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    ^0. 392, SEPrgEHBEH -26^ 1857.] THE 3LEA...

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    . - : ¦ ¦ • • 3l v ;fivi«it+itfiv - : 3LH?UUlUt* • .

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    ? ' ' "¦ ' Critics arc not the legislato...

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    During the last few months we have had t...

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    old-fashioned criticism. Lectures oti th...

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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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    ^0. 392, Seprgehbeh -26^ 1857.] The 3lea...

    ^ 0 . 392 , SEPrgEHBEH -26 ^ 1857 . ] THE 3 LEADEB . 929

    . - : ¦ ¦ • • 3l V ;Fivi«It+Itfiv - : 3lh?Uulut* • .

    ¦ Citaetttrt .

    ? ' ' "¦ ' Critics Arc Not The Legislato...

    ? ' ' "¦ ' Critics arc not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not naie laws—they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edinburgh Review .

    During The Last Few Months We Have Had T...

    During the last few months we have had to record the serious losses which have occurred in rapid succession , amongst 3 ? reuch men of letters ; and this week , to the names of the distinguished poets , the popular novelist , and the profound thinker , which have recently appeared in our literary obituary , must be added that of perhaps the first professional critic ia France—Gustave Planciijs . He died a few days since , in the delirium of a fever , brought on by that absolute negligence of his person and his health for which he was notorious . Those who knew him personally will remember that he combined with a passion for unwashed linen and faded garments an utter indifference to wind and weather . A stranger meeting him in the streets of Paris , and seeing his massive head cased in a shockingly worn chapeau , his tall but slouching

    figure clothed in linen of uncertain age and neutral tint , and outer raiment that Rag Fair would scarcely own ,. might naturally have been tempted to offer him a small gratuity . But amongst his friends , and over the claret he loved so well , he appeared in his true character as a veritable king of men . There , in the large grasp and easy play of his brilliant and incisive intellect , in the wide range and rare accuracy of his knowledge , in his passionate enthusiasm , Ids resolute opinions ^ and energetic nature , you at once recognized one born to rule in his own sphere , whatever that might be . This was , in fact , the position he took as a thinker and a critic . Pxanche has been for years past a kindof dictator

    to art and literature . His style of criticism was the faithful reflex of his nature—luminous , decisive , and unsparing ; his enemies said , often culpably overbearing and dogmatic . There is , perhaps , some truth in this charge , but if his criticisms had sometimes a tone of too arrogant self-assertion , they always evinced a firm grasp arid profound knowledge of the subject , which both deserved and commanded admiration and respect . His papers on art and literature in the Revue des Deux Mondes formed a most attractive feature of that able journal ; and his death leaves a blank in the staff of its contributors which it will be difficult to fill .

    ¦ M . Gustave Planche was born in 1808 . His father was a chemist of some distinction , who translated several foreign works connected with his profession . Gustave had two brothers—Charles , a landscape painter , and AUGUSTS , editor of the Joitrnal des Economistes and oit \\ o Revue £ ritci 7 inique , and translator of MacCullocii's Principles of Political ZUcononty . Gustave himself was intended for the medical profession ; but , after leaving college , he devoted himself to literature and criticism , especially to art in its history and monuments , instead of , pursuing the career in which his father expected he Avould distinguish himself . His days were spent in the Louvre and the museums , amongst artists , and in studying special collections and particular eras botli of ancient and modern art . His father , on discovering that he was wasting his time in becoming a thinker and critic , gave him the alternative of sticking to business or leaving the paternal roof . Gustave chose the latter

    course , and continued his favourite studies , in a state of poverty that often amounted to actual destitution . It was during this period of his life , in all likelihood , that he acquired that habit of utter self-neglect which stamped his life with eccentricity , and at length hurried him to the gra - ve . After a while , however , his merit as a student ami critic of art became known to M . Ricotjut , editor of UArtiste , and the papers he contributed to that journal made him known , and soon procured for him more important work . In 1831 , M . Alfred de Yigny introduced him to the Recite des Deux Monde . ? , and the first article he contributed was a-great success , arid established his connexion with the journal , which continued to his death . la 1 S 36 he worked with Baxzac to establish the Ckronique de Paris ; and was afterwards for some years attached to the editorship of the Journal des Dt'Lats . Many of his . papers have been rcpublishcd in separate volumes , which form a scries of criticisms in art and literature alike brilliant and instructive .

    M . Gustave Planche , like all men of strong opinions and energetic character , made warm friends and bitter oncmies ; lnit his friends will not assert that he was faultless in temper , or always just ; and , Lis bitterest enemies cheerfully allow Ms unquestionable power as a thinker , a writer , and a- critic .

