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THE OPESA . " It is better to begin with a little aversion , " says Mrs . Slipsop , and I am not sure that Mr . < 3 : yo played a bad card wlien ho bogan the season bo badly , for the enthusiasm and delight created by Guillaume Tell was considerably intensified by coming after the coldness of" Mlasan ' wllo and II Ifarhiera . Bo that aa it may , certain it is that on Tuesday evening I felt my old sensations mingling with newer raptures—my nerves trembled , beneath the witchery of music as in days of old they dia whon " going to the opora" was an event , not a duty ! If the English public won !) to the opera for the opera , wo should have William Tell a hundred nighta in
succession ; as it is , let us hope to have it often , aay at loast as often as the Huguenots , so immeasurably inferior to it ! What grandeur thoro is throughout 1 What abounding lifo , and grace , and dramatic movement It is said tha , ii Sophocles wrote tho Antigone at ninety . I wont answer for tH ? e fact , but at any rate his last was also his greatest work ; and so one may say of iWsjfai's 2 V / A How Costa loves tho music ! how ho caresses it , and searches into its seorot lovelinesses , making his orchestra sensible o £ the endivei wealth o £ beauty a ^ u \ effect ! Audi What shall X say of Tamborlik , whose battle I fought when critaso
sudden lightning flashing in your face , as you stand the glorying in the storm ; but high notes , be they never so high , do not ; constitute a singer ; and it was the largo and intensity of his Asile herdditaire which truly showed what a great singer Tamberlik is . It was throughout a triumphant and intoxicating performance ; the passionate sobs of climbing agony in that famous trio are still ringing in my ears , and I begin to think existence not wholly contemptible when one can get occasionallysuch a sensation as that ! I was about to be misanthropical , and write horribly gloomy feuilletons for your melancholy pleasure ; but Tamberlik has once more proved that
at window were cold , and noodles could see nothing in him but one high note , Tamberlik whom-we have seen steadily advancing night by night in public favour , each new part a new triumph , till this , his last creation , has placed him beyond any tenor of our time . Since Hubini was in his prime I have heard no such singing , no such marvellous combination of voice , method , and expression , no such manly tenderness , flashing energy , and large utterance . The C sharp from his chest , in sui-vez moi , I have heard before , and even heard him deliver it with more sustained splendour , though , to say the truth , on Tuesday , it went through me—it was like
One touch of singing makes the whole world kin . And just as entoosymoosy was exhilarant , lo ! the one incomparable Nbrm ' d , the Giulia Grisi of rny constant heart , walks in superb beauty on the stage , saying , with her queenly air , Here is my throne ; bid kings come bow to it ! And how her worshippers prostrated themselves ! Decidedly the opera wears another , and a summerer aspect now . William Tell as a novelty , and Giulia Griai as an ever welcome charm ! With William , Tell two nights a , week and Norma the third , a season might be got through . • ¦ - ¦ ' ' "Vivian .
