REVIEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 7259, 9 July 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

REVIEWS.

Jill. By E. A. Dillwyn. Macmillan's Colonial Library. Wise, Caffin, and Co., Dunedin ; and J. Horsburgh, Dunedin,

Nowadays, when nine-tenths of the literature poured out on the reading public, by authors eager to make a name or a living, is saturated with morbid and injurious sentiment, it is with a positive sense of relief and healthy relaxation that one traverses the pages of such a book as 'Jill/ and follows the author in his graphic description of the travels and adventures of this intensely practical and not a little cynical young lady. Jill tells us the tale of her life up to a certain point, and it is so full of interest and so well told that onefeels a keen desire to learn further about' this original but attractive maiden, who is so independent and self-reliant that she does not hesitate to abscond from home, because her cruel and tyrannical stepmother, having a keen eye for the main chance, and two marriageable daughters, refuses to let her "come out," lest it should affect the prospects of these daughters. Not only does Jill—who evidently was composed of the same material as our sea-roving, spoil-acquiring forefathers—stoop to conquer by taking a lady's-maid's situation, but she takes the lady's purse beforehand ; and, during the course of her wanderings, has no hesitation in committing at least two acts of forgery. Nor does veracity ever trouble her easy mind, since, as she herself says, she, like Queen Elizabeth, looked upon mendacity "as an intellectual way of getting out of a difficulty." But all this was before she, injured by an accident, met Sister Helena in the London Hospital. Noble Sister Helena, who died so tragically at her post ! How the sweet, kindly influence of the good Sister brought out and elevated the character of his heroine, and made her look upon things in their true light, the author tells without any of the feeble sentimentalism so common in such cases. Jill is a quick-witted, intelligent girl from the first, and recalls to mind in many ways Thackeray's Becky Sharp, with whom she has several traits in common. To pretend, therefore, to make her become over-good would be unnatural; still, even through the coldness and harshness, nay, sometimes spitefulness, which she evinces in the first portion of her career—as, for instance, in her treatment of the unfortunate governess which her much-hated stepmother provides for her—yet, even through all this, there are, here and there, suggestions of what her nature might have been had her surroundings and influences during her childhood's years been better and more kindly. The incident of the appeal of the poor hungry flower-girl for her assistance, which, regardless of the practical promptings of her reason, she, although in sore straits herself, could not resist, shows a kinder and more womanly heart than she would give herself credit for. The author leads his heroine into perilous places in some of her travels. In one of her situations as lady's maid, she and her mistress (the Hon. Kitty Mervyn) are travelling in Corsica with Mrs Rollin, and, during one of their mid-day halts, Kitty and she leave the coach while the horses are having their usual rest, and go along the road to sketch. While sketching, two escaped penitenciers, or convicts, seize them and bear them to the mountains, where they imprison them in a chapelle mortuaire all night, while they go to Mrs Rollin to treat for a ransom. The vivid manner in which the horrors of the night, the mutual and courageous efforts they make to effect their escape, and their eventual success, are told, proves the author a writer of no mean merit. Nor is the book without humor. The account of Jill's difficulties with the canine pets of her next mistress, and the description of their little peculiarities, is keenly amusing. Take that of " Dart," which she says was "a terrier whose mouth always watered after the calves of children's legs, though he only wanted to enjoy the feel of the flesh between his teeth, and had not the least wish to do any real harm. As soon as he saw a pair of these tempting objects anywhere near he would go and join the owner, wagging his tail, smoothing back his ears, smiling, wriggling his body, and altogether looking sweet enough to inspire confidence in the breast of the most distrustful infant. Then, turning his head insidiously as he walked along, he would seize the nearest calf, give it a good squeeze, and depart hastily, leaving the yelling victim more frightened than hurt." Altogether, 'Jill' is a very pleasant book, not without its stirrinc excitement and humorous situations, and here and there a glimpse of the tragic side of life. E. A. Dillwyn is quite a new name to us on this side of the world, but, from the sample which we have before us, we shall welcome more of his books as a wholesome addition to lighter literature, even though he has made his heroine betray a tendency to slang and a few felonies, and has forgotten, in his desire to give ber a fortune, that marriage makes void a prior will. On Some, of Shakespeare's Female Characters. By Helena Faucit (Lady Martin.) Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh, etc. London, 1887. Wise, Caffin, and Co., Dunedin. This is- a charming book, written in a charming style. Lady Martin places Shakespeare's heroines before the student in all their loveliness, power, and moral beauty. The first page opens with " 0 rose of May ! sweet Ophelia!" Tho authoress writes :

