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June 9, 1S60] The Leader and Saturday An...
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MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS.-j-The Thames Angler...
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* Diligent. t Tho Thanua Aw/lor, By Arth...
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SERIALS. We have received the " Journal ...
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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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New Poems.* We Commence Our Notices Of N...
told , is to be found throughout broad Scotland , unless m the libraries of the wealthy . Bums appears even to have been ignorant of them . In order to render them more intelligible , the publishers have in part modernised the spelling , but nob substituted words . The idiom of the original , therefore , has been preserved , while obsolete' words have been explained . The readers of Dunbar ' s poems have also to be forewarned '' that pronunciation in his time was not fixed , and that , for the sake of rhythm or measure , it was frequently capricious . Dunbar was poet laureate of the court of James the Fourth . We are indebted for the collection of all the poems known to have been written by him to Mr . David Laing , of the Signet Library , who iu 1834 accomplished the task . the whol
Our present publishers have , however , not reprinted e of the collection , having- omitted the indelicate pieces . Not that Dunbar was an immoral poet , but the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were not so particular as the nineteenth . Of his biography next to nothing is known . It is supposed he was born in I » othian , about or before 1160 . He was probably of doubtful parentage and dwarfish stature . He studied at St . Andrew ' s , and took the degree of Master of Arts in 1479 . He is supposed at one period to have adopted a friar ' s garb , and was afterwards employed by the king , though the time is not known . He is supposed to have been in the embassy to France , which sailed , under . the Earl of Bothwell , from Berwick in 141 ) 1 . In fact , he was abroad many times on the " kingis erandis , " and visited many countries ; among them " France , Ingland , Ireland , Almauie , Italie , and Spaine . " Once he seems to have been cast away on the northern coasts .
His poems divide themselves into two different periods , —that before , and that after his retention at Court , He was not recognised as a familiar attendant in the royal household until 1500 . He had studied Chaucer with evident devotion , and describes him as " rose of rhetoris all , " " In playfulness , " says his biographer , " and flexibility of genius , the scholar is admitted , by good judges , to have surpassed his master . In pathos he alone is deficient . Reason and humour were the chief supports on which he leaned . " His death appears to have occurred about the year 1520 , when he had attained at least sixty years of age . # _ The selection of poems in the edition before us is accompanied with a running commentary , which blends the life and works of the poet together . All we know of the former is , in fact , gathered from the latter . _
Dunbar was _ a beautiful allegori-st , and one of his earliest works was "The Golden Targe , " composed confessedly in imitation of Chaucer , Gower , and Lydgate . It was evidently written when fresh from the reading of those authors , and is tinctured with the morality and imagery of the ' ¦ Roinaunt of the Rose / ' and the ' * Floure and Leafe . " Dunbar , nevertheless , has numerous phrases entirely Scottish . A very fine poem exists , also , callpd " The Disputation between the Merle and Nightingale , " in which these 1 of the love of GodTake the last
exquisite singingbirds discourse . verse as an example : Then flew thir birdis oure the bour ' s sheen , Singing of Love amang the learis small ; Whose ythand * plead yet ma de my thochtis green , Both sleeping , wauking , in rest , and in travail ; ; , Me to recomfort most it doth avail " , ' Again for love , wlieTrlTsvsrlrcaii iind-noneT — ~ — — - To think how sang this inerleund ^ nightingale , All love is lost but upon God alone . "
Dunbar's poems have frequently a philosophical cast;—but , indeed his moods are various—and the present volume may hn commended to poetic readers of all tastes j each will find something in it to suit him . . ,, , ,. Mr . John Collett ' s poems , we see , have arrived at the second edition . They will repay a meditative perusal . A youn « " poet , who names himself " Short TEnfield , presents his various " moods " in their " effects " to the lenient reader , lhcre 18 some promise in his verses ; but he has yet much to learn . The " Septuagenariun " has reproduced , in one pleasing volume , many of the free , and easy verses which long ago delighted a wide circle of readersm " Fraser , " " Bhiekwood , " Acker niann s "Forgetme-not , " and ' " Bentley's Miscellany . " There is many an old bookworm who will be glad to meet with these again in u collected form , and we wish success to the repub ' lioution . ' ..., ; , Mr William Jackson prefaces a small volume of light and easy satirical versos " with a prefatory letter of approbation and eulogy from the late eminent poet , tho Rev . George Crabbe . " His testimonial is well merited ; but the subjects of these lampoons aro for tho most port out of date , and the mere rejpublieation of tiie latter cannot revive the interest of tho former . A few of them , however , have a certain value as political curiosities .
June 9, 1s60] The Leader And Saturday An...
June 9 , 1 S 60 ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 549
Miscellaneous Books.-J-The Thames Angler...
MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS .-j-The Thames Angler its an instructive little work , illustrated , wliich Contains qvyry item of information concerning' the subject on which it vory pleasantly treats . About the river , iind ita piaoiitorJnl inhabitants , and the rods , lines , hooka , &> ., by which they may be angled for and caught , we assure those who aro fond of tho sport that they will , in the present work , find all thut is necessary for the % ' i , _ ' ' , _ r , , i , . .. , „ . » .. . __ j
purposes of successful angling in the Thames , and the directions for this purpose may also be obtained at a trifling cost . The position and prospects of a Rational System of Medicine are very ably set forth in the oration before us by Dr . Ward , and we wish , it an extensive circulation . We have received a cop ' yof the second edition of a pamphlet en titled " Direct and Indirect Taxation Jcontrasted ; or , the immeasurably preferable Policy of an Income Tax to Custom * and Excise Duties eliminated . By Laurence Hey worth . " It is published by J . R , Williams and Co ., Liverpool . " Tales from BlacJcwood . " The republication of this series of interesting tales will , we are sure , be welcome to the generality of readers . Each tale is complete , amusing , and instructive , and just long enough to form pleasant reading for an hour . The present volume contains " Rosaura , a tale of Madrid ; " '" Adventures in the North-west Territory ; " "Harry Baton ' s Curacy ; " " Tne Florida , Pirate ; " " Tiie Pandutir and his Princess ; " and " The Beauty Draught . " ' Lottie ' s Half-Sovereign " a very pretty and entertaining story , by Mrs . Russell Gray , is published by Groombridge and Sons in their series of "Magnet Stories for Summer Days and Winter Niirhts . "
* Diligent. T Tho Thanua Aw/Lor, By Arth...
* Diligent . t Tho Thanua Aw / lor , By Arthuk Smith . London : Chapman und Hall . Jtational Modwme ; Un J ' osition ami I ' romwoU By 8 . IX . Wahd , M . D . London : John Churchill .
Serials. We Have Received The " Journal ...
SERIALS . We have received the " Journal of the Statistical Society of London" for the present month . We need not dwell upon the great value for public purposes of this Journal . To all men the undoubted importance of its statistics is self-evident , and , we trust that its quarterly reports will continue to be widely diffused , as the facts to which they relate form the basis upon which depends the right and accurate , knowledge of governing and directing all public plans and pursuits . We observe , with some gratification , that to the value of its pages ourselves have somewhat contributed , by our own efforts to place correct information before the public . In the present number of this Journal , its second paper , on the " Condition of the Poorer Classes at Rome , 1 SG 0 , " is extracted from the foreign correspondence of the Leader and Saturday Analyst , of 14 th April—a '"' newspaper , " it is said , " every way entitled to-be" placed in the first rank of our periodical literature . " The Journal contains a " Review , of the Statistics oi' Spain , to 1857 . " " Vital , Statistics o _ f Prussia , 1816 to 1819 , "' " Progress of TranTc , & C ., on German Railways , " " Local Taxation of Englandand Wales , " "Registrar General ' s Report , March , 1 S 60 , * ' " Imports ,
Exports , .- Shipping , Bullion , ' & c . _ ' , , We have received Kingston s . Magazine for Boys , to the great suitability of which , for the readers to whom it is . addressed , we bear our willing testimony . . _ . Messrs . Longman and Co . have issued the Sixth Part of the celebrated Memoirs , Journal , and Correspondence of Thomas 3 loore , edited by Lord John Russell . It embraces three of the must interesting years in the life of Moore up to 1828 , when the poet was , one may say , at the mature and philosophic age of forty-nine . The present part contains a portrait of Jaines Corry . The present part of Moutledge's Illustrated Natural History is exceedingly interesting , and continues to give , with increasing clearness and vigour , that prominence and value to the subject of Natural -T 3 BEm ~ wJuciriir ^^
y We have received Part V . of Casscll ' s Popular Illustrated History of England , and Part XV . of the same publisher ' s Popular Natural History . _ ¦ , „• . Cassell ' s Illustrated Family Paper and Family Bible have also been received , and deserve the warmest commendation and public support , the latter especially , asj a work remarkable alike in point of cheapness and excellence of printing and designing . The Ladies' Treasury for June is remarkabl y rich and attractive in illustrations , and moreover contains much interesting reading . This number has also an extra sheet of Fashions . .... Tho "Art Journal" for June contains , as usual , three admirable engravings . The first is Van Dyclc ' s " Lady Digby " from the picture in tho Royal Collection ; Turner ' s " Dido Building Cartha-e ,
from the picture in the National Gullory ; and " Tiie . / 'eiiny vyeadin" " by Wilkie , from the Royal Collection . Mr . and Mrs . Hall s " Companion ' s Guide " in S . mtli Wales is continued . # The present part of Blackio and Sons' " Comprehensive History of En-land" ranges from 170-1 to 1802 . The value of this History is ° further enliaueod by numerous interesting portraits and sketches . ft fri Recreative Science contains a well-written paper on Jho Heavenly Symbol of Human Knowledge , " " Sponge-hunting in Holy Island and Uurwuli Bays ; " " Notes on a lew aiivcr luhes ; and " The Life of a Cloud ;'" all nicely illustrated . Part 17 of " Tiio English Cyclop liu of Arts mid boiencoa m tho cIuho and clear print of its viiluuV . ' pages , extend * { rum the letter J to L— . supplying under the latter considerable information about literature and liurarioa .
__ _ ,, IJlttcluo . uud .. rfo » H ^ . r ' eo . inprehon 8 i . vo . Hi i ^ and Illustrations , " includes in the present number the important period from 1772 to 1781 . / Tho M '' , cctie for Juno , contains , among other able and important articles , . tho following :. " Thought on tho llovisionoltl . o Authorised Version ;" . " Life and llcultl , AMunmuu ; J { jr tjio Hiver Side ; " and sqverul good Sonnets , "A Cliaplet or the Ho ' " . Tho Welcome Giwtalways oMUirtnm . ughas , lor the u-nont I
, , mcmth , Uloto [ i ;; vv [ n , 7 « Th » o ' lJ «^ l » /; « u tho J ^ 'ff ^^ "An ArU » t '» Story " " illustrated ; Mwhmio Prudc-Jico ; b ^ 'ing-
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09061860/page/17/
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