traits are perfect, of their respective kinds, and have been touched off by some of the freest, boldest, yet happiest strokes of that divine pencil, which Nature, in benignant mood, and that he might delineate with more truth, fidelity, and effect, her actual, living, veritable forms, appears to have bestowed on "The Author of Waverley." At the same time, we cannot but feel displeased, amidst all our delight, and contemptibly as we are disposed to think of King James generally, that the author has thought proper to make him degrade himself, by becoming eaves-dropper, conveying him into a lugg in the Tower, that he might overhear the conversation of Lord Glenvarloch when in durance. The circumstance, we should not doubt, is perhaps founded in fact; but low as James ranked in the estimation of most men, it is hardly in keeping with the character of a king. Moniplies, we are aware, will by some of the groundlings be held as a sort of reproduction or fac-simile of Andrew Fairservice; for this good and sufficient reason, that, with the paragons of animals to which we allude, this must be like that, and that like t'other, et sic ad infinitum; but the plain fact is, that he bears about as much resemblance to honest Andrew, as Annot Lyle does to Rebecca the Jewess, or Dugald Dalgetty to Bailie Nicol Jarvie. He is a delightful picture and representative of a certain class of his countrymen at the period in question; and his character is so well defined, and stands out in such prominent relief, that the truth and fidelity of the conception must be apparent to all those who are not of the family of "Likes," above alluded to. Dalgarno is the lago of the piece; a fine, gay, bold-faced villain,' with talents of the first order,-neutralized by unbounded profligacy, or exerted with fatal effect in the promotion of schemes of villany and dissimulation, with which his court education and connexion with Buckingham had rendered him but too familiar. Lord Glenvarloch is the ostensible hero, and no more. He is a good, and occasionally a bold, brave, generous, and humane young man; but he is cruelly tempest-tossed by circumstances, and is so much VOL. X. indebted to the more extensive means and less scrupulous agency of others, that we know little of his character from his actings, and must therefore be content to take him upon the author's own showing. Upon the whole, we take leave of "The Fortunes of Nigel" with feelings of high admiration and delight: and whether we consider the characters, the keeping of the story, the powers of description exhibited, the immense knowledge of the times with which the whole is pregnant, the inimitable dramatic power displayed in the dialogue, the profound acquaintance with human nature indicated in every touch and in every expression, or the matchless and inexhaustible resources of imagery and illustration, we do not hesitate for a moment in pronouncing it one of the most brilliant and perfect creations that has yet sprung up under the rod of the MIGHTY MAGICIAN! CORNICULA'S PEEP AT PARLIAMENT. The grand debate, The popular harangue, the tart reply, The logic and the wisdom, and the wit, And the loud laugh-I long to know them all; I burn to set th' imprison'd wranglers free, And give them utterance once again. THE room in which the Peers as semble in Parliament, since the Union of Ireland, is the most magnificent, and in every way the most suited to its high purpose, that exists in England. It contains nothing of the old house but the tapestry, in which the defeat of the Spanish Armada is clumsily depicted, and which owes all its importance to the impassioned allusion of the great Chatham: "From the tapestry that adorns these walls, the ancestor of the noble lord seems to frown with indignation on his degenerate descendant," &c.However venerable for age and eloquent association, it is entirely out of keeping with the splendid throne and scarlet cushions of modern creation. When the Sovereign opened the last session of Parliament, this house presented an assemblage of the utmost elegance and dignity. The Monarch 4 C on his throne-the Peers in their robes, standing-the Peeresses on the benches, in all the splendour of apparel-the Commons with their Speaker below the Bar-were sufficient to satisfy the eye of a courtier, and to stimulate the imagination of a poet. His Majesty is, in his personal presentment, every inch a king; he bows, I would say, if it were not Irish, with eloquence; he reads with sovereign dignity. But his Majesty and the ladies soon retire from the house, the Commons withdraw to their own ancient habitation, and the Peers alone remain for our attention. In their debates, the two woolsacks, the cross-benches in front of the throne, and the benches right and left, are inaccessible but to Peers of Parliament. Strangers are admitted below the Bar, to stand or lie, as