The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-16 00:00:00

THE SUN LO DON, TUESn A y vEN O.CTOBER: 16 fi 55.

M IT SIC

LITERATURE.

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aarcwa to.

; Otoai
jeTTIIIAD

yester tay.

us
this ay

( From th,e BuTstou Journal.)
The concert by the Pyue and Harrison troupe, on
Wednesday, was possessed of such great merit, that it
deserves a more extended notice than wa had space t.,
give it at the time ; where all was so generally good,
and so little exception could be takento the perform-
ance of any one of the participators, it devolves upon
.us, in our wish to give credit where it is eminently due,
.to aid in the.encourigement of true worth, and in so
doing render justice to our readers as well as to the par-
ties spoken of. On this occasion the excellent vocaliea-
tion in such ,lit cult airs as the "Skylark," and " Cease
your funning," as well es the charming rendering of
ScAch ballads, by Louisa Pyne, more than counter.:
balanced any shorltcomiugs of any other members of the
troupe. She is the great maenet of attraction, and no
one can hear her without being willingly forced to the
submission of her superior ability. The song of the
"Skylark" gave such.iminense satisfaction that a repe-
tition was demanded, and although she declined this,
yet the charming naivette with which " Charlie is my
darling" was rendered fairly took the audience by
storm, and this' received a tremendous encore, when
she kindly appeared the third time, and gave them "The
piper came to our door," which only increased the
enthusiasm, and nothing . but a sense of deference
to the fair creator of so much pleasure deterred
them from the continuance of applause. Although we
felt satisfied with the versatility and talent of this giftso
song,stress, in the different operas performed during the
past three weeks, and had no doehts as to her perform-
ance in the concert room, yet we must confess to being
unprepared for so much excellence as was exhibited at
this time.

Dramas of Calderon : Vagic, Comic, and Lc-
geiLdikry. Translated from the Spanish. By
D. nii FlorenCe M`Carthy. 2 vols. Charles
Dolman.

Bey ford-auji
Bletahley
Ruckghanisli.
Clydesdale 'h.
Col. Stour Vy.
Sud. and Hal.
ICI. •r. r.c
E. Un. H. Sh.
4tas. Barr. dt
Neils. Direct
D. New.....

