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aeea / the thinK before at Conrt . The aim of such foola was to talk and l « gh so load Jwt Sb ewof the whole house Bfcould be drawn upon them—that the poete might S L ^ keTiSo w ? HiHg am epigram that would make them talked of , or that the nlaTeca might recognize and point them out in the street . The fashionable ' s great desire was not to seem to resort to the Globe or the Kose , aeif hungry for such vulgar pleasures , but only as an idle gentleman , to waste a foolish hour or so when he could do nought else . Sometimes the gallant went to hiss and condemn an enemy ' s play ; sometimes to appear literary , and induce a poet to dedicate some sonnet to him , to procure his favour and forbearanee . _ If the dramatist was one who had epigrammatized our friend , or brought tas rea beard or thin legs on the stage , his whole action from the first entrance would be Sroftd and contemptuous . At entemce he would draw out ha . three sorts of tobacco SShta S ^ r ^ r pu ! Lg a pack of cards from his hose , fall to Pnmero , tearing up a Smt «* or two in a rag 4 to the astonishment of the pit , just as the prologue
en-X £ X * G €£ * _ .. ... - « i »! t AMx T-j ~ x—i-i __ H the actorwas sitting on the stage , the critic would then bring out his tables / pocket-book ) and write sneeriug notes of pointless passages ; or , in the midst of the play with a screwed and discontented face , would take up his stool to be gone , drawina aw a whole troop of friends , who were lying round him . If he could not get out , or bis companions were mrwilHng to join him , the malcontent would pick tip a rush and tickle the ears of those who sat before him , till they laughed louder than the tragedian could sigh and groan . He would find fault with the music , declare the j « st 9 were stale , whistle at the songs , and curse the manager because one of the actors wore a hat and feather just like that for which he ( the fop ) had but that morning given -40 s . Here is another : — At the end of the performance the actors fell upon their knees and prayed for the health and prosperity of their patrons , or the Queen , a custom retained in the " God save the Queen" that forms the last Hne of our playbills .
Instead of visiting our acquaintances we now send our cards , and instead of actors falling on their knees to pray for the Queen , they print " God save the Queen" on the playbills . KefLeeting readers will notice with some supnse that the pages about Shakspeare are among the weakest in the volumes ; yet even on Shakspeare Mr . Thornburyhas sometimes something to catch attention ; for instance : — It is a staggering reflection that neither Bacon ' s works , nor those of Sir Thomas Browne , or Hall , or Donne , contain one word about Shakspere . A few ^ obscure and doubtful invectives of rivals , a few quoted words , a sneer of Jonson's that even Giflbrd cannot soften down , are all that we can gather from contemporary literature . What did Bacon and Burleigh , statesmen and scholars * think of a poet who turned Homer into a play and made Hector speak of Aristotle ? Was their feeling indifference or contempt ? The scholars' world and the players' world were different spheres , and , perhaps , to Bacon the plays the greasy mob roared at and applauded seemed mere occasional verse that would he forgotten when the curtain fell .
But the very worst chapter in the whole book is that on alchemy , which in an unluck y hour Mr . Thornbury was moved to " cram" for . He knows nothing of alchemy , and yet he writes a long chapter , not on the alchemy of Shakspeare ' s day , but on the Arabian and middle ages alchemists . " Of -alchemy , " be says , " as one of the strangest and least excusable of human ¦ delusions , we treat somewhat largely . " Mr . Thornbury is wrong when he speaks of alchemy as one of the strangest of delusions , and wrong when he tidds , " least excusable , " and still more wrong when , ignorant of the subject , he crowds his pages with secondhand compilation , not laboriously compiled , . and this too upon a subject not illustrating Shakspeare * s England at alL The delusion was very natural and very excusable : nay , when we know that alchemy was the early stage indispensable to the maturity of our chemistry , we learn to apeak of it with respect . But Mr . Thornbury—it is no disgrace to hioi—is unacquainted with chemistry ; he is so purely a literary , and so little of a scientific man , that he speaks of furnaces for calcination , vials ,
crosslets , stillatorics , &c , as " mystical utensils" used by the alchemists . Upon knowledge so slender he should have been more modest ; yet on the next page we find him contemptuously asserting that the alchemical " theory is nofc yet dead ; and theoretical Liebig himself argues , that as men make diamonds they may perhaps make gold . " We know not to what passage in " theoretical Liebig" Mr . Thornbury refers , but are certain there is some confusion in his mind on the point . Men do not make diamonds , consequently Liebig could not have argued from their practice . Moreover , the opinion is now pretty general among chemists that gold rns / y be made , although no one yet has discovered how it is to be done ; and it is to this opinion we imagine Liebig refers . Mr . Thornbury , however , is unfortunate in hi * illustrations ' drawn from chemistry—so unfortunate that we are annoyed he should have vcntured * in that direction . " Who , a century ago , " he asks , " supposed that gases could be mixed and turned into water , or that earth could be formed from water ? " We repeat the Who ? and we ask : Who in this century supposes such things ?
