The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-30 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

worthy of a scholar habitually familiar with
the grand masterpieces of the literature of
antiquity.
It would be difficult to find new matter upon
the life of Milton, which has been so repeatedly
examined. In his present volume Mr. Keight-
ley has treated the facts of the poet's biography
from the commentator's point of observation.
The matter of the work looks more like a
valuable appendix, or a series of illustrative
notes, than a regular composition. But the
knowledge displayed in its pages is close and
various, and, in spite of the obtrusion of pecu•
liarities, there are many passages of sound and
vigorous criticism. Amongst these we would
refer particularly to the parallel between
Milton and Dante. It thus commences :

Sublimity and vigour being assumed as the justest
criterions of high poetic genius, " Paradise Lost " con-
stitutes Milton one of the triumvirate of greatest poets,
after Shakespeare, who dwells alone in separate glory as
the mightiest poetic mind that nature has ever produced.
Taken in order of time, the triumvirate is composed of
iEschylus, I►ante, and Milton. Our omission of Homer
may cause surprise; but much of the fame of Homer is
merely traditional, and arose when he was regarded as
the sole author of the poems that go under his name It
seems to be now established by just principles of criticism,
that the Ilion and the Odyssey are the productions of
different poets, and that the former is a composite and not
an organic whole, of which possibly not more than one-
half belongs to the poet whom we name Homer. His
claim therefore to be placed in the same class with Milton
and Dante becomes somewhat dubious.

Here we have the peculiarity of Mr.
Keightley too much -obtruded. Whether the
Wolffian hypothesis on the Homeric poems be
true or false, " Homer" must still continue to
represent a psychological unity in the literary
mind. It is too late to treat " Homer" as a
group of ballad-writers. After some able dis-
quisitions, Mr. Keightley proceeds with his
contrast between Milton and Dante :

In vigour they are alike; in perception of beauty, whe-
ther in the moral or the natural world, we cannot pro-
nounce either to be inferior; yet perhaps the terrestrial
Paradise is richer and more varied in natural charms in
the " Paradise Lost " than in the " Purgatorio." In sub-
limity we give the palm to the English, in tenderness and
pathos to the Tuscan, poet ; we do not think that Dante
could have written the two first books of " Paradise Lost,"
we feel almost certain that Milton could not have narrated
the sad tale of Francesca da Rimini, or the horrid fate of
Count Ugolino, as they are narrated in the " Inferno." As
strong feelings of one kind is usually united with strong
feelings of other kinds, so in Dante there is an intensity
and bitterness of satire of which the calmer nature and
more pious spirit of Milton was incapable. In vividness of
representation and graphic power we must award the prize
to Dante. His life was one of wandering; he had traversed
the plain, the vale and the mountain ; he had probably
dwelt in the cot as well as the palace, and hence his
similes and descriptions, being actual transcripts from
nature, present the objects themselves to our senses.
Milton, as we have already observed, saw life and nature
chiefly through the medium of books, and hence we rarely
meet in him with that accuracy of observation which dis-
tinguishes Dante. We would liken Milton to Raphael and
those artists who, taking their sketches from nature, give
reins to imagination and produce pieces beyond what
actual nature presents ; while Dante may be in general
compared with those who are called pre-Raphaelites, who
copy nature faithfully and accurately, but rarely venture to
go beyond her.
The analogy between Milton and Raphael,
and Dante with the pre-Raphaelites, is not
close enough. In Raphael the beautiful is
more constantly present than the sublime,
and the converse is more applicable to Milton,
whose austere and " magnificently stern "
grandeur is not paralleled by the great
painter's triumphs. Again, Dante never
suggests the idea of artificial thought, and the
pre-Raphaelites always :veal the frigidity of a
school, with its preconceived and formalised
modes of thought. What follows, however, is
quite true :

