a fair and virtuous maiden, decked with gems both rich and rare, might
travel through Ireland unprotected and unmolested, may now be made by
America. So, at least, the author of _Hochelaga_ instructs us, avouching
his belief that a lady of any age and unlimited attractions may travel
through the whole Union without a single annoyance, but aided, on the
contrary, by the most attentive and unobtrusive civility. And many
American ladies do so travel; their own propriety of behaviour, and the
chivalry of their countrymen, for sole protectors. The best seat in
coach and at table, the best of every thing, indeed, is invariably given
up to them. This practical courtesy to the sex is certainly an excellent
point in the American character. A humorous exemplification is given of
it in _Hochelaga_. An Englishman at the New York theatre, having
engaged, paid for, and established himself in a snug front corner of a
box, thought himself justified in retaining it, even when summoned by an
American to yield it to a lady. A discussion ensued. The pit inquired
its cause; the lady's companion stepped forward and said, "There is an
Englishman here who will not give up his place to a lady." Whereupon the
indignant pit swarmed up into the box, gently seized the offender, and
carried him out of the theatre, neither regarding nor retaliating his
kicks, blows, and curses, set him carefully down upon the steps, handed
him his hat, his opera-glass, and the price of his ticket, and shut the
door in his face. "The shade of the departed Judge Lynch," concludes the
narrator of the anecdote, "must have rejoiced at such an angelic
administration of his law!"
On his route from New York to Boston, the Yankee capital, our author
made sundry observations on his fellow travellers by railway and
steam-boat. They were very numerous, and the fares were incredibly low.
There was also a prodigious quantity of luggage, notwithstanding that
many American gentlemen travel light, with their linen and brushes in
their great-coat pocket. Others, on the contrary, have an addiction to
very large portmanteaus of thin strong wood, bound with iron, nailed
with brass, initialed, double-locked and complicated, and possessing
altogether a peculiarly cautious and knowing look, which would stamp
them as American though they were encountered in Cabul or Algeria. Round
the walls of the reading-room at the Boston hotel were hung maps of the
States, the blue of the American territory thrusting itself up into the
red of the English to the furthest line of the different disputed
points. "At the top they were ornamented by some appropriate national
design, such as the American eagle carrying the globe in its talons,
with one claw stuck well into Texas, and another reaching nearly to
Mexico."
A remarkably clean city is Boston, quite Dutch in its propriety,
spotless in its purity; smoking in the streets is there prohibited, and
chewing has fewer proselytes than in most parts of the States. It is one
of the most ancient of American towns, having been founded within ten
years after the landing of the first New England settlers. The
anniversary of the day when
"A band of exiles moor'd their bark
On the wild New England shore,"
the 21st December 1620, is still celebrated at Plymouth, the earliest
settlement of the pilgrim fathers. Thousands flock from Boston to assist
at the ceremony. On the last anniversary, the author of _Hochelaga_ was
present. The proceedings of the day commenced with divine service,
performed by Unitarian and Baptist ministers. This over, a marshal of
the ceremonies proclaimed that the congregation were to form in
procession and march to the place where the "Plymouth Rock" had been,
there "to heave a sigh." The "heaving" having been accomplished with all
due decorum and melancholy--barring that a few unprincipled individuals
in the tail of the procession, fearing to be late for dinner, shirked
the sighing and took a short cut to the hotel--the banquet, not the
least important part of the day's business, commenced. The president sat
in a chair which came over with the pilgrims in their ship, the
Mayflower. Beside each plate were placed a few grains of dried maize--a
memento of the first gift of the friendly natives to the exiles. The
dinner went off with much order. A large proportion of the persons
present were members of temperance societies, and drank no wine. The
grand treat of the evening, at least to an Englishman, was the
speechifying. The following _resumA(C)_ is given to us as containing the
pith and substance of the majority of the speeches, which were all
prepared for the occasion, and, of course, contained much the same
thing. The orators usually commenced with "English persecution,
continued with,--landing in the howling wilderness--icebound
waters--pestilence--starvation--so on to foreign tyranny--successful
resistance--chainless eagles--stars and stripes--glorious
independence;--then; unheard of progress--wonderful industry--stronghold
of Christianity--chosen people--refuge of liberty;--again; insults of
haughty Albion--blazes of triumph--queen of the seas deposed for
ever--Columbia's banner of victory floating over every thing--fire and
smoke--thunder and lightning--mighty republic--boundless empire. When
they came to the 'innumerable millions' they were to be a few years
hence, they generally sat down greatly exhausted." Mr Everett, the late
American minister in London, was present at this dinner, and replied
with ability, eloquence, and good feeling, to a speech in which the
president had made a neatly turned and friendly reference to Great
Britain.
