The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-31 00:00:00

FINDEN'S GALLERY OF BRITISH ART.

The first part of this work is now lying before us. It
contains three plates ; one, the Taming of the Shrew ; the
second, a scene from the Beggar's Opera ; and the third,
the Greek Fugitives. This last is from the pencil of East-
lake, and is remarkable for the natural and graceful dispo-
sition of the principal figures in the fore-ground, who are
grouped together with a skill and propriety worthy of the
Holy Family of Reynolds. The sketches of the sleeping,
worn-out old Greek, and of the boy who, wounded and ex-
hausted, has sunk upon his mother's lap, are among the best
things Eastlake has yet attempted. The scene from the
Beggar's Opera is far above mediocrity, though the Mac-
heath is certainly not the gay, dashing, well-built highway-
man of Gay, being much too fleshy, aldermanic, and inex-
pressive in his countenance and person ; but the best of the
three plates is decidedly Leslie's Taming of the Shrew, the
chief figure in which—that of the vexed and indignant
Catherine, who is tugging away at her necklace from sheer
spite—at once recalls Shakspeare's heroine. As engravings,
all the three pictures are deserving of eulogium.

LITERATURE.

MOIV TEZ UMA.
London, Longman, 1838.

This tragedy would have been none the worse, had a

little more time and labour been bestowed on it. It bears
manifest indications of having been composed in haste, and
as if the author, Mr. Dilnot Sladden had not sufficiently
digested his materials. His characters arelittle more than
crude, imperfect sketches, which is to be regretted, for that
of Incora might have been made very effective, had the
execution been at all proportioned to the conception. The
incidents also are hurried on with such rapidity, that neither

time nor opportunity are afforded for due developement
of passion—which is the very soul of the serious drama.
Some of the dialogues are by no means deficient in force—
especially those which take place between Montezuma and
the high priest of Mexico—but they all bear traces of the
same defect, namely, carelessness. As a specimen of the
author's manner, we quote a portion of a soliloquy which is
put into the mouth of the Mexican queen, Incora :
" Farewell ! There is a spell within the word ;
Methinks, I never heard it sound so mournful;
Oh thou subdued, oft scarce articulate sound,
How powerful thou art ! How strong to move
The hidden strings that guide us puppet mortals !
Pass-word of memory—of bye-gone days
Thou everlasting epitaph—is there
A land in which thou host no dwelling.place I
Wherein may be nor pageantry nor pride,
Nor alters, save the pure one of the heart,
Nor tombs, except for sorrow ; and no tears ?
Is there no world, ye Gods, where human lips
May say, Farewell! no more ?" •

LEILA ; or, THE SIEGE OF GRANADA.
Longman, London, 1838.
Mr. Bulwer, in this, his last published tale, follows his-
tory with a fidelity not very common among Romance-
writers. His outline is in accordance with all that the
chronicles have recorded of the last struggle between
the Spanitirds and the Moors ; and the fictitious characters
introduces, arc equally in keeping with the spirit of the
times, with the sole exception of his Jew conjuror Alma-
men, who is a mere showy, melodramatic clap-trap, and

' about as line nature as Mrs. Ratcliffe's Schedoni—that
most mysterious and romantic of mountebanks. Never-
theless, we doubt not that this character will find admirers
—for it is in a constant state of effervescence, and ap-
pears as if endowed with übiquity, vanishing here, and
starting up there ; at one moment bullying a
Moorish, and at another, a Christian, monarch, in a way
most delightful and astounding to read of. We take for
granted that Mr. Fitzball will book this gem for his next
melodrame ; and if playa' with an appropriate air of savage
sublimity by T. P. Cooke or 0. Smith, we think there can
be no question that " Almamen, the son of Issachar," will
produce a wonderful sensation at the Surrey or the Coburg.
Mr. Bulwer's portrait of Boabdil, slight as it is, is of a far
sapetior order, chastely, but vigorously coloured ; and, if
we have read Washington Irv'n; rightly, correct in its
lineaments. Muza too, the Moorish hero, is a spirited
sketch ; and the battle without the walls of Granada, where
he enacts such marvels with his " elmc,,ter," teems with
life and energy. The wome❑ are like those we read of
in the " Annuals," but do not find in Shakspeare
that is to say, very beautiful, but characterless beings, made
up of love, song-, sentiment and moonshine. Leila is the
best, but even she is little above common-place. The inci-
dents are worked up, for the most part, with considerable
skill ; and the tale, despite the defects we have hinted at,
is rendered so interesting by the case and grace of its style,
and the vivacity of its descriptions, that the majority of t hose
who take it up, will assuredly not lay it down until they
have completed it. It is essentially a volume for a xpung
lady's boudoir; but we must honestly confess that we have
no great relish for these sentimental productions. Many
of the embellishments are clever, but some of them are
mere extravagances. In the engraving of the " Magic
Dial," the principal figure stands bolt upright, as stiff as
though he hall just swallowed a ramrod.

SHAKSPEARE AND Ills FRIENDS. 3 Vuls.

Culburn, London, 1838.

