THE late M. Léo Lippmann, who was consul for the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg at Amsterdam, has left his gallery of pictures, said to be worth half a million of francs, to the town of Luxembourg. The bequest will not take effect until the death of Mdme. Lippmann.

Santa Maria dei Frari at Venice.

It was

THE famous Pesaro Virgin and Child of Titian has lately been placed in the church of painted (for 102 ducats) in 1519 for the Pesaro family, and several of the saints in the picture are portraits of members of that family.

THE pavement of the manor-house of Lintol, near Bolbec, the ancient property of the families of Le Boullenger and Coq de Villeray, noted potters of Rouen in the eighteenth century, has been bought for the Sèvres Museum by M. Champfleury. This pavement is a unique example of Rouen faïence, and is in excellent preservation.

A CONSIDERABLE number of Frankish tombs, dating from about the seventh century, have been discovered near Rüdersheim, in the Palatinate. The sarcophagi were of soft stone, and the skeletons which they contained were ornamented with necklaces, bracelets, and golden plaques, the latter bearing representations of various subjects, generally heads surrounded with ornamentation.

for

THE STAGE.

But a man of

plays the young doctor quite charmingly. Miss used to play this part at the Paris Vaudeville.
Whitty is an excellent parlour-maid. Miss The husband was then an estimable Dutchman;
Linda Dietz, who represents the wife, is skilled and, though his monstrous taciturnity-his
in stage devices, but is stiff withal.
almost absolute incapacity of speech-was at
"A Scrap of Paper" is known by the regular times more repellent than anything in the Sir
playgoer too well, either in its French or in its John Ingram of Mr. Waring, there was some-
English form, for it to be necessary to write of thing not very far from genius in M. Parade's
it at length. "Pattes de Mouche" was the execution of the part, especially at the moment
earliest of the successes of Sardou-and it is when the almost dumb man of business breaks
highly characteristic of him; but, though it was down and shows that, though he has few words,
that he had studied the stage and the conditions feeling who is like that is not a very delightful
an early success, nothing is more certain than he is likewise a man of feeling.
of dramatic performance very closely indeed companion, and one wonders whether it was
before he wrote it. For much of it has the anything but her pure impulsiveness that made
adroitness peculiar to the playwright-an the heroine marry him, both in the French
adroitness, of course, perfectly legitimate-piece and in the English. Colonel Blake is
rather than the literary quality of the high at all events justified in regarding him as, on
dramatist. The second act-really the princi- the whole, funereal company.
pal act of the piece-is, in the English version,
a notable instance of this. It is Scribe-like in
the closeness of its intrigue; but, unlike Scribe's
intrigue generally, this intrigue deals with
small matters. All the clever dodging of the
lady, called in the English adaptation Susan
Hartley, to obtain that compromising little
letter which her sister wrote years ago to
Colonel Blake is the most ingenious stage ver-
sion imaginable of the game of hide-and-seek.
It presents endless opportunities to the actress;
it puts everything in her hands; but it is not
literature-no one, we suppose, could read it
for its own interest as he would read an act of
Dumas's or Emile Augier's. We do not blame

A SCRAP OF PAPER” AND “A CASE it on this account in the slightest degree. We

FOR EVICTION."

are glad when an actress like Mdme. Fargueil
or Mrs. Kendal gets so well provided for; and
just now at the St. James's, where Mrs. Kendal,
Young Folks' Ways," has been doing so
much for the dramatist, it is specially fair that
in "A Scrap of Paper" the dramatist should
do something for Mrs. Kendal.

