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J?°- 439, Atjg-ust 21, 1858.]j THE Ju EA...
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POETRY FROM THE NORTH-. The Ballads of S...
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TTIE , TESTAMENT ?
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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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The People In Church. The People In Chur...
But were the people m church—and it was . a confregation of the poor— -participants ? By no means , hey were abashed , or bewildered , or contumacious it might be , but they were comparatively silent . "We could not resist tlie impression that though such embellishments might stimulate the fervour of the instructed and the genteel , they might perhaps involve a graver error than that estraya . 1 from the ancient and orthodox mode of Protestant worship , with which this zealous author charges the Anglo-CatJiolie Church of to-day .
J?°- 439, Atjg-Ust 21, 1858.]J The Ju Ea...
J ? ° - 439 , Atjg-ust 21 , 1858 . ] j THE Ju EADEB . 843 ^ 1— . ' " -- T" ¦ —"— - - ¦ —
Poetry From The North-. The Ballads Of S...
POETRY FROM THE NORTH-. The Ballads of ScothmA . Edited by William Edmondstpune Aytonn , D . C . L . Two Vols . ( Blackwood and Son . )—The northern counties of England and the southern of Scotland were the homes of that fine ballad literature which was the aurora to the full daylight of our modern poetry . From those border lands came the gleemen who delighted the palace of the king and the cottage of the peasant \ audit was there that from age to age were preserved those tales of love and adventure which are
associatedin our minds with whatever is gay , gallant , and-fascinating in the old times . Peopled by a race of -common- , origin , though split into antagonistic nationalities — a race compounded of Saxons , Danes , and Britons—the language , legends , habits , and modes of thought of the " men of tnesc ¦ districts . continued very similar , though Englishman and Scot were deadly foes , and though the wild border land was loud with tlie frequent clangour of their battles , and red with the constant spilling of their blood . The country was in itself calculated to excite and encourage a- feeling for the poetry of action ; old British traditions of King
Arthur ana Launcelot , of Merlin and the Lady of the LaJce , still hung about the hills and valleys in the middle ages , like ghosts from the vanished kuigdoms ^ of Cumbria and Strathclyde ; and the population inherited from the Scandinavian part of their ancestry a nat aral tendency to a lyrical form of expression . Thus they soon accumulated a rich store of ballad poetry , which passed from mouth to mouth , and from district to district , and which has descended from generation to generation , even down to the present day . These ballads , indeed , seem to have been used as a kind of current coin of the
literary realm . Scotch , productions were adopted in England , and English productions' in Scotland ; so that , in this new collection of the ballads of the latter country , Mr . Avtoun has included some which are substantially English , thougli they appear in a Scottish dress . Tlicrc arc two on the subject of Robin Hood and his merry men of Sherwood Forest . These gallant outlaws , ¦¦ Mr . Aytoun informs us , were great favourites with the Scotch . The " game of ] tol ) in Hood" was frequently played by the men north of the Tweed ; and in 1555—when the gloomy clouds of Puritanism Were beginning to darken Scotland—it received the special condemnation ^ of the Parliament of that country . Any person joining in the game , or in certain other specified sports , was to lose his freedom for five years ! . But the people would not calml y submit to such bigoted f-. xrrnT » nv n . nil in 1 fifil the r » if izr > ns nf "FTilinKnvrrJi vnsr >
in mutiny , for no other reason , and seized on the city aatca . Even some years later than this , Hob in Hood , brigand and outlaw though he was , was constantly made the subject of Sabbath plays in staid and thrifty Scotland . The collection of ballads here put forth by Mr . Aytoun in two handsome volumes is of great interest to all who love the utterances of a bygone day . The editor professes to have gathered together okX those productions the age mm genuineness of wl / cli ho tliinks he can authenticate , and to have excluded whatever is spurious or doubtful . The series ranges from very early times down to the reign of Charles II . Mr . Aytoun has been at great pains to collate the several versions which may exist of any one ballad ; ami , by taking the best of each , he hus «* ivcn his leaders wliut he believes to be the most reliable
