By the craggy hillside, Through the mosses bare, They have planted thorn-trees For pleasure here and there. Is any man so daring To dig one up in spite, He shall find the thornies set In his bed at night. Up the airy mountain, Trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather! WILLIAM ALLINGHAM. climbed up to the giant's house. Jack-how noble, with his sword of sharpness and his shoes of swift ness. Good for Christmas-time is the ruddy color of the cloak in which the tree making a forest of itself for her to trip through with her basket, Little Red Riding-Hood comes to me one Christmas eve, to give me information of the cruelty and treachery of that dissembling wolf who ate her grandmother, without making any impression on his appetite, and then ate after making that ferocious joke about his teeth. She was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood I should have known perfect bliss. But it was not to be, and there was nothing for it but to look out the wolf in the Noah's Ark there, and put him late in the procession, on the table, as a monster who was to be degraded. Oh, the wonderful Noah's Ark! It was not found seaworthy when put in a washing-tub, and the ani RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHRISTMAS TREE. mals were crammed in at the roof, and needed to HAVE been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas tree. Being now at home again, and alone, the only person in the house awake, my thoughts are drawn back, by a fascination which I do not care to resist, to my own childhood. Straight in the middle of the room, cramped in the freedom of its growth by no encircling walls or soon reached ceiling, a shadowy tree arises; and, looking up into the dreamy brightness of its top-for I observe in this tree the singular property that it appears to grow downward towards the earth, -I look into my youngest Christmas recollections. All toys at first I find. But upon the branches of the tree lower down, how thick the books begin to hang! Thin books, in themselves, at first, but many of them, with deliciously smooth covers of bright red or green. What fat black letters to begin with! he was. "A was an archer, and shot at a frog." Of course He was an apple-pie also, and there he is! He was a good many things in his time, was A, and so were most of his friends, except X, who had so little versatility that I never knew him to get beyond Xerxes or Xantippe: like Y, who was always confined to a yacht or a yew-tree: and Z, condemned forever to be a zebra or a zany. But now the very tree itself changes, and becomes a bean-stalk-the marvelous bean-stalk by which Jack have their legs well shaken down before they could be got in even there; and then ter to one but they began to tumble out at the door, which was but imperfectly fastened with a wire latch; but what was that against it? Consider the noble fly, a size or two smaller than the elephant; the lady-bird, the butterfly—all triumphs of art! Consider the goose, whose feet were so small and whose balance was so indifferent that he usually tumbled forward and knocked down all the animal creation! Consider Noah and his family, like idiotic tobacco stoppers; and how the leopard stuck to warm little fingers; and how the tails of the larger animals used gradually to resolve themselves into frayed bits of string. Encircled by the social thoughts of Christmas time, still let the benignant figure of my childhood stand unchanged! In every cheerful image and suggestion that the season brings, may the bright star that rested above the poor roof be the star of all the Christian world! A moment's pause, O vanishing tree, of which the lower boughs are dark to me yet, and let me look once more. I know there are blank spaces on thy branches, where eyes that I have loved have shone and smiled, from which they are departed. But, far above, I see the Raiser of the dead gir! and the widow's son-and God is good! CHARLES Dickens. DRAMATIC SELECTIONS. DESCRIPTION OF JANE DE MONTFORT. AGE.-Madam, there is a lady in your hall Who begs to be admitted to your presence. Lady. Is it not one of our invited friends? Page. No; far unlike to them. It is a stranger. Lady. How looks her countenance? Page. So queenly, so commanding, and so noble, I shrunk at first in awe; but when she smiled, Methought I could have compassed sea and land To do her bidding. Lady. Is she young or old? Page. Neither, if right I guess; but she is fair, Lady. The foolish strippling! She has bewitched thee. Is she large in stature? Page. I cannot well describe the fashion of it: Lady. Thine eyes deceive thee, boy; [Starting from his seat, where he has been sitting during the conversation between the Lady and the Page.] It is an apparition he has seen, JOANNA BAILLIE. SPEECH OF PRINCE EDWARD IN HIS DUNGEON. Or it is Jane de Montfort. OTH the bright sun from the high arch of heaven, Do the green woods dance to the wind? the lake! Send winding up to heaven their curling smoke Do the flocks bleat, and the wild creatures bound Wing the mid air in lightly skimming bands? JOANNA BAILLIE, THE GROWTH OF MURDEROUS HATE. [Scene from De Montfort.] De Montfort explains to his sister Jane his hatred of Rezenvelt which at last hurries him into the crime of murder. The gradual deepening of this malignant passion, and its frightful catastrophe. are powerfully depicted. We may remark, that the character of De Montfort, his altered habits and appearance after his travers, his settled gloom, and the violence of his passions seem to have been the prototype of Byron's Manfred and Lara. D E MONTFORT. No more, my sister; urge My secret troubles cannot be revealed. My heart recoils: I pray thee, be contented. De Mon. Ah, Jane, forbear! I cannot e'en to thee De Mon. So would I now but ask of this n more. All other troubles but the one I feel I have disclosed to thee. I pray thee, spare me Jane. Then secret let it be: I urge no further I have so long, as if by nature's right, I thought through life I should have so remained, The cheerer of this home, with strangers sought, For in my breast a raging passion burns, Jane. Say not so: I never can