His view of the is the handsome
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>
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No. 4410, MAY 4, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
491
1912
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CONTENTS.
.
ROBERT BROWNING
PITT AND NAPOLEON
MADAME STRINHEIL'S MEMORIES
PAGE
491
492
493 Troy.
LEATHER
494-495
256
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496 497
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born in Scotland. Doubtless it The Ring and the Book,' with its
SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1912. from her that he derived his love of music. exquisite invocation to his wife :-
He was, we are told, when an infant,
hushed to sleep by his father to the
O lyric Love, half angel and half bird,
And all a wonder and a wild desire.
words of an ode by Anacreon; as a child
of five, he was interested in the tale of Just before its publication Messrs. Smith
His schooldays were
unsatis- & Elder issued a uniform edition of the
ENOLISH MEDIEVAL LITERATURE AND THE ENGLISH factory, and were soon over. It is sig- poems to that date. This may be said,
nificant, just at this period in the history with the appearance of his masterpiece, to
490 of the University of London, to note that mark Browning's full public recognition
the elder Browning was one of the early as a poet. The Athenæum, which had
198 shareholders who subscribed 1001. towards not hesitated to criticise some of his work
the foundation of University College. severely, rendered unstinted praise to
Robert's name was among the first entered The Ring and the Book. ' In a sense,
SCIENCE-THE DOCTOR AND THE PEOPLE; NOTICES
on the register of students, but he left Browning's genius had sprung early to
OF NEW BOOKS; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT
with what must have been disconcerting maturity. Some passages in Paracelsus'
abruptness. It was in the home, in his are as fine as anything he ever wrote,
father's library, that he received his but the dramatic treatment of the story
true education; and he speaks of
of Pompilia marks it out as supreme.
MUSIC-BROWNING AS THE POET OF MUSIC; Gossip;
In attempting to estimate the genius
My first dawn of life,
of Browning, it is useless to ignore the
Which passed alone with wisest ancient books,
All halo-girt with fancies of my own.
much-vexed question about which a
In the spring of 1829, when he great deal of nonsense has been talked
left college, Robert Browning definitely of poetry that would separate the sub-
and written. It is altogether a false view
chose poetry as his vocation. In 1833
stance and the form. A philosopher may
LITERATURE
* Pauline' was published, of which The
Athenæum remarked that “fine things although the mode in which they are
be hailed as great because of his ideas,
abound; there is no difficulty in finding
placed before the student be crabbed
passages to vindicate our praise. . . . To
and halting. But in true poetry thought
ROBERT BROWNING.
one who sings so naturally, poetry must
Para-
be as easy as music is to a bird. "
and its expression cannot be thus severed.
The century which has elapsed since celsus,' which followed, caused the judg-evitable form, and neither can be con-
The content moulds for itself the in-
Robert Browning's birth probably owes ment of the latter sentence to be some-
as much to his influence as to that of any what revised, and we can hardly wonder separable substance,” to quote Dr. A. C.
sidered separately. The “heresy of the
other modern poet. This is not because at this; but there was much that was
admiration for his work can, as yet, be splendid in the poem.
Next came
Bradley's Oxford Lectures on Poetry,
is untenable. It is therefore beside the
called general; but the intensity of the Strafford,” Sordello, due to the study mark to plead, in defence of the art of
appreciation, in his case, may be said of Dante, and series after series of ‘ Bells
to make up for its lack of extent. In and Pomegranates. '
Browning, that although the expression
his character, triple and indivisible, of
may be clumsy and repellent, the ideas
prophet, philosopher, and singer, he has
Meanwhile a Miss Barrett had been are admirable. He satirized this criticism
laid such hold upon those who love him, writing in The Athenæum a series of himself in ‘The Inn Album':-
that their devotion amounts to something articles on the early Greek Christian poets,
That bard 's a Browning; he neglects the form :
like a religion.
and it is interesting to note that it was But ah, the sense, ye gods, the weighty sense !
The oft-quoted sentence of Hegel that through these that she was first brought
The oft-quoted sentence of Hegel that into touch with Browning, who was,
The Saturday Review of November 24th,
A great man condemns the world to she writes to Mr. Boyd," not behind in 1855, accused him of a set purpose to
repeated once again with regard to is said to be learned in Greek, especi- sort of thing be true of anything that he
the attack of explaining him,” has been approbation" "Moreover, "-"Mr. Browning be obscure, and an idiot captivity to the
.
“
jingle of Hudibrastic rhyme. ” If this
Browning. And when was “task more
conscientiously
ally in the dramatists. " Every one
undertaken ? Critical,
knows the wonderful details of the romance
has written, it is out of accord with the
metaphysical, biographical volumes of that followed.
Browning apologetics”
Life in Italy after the root conception of poetry. In all his
constitute
literature in themselves. A society, re-
marriage in 1846 had a deep influence work, but especially in later years, the
love of dialectic, intellectual analysis,
on the poet's genius.
garded with half - humorous recognition and Easter - Day' appeared in 1850,
Christmas Eve
and brutal frankness sometimes got the
.
by the poet, was founded in his lifetime in the same year The Athenæum urged better of him.
to elucidate his works. The very phrase Mrs. Browning's appointment to the
In
No author who put forth such a vast
** Browning student," is significant. Who Laureateship, then vacant through the quantity, of work as Browning did,
talks about a
Tennyson student,” a death of Wordsworth. It was suggested writing for upwards of fifty years on all
Matthew Arnold student” ? Accord-
ingly his genealogy and youthful environ-
that the choice of a woman would be a manner of subjects, can invariably be at
his best. But one feels occasionally that
ment have been scrutinised with the graceful compliment to Queen Victoria.
he did not want to be at his best; that
view of explaining his individuality.
