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M ' kMig. j|^ f & W ¦ E E A C ¦ • PER. ^...
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A NEW EDITION OF WOKDSWORTH. The Poetica...
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A DRAMA BY A CONVICT. JBianca. A Play in...
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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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Henrietta Maria. Letters Of Queen Henrie...
^^ io ^ rm-ettfaeUwtothe IWien : Cfaarie 8 had setnplus standard ^^ bM &^ feVESa ^ *!* ^ m ^ came sp-tfewribly excited and anxious for tidtocs ^ httt she is eye * said to fiitv * p » t < m a disguise and gone alone into & e ^ 6 p <> f a p ^ h > fey ^ elletiiib : inquire tfte latest news from England , i ^ $ fi'iter ^ laMa ^ l ^ 'ayied : ^ er , ; - and she was glad to make a precipitate ]&**&& i- r pw » agitation ^ hjb wS ve ^; was less on accoun t of her husband than (^ I ^ ci 6 |^ 'bf ^ ler ^ wh ^~^ - -v :, - ' }' . ' , ' ¦ ' ' " , ' ' ' ' , ¦ ^ Z ^^^^ m T ^^^ t ^^ S ^ ^^ I hop e I shall not begin by tbe loss ^ % ojfwcfi ^; ... v ' v ; . , ; - *"'' - ¦ ' ? . ;;;¦ - !¦ 'f ' . ' . ' -.- ¦ ^^^^ o ^ S ^ iadyice ; . i & the king was , nevertheless , admirable : — vrtty ^ oionam-yoiir aerwwtfs , it -will be worse tlan your crown ) for as long as you *^ T ^ iaids } ^ i ^ i * t » atill hope of getting it again , but if you abandon them , yow will neverfiijdtJiem ' again , as I Tinderstandfor certain , and no crown neither . " ^^^ ier iiueen dom -was the uppermost interest in her mind . " To die of
the consumption of royalty is a death which I cannot endure . " r | tnti 0 S 8 ible to ascertain how far th . e letters indicate self-deception , arid how iar theyindicate hypocrisy . The rnost private cyphers abound so profusely in appeals to Heaven and Justice , that it is easy to believe Henrietta Marm to have been intoxicated by prerogative and enslaved by vkmtyv Nevertheless , she displays so much craft , such familiarity with the baser elements of human character , so much disposition to bribery , intrigue , and subterranean bargains , that we may justly assign a large proportion of her language to the deeply-rooted and characteristic hypocrisy of her nature . From amidst these miserable attributes tb _ e virtue of" courage , which , with ? ride , "Was the predominating quality of her heart , shines out conspicuously . Tpon returning to England , in February , 1643 , she landed at Burlington , and , soon , afterwards , four parliamentary ships arrived opposite that place : —
In tbe morning , about four o ' clock , the alarm , was given that we should send down to the harbour to secure our ammunition-boats , which had not yet been able to be unloaded ; but , about an hour after , these four ships began to fire so briskly , that we were all obliged to rise in haste , and leave the village to them ; at least the women , for the soldiers remained very resolutely to defend the ammunition . In case of a descent , I must act the captain , though a little low in stature , myself . One of these ships had done me fhe favour to flank ray house , which fronted the pier , and before I could get out of bed , the balls were whistling upon me in such style that you may easily believe I loved not such music . Everybody came to foxce me to
go out , the balls beating so on all the houses , that , dressed just as it happened , I went on foot to some distance from -the village , to the shelter of a ditch , like those at Newmarket ; but before we could reach it , tie balls were singing round us in fine style , and a sergeant was killed twenty paces from me . " We placed ourselves then -under this shelter , during- two hours that they were firing upon us , and the balls passing always over our heads , and sometimes covering us with . dust . At last , the Admiral of Holland sent to tell them , that if they did not cease , he would fire upon them as enemies ; that was done a little late , but be excuses himself on account of a fog which he says there was . On this they stepped , and the tide went down , so that there was not water enough for them to stay where they were .
