The Press. — London, England, 1856-06-28 00:00:00

JuNt 28, 1856. So, girt with beauty round about, By poet built for poet's praise ; Each gable end and sculptured spout Hsif hidden up in ivy sprays, Which glist.m in the westering sun, And inward through the oriels stream (While busy Time aloof (loth rnn), This house doth stand, an artist's dream. Fair portraits smile from golden frames, The lovely lady silent sings, And warriors of heroic names Dwelt here of yore, the hosts of kings. The odour of the storied past Still lingers over hall and room, Whose light, from blazon'd . window cast, Blends strangely with the quaint perfume. Oh ! musing on these stately homes, And lunging that those paths were mine Where all of nobleness becomes A heritage and right divine, I seem to see him stand once more immortal in his radiant, youth, Bright with the smile that once he wore, And pray to find the vision—truth. A dainty nobleness shone plain In all he thought, or did, or said, A fineness of the inner grain, From sires of courtly nurture bred; And though he were a freeman made Of wider realms than birth bestows, He yet unconszious witness paid To that fair stock from whence he rose. Should any marvel 1, who boast On both descents a glorious name, Count much ot' that which is at must A spur to win an equal fame, Yet this curl'd darling of the earth Seem'd fitly by his lineage known, And ever deem'd it added worth That Sidney's blood enrich'd his own. On Foot through Tyrol in the Summer of 1855. By Walter White. London : Chapman and Hall. Mn. WHITE, who last year wrote so pleasant an account of his pedestrian journey to the Land's End, has, in this volume, detailed a tour on foot through the Tyrol. By steamboat and rail through Ger many he reached the upper part of Lake Constance, and thence commenced his walk, stretching through the Tyrol to Innspruck and Trent. He viewed all places of note on his route, was charmed with some magnificent mountain scenery, conversed freely with the people be met during his walks or at the houses where he rested, met with nothing but honesty and kindness in the Tyrol, "dined right royally" in the upper gallery of the inn where Hofer was born, re turned via Carlsrube and Strasburg through France, got home within the month assigned for his holiday, and seems to have been able to combine a novel and exhilarating trip with great economy. Sometimes he gives fares and charges, but not regu lady. Had he distinctly marked each stage of his journey, and accurately set down his expenses, his book would have usefully served as a guide to other persons meditating the like or a simi lar month's journey. He met with some politicians, and found the belief general (his tour was made in July last year) that the allies would never take Sebastopol. He laughed at the predictions he heard of our approaching downfall, at the abuse of our " rabble parliament," and at the reproaches cast on us "for harbouring such fellows as Mazzini and Kossuth." A worthy Rittmeister of the gendarmerie at Kaltern was very anxious to assure him that Austria was a much happier country than the English are disposed to believe : "I wonder," continued the Rittmeister, "that so much misconception concerning Austria should prevail in Eng land when so many Englishmen travel here every year. Are they unable to report truly, or do they misunderstand everything? Is ours such a callous despotism? Have we not schools in number for the education of the people ? The people know that their pleasures and welfare are cared for by the State, and hence they are loyal. . . . Look at Tyrol ! Have you seen any discontent there? Why, when your Minister, Palmerston, made himself obnoxious by his foreign policy in 1848, the Tyrolese were so exaspe rated at the slights offered, as they thought, to Austria, that they had his lordship's effigy everywhere all through the land for a shooting-target, and on his breast a label fastened, with the words— ' If the devil has a son, lie surely as Lord Palmerston:" Mr. White is always cheerful, and manages to con vey to his readers some portion of the enjoyment he evidently experienced himself. Israel in the Past, Present, and Future. By Thomas Hutton, F.G.S., Captain Bengal Army. London : Hamilton and Adams. TFIE object of this little work is to dissipate the pre vailing delusion that the Jews are at some future day to be restored bodily to the Land of Palestine. It evinces a wide range of biblical reading, and great earnestness of purpose. It is a remarkable production from the pen of a military man, and is entitled to claim a fair position among works on scriptural chronology and prophecy in general. THE ;PR.ESB. Shoepac Recollections. A Wayside Glimpse of American Life. By Walter March. London : Trubner and Co. AN agreeably