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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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THREE LOVE STORIES . The Course of True Love Never Did Run / Smooth , I 3 y Charles Roadc . Bcntley , These three slight sketches constitute a fair representation pf tho kind of ability possessed by Mr . Charles Kendo . He tells a story violently and rapidly ; ho constructs , with much labour , short , hard sentences ; he invents dramatic situations , which , if remote from the possibilities of life , are nevertheless amusing . Considered simply as a writer , his success is mediocre . His style
is Characteristically bad—crude , ' irregular , mechanical : but , at tiitr * . " v swells into , eloquence , or sharpens into epigrjini : ' . ; 7 Mr . Reade , hXe > scarcely does justice to himself when he defies the la , ' of punctuatioriS makes a boast of Jus , neglect . Some of ; his jjaragraplis have to be ?\ SS twioe before wecan get at the meaning . Does this jmply contempt of 3 eisin , or ignorance ? It cannot bo ignorance ; JMr . Heads is a man e culture , and has a vigorous mind . We are . afraid that he considers himJr supenor to all literary codes , and this spirit would account for his ^ veS habit of jerking off his antipathies arid prejudices , as though thev w »! round shot , knocking society to splinters . Perhaps the weakness Xh makes him idolize the First Napoleon , tempts him to imitate the double shotted style in which th-e Emperor was accustomed to speak . It would b unfair , of course , to create an impression . that Mr . Charles Reade doM nothing more , in this volume ,, than make a display , of himself and his nar ticulnr crotchets . On the contrary , he constructs three tales , two of which are really entertaining ,, the other— < Art '—being forced , farcical , and , not withstanding , dull . 1 he Bloomer' is : an _ agreeable fragment of the extra vaganza class . It presents a young American heiress , betrothed to an Englishman , but determined to triumph over conventionality and wear for bidden garments . Her lover blames the folly ; they quarrel ; she persists in making her appearance at a ball as a Bloomer ; he quits America that nHt for England . But , in other scenes and after , dayB they meet again , and the ladyj around whose l | n \ bs are furled a pair of silken trousers , is enabled by her power of swimming , to rescue the gentleman out of a river . He then says she may wear what she pleases ; moderate in victory , she resolves in future to discard Turkish and Persian fashions , and so the romance winds up with a pretty moral . There is one good passage in the story—a masquerade of costumes . -In ' Clouds and Sunshine' there is a good deal of mock tragedy mixed up with a good deal of audacious satire , Mr . Reade having privileged himself to . laugh at science , no less than at nature . Well , they can avenge themselves , and no harm will be done . We have marked two passages for extract . The first , apropos of a rural rnerry-mak . n " , is the best in the book : — c The fiddlers being merry , the dancers were merry ; the dancers being merry , the fiddlers said to themselves " Aba ! we have not missed fire , " and so grew meirierstilland thus the electric fire of laughter and music darted to and fro . Dance , sons and daughters of toil ! None had ever a better right to dance than you have this sunny afternoon in clear September . It was you who painfully ploughed the stiff soil ; it was you who trudged up tlie high incommoding furrow and cast abroad the equal seed . You that are women bowed the back and painfully drilled holes in the soil , and poured in the seed ; and this month past you have all bent , and with sweating broivs cut down and housed the crops that came from the seed you planted . Dance ! for those yellow ricks , trophies of your labour say you have a right to ; those bams , bursting with golden fruit , swear you . have a right to . Harvest-tide comes but once a year . Dance ! sons and daughters of toil . Exult over your work , smile with the smiling year , and , in this bright hour , oh , cease , my poor souls , to envy the rich and great ! Believe me , they are never , at any hour of their lives , so cheery as you are now . How can they be ? With them dancing is tame work , an every-day business •—no rarity , no treat—don ' t envy them—God is just , and deals the sources of content -with a more equal hand than appears on the surface of things . Dance , too , "without fear ; let no puritan make you believe it is wrong ; things are wrong out of season , and right in season ; to dance in harvest is as becoming as to be grave in church , The Almighty has put it into the hearts of insects to dance in the afternoon sun , and of men and women in every age and every land to danc 3 round the gathered crop , whether it be corn , or oil , or wine , or any other familiar miracle that springs up sixtyfold and nurtures and multiplies the life of man . More fire , fiddlers ! play to the foot , play to the heart , the sprightly ' Day in June . ' Ay ! foot it freely , lads a-nd lasses ; my own heart is warmer to think you are merry once or twice in your year of labour —dance , my poor brothers and sisters , sons and daughters of toil ! r Jfhe second exhibits Mr . Reade in a tragic mood : — All eyes turned and fastened upon Rachael ; and those who saw her at this moment will carry her face and her look to their graves , so fearful was the anguish of a high spirit ground into the dust and shame ; ' her body seemed that moment to be pierced with a hundred poisoned arrows . She rose white to her very lips , and stood in the midst of them quivering like an aspen-leaf , her eyes preternaturally bright and large , and she took one uncertain step forwards , as if to fling herself on the weapons of scorn that seemed to hem her in ; and she opened her mouth to speak , but her open lips trembled , and trembled , and no sound came . And all the hearts round , even the old farmer ? , began now to fieeze and fear at the sight of this wild agony . The stories are no more than ephemerals ; but , upon tlie whole , they arc pleasant to read , and may attain a certain sort of popularity . . . — . —— ¦_! '~*
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TlitSATRICAI . NOTES . ., Mk . Kkan reopens the T-tiNCESS ' s on Monday night with the Tempctt , wliicli has not yet attained the usual' iun' of revivals at that house . " The house , " saj'g the Times , " has been so thoroughly renovated , that not a , sqmre inch of the original surface is now visible . Tho chief defect , which consisted in a predominance of hot heavy colour , is rectified by the adoption of a lig ht remussance style , in which French white and gol d predominate . The panels of the anas circle are adorned with a series of paintings from the works of Sbakspeare , as performed at the establishment . These comprise 'the Yislon of Queen Katharine , t ' Trial of Hermione , ' ' tho iirst appearance of tho Ghost to Hamlot , ' ' Bichnrd II . abdicating his Crown , ' 'tlio Caldron Scene in Macbeth * Falstaft" contemplating "' body of Hotspur , ' Hubert and Arthur , ' Titania in her Bower , ' and ' the Interview between Prospcro and Ariel in the presence of tho sleeping Miranda . ' Hctwccn ' panels aro a series of tho Shakspearian Kings , —John , Ilichard II ., Henry I'm Henry V ., Henry VI ., Edward IV ., Richard III ., Henry VII , and Henry VIU-r all at full length and historically costumed . The ceiling is beautifully painted ivu an allegorical subject , and thero is a superb new drop-curtain by Messrs . Grieve a Tclbin , representing a drapery of crimson tapestry , which , partially wlt . , 11 ,. reveals a statue of Shalcapoaro . Tho renovation of tho house has been cfl- Cteu j Mr . Charles Kuckuch , decorator to the King of Hanover . " . . _ Mr ., T . P . CooKE ' a engagement ; continues at the Awni-riir , and lie seems u going through the list of all Ida great sea parts . On Monday mgm , nc appeared in tho old Scxr _ iky drama olf My Poll and my Partner Joe , now uinw forgotten , but once ' all tho rage . We need scarcely say ho renewed las on " BUCCCBS .
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98 O . ,: ' - ^ HE i-E ADi-R .-- 4 ^ 39 ^ . Q ^^^ l ^
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- _ -. - _ £ ^ w «_ # - % __ _ r _ v- » -. jA , _ ur- » l _ LJ _ - » ¥ J IF U Jll _ VU . IIUll _ CUU- _ l bill ! JLCLflV . AJU- > how the sport turned out in that excursion time and space will not allow of a description here . At some future opportunity the reader shall go with us , not only to that hazel-clothed brook , but up also among the far-off green hills , where tlie father of our pretty hostess pastures his thousand sheep . There , in a lone lake named Llyn y Bugail— " ¦ The Shepherd's Pool — -from some long-forgotten but perhaps romantic legend—though the lordly Sal / no salar exists not—there is storo of pike , perch , tench , carp , and eels . How we loaded a stout peasant man with , these , until he literally staggered with his burden down the mountain path , our friends shall also learn when next we meet . Mr . Harry Hardknot ' s little volume , which suggests these touring reminiscences , furnishes a most sure and acceptable auricle | or & \ i -whom time and circumstance limit to a hasty survey of the English lakes . His descriptions of scenery exhibit a true poetic taste—we mean an unaffected appreciation of whatever is beautiful in Nature . The very economic outlay by which his three days' excursion was so satisfactorily enjoyed , will certainly induce numbers to make his Handbook their guide in any projected ramble in his footsteps . . __ __
