Minor Poets of the Caroline Period Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Minor Poets of the Caroline Period Vol. 1<br><br>A great English critic Mr. Matthew Arnold and a great French man of letters Merimee though they might not agree in all points agreed in one - in disparaging and discountenancing the study of minor literature. Mr. Arnold''s utterances on the subject (or some of them for they are numerous and sometimes inconsistent) are probably well known to most readers of this book of Mérimée''s his qualification of the praise which it was impossible for him to refuse to Ticknor''s Harm of Spams/3 Literature with blame for the inclusion of the was may serve as a sufficient example. Both are formidable antagonists: and Goethe from whom it is not im probable that both derived at least support for their opinion and who notoriously in his later days at any rate held it himself will seem to most people no doubt an antagonist more formidable still. But one of the cardinal principles of literary as of other knight-errantry is that the adventurer is not to be too careful - if he is to be careful at all - of the number or of the individual prowess and reputation of his adversaries. The greater and the more they are the greater his success if he triumphsthe less his discredit if he succumbs when his case is the ht and theirs is the wrong. I have no doubt that in this respect e and Merimee and Mr. Arnold were wrong. It is not difficult to trace various causes of their error the chief of which are that all three were in a certain sense disenchanted lovers of Romanticism that Romanticism as it was bound to do by mere filial piety enjoined the study of all literature; and (further) that none of them had any special bent towards literary history. Hr. Arnold regarded all history with an impartial dislike; Goethe probably did not find this kind scientific enough: and Merimee though no mean historical student in his own way was a student of manners of politics. Of archaeology rather than of literature.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.