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DOMESTIC 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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B Y far the more numerous class of novel readers may be found among- the young : and inexperienced . In the present day every young lady fresh from boarding-school discipline is only , too ready to devout with avidity every work of fiction placed within her grasp ; and it cannot be denied that miich evil is engendered in the youthful mind by the introduction of false sentiment into our modern romances * . We consider it a sacred duty on the part of novelists to present the different passions under their , different phases , and to steer clear of exciting' anything : like a morbid sympathy in favour of characters whose actions are not only ill-judged , but
morally censurable , and : thus endeavour to impart to their productions that health and vigour ' . winch is most beneficial to the reader . Mr . Albin Locke has not , in the present instance , fully recognised this principle . Possessing- considerable powers of composition , and some insi jrht into individual disposition , he has marred all by creatingaround his heroine ( a somewhat questionable young- lady in herself ) a fund of undue interest and commiseration , thereby completely glossing over whatever is unstable and unlovely in her character ; and only too successfully throwing a blind over hjfcir caprices and moral failings ; nay , even investing them with a kind of halo by which they become confounded with and gradually assume the semblance of virtues .
A very few lines will serve to demonstrate the truth of what we have stated . . » j •*¦ ¦ *» ¦ JSstelle , the heroine of the present story , which is entitled Influence , the eldest child of affluent and well-connected parents , during a visit , to the Black park , falls in love with the portrait of a young gentleman , Philip Seymour , a proceeding , by # the way , we should advise no young lady to take example from , insomuch as it nmsfc entail considerable inconvenience upon herself and others , besides being decidedly foolish . This same Philip Seymour speedily makes his appearance upon the scene , and is in due course introduced to our heroine . Estelle ' s romantic passion , however , does not seem to be reciprocated by the gentleman , and thereupon she coplly and Herbert Cochraue
deliberately engnges herself to another , one , having- previously informed him , to do her full justice , of her unhappy attachment , The bridegroom elect placing implicit confidence in his heart ' s idol , and not believing that she would willingly trifle with his feelings , accepts the tender of her heart at second hand , and the parties atfe openly engaged . Some months after this , however , Estelle obtains a second entrance into the family mansion of the Seymours , believing ifca present possessor to be at the time absent ; and after ranging 1 listlessly through the gloomy apartments , she throws herself in a burst of grief before the magical portrait , a cursory view of which upon a former occasion had taken so powerful a hold of her imagination . In this position she is surprised by no leas a person than Philip hiroaelfj and thureupo « ensues a terrible " scene , " . which ends in a declaration of love from the living original of the picture . Then comes the startling incontmlerate lover
announcement of a prior betrothal ; and the vows all sorts of vengeance against the unoffending Herbert should he refuse to relinquish all claim to the maiden on whom he has deigned to bestow the light of his favour . At this cri « is our heroine , in defiance of every feeling-of honour and delicacy , and reckless howmuch she might endanger the happiness of a hig-h-nrincipled and only too confiding- nature , consents to break off the existing- eng-agre * - ment , salving 1 her conscience according to her own prescribed methods , and considering the only reparation duo to the victim of , her caprice is to write him an apolog-otio letter requesting his sanction of her present proceedings and unconditional aurrenuer of hor promise . Now , had Eatelle possessed a modicum of good sense and nobler feeling , she would l »* ve atonoe perceived that a man who could thus coolly counsel hor to an acb of deliberato selfishness and , injustice mqat be utterly unworthy in hiioself , aud totally monpublo of discharging- the onerous duties thub would be entailed upqn luna .
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subject , full of sensible suggestion . In his opinion the adoption of the proper metre is the primary consideration . He would represent the JLatiri alcaic by the English elegiac stanza ; as for the rest he is doubtful ; but on one point he is satisfied , that "the merits of Horace will never be done full justice to unless the translator adopts a particular stanza for eaph of his / ' " The taste of an author , " he adds , * i& largely involved in the metre he selects for bis ; subject , and the poetry of language and composition , as well as of tliongrht , ought to be represented in the translation . From neglect of this , more than perhaps fcr any other reason , Dry den ' s paraphrase of Tyrrhena reguvt progenies though a great work , in no respect brings Horace to my mind . " Mr . Martin has been more practical in Bis views than Lord Redesdale , and chosen his metre simply on grounds of convenience , and confessedly for the avoidanee , not subduing , of difficulties . The form of verse into which Mr . Martin ^ cast each ode , was selected , he tells us , with a view to' what might best reflect its prevailing tone , but it had not been always possible to follow this indication , " The names of persons or places , often most intractable , but always important , must have been sacrificed , " if such a plan had been strictly carried out . He has preferred , therefore , to select measures into which these could be interwoven . Smoothness of versification , however , iu this manner may be too dearly paid for . Some of the ancient metrical formulae are , it is confessed , not representable in any existing English metre . Lord Redesdale ^ mentions the sapphic as one , and therefore speculates on the possibility of adapting that metre to our language . The difficulty he had to meet was the stern fact that there is no acknowledged rule uf quantity in the . English language . The problem to be solved is how to render the verse correct according to fixed rules , and not merely the waiter ' s fancy . Of such fixed rules he thinks our language quite capable , and that verses may be so written as to read rightly without being-consciously scanned . He thinks that the two ITiiiyei-sijties should take the matter up , and establish the rules for fixing quantities , so as to write with authority in classical metres . Toyiest his plan , Lord Redesdale took a sapphic ode of Hot-ace , and found no great difficulty in the application of the rules . As examples of what he means , Lord Redesdale has added his own versions of three odes- —from Book III ., odes v . and xxix ., and from Book lt . j ode xvi . They are all felicitously done , and almost literal . These versions , if compared with Mr . Martin ' s , are certainly superior in stren-jth , conciseness , and definite meaning . But at this result we need not be surprised ; for Mr . Miirtin has mainly aiiiied ^ at elegance ; and , like Waller , is sometimes not ashanied of showing weakness if more attractive than vijroin-. ¦ Frequently , he attains this end by an imniodei-ate use of expletive auxiliary verbs j e . g ., " With growth occult , as shoots the vigorous tree , Marce . llus' fame doth grow j . . The star of Julius shines resplqndently , Eclipsing all the starry row , ' As mid the lesser fires bright Luna ' s lamp doth glow . " Compr . re this altogether with the terseness of the original : — " Greseit , occulto velut arbor sevo , Fama Marcelli : micat inter omnes .. Julium sidus , veliit inter ignes Luna minoreB . " Too frequently Mr . Martin quits his original for modern associations . Take a passag-e from the 37 th ode , Book I ., which Mr . Martin thus interprets : " But hers no spirit was to periah meanly ; A woman , yet not -womanishly-weak , She ran her galley to no sheltering creek , Nor quailed before the sword , but -met it queenly . So to her lonely palace-halls she came , With eye . serene their desolation viewed , And with firm hand the angry aspics wooed , To dart their deadliest venom through her frame . Then with a prideful spi'le sho sa . uk ; for she Hadrobb'd Rome ' s galleys of their royul prize , Queen to the ' last , and ne ' er in humble gujse To swell a triumph ' s haughty pngeantry ! " The anticipation of the sentiment of queenahip in the previous stanza is innrtistic , and deprives the term of its effect'in the last stanza . But the reader will perceive that neither is in Horace . Both are imported into him from Mr . Tennyson ' s Dream ofWair Women : " I died a queen . The Roman soldier found Mo lying dead , my crown about ray brows , A name for ever ! lying robed and crown'd , Worthy a Woman spouse . " To intensify , ns it . were , the jeat , Mr . Martin turns round upon Mr . Tennyson , and any gests that he muy huve borrowed the idea from the Horatian stanzas . We point to these shortcomings and over-doings exclusively for the purpose of showing the difficulty of the tusk undertaken by Mr . Martin . On the whole , it must be granted that this gentleman hue given the world a version of -Horace , nu-re elegant than any we nave yet in the lungmige . He h «» sought to rival his author in the confessed beauty of his style , and particuliu'ly in what PetroniuH ho admired in the Roman poet , his puriosafelioitdts . But he lias not always-. avoided the temptation of substituting pretty phrases , aa choice morcenux of poetic diction—ft sin which especially Besets him in rendering the more sublime odea of Horace ; those to Augustus Citeaiiry for » n » t » nce . , To » great extent , let ifc be acknowledged that Horace is nntnuw-. lateable . Mis benuty of tliou ^ ht and ejeprewsipn nve not to be cnught one time in a thousand ; nnd even when the translator succeeds , in
Reich ' s version of Lessing- ' s Nathdn the . Germans are accustomed to a mode of translation which with exact fidelity represents the original , almost syllable for syllable , producing it in the same metre , and rendering it line for line . Thus Shakspere and Homer live again in German , in the very habit of their pre-existenfc state . Dr . Reich has so endeavoured to render Lessing ' s great work , little afraid of occasional ruggedness , so that he presented iivfull force the vigorous thought and expression of his admirable original . Dr . Reich lias prefaced his translation with a memoir and essay on his author , which is written at once with reverence and discrimination . Both as a critic and translator his powers are unquestionable .
WiseThe a certain degree , in this adiievement ^ there is mueh wanting in the general contour of a poem from the discrepancy of metrical arrangement . Our poets have much yet to do in the construction of classical metres , before these Odes can be- satisfactorily represented in an English garb . In what he has done , Mr . Martin has worthily maintained his reputation as an able poetic translator . In an appendix he gives s < nne excellent remarks on , and specimens from , the love poetry of Catullus , whose geniuB better suks Mr . Martin's vein than that of Horace . . A very different example of translated poetry we notice in Dr .
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2 ^ 2 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ March 24 , iseo .
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* rnjhtoiico ,- or , The 8 i « Ura . By AtniN Looks . James BUoJcwooa . Vhp rot /<* 0 <> ofthoXadu . By faa Author of "The Three Paths . " Two toIs . Hursib anil Blftokett . Bengahx ; or , So ? ne Thno Affo . By Mrs . VlPAL , ftuthor of rt Twl <;» for me Bush , " "Ester Merle / ' See . Two vole . John W . Parker and 89 n .
Domestic Romance.*
DOMESTIC ROMANCE . *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 24, 1860, page 282, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2339/page/14/
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