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184 ®!»e %,*&1ftt. [SaTOrday,
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xamartink's new drama. Toussaint Louver ...
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LIFE OF ANDREW COMJJE. T/ie Life and Gnr...
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Merivale's Roman Empire. A History Of Th...
teresting and valuable detail that lay fairly in his way . The one is in his account of the dinner that was given by Cicero to Caesar , not long before the death of the latter . The story of this dinner , which is excellently and wittily told by Cicero himself in one of his letters to Atticus , is pleasantly enough repeated by Mr . Merivale ( Vol . II ., pp . 457-58 ) ; but his spirit of prudery , or his want of keenness of perception , has led him to suppress the real humour of the story as Cicero tells it : —
" On the nineteenth , " says Cicero , as translated by Middleton , " he ( Cscsar ) staid at Philippi till one in the afternoon , but saw nobody ; was settling accounts , I euesa , with Balbus ; then took a walk on the shore ; bathed [ in my house ] after two ; heard the verses on Mamurra [ an Epigram of Catullus satirizing Cajsar and a Roman knight named Mamurra ] , at which he never changed countenance : was rubbed , anointed , and pat down te table . Havine taken an emetic just before [ it
was a custom of the Romans , before sitting down to a formal supper , to take an emetic , that they might eat the more , and Caesar , though a temperate nian , complied with the practice , out of compliment to his host ] , he ate and drank freely , and was very cheerful . The supper was good and well served . * * * In a word I acquitted myself like a man ; yet Caesar is not a guest to whom one would say at parting , ' Pray call upon me again as you return . ' Once is enough .
Now , in Mr . Merivale ' s version of the story the "Pray call upon me again" of Cicero is omitted ; ¦ while the " emetic" is converted into " having made due preparation beforehand for the full and secure indulgence of his appetite , " a clumsy periphrasis , which really submerges an important little bit of information regarding Roman manners , and which is but ill compensated by the " epcTucriv agebat" of the footnote . A still more remarkable example of Mr .
Merivale ' s indifference to the graphic and interesting is afforded by his omission of what has always appeared to us the most characteristic thing ever told of Caesar . "It has often reached my ears , " said Cicero , addressing the conqueror of the world , in the senate house , not long before his assassination , " that it is a saying commonly in your mouth , that you have lived long enough for yourself . " What a profound melancholy this reveals ; what a noble glimpse of the man it gives . In that saying , it appears to us , we have the essence of Caesar . Yet Mr . Merivale omits it , though it must surely have come in his way . "We trust that in his future volumes he will make his text rich in such anecdotes , and graphic tit-bits , and
illustrative quotations . Again , we have to object to Mr . Merivale's volumes , on the ground that they are not pervaded by a sufficiently deep or general philosophic spirit . The thought of the volumes , indeed , is that of a manly and strong mind , it is that of a scholar , it is that of a man deeply imbued with the sentiments of a most admirable school of modern English thought—that of Dr . Arnold ; still something is wanting in this respectmore force , more freedom , more breadth , more boldness , a more lax and comprehensive handling of men and things . In the extract we have quoted , for
example , relating to the influence that Cleopatra exercised over Caesar , it seems to us that there is something like a forced assumption of *• the respectable " point of view . That a woman like Cleopatra should have produced an effect of the kind described on a man like Coesar is , we will venture to say , psychologically impossible ; that she did produce such an effect is , wo believe , histoiically untrue . So , also , in the extract regarding Caesar ' s scepticism , wo have a similar tendency towards the commonplace . W hat arc called superstitious observances — beliefs in omens , fear of ghosts , & c , are , Mr . Morivale should understand , not weaknesses in such a man as Cicsar ,
but real strengths , real superiorities , or , which is tho same thing , manifestations of an overplus of sensibility , triumphs of the greatness of emotion over the littleness of all possible doctrine . Altogether Mr . Merivale ought to have offered us a more profound and elaborate dissection of this portion of Cajsar ' s character ; nor do wo think he would injure his power even as a Christian critic of Pagan men by drinking large draughts of the philosox ^ hio spirit of ft Niobuhr .
