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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.
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TWO HISTORICAL DRAMAS . Julian the Apostate , and The Duke of Mercia * Historical Dramas . By the late Sir Aubrey De "Vere . Basil M . Pickering . Ix is now more than nve-and > thirty years since we first perused the historical drama by Sir Aubrey de Vere founded on the story of Julian the Apostate , and recognised in it considerable poetic taste , combined with much dramatic power . There was no attempt at stage adaptation in the work , but the prevailing spirit was that of classical imitation . Tie work was not even divided into act and scene ; the design evidently being a dramatic poem for the
closet—a kind of production then thought proper enough . The form , however , was never popular , and Sir Aubrey Be Yere by this and other similar productions only secured a reputation among aristocratic readers and a few literary friends . "With them ; as a poet , he held , we believe , a respectable position . At any rate , he deserved it perhaps more . t Sir Aubrey De Vere was the contemporary ot Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel at Harrow , where he was educated . In 1807 he married the sister of
Lord Honteagle , with whom lie had formed an enduring friendship . From a boy he had been accustomed to the scenery of the lake country , near Ambleside , and thence ' derived a faculty of description , which he subsequenily exhibited in sonnets on Castleconnelj Adare , JSulmallock , and -Cash / el , which have obtained notice . In sonnet-writing he emulated Wordsworth , of whom he was a friend . Historical and political sonnets also exist of his composition . In 1823 The Duke of Mercia appeared—the second production now published m the volume before us .
This subject is : treated in the form of the old chronicle play , and is divided into five parts , with an introduction . The characters and story are well enough , delineated , and there is much fine poetic dialogue in some scenes . But its construction , in regard to its hero is absurd . He is , in fact , the Iago of the piece , without Iago ' s intellect ; always blundering in his plans , and finding from the first his wickedness to be his weakness ; and yet . claiming the reader ' s sympathy . It is impossible that either pity or terror could be excited for the fortunes of such a hero . Never was such perversity of taste shown as in . such an attempt to excite dramatic
interest . But we must recollect that this was the era of Childe Harolds and Bertrams , and these may have led the imitative author to select a guilty herp , Byron , and Maturin , however , invested their personages , withxpower of some kind ; Sir Aubrey ' s as remarkable only for his imbecility , The above volume is evidently intended to be the first of a series destined to include all Sir Aubrey ' s productions . In 1842 , lie wrote a ' * Song of Faith , " and afterwards ( 1844-5 ) , " Mary Tudor , ?' his jaiost considerable work . He died at Currah Chase , on the 28 th July , . 1846 , in the fiftyeighth yearrof his age . Sir Aubrey De Vere might have been a better
{ oet had . he : been less fortunately p laced m society , t is calculated that lie occupied , about " ten or twelve months of his life , scattered over its various portions , in the composition of his larger works ;"—^ theremainder was spent in the formation of . a library , the cultivation , of the fine arts , and the education of his children . The Muses require a more severe and sincere devotion than all ibis implies . His real devotion , it seemB , was given to the adornment of his family residence , which ,
his biographer ; says , " became one of the fine arts , and was carried out with the eye of a painter , " We must , therefore , regard Sir Aubrey De Vere ' s poetry as the produot of liis leisure- ^ the amusement of hours when he had nothing else ( not to say , better ) to do — and not as the business and labour of a life , saored to high thoughts and the noblest feelings . In this point of view , it has some merit ; and . there mny be an intelligent few who will take an , interest in the collection of his literary remains .
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CHIMING TRIFLES . Chiming Trifle * : a Collection of Fugitive Compositions in Verse , on Subjects Grave and Gray . By an Oxonian . W . Kent and Go . These versicles are what their author describes them In his title-page , and no more . They are trifles by a pupil-mind , trying its powers while undergoing cultivation , and disposed to look on the mirthful side of things . " Down the stream of life , floating idly on , " to quote from one of his own poems , his eye glances here and there , and receives sudden impressions , which his college studies have put him in the way of recording . He has a liking for parodj and pun , for the charade and the rebus , and will probably turn out an agreeable writer of light pieces . _
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RELICS OF GENIUS . Relics of Genius . By T . P . Grinsted . Illustrated . W . Kent and Co , This volume consists of relics of about two hundred and fifty eminent Poets , Painters , Players , and men who have made their mark on the age in which they flourished . As a matter of course , the notices can only be of the briefest description , and the selection of characters limited . The touch-and-go reader who likes to know a little of everything and everybody will find this book very well adapted to give him a good deal of information in a readable and compendious form .
