The Press.
London, England, 1857-07-25 00:00:00

T HE PRESS, JULY 25, 1857.

" Suicide in Life and Literature" is one of the
best papers in all the nuarterly periodicals.
It contains a brief but able disquisition on the
causes of suicide in real life, and a comparison
of the manner in which it is usually introduced
in literature. The conclusion arrived at is
that suicide, when not the result of insanity,
is usually found to proceed from either a weak
mind or a diseased body impairing the mental
vigour—and that the discrepancy between life
and literature consists in the fact that in the
latter it is usually represented as an effect of
sudden passion, whereas in reality it is found
to spring more often from less imposing
causes. The following statistics will perhaps
interest our readers, and we wish we had space
to quote a great deal more of this remarkable
paper :
Thus, in the year 1851, there 'were 3,598 suicides re•
corded in France, to each of which the presumed motive
was affixed. Out of these no lees than 800 are set down
to mental alienation ; and to that number we should add
70 cases of monomania, 39 of cerebral fever, and 54 of
idocy—all ranking under the general head of uncontrol•
lsbleness,—which will make a total of 963, or more than
a fourth of the whole cases. If we now examine the
remaining cases, we find " domestic quarrels " next in
amount, being no less than 385 ; while grief for the loss
of children amounts to only 48, grief at their ingratitude
or bad conduct, to 10 ; sudden anger, only 1. Next in
importance to domestic quarrels is the desire to escape
from physical suffering: these amount to 313. Debt and
embarrassment rank next-203. Want, and the fear of
want, 179. Disgust at life—which may properly be called
low spirits—stands high,-16t1; shame and remorse, very
low, only 7. Thwarted love shows anly 91, and jealousy,
23. Losses at play, 0 ; loss of employment, 25.

In contemporary English literature, however,
suicide has certainly been employed more in
accordance with the above figures. The expo-
sure of a long scheme of villany, the sudden
loss of fortune, or forfeiture of the world's
good opinion, are now assigned in novels as
the motives of self-destruction oftener than
the sentimental or heroic sufferings to which
the reviewer alludes. In " French Politics,
Past and Present," a difficult subject is
handled in a philosophic spirit, and the
writer's observations on the French army are
well worth consideration. The essay upon
Shakespeare's sonnets strikes us as strained
and puerile. Witness the one following in-
stance out of dozens :
Hear how Shakespeare laments the bitter put:—
Alas ! 'Os true, I have gone here and there,
And made myself a motley to the view,
Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear,
Made old offences of affections new.
Most true is it, that I have looked on truth
Askance and strangely.
Verily Meres could not have read these when he spoke
of Shakespeare's "sugared sonnets to his friends:" for
assuredly we know no such bitter records of a great soul
struggling amidst trials and sorrows. They contain a
greater tragedy, if properly considered, than any he ever
wrote—the tragedy of real life—tbe tragedy of the greatest
mind the world ever beheld, overwhelmed with a sense of
its own sin and guilt. This is it that shows his real
greatness. The great soul alone is conscious of its nwn
defects, and that in proportion to its own greatness. Your
little mind is self-pleased, self-satisfied, ever fancying
itself in the right, sleeping too sound to be ever disturbed
by dreams or tears.
This kind of criticism can ho written by the
yard. The passage quoted from the sonnets is
by no means strong enough to carry all the
spuriously sublime rant which is here based
upon it. The American article and the
Neapolitan article are each excellent in their
way—full of thought and practical sagacity,
though the latter is certainly in parts pitched
in too high a strain.
The London Quarterly contains a strong list
of subjects. Among the best, we should
mention the decimal coinage, Canadian
agriculture, and the paper upon Curran as
particularly interesting and well written.
The essay upon Cicero and his contemporaries
does full justice to the great Roman states-
man, and is composed in a pleasing and un-
pretending style. The literary notices at the
end of the volume are too exclusively confined
to religious works to interest the general
public, though doubtless acceptable to a large
class of subscribers.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED-JULY 23.
BOOKS.

Lucian Playjair. Thomas Mackern. Three Vols.
Smith and Elder
Wayside Fancies. Frances Freeling Broderip. E. Moron
Six Months in Sebastopol. From the Journal of the late
Major George Ranken. C. Wcsterton
Lectures and Miscellanies. 11. W. Freeland. Longtuans
Grams aire Franeaiee. Longmans

731

Letters from the Slave States. J. Parker
Christianity the Logic of Creation. W. White
The Peers and the People and the Coming Reform.
Effingham Wilson
Inquiry into the Opinions of the Commercial Classes.
Weale
T. Hodgson

7'he White Mack. Mrs. Thomson.
PERIODICAL.
The Monthly Review. Hall and Virtue.

