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been sufficiently happy to lead him to re-esque-no distant colonies now to be founded venge the deception practised on him which -no queenship-no womanhood recollected has tended to its foreshortening; and, glad of no more conquests of men's hearts, and the proximity of Cleopatra, it matters not persons dreamt of-misery she now takes to how attained, instead of being vexed when her bosom as if enamoured of it-now women the easiest mode of approach for his suffering only can be her confidants-as women alframe is disregarded, he accepts thankfully ways are the only genuine sympathisers, the any terms which shall bless him once with a only true consolers-brother to sister, and touch of her sweet hands, a near glance of sister to sister, tell their grievances-such is her thrilling eye, a heart-to-heart-folding em- the irreversible law of nature, and women are brace; the fragrance of her breath, the odours our ministering spirits. Those most prone of her sigh. Now, after self had been pro- in their triumphant hours to consider only perly attended to, and that nothing more re- men, in their moments of trial and humiliation mained to impede feeling, Cleopatra luxuri- derive their best support from woman's heart. ously poured forth the riches of rapture; the If she could have imagined any treasure laid apostle of love, in all its height and depth, up in the future for her, she would not have length and breadth, she could enact, when reproached destiny, in the expectancy that no unruly obstacles intercepted her effusions: present bereavements would be more than then, when self could not be injured, she for- atoned for by future gifts. got it, displaying the devotion, the abandon- She does not desire that others should be ment, the picturesqueness of passion, as other afflicted, as is ever the case with true heroines never so did, in word, attitude, and mourners: they have not time to be vexed manner; if their deeds and looks were even with those who are apparently unsympasuch like, their bearing had not the laisser aller thising; it is not real grief which is fretful of the unfettered mistress of love; the others and jealous of appearances; the voice of such were but love's apprentices; they could not proclaims, "I only have cause to weep; none have the same masterly freedom; there was is so tried as I; be not ye sad, I may replace more delicacy, if less vigour, in their essays; that loss to you which in my instance can more chasteness, if less richness, of colour- never be repaired." They make a monopoing; more of the tint of the pale primrose, ly, so to speak, of infelicity. Cleopatra's "which dies unmarried." They might die so; sorrow is not silent as Desdemona's would Cleopatra, to exist, must have a lover; air, have been, nor philosophical as Portia's, nor food, and drink, all would have been but use-impetuous and concentrated as Juliet's; but lessly spent in inanition, if thus she had been it is musical, harmonious, and fluent in its bare. Any of the other three, if asked to expression, as well as pathetic. There is let their dying lords speak, would have breath- an activity and strength of resolution exhiblessly and veneratingly listened; but Cleopa- ited in the close of her bewailings, which pretra was here like a priestess on the tripod, pare us for her heroic exit. and must give vent to her sentiments. The Proculeius was a man of honour, and Anothers would have hearkened with anticipa- tony, therefore feeling at last the value of tion that every syllable uttered must be of morality, recommended Cleopatra to put her moment, as genius dignities all. Desdemona trust in him, forgetting that that very duty remaining still from fearful adoration; Portia would lead him to embrace and hold stedfrom a calm sense of right; Juliet throwing fastly to the interests of Cæsar-forgetting herself completely into the situation of the that duty, unless accompanied by a warm speaker. Desdemona's timid self-conscious- heart and generous impulses, is often cruel, ness drowned in the sense of things more and, in endeavouring to act wisely, acts important-Portia duly apportioning all sub- merely demoniacally. Why place duty jects of interest, neglecting none in too great above feeling? Morose, hard-hearted, unattention to another, not speechless from ex-sympathising men, injuring far more than citement, not carried away by enthusiasm, not absorbed by loving self-depreciation.

