their chief the task of conducting her Part II. opens with a description son to Albert's care, with a token to of Albert's abode, situated between express

that he was the son of Julia two woods near a river, which af. Waldegrave. Albert instantly recog. ter dashing over a thundering casnises the boy as the offspring of iwo cade, chose that spot to expand itself old and dear friends. A flood of kindly into a quiet and pellucid sheet of recollections, and the bitter contrast living water. Beautiful in itself, the between the promise of their early scene was graced by the presence of days and the dismal fate which finally Gertrude, yet more beautiful, an awaited the parents of Waldegrave,“ enthusiast of the woods,” alive to rush at once on the mind of the old all the charms of the romantick man, and extort a pathetick lamenta- scenery by which she was surroundtion. The deportment of the Indian ed, and whose sentimental benevowarriour forms an admirable contrast lence extended itself even to England to Albert's indulgence of grief, and which she knew only by her father's the stanzas in which it is described report. And here commences the rank among the finest in the poem. great defect of the story.

We totally XXIII.

lose sight of the orphan, Walde“He said--and strained unto his heart

grave, whose arrival makes the onthe boy :

ly incident in the first canto, and Par differently the mute Oneida took His calumet of peace, and cup of joy,

of whose departure from Wyoming As monumental bronze unchanged his we have not been apprized. Neither look:

are we in the least prepared to antiA soul that pity touched, but never shook: cipate such an event, excepting by a Trained from his tree-rocked cradle to his line in which Julia expresses a hope

bier, The fierce extremes of good and ill to that her orphan would be conveyed brook

to “ England's shore"--an inuendo

? Ímpassive-fearing but the shame of fear, which really escaped us in the first, A stoick of the woods-a man without a and even in the second, perusal of

the poem, and which, at any rate, XXIV.

by no means implies that her wish “ Yet deem not goodness on the savage

was actually fulfilled.

The unacstock Of Outalissi's heart disdained to grow;

countable disappearance of this chaAs lives the oak unwithered on the rock racter, to whom we had naturally asBy storms above, and barrenness below: signed an important part in the narHe scorned his own, who felt another's rative, is not less extraordinary than And ere the wolf-skin on his back he wishes and affectionate thoughts to

that Gertrude, in extending her kind flung,

wards friends in Britain whom she Or laced his mocasins, in act to go, A song of parting to the boy he sung, never knew, and only loved because Who slept on Albert's couch, nor heard they might possibly possess his friendly tongue.”

“ Her mother's looks-perhaps her likepp. 20 and 21.

ness strong,” After a lyrical effusion addressed omits all mention or recollection of to the slumbering boy, his own the interesting little orphan of whom

“ adopted one,” the savage returns to every reader has destined her the his deserts. His capacity of tracking bride from the first moment of his his way through the wilderness by a introduction. Of him, however, nospecies of instinct, or rather by the thing is said, and we are left to con. habit of observing the most minute jecture whether he has gone to Bri. signs derived from the face of earth tain and been forgotten by his youthor heaven, is described in nervous ful playfellow, or whether he remains and striking poetry, and closes the an unnoticed and undistinguished first part of the poem.

inmate of her father's mansion. We

tear.

WO:

have next a splendid, though some- forgotten during the space of one what confused description of a “deep, third of the poem, and whom even untrodden grot," where, as it is beau- Gertrude did not think worthy of tifully expressed,

commemoration in orisons which “ Rocks sublime called for blessings on friends she had To human art a sportive semblance wore ; never known-this same Waldegrave, And yellow lichens coloured all the clime, of whose infantine affection for GerLike moon-light battlements and towers decayed by time.”

trude we no where receive the slightTo this grotto, embosomed in allest hint, with even more than the the splendid luxuriance of transatlan- composure of a fine gentleman retick vegetation, Gertrude was wont turned from the grand tour, coolly to retire “with Shakspeare's self to

assures her and Albert at their first speak and smile alone," and here she interview, that she “ shall be his own is surprised by the arrival of a youth with all her truth and charms." This in a Spanish garb, leading in his extraordinary and unceremonious aphand his steed, who is abruptly an- propriation is submitted to by Ger. nounced as

trude and her father with the most “ The stranger guest of many a distant unresisting and astonishing complaland.”

