Hans Breitmann in Church, With Other New Ballads
By . Third Series of the Breitmann Ballads. Philadelphia : T. B. Peterson and Brothers.
WE remember with tenderness quite unbecoming a critic the pleasure which former ballads of Hans Breitmann have given us, and we cannot condemn these with anything like the suitable ferocity. Yet we must say that Hans Breitmann has not gained in humor by going back to Germany (where Mr. Leland wrote the present ballads), and that in his absence he is edited after a fashion to make one shudder, if one has due terror of friendly pride and officiousness. In the preface the obvious points of the book are turned to the light, and the clear passages explained with an exultant satisfaction that is queer enough, and far too great for the modest merit of the poems. In these the keys touched before are touched again; there is a warballad, a legend, and a love-song, and neither is so good as previous pieces of the same kind. Whether the kind is susceptible of very much more reproduction, and whether it is not time for something mortal to occur to Hans Breitmann, are questions which Mr. Leland can ponder with equanimity greater than he could feel if his humor must perish with its creature.