No success was ever prophesied in the ACADEMY
Young Folks' Ways; " and, notwithstand-in
ing Mr. Hare's highly skilful bit of character
acting and Mrs. Kendal's redeeming touches
of genius, it has had to be withdrawn, and
its place is filled by the revival of "A
Scrap of Paper"-Palgrave Simpson's adapta-
tion of "Pattes de Mouche"-and by a new
comedietta by that very bright writer, Mr.
Theyre Smith. Mr. Theyre Smith is known as
the author of two or three of the best existing
short pieces for two or three characters only.
Indeed, he may be said to appear to have the
monopoly of such pieces, so far as the English
writing of them is concerned. Moreover, he is
original. His work, unlike so much of the
stage-work of the day, approaches literature.
His dialogue is generally smart, often quite
witty; and only now and then-in obedience,
perhaps, to what are assumed to be stage
exigencies, though they are exigencies the
really great dramatists have never recognised-plot
does he indulge in longueurs, in prolix observa-
tions beside the mark, in dialogue from which
the character has gone. Now, though some-
thing of this is visible in "A Happy Pair,'
making the only defect in that otherwise
admirable piece, there is hardly anything of it
in "A Case for Eviction." On the other hand,
the Case for Eviction," like "Uncle's Will,"
has a good deal of the purely farcical in it;
indeed, it has more of this than has “Uncle's
Will." Its story is told in a moment. A
young doctor and his wife have managed to
house a genial Irishman who cannot be made
to understand that hospitality is never meant to
be permanent, and the whole action of the
piece is concerned with their often frustrated
efforts to get him to depart. Like Madame
Benoîton, in the famous comedy of Sardou, he
never appears upon the stage; but the husband
goes out to interview him, and the wife goes
out to interview him, and the parlour-maid
comes on from having interviewed him when
he keeps his room and sends downstairs for the
newest fad in aërated waters. At last he is got
rid of; rather by the will of the dramatist, who
moves his puppet that way, than by the natural
action of the plot. Mr. George Alexander

66

The acting of "A Scrap of Paper" is in most respects excellent. We doubt if Mr. Kendal has ever been seen to greater advantage than in Colonel Blake. The mingled bonhomie and coolness of the man are displayed to perfection; so is the easy fashion in which he yields to the fascination of Susan. It has been said that Colonel Blake is not a gentleman, or he would never have kept the letter. We hold, however, that his keeping the letter was after all a much less considerable improbability than Lady Ingram's ridiculous apprehension as to the use he would make of it. Colonel Blake was a gentleman. He would never have hurt Lady Ingram by his employment of the little document that he retained; and the weakness of the lies really, not in his obviously half-playful retention of it, but in the exaggerated fears to which that retention gives rise. Mrs. Kendal's Susan Hartley is as good as Mdme. Fargueil's in her best time as regards its acting, while Mrs. Kendal has obvious advantages over the admirable French comedian in the matter of appearance in such a part. Mdme. Fargueil, though ingenious, was hardly irresistible, while one feels that under the influence of the sunshiny English lady Colonel Blake was predestined to thaw. The only other actress in the piece who in any way demands notice is Miss Webster, who is far better than she was in "Young Folks' Ways," and who brings to her performance, with real naturalness, the archness of the home and not of the theatre. Mr. Hare plays one Dr. Penguin, Fellow of the Zoological Society, and makes of it, as usual, a character part which one clearly remembers. Dr. Penguin is burdened with a most offensive wife, of whom, in the intervals of his pursuit of zoological study, he entertains a charitable opinion. Mr. D. G. Boucicault represents capitally the precocious son of this lady. Mr. Herbert Waring represents the stolid baronet to whom Lady Ingram-after repenting of her earlier love-letter-has given her hand. M. Parade

MUSIC.

SPITTA'S LIFE OF BACH.

