dom he was made a justice of the peace, and Cromwell made him majorgeneral of the horse and foot in Surrey, after which he was made curator of the statute office. He glutted himself with perquisites, which he had to restore in part after the Restoration. The Convention Parliament, by vote, ordered him to be imprisoned as author of "Vox Vulgi," of which he at first denied but afterwards confessed the authorship. He was kept in the Tower with considerable strictness, but managed to use his pen in prison. He died near, and was buried in Savoy church. Epitome of Critical Opinions. 15. "Of six tragedies and four comedies, written by Otway, his tragedies of 'The Orphan,' and 'Venice Preserved,' still sustain his fame and popularity as the most pathetic and tear-drawing of our dramatists. Their licentiousness has necessarily banished his comedies from the stage."G. L. Craik. "There is something much nearer [than in Nelson Lee's dramas] to a revival of the ancient strength of feeling, though alloyed by false sentiment and poetic poverty, in The Orphan' and 'Venice Preserved' of the unhappy Otway."-W. Spalding. "They have both a deep pathos, springing from the intense and unmerited distress of women; both, especially the latter, have a dramatic eloquence, rapid and flowing, with less of turgid extravagance than we find in Otway's contemporaries, and sometimes with very graceful poetry."-Hallam. 16. "John Philips's 'Splendid Shilling' makes the fame of this poet; it is a lucky thought happily executed."-W. Hazlitt. "The poet of the English Vintage 'Cider."-Macaulay. "Author of the mock-heroic poem of "The Splendid Shilling' (published in 1703), and also of a poem in two books, in serious blank verse, entitled 'Cider,' which has the reputation of being a good practical treatise on the brewing of that drink." "What he aims at imitating or appropriating is not what is called the language of nature, but the swell and pomp of Milton."-G. L. Craik. "He displays skill in the management of his plots, but very little in the delineation of character."-Dr. Denham. 17. "Rochester as a wit is first-rate; but his fancy is keen and caustic, not light and pleasing, like Suckling's or Waller's. His verses cut and sparkle like diamonds."-W. Hazlitt. "Rochester, endowed by nature with considerable and varied genius, might have raised himself to a higher place than he holds."-Hallam. "There is immense strength and preg nancy of expression in some of the best of his compositions, careless and unfinished as they are.' "-G. L. Craik. 18. "Roscommon excelled chiefly as a translator; his Horace's list of Poetry is unique as a specimen of fidelity and felicity."-W. Hazlitt. "It was a strangely pregnant evidence, both of narrowness in thought and of dulness of ear to the higher tones of the lyre, that one of the most famous poems of the day should have been an Essay on Translated Verse.' The author, Lord Roscommon, was honourably distinguished by the moral purity of his writings."-Spalding. "Roscommon, one of the best for harmony and correctness of language, has little vigour, but he never offends, and Pope has justly praised his unspotted bays.”—Hallam. 19. The writings of Sandys are simple, earnest, and devout; his travels are learned without pedantry, and circumstantial without being tedious."-G. L. Craik. "His travels are distinguished by erudition, sagacity, and a love of truth, and are written in a pleasant style."-Kerr. "He comes so near the sense of his author [Ovid] that nothing is lost; no spirits evaporate in the decanting of it into English; and if there be any sediment it is left behind."—Langbaine. 20. "Shirley was deficient in imagination; he had a vigorous grasp of the elements of nature, but lacked the faculty of refining them for his purpose. An opulent fancy, uncontrolled by a superintending taste, frequently led him to overlay his lines with rich images, that pressed heavily upon them. His incidental lyrics are cumbrous; and his poems are generally wanting in grace and delicacy. But notwithstanding these deductions, his plays abound with passages of exquisite beauty and tenderness. His diction is masculine, energetic, and exuberant."-Dr. Denham. claims a place amongst the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly the same language, and had a set of moral feelings and notions in common."-C. Lamb. "Shirley has no originality, no force in conceiving or delineating character, little of pathos, and less perhaps of wit."-Hallam. "Shirley 21. "One of the most piquant and attractive of the minor poets. He has fancy, wit, humour, descriptive talent, the highest elegance, perfect ease, a familiar style, and a pleasing versification." "His genius was confined entirely to the light and agreeable."-Hazlitt. "Suckling, who is the author of a small collection of poems, as well as of four plays, has none of the pathos of Lovelace [author of "Lucasta," &c., 1649] or Carew, but he equals them in fluency and natural grace of manner, and he has besides a sprightliness and buoyancy which is all his own." "An adherent to the French school of propriety and precision, some of his happiest effusions are remarkable for a cordiality and impetuosity of manner which has nothing foreign about it, but is altogether English.”—G. L. Craik. 