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    Nicklebf / . "En Angletcrre , Dickens a pu depeindre dans Nicolas Niddehy une exploitation ehontee et cruellc de l ' enfance , comme geneYalemcnt ratjntiee par les direeteury d'institutions secondah'es dans les comtes du nortl si bicn qu ' un do ces directeurs a cru pouvoir attaquer Dickens en diffunation , comme aj'ant represente au naturel son etablissement ct sa bersoniie . " ' M . Barrau would have acted more wisely had he confined him- ' elf to the sphere of his own obsei-vations , and not allowed his national eiudices to misrepresent the institutions and customs of other countries .

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    MB . READE'S POEMS . The Poetical Works of John Edmund lieade . New Edition . In Four Volumes . Longman and Co . From ti me to time , for many years past , Mr . Reade has kept himself before the public by separate poems of almost as varied a description as the plays which the actors in Hamlet are ready , at a moment ' s notice , to represent before Danish Royalty . Epics , dramas , poems of description , ethical poems , odes lyrics , and minor pieces , —all were poured forth with great prodigalityand 1 with not a little confidence on the part of t he author that he was

    , in very truth the poet for whom the age was waiting . The age has perhaps scarcely endorsed that view ; yet Mr . Reade lias many admirers , he has unquestionably written fine things , and it would be ungracious and unfair to treat otherwise than respectfully a man who has devoted his whole life to the cultivation of a noble art , and has applied that art to the illustration of lofty principles . Mr . Reade has now collected all his writings into four handsome small-octavo volumes ; he has , we suppose , given them his final revision ; and they challenge from the reviewer a general estimate of their scope and their intrinsic value . at time to entertain from

    If Mr . Reade were any disposed suggestions us , or to modify his poetical system by adopting the external promptings of ¦ criticism * that time is now clearly past . The appearance of a collected edition of an author ' s works in the author ' s lifetime seems to imply that he has made his peace with posterity as far as in him lies ; has shriven himself of such sins as he acknowledges to have committed , received extreme unction at the hands of all the Muses , muffled his head in his coronet of green bays , and resigned himself to Fate . We shall therefore touch but lightly on what we conceive to be Mr . Reade ' s radical faults as a poet . Even should he write more , his style is fixed ; should this be his last issue , criticism is even vainer still .

    That Mr . Reade possesses an intense devotion to poetry—that he has read much and thought much—that he has a copious command of language —and that he sincerely sympathizes with all forms of beauty- —we readily allow . ; but we are bound to say—and we say it with regret when we consider that to object essentially to the work of a man ' s whole life has always in it something apparently akin to harshness and want of feeling—that we conceive the central principle of his poetry is a mistake . If we are asked to describe that central principle in one word , we answer that it consists of declamation—a quality opposed , as it appears to us , to the highest and truest species of poetry . Declamation surges , rolls , and echoes from page to-page of Mr . Reade ' s volumes . It allows the reader no rest , as it has evidently allowed the author none . AVhethei the latter be writing drama or epic , lyric or description , this fatal tendency to thunder on from period

    to period , like an orator in a forum—to put on veritable singing robes as an alderman puts on a scarlet gown and heavy golden chains on state occasions —to create a cloudy architecture of tropes and figures—to strain thought and language to their utmost tension—to heap up glittering piles of words which tend only to confuse and to oppi'ess—the dangerous habit of always saying too much , and the lamentable inability to leave anything to the virgin delicacy of suggestion , —are but too apparent . We have no ropose ; no deep inner feeling , apparent in the very quietness of its utterance ; no tender flush and etherial painting , such as we find in the really potential artist , who is never stronger than when he is least self-asserting ; no accents tremulous with emotion ; none of the fresh morning dew and . vernal fragrance of poeti'y , such as might issue from the heart of a child endowed with a man ' s powers of expression . Instead of these qualities , we find in