benefiting the cause of society, may yet be swayed, as they fancy, by the purest and The approach of death sweetens the dispo- most upright motives; dry pursuance of a set sition, banishes mean and secondary passions, system of integrity is often displayed by and teaches a consideration of the future in- those obtuse in intellect, who are dull of imterests of those whose present gratification agination and unapt to be affected by exteronly has been hitherto meditated. Antony nal circumstances; and what is their relinow wisely thinks for Cleopatra, as he had gion but narrow-souled bigotry, like that of not done for himself, or such would not be Queen Mary and Bishop Bonner? Or if his plight-real heart-touching sorrow in the they possess fancy and susceptibility of imend is hers. Yet her first thought is for self, pression, dulness only applying truisms to as it generally happens. "Hast thou no care suit their own wicked, confined, and limited of me?" It is not until she has expended her purposes, as with the covenanters, Balfour of lamentations on the primary cause, the lost Burleigh, &c., the murderers of Sharpe.lover, that she is entirely overwhelmed. Dolabella was a man of excitability, and, Woe truly equalises. For no future now as well as Proculeius, acted in unison with did she care; grief would not permit her to make light of her afflictions, or to fancy that they could ever be alleviated-no castlebuilding-no scheming, fanciful, and pictur

his prevailing characteristic; he reminds us of George Douglas at Lochleven Castle with the lovely Queen of Scotland; so enamoured was he of her whose mind, engrossed with

the drawbacks in a conqueror's good fortune; and, therefore, grumbling not at his success, she simply reflects on the thorn attending his rose. Thus by comparison we heighten our gratifications, and by fancy's powers we expand our joys.

other topics of vital import, had scarcely a it in the extreme. But though from her thought to spare for love. Yet there is, disposition to love, ten to one, if Augustus necessarily, a certain tenderness in the man- had been ensnared by her, she would have ner of the heroine and queen to him who given way to the new flame, yet she had no disinterestedly, nay self-sacrificingly, advo- longing for the conquest. She far more encates her sinking cause, which he deems to joyed being allowed to exhibit her constanrepay him for all his sighs, and cares, and cy, to feed on the remembrance of her past labours. His is not the worst character who felicity, to taste the pleasures of imaginative can afford praises to a fallen enemy. The memory, when she dreams of being fondled meanly spiteful will assail even after death; again-to be permitted to idolize Antony in but the petty-souled are thus dull, to their secrecy, proudly to elevate him above all own hurt, injuring and not promoting their others born of women, to luxuriate, by reinterests. The pleasure of safety in Antony's trospect, in her past fate, to enhance the esdefeat was heightened by the appreciation of timate of her bereavement, and to believe his abilities to harm, if success had crowned that none but she could fall from such a his efforts; so, with enlightenment, the noble height-none but she suffer such a loss. Romans gave his memory its full due. She affirmed, too, or would do so, that As, in Shakspeare's inimitable characters, though the devotion of Augustus were the woman is always considered before the placed at her feet, she would refuse and heroine, that is, nature before picture-like despise it. She had an elasticity of genius, and most wearisome propriety,- -so Cleo- and out of worst afflictions drew matter of patra does not starch or stiffen herself; enjoyment-they were, to her, novelty, exthough capable of the wildest heroism, she perience, variety, knowledge, power, infordoes not consider pedantry a necessary ad-mation, capability. Sorrow, thus, was junct to augment the value of her deeds, as nutriment to her; the contemplation of a foolish blue-stocking deems pretension a death had wherewithal that was agreeable. becoming assertion and proof of her learn- Her shrewdness, too, enables her to discern edness. What a charm, in books as well as life, is this unsophisticatedness; but, alas! it is only genius which can shield it from vulgarity. The charming Miss Austin is often below par; and yet genuine nature is never vulgar; it is the mixture of needless accompaniments, of the common There is dignity in Cleopatra's, by her and undignified effects of the unions of so- candour, frustrating the intentions of her ciety which produces this inelegance, not enemies, who meant to thrust seeming oblitruth itself, which has a naked, simple, melo- gations on her, inducing her to trust in, dious majesty that obtains the heart of and receive, nominal favours from her bitevery worthy and guileless child of nature. terest foe: we are above the person from Cleopatra, then, does not make much of whom we refrain to accept service. Proherself, assume state, or fold herself up in culeius considered it his duty to Cæsar parthe heroic robes, doing and saying tially to deceive the queen; thus thousands nothing, but leaving it to be supposed do evil, that some good may arise from it. that she meditates with private grandeur. There is a volubility, a clever, careless, She bends to the haughty victor, herself fearless display of internalities in her pasprouder than he. With a sense of worldly sion, which could not have been exhibitadvantages, she is determined not to fling ed by our three former friends. The refineaway golden opportunities; and if it is ment of modesty withheld them. They doomed that she herself should be abased, lived in a more refined circle; they did not she yet supplicates that her heirs may be want to blazon to the world their feelings, spared, pardoned, and benefited. Augustus's though thereby they secured sympathy on policy is great, but Cleopatra's knowledge a grander scale. They had not the panting of human nature superior. He goes the for extended fame which inspires the best way to work with her; that is, if he is authoress, the public singer, the actress, and determined to maintain his equilibrium, for such a warrior as Joan of Arc, such an as the only real method of securing her would sassin as Charlotte Corday, such a woman be to yield his heart to her fascinations. as Cleopatra. And is there not a quiet, enThis he neither chooses, nor has inclination viable dignity in those contented with their for; he prefers being his own master, rath- simple, single sphere, which the ultra-amer than the possession of Elysian pleasures. bitious lack? But in the former class there Not like his uncle will he contend. He feels are the contemptibly frivolous, as in the that, with him, prevention is safer than cure, latter the narrowly envious. There is more and he has not the genius of the first Cæsar fretfulness in Cleopatra's manner to the to retrieve errors, if once committed. Here loving Dolabella than she had displayed was the only method by which he could even to the treacherous Proculeius; but she have deceived or imposed on Cleopatra ; of superior attractiveness is only rendered but a counterfeit passion would have been more piquante by her spiritual snappishness of no avail; detected by her, the artifice to those that like or dislike; and to the would have incensed her. She would timidly up-looking, ambitiously-loving, who have been enraged at the imposition think their own deserts unfathomably mean dared to be practised on her, and resented in comparison of their lady's, there is a sad,

