Part 31 (1/2)

The London _Athenaeum_ contains a very interesting letter from Mr. PAYNE COLLIER, in which he gives an account of the discovery of a copy of the second folio edition of Shakspeare, with numerous important corrections of the text, apparently by some learned contemporary actor, whose memory of parts, or access to original MSS., enabled him to restore all the readings vitiated by careless transcription or printing. Mr. Collier has such faith in these _errata_ that he does not hesitate to avow that he would have adopted a large portion of them in his own edition of Shakspeare, had they been known to him when that was printed. Of the several instances he offers, this will serve as a specimen:

”An embarra.s.sment meets us in the very outset of _Measure for Measure_,--where the Duke, addressing Escalus, observes, in the ordinary reading:

”'Of government the properties to unfold Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse; Since I am put to know, that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice My strength can give you: then, no more remains, But that to your sufficiency as your worth is able, And let them work.'

--The meaning is pretty evident; but the expression of that meaning is obscure and corrupt,--as indeed the measure alone would establish. Various conjectural modes of setting the pa.s.sage right have been proposed; and perhaps what follows from my corrected folio of 1632 has no better foundation,--but, at all events, it restores both the sense and the metre, and may, for aught we know, give the very words of Shakspeare:

”'Of government the properties to unfold Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse; Since I am _apt_ to know, that your own science Exceeds (in that) the lists of all advice My strength can give you; Then, no more remains But _add_ to your sufficiency your worth, And let them work.'

--How 'that' in the old editions came to be printed for _add_ and how 'is able' came to be foisted in, most unnecessarily and awkwardly, at the end of the same line, it is not easy to explain. The third line is also much cleared by the subst.i.tution of _apt_ for 'put,'--which was an easy misprint: 'Apt to know' is an expression of every-day occurrence.”

SIR JAMES STEPHEN, whose excellent _Lectures on the History of France_ have been so well received, proposes to deliver, at Cambridge, a series of twenty lectures on the _Diplomatic History of France during the reign of Louis XIV._, comprising a review of the treaties of Westphalia, of the Pyrenees, of Breda, of the Triple Alliance, of Aix-la-Chapelle, of Nimeguen, of Ryswick, and of Utrecht.

MISS CHARLOTTE VANDENHOFF, whose professional tour in the United States will be remembered by old play-goers, has written a piece under the t.i.tle of _Woman's Heart_, possessing considerable poetical merits, and herself sustained the character of the heroine in its representation.

MR. CARLYLE, is engaged upon a new work in history, but its subject is not disclosed, nor its extent.

MRS. ROBINSON, who left New-York several months ago to visit her relations in Germany, writes from Berlin to the _Athenaeum_, under date of February 2, as follows:

”A work appeared in London last summer with the following t.i.tle: _Talvi's History of the Colonization of America_, edited by William Hazlitt, in two volumes. It seems proper to state that the original work was written under favorable circ.u.mstances _in German_, and published in Germany. It treated only of the colonization of _New England_: and that only stood on its t.i.tle-page. The above English publication, therefore, is a mere translation, and it was made without the consent or knowledge of the author. The very t.i.tle is a misnomer; all references to authorities are omitted; and the whole work teems with errors, not only of the press, but also of translation,--the latter such as could have been made by no person well acquainted with the German and English tongues. For the work in this form, therefore, the author can be in no sense whatever responsible.

TALVI.”

From a more recent number of the _Athenaeum_ it appears that Mr. Hazlitt is not himself the translator of the original work; and the responsibility, not only of the translation, but of all the faults charged which might seem more especially editorial, is transferred by him to another. Mr. Hazlitt, we believe, is a son of the great critic of the last age.

There are connected with the newspapers a considerable number of weak-minded and absurd persons, who delight in strange coincidences and the most inconceivable relations, and who, for a certain consciousness they have of their own slight claims to consideration are anxious to find on every occasion, some indication of regard for their vocation, as if credit won by any journalist or writer were portion of a common fund of respectability from which they could draw a dividend. In no other way can we account for the thousand-and-one articles in which the appointments of Dr. LAYARD and Mr. D'ISRAELI have been referred to as ”honor,” ”homage,” &c., to literature. Dr. Layard was selected by Lord Granville to be an Under-Secretary of State, because he had shown himself in the admirable manner in which he discharged certain important diplomatic functions in the East, better fitted, in Lord Granville's opinion, than any other person for the new duties to which it was proposed to summon him. Mr. D'Israeli has long been one of the most conspicuous and astute politicians in England, and owes his present office solely to his activity and eminence in affairs. There was as little of ”recognition of the claims of literature” in either case, as there was praise of fiddlesticks or Carolina potatoes. It would not be a whit more ridiculous to say that the French people, remembering the happy genius displayed by Napoleon Bonaparte in his ”Supper of Beaucaire,” chose him to be their emperor.