Choose your Own Path; o►, the Predestinarian. Part•
ridge—Lord Palmerston and the Isthmus of Sues Canal.
Richardson Brothers.

Pusir.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

DONIZETTI'S Lucia di Lammermoor is essentially a
" tenor " opera. The reason is not merely because
Edgar Ravenswood has the last word, or, in other
language, the " aria finale," and it is not also the
fault of the composer—for, on the debtor and creditor
account of the music assigned to the principal parts
the balance will be found in favour of the heroine—
but with the public in general the figure of Edgar
haunts the memory more vividly .than Lucia.
Perhaps no higher compliment has ever been paid
to the genius of the novelist than in the fact that the
mangling of the romance by the Italian librettist has
failed to render Scott's exquisite creations nonenti-
ties—laboured as the effort has been to reduce the
story to maudlin sentimentality. Donizetti's genius
has fortunately soared above the absurdities and
trivialities of his poet associate. The stage suicide
is redeemed by the " Fra Poco." As these strains
are heard, one sees the fatal ride to the Kelpies
Flow, one imagines Colonel Ashton straining his eyes
towards the horseman, who suddenly melts into
"thin air," as the quicksands absorb the figure of
the doomed Edgar. There are omissions in the
libretto which are most unpardonable. Leaving out
Lady Ashton—that terrible woman, who never evinced
"the slightest symptom either of repentance or
remorse "—was a great mistake. The picture at the
end of the second act, when Edgar returns, seems
incomplete without the mother's exhibition of the
marriage contract, and without her hand tearing off
the piece of gold concealed in Lucy's bosom. In
the opera, the brother, Ashton, is made to do duty
both for himself and Lady Ashton; but what a
character might have been created for a lyric Risturi
like Viardot ! But one artist has ever succeeded in
making the brother's presence at the signature of the
writings equal to the telling situation in the novel,
and that was Ronconi. Tamburini and Coletti sang
the music of Ashton splendidly, and Belletti executes it
artistically; but to realise Scott's conceptions of the
maternal authority over a weak and vacillating mind,
changed to fraternal influence—a very different
thing indeed—was reserved only to the genius of a
Ronconi. Duprez was the original Edgardo—it was
composed expressly for him ; and in lofty emotion
it has never been approached. In thrilling vocalisa-
tion Rubini has never been equalled. Amateurs will
not easily forget the ludicrous display at Her
Majesty's Theatre, in 1946, of the eucore for
Fraschini, who was called in Italy "II tenore della
maledizione," profanely translated by a musical wag
at the time into " the blasted tenor." The burlesque
of clacquism was never more strongly illustrated.
Moriani's fame as Edgardo rested on his dying scene.
M. Roger, Sims Reeves, and Salvi, all won deserved
distinction in the tenor part. When Mario essayed
it to the Lucia of Catherine Hayes, he achieved one
of his greatest triumphs. Gardoni was one of the
gentlest of Edgardos, certainly superior to Giuglini's
drawling version. Neri-Baraldi's impersonation lacks
stage presence and intellectuality. It is nicely sung,
however, and will raise the reputation of this young
and promising singer. The new Ashton, on Tuesday,
was Graziani, and superbly did he vocalise—the
music being admirably adapted to his magnificent
organ. The fine duo of the challenge, restored at the
Royal Italian Opera by Salvi and Ronconi, was
dramatically rendered by Graziani and Baraldi. The
gentle and inoffensive Lucia, without energy, without
ambition, as her mother describes her, has found a
most interesting representative in Mlle. Victoire
Balfe, who is the nearest approach to the gifted
Mme. Persiani. The grace and simplicity of the
acting of this last-mentioned artiste, and her mar-
vellous volubility of throat, and perfect method,
remain unrivalled. She was the Lucia. Mme.
Castellan's amiability was apparent in the part.
What a terrible termagant Jenny Lind made of Lucia
is within everybody's recollection, great as were
portions of her singing. The Hibernian prima
donna, Miss Catherine Hayes, moved her
auditory as Lucia. Piceolomini's dramatic exag-
geration and fussiness and vocal incompetency
have been recently palpable. Victoire Balfe has
greatly added to the laurels she gained as Amina.
Let it be at once conceded, that if her performance

4

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732

be regarded from " a phySical•strength point of
view, it will not be accepte 1 by thuse who prefer
force to delicacy. It is one of the most feminine
Lucias we have ever witnessed on any stage ; and
herein Vietuire Balfe can claim a proud supremacy.
There are no spasms about it—there are no gym-
nastic feats in the contract scene. She does not
shrug her shoulders, nor does she distort her figure.
There is no lack of passionate abandonment, not the
less, in the contract finale. When she first came on
the stage there was a murmur throughout the house
NrIA,III intelligibly conveyed, "There is a real Lucia on
the stage—the Lucia of Scott, like the Des,letnous.
of Shakespaate"—

A maiden never bold,
Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at herself.

