SHAKESPEARE had the inward clothing of a fine mind; the outward covering of solid reading, of critical observation, and the richest eloquence; and compared with these, what are the trappings of the schools? GEORGE DYER (1755-1841). "The Relation of Poetry to the Arts and Sciences," in The Reflector, 1811. Reprinted in Poetics, 1812, ii. p. 19. SHAKESPEARE has been accused of profaneness. I for my part have acquired from perusal of him, a habit of looking into my own heart, and am confident that Shakespeare is an author of all others the most calculated to make his readers better as well as wiser. S. T. COLERIDGE (1772-1834). "Outline of an introductory Lecture on Shakespeare," 1812. LET no man blame his son for learning history from Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton. THE greatest genius that, perhaps, human nature has yet produced, our myriad-minded1 Shakespeare. Id. Biographia Literaria, 1817, chap. xv. THE great, ever-living, dead man. Ibid. 1 Coleridge says that he borrowed this phrase from a Greek monk, who applied it to a Patriarch of Constantinople. HUMANITY'S divinest son, That sprightliest, gravest, wisest, kindest one- Leigh Hunt (1784-1859). Thoughts of the Avon His plays alone are properly expressions of the passions, not descriptions of them. His characters are real beings of flesh and blood; they speak like men, not like authors. WILLIAM HAZLITT (1778–1830). "On Shakespeare and Milton," Lectures on the English Poets, 1818, p. 98. IN trying to recollect any other author, one sometimes stumbles, in case of failure, on a word as good. In Shakespeare, any other word but the true one, is sure to be wrong.1 Ibid., p. 108. SHAKESPEARE was the least of a coxcomb of any one that ever lived, and much of a gentleman. Ibid., p. 111. "These remarks," Hazlitt adds, "are strictly applicable only to the impassioned parts of Shakespeare's language, which flowed from the warmth and originality of his imagination, and were his own. The language used for prose conversation and ordinary business is sometimes technical, and involved in the affectation of the time." |