Politick Would-Be. Allusion is even made to "quaint old Marvel," whose ideas were not half so quaint nor half so old as those of Mr. James Albery, and the shade of Sir Thomas Browne is called up to furnish the well-known reflection on mummies and Pharaoh's dust.

And if these are our Congreves, where are our Bracegirdles? Miss Fowler is an actress of repute and she plays coquettes with a pretty petulance of manner. She is at no great pains to conceal her art, but has all the vivacity that is wanted in a comedy of intrigue, and while the play is enlivened by her sparkling presence it has a semblance of life. When she is gone, the action is hopelessly paralysed. It resembles nothing so much as one of those Sanscrit fables, composed of tale woven within tale, where the most terrible battles of hawks and cranes are instantly arrested by the remark of a bystander that their conduct reminds him of the jackal and the carpenter, and the hawks and cranes fall back to their ranks and ask with one voice what manner of story that might be. There is this difference, however, that the bystander has generally some story to tell, and Mr. Albery has none.

WALTER MACLEANE.

M. VICTORIEN SARDOU has never been disposed to print his play called Andréa, and the reasons generally given for this are that he constructed the piece by contract for the American market, and therefore allowed a vein of farce to run through it which spoilt it as a work of art. In form it is one of those glittering comedies that flutter between the coulisses of society and the coulisses of the stage, and in following its course we pass the shoal of old acquaintances who are always to be met in the narrow passage that leads from one to the other-the dissolute husband and loving wife, the siren in pink stockings and muslin skirts, journalists and hairdressers, jewellers and pickpockets, noblemen and their divinities of the dance-but in substance the piece is a very remarkable specimen of extempore wit and of that biting sarcasm in which M. Sardou leaves almost every living writer behind him. Nor has the English stage seen so perfect an actress as Mdlle. Hélène Petit since it delighted to honour Aimée Desclée. Andréa is the wife of the Count Stephen de Toeplitz, and she follows in disguise her truant husband to the dressing-room of Mdlle. Stella, a dancer at the opera. Stella sees something of her trouble in her face and goes instinctively to the cause of it. "Mariée," she says with a touch of pity. "Ah, quelle duperie! Il vous trompe, ce garnement-là;" then, listening to the wife's tale of love and devotion, she cries lightly, "Mon Dieu, est-elle jeune ?" and runs off to the stage, where "ce garnement-là" is offering fabulous prices for her silk stockings and arranging banquets in her honour. Thus Andréa learns that some twenty minutes in the loge of an actress can outweigh the self-sacrifice of her married life. She goes to the director of police to prevent her husband's flight with Stella, and the director devises a plan of arresting the Count

as a madman. With the aid of six trusty agents the Count is converted to a sense of better things, and seeing the dancer pass down the street with the escort of the opera band, he denounces her as his evil star and returns with much humility to the joys of his domestic hearth. Much of the play is insipid and much incongruous, but Malle. Hélène Petit rises far above insipidity and incongruity. It is now too late to criticise the method of this young and too little known actress, for she ceases to play after Monday next; but her performance of one of those true French wives who will always hold French society together for all their playwrights may say to the contrary, should be remembered among the most tender and artless impersonations of the stage. And what is the Français doing that it should leave her to the Odéon and to us?

MR. WALTER POLLOCK gave two lectures on

the drama at the Royal Institution on the two last Saturdays, in which he sketched the influence of religion on the stage, the growth of histrionic art in all European countries, the special encouragement given to it in France, and concluded with a panegyric on the play as a means of edu

cation.

ON Monday afternoon, at half-past two o'clock, Signor Salvini will perform the character of Hamlet.

ON Tuesday next M. Théodore Barrière's excellent farce Les Jocrisses de l'Amour will be

played by the French company at the Opéra Comique Theatre. On Saturday next this piece is to be performed for the benefit of the Acting Manager, Mr. J. W. Currans, to whom much of the success of the season is due. And on the following Monday the company will emigrate to the Criterion Theatre and perform the new opérabouffe, lately produced at Brussels, called La Filleule du Roi.

at

ON Tuesday next Mdlle. Priola will appear the Gaiety Theatre in La Fille du Régiment, and on Thursday, June 10, M. Tounié will appear in Zampa. We hope to return shortly to these excellent performances of French comic opera.

