The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-29 00:00:00

VEST VALT.

Felicita de Vestvali is a member of an old aris-
tocratic family, being the daughter of the Count
Pawlowski, who was married to Charlotte, Baroness
Hunefeldt. She was born i❑ Berlin on the 23d of
February, 1811. Endowed by nature with singular
talent, she was early given every advantage that in-
struction could afford. At the age of 12 she spoke
five languages fluently, and was well versed in the
works of the principal ancient as well as modern
poets. She was likewise a skilful performer upon
several musical instruments. Her education was
conducted principally in Berlin, where she studied
elocution under the celebrated Emil Devrient, and
subsequently became a pupil of the fatuous
Professor Rocaurt. Having completed her
musical studies under the great Maestro Mere t-
dante, she made her debut at the Theatre
of La Scala, in Milan, as Azucona, in Verdi's
opera "Il Trovatore," and effected at once
an extraordinary actuation. She the❑ made a tour
of the principal cities of continental Europe—Rome,
Florence, Naples, Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg,
Amsterdam, Madrid, and Lisbon, finally visiting
Paris, where she had been previously offered to be
received as a substitute for Rachel, at a period when
the physical powers of that grand actress began to
how symptoms of decay.
At the Imperial opera in Paris, Vestvali created
a perfect furore in the part of Romeo (the piece
having been expressly for her rendered into French).
Fiorentini, Jules Janin, and all the leading critics
spoke of her genius and execution in language of
the highest eulogy. After a brilliant career of two
years in Paris, the universal laudations bestowed
upon her histrionic abilities decided her on culti-
vating the loftiest walks of the drama, and she pro-
ceeded to give several representations in Germany,
reaping additional laurels in that classic land of art,
which she would have made her home, but that the love
of travel and adventure impelled her to seek " fresh
fields and pastures new." The New World next
became the arena of Vestvali's triumphs. In Mexico,
Cuba, and all the chief towns of the United States,
she was received with enthusiastic admiration
throughout her professional campaign. She was,
moreover, greeted most cordially at the White
House by both the late and the present President
of the Great Republic.
From all who have enjoyed the good fortune of
her private acquaintance she has won golden opi-
nions both in Europe and America as a most amiable
and accomplished lady, whilst the pablic and the
press of the various countries of her sojourn have
paid universal homage to her as au artist of con-
summate histrionic ability. The warm, impulsive,
frank, and sincere nature of Felicita do Vestvali
attracts affectionate regard, as her artistic pre-
eminence commands profound admiration.
Vestvali's features are handsome, their expres-
sion pleasing and replete with intelligence. Her
figure is tall, commanding, and splendidly
moulded. Her action is characterised by dignity
and grace. Her voice, in speaking and in singing,
is one of great power, richness, awl melsdy. That
study and reflection have been superad led to un-
common natural gifts is evident from her great im-
personation of Romeo, now being nightly given at
the Lyceum, and which has been hailed by crowded
audiences with storms of applause, and cstumented
on by the London press in terms of high praise, as
being portrayed with the utmost skill, with ad•
mirable power of elocution, originality of concep-
tion, and overpowering vehemence of passion. She
has been pronounced to be the best " male actor"
on the stage; and a fitting colleague to Helen
Faucit and Ristori. From seeing Vestvali in
Romeo, we can easily conceive that .he amply
merits the reputation she has achieved, not only
in such parts as her original creation of " The
Jewish Mother," but in Lady Macbeth and the
other parts that she has played in English, which
language she is acknowledged to speak with perfect
purity and correctness of pronunciation.

Mr. Robert Buchanan is preparing a bijou edition
of Longfellow's Poems for Messrs. Moxon, which is to
cmtain a complete collection of that author's poetical
works, and to appear in two volumes, uniform with the
popular edition of Hood's Serious and Comic Poems. Each
volume will be prefaced by a critical essay by the editor.

LITERATURE.

Messrs. Moxon's PublicAtions.