The two volumes of 'Men and Women' he was disdainful of the beauty which is
Camberwell Dissent - Middle Class !
were Browning's next achievement, and part of the ultimate secret of all true
This "study of origins sounds more
the last poem here is 'One Word More' poetry; that he gloried in the harshness
unpromising than it is. In 1812 Camber-
to E. B. B. In 1861 Mrs. Browning died. and obscurity which tend to destroy it.
well
virtually in the
the country,
The Athenæum, with which she had long
The Athenæum spoke of the "music"
and from Southampton Street, wheró been intimately connected, and which of Pauline," and it seems extraordinary
‘
Browning lived as a child, he could hear
was the indirect means of introducing that the poem should long, have been
the nightingales call one to another.
her and her husband to one another, 1 excluded by its author from the collection
The religious influences of his home happened to be almost the last printed of his works. Crude, boyish, unequal
,
made for earnestness and independence page she looked upon.
it may be ; but the mystical description
of thought. As to his parentage, his
It was characteristic of Browning that of music itself, for example, is beautiful.
father was a clerk in the Bank of England; in his deep anguish he resolved still “ to We deal elsewhere to-day with that
his mother, “a divine woman ” to her live and work and write. ” After the special feeling for music which is so
son, was of German extraction, though publication of Dramatis Personæ ' came strong in Browning's work.
TS
1.
a
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3
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. 66
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>
## p. 488 (#368) ############################################
492
No. 4410, May 4, 1912
THE A THENÆUM
Τ Α
>
a
a
on
Wherein lies the compelling splendour
Paracelsus, the model of intellectual
of Browning's art ? First, in his dra- egotism, is misled by vain confidence, Pitt and Napoleon : Essays and Letters.
matic power, and secondly in his idealism. but in the end he discerns the truth.
By J. Holland Rose. (Bell & Sons. )
“My stress lay on the incidents in the Bishop Blougram, worldly and selfish The title of this volume—“Pitt and
development of a soul ; little else is materialist, says :-
worth study," he says in the introduc- Just when we are safest, there 's a sunset-touch,
Napoleon'- may mislead. It suggests
tion to 'Sordello. '
A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death,
an exposition of the policy of the British
Since Shakespeare, there has been no
A chorus-ending from Euripides, -
minister with regard to Bonaparte, but the
And that 's enough for fifty hopes and fears
book contains nothing of the sort. It is
such dramatic poet; no one, that is, As old and new at once as nature's self,
with so much of the stuff of drama in
composed of nine essays and of several
To rap and knock and enter in our soul.
his work. Shakespeare revealed his Browning's steadily optimistic concep-documents of the period, regarding either
collections of correspondence and other
characters by action Browning reveals tion of the world, as Sir Henry Jones says, Pitt or Napoleon; but very few pages
them chiefly by the study of motive. infused new vigour into English ethical in the volume touch upon Pitt's policy
The greater part of what he discerned thought. Men felt they could reasonably with respect to Napoleon, or juxtapose
in man was not adapted for action behind trust
him. It is the poet who must take the two great names in any relation what-
the footlights. In his Dramatic Lyrics the leap forward; the philosopher must
and in The Ring and the Book,' follow. Intuition and perception must Pitt belong to the time when Bonaparte
ever. Indeed, most of those concerning
he places himself at the heart of his come first; but Browning loved to argue,
was only a general of the Republic, whose
characters, and endeavours to think to justify his own conclusions, as in military qualities alone interested Euro-
their thoughts, to look through their “Rabbi Ben Ezra' and ' A Grammarian's
pean statesmen; while those in which
eyes. This it is which makes him, not Funeral. '
Napoleon is the chief figure are of the
only a religious poet, but also the greatest
In · Pauline he avows himself
period long after the death of Pitt. This
poetic apologist for Christianity that the disciple of Plato. In his noblest work will be seen from an analysis of the con-
age has known.
the conviction appears that there exists a
tents of the volume. Of its 340 pages
To turn from this aspect of Browning's world of invisible realities, of which the the essays occupy 160. In the first, on
art, the learning shown in the selection of consummate expression on earth must be The Oratory of Pitt," there is only one
'
recondite corners of history, and out-of-the- inadequate.
reference to Napoleon. In the next two,
way personages for dramatic treatment, is He has made a firm faith in the ultimate
Pitt and Earl Fitzwilliam' and on
simply bewildering, while technical know- spiritual destiny of mankind seem reason-
* The Quiberon Disaster,' Napoleon is
ledge of one subject after another con- able, enabling his disciples to do more
not mentioned. In the fourth, entitled
stantly appeare in
in their delineation. than “ trust
British Rule in Corsica,' an interesting
Browning himself was anything but un-
. that somehow good
conventional in his appearance and habits.
Will be the final goal of ill.
essay of 19 pages, there are not 30 lines
relating to the great Corsican. The
He was sturdy and outspoken, it is true. This is no light thing for any writer fifth, on the “Relief of the Poor,' treats
“I was ever a fighter,” he says truthfully, to accomplish. His method of achieving of a domestic question. In the sixth,
and there is significance in the furious his aim may, to many, appear open to the longest in the book, entitled 'Did
lines he fired off to The Athenæum on criticism. But it has strengthened men Napoleon intend to Invade England ? ’ the
reading a thoughtless expression published for the battle of life, and encouraged all
name of Pitt appears on five only of its 33
in Edward FitzGerald's Letters
Letters' re- brave and noble virtues.
pages.
In the three other essays, on
garding his wife's work.
Next Tuesday the centenary of the The True Significance of Trafalgar,' on
But the greatest hold that Browning poet is to be celebrated in Westminster Marbot's Memoirs,' and on Napoleon's
·
has upon the present age undoubtedly Abbey. Another tribute to the occasion Conception of the Battle of Waterloo,'
comes from his idealism.
His view of the is the handsome Centenary Edition of Pitt is not mentioned.
universal scheme of things, illustrated Browning's Works which has just been There are two other papers printed
from human life rather than from nature, begun. The volume before us is well among the essays. One is a reprint of an
is optimistic. Man's sense of the incom- printed in a bold and pleasant type, and ' Interview with Napoleon in Elba,' pub-
pleteness of the present is taken as a fore the text is the latest supervised by the lished in 1839, in which naturally there
shadowing of the future. The note is poet. A few short poems which have is no reference to Pitt, and the other is a
sounded in Pauline' that vibrates with not hitherto figured in the collected collection of Some New Letters of Pitt'
solemn triumph in the epilogue to · Aso- editions are to appear, but we are glad with some notes. The latter ought to have
lando,' and
to learn that some extant verses are been printed in Part II. of the volume,
The heavy and the weary weight deliberately excluded which, it is thought, which
is made up of a large number of
,
Of all this unintelligible world
Browning would not have reprinted.
letters, nearly all of which are to or from
is lightened to those who follow him as The Introductions by Dr. F. G. Kenyon Pitt, some being of the highest interest.
