The Press. — London, England, 1855-04-21 00:00:00

katii 21,1855. of Chaucer could follow Mr. Bell at once, but the crowd would soon be confused amongst " hypercatalities," and " anapests," and " ciesuras," and " virgules," and the distinc tions between the " equipollent " and " equi syllabic." In reading Chaucer the main dis tinction for popular readers to learn is how to sound the words. People ignorant of Chan (Pailful pronunciation take up his poems ; they can perceive his sense, but the verses sound batbavously to their ears, on account of the apparent inequality of the harmony. Yet this defect vanishes even on a slight acquaintance with the mode of pronouncing Chaucer. Thus let us take an instance cited by Mr. Bell in his introduction :- 0 litel child, alias ! what is thi gilt, That never wroughtest synne as yet, parde ? Why wil thyn harde fader han the spilt "(1 mercy, deere constable," Eeyde ache, "And let my litel child here dwelle with the; And if thou darst not seven him for blame, So kys him oonos in his fadres name." Therw•ith ache loketh bak-ward to the lond, And seyde, " Farwel housbond rewtheles !" And up ache riot, and walketh down the stronde Toward the aehip, hir folweth al the prees; And ever ache preyeth hir child to hold his pees, And took hir lave, and with an holy entent Sche blesseth hire and to the schip she went. An ordinary reader will at once discern the meaning and touching beauty of these lines, but their apparent roughness would displease the unfamiliar ear. Thus, pronouncing the fourth line according to our modern modes, it would seem to be short in quantity ; and so in the pathetic couplet, And if thou darst not (avian him for blame, bo kys him oones in his fadres name, a modern reader would sound the word " oones " as if it were "eons," instead of making it a dissyllable. But we shall now copy the extract as " modernised" and ac centuated by Mr. Bell 0 little child, ills I whit is thy guilt, That never wroughtest sin is yet, Ord!? Why will thy harde father hive thee spilt? 0 mere)', dears COnstible,' skid she, And let my little child here dwell with thee ; And if th6u dir'st not seven him for blame, S 6 kiss him bones in his father's name.' Therewith she looketh backward to the llind, And Aide, Farewell husband ratheless ♦nd Up she rose, and walketh dawn the strand Toward the ship; her followeth all the press ; And ever she prayth her child to held his peace, And tOok her leave, and with an holy intent She blesaeth her Ind tO the ship she went. By attending to the prosody thus given, any reader will at once perceive the scansion and sounding of Chaucer. Mr. Bell proposed at first to accentuate the entire text in a style as above, but he abandoned the notion on second thoughts. He says : For the purpose of testing the experiment practically, the whole of " The Canterbury Tales" were accented in the first instance for this edition ; and it was not till the labour had been completed that the design of printing them in that manner was relinquished. The necessity these accents imposed, in a vast number of instances, of deciding doubtful questions affecting the resolution of quantities, and the differences of opinion they would inevi tably generate on points fur which no arbitrary laws can poasibly be laid down, determilied their final rejection. It was thought better to supptir the reader with a few plain rules for pronunciation, which should embrace the princi pal structural peculiarities, leaving him to apply them for himself. In the important choice of the text Mr. Bell has been guided principally by the opinion of Mr. Wright in following the Harleian manu script, No. 7,334, in the British Museum. We have compared his text in the present edition with that of Tyrwhitt'e and we have no hesi tation in giving the preference to that pre sented by Mr. Bell. Though Tyrwhitt collated several MSS., he did not pay sufficient atten tion to their dates, and he attributed too much authority to the early editions by Caxton ; but we are glad to perceive that Mr. Bell has frankly acknowledged the services performed by Tyrwhitt. Our want of space will at present prevent us from citing from the notes of Mr. Bell. We think he has erred on the side of being too copious. Thus, in the opening lines : Whan that Aprillll with his schowres swolte The drought of Marche bath perced to the roote, And tiithud eyety.veyne in swish lieoet s • Of which rodeo engehdred it the Sour. THE PRESS. Upon which we have a note : Tertne " here signifies power. The meaning is, when April has bathed every vein of the earth in that moisture which, by its genial power, produces the blossom. This is followed a by a parallel passage from Cow per. And so in several cases, meanings perfectly obvious are paraphrased in the notes. Some of them, however, are rich in historical illus tration, and in all a vast variety of knowledge is displayed. We shall be anxious to learn how far this edition, whioh has so many claims to public appreciation, will tend to procure readers for " the father of English poetry." Up to the present time it must be admitted that Chaucer has to trust for his fame chiefly to the literary hierophants who have expounded him. We have met deep students of English history, who cared little for poetry in general, familiar with Chaucer flit account of his archeological merits. Yet he would well repay the attention of any intellectual person who takes the trouble to use the key necessary for unlocking his treasures. Mr. Bell has greatly facilitated the study of this ancient bard, and has given much philological aid to the merely general reader. The edition is extremely cheap, and possesses a great advantage over that in " The Universal Library," in being perfectly legible to weak eyes. When the concluding volume of the edition shall be published, we may, perhaps, give some extracts illustrative of Mr. Bell's textual care; in the meantime, we can recommend his present performance for its conscientious and highly-elaborate execution." AI At fit By at reader soundii first to above,l though For th the whop the first i labour h them in these acc deciding quantities tably gen po:411 dy was thou rules for pal strut himself. In tb has bet Mr. WI script, have et with th Cation sented several Lion to authori we an frank') by Tyr Our us fron think eoplou whi The And Of (Euvres de Napoleon 111. Paris: Amyot. THE recent appearance in Paris of a complete and very elegant re-impression of the writings of the Emperor Louis Napoleon, and the presence of his Majesty in this country, invite attention to him in his literary capacity. l'he