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No. 169.

REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.

The Fall of Jerusalem: a Dramatic
Poem. By the Rev. H. H. Milman.
London, 1820. 8vo. pp. 167.

SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1820.

ducee, who believes that death is "the be-
all and the end-all here." Miriam, a secret
Christian, sweet, devout, loving, and me-
lancholy, is the contrast to her sister Sa-
lone, a creature of force and passion, par-
ticipating in her father's fierceness, zeal, and
superstition. The touching loves and stolen
meetings of Miriam with the amiable Javan,
at the fountain of Siloe, counterpoise the
stormy and unblessed union of Salone with
the warrior Amariah; and forms a delight-
ful episode and relief to the general horror.
In like manner does the construction of the
piece combine the highest poetical excel-
lences with the finest opposition in situations,
and much of the truth of history, as well
as prophetic fulfilment. The bridal songs
for Salone, mingling with the sack of Jeru-
salem, are an example of this, and produce
a grand and terrible effect. We are unwil-
ling to detain readers from our extracts, and
shall therefore abstain from further com-
ment; only noticing another subject for ad-
miration, which struck us as conferring much
allude to the novelty of the motives, senti-
spirit and originality upon the poem. We
ments, and grounds of action peculiar to the
Jewish nation; this gives a freshness and
raciness to the whole, which has conspired
to augment exceedingly our enjoyment
in the contemplation of "The Fall of Jeru-
salem."

A poem by the author of Fazio and of Samor, cannot fail to raise a strong feeling of curiosity in the literary world; and we hasten to gratify as much of that feeling as we can by this early contribution to a general knowledge of "The Fall of Jerusalem." Our expedition must plead for our imperfections; and what remarks we venture to offer (in an immethodical manner, as they occur,) will we trust be viewed with indulgence, as suggested by the single perusal of a production which we are sure, from our first impressions, will stand the test of many readings, and brighten under the latest. "The Fall of Jerusalem" is, indeed, a noble poem, far surpassing, in our opinion, the preceding works of Mr. Milman. Meeting, as of necessity it must, a comparison with the noblest language of divine inspiration ;...set side by side with the Book of Job, or Prophesy of Isaiah,...it seems to us, if less sublime The scene opens on the Mount of Olives: than the latter, to be equally beautiful Titus and his army advancing the siege: the 1; and if less deeply pathetic than the for- conqueror reasoning on the "Stoic philosophy," intimates that his inercy, and desire mer, to be equally tender and affecting. to spare the city, are overborne by the inAnd let it be remembered that we are fluence of a superior power, whose workhere speaking of analogies between hu-ings he cannot expound. He answers those man and inspired writings; between who persuade him to avert the " abominathe conceptions of modern genius and tion of desolation.”— the most splendid effusions of gifted antiquity.

o'er,

It must be

And yet it moves me, Romans! it confounds
The counsels of my firm philosophy,
That Ruin's merciless ploughshare must pass
And barren salt be sown on yon proud city.
Where Kedron at our feet its scanty waters
As on our olive-crowned hill we stand,
Distils from stone to stone with gentle motion,
As through a valley sacred to sweet peace,
How boldly doth it front us! how majestically!
Like a luxurious vineyard, the hill side
Is hung with marble fabrics, line o'er line,
Terrace o'er terrace, nearer still, and nearer
To the blue heavens. Here bright and sump-
tuous palaces,

The groundwork of the drama is in Josephus, who is one of its interlocutors. The events of the siege of the Holy City by the Romans under Titus, are compressed into a period of about thirty-six hours; and to the historical characters of Simon the assassin, John the tyrant, and Eleazar the zealot, among the Jews are added (for the sake of dramatic interest,) several fictitious personages, namely, Miriam and Salone, daughters of Simon, and Amariah, son of John. Great skill is displayed in marking and contrasting, not only the circumstances ein- With cool and verdant gardens interspersed ; braced by the action, but the peculiar traits Here towers of war that frown in massy strength, and habits of the prominent individuals. While over all hangs the rich purple eve, Simon, a stern and strict Pharisee, obsti-As conscious of its being her last farewell nately blinded in expectation of supernatural interference to save them, and fancying himself prophetic in his visions of coming succour, is opposed to John, a sensual SadVOL. IV.

