tion (apart from any question as to demerit in Miss Kelly) as that in Edinburgh. Mrs. Hemans's talent was not of the dramatic kind. Perhaps there never yet was a good five-act stage-tragedy written by a woman; and certainly the peculiar tone and tint of Mrs. Hemans's faculty were not such as to supply the deficiency which she, merely as a woman, was almost certain to evince. Even as a narrative poet, not to speak of the drama, she shows to no sort of advantage: her personages not having anything of a full-bodied character, but wavering between the romantically criminal and the longwindedly virtuous-poor supposititious creatures, inflated and diluted. Something better may nevertheless be said for the second of her tragedies, The Siege of Valencia, published in 1823 along with Belshazzar's Feast and some other poems. This play appears to have been written without any view to the stage: a condition of writing which acts detrimentally upon a drama composed by a born dramatist, but which may rather have the opposite effect upon one coming from a different sort of author. In The Siege of Valencia the situation is in a high degree tragical-even terrible or harrowing: and there is this advantage,--no small one in the case of a writer such as Mrs. Hemans-that, while the framework is historical, and the crisis and passions of a genuinely heroic type, the immediate interest is personal or domestic. Mrs. Hemans may be credited with a good and unhacknied choice of subject in this drama, and with a well-concerted adaptation of it to her own more special powers: the writing is fairly sustained throughout, and there are passages both vigorous and moving. As the reader approaches the dénouement, and finds the authoress dealing death with an unsparing hand to the heroically patriotic Gonzalez and all his offspring, he may perhaps at first feel a little ruffled at noting that the only member of the family who has been found wanting in the fiery trial-wanting through an excess of maternal love-is also the only one saved alive : but in this also the authoress may be pronounced in the right. Reunion with her beloved ones in death would in fact have been mercy to Elmina, and would have left her undistinguished from the others, and untouched by any retribution: survival, mourning, and self-discipline, are the only chastisement in which a poetic justice, in its higher conception, could be expressed.-Besides the two dramas of The Vespers of Palermo and The Siege of Valencia, Mrs. Hemans began likewise two others -De Châtillon, or the Crusaders, and Sebastian of Portugal: neither of these was finished. : Soon before the production of The Vespers of Palermo on the stage, she had taken up with great zest the study of the German language; and her Lays of Many Lands, published in 1826, were to a considerable extent suggested by Herder's work, Stimmen der Völker in Lieder. The same volume contained her poem of The Forest Sanctuary, which had occupied her in the latter part of 1824 and commencement of 1825 this she was disposed to regard as her finest work. It is the most important of her narrative or seminarrative poems, and, as compared with the others of that class, may reasonably claim a preference, without our committing ourselves to any very high eulogium upon it. The Records of Woman followed in 1828, being the first of the authoress's works that Messrs. Blackwood published into this series she put more of her personal feeling than into any of the others. In the summer of 1830 appeared the Songs of the Affections, being the last of her publications prior to her departure for Ireland. Meanwhile the course of her private life had been marked only by such variations as removal of residence, and by one deep and irreparable affliction in the death of her beloved mother on the 11th of January 1827, followed soon afterwards by the failure of her own health. The first removal, in the spring of 1825, had been from Bronwylfa to Rhyllon, a house distant from the former only about a quarter of a mile here she settled along with her mother, sister, and four boys-the eldest son being then at a school at Bangor. For a time also her second brother, Major Browne, after wards Commissioner of Police in Dublin, and his wife, resided in the same house, on their return from Canada. Rhyllon, though with attractive surroundings, was a much less picturesque house than Bronwylfa; but this brief period of Mrs. Hemans's life proved to be probably the happiest that she had passed since childhood. Besides many sources of tranquil domestic satisfaction, and for awhile a somewhat firmer condition of her own health, she was in the enjoyment of a considerable reputation not now confined to her native country, for the fame of her poems had spread to America, and flourished there with extraordinary vigour. She was at one time invited to emigrate to Boston, and there conduct a periodical under an arrangement which would have secured her an income. Her literary correspondence became very large; and gradually the urgencies of editors of annuals, owners of albums, and other such predacious