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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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" In this world," as Goethe says, "there...
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In 1812, the King of Prussia, at IIuMito...
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All our readers may he glad to know that...
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GUIZOT ON SHAKSPEARE. Skahspeare and 7ii...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Ar01706
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Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .
" In This World," As Goethe Says, "There...
" this world , " as Goethe says , "there are so few voices and so many echoes ; " and hence the sterile fecundity of our literature—so many volumes and so few books ! To men with any seriousness in them , this is often a sad reflection ; and at no time more so than at the present , when intellectual anarchy , owing to the absence of a regulative controlling Faith , finds its expression in the Publishing Lists of puffed " attractive novelties , " born to-day , to-morrow dead . Nay , a man who has a faith , and lives hy it , is called a tc dreamer , " or a " revolutionist" by those who demand Art for Art ' s sake , Science for Science's sake , Politics for their own sake , and Religion " for the sake of women and the lower orders . " And our much suffering Journal , because it strives to bring the manifold activities of man ' s nature under something like unity , desiring a convergence of scattered life , and a steadfast aim and issue , gets called by hard names , even from its friends .
"We were turning over the pleasant pages of the younger Pliny ' s Letters , aud paused upon the closing sentences of his reflections on the death of Martial , whose poems , he says , may not , perhaps , be eternal , but were written as for eternity . " At non erunt ceterna , quee scripsit . Non erunt fortasse : ille tamen scripsit , tanquam essent futura . " Of how many writers can we say this ? How many look beyond " second editions" 1 And yet there is something in us all which responds to the old Roman feeling so grandly expressed in the question—What can man have of higher worth
than glory , praise , and immortality—Quid homini potest dari majus , quam gloria , et laus , et _eeternitas ? Unless we project our existences beyond the present , how poor , inadequate , and incomplete they seem ; and although it cannot be given to all of us to earn the far-off sunshine of glory , and a name familiar in men ' s mouths , it is given to us all to live hereafter in the good we do , the truth we forward , the triumph oyer evil our efforts help to achieve ; and the feeling of glory , which flames into such brightness in the souls of the privileged , may animate and warm the souls of the most
obscure . On any views of Literature so serious as this , what must we think of the prodigal , Dumas ? He , too , has his hope of men ' s good word , but cares much more for the pudding and the praise of the moment . What a strange and frivolous book is that of his Memoires , the ninth volume of which lies on our table ! The greed of money and utter disregard of truth are visible in every chapter . We know of no such book-making . Every name introduced or dragged in is made the pretext of a rambling digression , the
whole purport of which is to enlarge the volume . The trial of Castaing is introduced , with the whole history of this cause celebre u merelv because Castaing was executed on the morning of the evening when Casimir Delavigne ' s play was produced ; and because Delavignk treated of a subject analogous to Marino Faliero , this is made the pretext of relating , in a hundred pages , the outline of Byron ' s well-known life—not , however , so well known but that he contrives to inform us that Sir Thomas Mooue burnt Byron ' s Memoirs !
Again , what will the man who thinks seriously of Literature feel when he reads the pitiable attack on Lord Jeffrey in the new number of the Quarterly ? Whatever tho misinformed reviewer might bave thought of Jbpvrey , were there no convenances to dictate another kind of funeral oration ? We object to the too rigid adherence to the old maxim , " Say nothing but good of the dead , " when interpreted to mean , " Spenk evil of the living and good only of the dead ; " aud _Jkffrky , for all the sweetness aud honesty of his nature , had his faults and errors fairly within the competence of critics . But the Quarterly was scarcely the place for suck an article—or rather let us say , it should not have been the place . So Jeffrky had " no religion , " it appears ! O , Reviewer , look into your own heart , and try to detect there the religious impulse which moved you to that accusation !
Iho levity of our race is unpleasantly manifested in this readiness to accuse . Before us lies a grnve , temperate pamphlet , hy J a rich Sparks , the American editor of Washington's Writings , in which he . is fo rced to defend himself against the hasty accusations made by Lord Ma hon ] others , of _having tampered with the text , altering , omitting , and _inserting as might suit his caprice—an accusation , in fact , of deliberate dishon ( . sty We wish our American , no less than our Fnglish friends , to under ( -, ' that Mr . Jarkd Sparks clearly , calmly , and convincingly refutes _jk . _^ accusation on every point .
In 1812, The King Of Prussia, At Iiumito...
In 1812 , the King of Prussia , at IIuMitoi . irr ' H instigation , sent , out , an expedition to Fgypf , with the great scholar _Lkphm . s at its head , the rich results of which are known to ull archaeologists . Besides tbe more elaborate works which _Lisrsn . M i . s publishing to chronicle the results of this expedition , he has just issued a volume of familiar letters , giving the . more personal and ancedotienl view , Bricfe . ans yH yypfen , _AUhiogie . n , und tier ¦ Ifalbnsel des Sindis , which we commend to our German friends .
All Our Readers May He Glad To Know That...
All our readers may he glad to know that in the Revue des Deux Mondes lor July 1 , there is a portrait of Cahui-i ., by M . ( iI _. kyrk , a French wtist , who although he has given a somewhat French aspect to our great
All Our Readers May He Glad To Know That...
Scotchman , has nevertheless succeeded better than portraits usually succeed in representing the character of the man , and infinitely better than poor M . Emile Montegut has succeeded with his pen . We advise you to possess yourself of the engraving , and unless time hang very wearisomely upon you , by no means to read the article .
Guizot On Shakspeare. Skahspeare And 7ii...
