The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

ROBIN HOOD. A Fragment. With other Frog- 1
meats and Poems. By Robert Southey and Caroline
Southey.
A bequest to posterity, from Robert Southey, in
the form of a poetic fragment, and that fragment
commemorative of rare Robin, the outlaw of the
greenwood, is a phenomenon in literature not to be
treated slightingly. Little as we esteem the charac-
ter of Southey as a politician, and much as we con-
sider his genius overated as a bard, we should be in-
sane to deny that he was a man of extraordinary
parts, of ripe and varied scholarship, and of remark-
able eloquence as a writer. " Kehamah" would vouch
of itself for his imagination ; " Thalaba," for his do-
minion over language, rhetoric, and metrical grace-
fulness; " Roderick the Goth," for his intense and
epic forcefulness ;
" Mary," for his skill as a ballad-
monger; " Nelson," for his capacity as a biographer ;
and the " Doctor,"--the old rambling, crazy, gossip-
ping, good-for-nought of a Doctor—for his book wis-
dom and his appreciation of sly, dry, and costive
humour. Southey had a genius for an age but not
for all time. That he had genius it would he absurd
to deny, but that his genius had in it anything of
permanence it would be equally absurd
to maintain. His intellect was lambent and
evanescent as a meteor, not luminous
and eternal as a constellation. It was the dross that
shone in the fire of his vitality like precious metal,
but which, when the fire was extinguished, was only
dust and ashes. It was not that pure gold which
passes through the fire only to come forth refined,
and to be treasured up for ever and for ever. It was
the blooming apple of the Dead Sea, not the golden
apple of the Hesperides. In this respect his name
will be of secondary importance when that of Samuel
Taylor Coleridge is chronicled among the bright
lights of the illustrious departed. The preface to this
posthumous work is a plaintive annotation by the
widow of Robert Southey, telling us of the conceit
in which the fragment of " Robin Hood" originated,
and constituting another chapter in that endless
homily which teaches man that all is vanity and
vexation of spirit. The wisest of the human
race, Solomon, the King of Jerusalem
great truth not more emphatically. I spoke this
t has been
written. The versification of " Robin Hood" is
peculiar—odd--eccentric, as all who have read
"Thalaba" may imagine, for it is written in the metre
of "Thalaba." That, in spite of its grace and
occasional tenderness, it is altogether unworthy of
Robin Hood, not to say of Much the Miller, of
Maid Marian, of Scarlet and Little John, we must
protest. But it is avowedly a fragment, and the
writer of that fragment, after passing through the
darkness of a mental demise, has gone into the valley
of the Shadow. Peace be to his memory ! We say.it
with a vivid sense of his moral and political tergiver-
sation. From a scrap of verse ;descriptive of March
we transcribe the following lines : those marked
by us in italics are delicious, and fraught with sylvan
beauty. It was one of the last outpourings of the love
of Southey's heart for nature :

6, The noontide walk
Not undelightful now, though thro' the wood,
The greenwood lingering still, no gentle gale
Around the foliage of o'erhanging boughs
Melodious moves: what though the vernal mead
No rich profusion spreads of golden flowers
That laugh luxuriant in the summer sun,
Yet o'er the sober green the willing eye
Dwells with a tranquil joy: what though the grove
Lifts not its leafy honours now, adorned
With mid-year freshness, or the many hues
Of autum ; pleasant is it to behold
The grey ash spreading wide its naked arms;
The beech, beneath whose red, dry, rustling leaves
Bursts the young bud secure, or the broad elm,
Thro' all whose infinite branching the new sap
Flows first revived and brightens the brown bud,
Pleasant the earlier dawn, the warmer ray
Of noon, the evening twilight's lengthening hour.
Rough is thine entrance, March! yet welcome thou.
We know the better season draweth nigh,
And welcome the rude winds that herald it."
There is a spontaneous suavity in these lines which
cannot but be affecting to those who cast a retrospec-
tive glance over the career of the dead poet, and re-
member the vigour of his virile intellect before it was
blurred by the mists and paralysis of imbecility.

CHRISTOPHER TADPOLE. Part XV. By

Albert Smith.

In this number, Christopher having discovered that
the late Sir Frederick Arden was married to Mar-
garet Ellis, and that he is the only child of that mar-
riage, proceeds at once to Arden Court to vindicate
his rights. Gudge and his wife are installed there,
and set poor Lady Arden at defiance. Sir Frederick
and his bride Fanny Hamper, arrive just as Gudge,
who is a leetle intoxicated, has insulted Lady Arden
in the grossest possible manner. On hearing of his
conduct,
Sir Frederick seized hold of Gudge's neckcloth, which
was tied in a miserable close juggling-looking knot,
about his throat, and twisted it round until the attor-
ney's eyes started from their sockets. In vain Lady
Arden implored him to desist. The young Baronet vim
evidently as much excited as the lawyer, and now that
he had once felt the pleasure of insulting him, like a
tiger tasting blood, he went on with redoubled energy.
He swung him round and round like a child; and then,
taking his other hand to his assistance, beat Gudge's
head against the wainscot until it was almost cracked.
And when he was quite out of breath, he flung him
away with such force, that the lawyer spun round tor
several feet and then fell heavily on the fluor.
" Now get up," said Sir Frederick to him, " and I'll
serve you so again."
" You shall repent this," cried Gudge, as soon as he
could speak, raising himself upon one elbow, but not
more than that for fear the other should carry his threat
into execution.