In

ས

Johann Sebastian Bach. By Philipp Spitta. 24
Translated from the German by Clara Bell and a
J. A. Fuller-Maitland. Vol. I. (Novello.)
Messrs. Novello are following up their trans-
lation of Jahn's Life of Mozart by one
of Spitta's Life of Bach-a work of equal
interest and perhaps even deeper research-
of which the first part has appeared.
his Preface the author tells us that we shall
find much which one would hardly seek in a
mere Life of the composer. In order thoroughly
to understand and appreciate Bach's artistic
career a glance at the history of his illustrious
predecessors and contemporaries becomes abso-
lutely necessary. Bach stands out facile prin-
ceps from among the church- and organ-writers
of the eighteenth century. But it in no way
detracts from the grandeur of his personality as
an artist to find that he diligently studied the
works of French, Italian, and German musicians;
that he took the best of them as his models; and
that he especially owed much to two eminent
organists and composers-Pachelbel and Buxte-
hude. The nine Symphonies of Beethoven
would probably never have been written but for
the example and influence of Haydn and
Mozart; by starting from so firm a foundation,
the Bonn master was enabled all the more
easily to assert his individuality and to estab-
lish his supremacy. And so with Bach; the
way was prepared for him, and by means of
his commanding genius he was able to open up
new paths, and thus to surpass the most illus-
trious men of his day. The Bach family was a
remarkable one, and at a very early period a
taste for music was shown among its members.
Sebastian, writing about his ancestor, Veit Bach,
tells us how he used to take his cithara with
him when he went to the mill. Music was the
special calling of his great-grandfather, the
merry fiddler, Hans Bach; his grandfather was
a member of a guild of musicians in Erfurt,
and his father was noted for his skill on the viola.
His uncle, the celebrated Joh. Christoph Bach,
was not only a remarkable composer, but, next
to Sebastian, the most distinguished of the race.

Spitta devotes much space to the lives of these ancestors, and gives us many interesting details of the manners and customs of German musicians in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His account of the College or Union of Instrumental Musicians of Upper and Lower Saxony shows that a spirit of earnestness and morality prevailed among some of them, though the noble art of music had been brought into sad contempt by the evil morals the wandering life, the dissolute language, and also by the lack of skill and in dustry of many o its professors. The rules of this Union are give in full; and the quaint and homely languag faithfully reflects the aspirations and efforts o well-meaning and upright men. The Bach

formed a guild of their own, and the family gatherings are well known which were held for many years in Erfurt, Eisenach, and Arnstadt. They met to edify and delight each other as to matters musical; they sang hymns to the praise of God; they displayed their skill in performances; and indulged, besides, in merry songs

and harmless mirth.

This first volume embraces the childhood and early years of Johann Sebastian and the first ten years of his "mastership." When nine years of age he lost his mother, and in the following year his father died. From the latter the boy received instruction on the violin, and afterwards took clavier lessons from his eldest brother, but at the age of fifteen he had to see to himself. By the help of a friend he managed to get into the school of the Convent of St. Michael at Lüneburg, where he gained a little knowledge of Latin, Greek, and other subjects. Masic, however, was his chief occupation; he accompanied on the harpsichord and took part in the processional singing. George Boehm, organist of St. John's Church, Lüneburg, exerted considerable influence over the young musician. Boehm was a pupil of Reinken, the celebrated Hamburg organist, and in the "much reasoning concerning music " between the two Reinken must have been often mentioned. Anyhow, Bach made at this time repeated excursions on foot from Lüneburg to Hamburg to hear Reinken play. The following anecdote, which Bach used to delight in telling later in life, gives us a graphic picture of the ambitious youth acquiring knowledge under difficulties:-On one of his journeys to Hamburg all his money was spent except a few shillings. He had seated himself outside an inn hardly half way on his return journey, and was meditating on his hard fate while sniffing the delicious savours proceeding from the kitchen, when a window was opened, and two herrings' heads were flung out. The hungry lad picked them up, and found in each a Danish ducat. This unexpected wealth enabled him not only to satisfy his hunger, but to make another expedition to see Reinken.

Handel and Bach never met. Bach tried to see his great rival in 1719, and again in 1729. The first time he went to Halle, but arrived too late; the second time, being ill, he invited Handel to Leipzig, but the latter was detained in Halle by his mother's illness. These two circumstances are recorded in most biographies either of Bach or Handel; but there are two others noticed by Spitta, connecting the two names, which are of special interest. Both the composers were attracted in early youth to Hamburg, one of the most flourishing centres of artistic life in Germany. Bach probably paid his last visit there in 1703, the very date of Handel's arrival. They may have both listened at the same time to Keinken's masterly organ-playing; for aught we know, they may have sat side by side at the opera house, and listened to the music of Keiser. Each received the first touch of ambition there, ach went his own way, and independently name for himself in the world. Again, in 1703, Handel and Mattheson paid a visit to Lübeck, and made the acquaintance of Buxtehude. Handel heard him play, and also played to him. Two years later Bach went to Lubeck for the very same purpose, and, as Spitta remarks, "stood before the organ on which Handel had played.”

