Chapter 28

Printed by T. and A.Constable, Printers to His Majestyat the Edinburgh University Press

Printed by T. and A.Constable, Printers to His Majesty

at the Edinburgh University Press

1. We have not forgotten Defoe as one of our own writers. The author of Robinson Crusoe was an Englishman; and one of those Englishmen who make us proud of the name.

2. See, among a thousand instances, the conclusion of the story of Geneura.—‘And all that day we read no more!’

3. The late Mr. Burke was a writer of a very splendid imagination, and great command of words. This was, with many persons, a sufficient ground for concluding that he was a mere rhetorician, without depth of thought or solidity of judgment.

4. .sp 1‘Gli occhi di ch’io parlai si caldamenteE le braccia, e le mani, e i piedi, e ‘l visoChe m’ havean si da me stesso diviso,E fatto singular fra l’ altra gente;Le crispe chiome d’ or puro lucente,E ‘l lampeggiar de l’ angelico riso,Che solean far in terra un paradiso,Poco pulvere son che nulla sente!Ed io pur vivo! onde mi doglio e sdegno.Rimaso senza ‘l lume, ch’ amai tanto,In gran fortuna, e ‘n disarmato legno.Or sia qui fine al mio amoroso canto.Secca e la vena de l’ usato ingegnoE la cetera mia rivolta in pianto.’Literally as follows. ‘Those eyes of which I spoke so warmly, and the arms, and the hands, and the feet, and the face, which have robbed me of myself, and made me different from others; those crisped locks of pure shining gold, and the lightning of that angelical smile, which used to make a heaven upon earth, are now a little dust which feels nothing!—And I still remain! whence I lament and disdain myself, left without the light which I loved so much, in a troubled sea, and with dismantled bark. Here then must end all my amorous songs. Dry is the vein of my exhausted genius, and my lyre answers only in lamentations!’

4. .sp 1

‘Gli occhi di ch’io parlai si caldamenteE le braccia, e le mani, e i piedi, e ‘l visoChe m’ havean si da me stesso diviso,E fatto singular fra l’ altra gente;Le crispe chiome d’ or puro lucente,E ‘l lampeggiar de l’ angelico riso,Che solean far in terra un paradiso,Poco pulvere son che nulla sente!Ed io pur vivo! onde mi doglio e sdegno.Rimaso senza ‘l lume, ch’ amai tanto,In gran fortuna, e ‘n disarmato legno.Or sia qui fine al mio amoroso canto.Secca e la vena de l’ usato ingegnoE la cetera mia rivolta in pianto.’

‘Gli occhi di ch’io parlai si caldamente

E le braccia, e le mani, e i piedi, e ‘l viso

Che m’ havean si da me stesso diviso,

E fatto singular fra l’ altra gente;

Le crispe chiome d’ or puro lucente,

E ‘l lampeggiar de l’ angelico riso,

Che solean far in terra un paradiso,

Poco pulvere son che nulla sente!

Ed io pur vivo! onde mi doglio e sdegno.

Rimaso senza ‘l lume, ch’ amai tanto,

In gran fortuna, e ‘n disarmato legno.

Or sia qui fine al mio amoroso canto.

Secca e la vena de l’ usato ingegno

E la cetera mia rivolta in pianto.’

Literally as follows. ‘Those eyes of which I spoke so warmly, and the arms, and the hands, and the feet, and the face, which have robbed me of myself, and made me different from others; those crisped locks of pure shining gold, and the lightning of that angelical smile, which used to make a heaven upon earth, are now a little dust which feels nothing!—And I still remain! whence I lament and disdain myself, left without the light which I loved so much, in a troubled sea, and with dismantled bark. Here then must end all my amorous songs. Dry is the vein of my exhausted genius, and my lyre answers only in lamentations!’

5. The universality of Shakespear’s genius has, perhaps, been a disadvantage to his single works: the variety of his resources has prevented him from giving that intense concentration of interest to some of them which they might have had. He is in earnest only in Lear and Timon. He combined the powers of Æschylus and Aristophanes, of Dante and Rabelais, in his own mind. If he had been only half what he was, he might have seemed greater.

6. Do not publications generally find their way there, without adirection? R.

7. Why to Great Britain alone? R.

8. ‘Multiscience (or a variety and quantity of acquired knowledge) does not teach intelligence. But the Sibyll with wild enthusiastic mouth shrilling forth unmirthful, inornate, and unperfumed truths, reaches to a thousand years with her voice through the power of God.’

9. With all proper allowances for the effects of the Mundungus, we must say that this answer appears to us very curiously characteristic of the exaggerated and canting tone of this poet and his associates. A man may or may not think time misemployed in reading newspapers:—but we believe no man, out of the Pantisocratic or Lake school, ever dreamed of denouncing it as unchristian and impious—even if he had not himself begun and ended his career as an Editor of newspapers. The same absurd exaggeration is visible in his magnificent eulogium on the conversational talents of his Birmingham Unitarians.

10. See his criticisms on Bertram, vol.II., reprinted from the Courier.

11. We are aware that time conquers even nature, and that the characters of nations change with a total change of circumstances. The modern Italians are a very different race of people from the ancient Romans. This gives us some chance. In the decomposition and degeneracy of the sturdy old English character, which seems fast approaching, the mind and muscles of the country may be sufficiently relaxed and softened to imbibe a taste for all the refinements of luxury and show; and a century of slavery may yield us a crop of the Fine Arts, to be soon buried in sloth and barbarism again.

