among the rest, a number of characteristic descriptions. We thus have the divine of the last century : -- "Each Sunday Dr. Masham dined with the family; and he was the only guest at Cherbury whom Venetia ever remembered seeing. The Doctor was a regular orthodox divine of the eighteenth century, with a large cauliflower-wig, shovel-hat, and huge knee-buckles, barely covered by his topboots; learned, jovial, humorous, and somewhat courtly; truly pious, but not enthusiastic; not forgetful of his tithes, but generous and charitable when they were once paid; never neglecting the sick, yet occasionally following a fox; a fine scholar, an active magistrate, and a good shot; dreading the Pope and hating the Presbyterians. The Doctor was attached to the Herbert family, not merely because they had given him a good livinghe had a great reverence for the old English race, and turned up his nose at the Walpolian loan-mongers. Lady Annabel, too, so beautiful, so dignified, so amiable and highly bred, and, above all, so pious, had won his regard." The Rector. This is certainly a divine of another school than ours Hunting and shooting are not within the present qualifications; but the essentials are well preserved-the learning, the manliness, and the courtesy are justly done honour to, and until it shall be our fate to fall under the sullen revenge and squalid severities of hypocrites, I trust that the divine of the Established Church will be distinguished for the whole three. To make the character perfect, he wants only one excellence more-energy: without it he must perish, with it he will inevitably be master of the field. The Barrister. The boy Byron is well introduced. He comes with his mother to return Lady Annabel's civilities— "A few days after the visit to Cadurcis (Newstead Abbey). When Lady Annabel was sitting alone, a postchaise drove up to the hall, whence issued a short and very stout woman, with a rubicund countenance, and dressed in a style which remarkably blended the shabby with the tawdry. He was accompanied by a boy between eleven and twelve years of age, whose appearance, however, very much contrasted with that of his mother, for he was very pale and slender, with long curling hair, and large black eyes, which occasionally, by their transient flashes, agreeably relieved a face, the general expression of which might be deemed shy and sullen." In volumes which, like these, wander from topic to topic, and from country to country, it must be idle to quote extensively. The reader should be left to make his own way through this prairie, now resting in some spot of beauty, now hurrying through some wild and gusty scene, now gazing at its images of natural grandeur, now refreshing his spirit with draughts from its founts of fantasy; but some fragments of verse are to be found, like images of polished marble. Of those one is a stanza on the birth of a first child : : "Within our heaven of love, the new-born star, We long devoutly watch'd, like shepherd kings, THE DRAMA. WE have turned from the Drama of late, as from a dreary subject, stale, flat, and unprofitable. Two events, however, have occurred within the past month to throw a grace upon the declining season; and the manager at either house has resolved, just as he was shutting his doors, to die with dignity. We allude to the appearance of Schroeder-Devrient at Drury-lane, and to the production of Mr. Browning's tragedy of "Strafford at Coventgarden. The public have been rather apathetic, we fear, upon both points, and have missed enjoyments of a very high kind. Schrader's English version of the character of Fidelio ought to have taken the "willing souls" of all classes of play-goers, and lapped them in the elysium of pit, gallery, and box. It should have been heard by everybody, and then the critics would have been spared the hopeless task of endeavouring to make its excellence comprehended. It embodied the soul of that magnificent music, and spoke to the innermost depths of the heart, in a continued succession of the finest human emotions. Nor should we, turning to the other house, bestow less than the highest praise upon the admirable delineation of Strafford's character by Mr. Macready. It perfectly filled up, with as much delicacy as force, the bold, varied, and original design of the author. The powers of Mr. Browning were fully recognised in the "New Monthly "soon after the first evidence of them ("Paracelsus ") appeared. "Strafford" bears out the impression then made, and bids us look to its author, as to one who may become a liberal, we may add, an illustrious contributor, to our treasures of dramatic poetry. Its chief defect as a drama is probably that which the poet himself has suggested,-it is rather a representation "of action in character, than character in action." Pym is a splendid portrait; he is a man worthy to be the friend of "lion-Elliott, that grand Englishman." To be appreciated as a stage-performance, and achieve the triumph as an acting drama, which, as a dramatic picture of the mighty spirits of England working out their solemn purposes, it has already won, it must be played only to audiences of more than average intelligence. It is a work as much above the thinking public of the theatre, as the new drama which immediately succeeled it, is, or ought to be, beneath. "Walter Tyrrell," however, has some pretty poetical spangles glittering upon its suit of fustian, which here and there makes its look quite fine; and has at least served one good purpose, by introducing Mr. Elton to the audience at Covent-garden. He infused into some of the scenes a noble spirit, and has since played Iachimo and Jaffier in a style at once energetic, discriminative, and intellectual. We shall be glad to see more of this gentleman at the Haymarket, whither also Mr. Macready goes. THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. WILLIAM THE FOURTH. SINCE the publication of our last Number it has pleased GOD to remove from this transitory life His Most Gracious MAJESTY, KING WILLIAM THE FOURTH; and we can safely and conscientiously say never was monarch more sincerely or more universally regretted. His loss is felt by the nation like that of a parent rather than of a sovereign -a sentiment easily accounted for by the unbounded kindness of heart, benevolence of intention, and goodness of feeling which characterized every action of his life. The sufferings of our beloved KING towards the close of existence were deep and severe; but, as far as human means could avail, they were soothed and softened by the devoted attentions of his incomparable Consort. To do justice to those attentions is beyond the power of our language, and we therefore borrow the words of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, used in addressing the Metropolis Churches' Fund Society. His Grace said— That he could not accept their thanks to him, as their vice-patron, without adverting to the great affliction that had befallen them, in the loss of their benevolent and illustrious patron. He would not speak of his virtues as a man or a Sovereign, but merely as a patron of their society. When first he applied to him for the sanction of his name to their society, he at once, with that frankness for which he was so remarkable, expressed his readiness to advance the interests of the society in any way that lay in his power. By his death the society had received a shock of the most severe nature, from which, however, he sincerely hoped it would recover under the protection of her present Majesty. From the assiduous care with which her amiable mother had watched over her, he had every reason to expect that her reign would be as illustrious as that of any other woman who had ever sat on the throne of these realms. It was not many days since he had attended on his late Sovereign during the last few days of his life, and truly it was an edifying sight to witness the patience with which he endured sufferings the most oppressive, his thankfulness to the Almighty for any alleviations under his most painful disorder, his sense of every attention paid to him, the absence of all expressions of impatience, his attention to the discharge of every public duty to the utmost of his power, his attention to every paper that was brought to him, the serious state of his mind, and his attention to his religions duties preparatory to his departure for that happy world where he hoped that he had then been called to. Three different times (said his Grace) was I summoned to his presence the day before his dissolution. He received the Sacrament first; on my second summons I read the Church service to him; and the third time I appeared, the oppression under which he laboured prevented him from joining outwardly in service, though he appeared sensible of the consolation which I read to him out of our religious service. For three weeks prior to the dissolution the Queen had sat by his bed-side, performing for him every office which a sick man July-VOL. L. NO. CXCIX. X |