ARTICLES IN PREPARATION. Tancred and Sigismunda. (a Tale from the Italian.) The Serenade. Burton on Interest. On a regular Week. Reflections on Spring, by Martin Sterling; and a variety of others, which we have not time to notice, but most of which shall make their appearance in due course of time. Mr. COURTENAY then rose to read to us the often-promised, longexpected, and never-to-be-too-much-admired Greek Version of " Judy O'Flannikin." It was received with long applause; and the commendations bestowed upon its Author would have made any one blush but an Hibernian. The "silver crown" given by Victory to Phelim, as related in O'Connor's introductory letter, gave rise to considerable discussion. No one seemed to understand correctly the meaning of it. The Hon. G. MONTGOMERY conceived it to mean the wreath of fame; and whereas the said wreath is generally of laurel, he thought the making it "silver" was nothing more than a Hibernicism the Vulgate, a Bull. ; or, in Mr. LE BLANC thought that the "crown" was synonymous with the "wife," upon the authority of the expression, "A virtuous wife" is a 'crown' to her husband." He was immediately called to order by Mr. Sterling. Mr. BURTON said he had always understood, and he felt pretty confident, that a "crown" signified the consolidation of five shillings. -(Laughter.) The Hon. G. MONTGOMERY then proposed that C. Bellamy be admitted a Member of the Club; and that as the Hon. Gentleman had a great aversion to hard drinking, the Inauguration Ceremony might be dispensed with. Mr. STERLING said, in this case he would venture to propose the worthy enemy of the punch-bowl, Matthew Swinburne. Before I proceed, I must, as usual, give you THE CHARACTERS OF THE CANDIDATES. Those of our readers who have perused "The Miseries of a Christmas Holidays" are by no means prejudiced in favour of MATTHEW SWINBURNE. Indeed we ought not to be surprised to find that the Author of that article has been identified with the hero of his tale, since the title of "Childe Harold," in spite of his Lordship's solemn protest on the subject, is now almost synonymous with the name of Byron; and the good Ettrick Shepherd himself has become consubstantiated with that gay Gallant of the Lowlands, his own ideal creation, Geordie Cochrane. I must, however, enter my appeal against this prevailing humour of the Reading Public, the injustice of which was never more easy of demonstration than in the present case. Poor Swinburne, since the appearance of that contribution of his, has been uni. versally set down for a Sawney; but I trust, when the matter has been duly investigated, he will be found no more to merit this character, in the full force and acceptation of the term, than Tom Moore has to be considered a "Veiled Prophet," or Mr. Coleridge "The Ancient Mariner." It is true that this youth was born and bred amid the bleakest wilds of the West Country; far from the hum and bustle of that great Babel, the Metropolis. Even in the heyday of their years his Parents had never entered into the gaieties of fashionable life; their income being but just inde pendent, prudence, as well as inclination, prevented them from embarking within the circle of dissipation and splendor; and, by way of consolation for their own exclusion, they found amusement in observing, and carefully treasuring up, in the accurate journal of their memories, the various wrecks of fortune and character which are continually taking place within the fatal vortex. They had been but lately settled at the live ing, of which the Rev. Mr. Swinburne still discharges the pastoral duties, amid the love, esteem, and respect of every individual member of his flock, when little Matthew made his entrance on the stage of life; and, if it only generally turned out that the merits of the youth were equivalent to the care and attention paid to the education of the child, much was to be expected of this nurseling; for never were there Parents who devoted themselves more solicitously to the welfare and improvement of their firstborn than at the parsonage-house of Wendover. It has been necessary to refer thus far back in the domestic history of this Candidate for our Club, to enable us to account more easily for that peculiar bias of disposition which we shall presently have occasion to notice as the characteristic trait of this individual. While the young ideas were learning to shoot, the most alarming notions of the world's treachery and cruelty were inculcated into Matthew's mind with serious earnestness; and, when we consider the constitu tional, timidity with which he seems to have been born, we cannot wonder that his natural goodhumour became a prey to occasional fits of despondency and suspicion fits which promised fair to settle into a confirmed habit. He was constantly forbidden to pluck at the rose of pleasure, however it might wear the appearance of innocence, for fear of the thorn which might lurk beneath the flower-good advice, certainly, in the main; but, unless tempered with moderation, it is justly exposed to the censure of damping the bold aspirations of youthful spirits, which ought rather to be encouraged as indicative of our immortal