The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-01 00:00:00

MAGAZINE DAY.

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY.
" o!it er Twist" flags a little this month ; but as Homer
sometimes nods, why should not Boz, more especially as he
is " unused to the drowsy mold ?" The best portion of
he p-escnt chapters is the description of the singing
;Isseruhly in the cite, where..a w:.ole host of burglars and
pickpockets are represented as chaunting their flash Halle-
,uj Ll:s. This sketch breathes of life. " Shakspeare
Papers," contains a juil:cious criticism on Tonon of
Athens. The freshness, vivacity, and novelty of Dr. Ma-
ginu's remarks on this liacknied theme, conErm the truth of
an observation made many years since by Burke, that
there is no subject that is not inexhaustible. regret;
however, to find the Doctor speaking disparaging4T of that
tine Grei k satirist, Lucian, whose dialogue between the
,plenetie Menippus and Charon, about the ehoha which the,
former nttenipts to do him out of, is as rich in its hmori
as his allusion to tl,e fair Helen of Tioy, is intlehin and
unassuming in its moral pathot. Lucian is a wit, and thq
prince of wits, whose smart and shrewd .as on the
polytheism of his day are far more ereetive than tiny of
the deistical persiflage that we meet with in Voltaire's once
highly popular tales. We consider Maginn's estimate of
Timon's character the justest wo have yet met with.
'beside it. " Versailles" is a
plllaeazslaitutt's u , cuttmsfr a veryeete soae,rrjayfigu,:•
suggested apparently by an
article on tho §ame topic, in tl.e last Number of the
Qaartdy Review. " Ode to Mr. Murphy" is too full of
desperate bad puns. The subject, however, will make it
popular, for never was sight so much talked of, as is the
great Hibernian meteorologist just now. He is F, quibbed
in every paper, criticised in every coterie ; and serves
to fill up the dull, unsatisfactory hour before dinner at every
formal party. All the Magazines this month are full of
him. He is dished up in prose and verse, as though he
were the richest and rarest dainty ever set before an om-
nivorous public. He is even sung in the streets, and we
heard his praises the other day chaunted in Holborn by an
Irish melodist, out at .elbows, to the tune of the Hundredth
Psalm ! Verily, Mr. Murphy is a lucky prophet, and has just
reversed the fate of' Cassandra. She predicted truly, and
was disbelieved ; he predicts falsely, and is believed. The
" Grand Juror" is an amusing notion, well, worked out.
" Monosania" contains some lively, spirited description ;
hut there is a constant straining after effect throughout the
talc. This is a serious' blemish, for one's risible muscles
always rebel, when an elaborate eriort is made to call them
into play. An author's humour, to be successful, must
ooze out easily. " Shawn Gow," is a lively fairy tale,
worthy of Crofton Croke:, of whose manlier it reminds us.
The Nurse's Story" is by Thomas Ingoldsby. The
versification is singularly easy and flowing. We subjoin a
passage :

There's a hue and a cry through the County of Kent,
And In chase of the cutthroats a Constable's sent
But no one can tell the man which way they went.
There 's a little Foot-page with that Constable goes.
And a little pug.dog with a little pug nose.
In Rochester town,
At the sign of the Crown,
Three shabby-genteel men are just sitting down,
To a fat stubble-goose, with potatoes done brown,
When a little Foot-page
Rushes in, in a rage,
Upsetting the apple-sauce, onions, and sage.
That little Foot-page takes the ti:st by the throat,
And a little pug dog takes the next by the coat,
And a Constable seizes the one more remote;
And fair rase-nobles, and broad inoidores,
The Waiter pulls out of their pockets by scores,
And the Boots and the Chambermaids run in and stare ;
And the Constable says, with a dignified air,
" You 're Wanted, Genlemen, one and all,
For that 'ere precious lark at Tappington Hall I"

FRA S ER' S 111,4 GA Z ENE.
Dr. Magina's " Homeric Ballads" are continued in this
Number. The:specimens of translation aro spirited, and
singularly faithful ; but the article as a whole is heavy,
because it is overlaid with learning, and useless references
to musty worn-out authorities. The Doctor should have
given us more matter of his own, and less of others. Who
cares for quotations from, or opinions on, Voltaire's Hen-
riade—that poorest apology for an epic that ever was per-
petrated, even by a 131ackmore ? Voltaire was a sparkling
wit and an ingenious sophist ; but as a poet, he can be
spoken of in no higher terms of praise than as a dexterous
versifyer. Ile knew something of every thing, but enough
of nothing. Already his tragedies are in " the sere, the
yellow leaf" of popularity, while as respects his " Henriade"
—that work on which he so much plumed himself—it is
dead, without hope of resurrection. " Half-a-crown's Worth
of Cheap Knowledge" is an analysis of some of the minor.
penny periodicals which are issuing, by thousands, week
a-ter week, from the press. The notice is impartial in its
tone, and seems to us to estimate these publications at their
fitting value. "On Manners, Fashions, and Things in Ge-
neral," is a desultory paper without beginning, middle, or
end—scratched off, curtente calamo, in a free, sportive, and
good humoured spirit. The writer, alluding incidentally
to Boulogne, states that he was much struck with the great
number of pretty faces be saw there. We ourselves re-
member, a few years since, being struck with the same
engaging spectacle. In the course of an hour's stroll
through Boulogne, we saw more pretty women than we
had ever seen before, even in Exeter, where the sight of
an ugly female face is a positive rarity. " The Doctor" is
horrid stuff. We suppose it is meant as a joke ; if so, the
author should have informed us of this startliag fact at
the commencement of his lucabraticns. The " Gallery of
Literary Characters" contains a whimsical portrait of Sir
William Molesworth, accompanied by a brief memoir,
penned in a smart, good humoured, quiizical spirit. From
Nimrod's entertaining article, entitled " Anatomy of
Gaming," we quote an amusing anecdote ; and may add,
that the paper is full of such pleasant, aneedotical remi-
niscences :

" It occasionally, though rarely, happens, that hell-keepers become
victims to their own infamous tricks. There is an amusing, instance on
record. One of the fraternity had contrived to establish a gaiMag,table
on the capital of two persons who had been simple enough to beconie his
confederates; and by means of his dexterity a considerable sun\ had been
won. Feigning urgent business at Bath, he boo'.;ed himself by is e mail ;
and his partners saw him off, after being left in charge of the bank, with
especial directions to announce to him, by post, the result of each night's
play. The scounz:rel went no further than Brentford before lie left the
coach, and returned to town ; and, by disguising his person to curls a
degree as not to be knuwn by his partners, played for his own bank and
broke it. The next night found him at Bath, where he received the
" fatal news" from his conicierates ; and this was the consolation he
gave them. He d—d them for a couple of flats, lin. having suflered
themselves to be "done;" and, of course, cut their connexion. It is
not here stated that this clever. Greek resorted to the dreadful operation
of having a new and differently formed nose, made by a skilful surgeon—
an operation of almost two hours' duration; but it is asserted that such
has been the case in more than one instance. Spectacles, wigs, whiskers,
and moustache, arc the most general methods cf disguise with these
worthies."