Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-06-25

in writing sonnet are curious. -
First Of all the idea appears, and
oats O'Clock, A. NJ, OH the 10Th Of
October" he eXclalms, with all the
ardor of a parent for his offspring
81 like this "On October 30 al
10 O'Clock III the morning. he saws
"No, this does not please me-" On
December 20, in the evening, he
sOIemnly announced, al shall lie
turn to this again. ! am called tC
supper" On February Is, to-
wards noon, he cries, "This is now
well. However, look at it again.
And all this for one sonnet Sherl
dan certainly carried out his own
theory about easy writing. lie
corrected and recorrected, revised
and recast, till the first copy of his
plays was quite different from the
last. The present Charles Surface
was at first Cldrimoat,t then Florirdi,
then Captain Henry Plausible then
Harm Plant or PHGbIe, then
young Hnrier, and then Frank,
while his elder brother was PldUS-
Die, PEabIe, young Plant Tom,
and lastly Joseph Surtdcc. The
two original plots Of "Ihe School
for Scandal were joined into one,
and all the business of the opening
scene with Lddy SRccyrccU, at pres
ent transacted by Sneak, was given
to a character afterwards wholly
omitted, Miss Virginia. Sir Peter
was old Tcd.lc. "a left-Off trades
man. and Lddy Tedsie was Mrs.
Tca:le. In the third act there was
a long scene which was found i'll
placed, and was accordingly can
celled. Revision followed revision,
until the words were scrawled at
the end, "Finished at last. Thank
God r. b. Sheridan. Amen! w.
Hopkins" No comedy reads more
smoothly, or is more amusing, than
"She Stops TO Conquer" and yet,
when Goldsmith was writing it he
says, 81 have been trying these
three months to do something to
make people laugh. Here ! have
been strolling about the hedges,
studying jests with most tragical
countenance." Among modern
writer's, Bulwer Lytton wrote, at
first, very slowly, and with great
difficulty. He rewrote some of his
Unpublished essays nine or ten
times. He only wrote about three
hours a day, from ten TIL one, sell
dom later. AS practice gave him
more ease he began to write very
rapidly, turning off twenty pages
a day Of novel print. We cannot
help seeing that those authors who
write slowly and deliberately write
the best. Thackeray will live
longer than TrollOpe and Balzac
than Alexander Dumas. In this
case, it often proves that over'haste
is positive defect, and that time,
patience and perseverance are
necessary to a good writer. What
would some of us say to st.
Pierre, who wrote "Paul and Nlr-
ginia" over nine times before he
was satisfied with it Young novel
writer's generally have a great
deal to learn. I'm youth the I'M
agination is active and strong,
while the judgment is weak, and
the faculty Of comparison not
sufficiently developed. So a "yonng
novel;" as it is called, has often a
great deal Of "go" and spirit in
the situations and descriptions but
it breaks down, as "A whole, because
the author has not considered how
to work up his story to a climax.
Some Of our best nOvcllsts have
accomplished their great successes
comparatively late in life. Sir
Walter Scott was over forty when
he published "Waverley,' and
George Eliot was thirty.eight when
she first thought Of writing "Scenes
from Clerical Life" In novel
writing as in other things, there is
"luck in leisure.D