PAGE 30 1. French Revolution. The latter part of Burke's life was 31 32 35 36 1. Richard Price, D.D. (1723–91), was strongly opposed 2. From Goldsmith's epitaph on Burke in the Retaliation. 2. William Eden, First Baron Auckland (1745–1814), 1. Revue des deux Mondes. The best-known of the 1. Home and Foreign Review. Published in London 2. John Arthur Roebuck (1801-79), a leading radical and I From Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris, 1, ii, 91-92. 42 1. John Somers, Baron Somers (1651-1716), was the 43 2. William Cobbett (1762-1835). English politician and 3. Carlyle's Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850) contain much 4. Ruskin turned to political economy about 1860. In 5. terrae filii. Sons of Mother Earth; hence, obscure, 6. See Heine, Selections, Note 2, p. 117. 1. To think is so hard. Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's PAGE 2. See Sénancour's Obermann, letter 90. Arnold was much influenced by this remarkable book. For an account of the author (1770-1846) and the book see Arnold's Stanzas in Memory of the Author of Obermann," with note on the poem, and the essay on Obermann in Essays in Criticism, third series. 66 3. So sincere is my dislike to all personal attack and controversy, that I abstain from reprinting, at this distance of time from the occasion which called them forth, the essays in which I criticized Dr. Colenso's book; I feel bound, however, after all that has passed, to make here a final declaration of my sincere impenitence for having published them. Nay, I cannot forbear repeating yet once more, for his benefit and that of his readers, this sentence from my original remarks upon him; There is truth of science and truth of religion; truth of science does not become truth of religion till it is made religious. And I will add: Let us have all the science there is from the men of science; from the men of religion let us have religion. [Arnold.] John William Colenso (1814-83), Bishop of Natal, published a series of treatises on the Pentateuch, extending from 1862-1879, opposing the traditional views about the literal inspiration of the Scriptures and the actual historical character of the Mosaic story. Arnold's censorious criticism of the first volume of this work is entitled The Bishop and the Philosopher (Macmillan's Magazine, January, 1863). As an example of the Bishop's cheap " arithmetical demonstrations" he describes him as presenting the case of Leviticus as follows: "If three priests have to eat 264 pigeons a day, how many must each priest eat?' That disposes of Leviticus." The essay is devoted chiefly to contrasting Bishop Colenso's unedifying methods with those of the philosopher Spinoza. In passing, Arnold refers also to Dr. Stanley's Sinai and Palestine (1856), quotations from which are characterized as the refreshing spots "in the Bishop's volume. 4. It has been said I make it "a crime against literary criticism and the higher culture to attempt to inform the ignorant." Need I point out that the ignorant are not informed by being confirmed in a confusion? [Arnold.] 44 1. Joubert's Pensées, ed. 1850, 1, 102, titre 23, 54. 2. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-81), Dean of Westminster. He was the author of a Life of (Thomas) Arnold, 1844. In university politics and in religious discussions he was a Liberal and the advocate of toleration and comprehension. 3. Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), a prominent English philanthropist and woman of letters. The quotation below is from Broken Lights (1864), p. 134. Her Religious Duty (1857), referred to on p. 46, is a book of religious and ethical instruction written from the Unitarian point of view. PAGE 45 46 49 4. Ernest Renan (1823-92), French philosopher and Orientalist. The Vie de Jésus (1863), here referred to, was begun in Syria and is filled with the atmosphere of the East, but is a work of literary rather than of scholarly importance. 1. David Friedrich Strauss (1808-74), German theologian and man of letters. The work referred to is the Leben Jesu, 1835. A popular edition was published in 1864. แ 2. From Fleury (Preface) on the Gospel." - Arnold's Note Book. 1. Cicero's Att. 16. 7. 3. 2. Coleridge's happy phrase. Coleridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, letter 2. 1. Luther's theory of grace. The question concerning the means of grace,' i.e. whether the efficacy of the sacraments as channels of the divine grace is ex opere operato, or dependent on the faith of the recipient, was the chief subject of controversy between Catholics and Protestants during the period of the Reformation. 2. Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704), French divine, orator, and writer. His Discours sur l'histoire universelle (1681) was an attempt to provide ecclesiastical authority with a rational basis. It is dominated by the conviction that "the establishment of Christianity was the one point of real importance in the whole history of the world." 50 i. From Virgil's Eclogues, Iv, 5. Translated in Shelley's Hellas: "The world's great age begins anew." 55 56 59 THE STUDY OF POETRY 1. Published in 1880 as the General Introduction to The English Poets, edited by T. H. Ward. Reprinted in Essays in Criticism, Second Series, Macmillan & Co., 1888. 