The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-17 00:00:00

BATH RACES.

(THIS DAY.)

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
LANSDOWNE TRIAL STAKES.

Gossip
Lamartine

BIENNIAL STAKES. Three-Years-Old.
;MassG eaevno:
Two ran.
BIENNIAL STAKES. Two-Years-Old.
Diawal
3lonie Moses
Seven ran.
SOMERSETSHIRE STAKES.

Red Lion
Audubon

Eleven ran.

AYTOUN ON POETRY.

LECTURE THE FOURTH.
Another lecture was delivered by ProfessorAytoun yes-
terday, it being the fourth of his series of six on Poetry and
Dramatic Literature. Although his auditors appear to us
always singularly phlegmatic, we must acknowledge, at
the same time, that they are about the most attentive
listeners we have ever seen assembled together. If
they are exceedingly charry of their applause, they at
any rate seem to hang breathlessly upon every syllable
that falls from the lips of the lecturer. It is observable
that in the progress of this attractive course of disserta-
tions there is at least the advantage of variety both in
subject and in treatment. The first, while in some
respects it might be somewhat confused, and even
somewhat superficial, was also comprehensive, and alto-
gether agreeably introductory. The second, although,
to our humble thinking, heretical in its contempt for the
very first article of belief in the Poetic Creed, as laid
down in " Don Juan," viz. :
" Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope !"

was, notwithstanding this, rendered peculiarly delight-
ful to us by the diversity, the aptness, and the profusion
of the ingenious similes scattered through it by way of
elegant and appropriate illustration—as where the in-
fluence of the Wasp of Twickenham was likened to the
delicate but refrigerating frostwork which, on the ad-
vance of a vernal thaw, gives place to the prolific beau-
ties of vegetation. The third, moreover, in spite of its
being, to our mind, disfigured, and in a manner made
unwieldy, by the rugged prodUcts of the earlier writers
of Scotland, was invested with that ever-potent charm
which is inseparable from the contemplation of Ballad
Literature. Yesterday's, we have observed, was
the fourth lecture, and it was, in all respects,
strikingly different from its predecessors. Oddly
enough, its principal characteristic was drollery, though
the materials of which it treated were conspicuous in the
majority of instances rather by reason of their gran•
deur and magnificence. The Professor, for example, di-
rected especial attention in this discourse to the exalting
and purifying influence exercised by the Age of Chivalry
upon Midiieval Poetry, and also, generally speaking,
upon Midimval Literature. We must acknowledge our-
selves to have experienced some surprise when we heard
the fervent eulogist of Chivalry almost in the same breath
with which he pronounced a panegyric on its influence,
utter a studied sentence depreciative of the sway exer-
cised over the intellect by Enthusiasm ! Bertrand de
Born was, of course, duly celebrated by the lecturer—
when he took occasion to. make a passing allusion
to the romantic band of the Troubadours. Re-
ference was subsequently made to the impas-
sioned and inspiriting Chansons de Geste, chaunted,
or declaimed, by the Trouveres. And while exception
was taken with regard to the opinions propounded on
those same Chansons de Geste by M. Paulin Paris, yet
greater exception was taken afterwards to the episodical
manner in which Ariosto frittered away, so to speak, the
sublime and gorgeous materials selected by him for the
construction of his great poem—materials such as those
afforded by the memory of the Paladins and the tradi-
tions of Charlemagne. Out of those materials, according
to ProfessorAytoun's graceful imagery, Ariesto built up
bowers and grottoes rather than a temple or a palace.
So that, the lecturer argued,. we are scarcely con:
soled by the infinite ingenuity displayed through.
out the cantoes of the "Orlando Furioso" for the
misapplication of a subject so wonderfully grand and
resplendent the contest, remember, being between
Asiatic Paganism on the one hand, and on the
other the princes of Christendom assembled round
the banners of Charlemagne—the battle-field the
Holy Land, and the stake the interests of Chris-
tianity 1 A single example of the style in which
this majestic theme was treated by some of the Italian
poets, was recited during the course of the lecture from
Sostegno di Zenabi, the incident recounted in the quo-
' tation being " The Death of the Marquis Oliver at
Roncesvalles." Immediately afterwards our attention
was recalled homewards by allusion to the obvious
effect these poems relating to the Paladins had on the
earlier British writers, and even—notwithstanding his
pure and indisputable originality—upon the father of
English verse—the wise and the merry old Geoffrey
Chaucer. It was about this part of his discourse that
Professor Aytoun—while referring with much humorous
sarcasm to the metrical attempts of various royal poet-
asters, not forgetting the verses " made" by Elizabeth,
and the drivelling rhythm of her successor, the modern
Solomon—offered an exquisite and deserved tribute of
praise to the poetic genius displayed by King James I.
of Scotland. Passing over a broad but comparatively
barren interval, the lecturer carried us onward from the
time of Chaucer to the time of Shakspere. Perhaps
we should rather say—from the circumstance of the dra-
matic portion of the subject being reserved fdr the next
(the fifth) lecture—the time of Spenser, and Sydney, and
Marlow, and Raleigh (horribly pronounced Raw-leigh),
the age of Bacon and Burleigh, the glorious epoch known
as the Elizabethan Period in our literature. Here
it was that the delicious merits and the tantalising
demerits of the " Faiiry Queen " were particularised by
the Professor, his analysis of the poem being interspersed
by a few timely quotations. Among these illustrative
passages, the loveliest was that descriptive of the house
of Sleep and the couch of Morpheus—a passage in which
Spenser always appears to us while borrowing his me-
taphor from Virgil to have altered it most unaccount-
ably and blunderingly. He has changed the gate of
translucent or diaphonous horn into one of opaque and
'impenetrable silver—forgetting the subtle significance of
that lovely thought in the " YEneid" :
" Bunt gemina3 Somni porta3 : quarunz alters fertur
Cornea, qud veris facilis datur exitus Maris :
Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephant° ;
Sed false ad ccelum mittunt insomnia Manes."
Professor Aytoun cherishes a wholesome horror of the
allegorical—in anouncing which he exposed to no unde-
served ridicule the "Purple Island" of Phineas Fletcher
—a poem in which the bard-anatomist has certainly
viewed man (if any one ever did) as a veritable micro-
cosm. Equally profound is the lecturer's dislike for the
hypberbolical. For the purpose of proving how utterly
nauseous any lengthened hyperbole becomes on perusal,
he declaimed, with admirable, or rather abominable,
success, a passage from Michael Drayton, in which David
the Royal Prophet is minutely depicted at the time when
he was a stripling shepherd. Towards the close of his lec-
ture yesterday, Professor Aytoun recited a magnificent
translation (we presume his own) from Ovid's famous ac-
count of th e Metamorphosis of Lycaon. From the first verse
to the last this translation was, we repeat, really magni-
ficent. The programme of the entire lecture is thus
given in the printed syllabus :
"Influence of the Age of Chivalry on Mediwval
Literature and Poetry, and on European Thought
—Bertrand de Born and the Troubadours The
Trouvdres, and their Chansons de Geste—M. Paulin
Paris on these early French Poems—Their adoption
as Materials by the Italian Narrative Poets—The
Traditions of Charlemagne and the Paladins—Gran-
deur of this subject—Specimen : The Death of the
Marquis Oliver at Roncesvalles, from Sostegno di Zinabi
—Effict of these Poems on early British Writers—
Chaucer—James I. of Scotland—The Elizabethan Period
—lnfluences of External Causes of Excitement on Intel-
lectual Development—the Recovery of the Works of
Antiquity—Aristo and Spenser—' The Faery Queen'
criticised, with Specimens—The Allegorical Tendency—
Fletcher s Purple Islancr—Euphuism, and its Influ-
ence on subsequent Poetry—Taste of that Period."
The attendance at the fourth lecture was altogether
•as numerous and as fashionable as at any of its prede-
cessors.

