thusiastic burst is that of Allan Cunning- loyal and thrice as vigorous and poetical as ham's A wet sheet and a flowing sea, And fills the white and rustling sail, and how the whole ballad seems to board you struck at once! our second national air. Is there anything Allons, enfants de la Patrie "God Save the Queen ?" about whose words, indeed, we are so careless as not to have yet settled among ourselves who wrote them. Is there none of her subject bards who could "scatter her enemies and make them fall" in verse a little more naturally? Could she not be made to frustrate their thievish tricks in less ignoble language? Might not a whole nation find something commonplace to sing in But most excellent and deservedly popular chorus than "Confound their politics"? And, as are all these, what shall we say of the whole finally, could it not be contrived that she should mass of sea-songs of Charles Dibdin? Held give us cause to cry God save her otherwise infinitely lower than they deserve to be by than by rhyming it with voice? We wonder the critics and upper classes, they are the uni- whether it be owing to James Thomson or to versal delight and unwearying relish of the Doctor Arne thatRule Britannia" is sung lower; living at a time when the bulwarks of from the Orkneys to the Isle of Wight! We his country were indeed her wooden walls, do not believe that one person in a thousand and her honor, if not her very being, had to knows, or ever will know, the words of this, be maintained by the daring and devotion of her sailor sons, he stimulated that daring and kept alive that devotion by songs, the most national, the most vigorous, and the most inspiriting that ever gushed from the full heart of a patriot poet. As Dibdin himself, with most pardonable pride declared, "My songs that our friends across the water should fly to have been considered an object of national arms and cut throats at the bare humming of importance; they have been the solace of it? Why is it that the surcharged feelings of sailors in long voyages, in storms, and in the great capital of the world should find their battle, and have been quoted in mutinies to most welconie vent in "Lucy Neal," "Jeanthe restoration of order and discipline." No nette and Jeannot," "Cheer boys, cheer," and man ever so well understood the sailors-we" Vilikins "? Two or three of these kind of had almost written the English character-as songs, owe their success to the original singer, well as he, and no man ever kept more clear two or three more to a trumpery unreal sentiof idealizing and stage effect; their contempt ment provoked by black faces or Normandy of danger, their generosity, their kindliness, caps, and by far the greater part to a pleasing and their truth are all set forth, as they should tune, easily caught. The good time coming," be, in the brightest colors; the tar is painted of Charles Mackey, is very far the best of these at full length, a brave and glorious fellow, popular songs, hopeful and true, and spirited, but one of his cheeks is puffed out by the to- and we are glad to see it keeps its popularity bacco quid, he smells of rum most horribly, he even in the war time. has the drollest roll in his gait imaginable, and The unknown authors who deluge us with he has got a wife tucked under each arm: if songs, which, the advertisements inform us, there be any who think Charles Dibdin should are the favorite ballads of the Nation, seem to have substituted lemonade for grog and "dear be hangers-on and connections of the music " for "damme," we hold them (with him- publishers, and it is to them, no doubt, that self) to be "lubbers and swabs." What poem we must apply before we can substitute songs in the language has a more homely pathos and of a higher order, calculated at once to amuse, more natural air than his "Poor Jack "? what a charming little history of our native land is his song of "The Snug Little Island," and how complacent we feel as we join in its me chorus. Search the globe round, none can be found ennoble, and refine, for the rubbish that is now suffered to be shot into the ears and memories of the people. What Moore and Burns were content to do, surely few poets of the present day need be ashamed of: and yet, though we believe there was never so much true poetry in England as at this time, when the very magazines are teeming with anonymous verse, such as would have called forth And yet to how much of his popularity are panegyric from Scott and criticism from Jefthese few words of biography the keyfrey, and some new bard-prodigy of really "Charles Dibdin set all his own sea-songs to great if misdirected powers is discovered almusic, and in most instances the melody is most week by week, we regret to see a tenequal to the words." This indeed is the secret dency to methaphysical epic and "spasmodic of the matter. Have we not fifty songs as tragedy," and a contempt for stirring ballad and for simple song; let them but turn their evening gatherings in remote villages, where attention to these less ambitious, but far more some pupil of his may have settled:" here then useful objects, and we see no reason why the is a great garden dug and prepared for the people should not have words to their melodies that may provoke neither blush nor sneer. good florist: children indeed have been playing tricks with it here and there, sowing their names in mustard and cress inanely; "the That the love of music is spreading over the dock and the darnel," flung by evil hands, entire land is evident to all, no weak engine flourish in vales of nightshade; the flaunting of civilization itself, and of incalculable power sunflower and the crown imperial