MR. AÏDE's new comedy is to be produced at the Court Theatre on the withdrawal of Lady Flora. This will probably take place on Saturday, June 5.

MR. IRVING'S impersonation of Hamlet is not likely to give place for a considerable time to his impersonation of Macbeth, even if the actor finally determines to appear in the latter character.

MUSIC.

NEW ORCHESTRAL MUSIC.

Symphony in D for Orchestra. Composed by Johan S. Svendsen. Op. 4. Full score. (Leipzig: E. W. Fritzsch.) Sigurd Slembe": Symphonische Einleitung zu Björnstjerne Björnson's gleichnamigem Drama. Von Johan S. Svendsen. Op. 8. Partitur. (Leipzig: E. W. Fritzsch.) Variationen über ein Thema von Jos. Haydn, für Orchester, von Johannes Brahms, Op. 56a. Partitur. (Berlin: N. Simrock.)

IN a notice of Mr. Coenen's second con cert of new music last season (in the ACADEMY for March 7, 1874) mention was made of an octett by Svendsen, which was performed on that occasion. Those who heard it are not likely soon to forget the impression of very striking, it might almost be said startling, originality produced by the work. The symphony in D and the prelude to " Sigurd Slembe," which are now before us, afford the opportunity of a somewhat more detailed notice of this composer's music than was possible on the previous occasion, and, together with the octett, furnish materials for an estimate of his general

Norwegian could so far catch the spirit of the old Norse music as to be able to reproduce it perfectly, if he desired to do so. To Svendsen, however, it appears to come spontaneously; and hence the feeling of perfect freshness and novelty which his music produces in the hearer-a feeling somewhat analogous to that with which one would gaze for the first time at a piece of wild Norwegian scenery.

Second only to the ideas in originality is the instrumentation. On this point it is necessary to speak with a certain amount of reserve, because no opportunity has yet occurred of hearing any of this music on the orchestra; and although it is comparatively of the instrumental combinations of a score, easy to grasp with the eye the general effect there will always be some lesser details which will escape notice, and an opinion given on a symphony merely from reading it may be open to some little modification when corrected by the test of actual performance. A very slight acquaintance, however, with the present works will convince the reader that Svendsen shows much ingenuity in what may be termed the mixing of new tone-colours; while his harmonies, though often bold, and sometimes even daring, are seldom if ever crude, and his counterpoint and power of thematic treatment prove him a worthy pupil of the Leipzig Conservatoire.

The first movement of the symphony in D commences with a bold and well pronounced theme, which at once proclaims the composer's originality. Some very novel and striking modulation leads to the second subject, a wild and plaintive melody, even more remarkable than what has preceded. The passage for the strings alone (p. 10 of the score), with the abrupt change from C to E major, is particularly noticeable. The first part of this movement-the "exposition," to use the technical term-is remarkably concise. The middle portion (the " free fantasia") is much more developed; it is full of the most unexpected episodes, and, though in parts somewhat wild, of well-sustained interest. After the customary return of the first and second subjects, a short but effective coda concludes the movement. The andante, in

A major, is one long stream of new and captivating melodies, set off with most original harmony, and instrumented with a taste and delicacy which shows clearly how the composer revelled in his work. It is, however, one of those movements of which no idea can be given in words. It must be read or heard to be appreciated. The following scherzo in G major is one of the most original movements that it is possible to conceive of. Whether the subjects or the instrumentation are more novel, it would be difficult to say. Such combinations as those on pp. 97-100 of the score, in which the staccato solos for the wind instruments are accompanied by some entirely new pizzi cato passages for the strings divided into seven parts, are so perfectly fresh that it may be safely predicted that if adequately perforined they would make a great effect.

