PAGE I.--HERRICK 3 II.--VICTOR HUGO 12 III.--MOLIÈRE 22 IV.--EDMUND BURKE 30 V.--KEATS 41 VI.--CHARLES LAMB 61 VII.--BYRON ONCE MORE 68 VIII.--SHELLEY 76 IX.--PLUTARCH’S ANECDOTES 84 X.--HANS ANDERSEN 93 XI.--JOHN CLARE 104 XII.--HISTORIANS AS ENTERTAINERS 114 XIII.--A WORDSWORTH DISCOVERY 122 XIV.--THE POETRY OF POE 131 XV.--HAWTHORNE 140 XVI.--JONAH IN LANCASHIRE 149 INTERLUDE THE CULT OF DULLNESS 159 MORE OR LESS MODERN I.--MR. MAX BEERBOHM 171 II.--MR. ARNOLD BENNETT CONFESSES 188 III.--MR. CONRAD AT HOME 196 IV.--MR. WELLS AND THE WORLD 206 V.--MR. CLUTTON-BROCK 214 VI.--HENLEY THE VAINGLORIOUS 222 VII.--LORD ROSEBERY 230 VIII.--MR. VACHEL LINDSAY 237 IX.--MR. PUNCH TAKES THE WRONG TURNING 244 X.--MR. H. M. TOMLINSON 252 XI.--THE ALLEGED HOPELESSNESS OF TCHEHOV 260 XII.--NIETZSCHE: A NOTE 268 XIII.--MR. T. S. ELIOT AS CRITIC 277 XIV.--MR. NORMAN DOUGLAS’S DISLIKES 285 XV.--M. ANDRE GIDE MAKES A JOKE 293 FINALE THE CRITIC 305 MORE OR LESS ANCIENT I HERRICK Herrick was a gross and good-natured clergyman who had a double chin. He kept a pet pig, which drank beer out of a tankard, and he and the pig had probably a good many of the same characteristics. It would be a libel on him to say that he was a pig, but it would not be a libel to say that he was a pet pig.