Milton also was quite devoid of, and Dante possessed in
the highest degree, that power by which Swift makes us
almost believe in the existence of Lilliput and Brobdingnag,
when by seriousness of tone and manner, minuteness and
circumstantiality of narrative, and apparent anxiety for
accuracy, the writer would fain persuade us of the actual
truth of what he is telling us. In learning, Milton, of
course, as born at a Liter period, and after the invention
of printing, had the superiority.
In epic natures the grand and the general
almost exclusively occupy the mental facul-
ties. Milton, probably, would have failed as a
novelist or a writer for the stage.
Mr. Keightley enters at some length into
the versification of Milton, and also upon the
structure of his style and certain " errors " in
allusions. Mr. Keightley occasionally falls
into mistakes himself. Thus he writes

SATURDAY,

We cannot offer the same excuse for the following error,
which we can only ascribe to the incuria which comes at
times on even the most vigilant :

Meanwhile in utmost longitude where heaven
With earth and ocean meets, the setting sun
Slowly descended, and with right aspect
Against the eastern gate of Paradise
Leveled his evening rays.—lv. LW.
Here no critic seems ever to have asked himself the queF•
tion, how the sun who was sinking in the west could levtl
his rays directly against the eastern gate of Paradise?

The poet in writing this passage had, probably,
the image before his mind of the sun setting
on the horizorlibf some great landscape, where
the rays certainly appear to strike towards the
east, as Mr. Keightley may see from Hamp-
stead-hill, when viewing the close of a fine
evening
Mr. Keightley has entered at considerable
length upon the subject of Milton's religion.
The subject is now rather trite, but it is
necessary to recollect that though the great
poet vas heterodox as to the doctrine of the
Trinity, his Arianism bore no resemblance to
the Socinianism of later times.

Mr. Keightley has announced in his preface
that he has an annotated edition of Milton
ready for the press, in which the notes will
occupy about one-third of the space in Todd's
edition. The present work is dedicated in
graceful language to the Bishop of St.
Davids, and is a valuable contribution to the
rather numerous commentaries on Milton.

The Private Life of an Eastern King. By a
Member of the Household of his late
Majesty Nussir-u•deen, King of Oude.
London : Hope and Co.
ORIENTALISM is clearly on the wane. In
Constantinople, and in Cairo, the utilitarian-
ism of the West has long been prevalent amid
scenes and images redolent of those far famed
" Arabian Nights' Entertainments" that de-
lighted our youth. Yet further East, at Bom-
bay, Madras, and Calcutta, we find cities large,
splendid, and swarming with a chiefly Asiatic
population; but whose rise and present magni-
ficence are nevertheless of European origin.
So also Delhi, and Agra, and Milton's
" Lahore of Great Mogul,' have in course of
time become more or less de-orientalised.
The province of Oude did, indeed, feel and
recognise British political ascendancy at a
period considerably anterior to the extension
of that ascendancy over the plains of North-
western India. But its successive rulers,
whilst owning a sort of feudal allegiance to
the paramount power, and in some degree
controlled by the presence at their Court of a
British Resident, have up to the present day
enjoyed a fair share of what may bo called
domestic independence. In short, as regards
his " pot and his pipe, and his fiddlers three,"
and such like matters of internal economy,
the Oude potentate still reigns as absolutely
as ever did Haroun Al Raschid, or old King
Cole of festive memory. And the fair city of
Lucknow, as yet existing, is perhaps the last
veritable reflex of that ancient Bagdad so in-
dissolubly connected by tradition with the frolic-
loving Commander of the Faithful and his
boon companions.
The present kingdom of Oude was in former
days one of the richest satrapies under the
old Mogul dynasty. Its governor held the
title of Nawab Vuzeer, or Emperor's Lieute-
nant; and, so long as the throne of Delhi
remained unshaken, he exercised correspond-
ing powers. But as the strength of the
empire decayed, the authority of the several
viceroys became more and more irresponsible,
until their subordination to the imperial
crown was by degrees reduced to a tradition
and a name. In Oude—a fact already lanced
at—this virtual disruption of ancient ties had
a most important share in compelling the
rulers of the country to seek a British alliance,
at an earlier period than such would probably
have been needed had the province continued
to be an integral portion of the Mogul
dominions ; its independence of v►hich was,
by this new connection, most practically con-
firmed. Such, however, is the force of
custom, especially in the East, that the
princes of Gude still for many years continued
to retain the subordinate style and title of
Nawab Vuzeer. Nor was it until 1810 that
au, insignia of royalty were (not, however,

JJNP 30, 1855.

without a Leadenhall-street license) assumed
by Ghazi u-deen, the then reigning Nawab ;
who thereupon neglected not at once to avail
himself of the right to coin money in his own
name.

