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\\2 • THE LEADER, [No, 306, Saturday ,
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IPrfiVPrrftf 1*1> jLiltlUiUlw
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Clitics are not the legislators, but the...
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" Who wrote Shakspeake V asks Lady Betty...
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Readers of Fraser this month need not be...
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THE LADY IN WAITIHG IN "THE STATES." Let...
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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Transcript
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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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\\2 • The Leader, [No, 306, Saturday ,
\\ 2 THE LEADER , [ No , 306 , Saturday ,
Iprfivprrftf 1*1≫ Jliltluiulw
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Clitics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Clitics are not the legislators , but the judges and po lice of literature . They do not make Iaw 3—they interpret and try to enforce them . — kMwburgh JUtiew .
" Who Wrote Shakspeake V Asks Lady Betty...
" Who wrote Shakspeake V asks Lady Betty in High Life Below Stairs ; and the answer " Colley Cibbeb , " which produces a shout of laughter , is far less ludicrous than the answer which an American writer in Putnam ' s Monthly hints in an elaborated , but not elaborate , paper , which is to be followed by more circumstantial proof . Many a playful suggestion has been made touching the mythical nature of Shakspeare ' s fame ; but it was r eserved for American absurdity to give his works to RaijEIGH and Bacon . The writer in Putnam ' s Monthly has not even ingenuity to- render his paradox palateable . He is deficient in the elementary qualifications necessary for such an inquiry , being incapable of appreciating evidence , superficially informed , and infected with the worst disease which can beset a writer , the delusion
that bombast is forcible . In the introductory paper his main position rests on . the assumption that Shakspeare was only a miserable player , a deerstealing apprentice turned into a money-getting manager , and utterly incapable of being the author of the plays attributed to him . Is there any evidence for such an assumption ? Not a tittle . And if the writer had but inquired he would have learned that the only dramatist worthy to be placed on the same exalted pedestal as Shakspeare , was also an actor , also a nloney-getting manager , writing and acting for money , and yet acknowledged byall Europe as "the immortal author of Tartufe , Le Misanthrope , and XSAvare .
But not only is the assumption foolish in itself , it has to make head against the plainest evidence . Shakspeare was well-known to his rivals and friends . He was cordially hated by some whom he surpassed ; and if those who taunted him with conceiving himself "to be the only Shdkescene of the
country , " had known he was incapable of writing the plays which galled their envy , their taunts would have been bitterer , and their uproar great . Ben Jonson would not have been imposed on by a vulgar actor , and believed him to be the star of poets ; " or said of himi—Look how the father ' s face lives in his issue ; even bo the race Of Shakspeare ' s mind . end manners brightly ihines In his well-torned and true-filed lines : which is more to our argument than his noble line of eulogy : — Thou art a monument without a tomb !
Nor does , the American argument fail more completely in the attempt to disprove SaA kspeabb's authorship than in the utter want of critical discrimination , displayed iixits affiliation of the plays on Raleigh and Bacon . Of these writers we have ample specimens ., We know what they could do when « dl ; then-genius was at the stretch ; we have the avowed fruits of their labour and meditation ; and if any single page of Raleigh or Bacon can be pointed out which indicates , even vaguely , the peculiar constitution of a dramatic mind , we will believe that Robert Montgomery wrote the " Ancient Mariner , " that Macaujuay wrote " PicJcwicJe , " and that Edgar Poe is the author of " Bracebridge Hall . "
Readers Of Fraser This Month Need Not Be...
Readers of Fraser this month need not be told to pausej and taste with slow relish , the opening article , ' Friends in Council Abroad , " the best , perhaps , of the series ; grave and suggestive in matter , in manner playful , humorous , and eloquent ; many are the topics which rise up in these desultory conversations in the easy natural way of friendly talk , and many the quotable passages ; but we shall select only one , because we want to cite it , and we cannot afford room for more : —
EULEHMEBB . The xmperiBlia-ble , inexliaustible , unapproachable nature of love is shown in tms—that all the millions of stupid love storiea that have been written have not one whit abated the immortal interest that there i * in the rudest and stupidest love story . All the rest 6 f the wretched thing may be the moat dismal twaddle but you can t help feeling a little interest , when you have once taken up the bookl as to whether Arabella will ultimately relent in favour of Augustus ; and whether ttiat wicked creature , man or woman , who is keeping them apart , will not soon be disposed of , somehow . And yet , having had some experience in law—in divorce caaea , for instance—I hav ? all the time shrewd suspicions that Auguatus and Arabella may not hit it off so yery Buqcesafully . when there is no wicked creature to prevent their feeing it not to
In earnest—^ grand see the indestructible nature \ o va ? Write so foplwhly about anything olae , andece what will happen . Try it upon theology , and aee twihghtdces not soon deepen into absolute darkness . Hayo I not beaten all S 5 «^«^ OUr 8 T ^ ° , S ? W ^ be ^ speaking , Blanche had quietly
. ' , ' DUKTSffORD . x j | EliljESMElRr , Milver ton W ?^ ilw *™ .. ™* a K reat diot ^ about love . Now , when you ,
dexterity , to introduce it with the proper garniture , and even then to be pejt feetly satisfied if a few only of your readers find it not veiy dull . But it is far otherwise , as I have just shown you , with the lovea of Augustus ' and Arabella They may he told at any time and in any place , and the narrator may be half asleep like an Arab story-teller , who is telling for the thousandth time some common legend about Leila and MahommecL He may be drowsy enough over the hot embers and the good cheer provided by his swarthy hosts , but they sit round in eager listening attitudes ^ with their dark eyeB greedily fixed upon him , in . quiring for more , bo that he has not the cruelty to go to Bleep wh « n so many human beings are passionately drinking in the well-worn words which only add to his drowsiness .
