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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd March 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 284, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      ; , . -: A TEA-TABLE NOVEL . Tfiepaisy Cham . By the Author of The Heir o / BedeUffe , etc . J- W . Parker . There are two classes of juvenile books ; we do not mean the bad and the good , but the books which are the pabulum of children / woper , and those which are the delight and refreshment of men and women who have long passed that happy moment of life when almost everything that contributes to amusement , charms- To the former of these two classes of readers no doubt Thejfimsif Chain will be found to contain much that is pleasing , and in some sort interesting . To young ladies generality whose sunny ringlets confess to teens , perhaps even to those presumably young ladies who have ceased to count Jbirthdays , the Heir of Redcliffe and the other equally nice and pretty though somewhat lengthy stories which have been flowing from the same facile and agreeable pen are treasures of harmless intellectual recreation . We have heard of a young lady who is in the habit of perusing that bepraised tale continuously and perennially , beginning it over and over again as often as she arrives at the last sentence .

      It is not , for us to suggest how -well-constituted and well-regulated , the mind of that gentle reader must be , how patient , how easily contented , how unsuspicious of ennui . Nevertheless , it is impossible to refrain from imagining young ladies , to whom certain long dialogues to be met with in these pages will seem a little prosy , and who may deem it something more than a labour of love to get to the end of this new and singularly thick production now before us , recounting as it does , without stint 3 the very copious sayings > and the very exiguous doings of a large but not remarkable family of eleven brothers and sisters . Let us see for a moment what it is all about , this Daisy Chain . It opens with some painful excitement occasioned by a fatal accident to ; the mother of the eleven . As the book progresses , we have a sprinkling of births , deaths , and marriages , and an excitin ° - etizsojiem me Duuaing or a new cnurcn in wicked neighbour

      a very - hood , with ehurch-schopls and various other dilettante reforms , chiefly set on foot by one of the eleven aforesaid , whose bereaved father , by-therbye , isvdesenbed asapattern physician .. ; a sort of Lukes M . D * , of our day . Come , PPW j * remorseful voice ; -wluspers , is it fair for any gross and muscular mirid to sitvra judgment upon a book , written , for the enjoyment and edification of a peculiar class of readers , whose feelings it stirs with innocuous emotions ; arid whose little world of incident it so pleasantly and faithfully represented NaiJiobinson Orasoe , ^ Miss Edgeworth , and a few others , are for the delight of aftages and of both sexes ; the Daisy Qhain is more exclusively for fch . e delight of that " epidemic sect" of enthusiastic but severe young devotes , who- are addicted to the cultivatioa of pastoral theology , with the sister sciences of Gothic architectiire and mediaeval upholstery .

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      PORTRAIT OP CHARLES DICKENS . Ary bcHEFFER has just finished a magnificent portrait of Charltss Dickens ; we hear it described as " really a noble picture and likeness . " We are glad to find that it is destined to adorn the Royal Academy Exhibition this year , and we know that it will be welcomed with all the interest and admiration due alike to the subject and to the artist .

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      THE THEATRES IN PAEIS . We extract from the letter of one who speaks with authority a few bits of pungent gossip on some recent performances in Paris : — • • " What I have seen , has "been , -with one exception , uuspeakably disappointing . For example , Ristori in . Mirr& is , to my mind , the greatest delusion ( considering her pretensions ) that ever appealed in public . Personally , she has a very fine profile , but she is too thin . As to her acting , it is the climax of commonplace : vehemently exaggerated in expression and gesture , but always commonplace . The old , old stage-walk ; the raising the voice suddenly , and then depressing it , — the speaking sometimes very- slowly , and then changing suddenly to rapid muttering , — all these wretched cdnvenfckaialifcies she shows in every sentence she Bpeaks . Her actions are

      all of the old kind , too : unnatural , artificial : mere straddlings of the Ieg 3 and outstretchings of the arms , like the classical figures-in Lebrun's piotures . Her face has no medium "between distortion and repose : in short , she is a bad actress , and it is a disgrace to French criticism ever to have mentioned her in a "breath with . Rachel . On the first nigtt of her re-appearance the theatre waa crammed with , friends and claguews : nothing "but shouting , and . recalls , and bouquets , before the play was over , which shows how little of genuinely tragic impression she had produced en the audience . I make all allowances for the dull bestiality of the play , in which , she appeared , bnt she was too fatally commonplace iu it for me to have any tope of her in any other part I am . glad to say that the real piiblic are coming to their senses about Ristori . The second night , when the friends were exliausfced , I heard there was a very poor audience . .....

