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formed for her a still tenderer ministry; it soothed the deep sorrows, on which we dare not enter, which shaded the tissue of her history-it mixed its richest cupful of the joy of grief" for her selected lips-it lapped her in a dream of beauty, through which the sad realities of life looked in, softened and mellowed in the medium. What could poetry have done more for her, except, indeed, by giving her that sight" as far as the incommunicable"-that supreme vision which she gives so rarely, and which she bestows often as a curse, instead of a blessing? Mrs. Hemans, on the other hand, was too favourite a child of the Muse to receive any such Cassandra boon. Poetry beautified her life, blunted and perfumed the thorns of her anguish, softened the pillow of her sickness, and combined with her firm and most

feminine faith to shed a gleam of soft and tearful glory upon her death.

Thus lived, wrote, suffered, and died " "Egeria." Without farther seeking to weigh the worth, or settle the future place of her works, let us be thankful to have had her among us, and that she did what she could, in her bright, sorely-tried, yet triumphant passage. She grew in beauty; was blasted where she grew; rained around her poetry, like bright tears from her eyes; learned in suffering what she taught in song; died, and all hearts to which she ever ministered delight, have obeyed the call of Wordsworth, to

"Mourn rather for that holy spirit,
Mild as the spring, as ocean deep ;-
For her who, ere her summer faded,
Has sunk into a dreamless sleep."

COPENHAGEN.

which the British public know little more than that it was bombarded by a fleet of their's in 1807.

It seems that Copenhagen existed as a small town as early as the twelfth century. It did not become a royal residence until about the middle of the fifteenth century; and, therefore, it is one of the youngest metropolitan cities of Europe. It has few architectural antiquities to boast of, and its general appearance is modern, from the new buildings rendered necessary by the devastations committed by foreign enemies. The troops of the Hanseatic League pillaged and burnt it in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In the sixteenth century, it was besieged by Frederick I., then by the Hanseatic troops, and afterwards by Christian III. In the next century, it was twice

EXCEPT for commercial purposes, the capital of the Danish dominion has been little visited by tourists, until of late. But since the coasts of the Baltic have been made more accessible to the people of the Continent, the Germans, especially, have availed themselves of modern facilities in travelling, and have smoked their meerschaums, and drunk beer, in considerable numbers, in Copenhagen. Steam vessels lighten the fatigue of a voyage, and holiday tourists are not now afraid to undertake a little ramble in Scandinavia. Still, Norway and Sweden are the grand points of attraction to other nations, and it has been usual to leave the Danish islands and Jutland behind; so that, in fact, a country, remarkable in many respects, is less known to the English than Egypt. Amongst the persons who lately steamed to Co-attacked-first by Charles Gustavus, and then by penhagen, in addition to the ordinary cargo of an allied fleet. In the eighteenth century, it was Hamburg wine merchants and cigar dealers, was twice burnt to the extent of one-half each time; Mr. J. G. Kohl, a traveller, who, not long ago, and in 1807, there was Lord Catheart's memowas taking notes amongst ourselves, which he has rable bombardment. To defend themselves against since printed. This gentleman seems very se- attack, the Danes have added fortification to forverely afflicted with the cacoethes scribendi as well tification, until the place has been stoutly enveas the cacoethes peregrinandi; and he has just loped by doubled and redoubled folds of walls and presented the public with six volumes of descrip- ditches. The defences of Paris, notwithstanding tion and dissertation suggested by his tour in the money that has been lavished upon them, are Denmark. Hastily as he runs through a country, inferior to those of Copenhagen. Copenhagen, he has no fears in discoursing on all subjects and however, is Denmark; for the other fortifications objects he meets with. He has dealings with the of the kingdom are very weak, and if the capital letter A in Art, Agriculture, and Academies, and were taken, the whole country might be considered with every other word in the dictionary express- in an enemy's hands; and in more respects than ing a general term, until we arrive at Z in Zoo- this is Copenhagen Denmark, since it contains logy. He has no love of conciseness and compres- almost all the schools, museums, and government sion: on the contrary, he delights in repetition offices of the kingdom. Indeed, the city is not and verbosity. Though the greater number of merely the chief place of this kingdom, but of all his pages are dull and spiritless, there are portions the Scandinavian lands. The educated Norweof the books that will repay perusal; because gians usually speak Danish; and the literature of they give us information about a country that is, Norway is merely a part of that of Denmark. or ought to be, interesting to us. More than a Consequently, Copenhagen is the great book half of one volume is occupied by a description of market for all those lands. Into no Scandithe Danish capital; and we propose to lay before navian dialect are there so many translations our readers, in the present article, an abridge- as into the Danish; and the Swedes have rement of Mr. Kohl's prolixity touching a city of course to these translations, in order to obtain

