The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

I

JUNE 14, 1856

The Municipal Directory for 1356.
Kelly and Co.

THE TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE.
(Continued from the PRESS of May 3.)

it should feed upon dust. The Prophet Isaiah says " dust
shall be the serpent's meat; " and the Prophet Micah "they
shall lick the dust like a serpent."
The whole book is in conversations between a
mother and her children, and the tone unaffectedly
devout.

Sketches and Adventures in Madeira, Portugal, and
the Andalusias of Spain. By the Author of
" Daniel Webster and his Contemporaries." Lon.
don: Sampson Low and Co.
ONE of the most agreeable American books of travel
we have met with. It principally relates to the
author's wanderings in Andalusia, of which it pre-
sents a series of animated and fascinating pictures.
The author seems to have been enchanted with the
dolce far niente life of this charming country, and
writes under such an impression of the ivresse it in-
spires him with as to cast warmth and colour on his
pages. His sketches are of the most vivid kind; all
his experience delighted him, and as a consequence
there is scarcely a " groan "in the book. We do not
know whether we are indebted to his pencil for the
wood-engravings. If so they are very creditable to
his artistic talent.

THIS is a kind of work which has been necessitated
by recent reforms, and we think it seems tolerably
somplete. Its title sufficiently bespeaks its character,
which to describe at length would be little else than
simply to copy out the index. It is a work which
should undoubtedly be in the hands of ail who are
interested either in parish business or the conduct
of metropolitan affairs in general.

As Measure for Measure is one of the plays instanced
by the Edinburgh reviewer to prove the authority of
the corrector, we have taken the pains to go through
Mr. Collier's text, and we think that even here are
to be found decisive proofs that the corrector could
not have had any genuine text before him when he
made his corrections. At the commencement of
sc. 3, act i., the folio reads :
Enter PROVOST, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and OFFICERS.
Juliet does not speak in this scene, and the MS. cor-
rector strikes out her name, but he leaves in the ex-
clamation of the Clown immediately previous :
Clown. Here comes Signor Claudio, led by the Provost
to prison; and there's .ifadant Juliet.

In later scenes we see that Juliet was imprisoned
as well as Claudio, and we find moreover that, at
the commencement of act ii., the Provost speaks con-
cerning her to Angelo :
Provost. I crave your honour's pardon.
What shall be done, air, with the groaning Juliet?
She's very near her hour.
Angelo. Dispose of her to some more filter place,
And that with speed.
We must conclude, therefore, that Juliet accompanies
Claudio in custody of the Provost, and this is the
snore evident as Claudio takes Lucie aside when
speaking to him of her condition. Here is one posi-
tive instance of an alteration being wrongly made,
and of the extreme superficiality of that corrector
whose authority we are told we ought not to dis-
pute. Finding that Juliet does not speak in the
scene, he erases her name from the stage directions,
without reference to what goes before or after.
When Lucio inquires of Claudio the reason of his
restraint, Claudio replies, as in the received text:—
From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty;
As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint.
There cannot be a doubt that " scope " is right.
Through the immoderate use of that liberty or scope
which he had, Claudio is brought into restraint.
What can be clearer? In exactly the same sense
"scope" is used in act i. sc. 4 of this same play.
The Duke, explaining why he could not resort to
those measures of severity which were necessary to
♦indicate the authority of his "strict statutes and
" most biting laws," says :
Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them
For what I bid them do.
But Mr. Collier's corrector, in the first of these pas-
sages, turns "scope" into "scape" :
So every scape by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint.
A world of ignorant presumption is exposed to us
in this one little correction. The corrector did not
understand the use of " scope" in the sense of liberty;
" scape" seemed to him the more familiar word, and
" scape " it is printed by Mr. Collier, to the utter
destruction not only of the beauty but even of the
sense of the passage. But again, the Edinburgh
reviewer would meet us with—What has sense to do

with it' What is your opinion or mine ? There is
the beer-stained (oh ! those beer stains !), can-
dle-snuffed, grease-grained folio, tattered with the
discipline of the servants' hall—there are the cor-
rections in an old handwriting—and, in presence of
those credentials of authority, it is our part to reve-
rently receive, not to audaciously inquire. What can
common sense weigh against " dilapidated leaves
" scarcely holding together," and such "paleness of
the ink" that all the MS. corrections have not yet
been deciphered, though Mr. Collier has been four
or rive years at his work ?

