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NOTES

THE following notes and questions aim to aid the student in the analysis of the foregoing selections. No attempt is made to supply data of historical or explanatory sort other than may be needed in the understanding of what the writers are driving at. The material that a critic uses, his point of view, and the sanctions for his views or the positive demonstration of their truth are what, in the opinion of the editor, are of prime importance for the student to comprehend. In so extensive, varied, and, in the last analysis, so personal a thing as literary criticism, no notes and questions can hope to be exhaustive. Accordingly, in the following pages, only main points are indicated, and these in a suggestive rather than a dogmatic way. Countless other questions will occur to every student and teacher, but a careful study of what is here supplied should furnish a pretty comprehensive idea of the chief sources of interest in literary criticism, of the more typical methods that it employs, and the types of demonstration of which critical opinion is susceptible.

I. LESLIE STEPHEN

Stephen's account of the work which Swift did in behalf of Ireland is an example of what may be termed biographical criticism, the criticism, that is, which interprets a man's writings in relation to his life. More particularly, this chapter is (1) a statement of Swift's position immediately after his leaving England on the fall of the Tory ministry, (2) a view of the political situation in Ireland at that time, (3) a narrative of how Swift acted during the ensuing score of years with regard to that situation, and (4) the comments of the biographer on Swift's acts and writings. Of these items the first three are narration and exposition of known fact, and criticism enters only in so far as Stephen interprets these acts in one way or another. The fourth item is the strictly critical part of the chapter; the critical issue regards the value of Swift's work. The critical questions that Stephen raises have to do with (1) the justice of Swift's position, (2) the practical effectiveness of his writing, and (3) the general worthiness of his championship of the oppressed. These questions are economical, political, and ethical, rather than strictly literary, and the evidence in support of Stephen's judgment is from ethical and economic standards, historical events, and a comparison with Berkeley. Hence the conclusions are less personal and more susceptible of proof than would be the conclusions of an impressionistic method.

For that reason, the present essay is a good one from which to approach the study of criticism. The best way to begin such study is with pieces wherein the conclusions can be shown to be based on more or less tangible and acceptable evidence, rather than on predilection or personal impression. M3. philological criticism (of necessity excluded from this volume) has this 337

same advantage

that its standards can be more exactly applied. The per

sonal question does not so largely enter.

Other examples of criticism of the same biographical sort will be found in such volumes as the English Men of Letters Series, especially those on Pope and Johnson by the same author, the Great Writers Series, the Beacon Biographies, particularly Professor Carpenter's Longfellow, a nice instance of the method, the longer articles in the Dictionary of National Biography — and others. Good critical essays by Stephen - many of them of a philosophical rather than a biographical character Library and Studies of a Biographer. Scott, Forster, Craik, and Collins.

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are those of Hours in a For other lives of Swift, consult

1. Analyze the selection with a view to showing the points which Stephen brings out. What parts are concerned with Swift's personality, character, and motives? What with the situation in which he found himself and the condition of Ireland? What conclusion does Stephen arrive at with regard to the value of Swift's work? Is the value of a literary, or of some other, kind? What is the evidence on which Stephen bases his conclusions?

2. Compare the chapter with that on Gulliver's Travels from the same book; do you note any differences in the kind of critical evidence or in the kind of values? Write a commentary on some portion of the work of an author's life.

II. DAVID MASSON

The review of De Quincey's writings is a good example of formal literary classification. Like any thorough classification, it (1) gives the basis or principle on which the divisions are made, (2) enumerates the individuals in the classes and sub-classes, and (3) illustrates each class by typical examples. It further attempts to bring out the variety and range of De Quincey's work and to show the relative significance and value of the different classes and of individual pieces. It will be noted that the basis of classification is mainly the ideas that are to be found in De Quincey's work, but other descriptive categories are also used. Some of these, according to the character of the work under discussion, are æsthetic, some have to do with the occasion of the work, some with structure, and some, as the description of Plato's Republic, with De Quincey's temperamental reactions. It will also be observed that the descriptions of some of the works, as Klosterheim and The English Mail Coach, are pretty full; these are good examples of descriptive summary. There is also a good deal of illustrative quotation.