Lade a

In 1703, Bach became the organist of the new church" in Arnstadt. Already in organplaying Sebastian found, says Spitta, no one who could teach him anything, much less compete with him." In 1704, one of his elder brothers, spell-bound by the adventures and victorious career of Charles XII., decided to enter the Swedish Guard as oboe-player. On taking leave of his family and friends, Bach

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

wrote for him a piece of programme-music,
piece of programme-music, ELLIOT STOCK'S
entitled "Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo
fratre dilettissimo." This and another piece of
descriptive music, still in MS., are apparently
Bach's only attempts in this particular direction.
There is no doubt that Kuhnau's Biblischen
Historien first prompted him to try his hand at DAYS and HOURS in a GARDEN.
programme-music; but Spitta, who evinces no
sympathy with this branch of tonal art, tells

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us that it must have been intolerable to Bach POETRY as a FINE ART: a University
"to see the art limping on crutches, or reduced
to a subordinate position."

Lecture delivered in McGill College, Montreal. By CHARLES E.
MOYSE.

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In 1705 occurred the memorable journey to Lübeck already noticed. He obtained leave of THE WAY THITHER: a Story with absence for four weeks, but remained away four times as long. On his return he got into difficulties with the church authorities, and soon left Arnstadt for Mühlhausen. Soon after this he was called to Weimar by Duke Wilhelm THE PARISH of HILBY: a Simple Story Ernst. This brings us to the first important epoch in Bach's artistic career. The new post was twofold, combining those of Court organist and Kammermusicus. He resided here for nine years, and during that period wrote a quantity of organ music, Concertos, and church Cantatas. THE BRIDES of ARDMORE: a Story of He arranged many of Vivaldi's violin Concertos for the clavier; he made many bold alterations and additions, but we must remember that he probably only regarded these transcriptions as studies in form. It is admitted that the changes which he made were improvements; but CHARLES DAYRELL: a Modern Bacchanal. at the present day a composer who ventured to take similar liberties with another man's work "Gottes Zeit ist would be severely censured. die allerbeste Zeit" and "Ich hatte viel Bekümmerniss," two of the most popular of Bach's many Cantatas, were written at Weimar.

Bach visited Dresden in 1717, and his challenge to the celebrated French organist, Marchand, forms one of the few sensational events in the life of our composer. Though the accounts vary slightly, the acceptance of the challenge by Marchand, and his flight from Dresden before the time fixed for the musical tournament, are established facts.

the

We must add a few words about the transla-
tion. Spitta's long sentences are by no means
easy to render into clear and flowing English.
On the whole, however, we meet with much
that is good, and we are, therefore, sorry to
have to notice some careless expressions and
mistakes which cannot fail to trouble the
attentive reader.
The phrase "are distinctly
spoken of to begin with," p. 489;
peculiar placing of adverb, "robbed even at
night," p. 15; the last sentence on p. 215,
with the preposition "far, far away" from the
word which it governs; the "doubling of the
tenth" as a translation of Decimen-Verdopplun-
gen; "choral subject" for Chorsatz; the "theme"
for thematische Material, in speaking of a
fugue with two themes-all these are examples
of carelessness. But there is worse than this.
The second paragraph as it stands on p. 85 is
utterly unintelligible; and there are sentences,
pp. 63, 271, 384, and 491, &c., which are both
clumsy and incorrect. The translators have not
even carried out their promise of giving Bible
texts in Bible words, as will be seen in the
quotation from St. Luke on p. 174.

J. S. SHEDLOCK.

MUSIC NOTE.

THE next concert of Mr. Willing's Choir will
take place on Tuesday, January 15, at St.
James's Hall, when Mendelssohn's "Walpurgis
Night" will be performed. The first part of
the programme will consist of a miscellaneous
selection, including Beethoven's "Leonora
Overture, No. 3; the Overture to Gounod's
"Mirella:" &c. An additional interest will be
given to this concert by Mr. Sims Reeves sing-
ing "Philistines, hark! from Costa's " Eli,"
and Purcell's "Come, if you dare."