result . This is a mode of procedure fraught with 80 n » c danger ; bui ; Mr . Aytoun champions it agiu ' nst the authority , of Mr . Mothcrwell . There is no doubt that such n course , in , skilful hands , often results in the production of a more- readable poem than coul < l otherwise ho obtained ; yet something itt the nature of a new ballsul has at the same time been elaborated . All the component parts may Ik : old and genuine ; but the wliolo , thus reset , is clearly something which bad not previously existed . This will be more especially the ease when , as Mr . Aytoun himself remarks , ' the variations do not
merely arise from the corruptions of time , but are the effect of that community of property in such matters to which we have already alluded , and which left every minstrel at liberty to alter any story winch found its way to him , " in -whatsoever way pleased his own fancy , or was likely to gratify his audience . Still , by tins" system of collation , the spirit , and even the phraseology , of the old ballad literature may be perfectly preserved , while blemishes are removed ; and we have no doubt that Mr . Aytoun—who has given his life to the study of such subjects , who works in the spirit of love as well as
ot intelligence , and whose genius is such as to make him sympathise with that of the harpers and gleemen of the past—has exercised bis editorial judgment with all possible skill . We must confess that our " Southron . " blood and breeding will not permit us to enjoy some of the ballads in these volumes ; a few even appear to us not worth printing ; but several have in them that fire of genius which burns through all distinctions of nationality , and kindles an answering glow in the breast of any reader whose heart is not a mere machine for pumping blood . How can we ie too thankful for
The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spens , as Coleridge called that noble production—a ballad -which throbs with passion from one end to the other , and which , in the course of three-and-twenty stanzas , abounds with action , character , and Homeric description , vital with , simple truth and force ? " Edora O'Gordon , " "Edward , " "The Twa Corbies , " . ¦ « . The Douglas Tragedy , " "The Wife of Usher ' s "Well , " " Clerk SaAinders , " and others , are also remarkable for the directness of their pathos and passion , and often for their wonderfully lyrical instincts ; but we know of nothing equal to " Sir Patrick . " The version given by Mr . Aytoun is
much fuller aud finer than that which appears in Percy ' s Rellqiies . Tile picture of the storm at sea is new to us , and , doubtless , will be to many of Mr . Aytoun's readers . By the way , we are gla " d to see that the editor of tills new collection of old ballads does justice to Bishop Percy , in whose excellent work many of the productions liere reissued were first made generally known to southern readers Mr . Aytoun also speaks with generous candour of Iris other predecessors ia the -way of collection ; but he shows that their labours were in many
respects imperfect , and he conceives that to him was left the task of-gathering . tip , and winnowing from extraneous matter , a complete edition of the traditionary poetry of his native country . His " Introduction" is amusing and suggestive , but might have been better put together . " We observe also a great want in connexion with the work . A good glossary should have been appended ; but nothing of the kind appears , and the English reader is left in ignorance or the meaning of many words . With , this collection of Scottish Ballads tvc may couple a book of still more northern poetry-
—The Ffithi . of-Sa . ga- ; or , Lai / of Frithiof . Translated , in the Original Metres , from the Swedish of Esaias Tegner , Bishop of Wexio , by the Rev . William Le- \ very lilackley , M . A . ( Dublin : M'Glashau and Gill . )—Of tlie faithfulness of this work as a translation we do not feel qualified to speak ; but the reader wlio is tired of the dreaming indistinctness of current poetry will here find a counterpoise in the shape of several amusing 3 tories told with that fulness of concrete imagery which distinguishes the legendary writings of the Scandinavian rnce-s , and gives to them a character which often b « ings to mind the stately , processional march of the poetry of ancient Greece .
Ttie , Testament ?