So formal a classification as this is not very common in criticism, but classification of some sort may be said to be implied in any good literary discussion whatsoever. The account of Wood's Halfpence, the preceding selection, for example, is really a sub-class of all Swift's writings, embracing those in behalf of Ireland. Again, literary classification may be made on different bases. A "polyhistor" like De Quincey, whose works bear singularly little relation to the course of his life, may best be approached with reference to his ideas, but a classification on the basis of his manner would also be possible. The writings of a man like Swift, on the contrary, whose life was passed in practical activity and who contributed little to our stock of ideas, though much to our amusement, were better classed by the occasion; and such is the scheme adopted by Stephen in his life of Swift. A classification

of Swift's works into controversial articles, satires, etc., would also be possible. With Lamb, again, a classification largely by forms, into stories, dramas, criticism, and essays, etc., would be convenient and would have the additional aptness of following pretty closely the various successive interests of Lamb's literary development. An example of formal literary classification, not so thorough as Masson's, will be found in Nichol's Carlyle in the English Men of Letters.

1. Point out the parts of the present essay which (1) explain the principles of the classification used, (2) name the individuals, and (3) characterize the types and individuals. In what different ways does the critic characterize the work of the author? What does Masson say of the relative value of the different writings of De Quincey? What of De Quincey's claim to comparative greatness?

2. How many of these characterizations state fact, and what ones merely express opinion? Do you see any reason for Masson's opinion that De Quincey's biographical sketch of Shakespeare is "the perfection of proportion" (p. 18)? Does Masson demonstrate his opinion of De Quincey as a critic (p. 31)? What of the estimate of Levana?

3. Point out the principle and scheme of classification in other essays in this volume. Make a classification of the works of some writer with whom you are tolerably familiar, with a view to showing his range, variety, and chief points of excellence.

III. SAMUEL JOHNSON

Johnson's famous piece of criticism is an example of that kind which attempts to characterize the type or genre to which a man belongs. Cowley is treated as the representative of a class, a fashion, or a cast of mind. Johnson's exposition is excellent: he, following his usually systematic and simple intellectual methods, first characterizes his type and then illustrates it. The critical question at issue would, therefore, be how fairly Johnson has represented the men he is dealing with; how far, in short, his characterization is a matter of fact. His judgment concerning the passages quoted is presumably solid and authoritative; but more modern students differ with him in holding that he has not fairly represented the better side of Donne, Cowley, and others.

In recent years a good deal of heed has been paid to the study of form or genre in literature, on the principle that individual pieces of writing may properly be compared only with like kinds, but that the different genresthe epic, the lyric, the novel, etc.—have different degrees of value, and on the ground, too, that the proper study of literature can best proceed by process of isolating and tracing the origin and development of various forms. An important book of this type is the late F. Brunetière's L'Evolution des genres dans l'histoire de la littérature, and various special books, such as Professor W. L. Cross's The Development of the English Novel, and Professor John Erskine's Elizabethan Lyric, are examples of the study.

1. What, according to Johnson, are the chief characteristics of the "metaphysical poets"? What is meant, in this essay, by "wit"? By "art"? By to "copy nature or life"? By "singular in their thoughts"? By "just"? By" conceits"? By "inelegant"? By the various figures of speech in the quotations? By such phrases, in the opening paragraph, as "Tracing intellectual pleasure to its natural sources in the mind of men," etc.?

2. In general, by what sanctions does Johnson seek to establish his positions, in this essay? What are his standards for critical judgment? Compare these with the evidence that he uses in others of The Lives of the Poets, in, for example, his famous characterization of Pope's personality, character, and attainment. Test the truth of such phrases as "Sublimity is produced by aggregation and littleness of dispersion. Great thoughts are always general, and consist in positions not limited by exceptions, and in descriptions not descending to minuteness" (p. 47).

IV. THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY

The present selection is an example of what is frequently called destructive criticism, in that it assails a received tradition and a current vogue. Macaulay's point is not so much to establish principles for guidance in criticism as to test a given product by certain standards. What these standards are may be gathered from the sins of which Montgomery has been guilty, as, for example, to mention the chief in order of appearance: stealing of other men's ideas, mutilation of them, the indiscriminate use of figures, stupidity, false syntax, lack of harmony, gross bad taste and even blasphemy, incoherence, lack of sense of situation, tautology, tasteless descriptions, the presentation of disjointed and silly physics, metaphysics, and theology, meaningless phrases, etc. The standards, it is evident, are of different kinds; some are merely rhetorical, others have to do with philosophy, religion, the writer's power of observation, and good use generally.

