★ Keep up to date with the latest news - subscribe to the Transcribe Bentham newsletter; Find a new page to transcribe in our list of Untranscribed Manuscripts
And what is the use of my authorship,
Though it gain me a short-lived éclat,
If I'm soon to become an old bachelor,
And you, coz, a grandmamma?
But 'tis thus that time flies on, sweet coz,
One month after another;
And every month is as like the past,
As a brother is to a brother.
O! very little variety, coz,
Is strew'd upon manhood's path;
Truth flings its pebble at Fancy, coz,
And she falls like Goliah of Gath.
The skies wore the purple of summer, coz,
And the days were bright and long.
And the streams ran prattling merry things,
And the groves were alive with song—
When last I heard the music, coz,
Of that golden voice of thine,
Awaking feelings in my heart,
Which died, and made no sign.
And now we have nothing but winter, coz,
With its wind, and mud, and sleet;
And people with noses as blue as plums,
And chilblains, and damp feet;
And hazy gas lamps glimmering, coz,
And dinners at half-past six;
And hackney coaches rattling, coz,
Through a forest of stones and bricks.
And then there are evening parties, coz,
Where girls with curly hair
Dance in a style that would make you smile,
If it did not make you stare;
And very polite young gentlemen,
In coats that are nicely cut,
Simper a heartless compliment,
And through the apartment strut.
And of course there are ices and negus, coz,
And tongues of chicken to boot,
And jellies and creams innumerable,
And cheesecakes and dried fruit;
And if you are very pressing, coz,
And have an engaging way,
Perhaps some damsel will kindly squall
The ballad of "Alice Grey."
Good Lord! is this society, coz?
Are these the delights of life?
I wish from my heart I was buried, coz,
Or married to some old wife—
And living away on a far hill side,
With a garden, a cow, and a pig,
A happy and simple cottar, coz,
With a Bible and Sunday wig.
The answer is in an equally light and agreeable vein. It begins
thus:—
I think I could write you a letter, Hal,
In the style of your letters to me,
With a little sense, and a little rhyme,
And a very little poetrie.
You know when I was a girl, Hal,
I scribbled some brilliant things—
At least I remember you used to say,
"They should only be read by kings."
That was a flight of fancy, Hal,
And we both have changed since then;
Yet still when I write to you, dear Hal,
My heart is in my pen:
I have taken my seat in the arbour, Hal,
In the midst of the bees and the flowers;
And the summer winds and odours, Hal,
Recall many long-lost hours.
I wish you would pack your portmanteau, Hal,
And fling yourself into the mail—
It will take little more than a day and night
To bring you to Langley Dale.
'Tis the sweetest spot in the world, Hal,
And just for a poet like you;
A lovelier scene of hill and grove
No painter ever drew.
The "Favorite Actress" is a poem of some merit. As a matter of
taste, we object to Mr. Bell's preference to "chestnut locks," of which
he makes such a perpetual mention. We also object, on the same
ground, to his constant reference to clasping, grasping, folding,
embracing, and twining round his Leilas and Julianas; it is scarcely
decorous, and certainly is not consistent with the lofty and visionary
tone assumed by the author in all other points. The practical part
of wooing is in its place in the honest verse of Burns; but Mr. Bell is
far too seraphic a writer to claim such indulgence.
Klauer's German Manual. Simpkin and Marshall.
The immense strides of German literature, during the last sixty
years, have attracted the attention of students, both in this country
and in France, to that language. Our government, however, has ever
had such a dread of the importation of continental sedition, as to
impose a nearly prohibitive duty on foreign books, which makes the
study of German in particular, a very expensive pleasure. Mr.
Klauer's work will be found a great acquisition, as the first volume
contains a large and very well chosen selection from the most
distinguished German writers. The Germans themselves are exceedingly
clever in learning modern languages without assistance of a master;
and there are instances on record of the English language having been
mastered by them with the sole aid of one book, such as the Vicar of
Wakefield. Mr. Klauer has proposed the same view to himself in his
FINE ARTS.-----
BRITISH INSTITUTION.
