be my father? I am thy child.'"'

afraid she would dissolve in his arms, and leave on stepping into his dressing-room, is so much nothing there for him to grasp. He held her faster terrified at seeing himself sitting quietly in an and faster. 'My child!' cried he, my child!' Her tears continued flowing. At last she raised her. arm-chair by the fire, that he runs out in a self; a faint gladness shone upon her face. My great fright, and soon after becomes a visionfather! cried she, thou wilt not forsake me? Wiltary, and joins the insane flock of Swedenborg. A critical scene, however, is at last brought on accidentally-and though the transaction recorded is by no means quite correct, we cannot help inserting the account of it, as a very favourable specimen of the author's most animated and most natural style. Wilhelm had been engaged in reading, as usual, to the Countess and her female party, when they The Baroness goes out to receive them; are interrupted by the approach of visitors.

We cannot better illustrate the strange inconsistency of our author's manner, than by subjoining to this highly passionate and really beautiful scene, his account of the egg dance, which this little creature performs a few days after, for her friend's entertainment.

"She came into his room one evening carrying a attle carpet below her arm, which she spread out upon the floor. She then brought four candles, and placed one upon each corner of the carpet. A little basket of eggs, which she next carried in, made her purpose clearer. Carefully measuring her steps, she then walked to and fro on the carpet, spreading out the eggs in certain figures and positions; which done, she called in a man that was waiting in the house, and could play on the violin. He retired with his instrument into a corner; she tied a band about her eyes, gave a signal, and, like a piece of wheel-work set a-going, she began moving the same instant as the music, accompanying her beats and the notes of the tune with the strokes of a pair of castanets.

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Lightly, nimbly, quickly, and with hairsbreadth accuracy, she carried on the dance. She skipped so sharply and surely along between the eggs, and trode so closely down beside them, that you would have thought every instant she must trample one of them in pieces, or kick the rest away in her rapid turns. By no means! She touched no one of them, though winding herself through their mazes with all kinds of steps, wide and narrow, nay even with leaps, and at last half kneeling.-Constant as the movement of a clock, she ran her course; and the strange music, at each repetition of the tune gave a new impulse to the dance, recommencing and again rushing off as at first.

The dance being ended, she rolled the eggs together softly with her foot into a little heap, left none behind, harmed none; then placed herself beside it, taking the bandage from her eyes, and concluding her performance with a little bow."

writing-desk, which was standing open, took up "And the Countess, while about to shut her her casket, and put some other rings upon her fineyes upon the casket: accept a memorial of a true ger. 'We are soon to part,' said she, keeping her friend, who wishes nothing more earnestly, than that you may always prosper' She then took out plate of woven hair, beautifully set with diamonds. a ring, which, underneath a crystal, bore a little She held it out to Wilhelm, who, on taking it, knew neither what to say nor do, but stood as if rooted to the ground. The Countess shut her desk, and sat down upon the sofa. And I must go empty?' said Philina, kneeling down at the Countcarries such a store of words in his mouth, when ess' right hand. 'Do but look at the man! he no one wants to hear them; and now he cannot sir! Express your services, by way of pantomime stammer out the poorest syllable of thanks. Quick, for Heaven's sake, be my imitator!' Philina seized at least; and if to-day you can invent nothing; then, the right hand of the Countess, and kissed it warmly. Wilhelm sank upon his knee, laid hold of the left, and pressed it to his lips. The Countess seem. ed embarrassed, yet without displeasure. Ah!' cried Philina; so much splendour of attire I may have seen before; but never one so fit to wear it. neck-dress, but also what a bosom!' Peace, little What bracelets, but also what a hand! What a cozener!' said the Countess. Is this his Lordship then?' said Philina, pointing to a rich medallion, which the Countess wore on her left side, by a Soon after this, the whole player party are particular chain. He is painted in his bridal dress,' taken to the castle of a wealthy Count, to as-replied the Countess. Was he then so young?' sist him in entertaining a great Prince and his inquired Philina; I know it is but a year or two since you were married.' numerous attendants, from whom he was ex-placed to the artist's account,' replied the lady. His youth must be pecting a visit. Our hero is prevailed on to He is a handsome man,' observed Philina. 'But go also, and takes Mignon along with him- was there never,' she continued, placing her hand and though treated with some indignity, and upon the Countess' heart, never any other image very ill lodged and attended, condescends to that found its way in secret hither?" compose a complimentary piece in honour of thee. Let me never hear such another speech." very bold, Philina!' cried she; I have spoiled the illustrious stranger, and to superintend, as If you are angry, then am I unhappy,' said Phiwell as to take a part in, all the private theat-lina, springing up, and hastening from the room. ricals. By degrees, however, he steals into the favour of the more distinguished guestsis employed to read to the Countess, and at last is completely fascinated with her elegance and beauty-while, as it turns out, he has unconsciously made some impression on her innocent heart. He is not a little assisted in his designs, whatever they may have been, by a certain intriguing Baroness, who dresses him out, on one occasion, in the Count's clothes, when that worthy person was from home, intending to send the Countess in upon him, by telling her that her lord was suddenly returned. But this scheme is broken up by the unexpected verification of her fable; for the Count actually returns at the moment; and,

