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    Untitled Article

    We turn to a work which , having been published little more than twelve years , is not yet much known . We allude to ' Joseph and his Brethren / It is entitled a Scrijrttiral Drama , a class of composition which , including , as it does , all mythologies , " is most favourable to the just presentment of the thoughts

    and feelings of man in a wild and wilful state of nature , as well as to the impassioned pathos of the story itself . "—Preface , p . 1 . We do not notice this fine poem in an article devoted to dramatic literature , because we think it dramatic in its construction , far less capable of being adapted for representation ; but because , notwithstanding careless and hasty composition and

    inartificial arrangements , evidences of power are stamped on every page ; power , of every kind requisite to create the finest order of drama . The Bible story is followed very closely , and the time included extends through the whole life of Joseph , from the period when he began to excite the jealousy of his brethren , till he made ready his chariot and went up to meet

    Israel , his father , to Goshen . " Whether it be , that the simple narrative of this catastrophe , as told in the Bible , is incapable of being equalled ; or that it is so endeared to us by recollections of the days when our childish ears drank it in with eager attention , that we cannot appreciate another ; the poem fails iti our estimation in that part where Joseph makes himself known to his brethren , and in that which relates how

    they told their father , " Joseph is yet alive , and governor dver all the land of Egypt . ' \ Vith these exceptions , the history is finely developed , and is embodied in poetry rich in natural magery of Patriarchal simplicity and grandeur , fresh as if it lad been conceived , —

    " In the dim age when yet the rind of earth , Unworn by time gave eagqr nature birtjh , Zealous to furnish what the seasons wore , That in a vigorous brightness flourished ; When light and dark and constellations brig ht . The splendid Sun , the silent gliding Moon

    Governed men ' s habits . "—p . L THesp are the opening lines of the drama . The fijest sv ^ ning $ tjhus exquisitely introduced : —> " The shepherd , beats his bell ; the tranquil herds , Lowing obedience from the , freckled spring , Slow wind the , hill ; and in ttair staked fqjcb , , the

    pnuff the fre . im straw a # d . s ^ nt kee&ej ; wi ^ J Crook tfyeir sjeejc' knees to w ^ Jccjme , nijjn ^ ^ ego&e * } The siipi was , sinking from his cja $ y rp ^ in , 4 , , , * And gtarred the , Heaving like a flerv f law , ' Glancing the moon and fi % htin ^ her fain ( t beam . The dying embers of the bunu&feed k&ig ,

    Untitled Article

    KSB DramaticHecatttetion * .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 1, 1837, page 158, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1829/page/32/