a knowledge of foreign literature.

The study the most singular. For instance, there is the tower of the Exchange, which is formed by the tails of four enormous dragons twisted together and elevated in the air, whilst their bodies lie flat on the quadrangular wall that bears the spire. The whole is of freestone, and there are stairs in the interior. Not far distant is the celebrated round tower, built by Christian IV. The winding passage in the interior rests, on one side, upon the outer wall, and on the other upon a pillar that stands in the centre. It is so broad, and climbs the tower so gradually, that Peter the Great, who left few things unvisited or untried, was able to ride up it on horseback, whilst his wife rode alongside in a carriage drawn by four horses. The stranger may wonder to see so many persons moving up and down it; but the secret is out when he is told that it leads to an observatory as well as to the University library, and visiters are also attracted by the stones covered with Runic carvings which are placed in several recesses here and there. The slender tower of the Redeemer's Church is one of the most elegant buildings in Copenhagen. It rises far above the other edifices of the city, and nearly reaches three hundred feet. The staircase is not in the inside, but twines round the exterior like a wreath round a tall pillar. It must really be a dizzy business to climb so high into the air, over steps of copper so narrow that the foot has some difficulty in getting secure hold. Though few people venture to ascend it, Mr. Kohl did the heroic thing; but he frankly confesses he was uncomfortably dis

of northern antiquities can only be carried on with advantage at Copenhagen, where the only valuable collection of Scandinavian remains is to be found; and there it is side by side with a noble library abounding with the richest materials for historical investigation. The position of the kingdom between Germany and Sweden, Eastern Slavonia and Britain, has created an interest amongst its inhabitants for the affairs of those countries, which leads them to watch with attention the course of events, and even to range themselves in parties with reference to them. The Danish people, it must be admitted, like the scenery of their land, possess little originality. There are many interesting things to be met with certainly in Copenhagen; and, indeed, if a man has a desire to see somewhat of the world, and yet save himself as much trouble as possible, he may profitably go there at once, where he will find something worth looking at in most branches of art and science. If, on the other hand, he has already visited the great capitals of Europe, there is no need for him to go to Copenhagen, because he will see little to interest him there, that he has not seen elsewhere of a better class, or on a larger | scale. In truth, everything in this city, the architecture of its buildings, and their position, its museums of art, its schools of science, &c., are characterised by a certain mediocrity. One thing about it, however, is admirable, and that is its situation. The Sound, to which numberless vessels give life and animation, the rich beech woods, and the lovely parks around it, lend it a noble ap-composed, and was frequently beset with fearful pearance, yet, if the mind recurs to some other cities, even in this respect Copenhagen cannot maintain rank amongst the first. The situation of Stockholm on the Mälarn is far more picturesque, and there can be no comparison between it and the cities on the Bosphorus, the Tagus, and the Neapolitan Gulf. It may, however, be safely asserted that Copenhagen is a fine capital; and though dreary enough when a severe winter blocks up the Sound with ice, and cuts off for several weeks any communication with the main land, yet, at a more favourable season its appearance to the voyager's eye, when he emerges from the narrow entrance into the port, is highly imposing. The architecture of the city is neat and tolerably regular; the streets are broad, and the houses are a good height. The artist may look about it, almost in vain, for any of those picturesque quaintnesses which delight him in Venice, Ghent, Brussels, and the old German towns. One part is intersected with canals, and Amsterdam is forcibly brought to mind by the sight of vessels towed along between the houses. Though not a city of quaint peculiarity and original character, though the people are destitute of ardour and poetry, though no grand works of art await the visiter there, Copenhagen is a place of considerable attraction.

temptations to leap over the balustrades. The contour is extremely graceful, and the artist who would obtain a characteristic sketch of Copenhagen always takes care to place himself at a spot where he can introduce it into his drawing.

