FROM THE MARTYR OF ANTIOCH. Call. Ha! look again, then, There in the East. Mark how the purple clouds From night's dun vapours and fast-scattering mists. Holds his calm way, and vindicates for his own Th' illimitable heavens, in solitude Of peerless glory unapproachable. What means thy proud undazzled look, to adore Marg. On yon burning orb I gaze, and say,-Thou mightiest work of Him 493 That launch'd thee forth, a golden-crowned bridegroom, To hang thy everlasting nuptial lamp In the exulting heavens. In thee the light, Creation's eldest born, was tabernacled. To thee was given to quicken slumbering nature, Over the fertile breast of mother earth; Till men began to stoop their grov'lling prayers, Thy flaming strength; nor ever shalt thou cease Debased, thy mortal nature, from the sky Withering before the all-enlightening Lamb, Whose radiant throne shall quench all other fires. Call. And yet she stands unblasted! In thy mercy Thou dost remember all my faithful vows, Hyperion! and suspend the fiery shaft That quivers on thy string. Ah, not on her, This innocent, wreak thy fury! I will search, And thou wilt lend me light, although they shroud In deepest Orcus. I will pluck them forth, And set them up a mark for all thy wrath; My pure and blameless child. Shine forth, shine forth, [Exit. Marg. 'Tis over now-and oh, I bless thee, Lord, For making me thus desolate below; For severing one by one the ties that bind me To this cold world-for whither can earth's outcasts Yet is no way but this, None but to steep my father's lingering days JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES. MR. KNOWLES is a dramatic writer who has attempted to revive the style of the age of Elizabeth and James I. In the effort he occasionally degenerates into bombast, sometimes into puerility; but his writings abound with admirable scenic pictures, and frequently rise into impassioned poetry. His dramas consist of tragedies, and of that semi-comedy denoted by the term "play." His plots and characters are generally interesting and truthful, though the reader often feels painfully the imitation of an "age." The style and theory of the dramas of Mr. Knowles seem fashioned on those of Massinger. He enjoys the honour of being almost the only modern dramatic writer whose efforts in tragedy have been popular. Mr. Knowles was a native of Cork in Ireland; he taught elocution for some time, and latterly was a Baptist preacher. He had a pension of £200 per annum. FROM CAIUS GRACCHUS. PARTING OF GRACCHUS AND HIS MOTHER. Cornelia. I do not like that Flaccus. Hath more ambition than integrity, He's a man And zeal than wisdom. Is he of your party? C. Grac. He is. 1 Mr. Knowles has perhaps injured his genius by sometimes writing with a view to the representation of a particular actor. Imagination, which "bodies forth the forms of things that are not," must be stinted in her flight by a process which reverses the order of the two departments of the dramatic art. 2 The lady whose Roman pride plumed itself in contemplating her renown as the "Mother of the Gracchi."-We have selected the extract as an example of the "dramatic" power of Mr. Knowles; in "William Tell," "The Wife," etc., will be found beautiful examples of his poetic faculty. FROM CAIUS GRACCHUS. Cor. The sooner then you break with him C. Grac. My word's already pledged to go with him Cor. On what errand, Caius Gracchus? I shall be prudent. Cor. Stop, Caius. 495 [Going. [Takes his hand. I can almost think you still The boy did con his lessons at my knee, With but a look.-Ay, Caius-but a look Of your mother's made you calm as sunshine, in The Forum. C. Grac. Mother, is it you? Cor. Ay, son! It is your mother,1 feels that she is all The mother-whatso'er she seems.—I would Be left a son, my Caius !—Go not to The Forum! C. Grac. Wherefore, mother?-What is there Cor. Your brother's blood,2 my son ! * * Does not his blood Cry for revenge, and is your ear unapt To hear it?-Caius, that dear brother's death's 1 The extract affords several examples of Mr. Knowles' favourite idiom, the omission of the relative. 2 Tiberius Gracchus had, several years before (133 B. C.), fallen a victim in the cause for which his brother was now about to sacrifice himself. C. Grac. And should I therefore sink with the base times? What, mother, what! Are the gods also base? Is virtue base? Is honour sunk? Is manhood Maintain'd? Remember you Messina, mother? Due profit of your lesson. Cor. Caius Caius ! C. Grac. Mother-I Cor. My Son ! C. Grac. Well, I'll not go [sits down], I will be ruled by you, And point and smile, and say to one another, Cor. Know the people you did promise C. Grac. Are they not here with Fulvius Flaccus He'll speak for them.-He'll be their friend-He'll dare Cor. You must go to the Forum-you must. They go without me! BERNARDO AND ALPHONSO. Cor. Why, I think, as it is, You cannot help but go. I know not what's C. Grac. My only use Of life's to prove it! Go! Cor. Go! Go! Go! my Caius.1 497 JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART. (1794-1854) MR. LOCKHART's translations of the historical and romantic ballads of Spain have long been esteemed for the spirit and elegance with which the poet has exhibited the peculiar beauties of this literature in an English dress. The chivalrous incidents of the history of Spain, during her eight centuries of Moorish warfare, gave rise to a greater number of these compositions, and of greater excellence, than any other nation has produced. Mr. Lockhart was born in the manse or parsonage of Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire, in 1794. His father afterwards became one of the ministers of Glasgow, and John was educated for the law at Glasgow University, subsequently at Balliol College, Oxford. He was admitted to the Scottish bar, but attached himself to literature; and, after publishing some novels in Edinburgh (Valerius, Reginald Dalton, and Adam Blair), and contributing to Blackwood's Magazine, he married the eldest daughter of Sir Walter Scott. In 1825 he succeeded Mr. Gifford as editor of the Quarterly Review. Mr. Lockhart survived his wife, sister-in-law, brothers-in-law, and his two sons, and died at the age of 60, at AbbotsBesides the above works, Lockhart was author of an excellent little life of Burns, and a life of his illustrious father-in-law, Scott. He was a man of fine critical taste and scholarship, but cold, sarcastic, and reserved in private life. ford. BERNARDO AND ALPHONSO.2 WITH some good ten of his chosen men, Bernardo hath appear'd Before them all in the Palace hall, the lying King to beard; With cap in hand and eye on ground, he came in reverend guise, But ever and anon he frown'd and flame broke from his eyes. 1 The lights of this passage are reflected from Jul. Cæs. Act ii. Sc. 2, where Calphurnia persuades Cæsar to stay at home. Bernardo del Carpio, the illegitimate son of Donna Ximena (the sister of King Alonzo or Alphonso the chaste), and of Don Sancho Count Saldana, is supposed to have the interview, described in the ballad, with the king, after Alphonso's treacherous execution, or rather murder, of Bernardo's father. The period is contemporaneous with that of Charlemagne. |