successive stanzas, each with its appropriate form of versification. Captain Spalding has shown great mastery over the metrical forms of the poem and it does not read like a translation. We will quote a few characteristic lines, that may convince our readers of the interest of Tegner's epic, and the power of Mr. Spalding's translation. Thus Frithiof and Ingeborg are described in light and sportive metre: When day arose upon the sky Old World King, with the flaming eye, She thought of him, and he of her. She dreamed of him, and he of her.' There is a tone of modern policy and speculation in the way in which King Belé warns his son, Helgé, of dangers to come Let Force be but a watchman to guard the port, more, The shield should be a padlock on the barn The wild, rhymeless metre is well illustrated by the following scrap from 'Frithiof on the Sea.' The prayers of Ingeborg The great power of the poem is reserved for the last section, entitled The Reconciliation,' where, into the lips of Balder's priest, is put a kind of prophecy of Christ. There the power of Thor and the wisdom of Odin are made quite subordinate to the goodness of Balder. Death is the great reconciler. 'Yet, e'en life may gain a reconciliation Inferior, and a prelude to the higher one. As when the skald, who runs his fingersjo'er the harp Ere he commence the wondrous melody, with art Touches the tuneful wires, and softly proves Full harmony bursts powerful from the golden strings.' them, till glory of his grave,' but it is silent of his resurrection. The doctrine of peace and love is to wave its snowy, dove-like wings over the northern hills. We are told that the old priest of Balder 'honestly inquired, with unaverted eye, for light and truth divine. One is Allfather, many are his messengers.' We must here leave this striking effort to present in beautiful English the essence of an old Saga, which is throbbing with the great anxieties the eternal questions, the divine yearnings of all the children of the Allfather' in every age. Hannibal: an Historical Drama. Вy JoHN NICHOL, B.A. Oxon. Professor of English Language and Literature in the University of Glasgow. Maclehose. Professor Nichol has done not a little to restore the waning prestige of the historical drama. In 'Hannibal' we have not merely a learned 'study,' but a real revival. Mr. Nichol's aim is to present us with a 'character,' to show him to us vividly on all sides, and to draw near him other types, only that through them he may be the more faithfully interpreted to us. This implies, not only knowledge, but a large degree of sympathetic and creative instinct. More than this, it implies a keenly human character, anxiously alive to the currents of tendency in the present time, for by no other means can a man safely 'trundle back his soul some thousands of years' for a hero and maintain our interest when he has produced him. The modern air that sometimes breaks through the lines in this drama are, therefore, to be regarded as the seasoning' of genius rather than anything else. It is the best preservative against pedantry, a vice to which Mr. Nichol was peculiarly tempted, but to which he has never yielded. We see Hannibal consecrated to his great purpose by his father Hamilcar; then nobly consecrating himself; going forth to war to redeem the Carthaginian name, carrying victory before him in Spain; then sweeping on from point to point, till Rome is reached, and the glory of victory ebbs from it again when Hannibal falls. He is painted faithfully, no fault being glossed over or extenuated. One of the finest points in the work is the influence of Imilce upon the great warrior. The diction is always elevated and finished, though sometimes falling rather too much into the Shakesperean and Elizabethan manner. Оссаsionally we have passages that are not only polished, but thoroughly musical. We had marked many of these for extract, but can and Hannibal at the end of the first act. In mention only the dialogue between Silanus spite of the many changes of scene from the Carthaginian to the Roman camp a distinctive unity is maintained. Very subtly is indicated to us the unconscious lowering of motives in the mind of Hannibal after his first successes. Early he said: I war with living Rome, not Romans; I come to spoil your spoilers in the name But at length lusty conquest and revenge | is restrained by religion, and he moves admirahave their natural effect, and near the end he reconsecrates himself in a spirit somewhat less noble. So at least we are disposed to read Mr. Nichol's rendering. The Hymnary: A Book of Church Song. Novello, Ewer, and Co. Of the musical portion of this work we can, as a whole, speak in high praise. A collection of nearly 650 hymns, with accompanying tunes, a very large number of which have been composed expressly for the 'Hymnary,' renders the reviewer's task no light one. Mr. Barnby, the able editor musical has seclected his music from nearly every quarter-old Gregorian melo-sarily it wants some deeper notes to justify its dies, the English and Scotch Psalter Tunes, the Lutheran Chorals, the psalmody of the last