Of light and glory to that fated city.
And, as our clouds of battle, dust, and smoke
Are melted into air, behold the Temple,
In undisturb'd and lone serenity
Finding itself a solemn sanctuary

PRICE 8d.

In the profound of heaven! It stands before us
A mount of snow fretted with golden pinnacles!
The very sun, as though he worshipp'd there,
Lingers upon the gilted cedar roofs;
And down the long and branching porticoes,
Glitters the homage of his parting beams.
On every flowery-sculptured capital,
By Hercules! the sight might almost win
The offended majesty of Rome to mercy.

This glorious poctical picture at the commencement prepares us for the horror of the catastrophe, as does also the earliest description of Javan by the waters of Siloe, waiting for Miriam

And thou art flowing on, and freshening still
The green moss, and the flowers that bend to

Javan, Sweet fountain, once again I visit thee!

thee,

Modestly with a soft unboastful murmur,
Rejoicing at the blessings that thou bearest.
Pure, stainless, thou art flowing on; the stars
Make thee their mirror, and the moonlight

beams

Course one another o'er thy silver bo om:
And yet thy flowing is through fields of blood,
Slake with thy limpid and perennial coolness.
And armed men their hot and weary brows
Mov'st thou, oh Miriam, in yon cruel city.
Even with such rare and singular purity
Men's eyes, o'erwearied with the sights of war,
With tumult and with grief, repose on thee
As on a refuge and a sweet refreshment.

But ah! why com'st thou not? these two
long nights
I've watch'd for thee in vain, and have not felt
The music of thy footsteps on my spirit-

Javan !

l'oice at a distance.

And enviously delays its tender sounds
Javan. It is her voice! the air is fond of it,
From the ear that thirsteth for them.-Miriam!
Nay, stand thus in thy timid breathlessness,
That I may gaze on thee, and thou not chide me
Because I gaze too fondly.

She entreats the wonted succour which he and, endeavouring to persuade her to quit has been accustomed to bring for her father, the place over which the curse of the Almighty hangs, he paints the miseries of Roman conquest in the following powerful words

Even now our city trembles on the verge
Of utter ruin. Yet a night or two,
And the fierce stranger in our burning streets
Stands conqueror: and how the Roman con-
quers,

Let Gischhala, let fallen Jotapata
Tell, if one living man, one innocent child,
Yet wander o'er their cold and scatter'd ashes.

They slew them, Miriam, the old grey man,
Whose blood scarce tinged their swords-(may
turn not from me,
The tears thou sheddest feel as though I wrung
them

From mine own heart, my life-blood's dearest
drops)-

They slew them, Miriam, at the mother's breast,

242

THE LITERARY. GAZETTE, AND

The smiling

infants ;--and the tender maid, A little while the conscious earth did shake With your dark gathering doom ; and if our
The soft, the loving, and the chaste, like thee, At that foul deed by her fieree children done! earth
They slew her not till

A few dim hours of day

Do yet in its disdain endure the footing
Niirian.
Javan, 'tis unkind!
The world in darkness lay;

Of your arm'd legions, 'tis because it labours
I have enough at home of thoughts like these, Then bask'd in bright repose beneath the cloud- With silent throes of expectation, waiting
Thoughts horrible, that freeze the blood, and

less sun?

The signal of your scattering. Lo! the moun-
make
While thou didst sleep within the tomb,

tains
A heavier burthen of this weary life.

Consenting to thy doom;

Bend o'er you with their huge and lowering
I hoped with thee t' have pass'd a tranquil hour, Ere yet the white-robed Angel shone

shadows,
A brief, a hurried, yet still tranquil hour !

Upon the sealed stone.

Ready to rush and overwhelm : the winds
-But thou art like them all! the miserable

And when thou didst arise, thou didst not Do listen panting for the tardy presence
Have only Heaven, where they can rest in peace,

stand

Of Him that shall avenge. And there is scoru,
Without being mock'd and taunted with their With devastation in thy red right hand,

Yea, there is laughter in our fathers' tombs,
misery
Plaguing the guilty city's murtherous crew;

To think that Heathen conqueror doth aspire
Miriam's reply appears taine: it is pro- But thou didst haste to meet

To lord it over God's Jerusalem !
bably owing to the burning glow of Javan's Thy mother's coming feet,

Yea, in Hell's deep and desolate abode, address. In a subsequent passage, she hymns and bear the words of peace unto the faithful Where dwell the perish'a kings, the chief of a prayer for her infidel father, in an exalted

few.

carth; and sacred tone.

