The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-10 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Th. Gladiators. A Tale of Rome and Judaea_
By G. J. Whyte Melville, author of " lligby
Grand," &c. Three Vols. Longman.
The author of "Digby Grand" and " Holmby
House" has here adventured upon an ambitious task.
In this new work—a classical and historical novel
—he has endeavoured to bring before us the pomps
and luxuries of Imperial Rome, when Vitellius de-
graded the purple, and the sanguinary conflicts of
tho amphitheatre were the chief deligt.t of the
Roman citizens. Although there are flaws in the
picture, here and there, the result has been suffi
ciently successful. Types of the various characters
of that memorable period of imperial history, ere
portrayed with a very discriminative hand. There
is Licinius the commander of the Tenth Legion, a
noble Roman well worthy of his name, and Julius
Placidus, the Tribune, a man of craft and cunning
but of marvellous astuteness and sagacity—a man
who could join con amore in the luxurious banquets
of the Caesar while planning with the gladiators for
the assassination of his host. There is Hippies, the
chief of that formidable band, the fencing-master
and favourite of the maids and matrons of
Rome—the degenerate daughters of Lucretia
and Cornelia. There is old Hirpinus, one
of the band, a favourable exception to his class.
There are Oarses and Damasippus, the freed-men
and fawning flatterers of Placidus, and others of
their class. Contrasted with these despicable
myrmidons are Eleszar, the Jew—the Lion of
Judah, a stern, unyielding, uncompromising son of
Israel—and his aged brother Calchas, the Christian,
who boldly and unflinchingly bears witness to the
truth, whether he be a prisoner in the Roman camp,
or a stranger among the fiery gladiators, or an ac-
cused before the formidable council of his own peo-
ple—the Sanhedrim. The chief hero of the book is
Esca, a youthful British chieftain, who had been
taken prisoner by the invading Ramses, and sold
for a slave in Rome. Esca is described as of
stalwart size and symmetrical figure, and is the
admiration of all beholders. His dauntless, manly
character is very incompatible with his position
as a slave, and it is somewhat repug-
nant to our British sentiments to find a
countryman in such an ignominious position,
and apparently so well resigned to his degradation
The heroines of the history do not find favour in.
our eyes. Valeria, the haughty and beautiful
patrician lady of Rome, surrounded by lovers of all
ranks, on whom she turns a cold disdainful eye, is
captivated at last by the graceful figure of the
slave Esca, who is unmoved by her must un womanly
condescension. After attempting the murder of
Placidus, in a scene of great dramatic power, in
order to save her beloved from death, Valeria turns
for consolation to the admiring Hippies, and from
her elevated dignity sinks into the mistress of a
gladiator ! Perhaps such a character and career
may be true to the manners of that degraded epoch,
but the picture is certainly not a pleasing one.
The other heroine, the beloved of Esca, is
Mariamne, the Jewish maiden, who, to save
her lover fr)m death, betrays Jerusalem into
the hands of the invaders! Truly Captain Whyte
Melville's ideas of womanly devotion are
not the most complimentary to the sex ! As a
specimen of the eloquent style of the descriptions
which abound in these volumes, here is a finished
portrait of—

JULIUS PLACIDUS, THE TRIBUNE.

But with its courage, the Tribune possessed the cunning
of the tiger, not without something also of that fierce ani-
mal's outward beauty, and much of its watchful, pitiless,
and untiring nature, A brave soldier should have con-
sidered it a degradation, under any circumstances, to play a
double part ; but with Placidus every step was esteemed
honourable so long as it was on the ascent. The
successful winner had no scruple in deceiving all
about him at Rome, by the eagerness with which
he assumed the character of a mere man of pleasure, whilt
he lost no opportunity the while, of ingratiating himself
with the many desperate spirits who were to be found in
the imperial city, ready and willing to assist in any enter-
prise which should tend to anarchy and confusion. While
he rushed into every extravagance and pleasure of that
luxurious Court—while he vied the Cmsar himself in his
profusion, and surpassed him in his orgies—he suffered no
symptoms to escape him of a higher ambition than that of
excellence in trifling,--of deeper projects than those which
affected the wine-cup, the pageant, and the passing follies
of the hour. Yet all the while, within that dainty reveller's
brain, schemes were forming and thoughts burning that
should have withered the very roses on his brow.
It might have been the strain of Greek blood which fil-
tered through his veins, that tempered his Roman courage
and endurance, with the pliancy, essential to conspiracy
and intrigue. A strain that was apparent in his sculptured
regularity of features, and general t ymmetry of form. His
character has already been compared to the tiger's, and his
movements had all the pliant ease and stealthy freedom of
that graceful animal. His stature was little above the aver-
age of his countrymen, but his frame was cast in that
mould of exact proportion which promises the extreme of
strength combined with agility and endurance. Had
he been caught like Milo, he would have writhed
himself out of the trap, with the sinuous per-
sistency of a snake. There was something snake-like
too in his small glittering eye, and the clear smooth-
ness of his skin. With all its brightness no woman worthy.
of the name but would have winced with womanly instincts
of aversion and repugnance from his glance. With all its
beauty no child would have looked up frankly and confid-
ingly in his face. Men turned, indeed, to scan him
approvingly as he passed; but the brave owned no sym-
pathy with that smooth set brow, that crafty and malicious
smile, while the timid or the superstitious shtiddered and
shrank away, averting their own gaze from what they felt
to be the influence of the evil eye.