their master. It is too often taken for do not include explanations of hard words Altogether there are 265 letters in this
granted that the girl's song in Pippa or difficult references. They show the volume entitled Pitt and Napoleon,
‘
''
Passes' sums up an easy acquiescence in position of each poem in Browning's and it would have been difficult to select
the pain of life :
life, the circumstances of its composition, another equal quantity of Pitt's corre-
and any bibliographical details worth spondence so destitute of references to
God 's in his heaven,
All 's right with the world.
mentioning, such as the issue of a reprint Napoleon. For there are only 11 among
This was the glad overflowing of a
of the original 'Pauline' by Mr. Î. J. the 265 in which the name of Bonaparte
‘
Wise in 1886.
child's heart on her one holiday. The
or Napoleon is mentioned. Of these one is
poet himself knew that there was very this volume, which has also an interesting) ferring to “ the French Usurper,” five care
,
Dr. Kenyon has done his work well in from Grenville, one from George III. , re-
much wrong with the world; witness
the terrible tragedies he depicts. But portrait of Browning at 43 by D. G. from Canning, and four from Pitt himself.
through all pain and stress, even in the Rossetti. A careful selection of such
The book may be described as a collec-
soul of the worst of criminals, there is a portraits is to be a feature of this edition, tion of interesting and sometimes very
foreshadowing of ultimate redemption. which is likely to be taken up rapidly valuable matter, unsystematically, ar:
As a philosopher, Browning is in accord Indeed, we should have thought that a ranged and inadequately annotated. It
with Hegel, that good is positive, and larger issue than 500 copies for sale in
is therefore not so attractive as it might
the British Isles would have been amply easily have been made for the general
must conquer in the end. His supreme
idea of good is love. The world is tending
justified.
reader, and not very serviceable for the
slowly, through conflict, towards perfec- The Works of Robert Browning. Centenary ought to have been taken in the notes
student. For the latter, greater care
tion, and man upon his way is guided by Edition in 10 vols. With Introductions by
August anticipations, symbols, types F, G. Kenyon. -Vol. I. Pauline, Para, which are for the most part meagre,
Of a dim splendour ever on before.
celsus, Sordello. (Smith & Elder. )
not always accurate.
>
6
and
## p. 489 (#369) ############################################
4, 1912
493
No. 4410, MAY 4, 1912
THE ATHEN ÆUM
and Letters
.
& Sons. )
-· Pitt and
It suggested
the British
rte, but the
sort. It is
of severa
and other
a
ding either
few pat
itt's power
name
was
juxtape
ation what
concern
Bonapart
blic, what
sted Ere
some
are of the
Pitt.
of the car
or
me first. :
ons et
Dert F
and 1
to
poleon
66
, entitat
mitere
1,' trees
de
led "Ta
nd!
of it
The following will indicate the character has not that intimate acquaintance Waterloo. ' They are so full of facts that
of some of the inaccuracies we have noted with the persons referred to, which one they would be much more useful for the
in this volume. On May 9th, 1804, has the right to expect in a specialist. student if they were each prefaced with
Canning writes to Pitt: I have men For instance, in the monograph on ‘The a résumé of the contents, as was formerly
tioned what passed between us to three Quiberon Disaster' the sentence “In customary in historical works. This
persons only, Leveson, Morpeth and Brittany a royalist leader, Cormatin, remark also applies to the essay on
Borrington. . . . not to Lord Stafford. ” reluctantly observed the peace,” does not Quiberon. In it the author uses language
Borrington is an obvious misspelling which inform the student as to the identity of of needless violence in describing the
might have been corrected. Dr. Rose this person, in spite of a foot-note referring criticisms of the disaster by Fox and
adds the explanatory note : "Leveson to a MS. in the British Museum, which Sheridan as a “ disgraceful display of
Gower was third son of Lord Stafford. ” perhaps misled the author. Cormatin reckless ignorance” or as “slanders so
.
He was his stepbrother. Lord Granville could hardly be described as a royalist diabolical. " One has to take into con-
Leveson - Gower, afterwards first Earl leader. ". He was a soldier of fortune sideration the general attitude of the
Granville, was the second-not the third- whose opinions frequently changed during Opposition at that period.
son of the previous Lord Stafford, who the Revolution. His real
This volume, containing as it does much
died in 1803. The Lord Stafford from Désotteux, and he was not a royalist material of the highest value and interest,
whom the confidential news was to be leader in the sense that others mentioned bears signs of having been thrown to-
withheld was his son, the future first Duke on the same page with him were-Charette, gether without sufficient revision, although
of Sutherland, who, as Lord Gower, had Stofflet, or even Puisaye, he being a
of the matter was printed in
been British Ambassador under Pitt to staff officer of the last named. Artois
magazines six or seven years ago. The
Louis XVI. in the final days of the is an unusual designation of the future author has passed on his book a criticism
monarchy. It is the knowledge of the Charles X. It is as though one called,
It is as though one called, more severe than any of ours in publishing
identity of the people mentioned in at this period, the future George IV. it without an index, which is indispen-
these old letters which makes the cor- Wales. " The correct style is given in sable to the utility of a work of this
respondence live again.
some of the letters of the period—“ Comte kind. He quotes the ‘ Dropmore Papers,'
In the essay on Pitt and Fitzwilliam d’Artois “ Monsieur. ” There is a and we would commend to his example
we are told that part of the “unique perplexing note, repeated several times, the excellent index to that collection
claim
supremacy in
the Whig See The Quarterly Review for 1912. ” compiled by Miss M. H. Roberts.
phalanx possessed by Fitzwilliam was When the book was published only one
that he was
the husband of Lady number of The Quarterly for 1912 had
Dorothy Cavendish. ” Without accepting appeared, and it contained nothing to
the suggestion of the supremacy
'" of which the note seemed to refer.
My Memoirs. By Marguerite Steinheil.
