[824]. “Poetry has this much at least in common with religion, that its standards were fixed long ago by certain inspired writers, whose authority it is no longer lawful to call in question.” There may seem to be an ironic touch in this: but the whole article is written to the text.
[825]. V. sup., [vol. i. p. 252].
[826]. These texts can be seen in detail in more than one modern book on Tennyson, and wholly in Mr Churton Collins’s painstaking and useful reprint of the Early Poems (London, 1900).
BOOK IX
THE LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY
“En critique littéraire, les œuvres n’ont d’intérêt que par leur beauté et leur perfection.”—Émile Montégut.
“Der Teufel hole alle Theorien!”—Grillparzer.
CHAPTER I.
THE SUCCESSORS OF SAINTE-BEUVE.
[“ORDONNANCE” OF THIS CHAPTER]—[PHILARÈTE CHASLES]—[BARBEY D’AURÉVILLY]—[ON HUGO]—[ON OTHERS]—[STRONG REDEEMING POINTS IN HIM]—[DOUDAN]—[INTEREST OF HIS GENERAL ATTITUDE], [AND PARTICULAR UTTERANCES]—[RENAN]—[TAINE]—[HIS “CULPA”]—[HIS MISCELLANEOUS CRITICAL WORK]—[HIS ‘HISTOIRE DE LA LITTÉRATURE ANGLAISE’]—[ITS SHORTCOMINGS]—[INSTANCES OF THEM]—[MONTÉGUT: HIS PECULIARITIES]—[DELICACY AND RANGE OF HIS WORK]—[SCHERER: PECULIAR “MORAL” CHARACTER OF HIS CRITICISM]—[ITS CONSEQUENT LIMITATIONS]—[THE SOLID MERITS ACCOMPANYING THEM]—[SAINTE-BEUVE + GAUTIER]—[BANVILLE]—[SAINT-VICTOR]—[BAUDELAIRE]—[CRÉPET’S ‘LES POÈTES FRANÇAIS’]—[FLAUBERT: THE “SINGLE WORD”]—[“NATURALISM”]—[ZOLA]—[‘LE ROMAN EXPÉRIMENTAL’]—[EXAMPLES OF HIS CRITICISM]—[THE REASONS OF HIS CRITICAL INCOMPETENCY]—[“LES DEUX GONCOURT”]—[“SCIENTIFIC CRITICISM”: HENNEQUIN]—[“COMPARATIVE LITERATURE”: TEXTE]—[ACADEMIC CRITICISM: GASTON PARIS]—[CARO, TAILLANDIER, ETC.]—[THE “LIGHT HORSEMEN”: JANIN]—[PONTMARTIN]—[VEUILLOT]—[NOT SO BLACK AS, ETC.]—[THE PRESENT].
Ordonnance of this chapter.