For Hymen now hath bound ye,
O'er thee and thine may pleasure reign,
And smiling friends surround ye.
Then fare ye well, and may each time
The sun smiles, find ye wiser:
Pray kindly take the well-meant rhyme
Of thy sincere adviser.
* * * * *
Through the kindness of Messrs. MASON AND TUTTLE, Nassau-street, (who
import the _originals_ for immediate circulation to American subscribers,)
we have our copies of the foreign Monthlys, as well as of the 'Edinburgh,'
'Foreign,' and 'Quarterly' Reviews for the current quarter. The
'Quarterly, so savage and tartarly,' has a notice of the '_Change for
American Notes_,' which is not conceived in the kindest spirit toward this
country. It reviews PRESCOTT'S late work, however, at great length, and
welcomes it with cordial commendation. Among other 'good words,' the
reviewer observes: 'He is full and copious, without being prolix and
wearisome; his narrative is flowing and spirited, sometimes very
picturesque; his style is pure, sound English.' In conclusion, the
reviewer says: 'We close with expressing our satisfaction that Mr.
PRESCOTT has given us an opportunity at this time of showing our deep
sympathy, the sympathy of kindred and of blood, with Americans who like
himself do honor to our common literature. Mr. PRESCOTT may take his place
among the real good English writers of history in modern times.' The
'Foreign Quarterly' opens with a paper upon '_The Poets and Poetry of
America_,' ostensibly based upon Mr. GRISWOLD'S book. It is not altogether
a review, however, but a very coarse and evidently malignant tirade
against America, her people, institutions, manners, customs, literature;
every thing, in short, that she is and that she contains. We annex a hasty
synopsis of the _critical_ portion of the article in question. HALLECK is
'praised, and that highly too.' His 'Marco Bozzaris' is pronounced 'a
master-piece,' and the 'most perfect specimen of versification in American
literature;' and himself as possessing 'a complete knowledge of the
musical mysteries of his art.' A quotation is made, with much laud, from
his 'RED-JACKET,' but the lines are spoiled by two gross errors; one in
the last line of the third, and the other in the first line of the fifth
stanza. The highest encomiums are justly bestowed upon BRYANT, as a
'purely American poet,' who 'treats the works of Nature with a religious
solemnity, and brings to the contemplation of her grandest relations a
pure and serious spirit. His poetry is reflective but not sad; grave in
its depths but brightened in its flow by the sunshine of the imagination.
He never paints on gauze; he is always earnest, always poetical; his
manner is every where graceful and unaffected.' The illustrative quotation
is from 'An Evening Reverie,' written by Mr. BRYANT for the KNICKERBOCKER.
LONGFELLOW is pronounced to be 'unquestionably the first of American
poets; the most thoughtful and chaste; the most elaborate and finished.
His poems are distinguished by severe intellectual beauty, by dulcet
sweetness of expression, a wise and hopeful spirit, and a complete command
over every variety of rhythm. They are neither numerous nor long, but of
that compact texture which will last for posterity.' SPRAGUE is
represented as having in certain of his poems imitated SHAKSPEARE and
COLLINS rather too closely for all three to be original. 'PIERPONT is
crowded with coincidences which look very like _plagiarisms_;' 'but,' adds
the reviewer, 'it is reserved for CHARLES FENNO HOFFMAN to distance all
plagiarists of ancient and modern times in the enormity and openness of
his thefts. He is MOORE hocused for the American market. His songs are
_rifaciamentos_. The turns of the melody, the flowing of the images, the
scintillating conceits, are all MOORE. Sometimes he steals his very
words.' Mrs. SIGOURNEY'S poetry is said to be characterized by 'feeble
verbosity' and 'lady-like inanity,' and Mrs. OSGOOD is represented as
being in the same category. After quoting certain characteristic lines of
Mr. JOHN NEAL, describing the eye of a poet as '_brimful of water and
light_,' and his forehead as being '_alarmingly bright_,' the reviewer
adds: 'We find a pleasant relief from these distressing hallucinations, in
the poems of ALFRED B. STREET. He is a descriptive poet, and at the head
of his class. His pictures of American scenery are full of _gusto_ and
freshness; sometimes too wild and diffuse, but always true and beautiful.'