BLANCHE . I should like to hear what Cousin Leonard would say of love . Jt is not likely that so grave a man has thought much about so foolish a thing . But his big books tell him everything , I think . I often fancy I hear them talking together hi the night .
MILVEBSJON " . Why , beauty , I think that love is the only thing that shows us the possibilities in human nature . I believe it was given us for the same purpose that the sight of the infinite involutions of starry worlds was given . Knowing what one human being can feel for another , when in love , seeing the inventive and undying tolerance which love gives , one can imagine what it -would be if some feeling of the same kind were to pervade the whole race , and men exercised the best of their powers in discerning and developing what was lovely in all those about them . It would create a universe of loveliness . An elaborate review of Macaulay , while doing full justice to his excellences , points out some historical mis-statements and exaggerations ; an equally elaborate review of " Bain ' s Senses and the Intellect , " will be very acceptable to a certain small class of readers .
Blackwood has an extraordinary rhapsody 3 entitled " Our Wondrous Mother-age , * ' which , in another periodical might be enjoyed as a satirica exhibition of the folly talked about the present age , but which seems to be a serious tirade against utilitarianism , railways , statistics , and a " mechanical " soulless generation . It is worth glancing at , to see how far nonsense can . go without suspicion of the laughter following its footsteps . A capital paper on the " Drama" will serve to make the reader forget this outrage on his reason ; and an amusing account of dogs and dog-stealers , entitled " Tickler among the Thieves , " also " repays perusal . ' Is this anecdote of the dog ' s compassion a fiction ? It might be
true—I am sure Tickler is not without feeling ; for one day he was sitting on a chair , with his paws resting on the top of it , near the window , in a warm dining-room , on . a blighting day in February- —the dust-laden wind without seeming to cut both man and beast to the very bone : and at the foot of our steps there had presumed to sit a dirty , half-starved cur , shivering miserably in eveiy muscle but uttering no sound—neither whine nor bark . "He starved , and made no sign !" Was it necessary for that lout of a fello-w that passed to kick the unoffending brute ( which did not belong to him ) from our steps , it showing , however , no
resentment , but simply sitting and shivering a foot or two farther on ? Then Tickler ( who is of patrician descent ) , whose eyes had been for some time fixed ¦ wistfully upon his plebeian brother , could hold his peace no longer , but gave a loud , fierce , little bark , jumped down from his chair , and fawned whiningly on me ; and -when I took Wo nice chicken-bones from , his plate under the sofa , and called the forlorn victim of man ' s chance brutality into the hall , and . gave him the bones , which he was for a while too cold , and also timid , to eat for fear of another kick , —Tickler stood by , not only without growl or bark , though he knew the victuals -were his , but very complacently wagging his tail . He had pity i ' oi' hia poor brother , who seemed such a wretched little outcast !
In the Revue des Deux Mondes we have the story of Jeanne d'Auc once more narrated , and apparently for the sake of the conclusion to which M . Louis de Carne is " irresistibly" led , namely , that only two explanations are possible for " tout homme de sens , *'—1 st , That the Maid of Orleans was sent by God to save France , as the bergbre of Nanterre had been ten centuries before ; or , 2 nd , That she possessed the faculty of second sight and magnetic clairvoyance ;— " Ou elle a precede Mesmer et Cagliostro , ov . elle proce'de de Jesus Christ . " What say our readers ?
The Lady In Waitihg In "The States." Let...
THE LADY IN WAITIHG IN " THE STATES . " Letters from the United States , Cuba , and Canada , By the Honourable Amelia M . Murray . j . . Parker ami Son . Ihe Honourable Amelia M . Murray has solved rather an amusing question for the curious world . We have had the United States traversed by representatives from almost every class of English society . Diplomatists , statesmen , soldiers , sailors , lawyers , authors , statists , political economists , journalists , clergymen , gentlemen of fortune , sportsmen , naturalists , merchants , workingmen , and women ; but it remained an experiment to be performed , to turn loose a lady from Court-life to wander about the Union , and tell us what she saw . A Lady in waiting turned out in that broad Republic where nobody waits upon anybody , —a lady of St . James ' s let loose among the hotels and tne the north
cars rrom , "down south / ' among -whites ami blacks , democrats and nulhfiers , barn-burners and Know-nothings . It is in this mode that we must take Miss Murray ' s book . You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow s ear , nor bacon out of a silk purse . The woman of fashion , however intelligent she may be , however gifted with the power of writing , or blue towards her shoes , is not a statesman , a professional man , or a man of nny kind . Werauit not look for " information , " in the ordinary sense of the word , nor for statistics ; others can collect them and arrnngc them better , for exact reports upon the working of institutions , for precise judgments upon the questions of cotton , railways , New York bankruptcies , or land speculations . out a woman ' s eye sees many things that escape the severer inspector ' s ; and really it is both a rarity and an instruction to view the Great Western Hcpubhe through the lens of a Lady-in-waiting . Instead , therefore , of wasting much harsh criticism , which would bo totally inapplicable to thcau two light volumes , let us say that they would be little worth reading by those who anould rend no other books for an account of the Union ; but for those who
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 2, 1856, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02021856/page/16/
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