Comedies from a Country Side. By W. Oatram Tristram. (Ward
and Downey.)—These tales are not "comedies," according to the common acceptation of that term. They are rather ignoble tragedies, for they have all a gloomy ending. What of the genuine comedy is there in the story of a long-descended squire who wastes his income in foolish state, and ends his days in imbecility ; of a vulgar millionaire who drives his wife to elope ; of an heiress who wants to marry a groom, and finding that he is beyond all doubt a scoundrel, becomes devout; and of an honest old sportsman of a parson who is ill-treated by everybody about him, and especially by his daughters ? These " comedies " never raise a laugh, for what is meant for fun is only somewhat brutal satire, and they want the dignity which makes tragedy effective. It is possibly meant for a joke when we are told that Mr. Sinbert " traced his lineage directly back to the Confessor ;" bat it would have been better to put the statement into Mr. Sinbert's own mouth. Even then a man whose sole thoughts were of his genealogy could hardly be supposed to have committed himself to so manifest a folly.
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