We may now furnish a specimen of the author's descriptive powers. This of course must be done in his own words; and that we may not be accused of injustice, we will quote from a pet chapter-the last-the one with which he caps the climax; and at the end of which he drops the curtain, expecting, no doubt, his nine rounds of rapturous applause. "The footsteps drew near to the mouth of the vault-it was upon the stairsAlan stepped forward to greet, as he supposed, his grandson, but started back in astonishment and dismay, as he encountered, in his stead, Lady Rookwood. Alan retreated, while the Lady advanced, swinging the iron door after her, which closed with a tremendous clang. Approaching the statue of the first Sir Ranulph, she paused, and Alan then remarked the singular and terrible expression of her eyes, which appeared to be fixed upon the statue, or upon some invisible object near it. There was something in her whole attitude and manner, calculated to impress the deepest terror on the beholder. And Alan gazed upon her with an awe which momently increased. Lady Rookwood's bearing was as proud and erect as we have formerly described it to have been-her brow was as haughtily bent-her chiseled lip as disdainfully curled, but the staring, changeless eye, and the deep-heaved sob, which occasionally escaped her, betrayed how much she was under the influence of mortal terror. Alan watched her in amazement. He knew not how the scene was likely to terminate, nor what could have induced her to visit this ghostly spot, at such an hour, and alone; but he resolved to abide the issue in silence-profound as her own. After a time, however, his impatience got the better of his fears and scruples, and he spoke. • What doth Lady Rookwood in the abode of the dead?' asked he, at length. "She started at the sound of his voice, but still kept her eye fixed upon the va cancy. 'Hast thou not beckoned me hither, and am I not come?' returned she, in a hollow tone. 'And now thou asketh wherefore I am here. I am here, because, as in thy life I feared thee not, neither in death do I fear thee-I am here because-" What seest thou?' interrupted Peter, with ill-suppressed terror. What see I-ha-ha-' shouted Lady Rookwood, amidst discordant laughter→→ 'that which might appal a heart less stout than mine-a figure anguish writhen, with veins that glow as with a subtle and consuming flame. A substance yet a shadow, in thy living likeness-ha-frown if thou wilt, I can return thy glances—' 'Where dost thou see this vision?' demanded Alan. 'Where?' echoed Lady Rookwood, becoming for the first time sensible of the presence of a stranger. Ha-who art thou that questionest me?-what art thou?speak!' No matter who or what I am,' returned Alan.-'I ask thee what thou dost behold.' Canst thou see nothing?" Nothing,' replied Alan. Thou didst know Sir Piers Rookwood?' Is it he?' asked Alan, drawing near her. It is he,' replied Lady Rookwood; I have followed him hither, and I will follow him whithersoever he leads me, were it to • What doth he now?' asked Alan, 'see'st thou him still?' The figure points to that sarcophagus,' returned Lady Rookwood. 'Canst raise up the lid?' No,' replied Alan, 'my strength will not avail to lift it.' • Yet let the trial be made,' said Lady Rookwood; 'the figure points there stillmy own arm shall aid thee.' "Alan watched her in dumb wonder. She advanced towards the marble monument, and beckoned him to follow. Reluctantly did he comply. Without any expec tation of being able to move the ponderous lid of the sarcophagus, at Lady Rookwood's renewed request, he applied himself to raise it. What was his surprise, when, beneath their united efforts, he found the ponderous slab slowly revolve upon its vast hinges, and with little further difficulty, it was completely elevated; though it still required the exertion of all Alan's strength to prop it open, and prevent its falling back. 'What doth it contain?' asked Lady Rookwood. A warrior's ashes,' returned Alan. There is a rusty dagger upon a fold of faded linen,' cried Lady Rookwood, holding down the light. It is the weapon with which the first dame of the house of Rookwood was stabbed,' said Alan, with a grim smile, "Which whoso claspeth in the tomb, Shall clutch until the hour of doom." So saith the rhyme.-Have you seen enough?' 'No,' said Lady Rookwood, precipitating herself into the marble coffin. That weapon shall be mine.' 'Come forth-come forth,' cried Alan. My arm trembles-I cannot support the lid.' 