GUIZOT ON SHAKSPEARE . _Skahspeare and 7 iis Times . By M . Guizot . Bentley . Bhahspeare et son Temps . Etude Litt _^ raire . Par M , Guizot . - W . Jeffs . Pitting companion to the admirable work on Corneille , and immeasurably more interesting to an English public , this work is one of the most elaborate and thoughtful that has yet been published on Shakspeare . It deserves a place on every shelf beside the great work of ( xervinus , and high above the dashing rhetoric of Schlegel as a specimen of philosophic criticism . It is not often that a Frenchman ' s views of Shakspeare are
acceptable to the English mind ; but although , of course , there will be differences from the opinion of Guizot as of every other man . who writes on so varied and complex a subject , we venture to say that _thetlEnglish . mind will cordially welcome the greater part of this volume . It mingles history and philosophy with unostentatious success . It coutains ideas both novel and profound ; and if the criticism is occasionally meagre , where is the work on Shakspeare that pretends to be exhaustive ? In reading this work we have only to bear in mind the radical differences which separate the taste of the two nations , and we can then " allow for the wind" ; that difference is indicated in the following passage from the preface—a passage we will not pause to discuss : —
" Shakspeare is excellent in substance , but deficient in form ; he discerns , and brings admirably into view , the instincts , passions , ideas , —indeed , all the inner life of man ; he is the most profound and most dramatic of moralists ; but he makes his personages speak a language which is often fastidious , strange , excessive , and destitute of moderation and naturalness . And the English language is singularly propitious to the defects , as well as to the beauties , of Shakspeare ; it is rich , energetic , passionate , abundant , striking ; it readily admits the lofty flights , and even the wild excesses , of the poetic imagination ; but it does not possess that elegant sobriety , that severe and delicate precision , that moderation in expression and harmony in imagery , which constitute the peculiar merit of the French language . "
The work is divided into an essay on Shakspeare and his Times , wherein the historical point of view is clearly and excellently given , the biographical of course meagre and unsatisfactory , and repeating errors long exploded in England , such , for instance , as Shakspeare ' s having once been a butcher ' s assistant . This essay is followed by criticisms on the tragedies ; an essay , apropos of Othello , on Dramatic Art in France , written at the time of the great quarrel between the classic and romantic schools , and critiques on the Historical Plays and comedies . Guizot is neither poet nor dramatist . It is not from him , therefore , that one expects any strong light thrown upon Shakspeare ' s dramatic art ; but he is a philosophic historian with Catholic appreciation and profoundly serious mind , and the qualities of such a man are well exhibited in this work . Having said so much , we proceed to make extracts .
primitive and cultivated poets . " We live in times of civilization and progress , when everything has its place and . rule—and . when the destiny of every individual is determined by circumstances more or less imperious , but which manifest themselves at an early period . A poet begins by being a poet ; he who is to become one , knows it almost from infancy ; poetry has been familiar to his earliest contemplation ; it may have been his iirst taste , his first passion when the movement of the passions awakened in his heart . The young man has expressed in verse that which he docs not yet feel ; and when feeling truly arises within him , his first thought will be to express it in verse . Poetry has become tho object of his existence ; an object as important as any other
—a career in which he may obtain fortune as well as glory , and which may afford an opening to tbe serious ideas of his future life , as well as to the capricious sallies of his youth . In so advanced a state of society , a man cannot be long ignorant , or spend much time in search of his own powers ; an easy way presents itself to the view of that youthful ardour which would probably wander far astray before finding the direction best suited to it ; those forces and passions from which talent will issue soon learn the secret of their destiny ; and , Hummed up in speeches , images , and harmonious cadences , the illusions of desire , tho _chimiei-as of hope , and Hometimes even the bitterness of disappointment , are exhaled without difficulty in tho precocious essays of the young man .
" In times when life is difficult and manners coarse , this is rarely the case in regard to the poet , who is formed by nature alone . Nothing reveals him so speedily to himself ,- he must have felt much before be can think he has anything to portray ; his first , powers will be spent in action , —in such irregular action as may be provoked by the impatience of bis desires , hi violent , action , if any obstacle intervene between himself and the success with which his fiery imagination has promised to crown him . In vain has fate bestowed on him the noblest gifts ; he can employ them only upon the single object with which be i . s acquainted . Heaven only knows what triumphs he will achieve hy his eloquence , in what projects and for what ud vantages he will display the riches of his inventive faculty ,
among what , equals his talents will raise him to the first rank , and of what , society the vivacity of _Iuh mind will render him the amusement , and the idol ! Alas for this melancholy subjection of man to the external world ! ( lifted with useless power if his horizon be less extensive than his capacity of vision , ho sees only flint which lies around him ; and heaven , which has bestowed treasures upon him with Hiich lavish munificence , has done nothing for him if it , does not place bini in circumstances which may reveal them to his ga / . o . This revelation commonly arises from misfortune ; when the world fails the superior man , he falls buck upon h _' _uuM'lf , nnd becomes aware of his own resources ; when necessity presses him , he collects his powers ; and it is frequently through having lost , the facility of grovelling upon earth , that , genius and virtue rise in triumph to the skies . "
THI ' . KNOUKH _IMJHI _. K _' . " The habits of England , being formed by the inlluence of the same causes that , led to the establishment other political institutions , early _iuis _\ uiicd that character of agitation ami publicity which calls for the appearance of a popular poetry . ln other countries , the general tendency was to the separation of the various social
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 17, 1852, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17071852/page/17/
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