Chapter XII (3)

JOANNA BAILLIE, whose literary life reached back into the last century, and whose early recollections were of the days of Burke, Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the great men who figured before the French Revolution, died at Hampsted, near London, on the evening of Sunday, the twenty-third of February, at the great age of nearly ninety years. During the principal part of her life she lived with a maiden sister, Agnes--also a poetess--to whom she addressed her beautiful _Birthday_ poem. They were of a family in which talent and genius were hereditary. Their father was a Scottish clergyman, and their mother a sister of the celebrated Dr. William Hunter. They were born at Bothwell, within a short distance of the rippling of the broad waters of the Clyde. Joanna's child-life and associations are beautifully mirrored in the poem to which we have alluded. Early in life the sisters removed to London, where their brother, the late Sir Matthew Baillie--the favorite medical adviser of George III.--was settled as a physician, and there her earliest poetical works appeared, anonymously. When she began to write, she tells us in one of her prefaces, not one of the eminent authors of modern times was known, and Mr. Hayley and Miss Seward were the poets spoken of in society. The brightest stars in the poetical firmament, with very few exceptions, have risen and set since then; the greatest revolutions in empire and in opinion have taken place; but she lived on as if no echo of the upturnings and overthrows which filled the world reached the quiet of her home; the freshness of her inspirations untarnished; writing from the fulness of a true heart of themes belonging equally to all the ages. Personally she was scarcely known in literary society; but from her first appearance as an author, no woman commanded more respect and admiration by her works; and the most celebrated of her contemporaries vied with each other in doing her honor. Scott calls her the Shakspeare of her sex:

----"The wild harp silent hung
By silver Avon's holy shore,
Till twice a hundred years roll'd o'er,
When SHE, the bold enchantress, came
With fearless hand and heart on flame,--
From the pale willow snatched the treasure,
And swept it with a kindred measure,
Till Avon's swans, while rung the grove
With Montfort's hate and Basil's love,
Awakening at the inspiring strain
Deem'd their own SHAKSPEARE lived again!"

Her first volume was published in 1798, under the title, _A Series of Plays, in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger Passions of the Mind, each Passion being the subject of a Tragedy and a Comedy_. A second volume was published in 1802, and a third in 1812. During the interval, she gave the world a volume of miscellaneous dramas, including the _Family Legend_, a tragedy founded upon a story of one of the Macleans of Appin, which, principally through the good offices of Sir Walter Scott, was brought out at the Edinburgh Theatre. She visited Scott, in Edinburgh, in 1808, and in the following year the _Family Legend_ was played in that city fourteen nights in succession. Scott wrote for it a prologue, and Mackenzie, the author of _The Man of Feeling_, contributed an epilogue. The same piece was performed in London in 1814. The only "Play of the Passions" ever represented on a stage was _De Montfort_, first brought out by John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, and played eleven nights. In 1821 it was revived by Edmund Kean, but fruitlessly. Miss O'Neil then played the heroine. Kean subsequently brought out _De Montfort_ in Philadelphia and New-York. No actors of inferior genius have ventured to attempt it, and probably it will not again be represented.

The "Plays of the Passions" are Miss Baillie's most remarkable works. In this series each passion is made the subject of a tragedy and a comedy. In the comedies she failed completely; they are pointless tales in dialogue. Her tragedies, however, have great merit, though possessing a singular quality for works of such an aim, in being without the earnestness and abruptness of actual and powerful feeling. By refinement and elaboration she makes the passions sentiments. She fears to distract attention by multiplying incidents; her catastrophes are approached by the most gentle gradations; her dramas are therefore slow in action and deficient in interest. Her characters possess little individuality; they are mere generalizations of intellectual attributes, theories personified. The very system of her plays has been the subject of critical censure. The chief object of every dramatic work is to please and interest, and this object may be arrived at as well by situation as by character. Character distinguishes one person from another, while by passion nearly all men are alike. A controlling passion perverts character, rather than develops it; and it is therefore in vain to attempt the delineation of a character by unfolding the progress of a passion. It has been well observed too, that unity of passion is impossible since to give a just relief and energy to any particular passion, it should be presented in opposition to one of a different sort so as to produce a powerful conflict in the heart.

