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their object the protection of property in works of thought and art . These instructions are followed by a detailed analysis of the twenty-eight conventions concluded between France and the principal states of Europe . ' ¦ , ' , ' The Critic has received a catalogue of the valuable library of the late Edward A . Crowningshield , of Boston , U . S ., which is to be sold by auction on the 1 st of November next . For a small collectionthere are little more than a thousand lots altogether . —it comprises an extraordinary proportion of rare and valuable books , choice editions and fine copies , and will , no doubt , tempt many of our collectors to send over commissions . Mr . Crpwningshield has long been known as a collector of choice rarities . His collection includes many rare and curious tracts connected with the history of America ,
and historical treatises by early New England writers , such as Cotton Mather , Norton , Amos Adams , Cushman , and others ; also some valuable editions of early voyages and travels ; first editions of Froissart , Coryat , Purchas , Hakluyt , Shakespeare , and Milton ; a copy of the " Bay Psalm-book , " the first book ever printed in America ; Elliott ' s "Indian Bible ; " Mather ' s " Magnalia , " and other rare and curious books . The same publication announces the first instalment of a work likely to be of great service to literature . It is a " Bibliography of the "United , States , " or catalogue raisonnee of all the works in existence which throw light upon any part of the United States . The classification is according to States , and this instalment of twenty-two pages professes to give all the books relating to , or conr nected with , the State of Maine , and makes mention of about two hundred and seventy-five separate ¦ works . ¦ . ¦ ¦
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NEW EXEGESIS OF SHAKESPEARE . —INTERPRETATION OF HIS PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS AND PLAYS ON THE PRINCIPLE OF RACES . — Adam & C . Black . Jt is an old observation that the Shaksperian characters are translucences of the universal in the individual . The author of the above work has modified this idea ; and accepted them as types of the nations and races to which they belong . He
seems not to have perceived that * this minor conception was included in the general assumption ; His discovery is , therefore , something of" the mare ' s-nest kind ; but in the treatment of his subject he rises in our esteem , and his remarks especially deserve notice . Notwithstanding what we have just said , the author has considerable -philosophic perception , and understands well the sources of illusion in the acted drama .
The theatre and time being , as he contends , of the province of the senses , while the action of the p lay can only be pursued by the intellect , such illusion commences , says he , not on the floor , but on the stage , and takes place not in the senses , but alone in the imagination . The word " illusion , " too , is improperly used , and adapted only to the point of view of the senses . " But with the intellect in the stage of imagination , and even of reason , it is the objects of the senses that , on the contrary , are illusory : in the arts , and even the sciences , it' is the ideal that is real , the abstract that is true , the harmonious that is natural . "
Such a statement of opinion , we repeat , increases our respect for the author , and for his assumption that " the interest of the drama , as of all art , ranges in proportion to the purview of the age or audience . " Proceeding on this assumption , he states that-r"Accordingly while Eschylus and [ the ancient drama generally kept the sphere of action to the limits of the family , the similar founder of the modern advanced it to larger groupings , in obedience to popular progress in the knowledge of men and nature What Asia Minor and mere Greece were to the demos of Athens , entire Europe and its confines were to the
British of the Renaissance . The spring of action , the range of character which have been furnished to the ancients by the primitive and the extraneous causation of theology , came , in the moderns , to bo widenod and consequently deopened , into the . human andintrineio fatalismjoforganization . What to Eschylus wore the houses of the Pelopidso and the Labdoddro , became to Shakespeare the Teutonic , the Italic , the Celtic races Such , at all events , is the consequence of the principles suggested , and to verify the fact is tlie object of the volume . "
The reader has now the whole design and purpose of the work before- him . In introducing nis argument , the author condemns the oritioal loommon-place that Shakspearo constantly attri'butep to his personages of all countries tho manners of his own ? observing that the dictum
will be . found afterwards to rest a good deal more on their own ignorance of Shakspeare ' s meaning than on Shakspeare ' s on the laws of costume . . commenced with the internal fashion of the mind , as governed by the laws of race . The characters selected for exegesis are Iago , Othello , Hamlet , Macbeth , Shy lock . The part of Iago , our author regards as the tvpe of the Romano-Italic race—a juxtaposition which may appear insulting as well as paradoxical—but only through a common misconstruction of both Iago and the Italians . It is impossible for us to follow the writer through his very ingenious reflections—we must be content with an excerpt : —
