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Richelieu; or, the Conspiracy: a Play, in Five Acts. To which are added, Historical Odes on The Last Days of Elizabeth; Cromwell's Dream; The Death of Nelson. By the Author of "The Lady of Lyons,' Eugene Aram," &c. Fourth Edition. Saunders and Otley.

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SIR EDWARD LYTTON BULWER's play, entitled Richelieu, or the Conspiracy, was performed, for the first time, at Covent Garden Theatre, on the 7th of March, with unqualified success; Macready, the manager, sustaining the character of Richelieu in a style of excellence unsurpassed, if equalled, since the days of John Kemble, in Cardinal Wolsey. Richelieu is not a tragedy—it is a mixed drama―a piece of that description generally termed a play." Shakspeare delighted in productions of this class; and many of the most successful efforts of modern dramatists—George Colman the younger, &c., have been “ plays." Some of our contemporaries, more squeamish than wise, have protested against the mixed drama; not conceiving it possible that smiles and tears can occur in the same scene, or that tragedy and farce ever jostle each other in real life. We happen to think differently; ergo, we frequently prefer the naturalness of a play to the dull, heavy, formal march of tragedy, with all its murder, and grandeur, and gloom. Our author observes that

"The administration of Cardinal Richelieu, whom (despite all his darker qualities) Voltaire and history justly consider the true architect of the French monarchy, and the great parent of French civilisation, is characterised by features alike tragic and comic. A weak king-an ambitious favourite; a despicable conspiracy against the minister, nearly always associated with a dangerous treason against the State these, with little variety of names and dates, constitute the eventful cycle through which, with a dazzling ease and an arrogant confidence, the great luminary fulfilled its destinies. Blent together, in startling contrast, we see the grandest achievements and the pettiest agents; the spy-the mistress-the capuchin; the destruction of feudalism; the humiliation of Austria; the dismemberment of Spain."

Sir Edward Bulwer appears to have written the play of "Richelieu" chiefly for the purpose of exhibiting his own fancy portrait of the hero. We term it a fancy portrait, because HIS Richelieu is not the Richelieu of history. He has laboured exceedingly to render him amiable; yet he has failed to enlist our sympathies deeply in his favour. In fact, the one great defect of this drama is, the almost total absence which it betrays of genuine pathos. It is true, there is

a pretty little love story mixed up with the plot, but it wants force-intenseness-power. On the whole, the character of Richelieu, though not a truthful portrait, is in fair keeping ; that of the vain, artful, wicked, and ultimately defeated Baradas (admirably played by Warde) is a fine sketch; and of the Chevalier de Mauprat, the lieu-and of most of the other persons of the lover and husband of Julie, the ward of Richedrama-it may be said that they are well indi

vidualised.

As a reading play, Richelieu is very tolerable; as an acting play, it is excellent; but, in a literary point of view, it will not eventually heighten of the piece, however, many of the finest poetithe reputation of its author. From the length cal passages-passages eminently tending to the illustration of character-are necessarily omitted. Abounding in bustle, and incident, and striking melo-dramatic" situation"-heightened by all the beauty, splendour, and richness of costume, scenery, and decoration, that taste, judgment, and skill could devise and executeexquisitely performed in its chief characters, and well played throughout-" Richelieu" was deservedly received with all the enthusiastic applause that the anxious ears of the most sanguine author in existence could desire. Macready, it cannot fail of producing what he has most nobly earned-a magnificent reward, in both fame and profit. From the inmost depth of our hearts and souls we rejoice in Macready's success as a manager. Since the days of John Kemble, Macready is the only manager who has achieved aught in support of the legitimate drama-in restoring the character of the stage; his is the ONLY national theatre that has not been degraded into a Bartlemy Fair" booth-desecrated into a den of wild beasts. Palmam qui meruit ferat.

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To

We feel it no part of our duty to sketch the plot of "Richelieu," which is somewhat intricate and complicated; but shall submit to the reader's perusal a few isolated passages.

