The Press. — London, England, 1854-04-22 00:00:00

APRIL 22, 1854. himself unequal to work out his first conception. The result, at all events, is extremely unsatisfactory. 4, Mrs. Moodie in pleasant gossiping style gives us in these two volumes further details of her domestic life and Canadian experience. Her sketches may profitably occupy a vacant hour, as she is much too intelligent to pen matter not worth the reading, but those who remember herprevious works will scarcely wish her to write more until sho succeeds in break ing fresh ground. 5. It would seem from such books as " The Heiress of Somerton" that nothing is more difficult than to depict, at once with fidelity and artistic skill, the every-day life of society. What is strange and mon strous meets with more accurate detail than what is familiar and natural. Though in historical fiction the accounts we meet with of the life of times past are often absurd, yet on the whole we believe they approach nearer to reality than the accounts often given of the life of our own day. This novel has some good qualities—it gives evidence of a poetical mind. The diction is often pretty, even rising to eloquence, though with a tendency to exaggeration ; and great pains are taken with what may be termed the upholstery business ; but the authoress is la mentably at a loss when she has to deal with conduct and character. The story is of the slenderest kind, and the action of her leading personages is mainly confined to grimace and swagger. Thus, when Mr. Itiverstone Dysart—a rector, of high Church prin ciples, who had vainly sought to win the heiress— receives a letter from her announcing her dying condition : " His handsome eyes dilated, sparkled—who said he was passionless, of marble ?—like those of an envenomed ser pent about to strike ; and there arose such a gathering and blending of inconceivable triumph and absolute satanic hate in every lineament and feature, as changed his fine and classic face into the aspect of one scarce human. . . " "Thou fool!—thou fool!' he cried, as he laughed aloud. 0, the wild mockery—the intense derision of the laugh. Was lie man, or fiend? " Another gloating of his eyeballs with those feeble, trem bling characters—'twas a feast, a rare, a royal feast forhate ; devils might sit at the board, and make merry with him— ere he tore the letter into fragments, and threw them down upon the floor—stamped upon them—ground them, as with a giant's strength, to annihilate. " Deliberately, almost hissingly, as though deadly power to blight and wither lay couched in every accent, did the curso find way, the malediction fall. " So may the enemies of the one true Church perish, all over the world ! May all who would, like her, stand and obstruct its path be crushed by it down into the dust, and never rise up more! May they pass away unabsolved and unforgiven ! May they die in their youth and lustihood ; and may their name perish with them!' " His lips yet thrilling with those malefic words, he turned and kneeled at the prie-dieu, and, reverently kissing its golden cross, with clasped hands and lifted eye, he prayed." We quote the passage as it indicates a common fault in novels of this class, and is a not unfair ex ample of the forcible-feeble school. Thoughts on Self-Culture, Addressed to Women. By Maria Grey, and her Sister Emily Shirref. Second Edition. London: Hope and Co. A VOLUME distinguished by much good sense and right feeling, as well as by considerable knowledge and ability. it is shown, on the authority of some of our ablest thinkers and moral philosophers, that social virtue is not so difficult of attainment as some imagine, and general principles are clearly stated by which the heart may be moulded and conduct go verned. We are only afraid, considering the class to whom it is addressed, thnt the tone is pitched too high, and that the requirements demanded are too onerous. A smaller and simpler work would, per haps, better have answered the purpose in view, and have secured more cordial recognition. Early Education. By W. 11. Bainbrigge, F.R.C.S. London : Blackader and Co. Tins well-meaning and laborious little book touches upon all the points in the education of children, from their shoes to their sen‘ibilities. It looks upon them with a medical as well as an educational eye, tells us that shoes promote apoplexy, and that depression of spirits loads the lungs with an accumulation of blood. The system of Mr. Bainbrigge is to dis courage the development of the passions—emula tion he thinks a downright evil, and sensibility worse than dangerous. He is a great advocate for the early development of the faculties, even when they are to be devoted to no higher a purpose than shoemaking, and has on this head sundry useful illustrations. Illustrations, in fact, are what the book might be expected to be strong in, inasmuch as it consists of a series of lectures delivered