The Sun.
London, England, 1837-04-19 00:00:00

PRICE sd,

LITERATURE.

" The
,bright future, like a sunny land,
Descried afalN stretches, like paradise,
In rosy bowers and golden fields before me.
Farewell, my home ! farewell, my pleasant chamber,
Where time and I have still been gay companions;
Farewell, my virgin couch, which I shall press . •No more with slumbers light, and smiling dreams,
That were not brighter than reality.
Night spreads her raven wings, and nears the earth;
My blood's on fire ! Oh for a breath of air
From, the cool 'gardens underneath the balcony I •
Once More I'll listen to the rustling boughs
Beneath whose leafy screens, I've scaped the suns
Of eighteen summers ; sleep hangs upon them all ;
The trees do rock, the waters flow in sleep,
The sleepy stars wink in their sapphire beds,
The air breathes gently, heaving in its sleep,
And the round world spins sleepily on its axis."
From the general structure of her language, and her
.requent use of quaint, obsolete words, we can see that
Mrs. Butler has studied the works of the Elizabethan
dramatists with close attention. She has drawn more
than one idea from the " Two Noble Kinsmen" of
Beaumont and Fletcher, especially from that fine dia-
logue in the prison between Palamon and Arcite. Es-
trella's lamentations for her brother's death,
" Day will follow day,
And night succeed to night, but never more,.
By night or day will he return to me.
The seasons in their walk around the earth
Will, turn by turn, go and come back again,"
is an evident, though perhaps unconscious, plagiarism
front Arcite's complaint which—so far as our memory
serves us—closes as follows :
" The vine shall grow, but we shall never see it,
Summer will come, and with her all delights,
But dead cold winter must inhabit here still."
Mrs. Butler should have taken more pains with her
" Star of Seville," and borne in mind, that a sterling
tragedy is not, like a National Gallery, a thing to be
built up in a hurry. It requires thought and labor, and
much blotting of paper, beyond any other form of com-
position with which we are acquainted. In closing
our cursory notice, we should not omit to notice the
many graceful metaphors that stud this drama. The
authoress's allusion to " night's swarthy arms" is in
the truest vein of poetry.

SEMILASSO IN AFRICA, 3 Vols.
Bentley, London, 1837.
Prince Puckler Muskau has here produced three
very readable volumes on the subject of Algiers and the
surrounding country. He is an inquisitive traveller
gifted with a quick apprehension of the picturesque ;
and very happy in his delineation of those odd, out-of-
the-way characters with whom he appears to be con-
stantly coming in contact. His ,present work teems
with all sorts of strange incidents ; and contains a
sketch of Jussuf, a celebrated Mahometan adventurer,
half brigand, half hero, whom the Prince picked up in
Algiers, which is as romantic as any thing recorded by
Captain Trelawney. This Jussuf, it seems, was, while
yet in his teens, in love with a Pacha's daughter, to
whom he was in the constant habit of writing letters,
always however with his blood, for which purpose he
used to make an incision in his arm with a dagger. On
one occasion being discovered in her company by a
young Greek, and threatened with exposure, he mur-
dered him ; after which he says, ." I cut the body
into pieces, and put it into the cask with the
consuming ingredients ; I then preserved the right
hand, the eyes, and the tongue of the Greek, put-
ting the hand into a costly casket, the eyes into
a smaller one ornamented with diamonds and per-
fumed with essence of roses, and the tongue into a gold
snuff-box." This done, Jussuf next sought his mis-
tress, and presented her with 'these outre gifts, as being
the 'most acceptable and sentimental he could offer I
The subsequent adventures of this reckless spirit, as
detailed to Prince Puckler Muskau, would form a ca-
pital subject for a melodrama. We would advise Mr.
Arnold to look to it. The parts we like least in these
sparkling volumes are the metaphysical. The author
is no reasoner or philosopher, though it is evidently his
ambition to be thought so. He is a lively, pert, shallow
and somewhat fantastic writer, who mistakes—like Mr.
Plosky, in -Peacock's admirable Nightmare Abbey.
mysticism for profundity. It is clear, also, that he does
not know his own mind for ten minutes together ; for we
find him at one moment a democrat, and the next a fas-
tidious aristocrat; now affecting the romantic enthu-
siast, and now the shrewd, severely-disciplined man of
the world.• All this vacillation, and inconsistency,
may, we think, be traced to one cause—overweening
self-conceit. The Prince would desire to be thought a
German Byron—a silly vanity, for he never was, and
never can be, other than a clever coxcomb.

