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Platform Monologues By: T. G. (Thomas George) Tucker (1859-1946) |
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By T. G. TUCKER LITT.D. (CAMB.); HON. LITT.D. (DUBLIN)
Professor of Classical Philology in the University of Melbourne MELBOURNE
THOMAS C. LOTHIAN
1914
PRINTED IN ENGLAND Copyright.
First Edition May, 1914.
PREFACE
The following monologues were given as public addresses, mostly to
semi academical audiences, and no alteration has been made in their
form. Their common object has been to plead the cause of literary study
at a time when that study is being depreciated and discouraged. But
along with the general plea must go some indication that literature can
be studied as well as read. Hence some of the articles attempt what
must always be a difficult task the crystallizing of the salient
principles of literary judgment. The present collection has been made because the publisher believes that
a sufficiently large number of intelligent persons will be interested in
reading it. On the whole that appears to be at least as good a reason as
any other for printing a book. The addresses on "The Supreme Literary Gift," "The Making of a
Shakespeare," and "Literature and Life," have appeared previously as
separate brochures. Those on "Two Successors of Tennyson" and "Hebraism
and Hellenism" were printed in the Melbourne Argus at the time of
their delivery, and are here reproduced by kind permission of that
paper. The talk upon "The Future of Poetry" has not hitherto appeared in
print. Though circumstances have prevented any development of the powers and
work of the two "Successors of Tennyson," there is nothing either in the
criticism of those writers or in the principles applied thereto which
seems to call for any modification at this date. For the rest, it is
hoped that the lecture will be read in the light of the facts as they
were at the time of its delivery.
CONTENTS
PAGE PREFACE 5 THE SUPREME LITERARY GIFT 9 HEBRAISM AND HELLENISM 53 THE PRINCIPLES OF CRITICISM, APPLIED
TO TWO SUCCESSORS OF TENNYSON 95 THE MAKING OF A SHAKESPEARE 147 LITERATURE AND LIFE 191 THE FUTURE OF POETRY 219
The Supreme Literary Gift
When we have been reading some transcendent passage in one of the
world's masterpieces we experience that mental sensation which Longinus
declares to be the test of true sublimity, to wit, our mind "undergoes a
kind of proud elation and delight, as if it had itself begotten the
thing we read." We are disposed by such literature very much as we are
disposed by the Sistine Madonna or before the Aphrodite of Melos. Things
like these exert a sort of overmastering power upon us. Our craving for
perfection, for ideal beauty, is for once wholly gratified. Our spirit
glows with an intense and complete satisfaction. It would build itself a
tabernacle on the spot, for it recognizes that it is good to be there.
We do not analyse, we do not criticize, we simply deliver over our souls
to a proud elation and delight. Nay, at the moment when we are in the
midst of such spontaneous and exquisite enjoyment, we should, in all
likelihood, resent any attempt to make us realize exactly why this
particular creation of art so fills up our souls down to the last cranny
of satisfaction while another stops short of that supreme effect. And yet, afterwards, when we are meditating upon this strange potency of
a poem or a building or a statue, or when we are trying to communicate
to others the feeling of its charm, do we not find ourselves
importunately asking wherein lies the secret of great art? And, in the
case of literature, we think it at such times no desecration of our
delight to put a passage of Shakespeare or of Milton beside a passage of
Homer, of Æschylus, or of Dante, an essay of Lamb beside a chapter of
Heine, a lyric of Burns by one of Shelley, and to seek for some common
measure of their excellence... Continue reading book >>
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