lunally , connected with tho deficiency on which wo have just remarked , we notice in Mr . Merivale ' a volumes , a want of enthusiasm , a defect of generosity and historic courage . There is too much of the calm equanimity that will not say anything decisive for fear of seeming to be partial ; too little of tho just abandonment of one ' s self to the impressions of the moment . Thc-ru is u ilexteious avoidance of all Strom ; e . \ juts * inns ; a o .-iv . iLms j ^ oin ;; t <> at . il l ' u >
between Caesar and Pompey ; as if the author were saying to himself all the while , " I am an English clergyman , though a classical scholar ; and I must conduct myself judiciously and warily between these two ancient Pagans , of whom , nevertheless , I do prefer Caesar . " Occasionally this imperturbability , in grave circumstances , is almost provoking , reminding us of the Oxford student , who on being asked , at a theological examination , what he supposed Cain ' s feelings must have been when God taxed him
with the murder of Abel , replied , " Why , I should think he must have felt very much annoyed . " In short , Mr . Merivale , with all his good intentions towards the memory of Caesar , has not risen to the full conception of that great man . If he had , then , instead of speaking every now and then of the " real or affected generosity of Caesar , " which is but a poor device towards appearing impartial , he would have given us , with a bold free hand , a flashing enthusiastic delineation of a true Roman hero . And , after
all , this is the right way in history . Judicial stringency in particulars is out of the question ; one can but give the broad strong impressions . Nor , in doing so , needs one be unjust or partial . He that will paint Caesar generously needs not , on that account , be unfair to Pompey . But Caesar ought to command the veneration of the historian . We know no worthy theory of greatness that the character of Caesar will not satisfy . Indeed , generally , though we will not say that quantity of existence , as distinct from quality , or as
including it , constitutes the measure of greatness , we will say that the historian , in his dealings with the past , and especially with the far past , would do well to proceed as if it were so—venerating most the men that bulk largest in the world ' s traditions . And to these that have still a lingering prejudice against Caesar that no generalization of this kind has been able to drive away , we would offer one advice , for which , we believe , they will afterwards thank us Go to the sculpture department of the British Museum and look at the bust of Caesar that stands in the
corner of the narrow entrance gallery close to the door . It is one of the finest heads we have seen , and it is evidently that of a noble man . It does not correspond wholly with Mr . Merivale ' s description . ( By the bye , what an absurdity it is to describe a man ' s personal appearance at the end of a book about him , seeing that the reader has had occasion to picture the man , as a moving figure , so to speak , all through the story !) The " forehead" is " high , "
but it is also very " capacious ; the breadth irom temple to temple , or , rather , the breadth across the head in front of the ears being , if we remember aright , the most remarkable feature of the skull . But the expression of the face is pain ; it is the face of a man worn by thought and toil , perhaps , as Mr . Merivale says , also by dissipation ; it is exactly the face of a man that had the saying often in his mouth that he " had lived long enough for himself . "
184 ®!»E %,*&1ftt. [Satorday,
184 ®!» e % , *& 1 ftt . [ SaTOrday ,
Xamartink's New Drama. Toussaint Louver ...
xamartink ' s new drama . Toussaint Louver lure . PoOme Dramatique . Piir A . De Lamartine . London : AV . Jell ' s . What demon possesses poets when they write their prefaces ? What grinning , mocking , lying imp sits at their side and whispers the absurdities , mockeries , and lies which they deliberately write down , to move the laughter , scorn , and contempt of their
readers ? If an unhappy lust for notoriety has impelled them prematurely into print , why do they strive to juggle with the reader ' s sagacity , and by apologetic modesty deprecate his censure ? Do they suppose their word is believed , when they condemn themselves ? If half of what they say be in their thoughts , they ought to blush for having printed at all .
