New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-12-30
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Mp- sWlNBURNE's TRILOGY.

a. Nyau NgIh
80 sTtSHi;nNE Crown octave. pp. -JD' W"
r. WorthiugtoB 1881. . c.hroo
Twenty years nave passed since Mf. ." ~ - 10
1rst annea,.d as a poet and during that unhe no
,,;shoI a+ lcIst n dozen volumes of poetry,
beIes three or four volumes OF critical prose al"
- s,r1es of tle old English dramatisis IN inc
,Sorolo,adia Britannica. For man OF o''e''
,Lo l. nonuIarJv reported to lead rather an eccen-
tric life. his is certainly being industrious u
clio custom 10 speak Of Mr. Swinburne as one OIL wv
most nromisng Of the younger EnSlSh poetS' o"'
when one reflects that his poetical lie mas aie"'S
exceeded that Of Byron by three years thaV Vi
Shelley bv twelve years. and that OF Keats ny s0'
entecn Years the absurdiy OF stu considering MN
voung nOet IS manifest ATLANTA III OaNuon
revealed a great poet in him as surely rs inc lIs'
and second cantos of " Childe Harold revealed
great poet in Byron; and bearing N NINA We NV
in other times with other manners, he may be suu
20 have voLe one morning and found himself Ia
mons He certainly woke one morning ah'ut Two
years later and ionnd himself infamous IN the estl-
nation of most of the reviewers OF his " Poems anu
Ballads0 who opened upon him in full pack:
..Tr,y. blanche and Sweetheart, little dogs ana all
Midway between the years of his glory and his
shame SGD ne put forth his first serious claim as
dramatic roet in ChaSteiard.' 1t was followed
n,ne wears later by Boutwell, '; it Is finished now
nv . Mary stuart As ChasteaId IS uhdeis'oou
to have been written before ATLANTA ID Oa'uou'
MIR. Swnburne has devoted about eighteen yeats ~
the trilogy in which he essays TO portray 'n0
arrange eycntful history of Mary Queen Of Sco.S
II is we believe the first trl!ogy ever "'''e" ="
English and we imagine it Will DC Inc Ia'V' wv
that it is not in many respects IenlfN"o'o' az VI
tr,or1inorv. productIon hut thati is written TWO
ar three centuries too late. 1t should nave o''H
written. if at all, when Shakespeare was le'lslnN
.na adding 70 the historical dramas of Marowc' or
poolo or Lodge. or Greene, or whoever furnishel
,bo ORIGINAL drafts of these historical dramas
,louOb its length would have Gstounded the niue
world of patient English readers who were exhaust.
inc themselves with SidneyS Arcadia anu No''h'
plutarch and the poetic TRANSACTIONS oil hariheIoh
and Fairfaxe 1t should have been written Il II
,rust have been written, when DOrle. Caipleneuo
and MademOlSello Scngdere were weaving 'h'ci-
,oinabe rolnances about Aslrea ana IoieAahuI''
Cleopatra and Phramond, lbraham and ArameneS
Anahide and other astrological. historical ana
ideal Observation-Disclosures the ike OF when were
never seen before or since, they were so pFoN' 50
aul and so enormously voluminOus, single one
of the illusions OF this iluslrious French lady
fIl,no fen octave volumes of about eight hundfeu
oages each! Mr.. SwinLurnc is more mercinl To MS
readers than these dead and gone old worthless ohI
he Is not SO very merciiul after all ia MS u'iosS'
which is rs long as six eight OF the average pays
of Shakespeare containing ab0ut twenty thous''hu
lines: "ChastelarG.' say, twenty-five hundred
Boutwell, twelve or fifteen thousand ana Mary
Stuart some five thousand more. 10 De sure nc
is not alone in proXity as The readfis Oh Mr'
Droyvnipo and Mr. Morris are aware " The RING
and the Book numbering over twenty-one thou
sand lines and The Earthly Paradise not less
than forty thousand. Compared with Mr. Morris
Mr. Swiuburne is comparatively lyrical, but com
pored with Shakespeare and Milton he is absolutely
epical. The word epical is the only word Whlch
properly describes his trilogv, which occupies IT,
self first and last, with twcntr-four years OF Tue
life of Mary Stuart and peoples the scene with more
than hundred different characters " Chasteidru
containing twelve, Boutwell," sixty, ana MARY
Stuart" thirty-six not counting sOpernunerales III
The shane of guards buIgeSses and citizens officers
and soldiers commissioners, prlvy councillors anu
sheris Is hfe-the busy, busting GREATNESS lie OF
to-day-long enough to read this triogy' Mr.
Svnbnrne thinks il is We think it is not
The eight or ten wears that elapsed between the
writing of 4" Chasteard" and Boutwell," were a
critical period i'll the career OF Ar. SwinDuine'
They increased the hbertine bent OF his genus MS
enamorment of the sensual side of things, and his
indifference 10, if not aversion from, existing morals
and manners. They also increased his belief III nm
self and IN his poetic methods. "Chastelard" could
only have been written Ivy young man, and bold
with the passionate it is lawess and profigate, so
much so as to recall the darkly powerful sonnet OF
Shakespeare which begins with the line.
1.-THE expense of spirit in a waste of shame"
II is flooded with such coiors as streamed through
tho medieval window on the breast and hands, the
cross and hair of the kneeling Madeline but, an
like those. which were softened by the wintry
moon of chastity, they are heightened by raging
copAagration of lust. The atmosphere of the poem
is close oppressive. sitting. as 1t ono were nprls-
oned in dungeon of tuberosea It's dictlon Is mas
terly as far it goes but unfortunately 1t does not
60 far; it is rich. luscious, intense, Int IL lacks
variety and breadth, cinging to the same phrases
and returning over and over again to the same
images Tho young SwInburne lad as keen anu as
narrow a sense of language as the young Tcnnyson
and the young Keats. His dramatic insight how
ever was sure and deep and by it he recovered and
eapturc0 the secret of the character OF NJ uy Stuart
as Shakespeare recovered and captured the secret
of the character Of Cleopatra and he added
thereby another portrait TO what old Manndevlllc
calls the fulle cruele and full evie Nommen OF
Nature" The impression that " Chastelard leaves
upor the minds of most readers that the nagina-
tion of the writer unhealthy during its
composition aud shat his art was therefore, deec-
tive What the impression might and should have
been they felt If they remembered--and who mat
has read eau ever forget the tremendous scene
between Sebald and Oltima in Pippa Passes"
The atmosphere of Boutwell," Though muTky
at times is clearer than the atmosphere OF Chaste-
lard" and the personality of Mary stuart IS less
seductlvely repulsive, appears so amid the con-
fictjng personalities around her. Everything here
il on the largest scale, particularly the Dialogue,
Lord Herries speaking his mind on one occasion in
eighty-two lines. and Mary Stuart who exercises
the pr gilege of her freely speaking her mind IN
one hundred and seyenty-siX lines. But both are
outdone by Knox, who abuses the patience of his
hearers in three hundred and sixty-six lines This
breathless loquacity, it should be noted, is not in
soliloquy where it might possibly be tolerated. but
in eolloquy where it Is tedious and unnatural.