Still grasping by the hand his noble boy,
Was seaward borne-sad, but alike their fate;
Such ties of love, not death could separate !
Behold! the struggling waters heaving swell,
Tempestuous waves their giant forms uprear,
Then from the dread abyss, with fearful roar
A bright volcano issuing, shoots aloft.
No mortal eye such radiance may endure;
Night-tenfold night, as with the pall of hell,
The dazzling splendour of that light enshrouds ;
A strange vibration, as of earthquake shock,
The trembling deep pervades ; a foaming tide
The sandy bay convulsive agitates;

As in a storm, the quivering vessels rock:
A death-like silence hushes either host.

On whom her masts descend, not bursting shell,
Not pond'rous stone by Turkish engine fired,
Surer destruction pour; nor less avoid
Th' engulphing vortex, where her riven hull-
Dash'd to destruction-late triumphant rode.
Unhappy L'Orient !' now for thee in vain

Phoebus with golden beam the eastern sky
Bright rising paints: no more on thee his rays
Shall smiling shine, waking thy gallant crew
To life and joy: thy name alone endures,

With Nelson's glory coupled, and the Nile!"

Leaving my readers to the enjoyment of the merry castigation of such worthies, provided for their entertainment in the periodical alluded to, open to perusal at Messrs. Grant and Griffith, my publishers, may I not reasonably anticipate from that influential and respectable portion of the press, which guides the literary taste of the public, such impartial and honourable criticism for my work as may lead to a fair estimate of its merits? I ask these gentlemen, in common justice, (without entailing upon them what they may possibly consider a labour-that of reading through my whole poem,) to open the book at a venture, and cite from any six passages so presented (combining the whole sense of each passage) twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty lines, as the case may require,-upon the impartial criticism of which I am prepared to stand or fall: I hope, I think they will accede to my request. Here I rest my case,

merely premising, that, to silence carping tongues, I have obtained from the gentleman who penned the critique which forms the sum and substance of my preface, permission to publish it in the original German, which, with his obliging and handsome letter, and a strictly literal translation of each duly authenticated, is appended.

SUPPRESSED PREFACE.

The Author of "Napoleon Portrayed," having sent copies of the first canto to a valued friend residing in Germany, received the following answer :

"I rejoice to hear that

praises your poem; the more so as my judgment was formed upon it long before receiving your (last) letter: and I, not trusting to my own opinion, nor considering myself at all a competent judge, sent one copy of it to, who is himself a poet, and perfect master of the English language, having spent his whole life, I may say, in studying it; and begged of him to favour me with his candid opinion of it, not telling him by whom it was written. Now hear what he says, which I have translated literally and carefully.

"The canto of the poem which you sent me has made very divers impressions upon me. The very idea of writing an epic poem in our times is a proof of great daring! I believe no poet in England, since Milton, has ventured to attempt it, and none in Germany since Klopstock. The poet has chosen Napoleon for his hero, and appears to consider him as a personification of evil, the Apollyon of the Apocalypse, whose mysterious machinations play such a conspicuous part in that extraordinary prophecy. I doubt whether this is compatible with the justice due to that great man and hero; but it cannot be denied that it is poetical, and excites an interest in the reader, very much resembling what he feels for Milton's Lucifer. The position the poet has taken up is truly English he evinces a burning hatred against tyranny,—against that cold and all-absorbing spirit of egotism which is the utter destruction of all national liberty and happiness,-against falsehood and deceit in every shape; and the poet expresses this feeling in a most energetic manner. He evinces, above all, the warmest pa

triotism, and a well-founded pride in his country and in her gallant defenders, who, in those dreadful times of bloodshed and destruction, wafted the fame of the British nation from zone to zone! It is, therefore, quite natural that the poet has placed Lord Wellington in opposition to Napoleon, as the principle of good; and he thus becomes, in the poet's as well as in the reader's heart, the real hero of the poem. The conception (as far as I can judge from one canto) is astonishing,-the representation forcible and exciting, —the images bold and powerful, and often sublime, and yet in the softer passages tender and elegiac. The language appears to me delightful throughout; but in this respect I can form no competent judgment: it sounded in my ears like one of Haydn's hymns. It is much to be doubted whether the Continent in general, and France in particular, will or can do the poet justice; but England must be proud of this poem; and the powerful chords in which her fame, and that of her heroes is celebrated, must find an echo in every English heart, and awaken an enthusiasm which will be as lasting as it is well founded!'

Thus encouraged by the favourable opinion of the most celebrated living British poet, and by that of a gentleman whose very critique stamps upon every ingenuous mind conviction of high genius, the Author proceeded vigorously with his work. After four years of constant application it is now finished, and the Author trusts that his country will receive it favourably for the sake of its object, to dispel the illusions of hero-worship" unless the hero idolised be good as well as great,-a Wellington, not a Napoleon, -the defender of his country, not the world's tyrant!"

