A HISTORY OF
ENGLISH CRITICL TERMS
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
A HISTORY
OF
ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
BY
J. W. BRAY, A.M.
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, JOHN B. STETSON UNIVERSITY.
v^-*^^^:^
f OF THE A
f UNIVERSITY ]
OF
BOSTON, U.S.A.:
D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY.
1898.
GENERAL
Copyright, 1898,
BY J. W. BRAY.
PREFACE.
THE purpose of the following work is to trace the
changes of meaning which have taken place in
the chief terms employed in English criticism. It is
intended to be purely a study in criticism, and not to
repeat information which can be obtained from an
ordinary dictionary. The organizing idea of the work
is found in the grouping of the terms in the Appendix.
It is assumed that if the history of two or three of
the most important terms of each group is given in
full, the history of the synonymous and negative
expressions will also have been given, at least as far
as their critical and literary significance is concerned.
Hence the secondary terms are given but scant notice,
and their critical import is to be gathered mostly from
the larger terms of their respective groups.
The history of the unimportant terms is thus given
only in outline. Extensive tables were constructed
showing the first use and frequency of occurrence at
different times with regard to each critical term.
These tables have been employed very largely in de-
termining the relative influence of the different critical
terms, and they furnish the basis for many statements,
1VS4076
VI PREFACE.
the authority for which it has not been possible to
present in the printed text.
The present investigation grew out of class work in
Criticism in the University of Chicago. It was found
that the study of Criticism was vague and uncertain
as long as the terms were left undefined, about which
as central points the critical discussions usually turn.
Prof. Wm. D. MacClintock suggested the present un-
dertaking, and he has aided very materially in its
prosecution. As completed, it represents more than
three years of almost continuous labor.
About fourteen hundred terms have been mentioned
or defined in historical perspective, terms all of
which have been employed in applied criticism as a
direct means of estimating literary work. The history
of the changes of meaning in such terms bears the
same relation to Rhetoric as practice does to theory ;
and innumerable data are furnished in the present
work for the historical study of ^Esthetics. Applied
Criticism, in fact, is the common meeting ground for
rhetorical theory and the aesthetic instincts ; the final
test of the truthfulness and accuracy of the one, and
of the genuineness and strength of the other. And
this, which is true of Criticism in general, is especially
true of those concentrated methods of criticism which
find expression in the use of critical terms.
Among the best critics of late, there is a decided
tendency toward a more careful and discriminative
use of critical terms. This is only saying that the
study of literature has, to a certain extent at least,
PREFACE. vii
become aware of its own methods and assumptions.
No one critic has ever made use of half the critical
vocabulary which is here presented. Wrong construc-
tions of meaning have been given to terms, and con-
troversies have been waged with no real ground for
disagreement. Much needless confusion would be
avoided by placing in clear relief the historical se-
quence of meanings which has taken place in the dif-
ferent terms ; by remembering that any meaning once
developed in a term tends to persist in some manner
to the present ; that though terms and words fade and
pass away, principles abide and remain. And this
represents the standpoint and purpose of the following
work.
J. W. B.
INTRODUCTION.
I. WHAT is A CRITICAL TERM?
BEFORE entering upon the history of the different
critical terms, it will first be necessary to deter-
mine as accurately as possible what a critical term is,
by what formal signs or characteristics it may be rec-
ognized, and what part it plays in the general process
and methods of criticism. In order to do this, it may
perhaps be best to begin with the most simple and
typical use of a critical term, and then trace the modi-
fication of this simple type into the most complex,
intricate, and uncertain forms that occur in actual
criticism.
There are two elementary uses and forms of state-
ment for critical terms. '{The most simple and typical
form of statement occurs when the term is the unstudied
expression of a spontaneous feeling, a feeling which
represents an aesthetic appreciation of some unified por-
tion of literary work. The critic, let us suppose, has
just read the literary production. His mind passes over
it swiftly in review again and again. Certain features
of the composition tend to rise into prominence more
1
2 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
than others, the language perhaps, the sentiment, the
imagery, its truthfulness to actual life, but these are
quickly blended again into the general unified impression.
The attention of the critic is wholly occupied with the
literary work. It thoroughly arouses his sensibilities
and feelings, which, by their inherent force, call for
expression in language. Unconsciously as it were,
the intense aesthetic feeling appropriates some word
or phrase for its expression. A critical judgment is
thus spontaneously formed. Some unified portion of
literature is the subject, the appropriated word or
phrase is the predicate of the critical judgment. The
attention is centred upon the subject of the judg-
ment ; the predicate, or critical term, is, so far as re-
lates to the immediate experience, evolved wholly out
of the subject.
In the second elementary use of a critical term, the
attention is divided between the predicate and subject
of the critical judgment. The discriminating and
selective powers of the mind are brought into full
play in determining the word or phrase by which to
characterize the literary work. The literary work
may have been quite as fully appreciated by the critic
as in the former type of judgment. But the aesthetic
feeling which it aroused has passed for the most part
into the memory. Continual effort is required to
recall it into the focus of attention. One critical term
after another is suggested by it, or is brought to it
for comparison ; and the one which is finally chosen,
is usually felt to be more or less inadequate to indi-
INTRODUCTION. 8
cate the original feeling in its fulness. A relation of
some kind is asserted to exist between the subject
and the predicate of the critical judgment, but they
are not identified with each other. They represent
two experiences intellectually joined, and not a single
experience blended into a close emotional unity.
. These two elementary uses of a critical term may
be represented by the following forms of statement :
I. This poem is sublime.
II. This poem has sublimity.
The first may be called the aesthetic type of critical
judgment, the second, the scientific type. Under one
of these two general types, all uses whatever of critical
terms may be classified.
In the scientific type of judgment, the predicate is
not identified with the subject, is not taken up into it.
A poem may have or contain a multitude of things
which are of no literary significance whatever. One
can never tell in this form of statement whether the
predicate represents an essential or only an accidental
trait of the literary work ; whether the subject or lit-
erary work is characterized as a whole or only in some
of its unimportant details. Hence the predicate can
be regarded as a complete critical term only in so far
as it conforms to the aesthetic type of a critical judg-
ment, in so far as the characterizing word or phrase
results immediately from the feeling aroused by some
unified portion of literary work.
On the other hand, the scientific type of judgment
is an essential prerequisite for the development of the
4 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
aesthetic type. It continually presents possibilities for
the wider and yet wider activity of the aesthetic feel-
ings and sensibilities, possibilities a few of which
are appropriated and made use of, but many of which
are not. The primitive aesthetic predicate is a mere
exclamation of satisfaction and approval. It is the
discriminating influence of the scientific method of
judgment that causes this primitive critical term to
become differentiated into all the subtle distinctions
which critical terms now possess. The two types of
critical judgment are thus complementary and indis-
pensable to each other. The predicate of the scientific
type possesses relative critical significance, but it is
to the predicate of the aesthetic type of judgment that
one must look for the most representative use of a
critical term.
The great body of actual criticism, however, does
not conform exactly to either of these types of judg-
ment. Terms are scarcely ever, if at all, purely aesthetic
in their significance, and the predicate of the scientific
form of judgment is always more or less identified with
the subject, and thus has, to that extent, the full force
of a critical term. It is only within the present cen-
tury that these two types of critical judgment have in
theory been distinguished from each other, and have
been assumed as the bases for distinct systems of criti-
cism. The types given are ideal forms, by means of
which it will now be necessary to explain the complex
forms of actual criticism.
The simplest variation of the ideal forms arises from
INTRODUCTION. 5
the grammatical modification of the copula, from the
different methods employed in connecting the subject
with the predicate of the critical judgment. Of the
aesthetic type of judgment, the chief grammatical vari-
ation consists in the omission of the copula, and the
placing of the characterizing word or phrase as an
immediate adjective modifier of the subject. E. g. :
Eloquent and stirring passages. T. ARNOLD, Man. of Eng. Lit.,
p. 248.
There are many grammatical variations of the scientific
type of judgment. In all instances alike, however, a
preposition intervenes between the subject and the
predicate in such a manner as to make them be iden-
tified with each other only in part. E. g. :
The easy vigour of Horace. J. WARTON, II., p. 259.
Shakespeare hath . . . deformed his best plays with prodigious
incongruities. HURD, I., p. 69.
There is great picturesque humour in the following lines. T.
WARTON, H. E. P., p. 187.
The Taming of the Shrew is ... full of bustle, animation, and
rapidity of action. HAZLITT, Shak., p. 219.
Such grammatical modifications of the types, however,
do not really complicate the use nor render difficult
the recognition of critical terms. They are little more
than paraphrases which easily reduce to the simple
types. But they do give evidence of the intimate re-
lation which exists between the two types, and indicate
how these types blend imperceptibly into each other.
The real complication in the use of critical terms
arises from the influence of two tendencies, from the
tendency to analyze, and from the tendency to use
6 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
figurative language. Analysis is characteristic of the
scientific type of judgment, figurative language of the
aesthetic type.
The analytic tendency manifests itself primarily in
the subject of the critical judgment. The possible
predicates, which have been discriminated and rejected,
do not appear in the predicate of the completed judg-
ment. In the subject, on the other hand, the literary
work, or some portion of it, considered in its unity,
furnishes a standard of reference by which the extent
of the analysis can easily be determined. This differ-
entiation of the subject may be roughly classed as of
four general kinds.
One of the most common subjects of the critical
judgment in actual criticism consists of the language
or of some feature of the mechanical construction of
the composition. This often represents the most ex-
treme analytic tendency in criticism ; though, on the
other hand, many of the most purely aesthetic terms
have taken their rise from this very source. E. g. :
Vida's versification is often hard and spondaic. HALLAM, Lit.
Hist., I., p. 437-
Often, also, some characteristic of the literary pro-
duction, some predicate of a former critical judgment,
is assumed as an established fact, and is made the
subject of a new judgment. This may occur with or
without the connecting copula. E. g. : -
Simplicity in Burns is never stale and unprofitable. LANDOR, IV.,
p. 54.
Classically correct. WILSON, V., p. 357-
INTRODUCTION. 7
Frequently, as the exact opposite to the language
and mechanical construction of the composition, the
thought or sentiment expressed is made the subject of
the critical judgment. This and the preceding class
of subjects are intimately related to each other. E. g. :
A certain intenseness in the sentiment. HAZLITT, Age of Eliza-
beth, p. 177.
Humour, though not of the most delicate kind. CAMPBELL, p. 15.
The fourth class of analytic subjects represents an
extremely slight analysis and abstraction of the aesthetic
feeling. The subject is almost identical with the uni-
fied impression of the literary production. The unified
impression, however, is not an immediate impression.
It has passed into the memory and is represented by
some such word as "air," "manner," "tone," "strain,"
or style." E.g.:-
Massinger's dialogues subside in the proper places to a refreshing
conversational tone. LOWELL, Old Eng. Poets, p. 122.
All such division or abstraction of the subject reacts
upon the predicate. It is always possible to apply
many epithets to the special features or traits of a
literary work which would not naturally be employed
to characterize the literary work as a whole. In the
scientific method of judgment, characterizing words
and phrases are thus brought into the predicate which
possess little critical significance, and in this method
of judgment all predicated characteristics are incom-
plete critical terms to the extent that the subject is
but a partial representation of literary work consid-
ered in its completeness and unity.
8 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The modification of the ideal forms of statement
from the tendency to use figurative language is seen
in both the predicate and subject of the critical judg-
ment. The modifying influence of figurative language
in the predicate may be said to exert itself in four
ways. By far the most usual method consists in the
use of synonymous and heightened expressions in con-
nection with critical terms already well established
and familiar. The critical significance of the old term
is brought into prominence by the unexpected newness
of the reinforcing term. Often there is merely a fringe
of novelty given to the familiar conception, often there
is a decided extension of its meaning. The desire for
the rhetorical variation of the well-known critical term
has become a mania with a few recent critics, whose
skill in accomplishing this result has rendered neces-
sary, the mention in the present volume of several hun-
dred such figurative and sporadic critical terms. E.g. :
There is a profusion in Childe Harold which must appear mere
wastefulness to more economical writers. JEFFREY, II., p. 456.
There are indeed portions of the Faery Queen which are not, vital,
which are, so to speak, excrementitious. DOWDEN, Tr. and
Studies, p. 287.
Often some conception which is familiar in ordinary
life is transferred by a bold figure of speech into the
predicate of a critical judgment, with little or no inter-
vention or support from a critical term already well
established. E. g. : -
Jeremy Taylor's style is prismatic. It unfolds the colours of the
rainbow. HAZLITT, Elizabethan Lit., p. 233.
INTRODUCTION. 9
Another source of figurative variation in the predi-
cate arises from the transference into criticism of
conceptions which have a more immediate aesthetic
significance than those just mentioned. Any effect,
however partial or accidental, which the literary work
produces upon the mind of the reader is made the
predicate of the critical judgment, and thus seems to
refer directly to the literary work itself. This it can
do only in so far as it has become well established as
a critical term, as it has been employed again and
again as a means of characterizing literary work, as
the original figure of speech has died out of the term,
and it has ceased to be thought of merely as a personal
state of feeling. U. g. :
Cloying perhaps in the uniformity of its beauty. JEFFREY, III.,
p. 136.
Occasionally the figurative variation consists in bring-
ing by analogy into criticism terms which in the arts
related to literature are already well established. During
the eighteenth century, the terms thus appropriated by
literary criticism came chiefly from the art of painting,
during the present century from the art of music. E. g. :
Mr. Philipps has two lines which seem to me what the French call
very picturesque.
All hid in snow, in bright confusion lie, t
And with one dazzling waste confuse the eye.
POPE, VI., p. 178.
In the subject of the critical judgment, the figurative
tendency assumes the form of a more or less direct
personification. The author himself is substituted for
10 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
his literary productions. This substitution is often
merely formal, the name of the author being only an
abbreviated and enlivened method of indicating his
complete literary work. But the force of the figure
soon makes itself manifest in the predicate. With the
author as subject, instead of the literary production,
the predicate also becomes more figurative and enliv-
ened. Personal characteristics are predicated of the
subject rather than literary characteristics. This sub-
stitution of the author for the literary work has been
greatly increased by the psychological and realistic
spirit of the present century. A complete explanation
of the author's mental characteristics, it is assumed,
will explain the literary work also. Moreover, an
intensely realistic spirit is repelled by the original
figure of speech in the statement that "This poem is
sublime." The sublimity ascribed directly to the poem,
it is recognized, is really derived from sources outside
the poem, most immediately, perhaps, from the mind
of the author. In the criticism of the drama and the
novel, the discussion of the " characters " leads to the
same confusion between personal and literary charac-
teristics, and thus renders the critical significance of
the predicated qualities vague and uncertain. E. g. :
. His tone is manly and gentlemanly. WHIPPLE, Character and Char.
Men, p. 89.
Madame de Stael had more vehemence than truth, and more heat
than light. (Quoted from Joubert.) M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S.,
p. 270.
Thus in the typical forms of critical judgment, the
predicate refers directly to the subject or literary work,
INTRODUCTION. 11
from which its meaning is almost wholly derived. But
in actual criticism, terms are continually brought into
the predicate of the judgment, representing conceptions
which are well known in ordinary life, but are not usu-
ally regarded as having any literary significance. The
predicate of the judgment thus receives constant modi-
fication from influences that lie beyond the immediate
province of literary art, from the personal traits of
the author ; from effects produced in the mind of the
reader ; from conceptions familiar in ordinary life ; and
from terms brought over by analogy from the related
arts.
These influences continually furnish material for the
critical judgment and give to it its ultimate meaning.
In a very large portion of actual criticism, no overt
critical judgment is expressed. These surrounding
influences of the literary work are dwelt upon and
analyzed. The literary production is discussed in its
relation to the author, to the reader, to the environ-
ment in general, and to other arts, but none of its
definite characteristics are given. But behind all this
personal reminiscence, paraphrase, and mere explana-
tion, there is always assumed a critical judgment,
which can often be detected and more or less definitely
stated. Of these assumed critical judgments, which
make no use of critical terms, the following examples
may be given :
I. Personal characteristics of the author. E. g. :
Drvden had strong reason rather than quick sensibility. S. JOHN-
SON, VII., p. 339.
12 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
II. Effects upon the mind of the reader. E. g. :
Neither the inner recesses of thought nor the high places of art
thrill to his appeal. KOSSETTI, Lives of F. P., p. 234.
III. The general environment of the literary work.
Kg.:
Now the same soil that produced Bacon and Hooker produced
Shakespeare. DOWDEN, Shak., etc., p. 23.
IV. Comparison of different art effects without any
definite standard of comparison. E. g.:
The effect of Virgil's poetry is like that of some laborious mosaic of
many years' putting together. CARLYLE, Hist, of Lit., p. 53.
It is evident that such statements are composed of
explanations, analyses, and discussions preparatory to
criticism, and can in no sense of the word be consid-
ered as criticism proper.
In real criticism, the critic as a critic must deal at
first hand with the literary production considered as a
literary production. He will explain and analyze, but
this only as preliminary to the characterization of the
literary work under discussion. The characterizing
words and phrases are always critical terms. Words
which are repeatedly employed in the characterization
of literature, which are persistently placed as predicate
of the typical critical judgment, acquire a meaning
which is more or less peculiar to their use in criticism.
Such only are really critical terms, and the number
of such words is relatively very small. The history
of the figurative and sporadic terms belongs to the
general dictionary of the language rather than to the
vocabulary of criticism. But in order to present not
INTRODUCTION. 13
only the real, but also the possible critical vocabulary,
these figurative terms have, in the following work,
received a brief mention also.
II. GENERAL HISTORICAL TENDENCIES AND MOVEMENTS
IN CRITICAL TERMS.
There are certain broad lines of development or
principles of differentiation, common to critical terms,
which, to avoid constant repetition in the text, it will
be necessary to state in the present connection. These
principles are for the mosc part independent of each
other. They are both logical and historical, and can
perhaps be best represented by occasionally referring
to the ideal form of judgment given in the preceding
section.
It is a truism in logic that the predicate of one
judgment is taken up into the subject of the next
judgment. This augmentation or growth of content
in the subject of judgment takes place in the history
of critical terms, but the growth of content or meaning
in the subject is less rapid than in the case of the
individual judgment. Every term which persists as
the predicate of a typical critical judgment, which has
thus really come to be a critical term, not only tends
to pass into the subject, but also to organize, to system-
atize other terms which may be used in the predicate.
The well-established term will be used synonymously
with other terms, or in contrast with them, or still
more often they will be placed as subordinate to it.
Often a strong organizing or schematizing influence is
14 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
exerted over the more specific critical terms by some
general expression which is itself very little employed
as an active critical term. Such was the term " Gothic "
previous to the middle of the eighteenth century, and
such are the terms " romantic " and " classical " in the
present century.
A general term or expression, in so far as it organ-
izes and classifies the more specific terms of the predi-
cate, tends to become an integral part of the subject,
to enlarge or enrich the conception of literary compo-
sition itself, and perhaps to designate more or less
distinctly a class or species or general division of lit-
erature. All classifying terms are also schematizing
terms, but the opposite is not true to an equal extent.
The term " Gothic," until the middle of the eighteenth
century, though exerting a strong schematizing influ-
ence over the active and specific terms of criticism,
\vas not regarded as in any sense representing an
integral part of real literature. E. g. :
One may look upon Shakespeare's works in comparison of tliose
that are more finished and regular, as upon an ancient majestic
piece of Gothic architecture, compared with a neat modern build-
ing ; the latter is more elegant and glaring, but the former is
more strong and more solemn. POPE, X., p. 549.
All well-established critical terms tend ir_ this man-
ner to become classifying terms. This is true of the
criticism of individual authors and of literature in gen-
eral. Sublimity is an integral portion of our concep-
tion of Milton's works, and we look for more definite
characterization. In the present century it is always
INTRODUCTION. 15
assumed that any and every literary composition must
in some manner be true to actual life. To portray the
specific manner in which this truthfulness is mani-
fested is the problem for criticism. Truth to real life
is a part of our conception of literature itself.
All classifying terms, however, were not thus origi-
nally derived from the predicate of the critical judg-
ment. Those terms which most persistently represent
a class or species of literature, such as dramatic,
lyrical, and epic, have without exception appeared
in the subject first, have uniformly indicated at first
the external circumstances under which literature was
produced, or the mechanical forms which it assumed,
and possessed no real literary significance whatever.
Whether thus mechanically derived, or whether taken
up into the subject from the predicate, any classifying
term, in so far as it becomes established firmly and
beyond all question, possesses little or no immediate
critical significance. Lyric poetry is simply lyrical,
being neither worse nor better for the fact. But there
are three influences which operate continually to bring
these established classifying terms into touch with ac-
tive critical terms. In the first plaee, the more firmly
fixed the classifying word is, the greater is its sche-
matizing influence over other critical terms. The
poem is not merely lyrical, dramatic or classical, but
it has " lyric sweetness," u dramatic vigor," or u clas-
sical purity of expression." In the second place, the
different classes or species of literature are usually
held by the critics in relatively higher or lower esteem,
16 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
and this gives a certain amount of critical significance
to the terms by which the different classes or species
are designated. E. g.\
Tasso confesses himself too lyrical, beneath the dignity of heroic
verse. DRYDEN, XIII., p. 15.
Some kinds of poetry are in themselves lower kinds than others.
The ballad kind is a lower kind. The didactic kind, still more,
is a lower kind. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 139.
In the third place, however rigidly a
of literature may be defined in theory, there continu-
ally arises the practical need for deciding under what
species or division new or unnoted features of litera-
ture are to be classified. In making this classification,
the theoretical definition of the classifying term is usu-
ally modified and its critical significance brought more
or less into the foreground of attention. In this manner
the term " lyrical," representing at first any passionate
or "pathetic" strain ofjsong, in opposition to epic
and dramatic action, has, from the great increase
of subjective literature in the present century, under-
gone a complete transformation of meaning.
In determining the meaning of a critical term, it is
necessary constantly to distinguish between theoretical
and applied criticism. Terms are sometimes applied
directly to literature, and sometimes they are merely
theoretically defined and explained. Nor can the
theory of a term at any given period of time be taken
by any means as a sure index to its actual use in ap-
plied criticism. Even in the same author, theory and
practice are often quite at variance with each other.
Kg.:
INTRODUCTION. 17
The sum of all that is merely objective we will henceforth call
nature, confining the term to its passive and material sense, as
comprising all the phenomena by which its existence is made
known to us. COLERIDGE, III., p. 335.
The wonderful twilight of the mind ! and mark Cervantes's courage
in daring to present it, and trust to a distant posterity for an
appreciation of its truth to nature. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 274.
Theoretical criticism represents the full analytic con-
sciousness, which exists at any time, of the influences
entering into the formation of the typical critical judg-
ment. But in the typical judgment itself, this analytic
consciousness is not immediately present so much as
the aesthetic feeling for the literary work which forms
the subject of the judgment. This aesthetic feeling,
and the general conception of literature which accom-
panies it, ultimately controls and sets the limits to
the analysis and theoretical discussion of critical terms
and principles. Hence the direct application of a term
to literature is the final criterion for its meaning at
any given period of its history.
But, on the other hand, the theory of a term often
reacts upon its actual application to literature in no
uncertain manner. The interaction between theoretical
and applied criticism is intimate and mutual, and may
be said to take place in three ways : First, A critic's
theory of a term may for the most part control his
applied use of it ; but no theory, in so far as it is mere
theory, will be copied by other critics. Thus Leigh
Hunt defined passion as a form of suffering, and Moul-
ton defines it as a form of literary sympathy or appre-
ciation. The latter critic follows up his definition by
2
18 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
an extended application of the term to literature, but
in the great body of critical usage the term is uni-
formly connected with the more active and impulsive
part of our nature. Second, The theory of a term and
its applied use are often made exactly, and at the same
time conditionally, equivalent to each other, the theory
of the term, based upon current usage, being stated
definitely and explicitly as an immediate preliminary
to its use in the characterization of literature. This
method of criticism has been coming more and more
into use since the middle of the eighteenth century.
E.g.:
The French writers declare that the English writers are generally
incorrect. If correctness implies an absence of petty faults, this
perhaps may be granted ; if it means a juster economy in fables,
the notion is groundless and absurd. J. WARTON, 1., p. 196.
Third, The theory of a term is sometimes derived from
an applied use of it which has since become obsolete.
This corresponds to the retrospective stage of a term's
history, and will be spoken of later.
The theory of a term may thus usually be regarded
as an approximate statement of the meaning which the
term possesses when actually applied to literature ; but
the theory must always be held in question by the facts
upon which it is based. The living use of a term is
the only real key to its meaning. It must be derived
chiefly from the growing aesthetic sense of what literary
art is, rather than from the more or less mechanical
analysis of what literary art and criticism have been
and mi^ht be.
-. <'" ^X^UA,
*-^ (A ot^/x'C*Mr' wi'.;
C>v tfv" ..n^, j fvwtU.cA,
INTRODUCTION. 19
A critical term may be theoretically defined in two
general ways. Its meaning may be derived from the
literary composition considered as a completed product,
or it may be derived from the mental activities of the ,
author or reader, which are brought into play in the
production and appreciation of the literary composi-
tion. The definition and classification of all the known
critical terms and principles with reference to the
completed composition is ideal rhetoric\; the same
definition and classification with reference to the
mmd of the author or reader is ideal aesthetic. There
has been a decided change in English criticism from
the rhetorical to the aesthetic or psychological stand-
point. This change has manifested itself in two ways:
In the first place, there has been a gradual elimination
of technical expressions from general criticism. Until
within the eighteenth century, the chief terms employed
in criticism represented for the most part principles of
language, or the more or less mechanical features of a
composition. Most of these terms were derived from
ancient rhetoric, and their meaning was very largely
determined by the rules which the rhetoricians them-
selves had laid down. By continually referring to cer-
tain fixed traits of a composition, the terms became
isolated to a great extent from their ordinary use in
speech, and there was often required for their compre-
hension an extensive technical knowledge of rhetoric
and criticism. In 1700 there were some three hundred
critical terms in general use, about half of which were
of this technical nature, such terms as purity, correct-
20 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
ness, proportion, decency, imitation, characters, manners.
and sentiments.
But when literature is viewed as to its content rather
than as to its form, its relations to actual life become
too intimate to allow of such a technical isolation of
meaning in critical terms. In English criticism, tech-
nical terms have constantly been paraphrased, ex-
plained, and illustrated by more popular expressions,
by which they have been gradually superseded, or to
which their meaning has been made gradually to con-
form. These popular expressions may be merely
explanatory, figurative, and sporadic. But quite as
._often, they indicate a change of interest in criticism
I from the composition considered as a completed prod-
uct to the mental powers by means of which the com-
position is called forth and appreciated."! There have
consequently appeared in modern criticism a multitude
of psychological and aesthetic terms, whose meaning
each person can determine in_great measure for him-
self, by an introspective movement of his own mind.
Of the fifteen hundred terms which constitute the pres-
ent vocabulary of criticism, perhaps three fourths are
^distinctively of this psychological nature.
In the second place, the change from the rhetorical
to the aesthetic or psychological standpoint is seen in
the greatly increased emphasis which in criticism has
come to be placed upon the progressive tendencies in
literature. Any completed product, in so far as it is
regarded merely as a completed product, as external,
and disconnected with the mind producing it, is always
INTRODUCTION. 21
thought capable of being reduced to fixed rules and
methods. Rhetoric, whose primary concern consists
in analyzing and classifying the characteristics of the
^omplfited.__ composition, tends to set up rules which
have all the rigid uniformity of a mechanical law rather
than the progressive movement of a developing prin-
ciple. Hence rhetorical terms and principles look to
the past for their data, by the authority of which they
would restrict future variation and development. Of
such a conservative character were the great body of
critical terms previous to the latter portion of the
eighteenth century, terms such as taste, propriety,
decorum, correctness, proportion* and even truth and
nature. E. g.\
Those rules of old discovered, not devised,
Are nature still, but nature methodised. POPE.
Since about the middle of the eighteenth century,
this conservative critical vocabulary has been com-
pletely revolutionized. A few terms, such as " correct-
ness," have become merely jeiro^peative ; others, such
as " proportion," in being explained psychologically,
have entirely changed their meaning ; still others, such
as " decorum," have become obsolete. The psycholog-
ical terms and principles of modern criticism are essen-
tially prospective in their outlook. The analytic terms
and principles of psychology have received little men-
tion in criticism ; but the synthetic and propulsive
mental energies are all represented, their significance
being minutely developed, broadened, and strengthened.
22 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Such are the terms sensibility, feeling, passion, senti-
ment, wit, humor, fancy, imagination, and a host of
related expressions. This change from the rhetorical
to the psychological standpoint is of the utmost impor-
tance in the general history of criticism. In a history
of the critical vocabulary, there is merely required the
statement of the fact of the change, and the general
principle which produced it. The details, in so far as
they appear, will be found in the history of the sepa-
rate terms.
It is but restating the law of all development to say
that in the history of criticism the meaning of the
terms employed has shown a decided change from the
indefinite to the definite. Four historical stages may
be distinguished in the growth toward this definite use
of critical terms.
I. Previous to the latter portion of the seventeenth
century, terms were for the most part employed singly,
and without explanation and illustration. Hence it
is often difficult to ascertain their meaning with any
degree of exactness. E. g. :
How wonderful are the pithey poems of Cato. LODGE, p. 5.
II. From the latter portion of the seventeenth cen-
tury until near tjie beginning of the present century,
critical terms were usually employed synonymously,
mutually supporting and explaining one another. That
two or more terms are applied to the same passage of
literature by a critic argues that they held in his
mind some sort of relation to one another. But it is
INTRODUCTION. 23
often by no means evident on the printed page what
that relation was. Many such conglomerations of terms,
in fact, must, for practical purposes of definition, be
regarded as isolated expressions. Thus, for synony-
mous use :
Bold and impassioned elevations of tragedy. T. WARTON, Hist.
Eng. Poetry, p. 866.
III. From the latter portion of the eighteenth cen-
tury until within the first few decades of the present
century, critical terms were very generally contrasted^
and placed in opposition with one another. At first,
this contrast between critical terms was little more
than a rhetorical antithesis. The contrast between
nature and art, genius and talent, was made with the
tacit assumption that fundamentally nature and genius
lay wholly beyond the province of literary art. But
this assumption came to be questioned. One theory
of literature was placed over against another theory,
and almost the whole critical vocabulary was reorgan-
ized arid drawn into the contention. The old antitheses
between critical terms were deepened into essential
opposition, and new antitheses were added to them.
The imagination was contrasted with the fancy, wit
with humor, the ideal with the real, and above and
over all the subjective with the objective. E. g. :
Spenser . . . left no Gothic irregular tracery in the design of his
great work, but gave a classical harmony of parts to its stupen-
dous pile. CAMPBELL, L, p. 97.
IV. During the present century, and especially
during the latter portion of it, critical terms have
24 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
been very generally explained in connection with their
application to literature. This has already been spoken
of in discussing the relations between theoretical and
applied criticism. If the explanation of the term is
accomplished merely by definition, the living strength
of the term is often sacrificed to the desire for exact-
ness ; but if the explanation is accomplished by means
of illustration, by comparing different passages of lit-
erature with one another, such a sacrifice need not
occur. E. g. :
It has been said that Tennyson fails in passion, and when men say
that, they mean the embodiment of love in verse. BJIOOKE,
Tennyson, p. 201.
There is still another general historical tendency
among critical terms which requires notice. It relates
to the manner in which new terms are introduced into
the vocabulary of criticism, grow into favor, and then
tend to pass out of use and become obsolete. Critical
principles are more permanent than critical terms, but
critical principles are always in a process of change
and development. A real critical principle must of ne-
cessity be a developing principle. Critical terms, on
the other hand, the external signs or symbols of these
principles, are more conservative. Thus, literature was
formerly said to be an " imitation of nature." But
when literature had come to be conceived of as an
intuition of what was sometimes called the " spirit
of nature," the term "imitation," unable fully to ex-
press the new conception, was, as a means of defining
HISTORICAL TENDENCIES AND MOVEMENTS. 25
literature, gradually superseded by the term "imagina-
tion." Certain fundamental terms, such as " truth "
and " nature," seem to have continued in use while
their meaning has undergone a complete transforma-
tion. This persistence, however, is usually more appar-
ent than real. " Truth " has been largely superseded by
the term "realism," and "nature" has almost ceased
to be a critical term in applied criticism.
Many terms, introduced into criticism merely for the
purpose of reinforcing other terms and conceptions
already well established, have been, so far as they at-
tracted any attention at all, received into favor from
the beginning. A few terms, also, such as u pictur-
esque " and " musical," have been brought over into good
standing at once from related arts. But most of the im-
portant critical terms now in use, were first employed
with more or less disfavor. In regard to the favor with
which they have been received, four stages may be dis-
tinguished in the history of the different critical terms.
I. In the first stage, the principle represented by
the critical term is recognized as an active influence
in literature, but this influence is thought to be more
or less pernicious, and destructive to the integrity of
literature as such. The term " Gothic," until the latter
portion of the eighteenth century, was in this stage of
development.
II. In the second stage, the term is not only seen
to represent influential tendencies in current litera-
ture, but these tendencies are thought to be essential
to literary art considered as literary art. The term is
26 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
employed not only in explaining current literature,
but also in interpreting the literature of the past.
" Correctness " and u propriety " were so employed in
the eighteenth century ; " imagination," " humor," and
" realism " in the present century.
III. In the third stage, the term represents a prin-
ciple which is no longer active to any considerable
extent in current literature. Enough appreciation of
the principle still remains for it to be regarded as an in-
tegral portion of literary art. The term is thus essen-
tially retrospective, and for an abbreviated form of state-
ment may be spoken of as a retrospective term. The term
" correct " is at present in this stage of its history.
IY. In the fourth stage, the term represents an in-
fluence once prominent in literature, which has since
come to be regarded as wholly outside the limits of
the real province of literary art. The more formal
signification of the term '^pprietv^" is at present in
this final stage of its critical history.
III. METHOD OP DEALING WITH THE SEPARATE
CRITICAL TERMS.
The general conception of what critical terms are,
which has now been given, and of the historical move-
ments that take place among them, has determined the
method employed in presenting the history of the dif-
ferent terms. Critical terms are regarded, not as hav-
ing a significance, which is the result of mere accidental
association, but as representing critical principles, which
at a certain stage of their development require new
DEALING WITH SEPARATE CRITICAL TERMS. 27
methods of expression, and appropriate for their use
certain words out of the vocabulary of the general lan-
guage. Hence, corresponding to the stages of devel-
opment in the critical principle, the history of the
term which represents it will tend to separate itsell
into more or less definitely marked periods. The gen-
eral characteristics of the term in each period of its
history are given, characteristics which are intended
to define the term in relation to the principle it rep-
resents, as well as in relation to the more or less
synonymous expressions which merely vary or rein-
force the common meaning of the general principle.
Occasionally some general term, during a single period
of its history, has two or three different uses; but
usually there is a characteristic use for every term at
any given time or period of its history, to which all
its special uses may be referred for explanation. It
is this characteristic use of the term which in every
instance is attempted to be defined or represented.
Any use of a term once established tends to recur
occasionally in a conventional manner throughout all
the later stages of the term's development. These
purely conventional uses of a term need not for his-
torical purposes be taken into consideration. Negative
terms, those which merely deny that a composition pos-
sesses a certain critical or literary principle, are treated
as briefly as possible, since their meaning is included
in that of the positive terms to which they are opposed.
With terms which have been very frequently em-
ployed in criticism, the references have been omitted,
28 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
the space which they would have occupied there were
more than twenty-five thousand of them being given
to representative quotations. The marginal phrases,
the text, and the quotations ,are intended to supple-
ment one another in defining the general conception
of a term at any period of its history. The marginal
phrases are intended to suggest the essential relations
existing between the different periods of the term's
development ; the text to give the essential relations
between the special uses of the term in any one period
of its history.
It was the design at first to present the history of
the different terms in groups of synonyms, taking up
the groups in the order of their greatest historical
influence. But for case of reference, it has been
thought best to arrange the terms in alphabetical
order, and place the historical grouping of synonyms
in an appendix. (See Appendix.) The Roman nu-
merals placed immediately after the terms indicate
the group in the Appendix to which the terms respec-
tively belong. The historical limit of the terms as
given e. g. "Milton to present" is based upon their
applied use in the main current of criticism. Mere
theory, unless the illustration given is very promi-
nent and significant, has not been regarded as giving
active current usage to a term; and the historical
limits to many of the terms would no doubt be much
changed by a study of minor critics, which, from the
necessary limits of the present investigation, has not
been permitted.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Nearly all the works of criticism in the Library of the University of
Chicago, iii the Chicago City Library, and in the Newberry Library were
read and consulted. A few -rare books were obtained from private sources.
The following list contains those works to which most frequent reference is
made. References in the book to other works and editions than those men-
tioned below are given in full in connection with the separate quotations.
A. Addison: Bohn's edition, 6 vols., London, 1891. M. Arnold:
Works, Macmillan & Co., 1883-1891. T. Arnold: Man. of Eng.
Lit., London, 1888. Ascham : 3 vols., London, 1864.
B. Bacon: Complete Works, Spcdding's edition, London, 1857.
Bagehot : Literary Studies, 2 vols., London, 1891. Beers :
'2 vols., New York, 1886 and 1891. Bentley: Complete Works,
3 vols., London, 1836-38. Blair: Rhetoric and Belles Lettres,
.University edition, Philadelphia. Brooke: 3 vols., New York
and" London, 1892-94. E. Browning : Prose, 2 vols., London,
1877- Bryant: Prose, New York, 1889. Burke: Bohn, 5 vols.,
London, 1881. Byron : Life and Letters, Murray, London, 1892.
C. Carnden : Remains Concerning Britain, London, 1870. Camp-
bell: Murray's edition, London, 1848. Campion: Works, Bullen,
London, 1889. Carlyle : Crit. and Mis. Essays, 7 vols., London,
1888-91. Channing: Remarks, etc., on Milton, London, 1845.
Coleridge: Complete Works, 7 vols., Sliedd, New York, 1884;
Letters, Boston and New York, 1895. Collier: Murray, London,
1831. Courthope : Lib. Movement in Eng. Lit., London, 1885.
D. Daniel: Complete Works, 4 vols., Grosart, 1885. Dekker: Huth
Library, 5 vols., 1884. DeQuincey: Masson's edition, Edin-
burgh, 1889. Dowden: Works, London, 1888-89. Drydeii :
Scott and Saintsbury edition, 18 vols.
B. George Eliot: Essays, Edinburgh and London, 1885. Emerson:
Works, Hougliton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1891-92.
30 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
G. Gascoigne: Arber's Reprints, Birmingham, 1869. Gibbon: Mur-
ray, 5 vols., 1814. Goldsmith: Bolm, London, 1886. Gosse:
5 vols., London, 1882-91 ; A Study of the Writings of Bjornson,
New York, 1895. Gosson: Arber's Reprints, Birmingham, 1868.
Gray : Gosse's edition, 4 vols., New York, 1890.
H. Hallam : Lit. Hist., 4 vols., London, 1882. Harvey: Grosart,
London, 1884. Haslewood :. The Arte of English Poesie, London,
1815. Hazlitt: Works, W. C. Hazlitt's edition, London, 1886.
Hobbes : Complete Works, Molesworth, London, 1811. Howells:
Grit, and Fiction, New York, 1891. D. Hume: Essays, 2 vols.,
Green and Grose, London, 1889. Hunt: Prose, London, 1891.
Hurd : Complete W r orks, London, 1811.
J. H. James : Partial Portraits, London, 1888. K. James : Arber's
Reprints, Birmingham, 1869. Jeffrey : Lougmann et al., editors,
1846. S. Johnson: Complete Works, 11 vols., London, 1825.
B. Jonson: Timber, Schelling's edition, Boston, 1892; Complete
Works, 3 vols., London, 1889.
K. Keats : Letters, New York, 1891 ; Life and Letters, London,
1889.
L. Lamb: Works, New York, 1887-90. Landor: Life and Works,
London, 1876. Lodge: Collier, 1851. Lowell: Works, Hough-
ton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York, 1892.
M. Macaulay: Mis. Works, 4 vols., Trevelyan edition, New York.
Mathews: Literary Studies. Milton: Prose, London, 1890.
Minto: Man. of Eng. Prose Lit., Char, of Eng. Poets, Boston,
1891. J. Morley: Works, Macmillan & Co., London, 1891.
Moulton : Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, Oxford, 1888.
N. Newman : Essay on Aristotle's Poetics, Boston, 1891.
P. Pater: Appreciations, etc., London, 1890. Poe : Works, 4 vols.,
New York. , Pope: Courthope, etc., 10 vols., London, 1871-86.
Puttenham : Arber Reprints, Birmingham, 1869.
R. Robertson : Essays toward a Critical Method, London, 1889.
Rossetti : Lives of Famous Poets, London, 1878. Preface to
Blake's Poetical Works, London, 1891. Ruskin: Works, New
York, 1891. Rymer: Tragedies, Parts I. and II., London,
1692-93.
S. Saintsbury : Specimens of English Prose Style, London, 1885;
Hist, of Eug. Lit., vol. ii., Macmillan, London; Essays in Eng.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 31
Lit., 1780-1860, New York, 1891; A Short Hist, of Er. Lit.,
Oxford, 1892 ; A Hist, of 19th Century Lit., New York, 1896.
Scott: Editor of Dryden, Edinburgh, 1882; Editor of Swift,
London, 1883. Shaftesbury : Complete Works, 3 vols., 1757.
Shelley: Complete Works, 3 vols., Eorman, London, 1880.
Sherman : Analytics of Lit., Boston, 1893. Sidney : Cook, Bos-
ton, 1890. Stedman : Victorian Poets, Boston, 1891 ; The Na-
ture and El. of Poetry, do., 1893. Stephen: Hrs. in a Lib.,
3 vols., London, 1874 ; Lives of Pope, Johnson, and Swift in
Morley Series, Harpers, New York. Stephenson : Familiar
Studies of Men and Books, New York, 1895. Swift: Scott,
19 vols.. London, 1883. Swinburne: Works, London, 1875-89.
J. A. Symonds : Es., Spec, and Suggestive, London, 1893.
T. Thackeray: 2 vols., Harper's Half Hour Series, New York.
W. Walton: Lives, London, 1888. J. Warton: Essay on Pope,
2 vols., London, 1806. T. Warton: Hist, of Eng. Poetry, Ward,
etc., London, Reprint of 1778-81. Webbe : Arber Reprints,
Birmingham, 1870. Whetstone: Shakespeare Library, Yol. VI.,
London, 1875. Whipple : Works, Boston, 1891. J. Wilsonj
Essays, Critical and Imaginative, Blackwood & Sons, London and
Edinburgh. T. Wilson : The Arto of Rhetorique, Printed by R.
Grafton, 1553. Wordsworth: Prose, Grosart, 3 vols., London,
1876.
A HISTORY
OF
ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Ability, Group V. b\ Jeff., Swin., Gosse.
Wilson's drama (1690) was full of ability. GOSSE, Hist, of
Eng., Lit., p. 40.
Abortive (V.): Dramatic abortions . . . misbegotten by dullness
upon vauity (of Byron). SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 81.
Abrupt (XIII.) : Harvey to present.
May be a praiseworthy quality of composition, but
usually is not so.
Samson Agonistes opens with a graceful abruptness. S. JOHNSON,
Vol. III. p. 158.
Let there be nothing harsh or abrupt in the conclusion of the
sentence on which the mind pauses and rests. BLAIR, Khet.,
p. 140. (Quoted from Quintilian.)
Absolute (XXII) a: Swinburne, Studies, p. 165.
Abstract, Abstracted (VIII.): Jef. to present.
Keats' poetry is ... too dreamy and abstracted to excite the
strongest interest. JEFFREY, II., p. 376.
In Rossetti ... a forced arid almost grotesque materializing of
abstractions. PATER, Ap., p. 232.
Abstinent (XIX.): Purity and abstinence of style (Wordsworth),
LOWELL, Prose IV., p. 415.
3
34 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Abstruse (III.) : Minto to present. Gosse, From Shakespeare to
Pope, p. 125.
Absurd (XX.) : Sidney to present ; in considerable use.
The absurd naivety of Sancho Pancho. D. HUME, I., p. 240.
This extravagant and absurd diction. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 103.
Abundance (XI.) b : Dekker to present.
Chaste abundance ... of Goethe. CARLYLE, I., p. 230.
The stately and gorgeous abundance of the vocabulary with which
the Hellenizing and Latinizing innovations of the Pleiade en-
riched the French language. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit.,
p. 211.
Academic (XX.): The Idylls of the King . . . are a little too aca-
demic. BROOKE, Tennyson, p. 268.
Blending of the academic and classical manner with the romantic
and discursive (of Hooker). SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., II.,
p. 44.
Accomplished (V.) b: Rossetti to present.
Accomplished and dextrous rhythm ... of Swin. SAINTSBURY,
Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 394.
ACCURATE (VIII.) : B. Jonson to present; in considerable use.
Previous to the present century, the term " accurate "
AS exactness lisiia ^y referred to the language of a com-
of expression. p OS jti n, indicating a careful choice of words
and exactness of method in their arrangement.
Our composition must be more accurate in the beginning and end
than in the midst, and in the end more than in the beginning.
B. JONSON, Timber, p. 62.
No matter how slow the style be at first, so it be laboured and
accurate. ID., p. 54.
Accuracy is seen in the expression. DRYDEN, XII., p. 284.
During the present century, the term has almost
AS truthful- uniformly represented a faithful and per-
nesstofact. j ia p g Bailed description of actual facts and
events.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 35
Truth and accuracy. HAZLITT, El. Lit., p. 7.
The accuracy 011 which Pope prided himself . . . was not accu-
racy of thought so much as of expression. LOWELL, IV.,
p. 37.
A figure may be ideal and yet accurate. SWINBURNE, Es. and St.,
p. 220.
Scientifically accurate in his statement of the fact. DOWDEN,
Shak., etc., p. 247.
Acerbity (XIV.): Cole., Macaulay.
Acrimony (XIV.) : Jeffrey.
ACTION (XVIII.): Whetstone to present.
The word " action," though occurring frequently in
criticism, has very seldom been employed as an actual
critical term. Until the middle of the eigh- As E .
teenth century, the term usually referred to movement -
historic deeds, to_external events, to heroic adventures,
celebrated chiefly injfpng and in Epic story.
What . . . the poet . . . imitates is action. ARISTOTLE, Poet.,
p. 31.
In the Iliad, which was written when Homer's genius was in its
prime, the mhole structure of the poem is founded on action and
.struggle. LONGINUS, pp. 20, 21.
The Epic asks a magnitude from other poems, since what is place
in the one is action in the other. B. JONSON, Timber,
p. 83.
The spectators are always pleased to see action, and are not often
so ill-natured to pry into and examine whether it be proper.
RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 3.
The relations between action and passion were always
regarded as being very intimate. During the latter half
of the eighteenth century, this intimacy of As Dramatic
relation became greatly increased. By the movement -
beginning of the present century, action had become
r^V**"~^ti2^
OF THE * \
UNIVERSITY I
36 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
subordinated to passion, or at most action was made
to represent more or less directly the flow of mental
imagery, the sequence of thought, the suspense, the
emotion aroused bjf.the description of an event, rather
than the mere event itself, considered as an external
movement, a fact of history.
Whence it comes to pass that the action, having an essential dig-
nity, is always interesting, and by the simplest management of
the poet becomes in a supreme degree pathetic. HURD, II.
p. 34.
Cato wants action and pathos, the two hinges on which a just
tragedy ought to turn. J. WARTON, p. 257-
The feeling ... in Lyrical Ballads . . . gives importance to the
aghqn and situation, and not the action and situation to the
feeling. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 183.
I Action . . . the eternal object of poetry. M. ARNOLD, Mix. Es..
p. 489, etc.
Actual (VIII.) : Swinburne.
Acute : (XX.) b ; Milton to present.
Acuteness of remark, or depth of reflection. MILTON, III. p.
498.
Acumen (XX.) b\ Acumen of thought. T. ARNOLD, Man., etc.,
p. 459.
Adapted (IV.) : S. Johnson to present.
Thoughts and words elegantly adapted to the subject. DRYDEN,
V., p. 124.
Admirable (XXII.) a\ Jef., Swin. Dowden, Trans. & St., p.
229
Adolescent (XV.) : The beauty ... of Keats' poems . . . have
an adolescent and frequently a morbid tone. R.OSSETTI, Life and
Letters, p. 208.
Adorable (XXII.) a : Swinburne, Mis., pp. 46, 221, etc.
ADORNED (V.): Webbe to present. Ornamented; colored.
The term refers to the result rather than to the pro-
cess of ornamentation. The result may be brought
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 37
about either by elaborate design or by spontaneous
processes.
The great art of poets is ... the adorning and beautifying of
truth. DRYDEN, XV., p. 408.
The object of the poetry of the imagination is to raise or adorn
one idea by another more striking or more beautiful. HAZLITT,
Eng. Com. Writers, p. 64.
Adroit (V.) b : Hallam to present.
Adroitly extravagant. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 69.
Adventurous (XIX.) : Hazlitt to present.
Romantic and adventurous incidents. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib.,
pp. 56, 57.
Aerial (XXII.) b : Pure, lucid, aerial. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p.
139.
-ESTHETIC (XXII.) b : Much used, but almost wholly in theory.
The writings of the "romantic school," of which the aesthetic
poetry is an afterthought . . . mark a transition from a lower
to a higher degree of passion in literature. PATER, Ap.,
p. 214.
AFFECTATION (VII.) : AFFECTED : T. Wilson to present.
Much in use, but has not, perhaps, changed its mean-
ing. In theory, it indicates the assumption on the
part of the author of a style or method of expression
which is unnatural, not spontaneous. As actually ap-
plied to literature, it indicates a style or method of
expression which offends the taste of the critic. In
early English criticism, the diction and language em-
ployed gave most offence ; later, the general tone and
spirit of the composition.
Spenser, in affecting the ancients, writ no language. B. JONSON,
Timber, p. 57.
Shakespeare's whole style is so pestered with figurative expres-
sions, that it is as affected as it is obscure. DRYDEN, VI.,
p. 255.
38 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Wordsworth ... is affected. JEFFREY, II., p. 523.
The essence of affectation is that it be assumed; the character
is, as -it were, forcibly crushed into some foreign mould, in the
hope of being thereby reshaped and beautified. CARLYLE, I.,
P . 11.
Longfellow oftener runs into affectation through his endeavors at
simplicity than through any other cause. POK, II., p. xviii.
Affecting (XVII.): Jef. to present. 1st. As the "affected."
2d. As the touching, pathetic.
Affinity (XXII.) &: Hazlitt, Shak., p. ?.
Affluent (XT.) b\ Whip, to present.
Those poems . . . which are apparently the most affluent of im-
agery, are not always those which most kindle the reader's
imagination. BRYANT, Prose, I., p. 9.
Aggressive (XII.), cf. (XIV.) : Ros. M. Arnold, Cr. Es., 1st S.,
p. 66.
Agreeable (XXII.) b : Most pathetic and most interesting, and by
consequence the most agreeable. D. HUME, I., p. 264.
Airy (XXII.) b : S. Johnson to present.
Airy, rapid, picturesque. JEFFREY, II., p. 46.
Airiness of fancy. LOWELL, IV., p. 267-
Airy and pretty. T. ARNOLD, Man. etc., p. 272.
Alacrity (V.): An alacrity of language. LOWELL, Prose, IV.,
p. 304.
Alembicated : Inequality and alembicated character of the poetry in
vogue. GOSSE, From Shak. to Pope, p. 33.
ALLEGORIC (XXI.).
Primarily a classifying term. Symbolism of moral
traits by means of fables. More in favor in early Eng-
lish criticism than at present.
A continuous allegory or dark conceit. SPENSER, Introduction
to Faery Queen.
Poetry, composed of allegory, fables, and imitations, does not deal
in falsehoods. 1591. HARRINGTON, in Haslewood's Arte of
Poetry, p. 127-
Stale allegorical imagery. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 104.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 39
Alliterative (X.) : Hallam to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 265.
Allusive (XVI.) : Saints, to present.
Three kinds of poetry: Narrative; Representative; Allusive,
to express some special purpose or conceit. BACON, IV.,
p. 402.
Fertility of allusion ... in Butler. BRYANT, I., p. 49.
Dryden . . . taught the poets to be explicit where they had been
vexatiously allusive. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 26.
Ambiguous (III.) : T. Wilson to present. Puttenham, p. 267.
Ambitious (XII.) : Dryden to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 229.
Ambling (X.) : Hazlitt to present.
Graceful ambling ... of Addison. WHIPPLE, Es. & Reviews,
p. 60.
Amenity (XIV.) : Blair. Gosse, Hist, Eng. Lit., p. 19.
Amorphous (II.) : Sidney's Arcadia is dreadfully amorphous and
invertebrate. GOSSE, From Shak. etc., p. 22.
Ample (XI.) b: B. Jonson to present. Swin., Es. & St., p. 69.
Amplification, Amplified (XIX.) c : T. Wilson to present.
Used for the most part previous to the present century.
Amplifying and beautifying. T. WILSON, Rhet., p. 25 <
Amplitude (XI.) b : Landor to present.
Sonorous amplitude of Milton's style. LOWELL, IV., p. 84.
Amusing (XVII.) : Jef. to present.
More amusing than accountable. HUNT, Wit and Humour,
p. 10.
Anachronism (IV.), cf. (VIII.) : J. Warton to present. J. Warton,
II., p. 10.
ANALYTIC (XX.) b : Stedman to present.
Analysis as such, the mere tendency to discriminate
and to separate anything into its elements, has never
been regarded with much favor in criticism. To pos-
sess literary value, analysis must in some manner be
combined with synthesis.
Wit is negative, analytical, destructive; Humor is creative.
WHIPPLE, Lit. & Life, p. 91.
40 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Possessing a sense of proportion, based upon the highest ana-
lytic and synthetic powers. STEDMAN, Vic. Poets,, p. 199.
Scott was often tediously analytic where the modern novelist is
dramatic. Ho WELLS, Grit. & Fiction, p. 21.
Aniline (V.) : Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. Style, p. xvii.
Animated (XII.) : Mil., J. Warton to present. Much in use.
An infinite variety of tropes, or turns of expression . . . which
serve to animate the whole. GOLDSMITH, L, p. 357.
The animation, fire, and rapidity which Homer throws into his
battles. BLAIR, llhet., p. 40.
Anticlimax (XII.) : Stephen to present.
The Lotus Eaters . . . closes in a feeble anticlimax. BKOOKE,
Ten., p. 124.
Antiphonal (X.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 200.
Antiquated (IV.) : Goldsmith to present.
Antiquated and colloquial. JEFFREY, I., p. 416.
Antithetical (II.) : Scott to present.
Snapping antitheses of Macaulay. SAINTS., Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxi.
Appropriate (IV.) : Collier to present. POE, II., p. 163.
Apt (IV.) : Ascham to present.
The unaptness of our tongues and the difficulty of imitation dis-
heartens us. CA'MPION, p. 233.
Not only what is great, strange, or beautiful, but anything that is
disagreeable, when looked upon, pleases us in an apt description.
ADDISON, III., p. 418.
Arabesque (II.) : Byron to present.
llichter's manner of writing is singular ; nay, in fact, a wild com-
plicated arabesque. CARLYLE, I., p. 16.
Archaic, Archaisms (I.) : Landor to present.
Antiquated expressions, which, from a certain unex-
pectedness and quaintness, may possess literary merit,
A grave and sparkling admixture of archaisms in the ornaments
and occasional phraseology ... of Southey's prose. HAZLITT,
Sp. of Age, p. 145.
A permissible archaism is a word or phrase that has been sup^-,
planted by something less apt, but has not become unintelli-
gibly. LOWELL, IV., p. 2i7.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 41
The natural effect of archaisms on pathetic passages is to make
them sweeter and simpler, by making them more childlike.
MINTO, Char, of Eng. Poets, p. 26.
Architectonics (XXIII.) : M. Arnold.
Archness (XVII.) : Campbell to present.
Arctic (XV.) : Hunt.
Ardent (XV.) : Scott to present.
Ardour (XV.) : Masculine ardour ... of Milton. DOWDEN, Tr.
& St., p. 270.
Arid (XVI.) : Hallam.
ART (XXII.) b.
The history of the term " art " is to be connected
with that of the term "artistic," the two together
representing the development of a single critical prin-
ciple. The term " art " was chiefly used previous to
the present century, " artistic " during this century.
" Art " as a critical term has almost invariably been
placed in antithesis to "nature," and hence its mean-
ing is in large part determined by the use of the term
to which it has been opposed. It has perhaps been
used in two slightly different ways.
When "nature" represented subjective impulses and
instincts, the term did not indicate the entire mental
process which takes place in the production Asdevice
of literature. "Art" denoted whatever in and design '
the composition results from skill, from conscious de-
vice and design, from the employment of rules and
method.
If a thing admits of being brought into being without art or prep-
aration, a fortiori, it will admit of it by the help of art and
attention. ARISTOTLE, Rhet., p. 163.
In_Sallust's writing is more art than nature, and more labor than
art. 15G8. ASCIJAM, III., p. 264. ~~ "
r
42 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The courtier following that which by practice he findeth fittest to
nature, therein though he know it not, doth according to art,
though not by art. 1583. SIDNEY, p. 54.
Art is only a help and remembrance to nature. 1585. K. JAMES,
p. 66.
Nature engendereth, art fraraeth. 1593. HARVEY, I., p. 263.
Art, when it is once m at u red- to. -habit, vanishes from observation.
"175 1 S. JOHNSON, III., p. 80.
Some had the art without the power; others had flashes of the
power without the art. SAINTSBUKY, Hist. E. L., p. 53.