Fitzwilliam either within or without the
he The correspondence printed in the (Eveleigh Nash. )
“ phalanx," we may point out that his volume is all worth reading, and though
lady's name was neither Dorothy nor little of it relates to Napoleon, some of This unedifying work has not all the
Cavendish. She was Lady Charlotte Pon- the letters, on a large variety of other political importance which some of our
sonby, daughter of Lord Bessborough, subjects, are of great interest as throwing contemporaries have attributed to it.
and, though her mother was a Cavendish, a light on the atmosphere of the Court The first quarter of the book, which
she was not called Dorothy either. An and of the political world in Pitt's time. includes the chapters relating to the
essential quality for an expert in the Such is a letter of 1791 from Pitt to the author's connexion with the President of
political history of the reign of George III. owner of a pocket borough in Cornwall, the French Republic, Félix Faure, con-
is familiarity with Whig pedigrees, worth- recommending “an East Indian of good tains very little which is not familiar to
less though similar knowledge is in the fortune and character ” who was willing those who were acquainted with the
history of politics in our own time. to pay 3,0001. for the seat. Such are inner movement of political life in France
The memoirs of Marbot supply a facile letters from George III. to Pitt, com- at the close of the last century. Never-
opportunity for criticism to a writer who plaining in 1786 that his six daughters theless, some of the pages in this part of
knows his First Empire. One, of the have not enough money to dress upon“,
the volume are of considerable interest
periods of Napoleon's life in which we can not so much as George II. 's “ princesses to English readers. The rest of the book
follow his occupations day by day is in 1737, “ when every article of life was deals with the murder of her husband and
that of the “ Séjour à Bayonne " in 1808. cheaper than now. ”; or, in 1787, about her mother, for which the author was tried
,
If our author had minutely studied it, the debts of the Prince of Wales, deploring and acquitted.
he would not have accepted one of his association with such “a fellow as There cannot be many readers who will
Narbot's most glaring inventions. Dr. Mr. Sheridan. ” Pitt's controversy with have the patience or the curiosity to wade
the King, in 1794, about relieving the through the twenty-two later chapters for
Duke of York from his command of the the sake of the unpleasant details of the
* At the end of his (Marbot’s] ride from forces, displays some of the difficulties crime. Yet they have a certain value for
Madrid to Bayonne, when he bore the news the minister had to contend with in the students of comparative procedure. They
of the suppression of the heroic rising of the early period of the war. Another inter- not only give a complete description of a
men of Madrid on 2nd May, 1808, he was
privileged to hear”-
esting letter is from Windham to Pitt, French criminal trial in all its stages, but,
showing the pressure put upon the latter what is almost unknown in an English
and then he goes on to satirize Marbot's to help the French Royalists, in 1799, just book, they also furnish an official, verbatim
narrative of the private conversations before the coup d'état of Brumaire, which report of parts of the long interrogatory
he professed to have overheard. But changed the whole situation in France and undergone by a prisoner during the
Dr. Rose misses the chief point of Marbot's in Europe.
"instruction, or private examination,
gasconading. He accepts his most Of the essays, the most valuable is, in before committal to the assizes. Although
audacious fabrication, namely, that it our opinion, that on Pitt and the Relief the prisoner, before committal, has less
·
was he (Marbot) who“ bore the news of the Poor,' relating to distress prevalent fair-play than in England, it will be seen
of the suppression ” of the insurrection in England at the close of the eighteenth here that, under our new rule admitting
at Madrid.
The officer who carried century. In these days of State Socialism the evidence of an accused person, he or
the dispatch which decided the destiny it is interesting to study the attempts she has a better chance before a French
of the Spanish royal family was Capt. made to remedy the Elizabethan system of than before an English jury, the inter-
Danencourt, and any other fictions with poor relief and to see that in Pitt's time a rogatory by the French presiding judge
which Marbot embroidered this story are contributory scheme of Old-Age Pensions being usually less severe than the cross-
of relatively small importance.
was proposed. Of the other essays, the best examination by an English counsel for
Certain passages or incidental allusions are, we think, British Rule in Corsica 'and the prosecution. Other advantages en-
in the book suggest that the author \ Napoleon’s Conception of the Battle of ! joyed by the French prisoner, as shown
gar
, is
poleas
iteru
minte
t of a
APS
ܬܐ
olar
berdiri
ofaut
Rose says :-
66
41
Hir
lukte
她是
6
!
## p. 490 (#370) ############################################
480
No. 4409, APRIL 27, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
Τ
HOME UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY OF MODERN
KNOWLEDGE
LEATHER
CLOTH.
2
6
"such as
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Mr. Hardy has dramatized the story of vocative of laughter. Other attempts at
Amy Robsart with some care and dignity humour are dragged in with no more artistry
of utterance, and without lapses of taste.
His blank verse, though resonant, melli- / does not mean that we failed to admire Mr.
than is customary on the variety stage--this
Editors :
NET.
Herbert Fisher, M. A.
fluous, and full of agreeable word-pictures, James Carew's cameo of a Yankee character.
F. B. A.
is too sedate and monotonous to kindle any
256
256
Prof. Gilbert Murray,
D. Litt. LL. D. F. B. A.
but slight fires in the reader. Nor is the THE French players, who inaugurated their
PAGES,
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Prof. J. Arthur
characterization more than shadowy. But season at the Little Theatre on Wednesday
Thomson, M. A.
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the play is sincere and praiseworthy, and night, if they stimulated us with their
Prof. Wm. T. Browstor.
reminiscent of the more quietistic Eliza- acting, did not captivate us by their choice
bethan manner.
It is engaging rather than of play. 'La Casaque' was Molière bowd- THE FIFTH TEN VOLUNES NOW RBADY.
powerful.
lerized, wrenched into a shape congenial 11. CONSERVATISM. LORD HUGH CECIL, M. A. M. P.
for histrionic tours de force. Of M. Tra-
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Kerr (Mina), INFLUENCE OF BEN JONSON ON
Prof. W. SOMERVILLE, F. L. S.
ENGLISH COMEDY, 1598–1642.
rieux's 'Un Soir, the less said the better. 43. ENGLISH LITERATURE, MEDIÆVAL.
Prof. W. P. KER, M. A.
Its theme is the calculation of & woman,
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situations and types seem more appropriate
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>
PAGE
454
482
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.
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EXHIBITIONS
454
483
457
453
484
482
453
482
467
453
456
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O
PRINTERS
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456
154
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## p. 487 (#367) ############################################
No. 4410, MAY 4, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
491
1912
was
TY
DERN
CONTENTS.
.