* Since the above was written, the performance of the scherzo of this symphony at the Crystal Palace has fully corroborated the impressions formed from the perusal of the score.

The whole movement is very difficult, and would require, for the wind instruments especially, such a body of finished performers as can only be met with in our best orchestras-as, for instance, that at the Crystal Palace, where the wind is simply unsurpassable. The finale is by far the least effective part of the symphony. It is no less original than the other movements; but the subjects on which it is constructed are deficient in charm, and the treatment is in places both diffuse and dry. Taken as a whole, however, the work is one of unusual interest, which would be well worthy of presentation at one of our orchestral concerts. The symphonic introduction to "Sigurd Slembe is apparently a piece of " programme music," or perhaps it would more correctly be said of musical character-painting. Through the kindness of a contributor to the ACADEMY, we have been furnished with an outline of the plot of Björnson's trilogy. It will suffice here to say that it deals with the adventures of Sigurd, an old Norse hero; and, so far as can be judged from perusal, Svendsen's music seems intended to delineate the character of Sigurd rather than to depict the various events of which the drama treats. This was the method of procedure adopted by Beethoven in his celebrated Coriolan overture, and from the abstract nature of music it is more within a composer's powers than any attempt to follow minutely the course of a poem or a drama. The present overture, for such it really is, though in a very free form, is not a work which on a first hearing would be likely to produce so much effect as the symphony just noticed. It is so utterly different from any other piece with which we are acquainted, that it is not until one becomes familiar with it that its beauties can be appreciated at all. Yet it contains ideas of great power, and intense originality originality in places almost carried to excess, and verging on wildness. The opening theme of the allegro assai, with its crashing harmonies, and the very unusual effects of the "doubly augmented octave" (e.g. D flat in the bass against D sharp in the treble), is most striking; and the contrast of the tender theme for the strings (p. 26) with the fierce combats of the orchestra that have preceded is full of charm. The scoring of the whole work is masterly, especially in the use of wind instruments, and the effect of the piece altogether is highly satisfactory. Still, for the reasons above given, it may be doubted if it will ever become very popular. It appeals rather to cultivated and unprejudiced musicians than to the general public. So far as can be judged from these works, Svendsen can hardly be called a great composer, in the sense in which the term would be applied to Mozart or Beethoven. His is rather a very marked individuality which moves within a comparatively small circle; and we should be more disposed to compare him in this respect to such a musician as Chopin. Both are representative men, the one of Polish, the other of Norse music, and in both it is the strong national colouring which gives not only the peculiar tint, but the especial value to their compositions.

Brahms's "Variations" for orchestra are in several respects remarkable. In the first

८

place, the composer returns here to a form which has of late fallen almost into disuse in orchestral music. The "free variation" form was indeed used by Beethoven, as in the finale of his "Eroica" symphony; but the older and stricter form, in which each variation contains the same number of bars, and the same general outline, and is detached from that which precedes and follows, is now very rarely to be met with. It is not merely, however, the return to an old model which gives interest to the present work. Written in the antique style, Brahms has lavished on the present composition all the treasures of his theoretical knowledge and contrapuntal skill. Apart entirely from considerations of the value of its ideas, it is remarkable from the ingenuity of its technical devices. These are nevertheless (as they should always be) merely a means of expression, not the end and aim of the music itself.

The Theme by Haydn on which the variations are founded is entitled on the score "Chorale St. Antoni," and are said by Mr. C. F. Pohl, of Vienna (probably the greatest living authority on Haydn) to be taken from a collection of divertimenti for wind instruments, existing only in manuscript. It is of a very melodious and quasireligious character, and the first portion is remarkable for being constructed of two five-bar phrases, in the place of the more usual four-bar rhythm. Brahms has given