" Iago is supposed to be a villain of the vulgar stamp ; one tramples upon conscience , upon honesty and humanity , with desperate defiance of their ordinary opposition . But it is now seen that the first of these influences is wholly absent , and the others deeply modified , in the Italian race . As representative of this race , then , Iago would be less perverse . He would have acted more from negative than positive impulsion , more from moral insensibility than brutalized depravity . And this must be consistently the point of view of the character . As commonly interpreted , it would , be undramatic ; for nothing is dramatic that is brutal or vulgar . To wade deliberately through all crime in prosecution of selfish ends could excite only disgust or horror ,
and would at best be merely monstrous . But to do so with a latent sentiment of the legitimacy of the course , and under influence of a particular view of morals , is full of interest . For this unfolds to cusiosity a new vista in human nature , and self knowledge is the spring of public interest in the drama . Such , accordingly , is the sentiment excited by Iago , not at all disgust or horror , notwithstanding his reckless villariies . And so the fact of the special interest of this play becomes a proof , that the true import of the character can only be a type of race ; that is to say , not a . perverted individual , which suggests nothing , but a cast of organization and a stage of social progress that reveal to different races a latent phase of the common species . at all
* ' Nor , it seems evident , was Shakespeare unconscious of this import . Too great a painter not to execute as studiously by shade as light , not to characterize his personages by omission as well as action , he makes Iago say as , little about himself and do as much , as he makes Hamlet , for example , say much and dp little : it is a case of the law of contrast which will hold generally of these races—the race of preaching and agitation , and the race of intrigue and conspiracy . But notwithstanding this obserof the gentilitial character , Iago is made to open the following glimpse into Ms principles—And what ' s he then tbatsays , I play the knave ? When the advice I give ia free and honest , Probable to thinking , and indeed the course To win the Moor again .
Here the speaker is made to vindicate , sincerely as in soliloquy , against the prevalent morality , a particular' system—a system based on the external circumstances , irrespective of the motive . The occasion is the counsel which Iago gives to Cassio to ask the mediation of Desdemona with her husband The cashiered lieutenant was " free" to take the counsel or not . To court the favours of men in power through such a medium was- becoming—that is , "honest" in the sense of the Italians as the Romans ; for the poet has shown a nicer understanding of the word honestus than the pedants who debate his Latin have yet done of his English . Beside , the result must " seem probable to Cassio himself ,
who thus would act from his own reason , not tho "knavery" of any one . In fine , Iago , believed that it was " indeed the course . " Where could therefore bo the ground for supposing him a knave ? " Singly and solely , in the motive of the advice . It is the only element omitted by the poet , who doubtless meant to show that with Iago it went for nothing , whereas it was the whole with the public of Shakespeare . In this contrast lies the play and the pro ? fundity of the portraiture . Iago could not think that what waa objectively irreproachable might be altered in its moral lavs by tho state of his private consciousness ; this criterion , ia of force but with tho of personality , with whom tho conscience in morality ,
the private judgment In religion , and the ego in philosophy , or rather metaphysics , hold tho laws of both divine and physical nature in contingency Tho Italian sees such potencies but in a " special Providence . " And there being . In this instance , no deus em machitte , Iago was obliged to doom tho counsel he gave Oaeslo to have continued good and moral in itself . Then , If ho had the secret view that it would serve himself ulteriorly , this end , besides bolng also good and moral in itee ^/"— -the vindication of his family honour and elevation of his ran A—this selfish end was , in tho first plnoo , a matter vary difficult , and which would noecf some logic to link It morally with the counsel , and , In tho next place ,
would moreover , like all ends with the Italian appear sufficient to justify the necessary means . " ' This may serve to show the intelligent student the manner in which the author deals with his proposition , and how he supports it in analysis and argument . The latter breaks off ; and divaricates in manifold directions , in wliieh it baffles pursuit . Sometimes , in its protean changes , it takes a very subtle form , as in the definition given of the word " reputation , " in the Italian sense , and as used by Othello , Cassio , Iago , and Uoderigo . " We , moreover , think the definition quite correct ; " with which opinion of ours ,, we doubt not that the author will be exceedingly gratified . The same may be said of Ms clever explanation of the " very stuff o' the conscience " of which Iago speaks .