The collections of objects of art are remarkable for the excellence of their arrangement, a particular in which the English galleries and museums are glaringly deficient. Almost all of them have been arranged chronologically or historically-the cabinet of medals, the relics of Danish monarchs, in the Castle of Rosenburg; the gallery of antiquities; and especially the very interesting collection of weapons, in the Royal Arsenal. To Dr. Thomson, who has devoted the greatest part of his life to the study of antiquities, Copenhagen owes the beautiful order of most of these collections. Thus the Armoury in the Arsenal exhibits a complete history of weaponmanufacture, with specimens of the various kinds. Some articles are remarkable on account of their former possessors, as the swords of Christian IV. and Charles XII. As all are placed according to the date of their construction, one may perceive how gradually fire-arms became more light and portable, and how match-locks were exchanged for flint, and then for percussion locks. Some of the swords have hilts of curiously beautiful workman

Copenhagen does possess some ancient build-ship. It seems that the Emperor of Russia had ings that have escaped the fire and balls of a foe, and the slow but equally destructive attacks of time; and amongst these the city towers are about

been so much struck with them that he sent an artist for the express purpose of taking copies. The hilt of one is formed by dragons and serpents

twisted together. The basket-hilt of another is constructed by figures which represent the battle of the centaurs. The pommel of a third is composed of a coil of metal figures meant to depict the five senses, which are very artistically wrought. No wonder the old poets sometimes took swords for their themes, and gave them individual names. A couple of exquisitely marked cannon are pointed out as having been presented by the Doge of Venice to Frederick IV. on the occasion of his visit to Italy. On the surface of another, there is a whole genealogical tree of the Royal Oldenburg House. The great hall of the Magazine contains a number of Swedish flags taken by the Danes, and on one of them is a couplet which may be thus rendered into Eng

lish

"If the cat should leave the house,

Then round the table runs the mouse." This flag was made by the Swedes in 1658 in derision of their enemy; and two years afterwards, when Copenhagen was under siege, the students made a sally out of the city and got hold of it, thus putting an interpretation upon the words that the Swedes had not dreamed of.

tain nymph, and hence its name, which is consequently an erroneous one. The collection of coins is very good, containing ten thousand Greek and twenty thousand Roman medals; and the care with which those of the early Danish monarchs have been brought together is exemplary. We may search through the British Museum in vain for a coin of Canute, who was King of Denmark as well as of England, whilst the Rosenburg Cabinet has four hundred of that monarch struck in this island, and three struck in Denmark. There is also one of the best collections of Anglo-Saxon coins extant. Other chambers contain objects illustrative of ethnography, works in ivory and amber, and Indian carvings. The whole forms one of those miscellaneous accumulations of things, procured from the four quarters of the world, which the princes of former times took such delight in bringing together. It is, indeed, inferior to the magnificent museums at Dresden and Vienna; still, north, south, east, and west have lavishly contributed to its stores. Alongside the wood carvings of the northern peasant, we may see an exquisite specimen of Benvenuto Cellini's skill, and a wondrous piece of iron work wrought by a Nuremberg smith. Close by the sculpture of a distinguished Danish lady, now living, we may perceive a head, cut by a Greek artist, which can never be forgotten by those who have seen it once.

