New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-07-19
THE ELIZABETHAN TEMPER.

The contents of Mr. Vaughans anthology would
he alone an Illustration of this scheme of devel-
opment I; is not very long-in fact, not long
enouSh--but because II its brevity we Will
traverse il in detail here. He begins with Sir
Phili,5 sidney passes to Dryden and johnson,
takes leap then from the eighteenth century
t. the nineteenth. and illustrates his subject
with quotations from Coleridge Hazlitt. Lamb
end Shelley In the latters Defence OF Poetry
h stands the brink of the criticism or to-
day and his next eXempiars arc Carlyle and
Ia.er the latter terminating the volume with
his beautiful little fragment on "Sandro Botti-
celli" The omissions implied by this short list
are many and important. and it is surprising
too. to find that Mr.. Vaughan makes the quota
lions that ne does from his various authors.
wider and a better selection might have been
decided upon for each man. but his nine critics
admirably illustrate the evolution which we
have in mind
The outlook Of Sidney was personal to himself
q matter OF his Utmost feeling. lie was brought
up among the best educated people of his time,
and all his associations as well as his training,
were calculated to make him read books with
scholars fastidous care. He chung tenaciously
10 classical dicta. he maintained through all his
work respect for precedent and the conclusions
Of the fathers. Yet students Of the Elizabethan
age know well that its writers were trimming
over with the spontaneous ardors and unhesitat-
ing opinions Of and rapidly growing social
stage Sidney was like his fellows, and While
ne not prone to merely whimsical and arbi-
trary habits Of thought he shared in the laugh
ing sympa thetic. hearty frame of mind which
kept the literary criticism of his day. as it
kept dramatic composition. poetry, historical
writing and the art Of translation. free
from lifeess artifcaty and coldly academic
influences. He came to his studies with
young mind. he looked out upon literature
with clear eyes and an unjaded taste With
what gusto he discourses Of poetry. His Is the
poetry of the poets. of men with souls as pas
eionatey alive as their bodies-and those were
flung headlong into the hustle and ambition OF
a critical period in the history Of the nation.
With all his fresh. buoyant feeling. Sidney could
not regard life in the intensely analytical spirit
Of a modern critic yet he gets a SAVIOR Of human
things. of human feeling. into his criticism,
which not one Of his successors has surpassed.
They have put more, at times. of human con-
viction. OF the polemical fire OF special times
and movements into their utterances; but the
subtle tone OF a sympathy awake to the emo
tions and desires of particular time, Kept
sensitive to the conditions Of all ages and coun-
tries is never absent from Sidneys most char
acteristic work He would beat the critics or
to-day on their own ground. he would be as
apposite as any Of them if IT were not for his
style That II must be admitted comes between
him and his reader He used the rhetoric OF his
contemporaries, and it is too ornate, too Eliza
bethan for complete understanding TO be always
established between It's elaborate phraseology
and the modern reader. Once that understand
ing Is brought about even TO limited extent
there is no resisting the power Of Sidney. Then
does the reader feel the human strain In him.
then Is he aware Of the atmosphere OF a gracious
spirit then does he realize the power OF one who,
II he did not look at literature with the pog-
nancy OF Matthew Arnold, saw II, neverthe-
less with the same poetical dvnatiOn