sober satisfaction in listening to her praises a princely feather in his cap. Seleucus, like of another, if a departed rival. Such an the schoolmaster who volunteered to betray amount of love, except on their own part to his noble pupils to Camillus, deserved to be her, they had hardly conceived; and how whipped for his pains; and there is a folly delightful if such might be devoted to their in such viciousness which defeats its own degrateful and ineffably enraptured selves! sign; the best mode of acquiring the esteem A woman, too, often most attracts a man of him now in power is to maintain faith when, instead of bestowing her ideas on him with him who has been so; this fidelity and his immediate presence, she abstract-proves worthiness: the sudden turn-coat is edly exercises her powers on another sub-ever trampled and despised, however the ject-it may be, even, another lover. She slower and more prudent one may be valued, can thus demonstrate her capabilities, who seems to alter only because his reason without the semblance or reality of display; is convinced, his veneration inspired by preshe can expose her feelings without the re- sent far superior worth. The wisdom of straint which must have checked them if Seleucus, in his mode of presenting the list, excited by one in company; she can ex- was like that of the "unjust steward." How press her sentiments fully by the aid of an very meek it all at once rendered the bearintermediate subject; and when, in this ing of Cleopatra! It was natural that she manner, she has delicately elicited love should have held back some value to present and admiration, she may turn for informa- to her faithful friends after death, and to uption, support, and sympathy, to the charm- hold her power and consequence during life ; ed hearer enlisted, now and for ever, beneath however, like Ananias and Sapphira, she her banners. It is his pride to serve so merited detection. Now she hated Augustalented a mistress; one so loving; (this is tus the more, since her false slave had put her and every woman's most distinguishing her in his power; she stood revealed in her attribute ;) one so loveable; (and this epithet double mindedness to his cold, penetrating is her greatest praise.) gaze. How wittily, without positively acOctavius, keeping his eyes downcast dur- cusing any one else, she gives it to be undering his interview with her, and refraining stood, when rid of the espionage of the blabfrom meeting her sunny, subduing glance, bing Seleucus, that another, not she, was was a tribute to her power; but a provoking guilty of the deception, as with little Benjatribute, for which she resolved to make him min and the silver cup-a friend making a pay. Why should he refuse to be her slave? false estimate of what would be to her adMightier, greater than he had voluntarily vantage thus abstracted; and Augustus, glad yielded to the force of her charms. And of the circumstance which enabled him to her ability gave her greatly the advantage act the high and generous victor, is vastly during the rencontre. He was avowedly af- condescending; the recollection of which affected and restrained, fearful of committing terwards working her fury to a higher pitch; or trusting himself too far, reading a lesson however, at present, the oil of his discourse to those who are sincerely desirous not to be unavoidably mollifies. And words from the conquered; the rash are too often defeated. emperor of the world are no trifle, and must Cleopatra had, on the contrary, ease of de- not be disregarded. Cleopatra's sense of the portment and perfect command of herself, baseness of her present degree prevents us playing her cards well, though she feared considering it mean: those who are lowered and hated her visiter. She was confessional, in rank, and yet who proudly will not presubmissive, almost loving in demeanour, lest tend to believe they have lost ground, are he should suspect her aversion and mis-objects of scorn. She knows, if the comparachievous intentions. He might, in conse- tive degradation, the remaining capacities of quence, readily flatter himself that she was her position, and thus enhances its value. as anxious to conquer him as she had been If there was a voluptuousness in the tone to master feeling; and, knowing that her af- of Antony's last thoughts, was there not a fections usually accompanied her interests, richer and deeper in those of Cleopatra, he might ask himself why she should not al- while she recalled the most luxurious day of ready have been half-seas over in liking the her life, and heightened the colouring of prepresent glorious head of the empire. He did sent things by the comparison and associanot know that he was at present pursuing the tion with past? The assumption of her worst possible course to secure her. While crown and robes was characteristic, like the he seemed over-wise, he was but foolish in perseverance with which Mary Stuart clung reality-(extremes meet ;) his mode of pro- to her queenhood, refusing to acknowledge ceeding could accomplish no purpose. Why the right of nobles to try and convict her did he visit her? Not to gain her affections, who was their head and chief. Even kings or he would have sympathisingly gazed on had no right to be the judges of her who was her-solely to gloat over her in triumph, their equal; at least they rarely or never asthen. Let him do so, for it shall be his last sume it, unless their own authority being opportunity. By his entreating her not to firmly established, while that of the erring pursue in Antony's footsteps, he manifested sovereign totters, it becomes probable that, what a point he made of her being a live vic-| by interfering, they may serve their own intim, corroborating Dolabella's statement that terests, at the same time that they injure he hoped to exhibit her at his triumphal en-those of their competitor. How different, try to his capital city, as a star in his diadem, (though, the pleasures and pains of their lat

