NEW ENGRAVINGS.
Mr. Mims has just published a plate of Miss M. TREE as Viola, both painted and engraved by himself. The countenance of the charmer, who by her retirement has left so many of SHAKSpEARE's characters without an occupant, is a likeness, yet it appears to us to deal too harshly with her features : it wants that soft and subdued expression from which her face, in the performance of such girl-pages as this, ob- tained so much assistance. We are much better pleased with the atti- tude: it is completely that which she was wont to assume when she trickled forth—" I am one that had rather go with Sir Priest than Sir Knight ; I care not who knows so much of my mettle." But the most pleasing part of the engraving is the landscape which the artist has introduced as suitable to the scene : the stately dwelling that rises in the distance, surrounded on all sides by fertile gardens, in such a place as BOCCACIO'S cavaliers and ladies could have lingered in for summers, and listened to a twice-told Decameron,—and the broad- spreading foliage of the nearer trees,—promise shady retreats dense enough to hide the trembling of Viola the page or the blushes of Viola the maiden. GRIFFITHS of Wellington Street has just commenced the publica- tion of a work which cannot fail of being extremely useful—it consists of a series of Designs, by Mr. KNIGHT, for the use of silversmiths, embossers, &c. ; and, if favourably received, will be the means not only of invigorating the art by the addition of fresh subjects to work upon, but also of instilling a grace and delicacy into their productions, which for the most part they want at present. We believe only one number of the work has yet made its appearance, but from the inspec- tion of that we are enabled to anticipate that it is the intention of the designer to employ his best skill on the task he has undertaken. If we have a fault to find, it is that the design is too suddenly cut short, not perhaps for the workman, whom it may be sufficient to guide in his copy, but for those who possess themselves of the engravings merely for the sake of having a fine work of art.
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