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OBITER DICTA SECOND SERIES BY AUGUSTINE BIRRELL An obitct dictum, in the lan5uage of the law, is a gratuitous opinion, an individual impertinence, which, whether it be wise or foolish, right or wrong, bindeth none-not even the lips that utter it. OLD JUDGE LONDON ELLIOT STOCK 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. 1910 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. MILTON a 11, POPE m w 111. JOHNSON a 4 IV. BURKE, V- THE MUSE OF HISTOR . Vf. CHARLES LAMB . VII. EMERSON a m a VIII. THE OFFICE OF LITERATURE IX WORN-OUT TYPES . . X. CAMBRIDGE AND THE POETS. 61. BOOK-BVYl NG m f JOHN MILTON. IT is now more than sixty years ago since Mr. Carlyle took occasion to observe, in his Life of Schiller, that, except the Newgate Calendar, there was no more sickening reading than the biographies of authors. Allowing for the vivacity of the comparison, and only remarking, with reference to the New- gate Calendar, that its compilers have usually been very inferior wits, in fact attorneys, it must be owned that great creative and inventive genius, the most brilliant gifts of bright fancy and happy expression, and a glorious imagina- tion, well-nigh seeming as if it must be inspired, have too often been found most unsuitably lodged in ill-living and scandalous mortals. Though few things, even in what is called Literature, ar2 more disgusting than to hear small critics, who earn their bit2 and sup by acting as the self-appointed showmen of the K t JOHN MILTON. works of theif betters, heaping terms of moral opprobrium upon those whose genius is, if not exactly a laillp unto our feet, at all events a joy to our hearts, -still, not even genius can repeal the Decalague, or re-write the sentence of doom, Hc which is filthy, let hiin be filthy still.It is therefore permissible to wish that some of our great authors had been better men. It is possible to dislike John Milton. Men have been found able to do so, and women too amongst these latter his daughters, or one of them at least, must even be included. But there is nothing sickening about his biography, for it is the life of one who early consecrated himself to the service of the highest Muses, who took labour and intent study as his portion, who aspired himself to be a noble poem, who, Republican though he became, is what Carlyle called him, the moral king of English literature. Milton was born in Bread Street, Cheapside, on the 9th of December, 1608. This is most satisfactory, though indeed what might have been expected. There is a notable disposition nowa- days, amongst the meaner-minded provincials, to carp and gird at the claims of London to be considered the mother-city of the Anglo-Saxon race, to regret her pre-eminence, and sneer at her fame. In the matters of nlunicipal govern- ment, gas, water, fog, and snow, much can be alleged and proved against the English capital, but in the domain of poetry, which I take to be a nations best guaranteed stock, it may safely be said that there are but two shrines in England whither it is necessary for the literary pilgrim to carry his cockle hat and shoon-London, the birthplace of Chaucer, Spenser, Ben Jonson, Milton, Herrick, Pope, Gray, Blake, Keats, and Browning, and Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth- place of Shakespeare. Of English poets it may be said generally they are either born in London or remote country places. The large provincial towns know them not. Indeed, nothing is more pathetic than the way in which these dim, desti-tute places hug the memory of any puny whipster of a poet who may have been born within their statutory boundaries. This has its advantages, for it keeps alive in certain localities fames that would otherwise haveutterly perished. Parnassus has forgotten all about poor Henry Kirke White, but the lace manufacturers of Nottingham still name him with whatever degree of reverence they may respectively consider to be the due of letters. Manchester is yet mindful of Dr. John Byrom...
| ISBN-13 | 9781408609996 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 1408609991 |
| Weight | 0.77 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 5.51 x 0.59 x 8.50 In |
| List Price | $28.95 |
| Format | - |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Pages | 272 pages |
| Publisher | Deutsch Pr |
| Published On | 2007-10-01 |
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