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LITERATURE.

Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and other English Poets. By Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Now first collected by T. Ashe. (Bell.)

WRITING to Allsop in 1821, Coleridge says that he has already the written materials and contents ("requiring only to be put together, and needing no other change, whether of omission, addition, or correction, than the mere act of arranging brings with it ") for a History of the English Drama, including a dissertation on the characteristics of Shakspere's works, a critical review of each of his plays, and a critique on the works of Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger. "This work," he says, "with every art of compression, amounts to three volumes of about five hundred pages each." It is possible that many Coleridgeans will agree with Mr. Ashe in regarding this statement as 2 marvel of self-deception. It is equally possible that some Coleridgeans will not consider it so very wide of the truth. Coleridge was clearly referring to "the loose papers and commonplace or memorandum books" which had served him for at least three courses of lectures. That the notes made for each course were often very full is sufficiently proved by the mass of matter edited in the Remains by H. N. Coleridge. That the original notes from which H. N. Coleridge printed may have been still more full is an inference fairly deducible from the method of their presentment; that they must have been almost as copious as the entire text of the lectures themselves, if written out as delivered, is obvious enough from Coleridge's own account of his mode of preparation. In his letter to Britton, as well as in other letters, Coleridge says that it was his habit, during a course of lectures, to employ the intervening days in collecting and digesting materials, and the day of the lecture he usually devoted to the consideration, what of the mass before him was "best fitted to answer the purposes of a lecture." Of the material thus collected he employed on the platform only that portion which seemed most likely to keep the audience awake and interested during the delivery and to leave a sting behind it. What did not seem fitted for the purposes of a lecture went, we presame, into "the commonplace or memorandum books" out of which the projected History of the English Drama was to be compiled. It may be objected to this method of accounting for a greater body of notes than we possess, that Coleridge, in the Britton letter, is alluding to a purely mental process of "colecting and digesting materials." It may be put forth as evidence in favour of this inter

pretation of Coleridge's words that he subse-
quently says:

"I take far, far more pains than would go to
the set composition of a lecture, both by read-
ing and meditation; but for the words, illustra-
tions, &c., I know almost as little as any one
of the audience. . . what they will be five
minutes before the lecture begins."
It may further be urged that among the
remaining records of the lectures there are
many which speak with surprise of the lec-
turer as being unaided in his "unhesitating
and uninterrupted fluency" by any notes.
This, however, fails to disturb the clear fact
that Coleridge's mode of preparation was
actually to write out at full length the results
of his reflections on points arising out of his
subjects. That he used the memoranda so
prepared again and again in various ways, we
know; that on each fresh opportunity for
employing them he added to them materially,
we also know. Moreover, we have no reason
to suppose that Coleridge did not intend to
incorporate those portions of his published
writings which had direct bearing on his
comprehensive scheme. All this leads us to
All this leads us to
doubt if Coleridge's letter to Allsop in 1821
is much of a self-deception.

Although we are told that the written
materials already existing in 1821 required
only to be put together, and needed no change,
whether of omission, addition, or correction,
it is not to be hoped that any Coleridgean
will ever compile a History of the English
Drama out of Coleridge's notes as we find
them. The public could hardly tolerate such
a wholesale breaking-up of connected writings
as the author himself probably had in con-
templation. It is conceivable that an in-
genious editor might make some intelligible
scheme out of the lectures and fragmentary
notes if he were free to handle them at his
pleasure; but the scheme would necessarily
be his scheme, and not Coleridge's, and the
History that might result from it would be his
History with Coleridge's elucidatory com-
ments. The utmost that it was possible
to do with the material as it exists Mr. Ashe
seems to have done. He has given us
Collier's transcripts from the lectures of
1811-12, together with the reports of the
same lectures published in the Times and
Morning Chronicle; the notes from the Remains,
judiciously classified; Mr. Carwardine's Memo-
randa (only too slight) of the lectures of
1818; extracts from Crabb Robinson's Diary;
the passages from the Friend, the Biographia
Literaria, and the Table Talk which deal
with Shakspere and other English poets;
and, finally, the reports of the Bristol lectures
of 1813 from the forgotten pages of the
Bristol Gazette. The reports of the lectures
on Milton delivered in Bristol in 1814 have
not been recovered. The arrangement of this
matter is good, and it is often brightened by
happy references to parallel passages; in
short, it is hardly likely that anything better
will ever be done with the material. We
now possess in a single volume almost the
whole body of Coleridge's writings on Shak-
spere. More than this we cannot expect.

