626 ADMIRABLE IMITATION OF CRABBE: Bankers from Paper Buildings here resort, With pence twice five, they want but twopence more, And sends them jumping up the gallery stairs. But talk their minds, we wish they'd mind their talk! pp. 118, 119. We shall conclude with the episode of the loss and recovery of Pat Jennings's hat—which, if Mr. Crabbe had thought at all of describing, we are persuaded he would have described precisely as follows: "Pat Jennings in the upper gallery sat, But, leaning forward, Jennings lost his hat; How shall he act? Pay at the gallery door Two shillings for what cost when new but four? John Mullins whispers, take my handkerchief. Where Spitalfields with real India vies; Like Iris' bow, down darts the painted hue Starr'd, strip'd, and spotted, yellow, red, and blue. Old calico, torn silk, and muslin new. George Green below, with palpitating hand, The Ghost of Samuel Johnson is not very good as a whole: though some passages are singularly happy. The measure and solemnity of his sentences, in all the limited variety of their structure, is imitated with skill; -but the diction is caricatured in a vulgar and unpleas ing degree. To make Johnson call a door "a ligneous barricado," and its knocker and bell its "frappant and tintinabulant appendages," is neither just nor humorous; and we are suprised that a writer who has given such extraordinary proofs of his talent for finer ridicule and fairer imitation, should have stooped to a vein of pleasantry so low, and so long ago exhausted; especially as, in other passages of the same piece, he has shown how well qualified he was both to catch and to render the true characteristics of his original. The beginning, for example, we think excellent : "That which was organized by the moral ability of one, has been executed by the physical effort of many; and DRURY LANE THEATRE is now complete. Of that part behind the curtain, which has not yet been destined to glow beneath the brush of the varnisher, or vibrate to the hammer of the carpenter, little is thought by the public, and little need be said by the committee. Truth, however, is not to be sacrificed for the accommodation of either; and he who should pronounce that our edifice has received its final embellishment, would be disseminating falsehood without incurring favour, and risking the disgrace of detection without participating the advantage of success. "Let it not, however, be conjectured, that because we are unassuming, we are imbecile; that forbearance is any indication of despondency, or humility of demerit. He that is the most assured of success will make the fewest appeals to favour; and where nothing is claimed that is undue, nothing that is due will be withheld. A swelling opening is too often succeeded by an insignificant conclusion. Parturient mountains have ere now produced muscipular abortions; and the auditor who compares incipient grandeur with final vulgarity, is reminded of the pious hawkers of Constantinople, who solemnly perambulate her streets, exclaiming, 'In the name of the prophet-figs!"" ―pp. 54, 55. It ends with a solemn eulogium on Mr. Whitbread, which is thus wound up : "To his never-slumbering talents you are indebted for whatever pleasure this haunt of the Muses is calculated to afford. If, in defiance of chaotic malevolence, the destroyer of the temple of Diana yet survives in the name of Herostratus, surely we may confidently predict, that the rebuilder of the temple of Apollo will stand recorded to distant posterity, in that of -SAMUEL WHITBREAD.” — pp. 59, 60. Our readers will now have a pretty good idea of the contents of this amusing little volume. We have no conjectures to offer as to its anonymous author. He who is such a master of disguises, may easily be supposed to have been successful in concealing himself; 628 WAITING FOR REVELATIONS. - and with the power of assuming so many styles, is not likely to be detected by his own. We should guess, however, that he had not written a great deal in his own character that his natural style was neither very lofty nor very grave and that he rather indulges a partiality for puns and verbal pleasantries. We marvel why he has shut out Campbell and Rogers from his theatre of living poets; and confidently expect to have our curiosity in this and in all other particulars very speedily gratified, when the applause of the country shall induce him to take off his mask, LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MADAME DE STAËL. 629 ? Oct 1821 (DECEMBER, 1828.) Euvres Inédites de Madame la Baronne de Staël, publiées par son Fils; précédées d'une Notice sur le Caractère et les Ecrits de M. de Staël. Par Madame NECKER SAUSSURE. Trois Tomes. 8vo. London, Treuttel and Wurtz: 1820. WE are very much indebted to Madame Necker Saussure for this copious, elegant, and affectionate account of her friend and cousin. It is, to be sure, rather in the nature of a Panegyric than of an impartial biography-and, with the sagacity, morality, and skill in composition which seem to be endemic in the society of Geneva, has also perhaps something of the formality, mannerism, and didactic ambition of that very intellectual society. For a personal memoir of one so much distinguished in society, it is not sufficiently individual or familiar-and a great deal too little feminine, for a woman's account of a woman, who never forgot her sex, or allowed it to be forgotten. The only things that indicate a female author in the work before us, are the decorous purity of her morality-the feebleness of her political speculations and her never telling the age of her friend. The world probably knows as much already of M. and Madame Necker as it will care ever to know: Yet we are by no means of opinion that too much is said of them here. They were both very good people-neither of the most perfect bon ton, nor of the very highest rank of understanding,-but far above the vulgar level certainly, in relation to either. The likenesses of them with which we are here presented are undoubtedly very favourable, and even flattering; but still, we have no doubt that they are likenesses, and even very cleverly executed. We hear a great deal about the strong understanding and lofty principles of Madame Necker, and of the air of purity that reigned in her physiognomy; 630 MAD. DE STAËL-CHARACTER OF HER PARENTS. Of but we are candidly told also, that, with her tall and stiff figure, and formal manners, "il y avoit de la gêne en elle, et auprès d'elle ;" and are also permitted to learn, that after having acquired various branches of knowledge by profound study, she unluckily became persuaded that all virtues and accomplishments might be learned in the same manner; and accordingly set herself, with might and main, "to study the arts of conversation and of housekeeping-together with the characters of individuals, and the management of society-to reduce all these things to system, and to deduce from this system precise rules for the regulation of her conduct." M. Necker, again, it is recorded, in very emphatic and affectionate terms, that he was extraordinarily eloquent and observing, and equally full of benevolence and practical wisdom: But it is candidly admitted that his eloquence was more sonorous than substantial, and consisted rather of well-rounded periods than impressive thoughts; that he was reserved and silent in general society, took pleasure in thwarting his wife in the education of their daughter, and actually treated the studious propensity of his ingenious consort with so little respect, as to prohibit her from devoting any time to composition, and even from having a table to write at!-for no better reason than that he might not be annoyed with the fear of disturbing her when he came into her apartment! He was a great joker, too, in an innocent paternal way, in his own family; but we cannot find that his witticisms ever had much success in other places. The worship of M. Necker, in short, is a part of the established religion, we perceive, at Geneva; but we suspect that the Priest has made the God, here as in other instances; and rather think the worthy financier must be contented to be known to posterity chiefly as the father of Madame de Staël. But however that may be, the education of their only child does not seem to have been gone about very prudently, by these sage personages; and if Mad. de Staël had not been a very extraordinary creature, both as to talent and temper, from the very beginning, she |