The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-03-10

"Enoymlon a. thoroughly lmn1ature. But
killed. or even discouraged, by his critics
he was not. and on q page Of q copy OF
"Lamia," where his publishers spoke OF
his encouragement. he wrote: 'This is a
lie" The copy 10 in the possession OF
Canon Ainger.) Keats. like Burns. whom
he 50 intensely admired and 30 unerringly
| Judged as q man and q poet. was his own
| best critic. Despite his boyish lusciousness
Of taste and the fever of letter written
when dying. there was no more manlier
, nor chivalrous soul In England than that
Of the poet OF the odes to the nightingale
and to autumn. Keats at his best attained
sheer perfection of language. OF emotion
and of thought. As he advised Shelley to
be. he was not content with less than
filling all the riffs with pure gold. TN
taught" like the minstrel Of Odysseus. he
combined a Greek clarity and largeness of
manner with that romance which
Greece does not lack. but which
he possessed in a large degree
been and cannot be initiated. and he has
supplied to Tennyson and the best moderns
a standard and an ideal. That the Shakes
pearean copiousness OF humanity and hui
NOR and dramatic genius would ever have
been his nothing indicates. but what writer
Of our century, except Scott, has possessed
a large share Of these qualities? In poetry
not one. and 1t was in prose that Scott wore
his fragment Of the cloak Of Shakespeare.
For the century has not produced, In Eng
gland or America. a great ANA poet.
1t Is to fiction. to Scott, Dickens. Thack-
cray. Stevenson. Meredith. Hawthorne.
George Eliot. that We must look for the
humor and humanity and passion which,
earlier. found their vehicle In the drama.
Ours is a reading rather than a seeing
century, though this does not explain the
reason which made the great novelists in
capable Of writing for the stage. OF the
other poets OF the early century, Campbell, |
Rogers. Moore, Lander. Hogg, and the
ladies. Mrs. Hemans and l.. Z. L and
Beddoes. space does not permit US to treat. |
Landor's audience has not increased. Rog- |
ers has none; Campbell Is best remembered |
for war songs which I fear are overrated; |
Hogg. despite some exquisite passages in |
"kilmeny," and some admirable songs, SUI
fers from his countrymen's exclusive devo- |
tion to Robbie Burns. When Scott turned
to fiction QS1D the current Of popular tasto
at once changed into that channel. Byron
had still his vogue; Keats. Shelley and Col
eridge then sang only to the few initiated; |
Wordsworth was past his prime; and with
the general public nothing was really pop
ular but fiction. and that fiction was
SCOTS. Miss Austen is probably much
more widely appreciated to-day than when
she died. little noted by the world, in 1877.
A criticism Of SCOTS novels, which first
made fiction supreme and far above poetry
In the estimation OF 1.-THE reading public"
cannot be attempted in this place. The
best estimate Of Scott, If far from most
favorable. is his own. in the Introduction ]
to The Fortunes Of Nigel" His faults of
prolixity. haste. Indifference to delicacy Of
style. and even to grammar his big DOW
WOW vein las he calls ~. the stilt-
ed theatrical language Of his Cath
Glovers and Helen Macgreg-
these defects. with his hasty
denouements las of Shakespeare and
Moliere)' are patent, are confessed. and
probably deter many readers from making
profit Of his humor. his rich knowledge of !
and sympathy with all human nature, his
infrequent but exquisite touches of passion,
his tragedy and comedy. None the less.
Scott is the main stock Of the fiction of the
Men may now ave more minute
knowledge. though 80 wide a knowledge
has none: may lave more wit, II less
may eagerly hunt for all that
Scott loathed and avoided in our animal
nature; may, indeed must, practice a more
careful style. but all the novelists are,
willy nilly. children Of Scott and Miss AUS
ten. Dickens. indeed. owed more to Smol-
lett Zone Of Scott's chief favorites). Thack-
cray owed more to Fielding, the "Kailyard
owed more to Gait Q779-1S3g. But
Scott is 1.-The father of the rest" above all.
Of Dumas. and Miss Austen is the mother.
Lord Lytton and Mr.. Disraeli had, espec-
Ialiy at first, a tinge of Byronism. later
developing on their own lines. Mr.. Disrael's
Lord Lytton's multifarious. in
Guiding the line Of modern mysticism, now
Lytton, and might lave seen dhough
probably he did not see them the little
noted beginnings of Browning and Tenny-
son. about 1880.