The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-02 00:00:00

sUPP. , para tive Aa ly,ve r y registered in easily recent-facts had 'been-attended to, accessible :documents, ,1 1 - t a i ll . Y, of iblunders, - fatalities, and .disgraces •th ic " nave characterised • our manageme.ment of in e war, might have been , - avoided. - By .consult •B,rWhiteloeke's account of his Embassy to e r euen,” undertakenat -the command of -Oliver .o r ° d lll well, our present 'llilaster-general .of 'the .16511',Inee might have learned that so long ago .as of _l).Whitelocke .saw at Stockholm two pieces th_urtillery taken from the Muscovites, each of in ill etil ej eighin g illottaof niuety.:,ooo pounds, and carrying a pounds' weight ; and also a great i n di:-Piece, of brass, a fathom and three fingers Taitittiatter at the mouth .of it. .Such knowledge ing inlr3ohly have •made . him .pause before send- Pvite s 11 „gligh army to combat these same Mu uelieku a train of nine and eighteen -pounders, Pli t Z , all the time that our mechanical ap ; The <;;for ar were unrivalled in the world eve r. (tV -aanack" theory prevailed, how aPeetinn,or, tralitary authorities, content with in 'ititli: the own artillery, and satisfied with at W oo i N its efficacy as proved against the butts P ° P-ca n L' e i , tent out a train of comparative !aNite. -ineolubat the heavier metal of the Mus ic tati )a ,Lia a wholesome thing to witness that, mini --urino. ~,,,aait et , , Lancashire, where the " old 7- 4 in te„,,lllePeytinence first foundexponent, an* non -118 fur,i_gill reial Liverpool, the audacious We 61348. Willapeedily lie 4 I a ble .and a willing opponent. . itere7en find many and zealous dis ---___ 0_ e: an 1 7 41 / 4 v. 3 ress at Morning Prayers., . B y rn 4 dralkell. • '''• %wawa, M.A. Liverpooi • T. l ' his i s dre w ._ a Well b Lothe , idered and appropriate ad -3' th e p r Pupils attendin,Schools, eal'aest President f t he ° b in s titution. Its tone is the Collegiate cafe and i nipressi 4vereallcl e nforc e object is to incul gio, Ututi habits th v e e, and its . necessity and beauty of i o ,. f 4 4,„",_ worilhi„"its in all the performances rei.' s formu,l7 8111 : ‘ , and observance. The address I li st Which it rd to the Purpose, and the audie_nce . pl ea el l.era aretaa _composed. In it the . youthfui eir 8111 gir exi , sedulously yet persuasively . and r . c annla,„ ' l3 rted to the observance of habits of -1511'riet.'°11 arid and 101 l of ~ . self-respect, together with a 44,3 111 .erey vs . L .La, eir dependence hi h. the wisdom eo n Will re ' l ell come from on high. It deserves i,, - , Ilinhi t , PaY attention from all classes of the. is - V, and -, li laXi 1118. all ages and ranks are interested 4 r ----------------- - -qv ------- to Z-keIRI- MUNCHAUSEN. 4 10 1 11 1)% 1r k ai l ikist , a ' E GA was a soldier, a secretary, _an l l'at' Y ; he p ri est ; he married twice, and had , N i a , It a l ia s tudied and became proficient in the pl a Yet f° n, French, and Portuguese tongues, r and tim e to write his fifteen hundred 41)14! re kle lf 1141. h e rs may 4 t 6 took suppose he was not long about ' ode end iu , in hand. In fact, if we believe 1 l to''"ntalvan, he began at once as he in . r the" le ' 4 —almost, we may say, from his / ktbl'Pe age e are told that he understood Latin at / Nii: ) , tl rtoe r 'f five ; and also, much about the t i for 11,4 e diCta.mtellid en to ced composing Spanish verses, is lea ttl ql for 11 • his playfellows to write down e- e d t- e uecalue an author before he had 0 del d u write. Re sold his verses, too (the i Naelv a ° g .), for toy s N ' 4O we fi n d the . , and. Sweetmeats. How b . th us co _ , . Int ge nius and irar a A muined . Alt ot age, he hi clue Bpanis(hrte t o 0.• .u rarnatic Iv ... inior nisl the man of busi p e even and twelve *ba edias) he Z, in the anthi ad w riti • n g us, in his New Nuevo de hater _ritten several petites come , -4 1 4t Fourteen • . form of four short 3ears of age (A.D. 1576), he OCTOBIIR 2, :1-Sr)s,) ,EMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD ran away from college to see the world ; and in the following year entering the army, serving both in Portugal and in Africa, under the Marquis of Santa Cruz The next year he came home again, and engaged himself as page and secretary to the Bishop of Ayala, working away, of course, at his poetry all the while, as none but Lope de Vega or a steam-engine could work, and producing, amongst various other things, a pastoral comedy in three acts, called La Pastoral de Jacinto, the author-soldier-secretary being then sixteen years of age I Sent by his patron, the bishop, to the University of Alcala, he went to work at the solid fare of philosophy, theology, and mathematics, taking at the same time, by way of a relish, the Italian, Portuguese, and French languages. But even all this was insufficient for his voracious ap petite. So—to carry out the simile—he flew to the occult sciences, as to a lump of bread and cheese, to finish up with. And now he was never happy but when in the midst of crucibles, fur naces, and alembics. If any one could have found out the grand secret, it would surely have been Lope de Vega. He didn't ;so we must needs sup pose the alchemists were labouring under a mis take. Next, Lope de Vega fell in love. Some say with one lady ; some say with two. We should incline to think the latter—one at a time could hardly be enough for him. He didn't marry them, nor either of them. Some time afterwards, thinking it time to settle down in life, he made his mind up to become a priest. He