Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/768

Rh 724 AMERICAN LITERATURE written with somewhat improved sight, followed in 1843; that of Peru in 1847. These have attained an even wider popularity than their precursor, owing to the more con densed romance and greater novelty of their themes. They are &quot;open sesames&quot; to an old world of wonders, real, and yet from its strangeness invested with half the charms of fairyland. Few passages of fiction are so enthralling to the youthful reader as the story of Nezahualcoyotl, king of Tezcuco, the life and exploits of Montezuma, the night retreat from the Aztec capital, or the account of the sun -worshippers in the Golden City. Both works are dramas in which our sympathy is divided between the chivalry of Spain in her hey-day and the poetical traditions and innocent patriotism of a vanished race. But their author has never, in the midst of his &quot; Claude-like descriptions &quot; and charmingly vivid narratives, allowed himself to forget that he is writing history. Boys read his Mexico and Peru as they read the Arabian Nights; critics can point to few flaws in the accuracy of the author s judgment. Philip II., Mr Pres- cott s latest work, has similar excellencies in dealing with a less attractive theme. John Lothrop Motley, a dis tinguished ambassador in foreign courts, and author of the best existing history of Holland, is Mr Prcscott s only more recent rival. Less faultless, he is more strik ingly original ; and the greater complexity of the theme, which he has made his own, calls for the exercise of even higher powers. The Dutch Republic, which appeared in 1856, at once arrested attention by its evidence of careful and long research, comprehensive grasp, rich pictorial power, and the enthusiasm which, only here and there interfering with the impartial judgment of the author, gives colour and life to the work. Mr Motley s style, even to minute turns in his sentences, bears the impress of the influence of Carlyle. The very titles of his chapters, especially in the first volume, seem transferred from the French devolution. Such are &quot; Sowing the Wind,&quot; &quot; The Harvest Ripening,&quot; &quot;The First Whirlwind,&quot; &quot;The Taciturn against King, Cardinal, and Elector,&quot; &amp;lt;kc. From the same source he may have caught some of his hero-worship, which, however, by the choice of a worthy object, he has done much to vindicate. The Dutch Republic, preluded by the overture of a masterly and vivid historical survey, is a drama, which facts have made highly sensational, of the most terrific struggle against temporal and spiritual despotism that, within the same space of years, modern times have seen. It is divided, not inappropriately, though perhaps with some regard for effect, into a prologue and five acts, to each of which in succession the name of the Spanish governor for the time is attached. The por traits of those emissaries, particularly those of Granvelle of Arras and Duchess Margaret of Alva, Don John of Lepanto, and Alexander of Parma, are drawn with bold strokes and in lasting colours. Behind the scenes, director of the assailing forces, is the evil genius Philip himself, to whose ghastly figure, writing letters in the Escurial, our attention is called with a wearisome, if not affected, itera tion of phrase ; while the presence of the great champion, like that of Achilles in the Iliad, is felt at every crisis retrieving the retreat and urging on the victory. The most horrible chapter of modern history that of the Inquisition is unfolded with a power that brands its records into the memory of the reader ; and amid a throng of scenes of pageantry and pathos we may refer to those of the resigna tion of Charles V., Egmont s triumph at St Quentin and his death, the misery of Mook Heath, the siege of Leyden, and the hero s death. The United Netherlands (1^67-69) is a continuation of the same history in the same spirit ; but, as regards style, a somewhat calmer and more matured composition. The most thrilling chapters in those four later volumes are the siege of Antwerp which compares with that of Syracuse in Thucydides and that on the wreck of the Armada, unsurpassed in vividness and vigour by either Fronde or Kingsley; to which we should add the episodes of the battle of Ivry and the skirmish at Zutphen, with one of the most eloquent tributes ever paid to the genius and character of Sir Philip Sidney. Of the other full-length pictures, which, with the campaigns of Parma, Spinola, and Maurice, and the intrigues of England and France, divide the interest of the book, are those of Queen Elizabeth (whose habitual treachery, real meanness, and shallow pretences to magnanimity are exposed, as afterwards by Mr Froude), Henry of Navarre, St Alde- gonde, the Earl of Leicester, and the great Barneveld, who, with the Prince of Nassau, divides our sympathy at the close of the book. Since the death of Lord Macaulay no equally solid and valuable contribution has been made to historical literature. As supplementary in some measure Tickm to the volumes of Mr Prescott, Ave may mention here the History of Spanish Literature by his coadjutor Geo. Ticknor, incomparably the best, the most comprehensive, most criti cal, and most interesting work which exists on the subject. Of other contributions to literary criticism, from which, owing to their superabundance, it is hard to select, those of George S. Hillard, one of the most highly cultured writers in New England ; of Henry T. Tuckermann, author of Thoughts on the Poets, an elegant but sentimental essayist ; of E. P. &quot;Whipple, a critic who, according to Mr Griswold, combines &quot; the strength of the Areopagitica with the liveliness of the Spectator&quot; (!) ; of Margaret Fuller D Ossoli, a pre cocious linguist, translator of Eckennanu s Conversations with Goethe, herself a brilliant conversationalist and somewhat cloudy transcendeutalist and advocate of the superiority of women to men ; the always lively reviews of Mr Lowell, with numerous papers in the North American and Atlantic Reviews, may bo referred to. To these we should add the discriminating &quot; Essays on recent English, Poets &quot; contributed to Scribner s Monthly by E. C. Stedman. 3. POLITE LITERATURE, of any excellence, in the lighter branches is, in the West, almost wholly a growth of the present century. The most widely and justly celebrated of transatlantic authors in this field, during its earlier half, was the amiable and versatile Washington Irving. Of his Irving numerous writings, we have referred in last section to those which are directly historical. The rest fall under two heads, according as they are concerned mainly with American or with European themes. On the same principle on which Agassiz, and Follen, and Paine, even Berkeley and Priestley, have been claimed by the United States, Irving is associated with the progress of English litera-&amp;gt; ture; for in virtue of his Scotch parentage, and in the; course of four distinct and extended visits to Europe 1803-6, 1815-20, 1827-32, and 1841-46 he may be said to have become half an Englishman. His style is in the main that of the essayists of Queen Anne, modified by the humour of Charles Lamb; and many of his most effective sketches of life, manners, and society relate to the eastern hemisphere. Such are his Histories, the Tales of a Travel^ ler, Bracebridge Hall, Newstead and Abbotsford, the Alhambra, and half of the Sketch Book. In reference to those works the best passages of which are classical a French critic has said that Irving describes all countries but his own in the style of Addison. In others, however, and these the earliest and latest of his works, he treats of national legend and scenery in a manner peculiar to himself. His first literary efforts, which resulted in the series of papers entitled Salmagundi, were gently satirical descriptions of the features of society in American cities. The History of New York, by &quot; Diedrich Knickerbocker,&quot; in point of pure originality his masterpiece, is one of the richest farragoes of fact, fancy, and irony that have CVCP, issued from the press. In later life, his Tour of the Prairies The Adventures of Bonneville, and Astoria, aro instinct with the spirit of western discovery and adventure.