When " nature " was regarded as external and ob-
jective, "art" indicated the whole mental process
necessary for giving to this external nature
skin, and a literary representation. "Art" thus in-
power.
eluded not only skill and design, but also
in a vague way the more primal and instinctive literary
activities of the mind.
Art and nature compared (summary).
1. Art an exact imitator of nature, c. g. Painting.
2. Art covers defects of nature.
3. Art heightens the beauties of nature.
4. Art develops forms wholly beyond nature. 1585.
PUTTENIIAM, pp. 308-312.
We should be admiring some glorious representation of nature,
and are stopped on a sudden to observe the writer's art. 1751.
HURD, I., p. 36i.
Artful (V.) b\ Dryden to present.
That which in composition gives evidence of con-
scious design and device. In better repute during the
eighteenth century than during the present century.
The plot ... of Measure for Measure ... is rather intricate
than artful. S. JOHNSON, V., p. 158.
Artful but not artistic. WHIPPLE, Age of EL, p. 118.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 43
Artifice (V.) : Hume to present. Device for producing artful effects.
The simple manner . . . conceals the artifice as much as possible ;
endeavoring only to express the effect of art, under the appear-
ance of the greatest ease and negligence. SHAFTESBUIIY, I., p.
202.
Artificial (VII.) : Ascham to present. Much in use.
I. Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
the " artificial " occasionally represented the " artful."
In Gorboduc . . . there is both many days and many places inar-
tificially imagined. SIDNEY, p. 48.
II. Usually the term indicates the unnatural, that
which is at once artful and labored.
Those artificial assemblages of pleasing objects, which are not to
be found in nature. J. WAB.TON, I., pp. 3, 4.
ARTISTIC (XXII.) b. (See ART.)
The term " artistic " represents a blending of the
old antithesis between art and nature into an aesthetic
unity, - a unity which refers not only to the active
process of composing, but also to the effect of the
composition on the mind of the reader. As denoting
the active process of composing, the artistic necessi-
tates the exercise both of acquired skill and of the
spontaneous powers of the mind, of feeling, of pas-
sion, of imagination. As referring to the appreciation
of literature, the artistic includes both cultivated taste
and native sensibility. The artistic represents such a
refinement of the crude facts and materials of litera-
ture as to give no offence to the most cultivated taste,
and at the same time such an accurate and vivid por-
trayal of these facts as to stimulate the most healthful
44 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
and vigorous imagination. The term is thus a com-
plete expression at any given time for the progressive
aBsthetic sense which accompanies literary development.
If by saying that a poem is artistical we mean that its form cor-
responds with its spirit, that it is fashioned into the likeness of
the thought or emotion it is intended to convey, then "The
Buccaneer" and " Thanatopsis " are as artistical as the "Voices
of the Night." . . . The best artist is he who accommodates his
diction to his subject, and in this sense Longfellow is an artist.
1844. WHIPPLE, Es. and Reviews, p. 59.
Artful but not artistic. 1859. WHIP., Lit, of Age of E., p. 108.
Nothing but the highest artistic sense can prevent humor from
degenerating into the grotesque. 1866. LOWELL, II., p. 90.
In works of art or pure literature, the style is even more impor-
tant than the thought, for the reason that the style is the artis-
tic part, the only thing in which the writer can show originality.
MATHEWS, Lit. St., p. 9.
And when one's curiosity is in excess, when it overbalances the
desire of beauty, then one is liable to value in works of art
what is inartistic in them. 1886. PATER, Ap., p. 248.
Some sonnets of Mrs. Browning lack that fine artistic self-control,
the highest obedience to the law of beauty, which should be as
stringent as the self-control of asceticism, and is so much more
fruitful. 1887. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 229.
That fine effluence of the whole artistic nature which can hardly
be analyzed and which we term style. DOWDEN, St. in L.,
p. 192.
Artless (VII.) : Campbell to present.
The term artlessness may be applied to Heywood in two very op-
posite senses : as truth to life and natural feeling ; as being
without art. CAMPBELL, I., p. 219.
Asiatic (XIX.) : Milton to present.
The exuberant richness of Asiatic phraseology. MILTON, III.,
p. 204.
A feeble, diffuse, showy, Asiatic redundancy. HAZLITT, Sp. of A.,
p. 204.
Assonant (X.) : Assonant, harmonious. STEDMAN, Yic. Poets, p. 46.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 45
Attractive (XXII.) b\ Wordsworth to present. Mathews, Lit.
Studies, p. 29.
Audacity (XII.) : Ruskin to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 86.
August (XI.) : Milton to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65.
Austere (XV.) : Hume to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 142.
Authentic : (VIII.) ; Authentic, honest, and direct terms. JEFFREY,
I., p. 211.
Autumnal: Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 178.
Awkward (XIX.) : Dryden to present.
Simplicity may be rustic and awkward, of which there are innu-
merable examples in Wordsworth's volumes. LANDOR, IV.,
p. 61.
Babyish (XI.) : Babyish interjections. JEFFREY, II., p. 175.
Balance (II.) : T. Newton to present.
Equipoise of phrase, thought, and feeling.
Precise balance. T. NEWTON, Spen. Society, vol. 43, p. 2.
I would trace the origin of meter to the balance in the mind
effected by that spontaneous effort which strives to hold in
check the workings of passion. COLERIDGE, III., p. 415.
The imagination . . . the faculty that shapes, gives unity of de-
sign, and balanced gravitation of parts. LOWELL, III., p. 30.
The needful qualities for a fit prose are regularity, uniformity, pre-
cision, balance.
Tennyson's poetry exhibits a well-balanced moral nature. DOW-
DEN, St. in Lit., p. 113.
Bald (XVI.), cf. (V.) : Milton to present.
Wordsworth ... a baldness which is full of grandeur. M.
ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 159.
Locke's style ... is bald, dull, plebeian. SAINTS., Eng. Pr. St.,
p. xxiv.
Balderdash (XXII.) b : Frantic balderdash. SAINTS., Hist. Er. Lit.,
p. 25.
Barbarism (I.) : Webbe to present.
The craving for instant effect in style . . . brings forward many
disgusting Germanisms and other barbarisms. DE QUINCEY,
XL, p. 422.
Barbarous (IV.) : Ascham to present.
That which very much offends taste and propriety.
46 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Barbarity and Gotkicism. SHAETESBUIIY, I., p. 174.
We are apt to call barbarous whatever departs widely from our
own taste and apprehension. HUME, I., p. 266.
A tasteless and barbarous turn of phrase, in which all feeling of
propriety and elegance was lost. HALLAM, Lit. Hist., 11.,
p. 23.
Bare (V.) : Scott to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 126.
Barren (XVI.) : Puttenham to present.
The remedy for exuberance is easy ; barrenness is incurable by any
labor. QUINTILIAN, II., p. 106.
Dry, hard, and barren of effect. HAZLITT, Age of El., p. 207.
Barytone (X.) : M. Arnold.
Virile barytone quality. STEDMAN, Vic. Poets, III.
Base (V.) : Ascham, Puttenham.
Thus rudely turned into base English. ASCHAM, III., p. 197.
Bastard (VII.) : M. Arnold to present.
Bastard Epic style ... of Scott. M. ARNOLD, Celtic Lit., etc.,
p. 195.
Bathos (XI.) : Scott to present.
Mistaking vulgarity for simplicity, turned into bathos what they
found sublime. CAMPBELL, I., p. 49.
Bawdry (XIV.) : Burlesque or bawdry ... of Breton. SAINTS-
BURY, Hist, of Eng. Lit., p. 239.
BEAUTY (XXII.) 6.
The history of the term "beauty" may be divided
into three general periods. Previous to the eighteenth
century, the beautiful was uniformly regarded
As ornamen- ii_ r 7
tation and as a result or a certain rearranging and pol-
artifice.
ishing of a truth that was thought to be
external and unchangeable. This rearranging and
polishing was attained by conscious ingenuity. Hence
the conception of the beautiful in early criticism is
usually expressed by means of an active verb, which
designates the skill of the author in manipulating his
material. The beautiful thus, for the most part at
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 47
least, was capable of being reduced to rule and method.
It was a product of invention, and was copied or imi-
tated from author to author.
^3 Beauty lies in Compaq ^ pr^W. ARISTOTLE, Poetics, p. 25.
Amplifying and beautifying. 1553. TH. WILSON, Rhet., p. 25.
^ Only man and no beast hath that gift to discern beauty. 1583.
SIDNEY, Poet., p. 37.
Figures which beautify language. 1585. PUTTENHAM, p. 206.
Beautify the same with brave devices. 1586. WEBBE, p. 36.
Periods are beautiful when they are not too long. (Pub.) 1641.
B. JONSON, Timber, p. 62.
If the parts are managed so regularly, that the beauty of the whole
be kept entire. 1668. DRYDEN, XV., p. 335.
His genius is able to make beautiful what he pleases. 1674.
DRYDEN, V., p. 112.
"y? It is better to trespass on a rule than leave out a beauty. 1692.
DRYDEN, VIII., p. 221.
Persius borrows most of his beauties from Horace. 1693. DRY-
DEN, XIII., p. 73.
^ The least proportion or beauty of tragedy. 1678. RYMER, 1st
Pt, p. 41.
During the eighteenth century, the beautiful was
regarded not so much as something which could be
consciously constructed as something which As the
was merely to be apprehended. The beau-
tiful was apprehended by means of taste or
"delicacy of imagination." Both taste and the sense
of the beautiful varied with increasing knowledge (see
Taste). In the latter part of the century, when taste
came to be founded more on sensibility and less on
culture, the beautiful likewise was thought to have
less intimate relations with proportion and the under-
standing than with the more spontaneous activities of
48 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
the mind. But whether associated with understanding
or with feeling, the final test of the beautiful was the
amount of immediate pleasure that was produced in
the mind of the reader. The critics usually found
this greatest pleasure in the " proprieties," occasion-
ally, however, in an impropriety.
Any writer who shall treat on this subject after me may find sev-
eral beauties in Milton which I have not taken notice of. 1711.
ADDISON, III., pp. 223-24.
I have endeavored to show how some passages are beautiful by
being sublime , others by being soft ; others by being natural.
1711. ID. p. 283.
It is impossible to continue in the practice of contemplating any
order of beauty, without being frequently obliged to form com-
parisons between the several species and degrees of excellence,
and estimating their proportions to each other. 1742. HUME,
I., p. 275.
It seldom or never happens that a man of sense, who has experi-
ence in any art, cannot judge of its beauty. 1742. ID., I.,
p. 278.
It is in many cases apparent that beauty is merely relative . . .
that we transfer the epithet as our knowledge increases, and
appropriate it to higher excellence, when higher excellence comes
within our view. 1751. S. JOHNSON, II., p. 431.
It has been the lot of many great names not to have been able to
express themselves with beauty and propriety in the fetters of
verse. 1756. J. WARTON, I., pp. 265-60.
The qualities of beauty are all sensible qualities : I. Small.
II. Smooth. III. Variety in the direction of the parts.
IV. Parts not angular but melted as it were into each other.
V. Delicate frame without any remarkable appearance of
strength. VI. Colors clear and bright but not strong or glar-
ing. VII. If any glaring color to have it diversified with
others. 1756. BURKE, I., p. 136.
Proportion is a creature of the understanding . . . but beauty
demands no assistance from our reasoning. 1756. ID., p. 114.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 49
What is false taste but a want of perception to discern propriety
and distinguish beauty ? 1761. GOLDSMITH, I., p. 324.
r the sake of showing how beautiful even improprieties may be-
come in the hands of a good writer. S. JOHNSON, V., p. 263.
During the present century, in so far as the beautiful
has been founded upon taste, taste itself has been sup-
p o s ed Jbo c on si s t chiefly of native sensibility. As
This makes the sense of the beautiful tend feelin -
to pass over from an appreciation of many beauties
by means of taste, to the appreciation of a single beauty
by means of certain fundamental and progressive forms
of feeling. These forms of feeling, whether designated
as imaginative or as the " artistic sense," are, as it
were, the connecting link between pure aesthetic feel-
ing and the more active artistic processes which give
expression to this aesthetic feeling. The beautiful is
thus the most full and direct expression possible for
feeling. The progressive nature of this
aesthetic feeling itself, however, as evidenced in mod-
ern realism, keeps the question continually open as
to whether or not the sense of the beautiful and the
limits of literary art are at any given time exactly
coextensive and identical with each other.
Greek art is beautiful . . . but Gothic art is sublime. 1810.
COLERIDGE, IV., p. 235.
No great work should have many beauties: if it were perfect, it
would have but one ; . . . that but faintly perceptible, except
on a view of the whole. 1817. JEFFREY, II., p. 472.
What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth, whether
it existed before or not, for I have the same idea of all our
passions as of love : they are all, in their sublime, creative of
essential beauty. 1817- KEATS, Letters, pp. 41, 42.
4
50 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS,
It may be interesting to you to pick out some lines from Hype-
rion, and put a mark X to the false beauty proceeding from art,
and an || to the true voice of feeling. 1819. ID , p. 321.
The ideal is that which answers to the preconceived, and appetite
in the mind for love and beauty. 1819. HAZLITT, Table Talk,
p. 448.
Poetic beauty in its pure essence ... is not derived from any-
thing external, or of merely intellectual origin ; not from associ-
ation . . . nor from imitation, of similarity in dissimilarity, of
excitement by contrast, or of seeing difficulties overcome. Un-
derived from these it gives to them their principal charm. It
dwells and is born in the inmost spirit of man. . . . 1827.
CARLYLE, I., p. 4-7.
Fiction has no business to exist unless it is more beautiful than
reality. Certainly the monstrosities of fiction may be found in
the bookseller's shops . . . but they have no place in literature,
because in literature the one aim of art is the beautiful. Quoted
from Joubert. M. AUNOLD, Cr. Es. 1st S., p. 292.
Pope had a sense of the neat rather than of the beautiful. LOW-
ELL, Prose Works, IV., p. 48.
The world of the imagination is not the world of abstraction and
nonentity, as some conceive, but a world formed out of chaos by
a sense of the beauty that is in man and the earth on which he
dwells. 1885. ID.," VI, p. 94.
.\ And further, all beauty is in the long run only finesse of truth.
1886. PATER, Appreciations, p. 6.
Becoming (IV.), cf. (XXII.) : Puttenham, Landor.
Such a play on words would be unbecoming. LANDOR, IV., p. 438.
Biting (XIV.) : T. Newton, Whipple, EL, Lit., p. 98.
Bitter (XIV.) : Jeffrey to present.
Richter's satire ... is never bitter, scornful, or malignant. DE
QUINCEY, XI. p. 271.
Bizarre (IX.) : Hume to present.
Bizarre mixture of the serious and comic styles. HUME, I., p. 270.
Bizarre and extraordinary. JEFFREY, II., p. 116.
Bizarre or unnatural. WHIPPLE, Lit. of Age of El., p. 232.
Blithe (XVIII.): Stedman, Pater, p. 56.
Blithe, unstudied utterance. STEDMAN, Vic. Poets, p. 73.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 51
Blundering (XIX.), cf. (II.) and (XVIII.) : Swinburne, Mis.,
p. 76.
Blunt ( V.) : Ascham to present.
When they wrote, their head was solitary, dull, and calm ; and so
their style was blunt and their writing cold. ASCII AM, III.,
p. 210.
Bluster (XIX.), cf. (XII.) : Whip, to present.
Bluster or bombast. WHIFFLE, Es. & Rev., II., p. 49.
Body (XIII.) It: Swinburne, Mis,, p. 9.
Boisterous (XIX.) c\ cf. (XII): Saintsbury.
Bold (XII.): Dryden to present.
Bold and rhetorical style. D. HUME, I., p. 168.
Bombastic (XIX.): Puttenham to present.
Pure simple bombast . . . arises from putting figurative expres-
sion to an improper use. HURD, I., p. 103.
Marlowe . . . constantly pushes grandiosity to the verge of bom-
bast. LOWELL, 0. E. D., p. 36.
The rhetorical sublimity of their diction conies most perilously
near the verge of bombast. SWINBURNE, A St. of B. Jonson,
p. 58.
Bon-mot (XVII.) : Watson was possessed of a most copious collec-
tion of bon-mots, facetious stories, and humorous compositions of
every kind. WAKEFIELD, in Literaria Centuria, Vol. I., p. 20.
Bookish (VII.) : Whip, to present.
The dialogue ... in Mosses from an Old Manse ... is bookish.
WHIFFLE, Char. & Char. Men, p. 226.
Brave (XXII.) a : Beautify the same with brave devices. WEBBE,
p. 36.
Brazen (XIX.) : Dryden's brazen rant. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III.,
p. 43.
Breadth (XIII.) b : Campbell to present.
Breadth and comprehensiveness. DOWDEN, Shak., pp. 166-67-
Brevity (XIX.) : Gascoigne to present.
What is quickly said the mind readily receives and faithfully re-
tains. HORACE, Art of Poesy, p. 214.
There is a briefness of the parts sometimes that makes the whole
long. . . . Seneca may be impeached of this. B. JONSON,
Timber, p. 70.
52 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Bright (Y.) : Swin. to present.
The sweet pastoral strain, so bright, so tender. DOWDEN, Shak.,
p. 81.
Brilliant (V.) : Hume to present.
An over brilliant style obscures character and sentiment. ARIS-
TOTLE, Poetics, p. 81.
The brilliant felicity of occasional images. DE QUINCEY, XI., p. 337.
Brisk (XVIII.) : Dryden to present. Swinburne, A St. of B. Jouson,
p. 83.
Brocaded (V.) : Gosse, Hist, of Eng. Lit., pp. 391-92.
Broken (XIII.) : Dekker to present.
A broken language . . . monosyllabic. DEKKER, III., p. 188.
Brooding (XX.) b : Swinburne, Mis., p. 230.
Brutish (XXII.) b: This brutish poetry. WEBBE, p. 31.
Bucolic (XXI.) : Shelley to present.
The bucolic and erotic delicacy in written poetry is correlative
with that softness in statuary, music, and the kindred arts . . .
which distinguished the later Grecian epoch. SUELLEY, VII.,
pp. 118, 119.
Flexible, bucolic hexameter. STEDMAN, Vic. Poets, p. 226.
Buffoonery (XVII.) : Put. to present.
Ford's cold and dry manner makes his buffoonery at once rancid
and insipid. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 290.
Buoyancy (XVIII.) : Whip. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 291.
Burlesque (XVII.) : Rymer to present.
The French had the like vicious appetite, and immoderate passion
for vers burlesque. RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 10.
Burlesque consists in a disproportion between the style and the
sentiments, or between the adventitious sentiments and the fun-
damental subject. S. JOHNSON, VII., p, 155.
Cacophonous (X.): Lowell to present.
Such cacophonous superlatives as " virtuousest," " viciousest,"
etc. LOWELL, Latest Lit. Essays, p. 105.
Cadence (X.) : Keats to present.
Long applied in theory to metrical form ; came to
refer to the mental rhythm and perhaps to a form of
feeling; and thus acquired direct critical significance.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 53
The cadence of one line must be a rule to that of the next. DRY-
DEN, XII., p. 301.
A certain musical cadence, or what we call rhythm. KURD, II.,
p. 6.
A cadence and symphony of suffering. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 11.
Calm (XIX.) : Hume to present.
Composed, calm, and unconscious way. JEFFREY, I., p. 225.
Candor (XIV.) : Gold, to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 27.
Canorous (X.) : Lowell.
The Latin has given us most of our canorous words, only they
must not be confounded with merely sonorous ones. LOWELL,
Pr. III., p. 184.
Cant (VII.) : Dekker to present.
If there be not something very like cant in Mr. Carlyle's later
writings, then cant is not the repetition of a creed after it has
become a phrase. LOWELL, II., p. 97.
Capacity (V.) b : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 312.
Capricious (XIX.) : T. Warton.
Irregular and capricious. JEFFREY, II., p. 235.
Careful (XIX.): Ros. Swinburne, Mis., p. 44.
Careless (XIX.) or (II.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 49.
Caricature (VIII.) : Scott to present.
This exaggeration ... is not caricature, for caricature never gives
the impression of reality. WHIPPLE, Success, etc., p. 258.
Catholic (XIV.) : Hallam to present.
Catholic poetry . . . that which is good in all ages and countries.
HALLAM, III., p. 228.
Caution (XIX.) : Jef., Swin.
Caution, timidity, and flatness . . . of Addison. JEFFREY, I., p. 45.
Changeful (II.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 68.
Chaotic (II.) : Lowell to present.
The chaotic never pleases long. LOWELL, Prose, III., p. 65.
Dark and chaotic . . . Blake. ROSSETTI, Pref. to Blake, p. cxiii.
CHARACTER (VI.).
Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
"characters" as employed in criticism denoted certain
54 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
general traits, certain generic qualities of motive and
disposition, the word being usually found in the
plural form, and referring to the personnel
^nwtis ^ a drama. These general dramatic types
pc^ no*. Q character were to a great extent an
inheritance from literary precedent and custom. Cer-
tain mental characteristics had been abstracted, per-
sonified, and put into action^ More definite charac-
terization was wholly subordinated to plot complica-
tion. " Character," thus indicating a given native
bent of disposition, was both more inclusive in its
meaning than the word " manners," and more funda-
mental, more nearly related to the sources of motive
and of conduct.
/ |]]aracter, that whereby we say the actors gre of one
another. AKI.STOTLK, Poetics, p. 21.
Character, is wjia^ejv^r_^hows^hoice. ID., p. 23.
Beginners in composition succeed sooner in st^le and character
than in arrangement of incident. . . . The plot thenisJhe basis,
and, as it were, the soul of tragedy, character coming next.
ID., p. 23.
Prom the manners, the characters of persons are derived; for in-
deed the characters are no other than the inclinations, as they
appear in the several persons of the poem; a character being
thus defined, that which distinguishes one man from another.
1679. PRYDEN, VI., p. 269.
The several manners which I have given to the persons of this
drama . . . are all perfectly distinguished from each other.
1694. ID., VIII., p. 374.
The manners flow from the characters. ID., XV., p. 388.
The fable is properly the poet's part, since
The characters are taken from Moral Philosophy,
tThe thoughts or sense from Rhetoric,
The expression from Grammar. RYMER, 2d Pt., pp. 86, 87-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 55
Since within the^ eighteenth century, there has been
a constant growth in the conception of character toward
specification, and the fullest portrayal possi- Ag
ble of motives and disposition. Character ality *
has come to represent personality, that which dis-
tinguishes one man from other men as in actual life,
not that which distinguishes certain general types of
literary representation.
Nothing affects the heart like that which is purely from itself, and
of its own nature ; such,, as the beauty of sentiments, the grace
of actions, the turn of characters, and the proportions and fea-
tures of a human mind. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 105.
Cato . . . wants character, although that be not so essentially
necessary to a tragedy as action. 1756. J. WARTON, p. 257-
There is ... a little degradation of character for a more dra-
matic turn of plot. 1830. WORDSWORTH, III., p. 303.
In Shakespeare . . . the interest in the plot is always ... on
account of the characters, not vice versa, as in almost all other
writers. 1810. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 62.
Character of two kinds . . . Jaenerm^ representative, symbolical,
instructive; or sj^ficific^ interesting. 1817. ID., III., p. 561.
Cervantes is the father of the modern novel, in so far as it has
become a study and delineation of character instead of being
a narrative seeking to interest by situation and incident. 1885.
LOWELL, VI., p. 135.
Charm (XXII.) b : Jeifrey to present.
A noble union of truth and charm. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 76.
CHASTE (I.) or (XIX.) & ; CHASTITY.
Correctness in the use of language, and moderation
in figures of speech or m-ental imagery ; a careful and
restrained method of expression, the result of delicate
sensibility and pure taste.
Sentiments chaste but not cold. ADDISON, I., p. 254.
Chaste and correct. J. WARTON, I., p. 258.
56 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The chaste elegance of the following description . . . will gratify
the lover of classical purity. T. WARTON, p. 863.
Critics have a habit of calling certain sorts of work "chaste"; not
as indicating any quality of moral continence, but as implying
the correctest and purest taste, unmixed with any license or
audacity. HOSSETTI, Lives of Poets, p. 262.
Chastised (XIX.) b : Chastised gravity of the sentiments. JEFFREY,
L, p. 393.
Cheerful (XIV.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 30.
Childish (XI.) : Childish and preposterous. JEFFREY, I., p. 212.
Chiselled (V.) : Ruskiu to present.
The Duiiciad is the most absolutely chiselled and monumental
work "exacted" in our country. RUSKIN, Lectures on Art,
pp. 86, 87.
Choral (XXI.) : Choral accompaniments to the performance. JEF-
FREY, II., p. 129.
Chosen (IV.) : Brooke, Tennyson, p. 251.
Circuitous (XVIII.): Hazlit't, Whipple.
Circumstantial (VIII.) :b J. Warton to present.
Circumstantial richness of description. MINTO, Char, of Eng.
Poets, p. 327.
Clang (X.) : Swinburne. High-ringing clang. BROOKE, Tennyson,
p. 130.
Clangour (X.) : Clangour of sound. SAINTSBURY, Hist, of Fr. Lit.,
p. 213.
Clarion-versed (X.) : Brooke, Tennyson, p. 308.
Clarity (III.) : Swinburne. Clarity of statement and reflection.
GOSSE, Seventeenth Cent St., p. 298.
Clashing (X.) : Rugged, clanging, clashing lines. BROOKE, Ten.,
p. 274.
CLASSICAL (XIX .)b.
The term " classical " appeared in English criticism
about the middle of the eighteenth century. Though
AS the there are no definitely marked periods in its
classic. history, five more or less distinct shades of
meaning may perhaps be distinguished in the use of
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 57
the term. Occasionally the term merely represents
the literature of Greece and Rome, whatever was then
and there written and has in any manner been trans-
mitted to us. In this sense of the term, the " classi-
cal" is found opposed to the "Gothic," but the opposi-
tion between the terms is not essential or philosophical,
they are not really exclusive of each other.
Cambuscan is a composition, which at the same time abundantly
demonstrates that the manners of romance are better calculated
to answer the purposes of pure poetry, to captivate the imagi-
nation, and to produce surprise, than the fictions of classical
antiquity. 1778. T. WARTON, H. E. P., p. 287.
This fatal result of an enthusiasm for classical literature was hast-
ened and heightened by the misdirection of the powers of art.
The imagination of the age was actively set to realize' these ob-
jects of Pagan belief. 1846. RUSKIN, St. of V., II., p. 133.
Very frequently in actual criticism the term " clas-
sical " has been used to represent those literary prin-
ciples or qualities which are thought to be As the char _
characteristic of the literary compositions the e ancient f
of the ancient classics, of those ancient
authors who are firmly established in public esteem.
Classical purity. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 185.
A writer so pure, sensible, and classical as Boileau. ID., II.,
p. 393.
Surrey for his justness of thought, correctness of style, and purity
of expression, may justly be pronounced the first English clas-
sical poet. 1778. T. WARTON, Hist. E. P., p. 645.
Elegant arid classical. BLAIR, llhet., p. 446.
Classical harmony of parts. 1819. CAMPBELL, I., p. 97.
The great difference, then, which we find between the classical and
romantic style, between ancient and modern poetry, is, that the
one more frequently describes things as they are interesting in
58 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
themselves, the other for the sake of the (associations of ideas
connected with them ; .that the one dwells more on the immedi-
ate impressions of objects on the senses, the other on the ideas
which they suggest to the imagination. The_jm^Lis_jJie..^oeJ:;rj.
of form, the other ofjeffect. 1820. HAZLITT, Ag. of El., p.
246.
Milton's place is fixed as the most classical of our poets. 1872.
LOWELL, IV., p. 80.
Classic elegance, polish, and correctness. 1884. T. ARNOLD,
Man. of E. L., p. 306.
Occasionally the " classical " denotes the characteris-
tic qualities of all literary classics, whether of ancient or
AS the char- of modern times, of all authors who from
acteristics of
ail classics, their permanent influence, are thought to
embody the more essential principles of literary art.
The problem is to express new and profound ideas in a perfectly
sound and classical style. He is the true classic in every age
who does that. 1865. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 65.
To get rid of provinciality is a certain stage of culture ; a stage the
positive result of which we must not make of too much impor-
tance, but which is nevertheless indispensable, for it brings us
on to the platform where alone the best and highest intellectual
work can be said fairly to begin. Work done after men have
reached this platform is classical ; and that is the only work
which in the long run can stand. 1865. ID., p. 61.
Classical lucidity, measure, propriety, sobriety, temperance, soul,
simplicity, delicacy, truth, grace, sureness. ID., pp. 65-76.
Out of an atmosphere of all-pervading oddity and quaintness arises
a work really ample and grand, nay, classical, by virtue of the
effectiveness with which it fixes a type in literature ; as indeed,
at its best, romantic literature in every period attains classical
quality, giving true measure of those well-worn critical distinc-
tions. 1886. PATER, Appreciations, p. 161.
In whatever style an artist works, the style will be classical, pro-
vided the work itself be good, sincere, and representative of
sterling thought. J. A. SYMONDS, Es., Sp. & Sug., p. 225.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 59
Frequently in theoretical discussion, during the pres-
ent century, and occasionally in applied criticism, the
" classical " and the " romantic " have been Ag tte non
placed in an antithesis with each other, romailtic -
which is intended to be real and philosophical, each
term being mutually complementary and exclusive of
the other one. However, the historical and the philo-
sophical antitheses between the two terms are constantly
confused with each other, and the real distinctions
between the terms are only approximately drawn. The
u classical " requires a more temperate use of energy,
of passion, of imagination, of all the mental activities
that are brought into play in literary idealization
than the " romantic." At its best the " classical " rep-
resents self-restraint of the literary and idealizing ener-
gies ; at its worst, a restraint imposed by custom and
precedent.
The characteristic of the classical literature is the^sjorplicity with
which the mjagmjitioji, appears in it ; that of modern literature
is the J^ofusion^ with which the most various adornments of
the ^ace^sorj_^ ; ncv^are thrown and lavished upon it. 1856.
St., I., p. 118.
There is one play, and only one, of his epoch that is not classic
and is not romantic, but speaks independently the truest and
best mind of the eighteenth century itself in its own form and
language. That play is Nathan the Wise. 1878. J. MOIILEY,
Diderot, I., p. 347-
Qualities of measure, purity, temperance, of which it is the espe-
cial function of classical art and literature, whatever meaning,
narrower or wider, we attach to the term, to take care. 1886.
PATEII, Ap., p. 247.
The charm, therefore, of what is classical, in art or literature, is
that of the well-known tale, to which we can, nevertheless, listen
over and over again, because it is so well told. ID., p. 247-
60 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Occasionally, when placed in opposition to the " ro-
AS the con- man tic," the " classical " has been made to
ventionai. signify the well-worn, the conventional, the
pedantic.
Classical and artificial. 1825. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 154.
Irish oratory ... is romantic, Scotch oratory . . . classical. The
one may be disciplined and its excesses sobered down into rea-
son ; but the dry and rigid formality of the other can never burst
tjie^sliell or husk of oratory. ID., pp. 256, 257.
Classicism, then, means for Stendhal, for that younger enthusias-
tic band of French writers whose unconscious method he formu-
lated into principles, the reign of what is pedantic, conventional,
and narrowly academical in art ; for him, all good art is roman-
tic. 1890. PATER, Ap., p. 262.
Clean (I.) : Puttenham to present.
I. Until the present century, the term " clean " de-
noted purity of language, or chastity of language and
thought.
More curiously than cleanly. PDTTENHAM, p. 28.
The language ... of Waller's poem on the Navy ... is clean
and majestic. RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 79.
IT. During the present century, the term has repre-
sented moral purity.
Vulgarity of its flat and stale uncleanliness. SWINBURNE, Mis.,
p. 80.'
Clear-cut (III.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 51.
CLEARNESS (III.).
The term " clearness," representing a general effect
which the composition produces on the mind of the
From gram- reader, the ready and vivid comprehen-
matical con-
struction, sion of the thought expressed, has natu-
rally varied in meaning according as criticism has
been especially occupied now with one part of the
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL T&RMS. 61
composition and now with another. In early English
criticism, and occasionally even to the present time,
" clearness " was thought to result chiefly from an
apt choice of single words, and from exactness in the
grammatical construction of the composition.
Raleigh ... is full of proper, clear, and courtly graces of speech.
1610. BOLTON, Hypercritica, p. 249.
Lydgate's manner is naturally verbose and diffuse. This circum-
stance contributed in no small degree to give a clearness and a
fluency to his phraseology. 1778. T. WAIITON, Hist. E. P.,
p. 353.
During the greater part of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, "clearness" was thought to be
attained chiefly by the methodic arrange- T
J J to From logical v
mcnt of the language and of the thought constructiojl -
of a composition. It was questioned, however, whether
this was always the more poetical or effective method
of statement.
In a style that expressed such a grave and so humble a majesty
with such clear demonstration of reason. 1670. WALTON,
Lives, p. 184.
It is one thing to make an idea clear, and another to make it af-
fecting to the imagination. 1756. BURKE, Vol. I., pp. 90, 91.
A clear idea is another name for a little idea. ID., p. 93.
Dryden expresses with clearness what he thinks with vigor. 1781.
S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 307.
During the present century, " clearness " sometimes
From mental nas distinct reference to mental imagery, and
to the process of the min $. by which it is
called into existence.
Artistic ability is co-ordinate with the clearness and staying power
of the imagination. 1875. STEDMAN, Nat. of Poetry, p. 233.
62 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
More frequently the term has been employed to in-
dicate the agreement of the literary statements with
From corre- the facts which they are supposed to 7epre-
spondence to
fact. sent. The apparently clear statement is
often found to be most obscure and incomprehensible
when the premises and assumptions are examined in
the light of the facts of actual experience. There is
said to be a superficial or apparent clearness, and a
fundamental or real clearness.
rin every department of eloquence, and particularly in poetry, we
look for depth and clearness; a clearness that shows deptL
1824. LANDOR, II., p. 415.
In Macaulay's History of England . . . everything is plain ; all is
clear ; nothing is doubtful. Instead of probability being, as the
great thinker expressed it, the very guide of life, it has become
a rare exception, an uncommon phenomenon. You rarely come
across anything which is not decided. . . . This is hardly the
style for history. . . . History is a vestige of vestiges ; few facts
leave any trace of themselves, any witness of their occurrence.
1856. BAGEHOT, II., p. 256.
Clearness is so eminently one of the characteristics of truth that
often it even passes for truth itself. 1865. M. ARNOLD, Cr.
Es., 1st S., pp. 283, 284.
Macaulay's writing passes for being admirably clear, and so ex-
ternally it is; but often it is really obscure, if one takes his
deliverances seriously, and seeks to find in them a definite
meaning ... a distinct substantial meaning. ID., Mixed E.,
p. 181.
Clench (XVIL): Withers, Dry., Johnson.
A play upon words ; a pun.
Clinches, anagrammatical fancies, or such like verbal or literal con-
ceits. WITHERS, in Spenser Society Series, vol. 26, Pt. I.,
pp. 15, 16.
Shakespeare ... is many times flat and insipid; his comic wit
degenerating into clenches. S. JOHNSON, V., p. 153.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 63
Clever (V.) b: Jef. to present.
Clever and original writer. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 67-
Clinquant (V.): Saintsbury, Eng. Prose Style, p. xix.
Cloudy (III.) : Swin. to present.
Cloudy vagueness. SAINTSBURY, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 413.
Cloying (XXII.) b\ Jeffrey to present.
Cloying perhaps in the uniformity of its beauty. JEFFREY, III.,
p. 136.
Cloying sentimentalisin. LOWELL, Prose, II., p. 145.
Clumsy (II.): T. Warton to present.
Cumbrous and clumsy. WILSON, VIII., p. 44.
German clumsiness. HOWELLS, Grit, and Fiction, p. 22.
Clownish (XIX.) : Webbe.
Club-footed (XVIII.): Walton's lyrics are mechanical and club-
footed. LOWELL, Latest Lit. Es., p. 70.
Coarse (V.) : Webbe to present.
Lack of refinement ; strength rather than delicacy of
feeling.
Chaucer's style may seem blunt and coarse. WEBBE, p. 32.
This very coarseness of fibre, added to Vanbrugh's great sincerity
as a writer, gives his best scenes a wonderful air of reality.
GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 68
Cogency (XXII.) b : J. Warton, Blair.
COHERENCE (XIII.) : Dryden to present. V
The term has at times been employed to indicate a
continuity of sound, of ideas, and of plot incidents ; but
usually it refers to the composition as a whole.
A compactness and cohciviiro of language. CICERO, Orators,
p. 383.
In the best conducted fiction, some mark of improbability and
incoherency will still appear. J. WARTON, I., p. 250.
Cold (XV.): Ascham to present.
Either a deficiency or extravagance of emotion.
Cold . . . without imagination or sensibility. HALLAM, IV.,
p. 305.
64 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Cold-blooded (XV.) : Jef. to present.
Cold-blooded ribaldry. JEFFREY, II., p. 125.
Colloquial (I.) : J. Warton to present.
A free and colloquial air. J. WARTON, II., p. 9.
COLOR (V.) a.
The history of the term " color " may be divided into
two periods. Until within the eighteenth century,
AS figurative " c l r " usually referred to the figurative
language. uge Q j s j n gi e W0 rds ; occasionally to more
extended figures of speech.
Just colours, good rhyme, etc. 1585. K. JAMES, p. 57-
Virgil maketh a brave coloured complaint of unsteadfast friendship.
1586. WEBBE, p. 53.
Now the words are the colouring of the work, which in the order
of nature is last to be considered. . . . Words indeed, like
glaring colours, are the first beauties that arise and strike the
sight; but if the draught be false or lame, the figures ill-dis-
posed, the manners obscure or inconsistent, or the thoughts
unnatural, then the finest colours are but daubing, and the
piece is a beautiful monster at the best. 1699. DRYDEN,
XL, p. 216.
During the present century, the term "color" has
steadily increased in use, and it has been employed in
AS vivid three more or less distinct ways. Frequently
imagery. ^ s ]g n ]fl es wor( j painting, the vivid por-
trayal of single images, which, like a picture, seem
filled with all the colors of the actual scenes repre-
sented, and thus literally give color to the composition
itself. This use of the term was prefigured during the
eighteenth century in the discussion of the pictorial
effect of the imagination.
A HISTORY OP ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 65
The poets who are always addressing themselves to the imagina-
tion, borrow more of their epithets from colours than from any
other topic. 1712. ADDISON, III., p. 400.
Colouring of the imagination. HUME, L, p. 278.
Poetry is a species of painting. , . . The poet, instead of simply
relating the incident, strikes off a glowing picture of the scene,
and exhibits in the most lively colours to the eye of the imagi-
nation. 1761. GOLDSMITH, I., p. 354.
The contrast was remarkable between the uncolored style of his
general diction and the brilliant felicity of occasional images,
embroidered upon the sober ground of his text. 1845. DE
QUINCEY, XI., p. 337.
Richness, color, warmth. M. ARNOLD, Mixed Es., p. 218.
All Chaucer's works are full of bright colour, fresh feeling. 1874.
MINTO, Char, of E. P., p. 29.
More usually "color" represents a general brilliancy
of thought and imagery in a composition, AS briiiia
imagery which is associative and illustrative of style *
rather than concentrated into single glowing pictures.
Where one idea gives a tone and colour to others. 1818. II AZ-
LITT, Eng. Poets, p. 16.
The colours (in Gibbon's "Decline, etc.") are gorgeous like those of
the setting sun; and such were wanted. 1826. LANDOR, IV.,
p. 95.
Cowley's want of colour . . . recommended him to the classic
poets. 1888. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 6.
Occasionally the term denotes an imagi- As exagger _
native overstatement of fact.
Colours of poetical ingenuity. HAZLTTT, Eliz. Lit., p. 110.
A poetical colouring of facts. WILSON, V., p. 388.
COMEDY (XXI.).
I. Previous to the present century, " comedy " was
the representation of manners, customs, and incidentally
of character, the plot having an agreeable outcome.
5
66 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Some have made it a question whether comedy be poetry at all,
for there is no inspiration and vigour either in the diction or
the subjects. HORACE, p. 115.
Comedy is no more at present than a well-framed tale handsomely
told as an agreeable vehicle for counsel or reproof. Earquhar's
"Love and Business/' 1702. GOSSE, H. E. Lit., p. 72.
And my idea of comedy requires only that the pathos be kept in
subordination to the manners. 1751. HURD, II. , p. 95.
To please our curiosity and perhaps our malignity by a faithful
representation of manners is the purpose of comedy. To excite
laughter is the sole . . . aim of farce. 1762. GIBBON, IV.,
p. 134.
Comedy was used all through the Elizabethan age in a loose sense,
which would embrace anything between a tragi-comedy and a
farce. Thus the Merchant of Venice is reckoned among the
comedies of Shakespeare. T. ARNOLD, Man. of Eng. Lit.,
p. 498.
II. During the present century, u comedy" is the
representation of manners, and perhaps of character,
so as to appear ridiculous, the corrective or reform-
ing influence being subordinated to this.
It is ... the criticism which the stage exercises upon public
manners that is fatal to comedy, by rendering the subject
matter of it tame, correct, and spiritless. HAZLITT, The Round
Table, p. 14.
Comedy, as the reflex of sociallife. will shift in correspondence
to the shifting movements of civilization. DE QUINCEY, X.,
p. 342.
Comely (XXII.)*: Gas., Put., Webbe.
COMIC-AL (XVII.).
A comprehensive expression for the laughable or
humorous, and more direct in its application than the
noun "comedy." Indicative of acuteness and subtlety;
often, d u ring the present century, of sympathy also.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 67
A ramble of comical wit ... in Othello. RYMER, 2d Ft., p. 146.
A certain tincture of the pitiable makes comic distress more irre-
sistible. CAMPBELL, Vol. I., p. 71.
Commerage: The commerage of the letters of Walpole. SAINTS-
BUIIY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxvi.
Common (IX.) : J. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 12.
COMMONPLACE (IX.) : Dryden to present, rv 1
I- Until within the eighteenth century, the word
u commonplace " was often employed in a technical
sense to denote certain universally admitted facts or
truths, which could be made the basis for argument,
or the means for setting forth a moral lesson.
To dwell in Epitomes and books of common places . . . maketh
so many seeming and sunburnt ministers as we have. ASCII AM,
III., p.' 201.
Christ could as well have given the moral commonplace ... of
disobedience and mercy, as that heavenly discourse of the lost
child and the gracious father . . . but that his through-search-
ing wisdom knew . . . that it would more constantly . . . in-
habit both the memory and judgment. SIDNEY, pp. 17, 18.
II. More recently the term has represented that
which is common, trite, and well known. Often this
has been regarded as the foundation of literary truth ;
its more clear and vivid apprehension marking the
culmination of literary art.
To restore a commonplace truth to its first uncommon lustre, you
need only translate it into action. But to do this, you must
have reflected on its truth. COLERIDGE, I., p. 117.
The eternal grandeur of commonplace and all-time truths, which
are _ the_starjle, of aUjgoetry- WILSON, VI., p. 117.
Exaltation of the commonplace through the scientific spirit in
realism. HOWELLS, Grit, and Fiction, p. 16.
68 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
III. More often, however, the commonplace, as such,
has not been considered as fit material for literature ;
it represents the unrefined, the unimpassioned, the
stale, the insipid.
Thompson abounds in sentimental commonplaces. WORDSWORTH,
II., p. 119.
Nothing can be farther from the stale commonplace and cuckooism
of sentiment than the philanthropic eloquence of Cowper.
CAMPBELL, I., p. 428.
The love scenes are . . . gross and commonplace. HAZLTTT, Age
of El., p. 113.
To take the passion out of a novel is something like taking the
sunlight out of a landscape ; and to condemn all the heroes to
be utterly commonplace is to remove the centre of interest in
a manner detrimental to the best interests of the story. STE-
PHEN, Hrs. in a Library, I., p. 239.
Compact (XIII.) : J. War. to present.
Compass (XIII.) : De Quin. to present.
Competence (XXII.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 137.
Complete (XIII.) : Wilson, VI., p. 134.
Complex (III.) : De Quin. to present. De Quincey, X., p. 149.
Complication (II.) : Of plot, and resolution. MOULTON, Shak.,
etc., p. 664.
Composed (XIX.) b\ Jef. to present.
Composed, calm, and unconscious way. JEFFREY, I., p. 225.
Composite (XIII.): Haz., Saints.
Sir James Macintosh may claim the foremost rank among those
who pride themselves on artificial ornaments and acquired learn-
ing, or who write what may be termed a composite ityle. HAZ-
LITT, Sp. of Age, p. 178.
Comprehensive (XIII.) : J. War. to present.
Comprehensiveness ... of Shakespeare's Historical plays. DOW-
DEN, Shak., etc., p. 167.
Compression (XIX.): Lan. to present.
Compressed manner. M. ARNOLD, Celtic Lit., etc., p. 207
CONCEIT (XXIII.).
A HISTORY OF 1 ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 69
Until the beginning of the eighteenth century, " con-
ceit," as used in criticism, denoted in general the power
of the mind to combine and recombine the
As conception.
elements given in experience, especially when
the combinations from their novelty or beauty gave rise
to aesthetic pleasure. Novelty, however, in such com-
binations usually dominated the sense of beauty, and
hence conceits during this period ceased to be synony-
mous with thought in general, or with imaginative
thought, and came to be closely related in meaning to
a witticism, or to mere fancy. "Conceit" during this
period was very seldom employed as an active critical
term.
Conceit of wit. 1580. HARVEY, p. 48.
That high-flying liberty of conceit proper to the poet. 1583. SID-
NEY, pp. 5, 6.
We must prescribe to no writers (much less to poets) in what sort
they should utter their conceits. 15 8 G. WEBBE.
The number is voluble and fit to express any amorous conceit.
CAMPION, p. 254.
This letter was writ in such excellent Latin, was so full of con-
ceits, and all the expressions so suited to the genius of the king,
etc. 1678. WALTON, Lives, p. 235.
When lie aimed at wit in the stricter sense, that is, sharpness of
conceit. 1670. DRYDEN, IV., p. 237.
A miserable conceit tickling you to laugh. 1699. ID., VIII.,
p. 374.
During the eighteenth and the present century, "con-
ceit" has indicated strange combinations of ideas or of
images, which seem to be made for the sake A
As far-fetched
of the strangeness, and which have no essen- com P arisons -
tial relations with each other either from the aesthetic
70 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
or practical point of view. Usually a conceit consists
of a too great elaboration of a real analogy, an elab-
oration so great, in fact, that the real analogy is wholly
lost sight of in view of the elaboration. During these
two centuries, "conceit" has been in general a term
of condemnation, though often some adjective prefixed,
such as " forced " or " far-fetched," is necessary in
order to give to it this negative force.
If defective, or unsound in the least part, the methodical style
must of necessity lead us to the grossest absurdities, and stiff-
est pedantry and conceit. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 202.
Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty ; it is not only need-
less, but impairs what it would improve. 1706. POPE, VI.,
p. 51.
Some to conceit alone their taste confine,
And glittering thoughts strike out at every line.
1711- ID., II., p. 50.
Puerile and far-fetched conceit. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 8.
Forced conceits, . . . violent metaphors, . . . swelling epithets.
ID., II., p. 21.
Puns and conceits. T. WAWTON, H. E P., p. 647-
With men like Earle, Donne, Fuller, Butler, Marvel], and even
Quarles, conceit means wit; they would carve the merest
cherry-stone of thought in the quaintest and delicatest fashion.
But with duller and more painful writers, such as Gascoigne,
. . . where they insisted on being fine, their wit is conceit.
1858-64. LOWELL, Lit. Es., I, p. 303.
Now when this kind of thing is done in earnest, the result is one
of those ill distributed syllogisms which in rhetoric are called
conceits. 1868. ID., III., p. 53.
The novel is not only in itself . . . unfriendly to the pompous
.style, but it happened to attract . . . the great genius of Field-
ing, which was from nothing so averse ... as from . . . pre-
tension, pedantry, or conceit. SAINTSBURY, Eng. Pr. St.,
p. xxvi.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 71
Conceited (VII.): Camp, to present.
The conceited Spanish-French style. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit.,
p. 293.
Concentrated (XIX.) : Lan. to present.
Lucretius' . . . poetry is masculine, plain, concentrated, and
energetic. LAN DOR, IV., p. 525.
Concinnity (IV.) : Lowell.
Marlowe's Hero and Leander has . . . many lines as perfect in
their continuity as those of Pope. LOWELL, 0. E. D., p. 52.
Concise (XIX.) : Bacon to present.
Poetry . . . must be more intense in meaning and more concise
in style than prose. BAGEHOT, Lit. St., II., p. 351.
Concrete (VIII.) bi Pater to present.
Concrete imagery of Blessed Damozel. PATER, Ap., etc., p. 215.
Condensed (XIX.) : Cole, to present.
Results either from careful selection, or from intensity
of feeling.
Crabbe's . . . great selection and condensation of expression.
JEFFREY, II., p. 276.
There is no enthusiasm, no energy, no condensation, nothing
which springs from strong feeling, nothing which tends to
excite it. 1824. MACAULAY, IV., p. 381.
Shakespeare's sonnets are hot and pothery ; there is much con-
densation, little delicacy. LANDOR, IV., p. 512.
Goldsmith was a great, perhaps an unequalled, master of the
arts of selection and condensation. 1856. MACAULAY, IV.,
p. 51.
Confused (II.) : Ascham to present
Order helps much to perspicuity as confusion hurts. B. JONSON,
Timber, p. 63.
Congenial (XIV.): Congenial ease ... of Pepys. GOSSE, Hist.
Eng. Lit., III., p. 80.
CONGRUITY (IV.).
Until the present century, " congruity " was often
employed in conjunction with the term " propriety,"
72 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
with which it was very nearly identical in meaning.
The sense of the congruous, however, was perhaps more
AS artistic concentrated, definite, and distinct than the
propriety. sense O f propriety ; it was more immediate in
its action, and in a sense more spontaneous ; it was the
first flash of recognition of a propriety between specific
features of a composition. As referring not to the
mental process, but to the completed literary product,
the two terms are exactly synonymous.
A solecism or incongruity. 1585. PUTTENHAM, p. 258.
Shakespeare, to enrich his scene with that variety which his exu-
berant genius so largely supplied, hath deformed his best plays
with prodigious incongruities. 1749. HURD, I., p. 69.
During the present century, " congruity " has repre-
AS etMcai seiited the moral sense of symmetry and
harmony. proportion ill literature, the unusual or un-
expected violation of which produces the ridiculous or
the humorous.
Wit is the clash and reconcilement of incongruities. 1846. HUNT,
Wit and Humour, p. 8.
Humor in its first analysis is a perception of the incongruous,
and in its highest development of the incongruity between the
actual and the ideal in men and life. 1S66. LOWELL, II., p.
97.
The same want of humor which made Wordsworth insensible to
incongruity may perhaps account also for the singular uncon-
sciousness of disproportion which so often strikes us in his
poetry. 1875. ID., IV., p. 410.
Tragic incongruity arises from the disproportion between the world
and the soul of man ; life is too small to satisfy the soul. . . .
The comic incongruity is the reverse of this. DOWDEN, Sh.,
his Mind & Art, p. 351.
Conscientious (XIV.): Ros., Swinburne, Es. & St. p. 86.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 73
Conscious (VII.): S. John, to present.
Where an unconscious energy unites itself in the artist with his
conscious activity, and these interpenetrate one another, the
work of art comes forth. DOWDEN, St. in Lit., pp. 408, 409.
Consentaneity (IV. ): In the poems of Wordsworth, which are
most distinctively Wordsworthian, there is an entire consen-
taneity of thought and feeling. DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 127.
Consistency (XIIL), cf. (XIV.) : Rymer to present.
Adaptation of the parts of a composition to each
other so as to produce uniformity of tone and unity
of impression.
Ben Jonson's plots are improbable by an excess of consistency.
HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 51.
One-ness, that is to say, consistency in the general impression,
metrical and moral. HUNT, Imagination and Fancy, p. 33.
Shakespeare alone . . . made a world-wide variety of character
and incident consistent with oneness of impression. WHIPPLE,
Lit. of Age of EL, p. 120.
Conspicuous (XVI.), cf. (IX.): Jef., Stephen. Jeffrey, II.,
p. 247.
Constrained (XVIII.) : K. James to Carlyle.
The hiatus is smoother, less constrained, and so preferable to the
caesura. POPE, VI., p. 113.
Constructive (XXIII.) : Saintsbury.
Four requisites for a poet . . . creativeness, constructiveness, the
sublime, the pathetic. LANDOR, VIII., p. 419.
Consummate (XXII.): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65.
Contemplative (XX.) b : Jef., Ros. Jeffrey, II., p. 451.
Continuity (XIII.) : Lan. to present.
Connected ; blended and fused into a close emotional
unity.
Continuous . . . united by means of connectives. ARISTOTLE,
Ehet., p^29.
The musical in sound is the sustained and continuous 5 the musical
74 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
in thought is the sustained and continuous also. HAZLITT, Eng.
Poets, p. 16.
The rhythmical, the continuous, what in French is called the sou-
tenu. DE QUINCEY, III., p. 51.
Contorted (II.) : Cole., Car.
Conventional (IV.) : J. War. to present.
Wordsworth has much conventional sentiment. PATER, Ap.,
p. 38.
Conversational: Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. Style, p. 18.
Convincing (XXII.) b: H. James, Partial Portraits, pp. 251, 252.
Convolution (II.) : Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit,, p. 42.
Copious (XI.) b'. Put. to present.
Homer's diction, contrary to what one would imagine consistent
with simplicity, is at the same time very copious. POPE, VI.,
p. 13.
Copy (XI ) b : T. Wil., B. Jon.
There is a great difference between those that, to gain the opinion
of copy, utter all they can, however unfitly ; and those that use
election and a mean. B. JONSON, Pref. to Alchemist.
Cordial (XIV.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 67.
CORRECTNESS (I.).
" Correctness " denotes in general a conformity in
literature to the known laws of language and to the
established rules of composition. The term thus refers
primarily to the form of expression rather than to the
thought, and represents a method of restraining or
controlling the immediate movement in the develop-
ment of language by means of past literary attainments.
The history of the term may be divided into three
periods.
Until the middle of the eighteenth century, "cor-
rectness " was one of the chief active terms of criticism.
AS exact In the advertising phrase, " corrected and
composition, enlarged," which was so often placed on the
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 75
title page of the early dramas, "corrected" perhaps
signified merely that the drama had been revised, es-
pecially its language, so as to be more intelligible and
acceptable than it had been hitherto. But in all such
revision there was a constant tendency to " correct "
irregularities of all kinds, whether caused by overhaste
or by the moulding influence of the inspiration which
had given to the drama its literary value. "Correct-
ness," as referring to versification, denoted metrical
regularity, or at least variation of meter according to
method and rule. " Correct," as referring to the drama,
indicated a conformity to certain traditional rules of
plot construction. The term, in short, denoted exact-
ness in language and method in composition, and even
the most ardent disciples of u correctness " recognized
that it was opposed to the onward movement of lit-
erary sympathy and appreciation.
All language has three kinds of excellence, to be correct, perspicu-
ous, and elegant. QUINTILIAN, I. p. 37-
Jonson is the more correct poet, but Shakespeare is the greater
wit. 1668. DRYDEN, XV., p. 34?.
Correct plotting . . . and decorum of the stage. 1670. DRYDEN,
" Vol. IV.
It is to criticism that the sacred authors themselves owe their
highest purity and correctness. SHAFTESBURY, III., p. 186.
Correctly cold. 1711. POPE, II., p. 48.
Blot out, correct, insert, refine,
Enlarge, diminish, interline :
Be mindful when invention fails,
To scratch your head and bite your nails.
SWIFT, XIV., p. 303.
From about the middle of the eighteenth century
until within the first few decades of the present cen-
76 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
tury, " correct," though fast passing out of favor, was
still an active term in criticism. Attempts were made
in two ways to modify the intensely conservative na-
ture of the term.
AS accuracy Occasionally the term was applied directly
to fact. j. Q } ie ^0^1^ O f a composition, indicating
truthfulness to the historical fact represented.
Nature in awe to Him
Had dofft her gawdy trim.
(Milton, On the Nativity.)
This is incorrect ... it was winter. 1756. J. WARTON, I.,
p. 39.
Truth and correctness. KURD, I., pp. 70, 71.
Shakespeare . . . the most correct of poets. COLERIDGE, IV.,
p. 65.
More usually, in so far as the term was thought to
represent any positive literary merit at all, it indicated
AS econom a cer ^ a i n moderation of tone in literature,
efficiency 11 r which, by being adapted exactly to the taste
mt ' of the audience addressed, gave evidence of
ui cat skill, and perhaps produced as great an effect as
could be attained by more spontaneous and irregular
methods of composition.
Correct mediocrity, which distinguishes the lyric poetry of the
French. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 66.
The early productions of Pope were perhaps too finished, correct,
and pure. ID., I., p. 83.
Correctness is a vague term, frequently used without meaning and
precision. The French critics declare that the English writers
are generally incorrect. If correctness implies an absence of
petty faults, this perhaps may be granted ; if it means a just
economy in fables, the notion is groundless and absurd. ID.,
I., p. 196.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 77
It is ... the criticism which the stage exercises upon public
manners that is fatal to comedy, by rendering the subject mat-
ter of it tame, correct, and spiritless. 1817- HAZLITT, The
Round Table, p. 14.
His imagination . . . unrestrained by a correct judgment. 1818.
BRYANT, I., p. 52.
Correctness ... is ... skill. ... In this sense, Scott, Words- /
worth, and Coleridge are far more correct poets than Pope or
Addison. 1830. MACAULAY, I., p. 470.
Coldly and stiffly, though correctly and classically. 1830. WIL-
SON, V., p. 362.