this theme to the wind instruments, with an accompaniment for the basses pizzicato; the employment of the low notes of the seldomused contrafagotto gives a very peculiar tone-colour to the whole. In the first variation the strings are introduced in double counterpoint, fragments of the theme being beard from time to time on the wind. The second variation, in the minor, is a species of march, and remarkable for the novelty of its instrumental combinations. Variation No. 3, again, is full of counterpoint, totally different in character from those that have preceded it, and with some remarkable effects in the second part for the wind instruments. The fourth variation (andante con moto) is again in the minor, and a most ingenious piece of double counterpoint. The following variation (vivace) is in most striking contrast very difficult of performance, and containing mixtures of various accents and rhythms which render the whole effect less clear than is the case in the greater part of the work. No. 6, again of a martial character, with an entirely new rhythm, is one of the most remarkable numbers. No. 7 (grazioso) commences with a charming melody for the unusual combination of the flute and viola in octaves, and contains towards the close some very novel rhythmical and orchestral effects. eighth variation (presto non troppo), in the minor, is, as regards technical ingenuity, one of the most remarkable of the whole.

The

The way in which the inversions of the subject are combined with the subject itself, and in which two or three themes are treated simultaneously, produces on the mind in reading the score a feeling somewhat akin to that with which one would examine a curious Chinese puzzle. Here again, the effect in performance (as

The

has been proved at the Crystal Palace) is hardly so distinct as could be wished. finale (andante) is in the form of what is called variations on a "ground bass "one short theme of five bars being persistently maintained till almost the close of the movement with ever changing accompaniments. The resource and variety which the composer shows here are truly surprising. In the coda which ends the work, the triangle is introduced-an instrument usually associated with dance-music, or at most with light operatic overtures; and the tact with which Brahms has employed it in this composition, which is mainly of a grave and serious character, without its seeming out of harmony with the feeling of the music, deserves special mention. A fragment of the original theme given out by the full power of the orchestra concludes this masterly work, which must as a whole be ranked as among the best which Brahms has yet given to the world. EBENEZER PROUT.

RECENT MUSICAL PERFORMANCES.

Ar last Saturday's Crystal Palace Concert a commendable departure was made from the plan usually pursued there when the "Choral Symphony" has been performed. On most previous occasions, this colossal work has been placed at the end of a long programme, and both players previous work. The audience, too, unless possessand singers have come to it tired by an hour's ing unlimited powers of musical digestion, would be hardly in a condition to fully appreciate a work requiring such closely sustained attention for its adequate enjoyment. On Saturday, however, Mr. Manns most wisely placed it second in the programme, it having been preceded only by the overwhich both for spirit and firish has never been ture to Oberon. The result was a rendering surpassed and probably seldom, if ever, equalled. Not only were the three instrumental movements given to absolute perfection, but the extremely trying choral parts, in which Beethoven has treated the voices most unmercifully, were attacked by the Crystal Palace Choir with a decision and energy which reflected the highest credit upon them, and which must have been most gratifying to Mr. Manns. Never do we remember to have heard the choruses go so well. The solo parts were also excellently sustained by Mdlle. Levier, Mdme. Antoinette Sterling, Mr. Henry Guy, and Mr. Santley, and the entire performance was a thing to be remembered by those who had the good fortune to be present. The remainder of the programme included Spohr's Concerto "Scena Canthe overture to Masaniello, and four vocal pieces tante," finely played by Mdme. Norman-Nóruda, by the soloists whose names have been already

given.

The fifth Philharmonic Concert, last Monday evening, opened with a very good performance of Schubert's charming Rosamunda overture, which, by the way, it is known was not written for that work, but for a melodrama entitled Die Zauberharfe. The same improvement in the orchestral playing recently remarked on in these columns was again noticeable at this concert, not only in this overture, but still more in the novelty of the evening-Brahms's fine "Variations on a Theme by Haydn." This most interesting work has been given more than once at the Crystal Palace, but had not previously been heard here. It is a most intricate composition, abounding in contrapuntal artifices, and though the rendering was in one or two parts a little wanting in clearness, it was on the whole most creditably played. The remaining orchestral pieces were the "Pastoral" symphony, and the overture to Kuy Blas, on neither of which

