pages as head and tail pieces, which seem to be produced by a new style of relief engraving, that does not however do justice to the designs.

The letter-press contains the ordinary variety of prose and poetical matter. Amongst the former, "The Lady Jemima Heatherfield," by the editor, is the most decidedly to our taste, possessing as it does for so short a tale, a breathless interest. The other names to be found as contributors are, among others, Sir E. Bulwer, Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, Barry Cornwall, Mr. Howard, and W. S. Landor; the Marchioness of Hastings, Mrs. Abdy, Mrs. C. B. Wilson, &c. &c. The "Two Posthumous Poems," by the Lady Wyatt, and Tyrone Power, cast a shade over the " Keepsake" that add to it a melancholy charm.

PAWSEY'S LADIES' FASHIONABLE REPOSITORY FOR 1842.*This provincial pocket-book seems to be the last remaining representative of its class, so cruelly abolished by the more splendid annuals. Here we behold the very red cover, and the old fashion "tuck;" the pocket for all one's banknotes and the leather tube for the pencil. We open it and find pretty pictures, and " useful hints" about gardening, calendars of the sun and moon, conundrums, pathetic poems, "cash-account" pages, topographical descriptions, and an almanac. All these the production of the press, the pencils, and the muses of Ipswich, Suffolk; to each and every of which this pocket-book is a highly creditable" Repository.'

LA REVUE MUSICALE.

No. 1. "The Queen's Boudoir for 1842;" the Illustrations in Chromo-lithography. Jefferys and Nelson, Soho Square.

2. "They bid me renounce Thee;" words by P. H. Edlin, Esq.; music by P. D. Guglielmo. Mori and Lavenu, Bond Street.

3. Spirit of the Wye;" written by Diewn, the Welsh Bard; music by G. S. Brent. E. Ransford, Charles Street, Soho.

4. "The Gondolette;" words by Chas. Selby; music by Alexander Lee. Lee, Lisle Street.

5. "The Farewell Wish;" words by W. Ball, Esq.; music by Edward J. Hopkins. Chappell, New Bond Street.

6." Alone remembering Thee;" words, music, and publisher, ibid.

7." The Tuscan Maiden's Song;" poetry by Mrs. Crawford; music by Edward Clare. Cramer and Co., Conduit Street.

No. 1. Of all the musical annuals we have seen, the embellishments to this are the most gorgeous. The title page is in itself a glowing picture; executed moreover in lithography, and presenting by far the best specimen of colour printing we have met with. A Morish maiden is receiving the vows of her lover beside a gurgling fountain, and within a splendid picture-frame of Arabesque, brilliantly ornamented with well chosen colours and gold ;in short, a goodly frontispiece. The "Boudoir"

*Longman's, Paternoster Row; Pawsey, Ipswich, &c.

itself, of which this is only the portal, consist of pieces of music by the best composers. Barnett contributes a quiet and graceful melody to "The Daybeam is Dying," by C. Jefferies. Loder's duet, “Selim and Zorayda," is spirited, and so is Charles Glover's fantasia. In short the volume-extra its ad-captandum charms-is filled with an admirable collection of composi❘tions, poetical and musical.

2. A very sweet and graceful ballad, both as regards words and music. We strongly recommend it to all our readers who are drawing-room vocalists, being easy of compass, yet very effective and pleasing.

3. The words of this song, which we subjoin, are from the pen of a contributor to our pages. The music is well suited to them, and if all unions were equally harmonious, there would, we think, be no old maids or bachelors left in society.

SPIRIT OF THE WYE!
RECITATIVE.

Spirit of the Wye! Where art thou? Where?
Whether on bank, in stream, or in air,
Appear! To accept the poor offering,
That thy humble poet will dare to bring.
SONG.

It is night! It is night! And, all-mellow'd, thy

sounds

Creep o'er my wrapt senses, infusing delight. Alluring my heart 'till with joy it rebounds

Anew, in the raptures of youth. It is night, And the Queen silver-orb, undimm'd by a cloud, Illumines the scene with her chastening ray; How dearer, far dearer is this, than the crowd Of parasites fluttering round one by day. Hark! hark! There is melody floats in the air; List, O list! ere the breeze bear it by ; Now nearer, still nearer it comes. It is there! See the beautiful Spirit of Wye!!

It is morn! It is morn! Look the Herald of Day Has rubied the vale with his first matin blush! Lo! The lark is on high, pouring orisons gay,

And all nature is shaking off night's silent bush. Should I burden my heart at a moment like this,

While my soul is entranc'd with the heav'n-born When all that's around me is 'plenish'd with joys?

bliss,

And Hope's magic reign all my sorrow destroys? No! not in THIS valley surpassingly fair,

My fond heart would be traitor to sigh; Where ALL is perfection on earth and in air, In the home of the Spirit of Wye!!

