1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



707 



death, &c. A considerable sprinkling of 

 poetry is scattered over the volumes : it re- 

 quires patience to work through it. 



Family Library. Dramatic Series, vol. 

 /., Plays of Massinger. Wdl, \ve do not 

 like mutilations of this kind, nor can the 

 motives alleged for making them reconcile 

 us to them. They tend to the ruin of in- 

 dividual characteristics, to confusion, and of 

 course to erroneous estimates in literary 

 history. We shall by degrees, if the prin- 

 ciple of excision goes on alii alias causas 

 interserentes not be able to recognise old 

 acquaintance, nor distinguish the features of 

 one age from another. If Massinger be too 

 coarse to be read, let him be forgotten; 

 which Abstaining from re-publication will 

 effectually do for him. Be the motive we 

 shall not call it the pretence ever so pure 

 and desirable, the execution of the scheme 

 will defeat its own object ; it will awaken a 

 curiosity, that would otherwise have remained 

 dormant, to see what it is that has been cut 

 out, and the poison will thus circulate wider 

 than before. The common pride of intellect, 

 especially of young intellect, is piqued at not 

 being allowed to judge for itself; and no 

 wonder for who, young or old, likes restric- 

 tion ? to have that withheld from them which 

 others possess ? or will patiently bear to be 

 told, There is more, but it is not fit for you 

 to read? If the young acquiesce, it will 

 often be with the resolution of indemnifying 

 themselves the first favourable opportunity. 

 The intention is to publish Massinger, Beau- 

 mont, Fletcher, Ford, Shirley, Webster, 

 Micldleton, and others, omitting all such 

 scenes and passages as are inconsistent with 

 the delicacy and refinement of modern taste 

 and manners. Whenever it is possible, the 

 play will be printed entire ; but when there 

 is a radical evil in the groundwork of the 

 play, only a single act or a few scenes will 

 be given ; but in such cases, it seems, care 

 will be taken to preserve the interest of an 

 entire and connected story. Our objection is, 

 it will not be Massinger. 



Of Massinger the poet, nothing is cer- 

 tainly known, but that he lived, wrote, and 

 died ; and the editor is obliged to eke out a 

 few pages in visionary conjectures, on which 

 he himself says thinking is literally a waste 

 of thought. A little stage-talk fills out a 

 few more, as to the state of things when 

 theatres were first built in Elizabeth's reign. 

 The first was in 1569 ; it is supposed some- 

 where in Blackfriars. The editor establishes 

 the contested fact of painted and moveable 

 scenes in the days of Shakspeare. 



Excerpta Historica, or Illustrations of 

 English History, Part /., March, 1830. 

 Among the multitude of books now publish- 

 ing periodically, this is one that well deserves 

 encouragement, but one which from lack of 

 popular topics stands a good chance of being 

 pretty generally overlooked. It relates wholly 

 to times gone by ; has nothing to do with 

 .current facts, nor indulges in any glowing or 



gloomy anticipations of the future. Its 

 purpose is the publication of cotemporary 

 documents relative to English history; not 

 merely political instruments, like Rymer's 

 Fcedera, &c. but antiquarian information in 

 a liberal sense ; articles of private arid even 

 domestic interest, illustrative, at the same 

 time, of morals, manners, customs, literature, 

 and arts. Any thing like order and arrange- 

 ment will not, of course, be aimed at; it is 

 miscellaneous in its nature. It offers a re- 

 gister for curious matter at present buried 

 in dust; and little anticipation of particulars 

 can be made. The expectation of the editor 

 is sanguine ; and certainly the British Mu- 

 seum contains masses of unexamined mate- 

 rials, or at least unexamined with the views 

 of the publishers. Among the literary ar- 

 ticles of this first portion, is a poem on the 

 Assault of Massoura, in the crusade headed 

 by Louis, written in French, but evidently by 

 an Englishman, or a person filled with Eng- 

 lish feelings. The most interesting particulars 

 are relative to the valour and death of Wm. 

 de Longespee, whose father was the natural 

 son of Henry II. by the fair Rosamond. A 

 translation is printed with the Poem, very 

 ably executed ; and the introductory matter 

 is written in good taste, without any parade. 

 The original is written in a cotemporary 

 hand, and is preserved in the Cottonian MS. 

 Julius A. v. in the British Museum, being 

 preceded in that volume by a copy of Peter 

 de Langtoft's Chronicle in French, and 

 other pieces of the 13th century. This, how- 

 ever, is not enough to identify it as Lang- 

 toft's, as the editor seems inclined to do. 

 The extracts from Henry VII.'s privy purse 

 expenses exhibit some curious items, little 

 to have been expected from that stern and 

 close-fisted monarch. The papers relative to 

 the building of Eton are curious the war- 

 rants for impressing workmen, the grant of 

 relics, and especially the grant of arms, with 

 the hidden meaning of its heraldry, probably 

 new to Etonians. 



Chronicles of a School-room, by Mrs. 

 S. C. Hall These are interesting little 

 sketches, given as the recollections of a ve- 

 nerable lady, a retired schoolmistress, who 

 had for some thirty or forty years kept a kind 

 of select and finishing establishment for 

 young ladies at Little Hampton. The good 

 lady, of course, was none of your routine 

 performers in this way ; she was an original 

 and inventive artist ; she knew how to handle 

 her tools and materials; estimating qua- 

 lities shrewdly and correctly, and turning all 

 to valuable purposes ; full of expedient, and 

 all but converting black into white, or wholly 

 so, if, indeed, she could make the perverse 

 amiable, and the spiteful kind and candid. 

 Her success was wonderful, and she had 

 often awkward subjects to deal with. One 

 an Irish girl, " tall, of twelve years old, 

 with rough red hair, prominent features, re- 

 markable for want of expression, and large 

 development, added to a painful deficiency of 



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