is known . I have read that plav four times , but ,

      although Home has greatly lessened its absurdities , I never felt them so vividly until it was anted before my eyes . He has made it less tedious and less childish in its horrors , but the irredeemable mediocrity of its dramatic evolution of human passion is unmistakeable . The noble lines of manly verse which charm the reader fail to arrest the spectator , who is alternating between impressions of the wearisome and the ludicrous .

      Consider it under what aspect you will , short of a commonplace book of " passages , " The Dtichess of Malf , is a feeble and a foolish work . I say this fully aware of the authorities against me—fully aware of the passages" which may be quoted as specimenbricks . Other critics have declaimed against its accumulation of horrors ; to my mind that is not the greatest defect . Instead of " holding the mirror up to nature , " this drama holds the mirror up to Madame Tussaud's , and emulates her l < chamber of horrors "; but the " worst remains behind , " and that is the motiveless and false exhibition of human nature . Take the story . The young Duchess of

      dramatist , Webster and company are not dramatists at all ; and nothing exalts him more than to measure him by his contemporaries . Despising probabilities , disregarding all conditions of art , and falsifying human nature , The Duchess of Malfi is , nevertheless , an attractive play to that audience . As a terrific melodrame , it delights the pit . It was , therefore , not a bad speculation to produce this adaptation , which , let me say once for all , must have cost Home more labour than he will gain credit for . As a poet , Home is known to wield

      •« Marlowe ' s mighty line " like a kindred spirit , in these additions to Webster we defy the nicest critic to detect the old from the new ; unless you have the two books side by side , you cannot tell whether you are reading Webster or Horne . But he would write a better play himself , and his labour would better be employed . Why waste his faculties in the hopeless task of making falsehood l ook like truth ? Cosmo de Medici , impracticable though it be , is worth any amount of Webster .

      The acting of this play reflects credit on the theatre . Miss Glyn was better than we have yet seen her ; but this intelligent actress will never achieve the position she aspires to , unless she make a radical change in her style , and throw aside the affectations and conventions she has acquired . Her elocution is vicious .- She chaunts instead of speaking , and her chaunt is unmusical . Instead of taking the rhythm from the verse , the accent from the sense , she puts one monotonous rhythm upon the verse , and lets the accent obey the impetus of the chaunt , as if the voice mastered her , instead of her mastering the voice . Once or twice , when she spoke naturally , it was quite

      charming ; and her grand burst of despair , in the fourth act , though injured by this very defect of chaunting , had so much force and fury in it , that the house shook with plaudits . The comedy of the early scenes was hard , forced , and stagey . In making love to her steward she wanted tenderness , grace , and coyness . On the whole , however , one may say that , except Helen Faucit , no English actress could have played the part so well . Phelps was ill at ease in the first four acts , as if the nonsense of his part baffled him , and he could not grasp it ; towards the close of the fourth act , however , he made a clutch at it , and his madness in the fifth act was terribly real . George Bennett , in Bossola , was suited to a nicety .

      Having delivered myself of all critical indignation against former idols—there are no iconoclasts like your converts !—I will quote the greater part of the Prologue which Horne has prefixed to his adaptation : — " To those whose hopes are greyer than the Age , And have no strength to turn another page;—To those who contemplate the moving skies , Yet see no promise in their auguries ;—To those who think a downward rolling etonc Must reach the bottom—and so , help it down ;—To those who see the round of human things , Like the mill-horse whenever dreams of wings , All great designs advancing to a goal , Fill them with doubts that paralyze the soul t The poet ' s fiery Pegasus appears Madness—to them his wings are but long ears ; And , for the disbeliever in a cause , There arc no signs and tokens , reasons , laws ; His facts and figures prove all eagles , daws . *• Arise —advance—or must we groan and sigh In old arm-chairs , while all the rest steam by ! All else progressing—drove , and shoal , and flock , Shall we remain—an old shell on a rock , And the great elements of human passion Succumb to foreign tastes—to farce and fashion 1 Shall we be told that , in a barbarous age , The mirror held to nature ' s face and page Was a gross taste , for which we are too sage ? No : let us rather say our Drama stands On lasting truths , and not on shifting gands . « ' Now do we see—through laurels not yot won—Two paths of light , each leading to the sun : — The first , our ancient Drama , rough and great , Highly in passion , full of strength and weight ; Our fathers' these , founded so deep in nature , So absolute in each essential feature . That no emasculated forms can take The second place—they ' re of a different make—An ancient giant to a modern rake ! Wherefore the only second path appears For those who can uplift their fathers' spears—Whirl them on high—strike home , nnd take their place , The true legitimate sons of that great race 1 " In our frcfih period , vigorous life requires More solid food for its exalting fires ; Great passions—doings—sufferings , great hopes still , To urge ue up the steep and thorny hill , Where genius , science , liberty , combined . Give lasting empire to the advancing mind . Wherefore , to-night , wo bring the aspiring themes Of great , old Webster—clad in whose atrong beams We venture forth on the uplifted sea Of his invention ' s high-wrought poesy , Steering to reach the storm-runt beacon tower , Trusting his hand—and with full faith iu power . " In roply , I have no hesitation in recording my preference for the modern rake to that ancient giant , if only because he is , at any rate , a human being . Vivian ,

      Malfi loves her steward , tells him so , and privately marries him . Her brothers Ferdinand and the Cardinal , caring only for the nobility of their lineage , wish to marry her to Prince Malatestc ; and , on hearing how she has disgraced herself , resolve to kill her . But death , simply as death , is no fit punishment for such a crime . Thej r prepare , therefore , a waxen image ( anticipating Madame Tussaud ) of Antonio , her husband , which is shown to her as his corpse ; they fill her palace with mad j > eople , whose howlings are to madden her ; and , having wrought upon her till they think despair can hold out no

      longer , they bring in the executioners and strangle her . No sooner is she dead than Ferdinand , who planned it all , turns suddenly remorseful—as villains do in the last scenes of melodramas—and in the fifth act he goes raving mad . Now , firstly , the horrors are childish , because they grow out of no proper ground . They are not the culmination of tragic motives . The insulted pride of Ferdinand might demand as reparation the life of his sister , and there is a real tragic position in the third act , whore he places

      the poinard in her hand and bids her die . But playing these fantastic tricks to bring her to despair is mere madness . How ludicrously absurd in this Ferdinand—who has never given a hint of any love for his sister , any sorrow for her shame , any reluctance in perpetrating these cruelties—to bo suddenly lachrymose and repentant as soon as she is dead This is not the work of a dramatist ; it is clumsy ignorance . The Duchess of Malfi is a nightmare , not a tratredv .

      1 might go through , wor « , ana poiiu ; m almost every scene evidences of a similar incapacity for high dramatic art ; but to what purpose r Every year plays are published by misguided young gentlemen exhibiting this kind of incapacity , and friendly critics have no greater compliment than to declare that the mantle of the Elizabethan dramatists has fallen upon Mr . Jones . " If Sliakspeare is a great

      Untitled Article

      The Guards and the Line . By Lieutenant-Colonel Hort . * J . A . Darling Game Birds and Wild Fowl By A . E . Knox , M . A ., F . L . S . Van Voorst Regeneration . A Poem , in six books . By George Marsland . W . Pickering A Paper Lantern for Puteyilet , By WiU-o' - the-Wisp . Smith and Elder The Jicasoncr . Part 48 , J . Watson

      ^ T &Lt; T\ X. (8bjt T Juxtb* ^ M

      ?

      Untitled Article

      Nov . 30 , 1850 . ] Htftt ZLeattet . 859

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 30, 1850, page 859, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1861/page/19/