the gross falsehood of this atrabilious
parent.

Amongst the continental critics, Schiller's _Maid of Orleans_ has been
especially commended as a vindication of the character of Johanna from
the vile representation it had endured from the hands of Voltaire. But
here, in England, _La Pucelle_ was never more popular than it deserved
to be--was never popular at all; no one had taken his impression of Joan
d'Arc from this tawdry performance; and we find a difficulty in
understanding how Schiller, writing to Wieland, could represent the poem
of Voltaire as a great obstacle in his way. As little had we received
our impression of Joan d'Arc from Shakspeare's tragedy of the _First
Part of Henry VI_., where she is represented as a mere witch and
courtesan, represented, in fact, in the vulgar aspect in which she still
probably appeared to an English populace. The subject was with us, when
Schiller wrote, new and open; we had received our impression only from
history, and history had spoken well of Johanna.[1]

[1] It is thus that Hume concludes his account of her:--"This admirable
heroine, to whom the more generous superstition of the ancients would
have erected altars, was, on pretence of heresy and magic, delivered
over alive to the flames, and expiated by that dreadful punishment the
signal services she had rendered to her prince and her native country."

Madame de Stael, after applauding Schiller's tragedy for the restoration
it effected of the character of the French heroine, adds:--"The French
alone have consented to this degradation of the character of the maiden;
even an Englishman, Shakspeare, represents her in the beginning as
inspired by Heaven, and afterwards led astray by the demons of
ambition." The delineation of the Maid of Orleans, in the _first Part of
Henry VI_., is associated with the greatest name in our literature, and
therefore, we presume, must be treated with respect; but it is the only
title to respect we can discover in it. We cannot, with Madame de Stael,
trace the inspired maid in any part of the play. La Pucelle gives us, it
is true, in the commencement, a very good account of herself; as she was
playing the part of an impostor, it was not probable she would do
otherwise: but her own manner very soon betrays the courtesan; and, when
alone, we find her in the Company of no other spirits than such as
witches are accustomed to raise.

We were still more surprised to find Schlegel describing the Maid