During the greater part of the present century the
term ".correct" has not been applied to current liter-
ature, but has been employed as a means for ^ retrospec-
explaining the literature of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, especially the writings of
Dryden and Pope. As a retrospective term, the mean-
ing of "correctness" has been determined, not from
what the term signified to Dryden and Pope themselves,
but from what, as seen in their writings, the general
effect of " correctness " is, when it is made the central
and organizing principle of literature. The modern
interpretations of "correctness" are more general and
psychological, and refer more to the thought of the
composition than did u correctness " as understood in
the times of Dryden and Pope.
A mind always intent on correctness is apt to be dissipated in
trifles. LONGINUS, p. 63.
It is an error that Pope's distinction consisted in correctness. . . .
Of all poets that have practiced reasoning in verse, Pope is the
most inconsequential in the deduction of his thoughts, and the
most severely distressed in any effort to effect or to explain
the dependency of their parts. . . . His grammar is vicious . , .
78 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
his syntax so bad as to darken his meaning at times, and at
other times to defeat it. 1848. DE QUINCEY, XI., p. 62.
Correctness in metrical composition, as I understand Pope to
mean, implies obedience to the laws of imaginative thought;
and therefore not only precision of poetical expression, but
justice of poetical conception. COURTHOPE, Lib. Movement,
etc., p. 59.
The virtue on which Pope prided himself was correctness ; and I
have interpreted this to mean the quality which is gained by
incessant labour guided by quick feeling, and always under the
strict supervision of common sense. STEPHEN, Pope, p. 195.
Morley's Eng. Men of Letters.
English prose literature towards the end of the seventeenth cen-
tury, in the hands of Dry den and Locke, was becoming, as that
of France had become at an earlier dale, a matter of design and
[skilled practice, highly conscious of itself as an art, and above
all correct. 1886. PATER, Ap., p. 127.
Setting up correctness, that humble merit of prose, as the central
literary excellence, he (Dry den) is really a less correct writer
than he may seem, still with an imperfect- mastery of the rela-
tive pronoun. 1888. PATER, Ap., p. 3.
Corrective : Jeffrey.
Corrupt (XIV.): Coleridge, Stephen, Eng. Thought in Eighteenth
Century, II., p. 353.
Costly (V.): Spenser's style ... is costly. None but the dainti-
est and nicest phrases will serve him. LOWELL, IV., p. 334.
Courtly (V.) : Boltou to present.
Raleigh ... is full of proper, clear, and courtly graces of speech.
1610. BOLTON, Hypercritica, p. 249.
Covert (III.): Put. The English have no fancy, and are never
surprised into a covert or witty word. EMERSON, Rep. Men,
p. 221.
Crabbed (II.) : Dek. to present. Gosse, From Shak. etc., p. 118.
Creative (XXIII.) : T. War. to present.
Used chiefly in theory. It represents the result of
the imaginative activities of the mind, which are brought
into play in the production of literature.
OF THE
UNIVERSITY
OF
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 79
Imagination has something in it like creation. ADDISON, III.,
p. 429.
For by invention, I believe, is usually understood a creative fac-
ulty. FIELDING, T. Jones, II., p. 6.
Genius . . . the power of acting creatively under laws of its own
origination. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 54.
Creeping (XVIII.): Jeff, Hal., Jeffrey, II., p. 521.
Crisp (XVIII.) : Terse and crisp versification. GOSSE, From Shak.,
etc, p. 212.
CRITICAL (XX.) a: Hal, Saints.
Used chiefly in theory:
I. As an elaborative and reflective process.
Fancy was weakened by reflection and philosophy. . . . Judgment
was advanced above imagination, and rules of criticism were
established. T. WARTON, H. E. P., p. 627.
The critical faculty is lower than the inventive. M. ARNOLD, Cr.
Es, 1st S, p. 3.
II. As a penetrative and intuitive process.
Poetry is at bottom a criticism of life. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es, 2d S,
p. 143.
A delicate and tender justice in the criticism of human life.
PATER, Ap, p. 105.
Crooked (II.) : Ascham, Milton.
Crude (V.) : Rymer to present.
Crude work of Shelley's boyhood. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 247.
Cumbrous (II.) : Cole to present.
Cumbrous and clumsy. WILSON, VIII, p. 86.
Cunning (V.) b : Swin, Dow.
Delicate cunning. DOWDEN, Shak., etc, p. 60.
Curious (IX.) : Ascham to present.
I. The odd and striking, viewed chiefly as a product.
More curiously than cleanly. PUTTENHAM, p. 28.
More careful to speak curiously than truly. SIDNEY, p. 54.
80 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
II. The desire for the strange and unusual, viewed
chiefly as a mental process.
When one's curiosity . . . overbalances the desire of beauty.
PATER, Ap. 3 p. 248.
Not less interesting than curious. SWINBURNE, A St. of B. J.,
p. 137.
Currant (XVIII.) : Har., Put., Webbe.
Currant and slipper upon the tongue. PUTTENHAM, p. 24.
Cut-and-thrust (XII.) : Wilson, VII., p. 404.
Cyclopean (XL) : A Titanic or Cyclopean style. SWINBURNE,
Mis., p. 98.
Cynical (XIV.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 75.
Dainty (XXII.) b : Whipple to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 250.
Daring (XII.) : Bryant to present.
Their style becomes free and daring. DOWDEN, Shak., etc., p. 62.
Dark (III.) : Ascham to present.
The sense is hard and dark. ASCHAM, III., p. 269.
Dazzling (V.) : Jeffrey, I., p. 413; Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 135.
Debased (XIV.): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 251.
DECENT (IV.).
Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
the term "decent" indicated the absence in a compo-
AS moral and sition of startling incongruities, which gave
artistic pro-
priety, offence to what may be called the moral
sense of order and symmetry in literature. "Decent"
was a less technical term than " decorum," and more
inclusive in its meaning. The presence or absence of
decency in a composition was determined by " some
instinct or genius," or by the known truth or fact, or
by well-established literary principles and precepts de-
rived from past usage.
The Greeks call this good grace of everything in its kind TO Trpenbv,
the Latins decorum; we in our vulgar call it by a scholastic
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 81
term, decency, our own Saxon English term is seemliness, that
is to say, for his good shape and utter appearance well pleasing
the eye, we call it also comeliness. 1585. PUTTENHAM,
p. 268.
Still methinks that in all decency the style ought to conform with
the nature of the subject, otherwise if a writer will seem to ob-
serve no decorum at all. ID., p. 163.
Apt and decent framing of words. 1586. WEBBE, p. 38.
Of the indecencies of an heroic poem, the most remarkable are
those that show disproportion either between the persons and
their actions, or between the manners of the poet and the poem.
1650. HOBBES, IV., p. 454.
A poet ought always to have that instinct or some good genius
ready to serve his hero upon occasion, to prevent these unpleas-
ant shocking indecencies. RYMER, 1st Pt., p. 64.
Sentiments which raise laughter can very seldom be admitted with
any decency into an heroic poem, whose business is to excite
passions of a much nobler nature. 1711. ADDISON, III.,
p. 188.
It is for the most part in our skill in manners, and in the observ-
ances of time and place, 'and of decency in general, which is
only to be learned in those schools to which Horace recom-
mends us, that what is called taste, by way of distinction con-
sists. 1756. BURKE, I., p. 63.
The following is indecently hyperbolical :
To see this fleet upon the ocean move,
Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies, etc.
1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 317.
Occasionally throughout the whole history of the
term, and especially during the present century, " de-
cent" has indicated an absence of moral
As moral
licentiousness in the literary representation. P^P^ty-
Like the term " purity," it has been appropriated for
the expression of the growing sense of morals in lit-
erature. It has, however, been less in use than for-
merly when given a more technical significance.
82 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Indecency of wounding women (on the stage). 1670. DRYDEN,
IV, p. 230.
Otway's " Orphan " is the work of a man not attentive to decency,
nor zealous for virtue ; but of one who conceived forcibly, and
drew originally, by consulting nature in his own breast. 1781.
S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 176.
Since the time of Addison . . . the open violation of decency has
always been considered among us as the mark of a fool. MA-
CAULAY, III., p. 454.
Decisive : Whip, to present.
Declamation (XIX.): J. War. to present.
Highly figurative; almost bombastic. A question-
able and rare form of literary excellence.
Declamation overlays and strangles poetry, and disfigures even
satire. LANDOK, V., p. 116.
The change from jog-trot commonplace to almost inspired decla-
mation. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 214.
Decorative (V.) : Sted., Swiu.
Decoration ... is attractive, but least artistic and least proper to
poetry. ARISTOTLE, Poetics, p. 25.
In works of the imagination . . . the use of decorations may be
varied a thousand ways with equal propriety. S. JOHNSON, II.,
p. 115.
DECORUM (IV.).
The term " decorum/' until within the early portion
of the present century, indicated the action of a re-
AS moral fined and conservative moral sense within
refinement in
literature. the ethical circle of literary sympathy.
Hence it referred primarily to the literary represen-
tation of characters, of their moral deportment, and
of the incidents related of them. Only very incident-
ally did the term refer to the ^language of a literary
work. In theory "decorum" was sometimes said to
be determined by an instinct or intuition of the mind;
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 83
but in actual criticism it was at best an instinctive
conformation to the well-established usages or conven-
tions of good society and of good literature.
They use one order of speech for all persons, a gross indecorum.
1578. WHEATSTONE, I., p. 204.
Spenser's due observing of decorum everywhere, in personages, in
season, in matter, in speech, and generally in all seemly sim-
plicity of handling his matter and framing his words. 1580.
WEBBE, p. 53.
So to intermingle merry jests in a serious matter is an indecorum.
GASCOIGNE, p. 32.
I will as near as I can set down which matters be high and lofty,
which be but mean, and which be low and base, to the intent
the styles may be fashioned to the matters, and keep their de-
corum and good proportion in every respect. 1585. PUTTEN-
HAM, p. 162.
This lovely conformity or proportion or convenience between the
sense and the sensible hath nature herself first most carefully
observed in all her own works, then also by kind graft it in the
appetites of every creature working by intelligence to covet and
desire ; and in their actions to imitate and perform, and of man-
cine fly before any other creature as well in his speeches as in
every other part of his behavior. And this in generality and
by a usual term is that which the Latins call decorum. ID.,
p. 269.
(Of a sister's voluntarily consenting to incest) nothing could be
invented more opposite to all honesty, honour, and decorum.
RYMER, 1st Pt., pp. 69, 70.
Decorum of the stage. 1670. DRYDEN, IV.
The venustum, the honestum, the decorum of things will force its
way. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 108-.
There is an impropriety and indecorum in joining the name of the
most profligate parasite with that of an apostle. 1756. J.
WARTON, II., p. 315.
During the present century, "decorum" has fallen
so much out of favor that it is not even used as a
84 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
retrospective term. It usually denotes a conformity
AS moral and ^ n literature to conventions of all kinds,
an utter lack of spontaneity and original en-
in literature. . ... T , a
ergy m a composition. It has been very
little in use.
The details are lost or shaped into flimsy and insipid decorum.
1825. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 102.
Defective (XXII.) a: Jef. to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 213.
Definite (III.): T. War. to present.
Concrete and definite imagery ... of Blessed Damozel. PATER,
Ap., pp. 215, 216.
Delicacy (XXII.) b : Put. to present.
Refined sensibility; an airy gracefulness, the result
of fineness rather than strength of feeling.
The meter of six syllables is very sweet and delicate. PDTTEN-
HAM, p. 84.
Delicate, classical, and polislied. BRYANT, I., p. 53.
The poetic faculty always has for its basis a peculiar temperament,
an extraordinary delicacy of organization, and susceptibility to
impressions. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 107-
Delicious (XXII.) b\ Jef. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 3.
Delightful (XXII.) b : Hazlitt to present. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age,
p. 315.
Delusive (VIII.) : J. Wilson, VII., p. 314.
Dense (XL) : Swin., Gosse.
Juvenal's dense and full-bodied lines. GOSSE, Life of Congreve,
p. 28.
Depth (XIII.) b : Ascham to present.
That which gives evidence of real and essential
truth, of penetration and insight into the unifying
principles of separate facts and details.
Acuteness of remark or depth of reflection. MILTON, III., p. 498.
More truth of character, more instinctive depth of sentiment.
HAZLITT, Age of El., p. 96.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 85
Depth and clearness; a clearness that shows depth. LANDOR,
II., p. 415.
Goethe combines . . . Trench clearness with English depth.
CARLYLE, I., p. 55.
Design (XXIII.) : Dry. to present.
A conscious plan or purpose, or elaborated method of
composition.
Design and artifice. PRYDEN, II., p. 288.
There is no uniformity in the design of Spenser : he aims at the
accomplishment of no one action. ID., XIII., p. 17.
Without design ; in which the essence of humor consists. HURD,
II., p. 38.
Desultory (XVIII.): Jef. to present.
Desultory and rambling. WILSON, VI., p. 238.
Detailed (VIII.) : Jef. to present.
Dramatic power of detail. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 74.
Detestable (XXII.) b\ Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 85.
Device (XXIII.) : Gas. to present.
An invention ; a fancy ; an ingenious ornament.
Beautify the same with brave devices. WEBBE, p. 36.
Whatever devise be of rare invention they term it fantastical.
PUTTENHAM, p. 34.
Furnish your imagination with great store of images and suitable
devices. SWIFT, IX., p. 189.
Dexterity (V.) b : Nash to present.
Peele's . . . pregnant dexterity of wit and manifold dexterity of
invention. 1589. NASH, in Lit. Centuria, II., p. 238.
Dictatorial : Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 94.
DIDACTIC rXXI.) : Jef. to present.
Poetry written with the evident purpose of inculcat-
ing some moral lesson. A retrospective term, referring
to the poetry of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
What is didactic poetry ? . . . The predicate destroys the subject.
. . . No poetry can have the function of teaching . . . only as
86 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
nature teaches, as forests teach, . . . viz. by deep impulse, by
hieroglyphic suggestion. DE QUINCE Y, XI., p. 88.
The didactic ... is a lower kind of poetry. M. ARNOLD, Cr.
Es., 2d S., p. 139.
Classical, didactic, and anti-romantic. GOSSE, From Shak., etc.,
p. 15.
Difficult (III.) : Chan, to present.
Difficult and abstract. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 281.
Diffuse (XIX.) : Swift to present. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 204.
DIGNITY (XL).
The word " dignity " represents great energy and
strength of personal character, which is at the same
AS regulated time controlled and regulated by a firm self-
metrical
movement. restraint. As a critical term, " dignity,"
previous to the present century, was thought to con-
sist chiefly in the restraint and regulation of energy.
Occasionally the term denoted a stately regularity of
metrical movement.
The shortness of verse and the quick returns of rhyme debase . . .
the dignity of style. 1693. DRYDEN, XIII., p. 112.
Often the word denoted a uniform seriousness of tone
in a composition. This meaning, which occasionally
AS seriousness occurs throughout the whole history of the
of thought, term, places it in alliance with the tragic,
and in opposition to the comic.
Dignity of tragedy . . . elegance of comedy. 1638. MILTON,
III., p. 498.
Dignity and state of an heroic poem. 1669. DRYDEN, IV., p. 22.
Dignity of tragedy. 1711. POPE, VI., p. 128.
Wit should be used with caution in works of dignity, as it is only
at best an ornament. 1759. GOLDSMITH, II., p. 357-
Dignity truly Pindarick. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VIII., p. 38.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 87
During the present century, the term "dignity"
usually denotes a certain equipoise of thought and
simplicity of statement which spring from a AS regulated
strength and
consciousness oi great power, and a regti- energy,
lated and restrained use of that, power.
Moral dignity. LAMB, Elia, p. 286.
Dignity, from finite standard of the Greeks (as against sublim-
ity). COLERIDGE, IV., p. 29.
Dignity, from sobriety and greatness of mind. MACAULAY, I.,
p. 38.
Severe dignity of style. Do., p. 26.
Dignity, from simplicity. WORDSWORTH, III., p. 245.
Dignity of poise. LOWELL, O. E. D., p. 37-
Digression (XIII.) : T. Wil. to present.
Dilatation (XIX.) b: Spenser's dilatation is not mere distension.
LOWELL, IV., p. 331.
Dilation (XIX.) b: Milton's power lay in dilation. LOWELL, Prose,
IV., p. 84.
Dilletantesque (VII.) : Poe to present.
Having a sporadic interest in many diverse things ; an
extensive rather than an intensive method of apprecia-
tion. Lack of earnestness and organic development.
Two kinds of dilettanti . . . says Goethe ... he who neglects
the indispensable mechanical part, and thinks he has done
enough if he shows spirituality and feeling ; and he who seeks
to arrive at poetry merely by mechanism, in which he can
acquire an artizan's readiness, and is without soul and spirit.
M. ARNOLD, Mixed Es., p. 503.
Petrarch ... is a moral dilettante. LOWELL, Prose, II., p. 253.
Dilution (XIX.) : De Quiucey to present. Swinburne, Es. & St.,
p. 251.
Dim (III.): Lamb, Swin.
Your obscurity is not the dimness of positive darkness, but of
distance. LAMB, Letters, II., p. 80.
DIRECT (XVIIL).
88 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The use of the term "direct" is confined almost
exclusively to the present century, and during the last
AS intellectual few decades it has come to be of consider-
unsuperflu-
ousness. able prominence in criticism. "Directness"
represents both a method of thinking and a form of
feeling. These are both present in every use of the
term, but now one preponderates and now another.
Often "directness" denotes for the most part mere
logical closeness and severity of thought ; an intellec-
tual simplicity and unsuperfiuousness of style.
Direct and explicit. GRAY, 1., p. 403.
Simplicity and directness. 1816. JEFFREY, II., p. 448.
Directness and clearness of speech. M. ARNOLD, Mixed Es.,
p. 211.
The thought deep, lucid, direct. 1867. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 126.
The direct intelligence of simple reason. 1872. ID., p. 28.
Often the term signifies for the most part a sincere
AS emotional openness of emotional expression, a sin-
unsuperllu-
ousness. cerity so immediate and energetic that at
times it becomes blunt and unrefined.
Keen sincerity and direct force. 1870. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 89.
There is a seeming artlessness in Lodge's sonnets, a winsome
directness. 1874. MINTO, Char, of Eng. Poets, p. 198.
It was thought that the old direct manner of speaking was crude
and futile. 1885. GOSSE, From Shak. to Pope, p. 10.
A direct statement through its truth, often has exceeding beauty,
the beauty, pathetic or otherwise, of perfect naturalness.
1892. STEDMAN, Nat. of Poetry, p. 193.
Discord (X.) : Saints. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 141.
Discriminative (XX.): Jef. to present. Dowden St. in Lit.,
p. 208.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 89
Discursive (XIII.) : Jef. to present.
The discursive and decorative style of Spenser. SWINBURNE,
Mis., p. 10.
Discu table (VIII.) : H. James, p. 376.
Disjointed (XIII.) : Haz., Saints.
Lumbering and disjointed. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 214.
Dislocated : Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 101.
Dissonance (X.) -. Swinburne, Mis., p. 114.
Distinct (III.) : ' Mil. to present.
The term refers primarily to mental imagery. It
denotes deftniteness in the different images, a defi-
niteness, however, which is not abstracted and isolated
enough to be inconsistent with an intense unifying
emotion or feeling in the literary production.
In Ossian ... I knew that the imagery was spurious. In nature
everything is distinct, yet nothing defined into absolute inde-
pendent singleness. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 122.
In Scott . . . the intensity of the feeling is not equal to the dis-
tinctness of the imagery. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 174.
Distinction (IX.) : Swin., Gosse.
Originality or distinction. Swinburne, Mis., p. 92.
Distinguished (XXIL), cf. (XIX.): Cole, Gosse. Coleridge, III.,
p. 462.
Distorted (II.): Distorted and exaggerated picture. JEFFREY, III.,
p. 100.
Diverse (XIII.): Collier to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 141.
Diverting (XVII.): Hal., Mor., Gosse. Hallam, III., p. 328.
Divine (XXII.) b: Add. to present. Addison, III., p. 188.
Doggerel (XXII.) : Put. to present.
Dissonant doggerel. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 114.
DRAMATIC (XXI.).
The term "dramatic" represents in a composition
that which is fit to be acted ; in the author, tko_power_
of losing his personality in a full realization of the
motives, and actions of others; but the unifying- con-
90 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
ception of the term comes from the effect which the
drama produces upo^ the_fiadeJi_Qr_ hearer. The term
usually charactizes those forms of literature other than
the drama which produce an effect upon the mind of
the reader similar to that of the drama itself. It rep-
resents character portrayal, in which the incidents are
intensified, animated, vivid, and striking. Occasion-
ally the term is employed to distinguish between those
parts of dramatic composition which conform to these
essential requirements, and those parts which do not.
Dramatic poetry . . . history made visible. BACON, IV., p. 315.
As the Iliad was written while his spirit was in its greatest vigour,
the whole structure of that work is jiramatic and full of action.
POPE, etc.
Shut, shut the door, good John (fatigued I said),
Tie up the knocker ; say I J in sick, I 'm dead. (Pope.)
This abrupt exordium is animated and dramatic. J. WARTON,
II., p. 208.
Bold, dramatic transitions of Shakespeare's blank verse. HAZLITT,
Eng. Poets, pp. 56, 57-
The dramatist must . . -~-kee.r) himself out of sight and let nothing
appear but his characters. MACAULAY, L, p. 24.
In the abstract, Dramatic is thought or emotion in action, or on its
way to become action. In the concrete, it is that which is more
vivid if represented limn described, and jwhich would lose if
merely narrated. LOWELL, O. E. D., p. 25.
Drawling: Wilson, II., p. 85.
Dreamy: Jef., Mor. Dreamy and abstracted. JEFFREY, II., p. 376.
Dreary (XXII.) 6: Swin. to present, Swinburne, Mis., p. 133.
Drivelling (XL): Jef. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 82.
Droll (XVII.) : Rymer to present.
Drollery arises where the laughable is its own end, neither infer-
ence or moral being intended. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 275.
Dry (XV.), cf. (XVI. and XVIL): Ascham to present.
An apparent want of spirit, feeling, and penetration.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 91
Dry, hard, and barren of effect. HAZLITT, Age of El., p. 207.
Thoreau's dry humor. BURROUGHS, Birds and Poets, p. 61.
A certain coldness or dry ness in the tone. T. ARNOLD, Hist.,
etc., p. 604.
Dry-stick (XVII.) : Hunt. Saintsbury, Es. in Eug. Lit., p. 257.
Ductile (XVIII.) : Jef., Whip. Jeffrey, II., p. 194.
Dull (XX.) b : Mil. to present.
Locke's style ... is bald, dull, plebeian. SAINTSBURY, Eng. Pr.
St., p. xxiv.
Earnest (XIV.) : Lamb to present.
In considerable use : usually opposed to formal re-
finement and polish.
The primary virtues of sincerity, earnestness, and a moral interest
in the main object. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 54.
Decorum gives place to earnestness. T. ARNOLD, Man., etc.,
p. 418.
EASY (XVIII.).
Previous to the present century, there were two more
or less distinct uses of the term "easy." As
Often it was very nearly if not quite iden- cmty *
tical in meaning with clearness and perspicuity.
Easy and plain composition. TH. WILSON, Rhet., p. 178.
History . . . aims at easiness and perspicuity. 1699. BENTLEY,
I., p. 360.
Perspicuous and easy. 1778. T. WARTON, Hist. E. P., p. 965.
More often " easy " denoted a general facility in com-
position, the result of extensive training and
As ijicility.
practice; if applied to versification it might
result from the form of verse chosen.
Rhyme, that vulgar and easy kind of poetry. CAMPION, p. 232.
The great easiness of blank verse renders the poet too luxuriant ;
he is tempted to say many things which might better be omit-
ted, or at least shut up in fewer words. 1664. DRYDEN, II.,
p. 138.
92 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
When they had so polished their piece, and rendered it ... natu-
ral and easy. SHAETESBURY, I., p. 183.
True ease in writing conies from art, not chance. 1711. POPE,
II., p. 56.
Whatever is done skilfully appears to be done with ease. 1751.
S. JOHNSON, III., p. 80.
During the present century "ease" has represented
a certain general efficacy of statement rather than
mere fluency or clearness. The author must
be master of the thought that he wishes to
express ; he must use words and methods of expres-
sion as familiar as is consistent with an adequate rep-
resentation of the subject ; and to do this there is
required both acquired skill and native power and
ability. When applied to the versification, "ease"
denotes smoothness and efficiency, the result of prac-
tice and of the native sense of rhythm and harmony.
Ease and simplicity are two expressions often confounded and
misapplied. We usually find ease arising from long practice,
and sometimes from a delicate ear without it; but simplicity
may be rustic and awkward, of which there are innumerable
examples in Wordsworth's volumes. 1826. LANDOR, IV.,
p. 61.
If by classical is meant ease, precision, and unsupernuousness of
style. 1848. HUNT, A Jar of Honey, p. 158.
A French lightness and ease of expression. 1843. WHIFFLE, Es.
& Rev., p. 16.
Too much consideration is unfavorable to the ease of letter- writing,
and perhaps of all writing. 1855. B AGE HOT, I., p. 253.
A feminine ease and grace. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 131.
Familiar words make a style frank and easy. ID., p. 283.
The seventeenth century critics . . . associated and confounded
ease of composition with shallowness of endowment, and a
stock of classical phraseology with creative power. 1884. T.
ARNOLD, Man. of Eug. Lit., p. 280.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 93
Ebullient (XII.) : Effusive and ebullient. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 271.
Eccentric (II.) : Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 278.
Eclectic (XIII.) : Gosse, Pater.
Of eclecticism, we have a justifying example in one of the first poets
of our time, Tennyson. PATER, Ap., p. 13.
Ecstasy (XV.) : Ros., Gosse. Rossetti, Lives of Famous Poets, p. 60.
Edge (XX.) b : Swinburne, Mis., p. 303.
Effeminate (XII.) : Gosson to present. S. Johnson, V., p. 133.
Effete (IV.) : Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, Mis., p. 86.
Efficacy (XXII.) : Camden to present.
Skill, variety, efficacy, and sweetness, the four material points re-
quired in a poet. CAMDEN, p. 337.
Effortless (VII.) : Wilson, X., p. 180.
Effusive (XIX.) b : Dow. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 69.
Egotism (XIV.) : Jef. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 110.
Elaborate (V.) : Heywood to present.
Not spontaneous; that which is consciously designed
and attained.
Cultivate simplicity, banish elaborateness. LAMB, Letters, I.,
p. 46.
Goldsmith wrote with elaborate simplicity. JEFFREY, I. p. 166.
The delicate touch of the true humorist ... is alien to De
Quincey's more elaborate style. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib.,
L, p. 376.
Elastic (XVIII.) : Jef. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 250.
Elegiac (XXI.) : Low. to present.
Dante's " Inferno "... not sublime enough to be tragic, and not
pathetic enough to be elegiac. T. ARNOLD, Hist, of Eng. Lit.,
p. 498.
ELEGANCE (V.).
" Elegance " in rhetorical theory is considered as one
of the^three or four essentialsjof style. In actual criti-
cism its history may be divided into two Ag general
periods. Until near the beginning of the SSSSit 1 ^
present century, "elegance" indicated a gen-
94 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
eral exaltation of style out of the vulgar and common-
place, by means of refined diction, poetical figures of
speech, and scholaxly^allusion. The term is found
placed in antithesis to "dignity," to the "strong and
solemn," to the "sublime," and to the "beautiful."
"Elegance" thus represented the lighter graces of
speech, which are the result of fanciful ingenuity,
rather than the_m.Qre essential qualities of style, which
rest primarily upon the thought and the artistic con-
ception of the literary work.
Elegancies result from metaphor constructed on similar ratios, pro-
portion, and from personification. ARISTOTLE, Rhet., p. 239.
A fiction of one of the later poets is not inelegant : He feigns that
at the end of the thread or web of every man's life, there hangs
a little medal or collar, on which his name is stamped. BACON,
IV., p. 307.
I*ropriejffinust fiiaLbe stated, ere any measures of ejegance can be
taken. 1679. DRYDEN, VI., p. 251.
Elegance and grace. 1756. J. WAKTON, I., p. 334.
The nameless and inexplicable elegancies, which appeal wholly to
the fancy, from which we feel delight but know not how they
produce it. 1751. S. JOHNSON, II., p. 432.
Though the following lines of Donne . . . have something in them
scholastic, they are not inelegant :
This twilight of two years, not past nor next,
Some emblem is of me or I of this,
Who meteor-like of stuff and form perplexed,
Whose what and where in disputation is.
1781. ID., VIL, p. 19.
Those happy combinations of words which distinguish poetry from
prose had been rarely attempted. We had few elegancies or
flowers of speech. 1781. ID., VII., p. 308.
During the present century "elegance" has been
employed to a certain extent as a retrospective term,
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 95
and has not been held in very high favor. It is sup-
posed to result from an elaborate use of the fancy,
use so elaborate as to negate the higher pos- As elal)orate
sibilities of poetry. "Elegance" thus signi- brmiailc y-
fies a certain studied brilliancy, primarily of the lan-
guage, secondarily of the thought, the evident result
of lightness of fancy rather than depth of thought or
feeling.
An inelegant cluster of "withouts." 1810. COLERIDGE, IV.,
p. 386.
Romantic grace and classic elegance. 1820. HAZLITT, Age of
Eliz., p. 116.
(Of Yoltaire) That the deeper portion of our soul sits silent un-
moved under all this ; recognizing no universal beauty, but only
a modish elegance, less the work of a poetical creation than a
process of the toilette, need occasion no surprise. 1829. CAR-
LYLE, II., p. 167.
(Of Captain Hall) There is such a pleasure in listening to his ele-
gant nothings.' POE, I., p. 355.
Elegant ... is not in the nomenclature of the Lake School. Since
dealing . . . with the essential principles of human nature, that
school had no room . . . for those minor contrivances of thought
and language, which are necessary to express the complex accu-
mulation of little feelings, the secondary growth of human emo-
tion. 1857- BAGEHOT, II., p. 272.
Wit, ingenuity, and learning in verse, even elegancy itself, though
that comes nearest, are one thing : true native poetry is another.
1871. (Quoted from Philipps.) LOWELL, IV., p. 2.
Elevation (XL) : Dry. to present.
Much in use. A sublimation or heightening of ordi-
nary language.
I. Previous to the present century, by means of
metrical and rhetorical expedients.
Expedients for elevation of style, 1. Definition instead of single
name, etc. ARISTOTLE, Rhet., pp. 222, 223.
96 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Poetry ... an elevation of natural dialogue. GOLDSMITH, I.,
p. 339.
Cowley considered the verse of twelve syllables as elevated and
majestic. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 55.
II. During the present century, " elevation" has
usually been supposed to spring from the passion, feel-
ing, or thought expressed.
The elevation of tone arises from the strong mood of passion
rather than from poetical fancy. SCOTT, Life of Swift, p. 453.
Milton's elevation clearly comes in the main from a moral quality
in him, his pureness. M. ARNOLD, Mixed Es., etc., p. 202.
Elliptical (XIX.) b: Hal. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 206.
Elocution (VI.) : Webbe to Dryden.
Used chiefly in theory. It was a technical expres-
sion, denoting the choice of words, the selection of
language for a thought already apprehended and ar-
ranged. Occasionally the term represented merely the
rhetorical enhancement of the thought.
Elocution, or the art of clothing and adorning thought, already
found and varied, in apt, significant, and sounding words.
DRYDEN, IX., p. 96.
Elocution and artifices. ID., XV., pp. 304, 305.
Lively images and elocution. ID., V., p. 120.
ELOQUENCE (VI.).
The term "eloquence" has usually been closely sy-
nonymous with the term "poetical." Like the "poeti-
AS strong cal," "eloquence" in early criticism tended
feeling. to represent a heightening, and hence a fal-
sification of the truth; later, an "imitation of nature;"
and in the present century, impassioned imagination.
But these different uses and changes of meaning in
the term "eloquence" were not as marked as in the
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 97
term "poetical," and may be classed together as repre-
senting an impassioned and elevated method of expres-
sion, as strength rather than delicacy of poetic feeling.
I hold eloquence venerable and even sacred in all its departments ;
in solemn tragedy ... in the majesty of the epic, the gayety of
the lyric muse, the wanton elegy, the keen iambic, and the
pointed epigram. TACITUS, II., p. 401.
Cato . . . had more truth for the matter than eloquence for the
style. ASCHAM, p. 156.
Doubtless that indeed according to art is most eloquent which
turns and approaches nearest to nature. MILTON, III., p. 100.
Plato is most celebrated for imagination, and for an eloquence
highly poetical. LANDOR, III., p. 149.
Eloquence of impassioned thought finding vent in vivid imagery.
LOWELL, Lat. Lit. Es., p. 124.
In theory at least, however, the " poetical " and the
"eloquent" have occasionally been distinguished from
each other. Modern eloquence is not natu- .
As a height-
rally so poetical as was ancient eloquence, S^JS^jj! 04
When it becomes elevated, it usually gives s
the effect of rhetorical heightening rather than of sin-
cere and native feeling.
Ancient eloquence was sublime, passionate; modern eloquence is
argumentative, rational. HUME, I., p. 172.
Poetry sprang from ease, and was consecrated to pleasure, whereas
eloquence arose from necessity, and aims at conviction. GOLD-
SMITH, I., p. 341.
It is the fault of the day to mistake mere eloquence for poetry ;
whereas in direct opposition to the conciseness and simplicity of
the poet, the talent of tjie_orator consists in^making much of_a_
. simple idea. NEWMAN, Es. on Aristotle, p. 18.
Emasculate (XII.) : Smooth, emasculated lyrics. GOSSE, Seven-
teenth Cent. St., p. 201.
Embellished (V.) : Dry. to present.
. 7
98 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Embroidered (V.) : Jeffrey, I., p. 412.
Emotion (XV.) : Jef. to present.
Recently in considerable use. The term usually
represents a mental excitation, which is less intense
and active than passion, and more so than feeling.
True emotion is emotion ripened by a slow ferment of the rnind
and qualified to an agreeable temperance by that taste which is
the conscience of polite society. LOWELL, II., p. 252.
His idealism does not consist in conferring grandeur upon vulgar
objects by tinging them with . the reflection of deep emotion.
STEPHEN, Hrs in a Lib., I., p. 280.
Poetic passion is intensity of emotion. STEDMAN, Nat. of Poetry,
p. 261.
Emphatic (XII.).
That which by any means has been made more strik-
ing than ordinary composition. This result is usually
brought about by figurative language; and the "em-
phatic" and the "poetical" are occasionally found
associated with each other.
Emphasis, or what in an artist's sense giics..relief.to a_pas.sage,
causing it to stand forward and in advance of what surrounds
it, that is the predominating idea in the, "sublime" of Lon-
ginus. DE QUINCEY, X., p. 301.
Poetical . . . that is figurative and emphatic. HALLAM, II.,
p. 207.
Poetry should be memorable and emphatic, intense and soon over.
BAGEIIOT, Lit. St., II., p. 352.
Style . . . consists mainly in the absence of undue emphasis and
exaggeration. LOWELL, III., p. 353.
Enchanting (XXII.) b : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 56.
Eiiergia (XII.) : Sid. to present.
Energia of poets lies in high and hearty invention. (Quoted from
Chapman.) STEDMAN, Nat. of Poetry, p. 18.
ENERGY (XII).
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 99
Previous to the present century, the term " energy,"
much like the Greek evepyeta, signified a general vivid-
ness in composition, which manifested itself AS vividness
and effective-
ill both the thought and the language. As
applying to the language of a composition, " energy "
was manifested in the sound, in the meter, in rhyme,
in the general diction and choice of words, and in
smoothness and ease of comprehension. When the
term apparently refers wholly to the language, it per-
haps often applies by figure of speech to the thought
also. As applying to the thought of a composition,
"energy" was said to spring from concreteness, from
distinctness, from dramatic power, and from brevity.
If indeed they feel those passions, it may easily be betrayed by
that same forcibleness or energeia (as the Greeks call it) of the
writer. 1583. SIDNEY, p. 52.
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep. (Pope.)
I quote these lines as an example of energy of style. 1756. J.
WARTON, II., p. 65.
The foundations for a nervous or a weak style are laid in an author's
manner of thinking. If he conceives an object strongly he will
express it with energy. BLAIR, Rhet., p. 199.
During the present century, the term "energy" has
almost uniformly referred to the active creative process
in the mind of the poet. It denotes delicacv AS strength
. . . of artistic
as well as vividness 01 conception and ex- impulse,
pression ; it represents the most primal and funda-
mental activity of the artistic impulses and instincts.
Motives are symptoms of weakness and supplements for the defi-
cient energy of the living principle, the law within us. 1825.
COLERIDGE, I., p. 166.
100 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Byron possessed the soul of poetry which is energy. 1826. LAN-
DOR, IV., p. 43.
For one effect of knowledge is to deaden the force of the imagina-
tion and the original energy of the whole man. 1846. RUSKIN,
St. of Yen., II., p. 56.
Genius is mainly an affair of energy, and poetry is mainly an affair
of genius. 1865. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 50.
No poet, perhaps, is so evidently filled with a new and sacred en-
ergy when the inspiration is upon him (as Wordsworth). M.
ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 155.
Chaucer's descriptive style is remarkable for its lowness of tone,
for that combination of energy with simplicity which is among
the rarest gifts in literature. 1870. LOWELL, III., p. 353.
Engaging (XXII.) b : Jeffrey, II., p. 326.
English (I.): Keats' "Ode to Nightingale" . . . fresh, genuine,
and English. JEFFREY, II., p. 386.
Entertaining (XXII.) b\ Haz., Gosse. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, p. 315.
ENTHUSIASM.
The term "enthusiasm" has varied more as to the
favor with which it has been received than as to the
AS the pas- meaning which has been iriven to it. It has
sionately
fanciful. always represented an excited state of the
feelings, a passionate devotion to a purpose or ideal.
But until the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
this passion or feeling was thought to be inconsistent
with the calm apprehension and presentation of truth.
"Enthusiasm" represented a moral quality, having some
justification for its existence, which, however, in liter-
ature produced nothing but wild and incoherent fancies.
Poetry is the language of enthusiasm . . . guard against what
savours of poetry. ARISTOTLE, Rhet., pp. 222, 226.
Good humour is not only the best security against enthusiasm, but
the best foundation of piety and true religion. SHAFTESBURY,
I., pp. 16, 17.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 101
Inspiration is a real feeling of the divine presence, and enthusiasm
a false one. ID., p. 40.
True poetry . . . cannot well subsist . . . without a tincture of
enthusiasm. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 317.
Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
the enthusiastic has been closely synonymous with the
impassioned. It represents moral sincerity AS the sym-
_ pathetic and
and intense energy combined, to a certain impassioned,
extent at least, with poetical passion and feeling.
Enthusiastic and meditative imaginationj^oeticalj as contradistin-
guished from human andj dramatic jimaffination. WORDSWORTH,
II., p. 139.
There is no enthusiasm, no energy, no condensation, nothing which
springs from strong feeling, nothing which tends to excite it.
MACAULAY, IV., p. 391.
Enthusiasm sublimates the understanding into imagination. LOW-
ELL, Lit. Es., I,, p. 196.
Enthusiastic (XV.) : Shaftes. to present.
Ephemeral (XI.) : Poe. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 43.
Epical (XXL): Lowell.
Used little in theory, and perhaps not at all as an
active critical term.
The Spanish tragedy inclines more towards the lyrical, the French
toward the epical. LOWELL, Prose, II., p. 128.
Epigrammatic : Camden to present.
Usually regarded as a low form of literary composition.
Little fanciful authors and writers of epigram. ADDISON, II.,
p. 374.
Alexander's Feast concludes with an epigram of four lines ; a spe-
cies of wit as flagrantly unsuitable to the dignity, and as foreign
to the nature, of the lyric, as it is of the epic muse. J. WARTON,
I, p. 60.
102 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Equable (XIX.) : Haz. to present.
Equable flow of the sentiments. HAZLITT, Age of EL, p. 56.
That monotonous equability, that often wearies us in more pol-
ished poetry. HALLAM, II., p. 232.
Equality (II.): Dry. to present.
I have not everywhere observed the equality of numbers in my
verse . . . because I would not have my sense a slave to sylla-
bles. DRYDEN, III., p. 379.
Hazlitt is one of the most absolutely unequal writers in English ;
with him the inequality is pervading, and shows itself in his
finest passages. SAINTSBURY, Eng. Lit., etc., p. 137.
Equanimity (XIX.) : Equanimity of conscious and constantly in-
dwelling power . . . Wordsworth had not. LOWELL, Prose, VI.,
p. 109.
Erotic (XV.) : Shel. to present.
Erotic delicacy in poetry . . . correlate with softness in statuary.
- SHELLEY, VII., pp. 118, 119.
Erratic (II.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 284.
Erudite (XX.) : Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 182.
Ethereal (XXII.) b: Whip, to present.
There is something a little too ethereal in all this. M. ARNOLD,
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 285.
Ethos (VI.) : Dry. to present. (See " Characters " and " Manners/')
Euphuism: Whip, to present.
Has not been applied to literature enough to be given
a definite meaning. The affectation of ardent and
useless feelings. Chiefly a retrospective term, refer-
ring to certain foreign imitations in the time of Queen
Elizabeth.
In the romances of Greene and Lodge we have Euphuism as an
affectation of an affectation. WHIPPLE, Lit. of Age of El.,
p. 253.
Belated euphuism. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 39.
Evanescent (XI.) : Ros., Gosse.
Spontaneous and evanescent beauties ... of the best romantic
poetry. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 24.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 103
Even (II.) : Put. to present.
Even and harmonious excellence. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 136.
Everydayness : Lowell, Prose, III., p. 111.
EXACT (VIII.)-
Usually the term "exact" has indicated a careful
and studied method of expression, the chief emphasis
being placed upon the use of language and ^ accuracy
the mechanical construction of the compo-
sition. This use of the term was especially marked
previous to the present century.
Little exactnesses in translating. POPE, VIII. , p. 107-
To make our poetry exact there ought to be some stated mode of
admitting triplets and alexandrines. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 347-
Where there is laxity, there is inexactness. LANDOR, V., p. 109.
Occasionally the term denotes definiteness in the
use of imagery, and accuracy in the sc- As logical
quence of thought in a composition.
An attempt to unite order and exactness of imagery with a subject
formed on principles so professedly romantic and anomalous is
like giving Corinthian pillars to a Gothic palace. T. WARTON,
Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 261.
Intellectual exactness of statement. LOWELL, IV., p. 20.
Occasionally, also, exactness indicates a As c
scrupulous accuracy to the details of the to fact -
facts represented.
This exactness of detail . . . gives an appearance of truth. HAZ-
LITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 159.
Exaggerated (VIII.) : Bacon to present.
Much in use. An overstatement of the facts, which,
however, in a mild form, as poetical emphasis, has usu-
ally been regarded, in theory at least, as possessing
positive literary merit.
104 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The chief power of an orator lies in exaggeration and extenuation.
QUINTILIAN, II., p. 108.
Characters in poetry may be a little overcharged or exaggerated
without offering violence to nature. GOLDSMITH, I., p. 339.
Exaggeration and as a result coldness of sentiment. MACAULAY,
IV., p. 380.
The imagination is an exaggerating and exclusive faculty. HAZ-
LITT, III., p. 50.
Exalted (XI.) : J. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 12.
Excellent (XXI.): Jef. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 165.
Excessive (VIII.) : Hume to present. Rossetti, Lives, etc., p. 106.
Excitement: Intensity and excitement in expression. GOSSE, Hist.
Eng. Lit., III., p. 57.
Excrementitious (VII.) : Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 287-
Excursive (XIIL) : Jef., Saints. Jeffrey, L, p. 391.
Exhaustive (XXII.) : Swin., Saints. Swinburne, Mis., p. 57.
Exotic (VII.) : Gib., Jef., Saints.
Expansive (XIII.) b: Haz. to present.
Meditative expansiveness ... of Bacon. WHIFFLE, Lit. of Age
of El., p. 337.
Explicit (III.) : Gray. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 26.
Expressive : J. War. to present.
Burns' letters . . . simple, vigorous, expressive. CARLYLE, II.,
p. 12.
Exquisite (XXII.) b : Rymer to present.
In this fable . . . there is hardly anything more exquisite and
more perfect than history. RYMER, 1st Ft., pp. 57, 58.
Extraordinary (IX.) : Jef. to present.
Extravagant (XIX.) b : Dry. to present.
Much in use. An overstrained use of figurative
language, or an extremely exaggerated method of pre-
senting facts.
Which the glad saint shakes off at his command,
As once the viper from his sacred hand. (Waller.)
This is extravagant. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 211.
This extravagant and absurd diction. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 103.
A delicate sense of humor . . . the best preservative against all
extravagance. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 295.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 105
Exuberance (XL) b : Mil. to present.
The remedy for exuberance is easy ; barrenness is incurable by any
labor. QUINTILIAN, II., p. 106.
Chasten the exuberance of conceit and fancy. SHAFTESBURY, I.,
p. 131.
Exultation: Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 164.
FABLE (VI.) : Put. to beginning of nineteenth century.
Used in theory as a_correlate expression to charac-
ters, manners, sentimejxL^and style. Mechanically con-
sidered, it represented the plot construction, more
essentially the story_ or fiction embodied in a literary
production. The fable was usually regarded as in
itself poetical. This was the epic conception of poetry ,
The schematizing influence of the term, or at least of
the idea which it represents, is found throughout dra-
matic criticism, and to a certain extent in the criticism
of the novel also.
The fable and fiction is, as it were, the form and soul of any poet-
ical work or poem. B. JONSON, Timber, p. 73.
Fable though the ^foundation ... is not the chief thing, since
pity and terror will operate nothing on our affections except the
characters, manners, thoughts, and words are suitable. DRY-
DEN, XV., pp. 381, 382.
The fable is properly the poet's part, since characters are taken
from moral philosophy, etc. RYMER, 2d Pt., pp. 86, 87.
In poetry, which is all fable, truth still is the perfection.
SHAFTESBURY, I., pp. 110, 111.
Facetious (XXII.) b : Wakefield to present.
Facetious stories. WAKEFIELD, in Lit. Cen., I., p. 20.
Facility (XVIII.), cf. (V.) b : Put. to present,
The uncommon union of so much facility and force. J. WARTON,
II., p. 267.
Factitious (VII.) : Jeffrey, I., p. 393.
Fade (Fr.) : Insipid; dull. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 350.
Fair : Jef. Saintsbury, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 289,
106 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Faithful (VIII.) : T. War. to present.
Justness and faithfulness of the representation. T. WARTON,
Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 34.
False (VIII.) : Jef. to present.
False and hollow. WILSON, VII., p-. 297-
Falsetto (VII.) : Jef. to present. Coleridge, VI., p. 417-
Familiar : Dry. to present.
At once romantic and familiar. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p.
174.
FANCY (XXIII.).
Until the present century, "fancy" and "imagina-
tion," in actual criticism, were almost synonymous
AS lightness expressions. " Imagination," however, was
of conceit. o ft e n in a vague manner the more inclusive
term. "Fancy," when it was not exactly synonymous
with "imagination," maybe said to have varied from
it in three ways : it denoted the more wild and vagrant
flights of the imagination ; or those lighter forms of
the imagination which perhaps aid in the process of
composition ; or those far-fetched combinations of ideas
or images which produce the feeling of the ludicrous,
or what was sometimes called " comical wit."
Poetical fancies and furies. 1641. B. JONSON, I., p. 201.
His sharp wit and high fancy. 1640. WALTON, Lives, p. 53.
Eancy . . . consisteth not so much in motion as in copious im-
agery discreetly ordered and perfectly registered in the mem-
ory. 1650. HOBBES, IV., p. 449.
When fancy was yet in its first work, moving the sleeping images
of things towards the light, there to be distinguished, and then
either chosen or rejected by the judgment. 1664. DRYDEN,
II., p. 130.
In plotting and writing, the fancy, memory, and judgment are
then extended, like so many limbs, upon the rack. 1664. ID.,
p. 132.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 107
So, then, the first Imppiness of the poet's imagination is properly
iuvention, or finding of the thought ; the second is fancy, or the
variation deriving or moulding of that thought, as the judgment
represents it proper to the subject. 1666. DKYDEN, IX.,
p. 96.
Bnt how it happens that an impossible adventurer should cause
our mirth, I cannot so easily imagine ... its oddness ... to
be ascribed to the strange appetite of the fancy. 1671. ID.,
Ill, p. 24L
Fancy gives the life touches and secret graces to a poem. 1671.
ID., p. 252.
Fancy, I think, in poetry is like faith in religion; it makes far
discoveries, and soars above reason, but never clashes or runs
against it. UYMER, 1st Pt., p. 8.
Correct the redundancy of humours, and chasten the exuberance
of conceit and fancy. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 131.
The imagination or fancy, which I shall use promiscuously. 1712.
ADDISON, III., p. 394
In allegory there are always two passions opposing each other; a
love of reality, which represses the flights of fancy, and a pas-
sion for the marvellous, which would leave reflection behind
1759. GOLDSMITH, IV., pp. 334, 335.
When the reader's fancy is once on the wing, let it not stoop at
correction and explanation. 1765. S. JOHNSON, V., p. 152.
Buring the present century, " fancy " and " imagina-
tion " have been sharply distinguished from each other,
"fancy" denoting that method of combining AS lightness
of imagina-
ideas or images which .is intermediate be- tive activity,
tween the method of imagination on the one hand and
of conceit on the other. "Fancy," considered as a
mental process, represents the rapid play of the mind
in search of unwonted combinations, which, often by
revealing essential likenesses in ideas or images that
were thought to be unrelated to one another, impercep-
tibly shades into the imagination. Considered as a
108 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
completed product, " fancy " denotes such combinations
of mental elements as neither having any direct anal-
ogy in actual life, nor possessing sufficient aesthetic
beauty to be taken up into ideals, arouse no passion or
intense feeling, and find their artistic justification only
in a certain delicacy of conception, which easily shades
into over-refinement and conceit.
Things that come from the heart direct, not by the medium of
the fancy. 1796. LAMB, Letters, I., p. 18.
Fancy, the faculty of bringing together images dissimilar in the
main by some one point or more of likeness, as in such a pas-
sage as this:
Full gently now she takes him by the hand,
A lily prisoned in a pail of snow.
1810. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 48.
Fancy has no other counters to play with but fixities and defi-
nites. The fancy is indeed no other than a^mode of memory
emancipated from the order of time and space, . . . while it, is
blended with and modified by that empirical phenomenon of the
will which we express by the word choice. But equally with the
ordinary memory the fancy must receive all its materials ready,
made from the law of association. 1817. COLERIDGE, III.,
p. 364. ""
All the fancies that fleet across the imagination, like shadows on
the grass of the tree-tops, are not entitled to be made small sep-
arate poems of about the length of one's little finger. (Of Ten-
nyson's early poems.) 1832. WILSON, VI., p. 151.
Imagination belongs to Tragedy or the serious muse ; Fancy to the
comic. 1844. HUNT, Im. & Fancy, p. 26.
Wit ... is fancy in its most wilful, and, strictly speaking, its
least poetical state. 1846. HUNT, Wit & Humour, p. 8.
Fancy ... is related to color; imagination to form. 1876.
EMERSON, Let. & Soc. Aims, p. 33.
The fancy of young poets is apt to be superabundant. It is the
imagination that ripens with the judgment, and asserts itself as
the shaping power in a deeper sense than belongs to it as a mere
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 109
maker of pictures when the eyes are shut. LOWELL, Rep. Men,
p. 116.
The Rape of the Lock ranks by itself as one of the purest works
of human fancy ; whether that fancy be strictly poetical or not is
another matter. 1871. LOWELL, IV., p. 36.
The distinction between fancy and imagination is, in brief, that
fancy deals with the superficial resemblances, and imagination
with the deeper truths that underlie them. 1879. STEPHEN,
Hrs. in a Library, p. 203.
Imagination and fancy are both intellectual faculties, and the main
function of both is to detect and exhibit the resemblances which
exist among objects of sense or intelligence. 1884. T. ARNOLD,
Hist, of Eng. Lit,, p. 558.
Fantastic (II.) : Webbe to present.
Though not fantastical and full of love quirks and quiddities.
1588. MUNDAY, Har. Mis , IV., p. 220.
Little niceties and fantastical operations of art. POPE, X., p. 532.
The fantastic is dangerously near to the grotesque, while the im-
agination, where it is most authentic, is most serene. LOWELL,
O. E. D., p. 71.
Fantasy (XXIII.) : Camden to present.
Fantasy, the image-making power, common to all who have the
gift of dreams. LOWELL, III., p. 31.
Farce (XXI.) : Hurd to present
Farce . . . object merely to excite laughter. HUKD, II., p. 30.
The "Taming of the Shrew" for its extravagance ought rather to
be called a farce than a comedy. HUNT, Wit & H., p. 117.
Far-fetched (IV.) : T. Wil. to present.
Jejune, far-fetched, and frigid. HAZLITT, Age of El., p. 211.
Far- sought (VII ) : Far- sought phrase of literary curiosity. LOWELL,
Prose, II., p. 106.
Fascinating (XXII.) b : Hal. to present. Swinburne, A St. of B. J.,
p. 102.
Fashionable ( IV.) : Jef. to present. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St.,
p. 278.
Fast: Straight, fast, and temperate style. ASCHAM, III., p. 204.
Fastidious (IV.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 165.
Faultless (XXII.) : Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 288.
110 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Fecundity (XVI.) : Whip., Low.
Fecundity of invention. LOWELL, Prose, VI., p. 134.
Feeble (XII.) : Ascham to present.
A feeble, diffuse, showy, Asiatic redundancy. HAZLITT, Sp. of
Age, p. 204.
FEELING (XV.).
The term "feeling" has grown rapidly in use during
the present century. It indicates a certain delicacy of
mental response or of susceptibility to the full meaning
of the given facts of experience, and an equal delicacy
and susceptibility in blending these given facts with the
aesthetic intuitions and ideals of the mind. In so far
as "feeling" merely responds to the given facts of ex-
perience, it often seems to be wholly passive and to
become allied to taste and to the proprieties. But in
so far as it denotes susceptibility in blending these
given facts with ideals, it is active, and is allied to
sympathy and the imagination. " Feeling," thus rep-
resenting a general susceptibility in the mental organ-
ism, is a fundamental capacity, is always genuine, is
never merely fancied or assumed. Hence it is occa-
sionally made to stand merely for earnestness and
sincerity.
We can always feel more than we can imagine, and the most art-
ful fiction must give way to truth. 1753. S. JOHNSON, IV.,
p. 79.
Pathos and feeling. 1778. T. WARTON, p. 661.
That same equipoise of the faculties, during which the feelings are
representative of all past experience. 1810. COLERIDGE, IV.,
p. 75. *
Mere peculiarity of taste or feeling. 1810. JEFFREY, III., p. 292.
Vague and unlocalized feelings, the failing too much of some
poetry of the present day. 1818. LAMB, Elia, p. 293.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. Ill
It may be interesting to you to pick out some lines from Hyperion,
and put a X to the false beauty proceeding from art, and an ||
to the true voice of feeling. 1819. KEATS, Letters, p. 321.
In poetry . . . strong feeling is always a sure guide. It rarely
offends against good taste, because it instinctively chooses the
most effectual means of communicating itself to others. 1825.
BRYANT, L, p. 10.
(To W. R. Hamilton.) Your verses are animated with true poetic
spirit, as they are evidently the product of strong feeling. 1827.
WORDSWORTH, III., p. 293.
These old songs (of Burns') were his models, because they were
models of certain forms of feeling having a necessary and eternal
existence. 1841 . WILSON, VII., p. 100.
Felicity (IV.) : Put. to present.
Much in use. That which is happy and . well chosen
in composition, the result of the most delicate and
instinctive sense of propriety.
What instinctive felicity of versification. LOWELL, IV., p. 24.
The felicity and idiomatic naivete ... of Walton. MATHEWS,
Lit. St., p. 7.
Feminine (XII.) : Car. to present.
Feminine vehemence. CARLYLE, I., p. 122.
A feminine intensity. DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 408.
Ferocious (XII.) : Jef. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 281.
Fertility (XVI.) : Dry. to present.
Uniformly associated with the more active artistic
impulses and processes, with energy, suggestion, fancy,
invention, and imagination.
Fertility of invention. T. WARTON, p. 978.
Fertility of fancy. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 42.
Fertile imagination. SCOTT, Life of Dryden, p. 12.
Fervent (XV.) : Camp, to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65.
Fervor (XV.) : Swin. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 225.
Feverish (XV.) : Stephen, Swin.
FICTITIOUS (VIII.).
112 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
"Fiction," or the "fictitious," has been regarded by
the critics in two different senses. Occasionally the
AS poetical term has indicated the poetical heightening
int ' or enhancement of the facts or historical
truth represented. This use of the term occurs chiefly
in theoretical discussions, and is uniformly given a
positive and favorable literary significance.
Two requisites of universal poetry, namely, that license of expres-
sion which we call the style of poetry, and that license of
representation which we call fiction. The style is, as it
were, the body of poetry, fiction is its soul. HUHD, II., pp.
10, 11.
Fiction in poetry is not the reverse of truth, but her soft and en-
chanted companion. CAMPBELL, I., p. 327.
As usually employed in actual criticism, however,
"fiction" is by no means necessarily in alliance with
Asanimagi- the "poetical." It represents an imaginary
nary series
of events. series of events, which, previous to the pres-
ent century, was looked upon with more or less disfa-
vor as a falsification of the truth, but which in the
present century has usually been regarded as a health-
ful form of literary art, and thus as constituting a class
or species of literature.