ter end! One triumphing in the power of committing suicide-feeding her revenge by the deed; proving her heroism, her change less, devoted love; dying in the prime of beauty; leaving her classic form, unmutilated, to the admiration of all, even the foes whom she spited. The other, waxed old and feeble, and prematurely unhealthy, from harsh confinement and severe treatment; bars of cold iron and bare stone walls had been her familiars, as well as the gloomy gaoler and fitful tyrant, who was instigated by one still more venomous, siern, and unforgiving; and, the bitterness of it, by her sister, her cousin, but, at the same time, her rival, and of the same sex: therefore, the more unmitigated was their hatred! No lover had she; hidden from humanity, her fair face was almost forgotten; a thing to be remembered, rather than presently powerful to thrill and tyrannise the senses; without a

self to die, we may appropriately close.
There is a satisfactoriness in the admiration
of females for each other; it is impartial and
well founded. It tells well for the praised,
and, more especially, for the praiser; the
senses do not here carry away, nor passion,
nor interest, nor imagination, nor caprice.
It is a sober, subdued, softened, sunset_reali-
ty-sweet, poetic, fanciful, refined, and deli-
cate. It is, in a word, feminine. There is
much grace in Charmian's final arrange-
ments of the corpse; let us, with her, once
more admiringly gaze on that chiselled brow,
and then, sighingly, not unpleasurably, say
adieu.
N. R. Q.

husband to whom she could prove devotion; CURIOSITIES OF LEGAL EXPERIENCE.