4. A very sweet little ballad, in the Venetian style. We have heard Mrs. Waylett warble it, as few save herself can warble. In reference to the peotry, the constant repetition of the same words, to make them go to the air, is in bad taste; the writer might easily have avoided this by lengthening his measure a foot.

5. The words and music of this ballad are exceedingly graceful and pleasing, and do credit both to author and composer.

6. A very sweet ballad, fitted to be a companion to the above.

7. A sweetly playful ballad. We have not heard anything that has delighted our ears so much for a long time. The words, too, claim our commendation, and are as playful and pretty as the music.

FINE ARTS.

BRITISH GALLERY.

We are sorry to observe a great falling off in this once very useful Institution. The exhibition this year is meagre in the extreme, both in quantity and quality; and the observation applies both to the originals and copies. The number of pictures contributed by the noble and gentle patrons is by no means large; and of these not much more than one-half have had the good or ill luck to find students to paint from them.

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The "Wife of Wouvermans," by Vanderhelst, appears to have been the next in request to the Head of a Magdalen, and is certainly a painting good and true." There are two copies of this picture that deserve attention; the one is by Mrs. Goodman, whose management of the head and hair is especially deserving of praise. The other is by a young lady named Partridge, and (mirabile dictû), as we are credibly informed, only fourteen years and a half old! Is not this an encouragement to the patrons of the institution to persevere ? Passing on to the smaller room, we find a gigantic figure, whose alarming conformation seems to have deterred any of our juvenile Davids from encountering so terrible a Goliah! The painting is nevertheless a very fine one, although it appears to be very much "painted upon." Here also the two large portraits have shared the same neglect; and, in truth, it was hardly reasonable to expect that successful copies could be made of such large and very elaborate pictures in the given time. A capital imitation of dead game, fruit, &c., in this room, by Weenix, has been well copied by Mr. Duffield, and one or two others. But perhaps the most successful effort in the collection-only it is unluckily merely a bit,"-is the water-colour drawing of the hands and drapery by Charlotte Partridge, sister to the young lady before-mentioned, and, as we were informed, only sixteen years and a half of age! These young persons are, we have been told, Barbadians by birth, and, as far as we know, they are the first Anglo-West Indians that have ever exhibited pictures in any of our public rooms.

LECTURE.

Mr. William Ball has resumed his attractive lectures for the season, and has recently given his first course on the "Comic Literature of the Kingdom," and on our "National Ballads," at the fine and capacious hall of the Eastern Institution, Commercial Road, with the usual high approbation of his numerous audiences. His second course, on "Wit and Humour," on our "Literary Amusenients," and on our Ballad Literature," which he has been delivering at the Metropolitan, Salvador House, Bishopsgate Street, and which he concluded on the 10th November, was honoured by so crowded an attendance, that many persons could not obtain admission.

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Mr. E. J. Hopkins, who attended as the pianist, received, as is his wont, the hearty plaudits to which his mastery of all the accomplishments and difficulties of his art so justly give

him claim.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.

THE THEATRES.

The last month has been, theatrically speaking, a remarkable one-a menstruus mirabilis in the

annals of the stage! Besides a brilliant star which has arisen in the operatic hemisphere, a new tragedy has been produced, two old comedies blended into one, resuscitated, and several farces brought forward. The great event, however, happened at

COVENT GARDEN,

where, on Tuesday, November the 2nd, Bellini's Opera of Norma was produced in an Anglicised form, for the debut of one who, in that one night, took her inmediate stand at the head of English lyric-vocalists, leaving every lesser star three or four degrees below her in the scale of excellence! Miss Adelaide Kemble is the most perfect mistress of her art that has yet appeared in the native operatic drama, not even excepting Mrs. Wood. Without any remarkable natural powers of voice; art, manifestly acquired by intense study and unremitting practice, has endowed her with a complete mastery over her organ. No passage, be it ever so rapid-no divisions, be they ever so remote-no intervals, be they ever so complicated, but are delivered by her with the utmost ease and truth of intonation.

With such entire control over her voice, no musical anxieties interfere, on the stage, with the other department of her profession, namely, her dramatic powers. The full measure of expression and action is given to every passage that requires them; because the point of proficiency to which Miss Kemble has attained, renders it as easy for her to give vent to feelings through the medium of music, as the use of mere words is to others. It is from the want of singers so circunstanced, that recitative is so little appreciated-so frequently, indeed, disliked by English audiences. The inferior vocalists by which it has always been hitherto delivered, are too much occupied in giving the notes their proper value, and keeping them to the true pitch, to throw in those gesturesthat expression-to adopt that mode of delivery, by which alone recitative can be invested with a meaning. When delivered as Miss Kemble, and the most proficient of the Italian singers utter it, the action is suited to the words and notes, and they to the action. It thus becomes an improved -a more refined, yet more passionate mode of giving vent to the sentiments meant to be expressed.

