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" From Troy to Thracian Ismarus I sailed , City of the Ciconian . " Hercules , not being a god of deep discernment , took it literally , and was proceeding with his questions , when Febris , who had attended Claudius out of life and had brought him from Rome , detailed , not very respectfully , the true facts of the case . Claudius , in a rage , made a sign to have Febris ' s disrespectful tongue cut out ; but Hercules , taking heart , told him not to make a fool of himself , and again quoted poetry to the effect that he would split his skull with his club unless he made an end of that and gave him a plain answer .
Claudius began to recollect that Olympus was not Rome ; he thought of the proverb " every cock on his own dunghill , " made his submission , and flattered H ercules into good humour . The exofficials of the commonwealth retired upon the senate ; the ex-emperor ' s retiring pension was a seat among the Olympians , and Claudius was come , like his predecessor , to put in his claim . On his petition being presented , a dispute arose as to what sort of god he should be . He could not be an
Epicurean—Epicurean gods causing no vexation to themselves or others . The Stoic round god it was titfought ^ vould do best , Claudius having neither head nor' heart . Another god observed that he already had a temple in Britain ; they had better send him there ; like people , like gods . The dispute growing light , Jupiter interfered with a call to order : what would the strangers think of them ? Strangers must withdraw during the debate ; and Claudius was shouldered out to shiver in the
vestibule . Then Janus rose , and warned the gods to take care how they made Olympus common . " Once , " he said , " it was something to be a god . Now it had become vulgar . Each worst person affected it . He did not wish to be personal . He would move a resolution on the general question : — ' That from thenceforth of those " who eat the fruit of the ground , " or of those " to whom the fertile earth gives food , " not one , on any account or pretext , should be made into a god ; and that , if any person whatsoever , subsequent to the decree of this Olympic senate , should be sculptured or painted with divine honours , he should be given up to the Larvae , and be beaten with the ghosts of sticks . ' "
Hercules , however , who had a weakness for monsters , moved as an amendment that the law should not act retrospectively . It was hard , he argued , to pass a bill against an individual , and in consideration of his family Claudius ought to be let pass . They could make him into a god , and the story should be introduced into the next edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses . It was a near thing , ar . d Claudius would perhaps have got through by a vote , had not Augustus started passionately up : —
" I call you to witness , conscript fathers , " he said , " that from the day I was made a god I have minded my own business , and have never spoken one word . Shame forces me now to break silence . Was it for this that I gave peace to earth ? " &c , &c . With immense eloquence he details his own performances and Claudius ' s atrocities , and in the end carries ; i vote that the poor ghost must depart within three days from Olympus .
The three days were scarcely as many minutes . Mercury seizes him , neck and heels , and pushes him out , and then becomes his inauspicious attendant to the other place . Their way leads down the Via Sacra . They meet a , crowd , and learn that it in Claudius ' s funeral . The people were in the highest spirits , and the general festivity showed that it was the funeral of a god . When Claudius saw it ( he was slow at taking in an idea ) , intellexit se mnrtimin esse , he understood that he was dead . His dirge was singing ( we remember the oration which Nero had the speaking of ) . The dirge ran somewhat differently : —
" Mourn for the man ; than whom no other More swift could judge a cau . se , only one wide Hearing more often neither . Mourn , oh mourn , ye venal crowd , " &e . Claudius would have stayed longer to listen to bis praises , but Mercury , <<> whom his company was rather a bore , hurried him oil'To the shades . Here , among the elaitiour of tin ; ghosts of his earthly victims , he wa « about to lie . sentenced by vKaeuN to piny dire for ever with bottomless dice-boxes , when Caius Caligula stepped forward and claimed him for a slave , and to him be was finally adjudged . Certainly state religions are tenacious of life . Thin was written about the time St . Paul was writing his Knintle , to the Romans . Yet the old Paganism ,
with the strong state arm to cling to and the gold blood in its veins , made shift to halt along in spite of them ; and decent worthy men lived and died for three more centuries in the " wisdom of their ancestors . "
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TWO PORTRAITS OF MAZZINI . A spectator of the interesting banquet given by the German Republicans to commemorate the Revolution of 1848 has written a spirited account of it in , the Dumfries Courier , from which we extract these two sketches of the greatest of modern Italians : — " It was generally thought in the meeting that Mazzini was not present , but that he was still in Switzerland . But one of the speakers , in the course of the evening , pointed to him in an obscure corner of the room , and hailed him as pater patria when the whole assembled