Mr. Edwin Landseer has several pictures in this year's exhibition,
all of merit; but those which, in our judgment, display the greatest
talent are Nos. 25, Cottage Industry, and 248, Low Life and High
Life. The former proves, if additional proof was wanting, that this
artist's powers are by no means limited to the display of animal life
in the inferior creation. It shows that he can successfully exercise
them upon the higher. At a first glance upon this performance, you
might take the fair creature who is so intent upon her knitting, for
some rustic beauty whose fate had condemned her to toil in seclusion
under a thatched roof; but, upon a closer inspection, you are led to
believe that those well-shaped, plump, and delicate hands, must
belong to some gentle or patrician body, and that the real dwelling-place
of the nymph, whether of Bedfordshire, or any other county,
is in a palace rather than a cottage, in which latter place she only
appears occasionally in the way of benevolence or masquerade. Be
this as it may, Mr. E. Landseer has turned his "industry" to good
account, in a display of simplicity, grace, and nature, which is not
too often met with on canvass, or elsewhere. His Low Life and High
Life is also a masterpiece in its kind. Two dogs are seen in the
separate compartments of the painting,—one, bred between a bulldog
and a terrier; the other, a Scotch deer-hound;—the former, a
punchy, rough, well-fed, surly beast, is sitting in an outhouse, before
his keeper's block, with a pipe and porter-pot at his side, indicative
of the taste and habits of the butcher, his master; the latter, a slender,
graceful, and, doubtless, well-bred and well-behaved hound, is
represented lounging in a gentleman's library upon the carpetted
floor, before the polished stove, and surrounded by various costly
articles of furniture, &c. You gather at once, from the looks and
circumstances of the two animals, that the associations and pursuits
of their respective owners are as different as their own. The mongrel
suggests morning scenes at bull-baitings, cock-fightings, and pugilistic
contests, and evening ones in the club room of "The Three Jolly
Butchers;" the deer-hound, joyous field-sports, horns, and horses,
with the after-pleasures of well-spread tables, in halls graced with
refined society—so that, in presenting the portraits of two dogs only,
the ingenious artist has contrived to carry the spectator's thoughts out
into the varied world of human nature, and to suggest to his mind a
multitude of reflections upon the fortunes and pursuits of man: As
for the execution of these pieces, nothing can well be more perfect,
the point of sight or perspective excepted, in which Mr. E. Landseer
is sometimes defective. Mr. Wells, of Tunbridge, is the purchaser
of the two dogs,; which we would rather be the possessor of than
of the representations of three-fourths of the men and women in the
rooms, such is the power of genius when engaged upon even the
scantiest materials.
(To be continued.)
THEATRICAL EXAMINER.-----
KING'S
THEATRE.
This theatre is going on without a prima donna. Madame
Vespermann has reappeared, without her cold, but with no perceptible
difference in the results. Her voice is thin and shrill; and when she
runs it up to the top of its compass, it goes off in a literal scream,
which may be "F in the upper key," if The Times pleases; to us it
is not music at all. Her style is florid and inexpressive; and neither
in her personal appearance, nor in her acting, are there any of those
redeeming qualities which have often, at this theatre, thrown a veil of
light over the defects of a singer. She has taken the parts of Zoraide
and Rosina from Miss Fanny Ayton; and the change is decidedly
for the worse, in Rosina especially. We have had nothing yet but
the Barbiere and Ricciardo; the attraction of the first resting almost
wholly on Lablache; that of the second on David. All the
concerted pieces are spoiled. Nothing can well be more absurd than
the libretto of Ricciardo e Zoraide, except the mode in which it is
represented here. A king of Nubia is in love with a captive princess;
gives free access to her for the furtherance of his own suit, to his rival
in disguise; detects the imposture, condemns the lovers to death, and
is set upon and disarmed, in flagrant violation of the laws of nations,
by the French Ambassador, with a "brave army," brought up for the
nonce. The Nubian guards stand like statues ranged along the back
of the scene, whilst their prince is subdued by half their number.
Thus is trash thrice trashified. But the libretto of the Barbiere is
good, and should not be played tricks with. The omission of the
balcony scene is unjustifiable. We recommend Signor De Begnis
to return to the song which belongs to his part, and for which he has
very injudiciously substituted a composition of Fioravanti's, which
is pretty enough in itself but is not in keeping with the music of the
opera, nor at all appropriate to the words which have been adapted to it.
We adverted last week to some newspaper cant about the dresses
|
Identifier: | JB/004/070/004 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 4.
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
1831-02-27 |
|||
|
004 |
lord brougham displayed |
||
|
070 |
|||
|
004 |
the examiner / sunday, february 27, 1831 / no. 1204 |
||
|
printed material |
8 |
||
|
recto |
(130-144) |
||
|
[[notes_public::"john fonblanques eulogium on brougham" [note in bentham's hand]]] |
1991 |
||