Of the strange contradictions observed on the Italian
stage, the most curious is the manner in which
Lucia is costumed in the first act. Raimondo tells
Enrico that his sister is a sorrowing maiden, mourn-
ing over the recent tomb of a beloved mother, and
yet is Lucia presented in all the colours cf the rain-
bow. The stage conventionalism is that heroines
must always be mad in white. Apart from the ques-
tions of toilette, Mlle. Balfe's Lucia is replete with
vocal excellencies. Her " aria d'entrata" was im-
paired by agitation ; the voice seemed muffled and
fatigued; but from the duo " It pallor funesto " she
took high ground, a.,d maintained it to the last. In
that grand and imposingly dramatic finale of the
second act, in which Lucia breathes such despairing
accents, and Edgard() expresses the height of his
passion for her whilst gazing at her as a "wither-
ing rose," whilst Enrico pours forth such furious
menaces, and the minister of religion eadeavours
to soothe the excited feelings of the marriage guests,
the voice of Mlle. Balfe rose above the choral and
orchestral masses with an intensity which thoroughly
enlisted the sympathies of the auditory. So power-
ful was the emotion at the " Chi mi frena," so care-
fully was the crescendo climax attained, that it was
some time before the opera could proceed, Costa,
however, very properly declining the encore iu such
a dramatic situation. The clear .toned high notes of
Mlle. Balfe in the mad scene were delicious, and her
style of executing the difficult divisions displayed a
perfect method. There were some novel and elegant
cadenzas introduced, one of which, a series of pro-
longed shakes, was exceeding skilful, both in compo-
sition and execution. The general interpretation of
the work was worthy of the conductor's intuitive
faculty in seizing upon a composer's conceptions
*ith accuracy and embodying them with judicious
and forcible colouring. The cast of the opera has
been individually stronger, but the zeal of the lead-
ing vocalists and choralists, and the enthusiasm of
the instrumentalists, caused the ensemble to be
unusually brilliant and effective.

THE ATLANTIC SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH.
EVERYTHING connected with the manufacture and
stowage of the cable is now completed ; and the Aga-
memnon and Niagara may be expected to put to sea
very shortly. The Agamemnon proceeds at once to
Queenstown, where the other vesssel.:, the Niagara,
Susquehanna, and Leopard, will also rendezvous.
After taking in coals, the four vessels will start

together for Valentia Bay. It has been thought
advisable to alter the arrangement by which the
cable was to have been joined in mid•sea, and the
Agamemnon and Niagara then make the best of
their way to shore—the former to America and the
latter to Ireland. Now, the plan is to submerge the
whole cable in a continuous line from Valentia Bay
to Newfoundland. The Niagara will lay the first
halt' from Ireland to the middle of the Atlantic; the
end will then be joined to the other half on board
the Agamemnon, which takes it on to the coast of
Newfoundland. During the whole process the four
vessels will remain together and give whatever
assistance is required. While it is being laid down mes-
sages will be sent back to the coast of Ireland report-
ing each day's progress, and, it necessary, of course,
each hour's. Scientific men look forward to the
result of the undertaking with the deepest interest,
as some wonderful electrical phenomena are cer-
tain to be observed during the process of submerging.
Of course much anxiety is felt as to the success of
this first attempt of so great an undertaking ; and it
is quite possible that failure may occur. Errors of
manufacture, and of detail in arrangement, are men-
tioned. But the grand point is the weather; if that
be only prcpitious, the chances are greatly in our
favour ; if it be foul, and heavy gales of wind set in,
we can scarcely hope for success. Yet every pre-
caution has been taken in event of severe weather ;
for if not considered prudent to retain the cable end on
board at all, a wire rope will be attached, and the
end of that secured again to an immense buoy. The
whole can then be let adrift., to bob about as the
winds and waves may choose, the vessels remaining
as near to the buoy as possible. In order to assist
them in finding it again, the uppermost end