The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-02 00:00:00

FRASER'S MAGAZINE.

The present Number contains the conclusion of
Dr. Maginn's remarks on Farmer's Essay on the
" Learning of Shakspeare." The Doctor handles.
this celebrated treatise with very little ceremony ;
and shows the fallacy of its leading hypothesis,
that our great dramatist was a man utterly devoid of
learning. The best and surest way, however, to
settle a question like this, is to take down a volume
of Shakspeare--no matter which one—and give it
an attentive and dispassionate perusal. Then, we
think, it will be found, that he was nut merely a
man of genius, but of—for his time—extensive,
though perhaps desultory reading ; in proof whereof,
we desire no stronger argument than may he sup-
plied by that striking drama, Troilus and Cressida.
That his learning was underrated by Farmer, can
be no matter of surpise, for the " Master of Em-
manuel" was one of a race of pedants with ."
lois
of learned lumber in their heads," who were much
in vogue about the middle of the last century, and
were apt to decide upon a man's knowledge, in exact
proportion to the parade he made of it. An author
like Shakspeare, therefore, who scattered his learn-
ing about in so careless and unostentatious a
style, instead of perking it every moment in
his reader's face, must have cruelly perplexed
such a race of pompous scholars. We con-
ceive that Doctor Maginn has triumphantly
established his case, but we should have been glad
had he alluded to the main object of Fraser's essay,
which was—not to prove Shakspeare's ignorance,
but his own vast knowledge. We agree also with
the Doctor, that there can be no question that our
dramatist was acquainted with Rabelais. Those
who remember Panurge's gloating chuckles over his
own discretion ; his inimitable faculty of lying, on
which he so much plumed himself ; and above all,
his invincible love of good cheer and merry com-
pany, can be at no loss to discover, in some small
degree, the prototype of Falstaff. "My Irish
Tutorship" is a lively prose sketch, the introduc-
tory portion of which is the best. " On the French
School of Painting" evinces much critical discern-
ment. The writer is no great admirer of modern
French artists, and thus speaks of the painter
David, who, forty years ago, was the idol of his
countrymen :

" I have seen, in a fine private collection at St.. Ger-
main, one or two admirable single figures of David, full
of life, truth, and gaiety. The colour is not good, but
all the rest excellent ; and one of these so much-lauded
pictures is the portrait of a washer-woman. Pope
Pius' at the Louvre is as bad in colour, and as remark-
able for its vigour and look of life. The man had a
genius for painting portraits and common life, but must
attempt the heroic—failed signally ; and, what is worse,
carried a whole nation blundering after him. To have
told a Frenchman so twenty year s ago, he would have
thrown the dementi in your teeth, or at least laughed at
you in scornful incredulity. They say of us, that we
don't know when we are beaten : they go a step further,
and swear their defeats are victories. David was a part
of the glory of the empire, and one might as well have
said there that Romulus' was a bad picture, as that
Toulouse was a lost battle Old-fashioned people who
believe in the Emperor, believe in the Tneatre Francais,
and believe that Ducis improved upon Siiakspeare, have
the above opinion. Still, it is curious to remark in this
place how art and literature become party matters, and
political sects have their favourite painters and authors.
Nevertheless, Jacques Louis David is dead. He died
about a year after his bodily demise in 182.5. The ro-
manticism killed him. Walter Scott, from his castle of
Abbotsford, sent out a troop of gallant young Scotch
adventurers, merry outlaws, valiant knights, and savage
Highlanders, who, with trunken hoses and buff jerkins,
fierce two-handed swords, and harness on their back,
did challenge, combat, and overcome the heroes and
demigods of Greece and Rome. Notre Dame a la
Rescousse ! Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert has borne Hec-
tor of Troy clear out of his saddle. Andromache may
weep ; but her spouse is beyond the reach of physic.
See Robin Hood twangs his bow, and the heathen gods
fly, howling. Mountjoie Saint Denis ! down goes Ajax
under the mace of Dunois ; and yonder are Leonidas
and Romulus begging their lives of Rob Roy Macgre-
gor. Classicism is clad."
This David, be it known, was one of the most
notorious Terrorists of the years 1793 and 1794.
He it was who stood by Robespierre to the last,
encouraging him in all his
wholesale massacres.
The " Great Cossack Epic" is a clever rhymed
extravaganza. The remaining articles are of the
usual calibre.

this Magazine.
METROPOLITAN.
„ T h Me therejr
is
There is more pleasant reading than usual in
story, in which• lar
much rutfore-castle
leads off with a naval
dialogue.
dated " Oxford,"
birth-place, they •
are and
really, considering their
Joys of Song" are four sonnets,
feeling and fancy. Tvhe
favourable to the produrycbtc.arnekdsitable to the writer s
of the Isis are more
are atnirettle
we are
of prize poetry than
sterling poetry, though
some few brilliant exceptionsare aware that there are
Lite-
rary Notes and Jottings"aisbirteilgeo.ssi‘p‘.Bnt
favourite with the gwreeadtismlikane tslememsnseetoritbige anlolufallo,
and we can scarcely
Johnson. This
; is seldom in reuest
majo-
rity of our periodical writers
wonder at it, for there can be little sYmpathy
°_.f Poetic
all the better for
be-
tween him and them. A giant •
with pigmies. As for Sam's want
senti-
ment, as it is called, we like him
it. He had other things to do, than fall into
ex.
tacies at the sight of daffodils. He had to grapple
with Junius ; to enforce great moral truths in ... • D
Ras_(
Ins ; to show the conFiimmate wnrkilv sagacity Of
Shakspcare; and discourse in a manly, pregnant