In dignity and purity of style, Miss Baillie has not been surpassed by any of the poets of her sex. Her dialogue is formed on the Shakespearian model and she has succeeded perhaps better than any other dramatist in imitating the manner of the greatest poet of the world.

In 1823 Miss Baillie published a collection of _Poetic Miscellanies_, in 1836 three more volumes of Plays, in 1842 _Fugitive Verses_, and she was the author also of _A View of the General Tenor of the New Testament Regarding the Nature and Dignity of Jesus Christ_.

A short time before her death--not more than six weeks--a complete edition of her Poetical Works was published in London, in a very large and compact volume of 850 pages, by the Longmans--"with many corrections and a few additions by herself." The volume opens with the Plays on the Passions. We have then the miscellaneous plays; and the last division includes her delightful songs and all her poetical compositions not dramatic nor connected with the plays; and here appears a poem of some length, recently printed for private circulation, as well as some short poems not before published. A pleasing and characteristic portrait accompanies the volume, and we have had it copied for the _International_.

Though Miss Baillie's fame always tended to draw her into society, her life was passed in seclusion, and illustrated by an integrity, kindness, and active benevolence, which showed that poetical genius of a high order may be found in a mind well regulated, able and willing to execute the ordinary duties of life in an exemplary manner. Gentle and unassuming to all, with an unchangeable simplicity of character, she counted many of the most celebrated persons of the last age among her intimate friends, and her quiet home was frequently resorted to by people of other nations, as well as by her own countrymen, for the purpose of paying homage to a woman so illustrious for genius and virtue.

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SPONTINI, the celebrated composer, author of _La Vestale_ and _Fernand Cortez_, died on the 24th ult., at Majolati, near Ancona, where he had gone to pass the winter, in the hope of re-establishing his health. Being desirous of attending divine service, in spite of the severity of the season, he took cold on leaving the church, which in a short time led to a fatal result. He expired in the arms of his wife, the sister of M. Erard, the celebrated pianist. He was in the seventy-second year of his age. The life of this unfortunate _Maestro_, says the _Athenaeum_, would be a curious rather than a pleasing story, were it thoroughly written. He was educated at the _Conservatorio de la Pieta_ of Naples, and began his career when seventeen years of age, as the composer of an opera, _I Puntigli delle Donne_. To this succeeded some sixteen operas, produced within six years, for the theatres of Italy and Sicily, not a note of which has survived. In 1803, Spontini went to Paris, in which capital again he produced some half-a-dozen operas and an oratorio,--all of which have perished. It would seem, however, as if there must have been something of grace in either _Maestro_ or music, since Spontini was appointed music-director to the Empress Josephine; and it was owing to court interest that his _La Vestale_--on a _libretto_ rejected by both Mehal and Cherubini--was put into rehearsal at the _Grand Opera_. The rehearsals went on for a twelvemonth. Spontini rewrote and re-touched the work while it was in preparation to such an excess, that the expense of copying the alterations is said to have amounted to _ten thousand francs_ ($2,000)! _La Vestale_, however, was at last produced, in 1809, with brilliant and decisive success, so far as France and Germany were concerned. In 1809 he produced his _Fernand Cortez_ at the _Grand Opera_. That work, too, was favorably received, and still keeps the stage in Germany. In no subsequent essay was the composer so fortunate. _Olympie_, the third grand work written by him for France, proved a failure. During the latter part of his residence in Paris, he directed the Italian Opera, until it fell to Madame Catalani. It was in 1820 that the magnificent appointments offered to the _Maestro_ by the Court of Prussia tempted him to leave Paris for Berlin; in which capital his last three grand operas were produced with great splendor. These were, _Nourmahal_ (founded on 'Lalla Rookh), _Alcidor_, and _Agnes von Hohenstauffen_. None of them, however, could be called successful. In Berlin, Spontini continued to reside as first Chapel-master till the death of the late King,--and there his professional career may be said to have ended. A life in some respects more outwardly prosperous cannot be conceived. Spontini was rich,--girt with ribbons and hung with orders;--but it may be doubted whether ever official grew old in the midst of such an atmosphere of dislike as surrounded the composer of _La Vestale_ at Berlin. He was mercilessly attacked in print,--in private spoken of by rival musicians with an active hatred amounting to malignity. There was hardly a baseness of intrigue with which report did not credit him. His music, even, was avoided in his own theatre; and it was an article in the contract of more than one _prima donna_, that she would not sing in Spontini's operas. Of later years, he rarely was seen in the orchestra save to direct his own works. In this capacity he showed a vivacity, a precision, and an energy almost incomparable. As a man, he had the courtliest of courtly manners; the air, too, of one well satisfied with his own personal appearance. He conversed chiefly concerning himself and his works, apparently taking little or no interest in other transactions of art. This might account for his ill odor in a capital where misconstructions and jealous evil-speaking have too often been the lot of the simplest, the most learned, and the least self-asserting of artists. The limited nature of his sympathies may be felt in Spontini's music. With all its spirit, this is generally dry--awkward without the excuse of learned pedantry--sometimes grand, very seldom tender--the rhythm more decided than the melody, which is often frivolous, often flat, rarely vocal. He has been accused of shallowness in the orchestral treatment of his operas,--in which noise is often accumulated to conceal want of resource. But allowing all these objections to be generally true to the utmost, the _finale_ to the second act of _La Vestale_ still remains--and will remain--a master-piece of declamation, spirit, and stage climax. The rest of _La Vestale_ is carefully wrought,--but in power, and brightness, and passion, by many a degree inferior to that temple-scene. For its sake, the name of Spontini will not be forgotten, unsatisfactory as was his career in Art, and small as was his personal popularity.