Singularly enough the East India Company,
in spite of their tie facto supremacy, long hesi-
tated to assert it in the manner most familiar
to the Asiatic mind. William IV. was the
first English sovereign whose head was ever
stamped on a rupee. Previously to this
change, which took place A.D. 1835, all Com-
pany's coin was struck in the name of Timour's
descendants, the pensioned shadows of the
past, whose idle state and farcical pretensions
may attract the curiosity, without greatly
moving the sympathies, of some chance visitor
to Delhi.

To return to Oude, the writer, it would
seem, made his first appearance at Lucknow
about the year 1833, and resided there
for upwards of three years in the service of
King Nussir-u deco, son and successor to
Ghazi-u-deen above mentioned. The pre-
sent publication is anonymous ; but our
author has indicated his social position on the
titlepage, and elsewhere affects at least to give
the reader a further chance of guessing at his
exact status. For, at page 16, we are informed
that the King's European friends and asso-
ciates were five in number—via., his English
tutor, his librarian, his portrait-painter, his
captain of the guard, and—last, but by no
means least—his barber. And, "of these
five," says the writer, " I was me." Now, it is
manifest that he was not the barber, an indi•
vidual who throughout the volume is held up
to reprobation as his master's evil genius and
abettor in every species of excess. Neither,
according to his own account, can we identify
him with the tutor, who was at Lucknow on
his arrival, or the man of war. As for the
office of portrait-painter, that post was for
some years previous to 1833, and for many
years afterwards, filled by the late Mr. George
Beechy, who held it until his death, which
occurred in 1852. The author, consequently,
could have been no other than the librarian.
The much-abused barber was by far the
greatest man of the suite, his influence over
the King being unbounded. This lucky youth
had been a London hairdresser's apprentice,
but, running off to sea, voyaged to Calcutta as
cabin-boy. Here he resumed his former occu-
pation, made some money, and set up in
business as one of those river-merchants who
drive a. profitable trade by disposing of Euro-
pean goods, wholesale or retail, at the different
stations situated on the banks of any great
navigable stream. In such capacity he
brought his pinnace to anchor at Lucknow.
The then British Resident at the Court of
Oude, and present M.P. for Rochester, it is
stated, had an unmanageable head of hair, and
desired to have it " cursed like the Governor-
General's." But there must be some anachron-
ism here. Lord William Bentinck ruled
over British India at the date to which refer-
ence is professedly made, and he was not the
sort of man to have set himself up as the glass
of fashion. Be this as it may, the quondam
barber was not too proud to resume his cuvl-
ing-irons, and soon worked a wonderful
change in the appearance of the Resident's
head. The Majesty of Oude saw, admired,
and envied. The barber was sent for, the
King was delighted, and the road to wealth
and honours was opened to this hero of the
tongs, who ere long became to the Oude poten-
tate all that the renowned Oliver le Dain
was to Louis the Eleventh of France, and
something more. The King, in short, be-
came a complete tool of the favorite, by
whom he was entirely ruled whilst affecting to
govern for himself. The result was such as
might be expected, and is thus summed up in
Wilson's continuation of " Mill's History,"
vol. ix., p. 372 :—" Ignorant of affairs, and
" addicted to dissolute habits, the effect of this
" determination—(i.e., to become his own
" Minister)—was to throw the power into the
" hands of disreputable and incompetent per-
" sons, the associates of his dissipation, or
" ministers of his vices, and as venal asineffi-
" cient." Consigned to such hands, his Ma
jest), soon lost all sense of decency and pro-
priety ; and the Resident (Colonel Low, had
by this time succeeded to that importaut post)