The Press. — London, England, 1853-05-14 00:00:00

affection for Zoe as a weakness unworthy of a man of fashion, and becomes the suicant of 'Mrs. Mantrap—a character, as we shrewdly suspect, drawn, and closely drawn, from the life. We extract her portrait and the r e bult of Digby's introduction to her:— With these words, the good-natured peer brought me up to a particularly well-dressed lady, who, at first glance, I could - see was rrepoid, " flounced," mid " got up," in a flaunter which left nu doubt of her aspirations utter univer sal conquest. Notwithstanding a beautifully-rtounded figure—tf it had a fault, somewhat too embonpoint for her height—notwithstanding a merry blue eye, a saucy smile. a skin like alabaster, and a profusion of showery light hair, my first impression of Mrs. Mantrap was disappoimment at those charms of which 1 heard so much : and I whis pered to Maltby, as we approached, `• Not half see haul.. as I expected, but devilish well dressed." Little did I sus pect the fascination which she exercisral over all that came within range of her artillery. now low, in my ignontuce, did I estimate the power of the sorceress. Hut I was doomed, like many a wiser man, to fall down and worship where 1 came only tee gaze and criticise. Gradually and insensibly the charm stole over me. Lights wean glittering and fairy forms were flitting round ; beauty and perfume steeped my outward senses in I.llillyniritt ; and the brazen refrain of some waltz eel' Paradise wafted ecstasy to my soul: and MI I 14011 as one eutnnieeil, leaning over the chair of that witch in muslin. hid sustaiiimg my part in a conversation that became every moment more dangerous. "She don't care for him, the baby-bride !" said Nits. Mantrap, speaking of a young couple who then passed us. " Fresh front the nurser.), and in all the first loloom eef girlhood, depend Nam it she can slam! 110 time from the world and its • engagements' to waste upon her hushand. She has not yet learnt to .teel, poor child ! And if her mamma had told her to 'r a bishop, she womb! have liked hint just us well. woman must have suffered, Mr. brand, hefoore she cult really love ; and thoqi if her attach meta is fixed upon a -say--{ell one younger than hoTself, who is day by day making pool his tOoting in that world which is gliding from her, she is deserving of pity indeed;" and the blue eyes looked up into mine with it soft pleading expression thus was im.sistible. the .spry Alitares ehanged for an instant, as a Slllooll' Of 1144'11 1111011011 SlllllO 011.1*Iier brow, investing her with that sorrowing. eletstened beauty which the hand of Time reserves four those who are no longer in the early ftesliness yl/11111-64•11111111.1111.1 for all the dimples and roses of laughing girlhoood. What wonder that I forgot our aospatintanceship was 1011101'111We 01111trter04 of an honr—that 1 gave myself up to the delirious intoxi cation of my position ! and shooting my eye's resolllloy to all I hail heard of the lady herself—:n runaway match, it divorced husband, a brother shot in II 11110•1, hush II father who died of a broken heart—that I talked sentiment deep end devoted as her own : and towed, in the despicable hypocrisy of my helm, that •• the lisle Of 01 Silly girl was un worthy of a MHO: I np4oke the lost words ill 11 SOllll . lllllll 10111ler WOO 011111 that ill OW it hislolll . ll cunt cvglitiolt 118 AI previously been carried OIL SO VII so as to emote a 1 tidy who was passing to turn her head 1011111•1104 do! iutpan sionevl speaker: with a thrill of shame and maltase amounting to agony I reetognitted the' massive black hair, the pale and care-wont features of ZoC de Urand-Martigny. Zoe returns to Canada. and we hear no more of her but as Mrs. Broadbelt Know yon nut such tenches are but embassies of lu" c. To tamper with the feelitig4, ere he ti a u►d }:mpi►e for life? And so, after ►t short liaison with it fascinating dancer, I)igby finds himself' really in love with a certain Flora Belmont. He can neither shake off his embarrassments however, nor the mode of life which has led to them. His expenditure is about ten times as great as his income. His losses at play and on the turf are overwhelming. His father (lies. The .'barges created by two generations of impro videnee render necessary the sale of the es tates. and Sir Dighy Grand finds himself lord of nothing beyond the clothes he stands in. Now, however. the pluck and self-dependenee that have so (den pulled an Englisht►mat through stand him in