ROBERT BROWNING
PITT AND NAPOLEON
MADAME STRINHEIL'S MEMORIES
PAGE
491
492
493 Troy.
LEATHER
494-495
256
PAGES
496 497
LANGUAGE
THE CANON LAW IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
FLERT STREET AND THE STRAND
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512
a
A FRS
DAT
h Maps
PAINA
7001.
LLIR
7
总
6
Wong
10
) 6
>
born in Scotland. Doubtless it The Ring and the Book,' with its
SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1912. from her that he derived his love of music. exquisite invocation to his wife :-
He was, we are told, when an infant,
hushed to sleep by his father to the
O lyric Love, half angel and half bird,
And all a wonder and a wild desire.
words of an ode by Anacreon; as a child
of five, he was interested in the tale of Just before its publication Messrs. Smith
His schooldays were
unsatis- & Elder issued a uniform edition of the
ENOLISH MEDIEVAL LITERATURE AND THE ENGLISH factory, and were soon over. It is sig- poems to that date. This may be said,
nificant, just at this period in the history with the appearance of his masterpiece, to
490 of the University of London, to note that mark Browning's full public recognition
the elder Browning was one of the early as a poet. The Athenæum, which had
198 shareholders who subscribed 1001. towards not hesitated to criticise some of his work
the foundation of University College. severely, rendered unstinted praise to
Robert's name was among the first entered The Ring and the Book. ' In a sense,
SCIENCE-THE DOCTOR AND THE PEOPLE; NOTICES
on the register of students, but he left Browning's genius had sprung early to
OF NEW BOOKS; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT
with what must have been disconcerting maturity. Some passages in Paracelsus'
abruptness. It was in the home, in his are as fine as anything he ever wrote,
father's library, that he received his but the dramatic treatment of the story
true education; and he speaks of
of Pompilia marks it out as supreme.
MUSIC-BROWNING AS THE POET OF MUSIC; Gossip;
In attempting to estimate the genius
My first dawn of life,
of Browning, it is useless to ignore the
Which passed alone with wisest ancient books,
All halo-girt with fancies of my own.
much-vexed question about which a
In the spring of 1829, when he great deal of nonsense has been talked
left college, Robert Browning definitely of poetry that would separate the sub-
and written. It is altogether a false view
chose poetry as his vocation. In 1833
stance and the form. A philosopher may
LITERATURE
* Pauline' was published, of which The
Athenæum remarked that “fine things although the mode in which they are
be hailed as great because of his ideas,
abound; there is no difficulty in finding
placed before the student be crabbed
passages to vindicate our praise. . . . To
and halting. But in true poetry thought
ROBERT BROWNING.
one who sings so naturally, poetry must
Para-
be as easy as music is to a bird. "
and its expression cannot be thus severed.
The century which has elapsed since celsus,' which followed, caused the judg-evitable form, and neither can be con-
The content moulds for itself the in-
Robert Browning's birth probably owes ment of the latter sentence to be some-
as much to his influence as to that of any what revised, and we can hardly wonder separable substance,” to quote Dr. A. C.
sidered separately. The “heresy of the
other modern poet. This is not because at this; but there was much that was
admiration for his work can, as yet, be splendid in the poem.
Next came
Bradley's Oxford Lectures on Poetry,
is untenable. It is therefore beside the
called general; but the intensity of the Strafford,” Sordello, due to the study mark to plead, in defence of the art of
appreciation, in his case, may be said of Dante, and series after series of ‘ Bells
to make up for its lack of extent. In and Pomegranates. '
Browning, that although the expression
his character, triple and indivisible, of
may be clumsy and repellent, the ideas
prophet, philosopher, and singer, he has
Meanwhile a Miss Barrett had been are admirable. He satirized this criticism
laid such hold upon those who love him, writing in The Athenæum a series of himself in ‘The Inn Album':-
that their devotion amounts to something articles on the early Greek Christian poets,
That bard 's a Browning; he neglects the form :
like a religion.
and it is interesting to note that it was But ah, the sense, ye gods, the weighty sense !
The oft-quoted sentence of Hegel that through these that she was first brought
The oft-quoted sentence of Hegel that into touch with Browning, who was,
The Saturday Review of November 24th,
A great man condemns the world to she writes to Mr. Boyd," not behind in 1855, accused him of a set purpose to
repeated once again with regard to is said to be learned in Greek, especi- sort of thing be true of anything that he
the attack of explaining him,” has been approbation" "Moreover, "-"Mr. Browning be obscure, and an idiot captivity to the
.
“
jingle of Hudibrastic rhyme. ” If this
Browning. And when was “task more
conscientiously
ally in the dramatists. " Every one
undertaken ? Critical,
knows the wonderful details of the romance
has written, it is out of accord with the
metaphysical, biographical volumes of that followed.
Browning apologetics”
Life in Italy after the root conception of poetry. In all his
constitute
literature in themselves. A society, re-
marriage in 1846 had a deep influence work, but especially in later years, the
love of dialectic, intellectual analysis,
on the poet's genius.
garded with half - humorous recognition and Easter - Day' appeared in 1850,
Christmas Eve
and brutal frankness sometimes got the
.
by the poet, was founded in his lifetime in the same year The Athenæum urged better of him.
to elucidate his works. The very phrase Mrs. Browning's appointment to the
In
No author who put forth such a vast
** Browning student," is significant. Who Laureateship, then vacant through the quantity, of work as Browning did,
talks about a
Tennyson student,” a death of Wordsworth. It was suggested writing for upwards of fifty years on all
Matthew Arnold student” ? Accord-
ingly his genealogy and youthful environ-
that the choice of a woman would be a manner of subjects, can invariably be at
his best. But one feels occasionally that
ment have been scrutinised with the graceful compliment to Queen Victoria.
he did not want to be at his best; that
view of explaining his individuality.
