The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Atherstone, Taylor, and Browning,

The Poetical Works of Henry Taylor, D.C.L.
Three Vols. Chapman and HAIL

There are three among the more thoughtful
Poets of the present Age who, although essentially
different in their genius, stand about upon a par in
the exalt of their popularity. Two of them are
veterans as illustrators of our national literature.
The youngest of the three has more enthusiastic
admirers than any who have ever clustered about his
two elder contemporaries. These three meditative
poets it was hardly necessary, indeed, to have parti-
cularised by name: their identity must, otherwise, at
once have been conjectured. The youngest of the
three is, it will be understood instantly, quite
as a matter of course, no other than Robert
Browning Author (beyond all his writings
to us) of " Pippa Passes." Edwin Atherstone—
Author of the most Miltonic Poem of his day,
of the stately and resplendent poem, that is, of
" Nine veh"—is another of this select Triumvirate.
The one last to be here mentioned, because the one
now more immediately coming under our considera-
tion, being Henry Taylor—Author chiefly and dis-
tinctively of " Philip Van Artevelde." Compara-
tively speaking, the popularity enjoyed by each one
of these three gifted writers, is of a peculiarly
restricted character. Even, if it is to be called
popularity at all ! It is among the more highly
educated that they alone find their audience. And
there, even among that class of the more highly
educated, merely a select few have in any one
instance, in regard to Atherstone, in regard to
Taylor, even in regard to Browning, been kindled
into anything like a semblance of fervid admiration.
Apart altogether from the distinguishing pecu-
liarities inherent in the genius of each of these
three poets—peculiarities sufficient of themselves,
perhaps, to account for their readers being the re-
fined and even fastidious few, instead of the varied
many—there has been a recognisable material
reason, if one may so call it, why they have failed
in winning for themselves anyTwide-spread popu-
larity. Our meaning, when we have so expressed
ourselves, being simply this, that they, each of them,
for the utterance of their thoughts, have carefully
selected a medium distinctly precluding them, as it
appears to us, from gaining the ear, from extorting
the admiration, from alluring to and concentrating
upon themselves the observation, of the great con-
course of the general public. Atherstone, for ex-
ample—a poet gifted with a most gorgeous and
effluent imagination—has in an Age of Railways
and Telegrams, when people read not only as the
old prophet Habbakuk has it "running," but lite-
rally flying and whirling over the earth's surface at
the tail of the fiery dragon of the steam engine—
Atherstone has so far (it' we may venture to speak
thus with a noble work like Nineveh upon our
bookselves) mistaken his epoch, as to write poems
extending over two huge volumes, and these two
volumes subdivided into a great many highly elabo-
rated cantos. Browning and Taylor, on the other
hand, have still more flagrantly blundered, as it
seems to us, in the selection of, the vehicle for the
display, or the putting forth, of their respective
imaginings—their vehicle being one, their imagin-
ings how different! namely, in the deliber-
ate choice by each of them, by Henry Taylor and
by Robert Browning, of not merely the enacting,
but the unactable Drams. Hence it is, mainly at
least, we cannot but think, that popularity, genuine,
unmistakeable popularity, has evaded the grasp of
these three rarely-gifted men—no more than a choice
cluster of readers being enabled, as yet, justly to ap-
preciate, at their real worth, the elevated intellects,
and, here and there, the exquisite performances—(as
in many glorious passages of Nineveh, as in all the
lovely scenes of Pippa Passes, as in nearly the whole
of the two lofty historical dramas, together going by
the name of Philip Van Artevelde)—the ambitious
works and the unquestionable genius of Henry
Taylor, of Robert Browning, of Ed win Atherstone.
And what is more—when we have said this—we
doubt very much, indeed, whether it would be prac-
ticable,by any means,for the powers and the writings
' of these three remarkable men to be forced into
anything like mere factitious popularity. Even,
though it were by doing, in regard to them all, what
has been recently done in regard to Robert Browning
--namely, by grouping together the pick of his effu-
sions in a single volume of comparatively small
dimensions. It is in the nature of things in respect to
each of them, we believe, the t their audience should
be fit and few. That they have this select body of
readers and of earnest aumirers, there cannot be a
doubt. They do indisputably enjoy among
all those who are in any way qualified to appre-
ciate them, a full and a most unaffected fervour
of appreciation. In Bro fling's instance it is an
appreciation, as we have said, that has even risen
in some quarters to the height of a genuine, and,
certainly, a most ingenuous, enthusiasm. Among
the writings of the three, there are—whatever may
be the narrowness of the popularity attained
by these writers as poets—works that " the
world will not willing let die." As will have
already been intimated by our foregoing remarks--
indubitable evidence of this may be found, as we
conceive, very readily, indeed, in Atherstone's
_Nineveh, in Browning's Pippa Passes, in Taylor's
Philip Van Artevelde. Having said which, we
have now but to add that the comparatively select
few who already enjoy the privilege of knowing
and appreciating, at their true value, that last-men-
tioned poet and that last-mentioned masterpiece,
will rejoice, as we have rejoiced, at the appearance
(in so very charming a form as the present
edition, in three volumes) of the collected and
carefully revised Poetical Works of Henry Taylor—.
works including among them not only his opus
magnum of "Philip Van Artevelde," but, together
with that, " A Sicilian Summer," " St. Clemenee
Eve," "Edwin the Fair" (in the drift of which we
have, by the way, no sympathy whatever), " Isaac
Commenus" and Minor Poems, leading off with
" The Eve of the Conquest." The edition before
us, in truth, just as it now stands may be pronounced,
as we for one do not hesitate for an instant to pro-
nounce it—an acquisition to any library in the land,
even to those libraries which are the most rigidly
and the most fastiduously selected.

