The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-16 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

HORACE IV..4.LPOLE'S LETTERS, Vol. 2

Bentley, London, 1840.
Among other entertaining matters of gossip, this
volume contains particulars of the Rebellion of 1745 ;
of its suppression by the " butcher" Cumberland ;
and of the trial and execution cf the Scottish Lords—
Kilmarnock and Baltnerino ; all which matters are
detailed by Walpole in his gracefuliest and most graphic
epistolary style. His allusions, especially, to Lady
Townstiend, who falls deeply in love with Lord Kil-
marnock, from having merely seen him pleading as a
prisoner at the bar of the House, are in the archest
spirit of raillery. The volume is embellished with por-
traits of Sr Horace Mann, the Countess of Suffolk,
Richard Bentley, and Gray the poet ; and it is illus-
trated with numeroua pertinent notes.

MASSINGER AND FORD.
Moxon, London, 1840.
We have here the works of two of our finest old
dramatists brought within the compass of one handsome
octavo volume, and prefaced by a brief, biographical
notice from the pen of Mr. Hartley Coleridge. This
notice is an exceedingly meagre one, so far as mere facts
are concerned, and takes Gifford's memoirs of Ford
and Messinger as its guides ; while as regards criticism,
it is nearly equally barren. The style, however, is
uniformly graceful and pointed, and here and there we
meet with some ingenious, if not. very original, reflec-
tions. Of such a sort is the following. The Editor,
we should premise, has been speaking of the imperish-
able character of great works of intellect :—" All but
the mind either perishes in time, or vanishes out a time
into eternity. Mind alone lives on with time, and keeps
pace with the march of ages. Beauty ever fleeting and
continual!), renewed, does its work, then drops like the
petals of the blossom when the fruit is set. Valour and
power may gain a lasting memory, but where are
they when the brave and the mighty are departed ?
Their effects may remain, but they live not in them any
more than the fire in the work of the potter. Piety has
a real, substantial immortality in Heaven ; its life is
laid up with God ; but on earth its record is but as a tale
that is told. But intellect really exists in its products.
Its kingdom is here. The genius of Homer does not
rent, like his disputed personal identity, on dubious tes-
timony. It is, and will be, while the planets last." In
a note to a passage alluding to some of the " wit-
combats" between the old dramatists at the well-known
Mermaid tavern, Mr. Coleridge takes occasion to speak
of the " Noctes Ambrosianre," and to express a wish
that they were collected and republished. " They
would," he adds. " not only afford to future historians a
true feeling of the spirit of the times, and to all readers
a shoeing-horn to thought or to laughter, but would
form a vaamble addition to dramatic literature. Barring
an occasional irregularity of plot, they are perfect
specimens of comedy. The characters are sustained
with consummate skill and consistency. Christopher
North himself is, perhaps, the happiest speaking mask
since " My Father Shandy" and " My Uncle Toby"
were silent." We have ourselves more than once sug-
gested a republication of the " Noctes," and are grati-
fied to find Mr. Coleridge coinciding with us in opinion.
We are persuaded the work would be popular, for pas-
sages of purer and more impassioned feeling and ge-
nuine comic humour, are not to be found in the whole
wide range of modern literature. In his notice of Ford,
the editor makes particular mention of his " great
power." He possessed this, certainly, and in a high
degree ; but his tenderness is equally remarkable. His
" Broken Heart," which C. Lamb has so warmly com-
mended for its vigour, and the originality and force with
which the strange character of Calantha is developed,
is yet more worthy of praise for the exquisite finish and
delicacy of that of Penthea—a heroine far more to our
taste than the love-sick, fantastic heroines of Beaumont
and Fletcher. The pathos of these dramatists—espe-
cially where their women are concerned—always
seems to us to want simplicity, and consequently,
truth and earnestness. It is too often frittered
away in trope and simile, and is rather a thing
Of the fancy than the heart—as where Aspasia
for instance, consoles herself for the loss of her lover,
even at the very moment when she is supposed to be
dying of grief, by requesting her maids to work for
her on tapestry a picture representing Ariadne deserted
by Theseus! Now this is all very pretty, and assuredly
very poetical, but it is not suggested by the heart.
Deep feeling has no thought for ingenious conceits. It
cannot travel out of the record. It is reserved and shy
of expression ; and, least of all, would it develope itself
through the medium of far-fetched imagery. In Ford's
tragedies we meet with none of this mimicry—for so we
may call it—of pathos. Whenever he is most in
earnest, he is always the most direct and simple, not
to say familiar, in expression, reserving his powers of
fancy for themes better suited to them. Thus, when the
broken-hearted Penthea exclaims—
" Heaven will reward your piety, and thank it,
When I am dead ; for sure I must not live—
,
I hope I cannot—"
We feel in the very abruptness of the manner in
which she strikes into the expression of this forlorn
" hope," that it is indeed wrung from the heart's core—
that she is painfully in earnest. Yet, what can be more
simple than the language ? There is no effort—no
hunting about for striking ideas—just one plain word or
two, and all is done that could possibly be done. The
readers of Ford will find him full of this genuine, un-
forced pathos ; and we hope that this cheap and elegant
volume will be the means of making him and Messinger
more generally known to the literary world, than they
now are.