wanton in to draw a host of beautiful thoughts and noble the best parterres; but the spring, the spirit aspirations along with it. Hullah," says the of true song, has only to arise upon it, and all eloquent authoress of the History of the Peace, that is unworthy to bloom there shall perish, has proved "a sort of magician who can con- and the Beautiful and the True shall reign vert a crowd of untuned English adults, hither- there in their stead. to almost unconscious of what music was, into a vast organ endowed with soul. Since his first efforts, music has been a beloved and joyful pursuit in many a little back-parlor in Whitechapel and the suburbs of London, in many a workshop in provincial towns and at] The snowdrop and then the violet Shall rise from the ground, with warm rain wet, STRUMENT. THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE. The London News, in giving some reasons why it thought a friendly understanding between Eng land and the United States should be "sedulously cultivated," says: "There is another reason why it is desirable that a friendly understanding between this country and the United States should be sedulously cultivated. In theory, one nation ought only to communicate with another through the medium of their respective Governments. But, in practice, this rule cannot be strictly observed. In all countries there are-overlooking minor shades of difference two great parties; the friends of free institutions and progress, and the friends of despotism, and stationary institutions, and obstructive laws. Either party in every country naturally and necessarily sympatliizes with its counterpart in every other. always beset the statesmen of Great Britain when they have been called upon to take part in the Congresses of the Great Powers of Europe. In these Councils, Great Britain has hitherto been the only free and popular government. balance of interost between peoples and princes would be more fairly held were some other firstrate free power to take part in them as well as Great Britain. The other first-class state that answers this description. The Republic of North America is the only When next Great Britain is invited to take part in a General Congress, it will be the duty of our government to insist upon the United States beThese councils would benefit in more ways than ing admitted to take part in their deliberations. one by the accession of the United States to them. The emancipation of American statesmen from the superstitious veneration for many old routine forms, and doctrines inapplicable to the state of modern society, would immensely improve our European diplomacy. It is not in human nature for the liberals of a free nation to abstain from sympathizing with and assisting those who struggle for their own emancipation from fetters in a country subject to We do not mean that Great Britain and the despotic rule. Above all others, the despotisms United States would invariably be found taking. of Europe have no right to complain of this; for the same side in the discussion of a general Conthe Holy Alliance having set the example of a gress. These two nations can no more be invaricombination of kings against subjects, have there-ably in the right than Austria and Russia can be by justified leagues among subjects against des invariably in the wrong. pots. But the increased number of statesmen, bound over the deliberations of future General Congresses." It is impossible to lay down any general rule by the necessity of their position to assert popuas to how far governments may and must connive lar principles, and the admission of a body of at coöperation among different sections of their statesmen more free from conventionalities than respective subjects. The circumstances of every special case must supply the law applicable to it. any others, would exercise a healthy influence Still it is necessary, for the preservation of intercourse between states as corporate communities, that some limits-narrower at one time than an. other-should be imposed on the coöperation of the subjects or citizens of one with the subjects or citizens of another. THE MODERN MEGATHERIUM.-The Megatherium was a great sloth that used to cat trees. A London Alderman remarked that he was him. self likewise uncommon fond of an Ash. From Household Words. Remaining true to literature, he was advised to translate the Letters of Aristenetes. His friend, Monsieur Danchet, being made professor IN a line with the south transept of the Ca- of rhetoric at Chartres, promised his influence to thedral of Notre Dame, at Boulogne, runs a lit-get them printed there. The translation was actle strect-the street of the Château. Whoever cordingly made, and published as it appears, at looks at the second house on the left, in passing Rotterdam. The world, however, took but very up the street from the cathedral, may observe little notice of it. over its picturesque doorway, the outline of a dark block of marble, upon which is to be read by good eyes, an inscription in Roman capitals that have lost much of their distinctness:"Here died the Author of Gil Blas, in seventeen hundred and forty-seven." Le Sage has, I believe, no other monument of stone, and he owes this to the enthusiasm of what might be thought an odd set of admirers, namely, the Boulogne Agricultural Society; but the most intelligent gentlemen of the department are, in fact enrolled in this patriotic association, and papers on literary subjects are read, and poems recited, at some of its meetings. Not only stone masons, but even biographers have been too little concerned with Monsieur Alain-René Le Sago. He was an only son.His father was a country lawyer, and, a