On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
The still house seemed to shriek itself alivV I And shudder through its passages and stairs I With slam of doors and clash of 1 ) 6118 .-1 sprang , I stood op 3 a the middle of the room , And there confronted at my chamber-door , A white face , — shivering , ineffectual lipa . 'Come , come , ' they tried to utter , and I went ; As if a ghost had drawn me at the point Of a fiery finger through the uneven dark , I went-with reeling footsteps dowa the stair , Nor asked a question . There she sate , my aunt , — Bolt upright in the chair beside her bed , Whose pillow had no dint I she had used no bed For that night ' s sleeping . . yet slept well . My God , Th « dumb derision of that grey , peaked face Concluded something grave against the sun , Which filled' the chamber with its July hurst When Susan drew the curtains , ignorant Of who sate open-eyed behind her . TheTe , She sate . . it sate ... we said ' she' yesterday . . And held a letter with unbroken ' seal , As Susan gave it to her hand last night : All night she had held it . If its news referred To-duchies or to dunghills , not an inch She'd budge , 'twas obvious , for such worthless o-dda : Nor , though the stars were suns , and overbumed Their spheric limitations , swallowing up Lflce wax the azure spaces , could they force Those open eyes to wink . once . What last sighi Had left them blank and flat so , —drawing out The faculty of vision from the roots , . As nothing more , worth seeing , remained behind P Were those the eyes that watched me , worried m «? That dogged me up and down the hours and days , A beaten , breathless , miserable soul ? And did I pray , a half-hour back , but so , To escape the burden of those eyes .. those eyea ? Sleep lata * I said . — Why now , indeed , they sleep . God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers , And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face , A gauntlet with a gift in't . Every wish , la like a prayer .. with God . . ¦ ¦¦
' ¦ . : ; . . .: ¦ : ' - ¦ ¦ . -. ¦ ; ¦ . ¦ ¦ ... ¦ : ¦ ¦ ¦" ., ¦ . ¦'¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ Ihadnay wish | — T « read and meditate the thing I would , To fashion all my life upon my thought , . And marry , or not marry . Henceforth , none _ . ¦' . ' ¦ .: '• Could disapprove me , vex me , hamper me . Full ground-room , in this desert newly made , r . For Babylon or Balbec ,- —when the breath , Just choked with , sand , returns , for building towns ! The letter held unopened in the hand of the corpse was a g ift from Romriejr Leigh of thirty thousand pounds—given of course that it might be inherited by Aurora , who was a beggar . But she refuses to accept the gift . The scene between them is so unnatural in tone , thoug-h . true enough in conception , that should these lines meet Mrs . Browning ' s eye , we urgently beg her to reconsider the scene , with a view to expression only , and see if she cannot remove the levities , irrelevancies , and unrealities , "which produce an impression on us precisely similar to that produced by scenes in unreal novels . Aurora may refuse the gift , but not in those terms , and preserve our sympathy . Aurora then becomes a poetess , lives in London , and is celebrated . Romney turns more lesolutely to social schemes ; founds a p halanstery , and to signalize before the world his disapproval of all social distinctions , is about to marry a 'distressed needlewoman \ whom he found at the hospital , and has since befriended . We pass over the episode of Marian ' s life—wonderfully told— -but uncommonly like what we have often read before—and ajfme at the wedding : — ¦
Trom that crammed mass" you did not usually See faces like them , in the open day : They hide in cellars , not to make you mad As Romney Leigh is . —Faces!—O my God , We call . those , faces ? Men ' s and-women ' s . . ay , And children ' s;—babies , hanging like a rag Forgotten on their mother's neck , —poor mouths , Wiped clean of mother ' s milk by mother ' s blow , Before they are taught her cursing . Faces ! . . phew , Well call them vices festering to despairs , Or sorrows petrifying to vices ; not A finger-touch of God left whole on them ; All ruined , lost—the countenance worn out As the garments , the will dissolute as the acts , The passions loose and draggling in the dirt To trip the foot up at the first free step !—Those , faces ! 'twas as if you had stirred up hell To heave its lowest dreg-fiends uppermost In fiery swirls of slime , —such strangled fronts , Such obdurate jaws were thrown up constantly , To twit you with your lace , corrupt your blood , And grind to devilish colours all your dreams Henceforth , . . though , haply , you should drop aBleep By clink of silver wateTS , in a muse On Raffael ' s mild Madonna of the Bird . But the bride never comes . The machinations of a lovely devil—Lady Waldemar— -have frustrated this . " match---Marian disappears . Time passes . Aurora grows more and more famous , and is to be met in , London drawingrnninn ?—