It i 8 unnecessary to continue . Yet at the close of his long chapter Mr . Thornbury , contradicting his previous contempt , exclaims : — Let ua not , however , join the foolish cry , and deride men who , however unsuccessful , however much associated with cheats and quacks , devoted thoir lives with such generous self-devotion , actuated by so noble un aspiration . Juat as the supposed fubles of Herodotus have been found truths , and the legends of Marco Polo honest facts , so may maturer science discover that the alchemist had some Letter foundation for his belief than we can now understand- Who a few yearn since could have credited the almost universal presence of gold in Scotland , Wales , England , and Ireland , in Russia , California , and Australia ? The other chapters are : " Witchcraft "—also poor ; " Wapping in 1588 "very amusing ; " Elizabethan Country Life "—curious as well as amusing ; ¦ " Revels and Progresses ; " and * ' Education . "
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A BATCH OF BOOKS . Wb must announce , and dismiss in a very few words , the miscellaneous publications that have accumulated on our table . They are , for the most part , books addressed to special readers , or books already known and now reprinted , or books aimed at all readers , and not likely to find many . In the special list we have some relig ious essays of an elaborate controversial character . Wo have already referred to the Oxford Sermons preached against Mr . Jowett by Dr . Pueey , Mr . T . D . Bernard , I > r . Kigeaud , the
Bishop of Oxford , Dr . Eteturtley , Dr . Goulburn , Mr . Baring , and Mr . Meyrick , and have to report merely that they have been collected in a formid able volume ( Parker ) , under the editorship of the Vice-Chancellor . Another large and docferkial book is Mr . Donald MaedonafcPs Creation and Fail : a Defente and Exposition of the ^ First Three Chapters of Genesit ( Constable ) . The object of this essay , which the author says is the natural result of his exegetical study of the Hebrew Scriptures , is to establish the authority of the early chapters of Genesis , as literal historical statements in opposition to the philosophic interpretations of them as poems , allegories or the exposition of a mythology . Mr . Maedonald confuses his argument at oace by admitting that every word in the narrative he analyzes is not to be understood , in its proper and grammatical sense . He adopts Mr Holder ' s view that Genesis is an exact history , interspersed with figurative and tropical p hrases . We can promise the reader who chooses to follow Mr . Macdonald ' s discourse , an abundance of learning snore boldly than
logicallyapplied . For erudition , however , no volume that we have lately seen surpasses Dr . Wall ' s third " part" of An Examination of tke Ancient Orthography of the Jeiffs , and of the Original State of the Text of the Hebrew Bible ( Whittaker ) . His intention is to show that the Sacred Text was originally written without letters , or any other signs whatever of the vocal , considered apart from the articulate composition of syllabic sound . As to the reality and value of Dr . Wall's " discovery , " no opinion can yet be formed by scholars , since , in this volume , he has penetrated so profoundly into a discussion on the ancient methods of writing , the cuneiform especially , that he has left himself but one chapter for the development of his special thesis , and has been compelled to reserve bis demonstrations for a separate essay . A new edition of William M'Combie ' s Hozirs of Thought \ ms been published ( Ward ) , with a second edition of The Church of Chiist not an Ecclesiaslicism , by Henry James ( White ) , and an eig hth volume of the Select Works of Thomas Chalmers ( Constable ) . The wild and presumptuous book entitled What is Truth ? or , Revelation its ozon Nemesis ( John Chapman ) , professes to have reached a
third edition . The other new editions in our list are numerous ; some of them are important . Mr . Bonn ' s Library of French Memoirs contains two volumes of The Memoirs of the Duke of Sully , with the Preface attributed to Sir Walter Scott . The edition is to be completed in four volumes , with a minute general Index . A second volume of Quintilian's Institutes of Oratory has been added to the Classical Library . We should be glad to hear that ten thousand persons were engaged in the study of these matchless essays . The Classical Library contains , also , A Dictionary of Latin Quotations , Proverbs , Maxims , and Mottos , Classical and Medi&val , ivith a Selection of Fresh Quotations , edited by H . T . Riley , B . A . It is on a large scale , and seems to have been carefully executed . Blair ' s Chronological Tables , revised , enlarged , and brought down to the Treaty of April , 1856 , by J . W . Rosse , form a useful