Then calmly, slowly didst thon rise

They whose idolatrous warfare erst assail'd
Into thy native skies,

The Holy City, and the chosen people;
MIRIAM, alone.
Thy human form dissolved on high

They wait for thee, the associate of their hopes
Oh Thou ! thou who canst melt the heart of

In its own radiancy.

And fatal fall, to join their ruin'a conclave.
stone,

He whom the Red Sea 'whelm'd with all his
And make the desert of the cruel breast Our next quotation is selected on account host,
A paradise of soft and gentle thoughts ! of its poetic imagery. Simon and John are Pharaoh, the Egyptian; and the kings of Ca-
AL! will it ever be, that thou wilt visit contending when the high-priest interposes,
The darkness of my father's soul? Thou knowest and thus addresses them

The Philistine, the Dagon worshipper;
In what strong bondage Zeal and ancient Faith,
Passion and stubborn Custom, and fierce Pride, Break off! break off! I hear the Gentile born

HIGH-PRIRST.

Moab, and Edom, and fierce Amalek ;

And he of Babylon, whose multitudes,
Hold th' heart of man. Thou knowest, Merciful Winding along the wide entrenched line,

Even on the hills where gleam your myriad
That knowest all things, and dost ever turn
Thine eye of pity on our guilty nature.
Hear ye it not? hill answers hill, the valleys

spears,
In their deep channels lengthen out the sound. With the dark, noiseless shadow of his wing,

In one brief night the invisible Angel swept
For thou wert born of woman! thou didst It rushes down Jehoshaphat, the depths
come,
of Hinnom answer. Hark! again they blow, One cold, and mute, and tombless cemetery,

And morn beheld the fierce and riotous camp
Oh Holiest! to this world of sin and gloom, Chiding you, men of Judah, and insulting
Not in thy dread omnipotent array; Your bare and vacant walls, that now oppose yea, they take up the taunting song of welcome

Sennacherib: : all, all are risen, are moved
And not by thunders strew'd
Was thy tempestuous road;
Their firm array of javelin-hurling men,

To him who, like themselves, bath madly warr'a
Nor indignation burnt before thee on thy way. Slingers, and pourers of the liquid fire.

'Gainst Zion's walls, and miserably fallen
But thee, a soft and naked child,
Amariah. Blow! Blow! and rend the heavens,

Before the avenging God of Israel !
Thy mother undefiled,

thou deep voiced horn!

Joseph endeavours to soften the councils
In the rude manger laid to rest

I hear thee, and rejoice at thee. Thou sum- of his countrymen, to which they turn a deaf
From off her virgin breast.

moner

ear, and wound him with a javelin : Titus
The heavens were not commanded to prepare To the storm of battle, thou that dost invite abjures every lingering thought of mercy,
A gorgeous canopy of golden air ;.
With stern and welcome importunity

and the march of calamity is accelerated.
Nor stoop'd their lamps th' enthroned fires on the warrior soul to that high festival,
high:
Where Valour with his armed hand administers witness. She thus briefly, but exquisitely

A conflict ensues of which Salone is a willing
A single silent star

The cup of death!
Came wandering from afar,
Gliding uncheck’d and calin along the liquid sky; by himself in the ensuing colloquy, at a con-

The character of Simon is potently drawn

pourtrays her lover among the combatants.

Salone. And thou! oh thou, that movest to
The Eastern Sages leading on

the battle
As at a kingly throne,
ference with the besiegers.

Even like the mountain stag to the running
To lay their gold and odours sweet Sim, Peace, John of Galilee! and I will

river,
Before thy infant feet.

answer

Pause, pause, that I may gaze my fill! The carth and Ocean were not hush'd to hear But in far other tone than he is wont

This purple-mantled Captain of the Gentiles; The Jews are defeated: meanwhile a proBright harmony from every starry sphere;

cession of virgins go up to the temple to imNor at thy presence brake the voice of song

To hear about his silken couch of feasting
From all the cherub choirs,
Amid his pamper'd parasites.- I speak to thee, described by Miriam.

plore the divine protection. They are thus
And seraphs' burning lyres

Titus, es warrior
should accost a warrior.