assailants of leisure and patience, besieged and waylaid her to a burdensome and harassing extent. In the summer of 1828 she paid. a visit to some friends at Wavertree Lodge, near Liverpool. Her health was now exceedingly frail, with palpitation of the heart, and inflammatory and other distressing symptoms, frequently aggravated by her exceeding carelessness in all matters affecting herself. Her friends induced her to take medical advice, and she was directed to assume a reclining posture as often as practicable. Another consequence of this visit was her resolution to move to the village of Wavertree, chiefly with a view to the better education of her three younger boys: the two others, at the same time that their mother quitted Wales in the autumn, went away èo Rome, to the care of their father. Mrs. Hemans's sister had married, her brother was appointed to a post in Ireland, and the cherished Welsh home was thus irremediably broken up. The residence at Wavertree, however, turned out unsatisfactory: Mrs. Hemans did not find it healthy for herself, nor its educational advantages equal to her expectations. She had some friends in Liverpool whom she liked, more especially the Chorley family: but for the most part was oppressed by the importunities of undiscerning and uncongenial neighbours, upon whom moreover she often failed even to produce a favourable impression. She was regarded as odd-"wore a veil on her head, like no one else," (as is shown indeed in Mr. West's portrait of her) and she, for her part, could hardly be induced to go into any general society, and would fain have got a friend "to procure her a dragon to be kept in her courtyard," as a protection against intruders. Her house was itself very small, and on her arrival comfortless: but she managed to make it comparatively elegant. She now conceived a great passion for music, and, in the winter of 1830 and ensuing spring, applied herself to the study of the art under Zeugheer Herrmann, receiving also some assistance from a well-known amateur Mr. Lodge. She so far cultivated her faculty in music as to be able to invent airs for some of her own lyrics. Playing on the harp and the pianoforte had been among her earlier accomplishments: and her voice was naturally good, but failed in youth owing to the weakness of her chest. The residence at Wavertree was varied by excursions to Scotland and to the Lake country. In July 1829 she paid a visit to Mr. Hamilton, the author of Cyril Thornton, at Chiefswood near Abbotsford, and saw a greal deal of Sir Walter Scott. Two of his kindly compliments to Mrs. Hemans have been preserved in her sister's record. "I should say you had too many gifts, Mrs. Hemans, were they not all made to give pleasure to those around you”: and afterwards at leave-taking, "There are some whom we meet, and should like ever after to claim as kith and kin; and you are one of those." The Scotch trip included visits to Yarrow, Abbotsford, and Edinburgh, and sitting for a bust to Mr. Angus Fletcher. The excursion to the Lakes of Westmoreland took place in the following year, 1830: the poetess went to Wordsworth's house, Rydal Mount, with her son Charles; and, on afterwards moving to a neighbouring cottage named Dove's Nest, overlooking Winandermere, was joined by her two other boys from Wavertree. Mrs. Hemans's letters show how much she liked Wordsworth, both poetically and personally: she found him more impulsive than she had expected, and greatly enjoyed his fine reading, and the frequent touches of poetry in his talk. Nor was her admiration unresponded to, as proved by the lines which Wordsworth devoted to her memory but a few years afterwards "Mourn rather for that holy spirit Sweet as the spring, as ocean deep; Has sunk into a breathless sleep." She left Dove's Nest towards the middle of August, and revisited Scotland, and then re-entered Wales by way of Dublin and Holyhead. As the experiment of Wavertree had proved disappointing, and as her brother Major Browne was now settled in Ireland, Mrs. Hemans determined to take up her residence in Dublin from the following spring. In the late autumn of 1830 therefore she saw her last of Bronwylfa, and towards the close of April 1831 she quitted Wavertree and England, never (as it was fated) to return. She passed a few weeks in Dublin; then stayed at her brother's house, the Hermitage, near Kilkenny; and in the early autumn was finally domiciled in the Irish capital. At first she dwelt in Upper Pembroke Street; afterwards at No. 36 Stephen's Green; and thirdly at a house which proved more comfortable, and in which her life came to a close, 20 Dawson Street. In Dublin, as before at Wavertree, Mrs. Hemans lived retired from society, but in familiar intercourse with a few sterling friends, among whom were Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Archbishop and Mrs. Whately, and the Rev. Blanco White. Her health was in a very shattered state, the palpitation of the heart continuing, and being attended by frequent fainting-fits. Every now and then, however, she rallied, and it was still possible |