play of words, I would say that you deserve to net something handsome by the result."

"Admirable, by Jove!" exclaimed the delighted Captain, who recognised in the fair and youthful Lady Formosa the only woman whom he had known equal to the organization of a pun, and almost the only woman whom he had discovered to be capable of even understanding that duplex escapement of a species of ingenuity that is ever on the watch.

Lady Formosa blushed, but whether for or at the success of her sally, must remain among the multitude of things undecided.

And now the gallant gentleman, exhilarated by the honour of so novel a salute, plied gaily in return his small shot of conversation, and maintained a running punning fire from beneath the battery of his steady smile, until Mrs. Perfect, once more planting against him a heavy gun from her politico-economic stores, unconsciously occasioned his retreat, or, as he afterwards expressed it to himself, obliged him to make good his own flight down that of the stairs.

| really no ill favour to bestow on others; for, in compliance with the well-known exactions of habit, he would quibble even in his communion with himself. The airy disposition of Lady Formosa did, indeed, find some amusement in the careless flippancies, and paper-kite excursions of fancy exhibited by the gay soldier. His propensity to what was light and sportive gave him some pretensions to the plea of a feeling akin to her's, although of an unquestionably lower order, so as perhaps to make the degree of affinity like that between the cat and the lioness. But this his small artillery of "particularities and petty sounds," this discourse "made all of terms and shreds," was of course insufficient to create any bias of personal inclination towards the exhibitor; the young lady was entertained, but unaffected, by its sparkles-it " played round her head, but came not near her heart"-and the aspiring son of Mars remained, as to his suit, in the condition of the quack mountebank, who exhausts himself in earnestness of joke, and seriousness of foolery, to recommend his panacea to the attentive but unrewarding by-standers.

||

Somewhat dissimilar were the impres- It was now the meridian of the sumsions wrought on the two ladies by the mer's glow, and likewise (such is the qualities of the gallant Captain on this and anomalous taste among the great) of the other occasions, which he took of reno- metropolitan season. Town artifice mainvating an acquaintance that had subsisted tained its tyrannous and sickly sway over a long time ago, for a short time together, thousands of fevered hearts that might in the country. With Mrs. Perfect, whom have beat more calmly, more equably, (if the truth must be declared) he exert- more innocently, amid the fresh meadows ed himself to please, only that she might and sweet sylvan recesses of the country please to exert herself for him in the good-the hallowed spots of nature's own prograces of her niece, his success was none-viding. Lady Formosa, however, had for he could not chain his rambling vola- not yet undergone the corruption of the tility to the old lady's steady-paced pro- || change. Her cheek was not subdued to lixity he could not, as he phrased it, the saffron tinge of universal London, nor endure that she should manage her Mal- the lustre of her eye abused by nocturnal thus, have out her say, and ride her Ricardo, || rivalry with the hot, pernicious, blighting without any distinction of seasons, or re- glare of lamps and candles. Her gaiety spect of persons. He was therefore so of nature was still unbartered for that of unlucky as to arrive at being considered convention, although it readily coalesced by her a young man of no reverence for with it through the medium of the factiinformation, and represented circumstan- tious wit which her reading had supplied tially as such to her younger relative. In to her, and which is so well understood, the eyes of the latter he found a more in- || and so rife among a certain class of Londulgent regard, which he internally ac- don society. Her attractions, thus unimcounted for after his own manner, by de- paired, helped her to as much admiration ciding that one who was in all respects so and as much concomitant envy as a young extremely well-favoured, herself could have female bosom could desire. But the cita

del of her heart continued unshaken, and to time, from out the whirlpool of conthe secret purpose of her respectable aunt || fluent events and accidents in such a place unadvanced.

A remarkable little occurrence about this period introduced to them a new acquaintance. It was one of those marvels that may very well spring up, from time

JEWISH POETS IN SPAIN.

