It may be remarked generally, that the versification of this poem is frequently harsh and defective, and, for the most part, deficient in vigour and strong colouring. Even the best passages fall off occasionally into prosaic tameness. There is no concentration of passion- no overwhelming flood of emotion, bearing down the artistical conventions of verse. All is smooth and as calm as the circumstances will permit, and, consequently, feeble and monotonous in its final impression. We note this less as a fault in Mr. Reade who has abundantly proved his capability for energetic and passionate dialogue in the tragedy of "Catiline" than as a fault inherent in the subject he has chosen. It would have been nearly impossible to infuse a more stirring life into it; for, although Malefort is a being reconcileable to our experience in the outward manifestations of his character, there is no action or strong impulse in him which would have enabled the poet to elevate him into the day-light world of human sympathies. He might have been painted differently, but the exculpation of the author is to be found in having painted him as he is.

We have another dramatic piece before us, which, we suppose, we are bound in courtesy to add to the list, although it was not intended by the author to be tested by dramatic principles, and bears no resemblance to a drama, except in form. The title of this production is "The Temperance Emigrants," and the purpose of the writer, Mr. Dunlop, is to exhibit, through an imaginary plot, the evils of drinking, and its attendant train of ruin. Of course, there is a great deal of superfluous reasoning and description, and much extravagant rage about strong liquors; and any individual who happens not to be a teetotaller, and attempts to read it, will be very likely to lay it aside before he has finished the first scene. But notwithstanding all the long speeches, and that excess of a furious zeal which sometimes deforms the most amiable efforts for the reformation of mankind, there are not a few strokes of genuine nature, and some admirable points of Scottish character thrown up in the progress of the story. Considered as a play, it is beyond all limits of patience. The object is benevolent - the plot ridiculous- and the dialogue preposterous.

Connected with the literature of the drama, a little critical treatise by Mr. Nash may be commended for excellence of intention, for a high and just

3 The Temperance Emigrants: a Drama, descriptive of the Difficulties and Encouragements incident to Temperance Societies and General Temperance Life. By JOHN DUNLOP, Esq., Author of "The Philosophy of Drinking Usage in Great Britain and Ireland." London: Houlston & Stoneman. 1840.

4 The Drama, a Treatise on Poetry and Verse, Dramatic Composition, Dramatic Authors, and the Effects of Dramatic Amusements to which is annexed, The Poet's Death, a Ballad. By GEORGE ASH, Author of "The Outcast." London: Saunders & Otley. 1839.

appreciation of the subtleties of the art, and for some incidental truths that may be advantageously consulted by young writers for the stage. Mr. Nash takes up lofty ground in his views of the poetical spirit; and although his enthusiasm sometimes carries him into excesses, and even commits him to two or three very remarkable fallacies, the main tendency of his pamphlet is to elevate and dignify the uses of the theatre. Truly he says

that

A poet is the priest of taste, the priest of idea-to the social world what the prophet is to the religious."

Speaking of the functions of the dramatist, he says that

"A dramatic author must always appeal to the feelings rather than the reason of his audience."

This is not comprehensive enough, but if it do not contain the whole truth, it is more than half way on the direct road to it. Of the action of a play, he observes

"The subject must appear to commence with the play, it must be seized at some point whence the action may spring naturally forward; and the fewer the explanations required, the better."

Again, there is a solid suggestion in the following

"It must always be remembered in delineating character, that manners do not make the man, they are merely the cloak of his disposition - the dress of the times. A fop may be a man of intellect and courage, and he who professes contempt for outward appearance be a poltroon, or an ignorant fool. Manners are changed as the fashions of the garments; the passions and the other elements of character remain unaltered as the limbs the garments cover."

Mr. Nash does not always express his thoughts with felicity, giving us thus, by the defect of language, but half his meaning. When he speaks of mental plays as the drama of the poet, and of plays adapted for acting as the drama of the player, he does not bring out his idea whole. We have only a glimpse of it; but we can easily supply the rest. His warning against the besetting danger of young writers-imitation if not well put, has, at least, a healthy purpose.

"No man ever achieved greatness who had not a great ideal! that is, high aspirations and hopes! He who would shoot higher than others must aim higher, and risk the greater chance of his arrows descending on his own head. The improvement of our own powers will generally repay us for trusting in them."

We wish our next extract could be painted in large letters over the proscenium of every theatre in the kingdom, especially our great metropolitan houses!

"The play before the actor, and the actor before the ornament, should be the motto of all managers and performers! The play should be considered all-important, and the powers of the actor, the scenic decorations, dresses, and music, as the mere means of illustrating it.”

