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'3>i4-t\*«rt4-v»t«iv fLrIJ*FuIlUw
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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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" Who wrote Shakspbabb ? " asks Lady Betty in High Life Belcw Stairs ; and the answer " Colmsy Cibber , " which produces a shout of laughter , is far less ludicrous than the answer which an American writer m Putnam ' s Monthly hints in an elaborated , but not elaborate , paper , which , is to be followed by more circumstantial proof . Many a playful suggestion bas been made touching the mythical nature of Shakspeare ' s fame ; but it was R eserved fbr American absurdity to give his works to Raleigh and Bacon . The writer in Putnam ' s Monthly has not even ingenuity to render his paradox
palateable . He is deficient in the elementary qualifications necessary for such an inquiry , being incapable of appreciating evidence , superficially informed , and infected with tie worst disease which can beset a writer , the delusion that bombast is forcible . In the introductory paper his main position rests on the assumption that Shakspeabe was only a miserable player , a deerstealing apprentice turned into a money-getting manager , and utterly incapable of being the author of the plays attributed to him . Is there any evidence for such aa assumption ? Not a tittle . And if the writer had but
inquired he would have learned that the only dramatist worthy to be placed on the same exalted pedestal as Shakspeare , was also an actor , also a money-getting manager , writing and acting for money , and yet acknowledged by all Europe as the immortal author of Tartufe , I * e Misanthrope , and L » Avars . ¦ ' ' ' ' " :. ' ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ' . But not only is the assumption foolish in itself , it has to make head against the plainest evidence . Sha . kspeare was well-known to his rivals and friends . He was cordially hated by some whom he surpassed ; and if those who . taunted him with conceiving himself : * ¦ to be the only ShaAescene of the country ; ' * had known he was incapable of writing the plays , which galled their envy , their taunts would have been bitterer , and their iiproar great . Ben Jonson Tvould not have been , imposed on by a vulgar actor , and believed him to be the " star of poetsj" or said of him ,-- ^
: Look how the father ' sface Lives in hk issue ; even ap tie lace Of Shakespeare ' s mmd and mariners irigJitly shioies In his weil-torned and true-filed lines : which is more to . our argumentthan his nobleline of eulogy : — - Thou art a monument without atonxb ! Nor does the American argument ; fail more completely in the attempt to dis prove Shakspbare ' s authorship than in the utter want of critical discmni
nation displayed in its affiliation of the plays on Raleigh and Bacon . Of these writers we have ample specimens . We know what they could do when all their genius was at ; the stretch ; vre have the avowed fruits of their labour arid meditation ; and if any single page of Raleioh or Bacon can be pointed out which indicates , even vaguely , the peculiar constitution of a dramatic mini , we will believe that Robert Montgomery wrote the " Ancient Mariner , " that Macaulay wrote " Pickwick , " and that Edgar Poe is the author of "Brncebridge Hall . "
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THE LADY IN WAITING IN" " THE STATES . " Letters from the United States , Cuba , and Canada . By the Honourable Amelia M . Murray . j . w . Purker unit Son . I he Honourable Amelia M : Murray has solved rather an amusing question for the curious world . We have had the United States traversed by representatives from almost every class of English society . Diplomatists " statesmen , soldiers , sailors , lawyers , authors , statists , political economists , journalists , clergymen , gentlemen of fortune , sportsmen , naturalists , merchants , workingmen , and women ; Imt it remained an experiment to be performed , to turn loose a lady from Court-life to wander about the Union , and tell us what she saw . A Lady in waiting turned out in that brond Republic where nobody waits upon anybody , —a lady of St . James ' a lot loose among the hotels and the cars irom the north , " down south , " among ' whites and blacks , democrats and nullificrs , barn-burners and Know-nothings . It is in this motlu that
WC must take Miss Mnrrav ' n lmnlr VrMi nnnnnf , ! , n „ -it , ,,.,..., „ „ ,. « . i \ f n we must take Misa Murray ' s book . You cannot umUo a silk purse out of a sow ' s ear , nor bacon out of a silk purse . The woman of fashion , however intelligent she may be , however gifted with the power of writing , or blue towards her shoes , is not a statesman , a professional man , or a niiui of any land . We mmt not look for "information , " in the ordinary sense of the word , nor for statistics ; others can collect them and arrange them hotter , for exact reports upon the working of institutions , for precise judgments upon the questions of cottow , railways , New York bankruptcies , or lnntl speculations . Hut a woman ' s eye sees mnny things thnt escape the severer lnspcctor ' and really it is both a rarity and an instruction to view the Great Western Kepubhc through the lens of a Lady-in-waiting . Instcnd , therefore , of wasting much harsh criticism , which would bo totally inapplicable to lliusu two light volumes , let us say that they would be little worth reading by those who should read no other books for m \ account of the Union ; but for those who
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dexterity , to introduce it with the proper garniture , and even thea to be perfeetly satisfied if a few only of your readers find it not very dull . But it is fj ^ otherwise , as I have just shown you , with the loves of Augustus and Arabella . They may be told at any time and in any place , and the narrator may be half asleep like an Arab story-teller , who is telling for the thousandth time some common legend about Leila and Mahommed . He may be drowsy enough , over the hot embers and the good cheer provided by his swarthy hosts , but they sit round in eager listening attitudes , with their dark eyes greedily fixed upon him i& . quiring for more , so that he has not the cruelty to go to sleep when so many human beings are passionately drinking in the well-worn words which only add to his drowsiness .
BLANCHE . I should like to hear what Cousin Leonard would say of love . It is not likero that so grave a man has thought much , about so foolish a thing . But his big books tell him everything , I think . I often fancy I hear them talking together in the night .
