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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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Victor Hugo ' s talent for miso en scene , his invention of striking and terrible situations , his dramatic intentions , so to speak , have misled people into the belief that he is a dramatic poet . But there is one fundamental want in all his pieces : a want of life . The figures move , but _ with the movement of galvanized corpses , and with visages as hideous . There is no heart no reality , no pulse of life . Nothing but antitheses and tirades . Preoccupied with " effects , " and like a true rhetorician thinking only of literary «« effects , " ' he sacrifices everything to an antithesis , ¦ When reproached for this unhealthy craving he replied , " People object to my love of antithesis ; as if God were not still more antithetical than I ! " Apart from the frightful bathos of this reply , do note its absurdity ! But neither bathos nor absurdity can have a limit with the poet who imperiously demands from Heaven an explanation of the great mystery in these terms : —
Et maintenant Seigneur expliquons nous , tout deux ! I should like to place before him Charles Nodier ' s opinion of antithesis -. — " figure aussi incompatible avec la belle construction podtique qu ' elle Test avec la verite * et la raison ; qui brise , qui mutile , qui denature la pense " e ; qui contraintTesprit a s ' occuper sans cesse de comparisons et de contrastes . " With Hugo it is not a vice of language merely , it is equally a vice of conception . All his works are built up out of antitheses . Let us cast but a
glance at Buy Bias , that long and tiresome drama with which we were afflicted on IMday night . The central position is an antithesis—the lackey loves and is loved by the queen—the minister disgraced because he will not marry a servant ¦ whom he has seduced , revenges himself by making his servant the lover of the queen . There is also the eternal recurrence of Vange et le dSmon , without whom Hugo ' s muse seems unable to move : the demon is Salluste , the angel the queen . Buy Bias himself
Au lieu d ' un ouvrier on a fait un reveur , thrown on the streets , friendless and penniless , he becomes , of course , a poet and a dreamer ( as Bidier , in Marion de VOrme , before him ) , and the dreamer ends b y donning the livery of a valet ; and the valet ends by becoming prime minister and lover of the queen . Pestel comme on y va ! Then there is Don Cesar de Bazan ( the original of the character in . the celebrated drama ) Drapant sa gueuserie avec son arrogance , an impersonation of the chivalrous blackguard ; and so the play goes on
from antithesis to antithesis , much to the fatigue of the spectator , who , for a little touch of nature , a little impulse of feeling , would so willingly give all this cold and glittering epigram . That there are capital situations in this play , and some energetic lines , will not soften the verdict ; it has the irredeemable defect of seeming unreal from first to last ; and if the ear is gratified by a fine verse now and then , it is more often offended by such as ^ these : — ¦ ~ . Parle ! ravis-jnoi ! Jamais on ne m ' a ditT de ces clioses la , J ' ecoute I Ton ame en me parlant me bouleverse towte ! These are naivetes which Hugo and his school naively believe are Shaksperian ! Bad as the play is , the acting was worse . You know what I think of Lemaitre , and may imagine the shock my admiration must have received before I could write this sentence : he was as bad as a fine actor could be ! He whirled his arms about like a delirious windmill ; he mouthed and ranted with explosive bursts that would not have disgraced Charles Kean in his most Skakspearian moments ; he was neither dreamy , terrible , loving , nor pathetic . To see so fine an actor— -ons > who can be so impassioned , so real , so pathetic—labouring in vain to represent the emotions of his part , and not succeeding in the slightest degree , puzzled and set me meditating on the cause . For observe , the failure was not one of degree ; Fre'de'ric was not less admirable than on other occasions—he was simply not admirable at all : the failure was total , absolute ! It then occurred to me that the reason of this failure was the unreality of the part . Frederic's greatness consists of two distinct things—his original and fantastic buffoonery , and his intense perception of the details which represent a real emotion . Give him a part like Robert Macaire or Don Cesar , and liis magnificent buffoonery enchants you ; give him a part like the gambler in La Vie d'un Jbueur , or like Paillasse , and his pathos goes direct to the heart . But give him an heroic part , and he is out of his element ; he does not feel himself at home in it ; he knows not the details which incarnate it ; he becomes an ordinary actor . This was entirely the case with Buy Bias , which is utterly unreal , and gives the actor no chance . People commonly suppose that it is the actor who makes the play ; but although the actor may spoil a part , he cannot make one ; and that is the answer to those who assert that Eachel ' s genius alone makes Eacine effective—her genius cannot make the modern writers effective ! " . . , Let mo , in concluding , say a word in favour of Clarxsse , who played the Queen , not indeed with queenly dignity , but with as much womanly tenderness as the part admitted . . I had been always told that Buy Bias was Fre"deric s greatest part . I have now seen it for the first , and I pledge you my honour , for the last time .
