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    A BATCH OF DRAMAS . £ s no respect is the poetry of the present age more to seek than in connexion with the drama . Whether it be that the more mechanical life of our period so wears down the picturesque varieties of character , the sharp and salient points , of human , life , that the dramatist is deadened into apathy or irritated Into preposterous exaggeration—or whether the fault lie in the individual poets themselves , who are now more prone to consider human nature in the abstract than in its Special and particular manifestations—might furnish matter for a longer essay than would suit the columns of a newspaper . We believe , however , it is agreed on all hands that dramatic genius is dead for the present , not only in England , but in America . The glorious promise given by Shelley of something like a revival of the poetry of action perished with him ; for , although some fine plays have been written since his death , the authors have either been half-hearted in pursuing their vocation , or have been discouraged by want of public sympathy . The dramas which from time to time reach our table are but the thin and pallid wraiths of a dead art . They are not all devoid of faculty ; they are sometimes poetical and elegant ; but they are not essentially dramas . They want the fulness of lifeT the keenness of perception , the depth of knowledge , the breadth of sympathy , the robust health and varied characterization of the true dramatist . We have evidence of those qualities in some of the novelwriters of the century ; and if to the character-painting of a Dickens or a , Thackeray could be united the peculiar endowments of the poet , we might hope to see a dramatist worthy of the name . But there is no sign of such a union as yet in the literary horizon . house of Ticknor and

    Here are two volumes issuing from the Boston Fields— ' Plays and Poems , by George H . Boker . Several dramas have flowed from Mr . Boker ' s pen , and he is not without some of the elements of success . He has poetical feeling , and writes at times with passion and pathos ; his comedies are lively and spirited ; but his powers are irregular . He will put forth pages of inferior or simply uninteresting matter ; he has no conaensation , no certainty of touch ; and many of his tragic characters want sharpness and defined expression . The poems which accompany the plays —more especially the sonnets—are sonorous and impressive . "Very cnarming—though not in a high style of dramatic art—is The World's Own , by Julia Ward Howe , also an American production , and published by the same firm as Mr . Boker ' s volumes . This is a story of the north of Italy , containing the usual Italian elements of love , desertion , and revenge . Count Lothair , a sort of Don Juan , has conquered the affections of a young village girl , Leonora , though he is a married man at the time . The girl loves him with the utmost passion and devotedness ; but he deserts her after a time , and she wanders far and wide , seeking him . On discovering the truth , her love turns to bitterest hate , and , becoming afterwards the mistress of an Italian Prince , she causes the ruin of Lothair , and finally stabs herself . We will not say that this story is told with the strength and intensity which it demands , for it often exhibits a feminine languor ; but the love-scenes are full of a tender and murmuring sweetness , and the after parts are touched with true pathos . Mrs . Howe is evidently a lady possessing real poetical sensitiveness . Her perception of natural beauty is delicate and graceful , and her blank verse , though wanting in . stately harmonies and in variety of tune , is far better than that in which the greater number of dramas are written . Here is a brief passage , in which Iieonora is represented looking at the diamond ring given her by her lover , and contemplating his return , though by this time he has fled : — Where am I ? la this waking ? Did I sleep ? O , not if slumber be forgetfulness . My dreams but shadowed out my daily thought , And that which makes my being , since its end Was given . Forbid it , God ! that sleep should come So deep that I could let his image drop , And lose the sacred nearness be has aworn To make eternal . Death itself hath not This power ; since death brings heaven , and heaven must give Hia presence , or bo forfeit to my faith . ( Looking at the ring . ) What ' s this ? The crystal prison of a smile ? Love ' s fervor , looking from a thousand eyes In one ? Nay , more , —the goin that makes mo his , Bound , as a sbining seal , upon my hand . Lothair has brought me many a precious flower , Whose dead delight is woven in my life ; But , when he swore undying love , hia pledge Was this immortal emblem . ( Kisses it . ) Kutchen here ? Good-morrow . Do not plague me with thy breakfast ; I am full , and would not eat . But hast thou not A morsel I could greedily devour ? A . letter—not a letter ? Give it mo ! KATCHKN ( shaking her head ) . I have new milk , with the freah morning in it , The calces , and curds , and hill-bido straw homes ; If you asft : more , you ' re but a frowaid child , And cannot be indulged . I ' ve spread it out I' the garden porch , whero boat you lovo to sit . LISO-NOUA . Yea , we have held some morry banquets there , Lothair and X , and thou didot servo uu well . Dost thou romoinbor whan h « brought tho wine , _— —__^_ ., , T b . e-coBtly-forelgu-wi « o , rap-r » ilJ ,-oi ' -iiro , —— , — , — , — And drank it to my praise ? We pass from two Ainorioan to two English authora , tho first of whom is -the ltev . , T . D . Gregg , D . D ., who publishes King Edward the Sixth , an Historical Drama , in Five Acts , after tlio Elizabethan Modol ( Westorton ) . Whenever his characters spouk prose , Dv . Uregg really does , write with a ¦ Oowderable flavour of the Engliah of tho Elizabethan days , and shows , moreover , aome powers of characterization ; but , when he ventures on blnulc verse—that atumbling-bloyk to so juuuy—it is diUicult to conceive anything

