THE LONDON MAGAZINE. AUGUST, 1823. CONTENTS. Che Lion's head. David the King is mad with grief. 162 The Christian Captive 164 Durandarte! Durandarte! .... 166 O my Comrade! O my Comrade! 166 TAE Dice, a Tale from the German 117 She sleeps.. 167 *The Flower Spirit, a Faëry Tale ... 131 If laws fulfil a Monarch's will. 167 A SECOND LETTER to the DRAMA The Boy-God slept by the lullaby 168 TISTS of the Day ....... 133 ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF POEMS from the Dutch of Gerbrand SAMUEL Johnson, LLD. Brederode, with a Memoir...... 141 Continuation of his Lives of the My Love is now floating away Poets..... 169 from me.. 142 Review : Orations, &c. by the ReCan'st thou 80 soon unkindly verend EDWARD IRVING .... 186 143 ANDREW LAURIE'S RETURN, a The Daisy : from the Flora Domes- Tale, with Songs. 193 tica..... 144 Bonnie Andrero Laurie 197 Two Sonnets, To Mary. By Percy Alas! for the Laurie... 199 Green 148 | REPORT of Music... 205 The Marriage Act of Olympus. 149 Sketch of Foreign Literature.. 209 Visit to the City of Sorrento, con- THE DRAMA 212 cluded 150 THE PROGRESS of SCIENCE, &c... 215 SPANISH ROMANCES, No. V. with VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS 218 Poetical Translations, viz. What shall the land produce.... 158 Literary Intelligence, and List of Books 159 .....228, 230 Journey to Bethlem 160 Ecclesiastical Preferments 230 The stones they raise 161 | Births, Marriages, and Deaths ... 231, 232 ...... 9 LONDON PRINTED FOR TAYLOR AND HESSEY. Being afflicted with a severe ophthalmia, we requested our Amanuensis to read over to us a few of those contributions which had lately been presented for insertion. With a sigh that would turn a windmill, our luckless deputy quitted the desk where he had been more gratefully employed in transcribing, and prepared himself for the task. Patience is a virtue, said we, designing to console him; the sooner you begin, the sooner shall you end. He appeared to be struck with the originality of these observations, and summoning up his fortitude, with a resigned and manly voice he proceeded to recite one of the articles entitled, “ Irish Stories,” by P. P. Q. The question put by the Author of these Stories, in a private letter to the Editor, cannot, we fear, be answered in the affirmative. They are strongly conceived, and not ill expressed, but they want in a very great degree that discreet conduct of a Story which is necessary to procure success. They are uninclosed Narratives, like the scenery which they describe. Our Secretary now pruned his cravat and his tucker, whilst he “ pour’d down from his pretty swelling throat” a “Northumbrian Legend.” This was followed by a “ Mendicant Princess ;” and this by a “True Mourner,” upon the hearing of whose distresses we really felt considerable sympathy. These pieces are all by the same prolific hand, occupying upwards of seven and twenty pages of letter paper. The Author himself appears to hold but an humble opinion of these his productions, and though we think his modesty very commendable, we cannot venture to dissent from him. We beg leave, indeed, here to remind our Correspondents-to-be, that “ a first attempt," “ an humble imitation," or a thing “ hastily written," is far from being a recommendation with us, although it may be consolatory to the Author himself to know that “ half his strength he put not forth,” and that this was the cause of his piece being rejected. We would, in the way of advice, ask the writer of the above voluminous articles, why he does not rather choose to favour us with a mature attempt, a bold original, or a thing, written with deliberation ? It would be temerity in us to assert, from any thing we have seen in the above specimens, that a shorter and better digested article from the same hand would be more successful ; but it is a duty we owe to ourselves as readers, and to our future Correspondents as writers, to proclaim that brevity, and an appearance of earnest attempt towards good composition, are the best introductions to an Editor's favour. "The Spanish Soldier to his Mistress." This lull'd us to as sweet a sleep as we ever performed for five minutes. We were roused by some sprightly sallies at the commencement of an article, signed Titus, but they did not last long; and one of the best was the motto. "The Devil outfaced by a Scotchman," outfaced us, for we held down our head during the whole lecture; nor could a "Sonnet to the Moon," "The Evening Star," " D.'s Sonnet to Elia," nor even the announcement of "Ellen Tracey," make us prick up our ears for more than a moment. "The thoughts and dreams of an unknown." Alas! we have ourselves known what it is to have "thoughts and dreams;" we have known what it is to be “unknown." We can pity most feelingly the