TOWARDS the close of our first "Glance || patriation of the Jews by the decrees of at the Poetry of Spain,"* we intimated our intention, previously to entering upon the beautiful romances of that country, of briefly adverting to the state of the Jews, and to the influence which their learned men had upon the poetry and general literature of Spain, during the period of Moorish sovereignty.

and Toledo, which were then in infancy, but which had already given the fairest promises for futurity."

The school of Cordoba proved the most eminent; next to that, the school of Toledo, in which, it has been asserted, there were at one time no fewer than twelve thousand Jewish students; and, in addition to these, there were other rising schools at Barcelona, Granada, &c. The tolerant, and even benevolent spirit of the Mahommedans, at this period, was equally astonishing and honourable.

: From the tenth to the fifteenth century, a succession of distinguished Jewish writers, in every department of literature, may be traced. They had not only their poets, but their orators and philosophers, their mathematicians and astronomers, their grammarians and historians; and, what is not the least remarkable, the Rabbi Sem Tob de Carrion, a converted Jew of the fourteenth century, was one of the most eminent Troubadours of his time. The history of the Jews in Spain, during the period of which we are speaking, is altogether exceedingly curious and extraordinary. A list of their great men— many of whom held the highest offices under the Moorish princes-would alone occupy a considerable space. To their credit, too, it should be recorded, that there seems to have been much good feeling amongst them. Soloman Halebi, a converted Jew of the fourteenth century, and better known in the Christian world by the name of Pablo de Santa Maria, is thus mentioned by one of his friends and contemporaries :-" He posessed all human learning, all the secrets of high philosophy; he was a masterly theologiana sweet orator-an admirable historiana subtle poet-a clear and veracious narrator-an excellent minister-one of whom every body spoke well." Nor was the eulogy of this writer confined to simple prose. In one of his poems he thus affectionately speaks of his friend :

"Twas my delight to sit with him
Beneath the solemn ivy tree-
To hide me from the sunny beam
Beneath the laurel's shade, and see
The little silver streamlet flowing;

While from his lips a richer stream

Fell, with the light of wisdom glowing-
How sweet to slake my thirst with him !"

2

Several other stanzas follow in the same strain.

The game of chess appears to have been a great favourite with the Jewish poets. Abenezra, a native of Toledo, who flourished in the twelfth century, wrote a poem on chess, which Thomas Hyde translated into Latin, and published at Oxford, in the year 1694. Anbonet Abraham, who lived in the thirteenth century, also wrote a poem in praise of the game of chess, which was translated by Hyde into Latin. This writer, who was termed the Jewish Cicero, produced an oration, every word of which begins with the letter M. In some of his poetical compositions, every verse is made to form an anagram of his own name.

One of the poems, written by De Carrion, the Jewish Troubadour, already mentioned, embraces "the relation of a vision seen by a holy hermit when praying. A corpse is introduced, putrified, with worms devouring it, and behind it is something in the shape of a white bird, which represents the disembodied soul; the latter hurls the most dreadful curses at the decaying body, which are again retorted, each accusing the other of having caused its eternal damnation."

De Carrion's principal poem, however— and this is somewhat remarkable-appears to have been his Dance of Death; a piece which bears the following prologue or introduction :

"Here begins the general dance, in which it is shewn how death gives advice to all, that they should take due account of the brevity of life, and not to value it more highly than it deserves: and this he orders and requires, that they see and hear attentively what wise preachers tell them and warn them from day to day, giving them good and wholesome counsel, that they labour in doing good works to obtain pardon of their sins, and shewing them by experience; whether they come willingly or unwillingly.” who, he says, calls and requires from all classes,

Here we are tempted to be a little desultory. The Dance of Death appears to have been a very favourite subject with poets, as well as with painters: perhaps it would not now be practicable to trace its origin. The very clever author of the "Introduction to Death's Doings,"* after

"For reviews of, and extracts from this work,

alluding to the grotesque carvings of Death as a skeleton, in our old churches, the farcical representations of Death on the stage, and by the pencil, observes that one of these farcical Moralities, as they were then termed, was hinted at by Shakspeare, in Measure for Measure.