despise thee, gentle brother. De Mon. Oh, Jane, thou dost constrain me with A lover's jealousy and hopeless pangs Would I could tell it thee! Jane. Thou shalt not tell me. Nay, I'll stop mine No, it is hate! black, lasting, deadly hace! ears, Nor from the yearnings of affection wring What shrinks from utterance. Let it pass, my To be a sullen wanderer on the earth, brother. I'll stay by thee; I'll cheer thee, comfort thee; Till thou, with brow unclouded, smilest again; De Mon. It will not pass away; 'twill haunt me still. That, though I wrestle darkling with the fiend, De Mon. Thou most generous woman, Avoiding all men, cursing and accursed. Jane. De Montfort, this is fiend-like, terrible! Unknit thy brows, and spread those wrath-clenched hands. Some sprite accursed within thy bosom mates To work thy ruin. Strive with it, my brother! Strive bravely with it; drive it from thy heart; 'Tis the degrader of a noble heart. Curse it, and bid it part. De Mon. It will not part. I've lodged it here to long. With my first cares, I felt its rankling touch. I loathed him when a boy. Jane. Whom didst thou say? De Mon. Detested Rezenvelt! E'en in our early sports, like two young wheips Of hostile breed, instinctively averse, Jane. What sayest thou, Montfort? Oh what words Each 'gainst the other pitched his ready pledge, are these! They have awaked my soul to dreadful thoughts. I do beseech thee, speak! By the affection thou did'st ever bear me; Ha! wilt thou not? De Montfort, do not thus resist my love, De Mon. [Raising her, and kneeling.] Thus let him kneel who should the abased be, And at thine honored feet confession make. I'll tell thee all-but, oh! thou wilt despise me. And frowned defiance. As we onward passed The impotent bite of some half-trodden worm, It drove me frantic. What, what would I give What would I give to crush the bloated toad, Jane. And would thy hatred crush the very man To aim at his? Oh, this is horrible! De Mon. Ha! thou hast heard it then! From all the world, But most of all from thee, I thought it hid. Jane. I heard a secret whisper, and resolved Upon the instant to return to thee. Didst thou receive my letter? De Mon. I did! I did! 'Twas that which drove me thither. I could not bear to meet thine eye again. Jane. Alas! that tempted by a sister's tears, I ever left thy house! These few past months, And then, as says report, you parted friends. In better days was wont to be my pride. De Mon. I am a wretch, most wretched in myself, And still more wretched in the pain I give. O curse that villain, that detested villain! He has spread misery o'er my fated life; He will undo us all. Jane. I've held my warfare through a troubled world And borne with steady mind my share of ill; For then the helpmate of my toil wast thou. But now the wane of life comes darkly on, And hideous passion tears thee from my heart, Blasting thy worth. I cannot strive with this. De Mon. What shall I do? My Alvar loved sad music from a child. Once he was lost, and after weary search De Mon. When he disarmed this cursed, this worth- We found him in an open place in the wood, less hand Of its most worthless weapon, he but spared Until that day, till that accursed day, I knew not half the torment of this hell Which burns within my breast. Heaven's lightnings blast him! Jane. Oh, this is horrible! Forbear, forbear! Lest Heaven's vengeance light upon thy head For this most impious wish. De Mon. Then let it light. Torments more fell than I have known already What all m、n shrink from; to be dust, be nothing, Jane. Oh! wouldst thou kill me with these dreadful words? De Mon. Let me but once upon his ruin look, Ha! how is this? Thou'rt ill: thou'rt very pale; I meant not to distress thee-O my sister! De Mon. I have killed thee. Turn, turn thee not away! Look on me still! Oh! droop not thus, my life, my pride, my sister! Look on me yet again. jane. Thou, too, De Montfort, To which spot he had followed a blind boy, His head upon the blind boy's dog. It pleased me Alvar. My tears must not flow! I must not clasp his knees, and cry, My father! [Enter TERESA and ATTENDANTS.] Teresa. Lord Valdez, you have asked my presence here, And I submit; but-Heaven bear witness for meMy heart approves it not! 'tis mockery. Ord. Believe you, then, no preternatural influence? A possible thing: and it has soothed my soul Ord. The innocent obey nor charm nor spell! [Here a strain of music is heard from behind the scene.] My brother is in heaven. Thou sainted spirit, Alv. With no irreverent voice or uncouth charm I call up the departed! Soul of Alvar! Hear our soft suit, and heed my milder spell : Who in broad circle, lovelier than the rainbow, [Music. [Music expressive of the movements and images Ye, as ye pass, toss high the desert sands, Hear the mild spell, and tempt no blacker charm! So shall the church's cleansing rites be thine, Song behind the scenes, accompanied by the same instrument as before.] Hear, sweet spirit, hear the spell, Shall the chanters, sad and saintly, Burst on our sight, a passing visitant ! Once more to hear thy voice, once more to see thee, O'twere a joy to me! Alv. A joy to thee! What if thou heardst him now! What if his spirit Val. These are unholy fancies! Ord. [Struggling with his feelings.] Yes, my father, he is in heaven! Alv. [Still to Ordonio.] brother, But what if he had a Who had lived even so, that at his dying hour Val. Idly prating man! Thou has guessed ill: Don Alvar's only brother Stands here before thee-a father's blessing on him i He is most virtuous. Alv. [Still to Ordonio.] What if his very virtues Had pampered his swoolen heart and made him proud? And what if pride had duped him into guilt? [Music again Ter. 'Tis strange. I tremble at my own conjectures' But whatsoe'er it mean, I dare no longer Be present at these lawless mysteries, This dark provoking of the hidden powers! Already I affront-if not high HeavenYet Alvar's memory! Hark! I make appeal Against the unholy rite, and hasten hence To bend before a lawful shrine, and seek That voice which whispers, when the still neart listens Comfort and faithful hope! Let us retire. SAMUEL TAYlor Coleridge |