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FRENCH pLAYk Mat I be permitted to recommend all whom it concerns to take the earliest opportunity of seeing Madlle . Page and Lafont in the Chevalier de St . Georges ' / The play itself , even if considered only as a Frenchified Uncle-Tomitude , with couplets instead of texts , is a welcome stimulant to the rather flimsy repertoire that has prevailed since Easter at the St . James ' s , and the acting of Madlle . Page , as the Countess , and of tafont as the mulatto Chevalier , is a triumph of the most refined and accomplished art . Lafont , always delightfully true , natural , and elegant , betrayed in the bursts of passion which belong rather to drame than t 6 the high comedy in which he usually walks , a feeling and apotver foe which few who nad seen Frederic Lemaitre would have given the lighter
artist credit ( it seemed like a Rembrandt reproduced in water-colours ) . As to Madlle . Page , exquisitely dressed as ever , with her killing eyes , her bewitching undulations of attitude , and n ightingale tones , she takes all hearts captive by the melodiously finished simplicity of her acting , so delicate in the playing lights and tender shadows of its archness , its gaiety , and its pathos . The Italians have the word which exactly expresses the peculiar charm of Madlle . Page , and it is a word I have more than once applied to the art of Madlle . Clauss . It is morbidezza , that softest delicacy which is the very opposite of harshness and angularity , and in which the varying expressions melt and mingle with , no abrupt transition , and no jarring contrast . But I can only indicate here what time and space fail me more fully to explain . E . P ,
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SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS . The display in Suffolk-street this year is remarkable as an exposition of styles . The leading painters are all fairly represented — except Anthony . He is away—withdrawn from the Society—and now at work , for the exhibition next month , on a group of botanical portraiture , which , contains the collected marvels he has scattered over so many fields , and which , in the reality of its luxuriant growth , promises to act on the jaded sense of sceptical habitue ' s , like " the enchanted herbs that did renew old iEaon . " The loss to the society , meanwhile , is not a light matter . Seldom do we find so much truthfulness with such striking peculiarity , as in Anthony's later compositions . Studies of effect are too
often meant for the initiated—a small section of the public , or even of genuine lovers of pictures . Thus , a painter will come to think that no picture of his can bo complete without some incident , which any unmfoxmecL observer would deem foreign . The " artistic necessity" with such painters — and they are numerous — does not include what is probable or suggestive , but is a necessit y begot in the studio . Tho massings of lights and shadows in Rembrandt are peculiar to that master , but they aro generally true nevertheless . Other natural effects , which would all strike us . as true wherever wo mi ^ ht find them , distinguish other great names . But with the mannerisms of merely clover men it is not thus . See how Mr . Zeitter bestows on each of his
compositions a sharp twitch of green , which will " do" for a woman a head dress , or a flag , or a lettuce , or a saddle-cloth , as may happen from its place in tho picture . It is necessary for Mr . Zeitter ' s effect that that particular bit of bright green should appear in that particular place . Never mind whether it bo necessary or not that tho woman should bo so ornamented ! or tbuat a savoy should spring from tho snow-drift ; or that tho rein-deer should have a thing on his back like a green kottlo-holder . There ia tho green ; we wanted the greou , thought Mr . Zeittor , andthere it is . JIpw it is , wo need not trouble ourselves to consider . Woolmer , again , must have a background tho colour of orange Woolmer , again , must have a background tho colour of orange ' tho ri
chips , beginning at the * loft like a curtain , and ending on ght as a wall And he wants a bit of black , to correspond with Mr . Zeitte r's bit of green ; only it ia fair to aay , that tho black always take * somo intelligiblo form . —a mask , or velvet hood , or tiny lap-dog—not mor » in place it may bo , than Mr . ijeitter ' s savoy . Hurlstono a pictures wouJ 4 afford ; many migrant instances . But ho haa dono well this year*—moat admirably in his groat worlr , the " First appearance of Columbus in . Spain . " His name , therefore , shall load us at once to enumerate tho chief pictures , beginnin g with his own , just mentioned . ColumbuB , at tho opor : of tho Iranoiflcan convent of La liabida , meets , tho fir at ntan oi undQrj 3 tamiiinrf tmd licence who will h ' sten . to Jus I ^^ b oP discoyerf .