century, and the works of the great masters, have all been drawn upon for contributions. But the most interesting from its novcity, and not the least valuable musically, is the large number of new tunes by living authors, many of which serve to prove that the art of writing a good psalm-tune has not yet been lost. Among the more eminent living English musicians, of whose work specimens are here to be met with, are Dr. Dykes, Dr. Stainer, Dr. Gauntlett, Dr. S. S. Wesley, Dr. Steggall, Dr. E. G. Monk, Messrs. G. A. Macfarren, E. J. Hopkins, Henry Smart, J. Turle, Sir John Goss, Sir F. Ouseley, W. H. Monk, Arthur Sullivan, Henry Leslie, W. T. Best, E. H. Thorne, and the editor. Many of their tunes are excellent, and the harmonies, without being bald, are for the most part simple enough to be within the reach of ordinary choirs and congregations. In his notation, Mr. Barnby has adopted the crotchet instead of the minim, as the unit of measurement, and has also discarded intermediate double-bars. The hymns are not selected with so much judgment. An undue space is given to translations from Latin hymns, chosen apparently from ecclesiastical motives. The editors have so far a catholic feeling, that they absolutely exclude no school; but the school of the Hymnal Noted is unduly predominant. Thus, while scores of the mediocre compositions of unknown or obscure writers crowd the book, the two greatest hymn writers of English Protestantism, Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, are scarcely represented. Only five of Watts's hymns appear, and nine of Charles Wesley's, while, strange to say, nineteen bearing John Wesley's name are inserted. Uniformly it will be found, that while Nonconformist hymnals exclude eagerly hymns of Episcopalians, the sectarian feeling of the latter is as exclusive as possible of Noncomformist compositions. But the book is on the whole a very good one, by far the best, we think, prepared for the Church of England. MINOR MINSTRELS. The Knight of Intercession, which gives its name to Mr. Stone's volume (Rivingtons), is far from being the most remarkable poem in it. Mr. Stone becomes unconsciously diffuse when he is most ambitious, and his blank verse wants distinction. He succeeds best where he bly within the 'sonnet's scanty plot of ground,' -a test of real poetic capacity and mastery over doetic form. Some of these sonnets, notably Trust' and 'The Salutation of the Elders,' are very perfect indeed. The hymns are sometimes rather spoiled, we regret to say, by the prominence given to special Church views.-Professor Blackie's Lays of the Highlands and Islands (Strahan), is a very free and dashing piece of work, fresh as the birch with the dew still upon it. It embalms the Professor's happy moods whilst amid his yearly wanderings on the Scotch hills, and sounds like a continuous chirrup of gladness. Necesclaiming a place with the highest poetry. But it does not pretend much, and it realizes all that it aims at doing. The poems on 'Columba' are admirably clear, and one or two of the sonnets are very fine. The essay on 'Highland Travel' is characteristic. -Mr. Wade Robinson, in his Songs in God's World (provoking title!), (Longmans) has re-issued many of its former poems with some new ones. He does not command a wide compass; but some of his notes are true and have a certain tensity of tone that generally tells of correspondence with experience. We like the short ones best, and one or two of the hymns are really admirable.The principle on which Mr. Crompton Jones has compiled his Hymns of Duty and Faith (Whitefield) is certainly a good one,-to exclude whatever would suggest controverted questions of theology, or that contained, or necessarily implied any exclusive dogmatic view of religion and life.' But we think he has carried the thing to such an extreme as to give to his book a certain coldness and lack of colour. Why, for instance, does he include John Keble's very mediocre hymn Deeds and Words die not' with its dogmatic doctrine of final judgment, and reject several that are no more dogmatic, but so much more warm and living? The same has to be said of many authors, especially of Dean Alford. Then we are not sure that compelling some of Carlyle's grandest prose into metre and rhyme will please him, or many others. Several writers, such as Emerson, Lowell, and George Macdonald are wisely represented here. The book is chastely got up, and may for many persons fill up a place that is vacant.There is so much of absurdity in the great mass of legend, relating to St. Patrick, that modern minds are inclined perhaps a little too readily to discredit it. But legend is the oak to which poetry often clings coylike, drawing support for itself. Mr. Aubrey de Vere in his Legends of St. Patrick (H. S. King and Co.) has proved this to us by presenting us with a masterly study of the Saint and his time. We wish we could have criticised some points in detail; we can only indicate the nature of the book in the most general way. Mr. De Vere chooses certain episodes that have a directly illustrative character, and patiently works them out into