nature, and picking holes in that corslet of proof which was given us for defensive armour in our struggles with life-Hope. "To each his sufferings: all are men, Since Sorrow never comes too late, It was not till a late period that the Parents ventured to trust the morals of their son among the snares and temptations of a miniature world. We shall have no difficulty in picturing to ourselves this stranger in the land on his first arrival at Eton. Every thing around himwears the air of novelty, and is viewed with mistrust and apprehension. Does he receive a kind offer of enlisting him as a playmate in the amusements of his equals? it is refused as the treacherous lure of seduction. The ideas which he has formed of the se niors make them out to be a set of bullies and reprobates; and he fears to associate with those of his own age and station, as if they were all liars and thieves indiscriminately. Time, however, gradually wore off a great portion of this suspicious temper; but yet not till he had experienced many bitter hours of annoyance. His uncommunicative disposition and want of confidence, which his schoolfellows construed into a haughty superciliousness, was naturally enough answered by a corresponding feeling of dislike towards him; and hence, as might be foreseen, was the source of many disagreeable animosities between Swinburne and those who took it into their heads to consider him as an outlaw from society. The eccentricity of his habits of tentimes gave a handle for the illnatured strictures of his persecutors. He was not unfrequently discovered at his writing-desk, delineating, with all due attention to Homer and Mr. Pope, the Grecian encampment before Troy, and assigning the naval stations of Ajax and Achilles, with accurate reference to the situation of the promontories of Sigeum and Rhæteum; while his equals were, perhaps, as busily engaged in marking out their foot-ball goals, or the popping crease, on the cleanest and most level piece of turf in the Lower College Club-ground. At that period of his school-time it might be as truly said of Mat, as of the Arabian Patriarch, "His hand was against every man, and every man's hand was against him." In the meanwhile, however, his studies were advancing with rapidity. Not confining himself exclusively to the Classics, he proceeded with laudable perseverance in the cultivation of English Lite rature, which he had begun under the auspices of parental instruction. Though I highly estimate the knowledge which many members of our Club have acquired in particular branches; as, for instance, Le Blanc in philosophy, Montgomery in poetry, and Sterling in divinity, with many others I could mention, I do not think there is one who so fairly merits the title of the Eton Encyclopedist as Matthew Swinburne. With regard to general learning, such as falls within the usual sphere of a schoolboy's attainment, without including that species of literature which I would call the modern accomplishments of the belles lettres, Swinburne is the best alchymist I know in analyzing the matter of his reading, separating the dross from the ore, and storing up in the cells of a retentive memory whatever is best calculated to be brought to bear on future occasions of composition, both in verse and prose. In scholastic acquisitions he holds far ahead of his neighbours; as a confirmation of which I need only instance the nickname by which he is generally known,-" The Walking Lexicon." There is one singularity which I cannot refrain from noting down as characteristic of the man. We common mortals, when a copy of theme or verses is required of us, usually sit down to our task, and compose our treatise or rhapsody as the lines multiply beneath our pen or pencil. Not so with Matthew. The work of literary creation is secretly carried on by him within the chambers of his brain, totally independent of outward circumstances. He may be at meals, walking in the country, nay, I may add, in conversation with his friends. The subject for the exercise is safely lodged in the crucible of his mind, and acts upon his thoughts, which flow to wards it and arrange themselves in due order, just as the clinker, in the manufacture of artificial spar, attracts to itself the particles of alum;* and it is not till the whole is completed that he commits his composition to paper. Of course, while this process is going on, the concerns of the outward man are forgotten, and, in consequence of the absence of the directing principle, whose attention is so entirely monopolized within, the head, pregnant with such mighty matter, is in danger of fracture from any wall or doorpost that may chance to interfere with its movements. Though even now by no means a gregarious animal, Mat is much more social than formerly. In company he is remarkable for his reserve, but it is of a totally different nature from that which I have described as a principal feature in the character of Le Blanc. The latter gentleman is really absent of mind-completely absorbed in the visionary contemplation of his metaphysical fancies; while Swinburne is strictly present in every sense of the word: he says little, but that little is solid, and we