It hurts me to hear her spoken of, as she often is, as a weak creature, wanting in truthfulness, in purpose, in force of character, and only interesting when sho loses the little wits she had. , And yet who can wonder that a character so delicately outlined, and shaded in with strokes so flue, should be often, so gravely misunderstood? Faint and delicate, however, as these shadowings are, they aro yet so true to Nature, and at the same time so full of suggestion, that I look on Ophelia as one of the strongest proofs our great master has left- us of his belief in the actor's art (his own), and of his trust in the power possessed, at least by sympathetic natures, of filling up his outlines and giving full and vivid life to the creatures of his brain. He must have known that a time would come when women, true and worthy, should find it a glory to throw the best part of their natures into these ideal types which he has left to testify to his faith in womanhood, and to make them living realities for thousands to whom they would else have boen unknown. The conduct of Ophelia in the well-known " nunnery scene," where she plays into the hands of her father and the King by misleading Hamlet as to the whereabouts of Polonius, is defended as natural under the circumstances. The weakness of character charged against Ophelia is considered unjust:— Such weakness I call strength in the highest, most noble, bocause most self-forgetting, sense of the word. And so Ophelia, in her "weakness," fears to tell the truth, lest in this too terrible paroxysm of madness whioh now possesses him Hamlet might possibly kill her father.

In describing the scene where Ophelia comes before us for the last time the authoress is particularly happy : To Ophelia's treatment of hor brother, I ventured to give a character which I cannot well describe, I tried not only to give the words of my great master, the actor-author; but, by a sympathetic interpretation, his deeper meaning—a meaning to be apprehended only by that sympathy which arises in and is the imagination of the heart. On page 21 the peroration is brief and beautiful : Poor rose of May! Who does not give a sigh, a sob of grief, at miserable Gertrude's beautiful account of the accidental watery death of this fragile bud, cut down by a cold spring storm before her true midsummer had arrived? She sings her own requiem, and carries the flowers of her innocence along with hor to the end. Like the fabled swan, with her death-song on her lips she floats unconsciously among the water lilies, till the kindly stream embraces and takes her to itself, and to " that blessed last of deaths where death is dead." Portia is the next in order delineated in the circle of great heroines. How charmingly true do words paint her character : In Portia we see embodied the spirit of good, which it is her first, her paramount, desire should prevail over the spirit of evil. I have always looked upon her as a perfect piece of Nature's handiwork. Her character combines all the graces of the richest womanhood with the strength of purpose, tha wise helpfulness and sustained power, of the noblest manhood. Indeed, in this instance, Shakespeare shows us that it is the woman's keener wit and inßight which see into «nd overcome the difficulty which has perplexed the wisest heads in Venice. For, without a doubt, aa it Beems to me at least, it is

to her cultivated and bright intelligence, and not alone to the learned Dr Bellario, her cousin, that Bassanio is indebted for the release of his friend Antonio. Allusion is made to the time in which Christians, even the best of them, inherited the most bitter prejudices against the Jews. Portia sympathises with Shylock : She feels for the race that has been proscribed, insulted, execrated, from generation to generation. She finds some excuse for the deep heieditary hate which the Jew has for his Christian oppressor, and for his desire of vengeance in the name and for the sake of his persecuted tribe,

About twenty pages of the book are devoted to the delineation of Belmont's "real, typical, great lady and woman." The authoress summarises:—

And so I have thought out Portia. She will have, like other mortals, sorrows, sufferings, troubles. But she wdl bear them humbly, patiently, bravely. The hand and heart will ever remain open to help and comfort others. She will have always her gracious attractive manners, and will spread around her in lnr home an atmosphere which will make Belmont an earthly paradise to those fortunate ones who are welcomed to it. But only her husband will know all her winning goodness. For him will be kept the inner life, the insight into her heart of hearts; to him alone she will be the friend of friends, "the perfect wife." Imogen, Princess of Britain, is unquestionably Lady Martin's favorite heroine, the one that has always occupied tho largest place in her heart: — In drawing Imogen Shakespeare has made his masterpiece, and of all heroines of poetry or romance who can be named beside her ? Ah ! how much finer a medium thau all the pen can do for bringing horn? to the heart what was in Shakespeare's mind when lie drew his men and women is the "well-trod stage," with that living commentary which actor and actress capable in their art cau give.

Speaking of elaborate scenery for this play, which sets the unity of place entirely at defiance, little importance is attached to secondary considerations as scenery and costume:—

Oh, how refreshing it is to have your thoughts centred upon such human beings as Shakespeare drew; each phase of their character unfolding before you, with all their joys, their woes, their affections, sufferings, passions, instead of the immovable upholstery and painted simulations of reality in which the modern fashion takes delight. 'J he eye perhaps is pleased, but what becomes of the heart and the imagination ?