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THE TRUE CHARLES KBAN AT LAST ! It has been said , in not very elegant Latin ; that vainly do you expel Nature with a fork , fcho will comb back again . The fact is , Nature is a woman , and will have the last word . See the truth illustrated in the career of that remarkable actor , Charles Kean , who , bearing the burden of his fathor ' B name—a name associated with Shakspeare ( but rejoicing , I would have you know , in a genius of a totally different order)—has boon condemned by the force of circumstances to strut and fume ( and how ho N ^ fias strutted ! how fumed !) his hour on the stage as a Shakspeonan / A « # or , Nature all the while having sternly said to him : " Charles , you Pl&jre no faculties for poetic representation ; Charles , you do not know frSftriffTa . t poetry is , and there is a vulgar prejudice abroad which demands that kal )« ftre representing a part you should know something of what it means . VSjOTVstrain your lungs at Shakspearo P" Nature might speak , but there
was the conventional fork expelling her , and insisting , ; upon Shakspear being performed ! ^ e Now , Charles Kean could not overcome circumstances ; but ; like adroit man , he made use of them . Born with a decided aptitude for melodrama , he exercised himself as a melodramatist in the plays of Shak speare . He knew he could not play QthellOjMacbethi Lear , Romeo ( I should Hire to see his Romep !) , the public knew it , too ; tilit an actor must learn his art , and all the time he was detonating ; through ; Shakspeare , he Waa silently training himself for Dumas . We critics were / all on .. a false scent ' It was not Othello , it was not Macbeth he was trying to play , it was th *
Coreican Brothers , it was Jrauline . Ihere lay his taste , there lay his talent . He has revealed himself at last . In Pauline , and in the CorsicanBrothers , he is excellent ; one desires nothing better of its kind " He has found his vein , the public appreciates it , success is won . Let him peril it no more by Shakspeare ( unless in parts like Ford , which he plays admirably ) . Let him frankly take position as the hero of the Blood and Bogie School , and leave Poetry in unmangled repose .
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ELLA'S MUSICAL EVENINGS . Riding in an omnibus one day , in company with seven men and a small dog , I was mildly asked by a meek gentleman , with a snub nose and desultory whiskers , whether that dog belonged tome . " No , sir , no , " I replied ; " I never own anything smaller than a mastiff ! " ^ " Oh ! indeed , " said my collocutor , the meek gentleman , with an abortive sneer , " you have great ideas ! " I startled him into silence by severely asking , "Sir > why do you impute little dogs to strangers ?" ¦ ' He stamnieredapologetically , and very soon got out of the omnibus , doubless wondering at the Olympian pride of his persecutor ! This mystification—worthy , 1 venture to say , of Vivier the prince of mysttficateurs- —\ ras recalled to me on Thursday by an ingenuous youth , who wishing " to make a remark , " asked me whether I was going to see the new debutante , Mrs . Rose Ellen Temple , in the Heir at Law . for I loftily answered , " Why do you impute such
intentions to meP and on a Thursday night , too , when Ella ' s Musical Evening lures me toWillis ' sRooms ! When Mozart's quintet in G minor , Beethoven ' s Trio B flat , and Mendelssohn ' s quartet No 4 , are to be performed by Leonard , Mellon , Oury , Le Jeune , and Piatti ; when Madame Mendi is to sing , and M . Leonard , the new violinist , is to make his first appearance !" With all my interest in debuts , I could not give -up such a concert as thatfor a ddbut , so I went to Ella ' s . I did well . TW concert was de-Hffhtful . Ella is an enterprising manager , and to his sagacious enterprise
