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[ t is told of Euripides , that vhen a noisy disapprobation vas manifested at some passage n one of his tragedies , he itepped forward and told the
tudience it was his part to give hem instruction , not to receive heirs . These days are over . Che drama , like every other spe-; ies of composition , must now iubmit to the ordeal of severe
criticism . If , however , it be Tue that the very essence of ragedy consists in dealing with he deep and hidden impulses ) f our being , and the springs > f passionate action , following iihem as they flow onwards , ividening and rushing to their lestined termination , it must
> e evident that to the comprehension of a great tragedy must le brought an intellect capable > f analyzing , and an imaginaion of sympathetically identifyng itself with the subject . It dIIows that , in proportion as a
coimd and comprehensive eritiiism would beneficially guide lublic opinion to a just appreiiation of such a Work , a hasty md superficial criticism must mislead and pervert . The former renders a service to the
intellectual part of the comnunity ; the latter , both in its rraise and its censure , is huall y injurious . The master-pieces of Shak-
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speare have employed the energies both of the ablest and the most incompetent commentators , and his leading characters have been successively represented by the greatest actors of each age . Coming to us with the
sanction of time , they are now nearly beyond the pale of criticism , and Shakspeare takes his due place , pre-eminent amongst the world ' s greatest names . Nothing , however , but the influence he has exerted for
successive ages on the minds of his fellow men , could have saved him in these critical times . Let us suppose him an author of the present day , and imagine one of his finest
works—Hamlet , for instance — submitted , for the first time , to some common-place mind to be " noticed / ' It would be caught up from the over-loaded table , hastily skimmed through , then thrown aside , and the critic
would pronounce his decision , probably in the following erudite , logical , and self-satisfied style : — if We have carefully read
through Mr Shakspeare's tragedy of Hamlet , and declare it to be the most incomprehensible compound that it has ever been our lot to peruse . We much doubt if the author himself knows what he would be
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REMARKS ON MR HORNE'S TRAGEDY OF COSMO DE' MEDICI :
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page 190, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/46/
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