'Thou art

"Wilhelm still held that lovely hand in both of his. His eyes were fixed upon the bracelet-clasp; he noticed, with extreme surprise, that his initials then,' he modestly inquired, you own hair in this were traced on it, in lines of brilliants. Have I precious ring? Yes, replied she in a faint voic then suddenly collecting herself, she said, a pressed his hand: Arise, and fare you well Here is my name,' cried he, by the most curious cried the Countess; it is the cipher of a female chance!' He pointed to the bracelet-clasp. How?' friend!' They are the initials of my name. Forget me not. Your image is engraven on my heart, and will never be effaced. Farewell! I must be gone.' He kissed her hand, and meant to rise; but as in dreams, some strange thing fades and changes takes us by surprise; so, without knowing how it into something stranger, and the succeeding wonder happened, he found the Countess in his armed. Her

lips were resting upon his, and their warm mutual kisses were yielding them that blessedness, which mortals sip from the topmost sparkling foam on the freshly poured cup of love!

"Her head lay upon his shoulder; the disordered ringlets and ruffles were forgotten. She had thrown her arm around him; he clasped her with vivacity; and pressed her again and again to his breast. O that such a moment could but fast for ever! And wo to envious fate that shortened even this brief moment to our friends! How terrified was Wilhelm, how astounded did he start from this happy dream, when the Countess, with a shriek, on a sudden tore herself away, and hastily pressed her hand against her heart. He stood confounded before her; she held the other hand upon her eyes, and, after a moment's pause, exclaimed: Away! leave me delay not!' He continued standing. Leave me!' she cried; and taking off her hand from her eyes, she looked at him with an indescribable expression of countenance; and added, in the most tender and affecting voice: Fly, if you love me.' Wilhelm was out of the chamber, and again in his room, before he knew what he was doing. Unhappy creatures! What singular warning of chance or of destiny tore them asunder ?'"'

These questionable doings are followed up by long speculations on the art of playing, and the proper studies and exercises of actors. But in the end of these, which are mystical and prosing enough, we come suddenly upon what we do not hesitate to pronounce the most able, eloquent, and profound exposition of the character of Hamlet, as conceived by our great dramatist, that has ever been given to the world. In justice to the author, we shall give a part of this admirable critique. He first delineates him as he was before the calamities of his family.

"The second stroke that came upon him wounded deeper, bowed still more. I was the marriage of his mother. The faithful tender son had yet a mother, when his father passed away. He hoped, in the company of his surviving and noble-minded parent, to reverence the heroic form of the departed; but his mother too he loses! and it is something worse than death that robs him of her. The trustful image, which a good child loves to form of his parents, is gone. With the dead there is no help-on the living no hold! She also is a woman, and her name is Frailty, like that of all her sex.