We prefer the American volume of _Hochelaga_ to the Canadian one,
although both are highly interesting. But, as he proceeds, the author
gains in vivacity and boldness. There is a deal of anecdote and lively
sketching in his account of the States; there are also some novel
opinions and sound reasoning. The chapter on the prospects of America
affords themes for much curious speculation concerning the probable
partition of the great republic. The discussion of the subject is,
perhaps, a little premature; although our author affirms his belief that
many now living will not die till they have seen monarchy introduced
into the stronghold of republicanism, and a king governing the slave
states of North America. He recognises, in the United States, the germs
of three distinct nations, the North, the West, and the South. Slavery
and foreign warfare, especially the former, are to be the apples of
discord, the wedges to split the now compact mass. The men of the North,
enlightened and industrious, commercial and manufacturing, are strenuous
advocates of peace. They have shown that they do not fear war; they it
was who chiefly fought the great fight of American independence; but
peace is essential to their prosperity, and they will not lightly forego
its advantages. This will sooner or later form the basis of differences
between them and the Western States, whose turbulent sons, rapid in
their increase, adventurous and restless, ever pushing forward, like
some rolling tide, deeper and deeper into the wilderness, and ever
seeking to infringe on neighbours' boundaries, covet the rich woods of
Canada, the temperate shores of Oregon, the fertile plains of
California. They have dispossessed, almost exterminated, the aborigines;
the wild beasts of the forest have yielded and fled before them, the
forest itself has made way for their towns and plantations. Growing in
numbers and power with a rapidity unparalleled in the world's history,
expansion and invasion are to them a second nature, a devouring
instinct. This unrestrained impulse will sooner or later urge them to
aggressions and produce a war. This they do not fear or object to;
little injury can be done to them; but the Northern States, to whose
trade war is ruin, will not be passively dragged into a conflict on
account of the encroaching propensities of their western brethren. These
differences of interests will lead to disputes, ill blood, and finally
to separation.
Between South and North, the probabilities of a serious, and no very
distant rupture, are strong and manifest. "Slavery" and "Abolition" will
be the battle-cries of the respective parties. It may almost be said
that the fight has already begun, at least on one side. An avowed
abolitionist dare not venture into the South. There are laws for his
chastisement, and should those be deemed too lenient, there are plenty
of lawless hands outstretched to string him to a tree. A deputy from
South Carolina openly declared in the House of Representatives at
Washington, that if they caught an abolitionist in their State, they
would hang him without judge or jury. A respectable Philadelphian and
ardent abolitionist confessed to us, a short time ago, not without some
appearance of shame at the state of things implied by the admission,
that it would be as much as his life was worth to venture into certain
slave-holding states. Hitherto the pro-slavery men have had the best of
it; the majority of presidents of the Union have been chosen from their
candidates, they have succeeded in annexing Texas, and latterly they
have struck up an alliance with the West, which holds the balance
between the South and the North, although, at the rate it advances, it
is likely soon to outweigh them both. But this alliance is rotten, and
cannot endure; the Western men are no partizans of slavery. Meantime,
the abolitionists are active; they daily become more weary of having the
finger of scorn pointed at them, on account of a practice which they
neither benefit by nor approve. Their influence and numbers daily
increase; in a few years they will be powerfully in the ascendant, they
will possess a majority in the legislative chambers, and vote the
extinction of slavery. To this, it is greatly to be feared, the fiery
Southerns will not submit without an armed struggle. "Then," says the
author of _Hochelaga_, "who can tell the horrors that will ensue? The
blacks, urged by external promptings to rise for liberty, the furious
courage and energy of the whites trampling them down, the assistance of
the free states to the oppressed, will drive the oppressors to
desperation: their quick perception will tell them that their loose
republican organization cannot conduct a defence against such odds; and
the first popular military leader who has the glory of a success, will
become dictator. This, I firmly believe, will be the end of the pure
democracy."