complete poems; the whole presenting a sort of half-dramatic history or portrait of the saint, if we choose so to accept it. Sometimes Mr. De Vere writes in ballad | soar. It is well, indeed, that we should nos metre, sometimes in blank verse; and the know too much. Those who know all about latter is always forcible and melodious. To the haunts of birds and the habits of poett us, the most striking of the poems are 'The do not bring us back more than we know Contention of Patrick with Orson' (which already. would have been a masterpiece with only a little more condensed energy), and the 'Confession of St. Patrick,' which is not only admirable for completeness and unity, but contains some separate lines which are so musical and perfect, that we regret we cannot quote. Memories: a Life's Epilogue. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1872. This poem has considerable excellence. The Spenserian stanza, which always requires careful handling, is well managed, and the work is crowded with a good deal of incident which cannot fail to excite the interest of the reader. Frequently, too, we come across passages which show that the author is gifted with considerable poetic feeling. Moreover there is no obscurity in his poem, and the narative glides along smoothly to the end. The author has taken for his model 'Childe Harold,' of which we are occasionally reminded; still, the incident with which, as we have just hinted, every page is marked is of a fresh and novel character, and we find much to interest us. The author of Memories' has a keen eye for the beauties of natural scenery, and possesses the gift of describing in vivid and picturesque language what he sees around him; and it is equally certain that he has thought deeply upon the questions which have occupied the attention of the public. We could cite many passages from his poem in illus. tration of this, but we must content our selves with quoting the following stanza, which relates to the first French Revolution :"That instant, as around the tors they climb, On a high peak they see the sunbeams flash, "Like that," the grave man said, and as sublime Burst the great light; no clouds were seen to clash, And long the peal delay'd its awful crash. And men believed all chains for aye were riven, Nations embraced, and feuds of ages were forgiven.' Songs of Early Spring and Lays of Later Life. By ROWLAND BROWN. Moxon. It has been said that no poet is equal to his poem, which saying is partially true; but in a deeper sense it may also be asserted, and with still greater truth, that no poem is equal to its poet. So much is this the case that we have met with verses which had the true ring of a poem, which opened up fresh visions of the beautiful without wishing to know their author. poem worthy of the name is a life-workthe manifestation of the hidden life in the A music of song. As the practised ear can tell each bird by its note-we do not need to see the lark soar to know that it is morning, or beat about the bush in order to find the missel thrush-so the poet, as Shelley has well sung in his 'Skylark,' makes his presence felt long before he is seen to Too much to know is to know naught but fame, And every godfather can give a name.' Contenting ourselves then with such glimpses of his mind and character as Mr. Rowland Brown has given us in these snatches of song, we should gather that he is a deep lover of nature, who has caught some of Wordsworth's thought that every poet is a priest of nature, a minister in a temple not made with hands, and lays reverently on at altar kindled with flowers for the spring and chaplets for auno false fire morning and evening sacrifices, tumn, hymns for the young year and dirges for the dying year. Much has been said on the connection between natural and revealed religion, and he who goes over the ground again as a theologian must tread on the ashes of controversies not yet extinct. Very beautifully does Mr. Rowland Brown see in this way into the heart of things. Easter is to him the symbol of spring as much as spring is the symbol of Easter. The celundini, the swallow-flower (which, by-the bye, in the swallows and with them to depart), the pretty fable is supposed to come with leads him pass by Regardless of the light of Heaven that shineth from thine eye.' He moralises well on this common roadside flower and its happy home, full of cheering, holy thoughts, God's witness that flowers spring soon on the dusty road of duty, a road straight and narrow, but not necessarily thorny or miry. 