So some are praised and some are blamed--'thus runs the world away!' · · ·
WE are made aware, and we would not have our correspondents ignorant of
the fact, that there is a critical eye monthly upon our pages, that is
keen to discover errors (as well as beauties) in language and construction
of sentences. See: 'By the by, what a miserable language is our English in
some respects; so awkward, so incompact! Look at the phrase 'unheard of,'
and compare it with the Latin '_inauditus_.' What a pity we were not born
Romans or Greeks, with Yankee notions! Tell your Gotham friends that if
they are speaking of a ruinous _brick_ wall, they must say _dilaterated_,
from 'later,' a brick, and not '_dilapidated_,' from 'lapis,' a stone. One
might as well say a man is 'stoned' to death with brick-bats.' · · · WHAT
sad and startling contrasts are presented to the eye and mind of one who
attentively looks over the illustrated newspapers of the British
metropolis! On one hand, pictures of triumphal processions, arches,
bonfires, illuminations, rich presents, gorgeous equipages, state-beds,
'royal poultry-houses, owleries, and pigeonries,' accompanied by elaborate
descriptions, arrest the attention; on the other, there is a picture of a
city 'Asylum for the Destitute,' where poor naked wretches find a
temporary refuge from the pitiless winter storm without: huddling round a
dim fire, or sunk exhausted upon the straw in the human 'stalls,' or
clutching at their bowls of pauper-soup; a scene whose true character is
enforced by accounts of poor women making shirts for _a farthing apiece_,
a hard day's work; sleeping four in a bed; purchasing with the scanty
pittance tea-leaves to boil over again! Hardly-entreated brothers and
sisters of humanity! not always shall the glaring inequality that
surrounds you, crush your spirits to the earth! · · · THERE is a pleasant
pen in our metropolitan '_Aurora_,' which occasionally dashes off
sententious paragraphs that flash and sparkle like snow-crust in a
moon-lit night in winter. There is evidently a FOSTER-ing hand over its
columns; and _through_ them (let us add, as it is _that_ of which we
especially wish to speak,) over the reputation of Mr. WILLIS. The remarks
in a late number of that journal, under the head of '_Mr. Willis's
Defence_' against a scurrilous attack on his private character in a
down-eastern print, were equally just and felicitous. Had it been
generally known in his native town who was the instigator of that attack,
we have good authority for saying that, gross as it was, Mr. WILLIS would
have considered it utterly beneath his notice. As it was, however, he
deemed it not amiss at one and the same time to punish skulking envy and
impotent malignity; to vindicate his reputation with his townsmen against
unprovoked calumny; and to render the repetition of any obnoxious remarks
from the same source altogether 'of none effect' and unworthy of heed.
This he accomplished by his 'Defence' and the 'terrors of the law,' which
speedily produced a satisfactory sample of wholesale word-eating. · · · OF
all the Polichinellos we have ever encountered, we consider '_Punch, or
the London Charivari_,' the best. His fun is exhaustless. He ought to be
knighted and appointed court-jester to King ENNUI. 'Laughter,' he tells
us, 'is a divine faculty. It is one of the few, nay, the only one
redeeming grace in that thunder-cased, profligate old scoundrel JUPITER,
that he sometimes laughs: he is saved from the disgust of all respectable
people by the amenity of a broad grin.' We ourselves hold with the
pleasant LINCOLN RAMBLE: 'I love a hearty laugh; I love to _hear_ a hearty
laugh above all other sounds. It is the music of the heart; the thrills of
those chords which vibrate from no bad touch; the language Heaven has
given us to carry on the exchange of sincere and disinterested
sympathies.' And to the end that 'laughter free and silvery from the heart
may escape the reader, doing rightful honor to PUNCH, and bestowing
cheerfulness and health upon the laughter,' we proceed to present a few
excerpta which arrested our attention in looking over late files. We
suspect that the annexed report of the 'doings of Royalty' in the country
have more than once had a precedent. PRINCE ALBERT is here at
Dayton-Manor, the seat of Sir ROBERT PEEL: 'Her Majesty slept extremely
well; but whether it was the air of Dayton, or the conversation of the
host, did not transpire. At eleven o'clock in the morning, Prince Albert
went out to shoot. The guns were ordered at ten and the game was desired
to be in attendance at half-past. The Prince first went in a boat on the
water, where several ducks were appointed to be in waiting. Having granted
an audience to the whole of them, and unintentionally honored two by
shooting them, though it was another duck who had the distinguished
gratification of being aimed at and missed, his Royal Highness landed. A
numerous meeting of hares and pheasants having been called to pay their
respects to the Prince, the game-keepers forming an outer circle, with
their guns pointed to keep the game well up to the mark, His Royal
Highness shot sixty pheasants, twenty-five head of hares, eight rabbits
and one wood-cock, who would cock his bill opposite the muzzle of
Royalty.' The poetical advertisement of one MOSES, a slop-shop
clothes-man, is pleasantly 'reviewed.' Of his 'Prince ALBERT coats,' PUNCH
says: 'Whatever may be the resemblance between the Prince and the coat,
the similarity certainly ends with the price; one costing thirty shillings
and the other thirty thousand pounds per annum.' Here is a touch at Moses'
sea-coats:
'These coats for nautical pursuits
Have qualities no one disputes;
The very texture of their cloth
Seems to defy the ocean's wrath:
And then their form and make as well
Are suited to the billows' swell.'
