The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-29 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Traits of Character. Being Twenty-five Years'
Literary and Personal Recollections. By a Con-
temporary. 2vols. Hurst and Blackett. •
The authoress of these volumes having been
throwninto communication with celebrities of all
ranks and professions during the last quarter of a
century, has naturally thought that her reminis-
cences of their ways and manners would prove in-
teresting to readers of the present day. Her circle
of acquaintance has been a very comprehensive one,
for she includes in her list statesmen and soldiers,
preachers and players, dramatists and judges, mem-
bers of the legal and medical profession, and some
remarkable only fcr their stations or their eccen-
tricities. Prominent among the subjects of her
sketches are Lord Melbourne, the Duke of Wel-
lington, Edward Irving, Thomas Moore, Edmund
Kean, Mr. Spurgeon, Tyrone Power, and Mrs.
Shelley. With all these personages, and indeed
with most of the individuals mentioned in her
volumes, she has been in intimate personal com-
munication. Of the great Duke she gives a very
interesting description, in the account of two visits
which she paid him. On the first occasion she ac-
companied a lady friend who went to ask a favour,
which was curtly and decidedly refused ; the
abruptness of the reception only being tempered by
particular kindness to herself—a kindness still
further manifested on the subsequent occasion,
when a lengthened interview took place. The
Duke's sayings and doings, as described by our
authoress on this occasion, offer a singular contrast
to the general coldness of his manner to strangers,
a fact which is possibly explained by her likeness
to an early friend of his. Her acquaintance with
Lord Melbourne originated, like many other of her
distinguished friendships, in her literary pursuits.
The authoress, although she withholds her name,
admits that she belongs to the literary craft, and her
writings appear to have been the means of intro-
ducing her to many authors and authoresses of
distinction. Lord Melbourne, it appears, had
contributed some sonnets to one of the annuals
which were at that time in fashion, and the
authoress having written a tale for the same
periodical, an acquaintance was commenced. She
speaks of him highly, and thus describes his manner
in private society :

LORD MELBOURNE.
He had none of the " craft and subtlety" of diplomacy
about him—none of its Jesuitical, self-imposed, and con-
trolling apathy, which ordinarily gives and creates such a
great similarity between a thorough-bred diplomat and a
Catholic priest in his noviciate. Lord Melbourne had none
of this unnatural and sustained gravity. He could laugh
—ay, and very frequently and heartily did so ; and enjoyed,
as much as any one I ever knew, such ebullitions of mirth-
fulness; neither had he an atom of the scrupulous over-
weening caution so many official men have. He would
converse of public men and public measures just as freely
and naturally as if he were not a leader of the one and
a framer of the other. Of his political contemporaries, also,
he talked unhesitatingly and openly ; of some with such
concentrated and intense dislike and bitterness, that I think
he would quite have realised Dr. Johnson's " good hater."
He was a very shrewd and observant man, and had singular
talent for divination of character. He might literally be
said to read a person at a glance. He could detect in a
moment any attempt at dissimulation or artifice. He said
that her Majesty possessed this power in a most remarkable
degree; and that with her steady, yet eagle. gaze fixed upon
them, none ever dared to or could utter other than the
per-
fect truth. He told me some instances in corroboration of
this peculiar faculty of hers, but which I do not consider
myself justified in repeating.
He expressed an unmitigated abhorrence for anything
that partook of or approximated to deceit; and I believe ho
righteously observed in every particular that rigid truthful-
ness he desired and expected in others. He had the most
retentive of memories—in some respects positively wonder-
ful. Persons and events, of the most inconsequent and trivial
character, whom perchance he had had named to him but
once, and that years long past, he would remember and in-
quire after, when the very existence of them by yourself
was utterly forgotten. He has often astonished me by sud-
denly asking, "What became of Mr. So. and-so I)" or
" What was the end of that business you told me of ?"
She is throughout a very lenient critic. She has
taken for her motto Othello's famous saying,
"Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice;"
and though frequently repeating that she has pre-
served a rigid adherence to truth, she has gene-
rally leaned to the side of mercy in her verdicts.
In one point her work is deserving of the highest
commendation. She has scrupulous avoided re-
cording anything which might trench on the con-
fidence of private life, although the insertion of
letters, domestic anecdotes, 8.. c., might have greatly
enhanced the attractions of her sketches. This
reticence is so rare at the present day that it is
especially meritorious. Her descriptions of the
personal appearance of the notabilities she refers to
are minute, and give the reader a fair idea of the
individuals described. She is evidently, as she
confesses, a great admirer of personal beauty ; but,
to tell the truth, she is far more liberal in her praise
of the gentlemen than of the ladies. She appears,
however, to be totally free from the jealousy which
is supposed to belong to the literary craft. Almost
all the lady celebrities she refers to belong to her
own profession. We have pen and ink portraits of
Lady Blessington, Mrs. Norton, L.E.L., and Mrs.
Shelley.. Of thd latter lady she gives us the fol-
lowing interesting description :
MRS. SHELLEY.
Mrs. Shelley at that period, though a few years had
passed since her bereavement, was still mourning over the
untimely death of a husband so loved, and by whom she
was equally beloved ; though then young, she had none of
the buoyancy or elasticity of youth about her. The trap-
pings of grief and " livery of woe" had been cast aside ;
still there was a settled sadness, a grave, gentle melancholy,
in her face, and voice, and gait, which at once aroused your
sympathy and elicited your interest in her. She was then,
too, struggling against adverse fortune; and was working
bravely, though toilsomely, to win honest bread for herself
and boy (the present Sir Percy Shelley, Bart.)