Decidedly the most beautiful part of Copenhagen is that adorned by the royal castle and gardens of Rosenburg. The castle was erected in the Italian style by Christian IV. in 1604. The crown jewels and a great number of curious objects are stored in it, amongst which is an ex- It is highly creditable to the Danish people traordinary collection of glass ware, hundreds of that they should have pushed the investigation ancient drinking vessels, beakers, flasks, jugs, of local antiquities with more perseverance goblets of every possible kind, with some of gold and success than any other nation. It may be and silver, with the famous Oldenburg Horn, said, indeed, that primitive times are nearer to which shows how much meaning and poetry our them than to any other people; and, therefore, ancestors could impress on the commonest things. that they have had a field richer with antique It was no unusual matter in the middle ages to remains to work upon. That may be true, but it fashion drinking cups out of horns, or in the shape is also the fact, that the Danes are distinguished of horns. In this instance, scenes of the castle by a love of history, and historical tradition that life of Germany, in the fifteenth century, are re- arises out of, as well as encourages, their strong presented in miniature silver carvings. The sup- feelings of nationality. Perhaps the greatest atports are models of a turreted and battlemented traction at Copenhagen for those who seek infortress. The body shows a number of pointed struction, as well as amusement, in their travels, roofs, gables, gates, terrace windows, and bal- is the Museum of Northern Antiquities, founded conies. There are sentinels on the towers, and in 1807, and annually increased since that time knights with attendants galloping up to the gates. by large additions. It is under the care of a so~ Ladies are looking out of the windows and over ciety, which had its origin as far back as the year the balconies, In one place we see savage fellows 1744, for the cultivation of northern history and armed with clubs; in another, dogs and couching languages. The idea of such a museum first oclions guarding an entrance. On the lid is a curred to the learned librarian of this society, group of minnesingers playing on stringed in- Nyerup, and to his exertions were soon added struments, and round the rim of the mouth are those of Bishop Münter. There is an Institution ladies and supporters carrying the arms of Den- at Copenhagen, founded by Christian IV., in mark, Burgandy, and Brabant. This piece of which a hundred poor students are clothed, fed, workmanship is believed to have been made for and educated. It was the endeavour of Nyerup the Danish King Christian I, as a memorial of to awaken amongst these young men a taste for his journey to Cologne in 1474, to act as arbi- antiquarian lore, and when they were afterwards trator in a dispute between the Emperor and scattered through the country, they became a Charles the Bold. It was dedicated, after the valuable help in carrying out the wishes of the pious fashion of the times, to the three kings of librarian. Ancient barrows, hitherto neglected, Cologne, Balthazar, Kaspar, and Melchior, whose were carefully examined, and the people generally names are engraved on the lid along with sen- were incited to seek, to collect, and to preserve, tences from holy writ. It has been commonly mis- all kinds of relics. The crown caused a comtaken for a similar article which Count Otto of mission to issue, and minute directions were Oldenburg is fabled to have received from a moun-printed for the guidance of village pastors and

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schoolmasters, to whom copies were forwarded throughout the kingdom. It was notified that any antiques wrought in the precious metals which should be sent in would be paid for without insisting upon the right of the crown to have them yielded up as treasure trove. The result of such vigorous efforts as these has been the rapid accumulation of objects, and additions are continually pouring in from all parts. Seven hundred articles have been sent in one year, and important as the collection now is, there is every reason for believing, that in process of time, it will become much more so. More than half the tumuli in the kingdom remain intact, and there are yet thousands of acres of virgin soil, in which, doubtless, many valuable objects lie interred.

The contents of the museum are placed in chronological order. The age of stone is first illustrated, the days in which the Scandinavians were ignorant of metals. Their game was slain, their enemies slaughtered, their dress ornamented with stones. They felled trees, and planed, sawed, bored, and smoothed them with stones; they scraped their chins, cooked their food, and furnished their huts with stones. The articles exhibited here show the manual dexterity of the human race in the rudest times, and with the most intractable substances. There are knives with keen edges, and curiously-worked handles, arrow-heads of wondrous neatness and thinness, which prove that the old workers in stone practised an art with ease, which is lost to us the people of civilised countries-but not to others, for even now a great portion of the earth's inhabitants dwell in the age of stone. Specimens of modern workmanship have been judiciously obtained, and the visiter is thus enabled to compare things that have been made by people separated by thousands of miles or thousands of years. The handiwork of the Greenlanders may be examined along with that of the South Sea Islanders and the American Indians, and it is said that a remarkable similarity of style runs through all, however wide the intervals of time and space that divided the labourers. The fashion of the utensils, their shapes, the modes of using them, the plans of making them-these are very nearly the same with men who were the antipodes of each other, with men of ante-historical times and men of to-day. Of some objects there are a great number of specimens, grouped to show the different stages of manufacture, or the various kinds of stone of which the article was constructed. One may see hundreds of hatchets, of different sizes, some made of flint, others of porphyry, &c.; hundreds of arrows and other pointed missiles, of many shapes and kinds of stone. Then a block of flint is shown, from which an elongated fragment has been splintered to form the head of a lance. There is the fragment itself, and the stone instrument by which it was severed from its parent block. Then there is a similar fragment upon which a workman has employed himself for a while; also one that he has succeeded in converting into a complete lance-head; and, finally, a lance-head that has been injured by use

