E381104A. The Amaranth.
The Examiner, 4 November 1838, p. 692.
As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 408.
A very handsome Annual of the folio size, the text portion of which excels the graphic. What Goldsmith’s connoisseurs said of every work of art, would correctly apply to this work—“The artists would have done better if they had taken more pains.” And “this effect defective comes by cause,” which the Editor very candidly and very properly explains; for Mr T.K. Hervey has an established reputation, and so great a likelihood of extending it that he should not risk anything by the unpromising issue of a literary and pictorial race against time; and such he announces this to have been. The elegant and graceful poetry of the Editor himself, of Mr Whitehead, and of Miss Barrett; the first contribution by Mr Jerrold, a dramatic scene of great power and beauty; the second one of Mr Horace Smith (entitled “A New Nightmare”); the tale by the author of Virginius; a dramatic sketch (“The Cousins”) by Barry Cornwall [and] the “Charades,” by W.M. Praed; Mr Hood’s and Mr Fitzgerald’s pleasant verses; and, though last not least, Mr Douglas Jerrold’s second article—“Epitaph of Sir Hugh Evans—‘There’s pippins and cheese to come’”—stand in no need of the shelter which such an apology offers, for they are all as good as possible in their way.
[The review continues with an extract of the last mentioned article and comments on the illustrations; these we omit.]
As to the ensuing number, assuming Mr T.K. Hervey to have the proper management, with plenty of time before him, and his present auxiliaries, we think it safe to predict that he may render it, in so far as Annuals are concerned, the primus inter pares.
Reviewed:
The Amaranth, ed. T.K. Hervey, London: 1839.
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