The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

come from a distance to see the funeral
show. Later in the book we have a por-
trait of the young lady in what we fancy the
authoress considers the very prime and hey-
day of womanhood :
Imogene Aubrey had that day completed her tenth or
eleventh year, I forget which. She was not tall for her age,
and seemed as if she would only reach to the middle size ;
but possessed a lithe and beautiful figure, as far as beauty
can be predicated of a growing young creature of that age.
She was dressed in a perfectly simple muslin frock, bound
about her waist with a broad blue ribbon, forming an
immense bow behind a dress which I thought displayed
her figure to the greatest advantage. Two blue ribbons,
making bows, tying up her sleeves, and displaying her long
slender, lily-white arms ; a black velvet band round her
neck, with a small locket, containing, as I believe, her
father's hair, completed her costume ; the pleasing effect
of which was aided by her beautiful flowing tresses, which,
though they had not been allowed to grow very long, /et
hung about her in great abundance, and adorned a coun.
tenance such as I have never seen elsewhere, and cannot
hope to see again.
In Lytton's " Caxton," containing some of
his finest philosophy, there is faithfully pic-
tured a boy who in the close mental atmo-
sphere at home attained a sickly moral growth,
but acquired the healthy robust spirit of his
sge when placed at school with his fellows.
Nothing is more unpleasant to our thinking
than pictures of that excitability in youth
which brings into activity emotions and
passions natural only to a certain stage of
maturity. The character of children may be
charmingly represented when children are
taken as the models ; but in Mrs. Marsh's
children one cannot help conceiving that the
little creatures are merely made the vehicles
for embodying the authoress's own feelings
and sentiments.
In the latter part of the novel, when her
boys are released from Eton—the playing :fields
are dangerous ground for a female novelist to
tread—and the girls are emancipated from
their nurses and sashes, Mrs. Marsh appears
to much more advantage. The heroine's de-
votion to duty shadows forth a noble charac-
ter, and leads to some animated narrative.
Mrs. Marsh has too much of the vis vivida of
genuine talent ever to pen a dull book. It
would be easy to cull many beautiful passages
from these volumes; and, notwithstanding
what we consider to be their cardinal defect,
they possess sufficient attraction to secure for
them welcome acceptance from all lovers of
fiction.

The world is very tolerant of literary im-
posture up to a certain point. An author,
while avoiding all real names, may represent a
MS. as coming into his possession by any kind
of machinery—natural or supernatural—which
it pleases him to invent. We have read in our
time narratives purporting to have been found
in chests buried in the earth—in caves by the
seashore—to have been revealed in dreams—
to have been discovered in cabinets. Where the
artifice is transparent no one cares to resent it.
Scott himself was allowed to indulge his humour
by the introduction of that incomprehensible
personage Mr. Jedediah Cleishbotham without
question—one reason probably being that no
one ever took the trouble to read these most
pedantic of prefaces to those most delightful of
novels. If the ghost of Sir Walter had ap-
peared to the Directeur General de la Societe
des Archivistes de France, and placed the MS.
of Moredun t in his hands for publication, no
one would have called in question the veracity
of M. Cabany, and the romance would have
met with fair notice as a production avowedly
in the school of Scott. Even the tale of the
old German, and his bequest to M. Cabany of
his writing-desk containing the precious MS.,
might have passed muster as an allowable
fiction. But when the handwriting of Scott
is closely imitated, and M. Cabany in an
elaborate introduction maintains the literal
truth of his story, and supports it—we admit
with considerable ingenuity—by reasons drawn
from Scott's life, and from the peculiarities of
his character, then the case against the
Directeur General becomes one of literary
forgery ; and we warn him in all fairness that
unless he hastens to avow his stratagem, and
declare that he only intended by perseverance
in it to test the critical acumen of our country.
his reputation, not only as a man of letters,
but as a man of honour, will be irreparably

+ Atomism : a Tale of the Twelve Hundred and Ten. By W. S.
London: Sampson Low and Son.

SATURDAY,

blasted, and that the odium of falsehood,
which neither the genius of Chatterton, nor
the ingenuity of Ireland, could overcome,
will bear him down, and set a brand on his
name which will render it infamous in every
literary society of Europe.
Why such extraordinary pains should have
been taken to countenance a fraud which
it was scarcely possible should obtain even
momentary credence, it is not for us to
explain. But such pains are not, as M.
Cabany would insinuate, any proof of au•
thenticity, as the history of literary impos-
ture is full of evidences of the like elabo-
rate falsehood. On his own sho wing—if Scott
wished this work to be published anony-
mously as an experiment, that he might
ascertain whether he could not open a new
vein, it is most unlikely that he would have
given away the MS. written in his own hand.
Falsehood is often too cunning for its own
purpose ; it overshoots its mark, and ;s de-
tected by the elaborateness of the artifice it
adopts to insure success.
Why does not M. Cabany reveal the name of
the German who bequeathed him this legacy ?
Why not make reference to those living mem-
bers of the German's family who sent him the
writing box after their relative's death? Why
not call as witnesses to his veracity some of
those persons who, he says, were intimate
with the German, and familiar with his
" often-repeated assertion that he expected to
" be, or was, the possessor of an original
" manuscript by the reat Scottish novelist,
" Sir Walter Scott" ? When any person asserts
that he has evidence at hand to support his
word gravely called in question, yet fails to
do so, the inference is obvious.
The ostentatious manner in which M.
Cabany advertises himself as the proprietor of
" Moredun" does afford some reason, though
surely of the basest kind, why the deception
should have been originated, and why it
should have been maintained. It is unfortu-
nate that in the most conspicuous cases of
literary fraud the object should not have been
to puzzle critics and test the discernment of
literary societies, but to make profit in some
way by the transaction.
We alwa) s thought that Sir Walter com-
mitted a grave error in expressly, and even,
as we find by Mr. Warren's revelations, in
voluntarily denying his authorship of the
Waverley novels. His falsehood added to the
weight and strain put on his faculties, and
perhaps by concealing from his friends the
real nature of his engagements with the Bal-
lantynes contributed to the lamentable mis-
fortunes of his declining years. That tendency
towards deceit or mystification which was the
one great blot in his character was un-
doubtedly the primary cause of all his dis-
tresses.

