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R. H. HORNE.

The career of Richard Henry Horne, who was born in London, 1803, partakes more of the adventurous times of Elizabeth than of Victoria; while other modern poets have looked on nature with the "mind's eye," and considered romantic adventure from an ideal point of view, Mr. Horne has beheld it face to face, and painted what he saw. The poetic spirit threw its inspiring mantle over Burns as he followed the plough and turned up the fresh earth; but the author of "Orion" received his first impulses when roaming over the ocean, or in the burning plains of Mexico. Like the bards of old, he has been a sharer in "sieges and stratagems," and has fought in battles; we have seldom heard anything more comic than his vivid description of a sea-fight between a Miguelite and Pedroite frigate, and also the storming of St. Juan de Ulloa, in both of which highly ludicrous engagements he was present as a midshipman. We are, however, anticipating the course of his biography. His father dying early, his mother married again, and our young poet was, after some preparatory education, placed at Sandhurst College, to be trained for a military life; when his novitiate was completed he left the college, in the expectation of securing a cadetship in the East India Company's service. Being disappointed in this, he entered as a midshipman on board the Mexican Navy, then engaged in a struggle with Spain. In this service he remained till peace was restored between the belligerent countries, and re

turned to England by the way of America. He is, therefore, one of the few English poets who have visited the United States, and seen the wonders of the new world; his account of his steaming up the Mississippi is one of the most interesting viva voce pieces of adventure we have ever heard; it is to be hoped he will give to the public a sketch of his interesting life. On his return home he found most of his small patrimony wasted by the ill conduct of his guardians, and he was, therefore, compelled to look around for some means of support. We may as well name here that, since then, with the exception of a small annuity from the "Copper Mines Royal," of which company he is a director, he has lost all that remained of his patrimonial inheritance by lending part to a brother who was engaged in business, and partly by resigning what he had left to a lady with whom, in early youth, he had formed a connexion, and from which the incompatibility of their tempers compelled him to sever: here his generosity to the woman he had once loved completed his financial ruin. It is impossible not to admire Mr. Horne in his private relations, being straightforward, earnest and sincere and though he too frequently forgets the solid benefits he has received under the smart of some little literary oversight, or supposed want of critical appreciation, he is a strictly honorable man, and a zealous friend.

Mr. Horne's productions in poetry are, "The Death of Marlowe," "Cosmo de Medecis," "The Death Fetch," "Gregory VII,” "Orion," and "Ballad Romances." In prose his writings are very numerous, the chief being "Exposition of the False Medium;" he also contributed largely to, and edited the new "Spirit of the Age," a work which has been reprinted on this side the Atlantic; owing to the want of poetical illustrations, the work was generally pronounced heavy, and much good and honest criticism consequently thrown away. He also was a large contributor to the "Church of England Quarterly," "The New Quarterly" and seve

ral magazines. The articles in the former on "Albertus Magnus," "Poetical Contrasts," are by him, and in the latter review the papers on "Chinese Characteristics," "The Dramatic Mind of Europe," &c. are from his industrious pen. His finest work is undoubtedly his "Death of Marlowe." It is short and complete; a tragedy in one act is just what Mr. Horne is able to accomplish; here the closeness of his style and the highly wrought nature of his similies tell with admirable effect; but in a piece of five acts these grow wearisome to an extent which destroys all the interest in the progress and denouement; the plot of this one act is taken from the well known death of that great dramatist. The characters are few, but powerfully drawn and well sustained, and the character of Cecelia, the courtezan, is conceived and executed with a grace which shows the fine poet: but the perversity of Mr. Horne has well nigh spoilt the whole effect by making Jaconot a monster beyond the necessity of the case it is a great mistake in a dramatist when he wastes any thing, and surely making a villain worse than the exigencies of the case requires destroys the repose and truth of the whole as a work of art; which a tragedy ought to be, whether it be in one, three, or five acts. Mr. Horne's study of Shakspere ought to have saved him from falling into this error, for he cannot have overlooked how that great master of the human heart put some redeeming traits even into the composition of his greatest villains. He knew there was the seed of goodness even in the soul of evil. This supererogative of wickedness and brutality in Marlowe's rival, lessens the sympathy we ought to feel for Cecelia, for allowing, fully, even for her unhappy position, we cannot reconcile how she could tolerate the love of so coarse a monster.

We ought to mention, in justice to Mr. Horne, that we have often contested this point with him, and that he has rigorously defended the truthfulness of Jaconot's character: maintaining that rough and brutal natures very often succeed in obtaining a singu

lar power over women of really a naturally superior and refined minds: whether this be the general part or not we shall not stop to inquire, remaining still of opinion that a dramatist is not bound to take a character because it has existed, and therefore is "an accomplished fact," but shows his still and psychological veracity by avoiding those exceptions, and selecting one more in unison with the common nature of man. With these preliminary remarks, we recommend this fine composition to the American public.

As Mr. Horne considers his last tragedy, "Gregory VII," the best, we shall test him as a dramatist by that production.

The life and character of that most ambitious of Popes is one too well known to need any historical references: we shall content ourselves by stating, that Mr. Horne has added merely the episodical ingredient of love to the nature of the great occupant of St. Peter's chair, and introduced Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, in her own right, as the semi-religious paramour of Gregory.

Her attachment for the Pontiff is thus introduced to the audience in the following scene with her husband, Godfrey, Duke of Bouillon.

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Godfrey. His mine is sprung, and into pestilent air

He has blown himself.

Matilda.-We must be calm, and wait.

Godf-Calm! is it possible?

Mat.-'Tis only just.

Godf.-Seest not thine error yet?-seest not, Matilda,
This object whom thou'st long beheld with thoughts

Devout, that mingled in thine orisons,

Is fraught with worldliness; one who, beneath

The shaded haunts of sanctity, conceals

Passions like dragons, violent and foul.

Mat. He has, indeed,

Such strength of passion as assorts with greatness
Of thought and action; yet, my lord, believe,
Though he may err, as in this act he has,

In Hildebrand is nothing base or mean.

And let me tell thee, husband, I believe

There may be reason, when we shall know all,
In that which seemed so mad.

Godf.-Matilda, cease!

Infatuated woman! cast away

The film that, like a cowl, doth blind thine eyes:
Dismiss this vicious abbot from thy prayers;
Confess not to him: of thy love I ask it ;-
Nay, of thy holiest faith. Oh, wouldst thou gaze
At heaven's clear sapphire through the gates of hell?
Mat. My lord! forbear these impious—
Godf.-Forbear thou!

I will not listen to this vain defence

Of such a criminal.

Mat. This headstrong hate

I fear will snap all ties."

[Exit Godfrey.

Now comes a scene in which the Countess makes an admission to Gregory which destroys materially her prestige with the audience. The reader must bear in mind that it is very necessary for the poet to preserye as much sympathy as possible for Matilda, not alone on account of the necessities of this special drama, but on the broader principle that the mere fact of conjugal infidelity is a heavy drawback on the character, and consequently it becomes all the more indispensable, that no unnecessary odium be heaped upon it: —on this principle the words we have italicised are highly undramatic-indeed so totally at variance with dramatic instinct as to almost persuade us that Horne is not one.

[Enter Hildebrand.]

"What hast thou done?

Hil.-Well; very well.

Mat.-Resolve me of all doubt!

Hil.-'Twas impulse from on high, not my design.

Daughter, they rolled before me like a sea;

Then paused to let me walk upon their necks,

As foamy as they were,-I was upheld
By the deputed fire that wings my soul.

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