'Speed well,' the flower seems to say to the traveller, 'speed on and speed straight, make straight paths for thyself, and help the feeble knees of those who are fainting on the way.' The concluding lines well sum it up : 'Speed well, both thought and mind keep pure; To raise the dust of doubt and then complain ye vain folly will it be cannot see. Speed well! make ye the road of life a pathway bravely trod, Leading your footsteps daily nearer home to heaven and God.' son. We are glad to welcome these songs of early spring, which judging by the alternate title, we should say have now matured into lays of later life. Our minor poets generally are like our spring visitants, they leave off singing when their nests are built. Few sing on during the summer, and autumn is almost a songless seaAll the more welcome, then, are these lays which touch on feelings which die out only too soon-with many of us before even we reach middle age. As a protest against the sensuous spasmodic style of the Swinburne school, we welcome poetry like that of Mr. Brown's. Like Wordsworth's skylark, he is true to the kindred points of heaven and home. The Poets of Lakeland. Southey. Containing the Curse of Kehama,' minor poems and extracts. By HERMAN PRIOR, M.A., late scholar of Trinity College, Oxford. Simpkin and Marshall. This, we presume, is the first of a series, and is a very elegant little volume. To the reprint of the poems mentioned in the titlepage Mr. Prior prefixes a compressed biography of Southey carefully and admirably done. Expiated. By the Author of Six Months Hence,' and 'Behind the Veil.' Salisbury: Brown and Co. | other characters, in the manner of which Haw- If Saint Cecilia' be a first work, it is unusually full of promise. A striking and original story is told with much artistic and literary power, and a fine moral tone is inculcated. We have watched the literary progress of Henry Guildford, the younger brother of the the author of 'Expiated' with considerable in- Earl of Faringdon, is engaged to Frances terest. The elements of power in his first Warren, the niece of the. Dean of Nnovel were full of promise, which, however, Military service keeps him on the Continent the second did not justify. It is true that for two years. His elder brother falls in love tragic incident is a powerful vehicle for devel- with his affianced bride, and is so for overoping character; but there is danger of the in- powered by his passion as to declare it. He is cident being over-crowded and over-violent. spurned with contempt. Henry marries, and There is a radical difference between a tragedy never sees his brother again. He lives abroad, and a novel. The necessary limits of the and Constance, their only surviving child, is former impose upon the author rapid transi- the heroine of the story. Her father and tions and fragmentary presentations, and yet in mother die, and she loses her little fortune tragedies like Hamlet, Macbeth,' and 'Lear,' through the failure of an Indian bank. She there is a wonderful subduing of subordinate comes to England, and finds occupation in a incidents to the final dénouement. But the school in Wales, where she had been edutragic incidents that are crowded into a five-act cated; Mrs. Latimer, the principal, being deplay, and often into a very short space of time, lineated with great cleverness. Constance has are tolerated anachronisms, necessitated by the developed great artistic power, and supports very conditions of construction. It is diffe- herself by her paintings. She is also a fine rent with a novel, in which ample space is given singer, and has overtures from a maestro to go for the detailed and gradual development of into training for a prima donna. A wealthy dramatic and tragic incident. It is not the aunt discovers and adopts her; whose mixed tragic character of the incident that we demur character again, like Mrs. Latimer, is deveto. Life is full of tragedy; it is the recourse loped with subtle skill; and the scene changes to the machinery of mere incident to solve from the school to the most aristocratic circles psychological problems, or elaborately con- of Westmoreland. The beauty of Constance trived situations. It does not follow because is peerless, and her character very noble. each tragic incident of a story may be justified Her consciousness of great gifts is admirably by experience that a crowd of such incidents is balanced by her strong common sense. natural. Expiated' sins in this respect much Arthur falls in love with her; but does not less than Behind the Veil;' but it is defective declare his passion. The development of the in structure and exaggerated in plot. Its weird story turns mainly on the psychology of Conand, we think, morbid, psychology' is in- stance's character; her struggle with the dicated by its title. It is of the school of temptations to which her great gifts subject 'Elsie Venner,' and Mr. Gilbert's tales. Alice her. There is, we thing, something morbid Mereton, the heroine, expiates the crimes of a about the tone of her religiousness; but she genealogy of wicked baronets, guilty of vari- is, on the whole, a very fine-nay, a grand ous murders and suicides. High-minded and delineation. It is almost too bad to have self-sacrificing herself, she has premonitions of killed her; but perhaps the facts of real life, her doom; and throughout the story the tragic which are said to be the foundation of the incidents and the sympathetic premonitions story, demanded it, and her death lifts the blend not only in Alice, but in Percy and in work to the dignity of a high-class tragedy. Sir Clara Levesque. By WILLIAM GILBERT. Hurst | ron,' noticed in our last number (have both and Blackett. Clara