THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
VOL. XVII, NO. 476.] SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1831. [PRICE 2d.
* * * * *
LORD BYRON'S PALACE, AT VENICE.
[Illustration: LORD BYRON'S PALACE, AT VENICE.]
Scores of readers who have been journeying through Mr. Moore's
concluding portion of the _Life of Lord Byron_, will thank us for
the annexed Illustration. It presents a view of the palace occupied by
Lord Byron during his residence at Venice. When, after his unfortunate
marriage, he left England, "in search of that peace of mind which was
never destined to be his," Venice naturally occurred to him as a place
where, for a time at least, he should find a suitable residence. He had,
in his own language, "loved it from his boyhood;" and there was a poetry
connected with its situation, its habits, and its history, which excited
both his imagination and his curiosity. His situation at this period is
thus feelingly alluded to by Mr. Moore:--"The circumstances under which
Lord Byron now took leave of England were such as, in the case of any
ordinary person, could not be considered otherwise than disastrous and
humiliating. He had, in the course of one short year, gone through every
variety of domestic misery;--had seen his hearth eight or nine times
profaned by the visitations of the law, and been only saved from a
prison by the privileges of his rank. He had alienated, as far as they
had ever been his, the affections of his wife; and now, rejected by her,
and condemned by the world, was betaking himself to an exile which had
not even the dignity of appearing voluntary, as the excommunicating
voice of society seemed to leave him no other resource. Had he been
of that class of unfeeling and self-satisfied natures from whose hard
surface the reproaches of others fall pointless, he might have found
in insensibility a sure refuge against reproach: but, on the contrary,
the same sensitiveness that kept him so awake to the applauses of mankind
rendered him, in a still more intense degree, alive to their censure.
Even the strange, perverse pleasure which he felt in painting himself
unamiably to the world did not prevent him from being both startled and
pained when the world took him at his word; and, like a child in a mask
before a looking-glass, the dark semblance which he had half in sport,
put on, when reflected back upon him from the mirror of public opinion,
shocked even himself. * * *
"Then came the disappointment of his youthful passion,--the lassitude
and remorse of premature excess,--the lone friendlessness of his
entrance into life, and the ruthless assault upon his first literary
efforts,---all links in that chain of trials, errors, and sufferings, by
which his great mind was gradually and painfully drawn out;--all bearing
their respective shares in accomplishing that destiny which seems to
have decreed that the triumphal march of his genius should be over the
waste and ruins of his heart. He appeared, indeed, himself to have had
an instinctive consciousness that it was out of such ordeals his
strength and glory were to arise, as his whole life was passed in
courting agitation and difficulties; and whenever the scenes around him
were too tame to furnish such excitement, he flew to fancy or memory for
'thorns' whereon to 'lean his breast.'" At the same time, the melancholy
with which his heart was filled was soothed and cherished by the
associations which every object in Venice inspired. The prospects of
dominion subdued, of a high spirit humbled, of splendour tarnished, of
palaces sinking into ruins, was but too faithfully in accordance with
the dark and mournful mind which the poet bore within him. Nor were
other motives of a nature wholly different wanting to draw him to
Venice.[1] How beautifully has the poet illustrated this preference:--
In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more,
And silent rows the songless gondolier;
Her palaces are crumbling to the shore,
And music meets not always now the ear:
Those days are gone--but Beauty still is here.
States fall, hearts fade--but Nature doth not die,
Nor yet forget how Venice once was dear,
The pleasant place of all festivity,
The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy.
But unto us she hath a spell beyond
Her name in story, and her long array
Of mighty shadows, whose dim forms despond
Above the dogeless city's vanish'd sway;
Ours is a trophy which will not decay
With the Rialto; Shylock and the Moor,
And Pierre, cannot be swept or worn away--
The keystones of the arch! though all were o'er,
For us repeopled were the solitary shore.
Her desolation:--
Statues of glass--all shiver'd--the long file
Of her dead Doges are declined to dust;
But where they dwelt, the vast and sumptuous pile
Bespeaks the pageant of their splendid trust;
Their sceptre broken, and their sword in rust;
Have yielded to the stranger: empty halls,
Thin streets, and foreign aspects, such as must
Too oft remind her who and what enthrals,
Have flung a desolate cloud o'er Venice' lovely walls.
* * * * *
Thus, Venice, if no stronger claim were thine,
Were all thy proud historic deeds forgot,
Thy choral memory of the Bard divine,
Thy love of Tasso, should have cut the knot
Which ties thee to thy tyrants; and thy lot
Is shameful to the nations,--most of all,
Albion! to thee; the Ocean queen should not
Abandon Ocean's children; in the fall
Of Venice think of thine, despite thy watery wall.
I loved her from my boyhood--she to me
Was as a fairy city of the heart,
Rising like water-columns from the sea,
Of joy the sojourn, and of wealth the mart;
And Otway, Radcliffe, Schiller, Shakspeare's art
Had stamp'd her image in me, and even so,
Although I found her thus, we did not part,
Perchance even dearer in her day of woe
Than when she was a boast, a marvel and a show.
I can repeople with the past--and of
The present there is still for eye, and thought,
And meditation chasten'd down, enough;
And more, it may be, than I hoped or sought;
And of the happiest moments which were wrought
Within the web of my existence, some
From thee, fair Venice! have their colours caught:
There are some feelings Time can not benumb,
Nor Torture shake, or mine would now be cold and dumb.