cency. It is in vain to bid us suppose We were at least as much startled that a tender and interesting attachas Gertrude by this unexpected in- ment had united this youthful couple truder, and are compelled to acknow. during Waldegrave's residence at ledge that the suspense in which we Wyoming. This is like the reference were kept for a few stanzas is rather of Bayes to a conversation held by puzzling than pleasing. We became his personages behind the scenes : sensible that we had somehow lost it is requiring the reader to guess the thread of the story, and while what the author has not told him, and hurriedly endeavouring to recover it, consequently what he is not obliged became necessarily insensible to the to know. This inherent defect in beauties of the poetry. The stranger the narrative might have been supinquires for the mansion of Albert, plied at the expense of two or three is of course hospitably received, and stanzas descriptive of the growing tells of the wonders which he had attachment between the children, seen, in Switzerland, in France, in and apprizing us of Waldegrave's Italy, and in California, whence he departure for England. The omislast arrived. At length Albert in- sion is the more provoking as we are quires after the orphan Waldegrave, satisfied of Mr. Campbell's powers who (as his question for the first to trace the progress of their infant time apprizes the reader) had been love, and the train of little incidents sent to his relations in England at the and employments which gave it opage of twelve, after three years' resi- portunity to grow with their growth, dence in the earthly paradise of Wyo and strengthen with their strength; ming. The quick eye of Gertrude in short, to rival the exquisite picture discovers the mysterious stranger to of juvenile affection presented in be“ Waldegrave's self of Waldegrave Thalaba. came to tell," and all is rapturous But to proceed with our tale. Ger. recognition. And here, amidst many trude and Waldegrave are united, beauties, we are again pressed by the and spend three short months in all leading errour of the narrative ; for the luxury of mutual and innocent this same Waldegrave-who, for no love described in the concluding purpose that we can learn, has been

stanza of part second. wandering over half the world of

XXV. whom the reader knows so little, " Then would that home admit them who appears to have been entirely happier far

full soon;

unrung,

p. 60.

Than grandeur's most magnificent saloon; savages led by Brandt had extirpated

; While, here and there, a solitary star his whole tribe on account of their Flushed in the darkening firmament of friendship to the Americans, and were

June ; And silence brought the soul-felt hour, approaching to wreak their vengeance

by laying waste the settlement of Ineffable, which I may not portray ;

Wyoming For never did the Hymenean moon

XIX. A paradise of hearts more sacred sway, « Scarce had he uttered-when Heaven's In all that slept beneath her soft, voluptu

verge extreme ous ray.”—p. 43.

Reverberates the bomb's descending star, The third part continues this de- And sounds that mingled laugh-and lightful picture so true in itself, where shout-and scream, pure affection and regulated desires

To freeze the blood, in one discordant

jar, combine to form connubial bliss; and

Rung to the pealing thunderbolts of war. we feel all that the poet would impress Whoop after whoop with rack the ear asupon us when, in the fifth stanza, he

sailed ; announces the storm, which, in the As if unearthly fiends had burst their bar; wreck of nations, was to involve this

While rapidly the marksman's shot prelittle structure of home-built happi

vailed ;

And aye, as if for death, some lonely ness; and describes the transitory

trumpet wailed. nature of human felicity in the most

XX. beautiful and original simile which

“ Then looked they to the hills, where we have yet found applied to a theme fire o'erhung so often sung.

The bandit groupes, in one Vesuvian glare; V.

Or swept, far seen, the tower, whose clock “ And in the visions of romantick youth, What years of endless bliss are yet to flow!

Told legibly that midnight of despair.” But mortal pleasure, what art thou in truth !