it is needful to dwell. The great Italian violinist Signor Papini, was the instrumental soloist of the evening, coming forward with the Andante and Rondo from Vieuxtemps' Concerto in E. His tone, execution, and reading were alike masterly, but the composition is so trashy, that however objectionable in general the giving of only a portion of a concerto, it was impossible in the present instance not to feel thankful that only two movements instead of three were inflicted upon us. The vocalists were Miss Sophie Löwe, who sang excellently in Mozart's charming "Deh vieni " from Figaro, and in songs by Mendelssohn and Brahms; and Mr. William Shakespeare, formerly, we believe, a student at the Royal Academy, and late "Mendelssohn scholar," who in Rossini's "Ecco ridente," and in songs by Bennett and Mendelssohn, proved himself the possessor of an agreeable and well-trained tenor voice, and was received with much and well-deserved applause.

To judge from the very large audience at Covent Garden Theatre at the third performance of Lohengrin on Wednesday week, the interest in that work continues unabated. As the performers become more accustomed to their unusually difficult task, it is only reasonable to expect that the opera will go better; and a decided improvement, especially in the chorus, was observable at the third performance as compared with the first night, when it was at times painfully out of tune. A second hearing of the work largely confirms the opinions expressed a fortnight ago in these columns. It must not be judged merely as music: considered solely from this point of view, much of it would have to be pronounced unsatisfactory. Its great charm is in the masterly adaptation of the music to the dramatic situation-in fact, in the very combination on which Wagner so strongly insists of the music, the poem, the action, and the mise-en-scène to form the whole which he calls "Das Drama."

It may be doubted whether the conception of some of the principal characters by the artists who represent them is exactly in accordance with Wagner's ideal. This is not said in any disparagement of the performers, but their reading in general is hardly a German reading of their parts. Mdlle. Albani as Elsa would probably fully satisfy the composer: a more perfect realisation of the dreamy maiden can, indeed, hardly be conceived. M. Maurel's Telramund, too-whose naturally noble and chivalrous nature, as we see it in the first act, is led astray by the falsehood and malignity of his wife till he sinks to the level of a would-be assassin-is an excellent portrait. But Wagner would seem to have intended Ortrud as a grandly tragic character, a fierce and cruel sorceress like Medea, but without Medea's maternal tenderness. Such a delineation we may expect if Mdlle. Titiens plays the part at Drury Lane. Mdlle. d'Angeri, however, makes Ortrud rather a venomous little spitfire, giving an excellent pourtrayal of the character from this point of view, though it may be gravely doubted whether it is that of the composer. So again with Signor Nicolini's Lohengrin. It appears wanting in the supernatural element, and, though excellently acted, especially in the great duet with Elsa in the third act, it is rather a knight of the middle ages that is presented to us than a mysterious visitant sent by the Holy Grail. With Herr Seideman as the King, neither Wagner nor any body else could possibly be satisfied. This unfortunate gentleman's voice is altogether insufficient for the part, which becomes in his hands a mere caricature. It is probable that only a German company could give a performance of Lohengrin which would satisfy the composer; and the above remarks are made, not in a spirit of unfriendly criticism, for the rendering of the work at Covent Garden is one which reflects great credit on that institution, but as the impression produced by a second hearing of the work, at which it was possible to form a cooler judgment than under the excitement produced by the first performance of