, mass , as if a whirlwind had swept over them , started up , and sealed the ' all hail ! ' with a burst of enthusiasm and triumph such as I never saw equalled . The subject of all this acclamation seemed disconcerted by it ; it was a scene alien to his feelings . He rose very unwillingly , bowed hurriedly , and sat down in his corner again with evident precipitation , and a desire to escape from this universal attention . But the company was roused , and there could be no more peace , till he came forward and addressed them . It was manifest that although , for his own great and devoutly cherished purposes , he must mingle in such , meetings and associations , the mere irksome to him
clamour and blaze and ovations were . His almost austere looks and deprecating gestures seemed to say— ' Bawl not thus , but hold up your breath for the day of action . '—Hear , then , stands the Roman tribune before us . —0 Time ! O ever-struggling spirit ! 0 mortal circumstances ever crushing and shrivelling ideal aspirations ! what ravages he can make , in the flight of a few years , upon us poor creatures—on the outward mask of the man . How altered is this Joseph Mazzini now before us , from what he appears in the following vivid description of him twenty years ago , when he was fresh twenty-one , yet even then an exile from Italy , for his liberal opinions , and living in Marseilles . Thus saith the narrator : — ' I went into the rifle-ground , and , looking round , saw a
young man leaning on his rifle , watching the shooters , and waiting for his turn . He was about five feet eight inches high , and slightly made ; he was dressed in black Genoa velvet , with the large Republican hat ; his long curling black hair , which fell upon his shoulders , the extreme freshness of his clear olive complexion , the chiselled delicacy of his regular and beautiful features , aided by his very youthful look , and sweetness ? . nd openness of expression , would have made his appearance almost too feminine , if it had not been for his noble forehead , the power of firmness and decision that was mingled with their gaiety and sweetness in the bright flashes of his dark eyes , and in the varying expression of his mouth , together with his small and beautiful moustachios and
beard . Altogether he was at that time the most beautiful being , male or female , that I had ever seen , and I have not since seen his equal . I had read what he had published , I had heard of what he had done and suffered , and the moment I saw him I hneio it could be no other than Joseph Mazzini . ' His figure is still slighter than in those days , as if worn out by vigils and labours and the multitude of pressing anxieties . The noble forehead
is stilt there , even more intense and concentrated in the expression now stamped upon it . His black curling locks are now cropped , and thin and prematurely grey . The eye is dark and bright . ; but the youthful sparkle and Hash , and mere sensuous gaiety , are gone . The whole countenance , though placid and calm and benign , wears a deep and settled solemnity . There in no dejection in it , no sullenness , no misery , —for when was ever such a man soured or desponding ? No , no !
• More thought , than wot ; is iu liia dusky face . I never saw a face what 1 would call ro quintessentialso free of all trace of temper or . disposition , or any conventional peculiarity . It seems as if lie had passed through a furnace , and all had been cleared off but the expr < aaion of intellect and devoted purpo . se . There he stood—wan , weak , and shattered as he ih —in head , look , bearing , and sentiment , a very Hainan—inspired by all the different impulses of the Roman spirit—a mixture of the antique severity of a Urutun , with the modern and gorgeous visions of power and freedom and gre . atncsB which Dante has taught all Italian minds instinctively to associate with that ' internal City . ' "
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S 42 & \> t Heatiet . [ Satprday ,
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RACHEL AND RACINE . One day a hot dispute about the merits o Petrarch as a Poet was abruptly quashed by Fuseli breaking in with , " Dere is many reasons vy he is no understood in England : de first reason is de d—d ignorance of de language . " To apply this to Racine and his critics here would not he so unjust as you may fancy , for in truth , very few persons have the requisite knowledge of the language to taste the delicacies of poetic
expression . To read Dumas and Paul de Kock is not to know French . But even where sufficient knowledge of the language exists , there are other obstacles to the correct appreciation of Racine ; viz .: narrow views of Art and bigoted worship of Shakspeare . All who know me , know how intensely I admire Racine ; and it is excessively amusing to me to hear my friends gravely assume that I cannot admire Shakspeare because I admire Racine . I wonder what these men really see in Sophocles !