rich man according to provincial ideas of wealth. Young Le Sage obtained for himself a status as an advocate before the Court of a Parliament, when he married and settled in Paris. Though in want of money, and apt at making friends who could have put him on the road to loaves and fishes, he had a spirit above begging, and besieged no man with solicitation. Even while living in discomfort, he refused to sell his independence to the Marshal de Villeroi; and a little employment that, after a time, came to him, he abandoned as soon as he felt it possible to live by devoting himself whoily to literary work. The difficult first step in the career of a man of letters was made casier to Le Sage by the Abbé de Lionne, a passionate admirer of Spanish literature, who taught Le Sage the language out of which his pleasures were derived; and, by presenting him with a moderate annuity, enabled him to employ this acquisition to advantage. Le Sage then commenced in good earncst his career of anthorship, by working on the dramatic stores of Spain, whereof few grains had then been scattered among readers north of the Alain-René was born in the year 1668, at Sarzeau, a little town in the peninsula of Rhuys, four leagues from Vannes. When he was nine years old he lost his mother. When he was fourteen years old he lost his father. He pass-Pyrenees. ed then under the guardianship of an uncle, Translations, or imitations, of some of the who lost for him his inheritance. The son of an best comedies of Lope de Vega, Calderon, and educated man, he received liberal instruction, others were published by him, or performed at that is to say, he was sent to a school established the Théâtre Français, with limited success. by the Jesuits at Vannes,-and he was a quick more favorite reception did not greet the appearpupil. ance of two small volumes, comprising his version of Avellaneda's continuation of Don Quixote. Of his life during the first years of orphanhood no record remains; but it was probably through the good offices of his father's friends that he Following, in spite of discouragement, the obtained employment upon the collection of the course on which he had embarked, he brought customs in Bretagne. He either abandoned out in seventeen hundred and seven, his famous that employment or was dismissed from it.-Diable Boiteux. To what extent Le Sage is The pure tone of his character makes it likely indebted in this production to Velez, from whom, that he forsook the calling as offensive to the generosity of youth and inconsistent with his nobler aspirations. Certainly he left it with a full knowledge of the general character of the class of men-farmers of revenue-under whom he served, and the disgust that he felt towards them stuck by him throughout his life. avowedly, the idea is taken, he has himself stated, in his dedication to the Spanish author, of the enlarged edition of seventeen hundred and twenty-six. The success of the Diable Boiteux was prodigious. So eager was the demand for it, that, we are told, two young gallants of the court, happening to enter the publisher's shop to purchase copies when (of the second edition) only one remained on hand, were hardly prevented from deciding the question which of them should have it by a duel. Such extreme popularity was owing, not to the merit of the work only, but also to the introduction into it of many piquant anecdotes and lively satires upon living personages. Thus it happened that, at the age of twentyfour, Le Sage travelled to Paris, meaning there to graduate at the university, and to find, if he could, new means of livelihood. He was a handsome and agreeable young fellow, remarkable for his wit and his good taste in literature, by which he was not without hope that he might get a living. He won quickly the good graces of the ladies whom he met. One lady of quality, it is Le Sage had presented to the Théâtre Français said, made him an offer of her hand and for- a comedy in one act, with the title of the Presents, tune; but he scorned selfishness in marriage; -Les Etrennes-to be performed on a day of and having quietly fallen in love with Marie New Year's gifts, the first of January, seventeen Elizabeth Hudyard, a tradesman's daughter-hundred and six. It was a work begotten of who had, like himself, more treasure in the heart his experience among the farmers of revenue, than in the pocket-he made her his wife when he was a few months more than twenty-six years old. and was designed, in a spirit of righteous indignation, to inflict public chastisement upon them for their villanous extortions. The piece was refused. Le Sage was, however, very much in earnest. He took it back; and, instead of cut ting down or mollifying the expression of his scorn, he extended it into a five act comedy, and called it after its hero, Turcaret. This change was very far from removing his difficulties. The class attacked was powerful, and it resorted to all possible expedients to escape a public flogging. But, while the stage was denied to him, Le Sage could nevertheless secure a certain degree of publicity and influential advocates for his work by reading it in some of those brilliant Parisian coteries the titled members of which were by no means backward in assistance to a satirist fighting against wealthy parvenus, who were presumptuous and despicable in their eyes. Le Sage wrote out of a noble spirit, and such patrons applauded what he wrote out of a mean spirit. But the man of letters was no servant to their pride. The Princess de Bouillon ap. pointed a day for the reading of Turcaret, and condescended to permit the favored author to fix the hour of attendance most convenient to Siimself. Le Sage happened by a rare chance to be engaged on the appointed day, as advocate in a cause before the court of parliament. This business detained him; and, when he did at last reach the Princess's hotel, he found the aristocratic circle in a flutter of affront. He related with much earnest apology, the cause of the delay. His apology was haughtily received. No reason, the Princess said, could justify the impropriety of keeping such a dignified assembly so long waiting. Madame," replied Le Sage, "I have been the cause of your highness's losing an hour. I will now be the means of your regaining it."With a profound bow he retired. The Princess endeavored to detain him; some of the company ran after him to bring him back.