TENNYSON'S " VIVIEN " AND " GUINEVERE."
ILLUSTRATED BY GUSTAVE DORE.

Another magnificent volume has, here, done honour
to the genius alike of Gustave Dore and Alfred
Tennyson. The " Elaine" of last Christmas has been
fully equalled, if it has not even been surpassed, by
the " Vivien" and the " Guinevere" prepared for the
coming Christmas. And simultaneously with the pub-
lication of these superb companion gift-book:, the
publishers give golden promise of yet a fourth
Idyll of the King, to be issued from the press at
the approach in 18G8 of next Christmas twelve-
month—" Enid," to wit, another of the classic
masterpieces of the Poet Laureate. Accepting " the
goods the gods have given us," accepting what
we have actually now in hand—neither looking for-
ward, that is, to the coming " Enid" of next season,
nor backward in retrospect at the lovely, " Elaine"
of last season— we have certainly here immediately
under our notice in these two nobly illustrated
companion editions of " Vivien" and Guinevere"
sufficient, in all consiience, while turning the leaves
to captivate two of the senses—the ear through
the music of the verse, the eye through the sym-
pathetic and harmonious beauty of the embellish-
ments. Witnessing editions de luxe such as these
coming forth year after year during his own
lifetime, must be assuredly for Mr. Tennyson
himself like a very foretaste of the admiration of
posterity. And he is certainly to be congratulated
upon having had the expansion of his own immense
popularity to a very considerable extent kept pace with
by the co-operative enterprize of his publishers; while
he has yet more recently through that very enter-
prize of theirs, had his name covered with a
new glory, a glory reflected back apon the
author himself, and upon two or three of the
choicest among his poems, by the artistic
genius of M. Gustave Dore. Fresh from
his astounding achievements as an illustrator
of the Holy Bible, of ➢Tilton, of Dante, of Cer-
vantes the young French draughtsman has
seemingly devoted the whole force of his genius, as
to a genuine labour of love, when undertaking this
latest and apparently most congenial task yet
allotted to him, that of revealing by his pencil the
marvellous scenery and the exquisite forms already
delineated with such master-touches of art, by the pen
of Alfred Tennyson. The originals of these latest
effusions of Durei's daring and prolific genius are now
on view at the publishers' in Dover-street, Piccadilly.
But, here, in engravings of rare excellence from the
burines of engravers as skilled as Baker, Barlow,
Brandard, Finden, Godfrey, Greatbach, Jeens,
Mote, Ridgway, Saddler, Stephenson, and Willmore,
we have those same original drawings of Dore's very
wonderfully rendered indeed by a sister art. Added
to which—those among the artist's more enthusiastic
admirers who may be desirous of possessing even
exacter copies than any that could be produced by
the hand of the most faithful and dexterous engraver
that ever lived, may, if they so please, secure to
themselves by preference literal reflections from the
actual drawings of Gustave Dore, in the form of a
series of exquisitely delicate photographs—two of
which, indeed, are here given in the published
volume, vis-a-vis to the corresponding
The one prefixed to Vivien being illustrative—how
marvellously I—of the lines.—
" And pushing his black craft among them all,
He lightly scattered theirs and brought her off
With loss of half his people arrow slAin."
Death hurtling in the air in a cloud of arrows,
gurgling and washing luridly about the hulls of the
grim warships, struggling fiercely in the desperate
forms of the contending warriors ! The companion
photograph to " Guinevere" being illustrative of a
very different spectacle, indeed—