We repeat we do not impugn the genuineness of
these corrections—so far as the date assigned to them
is concerned,—though we know no special reasons
beyond Mr. Collier's respectability that should pre•
dude doubt on the subject. If such doubt is felt,
the Edinburgh reviewer says that it ought to be
openly expressed. Charges that the corrections are
in a recent band, writes the reviewer, " ought not to
" be suggested ; they should be made directly and
" seriously." Very good. But then is it certain that
they would be met in a literary spirit ? Would they
be replied to with a notification that the volume is
open to the inspection of literary men, or would they
be met with a summons to appear in a court of law ?
The reviewer who gives this advice to make "charges
"directly and seriously," cooly informs us on the
next page :

Mr. Collier bits been forced into a court of justice to
vindicate his character from the downright charge of
literary forgery, brought against him by some anonymous
assailant.

We therefore think critics should be careful how
they follow the reviewer's advice. If Mr. Collier is
prosecuting such an action as is here stated, he must
be very unmindful of the loyalty of the literary
character, he must be ignorant of the forbearance
demanded by letters, unless indeed the provocation
be very aggravated, and the charge undoubtedly
malignant. It is not in a court of law that he can
really hope to prove the authenticity of his "discovery,"
or to stand clear from all suspicion in the eyes of his
brethren. Such proceeding looks more like the
impudence of brazen guilt than the confidence of
conscious innocence. To return to the play of
Measure for Measure.
At the conclusion of scene I in act iv. the Duke
says, as printed in the first folio :

Come, let's go ;
Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.
Warburton, by a most happy conjecture, substituted
tilth, and this is what we may almost undoubtedly
say is what Shakespeare wrote. But in Mr. Collier's
corrected edition we have—

Our corn's to reap, for yet ourficid's to sow,
a word which every reader of taste must allow
weakens the generic force of the whole image. Would
this correction have been made had the corrector had
the genuine text before him ? and which is the surest
guide to tha sense of Shakespeare in this instance,
"conjectural emendation," or the authority of the
MS. corrector ?

At the commencement of act ii. the stage direc-
tion reads—" Enter Angelo, Escalus, a Justice, Pro-
" vost, Officers, and other attendants." The MS.
corrector strikes out " Provost," and after Angelo's
question,

Where is the Provost ?

he inserts "Enter Provost," his notion evidently
being, that it would be improper for Angelo to in-
quire " Where is the Provost ?" if he was present at
the time. But the Provost is behind Angelo, with
the other officers and attendants ; and surely it is
more appropriate for him to come forward when in-
quired for, than to enter just as the question is
asked.

One passage which has much puzzled commenta-
tors in this play is the exclamation of Escalus, sc. 1
act ii. Mr. Collier prints the manifest corruption of
the folio :

Well, Heaven forgive him, and forgive us all!
Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall :
Some run from breaks of ice and answer none,
And some condemned for a fault alone.
Had the corrector had the genuine text before him,
would he have suffered the passage to stand as it
does? Rowe corrected the phrase to " brakes of
vice." Brake is elsewhere used by Shakespeare in
its ordinary sense of a thicket or waste of thorns, ac-
cording to an instance given by Mr. Singer, K. Henry
VIII., act i. sc. 2 :
'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through.
But to run from a brake of vice in this sense would
hardly seem a just ground for punishment as Escalus
implies. Probably the true reading should be :
Some run through brakes of vice, and answer none.

The sense would then be perfectly clear. " Some go
through the thorny paths of vice, and are never
called to account or made to suffer for their wicked-
ness, while others are condemned for a mere fault."
The antithesis is complete on this supposition.

571

As an example of the corrector's authority, the
reviewer quotes the passage, act i. sc. 3, commonly
printed :--.

She is fast my wife
Save that we do the denunciation lack
Of outward order.
We doubt the correctness of " denunciation " in this
sense, though Mr. Singer affirms its validity; but
even if change be allowable, we should not take the
corrector's alteration, "the pronunciation lack ;" we
should rather read:—
Save that we do th' annunciation lack.
By the elision the line is truer and more musical ;
and the reading gives, we think, a clearer sense than
that of the corrector. The annunciation of the
marriage was all that was wanted to give it validity.
There is one passage in this play which we have a
suspicion is slightly corrupt, though it has not been
touched by Mr. Collier's corrector, nor, so far as we
know, by any other commentator. It is from the
same scene as the last :

Claudio. Thus can the demi-god, Authority,
Make us pay down for our offence by weight.—
The words of Heaven ;—on whom it will, it will ;
On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.
There is evident abruptness in this passage, nor can
we think the sense of the line clear,
Make ns pay down for oar offence by weight.

