'Charleston.-Manager, Mr. PLACIDE. Performers, Mr. and Mrs. BRAY, Mr. and Mrs. CLARK, Mr. and Mrs. UTT, Messrs. CAULFIELD, FOX, CLOUGH, SPEAR, RUTHERFORD, SULLY, TURNBULL, JONES, RINGWOOD, Mrs. LIPMAN and Miss FIELD.' We have a good many more actors now in the United States than there were when this list was made out, but we have no better performers, and never shall have, than some whose names it includes. When, for example, shall we have such a comedian as 'old JEFFERSON?' Was there ever a better Dogberry' than his? We laugh back through twenty years while we think of it. He stands before us at this moment, with that cunningest eye brow of his running slant-wise up the solemn forehead, and that portentous nose! Well do we remember him too in the play of 'Who's the Dupe? In fact, who can ever forget, that ever saw him in that play, the silly old antiquarian with his ridiculous 'antiquities,' his cherished gridiron-model of the 'Escurial,' and the like? -or the excitement which the ignorant old ass manifests when the two young men, candidates for his pretty daughter's hand, are 'pitted' against each other in spouting Latin and another dead language,' got up for the occasion by the successful suitor, expressly for the old gentleman's ear? Here ensues a criticism upon the acting of Mr. SIMPSON, of the Park-Theatre, in the character of 'Madiboo. Remember, this was a little less than forty years ago: "WE would invite the attention of Mr. SIMPSON for one moment to a fault which is the natural companion of that liveliness, spirit and feeling that we so much admire in him, and this is, an occasional hurry in his manner, which prevents him from giving finish and effect to many passages, and often robs them of the impressiveness they would otherwise possess. He too often overshoots the point where effect is to be produced, and in a manner, to speak technically, gives the clap-trap' the go-by. He apparently acts entirely from feeling; and though this gives his performances an uncommon appearance of nature, yet it would not be impolitic in him to rein in his youthful ardor, to curb that hey-day of the spirits that runs frolic through the veins,' and pay some attention to stage effect and the justifiable arts of an able actor. Mr. SIMPSON is one for whom age and experience will do much. He has admirable materials for his profession; and when sober Time has taken off the fiery edge of his youth and tamed down that wild exuberance which sometimes runs away with the young performer, we shall be much disappointed if he is not distinguished for a style of acting, rich, chaste and mellow.' Think of Mr. SIMPSON'S 'liveliness' and 'fiery-edged exuberance!' 'Don't seem possible, sca'cely;' yet our old friend the Manager has seen the time when he was as good as ever he was.' We do not quite like the 'Simple Love-Story' which reaches us from Westchester. And yet its style is not amiss; moreover, the tale admirably illustrates a thought of one among the best of our American poets (and that's HOLMES,') in a brief poem of his, which we imperfectly remember; yet thereabout especially of it where he speaks nearly or quite in this wise: 'WELL, one may trail her silken robe, And one may tread the dewy grass And one the marble floor, Nor half-hid bosom heave the less, 6 What we particularly disaffect is the love-dialogue portion of the story. You cannot make the protestations, the terms of endearment, the tender diminutives of newly-awakened affection, pleasant reading, any way that you can fix it.' True love is always shy and silent.' There is a good lesson, however, conveyed in the fate of the ambitious suitor, who was desirous of clinching a strong impression.' He forgot that the best way to be remembered by others is never to forget one's self. READER, have you seen Mr. E. WHITEFIELD's Views of Buffalo, Rochester and Brooklyn? If not, we suggest that you avail yourself of the first opportunity to enjoy that pleasure. They are of large size, excellently drawn, clearly engraved, and printed in tinted colors, faithful to nature. The like praise may be awarded to the same artist's 'Delineations of North-American Scenery,' the first Part' of which, containing views of a Country-seat near Yonkers,'' View on the Ohio River,' 'Cohoes Falls,' (not so good,) and View on the Susquehanna.' The letter-press and printing are excellent; and we add no comment to the sufficient fact that the descriptions of the scenes depicted are from the capable pen of JOHN KEESE, Esq. How distinct and palpable is now the fate of young