The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-21 00:00:00

FEBRUARY 21, 1857. story advances. They grow, as it were, without any effort on the part of the author. About the literary merit of the work there can be no dispute, but we fear its polemical character will tend to impair its popularity. Early Ballads, Illustrative of History, Tradi• Lions, and Customs. Edited by Robert, Bell. London : J. W. Parker and Son. Tura is one of the best volumes of the "Anno tated Edition" of the English poets that has yet appeared. We are glad to see that Mr. Bell keeps up his energy, because this edition has many claims to be considered as a national one. It is critically select in its choice of authors, and it has abundance of literary illustration. Mr. Bell steers judiciously be tween too much and too little of comment. We have continuously examined nearly all the volumes of this " annotated edition," and we think it well deserving of scholarly appro bation and public support. We make this remark more freely as we have closely criti cised it in detail, and expressed our dissent at certain points from Mr. Bell. There are forty-one ballads in this volume, including such as the " Nut-Brown Maid," " Robin Hood and Allen-a-Dale," " Chevy Chase," " Thomas the Rhymer," " Spanish Lady's Love," " Mary Ambree," and several others of that class. Some are taken from " Percy's Reliques," and others from Ritson's collection, and a few from Scotch and Border minstrelsy. We think that Mr. Bell might have entered at more length into a dissena tion on the merits of our ballad poetry. We observe that Mr. Hallam places the Scotch far higher than the English ballads. Ho says,— "There can be no question, I conceive, as to " the superiority of Scotland in her ballads " The Border ballads he rates as manifestly in ferior to the Scotch, and he continues—" Those " which belong to the south, and have no " trace either of the rude manners or the wild " superstitions which the bards of Ettrick and " Cheviot display, fall generally into a creep " lag style, which exposed the common ballad "to contempt." That opinion is harsh, but it is based upon truth. Our English ballads are too long, and they were composed when the words of our tongue were not so various, or its idioms so harmo nixed, as in later periods. We take it that one of the great reasons why the Spanish ballads have such effect is the altisonant character of the language of Spain. A mere map of the Peninsula, with the names of its towns and provinces, will show the richness of effect of that noble tongue Upon the contrast between English and Scotch ballads it might be remarked that the imitators of the old Scotch succeed better than the versi fiers who copy the English ballads. " Lord Ullin's Daughter," by Campbell, is a capital specimen of a modern ballad. It is brief in statement, yet full in matter. The ballads of Wordsworth are too long, and want dramatic variety. Mr. Macaulay and Professor Aytoun have written some noble ballads ; but we must keep to the question of the " Early Ballads " here before us. ;‘. 1 In his introduction Mr. Bell observes : The gradual decline of these compositions may be traced to the accession of James 1., when the Border feuds ceased to supply the bold and picturesque sources of interest which fired the imagination of the ancient minstrel. The ballads produced after that period are tame and flat in comparison with the genuine songs of the old times, and can at best be regarded only as modern imitations. There were other causes besides the ceasing of the feuds for the decline of the ballads. The age became less joyous in tone, and less picturesque in popular manners and costume. The fierce contentions in politics and religion turned mind into other channels, and after the Revolution new forms of composition had been introduced. The Scandinavian ballads are at present a favour it() subject of study amongst many readers of poetry; and a comparison between smile of the Norse ballads and the pieces in this volume would be interesting. The ortho graphy of these ballads is a difficult practical question for an editor to deal with. Mr. Bell says : The orthography, for which, it is scarcely necessary to observe, we have no reliable authority whatever, is every. where capricious and uncertain; sometimes governed by THE PRESS, the necessities of the measure or the rhyme, and often changing its shape without any apparent reason. Words of the most frequent occurrence are given in various ways ; thus, we have counlre, countree, countrye, and countrie ; pilye, pitlye, and pilie. In a few instances, Anglo• Saxon forms are mixed with the Elizabethan orthography,and we have the