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
could interpret the law to the king . When Charles had set up his standard at Nottingham j Henrietta Maria became so terribly excited and anxious for tidiaes that she is even said to have put on a disguise and gone alone into the stop of a Dutch bookseller to inquire the latest news from England , vben her agitation betrayed her , and she was glad to make a precipitate retreat . Her agitation , however , was less on account of her husband than on account of her crown : — I never in my life dad anything from fear , and I hope I shall not begin by the loss of a crown . Some of her advice to the king was , nevertheless , admirable : — If you abandon your servants , ft will be worse than your croum ; for as long as you have ^ friends ] there is still hope of getting it again , but if you abandon them , you will never find them again , as I understand for certain , and no wown neither . Yet her queendom was the uppermost interest in her mind . " To die of the consumption of royalty is a death which I cannot endure . "
It is impossible to ascertain how far the letters indicate self-deception , and how far they indicate hypocrisy . The most private cyphers abound so profusely in appeals to Heaven and Justice , that it ^ is easy to believe Henrietta Marra to have been intoxicated by prerogative and enslaved by vanity . Nevertheless , she displays so much craft , such familiarity with the baser elements of human character , so much disposition to bribery , intrigue , and subterranean bargains , that we may justly assign a large proportion of her language to the deeply-rooted and characteristic hypocrisy of her nature . From amidst these miserable attributes the virtue of courage , which , with pride , was the predominating quality of her heart , shines out conspicuously . Upon returning to England , in February , 1643 , she landed at Burlington , and , soon afterwards , four parliamentary ships arrived opposite that place : —
In the morning , about four o ' clock , the alarm was given that we should send down to the harbour to secure out ammunition-boats , which had not yet been able to be unloaded ; but , about an hour after , these four ships began to fire ao briskly , that we were all obliged to rise in haste , and leave the village to them ; at least the women , for the soldiers remained very resolutely to defend the ammunition . In case of a descent , I must act the captain , though a little low in stature , myself . One of these ships had done me the favour to flank my house , ¦ which fronted the pier , and before I could get out of bed , the balls were whistling upon me in such style that you may easily believe I loved not such music . Everybody came to force me to
go out , the balls beating so om all the houses , that , dressed just as it happened , I went on foot to some distance from the -village , to the shelter of a ditch , like those at Newmarket ; but before we could reach , it , the balls -were singing round us in fine style , and a sergeant was killed twenty paces from me . We placed ourselves then under this shelter , during two hours that they were firing upon us , and tbe balls passing always over our heads , and sometimes covering us with dust . At last , the Admiral of Holland sent to tell them , that if they did not cease , he -would fire upon them as enemies ; that was done a little late , but he excuses himself on account of a fog which he says there was . On this they stopped , and the tide -went down , so that there was not water enough for them to stay where they were .
The Parliament now fully understood to what extent Henrietta Maria was implicated in the treason of tbe king . After the battle of Naseby , a number of her letters were discovered in Charles ' s private cabinet and the " serpentine subtlety" of her counsel was exposed . She reprobated his policy of negotiating with the Oxford Commissioners ; but when the Parliament demanded from herself whether she would advise a settlement of terras , she was artful enough " to show a desire for peace , " utterly inconsistent "with her real views . We have only space to quote , further , one passage from a letter addressed by the queen , after the king ' s execution , to her son . Its authenticity is not so clear as that of the rest of the correspondence ; yet there seems no reason to doubt that it was , in . substance , dictated by Henrietta Maria to her Secretary : —
Dearest yet moat unfortunate son , —Your most loving letter , with all its force of reason to console your most -wretched mother , would have disinvolved the misfortunes of my life , but my horizon is too far from the poles : losing the title of queen , I have lost all my happiness in this life . I should scarcely know that I am a living woman , were it not for the affliction -which , agitating my expiring body , destroys me by degrees . Our misfortunes are many ; they would overwhelm hearts greater than ours , if any there were of nobler birth . It was not to be expected that Henrietta Maria should appreciate the policy of the statesmen who condemned Charles I . to death . E \ en the dethroned queen , however , had she been less bigoted , would not have so wildly raved against the " parricides" who had judged her husband . It was not so much as a woman , but as " a daughter of the great Henry , " that she deplored and resented the . act of the regicides .