These sounds of tumult and deso. The torrent's smoothness ere it dash beloro! And must I change my song? and must I

lation are mingled with the more show,

cheering notes of the drums and mi. Sweet Wyoming! the day, when thou wert litary musick of a body of provindoomed,

cialists, who arrive, it would seem, Guiltless, to mourn thy loveliest bowers

to protect the inhabitants of Wyo. laid low! When where of yesterday a garden ming. The description of this band,

a bloomed,

composed of the descendants of vari. Death overspread his pall, and blackening

ous climes, and arrayed by “ torch ashes gloomed.”-p.50.

and trumpet,” evinces the same high The approach of civil war in Ame- tone of military poetry which glows rica, and the attachment of Walde- through the stanzas on the battle grave to the provincial cause, are of Hohenlinden. We are, however, briefly touched upon, as are the boding again compelled to own some disapapprehensions of Gertrude, too soon pointment arising from the indistinctto be fatally realized. One evening, ness of the narrative. The provinwhile danger was yet deemed remote, cialists appear prepared to fight in an Indian,

worn with fatigue and age, defence of the Pennsylvanian Arcarushes hastily into Albert's cottage, dia. Outalissi chants his battle and is with difficulty recognised to song, and Albert invokes, amid the be the Oneida chief, Outalissi, who blaze of neighbouring villages, the had guided Waldegrave to Wyoming. protection of the God of Hosts on the After an indulgence of former recol. defenders of their native country. lections, rather too long to be alto- Waldegrave too, assumes the sword gether consistent with the pressing and plume; yet, without any reason nature of his errand, the Indian in- assigned, these preparations for bat

, forms the domestick circle that the tle terminate in a retreat to a neigh

bouring fort ; and we are left to wo at once appropriate to America, conjecture the motive for flight in a

and distinct from the manners of band so energetick and so amply every other country. provided. The destruction, too, of

XXXIV. Wyoming might have claimed a “ Then mournfully the parting bugle bid

Its farewell o'er the grave of worth and more lengthened detail than is afford

truth; ed by the lines which we have quoted, Prone to 'the dust afflicted Waldegrave and the main interest in the fate of hid Albert and his family would have His face on earth ;-him watched in been increased rather than diminish- gloomy ruth, ed by a glance at those numerous

His woodland guide ; but words had none.

to sooth groupes who must necessarily have

The grief that knew not consolation's accompanied the flight, or remained

name : to perish with their dwellings. But Casting his Indian mantle o'er the youth, of these we learn no more than if He watched, beneath its folds, each burst Waldegrave and Julia had, like our

that came first parents, been the sole inhabitants

Convulsive, ague-like, across his shud. of this terrestrial paradise. Covered

dering frame !"-p. 69. by the friendly battalion, they reach

We have gazed with delight on the in safety the fort which was to afford savage witnessing the death

of Wolfe them shelter ; and in the few accu

with awe and sorrow acting upon harate yet beautiful lines which cha

bits of stubborn apathy; and we have racterize its situation and appear. perused the striking passage in Spenance, the poet has happily compelled ser'whose Talus “ an iron man ymade into his service even the terms of in iron mould” is described as having, modern fortification, and evinced a

nevertheless, an inly feeling of symcomplete conquest over those techni. pathy with the anguish of Britomarte; cal expressions which probably any yet neither the painter nor the poet other bard would have avoided as fit has, in our apprehension, presented only for the disciples of Cohorn or so perfect and powerful an image of Vauban.

sympathetick sorrow in a heart unXXV.

wont to receive such a guest, as ap“ Past was the flight, and welcome seemed pears in the mute distress of the the tower,

Oneida warriour bending over his That, like a giant standard-bearer, frowned despairing foster-son. His grief at Defiance on the roving Indian power. length becomes vocal in a death-song, Beneath, each bold

and promontory mound

which, did our limits permit, we With embrasure embossed, and armour

would willingly transfer to these crowned,

pages. But we have been so profuse And arrowy frize, and wedged ravelin, in quotation, that the concluding Wove like a diadem its tracery round stanzas are all we can produce to jusThe lofty summit of that mountain green; tify our asserting for the author the Here stood secure the group, and eyed a distant scene.”—p. 36.

preeminent merit of his lyrical poetry. Here, while surveying in fancied

XXXVII. security the progress of the devasta- "To-morrow let us do or die !* tion, Albert and Gertrude fall pierced But when the bolt of death is hurled, by the bullets of the lurking marks