'I will have it though I grasp it to eternity,' shrieked Lady Rookwood, vainly endeavouring to wrest away the dagger, which was fastened, together with the linen upon which it lay, by some adhesive substance to the bottom of the shell. "At this moment, Alan Rookwood happened to cast his eye upward, and he then beheld what filled him with new terror. The axe of the sable statue was poised above its head, as in the act to strike him. Some secret machinery, it was evident, existed between the sarcophagus lid and this mysterious image-but in the first impulse of his alarm, Alan abandoned his hold of the slab, and it sunk slowly downwards. He uttered a loud cry as it moved. Lady Rookwood heard this cry-she raised herself at the same moment-the dagger was in her hand-she pressed against the lid, but its downward force was too great to be withstood-the light was within the sarcophagus, and Alan could discern her features; the expression was terrible; she uttered one shriek-and the lid closed forever! "Alan was in total darkness. The light had been enclosed with Lady Rookwood. There was something so horrible in her probable fate, that even he shuddered as he thought upon it. Exerting all his remaining strength, he essayed to raise the lid, but now it was more firmly closed than ever. It defied all his power. Once, for an instant, he fancied that it yielded to his straining sinews, but it was only his hand that slided upon the surface of the marble. It was fixed-immoveable. The sides and lid rang with the strokes which the unfortunate Lady bestowed upon them with the dagger's point, but these were not long heard. Presently, all was still, the marble ceased to vibrate with her blows. Alan struck the lid with his knuckles, but no response was returned. All was silent." We presume that this chapter is, with the patrons of that peculiar style of writing, a favourite specimen of the intense. We have seen a tolerably successful burlesque of the whole school of intense writers, which is much less extravagant than this affair of the sarcophagus; and if we had wished to convince our readers of the ridiculous folly of such writing, by means of that species of argument which is called the reductio ad absurdum, we could hardly have hit upon a better example for our purpose than the passage above quoted. Any analysis of the principles upon which it is written, or their adaptation to the intended effect, is wholly unnecessary. We have promised to furnish a specimen of the author's characters. We must present a summary view of the leading ones, founded upon his own description, and the actions they are made to perform. Luke is a happy compound of the gipsey and the gentleman; the poltroon and the hero. He is magnanimous enough to rescue Lady Rookwood, his worst and most unscrupulous enemy, from robbers who are his best friends, at the same time that he is mean enough to desert his betrothed, and attempt to marry another by the use of mere force. He has passed all his life among gipseys, poachers, and robbers, and yet he expresses the most elevated sentiments and noblest aims. He loves and hates, fights and rescues, with the heartiest good will, in all directions, on the same day, according to the changes of the scene. Altogether he is a very intense character. But not so intense as Lady Rookwood. She hates her husband with all her might; hates her husband's son, and tries to have him murdered; curses her own son, his intended wife, and all his kith and kin. She is represented as superior to all fear, and accordingly beards a host of robbers in her own chamber; but out of “mortal fear" she jumps into a stone coffin and is smothered to death. Lady Macbeth and Lady Ashton are quite tame characters in comparison with this female fiend. Indeed Shakspeare and Scott seem to have had no idea of the intense, as it is now understood, and their admirers can hardly be expected to relish anything so highly wrought. Mr. Ainsworth and his school will probably become standard authors at precisely that period of literary history when Shakspeare and Scott will be forgotten. Dick Turpin, the highwayman, is in some respects an imitation of Paul Clifford. But, in the gentlemanly qualities of jockeyship and generosity, he out-Clifford's Clifford. He risks his neck to get Luke out of confinement, at the very time when he has on hand the important business of robbing Rookwood House; refuses to sell Lady Rookwood the marriage certificate for a great sum of money; rides his favourite horse to death to reach Yorkshire, for the purpose of eluding a constable, and presenting the certificate, with a thousand pounds in money, to Luke, &c., &c. He is the beau ideal of that fine moral character, a genteel highwayman. Ranulph Rookwood, the hero of the story, according to the usual acceptation of novel writers, is remarkable for nothing but seeing a ghost. He, and Eleanor who is the heroine, and her mother, Mrs. Mowbray, are entirely passive characters. They are moved hither and thither by the circumstances of the plot; and merely answer the purpose of receiving the good fortune which, according to the rules of poetical justice, is duly awarded at the close of the story. The gipsey queen, Barbara, is a sorry imitation of Meg Merrilies, without any of Meg's virtue or loyalty. She has unlimited power over the gipseys, and inexhaustible wealth at her command; but the author, with his usual consistency, has her robbed by those very gipseys, and cast out to die of starvation under a gallows. The subordinate characters, fortune