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    tlfe ^ ottto&fca that startle us in his poetrv , arise from a Mephistophelean w ! £ a i&nmendef Geist , rather than from humour which affirms all that is 3 teW instead of denying i ^ and is , m fact , an exuberant sym-Slft ^ acHng in company with a sense of the ludicrous , while , wit is the critical intent acting in company with that same sense . Nevertheless , it tubs * I * admitted Hat there are many passages of Sterne-like humour in Heine &a& hereinhe is least akin to the French , and most nearly allied to the broader and deeper German nature , which atones for the want of esprtt by something which esprit will never supersede—loving earnestness . But it Mt tone to / turn from such rambling remarks to the object that sugjrested them—namely , the translation of Heine ' s Reisebilder , by a very gifted American .: O £ ISeine , Wre even than the majority of poets , we must say that £ e is ^ tr ^ l ^ bl y felicitous . Many of his lyrics are mere gossamer ¦ wjjfes—touch them , try to transfer them , and all their qualities disappear . Heacev when we praise Mr . Iceland ' s translation—and we do so very sineerely—we most not be understood to mean that it will give the English reader a true conception of Heine ' s genius . Mr . Leland has that grand requisite of * translator , rigorous faithfulness ; he has also poetical sensibijky , command of language , and an evidently acute perception of wit ; in shfert , he " sfeoOs Heine ' s poems perhaps as little as it is possible to spoil them in a translation . This may not seem to be high praise , but we firmly believe ifis'&e" very behest praise that can ever be given to a translation of Heine s poems , and we recommend the reader who is hopeless of knowing these poems in the original to make his acquaintance with them through Mr . Iieiand ' s version . He , of course , succeeds best in the poems which are legendary and ballad-like rather than purely lyrical . We give one of these , wlicli baa again and again made the blood creep in our veins as we have r <| ad It , j—J ; The pale half-moon is floating . ^ " lake a boat ' mid cloudy waves , Lone lies the pastor ' s cottage ^ " Ainid the sUent ^ raves . o , y . The mother reads in . the Bible , * . . The son seems weary and weak ; .. . The eldest daughter is drowsy , s , i . ¦ ¦ While the youngest begins to speak . , > - - -- ¦•¦ " All me!—how every minute - ' ¦ > '" , ¦ ¦ ' ¦• -- ¦ •' . Bolls by so drearily ; '; Only when some one is buried , ¦ > Have we anything here to see !" The mother murmured while reading , . " Thou ' rt wrong—they ' ve brought but four % Since thy poor father was buried Out there by the churchyard door . " The eldest daughter says , gaping , , ' " No more will I hunger by you ; 111 go to the Baron , to-morrow , He ' s wealthy , and fond of me too . " The son bursts out into laughter , " Three hunters carouse in the Sun ; They all can make gold , and gladly Will show me how it is done . " The mother holds the Bible To his pale face in grief ; " And wilt thou—wicked fellow—Become a highway . thief ?" r . - • A rapping is heard on the window , ,- -. : . There trembles a warning hand ; , > :. Without , in his black , church garments , v ; . . . They see their dead father stand . v , The following is a very happy specimen of translation ; it is easy and musical as an . original :- — ti- > ,- „ ' ¦¦ ;¦ ¦ •' .. ' ... ;¦' ¦ I know not-what sorrow is o'er mo , What spell is upon my heart 5 I .., , But a tale of old times is before me —• i . .. , ....,.. , A . legend that will not depart . v ¦ ¦ ' -Night falls as X linger , dreaming , ] .. , And calmly flows the Rhine ; i , . : The peaks of the hills are gloaming ~ . ; . i ¦ ,,,,. .. > In the golden sunset ehine . i'i ' , " A wondrous lovely maiden ¦» 1 '• 1 ' Sits high in glory there ; Her robe with gems is laden , ft ; :. > ... 1 .. . , ¦ And ahe combeth her gplden hair . ; ' ¦ ¦ '' ¦ ¦'¦" ¦ ¦ ' ¦ And « he spreads out the golden treasure , < ¦>•" ¦¦' ¦ , ! ' •« . .-i . . : Still singing in harmony ; \ ., - ' ' ; And the Bong hnth a mystical measure , And a wonderful melody . ; ' \ ' The boatman , when once she hath bound him ' ' ¦ v Ifrlost in a wild end lore : Ho adds not the black rooks around him , v i- ci '; tif . ' ;•) JH © flees . but the beauty above' ; TH 1 h « drowns amid mad waves ringing , 7 And rinks with the fading sun ; And that , with her magical ninging , ¦' ¦ ' The witch of the Lurloy hath done . The , next is more injured in the * rondering , but we give it as n specimen < j > f the moat exquisito kind of pathos that Heyic ever attains : — Jn dreams I saw the loved one , A sorrowing , wearied form ; Her beauty blanched and withered . ; By many a dreary storm . y A little babe she carried , ,, ' ' Another child she led , ' ' And poverty and trouble . In glance and garb I read . "¦< ' - ¦ »» . m ¦ , *> ¦ " " ' »> . ¦ ' - \ ¦ , - » . ;_ , «^ - —r-TJ ^^^^' J < l >" —l ' '""" k- ' < lP' ¦ " *»»•*•¦•» - ~ J ,: —«• (•>•* " *¦ " # .-,.. ^ , | . »«¦ ¦ ¦ " «• ' < •¦•¦¦* ¦ ' •• •» - ¦ * ¦<¦¦ - 'f .. . - • ¦¦¦

