The Praise of Shakespeare: An English Anthology

English literature; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Appreciation

LORD MACAULAY (1800-1859). _Edinburgh Review_,
                       June 1831, vol. liii. pp. 567-8.

       *       *       *       *       *

I believe Shakespeare was not a whit more intelligible in his own day
than he is now to an educated man, except for a few local allusions
of no consequence. And I said, he is of no age—nor, I may add, of
any religion, or party, or profession. The body and substance of his
works came out of the unfathomable depths of his own oceanic mind: his
observation and reading, which were considerable, supplied him with the
drapery of his figures.

                       S. T. COLERIDGE (1772-1834). _Table Talk_,
                           15 March 1834.

       *       *       *       *       *

I would be willing to live only as long as Shakespeare were the mirror
to Nature.

                            _Id._, _Letters_, etc., 1836, i. 196.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Than Shakespeare and Petrarch pray who are more living?
    Whose words more delight us? whose touches more _touch_?

                   LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859). “Blue-stocking Revels;
                       or, the Feast of the Violets.” Canto III.
                       _Monthly Repository_, 1837.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the gravest sense it may be affirmed of Shakespeare, that he is
among the modern luxuries of life.

                        T. DE QUINCEY (1785-1859). “Shakespeare,”
                            _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 7th ed.,
                            1842. Written 1838.

       *       *       *       *       *

Produce us from any drama of Shakespeare one of those leading passages
that all men have by heart, and show us any eminent defect in the very
sinews of the thought. It is impossible; defects there may be, but they
will always be found irrelevant to the main central thought, or to its
expression.

                _Id._ “Pope,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 7th ed.,
                    1842. Written 1839.

       *       *       *       *       *

Shakespeare, a wool-comber, poacher, or whatever else at Stratford in
Warwickshire, who happened to write books! The finest human figure, as
I apprehend, that Nature has hitherto seen fit to make of our widely
diffused Teutonic clay. Saxon, Norman, Celt or Sarmat, I find no human
soul so beautiful, these fifteen hundred known years;—our supreme
modern European man.

                      THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881). “Geschichte der
                          Teutschen Sippschaft,” translated by
                          Carlyle in _Chartism_, 1839. _Critical
                          and Miscellaneous Essays._

       *       *       *       *       *

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The Praise of Shakespeare: An English Anthology

English literature; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Appreciation

LORD MACAULAY (1800-1859). _Edinburgh Review_,
                       June 1831, vol. liii. pp. 567-8.

       *       *       *       *       *

I believe Shakespeare was not a whit more intelligible in his own day
than he is now to an educated man, except for a few local allusions
of no consequence. And I said, he is of no age—nor, I may add, of
any religion, or party, or profession. The body and substance of his
works came out of the unfathomable depths of his own oceanic mind: his
observation and reading, which were considerable, supplied him with the
drapery of his figures.

                       S. T. COLERIDGE (1772-1834). _Table Talk_,
                           15 March 1834.

       *       *       *       *       *

I would be willing to live only as long as Shakespeare were the mirror
to Nature.

                            _Id._, _Letters_, etc., 1836, i. 196.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Than Shakespeare and Petrarch pray who are more living?
    Whose words more delight us? whose touches more _touch_?

                   LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859). “Blue-stocking Revels;
                       or, the Feast of the Violets.” Canto III.
                       _Monthly Repository_, 1837.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the gravest sense it may be affirmed of Shakespeare, that he is
among the modern luxuries of life.

                        T. DE QUINCEY (1785-1859). “Shakespeare,”
                            _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 7th ed.,
                            1842. Written 1838.

       *       *       *       *       *

Produce us from any drama of Shakespeare one of those leading passages
that all men have by heart, and show us any eminent defect in the very
sinews of the thought. It is impossible; defects there may be, but they
will always be found irrelevant to the main central thought, or to its
expression.

                _Id._ “Pope,” _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 7th ed.,
                    1842. Written 1839.

       *       *       *       *       *

Shakespeare, a wool-comber, poacher, or whatever else at Stratford in
Warwickshire, who happened to write books! The finest human figure, as
I apprehend, that Nature has hitherto seen fit to make of our widely
diffused Teutonic clay. Saxon, Norman, Celt or Sarmat, I find no human
soul so beautiful, these fifteen hundred known years;—our supreme
modern European man.

                      THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881). “Geschichte der
                          Teutschen Sippschaft,” translated by
                          Carlyle in _Chartism_, 1839. _Critical
                          and Miscellaneous Essays._

       *       *       *       *       *

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Praise of Shakespeare: An English Anthology

The Praise of Shakespeare: An English Anthology

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