CR OLY.B' SiactrwFooEd,
LOFondBonC:TRIBISIOE., 2 Vols.
By all Tory readers, for whose edification it is chiefly
intended, this work will be perused with avidity, for it
flatters their prejudices, administers to their self-love—
in fact, goes the whole bog in their behalf. Dr. Croly
is no flincher—exhibits no reserve or hesitation in
the expression of his political opinions, but boldly
writes himself- down an ultra-Tory of the Eldon and
Sidmouth school. As for Whiggery, the very mention
of the word throws him into a passion. It is, in his
eyes, synonymous with anarchy, and accordingly he
never misses an opportunity of letting fly his satirical shafts
against it. The worthy Doctor would have been a most
efficient political writer thirty years ago ; but now, his
sarcasms and invectives can excite no other sentiment
than that of ridicule. The age has out krown the
' school to which he belongs, and consigned it to lasting
neglect, just as we consign worn-out, old-fashioned fur-
niture to the lumber-room. So much for the spirit in
which these volumes arc penned ; as regards the man-
ner, we have no other objection to make to the style
than that it is a little too florid—too declamatory—in a
word, too ambitious. The writer has evidently no idea
of telling a plain story in a plain way, but bespangles it
with glittering metaphors, and all the finery that h:s
poetical wardrobe can supply. Yet occasionally we find
passages of the truest eloquence, when, laving aside for a
while his political prejudices, Dr. Croly addresses him-
self to the literary character of Burke. On this sub-
ject no man is better qualified to pronounce a decided
opinion; f'or every page of his book shows with what •
close attention he has studied the works of his great mas-
ter, and what effect they have had upon his own style.
We do not wonder at his admiration of Burke—indeed
we ful:y share it with him, for he was, beyond a ques-
tion, the deepest thinker of his age, as he was its most
eloquent writer. Late in life he suffered party preju-
dices to cloud his vigorous understanding ; but that be
was sincere in his new impressions no one can doubt who
has read his " Reflections," his " Letter to Two Noble
Lords," and more particularly his "Thoughts on the
Regicide Peace." It has been the fashion to call Burke
a " fine writer ;" but this is not the case. His eloquence
was not that of mere verbiage, but of idea. Not a
figurative embellishment does he introduce, but such as
tends to illustrate his theme more directly and lucidly
than if he had used the tritest and most prosaic forms of
speech. In his poetical allusion, for instance, to the.
proud keep of Windsor," we have a truer, clearer, and
more concise definition of the British Constitution, than
is to be found in the treatises of the most matter-of-fact
statists. But it is idle to discuss the claims of one so
well known as Burke. He has already taken a station
in the Temple of Fame, from which it is not likely he
will ever be dislodged.