The Press. — London, England, 1853-12-03 00:00:00

786 • would make the fortune of a " Liberal " attor ney at a general election. Of "Quacks " we need say nothing. Under " Reprints " any one can easily see what a large quantity of advertisements are taken. Then coulee a whole class of epheme ral publications, pamphlets, and avowed corn piletions of the beissorsemd-paste school, which cannot be ranked as literary " works," but which deceive the eyes of the careless, by the space they occupy in the columns of a journal and the shelves of a bookshop. Thus it will be aeon that the space left to " Authors Proper" is much smaller than would be supposed. Publishers ate not in want of authors. "Vanity Fair," " The Trade," " Edit ration," " Professional Puffers," consume enough of their paper bought at wholesale and sold at retail prices, their eremites, their establishment, time, influence, tee. Re., to citable theta to do without applying for the aid of professional "authors." So that, in the literary market, the needy divine, the Wrangler fresh &um Cambridge, or the Templar strug gling to the bar, have to encounter competi tion with Miss Decourey Fitztitiget, Sir itiek son Thompson, and all those classes who pay instead of being paid. This state of facts which has grown up of late years makes au thorship a worse eursuit than ever. • So limited is this class of "Authors Prt quer " that BOW of our readers will not have much trouble in recounting most of their mutinies. So moderate are the gains from literature that even those who have won great reputation us protessionel anthers have embarked noel other vocations. Mr. Thaekeray has turned lecturer; Mr. Dickens carries on lluagehad Words ; Mine Elie* Cook also has her weekly journal ; Mr. and Mere. Hall have their monthly periodical ; Mr. Albert Smith has his " Mont Mane." Other authors, also, who stood some years since upon their claims as independent writers, have merged into journalism of various kinds, sonic as proprietors or editors, and others have embarked in trade and commerce, and given up "the Row." In short, the " literary profession " (exclu sive of journalism) is much more narrow, as we have shown, than might be sapposed. Poems. Ily Matthew Arnold. I,ondoi I : I •Onglilail. Mn. Mamma is not among those gentlemen who write verses and publish them under the belief that the word poems on the tialtnmge and rhyme within constitute pi't'y. Mr. Arnold is a poet. The preface of his present work is an essay, most ably written, to prove that the theory of the Greeks in poetry is superior to that of the moderns. The moderns make the parts which should . be accessory and subordinate superior to the whole. Thus, speaking of Elhakspeare, Mr. Arnold says:— But to these mama characteristics of all great poets ho added • special one of his own; a gift, namely, of happy, abundant, and ingenious expression, eminent and unrivalled: so eminent as irresistibly to strike the attention first in hint, and even to throw into com parative shade his other excellences as a poet. here has been the mischief. These other excellences were his fundamental excellences as a poet; what distinguishes the artist from the mere amateur, says t ioethe, is Architectosierl in the highest sense ; that power of execution which creates, forms, and constitutes : not the profoundness of single . thoughts, not the richness of imagery, not the abundance of illustration. But these attractive aceess.ories of a poetical work hying more easily seined than the spirit of the whole, anal their accessones being liass e mma by. Shakspeare in an unequal degree, a young writer having recourse to Shalupeare as his model runs great risk of being vanquished anal absorbed by them, anal, in otiose• quenee, of reproducing, &mooting to the measure of his power, these', and theme stone. Of this pr e p o nderating quality of Shake arc's genius, fteeonlingly, almost the whole at modern English poetry has. it appears to me, felt 11w inthamtee. To the exclusive attention on the part of his imitation to this it is in a great &me owing. that of the majority of modern poetical works t h e details alone ore xiduable, the oomposition worthless. In matting them o lio is tually reminded of that terrible sentence all a m French poet—it At tout ee roil, wig makeirraorement ;ea rteM ti dire. Mr. Arnold, to exemplify his meaning, men tions the poem of "Isabella," by Keats, which be " thinks contains a greater number of Nippy " single expressions which one could quote t " all the extant tragedies of Sophocles." lint NO loosely, to form a story, are thew happy ex pressions put together that the effect of the adios as a whole is "absolutely null." The THE PRESS. following is Mr. Arnold's description of the Greek poet's aim and practice The terrible old m3thic story nu whieh the drama was founded stood, heron , hr entered the theatre, traced in its Litre outlines upon the apeetator's mind ; it stood in his memory , AN a group of s tatuary, faintly *cep, at the end of a lung and dark vista : then cause the poet. enabodling out lines, developing situations, not a worl wasted, not a semi• meet capriciously thrown in: stroke nisei stroke, the drama proceeded: the light deepened upon the group ; more and more it revealed itself to the rivetted gaze o f th e spectator : mud at last, when the final words were spoken, it stood before him iu broad sunlight, a model of immortal beauty. This was what a 4:reek trite de manded; this was what a Greek poet endeavoured to effeet. From this passage, which is itself an in stance of what it deseribes, the reader will see that, whatever may be Mr. Arnold's merits as it poet, as a prose writer he could rank high. Holding these opinions, be has, in this collec tion of poems, endeavoured to rut them in practice. " Sohrab and Rustum,' an episode, the first piece in the volume, is so much an instance of this subordination of parts to the whole, and of their dependence one upon the other, that it is impossible to tear one away without detriment to it and the rest. There fore from that poem we shall not give an extract. But " Cadmus and Ilarmonia" being short we are enabled, by giving it entire, to do justice to Mr. Arnold;— c.thuus AND Minim:Lt. Far, far, from here, The Adriatic breaks in a warm bay Among the greets Illyrian hills ; and there The imnshine in the happy glens is fair, Anil by the wa, and in the brakes. The gneoi is cool, the sea-side air Buoyant and fresh, the mountain flowers More virginal and sweet than And there, they say, two bright and aged Snakes, Who once were Cellulite and Ham Bask