There are some that are not pleased with fiction, unless it be
bold ; not only to exceed the work, but also the possibility of
nature. 1650. HOBBES, IV., p. 451.
Where there is leisure for fiction there is little grief. S. JOHNSON,
VII., p. 119.
The monstrosities of fiction may be found in the bookseller's shops
. . . but they have no place in literature, because in literature
the one aim of art is the beautiful. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S.,
p. 292.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 113
Fidelity (VIII.) : T. War. to present.
In translating a poetical writer, there are two kinds of fidelity to
be aimed at: fidelity to the matter and fidelity to the manner of
the original. JEFFREY, I., p. 417.
Fidelity to the essential truth of things. DOWDEN, Shak., etc.,
p. 73.
Fierce (XII.) : Jef., Swin.
Fiery (XII.) : Sted. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 7.
FIGURATIVE (VIII.).
Until within the eighteenth century, figurative lan-
guage was usually regarded as an ornamented falsifi-
cation of the truth, the source at once of
. As ornament,
aesthetic pleasure and of the most puzzling
uncertainty and obscurity.
This ornament is given by figures and figurative speeches. PUT-
TENHAM, p. 150.
Shakespeare's whole style is so pestered with figurative expres-
sions, that it is as affected as it is obscure. DRYDEN, VI.,
p. 255.
Occasionally, especially during the latter half of
the eighteenth century, the " figurative " As tne poeti _
and the " poetical " have been more or less c '
completely identified with each other.
Poetical, that is highly figurative expression. HURD, I., p. 102.
Poetical . . . that is figurative and emphatic. HALLAM, II., p.
207-
Usually, however, especially during the present
century, the "figurative" represents viv- AS vividness
J ' of imagina-
idness of mental imagery and intensity of tion.
imaginative power, which is of itself by no means neces-
sarily poetical. (See " Poetical.")
114 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Tully and Demosthenes spoke often figuratively but not poetically,
and the very figures of oratory are vastly different from those of
poetry. POPE, VIII., p. 218.
To say that a man is a great thinker or a fine thinker, is but an-
other expression for saying that he has a schematizing (or, to
use a plainer but less accurate expression, a figurative) under-
standing. DE QUINCE Y, X., p. 115.
Figured (V.) : "Figured or poetical expressions. JEFFREY, I., p.
223.
Filthy (XIV.) : Dry. to present.
Coarse and filthy. JEFFREY, I., p. 219.
Final (XXI.) : Swin., Min. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 165.
Fine (XXII.) b : T. Wil. to present.
Raleigh's Cynthia ... a fine and sweet invention. HARVEY, in
Marlowe's Shak. by Boswell, II., p. 579.
Finery (V.) : Byron to present.
It is in their finery that the new school is most vulgar. 1821.
Life and Letters, p. 507.
Finesse : Jef. to present.
Delicacy and finesse. JEFFREY, II., p. 370.
All beauty is in the long run only finesse of truth. PATER, Ap.,
p. 6.
Finical (V.) : Jef, Haz. Jeffrey, I., p. 222.
Finished (V.) : Camp, to present.
That which gives evidence both of careful execution
and of good taste.
The early productions of Pope were perhaps . . . too finished,
correct, and pure. J. WARTON, I, p. 83.
Greene ... is sometimes more laboured than finished. HUNT,
Wit & Humour, p. 308.
The poetry of Gray is finished, perhaps I should rather say lim-
ited. LOWELL, Lat. Lit. Es, p. 16.
Fire (XII.) : Jef. to present.
Fire and force. GOSSE, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 183.
Firm (XI.) : Haz. to present, Swinburne, A St. of B. J, p. 65.
Fitful (II.) : Broken or fitful. Swinburne, Mis, p. 237.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 115
Fitness (IV.) : Ascham to present.
Used very little during the eighteenth century. Adap-
tation of the elements of composition to one another : a
popular expression for the term " propriety," considered
in a somewhat mechanical sense.
Fitness of character . . . woman must be woman, etc. ARIS-
TOTLE, Poetics,, p. 47.
Pleased with a work where nothing 's just or fit. POPE, II., p. 50.
There is a fitness and propriety in every part. * LANDOR, VIII.,
p. 386.
Flaccid (XII.) : Swin.,' Gosse.
Flaccid and untunable verse of Byron. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 81.
Flagging (XVIII.) : Mor. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 86.
Flagrant : Hal., Gosse.
Flagrant absurdity. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., p. 262.
Flamboyant (V.) : The flamboyant style in modern English prose.
SAINTSBURY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxi.
Flashy (V.) : Jef., Gosse.
Noisy and flashy. GOSSE, From Shak., etc., p. 127.
Flat (XII.) : B. Jon. to present.
What is flat ought to be plain. LANDOR, IV., p. 64.
Flavor (XXII.) I : Sted. Saintsbury, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 203.
Flawless (XXI.) : Swin. Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 259.
Fleshliness : Fleshliness . . . oddly enough is found in Wordsworth.
LOWELL, Prose IY., p. 371.
Fleshly: Fleshly sculpture. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 65.
Fleshy : We say it is a fleshy style, carnosa, when there is much
periphrasis and circuit of words. B. JONSON, Timber, p. 65.
Flexible (XYIII.) : S. John, to present.
Flexible bucolic hexameter. STEDMAN, Yic. Poets, p. 226.
Flimsy : J. War. to present.
Flimsy and insipid decorum. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 102.
Flippant (XL) : Jef., Whip.
Vulgar flippancy. JEFFREY, I., p. 217.
Floribund (V.) : Gay and floribund. GOSSE, From Shak., etc..
p. 155.
116 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Florid (V.) : Shaftes. to present.
This painted iiorid style. POPE, VIII., p. 219.
The groves appear all drest with wreaths of flowers,
And from their leaves drop aromatic showers.
This is in the florid style. SWIFT, XIII., p. 73.
Floundering (XVIII.) : Swin., Saints.
Flowing (XVIII.) : K. James to present.
Refers both to the sounds and to the thoughts of a
composition.
Sounds . . .most flowing and slipper upon the tongue. PUT-
TENHAM, p. 129.
The equable flow of the sentiments. HAZLITT, Age of EL, p. 56.
Flowerless (V.): Elowerless and pallid. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p.
137.
Flowery (V.) : Camp, to present, Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., II.,
p. 48.
Fluent (XVIII.) : Dekker to present.
The fluency which was a besetting sin of Whittier's poetry, when
released from the fetters of rhyme and meter, ran into wordi-
ness. BEERS, St. in Am. Lit., p. 160.
Fluid (XVIII.) : Fluidity of meter. SWINBURNE, A St. of B. J.,
p. 124.
Flute-like (X.) : Swin., Gosse.
Clear flute-like notes of Cynthia. SWINBURNE, A St. of B. J.,
p. 56.
Fluttering : Light, airy, fluttering. WHIPPLE, Es. & Rev., II., p. 65.
Folly (XX.) : Pure childishness or mere folly. JEFFREY, I., p. 271.
Foolish (XX.) : Jef. Swinburne, Mis., p. 110.
FORCE (XII.).
There are no distinctly marked periods in the history
of the term "force." Occasionally "force" seems to
AS effective- designate a general efficiency of thought and
language, an interesting thought treated in
accordance with the best known rules of composition.
Justness and force of the representation. JEFFREY, II., p. 285.
Ease, force, and perspicuity. HAZLITT, Table Talk, p. 338.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 117
Often the term "force" indicates a mere vividness in
the impression which the literary work pro-
* As vividness.
daces upon the mind of the reader.
Force, from vivid imagery. T. WARTON, p. 661 ; also BYRON,
Letters, p. 501.
Force, from figures of speech. T. WARTON, p. 207-
More usually, however, especially during the pres-
ent century, "force" has been regarded as the native
power of the mind, asserting itself in ways
which often run counter to regular methods
of composition, which often, indeed, violate every canon
of artistic refinement, and which acknowledge no law of
expression except that which is immediately prompted
by the intensity of the conception, and by the ethical
purpose which this conception is intended to subserve.
The uncommon union of so much facility and force. 1756. J.
WARTON, II., p. 267.
These monosyllables have much force and energy :
All good to me becomes
Bane. (Milton.) ID., I., p. 347-
Atterbury . . . writes more with elegance and correctness than
with any force of thinking or reasoning. ID., II., p. 361.
Force of poetry. 1751. S. JOHNSON, III., p. 293.
Intensity is the great and prominent distinction of Lord Byron's
writings. He seldom gets beyond force of style, nor has he
produced any regular work or masterly whole. 1825. HAZ-
LITT, Sp. of Age, p. 124.
If by force you mean beauty manifesting itself with power, I main-
tain that the Abbe Delille has more force than Milton. (Quoted
disapprovingly, as a saugrenu judgment.) M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es.,
1st S., p. 279.
What Dryden valued above all things was force, though in his
haste he is willing to make a shift with its counterfeit effect.
1868. LOWELL, III., p. 183.
118 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Forced (VII.) : Dry. to present.
The strained and unnatural; usually assumed to be
the result of conscious effort.
Forced and unnatural. GOLDSMITH, IV., p. 283.
A forced and almost grotesque materializing of abstractions.
PATER, Ap., p. 232.
FORM (II.).
The word "form" has been employed in criticism in
three more or less distinct ways. Previous to the
AS verbal Present century, and in large part during
expression. ^ s century, the word has merely repre-
sented the mechanical expression of thought in lan-
guage, punctuation, capitalization, the grammatical
relations of words, the construction of phrases, clauses,
sentences, paragraphs, and perhaps JJi ^rhetorical re-
quirements of c
What I can say concerning our English poetry, first in the matter
thereof, then in the form. WEBBE, p. 38.
No work of true genius dares want its appropriate form. COLE-
RIDGE, IV., p. 54.
Often the term indicates that portion of the mechani-
cal construction of composition which answers more
AS the sense or ^ ess Directly to the sense of rhythm and
proportion in the mind, the metrical move-
ment, the balance of phrases, clauses, and
sentences, the harmonious adaptation of all the parts
of a composition to one another, tl^co^j^sjti^j^
ever, being considered as a completed product, and the
adaptation being determined entirely, perhaps, by_j)ast
attainment, by precedent, and by custom.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 119
The word Form lias also more limited application, as, for example,
when we use it to imply that nice sense of proportion and adap-
tation which results in style. LOWELL, 0. E. D., p. 56.
I am not sure that Form, which is the artistic sense of decorum
controlling the co-ordination of parts and ensuring their harmo-
nious subservience to a common end, can be learned at all,
whether of the Greeks or elsewhere. LOWELL, Lat. Lit. Es.,
p. 144.
Occasionally, in theory, if not in applied criticism,
the term denotes the developing sense of beauty and
proportion in literature, as referring to the As sensibilit
mechanical construction of the composition, of formal uty
to the picturesque features of the thought
presented, and perhaps in a measure to the representa-
tion of moral truths and principles.
That there is an intimate relation, or at any rate a close analogy
between Form, in this its highest attribute, and imagination, is
evident if we remember that the imagination is the shaping
faculty. LOWELL, O. E. D., p. 56.
Formality (IV ) : Jef. to present. Hazlitt, Sp. of Age, pp. 256, 257.
Foul (XIV.) : Low. to present.
Roderick Random ... so foul as to be fit only for a well-seasoned
reader. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 259.
Fragile : Whip., Gosse.
Fragility of Tennyson's figures. WHIFFLE, Es. & Rev., p. 341.
Fragrance (XXII.)*: Swin., Beers. Swinburne, A St. of B. J.,
p. 4.
Frank (XIV.) : Low. to present.
Frank unconsciousness. LOWELL, Prose, I., pp. 247, 248.
Frantic (XV.) : Frantic invective. JEFFIIEY, I., p. 217.
Free (XVIII.) : Rymer to present.
Much in use. Unconstrained movement. Usually
refers to the mechanical construction of composition,
occasionally to the thought.
120 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The more we attend to the composition of Milton's harmony, the
more we shall be sensible how he loved to vary his pauses, his
measures, and his feet, which gives that enchanting air of free-
dom and wildness to his versification, unconfined by any rules
but those which his own feelings and the nature of his subject
demanded. GRAY, I., pp. 332, 333.
A young writer can hardly afford to be quite direct and free in his
movements, lest he should be violent and awkward. DOWDEN,
St. in Lit., p. 129.
Freedom being thus the dominant note of Elizabethan poetry. J.
SYMONDS, Es., Sp. & Sug., p. 394.
Frenzy (XV.) : Laboured frenzy of diction. WHIPPLE, Es. & Rev.,
p. 176.
FRESH (IX.).
The term "fresh" is largely negative in its significa-
tion. That is said to be fresh which is in no sense
bookish, conventional, or pedantic. In its positive sig-
nificance, the term is uniformly associated with such
conceptions as sincerity, spontaneity, energy, the im-
' passioned, and the romantic.
Fresh . . . romantic spirit. CAMPBELL, p. 81.
Fresh as from the hand of nature. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 104.
Freshness of antiquity. ID., p. 121.
Fresh and lively. HALLAM, Lit. Hist., I., pp. 130, 131.
Neither "eloquence" nor "poetry" are the exact words with
which it would be appropriate to describe the fresh stvle of the
Waverley Novels. BAGEIIOT, II. , p. 151.
Chaucer ... is fresh . . . because he sets before us the world as
it honestly appeared to Geoffrey Chaucer, and not a world as it
seemed proper to certain people that it ought to appear. LOW-
ELL, III., p. 361.
Bunyan was conscious that greatness had been thrust upon him ;
and one misses accordingly in the second part something of the
delightful, freshness, the naturalness, the entire unconscious de-
votion of heart and singleness of purpose, which are so conspic-
uous in the first part. T. ARNOLD, Man. of Eng Lit., p. 320.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 121
Fresh and almost childlike. ID., p. 455.
Natural, fresh, and spontaneous. BEEIIS, Outline, etc., p. 90.
Frigid (XV.) : Mil. to present.
A lack of sincere, genuine feeling, which may result
from two causes :
I. From a total lack of feeling of any kind.
Over-elaboration ends in frigidity. LONGINUS, p. 6.
Jejune, far-fetched, and frigid. HAZLITT, Age of El., p. 211.
Frigid and ridiculous pedantry. ID., p. 137.
II. From the affectation of too much feeling.
Those who express themselves with this poetic air, produce by
their want of taste both the ridiculous and the frigid. AKIS-
TOTLE, Rhet., p. 216.
According to the definition of Theophrastus, the frigid in style is
that which exceeds the expression suitable to the subject.
GOLDSMITH, I., p. 378.
The frigid ... a failure to stir up in the reader the emotions
affected in the composition. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 36.
Frigid fervours in poetry. DOWDEN, Shak., etc., p. 63.
Frippery (V.) : Macaulay to present. Whipple, Es. & Rev., p. 269.
Frivolous (XI.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 479.
Fruitful (XVI.) : Swinburne, Es. & St. p. 188.
Fugitive (XI.): Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, Mis., p. 53.
Full-bodied (XII.): Dense and full-bodied lines. GOSSE, Life of
Congreve, p. 28.
Fulness (XI.) b : B. Jonson to present.
Refers both to the thought and to the sound of com-
position. As referring to the thought, it may indicate
either emotional or intellectual affluence or copiousness.
The verses . . . sweet, smooth, full, and strong. RYMEK,, 3d Pt.,
p. 79.
The violin's fulness and the violin's intensity are in the sonnets
from the Portuguese. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 213.
122 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Fulsome (XIV.) : Mil. to present.
Fulsome doggerel. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 211.
Fusion (XIII.) : Ilaz. to present.
The term represents both logical and emotional co-
herence and continuity, the blending of all the elements
of a composition so as to produce a perfect unity of
effect.
There is no principle of fusion in the work. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age,
p. 179.
Now passion, imagination, and will are fused together, and Romeo
who was weak, has at length become strong. DOWDEN, Shak.,
etc., p. 118.
Fustian ; (XIX.) : Gosson to present.
Fustian of Marlowe's style. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 451.
Futile (XXII.) a : Wil. to present.
Weak and futile. WILSON, VIII., p. 17.
Gallant: Put. to present century.
I. The excellent ; noble ; aesthetically good.
Gallant verse ... of Phaer. WEBBE, p. 34.
II. Chivalric; courteous; not really a critical term.
The songs and smaller pieces of Dryden have smoothness, wit, and
when addressed to ladies, gallantry in profusion. SCOTT, Life
of Dryden, I., pp. 425, 426.
Gallic (I.): Elegancies of a Gallic style. GOSSE, From Shak., etc.,
P . 157.
Garrulity (XIX.) b . Car. to present.
Sociable garrulity. JEFFREY, I., p. 366.
Gasping: Swinburne, Mis., p. 76.
Gaudy (V.): Blair to present.
Addison's style is splendid without being gaudy. BLAIR, Rhet.,
p. 209.
Gay (XIV.): S. John, to present.
Gay and sportive. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 278.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 123
Generality (VIII.) L\ Swift to present.
Not usually regarded as conducive to the best liter-
ary efi'ects.
What distinguishes Homer and Shakespeare from all other poets is
that they do not give their readers general ideas ; every image is
the particular and unalienable property of the person who uses
it. J. WARTON, I., p. 318.
Cowley pursues his thoughts to the last ramifications, by which he
loses the grandeur of generality. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 38.
An unaffecting generality. WILSON, VIII. , p. 44.
Generous (XIV.): J. War., Swin. J. Warton, II., p. 8.
Genial (XIV.): Car. to present.
Where there is genius there should be geniality. LANDOR, IV.,
p. 51.
Genius that is, geniality dwells in unnumbered bosoms. WIL-
SON, V. 3 p. 352.
Genius is that mode of intellectual power which moves in alliance
with the genial nature. DE QUINCEY, XL, p. 382.
GENIUS (XXIII.) .
The history of the term " genius " may be divided
into four periods. During the first period, which con-
tinued until the middle of the eighteenth ^ native
century, "genius" was closely related in
meaning to the term " nature." " Genius," however,
unlike " nature," denoted natural capacity or native
ingenuity, not only as controlling the original impulse
or inception of the literary work, but also as entering
into every phase and feature of the actual process of
its composition.
Betwixt genius (acumen) and diligence there is very little room
left for artjratio) ; art only shows you where to look, and where
that lies which you want to find. CICERO, Orations, p. 262.
A poet no industry can niake if his own genius be not carried into
124 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
it. And therefore is it an old proverb : Orator fit, poeta nas-
citur. 1583. SIDNEY, p. 46.
A poet ought always to have that instinct or some good genius
ready to serve his hero upon occasion, to prevent these unpleas-
ant shocking indecencies. RYMER, 1st Ft., p. 64.
I believe it is no wrong observation, that persons of genius, and
those who are most capable of art, are always most fond of
nature ; as such are chiefly sensible that all art consists in the
imitation and study of nature. 1713. POPE, X., p. 532.
By genius I would understand that power, or rather those powers
of the mind which are capable of penetrating into all things
within our reach and knowledge, and of distinguishing their
essential differences. These are no other than invention and
judgment; and they are both called by the collective name of
genius, as they are of those gifts of nature which we bring with
us into the world. FIELDING, T. Jones, II., pp. 5, 6.
*
The second period includes the last half of the eigh-
teenth century. " Genius " represented the power of
AS original producing something new, either as to the
impulse. thought or as to the method of expressing
it. Hence " genius " stood opposed to the established
rules of art : it was the most general and at the same
time the most vague expression possible for the pro-
gressive tendencies in literature, and over the more
specific terms which denoted these tendencies it exer-
cised a strong schematizing influence.
We see that the most accurate observation of dramatic rules with-
out genius is of no effect. 1756. J. WARTON, Pope, I., p. 69.
By genius is meant those excellencies that no study or art can
communicate, such as elevation, expression, description, wit,
humour, passion, etc. 1758. GOLDSMITH, IV., p. 418.
I am convinced that rules alone never made a genius. Conscious
I am that all the fine reasoning and delicate remark that have
been exhausted of late years upon this subject, are not equal to
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 125
one single scene dictated by a fine imagination. (Quoted from
Voltaire.) ID., p. 14.
Genius full of resources, master of the rules, but master also of
the reasons for the rules, often appears to despise them. 1759.
GIBBON, IV., p. 45.
The highest praise of genius is original invention. 1781. S.
JOHNSON, VII., p. 142.
During the present century, "genius," when referring
to a mental process, denotes both original impulse and
native power in giving this impulse literary expression ;
when referring to the literary work as a completed
product, it represents a constant appeal from literature
to life, from established methods of composition to
other possible methods, which have not yet been at-
tempted. Moreover, in the present century, " genius "
indicates not simply impulse or native force, but also
a certain refinement of force which gives to it artistic
value. "Genius" thus has at its command, at least in
a measure, its own laws of literary expression. It not
only represents progressive tendencies in art, but it
represents progressive tendencies which are organic in
their nature.
During the early portion of the century, " genius "
was supposed to manifest itself chiefly in an increase
of sensibility and in bold flights of the irnag- As an artistic
ination. It evolved its own laws of art, and im P ulse -
it was thought to be wholly unconscious, to elude all
immediate detection and analysis.
Of genius in the fine arts, the only infallible sign is the widening
the sphere of human sensibility. 1802. WORDSWORTH, II.,
p. 127.
126 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The ancients had no word that properly expresses what we mean
by the word genius. They perhaps had not the thing. Their
minds appear to have been too exact, too retentive, too minute
and subtle, too sensible to the external differences of things, too
passive under their impressions to admit of those bold and rapid
combinations, those lofty flights of fancy, which, glancing from
heaven to earth, unite the most opposite extremes, and draw the
happiest illustrations from things the most remote. 1807-
HAZLITT, Sk. & Essays, p. 424.
No work of true genius dares want its appropriate form . . . for
it is even this that constitutes it genius, the power of acting
creatively under laws of its own origination. 1810. COLE-
RIDGE, IV., p. 54.
Sensibility both quick and deep . . . may be deemed a compon-
ent part of genius. 1817. ID., III., p. 175.
Genius is unconscious of its existence and action . . . e. g. Mil-
ton's preference for Paradise Regained. 1826. HAZLITT, PL
Sp., pp. 160-175.
All genius is metaphysical ; because the ultimate end of genius is
ideal, however it may be actualized by incidental and accidental
circumstances. 1832. COLERIDGE, VI., p. 411.
Men of humor are always in some degree men of genius ; wits are
rarely so. 1833. ID., VI., p. 481.
During the latter portion of the century, " genius "
has been closely related to the intellectual processes
AS ethical an( ^ ^ ac ^ on - ^ usu ally refers to an in-
amPartistic ^ cnse activity of the mind, an activity which
power. from its intensity is oblivious of itself, and
thus seems to attain results of whose origin no account
can be given, an activity which represents a blending,
as it were, of all the powers of the mind, intellectual,
aesthetic, and ethical. This concentrated intense ac-
tivity of the mind, however, has not been regarded as
having its origin and outcome in sensibility, so much
as in a subtle intellectual analysis, and in impulses
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 127
toward action, toward the realization in some manner
of the intensely conceived thought, purpose, or ideal.
Many efforts have been made to define the term " ge-
nius " in the light of modern psychological knowledge,
but in criticism for the last half-century, the term has
been passing rapidly out of use.
Genius is intellectual power impregnated with the moral nature, and
expresses a synthesis of the active in man with his original or-
ganic capacity of pleasure and pain. 1838. DE QUINCEY, III.,
p. 34.
Genius is nothing less than the possession of all the powers and
impulses of humanity in their greatest possible strength, and most
harmonious combination. 1848. WHIPPLE, Lit. and Life. p. 159.
Enough that we recognize in Keats that indefinable newness and
unexpectedness which we call genius. 1854. LOWELL, Lat.
Lit, Es., L, p. 242.
Burns . . . possessed in as high degree, I think, as ever man pos-
sessed, the power of which Coleridge speaks in defining the
term genius, the power to combine the child's sense of wonder
and novelty with appearances which the experience of years had
rendered familiar. 1859. BRYANT, II., p. 318.
"Creative energy of genius" is said to be in opposition to "form,"
"method," "precision," "proportions," "arrangement," all
of them things . . . where intelligence proper comes in. 1865.
M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 54.
Genius ... is the ruling divinity of poetry. ID., p. 62.
A man of genius Lessing . . . unquestionably was, if genius may
be claimed no less for force than fineness of mind, for the
intensity of conviction that inspires the understanding as much
as for that apprehension of beauty which gives energy of will to
imagination, but a poetic genius he was not. 1866. LOW-
ELL, II., p. 224.
Genius lending itself to embody the new desire of man's mind as it
had embodied the old. 1868. ID., III., p. 65.
The term genius when used with emphasis implies imagination.
1876. EMERSON, Lei, & Soc. Aims, p. 22.
128 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Genius, therefore, manifested in any high degree, must be taken
to include intellect ; if the words are to be used in this sense,
genius begins where intellect ends. 1879. STEPHEN, Hrs. in
a Lib., p. 330.
Those dark and capricious suggestions of genius. 1880. PATER,
Ap., p. 74.
Byron's poetry has two main constituents, passion and wit. . . .
The great thing in Byron is genius. 1878. ROSSETTI, Lives
of the Poets, p. 307.
Humor is the overflow of genius. 1892. STEDMAN, Nat. & El.
of Poetry, p. 215.
The whole belief in genius seems to me rather a mischievous
superstition. . . . Does it mean anything more or less than
the mastery which comes to any man according to his powers
and diligence in any direction? HOWELLS, Grit. & Fiction,
pp. 87, 88.
To be a genius is to find one's self capable of perceiving ulterior
truths of far-reaching consequence, without passing through all
the intermediate stages of approach and preparation. . . . The
mental activity is of the same kind as that which comprehends
a " brave attack " as " an attack by brave men." 1893. SIIER-
MAN, Analytics of Lit., p. 121.
Gentle (XIX.): B. Jon. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 24-.
Gentlemanlike (V.): Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 66.
Gentlemanly (V.): Hal. to present.
.Manly and gentlemanly. WHIPPLE, Am. Lit., etc., p. 89.
Genuine (VII.) : Goldsmith to present.
Fresh and genuine. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 116.
Germanisms (I.): The Germanisms of Carlyle. SAINTSBURY, Eng.
Pr. St., p. xxxi.
Gibberish (XXII.) : Whipple, Es. & Rev., I., p. 412.
Gigantic (XI.) : J. War. to present.
The Egyptians . . . mistook the gigantic for the sublime, and
greatness of bulk for greatness of manner. J. WARTON, I.,
p. 350.
Faustus himself is a rude sketch, but it is a gigantic one. HAZ-
LTTT, Age of El., p. 43.
Glaring (V.) : Pope to present. Pope, X., p. 549.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 129
Glitter (V.) : Haz. to present.
Glittering but still graceful conceits. HAZLITT, Age of EL, p. 178.
An unseasonable glitter of rhetoric. DE QUINCEY, V., p. 99.
Gloomy (XIV.) : Jef. to present.
Grand and gloomy sketch. JEFFREY, II., p. 476.
Glory : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 24. ^
Glossy (V.) : A meretricious gloss. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 121.
Good-sense (XX.) a : Jef. to present. -
The reflection of this quality of solid good sense, absolutely scorn-
ing any aliment except that of solid ^acts, is the so-called realism
of Fielding's novels. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., III., p. 72.
Gorgeous (V.) : Webbe to present.
Gorgeous diction of Thompson. JEFFREY, II., p. 88.
GOTHIC (IX.).
u Gothic" has been employed in criticism chiefly as
a schematizing term, being applied directly to litera-
ture but very seldom. Four periods may be distin-
guished in the history of the term.
During the first period, which extended. until within
the early portion of the eighteenth century, "Gothic"
indicated whatever was considered as rude, AS crudity of
_ . .., . conceit and
barbarous, or crude m literature. Rhyme ornament,
was thought to be a Gothic device, an uncouth orna-
ment. Forced conceits and wild fancies of all kinds
were classed as Gothic, since they seemed designed
merely to be striking, and since they caused the sim-
plifying and unifying conception of the composition,
as a whole, to be lost sight of in the over-emphasis of
the separate parts and details.
But now when men know the difference, and have the examples
both of the best and the worst, surely to follow rather the Goths
in rhyming than the Greeks in true versifying, were even to eat
acorns with swine, when we may freely eat wheat bread amongst
men. 1568. ASCITAM, III., p. 249.
9
130 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Rhyme, common to all those peoples called barbarous by the
Greeks ; but it is the first method and most universal method,
. . . which give to all human inventions no small credit. 1585.
PUTTENHAM, p. 26.
Something of the stiff and Gothic did stick upon our language till
long after Chaucer. RYMEK, 2d Pt., p. 78.
The little Gothic ornaments of epigrammatical conceits, turns,
points, and quibbles, which are so frequent in the most admired
of our English poets, and practised by those who want genius
and strength to represent, after the manner of the ancients, sim-
plicity in its natural beauty and perfection. 1710. ADDISON,
II., p. 146.
As the eye, in surveying a Gothic building, is distracted by the
multiplicity of ornaments, and loses the whole by its minute
attention to the parts, so the mind, in perusing a work over-
stocked with wit is fatigued and disgusted with the constant
endeavor to shine and surprise. 1742. D. HUME, I., p. 241.
The second period includes the greater portion of
the eighteenth century. Rhyme grew into favor with
AS strength ^ e CI *itics. The Gothic was often placed in
opposition to the classic, not as representing
mere barbarity, but as being associated with
such terms as strength, vividness, imagination, gran-
deur, and sublimity. The use of the term in this and
in the succeeding period was little more than a trans-
ference into literature of the feeling and sentiment
inspired by a Gothic cathedral. The cathedral was
conspicuous for its gloomy massiveness, its abrupt em.
phasis of separate parts, and its lack of formal unity
in general design. Likewise, during the eighteenth
century, the term " Gothic," as employed in criticism,
signified power and grandeur of thought, vivid and
picturesque imagery, and a unity which lay deeper than
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 131
mere formal design and construction, a unity of
emotional effect.
To the Bishop of Rochester : I know you will be so gentle to the
modern Gotlis and Vandals as to allow them to put a few rhymes
upon tombs or over doors. 1718. POPE, IX., p. 13.
One may look upon Shakespeare's works in comparison of those
that are more finished and regular, as upon an ancient majestic
piece of Gothic architecture, compared with a neat modern build-
ing; the latter is more elegant and glaring, but the former is
more strong and solemn. 1725. ID., X., p. 549.
Gothic imagination . . . bordering often on the most ideal and
capricious extravagance. 1778. T. WARTON, Hist. E. P., p. 257.
The following portrait is highly charged, and very great in the
Gothic style of painting:
Blake was his berde, and manly was his face :
The circles of his eyin in his hede,
They glowdin betwixte yalowe and rede
And like a lyon lokid he about
With kempid heris on his browis stout. (Chaucer.)
1778. T. WARTON, p. 239.
During the early portion of the present century the
Gothic was regarded as in no sense crude and unre-
fined. Its rugged power was transformed AS suggestive
grandeur and
into suggestive power. It became more in- sublimity,
tellectual. It usually denoted a supreme intensity of
conception and force in execution ; a blending of the
most vivid imagery with the sense of the mysterious
and the infinite ; a rigid subordination of definite form
in literature to the thought or principle by which this
form is continually redetermined.
Wordsworth compares his works to a Gothic church :
Excursion is the body of the church,
Prelude is the ante-chapel,
Smaller pieces are oratorios, etc.
WORDSWORTH, II., p. 146.
132 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Bold, rude Gothic outline (Macbeth). 1820. HAZLITT, Eliz.
Lit., p. 19.
Laid the restless spirit of Gothic quaintness, witticism, and con-
ceit in the lap of classic elegance and pastoral simplicity. ID.,
p. 206.
The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imagina-
ble. It is no doubt a sublimer effort of genius than the Greek
style ; but then it depends much more on execution for its
effect. 1833. COLERIDGE, VI., p. 461.
Greek art is beautiful . . . but Gothic art is sublime. ID., IV.,
p. 235.
That magnificent condition of fantastic imagination which ... is
one of the chief elements of the Northern Gothic mind. 1846.
RUSKIN, St. of Venice, II., p. 154.
During the last half of the present century, the terms
" Gothic " and " romantic " have been employed almost
AS the ro- interchangeably to represent one of the two
mantic. general and opposing tendencies by which
the development of literature has been controlled. (See
Classical.) The early association of the terms " Gothic"
and "romantic" was historical in origin, more or less
accidental, and the terms were by no means identified
with each other in meaning. In becoming a synonym
for the "romantic," the " Gothic" lost the fierceness
of its strength, the wildness of its suggestion. It be-
came more general and diffused. It denotes the pro-
gressive tendencies in literature slightly intensified,
perhaps, over that which is signified by the term " ro-
mantic." (See " Romantic " for quotations.)
GRACEFUL (XXII.) b.
Throughout the history of the term, and especially
previous to the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 183
the " graceful " indicated freedom and ease in composi-
tion, resulting perhaps from choice and finish, but far
more usually from spontaneous, sincere, and AS the spon-
,. ' ,, , f . taneous, natu-
even negligent methods of expression. rai, and easy.
Affected metaphors lose their grace. B. JONSON, Timber, p. 60.
Horace still charms with graceful negligence. POPE, II., p. 75.
Ovid shows himself most in a familiar story, where the chief grace
is to be easy and natural. ADDISON, I., p. 145.
Samson Agonistes opens with a graceful abruptness. S. JOHNSON,
III., p. 158.
Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
the " graceful " has usually been associated more closely
than it had previously been with the con- AS animated
and free
ception of energy, or of movement, in corn- movement,
position. Grace consists in the absence of difficulty,
the perfect union of vigor and fluency ; it represents
the aesthetic sense of action or the poetry of movement.
Gracefulness is an idea not very different from beauty. ... It
belongs to posture and motion. In both these to be graceful,
it is requisite that there be no appearance of difficulty. BURKE,
I., pp. 137, 138.
Sweet native gracefulness ... in Burns. CARLYLE, II., p. 15.
Impetuous, graceful power. ID., IV., p. 130.
Grace, that charm so magical because at once so shadowy and so
potent, that Will-o'-the Wisp which in its supreme development
may be said to involve nearly all that is valuable in poetry. POE,
II., pp. 98, 99.
Grace is but a more refined form of power. LOWELL, III., p. 34.
Gracious (XIV.) : Ros. to present.
So bright, so tender, so gracious. DOWDEN, Shak., etc., p. 333.
Grammatical (I.) : Dry. to present.
I. Exactness and correctness in the use of single
words and phrases. Usually a primary literary require-
ment previous to the present century.
134 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Shakespeare . . . was ungrammatical and coarse. DHYDEN, VI.,
p. 255.
Shakespeare . . . was ungrammatical, perplexed, and obscure.
1765. S. JOHNSON, V., p. 135.
Pope . . . was not grammatical. 1781. ID., VIII., p. 343.
II. An exact, clear-cut, and often puristic use of
language. Usually a very secondary literary require-
ment during the present century.
"I've done, begin the rites."
Here it is the brokenness, the ungrammatical position, the total
subversion of the period, that charms me. GRAY, II., p. 333.
The grammatical style ... of Newman. M. ARNOLD, Gel. Lit.,
p. 200.
Grand (XL): Scott to present.
The grand style, at once noble and natural. LOWELL, III., p. 173.
Shakespeare himself . . . has not of the marks of the master, this
one: perfect sureness of hand in his style. Alone of English
poets Milton has it ; he is our great artist in style, our one first
rate master in the grand style. M. ARNOLD, Mixed Es., p. 200.
Grandeur (XI.) : Mil*, to present.
The sublime, which is also simple ; vast images or
conceptions which are not complicated or over-sugges-
tive, the limits or full import of which are somewhat
definitely marked.
The grandeur of the historic style. MILTON, III., p. 498.
The simplicity of grandeur which fills the imagination. S. JOHN-
SON, II., p. 178.
Artless grandeur. ID., VIII., p. 336.
Sometimes . . . the intensity of his satire gives to his poetry a
character of emphatic violence, which borders upon grandeur.
SCOTT, Life of Swift, p. 453.
Wordsworth ... a baldness which is full of grandeur. M.
ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 159.
Grandiloquent (XIX.) i\ Put. to present.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 135
Grandiose (XIX.) b: Hal. to present.
Marlowe . . . constantly pushes grandiosity to the verge of bom-
bast. LOWELL, 0. E. D., p. 36.
Grandity (XIX.) 6: Camden, p. 337.
Graphic (III.): Jef. to present. Wilson, VI., p. 198.
Grasp (XIII.): Swin., Mor. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 15.
Grave (XIV.) : T Wil. to present. Much in use.
The Georgiacs are written in a ... grave and decent style.
WEBBE, p. 29.
Great (XXII.) a: Haz. to present.
The great becomes turgid in ... Moore's . . . hands. HAZ-
LITT, Sp. of Age, p. 325.
Grim (XIV.) : J. Wil. to present.
A certain grim irony. DOWDEN, Shak., p. 105.
Grisatre : Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xliv.
Gross (V.) : Ascham to present.
To bring his style from all low grossness to such firm fastness in
Latin as is in Demosthenes in Greek. ASCHAM, III., p. 206.
GROTESQUE (IX.).
The term "grotesque" indicates in general an almost
total lack of proportion in the parts of a composition,
with special reference to the pictorial char- As general
acter of the mental imagery employed. Until ^P* ** *-
within the early portion of the present century, the
" grotesque " was considered as unnatural, inorganic,
hideous in its disproportion. It was often associated
with whatever was barbarous, Gothic, or Mediaeval, but
even after the Gothic and Mediaeval had come into favor
in criticism, the " grotesque " still continued for at least
half a century to be thought of as something that lay
wholly beyond the limits of normal, healthful literary
art.
When words or images are placed in unusual juxtaposition rather
than connection, and arc so placed merely because the juxtapo-
136 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
sition is unusual, we have the odd or the grotesque. 1810.
COLERIDGE, IV., p. 276.
The pure, which is called the classical ; the ornate, called roman-
tic; and the grotesque, which might be called the Mediaeval.
1864. BAGEHOT, Lit. St., II., p. 352.
During the greater portion of the present century,
the characteristic use of the term has been to repre-
AS dispropor- sent the healthful overflow, so to speak, of
imagery. the imagination in literary production, as
especially indicated in an extreme disproportion of- the
picturesque qualities of the mental imagery employed.
The hideous now indicates the outer limits of dispro-
portion in art, which was formerly occupied by the
grotesque.
The picturesque depends chiefly on the principle of discrimination
or contrast. ... It runs imperceptibly into the fantastical and
grotesque. 1819. HAZLITT, Table Talk, pp. 448, 449.
Close alongside ot' the normal lies the sphere of the abnormal ; of
the sane, lies the insane ; of pleasure, lies disgust ; of cohesion,
lies dissolution ; of the grotesque, lies the hideous ; of the sub-
lime, lies the ridiculous. . . . Victor Hugo, in his imaginative
flights, is forever hovering about this dividing line, fascinated,
spellbound by what lies beyond. BURROUGHS, Indoor St.,
p. 182.
Wherever the human mind is healthy and vigorous in all its pro-
portions, great in imagination and emotion no less than in intel-
lect, and not overborne by an undue or hardened pre-eminence
of the mere reasoning faculties, there the grotesque will exist in
full energy. ... I think that the central man of all the world
as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral, and
intellectual faculties, all at their highest, is Dante. 1846.
RUSKIN, St. of Venice, II., p. 206.
Grovelling: Dry., Ad.
Grovelling style ... of Horace. DRYDEN, XIII., p. 88.
Guarded (XIX.): Jeffrey, II., p. 88.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 137
Gush (XIX.) b\ Stcd., Saints. Swinburne, Mis., p. 158.
Gusto (XV.) : Haz. to present.
An impulsive and passionate apprehension and liter-
ary embodiment of an image, thought, or general
principle.
Gusto in art is power or passion defining an object. HAZLITT,
The Round Table, p. 109.
Gusto of Chaucer ... a local truth and freshness. ID., Eug. P.,
p. 36.
Acuteness and gusto. HUNT, Wit & Humour, p. 5.
Combination of gusto with sound theory. SAINTSBUBT, Es. in
Eng. Lit., p. 158.
Gusty: (XIX.) b ; Swin. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 265.
Hackneyed (IX.) : Cole to present.
Hackneyed and commonplace. LOWELL, 0. E. D., p. 130.
Halting (XVIII.) : Hazlitt, Age of El., p. 44.
Handsome (XXII.) b : Jef. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 72.
Happy (IV.): Camden to present.
The turn of the poem is happy. RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 79.
Hard (III.), cf. (XXII.) 6: Ascham to present.
I. Difficult; not clear.
The sense is hard and dark. ASCHAM, III., p. 269.
Piers Plowman . . . hard and obscure. PUTTENHAM, p. 76.
II. Not productive of aesthetic feeling ; ineffectual.
All attempts that are new in this kind are dangerous and some-
what hard, before they be softened with use. B. JONSON,
Timber, p. 61.
Dry, hard, and barren of effect. HAZLITT, Age of El., p. 207.
HARMONY (X.).
There are two periods and three uses in the history
of the term "harmony." Previous to the present cen-
tury the term denoted a fixed and uniform AS regular
continuations
method of combining sounds and ot arrang- of sound,
138 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
ing the metrical movements of a literary production.
This established harmony, it was assumed, could not
fail to please the ear and arouse agreeable emotions
in the mind.
We ought to join words together in apt order that the ear may
delight in hearing the harmony. T. WILSON, Rhet., pp. 175, 176.
Poesy is a skill to speak and write harmonically. 1585. PUT-
TENHAM, p. 79.
By the harmony of words we elevate the mind to a sense of devo-
tion. 1669. DRYDEN, III., p. 377-
To preserve an exact harmony and variety, the pause at the fourth
or sixth . . . syllable of the verse . . . should not be continued
above three lines together without the interposition of another.
1706. POPE, VI., p. 57.
Our poetry was not quite harmonized in Waller's time; so that
this (On the Death of the Lord Protector), which would be now
looked upon as a slovenly sort of versification, was, with respect
to the times in which it was written, almost a prodigy of har-
mony. 1767. GOLDSMITH, V., p. 160.
After about half a century of forced thoughts and rugged meter,
some advances toward nature and harmony had been made by
Waller and Denham. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII.; pp. 307,
308.
During the present century, the term "harmony,"
when referring to the sounds and rhythms of a com-
AS unity and position, represents such a combination of
variety of
sound. regularity and irregularity, of uniformity and
variety, as shall keep expectation continually upon the
wing, as shall conform to the anticipated combinations
of sounds and of rhythms enough to give a certain de-
gree of confidence to the expectation, but which shall
disappoint the anticipation enough to keep the expecta-
tion continually re-formin<r its basis of inference.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 139
The heroic measure of Chaucer is in general not only metrically
correct, but possesses considerable harmony. 1819. CAMP-
BELL, I., p. 47.
Spenser threw the soul of harmony into our verse. ID., p. 53.
Johnson says these are remarkably inharmonious :
This delicious place
Eor us too large, where thy abundance wants
Partakers, and uncropt falls to the ground. (Par. Lost.)
There are few so dull as to be incapable of perceiving the beauty
of the rhythm in the last, 1826. LANDOR, IV., p. 449.
There is many a critic who talks of harmony, and whose ear seems
to have been fashioned out of the callus of his foot. ID., VIII.,
p. 387.
In Massinger, as all our poets before Dryden, in order to make
harmonious verse in the reading, it is absolutely necessary that
the meaning should be understood ; when the meaning is once
seen then the harmony is perfect. Whereas in Pope ... it is
the mechanical meter which determines the sense. (Pub.)
1836. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 259.
Occasionally, in this century, the term " harmony "
denotes a blending of all the parts of a composition
into one another in such a manner as to AS general
adaptation in
produce a perfect unity of aesthetic effect, composition.
Poetry ... is the result of the general harmony and completion
... of all thejssulties. 1828. CARLYLE, II., p. 18.
We have no word but the coarse and insufficient word taste to
express that noble sense of harmony and high poetic propriety
shown ... in these lyrics. 1867. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 141.
Dramatic harmony. 1889. ID., A St. of B. Jonson, p. 66.
Harsh (X.) : Harvey to present.
I. Rough and broken in sound or thought.
The sound which I speak of as belonging to Grammar relates only
to sweetnesses and harshnesses. t BACON, IV., p. 443.
II. Hard; obscure.
Harsh and obscure. WEBBE, p. 32.
140 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
III. Unfeeling; unsympathetic.
The harsh direct narrative of Defoe. GOSSE, Eighteeutli Cent. St.,
p. 385.
Healthful (XIV.): Chan. Howells, Cr. & Fiction, p. 24.
Hearty (XLL): Walton, Saints.
Too hearty to be dissembled. WALTON, Lives, p. 119.
Heat (XV.): Lan., Swin.
Shakespeare's sonnets are hot and pothery. LANDOR, IV., p. 512.
Heavenly (XXII.) b: Lodge to present.
When their matter is most heavenly, their style is most lofty.
LODGE, p. 11.
Heavy (XVIII.) : Campion to present.
That which produces fatigue; the tedious, the diffi-
cult, the over-condensed.
I cannot agree that this exactness of detail produces heaviness;
on the contrary, it gives an appearance of truth. HAZLITT,
Eng. Com. Writers, p. 159.
Milton . . . often condenses weight into heaviness. HUNT, Im-
agination and Fancy, p. 47-
Hectic (XV.) : The water blushed into wine. (Crashaw.)
This is in his usual hectic manner. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers,
p. 69.
Heightened (VIII.) : Heightened and elaborate air. M. ARNOLD,
Cel. Lit., etc., p. 288.
Heroic (XI.) : Put. to present.
Kinds of poetry, heroic, scommatic, pastoral. HOBBES, IV.,
p. 444.
The personages to speak not as men but as heroes. SCOTT, Ed.
of Dryden, II., p. 318.
Hideous (XXII.) b : Hideous and ludicrous conceits. GOSSE, Life
of Congreve, p. 155.
High (XI.): Put. to present.
High and stately. PUTTENHAM, p. 164.
From style really high and pure, Milton never departs. M.
ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 62.
High-colored (V.) : Jef. to present.
High-colored and apparently exaggerated. Jeffrey, I., p. 370.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 141
High-toned : Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 79.
Historic (VIII.) : Camp, to present.
I. In theory, history, representing past events and
past attainments, is thought to furnish a basis for the
poetic activity to which, also, in a measure, it pre-
scribes limits.
In an historian ... I do not want frequent interspersions of sen-
timent. MILTON, III., p. 515.
Eor as truth is the bound of historical, so the resemblance of truth
is the utmost limit of poetical liberty. HOBBES, IV., pp. 451,
452.
The historian, to be worthy the name, must occasionally exercise
the poet's office. WALLER, II., p. 448.
Truth to nature can be reached ideally, never historically. LOW-
ELL, Prose, II., p. 128.
II. The "historic," in its immediate critical signifi-
cance, is thought to be prosaic and tedious.
Norman verse dwelt for a considerable time in the tedious historic
style. CAMPBELL, I., p. 14.
Histrionic (VIII.) : False and histrionic. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 249.
Hobbling (XVIII.): Mil., Dry.
Carmen hexametrum doth rather trot and hobble than run smoothly
in our English tongue. ASCHAM, III., p. 251.
Hollow : J. Wil. to present.
False and hollow. WILSON, VII., p. 314.
Home-bred (VII.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 49.
Homely (V.) : Put. to present.
The extreme homeliness ... of Defoe's style. LAMB, Mrs.
Leicester, p. 305.
Home-spun : Swin. to present.
Home-spun style of Locke. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 96.
Homogeneous (XIII.) a : Lowell, Prose, IV., p. 162.
142 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
HONEST (VII.): T. Wil. to present.
I. In early criticism, the term signified that which
was not affected or over-strained ; moderation and nat-
uralness of statement.
That is called an honest matter when either we take in hand such
a cause that all men would maintain, or else gainsay such a
cause that no man can well like. T. WILSON, Rhet., p. 8.
The honesty and simplicity of the first beginners in tragedy.
RYMBE, 2d Pt., p. 11.
The venustum, the honestum, the decorum of things will force its
way. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 108.
II. Later, the term has signified that which is nei-
ther affected nor conventional, the spontaneous and
natural in composition.
Spontaneous and honest. LOWELL, Lat. Lit. Es. s p. 3.
Simple, natural, and honest. HOWELLS, Cr. & Fiction.
Horrible (XXII.) A: Swin., Es. & St., p. 14-
Horrid (XXII.) b : Gossc, Life of Congreve, p. 84.
Horse-play (V.) : Hunt to present. Hunt, Wit & Humour, p. 2.
Human (XIV.): Whip, to present.
Elizabethan literature . . . was intensely human. WHIPPLE, El.
Lit., p. 5.
I call this a good human bit of writing . . . not so high-falutmg
... as the modern style, since poets have got hold of a theory
that imagination is common sense turned inside out. LOWELL,
III., p. 270.
Motives broadly human . . . such as one and all may realize.
PATER, Ap., p. 241.
Humanism: The faded humanism of the taste of the day. GOSSE,
Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 97.
Humble : Put. to present.
In a style that expressed such a grave and so humble a majesty.
WALTON, Lives, ,p. 184.
The proper place of comparisons lies in the middle region between
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 143
the highly pathetic and the very humble style. BLAIR, Rhet.,
p. 184.
Humdrum : Jog-trot and humdrum, so not powerful. M. ARNOLD,
Celtic Lit., etc., p. 183.
HUMOR (XVII.).
The word "humor" as employed in criticism denoted
at first in accordance with the physiological knowl-
edge of the times a supposed fluid or moisture of the
body, which was erratic and ungovernable in its method
of activity. "Humor" has come to mean an active,
impulsive play of sympathy between the ideal and the
actual conditions of human life. In such an extended
change of meaning as this, it is evident that almost
an infinite number of intermediate distinctions could
be drawn. But in all such distinctions there is a com-
mon element of critical significance in the term, in
that it designates a principle of variation in literature,
progressive or revolutionary tendencies, which are
brought about by an apparently involuntary play of
the fancy upon the incongruities of actual life, accom-
panied, perhaps, by a spirit of sympathetic feeling.
The changes of meaning in the term have resulted
chiefly from the different incentives which have pro-
duced this variation and play of the fancy.
Four general stages of development of meaning may
be distinguished in the history of the term.
Until the eighteenth century, the physiological origin
of the term occasionally controlled its critical meaning.
The humors of the body were blind and aim- Ag an erratic
less. They were themselves the source of bodily humor -
oddities and incongruities rather than the means of
UNIVERSITY I
OF /
144 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
reacting upon oddities and incongruities in others.
Hence they furnished material for literary representa-
tion, but in the author himself they were considered
as merely a disturbing influence in the organizing of
this material.
Poetry in the primogeniture had many peccant humours, and is
made to have more now, through the levity and inconstancy of
men's judgments. (Pub.) 1641. B. JONSON, Timber, p. 72.
A play ... is ... a just and lively image of human nature, rep-
resenting its passions and humours, and the changes of fortune
to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind.
1668. DRYDEN, XV., p. 292.
What force of wit and spirit in the style, what lively painting of
humour, some fancy they discern there, I will not examine nor
dispute. 1699. BENTLEY, II., p. 78.
Correct the redundancy of humours, and chasten the exuberance
of conceit and fancy. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 131.
All the varieties and turns of humour. . . . Yet the simple imita-
tion of nature . . . through petulancy or debauch of humour
. . . was set aside. ID., p. 193.
From the middle of the seventeenth century until
the latter portion of the eighteenth century, "humor"
AS the usually indicated the pleasantly ridiculous,
ridiculous. the merely laughable, the comical. But for
the representation of these things, the author, it was
now recognized, must himself be possessed of a sense
of what was humorous, and it was this humorous sense
in the author which determined the nature of the hu-
mor in the literary production. This humor was closely
allied to wit. It consisted in general of a sudden feel-
ing of contrast between the ordinary routine of life and
some extravagant incident or incongruity, which was
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 145
usually supposed to be found or to have taken place
among the lower classes of society. The contrast, how-
ever, remained a contrast, and was not taken up into
the unifying influence of sympathetic feeling. The
purpose of the Jiumor did not extend beyond the pleas-
ant excitation of the moment.
Genesis of humor from the ancients. (Summary) :
1 . At first an odd conceit, not imitation.
2. Then containing only the general characters of men and
manners, i. e., types; e. g. old men, lovers, courtezans,
etc.
3. Among English, some extravagant habit, passion, or affec-
tation . . . distinguishing its possessor from the rest of
men. 1668. DKYDEN, XV., p. 350.
Jonson's comedy, "neither all wit or all humour, but the result of
both." 1671. ID., III.,- p. 244.
Jonson was the only man of all ages and nations who has per-
formed* it (humor) well. ... To make men appear pleasantly
ridiculous on the stage . . . was his talent. ID., p. 241.
There is in Othello some burlesque, some humour, and ramble of
comical wit. RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 146.
Pew passages in Horace are more full of humour than this ludi-
crous punishment of the poor creditor. 1756. J. WAB.TON,
II., p. 215.
As humor in writing chiefly consists in an imitation of the foibles
or absurdities of mankind, so our pleasure in this species of
composition arises from comparing the picture in description
with the original in nature. In the works of our own country-
men we have frequent opportunities of making this comparison,
as the originals are generally before us ; but when we read the
productions of foreigners, as their portraits are copied from
manners with which we are not sufficiently acquainted, so they
must often appear forced and unnatural. 1757- GOLDSMITH,
IV., p. 283.
During the eighteenth century "humor" was very
often regarded as a form of the comical, in which the
10
146 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
poignancy resulted, not from the extravagant violation
AS the of social customs in general, but from any
ludicrous. deviation whatever from good taste and cul-
tivated feeling. u Humor " thus considered was more
diffused and genial than in the preceding use of the
term. It was thought of as a characteristic of the
author's mind, an active influence in producing litera-
ture. It represented a conservative form of sympathy,
a sympathy which included certain imperfect conditions
only in order that these conditions might be corrected
and improved in conformity with other conditions
already well established. This form of " humor" was
associated with wit and satire, not with pathos.
A man of urbanitas will be one from whom many good sayings and
repartees shall have proceeded, and who, in common conversa-
tion, at meetings, at entertainments, in assemblies of the people,
and, in short, everywhere speaks with humor and propriety.
QUINTILIAN, VI., p. 455.
A taste for humour is in some manner fixed to the very nature of
man, and generally obvious to the vulgar, except upon subjects
too refined, and superior to their understanding. SWIFT, IX.,
p. 88.
It is not an imagination that teems with monsters, an head that is
filled with extravagant conceptions, which is capable of furnish-
ing the world with diversions of humour. 1710. ADDISON,
II., p. 297.
Genuine humour, the concomitant of true taste, consists in discern-
ing improprieties in books as well as characters. 1778. T.
WARTON, Hist. E. P., p. 286.
Wit and humour are ever found in proportion to the progress of
refinement. 1778. ID., p. 684.
Addison's humour is so happily diffused as to give the grace of
novelty to domestic scenes and daily occurrences. 1781. S.
JOHNSON, VII., p. 472.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 147
In fact Hawthorne was able to tread in that magic circle only by
an exquisite refinement of taste, and by a delicate sense of hu-
mour, which is the best preservative against all extravagance..
1874. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., I., p. 295.
During the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
humor came to be regarded as a characteristic of
genius, an instinct which acted " without Ag the s m _
design," as it were, unconsciously. In the sense et of the
beginning of the present century, humor was
distinguished from wit, humor being the more un-
conscious and sympathetic, wit the more conscious
and intellectual. Throughout the present century, the
term " humor," with few exceptions, has represented
the sense of the incongruous, which arises, when the
actual is viewed in the light of ideals, which are as
broad and comprehensive as human life itself. Hu-
mor thus relates to common human interests and
ideals, is buoyant and filled with a sense of growth
and development. Humor reaches out continually and
brings into its sympathetic unity new material for lit-
erature. Though one of the most progressive of liter-
ary tendencies, the intimate relation of humor to pathos
keeps it distinct from the merely incongruous, the dis-
proportioned, the grotesque.
Such, then, being demonstrably the possibility of blending or fus-
ing, as it were, the elements of pathos and humour, and com-
posing out of their union a third metal, I cannot but consider
John Paul Richter as by far the most eminent artist in that way
since the time of Shakespeare. 1821. DE QUINCEY, XI.,
p. 264.
Whilst wit is a purely intellectual thing, into every act of the hu-
mourous mood there is an influx of the moral nature. ID.,
p. 270.
148 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The essence of humour is sensibility ; warm, tender fellow-feeling
with all forms of existence. Nay, we may say that unless sea-
soned and purified by humour, sensibility is apt to run wild;
will readily corrupt into disease, falsehood, or, in one word, sen-
timentality. 1827. CARLYLE, L, p. 14.
Humour is properly the exponent of low things ; that which first
renders them poetical to the mind. The man of humour sees
common life, even mean life, under the new light of sportfulness
and love. 1828. ID., III., p. 97-
Humor properly took its rise in the Middle Ages ; and the Devil,
the Vice of the mysteries, incorporates the modern humor in its
elements. It is a spirit measured by disproportionate finites.
(Pub.) 1836. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 279.
Humor in its first analysis is a perception of the incongruous, and,
in its highest development, of the incongruity between the
actual and the ideal in men and life. 1866. LOWELL, II.,
p. 97.
Nothing but the highest artistic sense can prevent humor from
degenerating into the grotesque. 1866. ID., p. 90.
Your historian, for instance, with absolutely truthful intention, . . .
must needs select, and in selecting assert something of his own
humour, something that comes not of the world without, but of
a vision within. 1888. PATER, Ap., p. 5.
Humor is the overflow of genius. 1892. STEDMAN, Nat. & El.
of Poetry, p. 215.
Hurtling (X.) : Clang of hurtling rhymes. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 43.