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'Figure to yourselves this youth,' cried he, 'this son of princes; conceive him vividly, bring his state before your eyes, and then observe him when he learns that his father's spirit walks! Stand by him in the terrors of the night, when the venerable ghost itself appears before him. A horrid shudder passes over him; he speaks to the mys terious form; he sees it beckon him; he follows it, and hears. The fearful accusation of his uncle rings in his ears; the summons to revenge, and the piercing oft-repeated prayer, Remember me!

"And when the ghost has vanished, who is it that stands before us? A young hero panting for vengeance? A prince by birth, rejoicing to be called to punish the usurper of his crown? No! Trouble and astonishment take hold of the solitary young man: he grows bitter against smiling villains, swears that he will not forget the spirit, and concludes with the expressive ejaculation:

The time is out of joint: O! cursed spite, That ever I was born to set them right! key to Hamlet's whole procedure. To me it is "In these words, I imagine, will be found the clear that Shakespeare meant, in the present case, to represent the effects of a great action laid upon a soul unfit for the performance of it. In this view the whole piece seems to me to be composed. An oak-tree is planted in a costly jar, which should have borne only pleasant flowers in its bosom; the "Soft, and from a noble stem, this royal flower roots expand, the jar is shivered! A lovely, pure, had sprung up under the immediate influences of noble, and most moral nature, without the strength majesty the idea of moral rectitude with that of of nerve which forms a hero, sinks beneath a burprincely elevation, the feeling of the good and dig den which it cannot bear, and must not cast away. nified with the consciousness of high birth, had in All duties are holy for him; the present is too hard. him been unfolded simultaneously. He was a Impossibilities have been required of him; not in prince, by birth a prince; and he wished to reign, themselves impossibilities, but such for him. He only that good men might be good without obstruc- winds, and turns, and torments himself; he advances tion. Pleasing in form, polished by nature, cour- and recoils; is ever put in mind, ever puts himself teous from the heart, he was meant to be the pat-in mind; at last does all but lose his purpose from tern of youth and the joy of the world. his thoughts; yet still without recovering his peace of mind."

"Without any prominent passion, his love for Ophelia was a still presentiment of sweet wants. His zeal in knightly accomplishments was not entirely his own; it needed to be quickened and inflamed by praise bestowed on others for excelling in them. He was calm in his temper, artless in his conduct, neither pleased with idleness, nor too violently eager for employment. The routine of a university he seemed to continue when at court. He possessed more mirth of humour than of heart; he was a good companion, pliant, courteous, discreet, and able to forget and forgive an injury; yet never able to unite himself with those who overstept the limits of the right, the good, and the becoming.'"'

He then considers the effects of the misfortunes of his house on such a disposition. The first is the death of his father, by which his fair hopes of succession are disappointed. "He is now poor in goods and favour, and a stranger in the scene which from youth he had looked upon as his inheritance. His temper here assumes its first mournful tinge. He feels that now be is not more, that he is less, than a private nobleman; he offers himself as the servant of every one he is not courteous and condescending, he is need and degraded.

There is nothing so good as this in any of our own commentators-nothing at once so poetical, so feeling, and so just. It is inconceivable that it should have been written by the chronicler of puppet-shows and gluttonous vulgarities.

The players, with our hero at their head, now travel across the country, rehearsing, lecturing, squabbling, and kissing as usual. There is war however on their track; and when seated pleasantly at dinner in a wood on their journey, they are attacked by some armed marauders, robbed of their goods, and poor Wilhelm left wounded and senseless on the field. What follows, though not very original in conception, is described with effect and vivacity.