What can be happier than the allusion to the fact mentioned in the last
two lines; namely, that the coat is quite a match for the billows, being
as great a swell as any of them? The poet dashes off a few lines on
trowsers, finishing with the following couplet, which is not likely to
encourage purchasers. It is stated, and we dare say truly, that if any one
puts on a pair of MOSES' trowsers he becomes at once an object of general
observation:
'While oft such cries as these escape;
Look! there's a figure! there's a shape!'
It is a very natural consequence, no doubt, of disporting one's-self in
doe-skins made for seven-pence a pair; but the cries of 'There's a figure!
there's a shape!' must make the trowsers rather dear to any one who wishes
to walk about peaceably, unmolested by this species of street-criticism.'
Under the head of 'Bolsters for Behindhand Botanists,' we find these
original questions and answers: 'What are the most difficult roots to
extract from the ground?' The cube-root. 'What is the pistil of a flower?'
It is that instrument with which the flower shoots. 'What is meant by the
word stamina?' It means the pluck or courage which enables the flower to
shoot.' 'The reversionary interest of a life-crossing, with retail lucifer
business attached,' is offered by a street-sweeper near the Bank of
England, he having 'prigged vat vasn't his'n, and gone to pris'n.' 'He
effected an irregular transfer at the bank one day, which, whatever his
doubts upon the subject might previously have been, led to his ultimate
conviction.' The 'Comic BLACKSTONE' enlightens us upon one of the 'King's
prerogatives': 'The King is the fountain of justice, from which are
supplied all the leaden reservoirs in Westminster-Hall, and the pumps at
the inferior tribunals.' Among the public inquiries is the following: 'At
a crowded meeting at Islington, on the question of granting a theatrical
license, the papers state that the judges declined at first, but upon the
urgent appeal of an advocate, '_the bench gave way_.' Are we to understand
from this that the opposition fell to the ground?' In 'PUNCH'S Almanac'
for 1844, we find among other side-remarks, the annexed: under May
seventh: 'WASHINGTON IRVING on his way to Madrid as American Ambassador,
is entertained in London, 1842. America takes the hand of Spain, and puts
her best _pen_ into it.' 'June sixth: The first cargo of ice comes from
America, 1843, for the relief of those who had burnt their fingers with
Pennsylvania bonds.' 'Time is money; but it doesn't follow that man is a
capitalist who has a great quantity of it on his hands.' PUNCH'S 'Literary
Intelligence' is very full. From it we gather that the author of the
'Mothers,' 'Wives,' 'Maids,' and 'Daughters' of England has another work
in press, entitled '_The Grandmothers of England_.' 'No grandmother's
education will be complete till she has read and re-read 'The Grandmothers
of England.' The book is the very best guide to oval suction extant.' So
says an '_Evening Paper_.' · · · WE should be glad to be informed of _the
name_ of any real or pretended lover of the turf and its manifold
interests, or of an admirer of one of the most entertaining weekly
journals on this continent, who could ask _more_ than is offered by the
'_Spirit of the Times_' to all new subscribers to that widely-popular
sheet; being no less than any five of those fine large quarto engravings
on steel, from original paintings, of Col. JOHNSON and M'lle AUGUSTA,
among 'us humans,' and among our four-footed friends 'of the lower house,'
Ripton, Confidence, Boston, Wagner, Monarch, Leviathan, Argyle,
Black-Maria, Grey-Eagle, Shark, Hedgeford, John Bascombe, and
Monmouth-Eclipse. On the second day of March a new volume commences; when
we hope that this accredited organ of the sporting world, which has raised
the prices of blood-stock in this country beyond all precedent, and which
in its literary and dramatic departments is without a rival in this or any
other country, will take a long lease of a healthful existence, and go on
'prospering and to prosper.' · · · THE reader will be amused we think with
the '_Veritable Sea-Story_,' told by our friend HARRY FRANCO, in a species
of poetry run mad, in preceding pages. He writes us: 'I send you an epic
poem for the KNICKERBOCKER, founded on facts within my own personal
experience. I mention this lest you should deem it destitute of merit; for