Again, in the notes to Childe Harold, where these spirit-breathing lines
occur:
"The population of Venice, at the end of the 17th century amounted to
nearly two hundred thousand souls. At the last census, taken two years
ago, it was no more than about one hundred and three thousand, and it
diminishes daily. The commerce and the official employments, which were
to be the unexhausted source of Venetian grandeur, have both expired.
Most of the patrician mansions are deserted, and would gradually
disappear, had not the government, alarmed by the demolition of
seventy-two, during the last two years, expressly forbidden this sad
resource of poverty. Many remnants of the Venetian nobility are now
scattered and confounded with the wealthier Jews upon the banks of the
Brenta, whose palladian palaces, have sunk, or are sinking, in the
general decay. Of the 'gentil uomo Veneto,' the name is still known,
and that is all. He is but the shadow of his former self, but he is
polite and kind. The present race cannot be thought to regret the loss
of their aristocratical forms, and too despotic government--they think
only on their vanished independence. They pine away at the remembrance,
and on this subject suspend for a moment their gay good humour. Venice
may be said, in the words of the scripture, 'to die daily;' and so
general and so apparent is the decline, as to become painful to a
stranger, not reconciled to the sight of a whole nation, expiring
as it were before his eyes. So artificial a creation having lost that
principle which called it into life and supported its existence, must
fall to pieces at once, and sink more rapidly than it rose."
Captain Medwin relates Lord Byron's detestation of Venice in unmeasured
terms. He likewise tells of his Lordship performing here one of those
aquatic feats in which he greatly prided himself; and the Countess
Albrizzi mentions a similar incident: "He was seen, on leaving a palace
situated on the grand canal, instead of entering his gondola, to throw
himself, with his clothes on, into the water, and swim to his house."
The Countess, who became acquainted with his Lordship at Venice, also
narrates a few particulars of the mode in which he passed his time in
that city: Amongst his peculiar habits was that of never showing himself
on foot. "He was never seen to walk through the streets of Venice, nor
along the pleasant banks of the Brenta, where he spent some weeks of the
summer; and there are some who assert that he has never seen, excepting
from a window, the wonders of the Piazza di San Marco,[2] so powerful in
him was the desire of not showing himself to be deformed in any part of
his person. I, however," continues the Countess, "believe that he often
gazed on those wonders, but in the late and solitary hour, when the
stupendous edifices which surrounded him, illuminated by the soft and
placid light of the moon, appeared a thousand times more lovely."
"During an entire winter, he went out every morning alone, to row
himself to the island of the Armenians (a small island, distant from
Venice about half a league), to enjoy the society of those learned and
hospitable monks, and to learn their difficult language." During the
summer, Lord Byron enjoyed the exercise of riding in the evening. "No
sunsets," said he, "are to be compared with those of Venice--they are
too gorgeous for any painter, and defy any poet."
[1] Letter-press of the superb "Landscape Annual" for the present
year, whence our Engraving is transferred. The Life of the noble
Poet at Venice cannot be better described than in his own
Letters, for which see pages 43-82 of the present volume.
[2] From some passages in his Lordship's Letters, this would not
appear correct.
* * * * *
NATURE REVIVING.
(_For the Mirror._)
The rills run free, and fetterless, and strong,
Rejoicing that their icy bonds are broke,
The breeze is burthen'd with the grateful song
Of birds innumerous: who from torpor woke,
Cleave the fine air with renovated stroke.
The teeming earth flings up its budding store
Of herbs, and flow'rs, escaping from the yoke.
That Winter's spell had cast around; and o'er
The clear and sun-lit sky, dark clouds are seen no more.
In woody dells, by shallow brooks that stand,
The modest violet, and primrose pale,
(Like youth just bursting into life,) expand,
And cast their perfumes down the dewy vale,
Till laden seems each bland, yet searching gale
That fans the cheek with odours of the Spring.
All living nature rushes to inhale:
As if this universal blossoming
Too soon would fade away, or instantly take wing.
What beauty in the swelling upland green,
On which the fleecy flock in sportive play,
And mirth, and gambol innocent, are seen.
What pleasure through the scented copse to stray,
And hear the stock dove coo its am'rous lay,
Or climb the steep hill's side, beneath whose height
Dashing afar, like drifted snow, their spray;
The waves of ocean with an angry might,
Flash in the purple dawn, majestically bright.
Yet 'midst this union of benignant tones,
How fares it with the reasonable part
Of God's created glories? Man disowns
Not to give thanks; but skilled by human art
To screen the passions of a grateful heart;
He walks encircled by philosophy, whose creed
Allows no outward semblance, to impart
One trace of joyousness that may exceed
Those coldly rigid rules on which it loves to feed.
And therefore balmy spring, with all its joys,
Its pomp of early leaves, and thrilling lays,
And ceaseless chime of song (that never cloys,
Altho' the winds be redolent of praise.)
Wakes not in man that stupor of amaze,
Bird, beast, and plant, in universal choir,
Pay to Almighty in a thousand ways,
That sterner reason's votaries would flout,
Giving _their_ tardy homage in mistrust and doubt.