By what weight? Not by weight of the balance; not
by any just !need ; for Authority is here represented
as acting arbitrarily. We are inclined to read the
passage:—

Thus can the deini-gal, Authority,
Make us pay down for our offence by weight
Of words of Heaven ;—ou whom it will, &c.
That is, " the demi-god Authority can arbitrarily
" make us vay down for our offences by the weight
"or forte of Heaven's arbitrary decree." A change
in the punctuation, and the substitution of "of" for
" the " at the commencement of the third line, are
only required. If the reader will consider this
emendation, we incline to think we shall have his
verdict in our favour.

Amid many changes manifestly unsound and
absurdly erroneous, the corrector has made
which we think may hereafter be admitted into
text. In the ordinary text, Angelo, replying
Isabella, act ii. sc. 3, exclaims :

Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanotuary
And pitch our evils there ?
For " evils " the corrector substitutes " offals,
we are strongly disposed to take his change as a
valuable restoration of the text. In the same
we think the line,

Either new, or by remissness new•conceived,
is the true reading in place of "either now,
The opening lines of the play also, as corrected, .
pass. But the substitution of " God of judgment
for " top of judgment " is one of the most clumsy
changes that ever blundering commentator made
blind critic approved. " Prejudice apart," says '
reviewer, "is not the commoner word the more
bable one?" Now, setting taste aside, as a
question of probability the change is absurd, for
has previously been indicated as "He," and it
attribute, not His personality, that has to
pressed. "If He which is," i. e., if "God which
not surely the " God of judgment.," which
have no signification, but the head, or " top of.
ment," which is all significant. In all such cases
have not barely to consider, as the reviewer as
which is the more probable word to our apprehension,
but which is the word Shakespeare most probably
wrote. 1u All's Well that Ends Welt we ha•
line—

Bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks.
And in Macbeth we have—
And wears upon his baby-brow the round
And top of sovereignty.
Here we close our notice of one of the
Measure for Measure, in which the reviewer
he authority of the corrector is most evident.
urther remarks we must defer till another occasion.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.-JuNE 12.
BOOKS.

Evangeline. Suivie des Voix de la Nuit. P. Pkolanai.
Speeches at the Bar and in the Senate. John C. Hney.
Dublin : J. Duffy.
California; its Gold and its Inhabitants. Two Vols. Newby.
Caravan Journeys and Wanderings in Persia, Afghanislen,
Turkistan, etc. .1. Murray
The Everlasting Circles. T. Hatchard.
A Glimpse of the Wonders of Creation. Leonard C. Prince.

T. Hatched.

The Crimean Expedition, to the Capture of Sebastopol.
Vols. Sayripsnn and I.
Wandering among the rfigh Alps. Alfred Wills. R. Bentley.
The Martins of Cro' Martin. Charles Lever.

Chapman and L.
The Acquirements and Principal Obligations and Duties c,
the Pariah Priest.. J Murray.

