The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-02-17 00:00:00

Edward Bulwer Ly

wood and Sons,

This translation of the minor poems of the inspired
eached a second edition, independently of

German has

the large number of copies wh

hich were distributed in

Blackwood's

Magazine

The selection, it may be,

has been somewhat capriciously made. To our own

judgment, more than one of the most beautiful of
Schiller's legendary compositions have been excluded,
in order to make room for sentirnentalities which
were composed at an early age, and are marked with
the puerilities of youth. But Sir E. B. Lytton's taste
in such matters possibly differs from our own ; and we
have no right to question the value of what he warrants.
A novel mode of arranging the several poems has been
adopted in this volume. Instead of setting them forth in
chronological order, according to the invariable usage of
the German editors of their favourite bard, they are mar-
shalled in eras. in conformity with some fantastic notion
of their maturity as evidencing expanded intellect and
Hence it occurs that it is Lytton rather than

genius

Schiller whom we peruse ; and our attention is busy with
the translator, when all our faculties ought to be absorbed
by the living fire, energy, and dramatic passion of the

author

There is a similar drawback in the language into which
Sir Edward Lytton transmutes his original. The ballads
of the German are eminently simple in construction,
subject, and diction. They were intended to appeal to
the general heart of Germany, and, touching the right
chord, they swelled into natural sublimity, as Shakspeare
was wont to do in his plays, and as many of our own old
Iliad-writers did in those cherished " reliques
y" which the British nation " would not
" The present translator, on the con-
appeals to the an

nameless

of ancient y

willingly let

us© of the drawing-room, and
beau monde, in a laced coat and
finest of fine phraseology. This is espe-
cially perceptible in " The Diver," the first piece in the
little book before us ; in " The Fight with the Dragon" ;
and in " Fridolin." These have been much better ren-
dered—more truthfully and more forcibly, because with

introduces Schiller to th

ruffles, with t

fort and more genuine feeling—by meaner hands
author of " Eugene Aram" and " King Arthur."
eless, is an acceptable one, as it ful-
ls at least one portion of Pope's canon, that " an indif-
ferent translation may be of some use, while a good one
will be of a great deal." As a specimen that will enable
our readers to comprehend fully what we mean, we give
the following, which they will do well to compare with
the translation of the first two stanzas) by S. T. Cole-
ridge, and the paraphrase of the same by Chas. Lamb :

than the

The volun

THE MAIDEN'S LAMENT,

The oak-wood is roaring,
The clouds gather o'er;
There sitteth a maiden
Beside the green shore;
The breakers are dashing with might, with might
And she sighs out aloud in the gloomy night,
And weeping, thus waileth she—

" My heart it is broken,
The world is a void,
Nothing more can it give me,
For hope is destroy'd.
All the bliss that the earth can bestow I have proved;
Heavenly Father—Oh ! take,—l have lived—l have loved—
Oh ! take back thy child to thee."

" The tears that thou weepest
Must vainly be shed;
For no sorrow awakens
The sleep of the Dead I
Yet say what can solace and comfort the breast,
When it mourns for the love by which once it was blest,
And the balm shall descend from above."

" Let the tears I am weeping
Still vainly be shed,
Though my, sorrow can wake not
The sleep of the Dead ;
Yet all that can solace and comfort the breast,
When it mourns for the love by which once it was blest.
Are the tears and the sorrow of love."

Family Pastimes, or Homes Made Happy. Houlston

and Stoneman

This is a little book for the young, consisting of tricks
and puzzles, with a story called the " Hour of Christmas,"
and remarks on the " Philosophy of Pastime." It is
neatly got up, and an excellent work for the young.

Blackwood's Magazine. Edinburgh : Blackwoods

The number for February contains, among other excel-
lent papers, a long and instructive article on Alison's Life
of the Duke of Marlborough ; and after the usual amount
of interesting matter, it concludes with an essay on the
" Results of Revolution in Europe." The execution of
this shews great power of generalising, and minute atten-
tion to detail—qualities that do not always or often coin-
cide in a writer's mind. We quote the following re-
marks on

ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY.