in the chase or in war. One sees grindstones, upon which the points and edges of instruments were sharpened. Especially remarkable are the long chips of flint (called Flackker by the Danes), of which there are a great number. They are generally very thin, and six or seven inches long by one broad. They have the appearance of having been cut out of the stone when it was soft with a knife, for they are somewhat bent like a chip of wood. It is affirmed, however, that a blow made them spring from their bed; but this is difficult to believe. At what period the age of stone ended, and the age of copper began in Scandinavia, it is impossible to say with any accuracy. Doubtless there was a time of transition when both metals and stone were in use. Some writers tell us that shortly before the birth of Christ there was an emigration from the south to the north, and that the use of iron was then communicated; but gold and copper seem to have been discovered first everywhere, or at least they were first made use of, for they are more readily obtained, and worked with less difficulty than silver and iron. Several rooms are filled with works in bronze, such as hatchets, swords, chains, rings, cups, and trumpets, the finish and elegance of which are surprising. Amongst other things, is a curiouslywrought shield, the wonders of which may have been celebrated by a hoary-headed Scald as the shield of Achilles was sung by Homer. Some of the bronze implements have been merely edged with iron, as if the latter was then the rarer and more costly metal, as we now put an edge of steel upon a backbone of iron. There are a good many objects made of iron in heathen times, but the want of silver articles strikes the visiter amidst such an abundance of gold. The collection is rich in amber. Not long ago a mass of work was found in Jutland, which consisted of 3400 pieces of amber, pearls, and other things. It is supposed that the residence of an artist in amber had once stood on the spot.

The assemblage of Runic carvings is highly interesting, and affords an excellent opportunity of studying the mysteries of that writing. Not only has Denmark contributed to this collection, but Sweden, Norway, Germany, Iceland, Greenland, and North America have sent carvings. Nay, the Scandinavian antiquaries declare that traces of Runic writing have been found in Italy, and they refer us to a MS. of the ninth century at Naples, in which Oden and other northern deities are pictured. More remarkable still, they point to a line of scratches on the body of the Lion in St. Mark's Place, Venice, which they say are undoubtedly Runic, but they have not yet told us what the characters mean, or how they got there. The interpretation of these matters is the chief aim of a distinguished society at Copenhagen, called the Royal Society for Ancient Writings. Its income is considerable, and the field of its operations extensive having members and correspondents in many parts of the world. It has edited and published, with translations into various languages, a number of rare and important

works relating to Northern History, comprising | palm leaves, tenacious as leather, and capable of historical and mythic Saga of Denmark, Sweden, enduring a pretty rough treatment. In most of Norway, and Greenland. One of their recent these the letters are formed by punctures, and publications, entitled "American Antiquities, or colour has been rubbed into the holes; in some, Northern Writers on America before Columbus," however, the leaves are covered with a gold ground is supposed to prove beyond all doubt that the upon which black letters are laid. The ants are New World was discovered by the Greenlanders very injurious to palm leaves in India, and thus long anterior to the voyage of the Spaniards. frequent transcripts are necessary. It is not too The society also publish their transactions, and much to say that these insects have retarded the issue a periodical, but as these works are chiefly development of the human mind in Asia. A designed for the use of the learned, they occasion- plan has been adopted latterly of steeping the ally distribute short papers for popular use, with leaves in a poisonous liquid, and thus many an inthe view of extending the interest of the people, tellect sucks the honey of science from poisoned and diffusing information amongst them in re- pages. spect to archæology, philology, and history.

