Elena, think not that I stand in need of false encouragement; I have my strength, The gloomiest thoughts that gloomy truths inspire, I wear a cheerful aspect, not so false As for your lover's solace you put on; ELENA. Lo, now! you are angry Because I try to cheer you. VAN ARTEVELDE. No, my love, Not angry; that I never was with you; So would I wish the heart of her I love, To be both true and brave; nor self-beguiled, Nor putting on disguises for my sake, As though I faltered. I have anxious hours; But I have something stable here within, In the last scenes: CECILE. She will be better soon, my lord. VAN ARTEVELDE. Say worse; "T is better for her to be thus bereft. One other kiss on that bewitching brow, Pale hemisphere of charms. Unhappy girl! How clear his voice sounds at the very last. That never did that prince or leader live, Who had more loyal or more loving friends! Let it be written that fidelity Could go no farther. Mount, old friend, and flyl VAN RYK. With you, my lord, not else. A fear-struck throng, Comes rushing from Mount Dorre. Sir, cross the bridge. ARTEVELDE. The bridge! my soul abhors-but cross it thou; And take this token to my love, Van Ryk; Fly, for my sake in hers, and take her hence! It is my last command. See her conveyed To Ghent by Olsen, or what safer road Thy prudence shall descry. This do, Van Ryk. Lo! now they pour upon us like a flood I— Thou that didst never disobey me yet This last good office render me. Begone! Fly whilst the way is free. What commanding sweetness in the utterance of the name, Van Ryk, and what a weight of tragedy in the broken sentence which speaks of the fatal bridge. These are the things that act ors rarely give us, the very passages to which it would be their vocation to do justice; saying out those tones we divine from the order of the words. Yet Talma's Pas encore set itself to music in the mind of the Though her acting was not refined enough by intellect and culture for the more delicate lineaments of the character. She also would have given its expression to the unintelligent, broken-hearted, I cannot go on foot. The body-yes, that temple could be so deserted by its god, that men could call it so! That form so instinct with rich gifts, that baseness and sloth seemed mere names in its atmosphere, could lie on the earth as unable to vindicate its rights, as any other clod. The exclamation of Elena, better bespoke the trag. edy of this fact, than any eulogium of a common observer, though that of Burgundy is fitly worded. Dire rebel though he was, Yet with a noble nature and great gifts So prompt and capable, and yet so calm; He nothing lacked in sovereignty but the right, Nothing in soldiership except good fortune. That was the grandeur of the character, that its calmness had nothing to do with slowness of blood, but was "built on a surging subterranean fire." Its magnanimity is shown with a fine simplicity. To blame one's self is easy, to condemn one's own changes and declensions of character and life painful, but inevitable to a deep mind. But to bear well the blame of a lesser nature, unequal to seeing what the fault grows from, is not easy; to take blame as Van Artevelde does, so quietly, indifferent from whence truth comes, so it be truth, is a trait seen in the greatest only. the publication of Philip Van Artevelde at once placed Mr. Taylor in the second rank of English poets, a high meed of glory, when' we remember who compose the first, we seldom now hear the poem mentioned, or a line quoted from it, though it is a work which might, from all considerations, well make a part of habitual reading, and habitual thought. Mr. Taylor has since pub lished another dramatic poem, "Edwin the Fair," whose excellencies, though considerable, are not of the same commanding character with those of its predecessor. He was less fortunate in his subject. There is no great and noble figure in the foreground on which to concentrate the interest, from which to distribute the lights. Neither is the spirit of an era seized with the same power. The figures are modern English under Saxon names, and affect us like a Boston face, tricked out in the appurtenances of Goethe's Faust. Such a character as Dunstan's should be subordinated in a drama; its interest is that of intellectual analysis, mere feelings it revolts. The main character of the piece should attract the feelings, and we should be led to analysis, to understand, not to excuse its life. There are, however, fine passages, as profound, refined, and expressed with the same unstrained force and purity, as those in Philip Van Artevelde. Athelwold, another of the tragedies at the head of this notice, takes up some of the same characters a few years later. Without poetic depth, or boldness of conception, it yet boasts many beauties from the free talent, and noble feelings of the author. Athelwold is the best sketch in it, and the chief interest consists in his obstinate rejection of Elfrida, whose tardy penitence could no way cancel the wrong, her baseness of nature did his faith. This is worked up with the more art, that there is justice in her plea, but love, shocked from its infinity, could not stop short of despair. Here deep feeling rises to poetry. Dunstan and Edgar are well drawn sketches, but show not the subtle touches of a life-like treatment. This, we should think, as well as the Patrician's Daughter, might be a good acting play. We come now to the work which affords the most interesting theme for this notice, from its novelty, its merits, and its subject, which is taken from that portion of English history with which we are most closely bound, the time preceding the Commonwealth. Its author, Mr. Sterling, has many admirers among us, drawn to him by his productions, both in prose and verse, which for a time enriched the pages of Blackwood. Some of these have been collected into a small volume, which has been republished in this country. These smaller pieces are of very unequal merit; but the best among them are distinguished by vigor of conception and touch, by manliness and modesty of feeling, by a depth of experience, rare in these days of babbling criticism and speculation. His verse does not flow or soar with the highest lyrical inspiration, neither does he enrich us by a large stock of original images, but for grasp and picturesque presentation of his subject, for frequent bold and forceful passages, and the constantly fresh breath of char. acter, we know few that could be named with him. The Sexton's Daughter is the longest and best known, but not the best of the minor poems. It has, however, in a high degree, the merits we have mentioned. The yew tree makes a fine centre to the whole picture. The tale is told in too many words, the homely verse becomes garrulous, but the strong, pure feeling of natural relations endears them all. His Aphrodite is fitly painted, and we should have dreamed it so from all his verse. |