it possesses the greatest merit that any human composition can possess;
namely, truth. And in this respect, if in no other, my poem is beyond
dispute superior to the Iliad and Paradise Lost. However, tastes differ, I
am aware; and you may possibly prefer those two epics to mine! They are
longer, it is true; but then I think it will be conceded, even by the
critics of the POH school, that my metre is sufficiently long, even though
my story is short. While others measure their verse by the 'feet,' I
measure mine by the yard.' · · · D.'S paper, (of Georgia,) so thickly
interlarded with French, and Italian synonymes for far more expressive
English words, reminds us of an old 'ignorant ramus' in the country, who
was always eking out his meaning by three or four familiar Latin terms,
which he almost invariably misapplied. He observed one day to a neighbor,
who was speaking disrespectfully of a deceased townsman, 'Well, he's gone
to be judged. _E pluribus unum_--'speak no evil of the dead'--as the Latin
proverb says!' · · · '_The New World_' enters upon a new year in a very
beautiful dress, and with renewed attractions in all its internal
departments. Its large clear types, impressed upon good paper, are
exceedingly pleasant to the eye, and what they convey to the reader is
equally agreeable to the mind 'studious of novelty' and variety. The
success which it deserves, we are glad to learn it abundantly receives.
The '_Brother Jonathan_' has changed proprietors, cast its old skin, and
comes out as bright and fresh as a June morning. The versatile Mrs. ANN
STEPHENS (a lady of fine intellect, who has produced better prose tales
and home-sketches than any one of her gifted contemporaries) and Messrs.
M'LACHLIN AND SNOW, the resident editors of the 'Jonathan,' discharged
their functions to due public acceptance; but a name so _invariably_
connected with unsuccessful publications that it has come to be justly
regarded as the sure precursor and inevitable cause of failure, was at the
head of the journal as 'principal editor;' and 'down east' editorial-ings,
transmitted by the yard, and endless unreadable tales, claiming a kindred
paternity, gradually 'choked its wholesome growth,' and finally brought it
to a temporary end. The new proprietor however has wisely declined this
'principal' incumbrance; and having secured the services of an able editor
in the person of HENRY C. DEMING, Esq., a gentleman of high literary
distinction, and of popular correspondents, the journal is already, as we
learn, rejoicing in a rapidly-enhancing list of subscribers. Success to
thee, 'BROTHER JONATHAN!' · · · THE '_Yankee Trick_' described by our
Medford (Mass.) correspondent is on file for insertion. It is in _one_ of
its features not unlike the anecdote of an old official Dutchman in the
valley of the Mohawk, who one day stopped a Yankee pedler journeying
slowly through the valley on the Sabbath, and informed him that he must
'put up' for the day; or 'if it vash _neshessary_ dat he should travel, he
must pay de fine for de pass.' It _was_ necessary, it seems; for he told
the Yankee to write the pass, and he would sign it; '_that_ he could do,
though he didn't much write, nor read writin'.' The pass was written and
signed with the Dutchman's hieroglyphics, and the pedler went forth 'into
the bowels of the land, without impediment.' Some six months afterward, a
brother Dutchman, who kept a 'store' farther down the Mohawk, in
'settling' with the pious official, brought in, among other accounts, an
order for twenty-five dollars' worth of goods. 'How ish dat?' said the
Sunday-officer; '_I_ never give no order; let me see him.' The order was
produced; he put on his spectacles and examined it. 'Yaäs, dat ish mine
name, sartain--yaäs; but--_it ish dat d----d Yankee pass_!' · · · OUR
town-readers, many of them, will remember the bird MINO, who was so fond
of chatting in a rich mellow voice with the customers at the old Quaker's
seed-store in Nassau-street. His counterpart may at this moment be seen at
'an hostel' near by; but the associations and language of the modern bird
are very dissimilar. '_How are you?_' is his first salutation; '_do you
smoke?_' his next: '_What'll you drink? Brandy-and water?_--_glass o'
wine?_' It has a most whimsical effect, to hear such anti-temperance
invitations from the bill of a bird, whose bright eye is fixed unwinkingly
