Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1884-09-20
HOW HE VIEWED THEN.
Charles Reade's Opinion of the Great Men
of His Time.

Charles Reade's Opinion of the Great Men
of His Time.
OF all his contemporaries Charles
Reade yielded the palm alone to Dickens.
Him he always acknowledged as his mas
ter. Next, for variety and scope, he
thought, came Bulwer.
Carlyle, he said, was "a JOhnsonian
pedant, bearish, boOrish and bumptious,
egotistical and atra6ilious. His TeutOn-
ic English was barbarous; yet, notwith-
standing every line he wrote was per-
meated with yigor and sincerity. and his
Cromwell is a memorial to two great
men, the hero and the author"
Macaulay always posed himself
"As who should say, L am Sir Oracle,
And when Ope my lips let no dog bark"
but with this intellectual arrogance he
combined grand rhythmical style, a
marvellous learning and miraculous
memory.
Disraeli was "the most airy and viva
cious of literary coxcombs, the most dex-
trOus and dazzling of political harle-
quins, the most lovable of men when
you got on his weak side), and altogeth-
or the most unique and remarkable per-
sonage Of the age"
"Esmend," he added, lis worthy of
Addison at his best, but some OF The
.Yellowplush Papers would be disgrace
to Grub street, and the miserable per-
sonal attacks ON Bulwer, who has writ
ten the best play, the best comedy and
the best novel of the age, are unworthy
of gentleman or a man of lettels"
"Trollope wrote good deal that was
interesting and good deal that was
not interesting"
For literary ingenuity in building up
a plot, and investing it with mystery
give nv dear old Wilkie Collins against
the world"
George Eliot's meter appears to me
to consist principally in describing with
marvellous accuracy the habits, manner
and customs of anlmalcula as they exis
under the microscope
Guido has emerged into dignity, anC
there Is nothing in literature more touch
ing and beautiful than the tale of |'Tw;
Little Wooden Shoes 80
Victor Hugo is the one great geniu
of this century. Unfortunately, he oc
casionally has the nightmare"
George Sand should have been
man, for she was most manly woman.
GLORIOUS old Alexandra Dumas ha
never been properly appreciated. He
the prince of dramatists." 's =
Walter Scott was one of the world
benefactors."
, Reade execrated poetasters, but adore
, poets, although he maintained that ther
was no nobler vehicle to give expression
to thought than nervous, simple prose.
Tennyson. he alleged, 'is more prett
g than potent" When The Cup" wa
y produced at the Lyceum, he said, -
+, might have proven an interesting sTe'
| tacle if the words had been left OUT
4 Browning is a man OF genius, but b
piyes me too much trouble to unde
4 stand"
n Buchanan is a poet, but like h
q prose best; it is most poetic prose-.
: Edwin Arnold has sparks of the d
|. vine afflatus, and holds his own anon
k the best"
n "Swinburne has heart fgold, mui
If of fire-a little too fiery perhaps; but
o was young once myself, and 1, TOO, love
the great god Pan
v He always harked back to Byro
,e Shelley and Scott-the latter, howeve
~ WAS his greatest fayorite, and he wou
Q recite by heart, with fervor, canto5
,e .'Marmion" and Tile Lady OF the Lake
a He sometimes complained bitterly
20 what he called ''The Shakespeare
a. Craze" stcutly maintaining that the pc
:, pie who talked m, st of the bard kne
81 least about him. In a more genial mo'
1r he frankly admittee the supremacy
N the celestial thief to all men who can
e. before or after hIm. If could only
n him going about "Othello"-the one pc
a. feet play through all the ages-he wou
a discourse thunder and lightning"
o. Music was his special delight, out l
no taste was as exacting as it was cultivate
Italian Opera, he always malntaln'
ne was both in form and method an cni
ve culated and degraded school OF a
iy Wagner was a giant a hundred years
It's advance of his age, and his theory
ur sublime; but. alas he lacked melody.