The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-01 00:00:00

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

If we may judge from the specimen before
us, Mrs. Hemans bids fair to take as high a
station in prose, r. s she now holds in poetry.
Her essay, entitled " German Studies," which
heads the present number, is graceful, eloquent,
and embroidered all over with rich poetic
thoughts. If anything, it is a little too figura-

tive. A chaster style would have been mor e
suitable ; but by practice she will, no doubt,
mellow down to the requisite simplicity. The
best thing in her essay is the character of the
Princess Leonora d'Este, which she brings out
in the finest and most delicate colours. Speaking
of this accomplished lady's love for Tasso, Mrs.
Hemans observes with exquisite grace, " She
rejoices in his presence, as a flower filling its
cup with gladness from the morning light."
" Sketches of Irish Fools" is a clever article
from the pen of Mr. Grattan, who should
instantly take pen in hand aad give us an Irish
domestic novel, for he is evidently well versed in
a!1 those strange motley combinations of wit,
shrewdness, passion, and downright fatuity, that
go to make up your true untravelled Patlander-
How accurate is Mr. Grattan's remark, " the
joy of an Irishman has always a dash of me-
lancholy in it ; and there is a rainbow even in his
most clouded sky !" Again, what can be more
just than his assertion, that " our fools perpe-
tually say the shrewdest things ; our wise men
constantly do the most foolish ?" The disserta-
tion on the " Progress cf Music, from the
Commencement of the Present Century," will be
devoured with avidity by all who have—or affect
to have—an ear of melody. We subjoin some
pleasant gossip about Velluti.

" Velluti was guided by a high and honourable spirit.
He was every inch a gentleman, and he stood upon his
reputation with a loftiness which, though in some in-
stances it bordered up:)n the ridiculous, proceeded, never-
theless, from a noble emulation of greatness, and, we may
add, of goodness. lie bad, no doubt, been spoiled, in a
degree, by excessive adulation. The following anecdotes
wi:l illustrate his character, and we pledge ourselves for
their truth :—On the night of his first appearance, it
must be owned he stood a perilous chance. Previous to
the rising of the curtain, the manager requested Mr.
to go and offer him the best encouragement he could.
Mr. went, descanted upon the generosity of an
English audience, upon Velluti's claims and reputation,
anti the merits of 411 Crociato.' He assured the soprano
that nothing could be more foreign from the English
character than to countenance such attacks as the Times
had made upon him, and that they would, in all probabi-
. .

lity, operate in his behalf. In short, the consoler exhausted
all his eloquence to infuse into him the necessary fortitude.
Velluti listened with the utmost calmness. When the
harangue was concluded, he drew himself up to his utmost
height, his fine dark eyes glanced fire, he placed his hand
in his bosom, turned towards the speaker, and merely said
with all the dignity he could so well assume, 'SON VEL-
LUTI.
His friend skulked away, with a feeling between
the sense of the sublime, and the ridiculous. Next for
the generous part of his nature. A. dispute arose concern-
ing the assumption of the Director of Music' by Mr.
Bochsa, during Velluti's management. It concluded with
a skirmish in the newspapers. On the morning when
Velluti's letter appeared, he called on a young lady, one
of his most favourite pupils ; he asked if she had seen it.
' Yes,' she replied, 'and with regret ; because you have
been made to say what, lam sure, you did not mean.'
How so ?" It begins—' A certain Mr. Bochsa.' Now,
although you wrote Un certo Signor Bochsa,' the Eng-
lish translation conveys an insult.' Velluti departed
instantly ; he drove to the residence of Lord Burgliersh.
My Lord,' said he, am told that my letter hears such
an interpretation : is it true?' It is.' Pray then
translate for me as follows.' And he dictated a frank
avowal that what he had said arose from his ignorance of
the English that to offer an insult to any one
belonged neither to his disposition nor his education.'
This he published the next morning. A meeting was
subsequently held between the parties, together with the
manager and a friend, to settle the point. Long explana-
tions were given. Velluti simply demanded—' Is Mr.
Bochsa to use the title of Director of Music at the King's
Theatre ?' There was a slight hesitation. Velluti thrust
his engagement, which involved a sum of three thousand
six hundred pounds into the candle, and, but that one of
the parties seized his arm, it would have been consumed.''

" Songs of Spain," by Mrs. Hemans, breathe
a high-souled, romantic spirit of chivalry. The
" Old Spanish Battle Song," from its terse,
nervous character, is worthy of Lockhart.
" aE,Tie Castle" is a fragment, and, like most
fragments, unintelligible. It is by Theodore
Hook, who has departed from his usual style,
and imitates the marked manner of O'Doherty.
" Milton's Prose Works" is an article of the
mediocre class. It contains a curious extract from
Lord Brougham's installation speech at Glas-
gow, where, speaking of Jeremy Taylor, his
Lordship describes him as a " witty andfiznci-
Jul writer !" Now no two phrases were ever
more inappropriate than these. The old Bishop
has not an atom of wit in his composition. He
is quaint at times, as was the fashion of his day;
but as for the light rapier play of wit, he has
no more notion of it than a prize ox. Again, he
is not fanciful, at least not in the sense in which
this term of levity is generally used. He is re-
markable for a grave, lofty, thoughtful imagina-
tion, and we should as soon think of applying
the word " fanciful" to Wordsworth's Excur-
sion, as to Taylor's Sermons. There are no
two faculties so often confounded, yet so per-
fectly distinct, as fancy and imagination. The
one glitters—dazzles, like a small bright star on
a frosty night ; the other shines with the steady,
mellowed radiance of the harvest moon. The
one can exist, and often does, without feeling :
the other, never. " The Chartered Booksellers"
is a bold, masterly expo 4 of the " Cheap Lite-
rature" humbug. We hope, indeed we are sure,
it will produce a good effect. Of the few re-
maining articles, we have merely space to say,
that they will repay perusal.