    Old-Fashioned Criticism. Lectures Oti Th...

    old-fashioned criticism . Lectures oti the British Poet * . By 'Henry lteed . Shaw . What is wri tjl'ii about poets is generally not worth reading . There mi « ht oe nunedsome fine critics of poetry ; but , for the most part , they have been , a < luu race , given to ' the repetition , of platitudes , or to the elaboration of ,, guso . parallel ? Dr affected panegyrics . Few can have fiiilei ! , however , to Jptiqe . tUo gm <^ al ., m . >» f ] ovuiuen , t which , has taken place hi ' thetoneof literary MAUCism , . especially -vwfffl . pofite . ave concerned . Formerly every poet denied i iQ , nuve , a iaction . an 4 aiL , emjuiy ; nml reviews were- Written an < thou « 'Li with . MKi . one object of i » fhctii % & wound ; In our-days & iiloriKa virulence would ' ^ lr ^ , V ' S lcxc ° P ylllie fow nnt , e . uiluYuuiS > YUo promise ramortulifc y'to the brutalities of -ChristopherNorth , "if , " he sa < 1 snuAUjnir ? W 2 * Shu' ? . ^^ " ' . ^ V 0 l < ia' Wl ( l ^ li ? < l a ^ g ^ t iW picture ' th ' & g } ft . ' » yS ^?»> u Qf Mi- Shelley nih ^ f We ^ Vi . othihg , "S ^ SIVV 1 W < ; i » s «« u * tloiis altogether co » tn ° ' b W ; Wf /' o vfJ } ff ( , ^> W 5 . i WPWKtHP , fisl n , Qpdle ., wUQ ' umiorwilucft Shelley'

    pnetended to correct . Byron , annotating his proof-sheets with " Omit the last six couplets . ' " Despicable stuff . " " Strike out this section . " But nothin « - was startling from the pen . of a writer who asserted that Shakspeare ' s most characteristic eloquence , and , indeed , the only quality ia which he excelled other dramatists , was wit . Rhythmical modulation , according to Gifford was not one of Shakspeare's merits . We are almost inclined to rank Gifford with Ryiner , -who described Othello as ' a bloody farce , without salt or savourVthat fills the head with ' vanity , confusion , tintamarre , and jingle jangle . ' Yet we can forgive these libels upon books , as we forgive Johnson for despising Paradise Lost , and declaring that to read Lgcidas a second time would be to deserve death by surieit . \ V e have eccentric opinions and silly critics among us to this hour , but we have extirpated ( or silenced ) the venomous cowards who once spoke of a book in order that tbey nii « 4 it defame its

    author . To that race belonged the scribbler who spoke of Hazlitt as a ' pimpled fellow , ' and the other , who , having exhausted his malice ia an attack on the works of Campbell , added , "As a man , moreover , he is vulgarly ugly . " Campbell , in fact , was handsome , but an Irish critic wrote that f he was a miserable dwarf , ' ' asmall , thin man , with a remarkably cunning and withered face , and eyes cold and glassy , like those of a dead haddock . ' Having maligned the poet ' s person , the critic proceeded to misrepresent his opinions . Campbell , according to these biographical notes , said of Petrarch that ' . he was a detestable donkey ; ' of Cervantes , that * he was a most dull and lugubrious jester ; ' of Byron , that 'he was a liar , and in heart and soul a blackguard ; ' ot Allan Cunningham , that he was the most infernal liar that ever left Scotland ; ' of Hazlitt , that ( of all the false ,. vain , selfish blackguards that ever disgraced human nature , he was the falsest , vainest , and

    most selfish ; ' of Northcote , the sculptor , that he was ' a conceited booby ;' Shelley ' a filthy Atheist , ' Milton a savage-minded wretch , ' Gray ' a selfish scoundrel , ' and ' a harmless , dirty beast . ' That was one way of clouding the reputation of a dead poet . Byron says that Wordsworth boasted he would not give five shiLIings for all Southey bad ever written , and Mrs . Heraans , tbat the same poet talked of Scots , w / ta- ha wi' Wallace bted as ' miserable inanity ; ' but we must accept these testimonies very cautiously , and make sure that we are not mistaking a jest for aa opinion . We know , however , how Wordsworth underrated Dryden , Pope , and Gray , and marvelled how they had been ranked among poets , and how Byron thought Milton and Sliakspeare had been extravagantly praised , preferred Rogers to Coleridge , affected to value two or three of Moore ' s Melauies beyond all the epics ever composed , and considered as a tragedy of the highest order Horace Walpole's play The Mysterious Mother , which Coleridge described as ' the most disgusting , detestable , vile composition that ever came from the hand

