A history of criticism and literary taste in Europe, from the earliest texts to the present day. Volume 3 (of 3), Modern criticism — John Shaqi
A history of criticism and literary taste in Europe, from the earliest texts to the present day. Volume 3 (of 3), Modern criticismSaintsbury, George
History
A history of criticism and literary taste in Europe, from the earliest texts to the present day. Volume 3 (of 3), Modern criticism
Saintsbury, George
Criticism -- History; Literature -- History and criticism; Literature, Medieval
Of the famous “Swiss-Saxon” quarrel[37] which followed the publication
of Breitinger’s _Kritische Dichtkunst_ and Gottsched’s denunciation
thereof in a new edition of his own, I shall, according to my previous
practice, say little. It has in all the books the usual disproportionate
prominence of such things, and its actual importance was even less than
usual. A brief but good account of it, and of all the underground
jealousies and littlenesses that led up to it, may be found in
Braitmaier. These jealousies, especially the general revolt against the
sort of tyranny of letters which Gottsched’s skilful management of his
periodicals and his pedagogic temper had instituted, were much more
noticeable in it than any clear classic-romantic “dependence.” But, _on
the whole_, the revolt against Gottsched was in the direction of revolt
against at least Neo-Classicism. By degrees, too, it branched out into
an attack on, and a defence of, two particular poets—Haller and
Klopstock; and though neither of these is very delectable “to us,” both
were distinctly in their time champions of the freedom of the poetic
Jerusalem. It was fought out in Gottsched’s _Beiträge_ on his side, and
in a kind of periodical entitled _Sammlung Kritischer, poetischer, und
geistvoller Schriften_, which Bodmer brought out in opposition,[38] in
divers others,[39] and in numerous pamphlets. The most important critics
whom it produced, and these indirectly for the most part, were the elder
Schlegels, especially the eldest, Johann Elias, who, from a contributor,
though never exactly a partisan, of Gottsched, became one of the objects
of his special indignation. Of others, Schwabe, Cramer, Mylius, Pyra, we
can but take note in passing here. Gellert has been mentioned in the
last volume.[40]
[Sidenote: _The elder Schlegels: Johann Adolf._]
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