Not so with me. I never feel the spring
Come on in beauty, but my swelling soul
Seems ready in its gush of joy, to fling
All trammels off, that would in aught control
Its wild pulsation. O'er it feelings roll
Too mighty for expression; and each sense
Appears to be commingled in one whole;
Whose sum of ecstacy is so intense,
It finds no home to garner it, but in omnipotence.
J.H.H.
* * * * *
POLISH PATRIOT'S APPEAL.
(_For the Mirror._)
Rise fellow men! our country yet remains
By that dread name, we wave the sword on high,
And swear with her to live--for her to die.
CAMPBELL.
Have we not proved our country's worth--the country of the free?
Have we not raised the tyrant's foot--and struck for liberty--
The giant foot that on us fell, in war's tremendous fall--
The mighty weight that bore us down and held our arms in thrall?
Have we not risked our homes, our all, at Freedom's glorious shrine,
And dared the vengeance of the Russ, whose sway is yclept divine?
And have we not appealed to arms--our last and dearest right!
And is not ours a sacred cause, a just and holy fight?
Yes, on Sarmatia's bleeding form Oppression's fetters rang,
And Liberty's last dying dirge the Northern trumpet sang:
Our hopes were buried in the grave where Kosciusko lies;
There came not friendship then from earth--nor mercy from the skies!
But Heaven has roused the Polish slave and bid him rend his chains,
And now we rank among the free--"Our country yet remains:"
Again we seek our native rights by God and Nature given--
A people's right unto their soil from us unjustly riven.
We call upon the honoured brave--the free of every land--
For succour from the powerful--for aid from every strand:
We ask for every good man's prayer--we call for help on high;
Ye shades of Poland's slaughtered sons, look on propitiously.
We fight the fight of nations--bear witness field and storm
To our desert hereafter? Now we are but braggarts warm--
But by our honest cause, we swear, ere they our land retake,
Each town shall he a charnel tomb--each field a gory lake!
CYMBELINE.
* * * * *
THE NATURALIST.
* * * * *
ANECDOTES OF PARROTS.
(_For the Mirror._)
"Who taught the Parrot human notes to try?
'Twas witty want, fierce hunger to appease."
DRYDEN.
A parrot belonging to the sister of the Comte de Buffon (says Bingley,)
"would frequently speak to himself, and seem to fancy that some one
addressed him. He often asked for his paw, and answered by holding it
up. Though he liked to hear the voice of children, he seemed to have an
antipathy to them; he pursued them, and bit them till he drew blood.
He had also his objects of attachment; and though his choice was not
very nice, it was constant. He was excessively fond of the cook-maid;
followed her everywhere, sought for, and seldom missed finding her. If
she had been some time out of his sight, the bird climbed with his bill
and claws to her shoulders, and lavished on her caresses. His fondness
had all the marks of close and warm friendship. The girl happened to
have a very sore finger, which was tedious in healing, and so painful as
to make her scream. While she uttered her moans the parrot never left
her chamber. The first thing he did every day, was to pay her a visit;
and this tender condolence lasted the whole time of the cure, when he
again returned to his former calm and settled attachment. Yet this
strong predilection for the girl seems to have been more directed to her
office in the kitchen, than to her person; for, when another cook-maid
succeeded her, the parrot showed the same degree of fondness[3] to the
new comer, the very first day."
Bingley also says, "Willoughby tells us of a parrot, which when a person
said to it, 'laugh, Poll, laugh,' laughed accordingly, and the instant
after screamed out, 'What a fool to make me laugh.' Another which had
grown old with its master, shared with him the infirmities of age. Being
accustomed to hear scarcely anything but the words, 'I am sick;' when a
person asked it, 'How do you do, Poll? how d'ye do?'--'I am sick,' it
replied, in a doleful tone, stretching itself along, 'I am sick.'"
Goldsmith says, "That a parrot belonging to King Henry VIII. having
been kept in a room next the Thames, in his palace at Westminster, had
learned to repeat many sentences from the boatmen and passengers. One
day sporting on its perch, it unluckily fell into the water. The bird
had no sooner discovered its situation, than it called out aloud,
'A boat, twenty pounds for a boat.' A waterman happening to be near
the place where the parrot was floating, immediately took it up, and
restored it to the king; demanding, as the bird was a favourite, that he
should be paid the reward that it had called out. This was refused; but
it was agreed, that as the parrot had offered a reward, the man should
again refer to its determination for the sum he was to receive. 'Give
the knave a groat,' the bird screamed aloud, the instant the reference
was made."
Mr. Locke, in his "Essay on the Human Understanding," has related an
anecdote concerning parrots, of which (says Bingley) however incredible
it may appear to some, he seems to have had so much evidence, as at
least to have believed it himself. It is taken from a writer of some
celebrity; the author of Memoirs of what passed in Christendom from 1672
to 1679. The story is this:--
"During the government of Prince Maurice, in Brazil, he had heard of
an old parrot that was much celebrated for answering like a rational
creature, many of the common questions that were put to it. It was at a
great distance; but so much had been said about it, that his curiosity
was roused, and he directed it to be sent for. When it was introduced
into the room where the prince was sitting in company with several
Dutchmen, it immediately exclaimed in the Brazilian language, 'What
a company of white men are here.' They asked it 'Who is that man?'
(pointing to the prince) the parrot answered, 'Some general or other.'
