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J uly 1, 1854.] THE LEADER. 619
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THJB COURIER OF LTONS-. Is the present s...
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As to operatic matters this vreek, we ha...
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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.
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Lamarti^E'S Celebrated Characters. Memoi...
never conquered more gloriously than tboy now' submitted . Every single ship became a Thermopylae for the combatants fought no longer for victory , but for death . On everydeck the captains , the officers , the gunners , fell successively at their posts , and left nothing , to the English but lifeless bodies and enormous funeral pries . Admiral Brueys , severely wpunded by an early discharge of grape-shot , remained erect on the poop of his flag-ship , the Orient , surrounded by the remains of his staff , and invoking death to cover his misfortune . A cannon-ball from the Vanguaiti cut him in two ; still with his dying hands he opposed the action of those w & io would ha-ve carried him below . ' No ! nol' exclaimed he , * a French admiral ought to die upon his quarter-deck . ' His flag-captain , Casa-Bianca , fell a moment after on tho body of his chief . The Orient , deprived of her commander , still fonght a & if of her ownaceowJ . Nelson fell , wounded in the head by a splinter ; the- blood covered his . face , and tLo skin of his forehead falling over his remaining eye , plunged him in total darkness , which , for a moment he conceived to be the harbinger of death" Confident of the victory , but believing his hurt to be mortal , he summoned the chaplain of the Vanguard , and charged him to deliver his last remembrances to hi * family . A
moment of terrible and anxious silence pervaded the ship while the surgeon probed the wound . A'cry of joy burst from every mouth when they declared that it was only superficial ,, and that the coaqojsrou would ba preserved to his- country . Night had fallen for about time hours , but was unheeded in th « fury of the combat and the reflected light of the cannonading ; The French * ships were silenced , one by one , for want of hands to man the guns . They drifted from tlieir cables , towards the shore , or foundered on the rocks . The Orient , in flame 3 above , stffl fifed from her lower decks , ready to be consumed in the impending' conflagration , hastened and excited by the freshening of the night breeze . The lingEsh ships ceased to respond , and retired to a distance to escape the vortex of the inevitable explosion . Captain Dupetit-Tbouars * commanding the Tonnant , never slackened Ins fire for a moment at sight of this disaster . He no longer fought for glory or life , but for immortality . One arm carried ofl by a cannon-shot and both legs broken by grape , he called upon his crew to swear never to strike his flag , and to throw his body overboard , that even his- remains might not become captive to the English . The Tonnant , as well as the Franklin , covered with : the bodies , of their officers , became , hi a short time , little better than floating corpses .
" The increasing flames of the Orient served to light the entice bay , covered with the relics of battle . The sailors of this vessel flnng themselves from the port-holes into the sea , and clung to broken masts and yards , in the hope of floating on shore . They implored their commandant , Casa-Bianca , who was covered with wounds , to allow them to save him . Whether lie was unable to move his shattered limbs , or-was stoically determined not to survive the loss of his Bhip , Casa-Bianca rejected their entreaties . They wished at least to preserve his son-, a noble youth of twelve years old , who had been induced , by affection for his father , to embark with him . Thebraxe boy , embracing , the body of his parent , resisted their pray ers-and efforts ^ and preferred death in the arms of him who had given him life . " The catastrophe , which now apprpaehecVrapidly , compelled the generous sailors to leave the melancholy group . The Orient blew up at eleven o ' clock , with an explosion which made the land of Egypt tremble to Rosetta , and with a burst of flume that long illuminated the surrounding horizon . Her masts , spars , rigging , timbers , and cannon , fell down in _ a storm of fire into the bay . like fragments from heaven , bursting in a counter-blow amonest
the human combatants . The rising sun discovered nothing in the bay of Aboukir but the hulls of stranded or burning vessels scattered at the mercy of the heaving swell . The fleet of Nelson hitaself dismasted , and almost without sails , could with difficulty move away from the scene of action . Two of his ships , -which had sustained little damage , secured the spoils of the night . Several French captains ran their vessels ashore ^ and burnt them , to prevent their falling into the hands of the conquerors . The French army , from that moment , became prisoners in the Egypt they had conquered . The subsequent capitulation of that army may be considered the second -victory of Nelson . Fortune refused to give all to a single nation . To one she assigned the land , to the other the sea . " This victory of Nelson , is admitted -by the French historians who witnessed it to have been the most complete that had ever leen won at sea since the-invention ; of gunpowder . He was indebted to it for his bold attack , and the immobility of the fleet of Briieys . The heroic defence of that fleet at anchor shows how they -would have fought had they been under sail . They were not beaten , bnt immolated ; in their sacrifice they bore with them thousands of their enemies , and obtained fir the French navy respect equivalent to the glory ofvictor )/ . "
While touching on . this question of vanity , we may quote a passage in the notice of Cicero , among whose failings vainglory occupied , it is said , the prominent place : — " Vanity was one of the virtues of great men at thi 3 period , when a religion , more magnanimous and more free from human follies , had not yet taught that abnegation of se & , modesty , and humility , which take away from us earthly fame , but render us more than an equivalent in the mute satisfaction of conscience , or in the approbation of GocLT An essay might be -written on that text , arguing , first , that Vanity was a Virtue in ancient times , because Manhood was the Ideal beyond which none aspired ; secondly , that although Iteligion preached the virtue of Humility , it Iras preached in the desert : virtue or vice , nien show no diminution of vainglory in the Christian era ; and , thirdly , if vanity forma an integral portion of our nature , uncontrollable by Religion , and impelling us to higher nuns , the question would arise whether , oa the whole , Religion , did not commit a profound mistake in calling it a vice ? Ancient or modern , virtue or vice , we will back the vanity of Lamartine against that of Cicero , and without shrinking from giving the odds . ' Yes , sir , and you , too , have a vanity as colossal as Lamartinc ' s though not quite so superb in its . pedestal !