I
JUNE 14, 1856
THE PRESS. 571
it should feed upon dust. The Prophet Isaiah says " dust I with it' What is your opinion or mine ? There is As an example of the corrector's
authority, the I
1
shall be the serpent's meat; " and the Prophet Micah "they the beer-stained (oh ! those beer stains !), can- reviewer quotes the passage, act i. sc. 3, commonly
shall lick the dust like a serpent." die-snuffed, grease-grained folio, tattered with the printed :
The s ;
whole book is in conversations between a discipline of the servants' hall—there are the cor-
She is fast my wife
mother and her children, and the tone unaffectedly rections in an old handwriting—and, in presence of Save that we do the denunciation lack devout. those credentials of authority, it is our part to reve- Of outward order. I
rently receive, not to audaciously inquire. What can We doubt the correctness of " denunciation "in this i
Sketches and Adventures in Madeira, Portugal, and common sense weigh against "dilapidated leaves sense, though Mr. Singer affirms its validity; but
the Andalusias of Spain. By the Author of " scarcely holding together," and such "paleness of even if change be allowable, we should not take the
"Daniel Webster and his Contemporaries." Lon• the ink" that all the MS. corrections have not yet corrector's alteration, "the pronunciation lack ;" we
don: Sampson Low and Co.
been deciphered, though Mr. Collier has been four should rather read:—
or five years at his work ?
ONE of the most agreeable American books of travel Save that we do th' annunciation lack.
We repeat we do not impugn the genuineness of By the elision the line is truer and more musical ;
we have met with. It principally relates to tha
these corrections—so far as the date assigned to them
author's wanderings in Andalusia, of which it pre- and the reading gives, we think, a clearer sense than
hth we know no special reasons
d n cocerne,—oug
sents a series of animated and fascinating pictures. is that of the corrector. The annunciation of the
Mr. Collier's respectability that should pre.
The author seems to have been enchanted with the beyond marriage was all that was wanted to give it validity.
dolceelude doubt on the subject. If such doubt is felt,
far niente life of this charming country, and There is one passage in this play which we have a
writes under such an impression of the ivresse it in- the Edinburgh reviewer says that it ought to be suspicion is slightly corrupt, though it has not been
openly expressed. Charges. that the corrections are
spires him with as to cast warmth and colour on histouched by Mr. Collier's corrector, nor, so far as we
pages. in a recent hand, writes the reviewer, ' ought not to His sketches are of the most vivid kind; allknow, by any other commentator. It is from the
", be
.suggested ; they should be made directly and same scene as the last his experience delighted him, and as a consequence
' seriously." Very good. But then is it certain that
:
there is scarcely a " groan" in the book. We do not Claudio. Thus can the demigod, Authority,
they would be met in a literary spirit ? Would they
know whether we are indebted to his pencil for the Make us pay down for our offence by weight.—
be replied to with a notification that the volume is
wood-engravings. If so they are very creditable to The words of Heaven ;—on whom it will, it will ;
his artistic talent. open to the inspection of literary men, or would they On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.
be met with a summons to appear in a court of law ?
There is evident abruptness in this passage, nor can
The reviewer who gives this advice to make "charges we think the sense of the line clear,
The Municipal Directory for 1550. London : "directly and seriously," cooly informs us on the
Kelly and Co. next page :
Make us pay down for our offence by weight.
THIS is a kind of work which has been necessitated Mr. Collier has been forced into a court of justice to By what weight? Not by weight of the balance ;not
by recent reforms, and we think it seems tolerably vindicate his character from the downright charge of by any just weed ; for Authority is here represented
somplete. Its title sufficiently bespeaks its character,
literary forgery, brought against him by some anonymous as acting arbitrarily. We are inclined to read the
which to describe at length would be little else than assailant. passage:—
simply to copy out the index. It is a work which We therefore think critics should be careful how Thus can the deini-gal, Authority,
should undoubtedly be in the hands of all who are they follow the reviewer's advice. If Mr. Collier is Make us pay down for our offence by weight
interested either in parish business or the conduct prosecuting such an action as is here stated, he must Of words of Heaven ;—on whom it will, &c.
of metropolitan affairs in general. be very unmindful of the loyalty of the literary That is, "the demi-god Authority can arbitrarily
character, he must be ignorant of the forbearance " make us nay down for our offences by the weight
THE TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE.
demanded by letters, unless indeed the provocation "or forte of Heaven's arbitrary decree." A change
be very aggravated, and the charge undoubtedly in the punctuation, and the substitution of "of" for
(Continued from the PRESS of May 3.) malignant. It is not in a court of law that he can " the "at the commencement of the third line, are
As Measure for Measure is one of the plays instanced really hope to prove the authenticity of his " discovery," only required. If the reader will consider this
by the Edinburgh reviewer to prove the authority of or to stand clear from all suspicion in the eyes of his emendation, we incline to think we shall have his
the corrector, we have taken the pains to go through brethren. Such proceeding looks more like the verdict in our favour.
Mr. Collier's text, and we think that even here are impudence of brazen guilt than the confidence of
to be found decisive proofs that the corrector could conscious innocence. To return to the play of Amid many changes manifestly unsound and even
absurdly erroneous, the corrector has made a few
not have had any genuine text before him when he Measure for Measure.
which we think may hereafter be admitted into the
made his corrections. At the commencement of At the conclusion of scene lin act iv. the Duke text. In the ordinary text, Angelo, replying to
sc. 3, act i., the folio reads : says, as printed in the first folio : Isabella, act ii. sc. 3, exclaims :
Enter PROVOST, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and OFFICERS. Come, let's go ;
Juliet does not speak in this scene, and the MS. cor- Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow. Having waste ground enough,
we desire to raze the sanotuary
rector strikes out her name, but he leaves in the ex- Warburton, by a most happy conjecture, substituted And pitch our evils there ?
clamation of the Clown immediately previous : tilth, and this is what we may almost undoubtedly For " evils " the corrector substitutes " °frills," an d
say is what Shakespeare wrote. But in Mr. Collier's
Clown. Here comes Signor Claudio, led by the Provost we are strongly disposed to take his change as a most
to prison; and there's Madam Juliet. corrected edition we have— valuable restoration of the text. In the same scene
In later scenes we see that Juliet was imprisoned Our corn's to reap, for yet our field's to sow, we think the line,
as well as Claudio, and we find moreover that, at a word which every reader of taste must allow Either new, or by remissness new-conceived,
the commencement of act ii., the Provost speaks con- weakens the generic force of the whole image. Would
cerning her to Angelo : this correction have been made had the corrector had is the true reading in place of " either now," &c.
Provost. I crave your honour's pardon. the genuine text before him ? and which is the surest The opening lines of the play also, as corrected, may
What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet? guide to the sense of Shakespeare in this instance, pass. But the substitution of " God of judgment "
She's very near her hour. " conjectural emendation," or the authority of the for "top of judgment " is one of the most clumsy
Angelo. Dispose of her to some more fitter place, MS. corrector ? changes that ever blundering commentator made or
"' -
And that with speed. At the commencement of act ii. the stage direc- blind critic approved. " Prejudice apart," says the