Few volumes more important than this have been contributed to the historical literature of the Commonwealth by the researches of the present century . What a contrast , however , between Cromwell ' s letters , which stamp him as the foremost man in English history , and these of Henrietta Maria , exposing her selfish , blind , and immoral lust of power .
Untitled Article
A NEW EDITION OF WORDSWORTH . The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth . A New Edition . C vols . Moxon . The Earlier Poems of William Wordsworth , corrected as in later Editions , With Preface and Notes showing the Text as it stood in 1815 . By W . Johnston . Moxon . This new and elegant edition of Wordsworth ia the first complete edition , including not onlv the " Borderers" the " Prelude , " but also some Notes in which the poet narrates the history of many of the poems , the occasions out of winch they gr ^ w , and the circumstance which furnished the imagery . Some of these Notes arc interesting , some very trivial ; but they do not muck increase the bulk of the volumes ,, and are on the whole very acceptable . The s . ngle volume of " Earlier Poems" which Mr . t } T ^ ht ?^ ™ ?»* acceptable in itsel f as a pocket companion readers
man , and who are most sensitive to his poetical deficiencies . The ridicule and contempt which met his theory and practice of poetical diction have passed away ; and with it has also passed away the passionate f anaticis m of disciples . But although ridicule is no longer directed against Wordsworth's " babyish incidents and fantastical sensibilities , " we must not suppose that Wordsworth has gained the battle against Jeffrey . Both were wrong both also right . Jeffrey admired heartily what all men admire in Wordsworth , although he ridiculed certain novelties and audacities of expression and feeling . In the anger of contest he was often led too far ; but that Wordsworth also was led too far in the execution of a false theory of poetrv
even Coleridge admitted , and Wordsworth himself at length admitted it also , as is proved by his silently relinquishing the style which had provoked this ridicule . Not only did he cease to write such poems , he even altered those he had published . u Reflection and the maturity of his taste , " says Mr . Johnston , in the Preface to the " Earlier Poems , " " -led him to alter in the later editions of his works almost all the passages to which such epithets as those cited aboveX' coarse , inelegant , or infantine' ] could with any show of reason have been applied . The alterations shown in the notes to the present edition from the edition of 1815 will be found to be almost all in the direction of greater dignity and refinement . "
This is an important fact ia the history of our poetic literature . It shows that Wordsworth himself felt a compromise was necessary ; no sooner did he cease to oflend , than critics ceased to laugh , and ceasing to laugh they had every reason to admire . Not ouly as regards Wordsworth ' s fame is this retractation of the offensive passages important ; it affects the whole controversy of poetic diction , and gives Jeffrey and the scoffers gain de cause . For clouded as the question hitherto has been with personalities and partizanship , writers have overlooked the real points involved . On the one side Wordsworth ' s trivial peculiarities have been selected as marks for ridicule , on the other his great qualities have been brought forward with emphasis . Mr . Johnston , writing so late as this year 1857 , can brine *
himself to say that the " blemishes were eagerly seized upon and held up to ridicule by critics who hated the simple yet elevated sentiment and the pure moral philosophy of Wordsworth's writings . " This is . 1 specimen of the tone fanaticism adopts . Do , reader , notice its insolent attribution of the lowest motives : a question of taste is reduced to a question of morals : critics who objected to passages so absurd that even Wordsworth himself was forced to cancel them , are said to ha-ve been actuated by hatred to elevated sentiment and pure morality . Is not this the tone adopted by irreverent orthodoxy towards men whose scrupulous consciences vrill not permit them to say they believe what they do not believe— -are not they also insolently told that it is their hatred to the moral purity of the doctrines which makes them dissent ?
