New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-06
RECoLLECTIoNS OF A READER
BY CHARLES 7. C0NGD0N.
XVI.
LITERARY FASHIONS.

| NAMEs-UNsUCCRSsFU LAUTHORSHlP-IhEF A9h-
ION OF sTYLE-JoHN LYLY, The EuPHUIsr -
THE POPE vERsIFICATroN-TBE DELLA CRUscANs
AND GIFFoRD's "BAvIAD" = JOHN KEMBLEs
| PASSION FOR OLD BOOKS - DIR. JOHNSON AND
HIS sTYLE-FoRGoTTEN NOVELS.
Horace once boosted that in writing his poems he
| had erected q monument harder than brass and
considering how the least obsolete he is OF oil the
Roman writers and how his verses are preserved
| in the mosaic of universal literature, the boast
| seems fulfilled prophecy Yet those who have
| found this permanent fame are few enough, anu OF
those few more than mOiety are hardly more than
names, which men use when they would seem wise.
No age is to be censurcd for liking best its own and
| il man prefers such dramas as they now mostly
give us at the theatres to Shakespeare and Jonson
and Massnge1, let him confess it honestly! 1t lsa
critical consideration not to be neglected, that much
of the best literature must have contemporary
cast, and be no moro than an artistic rescript OF
manners and fashions and the days notions Only
what is of immortal application can smell sweet
forever and blossom in spite OF the dust of the CEN
turtles Originality, too, is limited by an irrepeal-
able law. " We are come too late" observes La
Bruyere, " after above seven thousand years that
there have been men, and men have thought, to say
anything which has not been said already" have
thought it would be worth while for the lover OF
books to study little moro closely their relation
to the day in which they were put out and to try
to understand why they were then admired, albeit
they admired no longer. AIN not over sorry for
authors VINO have beon much hattered and smoth-
ered with crowns in their own generation, and then
forgotten. They had their ovation with all Its fine
qualifications, its money and feasts and obeisances
and thick thrOngng honOrs. 1t would be too much
to ask posterity to keep up the gortcatiOn in
sGctla sPculorum. ThackeIav always insisted that
the legend of GrubSrcet cruelty and of booksellers
extOrtions was OveTdOne and really if remembrance
be q test of merit, men who are remembered only
by reason of being in The Duncad" got all they
deserved to get for their works, and perhaps more
] once thought of writing their lives. 1t struck me
that this would be an extremely useless and plea
SAINT recreation; but 1t mp for want of books,
leisure and little persistence. sometimes wish
that had list of tie books which men OF letters
have projected, and dreamed about, and made col
lections Pour serrr, and even begun; gong on,
alas for n little way, and then stopping for this
reason or the other death, whim poverty, maybe
o suspicion of inability. Such u catalogue would
throw light upon the mystery OF the might
have BEEN over which those sympathetic fellows,
the poets shed such saline tears. IL would be
curious history that of unir ishod literatnIc and
there would be moral in it, tOO-it would enforce
the cOpybook Drecept of never putting of until to-
morrow what can he done to-day Who was it that
humoronsly reversed this maxim and who never
did today what could be postponed until to-
morrow 7
The world hls always had its joke against unsuc-
ccssful authors and has treated Their failures with
scant courtesy sometimes indeed leaving the
dpeude honorable to Bacon's " next age" Because
man was poor and lived in garrett, and shaved for
the booksellers, and was even too shabby for the
halls of titled patrons; because he dncd in two
penny ordinary upon trlpe and cow-heel; because
sometimes for want of a roof he walked the streets
all night, or slept for warmth in tho ashes OF
glass house. he was lampOoned by tho satlrlsts,
even ny Swift and by Pope he was caTicatured DY
Ilogarth he became, il not over itty himself tine
cause Of much wit in others If of his fellows.
little more successful, was taken into favor by
| tho town. the prosperous was sure to turn
upon his old paupsr friends aud to sheer ut the
bcrcarly lot which he had escaped. II was
nrycr-cXhausted source Of amusement to tell how
sheets which had cost their authors much labor,
proving unsuitable denied tho dignity OF bind
ing, and were sold TO the pastry-cook and the
| butcher for wrappers and to the trunhmakcr for
Innings Here is one sneer from that obscene bird
OF song, Peter Pindar:
Suhscrhng 10 a chandlcrs shop for cheese,
IE.In tue libors Of celestial Thought;
SetHOuS Of Mares nv eve with wonder secs, y
AMI reads h!S British cric-nli Tor nought.
I here was n smack of the last ccntury's satire in
Walter Savage Landor's jibe at his critics when
he offered hot penny roll and pint OF stout for
brc .fast to any of the tribe who could write one
@, his Imaginary Conversations. l suppose that
Goldsmith knew what hunger was, in the early
DAYS before no bad money to fling away upon
peac-boom coats, for he speaks OF writer's, whose
every day may be considered Lappy e-cape from
famine and who die at last of disorder caused by
hunger but which in common language is often
called a broken heart" The old Greek priests
offered ia the g. DIS in sacrifice the bones OF the We
tim only-we may guess what they did with the
meat: and so society by way OF rewardng It's d.
vine singers has too often given them the scraps,
the fragments and the remainder biscuit. Perhaps
they deserved no more, but is there no such thing
as charity for pauper poets
STYLE il fashion, and comes in and goes ont like
furbelows and farthingales; and what is true OF
style is true of literature in general. very pretty
book might he written about works once IN hlgh
fashion, and forgotten, as we'll as abont rhctOr-
cal methods long sunk in the depths OF dlsuse'
None of them would be more amusing than the
dainty devices of John Lyly, who in the time Oh
Elizabeth undertook the reform OF the English IAN
puaqe Ills Euphues' might even now DO re-
printed to show schoolboys how they should not
write. contemporary of Shakespeare Lyly seems
10 have been in some rcpute even IN the reign OF
charles rho First. Blount, writing of him then,
savs that all the ladies were his scholars; and it
scems TO have argued i-breoding not to be able to
use his luscious lingo. 1t was the fine dialect OF
Ivly winch Sir Percie ShaftOn talked in SCOTS
- Monastery" The style has been characterized as
perpetual effort with no adequate success-an-
other commentator speaks Of it rs fantastic, OK
trayagant, and opposed to truth, nature, good
sonse and manlincss." "Pcdantic and far-tetched
allusicns" he continues, elaborate indirectness
glowing smoothness and drowsy monotony OF dc
ton, ALTERATION, punning and other such pueIili-
tes-these are the main Ingredients Of Euphuism"
Ron Jonson ridicued the now fashion, and SO did
cbokespeare in Loves Labors Lost" Under the
-. ~ Eu..I.una In The EnLnhLer Dr. .IOhnsOn is