Note.—My friend the Abbé Laban has reproached me for attributing to Landor, in this essay, sentiments which are merely the expression of his dramatic figure Petrarch, and which imply rather Landor’s reproof of the limitations of the historical Petrarch’s view of Dante, than the view of Landor himself. The reader should therefore observe this correction of my use of Landor’s honoured name.
Footnotes
[1]. Sunday Times, May 30, 1920.
[2]. Arnold, it must be admitted, gives us often the impression of seeing the masters, whom he quotes, as canonical literature, rather than as masters.
[3]. Studies in Elizabethan Drama. By Arthur Symons.
[4]. Revue des Deux Mondes, fevr. 1875, quoted by Benda, Belphégor, p. 140.
[5]. I should except The Dynasts. This gigantic panorama is hardly to be called a success, but it is essentially an attempt to present a vision, and “sacrifices” the philosophy to the vision, as all great dramas do. Mr. Hardy has apprehended his matter as a poet and an artist.
[6]. Poetics, vi. 9. Butcher’s translation.
[7]. Of the authorship it can only be said that the lines are by some admirer of Marlowe. This might well be Jonson.
[8]. I have never, by the way, seen a cogent refutation of Thomas Rymer’s objections to Othello.