      "The next failure has been Frederic Lemattre in Henri 777 * - —a dull verse-play , with , a wretched part for Frederic . He did nothing , absolutely nothing , bub appeal 1 in different dresae 3 , and swing his arms about . I would never have believed tliat he could be an absolute nonentity on the stage unleas I had seen it . This lamentable exhibition of a great actor in the smallest possible view of him b , as followed ( at the Gaite ) , the' genuine attraction of the Medecin , dea En / ante . .... The only pleasant dramatic evening , thus far , has been at the Gymhase . Two little pieces , both , produced months ago , and both excellent : Le Camp dts Bourgeoises , a farce , making fun of the present dramatic rage for " Unfortunate Female '' heroines , and Je dine cJicz nut mere , the most perfect and pathetic little one aefc-play since La Toic fait peter , with a charming vein of comedy running through , its earlier parts . Both , pieces were acted to perfection in every part . Tlieiiyun is over now . I would not have ittissed them for the world . "

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      The Great Globe . —Mr . Wyld ' s artists having exhibtied for a whole summer the siege operations on the plateau before Sebostopol , have prepared for tho reopening of " the Great Qlobe itself" on Easter Monday , a dioramic view of tho route , " there and back again . " Hamburg , BerJuB , Dresden , Prague , Rntisbon , Vienna , Buda , Pesth , and tho Hue c * f the Danube , are introduced on the \ vuy out , and on the way home , tho Adriatic , Rome , Venice , the Lago Mlaggioro , Monto Rosa , and other haunts of pilgrims ia aearoh j of the picturesque .

      Untitled Article

      Warlastpn , Lincolnshire ; and this little painting , to be found on the fourth screen , 1 S quite equal to any of his other half-dozen productions . * f ^ onS ^ landscapes are several that would make themselves conspicuous m [ the exhibition of the Royal Academy . The Williams family aPe con . tributors of the best . Mr . E . C . Wil Jams revels in moonlight , and ? we Zf . r // . "dl ^ lous t'tle s such as the following - .-In . the Highland majestically arises the Lunar Majesty of Night . A night scene , Moonrtel Hastzngs , by this artist , is remarkable for a fine study of clouds . Mr G A Wr ^ tAMS sticks to his famous yellow dawns and ev enings . In the MaZ ' ste ' s " * 7 W > » « piece of hold Wscape-painting , as rich in colour and 1 natural m its arrangement as any landscape of Cuyp ' s . Mr . H . B . Willis paints cattle to perfection . His Morning Rest in Ploughing Time displaysI Mr !?* , ° * ea s »<* ^ Sidney Coop . h might be proud to acknowledge Id M ? f ^ S ^ -the 1 lastes P ecial ^ - ^ coat » b ^ d works of merit and Mr . A . W . H . Hunt deserves notiee for a forcible though rather too rough piece of la . ndscape- -paintiag , called A Summer Eve by Haunted Stream , with a bat flitting across the twilight solitude , in a verv spectral

      , # ' & : ^ EXHIBITION OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION . * * \ , ™ : 1 ? et * ve disagreeable duty at once and say that this is the worst e ^ 51 ^ tl ? u of pictures we ever Saw in the Portland Gallery ; therefore , the worst weaver saw anywhere . We glance down / whole columns of the catalogue , and caii , only , bring to xnind a doleful recurrence of bad pictures . The landscapes and a few small works of genre , by Provis and Pasmore , nearly : S 5 K * J ¥ * - the stock of redeeming merit . We looked confidently to the name •^¦ cf tHV ^ R , ? . 1 * tor some reliefin this evil case ; but the two pictures by Mr . B . Laubek , and the three by Mr . J .: Ladder , do not , even from the dismal backgrounds show with any brilliant or impressive effect . For anything comparable with the picture of the Glee Maiden , from the Fair Maid of ejrtfi , exhibited last season by Mr . R . S . Latjdisk ( the president of the lnstaut ^ on ) , it is vain to search . While the leading members are behindhand in the number and character of their specimens , it is impossible to escape a conviction that the " promising men" of some five years since have gradually receded from their pledges . Again , we have to regret more than one secession

