THE BEST CRITICISMS

ON THE

BEST AUTHORS

OF THE

Nineteenth Century.

EDITED BY

WILLIAM SHEPARD. Walsh.

PHILADELPHIA:

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.

1886.

Preface.

THE sub-title which the publishers have prefixed to this volume assumes-a little blatantly perhaps that my aim in editing it has been accomplished. But it does at least indicate my aim. So far as the limits of the book would allow I have tried to give the best criticisms on the best authors of the nineteenth century,— using the latter term in its largest and most inclusive sense. And although the best criticisms should mean those which sum up most justly the merits and demerits of their subjects, I have also admitted within the definition such criticisms as are of special interest and special importance on account of the standing of their promulgators. It is interesting-in a sense it is even important to know what great intellectual leaders have thought of each other, even

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though their opinions may err on the side of clemency or of severity. I have endeavored to neutralize any such excess in praise or blame by adding the comments, wherever procurable, of some judicious outsider; but under no circumstances have I deemed it wise to intrude the

compiler into the controversy. I have myself suffered so keenly from the depressing platitudes which worthy and respectable but more or less addle-headed gentlemen frequently thrust into the text they have undertaken to edit that I do not wish to incur the possibility of inflicting similar torture upon any reader of this volume. The only other explanation that occurs to me as being called for in a preface is that the criticisms here selected deal only with the artists of literature, the representatives of belles-lettres, and not with the mere scientists and philosophers.

I have to thank American authors and publishers for permission to use the copyrighted matter that forms so large a part of the value of the book.

WILLIAM SHEPARD.

Enchiridion of Criticism.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 1751-1816. Sheridan has been justly called "a dramatic star of the first magnitude;" and indeed, among the comic writers of the last century, he "shines like Hesperus among the lesser lights." He has left four several dramas behind him, all different, or of different kinds, and all excellent in their way: "The School for Scandal," "The Rivals," "The Duenna," and "The Critic." The attraction of this last piece is, however, less in the mock tragedy rehearsed, than in the dialogue of the comic scenes and in the character of Sir Fretful Plagiary, which is supposed to have been intended for Cumberland. If some of the characters in "The School for Scandal" were contained in Murphy's comedy of "Know Your Own Mind," yet they were buried in it for want of grouping and relief, like the colors of a well-drawn picture

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