The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-24

I
! from bias was unimpe2ch3ble.
Poor Mr.. Austin, amid the shower
of uncomplimentary bouquets thrown
at him by his fellow-poets, may ind
| some comfort in the reflection that
twas ever thus The poet-laureates
| have rarely escaped a like experience.
1t would be contrary to popular ideals
| to suggest that poets are, like other
mOrtals. liable to feel the pangs of
envy and jealousy. Yet there is a
| erature going to show that the least
| trustworthy critic of any poet is an
! ether poet If friend, the poet-critic
is apt to fittaer. and if an enemy, he is
| almost sure to be cenSoriOuS. Thus
] we find Samuel Johnson. one of the most
/ eminent critics of modern times, sneer-
| ing at Millions Paradise Lost, which,
| he said, he had peruSed 'aS a duty
rather than as a pleasure" OF the
| Lycidas, so full of rich and varied melo-
! dies, Johnson remarked that he would
! hang dog that read that poem twice"
| When someone spoke to him of Chat
terton he exclaimed with heat: Talk
not 10 me of the powers of a vulgar,
uneducated stripping" which was GER
tainly not just.
Ben JOnson was another good poet,
but bad critic. He found nothing to
please him in Sponsors work and "es-
teemed Dome the first poet in the
world which no one else did. AS TO
Shakespeare it was rare Ben'S opinion
that he wanted art and sometimes
sense" Milton thought Cowley was a
greater poet than Dryden, whom he
said was a good rhymist, but no poet.
Dryden in his turn pronounced some
extraordinary judgments on his cotem
porary poets. He rated Spenser in
ferior to Waller and declared that 'the
matchless Orinda" Catherine Phillips
was very great pOetess. Orinda is
absolutely unknown today, and Spen-
ser far OutrankS Waller. AS for Wal
Ter, he saw nothing in Milton but a
man who had written a dull poem. re-
markable for nothing but its length. |
V0ltaire despised Shakespeare, said his |
tragedies were ''monStrOuS farces."
had produced Cato (Addison'S collec- |
ton of cold and stilted dramatic dia- |
logues) SHOULD tolerate such plays as |
Hamlet Macbeth and 'OthellO'"
Against this curio of criticism we |
may set the poet Gray'S declaration |
that Voltaire, except as a play-writer, |
had no genius at all. Among other
extraordinary judgments passed by
Gray are his declaration that David |
Hume was nothing but an infant all his
days, "who had been unhappily taught
to read and write:" also his decision
that ThOmpSOn'S exquisite Castle of
Incidence" had no merit But Gray
himself did not escape. Samuel John
son pronounced the author of the
"Elegy" 10 be poor. both in magma
ton and expression. Sir" said he
to Boswell, who demurred to JohnSOn'S
description of Gray as dull. "-'sir"
he was dull in company, dull in his
closet. dull everywhere. He was dull
in a new way and that made people
think him great. He was mechanical
poet"
William Collins deserves a place, too.
among the good poets who were poor
critics. He thought that Fletcher ex-
celled Shakespeare in his delineation
of feminine character. Clifford, too,
who was once editor of the famous
Quarterly Review, and was Il poet of
pretenSiOnS himself, print
ed his opinion that Beaumont was as
sublime as Shakespeare, and that Mas
performance; and he denied Shakes
peare any point Of superiority except /
his wit ,
The same critic. who for years was
leading literary censor. pro-
nounced Hazlitt a blockhead. and de-
clared that he could discover neither ,
genius nor common sense in Keats or !
Shelby. Sir Walter Scott though he
was very modest and Self-deprecat0ry
as poet, was not a first-rate judge Of
the poetry Of other men. He told his
friend Ballantyne that he derived more :
pleasure from reading DR.. JohnSon's ,
'The Vanity OF Human Wishes tnan ,
any other poetical composition. His I
judgment on his own poetic work even
has not been confirmed by posterity,
for he insisted that none of il could live.
But poets have been rarely right when :
they sat as critics on their own works. ,
Milton thought his Paradise Regain !
ID was his best work. and Byron be- O
ieved that he touched his highest note c
n Hints from Horace" Addison.
very great critical authority in his day. :
wrote a verSifed Account of the 8
Greatest English Poets" in which be e
made no mention Of Shakespeare, but y
praised RoScommon. now wholly un Z
Known TO the mass of readers. as the c
pest of critics and of poets. too In
he same rhymes he scOrns Chaucer =
Is a writer OF tales only fl 70 ''amuse =
/ barbarous ase"-the Elizabethan age
" the way-aDd speaks !Ddiferenuy
# Spenser.
Among the poets of the present cen =
ury. too, We have Z large array Of 4
,ad critics Byron called Spenser a >
lull fellow" and said be could see :
nothing in him He considered that \
-haucer was .'coItemptible' and @
wed his celebrity merely TO his an