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CHARLES COQUERELL, a brother of the eminent Protestant minister, and himself well known and esteemed in the scientific circles of Paris, died in that city, early in February. He long reported the proceedings of the Academy of Sciences for the _Courrier Francais_; and is the author, besides, of various works in general literature. He wrote a _History of English Literature--Cariteas, an Essay on a complete Spiritualist Philosophy_--and _The History of the Churches of the Desert, or of the Protestant Churches of France from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the Reign of Louis the XVI._ In this last performance he introduces the substance of a mass of private and official correspondence from Louis XIV.'s time down to the revolution, relative to Protestantism in France, and the numberless and atrocious persecutions to which it was subjected. Many of the papers he obtained are of great literary and historical value, and he has taken measures for their preservation.

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COLONEL GEORGE WILLIAMS, M. P. for Ashton, died on the nineteenth of December. He was born in St. John's Newfoundland, and is said to have joined the army of Burgoyne at the age of twelve years, and to have been present at the battle of Stillwater. He afterwards accompanied Lady Harriet Acland on her memorable expedition to join her husband in captivity. He afterwards saw much active service, and died aged eighty-seven, supposed to have been the last survivor of the army of Saratoga.

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HERR CHARLES MATTHEW SANDER, described as one of the most celebrated surgeons of Germany, and author of many works not only in illustration of his more immediate profession and of medicine, but also on Greek phiology and archaeology, died suddenly, at Brunswick, in his seventy-second year, while seated at his desk in the act of writing a treatise on anatomy.

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NICHOLAS VANSITTART, Lord Bexley, was the second son of Henry Vansittart, Governor of Bengal, and was born on the twenty-ninth of April, 1776. Four years after, his father perished in the Aurora frigate, when that vessel foundered at sea, on her outward passage to India. In 1791 he was called to the bar, but, finding little prospect of forensic advancement, he deserted Westminster Hall for the more ambitious arena of the House of Commons, being elected member for Hastings in 1796. In 1801 he proceeded on a special mission to the Court of Copenhagen; but the Danish Government, overawed by France and Russia, refused to receive an English ambassador. Soon after his return he became joint secretary of the treasury, which office he held until 1804, when the Addington ministry resigned. In 1805, he was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland; in 1806, he resumed his former duties at the treasury; and, in 1812, on the formation of the Liverpool administration, he obtained the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, for which he was peculiarly fitted by the bent and information of his mind. So far back as 1796, he had addressed a series of pamphlets to Mr. Pitt, on the conduct of the bank directors; and in 1796 he had published an inquiry into the state of the finances, in answer to a very popular production, by a Mr. Morgan, on the national debt. The death of Lord Londonderry, in 1822, led to a reconstruction of the ministry; and Mr. Vansittart was offered a peerage and the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the cabinet, on condition that he quitted the Exchequer. This arrangement was carried out in the month of January following. At length, in 1828, he retired from public life, and since that period resided in comparative retirement, at Footscray, near Bexley, in Kent. Lord Bexley was F.R.S., D.C.L., and F.S.A.

