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N*r. W l85&4 THE LEADER *¦» ¦
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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Among the whimsicalities of literature, ...
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THACKERAY'S MISCELLANIES. MUceBanies, Pr...
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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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N*R. W L85&4 The Leader *¦» ¦
N * r . W l 85 & 4 THE LEADER *¦» ¦
Ittfpf Ftffitp Illllllllul L*
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Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of Uterature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
Among The Whimsicalities Of Literature, ...
Among the whimsicalities of literature , Errata occupy a -whimsical place . Jean Paul makes his Quintus Fixlein occupied in drawing up a volume of such Errata , from which he says profound conclusions are to be drawn , advising the reader to draw them ! We have , on more than one occasion , cited some ludicrous examples ; but the accident which disfigured our journal last week , produced a rich crop—as the reader , doubtless , noticed for himself . Yet even the reader , on bis guard , may have been puzzled to know which work of Goethe ' s was alluded to as his " unrivalled Ballado" ( meaning the ballads ) , and what could be meant by the " wild flirtation which gave rise
to Clavigo . " The remonstrant reviewer assures us he wrote " mild flirtation which gave rise to Clavigo ; " and the said reviewer declares , that instead of saying " Mr . Lewes contests the opinion that Iphigenia is a great play , " be said , " Greek play . " These are trifles , however , compared with the misprint which , although it escaped our eye , did not , fortunately , escape that of a friend , who saw the proofs of a comedy , in which this phrase occurs : " Here comes my wife ! These women spoil all . They have got what t hey call nerves . " The printer had thus interpreted it : " Here comes my wife ! These women sport oil . They have got what they call news !" How many of the obscurities in classic authors are attributable to Errata ?
In the " North British Review , " two retrospective articles deserve , and will be certain to secure attention . The one is on Butlkk , the author of " Hudibras , " whose life and character are felicitously sketched ; the other is on Fiei / ding ( placed in connection with Thackeray ) , whose life and writings are also set forth with pregnant brevity . Of u Butuer " the writer says : Our impression of Butler ' s general character as a man—on which his character as a writer may be regarded as a superstructure—lias , we t _ t- ? t , already been conveyed . He seems to have been a man of grave , correct , and somevhat moo e nature , decidedly of that order of mind which , by way of philosopfc ' c dis irction , may be called the descendental- a man , the basis of whose intellectual being was strong , solid , but very hard and very earthly sense . One might compare him with Swift , who , however , had a more savage and demoniac element in him , which led him farther , and brought him in contact at least with the infernal side of that which transcends the visible . On the whole one can best realise Butler ' s exact character by regarding him as , more pecu .
liar v than any other man of his age , the polar opposi e t 3 Milton , —Milton the transcendental man of his time , and the noblest 1 . " erary represer tative and defender of that class of sentiments and opinions which Butler derided . This contrast , or polarity in the intellectual world , is discernible in all ages , thoi ^ h it is not always instanced in so remarkable a manner . There are always men who c . ji " stand no nonsense , " who take their footing on what they call the hard fact of things , who have an innate turn for undervaluing whatever is higb , extreme , and unusual , either in thought o .- actionhigh metaphysics , high art , high peltry , high Calvinism , bgh anything . On the other hand , there are always men who , from some constitut ' onal peculiarity—call it ideality , heart ' , enthusiasm , artistic sense , tendency to the metaphysical , or wh .. t yoa will —revel in the high , feel at home in it , and prefer it . It is from the first class more particularly that satirists are born ; except when , as sometimes happens , a man of the other class Steps out clothed in the very thuuders of his high con emplations , to satirize the satirists themselves , and prove to them the celestial , if only by i . s thunder . Milton hJjiself was a satirist , when he cho-e , in this senso ; Butler was a satirist in the other .
From the second article , we can only find space for one extract , and it shall bc > the following just and novel distinction : — The difference between Fielding and Thackeray , in respect of that breadth of handline in which it has been complained that the latter is inferor to the former , is a difference mainly of the times lived in and depicted by these writo .-a . Does any one suppose that Fielding would have dared to describe a Squire West rn , or a Lady Bellaston , for the edification of subscribers to modern circulating libraries ? Could the respective virtues und failings of a Joseph Andrews and a Tom Joi es have b u set forth , in a time when thu lips of novelist and dramatist are absolutely locked , with regard to that which st'll exercises as it ever did , and over must , the chief moral energies o" almost all men , during many and those the most dramatic yea : s of lUe ' r lives ? We do not complain of tl < s refinement of modern speech , though we doubt whither it goes much deeper . On the conlt' ry wo heartily wish the reform wore more tliorojgh than it is , and that men Should no 'errise , eve i from thoir talk over their awic , wii ' i tho flavonr in their mouths and minds o' a phraso , or a seuthrcnt which ought to make thorn blush to k ' join the
