MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 537 



plot, incident, or character in them, and they are worked up with an 

 especial disregard of the unities of time and place. Amongst our older 

 writers no such fault can be found ; their productions are elaborately 

 finished ; plot well interwoven ; character broadly, if not naturally, 

 marked; incidents striking, and scene vivid and graphic. It is true they 

 are full of heroes in the shape of ghosts, spectres, knights with raven 

 locks and giant limbs, who never speak without smiting their foreheads 

 and thumping their breasts ; maidens, beautiful as houris, that no man can 

 see but straightway he loves ; dungeons, dark corridors, trap-doors, veiled 

 pictures, and other addenda fit to constitute a proper romance banquet. 

 All of these have in a great measure vanished ; for to introduce them 

 with any effect requires dramatic skill, and very careful management of 

 the course of the narrative. Even the " Wizard of the North" failed 

 here most signally, and failed simply because he had not time to work 

 out his ideas ; hence his " Spirit of Avenel," which Mrs. Radcliffe would 

 have made a " brave subject," sinks into weakness, and produces not the 

 slightest impression, either upon the mind or the imagination. Had we 

 had any substitutes given to us for these characteristics of our older 

 romances, we should have been well pleased to see them sink into ob- 

 livion. But it is not so ; and hence the Radcliffs, the Lees, and others, 

 still retain their places on our reading shelves ; and what is more, will 

 continue to do so when multitudes of their successors are buried in the 

 profoundest deep of forgetfulness. It is not denied that many of these 

 works display marks of considerable talent, that they have detached pas- 

 sages of great beauty ; but what then ? they are merely fragmentary 

 beauties, gems scattered o'er a wide waste of barrenness, and the pub- 

 lic will not seek for them : indeed the labour of wading through three 

 volumes for the purpose of finding out half a dozen good pages is abso- 

 lutely herculanean, and the fatigue exceeds that of diamond-washing in 

 Brazil. A good work must be good and well put together to be read and 

 to become popular. The public will always appreciate a romance of real 

 excellence, but it cannot be got by any puffing to swallow a dose of de- 

 tached excellences. 



The "Captive" redeems, in some measure, its class from this con- 

 demnation. It is well written, and, although not displaying first-rate 

 ability, it is a good performance. Its great fault is its want of condensa- 

 tion, and the length of some of its dialogues. The characters of the 

 ladies Blanche and Geraldine, and of their lovers the young and gallant 

 knights, Bertrand de Valence and Ranulph de Ravenspurg, are fine spe- 

 cimens of the chivalrous age. The romance is one purely of love and 

 chivalry, and though the author lacks force in his tournaments, he makes 

 good amends in his love matters. Mobarec, the African, is overdone ; 

 there is too much knitting of brows, mysterious disappearances, and 

 grandiloquence about him. The following is an extract to show the 

 author's style of writing : 



" There is this difference between man's love and that of woman : when 

 the first loves truly and devotedly, his passion so far masters his reason, 

 that it is no slight matter which can arouse his suspicions, and he is with 

 difficulty induced to entertain any belief prejudicial to the object of his 

 affection : but should he once discover reason to fear that he has be- 

 stowed his heart unworthily, he is implacable in his resentment. Not so 

 the softer sex. That jealous source of delicacy and honour, which per- 

 haps above all other attributes makes the proud lords of creation feel and 

 acknowledge the beautiful majesty of woman, renders her cautious of 

 yielding at once an unbounded confidence to man, and until his affection 

 has stood the test of time, or absence, or misfortune, she is easily roused 

 to suspicion of his faith. But in proportion as she is apt to shrink 

 from imagined danger, so is she willing to acknowledge her error when 