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SKETCHES OF LONDON LIFE . Sketches of London Life and Character . By A . Smith , R . Brough , Shirley Brooks , Stirling Coyno ,. Horace Mayhew , Charles Kenney , John Oxenford , Jnmea Hannay , T . Miller , Angus Reach . With Illustrations by Gavarni . Dean , and Co . These Sketches have alrend y received their meed of praise from the reading . public . They are of unequal merit , but they display very fairly the peculiar style of these well-known light writers . We could wish ,
however , that popular favourites would not so perpetually make such violent attempts at being smart nnd funny , and , above oil , would ovoid tho appearance of making a dead set at the public in their passages of pathos . The stylo of several of tho subjects and characters is too ornate ; more simplicity would give more truth , and would really make these Sketches what thoy profess to be- —correct delineations of various phases of London life . The illustrations of Gavarni have their value , but tho artisthimself foreign— -lino given rather too foreign an air to some of his subjects .
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Wimblewith mixed feelings- ^ sometimes astonished at what appears to be unalloyed nonsense , at . others surprised at the whim and good sense which shine out boldly in different portions of the work , io attempt a long analysis of the story would be a waste of space . We will be as brief as possible . Moses Wimble is the son of an officer of good family , but without fortune . He is sent to England to his uncle , a lawyer , in charge of an old dragoon * named Whistling . His uncle is a vulgar skinflint ; and after a peep into the lawyer ' s domestic arrangements , and a view of the miserable life the young nephew leads , the acquaintance terminates by Moses repaying the brutality of his relative by
MOSES WIMBLE . Mww Wintfth . & . ¦ Prose , Dramatic , and Lyrical Epic . Written by , Himself . 0 . J . Skeot , Tipiw are somo works the purpose of which fairly puzzle the sharpest ; sighted and most tolerant of critics , Itia difficult to know sometimes whether writers assume the garb of eccentricity , the same as offondprfl-. put ion insanity , in order to escape , oxeour tion , or whether tho eccentricity is parti and parcel © rtheijr Uterary idiosyncrasy . Wo have read Moses
knocking him down with an inkstand . Another uncle , the Rev * Obadiah Comfort , of Buttonlump , a perfect Uncle Toby in canonicals , takes Moses into his family , brings him up tenderly , and adopts him as his son . Mr . Snuffpepper , a benevolent oddity in his way , is introduced , and so . is Dr . BoublebuU , a schoolmaster , to whom Moses is sent for scholastic training . When grown up to manhood Moses is allowed to choose his profession . He chooses that of an architect , and is sent into the office of Mr . Weyday , where he becomes acquainted with Stumpy , a pupil of Weyday ' s , and presumed to represent the " fast gent" of the present day . Moses also forms ward Julia
an acquaintance with Mr . Weyday ' s , one Wavering ; and after some time a mutual attachment springs up . A cloud comes over the sunshine that is everywhere visible . The Rev . Obadiah Comfort is accused of forgery , and put into prison to take his trial . He makes a speech to the jury , which is given at length , arid is honourably acquitted . The marriage of Moses Wimble and Julia Wavering takes place , and the curtain drops rather suddenly on the story . There are endless snatches of ballads , or something intended for ballads , the paternity of which we presume will be claimed by the author of the prose , who has evidently emptied his poetical rag-bag into his work .
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1 * THE LEADEB . f No . 458 , Janttary 1 , 1859 .