__¦ i »_ i snow-flake , upon the eddying rapids . A sewin of three pounds weight quickly made his rush at the hare ' s ear from behind a great black mass of rock , that rising above the water ' s surface separated it into a double current . It was just the sort of place one might anticipate finding a 6 sh of his respectable proportions , lying in ambush for all things edible flouting by upon the current , « and wagging his fins afe every silly fly . ' He was thorough game . Thrice he leaped a yard or two from the surface when struck . Round spun the reel , and the i . rater shot from the taut line in a shower of ram-drops ; but escape there was none . After a ten minutes' fight he turned up his broad silvery side , and we safely landed him upon a patch of yellow sand . A dozen other captures , principally large grayling , succeeded ; but , with the sun now in his zenith , and the fish no longer rising , it was tune to dine . No hostel lay in sight , but to one who has endured tent life iit < the Crimea it matters not . There was bread in the wallet , fish in the p annier , a brandy flask likewise , and hard by the crystal stream to qualify its contents . So we proceeded to extemporize an al fresco cuisine underfleath the shelter of a great tree , through whose foliage the sunbeams fell in golden tracery upon the stones below . Plenty of drift wood lay around Indian fashion , then , we heaped a large fire over some broad flat shingles ' and m due time sweeping them away laid on the fish , well cleansed in" running stream . Other heated stones were supported . above , and the glowingembers drawn all round ; resulting , as might be anticipated , in a most successful cookery , whose delightful odour circulated through the air . Seated comfortably under the tree , our captures , except , two or three reserved , were soon reduced to the mere skeletons of what they had been . An ancient bridge stood a few yards off . Too busily engaged in discussing the sweet wholesome refreshment which Providence had furnished , no heed was taken of passers-by , if any such there were . At length , Sated hunger bade his brother thirst Produce the bowl ; and whilst in the act of dipping for a cup of water , a sweet voice , though ¦ with an unmistakable Welsh intonation , sounded from above , saying , " Won't you please have some milk ? " We raised our eyes to the bridge , and there , her elbows supported by the parapet , on which her milk-pail also rested , stood a young girl with a handsome dark gipsy face , and wearing the native costume of round beaver hat , frilled cap , and crimson farthingale . She had doubtless "been for some time intently watching the dinner operations , for a Saxon stranger in these parts , being a real live curiosity , is not to be passed unheeded . To burst through the little hazel copse that clothed the steep bank leading from the river to the road and bridge , was the work of a moment . _ But the drinking-cup lay down amongst the shingles , and ah attempt to imbibe the luscious fluid from the pail only resulted in the deposition of a quart at least within the waistcoat instead of beneath it . How cheerily did her merry laugh ring out at the sight of this ludicrous mishap . Then , with a deep blush at this freedom towards a stranger , she said , j Stop , I fetch cup . " Away , like a stag , bounded this daughter of the Cymri—over the stile , through the long meadow , up the green hill slope she held on with unbated breath , disappearing within a white farm-house at its summit . In Wales , every rustic building is coated by the lime-brush . They whiten the house , its roof , the stile , the roadway boundary stones , the village church , and even the graves . Two thousand years ago Tacitus remarked the ' whitened cottages of the Britons . ' How scrupulously this Celtic usage is traditionarily preserved by their modern descendants , we have shown . But see , here comes our Hebe , clearing at a bound the haggard stile , down the green slope , and once more at the bridge . With the prettiest of dipping curtseys , blushing , smiling , she removes from her basket the snowy napkin which covers a cream cheese , the finest of butter in a little crock , cakes , a bottle , and drinking-glass . Great as was her kindness to the wayfarer , her English proved small indeed . So , while discussing a portion of these delicious viands seated on the bridge parapet , our first Welsh lesson consisted in the acquirement of their native names— ' Barra kaus-barra mynin—cwr d < lha . ' What return could be proffered for such spontaneous hospitality ? The remaining contents of the pannier suggested themselves . " Indeed , she would rather not . Her brother was piscottwr—i . e . an angler . They had a noble brook below the farm on the opposite side of the hill , with great silver eels under every stone , and spotted trouts in every rocky pool ; better even than Severn . Would I come up to the farm , and go n-in i it nr ui 11 * . __ it ___>_ * V \ y >_ ti 4- | - __ c _ - » i- _ - * _ v __ - ** _¦*_ - \ i * r * £ } " \!\ 7 *_ - _ «/ - __ - __*! - __ - _ 4- < m ^~ __ - _ m _ -1 4-V __ t * m . « 1 * !>____ .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 10, 1857, page 980, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2213/page/20/
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