Clearly as Mr. Nash stands in the broad light of Nature, he yet sees some things darkly; as when, for instance, he advises the dramatist to cultivate mystery and surprises: "Throughout the play," he observes," the author should take care that, although the event may be surmised, it cannot be predicted." Upon reflection, he must perceive that this is the very lowest and vulgarest means a dramatist can employ, a distinct evasion of the noblest part of his task. In another place he calls Mr. Dickens the Shakspeare of

his day. How or wherefore? Mr. Dickens's talents are surely not dramatic; and the knowledge of life he displays is not of that elemental kind which places Shakspeare alone at an unapproachable height above all men. Amongst recent works of travels, "The Real and the Ideal" 5 may be referred to as an illustration of the power of a headstrong imagination to spoil an observing and respectable tourist. Italy is not yet exhausted, and probably will furnish to countless generations a fertile source of poetry and description: but in order to extract something new or worthy of further literary memorial from her classical soil, great original powers and extensive information are absolutely necessary. The same things may be seen again and again by strange eyes, and suggest an endless variety of new reflections: but neither dreamers nor venders of commonplace have any business in Italy. We have dreamed out our dreams of balmy airs, and blue skies, and romantic brigands, and the old times and antique beatitudes; and as for the marbles, the pictures, and the façades, they have already been done into so many catalogues, from the refined Eustace down to the double-refined George Robins, that nothing can re-create an interest about them but a mind full of a congenial grandeur. Now "The Real and the Ideal" is a mere rhapsody, in which there is so little reality that the first part of the title ought to have been dropped in simple justice to the reader. There is nothing real in the book—it is all ideal, and very unintelligible ideal into the bargain. The author evidently had a notion that there was a spirituality floating through the places he visited, which no former writer had been fortunate enough to catch; and this spiritual light, radiating from a centre of melancholy sentimentality, fills his two volumes with its enervating radiance. Unless we went into some detail, and furnished extensive extracts, which our limits will not permit, we could not precisely describe the characteristics of this production: but if the reader will imagine a piece of hazy prose-poetry dedicated to the glories of a picturesque, monumental country, he will have formed a tolerably correct estimate of "The Real and the Ideal."

Mr. Lowndes has rendered excellent service to the best interests of literature in a valuable treatise on "The Law of Copyright;"" in which he traces, historically, the course of that description of property, and shows clearly that such a right did formerly exist, and that it was only taken away by a mistaken interpretation of an act of parliament passed in the reign of Queen Anne. It seems indeed incredible, in this age and this enlightened and improving empire, always foremost in the battle for the emancipation of the human mind, that a question should at this moment be mooted in the House of Commons, and opposed by a strong majority, as to whether an author is entitled to a reasonable share of the profits of his own labour — for it is not even contended that he ought to have a freehold in his works. Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the length of the tenure, it is difficult to reconcile with the commonest notions of justice that spirit of bigotry which refuses him the limited leasehold proposed and refused over and over again within the last few sessions. England stands alone in this disgraceful legislation for men of genius. Every other country in the world, where the civilisation of letters has improved the character and tastes of men, has a law of copyright more liberal and equitable than our own. Mr. Lowndes supplies an account of the laws of copyright (and this portion

5 The Real and the Ideal; or Illustrations of Travel. 1840.

Vols. London: Saunders & Otley.

6 An Historical Sketch of the Law of Copyright; with Remarks on Sergeant Talfourd's Bill: and an Appendix of the Copyright Laws of Foreign Countries. By JOHN J. LOWNDES, Esq. London: Saunders & Benning. 1840.

of the book is perhaps the most curious and instructive) extant in America, France, Holland, Belgium, the Germanic States, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain, and the two Sicilies, and even carries us into Russia, to prove that the most flagrant despotism on the face of the earth is more tender of the interests of men of learning and genius than this land of liberty and wealth,—“the envy of surrounding nations, and the admiration of the world!" The reader will be surprised to learn that there is a special enactment in the Russian code conferring on certain degrees of literary success certain titles of rank and honour-a recognition of the influence and importance of literature undreamt of in patronising England. But to insure the property of authors in addition to heaping honourable distinctions upon them, it is enacted by law in Russia, that the author or translator of a work (the latter being included in the privilege no doubt for the sake of encouraging the introduction of letters from other countries) shall possess the sole right of printing and disposing of it during his lifetime, and that his heirs and assigns shall enjoy the same for the term of twenty-five years after his decease, and for a further term of ten years if they shall publish an edition within five years before the expiration of the first term. The privileges of the author are further secured by a provision which prohibits his creditors from taking his copyright in execution, whether it has been printed or not, or, in cases of the bankruptcy of booksellers, from availing themselves of any benefit to which the bookseller might have been entitled, unless they strictly fulfil all the engagements he had undertaken to perform with the author; and in cases of piracy it provides that the party guilty of piracy shall pay to the proprietor of the work the difference between the actual cost of the pirated edition and the selling price of the original, forfeiting at the same time all the unsold copies of his unlawful reprint. We wish Sergeant Talfourd would abandon his bill, and make a motion to the effect that the English legislature should adopt, word for word, this admirable law from the code of barbarian Russia! The reproof would strike home we were about to write Hume.

