ves and cherished dreams of infancy? Such were our feelings, nor could
it well be otherwise; for Tieck was, and is, a poet of the highest
grade--not a playwright and systematic jest-hunter; and would as soon
have put forth his hand in impious challenge against the Ark, as have
stooped to become a buffooning pander to the idle follies of the
million. It remained for England--great and classic England--no, by
heavens! I will not do her that wrong--but for London, and London
_artists_!--I believe that is the proper phrase--after having exhausted
every other subject of parody, sacred and profane, to invade the
sanctuary of childhood, and vulgarize the very earliest impressions
which are conveyed to the infant. Are not the men who sit down
deliberately to such a task more culpable than even the nursery jade
who administers gin and opium to her charge, in order that she may steal
to the back-door undisturbed, and there indulge in surreptitious
dalliance with the dustman? Far better had they stuck to their old trade
of twisting travesties from Shakespeare for the amusement of elderly
idiots, than attempted to people Fairyland with the palpable denizens of
St Giles. The Seven Champions of Christendom, indeed! They may well lay
claim to the title of Champions of Cockneydom incarnate, setting forth
on their heroic quest from the rendezvous in the Seven Dials.

Let us look a little into their individual feats, although I must needs
say, that the whole of these productions bear a marvellous resemblance
to each other. There is no more variety in any of them than can be found
in the copious advertisements of the Messrs Doudney. Still, it cannot
but be that some gems shall scintillate more than others, or, at all
events, be of coarser and duller water. With conscious impartiality, and
without imputing the palm of slang to any particular individual, I shall
give the precedence to Gemini, and their last approved duodecimo. Messrs
Taylor and Smith have bestowed upon the public three dramas--to wit,
Valentine and Orson, Whittington and his Cat, and Cinderella. I have not
been fortunate enough to meet with the earlier portions of this trilogy;
but I have got by me Cinderella, of which title the authors, with
characteristic purity, confess

"'Twould be proper _er_
To say, 'La Cenerentola,' from the opera."

You shall have a specimen, Bogle, of this extremely racy production,
which I strongly recommend you to keep in view as model. Y