The Parliament now fully understood to -what extent Henrietta Maria was implicated in the treason of tbe king . After the battle of Naseby , a number of her letters were discovered in Charles ' s private cabinet and the " serpentine subtlety" of her counsel was exposed . She reprobated his policy of negotiating with the Oxford Commissioners j but when the Parliament demanded from herself-whether she would advise a settlement of terms , she -was artful enough " to show a desire for peace , " utterly inconsistent with her real , views . We hav « only space to c ^ uote , further , one passage from , a letter addressed by the queen , after the king ' s execution , to her son . Its authenticity is not so clear as that of the rest of the correspondence ; yet there seems no reason to doubt that it was , in substance , dictated by Henrietta Maria to her Secretary : —
Dearest yet most unfortunate son , —Your most loving letter , -with all its force of reason to console your most wretched mother , would have disinvolved the misfortunes of my life , but my horizon is too far from the poles : losing the title of queen , I have lost all my happiness in this life . I should scarcely know that I am a living woman , were it not for the affliction which , agitating my expiring body , destroys me by degrees . Our misfortunes are many ; they would overwhelm hearts greater than ours , if any there were of nobler birth . ; It "was not to be expected that Henrietta Maria should appreciate the policy of the statesmen who condemned Charles I . to death . Even the dethroned queen , however , had slie been less bigoted , would nob huvo so wildly raved against the " parricides" who had judged her husband . It was not so much as a -woman , but as " a daughter of the great Henry , " that she deplored and Presented the act of the regicides .
Few volumes more important than tins have been contributed to the historical literature of the Commonwealth by the researches of the present century . What a contrast , however , between Cromwell ' s letters , which stamp him as the foremost man in English history , and these of Henrietta Maria , exposing her selfish , blind , and immoral lust of power .
M ' Kmig. J|^ F & W ¦ E E A C ¦ • Per. ^...
M ' kMig . j |^ f & W ¦ E E A C ¦ PER . ^ feigggV Saturday ,
A New Edition Of Wokdsworth. The Poetica...
A NEW EDITION OF WOKDSWORTH . The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth . A New Edition . 6 vols . Moxon . EaWter Poems of William . Wordsworth , corrected as in later Editions , With Preface and Notes showing the Text as it stood in 1815 . By W . Johnston . Moxon . lms new and elegant edition of Wordsworth is the first complete edition , including not only the " Borderers" and the " Prelude , " but also some JNotes m which the poet narrates tl » e history of many of the poems , the occasions out of which they grow , and the circumstances which furnished the imagery . Some or these Notea are interesting , some very trivial ; ik SL ^ u ^/ k ?* '" P ^ P * bulk of th * flumes , and are on the ^ ° 7 * «** PtftW ? . The single volume of « Earlier Poems" which Mr .
bu iiintZltZl « ¥ i X acCei * able in ^ elf aa a pocket companion , roadeiS ^ H ITS r etlCnl »*?** account of the cba » 8 cs Wordsworth ttrovin * tW S ^ r ngCS ' - th ° foot- » ot <* show , sometimes gvoatly im-EresTon ttH ? « * pr « M ° n , sometimes substituting , an attract expression for the rooro pootreal concreteness originally conceived . ackVowSd ^ K T ° \ ^ fttC 3 t ° En » li 3 h P ° etB is now universally acknowledged , oven by those who Uast sympathize with the nature of the
man , and who are most sensitive to his poetical deficiencies . The ridicule and contesnpt which met his theory and practice of poetical diction have passed away ; and with it has also passed ^ away the passionate fanaticism of disciples . But although ridicule is no longer directed against Words worth ' s " babyish incidents and fantastical sensibilities , " we must not suppose that Wordsworth has gained the battle against Jeffrey . Both were -wrong both also right . Jeffrey admired heartily what all men admire in " Wordsworth , although he ridiculed certain novelties and audacities of expression and feeling . In the anger of contest he was often led too far ; but that Wordsworth also was led too far in the execution of a false theory of poetrv
even Coleridge admitted , and Wordsworth himself at length admitted It also , as is proved by his silently relinquishing the style which had provoked this ridicule . Not only did he cease to write such poems , he even altered those he had published . " Reflection and the maturity of his taste , " says Mr . Johnston , in the Preface to the " Earlier Poems , " " led him to alter in the later editions of his works almost all the passages to which such , epithets as those cited above [ ' coarse , inelegant , or infantine' ] could with any show of reason have been applied . The alterations shown in the notes to the present edition from the edition of 1815 will be found to be almost all in the direction of greater dignity and refinement . "
This is an important fact in the history of our poetic literature . It shows that Wordsworth himself felt a compromise was necessary no sooner did he cease to offend , than critics ceased to laugh , and ceasing to laugh they had every reason to admire . Not only as regards Wordsworth ' fame is this retractation of the offensive passages important ; it affects the whole controversy of poetic diction , and gives Jeffrey and the scoffers gain de cause . For clouded as the question hitherto tas been with personalities and partizanship , writers have overlooked the real points involved . On the one side Wordsworth ' s trivial peculiarities have been selected as marks for ridicule , on the other his great qualities have been brought forward with emphasis . Mr . Johnston , writing so late as this year 1857 , can brine blemish
himself to say that the " es were eagerly seized upon and held up to ridicule by critics who hated the simple yet elevated sentiment and the pun moral philosophy of Wordsworth ' s writings . " Tins is a specimen of the tone fanaticism adopts . Do , reader , notice its insolent attribution of the lowest motives : a question of taste is reduced to a question of morals : critics who objected to passages so absurd that even Wordsworth himself was forced to cancel them , are said to have been actuated by hatred to elevated sentiment and pure morality . Is not this the tone adopted by irreverent orthodoxy towards men whose scrupulous consciences will not permit them to say they believe what they do not believe—are not they also insolently told that it is their hatred to the moral purity of the doctrines which makes them dissent ?
