Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 17th May 1851, Edition Town of 1, Page 466, Untitled Article

Page 466
Page 14
14 of 24

On this page

  • Departments (1)
    • %\\tnmn.
  • Text (10)
  • 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.

      Untitled Article

      Among the smaller vexations of . Literature- —the gnathites of our woes—not the least is the ridiculous figure we are sometimes made to present through Errors of the Press . Ignorance and affectations , against which we loudly protest , are fathered upon us by these misprints . Leigh Hunt has been a great sufferer in this way ; the more so , because his numerous peculiarities have as it were shut out the charitable supposition of possible misprint 5 and we remember one occasion

      where " the moon is at her silvertys" was fiercely stigmatized as a " Huntism" ( and warmly defended by kind Laman Blanchard , whose friendship stood by you even through , the most glaring of errors ) , Leigh Hunt having written the innocent word " silverest , " which was distorted into " silvertys . " A very ludicrous instance occurs in most if not all the editions of Pausanius ( X . c . 12 ) , where the Sybil declares that her mother

      was a Goddess , but her father an eater of Whaleswcitjso ? £ e KrjT < Hpotyoio . A phrase which delighted the commentators , as it gave them such margin for their stupidity . Dindorf saw that it was a slip , and transformed it into <^ e / c aiTotpccyoio— " an eater of bread " instead of an " eater of whales "breadeater being the obvious periphrasis for mortal . ( Homer somewhere makes the remark that the Gods do not eat bread nor drink wine ) .

      Among the many ludicrous misprints that have come to our knowledge is one where the authoress of a sentimental novel wound up a rhapsody on love with this sentence : pour bien connaitre I ' amour , il faut sortir de soi— " to , know what love truly is , we must go out of ourselves ; " which the printer transformed into the very equivocal phrase , pour Men connaitre Tamour , il faut sortir le soir— " to know what love truly is , we must go out o' nights" !

      So long as these mistakes are confined to your own language there is a chance of their being at once perceived to be misprints or slips of the pen ; when they occur in a foreign language charity is less liberal : there errors look like ignorance . We were amazed to find the amount of provoking errata in Bulwrk ' s admirable novel Nujht and Morning ^ ht ~ tW last and cheap edition just issued by Chapman and Hall ) , where the scraps of French would drive a Frenchman mad ; but it

      consoled ua for the mistakes winch not unfrequently creep into the header in spite of all our care . Last week our sins were too numerous to specify ( excessive pressure and hurry the cause ) ; but one blunder in Vivian ' s paper must he noticed , for being in Latin it stood out more prominently—it was nothing less than making Truth a man , when all the world knows that she in essentially feminine !

      Mat / is amicus Veritas , the printers would have it , and so it went forth . To be sure printers are not bound to he classical ; and that is why they insisted on Haying tliut the " Sybil was burning her Hooks I" Now we say , if 15 iji , wi : k can be pardoned his errors in a book which goes leisurely through the press , how much more excusable are we who have to gallop to catch the mail !

      Untitled Article

      " The public has been quarrelling for the lanl twenty yearn , " said ( jIoktiiio to Kckkrmann , " as to which is the greatest—Scium . kr or J ; they ought to rejoice that they know two men worth quarrelling about . " We have always fell , the same with regard to Dickkns and . Tiiackk . ua y , whom the public and the critics aro for ever contrasting , as if two such writers were not to he relished and admired , quite irrespective of their relative merits . It ih idle to get up paitizanship , to take Hides where no rivalry proporly exists . That Dickkns and Tuackuua y both publish comic novels in parts is no ground for a ( iuelf and ( jihibelino division of literature ; their minds move in different orbits ; their works appeal to different tastes ; their guniuN is undeniable , their power imrrionise ; why should

      n ot each find his public without creating parties ? The critics will not have it so , however . The temptation is too strong . In the Prospective Review and the North British Review , there are two papers on these writers , which we read with inte * rest , especially the latter , but which left behind them the unpleasant impression of there being no hope that criticism would quit its present route , and be content to enjoy the excellence of both writers . It must be owned that Critics are like Camels—they trouble the water before they drink it !

      Untitled Article

      The brilliant authoress of Azeth and Amymone has at length brought out her novel of Realities , about which gossip has been so busy during the last few months . Publishers were alarmed , and friends sided with publishers in endeavouring to dissuade Miss Lynn from putting forth so daring an onslaught upon received opinions and social abuses ; but , firm in the conviction that it is the author's duty to express what his soul assures him is the truth—and to suffer for that truth any amount of pain or social disesteem—she was not to he terrified or deterred . We have not read the

      work , but a young lady who carried off our copy has returned it with the most emphatic and eloquent expression of her delight in its " intensely true and interesting picture of life , and its noble writing . " Next week we shall see how far our judgment leaps with that of the fair critic . Meanwhile we give an anecdote , familiar enough to some circles , but perhaps new to the reader , respecting the history of this book . When it was known that Miss Lynn had completed another novel , two publishers , eager to obtain it , bid against each

      other as at an auction . She finally . accepted an offer . The sum was to be paid before the MS . was seen ; to be paid in fact on the strength of her reputation . When the publisher called to receive the MS ., as he was handing her the cheque she said , " No—you shall not buy thus in the dark ; read the book : after that , if you are willing to pay this sum for it , well and good ; if not , our bargain may be considered as cancelled . " The publisher gladly availed himself of this delicacy—and after reading the book declined it .

