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No. 38ft August 15, 1857.] THE JLEAPEB. ...
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r-riHes are not the legislators, but the...
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— ? The prizes for tie best Wellington M...
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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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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No. 38ft August 15, 1857.] The Jleapeb. ...
No . 38 ft August 15 , 1857 . ] THE JLEAPEB . 765
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R-Rihes Are Not The Legislators, But The...
r-riHes are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not CntlC jnake ^ faVs-tliey interpret and toy to enforce them— . Edinfiwr ^ A Renew . *
— ? The Prizes For Tie Best Wellington M...
— ? The prizes for tie best Wellington Monument Models having this week been awarded , a question of considerable public importance naturally arises . Will any one of the successful designs be accepted by the Government for the national monument to be erected in St . Paul ' We have hitherto abstained from criticizing the exhibition , mainly from the belief that none of the models would be chosen , founded on the strong conviction , which seems to be shared by the critics and the public generally , that none of them were at all worthy of the occasion . Considering the amount of partisan feeling excited on the subject , the unanimity that prevails on this point is remarkable . Those act of with
who clamoured for the competition as an justice , now agree those who from the first opposed it as useless , that the result is an utter failure . The evidence for such a unanimous judgment must be , as it certainly is , decisive . As you walk down the avenues of models in Westminster Hall , you feel that , notwithstanding the superficial variety of decoration ^ a dreary , mediocre / hopeless monotony reigns throughout . ¦ The total absence of anything like simplicity , power , and originality is remarkable . While commonplace ideas , dimly realized and badly expressed , feeble conventional sentiments dissipated to inanity in the attempt at utterance , abound , you look round in vain for any design showing marked strength and concentration either of thought or feeling . The majority of the models
are weak , affected , and ambitious , the authors having vainly laboured to produce an' effective Whole by the multiplication of insignificant parts . This poverty of thought comes out in a poverty of invention . Some critics , unable to praise the power or beauty of the models , have celebrated their striking variety , but the remarkable thing , as already noticed , is really their essential sameness . The general idea for a great monument , according to the exhibition , is that of a heavy , shapeless mass , covered with light , extravagant , fantastical decoration . The lighter forms of this general type—where the decoration prevails over the mass—are good designs for French clocks ; like No . 50 , for instance , where the absence of the dial-plate is actually a surprise . The heavier forms , in which the mass is altogether superior to the decoration ,
look like bonbon-boxes or West-end bridecakes ; and you soon forget the decoration in the anxiety to know what is inside , a desire' partially gratified , in more than one instance , by a latticed door left ajar , through which you get a tantalizing peep of the show . The materials of the decoration are equally monotonous . After the Duke himself , who is , of course , always , or nearly always , present , the chief monumental figures selected by the artists are lions and dancing-girls , intended , perhaps , to typify strength and loveliness , beauty and the beast ; but the strength is weakness , and the beauty passee . About eight out of every ten of the designs have one or more lions , and nineteen out of every twenty one or more dancing-girls . But such beasts as the lions are ! You search in vain for any trace of the genuine
British lion amidst that crowd of weak , pompous , and sentimental brutes , who look more like undertakers' mutes hired for the occasion than anything else . Being incapable of real grief , their faces are pulled into every variety of decent or distorted grimace , in the vain attempt to represent a becoming hireling sorrow . Take the first ten designs for example . Eight have lions , of which a specimen will be enough : —No . 2 . A pair of feeble , antiquated beasts , incapable of any feeling stronger than vanity , whose pinc and withered faces are sniffed up into a weak expression of self-importance . No . 3 . After the funeral and maudlin drunk . No . 4 , fortunately , has a violent toothache , so that the official grief has a touch of real pain . No . 7 , A spasmodic beast , evidently overdoing his part by simulating the last agonies of dissolution No . 8 . A weak , conceited lion , suitable for a small tea-party . But enough ! There is a bright vermilion lion rampant over a corner shop in Parliament-street ^ as you go down , that for power of expression beats the whole menagerie of maudlin , affected , mangy brutes in Westminster Hall .