But I will not be seduced into polemics . I will simply reprint what I wrote in this Journal last year , because I can add but little to what I then said , and because as you must have forgotten every syllable of it , the article will be " as good as new . " " Of the few persons in the theatre competent to appreciate a fine work of art , there was but a small section who would pretend to relish Racine . The answer is always ready : French Art is so French ( as if that were wonderful !) and so unnatural ( as if the aim of Art were to be natural !) and so cold ( especially to us who do not feel the language !)
These critics never ask themselves how it is that a work of art like the Phedre , can have withstood the tests of criticism , fluctuations of opinion , and schoolboy familiarity for nearly two centuries , incessantly performed , incessantly read , —once the delight of all Europe , and ever the glory and delight of France , —and yet be a cold , unnatural , uninteresting production . Excellent critics ! They form their views of Arb exclusively upon the Shakspeare model , and aiding their prejudices with an adequate ignorance of the language ( though invariably *
mistaken for Frenchmen ! ' ) pronounce Racine ' no poet . ' Schiller and Goethe may be tolerated because they are Shakspearean ; Sophocles also gets a good word on the same ground ; while Calderon is spoken of with reverence , because the Schlegels in a delirium of error pronounced him equal to—nay , superior to Shakspeare ! As for Alfieri , Racine , and Corneille , they are scouted because they are not Shakspearean . In the same Catholic spirit , Titian is held of no account by some who worship RaiFaelle ; Caravaggio ' wants art , ' because he has not the manner of Correggio .
"We have indicated the current opinion to explain why Rachel is not properly appreciated . You cannot be intensely excited by a work you do not understand . Nor is it the best way to judge of an actress to keep your eyes fixed upon a book ( we once saw a lady in a private box not content with her book , but absolutely hunting out the words in her dictionary !) when so eloquent a book is before you in her face . Nevertheless , there were persons
in the house who did feel the greatness of the art they witnessed , who were moved to the very depths , whose murmurs and bursts of applause told how their souls were thrilled ; and even our friends whose eyes were fixed upon their books were sufliciently moved by the mere tones of her voice , the passion of her speech so eloquently expressing the passion of the poetry , to bravo , and clap their hands with something like enthusiasm .
" Nothing finer could be Keen than this picture of the unutterable inournfulness and yielding despair of a soul torn with an incestuous passion , consciouH of its guilt , struggling with its guilt , yet ho filled with it , so moved by it , so possessed by it , that tho verse was realized : —• ' C'est Venus toutc rntiore a tax . proic attachee . '
Her appearance as she entered , wasting away with the fire that consumed her , standing ou tho verge of tho grave , —her face pallid , —her eyes hot , —her arms and IirihIh emaciated , filled us with ; i ghastly horror ; and the slow deep mournful toning of the apostrophe to the sun , especially in that closing line , — ' Soleil jo to virus voir pour la ricrnierc fois , '
produced a thrill , such as no spoken language seemed ca |) able of producing : one looks to music only fo * such emotion . Then , again , how exquisitely remorseful and pathetic tho linea : —
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C If A It L O T T K C ORDAY . Hearts must not . . sink at seeing Law lie ( loud . .. No , Corday , no ; Klse Justice had not crown'd in heaven thy head , Profaned below . Two women * France hath borne , each greater far Than all her men , And greater , many , were , than any are At Hword or pen . Corneille , the first among ( iaul ' s rhymer race Whose soul wan free , Descends from his high station , proud to trace Jl is line in thee . Wai . tkr Savaok I , andoii . Joiin of Arc , and Charlotte Clorduy . I
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Leader (1850-1860), June 7, 1851, page 542, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1886/page/18/
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