"On again opening his eyes, he found himself in the strangest posture. The first thing that pierced the dimness which yet swam before his vision, was Philina's face bent down over his. He felt himself weak; and making a movement to rise, he discovered that he was in Philina's lap; into which, indeed, he again sank down. She was sitting on

great spirit and animation. We may extract the end of the latter.

the sward. She had softly pressed towards her the head of the fallen young man; and made for him an easy couch, as far as this was in her power. Mignon was kneeling with dishevelled and bloody "Amid the pleasures of the entertainment, it hair at his feet, which she embraced with many had not been noticed that the children and the Harper tears. Philina let him know that this true-hearted were away. Ere long they made their entrance, creature, seeing her friend wounded, and in the and were blithely welcomed by the company. hurry of the instant, being able to think of nothing They came in together, very strangely decked: which would staunch the blood, had taken her own Felix was beating a triangle, Mignon a tambouhair that was flowing round her head, and tried to rine; the old man had his large harp hung round stop the wounds with it; but had soon been obliged his neck, and was playing on it whilst he carried it to give up the vain attempt; that afterwards they before him. They marched round and round the had bound with moss and dry mushrooms, Philina table, and sang a multitude of songs. Eatables herself giving up her neck-kerchief for that purpose. were handed to them; and the guests believed "After a few moments, a young lady issued from they could not do a greater kindness to the children, the thickets, riding on a gray courser, and accom-than by giving them as much sweet wine as they panied by an elderly gentleman and some cavaliers. chose to drink. For the company themselves had Grooms, servants, and a troop of hussars, closed up not by any means neglected a stock of savoury the rear. Philina stared at this phenomenon, and flasks, presented by the two amateurs, which had was about to call, and entreat the Amazon for help; arrived this evening in baskets. The children when the latter, turning her astonished eyes on the tripped about and sang; Mignon in particular was group, instantly checked her horse, rode up to frolicsome beyond what any one had ever seen her. them, and halted. She inquired eagerly about the She beat the tambourine with the greatest liveli wounded man, whose posture in the lap of this light-ness and grace: now, with her finger pressed minded Samaritan seemed to strike her as peculiar- against the parchment, she hummed across it quickly strange. Is it your husband?' she inquired of ly to and fro; now rattled on it with her knuckles, Philina. Only a friend,' replied the other, with a now with the back of her hand; nay sometimes, tone that Wilhelm liked extremely ill. He had with alternating rhythm, she struck it first against fixed his eyes upon the soft, elevated, calm, sympa- her knee and then against her head; and anon thizing features of the stranger: he thought he had twirling it in her hand, she made the shells jingle never seen aught nobler or more lovely. Her shape by themselves; and thus, from the simplest instruhe could not see: it was hid by a man's great-coat, ment, elicited a great variety of tones. The comwhich she seemed to have borrowed from some of pany, as much as they had laughed at her at first, her attendants, to screen her from the chill evening were in fine obliged to curb her. But persuasion air."-Vol. ii. pp. 38-43. was of small avail; for she now sprang up, and raved, and shook her tambourine, and capered

A surgeon in this compassionate party ex-round the table. With her hair flying out behind amines his wounds, and the lovely young woman, after some time

"turned to the old gentleman, and said, 'Dear uncle, may I be generous at your expense?' She took off the great coat, with the visible intention to give it to the stript and wounded youth.

"Wilhelm, whom the healing look of her eyes had hitherto held fixed, was now, as the surtout fell away, astonished at her lovely figure. She came near, and softly laid the coat above him. At this moment, as he tried to open his mouth, and stammer out some words of gratitude, the lively impression of her presence worked so strongly on his senses, already caught and bewildered, that all at once it appeared to him as if her head were encircled with rays; and a glancing light seemed by degrees to spread itself over all her form! At this moment the surgeon, endeavouring to extract the ball from his wound, gave him a sharper twinge; the angel faded away from the eyes of the fainting patient: he lost all consciousness; and, on returning to himself, the horsemen and coaches, the fair one with her attendants, had vanished like a dream.

"He, meanwhile, wrapt up in his warm surtout, was lying peacefully upon the litter. An electric warmth seemed to flow from the fine wool into his body in short, he felt himself in the most delightful frame of mind. The lovely being, whom this garment lately covered, had affected him to the very heart. He still saw the coat falling down from her shoulders: saw that noble form, begirt with radiance, stand beside him; and his soul hied over rocks and forests on the footsteps of his parted benefactress.-Vol. ii. pp. 45-47.

her, with her head thrown back, and her limbs as

it were cast into the air, she seemed like one of those antique Mænades, whose wild and all but impossible positions still strike us with astonishment when seen on classic monuments, &c.