When the attendants carried it up to him, he asked it through the medium
of an interpreter, (for he was ignorant of its language) 'From whence do
you come?' the parrot answered, 'From Marignan.' The prince asked,
'To whom do you belong?' it answered, 'To a Portuguese.' He asked again,
'What do you do there?' it answered, 'I look after the chickens.' The
prince, laughingly, exclaimed, 'You look after the chickens?' the parrot
in answer, said, 'Yes, I; and I know well enough how to do it,' clucking
at the time, in imitation of the noise made by the hen to call together
her young.
"This account came directly from the prince to the above author; he
said that though the parrot spoke in a language he did not understand,
yet he could not be deceived, for he had in the room both a Dutchman who
spoke Brazilian, and a Brazilian who spoke Dutch; that he asked them
separately and privately, and both agreed very exactly in giving him the
parrot's discourse. If the story is devoid of foundation, the prince
must have been deceived, for there is not the least doubt that he
believed it."
Parrots not only discourse, but also mimic gestures and actions.
Scaliger saw one that performed the dance of the Savoyards, at the same
time that it repeated their song.
P.T.W.
[3] Pot or kitchen love.
* * * * *
RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS.
* * * * *
DITTY BY QUEEN ELIZABETH.
(_For the Mirror._)
"I find, (says Puttenham,) none example in English metre so well
mayntayning this figure (_Exargasia_, or the Gorgeous) as that
dittie of her Majestie Queen Elizabeth's own making, passing sweete and
harmonical; which figure being, as his very original name purporteth,
the most beautiful and gorgeous of all others, it asketh in reason to be
reserved for a last compliment, and disciphered by the arte of a ladies
penne (herself being the most beautifull or rather beautie of Queens.)
And this was the occasion: Our Sovereign lady perceiving how the Queen
of Scots residence within this realme as to great libertie and ease (as
were scarce meete for so great and dangerous a prisoner,) bred secret
factions amongst her people, and made many of the nobility incline to
favour her partie (some of them desirous of innovation in the state,
others aspiring to greater fortunes by her libertie and life;) the
Queene our Sovereigne Lady, to declare that she was nothing ignorant
of those secret practices (though she had long, with great wisdom
and patience, dissembled it,) writeth that dittie, most sweet and
sententious; not hiding from all such aspiring minds the danger of their
ambition and disloyaltie, which afterwards fell out most truly by the
exemplary chastisements of sundry persons, who in favour of the said
Queen of Scots, declining from her Majestie, sought to interrupt the
quiet of the realm by many evill and undutifull practyses."
The ditty is as followeth:--
The dowbt of future foes exiles my present joy,
And Wit me warns to shun snares as threaten mine annoy;
For falshood now doth flowe, and subject faith doth ebbe,
Which would not be, if reason rul'd, or wisdom weav'd the webbe.
But clouds of tois untried do choake aspiring mindes,
Which turn'd to rain of late repent by course of changed windes.
The toppe of hope suppos'd, the root of ruth will be
And fruitless all their grafted guiles, as shortly ye shall see.
Then dazzled eyes, with pride which great ambition blindes,
Shall be unveil'd by worthy wights, whose foresight falshood finds.
The daughter of debate, that eke discord doth sowe,
Shall reape no gaine, where former rule hath taught still peace to growe.
No forreine banish'd wight shall ancre in this port;
Our realme it brooks no stranger's force, let them elsewhere resort.
Our rusty sword with rust shall first his edge employ,
To polle their toppes that seeke such change, and gape for joy.
J.G.B.
* * * * *
NOTES OF A READER.
* * * * *
QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. 87.
_Character of Mr. Canning._
There have been some who equalled him in acquirements--many who have
possessed sounder judgment and sounder principles; but never was there
in any legislative assembly, a person whose talents were more peculiarly
and perfectly adapted to the effect which he intended to produce.
With all the advantages of voice and person--with all the graces of
delivery--with all the charms which affability and good-nature impart
to genius, he had wit at will, as well as eloquence at command. Being
frank and sincere in all his political opinions, he had all that
strength in his oratory which arises from sincerity, although in his
political conduct the love of intrigue was one of his besetting sins.
By an unhappy perversion of mind it seemed as if he would always rather
have obtained his end by a crooked path than by a straight one; but his
speeches had nothing of this tortuosity; there was nothing covert in
them, nothing insidious--no double-dealing, no disguise. His argument
went always directly to the point, and with so well-judged an aim that
he was never (like Burke) above his mark--rarely, if ever, below it, or
beside it. When, in the exultant consciousness of personal superiority,
as well as the strength of his cause, he trampled upon his opponents,
there was nothing coarse, nothing virulent, nothing contumelious,
nothing ungenerous in his triumph. Whether he addressed the Liverpool
electors, or the House of Commons, it was with the same ease, the same
adaptation to his auditory, the same unrivalled dexterity, the same
command of his subject and his hearers, and the same success. His only
faults as a speaker were committed when, under the inebriating influence
of popular applause, he was led away by the heat and passion of the
moment. A warm friend, a placable adversary, a scholar, a man of
letters, kind in his nature, affable in his manners, easy of access,
playful in conversation, delightful in society--rarely have the
brilliant promises of boyhood been so richly fulfilled as in Mr.
Canning.