underwent the necessary preparations, and was on the very eve of being ordained, when he fell in love again. The church and priestly vows were no more to be thought of. He married. This was in 1584. Scarcely was he married, however, than—just by way of a change—he got into prison, owing to a duel. He escaped, of course ; it was not likely he could wait until his time of imprisonment was over. He went to Valencia, remained there some time writing, until, upon the death of his wife, he flew once more to battle, for excitement, and embarked on board the Invincible Armada, which Philip the Second was then fitting out to invade the English coasts. The Invincible Armada being thoroughly destroyed, Lope next visited Italy, spending some years in Naples, Parma, and Milan. Returning once more to Madrid, he mar ried again, and by his second wife was soon made a happy father. Now he was writing in earnest for the stage, poverty and himself, as he tells us, " having en tered into partnership as traders in verses ;" and a very large proportion of his plays were the pro duction of this trading firm during the tranquil years of his second marriage. He lost his second wife in the year sixteen hundred and seven, some sixteen years after he had marrried her, and then he joined the Inquisition, and finally became a priest. His priestly duties were numerous, but even yet he managed to find time for the theatre, and the very year that he was made a priest (sixteen hundred and nine) he wrote his Arte Nuevo de hater Comedias, and we would rather not venture upon saying how many plays. One more short anecdote in illustration of the wonderful rapidity of Lope's pen, and we have done. We find it in Montalvan. The writer for the theatre at Madrid was at one time at such a loss for comedies that the doors of the Theatre de la Cruz were shut ; but as it was in the Carnival, he was extremely anxious on the subject, so Lope and his friend Montalvan were applied to, and they agreed to compose a joint comedy as fast as possible. It was the Tercera Orden de San Francisco, and is the very one in which Arias acted the part of the Saint (we beg the pardon of leading tragedians now living—the criticism is Montalvan's, not our own) more naturally than was ever witnessed on the stage. The first act fell to Lope's lot, the second to Montalvan's. These were despatched in two days, and the third act was to be divided equally between the two authors, each doing eight leaves. Montalvan went home at night, and being well aware that he could not equal Lope in the execution, he thought (misguided Montalvan !) that he would try and beat him in the despatch of the business. For this purpose he got up at two o'clock in the morning, and managed to complete his portion of the act by eleven. Montalvan then went out—not a little proud of what he'd done, no doubt—to look for Lope. He found him in his garden, very deeply occupied with an orange-tree that had been frost bitten in the night. What ! not at work ? Mon talvan doubtless thought he'd got him noW! He asked him how he had got on with his task, when Lope answered, I set about it at five ; but I finished the act an hour ago ; took a bit of ham for breakfast, wrote an epistle of fifty triplets ; and have watered the whole of the garden, which has not a little fatigued me." Then, taking out the papers, he read to his collaborateur the eight leaves and the triplets, - " a circumstance," Montalvan adds, " that would have astonished me, had I not known the fertility of his genius, and the dominion he had over the rhymes of our language." Well might it have astonished him, indeed ! •It would have surprised us, if anything could. But then it can't—at least when it relates to Lope de Vega. " The Little Chorister" is a charming story in five chapters, which may be read with profit and pleasure by people of every age, sex, and station. —Household Words. A SNOW-STORM - IN YARROW---A CALM (From Professor Wilson's " Nodes Ambrosia;ue," Vol. I) SHEPHERD : I'se tell you, and judge for yoursel. At four in the mornin, it was that hard frost that the dubs were bearin, and the midden was as bard as a rickle o' stanes. We couldn a plant the potawtoes. But the lift was clear. Between eight and nine, a snaw-storm came doun frae the mountains about Loch Skene, noo a whirl, and noo a blash, till the grun' was whitey-blue, wi' a sliddery sort o' sleet, and the Yarrow began to roar wi' the melted broo, alang its frost-bound borders, and aneath its banks, a' hanging wi' icicles, nane o' them thinner than my twa arms. Wed, then, about eleven it began to rain, for the wand had shifted—and afore denner-time, it was an evendoun pour. It fell town about sax—and the air grew close and sultry to a degree that was fearsome. Wha wud hae expeckit a thunder storm on the eve o' sic a day ? But the heavens, in the thundery airt, were like a dungeon—and I saw the lightning playing like meteors athwart the blackness, lang before ony growl was in the gloom. Then, a' at ante, like a waukened lion, the thunder rose up in his den, and shaking his mane o' brindled clouds, broke out into sic a roar that the very sun shuddered in eclipse—and the grews and collies that happened to be sittin beside me on a bit knowe, gaed whinin into the house wi' their tails atween their legs, just yen turin a haflin glance to the howling heavens noo a' in a low, for the fire was strong and fierce in electrical matter, and at intervals the illuminated mountains seemed to vomit out conflagration like verra volcanoes. SHEPHERD : Afore sunset, heaven and earth, 123 , rOlO