The Sun.
London, England, 1838-06-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

CAMPBELL'S SHAKSPEARE.
111oxon, London, 1838.
We hope that this edition of Shakspeare—complete as
it is in one handsome, convenient, and cheap octavo volume
—will meet with an extended circulation ; for, in addition
to many others, it has this great recommendation, in which
the majority of its one-volumed predecessors are deficient,
namely, that the text is distinctly legible, and may be read
without any straining of the eyes. It is also a remarkablY
handsome book, and considering the exceeding beauty of
the type, and the superior quality of the paper, far cheaper
than any edition of Shakspeare with which we are ac-
quainted. Mr. Campbell is the editor, and has furnished
us with all the particulars that are to be gleaned at this time
of day, of the leading events in the life of the great drama-
tist, with which he has interwoven certain critical opinions
respecting his best plays. Most of these are characterized
by sound judgment and feeling ; but some few are hastily.
written, and not developed with sufficient distinctness of
purpose. The remarks on the " Midsummer's
Dream" are excellent. "Of all Shakspeare's 'Works," say's
Mr. Campbell, " this play leaves the strongest impression
on my mind that this miserable world must have,
for once at least, contained a happy man. The PI3Y
is so purely delicious, so little intermixed with the
painful passions from which poetry distills her sterner
sweets, so fragrant with hilarity, so bland and yet so bold'
that I cannot imagine the author's mind to have been in
any other frame than that of healthful extacy when the
sparks of inspiration thrilled through his brain in composig: •
it." The editor, we are surprised to find, entertains but
an indifferent opinion of Troilus and Cressida—a drama in
which are to be found some of the most delicious touches
of poetry that even Shakspeare ever gave birth to; and !II
which also is to be met the most characteristic passage le'
the whole range of his plays, where his sound sense, 1,i4
deep-sighted worldly observation, his affluence of apt ima-
gery, and exuberant rapidity of thought are all drawn upon,
all called into healthful and strenuous exercise, in the short
compass of about twenty lines. We find many supevicir
passages in Shakspeare which other English poets, aveljr
for instance, as Aiarloxe, and Spenser, and Webster, ana
especially Beaumont and Fletcher, could have written
but none but he could have penned Ulysses' speech tc°
Ajax, beginning with (we quote from memory) " Time
bath, my Lord, a wallet on his back," and concluding wit°
" and drave great Mars to action." And yet this wag-
' nificent passage, the finest—certainly the most characte-
ristic—in Shakspeare, occurs in a drama in which Mr"
Campbell tells us " the language is too often tort'l-
- and tumultuously figurative, and is cramped "Ith
the poet's frequent fault of trying to be over-muscular
in expression 1" Now we demur to the whole of this 01T
jection. Shakspeare, in no one instance that we can call
to mind, affects this peculiarity of diction. On the con-
trary, one of his faults is, that he is often careless in e%;,:
pression, thinking rather of the idea, than the manner '-
which it should be conveyed. The remarks on Othell!
are far more correct and sagacious. They are, in fact' 111
every respect worthy of Mr. Campbell. In this critic. P-
-
occurs an image which would be very striking, if it 4vera
original. " The sweetness of Othello's character before
its fall," says the critic, " is the smoothness of the stremil•
before its cataract," which is an evident plagiarism from
passage in Gertrude of Wyoming, where the poet says--
" Yet mortal pleasure what art thou, forsooth ?
The torrent's smoothness ere it dash below."
We direct Mr. Campbell's attention to this matter, be'
cause we feel that the imitation is not accidental, for surely.
he must have read Gertrude, and having once read that'
fine poem, he could scarcely, as a man of taste, have M.-
gotten one of its finest passages.