The Lago-like wickedness of Baradus, the treasonous favourite of the king-the rival of De Mauprat-the determined enemy of Richelieu-is here forcibly expressed, on the retreat of De Mauprat:

"Farewell!-I trust for ever! I design'd thee For Richelieu's murderer-but, as well his martyr!

In childhood you the stronger-and I cursed you!

In youth the fairer and I cursed you still; And now my rival!-While the name of Julie Hung on thy lips-I smiled-for then I saw, In my mind's eye, the cold and grinning death Hang o'er thy head the pall! Ambition, love,

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Out of that crucible, called DEbt. To live
On means not yours-be brave in silks and laces,
Gallant in steeds splendid in banquets; all
Not yours-ungiven-unherited-unpaid for;-
This is to be a trickster; and to filch
Men's art and labour, which to them is wealth,
Life, daily bread-quitting all scores with---
'Friend,

"You're troublesome!'-Why this, forgive me, Is what-when done with a less dainty gracePlain folks call 'Theft!'-You owe eight thousand pistoles,

Minus one crown, two liards!

DE MAUPRAT (aside). The old conjuror! Sdeath, he'll inform me next how many cups I drank at dinner!

-I tell you,

RICHELIEU. This is scandalous, Shaming your birth and blood.That you must pay your debts.

Sir,

DE MAUPRAT. With all my heart, My Lord. Where shall I borrow, then, the money?

RICHELIEU (aside and laughing). A humorous dare-devil! The very man To suit my purpose-ready, frank, and bold! (Rising, and earnestly.) Adrien de Mauprat, men have called me cruel; I am not; I am just!-I found France rent asunder

The rich men despots, and the poor banditti; Sloth in the mart, and schism within the temple; Brawls festering to rebellion; and weak laws Rotting away with rust in antique sheaths.

I have re-created France; and, from the ashes

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The subjoined, illustrating the superiority of the pen to the sword, "tells" well; though so far as manner is concerned, we doubt its truth to nature:

"Reach me yon falchion, François, not that bauble

For carpet-warriors,-yonder-such a blade
As old Charles Martel might have wielded when
He drove the Saracen from France.
(François brings him one of the long two-handed
swords worn in the Middle Ages.)
With this
I, at Rochelle, did hand to hand engage
The stalwart Englisher, no mongrels, boy,
Those island mastiffs,-mark the notch-a deep

one

His casque made here,-I shore him to the waist!
A toy--a feather-then!

(Tries to wield, and lets it full.)
You see a child could

Slay Richelieu, now.
FRANCOIS (his hand on his hilt). But now, at
your command

Are other weapons, my good Lord.

RICHELIEU (who has seated himself as to write, lifts the pen). True,-THIS! Beneath the rule of men entirely great The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold The arch-enchanter's wand!-itself a nothing!But taking sorcery from the master-hand To paralyze the Cæsars-and to strike The loud earth breathless!-Take away the

sword

States can be saved without it!"

-

These lines from the mouth of Richelieuthe love of Age for Youth-are good:"I love the young! For as great men live not in their own time, But the next race,- -so in the young, my soul Makes many Richelieus!"

The following (part of a scene between Richelieu and Julie, after the latter has escaped from the palace) is highly effective in representation:

"RICHELIEU. Ha!

You did obey the summons; and the King
Reproach'd your hasty nuptials.

JJLIE.
Were that all!
He frown'd and chid ;-proclaim'd the bond un-
lawful:

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"Richelieu's Castle at Ruelle.—A Gothic cham-tect, to the historian, to the antiquary. Beauber.-Moonlight at the window, occasionally obscured.