they may be disposed. The Commons have access to the enclosure of the throne, where they may stand or sit upon the steps. The LORD CHANCELLOR has been already sufficiently characterized. As Speaker of the House of Peers, he is not precluded from taking part in the debate. He is not addressed individually by the Peer who addresses the House, the emphatic embellishment being "My Lords." When a message comes from the Commons, his Lordship marches from the Woolsack to the Bar, where he receives the bill from the hands of its author. He next marches back, and reads the title of the bill which is thus introduced into the House. It is often painful to see a Peer, so venerable and so learned, limping backwards and forwards, on his gouty limbs *; but such is his Lordship's zeal for the public good, that he will not resign the Woolsack to less matured learning. On the right of the Woolsack are the Ministerial Benches. The Peers Spiritual occupy the extreme next the throne; their Graces of Canterbury and York being in front. On the same bench with the Archbishops, but separated by an easy barrier, are ranged the Cabinet Ministers, the The reviewer of S. Brocchi asks 66 why cows are not subject to the gout, nor geese to hysterics ?" It is impossible to see his Grace preparing to speak, or hear him utter his incorrect sentences in uncouth elocution, without feeling the utmost regret, that one so fortunate in the field, and so successful in the career of nobility, should let himself down so grievously. It would be altoge ther foreign to the object of this sketch, to enter into discussion respecting the talents or the merits of our hero of Waterloo; but it may be incontrovertibly affirmed, that the Duke of Wellington disregarded the Roman virtue of forbearance towards the fallen-parcere subjectis. When he consigned Ney to the executioner, he ought, in prudence, to affect contempt for oratory,—(alii) Orabuni causas melius. The EARL OF LIVERPOOL is premier, and speaks fluently, perspicuously, and sometimes forcibly. His acquaintance with political economy, which is his chief, if not his only accomplishment, is the result of patient and continued attention to the speculations of others, rather than of original observation or energetic intuition of his own. His speeches are mere business compositions, and entirely devoid of elegance in diction, pointed allusions, eloquent illustrations, and classical figures. The Earl of Harrowby, Earl Bathurst, Earl of Westmoreland, Lord Melville, and Lord Redesdale, occasionally make speeches; but the art of criticism was not meant to extend to them. The Duke of Montrose, the Mar quis Camden, and Lord Sidmouth, are not orators. Lord Grenville sat on one of the cross benches during the Queen's trial, and since, he has not attended. In many respects, he is the first speaker in the Upper House. He is profoundly skilled in the fine models of antiquity, and to the cultivated taste which this implies, he adds labour and perseverance in any effort or research which know no bounds but success. His speeches are consequently deliberate, correct, luminous, and persuasive. In an assembly whose votes were free, and at the disposal of oratory, Lord Grenville would triumph as often as he spoke, for the majority always yield to plausibility, while they are impregnable to proof. His Lordship has that in his manner which dispels all doubt of his integrity; and he has the art of clothing his sentiments with much of his personal authority. Yet, with all these distinctions, Lord Grenville is not a man of genius:-it is all labour, and labour upon a soil by no means deep or vigorous. It was believed that, but for his speech, the Bill of Pains and Penalties would have been lost on the second reading. His speech was artful and plausible in the highest degree. A silent vote would have done more honour to an independent peer. His nephew has since been created a Duke, and his party have come into office. He stands aloof from politics. He who contemptuously dismissed M. Chauvelin, now reads Greek, and enjoys his fame at Dropmore. He gives his barren dependants to the state, but confines his own acquirements to his private society: Nudosque per aëra ramos Effundens, trunco, non frondibus, efficit umbram. EARL GREY sits opposite to the Earl of Liverpool, and is recognised in that House, and throughout the nation, as the leader of the Whigs. In the House of Commons, Mr Grey had been a distinguished orator. In the peerage, his acuteness and his eloquence have not declined. His principles are too well known to require any remark here. His literary accomplishments are extensive and varied. In his speeches, precision and dignity are the most conspicuous features. No slovenly expression ever escapes him. He reasons with great force of argument, and copious supplies of illustration. But the full display of