_Political Economists_
Are the most daring of all legislators, just (it has been well said)
as "cockney equestrians are the most fearless of all riders." But the
confidence with which they propose their theories is less surprising
than the facility with which their propositions have been entertained,
and their extravagant pretensions admitted. We need not marvel at the
success of quackery in medicine and theology, when we look at the career
of the St. John Longs in political life. From the time in which the
bullion question came out of Pandora's Scotch mull, parliament has been
wearied with the interminable discussions which they have raised there.
Youths who were fresh from college, and men with or without education,
who were "in the wane of their wits and infancy of their discretion,"
imbibe the radiant darkness of Jeremy Bentham, and forthwith set
themselves up as the lights of their generation. No professors, even in
the subtlest ages of scholastic philosophy, were ever more successful
in muddying what they found clear, and perplexing what is in itself
intelligible. What are wages?--this, we are told, is the most difficult
and the most important of all the branches of political economy, and
this, we are also told, has been obscured by ambiguities and fallacies.
What is rent? What is value? Upon these questions, and such as these,
which no man of sincere understanding ever proposed to himself or
others, they discuss and dilate with as much ardour and to as little
effect, as the old philosophers disputed upon the elements of the
material creation; bringing to the discussion intellects of the same
kind, though as far below them in degree as in the dignity of the
subjects upon which their useless subtlety is expended. But it cannot
be said of them, that they, when all is said,
With much discretion and great want of wit,
Leave all as wisely as it was at first;
for they mystify those readers who are not disgusted by such
ineptitudes, perplex weak minds, and pervert vain ones. Of such
discussions it may be said with the son of Sirach, that "when a man hath
done, then he beginneth; and when he leaveth off, then he shall be
doubtful."
_Homer._
Seneca reckons among the idle questions, which were unworthy of wise
men, the dispute whether Homer wrote both the Iliad and Odyssey, and
in what countries Ulysses wandered. Notwithstanding the "Stoic's
philosophic pride," these inquiries have still an interest to minds
of the highest order--such is the homage which genius extorts from the
remotest countries and from the latest ages. We noticed, in an article
in our last Number, the curious fact of native youths in India
performing parts of Shakspeare, and thus on the shores of the Ganges
countless minds are deriving delight, perhaps improvement, from the
careless and unlaboured verses of the light-hearted Warwickshire
deer-stealer. So, in this country, and over all the continent of
Europe, which, when the songs of Homer first gladdened the halls of
the chieftains on the shores of the Aegean, were vast unknown deserts,
unpeopled, or wandered over by a few rude hunters; which, to the Greeks,
were regions of more than Cimmerian darkness, beyond the boundaries of
the living world--men of the loftiest and most powerful understanding
are examining, and discussing, and disputing the most minute points
which may illustrate the poetry of the blind bard; scholars are
elucidating, antiquaries illustrating, philosophers reasoning upon,
men of genius transfusing into their native tongues, poets honouring
with despairing emulation, the whole mind of educated man _feeling_
the transcendent power of the poet of the Iliad and Odyssey. Surely,
the boasted triumph of poetry over space and time is no daring
hyperbole--surely, it is little more than the boasted reality of truth.
_Power of Memory._
It is indeed not easy to calculate the height to which the memory may
be cultivated. To take an ordinary case, we might refer to that of any
first-rate actor, who must be prepared, at a very short warning, to
"rhapsodize" night after night, parts which, when laid together, would
amount to an immense number of lines. But all this is nothing to two
instances of our own day. Visiting at Naples a gentleman of the highest
intellectual attainments, and who held a distinguished rank among the
men of letters in the last century, he informed us that the day before
he had passed much time in examining a man, not highly educated, who had
learned to repeat the whole Gierusalemme Liberata of Tasso; not only to
recite it consecutively, but to repeat any given stanza of any given
book; to repeat those stanzas in utter defiance of the sense, either
forwards or backwards, or from the eighth line to the first, alternately
the odd and even lines--in short, whatever the passage required, the
memory, which seemed to cling to the words much more than to the sense,
had it at such perfect command, that it could produce it under any form.
Our informant went on to state, that this singular being was proceeding
to learn the Orlando Furioso in the same manner. But even this instance
is less wonderful than one as to which we may appeal to any of our
readers that happened some twenty years ago to visit the town of
Stirling, in Scotland. No such person can have forgotten that poor,
uneducated man, _Blind Jamie_, who could actually repeat, after
a few minutes' consideration, any verse required from any part of the
Bible--even the obscurest and least important enumeration of mere proper
names not excepted.
_Origin of the Homeric Poems._
It is said that the art of writing, and the use of manageable writing
materials, were entirely, or all but entirely, unknown in Greece and
the islands at the supposed date of the composition of the Iliad; and
that if so, this poem could not have been committed to writing during
the time of such its composition; that in a question of comparative
probabilities like this, it is a much grosser improbability that even
the single Iliad, amounting, after all curtailments and expungings,
to upwards of 15,000 lines, should have been actually conceived and
perfected in the brain of one man, with no other help but his own or
others' memory, than that it should, in fact, be the result of the
labours of several distinct authors; that if the Odyssey be counted,
the improbability is doubled; that if we add, upon the authority of
Thucydides and Aristotle, the Hymns and Margites, not to say the
Batrachomuiomachia, that which was improbable becomes absolutely
impossible; that all that has been so often said as to the fact of as
many lines, or more, having been committed to memory, is beside the
point in question, which is not whether 15,000 or 30,000 lines may
be learnt by art from a book or manuscript, but whether one man can
_compose_ a poem of that length, which, rightly or not, shall
be thought to be a perfect model of symmetry or consistency of parts,
without the aid of writing materials; that, admitting the superior
probability of such a thing in a primitive age, we know nothing
analogous to such a case; and that it so transcends the common limits
of intellectual power, as, at the least, to merit, with as much justice
as the opposite opinion, the character of improbability.--_H.N.