Behold them here!
Pour'a thro' the host of heaven the charmed The world, thou boastest, is Rome's slave; the Behold them, bow unlike to what they were !

clouds along
One angel troop the strain began,
Rises and sets upon no realm but yours;

Oh! virgin daughters of Jerusalem!
Of all the race of man
Yé plant your giant foot in either ocean,

Ye were a gården once of Hermon's Kilies,

That
By simple shepherds heard alone,
And vaunt that all which ye n'erstride is Rome's

. Bow to the wooing breatly of the sweet spring.

bashfully upon their tremulous stems
That soft Hosanna's tone.

But think ye, that because the common earth
And when thou didst depart, no car of flame
Surfeits your pride with homage, that our land, of tabret, harp, or lute, to modulate

Graceful ye were there needed not the tone
To bear thee hence in lambent radiance came; Portion'd and seald unto us by the God

Our separate, peculiar, sacred land,
Nor visible Angels mourn'd with drooping Who made the round world and the crystal Fell like a natural music. Ah ! how deeply

Your soft harmonious footsteps; your light

tread
plumes :
Nor didst thou mount on high

heavens
From fatal Calvary
A wondrous land, where Nature's common How heavily ye drag your weary footsteps:

Hạth the cold blight of misery prey'd upon you.
With all thine own redeem d outbursting from is strange and out of use, so oft the Lord

Each like a mother mourning her one chilā.
their tombs.
For thou didst bear away from earth
Invades it with miraculous intervention;

Ah me! I feel it almost as a sin,
But one of human birth,
Think ye this land shall be an Heathen heritage,

To be so much less sad, less miserable.
The dying felon by thy side, to be

An high place for your Moloch? Haughty A chorus is here sung, which is rather un-
In Paradise with thee.

Gentile !

equally written; but the conclusion, compar, Nor o'er thy cross the clouds of vengeance The air ye breathe is heavy and o'ercharged

Even now ye walk on ruin and on prodigy. ing the present state of the chosen people brake:

with their peril when pursued by Pharaoh,

It was but now is in Mr. Millman's verse. I sate within the Temple, in the court shortly illustrate it— That's consecrate to mine office-Your eyes wander

We can only

Chorus of Jews flying towards the Temple.
Fly fly fly!
Clouds, not of incense, from the Temple rise,
And there are altar-fires, but not of sacrifice.
And Priests are there, but not of Aaron's kin;
And there are victims, yet nor bulls nor goats;
And he that doth the murtherous rite begin,

To stranger Gods his hecatomb devotes;
His hecatomb of Israel's chosen race
All foully slaughter'd in their Holy Place.
Break into joy, ye barren, that ne'er bore!
Rejoice, ye breasts, where ne'er sweet infant
hung!

wrung,

From you, from you no smiling babes are
Ye die, but not amid your children's gore.
But howl and weep, oh ye that are with child,
Ye on whose bosoms unwean'd babes are laid;
The sword that's with the mother's blood de-
filed

Still with the infant gluts the insatiate blade.
Fly fly! fly!

Fly not, I say, for Death is every where,

To keen-eyed Lust all places are the same:
There's not a secret chamber in whose lair

Our wives can shroud them from th' abhorred

shame.

Where the sword fails, the fire will find us there,

All, all is death-the Gentile or the flame.
On to the Temple! Brethren, Israel on!
Though every slippery street with carnage
swims,

Salone. Night closes round,
Slumber is on my soul. If Amariah
Return with morning, glorious and adorn'd
In spoil, as he is wont, thoul't wake me, sister?
-Ah! no, no, no! this is no waking sleep,
It bursts upon me-Yes, and Simon's daughter,
Nor shrink from dying. My half-failing spirit
The bride of Amariah, may not fear,
Comes back, my soft love-melted heart is
strong:

I know it all, in mercy and in love
Thou'st wounded me to death-and I will bless
thee,

True lover! noble husband! my last breath
Is thine in blessing-Amariah!--Love!
And yet thou shouldst have staid to close mine
eyes,

Oh Amariah--and an hour ago

I was a happy bride upon thy bosom,
And now am-Oh God, God! if he have
err'd,
And should come back again, and find me-

dead!