The two volumes of 'Men and Women' he was disdainful of the beauty which is
Camberwell Dissent - Middle Class !
were Browning's next achievement, and part of the ultimate secret of all true
This "study of origins sounds more
the last poem here is 'One Word More' poetry; that he gloried in the harshness
unpromising than it is. In 1812 Camber-
to E. B. B. In 1861 Mrs. Browning died. and obscurity which tend to destroy it.
well
virtually in the
the country,
The Athenæum, with which she had long
The Athenæum spoke of the "music"
and from Southampton Street, wheró been intimately connected, and which of Pauline," and it seems extraordinary
‘
Browning lived as a child, he could hear
was the indirect means of introducing that the poem should long, have been
the nightingales call one to another.
her and her husband to one another, 1 excluded by its author from the collection
The religious influences of his home happened to be almost the last printed of his works. Crude, boyish, unequal
,
made for earnestness and independence page she looked upon.
it may be ; but the mystical description
of thought. As to his parentage, his
It was characteristic of Browning that of music itself, for example, is beautiful.
father was a clerk in the Bank of England; in his deep anguish he resolved still “ to We deal elsewhere to-day with that
his mother, “a divine woman ” to her live and work and write. ” After the special feeling for music which is so
son, was of German extraction, though publication of Dramatis Personæ ' came strong in Browning's work.
TS
1.
a
6
3
a
. 66
>
6
was
>
## p. 488 (#368) ############################################
492
No. 4410, May 4, 1912
THE A THENÆUM
Τ Α
>
a
a
on
Wherein lies the compelling splendour
Paracelsus, the model of intellectual
of Browning's art ? First, in his dra- egotism, is misled by vain confidence, Pitt and Napoleon : Essays and Letters.
matic power, and secondly in his idealism. but in the end he discerns the truth.
By J. Holland Rose. (Bell & Sons. )
“My stress lay on the incidents in the Bishop Blougram, worldly and selfish The title of this volume—“Pitt and
development of a soul ; little else is materialist, says :-
worth study," he says in the introduc- Just when we are safest, there 's a sunset-touch,
Napoleon'- may mislead. It suggests
tion to 'Sordello. '
A fancy from a flower-bell, some one's death,
an exposition of the policy of the British
Since Shakespeare, there has been no
A chorus-ending from Euripides, -
minister with regard to Bonaparte, but the
And that 's enough for fifty hopes and fears
book contains nothing of the sort. It is
such dramatic poet; no one, that is, As old and new at once as nature's self,
with so much of the stuff of drama in
composed of nine essays and of several
To rap and knock and enter in our soul.
his work. Shakespeare revealed his Browning's steadily optimistic concep-documents of the period, regarding either
collections of correspondence and other
characters by action Browning reveals tion of the world, as Sir Henry Jones says, Pitt or Napoleon; but very few pages
them chiefly by the study of motive. infused new vigour into English ethical in the volume touch upon Pitt's policy
The greater part of what he discerned thought. Men felt they could reasonably with respect to Napoleon, or juxtapose
in man was not adapted for action behind trust
him. It is the poet who must take the two great names in any relation what-
the footlights. In his Dramatic Lyrics the leap forward; the philosopher must
and in The Ring and the Book,' follow. Intuition and perception must Pitt belong to the time when Bonaparte
ever. Indeed, most of those concerning
he places himself at the heart of his come first; but Browning loved to argue,
was only a general of the Republic, whose
characters, and endeavours to think to justify his own conclusions, as in military qualities alone interested Euro-
their thoughts, to look through their “Rabbi Ben Ezra' and ' A Grammarian's
pean statesmen; while those in which
eyes. This it is which makes him, not Funeral. '
Napoleon is the chief figure are of the
only a religious poet, but also the greatest
In · Pauline he avows himself
period long after the death of Pitt. This
poetic apologist for Christianity that the disciple of Plato. In his noblest work will be seen from an analysis of the con-
age has known.
the conviction appears that there exists a
tents of the volume. Of its 340 pages
To turn from this aspect of Browning's world of invisible realities, of which the the essays occupy 160. In the first, on
art, the learning shown in the selection of consummate expression on earth must be The Oratory of Pitt," there is only one
'
recondite corners of history, and out-of-the- inadequate.
reference to Napoleon. In the next two,
way personages for dramatic treatment, is He has made a firm faith in the ultimate
Pitt and Earl Fitzwilliam' and on
simply bewildering, while technical know- spiritual destiny of mankind seem reason-
* The Quiberon Disaster,' Napoleon is
ledge of one subject after another con- able, enabling his disciples to do more
not mentioned. In the fourth, entitled
stantly appeare in
in their delineation. than “ trust
British Rule in Corsica,' an interesting
Browning himself was anything but un-
. that somehow good
conventional in his appearance and habits.
Will be the final goal of ill.
essay of 19 pages, there are not 30 lines
relating to the great Corsican. The
He was sturdy and outspoken, it is true. This is no light thing for any writer fifth, on the “Relief of the Poor,' treats
“I was ever a fighter,” he says truthfully, to accomplish. His method of achieving of a domestic question. In the sixth,
and there is significance in the furious his aim may, to many, appear open to the longest in the book, entitled 'Did
lines he fired off to The Athenæum on criticism. But it has strengthened men Napoleon intend to Invade England ? ’ the
reading a thoughtless expression published for the battle of life, and encouraged all
name of Pitt appears on five only of its 33
in Edward FitzGerald's Letters
Letters' re- brave and noble virtues.
pages.
In the three other essays, on
garding his wife's work.
Next Tuesday the centenary of the The True Significance of Trafalgar,' on
But the greatest hold that Browning poet is to be celebrated in Westminster Marbot's Memoirs,' and on Napoleon's
·
has upon the present age undoubtedly Abbey. Another tribute to the occasion Conception of the Battle of Waterloo,'
comes from his idealism.
His view of the is the handsome Centenary Edition of Pitt is not mentioned.
universal scheme of things, illustrated Browning's Works which has just been There are two other papers printed
from human life rather than from nature, begun. The volume before us is well among the essays. One is a reprint of an
is optimistic. Man's sense of the incom- printed in a bold and pleasant type, and ' Interview with Napoleon in Elba,' pub-
pleteness of the present is taken as a fore the text is the latest supervised by the lished in 1839, in which naturally there
shadowing of the future. The note is poet. A few short poems which have is no reference to Pitt, and the other is a
sounded in Pauline' that vibrates with not hitherto figured in the collected collection of Some New Letters of Pitt'
solemn triumph in the epilogue to · Aso- editions are to appear, but we are glad with some notes. The latter ought to have
lando,' and
to learn that some extant verses are been printed in Part II. of the volume,
The heavy and the weary weight deliberately excluded which, it is thought, which
is made up of a large number of
,
Of all this unintelligible world
Browning would not have reprinted.
letters, nearly all of which are to or from
is lightened to those who follow him as The Introductions by Dr. F. G. Kenyon Pitt, some being of the highest interest.