the force of his eloquence, and the energy of his mind, is to be seen when he is personally attacked. A splendid in stance of this talent was called forth by the Earl of Lauderdale, during the unhappy discussions respecting the late Queen. LORD HOLLAND is, in every view, the second personage in the Opposition Benches. With much difficulty in getting up to the full command of a topic, and with some painful obstructions in his ascent, he often attains the very summit of eloquence, and spreads around him the full splendour of energetic oratory. In his person, and especially in his divine countenance, he bears a striking resemblance to Charles James Fox; and they who admired the uncle's eloquence, and knew best how to appreciate it, admit that the nephew's is not unworthy of the name. His taste for literature, his attachment to literary society, and his unaffected attentions to men of genius and taste, are well known, and have naturally excited the malignity of every Bavius and Mævius of the age. The MARQUIS OF LANSDOWN is an able reasoner, and a fluent speaker, but too diffuse for effect. On several subjects of great importance, where detail is interesting, and amplification not tedious, his Lordship has succeeded in making a very powerful impression: but, on ordinary occasions, the want of condensation and point is fatal to the interest of his statements. LORD KING is uncommonly ingenious, but destitute of the imagination of an orator. The EARL OF ROSSLYN is animated and respectable as a speaker; not eloquent. EARL GROSVENOR is stiff, and, one would suspect, pedantie. It is known that he used to quote Greek in the House of Commons; and that Mr Gifford, of the Quarterly Review, was his tutor. George Buchanan made his royal pupil a pedant. LORD ERSKINE has never been able to appear himself, without twelve honest men-Anglicè-a Jury. LORD ELLENBOROUGH is, incomparably, the prettiest declaimer in the House of Incurables. Mr Law excited hopes in the Commons, as young Betty on the stage. He delivers with the perfect accuracy of a person training for a rhetorician. His expressions are hopelessly vapid. He will never be an orator. The BISHOPS are best omitted. Not one man of letters is, at this moment, in their number. The late display of parliamentary talent which they made has not raised them in public estimation. The example of England, in the present day, reflects no shame upon the Church of Scotland for its unparliamentary humility. A Minister of the Gospel is surely more dignified, catechizing a cow-herd in a smoky hut, than seated in the House of Peers, and voting at the call of the First Lord of the Treasury. For learning, the Church of Scotland is not discountenanced; though she, too, is apparently in the decline of literature. Who are the modern Blairs, and Robertsons, and Reids, and Playfairs? The House of Commons I reserve for a separate communication. CORNICULA. ON THE EARLY ITALIAN ROMANCES. No. I. EVERY body has read something of Ariosto, and heard something of Pulci and Boiardo; but those only, who are tolerably well acquainted with Italian literature, know how many other Epic Romances exist in that language, upon the story of Charlemagne and his Paladins, some of which are even older than the productions of the oldest of the writers above named *. To a few of these we are about to draw the attention of our readers; and as neither Pulci nor Boiardo have been translated into English†, we shall, in the Those industrious and acute critics, the Germans, have paid great attention to them, and a very accurate enumeration of them may be found in Blankenburg's Zusatze zu I. G. Sultzers Allgemeiner Theoric der Schönen Künste. Hoole, before his translation (if it deserve the name, since it gives the reader no notion of the style and spirit of the original) of Ariosto, places a summary of the story of Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato; and in one of the last numbers of "the Indicator," Mr Leigh Hunt inserted a prose translation of the first canto and a half of Pulci's Morgante Maggiore. course of a series of articles, of which the present is the first, give such specimens of them as will lead to the formation of a more correct notion than perhaps now prevails, of their merits, defects, and peculiarities as poets. At least there is novelty in this undertaking, and if we succeed in communicating only a fourth part of the pleasure we have derived from the task of collecting the materials, it cannot fail to be highly entertaining. The Romance with which we begin bears the following title: "Questa si e la Spagna Historiata. Incommincio il Libro volgare dicto la Spagna in quarante cantare diviso ;" and we have selected it, because, according to the authority of Blankenburg and others, it is Die älteste der Romantische Epopöen aus der Geschichte Karl des Grossen. The date of the