Lamartinc is not free from this perversion of truth and modesty . Great as he is , intensely conscious as he is of his superiority , ho is fond of speaking slightingly of verses which he wishes to bo accepted as sublime . In Toussaint Luuverture he has written like a true poet : in the preface he has written like a charlatan . Having put forth all his strength , instead of saying with a manly frankness which would have honoured him , and testified at least that as an artist
he was in earnest , that lie had done his best , ho gives himself Olympian airs , and treats with careless disdain this product of his muse : seeming to say , " This poem which you regard as colossal , to mo is a meie bagatelle . If without effort I have produced sucli a work , what could I have done had I set my whole genius to the task ! " This indeed is tho implied nrro- ' -. HK ' O of all those dcpiVi . 'iitii . 'ri . s we nnjofc v . iili . in
prefaces . If the author had but put forth all his strength . .. ! Lamartine tells us that he wrote Toussaint Louverture in a few weeks of leisure in the country . « I never intended this feeble sketch for the Theatre Franc , ais : I intended it for a melodramatic theatre of the Boulevard . I conceived it with a view to the masses rather than to the refined classes and men
of taste ; and this explains the imperfections of the work . It is an optical effect , and needs the glare of the sun , the moon , and the cannon . " Of course to criticise after such a confession would be idle . Point to a feeble verse , a false image , and an exaggerated sentiment , and the author says serenely , " Very true , but you must read it by the glare of a cannon . then . . . !"
Having written the piece , he mislaid the manuscript . " I regretted it but little , and thought no more about it . " What more natural ? Are not poets proverbially indifferent to their productions ? What could Lamartine care for three hundred pages of verse written during a few weeks of leisure ? Allons done ! puny versifiers may clamour over their feeble works as hens cackle with incubant pride over a single egg ; but Lamartine ! . . . Accordingly the next we hear of the manuscript is in the wine-cellar , where it forms the stuffing of a case of Juranc , on wine . " I did not read it , but threw it in the immense
waste-paperbasket of my verses \ l immense rebut de mes vers ] , where it ought for ever to have remained . But after the Republic an intelligent and inventive publisher desired to purchase a dramatic volume hidden in my portfolio ; I accepted with gratitude his conditions . " Does Lamartine mean that he was glad to publish for money that which he thought unworthy of his fame—that which he says ought for ever to have remained in his waste-paper-basket ? The avowal does not betoken any great seriousness on the part of a poet . But what are we to say to this ? " M . Levy had the right of getting my drama represented ; I regretted that he made use of his right , but I was
forced to submit to this inconvenience of publicity . A few pages before he told us that he wrote the drama for a Boulevard theatre , and that it was not destined for a critical audience . He now tells us that he allowed it to be presented before the most critical of all audiences—a reading public , and " regretted" its representation . "What are we to believe ? Not a single word of either statement , In the same truthful
candour he adds , ' A great actor has veiled the imperfections of the work beneath the splendour of his genius . The public has seen only Frederic Lemaitre ; the author has happily disappeared behind the actor . " Now , imagine a critic to have uttered such an opinion , and then imagine the author ' s indignation ! But it is so modest and magnanimous to place oneself behind the actor , and declare the merit wholly his , on the proviso that no reader takes one at one ' s word ! Nevertheless , we should not like to
be a friend of Lamartine having the credulity to accept his own judgment of his work when , he says that the actors—we beg their pardon . —the " artists of the stage" — -had framed his feeble verses in all the luxury of art , and saved the piece from contempt ; all the praise is due to them ; spectators and readers have only pardon to bestow on him . Charming modesty ! perfect truth ! The whole preface is a curiosity : its flattery of publishers and . actors being about as genuine as its deprecation of any merit in the work itself .
Passing through this miserable vestibule , we have at first some difficulty in believing that the rest of the temple is solid ; and yet solid it is . Toussaint Louverture , feeble as a drama , has incontestible beau ties of the poetic kind ; aud the largo of La . nartine ' s style triumphs over the obstacles of a language tho least poetical in Europe . English readers will doubtless exclaim , ?* It is so French . " It is so . They might as well object to tho rose for being red . A French poet must express the French mind ; and a Catholic tasto will know how to appreciate it .
Life Of Andrew Comjje. T/Ie Life And Gnr...
LIFE OF ANDREW COMJJE . T / ie Life and Gnrrvspondoice of .- / niiruiv Combe , M . D . By ( ieurye Cumt < u . Longman und Cu . Mu . Geokgb Comiiis his done wisely in not heeding the advice of his excellent friends who counselled him to omit from this biography all those details of illness and cure , as well as those abundant notices of phrenology , which , as they truly observe swell out the volume . The advice was excellent ; but is it not alwiiv .-i )> y iulujviny " excellent advice " that wo
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 18, 1850, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18051850/page/16/
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