MILVERTON . Why , beauty , I think that love is the only thing that shows us the possibilities in human nature . I believe it was given us for the same purpose that the eight of the infinite involutions of starry worlds was given . Knowing what one human being can feel for another , when in love , seeing the inventive and undying toleranee which love gives , one can imagine what it would be if some feeling of the same kind were to pervade the whole race , and men exercised the best of their powers in discerning and developing what was lovely in all those about them . It would create a universe of loveliness . An elaborate review of Macaulay , while doing full justice to his excellences , points out some historical mis-statements and exaggerations ; an equally elaborate review of" Bain ' s Senses and the Intellect , " will be very acceptable to a certain small class of readers .
BJackxvood has an extraordinary rhapsody , entitled " Our " Wondrous Mother-age , " which , in another periodical might be enjoyed as a satiiica exhibition of the folly talked about the present age , but which seems to be a serious tirade against utilitarianism , railways , statistics , and a " mechanical " soulless generation , It is worth glancing at > to see how far nonsense can go without suspicion of the laughter following its footsteps . A capital paper on the " Drama ' * will serve to make the reader forget this outrage on his reason . j and an amusing account of dogs and dog-stealers , entitled " Tickler among the Thieves , " also " repays perusal . " Is this anecdote of the dog ' s compassion a fiction ? It might be
truelam stu-e Tickler is not without feeling ; for one day lie was sitting on achair , with his paws resting on the top of it , near the window , in a warm dining-room , on a . blighting day in February—the dust-laden- wind without seeming to cut both man and beast to the very bone : and at the foot of our steps there had presumed to sic a dirty , half-starved cur , shivering miserably in every muscle but uttering no sound—neither whine nor bark . " He starved , and made no sign !" . Was it necessary for that lout of a fellow that passed to kick the unoffending brute ( which did not belong to him ) from our steps , it showing , however , no
re-Readers of Fraser this month need not be told to pause , and taste with slow relish , the opening article , ** Friends in Council Abroad , " the best , perhaps , of the scries ; grave aud suggestive in matter , in manner playful , humorous , and eloquent j many are the topics which rise up in these desultory conversations in the easy natural way of friendly talk , and many the quotable passages ; but we shall select only one , because we want to cite it , aud we cannot afford room for more : — EliLESMEUB . The imperishable , inexhaustible , unapproachable nature of love is shown in this—that all the millions of stupid love stories that have been written have not onewlufc abated the immortal interest ) that there is in the rudest and stupidest love story . All the rest of the wretched thing may he the most dismal twaddle but you can t holp feeling a little interest , when you have once takon up the book as to whether Arabella will ultimately relent in favour of Augustus : and whether thatwicked creature , man or woman , who is keeping them apart , will not soon be disposed of , somehow . And yet , having had some experience in law—in divorce cases , for instance—I have all the timo shrewd suspicion that Augustus and Arabella anay not hit it off sq very successfully when , there is no wicked creature to prevent their beinK SS ^ nSSBSSSM - Bm ' while J ara roadins t ] le novo 1 ' luw l Li « z In earnest— i * it nofrgrand to sco the indestructible nature of love ? Write so foolishly about anything else , and a « e what wjUl happen . Try it upon theology , and see if twilight < loes not soon deepen into absolute darkness . Have I not beaten all ^ Hr , ? OUrai ! ?^ iT C ! *•* *»» speaking , Blanche hTquTetly £ 0 > u and come behind ham . She had taken off her own he « d-dre 8 a of ivy , and noyf , suddenly put it upon his head . ] J ' . , DUNSPOIU ) . baokinSx ^ A ^ ^ * ?^ 110 fai r fln 8 of toauty ! We will cairy you oaoK an triumph to the Grand Monurque . * IdflBP , ' + w BMMCSMHRF . Milvwton have ^ ii !) aV ( l uttoro ? * great diotum about lov 0- N <> w > ^™ you , SET So to Tf"S tO Say nboutth 0 government of mon and the conduct of eamStly aboutTit 2 ° T ° bUsed to bo ' You hftV 0 to * " ** W «¦»* o es vu opportunity of Baying it . You havo to Bet ib with enro and
sentiment , but simply sitting and shivering a foot or two farther on ? Then Tickler ( who is of patrician descent ) , whose eyes had been for some time fixed wistfully upon his plebeian "brother , could hold his peace no longer , but gave a loud , fierce , little bark , jumped down from his chair , and fawned whiningly on me ; and when I . toot two nice chicken-bones from his plate under the sofa , and called tho _ forlorn victim of man ' s chance brutality into the hall , aud gave him the bones , which , he was for a -while too cold , and also timid , to eat for fear of aaother kick , —Tickler stood by , not only without growl or bark , though he- know the victuals were his , but very complacently wagging his tail . He had pifcy for his poor brother , who seemed such a wretched little outcast !
In the Revue des Deux Mondes we have the story of Jeanne d'Arc once more narrated , and apparently for the sake of the conclusion to which M . Lours de Caene is " irresistibly " led , namely , that only two explanations are possible for " tout hommc de sens" —1 st , That the Maid of Orleans was sent by God to save France , as the bergere ofNanterre had been ten centuries before 5 or , 2 nd , That she possessed the faculty of second sight and magnetic clairvoyance;— ¦ " Ou die a precede Mesmer et Cagliostro , on elle procede de Jesus Christ . " What say our readers ?
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M ^^?!^» ga ^^ 4 % eS eS ^? S- -SS * » ° ^
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ll 2 THE 1 . EADEB . [ No . 306 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 2, 1856, page 112, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2126/page/16/
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