their master. It is too often taken for do not include explanations of hard words Altogether there are 265 letters in this
granted that the girl's song in Pippa or difficult references. They show the volume entitled Pitt and Napoleon,
‘
''
Passes' sums up an easy acquiescence in position of each poem in Browning's and it would have been difficult to select
the pain of life :
life, the circumstances of its composition, another equal quantity of Pitt's corre-
and any bibliographical details worth spondence so destitute of references to
God 's in his heaven,
All 's right with the world.
mentioning, such as the issue of a reprint Napoleon. For there are only 11 among
This was the glad overflowing of a
of the original 'Pauline' by Mr. Î. J. the 265 in which the name of Bonaparte
‘
Wise in 1886.
child's heart on her one holiday. The
or Napoleon is mentioned. Of these one is
poet himself knew that there was very this volume, which has also an interesting) ferring to “ the French Usurper,” five care
,
Dr. Kenyon has done his work well in from Grenville, one from George III. , re-
much wrong with the world; witness
the terrible tragedies he depicts. But portrait of Browning at 43 by D. G. from Canning, and four from Pitt himself.
through all pain and stress, even in the Rossetti. A careful selection of such
The book may be described as a collec-
soul of the worst of criminals, there is a portraits is to be a feature of this edition, tion of interesting and sometimes very
foreshadowing of ultimate redemption. which is likely to be taken up rapidly valuable matter, unsystematically, ar:
As a philosopher, Browning is in accord Indeed, we should have thought that a ranged and inadequately annotated. It
with Hegel, that good is positive, and larger issue than 500 copies for sale in
is therefore not so attractive as it might
the British Isles would have been amply easily have been made for the general
must conquer in the end. His supreme
idea of good is love. The world is tending
justified.
reader, and not very serviceable for the
slowly, through conflict, towards perfec- The Works of Robert Browning. Centenary ought to have been taken in the notes
student. For the latter, greater care
tion, and man upon his way is guided by Edition in 10 vols. With Introductions by
August anticipations, symbols, types F, G. Kenyon. -Vol. I. Pauline, Para, which are for the most part meagre,
Of a dim splendour ever on before.
celsus, Sordello. (Smith & Elder. )
not always accurate.
>
6
and
## p. 489 (#369) ############################################
4, 1912
493
No. 4410, MAY 4, 1912
THE ATHEN ÆUM
and Letters
.
& Sons. )
-· Pitt and
It suggested
the British
rte, but the
sort. It is
of severa
and other
a
ding either
few pat
itt's power
name
was
juxtape
ation what
concern
Bonapart
blic, what
sted Ere
some
are of the
Pitt.
of the car
or
me first. :
ons et
Dert F
and 1
to
poleon
66
, entitat
mitere
1,' trees
de
led "Ta
nd!
of it
The following will indicate the character has not that intimate acquaintance Waterloo. ' They are so full of facts that
of some of the inaccuracies we have noted with the persons referred to, which one they would be much more useful for the
in this volume. On May 9th, 1804, has the right to expect in a specialist. student if they were each prefaced with
Canning writes to Pitt: I have men For instance, in the monograph on ‘The a résumé of the contents, as was formerly
tioned what passed between us to three Quiberon Disaster' the sentence “In customary in historical works. This
persons only, Leveson, Morpeth and Brittany a royalist leader, Cormatin, remark also applies to the essay on
Borrington. . . . not to Lord Stafford. ” reluctantly observed the peace,” does not Quiberon. In it the author uses language
Borrington is an obvious misspelling which inform the student as to the identity of of needless violence in describing the
might have been corrected. Dr. Rose this person, in spite of a foot-note referring criticisms of the disaster by Fox and
adds the explanatory note : "Leveson to a MS. in the British Museum, which Sheridan as a “ disgraceful display of
Gower was third son of Lord Stafford. ” perhaps misled the author. Cormatin reckless ignorance” or as “slanders so
.
He was his stepbrother. Lord Granville could hardly be described as a royalist diabolical. " One has to take into con-
Leveson - Gower, afterwards first Earl leader. ". He was a soldier of fortune sideration the general attitude of the
Granville, was the second-not the third- whose opinions frequently changed during Opposition at that period.
son of the previous Lord Stafford, who the Revolution. His real
This volume, containing as it does much
died in 1803. The Lord Stafford from Désotteux, and he was not a royalist material of the highest value and interest,
whom the confidential news was to be leader in the sense that others mentioned bears signs of having been thrown to-
withheld was his son, the future first Duke on the same page with him were-Charette, gether without sufficient revision, although
of Sutherland, who, as Lord Gower, had Stofflet, or even Puisaye, he being a
of the matter was printed in
been British Ambassador under Pitt to staff officer of the last named. Artois
magazines six or seven years ago. The
Louis XVI. in the final days of the is an unusual designation of the future author has passed on his book a criticism
monarchy. It is the knowledge of the Charles X. It is as though one called,
It is as though one called, more severe than any of ours in publishing
identity of the people mentioned in at this period, the future George IV. it without an index, which is indispen-
these old letters which makes the cor- Wales. " The correct style is given in sable to the utility of a work of this
respondence live again.
some of the letters of the period—“ Comte kind. He quotes the ‘ Dropmore Papers,'
In the essay on Pitt and Fitzwilliam d’Artois “ Monsieur. ” There is a and we would commend to his example
we are told that part of the “unique perplexing note, repeated several times, the excellent index to that collection
claim
supremacy in
the Whig See The Quarterly Review for 1912. ” compiled by Miss M. H. Roberts.
phalanx possessed by Fitzwilliam was When the book was published only one
that he was
the husband of Lady number of The Quarterly for 1912 had
Dorothy Cavendish. ” Without accepting appeared, and it contained nothing to
the suggestion of the supremacy
'" of which the note seemed to refer.
My Memoirs. By Marguerite Steinheil.