in the gione or on the warm seipshere, In breathless quiet, alter all their ills. her do they see their country, nor the place Where the Sphinx lied among the frowning hills. Kerr the unhappy palace of their race, Nor Thebes, nor the lament's, any more. There theme two live, far in the Illyrian brakes. They had tilay'd long enough to see, In Thebes, the billow of calamity Over their own dear children rota, Clinic upon came, pang upon pang, For years, they sitting helpless in their home, A grey Ida man and woman : yet of old The finds had to their marriage come, And at the banquet all the Muses sang. Then , fore they dill not end their days In sight of blood ; lent were rapt, far away, To when, the west wind lays, And murmur* of the Adriatic come To those untroiblen mountain lawns : and there, 'Placed safely ur chang'd forms, the Pair Wholly forget their lino sad life, and home, Antl all that Thelon woe, and stray For ever through the glens, placid and dumb. One other extract, from " The Strayed Re veller," we cannot refrain from giving They see the Ferry On the broad, elsy•lsden Lone Chormanian at ram : thereon, With stain and strain, Two homes, strongly swimming, tow The fenN•beat, with woven rope* to either bow Firm.harness'd by the mane :—a Chief, With she'd and Aitken spear, Stands at the prow, and guides them: lint astern, The cowering Merchants, in long robes, Sit pale beside their wealth Of eilkdiales and of balsam-drops, Of gold and ivory. Of turquoise-twill and amethyst, Jasper and chalcedony, And milk-bared onyx atones. The loaded boat swings groaning In the yellow eddies. The Gods behold them. The collection includes poems written in a less classical spirit. but all equally polished. Of the simpler compositions. " Parting" is the most pleasing. One, " The Church of 'lron," reminds us of Longfellow. in this poem is word which we conceive must be s misprint : And the wind ',with,* in the , mountain vines. A river may be said to wash, and the noise of the wind rushing through pine-trees is like the sound of a mountain torrent ; but this involves a double metaphor, and, as Mr. Arnold's similes and figurative expressions are generally simple, we cannot believe this was what he intended. With regard to the theory in the preface. much may be said on I,oth sides," and yet it would lie difficult to come to any practical con clusion. It may he conceded that, if a poet's works were to be confined to a certain space, SATITRDAY, it would be better that he should lavish all the resources of his art on them, and occupy a lifetime in making them perfect. But would poetry generally benefit by the adoption of that theory ? By the application of it Mr Arnold is compelled to exclude Shakapeare and Goethe from the list of perfect poets. But in " Faust," which would the reader prefer? that the scenes relating to Margaret should be pruned, clipped, and softened down, so that they should become properly subordinate to the whole, or that they should be left entire in their tragic terror and tender beauty ? lie would not part with one ; from that, The flowerpots at my window Were wet with my tears like dew, When 1, in the early morning, Oatbered these flowers for you; to that in the church, where the rolling organ, the monks dread hymn, with the whispers of the busy fiend behind, have left her no peace on earth, no hope beyond the grave. So again in Shakspeare. Take Henry IV. ; clearly con sidered as a work of art, it is, according to Mr. Arnold's themy, defective, for certainly we are much more interested in the fate Of Pidstajf than in the death of the King, and in the result of Master Shallow's loan of 1,11011/. than in the battle of Shrewsbury ; yet would any reader forego one of these immortal scenes for the sake of symmetry in the whole? No; he forgets the disproportion of the whole figure when gazing on the beauty of the separate parts. 'Would poetry gain or lose, then, by the adoption of the plan which Mr. Arnold recommends, that we should imitate and emulate " a model of immortal beauty"? Unquestionably lose; for it would preclude all but a very few - happily-constituted and highly litvoured minds from even entering tho bright realm of poetry. Shakspenre and Goethe *mad no doubt have won their crowns under any system and any conditions ; but Byron would not have gained his honours ; perhaps neither would Shelley ; whilst Scott, and a host of others who yet give us pleasure, we should never have even heard of. Again, we must have rep, trtl to the circumstances of the age in' which poems are produced. A Greek poet could not expect to influence a very widely extended circle, unless he confined his work within limits which would enable it to be read aloud, recited, or acted before an audience highly refined, critical, and impatient. To listen to a thing once or twice in which there are digressions from the main and onward action is one thing ; to read it often, another. The object of all poetry is to give pleasure ; and we cannot but think that these considerations had been carefully weighed by Goethe, whom Mr. Arnold admits to be " the greatest critic " of all times," when he deliberately allowed " Faust," "judged as a whole, and judged " strictly as a poetical work," to remain de fective. It is certain that to work to any model would greatly fetter and cramp the genius of a great original artist, while it would equally assist the mere pretender, and give to his sl airious productions the appearance of reality. We have not many genuine poets—but even their excrescences and redundancies we would not willingly prune. Still let them " warble their native woodnotes wild," and if, judged by the rules of art, they pour out one tot) many, we will pardon the error, nay, listen to it de lighted, for the sake of its own sweet sound. But the elements of poetry are eternal: time and place will not essentially alter them. Whatsoever kindles human passion, whatso ever will cause the heart to swell, the check to blaneh, the lip to quiver, the eye to glisten with emotion, that is poetry. The sources of this power Mr. Arnold possesses. Let him have recourse to them, and exert it ; and, whether he imitates and emulates a " model of immortal beauty" or li.dlows the bent of his own original genius, we doubt not, from the specimen before us, he will create a work not unworthy his great inherited name. Victoria, late Australia Frli.r. By W. West giuth. Loudon : Simpkin and Marshall. aiscoutt ON no Australian colony did the disorganisa tion following (on) gold discoveries full more . heavily than on Van Dionen'a Land. Victo ria