Lecture 6

Of all Shakespeare’s plays Macbeth is the most rapid, Hamlet the slowest, in movement. Lear combines length with rapidity,—like the hurricane and the whirlpool, absorbing while it advances. It begins as a stormy day in summer, with brightness; but that brightness is lurid, and anticipates the tempest....

A Portion of Lecture 5

Admirable is the preparation, so truly and peculiarly Shakespearian, in the introduction of Roderigo, as the dupe on whom Iago shall first exercise his art, and in so doing display his own character.—Roderigo, already fitted and predisposed by his own passions—without any fixed principle or strength of character (the want of character and power of the passion, like the wind loudest in empty houses, ...

Lecture 4

The opening of Macbeth stands in contrast with that of Hamlet. In the latter, there is a gradual ascent from the simplest forms of conversation to the language of impassioned Intellect,—yet still the Intellect remaining the seat of passion: in the Macbeth, the invocation is at once made to the Imagination and the emotions connected therewith....

Lecture 9

It is a known but unexplained phenomenon, that among the ancients statuary rose to such a degree of perfection, as almost to baffle the hope of imitating it, and mingled with despair at excelling it; while painting, at the same period, notwithstanding the admiration bestowed upon the ancient paintings of Apelles by Pliny...

Lecture 5

Among the strange differences between our ancestors and their descendants of latter days is the wide difference between the feelings and language of commentators on great classical works. At the restoration of letters, when men discovered the manuscripts of the great Ancients, as some long hidden treasure, the editors of even the most trivial work were exuberant in phrases of panegyric, and superlatives of praise seemed to be almost their only terms. In the editing of modern writers, on the contrary, we find the commentator everywhere assuming a sort of critical superiority over the author he edits. Which of the two is to be blamed? I must confess that the former (even admitting him more deficient in judgment, which I am by no means prepared to allow) is more congenial with the ...

A Portion of Lecture 3

According to a note in Stockdale’s edition: ‘Mr. Pope (after Dryden) informs us, that the story of Troilus and Cressida was originally the work of one Lollius, a Lombard: but Dryden goes yet further; he declares it to have been written in Latin verse, and that Chaucer translated it.—Lollius was a historiographer of Urbino in Italy.’...

Lecture 12

In the last lecture I endeavoured to point out in Shakespeare those characters where pride of intellect, without moral feeling, is supposed to be the ruling impulse, as in Iago, Richard III, and even Falstaff. In Richard III, ambition is, as it were, the channel in which the reigning impulse directs itself; the character is drawn by the Poet with the greatest fullness and perfection; and he has not only given the character, but actually shown its source and generation. The inferiority of his person made him seek consolation in the superiority of his mind; he had endeavoured to counterbalance his deficiency. This was displayed most beautifully by Shakespeare, who made Richard bring forward his very deformities as a boast. To show that this is not unfounded in nature, I may adduce the anecdote of John Wilkes, who said of himself that even in the company of ladies, the handsomest man ever created had but ten minutes’ advantage of him....

Lecture 8

It is impossible to pay a higher compliment to poetry, than to consider the effects it has in common with religion, yet distinct as far as distinct can be, where there is no division in those qualities which religion exercises and diffuses over all mankind, as far as they are subject to its influence. I have often thought that religion (speaking of it only as it accords with poetry, without reference to its more serious impressions) is the Poetry of all mankind, so as both have for their object:—...

Lecture 6

The recollection of what has been said by some on the supposed necessity of corporal punishment at college, induces me to express my entire dissent from the notion. Flogging or caning has a tendency to degrade and debase the minds of boys at school. Those who are subjected to it are well aware that the very highest persons in the realm, and those to whom people are accustomed to look up with most respect and reverence, such as the judges of the land, have quietly submitted to it in their pupilage....

Lecture 3

Understanding that the definition, or rather description, I gave of poetry in the previous lecture has left no definite idea in the minds of my auditors; and given that the whole of the Fabric I should raise in a manner rested of upon97 laying the foundation firmly and distinctly, I consider it necessary to add something to what I said before. It is easy to define Gold so as to distinguish it from any of the Earths, or to show the difference between a circle and a square; but with poetry it is as if I were verbally to give to an American a distinction between the English Sycamore and the American Maple—the points of similarity are so numerous that it would require much explanation and attention to show the points of distinction. The intelligibility of almost everything I have to say on the subject of poetry will depend upon me being perspicacious in my definition, because, as I have said before, it often happens that differences between men of good sense arise solely from having attached different ideas to the same words. I have been supposed by some persons to have spoken disrespectfully of that great and admirable writer, Pope—I have not perhaps determined whether or not he deserves the name of ...