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v ggQ THE ' luM A D 3B R- fcSABUKax&Y,
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To notice Reviews after Magazines is lik...
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VELASQUEZ. FejMQvezandhis Worl-s. By Wil...
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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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"When Last Week We Congratulated Psychol...
Ago " read by tfce light from Scutari , this raises strange reflections 1 The initials of J- A . F . would alone suffice to call : attention to the article on the " Court of Henry VIM ., " for all the world knows by . this time that Fboude i s devoting hh brilliant style to a . History of England under the Tudors . Nor ahonld . a paper in the X > ufc /»« University Magazine be passed ov « r , bearing the title Contemporary and PoUhtimous Reptetdtibnof Authors . It is rather a series of Bints than ah . essay ; but the hints are good , the matter curious . Read-tins , on shakspeare ' s religion . For our own part , we believe Shakspeare to have been a bad Roman Catholic . He lived i * a thmy when the people went to hear the Protestant service said in churches wher ** hey had been wont to hear the mass . The great bulk of the populace must have been Roman Catholic in all its associations . It has been attempted to adduce
that the father of Shakspeare -was a Roman Catholic , from the fact that he never went to church ; but this proves nothing , and is little to the purpose . The associations of -centuries in the mind oF a people are not displaced in a day . We think that the instincts-, the prejudicevthe aflfeetions of memory and habit , the inclinations of custom , in the mind of the great dramatist , were towards the old creed—its forms , its superstitions , its dogmas . But his intellect was too independent and speculative to find complete comfort at any church-door f and whenever he puts aside popular superstitions , it is not to cling to newer rituals , but to adventure upon philosophic doubts . He -was , * t once , too human and too genial in his nature to be quite independent of aapular sympathies and types ; too keen and imperative in the desire of truth to be led by the Churchmen . He was an unsettled Roman Catholic—a dilatory sceptic ( in € he metapTvysical sense of the word ) ; but not a hearty Protestant . His temperament is tor ever at war -with' his intellect . As poet , he is ever clinging to the sensuous—as
philosopher , « ver in search of the abstract . There is , we think , ample evidence of this throughout his works . The genuine Protestantism of that time was Puritanism . The players of the Globe and Blackfriars % ere for ever at war with this body ; and Shakspeare was of a temperament far too -exquisitely susceptible of sensuous beauty , and was far too convivial and hearty in his iabits , to look with any love upon asceticism . He never spares these severe Reformers in his plays ; and in Troilus and Cressida he even goes out of his way , and runs into wilful and ridiculous anachronism , to have a hit at them . Here again is something on GOKXBMFOBAKV OPINION OS * SHAKSPEAUEW ^ are puzzled to know how fax he was rightly appreciated by his contemporaries . That , he was appreciated there can . be little doubt ; but we question if it was to the dEulL We must believe that . Spencer was the fashionable poet of the time ; but he ¦ cer tainly , alludes with high honour to Shakspeare . And yet it is less the profundity « nd majesty of his stupendous genius than its genial and graceful humanity , that we iirid everywhere praised by those who were nearest to him . Spencer says : —
" And "he , the man whom Katureselfe hath made , To mock herseHe , and Truth to imitate , "With , kindly caunder , under mimick shade , Oxu jpteqsant "Willy , " & . c ¦ . . And again . ha-speaks of him . as— - _ " That same gentle spirit , fuem whose pen Large streamso £ home and sweete nectar flow , " & c ; msmrtynnAiamcp * wtfAtr '¦¦ ¦ ant anrely not the first characteristics of a brain from "whence qpnceedeu Hamlet , Macbeth , and S > hylock r and Othello , and Lear I We tihinit there con be no doubt of the reference in those lines . But how do we « oon »; tok *> whhn so affectionately from aflbie praisers as " Gentle Will ?" Milton even speaks of—. . '" T <& eiitile Shakspeare , Nature ' s child , Warbling hia native wood-notes wild . " Surelthere is something far above the bucolics in his genius ?