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JOHN PYE SMITH, D.D., F.R.S., one of the most eminent scholars and theological writers of the time, died at Guilford, near Leeds, in England, on the fifth of February, at the advanced age of seventy-six--having been born at Sheffield in 1775. His father was a bookseller, and it was intended to bring him up to the same business, but his early displays of talent, and his love of learning induced his father to send him to Rotherham College, where he greatly distinguished himself, and upon the completion of his terms of study became a classical tutor. In 1801--at the early age of twenty-five--he became theological tutor and principal of Homerton College, the oldest of the institutions for training ministers among the Independents. The duties of that responsible post he filled with untiring devotedness and the highest efficiency for the long space of fifty years. A theological professorship is naturally combined with ministerial duties; and in two or three years after his settlement at Homerton he received a call from the church at the Gravel Pits chapel, and continued the pastor of that church for about forty-seven years. The chief labor of Dr. Pye Smith's life, and his most enduring monument, was the work entitled _The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah: an inquiry with a view to a satisfactory determination of the doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures concerning the person of Christ_. This work is admitted by the greatest scholars to be the first of its kind. It is marked by profound and accurate learning, candid criticism, and by that reverential and Christian spirit which ought to govern every theological inquiry. He published several less important compositions, including one of decided value upon the relations of geology and revelation, which led to his election into the Royal Society; and he left a voluminous System of Christian Doctrine, in MS.

_Ladies' Fashions for the Spring._

The advance of the spring appears to have brought increase of gayety in London and in Paris, in which cities fashionable society has received new impulses from circumstances connected with affairs. Heavy velvets have generally given place to silks and satins, and there is a prevailing airiness in the manner in which they are made up. The first of the above full-lengths represents a dress composed of a pale sea-green satin; the sides of the front decorated with _bouffants_ or fullings of white _tulle_, formed in rows of three; at the top of each third fulling is a narrow border of green cord, forming a kind of gymp; these fullings reach up to each side of the point of the waist; low pointed corsage, the centre of which is trimmed to match the _jupe_; a small round cape encircles the top part of the corsage, descending halfway down each side of the front, trimmed with fullings of white _tulle_ and narrow green cord; the lower part of the short sleeve is trimmed to match. The hair is arranged in ringlets, and adorned on the right side with a cluster of variegated red roses.

In the second, is a dress of rich dark silk, made plain and very full, with three-quarter-high body, fitting close to the figure; bonnet of deep lilac.

Ball dresses are worn richly ornamented with ribbons, flowers, lace, and puffs, in great profusion.

Velvet necklaces, and bracelets, are much in vogue; the shades preferred are coral red, garnet, china rose, and, above all, black velvet, which sets off the whiteness of the skin. These bracelets and necklaces are fastened by a brooch or pin of brilliants or marcasite.

Dresses of heavy stuffs are rare in private drawing-rooms, and much more frequently seen at subscription balls, at the Opera, or exhibitions of art. Antique watered silk, figured pompadour, drugget, and lampus, attract by their wreaths of flowers; light net dresses, or mousselins, are rare.

Net dresses, with two skirts, are worn over a taffeta petticoat--the under and the upper skirts decked with small flowers, each trimmed with a dark ribbon. Wide lace also is worn in profusion, and the body as well as the sleeves is almost covered with it--the skirts having two or three flounces of English lace (application) or Alencon point; and these two kinds of lace are generally used for the heavy silk stuffs.

We have little to say about walking dresses. The choicest materials for morning dresses are dark damask satinated Pekin taffeta, and drugget.