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Eumenides , and its brief , excellent notes ; will thank him also for the analysis of Mutter ' s Dissertations which he has appended to his work ; and while differing with him on points of detail , will be not the less sensible of the ability , learning , and zeal displayed in this volume . Let no objection of ours prevent the reader placing this work upon their shelves , for the points we attack , are just as discoverable in other translators .
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CYRILLA . Cyrilla ; a Tale . By the Baroness Tautphoeus , Author of The Initials . 3 volumes-Bentley . " Many also have perished , have erred , and sinned for women . " Such is the epigraph of the new old story narrated by the authoress of The Initials . The reputation of her former work , and the suggestiveness of the epigraph , will excite expectations which Cyrilla is in no condition to fulfil . The reader is tantalized into going through the volumes by a certain repulsive fascination in the story ; he wants to see " how it will end , " and yet cares but little when the end is reached . The structure of the novel is old , the characters all borrowed from the library , the dialogues redundant and not entertaining , and yet in spite thereof the reader plods through the three volumes , occasionally yawning , often skipping , and sometimes vituperating .
At starting we were greatly prepossessed . The p ictures of life in Salzburg were fresh , and vivid . The old Baroness promised to be a character ; and very descriptive of German life are all those pages devoted to herfrom her miserliness to her human " tame cat , " or cavalier sere ente . But no sooner does the business proper of the novel begin , than we are transplanted from German life into the wearisome domains of a circulating library , and the yawning process begins .
Let us not , however , under-rate Cyrilla . It is not an original fiction . It is not even a good fiction ; but it is a fiction eminently superior to many " of the season , " and we must not forget how many fair hand 3 and idle minds there are waiting to be amused by " new novels . " To all such we commend Gyrilla . They will saunter agreeably where the more critical are disposed to " pish I" and we , as public tasters , have to indicate to them , as well as to the critical , what mauner of book is the one we introduce . We can remember the time when that handsome and romantic
scoundrel , Zomdorf , would have thrilled us ; when Cyrilla would have charmed , and Melanie amused us ; when we could have credited the motives , the incidents , and the passions of this story ; weeping over its tragedy ingenuous tears of sympathy ; and even now , when all thefigures and scenes are like those of a phantasmagoria , we are nevertheless dragged through to the end ! It is a pity the authoress did not more resolutely adhere to the promise of . the opening , and make her personages move amid the realities of German life , which she must know by heart . As a specimen of the few descriptive remarks on this subject , take the following on
BANK IN GEEMAN SOCIETY . " Commerce has not often enabled Germans to amass enormous riches ; and even were individuals of the burgher class to become possessed of extraordinary wealth , it would not raise them above their original sphere , so strong is the line of demarcation drawn by birth and fortified by prejudice . " In England . . . but no ; we will not say what wealth can do there . Cleverer pens have already described the rich parvenu's progress—his almost certain elevation , though devoid of all that commands respect , save wealth alone . We must , however , also remember that in England talent and intellectual eminence of every description will enable the possessor to rise , perhaps even more quickly , and certainly more agreeably , in the social scale ; whereas both are alike powerless in Germany . Birth and genealogy decide the position in life so completely , that it is a physical impossibility to change it , inasmuch as none can give themselves other
fathers and forefathers than those from whom they have their origin ; whilo the multiplicity of the class denominated noble , enabling them generally to marry among themselves , this spirit of caste is kept up with a rigour little inferior to that of India . Tho low caste ( not noble ) are very frequently . admirers or worshippers of the high caste ( nobles ) ; many wish also to belong to them—some , irritated by the insuperable barrier opposed to their ambition , hate mid * ridicule the whole aristocracy ; while others , more reasonable , are satisfied with their citizen state , and regard the nobles as a class apart , who havo peculiar ideas , habits , and whims of their own , to which they havo an hereditary right not worth disputing . A ' noble ' in Germany , no matter how impoverished ho may be , or how low his station in life , never loses the thought , 'I am a nobleman ; ' and this idea enables him to look down on the richest und most prosperous burgher with a sort of proud contontedness that would bo perfectly incomprehensible to an Kinglishnmn .
" The prerogatives of the nobility have lately been much and justly curtailed ; some are , however , still retained , and among them one which is not considered such in England—tho right of being presented at and frequenting tho court . This privilege , possessed with few exceptions exclusively by them , is pretty generally claimed , though valued by many more as an outward and visible sign of nobility than as a means of exhibiting their loyalty ; but as in all communities it is the endeavour of a few to raise themselves above the level of those with whom they associate , and oik ; observed this propensity strongly developed , as phrenologists would say , wherever women take the lead , ho , oven in the social intercourse oi the privileged class , there an ; well known divisions and distinctions , tho most common and comprehensive being that culled tho Haute ] r olec . "
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1 ) K UK HITS SCKNICIS . ( lOT (^ UJHUNDAHf AL 11 H . ) TuuTir oneo presented herself at tho doors of tho Sorbonno and wuh driven ignominioiisly away by ( ho Syndic , who threatened to preach at her and call her Atheism . Sdu luiew the force of his threat ; that is to say , tho temporary force , and retired consoling liorHolf with the reflection of being tho child ' ol' Time who refused her nothing .