We venture these remarks, because Norma has been rendered from the Italian in recitative without the introduction of any speaking. This experiment becomes the more hazardous, from the slovenly manner in which the literary portion has been executed. For, in spite of an affected flourish in the preface to the opera, about "Ossian," it is difficult to account for the absence of rhyme by any other supposition than laziness, or want of skill on the part

of the author.

The story of Norma is of a most dramatic character: the various situations of extreme difficulty into which love hurries the erring prophetess, admit of indications of intense passion and feeling, which were forcibly but poetically brought out by Miss Kemble. Miss Rainforth, as Adelgisa, sung with unwonted care and precision-qualities which, as we have before hinted, are but cold and tame substitutes for the higher attributes of dramatic art. Still this judicious singer was heard to great advantage, even beside the debutante; the natural tones of her voice, indeed, contrast most favourably with those of her sister-vocalist.

The faults and excellences of Mr. Harrison, in the part of Pollio, the Roman Lothario, are more manifest in this opera than we ever remember to have noticed them. With a fine manly organ, the gentleman is a most painful singer to hear. One or two notes of rich and melodious tone are often followed by others so discordant, as to show he has never applied himself closely enough to his profession to have acquired even moderate skill. His vocal advantages he owes entirely to nature-his faults he alone is responsible for, arising, as they do, entirely from want of art, which is only attainable by study and practice.

These same remarks would, two years ago, have applied to Mr. Leffler, who appeared in Orovesco, the Arch-Druid; but a very great improvement is now evident in his singing. If he continue to improve in the same ratio for the next two years, he will doubtless take a very high place in his profession.

The manner in which the choruses of Norma are sung and acted, reflects the greatest credit upon those whose duty it was to drill them. Their ensemble is, in every respect, perfect; the piano and fortes well kept; whilst their grouping and attitudes were highly characteristic. The scenic and decorative department of this opera have never been exceeded in splendour, even by the profuseness and unequalled liberality of expenditure by which Madame Vestris's management has always been marked.

least, important novelty produced by the spirited couple of Covent Garden. Two old comedies, one by Mrs. Frances Sheridan, called The Discovery, the other The Tender Husband, by Sir Richard Steele, were blended into one by Mr. Peake, to afford a pleasing, though not very spirited picture of life. The principal character is Sir Paladin Scruple, an old gentleman possessing unbounded gallantry, combined with the utmost formality, and a frigidly nice sense of propriety. He is entangled in two tender engagements; one with Miss Dangerfield, the other-which every effort of his own cannot relieve him from-with the provoking widow, Mrs. Charmington.

As a piece of minute colouring in dramatic portraiture-as a specimen of stage miniature painting-the acting of Mr. Farren in this character is perhaps not to be surpassed, even by his Lord Ogleby. The freezing horror with which he dreads the suspicion of being too warm in his advances to the lady who is receiving his homage; the fine contrast which is kept up between the glowing terms that his declarations are couched in, and the chilling, mathematically well-bred manner in which he delivers them-are managed by this artist with unequalled skill, and display a minute knowledge of human character.

Madam Vestris and Mr. C. Matthews, as Lady and Lord Whiffle, form a highly diverting couple. They are a recently married, very young pair, whose delight is mutual contradiction, in spite of their love for one another; the two oppositesa propensity to quarrel, and an ill-suppressed affection-were exquisitely portrayed. These, together with Lord and Lady Dangerfield, and their son and daughter, make up the Court characters belonging to the piece.

The citizens are the Bearbinders, an old tradesman, his wife and daughter, and a Devonshire squire, who brings a son to town to wed the romantic Barbara Bearbinder; and which son, though twenty-three years old, he keeps in constant dread of his crab-stick. The young rogue, however, rebels, and does not marry the choice of his father, in spite of the stick.

Though the plot of Court and City offers little to interest, yet the excellent manner in which some of the parts are played, the rigid adherence to all the proprieties of costume and by-gone social habits, render it an agreeable play to witness. Some of the inferior actors are however a serious drawback to what should be, to all intents and

HAYMARKET.

The tragic muse seems to possess a clever and, till lately, unknown votary in the person of Mr. Zouch Troughton, if we may judge by the new tragedy of Nina Sforza, which he has written and produced at the Haymarket Theatre.

One of the "never-ending, still beginning" internal feuds that distracted the Italian States in the

middle ages gives rise to the plot of Nina Sforza. The violent passions which raged in that country at the period we speak of, and in the breasts of a nation never celebrated for temperate conduct, naturally supply circumstances and characters of a highly dramatic cast, affording excellent materials for the skilful dramatist. On the other hand,