CAPITAL CONVICTIONS.—A parliamentary paper just
issued contains a return of the number of persons capi-
tally convicted in England and Wales from 1838 to
1852, both years inclusive. The gross number of
capital convictions is 998, of which 269 were for mur-
der, of whom 148 were executed, 92 transported for
life, 11 received a free pardon, and the rest minor
punishments. Ninety-five persons were convicted of
attempts to murder, accompanied with injuries dan-
gerous to life ; of these 4 were executed, and 65 trans-
ported for life. For shooting and stabbing, 13 ; for rape,
&c., 68, of whom 50 were transported for life ; for un-
natural crimes, 195, of whom 168 were transported for life,
and nearly all the rest for shorter periods ; for burglary,
56, of whom 44 were transported for life ; for burglary
with violence, 107, of these 87 were transported for life ;
for robbery, 26 ; for robbery with violence, 108 ; for
robbery by persons armed, 12, who were all transported
for life, of the two former classes 11 and 60 respectively,
were transported for life ; for , arson, 1, transported for
life ; for ditto of dwelling houses, 28, out of whom 16
were transported for life.; for feloniously rioting, 12,
of whom 3 were transported for life ' • for high treason,
9, of whom 7 were transported for life. Of the 998 per-
sons capitally convicted during the above fifteen years,
152 were executed. The sentences of the remainder
were commuted as follows : 617 were transported for
life ; 79 for fifteen years ; 41 for ten years ; and 19 for
seven years ; 4 were imprisoned for three years ; 19 for
two years and above one year ; 34 for one year or above
six months ; and 11 for six months and under ; 17 re-
ceived a free pardon ;, 4 committed suicide ; and one
died in prison.
Tun COURT OF CHANCERT.—The new act for making
further provision for the execution of the office of
Examiner in the Court of Chancery, which received the
royal assent a few days back, has just been issued. A
new oath is to be taken by the examiners in consequence
of the alteration ;in the mode of taking the evidence.
An examiner is to be a barrister of not less than seven
years' standing. There is a clause as to the payment
and retiring pensions to examiners.