    -She trembled through the market , And face to face we met ; And I calmly said , while sadly Her eyes on mine were set : " Come to my house , I pray thee , For thou art pale and thin ; And for thee , by my labour , Thy meat and drink I'll win . " And to thy little children ^ k . rJLjbe a father mild : ^ Bnt most of all thy parent , Thou poor unhappy child . " Nor will I ever tell thee That once I held thee dear ; And if thou diest , then 1 Will weep upon thy bier . REED ON ENGLISH LITERATURE . English Literature from Chaitcer to . Tennyson . By Henry Reed . Late Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in Pennsylvania University . ( Excelstor Library . No . II . ) J > F * Shaw ' This is not , as its title seems to indicate , a History of English Literature from Chaucer to Tennyson , but a series * of lectures on English Literature arranged more according to the suggestions of the moment than according to any distinct plan . We cannot greatly commend it , even accepting it for what it is and yet there is a charm in the subject , and a fascination in the abundant citations which brighten the pages , together with evidence of an earnest and cultivated mind on the part of the lecturer , which lure the reader to the end when once be begins . Mr . Reed was neither a thinker nor an accomplished critic ; but he loved his subject , had stored his mind from choice works , and thus in some sort compensated for the absence of power and originality . Not one of these Lectures would find a place m either of our Reviews ; yet the whole volume makes , as we said , a very agreeable relaxation for leisure hours . It is often a matter of regret and surprise that there should be no History of English Literature , or at least of English Poetry . A good history would be indeed very valuable ; but the causes which deprive us Of such a work are not those usually alleged : the English maybe a commercial , not a literary nation—may be indifferent to mere literature and the history thereof—but even granting the truth of such statements , we cannot accept them as indicating the causes of our wanting a History of English Literature ; indeed the slightest acquaintance with the Publishers' Catalogue shows that Authors are by no means solely actuated by the prospect of pecuniary success ; they are ready enough to write and publish works on unsaleable subjects , and read y enough ( far too ready ) to publish unreadable works . The want of a public then cannot be the cause . The cause must lie in the subject . And if we consider what English Literature is we shall have no difficulty in understanding why its'history cannot be adequately written . The immense wealth and variety of our Literature is too much even for the most exhaustive erudition and the most catholic taste . Any one epoch is enough to engage the energies of one man . To bo master of the Literature of the Eighteenth Century is an achievement few can boast ; but to add thereto a thorough knowledge of the Elizabethan Age , and the Age of Chaucer , demands more than the faculty and leisure of omnivorous erudition—it demands a flexibility and comprehensiveness of taste never seen with great special erudition . To admire the Elizabethan Age , the Age of Anne , and the Nineteenth Century—that is to say , not simply to recognise the greatness of the groat writers in each epoch , but thoroughly to sympathise and comprehend the spirit of each epoch , iinplios a catholicity of taste never yet found united with that patient , exhaustive cruditon which is demanded from the historian . Generally the man well read in the Literature of the Eighteenth Century hns no sympathies with the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries ; the black-letter men neglect Pope , have never read Thomson , and ignore Tennyson ; the hearty admirer of Pope , Addison , Swift , Steele , and Johnson is tepid in his love of Drayton , Dbnne , or Cowley , and is intolerant of Tennyson and Carlyle . Hence it seems clear that the reason why we have no History of English Literature is simply that we cannot get the historian . A philosophical survey of our Literature is within mortal powers , and a very interesting work might be made of it . Among the curious phenomena to be noted there would bo the identification of poetic excellence with passionate love of external nature . Mr . Reed has touched this point in his seventh lecture . In proceeding to the literature of the close of the seventeenth century , we approach a period which is marked by great change . Heretofore In the succession of literary eras there had been a continuity of influence , which had not only aorvod to give new strength and develop new resources , but to preserve the power of the antecedent literature unimpaired . The present wbh never unnaturally or disloyally divorced from the post . The author in one generation found discipline for his * genius in reverent and uffoctionato intercourse with groat niindu of other days . Such wah their dutiful spirit of discipline , strengthening but not Hurrondoring their own nativo power—the discipline so much wiaer and eo much mor « richly rewarded in the might it guii )* , than tho aolf-sufficicnt discipline , which , trusting to the pride of originality or tho influences of the day , disclaims tho ministry of time-honoured wisdom . Milton iva * atudioua of Sponsor , and Sponsor was grateful and reverent of Chaucer ; and thuH , ** ago after age gave birth to tl » o groat poctn , they woro bound u cach to oach in natural piety . " But when we come to thoHo who followed Milton , tho golden chain in broken . The next generation of tho poets abandoned the hereditary allcgionco which had heretofore boon cherished bo dutifully , transmitted ho faithfully . It was at this tlmo that the earlier lltcraturo began to fall into neglect , displaced with all its grandouj * and varied power of truth mid beauty , displaced for more tlum a century by an inferior litoraturo , inferior and imptirer , ho that for inoro than » hundred years many of tho ftnont influenced on the lCngllnh mind woro aliuont wholly withdrawn . Indeed , it ia only within tho present century that tho restoration of thoso influences has been accompliuhod . . . . • • • Besides thoir disloyalty to tho great poets who had gone before , tho poots of tuo uow generation were guilty of another nogloct , equally characteristic , and inoro fwtw

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• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 1, 1855, page 844, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2104/page/16/