"A Volume of Poems," by Mr. Sterling', chiefly reprinted from Blackwood's Magazine, evinces a fine sensibility, and a subdued and pure taste, which are rarely found in the poetical trifles that find niches in our periodicals. The originals that have made the deepest impression on Mr. Sterling's mind are evidently Wordsworth and Coleridge. Their spirits gravely thread the pages of this tiny book, inspiring fresh images and sweet thoughts, but never tempting the poet into the distorting agonies of imitation. There must be, or ought to be, mighty poetical intelligences in every age, to give a direction to the young life growing up around and after them; and we can as easily distinguish between those who have imbibed their influence truly in their hearts, and those who strain at verbal and artificial imitations of them, as we can distinguish between the landscape gardener, who, impressed deeply with the elementary principles of his art, applies them in a thousand new forms and picturesque combinations, and the unimaginative labourer who digs, plants, and clips by rule and line. Mr. Sterling belongs to the former order, bringing an original grace to beautify and embellish his progress.

8

A narrative of the persecutions of the Protestants of Zillerthal ®, and

7 Poems, by JOHN STERLING. London: Edward Moxon. 1839.

8 The Protestant Exiles of Zillerthal: their Persecutions and Expatriations from the Tyrol, on separating from the Romish Church, and embracing the Reformed Faith; translated from the German of Dr. Rheinwald, of Berlin. By JOHN B. SAUNDERS. London: Hatchard & Son; and Nisbet & Co. 1840.

their expulsion from the Tyrol by the Austrian Government, originally published by its author, Dr. Rheinwald, in "Der Allgemeine Repertorium für Theologische Literatur und Kirkliche Statistik," of which he is editor, has been recently translated into English. The case is one of rank oppression, and we cannot reasonably object to the indignation which glows through the account of these people, who have suffered so much for conscience sake: nor will it answer any right purpose to set against it any like oppressions which may have disgraced the Protestants, for every honest man's hand ought to be against oppression wherever it appears, or in whatever cause it is employed. But the object with which this tract is pressed forward does not improve our charities in proportion to the extent appealed to by the writer. It is evidently a fresh accusation against Popery, designed to inflame the prejudices of all "good Protestants," at a crisis when, for political purposes, a cry of bigotry has been vainly attempted to be got up in the country. For this reason, we receive it with caution, and are not unmindful of the tone of exaggeration and rampant zeal in which it is written. Sympathising earnestly with the wrongs of the Reformers of the Tyrol, we are yet careful to discriminate between a special tyranny, and that wider expanse of antipathy into which such recitals are craftily calculated to draw us.

At a moment when the nation is rejoicing with one heart over the auspicious nuptials of the Queen, every particular that can be gleaned concerning the life, character, and connections of Prince Albert, must possess deep and general interest. Several publications have appeared, in which the historical glories of the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha are faithfully chronicled, and of all these, perhaps the most compact and worthy, in all senses of the theme, is that which is entitled, " Prince Albert, his Country and Kindred." The contents of this book appear to have been carefully compiled, and furnish, upon the whole, a very full account of that distinguished dynasty; vindicating not merely the Protestantism of the Prince the last thing that any one acquainted with the history of the Reformation, would have ventured to call into question-but establishing his title on many other grounds, political and personal, to the implicit respect of the people of England. The description of the principality, of the costume and habits of the people, of its laws, institutions, and progress, and the biography of the Prince, as far as any materials can be collected, exhibit sufficient research to satisfy the popular curiosity; and a variety of rich and handsome embellishments increase the value and interest of the publication.

We have before us two lectures by Mr. Fry on Milton 10 and Burke11, in which a wide reach of inquiry, and an ardent spirit of liberal criticism are displayed in a form admirably adapted to the purposes of the lecture. Such works as these are amongst the most effective instruments of public instruction; and when it is added that these lectures, full of vivid eloquence, applied to subjects of a highly intellectual order, were delivered at several of those institutions which have been created by the universal demand for knowledge, we hardly need any more convincing proof of the avidity of the people to acquire useful and enlightening information, and of the impossibility of arresting their onward progress in civilisation. The characters of

9 Prince Albert, his Country and Kindred. London: THOMAS WARD & Co. 1840.

10 A Lecture on the Writings and Character of John Milton, &c. By ALFRED A. FRY, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn. Henry Hooper.

11 A Lecture on the Writings and Character of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke. BY ALFRED A. FRY, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn. Henry Hooper.