ladies" Ro orms often advance from superficial to profound , and a pi ro tongue is a lart ' abio hypocrisy , if it bo nothing better . Art , it is true , has hitherto boon a sufferer bv tro improvement . Thut it will not bo . so in the long run , v , o are convinced ; . or evervtl-ue that reuUy betters life must better that which is its representative : but life , as we 1 uvo said , is not as yet , probably , very su bstantially better in this respect ; and tho novolist and dramatist arc meanwhile under fio i ihappy rocossity of representing a society which . " ares not , and o ight not to daro , to scorn no bottc than it in . Iho breadth of troatmort which is thus impossibles for tho modern novelist , is substituted in Mr . Thncltcray ' s works by a subtlety of handling which is almost equally adnnral . lo , and which woud Bcarcoly bo compatible with tho Htrungth o ? light and shudo wo find in Fielding . Mr Thackeray is as much thu originutor of this kird of writing as luolding was of tho other ; and if there arc numerous little indie-tions of lovcronco and imitation of tho latter in the works of tho former , tho two wri ors , in their mam characteristics , are absolute opposite * , a !' lough , ns wo have waid , that opposition is probably no mo ; than tho natural refloctio i , by two iirst-rato ip ' . nds , of tho opposite sociul
character of the ' r limca . Those who delight in Biography—and who does not ?_ will road with great interest tho sketch of the " Life of Charles Bonnet , " tho Genoveao philosopher , in La Itevue den Deux Maudes ( Oct . 1 ) . Tho writer has had access to many inedited letters , and from them he constructs a very agreeable biography of a life in which ideas wore events , and discovorieo were
incidents . We see the young and modest savant patiently toiling over that microscope , which is at once the source of bis glory and despair—which brings him fame , and takes from him his health and sight . There is ane amusing account of his interview with . Voitairb , too long for extract ; and an unconscious gaiety lurking , in the phrase in which his marriage is introduced . " II se maria , non sans avoir , selon la coutume genevoise de ce tempt , cherche a obtenir d' abord le coeur de la jeune personne , objet de son _ choix . " By which it appears to try and gain the affections of your wife , was a " Genevese custom " at that period ! This reminds us of a mot uttered by Abnal , in the true Arnalesque style , on being told by a married woman that she loved her husband . " "Vou 3 aimez votre mari ! e ' est bizarre , sans doute , mais enfin ce n ' est pas defendu !"
The mention of Arnal naturally carries us to Paris , and as naturally elicits the gossip that Edmond About has a comedy accepted at the Francais , entitled L'EffrontL The advent of this brilliant young writer among the dramatists is hopeful , if he can but escape the two perils of not attending to the technical patt , and of attending too exclusively to it . Regnier , also the incomparable Regnier , has , we understand , a comedy immediately forthcoming . He has made the fortune of so many pieces , not only as actor , but as author too , that we may confidently anticipate an assured success .
Thackeray's Miscellanies. Mucebanies, Pr...
THACKERAY'S MISCELLANIES . MUceBanies , Prose and Verse . By W . M . Thackeray . VoU ^ ^ ^^ The sketches with which a great artist nils Ms portfolio , and prepares himself for the composition of great works , have always had , and will cont m to have , a peculiar interest in the eyes of adimrers . They give the youngsters hopef for they show that masterpieces are not the products of a day , and that mastery must be won by labour ; so that young aspirants need not despair if their undeveloped faculties as yet produce no astonishment in the minds of the Browns . Besides teaching youngsters a lesson , and giving them courage , these sketches have for maturer intellects another kind o charm ; they show the early forms of a talent now everywhere admired they betray the natal tendencies of a mind now justly regarded as one of the most remarkable in English literature . Tor these , and for other reasons , we predict a hearty welcome to Thackeray ' s Miscellanies . « , „ _ , „ ,, _„ , This volume co ntains his Ballads , the Booh of Snobs , the tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan , the Fatal Boots , and Coxalhary . lt ™ clearly printed , in a portable form , and at a moderate price . ± ne ^««« ff comprise not only the many gaieties which from time to *» ewere laughed over in Punch , but also various pieces from his other J ° r * f- ± ne Chronicle of the Drum / which opens the volume , is an admirable ballad , with a moral runni ng through it , like a silver thread through a disimal tapestry , and this thread is drawn out at the clo ^ e as a sort of epilogue on thl horrors and brutalities of war . ; We will not mar its effect feO ^ faon of an extract—the whole is too long for quotation . In quite * ^ ff * £ . JS ^ how humourous is the " White Squall , " and how Thackerayish the picture . — Strange company we harboured ; We'd a hundred Jews to larboard , Ui washed , uncombed , unbarbered—Jews b ' , and brown , nn < l grey ; With ter . orit world seize ye ,. And malte your souls ui easy , To see those Rabtiis greasy , Who did nought but-scratch and pray : Their dirty children puking—Their dirty sauepcans cooking—Their dirty finger . s hooking Their sw arming fleas awuy . To starboard , Turks and Greeks were—Whiskered and brown fieir clieeks were—Enormous wide their bree ' : swero , Tl e pipes did pufl' away ; Each on his mat allotted In silence smoked and equnttod , Whilst round ( heir child-en trotted In pretty , pluasai t play . lie can ' t but smile who traces The smiles on those brown frees , And the pretty prattling graces Of those small heathens gay . And so the hours kept tolling , And through tho ocean ro'ling Went tlio bravo Iberia bowling Before tl e break of day When A saiiAM , upon a sudden , Cumo o ' er tho waters scudding ; And the clouds began to gather , And the so a was lashed to lather , And th « lowering thumle f , « imbled , And tho lightning jumped und tumbled , And tho ship , and nil thu ouettn , Woko un in wild commotion . Then tho wind sot up a howling , And the poodle dog a yowling , And tho cocks began a crow" ig , And tho old cow ruls < td a lowing , As she hoard tho w . mixmt blowing » And fowls and geese di < l cmc ' cJh , And tho cordage and tl »« «•«<**> Ik'fc'au to shriek and crackle ;
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 10, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10111855/page/15/
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