1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



525 



sionally, whole mouthfuls of spleen alias 

 bombast and balderdash. 



Relief offers itself at last in the person 

 of a youth Shakspeare, we believe, is 

 meant who, fearless and resolute, de- 

 termines to rescue the sinking kingdom 

 from Time's clutches. He deals a few 

 substantial blows at the phantom, and a 

 great many bitter taunts paying mean- 

 while due, and reverent, and blythesome 

 greeting to the pale queen, whom he re- 

 assures and comforts, and finally compels 

 the hoary sage to forego his expected har- 

 vest. We are probably mistaken in the 

 person of this youthful saviour. Titania 

 had already alluded to Shakspeare, as one 

 who had before given her a lift and 

 could not be unknown to her it must be 

 Mr. Thomas Hood himself. 



Nothing can we see not even a stanza 

 at all valuable in the Midsummer Fairies. 

 Mr. Hood has plenty of language good 

 poetical language too; and a good deal of 

 the inward material of poetry ; but he has, 

 either by injudicious exercise, perverted 

 the natural march of thought and feeling 

 (see Whims and Oddities), or he is in- 

 nately too much of a grasshopper in his 

 mental movements, to produce any thing 

 concentrated, or continuous, or effective 

 in writing. The fault, we suspect, is not 

 an original one, but rather a vicious habit 

 for vicious it is, and always diminishes 

 the amount of intensity that belongs to 

 our thoughts, to wrest them forcibly either 

 in pursuit of verbal contrasts, or absurd 

 images, or, in short, in any way, where 

 they would not spontaneously go. Such 

 a course is not confined in its effects to the 

 subject and period in which it is employed ; 

 but is lastingly operative upon future as- 

 sociations of thought; and if long con- 

 tinued will destroy, irrecoverably, the 

 finer and higher faculties of the under- 

 standing. We suspect, as we said, that 

 Mr. Hood has cultivated a taste for the 

 ludicrous but too successfully to the in- 

 calculable injury of another and a supe- 

 rior set of powers, which nevertheless 

 could not be entirely subdued so that his 

 poetry assumes a tantalizing and artificial 

 appearance. When just upon the verge 

 occasionally of moving and exciting one, 

 it goes off suddenly into some quaint ab- 

 surdity, or pun, or common-place, as if the 

 writer's energy were no sooner kindled 

 than spent again or, as if he were ashamed 

 of being carried away by his imagination 

 the moment it becomes tinctured by sen- 

 sibility. 



The " Hero and Leander" we liked better. 

 The tale has enough naturally of the pa- 

 thetic to apologize for his not joking over 

 the whole, though in the construction he 

 has thrown in a dash of the ridiculous, by 

 making an amorous sea-maid the effective 

 cause of Leander's destruction while, in 



the detail of the nymph's desolation at 

 finding she had unwittingly drowned the 

 gentle youth in their passage to her sub- 

 aqueous retirement, he is quite touching. 

 ' Lycas, the Centaur", like the rest, dis- 

 plays a good deal of ill-ordered talent. The 

 " Two Peacocks of Bedfont" is good for 

 nothing. But to make some amends, one 

 little exquisite piece there is, addressed 

 to the moon, in which a lofty poetic feel- 

 ing is sustained throughout where the 

 thoughts, melting into one another by the 

 tenderest gradations, are simple and beau- 

 tiful the images harmonize with the feel- 

 ing, and the cadence with both. 



The English Gentleman' >s Manual, by 

 W.Goodhugh; 1827. This is a guide to 

 the formation of a library of select litera- 

 ture, accompanied with original notices, 

 biographical and critical, of authors and 

 books published with the same object as 

 Dr. Dibdin's "Guide to the Young and 

 Consolation to the Old," but with some- 

 what less quackery, though not without 

 quackery. Mr. Goodhugh for himself an- 

 nounces to the world, that he has acquired 

 a knowledge of many of the Oriental (we 

 hope he feels the full import of these por- 

 tentous words) and most of the modern 

 languages (and also of these) ; and there- 

 fore conceives himself competent to un- 

 dertake any department of bibliography. 

 This last word was probably meant for 

 bibliopoly, because he at the same time 

 ''"does not hesitate to avow that it is as a 

 bookseller, he is desirous of appearing 

 before the public, and to found a reputa- 

 tion upon a strict and punctual attention 

 to every department of his business, as 

 best calculated to secure that confidence 

 and favour, &c. &c." These notes of pre- 

 paration are somewhat alarming, and seem 

 mightily superfluous for a knowledge of the 

 mere titles of books ; but every man to 

 his taste; and every man must speak, if he 

 speak at all, according to the measure of 

 his knowledge, and the scale of his intel- 

 lect. The same words and phrases will 

 sometimes mean different things in dif- 

 ferent mouths, and happily it is not al- 

 ways impracticable nor discriminate. If 

 it were ! 



Nevertheless the book will prove very 

 useful to young readers, and others yet 

 unacquainted with the common treasures 

 of booksellers' shelves. Books of esta- 

 blished reputation in all departments of 

 literature are pointed out, with the prices 

 appended, and also little scraps of popular 

 criticism, and sundry anecdotes of books 

 and authors omnibus et lippis notum ct 

 tonsoribus though read a score of times, 

 there are listless moments with the busiest, 

 when the same may be read again, and the 

 leaves of a catalogue like this be turned 

 over with something like pleasure. Sir 



