On this page
-
Text (3)
-
S5& THE LEADER. P?o-__^ ° »j^a H' 10, 18...
-
A BATCH OF DRAMAS. Sn no respect is the ...
-
SCHOOL DAYS OF EMINENT MEN. , School Day...
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
S5& The Leader. P?O-__^ ° »J^A H' 10, 18...
S 5 & THE LEADER . P ? o- __^ ° » j ^ H' 10 , 1885 ,
A Batch Of Dramas. Sn No Respect Is The ...
A BATCH OF DRAMAS . Sn 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 s . alient 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 fora 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 since his death
with , him ; for , although some fine plays have been written , 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 novel-¦ writers 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 . I 3 ut there is no sign of such a union as yet in the literary horizon .
Here are two volumes issuing from the Boston house of Ticknor and Fields—Plays and Poeais , 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 tunes 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 condensation , 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 . Yery aharming—though not in a high style of dramatic art—is The Worl & s Own , by Julia Ward Howe , also an American production , and published b-y 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 Eothair , 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 aTe 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 ibeauty 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 . Ilece is a brief passage , in which X « eonora is represented looking at the diamond ring given her by her lover , and contemplating his return , though by this time he basiled : — 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 Wa 9 given . Forbid it , God ! that sleep should come So deep that I could let his image drop , And lose the sacred nearness he has sworn To make eternal . Death itself hath not This power ; since death brings heaven , and heaven must give His presence , or be forfeit to my faith . { Looking at the Ting . ' ) What ' s this ? The crystal prison of a smile ? Love ' s fervor , looking from a thousand eyes In one ? Nay , more , —the gem that makes me his , Bound , as a shining seal , upon my hand . Lothair has brought me many a precious flower , Whose dead delight is -woven in my life ; But , when ho swore undying love , his pledge Was tuia immortal emblem . ( Kisses it . ) Kiitchen hero ? Good-morrow . Do mot plague me with thy breakfast ; I am full , and would not eat . But hast thou not A morsel I could greedily devour ? A letter—rnot a letter ? Give it mo I katohicn ( shaking her head ) . I have new milk , with the fresh morning in it , Tho cakes , and curds , nnd hill-sido strawberries ; If you aak more , you ' re but a fro ward child , And cannot bo indulged . I ' ve spread it out I' the garden porch , whoro boat you lovo to sit , LKONOKA . Yes , wo havo held some merry banquets thero , Lothair and I , and thou didst servo us well . ^ Dopt thou Tcmenibor when ho brought the wiiio , . ^ . ____^___ ~ The costly foreign wine , so full " oF uro , """ " And draufc it to my praise ? We pass from two American to two English authors , tho first of whom is i € he'Rov . T . D . Gregg , D . D ., who publishes Kitig iUdtoard the SU'th , an Historical Drama , in Five Acts , after tlio Elizabethan Modol ( VVesterton ) . Whenever his characters speak prose , Dr . Gregg renlly does write with a ¦ considerable flavour of tho English of tho Elizabethan dayfl , and shows , moreover , some powers of characterization ; but , when ho ventures on blank ¦ ver / jo —* that stumbling-block to so many' —it is difllcult to conceive anything
more unlike the models Tvhich the author- professes to have set bef • "" The ' poetry , ' if we may venture so to call it , is like the worst parts ° iT ^ dreary mistake , Addison ' s Cato , rendered even more absurd and b and , like Cata , the drama before us is written with a present purpos " * ^' 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 chamn' ^^ t the Protestant interest in Knightsbridge . The speeches of the charade U a series of husky disputations on politics and polemics , unillurninatetl b ^ rays of poetry or emotion . At one place , Dr . Gregg puts a Privy CounW debateinto verse ( or something which he prints as verse ) , after this fashion-- ! . Somerset . —Let it suffice to say , The treaty ' s call'd in question and infring'd , Fomi'd wisely to promote the common weal . The general strength of Britain , by the match That would unite iu one the Uritish 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 , And to lead all the Scoteli to dearly see That those of them who shrink from Frenoh alliance Are well advis'd , and should be ta'en to guide The councils that affect our crown in Britain .-Hence—I declare for war , And counsel it . Chancellor . —That which hath beea so ably propounded By the Protector , our great sovereign ' s uncle , I do most cordially approve and second ; Trusting 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 similarl y presented . This is the more surprising , on account of Dr . Gregg 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 si poet preaches , there ' s an end of him . A very disagreeable story is unfolded in a Tragedy culled The Cruel Sister , which , together with some Other Poems , is published by Messrs . Smith and Elder . Two sisters love the same man ; and one of them ( Eleanour ) contrives to divert the passion of liodolf from her sister to herself by maligning her sister ' s character . Hodolf , believing the story ( for gentlemen in plays 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 intensit } - 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 \\\& book anonymously ) has not sufficient strength to redeem his own error . He confuses all truth to nature in a constant How of vague talk—talk which is often striking and poetical , but which is rather an ingenious comment on passion than passion speaking for itself . 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 vngueness , as -well as of a too great presence of melancholy . Though this article has been devoted to dramas , we will quote one of these sonnets , at the risk of seeming 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 her brows—I saw her wending homewards with the sheaves Heaped on her shoulder , raising her loose sleeves So her white arm like u white crescent shouc , Grasping the rustling curs . 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 seemed to crrow more fair
, r _ r ¦ ¦ ¦ a a \* M bU IIVJI dill Itw t > nil t . > vv ' *<>* - ' ** « " f" > She passing with the twilight beautiful Upon tho mellow sheaves nnd her fair hair . _ t This is a better specimen of tho author ' s faculty than will be found within the limits of hie play .
School Days Of Eminent Men. , School Day...
SCHOOL DAYS OF EMINENT MEN . , School Days of Eminent Men . By John Ti . nbs , F . S . A ., Author of C "' ' ""'" J ^ London , & c . & c . ., .. Mb . Txmus begins at the beginning , and so should we . \\ illinm Conqueror patronized and loved literature . Many ol the JS « Jr """ ° " lates preferred in England by him were polite scholars . '»«"' » " •; Abbot of Croylnnd , is remiirkablo as the first upon record , who \ m » o laid the foundation of his education jit Westminster , procee . ici its further cultivation to Oxford . Whilst ft schoolboy ho had tin B w fortune to interest in his behalf Egithn , ( laughter ol Earl l j um \ to Edward the Confussor i of great Ik-uhiy ¦
queen —» young person knowledge , modest , and of a swuot dinposition . " I lmve often boo « - my childhood , " says tho Abbot Imrul phus , " when J went to u J father , who was employed in the King ' s palace . If « l » o mot » " ° ( "IJ . return from school , she interrogated mo upon my grammar , 1 '"" ' ' . fl ¦ cA ^ nogic 7 "iirwlTich ^ lirwTrs ~^ v e ll vdt'B ( KlT ^ Wrl- ^ lren -5 lioH « i * ' ^»" " » J ~ mo in -tlio meshes of some subtilo argument ., she never iinlou m ^ to upon me tlireo or four crowns by her servant , and to n « ^ have refreshment in tho buttery . " Egithn was gentle and mini who npproueiied her ; those who disliked the somewhat » a \ n i ¦
^ of her father and brother , praised her for not reaemuling mm . ' » ¦ " j ^ , rosam , aonnii Oodiohiiin lMUh « w "—m tho thorn produces the vosc , produces Editha . Female education at this period consisted in "" - " ft | , j and reading . A contemporary describes an accomp lished wwo « sj u n
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10041858/page/18/
-