Mr. Ashe is a believer in the Collier transcripts. A few words on the old "cookery" controversy may not here be out of place. The story of the controversy is this:-In 1854, Mr. Collier wrote to Notes and Queries

saying it had recently been his good fortune" to find his original short-hand notes of the lectures on Shakspere and Milton delivered by Coleridge so far back as the year 1812. He then printed in the same journal a few excerpts from his notes. Two years later Mr. Collier published his entire records as the exact words of Coleridge, taken down from the lecturer's lips. The transcripts provoked an anonymous pamphlet, entitled Literary Cookery, which discussed the disparity in the dates of the Coleridge prospectus as given by Mr. Collier and by Mr. Gillman. Mr. Collier wrote in explanation, and in doing so he certainly seemed to shuffle, or at least to bungle over his facts. The unknown writer accused Mr. Collier, mainly on the score of chronology, of deliberate concoction and downright fraud. Eighteen months afterwards Mr. Collier made an affidavit affirming the truth of his statements, and intending to ground upon it a criminal action for libel against the author of the pamphlet, who was by this time known to be the late A. E. Brac. The affidavit was printed in a pamphlet; but it was speedily withdrawn from publication, and, for reasons not stated, the law proceed ings were stopped. Then the author of Literary Cookery published a volume entitled Collier, Coleridge, and Shakspeare, the argument, so far as it concerned the Coleridge lectures, being again based principally upon anachronisms. We supposed that this controversy had passed into the obscurity in which the Ossian and Ireland controversies lie buried. The comments that have been made since the recent death of Mr. Collier show that the discussion has almost as much vitality as ever.

The two-edged tool of chronology was really the only thing by which Mr. Collier's transcripts were discredited. Mr. Collier had made Coleridge speak in his sixth lecture of Sir Humphry Davy-a designation which, though afterwards so familiar, did not exist in 1811-12. The twelfth lecture, as advertised in the Times, was to be on Shakspere and Milton, and Milton did not appear in Mr. Collier's reports. If there were much graver objections than these, we have failed to lay hold of them. The objections, indeed, so far as they had any force or value, were, as we say, chronological. Let it be admitted at once that Mr. Collier did not make a plausible appearance in his attempts to explain his dates. But when we come to the only question worth five minutes' consideration-that, namely, of whether these lectures put forth by Collier are his or Coleridge's-we see no difficulty whatever. Coleridgean having no absorbing interest in dates, and believing, with Butler, that "correct information" of that description "is the least part of education," must surely regard it as inconceivable that any other Coleridgean can have had a moment's doubt on the subject. Mr. Ashe verifies the Collier transcripts by the Times and Morning Chronicle reports, which bear a general resemblance to them, and by extracts from the Diary of Crabb Robinson; but in truth the internal evidence in favour of their authenticity is overwhelming. Let us touch on a few parallelisms. In Collier's transcript of the first lecture there is a long passage on the causes of false criticism. Equivalents to this passage may be found in those chaps. ii. and xxi. of the Biographi