Lmnartine has often been irritated by the absurd objection that because he is a poet he should be nothing else ; and in his biography of Cicero he seizes the occasion to plead indirectly his own cause : — "No form of government waa so well fitted na the Roman Republic to develop those perfect man , tho type of which wo have just described in the greatest orator of Home . That separation of facultiej , and thos » professional limitations which decomnoso a man into fnicjioiis , and lesson him in tho process of subdivision , had not yet been invented . People did not sny , Here is a civilian , there is re soldier , this intin is a poet , that man is an orator , hero is a . lawyer , there ia a statesman ;¦—you might bo nil theso at onco , if Nature and oducntion hod fitted you for it . It was nt > b then- tho fashion to cut up Nature into arbitrary portions , as -we unfortuiwtely do now , to tho great detriment of a particular country , nnd of the hmn « rirac © at large . They did not impose upon God a maximum of facnltios , which ho was not to overstep in creating an intolloct moro universal , ox a soul groator , tlinn common . Crosnr plotidcd causes , made vorsos , wvoto his Anti-Cato , and conquered the Gnuls . Cicero wroio
pooms una trentises on rhetono , advooatcd nt tlic bur , harangued tho citizons from tho tnl ) uno , discussed public business in tho senate , collected taxes in Sicily , commanded nrmiefl in Synn , studied philosophy with tho scholars , and kept u school o ? litoraturo at lusoiiluin . ' It was not tho profession , but tho talents , that mtido tho man , and ho buomno tho greater as ho wnu tho moro universal : nnd this is the cuuso of tho superiority of the vorsnlllo geniuses of antiquity . Wlicn wo , butter advised than nb prosont , hIisUI endeavour to emulate thofr greatneaij , wo mu « t first » woop away tho jealous and arbitrary burners that our modern civilisation interposes between tho faoultioa oi' Nature and tho flcrvicos that u citiaou can . render in vnrioua modes to his country . Wo shall no longer forbid a philosopher to bo « j politician , a . mngifitrate to bo a hero , an orator to bo a soldier , a poot to bo u ' Sago or u leetalntwi Wo ehall tlnon make men , nnd no longer human innohinus . Tho modern worm will bo all tho Btrongor and thq moro beautiful lor thu change , and the moro conaormnl > la to tho plan of God , who did not intend man for » frMgmont , but for » -whole " We may return to- these volumes for a fovr more extracts and desultory remarks ; wo are disposed to conunond them as readable and profitable for ihe young , agreeable and suggestWe for the old .
J Uly 1, 1854.] The Leader. 619
J uly 1 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 619
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Thjb Courier Of Ltons-. Is The Present S...
THJB COURIER OF LTONS-. Is the present state of the Drama , the audiences at * theatres seem , to be limited to a choiee between plays of two very opposite kinds . They may Itave a play with great literary ability and small dramatic interest , or a- play -witbr small literary ability and great dramatic interest ; and they invariably prefer ( very wisely , as we think } the latter species of stage entertaiament . For years and yearapasfc the critics have been turnifig their baeks on Melodrama , and the public have been opening their arms to it . We are not critics ( though we happen , just now , to be writing ia a newspaper ) ; and we shout with the
public . We would rather see The Wreck Ashore than any five act tragedy in blank verse that has been written in our time . " We have the hi ghest appreciation of morbid French Plays , because they keep us , daring performance , in the most breathless state of excitement and interest ; and we have the most unmitigated dislike of the " healthy" National Drama , beeause it wearies U 3 past all endurance . This is very likely a state of feeling whieh is " unwholesome" according to critical rules—but we don't go to the theatre to conform to rules or to pay homage to critics- When we take our places to see a play of " serious interest , " the dramatist -who can make his audiences' flesh creep is the dramatist for our money .