tellers, mountebanks, pickpockets, highwaymen, &c., are very numerous. Their personal appearance and actions are dilated on in the true Paul Clifford style. Their revels are described with great gusto, and their songs, ceremonies, and slang, occupy no small portion of the volumes. We should not have troubled our readers with any notice of this work, but from our desire to avail ourselves of the opportunity which it affords, of setting a mark of reprobation upon certain vices of imaginative literature of which it affords a fair specimen. Fiction is becoming every day more popular and more extensive in its range. It is consequently acquiring a power which cannot fail to be effectively and widely exerted for good or for evil. It is, therefore, the imperative duty of the censors of literature to exert whatever influence they may possess, in restoring it to that elevated moral and intellectual rank to which it was recently raised by the greatest genius of our age; and from which, we fear, it is, in Britain at least, too rapidly declining. It is said, that "Rookwood" has met with considerable success in London. We are not surprised at this. It possesses qualities which are very likely to captivate the fancy of a pretty extensive class of readers. The style, taking this word in the limited acceptation, possesses a degree of vigour, and even when this vigour is exaggerated into intensity, there are many readers who are not able to perceive that the author has taken the step from the sublime to the ridiculous. Another circum. stance has no doubt increased its popularity in London. The whole of the fourth book is devoted to the description of an impossible ride of Dick Turpin from London to York, performed on one horse in twelve hours. It is impossible to deny that this is a splendid piece of exaggeration. It is nearly free from the author's prevailing faults, and has unquestionably recommended the book to the whole sporting class of English gentry. The man who could write such a description should devote his talents to some better purpose than the concoction of melo dramatic novels. Poems. By Mrs. L. H. Sigourney. 12mo. Key & Biddle: 1834. pp. 288. MRS. SIGOURNEY is the most successful of our female writers in verse; and she has fairly earned this distinction by devoting to the cultivation of the divine art the leisure moments of many years. Her fugitive pieces have been quietly and unostentatiously submitted to the public through various periodical journals, magazines, and annuals; and have uniformly received the meed of praise. They are now collected and published in a very neat volume; and in this form, afford us an opportunity of judging, more fairly than we have hitherto been enabled to do, of the distinctive character and extent of her poetical powers. In one respect her effusions are undoubtedly to be classed with those of Mrs. Hemans. They are all the offspring of feeling, pure, exalted religious feeling- -a sentiment which invests all the scenes of nature, all the ways of providence, and all the vicissitudes of human life with a bright atmosphere of moral beauty. Every subject that she handles is made to feel the potent alchymy of religious thoughtand every thing that she touches she adorns. The mountain, the river, the cloud, the field of battle, and the tranquil fireside circle are all viewed through the clear medium of Christian philosophy, and their moral features are delineated with a steady and unerring hand. Her forte seems to lie in domestic scenes. These afford a proper field for the display of that characteristic which, if we mistake not, constitutes the principal charm of her poetry-tenderness. We will present our readers with a specimen of her powers in this way. "THE LOST DARLING. "She was my idol. Night and day to scan Her voice was like some tiny harp that yields But now alone I sit, 31 Her descriptions of natural scenery are highly graphic, at the same time that they are chaste in diction, and richly melodious in rhythm and measure. The poem entitled Connecticut River, which is rather too long for quotation, will afford a sufficient justification of this opinion. We will present a little domestic picture, touched with all the delicacy of one of Claude's landscapes or Van Huysem's flower pieces. 66 A COTTAGE SCENE. I saw a cradle at a cottage door, Where the fair mother with her cheerful wheel Nestled in throngs amid the woodbine cups, Which gently 'mid the vernal branches played Sad I came From weary commerce with the heartless world, To Him who showed me some bright tints of Heaven And firmer combat sin, and surer rise From earth to Heaven." But Mrs. Sigourney's muse has not limited her to domestic scenes and descriptive effusions. Like Mrs. Hemans she occasionally presents us with a historical picture, -sketchy but striking—and always glowing with a pure religious light. The following we have chosen rather for its brevity than its superiority to others of the same class. "COLUMBUS BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA. |