Not long previous to this, she had, I was told, been com-
pelled to undergo the fatigue of giving lessons as a daily
governess. But she was then supporting herself by her
pen, with a slender allowance from her husband's family.
I have never seen a portrait that at all did her justice. If
not a beauty, she was a most interesting, lovable-looking
' woman ; with a skin exquisitely fair, and expressive gray
eyes ,• features delicate, yet of that style and proportion
which have won the term of " aristocratic ;" hair of a light
but bright brown, most silky in texture and luxuriant in
I profusion, which hung in long drooping ringlets over her
colourless cheek, and gathered in a cluster behind, fell
wavingly over her shoulders ; a large, open forehead ;
white and well-moulded arms and hands. She was a de-
gree under the middle height, and rather inclined to embon-
point.
I need scarcely say, to the memory of her husband she
was devotedly attached, and never weary of talking of, or
myself of listening to, praise of his supreme genius. He
must have been one of the most amiable of men. She re-
presented him as all but perfection; but even those most
opposed to his writings have never denied his many claims
to admiration as a man. A picture that she had of him,
which she said was a faithful likeness, gave you alike the
idea of his genius and the characteristics of his nature. Tho
most tender sensitiveness, the most delicate susceptibility,
were stamped on every line and feature of the face. It
was extraordinarily juvenile-looking. "He always was
taken for much younger," she said " than he was.'
Of Lord Byron I solemnly aver she ever spoke most
favourably. Never did her lips utter the wretched slander,
the vile detraction with which so many of his pretended
friends, to their own eternal disgrace, have sought to stain
and darken his immortal name and fame. She gave abun-
dant instances of his tender compassionateness for all that
was helpless. To the little child, the defenceless dumb
animal, the stricken with poverty, he was (she asserted)
ever gentle, merciful, generous. Despite all that envy,
malignity, and cliquing have done to wrong and injure your
reputation, Time, the righteous judge, the unbiassed, un-
fettered arbiter of human actions, will yet do you justice
poor, ill-understood, persecuted Byron 1
The style of the work is occasionally too verbose,
and the use of superlatives somewhat too frequent,
but the anecdotes, descriptions, and incidents intro-
duced are so numerous that the reader cannot cop,
plain of want of entertainment. Contrary to the
habit of most writers, the authoress not only givest
sketches of all whom she professes to desc_ the , old
adds several others, after the fashion
novelists, who make one story run into an
o
introdue°B anec-
oft
hr
anehr an
that into a third. She often
the day, in
dote referring to some notability ef
of the same
profes-
the life of another member
sion. Thus we have, in the sketch of Sheridan
Knowles, the following instance of the-generosity Of
MR. MACREADY•
t of
In the early par •
his career, before fortune and
fame upon him, there was onecl
their smiles
fame had lavished
ewho was particularly kind to him
lady, a distant relativ
ministering out of her. s'lender means, in every way possible'
oyraent. Years rolled on, b • ;
to his comfort and
utations in human destinies ea hilfs
we
with them til°seto Macready, every advancing one
untoward
rewards
events, c n s
yield-
charged with ;ing an increase o 71foproopounlaorioetsysloanndofthuenstooliwd
quent onrd'stress, with the afiliction of blindness indi-
gencesuper-
an- ady knew not of this. She made no appeal,-
added. Macre
coqruaithnoted him with the struggles she had to combat
fearful calamity. with which she had been
norwit
with,
stricken. When at the pinnacle of fame he made a profes-
sional tour in Ireland, and was announced as about to visit
the place where this poor lady was then dragging on a
weary and uncheered existence. He arrived at —. His
name, in large capitals, was placarded over the walls of the
town, specifying the characters—some of his most cele-
brated ones—which he was going to perform there. She
was incapacitated from reading the intimation that he was
a visitant to the place where she now—poor, and blind, and
lonely—was living, but the information was conveyed to
her. The friend who told her begged that she would make
her present position known to Macreddy ; but, with that
timidity engendered by poverty, consequent on the chilling
treatment the world too often accords to it, she hesitated.
"He is such a great man now—he will forget all about me,"
she said. " I think differently," replied her visitor. " Let
me write to him about you 1" Her consent was gained, and
ere the day closed the best answer was given to her appeal ;
for Macready was at the humble lodging, and by the poor
blind sufferer's side, tending her with affectionate care, lis-
tening to all her sorrows, devising for them such allevia-
tion as silver and gold could supply, and providing for her
present wants with the lavish.hand of liberality and affec-
tion. Every delicacy, likely to tempt her appetite was sent
in—a hamper of good old wine accompanying them; and
not content with mere temporary bounty, he insured to her
an annuity for life sufficient to meet her every requirement ;
and when making known to her this his intent,. placed in
her hands a cheque for the first quarter. During his so-
urni in the place, whilst, as the caressed idol of the hour,.
his society was courted by all ranks, and pleasant c
a 1
ncvt
ei a.
tions to fill his every leisure interval offered to his
ance, to his honour be it recorded that the chief Pa
sal°r 0
_ —.„:
time was passed, not in, the py and aposablo