the subscribers owe njany a treat ; ior no sooner does some wandering planet come within Ella ' s orbit , than , sure as fate , the planet is whirled into the Musical Union , ( by which lofty and astronomical phrase I mean that " all the talents" are secured , all the great ; playerscertain to be engaged ) . M . Leonard and his wife are on their way to Russia , but Ella knows how to make them pass through London and j > lay at his concert . M . Leonard—the attraction of the evening—is a fine player certainly ; but he seemed more at home in Mozart and Mendelssohn than in Beethoven : he played with delicacy and with purity ; but the impetuous iterations of Beethoven ' s fiery and impassioned phrases were inadequately given . It was Beethoven from the surface inwards , so to speak--not ot
from the mysterious depths of passion piercing a way outwards . ± > mng could be more delightful than his playing of the enchanting trio in Mozart ' s quintet , or more delicately discriminating than the muted tenderness of the adagio ^ one of the loveliest things Mozart ever wrote . But the Beethoven trio in B flat left me unsatisfied , craving tor a Beethovenish je ne scais quoi , the absence of which almost spoiled my enjoyment of that exquisite composition . Ah ! what writing ! Inere was a poet ! His invention was as oxhaustless as it was primesautiere ; his least effective phrases never have an accent of commonplace : he is a miracle of science and genius ! ' ..
Of M . Aguilar ' s pianoforte playing I can say nothing favourable . Coming after such men as Halle" and Pauor , he was subjected tc _ a comparison that must have thrown ten times his talent into the shade ; but to come after Halle' and Pauer , and to play in that loose expressionless style was inexcusable . Nor will I say more of Madame Mendi , than that she sang Handel ' s Lascia ck'io pianga—no favourite of mine , —ana Isouard ' s Nonje ne veuxpas chanter . The rooms were crowded .
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DREARY LANE Keeps up its character of enterprising failure . The immortal Bunn , tliat ara £ avbptov , that man of men , whose knowledge , experience , taste , and enterprise are the admiration of the profession , continues to issue duis which are the delight of critics , and continues to revive pieoes witli a prodigality of invention peculiar to himself . What a brilliant though that was to revive Azael I Mr . Anderson had worn it out during nis management , and had himself tried the effect of its revival ; and because Azael was worn out , because the public was weary of Azael , because -A «« w was certain to fail , Mr . Bunn revives it—otherwise , where would Do wio " enterprise P" what audacity is there in reviving a piece cortain to succeea p
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MR . WYWS GLOBE IN LEICESTER SQUARE . To the attractions of his Great Globe , Mr . Wyld has added a J » peonu model of the Arctic Regions , displaying the portion , of the world wnoro Franklin and his follow voyagers have been lost . The model is a ; sectl 0 'f of a sphere , of considerable size , the land raised in relief from th ^ ^ 7 cx h the water , and skilfully coloured so as to aid the apprchensicai . ot tne w jocts . An oral explanation is given , not only of the ( Structure oi w * gion , but also of Franklin ' s route , as far as it is known , and ot tno p »¦ efforts to follow him . It is impossible to conceive so distinct an kic » the facts as half an hour spent over the model will supply . , inde-The large globe appears to find increasing favour , certainly nO * "" sorved . The expansion of tho map , the striking and really tangjwo » l proach to a sculptured relief of tho dry land , the truly clear ojP »" " of the guide , are characteristics which render it tho best form lor seiu ^ ing practical geography that wo have seen .
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v . ' ¦ ¦ . ' •¦ . ¦ ' ¦ . ¦ ' ¦ . ¦ ¦ , ¦ . ¦ ¦ '¦ . 306 THE LEADER . . W ** vxdax ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 27, 1852, page 306, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1928/page/22/
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