The Press. — London, England, 1858-04-24 00:00:00

392 material. Perhaps some people can find beauty and stability in the nave of the Abbey—some in the Victoria Tower. There are some 'weak and shortsighted people abroad who think Lon don-bridge grand and severe, and not built of plaster, but of granite. Unless our memory deceives us, we have seen something better than "humble almshouses" in the metropo• lis—here and there, perhaps, a noble hospital or an extensive asylum. " But Gallio cares " for none of these things." Everything is to a man just as he sees it ; and Cardinal Wise man sees only plaster and dentists, fancy sports, cudgels and fists in London, backed by a sovereign whose dignity is ludicrous in comparison with the supremacy of the man before whom thousands kneel annually in a grand square of the city whose plaster is marble, and whose dentists are cardinals. It is a habit with interesting females, in the sentiment of their teens, to keep the pith of a letter for the postscript. The Cardinal adopts the fashion, and it is quite in place, for we imagine his book can only be addressed to that particular class. He concludes thus : Even the close of Gregory's Pontificate, his last years and edifying end, belong not to these imperfect records. If the courteous companions of my journey through the put wish to learn about them, they must consult the common mother of all the Faithful, who treasures up in her better memory the acts and virtues of her Pontiffs and their Fathers. Exactly so ! All the word-painting of this big book—all the gorgeousness, majesty, magnifi cence, splendour, glory, incense, thrones, pro cessions, cannoneers, croziers, unities, crowns, &e., and the bands, as before—are paraded, in order to induce the Cardinal's " courteous com panions " to " consult the common mother " ! If any of our readers are liable to be misled by 532 pages of composition intended only to dazzle and attract, by clothing the form of reli pion in the trappings of the stage, we would strongly urge on them a very simple prescrip tion before resorting to any such dangerous consultation. and give them the same advice which Punch offered to those about to marry— "Do n't." Martial and the Moderns. By Andrew Amos, Esq. London : Bell and Daldy. MR. JEAFFEESON tells us in his clever• novel of " Isabel" of a literary club in London which -has been going to read a paper on epigrams ever since its first foundation, but has never been able to do so yet. If these gentlemen delay their self-imposed task much longer, we should recommend some "independent mem ber" to take the work upon himself, as a matter of business, and to give us a good, sound book upon English epigrams, with a careful illustrative commentary. Such a volume would be universally welcome to the present, and only a proper tribute to the literature of a past, generation. The Epigram is now no more, and it is time we reared a decent monument to his memory- We sometimes encounter a feeble attempt at this species of wit, coming " like a ghost to trouble joy," but we only catch, as it were, a faint " vagitus " a half•heard echo from the shades where the mighty wits of old still perhaps launch their polished shafts at one another. But, on the whole, epigrams are become, like old china, things to be collected rather than used—won • derful fer their ingenuity, their neatness, and their brightness, but no longer adapted to the general tone of society. Once upon a time they formed part of the intellectual ar moury of every fine gentleman ; the polished, piercing rapier at his aide was scarcely more necessary to his character than the knack of throwing his fancies into the terse and pregnant form of a bon mot or an epigram. It was necessary to be ready on all occasions ; and accordingly some of the happiest epigrams we possess have been im promptus. Besides the productions of all our well-known " wits," from Ben Jonson to Tom Moore, a mine of unexplored wealth exists in the Gentleman's Magazine and other periodicals of the last century, and a collec tion of the first and excerpta from the second, with the proper anecdotical and biographical acoompaniment, would form one of the most delightful volumes in the language. Had Mr. Amos turned his attention to a work of tble nature, we Wilk be would have TH i PRE SS, APRIL 24,18 58 . done much better; or had he oven given us an edition of Martial with his present illustra tions added in the shape of notes, he would have conferred a boon on all that class whose taste and acquirements are still best de scribed by " the Horatian scholarship of a gentleman." If, as he says, the present work is addressed to such an audience only as has similar tastes with himself, we may be quite certain that the large majority of them would prefer the original Latin. Few but scholars ever acquire such tastes ; and we make bold to assert, that none, whether scholars or other wise, could derive any pleasure from a literal prose translation of the Roman epigrammatist. Of whatever service it might prove to the student of English literature, very few would be found willing to go through so rattail for the sake of gaining so little as an investigation of the kind here undertaken would result in. And though we are sorry to discourage any effort, in the present day, at bringing the classics into notice, we are driven to believe that Mr. Amos has made a mistake in the choice of his design, on which both his clas sical scholarship and his curious acquaintance with English literature are little short of wasted. His plan is to classify Martial's epigrams under certain heads—as Literature, Life, Topography, &c.—and then to point out what modern authors are indebted to him, in their reflections on the same topic. To this we have no objection. But then the effect is weakened by the primary mistake of giving the epigrams in English prose, and the utility im paired by the narrow range, and sometimes the impropriety, of the parallels adduced. The large majority of his quotations are derived from the Elizabethan and Caroline eras, and from the texts of the Spectator and Rambler. Jeremy Taylor and Dr. Juhuson are the authors most frequently quoted, and generally we must confess with perfect relevance. This is a curious fact,—that the two writers best acquainted with a witty and licentious classic should be, not the sparkling dramatists and satirists of Charles 11. and Queen Anne, but one of our greatest divines, ant he who is styled, par excellence, "the great moralist," though he was also, as those familiar with him are aware, one of the wittiest of mankind. But long extracts from sermons impart a heavy air to these pages ; and they should, at all events, have been relieved by something gayer and