Russ, whom we saw for a moment in the court-room the other morning! The circle of the law, which seemed no doubt at first to spread so broadly around him, is now fast narrowing to a hempen one; he will soon march sorrowfully to the gallows, there be noosed up to vibrate his hour, and then the surgeons will dissect him and fit his bones into a skeleton for medical purposes.' Victim of unbridled passion though he be, there are many hearts that ache to-night for that wretched, wretched man. IF you could see correct drawings, reader, of the horrid animalcula which abound in river-water, you would appreciate with us the great excellence and value of 'Jennison's Croton Filters,' which are ornamented, will last for years, are not liable to get out of repair, nor subject to damage from frost. They cleanse themselves, and perfectly filter the Croton water, under any degree of pressure. They are invaluable. WON'T our friend PORTER, of the 'Spirit of the Times,' be good enough to mention to 'The Young 'Un,' as he styles himself, that his long story upon a short subject, entitled 'A Yankee at a Dentist's,' was first told at all needful length in this department of the 'OLD KNICK.,' whence it was copied into 'The Spirit' itself, as well as most other journals in the United States? Do, 'f you please.' The matter is of less importance, certainly, than the state of the country,' or 'the principles of '98;' but one may as well be correct. 'OLLAPOD' was wont to say that the most ridiculous sight he ever beheld was a short fat Englishman in a tight short-skirted coat, looking with a turnip opera-glass into the Great Horse-Shoe Fall at Niagara. The Buffalo Daily Advertiser' records an even more laughable sight; a cockney New-Yorker, who arrived in the night, calling a servant and going out in the dark to see the Great Cataract by the light of a stable-lamp! What a 'range' he must have had!. Mr. CHARLES L. ELLIOTT has recently completed a portrait of DAVID AUSTEN, Esq., of this city, which is conceded by every capable judge of art who has seen it, to be one of the very best pictures ever painted in this country. The likeness is perfect; the color magical; in other words, it is nature itself - specific flesh-and-blood. We conceive this picture alone to place Mr. ELLIOTT upon the very pinnacle of the art of portraiture; and in this judgment we are confirmed by all who have seen it. THANK you for nothing,' Mr. Bangor Correspondent!' We think we see ourselves reading over a manuscript of three hundred foolscap pages,' and expressing our opinion of it, for an obliged stranger!' The offer, that if we like any passages of it, when it is published in the book-form, we may be the first to copy them,' we regard as liberal. It reminds us of the old Dutchman's remark to one who had watched him for an hour or two, while he warmed and made ready, one cold winter's evening, a pitcher of cider. When it was in complete order, he raised the vessel to his lips, and without removing it, drained it to the very bottom. 'Dere now,' said he, holding out the pitcher to his friend, dat ish vat I calls coot citer! If you ton't p❜lieve dat ish coot citer, jusht you shmell of te mug! We decline the kindred favor.' P.' will bear in mind that we expressed no opinion as to the correctness of the views assumed in the article entitled The American and English Ac tress.' We certainly deemed the contrast-style adopted by the writer as one not in consonance with good taste, and liable to disparaging comment. The high estimate which this Magazine places upon the acting of Mrs. KEAN is surely sufficiently well known to its readers. We have never had the pleasure to see Mrs. MOWATT upon the stage, except on the occasion of her very promising début; and we thought her present popularity, as evinced by that safest of all tests, full houses, was palpable evidence of her great improvement and general dramatic excellence. But if the encomiums awarded her were a little exaggerated,' as is charged, it can do no harm to our fair countrywoman. We should never be too niggardly in our praise of true American talent; for the commended person will often do more to support a character than to gain one. 'Are you answered?" TIM,' as one of our state legistators would say, has more fluency than talency.' 