But if our poet is grossly unoriginal in his subject, and in the
events which evolve it, may he not be original in his handling or
tone? We really grieve to say that he is not, unless, indeed, we grant
him the need of originality for the peculiar manner in which he has
jumbled together the quaint and stilted tone of the old English
dramatists with the degagee air of Cervantes. But this is a point upon
which, through want of space, we must necessarily permit the reader to
judge altogether for himself. We quote, however, a passage from the
second scene of the first act, by way of showing how very easy a
matter it is to make a man discourse Sancho Panza:-
Chispa. Abernuncio Satanas! and a plague upon all lovers who
ramble about at night, drinking the elements, instead of sleeping
quietly in their beds. Every dead man to his cemetery, say I; and
every friar to his monastery. Now, here's my master Victorian,
yesterday a cow-keeper and to-day a gentleman; yesterday a student and
to-day a lover; and I must be up later than the nightingale, for as
the abbot sings so must the sacristan respond. God grant he may soon
be married, for then shall all this serenading cease. Ay, marry,
marry, marry! Mother, what does marry mean? It means to spin, to
bear children, and to weep, my daughter! and, of a truth, there is
something more in matrimony than the wedding-ring.
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