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1048 THE LEADER. [SaTURDaY,
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THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE. The Angel in the...
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HABITS AND MEN. Habits and Men, with Rem...
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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.
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1048 The Leader. [Saturday,
1048 THE LEADER . [ SaTURDaY ,
The Angel In The House. The Angel In The...
THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE . The Angel in the House . The Betrothal . John * W . Parker . This isthe first part of a very elaborate poem on the grand old subjects of Lave , Woman , and Mairiage . We give the anonymous ( but , we suspect , not tmkno-wn ) writer the honour of an article all to himself , for two reasons , which we venture to call excellent one 3 : firstly , because he is clearly a man of fine thought and feeling ; secondly , because his book is evidently the fruit of much meditation , and is conscientiously elaborated with all due care and study . It is , indeed , encouraging to find a man in these days actually ¦ writing a poem with care and study . Most writers produce them as children produce soap-bubbles—which may of course be pretty , as we do not deny . No man would go to a party -without attending somewhat carefully to his dress , yet how many exhibit their minds to the public almost in a state of nudity ? Love , in the pages of this poet , is treated mainly under its religious and spiritual aspect . Woman is worshipped as the elevator . Marriage is a symbol of the highest . We have tenderness ana passion ; but the ° fire is always aJtar-fire . The poet gives us his "Song of Solomon , " and glorifies Jus . Rose of Sharon and Lil y of the Valley ; but—as in the " Son" - of Solomon m the English Bible—there is a constant reference to " Christ ' s love for the Church . " It Is observed by a writer , whom we fear our author will consider an impertinent intruder here—we mean Thomas Moore—that Ovid makes love like a rake , and Propertius like a schoolmaster . " We might say of the "Angel in the House , " that its author makes love like a parson—not a sleek , comfortable parson of the Paley school—but a romantic , pietistic parson , much given to Coleridge , high church , and Gothic architecture . Those who derive their notions of love-poetry from the ancients —or , among the moderns , ¦ from , the songs of our lyrists , including Burns—- null be awed and puzzled by the " Angel in the House . " For instance , take the following passage , part of a description of a ball , at which the poet and his betrothed are present . ¦ : —¦ Ah , love to speak was impotent , Till music did a tongue confer , And I ne ' er knew what music meant , Until I danced to it with her . Too proud of the sustaining power Of my , till then , unblemish'd joy , My passion , for reproof , that hour Tasted mortality ' s alloy , . And bore me down an eddying gulf : I wish'd the world might run to wreck , So I but once might fling myself About her "beautiful white neck . I ask'd her , would she waltz , a dance " We hated ; and I saw the rays Withdrawn , ¦ which did till then , enhance Her fairness with its thanks for praise . She'd dance the next quadrille , then ? " Yes . " " No , " had not fall ' n with half the force . She was fulfil'd with gentleness , And I with measureless remorse . This will illustrate what we mean : a reader guilty of admiring the lovely Epithalamium of Catullus , on Julia and Manlius ' s wedding , has nothing- for it but to hold his breath here and feel rebuked ; an admirer of a well-known ballad of Suckling ' s on a similar occasion , would be apt to indulge in profane laughter . Having indicated the leading spirit of the book , let us glance at its literary equalities . The following seems to us a singularly charming little bit of description : — I woke at three ; for I "was hid To breakfast with the Dean at nine , And take his girls to church . I slid My curtain , found the seaaojn fine , And could not rest , so rose . The air Was dark and sharp ; the roosted birds Cheep'd , " Here am I , Sweet ; are you there ?" On Avon's misty flats the herds Expected , comfortless , the day , Which slowly fired the clouds above ; The cock scream'd , somewhere far away ; In sleep the matrimonial do to Was brooding : no wind waked the wood , Nor moved the midnight marish damps , Nor thrill'd the poplar j quiet stood The