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&TOTTflT 4, 1855.] THE •MAB.BB. . ^747
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literatim.
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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It is an unpleasant reflection, but as t...
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MAUD AND OTHER POEMS. Maud and otJier Po...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
&Tottflt 4, 1855.] The •Mab.Bb. . ^747
& TOTTflT 4 , 1855 . ] THE MAB . BB . . ^ 747
Literatim.
literatim .
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make 1 a . V 3—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
It Is An Unpleasant Reflection, But As T...
It is an unpleasant reflection , but as true as it is bitter , that in this world a cause does not owe its success entirely to the justice or the reasonableness of its principles , but in great part also to the temper of the audience and to the character of the advocates . The " Woman question , " which of late years has been so much , agitated , and which now seems gathering increased importance , has never been retarded by any lack of clear cogent argument in its favour . The justice of the demand made by woman for some recognition of her social existence , for some alleviation from oppressive and barbarous laws , has been clear as daylight . Unhappily this cause has been p leaded by unfortunate advocates , and pleaded to an audience prepossessed against , it . Partisans have been vehement , jnries prejudiced . Thus , amid many difficulties , and hampered as all causes are , by no inconsiderable amount of foolishness , the cause of Woman has struggled and struggled , each year , however , showing a decided advance . The part we have taken
in the struggle is well known to our readers , who will therefore understand the peculiar -value we attach to such an auxiliary as the North British Review , which contains an article entitled the " Non-Existence of Women , " as creditable to the heart of the writer as it is to his head . With manifest Sympathy for woman , and yet with no want of insight into the practical working of laws , bold yet never extravagant , he is an advocate whose gravity and good sense will be more effective than chapters of invective or declamation ; and when we consider the high character of the North British Review , and reflect that it circulates among an influential and thinking class , we cannot hut rejoice in such an ally . Hundreds who would not listen to other advocates will listen to this reviewer . Reason and justice have quite another sound when falling from respected lips . Character endorses argument : Let but a lord once own the happy lines ,
How the wit brightens ! how the style refines ! So Pope intimates of a servile race ; and EuitrrroES expressed the same belief in the eflicacy of position when he made Hecuba entreat Ulysses to intercede for her , " for the arguments which are uttered by men of repute arc very different in strength from those uttered by men unknown . " Xoyof yap , etc t \ i 8 o £ ovvto > v \ onJ KOK TlOV 8 nKOVPT ( 0 V , € IVTOS OV TOVTOV < T 0 CVei . In the sarao Review there is an admirable article on " Brewster ' s L . ife of
Newton , " correcting the too eager advocacy of that biographer ; and a critical paper on "Sir Buhvcr Lytton's Novels . " The article on the ' Purchase Svstem in the Army" comes rather late in the day , but is able ; that on * ' Ferrier ' s Theory of Being and Knowing" will delight the metaphysicians . There arc five other articles , but we have not found time to read them . This , no doubt , is a serious offence of ours , and is felt as such by some of the writers whom we have unread , and who presume a slight is intended when in truth nothing but edacious Time , or our profound ignorance of , and want of interest in , the subjects treated , are to blame . Time is limited , the reading faculty is limited , and if when a huge pile of periodicals lies on our table we do not read every article , and decline to give an opinion of what we have not road , all the indignant advertising in the world will notbrinrr us tv > a sense of shame .
Blackwood opens this month with an interesting paper written by a naval officer offCronatadt , describing that terrible fortress ami the Baltic iu \ $ : > ~ > . Another writer—one who has lived many years in Russia—describes the " Internal sufferings of Russia from the War . " He begins with enumerating the losses sustained hy the landed proprietor ? , and takes as the basis of hi . s calculation the single estate on whieh he resided many years : — The estnte in question consist * of about 10 , ( KKl acres of land , with nhoiit thirteen kundrcd serfs . Its prineipal productions are linseed , com , and wool , -which are nil ¦ old ' for exportation hy way of the ports of tho Azof and 1 Hack Sons . Those two Waa having Won olowml for some , time , all tho raw produce remains rotting on tho hands of the producer , with the Mingle exception of wool , which iinds a ready market fa Germanyhuiiitf tnmsiiorted overland through Austria ; still the price diminished
, sensibly Inst year , on account of the increased cost of transport . 1 will now proceed to state tho details <» f tho . losses experienced last year upon this one property . The V erage income amounts * to about tiOOOA , out of which lOOOf . has to W paid as in-¦ twe » t of the ^ nortgago—for this , like most other estates , is mort ^ n ^ ed to the tfovernr « nent . Last year there were about 1000 quarters of linseed , whieh , sold on the spot , Would fetch upon an average lCs . per quarter . ( > f this not » bushel has been sold ; « 0 , on this article , alone , there is a loss of l- 'OO / . The wheat grown was about the Mme qunntily . Tho average price of wheat i * 1- ' s . per quarter , and now only n limited quantity can l . o sold at Ks . ; but , supposing tho wholo to bo sold at that price the Iom will still Amount t < v » 0 U / . This , however , is not tho ease , mid tho loss in not
• kMthan 600 / . upon wheat , ImH year tho price of wool wiih , upon an average , l . > per eont below tho usual price : in noine instances there was a Um of ~ > 0 and 25 percent . ; the quantity sold usually fetched about . 1 100 / .-so there was another loss of more than 200 / . Upon this sAme estate there are kept about 18 , 000 sheep , of winch there ana generally Hold every year 2000 for their tallow and skins , at an average price ol 7 a . ajioad , now , on amount of the dihMeullie . M of exporting tallow , the prn-e is only , < $ » ., —anothor 200 / . out of tho pocket of the proprietor . U will bo . seen by the foregoing « tatomcnt , that the income of the possessor of this one estate is dimuushed more «»«» one-third , by i-CHtrietion * laid upon trade by tho closing of the port « of the Azof «*{ Blook . iWn ; and ft « this may he , taken as a * ood criterion ol tho wholo southern "P « rt Of iRuaaia , tho lona is coneequontly something enormous .