This little apologue I find in Grimm ' s Correspondance . And , on second thoughts , I will give you the original : — Aux portes de la Sorbonne La Verite se montra Le Syndic la rencontra ; " Que demandez vous , la bonne ?" " Helas ! FhospitaliteY * " Votre nom ?" . " la Verite !" " Fuyez , " dit-il en colere , " Fuyez , ou je monte en chaire " Et crie a , l'impiete I " " Vous me chassez ; roais j ' espere Avoir mon tour , et j ' attends ; Car je suis fille du Temps Et j ' obtiens tout de mon pere /' If you ask me why I retail my discovery to yon , and thrust in here the apologue , without preface , I shall reply in Churchill's couplet : — When deeply read , our reading * must be shown ; Vain is the knowledge which remains unknown . If I meet with a " good thing , " no miserliness shall keep me from calling you to rejoice over it ( especially when the printer ' s devil is aghast at want of copy ) , and as you are not reading Grimm By the way , would you like to know why you are not reading Grimm ? Because you are cooped in cities instead of escaping into the green country . It is only in the country one has time for light , gossipy reading of that kind ; there one has time for everything . I have just returned ; having been driven from London by a Sehnsucht—a passionate panting for uplands and breezy downs—A desire for something afar From the bores of to-morrow ! London is great , but even London palls after awhile . One gets wearied of the same parties crowded with fleshy dowagers , naked and noisy , —with solemn bores omniscient on the Budget , —with gay young flirts who don't prefer you , —with friends who wont lend you money , and creditors who will have " little bills to make up ; " one wearies of dinners , and theatres , and wheezy operas , and hot concerts ; and as one paces the dusty park , a dirty sparrow , flitting through the dirty branches , recals the inexhaustible wealth of Nature , and then kindly faces , warmest hospitality , immunity from care , " idlesse in her dreaming mood , " rise in a Vision before the mental eye , beckoning the weary Londoner away ! You will tell me perhaps that " all this does not interest you ; " but what then ? what if it interests one ? " Is thy servant a dog ? " Je sals hien que le leeteur n ' a pas grand besoin de savoir tout cela ; mats , moi , J ' ai grand besoin de le lui dire . ( It is Rousseau who says that , and I love it for the sake of one who quoted it to me . ) What does Jones care for Julia ' s details about her miserable feelings ? Nothing ; and Julia knows it ; but she cares about them , and loves to talk about them ! This is my answer to correspondents like tko one who signs himself Uselkopf ( Ass ' s head . )
And is himself the great sublime he signs ! He objects to my telling him about Maria ' s eyes . " What does lie care about Maria P" If he comes 1 o that , what does Maria care about him ? It is Vivian ( and not , by the way , the " party" whom J ? sel ?< : opJ' and many others erroneously suppose to be Vivian ) who cares for Maria , and who writes about her to please himself . Does any one else write for any other reason ? I he does , be assured , ( . ) Kxelkopf , that , you Cor o \ u * wont read him ; you have too much nous for that . To return therefore to vvlial ; I digressed from , I am a great advocate for going into the country . One tastes a week ' s healthy enjoyment , and one dues- no work . I like that kind of Sabbath . I have just had one ; and am now once more plunged
in the old vortox . Once more in I he grave office of Critic , 1 have to set aside all frivolity and be severely judicial upon ' things seen and unseen . " At the Oi'Kiu , for example , I saw Maria dt- Jto ' / um—there was certainly more to see than to hear in Mad . Alhini , who made her debut . . If * I say she was Alboni without the O of admiration— I shall be Mii < j ; allant , but truthful ; however , as ungallnntry afflicts the Vivianesque soul , . 1 will not say it . Consider the pen run throug h , that , sentence ! OI' iVldlle . J ) idiee , tho new contralto , who is not a contralto , one may speak more favourably : her voice is fresh , clear , and sympathetic , especially in ( he upper register , and her singing is neat , clean ( if I may use the word ) , and adroit . She ^ ivctf promise . Of . Ronconi' . s tragic third act , how intense ,
how passionate and true it , is , you have often heard , it you have not personal knowledge , so I . will leave it to lame . IN or need anything more bo said of Luerezia Borgia , which was playod on Thursday , except that Mdlle . Didiee ' s M ' . aJJ io Orsini was of the same kind as her previous performance ; not great , but decidedly agreeable ; . The house was crammed to the unpleasant pitch . Mario in delicious v < fice ; ( Irisi in superb beauty ; and Uonconi almost greater than ever . At the KitHNcn JM . ayn we havo had Madeleine Brohan and the accomplished Kegnier . I prefer a cant -ions suspension of judgment with regard to Madeleine Brolmn , who comes to uh with Hueh a nimbus of adulation , both as ji , beauty and an actress , that I , who am , at present , neither charmed by the one , nor willing to admit ,
the other , must son her in fresh characters before pronouncing . It in feeble , I know , in a critic not to decide at once . Que diahle ! is not a critic one whoso judgment , is infallible and instantaneous P . Nevertheless , I prefer that yoii ! should think mo feeble , to my thinking myself rash . At the Oi / YMiMO there has been u new drama , ' / . Vie Millr . r (>/ ' Dcrwenl Water , which I have not seen , hut which unexceptionable authority ( tho playbill ) pronounces an immense attraction . And at tho Iaoioum , another now farce , Trying it on , adapted by ( he ovor i * eady William liroiigh , from line Riviere d « ns le dos , which was played by Kavel a few weeks since . ( Jharlen Mathewt ) , of course , takes . Ruvol ' s part of tho rost-Johs Touehall . Vivian .
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May 7 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 453
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Leader (1850-1860), May 7, 1853, page 453, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1985/page/21/
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