Introduction
This review of Sydney Dobell’s “
England in the Time of War” and George
MacDonald’s “Within and Without” is by John Nichol
(1833-1894). It was his
only contribution to
The Oxford and
Cambridge Magazine
. Nichol was a well-known scholar later in
his life, and a friend of Swinburne’s. He published books on Byron, Carlyle,
and Bacon, among others.
Nichol was at Oxford with Morris and Burne-Jones, but was not a member of
their “set”. Neither Mackail nor Georgiana Burne-Jones
mentions him at all, nor does Walter Gordon in his critical edition of the
Magazine; he attributes this essay to Georgiana.
The Wellesley Index
corrects the error, citing as primary evidence the fact that this essay was
reprinted in an 1860 collection of Nichol’s essays (731).
It was in the December issue that the entries in the magazine were
categorized as either essays, poems, tales, or notices of books, and the
latter is by far the smallest category, with only six entries (two by
Heeley.) Though there were two published in the January issue, there were
none between July and November. This makes it all the more surprising that
this essay, Nichol’s first and only contribution, would be categorized as a
notice, rather than an essay. His is the only work in this category to
discuss two works, by different authors, and he is more critical of his subjects than the other reviewers in the
Magazine. His review is generally positive, but the amount of negative
criticism is surprising, given the other reviews in the Magazine and Cormell Price’s
statement in his diary that he, Burne-Jones, and Morris had agreed in 1855 “there is to be no shewing
off, no quips, no sneers, no lampooning in our Magazine” (Mackail 81).
Nichol begins by lamenting the number of bad plays recently produced, then
proceeds to point out the defects of Dobell’s early books; of “
Balder”, he says
“We close the book with a feeling of fatigue, and think we would rather have
[Burns or Browning], than the whole mass of it.” But if he is critical of
Dobell’s earlier books, he admires the volume he is reviewing,
“England in
Time of War.” He praises Dobell for eschewing politics in his poetry, and
for reducing the affectation and “wild ejaculation” that detracted from his
earlier works. Still, Nichol faults Dobell for occasional “false expression
and absurd application,” and although the review is on the whole
favorable,
such criticisms set this essay apart from the other essays in the Magazine,
which are always laudatory, and whose praise is generally untapered.
Nichol was acquainted with Dobell before this essay was published.
The Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography
dates the beginning of their friendship to
1854, when Nichol was editing the Glasgow University Album. He would later
write the introductions to his
Poems
(1875) and
Thoughts on Art, Philosophy and
Religion
(1876).
In reviewing MacDonald’s work, Nichol praises him for his portrayal of the characters, claiming
that although it is a dramatic monologue, not a drama, it does have the
rudiments necessary for a stage play. Nichol is not so hard on MacDonald as
he is on Dobell, and he spends most of the essay summarizing the plot of
“
Within and Without,” which he praises as a “grand sermon on the abundantly
sustaining power of confidence in one Omnipotent.” But his praise is still
not entirely free from criticism, and he can’t resist faulting
MacDonald for his
over-refinement of imagery that would have better been left to the reader’s
imagination.