In the new British ministry are an unusual number of book-makers. The most conspicuous in authors.h.i.+p is the now Right Honorable Benjamin D'Israeli, ”the wondrous boy who wrote _Alroy_, in rhyme and prose, only to show how long ago victorious Judah's lion banner rose.” Sir Emerson Tennent, Sir Edward Sugden, Lord John Manners, Mr. Whiteside, the Earl of Malmesbury, Lord de Roos, are all known as authors, as well as politicians. The Duke of Northumberland also is favorably known as a zealous promoter of arts and learning.

The author of _Life in Bombay and the Neighboring Stations_, pays the following testimony to the abilities of the manoeuvring mammas of Bombay: ”The bachelor civilians are always the grand aim; for, however young in the service they may be, their income is always vastly above that of the military man, to say nothing of the n.o.ble provision made by the fund for their widows and children. We remember being greatly amused, soon after our arrival in the country, at overhearing a lady say, in reference to her daughter's approaching marriage with a young civilian: 'Certainly, I could have wished my son-in-law to be a little more steady; but then it is 300 a-year for my girl, dead or alive!'”

A volume of brilliant French criticism will be published in a few days by Charles Scribner, under the t.i.tle of _Anglo-American Literature and Manners_, by PHILARETE CHASLES, Professor in the College of France. Mr.

Chasles, in a book of five hundred pages, considers the literature and manners of the people of the United States--their inst.i.tutions, capacity for self-government, actual condition and probable future--with all the sprightly grace of a Frenchman, and with a great deal of cleverness prosecutes his industrious researches from the landing of the Mayflower to the present day. He finds in the United States neither an Utopia, nor a land worthy merely of ridicule. He does not simply condemn, like some travellers, nor give us universal and unreasonable praise, as our egotism and contentment lead us to desire, but takes a fair view of the country, its claims, position, and prospects. In the beginning of his performance he considers that the most essential thing for the founding of a new commonwealth, is moral force; this he finds in the Puritans, who possessed ”sincerity, belief, perseverance, courage;” they could ”wait, fight, suffer.” Their energy, he thinks, comes from their Teutonic or Saxon blood; their indomitable perseverance is a fruit of Calvinism, added to which they are clannish, or mutual helpers one of another. This is the key to the philosophical, political and prophetic portion of his work. The literary part is honest criticism, freely spoken, by the aid of such light as happened to be around him. He begins with the landing of the Pilgrims, speaks of their literature, which, like all other American literature down to the present day, he regards as dest.i.tute of originality. Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and others, all lack this quality. The author of the _American Cultivator_ has the most of it; but Franklin is made up of Fenelon, Banyan, and Addison; Edwards partakes of Hobbes, Priestley, and in his better moments of the close reasoning Descartes. He gives us then a politician, a journalist, and a gentleman, ”the American Aristocrat” as he calls him, Gouverneur Morris, our minister at Paris during the old revolution. Brockden Brown is characterized as a copyist of Monk Lewis; and he comes then to Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, but while all the charms of this delightful writer are thoroughly appreciated and minutely described, it is denied that he has originality. ”In some square house in Boston, he sees in thought St.

James's Park: in reveries he is led through the umbrageous alleys of Kensington--he talks with Sterne--he shakes hands with Goldsmith.” ”It is a copy, somewhat timid, of Addison, of Steele, of Swift.” You would think of him as of ”a young lady of good family, a slave to propriety, never elevating her voice, never exaggerating the _ton_, never committing the sin of eloquence;” ”a refined continuation of the style of Addison,” &c. Nevertheless a dawn of freshness appears in his writings when they treat of forest scenes. This dawn advances into day in Cooper, upon whom we have an admirable critique. The author of _The Spy_, M. Chasles thinks, has a native vigor unknown to Irving. Paulding is dismissed with but very little consideration. Channing occupies the critic longer, but is found to be an unsatisfactory and too general reasoner. Audubon furnishes the most attractive chapter in the book, which closes with what is called the First Literary Epoch of the United States.

The next division is of the _Literature of the People, and the falsely popular Literature of England and the States_. One thoughtful chapter is given to the infancy and future of America; the age and despair of Europe, of emigration, and colonization. Then, the popular movements in France and England are treated of, and the education of the ma.s.ses.