      — that , lor instance , of Mr . Glass , an artist of singular inventive ^ T We& tt flP 083 ' ^ " ^ in various degrees , all . the qualities that make a painter , Mr . U . R . Campbell has nothing ; Mr . Marshall Glaxton , nothing ; Mr . DtTKES , only one tolerably well-painted piece of common-place , called The Wanderers , Mr , M'Ian , to whom the term " clever" applies with shocking fitness , would have been a godsend in this dearth of ordinary ability ; but we ^ mss also the M'lA ^ patronymic from the alphabetical list of artists . So * ^> , Pu * S out of sight for a moment the respectable works of the two ^ S ^" * , ¦ Phasing , but small and unimportant , pictures of Pasmoke ami Provis , the subject-paintipg ia left , this year , in the hands of Bahr / vud , ^ dleton , RosaiTER Watt , W , A . Smith , JBiwuklev , Parker , Wtacy Marias , andtlje less-known crowd of bad painters who ore to be found only at this exhibition .

      the greaj picture , superficially speaking , is Mr . J . E . Lauder ' s James K- flB » f / ie ? team Engine—the Dawn of the Nineteenth Century . The cuxeMault lies xn the disproportion of space to matter . There is a loose-Jipabed giant , sprawling across a vast field of Vandyke brow ^ i , and there is a x ; raod j . of a steam-engine , with its furnace ; and th&e is a table with P . W :.. ?* - 'l >? s * fttl [ niP » t * and a lanipj but all these objects , i » cludinf » tho & * & do not fill half the picture , the prevailing idea of which seems o ? ' ^ u ¦ .. « 8 JP | Wk . Mr . Jk E . Ladder ' s two other wovks are mere atuaiesj the in ^ t , of 4 » ola * Jew , very chamctedstic , and equally hideous : * &f ^ . V ' ° a «**» " * ¦¦*«« ^«» y Tr aquar . Mr . IR ? S , Ubdhb r * % f \ y } lxe m Pre ambitious and successful of the two artists , exhibits ' hlip ^ KPi * - n ° ^ VeTy Pretendin S nor very attractive , and an exterior study

      m \\^ P' - ' a ^ T ' Wltl * aoxw effective points of surrounding scenery . Me seven small works exhibited by Pasmork arc of pretty equal merit . . JAey are wmfytar . painted , as ave his pictures invariably ; and they have , at ^ a ^^ w ^ V , , ntlPre for 9 e ftad chamcter than such works ordinarily dis-S ^ y ^? i Old ^ hQna to be Verier to Gob oall's , for instance , and that ES ^^ 0 ' 11 artl )? t d < 3 l'ive ^ ow best inspirations from the SSffiS ;^^ ^ J V * ' PROvis has this season a Watteau ca ^! iSS ^ &y ^ i ta ^^ * ^ ftnn « v ) , showing a group of gaily plumed y » uera ,, aau ^ m ^ twai . da ^ s , on tho terrace of tlio old Manor House

      manner

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      ' *** . T H E L E A D E R . rNo . 313 , SATU 1 tDAt ,

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      Enqlish " Insulauity" iut Pbess . —On tUo oontinont of Europe , genorally people dross according to their personal convenience and , inoliuatioua . In that capital whioh ia supposed , to sot tho fashion ia affairs of dress , there is an especial independence in this regard . If a niau iu Paris have an idiosyaoraoy on tho subject of any article of attiro betweon his hat aud his boots , he gratifies it without the least idea that it can bo anybody ' s affair but his ; uor doca anybody else malco it his affair . If , indeed , there "he anything obviously convonient or tasteful in the peculiarity , then it soon ceases to bo a , peculiarity , and is adopted l > y otherB . If not , it is let alone . Iu the meantime , the commonest man iu the streets does not consider ib at all essential to his character aa a true Freuohnaan , that ho should howl , stavo , jeer , or othorvviso make himself offensive to tho author of tho innovation . That word haa coaaod to be Old Boguoy to him sinoe he oeased to bo a serf , and ho leaves tlie particular sample of innovation to oomo in or go out upon its morlts . Our strong English , projudioo against anything of * this kind that is now to tho oyb , forms oho of our decided insularities . It is disappearing before the extended kuowlodgo of other oounfcrios oouscqueut upon stoam and eleoU-ioity , but it ia not gono yot . The hermetically-sealed , black , stiff chimney -pot , a foot and a half higli , whiob wo call a hat , ia genoraljy admitted to bo neither convenient nor graoof ul ; but , there are very few middle-aged gentlemen witkjn two hours' rosveh of tlio Royal Bxohftngo , who would bestow their daughters on widoawakos , Hbwovor c » timabl « the wearora . — Household Wordt .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 22, 1856, page 284, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2133/page/20/