CHAPTER V.

ELIZABETHAN CRITICISM.

Backwardness of English Criticism not implying inferiority[144]
Its cause[145]
The influence of Rhetoric and other matters[146]
Hawes[146]
The first Tudor critics[147]
Wilson: his Art of Rhetoric[149]
His attack on “Inkhorn terms”[149]
His dealing with Figures[150]
Cheke: his resolute Anglicism and anti-preciosity[151]
His criticism of Sallust[152]
Ascham[153]
His patriotism[154]
His horror of Romance[154]
And of the Morte d’Arthur[155]
His general critical attitude to Prose[156]
And to Poetry[156]
The craze for Classical Metres[157]
Special wants of English Prosody[157]
Its kinds—
(1) Chaucerian[158]
(2) Alliterative[158]
(3) Italianated[159]
Deficiencies of all three[159]
The temptations of Criticism in this respect[160]
Its adventurers: Ascham himself[160]
Watson and Drant[161]
Gascoigne[162]
His Notes of Instruction[163]
Their capital value[164]
Spenser and Harvey[165]
The Puritan attack on Poetry[169]
Gosson[169]
The School of Abuse[170]
Lodge’s Reply[170]
Sidney’s Apology for Poetry[171]
Abstract of it[172]
Its minor shortcomings[174]
And major heresies[175]
The excuses of both[175]
And their ample compensation[176]
King James’s Reulis and Cautelis[176]
Webbe’s Discourse[178]
Slight in knowledge[179]
But enthusiastic[180]
If uncritical[180]
In appreciation[182]
Puttenham’s (?) Art of English Poesie[182]
Its erudition[183]
Systematic arrangement[184]
And exuberant indulgence in Figures[185]
Minors: Harington, Meres, Webster, Bolton, &c.[186]
Campion and his Observations[187]
Daniel and his Defence of Rhyme[189]
Bacon[191]
The Essays[192]
The Advancement of Learning[192]
Its denunciation of mere word-study[193]
Its view of Poetry[194]
Some obiter dicta[194]
The whole of very slight importance[195]
Stirling’s Anacrisis[196]
Ben Jonson: his equipment[197]
His Prefaces, &c.[198]
The Drummond Conversations[199]
The Discoveries[200]
Form of the book[203]
Its date[204]
Mosaic of old and new[204]
The fling at Montaigne[205]
At Tamerlane[206]
The Shakespeare Passage[206]
And that on Bacon[206]
General character of the book[208]
INTERCHAPTER IV.[211]

BOOK V.

THE CRYSTALLISING OF THE NEO-CLASSIC CREED.

CHAPTER I.

FROM MALHERBE TO BOILEAU.

The supplanting of Italy by France[240]
Brilliancy of the French representatives[241]
Malherbe[242]
The Commentary on Desportes[244]
What can be said for his criticism[246]
Its defects stigmatised at once by Regnier[247]
His Ninth Satire[247]
The contrast of the two a lasting one[249]
The diffusion of seventeenth century criticism[250]
Vaugelas[251]
Balzac[252]
His Letters[252]
His critical Dissertations[253]
Ogier and the Preface to Tyr et Sidon[254]
Chapelain: the hopelessness of his verse[257]
The interest of his criticism[257]
The Sentiments de l’Académie sur le Cid[258]
Prefaces[259]
Sur les Vieux Romans[260]
Letters, &c.[261]
Corneille[261]
The Three Discourses[263]
The Examens[263]
La Mesnardière—Sarrasin—Scudéry[264]
Mambrun[266]
Saint-Evremond[268]
His critical quality and accomplishment[269]
His views on Corneille[270]
On Christian subjects, &c.[270]
On Ancients and Moderns[270]
Gui Patin—his judgment of Browne[272]
Tallemant, Pellisson, Ménage, Madame de Sévigné[273]
The Ana other than Ménage’s, especially[274]
The Huetiana[275]
Valesiana[275]
Scaligerana[276]
And Parrhasiana[276]
Patru, Desmarets, and others[277]
Malebranche[279]