* This expression occurs in Burns's men of the enemy. A death-speech, Bannockburn; yet it is a kind of common affecting, yet somewhat too long, ex- property, being the motto, we believ of hausts the last efforts of the expiring à Scottish family. We might more justly, Gertrude ; and as her husband kneels ;

on the part of the ingenious Dr. Leyden, by the bodies in ineffable despair, the

reclaim the line, following exquisite description of

“Red is the cup they drink, but not

with wine." Outalissi's sympathy gives an origin. But these occasional coincidences, over ality and wildness to the scene of which stupidity delights to doze, are

Ah! whither then with thee to Ay, pared materials for caricaturing GerShall Outalissi roam the world?

trude of Wyoming, in which the Seek we thy once-loved home?

irresistible Spanish pantaloons of her The hand is gone that cropt its flowers ! Unheard their clock repeats its hours !

lover were not forgotten, Albert was Cold is the hearth within their bowers !- regularly distinguished as old Jona. And should we thither roam,

than, the provincial troops were callIts echoes, and its empty tread,

ed Yankie-doodles, and the sombre Would pund like voices from the dead !

character of the Oneida chief was XXXVIII.

relieved by various sly allusions to “ Or shall we cross yon mountains blue,

“ blankets, strouds, stinkūbus, and Whose streams my kindred nation quaffed; And by my side, in battle true,

wampum.” And having thus clearly A thousand warriours drew the shaft? demonstrated to Mr. Campbell and Ah! there in desolation cold,

to the reader that the whole effect of The desert serpent dwells alone,

his poem was as completely at our Where grass o'ergrows each mouldering

mercy as the house which a child bone,

has painfully built with a pack of And stones themselves to ruin grown, Like me, are death-like old ;

cards, we proposed to pat him or the Then seek we not their camp-for there

head with a few slight compliments The silence dwells of my despair ! on the ingenuity of his puny architecXXXIX.

ture, and dismiss him with a sugar“ But hark, the trump !-to morrow thou plum as a very promising child inIn glory's fires shalt dry thy tears : deed. But, however prepared we F'en from the land of shadows now My father's awful ghost appears ;

came to quizz what is no otherwise Amidst the clouds that round us roll,

ridiculous than because serious and He bids my soul for battle thirst- pathetick, our hearts recoiled from He bids me dry the last-the first- the disingenuousness of the task. The only tears that ever burst

We shall ever be found ready to apFrom Outalissi's soul ;

ply the lash of ridicule to conceit, Because I may not stain with grief The death-song of an Indian chief.”

presumption, or dullness; but no

pp. 71-73. temptation to display our own wit, With these stanzas the curtain is

or to conciliate popularity, shall dropped over the dead and the mourn. prompt us to expose genius to the ers, and the poem is concluded. malignant grin of envious folly, or by

Before we proceed to any general low and vulgar parody to derogate examination of Gertrude of Wyo. from a work which we might strive ming, we think it necessary to inti- in vain to emulate. mate to our readers, that it is by no

We return from this digressive means owing to deficiency of wit, apology to the merits and defects of on our own part, that we have con.

Gertrude of Wyoming, which have ducted them in sober sadness from this marked singularity, that the lat. the beginning to the end of Mr. ter intrude upon us at the very first Campbell's affecting tale. We are reading; whereas, after repeated peperfectly aware that, according to the rusals, we perceive beauties which modern canons of criticism, the re. had previously escaped our notice. We viewer is expected to show his im. have, indeed, rather paradoxically, mense superiority to the author re

been induced to ascribe the most obviewed, and at the same time to re

vious faults to the same cause which lieve the tediousness of narration by has undoubtedly produced many of turning the epic, dramatick, moral the excellences of the poem,—to the story before him into quaint and lively anxious and assiduous attention burlesque. We had, accordingly, pre. which the author has evidently be

stowed upon it before publication. hardly worth noticing in criticizing ori. It might be expected that the publick ginal poetry

would regard with indulgence those Vol. 11.

6 $