Hybrid (VII.) : Hybrid and bastard rhymes. SWINBURNE.
Hyperbolical (VIII.) : Put. to present.
Hyperboles suit with the temperament of the young, for they
evince a vehemence of temper. ARISTOTLE, TUiet., p. 245.
Hyperbole, the over-reacher or loud liar. PUTTENHAM, p. 200.
Figurative expressions, or hyperbolical allusions. HAZLITT, Age
of EL, p. 56.
Hysterical (XV.) : Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 227.
Idea : Jef. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 165.
IDEAL (XXIII).
The term has been employed chiefly in theory as an
opposing expression to the real. It usually refers di-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 149
rectly to the author himself rather than to his literary
work. The " ideal " represents the result AS enhance-
of the imaginative activity in heightening heightening,
or transforming facts or historical truth into literary
material and literary forms of expression. Two stages
may perhaps be distinguished in this imaginative sub-
limation of the real or actual. (See Imagination and
Reality.) Usually the "ideal" indicates an improve-
ment or elevation of the common and well-known fact,
a deeper conception of its meaning ; the transformation
of it as a fixed entity into a moving principle, accompa-
nied, perhaps, by strong feeling and passion.
Entertains in his imagination an ideal beauty, conceived and culti-
vated as an improvement upon nature. GOLDSMITH, I., p. 338.
Milton has no idealism . . . Wordsworth has. WILSON, V.,
p. 395.
Truth to nature can be reached ideally, never historically. LOW-
ELL, Prose, II., p. 128.
A figure may be ideal and yet accurate. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 220.
Every workman must be a realist in knowledge, and an idealist for
interpretation. STEDMAN, Nat. of Poetry, p. 199.
Occasionally the "ideal" possesses no direct resem-
blance to any definite fact or historical truth. It is to
be defined merely as that which is in accord AS impas-
sioned inven-
with the sense of harmony and beauty in tion.
the mind.
The ideal is that which answers to the preconceived and appetite
in the mind for love and beauty. HAZLITT, Table Talk, p. 448.
His idealism does not consist in conferring grandeur upon vulgar
objects by tinging them with the reflection of deep emotion.
STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., I., p. 280.
150 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Idiomatic (I.) : Harvey to present.
The vernacular; a diction, common, well known, con-
versational. Not held in much favor by the critics
until within the eighteenth century.
Rules for avoiding the idiomatic style and attaining the sublime,
use of metaphors, etc. ADDISON, III., pp. 191, 192.
Milton formed his style by a perverse and pedantic principle ; lie
was desirous to use English words with a foreign idiom. S.
JOHNSON, VII., p. 140.
Spenser's language is less pure and idiomatic than Chaucer's.
HAZLITT, Eng. Poets, p. 56.
They wrote idiomatically, because they wrote naturally and with-
out affectation. DE QUINCEY, X., p. 126.
Idiosyncrasy : Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxiv.
Idyllic (XXL) : Swiu. to present.
An idyllic or picturesque mode. STEDMAN, Vic. Poets, p. 187-
Idyllic flavor. SAINTSBURY, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 299.
Ignoble (XIV.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 391.
Ill-constructed : Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 9.
Ill-digested: Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 181.
Ill-placed (IV.): Dry., J. War.
A synchesis or ill-placing of words. DRYDEN, IV., p. 231.
IMAGINATION (XXIII.)-
Five periods may be distinguished in the history of
the term " imagination." During the first period, which
AS the source ex ^ en ^ s ! ^ lc middle of the seventeenth cen-
SndpoSSa tui 7? " imagination " was not an active criti-
caTterm in applied criticism, though in theory
it was thought to be a sufficient explanation for the
origin of poetry. Imagination was a more or less
independent mental activity, set over in sharp relief \
against the reason, and having to do with "jdeas" or
images, which could in no sense be derived from past
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 151
experience, which in fact had far less reference even
to the present than to future experience. Imagina-
tion was regarded from the standpoint of its effect.
It was the means by which poetical and religious con-
ceptions could be attained and appreciated. These the
poet and critic found existing in society as potent in-
fluences in actual conduct. The mental activity by
which these conceptions were rendered possible was
left almost wholly undefined.
Art transcends nature ... by means of the idea or fore-conceit of
the work. . . . And that the poet hath that idea is manifest by
delivering them forth in such excellency as he hath imagined
them. Which delivering forth also is not wholly imaginative,
as we are wont to say by them that build castles in the air;
but so far substantially it worketh, not only to make a Cyrus
which had been, but a particular excellency, as Nature might
have done, but to bestow a Cyrus upon the world, to make many
Cyrus's if they w r ill learn aright why and how that Maker made
him. 1583. SIDNEY, p. 8.
God, without any travail to his divine imagination, made all the
world of nought, nor also by any patern or mould as the Pla-
tonics with their "Ideas" do fantastically suppose. Even so
the very poet makes and contrives out of his. own brain both the
verse and matter of his poem, and not by any foreign copy or
example, as doth the translator, who therefore may well be said
a versifier but not a poet. 1585. PUTTENHAM, p. 19.
The poet . . . rests only in device, and issues from an excellent
sharp and quick invention, holpen by a clear and bright phantasy
and imagination. ID., pp. 312, 313.
Imagination bringing bravely dight
Her pleasing images in best array.
1G03. DANIEL, I., p. 238.
The best division of human learning is that derived from the three
faculties of the rational soul, which is the seat of learning. His-
tory has reference to the memory, poesy to the imagination, and
152 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
philosophy to the reason. And by poesy here I mean nothing
else than feigned history or fables ; for verse is but a character
of style, and belongs to the arts of speech. BACON, IV., p. 292.
Reason, when it has made its judgment and selection, sends them
over to the imagination before the decree be put in execution.
For voluntary motion is ever preceded and incited by imagina-
tion. ... So ... this Janus of Imagination has two different
faces; for the face towards reason has the print of truth, and
the face toward action has the print of goodness. . . . But it is
not simply a messenger ... it usurps no small authority in
itself, e. g., in matters of faith it is above reason. BACON, IV.,
p. 406.
In a fable, if the action be too great, we can never comprehend
the whole together in our imagination. 164-1. B. JONSON,
Timber, p. 84.
The second period extends to the middle of the
eighteenth century. Imagination was considered as
AS an imag- an imaging process, but the hnage received
far more attention than the process. The
image was thought to be the means by which the "imi-
tation of nature" could take place. The image might
be an exact reproduction of some portion of past expe-
rience, or it might be composed of such a recombina-
tion of the elements of experience, as by conforming
more nearly to the sense of beauty than the actuality
gave greater immediate pleasure. This immediate
pleasure was the only result of the imaginative pro-
cess. The imagination was unrelated to action, and
hence did not arouse the feelings and passions. It
opposed the integrity of the senses, and rendered im-
possible accuracy of knowledge; it was lawless, and
tended toward over-exuberance, conceit, and mere or-
nament. Imagination was, indeed, in a sense, the life of
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 153
poetry, but the form in which this life revealed ' itself
was determined almost wholly by the judgment. Im-
agination might furnish the poetical incentive, but judg-
ment was the artist that gave it expression.
Eor after the object is removed, or the eye shut, we still retain an
image of the thing seen, though more obscure than when we saw
it. And this is it the Latins call imagination, from the image
made in seeing. . . . Imagination, therefore, is nothing but de-
caying sense. . . . This decaying sense, when we would express
the thing itself, ... we call imagination ; but when we would
express the decay ... it is called memory. HOBBES, III.,
pp. 4-6.
For imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless that, like
an high ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it out-
run the judgment. 1664. DRYDEN, II., p. 138.
Wit ... is the faculty of imagination in the writer, which, like a
nimble spaniel, beats over and ranges through the field of mem-
ory, till it springs the quarry it hunted after. 1666. ID., IX.,
pp. 95, 96.
He affects plainness to cover his want of imagination. 1668. ID.,
XV., p. 288.
An heroic poet is not tied to a bare representation of what is true
or exceeding probable ; but that he may let himself loose to
visionary objects, and to the representation of such things,- as
depending not on sense, and therefore not to be comprehended
by knowledge, may give him a freer scope for imagination.
1669. ID., IV., p. 23.
Imaging is in itself the very height and life of poetry. 1674.
ID., V., p. 120.
The dream I am now going to relate is as wild as can well be im-
agined, and adapted to please these refiners upon sleep, without
any moral that I can discover. SWIFT, IX., p. 56.
To make brick without straw or stubble is perhaps an easier labour
than to prove morals without a world, and establish a conduct
of life without the supposition of anything living or extant be-
sides our immediate fancy and world of imagination. SHAFTES-
Y, HI., p. 147.
154 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Pleasures of the imagination of two kinds :
I. Primary, which proceed entirely from such objects as are
before our eyes.
II. Secondary, The objects are called up in our memories, or
formed into agreeable visions of things that are either ab-
sent or fictitious. 1712. ADDISON, III., p. 394.
Imagination from actual view of objects arises from the sight of
what is :
I. Great, e. g. the desert or ocean, a single view.
II. Uncommon, "Fills the soul with an agreeable surprise."
III. Beautiful, Most direct appeal to the soul.
1712. ID., III., p. 397.
The understanding opens an infinite space on every side of us, but
the imagination, after a few faint efforts, is immediately at a
stand, and finds herself swallowed up in the immensity of the
void that surrounds it. ID., III., p. 427.
When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagina-
tion. 1742. D. HUME, I., p. 242.
The force of imagination, the energy of expression, the power of
numbers, the charms of imitation: all these are naturally of
themselves delightful to the mind. ID., pp. 263, 264.
One obvious cause why many feel not the proper sentiment of
beauty, is the want of that delicacy of imagination which is
requisite to convey a sensibility of those finer emotions. ID.
L, p. 272.
The last half of the eighteenth century was a period
of transition. The imagination was a vivid imaging
AS a vivid ^.procesjS, a process so intense and vivid that
imaging
process. it seemed to represent a reality, thus arous-
ing the passions and forming, as it were, a world of
beauty of its own. This was the world of poetry, which
faded away before the advance of science and learning.
(Sec u Poetical.") Imagination was thus in a sense op-
posed to the reason, but this opposition was viewed
from the historical standpoint rather than from the
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 155
psychological. It was usually far off, remote from
ordinary life that the imagination painted its pictures,
and produced the temporary poetical illusion. This
illusion, however, was a mere illusion, it did not react
upon conduct ; it served only as a means of produc-
ing immediate pleasure.
Poetry cannot dwell upon the minuter distinctions by which one
species differs from another, without departing from that sim-
plicity of grandeur which fills the imagination. 1750. S.
JOHNSON, II., p. 178.
We can always feel more than we can imagine, and the most artful
fiction must give way to truth. 1753. ID., IV., p. 79.
It is a creative and glowing imagination, and that alone, that can
stamp a writer with this exalted and very uncommon character,
which so few possess, and of which so few can properly judge.
1756. J. WARTON, I., p. ii.
Such circumstances as are best adapted to strike the imagination
by lively pictures . . . the selection of which chiefly constitutes
true poetry. ID., p. 26.
Pope's close and constant reasoning had impaired and crushed the
faculty of imagination. ID., p. 276.
If the imagination be lively the passions will be strong. ID.,
p. 102.
Ignorance and superstition, so opposite to the real interests of hu-
man society, are the parents of imagination. 1778. T. WAR-
TON, H. E. P., p. 626.
The poet has a world of his own, where experience has less to do
than consistent imagination. 1762. HURD, IV., p. 324.
And as art is merely a pleasure of the imagination, it is much
higher than any that is derived from a rectitude of the judgment ;
the judgment is for the greater part employed in throwing
stumbling-blocks in the way of the imagination, in dissipating
the scenes of its enchantment, and in tying us down to the disa-
greeable yoke of our reason. 1756. BURKE, I., p. 65.
The imagination is the most extended province of pleasure and
pain, as it is the region of our fears and our hopes, and of all
our passions that are connected with them. ID., p. 58.
156 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Waller borrows too many of his sentiments and illustrations from
the old mythology, for which it is vain to plead the example of
ancient poets ; the deities which they introduced so frequently
were considered as realities so far as to be received by the im-
agination, whatever sober reason might even then determine.
1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 216.
During the early portion of the present century, the
imagination was considered as an ideal- making pro-
AS an ideal- cess, producing ideals which were not a mere
ized artistic
process. means lor creating a poetical illusion, but
were a constant and normal influence in all conduct,
which therefore excited the passions, and which to a
greater or less extent controlled even perception. As a
mental process, the imagination represented a fusion or
unification of the powers of the mind, a blending of all
the mental capacities in the intuition or reconstruction
of an ideal. As in the case of genius the intense unifi-
cation of the mental powers produced results which could
only be apprehended as results, and thus the imagination
was said to be "unconscious," to disclose "hidden anal-
ogies," to be an instinct, a revelation, to work like nature
itself. The imagination also gave the artistic sense of
power and movement, movement which carried to an
undue extent resulted in the fantastic and the grotesque.
The imagination, considered as a mere picturing process,
was now called the passive imagination, in contradistinc-
tion to the active imagination, which transformed these
pictures into living things, thus giving the basis for sym-
pathy, which identified beauty with truth, at least
with future truth, (see "Truth"), - and which furnished a
means for the mental representation not only of feel-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 157
ings and passions, which point toward the future, or of
action historically considered, but also of passion grow-
ing into action and of action resolving itself into pas-
sion. Imagination thus gave a unified view of life ;
still it was confined to poetry, and was not usually sup-
posed to assist in its own verbal expression.
The primary imagination I hold to be the living power and prime
agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the finite
mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite " I Am." The
secondary is an echo of the former, idciitica] in kind, but differ-
ing JjMlegreej and in %L od f its operation. It jissplYes,
^diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate. 1817. COLERIDGE,
III., p. 363.
The poet described in ideal perfection brings the whole soul of
man into activity with the subordination of its faculties to each
other according to their relative worth and dignity. He diffuses
a tone and spirit of unity that blends, and, as it were, fu^esjeach
into each, by that synthetical and magical power to which I
would exclusively appropriate the name of imagination. 1817.
ID., p. 374.
Imagination seems insufficient of itself to produce diction always
vivid and poetipal, without the aid of human passion and worldly
observation. 1815. WILSON, V., p. 395.
What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth, whether it
existed before or not. . . . The imagination may be compared
to Adam's dream ; he awoke and found it truth. 1817. KEATS,
Letters, pp. 41, 42.
This intuitive perception of the hidden analogies of things, or, as
it may be called, this instinct of the imagination, is, perhaps,
what stamps the character of genius on the productions of art
more than any other circumstance : for it works unconsciously
like nature, and receives its impressions from a kind of inspira-
tion. 1819. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 147.
We want the creative faculty to imagine that which we know ; we
want the generous impulse to act that which we imagine. 1821,
SHELLEY, VII., p. 135.
158 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
A man to be greatly good must imagine intensely and comprehen-
sively, ... go ont of his own nature and identify himself with
beauty not his own. 1821. ID., p. 111.
Among the writers of luxuriant and florid prose, however rich and
fanciful, there never was one who wrote good poetry. Imagi-
nation seems to start back when they would lead her into a nar-
rower walk ; and to forsake them at the first prelude of the lyre.
1824. LANDOR, II., p. 186.
They do not create, which implies shaping and consistency. Their
imaginations are not active, for to be active is to call some-
thing into act and form, but passive, as men in sick dreams.
1826. LAMB, Elia, p. 252.
A true work of art requires to be fused in the mind of its creator,
and, as it were, poured forth (from his imagination, though not
from his pen) at one simultaneous gush. 1827' CARLYLE, I.,
p. 18.
Poets have penetrated into the mystery of nature . . . and thus
can the spirit of our age, embodied in fair imagination, look forth
on us. 1827. ID., p. 56.
It is well known that we create nine-tenths at least of what ap-
pears to exist externally ; and such is somewhere about the pro-
portion between reality and imagination. 1832. WILSON, VI.,
p. 109.
In this way has imagination at all times blended itself with the
passion of sorrow. The strong feeling in* which the mind begins
to work is the wound of its own loss. ID., VIII., p. 265.
Imagination . . . purely so ^called is all feeling : the feeling of the
subtlest and most affecting analogies ; the perception of sympa-
thies in the nature of things or in their popular attributes.
1844. HUNT, Im. & Fancy, p. 26.
* That magnificent condition of fantastic imagination which ... is
one of the chief elements of the Northern Gothic mind. 1846.
RUSKIN, St. of Venice, p. 154.
During the latter portion of the present century,
imagination has usually been considered as an artis-
AS an artis- ^ c process, which is in close relation with
ic process. ^ intellectual powers of the mind. It
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 159
not only gives unity to the mental conception of the
literary work, but it aids also in expressing this gen-
eral conception in definite images and in words. It is
guarded from excesses by an inherent sense of " form,"
without which it ceases to be imagination. Imagina-
tion gives body, as it were, to the reason, and reason
gives the general outlines to the imaginative process.
The two processes are indispensable to each other.
Hence the imagination finds literary expression in
prose as well as in poetry. During nearly all the
present century, " imagination " has been employed to
explain the origin of literature, even as " imitation "
had previously been employed. The distinctions be-
tween the two views, however, belong to theoretical
rather than to applied criticism. As an active critical
term, " imagination " has not been so much in use
during the latter portion of the century as it was dur-
ing the earlier portion.
The feat of the imagination is in showing the convertibility of
every thing into every other thing. Facts which had never
before left their stark common sense suddenly figure as Eleu-
sinian mysteries. 1860. EMERSON, Conduct of Life, p. 289.
But the main element of the modern spirit's life is neither the
senses and understanding, nor the heart and imagination ; it is
the imaginative reason. And there is a century in Greek life,
the century preceding the Peloponnesian war, ... in which
poetry made, it seems to me, the noblest, the most successful
effort she has ever made as the priestess of the imaginative
reason. 1865. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es. 1st S., pp. 220, 221.
Wordsworth was wholly void of that shaping imagination which is
the highest criterion of a poet. 1866. LOWELL, II., p. 78.
In poets, this liability to be possessed by the creations of their own
brains is limited and proportioned by the artistic sense, and the
1GO A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
imagination thus truly becomes the shaping faculty, while in less
regulated or coarser organizations it dwells forever in the Nifel-
heim of phantasmagoria and dream. 1868. ID., p. 321.
Lamb . . . had more sympathy with imagination where it gathers
into the intense focus of passionate phrase, than with that higher
form of it, where it is the faculty that shapes, gives unity of
design, and balanced gravitation of parts. 1868. ID., III.,
p. 30.
Imagination has ... its seat in the higher reason, and it is effi-
cient only as the servant of the will. ID., p. 31.
In that secondary office of imagination, where it serves the artist,
not as the reason that shapes, but as the interpreter of his con-
ceptions into words, there is a distinction to be noticed between
the higher and lower mode in which it performs its fund ion. It
may be either creative or pictorial, may body forth the thought
or merely image it forth. With Shakespeare, for example, im-
agination seems imminent in his very consciousness ; with Milton
in his memory. 1868. ID., p. 40.
There is an essential difference between imaginative production in
verse, and imaginative production in prose, that will not permit
both to be called by the common name of poetry. M. ARNOLD,
Mixed Essays, p. 435.
A vigorous grasp of realities is rather a proof of a powerful than a
defective imagination. 1874. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 283.
To identify in prose what we call poetry, the imaginative power.
1888. PATER, Ap., p. 2.
There is an imagination of the intellect, and its utterance is of a
very high order, often the prophecy of inspiration itself.
1892. STEDMAN, Nature of Poetry, p. 211.
IMITATION (XXIIL).
Early in ancient criticism, poetry was denned as a
result of the tendency in the mind to imitate, to repro-
duce or represent human life and human achievement,
and this definition exerted a strong influence upon the
methods of English criticism until the middle of the
present century. In Latin criticism " imitation " was
.4 HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 161
usually employed to designate either a copying among
authors, or/ oratorical mimicry, the forensic portrayal f
of human manners and character. The oratorical sig-
nificance of " imitation " is scarcely to be found in
English criticism. The term has uniformly indicated
either the representation of nature, life, or experience,
or the copying among authors.
As signifying the reproduction of experience in lit-
erary form four general stages may perhaps be distin-
guished in the history of the term. JJntil AS representa-
the middle of the seventeenth century, " imi- tl(
tation" was usually thought to be a sufficient
tioja for all poetry. But that which was to be imitated
transcended any ordinary conception of nature, life, or
experience. What was imitated was really ideals, often
abstract, rigid, and conventional in their nature, and
this could be accomplished only by means of imagina-
tion and suggestion.
Poetry is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in his
word, . . . that is to say, a representing, a counterfeiting, or
figuring forth . . . three kinds :
I. Imitate the inconceivable excellencies of God.
II. Imitate matters philosophical.
III. Imitate what shall be and should be to teach and delight.
1583. SIDNEY, p. 9.
To imitate, borrow nothing of what is, hath been, or shall be ; but
range . . . into the divine consideration of what may be and
should be. ID., p. 10.
Poesy is an art not only of making but also of imitation. ... A
poet may in some sort be said a follower or imitator, because he
can express the true and lively of everything is set before him.
1585. PUTTENHAM, p. 20.
Whatsoever a man speaks or persuades, he doth it not by imitation
11
162 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
artificially, but by observation naturally (though one follow an-
other), because it is both the same and the like that nature doth
suggest; but if a popinjay speaks she doth it by imitation of
man's voice artificially and not naturally . . . but not the same
that nature doth suggest tq man. ID., p. 312.
The second period extends until the middle of the
eighteenth century. Characters and sentiments_as
AS represen- manifested in action constituted the chief
tation of '.
character. subject-matter ot imitation. As in ancient
criticism, experience was considered historically, not
ideally. Imitation, however, was uot usually thought
to be a complete explanation for poetry, nor did the
mental process, by means of which imitation takes place,
receive attention.
The poet is a "maker" by reason of his being an imitator, and
what he imitates is action, ARISTOTLE, Poetics, p. 31.
A play is still an imitation of nature ; we know we are to be de-
ceived, and we desire to be so ; but no man ever was deceived
but with a probability of truth. 1668. DRYDEN, XV., p. 120.
All that is dull, insipid, languishing, and without sinews in a poem
is called an imitation of nature . . . and lively images and elo-
cution are never to be forgiven. 1674. ID., V., p. 120.
To imitate well is a poet's work ; but._to affect the soul, and excife
the passions, and above all to move admiration ... a bare iini-
taUoiijdlLBQt^erve^ 1667. ID., II., p. 384.
I shall quote several passages (of Chevy-Chase) in which the
thought is altogether the same with what we meet in several
passages of the jEneid ; not that I would infer from thence
that the poet (whoever he was) proposed to himself any imita-
tion of those passages, but that he was directed to them in
general by the same kind of poetical genius and by the same
copyings after nature. 1710. ADDISON, II., p. 384.
The last half of the eighteenth century was a period
of transition. The phrase u imitation of nature" came
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 163
to represent both originality and invention, and thus
again " imitation " was regarded as a full explanation
a --. ^^^
for poetry. The mental process of " imita- AS represen-
x tation of
tion," however, was not directly defined. "nature."
This primary or original copying, which in the ideas of philosophy
is Imitation, is, in the language of criticism, called invention.
1751. HURD, II., p. 111.
Nothing is an imitation further than as it resembles some other
thing ; and words, undoubtedly, have no sort of resemblance to
the ideas for which they stand. . . . v Poetry is_an imitation only "N
in so far as it describes the manners and passions of men which
their words can express. 1756. BURKE, I., p. 178.
I will not presume to say . . . descriptive poetry ... is equal
either in dignity or utility to_Jbhcj>e__cpj^^
the internal constitution of man, and that imitate characters,
manners, and sentiments. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 49.
There are two kinds of imitations, one of nature, the other of
authors. The first we call originals, and confine the term imi-
tation to the second. 1759. GOLDSMITH, IV., p. 365.
If the father of criticism has rightly denominated poetry ... an
imitative art, the metaphysical poets will without great wrong
lose their right to the name of poets ; for they cannot be said to
have imitated anything; they" neither copied nature nor iife; L
neither painted the form of matter, nor representedtheop
turns of intellect. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 15.
During the first half of the present century the pro-
cess of imitation and the imaginative activity were
often identified with each other. The poet Ag re resen
must imitate the ^spirit of nature, he must 1^% spirit 6 '
represent character and sentiment by means
of a Smj)jy^^ When thus
employed, however, the term u imitation " had evidently
acquired a meaning, quite at variance with its more
primary and fundamental significance. During the last
164 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
half of the century, this general use of the term is
scarcely to be found in actual criticism.
>The artist must imitate that which is within the thing, that which
is active through form and figure, and discourses to us by sym-
bols, the Natur-geist, or spirit of nature, as we unconsciously
imitate those whom we love. 1810. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 333.
The truth is, painting and sculpture are, literally, imitative arts,
while poetry is metaphorically so. ... I would rather call
poetry a suggestive art. 1825. ID., Prose, I., p. 5.
The objects of the imitation of poetry are the whole external and
the whole internal universe, the face of nature, the vicissitudes
of fortune, man as he is in himself, man as he appears in society,
all things which really exist, all things of which we can form an
image in our minds by combining together parts of things which
really exist. The domain of this imperial art is commensurate
with the imaginative faculty. 1830. MA.CAULAY, I., p. 476.
Sympathy is one of the strengths of the poet's soul; and sympa-
thy, at its height and depth, works into imitation. Imitation,
therefore, is proof, power, test, trial, growth, and result, cause
and effect, of original genius. 1832. WILSON, VIII., p. 266.
The second general meaning of "imitation" its use
to represent the influence of authors upon one another
AS free trans- occurs in actual criticism far more fre-
tf- *' quently than the use of the term just given.
The imitation of authors is found mentioned in two
different connections, giving to the term, perhaps,
slightly different shades of meaning. In early English
criticism, "imitation" often denoted a free method of
translation in opposition to a more literal method, a
translation, as it were, of the spirit of an author rather
than of his exact words.
There be six ways appointed by the best learned men for the learn-
ing of tongues, and increase of eloquence : as, 1. Translatio
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 165
linguarum; 2. Paraphrasis; 3. Metaphrasis ; 4. Epitome;
5. Imitatio; 6. Declamatio. 1568. ASCHAM, III., p. 174.
The unaptness of our tongues and the difficulty of imitation dis-
heartens us. CAMPION, p. 233.
Three ways of translating : 1. Metaphrase, exact, literal ; 2. Para-
phrase ; 3. Imitation, where the translator assumes the liberty,
not only to vary from the words and sense, but to forsake them
both as he sees occasion, and taking only some general hints
from the original, to run divisions on the groundwork as he
pleases. 1680. DRYDEN, XII., p. 16.
Imitation gives us a much better idea of the ancients than ever
translation could do. 1767. GOLDSMITH, V., p. 155.
Imitation of authors, however, is usually made an
opposing term, not to literal translation, but to origi-
nality. Discredit is thrown upon the imita- AS copying of
one author by
tion in so far as it is restricted to mere form another.
of expression; but in so far as the imitation is a repro-
duction of the general method, thought, and spirit of
an author, the disapproval tends to pass away from the
term. But the highest gifts of authorship, it has been
universally recognized, are not to be attained even by
this form of imitation. This use of imitation occurs
more frequently at some periods of English criticism
than at others, but there has perhaps been no variation
in its meaning.
A great portion of art consists in imitation, since though to invent
was first in order of time, and holds the first place in merit, yet
it is of advantage to copy what has been invented with success.
QUINTILIAN, II., p. 278.
Three kinds of imitation :
1. A fair, lively painted picture of the life of every degree of
man. Cf. Plato III., "De Uepublica."
2. To follow for learning of tongues and sciences the best authors.
166 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS,
3. Whether to follow one or more, . . . which way, ... in
what place, by what mean, and order, e. g., as Virgil fol-
lowed Homer. ASCHAM, III., p. 213.
Describe not the morning and rising of the sun in the preface of
yonr verse ; for these things are so oft and so diversely written
upon by poets already, that if ye do the like, it will appear ye
but imitate, and that it comes not of your own invention, which
is one of the chief properties of a poet. 1585. K. JAMES,
pp. 112, 113.
It is not reading, it is not imitation of an author, which can pro-
duce this fineness; it must be inborn. 1693. DIIYDEN, XIII.,
p. 97.
What Tacitus has said in five words, I imagine I have said in fifty
lines. Such is the misfortune of imitating the inimitable. 1742.
GRAY, II., pp. 109, 110.
To admire on principle is the only way to imitate without loss of
originality. 1817- COLERIDGE, III., p. 203.
Shakespeare's style never curdles into mannerism, and thus abso-
lutely eludes imitation. LOWELL, III., p. 36.
It is the nature of man to select the worst parts of his models for
imitation. SAINTSBURY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxiv.
The exquisite grace and charm of Lamb, springing in part no
doubt from an imitation of the unreformed writers . . . had
yet in it so much of idiosyncrasy that it has never been and is
never likely to be successfully imitated. ID., p. xxxiv.
Impalpable (XXII.) b\ Impalpable and indefinable. SWINBURNE,
Ks. & St., p. 11.
IMPASSIONED (XV.).
The term " impassioned," as employed during the
present century, denotes poetical passion which is in-
tense and sustained. (See "Passion.") The emotion
which it represents is not usually impetuous, but is
so diffused as to give coherency and unity to the
whole literary production. The impassioned designates
the emotion which accompanies an intense interest in
the beauty of mental imagery, and of ideals. It does
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 167
not incite to the realization of an ideal so much as to
the most perfect conception and statement of that ideal.
Bold and impassioned elevations of tragedy. T. WARTON, p. 886.
Poetry is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance
of all science. 1798. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 91.
Impassioned lines :
Then let me hug and press thee into life,
And lend thee motion from my beating heart. L. Winchelsea.
1830. ID., III., p. 300.
Impassioned, lofty, and sustained diction. COLERIDGE, 111.,
p. 365.
Impassioned poetry is an emanation of the moral and intellectual
part of our nature, as well as of the sensitive, of the desire to
know, the will to act, and the power to feel. 1818. HAZLITT,
Eng. Poets, p. 8.
Poetical and impassioned. ID., El. Lit., p. 56.
Spirited and impassioned.' ID., Table Talk, p. 245.
The soul of poetry is impassioned imagination. WHIPPLE, Lit. of
Age of EL, p. 217.
Impassioned contemplation. P\TER, Ap., p. 59.
Impassioned meditation. MINTO, Char, of Eng. Poets, p. 169.
Impeccable (XXII.) a: Impeccable ideal line. ROSSKTTI, Lives,
p. 78.
Imperial (XI.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65.
Impetuous (XII.): Blair to present.
Impetuous, graceful power. CARLYLE, IV., p. 130.
Imposing (XL): Jef., Chan. Jeffrey, II., p. 55.
Impressive (XL): Poe to present. Stephen, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 57-
Impulsive (XII.): Hunt to present.
Richardson's nature is always the nature of sentiment and reflec-
tion, not of impulse or situation. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers,
p. 160.
Inanity (XII.): Inanity and careless workmanship. GOSSE, Seven-
teenth Cent. St., p. 233.
Inavertible (XXII.) a: Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 103.
Inchoate (II.): Ros., Saints.
Inchoate method of execution. ROSSETTI, Pref. to Blake, p. cxvii.
168 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Incisive (XX.) b: Swin. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 138.
Inconstant (XIX.): The first defect of Wordsworth's poems is the
inconstancy of the style. COLERIDGE, III., p. 462.
Indefinable (III.): Impalpable and indefinable. SWINBURNE, Es.
& St., p. 11.
Individual: Jef. to present. Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 144.
Indolence (XII.) : Jef., Gosse.
A golden indolence, akin to the hazy beauty of a summer after-
noon. GOSSE, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 67.
Ineptitude: Gosse, Prom Shak., etc., p. 216.
Inevitable (VIII.): Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 5.
Infantile (XII.): Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 187.
Inflated (XIX.) 6: J. War. to present.
Unnatural, false, inflated, and florid style. J. WARTON, II., p. 200.
Ingenious (XXIII.) : Mil. to present.
With an ingenious flattery of nature. DRYDEN, II., p. 296.
Ingenuous (VII.): T. Arn. to present. Much in use.
Simplicity being true is ingenuous. Ingenuousness is the coun-
tenance of truth. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 62.
Inimitable (XXII.) a: Jef. to present.
The inimitable note of instinct. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 62.
Ink-home (I.): T. Wil., Ascham, Put
Never affect strange inkhorn terms. T. WILSON, Rhet., p. 171.
Many inkhorne terms so ill-affected, brought in by men of learning,
as preachers and schoolmasters. TOTTENHAM, p. 158.
Innocence (XIV.): Jef. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 70.
Insight (XXIII. ): The harsh direct narrative of Defoe, without sym-
pathy or insight. GOSSE, Eighteenth Cent. St., p. 385.
As spontaneous as insight. STEDMAN, Nature of Poetry, p. 47.
Insipid (XII.): Hobbes to present.
That which fatigues from being too commonplace ;
without originality or feeling.
The phrases of poetry, as the airs of music, with often hearing,
become insipid. HOBBES, IV., p. 455.
Flimsy and insipid decorum. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 102.
Cold and insipid works. HOWELLS, Grit. & Fiction, pp. 62, 63.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 169
Inspired (XV.): Shaftes. to present.
There is more of Rhetoric than of inspiration about him. JEF-
FREY, II., p. 405.
Instructive (XX.) : Dry. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 268.
Integrity: J. War. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 89.
INTELLECTUAL (XX.) b.
For about a century the word "intellectual" has
been very generally employed in defining wit and sen-
timent, and as a complementary expression to the im-
agination, the emotions, and occasionally to the will.
Its unity with the other mental powers has usually
received emphasis rather than its opposition to them.
It represents not so much conscious elaboration and
abstraction as a careful meditative attitude of mind,
and native logical acuteness and penetration. The use
of the word u intellectual " as an active critical term
marks the transference of psychological terminology
and methods into criticism.
Impassioned poetry is an emanation of the moral and intellectual
part of our nature as well as of the sensitive. HAZLLTT, Eng.
Poets, p. 8.
Tennyson's poetry is characterized by intellectual intensity as dis-
tinguished from the intensity of feeling. WHIPPLE, Es. & Rev.,
I., p. 339.
Sentiment is intellectualized emotion. LOWELL, II., p. 252.
Perhaps the main constituent of Longfellow, as a poetical writer,
is intelligence ... a certain openness to information of all
sorts, and a readiness at turning it to practical accounts. Ros-
SETTI, Lives, p. 388.
Intellect, which in the highest poets co-operates with the affections
and the imagination, in Victor Hugo is deficient. Dow DEN, St.
in Lit., pp. 429, 430.
The absence of large intellectual power, is also the absence of a
seat of moral sensibility. ID., p. 433.
170 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Intelligible (III.): Gold, to present.
Intense (XII.): Haz. to present.
Much in use. Strength both of thought and of emo-
tion. Sometimes one is emphasized, sometimes the
other; but the term seems to represent their complete
union or synthesis, and to be measured by the force of
the impression which the literary work, as a whole, pro-
duces on the mind of the reader.
Intensity is the great and prominent distinction of Lord Byron's
writings. He seldom gets beyond force of style. HAZLITT,
Sp. of Age, p. 124.
Strength and intensity of thought. LANDOR, IV., p. 56.
Poetry must be intense in meaning. BAGEHOT, Lit. St., II.,
p. 351.
Wordsworth ... a meditative and intensive poet. HOSSETTI,
Lives, p. 216.
Wordsworth is never intense for the very reason that lie is spirit-
ually massive. DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. G6.
Interesting (XXII.) b: Hume to present.
Most pathetic and most interesting, and by consequence the most
agreeable. HUME, I., p. 264.
Interminable : Jef. Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 18.
Intimate: Swiu. Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 60.
Intonation (X.): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 7.
Intrepidity (XII.): Force and intrepidity. JEFFREY, I., p. 209.
Intricate (II.): J. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65.
Intrigue : Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 36.
Invective (XXL): Jef. to present.
Hitter cry of invective and satire. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 20.
INVENTION (XXIII ).
Previous to the present century the term " inven-
tion " is to be defined far more as a product than as a
AS imitation P rocess - Invention was the result of imagi-
" nature." lia tj ve activity, when the object of representa-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 171
tion was either historical truth, or something at vari-
ance with it. Invention, considered as the portrayal
of tip. likeness of truth, occurs chiefly in connection
with: the theory of oratory and the drama. Used in
this manner, " invention," when regarded as a product,
is a means to the " imitation of nature ; " when re-
garded as a process, it is synonymous with imitation.
This is the chief use of the term until near the begin-
ning of the present century.
Invention is a searching out of tilings txue, or things likely, the
which may reasonably set forth a matter, and make it appear
probable. T. WILSON, Rhet., p. 6.
Invention, finds matter ;
Disposition, places arguments ;
Elocution, getteth words to set forth invention. ID., p. 170.
The invention of speech or argument is not properly an invention ;
for to invent is to discover that we know not, and not to recover
or resummon that which we already knov ; and the use of this
invention is no other but, out of the knowledge, whereof our
mind is already possessed, to draw forth or call before us that
which may be pertinent to the purpose which we take into our
consideration. So as to speak truly it is no invention, but a re-
membrance, or suggestion, with an application. 1605. BACON,
Ad. of L., p. 155.
So then the first happiness of the poet's imagination is properly in-
vention, or finding of the thought. 1666. DRYDEN, IX., p. 96.
In inventing characters, it is better to attach some probable fact
to a person who really existed. RYMER, 1st Pt., p. 17.
By invention is really meant no more (and so the word signifies)
than discovery, or finding out; or, to explain it at large, a quick
and sagacious penetration into the true essence of all the objects
of our contemplation. This, I think, can rarely exist without
the concomitancy of judgment; for how we can bfc said to have
discovered the true essence of two things, without discerning
their difference, seems to me hard to conceive. 1749. FIELD-
ING, T. Jones, II., p. 6.
172 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
What we call invention in poetry, is in respect of the matter of it
simply, observation. 1751. HUKD, II., p. 158.
Powers requisite for the production of poetry : 1. Observation
and description; 2. Sensibility; 3. Reflection; 4. Imagination
and fancy; 5. Invention, by which characters are composed
out of materials supplied by observation; 6. Judgment. 1802.
WORDSWORTH, II., p. 130.
Occasionally, however, " invention " signified some
combination of circumstances which was not in con-
As fabrication f rm % with truth. This use of the term
x>f possibilities. ^ ecame somewna t prominent in the__ eigh-
teenth century. Invention, when thus employed, is to
be identified with the fancy or imagination as exercised
in conceits and romances.
An excellent, sharp, and quick invention, holpen by a clear and
bright phantasy and imagination ... is not ... to counter-
feit the natural by the like effects . . . but even as nature her-
self working by her own peculiar virtue and proper instinct, and
not by example or meditation or exercise as all other artificers
do. 1585. PUTTENHAM, pp. 312, 313.
His own invention and manufacture. 1699. BENTLEY, II., p. 81.
There is a kind of writing wherein the poet quite loses sight of
nature, and entertains his reader's imagination with the charac-
ters and actions of such persons as have many of them no exist-
ence but what he bestows on them. Such are fairies, witches,
magicians, demons, and departed spirits. This way of writing
is more difficult than any other, since the poet has no pattern to
follow in it, and must work altogether out of his own invention.
1712. ADDISON, III., p. 422.
In dreams invention works with that ease and activity that we are
not sensible when the faculty is employed. ID., p. 2.
For by invention, I believe, is generally understood a creative fac-
ulty, which would indeed prove most romance writers to have
the highest pretensions to it. 1749. FIELDING, T. Jones, II.,
p. 6.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 173
.The essence of poetry is invention ; such invention as by producing
something unexpected surprises and delights. 1781. S. JOHN-
SON, VII., p. 213.
During the present century "invention" has been
regarded a^^a^r^iieas rather than as^a product, it
lias at times been more or less completely AS a form of
the imagi-
identified with the imaginative activity. Usu- nation.
ally, however, it indicates that part of the imaginative
activity which has to do primarily with the coherency
in mental images, and with the combination of cir-
cumstances, and only secondarily with the relation of
these images and circumstances to the personal feel-
ings of the author. " Invention " is thus, in a sense,
an intellectual intuition, and is perhaps not directly
influenced by passion or impulse.
Invention regularly comes before judgment, warmth of feeling be-
fore correct reasoning. 1825. JEFFREY, I., p. 258.
Inventiveness of genius. 1826. HAZLTTT, PI. Sp., pp. 484,485.
Briefly the power of the human mind to invent circumstances,
forms, or scenes, at its pleasure, may be generally and prop-
erly called, imagination. 1843. RUSKIN, Modern Painters,
II., p. 3.
I should say of a work of art that it was well " fancied " or well
"invented" or well "imagined" with only some shades of
different meaning in the application of the terms. ID., p. 2.
B. Jonson works by effort rather than by inspiration, and leaves
the impression of ingenuity rather than inventiveness. 1859.
WHIPPLE, El. Lit,, p. 115.
The highest reach of science is, one may say, an inventive power
a faculty of divination, akin to the highest power exercised in
poetry. 1865. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 51. ,
Endowed with an imagination of remarkable power and beauty,
Wordsworth is deficient in the highest of all poetical qualities,
Invention. COURTHOPE, Lib. M. in E. Lit., pp. 170, 171.
174 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Heine, a pagan of the lyrical rather than of the inventive cast.
STEDMAN, Nature of Poetry, p. 18.
A lofty if not inventive imagination. ID., p. 202.
Invertebrate (II.): Amorphous and invertebrate. GOSSE, From
Shak., etc., p. 22.
Involution (II.): Car. to present.
Bulwer is atrociously involute. POE, I., p. 347.
Irony (XVII.) : J. War. to present.
Irony is akin to cavil. LA.NDOR, III., p. 149.
Wit and humor stand on one side, irony and sarcasm on the other.
ID., IV., p. 282.
Hence a grand irony in the tragedy of Lear ; hence all in it that is
great is also small. DOWDEN, Shak., etc., p. 258.
Irresistible (XXII.) bi Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 17.
Jactation: Tedious jactation. SAINTSBURY, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 272.
Jagged (II.): Jagged and diffuse . . . blank verse. STEDMAN, Vic.
Poets, p. 107.
Jarring (X.): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 73.
Jaunty (V.): Whip, to present.
Languid jauntiness of style. WHIPPLE, Es. & Rev., II., p. 250.
Jejune (XII.): Goldsmith to present.
Jejune, far-fetched, and frigid. II AZ LI XT, Age of El., p. 211.
Jingle (X.): Byron's verse halts and jingles. SWINBDRNE, Es. &
St., p. 246.
Joyous (XIV.): Bryant. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 68.
JUDGMENT (XX.).
The term has been employed almost wholly in theory.
Three periods may perhaps be distinguished in its his-
AS artful toiy. Until the middle of the eighteenth
century, "judgment" represented all the dis-
crimination and ingenuity exercised in giving to a com-
position a literary or artistic form of expression.
When the fancy was yet in its first work, moving the sleeping
images of things towards the light, there to be distinguished
and then either chosen or rejected by the judgment. DKYDEN,
II., p. 130.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 175
Judgment is indeed the master workman in a play. ID., XV.,
p. 376.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century,
wit, representing the more acute discriminating pow-
ers of the mind, was distinguished from the As methodic
judgment. Judgment was not so essential taste<
a factor in the production of literature. It was an
elaborate and intellectual expression of taste, of the
cultured instinct of order and propriety.
I mean by the word taste no more than that faculty or those fac-
ulties of the mind which are affected with, or which form a
judgment of the works of imagination and the elegant arts.
BURKE, I., p. 54.
Judgment implies a preserving that probability in conducting or
disposing a composition that reconciles it to credibility and the
appearance of truth. GOLDSMITH, IV., p. 418.
Judgment in the operations of intellect can hinder faults but not
produce excellence. S. JOHNSON, VIII., p. 20.
Wit and judgment are seldom united. KAMES, El. of Grit., p. 33.
In the present century the term has been little used.
It seems to indicate a careful, deliberative attitude of
mind, which gives to the .more purely liter- As elaborate
ary activities a certain steadiness, and per- method *
haps to the composition a certain breadth and finish.
Taste is the very maker of judgment. HUNT, Im. & Fancy, p. 56.
There must be wisdom as well as wit, sense no less than imagina-
tion, judgment in equal measure with fancy, and the fiery rocket
must be bound fast to the poor wooden stick that gives it guid-
ance if it would mount and draw all eyes. LOWELL, II., p. 81.
Judicious (XX.) : Dry. to present.
Little in use since the early portion of the present
century, and also not very much in favor. (See
" Judgment.")
176 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The judicious obscurity ... of Milton's description of Death in
the second book. BURKE, I., p. 90.
A judicial attitude of mind is highly unreceptive, for it necessarily
implies a restraint of sympathy. MOULTON, Shak., etc., p. 7.
Jumping (X.); cf. (XVIII.): Jumping verses. BROOKE, Tennyson,
p. 54.
Just (XX.): Gascoigne to present.
A careful, restrained, and more or less refined method
of expression.
The just proportion of our spirits. DANIEL^!., p. 231\
Nothing is truly sublime that is not just and proper.
VI., p. 401. <
True wit may be defined as a justness of thought and a facility of
expression. POPE, VI., p. 16.
The close and reciprocal connection of just taste and pure morality.
COLERIDGE, IV., p. 52,
Keen (XX.) b: Goldsmith to present.
Keen truthfulness. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 71.
Keeping (IV.) : Camp, to present.
Perfect keeping ... of Rape of Lock. LOWELL, Prose, III.,
p. 34.
Labored (VII.): Ascham to present.
In Sallust's writing is more art than nature, and more labour than
art. ASCHAM, III., p. 264.
No matter how slow the style, so it be laboured and accurate. B.
JONSON, Timber, p. 54.
Laborious: Camp, to present. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 131.
Lachrymose (XV.): Lachrymose and sentimental tragedy. GOSSE,
Life of Congreve, p. 93.
Laconic (XIX.) b: Car., Poe.
Laconic pith ... of Burns. CARLYLE, II., p. 17.
Lame (XVIII.) : Gib. to present.
Lnme, stiff, and prosaic. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 202.
Languid (XII.): S. John, to present.
"Ah, mark!" is rather languid. I would read, "heard ye?"
GRAY, III., p. 73.
.1 HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 177
Largeness (XI.) : Swin., Dow.
So large and clear and calm an utterance. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 127.
The first word of criticism which the poetical works of Edgar
Quinet suggest, a really important word, although it does not
imply profound critical insight, is that they are very large.
DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 285.
The largeness and veracity of George Eliot's art proceed from the
same qualities which make truth-seeking a passion of her nature.
ID., p. 295.
Lascivious (XV.): Whet., Put., Webbe.
Latinism (I.): Lan., Saints.
This pedantic quibbling Latinism. LANDOR, IV., p. 454.
Laxity (XII.) ; cf. (XIX.): T. War. to present.
Where there is laxity there is inexactness. LANDOR, V., p. 109.
Leaping (XVIII.): Wil., Gosse.
Luminous and leaping Greek words. WILSON, VIII., p. 420.
Learned (XX.) b: Haz., Gosse.
Learned and precise. GOSSE, From Shak., etc., p. 180.
Lengthy : Low. to present.
Prosing lengthiness. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 217.
Level: Haz. to present.
Pedestrian, unimaginative, level, neutral. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit.,
p. 73.
Levity (XIV.): Daniel to present.
Volubility and levity. S. JOHNSON, II., p. 447.
Liberality (XIV.): T.' War., Jeffrey, I., p. 169.
Liberty : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 98.
License (IV.): Swinburne, Mis., p. 52.
Licentious (I.): Harvey to present.
I. Previous to the present century, any innovation
or wide departure from the good usage of separate words
and in the mechanical construction of composition. .
A mixed and licentious iambic. HARVEY, I., p. 21.
None are more licentious than Pope and Dryden, who perpetually
borrow foreign idioms, derivatives, etc. GRAY, II., p. 108.
12
178 A HISTORY VF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
II. Extreme moral impurity, later ; not really a crit-
ical term.
Life (XII.): Gold, to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 93.
Life-like (VIII.): Pater. Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 13.
Light (XVIII..): Ascham to present.
Much in use. Usually regarded as a characteristic
of French literature; airiness of conception and move-
ment; acuteness and suppleness rather than depth.
A French lightness and ease of expression. WHIFFLE, Es. &
Rev., I., p. 16.
Light and thin. ID., p. 57-
Singular grace, lightness, and elegance. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr.
Lit., p. 102.
Lilting (X.): Lilting measure. LAMB, II., p. 107.
Limited: Jef., Low. Jeffrey, I., p. 223.
Limpid (X.) : Low. to present.
The limpidity ... of the style of Malebranche. SAINTSBURY,
Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 378.
Limping (XVIIL): Limping paraphrase. GOSSE, From Shak., etc.,
p. 85.
Linked (XIII.): Jef., Sted.
Linked sweetness. JEFFREY, II., p. 434.
Literal : Jef. to present.
Exactness primarily of translation ; occasionally to the fact. Lit-
eral . . . power of -detail. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 74.
Literary (VII.) : Low. to present.
Artificial and literary. M. ARNOLD, Cel. Lit., etc., p. 228.
Lithe (XVIIL): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 98.
Little (XL): Puerile and little. J. WARTON, II., p. 202.
Lively (XII.) : Ascham to present. Much in use.
The iambic and trochaic are lively meters. ARISTOTLE, Poetics,
p. 79.
Minot is an easy and lively versifier. CAMPBELL, II., p. 27.
Fresh and lively. HALLAM, Lit. Hist., I., pp. 130, 131.
Living (VII.): Jef. to present.
Living and organic style. DOAVDEN, St. in Lit., p. 151.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 179
Lofty (XI.) : Lodge to present.
Represents a conception intermediate between eleva-
tion and sublimity : requires both depth of feeling and
intellectual acumen.
When their matter is most heavenly, their style is most lofty.
LODGE, p. 11.
Peerless sublimity and loftiness of style. NEWTON, Pref. to Tr. of
Seneca. Spenser Society, XLIIL, p. 2.
Arnold's . . . intellectual processes . . . are spontaneous, and
sometimes rise to a loftiness which no mere lyrist, without
unusual mental faculty, can ever attain. STEDMAN, Vic. Poets,
p. 91.
Logical (XX.) 6: Hazlitt.
Used almost wholly in theory. Represents thejsjl^.
logistic and intellectual relations of the different state-
ments of a composition to each other.
It may be questioned whether his wit was anything more than an
excess of his logical faculty : it did not consist in the play of
fancy, but in close and cutting combinations of the under-
standing. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 80.
The logical faculty has infinitely more to do with poetry than the
young . . . ever dreams of. WORDSWORTH, III., p. 292.
Men profess to reach their philosophical conclusions by some pro- ~"
cess of logic ; but the imagination is the faculty which furnishes
the raw material upon which the logic is employed, and uncon-
sciously to its owners, determines, for the most part, the shape .
into which their theories will be moulded. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a
Lib., pp. 18, 19.
Long-drawn : Minto to present.
Long-winded (XIX.) b : Long-winded verbosities. CARLYLE, II.,
p. 82.
Loose : Ascham to present.
Loose-jointed (XIII.) : Loose-jointed octosyllabic lines. WHIFFLE,
Es. & Rev., p. 258.
Loquacity (XIX.) I : Car., Saints.
180 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Lovely (XXII.) b : Hunt to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 98.
Low (XIV.) : Ascham to present.
I. Mean, grovelling.
Low grossness. ASCHAM, III., p. 206.
The low style of Horace is according to bis subject, that is, gen-
erally grovelling. DRYDEN, XIII., p. 88.
II. Simple and naive.
Chaucer's descriptive style is remarkable for its lowness of tone,
for that combination of energy with simplicity which is among
the rarest gifts in literature. LOWELL, III., p. 353.
Lucid (III.) : J. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 64.
Ludicrous (XVII.) : Shaftes. to present.
The native "flash" of wit viewed as a product; the
more intellectual phase of the sense of humor, some-
what elaborated toward the droll.
The ridiculous . . . contrary to custom, sense, and reason. HAZ-
LITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 5.
Delight in blending the pathetic with the ludicrous is the charac-
teristic of the true humorist. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., II.,
p. 349.
Lumbering (XVIII.) : Scott to present.
Lumbering and disjointed. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 214.
Luminous (III.): Jef. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 24.
Lurid : Low. to present.
A series of lurid pictures. LOWELL, Prose, II., p. 89.
Luscious (XXII.) b : Hal., Saints.
Sweet even to lusciousness. HALLAM, IV., p. 282.
Lusty (XII.) : Ascham, Whip.
Marlowe ... in his lustiness. WHIFFLE, Es. & Rev., II., p. 18.
Luxuriant (XIX.) b : Dry. to present.
Ariosto's style is luxurious, without majesty or decency. DRY-
DEN, XIII., p. 15.
In the department of luxurious ornament, the example of Mr.
Ruskin may be said to have rendered all other examples com-
paratively superfluous. SAINTSBURY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxxii.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 181
LYRICAL (XXL).
Pour periods may be distinguished in the history of
the term " lyrical." Until about the middle of the
seventeenth century, the word "lyrical" was AS passion
,'" , j i , -, i r adapted to
employed merely to designate a class of song,
poetry which was thought to be no better and no worse
than poetry in general. The accusatjons made against
piiatry were levelled at the drama rather than at the
tyric^though in the amative songs of the dramas them-
selves, the lyric came in for its share of blame.
Which we may call lyrical, because they are apt to be sung to an
instrument. CAMPION, p. 252.
Lyrical kind of songs and sonnets . . . singing the praises of the
immortal beauty, the immortal goodness of God. SIDNEY, p. 52.
If thou mislike the lyrical, because the chiefest subject thereof is
love, I reply that love being virtuously intended and worthily
placed, is the whetstone of wit and spur to all generous actions.
1602. DAVISON, in Lit. Centuria, I., p. 107.
During the second period, which extended until about
the middle of the eighteenth century, lyrical poetry was
jiot in good repute with the critics. Their
As passion.
attention was centred chiefly jipan hej^oic^
dramatic, arid didactic poetry. The lyric received very
little notice. It was considered as too crude, primitive,
impulsive, and passionate.
Tasso confesses himself toplyrical . . . beneath the dignity of
heroic verse. DRYDEN, XIII., p. 15.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century, the
lyric was thought to be of equal importance with the
other species or divisions of poetry. Its As musical
early crude passion may be said to have emoti011 -
182 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
become refined into emotion. The term "lyrical"
began tojaxercise a schematizing influence over other
critical terms which were in active use, but its own
critical significance was as yet quite incidental to its
use as a classifying term.
Alexander's Feast concludes with an epigram of four lines ; a spe-
cies of wit as flagrantly unsuitable to the dignity, and as foreign
to the nature of the lyric, as it is of the epic muse. J. WARTON,
I., p. 60.
Lyric poetry especially should not be minutely historical. ID., I.,
p. 374.
Extreme conciseness of expression, yet pure, perspicuous, and mu-
sical, is one of the grand beauties of lyric poetry. GRAY, II.,
p. 352.
1 The true lyric style with all its flights of fancy, ornaments, and
heightening of expression, and harmony of sound, is in its na-
ture superior to any other'style; which is just the cause why it
could not be borne in a work of great length. GRAY, II.,
p. 304.
Lyric sweetness. T. WARTON, p. 646.
During the fourth period, which includes the present
century, the lyric has been in greater favor than the
AS intense other species of poetry. A great develop-
emotion. nient of poetry has taken place in this cen-
tury, which_is_ji^tlier_eic i^J^inatic^ in its nature.
Hence there has been a tendency to broaden the defi-
nition of the lyric both in theory and in actual criticism.
In theory, the lyric has often been made to include all
poetry which deals with the thoughts and emotions of
the mind. But in actual criticism it includes only such
a part of this subjective poetry as is written with the_
intensity and unity of feeling that characterizes the
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 183
older lyric, the lyric that had chiefly for its themes
th^gassions of love and of heroism. There is thus an
extension of themes in the m^d^n_lvric? but little or
no change in the method of dealing with these themes.
The lyric is an intensification ^of poetical feeling. The
feeling must be simple and more or less impulsive. It
must embody itself in vivid* images which are directly
related to the feeling, but not to each other. Even
dramatic poetry when in its effect it produces an in-
tgnse aesthetic unity, is sometimes classed as lyrical.
Some of these pieces are essentially lyrical ; and therefore cannot
have their due force without a supposed musical accompaniment ;
but in much the greatest part, as a substitute for the classic lyre
or romantic harp, I require nothing more than an animated or
impassioned recitation, adapted to the subject. WORDSWORTH,
p. 880, Morley's edition of 1893.
The whole of the Midsummer Night's Dream is one continued
specimen of the dramatized lyrical. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 63.
The highest lyric work is either passionate or imaginative. SWIN-
BURNE, Es. & St., p. 275.
The true lyric, short, at unity with one thought, with one cry
of joyful or sorrowful passion. BROOKE, Early Eng. Lit.,
p. 7.
Bright, spontaneous, almost lyrical feeling. DOWDEN, Shak., etc.,
p. 333.
A lyrical purity and passion. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 167.
Magazinish (IX.) : The mediocrity ... is most miserably maga-
zinish. COLERIDGE, Letters, I., p. 117.
Magical (XXII.) b: Jef. to present.
Magical potency. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 388.
Magnetic (XXII.) b : Low., Ros.
Wordsworth was not a magnetic poet. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 216.
Magnificent (XI.) : Put. to present. Macaulay, I., p. 126.
Magniloquence (XIX.) b : Magniloquence and amplitude of phrase.
GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 99.
184 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
MAJESTIC (XL).