The author next considers Hamlet as the type of the Teutonic race : — " The leading marks of this powerful raco will be admitted to be these . In the highest or mental order , the faculty of Reflection as distinguished from the passive receptivity of the senses . Id morality , the test of Conscience as against , religious tradition ! In politics , the strife of Liberty in opposition to authority , and of the interests of the person against
the interests of . the public In philosophy , Metaphysics , as contrasted with . scholastics , or , in the native phrase , the subjective in preference to the objective . In fine , in body , the Muscularity befitting this complex struggle , and in manners a correlative degree of roughness and insensibility . Li all things an organical introversion upon Self , in opposition to the Roman race , whose gaze was outward upon nature . "
It is not necessary to verify the resemblance of Hamlet ' s individuality with these chai-acteristics . The reader will find it exquisitely worked out in the essay or chapter before us . Of the race of Shakspeare himself ^ the author ' s opinion 13 , that it was Celtic . Altogether , this is a very remarkable book . '
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WAIT AND HOPE . By John Edmund Keade , author of " Italy , " "The Light of other Days , " &c . 3 vols . —Hurst & Blaokett . . PKANK MABLAND'S MANUSCRIPTS ; OK , MEMOIRS OP A MODERN TEMPLAR . By Frederick Brandt . —J . P . Hope . HENRY ST . JOHN , GENTLEMAN , of " Flower of Hundreds , " in the county of Prince George , Virginia . A Tale of 1774-75 . By John Easten Cooke , author of " Virginia Comedians , " "Leather Stockings and Silk , '' " Last of the Foresters , " &c , &c—Sampson Low and Co . MY THIRD BOOK : a Collection of Talcs , By Louise Chandler Moulton , author of " This , That , and the Other , " and "Juno Clifford . "—Sampson Low & Co .
If " Wait and Hope " is not a good story , least an average fiction . Thai Mr . Keailc has been less fortunate in his present effort , is because he has mistaken his subject . " Wait and Hope belongs to a class of fiction of which the story ana construction of the plot are made tho secondary consideration ; the author ' s aim being to present his readers with sketches and manners ot everyday life . That it is more creditable to write such a fiction than one on " fashionable life , or ot AAV V 4 v *<« ifn ^ mTt fi n ^^ mm ^* - * rr- *~ — — - - — v . will doubt
^^ thrilling interest , " few people . Because to write a work of this description in three volumes—to keep the reader intorestea throughout , the writer must be a shrowd observer .. and have a vast knowledge of human , lito anu character . Now here and there , in " Wait and Hope , " we detect this ; but in the greater part 01 his work , Mr . Keade has got his material trom second-hand sources , as in tho case of thp revolting tale of Jane Feversham , and tho consequence in
is ,, his work lacks reality . The life depicted n » pages is only artificial , a nd the chamctcra are more vehicles , through whom tho author gives ms opinions without paying much attention as w whether what they say is true to life , or consistent with their nature . Again , there arc too many characters in the book for the writer to carry out his plan . . A fcovel relymg 011 row life for interest should have very few oliaraptew . as it leaves the writer greater chanoo of iucn n b them off with truthfulness . Wo are borne out in this by tho fact that when Mr . BonM narrates tho lives of his characters s ° P ftra *?!? some of the story of their yiyos « to d witn truth , and always with interest . Mr . Heads scows
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NEW NOVELS .
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1110 THE LEADER . [ JSTo . 497 . Oct . 1 , 1853
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 1, 1859, page 1110, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2314/page/18/
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