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Article WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. ← Page 10 of 17 →
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William Shakspere.
Such is the bold aud successful manner in which , in this country at least , Coleridge Avas the first to attack the absurd criticism current upon Shakspere , about half a century smee , and most successfully did he proceed to " prove that in all points , from the most important to the most minute , the judgment of
Shakspeare is commensurate with his genius , —nay , that his genius reveals itself in his judgment as in its most exalted form ; and , " continues Coleridge , " I the more gladly recur to this subject , from the clear conviction that to judge aright , and Avith distinct consciousness of the grounds of om- judgment , concerning the Avorks of Shakspere , implies the power and the means of
judging rightly of all other works of intellect , those of abstract science alone excepted . " * The mania for alteration gradually gave way to the rage for collected editions . During the prevalence of the former , different critics had so disfigured his works as to render them almost indistinguishable , and hi the hands of these merciless operators the Avritings of Shakspere seemed likely to lose their chief features of excellence .
The editors of the collected editions , of which there Avere no less than eight issued during the last century , professed to be genuine admirers of Shakspere . We append a few of their loving criticisms . Pope says : — "For of all English poets Shakspeare must be confessed to be the fairest and fullest subject for criticism , and to afford the most numerous
as well as most conspicuous both of beauties and faults of all sorts It must be owned , that with all these great excellencies he has almost as great defects , and that as he has certainly-written better , so he has peraps written worse than any other . " Theobald joins . in the same strain : — " The genius that gives us the greatest pleasure , sometimes stands in need of our indulgence . "
Dr . Warburton varies the burthen a little , in asserting" The poet's hard and unnatural construction had a different original . TMs was the effect of mistaken art and design . " And the great Doctor Johnson , with the voice of authority , pronounces this judgment : — " Shakspeare with his excellencies has likewise faultsand faults
suffi-, cient to obscure and overwhelm any other merit . " Alas ! for the poet ; better were it for him to have remained unnoticed by these critics , than to have been commentated upon after this fashion . Well might Coleridge say : f — " Purblind critics , whose mental vision could not reach far enough to
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
William Shakspere.
Such is the bold aud successful manner in which , in this country at least , Coleridge Avas the first to attack the absurd criticism current upon Shakspere , about half a century smee , and most successfully did he proceed to " prove that in all points , from the most important to the most minute , the judgment of
Shakspeare is commensurate with his genius , —nay , that his genius reveals itself in his judgment as in its most exalted form ; and , " continues Coleridge , " I the more gladly recur to this subject , from the clear conviction that to judge aright , and Avith distinct consciousness of the grounds of om- judgment , concerning the Avorks of Shakspere , implies the power and the means of
judging rightly of all other works of intellect , those of abstract science alone excepted . " * The mania for alteration gradually gave way to the rage for collected editions . During the prevalence of the former , different critics had so disfigured his works as to render them almost indistinguishable , and hi the hands of these merciless operators the Avritings of Shakspere seemed likely to lose their chief features of excellence .
The editors of the collected editions , of which there Avere no less than eight issued during the last century , professed to be genuine admirers of Shakspere . We append a few of their loving criticisms . Pope says : — "For of all English poets Shakspeare must be confessed to be the fairest and fullest subject for criticism , and to afford the most numerous
as well as most conspicuous both of beauties and faults of all sorts It must be owned , that with all these great excellencies he has almost as great defects , and that as he has certainly-written better , so he has peraps written worse than any other . " Theobald joins . in the same strain : — " The genius that gives us the greatest pleasure , sometimes stands in need of our indulgence . "
Dr . Warburton varies the burthen a little , in asserting" The poet's hard and unnatural construction had a different original . TMs was the effect of mistaken art and design . " And the great Doctor Johnson , with the voice of authority , pronounces this judgment : — " Shakspeare with his excellencies has likewise faultsand faults
suffi-, cient to obscure and overwhelm any other merit . " Alas ! for the poet ; better were it for him to have remained unnoticed by these critics , than to have been commentated upon after this fashion . Well might Coleridge say : f — " Purblind critics , whose mental vision could not reach far enough to