young day-dreamer, the visionary enthusiast, the unknown aspirant, depressed by his own fears, harassed by his anxieties, neglected by the world, and forsaken by his friends, for we have needed the like commiseration; but there is a still more melancholy character, the aspirant to honours which he is not fitted to attain. Where there appears any considerable intensity of ambition to excel in literature, we would be very delicate in pronouncing an unfavourable opinion on the prospect of ultimate success, for we think men's genius may be often best known from their inclinations; but we would earnestly entreat the unknown to beware how he mistakes the will for the power-admiration of genius for genius itself. His "thoughts and dreams” do not display more feeling than we have frequently met with in persons who had yet no pretensions to genius; and, unless the effort of a very youthful mind, are developed with far less ingenuity than would lead us to encourage the author to a second attempt. They possess all that vague incorrectness of idea, which by care sometimes improves into definite beauty of conception, but more generally ends in verbiage'and unintelligible refinement of thought. If, as we fear is most likely, the preceding observations do not dissuade the author from a perilous and eventually, perhaps, fatal course, we can only, as a last advice, counsel him to read, think, and write, in private, a great deal more than he appears to have done, before he again offers himself to the notice of an Editor. Sancho Redivivus, Henda, S. P. of Cambridge, B. Y.-Prosper-Ontario -and Cyril, were not in their happiest moods, we suppose, when they favoured us. Milton always wrote best in the Equinoxes.-Zig Zag's letter shall be sent to Elia. THE London Magazine. AUGUST, 1823. THE DICE FROM THB GERMAN. un For more than one hundred and whole family direct itself to this fifty years had the family of Schroll scrutoire. Nobody had succeeded been settled at Taubendorf; and ge- in discovering any part of its connerally respected for knowledge and tents, except Rudolph, the only son refinement of manners superior to its of the bailiff: he had succeeded: at station Its present representative, least his own belief was, that the old the bailiff Elias Schroll, had in his folio, with gilt edges, and bound in youth attached himself to literature; black velvet, which he had one day but later in life, from love to the surprised his father anxiously readcountry, he had returned to his na-ing, belonged to the mysterious tive village; and lived there in great scrutoire. For the door of the scrucredit and esteem. toire, though not open, was During this whole period of one locked; and Elias had hastily closed hundred and fifty years, tradition had the book with great agitation, at recorded only one single Schroll as the same time ordering his son out having borne a doubtful character: he of the room in no very gentle tone. indeed, as many persons affirmed, had At the time of this incident, Rudolph dealt with the devil. Certain it is that was about twelve years of age. there was still preserved in the house Since that time the young man a scrutoire fixed in the wall—and had sustained two great losses, in the containing some mysterious manu- deaths of his excellent mother, and a scripts attributed to him; and the sister tenderly beloved. His father date of the year-1630, which was also had suffered deeply in health .carved upon the front, tallied with and spirits under these afflictions. his era. The key of this scrutoire Every day he grew more fretful and had been constantly handed down to humoursome; and Rudolph, upon the eldest son, through five genera- his final return home from school in tions—with a solemn charge to take his eighteenth year, was shocked to care that no other eye or ear should find him greatly altered in mind as ever become acquainted with its well as in person. His flesh had contents. Every precaution had been fallen away; and he seemed to be taken to guard against accidents or consumed by some internal strife of oversights: the lock was so con- thought. It was evidently his own structed, that even with the right opinion that he was standing on the key, it could not be opened without edge of the grave: and he employed special instructions; and for still himself unceasingly in arranging his greater security, the present pro- affairs, and in making his successor prietor had added a padlock of most acquainted with all such arrangeelaborate workmanship, which pre- ments as regarded his more peculiar sented a sufficient obstacle before the interests. One evening, as Rudolph main lock could be approached. came in suddenly from a neighbour's In vain did the curiosity of the house, and happened to pass the Aug. 1823. I a |