addition to the Scientific Library . In the Standard Library we find the completion of M . Guizot ' s History of Civilisation , from the Fall of the Roman . Empire to the French Revolution—a scholarly work , written with much art and power ; but not likely , we think , to obtain an English reputation . Mr . Edward Jesse has edited , for the Illustrated Library , a new edition of Izaak Walton ' s Complete Angler , to which Mr . H . G . Bohn has added papers on Fishing-tackle , Fishing Stations , &c , on which we are incompetent to offer an opinion . As to the Complete Angler itself , Mr . Jesse reminds us that it has been published by six different booksellers—that Scott , Sheridan , Ilallam , Irving , and Lamb have praised it more or less extravagantly—that it has been annotated by Sir John Hawkins , Sir Harris Nicolas , Sir Henry Ellis , Broone , Bagster , and Rennie , and we need add , merely , that the illustrations are numerous and excellent . The concluding volume of The Noctes
Ambrosia-nee of Professor Wilson , edited by Professor Ferner ( Blackwood and Sons ) , has how appeared . We have nothing more to say about these Conversations , which we have not re-read , and never shall . Mr . James Donaldson has affixed to a third volume of The Modern Scottish Minstrel , edited by Dr . Charles Rogers , a comparative criticism on Hellenic and Scottish Minstrelsy . The result of his speculation is , that Scotch songs are unlike Greek songs , which may possibly be true . In connexion with the name of Greece , let us mention once more that J . H . and J . Parker are publishing a miniature Library of Classics , beautifully printed , with brief English notes , for the use of schools . The new volume contains the Ajax , Eleetra . CEdipus Rex , ( Edipus Coloncus , Antic / one , Philocteles , and Trachinee of
Sophocles . As new editions , we must not forget The Lion Hunter in South Africa , by R . Gordon Cuimning ( Murray ) , a cheap issue , including the original illustrations , and Colonel W . N . llutchinson ' s Treatise , which may bo ° Citlled a standard book On Dog-breaking ( Murray ) . It is not merely a book for dog-breakers , but abounds in anecdotes and in general matter , at once instructive and amusing . But the palm , among new editions , must be given to the diamond series , Moore ' s Lalla llookh , Songs and Ballads , ^ a ? id Irish Melodies ( Longman and Co . ) . These three volumes—a dainty sisterhood , clad in pea-green , orange , and blue , and decorated with gold—arc offered in a most enticing form , with frontispieces , for half-a-crown each . Who , then , that loves the melodious poet , will not be possessed of his works , so well printed , on such paper , with such graceful " getting up , " and at
such a price ? Shadows of the Past , by John Patterson ( Edinburgh : Ninimo ) , are legendarv , historical , and funciful sketches , chiclly in illustration of Scottish life , though Mr . 1 ' atterson dares also to write dramatically of Sodom and Gomorrah . ° In The Manchester Papers : a Series of Occasional Essays ( Whittakor ) , Mr . J . D . Morell writes on Modern German Philosophy , Mr . Pyngle Luyne on Veils und Faces , the Rev . W . G . Uurret on Rational and National Recreations , and Mr . Albany Fonblunquo on Circuit Customs . Mr . R . Burchctt has published , iu a separate volume ( Chapman and Hall ) his course of Lectures on Liuxur Perspective delivered at the training school , Marlhoroug h House . The exposition is simple and clear . For students also , Vasei fs Knowledge Made Easy ( Pitman ) , an eccentric Cyclopaedia of " the elements , " ou a miniature scale ; the Seaside Lesson Book ( Groombrid ^ o ) , a manual of marine common things , by H . G . Adams ; and the Neteannper Headers' CoMjiattian , which tells the believing scholar that " a
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Leader (1850-1860), July 5, 1856, page 643, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2148/page/19/
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