      Untitled Article

      In French Literature nothing noticeable but the reprint of those articles Dhaocratie et Christianisme , which caused M . Jacuues to be removed from his professorial chair . And the announcement of a new pamphlet by Louis Blanc , Plus de Girondins ! French Literature indeed has come to England . Not only is Jules Janin sent by the Debats to write interminable sprightly periods about us and

      our royalty—and Frenchmanlike to see little more than French expositors at the Exposition and French painters at the Exhibition—but that gigantic and most successful enterprise the Illustrated London News publishes a journal in French , counting among its contributors Micky , Ali honsk Kahr , E . 1 ) . FoituiTKK , Julkk Janin , Sec , and presenting a most agreeable miscellany to accompany its woodcuts .

      Untitled Article

      MRS . NOllTONH NO VIC ! ,. Stuart of Itunlritt / i : ; i Novel . By t . ho lloiiouiubhi Mih , Norton (' ollitiiii . A novi ' . l of which you can read every page js a rarity , and such a rarity is Stuart of Dunleitth . In spite of tin ; constant melancholy there is nothing like monotony in it ; in spite of the want of

      freshness and originality in the story , there is nothing like wearisomeneKH in any part of it . So truly art ; the characters drawn and contrasted , so beautiful is the language , no tender , devout , and thoughtful the running commentary , that from first page to laHt you read without an impulse , to skip . Wo havo said that the hook wa « melancholy—it is ho both in incident and tone ; but it is bright

      with genial pictures of human loveableness , and has not a tinge of misanthropy in . its sorrow . Where shall we find more charming people than Lady Margaret Fordyce , Eleanor , the Duke of Lanark , and his pretty coquettish Duchess ? They positively make one happy ! Stuart himself , though his conduct is weak—inexcusable—never loses his hold on our affections ; and even Sir Stephen Penrhyn , brutal though he be , has a certain manliness and strength which lift him above contempt . Godfrey

      is a character admirably designed and admirably carried out : a stern , harsh , upright , intolerant , and intolerable pedant , whom , however , Mrs . Norton , with fine discrimination and sense of truth , has not made more than a pedant : he has good feelings and good principles , to which he sternly regulates his life , and wishes to regulate the lives of others . He is an upright man , not a right man ! Several of the touches by which the depths of his character are laid bare , betray the hand of a fine observer ; nothing can be better than his insisting that his baby should be " corrected " because it cried when it was

      brought to greet him on his return , whether it remembered him or not . The class of men typified in Godfrey Marsden is so numerous , so unloveable , yet so arrogant , and wears so austere a shield of moral assumption , that we consider the exposure of the character in this work a positive benefit to society ; the more , because Mrs . Norton las not swerved from justice , nor descended to caricature : she gives him all the credit that is due to him , and shows how narrow , petty , ungenerous , and unlike the thing it believes itself to be , this domineering pedantry really is .

      As a portrait gallery , Stuart of Dunleath will be universally admired , for there is something Shakspearian in the delicacy and depth of many of its observations . We insist on this point , because our readers know the constant objection "we have to raise against the novelists in their delineation _ character ; and it is a treat so rare and dainty when we can meet with truthful handling of character , that we must be pardoned a little enthusiasm over it . Writers recklessly pillage the circulating library for characters and incidents , then " wonder " at us

      if we yawn over tlie crambe recocta . They start with a dim unconscious theory that Life is somewhat as represented on the Stage and in Three Volumes , and drawing from the models found there , assure you they have " copied from life . " Mrs . Norton is notof these . In the art de conter there are defects to be noted , in the incidents there are reminiscences of other novels—but in the observation of Life and Human nature , no less than in ^ the remarks which are profusely scattered through these volumes , we detect the unmistakeable evidence of an original mind—of an eye that can see for itself , unassisted by the spectacles of others .

      Were there space at our command we could qviote some charming extracts to confirm our praise , hut we must send you to the book itself . You know our praise is not given carelessly .

      Untitled Article

      TAYJLOlt ' s MAIIOMMKDANISM . The History of Mahommedanism and its Sects . Hy W . Cook Taylor , LL . I ) . The Third Edition . J . W . l ' arker . This lamented author of this work has bestowed upon it the same labour and research that characterize his other contributions to our historical literature , and the same clearness of statement that have won for those contributions their popularity . Sufficiently orthodox to estimate the defects of Mahomrnedanism , and sufficiently liberal to appreciate its merits , Dr . Cooke Taylor has shown himself , iu the present , history , an impartial and enlightened critic ; and this , combined with the

      liveliness of his manner , renderH his hook as instructive as it is interesting . Dr . Taylor's acutenesH and learning would not permit him to follow the herd of indiscriminating writers , and to pronounce the religion of Islam a haro forgery and imponture . He holds it , on the contrary , to be an heretical lonn of Christianity ; and ho shows clearly and fully the portions which it has derived from that religion , and those' which have been added by itH author and Ihh succesHors . lie points out also

      the distinction that iiniHt he observed between the pure system promulgated hy Muhommed , in the first instance , while living in seclusiou and ohHeurity at Mecca , when the fervour of devotion and the ardour of reformation were l " renh upon his mind ; and that which he wet forth when the basin of bin power became ( irmly eHtablinhed at Medina , and the * exigencies of state craft required un accommodation of hin views to the worldlinesH and corruption of those whom ho wished to gum over to hia cause . Of theao two KyBtems , tho more barbarous and

      %\\Tnmn.

      XiUniVLXt .

      Untitled Article

      Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

      Untitled Article

      t 466 &f ) CiLeatret \ [ Saturday ,

      Untitled Article

      Jn the Art-Circular we observe a proposal to institute a general subscription , as Shakspeare ' s Pence , for the purpose of erecting a building in the metropolis to be adorned with illustrations from the works of Shakspcare .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 17, 1851, page 466, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1883/page/14/