Coleridge._
* * * * *
LIBERALISM AND MUSIC.
It seems that the day is come again when musical airs are ranked in
political importance with proclamations, manifestoes, &c. Everybody
knows the story of the Swiss hired troops, the _Ranz des Vaches_, and
the prohibition of this tune in France. A Polish air, the _Dombrowski
Mazourka_, which the regiment of General Szembek played on entering
Warsaw, has been forbidden by the Grand Duke Constantine, on pain of a
penalty of 400 florins; the consequence of which is, that it has become
the outward and audible sign of patriotism in every part of Poland; just
as the Marseilles March and _la Parisienne_ are in France and the
Netherlands the signals of liberalism. During Mr. Pitt's administration
an organ grinder was committed to Newgate for playing "Ah! ça ira"
in the streets. This was a silly step; but the fellow excited little
commiseration, for the tune was the war-whoop of a few savages who
were at that time deluging France with blood. It affords another
proof, however, of the power ascribed by statesmen to instrumental
music, uninterpreted by words in exciting ideas and producing
associations.--_Harmonicon, Feb. 1._
* * * * *
TURKISH MUSICAL GUSTO.
A modern traveller informs us, that the band of an English ambassador
at Constantinople once performed a concert for the entertainment of
the Sultan and his court. At the conclusion it was asked, which of the
pieces he preferred. He replied, the first, which was accordingly
recommenced, but stopped, as not being the right one. Others were tried
with as little success, until at length the band, almost in despair of
discovering the favourite air, began _tuning_ their instruments,
when his highness instantly exclaimed, "_Inshallah_, heaven be
praised, that is it!" The Turkish prince may be excused, when it is
known that at the commemoration of Handel in 1784, Dr. Burney thought
the mere tuning of that host of instruments more gratifying than the
ordinary performances to which he had been accustomed.--_Ibid._
* * * * *
RODE, THE VIOLINIST.
In 1814, he was resident at Berlin, where he gave a concert for the
benefit of the poor, and on quitting that capital, returned to his
native city, not again to quit it, except for one ill-starred visit to
Paris in 1818. This visit threw a fatal colouring over all the rest of
Rode's days, and probably contributed to shorten his life. For several
years he had played only in a small circle of admiring friends, who
persuaded him (nothing loth to believe) that his talents were still
unabated. The habit of hearing no one but himself had extinguished
emulation, and deprived him of all means of comparison. Rode suddenly
determined to re-appear in the musical world, and on his arrival in
Paris sought for opportunities of playing in private parties, with as
much eagerness as though he had still been a young man with a reputation
to make. His old admirers were at first delighted to greet him; but they
soon saw with unfeigned regret that he was compromising a great and
well-earned name. His tone, once so pure and beautiful, had become
uncertain; his bow was as timid as his fingers, and he no longer dared
to indulge fearlessly the suggestions of his imagination; in short
it was too apparent that, in spite of his delusion, Rode's former
confidence in himself was gone; and we know the importance of that
feeling of self-reliance which men of talent derive from the innate
consciousness of their own superiority: once destroyed, everything else
vanishes with it. He was applauded; respect for the last efforts of what
had once been first-rate talent secured him that meed; but he was
applauded because his audience considered it a kind of duty, and without
any symptoms of enthusiasm. He felt the distinction; a dreadful light
broke in upon him, and for the first time he became conscious that he
was no longer himself. The blow was the more severe as it was unlooked
for: he left Paris overwhelmed with grief; the check he had received
preyed incessantly on his mind and injured his health. A paralytic
stroke toward the end of 1829 deprived him of the use of one side and
affected his intellect, in which state he languished for nearly twelve
months, till on the 25th of November, 1830, death relieved him from his
sufferings.--_From a Memoir of Rode in the Harmonicon._
* * * * *
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.
It may be considered as sufficiently proved, that the sciences had not
acquired any degree of improvement until the eighth century before the
Christian era; notwithstanding great nations had been formed in several
parts of the earth some centuries earlier. Fifteen hundred years before
Christ there were already four--the Indians, the Chinese, the
Babylonians, and the Egyptians.--_Cuvier._
* * * * *
SELECT BIOGRAPHY.
* * * * *
THOMAS HOPE, ESQ.
(_For the Mirror._)
We regret to record the death of this distinguished scholar and
munificent patron of literature and the fine arts. For some weeks past
we have been awaiting the publication of his last work, entitled, "An
Essay on the Origin and Prospects of Man;" and after looking with this
expectation in the _Times_ of Friday, the 4th, we there read the
information of Mr. Hope's death, on the 2nd instant, at his house in
Duchess-street.
