NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE AND ART.

THE opening of the new year has been signalised by a discussion (arising out of the death of Mr. Tytler
the historian) which illustrates the position of literature in England with relation to the State. His
pension falls, and is not renewable; the State having compromised all such claims upon it, fifteen years
ago, by that new and magnificent arrangement of the Civil List which secured the yearly disposal of
twelve hundred a-year, as its total and entire recognition of all such services. But even this superb
economy does not satisfy everybody. It has given opportunity to an ardent enemy of protection (a
convert, and over zealous, as converts generally are) to protest that all protection, by way of pensions
or otherwise, is as mischievous in literature as in commerce, and that the let-alone system is best for both.
In other words, that the Government of a country, which is encouraged on all occasions to recognise
services done to the State by professors of arms, law, divinity, and diplomacy, should be forbidden to
acknowledge, in any manner, services done to the State by distinguished efforts in art, literature, and science.
It is highly fitting and appropriate that the Mr. Jenkins who proposes this should have taken the same
occasion of contrasting professional "authors of the middling and lower order," as a public nuisance, with
cravings "after literary fame in men of rank and fortune," as a symptom of social progress. The real truth
is that, manifold as are the shortcomings of our Government in questions not directly affecting the markets
or prices current, it labours under no opprobrium so great as its exaggerated appreciation of the military
services, and its neglect of great scientific, literary, and moral services. The most common of the abilities
are the most rewarded, while the most rare benefactors of the human race are left to such nobility as
they can bestow upon themselves. No rank was conferred on Jenner; and the highest rank assignable by
custom to the most exalted literary genius, is the honour of a baronetcy. We take nothing to do from a
parcel of sinecure clerks in Chancery, and compensate them with tens of thousands a year. But so
abundant and dog-cheap are worthy labourers in literature, or so few and easily rewarded, that an annual
pension-fund to the amount of twelve hundred pounds satisfies them all; to say nothing of royal writing-
masters, dancing-masters, and retired coachmen, flung into the same list! How long—how long?

The publications of the first month of the new year
have been more than ordinarily numerous, but of
comparatively trifling importance. To a great extent, they
have been reprints of new editions, or of books originally
published in America. Mr. Murray has thus reissued
the leading works of Washington Irving, with some new
biographies, in the library form which they had lately
received from a New York publisher; Mr. Bentley has
reprinted some volumes of travels and geographical
science; and Sir. John Chapman has published a new
work by Emerson on Representative Men.

But decidedly the most welcome and valuable of our
literary visitors from the other side of the Atlantic has
been Mr. Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature. The
author of this book was well known to Southey, and, as
well in his love for Spanish and Portuguese literature,
as in the character of his mind and tastes, bears some
resemblance to our distinguished countryman. His
style is not so well knit, but it is ample and forcible;
and in this book, which appears to have been the labour
of a life, a want is supplied which scholars and men of
letters have heretofore distinctly felt. The subject is taken
in three periods: the first conducting the language and
literature from their origin to the end of Ferdinand and
Isabella; the second, descriptive of the course and fate
of Spanish literature under the house of Austria; and
the third, of its destinies under the Bourbons. Under
these divisions, there are also sub-divisions of the
authors treated of, into the various classes of chronicles,
ballads, the drama, and so forth,—excepting always where
in one great name is included an entire literary epoch,
as in those of Alphonso the Wise, Cervantes, and Lope
de Vega, when the works of that writer form a section
in themselves.

The most important English book has been a long-
promised edition of Marlowe's Works, by the Rev.
Alexander Dyce, with a text thoroughly revised from a
comparison of the former editions, and a new life. To
none of the early English dramatists was such a service
so emphatically due. The modern edition it displaces is
one of the worst conceivable; yet this rude great writer
will always possess an interest superior (with but one
exception) to the most refined of his contemporaries or
successors, because in him we find first those forms of
fancy, and that intense beauty and fitness of language,
which were transfused into the later poets. Excepting for
this his writings would hardly have survived their general
violence and extravagance; but this has made them a
vital portion of English literature, and connected them
with even the history of our language. Among the
curious facts discovered by Mr. Dyce two are worth
mention. The first is that the poet, who was the son
of a shoemaker at Canterbury, received his education at
the king's school in that city; where it seems probable
that by early indications of learning and genius he
obtained the patronage of Chief Baron Manwood, and
was thus enabled to proceed to Benet College in
Cambridge, where he took his bachelor's degree when he
was twenty. Mr. Dyce's second curious discovery is,
that after he had produced "blaspheming Tamburlaine"
upon the boards of a London theatre, when he was four
and twenty, he was enabled to take his master's degree.
This would seem to indicate that a writer of stage plays
at that period could hardly have seemed so contemptible
a person to a University Don as he is generally supposed
to have been.

The other most interesting book of the month is the
commencement of Southey's Life and Correspondence,
by his son. A new Life of Calvin has also been published
by Mr. Dyer, with information from original sources;
a book upon The London Prisons, by Mr. Dixon,
contains useful and curious information; and Yankee land has
suggested another book of travels and of shrewd womanly
observation under the title of Hesperos. In the way of
fiction there is nothing worth placing upon record; but
our summary may close with the mention of a tragedy
on the subject of Galileo Galilei, by a writer not hitherto
known in poetry, which is marked by unusual evidences
of philosophic thought as well as high poetic feeling.

Mrs. Mowatt, the American actress, has produced a
five-act comedy at the Olympic Theatre, called Fashion,
or Life at New York. It is well acted, and has had
some success. If it is a true portraiture of American
fashionable society and manners, then the Americans
have no reason to complain of Mrs. Trollope and other
English writers as unfair caricaturists.

Mr. Mitchell has resumed his performances of French
operas at the St. James's Theatre, with a good company,
comprising Chollet, Nathan, Mdlle. Charton, Mdlle.
Guichard, and Mdlle. Cotti. Halévy's latest work, Le
Val d'Andorre, and Herold's Zampa, have been
extremely well got up and performed, and received with
much favour.

The only musical performances are the Wednesday
Concerts at Exeter Hall, where a great variety of popular
music is very well performed. They consequently draw
crowded houses.