The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-04 00:00:00

T E S

THE MA GAZINES,
BLACK IV OOD.
Aided by his glorious corps of contributors, Christo•
pher contrives each month to furnish his subscribers
with a ;nagazine worthy of his reputation. With the
leafy- month of June comes to us the present model
number of Blackwood. Foremost among the articles
comprised in it must be mentioned one attributable to
no one else than the historian of Europe, Archibald
Alison. It is a scholarly and eloquent disquisition on
the drama as a literary composition, entitled very rug•
gestively " fEschylus, Shakspere, and Schiller." Several
exquisite fragments from the masterpieces of these
three divinist cf playwrights are scattered through the
paper by way of quotations. Sometimes, in the hurry of
his very fluent and sonorous style, it would be well if
Mr. Alison avoided more carefully the abominable vice
of tautology, as where he says of Shakspere (p. 647)
" That he was acquainted with every even
the most secret pangs of jealousy," is evinced
in the astuteness of lago's art, and the
pangs of the Moor's suffering ; or, again, where he
says, enumerating the proofs of dramatic talent given of
late years among ourselves—(p. 657)—" Sheridan
Knowles has written some effective dramas; Bulwer
some charming dramatic romances, distinguished by all
his usual genius, pathos, and imagination; and very,
recently Mr. Marston has brought forward an in-
structing tragedy, in which the important part of his
unhappy Queen Marie de Maranie has been sustained
by the last of these great actresses with equal taste,
dignity, and pathos." Again, and yet again, we would
entreat and implore Mr. Alison to avoid in future this
besetting fault of tautology, a literary blemish as painful
as a discordant note in music or the screeching of a rusty
hinge. Once already it will be observed that in
this number of Blackwood the name of Bulwer
has been mentioned, namely, in his character as
a dramatist, In
.the very same contribution we
meet with it again, namely, in reference to his powers
as a poet and as a translator, that is to say when the
writer alludes to his version of " Schiller." As an addi-
tional testimony of—(we were going to say the versati-
lity, but we recollect hiss speech as chairman of the din-
ner to Merced), and substitute the more correct and to
him more agreeable expression)—the comprehensive-
ness of his genius, we find in tue same instalment of
Ebony an article hight " The Experiences of Free
Trade," being a panegyric upon his last political pam-
phlet; besides which the magazine owes to him its prin-
cipal attraction iu the new instalment afforded by him
of his charming " Novel." The tenth part—the one be-
fore us—is peroaps the very best that has yet appeared.
It closes with the separation of Lenny and his mother
from their wealthy relation, Richard Avenel, in conse-
quence of a quarrel in which tho last-mentioned comes
off rather shabbily, but still with a surprising display of
cleverness. Colonel and Mrs. Pomply are admirable
daguerreotypes of people from that vulgarist of all vulgar
sets, the highly genteel. The scene about Mr. Digby is
capitally drawn. That unfortunate is left at a roadside
inn, evidently dying; and the quarrel which immediately
precedes this, between a hommepathist and a regular
practitioner, will be found a delicious bit of burlesque.
Ditto the love scenes between Richard Avenel and the
lion. Mrs. MeCatchley. The dejei'zne dansant, however,
is the grand feature of the instalment, and in its deli-
neatieu Sir Bulwer Lytton has again afforded a brilliant
evidence of his ability. A comical string of verses
precedes "My Novel," entitled "The Vision
of Polyphemus." Before this, moreover, we are
treated to a rather interesting and curious account
of certain " Vestiges of the Ancient Inhabitants of
Scotland," a paper of course doubly interesting to our
countrymen beyond the Tweed. Somebody in the course
of the number writes a letter to the editor anent " Our
Commercial and Manufacturing Prosperity." Ilous-
saye's " Sketches and Essays" are passed in agreeable
review by a critic who appears to be delightfully con-
genial, though wisely fastidious, " Modern State
Trials," being an elaborate notice of the work so called
by its lamented author, William Charles Townsend, the
late Recorder of Macclesfield, and a series of papers at-
tributed by many to Samuel Warren, are in the June
number of Blackwood brought to a conclusion. They
have been throughout so peculiarly enthralling in in-
terest and so strangely powerful in composition that we
cannot but regret parting with one whom we regard
under the light of an old and well-beloved favourite,
Such is the character of the contents of the current
number of Blackwood.