    Mr . Reade considerable eloquence ( an excellent thing in , itself , but more fitted for prose than poetry ) , a perpetual consciousness of the effect to bo produced , with restless efforts to produce it , several fine detached lines and passages , but a lack of simplicity and truth . We believe Mr . Reade has expunged a great deal from this collected edition of his writings . This looks like a generous devotion to his art , a magnanimous wish to leave his poems in the most complete condition that he can put them into by any amount of industry and self-sacrifice . The author has probably spared no pains to leave posterity his debtor ; and , if we express dissont from the result , it is not out of any disrespect to him , nor , indued , out of any want of sympathy with his aspirations and his toils . Ills theory of poetry and ours are at variance in soino important respects ; but we make no claim to pronounce a final judgment , and Mr . Koade may with groat force anil authority appeal to Byron as to n poet of the declamatory school . To that wo might reply by questioning the position of Byron among tho greatest of poets ; but this would bo opening a dangerous door , and wo cannot of

    course here enter into such an argument . The very first stanza of the very first page of this collected edition may be regarded as a complete oxomplar or epitome of what wo believe to be Mr , lioado's excellences and defects—his strength and his weakness . Speaking of Italy , ho says : — If thou wort aught , Timo-huilowod phantom , Musol Save tho creation of immortal mind , Hero throned apart thy temple wouldst thou ohooao : Oil I novor yot ' mid Ida's woods reclined , Parnassian height or Delphic shades enshrined , Was a sublimor , worthier altar thine Than , whom I stand , companion of tho wind , Ctoud-foldad on the atonny Apannino ! There where 1 foul thco linked with Nature ' s life and mine . Tho lines wo havo hero placed in italics nro truly noble—but tho rost of the stanza is doolumatory and diffuse .

    Another of Mr . Reade ' s faults is a tendency to get out depth when wandering about among ' the Infinite' and ' the Eternal / ' the Ineffable ' and 'the Beautiful . ' Some painful experience in ' Latter-day Poetry' has infected us with a horror of all such primal secrets and abysmal depths . We think , also , Mr . Reade does not do his own faculties justice by adopting whole lines from other writers , however great , with but sli ' ght alterations . Why should he echo the conclusion of Paradise Lost in this way YI retraced , Thoughtful and slow , my solitary way . In his poem , ' Ulysses , ' we find him writing of Calypso : — Passion ' s ecstasies Remembered , pity waked from prescient aiglit , Drew tears that dimmed those eyes' etherial light , Large drops that left their fringing lashes bright ! The last of these lines is taken word for word from Coleridge's Christabel , with the exception of the unnecessary epithet before the word ' lashes . ' Mr . Reade is most at home among the more stupendous forms of inanimate nature , where his somewhat P antheistical tendencies of mind find their truest utterance ; and we cannot conclude this notice without specially referring to the ' Vision of the Ancient Kings' —a poem which , though deficient in finish , and capable of much improvement in the details , is , in the conception , very original , solemn , and impressive .

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    Tnrc operatic event of the week has been the first appearance on the stage of Madlle . Victoire Balfe , at the Royal Italian Opera , on Thursday evening-, in La Sonncnnbula . Wo beg , in this instance , to be allowed . to waive the ungracious responsibilities of criticism . For the present we are content to record the veryenthusiastic and encouraging reeception accorded to the debutante by a crowded and distinguished audience . The first appearance on any stage is a terrible ordeal , and to confront such an audience as that of the Royal Italian Opera in a part consecrated by the traditions of Malibran , Pkrsiani , Jennv Lini > , and Viaudot Garcia , is a noble but a perilous ambition . It was evident on Thursday evening that Madllc . Balfe was not in complete possession of her natural powers , but the sympathy of tho public was unequivocally expressed , and we have every hope that with increasing confidence will come a success not , due to sympathy alone , but to admiration of the rich hereditary instinct and the accomplished art . We all foci a peculiar interest in this very charming young lady ' s career , and we all look to see her early and abundant promise ripened and fulfilled .