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"Yet are my sins not those of CIRCUMSTANCE,
That all-pervading atmosphere, wherein
Our spirits, like the unsteady lizard, take
The tints that colour, and the food that nurtures?
Oh! ye, whose hour-glass shifts its tranquil sands
In the unvex'd silence of a student's cell;
Ye, whose untempted hearts have never toss'd
Upon the dark and stormy tides, where life
Gives battle to the elements, and man
Wrestles with man for some slight plank, whose
weight

Will bear but one—while round the desperate wretch

The hungry billows roar-and the fierce fate, Like some huge monster, dim-seen through the surf,

Waits him who drops;―ye safe and formal men,
Who write the deeds, and with unfeverish hand
Weigh in nice scales the motives of the great,
Ye cannot know what ye have never tried!
History preserves only the fleshless bones
Of what we are-and by the mocking skull
The would-be wise pretend to guess the features!
Without the roundness and the glow of life
How hideous is the skeleton! Without
The colourings and humanities that clothe
Our errors, the anatomists of schools
Can make our memory hideous!

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tiful, extensive, varied, and unique in its design, and equally rich, elegant, and beautiful in its execution, the Temple Church is not, perhaps, so well known, even in the metropolis, as it ought to be. "It is," as Mr. Billings justly remarks, " particularly interesting to the architect and antiquary as displaying, in the eastern part, the first specimen of the complete conquest which the Pointed style had effected over the massive Circular or Norman Architecture preceding its erection; and as marking, in the Circular portion, the different changes which the latter style underwent previous to its final subversion." Mr. Billings has selected and arranged his historical facts with great judgment. What we are chiefly indebted to him for, however, is his minutely detailed architectural description of the Church, and his numerous and accurately executed plates of illustration. Every thing is drawn to a scale, and with such extraordinary closeness of attention, that, were the church by any accident to be destroyed, it might be reedified without the loss or alteration of a single feature, interiorly or exteriorly. As objects of great curiosity to the general observer, it may be mentioned that seven plates are devoted to a representation of the series of grotesque heads, which decorate the spandrils of the arches forming the arcade against the wall of the circular portion of the building. The original number of these heads was sixty-four: two on each side of the western doorway, seven in each of the four compartments on each side, and two on each pier of the entrances of the nave; but six of them have been either hidden or destroyed by monuments placed before them. Previously to the repairs of the church, in the year 1827, they were understood to be composed of a coarse kind of plaister; but, at that period, when they had fallen into such a state of decay that restoration became necessary, they were found to be of Caen stone. They were re-carved in Portland stone, as perfect fac similia of the originals; and must be admitted in proof of the high capability of our modern workmen. It is greatly to be lamented, that, from the great comparative cheap

ness of what is termed composition, the beautiful art of carving, both in wood and stone, should have been suffered to drop into desuetude amongst us.

Mr. Billings's leading motive for producing this work is thus stated::

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existence in the same vicinities and localities; their internal organization, initiation, and secret doctrines; and their willingness to incorporate themselves with the Templars." ***

"Another curious analogy has been suggested. The Syrian fortresses of the Assassins were round towers, like the preceptories in London, Cambridge, Bristol, Canterbury, Dover, Warwick, and other places."

Again :

Although many picturesque views of the Temple Church have appeared at various times, particularly in the 'Architectura Ecclesiastici, Londini, by Charles Clarke, Esq. F.S.A.;' in 'The Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, by John Britton, Esq., F.S.A.; and, lastly, in "With regard to the similarity of dress, there "The Churches of London, by George God- is a singular fact with which Von Hammer was win, jun. Esq. F.S.A., architect,' (now publish- not himself acquainted, and which goes to coming); there are not (with the exception of plete his argument, namely, that the monuments the plan and elevations published by the Society of Egypt, which at the present day exhibit the of Antiquaries in the Vetusta Monumenta,) dress of the initiate in Egyptian free-masonry, any engraved representations tending to convey exhibit him in the precise dress of the order of a connected idea of it, in an architectural sense, the Assassins, namely, a white tunic with a red and those illustrations do not embrace the ex-girdle knotted in the form of a cross. terior. This circumstance has rendered a work

on the subject long necessary, and the present is submitted as an endeavour to supply, in some the former deficiency."

measure,

So far as our judgment goes, no architectural library can be complete-in the church department, at least-without this volume.