Novel and extraordinary as were the results of the
revolution of 1530 upon the political relations of Europe,
its effects upon the colonial empire of England, and,
through it, upon the future destinies of the human species,
were still greater and more important. To the end of
the world, the consequences of the change in the policy of
England will be felt in every quarter of the globe. Its
first effect was to bring about the emancipation of the
negroes in the West Indies. Eight hundred thousand
slaves in the British colonies in that quarter of the globe
received the perilous gift of unconditional freedom. For
the first time in the history of mankind the experiment
was made of extending the institutions of Japhet to the
sons of Ham. As a natural result of so vast and sudden a
change, and of the conferring of the institutions of the
Anglo-Saxons upon unlettered savages, the proprietors of
those noble colonies were ruined, their affections alie-
nated, and the authority of the mother country preserved
only by the terror of arms. Canada shared in the moral
earthquake which shook the globe, and that noble off-
shoot of the empire was only preserved to Great Britain
by the courage of its soldiers and the loyalty of its English
and Highland citizens. Australia rapidly advanced in
wealth, industry, and population during these eventful
years. Every commercial crisis which paralysed industry,
every social struggle which excited hope, every successful
innovation which diminished security, added to the stream
of hardy and enterprising emigrants who crowded to its
shores ; New Zealand was added to the already colossal
empire of England in Oceania ; and it is apparent that
the foundations have been laid in a fifth hemisphere of
another nation, destined to rival, perhaps eclipse, Europe
itself in the career of human improvement. For the first
time in the history of mankind the course of advancement
ceased to be from Bast to West; but it was not destined
to be arrested by the Rocky Mountains ; the mighty day
of four thousand years was drawing to its close; but be-
fore its light was extinguished in the West, civilisation
had returned to the land of its birth ; and ere its orb had
set in the waves of the Pacific, the sun of knowledge was
illuminating the isles of the Eastern Sea.

Dublin University Magazine. Dublin : 314Glashan

The current number is, in some respects, less interest-
ing than usual. The article on Mirahean is a good one,
but that on Sterling is a stale subject ; and " Ireland
under Lord Clarendon" treats of events, the most impor-
tant of which have already been noticed in the maga-
xine. The Portrait Gallery contains Henry Brooke, the
dramatist and politician in the early part of last century.
In the reviewing department there is a spirited analysis
and criticism of " Ravenscliffe," a new novel by Mrs.
Marsh, the able authoress of " Emilia Wyndham,"
containing some capital extracts, one of which we copy.
It is the description of

A WEDDING MORNING

At nine o'clock Lady Wharncliffe entered her daugh-
ter's room. Whilst Randal, feeling every moment more
distressed and irritable, vainly endeavoured to beguile his
impatience by pacing up and down the hall, pausing from
time to time to cast a look at the stairs, or at the door by
which Lady Wharncliffe had vanished. Then he would
place himself before the tall, narrow-arched windows of
the hall, and watch the sleet and rain driving against the
small panes; or listen to the howl of the winds, which at
intervals shook the casements as if they would hurl them
through, and groaned and whistled around the house or
among the trees. The hall clock told the quarter past
nine, and then Sir John Wbarncliffe, accompanied by the
other young men, sallied forth from a small breakfast-
room where they had been taking chocolate over a blazing
fire, and began to look for their bats, great-coats, and
gloves, for the carriages were by this time prepared to
come round ; there they found Randal.
" Heyday !" cried Sir John, " you here, my good fel-
low. It is dreadfully cold ; there is chocolate in the little
breakfast-room, and a roaring fire. Do come in and take
something before starting ; you have a good four miles to
go, over a rough north country road ?"
" No, thank you, Sir J'ihn, I am waiting to see Lady
Wharncliffe. Everard," taking him aside, " listen to me,
I must see your sister."
" Well,' answered Everard, affecting to laugh, and
glancing at the clock, " then just have patience for four-
teen minutes longer, and down the lovely bride will come."
" But you do not or will not understand me. Everard,
every one seems in a league, I think wilfully, to misun-
derstand me this morning. I want, I wish—l must and
will speak for a few minutes to Eleanor alone before she
comes down to enter your father's carriage."
He spoke earnestly, angrily, passionately. Everard
cast a hasty, alarmed, scrutinizing, glance at him. The
glance did not escape Randal ; but the other recollected
himself, and with a laugh which he intended to sound
careless, hurried away, saying, " You must be clever if
you get it ; women—the deuce take them—can think of
nothing but their dress on a wedding morning. I'll be
bound they are all too busy with her toilet to remember
you ;" but, observing the increasing gloom of Randal's