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, •
572 THE PRES S. _ _

Z,tt grams.

LYCEUM THEATRE.-RISTORL

IN Schiller's y Queen of Scots Rachel and Ristori
have come into direct collision on neutral ground.
The former has not included in her list of tragic
parts any one from the Italian stage, and Ristori, on
the other hand, has not yet embodied any character
from the French tragedies, which have been the
origin of Rachel's fame. In Medea Ristori threw
down the gauntlet to the Hebrew tragedienne by the
assumption of the Colchian sorceress, from whom
Rachel shrank with dismay. But in the Mary Stuart of
the German poet, as translated by French and Italian
adapters, the two great artistes are actually in
contact, and the standard of comparison becomes
unavoidable. Which delineation is the Mary of
Schiller? Is it the fierce, uncompromising,
and determined declamation of Rachel—is it her
withering scorn and interne irony which con-
vey to the mind's eye the doomed Scottish
sovereign ? Is it in the exhibition of spite and
malignancy, in the great scene between the two
Queen's, that Rachel's reputation on Mary must
rest? Or, on the other hand, is the conception of
Ristori the tr.ie one—the portraiture presenting the
imprisoned Queen, as a suffering injured woman,
who has erred, and committed the crime of being an
accomplice in the murder of one of her husbands,
but who, from long suffering and misfortune, resigns
herself to her earliest religious impressions? Once
only does Mary, as depicted by Ristori, forget that she
is a queen, and that only when, goaded to despair by
the unrelenting hatred of the Tudor, she descends to
a war of words, and humilates the jealous and
proud Elisabeth. even in the presence of her favorite
Leicester, who is made by Schiller the lover of the
two Queens. In the two interpretations of the poet's
text, it must be admitted there is a wide field for discus-
sion, and it would require a searching analysis of the
tragedy for the partisans of Ristori and Rachel to
uphold their respective themes. If Rachel may be pro-
nounced to be grand in the climax of invective, which
she reaches in the quarrel interview, Ristori, on the
other hand, will be declared to be sublime in the
devotional fervour of the scaffold scene. Rachel
could not convey to the spectators that Leicester
would prefer Mary to Elizabeth. The chivalrous love
of Mortimer for Mary, when Rachel is seen, seems
unaccountable; and the devoted attachment of Mary's
followers is scarcely natural with Rachel's stern ap-
pearance. In Ristori, on the contrary, sympathy is
felt from the commencement for Mary. Her
queenly deportment does not remove the impression
of the womanliness of Mary. Like Marie Antoinette,
she exercises a potent spell over all those who
approach her. The wild enthusiasm of Mortimer
is justified, and the liking of Leicester, characterised
as it, is by his courtly selfishness, and by his ulti
mately cowardly and treacherous betrayal of Mary,
is not a matter of surprise, with Ristori's fasci-
nations, which are not confined to the manifi-
cent make-up, nor to her finely chiselled features,
but to the exquisite melody of the voice—
the tenderness and pathos in every inflection of
that melodious organ with which Ristori is gifted.
How irresistibly touching were the tones when Mary
is allowed to breathe for a moment the pure air in
the park surrounding her last mortal home! Beet
hoven in the glorious outbreak of the captives on
leaving their dungeons is not more affecting than
Ristori's soliloquy in this scene. Still more marked
are the musical attributes of her ♦oice, in the con-
cluding act of the execution, one of the must affecting
scenes ever witnessed on any stage. She is of the
earth earthy, so long as her attendants surround her;
even on the brink of the grave she affectionately
Decal's the proofs of devotion of her weeping servants ;
but when her confessor is alone with her, religious
impulses only animate her. There is but one moment of
distraction from her thoughts of the future—it is at
the sight of Leicester, who attends with Cecil at the
scaffold. The feelings of the injured and outraged
woman return for a second, but the sight of the crucifix
removes all earthly considerations ; and in a gaze—
and such a gaze !—of heavenly resignation the exit
to death is accomplished ; the axe gleams in the dis-
tance, the muffled drum rolls, the bell tolls, and the
curtain descends on the unfortunate Mary Queen of
Scots.
To describe the sensations and emotions which
this death scene presented would be vain. A more
soul-stirring triumph was never achieved ; and it
was the more remarkable because it was singly done.
Nothing but the genius of Ristori could have suc-
ceeded in Mary Stuart, with such a rival queen as
the representative of Elizabeth, and with such awk-
ward and ill-favoured lovers as the artists charged
with the parts of Leicester and Mortimer. But
the stage business was well managed, and
the pantomime of the attendants in the last scene
was expressive. Objection has been taken to this
noble drama of Schiller that it is. not a good acting
play. Mary appears only in the first, third, and fifth
seta, the second and fourth being devoted to Elizabeth