Mr. Hope was a nephew of the opulent Amsterdam merchant of the same
name. We are not aware of his precise age, but should judge it must have
verged on sixty. In early life he travelled much, especially in the
East; and few Englishmen have acquired better knowledge of the manners
and customs of that division of the world than had the subject of this
memoir. His visits to the European continent are of much more recent
date. In its various academies of fine art his name will long be
cherished with grateful remembrance, since few men distributed their
patronage with so much munificence and judgment.
Possessing an ample fortune and exquisite taste, Mr. Hope judiciously
applied his knowledge of the fine arts to the internal decoration of
houses: thus producing, in numberless instances, the rare combination of
splendour and convenience. On this subject, Mr. Hope published, in 1805,
an illustrative folio work, entitled "Household Furniture and Internal
Decorations." He also published two very superb works on costume,
entitled, "The Costumes of the Ancients," two vols. 8vo. 1809; and
"Designs of Modern Costume," folio, 1812: in which he displayed high
classical attainments and love of the picturesque.
Mr. Hope, however, subsequently appeared before the literary world in a
work which at once places him in the highest list of eloquent writers
and superior men--viz. _Anastasius; or, the Memoirs of a Modern
Greek_: published in the year 1819. There are, indeed, few books in
the English language which contain passages of greater power, feeling,
and eloquence than this work, which delineate frailty and vice with
more energy and acuteness, or describe historical scenes with such
bold imagery and such glowing language. We remember the opinion of
a writer in the Edinburgh Review, soon after the publication of
_Anastasius_. With a degree of pleasantry and acumen peculiar
to northern criticism, he asks, "Where has Mr. Hope hidden all his
eloquence and poetry up to this hour? How is it that he has, all of a
sudden, burst out into descriptions which would not disgrace the pen
of Tacitus, and displayed a depth of feeling and vigour of imagination
which Lord Byron could not excel? We do not shrink from one syllable of
this eulogy." The subjects upon which Mr. Hope had previously written
were not calculated to call forth his eloquent feeling; and, such
excellence was not expected from him, who, to use the harmless satire
of the Edinburgh reviewer, "meditated muffineers and planned pokers."
This was no praise of party: contemporary criticism universally allowed
_Anastasius_ to be a work in which great and extraordinary talent
is evinced. It abounds in sublime passages--in sense--in knowledge of
history, and in knowledge of human character;--and the rapid sale of
three editions has proved these superior characteristics to have been
amply recognised by the reading public. The work in its fourth edition
still enjoys a good sale. In each reprint the nicety of the writer is
traceable: the corrections and alterations in the metaphysical portions
on such passages as illustrate points of character, are elaborated with
exquisite skill, and fresh turns of scholarly elegance are observable
throughout each volume of the work. Memory has probably in some
instances enabled the author to re-touch his pictures of Eastern
scenery, and rearrange his grouping of particular incidents. What a
delightful labour of leisure must this have been for so ingenious a
mind! One of his similes--a weeping lady's eyes compared to violets
steeped in dew--has never been out of our recollection; and one of his
battle scenes almost makes the reader imagine himself transfixed to the
spot by a weapon of the contest.
Mr. Hope married, in 1806, the Hon. Louisa Beresford, daughter of the
late Lord Decies, Archbishop of Tuam, and sister of the present peer,
by whom he has left three sons, the eldest of whom, Mr. Henry Hope, was
groom of the bedchamber to the late king, and recently took his seat
in parliament for the borough of West Looe. Of their highly-gifted and
accomplished mother we know many amiable traits; and, however bright
may have been her fashionable splendour in high life, it is more than
counterbalanced by her active benevolence in the county, in visiting the
homes and relieving the distresses of the poor of the neighbourhood.
Of Mr. Hope's literary acquirements and his patronage of the liberal
arts we have already spoken. It is, however, grateful to be enabled
to refer to special acts of such patronage. It should not, therefore,
be forgotten, that to the liberality of Mr. Hope, Thorwalsden,
the celebrated Danish sculptor, is chiefly indebted for a fostering
introduction to the world: we have seen at the liberal patron's seat,
Deepdene, a stupendous boar of spotless marble, for which the sculptor
received a commission of one thousand guineas. Mr. Hope, too, was one of
the earliest of the patrons of Mr. George Dawe, R.A. In a memoir of this
fortunate and distinguished painter we find that "Andromache soliciting
the Life of her Son," from a scene in the French play entitled
"Andromache," was purchased by Mr. Hope, "who, in the most liberal
manner, marked his approbation of Dawe's talents by favouring him with
several commissions for family portraits, especially a half-length of
Mrs. Hope, with two of her children, and two whole-lengths of the lady
singly." To the useful as well as elegant arts Mr. Hope's encouragement
was extended; and for the last ten years he has filled the office of one
of the Vice-presidents of the Society of Arts and Sciences in the
Adelphi.
Mr. Hope usually passed "the season" at his superb mansion in
Duchess-street, Portland-place, where he had assembled a valuable
collection of works of art, altogether unrivalled, and comprising
paintings, antique statues, busts, vases, and other relics of antiquity,
arranged in apartments, the furniture and decorations of which were in
general designed after classic models, by the ingenious possessor
himself. Among the sculpture is the exquisite Venus rising from the
Bath, by Canova. The whole of these valuables were open to the public,
under certain restrictions, during "the season." Mr. Hope likewise
possessed one of the most delightful estates in the county of
Surrey--viz. the Deepdene, near Dorking, to which he annexed Chart Park,
purchased from the devisees of the late Sir Charles Talbot, Bart. On the
last-mentioned estate is a spacious mausoleum, erected by Mr. Hope about
thirteen years since, and capable of containing upwards of twenty
bodies. Two of his sons, who died in their youth, are buried here.