" Pshaw!" cried Sir Frederick. " Lie down !" and he
spoke the words, as though Gudge had been a dog.
" And you have permitted this, madam," continued
the other, now talking to Lady Arden; " with all these
servants round who, who could, collectively have pre-
vented it. This has settled the question. You shall see
whether or not, lam intoxicated.' Can I get up free
from further injury?"
" Let me entreat you, Frederick—for most important
reasons—to restrain your temper for a few minutes!"
" A few minutes!" cried Gudge; " no, altogether, or
here I stay—until somebody goes for a constable—and
leave all reasons altogether out of the question."
" If you're afraid to move," continued Sir Frederick to
the servants; " you can at least go on an errand. West
—run down to the Arden Arms, and fetch that cabman
back again, and if the ostler's there, ask him to come as
well. I've often wanted to see whether you could swim
or not," he went on addressing Gudge, " and now here's
a nice cold night for the horse .pond to try it."
He had scarcely finished speaking, when Gudge, who
had been apparently collecting all his courage, jumped
upon his legs and cried out:—
" Sir Frederick Arden, I warn you for the last time to
take care of what you arc doing. It's very dangerous
work, sir, to attack a lawyer—very dangerous indeed.
You don't know how far you can go, with legal safety, in
an affair of this kind, but I do!"
" Leave the house, you miserable sneaking hound !"
With astonishing courage, which appeared to have
come at the moment, Gudge leant back against the bil-
liard-table, and exclaimed, as firmly as he was able:—
" I shall not, sir: I shall stay here as long as I like.
For ever if I please."
Lady Arden had expected, from Frederick's kindling
eye and flushed face, what would be the return to this
speech of Gudge's. She stepped forward to seize her
boy's arm; but, before she could arrest him, he flew at
Gudgo like a tiger. Seizing him again by the throat with
his left hand, he dealt him such a shower of blows with
his other fist about the head and face, that the wretched
attorney was in an instant covered with blood, the result
of the trainin2; his young opponent had undergone
under the tuition of Mr. Nick Mawley. Nor did he stop
until, at the command of his mother, the two servants
stepped in and parted them.
" Get me a basin," cried Gudge, as soon as he could
speak; " get me a basin, and some water, and a sponge!"
" Get him a coffin," replied Sir Frederick, " for I mean
him to want one before I've finished with him." And
he appeared about to repeat the punishment; when one
of the servants interposed.
" What do you
eth
ha
has; mean,
s you a
dihdn;West?"atpahßnyoiedGwa n criedrkeunoyrsdno.
egi
et
tetm will
struck
tereltwunhwhb:te
wishing
on,
adynrai s
,not
owauvtnehetgl
Baronet. "How dare you stand in my way?"
e
k
" Because he knows his true master." said (Judge, as
he wiped his face with a flaring red silk handkerchief.
r
n
l
Am' to
neeelrceenaonpuo:
willsfh oreblit
yel hrnsnot
todwutkta"hnaao: withabGB
nFtushdrweegedemreerasdi man in
Fre-
derick, what do you think of that?"
e
o
believe him. " Hold your tongue!"
per-
fectlyh I
r. screaming
Gudge!7ithr
exclaimed g rage and
Lady excitement.
it em en
Arden, appealing to

him.
" Madam!" ho replied, "I will speak: and before them
all. I tell you, Sir Frederick, you have at present no
more right to command here than your servants. The
property is in my bands,, and you can't touch it, if your
life depended on it. Ive a bill against you that will
make you tremble ; and you can't touch even the very
money that is to pay' it, without I please. Now who's
the miserable sneaking hound?'—now who's lord and
master of Arden Court? Do you see that lady there—
your mother? Say but another word, and I can throw
her into prison. Lift even your finger against me, and
it's done."

Institution, which is situate in Well-street,
aboveESaminsoa Yesterday the Directors
of Tthile
London Docks, was held in the Board-room for the
transaction of general business. Duringlast year
4,567
boarders were received; 22,480/. had been
paid on the private accounts of the seamen, of which
4,1951. had been sent to themselves or to their families,
at their homes. In the Savings Bank, 2,8881. stood to
the credit of the boarders. Last year's expenditure left
a balance in hand of nearly 700/.
COLLISION AT SEA.—The accident alluded to in
our paper of yesterday, under this head, has not been
attended with any serious results. Our correspondent
at Liverpool, in his letter of yesterday, says that the
steamer alluded to, the Queen Victoria, ha& reached
the docks yesterday forenoon. liar paddle-box was
stirs in; she must undergo repairs before she goes to
a. No lives were lost. The ship which
struck her
I:
as the Isaac Allerton, not Isaac Millar, as formerly
reported.