and her Cabinet Councils. We take leave to doubt
whether this judgment be accurate. The action of
the tragedy is to our minds admirable; but it re-
quires a powerful cast, and must not depend on a
single artiste, however great may be her genius. No
wonder that the unmodulated accents of the
secondary actors and actresses created weariness
but to hear Ristori is, indeed, redeeming for al;
deficiencies. Her utter absorption and self-abanl
donment were as conspicuous as in Medea. Her
Mary is complete in the conception, and she never
sacrifices this completeness to create special effects or
to force points. Her head, and heart, and, ay, even
her hands are at work; but the artifice of art is lost
in the naturalness and spontaneity of the entire treat-
ment. Now, having been seen in translations from
the French and German, it is to be hoped that her
next part will be from the Italian stage.
It may be added that her Majesty, who has re-
tained her box for the series of representations of
Ristori, witnessed her Medea last Monday, and
waited until the fall of the curtain to join graciously
in the tribute of admiration of the audience.

htstr.

HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

is not well qualified. Such a genius for composition,
in the highest range of art, should not have been de.
voted to the dry drudgery of teaching, or his time
taken up in the direction of the doings of other was-
ters. Miss Arabella Goddard's mechanism in the
reading of the beautiful concerto was perfect, but
there was a lack of poetic feeling and want of deli.
cacy in the general interpretation.
On Wednesday night a new oratorio was produced
at St. Martin's -hall called Enoch's Prophecy, the music
by the Rev. Samuel 'l'. Greenhead, A.A., and the
words adapted from Montgomery's poem of "The
World before the Flood."

