25 FEBRUARY 1837, Page 10

RETZSCH'S Outline Illustrations of the Second Part of GOETHE'S Faust

hive neither the beauty nor the interest of the first. Besides that the artist's style has no longer the gloss of novelty, the continuation of the story wants the charm of the commencement. The first temptation of Faust by the Fiend, and the sad fate of poor Margaret, so dramatically told, with such a natural progression of incident, and with just enough of the wild and wonderful to give spirituality to the characters ander' air of romance to the scenes of common life, constituted this charm. In the Second Part, the adventures of Faust are in a visionary world, peopled by sprites and dmmons; the creations of the classic times being mingled with the " gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire" of the,dark ages, the fairies of a later day, and the angelic host of Christianity,—an in- congruous admixture, that, however favourable it may be to the deve- lopment of the imaginative powers of the poet and the skill and fancy of the artist, confounds our associations and destroys that link of the enchaining interest that connects the characters with the world of reality. Besides, our sympathy is lessened as Faust grows to maturity ; and the pursy old fellow, grown rich and shrewd, full of worldly wis- dom, and with all his passions burnt out, is utteily uninteresting. Mephistopheles, too, has become withered ; his demoniac ugliness has lost its elegant quaintness, and he looks like one of the bearded hags in Macbeth in male attire.

There is a world of grotesque invention and picturesqueness in this second set of designs ; but the plates are generally too crowded with Egures, and we almost fancy that RETZSCH'S style of drawing has lost Its grace and freshness and become tame and comrnonplace4Not- withstanding the talent with which Herzscx overcomes the difficulty of giving pictorial effect to the outline of a crowded scene, this style is most favourable to the representation of simple compositions of 4 few figures, developing some dramatic action as well as delineating pie. turesque costume. The repetition of the same persons and scene% varied only by the incident, produces a striking effect.