The critical issue of this essay, aside from the opening anathema against puffing, is with regard (1) to the specific fairness with which the points against Montgomery are made, and (2) granting their specific fairness, whether or not they are representative of Montgomery. It is the same question that came up regarding Johnson's discourse on the metaphysical poets. Another interesting point would be the actual effect of such a piece of criticism as the present.

The incomplete outlines given above of the topics treated in the essay reveals the fact that Macaulay approached his victim without much system. Structurally, the essay is a series of brilliant points, or examples, of diverse character, rather than a sustained thesis. Possibly this method of attack is better than a more formal one would be in dealing with so weak an opponent as Montgomery; the rapid-fire of Macaulay's style is very brisk and vigorous. Certainly there are few more lively and energetic pieces of criticism in the language than this.

I. Show in each detail what Macaulay's standards of judgment are. Can these be classified under one general head? If so, compare that general standard with those implied in the essays of Johnson, Arnold, Pater, and others. Compare the standards of Macaulay with those of other critics of the judicial type, as Johnson (Lives of the Poets) or Jeffrey. (See L. E. Gates's Selections from Jeffrey.) Compare the present essay with such essays as those of Mr. J. M. Robertson on Arnold, Ruskin, Carlyle, Emerson, and others in Modern Humanists, to note any difference in standards.

2. Are the points made by Macaulay well taken? Are they of equal importance? Does he really prove that Montgomery was a plagiarist? Are these points representative of Montgomery? Is Montgomery assailed as a person or as a typically bad example?

3. Look into the history of the effect of this essay and see if you can determine why it may have accomplished its end, and why Jeffrey's equally vehement onslaughts on Wordsworth are looked upon as failures.

V. WALTER BAGEHOT

Bagehot's essay on Dickens's novels is an attempt to make one of those estimates of an author which is called a review, for the convenience and enlightenment of actual and prospective readers. This issue is stated clearly in the third paragraph. Admitting the greatness and the vogue of Dickens, Bagehot's aim is to classify Dickens's genius and to show the characteristic excellences and defects which emanate from it, and of which it is illustrative. This aim Bagehot carries out by his very broad division of men of genius into the regular and the irregular, with the accompanying illustrations of each type and the orderly analysis of Dickens's qualities which illustrate the type to which he belongs.

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Throughout the essay Bagehot deals with these large opposing types, best illustrated by the fundamental dichotomy of “regular” and “irregular." His classification of novels into the "ubiquitous" and the "sentimental" is another case in point. The same trait is to be observed in other essays by the same hand: for example, in Shakespeare The Man (1853), Bagehot, by a series of contrasted general types -as the "experiencing mind" (illustrated by Shakespeare), the mind that grows by contact with new experience, and that which is, as it were, 'cast" from the start- he arrives at a tolerably full characterization of the poet. It is obvious that the soundness of Bagehot's criticism must in a large measure depend on the common sense of these fundamental distinctions. They are not at all distinctions of impression, subtle phrasings-as with Pater, in the following essay- of the critic's own feeling for the object, but are so broad and obvious as to be as self-evident as axioms in mathematics. Some, of course, are pretty obvious. These distinctions are evidently the chief standard of judgment by which Bagehot measures his subjects, and they possess to a high degree the quality that is called “insight.”

It is evident, also, that Bagehot here, as in other essays, like those of Hartley Coleridge, Bishop Butler, Wordsworth, and others, is interested in his subject chiefly as a type of mind or of art. In Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning; on Pure, Ornate, and Grotesque Art in Poetry (1864), for example, Bagehot cares for the poets primarily as illustrations of a type of art; Tennyson, say, represents the kind of writing which gains its effects from accumulation of details rather than by repression. The truth or falsity of such views can be ascertained by an examination of the data supplied by Tennyson's poetry. Only it must be remembered that Bagehot's distinctions are always broad, and might be unsound when applied to a few minute matters. Nor should it be forgotten that an entirely different set of data might strike another critic. The proof of the matter, then, besides being axiomatic, depends on the aptness of illustration, and that is of a very high order in Bagehot's work. Types of critical writing which, like the present essay, attempt to place before the reader critical data for judgment are to be found in such essays (inferior to this in point of soundness of proof and material) as Arnold's Wordsworth (Essays in Criticism, Second Series), an attempt to show the causes which have kept that poet from his just due, and Mr. Morley's Macau

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