"Merely thou art death's fool:

For him thou labourest, by thy flight to shun,
And yet runn'st toward him still."

This passage, he remarks, is thus explained in a note by one of the commentators on the works of our immortal bard:-"In the simplicity of the ancient shows upon our stage, it was common to bring in two figures, one representing a fool, and the other, Death or Fate; the turn and contrivance of the piece was, to make the fool lay stratagems to avoid Death, which yet brought him more immediately into the jaws of it."

Holbein's Dance of Death is, amongst us, the best known series of illustrations of this subject, but there are several of an earlier date than Holbein's. There are also many single pieces by different artists. And here, again, because it bears upon De Carrion's poem, we must quote from the Introduction to Death's Doings:

"An example of excellence in this way, is a drawing from the collection of Paul Sandby, R.A., where death is exhibited as preaching from a charnel house, amidst skulls and bones; another skeleton form is introduced as making a back on which to rest the book from which the

Where is the power that does not own mefear
me?

Who can escape me when I bend my bow ?
I pull the string.-Thou liest in dust below,
Smitten by the barb my ministring angels bear
me."

How similar in feeling and in character,
are the succeeding lines, extracted from.
Death's Sermon, forming an illustration of
Van Venne's picture above described in
Death's Doings:-

"The great Deliverer of Man am I,
Although of mortal life the conqueror ;
For though at human pride my shafts I hurl,
And into atoms crush the vaunting fools,
Who with prosperity intoxicate, affect
To heed me not-yet from the direst woes
I rescue the oppressed; and with a wreath
Of never-fading glory bind their brows.
And shall my wond'rous attributes remain
Unnoticed or contemn'd-my power forgot,
Which earth, and air, and sea, encompasseth?
Shall I not use that glorious privilege,
Which both to mercy and to might belong—
Now striking terror in obdurate hearts,
And punishing men's crimes now turning from
The error of their ways the penitent,
And leading them in paths of righteousness?"
is also

The close of De Carrion's poem
in accordance with the above:-
"And since 'tis certain then that we must die,
No hope, no chance, no prospect of redress-
Be it our constant aim, unswervingly
To tread God's narrow path of holiness:
For He is first, last, midst-O, let us press
Onwards and when Death's monitory glance
Even then shall hope and joy our footsteps bless."
Shall summon us to join his mortal glance,

phantom is discoursing; and, though highly ludicrous in point of character, the groups and composition are in the best style of art. The auditors of the grim preacher are of every age and class, and are happily contrasted: the peasant and the ruler, the matron and the gailyattired female, the cavalier and the person of low degree, all disposed with skill in their ap- De Carrion evinces considerable invenpropriate and varied postures of attraction. Part tion, and yet more imagination. Popes, of a cathedral-like building forms the back-cardinals, patriarchs, kings, bishops, lords, ground; the design is from the pencil of Van Venne, and from the picturesque costume and character of the composition, would do credit to the talents of the best artists of that period." De Carrion's poem thus commences :— «Lo, I am Death—with aim as sure as steady, All beings that are and shall be I draw near me

vide LA BELLE ASSEMBLEE, vol. iv. page 23, and vol. v. page 229.

• Van Venne, a native of Delft, lived in the seventeenth century.

monks, artizans, and labourers, are successively introduced in his dance. We must confine ourselves, however, to two more brief passages, which, even under the disadvantages of translation, will be found to possess considerable merit.

"Come to the dance of Death-come hither

even

The last, the lowliest-of all renk and station ;
Who will not come, shall be by scourges driven;
I hold no parley with disinclination;

And truly songs like mine are tinged with from their works; but we are not aware

Of a totally different character, and written at a later period, are the following lines written by the Rabbi Moses, a Jewish physician, on the birth of one of the Cas-dinand V., expelled from a country upon tilian princes:

THE FIDELITY OF VIRAVARA.*