With what fidelity Imogen is portrayed as Shakespeare intends us to see her : A grand patient faithfulness is at the root of her character. Yet she c»n bo angry, vehement, passionate, upon occasion. With a being of so fine and sensitive an organisation how could it be otherwise? Her fine taste, her delicate ways, her accomplishments, her sweet singing arc brought before us by countless subtle touches. To her belongs especially the quality of grace. Even ("Uoten, whose dull brain cannot ro-isfc tho impression of her queenly grace and beauty, grows eloquent when he speaks of her : She's fair and royal And hath all courtly parts more exquißito Than lady, ladies, woman. From every one The best she hath, and Bhe, of all compounded, Outset's them all. Lady Martin tells us that her custom is to think over her characters even when the scene closed, and she thus writes : Can Imogen ihink of her husband as before ? Yes! She is truly named the " divine Imogen"; at least, she lias so much of the divino "quality of mercy" in her that she can blot from her memory all his doubts, all his want of faith, as if they had never been. Her love is infinite—"beyond, beyond." Hers is not a nature to do things by halves. Sho has forgotten as well as*forgiven. But can I'osthumus forgive himself ?

Fully sixty-six pages are filled with a glowing description of noble traits of character as given by Shakespeare of the Princess of Britain. Beatrice is another favorite of the authoress ; and in a letter to Mr Ruskin, filling forty-five pages of the work under review, Miss Faucit writes : I cannot dare to hope I shall throw much light upon the character that will be new to you, who have shown, in so many places, how thorough has been your study of Shakespearian heroines, and with what loving insight you have used them to illustrate the part women have played, and are meant to play, in bringing sweetness and comfort and help and moral strength into man's troubled and perplexing life. The lesson Shakespeare teaches seems to me to be entirely in accordance with your own belief, expressed in many ways—"that no man ever lived a right life who had not been chastened by a woman's love, strengthened by her courage, and guided by her discretion."

A single review does not allow more than a cursory glance at tho heroines Shakespeare has with a master hand pourtrayed, and which Lady Martin hi her excellent work has so ably commented on. We earnestly recommend our readers, especially the ladies, to get the book for themselves, assured that they will be well repaid by a closer insight into the nobility of the characters so graphically introduced by Lady Martin. Besides Ophelia, Portia, Imogen, and Beatrice, the list of heroines includes Desdemona, Juliet, and Rosalind.

Sabina Zembra, by William Black. Macmillan's Colonial Library ; James Horsburgh, Dunedin. The Woodlanders, by Thomas Hardy. Macmillan's Colonial Library ; James Horsburgh, Dunedin. The above novels form part of the series published by Macmillan and Co. specially for circulation in India and the colonies. The fir3t, by William Black, will be read with the interest that all works by this author never fail to excite, through the variety of incident thrown into them. Mr Black delights in pourtraying really amiable female characters. Ho seems to have before his mind models of goodness—youthful, well-educated, and religious girls, full of sympathy for the poor and the suffering, and bent on doing good even at considerable self-sacrifice. Such a one is the heroine of this story; but whether Mr Black intends to warn his readers that angels are liable to be led into imprudent matches through their overflowing benevolence, or that he himself approves such unions, is difficult to understand. It seems, however, to be the pervading thought in many of his novels that girls, whose very aspirations are after purity and goodness, should have so little worldly wisdom as to allow themselves to be drawn into marriage with men utterly unworthy of them. Viewed as warnings, the portraits are useful; as examples, pernicious. There is sufficient in the story to enable Mr Black's work to create and sustain the sympathy of his readers to the end, and, we trust, sufficient discernment by them of the weak points of such admirable characters as that of Sabina Zembra to lead to avoidance of her mistakes.

'The Woodlanders' is a story of a different stamp. The scenery amid which the main events of the story occurred is an almost primitive tract of country in the south - west of England, and the author has thus given himself the opportunity of describing many phases of peasant life in Old England which are now only to be met with where railways have not yet been introduced. Thero are no very startling circumstances in the plot, the principal characters in which arc very much like ordinary people in their various grades of society. But it is not an ordinary story, however probable. Indeed, no one can say nowadays what, in the way of human conduct, is impossible, in view of the startling revelations of the Courts of law in England and of the monstrous and cruel immorality demonstrated in the narratives published in the 'Pall Mall Gazette.' Of course this story of ' The Woodlanders' is a nage in the history of human passions, under the influence of which the various actors are made to develop their own characters. And in the main thero is much to admire in most of them, though misunderstandings and misconceptions lead to complications and partial estrangements. If every love story ran smoothly the novelists' vocation would soon cease through monotony, It is from the infinite changes consequent upon the influence of circumstances on human character that such constant interest is felt in these everyday pictures. Mr Hardy has produced a very neat stoiy in 'The Woodlanders,' which will be read with interest to the close.

Rather an amusing case was lately heard at Sydney, being an action by Mr Augustus Nash, a barrister, against Mr Henry Copeland, M.P., for having unlawfullydeprived him of the use of a sleeping berth in a train on the Northern Railway. Plaintiff claimed L 250 damages for inconvenience and annoyance suffered, and a verdict was given in his favor, damages id, costs allowed.