at the Collegiate Institution of Liverpool, and the lecturer is always expected to provide a sufficiency of this kind of enlivenment. Unfortunately, there is less of them than we might expect, and the book in con sequence is somewhat heavy, and the application of several of its rules rather doubtful. However, it THE PRESS. is sensible, moral, and full of reflection, and the elders may gather from its perusal many useful hints. The Jerusalem Delivered of Torquato Tasso. By J. H. Wiffen. London : Bohn. THE work of which this is the fifth edition was originally published in the year 1824. It contains a life of the poet, a facsimile of his handwriting, with thirty-two engravings on wood and steel. From the latter we strongly recommend the excision or revision of " Satan in Council." The fallen spirit is depicted in the proportions and with the animated expression of a coal•porter in the Strand full of Barclay and Perkins's treble X. Horns and ahi forked beard do not add to his sublimity. In other respects the volume is as good as Mr. Bohn's publications gene rally are, and is a judicious addition to his Illustrated Library. T. Macci Midi Miles Gloriosus. Titi Maeci Plauti Trinumnins. London: J. W. Parker and Son. THESE plays of Plautus, separately printed and bound w►th flexible covers, are intended for the use of schools. Brief notes are appended to each. A Descriptive Atlas Illutrative of the Seats of War. London : W. S. Orr and Co. A USEFUL publication, containing six maps, five coloured, and one a skeleton delineation of the seat of war in the East, to which all of them have some reference. Each is accompanied by a short historical and explanatory description. The work itself is good, but an introduction of several lines is singularly ill•written. If we had trusted to it we should have been misled as to the contents of the book. Chapters for School Reading and Home Thought. By the Author of "The Village Schoolmistress's Assistant," &c. London: Hope and Co. A SERIES of short tales and essays, conveying to the labouting classes useful instruction on most subjects of every-day life. It is chiefly designed, we imagine, for rural districts. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. BOOKS. The Gauntlet of Freedom. Harrison. The Voyage of the Herald. B. Seeman. Reeve and Co. The Lamplighter. Clark, Beeton, and Co. Treasures of Art in Great Britain. Dr. Waagen. Murray. The Laws of War. H. B. Thompson. Smith and Elder. Lord Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh. M. Napier, Esq. Macmillan and Co. Poems. J. Macfarlane. II ardwicke. PAmPirr.Arrs. A Poem and a Pamphlet. Chapman and Hall. Facts and Documents relating to Popery. Ditto. England and Russia. R. Edleaton. Houlston and Stoneman, The Nunnery Question. Burns and Lambert. The Two Princes. A Fairy Tale. Hardwieke. Tract on Confirmation, Rev. W. H. Ridley. Mozley. Life Assurance. A Lecture by M. O. Keating. Fetter and Co. ztt pram. HAYMARKET THEATRE. THE Faster piece at this theatre is by Mr. Planche, and is entitled Mr. Buckstone's Voyage round the World. It is formed upon the model of The Ascent of Mount Parnassus and The Camp at the Olympic, hut it has neither the novelty of the first nor the point and elegance of the last of these deservedly popular extravaganzas. Neverthe less, the sparkling dialogue, easy flowing wit, and master-hand of the author, which are visible through out, make amends for a whole catalogue of defects, and the Haymarket may fairly claim credit for the best novelty of the season. To describe the plot of this piece is obviously a work of supererogation. Mr. Buckstone acts himself with great ease and humour, and the other principal characters are sustained by Mrs. Fitzwilliam, Mr. W. Farren,jun., Miss Feather stone, and Mrs. Caulfield. We sincerely wish Miss Featherstone had profited by the advice we gave some weeks ago, and betaken herself to deep retirement, for the purpose of being thoroughly solla'd. She has a good voice and some disposition, and, with a reason able amount of study, would make a very respect able singer ; but from pure want of study her natural powers are entirely thrown away, and her intonation at times painfully defective. The new scenery, espe cially that by Mr. W. Callcott, is very beautifully painted ; and the appointments and decorations are in good taste, and produced with much care. N.B.