The Quarterly _Review. No. 229. John Murray.
The present number of the Quarterly is fully up
to the standard, both in regard to the variety of the
subjects and the literary merits of the articles. It
opens with a lengthened and interesting paper on the
trade and commerce of China, which we have
already referred to in these columns. Following
this is a review of Nathaniel Hawthorne's spiteful
attack upon our good old mother country. An
attaok in which we are almost unable to recognise
the thoughtful and far-sighted truth-seeker who
brought us the " Mosses from an Old Manse."
Emerson's "English Traits" is brought under con-
sideration, and a comparison instituted between the
views and sentiments of the two literary New Eng-
landers. The author of " Representative Men" is
by far the deeper observer, and he perceives and
comprehends many aspects of our national character
which are altogether imperceptible to Mr. Haw-
thorne, Mr. Emerson finds in the mutual sympathy
of the members of the race one great secret of Eng-
lish power. " English believe in English. They
have trust in each other. Die very felons have
pride in one another's English stanchness. The
people are more bound in character than differenced
in ability and rank." Mr. Hawthorne's dislike and
contempt for everything insular extends to inanimate
nature. " For my part," he declares, " I never ate
ate an English fruit, raised in the open air, that could
compare in flavour with a Yankee turnip." After
this, what more can be said ? The " Old Home"
is clearly a very miserable place, and as this is
precisely the opinion which Mr. Hawthorne forms
of our men, our manners, laws, customs, and capa-
cities—our greatest achievements, our heroes, poets,
and statesmen scarcely reaching the standard of
common-place United States citizens—it is scarcely
worth while to expend so much trouble upon us.
Mr, Forsyth's able and interesting life of one of the
great men of antiquity carries us into a world very
far removed from Yankee conceit and impertinence;
though the old evils of a Republican form
of government meet us again in the fierce
contentions—the plottings and counter plottings—
the jealous rivalries and arbitrary measures which
often deprived the State of the services of its ablest

members. With regard to the world-famous letters
of Cicero, of which more than eight hundred have
been preserved, it is remarked that they eff•Jrd us
a glimpse of that inner life, that conflict of passion
and feeling with dignity and duty which the Roman,
whatever his place or power, was usually so careful
to conceal. "We believe we may say, without fear
of contradiction, that of Cicero alone in the whole
compass of classical antiquity has such a picture
survived the ravages of time. Of Cicero alone can
it be affirmed that we are in many and very consi-
derable instances made acquainted not merely with
what he thought it, the proper thing to say in pub-
lic as a vir consularis, or to consign to a set treatise,
but with what he felt in his heart of hearts, and
confided to his friend of frie6ds." Beating this in
mind, the reader must not judge harshly of the
foibles and failings which are sometimes exhi-
bited in the letters. The test to which the
Roman philosopher is subjected is a sharp one, and
we should rather rejoice that one of the old cele-
brities shines out so brightly throegh the dust of
ages. Captain Speke's record of his African travels
is the subject of an interesting article, recounting
the plan of that geographical campaign with which
the public is already familiar. It is remarked, in
conclusion, that whatever may be the discoveries of
future explorers, they cannot deprive Captain
Speke and his companion of the honour of havieg
been the first Europeans to penetrate those myste-
rious regions, and to force their way through savage
tribes, and kingdoms where the face of a white man
was unknown. An essay on " Guns and Plates" is
well written and interesting, but it shows such
manifest partiality that its arguments cannot be
accepted as in any way conclusive. The naturalist
will find a good deal of information in a paper about
Eels, whose animated style and entertaining matter
will also find favour with the general reader,
although he may not altogether coincide with the
opinion of the enthusiastic Frenchman who declares
"there are few animals whose image one must re-
trace with as much pleasure as the common eel !"
Two papers on " Rome in the Middle Ages," and
those terrible Danish Duchies which have become
such a bugbear to Europe, conclude en interesting
number.

THE SANTIAGO CATASTROPHE.