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among other things ' -I told her , in the anguish cf her sorrow , tliatshe seemed to be as fond of grief as she had been of her son . What was her , reply ? Almost a prose parody on the -very language of Shakespeare—the same thoughts in nearly the same words , but -with * a different arrangement . An attestation . like this ia worth a thousand criticisms . There is a long passage explaining the definition of Poetry , but as it is the same which is given in the second volume of the Bicgraphia Ziteraria , vie need not quote it . The following contrast between the ages of Elizabeth and Charles I . is . different'from any other we remember : —
The difference between the state of mind in the reign of Elizabeth , and in . that of Charles I . is astonishing . In the former period there was an . amazing development of power , but all connected with prudential purposes—an attempt to reconcile the moral feeling with the full exerci » e of the powers of the mind , aud the accomplishment of certain practical ends . Then lived Bacon ; Burghley , Sir "Walter Ealeigh , Sir Philip Sidney , and a galaxy of great men , statesmen , lawyers , politicians , philosophers , and poets ; and it is lamentable that they should have degraded their mightypowers to such base designs and purposes , dissolving the rich pearls of their great faculties in a worthless acid , to be drunken by a harlot . What was seeking the favour of the Queen , to aman like Bacon , but the mere courtship of larlotry ?
Compare this age with that of the republicans : that indeed w « s an awful age , as compared with our own . jEngland may be said to have then overflowed from the fulness of grand principle—from the greatness which men felt in themselves , abstracted from the prudence with which they ought to have considered whether their principles were , or were not , adapted to the condition of mankind at large . Compare the revolution then effected with that of a day hot long past , when the bubbling-up and overflowing was occasioned by the elevation of the dregs—when there was a . total absence of all principle , when the dregs had risen from the bottom to the top , and thus converted into scum , founded a monarchy to be the poisonous bane and misery of the restof mankind .
It is absolutely necessary to recollect that the age in which Shakespeare lived was one of great abilities applied to individual and prudential purposes , and not an age of high moral feeling and lofty principle , which gives aman of genius the power of thinking of all things in reference to all . If , then , we should find that Shakespeare took these materials as they were presented to him , and yet to all effectual purposes produced the same grand result as others attempted to produce in an age so much more favourable , shall we not feel and acknowledge the purity and holiness of genius —a light , which , however it might shine on a dnnghill , was as pure as the divine effluence which created all the beauty of nature ? : This is a fine explanation of those obscure yet grand passages , such as Miltcn ' s description of Death , which are the ' . furthest removed from pure prose : — ¦ ; . ' ¦¦ ¦ : ¦ . ¦; , * .. ¦ .. '¦ . ¦ . ¦ ¦ . ¦ ; . . . ¦ * . ¦ ** . . . . ¦ . ; *
The grandest efforts of poetry are where the imagination is called forth , not to produce a distinct form , but a strong working of the mind , still offering what is still repelled , and again creating what is again rejected ; the result being what the poet wishes to impress , namely , the substitution of a sublime feeling of the unimaginable for a mere image . We repeat : the admirers of Coleridge ¦ will -welcome this volume , because it gives them more of their favourite ; but we cannot recommend it to readers not already anxious to possess-whatever Coleridge said . Tliere is another element in this volume , however , which will interest a totally different class of readers , namely , * . a complete list of all the Emendations made on the copy of Shakspeare , which Mr . Collier discovered not long since , and which in England , America , and Germany has excited so much critical and antiquarian contention . These emendations are printed in one column , and in the other is printed the text as it stood in the old editions or stands now in modern editions ; thus the reader can , without trouble , appreciate the value of the emendations .