"And still, at evenings, on before his horse
The flickering fairy-circle whoel'd and broke,
Flying."
The solitary mail-clad horseman, conspicuous afar
off ou the height in the moonlight—the night wind
blowing freshly through the tall water-reeds in the
foreground—the swirling, eddying trail of fairies
voluptuously swimming past in mid-air ? Shall
we say it ? however, while the vigorous en-
graving, by Stephenson, of the desperate
conflict iu " Vivien" is after all, in spite
of its excellence, inadequate as a rendering of
the wonderful lights and shadows in the original
drawing from the hand of Dore—Ridgway's ver-
sion of the wheeling fairy circle in Guinevere
seems almost an improvement in some respects :
judging of the contrast, that is, by a mere
comparison of the engraving with the accom-
panying photograph. Eighteen drawings there
are in all to the two poems—nine to "Vivien" and
nine to " Guinevere." And again we are left in
doubt, after a careful examination of them all, as to
whether Dore's genius is more conspicuously mani-
fested in his limnings of the " human face [and
form] divine," or in his delineations of scenery.
The illustrations of " Vivien" take, almost by
right, precedence of those to " Guinevere." Take
the first—not the frontispiece (already mentioned)
but the first in the body of the text—
" At Merlin's feet the wily Vivien lay."
This is the opening scene of all—under the oak "so
hollow, huge, and old," as the poet sings, that it
"looked like a tower of ruined mason work." The
storm coming--not come, but coming—in "the wild
woods of Broceliande." The venerable magician
and the voluptuous enchantress are revealed, there,
to our view as the fitting denizens of those awful
woodland solitudes. Next comes—

" And touching Breton sands they disembarked."
Under the shadow of a gaunt and craggy head-
land, the same two forms, Merlin and Vivien, are
seen advancing from the beach, across the sands,
on towards the next incident of their wanderings
together, namely, to their re-entrance into the
wild woods of Broceliande—a scene of rare and
austere beauty, in which the eye notes the casual
dropping, here and there, of a flickering leaf
from the autumnal branches. A glorious depth of
overshadowing woodlands there is in the next
drawing in this marvellous series of illustrations to
" Vivien" —the one in which Arthur and his Knights,
brimming goblets in hand, are pledging each other
at the first thought
"About the founding of a Table Round."
But the glory and rush of the next are yet more
remarkable—where the royal and knightly caval-
cade are seen careering over the dense underwood,
and over the prostrate trunks of trees crumbled by
ago or blasted by lightning—the riders bearing
straight down upon us " against a rushing wind,"
as we gaze upon the animated picture with an admi-
ration which it commands rather than simply claims.
The next is very beautiful—
"And speaking not, but leaning over him,
I took his brush, and blotted out the bird."
Merlin is the speaker—the "fair young squire" being
the draughtsman, for the nonce, whose device upon
his shield is thus emended by the hand of the
magician. Afterwards we have the " little glassy-
headed hairless man," seated, hermit-wise in his
rocky den at his meditations—an admirable piece of
character-painting with a magical flooding in of the
outer light, in the midst of which the foragers are
described by " the great master" as descending into
the cavernous abode of the recluse. Merlin's sleep
and Vivien's flight, iu the next picture—with the
roaring of the storm through all and over all—the
storm of wind and rain and lightning and thunder—
bending the branches of the prostrate oak, snapping
the twigs off, whirling away a cloud of flying leaves
" thick as leaves of Valauabrosa," wild and weird as
(what they actually are) the leaves of Broceliande
—all this is astonishingly pourtrayed by Gustave
Dore's pencil, as all of it had previously been
as astonishingly pourtrayed by Teunyson's pen of
luminous fascination. Of the ui3e drawings allotted
to " Guinevere," and of which we have as yet only
made mention of one (the frontispiece)—the most
tenderly pathetic among them all is that in which
Lancelot and his love
"Ruda to the divided way,
Then kissed and parted weeping."
A charming scene, the pathos, the light, the beauty
of wi:ich are simply inimitable. The flight to Alrnes-
bury " by glimmering waste and weald"— next in
sequence—has in its way also a singular power

