The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Fables Nouvelles : suiviescle Poesies Diverses. Par
le Chevalier de Chatelain. Whittaker and Co.
The translator of "Gay's Fables " into French,
appears before us, in this charming little volume,
himself as an original fabulist. The Chevalier de
Chatelain has mastered not only the barbarisms of
our own vernacular—but the harsher language of
bird and beast ; insomuch that he takes rank
among the Mezzofantis of the aviary and the zoo-
logical garden, a disciple at once of Gay and Pilpsyl
of .2-Esop and La Fontaine. Turning over his plea-
sant pages it is like gaining a new sense—at the
first rustle of the leaves we are listening to a sage
dialogue between the elephant and the scorpion !
Another flutter of these same leaves and we are
overhearing a confabulation between a candle and
au eclipse ! Another, and we are hearkening to a
chance talk between a tiger and some moun-
taineers. It is a glimpse, again, of Fairyland.
The glamour is once more. Upon us. We are
crowned, as it were, with the Cap of For-
tunatus. We are striding over the hills
in the seven-league hoots of Hop e' my.
Thumb. We have a loan from Jack the Giant-
killer of his sword of strength and his shoes of
swiftee3s. Closing the book and returning to
every-day life—it is like the Princess of the Magic
Pantomime leaving her spangled tunic, and her
tinselled crown, and her glittering wand, to walk
home in the gaslight and the snow, in a grey shawl
and a straw bonnet. Apart from the " Fables,"
however, the book before us has its eccentricities.
It is dedicated "Au Poete Henry Waileworth
Longfellow," in terms so high-flown that they must
infallibly have soared far over the head l/f the
object aimed at, but that that happily chmte ed to
be at somewhat of the loftiest altitude—homt'ge,
that is to say, to the genius of the truest
and loveliest of the poets of America ! The
"good taste" of the dedication, howbeit, nasiy
reasonably, we cannot but think, be called in
question, when it is remembered that words of
praise to Longfellow are jumbled up confusedly
with gibes at "le 21 Mars deruier, Fast Day ! co
jour ou l'llypocrisie, l'Odioux, et l'Absurde,
Trinite toute puissant° en Angloterre,
and jeers at " l'affa,ire Ruaorable Francis Villiers,
fils du Comte de 'Jersey, et Membro du Parte-
tnent pour Rochester, et bien d'autre encore ! ! !"
The italics, by the way, being the Chevalier's own,
and so too, for that matter, being likewise the
notes of admiration. However, M. de Chatelain is
a brave man—and that is the secret of it all—other-
wise we should never haVe him, for instance, cele-
brating the terrible legend of " Le Juif Errant,"
we won't say after Sue, but after Beranger ! After
that wonderful refrain—
"Toujours, toujours,
Toujours, toujours,
Tourne la terra uu mei js cours,
Toujours, toujours, toujours, toujours."
Among the minor pieces' in the volume under
notice, entitled to commendation, are the charming
stanzas "Je voudrais etre"—stanzas conceived in a
strain kindred to that exquisite Chanson in the
"Miller's Daughter' of Tennyson—
" And I would be tbo girdle,
About her dainty dainty waist,
And her heart would beat against me
In sorrow and in rest ;
And I should know if it beat right,
I'd clasp it round so close and tight."
Sweetest morceatt of all the book, however, to our
mind is incomparably " L 3 Reve D'un Petit Ea-
fant"—beginning
" Comma it eat heureux mon grand frilre,
Qu'il est heureux d'avoir six ens !
Tandis que je fais tnn pribre
Au bal it va, nest-co pa,, mere !
Au bal de ;rands petits enfants
Ah qu'il est heureux mon grand fr'ere,
Qu'il est heureux d'avoir six ans !"
Gentle is the heart of the Chevaliir de Chatolain,
say we after that. If eccentric may be his taste
sow and then—gentle is his heart and lively are
hi
s imaginings.

The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine. No. I.
co nducted by Members of the Two Universities.
Bel.
1. and Daldy.
J udL ing it solely from its table of contents, wo
might a Isuredly b© tempted to pronounce this new
er in the literary world to be one of the
adventin
most attra 'dive of this mouth's periodicals. Ex-
amining it more carefully, we are compelled to
pronounce iL
Rivals"—rivai
two " storiet, ',es" fa it—" The Cousins" and cc The
; ono of the very flimsiest. There are
's so nearly related to each other
that they m "igh tbe de. ';cribed as cousins. There is
the prelude to a sento. ,itious biognaphy of Sir
Philip Sidney," 3oluethinh
ioneffect lik-te ©Ai of the
a timo bY .A-
irprnii,:tstmuiarnressti;:edi,en,s.hc,r,ainbdTe
shi:):111once
:i
laiciii.3L.i.,ll
frames -,With paint-
IgiThoefreviT7wheaaltleids
eknown CL'
" Winter Weather : J I Poem.
termed " The Stow of the 11. ur.ch."
And there are revimvs, to cro‘ l'il all,
of Tenn.,
16y's " Sermons for the Times, 9..
of
-14',Zsluofis•-s
" ,Poems," of Longfello ev's " Sono- of Hiawat ''ha,
"
aim` of Thackeray's ccSufficien Neweemes.' N 1
all-ming as themes, no doubt—but
kinl, a.c
re-,',1,d then • •
Read the criticism on Ten nysou—the n nt.c,•-
of the' veriest squirrel of a prig ! R ead ,:` The
Essay cv. the Newcomes"--•-s sort ofmongr el homii'vt
half serrnen, half review, written, it wow Id seem
MagazineT The contributorsar e
evidently tto h
not so nvich upon a desk aLI upon a pulpit c. lashion'.
ibtrtoiticg:
li6o:iiii°r
..,lici andkeß ullycalirC,
who can "roar you like avy sucking do ll e"—
a set of slow young men,—(th ere is no other \ Ford
for
it),.....prig—in all-round collars and Noah's
Ark coats—holding the Dii Ma:o ' res of the new : 16'0
to be Mr. Ruskin, and Mr. ICingeley, and Mr. Its 'l-
man Hunt, Mr. This, and Mr. That, and Mr. Tb 0
other, and themselves of course destined to so',
the Thames in a blaze. Meanwhile in due time—.
be sure of that—their grand bran vow organ of
The Oxford and Cambridge Afagazin.e will inevit-
ably, infallibly, inexorably—Die the Death !