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KATHIE' BKANDE . Kathie Brandc : a Fireside History of a Quiet Life . By Holme Lee . Author of " Thomey Hall . " Smith and Elder . Holme Lee would have done Letter , -we think , had she continued her onevolunie stories , instead of employing two . Kathie Brcmie , after all , is not a larger picture , but only a number of pictures on th « same canvas ; it is a book of minute episodes , not a continuously developed story ; and , we ^ are sorry to saj r , these episodes are somewhat dreary and disappointing . With qualities which distinguish her books from the feeble circulating library novels , and especially with the merit of being without affectation , Holme Lee wants , we fear , the keen sense of reality * or the power of vividrepresentation of reality , which alone can make quiet every-day life interesting ; and while we miss in Kathie Brands the artistic power capable of engaging our sympathies , we are thrown into antagonism by the forced and unnatural conception of Duty which it presents as the moral of the tale .
ask you why you drop the game so suddenly . If you hold to wh&t that letter conveys , then , Kathie , you never did love me , and never can love me , as I have done you . " I said nothing : I sat crushed , broken under the weight of his resentment . I saw his face : it was dark , worn , hollow ; the hair on his temples was gray and thin ; the lines of hia features sharpened ; his eyes vivid , restless , and passionate . I shrank from them as a criminal might shrink before his judge . " Kathie , you say nothing ? Why have you led me on all this time , to throw me off at last ? Could any man have loved you more faithfully than I have done ? You know it is treacherous and cruel , this deed of yours . " "Yes , Telix . " "Kathie , while you sit there with that white , stony , passive , listless face , do you not know that I am almost mad ! Have you said your last words to me , whea you acquiesce in my saying you have acted treacherously by me ? " " Felix , I have nothing to plead but this—my mother is ill , and we have no money ; I must work for her and for Jean . I dare not let iny mother ' s
life be the limit of my probation and yours . I asked you for my freedom , because between us there ia but this , and my happiness must not depend on the release from a duty such as mine . " " You mean that you never could marry me until your mother ' s death ? " " Yes . " * ' I have enough for all , and more than enough ; what I have worked for was you , Kathie : I am richer and poorer than ever I was . Richer , because money is plenty witl me ; poorer , because you shamefully take away all the value and reward « f what I have done . How dare you do it ?" . " Felix , if I had done this three years since , it had been right ; but I was selfish and could not : the necessity remained , and at last forced itself on me . " "Kathie , I say again , I have enough for all ! " "My mother would never bear dependence even on her children . " " That ia a contradiction ! you are giving your heart's blood to her now . " " Felix , leave me , do leave me ! " > 'Is that your last -word , Kathie : is all my patience to go for nothing ? " " Felix , go away and hate me ; Ihavedone you grievous wrongand am
, not worthy that you should love me , " I supplicated .- "No , Kathie ; you are just as weak and obstinate as other women . You are not the creature you once were : for years you have gone on hardening into a set form of self-negation and duty until you are a mere statue , and no longer flesh and blood . You are bartering away my life and your own for a chimera . Do you not see it ? " Ikept silence ; I felt , indeed , like an unworthy outcast—too low even for contempt . The idea of doing right upheld me no more : I was undergoing the punishment of a duty once neglected , and now to be done doubly , and with twice the first difficulty . He waited a little while , and his features took a hard , iron set , as if they never would relax again . " Kathie , will your lips never opem for me more ? " he asked , in a deep , chilling , reserved tone . "Am I to go and never inflict my pi esence upon j r ou again ? " I uttered no word , made no
movement to arrest his departure . He walked to the door , paused , and came hack : " Kathie , it is a grand mistake ; you love me all the time . Why will you make yourself ice to me " I looked up in his face ; it seemed to waver and change , aad then to fade _ from my visioa altogether . For a moment it seemed as if death were coming to end it all ; but "with a desperate effort I clutched back expiring consciousness and said , " Felix , you are killing me ! Spare me your reproaches ! " " Well , Kathie , I am going . " He held out his hand , and I laid mine within it ; it was cold as a stone , and it dropped to my side like one when it fell from his grasp . My face was hiddenj and the closing of the door told ine he was gone . Jean was descending the stairs as I went up . She stopped and said , " Kathie , you look as if you had seen a ghost ! " " So I have , Jean ; I have been face to face - with my dead youth and happiness . " And thus they learned that Felix Mavne had been with me .
