On subject so pleasing on theme so enchanting'Tis profitless scribbling-'tis nonsense descanting! Lips parted in smiling, or moved with a sigh, Such visions of brightness, pray who could pass by? Why, stoics or hermits-but, frankly, not 1! A MIRACLE OF A MAN:-" A sound classical scholar, possessed of extensive general knowledge, an elegant poet, and an elegant fellow besides a distinguished votary of the fine arts-in painting Prince Albert is a learned and accomplished connoisseur, and in music his skill and genius have been attested by various compositions of merit." It must be acknowledged that Her Majesty is an excellent hand at turning a paragraph. In framing the Royal speeches, Her Majesty invariably retouches the work of her ministers; the paragraphs in the Court Circular, relating to Prince Albert, are all from her hand; and she is also occasionally in the habit of drawing up Lord Melbourne's explanatory statements. Her Majesty, with the aid of her female ministers, conducts the more important business of the principal departments; and the whiskered individuals, whose names are ostensibly put forward, are sinking fast to the befitting level of valets. H. J.T. which (he says) are the composition of Prince Albert ;" and here is the specimen : "Ah che il destino, mio bel tesoro, TRY. PRINCE ALBERT'S ITALIAN POEA writer in the New Monthly, who elevates himself fairly into the regions of transcendental balderdash upon the stilts of loyalty and enthusiasm, talks of Prince Albert's poetry as "quietly gliding him back to the romantic age of the Troubadours," and luminously speaks of "two brothers of one of the noblest families in Europe, so equally gifted in the combination of verse and melody, as to be enabled, with equal effect, to perform the duties of the poet when the other sought those of the minstrel, and seek a musical reputation when his associate preferred the fame of the poet." What all this muddy period means we cannot divine; we only know that it is not English; and pray our courtly chroniclers to employ writers who have gone for, at least, three months to a grammar school. This person subsequently furnishes a specimen, "both the words and the music of We are sorry to have to inform the New Monthly, that this very humble quatrain lay upon our piano-forte nearly twenty years ago. It forms one of the Notturnos of Blangini, published in Bond Street, time out of mind. How the words got into Prince Albert's collection we know not; but the mistake appears to us excessively ludicrous. We presume that the work is merely some general musical collection brought out under the auspices of the prince. Mr. Sheriff Evans's portrait recently formed the subject of some pleasant remarks in the royal circle. Her Majesty asserted that "there must be some mistake," and that the engraving contained a transcript of the features of the hereditary Prince of Timbuctoo. Prince Albert, applying Lavater's principles, discovered in it evidences of the stolid solidity of the ox, united to the oppositional principles of the porcine genus. The Baroness Lehzen exclaimed, "Vraiment ça outrage l'humanité!" and, throwing a napkin over it, said, " Dors, donc, cochon!" COURTLY RIGMAROLE.- -"We might dilate (says the Journal des Debats) on the truly maternal solicitude with which the Queen presides_at those noisy parties, the Bals des Enfans: how she restrains the overexuberance of their glee, more by the sweetness, even than by the dignity, of her manner. With what heartfelt and spontaneous devotion the little guests-so rosy-cheeked, so fresh, so joyous, and so well-attired, are attracted round the august person of the chief of the state sinite parvulos ad me venire!" FRENCH LOGOGRIPHE. Dans les cavités souteraines On me voit suspendue, et j'augmente toujours. Un feminin article: une condition; Un procureur: un vieux Juif: un meuble pour ouvrage. Une division dans la Sociéte; Ce qu'on doit posséder pour conduire une affaire; Ce qui rend la fatigue: et ce que l'on doit faire De quelq'un estimé un doute: le moyen De se faire comprendre, ou de depeindre bien : Ce qu'entourent les eaux: ce qu'est un puits sans elles : PROJECT FOR THE FORMATION This DESIRABLE GOVERNESS:-"Une demoiselle, qui a beaucoup d'experience dans l'education, desirerait se placer de suite dans une famille. Elle enseigne la géographie, l'histoire, la mythologie, la physiologie, la conchologie, l'entomologie, l'écriture, la sphère, enfin tout ce qui a rapport à une education distinguée, hormis la musique qu'elle peut fort bien surveiller, mais ne jote pas elle-même, et ne parle pas mot d'Anglais ! s'adresser," &c. The following mot is attributed to M. Guizot, the newly arrived and very distinguished ambassador from France. When a young man, and not in very good circumstances, he was caught by a fellow-student in the Luxembourg Gardens, chatting to a very pretty bonne, entrusted with the charge of a string of children. His friend twitted him on the circumstance, when M. Guizot replied: "Mais, mon cher, ce n'est pas une honte pour un homme dans la mauvaise fortune de courir après les bonnes!" The point consists in the construction requiring the meaning of bonnes fortunes, and not bonnes d'enfans. THE DAY AFTER THE FUNERAL. "He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; He fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not." I. THE sun hath steep'd in golden light And dewy zephyrs sigh, 'Neath morning's lambent beam! Where heaven hath decked the scene so well, Ah me, that sorrow there should dwell! II. Another day illumes the sphere— Was beauty turned to clay. Perchance when day was born, A spirit past away! Where heav'n hath decked the scene so well, Ah me, that sorrow there should dwell! III. Apart from all in anguish wild, A weeping mother mourns her child! But yester-morn, and there he lay, And now the grave hath claim'd its prey She sees with sickening, shuddering dread, And feels, though dark the hours before, With all its infant glee! Where heav'n hath decked the scene so well, Ah me, that sorrow there should dwell! E. W. THE OPERA.