Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/596

 the reaction against the extravagance of transitory fashions in literature is generally sound in spirit.

Before the Bon Gaultier partnership ended in 1844, Martin and Aytoun also worked together in a series of translations which appeared in 'Blackwood's Magazine' in 1843-4, and were published collectively in 1858 as 'Poems and Ballads of Goethe.' Martin's friendship with Aytoun continued till Aytoun's death in 1865, when Martin paid him the tribute of a sympathetic, if discursive, 'Memoir' (1867), which he subsequently summarised for this Dictionary.

Martin's early affection for the drama developed steadily. Edmund Kean was one of his first theatrical heroes. On a visit to London in 1840 he first saw Helen Faucit [q. v. Suppl. I] act, and after witnessing her performance of Rosalind at Glasgow in Dec. 1843 he wrote some 'prophetic lines,' in which he fancied himself Orlando. In July 1846 he extolled her powers in an article, 'Acting as one of the Fine Arts,' in the 'Dublin University Magazine.' In the same year he translated for her the little Danish romantic drama of Henrik Hertz, 'King Rene's Daughter,' which she produced in 1849. (It was first published in 1850.) The extreme refinement of the piece, and the fictitiousness of a situation impossible in real life, convey an impression of artificiality, but Helen Faucit rendered to perfection its tenderness of touch, to which Martin's verse — some of his best — rendered full justice. The blind Iolanthe was long one of her most popular parts.

Miss Faucit's fascination grew on Martin, who is said to have followed her from place to place until he made her his wife ( Recollections, p. 37). They were married on 25 Aug. 1851 at the old Church of St. Nicholas in Brighton, and spent their wedding tour in Italy. After their return in November she resumed her connection with the stage, which continued practically till 1871. In April 1852 she appeared at Manchester in Martin's adaptation of 'Adrienne Lecouvreur.' In the same year they bought a house, 31 Onslow Square, where Thackeray was their near neighbour, and where they formed the centre of a large and cultivated social circle. This remained Martin's London residence till the end of his life, although he was almost driven out of it at the last by the noise of passing motor omnibuses, a nuisance which, in 1906, he denounced in 'The Times.' The summer and autumn of 1861 were spent at Bryntysilio on the banks of the Dee, about two miles above Llangollen, to which Martin's parliamentary work on Dee navigation had introduced him. Martin was charmed with the place, and in 1865 he bought the house and adjoining grounds, both of which were considerably enlarged as the years went on. Bryntysilio remained the favourite country residence of Martin and his wife. He associated himself effectively with the industrial activities of the locality and took a great interest in Welsh music.

Martin's literary activity increased after his marriage and his reputation widened. In 1859 he was one of the umpires for the prize offered by the Crystal Palace Company at the Burns centenary festival. His literary energies were chiefly divided between essays on the stage for the magazines, and translations from Latin, German, and Italian, with occasional adaptations for the theatre. In 'Fraser's Magazine' (Feb. 1858, Dec. 1863, and Jan. 1865) he lamented the decay of the English drama, subsequently arguing in 'The Drama in England,' a paper on the 'Kembles' (Quarterly Review, Jan. 1872), that a cardinal necessity for the recovery of the English stage was the presence of a governing mind in control of a national theatre. To the 'Quarterly Review' he also contributed excellent biographical essays on David Garrick (July 1868) and Macready (Nov. 1872). Most of his writings on the drama Martin collected for private circulation as 'Essays on the Drama' (1874). At later dates he wrote on 'Rachel' in 'Blackwood's Magazine' (Sept. 1882), while in a paper, 'Shakespeare or Bacon?' reprinted in 1888 from 'Blackwood's Magazine,' he sought to dispel the 'Baconian' delusion. The essays on Garrick, Macready, the Kembles, and Rachel, with a vindication of Baron Stockmar (Quarterly Rev. Oct. 1882), reappeared in a volume of 'Monographs' (1906).

Martin's labours as translator were singularly versatile. In 1854 and 1857 he published, from the original Danish or from the German, English versions of Oehlenschlager's romantic dramas 'Aladdin' and 'Correggio.' In 1860 he printed his translation of the 'Odes' of Horace, which, like all Martin's versions of Latin poetry, is more fluent than scholarly. This was subsequently incorporated in his 'Works of Horace' (2 vols. 1882) with the tasteful rather than learned monograph on the Roman poet which Martin contributed in 1870 to Collins' s 'Ancient Classics for English Readers,' and the substance of