But the dancing-girls are far more numerous than the lions , three , five , or seven of them being found on most of the monuments , while many literally swarm with them . They occupy every point and corner , and are represented in every possible attitude— sitting , standing , lying , dancing , sprawling , tumbling , flying . They arc dressed in all kinds of costume , and bear in their hands various symbols of triumph , such as the palm and laurel crown . The most common of these symbols , however , is a thick bunchy wreath . So numerous are the girls and the wreaths , that by the time you get to the bottom of the row , you are heartily sick and tired of them , and fully sympathize with the Ame
rican traveller of whom a story is told in this month ' s Blackwood . The American having just loft Florence , encountered , not far from the city , an enthusiastic traveller who lookod forward with delight to visiting its celebrated galleries . In reply to his passionate inquiry , " Of course you were in raptures with the 'Venus do Medici P '" tho Yankee coolly said , " Well , sir , to tell you tho truth , I dou't care much about those stone gals . " The corps de ballet in Westminster' Hall aro ' stono gala' and nothing more , showing but too plainly in many oases , by their very . expression , tho olass fvam which they were modelled . A striking instance of this degraded expression is given in design No . 10 , wUioU most unaccountablyJias received , a prize—tho fourth , of
two hundred pounds . Here the Duke , clothed simply in a sheet , is standing between two maidens , designed , no doubt , to typify Fame , Temperance , Constancy , or the like abstractions ; but which do in reality represent something very different . The Duke , who has a mild , amiable , rather puzzled expression , is obviously in Macheath ' s position when . Ltjcy and Polly Peachum visited him in Newgate , and fully sympathizes in the burden of his song , only the sculptor has represented the action a little later . Having made his choice , he turns away from the one , and presses stealthily the finger-tips of the other , who is about to lead him off in triumph . To prevent all doubt , the expression of the girls' faces fully interprets the situation . While the one who is abandoned gives way to a petulant burst of tearful disappointment , the countenance of the other wears a significant expression of lazy triumph and indolent delight How a design , so deficient not only in beauty and power , but in comit is
mon good feeling , should have gained a prize , is a mystery . Altogether , perhaps , the worst libel and weakest caricature of the Duke in the exhibition , and that is saying a great deal , for he is lampooned in the most reckless manner by the rival artists . Not to speak of expression , which is of every kind but the noblest , and of every degree but the highest , from tragic intensity to drivelling impotence , or of attitude , which varies from the tossed head > extended arm , and projected foot of the theatrical conqueror , to the bent form of extreme old age , look simply at the matter of dress , and see how ingeniously he is burlesqued . The artists have clothed the old soldier in every variety of costume , savage , classic , mediasval , and modern ; from the simple blanket of the Red Indian to the ermined robes of the English peer , classic drapery , however , being rather preferred , perhaps , as Putich wisely suggests , ' to show the simplicity of his mind . '
The other prize designs , though certainly better than the one we have tefeired to , are not better than many others that have gained no prize—they are not marked exceptions to the common run , except , perhaps , that on the Whole they have fewer maidens and lions than most . Look at the first , No . 80 , for example . Here the leading figure is that of a warrior in a helmet , short cloak almost invisible , and sword , with one leg badly modelled and very prominent , crossed over the other . It is appalling to think of what that figure would become on the proposed scale . " For the rest , the conception
is poor and common enough . Take the second prize . No . 56 . Tins is rather more simple than many others , but shows neither originality nor power . The three great spaces presented to the spectator , which form the mass of the monument , are simply blank space . There is a figure of the Duke , half asleep in a chair , at the top , and four matrons sit at the corners below , intended to represent Order , Energy , & c ; but , as the Guide Book for once truly remarks , " In Energy we only see a lady with a large walking-stick , and in Veneration a demure woman with a crown on a cushion . " The-third' prize , No . 36 , is rather
original , and pretty ; but even here we have the maidens and lion , only the maidens are fewer and the lion rather more respectable thau usual . One maiden has the conventional bunchy wreath ; the other , in her character of angel , closes a door with one hand , and lays the forefinger of the other on her lips to enjoin silence . This figure is pretty , and the action aud expression would be significant in a nursery-maid closing a bedroom door , for they say almost as plainly as words could , " Hush ! don't wake the baby . " Bat on the national monument of a great hero , such a merel y pretty figure , with such a paltry action , would be simply contemptible . The girl's expression is at best the sentimental pathetic , as that of the lion is the sentimental intense .
We cannot believe that any of these prize models will be accepted by the Government for the monument to be erected to the Duke in St . Paul ' s . This would be , in fact , little short of a national calamity . We have to erect a monument to "the greatest general of the age , in the noblest cathedral of tho laud . It is pre-eminently a national work , which need not be hurried , but which must , at whatever cost , be well done . We want a monument in harmony with the grand simplicity of the great Duke ' s character , and with the style of the church in which he is laid ; and for such a monument the nation will not grudge a reasonable sum . For a paltry , conventional work , any sum , however small , is too large . Better have a single slab , and write " Wellington" upon it , than such a monument . But for a great work , the very sight of which
should inspire all who look upon it with noble thoughts and elevated feolings , scarcely any reasonable sum would be too great . Is it impossible to secure such a work P We believe it is not , and that the nation may yet have a monument worthy of Wellington and of itself . What docs it matter whether the work be English or foreign , or who does it , so that it be well and worthily done P That is the great question for the Government to consider , and the nation will not be satisfied with any partial or one-sided decision . The public ask , and expect to have the best work , and if tho steps hitherto taken have not produced a design worthy of tho occasion , they have a right to demand that other means be tried . Wo need not at prosont state more explicitly what those means are , but wo shall carefully watch tho proceedings of the
Government , and if need be , return to the subjeot . The death of Mr . John Wilson Choker , which took place on Monday lost , had it happoncd twenty years ago would have been a loss to periodical literature , but can scarcely be considered bo now . A speech of Mr . Guokku a in favour of tho Duke of York in 1809 made his fortuno as a public man , but after twenty years of successful parliamentary life ho retired from politics in disgust on the passing of tho lleform Bill in 1832 , having opposed it at
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 15, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15081857/page/17/
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