of fascination. Sr) toots the glorious star

J,
light scene upon the terrace—and the forest
glade, where the Cupids are gambolling ara°l4
the wayside flowers—and the Cornish sea foam:,
ing up on the sand of " dark I)undazil
—and (best beautiful of all) the lovers sauntering
their horses " under groves that looked a paradise °f
blossom"—these, with the rest of the charming ow
bellishment(to " Guinevere," complete a vol.jme 8:
beautiful, both poetically and pictorially, as thera°,s
fastidious lover of verse and art could reasonably
wish to see, or still more to possess. 13°etri
like that of Tennyson, but more especially in these
his " Idylls of the King," is essentially every run'
and ever fresh in its vernal and perennial beauty'
And though adorning it thus by the graces and
charms of a sympathetic and congenial art, somewhat
partakes of the nature of gilding refined gold, Pault,
ing the lily, and adding a perfume to the violet-011 a
is almost tempted to speak of the freshness and Youth
of poetry like this, when so adorned, as about the
s
aptest illustration the world has yet seen of-`L¢
Jeunesse Dor6.

LORD HOUGHTON'S LIFE OF KEATS.
Sixteen years ago, at the time of its original Pub-
lication, we remember very well reviewing, at CO/1-
siderable length in these columns, this esquisi-
memorial of John Keats by Lord Houghton, 061
a commoner, and member for the borough of r°11;
tefract. A re-examination of the work in its ne
form—[it appeared originally in two small volumes;
whereas it is published now in one handsome Wm.,
of goodly size extending to 363 pages, arrayed
bevilled binding of a substantial character]-4 rd'
examination of the work in its present form, 311
with ono or two noticeable modifications ill 10
general arrangement, only confirms us in our Prelbe
ous opinion, that the book is worthy at once ,f i
writer and of his theme. As a mere narrative, be
biography of John Keats, as it has here bee
penned by Lord Houghton, has about it a fasciai•
tion that rivets the reader's attention at the outset'
and carries the charm on unbroken to the ens,
Mingled with the story of the young poet's •1 3
0,
33
however, running through it in subtle involutions
a thread of gold might through a piece of tapes*
there is a vein of most delicate and gracefully SP
preciative criticism as applied to the consideration
Keats's poetic genius by the brother poet wh° o
assumed by sympathy the office of his biograP 11era
The work in its very title affects not to be simply 0..
biography of the author of Endymion and "14140c1
rion—assuming, as it does, to be "The Life
Letters" of John Keats whose corresponue-03
thus naturally assumes to itself a certain promilier
or importance of its own as constituting a rrAht'i,ro
notable portion of the work as a whole. 5-"-ri
is an anticipative charm for the reader in the very
dedication of the boA, thus, to the wife 0f 13:1ay
Cornwall—we are tempted to give the dedication
its integrity—

This
Life of Keats
Is dedicated to
Mrs. Bryan Procter,
A Poet's Wife, a Post's Mother,
and
Herself of many Poets
The Frequent Theme and Valued Friend.
sv
The work, in its new form, is essentially 3 are
edition. And as a token of the care taken is t
gard to the mere arrangement of its constittlin°
portions, it is worthy of especial remark that un :1340
considerable portions of the Literary ll'en33:
instead of being appended to the biographY 3.-the
sort of illustrative supplement, as was done la
original imprint, are here, in this new eliti°ll:to
serted in the body of the text at the 1)13°3,0
which they naturally belong, as having ~..
at those particular periods of the poet's life 13 3,
-,
duced. This, of itself, is a very great, n'
provement. And the mention of another Cotato
that has happily been decided upon enables u 3036
make what we certainly regard a 3 3 felthe
agreeable announcement --to the effect th3v
other portions of th; Literary Remains not IldrelY , the
troduced at their appropriate places in the b.)
text of Lord Houghton's Life of Keats (adt her: -0
troduced by reason, we presume, of their leot ra
for instance the Dramatic Pieces), are reserve" "",°0
fitly to form part of a New Edition of the l'°wot
Works to be printed uniform with the Pr,
era,
volume, a new edition that we are left, thereL°o,
to conjecture, is now in actual course of Pr`33,of
tion. An appendix there is nevertheless--haPc3a
let us say—even to the present carefully rei'3,rj
imprint of " Keats's Life and Letters" 131 Lore
Houghton. Rather, perhaps we should saY-1
correctly, three distinct appendices—to wit, and
specimens of Keats's criticism on Edmund ICea,3so's
Shakspere —secondly, another version of Nets%
"Hyperion"—and thirdly, a fragment a Key
e4'
of doubtful (shall we say of very doubtful ?) sat:bera
deity. Prefixed to the work as it now stands, co.
is an exquisitely engraved, and very delicatelY Pip
cilled portraiture of John Keats, with his autc)gr:3o.l
characteristically askew beHeath it—a head ern'T
36
with hyacinchine curls, among which one 3111 of
naturally looks to find interwoven the teuaral ivi
the vine, wreathed with grape leaves, aa
nder
leaves, and dittany—eyes luminous, sad, and tnetotic
—a sensuous mouth and chin—a bacchic c°--nf tia
altogether, in the general effect—the head these
anacreontic anachronism, a true worshipper i'lll,Air
later days of all the lovelier denizens of the
theon of the antique mythology.

