The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-02-05
Shakespeare and the Classical School
of Criticism.


DRYDEN is the father of the so-called
classical school of ShakesDearean crit
icism, a school which has been the
mark for bitter invective by later eulo-
gists of the poet. but which cOntTibut-
ed none the less to tire growth Of
Shakespeares fame. It's greatest rep
resentatiyee, Pope and Johnson, devot-
ed wears TO the preparation Of revised
and annotated editions Of his works
In their prefaces they eXtOlled his SEN
Jus in the highest terms, though not
without some measure of fault finding.
The chief tenet of this school is that
Shakespeare was poet OF vast genius
and profound insight into human ma
ture, but of equally unbOunded extrav-
agance and iTregularity Of style. Wild,
Irregular, lawleSs," are terms of fire.
quent occurrence in their criticisms.
Pope, to be sure, endeavOred to clear
Shakespeare'S fame by stigmatiZing as
interpretations of the player-editors
whatever passages seemed 10 him un-
worthy of Shakespeare genius, and
Johnson deliberately indicated him
from the common critical charge of
violating the dramatic unities Yet the
reader instinctively feels that neither
Pope nor Johnson was at home with
Shakespeare, 1t was not so much an
emotion of reverent awe as a sensation
of self-conscious uneasinesE that came
over them at the contemplation of his
work In two noble metaphors Pope
compares Shakespeare to an ancient,
majestic piece of Gothic architecture,
and Johnson likens his work to a for
est of branching oaks and towering
pines. interspeTsed sometimes with
weeds and bTambles, sometimes giving
shelter to myTtles and roses" But the
age of Pope and Johnson vastly pre-
ferred the pseudO-class5S SIN Of the late
Renaissance to all ancient and mates
tic Gothic architecture" and the trim
~ cut paTterTes of their own gardens
to all the INTENDED forests of the world.
One feels that POpe's mind dWelt rather
on the gTinning mOnstrOsity Of the gar
gOyleS than on the height. the space,
the gloom, the glory" and Johnson's
on the weeds and brambles Of "tumOur,
meanneas, tediOusness and ObscuTity,'
which he discovered in the forest Of
Shakespeare. rather than on the tower
ing strength of his imagination or the
fragrant beauty of his verse.
Yet with all its limitations. and in
spite Of it's curious habit of strOking
with one hand and striking with the
other this school has one great merit.
1t definitely established the position of
Shakespeare as a classic, the greatest
of English classics. After Dryden'5
death the natural prediction of Eng
lish readers for the great national poet
was sanctioned and defended against
the assaults of criticasters by the i'm
mense authority of three successive
chiefs of English letters, Addison, Pope
and Johnson.
The School Of Textual Criticism.
The greatest service rendered TO
Shakespeare's fame by critics Of the
eighteenth century, however. was the
restorat ton Of his text and the prepara-
ton Of an adequate body of eXplana-
tory and illustrative comment During
the seventeenth century only four edi-
tiOns of Shakespeare had appeared !
each of them full of grOss and manifest
cOrrupti0ns. 1t is almost impossible for
the student Of Shakespeare in the re-
viSed and corrected editions of today
to form any conception of the difficulty /
under which readers of the AUgUstan
age labCred who had before them only
the Imprinted, misspelled and at times
utterly nOnsensical text Of the old
copies
The first attempt at correction was
made by the dTamatist Rowe, in 1709. /
He made out lists OF dramatis persOnae !
for all the plays; he divided into acts /
and scenes such dramas as had former /
ly been printed in solid wholes, and he ]
supplied exits and entrances. In other 1
words. he tried To make the text as in /
telhgible to the reader as a stage per-
Torrance would be to the spectator. He /
unfortunately reprinted the most cor /
rUpt of the old fOlios, and made no sys-
tematic revision of the text, but he i'm !
proved the reading from time to time
by a number of happy conjectures
Rowe was followed in lilo by Pope.
who promised great things in the way
Of a purified and annotated text But |
Pope was cOnstitutionaIly incapable of
What he himself styled the dTUdsery of !
an editor, and the fashion in which he
translated Homer was an OminouS
warning Of the way he would edit
Shakespeare. He took the greatest lib /
critics with the old text, striking out !
whole passages that seemed to him be /
low the dignity Of a poet, making alter |
atiOns upon no better authority than I
his own opinion, and at times simply
rewriting a phrase that seemed OBJ /
SCure. And he cared far too little for /
the age in which Shakespeare had lived /
to gather illustrative matter from the /
treasury Of Elizabethan literature: Of /
ten, in fact, his explanatory notes dis /
play ignorance rather than knowledge.
In consequence OF these defects PoDe'5 I
edition was a distinct disappointment /
and a rival soon entered the field. This /
was the work of TheObald, the 'pid- [
ding STibbald'' of the Dunclad, a writer (
Of poor plays and worse poems but a /
critic Of the very highest order. he /
possessed a fine ear for the rhymth of /
blank verse and the keenest sense for |
the nuances Of language. To these |
qualifications he ad5ed a vast store of /
learning in the classical and modern /
tongues. He knew Elizabethan liter
allure better than any other man Of his !
day and is said to have read over 500 |
old plays in preparation for his edi- /
ton Moreover, he was at once con-
scientious and indefatigable in the la /
Dor of collation. and transcription. His j
guiding principles, enunciated in a let
ter to WarburtOn, remain to this GAY
authoritative Canons for textual emen-
datiOn.
I ever labor" he says, "tc make the I
smallest deviation that I possibly can {
from the text; never to alter at all /
where / can by any means explain a /
passage into sense; nor ever by any
lamentations to make the author better +
when it is probable that the text came /
from his own hands"
He restored from the first folio a /
number CT true readings which had /
been lost in later editions, and correct j
ed many corrupt and obscure passages /
by conjectures as happy as brilliant /
The most familiar of these, of course. /
is the emendatiO ceftissima. which has
restored to Us the words of Falstaff.
In spite Of the abuse of Pope and the /
neglect Of protested scholars TheO- /
b2id's work met with an immediate and [
gratifying success. Seven editions of il +
were published within the next forty
years, a remarkable proof, by the way,
of the growth of Shakespeare fame
when compared with the four editions
which had satisfied the demand in the
preceding century
Theobald's most scholarly successor f
was undoubtedly Capell. who published
an edition Of Shakespeare in 176S. Some
inherent defect seems to have rendered
him incaDabla of aNn-aesin. hin-saIf l.