'HOMER,' he says, apologetically, 'sometimes nodded.' HOMER might have nodded, but he did n't snore through a whole ream of foolscap did he? I NOTICE many things,' said an American lady, of breeding and intelligence, to us the other evening, in the speech of my countrymen and women, which sound strange to me, after a residence of twenty or thirty years in Her British Majesty's dominions. For example, I was in a small tradesman's shop in Broadway, a day or two since, when a man entered, to whom the shop-keeper said, 'How do you do? Well,' said he. How's the wife?' 'Ditto,' he replied. And the two daughters?' continued the tradesman. Ditto, ditto!" replied the other. All this struck me as very day-book-and-ledger-ish. Presently the man took hold of the door to go out. 'Hang on, a minute,' said the shop-keeper, 'I want to talk to you; and he did hang on' to the door, while the tradesman called to his daughter in the back-room to come to him right away,' which struck me as a contradiction in terms.' ・・・ THAT was a most worthy and appropriate tribute which was recently paid to our esteemed correspondent and friend, PHILIP HONE, Esq., by a select committee of the first merchants of this great commercial emporium. They purchased, unknown to Mr. HONE, the superb marble bust of himself by CLEVINGER, and placed it permanently in the Mercantile Library Association,' an institution which owes so much to the distinguished recipient of the honor thus conveyed. The whole affair was most delicately and tastefully managed. Of Mr. HONE's admirable letter of acknowledgment it is only necessary to say that it was in all respects worthy of himself. ONE word as to the copyright which appears on a blank leaf of this Magazine. Its design is to secure to the hirsute ' Egyptian,' who writes the unique Letters' under that name, an authentic claim to his productions. Our friends of the press are quite at liberty to quote from our pages, as always heretofore. We only ask that the proper credit be given to the KNICKERBOCKER; a thing which our friends of the 'Anglo-American' weekly gazette forgot to append to the two or three pages of Gossip' which they did us the honor to copy from our last number.. We have many communications on file that were too late for the present issue, which goes to press at an earlier period of the month than usual. The ever-attractive 'Saint Leger Papers' will be continued in our next, and The Reign of the People' concluded, if we can in the mean time decipher the wretched manuscript, which has the added advantage of being half-paged and that half mis-paged, as if there a wilful pertinacity to mislead on the part of the writer, whoever he may be, or not!'... Books and communications received too late for notice in the present number will receive attention in our next. LITERARY RECORD. - A new and very beautiful edition of 'Zenobia, or the Fall of Palmyra,' has just been issued from the press of Messrs. JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, Boston. This admirable work, which was originally written for and published in the KNICKERBOCKER, is now in its seventh American and fourth or fifthEnglish edition. This fact affords a species of practical praise, to which nothing in the way of commendation need be added. We can only commend, and we do so most cordially, the present form, in one convenient and beautifully-printed volume, as leaving nothing to be desired by the purchaser of this very popular historical romance. ・・・ We have received from the publishers, Messrs. WILLIAM D. TICKNOR AND COMPANY, Boston, two pretty volumes of poetry, the one entitled 'The Estray,' a Collection of Poems,' of various authors, by HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, and Poems' by WILLIAM BUCHANAN READ.' We shall discuss the merits of these two collections in a subsequent number. ・ ・ ・ MESSRS. CAREY AND HART, Philadelphia, have published in a large and handsome volume, uniform with GRISWOLD's excellent series, 'Specimens of the Poets and Poetry of Greece and Rome, by Various Translators.' The work is edited by Rev. WILLIAM PETERS, of Christ-Church, Oxford. The numerous extracts are selected from upward of an hundred and twenty Greek and Roman authors, while there are a great number of passages from uncertain authors. It is a very valuable work; is well executed, and embellished by two superb engravings, representing the Coliseum at Rome and the Parthenon at Athens. ・・・ Ship and Shore, or Pencil Sketches of a recent Voyage to, and Tour in Old England,' is the title of a collection of letters originally published in the 'Christian Watchman,' a religious and family newspaper. Without presenting any thing that is especially new, these sketches are yet very pleasant reading, and may be pronounced interesting. The writer should have adopted some other title for his work than⚫ Ship and Shore.' Our friend Rev. Alcaide WALTER COLTON, now of Monterey on the Pacific, was in the field before him, under the same title. . . MR. REDFIELD, Clinton-Hall, has issued in two very neat volumes Jacques, by George Sand,' (Madame DUDEVANT,) the translation by our fair corres-> pondent, Miss ANNA BLACKWELL. The work is very popular in France, and so far as we have been able to judge from a hasty perusal, it deserves its reputation. The translation is evidently faithful; but we notice one or two inaccuracies which we trust may be corrected in a subsequent edition. 