Previous to the eighteenth century, the term "ma-
jestic " signified a commanding sweep of thought and
AS authority expression, a thought simple, elevated, au-
and magni- ,,.,*. - n
tude. thontative, a (prm 01 expression usually a
metrical movement imposing, stately, regulated.
The majesty of God's holy word. ASCHAM, III., p. 227.
Majesty of the holy style. HOJBBES, IV., p. 445.
Words borrowed of antiquity do lend a kind of majesty to style,
for they have the authority of years. 1641. B. JONSON, Tim-
ber, p. 61.
Ariosto's style is luxurious, without majesty or decency. 1693.
DJIYDEN, XIII., p. 15.
The language ... of Waller's poein on the Navy ... is clean
and majestic. RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 79.
The Alexandrine adds a certain majesty to the verse, when it is
used with judgment, and stops the sense from overflowing into
another line. 1696. DRYDEN, XIV., p. 208.
Majesty offended by rhyme. ID., XV., p. 360.
Denham's Cooper's Hill, an exact standard for majesty of style.
ID., II., p. 137.
Cowley considered the verse of twelve syllables as elevated and
majestic, and has therefore deviated into that measure when he
supposes the voice heard of the Supreme Being. 1781. S.
JOHNSON, VII., p. 55.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the
" majestic " has often been used to characterize a lower
AS supreme form of sublimity. It has referred more than
strength and
magnitude. formerly to the imagery and thought of the
composition. It has occasionally denoted the literary
representation of great personal strength. It has
always represented strength of some kind or magni-
tude which could never attain to the sublime because
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 185
it was more simple and direct, less mysterious and
suggestive.
The sentiments of Chevy-Chase are extremely natural and poetical,
and full of the majestic simplicity which we admire in the great-
est of the ancient poets. 1710. ADDISON, II., p. 384.
There is in his negligence a rude inartificial majesty. 1751. S.
JOHNSON, III., p. 83.
Majesty which approaches sublimity. 1760. GRAY, I., p. 401.
Majesty, characteristic of Greek finiteness. COLERIDGE, IV.,
p. 29.
Majesty, not complete loftiness of thought. DE QUINCEY, X.,
p. 423.
Malleability : He strikes after the iron is cold, and there is want of
malleability in the style. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 179.
Manly (XIV.) : B. Jon. to present.
The tone of Shakespeare's writings is manly and bracing. HAZ-
LITT, Age of EL, p. 109.
It is not fastidiousness, but manliness and good feeling, which are
outraged by such vulgarities. DE QUINCEY, XL, p. 340.
Mannered (II.): Mannered sentimentality ... of the Arcadia.
DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 282.
Mannerism (IV.) : Scott to present.
Much in use. Elaborate and formal methods of
writing, not derived from a genuine interest and feel-
ing for the subject treated of, but from the imitation
and manipulation of the more mechanical elements of
style.
Mannerism and affectation. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 163.
In poetry I have sought to avoid system and mannerism. Su EL-
LET, VIII., p. 186.
Until imitation has run into a spiritless mannerism. WHIPPLE,
Es. & Rev., I., p. 224.
Perhaps I ought to have used the word " mannerism " instead of
" style/' for Chapman had not that perfect control of his matter
which "style" implies. On the contrary, his matter seems
186 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
sometimes to do what it will with him, which is the character-
istic of mannerism. LOWELL, 0. E. D., p. 96.
MANNERS (VI.).
The Greek rjdos was expressed in early English crit-
icism by the two words "planners" and "character."
AS cultivated (See " Character.") Until the latter part of
inclination, the eighteenth century, the word " manners "
frequently denoted the instincts and inclinations of
tho._mii.id which tend toward fixed habits of conduct;
a certain refinement of the native bent of character
toward custom and uniformity ; the sense of propriety
turned toward action and thus exciting perhaps even
the passions. As the word " manners " gradually came
to refer more to the fixed habit and less to the native
inclination, it tended to represent an activity which
was more pjiy^jgaLthan mental in its nature; and by
the latter portion of the eignteenth century, though it
was still occasionally applied to the "internal consti-
tution of man," it had already become separated from
all the essential and spontaneous powers of the mind.
It had been opposed to " action," to the " tragic," and
" passion," to " character," to " sentiment," and to the
" poetical."
The manners in a poem are understood to be those inclinations,
whether natural or acquired, which move and carry ns to ac-
tions, good, bad, or indifferent, in a play ; or which incline the
persous to such actions. 1679. DRYUEN, VI., pp. 266, 267.
Under this general head of manners, the passions are naturally
included, as belonging to the characters. ID., p. 274.
Manners, under which name I comprehend the passions, and in a
larger sense the descriptions of persons and their very habits.
1699. ID., XL, p. 220.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 187
And my idea of comedy requires only that the pathos be kept in
subordination to the manners. 1751. HUHD, II., p. 95.
Compositions that lay open the internal constitution jpf^man. and
. . . imitate characters, manners, and sentiments. 1756. J.
WARTON, Pope, I., p. 49.
Pope . . . stuck to describing modern manners ; but those man-
ners, because they are familiar, artificial, uniform, and polished,
are in their very nature unfit for any lofty effort of the muse.
ID., II., p. 402.
The manners of men . . . shew themselves most usually in action.
1751. KURD, II., p. 38.
Manners, those sentiments which mark and distinguish characters.
ID., II., p. 133.
Actions are the province of tragedy, manners that of comedy.
1762. GIBBON, IV., p. 137.
The sentiments, as expressive of manners, or appropriated to char-
acters, are for the greater part unexceptionably just. 1781.
S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 130.
By the beginning of the present century the word
" manners " was thought to represent something wholly
external to the mind. The fixed habit of AS formal
conduct was regarded as a formal method of behavior,
behavior, which in a sense stood over in opposition to
man himself, at least to man as furnishing either
the subject or the inspiration for literary production.
The excellence of Pope . . . consisted in just and acute observa-
tions on men and manners in an artificial state of society. 1817.
COLERIDGE, III., p. 155.
We find ... in novels ... a close imitation of men and man-
ners ; we see the very web and texture of society as it really
exists, and as we meet with it when we come into the world.
1819. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 142.
Many-colored (V.) : Saints. Dowden, St. in Lit., p. 382. B
Marvelous (XXII.) a : Stephen. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. *66.
188 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Masculine (XII.) : Dry. to present.
Masculine though irregular versification. SCOTT, Life of Dry den,
p. 400.
Masculine, plain, concentrated, and energetic. LANDOR, IV.,
p. 525.
Massive (XI.) : Macaulay to present.
Gothic massiveness of thought. POE, I., p. 550.
Masterly (XXII.) a : Dry. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 25.
Mawkish (XV.) : Jef., Saints.
Solemn mawkislmess of Cato. JEFFREY, II., p. 88.
Meager (XII.) : Haz. to present.
Meager and dry. HA.ZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 320.
Mean (V.) : Ascham to present.
A humble, familiar, and extremely simple method
of writing.
The metre and verse of Plautus and Terence be very mean, and
not to be followed. ASCHAM, III., p. 248.
Cowley's expressions have sometimes a degree of meanness that
surprises expectation ; e. g. :
Nay, gentle guests, he cries, since now you 're in,
The story of your gallant friend begin.
S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 45.
Measured (X.) : Jef. to present.
Mechanical (VII.) : Dry. to present.
Mediocrity : Cole to present.
Easy and sensible mediocrity. GOSSE, Seventeenth Cent. St.,
p. 88.
Meditation (XX.) b : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 165.
Meetely (IV.) : Meetely currant style ... of Lydgate. WEBBE,
p. 32.
Melancholy (XIV.) : Wil. to present.
Such melancholy strain. WILSON, VI., p. 138.
Mellifluous (X.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 112.
Mellow: J. War. to present.
All' are mellowed, refined, made exquisite. DOWDEN, Shak., etc.,
p. 333.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 189
Melodrama : Haz to present.
Tliis is not dramatic but melo-dramatic. There is a palpable disap-
pointment and falling off where the interest had been worked up
to the highest pitch of expectation. HAZLITT, EL Lit., p. 45.
He indulges more frequently than could be wished in downright
melodrama, or what is generally called sensational writing.
STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., I., p. 322.
Beauty has not come to lift the tale out of the melodrama. DOW-
DEN, Tr. & St., p. 380.
Melody (X.) : Put. to present.
Much in use in the present century.
I. Previous to the present century, the melodious
was usually a smooth and regular combination of ele-
mentary sounds and syllables.
That verse may be melodious and pleasing, it is necessary not only
that the words be so ranged as that the accent may fall on its
proper place, but that the syllables themselves be so chosen as
to flow smoothly into one another. This is to be effected by a
proportionate mixture of vowels and consonants, and by tem-
pering the mute consonants with liquids and semivowels. S.
JOHNSON, II., p. 413.
II. During the present century, melody has repre-
sented harmony in elementary sounds, especially vow-
els, resulting both from regularity of arrangement and
from variation.
Halleck's poetry is not the melody of monotonous and strictly
regular measurement. BRYANT, Prose, I., p. 383.
Melting (X.) : Campion, Swin.
Silent and melting consonants. CAMPION, p. 259.
Memorable (XVI.) : Haz. to present.
As a work of genius, Gorboduc may be set down as nothing, for
it contains hardly a memorable line or passage. HAZLITT, El.
Lit., p. 31.
Poetry should be memorable and emphatic, intense and soon over.
BAGEHOT, Lit. St., II., p. 352.
190 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Mendacious (VIII.) : Swinburne, A St. of B. J., p. 143.
Meretricious (V.) : Haz., Poe.
A meretricious gloss. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 121.
Meritorious (XXII.) a : Jef., Wil.
We feel it to be amusing, and therefore are inclined to believe that
it is meritorious. WILSON, V., p. 366.
Metallic : Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 137-
Metaphorical (VIII.): Hal.
Metaphor must be the language when we travel in a country be-
yond our senses. RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 44.
Bacon is sometimes too metaphorical and witty. HALLAM, III.,
p. 65.
Metaphysical : J. War. to present.
Petrarch's sentiments are metaphysical and far-fetched. J. WAR-
TON, I., p. 65.
Metrical (X.) : Ros., Saints.
The rhythmical considered as a product, as a sequence
of accented and unaccented sounds capable of being
reduced to exact rule and method.
The metrical pomp is made . . . effectually to aid the pomp of the
sentiment ... in Milton. DE QUINCEY, XL, p. 456.
The language alike of poetry and prose attains a rhythmical power
independent of metrical combinations, and dependent rather on
some subtle adjustment of the elementary sounds, of words
themselves to the image or feeling they convey. PATER, Ap.,
p. 57.
Might (XI.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 203.
Mild (XIX.) : Ascham to present.
The mild or rough polemic of Halifax and Bentley. SAINTSBURY,
Eng. Pr. St., p. xxiv.
Mimicry: Macaulay, I., p. 21.
Mincing (XII.) : Mincing sweetness of versification. GOSSE, Seven-
teenth Cent. St., p. 15.
Minute (VIII.) b : J. War. to present,
A minute and particular enumeration of circumstances, judiciously
selected, is what chiefly discriminates poetry from history. J.
WARTON, I., p. 47.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 191
Prolixity, produced by this finical minuteness of language, ends
by distressing one's nerves. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., I.,
pp. 365, 366.
Miraculous (XXII.) a : Jeffrey, II., p. 73.
Misty (III.): Ossianic tumidity and mistiness; ROSSETTI, Pref. to
Blake, p. cxiii.
Mock-heroic : Jef. to present.
Model (XXII.) a : Swinburne, Mis., p. 10.
Moderation (XIX.) b : M. Arnold to present.
Sureness of hand and moderation of work. ROSSETTI, Life of
Keats, p. 180.
Modern (IV.) : J. War. to present.
The term has always designated a departure from
the spirit of the ancient classics in this century ; occa-
sionally it has denoted a departure from the spirit of
Medievalism.
See, Nature liastes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the incense of the breathing spring.
These lines have too much prettiness and too modern an air. J.
WARTON, Es. on Pope, I., p. 11.
A pretty modernism. GRAY, II., p. 353.
Werther ... is in the modern style. HAZLITT, El. Lit., p. 266.
Heine's intense modernism, his absolute freedom, his utter rejec-
tion of stock classicism and stock romanticism. M. ARNOLD,
Or. Es., 1st S., p. 178.
Modest (XIX.) b : Blair to present.
Modulation (X.): Jef. to present.
Carefully modulated expression. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 89.
Monochordic (X.) : " In Memoriam " is monochordic but not
monotonous. T. ARNOLD, Man. of Eng. Lit., p. 454.
Monotonous (II.) : Rymer to present. Recently much in use.
The monotony of Johnson's style produces an apparent monotony
of ideas. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 135.
Monotonous and disgusting. SATNTSBURY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxvii.
Monumental : (V.) ; The Dunciad is the most absolutely chiselled
and monumental work "exacted" in our country. RUSKIN,
Lectures on Art, pp. 86, 87.
192 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
MORAL (XIV.).
The history of the term " moral " may be divided
into three periods. Until within the eighteenth cen-
tury the term " moral " denoted certain fixed
As conven-
er^* of 1 *" rules an d ideals of conduct, derived in part
from Scriptural authority, in part from cus-
tom and precedent, and in part perhaps from instincts
of the mind which were thought to be permanent and
unchangeable. But from whatever source derived,
morality, composed of fixed, eternal principles, stood
over against and entirely independent of literature con-
sidered merely as literature. During the first century
of English criticism, in all the charges made against
poetry and in the defences of it alike, the common as-
sumption was made that literature could justify its
existence only by inculcating some moral lesson which
was more or less completely foreign to the nature of
literature as such. During the latter portion of the
seventeenth and early portion of the eighteenth cen-
tury, the opposition between morality and poetry,
though still continuing, was perhaps viewed from a
slightly different standpoint. The imagination in po-
etry was thought to do violence to the world of reality,
of order, of moral action ; and yet by means of satire
and direct teaching, poetry could be thoroughly per-
meated by the didactic spirit and purpose, could be
made to do duty for the cause which of itself it would
violate.
Gorbodue is full of notable morality, which it doth most delight-
fully teach. SIDNEY, p. 47-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 193
To make brick without straw or stubble is perhaps an easier labour
than to prove morals without a world, and establish a conduct of
life without the supposition of anything living or extant besides
our immediate fancy and world of imagination. SHAFTESBURY,
III., p. 147.
Nor will a man, after the perusal of thousands of these perform-
ances, find his knowledge enlarged with a single view of nature,
not produced before, or his imagination amused with any new
application of those views to moral purposes. 1750. S. JOHN-
SON, II., p. 177.
During the eighteenth century especially the latter
portion of it morality was often identified with the
more conservative tendencies in literature. AS effective
principles of
The moral was that which was most useful conduct,
from the external and mechanical point of view; and
to this general spirit of utilitarianism, literature could
in a measure be made to conform in so far as the im-
agination was kept under constant restraint by the
judgment.
A due sentiment of morals is wanting which alone can make us
knowing in order and proportion, and give us the just tone and
measure of human passion. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 218.
Virtue is the foundation of taste, etc. GOLDSMITH, I., p. 331.
During the present century the moral sense and liter-
ary intuitions have been very generally identified with
each other as forming parts of one and the AS developing
mi TPP i principles of
same mental process. The difference between conduct,
the ethical impulse to do and the artistic impulse to
create is recognized as one of degree and not of kind.
It has thus become the business of literature, not to
preach morals, but to be moral, and to be moral simply
because it is literature.
13
194 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
A pathetic reflection, properly introduced into a descriptive poem,
will have greater force and beauty, and more deeply interest a
reader, than a moral one. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 32.
Impassioned poetry is an emanation of the moral and intellectual
part of our nature, as well as of the sensitive. 1818. HAZLITT,
Eng. Poets, p. 8.
A man to be greatly good must imagine intensely and comprehen-
sively, go out of his own nature and identify himself with
beauty not his own. The great secret of morals is love. 1821.
SHELLEY, VII., p. 111.
If you insist on my telling you what is the moral of the Iliad, I
insist upon your telling me what is the moral of a rattlesnake,
or the moral of a Niagara. 1847. DE QUINCEY, XI., p. 455.
All the virtues of style are in their roots moral. They are a rever-
beration of the soul itself, and can no more be artificially ac-
quired than the ring of silver can be acquired by lead.
MATHEWS, Lit. St., p. 29.
Poetry is interpretative both by having natural magic in it and by
having moral profundity. 1865. M. ARNOLD, Or. Es., 1st S.,
p. 111.
Though it is not the business of art to preach morality, still I think
that, resting on a divine and spiritual principle, like the idea of
the beautiful, it is perforce moral. HOWELLS, Grit. & Fiction,
pp. 60, 61.
Morbid (VII.) : Ros. to present.
Morbid tone. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 208.
Motion (XVIII.): The Ancient Mariner has ... more of material
force and motion than anything else of the poet's. SWINBURNE,
Es. & St., p. 264.
Motive (XIII.): Pater.
Motives are symptoms of weakness and supplements for the defi-
cient energy of the living principle, the law within us. COLE-
RIDGE, I., p. 166.
Motley (II.) : J. War., Gosse.
Motley discourse. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 100.
Mot-propre : Saint sbury.
Movement (XVIII.) ; Poe to present.
The peculiar effect of a poet resides in his manner and movement.
M. ARNOLD, Gel. Lit., etc., p. 153.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 195
Moving (XVII.) : J. War. to present,
That moving is of a higher degree than teaching, it may by this
appear, that it is welluigh both the cause and the effect of teach-
ing. SIDNEY, p. 22.
Tragical and moving. GQSSE, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 279.
Mundane : Mundane and vulgar in style. GOSSE, From Shak., etc.,
p. 225.
Muscular (XII.): Whip., Gosse.
Sentences full of muscular life . . . in Coleridge. WHIFFLE, Es.
& Rev., I., p. 417.
MUSICAL (X.).
During the latter portion of the eighteenth century
the term " musical " denoted combinations of sounds
and of metrical movements, which were Ag smooth
smooth and agreeable to a cultivated and
critical ear. When the term referred to the (
metrical movement, it represented that which was
agreeable in sound because it was regular and me-
thodic. When the term referred to the mere combi-
nations of sounds, it perhaps indicated a slight appeal
to the native sense of hearing and harmony.
Waller's numbers are not always musical, as
Fair Venus in thy soft arms
The god of rage confine,
For thy whispers are the charms
Which only can divert his fierce design.
1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 207.
A musical close in our language requires either the last or the last
but one to be a long syllable. BLAIR, Khet., p. 140.
During the early portion of the present century, the
"musical" often denoted that blending and continuity
of sound and perhaps of thought which As simple
elevated bar-
is in harmony with the spirit of song;. The mony of
thought and
aesthetic effect upon the reader was the only
196 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
test as to whether or not this blending and continuity
had been attained.
The musical in sound is the sustained and continuous ; the musi-
cal in thought is the sustained and continuous also. 1818.
HAZLITT, Eng. Poets, p. 16.
Rousseau is ... the only musical composer that ever had a toler-
able ear for prose. Music is both sunshine and irrigation to the
mind ; but when it occupies and covers it too long, it debilitates
and corrupts it. 1826. LANDOR, IV., p. 273.
Milton is not a picturesque but a musical poet. 1810. COLE-
RIDGE, IV., p. 304.
Spenser's best thoughts were born in music. 1859. WHIFFLE,
El. Lit., p. 215.
During the latter portion of the present century, the
term " musical " has directly referred only to the sounds
AS harmony an( ^ rhythms of a composition, more di-
rectly perhaps to the sounds than to the
rhythms. It denotes primarily a harmonious blending
of sounds, incidentally of rhythms, and occasionally,
perhaps, it still indirectly represents a lyrical strain
of thought.
Happy coalescence of music and meaning (in Spenser). LOWELL,
IV., p. 308.
In all poetry, the very highest as well as the very lowest that is
still poetry, there is something which transports, and that some-
thing in my view is always the music of the verse, of the words,
of the cadence, of the rhythm, of the sounds superadded to the
meaning. 1889. SAINTSBURY, Eng. Lit., pp. 26, 27-
Such gift of appreciation depends on the habitual apprehension of
men's life as a whole . . . the musical accordance between hu-
manity and its environment. 1878. PATER, Ap. pp. 118, 119.
Prose literature and music are the characteristic arts of the cen-
tury. They are in one sense the opposite terms of art ; the art
of literature presenting to the imagination, through the intelli-
gence, a range of interests as free and various as those which
music presents to it through the sense. ID., p. 35.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 197
Mystical (III.) : T. WiL, Jef. to present.
I. Viewed as to its purpose the " mystical," or mys-
ticism, often represents the attempt to give more or
less concrete expression to things purely spiritual and
in themselves incomprehensible.
Some do use after the literal sense to gather a mystical under-
standing, and to expound the sayings spiritually. T. WILSON,
Rhet., p. 118.
Novalis . . . had an affinity with mysticism, in the primary and
true meaning of that word, exemplified in some shape among our
own Puritan divines. CARLYLE, II., p. 201.
Mysticism proper is the abuse of this tendency which prompts to
the impossible feat of soaring altogether beyond the necessary
base of concrete realities. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., II., p. 38.
II. Viewed as to its effect, the " mystical " often,
perhaps usually, represents indefiniteness of mental
imagery, and extreme remoteness of suggestion in
composition ; obscurity, which is neither verbal nor
logical in its origin.
Parabola . . . resemblance mystical. PDTTENHAM, p. 251.
The presence of a mystical element is the mark of all lofty imagi-
nations. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., II., p. 37-
Naive (VII.) : Put., Blair to present.
The naive . . . opposed to self-consciousness. SYMONDS, Es.,
etc., p. 175.
Naivete (VII.) : Hume to present.
Ingenuous simplicity and naturalness, so extreme as
to be more or less amusing, and supposed to represent
a revelation of character in its native beauty and truth.
The absurd naivete of Sancho Pancho. HUME, I., p. 240.
Naivete ... is no other than beautiful nature, without affectation
or extraneous ornament. GOLDSMITH, I., p. 328.
Naivete and truth of local coloring. HAZLITT, El. Lit., p. 119.
198 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Naivete, which becomes wit to the bystander, though simply the
natural expression of the thought to him who utters it. DE
QTJINCEY, V., p. 156.
The French naivete always expresses a discovery of character.
BLAIR, Rhel., p. 207.
The felicity and idiomatic naivete ... of Walton. MATHEWS,
Lit. St., p. 7.
Naked (XVI.) : Swin., Saints. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65.
Namby-Pamby (XV.) : Pope to present.
The cock is crowing,
The stream is flowing, etc. (Wordsworth.)
This is Namby-Pamby. BYRON, Life and Letters, p. 669.
Burns was not a sickly sentimentalist, a Namby-Pamby poet.
HAZLITT, Eng. Poets, p. 170.
A seven-syllabled measure, which earned Philipps . . . the name
of Namby-Pamby. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III., p. 138.
Narrow (XIII.) b : Stephen. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 170.
Native (VII.) : Pope to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 75.
Naturalism : Swinburne, Es. St., p. 10.
NATURAL (VII.).
The history of the adjective " natural " does not
coincide by any means with that of the noun " nature."
AS the spon- ^ ie term " natural " has perhaps undergone
taneous. no c } ian g e o f me aning whatever in English
criticism. It signifies that which in the light of pres-
ent inclination and of past habit seems least abrupt
and unexpected, that which produces least jar and
surprise in its apprehension. Since, however, one
always expects a certain amount of change, since with-
out this change, in fact, expectation cannot be awak-
ened in the mind, the " natural " sometimes denotes
the spontaneous, the unartificial, the sincere.
The Georgiac, which is not to appear in the natural simplicity and
nakedness of its subject, but in the pleasantest dress that poetry
can bestow on it. ADDISOX, I., p. 158.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 199
Dry den . . . had so little sensibility of the power of effusions
purely natural that he did not esteem them in others. 1781.
S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 340.
What has since been called Artificial Poetry was then nourishing,
in contradistinction to natural ; or Poetry seen chiefly through
art and books, and not in its first sources. 1844. HUNT, Im.
& Fancy, p. 39.
Simple, natural, and honest. HOWELLS, Grit. & Fiction.
More often, however, in applied criticism "natural"
represents that which is most habitual and As tte usual
therefore most to be expected. It is often or P r <* able -
closely synonymous with probability.
Natural propriety ... of verse. WEBBE, p. 63.
An apter and more natural word. PUTTENHAM, p. 189.
Unnatural . . . and constrained. DRYDEN, XV., p. 362.
Whether the practice of soliloquizing on the stage be natural or no
to us ... we ought to make it so by study and application.
SHAFTESBURY, I., pp. 124, 125.
Natural and easy. ID., p. 183.
Easy and natural. ADDISON, I., p. 145.
Natural and probable. BLAIR, Ehet., p. 508.
Distorted and unnatural. J. WARTON, II., p. 22.
Naturally and gracefully. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 179.
Naturally and necessarily to accomplish the order of events.
LANDOR, IV., p. 444.
Bizarre or unnatural. WHIFFLE, Lit. of Age of El., p. 232.
Non-natural, twisted, allusive. SAINTSBURY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xliv.
NATURE (VII.).
The history of the term "nature" exhibits a devel-
opment along two almost independent lines of meaning.
The variation in these two general lines of meaning
does not occur at the same time, and hence it is im-
possible to divide the history of the term into well
defined periods. In general, however, five such pe-
200 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
riods may be distinguished, which are more or less
exclusive of one another.
The first period, which extends until the latter part
of the seventeenth century, includes two uses of the
AS human term. Its first use was similar to that which
imp'iiws and* 1 & possessed in ancient criticism. Nature
represented those primary activities of the
mind which precede, underlie, and for the most part
determine all conscious elaboration, study, and effort.
Even these primary activities, however, were conceived
of in two ways. On the one hand, they were thought
to be instincts, which acted according to fixed and
given methods, and which thus set up unchangeable
laws and principles for literature. On the other hand,
these primary activities were regarded as impulses,
which followed no law or method so far as known, but
tended to disregard existing methods in view of pos-
sibly better ones. There were thus, in a sense, two
meanings in this primary use of the term " nature."
Nature herself teaches us to choose the fit meter, the heroic.
ARISTOTLE, Poetics, p. 15.
In art we admire exactness, in the works of nature magnificence ;
and it is from nature that man derives the faculty of speech.
LONGINUS, p. 70.
All arts depend upon nature. Only the poet, disdaining to be tied
to any such subjection, lifted up with the vigor of his own in-
vention, doth grow in effect into another nature . . . freely
ranging within the zodiac of his own wit. 1583. SIDNEY,
p. 7.
The poet is not as the painter to counterfeit the natural by the
like effects . . . but even as nature herself working by her own
peculiar virtue and proper instinct, and not by example or medi-
tation or exercise as all other artificers do. 1585. PUTTEN-
HAM, pp. 312, 313.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 201
Nature is always the same, like herself; and when she collects her
strength is abler still. Men are decayed, and studies : she is
not. 1641. B. JONSON, Timber, p. 7-
In his amorous verses where nature only should reign. 1692.
DRYDEN, XIII., p. 6.
It is not reading, it is not imitation of authors, which can produce
this fineness ; it must be inborn ; it must proceed from a genius,
and particular way of thinking which is not to be taught, and
therefore not to be imitated by him who has it not from nature.
1693. ID., p. 97.
The second early meaning of the term is closely con-
nected with its use during the eighteenth century.
Nature indicated whatever comes to the As external
mind through the special senses, the outer fact *
existence, whether consisting of present facts or of past
events.
Art and Nature (summary).
1. Art an exact imitator of nature.
2. Art heightens the beauties of nature.
3. Art covers defects of nature.
4. Art develops forms wholly beyond nature. 1585. PUTTEN-
HAM, pp. 308-312.
Poetry . . . commonly exceeds the measure of nature, joining at
pleasure things which in nature would never have come together.
BACON, IV., p. 292.
Nature, a thing so almost infinite and boundless as can never be
fully comprehended, but where the images of all things are
always present. 1664. DRYDEN, II., p. 132.
With an ingenious flattery of nature, to heighten the beauties of
some parts and hide the deformities of the rest. 1667. ID.,
p. 296.
The obstacles which hindered the design or action of the play once
removed, it ends with that resemblance of truth and nature that
the audience are satisfied with the conduct of it. 1668. ID.,
XV., pp. 303, 304.
All that is dull, insipid, languishing, and without sinews in a poem
is called an imitation of nature, 1674. ID., V., p. 120.
202 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
From the 1 latter portion of the seventeenth century
to the middle of the eighteenth century, "nature"
AS human usually represented that part of external fact
naiiyand which relates to human action and achieve-
histqrically -~~ -
considered. ment. The term was otten employed in the
discussion of the plots or characters of a drama. Hence
it became associated with such expressions as "possi-
bility, probability, and historical truth." When thus
employed, the term derived its meaning wholly from
the past, and indicated the ordinary course of human
affairs, the established methods of action and perform-
ance. During the first half of the eighteenth century
this was almost the only meaning given to the term
" nature."
There are some that are not pleased with fiction, unless it be
bold ; not only to exceed the work, but also the possibility of
nature. 1650. HOBBES, IV., p. 451.
Ariosto's . . . adventures are without the compass of nature and
possibility. 1693. DRYDEN, XIIL, p. 15.
There is nothing of nature and probability in all this. ... It may
be Romance, but it is not Nature. RYMER, 1st Pt., p. 125.
Those rules of old discovered, not devised,
Are nature still, but nature methodised,
1711. POPE, IL, p. 38.
Imitation of nature and uniformity of design. SWIFT, XIIL, p. 33.
During the third period, which includes the latter
half of the eighteenth century, the term " nature " was
AS native employed in three ways. Often it was em-
impulse or
capacity. ployed, like the term " genius," to explain
any bold and successful departure from the ordinary
and established methods of composition. Nature rep-
resented the primary native capacities of the mind,
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 203
which, by asserting themselves in literature, widened
its range of sympathy and interest. Nature was thought
of as lawless, rather than as the source of new law and
method.
Shakespeare was naturally learned : he needed not the spectacle of
books to read nature ; he looked inwards and found her there.
. . . He is always great when some great occasion is presented
to him ; no man can say he ever had a fit subject for his wit,
and did not then raise himself high above the rest of poets.
1765. S. JOHNSON, V., p. 153.
As regards external nature, the last half of the
eighteenth century was decidedly a period of transi-
tion. Nature was not considered in so ex- As external
clusively historical a light as formerly. It order *
usually indicated an outer uniformity and order, which
could have been determined only from past experience,
but still it had some vague reference to present fact,
and the ascertained uniformity and order was not al-
ways taken as authoritative in literature.
Characters in poetry may be a little overcharged or exaggerated
without offering violence to nature. 1761. GOLDSMITH, I.,
p. 339.
By nature we are to suppose can only be meant the known and
experienced course of affairs in this world. Whereas the poet
has a world of his own, where experience has less to do than
consistent imagination. 1762. HURD, IV., p. 324.
In Lycidas there is no nature, for there is no truth. ... Its inhe-
rent improbability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind.
1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 120.
After about half a century of forced thoughts and rugged meter,
some advances toward nature and harmony had been made by
Waller and Denham. 1781. ID., pp. 307, 308.
204 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Throughout all of the eighteenth century, and espe-
cially during the latter half of it, there may be traced
AS external in criticism a growing sense of form and
color. color, of beauty in external nature. This
conception of nature, however, was not regarded with
much favor in criticism, and had very little influence
upon the use of " nature " as an actual critical term.
It may be observed iii general that description of the external
beauties of nature is usually the first effort of a young genius,
before he hath studied manners and passions. 1756. J. WAR-
TON, I., p. 35.
Three sources of beauty,
1. Man, e. g., Euripides, etc.
2. Nature, as vast as it is, has furnished few images to poets.
3. Art. 1759. GIBBON, IV., p. 23.
Congreve . . . draws a great deal more from life than from nature.
1758. GOLDSMITH, IV., p. 427-
The fourth period includes the first few decades of
the present century. Historical nature disappeared
AS life, the from criticism. The sense of external beauty
essence of . , .,
being. in nature was considered as an inner sense
rather than as beauty which was external to the mind.
Nature denoted life, inner and outer, the growing prin-
ciple of all existence, inner impulse and outer devel-
opment, which were perhaps in some manner to be
identified with each other, and whose representative in
literature was the imagination.
The wonderful twilight of the mind, and mark Cervantes' s courage
in daring to present it, and trust to a distant posterity for an
appreciation of its truth to nature. 1810. COLERIDGE, IV.,
p. 274.
From copying the artificial models, we lose sight of the living prin-
ciple of nature. 1820. HAZLITT, El. Lit., p. 20.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 205
Poetry is an imitation of nature, but the imagination and the pas-
sions are a part of man's nature. ID., PL Sp., p. 4.
Poets have penetrated into the mystery of Nature . . . and thus
can the spirit of our age, embodied in fair imagination, look
forth on us. 1827- CAHLYLE, I., p. 56.
Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection ; and trust
more to your imagination than to your memory. 1833. COLE-
RIDGE, VI., p. 346.
During the latter portion of the present century,
"nature" seems to have become very largely a retro-
spective term, being applied especially to the AS external
writings of the Lake School of poets. In so beauty,
far as actively employed in criticism, " nature " repre-
sents the external world, a world which unites in a
manner the scientific conception of orderly development
with the artistic conception of beauty. In this meaning
of the word " nature," however, it can scarcely be said
to have been employed as a critical term.
If in the realistic tide that now bears us on there are some spirits
who feel nature in another way, in the romantic way or the
classic way, they Avould not falsify her in expressing her so.
HOWELLS, Grit. & Fiction, p. 63.
The old formula of Greek philosophy, ffjv /caret (frva-iv, " to live ac-
cording to nature," might be accepted as our rule, if "nature"
be understood to include the action of the higher part of our
humanity in controlling or modifying the lower and grosser part.
DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 117-
Nature is indeed the teacher of all true poets, but like a wise
teacher she does not put all scholars through the same course
of study. ID., p. 181.
Of the things of nature the mediaeval mind had a deep sense ; but
its sense of them was not objective, no real escape to the world
without us. 1883. PATER, Ap., p. 218.
Nauseous (XXII.) b : Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 131
206 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
-Neat (V.): Lodge to present.
Pope had a sense of the neat rather than of the beautiful. LOW-
ELL, Prose, IV., p. 34.
Negligent (XIX.): Pope to present.
Horace still charms with graceful negligence. POPE, II., p, 75.
Nemesis: Retribution as it appears in the world of art. MOULTON,
Shak., etc., p. 107-
Neo-Classicism : Saintsburj, Eng. Pr. St , p. xxxi.
Nerveless (XII.) : Whip, to present.
Nerveless and hysterical verses. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 269.
Nervous (XII): J. War. to present.
Sustained strength and energy of style.
Nervous and energetic. J. WARTON, II., p. 113.
Keats entirely fails of Milton's nervous severity of phrase. LOW-
ELL, IV., p. 86.
Daudet's style has taken on bone and muscle and become conscious
of treasures of nervous agility. H. JAMES, Par. Portraits, p. 231.
Neutral (XV.) : Jef., Gosse. Jeffrey, III., p. 48.
New (IX.) : Rymer to present.
Refers both to the thought and to the emotion or
feeling of a literary work ; more usually, however, to
the thought.
The thoughts new and noble. RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 79.
Keats . . . has that indefinable newness and unexpectedness which
we call genius. LOWELL, Lat. Lit. Es., L, p. 242.
The problem is to express new and profound ideas in a perfectly
sound and classical style. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 65.
Niaiserie (XL): Poe, M. Arn. M. Arnold, Gel. Lit., etc., p. 235.
Nicety (V.): Dry. to present.
In this nicety of manners does the excellence of French poetry
consist. DRYDEN, V., p. 329.
The little niceties and fantastical operations of art. POPE, X.,
p. 532.
Trifling distinctions and verbal niceties. GRAY, II., p. 147.
Noble (XI.) : Hobbes to present.
The grand style, at once noble and natural. LOWELL, III., p. 173.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 207
Noisy (XIX. )b : Noisy alexandrines. GOSSE, Life of Congreve, p. 85.
Nonsense (XX.) a : Jef. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 168.
NOVELTY (IX.).
The term u novelty " was in greatest use in criticism
during the latter part of the eighteenth century and
the first few decades of the present century. AS extrava-
gant strange-
There is found mentioned novelty of Ian- ness -
guage, of images, and more often of thought; but far
more usually the term " novelty " has designated merely
a general impression, which the literary composition
as a whole makes upon the mind of the reader. Pre-
vious to the present century, the term was not very
much in favor. It was employed to characterize ex-
travagant conceits, arid all abrupt violations of regu-
larity and unity in composition. Novelty was thought
to be opposed to nature, to propriety, and even to
variety ; it was an affectation and a conceit, it stirred
the passions, led to excess, and " violated essential prin-
ciples of literature." Novelty was recognized, however,
as a legitimate element of the comical or humorous.
Those writers (Cowley, etc.) who lay on the watch for novelty
could have little hope of greatness. . . . Their attempts were
always analytic ; they broke every image into fragments. 1781.
S. JOHNSON, VII., pp. 16, 17.
Addison's humour is so happily diffused as to give the grace of
novelty to domestic scenes and daily occurrences. ID., p. 472.
During the present century "novelty" has usually
represented the intellectual surprise which is more or
less consequent upon all change in literature. AS stimulating
. intellectual
In the early part or the present century "nov- strangeness.
elty" frequently indicated the general sense of new-
208 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
ness which resulted from the revolution in literature
that was then taking place. But in so far as the
sense of change is not general, in so far as it arises
from the modification of some specific feature of the
composition, and can be localized, so to speak, the term
" novelty " tends to denote mere intellectual restless-
ness on the part of the writer, a desire for change for
the sake of change, a conscious search for the unex-
pected, the striking, the surprising.
In philosophy as in poetry, it is the highest and most useful pre-
rogative of genius to produce the strongest impression of nov-
elty, while it rescues admitted truths from the neglect caused by
the very circumstance of their universal admission. 1825. COLE-
RIDGE, I., p. 117.
The native spirit of novelty and movement. 1865. M. ARNOLD,
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 175.
Numbers (X.): Gib., Gosse.
Ripened into ease, correctness, and numbers. GIBBON, Life and
Writings, I., p. 254.
Numerous (X.) : Campion to Emerson.
, His prose is numerous and sweet. J. WARTON, II., p. 8.
Objective : R. Browning, Sted.
Shelley ... is a subjective, Shakespeare an objective poet. R.
BROWNING, Essay on Shelley in The Browning Society Papers,
1881-84, Pt. I., p. 5.
Elizabethan style objective rather than subjective. STEDMAN,
Yic. Poets, p. 47-
Obscene (XIV.) : Dry., Jef. to present.
Obscure (III.) : Ascham to present.
I. Until the middle of the eighteenth century the
term "obscure" uniformly indicated the indistinct-
ness and confusion which results from an inexact use
of words, or from an imperfect logical sequence of
statement.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 209
The worst kind of obscurity is that . . . when words that are
plain in one sense have another sense concealed in them.
QUINTILIAN, II., p. 84.
An ambitious obscurity of expression. HOBBKS, IV., p. 454.
Shakespeare's whole style is so pestered with figurative expres-
sions that it is as affected as it is obscure. DRYDEN, VI.,
p. 255.
Obscurity bestows a cast of the wonderful, and throws an oracular
dignity upon a piece which hath no meaning. SWIFT, XIII.,
p. 70.
II. Since the middle of the eighteenth century, the
term " obscure " has often represented the indistinct-
ness and suggestive mystery of the more profound prob-
lems of human life; images which produce sublime
aesthetic effects because of their indistinctness.
Your obscurity ... is that of too much meaning . . . not the
dimness of positive darkness, but of distance. LAMB, II., p. 80.
You ought to distinguish between obscurity residing in the uncom-
monness of the thought, and that which proceeds from thoughts
unconnected, and language not adapted to the expression of
them. COLEBIDGE, Letters, I., pp. 194, 195.
The obscurity itself is a vital part of the work of art which deals
not with a problem, but with a life. DOWDEN, Shak., etc., p. 127.
Obsolete (I.) : Dry. to present. Rossetti, Lives, p. 88.
Obvious (III.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 52.
Occasional : Jef., Saints. Jeffrey, L, p. 208.
Oceanic (XL) : Lan., Dow.
Such an oceanic writer as Shakespeare. DOWDEN, Tr. & St.,
p. 252.
Odd (IX.) : Har., Jef. to present.
When words or images are placed in unusual juxtaposition rather
than connection, and are so placed merely because the juxtapo-
sition is unusual, we have the odd or grotesque. COLERIDGE,
IV., p. 276.
Offensive (XXII.) b : Swin. to present. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit.,
p. 369.
14
210 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Old-fashioned (IX.) : Old-fashioned and thin. GOSSE, Life of Con-
greve, p. 40.
Operose (XII.) : Bent., Ros.
Stiffness and stateliness and operoseness of style. BENTLEY, II.,
p. 84.
Oppressive (XXII.) b : Jef. to present.
Prosaically oppressive. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 40.
Opulent (XI.) b : De Quin. to present.
Wilson's humour is broad, overwhelming, riotously opulent. DE
QUINCEY, III., p. 88.
Oratio-obliqua : Saintsbury, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxiii.
ORDER (II.).
The term " order " derives its original significance
and continually draws illustration from moral conduct
and from external nature. It represents the concep-
tion of things as subject to law and method, part of
these laws and methods being thought to be known,
part of them being merely assumed to have an exist-
ence. As employed in criticism, the unknown laws
assumed by the term when referring to the sounds of
a composition, are to be traced to the native sense of
harmony in the ear. But when referring to the more
highly developed and subtle characteristics of litera-
ture, the validity of the known laws themselves has
been constantly held in question, being continually op-
posed by "nature," by passion, by imagination, by the
general romantic and Gothic spirit. The term seems
to be better adapted to scientific than to literary dis-
cussions, and it has been employed but very little by
the critics of the present century.
All composition has three necessary particulars : Ordo, Junctura,
Numerus. QUINTILIAN, II., p. 216.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 211
Passion requires a certain disorder of language, imitating the agi-
tation and commotion of the soul. LONGINUS, p. 44.
The ordering of things invented . . . called in Latin " dispositio."
TH. WILSON, Rhet., p. 6.
We ought to join words together in apt order that the ear majr
delight in hearing the harmony. ID., pp. 175, 176.
If you will be good scholars, and profit well in the art of music,
shut your fiddles in their cases, and look up to heaven. The or-
der of the spheres . . . variety of seasons, etc. 1579. GOSSON,
p. 26.
Ovid ... pictures nature in disorder, with which the study and
choice of words is inconsistent. 1666. DRYDEN, IX., pp. 96, 97-
A. due sentiment of morals is wanting, which alone can make us
knowing in order and proportion. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 218.
An attempt to unite order and exactness of imagery with a subject
formed on principles so professedly romantic and anomalous, is
like giving Corinthian pillars to a Gothic palace. 1778. T.
WARTON, Hist, Eng. Pr., p. 261.
An orderly and sweet sentence, by gaming our ear, conciliates our
affections. 1824. LANDOR, III., p. 146.
Organic (VII.) : Cole, to present.
Living and organic style. DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 151.
Organ-like (X.) : Organ-like roll and majesty of numbers. LOWELL,
Prose, IV., p. 338.
Oriental (XIX.) : Haz., Mac.
Affected Orientalism of ... Moore's style. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age,
p. 324.
ORIGINAL (XXIII.) .
The term "original" signified at first the "imitation
of nature" as opposed to the imitation of authors.
(See Imitation.) As referring to the author, the term
is wholly negative in its meaning, denoting merely
that the author criticised does not borrow his senti-
ments or form of expression from another author. As
referring to the completed literary product, or to its
effect upon the mind of the reader, originality denotes
212 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
that which is new and more or less unexpected, but
which is a't the same time an organic development of
that which is already well known and familiar.
The most original poetry is in fact imitation, imitation of nature.
1762. GIBBON, IV., p. 144.
Every author, as far as he is great and at the same time original,
has had the task of creating the taste by which he is to be en-
joyed. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 125.
To admire on principle is the only way to imitate without loss of
originality. COLERIDGE, III., p. 203.
Original, masculine, and striking. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 205.
All originality is relative. Every thinker is retrospective. EMER-
SON, Rep. Men, pp. 189, 190.
An original author . . . modifies the influence of tradition, culture,
and contemporary thought upon himself by some admixture of
his own. LOWELL, II. , p. 84.
Originality . . . that quality in a man which touches human nature
at most points of its circumference. LOWELL, IV., pp. 356, 357.
Every great original writer brings into the world an absolutely
new thing, his own personality. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 239.
ORNAMENT (V.).
Three periods may be distinguished in the history
of the term "ornament." In early English criticism,
AS figurative almost everything which varied from ordi-
falsification . _
of the truth, nary conversational prose was characterized
as an ornament, amplification, comparisons, epithets,
and proverbs in verse, verse itself, and poetical figures
of speech. Poetical figures, in fact, and ornament were
almost identical with each other, and the charge of
untruthfulness, which was often brought against poetry
and figurative language, applied with even greater force
to ornament.
Yerse is but an ornament and no cause to poetry. SIDNEY, p. 11.
This ornament is given by figures and figurative speeches, which
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 213
be the flowers, as it were, and colours, that a poet setteth upon
his language of art. 1585. PUTTENHAM, p. 150.
Figurative speech is a novelty of language. ID., p. 171.
Figures be the instruments of ornament in every language . . .
and .be occupied of purpose to deceive the ear and also the mind,
drawing it from plainness and simplicity to a certain doubleness,
whereby our talk is the more guileful and abusing. ID., p. 166.
Many good sentences are spoken by Danus to shadow his knavery ;
and written by poets as ornaments to beautify their work, and set
their trumpery to sale without suspect. 1579. GOSSON, p. 20.
And for all that concerns ornaments of speech, similitudes, treasury
of eloquence, and such like emptinesses, let it be utterly dismissed.
BACON, IV., p. 254.
During the seventeenth and the greater part of the
eighteenth century no critical term reflected more
clearly the false glitter of current literature AS refined
than did the term " ornament." By means statement,
of conventional epithets and brilliant figures of speech,
the language of poetry had become utterly estranged
from the language of conversational prose. The facts
of life, it was thought, suitable for literary treatment,
had already been treated of. It remained only to vary
these facts by ingenious recombinations and by inge-
nious methods of expression. This ingenuity, when held
subservient to the sense of past literary attainment,
produced in composition the quality of style known as
ornament.
Some words are to be culled out for ornament and colour, as we
gather flowers to strew houses or make garlands. 1641. B.
JONSON, Timber, p. 61.
The episodes give it more ornament and more variety. 1693.
DRYDEN, XIII., p. 36.
It is to be considered that the essence of verse is regularity, and
its ornament is variety. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 346.
214 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
" ornament " has been to a great extent a retrospective
AS elaborated term, referring to the literature of the sev-
or conven- .,
tionai fancies, enteenth and eighteenth centuries. As an
active term it lies upon the extreme limits of positive
and favorable use in criticism. The facts or subject-
matter of literary representation, now thought to con-
sist chiefly of feelings and conflicting motives and
passions in the mind, require not ingenuity for their
combination, but insight for their detection. The facts
for literary representation are thus inexhaustible. These
feelings and passions can often be expressed only by
means of figurative language. Figurative language is
thus in a sense the most direct method of statement
possible for the facts to be represented. " Ornament "
has fallen into partial discredit during the present
century, not because it indicates figurative language,
but because it indicates figurative language which is
labored and studied, and because it tends to denote
the literary polishing of facts externally given.
Poetical ornaments are foreign to the purpose; for they only shew
a man is not sorry. 1751. GRAY, II., p. 225.
An ornament . . . an incongruity which would shock the intelli-
gent reader, should the poet interweave any foreign splendor of
his own with that which the passion naturally suggests. 1798.
WORDSWORTH, II., p. 87.
Ornate (V.) : Scott to present.
Tennyson's Enoch Arden ... is ornate. BAGEHOT, Lit. St., II.,
p. 330.
Ostentation (XIX.): B. Jon. to present.
Over-castigated (IV.) : Over-castigated artificial literary tone of the
period. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 157-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 215
Over-charged: J. War. to present. J. Warton II., p. 205.
Overflow: The term "overflow" to be used for these verses in which
the sense is not concluded at the end of one line or of one couplet,
but straggles on at its own free will, until it naturally closes.
GOSSE, From Shak., etc., p. 6.
Over-jewelled (Y.) : Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., pp. 200, 201.
O ver-languaged : Keats was over-languaged at first. LOWELL, Prose,
I., p. 241.
Over-mannered (IV.) : Over-mannered style of the eighteenth cen-
tury. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 34.
Overshining (V.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 16.
Overworked: Jeffrey, II., p. 428.
Overwrought : Blair to present.
Ambitious and overwrought. JEFFREY, II., p. 476.
Padding: Padding in Cooper's novels. WHIPPLE, Am. Lit., p. 50.
Painted (V.) : Pope to present.
This painted florid style. POPE, VIII., p. 219.
Pale (V.): H. James to present.
Pale, pretty washed out work. BROOKE, Tennyson, p. 54.
Pallid (V.): Elowerless and pallid. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 137.
Palpable (XXII.) b : Tangible and palpable outline. SWINBURNE,
Mis., p. 9.
Panegyrical (XXI.) : Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, Mis., p. 74.
Parade (V.): Without strain or parade. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 391.
Paradoxical (VIII.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 166.
Particular (VIII.) : J. War. to present.
Used chiefly in connection with the theory of poetry.
(See Poetical.)
I. As characteristic of history rather than poetry.
Clarendon's narration ... is stopped too frequently by particu-
larities. S. JOHNSON, III., p. 83.
II. As characteristic of the poetical as against the
historical.
In Homer and Shakespeare . . . every image is the particular and
unalienable property of the person who uses it. J. WARTON, 1.,
p. 318.
216 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
III. As representing merely the "picturesque" ele-
ments of the poetical.
By poetic expression I do not mean merely a vividness in particu-
lars, but the right feeling which heightens or subdues a passage
or a whole poem to the proper tone, and gives eutireness to the
effect. LOWELL, Lit. Es., I., p. 245.
PASSION(XIV.).
Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century
the term " passion " was used chiefly in two ways.
AS mental Often the term was placed in antithesis
excitation. ^ Q manners an d characters," passions,
manners, and characters being the three chief features
of dramatic representation. According to this use of
the term, which was derived from ancient criticism,
passion included anger, lust, mirth, pity, grief, fear, any
emotion, in fact, or mental excitation of which human
conduct gives evidence.
Poets, after they have lost their power of depicting the passions,
turn naturally to the delineation of character, e. g., the picture
of the palace of Odysseus may be called a sort of comedy of
manners. LONGINUS, pp. 20, 21.
Passion contributes as largely to sublimity as the delineation of
character to amusement. ID., p. 56.
Under this general head of manners the passions are naturally in-
cluded as belonging to the characters. 1679. DRYDEN, VI.,
p. 274.
Sentiments which raise laughter can very seldom be admitted with
any decency into an heroic poem, whose business is to excite
passions of a much nobler nature. 1711- ADDISON, III.,
p. 188.
Description of the external beauties of nature is usually the first
effort of a young genius, before he hath studied manners and
passions. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 35.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 217
William Brown's poetry is riot without beauty ; but it is the beauty
of mere landscape and allegory, without the manners and pas-
sions that constitute human interest. 1819. CAMPBELL, I.,
p. 218.
Often, also, the term " passion " was employed to
designate the primary desires and appetites, especially
love between the sexes. This use of the
As appetite.
term is occasionally found even to the pres-
ent time, chiefly in connection with the criticism of the
novel. When thus employed "passion" was thought
to be wholly active and impulsive, but also crude and
unrefined. It might furnish a fit theme for literary
treatment, but as to the active production of literature,
it was thought to be unregulated and uncreative. When
the native sense of beauty had come to be distinguished
from artifice, this use of the term " passion " was looked
upon with less disfavor by the critics.
Passions are spiritual rebels and raise sedition against the under-
standing. 1641. B. JONSON, Timber, p. 4.
Any sudden gust of passion (as a.n ecstasy of love in an unex-
pected meeting). 1668. DRYDEN, XV., p. 314.
Thus by a little affectation in love matters, and with the help of a
romance or novel, a boy of fifteen or a grave man of fifty may
be sure to grow a very natural coxcomb, and feel the belle pas-
sion in earnest. SHAFTESBURY, I., pp. 2, 3.
Wit and passion are entirely incompatible. When the affections
are moved, there is no place for the imagination. 1742. D.
HUME, I., p. 242.
By beauty I mean that quality or those qualities in bodies by
which they cause love or some passion similar to it. 1756.
BURKE, I., p. 113.
If the imagination be lively, the passions will be strong. J. WAR-
TON, I., p. 102.
By genius is meant those excellencies that no study or art can
218 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
communicate, such as ... humour, passion, etc. 1758.
GOLDSMITH, IV., p. 418.
To take the passion out of a novel is something like taking the
sunlight out of a landscape. 3874. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib.,
p. 239.
If a novel natters the passions and exalts them above the princi-
ples, it is poisonous. Ho WELLS, Grit. & Fiction, p. 95.
Previous to the present century, it was occasionally
recognized that passion in an author would lead to
AS sincerity earnestness, sincerity, and directness in his
and direct-
ness, methods of composition. Passion guarded
against false ornaments and conceits ; still it was not
considered as an integral part of the actual process of
composition. It might be an ethical prerequisite for
art, but it was not art, nor artistic ; it was too primi-
tive and unrefined.
But if my faith, my hope, my love, my true intent,
My liberty, my service vowed, my time and all be spent. (Dyer.)
This is ... vehement, swift, and passionate. PUTTENHAM, p. 244.
Raleigh is ... lofty, insolent, passionate. ID,, p. 77.
To which poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather pre-
cedent, as being less subtle and fine, but more simple, sensuous,
and passionate. 1644. MILTON, Mis., III., p. 473.
No poet . . . can do anything great in his own way, without the
imagination or supposition of a divine presence, which may raise
him to some degree of this passion we are speaking of. SHAFTES-
BURY, I., p. 39.
Earl Percy's lamentation over his enemy is generous, beautiful,
and passionate. 1710. ADDISON, II., p. 378.
Passion runs not after remote allusions. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 119.
During the present century, especially during the
early portion of it, passion has been very generally
AS intense po- considered as one of the two or three essen-
[ng * tial characteristics of poetry, imagination
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 219
and rhythm being the other requirements. Passion
represents an ardent devotion to a principle, an ethical
purpose, an esthetic ideal. It is impulse and desire
almost wholly disconnected from the primal appetites,
and permeated, as it were, with the highest aesthetic
feelings and intuitions.
The only qualities I can find in Dryden that are essentially poeti-
cal are a certain ardour and impetuosity of mind, with an excel-
lent ear. ... A great command of language he certainly has . . .
but it is not poetical, being neither of the imagination nor of the
passions ; I mean the amiable, the ennobling, or the intense pas-
sions. 1805. WORDSWORTH, III., p. 253.
But passion the all in all in poetry is everywhere present,
raising the low, dignifying the mean, and putting sense into
the absurd. 1808. LAMB, Poems, P. & Es., p. 257.
The elevation of tone arises from the strong mood of passion.
1814. SCOTT, Life of Swift, p. 453.
Imagination is as the immortal God which should assume flesh for
the redemption of mortal passion. 1819. SHELLEY, II., p. 14.
Poetry is ... the natural impression of any object or event, by
its vividness exciting an involuntary movement of imagination
and passion. 1818. HAZLITT, Eng. Poets, p. 1.
M. Coppee's poetry . . . possesses sentiment, but hardly passion.
DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 421.
The writings of the romantic school, of which the aesthetic poetry
is an afterthought, mark a transition, not so much from the
pagan to the mediaeval ideal, as from a lower to a higher degree
of passion in literature. 1883. PATER, Ap., p. 214.
But for positive passion, for that absolute fusion of the whole na-
ture in one fire of sense and spirit. 1869. SWINBURNE, Es. &
St., p. 307.
During the latter portion of the present century the
use of the term "passion" in criticism has been very
largely influenced by psychological thought ^ inte]Qse
and discussion. Passion, considered as an feelill8: -
220 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
integral portion of the aesthetic activity of the mind,
is stimulated almost wholly by the mental imagery ;
passion, as defining its relations to the other mental
capacities, may be indeed identified in part with poet-
ical feeling, but it represents also the more primal
impulses, the sense of power, the appetites. Passion
is often placed in antithesis to the imagination and the
reason, and from this antithesis it obtains a more gen-
eral meaning than it possessed in the early portion of
the century. This meaning of the term is perhaps
little more than its preceding use viewed from a dif-
ferent standpoint ; but the critics have not as yet iden-
tified the two uses with each other in actual criticism.
The excellence of writing, whether in prose or verse, consists in a con-
junction of Reason and Passion. 1811. WORDSWORTH, II.,p. 65.
Men act from passion, and we can only judge of passion by sym-
pathy. 1826. HAZLITT, Plain Speaker, p. 59.
Passion of any kind may become in some degree ludicrous when
disproportioned to its exciting occasions. 1848. DE QUINCEY,
XL, p. 69.
Our passions in general are to be traced more immediately to the
active part of our nature, to the love of power, or to strength of
will. 1850. HAZLITT, Sk. & Essays, p. 344.
Our very passion has become metaphysical, and speculates upon
itself. LOWELL, Prose Works, II., p. 136.
A passion, of which the outlets are sealed, begets a tension of
nerve, in which the sensible world comes to one with a reinforced
brilliancy and relief, all redness is turned into blood, all water
into tears. Hence a wild, convulsed sensuousness in the poetry
of the Middle Ages, in which the things of nature begin to play
a strange, delirious part. 1883. PATER, Ap., p. 218.