incongruity of hir, hem, and hit mingled with similar words spelt as we spell them at the present day. Another peculiarity may be observed in numerous local corruptions, traceable to the confusion arising from the collision of dialects on the Border. The authors—some of whom, proba!dy, never committed their compositions to writing—are not responsible for this chaos of inconsisten cies, which must be referred to the ignorance of scribes and the carelessness of printers ; but that consideration, which throws open the whole question to conjecture, only increases the difficulty of determining the age of the text. And again : In the formation of the texts of so many pieces, drawn from numerous scattered sources, the introduction of a principle of uniformity would have destroyed that antique colouring which is essential to the integrity of the originals. The metrical and grammatical aberrations of the ballad may be sand to be organic, and cannot be reme died without endangering its vitality, and depriving it of the wild charm it derives from its independence of scho lastic laws. The reader must, therefore, be prepared to find many rythmical and verbal eccentricities in this volume, over which no critical revision could have been safely exercised. But I have not thought it necessary to retain in all cases the unsightly orthography of the old MSS. and broadsides. The obsolete spelling, however, has been removed only where it was a mere deformity, or gratuitous hindrance to the enjoyment of the verse. Wherever the• early forms of words were indispensahle to the style or measure, or to the grammatical inflections, they have been stricty preserved. Some of the readers and purchasers of this volume (and it deserves many of both) will rather be surprised at what Mr. Bell calls " the unsightly orthography." We think he has done right upon the whole, because in a modernised version the ballads would not be specimens of " early " literature. " Chevy Chase," as printed hero, thus commences : The Percy out of Northumberland, And a vow to God made he, That he would hunt in the mountains At Cheviot within days three, In the maugre of doughty Douglas, And all that ever with him be. Mr Bell has selected Hearne's copy of this ballad in preference to Bishop Percy's. As specimens of the obsolete orthography in the present copy we shall cite three stanzas : Then the wild thorowe the woods went On every silt shear; Greyhounds thorowe the groves glent For to kill their deer. They began in Cheviot the hills above Early on a monnyn day ; By that it drew to the hour of noon A hundred fat harts dead there lay. They blew a mort upon the bent, They 'sembled on twills shear ; To the quarry then the Percy went, To see the bryttlynge of the deer. Footnotes explain that " the wild " means the wild deer ; " shear "is entirely , "a monnyn day "is Monday : and bryttlynge" the cutti►►g up of the venison. These are amongst the most obsolete specimens of orthography in the volume. Mr. Bell writes (page 81) of " the extravagant criticism" of Addison upon "Chevy Chase "; and we are disposed to con cur with him But he cites the well-known confession of Sir Philip Sydney, " I never " heard the old song of Percy and Douglas, " that I found not my heart moved more than " with a trumpet." The introductions to these ballads are well penned. As a specimen of the compressed knowledge in them we cito the prefix to " Lady Greensleeves " From "A' Handfull of I'leasant Delites, 1584." The full title is "A New Courtly Sonet, of the Lady Green sleeves." Independently of its merits as a lyric, it is ex tremely curious as a picture of costume, embracing • complete description of the wardrobe of a lady in the time of Elizabeth. It was written to the popular tune of " areensleeves," alluded to by Sliskspeare in The Merry wives of Windsor, v. O. The music of the air will be found in Ur. Chappell's " Ancient English Melodies." This piece was reprinted by Mr. Fairholt, in his excellent ool lection of " Songs and Poems on Costume," published by the Percy Society. Nothing fuller need be desired. We shall not be surprised if the present volume prove one of the most popular of this edition. Agnes Milbourne ; or, " Foy Pour Devoir." By Mrs. Hubback. Two Vols. London : Skeet. EVERY reader of light literature must see that the lady novelists nearly monopolise the 185 supply of fiction. The slight and subtle graces of the drawing•room, some of the softer emotions of the heart, and not a few of the pains of life, are seized by female pens with singular quickness, and depicted in many cases with an airy grace not to be expected from male artists. Of our working novelists, a clear majority can be counted by