Fitzwilliam either within or without the
he The correspondence printed in the (Eveleigh Nash. )
“ phalanx," we may point out that his volume is all worth reading, and though
lady's name was neither Dorothy nor little of it relates to Napoleon, some of This unedifying work has not all the
Cavendish. She was Lady Charlotte Pon- the letters, on a large variety of other political importance which some of our
sonby, daughter of Lord Bessborough, subjects, are of great interest as throwing contemporaries have attributed to it.
and, though her mother was a Cavendish, a light on the atmosphere of the Court The first quarter of the book, which
she was not called Dorothy either. An and of the political world in Pitt's time. includes the chapters relating to the
essential quality for an expert in the Such is a letter of 1791 from Pitt to the author's connexion with the President of
political history of the reign of George III. owner of a pocket borough in Cornwall, the French Republic, Félix Faure, con-
is familiarity with Whig pedigrees, worth- recommending “an East Indian of good tains very little which is not familiar to
less though similar knowledge is in the fortune and character ” who was willing those who were acquainted with the
history of politics in our own time. to pay 3,0001. for the seat. Such are inner movement of political life in France
The memoirs of Marbot supply a facile letters from George III. to Pitt, com- at the close of the last century. Never-
opportunity for criticism to a writer who plaining in 1786 that his six daughters theless, some of the pages in this part of
knows his First Empire. One, of the have not enough money to dress upon“,
the volume are of considerable interest
periods of Napoleon's life in which we can not so much as George II. 's “ princesses to English readers. The rest of the book
follow his occupations day by day is in 1737, “ when every article of life was deals with the murder of her husband and
that of the “ Séjour à Bayonne " in 1808. cheaper than now. ”; or, in 1787, about her mother, for which the author was tried
,
If our author had minutely studied it, the debts of the Prince of Wales, deploring and acquitted.
he would not have accepted one of his association with such “a fellow as There cannot be many readers who will
Narbot's most glaring inventions. Dr. Mr. Sheridan. ” Pitt's controversy with have the patience or the curiosity to wade
the King, in 1794, about relieving the through the twenty-two later chapters for
Duke of York from his command of the the sake of the unpleasant details of the
* At the end of his (Marbot’s] ride from forces, displays some of the difficulties crime. Yet they have a certain value for
Madrid to Bayonne, when he bore the news the minister had to contend with in the students of comparative procedure. They
of the suppression of the heroic rising of the early period of the war. Another inter- not only give a complete description of a
men of Madrid on 2nd May, 1808, he was
privileged to hear”-
esting letter is from Windham to Pitt, French criminal trial in all its stages, but,
showing the pressure put upon the latter what is almost unknown in an English
and then he goes on to satirize Marbot's to help the French Royalists, in 1799, just book, they also furnish an official, verbatim
narrative of the private conversations before the coup d'état of Brumaire, which report of parts of the long interrogatory
he professed to have overheard. But changed the whole situation in France and undergone by a prisoner during the
Dr. Rose misses the chief point of Marbot's in Europe.
"instruction, or private examination,
gasconading. He accepts his most Of the essays, the most valuable is, in before committal to the assizes. Although
audacious fabrication, namely, that it our opinion, that on Pitt and the Relief the prisoner, before committal, has less
·
was he (Marbot) who“ bore the news of the Poor,' relating to distress prevalent fair-play than in England, it will be seen
of the suppression ” of the insurrection in England at the close of the eighteenth here that, under our new rule admitting
at Madrid.
The officer who carried century. In these days of State Socialism the evidence of an accused person, he or
the dispatch which decided the destiny it is interesting to study the attempts she has a better chance before a French
of the Spanish royal family was Capt. made to remedy the Elizabethan system of than before an English jury, the inter-
Danencourt, and any other fictions with poor relief and to see that in Pitt's time a rogatory by the French presiding judge
which Marbot embroidered this story are contributory scheme of Old-Age Pensions being usually less severe than the cross-
of relatively small importance.
was proposed. Of the other essays, the best examination by an English counsel for
Certain passages or incidental allusions are, we think, British Rule in Corsica 'and the prosecution. Other advantages en-
in the book suggest that the author \ Napoleon’s Conception of the Battle of ! joyed by the French prisoner, as shown
gar
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olar
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## p. 490 (#370) ############################################
480
No. 4409, APRIL 27, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
Τ
HOME UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY OF MODERN
KNOWLEDGE
LEATHER
CLOTH.
2
6
"such as
2
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
belief in Mr. Hoffe's rather ugly little fairy-
INotice in these columns does not preclude longer
tale. Fortunately there is one droll cha-
reviow. )
racter in the play, which Mr. Frederick Kerr
Hardy (Harold), Tak TRAGEDY OF Amy for impropriety, whose every speech, thanks
impersonates, a politician on the look-out
ROBSART, in Five Acts, 2/6 net. Banks largely to the actor's dry manner, is pro-
Mr. Hardy has dramatized the story of vocative of laughter. Other attempts at
Amy Robsart with some care and dignity humour are dragged in with no more artistry
of utterance, and without lapses of taste.
His blank verse, though resonant, melli- / does not mean that we failed to admire Mr.
than is customary on the variety stage--this
Editors :
NET.
Herbert Fisher, M. A.
fluous, and full of agreeable word-pictures, James Carew's cameo of a Yankee character.
F. B. A.
is too sedate and monotonous to kindle any
256
256
Prof. Gilbert Murray,
D. Litt. LL. D. F. B. A.
but slight fires in the reader. Nor is the THE French players, who inaugurated their
PAGES,
PAGES
Prof. J. Arthur
characterization more than shadowy. But season at the Little Theatre on Wednesday
Thomson, M. A.
2/6 NET.
the play is sincere and praiseworthy, and night, if they stimulated us with their
Prof. Wm. T. Browstor.
reminiscent of the more quietistic Eliza- acting, did not captivate us by their choice
bethan manner.
It is engaging rather than of play. 'La Casaque' was Molière bowd- THE FIFTH TEN VOLUNES NOW RBADY.
powerful.
lerized, wrenched into a shape congenial 11. CONSERVATISM. LORD HUGH CECIL, M. A. M. P.
for histrionic tours de force. Of M. Tra-
26. AGRICULTURE.
Kerr (Mina), INFLUENCE OF BEN JONSON ON
Prof. W. SOMERVILLE, F. L. S.
ENGLISH COMEDY, 1598–1642.
rieux's 'Un Soir, the less said the better. 43. ENGLISH LITERATURE, MEDIÆVAL.
Prof. W. P. KER, M. A.
Its theme is the calculation of & woman,
University of Pennsylvania who, thanks to the generosity of her husband,
44. THE PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY.