To the historical and antiquarian reader, however, the value of the book is greatly enhanced by an Essay of extraordinary research and ability, "On the Symbolic Evidences of the Temple Church," by Edward Clarkson, Esq., in which Essay is very elaborately discussed the curious question, "Were the Templars Gnostic idolators, as alledged?"

We regret that our limits will not suffer us to accompany Mr. Clarkson in this inquiry; but we must indulge the reader with a taste or two of his facts and opinions. Adducing the theory of Von Hammer, Order of the Assassins and the Knights Templars were in some respects connected-in some repects identical," he says,

"that the Eastern

"We are bound to infer, from the facts and evidences produced by Von Hammer, and from facts and evidences which we consider as peculiar to ourselves, that there is this much truth in his propositions; that a large proportion of the body of the Templars were imbued with the Gnostic and Manichee heresies; that they adopted the initiations of a corrupted and mingled Freemasonry, such as was used by the latter; and that they were closely connected with the chief of the Assassins, who occupied strong holds in the immediate neighbourhood of their fortresses in Syria, and who also adopted the initiations of a secret Freemasonry, similarly corrupted, in order to train his fanatical adepti (the Fedavee) for the ambitious purposes at which he unscrupulously arrived."

Further:

"Von Hammer infers the identity between the two orders from the similarity of their dress (white, with a red cross and a red belt); their

The

King of the Mysteries' is always represented in this dress. Between this and the order of

the Assassins there is no difference. The only

difference between the latter and the dress of the Templars was, that the red girdle was exchanged for the red badge.'

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On the charge of idolatrous practices :—

called Basilidian, found in Templars' houses. "We have in our possession gems, commonly They carry with them the full evidence of Gnostic or Egyptian heresy. A jumble of Egyptian or Magian idols appear upon them. The most common symbol is three legs or three arms, united triangularly in a centre. One of the idols has the head of a hawk, holding in one hand the scourge of Osiris, and with his limbs terminating in the folds of a serpent; the mystic letters A O (I breathe) in the oval are its only but another Gnostic gem exhibits le Bel and their French judges, of worshipping. very idol which they were accused, by Philip It is that of the calf Bahumeth-a figure constructed out of the forms of a calf, a beetle, and a man,-holding between its human fore limbs an open book, and having a female head crowned, It is, in fact, nothing but a variation of the Egyptian sphynx. They were accused of worshipping this idol, while they denied Christ and trampled on the cross.'

inscription;

the

وو

The History of Napoleon Bonaparte, from the French of Norvins, Laurent, (de l' Ardêche) Bourienne, Las Casas, the Duke de Rovigo, Lucien Bonaparte, &c.; with Abstracts from the Works of Hazlitt, Carlyle, and Sir Walter Scott. Edited by R. H. Horne, Esq., Author of Cosmo de Medici," "The Death of Marlowe," &c. Richly illustrated with many hundred Engravings on Wood, after Designs by Raffet, Horace Vernet, Jacque, &c, Part I. Royal 8vo. Tyas, 1839.

THE commencing paragraph of this work promises well for its progress:

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Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the 15th of August, 1769, at Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica. There is reason to believe that his ancestors, on the mother's side, were Neapolitans, and that on his father's, they were members of certain noble houses of San Miniato, in Tuscany. The majority of his historians and biographers endeavour to show that his descent was illustrious, if not slightly tinged with royalty. The name of Bonaparte stands high among the senators in the 'Golden Book' of Bologna; but there is no proof that Napoleon was lineally descended from that family. The fact is not important; for inasmuch as time can easily trace many men back to something of nobility, so the retrospection has only to be extended, in order to prove the origin of all men very humble. Whatever qualities were displayed by Napoleon, he did not derive his power from his family, but from his own nature, his own actions, and the circumstances of which he was the creature and the creator."