And yet in his snowy tunic bleached to dazzling white,
in his collar of linked gold, his jewelled belt, his embroidered
sandals, and the ample folds of his deep violet mantle,
nearly approaching purple, Julius Placidus was no un-
worthy representative of h:s time and his order, no mean
specimen of the wealth, and foppery, and extravagance of
Rome.

Such was the man who now stood up in his gilded chariot
at Valerie's door, masking with his usual expression of
careless indolence, the real impatience he felt for the
tidings of its mistress.

And here is a companion picture of

A ROMAN LADY.

its
avitalitysmil ,its
-- ---
Too fastidious a critic might have objected flo Valerie's
form that it expressed more of physical strength than is
compatible with perfect womanly beauty, that the muscles
were developed overmuch, and the whole fraine, despite its
flowing outlines, partook somewhat of a man's organize•
tion, and a man's redundant strength. The same mutt
might have been found in a lees degree with her counten-
ance. There was a little too much resolution in the email
aquiline nose, something of manly audacity and eAlergy in
the well-formed mouth, with its broad white teeth that the
fullest and reddest of lips could not conceal--a shade of
masculine sternness on the low wide brow, smooth an I
white, but somewhat prominent, and scarcely softened by
isnwgesePt lavai.tthhte:
lashest hea rch o
thatf
fringedthe marked
the eyebrows,long laughing ort heey
edaa.r k
And yet it was a face that a man, and still more a boy,
could hardly have looked on withousthmrxisssgia
might too soon learn to long for its glances,
approval, and its love. There was such aglow of L'-' lt
tt sparkheailntlithone
the soft transparent skin, such a ire
the colour of those blooming cheeks, such'
aymeeydes,sothcalteflaraehanedd sborimghetanainngdly when she smiled, that
cold when the features
ggrerlseeumed their natural expression, grave, scornful, almost
n in s
ste repose; and then such womanly softness in
the their
siof rich nut-brown hair that showered down
ster
masses
neck and shoulders, tc form a framework for this lovely,
dangerous, and too alluring picture. Even the little negro,
wearied as he was, peepedl at intervals from the back of the
mirror he upheld,
ahpperbo:dael
bfriogam.awning like a do',
h:esp haughty,. careless rnlstfroersss.omAetsliegungtohf
i‘ still, with a half-Ecorniul mile at his

antics; and the sharp white teeth gleamed from ear to ear
of the dusky little face, as it grinned with pleasure, while
the boy settled himself once more in an attitude of patience
and steady submission.
Nor was Valerie's apartment unworthy of the noble
beauty who devoted it to the mysterious rites of dress and
decoration. Dverything that luxury could imagine for
bodily ease, everything that science had as yet discovered
for the preservation or the production of feminine attrac-
tions, was there to be found in its handsomest and costliest
form. In one recess, shrouded by transparent curtains o f
the softest pink, was the bath that could be heated at will
to any temperature, snd the marble steps of which that
shapely form was accustomed to descend twice and thrice
a day. In another stood the ivory couch with its quilted
crimson silks and ornamente pillars of solid gold,
in which
Valeria slept, and dreamed such dreams as hover round the
rest of those whose life is luxury, and whose business is a
ceaseless career of pleasure. On the table of cedar wood,
fashioned like a palm-leaf opening out from a pedestal that
terminated in a single claw of grotesque shape, stood her
silver night-lamp, exhaling odours of perfumed oil, and
nearit lay the waxen tablets, on which she made her nierao-
randunis, or composed her' love-letters, and from which, as
from an unfinished task, the sharp-pointed steel pencil had
rolled away upon the shining floor. Through the
whole court -- for court it might ,be
with its many entrances and recesses, its cool
and shady nooks, its lofty ceiling and its
tesselated pavement,—choice vases, jewelled cups, bur-
nished chalices, and exquisite little statues were scattered
in systematic irregularity, and graceful profusion. E"rl
the very water in the bath flowed through the mouth of
marble Cupid; and two more winged urchins ,wrought
in
bronze, supported a stand on which was set a formidable
array of perfumes, essences, cosmetics, and such material