upon you. The Washingtonians should 'look out for him.' · · · THE editor
of the _Albion_ has issued to his subscribers a very fine large quarto
engraving, in mezzo-tint by SADD, of HEATH'S celebrated line-engraving of
WASHINGTON. Its size is twenty by twenty-seven inches, and represents the
PATER PATRIÆ in his most elevated character; that of a Chief Magistrate
elevated by the free suffrages of his countrymen, after having voluntarily
laid down his military authority. This print cannot fail to be acceptable
to every reader of the Albion, unless he shall be too narrow-minded to
honor true nobleness and dignity of character in one who by force of
circumstances once stood in a warlike relation to his country. Apropos of
the 'Albion:' is our friend the Editor aware that '_The Evening before the
Wedding_,' published as original in a late issue, was translated for the
KNICKERBOCKER? · · · 'OH dem! dem!' There is on the _tapis_ a new daily
journal, to be called 'THE EXCLUSIVE,' which is to be the very antithesis
of every thing in the 'cheap and vulgar' line; no slanders, no crim.
con.'s, no horrible accidents; 'no nothing' of that sort. The affair is
already creating some excitement among the _beau-monde_. The reputed
editors are literary men of the world, who 'know their way.' Circulars in
gold-edged and perfumed paper are already flying about. _On dit_: that the
carriers are to be dressed in uniform, and deliver the paper in white kid
gloves; that pastiles are to be kept burning in the publication-office, to
disinfect the air of the room of ink and damp sheets; and that only those
of the first respectability and acknowledged standing in gay society, are
permitted to subscribe to or receive the journal at all! · · · HERE is a
rich specimen of _clerical catachresis_, which we derive from an eastern
correspondent: 'Our good dominie gave us on Sunday a sermon on the ocean;
its wonders, its glories, its beauties; its infinity, its profundity, its
mightiness, etc., 'But,' said he, 'what is all this? _It is but a drop in
the bucket of God's infinity!_' I wonder what is outside of it!' · · · IT
is not the wont of the Editor of this Magazine, as those of its readers
who have followed us through twenty-two volumes of the KNICKERBOCKER can
bear witness, to trumpet in its pages the many kind things that are said
of us by the public press; but as a fragment is wanted to fill out this
page; as we are just at the commencement of a new volume; and as we are
more than pleased at the cordiality with which the first number of it has
been received; we shall venture to select from a great number of
testimonials one or two for insertion here, which are the more gratifying,
that they evince the regard in which the 'OLD KNICK.' is held at home, and
by those who have known us the longest and most intimately. The _New-York
Courier and Enquirer_ says of our last number:
'THIS sterling Monthly is always punctual to a day in its issues,
promptly appearing with the dawn of the month, though our notices
of it frequently lag sadly behind it. It is yet, however, by no
means too late to say that it enters upon the year '44 and its
twenty-third volume with ability and zeal unabated, and that it is
yet, as it has been heretofore, by far the handsomest, ablest, and
most interesting literary Monthly issued in this country. Each
number contains over a hundred pages, and in the Editor's Table
alone is often found more matter than the entire body of some of
its rivals contains. It has a long list of zealous correspondents,
bound to it not more by interest than affection, and numbering
among them the most gifted and distinguished writers in the
country. The 'Quod Correspondence,' a novel which is running
through the successive numbers, is one of the best works of the
kind ever written; its scenes possess a deep dramatic interest,
and throughout the whole, moral principles are clearly and
powerfully evolved. 'The Idleberg Papers' is the general title of
another capital series, and the work is otherwise filled with
excellent prose and generally good poetry. The 'Editor's Table' is
by far the most racy and entertaining collection of anecdotes,
humorous and pathetic passages, slight criticisms, etc., to be met
in any magazine. We cordially commend the old and excellent
KNICKERBOCKER to the continued love and patronage of the public.'