We protest, however, against Mr. Horne's orthography of his hero's name Bonaparte; his name was not Bonaparte, but Buonaparte.The French, ever notorious for their habit of altering names, as well in orthography as in pronunciation, had a motive in this instance, and Napoleon himself was sufficiently willing, as the imagined founder of a dynasty, to avail himself of the proffered change. The French, anxious to rid themselves of the haunting associations of their subjugator's Italian origin, sank the u, and also the sound of the final e in his name, and thus the Italian Buonaparte was gallicised into Bonapart. Englishmen, however, need not wish to forget that Napoleone Buonaparte was a Corsican.

Most of the engravings in this commencing livraison, if not all, we observe, are of French execution, as well as the designs: they have no pretension to the praise of delicacy or beauty of finish; but many of them exhibit surprising force of character-national character-and feeling. In the charming art of engraving upon wood, our Continental neighbours cannot, for a moment, enter into competition with us. It is probable, therefore, that, in the progress of the work, the reader will have an opportunity of witnessing the superior skill of his own country

men.

So far as we have yet advanced in the literary composition of the work (the third blockade of Mantua), we may remark, that it appears to be a fair and lucid digest of various previous publications on the subject. It is very handsomely printed, and is to be completed in one large splendid volume.

The Family Sanctuary; a Form of Domestic Devotion for every Sabbath in the Year: containing the Collect of the Day, a Portion of Scripture, an Original Prayer and Sermon; and the Benediction, 8vo. Smith, Elder, and Co.

THE nature of this handsome and boldly-printed volume-a volume admirably adapted in all respects for the purposes of family devotion—is exceedingly well explained in its title-page. In cases of personal indisposition, or where the whole of a family may be unable to attend the performance of divine service at church,-or where the church may be at too great a distance to allow of regular and constant attendance, here is, in a single volume, a valuable and unobjectionable succedaneum. The author-we regret that his name is not given to the workappears to favour the Wesleyan Methodists, who, to their high credit, have "refused to join in the calumnies and misrepresentations of the Established Church;' and in thus declining to unite with them for her overthrow, have hitherto presented an important barrier between the Church and her unreasonable foes. While the author has, therefore, endeavoured to give Evangelical doctrine a place in this volume, to which he thinks it justly entitled, practical doctrine, he trusts, has not been neglected." must agree with the writer, in the following Every right-feeling Christian, we are confident,

observations:

"Were there no state religion, the observance of the Sabbath, even as a day of rest from worldly labour, would, it is to be feared, by many be no longer continued; the poor would be denied the privilege of having the Gospel preached unto them; a flood of immorality and irreligion would burst upon devoted England, and her honourable name would, ere long, cease to be respected amongst the nations. The manner in which the Sabbath is to be sanctified, is taught in the Holy Scriptures; and, commending to every man their perusal, we shall only remark, that as the religious observance of God's holy day must be beneficial to the soul, so, the neglect of such an observance may, nay, must be detrimental, to our immortal interests."

The sermons in this volume, moderate in length, simple and lucid in arrangement, are all extremely well composed; distinguished also by a strain of genuine piety, free from mysticism and cant. The discourse, "On the Sanctification of the Sabbath," may be regarded as a truly beautiful composition.

The Pictorial Edition of Shakspere. Parts III. and IV. Romeo and Juliet, and Love's Labour Lost. Super-royal 8vo. Knight and Co. 1839.

GLORYING as we do in the very name of Shakspeare, it is matter of delight to us to see this noble edition of the bard advancing in so fine and worthy a spirit. It reflects the utmost credit upon Messrs. Knight and Co.

Of the peculiar merits of the " Pictorial Edition of Shakspeare," we gave a general view in

Vide p. 40, et seq.

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