We have exceeded our limits, and must conclude abruptly, reserving the final hymn for our next. From such poetry, it would be absolutely sinful to detract by detailing the trifling blemishes which have crept into the heat of composition. Half a dozen lines in which the euphony is imperfect; one or two grammatical inaccuracies; the repetition of

66

yeas" and "evens" rather frequently; and hardly an instance of inferior style, are all that hyper-criticism could point out. Upon the general consideration we would express Still, still, while yet there stands one holy stone,natural feelings never dwell on abstract our opinion, that Miriam defines too much Fight for your God, his sacred house to save, Or have its blazing ruins for your grave! Miriam, after an admirable dialogue with an old man who had witnessed the crucifixion of Christ, is saved by Javan in disguise, and captivity or slaughter. The death of Sathese two Christians are all who escape from lone is also most powerfully affecting: she is stabbed by her bridegroom, to prevent | pollution from the Roman spoilers.

of the first book of the Gulistan of Saadi. | endom, the governors of provinces | assistance of their poles on the part of the Few particulars relative to the Embassy are offer their pechkechs, or voluntary tri-rope which was horizontal, one of the two given, and the author's return furnishes no-butes, to the sovereign. dancers, ten years old at most, mounted thing in the way of novelty. completely as high as the terrace which Had we not reviewed Mr. Morier at who governs Khorassan, was the first that backwards from a height of more than eighty The Chah Zadé Muhammed Veli Mirza, crowns the pavilion, and then descended considerable length, we should have presented himself: he bowed profoundly feet. We remarked with pleasure, that sebeen better able to quote from Mr.before the king his father, and presented veral men placed beneath the cord, followed Tancoigne; but in truth, we can fifty superb horses of his province, an equal all the movements of the child, ready to rehardly find extracts for our purpose, number of mules and camels, Cachemire ceive him in a large blanket if his foot had without incurring the fault of repetition. shawls, several bags of turquoises, &c. the happened to have slipped. We did not supBaiazid is the last town of Turkey, in the latter objects were on broad wooden trays, pose the Persians were capable of such an Armeniau portion of Asia: it is three hun- carried by the officers of his household.attention, especially in the king's presence. dred and sixty leagues from Constantinople, After these presents had passed before the These dancers are called in Persian, Djanand three from the Persian frontier. Built king, they were sent into the interior of the baz, meaning, him who plays or risks his like an amphitheatre, on the declivity of a palace. soul. This expression, contemptuous in very steep rock, its position is impregnable, Prince Muhammed Ali Khan, governor of itself, intimates that games of this kind are and in proper hands could never be taken, Kerman Chah, not being at court, sent the discouraged by religion; and is nearly synoexcept by famine. This town contains from offering by his vizir: it consisted of Cache-nymous with that of excommunication, with twelve to fifteen thousand Inhabitants, of mire shawls, arms, such as lances, muskets, which our actors were once complimented. which the greater part are Armenians. All pistols, and a great number of camels and The term of Serbaz, which significs a man the houses are built of clay, and it is impos- mules laden with carpets and fine felts. who stakes his head, might have been applied sible to take a step in the streets without asto them with still greater propriety; but cending or descending at the risk of your amongst the Persians it has a more noble neck. The Pacha's palace is situated in the acceptation, and is applied peculiarly to highest part of the town, on a fortified rock. soldiers. A mosque, built on the declivity of the hill, is the only edifice worth remarking.

This evening we paid a visit to the governor, Ibrahim Pacha: he received the general in a large hall, by the gloomy light of two wax candles. The appearance of the place, and the people who surrounded it, might have induced us to suppose we were in a cave of robbers. Ibrahim fears the Curdes, and seldom leaves his palace he is a Pacha of two tails; but his power does not extend beyond the town, as the robbers who infest his pachalik, do not acknowledge the authority of the Grand Signior, merely paying a small tribute to the King of Persia, to avoid being molested by that prince.