- Our space being limited, we shall confine ourselves to three things, and they all assume the shape of commendation. The first is the débutant, M. Coletti, whose voice is a perfectly magnificent baritono, with great firmness of body, and amongst the most flexible organs of this register that it has ever been our fortune to hear. Coletti is quite an inspired singer, animated with fine soul and enthusiasm, and his voice appears to be capable of every variety of expression. His ornaments are rich and highly finished; but he has the good taste to refrain from an excessive display of fioriture. In the opera of Torquato Tasso, which has been most unfairly underrated, Coletti was every thing; and we do not hesitate to say, that he completely fills the blank created by the withdrawal of Tamburini. Persiani's Amina in La Sonnambula, is a most exquisite performance. The quiet, subdued tone in which she gives utterance to the griefs of the heroine, who, be it ever remembered, is a rustic, appears to us to be the perfection of truth and nature. We are no admirers of the Norma school of violent tragic declamation in parts of this description; and the even melody, delicious smoothness, and unsurpassed accuracy of Persiani's singing, made her performance of the part all that the most rigid criticism could desire. The ballot of La Tarentule is among the very best that have ever been produced; and Fanny Elssler's bounding in it is as surprising, as her grace is enchanting. 66 PARISIAN BELLES. "IF," says a contributor to a Parisian Journal des Dames, in describing the court balls of the carnival, we were to take courage, and after the fashion of the English papers, which never omit a single dress in their compte-rendu of the London fétes, ventured to quote names, we should require a hundred mouths, a voice of iron, and lungs of brass-the fervour and the memory of a Don Juan, and above all, his recklessness and audacity. How else could we hope to do justice to the merits of twelve hundred beauties, forming that assemblage of grace and loveliness, of birth and station, coquetry and dignity, passion and frivolity; in a word, of all that is charming and utterly indesscribable? Then might we tell how, for the ball of the 10th of January, the Princesse de B * * * wore an admirable costume, most marvellously suited to the noble expression of her features and the poetic paleness of her face; how she appeared in a long-trained robe of white damask with hanging sleeves, a body of red Venetian velvet, a ferronnière studded with jewels on her forehead, and a bourrelet of scarlet velvet on the top of her head; that there was nothing wanting to this picture, but a gondola gliding on a laguna, with a small negro at the prow, and a mask of black satin on a settee covered with rose-coloured silk; and when we had said all this, we might well look upon ourselves as a man ruined in his reputation with the majority of our fair readers. What! you can find in your heart to consider that pretty?'Should we follow this up by stating, that Madame Schikler, that ravishing type of eternal youth, had a coiffure à la Chinoise with a golden aiguillette traversing her rolled and knotted hair-why, we should be laughed at downright. 'There were a host of ladies' coiffées in far better taste! And then that other lady, with the costume of the time of Louis XV.an open robe, skirted with garlands, the rose pompon, and the feathers shading the ears, with her hair powdered à la reine, and nothing forgotten save the mouche de rigueur in the corner of the eye, or on the tip of the chin.' How very contemptible is echoed from a hundred charming lips. Pray, sir, keep to your own age, if it be possible, and leave the rose pompon and black flypatches to Madame de Pompadour and the parc aux cerfs; or attempt, as a last resource, to praise the sumptuous and capacious white silk bournous, the spoil of conquered Constantine, in whose graceful folds the careful dancer wraps her sylphlike form on quitting the ball room; and which bids fair to displace the hideous manteau and the heavy furred pelisse. Those ladies who have profited nothing by the siege and taking of Constantine, and received no presents at the hands of its captors, with one voice declare the new custom absurd and revolting. And if, quitting the unthankful task of describing dresses, we were to designate by name the lovely wearers, we should then have quite enough to embroil us with the whole earth! It were better then, on mature reflection, not to say one word of the ladies who graced these splendid parties: we should have too much to say, and the number is by far too great. History and truth alone will be the losers by our silence." ORIGIN OF THE CHANCELLOR's WOOLSACK.-Many of our fair readers have no doubt been frequently puzzled with the singularity of the chosen seat of the Lord Chancellor of England. We are most happy to be enabled to prevent them from "bursting in ignorance" upon this very fun damental question, by informing them that in the reign of the "Maiden Queen" Elizabeth, an act of Parliament was passed to prevent the exportation of English wool; and the more effectually to secure this source of national wealth, the woolsacks, on which the judges sit in the House of Lords, were placed there to remind them that in their judicial capacity they ought to have a constant eye to the preservation of the staple commodity of the kingdom. Others assert that the fleecy pack was placed in its present position as a practical refutation of the popular adage applied to the House of Peers, "Great cry, and little wool!" NOVEL AND ELEGANT VISITING CARD.-This interesting improvement beautifully supersedes the arts of engraving, enamelling, and embossing. The most noble the Marquis of Slaughterford, when he makes a call in the higher circles, and exhibits his most distinguished consideration, tears off the corner of his shirt, with his name and titles recorded in indelible marking-ink!、 Vois-tu les flots de cette source vive RAYMOND DU D SONNET. In the first rosy dawn of blooming youth, Affliction wring, or sickness waste my frame, With not a friendly voice to bless mine ear, And prest thine image closer to my heart, Than thee to cheer life's eve, as thou hast cheered its noon ! C. |