530 



Monthly Revieiu of Literature, 



[May, 



ber before us coutaiiis a curious allegorical 

 portrait of queen Elizabeth, from a picture 

 formerly the propeity of the great Lord 

 Burleigh, and now in the possession of his 

 descendant, the Marquis of Salisbury ;— . 

 The Earl of Essex, favourite of Queen 

 Elizabeth ; — The Earl of Craven, supposed 

 to have been privately married to the 

 daughter of James I. after the death of her 

 husband, the King of Bohemia ; — Thomas, 

 first Lord North ; — and Cardinal Allen, a 

 formidable emissary of the court of Home, 

 in the reign of Elizabeth. 



Mr. Blount's MSS. Being Selections 

 from the Papers of a Man of the World. 

 By the Aufhorof" Gilbert Earle." 2 Vols. 

 l2mo. — The structure of this work does 

 not bear the impress of originaUty, yet the 

 manner in which the component parts of 

 it have been xmited gives to it the next 

 claim : for they are disposed with skill and 

 judgment, and produce tlie effect the au- 

 thor aimed at more powerfully than if the 

 occuiTcnces of each event had been united, 

 instead of being narrated with reference to 

 the mental state of the person whose cha- 

 racter is intended to be pourtrayed. 



The opening chapter of the present work 

 is inferior to any other in it ; and, whatever 

 may be the fault in tiie subject of Gilbert 

 Earl, cannot compete witli the commence- 

 ment of that tale. 



The autlior has spared us the trouble of 

 sketching the outline of these manuscripts, 

 by giving it himself in the following words ; 

 we shall, after quoting it, fill in a few in- 

 terstices to give a clearer notion of the 

 whole. 



Mr. Blount, I take originally to have been a 

 man of warm and upright feelings, a8 well as of con- 

 (iderahle ardour of disposition. But he caused his 

 own misery, and that of her who loved and trusted 

 him, by that most pernicious and enervating bent 

 of mind with regard to women, for which, thank 

 Heaven ! our language wants an expression ; I mean, 

 that common to men whom our neighbours term d 

 bonnes fortune-i. The increasuig action of this cor- 

 roding influence is, I think, very apparent in the 

 gradual change of tone, throughout the course of 

 these papers. He begins by talking of these matters 

 with gaiety and buoyant animal spirits. He reso- 

 lutely shuts his eyes against every thing which he 

 feels it disagreeable to look upon ; he seeks only 

 present enjoyment, and he finds it. After further 

 self-indulgence, we find him more difficult to be 

 excited, and occasionally lookhig back with tender- 

 ness and regret to the happiness which he has thrown 

 away. Neither does he any longer possess that flow 

 of spirits, which is the surest shield against suffering 

 from the agitations of the stronger passions. Ulti- 

 mately his heart becomes corrupt, and his life loose, 

 even to licentiousness. He plunges into dissipation 

 to shake off the thorns which the flowers of indul- 

 gence have left within his heart; and he only 

 doubles their number. He becomes soured in tem- 

 per, and discontented in his habits of thought. 

 The present has for him no joys, the future no 

 hopes; the past he dares not look at. At length, 

 from fortuitous circumstances, a second dawn breaks 

 and brightens upon him ; a happiness he has not 

 deserved, u placed almost within his teach, when a 



circumstance, equally fortuitous, snatches it from 

 him for ever ! 



" What store of mental comfort and consolation 

 lias he then to turn to ? What feelings has he hived 

 up to support him in sorrow or adversity ? Alas I 

 none ; his life becomes one dreary gloom ; and there 

 is no bright spot to alleviate or adorn it. 



" Such a man as this cannot bear solitude; he 

 rushes again into the world, and seeks means of 

 driving away reflection more desperate even than 

 those he formerly employed. These ruin his for- 

 tune, as those had corrupted his heart; and he sells 

 himself in a mercenary marriage, which completes 

 the climax of his misfortunes caused by faults. And 

 what is the result? He drags on two or three 

 miserable years, and sinks into an early grave, alike 

 morally and physically worn out. He dies of old 

 age at nine-and-thirty." 



This character, not an uncommon one, 

 which renders the moral more useful, is 

 delineated not only by a powerful detail of 

 his own feelings, but by the effect pro- 

 duced on him by the conduct of others im- 

 mediately connected with him, and by 

 occurrences which he witnesses in his 

 wanderings. 



The opening chapter we have said we 

 do not think highly of ; but we trust that 

 the reader will not be deterred from con- 

 tinuing the pei-usal of the volumes if he 

 should form the same opinion, for we 

 assure him that the superstructure is far 

 superior to the foundation of the story. 

 This chapter is weakly romantic in concep- 

 tion though glowingly written, and wanting 

 both novelty of incident and force of de- 

 lineation. The imaginary writer of these 

 MSS. is described as travelling in France 

 at the breaking out of the llevolution. 

 The slight sketch of the manners of the 

 high society of Paris at that period is 

 clearly pencilled ; and the detailed account 

 of the siege of the Bastile, the conduct of 

 the mob, and the bearing of the pri- 

 soners when at the scaffold are well told. 

 The story of Blanch Delvyn, a friend 

 of Mr. Blount's, is the best portion of 

 the work, and cannot be read without 

 interest, and, perhaps, without benefit. 

 Her character, metaphysically speaking, is 

 correctly drawn, for none of the parts are 

 incongruous (this is giving it, in our esti- 

 mation, the highest praise, for such cor- 

 rectness is seldom to be fouiul in works of 

 this nature), and under every circumstance 

 or trial in which she is placed, she acts in 

 conformity to the principles of her cliarac- 

 ter, and not as the author seemed to de- 

 sire for the purpose of producing some 

 effect, which, liowever strijiing, would have 

 thrown the whole out of keeping and har- 

 mony. The history of Blanch Delvyn, 

 which has not much connection with the 

 delineation of Mr. Blount's character, has 

 no greater claims than the other portions 

 of these volumes to novelty of incident ; the 

 merit consists in the manner in which the 

 mental affections are described. Blanch 

 " was a person formed for enjoyment— of 

 a gay temper as well as of great capabilities 

 of happiness. " 