lighter than equally long-winded extracts from Bea Jonson and Cowley, to the neglect of Pope, whose occasional agreement with Martial is just as obvious—that is to say, all three pro bably were thinking more of Horace, in the passages cited, than of his latest and leas popular countryman. But to the sources from which we should have expected numerous illustrations to be drawn we find scarce a single allusion. Our comic literature is scarcely touched. Con greve and his contemporaries are never once mentioned. Fielding is quoted occasionally, but all the famous talkers of the eighteenth century are passed over in silence, as if no thing was attributable to the influence of Martial but expressly written imitations of him. Below the eighteenth century Mr. Amos does not descend at all. We miss accordingly parallels that will rise to every one's lips—as the beautiful lines of Byron, " Oh, snatched away in beauty's bloom ;" to the epigram addressed to Alcimua (Lib. i., lxxxix. or lxxiii j ; and to numerous passages is Mr. Thackeray's works pointing to traits of " Snobbism " which had their exact counter part in the society frequented by Martial. Johnson, perhaps, is more deeply indebted to Martial, after all, than most of the writers whom Mr. Amos quotes. His epigrams, both English and Latin, breathe the Martialian spirit in every line, and sometimes, we do not hesitate to say, exceed anything which his original has produced. We should specially instance the epigram on Colly Cibber and George 11., and the Latin one to a young lady who had ad vised him to become a Whig. It is time, however, we should give some specimens of Mr. Anaos's performances. As an instance of the curious information which his pages occasionally afford we subjoin do follow- 111 XY.-11ELLir&Ney. " My lawsuit, which now is being tried by the C ourt does not relate to manslaughter, or p o i son, or violence, b u t • is about three little goats. I compl a i n t h at my neighboul has stolen them from me: the judge requires this to b e proved. You, Nathan:ma, my advocate, talk about the battle of Cannve and the Mithridatic war, and Carthaginian perjuries, Sylla, Marius and Mucius, all with a stunnin g voice, and the whole gesture of your hand. Af ter this - Posthumus, it is time to say something about my three little goats."—Lib. vi., Ep. xi:. This epigram is ingrafted into Dr. Parr's Preface to Bellenden (in Latin) ; wherein he reviews the political characters of the statesmen of bib day (1787), and es• pecially the attacks of Pitt upon Lord North, on account of the American war, even after its termination. The following translation of the passage in Dr. Parr's Preface was published in 1788: The American war did certainly commence and was afterwards conducted under the most unhappy auspices. This has constantly been, in the bands of the minister, a must tremendous instrument of torture, directed against the security and fame of an individual. But to contem plate. without ridicule, incidents which have found ad mission into our Senate requires no small strength of muscle. Somewhat of the moat minute importance has been the proposed subject of debate : the chosen band has been assembled and the young men composing it have in. dulged in obstreperous clamour ; all has been noisy mirth and tumultuous commotion. After a while a certain per. son, in the pride of office, makes his entrance; instantly he rises from his place, and losing gradual remembrance of the unimportant matter to be discussed, he begins a terrible story of blood and wounds; talks of Sylla and Marius, of the atrociousness of Punic perfidy, with the loudest vehemence of voice and action : he calls heaven and earth to witness that the American war was the sole occasion of the matter in question, however insignificant; he pretends that of the American war Lord North was the one and only cause." The learned reader will find in Pr. Parr's Latin preface a much closer approximation to Martial and his goats than in the translation. Dr. Parr writes, "Rea guedam agenda est de tribus capellis ; and, afterwards, the Certain One (Pitt) trium capellarsem paululum immemor, multa de vi et suede, mutts de Syllis et Mariis, multa de Cannis et per. juriis Punici furoris lingua personat audacissima et menu tots. Deos Hominesque testatur helium Americanum in cauca fuiase cur Ticino isles tres capellas a Caio furaltu sit." This is a very ingenious application ; and a comparison between the Latin and English will show how much of the spirit of this kind of writing evaporates in translation. We part from Mr Amos, sympathizing with his intentions more than we admire his achievements. He does not seem to have any natural turn for this species of literary labour. The light, dancing style, the well timed allusion, the easy personal sketches, the fund of literary gossip, and extensive acquaintance with ana, which such a work requires, seem quite beyond his conceptions, and alien to his powers. He has given us a book which any well-read English gentleman with a partiality for the graver authors might have given us. To estimate the influence of Martial upon modern wit, we should have gone to the writings of modern wits. But Mr. Amos does not seem to care for that de partment of letters. When we want to go to the Haymarket, he takes us to Exeter-hall. The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley. By Thomas Jefferson Hogg. In Four Vols. London: Moxon. WE have heard before of Mr. Hogg, the author of this Life of Shelley. He was an early friend and college companion of the poet, and at the instance of Sir Edward Lytton Mr. Hogg contributed several papers on Shel ley to a periodical of which Sir Edward was the editor. The present work is not written in a tone calculated to soothe those who dis like Shelley for his opinions ; nor will it please those who admire the poet for the teeming richness of his metrical and metaphysical fancies, and for the sonorous harmony of his beautiful embodiment of crude theories and false philosophy. It is composed in a dog matic, peevish, opinionative manner; and it jars so often upon the wrong key as to produce the most disagreeable dissonance. In the auth or ' s admiration of the subject of the biography, there is no attempt at moderation. Shelley iy treated from first to last as "the Divine Poet, as if it were certain that he was the co-equal in glory of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, or Milton. Mr. Hogg has truly recorded the effect on hearers of Shelley's shrill and most unmusical voice, which almost marred the effect of the poet's singularly interesting countenance, with its beautiful eyes, its rounded features, and its mystical, rapt, ex provolou. gvery übapter of gr. Hogg reminds ■