The first Persian village we saw, is called Kilisia Kendi: it is inhabited by poor Armenians and Curdes, who are under greater restraint there than in Turkey.

The vizir of Muhammed Kouli Mirza, another chah zade, who commands in Mazenderan, then presented in the name of his master, more Cachemire shawls, stuffs of gold, silver and silk, wooden spoons of de- Naked men armed with maces, and licate workmanship, arms, camels, and mules. wrestlers, appeared afterwards before the Those of the chah zade, Hussein Ali Mir-king. The first resembled savages, they za, who governs the province of Farsistan, struck their clubs together, but without inwere also remarkable in their kind. Amongst juring each other. It was not so with the other objects, we saw a great quantity of second; their combats have something so sugar and syrups, mules and camels laden revolting, and hideous, that I am loth to with coffee and tambako, or smoking tobac- mention it to you. The conqueror, that is co, from Chiraz. to say, he who succeeded in throwing his adversary on his back, went to the foot of the kiosk to receive a piece of money which the king threw down to him.

But the tribute of the Emin ud Dewlet, Hadji, Muhammed Hussein Khan, Beylerbey of Ispahan, surpassed all the former in magnificence. Besides superb Turkoman horses and rich stuffs, it also included that precious metal, so eagerly sought by all mankind; and for which the king of Persia is said to have a very decided predilection. Fifty mules, ornamented with Cachemire shawls and streamers, carried each one thousand tomans in money, a suin equal to about 45,000Z.!

the presentation of the tributes, which were
sent into the king's palace, according as they
passed in review before his majesty.

On the following day we saw numerous encampments of this wandering people. Every year at the same period, these preNotwithstanding their robberies on the ter- sents are renewed; and by this an idea may ritory of the Grand Signor, they are moderate be formed of the immense riches which the and circumspect on those of the King of private treasure of the king of Persia must Persia. As already statel, they pay a tri-contain. Games of all kinds succeeded to bute to this monarch, who has taken them under his special protection. The Curdes, natural subjects of the Grand Signior, are too distant from the capital of the Ottoman empire to have any thing to fear from a weak government, the influence of which merely extends to a few leagues in circumference. Close to the Persian frontier, they have every thing to fear from the armies of the prince who governs in this district; and, by a compact equally advantageous to the two parties, they have placed themselves under subjection to the king, who can employ them with advantage in his wars against the

Turks.

At Teheran, the legation was allowed to witness the ceremony of making presents to the king on the newrouz, or new year, a period at which, as was once a pretty general custom in Christ

First came men running on stilts of more
than twenty feet high; others performing
feats of strength and balancing, turning on
the slack rope, or carrying on their heads, a
pile of earthen pots, surmounted with a
vase of flowers; then dancers and combats
of rams that were excited against each other.
These exercises were followed by rope-danc-
ing, performed by two young children. I
am sorry for our performers on the rope,
but they are still very far from equalling the
dexterity of these, as you shall perceive.

less flexible than a hempen one: being
The rope was of hair, and consequently
strained on two trestles of more than forty
feet in height, it ascended almost impercept-
ibly as high as the top of the king's kiosk.
After having made several gambols with the

These spectacles, worthy of a nation of children, though not more frivolous than many European pastimes, but which are nevertheless full of attraction here, were prolonged until nightfall; the king retired during half an hour, to say his evening prayer; and then returned for the fireworks. I have but seldom seen any equal to these, even in France: they extended over all the great court of the palace, which is three hundred paces long, and five hundred broad, also on some of the terraces that surround it. They commenced with the Bengal flames, which had a very fine effect; then they let of in confusion a prodigious quantity of cases, crackers and rockets. Suns, figures of men and animals, trees and houses of fire, every instant presented new scenes; and there was nothing wanting but more order and symmetry to render the spectacle magnificent. The next day was appropriated to horse-racing.

These extracts will serve as an ex

ample of the work: from the author's translation of Saadi, we also select the following...

"A horde of Arabian robbers desolated a district; they had intercepted the road of and intrenched themselves on the summit of the caravans, beaten the armies of the prince, a mountain, which was made their retreat and asylum. The ministers of the kingdom assembled to consult on the means of stopping their ravages, supposing that if they