The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-10 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

1 FAUST. Smith, London, 1842.
The present translation of Goethe's Faust is the
production of Mr. Lewis Filmore, and has been un-
dertaken expressly for Smith's Standard Library, of
which it forms one of the Numbers. The version is a
spirited one ; and the famous Witch scene on the
Hartz mountains, though it will not bear comparilion
with Shelley's well-known translation, is rendered
with much poetic feeling. No German work of fiction
that has been printed for the last half century, has ap •
peared so often in an English dress, as Faust; and Mr.
Filmore's version may, we think, take rank among the
best. It is introduced by a modest and judicious
preface, wherein the author states the reasons that in-
duced him to undertake his difficult task, observing,
that all the previous translations having been pub-
lished at a high price, and " more than one of them
being accompanied by engraved illustrations in an ex-
ceedingly expensive form," it was thought that a ver-
sion " printed in a cheap and accessible form, would
still find a large circle of readers, notwithstanding
the ground that might appear to be occupied already
with its predecessors." As Mr. Filmore has suc-
ceeded so well in his version of Goethe's Faust, we
must bargain for translations from other German
poets. Let him try his hand, for instance, at some
of Schiller's dramas, and begin with that striking
play " The Robbers," which has never been ade-
quately rendered into English, and to which, we doubt
not, he will do ample justice. To be sure, the play
exhibits frequent traces of youthful haste, and imma-
ture judgment; but it is full of spirit and enthu-
siasm, and well worthy of Mr. Filmore's attention.

CHATTER! ON'S WORKS, 2 Vols.
Grant, Cambridge, 1842.
In this edition we have all Chatterton's acknow-
ledged works, both in prose and verse, together with
his celebrated Rowley forgeries, which occasioned
such a hot controversy among learned antiquaries,
and heaped such a weight of unmerited scandal on
the head of the unhappy author. The interest at-
tached to the controversy has long since died away,
never to be revived ; but not so the memory of Chat-
terton, who will be long regarded, by those who are
familiar with the circumstances of his Rowley forge-
ries, and the poems themselves, as the most remark-
ably precocious genius that the last century produced.
At the early age of sixteen, he had fabricated dramas and
lyrics of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which per-
plexed some of the wisest and shrewdest critics of the
age, and filled the public at large with astonishment at
the powers of imagination and sensibility displayed in
them; and at seventeen, he had terminated his chequered,
meteoric career, by poison, under the most afflicting
circumstances ! Had Chatterton lived, and kept the
promise of his early dawn, he would have been with-
out doubt one of the most illustrious of the Eng-
lish poets ; for his fancy was fertile in an emi-
nent degree, his command of language was un-
bounded, his feeling unquestionable, and his faults
were all those of an exuberant, but unripened
intellect. In his private character he seems to have
possessed much of the pride, wilfulness, caprice, and
sardonic humour of Lord Byron ; and, like .him, to
have been the veriest slave to his passions. But think-
ing of his hard lot and early grave, it is impossible to
animadvert with severity on his errors ; if he yielded
to every stormy gust of feeling, and was swayed by
every varying mood of his mind, disdaining to
listen to the cool dictates of judgment, he
paid. the penalty of his infirmity—and what
a penalty it was—a year's starvation and soli-
tude in a London garret, to be terminated only by
suicide, and a pauper's burial in a workhouse in Shoe-
lane ! The life of Chatterton, which introduces this
edition of his works, is penned in a judicious and dis-
passionate spirit, and the biographer has the good
sense to scout, with the contempt they deserve, the
calumnies which were so perseveringly heaped on
Horace Walpole, for his supposed ill-treatment of the
young Bristol poet.

THOUGHTS AT WHITSUNTIDE.
Moron, London, 1842.

We recognise in this little unpretending volume of
poems, the presence of an elastic fancy that disposes
to enjoyment, and looks on everything with the
sunny eye of hope and cheerfulness ; but we will not
so far flatter the author, as to assert that we can trace
in his productions any of the earnest inspiration of
genius. Lord Leigh is an accomplished versifver,
but not a poet. He has graceful and various
scholarship ; a sound judgment, that prevents
him from falling into affectations and puerilities ; and
a quick ear for the melody of rhyme ; but he has not
that passionate sensibility and fervid imagination,
without which nothing great or lasting was ever yet
achieved in poetry. The range of his powers is
limited, and he seems to be aware of the fact;
hence, what he undertakes to do, he does
well, as is generally the case with those whose
ambition and capacity are nicely adjusted to
each other. We are more particularly pleased with
the calth, uniform tone of good sense that pervades his
writings, and forms the principal charm of his
" Thoughts at Whitsuntide ; ' and though we cannot
admit his claims to be considered a poet, in the true
and enlarged sense of the term, yet we will readily
allow that he is as far superior to " the mob of gen-
tlemen- who write with ease," as the " Paradise Lost"
of Milton is superior to the bombastic " Satan " of
Mr. Robert Montgomery.