A

JAN. 12, 1884.-No. 610. Literaria with which I have elsewhere to his health. He appears to have been tating tricks of style. At Bahia a "store dealt at length. The transcript of the ill throughout the period of the Bristol lec- is entered, and some bottled beer consumed, second lecture may be compared, as Mr. Ashe tures of 1813 and 1814. Writing (about the which is described as having "dealings with time of the Milton lectures) to Cottle, Cole- sundry bottles with triangular red hieroridge says: "An erysipelatous complaint, of glyphics on them." This may serve as an an alarming nature, has rendered me barely average specimen of the "funny style." The able to attend and go through my lectures." "tricky style" is marked by a constant inHis health was not much better during the version of subject and predicate, sometimes lectures of 1818. Crabb Robinson's Diary producing quite a ludicrous offect. Thus : says: "Jany. 27th. An exceedingly bad cold" A casual pedagogue he!" "A hot place is rendered his voice scarcely audible." Again: this Praya;" "a lovely little corner of earth "Feby. 10th. Coleridge apparently ill." to pass a lazy time in is this islet of Pagueta;" Writing on January 28 of the same year to and so on. But, setting aside these failings Allsop, Coleridge says: and foibles, the work is by no means devoid "Your friendly letter was first delivered to me of literary merit; and those familiar with the at the lecture-room door on yesterday evening, peculiar woodland scenery of South America ten minutes before the lecture, and my spirits will admit that it has seldom been more truthwere so sadly depressed by the circumstance of fully and vividly described than in the submy hoarseness that I was literally incapable of joined passage:reading it."

points out, with "The Drama generally and
Public Taste" in the lectures and notes of
1818. That portion of the second lecture
which says that Shakspere's judgment is more
to be admired than any of his other great
powers and qualifications may be placed side
by side with the note to chap. ii. of the
Biographia Literaria, in which Coleridge
speaks of having made this very point in
one of his public lectures. The definition of
poetry in this second lecture is an amplifica-
tion of the homely definition in the Table
Talk. What is said in the sixth lecture on
Shakspere's method of making his characters
typical may be found, with some modification,
in the Friend. Compare the seventh lecture
with chap. xv. of the Biographia Literaria.
The passage on the Nurse in "Romeo and
Juliet" has its equivalent in chap. xvii. of the
Biographia Literaria. What is said in the
same lecture on the peculiar charm of Field-
ing corresponds with what is said on that
subject in the Table Talk. Now, the obvious
rejoinder to any defence of the Collier trans-
cripts based on parallelisms like these is
that they show that the lectures are Cole-
ridgean, not necessarily Coleridge's. Further,
that the fact of passages in the lectures having
parallels in Coleridge's authenticated writings
rather militates against their genuineness.
Not so, however. Coleridge, like some other
meditative men, had the constant habit of
repeating himself.
He had a marvellous
but it could not be tabulated. He
reproduced his own ideas, and often his own
words. He sometimes reproduced other
people's ideas and other people's words, but
that is another matter, and only of interest
here as a side light. If we are to allow that
Collier deliberately concocted these lectures
out of Coleridge's published writings we are
bound to accredit him with a thousand times
more ingenuity, not to speak of taste, know-
ledge, and even originality, than he was
otherwise known to possess.

memory,

The Bristol lectures, as here given from the Bristol Gazette, do not seem to possess any special value; but none the less are our thanks due to Mr. George, of Bristol, having rescued them.

for

There is a further point that deserves mention. A notion was abroad in Coleridge's time that, though you purchased tickets for a course of his lectures, it was possible that you would never hear half of them, and that, while you were sitting at the Royal Institution, or elsewhere, waiting for the lecturer, that gentleman, "with a little of his accustomed procrastination," might be sitting in the parlour of some neighbouring tavern pondering on Kant or Hartley and a pot of ale. This notion still survives. A recent writer tells us that Coleridge had no conception of the sanctity of a pledged word, and that he often took single pounds in charity when he might have earned hundreds by honest labour. This is an imputation of the grossest falseness, and is of itself proof enough that Coleridge's Life has never been properly written, and that his character has never been understood. Coleridge was not at any period a reckless Bohemian. The truth is that he often kept his lecturing engagements at the gravest risk