London
•
t:latedon.
E. Un.
E. C...
7, rt., •
'E. Coun

93 - 96
100 - 102

The name of Denis Florence M'Carthy is to us
as that of an old friend in contemporary literature.
As such it commands from us a welcome of especial
cordiality. We greet it heartily, as the symbol of
a young poet not unworthy of being coupled in our
memory with his very promising fellow-country-
man William Allinghatn. Several seasons back,
the writer of these two attractive volumes pre-'
sented hiMself before the chair of criticism as the
author of a charming book of " Ballads, Poems,
and Lyrics—Original and Translated," which at
once secured to themselves our attention, by their
•mingled evidences of innate capacity and of culti-
Vated scholarship. Several of the compositions
comprised in the very miscellaneous collection
making up Mr. M'Carthy's maiden performance
as az-man of letters, were not slow in eliciting very
general expressions of admiration, wherever at
least the little., volume of verse was fortunate
enough' to have penetrated. It was recognised by
the discerning reader to be something better than a
mere jumble of school-made stanzas, bearing in
their unflawed smoothness the tokens of a
glib and fluent mediocrity. It is observ-
able, moreover, that they • extor Led espe7
cial eulogium from the principal organs of pub-
lic opinion upon matters of literary taste in the sis-
ter kingdom. Some few among the more enthusi-
astic reviewers, indeed, heaped their praises on the
head of the new aspirant for poetic honours, some-
what in the language of exaggeration. Whereas
the Dublin Review contented itself with hailing the
volume of " Ballads " (positively) as at once
" hopeful and, charming," the more ardent. Trinity
Magazine avowed of the writer (comparatively) that
he felt the "dignity of the bard," while the Irish
Quarterly proclaimed its belief (superlatively) that
" our only poet now living" was M`Carthy. Mean-
ing, of course, by that widely-embracing pronoun—
the only living poet of Irishmen—Moore having
then but very recently departed, and Allingham
not having at the time of this impassioned protes-
tation yet made his modest but effective appear-
ance. However, setting aside the over-muchness
of Hibernian panegyric as lavished two or three
summers back upon the author of the " Legend of
the Bells of Limerick"—making allowance for the
zeal of national exultation expressed thus ardently
on the advent of the young poet by the Irish Quar-
terly and the Dublin. Magazine—it would be diffi-
cult to peruse these "Ballads and Lyrics" of Denis
M'Carthy without in some manner participating
in the pleasure so very loudly articulated by the
young poet's reviewing compatriots. It was
scarcely surprising, therefore, that even in England
the book received a welcome of earnest greet-
ing scarcely less cordial than across St. George's
Channel : so that while we ourselves spoke of the
author as exhibiting "poetic talent of no ordi-
nary excellence"--the Literary Gazette observed,
expressively, if not very elegantly, that the volume
contained " good stuff and poetry too," the Critic
remarking that its verses were " melody itself,"
and even the A thenceum in its sparsely sprinkled
adjectives of praise could yet declare of the pro-
duction, as a whole, that they had not failed to re-
cognise in Mr. M'Carthyi pages what they con-
ceived to be " the track of the true poetic mind,"
though what that track may resemble (as thus
rather unpleasantly expressed) it would be difficult
to conjecture, unless it might be the slug-like trail-
ing of the silvery slime of Parnassian snaildom !
Howbeit, passing over these tributes of spontaneous
cunmendation awarded to the first volume issued
through the press from the hand of Mr. M'Carthy,
it wilt be sufficient fur us to observe• in reference
to that early evidence of his abilities as a lyrist,
and, indeed, for that matter as one skilled very
largely and generally in the manifold arts of versi-
fication, that the volume comprised, among other
commendable performances, a variety of faithful
and melodious translations from the French, from
the Italian, but above all from the Spanish. These,
it now appears, were little more than prepara-
tive efforts, preliminary to the daring enterprise
upon which the writer has since then adventured.
The translation—" princ'pally in the metre of the
original "—of no less than six among the principal
dramas of CALDERON ! The reproduction in our
mother tongue of as many as half-a-dozen of the
reeowned masterpieces of that wonder of the
Spanish stage—Den Pedro Calderon de la Barca
The great' dramatist of the Iberian Peninsula,
second only, if not equal in all respects, to the
miraculous Lopez de Vega ! Calderon, like Lopez,
we all know, bore arms in his youth, like
Lopez was aUerwards a wearer of the priestly
stole, like Lopez was a prolific and magnifi-
cent playwright. Scarcely so prolific- as Lopez
to be sure—but then Lopez, it must be remem-
bered, was a paragon, a mystery, a marvel, a
world-wonder of-literary fruitfulness—pouring cut
of his magic inkstand from the nib of his wizard
pen, as many as " two thousand" original dramas,
according to Bouterwek, or, at any rate, according
to the evidence of Montalvan (his intimate friend
and fellow-labourer) 1,800 plays and 400 autos
sacramentales ! But then Lopez, as we have in-
timated, was an exception, and an astonishment !
Calderon de la Barca, by the side of any other
dramatist but Lopez, must needs be looked. upon as
a wonder of literary fecundity, whether in regard
to plot, scene, incident, or character. Flouris,ting
about the year 1610, the mere pick of the writings
of Calderon, spread out to nine quarto volumes, at
the period of their collective republication some 50
tears afterwards, namely, in 1689—the three first
of these goodly tomes, containing the choicest of
his comedies, the rest of the huge volumes being
dedicated to the preservation of the religious
dramas already mentioned, the dramas known in
Spain as the autos saeramen tales. Out of the rarest'
of the productions of Don Pedro, his English trans-
lator has selected, as we have said, six—I, El
Principe Constante ; 2, El Secretes a Voces ; 3, El
Medic-0
de Su Honra ; 4, Amar despues do la
Muerte ; 5, El Purgatorio de San Patricio ; and 6,
La Banda yla Fier. It is not by any means, of
course, the first time that Calderon has appeared in
an English dress before the English reading mul-
titude, Analyses of sundry among his numerous
Autos and Comedias haveappeared in the Quarterly,
in the Westminster, in Blackwood, in Frazer, and
in the Dublin University Magazine. Ticknor has
spoken at large of them in his History of
Spanish Literature, Hallam has commented upon
them at some length in his "Introduction
to the Literature of Europe"—J. H. has
afforded the English student a glimpse into the
beauties of " El Magico Prodigioso," under the title
of "Justina," the very same drama which had al-
ready been illustrated by the genius of Percyßysslie
Shelley. Curiously enough', moreover, a work pre-
cisely similar in design to the one here under our
consideration passed through the press almost
multaneously with these "Six Dramas of Calderon,"
freely translated by Edward Fitzgerald ! Fortu-
nately it has so happened, however, that while Mr.
M'Carthy has taken his six from the "more"
famous among the dramas of Calderon, Mr. Fitz-
gerald has chosen his from the " less" famous—so
that the two collections in no way clash with each
other, twelve of the great dramas of Calderon in-
stead of only half that number being thus presented
to us in the form of metrical translations. Let us
take the gifts the gods have given us thankfully,
with proportionate tributes, awarded from the
right hand and from the left, to the indus-
try and taste, the melody and precision of
Messrs. M'Carthy and Fitzgerald. The former
has judiciously accompanied his singularly accurate
version of Calderon with notes and introductions
distributed to each of the remarkable plays trans-
lated—in volume i., to The Constant, Prince, The
Secret in Words, and The Physician of his own
Honour, and in volume ii., to Love after Death,
The 'Purgatory of • St. Patrick, and The Scarf and
the Flower. We are precluded by several conside-
rations from entering here at large into any more
detailed examination of these translated dramas
of the great Calderon. The present is no fitting
opportunity, adequate space and appropriate
occasion are alike wanting for any such analysis.
Enough has been already observed, however, to
indicate our belief that an ordeal of this kind
might be passed through very far from discreditably
by the ingenious translator of these six brilliant
and eminently attractive compositions. In placing
his votive wreath at the foot of the pedestal of the
Spanish Euripides, Mr. M'Carthy 'has illustrated.
anew the reasonableness of his own claim to that
bay garland of the lyrist to which he directs his
every modest aspiration.