22. "Waller belonged to the same class as Suckling-the sportive, the sparkling, the polished, with fancy, wit, elegance of style, and easiness of versification at his command. Poetry was the plaything of his idle hours." -Hazlitt. "Waller's poetry is free from all mere verbiage and empty sound; if he rarely or never strikes a very powerful note, there is, at least, always something for the fancy or the understanding as well as for the ear in what he writes. He abounds also in ingenious thoughts, which he dresses to the best advantage, and exhibits with great transparency of style." "He had a decorative and illuminating, but not a transforming imagination."G. L. Craik. "Waller has a more uniform elegance, a more sure facility and happiness of expression, and, above all, a greater exemption from glaring faults, such as pedantry, extravagance, conceit, quaintness, obscurity, ungrammatical and unmeaning constructions, than any of the Caroline era." "In his amorous poetry he has little passion or sensibility; but he is never free and petulant, never tedious, and never absurd."-Hallam. "A vain and ample though a witty man."-Bishop Burnet. "The general character of his poetry is elegance and gaiety. He is never pathetic, and very rarely sublime."-Dr. S. Johnson. "Waller may be said to have wrought with the finest gold, and to have brought filigree to perfection."-Dr. R. Bell. 23. "His unaffected diction, even now, has scarcely a stain of age upon it, but flows on, ever fresh and transparent, like a pebbled rill." "Some, at least, of his political pieces are very remarkable for their vigour and terseness." -G. L. Craik. "Withers, best known in his own time as a controversial writer on the side of the Puritans, wrote, principally in early life, poems which are amongst the most pleasing in our language, delicately fanciful, and always pure, both in taste and in morals."-W. Spalding. of comparatively little power."-Hazlitt. A poet The Inquirer. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. 754. In a work published by Messrs. Bemrose and Sons, London and Derby, entitled "English Statesmen," by T. E. Kebbel, M. A., "James F." will find ten sketches of men who have ruled the destinies of Europe since the peace of 1815. Among these occur the names of Russell and Derby, Gladstone and Disraeli. A sketch of Disraeli appears in the Oak, a magazine issued by Messrs. Houlston and Wright. "Debrett's House of Commons" is valuable for the biographical particulars it contains, not only of the great lights of the state, but the less and least. Almost every magazine has of late been engaged in treating of Gladstone, and some of them of Mr. Bright.-G. W. H. 758. With "S. W. Young's" explanation of Macbeth's question," Which of you have done this?" (act iii., scene 4) I do not feel satisfied. I cannot, from the circumstances of the affair, very well understand how it can be supposed Macbeth imagines Banquo's ghost to be a "mere trick," or a made-up apparition." What is intended by the question is very probably-"Which of you have done this (murder)?" There are several points which favour this view. (1) Macbeth knew that Banquo was murdered, and at once concluded that the appearance was Banquo's ghost: "The times have been That, when the brains were out, the man would die, And there an end; but now they (2) Macbeth naturally supposes that the whole company can see the ghost, and that, from its bloody appearance, they must inevitably conclude he has been foully dealt with, and wishing to remove all suspicion from himself, and to throw it on some one else, asks, "Which of you have done this?" (3) Macbeth's after assertion to the ghost, "Thou canst not say I did it [i.e., the murder]; never shake Thy gory locks at me." The seat which the ghost occupies is for the occasion Macbeth's appointed seat. To Macbeth's words, "The table is full," Lenox replies, "Here's a place reserved, sir." And on Macbeth's turning to take the seat he finds it occupied by the ghost of murdered Banquo; hence he exclaims, "Which of you have done this?" But conscience does not permit him to use the too suggestive word which might imply a foregone knowledge. Besides, the horror is heightened by the use of a definite word in an indefinite sense.-T. H. 759. J. T. F. has asked a question which may give rise to statements inviting controversy. Marriage, in Scripture, is alleged to be not only a divine institution, but is represented as a civil contract. It seems to be designed by Providence to be right that one man and one woman should bear the definite relations of husband and wife from the natural equality in the number of the sexes, and from the similarity of nature otherwise than sexual, given to all human creatures. Marriage commends itself for its beneficiality in domestic comfort; the proper upbringing of children; the distribution of families under due restraint and government; the permanency of residence, and The the moral effect that produces; the encouragement of industry; and the progress of individuals and society. We can scarcely, therefore, suppose it could be without visible sanction and proper form. commonness of the relationship of husband and wife is amply demonstrated in Scripture. In Ruth iv. we have something very like a public marriage ceremony; and allusions to marriage ceremonies are frequent in Scripture -as betrothal, "duty of of marriage" (Exod. xxi. 10), preparation of bride for bridegroom, consent of relatives, witness, &c., all of which suppose or imply ceremonial; as do also the words "espousals,"" divorce," " harlotry," neither of which could exist unless marriage were ceremonial, and the rule of life and society.