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dling . Severa ] pretty- songs and descriptive pieces , connected with the engravings , are spoiled by being twisted at the end into a compliment to the artist . There is , l ^ owever , a song by the editor , - " The Warrior , " which is not spoiled by anything ; and his tale of " The Magic Bridle" would have made Burns , druuk or sober , call him brother .
The Keepsake well supports the character it gained last year by the surpassing beauty of its decorations , and has well and amply redeemed itself from the disgrace of inattention to the literary department . As a coliectiou of welltold tales , it is beyond all corn petition . There are three ( besides "A Scene at Abbotsford" ) by the Author of Waverley ,
and not unworthy of him . " The Half-Brothers , '" by Banim ; " The Sisters of Albano , " and " Ferdinaudo Eboli , " by Mrs . Shelley ; "Apropos of Bread , ' * by Lord Nugent ; " The Legend of Killarney , " by T . H . Bayly ; " Clorinda , " by Lord Normanby ; and "The Old
Gentlemau , " («< O breathe not his name \ " ) by Theodore Hook ; are all excellent , though in very different ways . The poetry ,-especially that of Mr . Coleridge , disappoints the expectations raised by the names in the list of contributors . The following sonnet , by Wordsworth , is an exception :
" A GRAVESTONE UPON THE FLOOR IN THE CLOISTER 8 OF WORCESTER CATHEDRAL . ' Miserrimus ! ' and neither name nor date , Prayer , text , or symbol , grav'n upon the stone ; Nought but that word assign'd to the unknown ,
That solitary word—to separate From all , and cast a cloud around the fate Of him who lies beneath . Most wretched one , Who chose his epitaph ? Himself alone Could thus have dared the grave to agitate , And claim , among the dead , this awful
crown . Nor doubt that he mark'd also for his own , Close to these cloistral steps , a burialplace , That every foot might fait with heavier tread , Trampling upon his vileness . Stranger , pass Softly!—to save the contrite , Jesus bled . " In dismissing the engravings with general , but strong commendation , it is
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impossible not to mention " Aune Page and Slender * ( from Kichter , byRoltel . Shakspeare has never been more nobly illustrated . The painter ' s apprehension of character , and his embodying of that conception in the two admirably contrasted figures , are alifce perfect . The Bijou is perhaps unfortunate , so far as our report is of any importance , in being the last to cowe uader our
notice , when the eye and mind are alike satiated with the varied beauties of its predecessors * . It has the further disadvantage of presenting itself immediately after the two publications which , as they are the most expensive , ( the Anniversary and Keepsake are a guinea each , the
other Annuals twelve shillings , ) are also the most superb of the whole ; and , moreover , it made so successful a defeat last year , and had so muGh advantage over almost all its competitors , that © ur expectations were excited in , it may be , a very unreasonable degree . The candid reader must make what deduction he
thinks proportionate and proper on th ^ se accounts from our expression of disappointment both at its literary articles and its decorations . And in that expression we must not include the portrait of Lord Durham ' s son , from a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence ; a very interesting tale by Mr . T . Rpscoe (« ' Agnes" ) ; the story of the Stranger Patron , and some
minor pieces by Mrs , Hemans , Miss E « Taylor , and Montgomery , —the original Montgomery , not him of the Puffiad . There is also a very graphic and spirited description of the battle of Trafalgar . Indeed , if there be any taete to which the Bijou is peculiarly adapted , it must be to the naval and military taste . Of several articles it is difficult to guess any
reason for their insertion , unless it be that they emanated from , and are adapted to , the average intellect of that heroic profession . Let them but fit audience find , " and the sea song and the sword song may do marvellous execution . How times change I A few years ago , and such a , volume as this , over which we are grumbling , would have been received with rapturous praises of the beauty
of its appearance and the spirit of the publisher . It would have deserved thenu , and would have had them now , but that the publisher , and other publishers , have , by their liberal doings , made us fastidious . We are not so ungracious as to reproach them very severely oil that score ; and we take leave of them all , wouderiug to what pitch of beauty and splendour they will contrive io miae the Annuals of next yoar .
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£ 4 Critical Notices .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1829, page 54, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2568/page/54/
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