Levesque' is free from the sombre and sometimes morbid psychology in which Mr. Gilbert is so great a master, although painful elements predominate in it. The first marriage of the heroine and that of Alice Morgan are both tragic; so is the fate of the heroine's father and brother. The defect of the book is the binary structure of it. Although touching at certain points, the two stories of 'Clara Levesque' and 'Alice Morgan,' into which it is divided, are quite independent of each other, and in no wise affect the development of each other. At the most they serve as contrasts to point the moral of coincident and contrasted conditions. The story, however, is written with great ability. Mr. Gilbert's microscopic observation and realistic minuteness of description are here in full force, and give that tone of verisimilitude to the narrative in been suggested by the same incident?); and, most of all, in her surrender of her fancied hero to Vera. He was not worthy of her, and we cannot help feeling some little satisfaction at the glimpse of his destiny which Adelardi's letter reveals. Clement's strong, noble character is very ably conceived; as, indeed, are all the dramatis persona. It is a strong, interesting, wholesome story, notwithstanding its imaginative Romanism, which cannot be read without its making the reader better. translation is admirable; we might, indeed, say perfect. The Martin's Vineyard. By AGNES HARRISON. A sweet, tender story of New England life, full of subtle feeling and beauty, and told with exquisite delicacy and grace. Martin's Vineyard' is an island five miles from the coast of New England, and peopled by Quaker which Mr. Gilbert is unrivalled. He does not indeed always resist the excess to which this refugees from the mainland. The interest centres in quiet, quaint family life, the pringreat faculty tempts him. Conversations and descriptions are unduly circumstantial, and de- cipal incident being a long protracted whalgenerate, the former into twaddle, the lattering voyage, with its fluctuations of hope and into inventory. Mr. Gilbert has not attained the art of eliminating all that does not belong to the progress of his story. He gives us much more of detail than its setting requires. He is true to nature; but the description of every leaf upon a tree would become wearisome. Nevertheless, Clara Levesque' is a very clever story, well individualized and in effective contrasts, and well wrought out in vivid and truthful pictures of life, which are originally and strongly conceived and powerfully portraved. Its vein of French Huguenotis in adds a historic and religious interest to its descriptions of different classes of life. fear, and its development of gentle affections The Spinsters of Blatchington. By MAR TRA- Fleurange. By MRS. AUGUSTUS CRAVEN. Translated from the French by EMILY BOWLES. Two vols. Smith, Elder, and Co. Out of very slim materials, and by means of Perhaps the best commendation that we can give Mrs. Craven's novels is to say that instructed a very good novel. His (or her?) very simple machinery, Mar Travers has conan unusual degree they inspire the sentiment chief characters are daughters of a schoolof nobleness. We think better of human namaster in a Sussex village, which with its soture, are impelled towards its noblest feelings. cicty, is capitally sketched. The youngest And this, in virtue of a subtle religiousness, daughter, the real heroine of the piece, is done which, while never obtruded, is everywhere with great cleverness; so that we are not surpresent as the inspiration of all that is good prised at the impression she produces, and the in the life they depict, just as the lack of such complications that arise. To find out these, inspiration is the cause of all that is evil. Mrs. our readers must peruse the novel for themCraven is a Roman Catholic, and where forms selves. With some weak points, they will find of religious faith are introduced they are those it full of fresh and striking writing, espeof the Romish Church; but their introduction cially when the author is engaged in depictis neither frequent nor offensive. The literary ing the foibles of female society in Blatchingqualities of her novels are very considerable. They have an intellectual breadth and strength, which are only made more effective by the strong human emotion that suffuses them. Fleurange is a very noble creation, one of those womanly characters which are sublime through their power of self-sacrifice. In her this is tried to the utmost, and in diverse ways-first, in her departure from the house of the Princess Catharine; next, in her resolve to accompany Count George to Siberia, in which there is a resemblance between this novel and Helen Came ton and elsewhere. Three vols. Sampson The new writer,' as the advertisements designate the author of this story, is decidedly clever. The book is thoroughly well written, and the characters delineated with much power. The cold, amiable Claudia; the impetuous, unconventional, wilful Katy; and the shrewd, learned old professor; the pedantic and faultless Theodor; the stern, ascetic pastor, are all |