There is much ability displayed in these volumes, but
they are written in rathef too tame and precise—we might
almost say timid—a spirit, just as if the author were anti-
cipating in every page-every possible objection that might
be urged against his subject ; and as, if more especially, he
felt he might be accused of tampering with characters
above his capacity. We regret to sea this misgiving, for
it is a sad drawback on a writer's efforts, who should never

lose sight of a proper degree of self-confidence,
without which there can le no success in literature—
nor, indeed, in any thing die. When we say that
the author of this work skews a misgiving nature,
we merely mean to imply that he has not ventured
to give fair play to the talents ha unquestionably possesses.
The word " Shakspeare" seems to act as a spell on his
faculties. He brings Lim before us in an elaborate manner
it is true, and puts divers small jokes into his mouth ; but
seems never at ease in his company. In sketching the
player, Burbage, ani giving us Loose idea of his powers of
conversation, be is far more successful, because less under
restraint. The same may be sail of his portrait of Sir Walter
Raleigh, which is ingenious as a whole, though the knight is
not made sufficiently a man of the world ; and, occasionally,
the pedant overlays the courtier in hitw, which is so far a
misconception of character. The scenes in which Raleigh
plays with the vanity of the old Queen, are well conceived,
but the execution is feeble ; though there are not unfrequent
indications., that the author could have made more of this por•
tion of his subject, had he not had a sort of paralysing re-
collection of similar scenes in Scott's magnificent novel
of Kennilworth. Despite, however, these blemishes,
" Shakspeare and his Friends" is an amusing tale, and will
be read with interest.

The DESPATCHES and CORRESPONDENCE
of the MARQUIS IVELLESLEY, K. G.
Edited by Itlontgomery Martin.
London, Murray, 1838.

Future historians will have just cause to make honour-
able mention of the great services rendered them by the
publication of the Despatches and Correspondence of the
Marquis Wellesley, and his illustrious relative the DuLe of
Wellington. These despatches throw a flood of light
upon some of the most. important but hitherto dimly oh-
served events, during a period of Unexampled national in-
terest in the annals of Modern Europe. They place before
us the actors in the great drama, and discover to us the
influences, physical, moral, and political, by which they were
actuated, Their publication, during the life-time of their illus-
trious authors, is moreover a guarantee, not only for their
authenticity, but for the justness of the explanatory re-
marks by which they are accompanied. The volume now
submitted,:to us, contains the despatches and correspondence
of the Marquis of Welles!ey with the Supreme Junta of
Spain, during his Lordship's mission as Ambassador Extra-
ordinary to that country in 1800. It is a very important
work, exclusive of the great interest which it derives from
narrating the events of a struggle which appears to have
been conducted with the same dilatoriness, on the part of
Spaniards, as that which at present desolates the Peninsula.

HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS.--PA.nr
.London, Van Voorst, 1838.

Yarrell is the editor of this graceful little work,
which furnishes us with many curious details respecting the

habits and peculiariies of those numerous classes of birds
which are indigenous in this country. Foremost among
these is, of course, the nightingale, which it appears, arrives
at greater perfection in Surrey, than in any other county
of England. The late Sir J. Sinclair endeavoured to na-
turalize this classic songster in Scotland, but without suc-
cess ; he " commissioned the late Mr. Dickson of Covent-
garden, to purchase for him as many nightingales' eggs as
he could procure, at a shilling each. This was accordingly
done ; the eggs carefully packed in wool, and transmitted to
Sir John by the mail ; who then employed several men to
find, and take care of, the nests of several robins, in places
where the eggs might be deposited and hatched with secu-
rity. The robins' eggs were removed and replaced by
those of the nightingale, which were all sat upon, hatched
in (Inc time, and the young brought up by the foster-
parents. .The songsters flew when fully fledged, and were
observed for some time afterwards near the places where
they were incubated. In September, the usual migratory
period, they disappeared, and never returned to the place
of their birth." The wood-cut engravings of birds in this
number are executed with s'ngular neatness.

LIVES OF FOREIGN STATESMEN. Vol. V.

L ongman, London, 1838.

This volume is the-production of Mr. James, an agreea-

ble memoir writer, and one of the most successful of our
novelists. It consists of lives of five or six of the most
eminent foreign statesmen, among whom we find Necker
—a clever financier, but by no means the superior
poli-
tician that his biographer states him to be. Necker—as
Buoneparte justly observed—was too much of an ideolo-
g'st, to make a sound, practical statesman. He meant
well ; but his actions did not always correspond with his in-
tentions. He was too apt to Le led away by plausible theo-
ries, and his vanity was always in arms against his judgment.
Were we to be asked, who, of all others, was the man who
immediately precipitated the great crisis of the French re-
volution, unhesitatingly we should reply—James Necker :
but this not by his convocation of the States General, which
was a matter of absolute necessity, but by his doubling-
the numbers of the Tiers Etat, which at once took all the
power from the Monarch, and lodged it in the hands of an
uncalculdting and over-heated commonalty. By this in_
judicious act Necker raised a storm, which neither he nor
any one else could allay, and of which he was one of the
first victims. Mr. James's Memoir of Cardinal de Fleury
is far more judiciously written. It is, indeed, the best
the volume.

MACLEA
LoiSidoPn,RsAmytill'tloCidAELldeDr:llSB3CBo .
.URSES
The generality of modern sermons, said Sidney Smith, a
few years since, seem to be. composed under the idea that
sin is to be taken out of a man, like Eve out of Adam, by
putting him into a deep sleep. There is truth as well as
wit in this remark, for it cannot be denied that by far the
major portion of productions of this sort are vp-y soporific
affairs ; pious but prosy to a most fatal extent ; so that,
however exemplary the. doctrine, there is no getting beyond
the second or third page. The discourses before us can,
we fear, be scarcely held to be exceptions. There is no im-
pugning the strict relighin3 and moral tone that pervades
them ; but, the sentiments are enfcorce]. in a tame, common-
place style, devoid talc. of .force and fci vol.. The ablest
discourse is the one entitled on " The Importance of Prin-
ciple in the Regulation of Conduct," which is very properly, •
therefore, placed first in the volume.