Having made this confession of heresy , we shall not be suspected of writing with any " sterling" " healthy" prejudices , when we set it dcrwn as our opinion that The Courier of Lyons is the weakest of the plays from the French , produced by Mr . Charles Kean at the Princess's Theatre . It is interesting of course : it has admirably dramatic scenes ; it excites in many places great suspense—but it is not to be mentioned 3 u the same breath with the Corsicau Brothers or Pauline . In both those excellent plays the story reached its climax of interest , as all dramatic stories should , in the last act . In the Courier of Lyons the last act is the worst . I ± is confused and unnatural : the incidents seem to be huddled together , an 3 the denoue ~ nieni is too suddenly precipitated on the audience .
The plot is made out of the famous French trial of Lesurqties , who had the misfortune to be exactly like a scoundrel guilty of robbing and murdering the Lyons Courier , and who was condemned and executed for his supposed crime before the fatal resemblance was discovered . In the English adaptation , the Innocent man is of course saved , just at the right moment . Mr . Charles Kean performs the two characters of the honest man and the villain , and effects the most incredibly rapid changes of costume behind' the scenes . He is hardly off the stage as the respectable Lesurques , before he is on it again as the scoundrelly Dubosc—everything being altered about him , except his voice , which he seems to be quite incapable of changing with the change of character . With this drawback , he acted cleverly but unequally throughout the piece . In some scenes he was quiet and natural ; in others
artificial and conventional—but in all , he was eommendably free from even a . tendency to raat . Mr . Addison , as the vfllanous horse-dealer , deserves the highest praise ^ His make-up was perfect ; and his acting so excellent , as to give him , ia our opinion , quite a new position in his profession . Miss Kate Terry also deserves a word of approval for a very fresh , and natural performance of a servant boy at an inn . Mr . Graham , on the other hand , appeared to us to be the worst actor of an old man ' s part that -we have ever seen onthe stage ; and Mr . David Fisher , who seems to be a favourite "with the audience , struck us as being nothing better than a bad and barefaced imitator of Mr . Wright . The getting-up of th & play was excellent throughout ; the stage business being managed , especially in the third act , with the most admirable correctness and dramatic effect . While giving all due praise
to the performance , we must , however , be permitted to add that certain circumstances in connexion with it , utterly perplexed us . " Could we really be in the Princess ' s Theatre ? " we asked ourselves , during the pauses between the acts of the play . " Could the Mr . Kean , who was now addressing that low dramatic taste of ours to which we have already confessed , by acting in a most uncompromising modern melo-drama translated from the French , be really the same Mr . Kean , wha once stood classically aloof on a Shakespearian pedestal ; whose great ambition it was , but a short time back , to familiarise the British public with Xiphilin , to awe the agricultural playgoer by the spectacle of Nineveh bulls , to make a taste for antiquities percolate into the pit , and a noblo thirst for classic love racre to the utmost limits of the
upper boxes ? Could the Mr . Kean who once tried to make our heads ache with ancient learning , and tho Mr . Kean who was now trying to make our flesh creep with modern French horrors , be one and the-same man ? Could the Lorenzo de Medici of tho learned drama liave changed suddenly to the Barnum of the Boulevard du cri ? ne ? —A puzzling question , this . Perhaps the intelligent reader will be bold and obliging enough to answer it . Out own opinion is , that there is no such thing as a one and undivided Kean . Ho has'been acting double so often of late years , that we believe ho has at last—come in two . One" half , in that case , must now be at home , pondering ; over the cuneiform drama of the earliest post-diluvian poets , while the other half ia acting at the Princess ' s Theatre in the melodramas of Modern France .
As To Operatic Matters This Vreek, We Ha...
As to operatic matters this vreek , we have only to record that GSriai has appeared in the Huguenots and in Don Pasquate . The night of her farewell is drawing inexorably nearer . Our last chances of seeing tho greatest actress and singer of our time , may now be numbered by fewer figures than wo have the heart to set down , At the St . Jamks ' s Theatre : Mario Cabal has boon singing- and acting delightfully in tho Fille du Regiment . But Donizetti ' s music is hardly adapted to display all her resources . Sho ia essentially French in face , manner , and voice , and will not be able to do herself justice before her audience , until she appears in Ihu boat French comedies act to the beat French music . Tho operas of Scribe ami Auber are tho optima wo want to see her in . After ah incomprehensible nnd most injudicious delay , La Sirinc is announced for to-night—to bo followed , wo hope , by tho Domino Noir , and tho Diamans de la Couronne . With those oporus wo believe the success of the season may bo yet assured ; provided always that the male resources of tho company enu bo found to supply one or two gentlemen who tire capable of tiingiug and acting respeotaM . y . ¦ W .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 1, 1854, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01071854/page/19/
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