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rmTTRY BANE THEATRE . Wk have so little space at our command for even the brief review which may be necessary to afford our readers a glimpse of public opinion upon the various pantomimes , that we must waive all pretence to a preliminary flourish of trumpets . The shortest essay upon the rise and progress of pantomime ; the most condensed reminiscences of pantomimic celebrities , from Grimaldi , the past grand master of clowns , to W . H . Payne , thejpr / mo Arlecchino assohcto of the modern stage ; even the slightest meteorological bulletin of this most atmospherically miserable Christmas week , would be all too long . We must , therefore , plunge with what brevity we may into a of the
rather dry and colourless report leading performances , and the particularly prominent features of each . We must begin with prury Lane , the patentest of patent theatres , which has in no wise yielded its hard-won and time-honoured position at the top of the Christmas-tree . Under the constellation of Blanchard , Beverley , and Dykwynkyn , the Drury Lane pantomimes have for years been " very successful . '' This is a term , unfortunately , much abused ; but we believe they have even been so truly so as to have been profitable to the management , which seems to us the height of" very successfulness . " We venture to think the Cerberine authorhood will again bring luck to their employer . They and
have at all events , with becoming modesty , to * guard against any possible insufficiency of their own ,. allied to themselves a host of celebrities in the trick , property , wardrobe , and trans f ormation lines , Avhosenames we have here no room to chronicle , but who figure more or less prominently in the bills . Mr . E . L . Blanchard , the imaginative coparcener , after , we apprehend , many a dubitetive dive into the oft-fished waters of novelty-, has brought up the " Robin Hood" ballads , and with his fellow labourers has reverentially ( though at first sight heretically ) ,. put the worthy of ? ' Merrie Sherwood" arid his following into pantomime harness . To shorten hislabours upon his subject proper and draw safety
from the nettle danger , the cunning craftsman has made sport of his difficulties , and illustrated the agonies of an , author in search of a subject , in two capital opening scenes . The rising of the curtain , displays the Genius-in-Chief of Music in her native halls , attended by her satellites of the Italian Opera , English Opera , and Canterbury Hall . They constitute themselves into what M . Jullien terms " a congress of harmony , " and , after a most harmonious debate , secure a legacy from the old year to the new oneof a full-blown pantomime . The matter is referred to a second chamber , a fairy council holden in a scene a la Watteau of great taste and splendour . Here the dience
Terpsichore revels awhile , and au , having expressed their delight aC what we may ungrudgingly term a triumph of the scenic art , are taken intothe Outlaws' Glade in Sherwood Forest . Hence , after some capital rallies of humour between Robin and his mates , we get to an elaborate scene in Nottingham market-place . Our authors have certainly not read Struttfa " Sports and Pastime 3 "for nothing ; for with > audacious—and , under the circumstances , of course proper—rdisregard of chronology , they havodieplayed their well-disciplined Nottingham roughs enjoying every sport practised in England from tho tali of the Roman legionaries to the Aunt Sally of our modern Somerset . During the festival Maid Marian
is insulted ; bold Robin and his men como to a ( - ference wit * h the townspeople . The civil . power interferes and . a row ensues , which may terminate anyhow but for tho fortunate enlistment of tho forest fairies in behalf of tho Knights of St . Hubert . Green , Man and Still bqing natural and close allies , the foresters are transported to a woodland sanctuary of surpassing loveliness and bliss . But Jto qualify for such a habitation the mortals muet bo changed . So at tho fairy ' s will the pantomime cast appears . Messrs . Bolcno and JJolavanti aro the Cloyons , Messrs , Miluno and St . Maine the Harlequins , Messrs . Tanner and Dolavanti tho Pantaloons , Madame Bolcno and Miss Brown the Columbines , All these , upon tho assumption of thoir tiioir
celestial robes , hop , skip , and jump , in token ot vast delight , and in tho best manner . Tho fun ot tho harlequinade ia really fast and furious . Wo are —thank Henven-r-not too old to enjoy it ; and we found enough of it hero , and to spnro . A britfndo ot Bluecoat-boys could hardly have inspected this pnrt of the entertainment with more critical aoumon than ourselves , and wo are yot ; disposed to flnd no fault , Truly ,, there is nono to flnd , unless . it bo tho substitution of a now comic song for tho luwnu " Hot Codlings . " Tho policeman is punished in flrat-rjtfo style . Tho feqHngs of tho lady who keeps an establishment for younger Indies aro duly outraged , Shopkeepers of aJU sorts and their < ieal « uuus were appropriately insulted , chaffed , and imposed Upon . Tho colours of Old England aro . fliuiMtw * imiid thunders of applause iis " warranted not- to
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How to QAxavuwu mm Vai ^ uh qv NEanoHs .. —A singular but accurate way of estimating jthe price of flold hands may bo found In the price of cotton . For every cent a pound for cotton a field hand will bring 100 dole . ; for instance , the present price of cotton ia 10 to 18 con » f and the price of « negro man ia from 1000 to 1200 ( lols , The price of the latter may not fluctuate aa rapidly as cotton , but lei not the losa certain to follow an advance or decline , of any duration *— / Savannah Republican .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 1, 1859, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2275/page/14/
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