good stead. He drops ills useless title. finds employment with an old friend ►old country neighbour of his own age. whO has established himself in the city. and g i ve , up utterly and for ever his former life. Miss Belt - tiont happens to he that one woman in a thow,and ult.) looks upon a plighted troth as upon at marrnu.:e vow, and loves through ears of separeien f(ar better o• worse: and Digby grand takes leave of us as he is upon the eve of establishing his pretty wife in a suburban villa. with an intimation that he is making his fortune. and that the present pos sessor has not entailed the old family estate. The best recommendation (tithe book is its truth —truth Of description and truth ►of thought. The narrative is even rapid and vigorous. Captain Whyte Melville,for that is the author's name, hurries us otf breathlessly from the heart of a Canadian forest to the middle of Mayfair; front Apsley-house to ,lem Burns ; but all that has been done before : the supe riority here is that we arc made to feel that THE PRESS. the picture is faithful as well as vivid. This is true as well of the tone of thought as of the incidents and accessories of his drama. if the scene is frequently laid at Crocky's, and the actors are nol►lc or ignoble blacklegs, the un skilled reader is not left to infer, as in the titshionable " novel, that this is at once the Must proper and most pleasant phase of • fashionable " lite, nor is the expert preached at in a sermon tagged on to the beginning or end of every chapter. Whether Digby is breaking the bank at the above venerated in stitution, or driving back from Lord St. Helier's Richmond party with Condit, di Iti volte, or• sunning himself in Mrs. Mantrap's boudoir, you arc somehow or another never allowed or inclined to forget for a moment that the silly fitol is beggaring himself of every good gift, and wilfully gathering in disappoint ment and misery and ruin. We take it no young gentleman beginning life in the House hold Brigade will read " Digby Grand" through without abstaining from bills, hells, and liaisons for a clear week at least. The book is a little spun out by descriptions which p►lace old friends iu no new light before us. If hunting or grouse-shooting come on the tal►is, they are heralded by a couple of pages of magazine-writing a piece ; and even a jug of Badminton cannot be brought in without the author explaining it to be • that grateful (-unwound of mingled claret, sugar, and soda water." But Captain IVhyte Melville will learn the necessity of compression, and we hope to welcome from him another title as pleasant as Digby Grata" The Elegies iff Pnipertins, witk English Xiiles. lty Frederick A. Paley, Editor of ".Eschylus." %onion .Tohn W. Parker and Son. Cam bridge : .Tohn Deighton. THE edition of " JEschylus" to which Mr. Paley's titlepage refers his readers left much room for improvement . . Formerly he attacked his author m a spirit of ferocious emendation, and produced a text distinguished by some brilliant alterations, but too different from the ordinary copies to be safely reeommended to students. His motes, although a valuable addition to former commentaries, were scarcely satistiteton- in the absence of other aid. Be sides. they were in Latin, which is obsolete ; and their Latinity was somewhat pedantic. In Mr. Paley's " Propertius" we recognise none of these faults. His text is a happy medium between conjectural licence and over scrupulousness. From a note in page 310, where he renmrks, " How much less successful conjectural emendation is when applied to the Latin than to the Greek authors,' we doubt the sincerity of his reformation ; but, while his preference for Latin authors lasts, his discretion may be trusted. His notes are suffi ciently full without being tedious, and arc writ ten in an easy and attractive style. Perhaps sometimes the style is more easy than elegant, as in one passage (p. 10M, where he informs us that " Creusa, daughter of Creon, King of Corinth, was the party to whom Creon sent the fatal robe besmeared with phosphorus." the advantage of English notes fails to comfort, us under such a vulgarism. His present editor very properly stands up for Propertius as a poet of great beauty and originality, by no means worthy of the comparative neglect into which he has fallen. This is not owing to his real faults of obscurity. lax constructions, or abrupt transitions : it was natural that those who considered Pope the standard of English poetry should set up Ovid as the sole