strain of criticism on Cowley, Dryden, and Pope.
Better, far better to have dune this, than to have
written a whole cart-load of sentimental poesy. We
quote from these " Literary Notes"—which, by the
bye, contain an interesting biographical sketch of
Telford, the engineer—an anecdote relating to
Lords Brougham and Melbourne :
Meeting with a Scottish Baronet at Tours last
summe learned the following circumstance illustra-
tive of the "ancient intimacy" which existed between
Lords Brougham and Melbourne. Upwards of thirty
years ago Sir George S. Mackenzie of Coul in Ross-
shire was waited upon at his house one day by a mes-
senger from the inn or (change-house) to tell him that
two gentlemen were at the said hostelry, and:were de-
sirous of speaking with him. The Baronet repaired to
the spot, end on entering the cottage saw to his surprise
his college acquaintance, Mr. Henry Brougham, dressed
in a kilt, sitting with his feet upon a pail of water, and
by his side Mr. William Lamb, apparently very tired
and woe-begone. After the usual congratulations, the
travellers stated that they were on a pedestrian excur-
sion in the Highlands, and were considerably fatigued.
The gentleman pressed them to go to his house, but
this they declined. Some whisky was called in, and after
the glass had circulated a short time, and many a
pretty remark and lively sally had been made, the two
strangers, little dreaming, we dare say, that one was to
be Prime Minister and the other Lord Chancellor of
England,islung their knapsacks on their backs and de-
parted. It is a pity that courts or debates should come
between a friendship of so old standing, and cemented
by kindly thoughts and offices thirty years since among
the Highland hills. The energy and perseverance of
Brougham at this time led all who knew him to predict
his future greatness; and one gentleman in Glasgow, Mr.
Jardine, a merchant, bet ten guineas to one that Brougham
would be a Cabinet Minister. The merchant did not

live to see this realized ; but so firm was his. conviction
that it would take place, that he left a memorandum in
his will, stating that the ten guineas were to be pa(i
over to the Glasgow Infirmary. This was actually
done after Lord Brougham's elevation to the woolsack.
Mr. Jardine's son (who told the circumstance) was C
Scottish advocate, or barrister, and is now a sheriff in
Scotland.

In " Italy," we have been pleased with the jus-
tice of the remarks on the Italian republics, which
certainly helped to light the torch of freedom in
Europe. The " Misunderstanding" is a story of
the usual calibre. " A Journey to the Ruins of
Ashkelon" is too much spun out. The writer
makes as much of a stale subject, as a Vauxhall
waiter makes of a ham, or as Queen Dido made of

her bull-hide. He should check his propensity to
expand. The " Woman-hater" has a striking, well-
written denouement, but conceive a gentleman who
is in love with a lady, endeavouring to recommend
his suit, by speaking of what he " knew of Chal-
damn and Egyptian lore !" No wonder she jilted
him ! He should have come at once to the point,
and let Egypt alone, for, as Butler tells us, promp-
titude is everything in courtship.

MOIV TILLY LAW MAGAZINE.

Under the head of " Our Lucky Ministers," this

Zeview launches one of its most virulent ultra••Tor\

diatribes against Government. The Melbourne
Cabinci, it seems, is fortunate in all its schemes ;
therefore, it has no one good quality to recommend
it, except mere luck ! Now this is very sorry logic,
and such as no one would think of resorting to, who
was not driven to extremities for an argument. Is
it mere luck that has so lately triumphed in India ?
Mere luck that has kept, and still continues to
keep, the Tories on the wrong side of the Treasury
Bench ? The bare idea is absurd. But granting
the Ministers have been lucky, has the writer of this
truculent diatribe no recollection of the old adage—
founded on experience, as most such " %vise-saws"
are--that "luck favours the skilful ?" We are by
no means disposed to go the whole hog in behalf of
Ministers ; but fair play is a jewel ; and we protest
against the one-sided spirit that can be astonished
at the marvellous political sagacity of the Tories,
yet discover nothing but a series of lucky accidents
in the cuurse of Government pursued by the Whigs

T 1114: SUN, LONDON, MONPA Y, DECEMBER 2, 18;9

Eliott, the defender of Gibraltar. The following
account of the family of Eliott is a fair specimen of
the way in which these subjects are treated by the
Scottish clergy :
Of eminent characters connected with the parish
(Cavern, Roxburgshire) George Augustus Eliott,
Lord Heathfield, may be mentioned first. He was
the ninth son of Sir Gilbert Eliott of Stobbs and
Wells, Bart., the lineal descendant of the far-famed
" Gibbie an' the Gouden Garters," who, under pe-
culiar circumstances, married Mary Scott, a flower
of Yarrow, and received along with her as dowery,
in faithful fulfilment of her father's promise, " the
half o' a Michelmas moon." This means what he
could plunder from his enemies oa the English Border
during the period emplied.
The following laconic notice of Robertson is
given in the account_ of the parish of Borthwick,
near Edinburgh :
The person whose connection with this parish will
probably in all future times be corsidered as its highest
honour, was the I ate learned and celebrated Principal
Robertson. He was born in the present manse of
Borthwick in the year 1721, and retained to his last
hours an affectionate recollection of the scene of his
boyish sports, and early aspirings alter fame.

' inside from the head to the tail, and of this the natives
showed great anxiety to obtain possession, declaring
that it was an infallible cure for all diseases. The body
was hung up on the banyan-tree opposite the choultry,
or inn, of the village. People flocked from all parts of
the village to see the monster, and many of the natives
used to try whether it was possible to cut through the
monster with the blow of a sword ; but even after it
was skinned no person was found who could penetrate
more than half way at a single stroke."