No. IV.

BY A SOLICITOR.

THE BENEVOLENT MADMAN.

no voluntary self-sacrifice, no glowing excitement, to make the death-pang unfelt and disregarded a cutting off against the will, while the flesh clung to that bleak and desolate life alone afforded. She had, it is true, sympa. thy from handmaids, (as Cleopatra, from Charmian and Iras ;) but it was the sympathy of misery, not that of victory and joy. What husband could she call on? To what THE watchword of the present age is friendly particular bosom did she hasten?"Forward!" Men are more eager to exThe beauty, which had been hers, was wast- plore than to colonize, to conquer than to reed and gone; her cheeks were wan: her tain; all the best and boldest spirits emigrate beauteous head was severed from the voice- to the undiscovered countries of knowledge, less and inanimate trunk; and in a strange leaving the old lands comparatively unimland, without her people's presence and love, proved; and thus it happens that so many no circumstance to stimulate her to nobility unsightly spots deform the most civilized of action; the voice of praise mute as that of countries. Who would suppose that at this sorrow; her enemy, even, was not to have her feelings grated, her remorse awakened, by a sight of the lifeless body; no grateful tribute was offered to her memory of earnest admiration and declared concern, though her remains were treated to the mocking "pageantry of a pompous funeral."

This mention of Antony by the term of husband sanctifies the whole play; we need have no compunction, now, for having so long meditated on its queenly heroine. She is chastened and elevated by her latter end. How touching, simple, pure, sisterly, angelic, is the love which women sometimes possess for each other! How Juliet-like, how loverlike, the idea, the fear, that Iras first should meet Antony in another world, and forestal or anticipate the sudden bliss of their encounter! The piece were rendered worthy of its author by this sole sentiment. How intoxicating like balm-soporific as the still fragrance of eve-like the partial lethargy of the opium-eater, is the lassitude of our friend as she warbles

day the law of England, respecting insanity, could be left so uncertain in its nature, and so unjust in its operation? The fearful abuses of the last century have, indeed, been partially remedied, but few, I imagine, are aware of the ease with which they may still be shut up in a private madhouse, for no greater cause than a harmless eccentricity. That such instances are seldom heard of may be true, but it is disgraceful that they can possibly occur at all.

Before I commenced practising on my own account, I was induced to join a debating society, not of a professional kind, but one composed of miscellaneous members for the discussion of miscellaneous subjects. At all such places one forms acquaintances of a peculiar description, beginning in the society and terminating there, as if the meeting in a certain room to debate a certain question were conditions essential to their existence. There is something amusing in these local and limited friendships. I know two gentlemen who skate together in the most social manner during a frost, but whose intimacy never lasts beyond the thaw; proficiency in a common amusement is the only tie between them, and when that fails, the temporary And with the lamentation of her noble, faith-union is at once destroyed. Sometimes, inful Charmian, about, for, and with her, her-deed, the accidents of life reunite the sepa

66 Peace, peace!

Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep!"