MOXON'S MINIATURE POETS. erie's
Two other volumes of this very charel'ult3ctieli
have recently made their appearance: a Sei':
from the Poems of Lord Houghton, and a Se:: le'
from the Poems of Sir Walter Scott, the 13".,:tsri
traduced by a subtilely appreciative eeelule-st
upon the lyrical genius of that last and gre,i;te,-tioa
the Scottish bards, and closed by the ribtil
(now, for the first time) of the latest (31 5,3 Di
poetical effusions, to wit, a copy of verses pen
am of
in the al of
him,N within the year of his death,
iliss Wordsworth. The particular charity °de
little volume dedicated to the selection here ea
precious fragments from the poems of Se°"foei'
srists, as a matter of course, in their exceediag 1010,
tarity. Snatches of songs, refrains, °I-WO
quatrains, phrases, similes, what not-4140e/
with a haunting melody upon our reel°'nr with
chiming, in the rhythm and the rhyme of thlait cae
a music of which who is there among 11.3 t"-
ever tire ?
Adieu for ever more, my love,
Adieu for over more !
They carved of the meal with gloves of st
1)j.
And drank the red wine thro' the helmet 31.-

. .
Breeze, bird, awl flower confoss. the lionr,
But where is County Guy?

And better had they no'er boen born
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

For all stood bare, and in the room
Fitz James alone wore cap and plum 3•

When pain and anguish wring the broic,
A ministering angel thou!

CraiFbstio.oprloyuarrdpleaaiedhs,midiaransysoyto.ur blades!
s,,oavasacrhienof Danuil Dh '
Knell for the onset. I
have
tleylogeot'ehihr •
• .
Where min love sal so dauntless in %or,
.ijiionol
Wherever wen •
pearl of prilicirenatfl
heardgoalpat
ellvei t
borne
oo fr
a d gallantow al i
bk
ye
tsouh o
i 15); a
ci . 0 5 ,
upon some
"JewelTh,:t
on the stretched forofin,or of all Tialo
Sparkles for ever." ° iroldlll3
As the frontispiece to the charming
tii6itelf
taken
a fromi n e nt sa•—p
we have the " tialteitniteihl eiba groans
r:t110a-nb5un:nfat:11---•alre'::° 113
e
manly
of Sir Walter's kindly, eel`tb°"ctea
counterfeit presentment' eA ybtfull
here ell'
ebneTlYtakii
knownng
c_ portrait of hthihoinet.o
remarked
of familiarity which, as Niro have j 151,1 the
marked, invests the selection thus Made Irc)ttrae'
lion--•
of Scott as with a not easily resistible lio die
griCilkPocinintern3aissgtinf:litsiti otoll;
c 0 the charm investing the selection roil' 1,0r3
ompanion volume, from the poor° 0 „,posi
ii°
Houghton is one arising out of the eaetlY VW:,
characteristic—namely, their unfatuiliarg.