1831.] Affairs in General. 433 



And they are Hthogi-aphecl by the most established of our lithographers. 

 Lane, we are sorry to say, with no possible addition to his stony 

 renown. They look pitifully thin and washy — scraped, not drawn, and 

 altogether albumish — a phrase which we have adopted from young 

 Macauley's last speech, and to which we thus give the imprimatur. But 

 our chief objection to this sextuple Taglioni is, that the artist makes her 

 consummately ugly. Six caricatures are too much for our feelings, six 

 varieties of deformity overwhelm our taste for the dark side of human 

 nature, six duplicates of distortion and diabolism startle our dreams 

 by night of the exquisite danseuse, and ruffle our gallantry by day. No, 

 for the honour of the female face divine, Taglioni is not the thing that 

 now lies grinning and Avrithing through the six physiognomical positions 

 of agony on our table. Her little Italian visage, though not of the 

 " finest order of fine faces" is not the grim diversity of a face on 

 the rack, nor the living emblem of Sheridan's picture, " where, like 

 a congress, every feature seemed to have a different interest, and the 

 nose and chin are the only ones likely to come to an amicable under- 

 standing." We quote from memory, and if we have improved the 

 ■original, Sheridan has only to thank us. Clever the sketches are, good 

 in legs and feet, bust and arms ; but the night-mare physiognomy in the 

 midst, reminds us of nothing but the Aa-ab flying fiend, the genie, the 

 son of the daughter of Eblis. If Chalon thought his heroine ugly, why 

 did he not make her handsome. A dancer's fame, fortune, figure, and 

 physiognomy are in her feet. She might as well be painted without a 

 head, for any thing that we care. But there the head is, and such as it 

 is, it spoils our meditations, and reminds us of the Bottle Imp — at the 

 moment when we wished to give ourselves over to the recollections of 

 the sylph, treading the air in blue roses, green clouds, and coquelicot 

 satin wings. 



But as we have not time to tell the characters under which this 

 matchless mistress of the whole three graces at once, appears from the 

 pencil of j\I. Chalon, we must resort to the poetry that illustrates them. 

 Each sketch is accompanied by a poem, from the pen of " F. W. N. 

 Bayley." The closing compliment to the fair danseuse — now, we fear 

 from what we have lately heard, a dancer no more — we copy as a spe- 

 cimen : — 



Marie Taglioni ! — we've bowed to thee now. 



As the nymph of a blue stream* — the goddess of flowersf — 



As a creature whose heart, like the smile on her brow. 

 Is as light and as lovely as life's happy hours. 



As a Napolitaine — as a daughter of Tell,+ 



Bounding out from her cottage, as light and as free 



As the chamois — the eagle — the fawn — the gazelle. 

 In her youthfulness, pure as the purest might be. 



We've hailed thee with wings ! as a spirit of air 



(The wings of a butterfly, not of a dove) — 

 We've hailed thee when, robed as the bright Bayadere, 



Thou seemest to dance in a circle of love ! 



Thus thy colours were varied, as those of the bow 

 That 8|)ans in its beauty the skies of the spring; 



And in all thy young gracefulness haunted us so. 

 That still to its magic our memories cling. 



♦LaNaiadc. f Flore. J La Tyroliennc. 



