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

.y-1.
-
_ -
..
..
..,
...,
.‘141...
' a-
-
, , vile r's .41V- 7.V- V.l.:' c)') ..
~.
.",
---
-- tt- ir,,,,, , - o.lr r •,v-,, ,/,, ~, ~., C ',._,,
..,,,,,, -.4...M, . ( , AAF. 28- ft: ' 'e. -, Silk\ - --'' -.---- '''.-,)` QO4
~,,,..; , i...71,,,..,:._,441,„ 1
-.**-.41.."5 , -,•,,,. ' : ,,P ..ti: 7PC, 3y; ... ,4r..., \k, s,,
7". i ilal./
~.....,-,..„,........ ;:, lan+
~ ii, ~....,1,,•74i.Av, 4;,,,p,c _ ,
-_,.4 ....... „,,, \,. i . i
- - ~,,,„
) ...
, ,/,. „... u, ......„..„,
~... e...__..,4fr0
,i, ..:, ,- -------
A.
‘ 1,- ...- Aokolik ,4- .- ~,,-
..• li ..,... ~ • ~...,. 4 it.
.. .' ,1: 4.
• " ,-t•!'"
u
. • t• 4:",ft /t- 0..,
_ ' i'.l Wk,--tu,DiEN ›,,t,,,, 4-- ~ _ 110,11 4. ~,1,T4 . ,-)-: D.40/T: \

PRICE 5(1

William Temple to hold forth, in his proper
person, through a length of three pages, against
the Whig Retbrm Bill, His soberness of judg-
ment was certainly at fault in this instance. The
shades of the illustrious dead should never be
called up to inflame the violence of the living.
Mr. Courtenay had nevertheless good reason
to be every way proud of his new work, forming
as it did a new and valuable accession to
sterling English biography. It was his first book
too: he had long been a pamphleteer, but
his labours on this occasion, took a larger and
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 foolish 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
JOHNSON'S blockheads—and this consciousness
greatly augments the anxiety with which, a
pamphleteer of forty years, I send my first book
►nto 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 not 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 them, and Mr. Courtenay con-
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 further comments on Shakspeare.
Not that he essayed the task from an affectation
of having found any new beauties in that writer,
nor because he' 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 arc
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 lgolone 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 carele!,s.
These volumes contained in addition to the :ilaga-
zine papers all such plays as Shakspeare
founded upon the Scottish and Roman histories.
" Having habitually,"" tiys Mr. Courtenay,
his final observations, been engaged in histori-
cal researches, I have beo delighted to connect
them with the plays Of Shaltspeare."
Throughout Om Memoir, frequent allusions
have beer! 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
IA estimated, by consider-
ing the rank 111414 .bon assigns to it, and by
the furth.or l'ttnnbrance that the illustrious his-
torittn tlirtis 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 Amily will best be un-
derstood by tlio veeital of the historian's own
words
purple of three Emperors," says Gib-
bon, " to have r' fined at Constantinopleor;:il
authorise or' case a digression on the oript„.and
singular Fortunes of the house of Courte:Lay, in the
11-..Tee principal branches —1 of - -.Edessa •2, of
Frame and, 8, of England:,_of which the' last
oily has survived the r`:;volutions of 800 years."
Pursuing 's account of the English
branch we f;id 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 hist°
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
laroke'a lance against the French monarch. But
the favour of Henry the Eighth was the prelude
Ito 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-
derham 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 lapsus? Quid
feci? Whither am I fallen? What haye 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 50th year.
Peace be to his ashes !

•
~„
1.112 STEAM-SHIP connec-
tion with this long-lost vessel, there is this curious fact.
Since her departure hence, we have received informa-
tion of no leSs than six large steam-ships, or men of
war, having been seen at sea in a disabled condition, and
have not heard a single instance of any attempt made to
afford them relief. There is a reason for this. When a mer-
chant vessel sees at sea a shipwreck that has every appear-
ranee of a vessel of war, they invariably "cut and run" from
them, as they woutAct from the plague. They do so, because
they arQ envrAced that if the crew of the wrecked man of
W46,3;kwiPeriug perhaps two or three hundred souls, had
become desperate for food, they
.would unhesitatingly
lay violent hands on all the provisions the merchantman
had, under the " law" that " might is right,' and the
poor merchant Captain sent to Jericho. "We do not be-
lieve that ever a man-of-v.-ex was- relieved by a merchant
vessel, unless by ioree, or being near some port. This
„sphii;w, we think, why all large disabled vessels are
passed unheeded.--Nero York Paper.