Quitting * recrimination , however , and contemplating the theory of Wordsworth from higher points of view , it becomes clear to us that Wordsworth did not produce the revolution in taste usually attributed to him . In all essential points Wordsworth ' s poetry is the continuation of Cowper's ; he departs from Cbwper only in those prosaisms and infantile expressions which called forth i * idicule , and which he subsequently retracted . Let any one read the " Task , " and then read the " Kxcursion" and the " Prelude , " and he will see that , differences in the mental constitution apart , the two poets are in the same category , and similarly stand apart from the conventional circle of poetry which , from Dryden to Hayley , prided itself on its " correctness and elegance . " Now , as Cowper was immensely popular before Wordsworth became known , it is evident that whatever is novel in WordswoTth's protest against the conventional school , had already "been exhibited by Cowper , who , however , wrote no theoretical preface to defend his views . Strip Wordsworth of those c blemishes' which Jeffrey ridiculed , and of the celebrated " Preface to the Lyrical Ballads , " in which he proclaimed his theory , and you have Cowper .
This is not meant to imply that Wordsworth introduced no novelties into poetry ; only to imply that he did not introduce the ' new school . ' His brooding meditative spirit , wandering for ever amid mountain solitudes , caught something of the pantheistic feeling which Cowper ' s intensely human sympathies would Lave made alien to him . His marvellous power of depicting cloud-architecture and the sublimer forms of Nature , were peculiarly his own . He made man subordinate to Nature ; a mere accessory in the picture ; and this tendency to neglect human passion for scenic splendour , life and its daily needs lor Nature and her infinite appearances , he has transmitted to the poets of our day . And this it is , mainly , which
creates in so many ardent sympathetic mmds a certain uneasy and repugnant feeling for Wordsworth ; admire him as they may , and as they cannot help admiring poetry so exquisite , they feel for it , and for him , an undefined repugnance . " I have read my Wordsworth , " said one of the most thoughtful and most sympathetic of living writers to us , tlic other day , " but 1 < do not think it possible I should ever open him again . " He admitted the beauties—but he firmly maintained the general impression of Wordsworth being disagreeable . J ) e gustib-us I The great poet will _ continue to gain admirers : and here arc two publications craving a place in all well-selected libraries .
marC Jn VlZ 2 P « ° « c » u on account of the changes Wordsworth nrnv ?™ It ^ T ™ ges ' ? &ot-notoa show , somelimea greatly improving the original expression , sometimes substituting an abstract cx-P ° * " w * . ino , . Toetical conciseness originally conceived . That Wordsworth w one of the greatest of English poets is now universally acknowledged , even by those who least sympathize with the iatoro rf tK
Untitled Article
A DRAMA BY A CONVICT . Bianco . A Play in Five Ac ta . By William James Robson . Author of " Love and Loyalty , " " Tho Selfish . Man , " &c . &c . London : Lncy , I 860 . When William James Robson wtis first discovered to be a member of the illustrious modern order of the u Knights of the Golden Fleece , " it was mentioned in this journal that he was the author of several plays , one of which , bearing the title mentioned above , was at that time in rehearsal at Drury Laue , though the manager of course found it necossivry to withdraw tho promised drama when the unsuspected character of its author was disclosed , ltobson was a man not unknown to the stage , of which he was a sort of patron ; and , among other of his productions , Love ami Loyalty ( which was recently acted at Miss Kelly ' s theatre ) was produced some fow years ago at the Marylelmnc—tho theatre with which , though nofc _' nt that time , the swindler Watta was connected , until the discovery of his frauds on the insurance-office , where he was a clerk , broke up his prospects , sent
Untitled Article
£ 36 yHE IiEAPER . _[ No . 359 , Saturday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 7, 1857, page 136, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2179/page/16/
-