The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-12-18

| Mr.. Richard Henry Stoddard says, In
the New York Mail and Express, that
| the Putnams have just added to their
| series OF "Knickerbocker Nuggets
! miniature collection of famous classics
| THE Wit and Wisdom Of Charles Lamb
| by Ernest Dressed North. No English
| prose writer OF the century ever so
abounded in the qualities which, literally
| interpreted, are witty and wise, though
| a number Of them are neither quite the
! one nor the other, but curious, an IN
diyidual, a unique combination Of both
His mind was ess ,ntially a whimsical
one. and I'm its exercise he must some
times have hesftated between his tendency
10 humor and his tendency to pathos. IN
certain In the loving struggle between
them which would finally come upper
most He is more humorous in his let
! tors than elsewhere. though they are not
| without touches OF the deepest pathos
| the conception and effect of his essays,
| even the lightest OF them. IS strangely In
| the direction OF pensive sadness the gem
| tie Ella being, in his heart Of hearts,
| melancholy man. Where he is most wise,
most the thinker and the scholar, is In
| his critical papers. which. whether they
! discuss old authors or old actors, seldom
| leave anything for others to say on the
| same themes. When his sympathies ware
| touched his insight was infallible; when
| they were not touched his judgment was
| generally narrow, and often singularly
| erroneous. He could never see anything
! in the poetry of Byron, as We are re-
minded In these extracts OF Mr.. North,
who quotes a passage from one OF his
letters to Bernard Barton. the Quaker
poet on the death Of Lord Byron.
80 we have lost another poet" he
writes. Il never much relished his Lord
~1.f oh. h.,
Greeks have cause to miss him. He was
TO me offensive, and I can never make
out his great power which his admirers
talk Of Why, line OF WOrdsworths Is
a lever to lift the immortal spirit! Byron
can only move the spleen. He Is at best
a satirst; I'm any other way he was mean
enough. I dare say I do him injustice;
but / cannot love him nor squeeze tear
to his memory" and some five years
later, in a letter to Joseph Cottle, he
wrote:
1t is quite a mistake that I could dis
like anything you should write against
| Lord Byron, for I have a thorough aver
| sion to his character and a very moderate
admiration Of his genius he is great IN
so small a way To be a poet Is 10 be
the man, not a petty portion or occa-
sional low passion worked into perma-
nent form Of humanity. Shakespeare has
thrust such rubbishly feelings into cor
ner the dark, dusky heart Of Don John
I'm Much Ado About Nothing
There is truth in this criticism, but
there is more than truth, for there IS
IL .udice also, as there was in the minds
OF an the Lake poets and their set when
ever the poetry of Byron was under as
cussion. There was truth also in what
he wrote about Shelly, whom he could no
more understand than Barton could: 'tor
his theories and nOstrums, they are oracu-
lar enough; but ] either comprehend en-
not or there is 'miching malice ana ms
chief in 'em, but for the most part ring
ing with their own emptiness HaZlitt
said well Of EN-: Many are the wiser
and better for reading Shakespeare. but
nobody was ever wiser or better for read
ing Shelley"
one would Ike 10 know what Lamb
would have thought Of Browning and MS
dI.natic method, OF the mystical sensu-
| BUSINESS Of Rossetti, of Swinburne's afhu-
ence of dictiOn and mastery Of poetic har-
monies. They would have puzzled him,
no doubt, but he would have SAID some
true and profound things about them, for
with all his sympathetic limitations he
was a genuine critic. But what he was
the world has made up its mind ever since
he wrote the Essays, OF Ella, the
sniritual sincerity Of which IS confirmed
by every other story that his biographers
have collected and preserved We have
the best Of these stories here, as we have
record Of the good things that he said
and wrote. for his sayings We're some
times as good as, IL not better than his
writings Mr. North has done his work
well: so we'll that we miss nothing we
evnected 70 find. but some things which
We ala not expect. and which II not
new 10 most OF his readers, VIII have
escaped their memories they are 50 re-
cnnLlta md so llttle known.