The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-14 00:00:00

N°' 1410. SUN. LONDON. WEDNESD 4.1 r,

more substantial shape. He thus jocosely alludes
to this circumstance in his prefatory remarks :
"Dr. Johnson used to say that no man but a
blockhead ever wrote except for .money! This
was one of the fbolish sayings of the wise man.
On the present occasion, however, I beg that it
may be understood, especially by him who hesi-
tates to buy this book, that I am NOT one of
Jon blockheads—and this consciousness
greatly augments the anxiety with which, a
pamphleteer olfrrty years, I send my first book
into the world."

Mr. Courtenay, probably in speaking of, him-
self as a pamphleteer, intended. under that cog-
nomen to include •his writings as a reviewer, for
during many years he contributed papers of the
first excellence to the Quarterly and Foreign
Quarterly Reviews. This Custom of Review-
writing had got him much into the custom of
using the plural editorial we, a custom which he
subsequently reprehends in himself in the fol-
lowing words :—" I have to apologise for the use
of the first person plural: I hold this to be
a great impropriety. It is a clumsy at
tempt to conceal what neither can be
concealed, nor ought to be concealed,—
the mere individuality of the opinions pro-
nounced. Egotism is riot really avoided by af-
fected expression. If a man is blameable for
writing a book of his own views and opinions,
his fault is not palliated by the pretence of com-
panions. I lament exceedingly, that a recent
habit of writing in Reviews,' has betrayed
me into the use of their presumptuous style."
Mr. Courtenay's love of literature would not
allow him to remain indolent, or his pen unem-
ployed. The last work on which he employed
his talents, consisted of " Commentaries on the
Historical Plays of Shakspeare." These were
published so recently as last year, by Mr. Col-
burn. The greater part of these Commentaries,
which compose two volumes, originally ap-
peared in the New Monthly Magazine, from
June 1838, to March, 1839, under the• title of
" Shakspeare's' '-Historical Plays, considered
Historically." Mr. Theodore Hooke greatly
' approved of then), and Mr. Courtenay eon-
' fesses that his approbation, as a man equally acute
and amiable, was greatly gratifying to him, .Mr.
Courtenay undertook with diffidence the attempt
of making these furtber comments on Shakspei e.
Not that he essayed the task from an affectation
of, having found any new beauties in that writer,
nor because lie boasted of the power to place in
a more striking light those passages which have
now for some ages delighted the readers of the
English language, but because it appeared to
him that (after all the volumes which had been
written) there were still points of view in which
a large portion of the works of Shakspeare are
still to be considered, It has been said that the
youth of England take their religion from Mil-
ton, and their history from Shakspeare. Looking
therefore upon Shakspeare as so great an historical
writer, and considering all that•has been said of
Shakspeare as a teacher of history, Mr. Courtenay
proposed to himself in these papers strictly to
make inquiry as to " what were Shakspeare's
authorities for his history, and how far he has
departed from them; • and whether the play can
be given to our youth as properly historical."
This inquiry had not been anticipated by any of
the commentators. Stevens and Malone had
certainly a few historical notes, but those very
scant, unsatisfactory, and meagre; while the
range of their historical criticism is extremely
small, and in many instances quite careless.
These volumes contained in addition to the Maga-
zine papers all such plays as Shakspeare
founded upon the Scottish and Roman histories.
" Having habitually," says Mr. Courtenay, in
his final observations, " been engaged in histori-
cal researches, I have been delighted to connect
them with the plays of Shakspeare."
Throughout this Memoir, frequent allusions
haVe been made to the antiquity and honour-
ableness of the Courtenay family, whereof Mr.
Peregrine Courtenay was no unworthy descend-
ant. But his collateral relationship to this noble
family can only be duly estimated, by consider-
ing the rank which Gibbon assigns to it, and by
the further remembrance that the illustrious his-
torian turns aside in the midst of his grand his-
tory, to bestow some hundred lines of glowing
eulogy upon its ancestral members. The true
dignity of the Courtenay family will best be un-
derstood by the recital of the historian's own
words :

" The purple of three Emperors," says Gib-
bon, " who have reigned at Constantinople, will
authorise or excuse a digression on the origin and
singular fortunes of the house of Courtenay, in the
three principal branches,-1, of Edessa ; 2, of
France ; and, 3, of England,—of which the last
only has survived the revo!utions of 800 years."
Pursuing Gibbon's account of the English
branch we find him thus speaking :—" According
to the old register of Ford Abbey, the Courte-
nays of Devonshire are descended from Prince
Florus, the second son of Peter, and the grand-
son of Louis the Fat. The most faithful histo-
rians believe that after giving his daughter to the
King's son, Reginald of Courtenay abandoned
his possessions in France, and obtained from the
English monarch a second wife and a new inhe-
ritance. It is certain, at least, that Henry 11. dis-
tinguished in his camps and councils a Reginald
of that name and arms, and, as it may be fairly
presumed, of the genuine race of the Courtenays
of France. The right of wardship enabled, a
feudal lord to reward his vassal with the marriage
and estate of a noble heiress; and Reginald of
Courtenay acquired a fair establishment in De-
vonshire, where his posterity has been seated
above six hundred years. Hawise, the wife of
Reginald, derived the honour of Okehampton
' from a Norman baron, which was held by
the service of 93 knights, and a female might
claim the manly offices of hereditary viscont or
sheriff, and of captain of the Royal Castle of
Exeter. In war, the Courtenays fulfilled the
duties and deserved the honours of chivalry. In
the Field of the Cloth of Gold, a Courtenay
broke a lance against the French monarch. But
the favour of Henry the Eighth was the prelude
to their fall, and the branch became legally ex-
tinct. But there still survived a lineal descendant
of the first Earl of Devon, a younger branch of
the Courtenays, who had been seated at Pow-
derhatn Castle above 400 years from the reign
of Edward 111. to the present hour. Their estates
have been increased by the grant and improve-
Ment of lands in Ireland, and they have been
recently restored to the honours of that peerage
which, during the quarrels of the Roses, they had
lost. Yet," says the historian in conclusion,
" the Courtenays still retain the plaintive motto
which asserts the innocence and deplores the
fall of their ancient house. While they sigh for
past greatness they are doubtless sensible of
present blessings; in the long series of the Cour-
tenay annals, the most splendid era is likewise
the most unfortunate."
The " plaintive motto" to which Gibbon al-
ludes above is thus couched," Übi lapses? Quid
feci? Whither am I fallen? W hat have I
done ?" Heraldry has not for certain a more
sad or melancholy cry; and with the same feel-
ing of desolation and unhappiness may it be ap-
plied to him, who calls by his death for this
commemorative memoir. His death has created
a gap in the literary, political, and private world
which will not be filled up in a moment, .or if
filled, will be replaced by no one worthier: Mr.
Courtenay has one son a clerk in the Treasury,
and another a clerk in the House of Lords. He
was himself in the receipt of a pension of 1,0001.
, a
year. Mr. Courtenay was in his 59th year.
I Peace be to his ashes !