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130 - /34

Miss Pyne sang a Scotch ballad very prettily, accom-
panying herself on the piano, and in the concerted pieces
shared in the applause,. which was freely bestowed.
Mr. Borrani sang his own composition, Oh ! sing
again that mournful strain," in his usual correct style,
and so acceptably that, although coming immediately
after the enthusiastic greeting to Louisa Pyne, and be-
fore the beautiful duett from "Crown Diamonds," yet
a repetition was called for and granted. He is a pleas-
ing singer, and executes his running passages and ca-
denzas clea' ly and smoothly.
Messrs. Harrison, Horncastle, and May aided in the
general effect in songs, glees, etc., and notwithstanding
it was a late hour ere the concert was concluded, yet
the enthusia,m was continued to the last moment.
Saturday afternoon will be the last time we shall'hear
this talented troupe for a lengthened period.

7f - 8}
2f --4,1

306 - 314
85 --•

'MAT, 'rFt

U S.HA 3. K.,

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The Third Napoleon, : an Ode. To which aro added
Songs of the War. By Robert Story. Second
Edition. John Hearne.
A pink pamphlet of 32 pages octavo—presenting
to us what Sheridan spoke of as " a rivulet of
rhyme running through a meadow of 1114rgin
is the aspect of this little collection of war lyrics,
there
r inharmo-
nious,
thatha r m
1;
has the true " stuff"
nious, proves incontestibly o)
preceded by an ode celebrating the life and fortunes
of the Third Napoleon. Mr. Story, in spite of
being occasionally dull,
have been
in
hereartificiaand i, a
in him, and that hev e lacks
neither the faculty for the appreciation of the heroic
nor the blended enthusiasm and sensibility essential
for its adequate manifestation. There h
several attempts already (we remember the cir-
cumstance at this moment somewhat painfully) on
the part of our very few poets and of our very nu-
nerous poetasters to commemorate the incidents
of the present war with Russia, by songs, odes,
sonnets, dirges, Nemss elegises and all mangier of