chestnut with its thousand lamps ; The moon shone yot , but wouk and drear , And ecem'd to watch , with bated breath , The landscape , all made sharp and clear By stillness , as a face by death . W " o extend the same praise to a passage , "vvherein the effect produced by the society of women is the subject of a beautiful illustration : — Whenever I como whore women are , How sad soo ' cr I wns before , Though like a ship frost-bound and far Withhold in ico from tho ocean ' s roar , Third-wintor'd in that dreadful dock , With Htiflh'd cordage , anils decay'd , And crow thnt caro for culm and shook Alike , too dull to bo diamay'd ; Though spirited lik « thnt spcodlonu bnrk , My cold affections like tho crow , BIy present drear , my future ( lurk , Tho piiHt too happy to bo truo ; Tot if I come where women airo , How end soever I was before , Then is my sadness bauinh'd fur , And I am liko thnt ship no more , Or like that ship if tho ice-Held nplltn , Durst by tho niuldon polar Spring , And all thank God with their warmed wits ,
And kiss each other and dance and sine And hoist fresh sails that make the breeze ' Blow them along the liquid sea , From the homeless North where life did freeze Into the haven where they would be . Yet , we must add , that we wish that the writer had condescended oftener to be musical . We hke , as Horace did , that poems should be " sweet" ts well as wise , or good in substance . Our poet is sometimes crabbed ami even quaint . Here is a stanza from his " Sentences "—a department where he varies the narrative hy Httle occasional dicta on the subject of the book . Fatal in force yet gentle in will , Her power makes , not defeats , but pacts ; For , like the kindly loadstone stall She ' s drawn herself by what she attracts .
This is as like Donne as it can stare ; a fact not without significance , for there is a kind of antique ecclesiastic colour over the whole volume , strati " iv mingled with a latent liking for mere natural description , which is equalled by few , and is ouite of the most modern kind .
Habits And Men. Habits And Men, With Rem...
HABITS AND MEN . Habits and Men , with Remnants of Record touckinq the Makers of Both . By l > r Doran - . Bentloy . Db . Doban is succeeding to the place in literature of John Disraeli . His quaint , felicitous " Curiosities" are becoming precious , as anecdote-books , the present one being carefully adapted to maintain the agreeable reputation obtained by the Table Traits-this last collection of stories evidently coming fronx the same " commonplace-book" of anti-commonplaces . Dr . Doran islets scholarly than Dr . Disraeli , but he is more the wit and man of the world , and , for general readers , the pouring out of bis learning is all the more pleasant : Bayle might shake his head * butI ) r . Doian writes for Bentley . , . We give ^ specimens of this last volume—merely premising , what is our highest praise , that the whole volume is just as -quotable .
LADY-LIKE MANNEES IN THE LAST CENTUKY . TTalpole is quite fight in designating the gaiety of the women as an awkward jollity . ^ Rough enjoyment was a fashion at this time with the fair . Mrs . Sherwood , in her pleasant Autobiography , adverts to this subject in speaking of her mother ' s early days , -when undignified amusements -were not declined by ladies of any age . One of these she describes as consisting of the following sort of violent fun . A large strong tablecloth was spread on the upper steps of the staircase , and upon this cloth the ladies inclined to the frolic seated themselves in rows upon the steps . Then the gentlemen , or the men , took hold of the lower end of the cloth , attempting to pull it downstairs ; the ladies resisted this with , all their might , and the greater
the number of these delicate creatures the longer the struggle was protracted . The contest , however , invariably ended by the cloth and th « ladies heihg pulled down to the bottom of the stairs , when everything was found bruised , except modesty . "High Life below Stairs" could hardly have been too rampant in its exposition , if it really reflected what was going on above . We can hardly realise the matter . We hardly do so in merely fancying we see good Lord Shaftesbury , Admiral Gambier , Baptist Noel , and Dr . M'Neil engaged in settling Miss Martineau , Catherine Sinclair , the " Authoress of Amy Herbert , " and Mrs . Fry on a tablecloth upon the stairs , and hauling them down in a heap to the bottom . It would be highly indecorous ; but , I am almost ashamed to say , I should like to see it .