-S. O. M. 760. A notice of the late Rev. G. Croly, LL.D., bearing the signature of "Q. S.," appeared in the British Controversialist, January, 1861, pp. 39-46. The biographical dictionaries contain brief notices of him, but we know of no life of the multifariously learned rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, nor do we know of any complete edition of his works. This, we should think, would be a rather difficult publication to float; for his works include prophetic interpretations, biography, criticism, sermons, speeches, dogmatic treatises in theology, satire, tragedies, comedies, tales, novels, history, &c., so that besides being voluminous they are heterogeneous. It seems a most unfair treatment of so distinguished a Conservative, that Dr. Croly should have been left almost memorialless by the periodicals of his own party. 762. F. G. will probably find enough said on the subject of his query in our forthcoming paper, Auguste Comte: the Positive Philosophy-Critical." Meanwhile we may note that in a note to the interesting"Personal Preface" pre fixed to the sixth volume of "The Course of Positive Philosophy" p. xxxvi, distinctly affirms, "I have never read, in any language, Vico, Kant, Herder, nor Hegel, &c. I know their various works only through certain indirect reports and some very insufficient extracts." If F. G. wishes to pursue the subject farther, at present he may read with advantage the "History of the Positive Philosophy," in chaps, iii.-vii. of M. E. Lettre's "Auguste Comte-the Positive Philosophy," second edition, where the course of thought is traced through Turgot, Kant, Condorcet, Saint-Simon, Bordin, to Comte. Dr. J. H. Bridges, of Bradford, one of the most distinguished of the British disciples of Comte, in his lectures on "C France under Richelieu and Colbert," delivered before the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh in 1866, says from Descartes "more than from any other man we can trace the two great intellectual movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries-the critical philosophy (Kant's) and the positive philosophy (Comte's); the first, exposing the weakness of all such beliefs as from their nature are insusceptible either of proof or disproof, thus demarcated the knowable from the unknowable, and fixed the limits within which it is alone useful for the human intellect to exert itself; the second, building up within these limits a new structure of scientific conviction, formed a far securer basis than has ever existed before for the social and moral relations of man; opened a newer and wider sphere for his primeval instincts of love, of reverence, and of duty" (p. 173).-S. N. 764. Does our esteemed Bristolian friend, O. D., insinuate his accusation against the conductors of the British Controversialist speaking advisedly with their lips? There did appear in the second volume of this serial a debate, consisting of four articles on either side, bearing the title, "Does the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ ?" which seems to us to be a debating, not an ignoring of this question. It is not the custom with them to shirk any question which can be debated.-R. M. A. SUBJECTS SUITABLE FOR DEBATE. Ought a secular oath, bearing the usual penalty of perjury, be adopted? Has Ireland or Poland been worse governed? Ought Newman rather than Manning to have been the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster? Was the adoption of Christianity by the State fatal to its purity? Would the suppression of the Pope as a temporal prince be justifiable? Ought we have to an inconvertible currency? Has there ever been "an actual apocalypse of truth by the will of God" to man? Literary Notes. "A LIFE of General Grant ". probably as a candidate's brief for the Presidency is nearly ready, from the pen of A. D. Richardson, Connecticut. James Teare, one of the earliest English advocates of total abstinence, has left an autobiographic sketch of his life and labours, a series of lectures on temperance, and a sum of £100 to found a prize essay fund on the fundamental principles of teetotalism. James Henry Dixon, now resident in Florence, has in the press a "Selection of the Ballads of all Nations," to be called The Redclyffe Ballad Book. Rev. Christopher Benson, Hulsean Lecturer, Golden Preacher at the Temple, &c., author of "Scripture Difficulties," "Tradition and Episcopacy," &c., died 28th March. Ralph Waldo Emerson lectured in New York on "Eloquence," "The Man of the World," and "Relation of Intellect and Morals." J. H. Friswell is engaged on an emended and extended edition of "Familiar Words ". —a dictionary of quotations. J. C. Hotten is to publish, from the pen of an Oxford Graduate, "Horse and Foot; or, Pilgrims to Parnassus," a satire on modern poets and poetry. Edward Jesse (b. 1780), author of "Anecdotes of Dogs," editor of White's "Selborne," Walton's "Angler," &c., died 28th March. M. Adolphe Franck (b. 1809), author of a "Sketch of the History of Logic (1838), "Communism judged by History (1849), &c., has in the press a second edition of the excellent "Dictionary of the Philosophic Sciences," which he conducted (1844-1852), which is, we understand, revised to the present time. Professor H. Roesler, of Erlangen, has issued a critique on and introduction to "The Wealth of Nations," by Adam Smith; and at St. Petersburg Professor W. Besobrasoff has published a lecture "On the Influence of Economic Science on the Modern Life of Europe." Dr. J. N. Sepp, a Romanist theologian, has issued a new edition of his "Jesus Christ: a Study of His Life and Doctrine in connection with the History of Humanity." |