To be sure, if an author is willing to put
himself on exactly the same footing as a shop-
man in a linendraper's business, or hold that
he is at liberty to Make what misrepresenta-
tions he pleases for the purpose of selling his
wares to the best advantage, the apology which
Scott made for his conduct may be held valid,
and in that case, too, M. Cabany may consider
himself justified in carrying the practice a
little further than Scott ever anticipated. If
an author is at liberty to assert that he never
wrote works which he did write, may not some
adventurer fasten on him works which are
really not his ? Perhaps this was the view
which first suggested the publication of
" Moredun." M. Cabany seems to suppose
that the array of all his literary titles to dis-
tinction will secure support for his assertions
in the teeth of the strongest probabilities.
Character, on a question of evidence, should
weigh for something ; but how fatal is the
position of any man who basely trades on
reputation he has won, and enlists his honours
in the service of degradation !
These remarks are made because such
attempts as this one by M. Cabany must, if
persisted in, have an injurious effect on the
literary character. What he is bound to do is
this, either to admit that he has been playing
a part already carried too far, or bring for-
ward witnesses in support of his statement,
and place his whole case in the hands of some
literary men competent to pronounce a just
decision on it. If he has really set forth the

MAY 26, 1855.

truth he has everything to gain and nothing
to lose by the most rigid investigation, for his
" property " in that case would be greatly en-
hanced in value, whilst his honour would be
cleared. At all events he must lie under no
mistake as to the literary opinion of this
country. It declares his story to be incredi-
ble, and the book itself to bear no greater
resemblance to the genuine novels of Scott
than one of Richardson's spectral dramas
bears to the Hamlet or Macbeth of Shake-
speare.
It is supposed that " Moredun " was one of
the earliest prose compositions of Scott, and
that it was in existence at the same time as
" Waverley ;" yet the book itself supplies
evidence that it must have been written after
" Ivanhoe." The following passage, for
example, contains a direct reference to the
Robin Hood portion of that novel :

As the acclamations of the crowd were again rising
when an English archer sent his shaft right into the centre
of the bull's eye, one of the " lads in green," who had
been remarked by Wilburn and Boynton earlier in the
day. fought his way through the crowd, entered the lists ;
and after bowing respectfully towards the royal stand,
selected an arrow from his quiver, poised it carefully,
placed it on its rest, and seemingly without much effort,
and with an appearance of peat indifference, drew it to
its head, and sent it right upon the last shot arrow, cleav-
ing it in two. In the midst of the deafening shouts
which arose on the performance of this feat, the other
" green man," following the example of his companion,
took aim with the same careless bearing, and in his turn
split the shaft of his brother-in-arms.
" Who are those young men, brother of Scotland ?"
John said, addressing King William ; "they are wondrous
like some of those fellows of She woods forest to whom my
brother of valiant memory was foolish enough to grant an
wlssesty."

The passage is a fair sample of the coarse
and clumsy imitation—not of Scott's style
only, but of his incidents, characters, and even
names—adopted throughout the book. Be-
cause Lockaley " notches the shaft " of Hubert
the feat is in this book performed twice over.
Let the reader compare this scene in " More-
dun " with the parallel passage in " Ivanhoe,"
and then say if " Moredun " does not appear
to be one of the most impudent imitations
ever attempted to be palmed on the public as
a genuine work. If written before " Ivanhoe,"
what does the reference to Richard's dealings
with the fellows of Sherwood Forest mean ?
If written subsequently, is it credible that
Scott would have repeated himself—a practice
entirely foreign to his original genius—in so
palpable a manner?
The same direct imitation prevails through-
out. Because Rebecca describes the siege of
the castle to Ivanhoe from the loophole
of a turret, "Deborah," while tending the
wounded Sir Henry, "looked out at the opening
" of the rock which served for a casement,"
and describes the supernatural occurrences of
an impossible storm :
Oh, what a sight! Oh, Sir Henry de Hastings, conld'st
thou but rise to view this ! such a rainbow—such a black•
nes3 within it, and such lightnings! Hark to the roar of
these waves, as they rise and rush in amongst the rocks :
—there, again, they recede, carrying even some of the
masses with them. Oh, Sir Knight; but this is fearful.
There, again, they rise, &c. &c. _ _

As Ring Richard travels disguised in
black armour in " Ivanhoe," King John in this
romance is represented in " a desolate part of
" the country," as " a knight in black armour
" with his visor closed."

The style of allusion is not the style of
Scott, who does not, that we recollect, make
reference to continental scenes he had never
visited. Here we meet with several passages
of this kind :
To the south and west the town resembled the fantastic
rocks of the Simplon rising out of the glaciers, and lighted
up here and there by the torches of exploring travellers.

In other instances the allusions are too
modern for the period assigned as the com-
position of this novel. It is unlikely that
Scott would have made the pointed allusion to
the" sect of philosophers, the geologists," which
we find at ii. 230, and still less likely that he
would have made the reference to " the safety
`• valve," which we find at iii. 241.

On these minute points, however, we lay no
stress, though attentive examination of them
might, perhaps, furnish demonstrative proof
that the novel could not have been written at
the date assigned to it. We rely on the general
scope of the work, which bears not the least
resemblance to the distinctness and spirit of