'You who alone comprehends Old JACQUES,' for example, and compassionates his sufferings,' (see the eighty-ninth page) is about as grammatical an expression as 'Cats eats mice.' 'A Kentuckian' in a pamphlet republished from the Washington Union,' seems to have successfully vindicated the memory of POCAHONTAS against what would certainly seem to be the erroneous judgment of the Hon. WADDY THOMPSON in his late work, Recollections of Mexico.' We invite to this 'Defence' the attention of our readers. ・・・ WE have read, and with pleasure, 'Mr. Fosdick's Thanksgiving Sermon on Intemperance,' delivered at the Hollis-street Church in Boston, of which he is the pastor. He assumes and proves that there is great intemperance on the subject of temperance; intemperance in the matter of slavery; intemperance on the subject of war, and on the theme of social inequalities; and he inculcates 'Temperance in all things' as the proper creed. But Mr. FOSDICK might as well preach to the wind. The tendency of every public reform' in this country is ultraism. Hobbies are ridden to death by scores of so-called 'reformers;' and they generally find their end' in so doing. They derive as much profit from riding or driving a hobby, as they would out of the stoutest road. ster; and that, you see, is 'the secret of it.' ・・・ 'The Tailor's Eclectic Repository,' issued from the publication-office of this Magazine, by D. WILLIAMS AND COMPANY, is a work which commends itself to the profession' every where. All matters embraced in the Theorie de l'Art du Tailleur' are here set forth, in direction and illustration; and, that the authentic styles should be early known, the French plates of the fashions are presented every month. ... READ 'Dreamland, a Vision of the New-Year, by Lincoln Ramble.' The author is a genial spirit, who possesses humor, imagination, wields a trenchant as well as a pleasant pen, and detests cant of every description.・・・ MR. GEORGE VIRTUE, Number 26 John street, continues the publication of his very beautiful 'Devotional Family Bible.' The printing, the paper and the superb engravings make this a work of preeminent merit and attraction. We are not surprised to learn that it is attaining an immense sale. · THE following excellent publications reached us at too late an hour to enable us to do more than to announce them and commend them to public attention: The Modern Standard Drama,' edited by EPES SARGENT, a series now in its fourth volume; 'Science, and the Arts of Industry,' by Rev. ALONZO POTTER; LOVER'S 'Songs and Ballads;' 'Spaniards and their Country,' by RICHARD FORD; SHEE on the Potato-Plant;' three volumes of Messrs. LEA AND BLANCHARD'S 'Small Books on Great Subjects,' etc., etc. ART. I. LETTERS FROM THE GULF STATES. NUMBER ONE, VI. THE MOTHER'S LAST PRAYER, 197 205 VII. THE REIGN OF THE PEOPLE. CONCLUDED, IX. THE LOVER'S INVOCATION. BY MRS. JAMES HALL, X. EASTERN SKETCHES. BY JOHN P. BROWN, Esq., XL. WHAT OF THE NIGHT? A PRELUDE, XIL THE EGYPTIAN LETTERS. NUMBER FIVE, XIIL WHAT SHALL THE END BE?. XIV. LINES WRITTEN TWENTY YEARS AFTER MARRIAGE, XV. THOUGHTS ON MEDIOCRITY. BY THE DOCTOR,'. XVI. STANZAS: THE LAY OF THE LOVE-SICK, XVII. A WEEK WITH LAFITTE, THE PIRATE OF the gulf, XIX. MORNING LIFE. BY AN OLD CONTRIBUTOR, LITERARY NOTICES: 1. TWENTY YEARS OF THE LIFE OF AN ACTOR, 2. LIVES OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS OF ENGLAND, 3. SPARK'S LIBRARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, 4. THE PHILOSOPHY OF MAGIC AND MIRACLES, 5. SARGENT'S SONG OF THE SEA, AND OTHER POEMS, EDITOR'S TABLE: 1. EXTRAORDINARY ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERIES IN THE EAST, 2. CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. MOTH,. 3. SILENT BUT ELOQUENT COMPANIONS: 'LIBRI VETERES,' 1. THE LO THERE!' SIDE OF THE SHAKER CONTROVERSY STATEMENT OF THE 5. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS, MUSIC, ETC., 267 272 272 277 290 |