an opera differing so utterly from those to which in this country we are accustomed. It is not often needful to notice provincial | musical performances in detail in these columns ; but a concert given yesterday week (the 21st) by the Cambridge University Musical Society deserves more than a passing word of mention. This society is no newly established institution, the present being its thirty-second year of existence. It is conducted by an enthusiastic amateur, Mr. C. Villiers Stanford, of Trinity College, and, unlike the majority of provincial societies, shows a decided preference for producing works not often to be heard in public. Last year the Society grappled with the difficulties of Schumann's Paradise and the Peri, and this year they have done themselves the honour of being the first to perform in this country the third (and finest) part of the same composer's Faust music. A complete orchestra, led by Herr Straus, was engaged, the soloists, with the exception of Miss Thekla Fischer, being amateur members of the Society. Though the performance under such circumstances should be exempted from criticism, it really was so good as not to stand in need of any special leniency. The chief shortcomings were on the part of the lady soloists, ot whom, however, it is only fair to say that they were evidently too nervous to do themselves justice. On the other hand, the chorus was excellent, and their performance as a whole would not have done discredit to a London society. It is impossible here to speak of the truly inspired music-one of Schumann's very finest works; let us hope that before long an opportunity may be afforded of hearing it at the Crystal Palace. In addition to the Faust selection. C. P. E. Bach's Symphony in D was well played by the orchestra. An excellent amateur pianist, Mr. McClintock, performed Beethoven's concerto in C minor in capital style; and a new cantata to Klopstock's Die Auferstehung," composed by Mr. poem Stanford, was performed for the first time. This work, written for chorus and orchestra, with incidental tenor solos, shows very decided talent, though it also bears tokens of inexperience, and needs revision. Mr. Stanford is by no means destitute of ideas, and his cantata is commendably free from reminiscences; but the orchestration is overloaded, being in places thick and indistinct—one of the commonest faults, by the way, with young composers, who too often, like the old theatrical manager, seem to consider that instruments are 66 paid to play, and not to rest.'

66

Some pruning of the instrumentation would be of great advantage to this very clever work. The whole concert was one which reflected the greatest credit on the society.

EBENEZER PROUT.

THE success of the first performances of Signor Verdi's "Requiem" at the Albert Hall has been so great that Messrs. Novello were induced to give two repetitions of the work at popular prices. The first of these took place on Saturday afternoon, and the second (and last) is announced for to-day.

THE second of the four Chamber Concerts now being given by Messrs. Ludwig and Daubert, took place on Wednesday evening at the Langham Hall, Great Portland Street. The programme included Beethoven's Trio, Op. 97, Bach's Sonata in for violoncello solo, and Haydn's quartett in G A for piano and violin, Boccherini's Sonata in A minor, Op. 74, No. 3. Mr. Franklin Taylor was the pianist, and Mdlle. Hélène Arnim the vocalist.

MISS JESSIE F. A. REID gave a pianoforte recital at St. George's Hall on Wednesday afternoon, Sonata in D minor, Op. 49, Mozart's beautiful but with an excellent programme, comprising Weber's rarely played Sonata in A minor, Bennett's "Lake, Millstream, and Fountain," and smaller pieces by Beethoven, Bach, Liszt, and Chopin. Miss Reid may be congratulated on the good taste shown in her selection.

HERR ANTON RUBINSTEIN, after giving a farewell concert at Paris on the 17th instant, left on

the following day for St. Petersburg, taking with him the libretto of a new opera by M. Jules Barbier, entitled Néron, which he intends to compose for Paris.

Santa Radegonda Theatre at Milan with such AUBER'S Cheval de Bronze has been given at the Scala. Before this can be done, however, it will success that there is a talk of producing it at La in place of the spoken dialogue which at present be necessary to provide the work with recitatives divides the musical numbers of the opera.

LAST week's number of the Musikalisches Wochenblatt contains a most interesting letter from Vienna by Dr. Theodor Helm, giving an account of the first performance at the opera under the new conductor, Hans Richter. The work selected was Wagner's Meistersinger, and Dr. Helm speaks of the rendering as being most admirable.

