1832.] [ 593 ] 



MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



TOUR IN GERMANY, HOLLAND AND ENGLAND, IN THE YEARS 1826, 1827, AND 

 1828. By A GERMAN PRINCE. VOLS. III. AND IV. 



THIS book seems to have made what is technically called a hit. The English 

 were tickled at the idea of a foreign highness writing about their dinners and danc- 

 ings. Some were alarmed, some indignant, and some delighted; and all, whether 

 friends or enemies, exaggerated unconsciously the wit and wickedness, cleverness 

 and comicality of Prince Puckler Muskaw. 



The Prince if Prince he be appears to us to unite a singular activity of mind 

 to very moderate abilities. He in general describes what he sees with fidelity, but 

 often reasons badly ; and as his reasonings arise at the instant of the impression 

 when he discovers in the process of writing any error in the ratiocination he 

 chooses rather to alter the description than his opinion. Rather a ludicrous instance 

 of the effect of imagination, on a man of this character, is given in his stage criti- 

 cism on Macbeth.^ The Prince, it appears, abhors the pasteboard figure made use 

 of on the German stage in the representation of Banquo's ghost; and the following 

 is the description, which he gives to his countrymen, of the way the affair is ma- 

 naged at Drury-Lane : 



" Here the entrance of the ghost is so cleverly concealed, by the bustle of the guests 

 taking their seats at several tables, that it is not till the King prepares to sit down that the 

 dreadful form, seated in his place, is suddenly visible to him and the audience. The 

 bloody wounds upon his pale countenance, (of course, it is the actor himself who played 

 Banquo.) without rendering it ludicrous by nearly severing the head from the body ; and 

 when he looks up fixedly at the King from the festive tables, surrounded by the busy tu- 

 mult of the guests, then nods to him, and slowly sinks into the earth, the illusion was 

 perfect as the effect is fearful and thrilling." vol. iv. p. 247. 



A few more such passages would make one suspect the book to be a romance. 

 In England the Ghost is not so ill-bred as to come in before the guests are quietly 

 seated ; and the guests, on their part, knew too well the rules of good society to in- 

 terrupt the colloquy of the King and the Ghost by tumult of any kind. They listen 

 with respectful attention to what is going on, and appear to be much gratified by 

 the appearance of the new visiter. As for the Ghost himself, so far from slinking 

 down into the earth, as if ashamed of his calling, he tramps in and out (in the per- 

 son of Mr. Cooper) as emphatically as any live man of eleven stone in London. 

 If Prince Buckler Macaw (according to the reading of a lady of our acquaintance) 

 had remarked, that the appearance of this substantial ghost is as impertinent as 

 would be that of a Birmingham dagger, let down by a string, and played like a 

 baited hook before a salmon in the dagger-scene, we should have thanked him for 

 the suggestion. It is indeed surprising that the means of the air-drawn dagger, 

 which never failed in its effect even on the dullest conceptions, should not have 

 taught our managers a lesson. SKakespeare, perhaps, would not have been justi- 

 fied, in his age, in the innovation ; but we are convinced we wished that the appa- 

 rition of Banquo should only be visible to the " mind's eye" his ghosts talk that 

 are meant to be seen. 



His highness complains grievously, in some places, of English want of hospita- 

 lity. This charge happily is unfounded, or we should have lost many true and 

 piquant descriptions of our national manners from the Prince's pen. In fact, he 

 appears to have been feasted to actual repletion ; and, at one time, said candidly, 

 that a foreigner who consents to see all the gradations of social life can hardly hold 

 out a London reason, " More than forty invitations are now lying on my table 

 C'est la mer a boire !" What provokes him most, however, it seems, is the melan- 

 choly fact that the English in Germany will not be prevailed upon sometimes to 

 accept of feasts in return ; and he tells, on this subject, a good story of one of our 

 little viscounts refusing the invitation of a prince ! 



" I know that in one of the largest towns in Germany, a prince of the house of K^ , 



distinguished for his frank, chivalrous courtesy, and amiable character, invited an English 

 viscount, who had but just arrived, and had not yet been presented to him, to a hunting- 