2. This quotation is taken, slightly condensed, from the closing paragraph of a short introduction contributed by Arnold to The Hundred Greatest Men, Sampson, Low & Co., London, 1885. 1. From the Preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, 1800. 2. Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-69), French critic, was looked upon by Arnold as in certain respects his master in the art of criticism. 57 1. a criticism of life. This celebrated phrase was first used by Arnold in the essay on Joubert (1864), though the theory is implied in On Translating Homer, 1861. In Joubert it is applied to literature: "The end and aim of all literature, if one considers it attentively, is, in truth, nothing but that." It was much attacked, especially as applied to poetry, and is defended as so applied in the essay on Byron (1881). See also Wordsworth, Selections, p. 230. 2. Compare Arnold's definition of the function of criticism, Selections, p. 52. PAGE 59 1. Paul Pellisson (1624-93). French author, friend of Mlle. Scudéry, and historiographer to the king. 2. Barren and servile civility. 3. M. Charles d' Hericault was joint editor of the Jannet edition (1868-72) of the poems of Clément Marot (14961544). 62 1. Imitation of Christ, Book 111, chap. 43, 2. 2. Cædmon. The first important religious poet in Old English literature. Died about 680 A.D. 3. Ludovic Vitet (1802-73). French dramatist and politician. 4. Chanson de Roland. The greatest of the Chansons des Gestes, long narrative poems dealing with warfare and adventure, popular in France during the Middle Ages. It was composed in the eleventh century. Taillefer was the surname of a bard and warrior of the eleventh century. The tradition concerning him is related by Wace, Roman de Rou, third part, v., 8035-62, ed. Andreson, Heilbronn, 1879. The Bodleian Roland ends with the words: "ci folt la geste, que Turoldus declinet." Turold has not been identified. 66 63 I. Then began he to call many things to remembrance, all the lands which his valor conquered, and pleasant France, and the men of his lineage, and Charlemagne his liege lord who nourished him." Chanson de Roland, III, 64 939-42. [Arnold.] 2. So said she; they long since in Earth's soft arms were reposing, There, in their own dear land, their fatherland, Lace dæmon.' Iliad, III, 243, 244 (translated by I. Ah, unhappy pair, why gave we you to King Peleus, to a mortal? but ye are without old age, and immortal. Was it that with men born to misery ye might have sorrow?" Iliad, XVII, 443–445. [Arnold.] 2. Nay, and thou too, old man, in former days wast, as we hear, happy." Iliad, XXIV, 543. [Arnold.] 3. "I wailed not, so of stone grew I within; wailed." - Inferno, xxxIII, 39, 40. [Arnold.] they 4. "Of such sort hath God, thanked be His mercy, made me, that your misery toucheth me not, neither doth the flame of this fire strike me.' - Inferno, 11, 91-93. [Arnold.] 5. "In His will is our peace." Paradiso, III, 85. [Arnold.] PAGE 67 68 1. Provençal, the language of southern France, from the southern French oc instead of the northern oil for "yes." 1. Dante acknowledges his debt to Latini (c. 1230-c. 1294), but the latter was probably not his tutor. He is the author of the Tesoretto, a heptasyllabic Italian poem, and the prose Livres dou Trésor, a sort of encyclopedia of medieval lore, written in French because that language" is more delightful and more widely known." 2. Christian of Troyes. A French poet of the second half of the twelfth century, author of numerous narrative poems dealing with legends of the Round Table. The present quotation is from the Cligés, 11. 30-39. 69 1. Chaucer's two favorite stanzas, the seven-line and eight-line stanzas in heroic verse, were imitated from Old French poetry. See B. ten Brink's The Language and Meter of Chaucer, 1901, pp. 353-57. 2. Wolfram von Eschenbach. A medieval German poet, born in the end of the twelfth century. His best-known poem is the epic Parzival. 70 1. From Dryden's Preface to the Fables, 1700. 2. The Confessio Amantis, the single English poem of John Gower (c. 1330-1408), was in existence in 1392-93. 71 1. souded. The French soudé, soldered, fixed fast. [Arnold.] From the Prioress's Tale, ed. Skeat, 1894, B. 1769. The line should read," O martir, souded to virginitee." 122 73 1. François Villon, born in or near Paris in 1431, thief and poet. His best-known poems are his ballades. See R. L. Stevenson's essay. 2. The name Heaulmière is said to be derived from a headdress (helm) worn as a mark by courtesans. In Villon's ballad, a poor old creature of this class laments her days of youth and beauty. The last stanza of the ballad runs thus: "Ainsi le bon temps regretons Entre nous, pauvres vieilles sottes, Tout en ung tas comme pelottes; A petit feu de chenevottes Tost allumées, tost estainctes. Et jadis fusmes si mignottes! Ainsi en prend à maintz et maintes." "Thus amongst ourselves we regret the good time, poor silly old things, low-scated on our heels, all in a heap like so many balls; by a little fire of hemp-stalks, soon lighted, soon spent. And once we were such darlings! So fares it with many and many a one." [Arnold.] 74 1. From An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, 1688. 75 2. A statement to this effect is made by Dryden in the Preface to the Fables. 3. From Preface to the Fables. 1. See Wordsworth's Essay, Supplementary to the Preface, 1815, and Coleridge's Biographia Literaria. |