"It was late; and Aurelia, perhaps the only one retaining self-possession in the party, now stood up, and signified that it was time to go. By way of termination, Serlo gave a firework, or what resembled one: for he could imitate the sound of crackers, rockets, and fire-wheels with his mouth, in a style of nearly inconceivable correctness. had only to shut your eyes, and the deception was complete. On reaching the open air, almost all of them observed that they had drank too liberally. They glided asunder without taking leave.

You

"The instant Wilhelm gained his room, he stripped, and, extinguishing his candle, hastened into bed. Sleep was overpowering him without delay, when a noise, that seemed to issue from behind the stove, aroused him. In the eye of his heated fancy, the image of the harnessed king was hovering near him: he sat up that he might address the spectre; but he felt himself encircled with soft arms, and his mouth was shut with kisses, which he had not force to push away!"-Vol. ii. pp. 205— 209.

In this division of the story we hear a great deal of an Aurelia-a sister of the manager'san actress of course-but a woman of talent and sentiment-who had been perfidiously left by her lover-and confided all the bitter de-ness of her heart to our hero. There is a good deal of eloquence in some of these diain any other part of the work. This is a logues-and a nearer approach to nature, than sample of them.

The party afterwards settles in a large town, under the charge of a regular manager; There are endless sqabbles and intrigues, and interminable dissertations on acting. Our hero performs Hamlet with great applause, and gets tipsy with the whole company at a riotous supper after it-the rehearsals, the acting, and the said supper being all described with

"One more forsaken voman in the world!'

you will say. You are a man. You are thinking: What a noise she makes, the fool, about a necessary evil, which certainly as death awaits womer when such is the fidelity of men! Oh, my friend! if my fate were common, I would gladly undergo

a common evil. But it is so singular: why cannot | swell by reason of them! And yet,' continued I present it to you in a mirror, why not command she, among thousands one woman saved! that still some one to tell it you? Oh, had I, had I been is something: among thousands one honest man seduced, surprised, and afterwards forsaken! there discovered; this is not to be refused. Do you would then be comfort in despair: but I am far know then what you promise?' I know it,' anmore miserable; I have been my own deceiver; I swered Wilhelm with a smile, and holding out his have wittingly betrayed myself; and this, this is hand. 'I accept it then,' said she, and made a what shall never be forgiven me.' movement with her right hand, as if meaning to take hold of his but instantly she darted it into her pocket, pulled out her dagger as quick as lightning, and scored with the edge and point of it across his hand! He hastily drew back his arm but the blood was already running down.

One whom you know very well,' said Jarno You yourself are the ghost that have chased the unhappy wiseacre into piety; you are the villa who have brought his pretty wife to such a state that she inclines accompanying him.' And she "I look upon it as a providential guidance, that is Lothario's sister?' cried our friend. No other! none of these many handsome, rich, and well-And Lothario knows?'-'The whole.' 'O le dressed men could take my fancy. They were me fly!' cried Wilhelm: How shall I appear be rakes, and did not hide it; this scared me back: fore him? What can he say to me?' That ne their speech was frequently adorned with double man should cast a stone at his brother; that wher meanings; this offended me, and made me act with one composes long speeches, with a view to shame coldness towards them. Many times their impro- his neighbours, he should speak them to a looking prieties surpassed belief! and I did not prevent my-glass.'" 'Do you know that also? And many self from being rude. Besides, my ancient coun- things beside," said Jarno with a smile." sellor had once in confidence contrived to tell me, that, with the greater part of these lewd fellows, health as well as virtue was in danger! I now shuddered at the sight of them; I was afraid, if one of them in any way approached too near me. I would not touch their cups or glasses, even the chairs they had been sitting on! Thus morally and physically I remained apart from them."