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Untitled Article
He commences his schedule in these memorable words , — " In Shakspeare ' s works theTe is such a profusion of beauty" — ( ia it possible !) " the bursts of genius are so frequent" —( mem !) " the glow of life which pervades even the most defective parts , ia so attractive "—( do you really think so ?) •* that we completely forget the essentially wrong plan upon which he proceeded , and the total negligence and unconcern with which he gave himself up to the spontaneous impulses of his wonderful mind . "
If by the use of the term " plan , " the reviewer had meant to say that the construction of a great many of Shakspeare ' s plays was very had ; that , in consequence of his giving himself up to spontaneous impulses , and frequently introducing scenes which have little or nothing at all to do with the subject and conduct of the plot , such plays are wrong as tvorks of art , we should have agreed with him . But as he talks of the " essen * tially wrong plan , " we are hound to say , either that he does not know the distinctions between art and nature , or does not
understand , the depth and compass of the term he employs . Shakspeare ' s spontaneous impulses were always essentially right , but continually outraged all the best and worst rules of art . Moreover , if it be true that the poet by his " glow of life , " &c . naakes the critic " completely forget the essentially wrong plan , " the magnitude of the offence to art cannot occasion this " small particular" any degree of pain worth mentioning . The next sentence , however , shows features of a different
" cast" and expression . " But no poet inferior to him could follow that path with euccess ;"
( i . e . the success of essential wrong ;) ' no genius below his could employ th « external forms of the style prevalent in those days , especially on the theatre" ( the style on the theatre !) , " and still retain the splendour of native heauty . " ( The equivocal use of the term " native " prevents our exposing another absurdity . Does it mean natural , original , essential , or English ?)
So then it appears , after all , that Shakspeare ' a essentially wrong plan" was in his " style ! " The forms of his mind were expressed by external images and signs of an essentially wrong plan , in which his contemporaries were not equally successful , because they did not possess equal genius ! We should not have thought it worth while to object to . this writer ' s choice of words , as well as " blundering and confuted " sentences , but that he evidently considers himself a master of style and diction .
** The essential and pervading evil of the dramatic compositions at that period ' ( the time of Shnkctpenre ) * whs all over Eoropfcthe fame . * It may be described in a fcvr words ; it was on unnatural and absurd tlyle . "
Untitled Article
The London RevietQ v * The British Drama . 233
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 233, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/41/
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