for offensive and defensive warfare.
The walls, too, of this seductive arsenal, were delicately
tinted of a light rose-colour, that should throw the 111°C
becoming shade over its inmates, relieved at intervals bY
oval wreaths wrought out in bas -relief, enclosing diverse
mythological subjects, in which the figure of Venus, god-
dess of love and laughter, predominated, Round the c°,f,
vices stretched a frieze representing, also in relief, 6.1"
fabul( us contests of the Amazons with every
deSCriPtio
of monster, amongst which the most conspicuous foe V 745
the well-known gryphon, or griffin, an abnormal quadrtv
ped, with the head and neck of a bird of prey.
Here, again, is a beautiful thought, commemoratill
a kindred truth to that immortal exclamation °
Keats—
. A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY FOR EVER!"
It is pehaps one of the most consoling and merciful el'_
pensations of Providence, that the human mind is so con.
stituted as to dwell on past pleasures, rather than past Pa`lls
The sorrow that is done with, returns indeed at interval'
vividly and bitterly enough ; but every fresh occurrence
10
less cruel than the last, and we can look back to our suffer.;
ings at length, with a calm and chastened humility Wiliel2it
the first step towards resignation and eventual peace. 1
the memory of a great happiness seems so interwoven wit%
the imperishable part of our being, that it loses none of it
eality by the relapse of time, none of its brightness ft°
the effect of distance. Anger, sorrow, hatred, contentions'
fleet away like a dream; but the smile that gladdened
long ago, has passed into the very sunlight of noonday'
the whisper that softened our sternest moods, steals with
the breeze of evening to our heart, gently and tenderly
of yore, and we know, we feel, that while crime, and misery'
and remorse, are the temporary afflictions of humanity'
pardon, and hope, and love are its inheritance for e'er.
more.
'The conflicts in the amphitheatre are very vividir
described. Hero, as our final quotation, is a passill°e
glimpse of—

THE GLADIATORS,
And now the arena becomes a ghastly and forbiddirl
sight. They die hard, theee men, whose very trecie i 6
slaughter; but mortal agony cannot always suppress
-
groan, and it is pitiful to see soma prostrate giant, stllnWrt-
ing himself painfully on his hands, with drooping ,e;feci
and fast closing eye fixed on the ground, while the
stream is pouring from his chest into the thirsty sand. A
e'
It is real sad earnest, this representation of war, and
the battle-field in all save that no prisoners ar
taken, and quarters but rarely are given. OccasionaliP`
indeed, some vanquished champion, of more than cougaew
beauty, or who has displayed more than common beautq
or who has displayed more than commanding address an
courage, so wins the favour of the spectators that they
for his life to be spared. Hands are turned outwards, "e 6
'II'
the thumb pointing to the earth, and the victor Shea
tlI
his sword, and retires with his worsted ante gouii goalg for'
the contest ; but more generally the fallen man's son+
mercy is neglected': ere the shout " A hit has died up
ears, his despairing eye marks the thumbs of his judgee'
pointing upwards, and he disposes himself to " welcome thesteel" with a calm courage worthy of a better cause.
The reserve, consisting of ton pairs of picked gladiator a,
has not yet been engaged. The green and the red halt
fought with nearly equal success ; but when the truraP"
ota
has sounded a halt, and the dead have been dragged MVO
by grappling-hooks, leaving long tracks of crimson in thei
wake, a careful enumeration of the survivors gives the vie..
tory by one, to the latter colour. Hippias, coming forwar
in a suit of burnished armour, declares as much, and
greeted with a round of applause. In all her preoccupa"'
tion, Yaleria cannot refrain from a glance of approval at;
feels
the handsome fencing master; and Mariamne, Wl2°
teat Esca's life hangs on the man's skill, and honesng-tly'
gazes on him with mingled awe and horror, as some bei.
of another world.
But the populace have little inclination to waste tho.
precious moments in cheering Hippias,
loss and gain. FEesh wagers are indeed made on th
matches about to take place; but the prevailing feeling:
over that numerous assemblage, is one of morbid excita,
ment and anticipation. The ten pairs of men now marchinySl:
so proudly into the centre of the lists, are pledged to ng11;
or in calculating
to the death.
The siege of Jerumalem, and the burning of 01
Temple, in the third volume, are described with great
vigour. The whole fiction is a thing apart en":
complete. We congratulate Captain Melville C'l
the spirit and power evinced by this classical noll"
of his, which, if flawed here and there, as we hag°
shown, is but flawed thus very rarely, very excel?;
actually ! The whole romantic picture of the antiql.l',
past conjured up to view, thus, in "The Gladiator ,1
being sketched in manifestly with the rapid her I
of a master of his craft, always with the boldest ou
lines, often with the most gorgeous colouring.

Serious Illness of Mr. Justice Wightniall'

gram from
We regret to state that we have received
illnaess telee
- t
.
Mr. Justice Wightman. His recovery appears to
be despaired of.
York, announcing the serious

st-ndi°
cope'