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Leader (1850-1860), 29th May 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 522, Untitled Article

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      themes and topics food for-niirth "—which is simply false ; and , with respect to one living . writes , statements are hazarded , as to matters of fact , of the most astounding inapplicability . "Pasquin" is not merely spiteful , but ignorant ; and he does not redeem these faalts by any literary virtues or intellectual qualifications . His judgment is poor and passionate ; his style confused , weak , and r edundant ; his versification conventional when correct , . and , when incorrect , like that of a tyro who thinks lie has done enough if he has chopped out his five feet to the line , and tagged on his rhyme to the end ; and his efforts at sublimity ai e purely traditional and according to rote . His footman soul is sufficiently manifested in the horror he seems to feel at Leigh Hunt having called the Princess lloyal , in a poem "written on her birth , _ " a sweet ignorant thing . " " ¦ Why , this is flat perjury , as ever -was committed , " to call a Princess ignorant , « ven though she be only an liour old The spirit of Dogberry has been revived in Pasquia ; " but the world -will hardly be content to receive judgments from the mouth of an "" ancient and most quiet -watchman . " If this be" the age of lead , " here is a veritable specimen of the dull and drowsy metal . London . Lyrics . By Frederick Locker . With an Illustration by George Cruikshank . ( Chapman and "Hall . ) —The " Lyrics" of London , if undertaken by a hand worthy of the subject , might be one of the finest collections of short poems yet put forth—a colle-ction ranging through great zones of passion , pathos , picturesqueness , humour , misery , and splendour ; touching on various epochs of time , from the London of the savage Britons to the London of to-day ; and exhibiting a pictui'e of humanity not to be surpassed in variety and interest . Such , however , is not at all the character of Mr . Locker ' s volume ; yet his verses are Lively and pleasant , and often combine a fluttering spirit of humour with tender pathos and affectionate feeling , in a manner which reminds us of Thomas Hood . Some of them have no reference whatever to London j but others have , and all exhibit a light , graceful spirit , great elegance of fancy ai \ d language , and easy versification . Thus the London Lyrist sings of Piccadilly : —

      Gay shops , stately palaces , bustle and breeze , The -whirring of -wheels , and the murmur of trees , By night , or by day , whether noisy or stilly , Whatever my mood is—I love Piccadilly . * ' . Wet nights , when the gas on the pavement is streaming ' , And young Love is Avatching , and old Love is dreaming- . And Beauty is whirl'd off to conquest , / where shrilly Cremona makes nimble thy toes , Piccadilly ! Bright days , -when I leisurely pace to and fro , And meet all the people I do or don ' t know . Here is jolly old Brown , and his fair daughter Lillie ;—No wonder some pilgrims affect Piccadilly ! S « e yonder pair , fonder ne ' er rode at a canter , — She smiles on her Poet , contented to saunter ; Some envy her spouse , and somecovct her filly , He envies them both—he ' s an ass , Piccadilly !

      . Now were I that gay Lride , with a slave at . iny feet , I would cboose me a house in my favourite street . Yes or No- —I would carry my point , willy , Hilly ; If "No , "—pick a quarrel , if " , "—Piccadilly . Thus the high frolic by— -thus the lowly are seen , As perched oa the roof of yon bullcy machine , The Kensington dilly—and Tom Smith , or Billy Smoke doubtful cigars in ill-used Piccadilly . George Cruikshank ' s frontispiece— " Building Castles in the Air "—is touched in his best style of quaint and airy fancy ; and the poem which it illustrates is a dainty trifle .