May such sinister predictions never be realised! Of the instability of
American institutions, we entertain no doubt; and equally persuaded are
we, that so vast a country, the interests of whose inhabitants are in
many respects so conflicting, cannot remain permanently united under one
government. But we would fain believe, that a severance may be
accomplished peaceably, and without bloodshed; that the soil which has
been converted from a wilderness to a garden by Anglo-Saxon industry and
enterprise, may never be ensanguined by civil strife, or desolated by
the dissensions and animosities of her sons.
FOOTNOTE:
[4] _Hochelaga; or, England in the New World._ Edited by ELIOT
WARBURTON, Esq. Two Volumes. London: 1846.
LETTERS ON ENGLISH HEXAMETERS.
LETTER III.
DEAR MR EDITOR,--I hope you will be of opinion that I have, in my two
preceding letters, proved the hexameter to be a good, genuine English
verse, fitted to please the unlearned as well as the learned ear; and
hitherto prevented from having fair play among our readers of poetry,
mainly by the classical affectations of our hexameter writers--by their
trying to make a distinction of long and short syllables, according to
Latin rules of quantity; and by their hankering after spondees, which
the common ear rejects as inconsistent with our native versification. If
the attempt had been made to familiarise English ears with hexameters
free from these disadvantages, it might have succeeded as completely as
it has done in German. And the chance of popular success would have been
much better if the measure had been used in a long poem of a religious
character; for religious poetry, as you know very well, finds a much
larger body of admirers than any other kind, and fastens upon the minds
of common readers with a much deeper hold. Religious feeling supplies
the deficiency of poetical susceptibility, and imparts to the poem a
splendour and solemnity which elevates it out of the world of prose. I
do not think it can be doubted that Klopstock's _Messiah_ did a great
deal to give the hexameters a firm hold on the German popular ear; and I
am persuaded that if Pollok's _Course of Time_ had been written in
hexameters, its popularity would have been little less than it is, and
the hexameter would have been by this time in a great degree
familiarised in our language. Perhaps it may be worth while to give a
passage of the _Messiah_, that your readers may judge whether a
hexameter version of the whole would not have been likely to succeed in
this country, at the time when the prose translator was so generally
read and admired. The version is by William Taylor of Norwich.
The scene is the covenant made between the two first persons of the
Trinity on Mount Moriah. The effect is thus described:--
"While spake the eternals,
Thrill'd through nature an awful earthquake. Souls that had never
Known the dawning of thought, now started, and felt for the first time.
Shudders and trembling of heart assail'd each seraph; his bright orb
Hush'd as the earth when tempests are nigh, before him was pausing.
But in the souls of future Christians vibrated transports,
Sweet pretastes of immortal existence. Foolish against God,
Aught to have plann'd or done, and alone yet alive to despondence,
Fell from thrones in the fiery abyss the spirits of evil,
Rocks broke loose from the smouldering caverns, and fell on the
falling:
Howlings of woe, far-thundering crashes, resounded through hell's
vaults."
It seems to me that such verses as these might very well have satisfied
the English admirers of Klopstock.
You will observe, however, that we have, in the passage which I have
quoted, several examples of those _forced trochees_ which I mentioned in
my first letter, as one of the great blemishes of English hexameters;
namely, these--_first tAe-me_; _bright Arb_; _agaAe"nst GAd_;
_hAe"ll's vAefults_. And these produce their usual effect of making
the verse in some degree unnatural and un-English.
It is, however, true, that in this respect the German hexametrist has a
considerable advantage over the English. Many of the words which are
naturally thrown to the end of a verse by the sense, are monosyllables
in English, while the corresponding German word is a trochaic
dissyllable, which takes its place in the verse smoothly and familiarly.