He then considers the conscriptions and Jfce exactions . 'which , under the euphonious name of voluntary contributions , press on tfee people- The article on " Modern Light Literature—Science , " is a somewhat whimsical review of several popular works , in which the writer discharges his anger upon imaginary offences and offenders . fee would have science made popular—and yet is wrath with teachers . Fraser also takes up the woman question as rebates to the " Law of Marriage and pivorce ; " but although the tone is commendablethe article is
, timidly brief—it touches , but does not open the question . Dr Dobaw is severely criticised for his recent work on the Queens of England , and shown to want knowledge , accuracy , and historical conscientiousness . The writer is one who , having an unusual amount of knowledge on the subject , is able to expose the slender qualifications of Dr . Dokas . The " Adulteration of Food" is a survey of the results of that terrible inquiry first instituted by the Lancd , which does not redound to the credit of Christian shopkeepers . When Pope characterised the class in that
line—The third a tradesman , meek and much a liar , he aimed at ngen who were innocent compared with their successors . To have quoted Pope twice in one article would seem to imply a fondness for a school of poetry the most diametrically opposed to that of our century ; but no : we quote the most quotable of poets because the verses happen to rise unbidden , and although " we yield to none" ( as the elegant writers say ) in our admiration of Pope , we are quite as ready to admire whatever the Muse of this day may send . Browning , we hear , has two volumes of new poems in the press . How gladly shall we welcome them ! Anything more unlike Pope will not easily be produced ( worth reading ) , yet if they be worthy of Bbownixg we shall not welcome them the less because they bear the impress of " our wondrous Mother-Age . "
Maud And Other Poems. Maud And Otjier Po...
MAUD AND OTHER POEMS . Maud and otJier Poems . By Alfred Tennyson , D . C . L ., Poet Laureate . Moxon Even amidst the excitement of the war , this volume has been anxiously expected all through the season—Delaying , as the tender ash delays To clothe herself , when all the woods are green . And it is worthy of the general expectation . If it does not develope any positively new gift in Tennyson , it shows his gifts in new combination , and so enlarges the Circle of our pleasure and his fame . Maud is a tragic love-story , told by the lover in twenty-six melodies ( we cannot call them cantos ) of the utmost variety both of thought and metre ,
and running through the whole compass of Tennyson , from the " Miller s Daughter" to " Locksley Hall" and " Simon Stylites , " and from the idyllic narrative to the quintessence of song . This narrative of thought , feeling , and jiassion , carried-out through a series of lyric pieces is an original idea , and admirably devised to bring out all the powers of the poet , while it confesses those powers to be peculiar and limited in their nature . In adopting it Tennyson proves himself to be essentially a lyric poet , and a lyric poet rather of the tender and passionate than the sublime kind ; but he gives to lyric poetry an extension similar to that which is given to music through the oratorio and the opera . And evidently there is some tendency in the age which calls for lyric poetry as for the lyric drama , and is satisfied with it , be
that tendency our necessity , our , or our . The story of Maud is to the poem scarcely more than the plot to an opera . A melancholy Misanthrope of twenty-five is living by himself in an old house buried in the woods , to which his family has been reduced on the loss of their former mansion , the neighbouring Hall , owing to the failure of the Misanthrope ' s father in a great speculation , -which drove him to suicide . The hall lias become the property of a Millionnaire who dropped off gorged from the sumo bubble-scheme which ruined Misanthrope senior , so that a sort of doom hangs over the relation between the families . Maud is the daughter of the Millionnaire . The Misanthrope falls in love with her in spite of himselfwooes and wins her . But besides the " grey wolf , " her
, father , she has a brother , a despotic dandy of six feet two , nicknamed the Sultan , who favours the Misanthrope ^ rival , another millionnaire and a parvenu peer with a bran-new castle . The Sultan gives a great political dinner . The lovers , who arc secretly engaged , take the opportunity to steal a meet in" - in Maud ' s rose-garden . They are there surprised by the brother and the rival . Hot words pass ; then blows . There is a duel , and Maud ' s brother is killed . The despairing lover and homicide flies to France ; then returns to Kngland and learns that Maud is dead . He falls into madness , from whieh he is delivered by the approach of the war with Russia , and tho prospect which it affords of dying in a just and noble cause . lex artificiallconstructed
Such is the tale , neither very comp nor very y , and in itself , as well as from the manner in which it is told , excluding any dramatic interest . But it is obviously well adapted to combine the whole diapason of passion , melancholy , spleen , love in all its stages , from its nrst awakening to its last ecstasy , fear , hope , jealousy , suspicion , hate , contempt , remorse , desperation , madness , and at last a burst of war fever . Here is for love : — 1 have led her home , my love , my only friend . There is none liko her , none . And never yet so warmly ran my blood And Bweotl } -, on nntl on Calming itaolf to the long-wish'd-for end , Full to tho banks , closo on tho promised good . None like her , none . . ., . lust now the dry-toiitfued laurels' pattering taiK Soem'd hor li K ht foot ulon tf the K iir « l « i » Wlllk » , _ , . And shook my heart to think she ccn . es onco more , But oven then 1 hoard her close tho door , Tho gates of lioavoa are closed , « n < l « ho w gone .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 4, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04081855/page/15/
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