      Antennae .- Poems by Llewellyn Jewitt , F . S . A . ( Longman and Co . ) , are avowedly put forth as " feelers , " the author being doubtful whether or not he possess sufficient of the poetic faculty to j ustify him in going on in the cultivation of imaginative art . We should say that he has a feeling for nature , a command of words ( though not a power of choosing them subtly and delicately )* a generous sympathy with his fellow creatures under affliction , and a lyrical instinct . But he is diffuse , and often commonplace ; and must study and think deeply if he would do anything of . mark . The Spirit of Home , by Sylvan ( Saunders and Otley ) , is a long , magniloquent poem , broken up into separate subjects , each two stanzas in length , and having reference to the greatness of England , the valour of English soldiers , the virtues of the English people , and the good effects of emigration , especially to Australia . Un the last subject , the author discourses at some length in his Preface , making extracts from "the latest news" in the Times , and then passing on to a brief indication of what he conceives to be the naost crying evils of the day , which lie hopes the Legislature will speedjly take in hand . When a poet is so didactically inclined as this , the question arises , why he writes verse at all , and not political pamphlets . Humbug Attacked , in Church , Law , Physic , Army , aulNaoy . A . Poem . By Mr ., John Bull , Jun . ( Mouutcastle ) . —The author here enters on a very ¦ wide field ; but exhibits little else than affection and defective metre . Jacob Morbid ' - ' s Pilgrimage : to which is added Morbid Sentiment , a Burlesque Dramatic Fragment ^ $ rc By D . It . M . ( Longman and Co . )—These arc amusing mock heroic verses , indicative of no high faculty on the part of the writer , but aiming at nothing more than the beguilemcnt of idle time . The Island : a Venetian Fable . Love ' s Fortunes : a Drama tique . And other Poems . By William Cyples . ( Hunloy : Roberts . )—One of tho reasons stated for putting forth this volume is , thedusire of the author to show that his district " can produce Poetry aa well as Pottery . " Mr . Cyplcs has a certain riehnoss of imagery , but it is sometimes exaggerated and morbid . How can he reconcile it with good taste or reverence to call the sim God ' a coat of urins einblu / . ouoil on the sky ? But there arc striking passages in his book , and we are not without a hope ihnt'ho may improve with time and care , Mv . James Little , tho Glasgow shoemaker , whose previous productions wo have already noticed , sends us a fresh volume of verses—The Last March and Other Poems . ( Glasgow : David Jack . )—It exhibits tho same creditable

      features which- \ ve noted in the former work , and . shows ' a "renter r ^ f " ment of thought and expression . . & Ine " Youthful Echoes , by A . S . \ V ., are the productions of a young "cntlem who appeal's to liave a tendency to kindly thoughts anil a love of inn lectual culture . el - The subjoined titles refer to volumes -which do not present any noticeahl features for criti-cism : —The Indian Recoil . By Frederic E . E . Jloy ' no ° In Two Parts . 1 'art I . ( Hardwickc . )—My ~ ra ; or , the Hose of the F . mt a Tale of the Afijhui ( Far . In Nine Cantos . By Ella Haggard . ( Lon < mian and Co . )—Poems , Original and Translated , by Charles liann Kenned y J , sa and T / eo Poems , by the Rev . Rann Kennedy . New Edition . ( AVulker )~ 1 Short Occasional Poems . By the Rev . J . E . Bode , A . M ., author of" Ixillads from Herodotus . " ( Longman . ) —Palestine Revisited , and other Poems Pv T . Mitchell , M . A . ( Webster . ) ' )

