The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-01-04
"Oh ! TunIpSy, uu11Dsy.
Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh.'

We ara well aware that DIR. JOHNSON, in
hi. preface to his edition OF S~HAKsrEARE's
ulays. expressed an opinion, the opposite 10
that which we are now endeavoring to in
cnlcate. He believed, or affected to believe,
that SHAKESPEARE, owing everything to ma
ture. wrote As we'll when he first began TO
write. rs ne ever did afterwards, because ma
ture was as strong in him in the beginning as
II ever was afterwards. Nothing, it strikes
us, can be more erroneous than the general
idea. or its particular application 10 SHAKs-
rRARE. In no author Of whom we know
ANYTHING Is it easier to trace the progress OF
Improvement. Take his earlier comedies
those which from the ascertained dates we
know TO have been his earliest productions
take the Two Gentlemen of Verona, for in
stance.-and we see every mark of a great but
immature genius. His style is bail formed,
in q great measure, upon the writings OF his
predecessors-quibbles, plays upon words,
and frigid conceits abound beyond measure
his characters are imperfectly developed that
is, considering it is SHAKESPEARE who draws
them-his fancy is lively enough. but never
reaches that higher region in which il loses
the name of fancy and takes that of imaGina-
tion-his invention is he mani
tests none of that energy and passion which
subsequently, and TO this day, distinguish
him from all other writers that ever lived
Following the chronology OF his plays. 1t
appears to us that he frs, begins TO manifest
the superior creative powers Of his mind in
his historical dramas. When we come 10 Ro-
MEG and JULIET, the Midsummer's Night
Dream, the Merchant of Venice, &c, we feel
that we are reading the productions of 4 great
poet; of a man whose inventive power are
~unbounded, whose imagination is equal to the
loftiest flights, who has already done more
than anybody else, but who has not even yet
let the world know the half of what he can
do. The same characteristics. mellowed by
longer contem plation, and a ripper expert
ence of men and things, deSight us in the
Twelfth Night and You Like It,
One step farther and We meet with the comic
side Of his genius in mature perfection reyel-
ling In wit, rolling in hulnor, and throwing
about these costly Materials, to use the eX-
preston Of Tom MOORE, as Il savage might
do diamonds and pearls of whose value he
was entirely ignorant. Never was there such
q profusion of comedy as is TO be found in
HENRY ". and the Merry Wives of Windsor.
But the genius Of the author eliminates only
in his four unrivalled tragedies, LEAR, HAM
LET, OTHELLO, and MACBETH. There always
has been, and there always will be, Il dispute
as to which is the greater production of these
four. Each one has in turn been advocated
with a zeal verging upon open war. Taken
together, they constitute the greatest product
OF the human intellect. If practice was ne
cessary for the most comprehensive mind that
ever existed to bring its vast powers TO per-
fiction, surely il cannot be OF no value toany
mind of an inferior order.
If anybody could have been supposed 10
have brought to the accomplishment Of a lite
rary undertaking everything that could su-
percede the necessity Of previous practice
composition. it was GIDEON. lie had made
himself master of everything else that a
historian could require in prosecuting such
an undertaking. He was master OF al! learn
ing, ancient As we'll AS modern. He was pro-
foundry versed in the civil code of all nations.
He understood the principles Of all religions
and all creeds. He knew the history of the
world from its foundaiion, as a merchant
knows his day-book and ledger. Yet, when he
came to undertake the vast enterprise for
which he had labor-d during the best part of
his life, he fei, acuteIy that very want which
nothing but practice can supply. This feeling
ne expresses in the strongest language AT
the outset" hs tells us, 'all was dark and
doubtful; even the title of the work, the true
era Of the decline and fall Of the empire, the
limits of the Introduction, the division CT the
chapters, and the order OF the narrative, and
] was often tempted TO cast away the labor of
seven years. TIL style OF an author should
be the image Of his mind, bn: tae choice and
command Of language are The fruits Of exercise.
Many experiments We're made before l could
hit The middle tone between q dull narrative
and q rhetorical defamation three times did l
r0mpos the frss chapter, ahd tacire the seeoaa and
third, before 1 wos toiera5y satisEed tcith their
affect. In the remainder Of the way / adj
vanced with Il more equal and easy pace
If all authors who have distin guished them
selves would give their experience, We have
NO doubt they would every one tell q tale like
that of 4IBBON