E381027A. The Amaranth.
The Athenæum, 27 October 1838, pp. 775–776.
As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 404.
In this splendid book, the literary contents, for their excellence and variety, are the leading attraction. Mr. Hervey numbers hardly one insignificant name among his contributors, and, what is more to the purpose, he has hardly one insignificant contribution. The prose,—by Mr. Harrison, Mr. Sheridan Knowles, Mr. Poole, Mary Howitt, the Author of “Conti,” and the Editor himself—is beyond our limits for extract. Nor dare we attack Mr. Jerrold’s “Prodigal’s Farewell,” nor its companion dramatic scene, “The Cousins,” by Barry Cornwall; for we must steal a few pages from the poets—who are singing so loudly and so well as to warrant a notion that their spring is coming round, after [p. 776→] a long and wintry pause.
[The review continues with extracts from four poems; these we omit.]
Mr. Praed’s charades—graceful and piquant enough to set all poets at work to dress up “My first, my second, and my whole,”—Mr. Graham’s “Fleta,”—two touching Sonnets by the Rev. T. Dale,—Miss Barrett’s “Sabbath on the Sea,” and Mr. Whitehead’s “Death of Chatterton,” must be left untouched, though reluctantly. Our last extract shall be a sprightly one.
[The review concludes with an extract from “Reasons for Risibility” by E.M. Fitzgerald and comments on the illustrations; these we omit.]
Reviewed:
The Amaranth, ed. T.K. Hervey, London: 1839.
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