Quitting recrimination , however , and contemplating the theory of Wordsworth from higher points of view , it becomes clear to us that W ordsworth did not produce the revolution in taste usually attributed to him . In alL essential points Wordsworth ' s poetry is the continuation of Cowpe . T ' s ; he departs from Cowper only in those prosaisms and infantile expressions which called forth ridicule , and which he subsequently retracted . Let any one read the " Task , " and then read the " Excursion" and the " Pvcluue , " and he will see that , differences in tie mental constitution apart , the two poets are in tbe same category , and similarly stand apart from the conventional circle of poetry which , from Dryden to nayley , prided itself on its " correctness and elegance . " Now , as Cowper was immensely popular before Wordsworth became known , it 5 s evident that whatever is novel in Wordsworth ' s protest against the conventional school , had already been
exhibited by Cowper , who , however , wrote no theoretical preface to defend his views . Strip Wordsworth of those blemishes' -which Jeffrey ridiculed , and of the celebrated " Preface to tbe Lyrical Ballads , " in which he proclaimed his theory , and you have Cowper . This is not meant to imply that Wordsworth introduced no novelties into poetry ; only to imply that he did not introduce the ' new school . ' His brooding meditative spirit , wandering for ever amid mountain solitudes , caught something of the pantheistic feeling which Cowper ' intensely human sympathies would have made alien to him . His marvellous power of depicting clou'l-arcliitecture and the sublhner forms of Nature , were peculiarly his own . He made man subordinate to Nature ; a mere accessory in tlie picture ; and this tendency to neglect human passion for scenic
splendour , life and its daily needs i ' or Nature and her infinite appearances , he has transmitted to the poets of our day . And this it is , mainly , which creates in so many ardent sympathetic minds a certain uneasy and repugnant feeling for Wordsworth ; admire him as they mjiy , and as they cannot help admiring poetry so exquisite , they feel for it , and for him , an undefined repugnance . " I have read rny Wordsworth , " said one of the moat thoughtful and most sympathetic of living writers to us , tho other day , " but I do not think it possible I should ever open him again . " He admitted the beauties—but he firmly maintained tho general impression of Wordsworth being disagreeable . J ) e gusiibus ! The great poet will _ continue to gain admireTS : and hero are two publications craving a place in all well-selected libraries .
A Drama By A Convict. Jbianca. A Play In...
A DRAMA BY A CONVICT . JBianca . A Play in Five Acts . By William Jamca Kobson . Author of " Love and Loyalty , " " Tho Selfish Man , " & c . & c . London : Lacy , 185 t ) . When William James Robson was first discovered to be a member of the illustrious modern order of the " Knights of the Golden Fleece , " it was mentioned in this journal that he was the author of several plays , one ol which , bearing the title mentioned above , was at that time in rehearsal at Drury Lane , though the manager of course found it necessary to withdraw the promised drama when the unsuspected chnracter of its author wft 9 disclosed , llobson was a man not . unknown to the stage , of winch he wfl 9 Jl sort of patron ; and , among other of his productions , Love » nd Loyalty ( which was recently acted at Miss Kelly ' s theatre ) was produced some lew years ago at tho Marylcbonc—the theatre with which , though not ^ at tHat time , tho swindler Watts was connected , wntil tho discover / of his frauds on the insurance-oilice , where ho was a clerk , broke up his prospects , sent
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 7, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07021857/page/16/
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