Yet
which of us in his heart likes any of the Elizabethan dramatists
except Shakespeare? Are they in reality anything else than literary
Struldbrugs?
"I conclude upon the whole that Aristophanes did not like any of the
tragedians; yet no one will deny that this keen, witty, outspoken
writer was as good a judge of literary value, and as able to see any
beauties that the tragic dramas contained as nine-tenths, at any rate,
of ourselves. He had, moreover, the advantage of thoroughly
understanding the standpoint from which the tragedians expected their
work to be judged, and what was his conclusion? Briefly it was little
else than this, that they were a fraud or something very like it. For
my own part I cordially agree with him. I am free to confess that
with the exception perhaps of some of the Psalms of David I know no
writings which seem so little to deserve their reputation. I do not
know that I should particularly mind my sisters reading them, but I
will take good care never to read them myself."
This last bit about the Psalms was awful, and there was a great fight
with the editor as to whether or no it should be allowed to stand.
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