The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-30
swINBURNE ON DICKENS.

-
 Chicago Evening Post
 In the Summer number of the Quarterly Re- view Algernon Charles -Swinburne enters the lists to charge in honor of Charles Dickens. No hot headed knight of medieval prowess rushed to the onslaught with greater vigor Rash thrusts are made to right and to left, friends downed, foes bite the dust while Swinburne sings the praises of one whom he calls the greatest creative spirit of his time No need for The Quarterly to let it be known that this the first time in it's long history that a signed article had appeared in it's pages. The eccentricities of Swinburne appear in every line and had the screed been without signature any at all familiar with the poet would have recognized his peculiaritfes Here are the same torrents of adjectives. ava lanches of phrases and labyrinthine sentences we have seen before:
 Tt Is only whn such names Shakespeare or Hugo rise and remain as the supreme wit nesses of what was highest in any particular country at any particular time that there can be no question among any but irrational and impudent to the supremacy of their greateet. England undsr the reign of Dickens had other great names to boast of, which may we'll be allowed to challenge the sovereignty of his genius. But there certainly was no Shakespeare and no Hugo to rival and eclipse his glory. he will probably and naturally be accepted and acclaimed the greatest Eng lishman of his generation No one could have foreseen what all may now foresee in the Sketches by Bog, a great creative genius Nor could any one have foreseen it in the early chapters of 'Pickwick Papers. which at their best do better the sort of thing which had been done fairly well before. Sam Weller and Charles Dickens came to life together. immor- tai and twin born"
 In "Oliver Twist Swnburne discovers that the quality of a great tragic and comic poet dramatist in prose fiction was for the first time combined with already famous qualities of a great humorist and born master in the arts of narration and dialogue. Nicholas Nickleby' Is admirable as 1t Is full of life, sap and savor
 The vital quality of the novelist's work Is proved by the fact that ''reader of that age, who had earned honor and respect in public life affection and veneration in private re- yelled with "insuppressible delight in first reading of the chapters which enroll all worthy readers in the company of Vincent Crummles. Sidney Smith. who had held out against Samuel Weller, conquered by Miss Squeers. Her letter. perhaps the most "ob- viously initiative and suggestive of its model, converted great elder humorist to ap- preciation of q greater than himself' "No mortal man of woman, no human boy or girl, can resist the fascination of Mir. and Mrs. Quilp, of Mir. and Mrs. Brass. of MT. Swiveller and his marchioness" He is not enthusiastic about "the child-'she has never a touch of childhood about her.
 "Outside the class which excludes all but the highest masterpieces poetry, it is diff ficut to find imagine faultless work of creation--in other words. a faultiess work of f1ction-but the story of 'Barnaby Rudge' can hardly in common justice said to fall short of this crowning praise. And in this book an appreciatve reader must recognize qual- ity of humor which will remind him of Shake speare, and perhaps Aristophanes. To have made malignity as delightful for an instant as simplicity and Miss Miggs as enchanting as Mrs. Quickly or Mrs. Camp, is an unsurpass- able triumph of dramatic humor.
 Swinburne agrees with Dickens that David Copperheld' was his greatest masterpiece. Contrasting merits of Martin Chuzzlewit' and David Copperfeld' he says: But no reader above the level of intelligence which prefers to Shakespeare the Parisian 1bsen and the Norwegian Sardou can dispute the fact that Mrs. Camp has and again risen even to that unma ginable supremacy of triumph - ! nothing in later comedy can rival her unspeak- able perfection. We think of all this and of more than all this, and acknowledge with infinite thanksgvngs of inexhaustible laugh ter and of rapturous admiration the very greatest comic poet creation that ever lived to make the life of other men more bright and more glad and more perfect than ever without his benehcent influence it pos sibly or imaginabv could have been. In terms of praise he continues to anaIyze characters and situations. In "Chuzzlewit' I is noted an advance in power of tragic lnVen- | ton, an increased strength in grasp of char acter and grip of situation From first to last
  eye above the level and beyond the insight of a beetles as one of the masterpieces to which | time can only add new charm and an un- imaginable value. The narrative Is as CO
 herent and harmonious as Tom Jones Nand | to say this Is to try it by the very highest | faAl apparently most unattainable standard 1n the midst of his exalted laudations Swim | burne digresses to take fling at old-timo enc mics. "A single passage from the last scene | of the fourth act of Loves Labor Lost is | han sufficient tO weigh oltShine. | to eclipse and efface forever the dramatic lu- | cubrations of prescriptions of Dr. lbsen Fra fl 1 castoro of the drama and his voluby grateful | patients" Loves Labor Lost" is one of the | least significant of Shakespeare's plays, and l among the least satisfactory of Thackeray s | and Dickens's are ''The Virginans'' and | Little Dorrit," yet no one above the intel | lectual level of Ibensite or Zolaist will | doubt or will deny that there is enough merit
 in either of these books for the stable founda- l ton of enduring fame" Referring again to I Little Dorritt:"
 | ..The day after the death of MT. Merdle is | one of the most memorable in all the record | of creative histOry-or, to word in | nIace of two-n all the record of fiction The | fusion of humor and horror in the marvellous l chapter which describes 1t is comparable only | with the kindred work of such creators as the | authors of Les Miserables and King Lear, | and nothing In the work of BalzaC is newer | and truer and more terrible than the rclent | less yet not unmerciful evolution of the contra figure in the story. once more he waves eto | duent on the resurrection of Rogue RderhooC | in Our Mutual Friend The terrible humol of 1t holds the reader entranCed alike at thu | first and the hundredth reading. And th' | blatant boobies who deny truthfuIness anC | realism to the imagination or genius of Dick | ems because it never Condescended to aspire o | wallow in metaphysics filth may be fear l lessly challenged to match this scene for tragi | comic and everlasting truth in the works O l Sardou or Ibsen. of the bi-sexual George tlio | or the Masculine Miss Maevte Mannish. NJ
 Zoa had he imagined it, as undoubtedly hi
 potent and indisputahle genius might hav done must have added flavor of blood O
 ordure which would hardly have Sratihed Q | tickled the nostrls palate of Dickens. bu it is possible that his insular delicacy O
 prudery of relish may not be pitiahle nfrm II ivy or a desirable defect"
 In other asides he cuts at Andrew Lam and Matthew Arnold, then having done he con
 cIudes and how much more might be said | would the gods annihilate but time and spac
 for a worthicr purpose than that of makni lovers happy of the splendid successes tp b noted in the least successful book or houks O this great and ineXhaustihle writer
 Royal Personages Betrothed.