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rated links, and in such cases there is gene- thought my friend a little prosy on the subrally a feeling of good will towards the ject; like old Montaigne, I wanted him to schoolboy friend, or the college chum, or the come at once to the point, and charge at old antagonist in debate, if it be only for once into the heart of the doubt. But no: "Auld acquaintance sake;" at least I have he must give me a true and particular acfound it so in many instances, of which the count how Mr. Wingrove had married a case about to be related is one, for my only wife, and how he had taken up strange noconnection with Mr. Benjamin Slade, the tions about charity, giving away his property party most active in the matter, was merely with both hands to all who asked; and then the general acquaintance arising from occa- he remarked what a mistaken notion it was, sional intercourse as members of the same and what an excellent work Dr. Somebody society. On referring to my journal, it ap- had written against indiscriminate almsgivpears that Mr. Slade called at my chambers ing, &c. &c.; until I got fidgety, and began to think of some excuse to bow him out. At last he drew a letter from his pocket, and put it into my hands, with the remark, that after what he had just told me of his great obligations to Mr. Wingrove, I might imagine his feelings on reading the contents. They were as follows:

on

July 4, 1826. I knew him at once, though some years had passed since our last debating match. He had taken orders; and dressed as he now was, in a full suit of black, cloth boots, white cravat, and face to match, his appearance was truly orthodox. "Upon his front nature had written clergyman;" and if good morals, a tolerable share of good sense, and an inexhaustible fund of good nature, could fit him for the profession, his interior qualifications were equal to the outward signs. Various were the inquiries as to each other's situation; how the society had declined since the light of our countenances had been withdrawn; how Tom Bennett was married, and Kennedy had gone to the bar, &c.; after which Slade, assuming a serious air, begged to consult me on a matter which had given him great uneasiness, and in which

he was at a loss how to act.

"SIR,-Although personally a total stranger, I have taken the liberty to address you on a subject in which I am sure you will feel no common interest. As an intimate friend of Mr. Wingrove, I know the relation in which you stand to him, and the many reasons which would induce you to take a lively interest in his welfare; and certainly there never was an occasion in which the exertions of a true friend were more indispensably needed. I always thought the lady he married, was a selfish, worldly person, quite unsuited to a man of Mr. Wingrove's extreme "I must tell you," he began, "that my benevolence, but I never did think that she father was a clergyman, and that he died would act in the extraordinary manner she when I was sixteen, leaving me, with very has done. She has taken advantage of his little money and few friends, to get through boundless charities and disinterested_huthe world as I could. My mother had been manity to get him declared insane, and I am dead some time; and having, therefore, no credibly informed that he is at this moment home to detain me, I went at once to Oxford, actually confined somewhere in the neighand began a course of classical study, with bourhood! I need not point out how much the view of becoming tutor or grinder to the more desirable it would be that the matter less industrious students. Like many others should be taken up by one who has a sort of before me, I overshot the mark; constant claim to interfere, than by a mere friend like reading, late hours, and want of exercise, myself; but you must allow me to add, that threw me into a state of weakness and de- want of the necessary funds shall be no obpression, which prevented my studying for stacle for an instant, as I will most readily some months, during which my funds were supply whatever is required for the purpose. diminished alarmingly, thus adding another I am sure I need make no further apology cause of anxiety to those which already for troubling you in such a case, and weighed me down. In this situation, a friend, unknown to me, applied on my behalf to a Mr. Wingrove, a gentleman of large property and religious principles, who was in the habit of assisting the sons of poor clergymen to get through college for the purpose of entering the church. He made inquiries about me, which I suppose were satisfactory, and then, though I was a perfect stranger, he undertook to supply me with a hundred pounds a year, for the four years necessary to take my degree, and to assist me afterwards in obtaining preferment. He kept his promise, and it is owing to him that I am what I am."

"I remain, sir, very sincerely yours, "LETITIA WALTON.

"Walton House, Shirehampton, near Bristol.”

Well, here was something like business; so to prevent Mr. Benjamin Slade from commencing a long-winded oration, I opened a battery of questions in the true legal style. He had not heard from Mr. Wingrove for three months. Never was so long without hearing before. Knew he had very strange notions as to the duty of charity. Could not tell how his property was settled. Believes that there is a nephew who will inHere Slade expatiated with much feeling herit on Mr. W.'s death. Does not know on his benefactor's kindness, but not know-what settlement was made on his wife. ing the gentleman, and being no great ad- Has seen a little of her, and thought her mirer of prefaces or preludes at any time, I very fond of money; she is not religious.

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