    of maw . ' Coleridge himself , however , talked of Wordsworth ' s drama The Borderers as absolutely -wonderful , and containing a series of profound touches of the human heart found sometimes in Schiller and Shakspeare , but in . Wordsworth always ! There was no little personal and political feeling mixed up in these discussions . The taste of the day , moreover , often misled the critics , as when , the verses called Studies of Sensation and-Event—a mass of -unintelligible , metaphysical , incoherence—were largely and elaborately praised . \ Varburton had his disciples when he foolishly annotated Pope , Gifford bis admirers when he ferociously assailed Shelley , Bentham his disciples when he said that all the poetry ever written was of no more importance than a game of pushpin , and , undoubtedly , that reviewer had his dupes who wrote that Shakspeare had done nothing but spread a poisonous fume over the mind of Europe . We extract from a series of thoughtful , refined , and suggestive essays , by Henry Reed , the well-known American critic , a passage bearing on this topic : —

    It is important , -too , to shun the habit of dogmatic criticism . It is a singular but familiar fact , that men are never more apt to be intolerant of difference of opinion than in what concerns the mingled powers of judgment and feeling denominated taste . I need suggest no other illustration than the striking contrariety of judgment on the merits of the most distinguished poets who have flourished in our own times , the discussion of which I shall not now anticipate by the expression of any opinion . To what is tliis owing ? Partly , no doubt , to variety of character , intellectual aud . moral ; to diversity of temperament and education ; and whatsoever else makes one man in some respects a different being from his neighbour . Each reader , as well as each writer , has his peculiar bent of mind , his own way of thinking and feeling ; so that the passionate strains of poetry will find an adaptation , in the heart of one , while its thoughtful , meditative inspirations will come home to the heart of another . This consideration must not be lost sight of , because it goes far toward allaying tins literary

    intolerance , which , like political or theological intolerance , is doubly disastrous , for it at the same time narrows a man's sympathies and heightens his pride . But the vatiety of mind or of general disposition will not wholly explain the variety of literary opinions . After limiting all due allowance in this respect , it is not to be questioned that there ia right judgment and wrong judgment , —a sound taste and a sicldy taste , There are opinions wliicli we may hold with a most entire conviction of their truth , an absolute and imperious self-confidence , and a judicial assurance that the contradictory tenets are errors . There is a poetry , for instance , of which a man may both know and feel not only that it gives poetic gratification to himself , but that i <; cannot fail to produce a likeeftcct on every well-constituted and well-educated mind . When an English critic , liyincr , some hundred ami fifty years ago , disloyal in hia folly , pronounced the tragical part of Otlicllo to bo plainly none other than a bloody farce , -without salt or savour , —when Voltaire scotted at tho tragedy of , Hamlet as : i gross aud barbarous piece , whicli would not be . tolerated bv tho vilest rabble of l <" ranc <

    or Itnly , likening it Q . give you his own words ) to the fruit of the imagination of ji drunkau savage , —^ when Steevens , an editor of Shukspeare , said that an A _ ct of Parliament would not bo strong enough to compel the perusal of the sonnets and other minor poerns of the bard , —when Dr . Johnson remarked tliat Puradisc Lost might bo read as a duty , but could not be as u pleasure , and pronounced u sweeping condemnation on - ^ lilton ' tt incomparable : Lycidas , — -when , in our own day , n . Scotch critic , Lord j Toflrey , declared of Wordsworth ' s majestic poem , The Excursion , that 'it wouldnc-vcx do '—in each of tliese opinions I know , as anybody may , with a confidence not short of demonstration ^ I' know tliat there was gross and jjjricvouH ful . sGlibb'd . ' How , if those opinions We dtifflnmelo . s . s on tlio flooro of" Variety of mind , and tfnlbly to bo stiytnutized ¦ a » r « pJU and hxatioual judgments , it follotvpv that thoro must ciist iirinci |) leB- to guide to ^ yjae conclusions . And liow is ., A theory of criticism to . bis formed V How , in a muttejc , in which incn are ujit to tbuik u , nd feel so . diHcroutly , to have auch variouw fancies , ' prejudice ' s ; ' and prepossession ' s , —how are we to get at tlic truth ? Mr , JJeed puts u questioli , « nU 'do ' ed not Wait for an answer .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 26, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26091857/page/17/