wonderful height to which, in spite of apparently insur mountable obstacles, he has raised himself, has made him, beyond all question, the most remarkable man now living in the world ; and the rare sagacity, admirable tact, and immense energy which he has displayed in connection with the Eastern question and the war, bid fair to renter him the very greatest of these days. Bnt vast as is his fame as the ruler and statesman of a mighty people, it does not annihilate that which it has been his lot to gain as an author. It would, doubtless, be gross flattery to place him in the bretnost rank of literature. In his own country there are men now living who are greater far; and even amongst imperial and royal authors there are several that outstrip him in nervousness of eloquence and depth of thought. Nevertheless his works unquestionably prove that he is possessed of some of the highest qualities of the author—vigour and originality of concep tion ; a power of expression at once clear, terse, and forcible ; the art of taking new views out of exhausted subjects ; and a style which is singularly elevated yet unpretending, elegant yet manly. If fortune had not destined Louis Napoleon Bonaparte to sway the sceptre, he would pro bably have made literature the business of his life. Not only do his talents fit him for it, but he possesses many of the tastes of the literary man. In the days of his captivity and exile, reading and annotation and writing were almost his sole resource ; when he be came President of the Republic he spent a considerable time daily in his library, and even now he contrives to snatch at least some portion of every day from his vast and mighty avocations to spend amongst his books. If at any time he has need of any reference or quo tation he alwa) C seeks for it himself, and takes all the author's pleasure in the search. It has mom than once happened that when his Ministers and other dignitaries have been admitted to him, they have found him perched on the top of his library ladder, completely absorbed, like another Dominie Sampson, in the perusal of a book. The speeches, pro clamations, and addresses, which he may have occasion to make, he writes himself, and he takes the greatest pains. in polishing his style. Before allowing them to be printed he has proofs submitted to him, and he corrects them ' with his own hand. The corrections made he requires, if time allows, other proofs ; and if after all his trouble there be the slightest fault, the change of a word, or even the mis placing of a comma, he is extremely angry. Such a purist is he in matters of style that he has frequently corrected the reports of his Ministers, especially when they have been destined for publication ; and numerous, indeed, are the articles published in news papers which have had the honour of his revision. Yet, though his Majesty is an autiz. , r, and though he is as proud of being called an author as his uncle was to inscribe himself " Member of the Institute," he cannot, we fear, be considered any friend to literature. The necessities of his political position have com pelled him to silence the newspaper press ; and the press in these days, especially in Fiance, is the must powerful and most popular form of literal) , development. Owing to the like necessities he has, too, been obliged, by means of fiscal laws and other measures, to cripple the rule of books ; and, finally, they have constrained him to exile not a few writers of note, and to intimidate others. No man, we are convinced, deplores more than the Emperor, that his political regime has been and is so disastrous to the national litera ture. As sovereign, he cannot but wish to see poets, and historians, and writers of every de. partment of literature, cast eclat on his reign. As an author, too, he must feel a strong professional desire for the success of authors. And it is but justice to him to say that iu his private and personal capacity he does all that he can do for literature and its professors — that is, he encourages the café portion of the former, and pensions or provides places for such of the latter as declare for his cause. But this is not enough. Literature requires political liberty, and political liberty he cannot grant, and so literature pines. It is not our purpose to enter into a detailed examination of the Emperor's works ; they are too well known to need it. Perhaps it wuula have been well to have omitted from them the discussion about the sugar question—a mere local affair long since set at rest ; and certainly there are portions of the famous treatise on the extinction of pauperism (an impossible thing in itself, alas !) which the illustrious author himself would now willingly not have written. But, passing over these faults, what will strike the English reader even more strongly than in his former perusal of the works, will be the wonderful sagacity with which in prison, in exile, and in poverty, Louis Napoleon constantly foresaw the extra ordinary political events that have taken place in France, and his own surprising eleva tion. Ho will also not fail to notice that the Emperor repeatedly expresses a profound admiration of England—a thing the more re markable, considering that when he wrote hatred of "perfidious Albion" was the fashion in France. And he will find in every page great thoughts nobly expressed literacy excellence of such a high order, in fact, as to warrant the imperial author in proudly de positing his pen by the side of his sceptre. Willy Reilly. By W. Carleton. London : Hope and Co. FEW writers have been more unlucky than Mr. Carleton in failing to sustain the reputation he achieved by the fictions which first made him known. His " Black Prophet," " The Miser i " and " Traits and Stories of the Irish Pea " santry," were tales moving to pity aird terror; they exhibited the passion and poetry of the Irish mind, and were particularly re• markable for their portrayal of character; but in his later productions there is an elb sence of those qualities for which it seems impossible to account. Of all authors living he has the least reason for that angry outburst against the illiberality of the age to which he has recently given vent. His name is on the pension list for surely as large an amount as the best of his productions could possibly entitle him to expect, and if hie tales lately have met with little encouragement, it can be only because he has not fulfilled the one con dition necessary to the success of a novelist— he has failed to please. " Willy Reilly " will do little, we are &Mud, to revive his popularity. It is founded on a