If obesity has been the subject of ungenerous jokes,
leanness has not passed unnoticed. An anecdote is related of
a Rev. Doctor of a very ghostly appearance, who was one day
accosted by a fellow with the following salutation :—" Well,
Doctor, I hope you have taken care of your soul?" " Why,
my friend ?" said the divine. " Because," replied the imperti-
nent interlocutor, "your body is not worth caring for.!"
poor diminutive Frenchman being ordered by his Sangrado to
drink a quart of ptisan a-day, replied, with a heavy sigh,
" Alas doctor, that I cannot do;" since I only hold a pint."
When the Duke de Choiseuil, a remarkably meagre man, came
to London to negociate a peace, Charles Townshend being
asked whether the French Government had sent the prelimi.
varies of a treaty, answered, " He did not know, but they had
sent the outline of an Ambassador."—From " Curiosities of
Medical Experience," by Dr. Millingen, just published.
We are glad to see that there is at this time a very
large order executing for his Majesty's state apartments in
Windsor Castle, in silk, damask, and velvet, given by the Lord
Chamberlain, to the old house of Griffiths and Crick, Chandos-
street, Covent-garden, who arc employing many of the weavers
in this district in its manufacture.
GRF.ENACRE.—This day the Recorder will make a
Report to the King of the capital convicts who received sen-
tence at the February and March Sessions. Greenacre will
not be reported until it be decided as to whether the applica-
tion of Mr. Price to the Secretary of State will be granted._
that the case be argued before the Judges. There is no doubt
however, but early next week the trial of Greenacre will be re-
ported and the day of his execution fixed.
A mysterious though melancholy circumstance oc-
cupies the attention of the authorities of the commune of Cran-
Chabeau, near La Rochelle, A man and his wife, who were
to have gone to Manse on the 30th ult., were both found dead
in their 13Qti on the morning of that day, without any wiarks of
violence being discoverable which might Icad to the suspicion
of foul play, The coverlid of thci bed was not even disturbed.
The bodies, having hgc.n buried, were disinterred and submitted
to a pose pullita examination, but nothing could bo elicited to
show the probable cause of their death., Their little girl, of
three years old, was sleeping C3/41,40/ fi 4 cradle in the room,

THE STAR OF SEVILLE.
Saunders and Utley, London, 1837.
The besetting sin of this drama is its plot, which is
remarkable for extravagance, and the careless, hurried
manner -in which it is unravelled. Mrs. Butler is no
dramatist in the strict sense of the term, though she
possesses many of the qualities which go to ma',e up a
dramatic writer. She has pathos, force, and propriety
of language, and much skill in dialogue ; but she his
no strong conception of character, and not the slightest
ingenuity in the conduct of a story. The Star of Seville
0 drags its slow length along" the three first acts, and
in the two last is abrupt to a degree, and hurries prema-
turely to a close: The personages too want individuality,
with the single exception of the heroine Estrella, which
is a clever imitation of Juliet. There are detached
passages, however, in the play, full of Beauty, chiefly
of a descriptive cast ; and stray thoughts, thrown out
carelessly and without an effort, which indicate a cul-
tivated and thoughtful intellect. The following pas:
sage, so far as mere expression is concerned, is truly
graceful. It is spoken by Estrella the night before her
marriage :