Critical Notices [pp. 112-128]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
exhortations of his cousin Katharine, determines upon
the rescue of his uncle at all hazards. A plot is arranged for this purpose. On the morning appointed
for exectution, a troop of horse is concealed in some
underwood near the scaffold. Bella Humphries, the
daughter of an avowed tory, but a whig at heart, is
stationed in the belfry of the village church, and her
father himself is occupied in arranging materials for
setting Dorchester on fire upon a given signal. This
signal (the violent ringing of the church bell by Bella)
is given at the moment when Col. Walton arrives in a
cart at the foot of the gallows. Great confusion ensues
among those not in the secret-a confusion heightened
no little by the sudden conflagration of the village.
During the hubbub the troop concealed in the thicket
rush upon the British guard in attendance. The latter
are beaten down, and Walton is carried off in triumph
by Singleton. The hand of Miss Katharine is, as a
matter of course, the reward of the Major's gallantry.
Of the numerous personages who figure in the book,
some are really excellent-some horrible. The historical characters are, without exception, well drawn. The
portraits of Cornwallis, Gates, and Marion, are vivid
realities-those of De Kalb and the Claverhouse-like
Tarleton positively unsurpassed by any similar delineations within our knowledge. The fictitious existences
in "The Partisan" will not bear examination. Singleton is about as much of a non-entity as most other
heroes of our acquaintance. His uncle is no better.
Proctor, the British Colonel, is cut out in buckram.
Sergeant Hastings, the tory, is badly drawn from a bad
model. Young Humphries is a braggadocio-Lance
Frampton is an idiot-and Doctor Oakenburg is an ass.
Goggle is another miserable addition to the list of those
anomalies so swarming in fiction, who are represented
as having vicious principles, for no other reason than
because they have ugly faces. Of the fermales we can
hardly speak in a more favorable manner. Bella, the
innkeeper's daughter is, we suppose, very much like an
innkeepers daughter. Mrs. Blonay, Goggle's mother,
is a hag worth hanging. Emily, Singleton's sister, is
not what we would wish her. Too much stress is laid
upon the interesting features of the consumption which
destroys her; and the whole chapter of abrupt sentimentality, in which we are introduced to her sepulchre
before having notice of her death, is in the very worst
style of times un pets passes. Katharine Walton is
somewhat better than either of the ladies above mentioned. In the beginning of the book, however, we are
disgusted with that excessive prudishness which will
not admit of a lover's hand resting for a moment upon
her own-in the conclusion, we are provoked to a smile
when she throws herself into the arms of the same lover,
without even waiting for his consent.
One personage, a Mr. Porgy, we have not mentioned
in his proper place among the drasnatis persone, because
we think he deserves a separate paragraph of animadversion. This man is a most insufferable bore; arid
had we, by accident, opened the book when about to
read it for the first time, at any one of his manifold
absurdities, we should most probably have thrown
aside "The Partisan" in disgust. Porgy is a backwoods
imitation of Sir Somebody Guloseton, the epicure, in
one of the Pelham novels. He is a very silly compound
of gluttony, slang, belly, and balderdash philosophy,
never opening his mouth for a single minute at a tinme,
without making us feel miserable all over. The rude
and unqualified oaths with which he seasons his lan guage deserve to be seriously reprehended. There is
positively neither wit nor humor in an oath of any
kind-but the oaths of this Porgy are abominable.
Let us see how one or two of them will look in our
columns. Page 174, vol. ii —" Then there was no trick ing a fellow-persuading himn to put his head into a
rope without showing him first how d d strong it
was." Page 169, vol. ii —"Tom, old boy, why d -a
it, that fellow's bloodied your nose." Page 167, vol ii
— "I am a pacific man, and my temper is not ungentle;
but to disturb my slumbers which are so necessary to
the digestive organs-stop, I say-d n!-dont pull
so!" Page 161, vol. ii-" Well, Tom, considering how
d d bad those perch were fiied, I must confess I
enjoyed them." Page 164, vol. ii —" Such spice is a
d -d bad dish for us when lacking cayenne." Page
163, vol. ii —' Dr. Oakenburg, your d d hatchet hip
is digging into my side." Page 162, vol. ii —"The
summer duck, with its glorious plumage, skims along
the same muddy lake, on the edge of which the d d
bodiless crane screams and crouches." In all these
handsome passages Porgy loquitur, and it will be perceived that they are all to be found within a few pages
of each other-such attempts to render profanity less
despicable by rendering it amusing, should be frowned
down indignantly by the public. Of Porgy's philosophy
we subjoin a specimen firom page 89, vol. ii. "A dinner
once lost is never recovered. The stomach loses a day,
and regrets are not only idle to recall it, but subtract
largely from the appetite the day ensuing. Tears can
only fallfrom a member that lacks teeth; the mouth nto is
never seen weeping. It is the eye only; and, as it lacks
tongue, teeth, and taste alike, by Jupiter, it seems to me that
tears should be its proper business." How Mr. Simms
should ever have fallen into the error of imagining such
horrib!e nonsense as that in Italics, to be either witty
or wise, is to us a mystery of mysteries. Yet Porgy is
evidently a favorite with the author.
Some two or three paragraphs above we made use of
these expressions. "The history of the march of Gates'
army, his fool-hardiness, &c. are as well told as any
details of a like nature can be told in language exceedingly confused, ill-arranged, and ungrammatical."
Mr. Simms' English is bad-shockingly bad. This is no
mere assertion on our parts-we proceed to prove it
"Guilt," says our author, (see page 98, vol. i.) "must
always despair its charm in the presence of the true
avenger"-what is the meaning of this sentence? —after
much reflection we are unable to determine. At page
115, vol. i, we have these words. "He was under the
guidance of an e!derly, drinking sort of person-one of
the fat, beefy class, whose worship of the belly-god has
given an unhappy distension to that ambitious, though
most erring member." By the'most erring member'
Mr. S. means to say the belly-but the sentence implies
the belly-god. Again, at page 126, vol. i. "It was for
the purpose of imparting to Col. Walton the contents
of that not yet notorious proclamation of Sir Henry
Clinton, with which he demanded the performance of
military duty from the persons who had been paroled;
and by means of which, on departing from the province,
he planted the seeds of that revolting patriotism which
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