know the old proverb, "Shallow waters are noisiest." Watch him! Does the conversation take a sensible and interesting turn? Matthew is all ear; he is duly weighing the arguments on both sides of the question. Has it degenerated into prurient smalltalk or fashionable nonsense? A close observer may notice the contemptuous, sardonic sneer which is creeping over Mat's lips,-a precursor, as the lightning of the thunderbolt, so this of some truculent sarcasm or remark. Thus you see his style of wit is a perfect contrast to the piquante and flashy brilliancy of Golightly's. Fred's satirical stoccate are foiled in their effect by previous expectation, and oftentimes prove innocuous; for we may avoid them, as we do the rattlesnake, in consequence of the warning we receive; but Mat is the boa-constrictor, whose attack upon his unfortunate victims is sudden, certain, and complete. There is moreover much dry humour, (more peculiarly belonging to a Yorkshireman,) about him, which causes abundant entertainment to those who have the pleasure of his acquaintance. I would not have you think that his satires are the effusions of ill-nature or spleen. If it so happens that he does carry a heart-stain away on his blade," depend upon it he has been only acting on the defensive, and the temerity of his adversary deserved the punishment he has brought upon himself. Though he has not the slightest tinge of pe dantry, he is a scholar after our Instructor's own heart. Does a dark passage or obsolete expression occur in the lesson? Mat is ready with the separate verdicts of Toup, Brunck, Valknaer, Elmsley, and Porson, on the subject, as well as the different readings in omnibus codicibus et quibusdam aliis. In addition to all this, he writes a beautiful Greek text, and is astonishingly correct with the accents; and be well assured, that, whenever the public are favoured with a fresh enlarged edition of the "Muse Etonenses," the name of Swinburne will be conspicuous in the roll of fame, in the repository of the classic wealth of Eton. * For this erudite simile I am indebted to my friend Le Blane.-R. H. 2 U The Hon. CHARLES BELLAMY has a form and pressure of character, decidedly different from any other which has already issued from our mould of description, and yet one which is not unfrequently met with at public schools, He was the youngest of a large family, and brought up at home under the management and surveillance of elder sisters, whose pet and slave he had the honour to be. These circumstances were calculated to influence, in no small degree, his future habits and disposition; and they have produced, it must be confessed, a strong shade of effeminacy in his composition. The Misses Bellamy were true "blues," and little Charlie had many opportunities of "making himself useful," in fetching the last new novel from the library, carrying the reticule, crayon-case, or campstool, or holding the umbrella to keep off the intrusive rays of Phobus from the snow-white neck of sister Harriet or Sophia, while employed in sketching the animated landscape around them. In reward for these services, he was early initiated into botany, astronomy, mineralogy, and mathematics, as far as the ground-work of each was concerned. But even this was of considerable benefit, as the raising of a future superstructure was thus rendered comparatively easy. His reason for stopping short at that time was a good one. His fair preceptresses had gone no farther themselves. With true female fickleness and love of change and novelty, they became tired of any one particular branch of study almost as soon as they had mastered the rudiments; -as for instance, when they had got by heart the Latin names of the genera and species, and were or had able to arrange the various botanic productions of the romantic heath in their neighbourhood, according to the Linnæan system; made out a map of the heavens, and could tell you that the Greater Bear and the Horologium are never seen in the same hemisphere; or had learnt the difference between a circle and a parallelogram. Bellamy's docility and rapid progress under such tuition rendered him the pride of his sis ters, and the lion of his papa's desert-table. Indeed it has been ayerred that both Miss J. Band Lady Mhabits of intimacy with the family, pronounced it to be their conviction that he was a promising young lad! who were in The long-dreaded hour, however, at length arrived, when it was necessary that Charles should go forth, "in the beauty of his strength," to a public school. Tender and fervent were the protestations of mutual love between him and his sisters, and sharp the pang of parting; but "destiny is over all and stern necessity." His trunk was duly crammed with the handyworks of affection;-portfolios and blotting-books to put his manuscripts in, ornaments for his mantle-piece, and last, not least in point of utility, a neat little needle-book, properly furnished with all its paraphernalia. The first week or so, Bellamy missed the society of his sisters, and was unguarded enough to betray his emotions to his new companions, who, instead of sympa thizing with, only ridiculed him for his sensibility. By degrees, |