    more unlike the models which the author professes to have set befor » r """ The ' poetry , ' if we may venture so to call it , is like the worst parts of llf ** dreary mistake , Addison's Cato , rendered even more absurd and b and , like Cato , the drama before us is written -with a present purpose ^ t ' is , in fact , an anti-Papistical pamphlet in the shape of a play , and b evident marks of issuing from the establishment of the worthy chamnio ^ the Protestant interest in Knightsbridge . The speeches of the cha . viou > r . ^ a series of husky disputations on politics ana polemics , unilluminated bv rays of poetry or emotion . At one place , Dr . Gregg puts a Privy CounM debate into verse ( or something which he prints as verse ) , after this fashion - ^ Z Somerset . —Let it suffice to say , The treaty ' s call'd in question and . infring'd , Form'd wisely to promote the common weal , The general strength of Britain , by the match That would unite in one the British crowns . On that strong ground my voice declares for war . War—not to fracture noble Scotland ' s strength , But to o ' erbear the influence of faction , Aud to lead all the Scotch to clearly see That those of them who shrink from French alliance Are well advis'd , and should be ta ' en to guide The councils that affect our crown iu Britain . Hence—I declare for war , And counsel it . Chancellor . —That which liath been so ably propounded By the Protector , our great sovereign ' s uncle , I do most cordially approve and second ; Trnsting the feeling is unanimous That would avenge a solemn treaty broke , Or , as we rather hope , make it inviolate . At another part we have a list of the King ' s Ministers similarly presented . This is the more surprising , on account of Dr . G-regg exhibiting in one or two places evidences of a lyrical faculty which one might have supposed would have saved him from such empty rumble . But the writer could not ' get rid of his canonicals ; and when a poet preaches , there ' s an end of him . A very disagreeable story is unfolded in a Tragedy called The Cruel Sister , which , together with some Other Plains , is published by Messrs . Smith and Elder . Two sisters love the same man ; and one of them ( Eleanour ) contrives to divert the passion of ltodolf from her sister to herself by maligning her sister ' s character . Rodolf , believing the story ( for gentlemen in p lays are very quick to credit anything to the disadvantage of their sweethearts ) , gives up poor slandered Alice , and is about to marry Eleanour when he * discovers the fraud . Thereupon he stabs the traitorous sister , and brings the story to a catastrophe by his own death . So repulsive a subject could only be justified by an intensity of passion , at once real and poetical , which should lift us above the bare horror into a region of grandeur , solemnity , and pathos . But the author ( who puts forth his book anonymously ) has not sufficient strength to redeem his own error . He confuses all truth to nature in a constant flow of vague talk—talk which is often striking and poetical , but which is rather an ingenious comment on passion than passion 6 peaking for itsolf . We are better pleased with the author in his minor poems . His sonnets are eloquent , picturesque , harmonious , and quick with emotion ; but here also we have to complain of an occasional vagueness , as well as of a too great presence of melancholy . Though this article has been devoted to dramas , wo will quote one of these sonnets , at the risk of Beeming to do what is incongruous : — Sunset was glimmering on the last red leaves , When through the twilight of the gnarled boughs—The fading light still clinging on hor brows—I saw her wending homewards with tho sheaves Heaped on her shoulder , raising her loose sleeves So her white arm like a white crescent shone , Grasping the rustling ears . Then one by one The children wandered from their cottage eaves , And gathered the stray wheat that she let fall , And clapped their little hands when she would call ; And all things innocent and dutiful Smiled to her smile and scorned to grow more fair , She passing -with the twilight beautiful Upon the mellow sheaved . and her fair hair . . _ , This is a better specimen of the author ' s faculty than will bo found within the limits of his play .

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    SCHOOL DAYS OF EMINENT MEN . . .. School Days of Eminent Men . By John Tiiuba , i" . S . A ., Author of t « nudiuojM » London , &c &c . . ' Mb . Timbs begins at the beginning , and so should wo . A \ illmm wo Conqueror patronized aud loved literature . Many of tho JNormiii iiolates preferred iu England by him were polite scholars . iiiguil »» U' » Abbot of Croyland , is remarkable as the firat upon record , who liav life laid the foundation of his education at Westminster , m-oceoduu ioi its further cultivation to Oxford . Whilst a schoolboy ho had tho goou fortune to interest in his behalf Eg itha , daughter of Earl ( . odwin i u queen to Edward the Oonfuseor—a young person of grunt beamy »> knowledge , modest , and of a sweet disposition . " I luive olten soon i «» » my childhood , " says tho Abbot Ingulphus , " when I went to vibit y futhor , who wits employed in tho Kiug ' a puUice . If » ho mot iuo «> n » J return from school , siio interrogated ino upon my grammar , pooii ) . . o . YOuaogic r _ in _ whicU ~ flhejw « fl . ^ v . «^ mo in the meshos of some subtile argument , nho never iuileu io u ^ upon mo three or four crowns by her servant , and to aouu i have rofroalunont in tho buttery . " Ktf itha was goutlo and km « i w who approached her ; those who dialilcod tho Hoinowuiifc aaviigo \» of hor father and brother , praised hor for not rcaombling him . A '"* f j ' jn rosam , gamut Qoilwiuun MUhain "— -vM the thorn proUuutiH tho rose , « p produces Editlin . Futnalu education at this period oonawtod m num o > and reading . A contemporary describes an accomplished wile ua youuj ,

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    353 THE LHADIrB . [ No . 420 , Apbjx iq , ig 85 #

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1858, page 354, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2238/page/18/