Reviews

R460314A.  Dramatic Romances and Lyrics.

The Britannia, 14 March 1846, p. 182.

As reprinted in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 12, 373.

The old saying asserts that “there’s never a sorry Jack but there’s a sorrier Jill.” Equally true is it, that there’s never a silly writer, but that there are sillier readers. The great neglected genius in “Martin Chuzzlewhit,” Mr. Chevy Heine, found a Twig to appreciate him. Mr. Browning, we believe, has his admirers; he is said to be the founder of a new school of poetry. That is partly true, for though nonsensical doggrel is in itself old enough, yet certain varieties of it may lay claim to the praise of novelty. Mr. Browning is one of the lights of a peevish coterie, which hopes to gain a reputation for genius by aping its vices. As he is a person of some pretence, we give an extract from one of his odes, quite characteristic of the author, and of the long-eared school to which he belongs:—

Here’s to Nelson’s memory!

’Tis the second time that I, at sea,

Right off Cape Trafalgar here,

Have drunk it deep in British beer!

Nelson for ever—any time

Am I his to command in prose or rhyme!

Give me of Nelson only a touch,

And I guard it, be it little or much;

Here’s one, the captain gives, and so

Down at the word, by George shall it go!

He says that at Greenwich they show the beholder

Nelson’s coat, “still with tar on the shoulder,

For he used to lean with one shoulder digging,

Jigging as ’twere and zig-zag-zigging,

Up against the mizen rigging!”

Admirers of verse of this order will find plenty to gratify their tastes in Mr. Browning’s “Bells and Pomegranates.”

Reviewed:

Bells & Pomegranates. No. VII. Dramatic Romances & Lyrics (RB), London: Edward Moxon, 1845.

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