Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/38

38 negotiations with other publishers, "The Improvvisatrice and other poems, by L. E. L.," was published by Messrs. Hurst and Robinson. The principal poem was scarcely more than fifteen hundred lines in length, but the volume extended to upwards of three hundred and twenty pages. It was a book of beauty in every sense, and enjoyed a fate not always accorded to volumes of poetry that are ardently admired—it was as eagerly bought. Its success, as far as sale was concerned, was unequivocal on the first day of publication.

The stamp of originality was on this work. Almost as thickly sown with blemishes as with beauties—faulty to an extent that must have made the cold-natured and cynical critic felicitate himself as at the spreading of a feast—the fruit of wild and unpausing feelings that "would not be commanded"—there was still the stamp of originality upon the work. There was a power in the pages that no carelessness could mar, no obscurity hide—and the power was the writer's own. Not only had her lyre borrowed no string from the elder poets; not only were its effects unweakened by imitative notes caught from the popular poetical writings of the day, but it was just as impossible to trace in the character of her imagination and the peculiarities of her style, any resemblance to those qualities which had gained distinction for other gifted women—one of whom, Mrs. Hemans, had just preceded her in the acquisition of an honoured name.

The youth and sex of the writer constituted another charm of powerful effect. There was much, moreover, in the poem itself, connected with these, to interest and fascinate. The heroine of it was an improvvisatrice, youthful, impassioned, and