OUR readers will probably be glad to read the opinion of one of the most eminent German musical critics, Dr. Eduard Hanslick of Vienna, on Verdi's "Requiem," which he has lately heard at Paris. Dr. Hanslick writes to the Neue Freie Presse, "The work is effective and interesting, and (like Aïda) especially noteworthy as marking a fresh stage in the development of the composer. Whether we assign it a higher or a lower rank, whether we wish it more or less away, we shall assuredly exclaim, 'We never expected that from Verdi!' It contains pieces of unusual beauty, of touching expression, of grandiose effect; and withal it is entirely his own, it is unmistakeably Verdi, though far removed from him of Ernani, The study of the old Romish church-music and of the German masters shines through the work, but only faintly, not as an imitation. Verdi desires rather to show the world what he can do than what is his faith."

employment or place than in another, there would really be such a mobility of capital and such a connexion between the funds out of which wages are everywhere paid, that it would not be very inaccurate to speak of them as forming a general fund on which the price of labour depends; though even in that case the combination of labourers might produce a higher general rate of wages and a lower general rate of profit than competition had done. What neither Mr. Mill nor Mr. Thornton seems to us sufficiently to bring out, is that the main power of trade unions to raise wages in particular cases has arisen from the actual inequalities of both profits and wages. Where extraordinary gains have been made in a business, the labourers have been enabled by concerted action to extort a share which competition would not have assigned to them; and again, where wages have been abnormally low, they have been able in like manner to compel a rise. The dissertation on the land question, and the papers on land reform in this volume, show that Mr. Mill, like most people of all political parties when they were written, underrated the strength of the forces on the side of the existing land systems; and the same remark is applicable to some passages in a review of Sir H. Maine's Village Communities, which deserves particular notice for the generous interest and admiration which it shows that Mr. Mill felt for works of genius and learning, even when allied to far more conservative tendencies than his own. The essay on Bishop Berkeley's works, besides its great intrinsic merits as a piece of psychological piece of psychological criticism, is remarkable likewise for the sympathy it evinces with genius allied to religious opinions widely opposed to Mr. Mill's.

The volume contains, besides other instructive essays, a review of Grote's Aristotle by one to whom few will deny the highest claim to be listened to as a critic on such a subject, and to whom many will assign a place beside Bacon among the most illustrious successors of the original founder of logic.

T. E. CLIFFE LESLIE.

Autobiography of Mrs. Fletcher, with Letters and other Family Memorials. Edited by the Survivor of her Family. (London: Edmonston & Douglas, 1875.) THIS is the second, slightly modified issue of a volume originally printed for private circulation only, and the editor justifies its present publication rather by the distinct demand of a larger circle of friends interested in the writer than had been anticipated, than by a deliberate judgment as to the literary interest of the autobiography itself. To the general public, to whom the name of Mrs. Fletcher is unknown even by hearsay, the autobiography presents some points of interest, though the "Family Memorials" and pages which contain little or nothing but names and notes of visits paid or received from friends otherwise unknown to fame, might perhaps have been omitted with advantage. The volume is illustrated-in every sense of the word-by two charming portraits of the writer, one as a girl of fif teen, with the beauty for which she was

