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Untitled Article
but the style that is voluntaril y and ardently acquired , or that which comes most readily to an individual , is his HAtural style , and probably the best for him , whether good or bad . Wnat the reviewer endeavours to express about style and diction , is true enough in the main ; but not by his showing , nor witb his
application . If Shakspeare and the rest of the old dramatists did not write in a style natural to them , what clasfe of tn £ fc ever did ? His great contemporaries did not imitate Shakspeare ; they occasionally borrowed situations from his plays , 4 s he from others , but the filling up was their own ; they were not
taught , neither did they catch his intellectual squint /—he was only one among them at that time , as the reviewer would have known if he had ever enlarged his mind with the reverential study of Chapman , Webster , &c . But why should we wish such potent spirits as these , —
* To add to your dead calm , a breath ? For those arm'd Angels , that in spite of Death Inspir ' d these flowers that wrought this poet ' s wreath , Shall keep it ever—poesy ' s steepest star ! 4 f t . £ lt 4 fc * w
Strength needs no friend ' s trust—strength your foes defeats . Retire to strength then , of eternal things , And you're eternal ;—for our knowing springs Flow into those things that we truly know , Which , being eternal , we are render'd so . ' * Chapman . We remember a passage in Webster ' s dedication to hi * fine tragedy of Vittoria Corombona , which may not be inapplicable .
* Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance : for mine own part , I have ever truly cherished my good opinion of other men ' s wofthy labours , especially of that full and heightened style of Master Chapman ; the laboured and understanding rvorks of Master Jonson ; the no less worthy composures of the both worthily excellent Muster Beaumont and Muster Fletcher ; and lastly , ( without wrong lust to be named )
the right happy and copious industry of Master Shakspeare , Master Decker and Master I ley wood ; wishing what I write may be read by their light , protesting that , in the strength of mine own judgment . I know them so worthy , that though I rest silent iti my owu wx > rk t yet to most of theirs I dare ( without flattery ) fix that of Martial : rum norunt hcec monument a mori . *'
Let us now proceed with the " full and heightened style" of the mouse . The period to which the English dramatist * belong- pres&itg & p ^ rvsffcion of taste from which no portion of Europe remained free .
The evil grew up , indeed , to a greater height' ( keep to the point ; - ) ' ^ huii liiut which it had reached iu the time of Elizabeth ; l > ut it * seeds were bursting oat vigorously , ' ( where and when 1—after the ^ r « hud reached * a great height in the time of Elisabeth !) ( ami their full growth might be foretold from the rank luxuriance of their
Untitled Article
The London Rexnen v . The British Drama tS 5
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/43/
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