written little book, containing what, to judge from internal evidence, we should say are genuine pictures of sniddle•class American life of the better sort. The family of the Marches is a well drawn group; and their friend, Mr. Jumps, the squatter, and his son Joram, truly humorous por traits. Many pleasant reminiscences of the old French Canadians are interspersed through the book, and the two first chapters in particular, being a description of the town of Detroit some forty years ago, have a quiet poetry about them thoroughly in keeping with the subject. The term Shoepac, which, we fancy, might puzzle some of our readers, is derived from the old Canadian shoe—a sort of compromise between the modern shoe and the Indian mocassin, which was worn by the primitive inhabitants of Acady in the days of our author's youth. A Vacation in Brittany. By Charles R. Weld. London : Chapman and Hall. FURNISHED with sketching-stool and fishing-rod, Mr. Weld left England last July to pass a couple of months in quietly rambling through Brittany. He marked out his route on a good map, and as, fortu nately for the tourist, there are no railways in Brit tany, he was enabled to thoroughly acquaint himself with the beauties of the country through which ho passed. At I)inan he hired a cabriolet at ten francs a day, the driver keeping himself and his horse, and in this way journeyed conveniently at a not extrava gant rate. Lingering in some spots that pleased him, tilling his portfolio with sketches on his way, hooking delicious trout from the streams in the neighbour hood of the inns where he stopped, mixing in the village fetes common in Brittany through the summer, and picking up here and there antiquarian knowledge, Mr. Weld seems to have passed his vaca tion as agreeably as any gentleman could desire. His volume is plainly descriptive ; the historical notes neither too long nor too frequent ; and the notices of towns, scenery, edifices, and costumes, aided by many exquisite vignettes from the author's sketches. Mental accomplishment is combined with bonhommie, and the reader readily subscribes to the closing sentence of the volume, that Mr. Weld must bear delightful remembrance of his tour in one of the most interesting and picturesque parts of France. THE TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE. TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir,—Agreeing with you that "the text of Shake speare cannot be too diligently examined," I beg to offer one or two suggestions upon the two in stances cited by you from Timon of Athens. The first instance, "take his haste," from act v. sc. 2, has given rise to much controversy, but we don't require to go so far in search of the correct read ing as Mr. Collier's anonymous annotation has gone. " Take" is evidently a misprint for " make." Change the t into m, and the passage stands as I have no doubt Shakespeare wrote it. This is evident from the context. The tree was shortly to be felled, and if the Athenians did not "make their haste" to come ere it had "felt the axe," they would not have an opportunity of hanging themselves "to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath." _ _ With regard to the second instance cited by you from act iii. sc. 2, the great difficulty is to account for the word " hundred " having got into the text. If we can do this the rest is easily settled. Now this is done in the following way. Flaminius and Ser vilius were each sent to borrow fifty talents. Flatni nius had performed his message first, and the re port of it had got abroad before Servilius met with Lticius. If, therefore, we substitue the word " fifty" for the words "so many "in the sentence in which the second stranger makes the fact known to Lucius, what more natural than that Lucius should ask Ser vilius what his lord wanted with a hundred talents ? That is, what does he want with fifty talents from Lucullus and fifty from me, making a hundred talents in all. Keeping this in view, I propose that the passage should read as follows: Servilius. He has only sent his present occasion now, my lord, requesting your lordship to supply his instant use with fifty talents. Lucius. I know his lordship is but merry with me ; he cannot want a hundred talents. Serrilies. But in the meantime he wants less, &c. Of course this requires that the sentence put into the mouth of the second stranger be altered to the extent I have already stated; but if it be allowed to change the words "so many" in the mouth of Ser vilius into " fifty," it cannot be objected to the same change being made i❑ the other case also. There may be caligraphic reasons with which we are unac quainted for the same word being mistaken in both instances. At all events the alterations I suggest would make the text consistent with itself, and are by no means so outrageous as some of those made 619 upon the authority of Mr. Collier's " newly-disco vered" folio.