In consequence of this difference in the two languages, the Englishman
is often compelled to lengthen his monosyllables by various artifices.
Thus, in _Herman and Dorothea_--
"Und er wandte sich schnell; de sah sie ihm ThrA€nen im _auge_."
"And he turned him quick; then saw she tears in his _eyelids_."
In order that I may not be misunderstood, however, I must say that I by
no means intend to proscribe such final trochees as I have spoken of,
composed of two monosyllables, but only to recommend a sparing and
considerate use of them. They occur in Goethe, though not abundantly.
Thus in _Herman and Dorothea_, we have three together:--
"Und es brannten die strassen bis zum markt, und das _Haus war_,
Meines Vaters hierneben verzchrt und diesar zug_leich mit_,
Wenig flA1/4chtehen wir. Ich safs, die traurige _Nacht durch_."
None of these trochees, however, are so spondaic as the English ones
which I formerly quoted, consisting of a monosyllable-adjective with a
monosyllable-substantive--"the weight of his _right hand_;" or two
substantives, as "the heat of a _love's fire_."
Yet even these endings are admissible occasionally. Every one assents to
Harris's recognition of a natural and perfect hexameter in that verse of
the Psalms--
"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a _vain thing_?"
The fact is, that though the English hexameter, well constructed, is
acknowledged by an English ear, as completely as any other dactylic or
anapA|stic measure, it always recalls, in the mind of a classical
scholar, the recollection of Greek and Latin hexameters; and this
association makes him willing to accept some rhythmical peculiarities
which the classical forms and rules seem to justify. The peculiarities
are felt as an _allusion_ to Homer and Virgil, and give to the verse a
kind of learned grace, which may or may not be pedantic, according to
the judgment with which it is introduced. Undoubtedly, if the hexameter
ever come to be as familiar in English as it is in German poetry, our
best hexametrists will, like theirs, learn to convey, along with the
pleasure which belongs to a flowing and familiar native measure, that
which arises from agreeable recollections of the rhythms of the great
epics of antiquity.
And, I add further, that the recollection of classical hexameters which
will thus, in the minds of scholars, always accompany the flow of
English hexameters, makes any addition to, or subtraction from, the six
standard feet of the verse altogether intolerable. And hence I earnestly
protest--and I hope you, Mr Editor, agree with me--against the license
claimed by Southey, of using _any foot_ of two or three syllables at the
beginning of a line, to avoid the exotic and forced character, which, he
says, the verse would assume if every line were to begin with a long
syllable. No, no, my dear sir; this will never do. If we are to have
hexameters at all, every line _must_ begin with a long syllable. It is
true, that this is sometimes difficult to attain. It is a condition
which forbids us to begin a line with _The_, or _It_, or many other
familiar beginnings of sentences. But it is a condition which must be
adhered to; and if any one finds it too difficult, he must write
something else, and leave hexameters alone. Southey, though he has
claimed the license of violating this rule, has not written many of such
licentious lines. I suppose the following are intended to be of this
description:--
"That nAt for lawless devices, nor goaded by desperate fortunes."
"UpAn all seas and shores, wheresoever her rights were offended."
"His rAe"verend form repose; heavenward his face was directed."
The two former lines might easily be corrected by leaving out the first
syllable. The other is a very bad line, even if the licence be allowed.
For the same reason it must be considered a very bad fault to have
supernumerary syllables, or syllables which would be supernumerary if
not cut down by a harsh elision. A final dactyl, requiring an elision to
make it fit its place, appears to me very odious. Southey has such:--
"wins in the chamber
What he lost in the field, in fancy conquers the _conqueror_."
"Still it deceiveth the weak, inflameth the rash and the _desperate_."
"Rich in Italy's works and the masterly labours of _Belgium_."
And no less does the ear repudiate all other violent elisions. I find
several in the other translation of the Iliad referred to in your notice
of N. N. T.'s. And I am sure Mr Shadwell will excuse my pointing out one
or two of them, and will accept in a friendly spirit criticisms which
arise from a fellow feeling with him in the love of English hexameters.
