The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-17 00:00:00

472 The communes present an organic coherence and com pact social strength which can be found nowhere else, and yield the incalculable advantage that no proletaire can be formed so long as they exist with their present constitu tion. it man may lose or squander all he possesses, but his children do not inherit his poverty ; they still retain their claim upon the land by a right not derived from him, but from their birth as members of the commune. On the other hand, it must be confessed that this fundamental element of the communal system, the equal division of the and, is not favorable to agriculture, which under this system might remain for a lung time stationary. In our system of poor rates we have, as regards the prevention of absolute destitution, something resembling the communal system of Russia, but free from all the disadvantages of that system, as our land is cultivated in the manner most fitted to increase its produce and to augment the wealth of the nation. In re viewing the several agricultural systems of Europe, the author with justice gives the preference to that of England, where the rule prevails that the land (and this is plainly for the interest of the whole commonwealth) shall be as little divided as possible : In England we find this principle :—The land must be divided as little as possible, and only so many hands devoted to agriculture as are absolutely necessary; for in this way alone can it be energetically prosecuted, and maintained in a flourishing condition. The whole country is, therefore, cultivated by means of large (though not overgrown) farms, which have the advantage of providing work the whole year for all the hands employed upon them, and no labour is lost. Lasting improvements can only be effected upon large farms. The consequence of this sys• tem is, that agriculture is nowhere carried on in such per fection, and maintained in so flourishing a condition, as in England. Nowhere are there so many cattle, and conse quently so much manure produced. Scarcely a third of the population in England is employed in agriculture, but not a tenth part has any property in the soil, or even a house. In France, on the other hand, land is viewed iko coin, to pass from hand to hand, and the 'oil is cut up into innumerable small proper -8 es. In England the number of estates is stimated at 400,000, and not more than one third of the people are engaged in agricul ture; in France the number of estates is estimated at 10,404,121, and more than two thirds of the population are engaged in agri culture. In Russia, by the division of the land among all the members of the commune, there is no inducement to that improvement of the land and economical culture of it which is one great element of national prosperity. The proprietor, satisfied with the revenue he obtains from the peasants, usually suffers the people to proceed in their own way, and agri culture is, therefore, prosecuted in the rudest and most primitive manner. The character given of the Russian people by the author is, on the whole, favorable, and in many respects engaging. They are devout and docile ; eminently affectionate in all their social relations; naturally benevolent; highly ingenious; and capable of rapid culture in all imitative arts They are by disposition ex tremely averse to war, fond of travel, and attached to all kinds of handicraft work. The author thinks the population, on the whole, the most homogenous in Europe. From their kindly and ingenious temper, and from their unrivalled talent for colonisation. we are justi fied in anticipating that they will play a great, and, we hope, a beneficent, part in the world's future history. The young Emperor has a noble work set before him to increase the material prosperity of this social race, to fit them for freedom, and to call forth the re sources of their vast country. One subject specially worth attention in this book is the account given of the trans portation system to Siberia, which appears to be working well, and, with more humane regulations, would leave nothing to regret. The benevolence of the Russians is shown in the gifts they shower on the poor pri soners. Very seldom is a Russian condemned to this punishment by his commune. The book is one which every one who would know what the social system of Russia is should read carefully, for it is so full of matter as to be worth more than a cursory perusal. " The Productive Forces of Russia," by Tengo borski, should be taken in connection with it ; and for the darker shades of Russian life, " The Englishwoman in Russia," and Tonighe nieff's attractive sketches, " RuSsian Life in the Interior," may be consulted. The four hooks, taken together, supply an authentic an 4 graphic pictu;•c of Russian lift) and itt. THE PRESS. dustry. A short time back, when brutal invec tive was lavished on everything Russian, Haxthausen's book would scarcely have re ceived the attention it deserves; but now we may hope the public are in a temper to appreciate the candid and careful results of his travels and researches. We are indebted to Mr. Robert Farie for the judicious manner in which he has given the work to the public. The Inwks of John MarBton. Reprinted from the Earliest Editions: With Notes, and some Account of his Life and Writings, by J. 0. Halliwell, F.R.S , F.S.A. Three Vols. London : John Russell Smith. (First Notice.) THE best point of sight for a true survey of Shakespeare is the surrounding base of con temporary dramatists. It is not enough to estimate him by his own works alone, but also by the works of others, and his influence upon them. All poets should be read by the light of the age in which they lived ; and this general canon bears with particular force upon the dramatic writings of the latter part of the sixteenth, and the beginning of the seven teenth century, when the English theatre was not only created, but raised at once to a height of excellence from whence it has been ever since descending, with many vicissitudes in its downward course. Not merely, therefore, on account of their intrinsic claims, which are high and distinctive, but because they occupy an important place in the stage literature of the period, the plays of Marston will be welcome to all students and lovers of Shake speare. Of Marston personally very little is known. He was the son of a councillor of the Middle Temple ; was educated at Oxford ; married a daughter of one of King James's chaplains ; wrote new plays, and altered old ones for Henslowe; was mixed up in Dekker's quar rels with Ben Jonson, and had a quarrel of his own with Hall, the satirist ; made some money by his writings ; lived pleasantly in the com pany of the wits who frequented the Mermaid and the Devil; and died in 1634. His plays were originally published singly at various dates, ranging from 1602 to 1613, 4ume of them afterwards running into new editions ; and in 1633, with two exceptions, they were gathered into a volume. Dodsley preserved one of thorn, and Dilke admitted two or three more into his dreary and ill-edited series of old plays. The whole are now collected for the first time in the volumes before us, and the works of Marston completed by the addi tion of the satires and minor poems, and a pageant from a MS in the British Museum. Shakespeare had produced most of his plays when Marston began to write for the stage. In any attempt to estimate the influence of Shakespeare upon the drama under Elizabeth and James, or the relations of the dramatists to each other, it is necessary always to keep in view the chronological succession of the writers. We cannot, in our limited space, enter into details ; but it will be sufficient for our immediate purpose to indicate the stages, so to speak, of the procession. Peele and Greene represent the period towards the close of which Shakespeare appeared; next, within two or three years of Shakespeare's retirement from London (after which there is reason to believe he wrote eight or nine plays), came Marston, Ben Jonsou, Chapman, Webster, and others ; next, while these were still in pos session of the theatre, Beaumont and Fletcher ; these were followed by Massinger and Ford ; and the illustrious line soon afterwards closed with Shirley. There was no break in this suc cession. A new group came into flower before the preceding group had gone out ; and the stock was maintained with constant fertility to the end. In this progress Marston occupies an early place. He was contemporaneous with Shake speare in the latter part of Shakespeare's connection with the theatre, and was already an established writer when Ben Jonson brought out his first known play. As we find amongst all the dramatists of this period, ex tending over a term of. about eighty years, certain features iu uoturnou—broad and vigorous trea4utent, masculine i►►tellect, inni abounding imagination —so tb resemblances of generic affi individuals, of a no lass remarl Thus Marston and Webster ai in the intensity they threw ii. and in their tendency to select jecta, and to dwell minutely, am ing force, upon situations of and terror. The dates of their been ascertained with sufficir enable us to determine in all tion of precedence ; but MI presumed, from such evident, to have been in advance of genius, less disciplined, was cap) conceptions. Shakespeare alone included which we find scattered in di tions amongst the others If tinctive character, except that There was no one dramatist him more than the rest; whil, may be discerned in them all taring upon the inquiry suggi consideration—which has nevr gated as it deserves—we ma; single particular in which contemporaries and successors in his track. Ben Jonson sail of Hawthornden that Shake! art—a thoughtless criticism wards retracted. In Shakespear supreme as nature, and sho• spicuously in the structure of taught to all who came after of treating a fable dramatically presenting its salient points striking effects, and of uniting interest in the story the sub'. of character. Marston was on, profited in the most practical speare's example. He had ' stantly before him in the disc action, and in the quantity of braced, without confusion or st, scenes. But here the compariso, ton could not, like Shakespeare, once both plot and character. in his plays are marked by which distinguish them clearl each other; but they are alto in that mixed humanity and ii. of nature which stamp reality racters of his prototype. It has been said of Shakespeare if the dialogue were taken °I left but the action of each pantomime would tell the w skilfully is the actual movem , upon the stage, leaving nothr narration or description, and consequential is the developmA dents. The reader of Mars' discover that in this importan. example of Shakespeare has been . followed. Let us take: the traged nisba as an instance. It will be following analysis not only that all Shakespeare's plots, is full tial details, but that the acti , divided at. emphatic rests, ano story is thrown into motion dience. The Prologue explains whtv before the opening of the pla: Sophonibba, " the far-famed d, Asdruball," a chief of Cartht sought by Syphax and Massinl of Lybia. The choice has latter, and Syphax, the rejec revenge Having briefly relat culars, the Prologue asks the pleased to sit," and hear what The first act opens with a d , vengeance of Syphax, who, hea, is approaching, at the head of invade Carthage, resolves to league with the enemy. Tht rapidly on the intention. In ' Sophonisba is discovered in ht. ber, to which, after some cere: nissa is at length admitted pectant happiness is abruptly the appearance of a wounded the camp, who informs them of Syphax, and the defeat of th, in a pitched battle. Anoth( comulissions ft'out the ttette,t, n kandpari A sbitwi T i eei with heßleibD,xteilE(Y,, exhaust- ' ese ere exist special r. r e .ctoolfoonsuennl grief i ib ti ef l into their plays, d ay lect painful sub- ir plays have not ient accuracy to 1 cases the ques- -3e as we possess, Webster, whose Table of grander all the varieties Efferent propor- He had no dis- ; of universality. who resembled file his influence Without yen- ggested by this ver been investi- ay point out a his immediate closely followed id to Drummond ”speare had no which he after- )eare art was as owed itself con- f his plays. He , r him the secret ,y, of seizing and s with the most with unflagging otlest portraiture ne of those who al way by Shake- the stage con- Stribution of his material lie cm- superfluity in his ison ends. Mars- ware, sustain at The personages y palpable traits sly enough from together wanting involuntary truth .ty upon the cha- peare's plays that out, and nothing scene, the bare whole story; so nent brought out ling essential to so coherent and nent of the inci- ston's plays will it particular the een very carefully ragedy of Sopho• be seen from the hat the plot, like 11 of circumstan- ction is strictly id that the whole before the au- Lat has happened ay. The hand of laughter of great ,hage, has been nissa, two Kings fallen upon the acted lover, vows ted these parti- audience to "be t follows. leclaration of the ;Wring that Scipio of his legions, to to enter into a 'he deed follows i the next scene her bridal charn- eremony, Massi- I. But their ex- ly interrupted by ed senator from of the treachery he Carthaginians her follows with ,to for Asdruball