In 1748 George II . happened to see that gallant French equestrian , the Duchess of Bedford , on horseback , an a riding-habit of blue turned xip with white . At that time there was a discussion on foot , touching a general uniform for the navy ; the appearance of the Duchess settled the question . George II . was so delighted with her Grace ' s appearance , that he commanded the adoption of those colours ; and that accounts perhaps for the fact , that sailors on a spree arc ever given to getting upon horseback , where they do not at all look like the Duchess whose colours they wear . Taste was undoubtedly terribl y perverted in this century . Some ladies took their footmen with them into their box at the play ; othora married actors , and their noblo fathers declared they would have more willingly pardoned their daughters had thev
married lacqueys rather than players . A daughter of the Earl of Abingdon married Gallini the ballet-master , of whom George HI . mad * a " Sir John ; " and Lady Harriet Wentworth d 5 < l aetuolly commit the madness of jnarrying ; her footman—a madness that had mucli method in it . This lady , the daughter of Lord ltockingham , transacted this matter in the most business-like way imaginable . She settled si hundred a your for life on hor husband , but directed her whole fortune busides to pass to her children , should she have any ; otherwise , to hor own family , She moreover " provided for a separation , and ensured the same pin-money to Damon , in case they part . " Sho gave away all hor lino clothos , and surrendered her titles : " linen and gowns , " she said , " woro propcrost for a footman ' s ¦ wifo ; and sho went to her husband ' s family in Ireland as plain Mra . Henrietta Sturgeon . "
it is characteristic of tho manners of this period , that Lady Harriot Wentworth , in marrying her footman , was not considered as having so terribly deroyd as Lady Suaan Fox , Ijord Ilcheator ' s daughter , who in the same yeur , 17 o' 4 , married O' 13 rien the actor , nman well to do , and who owned a villa at Dunatablo . Tho actor had contrived something of the spirit of farce in currying out his plot . He succeeded so well in imitating the handwriting of Lady Susan ' s dearest friend , Lady Sarah Bunbury , that Lord Ilcliestor dolivorcd the letters to his daughter with hia own hand , and without suspicion . Tho couple used to moot at Miss Head ' s tho artist ; that is , Catherine Kond , who painted whole bevies of our pjrnndmotliurB , and whose pprtraits of young Queen Chnrlotto and of that dreadful woman Mrs . JMucnuloy ( represented as a Itoinan matron woepSngover tlie lost liberties of Iior country ) wore tho delight of both connoiasours nnd am ntours .
Tho mooting * of tho lovers became known to the lady ' s proud mrc , and terrible was tho scono which onnufld between tho " pore noblu" and tho "ingdnuo . " Tho latter , however , promised to Jbronk oil ' nil intorcourno , provided » ho woro pounittcd to takoono laat faiowoll . Sho waited a -day or two till nho ivns of ago 5 and then , " instead of being under lock nnd Itoy in the country , walked down ntnirs , took her footman , said aho - was going to breakfast with Ludy Surah , but would cull at Miss Koud ' a ; in the stxcot , prctondod to rocolloct n particular cap in whioh who was to bo drawn ; sent the footnmn back for it , whipped into a haoknoy-chair , wan marriod at ( Jovent Garden Church , and flct out for Mr . O'Brion ' H villa at Du . iirttablo . " ' Thin marriage wan , as I have said , thought worm ) of than if tho bridegroom had been a lacquey . Tho luttor npponr to have boom In singular esteem , dead or living . Thus wo ro » d that tho l > nohoaa of Douglas , in 17 (» r > , having lout a favourito footman rather suddenly in Paris , she had him embalmed , and wont to England , with the body of " JoanW tied oil In front of hor chaise . " - A droll yvny of being chief mourner , " » aya Wulpolo , who adda some droll thinga upon tho English whom ho oncountorod in
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 4, 1854, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04111854/page/16/
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