The Museum of Antiquities is deposited in the royal palace of Christianburg, where the King has assigned rooms to the society, under whose superintendence it is placed. In the same palace the best collection of paintings in Denmark is to be found. The works of art are principally Dutch and Flemish, and the gallery is poor in specimens of Italian, French, and Spanish masters. How it happens that the pictures of the Netherlands are so widely scattered in comparison with those of more southern lands, we need not now stop to inquire, and we now only allude to the fact to warn our readers against forming their opinions on the Italian masters from the insignificant specimens to be met with in small galleries. Indeed, Italy itself ought to be visited before the full grandeur of her artists can be truly appraised, for some of their finest works have been attached to places from which they cannot be removed without fatal effect. The collection comprises about four hundred Dutch and Flemish pictures, and about eighty from Italy, Spain, and France. The fondness of the Danes for woody landscapes and marine views is strikingly apparent.

The modern painters of Denmark seem to devote their attention almost entirely to the sylvan | scenery of their own country. Beautiful as it is in nature, the repetition of it on canvass soon becomes monotonous, and one wishes for the introduction of objects that are not altogether green. It is strange that Iceland, which is capable of affording a whole gallery of studies, does not furnish a single landscape; and even Jutland, with its ancient Hero-graves, its wild woods, its ancient farm houses and strange people, only sends one picture.

The royal library contains one of the largest collection of books in the world, something like four hundred thousand volumes. A special division, comprising about sixty thousand volumes, is allotted to Scandinavian literature, and amongst them is the completest collection of Icelandic works extant. It was Christian III, who first founded a royal library; succeeding Sovereigns increased the collection, and the government towards the close of the last century purchased a large number of books at sales in Germany. There is also a good collection of Hindostanee works; several of which the philologist Rask brought from India. The books relating to Buddhism, the religion which prevails in Ceylon, are made of

The building recently erected for the reception of the Thorwaldsen collection is a singular structure of questionable taste, somewhat in the Egyptian style. It forms a parallelogram enclosing a court, and looks quite as much like a mausoleum as a hall of art. In the midst of the court-yard is the tomb in which it is intended the remains of Thorwaldsen shall be deposited. The walls of the building looking towards the tomb are painted in sombre colours, with representations of figures striving in a race, whilst on the interior of the tomb are drawn white lilies on a light blue ground. The position of this edifice behind the royal palace of Christianburg is much to be condemned; since it seems, by reason of its proximity, to be a dependent building, and yet the styles are discordant, and the relative situations inharmonious. The palace is in the French-Italian style, the museum in the Egyptian; and certainly there is no connexion between the purposes of a royal residence and those of a triumphal and monumental temple. The treasures of art which Thorwaldsen possessed, comprehending not only works by himself and contemporary artists, but antiques collected during a residence in Italy, were presented by him to his country, and it was for the preservation of these valuable objects, as well as to erect a national memorial, that this museum was built. It is a pity that the site was not chosen with more judgment. It has two stories, and the principal entrance leads into a hall, where equestrian statues and other large works of the sculptor are meant to be placed. Thorwaldsen was very industrious, and his sculptures are widely scattered over the Continent; indeed, no sculptor has left behind him more original works. He was in the habit of repeating his designs with differences as to size and treatment. In this museum one may see his March of Alexander in four variations. In one we perceive the King standing in his car of victory, looking with delight upon the wild movements of his horses prancing before him, and thinking of his own triumphal progress. In another he gazes upwards, as if he called upon Jupiter to witness the glory of his son. The Horse of Poniatowski, the Angel with the Baptismal Cup, and the Graces embracing, are subjects which he cut many times, and always with variations.

If we compare the various works that Thorwaldsen produced, we cannot fail to be impressed with the many-sidedness of his genius-grave,

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