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VOLUMES OP TEESE , The Patriot : a Poem . By J . W . King , author of " The Emigrant , " &c . John Cliapman Poems , Narrative ! and lyrical . By Edwin Arnold , of University College , Oxford . Pickering jI broken JScho : a poem . Pickering Jjlusin ^ s qfa Spirit .- a Poem . By George J ^ arsland , author of "B ^ generatkm . " ' - Pickering Odds and Ends . , By A . E . Marshall . Pickering Forest and Fireside Sours : Poems . By Westby Gibson .. Second Edition , Aylott & Co
Steen" as we are in refusing the great name of Poet $ o men who have no higher claim than a poetical capacity , it has never been our wont to ridicule or speak harshly of the numerous aspirants who , knowing they have " the dccpm ^ lishinent of verse , " believe they have also the vision and the faculty divine . To write even bad poetry is not , in our eyes , a reprehensible action . It betokens , at least , a love of what is elegant , and a higher ambition than tliat which prompts many more successful men . We should prefer , indeed , not to see what is written , for the most part ; we thmk publication an imprudence , but , after all , it is no more . There are amateur singers whom we should earnestly counsel not to sing in public , Whom nevertheless we listen to with a mud an < i : mitigate 4 pleasure
in a drawing-room ; and , in like manner , there are yerse writers whose verges " form ' an elegant leisure for themselves , fill albums for their friends , and when npt obtrusively circulated in manuscript , serve their small purpose among social amusements ; but Publication—that Marriage with tne Muse ^—as , it has been called , is , like other marriages , a serious affair , anpl not to be under ^ ajcen on the strength of a mere flTrtaJion .. As critics we do not often no ' tipe ' these ^ inprudentpublications ; but when we do , it is never with ridicule . There are things enough to occupy us without our literally wasting time over the ' imprudences of young gentlemen and ladies , who will all learn through the unmistakable criticism of neglect and " unsold copies , " that , ' for the present , at least ,
the Laurel is not planned , which is to adorn their brows . Of the halfdozen volumes placed at the head of this article we are led to say a ' few brief words , not of criticisni so mucli as of grave ancl friendly counsel . To all , indeed , wewoti | d say one sim , ple thing : —Bo not publish verse again . Write it ^—write it ; with all the gmto and sincerity of real love ; but do n 6 t waste nioney , time , patience , ari 4 divine hope in trying to catch the ear of ' a pxiblie only attentive to voices of real poets . jbu are none of you voiced—all of you are but echoes . Sing , ii moved , to sing , but not in public . Mr . King , in the introduction , to his energetic poem , The Patriot , emphatically , and truly as emphatically , denies that this is not a poetryloving age , and refers , in proof , to the fact that not only are the works pf great poets , more re-pubfished , bought , " and read , than ever they were before , but also that never was there "in any period in the history of
literature so mucn trasn in tne distorted semblance 01 poetry , publislied , purchased , perused , find paraded by the press , as at this moment . Every penny periodical teems , with mauqlLn verae-mummery . " Of course this finds readers , or the periodicals would $ bt print it . And if any one doubts whether there is a pub ^ io for real poetry , let him ask the publisher of Tennyson or of the new poet , Alexander Smith . It ia because there is such a public that there is no pubUo for mediocrities . People will read a mediocre poem in a periodical ; they will not read a volume of such ! Mr . | ting , who is one of the proud " Plebeian Poets , " we ad . viae to turn his attention' to pro&e ; he has poetical sympathies , but not the poetical faculty . So , also , must we speak of Mr . Greor ^ e IVTarsland , who , however , will meet us half-way , since lie declares , — '
' * The poet preaches of the coming nV > od , And highest verse is e'er the sternest prose , — The turner upside dipwn ofworjdly things . " A . E . Marshall gjbes ' eve ' n farther , and lays the burden upon , language itself , which he ( or she ) declares incompetent to the task . " But tlioiiglit must struggle through the iron fetter Of speech , which scantily its sense conveys , Else , mighty Sno \ yd <> n , \ would hymn the © better
Than in this feeble tribute to thy praise . " If the great difficulty of Art is thus to be given , up , why not be resigned , and cease to publish P The best of these volumes is Mr . Edwin Arnold ' s ; his verses might have filled a not disregarded ; corner in a magazine or paper , for they have a certain elegant facility not without its charm ; but they are not poems ; they are not utterances of the actual emotions , crowding upon him and demanding expression , nor aro they the musical expression of images actually present to his mind . ; they ar , e echoes , in a word ; and of echoes we have more than , enough .
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A flHfc 9 fe ? 853 . ] ?! Hg fc ^ ADER . 4 Q 5
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Leader (1850-1860), April 23, 1853, page 405, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1983/page/21/
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