model of Latin elegiacs. The remarks on this sub ject in page xi. of the preface show how much modern versifiers lose by such tame correct ness. - The last few pages of Mr. Paley's prefaee will be read with interest even by those who do not agree with him either in fearing the decline of classical scholarship in this country, or in complaining that Latin is sacrificed to the more fascinating study of lireek. We may laugh at the politician quoted in his note, who declared that a single number of the Times newspaper was of more real value than the history of Thneydides ; but it is no laughing matter to reflect how many of those who med dle publicly with education and politics are entirely ignorant of the value of accuracy in SATURDAY, thought and expression, or look upon it as a pedantic impediment to the progress of their views. Should such sentiments prevail, Mr. Paley cannot be tin• wrong in predicting that eloquence will be less frequent, manners and social habits less polished, conversational powers less brilliant." We cannot. however, agree with his com plaint that Latin is unduly neglected for Greek. Every encouragement should indeed be given by professorships at our Univer sities and other means to Latin philology : we would have Latin studied more, but not Greek studied less. It would be unreason able not to prefer better authors in a bet ter language. The preface before us ad mits " that all Roman literature is borrowed from the Greek ;" and Mr. Paley shows that Greek is better adapted for " the compr..- hension of grammatical principles" by em ploying it in almost every page of his notes to explain less definite Latin usages. Nor, in balancing the merits of the two rivals, should it be tiwgotten that, whale the Latin language has been a faithful servant of the Church of Rome, the critical study of Greek has always been detrimental to Romanian. It may be that Mr. Paley's zeal for Latin is only the ardour of a new attachment. His Latin philology, though clear, appears not to be deep. It is probably for want of more ex tensive reading that in a note to p. 61 he has followed the Eton Latin Grammar to teach CITOr. Fin' the sake of schoolboys we must. however reluctantly, accuse that venerable authority of gross fraud. Ovid (Tristia 1. ii. •,ill describes a sea with swelling waves, and a sky with threatening clouds : to provide an example in support of an erroneous rule, the Eton Grammar has cooked the verse, so as to make the heaven swell and the waves threaten! The true rule is to preserve the order in which the objects were first mentioned : see Zumpt's Grammar, sec. 700. We hope before long to have another op portunity of criticising Mr. Paley ; and we especially recommend to his care Catullus, one of the most beautiful of the Latin poets. but almost the most neglected, and one whose peculiar character requires an editor of unusually good judgment. Poems. fly Mrs. Francis Watt. Edited by .lames T. H. Landon, M.A. London : Whittaker and Co. IT would be hard indeed if a cousin of L. E. L. were entirely without poetry in her composition. The pre • sent volume is a testimony to powers which ably second pure womanly feelings ; and, what is rarer, even in a lady, robust and patriotic aspirations. Sonic of her• renderings of Korner are especially spirited. Take the following, of that fiery phantasm, the famous " Sword Song" : • • " Why in thy 'scnbb,util bounding, My iron joy art sounding? w► eager for the foe, lly sword, why ring'st thou AO? Hurrah!" " Within the sheath 1" rattle, I nerve me for the battle; With wild and eager might, I tremble for the tight. Hurrah !" Wait in thy narrow bower, NI y love, 'tis nut thine hour; Wait but a little space, Soon comes the wiah'd embrace. Unrrah !" Too long the sheath hath bound me, Love's ganlen blooms around me ; I feel the rose's breath, Red with the Imes of death. Hurrah :" " So come thou soul of fire, 'thou warrior heart's desire: Come. sword, where valour calls, Fen to my titther's halls. Hurrah:" It •• In bridal ranks victorious, t)11. the tree air is glorious! How cloth the steel bride's glance Bright in the sunbeam dunce. Hurnili!" A Summer Cruixe in tl►e Mediterranean on Board an A►uerican Frigate. By N. Parker Willis. London : T. Bosworth. I-low indefatigably 3lr. Willis travels about the world, how jauntily he bears himself in it, and how industriously he chronicles all that he is loomed to see or to suffer—with what liveliness he can write about commonplace occurrences or places that arc