The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Longfellow' sNe w Work.
New England Tragedies. By Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow. One Vol., pp. 221. George Rout.
ledge and Sons, London and New York.

A new volume by Professor Longfellow must,
under any circumstances, be sure of a hearty Wl'
come here in London. It cannot but be peculiarli
entitled to this welcome, however, at the present
moment—appearing, as it does, so soon after his
arrival for the fourth time amongst us, as the guest'
in one sense, of the whole English population. It i 5
interesting, besides this, to know at the time of the
book's publication that the illustrious American Pne
has returned, from the place of his family's sojourn
upon the Continent, on a flying visit to our shore°
for the purpose of himself here in Landon seeing
his new work fairly through the press, and thug
being present, in a manner, upon the occasion of its
first appearance. The book has a character and as
importance of its own here, were it regarded purl
and simply in the light of an Anglo-American Vl':
lication. For, consequent upon a recent decision. 11
Whiffl
the 'louses of Parliament, the book is one in
an American author has for the first time beets
enabled to secure to himself the advantages aernifig s
to a writer through an English copyright. It is t
satisfaction to think that, at last, any arrangenlea
of the kind should by any conceivable centriva9cs
have been rendered feasible—and it will be le;
garded as a happy coincidence that it should h3OO
been rendered thus feasible for the first time in the
,
instance of a newwork from a man so e ninenti;
distinguished upon both sides of the Atlantic a'
Professor Longfellow.
The " New England Tragedies" here 0
recounted
are two in number—dividing the volume into tyl°
equal halves—" Endicott" and " Giles Corey of tti°
Salem Farms." Each is in five acts—each Ai.
blank verse. The earlier tragedy, that is "
cots," is illustrative of the close of the sanguinal
persecution (in the New World) of the Qaakers nubs
others, but more especially of the Quakers, by' t
Puritans. The later tragedy, to wit, " Giles Core'
of the Salem Farms," is a delineation of the cruets'
and bloodthirstiness engendered in an ignorant
age by a terror of Witchcraft. As works °i
art, both of these effusions of Professor Lours
fellow's genius may be pronounced at
—perfectly symmetrical in form, but utter'
colourless. They are are like sketches in 141
or neutral tint upon toned paper—but sketch,
;
(of that kind) by a master-hand. Mr. Longfell°,„
has, however, so accustomed us hitherto either "I
the ineffable music of rhythm, as in the buolneut
and elastic swing of his " Hiawatha," or to the
more haunting melodies of rhyme, as in almost 3
his other rhythmical productions, that verse fr°04
hi it which is in a manlier withoat either, which 10
at any rate nathiag more than blank verse of tut°
simplest and most colloquial character, coma
us almost as a disappointment. By his woaler
ful translation of the Divina Commedia of P-Itite
Allighieri, he hal in some preparedmeasure re
for this later phase in his intellectual develop'n
For, there, in th it marvellously truthful renderi7o
of the great Italian poem, rhythmically, into t.,1
English language—the work as a work of art vir
in the same way, to our thinking at least, perfect'''
symmetrical but utterly colourless. It was a 10/3c
translation so marvellous of its kind, it was a fen;
dering of Dante's imaginings from one langtl4
into another so exact, so scrupulously accurate to
every minute particular—and yet so colourlesi;
that it might be compared the most aptly, an I°
conceive, to the almost magical effects Vl'
duced by what are called Skeleton PI6111:
Don't we all know them—those skelut°l
plants—daintily preserved under glass aba9
—delicately presenting to view in lace-like " r",
;
ticulations and decussations," as Dr. John°.
would call them, the outward form and the interior
tracery of the leaves and blossoms in all 0%
most wonderful involutions. Quite as marvellous 1
its way is the rendering to us is that elaborate trali'_
lation by Professor Longfellow of the whole net,
work of the Divina. Commedia of the great Flerelt
tine. Just as marvellous—and just as colourless•
is, therefore, in a manner, perfectly in keeping Wi
tb
those sustained and minutely elaborated evideneeo
°,
of his later predilections as a poet—it is entirely cusi
sistent with his manifest preference of late for Ord
as compared with colour that these " New Engl/,
Tragedies" should be precisely as they are--thg"Do
to say precisely as we have described them t°
so
according to our own view of them, natneli, an
neutral neutral tinted or sepia sketches, but sketches
ea
sepia by a master-hand. Charity may be descrihb,
as being, so to :speak, in each picture, the vnu'ept
ing point—the vanishing point through the Presio
(or the past [made present to us again 11 r,
wizardry of the poet) into the everlasting hereafter;
In this, the aim and object of the book, as avla.
by its author at the very outset, is to the fah "
taiued. Quoth he
" Why touch upon such themes ?' perhaps some Trion
May ask, incredulous ; ' and to what good end?
Why drag again into the light of day
The errors of an age long passed away ?'"
A t 136
[Themes and errors such as Witchcraft and 0,0
old Puritan Persecution—the subject-matter, as
°E
have said, of these New England Tragedies' 0
" Endicott " and " Giles Corey of the Sale
E arms."]
"I answer; 'For the lesson that they teach ;
The tolerance of opinion and of speech.

Hope, Faith, and Charity remain—these three;

And greatest of them all is Charity.' " f the That charity—born of an abiding sense 0 0(1
universal brotherhood of man of all tunes iioo
of all races—that noble " tolerance of opiliiro
and of speech " the book inculcates with a Pilo
and simple but irresistible persuasiveness. of
eloquent enforcement of that grand moral
10
unbounded charity or toleration is as resonant
sustaltic as a psalm. Otherwise than, thus, in "5
inner meaning of these "New England Tragedies
the book is hardly recognizable as Longfelloit
Once, and once only, we might say with truth thin
his voice is distinctly recognizable. And that igtho
the very opening passage of the whole book, in
first few lines of the " Prologue."
" To-night we strive to read, as we may host,
This city, like an ancient palimpsest;
[ The thought, here, is exquisite.]
And bring to light upon the blotted page,
The mournful record of an earlier age,
That pale and half-effaced lies hidden away
Beneath the fresher writing of to-day."
And then it is, that he summons back to life, o'
g
their long-forgotten graves, those shapes and of
dows of the past formerly peopling the street°
Boston—bringing them back thus—
"To leave the footprints of their bloody feet
Once more upon the pavement of the street." ong
Especially does the poet recall to life aniana,
those vanished forms Edith the young ,
keress, beloved by John Endicott, and Arlir
ttbe
the young wife of Giles Corey, (:)! of
Salem Farms. I?edivivus, thus at the bee Alt
Professor Longfellow—the old times are brow
.
before us anew in these "New England Tragelo its
with all their incidents and accessories perfectly oil
keeping —the various characters introduced in of
of the two tragedies (tavern keepers, minister;of
the Gospel, magistrates, sea captains) being a
them in admirable proportion.