-In vain-Le Sage never again entered the hotel of the Princess de Bouillon. with the stage, and engaged in a task honorable to his friendship. His friend, Petis de la Croix, then employed upon his translation of the Thousand and One Nights, needed the assistance of a more expert pen than his own in preparation of the work for press; and one or two of the best years of Le Sage's life were spent in the revision of this translation. Meantime a war of rival interests had arisen among the comedians, which opened the way for the lucrative exercise of his peculiar talent, the union of pungent satire with the airy fun demanded in the lighter productions of the French stage. Besides the two great theatres of Paris, certain "minors" were allowed to be open during two seasons of the year, in the ancient fairs of Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent. Only marionnetes were, at first the performers; and when, in 1690, an attempt was made to introduce a troop of children of both sexes, the company of the Théâtre Français, who had one of two shares in the exclusive privilege of speaking the native language upon a dramatic stage, ordered the usurping show to be pulled down. The Italian company-which had not long. before been relieved from the general prohibition to use the French tongue, and enjoyed the other half share in the monopoly-made in the year 1697 an unfortunate use of their privilege. It announced a comedy for representation under the title of The False Prude." The court discovered in those words a libel upon Madamo de Maintenon, and banished the Italians from the country. The conductors of the performances of the fair affected then to step into the vacant place, assumed the character of the Italians' successors, and played fragments of Italian farces. These exhibitions proved attractive, and the French comedians obtained an order from the judges, forbidding their rivals to represent any comedy whatever by means of dialogue. The innovators thereupon abstained from comedies, Le Sage's manly feeling was shown about the and confined their performances to single scenes. same time in another way. A hundred thou- These likewise were prohibited. Taking advan sand francs were offered him by the farmers tage of the literal sense of the word "dialogue," of revenue for the suppression of his play.-they had next, recourse to scenes in monologue. Poor as he was, he scorned the bribe. The cul- At first only one actor spoke, and the rest exprits redoubled their intrigues, and it required pressed themselves by signs. Then came an an express order from the Dauphin, before the improved form of monologue; the actor who had actors of the Théâtre Français could be per-spoken retreated behind the scenes, while the suaded to put Turcaret upon the stage; and, on the evening of Valentine's day, seventeen hundred and nine, its first performance took place; Le Sage being then a little more than forty years of age. other, who remained, spoke in his turn, and in turn retreated, in order again to give place upon the stage to the first. Sometimes the speaking was all done behind the scenes; and sometimes the one actor who spoke before the public ropeated aloud what the others whispered to him. The ingenuity of these contrivances to elude the vexatious pursuit of the law, gave zest to the performances, and the people thronged to the spectacles of the fair. The success of Turcaret was perfect; yet it at first enjoyed a run of only seven nights. The extraordinary cold which had kept theatres closed during the previous winter months still continued to be excessive in February. At the same time the efforts of the party satirized to stop the com. The next step of the dramatic warriors was to edy in its career, were of course incessant. Its purchase from the directors of the Royal Acadrepresentation was, however, subsequently resum-emy of Music, to whom it was understood legaled; and it is to this day a stock-piece at French ly to belong, the privilege of singing. But, theatres. when they attempted to make use of this priviA second play, entitled the Tontine, having lege, they found their theatre invaded by a been ill-received by the actors, the author broke strong body of the police, sent by order of the off with them, renounced for a time all connection judges; and, under the protection of these auVOL. VILI. 39 DLXIII. LIVING AGE. thorities the carpenter of the Théâtre Français | Comique. The accession of Le Sage was thus and his assistants proceeded to a second demoli- the means of introducing consistency, and sometion of the building. This work had already thing of the appearance and polish of art, into begun, when an officer made his appearance with the homely beginnings of the French comic opa command from the court, bearing date the era, or what is now called comédie vaudeville. same day, which overruled the decree of the Neither the deplorable state of public affairs in judges. The