earliest known edition is only Milan, 1518, but it was printed, there is very little doubt, both before, the work of Pulci in 1488, and of Boiardo in 1495. Mr Merivale, in the preface to his "Orlando in Roncesvalles," is decidedly of the same opi nion he states it to be the second romance, in the ottave rime, in the Italian language, (Buovo d'Antona being the first,) and the first poem "which treats of the battle of Roncesvalles, and the expedition preceding it." I have thus established its claim to priority of notice, indepen dently of any intrinsic merit, of which the reader will now, very soon, be able to form a judgment. The German writer before quoted, with some inaccuracy, places "La Spagna" among anonymous works: the author thus, in the very last stanza of his production, mentions his name and country. Lordings, for you my tale is now completed. Sostegno di Zinabi, Florentine, Of God, our Heavenly Father, has entreated To guard him ever from the wrath diving: And that by sin you may not be defeated. But still in virtue's rugged path may shine, Which leads to Paradise and heavenly glory. Here to your honour I now end my story. It is fit to premise, that the narrative is conducted with great and unaf fected simplicity of style and thought, and that, in the translations which follow, the object has been to give, as much as possible, the character and spirit of the Italian. Some allowance will, therefore, now and then be necessary, both for words and phrases. It is very clear that Sostegno di Zinabi takes Turpin, or some other chronicler, for his original, although he never names him, referring, generally, to il libro e l'historia as his authority. Boiardo and Ariosto mention the good Archbishop over and over again, especially when they want to vouch any incredible fact; and Pulci, not satisfied with one, affects to follow the narratives of four authors, viz. Turpin, Ormanno, Alcuin, and Lactantius*. He thought, probably, that his extravagancies needed more than one evidence. Zinabi could not very consistently refer to Turpin, because, in Canto XXXVI. he states, that he was killed upon the field of Roncesvalles. Pulci, who had quoted him throughout, felt the importance of contradicting this assertion in a stanza, (C. XXVII. st. 79,) which possibly refers to the fate Zinabi had assigned to the old chronicler. Pulci says, in his usual manner : If any one asserts that Turpin fell He wrote down to the death of Charles and pays To him a worthy tribute of his praise. Only one further remark seems necessary, by way of introduction, and it tends further to shew the antiquity of the production of Zinabi. It is, that each of his forty cantos begins with a pious invocation to God, the Saviour, the Holy Ghost, or the Virgin. In this particular Pulci imitates him. The whole is written as if it were the effusion of an improvisatore; and after soliciting the attention of his auditors, Zinabi proceeds to relate the origin of the new war Charlemagne declared against See particularly Cantos XXVII. and XXVIII. of the Morgante Maggiore, where they are frequently cited. the Pagans of Spain, viz. to scat Orlando, in right of his wife Aldabella, (sister to Oliver), on the throne, and to expel Marsilio. The Emperor assembled all his Peers, to make them acquainted with his intended enterprize; and when he saw them before him, he inwardly congratulated himself that he was lord of tanta bella baronia*. Ogier the Dane, Oliver of Vienna, Namus of Bavaria, Salamon of Brittany, and Ganelon of Maganza, the traitor, all swear to support the pretensions of Orlando, who, by the Pope, is constituted Champion of the Church. Marsilio in vain endeavours to conciliate Charles, who, putting his army in motion, with reinforcements from England and Scotland, lays siege to Lazera in Navarre. Ferrau, the celebrated Pagan hero, who plays so prominent a part in Boiardo and Ariosto, here makes his appearance, for the first time, and challenges Orlando: Astolfo, the Paladin of England, leaves the camp of Charles to engage him, and is discomfited, as well as Oliver, Walter of Montlion, Otto, Samson of Picardy, and several other redoubted Peers. A conflict of a similar kind, and with a similar result, is to be found in Pulci, C. VIII., and in Boiardo, C. II.: in the latter, however, there are several do at length takes the field, and the considerable improvements. Orlanfight between him and Ferrau continues at intervals during three days, neither champion having gained any material advantage: the termination of it is related as follows, in Canto V.: Thus having said, the County back withdrew Far as the bridge's width would well allow, And cried, "Eternal God, that me dost view, Let me not fall before this Pagan now! Visit not Charles with this disaster new, And the baptis'd, who faithful to thee bow! Against this Moor grant me thy heavenly |