. y Chittie praises him for his " honied muse , " while requesting him to " drop a sable tear" uprm the hearse of-Queen-EHzabet ^ ^ meUiftuotts tongue , " and his " sugared sonnets . " 'Weunust gqueeae in this on
BHAKSPBABH BTT 8 FBPTIO . We venture the belief that he was subjeotto fits of intensely low spirits and gloom , at times . We doubt if his digestion was not sometimes at war with hia good living . How frequent throughout his plays are the invocations against evil dreams and restless nights ? Where'else mso strangely given us the whole " anatomy of melancholy ? " Who else fctta . been so thoroughly to the heart of solitude and sorrow ? How , too , doea he not , gjk > at over the loathsome interior of the tomb of all the Capulets with Juliet ; and with Clarence on the monstrous abyss of ocean ; and with the Ghost of the Royal Dane « pon the preternatural horrors of Purgatory . Tbe Magnzine altogether is amusing , but that is the best paper in it .
V Ggq The ' Lum A D 3b R- Fcsabukax&Y,
v ggQ THE ' luM A D 3 B R- fcSABUKax & Y ,
To Notice Reviews After Magazines Is Lik...
To notice Reviews after Magazines is like coming to the roast after a light skirmish with entrieea * The Westminster presents a very solid aspect , not heavy , but demanding digestive leisure . It opens with an elaborate article on the Courts of Austria * as full of matter as of sentences , yet so easily and skilfully presented that we read it currente opthalmo ! From Maximilian I . to F . erdinakb' I . i—ifrom 1403 to 1848 , there is a gallery of imperial portraits sketched in this article * with rapid touches painting the social tone of the Courtfe , mrd ravmy aneedfotes giving piquancy to the narrative . Dryden and his Times agreeably follows , and may be read with the other biographical article on Victor Hugo and his works , the latter questionable in its criticism bafcuue & il in its facts . While Literature and
History aro thus represented , our political questions find a place in papers on Our Army : its Condition > and Wants , ( Lord Patmerston as Premier , and the Reorganisation of the Civil Service . The-first of these is first-rate , just what -a Review articlo on a current topic should be ; tne second is just what such an article should not be ; and the third wo have not had time to read . Our Army is what such a paper should bo , because it contains a mass of information very , necessary , and not wcoessitole through the newspapers , yet of interest to all readers of newspapers . The " Pahneraton" paper , on the other hand , is precisely > vhnt tbe newspapers can furnisft , and do furnish—a leading article .. In the old days of Reviews such articles made sensations , in our davs they ; are read with less interest when they ore read at all . We could
gladly make many extracts from the article on " Our Army , " but extra cts would not convey a proper idea of it . We will take two , almost at r andom by way of varying our own text . Here is one on
WHO GETS THE COMMISSIONS ? It is a common mistake , and one which the Times ' has lately been led into , to fancy that , army commissions are the property of the aristocracy . . That the noble families of this country have pretty well monopolised the-Foot Guards , is true ; but people have but a small conception of the jealousy with which the Horse Guards distributes its patronage . The Duke of Rottenborough is a very great man in his own way but old Squaretoes , of the " Senior , " will beat his grace hollow at getting a commission . It is not merely putting the candidate ' s name down at the Horse Guards , and lodging his commission-money at Cox and Co ' s . You must get round the back premises . You must know somebody who will probably meet old Squaretoes at dinner next Friday , and who will ask Squaretoes to speak to the military secretary in yOur favour . Squaretoes has known the military secretary these forty years , and the last command Squaretoes had , he took the military secretary's son as his
aide-de-campand though now he is a very plain old gentleman , who reads his paper daily at the " Senior , " it is quite extraordinary the number of commissions he has obtained ; and many a one , too , without purchase . One of his grandsons got a vacancy the other day in the Rifles , and another has been promised an unattached company ; not bad things in their way , considering that Squaretoes has three sons , four nephews , and nine grandsons in the service . No greater mistake was ever made than to suppose the Army belonged to the aristocracy . The fact is , it will not pay the middle classes to take it up as a profession , and unless you have been accustomed from your childhood to pass off as a fine gentleman , though without a screw , or that you have plenty of money to spare , the army won't answer . Gunter will tell you , if you ask him , that men who are not of the aristocracy can get their sons into the army ; and what is more , that a man is no more bullied because his father is a pastrycook or a tailor , than if he were the son of the oldest family in England .