—l am, &c., JAQUES. [A number of other communications have reached us on the same passages in Timon of Athens. Perhaps in the first passage, " take his leave " may be read. The change would be slight, and would give, we think, force to the whole passage : Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree From high to low throughout, that whoso please To stop affliction, let him take his leave, y . . Come hither ere my tree bath felt the axe '"" 14-11 ` . -•- And hang himself. In the second passage, that a stranger should tell Lucius that one of Timon's servants had been endeavouring to borrow "so many talents " is just what we might expect from the loose ness of report, and probably the phrase in this place may have misled the transcriber or printer lower down. The exaggeration of Lucius when satisfied that Timon has really sent for fifty talents would be natural. Suppose a messenger came from Lionel Rothschild to one of his City friend, with a request for a loan of five hundred pounds, might not the answer be, " he cannot want five hnndred thou sand pounds"? This is evidently the sense of the passage ; and the only plausible reading, as opposed to " fifty hundred talents," that of " fifty five-hun dred talents," seems to want the force of round numbers, usually employed in such cases, and to extend exaggeration too far. It is, no doubt, ex tremely difficult to suggest any emendation of cor rupt passages which shall be unexceptionable, as language is apt to lose its meaning when too in tently pondered ; but what is to be done with pas sages which, as in this case, are indisputably cor rupt? They ought not to be left as positive blots on the text. A judicious editor will give the reading which seems to him most strongly supported, and, noting his alteration from the original text, will leave it to be decided by that enlarged opinion of genera tions of readers which seldom errs, whether his judgment be correct, or whether a better reading can be suggested.] TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PREBB." The writer begs to suggest to the author of " The Text of Shakespeare," in THE PRESS of May 3, whether, in " the line for elucidation," in the pas sages there given, the word "leagues" might not be read "lengths " For, ere the ships could meet by twice five lengths, We were encountered, etc. This would bring the ships within the distance re quired to make sense of the passage, and would be quite consistent with the usual phraseology in such cases. 'We often read of a ship "striking on a rock when not more than twice her own length from the shore ;" and in a boatrace of one winning by a length, and so on. " Valeat quantum valere dehet." [The suggestion is ingenious. Twice five leagues j. 3 evidently wrong. " Lengths" should stand if no more probable meaning can be suggested. The doubt is, whether the ships would not in that case be brought too closely together, and there is antece dent improbability against iEgeon attempting to mark any precise distance in a moment of so much peril.] TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—According to your invitation, I venture to offer some suggestions on the text of Shakespeare, chiefly with a view to oppose the alterations which the MS. corrector, under the sanction of Mr. Collier, would introduce, and which may be refuted by the high authority of Shakespeare himself. Iu The Comedy of Errors, Luciana, addressing the twin brother whom she takes for her sister's husband, says, as Mr. Collier admits, from the early folios : And may it be, that you have quite forgot A husband's office ? Shall Antipholus, Even in the spring of love thy love springs rot ? Shall love in buildings grow so ruinate?—Act iii. sc. 2. Malone altered the last word to " ruinous," in order to preserve the rhyme with Antipholus, and this mode of reading the passage is adhered to by Mr. Collier in his own excellent edition. The " old cor rector "retains " ruinate," and, to preserve the rhyme, alters the second line in a most unwarrantable manner. He gives the passage thus : And may it be that you have quite forgot A husband's office? Shall unkind debate, Even in the spring of love thy love-spring rot? Shall love in building grow so ruinate ? But, whatever other changes may be allowed, the name of Antipholus must remain, as sanctioned by the subsequent text ; for, when Luciana has finished her reproaches, Antipholus replies :-- Sweet mistress, what your name is else, I know not, Nor by what wonder you do hit on mine. As the whole of Luciana's speech is in rhyme, we must, therefore, either accept Malone's version, in which "ruinous" agrees with "Antipholus," or a