proprietors instantly set about the France, the higher interests of other departrepairing of what little mischief had been done; ments of literature and art, nor the intrigues of next morning the play-bills were placarded just the court and church, prevented the public attenas usual, and in the evening the house overflow- tion from being profoundly occupied by the proed. Again, however, their theatre was destroy-gress of the war between the privileged comed, and that completely, even to the burning of pany, the regulars, and the guerillas of the fair. its fragments; but again it was rebuilt. Law and authority being at every point defeated or eluded by the fair men, the belligerents on both sides let law alone, and confined their ef forts to the use of pun an satire, ridicule and personation. To prevent the recurrence of these ruinous attacks, the actors of the fair at last determined to confine their performance to dumb show. Among other pieces represented in this manner, was one called the Chicks of Leda; a ludicrous parody of the Tyndarides of Danchet. The company of the Théâtre Français had by this time come to be familiarly known as the Romans; and the success of the Chicks of Leda, as well as of many similar pieces, was ensured by the energy with which the Romans were burlesqued and mimicked by their opponents. Each noble Roman was at once to be recognized-not only by caricatures of the characters in which he commonly appeared, but by the imitation of his peculiar gestures and the tones of his voice. In order to accomplish the last object without breaking the rule of dumbness, the comedians of the fair pronounced in solemn tragic tones, a succession of syllables without sense or meanig, but arranged in sonorous Alexandrine mouthfuls. In seventeen hundred and sixteen, the Italian company was recalled and entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with the Théâtre Français; but the allied troupes were worsted. Parody, the chief weapon of the fair, was too strong for prerogative: the dexterous pointing of Le Sage's pieces had the effect of silencing the batteries of the allies. The Duchess of Orleans, wife of the Regent, being determined to witness the representation of the Princess of Carisma, one of Le Sage's most popular vaudevilles, it was ordered to be performed at the Palais Royal. The Regent was present at the entertainment, and the triumph of the comic opera was perfect. The records of the French stage enumerate one hundred and one pieces, wholly or in part composed by Le Sage, and performed by the companies of the comic opera. A further improvement: the actors came upon the stage each furnished with a roll of bills, In the midst, however, of those less worthy on which were printed in large characters the occupations-which, through a long series of names of their parts, with the most necessary of years, were the means of keeping alive the fire the words they must be supposed to speak. On upon his hearth-Le Sage did not forget the coming to the point at which the matter, inscrib- higher claims of literature. Of Gil Blas-that ed on any particular bill was required-the whole world's romance-two volumes were published roll having been previously put in order-hein seventeen hundred and fifteen, their author's unrolled and displayed it, and then slipped it to age then being forty-seven; and a third was isthe back. At first these placards were in prose; sued nine years afterwards. The fourth and final afterwards, couplets adapted to well-known airs volume, was delayed until eleven years after the were written on them. The orchestra played third had appeared. This work placed Le Sage, the air; persons hired for the purpose, and post- at once, and for all time, in the rank of a Euroed in different parts of the pit, sang the words; pean classic. Its contemporary reputation may the public itself supplied the chorus. By means have been owing, in a measure, to the skilfully of a further contrivance, the performers were re-interwoven anecdotes and allusions then more lieved from the inconvenience of carrying so intensely relished, because better understood, many paper bills: little boys, dressed as Cupids, than they can now be by ourselves. But the were suspended by machinery from the roof: truth of its lively pictures of human nature will and, supporting the rolls between them, unfold- for ever satisfy the wits of the experienced, and ed and displayed them at the proper times. their variety will never cease to charm the fanAlthough Le Sage, in the prologue to Turca-cies of the young. The creator of its class, it ret, had pointed some satirical strokes against has been followed by a thousand imitations. the performers of the fair, he now sympathized A notion was long current, and is perhaps not with them to the extent of setting about some yet quite exploded, that Gil Blas is itself an imicompositions suited to their new school of art-tation. Voltaire asserted that it was translated the opera of hand-bills. The first pieces composed by him for this purpose were represented by means of bills, and the words were wholly sung. A few sentences of prose were, by degrees, interspersed among the couplets. At length, their confidence increasing with their strength, the two companies of the fair ventured to assume the title of Opéra or stolen from the Spanish of Vincent Espinel; and, more recently, the charge was repeated, in another form, by a Spanish Jesuit named Isla.A translation of the work by this person was published at Madrid, in eighteen hundred and five, under the title of Gil Blas Restored to his Country. He asserts that Gil Blas was com posed in the Spanish language, during the min |