These occur in his First Iliad.
"_Wheth'r_ it's for vow not duly perform'd or for altar neglected."
"Hand on his sword half drawn from its sheath, on a _sudd'n_ from
Olympus."
"Fail to regard in his envy the _daught'r_ of the sea-dwelling
ancient."
Such crushing of words is intolerable. Our hexameters, to be generally
acceptable, must flow on smoothly, with the natural pronunciation of the
words; at least this is necessary till the national ear is more familiar
with the movement than it is at present.
I believe I have still some remarks upon hexameters in store, if your
patience and your pages suffice for them: but for the present I wish to
say a word or two on another subject closely connected with this; I mean
pentameters. The alternate hexameter and pentameter are, for most
purposes, a more agreeable measure than the hexameter by itself. The
constant double ending is tiresome, as constant double rhymes would be.
Southey says, in his angry way, speaking of his hexameters--"the double
ending may be censured as double rhymes used to be; but that objection
belongs to the duncery." This is a very absurd mode of disposing of one
objection, mentioned by him among many others equally formal and minute,
which others he pretends to discuss calmly and patiently. The objection
is of real weight. Though you might tolerate a double ending here and
there in an epic, I am sure, Mr Editor, you would stop your critical
ears at the incessant jingle of an epic in which every couplet had a
double rhyme. On the other hand, an alternation of double and single
endings is felt as an agreeable form of rhythm and rhyme. We have some
good examples of it in English; the Germans have more: and the French
manifest the same feeling in their peremptory rule for the alternation
of masculine and feminine rhymes. And there is another feature which
recommends the pentameter combined with the hexameter. This combination
carries into effect, on a large scale, a principle which prevails, I
believe, in all the finer forms of verse. The principle which I mean is
this;--that the metrical structure of the verse must be distinct and
pure _at the end_ of each verse, though liberties and substitutions may
be allowed at the beginning. Thus, as you know, Mr Editor, the iambics
of the Greek tragedians admit certain feet in the early part of the line
which they do not allow in the later portions. And in the same manner
the hexameter, a dactylic measure, must have the last two feet regular,
while the four preceding feet may each be either trissyllabic or
dissyllabic. Now, this principle of pure rhythm at the end of each
strain, is peculiarly impressed upon the hexameter-pentameter distich.
The end of the pentameter, rigorously consisting of two dactyls and a
syllable, closes the couplet in such a manner that the metrical
structure is never ambiguous; while the remainder of the couplet has
liberty and variety, still kept in order by the end of the hexameter;
and the double ending of the strain is avoided. I do not know whether
you, Mr Editor, will agree with me in this speculation as to the source
of the beauty which belongs to the hexameter-pentameter measure: but
there can be no doubt that it has always had a great charm wherever
dactylic measures have been cultivated. Schiller and GA¶ethe have
delighted in it no less than TyrtA|us and Ovid: and I should conceive
that this measure might find favour in English ears, even more fully
than the mere hexameter.
But, in order that there may be any hope of this, it is very requisite
that the course of the verse should be natural and unforced. This is
more requisite even than in the hexameter; for, in the pentameter, the
verse, if it be at variance with the natural accent, subverts it more
completely, and makes the utterance more absurd. But it does not appear
to be very difficult to attain to this point. In the model distich
quoted by Coleridge--
"In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column,
In the pentameter still falling in melody back;"
the pentameter is a better verse than the hexameter. Surry's pentameters
often flow well, in spite of his false scheme of accentuation.
"With strong foes on land, on sea, with contrary tempests,
Still do I cross this wretch, whatso he taketh in hand."
I will here terminate my criticisms for the present, but I will offer
you, along with them, a specimen of hexameter and pentameter. It is a
translation from Schiller, and could not fail to win some favour to the
measure, if I could catch any considerable share of the charm of the
original, both in versification, language, and thought. Such as the
verses are, however, I shall utter them in your critical ear--and am,
dear Mr Editor, your obedient,
M. L.
THE DANCE. FROM SCHILLER.