New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-09-19

,.rest .nd their works are and ever Will remain
untnown in this country. Instead Of giving us,
therefore, hundreds or Thousands oil such oiog-
r.nbies a. "Optrascheck Johann, hrst chapel
:. master 20 the Elector OF Mentz, was born in DO
..h.m;. lie died in I7i2;" or Pslladus, Ds-
yid. contrapuutist of Naples nounsned
:. about the year 1900. The following Of hn
.. works printed CaniiOnes Naptsales =, D. D et'
:. VOC Wittenberg 1890, and Nenes Lied, Magde-
8. burg l59O''-the refuse of forgotten biograPhi-
AL dictionaries--the encyclopedias haa ahorded
cam. oriOin, notice Of contemporaries, IL might
h.wo reritsd better the title OF complete. But
in this department 1t Is almost whehy den-
dent. Even when Fetis r Casi'i'Blise gives the
su,hor biography, i: stops short OH when the
.uhiect comes to America,-and hence we are
TOLD of Alboni Up. 81 that "her career IN New
York Pbiladelphis, Boston, &c. is too well
kro,n 70 NJ ed especial notice. Thisis one way
Of dispatching biography, and had the European
h;oorsnbar whose account Mr.. Moore has taken,
adoptcd the same economical plan OF writ
ING we should know nothing of Alooni' career
there, for it would be too welknown TO need
ssrecisl notice. According TO this rule, al
biography, and hence all hiotory, would never be
written but be left TO die with the memories Oh the
cotemporaIes of whatever historical personsge'
We should no, know that the Granicus was
os.ssd nv Alexander OF the Rubicon by Cesar
or that palestripa wrote masses, or Michael An
cello adorned ST. Peters. The admirers Oh Mario
the fret of living tenors, will not be surprised
after what we have said to find that he is not
mentioned at all in the Cyclopadia, or those OF
Grisi to discover a mere paragraph on her memo
rsble career and unequaed musco-dramaa'
petition.
The most salient point of music, the Italian
oners the fountain of modern secular music, and
the reformer of sacred music, is dispatchei IN
single page in this cyclopedia-a way OF treating
q GREAT subject that falls beneath criticism, and
so we will let il pass
II does not appear that the compiler ever heard
of the French Opera of New-Oreans, which MIR.
Davis has kept alive some thirty years in spite Of
fevers and provincial drawbacks, thus sustaining
an al-important institution for art in the South
West Such man as Fetis would have dilated
lovingly on such spirited pioneer as Mr. Davis,
and recorded all his doings as important for this
country as the Academic lie for Paris. SO, too,
of the magnificent style in which Mrs. Wood and
Mrs. Seguin appeared in this country in Opera
the splendor of the stage details far exceeding
anything DIRE amt Of in the italian Opera in Paris.
And so we might 20 ON fr columns, showing the
shortcomings of this complete work. In
word, il has been compiled without study, inter
course, or travel even 10 the great American
cities, let alone those of Europe, and we regret
that any work should be sold in London so igno
rant of everything American in Art, and so help
lessly dependent on all the worn out rubbish Of
obsolete European publications.
sPENsER AND THE FAIRY QUEEN By john :. HAIR
LII ID. Phiade phi ii AYES LELL. I2mo ,pp -
There is class of English writer's whose repu-
tations belong to the past rather than 20 the pres
ent Our forefathers, indeed, read and enjoyed
them sincerely; assigned to each Of them par
ticular niche in the literary temple; and We
quietly sdmit the Justice Of their classification
without caring 70 inquire iQto the merits upon
which it was founded To this class belongs that
imposing array of writer's which " no gentleman's
library should be without" Works which have
again and again received the highest honors OF
by thousand collectors; which have been care
fully inclosed ia the gilded covers of Haday or
Bauzonnet aud then have been permitted TO
mOlder in their sumptuous ciskets, unopened
by their possessors until another generation has
as imperiously demanded repetition of the same
spleId folly One of the most illnstrious Of
this class of writer's is Edmund Spenser. Even
in the day Of Thomas Warton, 10 quote the critics
words, "he was poet much more talked about
than read" and, as time has gradually drawn
our sympathes farther from the ideas 10 which
Spenser lived, the number OF bis readers has pro-
portionably diminished. 1t is in vain 10 say that
few years sgo, Mr.. Pickering published a beau
tiful edition of his works-tbat Mr.. Milford wrote
his life, and annot.ted his poe.ry-that Mr.. A
criticised him in Quarterly -that Mr.. B lee
tured on him TO large and delighted audiences
that Mr.. c. and Mr.. D. painted and
sculptured from him-or even that Mrs. E.
quoted him at the chapter-heads of her last
" fascinating novel" These are straws, indeed
but they do not show which way the wind blows
In spite of all this ostentatious self gori6cation
over spenser, the poet himself is not popular, in
the true sense of the word, and no man of clear
literary observation can dispute the disgrscefal
fact. Something In his alegory, something in his
something in his lengthenei sweetness, 10 out Of
harmony with this driving and energetic age
Every man has his own excuse for negleeting
Spenser; yet all claim to have looked into him,
and all broadly declare that mo gentleman's H.