If I have been the mighty Coryphæus of the people's comic drama, I take no credit to myself on that account; I was but the one great mouthpiece through which the Many-headed by their million tongues gave utterance. It will be enough for me if I am remembered but as the historian of those deathless sayings which will outlive Time,-if I shall be allowed to have nurtured their struggling infancy,—to have hailed their triumphant ascendancy-to have registered their "decline and fall.” Let none henceforth view the Atopic vocabulary as senseless jargon or maudlin slang. The Nonsense-words of high life speak only to the favoured few, and never condescend to be amplified by the broad brogue of the vulgar; but these penetrating words, proceeding from the majesty of the people, as they contain in themselves the essence of the Sublime and the True, have forced themselves from the beer-shop to the boudoir, and become familiarized in the daintiest lispings of aristocratic lips. Long may England's proudest daughters thus hold sympathy with the people! Let, I say then, the theory of the Popular Absurd be fairly studied. If old, let it be recognised in the great masters of antiquity; if new, let England claim the credit of the discovery, or at least of its universal adoption. Let me be hailed as the Father of Jim-Crowism, and this hasty sketch as the Editio Princeps of the rudiments of the art. Consider how excellent its uses! Observe how the same principle runs through its varied expressions ;-how mysteriously obscure;-how subtilely concealed, yet how true to nature lies its ironic wit! How free and unconstrained in its application, how extemporaneous, how self-taught ! What studied retort and laborious repartee is hereby saved! By it how many an inquisitor may be posed, and bore flabberghasted! And ye who would view it in action, haste ere it be yet too late to see it embodied in the dramatic genius of Jim Crow. If, in the words of Hamlet, "to suit the action to the word, and to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, and the very age and spirit of the time, its form and pressure," if this be "the purpose of playing," then has the Histrionic art been never known till now. I have seen crowded theatres in convulsions from gallery to pit; and though from me, so intense were my feelings, it wrung no laughter loud, yet have I smiled to see the sterling intellect of my countrymen expire at that humour which in other than English hearts would not have waked the faintest echo. And I have gone home and wept over that scene. There be those that admire what there was in the simple Doric lay which could work such wonders upon Spartan breasts; some have doubted the obstetric effects of the "Furies" of Æschylus, the acquittal of Sophocles,-and the triumphs of Menander. Who then can tell but that the day may come when the genius of Jim-Crowism may be disregarded, its influence doubted, and its popularity disbelieved? Convinced of its virtue, we will not imitate the cautious judge who warns the criminal lest he say aught to his own detriment, but close our defence by calling on the arraigned to stand confessed in native innocence, and 'speak for itself.' I come from ole Kentucky, A long time ago, Where I first larn to wheel about And jump Jim Crow. Wheel a-bout, and turn a-bout, and do jis so, Eb-ry time I wheel about, I jump Jim Crow. Da Capo. CHARLES THE FIRST. It was an old and stately Hall—a Hall of other days :Where thousands still on thousands throng'd to listen and to gaze; But eye was none to mark the grace that noontide's ray had shed O'er scroll, and crest, and banner'd wall, that spake of England's dead; And ear was none, but for one alone, whose deep firm accents told Of a noble Soul in trial's hour, by its Innocence made bold! It was a form that none could mark, and turn unmov'd away, was wet With tears that told how impotent had Sorrow been as yet : Quail'd in that hour the Judge's pride, and down his eye was bent Before the calm undaunted glance of that pleader eloquent! "I stoop not here," the Captive said, "to sue for Traitors' grace; I brook no Judge but one alone,-and that is God in Heav'n!” eye, The calm cold sneer on Cromwell's lip, that man of mockery! Then woke, in murmurs stern and low, too plainly understood, The knell of Hope to loyal breasts, the demon cry for blood! "Now what may mean this mighty throng that gathereth far and wide? What merry festival is here? what show of pomp and pride ?" 66 Stranger! we are not hurrying to festal hall or bower, All eloquent with Music's spell or Beauty's tones of power; We haste to mark no common sight-how a Monarch yields his breath. On, on! no time to loiter now! the show we seek is Death!" And calmly, proudly, came he forth;-all vainly sought ye there To Heav'n in voiceless orison.-So pass'd he on to die! His step was on the scaffold-stair, his hand was on the steel; 'Strike!"—'twas a low still voice that spake, yet it thrill'd through heart and brain, As nought, to those who heard its tone, might ever thrill again. Was none amid that throng so bold but shudder'd as it came ; Was none might bend a steadfast gaze upon that scene of shame. "Strike!”—and ere yet the accents died, a weary life was o'er ! England had one good Son the less,-Heav'n had one Angel more! K. FROM THE GERMAN OF HERDER. THE original, as the reader will observe, is in rhythm, not rhyme. The translator has ventured in some degree upon the same experiment. Don Alonzo Perez Guzmann der Getreue. "Don Alonzo! Don Alonzo! Auf die Zinnen tritt der alte Oder lieber bleich und blutig Sehn sein Haupt auf unsern Spiessen?" Darum wird auf ew'ge Zeiten Zubenamet: der Getrue. Herder. |