Here is another on THE PURCHASE OF COMMISSIONS . The argument on the part of the people is , that the highest honours in even * profession should be open to all who deserve it , and that the purchase system renders the army a monopoly for certain classes . That the latter part of the argument is not entirely correct is shown at once by what may be almost termed the dislike that the manufacturing and commercial classes have of putting their sons in the army ; and surely money is not wanted among them . Of the soundness of the former part there can be no doubt ; but before raising non-commissioned officers to officers , render the army such that a different stamp of men . will enlist . The men of like energy , of talent , and often of education , to those who are to be found in the ranks of continental nations , look dut in England-for something besides a shilling a day . Australia ,
California , the commerce of this country , afford a refuge and a future which on the Continent is unknown . As affairs are at present , the first thing to be done is to improve the condition of both men and officers . Increase the pay of the private . Don't stop his rations , and his washing , and his wear and tear of boots and of clothing , and his pipeclay , and barrack damages , all out of hia shilling a day . Raise * he pay of the non-commissioned officer , who out of his scanty salary can scarce buy bread for his children after paying 3 s . 6 d . a week for a dirty whitewashed room in a slum at the back of the barracks . - Then if _ as a means of transition every two steps were given by purchase , and the third to merit , as displayed either in long or brilliant services , and if the commission of every man who died in . the service were sold and given to his family , the service would derive great immediate benefit , and the pension list would be rendered much lighter .
Having already exceeded our limits , we must defer till next week notice of the British Quarterly , London Quarterly , and Journal of J > sychologica ! Medicine .
Velasquez. Fejmqvezandhis Worl-S. By Wil...
VELASQUEZ . FejMQvezandhis Worl-s . By William Stirling . J . W . Parker and Sou Thm book ^ Tso ^ land . It is written throughout with great care and earnestness , in a manly , straightforward style . Tbe narrative flows easily ; the biographical illustrations are skilfully introduced ; the historical learning is modestly displayed ; and the technical knowledge of pictures is recommended to the general reader by an entire and commendable absence of art-jnrgon . In a word , this is one of the good and useful books of our time . We have heard it objected to Mr . Stirling-that he is disposed to rate Velasquez too highly as a poetical painter . Even assuming that this piece of criticism has a foundation in truth , the little defect to which it refers forms no drawback to the merit of the work in our estimation . We have no manner of belief in a
biographer who does not treat his subject with some honest , human partiality in its favour . If the work—the hard , self-sacrificing work—of getting materials together for the writing of a man ' s life be not sweetened from its beginning and throughout its progress by an extraordinary kindness ior the man , or toy an extraordinary admiration for what he htm dono , we doubt very much whether that work will ever be truly and thoroughly accomplished , no matter who the doer of it may be , or how "judicial" a mind ( as the phrase goes ) he may possess . For it is not enough that a man ' s whole mind is in his work , when he takes up his pen to instruct or sunuso Ins fellow-creatures . His whole heart ; must be in it too , or it is meagre and not
ineffective work at the very best . Although the world will auow < biographer to violate trnth , it will gladly permit him to draw the friendliest inferences from biographical facts , and will relish his subject nil the wore for his partial way of treating it . The most popular biographies in tne English language aro partially written by authors who were quite menpaWe of really treating their subjects judicially . Brutus is a mighty great man in the capacity of a judge ; make a biographer of him and he is mienor to Boswcfl . ,. . i . i n f We find , after reading Mr . Stirling ' s oxcellont preliminary sketch oi painting in Spain , that Velasquez was born in the same year ns Vimuj hi . the last year of the sixteenth century . The great Spanish pttuiter atuitcu on his career of study with that wholesome determination to guide ins u rigidly by the realities of nature , which was tho intellectual principle oil life , and which makes the distinguishing excellence of Ins \ v ; orUs . J «> passnge in which Mr . Stirling describes tho yonlMd-studio ot the . M « Ua may be extracted ns a fair specimen to present , before we go iurtliu , oi tone and style of the biography : —
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 7, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07041855/page/18/
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