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      : RICHELIEU AND THE FRONDE . liicJielieuet la Frontfe . By J . Michelet . Paris : ' C'hamero t " Tuiarv years of war pass under M . jVIiehelet ' s eye in this singular volume Richelieu is the central figure , but Galileo and Gustayus Adolphusarc the heroes of the period . From Italy and from the North comes almost the only light that breaks ' , the "loom of that great conflict . To create ' 'Galileo Poland had contributed Copernicus , Germany Keppler , Holland her me ' chanisin , France her Calculus ; Florence gave the man and the genius , and the gifts of Venice wex-e Courage and Liberty . This is M . ° Miehelefc ' s introduction of the Tuscan artist to his reader . Then , "Was Gustavus Adolphus the Galileo of the war ? Not precisely ; ' but he was a hero of the purest type , in whom ambition never became a crime , and he possessed the genius which creates its own opportunities . The third personage of the drama is Richelieu , an inferior being , a , man more cunning than wise , ' vho regarded life as a game of hazard , who needed chances to be thrown in his wayY but who knew how to use when be found them . Maznrin gambled in polities still more deliberately , and these two cardinals flung the dice while they lived , sometimes in their own favour , but now and then to the advantage of their enemies : —the foreign potentates , or the queens at Paris . In contrast will stand forth the image of VVallenstcin , " and , M . Michelet reprobates the opposition of that " scourge" with the King of Sweden . Wallenstein , he thinks , was a heartless speculator , a most illustrious ' curpnn , an epicure whose table was spread with a hundred dishes , and who had a hundred carriages in his train . He was an Att . ila when drinking the blood of Europe , but not an Attila when feeding from a golden platter , for the Hun served his courtiers upon massive plate and eat his own meal from a wooden bowl . - . Notwithstanding that M . Michelet devotes his principal admiration to Gustavus Adolplms , the character of Richelieu he has drawn in this volume is the most interesting of the ample series ; and'the least exaggerated . He does not call him Messiah or Satan ; be does not rank him above humanity or below it . lie . has been fascinated by Gustnvus Adolphus , and he hates Wallenstein ; hut he appears to comprehend liichelieu . Consequentl y , as anhistorical study , his delineation of that churchman and states man is of unique and ori ginal value . - It is not a calm analysis ; it is not a critical examination ; it is not the panorama of a public career , proces .-i . jn ; il in its grandeur and dignity ; but it opens up by a series of swift transitions , in which the links of circumstantial relation are never lost , the policy and personal idiosyncrasies of the cardinal . As a . picture of Court manners , moreover , this volume , is of rare interest , for though St . Simon was not yet there to liiy up every anecdote and incident in an incomparable treasury of sketches , there were writers of memoirs , letters , and monographs who contributed their fragments to the archives whence M . Miohelef . s authorities have been drawn . Certainly , the account of Mademoiselle de 11 iuttcfort ' s planned crusade against the asceticism of Louis XIII . is one of the most characteristic episodes in the royjil chronicles of France . 11 . sugyivsts a marvellous contrast with the tone of mind into which Louis XIV ., by servile historians surnamed the Great , fell when he used to cnitn liis carriage with women , whom he took as much pleasure in torturing : ih in seducing . His spirit was congenial to that oftlie Lower Roman nulilr , who invariably flogged his female slaves almost to death after he had debauched them . M . Miehelet ' s summary of history during the epoch of the Thirly Years ' War is additionally interesting as a close and independent view ul liu- ramifications of French policy through Europe , and the effect of French domestic events upon the general afliiirs of tho Continent . Humiliating Richelieu as he docs to tho level of a great political trickster , lie dons not conceal the surprising power with which tho ecclesiastical ininis . li :- di .-posed of men and profited by events , oven converting to his own nd \ anl ; ige the victories of Gustavus Adolphus , and sparing France , so Jar as sjic was spared , from the exhaustion of the internecine war of Europe . 11 iv .-is left to his successor , and to tho successor of Louis X . IV ., to raise up inoiiiinn . 'nts and bequeath an impoverished realm to a corrupted dynasty . ImiI i \ I . Micholet does not occupy himself principally with state papers and public archives ; he understands , and develops , the importance of the personal and domestic part of history ; lie knows what a window of light may Ik- opened by a single anecdote , and what a How of colour may burst from tin 1 ilisclosuro of any historical scandal . Tims , his narrative , written us u . ual in sparkling , often astonishing , and sometimes repulsive epigrams , includes a variet y of details to which writers of his elus . s do not always roiuleseend j but it is , on that , account , the more brilliant and the more iinpiv ^ sive . J ' having many times characterized M . Micholet as an historian , we , ninsl . recur to general criticism , it is impossible to avoid . saying- that he ninrs his nurnitiou by extravagances , by . startling conceits , by antitheses so violent as (<^ be jrroteKque , by passages in which thu bohlness of the allusion i * iis <>» ly merit , and by occasional ( i nures of speech which in any Inngnn ^ v . .-ippcJU ' ]) rolnne . Saying this , and adding that M . Michelet is not less personal in opinion than in style , we have still to describe ; him as one of the most relnarkuble and suggestive writers of his time .

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 29, 1858, page 522, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2244/page/18/