distinguished almost fully developed, and the other (after Richmond) as a greatgrandmother of eighty, with the same features, and an equal, though altered charm of animated expression. Eliza Dawson (her maiden name) was born in 1770, the daughter of a thriving Yorkshire yeoman, of strong Whig opinions, which Eliza imbibed for life during the passionate discussions to which the American War gave rise, Sir George Savile, who reviewed the West York Militia in 1779, being her first hero. At fifteen she received her first offer, and was seriously alarmed by the fear lest the rejected suitor should die of her father's severity. At about the same date we hear of her being unable to go to her first ball, in consequence of the swollen eyes produced by an introduction to the "Sorrows of Werther and Charlotte," and of her disenchantment on seeing the poet Mason, "a little fat old man, of hard-favoured countenance, who squatted himself down at a card-table, and gave his whole attention to a game at whist," instead of the interesting embodi ment of the "Monody" on his wife's death, figured by her imagination. Impulsive benevolence, overflowing enthusiasm, an affectionate nature, and a good deal of the amiable kind of vanity that comes from an affectionate regard for other persons' opinions, joined with a rather deficient sense of humour, complete the character which she traced of herself some sixty years later. Believing that Mrs. Hannah More had not dealt fairly with a protégée, a Bristol milkwoman who had written poems, the intrepid Eliza undertook to dispose by subscription of a new volume; but the most amusing trait in the picture of a charming young lady of a century ago is not supplied by the autobiographer, but by her future husband, in a quaint memorandum, explanatory how Eliza Dawson acquired the name of Sophia in April, 1787." In 1779 or 1780 Mr. Fletcher, even then verging on middle age, had, during an illness, read Tom Jones, and lost his heart toSophia Western! Travelling from Scotland to London on political business with friends who knew the Dawsons, he was compelled much against his will to delay his journey to visit them. The first evening he was fascinated and perplexed by Eliza's charms of person and manner, till it flashed upon his mind that there was the true Sophia of his dreams, and from henceforth she began to supplant the ideal Sophia who had so long figured in his imagination. From London he sent her Ossian's poems, and began a correspondence which, after languishing somewhat on her side, was resumed after another interview; in 1789 Mr. Fletcher declared himself, and was rejected by his Sophia's father; she, however, continued the correspondence "with the sincere intention of prevailing on Mr. Fletcher to give up the engagement, for it would then have been less painful to me" (she writes fifty years later) "to have done so than to have offended my father. But I was unacquainted with the history of the human heart; at the end of two years I found that Mr. Fietcher had reasoned me into a conviction that it would be best for the interest and happiness of all parties that we should

66

66

marry"-and accordingly they did so in 1791. It was of her husband that Lord Cockburn wrote in his Life of Jeffrey as the pure and heroic Fletcher, who knew not what jealousy was, and would have cheered on a personal enemy, if he had had one, provided he was going before him in the public cause." For some years after their marriage his practice at the Edinburgh bar suffered from the dread of liberalism then prevailing in Scotland, as it was supposed that judges would not decide in favour of any litigant who employed Whig lawyers; and it was gravely reported that his wife had provided herself with a guillotine and practised its use upon poultry and the like in order to be ready for action as soon as "French principles" should unfortunately become ascendant in the land. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, their married life was happy, and though Mr. Fletcher might have preferred rather more, and more brilliant society than was in reach, Edinburgh was then not without the materials out of which a drawing-room reputation may be made, and many young students, afterwards dis. tinguished in politics and literature, who were welcomed with her usual kindness then, in after life were glad to renew their ac quaintance whenever opportunity served. Jeffrey, after objecting to her as "one of the women who would bore him with rational conversation," became reconciled, and wrote to her in terms of sincere affection. The poet Campbell, whose weaknesses she used to lecture and tolerate, was another of her friends. For Joanna Baillie she had, of course, a profound admiration, and she records with amusing gravity how her daughters were "awed by the meekness' with which the said Joanna bore her over. whelming faculties. The connexion with Mrs. Barbauld and Miss Aikin was made closer by the two elder daughters being sent at different times to enjoy for a time the educational advantages of Mrs. Barbauld's society. The second daughter died young; Mr. Fletcher in 1828, at an advanced age. The doubt about, we will not say the propriety, but the discretion of publishing family chronicles of this kind scarcely arises till the third generation begins to appear upon the stage. But though we can take an interest in the person of almost any autobiographer, as his or her children grow up they "go out of the story," as the Sagas say, and they and their children, or grandchildren, have none of the individuality (to the reader), without which sympathy remains on the temperately cool ground of common humanity. Abridged of all that constitutes the real life of the parties concerned, a register of births, deaths, and marriages becomes in the end depressing, and all that emerges from the tedious detail is the fact that the writer's own sympathies and energies retained their vitality to the last, and that she was as happily ready to make heroes of her grandchildren and their friends, as of Sir George Savile or Miss Baillie. The lasting charm of her society may per haps be summed up sufficiently when we fird that in addition to beauty, intelligence, and strong opinions, she had an inveterate habit of seeing the bright side of things and people, which caused her to be re-christened "Miss