the jStew testament . An llistoricc-critlcal Introduction to the Canonical BooHs of t / ie JSTew Testament , lly Wilhelnn Martin Lehereclit Do Wette , D . D ., & c . Translated from tho Fifth improved and enlarged Edition , by Frederick Frothinghnm . Boston ( U . S . ) : Crosby and Co . Amongst tho most important additions which Germany lms presented to biblical literature , illustrative of the history of the texts of the Old and New 'Testament " -, almost tlie foremost rank is due to Dr . De Wcttc ^ s ljrfirbncli Her hist orkch-for \ tische . n Eiiilei ( tt »< i in ( do Hum her rfe . i Altai wid Ncuch Testa-H / ej / fo , which consist of two volumes . The second , by far the more important , is devoted to the hoolcs of Iho . Nc-w Testament , and we are indebted to Mr , FrolhingUnni , of Harvard University , for presenting Hint portion to us . in an English dress , rendering the text of his author with great fidelity—not with mere verbal accuracy , but with that which is of far greater consequence—an accurate rendering of the
sense . To accomplish this object the more readily , the proof-sheets were submitted to Professor Noves of the Cambridge ( Mass . ) Theological School , and to Mr . Ezra Abbof ., of Harvard University . Of a work enjoying so European a reputation , it would be simply an act of supererogation in our limits to attempt anything like an analysis . We ,. however , call the reader ' s particular attention tothe author ' s ovra remark , that " that is no genuine love of truth which is not ready to sacrifice its inordinate curiosity where certainty is unattainable , no less than its pious prejudices . " It is . this rule that we must not lose sight of in studyingthe work of De Wette , because he at once startlesus by tlie announcement that on the two most important subjects of investigation— " the history of the text and the origin of tlie first three
Gospelshe has failed to satisfy himself . " Of two of the > books of the New Testament De = Wette denies thegenuineness , whilst several others are p laced by hira > as doubtful ; but as he gives the evidences and arguments for and against with great impartiality ,, tlie reader is , in some measure , left to sum up and judge for himself . It is this impartiality in the arrangement of thematerials that is the great merit of the book , and it -was this very impartiality that brought against it ,, on its first appearance , a host of assailants of every denomination ; yet from 1826 to . 1849 , which is the date of De Wette ' s death , the author stood his ground , had lived down prejudice , and came to be considered " a conservative critic of middle rank . ' * His own words are : —
My experience in New Testament criticism is singular . When I first entered this field I stood in Ihe ^ foremost rank and was regarded by many as a dangerous assailant . Now I behold myself -thrust "back into ' themiddle rank of conservative critics , —who indeed arefar in advance of the Apologists -who would retain the-• whole , —and yet my views and position are in general unchanged . I hope that this new- tempest will pass over , as did that raised by Strauss . I admire the learning , acuteness , and dialectic skill of Dr . Baur , but i n * his investigations I rhiss freedom from bias , and blame
the excessive haste with which he always seeks positive results , at the sacrifice of thoroughness ; as , for instance , in respect of the Gospel of the Hebrews and Marcion ' s Gospel . I can , notwithstanding , learn from , him , and -wish that others likewise would do so , and oppose him with candour and calmness . To oppose his " tendency" theory by a style of criticism , of the sam & character is not serving the truth . Nothing is gained by magisterial decisions and bold assertions , arbitrary explanations and forced-combinations ; nor does a -writer ' a assertion become true and valid because another writer pronounces it excellent , " truly an . acquisition . "
We cannot conclude better than with the following extract , as the subject is one of paramount importance , and must be interesting both to learned , and unlearned readers To the question , " Why wasthe New Testament written in Greek ? " he says ;—The Greek language was at that time extended over the whole civilised world . It pre-vailed even in severat cities of Palestine , nnd was to tlie Jews of Egypt , and , of all other foreign lands , the language of the Bible and of literature . As soon , therefore , as Christianity passed
the bounds of Palestine , it was necessarily propagated in this language , although at the outset it was preached first to the Jews . At an early period , however , there were found among tho Christians native Greeks or Greek Jews , who preached the Gospel to the Greeks . At Anticch , the point whence proceeded the missions to thft ' Greeks , and the Greek Jews , tho Greek language and . culture prevniletl . Barnabas and Paul , who led theaa missions , were Greek Jews ; and tho latter was probably tho fnther of the New Testament literature . Ancient
tradition claims for but one of the Now Testament books a non-Greek original . Tho supposition , of other aucb originals is inadmissible . And wisel y was this so , for from the earliest riseof Christianity to the present fnne , the spread of the Gospel has waited oil extension of commerce Alexandria was the grand emporium of trade , the resort of the great Jewish merchants , and the seat of their celebrated philosophical school , where tlio common language was the so-called popular dialect of Greek , or the Maccdonio-Alcxandrmn . Into that
dialect the Old Testament had been translated , centuries before the advent of the Saviour ,, by tlio Seventy , and but upou espcoial occasions it is to that translation that Our Lord himself , as we 1 aa the Apostles , always refers . Tlio Gospel bad been rejected by the unbelieving Jews . It was to be preached to tlie Gentiles , nnd Greek was , at that period , pre-eminently tho language of the OcntiLo world—even that ; Muccdoni . o-A . lcxaudna . il Ureok , which iiad become the vernacular language ^ of commerce throughout all the ports of the Mediterranean .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 21, 1858, page 843, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_21081858/page/19/
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