It always makes me sad to go a"broad ; And now I ' m sadder that I went to-night Among the lights and talkers at Lord Howe ' s . His wife is gracious , w » th her glossy braids , . And even voice , and gorgeous eyeballs , calm As her other jewels . If she ' s somewhat cold , Who wonders , when her blood has stood so long In the ducal reservoir she calls her line By no means arrogantly ? she ' s not proud ; Not prouder than the swan is of the lake He has always swum in;—' tis her element , And so she takes it with a natural grace , Ignoring tadpoles . She just knows , perhaps , There are men , move on without outriders , Which isn't her fault . Ah , to watch her face , When good Lord Howe expounds his theories Of social justice and equality— - 'Tis curious , what a tender , tolerant bend Her neck takes : for she loves him , likes his talk , c Such clever talk—that dear , odd Algernon !' She listens on , exactly as if he talked Some Scandinavian myth of Lcmures , Too pretty to dispute , and too absurd . What novelist has better sketched an . English beauty , one not overwise ? Again : — \ ¦ " ' ¦ : ¦• . ¦ . - . ¦ ' . ¦ " .- ¦ . ' . ' - : : ' ¦ ¦ ¦
How lovely One I loved not , looked to-night ! She ' s very prefcty , Lady Waldemar . Her maid must use both , hands to twist that coil Of tresses , then be careful lest the rich Bronxe rounds should slip : —she missed , though , a grey hair , A single one , — -I saw it ; otherwise The woman looked immortal . How they told Those alabaster shoulders and bare breasts , On which the pearls , drowned out of sight in milk , Were lost , excepting for the ruby-clasp ! , ' ' They split the amaranth velvet bodice down - To the waist , or nearly , with the audacious press Of full-breathed beauty . If the heart within Were half as white !—but , if it were , perhaps The breast wero closer covered , and the sight Less aspectable , by half , too . Our limits are already exceeded ; we must therefore merely add , in a sentence ot so , that Aurora hearing a rumour of Romney ' s intended marriage with Lady Waldemar , quits England for Italy . In Paris she meets with Marian—and very beautiful is the story Marian tells , and the emotions she expresses—but we cannot linger over them . The two women go to Italy with Marian ' s child , Romney comes there too , blind , dispirited , having lad Leigh Hall burnt to the ground by the very wretches he was sacrificing himself to benefit , and now with full consciousness of his failure as a social reformer , hears from Aurora that she too is conscious of failure , sincei with all her success in Art , she : has failed in life , he is not happy . The two lovers then finally understand each other , and "live happy all the rest of their days . " 2 Text week we shall resume our notice .
"" . " .. Half St . Giles in frieze Was bidden to meet St . James in cloth of gold , And , aft « r contract at the altar , pass ' To eat a marriage-feast on Hampstead Heath . Of course the people came in uncomp « lled , Lame , blind , and worse—sick , sorrowful , and worse , . The humours of the peccant social wound All pressed out , poured out upon Pimlico , Exasperating the unaccustomed air With hideous interfusion : you'd suppose A finished generation , dead of plague , Swept outward from their graves into the eun , The moil of death upon them . What a sight ! A . holiday of miserable men la sadder than a burial-day of kings . They clogged the streets , they oozed into the church In a dark , slow stream , like blood . To see that sight , The nolle ladies stood up in their pews , Some pale for fear , a few as red for hate , Some simply curious , some juBt insolent , And some in wondering scorn , — What next ? what next ?' These crashed their delicate rose-lips from th « smile ¦¦ ' That misbecame them in a holy place , With broidered hems of perfumed handkerchiefs ; Those passed tha salts with confidence of eyes And staiultaneous shiver of moire * silk ; , "While & 11 the aisles , alive and black with heads , Crawlei alowly toward , the altar from the street , As braised snakes crawl and hiss out of a hale With ehuddoring involutions , swaying slow * Tom right to left , and then from left to right , In pants and pauses . What an ugly crest Of faces rose upon you everywhere
Untitled Article
PRESCOTT ON THE RETIREMENT OF CHARLES V . History of the Reign of Charles the Fifth . By William Robertson , D . D . With » n Account of the Emperor ' s Life after his Abdication , by William H . Prescott . 2 vols , Boutledfl-D « . Robertson devoted six or seven pages of his history to an account of the retirement of Charles V . Those few pages are full of error . Nor _ was it possible that Dr . Robertson should linve been more accurate or copious . He could not have been more accurate without consulting the sealed archives of Simancasand he could not have been more copious without trusting to
, the illiterate monkish chroniclers . Severnl years ago , however , _ the custodian of the Simancas records , dissatialied with the historical views tn » had been published concerning the latter days of Charles , prepared for tnc press a volume of authentic materials , derived from the correspondence ox the emperor and his household . He died before publishing the worK , which passed into the hands of his brother . That gentleman set so lug " a price upon tho manuscript , that it remained for a long time < wltl ]? " * a purchaser . At length the French Government bought it for tho Jrc / iM *
Untitled Article
11 ^ , THE LEA BEBi [ No . 349 ; SatttbjdaYv
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 29, 1856, page 1144, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2169/page/16/
-