—Some of the gentlemen to whom important characters are entrusted were not, even on Tuesday night, so perfect in their parts as was desirable; divers awkward hitches in the scenery, too, interfered somewhat with the success of the piece. PRINCESS'S. THE play of Faust hag travelled from Weimar to the Princess's Theatre vid Paris ; and of course has "suffered a French change" in the transit. All the poetry, all the philosophy, all the satire and cynicism have been left out of Gothe's unactable drama. On the other hand, a little sentiment, and a good many stage opportunities for dress, scenery, and " situation," have been put in. Mephistophiles, in this new ver sion, talks infinitely less than in the original, and moralises not at all. But he ma►ntains his char acter as a cool, contemptuous, sarcastic fiend ; while his sneers, which are just us abundant as ever, are directed against lawyers, doctors, old women, and other objects that have figured time out of mind as standing theatrical jests. Ou the whole the part was very effective, nor did it lose its effect in the hands of M r.O harles Kean, who certainly plays the devi better than we ever saw him play anything else. His "make-up," limp, and tone were capital throughout. With Margaret the adapter has evidently taken much not ill-bestowed pains. The character has been wrought into a beautiful picture of innocence, love, and remorse, and was excellently delineated by Miss Leclercq. Faust, with all his attributes omitted as &student and vision ary,becurnes a very commonplace individual, certainly not worth tempting by any devil who knew the value of time. Siebel, Margaret's true lover, is made a mere stage fool, whose idiocy and cowardice raise a few barren laughs; and Martha into au odious old crone. There is a scene in which she plays off amorous wiles upon Mephistophiles, designed for no other purpose but. to lead up to a climax at which the fiend wonders "What is to become of the old woman when she dies ? I am sure I won't have her !" The " point" brought down a roar, but the scene was absolutely nauseous. As an acting play Faust hovers disagreeably between the burlesque and the serious drama. It is much too grave for the former; and yet introduces personages and appeals to sources of interest or of fun which, in England at all events, have not hitherto been considered endur able in a seriously-intentioned drama. The demon of an Easter piece may be as harmless as he is amus ing ; nor are we shocked at seeing the heroine borne away by winged sprites to the " Realms of Bliss " in the last scene of a pantomime. But the case becomes different when the devil is evoked as the Christian Satan, and derives all the force and interest he may possess from the reality of his appear ance, or where Margaret, after a scene in which the most sacred ideal of penitence and intercession is unscrupulously mimicked, is supposed to be carried off by angels to heaven. However, the audience at the Princess's seem to look upon the scene merely as a picture ; and, being very prettily grouped and lighted up, it brings down the curtain amid thunders of applause. Several of the earlier scenes are also exceedingly picturesque, the costumes and sumo of the tableaux being cleverly copied from Retech's wonderful etchings. ADELPHI. THE prevalent tastes of the day—dislike of plots-- love of show—Turkey—Russia—and Overland pano ramas—have all conspired to bring up Lord Bate man. His adventures with the fair Sophia in proud Turkee, his plume, and his proud young porter, have left the dirty windows of Rag Fair, where they were dear at a halfpenny, to be transmogrified into one of the handsomest spectacles which the Adelpbi has shown for a long time. Its merit, however, is almost entirely in the scenery. The dialogue turned chiefly on Russo-Turk allusions. Its good things were very good, but there were very few of them. As for the acting, it was quite up to the level of the opportunities. Mr. Selby, as Cesar, made up into a striking resemblance to the Czar Nicholas; and Mrs. Keeley converted the "proud young porter" into a dashing tiger of the modern school. Many of the scenes were on a grand scale, causing wonder how such throngs and extensive effects could be exhibited upon the narrow Adelphi stage. Their purport was from time to time explained by Mr. Rogers, in a lec turing monologue which certainly might have been smarter. - LYCEUM. THE novelty at this theatre, a French proverb, missed fire on Monday, one of the actresses who was to have figured in it being taken ill. On Tuesday another was put in her place, and the piece came out. The management seemed resolved to follow the example of the rest of the world, though after a different fashion, for Give a Dog an 11l Name possesses just as little plot as the spectacles at the Haymarket and Adelpbi. Mr. Ogle has an old friend with a young wife : the latter he proposes to run away with, declaring his purpose openly to both parties. Of course he does not do it, and his attack and defeat form the whole of the story. The cool impudence of the lover, represented by Mr. C. Mathews, was amusing, and successful up to a certain point; fur the husband believes his friend to be in joke, and is thrown off his guard. The lady, at first annoyed, becomes smitten at last; and on her husband's return from a profes sional walk gets up a quarrel, and ferrets oat a whole host of grievances, which are the excuse for the 379