In the retirement of the Deepdene, Mr. Hope passed much time in
embellishing the mansion, and improving the gardens, grounds, &c.
"Here," observes the author of the _Promenade round Dorking_, "I was
much gratified with landscape gardening, the quiet of echoing dells,
and the refreshing coolness of caverns--all which combined to render
this spot a kind of fairy region. Flower-gardens laid out in parterres,
with much taste, here mingle trim neatness with rude uncultivated
nature, in walks winding through plantations and woods, with ruined
grottoes and hermitages, well adapted, by their solitary situations, for
study and reverie." Adjoining the mansion, Mr. Hope likewise constructed
a classical sculpture gallery, which he enriched with several antiques
from his town residence. Notwithstanding all these additions, we are
bound to confess, that, compared with the beauty of the situation, they
were but unsuccessful efforts of art to embellish bountiful Nature.
The conveniences of the Deepdene are upon a scale of magnificence
similar to that of the mansion in Duchess-street. Their present
Majesties, before their accession, were occasional visiters at the
Deepdene; and upon the formation of the Queen's Household, Mrs. Hope
was appointed a Lady of the Bedchamber.
Few men, even in the philanthropic neighbourhood of Dorking, were more
beloved than the late Mr. Hope. His patronage by money and otherwise,
was never vainly sought for a good object; and with this high merit we
close our humble tribute to his public and private excellence.
PHILO.
* * * * *
SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
* * * * *
BACCHANALIAN SONG.
(_From the "Noctes" of Blackwood._)
NORTH.--The air, you know, is my own, James. I shall sing it to-night to
some beautiful words by my friend Robert Folkestone Williams, written,
he tells me, expressly for the Noctes.
Oh! fill the wine-cup high,
The sparkling liquor pour;
For we will care and grief defy,
They ne'er shall plague us more.
And ere the snowy foam
From off the wine departs,
The precious draught shall find a home,
A dwelling in our hearts.
Though bright may be the beams
That woman's eyes display;
They are not like the ruby gleams
That in our goblets play.
For though surpassing bright
Their brilliancy may be,
Age dims the lustre of their light,
But adds more worth to thee.
Give me another draught,
The sparkling, and the strong;
He who would learn the poet craft--
He who would shine in song--
Should pledge the flowing bowl
With warm and generous wine;
'Twas wine that warm'd Anacreon's soul,
And made his songs divine.
And e'en in tragedy,
Who lives that never knew
The honey of the Attic Bee
Was gather'd from thy dew?
He of the tragic muse,
Whose praises bards rehearse:
What power but thine could e'er diffuse
Such sweetness o'er his verse?
Oh! would that I could raise
The magic of that tongue;
The spirit of those deathless lays,
The Swan of Teios sung!
Each song the bard has given,
Its beauty and its worth,
Sounds sweet as if a voice from heaven
Was echoed upon earth.
How mighty--how divine
Thy spirit seemeth when
The rich draught of the purple vine
Dwelt in these godlike men.
It made each glowing page,
Its eloquence and truth,
In the glory of their golden age,
Outshine the fire of youth.
Joy to the lone heart--joy
To the desolate--oppress'd
For wine can every grief destroy
That gathers in the breast.
The sorrows, and the care,
That in our hearts abide,
'Twill chase them from their dwellings there,
To drown them in its tide.
And now the heart grows warm,
With feelings undefined,
Throwing their deep diffusive charm
O'er all the realms of mind.
The loveliness of truth
Flings out its brightest rays,
Clothed in the songs of early youth,
Or joys of other days.
We think of her, the young
The beautiful, the bright;
We hear the music of her tongue,
Breathing its deep delight.
We see again each glance,
Each bright and dazzling beam,
We feel our throbbing hearts still dance,
We live but in a dream.
From darkness, and from woe,
A power like lightning darts;
A glory cometh down to throw
Its shadow o'er our hearts.
And dimm'd by falling tears,
A spirit seems to rise,
That shows the friend of other years
Is mirror'd in our eyes.
But sorrow, grief, and care,
Had dimm'd his setting star;
And we think with tears of those that _were_,
To smile on those that _are_.
Yet though the grassy mound
Sits lightly on his head,
We'll pledge, in solemn silence round,
THE MEMORY OF THE DEAD!
The sparkling juice now pour,
With fond and liberal hand;
Oh! raise the laughing rim once more,
Here's to our FATHER LAND!
Up, every soul that hears,
Hurra! with three times three;
And shout aloud, with deafening cheers,
The "ISLAND OF THE FREE."
Then fill the wine-cup high,
The sparkling liquor pour;
For we will care and grief defy,
They ne'er shall plague us more.
And ere the snowy foam
From off the wine departs,
The precious draught shall find a home--
A dwelling in our hearts.
* * * * *
THE SNOW-WHITE VIRGIN.
(_From a Winter Rhapsody. By Christopher North. Fytte III_.)