TnE revival of Lucrezia Borgia was evidently
effected in great haste, and the ensemble suffered
from the race against time. The Lucrezia of Mme.
Albertini had some good points, but on the whole
was a very unequal performance. With a little rest
the vocalist may yet take a high position. There is
brilliancy in her style, and she does not fail from
lack of exertion, but rather from the excess of it.
Mlle. Rizzi's Orsini was a mistake. Alboni ought
to have resumed her original part, in which she has
no equal. No doubt the directors tried hard to per-
suade her to play Orsini, hut failed, owing to the
ambition of the ex-contralto, who fancies she must
now be a prima donna assoluta. Managerial
miseries behind the scenes are never sympathised
with by the exacting public; but there are few posi-
tions more trying for the coolest diplomatist than the
endeavour to persuade a singer to do good to the
house, as well as to receive the good will of the
audience at the same time, by strengthening a weak
cast. Belletti's Duke was finely sung and in
differently acted. On Thursday the Barbiere was
given. Alboni and Belletti both sang and acted with
great effect. Mlle. Wagner appears to-night as
Romeo, but the Juliet, instead of being Piccolomini,
as everybody desired who wished to test her powers
in a second character, will he Mlle. Jenny Bauer,the
clever English vocalist, who sung and acted so well
as one of the vivandieres in Meyerbeer's Etoile du
Nord, at the Royal Italian Opera last season, and
who was the Catherine in the same opera at Drury-
lane Theatre, when the English version was so
massacred. The Ballet continues to be well sus
tained. Marie Taglioni and Boschetti, with MM.
Charles and Vandris, appear in some graceful pas de
deux, while the pretty ballet of La Manola continues
to he included in the divertissements.

On the same evening Mme. Jenny Lind Gold-
schmidt gave the first of her three farewell concerts
at Exeter-hall, assisted by Herr Moritz Ganz, vio-
loncello ; Herr Leopold Ganz, violin ; Herr Gold-
schmidt, piano ; Mme. Viardot, and Signor Belletti.
If to this brief record it be added that the
"Musical Union," with Mine. Clara Schumann, he'd
a meeting on Tuesday ; that Miss Bassani) and Herr
Kuhe had their annual concert on Monday; that the
Reunion des Arts assembled on Wednesday ; that
the annual concert of the Royal Society of Female
Musicians was given last night, it may be gathered
that the Ascot week has been indeed busy in musical
attraction.

A LECTURE ON THE CHARACTER OF lAGO will be
delivered on Wednesday evening next, at the
Edward's-street Literary Institution, by Mr. Charles
Cole.

CRYSTAL PALACE.—ReIIItII of admissions for sit
days, ending Friday, June 13, 1856. Number ad-
mitted, including season ticket holders, 36,769.
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.—The same incentives to
the permanent acsumulation of wealth do not exist
in America which operate in England. No man
cares to be the founder of a family in a country
where all difference of birth is ignored, and it is im-
possible to entail his wealth upon a single represen-
tative of his family. The amusements of Americans
are not so expensive as ours, and there are fewer of
them ; nor is there any rank or society which neces-
sarily involves a heavy expenditure to the man whose
home is in the Far West. Money is less valuable for
its own sake, or as an ingredient in his happiness.
The amenities of civilisation have no charms for him.
He longs to exchange his insipid existence in an
eastern city for the freedom of the woods, where his
occupation has ever been reckless speculation, the
excitement of which still forms his chief source of
pleasure ; so he plays away his fort.une as soon as he
has made it. His habits of life remain unchanged
whatever be his pecuniary circumstances, and whether
the last card was a trump matters very little to him,
for he means to gamble all his life.—Oliphant's
Minnesota.

THE CHIEF GLORY OF DAMASCUS is In the splen-
dour of its private houses. No contrast could be
greater than that between the exterior and the in-
terior. The irregular mud walls, and ricketty-looking
projecting upper chambers, give but poor promise of
splendour within. The entrance is by a mean door
way into a narrow and winding passage, or some-
times a plain stablejard. Passing this, the outer
court is gained. Here is a variegated pavement of
black and white stones, intermixed with pieces of
marble, variously designed. A fountain sparkles in
the midst, shaded by evergreens and flowering
shrubs ; and at one side is an open alcove, called a
lewan, with a light and beautifully-ornamented arch,
supporting the exterior wall. The floor is of marble
of different colours, and a raised dais, covered with
soft cushions of silk, surrounds the three sides. The
chambers and halls in this court are all occupied by
the master and his men-servants: here he receives

visitors, and to this alone are strangers ever ad-
mitted. Another winding passage opens from this
to the inner or chief court, called the harem, whose
door is kept by eunuchs. It is when this court 14
gained that the splendour of the mansion first
bursts upon the view.—Porter's Five Years in
Damascus.