Pastoral (XXI.) : Jef. to present.
Kinds of poetry . . . heroic, scommatic, pastoral. HOBBES, IV.,
p. 444.
Pastoral . . . which, not professing to imitate real life, requires no
experience. S. JOHNSON, VIII. , p. 325.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 221
PATHOS (XVII.).
The term "pathos" has, in general, always denoted
the* sympathy which is produced in the mind of the
reader by the representation of feeling or AS the excit-
T . , ing or stir-
passion in a literary production. Until the ring,
latter portion of the eighteenth century, the repre-
sentation of any passion whatever was said to be pa-
thetic if only the representation were made sufficiently
striking and impressive. It was, however, at the same
time recognized that this impressiveness was more
likely to be attained by the representation of the more
violent and conflicting passions, those which would
lead to tragical situations and tragical resolutions of
plot development. The critical value of the term
" pathos " during this early period of its history may
be designated by some such . series of expressions as
"exciting," "stirring," "affecting," and " moving,"
words which may express compassion and pity, but
need not necessarily do so.
The moving pathetical figure, Pottyposis. 1580. HARVEY, p. 24.
Yirgil always fitteth his matter in hand with words agreeable unto
the same affection, which he expresseth, as in his Tragical excla-
mations, what pathetical speeches he frameth ! 1586. WEBBE,
p. 46.
The most delightful beauty, the most engaging and pathetic, is
that which is drawn from real life, and from the passions.
SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 105.
Most pathetic and most interesting, and by consequence the most
agreeable. 1742. D. HUME, I., p. 264.
The sublime and the pathetic are the two chief nerves of all genu-
ine poesy. What is there transcenden tally sublime or pathetic
in Pope? 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. vi.
222 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Howe's genius was rather delicate and soft than strong and pa-
thetic. ID., p. 268.
Cato wants action and pathos; the two hinges on which a just
tragedy ought to turn. 1756. ID., p. 257-
Whence it comes to pass that the action, having an essential dig-
nity, is always interesting, and by the simplest management of
the poet becomes in a supreme degree pathetic. 1751. HURD,
II., p. 34.
Three kinds of pathos :
1. Sympathy for humble pity and contrition.
2. Sympathy for distresses of love.
3. Another kind of pathos arises from magnanimity in distress,
which, managed by a skilful hand, will touch us even where
we detest the character which suffers. GRAY, I., p. 400.
As human passions did not enter the world before the fall, there is,
in Paradise Lost, little opportunity for the pathetic.
During the present century the term u pathos " has
occasionally indicated a pensive meditation, a sympa-
AS meditative thetic contemplation of human life in gen-
compassion. era ] ? a b roo( jmg over the broader traits of
actual life in view of ideals which react little or none
into actual conditions, and which might or might not
be applicable to any special condition or event.
A pathetic reflection, properly introduced into a descriptive poem,
will have greater force and beauty, and more deeply interest a
reader, than a moral one. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 32.
There is a meditative as well as a human pathos ... a sadness that
has its seat in the depths of reason. 1802. WORDSWORTH, II.,
p. 128.
To give to universally received truths a pathos and spirit, which
shall readmit them into the soul like revelations of the moment.
1811. ID., p. 63.
Wordsworth has a meditative pathos, a union of deep and subtle
thought with sensibility. 1817. COLERIDGE, III., p. 493.
Pathetic meditation. M. ARNOLD, Mixed Essays, p. 441.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 223
Usually, however, the pathetic refers to concrete and
specific events. From the standpoint of an ideal or of
ideals, the mind dwells upon the essential As com assi(m
incongruities in these specific facts and and pity *
events, and sympathy and compassion go out to those
characters or persons whose fortunes and destinies are
thus affected. Pathos is sympathy for the passions and
feelings represented in a literary production, when those
passions and feelings are displayed in a manner which
the reader from his experience must regard as destruc-
tive of natural growth and development, and when his
sympathy and interest are made to centre upon these
imperfect conditions rather than upon their possible
amelioration and improvement.
Yet so it is, that, though the feelings of pathos and ridicule seem
so widely different, a certain tincture of the pitiable makes comic
distress more irresistible. 1819. CAMPBELL, I., p. 71.
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps ; for he is the only
animal that is struck with the difference between what things
are and what they ought to be. 1819. HAZLITT, Eng. Com.
Writers, p. 1.
But humour in men of genius is always allied to pathos. 1841.
WILSON, VII., p. 78.
Straightforward pathos . . . too sternly touched to be effusive and
tearful. LOWELL, IV., p. 260.
Pedantic (VII.) : Dekker to present.
I. An inappropriate elaboration and display of
learning.
Pedantry is the unseasonable ostentation of learning. S. JOHN-
SON, III., p. 314.
If by pedantry is meant that minute knowledge which is derived
from particular sciences and studies, in opposition to the general
224 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
notions supplied by a wide survey of life and nature, Cowley
certainly errs by introducing pedantry far more frequently than
Tasso. ID., VII., p. 47-
II. More usually an inappropriate conscious elabo-
ration of any kind.
Stiffest pedantry and conceit. SHAITESBURY, L, p. 202.
" Pedantry consists in the use of words unsuitable to the time, place,
and company. COLERIDGE, III., p. 272.
Pedantry, which consisted in unnecessary, and perhaps unintelli-
gible references to ancient learning, was afterwards combined
with other artifices to obtain the same end. HALLAM, III.,
p. 240.
Pedestrian (XVIII.) : Saints., Gosse.
Pedestrian, unimaginative, level, neutral. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit.,
III., p. 73.
Peerless (XXII.) a : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 45.
Pellucid (III.): Hal., Low.
Calm and pellucid as mountain tarns. LOWELL, Lat. Lit. Es., p. 36.
Penetrative (XX.) ft: M. Am. to present.
Penetrative and sympathetic imagination. LOWELL, Lat. Lit: Es.,
L, p. 243.
The tender, penetrating fiction of Richardson. GOSSE, Eighteenth
Century, p. 385.
A penetrativeness half pleasurable, half melancholy. LOWELL,
O. E. D., p. 20.
Pensive (XIV.) : T. War. to present.
Perfect (XXII.) a \ Rymer to present.
There is hardly anything more exquisite and more perfect than
history. RYMER, 1st Pt., pp. 57, 58.
Perfume : The perfume of the delicately chosen phrase. GOSSE, Life
of Congreve, p. 135.
Periodic (II.): De Quin., Min.
Perplexed (II.) : Dry. to present.
Personal : Swin. Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 56.
Personality : In our approach to the poetry, we necessarily approach
the personality of the poet. R. BROWNING, Browning Society
Papers, 1881-84. Pt. I., p. 5.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 225
Perspicacity (III.) : Camp, to present.
This botanizing perspicacity. CAMPBELL, p. 116.
Perspicacity and perspicuity. SWINBURNE, A St. of B. J., p. 116.
PERSPICUITY (III.). -
" Perspicuity " is the technical expression for clear-
ness in composition, being, according to rhetorical
theory, one of the three or four cardinal From gram-
r j i T T T-. T i matical con-
requirements for style. In early English struction.
criticism it resulted chiefly from the mere choice of
words, and from the simplest elements of grammatical
construction. Literary works, especially translations,
were characterized as perspicuous, which, to us at
least, are hopelessly vague and obscure.
I have delivered mine author's meaning with as much perspicuity
as so mean a scholar . . . was well able to perform. THOS.
NEWTON (Pref. to Tr. of Seneca), Spenser Society, XLIIL, p. 2.
Frame your style to perspicuity and to be sensible ; for the haughty,
obscure verse doth not much delight, and the verse that is too
easy is like a tale of a roasted horse. GASCOIGNE, p. 36.
During the greater part of the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries, perspicuity was thought to depend
chiefly upon an orderly and methodic ar- From logical
rangement of the sentences and of the construction -
thought expressed in a composition. This is perhaps
the more common use of the term even up to the pres-
ent time.
Order helps much to perspicuity, as confusion hurts. 1641. B.
JONSON, Timber, p. 63.
In the better notion of wit considered as propriety, surely method
is necessary for perspicuity and harmony of parts. 1707.
POPE, VI., p. 34.
Sheffield . . . had the perspicuity and elegance of an historian, but
not the fire and fancy of a poet. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 485.
15
226 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Occasionally, however, especially in the present
century, perspicuity evidently arises chiefly from the
From mental vividness of the mental imagery employed,
imagery. ra ther than from the merely grammatical and
logical features of a composition.
Have images of nature in the memory distinct and clear ... a
sign of this is perspicuity, propriety, and decency. 1650.
HOBBES, IV., p. 453.
The natural and perspicuous expression, which spontaneously rises
to the mind. 1824. MACAULAY, IV., p. 454.
Perspicuity, the only question is, Will it tell ? BAGEHOT, I.,
p. 31.
Persuasive (XXII.) b: Gosse.
The poets were from the beginning the best persuaders. PUTTEN-
HAM, p. 25.
Pert (XVIII.): Gray to present.
Pert familiarity. JEFFREY, I., p. 266.
Petty (XI.) : Hunt, Stephen. Hunt, Wit & Humour, p. 115.
PHILISTINISM (XXII.) b : Car. to present.
Primarily, and in theory, the term indicates insensi-
bility to beauty. In actual criticism the term indicates
a lack of that which the critic considers as most fun-
damental or essential in literary composition. Thus
u philistinism " has represented :
Insensibility to propriety. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VIII., p. 29.
Utilitarianism. CARLYLE, I., p. 58.
Lack of imagination. LOWELL, II., p. 359.
Insensibility to beauty. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., pp, 162-67.
Want of " openness to ideas." ID., p. 176.
The apparent rhetorical truth of things. ID., p. 304.
Indifference to the higher intellectual interests. STEPHEN, III.,
p. 306.
Lack of the realistic spirit. HOWELLS, Grit & Fiction, p. 107.
Lack of " exaltation of sentiment and thought." SATNTSBURY, Es.
in Eng. Lit., p. 88.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 227
Philosophical (XX.) b : Newton, Wil.
Gravity of philosophical sentences ... in Seneca. T. NEWTON,
Spenser Society, Yol. XLIIL, p. 2.
Photographic (III ) : Saints., Gosse.
Photographically minute. GOSSE, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 128.
Picaresque (XXI.) : Hal., Mac.
The picaresque or rogue style, in which the adventures of the low
and rather dishonest part of the community are made to furnish
amusement for the great. HALLAM, I., pp. 248, 249.
Pictorial (III.) : Hunt to present. Recently much in use.
Artists err in the confounding of poetic with pictorial subjects.
LAMB, Mrs. Leicester's School, p. 312.
Gray is pictorial in the highest sense of the term, much more than
imaginative. LOWELL, Lat. Lit. Es., p. 17.
That double command at once of the pictorial and the musical ele-
ments of poetry in which no English poet is Spenser's superior.
SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eug. Lit , p. 86.
PICTURESQUE (XVI.).
Three periods may be distinguished in the history
of the term " picturesque." Previous to the present
century, occasionally to the present time, it AS striking
, . , . , . . , Pictorial
represented mental imagery which was vivid, effects,
full of color, and more or less suggestive of strength
and power, images which were "fit for a picture,"
a picture, however, always " in the Gothic style of
painting."
Mr. Philipps has two lines which seem to me what the French call
very picturesque :
All hid in snow, in bright confusion lie,
And with one dazzling waste confuse the eye.
1712. POPE, VI, p. 178.
Such circumstances as are best adapted to strike the imagination
by lively pictures . . . the selection of which chiefly constitutes
true poetry. 1756. J. WAIITON, I., p. 26.
His sea-green mantle waving with the wind.
This is ... highly picturesque. ID, p. 21.
228 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
In these lone walks (their days eternal bound),
These moss-grown domes, with spirey turrets crowned,
Where awful arches make the noonday night,
And the dim windows shed a solemn light. (Pope.)
The epithets are picturesque. ID., p. 313.
There is great picturesque humour in the following lines :
He buffeted the Breton about the cheeks,
That he looked like a lantern all his life after.
1778. T. WARTON, Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 187.
During the early portion of the present century the
picturesque represented a high degree of contrast in
AS contrast- the poetical imagery, which, however, by
ing pictorial .
effects. suggestion could still be taken up into an
aesthetic unity, a unity higher than that of pictorial
effects.
The picturesque contrasts of Character in Othello are almost as
remarkable as the depth of the passion. 1817- HAZLITT, III.,
p. 31.
The picturesque depends chiefly on the principle of discrimination
or contrast. ... It runs imperceptibly into the fantastical and
grotesque. 1819. ID., Table Talk, pp. 448, 449.
How significant, how picturesque. 1828. MACAULAY, I., p. 142.
Spenser's descriptions are exceedingly vivid . . . not picturesque
in the true sense of the word, but composed of a wonderful
series of images, as in our dreams. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 249.
In the Greek drama one must conceive the presiding power to be
Death ; in the English, Life. What Death ? What Life ? That
sort of death or life locked up or frozen into everlasting slumber,
which we see in sculpture ; that sort of life, of tumult, of agi-
tation, of tendency to something beyond, which we see in paint-
ing. The picturesque, in short, domineers over English tragedy ;
the sculpturesque or the statuesque over the Grecian. 1838.
DE QTJINCEY, X., p. 315.
Picturesque : the ancients had neither the word or the thing which
it represents. ID., pp. 308, 309.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 229
More recently the term has occasionally been given
a somewhat unfavorable meaning. When vivid con-
trasts are made for the sake of the contrasts, As mere pic _
and not for the purpose of bringing into re- torial effects -
lief their ulterior unity, when highly colored images
are unnecessarily scattered throughout a literary pro-
duction, then the picturesque comes to be regarded as
a sensuous play upon mere color and form, as some-
thing which negates the higher ethical and aesthetic
purposes of art.
Carlyle's . . . innate love of the picturesque ... is only another
form of the sentimentalism he so scoffs at, perhaps as feeling it
a weakness in himself. 1866. LOWELL, II., p. 92.
Where he is imaginative, it is in that lower sense which the pov-
verty of our language, for want of a better word, compels us
to call picturesque. 1868. ID., III., p. 170.
A mere luxurious dreaming, where the beautiful very speedily de-
generates into the pretty or picturesque. 1874. STEPHEN,
Hrs. in a Lib., I, p. 121.
They have come to please us at last as things picturesque, being
set in relief against the modes of our different age. 1878.
PATER, Ap., p. 117.
Piquant : Car. to present.
Pithey (XVI.) : T. Wil. to present.
Much in use in early criticism. Pull of meaning;
pointed and sententious.
Sensibly, pithily, bitingly. T. NEWTON, Spenser Society, XLIIL,
p. 3.'
Pithey and wise sentences. WEBBE, p. 44.
Pith and point. LOWELL, Prose, II., p. 221.
Compactly and pithily. ID., Lat. Lit. Es., p. 1.
Placid (XIX.) : Hunt to present.
Placid and decorous. GOSSE, From Shak., etc., p. 57
230 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Plagiarism: Jef., Poe.
Plagiarist or imitator. JEFFREY, II., p. 245.
PLAIN (III.).
The term "plain" refers chiefly to the use of words
and of mental imagery in composition. Until about
From gram- ^ ne middle of the eighteenth century, " plain "
denoted such a choice and arrangement of
words as to make evident at once to the
reader the thought intended. No distinction was per-
haps drawn by the critics between the grammatical
and logical means for the attainment of this purpose.
The imagination was considered as a hindrance to
plainness, producing in the composition a false glitter
and ornamentation which rendered the thought difficult
and obscure.
Easy and plain composition. T. WILSON, Rhct .., p. 178.
The matter is good, the words proper and plain; yet the sense is
hard and dark. 1508. ASCHAM, III., p. 269.
Plain sense. 1586. WEBBE, p. 46.
He affects plainness to cover his want of imagination. 1668.
DRYDEN, XV., p. 288.
Since about the middle of the eighteenth century
imagination and plainness have not been considered
From mental as necessar ily opposed to each other. Plain-
d ness nas indicated an unornamented method
of statement, obtained chiefly by distinct-
ness of imagery and unsuperfluousness of language.
During the early portion of the present century the
term was very frequently employed in opposition to the
conventional adornments of the eighteenth-century lit-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 231
erature : more recently the term has been used chiefly
in connection with the criticism of prose literature.
Plain, blunt, and unartificial style of so rude an age. 1808.
SCOTT, Ed. of Dryden, VIII., p. 1.
Works of imagination should be written in a plain language. 1830.
COLERIDGE, VI., p. 326.
In short, the merit of De Foe's narrative bears a direct proportion
to the intrinsic merit of a plain statement of the facts. STE-
PHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 47.
Plaintive (XIV.) : Bry., Swin.
Platitude (XII.) : Poe to present.
Too great proportion of sentence is ... an encouragement to
sonorous platitude. SAINTSBURY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxviii.
Plausible (VIII.) : Plausible description of physical wonders ... in
Gulliver. JEFFREY, I., p. 213.
Playful (XVIII.) : Jef. to present. In considerable use.
Light and playful. LANDOR, III., p. 471.
Bichter's satire is ... playful . . . never bitter, scornful, or
malignant. DE QUINCEY, XL, p. 271.
Pleading (XXII.) b: Pleading tones. WHIPPLE, Es. & Rev., p. 83.
Pleasantry (XVII.) : J. War. to present.
The " flash " of wit turned especially toward social
life, and giving to incidents and customs a more or less
ludicrous appearance.
A gross pleasantry or profane witticism. SCOTT, Life of Dry den,
p. 61.
The humour, and in general the pleasantry of our nation has very
frequently a sarcastic and even misanthropic character, which
distinguishes it from the mere playfulness and constitutional
gaiety of our French neighbors. JEFFREY, L, p. 131.
Voltaire's wit ... is at all times mere logical pleasantry, a gaiety
of the head, not of the heart. CARLYLE, II., p. 167.
Plebeian (V.) : Locke's style is bald, dull, and plebeian. SAINTS-
BURY, Eng. Pr. St., p. xxiv.
Plentiful (XVI.) : Plautus is more plentiful, Terence more pure and
proper. ASCHAM, III., p. 247.
232 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Pleonastic : Jef., Poe.
POETICAL (XXII.) b.
Until within the first half of the eighteenth century,
" poetical," as a critical term, usually possessed a sig-
nificance which was quite at variance with the general
theoretical conception of poetry. In theory, poetry was
of divine inspiration.
Poesy in his perfection cannot grow but by some divine inspira-
tion; the Platonics call it furor. PUTTENHAM, p. 20.
There was never a great poet without a larger portion of the divine
inspiration. B. JONSON, Timber, p. 76.
In actual criticism the poetical usually denoted an
AS emotional enthusiastic and fantastical falsification of
falsification
of truth. truth.
To elevate the style, illustrate the subject by metaphor and epi-
thets, guarding, however, against what savours of poetry. ARIS-
TOTLE, Rhet., p. 222.
Poetry is the language of enthusiasm. ID., p. 226.
Those who express themselves with this poetic air, produce by
their want of taste both the ridiculous and the frigid. ID.,
p. 216.
Some will be ... so fine, so poetical . . . that everybody else
shall think them meeter for a lady's chamber than for an earnest
matter. T. WILSON, Rhet., p. 176.
Poetical . . . and fantastical. PUTTENHAM, p. 34.
Poetical fancies and furies. B. JONSON, I., p. 210.
What a base humour is this in you poetical needy brains. 1641.
In J. B. Harleian Miscellany, IX., p. 201.
Since the early portion of the eighteenth century,
the theory of the " poetical," and the actual use of the
term in criticism, have usually been in close agreement
with each other. Until the middle of the eighteenth
century, the poetical in theory was the variation and
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 233
ornamentation of truth in order to make it more pleas-
ing and acceptable to the reader. The fancy produced
the variation; reason and understanding held to the
truth, and furnished for the poetical activity its motive
or incentive, the desire to teach.
Poetry commonly exceeds the measure of nature, joining at pleas-
ure things which in nature would never have come together.
BACON, IV., p. 292.
Poesy serveth ... to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation.
ID., Adv. of L., p. 30. (Oxford, 1891.)
Poetry speaks to the understanding; painting to the sense. B.
JONSON, Timber, p. 49.
The great art of poets is either the adorning and beautifying of
truth, or the inventing, pleasing, and probable fictions. DIIY-
DEN, XV., p. 408.
No man can be a true poet who writes for diversion only. These
authors should be considered as versifiers and witty men rather
than as poets. 1710. POPE, VI., p. 116.
With such a theory of poetry, the u poetical" was
little used as a critical term. When it was As an _
thus employed, it denoted language which ScatioVof 81 "
was figurative, ornamented, and elevated.
The diction is poetical. 1699. DRYDEN, XI., p. 239.
Tully and Demosthenes spoke often figuratively but not poetically,
and the very figures of oratory are vastly different from those of
poetry. 1726. POPE, VIII., p. 218.
During the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
the poetical, both in theory and in actual criticism, was
closely related to the picturesque. The po-
etical was whatever in literary representa-
tion stirred and excited the emotions. This m * sau
was thought more likely to be attained by particularity
234 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
and vi\ddness. Poetry, however, was considered as the
product of an imagination which faded away with the
growth of science and knowledge. It was not clearly
defined whether the ethical significance of poetry in-
heres in the poetical process itself, or whether it con-
sists in a didactic purpose foreign to the nature of poetry
as such.
Poetical, that is, highly figurative expression. 1749. KURD, I.,
p. 102.
Four classes of poets :
1. Sublime and Pathetic, e. g., Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton.
2. True poetic genius in moderate degree, moral, ethical,
panegyrical poets, e. g., Dryden, Addisou, Cowley.
3. Men of wit, of elegant taste, and lively fancy, e. g., Butler,
Swift, Donne.
4. Mere versifiers, e. g., Pitt, Sandys, etc. 1756. J. WARTON,
I., p. vii.
A minute and particular enumeration of circumstances, judiciously
selected, is what chiefly discriminates poetry from history. ID.,
p. 47.
True poetry, after all, cannot well subsist, at least is never so
striking, without a tincture of enthusiasm. ID., p. 317.
Words are divided into three classes :
1. Those which represent many simple ideas united by nature,
e. g., man, sky, etc.
2. Those representing one of such simple ideas, e. g., blue. . . .
3. Those representing a union of the two former by the mind,
e. g., virtue, magistrate, etc.
The latter class call up no definite image in the mind, and are
the especial expression of the emotions, and hence of po-
etry. 1756. BURKE, I., p. 170.
As knowledge and learning increase, poetry begins to deal less in
imagination. 1778. T. WARTON, Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 310.
One of the great sources of poetical delight is ... the power of
presenting pictures to the mind. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII.,
p. 44.
That cannot be unpoetical with which all are pleased. ID., p. 129.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 235
During the present century poetry has usually been
regarded not so much as an intuition of obscure rela-
tions which afterward develop into knowl- AS intensity of
, ., . t . impassioned
edge, and thus cease to be poetry, as the imagination,
culmination and unification of knowledge in feeling
which always tends more or less directly toward action.
Ethics and the poetical process thus become fundamen-
tally associated with each other. Poetry, facing toward
conduct instead of toward knowledge, becomes inti-
mately related with passion, and not with the reason
or understanding. Imagination gives a new sense of
beauty ; the first impulsive wish to realize this is poetic
passion. Together imagination and passion constitute
what in the present century has generally been regarded
as the poetical. Since the rhythmical qualities of po-
etry have come to be referred to the mind for expla-
nation rather than to the mechanism of verse, rhythm
in theory has often been included as an integral portion
of the conception of the poetical. In actual criticism,
however, this perhaps does not hold true to an equal
extent.
As the sensible world is inferior in dignity to the rational soul,
Poesy seems to bestow on human nature those things which
history denies to it. BACON, IV., p. 315.
Poetry is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance
of all science. 1798. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 91.
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. ID., p. 82.
It is not language that is in the highest sense of the word poetical,
being neither of the imagination nor of the passions. 1805. ID.,
III., p. 253.
Passion the all in all in poetry. 1808. LAMB, P. P. & Es., p. 257.
Impassioned poetry is an emanation of the moral and intellectual
236 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
part of our nature as well as of the sensitive. 1818. HAZLITT,
Eng. Poets, p. 8.
Poetry ... is the result of the general harmony of all our facul-
ties. 1828. CARLYLE, II., p. 18.
Humour is properly the exponent of low things ; that which first
renders them poetical to the mind. ID., III., p. 97.
Everything is poetry which is not mere sensation. We are poets
at all times when our minds are makers. 1832. WILSON, VI.,
p. 109.
No poetry can have the function of teaching. . . . Poetry, or any
one of the fine arts (all of which alike speak through the genial
nature of man and his excited sensibilities) can teach only as
nature teaches, as the sea teaches, as forests teach, as infancy
teaches, viz., by deep impulse, by hieroglyphic suggestion.
1848. DE QUINCEY, XL, p. 88.
And by poetic expression I do not mean merely a vividness in
particulars, but the right feeling which heightens or subdues a
passage or a whole poem to the proper tone, and gives entire-
ness to the effect. 1854. LOWELL, Lit. Es., I., p. 245.
The essential mark of poetry is that it betrays in every word instant
activity of mind, shown in new uses of every fact and image, in
preternatural quickness or perception of relations. 1876. EM-
ERSON, Let. & Soc. Aims, p. 22.
Genius is mainly an affair of energy, and poetry is mainly an affair
of genius. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 50.
Poetry at all times exercises two distinct functions : it may reveal,
it may unveil to every eye, the ideal aspects of common things
... or it may actually add to the number of motives poetic
and uncommon in themselves, by the imaginative creation of
things that are ideal from their very birth. 1886. PATER, Ap.,
p. 242.
Poetic Justice: Rymer, S. John.
Poetical justice requires that the satisfaction be complete and full,
ere the malefactor goes off the stage, and nothing left to God
Almighty and another world. RYMER, 1st Pt., p. 26.
In striking contrast to Shakespeare . . . Middleton has no kind of
poetic morality in the sense in which the term poetical justice is
better known. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 268.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 237
Poetic License: This poetical license is a shrewd fellow, and coveretb
many faults in a verse ... it turiieth all things at pleasure.
GASCOIGNE, p. 37-
Poignant (XVII ): Dry. to present.
Stimulating; breezy ; more or less amusing, the re-
sult of a keen sense of congruity in the more external
and transitory relations of things, combined with spright-
liness and a certain amount of energy.
Poignancy and propriety. J. WAIITON, I., p. 330.
Speak, dead Maria ! breathe a strain divine. (Pope.)
This is ... too poignant and transitory. WORDSWOIITH, II.,
p. 63.
His wit is poignant though artificial. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writ-
ers, p. 163.
An obsoleteness of language which gives a kind of poignancy.
HALLAM, Lit. Hist., I., p. 35.
Point (V.): Dry. to present.
Point and antithesis. J. WARTON, II., p. 396.
Love of conceit and point. SCOTT, Ed. of Dryden, IX., p. 83.
Poised (II.) : Ros. Brooke, Tennyson, p. 114.
Polished (V.): Whetstone to present.
Refinement considered wholly as a product, and as
attained by means of conscious effort, by careful and
repeated revision.
Polished from barbarousness. WEBBE, p. 18.
Chaucer is a rougb diamond and must be polished ere he shines.
DRYDEN, XI., p. 233.
The bigb polish of French poetry is all that keeps out decay.
LOWELL, III., p. 158.
Polite (V.): Jef. to present.
The use of banter never disjoins banter itself from politeness, from
felicity. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., pp. 60-67.
Pomp (XIX.) b: Daniel to present.
Wise men would be glad to find a little sense couched under all
these pompous words. DETDE.N, VI., p. 280,
238 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Dryden . . . had a pomp which . . . became pompousness in his
imitators. LOWELL, III., p. 185.
Ponderous (XI.) : Low. to present.
Ponderosity is not the note of Greek eloquence. Yet two great
poets Pindar and jEschylus revealed the possibilities of a
massive Greek style. SYHONDS, Es., Sp. & Sug., p. 194.
Poor (XII.) : Jef. to present.
Tameness and poorness. JEFFREY, I., p. 167.
Possibility (VIII.): Whetstone to J. Warton.
Always associated either with probability or with
nature considered historically. (See " Probability " and
"Nature.")
Ariosto's adventures are without the compass of nature and possi-
bility. DRYDEN, XIII., p. 15.
Potent (XII.) : Ros. to present.
Magical potency. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 388.
Pothery (XV.) : Shakespeare's sonnets are hot and pothery. LAN-
DOR, IV., p. 512.
Poverty (XII.) : Rymer, Jef. to present.
Baldness and poverty of language. WIIIPPLE, Es. & Rev., II.,
p. 194.
POWER (XII.) : Jef. to present.
Much in use in the present century. Sustained force
or energy, thought of as inhering for the most part in
the composition itself, rendering it effective and moving.
The Bible is not the poetry of form, but of power. 1818. HAZ-
LITT, Eng. Poets, p. 22.
Space, again, what is it in most men's minds ? The lifeless form
of the world without us ; a postulate of the geometrician, with
no more vitality or real existence to their feelings than the
square root of two. But if Milton has been able to inform this
empty theatre, peopling it with Titanic shadows ... so that
from being a thing to inscribe witli diagrams, it has become
under his hands a vital agent on the human mind, I presume
that I may justly express the tendency of Paradise Lost by
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 239
saying tliat it communicates power ... as opposed to that
which communicates knowledge. DE QUINCEY, X., p. 49.
Our knowledge of power comes from our own personality. . . .
Our conception of power- cannot be explained by the philosophy
which derives all knowledge from sensation and reflection.
FLEMING, Vocabulary of Philosophy, pp. 316, 317.
Preciosity: Saints. Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 12.
Precision (III.) : J. War. to present. Much in use.
I. Exact ; clear cut in outline and in detail ; refer-
ring more usually to the mental imagery, occasionally
to the language and logical construction.
Precise ballance. T. NEWTON, Spenser Society, XLIII., p. 2.
Milton's figures have all the elegance and precision of a Greek
statue. HAZLITT, Eng. Poets, p. 80.
Sometimes in painting, and sometimes in poetry, an object should
not be quite precise. LANDOR, III., p. 444.
II. Occasionally the term denotes accuracy to fact.
The final end of all style is precision, veracity of utterance, truth
to the thing to be presented. SYMONDS, Es., Sp. & Sug., p. 242.
Pregnant (XVI.) : Camden to present.
I. In early criticism the term indicated certain ca-
pacities of the author, fertile device and prolific in-
vention.
Our poets ... are pregnant both in witty conceits and devices.
CAMDEN, p. 337.
Peele's pregnant dexterity of wit and manifold dexterity of inven-
tion. 1589 NASH, in Literaria Centuria, II., p. 238.
II. In the present century the term denotes an allu-
sive, suggestive, and perhaps impassioned method of
writing, which fully calls out the sympathies and in-
terests of the reader, stimulating in him further thought
and feeling.
240 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
So pregnant with feeling and reflection. WILSON, V., p. 395.
Pregnant with important truths. ID., p. 366.
The style is what was called pregnant, leaving much to be filled
up by the reader's reflection. HALLAM, Lit. Hist., III., p. 378.
Milton's . . . pregnant, allusive way. M. AIINOLD, Gel. Lit.,
p. 206.
Preposterous (XX.) : Jef., Gosse.
Childish and preposterous. JEFFREY, I., p. 212.
Pretentious (XIX.) b : Ros. to present.
Pretense, an inflation of mind, and overstrained use ... of tem-
porary catch words. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 390.
Pretty (V.): Camden to present.
The term denotes a highly elaborated form of ele-
gance and ornament ; conceits and images which please
by their constructive ingenuity, but not by their force
of meaning, fitness, or literary significance. With the
suffix "ness" or "ish," the term is uniformly employed
in an unfavorable sense; with the suffix "ly," in a fa-
vorable sense. The term " pretty " represents one of
the very lowest qualities of literary composition.
Prettily handled. WEBBE, p. 55.
Crashaw's thoughts are ... pretty, but oftentimes far-fetched.
' POPE, VI., p. 117.
Too much prettiness and too modern an air. J. WAKTON, I., p. 11.
Walsh . . . seldom rises higher than to be pretty. S. JOHNSON,
VII., p. 244.
A mere luxurious dreaming, where the beautiful very speedily de-
generates into the pretty or picturesque. STEPHEN, I., p. 121.
Prim (IV.): Whip., Gosse.
A prim grace of construction. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 265.
Prismatic : His style is prismatic. It unfolds the colours of the
rainbow. HAZLITT, Age of El., p. 233.
PROBABILITY (VIII.) .
The critics have often distinguished in theory be-
tween particular and general probability. Particular
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 241
probability refers to single detached events, and is to
be determined by observation and the laws of evidence.
General probability is the determination of AS general
,,..,, r . correspondence
beliel in the actual occurrence or any event to past events,
from its general correspondence to other events which
are well known. In actual criticism, particular prob-
ability does not perhaps occur. Until about the middle
of the eighteenth century, the term uniformly indicated
general probability, a similarity to the usual course of
historical events.
It belongs to the same faculty of the mind to recognize both truth
and the semblance of truth ; and further mankind have a con-
siderable aptitude toward what is true ; wherefore an aptness in
conjecturing probabilities belongs to him who has a similar apt-
ness in regard to truth. ATIISTOTLE, Rhet., p. 7.
Poetry treats more *of the general, history of the particular. The
general tells us what might occur according to probability. ID.,
Poetics, p. 29.
A play is still an imitation of nature ; we know we are to be de-
ceived, and we desire to be so ; but no man ever was deceived
but with a probability of truth. 1668. DRYDEN, XV., p. 360.
Many things are probable of particular men, because they are true,
which cannot be generally probable; and he that would be
feigning persons should confine his fancy to general probability.
RYMER, 1st Pt., p. 17.
Poetry . . . should be probable . . . upon certain suppositions.
S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 128.
Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
it has usually been recognized that a close historical
probability is not to be required in literary AS general
consistency
representation. The series of events por- of plot,
trayed must perhaps be capable of being conceived of
as possible occurrences. Probability represents the his-
16
242 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
torical sense of what has been, as acting within the
limits of the aesthetic sense of what is and ought to
be. The only essential for this literary or " dramatic "
probability is a certain dream-like consistency of plot
construction.
There are degrees of probability proper even to the wildest fiction.
1814. SCOTT, Life of Swift, p. 315.
In dramatic probability . . . the poet does not require us to be
awake and believe ; he solicits us only to yield ourselves to a
dream. 1817. COLERIDGE, III., p. 564.
Ben Jonson's plots are improbable by an excess of consistency.
1819. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers, p. 51.
The modern mind, so minutely self-scrutinizing, if it is to be af-
fected at all by a sense of the supernatural, needs to be more
finely touched than was possible in the older romantic presen-
tation of it. The spectral object, so crude, so impossible, has
become plausible as
The blot upon the brain,"
That will show itself without,
and is understood to be but a condition of one's own mind.
1865. PATER, Ap., p. 99.
Profound (XIII.) 6 : Swift to present.
Moral profundity. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 111.
Profusion (XIX.) b: Cole, to present.
Profusion of interesting detail. BAGETIOT, Lit. St., I., p. 120.
Progression (XVIII.) : Want of progression, so that he cannot in-
duce the story to move on at all. GOSSE, From Shak., etc.,
p. 129.
Prolix (XIX.) I : Gas. to present.
A man may become prolix from the fulness or fervency of his
mind ; but prolixity produced by this finical minuteness of lan-
guage ends by distressing one's nerves. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a
Lib., I., p. 365.
PROPER (IV.).
During the first century and a half of English criti-
cism, the term " proper " was occasionally used to
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 243
denote merely propriety of words. This technical use
of the term is derived, from ancient rhetoric and criti-
cism, yet its meaning was not so definite as ^ propriety
it was in the ancient theory of the term. It of words -
tended in English criticism to become more inclusive,
to indicate a correct use not so much of separate words
as of language in general.
Words are :
1. Proper, fixed to things.
2. Metaphorical, in places foreign to them.
3. Invented, by ourselves. CICERO, Orators, p. 375.
Words are proper when they signify that to which they first ap-
plied ; metaphorical when they have one signification by nature,
and another in the place in which they are used. QUINTILIAN,
L, p. 53.
Proper and apt words. 1568. ASCHAM, III., p. 211.
For word and speech, Plautus is more plentiful, Terence more
pure and proper. ID., p. 247.
Their terms proper, their meter sweet. 1585. PUTTENHAM,
p. 76.
Scholastic terms, yet very proper. ID., p. 159.
Improper words . . . antiquated by custom . . . incorrect Eng-
lish. 1670. DRYDEN, IV., p. 228.
Even in early English criticism, however, "proper"
was often employed as a synonym for " propriety."
Since the beginning of the eighteenth cen- Aspropriety
tury, this has been the universal use of the ** general -
term.
Proper for the subject. 1585. K. JAMES, p. 64.
Proper to poets. 1586. WEBBE, p. 57.
Nothing is truly sublime that is not just and proper. 1681.
DRYDEN, VI., p. 407.
Prophetic (XVI.): Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 17.
244 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
PROPORTION (II.).
Previous to the present century, the term " propor-
tion" drew its meaning chiefly from external nature
As external ail( ^ f rom moral conduct. It signified a gen-
symmetry. era j i iarmon y anc [ adaptation of the parts of
a composition to one another, of the thoughts expressed,
and of the language employed in its expression. This
harmony and adaptation was sometimes said to be de-
termined, in part at least, by " nature " regarded as an
activity of the mind ; but as employed in actual criti-
cism, proportion was not so changeable a quantity as
this dependence upon internal nature would cause it to
be. Proportion was almost exclusively determined by
applying to the literary work under discussion precepts,
methods, and principles, derived from preceding liter-
ature, especially from the masterpieces of Greece and
Rome. Proportion, thus externally considered, tended
to become mechanical and conventional, and to oppose
all growth and development in the form of literary
expression.
Metaphors must be constructed on principles of analogy (propor-
tion), else they will be sure to appear in bad taste. ARISTOTLE,
Rhet., p. 210.
The world is made by symmetry and proportion, and is in that
respect compared to music, and music to poetry. CAMPION,
p. 231.
Lydgate, noted for good proportion of his verse. WEBBE, p. 32.
This lovely conformity or proportion or convenience between the
sense and the sensible hath nature herself most carefully ob-
served in all her own works, then also by kind graft it in the
appetites of every creature. 1585. PUTTENHAM, p. 269.
Of the indecencies of an heroic poem, the most remarkable are
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 245
those that show disproportion either between the persons and
their actions, or between the manners of the poet and the poem.
1650. HOBBES, IV., p. 454.
Knavery is mere dissonance and disproportion. SHAFTESBURY, L,
p. 164.
Harmony . . . symmetry and proportion are founded in nature,
let men's fancy prove ever so barbarous, or their fashions ever
so Gothic in their architecture, sculpture, or whatever other
designing art. ID., p. 276.
All disproportion is unnatural. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 156.
During the present century the term " proportion "
has occupied a much more subordinate position in criti-
cism than formerly. But during the latter As a sense ^
half of the century it has received some little harmony -
notice when given a psychological explanation. Pro-
portion, considered as an inner sense, can never be
said at any given time to have fully manifested itself
in literature. Each literary work is in a manner a law
unto itself. The term becomes more elastic and more
capable of being adapted to the constant change of
form and method of expression which has taken place
in the development of literature.
Proportion is a principle, not of architecture, but of existence . . .
and in the fine arts it is impossible to move a single step, or to
execute the smallest and simplest piece of work, without involv-
ing all those laws of proportion in their full complexity. 1853.
RUSKIN, Lee. on Art and Painting, p. 110.
Heine himself . . . seems to me wanting in a refined perception of
that inward propriety, which is only another name for poetic
proportion. 1866. LOWELL, II., p. 170.
Possessing a sense of proportion based upon the highest analytic
and synthetic powers, a faculty that can harmonize the incon-
gruous thoughts, scenes, and general details of a composite
period. 1875. STEDMA.N, Viet. Poets, p. 199.
. 246 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
As a literary critic, Carlyle was sometimes perverse; lie missed
proportions; now and then he would resolutely invert things,
and hold them up to mockery in grotesque disarray. 1887.
DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 183.
PROPRIETY (IV.).
Propriety denotes a general harmony among all the
elements that enter into the composition of a work of
literature. In so far as any harmony is capable of
being determined analytically, it is necessary to have
for the different elements entering into it a common
basis, a common unit, so to speak, by a reference to
which they are given their relative values. As pro-
priety has been employed in actual criticism, this com-
mon basis of reference is scarcely ever given. Yet
according to the variation in this basis of reference,
usually to be ascertained by inference, the changes
of meaning in the term " propriety " have taken place.
The history of the term may be divided into four
periods.
Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century,
propriety represented the influence in literature of an
AS an instinc- m stinct developed by culture, an instinct
ity e toweu m " for regularity and probability, derived from
principles, and the past, for temperance in statement and
to "nature."
consistency, which spring largely from a
sense of accuracy to present fact, and, perhaps, to a
slight extent, for harmony and beauty, which may
refer to the future. But the term usually indicated a
conformity to well established principles in the liter-
ature of the past. From the study of this literature
there was developed a cultured instinct by the activity
UNIVERSITY
OF
]F
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 247
of which propriety was determined, in so far as pro-
priety was synthetic, an immediate sense or feeling.
Occasionally, however, the propriety or fitness of the
literary elements was determined in a more or less
analytic manner. There is found mentioned a pro-
priety or fitness of language, of phrase, of sounds,
of names of characters, of versification, of figures of
speech, of fictions, of sentiments, of characters, of the
nature of the composition itself, all instances in which
but one of the three factors necessary for the analytic
determination of propriety is found within the compo-
sition that is being criticised. The other factors are
to be derived by inference from the principles of earlier
literature. The term " propriety " was in very great
use during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
representing more than any other expression the con-
servative methods of criticism then dominant.
Propriety consists neither in rapidity or conciseness, but in a mean
betwixt both. ARISTOTLE, Rhet., p. 248.
As to propriety, no direction seems possible to be given but this,
that we adopt a character of style fuller, plainer, or middling,
suited to the subject on which we are to speak. ... To know
what is becoming is an affair of judgment, to be able to do the
becoming is the part of art and of nature. CICERO, Orators,
p. 395.
By displacing no word . . . the verse ... be wrested against his
natural propriety. 1586. WEBBE, p. 63.
To the propriety of expression I refer that clearness of memory by
which a poet when he hath once introduced any person whatso-
ever, speaking in his poem, maintaineth in him to the end the
same character he gave him in the beginning. 1650. HOBBES,
IV., p. 454.
Tragedy ... is an imitation of one entire, great, and probable
248 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
action; not told, but represented; which, by moving in us fear
and pity, is conducive to the purging of those two passions in
our minds : ... or tragedy describes or paints an action, which
action must have all the proprieties above named. 1679.
DRYDEN, VI., p. 260.
Propriety of thought is that fancy which arises naturally from the
subject, or which the poet adapts to it; propriety of words is
the clothing of those thoughts witli such expressions as are nat-
urally proper to them. 1685. ID., VII., p. 228.
A mixture of British and Grecian ideas may justly be deemed a
blemish in the Pastorals of Pope; and propriety is certainly
violated when he couples Pactolus with Thames, and Windsor
with Hybla. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 4.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century the
terms " propriety " and " beauty " were often used to-
AS an instinc S e ^ ier - Propriety indicated a conformity of
f ^he different parts of a composition with one
another, or with the nature of the compo-
sition itself, the conformity to be determined
primarily by the sense of beauty within the mind ; but
also in part from well known images, customs, and
principles derived from literature and experience.
With what wildness of imagination, but yet with what propriety
are the amusements of the fairies pointed out in the Midsummer
Night's Dream ; amusements proper for none but fairies. 1756.
J. WARTON, I., p. 223.
It has been the lot of many great names not to have been able to
express themselves with beauty and propriety in the fetters of
verse. ID., |>p. 265, 266.
In a work of so serious and severe a cast, strokes of levity, how-
ever poignant and witty, are ill-placed and disgusting, are viola-
tions of that propriety which Pope in general so strictly observes.
ID., III., p. 112.
What is false taste but a want of perception to discern propriety
and distinguish beauty. 1761. GOLDSMITH, I., p. 324,
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 249
Even in describing fantastic beings, there is a propriety to be ob-
served, but surely nothing can be more revolting to common
sense than this numbering of the moonbeams among the other
implements of Queen Mab's harness. 1762. ID., p. 381.
Pope had an intuitive perception of consonance and propriety.
1781. S. JOHNSON, VIII., p. 320.
During the first half of the present century the
term fell wholly into disfavor. It represented a con-
formity to customs and principles, merely ^ conven _
because those customs and principles were t
old and well established. It denoted a total want of
originality and native power.
One would not surely be frightful when one 's dead ;
And Betty, give this cheek a little red. (Dying words of Nar-
cissa. Pope.)
Was that right, to provide for coquetting in her coffin? Why,
no, not strictly right; its impropriety cannot be denied, etc.
1848. DE QUINCEY, XI., p. 76.
During the latter portion of the present century the
term has not been very much in use. It has had,
however, three different meanings. The As"extrin-
... sic " har-
endeavor has been made to distinguish be- mony.
tween an extrinsic and an intrinsic propriety. Extrin-
sic propriety has to do with the externals of literature,
those things which may be derived from precept and
custom, and may be reduced to rule and method.
The first demand we make upon whatever claims to be a work of
art ... is that it shall be in keeping. Now this propriety is
of two kinds, either extrinsic or intrinsic. . . . Extrinsic pro-
priety relates rather to the body than the soul of the work, such
as fidelity to the facts of history . . . congruity of costume and
the like. 1868, LOWELL, III., p. 69,
250 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The literary artist is of necessity a scholar. . . . His punctilious
observance of the proprieties of his medium will diffuse through
all he writes a general air of sensibility, of refined usage. 1888.
PATER, Ap., pp. 8, 9.
Intrinsic propriety, on the other hand, may be said
to represent the growing sense of beauty, which, how-
AS "intrin- ever, takes into account more than usual the
sic " har-
mony, results of past achievement, which finds
more pleasure than the ordinary sense of beauty in
regularity and method.
Intrinsic propriety consists of three elements :
1. Co-ordination of character.
2. Consistency.
3. Propriety of costume ... to satisfy the superhistoric sense.
All these come within the scope of imaginative truth. LOWELL,
III., p. 69.
Throughout the whole history of the term, and es-
pecially of late, it has occasionally been employed to
/s moral indicate a conformity in literary represen-
decorum. tatioii to the moral sense of decency and
decorum.
The Anglo-Saxon novel is really not so prudish after all. . . .
Sometimes a novel which has this shuffling air, this effect of
truckling to propriety, etc. HOWELLS, Grit. & Fiction, p. 148.
The propriety of the morals, the congruity of the sentiments.
1882. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 531.
Prosaic (XXII.) b : Bentley to present.
Prosaic accuracy of detail. STEPHEN, I., p. 57.
Prosing : Jef. to present.
Mystical and prosing. JEFFREY, I., p. 284.
Provincial (I.) : Gold, to present.
The provincial spirit exaggerates the value of its ideas for want of
a high standard at hand by which to try them. M. ARNOLD,
Cr. Es. 3 1st 8., p. 66,
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 251
Prudish : The Anglo-Saxon novel is really not so prudish after all.
HOWELLS, Grit. & Fiction, p. 148.
Prurient (XY.) : Effeminate or prurient. SWINBUHNE, Mis., p. 230.
Puerile (XII.) : Mil. to present.
By puerility we mean a pedantic habit of mind which by over-
elaboration ends in frigidity. LONGINUS, p. 6.
The circumstance in this line is puerile and little :
And little eagles wave their wings in gold.
J. WARTON, II., p. 202.
Puerism (I.): Lessing's style is pure without puerism. CAIILYLE,
I., p. 40.
Puling: Puling classical affectation. JEFFREY, II., p. 248.
Pungent (XX.) b: Scott to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65.
Puny; Puny affectation, JEFFREY, II., p. 175.
PURITY (I.).
Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century
purity of language usually indicated a scholastic re-
finement of the popular idiom. Whenever ^ refi]ied
English critics referred to Latin and Greek Iangua8:e -
authors, purity, perhaps, signified merely a choice of
specific and appropriate expressions, and their arrange-
ment according to . the rules of composition ; but when-
ever English literature was the subject of criticism,
purity denoted further a selection and arrangement of
words and phrases in conformity with the literary
principles of the ancient masterpieces.
Purity . . . the foundation of all style . . . consists of five things :
1. Connective particles.
2. Particular terms (as against Generalities).
3. Clearness (avoiding ambiguities).
4. Correct genders of nouns.
5. Correct numbers of words. ARISTOTLE, Rhet., pp. 219-222.
Pureness of phrase . . . and propriety of words ... in Terence.
ASCHAM, p. 144 (Arber).
252 A HISTORY OF 'ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
For word and speech, Plautus is more plentiful, Terence more
pure and proper. ID., III., p. 247.
As simplicity is the distinguishing characteristic of Pastoral, Vir-
gil hath been thought guilty of too courtly a style ; his language
is perfectly pure, and he often forgets he is among peasants.
1713. POPE, X., p. 508.
Surrey, for his justness of thought, correctness of style, and purity
of expression, may justly be pronounced the first English clas-
sical poet. 1778. T. WARTON, Hist. Eng. Poetry, p. 645.
During the present century two other uses of the
term are to be noted. Purity often designates the
AS idiomatic we ll- es tablished native idiom of the lan-
language. guage, as opposed to innovations of all kinds,
whether scholastic, foreign, or popular in their origin,
whether referring to the selection of words alone, or
to the phraseology also.
Spenser's language is less pure and idiomatic than Chaucer's.
1818. HAZLITT, Eng. Poets, p. 56.
There is nothing so unclassical, nothing so impure in style, as
pedantry. 1864. BAGEHOT, Lit. St., II., p. 360.
During the present century, however, purity has usu-
ally referred not to language directly, but to thought
AS moral au( ^ conduct. The word " purity " has been
uprightness. a pp r0 p r i a ted to express the rising sense of
morals in literature. Purity of language has received
less attention in criticism during this century than
formerly, and is usually expressed by less ambiguous
terms than " purity."
A lyrical purity and passion. 1887. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 167.
Milton's power of style has for its great character elevation ; and
Milton's elevation clearly comes in the main from a moral quality
in him, his pureness. M. ARNOLD, Mixed Es., p. 202.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 253
Puzzling (III.) : Startling, unclassical, and puzzling. JEFFREY, 1.,
p. 266.
QUAINT (IX.) : Camden to present. Much in use.
I. Until within the first few decades of the present
century, "quaintness" usually represented an obscure
and antiquated oddity, the result of affectation and a
lack of originality.
There are, my friend, whose philosophic eyes
Look through and trust the Ruler with his skies.
This is ... quaint and obscure. J. WARTON, II., p. 327.
Tricks, quaintnesses, hieroglyphics, and enigmas. WORDSWORTH,
II., p. 103.
Quaint and prosaic. JEFFREY, II., p. 348.
Quaint low humour. HAZLITT, El. Lit., p. 24.
Quaintness, coldness, and conceit. WILSON, V., p. 362.
II. Since the first few decades of the present cen-
tury, and occasionally throughout its entire history,
quaintness has usually represented a mystical and re-
mote oddness, primitive simplicity, and naivete*, em-
bodied in more or less primitive methods of expression.
A quaintness . . . something poetical. BENTLEY, I., p. 266.
Quaintness merging into grotesqueness. M. ARNOLD, Gel. Lit.,
p. 175.
A touch of naivete, of old-world quaintness. ROBERTSON, Es.,
etc., p. 3.
Questionable (VIII.): Jeffrey, III., p. 102.
Quibbling (XI.) : Shaftes. to present.
All humour had something of the quibble. The very language of
the court was punning. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 48.
Quick (XII.) : Camden to present.
Quick with bright spontaneous feeling. DOWDEN, Shak., etc.,
p. 333.
Quiet (XIX) a: Swin., Sted. Swinburne, Mis., p. 97.
Racy (XII.) : Jef. to present.
254 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The idiomatic and unconventional in expression ; the
native, sincere, and direct in thought ; strength of local
coloring, at the expense, perhaps, of artistic refinement.
Racy humour. JEFFREY, I., p. 214.
Strength of contrast, a raciuess and a glow. LAMB, P. P. & Es.,
p. 261.
Vigorous, rough and racy lines. WILSON, II., p. 285.
A spirit and raciness very unlike these frigid conceits. HALLAM,
III, p. 257.
Racy words: bam, kick, whop, twaddle, fudge, hitch, etc. M.
ARNOLD, Gel. Lit., p. 69.
Metaphors and similes are racy of the soil in which they grow, as
you taste, it is said, the lava in the vines on the slopes of ^Etna.
MATHEWS, Lit. St., p. 15.
Radiant: Low. to present.
Radiant verses. LOWELL, Prose, IV., p. 313.
Raillery (XVII.): Dry. to present.
The raillery is carried to the verge of railing, some will say ribaldry.
J. WARTON, II, p. 250.
Rambling (XVIII.) : Wil. to present.
Desultory and rambling. WILSON, VI, p. 238.
Rancid (XIV.): Stale and rancid. SWINBURNE, Mis, p. 111.
Rancour (XIV.): Saints, Gosse. Saintsbury, Hist. Eiig. Lit, II,
p. 232.
Range (XIII.) 6: Swin, Beers.
Rant (XIX.) b : Collier to present.
Gasping, ranting, wheezing, broken- winded verse. SWINBURNE,
Mis, p. 76.
RAPID (XVIII).
The terra "rapid" began to become prominent in
criticism about the middle of the eighteenth century,
and its use has been constantly upon the increase to
the present time. There has been some little variation
as to the portion of the composition designated by the
term, but there has perhaps been no change in its
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 255
meaning. The term represents an intensity of mental
interest, and a constant development in the elements
which go to make up that interest, a swift sequence
of sounds and rhythms, of thoughts, of mental images,
and of the incidents of plot construction. Ease in a
composition is in a sense a prerequisite for rapidity.
Rapidity is attained only by means of great energy
and animation. Hence the term tends to characterize
those features of a composition which most excite one's
sympathy and interest, to the mental imagery and to
the development of the plot. It occasionally, however,
refers to the literary work as a whole.
Rapid and approach nearer to conversation. 1756. J. WARTON,
II., p. 356.
Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid. S. JOHNSON, VIII.,
p. 324.
Clarendon's narration is not, perhaps, sufficiently rapid, being
stopped too frequently by particularities. 1751. ID., III.,
p. 83.
Animation, fire, and rapidity. BLAIR, Rhet., p. 4-0.
Demosthenes has a rapid harmony, exactly adjusted to the sense.
1742. D. HUME, I., p. 170.
The rapidity, and yet the perspicuity of the thoughts. J. WAR-
TON, II., p. 20.
Of all Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth is the most rapid, Hamlet the
slowest, in movement. 1810. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 133.
In variety and rapidity of movement, the Alexander's Feast has all
that can be required in this respect. 1818. HAZLITT, Eng.
Poets, p. 108.
Rapture (XV.) : Low. to present. Rossetti, Lives, p. 57.
Rash (XII.) : Jeffrey, II., p. 375.
Rational (XX.) : Jef. to present.
Simplicity and rationality ... of Voltaire. M. ARNOLD, Cel.
Lit., p. 164.
Pope was a ... rationalist and formalist. T. ARNOLD, p. 418.
256 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Rattling (X.): Rattling verses ... of Hudibras. GOSSE, Hist.
Eng. Lit., p. 27.
Raving (XV.) : Raving style admired in Germany. JEFFREY, I.,
p. 289.
Raw: Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 257,
Reach (XIII.) b: Low. to present.
Less depth and reach and force. SWINBURNE', Es. & St., p. 100.
Readable (XXII.) a : Swin., Gosse.
1. Somewhat interesting.
GOSSE, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 179.
2. Not morally offensive and disgusting.
No longer readable comedies of Mariage a la Mode. GOSSE, Hist.
Eng. Lit., III., p. 43.
REALITY (VIII.).
The term "reality" began to be employed in criti-
cism during the latter portion of the eighteenth cen-
AS the fun- ^ ur J? an( ^ ^s use ^ as ^ een constantly upon
1 of the increase until the present time. "Real-
ity," primarily a philosophical term, denotes
in general the external world of appearances, or what-
ever seems to be such, or whatever fully explains these
appearances. Three different meanings have been given
to the term. In the first portion of the present cen-
tury, occasionally later, reality indicated the essential
reason or principle, which underlies appearances, that
which renders their existence possible, and gives to
them unity and significance.
Truth is correlate to being. Knowledge without a correspondent
reality is no knowledge. 1817. COLERIDGE, III., p. 342.
Poetry must dwell in reality, and become manifest to men in the
forms among which they live and move. CARLYLE, I., p. 56.
We create nine-tenths at least of what appears to exist externally ;
and such is somewhere about the proportion between reality and
imagination. 1S32. WILSON, VI., p. 109.
A HISTORY OP ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 257
Literature is the record of man's attempt to make actual to thought
a life approaching nearer to reality than the boasted actual life of
the world. ... If the phrase, realizing the ideal, were translated
into the phrase, actualizing the real, much ambiguity might be
avoided. 1845. WHIPPLE, Es. & Rev., p. 300.
In Keats and Guerin, in whom the faculty of naturalistic interpre-
tation is overpoweringly predominant, the natural magic is per-
fect; when they speak of the world, they speak like Adam,
naming by divine inspiration the creatures; their expression
corresponds with the thing's essential reality. 1865. M.
ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 112.
Throughout its whole history the term " reality "
has often been employed to denote an imaginative
heightening of ordinary events and appear- AS imagina-
tive fasci-
ances, which, by holding the attention spell- nation.
bound, seems itself to represent actual appearances,
that have become externalized, as it were, and made a
basis, perhaps, for future thought and action.