12. This name, for some reason or other, does not once occur in these Memoirs.

13. The Editor of the Englishman for many years was a Mr. Radcliffe. He had been formerly attached to some of our embassies into Italy, where his lady accompanied him; and here she imbibed that taste for picturesque scenery, and the obscure and wild superstitions of mouldering castles, of which she has made so beautiful a use in her Romances. The fair authoress kept herself almost as muchincognitoas the Author of Waverley; nothing was known of her but her name in the title-page. She never appeared in public, nor mingled in private society, but kept herself apart, like the sweet bird that sings its solitary notes, shrowded and unseen.

14. Many of these articles (particularly the Theatrical Criticism) are unavoidably written over night, just as the paper is going to the press, without correction or previous preparation. Yet they will often stand a comparison with more laboured compositions. It is curious, that what is done at so short a notice should bear so few marks of haste. In fact, there is a kind ofextemporewriting, as well asextemporespeaking. Both are the effect of necessity and habit. If a man has but words and ideas in his head, he can express himself in a longer or a shorter time (with a little practice), just as he has a motive for doing it. Where there is the necessary stimulus for making the effort, what is given from a first impression, what is struck off at a blow, is in many respects better than what is produced on reflection, and at several heats.

15. One of Mr. Landor’s refinements in spelling.

16. ‘Calculating the prices of provisions, and the increase of taxes, the poet-laureate, in the time of Elizabeth, had about four times as much as at present: so that Cecil spoke reasonably, Elizabeth royally.’—Note by the Author.We were unwilling to suppress this hint for the increase of the laureate’s salary, considering how worthily the situation is filled at present; and Mr. Landor’s recommendation must be peremptory at court. We observe that our author’s spelling of the word ‘laureate’ is the same as Mr. Southey’s. Is the latter indebted to the same source for the learned Orientalism ofTâtarfor Tartar? What a significant age we live in! How many extravagant conclusions and false assumptions lurk under that one orthoepy! He who innovates in things where custom alone is concerned, must be proof against its suggestions in all other cases; and when reason and fancy come into play, must indeed be a law to himself.

We were unwilling to suppress this hint for the increase of the laureate’s salary, considering how worthily the situation is filled at present; and Mr. Landor’s recommendation must be peremptory at court. We observe that our author’s spelling of the word ‘laureate’ is the same as Mr. Southey’s. Is the latter indebted to the same source for the learned Orientalism ofTâtarfor Tartar? What a significant age we live in! How many extravagant conclusions and false assumptions lurk under that one orthoepy! He who innovates in things where custom alone is concerned, must be proof against its suggestions in all other cases; and when reason and fancy come into play, must indeed be a law to himself.

17. We do not see this question in the same point of view as our author. By his leave (as a mere general and speculative question), the conquerors become amalgamated with the conquered: barbarism becomes civilized. The claim of tyrants to rule over slaves is the only principle that is eternal. These are the only two races, whose interests are never reconciled.

18. ‘Ææa, the island of Circe.’

19. ‘The viper was the armorial device of the Visconti, tyrants of Milan.’

20. Lectures on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth.

21. ‘The pavilions of the Caliphs of Bagdad were not so deliciously placed, nor so sumptuously raised, as this retreat of the self-denying brotherhood of the Certosa. It was founded in the fourteenth century by Charles, son of Robert of Arragon, King of Naples.’

22. Evelyn, who visited Naples about this time, observes that ‘the country people are so jovial and so addicted to music, that the very husbandmen almost universally play on the guitar, singing and accompanying songs in praise of their sweethearts, and will commonly go to the field with their fiddle. They are merry, witty, and genial, all of which I attribute to their ayre.’—Memoirs, vol.I.

23. ‘Among the women were the Signorine Leonora and Caterina, who were never heard but with rapture’ (says Della Valle, a contemporary of Salvator, in speaking of the female musicians of this time) ‘particularly the elder who accompanied herself on the arch lute. I remember their mother in her youth, when she sailed in her felucca near the grotto of Pausilippo, with her golden harp in her hand; but in our times these shores were inhabited by syrens, not only beautiful and tuneful, but virtuous and beneficent.’

24. Burney’s History of Music. Dr. Burney purchased an old music book of Salvator’s compositions, of his granddaughter, in 1773, and brought it over with him to England.

25. He was thrown into gaol and executed, for his concern in some desperate enterprise.

26. Why so? Was it not said just before, that this painter was deep in the Neapolitan school? But Lady Morgan will have it so, and we cannot contradict her.

27. We might refer to the back-ground of the St. Peter Martyr. Claude, Gaspar, and Salvator could not have painted this one back-ground among them! but we have already remarked, thatcomparisons are odious.

28. The Cardinal Sforza Pallavicini, having been present by his own request at the recitation of one of these pieces, and being asked his opinion, declared, that ‘Salvator’s poetry was full of splendid passages, but that, as a whole, it was unequal.’

29. Lady Morgan is always quarrelling with Passeri’s style, because it is not that of a modern Blue-stocking.

30. Hector St. John.

31. Verse and poetry has its source in this principle: it is the harmony of the soul imparted from the strong impulse of pleasure to language and to indifferent things; as a person hearing music walks in a sustained and measured step over uneven ground.

32. It does not appear that the general form was coloured, as Mr. Flaxman seems to argue.

33. ‘It was the refuse, or what was called thewhig, of the milk; and was applied,’ says a Tory writer, ‘to what was still more sour, a Scotch Presbyterian.’

34. Oldmixon’s History of England.

35. Defoe’s ‘Appeal to Honour and Honesty.’

36. Oldmixon’s History of England, vol.III.p. 36.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESSilently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

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