the ladies. Mrs. Gore, Mrs. Marsh, Mrs. Gaskell, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Miss Pardoe, the authoress of " John Halifax," of ". Mi s. Margaret Maitland," with many more, are quite ready to dispute the road with the male fictionists that advance be hind Mr. Thackeray and Mr. Dickens. We do not regret this state of things ; but the critic's duty becomes, of course, altered under such circumstances. We must try the pro ductions of ladies by the standard which they have raised for themselves. " Agnes Milbourne " is essentially a lady's novel, constructed on a faulty plan. It has the weakness, mingled with some feminine grace, that appears in all its writer's produc tions. Its characters want life, and fail to attract the reader's attention. The authoress works upon one kind of literary pattern, until her ideas have become monotonous. As "the niece of Miss Austen " Mrs. Hubback was first introduced to the public ; and it might have been added, as " the imitator of " the writer of Pride and Prejudice' " We confess that we not care to read authors in a second-hand style. Such productions always want freshness ; and without some impulsive power there can be no genius. In " Agnes Milbournts " we have an attempt to apply Miss Austen's mode of delineation, while treating of a lad)'s conscience doubtin g between Presbyterianism and the Church o England. Mrs. Hubback must have bee* in a great dilemma for an interesting plot when she sought a polemical subject of such a narrow kind. Her theology is not of a fiery sort ; on the contrary, it is soft and insipid, neither sowing any doubts nor stirring up any passions, at once too feeble for fanaticism and too hazy for argument, so that the worst that can be said of it is, that the reader is apt to yawn. Here is a specimen of some of the con versations : "And yet we cannot help feeling the absence of external sympathy in all things. Even in devotion, our warmth is heightened by the ardour of others ; or chilled by careless• Hess, or coldness around us. How the want of earnest• ness in a minister acts upon the zeal of his flock;" said Agnes, after a short pause of consideration. " No doubt it has an effect of that sort," replied Ber nard, earnestly, " yet we have a safeguard in our excellent forms of prayer, which ought to preserve us from indolent dependence on the devotion of the priest. And the more we enter into the deep meaning of our invaluable Church Services, the more we shall feel this blessing in its fullest extent." " It is well," replied she, `• if you have anything in the English Church to substitute for the pastoral care which is so universally wanting. I think the rich in England are generally quite ignorant of what a privilege they are de- prived. I used to envy the poor people at Eynesbury, who I suppose could speak to the rector as a minister of the Gospel. We saw him as a gentleman in the drawing room occasionally, and once a week we hail a sermon. But as to anything more, conventional restraints of good breeding and decorum put it out of the question. And again, a little further on : " I believe," said Agnes, after a few minutes' silent reflection, " the fault is in the Church system. Ido not mean the forms and ceremonies, the prayers or festivals, but the way in which the English Church is governed as to the appointment of clergymen. A young man wanting a maintenance takes orders for a living, to which he comes, knowing nothing either of place or people ; or perhaps he is less fortunate, and only nominated curate, with a chance of being at any time removed ; of course in the former case, there is little previous sympathy bttween the parishioners and him, and in the latter none at all. The people are obliged to submit ; they have no choice, and good or bad, High or Low Church (and I am sure your system is capable of immense variation), they must listen to him, or perhaps to no one ; for in country places they are not always so happy as to have even a meeting-house to resort to for better instruction." Bernard looked pained by her observations, and paused before replying. " I do not at all agree with you, but may I ask, if the fault is in the system, how would you remedy it ?" " I do not think the case admits of a remedy, a total change is the only cure. Individuals, however, have some• times a remedy for themselves, which it becomes their duty to use." . _ _ " - And what is that ?" " Simply to join a society where these errors having been discovered, are avoided; where personal religion is en couraged and watched over by the minister. Had you been, as I have, a member of such a congregation, taught by a truly ardent and devoted minister, one who has