The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-13 00:00:00

A LOVER'S FANCIES.

" What sounds like pewter," said my Rose, in play—
" The fall of earth upon a coffin lid."
" Like tin?"—" The cock-crow heralding the day,
Or infant wailing that its mother chid."
" Like steel?"—" The quick sharp twitter on the spray
Of numerous sparrows in the foliage hid."
" Like gold?"—" The strong wind over forests borne,
Or full bass singer chanting prayer and creed."
" Like brass?"—" The neighing of a frightened steed,
Or roar of people clamouring for corn."
" Like iron?"—" Thunder-claps suddenly woken,
Startling the city in the summer night."
" Like silver?"—" Thy sweet voice that speaks delight,
And breathes Love's promise, never to be broken."
As a mere rhythmical eccentricity, the " Water
Tarantella " is curious ; and the chaunt of " The
Mowers " has about it an awful solemnity. For his
" Town Lyrics," as well as for his " Voices," Charles
Mackay has our benison.

SHAKSPERE. A Romance. By _Henry Curling. 3 Vas.
Oar first sentiment on taking up this work wao
one of surprise at its author's audacity—an audacity
which had attempted to pourtray Shakspere as he
might have been, when his own pen has so empha-
tically demonstrated what he seas. Mr. Curling's
attempt was an audacious one, and his task suffi-
ciently difficult. The result, however, has been suc-
cessful ; he has overcome, or evaded, the difficulties
which beset him, and the attractive character of his
accomplished work incline us to forgive the audacity
which initiated it. Were we to judge this work only
as a novel we should find in it much to commend and
also some things to censure. But we do not propose to
weigh " Shakspere" by the ordinary standard : our chief
object of interest in turning over the pages WIIS to see
how the immortal bard had been pourtrayed, and our
comment now shall be confined to that particular
feature. Mr. Curling's portrait of S
are inclined to think, a happy one. In pourtraying
hat ie
his ideal Shakspere, Mr. Curling has evidently_s been
guided not so much by the brief record of his his
..tsoeray ,
with which we are acquainted, as by_th.se
asctteenmed
tin this
timents represented in his plop.. Ili
respect has been somewhat. shimtilar to thepchemical
process of resolution, by whic he dissolved.. particles
of a body are reduced again to their primitive sub-
stance. The soul of our author ;becomes, as it were,
diffused in his writings, his individual character and
adventures are parhosetially represented by the creations
of his fan T
cy. who knew Shakspere when
living would doubtless have recognised him in the
spirit of his plays—but Mr. Curling 5 has been a more
difficult task. Knowing Shakspere, it were easy to
understand his plays, but Mr. Curling, understanding
his plays, has wished from them to know Shakspere.
In these volumes the gentle Willieaappears to us
mixing in those scenes which we
mplays. Fory suppose
t''''
e over s=ample,
m pt l
the
,
have been the prototypes of his
we find him musing in the lonely Roods
character of the melancholy Jaques, or dreamii;g a
dream of a Midsummer night. Again,
in the midst of a jovial band of deer-stealers,
we see him
eer-stealers, before
Sir Thomas Lucy had missed the deer from Charle-
cote, leading the hunting chorus " What shall he
have who slew the deer ?"—one of these boon-com-
Ipanions representing the original of Falstaff. We
watch the vicissitudes of his mi. iginary career as a lover,

finding him at first devoted to a gentle maiden of
high degree, who might have suggested to him
Miranda, and Juliet, and Desdemona ; she is taken
away by death in the early period of their loves,
and we then follow the inconstant suitor in his woo-
ing of Anne Hathaway. We listen to him serenad-
ing her with the musical invocation of Cymbeline
" Hark, hark, the lark at Heaven's gee sings," and
perceive him throwing in at her window the original
of that love-song containing that exquisite and lover•
like play upon the name of Hathaway—

" To melt the sad, make blythe the gay,
And nature charm Anne, bath a way—
She bath a way,
Anne Hathaway,
To breathe delight, Anne hath a way."

Shakspere and Anne are married, and the romancist
passes briefly over the discord of their unhappy
married life. The unfortunate Duchess of
Praslin has beautifully and truthfully said
" sympathy is the marriage of souls." No sym-
pathy united the poet and the illiterate village maiden
—they were spiritually uncongenial and disunited.
After the deer-stealing at Charlcote, Shakspere takes
refuge in London. Here we find him engaged "to
snuff the candles and sweep the stage" at the Globe
Theatre, and afterwards, when his own plays come
to be broughtforward on the stage, we see the humble
woolcomber's son transformed with marvellous cele-
rity into the favourite of royalty, and the friend of
Raleigh, and Essex, and Spencer, and the chief gal-
lants of the Court. The description of the first re-
presentation of " The lamentable Tragedy of Romeo
and Juliet," which is introduced in this portion of
the narrative, is detailed in a very effective and most
interesting manner. At this phase of his existence
Mr. Curling takes leave of his hero, and concludes
the third volume of a work, which, if it be in some
particulars imperfect, is, on the whole, both attractive
and interesting, from its happy illustration of the
career and character of Shakspere.

VANITY FAIR. By W. M.Thackeray. Nos. XIX, and
XX.

These numbers complete the work, and Mr.
Thackeray may now boast that he has completed the
best English novel that has been produced in the 19th
century.

THE STUDENTS SELF-INSTRUCTING
FRENCH GRAMMAR. Fifth Edition. By D.
M. Aird.

We observe that this admirable little work, noticed
on former occasions by ourselves, has already reached
its fifth edition. The panegyric thus pronounced
upon it by the public is fully justified by merits
which are as conspicuous as they are numerous.
French is certainly made easy by Mr. Aird in a little
volume of seventy pages. Those who do not acquire
a knowledge of the language by going through those
seventy pages consecutively have only one consola-
tion—they must be possessed of an incorrigible
stupidity. We may mention that the present edition
is both enlarged and corrected.