The Author would assuredly not have inserted in his preface so flattering an eulogium, had not the "Atlas" and "Britannia " papers disgraced their columns by the malicious pasquinades (criticisms they are not) cited, answered, and justly scourged in the notes, to which he respectfully refers his reader.

December, 1844.

9

GERMAN LETTER AND CRITIQUE.

COPY OF THE GERMAN ORIGINAL.

GEEHRTER HERR,

Nieuburg, den 4 März, 1845.

Es gereicht mir zu einem besonderen Vergnügen im Stande zu seyn Ihrem Wunsch zu entsprechen, und Ihnen einige Bemerkungen mittheilen zu können, welche ich bei Gelegenheit des Erscheinens des ersten Gesanges Ihres "Napoleon Portrayed" in einem Privatschreiben aussprach, und welche eine irrthümliche Voraussetzung enthaltend, welche man dem Ausländer vielleicht verzeihen wird, der sich beweisst ist zu den eifrigsten Bewunderern der Literatur Ihres Vaterlandes zu gehören, Ursache waren, dass eben dieser Irrthum, durch ich weiss nicht welcher Zufall, in der Vorrede Ihres "Napoleon" aufgenommen, der Critic Ihres Landes Stoff gab zu unfreundlichen Bemerkungen, an deren Ursache Sie vollkommen unschuldig sind.

Empfangen Sie hierneben die Abschrift jener Bemerkungen, von welchen den passenden Gebrauch zu machen ich Sie bereitwillig autorisire, und für deren treue Wahrheit ich mich mit meiner Unterschrift verpflichte.

66

'Nieuburg, den 15 December, 1841. "Meinen besten Dank für den ersten Canto von Napoleon Portrayed.' Der Eindruck, den das Ganze auf mich gemacht hat, ist sehr gemischter Art. Schon der Gedanke, in unserer Zeit ein Epos schreiben zu wollen, giebt Zeugniss von ungemeiner Kühnheit. Ich glaube in England ist dies seit Milton der erste Dichter der ein solches Wagestück versucht hat, und in Deutschland seit Klopstock. Die übrigen Nationen Europas haben, so viel mir bekannt ist, gar keine epischen Gedichte, in der wahren Bedeutung des Wortes. Der Dichter hat sich Napoleon zu seinen Helden erwählt, und scheint in ihm die Verkörperung des bösen Princips zu erblicken, etwa den Apollyon der Apocalypse, der auch in diesem Werke seinen geheimnissvollen Spuk treibt. Ob diese Auffassung sich mit der schuldigen Gerechtigkeit gegen den Helden verträgt, muss ich bezweifeln; indess ist nicht zu leugnen, dass es

B

poetisch ist, und in dem Leser ein Interesse erweckt, ähnlich dem welches er für den Lucifer Miltons empfindet. Der Standpunct des Dichters ist ächt Englisch: ein glühender Hass gegen alle Tyrannei,-gegen den starren, unerquicklichen, um alles Glück der Nebenmenschen unbesorgten Egoismus,-gegen alle Falschheit und Heuchelei,—spricht sich stark und energisch in dem Dichter aus. Vor allem aber ein warmer Patriotismus, und ein wohlbegründeter Stolz auf sein Vaterland, und auf die Helden desselben, welche in jenen schrecklichen Zeiten den Ruhm des Britischen Namens von Zone zu Zone trugen. Da ist es wohl ganz natürlich dass ihm Lord Wellington, im Gegensatz zu Napoleon, als das gute Princip erscheint, und im Herzen des Dichters, wie des Lesers, der eigentliche Held des Epos wird.

"Die Conception, so viel man sie im ersten Gesange übersehen kann, ist überraschend; die Darstellung gewaltig und ergreifend; die Bilder kühn und häufig sublim, und doch in den sanfteren Stellen weich und elegisch. Die Sprache ist mir überaus herrlich erschienen; doch habe ich darüber kein Urtheil sie klang mir in den Ohren wie eine Hymne von Haydn.

"Ob das Ausland, namentlich Frankreich, dem Dichter volle Gerechtigkeit wird können wiederfahren lassen, muss ich bezweifeln England aber muss stolz auf dieses Gedicht seyn; und in jedem Englischen Herzen müssen die gewaltigen Accorde, in deren sein Ruhm und seine Helden verherrlicht werden, einen Enthusiasmus erwecken, der um so nachhaltiger seyn wird, als er wohlbegründet ist."

TRANSLATION.

HONOURED SIR,

Nieuburg, 4th March, 1845. Ir gives me particular pleasure to have it in my power to fulfil your wish, in communicating to you a few remarks which I made in a private letter, upon the appearance of the first canto of your "Napoleon Portrayed;" which remarks contained an erroneous supposition, pardonable, perhaps, in a foreigner, who is one of the most ardent admirers of the literature of your country. This erroneous supposition has, I know not by what unfortunate mistake, found its way into the Preface to your "Napoleon,” and has furnished, the critics of your country with matter for unpleasant observations, of the cause of which you are perfectly innocent.

Allow me to present you with the following copy of the above