New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-02-18

spdf aehiOndDfes
Richard Wagner. who was during q season, the
dir, ctor Of Me Philharmonic Society and in that
capacity fercelv attacked by the papers and peri
odicals. Mr.. Wagner, the uncle of the celebrated
singer, has constituted himself musical reformer
and reform ers are generally no fayOrites be their
calling what il may. He himself wrote the words
Of bis operas, end made Of that condition sine qua
Of genuine competition. He belongs, besides,
10 the romantic school which boasts List,
SebumanD BerhOz. The classics could not par
don that original sin, and finally they were success
full in their crusade against innovation. Mr.. Wagner
had, moreover, played part in the German revo-
luton Of le4S, aud lives a refugee in Switzer-
land, aid that is great stain III the eyes OF prOies
sioDal men who proclaim that nothing in life is worth
piano or a violin. But the Queen OF England
seems 10 have been taught better by her mu-ical
relations Of CObuIg and select pieces Of the Tam
hauser and Lohergrin are, according TO IN, Court
Gazette, daily performed by her private band. From
the palace the taste will 20 70 the nobility, and
thence, through the initiating snobs, to the middle
class. One Of these days all the pianos in the Uni
ted Kingdom and their number is legion, will re-
sound " it'll horrible variations and impossible quad
rifles On Wagner's themes. Fortunately, his music
will be found difficult.
Mr.. Tbsckersy is not in want Of such fortunate
circumstance. His popularity has Increased so
RAPIDLY and has reached such high pitch that he
is about to deliver bis lecture on the -Four Georges
in the gigantic Surrey Music Hall. julien, the
Reverend Mr.. SpurgeOn and the author Of The
NewcOmes, will thus have, In succession, attract
ed the multitude in that gorgeous building. What
a lesson but SIC transit gloria mnndt.
The ignorant satire which the French Academi-
clan Ponsard has passed on Williams Shakespeare,
as be called him, has, as you are aware, produced
a somewhat painful sensation in England The En-
glish should however not lose sight of the fac.
that their great poet is, generally speaking, as well
known and appreciated on the Continent as in the
laud Of bis birth We find new proof OF the ad-
miratiOn in which the French hold the Incompatible
dramatist, in an excellent book which has lately
been published at Brussels, under the title, I" His
tory Of ShakespeaTe's influence upon the French
"thea:er, down to our days, by Albert Lacroix.'
Man, in his infinite variety; man, before God and
the creation, is Shakespeares object-for, to speak
with Hamlet,
"He man. take him for ~ in all"
That is Just what constitutes his difference with
the sO-caled classic school to which the French
were and still are so much attached. The Greeks
and their imtatOrs, SOphocles, COrnellle and Ra-
cine were obliged to maintain the unity of time and
place by the aim itself which they had in view,
namely, the psychological exposition and develop
ment Of single action. Shakespeare, on the con-
trary depicts life in all its truth i'll all it's complex
ness This is the fundamental difference between
the French tragedy and the English drama another
distinction lies in the circumstance that the drama
took its origin in the midst of the people, while the
tragedy was the offspring of the Court OF Louis
XIV. The latter is more artificial, but also less
natural; Horace, CHINA, POlyeucte, are not men,
but types. HOwbeit, the works of Shakespeare
have always exercised great influence in France.
At fret Saint EvremOnd aud LafOsse admire them
then NOltaire studies them carefully at the time OF
bis exile and substitutes in his Jules Cesar action
for mere defamation; at a later period, Deaplace
0795) translates them, and Ducts makes tragedies
of Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth and OthellO U7S3-92);
MERCER, in his Essay on Dramatic Art" exto!s
boldly the imitation of Shakespeare. In our own
century, the wars Of the first empire develop the
literary intercourse of nations, aud the English
genius is made known in France by Schiller and
Goethe, by Byron and Scott, by Madame de Stael
and Schlegel At last, Victor Hugo, Alexandra
Dumas and Alfred de Vlgney introduce formally the
drama on the French stage, and though the prog
ress be incomplete the victory is gained Shakes
peaIe belongs now to the whole civilized world.
] spoke in my last letter of an obscene romance
which the Rerue de Paris was publishing under the
title Madame de Boyary, aud before the rough de-
tails of which the directors of the publication have
shrunk, in spite Of their contract with the author.
The moral Government of the moral Emperor of the
French has most willingly seized upon this OPpOr-
tunity to get rid of an obnoxious Review; for, after
all the romance of NJ. Gustave Flaubert is only
alteration of the Rerue de Paris, which has pub
lishtd several excellent articles from the pens of
The great historians, Michelet and Henri Martin,
and the philosopher Jules Simon whose books
lie Devor' and LA Religion Naturelle," IN
which breathes a spirit worthy of the stOcs OF
olden times hay given great oense in high quarters
Mcheet who has lately sOugh. rest from his his
torical labors in very interesting and charmingy-
written little book on Birds, in which the night
Dgale, and. to speak with Wordsworth
"The redbIesst ruiFed up by Winters cold"
play the principal parts, is looked upon with much
animosity, because be speaks rather badly Of the
"eSgle," the favOrte Imperial bird II one reflects
that Michelet is an enlightened professor who has
been illegally dismissed for the sake of the Jesuits;
that Henri Martin has been secretary of the Club of
THE Friends of the Constitution (Of the constitu-
tion which Louis Napoleon had sworn to malntao);
snd that Jules Simon, whose work on Duty" has
received the great prize OF the French Academy,
was even republican member of the Assembly; it
is easy 10 remark that the publication of I" Madame
de BOvary" was a golden opportunity. II is the
more to be regretted that the directors OF the Re-
view have afforded it. At all events, the Recue de
Paris is suspended for one month. Some persons
pretend that the preext is ali article by M. Open.
helm against The King of Prussia. The same thing
harper I'd 10 that magazine about year ago, but
then the real motive was less disguised, and the
Project OF Police said openly in his ukase, - that
l." the Review, under the pretense Of publ shiDg
sbtlChtr vi tNtHts, uitW pdldhCi W
" tween former governments and the existing state
" Of things, which was unfayorable To the latter"
Now, the French police pretend simply 10 protect
public morality. Qais euS.odiet eustedeSl
The same high iunetiOnary has also caused the
withdrawal OF NJ. Edmond About from the FL
garo one of our satirical contemporaries of
Paris. N. About-whose works Greece of
our me. TUa, " Journey through the EX-
l'biton OF Arts " THE Marriages of Paris The
KIM of The NlonntansN have been much COM