This is what novelists fancy produces an effect , when in truth the reader sees that the whole scene is merely written for the sake of prolonging the story , and agitating him—which it doesn ' t . It is mere madness to suppose that Kathie would not have married Felix when the only reason—povertywhich could actuate her , was set aside by the fact of his having sufficient money to support the / whole family ; and her conduct throughout is not the conduct of a woman in love , but conquering affection by heroism ; it is simply the device of a novelist to produce ¦ ' a situation . ' We have taken the principal situation in the novel as the subject of criticism , because the same fault -which we observe in it more or lesss diminishes our interest in tlie whole book , which is unreal in treatment , and somewhat thin and dreary in tone . None of the characters impress us with any vivid sense of their reality ; they axe pale water-colour sketches , when not conventional novel types . Nevertheless , if we compare Kathie Brange with the majority of novels which every season brings forth , and every season buries forever , the intellectual superiority of the authoress commands our respect , while it calls for our more stringent criticism .
Self-renunciation is doubtless a virtue , the root of alL virtue , indeed , being the very triumph over egoism , which self-renunciation implies . But precisely because it is a grand effort of heroic strength , and one incessantly combated by egoistic impulses , it should never be overstrained , never so far removed from probability , as to loosen its hold on our sympathies . There are tragic moments in life when we are called upon to mak « these efforts of self-renunciation , but to make them when uncalled for is ridiculous ; instead of exciting symyathy , such obtrusive martyrdom excites unbelief , or worse . Kathie is the strength and consolation of her family . On her exertions
mother , sisters , and brother are made to depend . Seeing this , she refuses to marry Felix Mayne , thecurate to whom her heart is given , and keeps him for seven years i n irritating expectation , to give him up at last on most irrational pretexts . In the original conception there is nothing impi'obable . We have little doubt that similar sacrifices are frequently made ; but that that they should excite our sympathy it is necessary for all tlie circumstances to warrant and enforce the sacrifice , and it is here that Holme Lee fails ; she has treated the question so as to make it appear more wiU ' ulness , of which tho reader may judge by the following scene . After having signified to her that
* over she can no longer iullil her ongagement with him , she comes home one evening and finds him standing by the fire : — ' * Kathio , I lmvo been ill , miserably ill , " he began : " I vrantcd to send for you when mat wretched letter came and stopped me . Now I am here , I want to know from your own lipa what you mean . " "Oh , Felix , spare mo ! " "No , Kathie . I will 8 you nothing , \' ou ha ve played with mo seven years , and I have the right to
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THE ESPOUSALS . ¦' ' The Angel in the Souse . Book II . " The Espousals . " London : J . W . Parker and Son . The poetry of -the present day does not consist entirely of ' the spasmodic school , ' though the pupils of that academy count greater numbers than those of more sober teaching . Mr . Mathew Arnold has recently , both by criticism and practice , shown that it is possible to kindle the altar flames of poetry without burning down the temple or smoking out the congregation : Mr . Allingham can exhibit fancy , wit , humour , and pathos , and yet not consider it necessary to beat out ' s brains" in order to show that he is in earnest ; and the same may be said of one or two others of less name , but pre-eminently of the writer whose poem now lies before us , and who , as far as his title-page informs the readeris of no name whateverthoughhe
, , , has been so often referred to as Mr . Coventry Patmore that we are not invading any privacy in alluding to him thus openly . In a literary point of view , Mr . Patmore ' s object in putting forth The Anget in the House—of which , the First Book was published about two years ago under the title of " The Betrothal "—appears to have been to supply a balance to the excesses of that school of which Mr . Alexander Smith and Mr . Sydney Dobell are two of the chief exemplars ; to furnish the antithesis to all this tumultuous , flushed , and passionate life , by means of a work of which the chief features should be repose , delicate finish , and calm power , and which should influence the reader ' s heart and mind , not by the splendour of particular passages , but b y its total grace and harmony . Such Beeins to bo the literary purpose of " The Betrothal ; " such , also , that of its continuation , "The Espousals , ' to which it is our present purpose more particularly to refer .
The metaphysical or moral design , as exhibited in both divisions , is somewhat akin to the avtistical . The writer seeks to show that the sweet sanctities , the daily habitudes , the calm dignity and delight , the affection based on knowledge , reverence , and sclf-saevifice , which belong to wedded love , when marriage has been thoughtfully and wisely contracted , are nobler subjects fox verse than tlie wayward moods and irregular pulsations of court-
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Kovemiber 15 ^ 1856 J THE JL E A D E U . 1097
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 15, 1856, page 1097, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2167/page/17/
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