New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-01-22
land, an Abbot, an Archbishop, Prior and lady


of rank. in the year 1928:
"No, no. Archbishop, act let not things slide"
How art rich and how perfected work
" Hou street is life uith nature. friendship. art
And the great thoughts that tirc for as IN bsohs
And more that life m0cts 10 some gredi eHd. 4,
"'TiS Sabbath now DER all The prayeriuI scene
" Breaks down the tonb's dark IL ana 'P'"'o"'
Reaches of far "hre to our sign. T., ,,,,.o
" OF that sweet household, hGt most h0tt' pace
The note of modernn .ss.or wAich we might present
other specimens from the dialogues. is struck SIN
more strongly in the lyrical portions OF tins Tragedy
As in the solus-song of Hamilton, on the deck OF d
snip in mid-occan. OF which this stanza is Il ldI
specimen;
Gone my keen zest for things human,
Heat 10 X of ling and hate
CamnesS impartial succeeding
Where passion was late'
Or this song Of Hamltons betrothed, Isabel, in n
wood near a mansion:
"NipIt fles with al her blinded brood,
Within her aims lying,
And fimid things on mUiicd wings
In her cold shadow flying"
Or this SONG. which the sister of Hamilton is sup
posed To sing in the ii >tance:
soon cruel winter comes blowing so cold.
Blighting the blossom and she iding the leaf ;
Soon cruel change comes, as ever OF Old,
Bringing the CAD heart gTlel"
W. are disposed to allow the greatest possible
license TO a dramatic poet; bat a | the same. we
demand that his work should be, if only in loose
sense, IN keeping with itself. We dc not insist that
Hamilton his be,rothed, or his sister, should sing,
or speak the hroal Scotch. which they probably
nseI and which one of their future monarchs
certainly wrote fifty odd years later; but
We insist. We dcmand-we nave night
to demand - that any lyrical utteTahcc
OF theirs shoull have certain archaic
flavor if not in feeling yet in diction and rhythm
especially IN rhythm. and should not remind us OF
Shenstone. or the famous Person of Q1allty,
Whether Hamilton was familiar with poetic Htera-
ture is not Indicated either in the tragedy ITS pre-
face or lis notes but as he sings have. perhaps,
the right TO suppose so, and suppoSing so, with
what poetic literature was he likely to be familiar
Waving the classic poets, which student at
Louvaiu ard Paris Master Of Arts resident OF
II. Andrews and an Abbot, could not wei help
knowing: and waving also the Italian poe s,
which were beginning TO be read in TIA" British
Isles " hat English or Scottish poet might have
come in his way CHANGER, Cover. Lidgate might,
james the First. HeuTysOn. Dunbar might; pos
>ibly the Bishop of Dunkeld might but III none #
these could he have found any iud .catO of such
hop--kip-and-jump measures as diShgure ms lyrics
There s-et Us say. and have done with it-a sort
of lylica. movement in his blank verse, which,
ScottlclsmS excepted is a wcll-moduated specimen
of the long drawn sweetness of modern English 4;
but which nevertheless marches on with a jdunty
strut. which is laughably suggestive OF the long
nmutous roll of the early dramatists, notably OF
Ma>sInger Mr.. Johnston couoclycs con>clcntlously,
though not charlctenSicaily, and execute iuently
and ferveutly. with grace, picturesQueneSs, and
4 loVclinc>s which almost reaches the beautiful
But he is not a poet, only another among the
crowded company Of literary, aesthetic OlIc-a-Olac
British bards.