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ART AND LIFE ROMANCE.*
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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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rpHE author of " The Scarlet JLetter ' has , a J- lapse of time , added another to tlie list of liis world-fam&d productions . The Romance of * Jtfonte Beni doubtless owes its birth to the author ' s evident enthusiasm for the works- of genius and art . The effect produced upon his fertile braiu by drawing aside th-e curtain which shrouds-the masterpieces of Koine , sacred relics of those mighty- intellects long since departed into the shades , of the Eternal City , has led to the composition of three singularly eloquent volumes , teeming with , the most fanciful creations of one of the most fanciful and creative of imaginations . Mr . Hawthorne's exposition
of , the individual and artistic meaning * couched in each senseless block of sculptured marble , and tlie elevating influence which a due appreciation of art must necessarily exercise over the educated and inquiring mind , is at once -. chaste , . comprehensive , and instructive ; he has in fact left nothing unsaid that could be said upon the subject . Nor does he confine himself solely to sculpture ; he delights in expatiating on the beauties of Raphael , Leonardo da Vinci , and the ' master spirits of many a past generation , when the genius of painting was at its height . " There is something fascinating in the author ' s mode of treating these and all other subjects , appealing directly to the higher capabilities of our -intellectual , faculties . Tlie render finds himself wafted onwards in a perfect stream of calm
spiritual enjoyment , and does not become conscious of any 'feeling' of impatience in consequence of the delay thus occasioned in the progress of the story . The story itself , however , is open to souie criticism . The Count of Monfce Beni , a young-man of slender intellect , but of a ' singnlarly vivacious tomporament , and whose miraculous resemblance to tile Faun of Praxiteles . 1 ms been discovered by a company of friendly artists during a visit to the ' seulptnre gallery at liome / is introduced as a friend and companion of Miriam , a lady artist , who is endowed by nature with the most brilliant intellectual capacities , and whose power ovev iho young Arcadian ( as mind will sometimes exercise a Magnetic influence overt-he mere animal propensities of a lowtr order of beings ) is entire and absolute . Led away
by tins fatal passion , and under'the spell of an electric glance from Ins mistress ' s eye , this poor fawn-like creature commits a dreadful crime—murder ^ in fa ct . The ^ author now proceeds to extract good out of evil . ' Jflio death of a human being , the result of his own violence , developea faculties that from his birth had Jain dormant in the breast of Monte Boni . Remorse , the offspring of guilt , becomes atj once the instructor and moral regenerator of the young Count . Hitherto , he hns had no perception of right and wrong ; if he chanced by accident to follow in tho right track , ib was not the result of carefully treasured precepts and ennobling principles , but the conseqiienco of mere iustlnot—suoh instinct as belongs more or less to every Bpoeies of the bvuto creation . He now becomes
conscious of a now life flooding in upon his tiwalcening faculties , und his inner nature is exulted in proportion as he inhales the heavenborn treasure , so that from the bitter ordeal of blood and sorrow ho emerges a wiser and a bettor man . Thus fur- we have no objection to make . Wo thoroughly coincide with Mr . Hawthorne ' theory of an originally nputh . Qt . io nnd unreasoning 1 mind receiving 1 tho revelation , of profound truths through the ' medium of crime nnd remorse . But when he leads us into a labyrinth of . mystery , from which he allows us no apparent outlet g when his heroine , . Hilda , who is here represented us a personification of innocence and purity , is suddenly spirited away , for no palpable reason , nobody being able to eonjocturo tho how or whoroforo ; and when , moreover ,
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have no such hideous enormities to be gibbeted for ; but still we have our vices and follies , as edifying , we may be sure , to the advanced races who shall ' succeed to our inheritance , as tho s e of the Eomans are to us . What , however , we can gather from Mabtial and Juvenal—together only matter for one pocket volume—they will have to extricate with intense labour from law reports and parliamentary debates , should newspapers , annual registers , and sets of Mansard be preserved in the confusion which will attend 6 nr decline and fall . * Martial is not only facile princeps amongst the epigrammatists , but has attained an . absolute , unapproachable pre-eminence which he owes not so much to his own powers as to the material upon which , and the tools with which , lie . worked . Others " may emulate , although it is little likely , the pungent wit , the keen observation , the graceful turn of thought , and the out-spoken severity which constitute his chief merits sis a writer ; but none , we may hope , will have a society like that which served for the subject of his attacks to , deal with , and none , certainly , will have a language of such admirable fitness for their work . The marvellous power and terseness of the Latin is , perhaps , nowhere so evident as in Martial . He says in one line what it would take at least two of English ( which has tin ' s terseness , in the hands of its masters , more than any other tongue ) to express ; and altliqughy of course , much of this l-are merit is due to his own peculiar epigrammatieal genius , the example of some of his countrymen , Sallust—to . give but one instance—shows , if need were , that the genius of the language was his great strength . If brevity be really the soul of wit , and certainly it goes so far to make it up , the wit of Maetial is supreme . He is always brief and pointed , the wonder being that any man could always keep up to such a level . Of course his epigrams are iiot of equal merit , ; whilst some once read can never be forgotten , others appear lame and halting . He says himself of them—Sunt bona , sunt quaiclam rnediocria , sunfc mala plura . And eveiy wi'iter , from his days down to ours , has agreed with him that . Aliter non fit liber . Yet it is by no means fair to set down those epigrams - which- appear to us pointless , as really devoid of the true ; salt . We can no xiipre understand the puns and jests upon individuals which told well at Rome in the days of Martial , than the iijnagiuary race of whom we have spoken will appreciate Mr . JPunch's fun about Palsieeston the- bottleholder , Russell upsetting the coach , Mr . Cox ' s historical abilitiesj or the jokes of the burlesque -writers about crinoline and pegtops . When we can understand his allusions , they are almost always telling . Even the dullest verses give us a , singular insight into the morals of Rome , morals so detestable that is impossible to imagine worse . It is in this depravity -flint we find the sufficient causu of that gross indelicacy and impurity which , in the judgment of our times , disfigures so many of Martial ' s unequalled sarcasms . His attacks are mainly levelled at vices of an i » famous nature , which are not only unmentionable , but even Unknown now . Attacking the sinner , he describes the sin plainly ; and in doing so , only did what his contemporaries did . We cannot try the writers of earlier ages by standardvs formed cither upon the morality or sqneamishness of our own . The same licence which disgusts us in Maettal , is to be found in greater or less degree in Catullus , Horace , and . Juvenal ; and either of that greut triumvirate , denouncing the men and women of whom Mammal wrote , would have spoken as plainly as he has done . Not that this grossness in Maetial is merely the resiilt of honest indignation ; he does not scourge vice as vice , with the earnestness with whiob . Juvenal asssiiled it . He attacks unsparinyly some j nfamous vices ; but for others , which we should now duem infamous , ho had evidently a siieaking - . kindness . What the man was himself , we do not care to inquire . He triqn to make out , as Catullus—all the while uccumuhiting what appears fro us proofs to the contrary- ^—did before \\\\ r \ , that however impure his book , his life was chaste . Lasoivn osfc nobis pagina ,: vita proba eet ; or , as M > . Bohn's old MS . of translations has it" My Jinea are wanton , but my lif « ia chaBte . " Perhaps it was according to the notions of the time , and it must always bo remembered that Martial has pfton' written with sin . i gular elegance , delicacy , and grace . Tho influence of Martial is to bo traced almost everywhere in the older litoraturo of Europe . Many a smart saying of an' old author , made to da duty by a modern one as his own , really owes its paternity to the Spanish poet who made Homo his home . JNut . ura . lly , the looser writers of the sixteenth , seventeenth , and eighteonth centuries have borrowed from his filthiest epigrams ideas which they clothed in their own language , and then given an air of novelty nnd an extra spice of interest to them by applying tho story or satire to some eminent personage of their own times ; but he has not been leas drawn upon by staid , sober , and even devout writers , Whether they went to him us a fount of pure lnthuty , a source of sparkling wit , or drawn by that strange attraction which these wanton books , when redeemed by any genius , seem to havo for grave and reverend seighors , we cannot see ; but in old . history , philosophy , and even divinity , ono often stumbles across Martial , sometimes quoted by name—for the men of old were generally ljonesfc in thoso matterssometimes translated into the vernacular- —or rather his idea expressed in the vernnoular , for translation of Maetial is out of the question ; the man who undertakes it must be a Marital himself , and then ho . must have a language as suitable for the purpose « s Martial had , Of course the attempt hns often been made .
untranslateable in the original Latin , and appended an Italian translation by GeagLia . In other words , he has marked out for the benefit of the lovers of dirt the really dirty epigrams , and given such assistance in the translation of . their difficult Latin as Italian would render . It must be said , however , that Geaglia has managed his translation by the very easy course of giving the most indecent Latin words in an Italian form . So far so good . We confess we think . it would have been much better to have left these epigrams completely out , and have plainly stated the reason . Nor do we see any very good ground for the publication of the translation , except Mr . Bohx . ' s natural desire to have his classical library perfect : The wit and point of Maettal , as we have said , cannot be given in another tongue , and valuable as may be the information which he gives of the life of-Imperial Rome , it is scarcely appreciable , except by those who have studied its history well .
but as much of course it has failed . The only . chance of success is to give up-the notion of translating , and taking ' the idea of the poet , put it in another framework , a course which has been not unfrequently adopted in this < md other countries . Mr . BoHN having determined to give a translation of this author , has undoubtedly done well to let it be in prose . The poetical versions , although collected with great industry , are not very good . Those by Fletcher are the best , and are sometimes singularly happy . So far as we have examined the prose , the translation seems good enough , and we can quite recognise the expediency of its ceasing to be literal , when it had to render words which cannot be printed in these days . That question , indeed , has been Mr . BoHN ' s great difficulty , and we cannot say that his solution of it is the best . He has given the epigrams which are absolutely
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258 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . | Majr , ch 17 , 1860 .
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* Transformation ! or , Tho Romance of Monto XI 01 U , By NATiUNXEfc I-jAivTnoHNjra . Throo vola . Smith , EUlor , owl Oo . Which to Whtoh ' / or , Miles Cosatfli / a Gontrapt , A Ploture Story , By Kowbrt B , Bwouon . Two volo . w . Kontand Co . NvtUu Mall s or , Tho Wlfv ' o 'Slater , Smith , Elder , and Oo .
Art And Life Romance.*
ART AND LIFE ROMANCE *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1860, page 258, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2338/page/14/
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