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    THIS COLOGNE CHORAL UNIOX . Sur-BOM has a greater musical sensation been created by any sincrlc performer than was made by the eighty members of tho Choral Union of Cologne , at tho Hanover-square Kooms , in 1853 . In England choral and part singing have always been enjoyed : we Imvo composers of madrigals and glees whose names survive in song ; we have glee , madrigal , and catch clubs innumerable , and tho annual madrigal concert at Bristol is a musical institution not unworthy to compote with the most elaborate Continental ' solemnities . ' Good voices are , we believe , moro common in Kngland than in any country in Europe , with the solo exception of Italy ; it is tho school of singing that has been wanting , a sound traditional method , and , above all , a patient and devoted practice of tho art for its own sake . Too many of our vooal clubs have degenerated into convivial meetings , and many a respectable burgher ' s wife has cursed in her heart her husband ' s propensity to ' catches' Germany , with its patient and naive enthusiasm , supplies an example which we earnestly recommend our vocal associations to follow . These gentlemen of tho Cologne' Choral Union , from long

    and careful training nnd constant practice , have acquired a precision , delicacy , variety , and . umgniflcenco of ensemble which make tho best choral singing in England almost insignificant in comparison . Unfortunately , the music of most of the pieces is poor stuff ' , as music ; Gorman music of the 8 ouond class in not celebrated for strength or boauty j it is the exquisite execution , that would redeem oven worso compositions . The ' swelling grandeur of tho harmonies , tlio ^ whispered breathings of the modulated , phrases , tho power and the glory of sound pouring forth in organ peals , and liushod to tho subdued boauty of organ whisperings , ' which we admired four years ago are still as fine as over . Tho transitions from / ortiamno to pianiasimo , and tlio alternations ot' low and loud aro managed witli an ease ancf perfection only , we repeat , to bo attainod by devoted subordination and unremitting' practice In koiijo ivMnncos , howover , tho senso of tho words is unduly suoriiiood to tho ' ofiuotH , ' and thus tho sincerity of the interpretation is marrod . Indeed , tho music of tho pieces is ,, as wo havo said , for tho most part laboriously trivial and commonp laco . Hut the success of tho singers is as unquestionable as it ia deserved , and wo only regret that our Cologno choralists cannot remain beyond a fortnight In fcngluna . on

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    v———THE OPERAS , CONCERTS , ETC . Maestro Verdi reigns supreme at both houses . And in spite of pedants , we see no reason to regret the fact , since Vekbi possesses at least the rare secret of imperiously swaying the emotions ' of that collective organism , the Public , and of sending home his excited audiences humming to their beds . The production of the Trovatore at Her Majesty ' s Theatre is notable for the consummate vocalization and remarkably picturesque and effective acting of Alboni ' s Azucena , and for the very fine and pathetic singing of Giuglini in the last act . We regret to be unable to discover the vocal or dramatic qualities which have given , we believe , to Madame Sjpezia a considerable reputation in Italy . The voice of this elegant and accomplished lady is , to our thinking , naturally an imperfect one , and it is already worn . Her acting is intelligent , but the sacred fire is wanting . Signor Besevestako achieved a rare distinction in the part which Graziani was thought to have made his own : he contrived to sing the II mio balen so execrably , that it went off almost without a hand , and amidst visible and audible signs of irritation and disappointment in the audience . There is a leaden dulness in the tone of Signor Beneventano ' s voice , which the" exaggeration of liis singing and the general protuberance of his manner and deportment do not permit the public entirely to forgive . It is good news that on Tuesday Sig-nor Corsi , the barytone , a fine dramatic singer , will make his first appearance in Nino , an opera which lias not been performed in London for nine years . A new light tenor , Signor Belart , who , we are told , has won a considerable reputation at Florence by his singing in the / Sonnambula and the Pirata , is engaged at this house .

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    JLT H E L of his Ma y , 1857 . ] _„_ EADEB , _ _ £ .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 30, 1857, page 523, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2195/page/19/