THE MAN ABOUT TOWN. 2 Vols.
Colburn, London, 1838.
Mr. Cornelius Webbe, a gentleman well known AS the
author acme or two volumes of poetry, fresh and 1101110'6'
as the flowers and the fields of which they treat, has 9::
incline to think, here produced his best work. 'l,,
sketches of town oddities are hit off in a light, grace"
laughter-loving spirit, without one spark of spleen or bit-
terness, but, on the contrary, in a cordial and hearty rilan-
nor. Of such a character is the sketch entitled " Mr-
Hippy's Vagaries," which we cannot doubt—from the; Irmo'
minute traits of " mark and likelihood" to be found in
is a portrait drawn from the life. The essay " prr Eye'
Acquaintances" is not less amusing ; the subject is most'
felicitously chosen, and will come home to all who ha'o
had any experience as London peripatetics. But M-64
Webbe, though he has a quick and true apprehensicin of
the ridiculous, and evinces in all his sketches a nice c:bur"
vance of character, is most in his element, when desclih-
ing those homely English sylvan scenes which Gainsb°-
rough loved to paint. These he sketches with rerraarkabi2
fidelity, entering into the very marrow of his ther,ne.

BECKET'S DRAMATIC WORICS___2 Vors.-
Virtue, London, 1838.
The author of these volumes is a literary veteran. 01°
has passed his ninetieth year, and spent the early Fat Of
his manhood in the society of Johnson, Goldsmith, Burke,
Garrick, and the other members of the famous. Turk.'%
Head Club, by whom he seems to have been much 'cryspected, and looked on as a young man of considerafile
literary promise. Many years ago he undertook an edi,cion
of Shakspeare, which was well spoken of by the Re'i'ieWs
of the day—especially the Quarterly, a high auth9rltY---
and published also several dramatic pieces, chiefly Conic"
dies, and one or two Poems, the majority, of which are'
here collected in two volumes, and edited by Dr. Beattie''
who has prefixed a life of Mr. Becket, by
whi-ch we learn
that that gentleman is still living, though ;0 0, state of blh"'
ness, and in no very favourable condC.ioa as regards Pe°l;
niary matters. Under these cirrAirnstances we should 11°
think of subjecting the work 'efore us to any stringers'; Cri-
ticism ; but indeed it calls, for no forbearance on our par:
for it is very lively and, amusing, and some of the drroaWl
scenes display no Grdinary comic humour, and kn,Jwledge
of worldly character.

GREENTVIC7I7EWZMRS, 3 'Vol s•
CoMurn, London, 1838.
This work which is intended, we suppose, to be a sort -kt
companion to Mr. Gleig's " Chelsr,a Pensioners, (1
" "n'i'4 of a variety ofstories, grave and gay, supposed to be relat'l
or suggested by Greenwich Pensioners. Of course, tbeiLs
fore, they are all in a great degree connected with ag
matters; and are told, in some instances, with much a reii
drollery, and in others, with impressive earnestness.
is a great recommendation to the tales that none of hhe
are over-long. The author, we perceive, calls 1,..05e
lf
Lieut. Hatchway ; but this, of course, is a nom de
,g,,,;errr,
suggested by a recollection of Smollett's naval hero,
SO

i U THEY'S POETICAL TV ORKS. OL, 1711
Longman, London, 1838, The present volume contains the whole a the l'urt-g
r,01;
Curse
Kehama—one of Southey's most popular
ems,r thetiga,r
equal to his Thalaha—and is embellish,
`l by two Cbo-i
plates engraved by the Findens.

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On the 91:11 inst.
BIRTHS.
of a son.
Colin 51.1.2rP
On the .sth inst., Edi 1 treet Mrs. Col. .., n s eig
of a son. ;"dt Theobald's-road, the wife of Mr. H. Thom "

•
On the sth inst. MARRIED.
, at Wendover, Bucks, Edward Capel, Esq.'
youngest son of the Hon. and Rev. William Capel, of Watford,
Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the late James Bennie, Esq., of 1.),"
merara.

On the Bth inst.. in Cavendish-squarDe
Edmund Pollexfen 13 as; at 4 '
Esq., of Kitley, Devon, (luring srveral' Parliaments M. P. for th at
county.
At Twickenham, Mr. Wm. Nussey, of Cleveland-row, aged 31,

- -
London : Printed and Published by MURDO YOUNG, of tim
112, Strand, at The Sun Office, No. 112, Strand, in the c4t►ur
of l‘liddlesez.—Tucsflay, June 123 1838.