It is needless to go farther in order to show
that Coleridge was so far from deficient in
regard for the sanctity of a pledged word that
he often kept his promise to his audience when
his best friends could not have wished him to
do so. Coleridge's health was never at any
time robust; and to the frailties ordinarily
incident to the student life he added a liability
to prolonged periods of mental depression.
To alleviate this depression he took opium;
and no doubt it sometimes happened that,
when haunted by the fiend that too frequently
possessed him, he broke his lecturing engage-it
ments. The defalcations were, however, never
so numerous as is commonly supposed, and we
have small reason to believe that they were
ever the result of indolent neglect. Occasion-
ally they were due to causes not less than
tragic. Health was a serious thing to a
lecturer who depended for his effects largely
on the inspiration of the moment. It is never
so serious a factor where a lecture is a written
essay, and the lecturer a reader of that essay.
Coleridge knew that, to him, health, while he
was on the platform, was a very vital matter,
and he took all proper care to preserve it.
During the delivery of one course of lectures
he had a servant to follow him about the
streets with the express mission of prevent-
ing his buying opium. We trust Mr. Traill's
forthcoming Life of Coleridge will show (what
is the clear fact, but has never yet been stated)
that Coleridge was a good deal of a stoic.

and impressed by this gigantic and mysterious
"The most thoughtless man is strangely awed
nature that appeals at once to his every sense.
Like a cataract of sound ring out around him
the manifold new and terrible noises of solitude.
The strident cries of rainbow birds, the angry,
hoarse shriek of others, the fearful wail of
various beasts, the shrill ear-piercing song of
cicala, and, at times, a fearful crash in the
hushes all that noisy life for a moment it is the
unseen depths of the woods as of thunder, that
fall of some ancient giant of the woods, a huge
tree, dead long ages ago, but only now break-
ing its way through the dense growth around
to the ground. Most impressive is this teem-
ing life, vegetable and animal, but not human,
for nature here is too great and rank for man.
Here life springs up fierce and monstrous,
all compelling sun of the tropics. One can almost
drawn up from the warm alluvial swamp by the
imagine that his senses perceive-that he hears
the tremendous flow of sap, the intense genera-
tion, a growth so great and rapid that it goes
beyond death itself. The great tree outstrips
itself, and while one half is green and full of life,
the other is rotten and dead. Strange creepers,
with metallic-lustred leaves, wreath round
skeleton branches with their graceful festoons
familiar with and embracing it on its way.
-a life reckless, profligate, despising death,
Out of leprous-looking tangles of rotten trunks
and leaves spring in horrible contrast the
ghoul-like plants feeding on decay, rich, rank,
gaudy of colour. The tree endeavours to force
its way for life to the upper light and air above
the dark smothering growth. So for sixty feet
it puts out no leaves, but employs all its
strength to rise upwards to the open heavens,
where at last it sends forth branches to breathe
the fresh winds and feel the bright sun. Then
the parasitic creeper from below ascends the
tree, fighting also for the light and air, and
winds round the trunk and branch till it chokes
Knight. In 2 vols. (Sampson Low.)
its helpmate and they both die. Among this
THIS would have proved a much more at- vigorous life death meets one at every step.
tractive work had its contents been condensed Plant and animal prey on each other and live
into a single volume, instead of being ex- by death. The vulture awaits it on the tree-
panded into two octavos of about three tops, the wild beasts below crouching in the
hundred pages each. As it is, the really another, each fearing a greater.
jungle; all are on their guard, each preying on
It is every-
interesting and even original portions, of where-pestilence is in the air, the hectic berries
which there is no lack, are diluted by so
are poisonous, the rare savage of these wilds
much trite and commonplace stuff that the knows not what security is. He steals with
book cannot as a whole be described as stealthy, fearsome steps through the confused
pleasant reading. But, apart from wearisome growth, uncertain what next danger he will
accounts of "irreproachable luncheons," "ex-suddenly come upon, what hideous reptile,
cellent dinners," "exorbitant bills," trivial what new death, lurking among the brilliant
flowers" (ii. 96).
incidents, purposeless dialogue, and nearly
a whole chapter of mere "log" (the perusal
of which is like eating sawdust), the general
effect is seriously marred by a constant effort
to be funny, and by some curious and irri-

T. HALL CAINE.

The Cruise of the Falcon: a Voyage to South
By E. F.

America in a 30-ton Yacht.

It will be seen from this that the cruise was not confined to the Atlantic seaboard. On the contrary, its distinctive feature was a five months' expedition up the great head