Waller borrows too many of his sentiments and illustrations from
the old mythology, for which it is vain to plead the example of
ancient poets ; the deities which they introduced so frequently
were considered as realities, so far as to be received by the im-
agination, whatever sober reason might even then determine.
1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 216.
Don Quixote . . . presents something more stately, more roman-
tic, and at the same time more real to the imagination than any
other hero upon record. 1819. HAZLITT, Eng. Com. Writers,
p. 145.
Imagination has ... in Milton's Satan . . . achieved its highest
triumph, in imparting a character of reality and truth to its most
daring creations. CHANNING, p. 446.
Vivid realism of the impossible. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 120.
We have admitted that Beatrice Portinari was a real creature, but
how real she was, and whether as real to the poet's memory as
to his imagination may fairly be questioned. 1872. LOWELL,
IV., p. 206.
17
258 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
But the term " reality " has been employed to denote
the facts and events of actual life far more frequently
AS actuality ^ nan ^ n ^ ne uses ^ ^ ne term just given. In
onunar this more common and general use of the
term, two distinctions of meaning at least
should be drawn. Until within the latter portion of
the present century, the term usually denoted the facts
and events of actual life, considered in so mechanical
a fashion that every one would agree even as to the
most minute details of the facts or events portrayed.
Hence the subject-matter of literature was inevitably
taken from those phases of actual life well known in
ordinary experience, but new, perhaps, to literary treat-
ment. The realistic method of literary treatment was
usually assumed to be a full, detailed, and accurate
account of the fact or event recorded, selection in
the details being permissible only for the purpose of
avoiding incoherency and tediousness.
We are more affected by reading Shakespeare's description of
Dover Cliff, than we would be with the reality; because in
reading the description we refer to our own experience, and
perceive with surprise the justness of the imitations. 1761.
GOLDSMITH, I., p. 339.
They (formerly) loved, I will not say tediousness, but length and
a train of circumstances in a narration. The vulgar do so still :
it gives an air of reality to facts, it fixes the attention, raises and
keeps in suspense their expectation, and supplies the defects of
their little lifeless imagination. 1762. GRAY, I., p. 392.
The plot and character are natural without being too real to be
pleasing. 1829. NEWMAN, Es. on Aristotle, p. 16.
Fiction has no business to exist unless it is more beautiful than
reality. 1865. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 392. (Quoted.)
Exaltation of the commonplace through the scientific spirit in real-
ism. HOWELLS, Grit, and Fiction, p. 16.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 259
More recently it has usually been recognized that
external facts and events can be conceived of only as
they are brought into relation with some AS actuality
... ..,,.,. , T motived and
unity mg principle which is not external. In selected,
literature, this unifying principle is some ethical mo-
tive or the action of the aesthetic instincts. Selection
of details in composition has been recognized not only
as a necessity, but often as constituting the chief means
for a vivid representation of the actual fact. Also, the
representation of the more uncommon features of ac-
tual life is not thought to be inconsistent with the
realistic method of treatment. Hence the recent use
of the term "reality" represents a broader conception
of actual life than the early use of the term, a more
discriminative selection of the details to be mentioned,
and a wider limit to the subject-matter of literary
representation.
A figure may be ideal and yet accurate, realistic and yet untrue,
as a fact not thoroughly fathomed may be in effect a falsehood.
There is a far stronger cross of the ideal in the realism of J5s-
chylus or Shakespeare than runs through the work of the great
modern writers. 1869. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 220.
A vigorous grasp of realities is rather a proof of a powerful than a
defective imagination. 1874. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 283.
When we speak of Middlemarch as more realistic, and Daniel
Deronda as more ideal, it is not meant that one is true to the
facts of life and the other untrue ; it is rather meant that in the
one the facts are taken more in the gross, and in the other there
is a passionate selection of those facts that are representative of
the highest' (and also of the lowest) things. DOWDEN, St. in
Lit., p. 285.
Thus every workman must be a realist in knowledge, an idealist
for interpretation, and the antagonism between realists and ro-
260 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
mancers is a forced one. 1892. STEDMAN, Nat. of Poetry,
p. 199.
That only is real for us which reappears before our solitude when,
closing our eyes and letting our spirit ruminate upon itself, we
evoke our personal mirage of the universe. P. BOURGET, p. 190.
Reasonable (XX.) : Low. to present.
Voltaire tells that Mr. Addison was the first Englishman who had
written a reasonable tragedy. LOWELL, IV., p. 14.
Recondite: Swiu. to present.
So recondite and exquisite as the choral parts of a Greek play.
SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 162.
Recreation : Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 268.
Redundant (XIX.) b: B. Jon. to present.
Redundancy of humours. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 131.
Refinement (V.) : Mil. to present.
I. Previous to the present century, "refinement"
usually represented a cultured use of language, and
an apt selection of the facts of history for literary
composition.
Endeavor ... by precepts and by rules to perpetuate that style
and idiom . . . which have flourished in the purest periods of
the language. ... it gives gentility, elegance, refinement.
MILTON, III., p. 496.
The ancients refined upon history. RYMER, 1st Pt., p. 16.
II. During the present century, refinement has usu-
ally represented certain mental characteristics : delicate
sensibility, and chastened emotions and feelings.
Poetic imagery . . . must elevate, deepen, or refine the human
passion. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 56.
Reflective (XX.) b : T. War. to present.
Reflective and self-sustained. WHIPPLE, Es. & Rev., p. 49.
REGULARITY (II.).
There has been considerable change in the favor with
which the term "regularity" has been regarded in Eng-
A HISTORY Of' ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 261
lish criticism, but there has perhaps been no change in
its meaning. It has been employed chiefly to charac-
terize the general design or plot construction of a lit-
erary production, but it sometimes refers to the more
subordinate features of a composition, especially to the
versification. Regularity is determined less immedi-
ately than proportion by an inner sense, and it makes
less assumption of law and fixed method than order.
It denotes a more or less mechanical correspondence
between the different parts of a composition, or between
the parts of one composition and those of other com-
positions. Regularity was first opposed to variety, then
to imagination. In the early portion of the present
century the term fell almost wholly into disfavor, but
more recently it has again come into active use in con-
nection with the criticism of prose literature.
Regularities : The unities of action, time, and place. RYMEII, 1st
Pt., p. 24.
[Regularity and roundness of design. ID., 2d Pt., p. 85.
The genius of the English cannot bear too regular a play ; we are
given to variety. 1690. DRYDEN, VII., p. 313.
Imagination, a licentious and vagrant faculty, unsusceptible of
limitations, and impatient of restraint, has always endeavored to
baffle the logician, to perplex the confines of distinction, and
burst the inclosures of regularity. 1751. S. JOHNSON, III.,
p. 93.
The work of a correct and regular writer is a garden accurately
formed and diligently planted, varied with shades, and scented
with flowers; the composition* of Shakespeare is a forest, etc.
1765. S. JOHNSON, V., p. 127.
The essence of verse is regularity, and its ornament is variety,
1781. ID., VII., p. 346.
The true ground of the mistake lies in the confounding mechanical
regularity with organic form. 1810. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 55.
262 A tilSTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The thoughts are vast and irregular ; and the style halts and stag-
gers under them. 1820. HAZLITT, Age of EL, p. 44.
The needful qualities for a fit prose are regularity, uniformity, pre-
cision, balance. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 39.
Relief (TX.): Relief and variety. JEFFREY, II., p. 405.
Rememberable : A rememberable verse. LOWELL, Prose, II., p. 146.
Remote: Pope to present. S. Johnson, VII., p. 208.
Repartee (XVII.) : Dry. to present.
Repartee is the soul of conversation. DRYDEN, III., p. 245.
Repartee ... a chase of wit. ID., XV., p. 334.
Bon mots and repartees. J. WARTON, II., p. 144.
Repose (XIX.) a : Jef., Stephen.
Want of plainness, simplicity, and repose. JEFFREY, II., p. 471.
Repulsive (XXII.) b\ Swm. to present. Dowden, Shak., etc., p. 82.
Reserve (XIX.) b : Jef. to present.
Reserve and gravity of the style. JEFFREY, I., p. 367.
Resonance (X.) : Swin. Gosse, Hist, Eng. Lit,, III., p. 237-
Restless (XIX.) : Howells, Grit, and Fiction, p. 24.
Restrained (XIX.) 6: Low. to present.
Restrained vigor. LOWELL, L, p. 296.
Revolting (XXII.) b: Jef., Gosse.
Revolting in its details. JEFFREY, III., p. 133.
Rhapsodical (XXL): Campbell to present.
Poetical and rhapsodical. ROSSETTI, Pref. to Blake, p. cxiii.
Rhetorical (XIX.) b: Lodge to present.
Rhetoric ... a sort of art is immediately thought of that is osten-
tatious and deceitful ; the minute and trifling study of words
alone ; the pomp of expression ; the studied fallacies of Rhetoric ;
ornament substituted in the room of use. BLAIR, Rhet., p. 10.
The prosing rhetoric of the French tragedy. BAGEHOT, II., p. 273.
Macaulay was a born rhetorician ; but beyond the apparent rhe-
torical truth of things he never could penetrate. M. ARNOLD,
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 304.
Rhetorical, ornate, and poetically quite false. ID., 2d S., p. 97.
RHYTHMICAL (X .).
The rhythmical, unlike the metrical, is not regarded
as a quality which inheres objectively, as it were, in
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 263
the composition considered as a completed product.
The rhythmical refers wholly to the effect which the
literary work produces upon the mind of the reader.
It consists of such a succession of regular and irregular
movements as shall to a certain extent gratify the qx-
pectation or anticipation aroused, but shall also by
means of little surprises constantly give the expecta-
tion new material upon which inferences may be based.
I would trace the origin of meter to the balance in the mind ef-
fected by that spontaneous effort which strives to hold in check
the workings of passion. 1817. COLERIDGE, III., 'p. 415.
Rhythmical and sweet. HALLAM, III., p. 335.
Rhythmic emotion. LOWELL, III., p. 2.
The language, alike of poetry and prose, attains a rhythmical
power, independent of metrical combination, and dependent
rather on some subtle adjustment of the elementary sounds of
words themselves to the image or feeling they convey. 1874.
PATER, Ap., p. 57.
Ribald (XIV.) : J. War., Gosse. J. Warton, II., p. 250.
Rich (XI.) b : Dekker to present. Much in use in present century.
Richness and sweetness of sound. COLERIDGE, III., p. 276.
Rich in colour. SWINBURNE, A St. of B. Jonson, p. 65.
Rich perfume. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 207.
Ridiculous (XVII.) : Pope to present.
The only source of the true ridiculous ... is affectation. FIELD-
ING, J. Andrews, Pref., pp. 13, 14.
Rigmarole: Saintsbury, Eng. Lit., p. 319. '
Ringing: Gosse, Brooke.
Ringing hyperboles. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 43.
Ripe : Swin., Gosse.
Ripe and . . . free from all romantic influence. GOSSE, From
Shak., etc., p. 94.
Robust (XII.) : Cole, to present.
Robustness is the great characteristic of Dryden's poetry. Ros-
SETTI, Lives, p. 106.
264 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Romance (XXI.) : Campbell to present.
Upon these three columns chivalry, gallantry, and religion
repose the fictions of the middle ages, especially those usually
designated as romances. HALLAM, Lit. Hist., I., p. ]35.
The impotent feelings of romance, so singularly characteristic of
this century, may indeed gild, but never save, the remains of
those mightier ages to which they are attached like climbing
flowers. RUSKIN, Stones of Venice, I., p. 62.
Diffusion is in the nature of a romance. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 122.
ROMANTIC (IX.).
The history of the term " romantic " may be divided
into three periods. During the first period, whieh iri-
AS wild cw- c ^ u( ^ es ^ ne ^ as ^ na ^ ^ ^ ne eighteenth century,
the term was employed in two more or less
distinct ways. The romantic sometimes in-
dicated the general spirit of romance and adventure.
When given this meaning, the term was not very much
in favor with the critics. The chivalric passion and
the beautiful superstitions with which it was histori-
cally associated, could not fail, indeed, to elicit admira- |
tion. But it was necessary to ascribe to this chivalric
passion very many improbable adventures, extravagant
combinations of incidents, and inconceivable feats of
daring, all of them flagrant violations of " truth "
and "nature."
(Of Corneille's Plays.) It is observed how much that wild goose
chase of Romance runs still in their head ; some scenes of love
must everywhere be shuffled in, though never so unseasonably.
EYMER, 2d Ft., p. 62.
Those intrigues and adventures to which the romantic taste has
confined modern tragedy. T. TICKELL, Arber's Garner, VI.,
p. 520.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 265
He who would think the Faery Queen, Palarnon and Arcite, The
Tempest, or Comus, childish and romantic, might relish Pope.
1756. J. WAETON, II., p. 403.
That for which Tasso is most liable to censure is a certain roman-
tic vein which runs through many of the adventures and inci-
dents of his poem. BLAIR, Rhet., p. 497.
Often, also, the romantic represented any unusually
striking and beautiful mental image or view of natural
scenery. When thus employed, the term was Ag wild
always regarded with favor by the critics. HJener^aSd
But the romantic scene or image was often
merely the background and localized setting, so to
speak, for the activity of the romantic passion, and
hence the two meanings of the term blended impercep-
tibly into a single meaning.
The country of the Scotch warriors described in ... Chevy
Chase . . . has a fine romantic situation. 1710. ADDISON,
II., p. 378.
I cannot at present recollect any solitude so romantic. . The
mind naturally loves to lose itself in one of these wildernesses,
and to forget the hurry, the noise, and splendor of more pol-
ished life. 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. 349.
Wild and romantic imagery. ID., II., p. 35.
Beautifully romantic. ID., p. 65.
During the early portion of the present century the
opposition between the terms " romantic " and " clas-
sical," which had hitherto been, for the most As energetic
part, merely historical and casual, developed
into a philosophical antithesis, in which the id
terms were intended to be really and essentially op-
posed and complementary to each other. The roman-
tic became more refined and intellectual than it had
266 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
formerly been. Chivalric passion was transformed into
poetic passion ; wild and picturesque imagery into
suggestive imagery. The romantic represented the
more pronounced idealizing tendencies in literature, a
broader and yet broader view of human life, depth of
conception and feeling, a fierce intellectual tension,
from hovering ever on the borders of the incompre-
hensible, the mysterious, the infinite.
In Shakespeare, the commonest matter-of-fact lias a romantic grace
about it. 1817. HAZLITT, Shak., p. 196.
Romantic and enthusiastic. ID., p. 182.
The great difference, then, which we find between the romantic and
classical style, between ancient and modem poetry, is, that the
one more frequently describes things as they are interesting in
themselves, the other for the sake of the associations of ideas
connected with them ; that the one dwells more on the immedi-
ate impressions of objects on the senses, the other on the ideas
which they suggest to the imagination. 1820. ID., Age of EL,
p. 246.
Romantic beauty and high-wrought passion. ID., El. Lit., p. 126.
Romantic, sweet, tender. ID., p. 169.
The real and proper use of the word romantic is simply to charac-
terize an improbable or unaccustomed degree of beauty, sublim-
ity, or virtue. . . . True friendship is romantic, to the men of
the world ; true affection is romantic ; true religion is romantic.
1853. RUSKIN, Lecture on A. & P., p. 62.
During the latter portion of the present century the
"romantic" has been placed in. opposition to the "real-
n ^ GSS ^ an * ^ 1G "classical." As
As suggestive,
SHrtsiS' ' opposed to the "realistic," the "romantic"
idealization. -. ,. ,. , ,. -,
denotes an artistic selection and an impas-
sioned treatment of the subject-matter of literature.
As opposed to the classical, " romantic " has become
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 267
for the most part a classifying term, being employed
to designate two periods of English literature,
Shakespeare being the culmination of the first period,
Wordsworth of the second.
It is this warmth of circumstance,, this profusion of interesting
detail, which has caused the name romantic to be perse veringly
applied to modern literature. 1856. BAGEHOT, Lit. St., I.,
p. 120.
The side of Elliott's genius which is most remote from reality,
which loved to be romantic, was his less true self, and in his
romantic poems there is unquestionably a note of spuriousness.
DOWDEN, St. in Lit., pp. 39, 40.
The romantic movement was as universal then as the realistic
movement is now, and as irresistible, It was the literary ex-
pression of monarchy and aristocracy, as realism is the literary
expression of republicanism and democracy* HOWELLS, Mod.
It. Poets, p. 133.
At its best, romantic literature in every period attains classical
quality, giving true measure of the very limited value of those
well-worn critical distinctions. 1886. PATER, Ap., p. 161.
Rough (II.) : Ascham to present.
Lucretius is scabrous and rough in these . . . antique words. B.
JONSON, Timber, p. 61.
Rough-hewn (II.) : Bentley's vernacular style is rough-hewn.
GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 104.
Rubbishy (XI.) : Ros. Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 139.
Rude (V.) : Ascham to present.
Rude and imperfect. BENTLEY, I., p. 324. .
Rude, inartificial majesty. S. JOHNSON, III., p. 83.
Rugged (V.) : Collier to present.
I. Rough.
After about half a century of forced thoughts and rugged meter,
some advances toward nature and harmony had been made by
Waller and Denbam. S. JOHNSON, VII., pp. 307, 308.
II. Sturdy.
Rugged simplicity ... of Burns. CARLYLE, II., p. 11.
268 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Rustic (V.) : Sidney to present.
Rustic and awkward. . . . Rustic terms are unlikely to be com-
pounded with accuracy. LANDOR, VIII., p. 407.
Saccade: Saccade, its rapidity is jerky. M. ARNOLD, Celtic Lit.,
p. 194.
Sad (XIV.) : Whip, to present.
Wordsworth has not the note of plangent sadness which strikes the
ear in men as morally inferior to him as Rousseau, Keats, etc.
MORLEY, St. in Lit., p. 41.
Sagacity (XX.) b : Jef., Mor.
Depth of sagacity. JEFFREY, II., p. 91.
Salient (XVI.) : Low. to present.
Donne is full of salient verses. LOWELL, Prose, III., p. 35.
Salt (XVII.): Dry., Wil.
His wit is faint and his salt . . . almost insipid. DRYDEN, XIII.,
p. 88.
As for the saltuess of sagacity and wit, Mr. Wordsworth looks
down upon it as a profane thing. WILSON, V., p. 395.
Sameness (II.) : Collier to present.
Between variety and sameness. HUNT, Im. & Fancy, p. 37-
Sanity (XX.) b : Noble sanity. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 302.
Sappy : Weightiness of sappy words. NEWTON, Spenser Society,
XLIII., p. 3.
Sarcasm (XVII.) : Gold, to present.
Wit and humour stand on one side, irony and sarcasm on the
other. LANDOR, IV., p. 282.
Sardonic : Sardonic persiflage. SAINTSBURY, Es. in Eug. Lit., p. 254.
Satire (XVII.): Dry. to present.
I. Previous to the present century the satirical usu-
ally represented raillery and sarcasm at the less favored
conditions and the less refined achievements of life,
viewed from the standpoint of the more cultured attain-
ments and conditions.
Satire : a sharp, well-mannered way of laughing a folly out of
countenance. 1693. DRYDEN, XIII., p. 112.
Satire is the poetry of a nation highly polished. T. WARTON,
p. 950.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 269
^ II. During the present century satire has indicated
a more or less genial play of humor upon the incon-
gruities of actual life, in view of an ideal, the pur-
pose or ideal being more persistent and definite than
in the case of pure humor, and thus causing it to
verge toward bitterness and malignity.
Richter's satire is playful . . . never bitter, scornful, or malignant.
DE QUINCEY, XI., p. 271.
Whenever the satire of the noble grotesque fixes upon human
nature, it does so with so much sorrow mingled amidst its
indignation ; in its highest forms there is an infinite tenderness,
like that of the fool in Lear. RUSKIN, Stones of Venice, II.,
p. 194.
Savour : Swin., Mor. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 71.
Scabrous (II.) : B. Jon., Dry. B. Jonson, Timber, p. 61.
Scholastic (XY.) : S. John., E. Brown.
Scholastic . . . but not inelegant. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 19.
The pedantry ... of Milton ... (if it is to be so called), of the
scholastic enthusiast, who is constantly referring to images of
which his mind is full, is as graceful as it is natural. HAZLITT,
Round Table, p. 47.
Scientific: "Zenith-height" is harsh to the ear and too scientific.
GRAY, III., p. 74.
Scrupulous (XIX.) b : Scrupulous delicacy of taste. JEFFREY, I.,
p. 165.
Sculpturesque (XIX.) 6:
In the Greek drama one must conceive the presiding power to be
Death ; in the English, Life. What Death ? What Life ? That
sort of death or of life locked up and frozen into everlasting
slumber, which we see in sculpture ; that sort of life, of tumult,
of agitation, of tendency to something beyond, which we see in
painting. The picturesque, in short, domineers over English
tragedy ; the sculpturesque or the statuesque over the Grecian.
DE QUINCEY, X., p. 315.
Scurrilous (XIV.) : Hal. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 246.
Seasonable (IV.) : Ryraer to present. RYMER, 3d Pt., p. 62.
270 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Sedate (XIX.) a: Swin., Gosse.
Grave and sedate. SWINBUHNE, Mis., p. 105.
Seductive (XXII.) 6 : Jef., Saints.
Seductive beauty. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., p. 42.
Seemly (IV.) : Put., Webbe.
Seemely simplicity. WEBBE, p. 53.
Selection (XXIII ) : S. John, to present.
I. Until within the first few decades of the present
century, selection denoted an intellectual choice, a more
or less logical severity, leading to condensation and
accuracy.
Young's poetry . . . abounds in thought, but without much accu-
racy or selection. S. JOHNSON, VIII., p. 461.
Crabbe's great selection and condensation of expression. JEF-
FREY, II., p. 276.
II. During the latter portion of the present century
selection has indicated an instinctive and aesthetic ap-
propriation of certain possible elements in the construc-
tion of literature, leading to its elevation and perhaps
to its idealization.
Your historian with absolutely truthful intention . . . must needs
select, and in selecting assert something of his own humour,
something that comes not of the world without, but of a vision
within. PATER, Ap., p. 5.
A passionate selection of those facts that are representative of the
highest (and also of the lowest) things. DOWDEN, St. in Lit.,
p. 285.
Self-assertive (XII.) : Ros., Swin. Rossetti, Lives, p. 105.
Self-control (XIX.) b : Dowden, Tr. & St., p. 229.
Self-retarding: A self-retarding movement. M. ARNOLD, Cel. Lit.,
p. 206.
Self-withdrawal : Rossetti, Lives, p. 157.
Senile (XII.): Whip., Stephen. Whipple, Am. Lit., p. 264.
Sensational (XV.) : T. Arnold to present.
A HISTORY OP ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 271
Melo-drama, or what is generally called sensational writing. STE-
PHEN, I., pp. 222, 223.
Sense (XX.) : Dry. to present.
What rhyme adds to the sweetness, it takes away from the sense.
DRYDEN, XIV., p. 212.
Sensibility (XV.) : Jef. to present.
Sensible (XX.) a : Ascham to present.
Sensibly, pithily, bitingly. NEWTON, Spenser Society, XLIIL,
p. 3.
Sensual (XIV.) : Hunt to present.
A poet is innocently sensuous when his mind permeates and illum-
ines the senses ; when they, on the other hand, muddy the mind,
he becomes sensual. LOWELL, IV., p. 317.
The sensual fervours of Swinburne's earlier poems. DOWDEN, Tr.
& St., p. 225.
Passion rises above the sensuous, certainly above the merely sen-
sual, or it has no staying power. STEDMAN, Nat. & El. of Po-
etry, p. 262.
Sensuous (XV.) : Mil., Low. to present.
Poetry . . . simple, sensuous, and passionate. MILTON, Mis.,
III., p. 473.
A wild, convulsed sensuousness in the poetry of the Middle Ages,
in which the things of nature begin to play a strange, delirious
part PATER, Ap., p. 218.
Sententious : Har. to present.
A pithey and sententious proposition. T. WILSON, Rhet., p. 121.
The moral sententiousness of ... Timon of Athens. HAZLITT,
El. Lit., p. 46.
Antithetical and sententious to affectation. HALLAM, II., p. 295.
SENTIMENT (VI.).
Until the middle of the eighteenth century senti-
ment denoted any reflection or opinion concerning
facts, or upon questions which from their As thought
nature are incapable of definite solution and in generaL
exact statement. The word "sentiments" was uni-
formly employed to indicate the thoughts expressed by
272 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
the characters of a drama, or of any other literary pro-
duction, thoughts which revealed character, and served
as indices for action ; which thus gave in a sense the
ethical purpose, of which the plot development was
the tangible outcome.
Sentiment, That whereby they in speaking prove anything or set
forth an opinion. ARISTOTLE, Poetics, p. 21.
Sentiment, To it appertains all the effect that should be pro-
duced by the language, proving and refutation, producing
emotion, . . . and exaggerated or reduced ideas. ID., p. 59.
When objects of any kind are first presented to the eye or imagi-
nation, the sentiment which attends them is obscured and con-
fused. 1742. D. HUME, I., p. 274.
Sentiments and understanding are easily varied by education and
example. ID., p. 164.
Sentiment is only a return upon ourselves. Ideas relate to objects
outside of us. Their number occupying the mind enfeebles the
sentiment. 1759. GIBBON, IV. p. 78.
In the latter portion of the eighteenth century sen-
timent was associated less with the thought of a liter-
AS pensive ai T production than formerly, and more with
eiing. ^ e men | a i imagery. Sentiment was thought
to consist not so much in definite expressions as in the
general tone of the literary work. Sentiment repre-
sented the contemplative attitude of mind attendant upon
a somewhat intense and a continued form of aesthetic
feeling. Sentiment, abstracted and followed for its
own sake, was called sentimentalism. Sentiment itself
was usually associated with passion and imagination,
and was more or less under the influence of an ethical
purpose. The term represents, however, at least in the
present century, a conservative tendency in literature.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 273
It may be said to blend and modify the immediate
aesthetic effect by means of past sesthetic effects. It
is always pensive ; it may even become conventional.
Wordsworth was the first man who impregnated all his descrip-
tions of external nature with sentiment or passion. 1818.
WILSON, V., p. 402.
Richardson's nature is always the nature of sentiment and reflec-
tion, not of impulse or situation. 1819. HAZLITT, Eng. Com.
Writers, p. 160.
A certain intenseness in the sentiment. 1820. ID., Age of EL,
p. 177.
They affect sentiment and passion, which, divested of imagination,
are other names for caprice and appetite. 1821. SHELLEY,
VII., p. 117.
Sentiment is a complex thing, the issue of sensibility and imagina-
tion; and without imagination sentiment is impossible. 1850.
WHIPPLE, Lit. and Life, p. 288.
State truths of sentiment, and do not try to prove them. (From
Joubert.) M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 286.
Sentiment is intellectualized emotion, emotion precipitated, as it
were, in pretty crystals by the fancy. 1867. LOWELL, II.,
p. 252.
Wordsworth had much conventional sentiment. 1874. PATER,
Ap., p. 38.
Sentiment may be regarded as the synthesis of thought and feeling.
T. ARNOLD, Hist, of Eng. Lit., p. 556.
M. Coppee's poetry . . . possesses sentiment, but hardly passion.
DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 421.
Sentimental (XV.) : Gold, to present.
I. Occasionally the term has designated a kind or
species of dramatic composition.
Sentimental Comedy, in which the virtues of private life are ex- \|
hibited rather than the vices exposed ; and the distresses rather
than the faults of mankind make our interest in the piece.
GOLDSMITH, I., p. 400.
18
274 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
II. Occasionally, also, the term represents a fulness
or richness of sentiment, not necessarily to be regarded
as a literary fault or blemish.
Sentimental and expressive metaphor. T. WAUTON, p. 661.
Sentimental, always ready to react against the despotism of fact.
M. ARNOLD, Gel. Lit., p. 77.
III. Usually, however, during the present century
almost uniformly, the sentimental has indicated an
excess of sentiment, a failure thoroughly to assimilate
or fathom the subject-matter of literature, to see and
feel it in all its relations: and hence a lack of balance
between the sensuous and the more rational powers of
the mind ; the rule of the sensuous, of mere sensi-
bility and feeling, in matters where reason ought to
hold sway; the narrowing of aesthetic feeling to the
immediate impression, and the most elementary sense
of contrast, thus basing it upon primitive sensation
rather than regarding it as the culmination of all the
normal activities of the mind.
Unless seasoned and purified by humour, sensibility is apt to run
wild; will readily corrupt into disease, falsehood, and, in one
word, sentimentality. CARLYLE, L, p. 14.
Carlyle's innate love of the picturesque ... is only another form
of the sentimentalism he so scoffs at. LOWELL, II., p. 92.
A laudable subjectivity dwells in naturalness, the lyrical force of
genuine emotions, including those animated by the Zeitgeist of
one's own day. All other kinds degenerate into sentimentalism.
STEDMAN, Nat. of Poetry, pp. 142, 143.
Serene (XIX.): Hume to present.
Pathetic yet august serenity. DOWDEN, Shak., etc., p. 380.
Serious (XIV.): Put., Jef. to present.
Chaucer lacks the high seriousness of the great classics. M.
ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 34.
Severe (XIX.) b ; Dry. to present.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 275
The term "severe" represents a union of strength
and definiteness. The strength must be restrained and
regulated; the definiteness manifests itself in the gen-
eral conception or design of the literary work, in the
use of language, in the mental imagery employed, in
the logical construction, arid in accuracy to the facts
represented.
Virgil and Horace, the severest writers of the severest age. DRY-
DEN, V., p. 116.
Seventy of thoughtfulness. GOLDSMITH, IV., p. 378.
No Greek severity, no defined outline. BAGEHOT, I., p. 73.
Keats entirely fails of Milton's nervous severity of phrase. LOW-
ELL, IV., p. 86.
Severity and purity of the style. T. ARNOLD, p. 382.
The spirit of ... Antony and Cleopatra ... is essentially se-
vere. That is to say, Shakespeare is faithful to the fact. DOW-
DEN, Shak., etc., p. 308.
Shallow : De Quin. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 170.
Shambling : Vicar of Wakefield ... is shambling. GOSSE, Hist.
Eng. Lit., p. 349.
Shapeless (II.) : Wil. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 86.
Sharp (XX.) b : Camden to present.
Freshness and sharpness. JEFFREY, I., p. 392.
Bright sharp strokes. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 16.
Sharp and delicate. GOSSE, From Shak. etc., p. 188.
Sharply-cut: Sharply-cut dialogue. GOSSE, Life of Congreve, p. 35.
Shining (V.) : Dry., Jef.
Exquisite and shining passages. JEFFREY, II., p. 92.
Short : Wil. to present.
Sudden, short, and strong. WILSON, VIII., p. 17.
Showy (V.) : Haz. to present.
Showy, Asiatic redundancy. HAZLITT, Sp. of A., p. 204.
Shrewd (XX.) b: M. Arn. to present. Saintsbury, Hist. Fr. Lit.,
p. 195.
Shrill (X.) : Shrill, monotonous treble ... of Waller. GOSSE, From
Shak., etc., p. 156.
276 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Shuffling (XVIII.) : Haz., Saints.
Shuffling anapaest. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., p. 61.
Sickly (XIV.): Swinburne, Mis., p. 82.
Significant (XVI.): Put. to present.
Silly (XX.) : Jef. to present.
Distinguished silliness. WILSON, VI., p. 126.
Simpering: This simpering style ... of 1660-1700. GOSSE, From
Shak., etc., p. 223.
Simpleness (XX.) : Cole., Swin.
A downwright simpleness under the affectation of simplicity.
COLERIDGE, IV., p. 196.
Simplicity : The real quality . . ., the French call simplicite, the sem-
blance simplesse. M. ARNOLD, Cel. Lit., p. 289.
SIMPLICITY (III.).
The history of the term " simplicity " may be divided
into four periods. Until the middle of the seventeenth
AS a unified cen ^ ul T simplicity indicated a sincere direct-
and C i?npres- ness f conception in the author, unelaborated
methods of composition, and unity of effect
in the reader.
Simple, naive, sincere. 1585. PUTTENHAM, pp. 67, 68.
(Of Spenser.) ... In all seemely simplicity, of handling his mat-
ter and framing his words. 1586. WEBBE, p. 53.
From about the middle of the seventeenth to within
the latter portion of the eighteenth century, simplicity
AS a con- indicated a formal unity of design and con-
unity, str action in the composition, brought about
by a refined method of selecting and arranging both
the language and the thought, a method so refined
that it concealed its own artifice. The Greek Parthe-
non, the sober coloring and severe outlines of classic
architecture, gave the general image and idea which
controlled the use of the term during this period. Sim-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 277
plicity was placed in opposition to the subtle and fine,
to conceit and the quaintness of wit, to Gothic orna-
ments, epigrammatical conceits, turns, points, and quib-
bles, to the u artificial and the fanciful," to "affectation"
and " extraneous ornament," and to the " distorted and
unnatural."
The simple manner, which, being the strictest imitation of nature,
should of right be the completest in the distribution of its parts
and symmetry of its whole, is yet so far from making any osten-
tation of method, that it conceals the artifice as much as possible ;
endeavoring only to express the effect of art under the appear-
ance of the greatest ease and negligence. SHAFTESBURY, I.,
p. 202.
Much less ought the low phrases and terms of art that are adapted
to husbandry have any place in such a work as the Georgiac,
which is not to appear in the natural simplicity and nakedness
of its subject, but in the pleasantest dress that poetry can bestow
on it. ADDISON, I., p. 158.
The sentiments of Chevy Chase ... are extremely natural and
poetical, and full of the majestic simplicity which we admire in
the greatest of the ancient poets. 1710. ID., II., p. 384.
The great beauty of Homer's language consists in a noble sim-
plicity, and yet his diction, contrary to what one would imagine
consistent with simplicity, is at the same time very copious.
1708. POPE, VI., p. 13.'
Simplicity passes for dullness, when it is not accompanied with
great elegance and propriety. 1742. D. HUME, I., p. 243.
Poetry cannot dwell upon the minuter distinctions by which one
species differs from another, without departing from that sim-
plicity of grandeur which fills the imagination. 1750. S.
JOHNSON, II., p. 178.
From near the middle of the eighteenth century until
within the first few decades of the present century,
simplicity in composition was thought to be derived en-
tirely from the unity of literary impulse or AS a unity of
incentive in the mind of the author. The pulse.
278 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
literary expression of this unified incentive, when for-
mally or intellectually considered, might seem to be
quite intricate and complex ; yet the emotional effect
upon the reader was supposed to be always a counter-
part of the original inspiration and conception in the
mind of the author.
Judge of the Eaery Queeu by the classic models, and you are
shocked with its disorder : consider it with an eye to its Gothic
original, and you find it regular. The unity and simplicity of
the former are more complete : but the latter has that sort of
unity and simplicity which results from its nature. 1762.
HURD, IV., p. 279.
Dryden . . . had so little sensibility of the power of effusions
purely natural that he did not esteem them in others. Sim-
plicity gave him no pleasure. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII.,
p. 340.
Cultivate simplicity ; banish elaborateness ; for simplicity springs
spontaneous from the heart, and carries into daylight its own
modest buds, and genuine, sweet, and clear flowers of expres-
sion. 1796. LAMB, Letters, I., p. 46.
The unconscious simplicity of nature. 18*20. HAZLITT, Age of
EL, p. 96.
Rugged simplicity. 1828. CARLYLE, II., p. 11.
During the latter portion of the present century more
attention has been given to the formal expression of
AS unitv of ^ e literary conception. The genuineness of
SretwSSf* the author's incentive has often been held in
statement. q ues tion. Simplicity borders closely upon
" simpleness," " the ordinary," " commonness," " vul-
garity," " baldness," and " poverty of language." Noth-
ing is simple which essentially contradicts the facts of
actual experience. Simplicity usually indicates an im-
mediate perception or intuition, as it were, of truth and
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 279
reality, and its most direct and unelaborated expres-
sion in language, occasionally it denotes also a unity
of emotional effect.
The characteristic of the classical literature is the simplicity with
which the imagination appears in it. 1856. B AGE HOT, Lit. St.,
I., p. 118.
The direct intelligence of simple reason. 1872. SWINBURNE, Es.
& St., p. 28.
Simple, natural, and honest. HOWELLS, Grit. & Fiction.
Statuesquely simple. 1872. LOWELL, IV., p. 232.
Kingsley . . . tried with too obvious an effort to be simple and
unaffected. 1879. STEPHEN, Hrs. in a Lib., p. 408.
This simplicity at first hand is a strange contrast to the sought out
simplicity of Wordsworth. 1883. PA.TEU, Ap., p. 222.
The train of passion which the common movement of these various
actions calls out in the sympathy of the reader is as simple as
the plot itself is intricate. 1885. MOULTON, Shak. as a D. A.,
p. 208.
SINCERE (VII.).
The term "sincere" has been much in use during
the present century. It is aimed chiefly at false orna-
ment and over-refinement in style, and it represents a
union, so to speak, of moral incentive and power of
artistic expression. Art must be not only spontane-
ous, but it must be spontaneous with an inherent eth-
ical purpose. Literature must represent life not only
as it has been, but also as it is and will be : litera-
ture expresses ideals, which control action ; litera-
ture is thus an expression and controlling influence of
real life, and sincerity is the first prerequisite in its
production.
Simple, naive, sincere. 1585. PUTTENHAM, pp. 64, 68.
Pope was incapable of a sincere thought or a sincere emotion.
1851. DE QUINCEY, XL, p. 125.
280 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The beauty of Milton's sonnets is their sincerity. 1819. HAZ-
LITT, Table Talk, p. 242.
The sincerity and directness of the British taste. 1840. DE
QUINCEY, X., p. 141.
Lack of sincerity is always lack of truth. 1892. STEDMAN, Nat.
of Poetry, p. 233.
Sinewy (XII.) : B. Jon. to present.
There be some styles again that have not less blood, but less flesh
and corpulence. These are bony and sinewey. B. JONSON,
p. 66.
Sing-song (II.): Sing-song of Collins' generation. LOWELL, IV.,
p. 4.
Singular (IX.) : Jef. to present.
Singular though beautiful style. JEFFREY, II., p. 54.
The truth is that all genius implies originality, and sometimes
uncontrollable singularity. DE QUINCEY, XL, p. 351.
Sinuous (II.) : Lamb, Swin. Lamb, Letters, II., p. 79.
Skill (V.) b : Camden to present.
Skill, variety, efficacy, and sweetness, the four material points
required in a poet. CAMDEN, p. 337.
That skill in the conduct of the scene . . . which is the result of
art. HURD, I., p. 350.
Skipping (XVIII.) : Light skipping verse. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr.
Lit., p. 164.
Slack (XII ) : Slackness and deviations ... of Faery Queene. SAINTS-
BURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., p. 95.
Slangy(L): Saintsbury, Hist, Eng. Lit., II., p. 48.
Slight: Homely, genial, and slight. GOSSE, Life of Congreve, p. 140.
Slipper (XVIII.) : Put., Brooke.
Sounds most flowing and slipper upon the tongue. PUTTENHAM,
p. 129.
Slippered wording. BROOKE, Tennyson, p. 62.
Slipshod (XVIII.): Swin. to present. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit.,
p. 57.
Slovenly (XIX.) : Gold, to present.
A slovenly sort of versification. GOLDSMITH, V., p. 160.
Slow (XVIII.): Put,, B. Jon. to present.
Of all Shakespeare's plays, Macbeth is the most rapid, Hamlet the
slowest in movement. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 133,
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 281
Sly : Jef. to present.
Sly humour. SAINTSBURY, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 329.
Smart (V.): Gold, to present.
Skill and smartness. JEFFREY, I., p. 164.
Smiting: Smiting, clashing sound. BROOKE, Tennyson, p. 389.
Smooth (X.) : Camden to present.
In any smooth English verse of ten syllables, there is naturally
a pause at the fourth, fifth, or sixth syllable. POPE, VI.,
p. 57.
Massinger's verse is smooth rather than melodious ; the thoughts
are not born in music, but mechanically set to a tune. WHIF-
FLE, Lit. of Age of EL, p. 183.
Sober (XIX.) b: Scott to present.
Exactness and sobriety ... of Virgil. SCOTT, Life of Dry den,
p. 348.
Soft (X.) : Dry. to present. In considerable use.
Some passages are beautiful by being sublime; others by being
soft. ADDISON, III., p. 283.
Solecism (I.) : Dry. to present.
Solemn (XIV.) : Put. to present.
Solemnity and stateliness are Milton's chief characteristics. LAN-
DOR,, V., p. 561.
Solid (XIII.) : T. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 308.
Sombre (XIV.): Car. to present.
Sombre beauties. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 303.
Sonorous (X.) : Dry. to present.
Sonorous, high, and pompous strain. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 200.
Soul (XXII.) b: WiL, M. Arn.
Your fact or observation is not literature until it is put in some
sort of relation to the soul. BURROUGHS, Indoor Studies,
p. 232.
The union of soul with intellect. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 1st S.,
p. 301.
Soul as opposed to mind in style . . . soul securing colour, as
mind secures form. PATER, Ap., etc., p. 23.
Sounding (X.) : Dry. to present.
The sounding strain. WILSON, VIII., p. 41.
Spacious (XI.) : Low. to present.
Spacious style ... of Spenser. ^OWELL, IV., p. 307.
282 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The Ancient Mariner has . . . breadth and space. SWLNBURNE,
Es. & St. p. 264.
Sparkling : Haz. to present.
Sparkling archaisms. HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 14-5.
Spasmodic (II.): Whip., Saints. Whipple, Es. & Rev., II.,
p. 19.
Spirit (XII.) : Mil. to present. Much in use.
I. Tone; manner; atmosphere.
Style and spirit. HAZLITT, Age of El., p. 119.
II. Life ; feeling ; inner principle.
To give to universally received truths a pathos and a spirit, which
shall readmit them into the soul like revelations of the moment.
WORDSWORTH, II., p. 63.
Spiritual (XXII.) b: W r ords. to present.
So spiritualized as to be above their sympathies WILSON, VII. ,
p. 297.
Style being a visible emblem of spiritual traits. STEDMAN, Vic.
Poets, p. 481.
Splendid (XXII.) b : S. John, to present.
Addison's style is splendid without being gaudy. BLAIR, Rhet.,
p. 209.
Splendor (V.) : S. John, to present.
Splendor of elegance. S. JOIINSON, VII., p. 452.
Spontaneous (VII.) : Cole, to present. Much in use.
The significance of the term is chiefly negative. The
spontaneous is that which is not imitated or elaborated,
which is not attained by means of conscious design or
method. As to the positive significance of the term,
during the first portion of the present century, the spon-
taneous was usually assumed to result only from im-
pulse, feeling, and emotion ; during the latter portion
of the century, there has been recognized a spontane-
ity of intellect and even of taste.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 283
Simplicity springs spontaneous from the heart, and carries into
daylight its own modest buds, and genuine, sweet, and clear
flowers of expression. LAMB, Letters, I., p. 46.
Taste, however responsive to cultivation, is inborn, as spontane-
ous as insight. STEDMAN, Nat. of Poetry, p. 47.
Arnold's . . . intellectual processes are spontaneous. ID., Yic.
Poets, p. 91.
Sportive (XVII.) : Sid., Chan, to present. Dowden, Tr. & St.,
p. 278.
Sprightly (XVIII.) : S. John, to present.
Sprightliness of poetry . . . clearness of prose. S. JOHNSON, VII.,
p. 63.
Springy : Rapid and springy. LOWELL, I., p. 294.
Spurious (VIII.) ; Ros. to present. Dowden, St. in Lit., p. 40.
Squalid : Whipple, Lit. of Age of EL, p. 247.
Stable (XL): Hal., Ros.
Stable or tangible sense. ROSSETTI, Pref. to Blake, p. cxxii.
Stagnant (XII.) : Jef., Swin. Jeffrey, I., p. 415.
Staid (XI.) : Staid and serious. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 278.
Stale (IX.) : Stale uncleanliuess. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 86.
Startling (IX.) : Jeffrey, I., p. 266.
Stately (XL): Sid. to present.
I. As graceful massiveness, dignity, and poise.
The stateliness of style removed from the rude skill of common
ears. 1557. SURREY, in Lit. Centuria, I, p. 246.
Gorboduc ... is full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases.
SIDNEY, p. 47.
Stately march of hexameters. T. WARTON, p. 889.
II. As unwieldy massiveness, and dull rigidity.
A stiffness and stateliness and operoseness of style. BENTLEY,
II., p. 84.
Cornelia is a model of stately dulness. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eng.
Lit, p. 74.
Statuesque (XIX.) b\ Cole, to present. (See Sculpturesque.)
Ancient art was . . . statuesque, modern, picturesque. COLE-
RIDGE, IV., p. 58.
284 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Steady (XI.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 163.
Sterile (XVI.): Ros. to present.
Art severed from a social faith becomes, sooner or later, sterile.
DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 424.
Stiff (XVIII.) : Rymer to present.
Stiff and Gothic. RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 78.
Stilted (VII.): Gosse, From Shak. etc., p. 86.
Stinging (XXII.) b: Vigorous, stinging . . . lines. ROSSETTI, Lives,
p. 186.
Stirring (XII.) : T. Arn. to present. Stedrnan, Vic. Poets, p. 69.
Stormy (XII.): Stormy and impulsive poems. WHIPPLE, Es. &
Rev., p. 294.
Straight: Ascham, Spenser.
Straight, fast, and temperate style. ASCHAM, III., p. 204.
Your artificial straightness of verse. SPENSER to Harvey, p. 36.
Straight-forward : Wil. to present. In considerable use.
The straight-forward and strong simplicity of nature and truth.
WILSON, VI., p. 120.
Classic straightforwardness. SWINBURNE, A St. of B. J., p. 20.
Strained (XII.) : Put. to present.
Without strain or parade. ROSSETTI, Lives, p. 391.
Strange (IX.) : Scott to present.
Full of beauty and strangeness. DOWDEN, Tr. & St., p. 230.
STRENGTH (XII.) : Dry. to present.
Strength in composition results from the use of
simple monosyllabic words, representing images which
are vivid and familiar rather than refined and rare ;
and from the most unelaborated methods of logical
construction. The term has almost uniformly been
associated with the Gothic, with feeling, and with pas-
sion rather than with the more intellectual character-
istics of literature.
Recent writers . . . elegant and glaring, Shakespeare . . strong
and solemn. POPE, X., p. 549.
A clear expression belongs to the understanding, a strong expres-
sion to the passions. BURKE, p. 180.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 285
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours. (Milton.)
It is incredible how many disgusting images Milton indulges in.
In his age, and a century earlier, it was called strength. LAN-
DOR, IV., p. 515.
In the storm and stress period in Germany . . . beauty seemed
synonymous with strength. CARLYLE, I., p. 58.
Strenuous (XII.): Swin. to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 369.
Stress (XII.) : Intensity . . . and . . . stress. DOWDEN, St. in
Lit., p. 275.
Strict: Ruskin.
A strict and succinct style is that where you can take away nothing
without loss. B. JONSON, Timber, p. 62.
Striking (IX.): S. John, to present. Hallam, Lit. Hist., I., p. 433.
Studied (VII.) : J. War. to present.
Stumbling (XVIII.) : Stumbling stanzas. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 76.
Stupid (XX.) 6: Gray to present. J. Wilson, VI., p. 284-.
STYLE : Low. to present.
I. An ornament or external glitter designed to ren-
der the work striking and effective.
Style ... an ornament adapted to vulgar tastes. ARISTOTLE,
Ehet., p. 204.
II. A habit or method of writing acquired either by
effort or without design.
Style is a constant and continual phrase or tenor of speaking arid
writing . . . such as he either keepeth by skill, or holdeth on
by ignorance. PUTTENHAM, p. 162.
III. During the latter portion of the present cen-
tury, "style" has become an active critical term. It
represents the literary or artistic personality of the
author, permeating the thought and expression of the
literary work and thus rendering its general " tone "
or "atmosphere" a direct reflection of the aesthetic
sense of the writer.
286 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Style . . . the establishment of a perfect mutual understanding
between the worker and his material. LOWELL, III., p. 37.
Style . . . consists mainly in the absence of undne emphasis and
exaggeration, in the clear uniform pitch which penetrates our
interest and retains it. ID., p. 353.
That fine effluence of the whole artistic nature which can hardly
be analyzed and which we term style. DOWDEN, St. in Lit.,
p. 192.
The common and erroneous idea of style as the dress of thought,
and the true definition of it as the incarnation of thought.
SAINTSBURY, Es. in Eng. Lit., pp. 335, 336.
Style is what a sentient being, when he tries to imitate, cannot
help adding to the thing he renders. SYMONDS, Es., Sp. &
Sug., p. 146.
Suavity (XXII.) b : Scott to present.
Suavity and grace. GOSSE, From Shak., etc., p. 186.
Subdued (XIX.) 6: J. War. to present.
Subdued passion. POE, I., p. 304.
Subjective : Whip, to present.
Elizabethan style is ... subjective rather than objective. STED-
MAN, Yic. Poets, p. 47.
SUBLIME (XI.).
Until within the eighteenth century the sublime was
thought to consist of bold figures of speech, a series
AS bold figu- of metaphors, which seemed in fancy to an-
rative lan-
guage, nihilate space and time, to bring things far
apart together, and thus to violate "nature" and the
well known experiences of actual life. With their at-
tention centred upon the language of literature, the
early critics considered the sublime as something either
to be avoided or to be subordinated to more regulated
methods of composition.
Nothing is truly sublime that is not just and proper*. 1681.
DKYDEN, VI., p. 407-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 287
To write thus upon low subjects is really the true sublime of ridi-
cule; it is the sublime of Don Quixote. 1726. POPE, VIII.,
p. 219.
Too true it is that while a plain and direct road is paved to their
ityof or sublime, etc. . . . The sublime of nature is the sky,
the sun, moon, stars, etc. SWIFT, XIII., p. 32.
It is easy to imagine that, amidst the several styles and manners
of discourse or writing, the easiest attained and earliest prac-
tised was the miraculous, the pompous, or what we generally
call the sublime. SHAFTESBURY, I., p. 190.
The eighteenth century was a period of transition
from this grammatical view of the "-sublime" to the
modern conception of the term. The term As ^^
"sublime" referred chiefly to the thought of
the composition. The thought must be im-
pressive and striking; it must stir up in the mind of
the reader a sort of passive excitation and surprise.
In the philosophy of the eighteenth century, the sub-
lime was traced to ideas of pain, themselves pleasur-
able, with an accompanying paralysis of energy. In
actual criticism the sublime was almost synonymous
with the pathetic, as the pathetic was then understood.
(See "Pathetic.") The sublime represented a certain
compass and vividness of thought, and sometimes of
imagery, the outlines of which were often definitely
marked, which did not usually reach out by suggestion
toward the unknown and infinite, and which did not
stand over, as it were, against the reader himself, and
call out his reactive impulses. The sublime was a fas-
cination and a pleasure, and the pleasure often sprang
as much from the evident skill in execution as from
the thought which was represented.
288 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Nor is it sufficient for an Epic poem to be filled with such thoughts
as are natural, unless it abound also with such as are sublime.
1711. ADDISON, III., pp. 186, 187.
Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and dan-
ger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conver-
sant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to
terror, is a source of the sublime. 1756. BURKE, I., p. 74.
Those feelings are delightful when we have an idea of pain and
danger without being actually in such circumstances. ID.,
p. 84.
The sublime and the pathetic are the two chief nerves of all genu-
ine poesy. What is there transcendentally sublime or pathetic
in Pope? 1756. J. WARTON, I., p. vi.
My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind,
Some emanation of the all-beauteous mind.
How oft when press'd to marriage have 1 said,
Curse on all laws but those which love has made. (Pope.)
This is ... poetical and even sublime. ID., p. 306.
Paradise Lost sometimes descends to the elegant, but its character-
istic quality is sublimity. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 131.
During the present century and to a certain ex-
tent during the latter portion of the century preceding
AS supreme the term "sublime" has represented not
vividness of immediate impression so much
as suggestion of what lies beyond the imme-
diate impression. There must be indefinitencss, ob-
scurity, and mystery of some kind, and this must stir
the deepest latencies of the intellectual powers. The
thoughts and images represented must be directly re-
lated to the most central interests of human life ; they
must be imbued with passion ; they must in some man-
ner be typical of the highest and most intense activity
of which the human mind is capable. Occasionally
this is attained by the representation of little more
anJf"
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 289
than mere physical power, but more usually by sug-
gesting and calling forth the very highest ethical ideals
and purposes.
The sublime must come unsought, if it come at all ; and be the
natural offspring of a strong imagination. BLAIR, Rhet., p. 47.
Greek art is beautiful . . . but Gothic art is sublime. 1810.
COLERIDGE, IV., p. 235.
It is the nature of thought to be indefinite ; definiteness belongs,
to external imagery alone. Hence it is that the sense of sub-
limity arises, not from the sight of an outward object, but from
the beholder's reflection upon it ; not from sensuous impression,
but from the imaginative reflex. ID., p. 146.
The kind of sublimity with which the English % have always been
chiefly delighted, consists merely in an exhibition of the strength
of the human energies . . . e. g. Coriolanus, Richard the Third,
Satan in Paradise Lost, etc. 1810. WILSON, V., p. 393.
The terrific is sublime only when it fixes you in the midst of all
your energies, and not when it weakens, nauseates, and repels
you. 1826. LANDOR, IV., p. 442.
Sublimity is Hebrew by birth. 1832. COLERIDGE, VI., 406.
Let it be remembered that of all powers which act upon man
through his intellectual nature, the very rarest is that which we
moderns call the sublime. The Grecians had apparently no
word for it, unless it were that which they meant by TO a-c^ivov :
for v^ros was a comprehensive expression for all the qualities
which gave a character of life or animation to the composition,
such, even, as were philosophically opposed to the sublime.
In the Roman poetry, and especially in Lucan, at times also in
Juvenal, there is an exhibition of a moral sublime, perfectly dis-
tinct from anything known to the Greek poetry. 1839. DE
QUINCEY, X., p. 400.
So long as a man continues artificial, the sublime is a conscious
absurdity to him. 1871. LOWELL, IV., p. 32.
Subtle (V.) b ; cf. (XX.) b : Put. to present.
Delicate discrimination, springing from an unerring
sense of native affinities and relations and the most
penetrative intellectual acumen.
19
290 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
In Gower's inventions ... is small subtlety. PUTTENHAM, p. 76.
Subtlety . . . nicety of distinction. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 16.
Subtle adjustment of the elementary sounds, of words themselves
to the image or feeling they convey. PATER, Ap., p. 57-
Succinct (XX.) b: Cam. to present. (See Strict.)
Sudden (IX.) : Jef. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65.
Sufficient: Sufficient and strong. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 126.
Sugared : Sidney.
Heliodorus in his sugared invention. SIDNEY, p. 11.
SUGGESTIVE (XVI.).
The term " suggestive" has been prominent through-
out the criticism of the present century. It is often
mentioned in Connection with the imagination, whose
activity it in part represents. The term refers prima-
rily to the sentiment and imagery immediately repre-
sented in the literary production. What this sentiment
and imagery is suggestive of is usually left to be de-
termined from each one's own interest and experience.
In general, however, the suggestive denotes such a
portrayal of details as by means of the association of
ideas shall give glimpses into the depths of human char-
acter, shall fill the mind with a sense of the illimitable
nature of thought and feeling, and shall perhaps awaken
half-slumbering longings and ideals.
Suggestion doth assign and direct us to certain marks or places,
which may excite our mind to return and produce such knowl-
edge as it hath formerly collected, to the end we may make use
thereof. 1605. BACON, Ad. of L., p. 156. (Oxford, 1891.)
Painting gives the object itself. . . . Poetry suggests what exists
out of it in any manner connected with it. But this last is the
proper province of the imagination. 1818. HAZLITT, Eng.
Poets, p. 14.
The most striking characteristic of the poetry of Milton is the ex-
treme remoteness of the associations by means of which it acts
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 291
on the reader. Its effect is produced not so much by what it
expresses as by what it suggests. 1825. MACAULAY, I., p. 22.
The truth is, painting and sculpture are literally imitative arts,
while poetry is metaphorically so. ... I would rather call
poetry a suggestive art. 1825. BKYANT, Prose, I., p. 5.
Descriptive poets . . . forget that it is by suggestion, not cumu-
lation, that profound impressions are made upon the imagina-
tion. 1868.. LOWELL, III., p. 42.
In Measure for Measure . . . we have a real example of that sort
of writing which is sometimes described as suggestive, and which
by the help of certain subtly calculated hints only brings into
distinct shape the reader's own half-developed imaginings. 1874.
PATER, Ap., p. 179.
Suitable (IV.) : Walton to present.
Strokes of levity . . . unsuited to so grave and majestic a poem.
J. WAIITON, L, p. 391.
Sumptuous (V.) : Imaginative and sumptuous. ROSSETTI, Lives,
p. 31.
Sunny (XIV.) Swin., Gosse.
Bright and sunny. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 46.
Superb (XXII.) a: Wil., Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, Mis., p. 44.
Superficial (XX.) : Gib. to present.
Sidney Smith's mirth lies in the superficial relations of phenomena.
BAGEHOT, Lit. St., p. 136.
Superfluous : Ascham to present.
When superfluousness of words is not occasioned by overflowing
animal spirits . . . there is no worse sign for a poet. HUNT,
Im. & Fancy, p. 41.
Supple (XVIII.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 60.
Supreme (XXII.) : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 72.
Sure (VIII.) : Hal. to present.
Sure facility ... of Waller. HALLAM, IV., p. 233.
Shakespeare himself, divine as are his gifts, has not, of the marks
of the master, . this one : perfect sureness of hand in his style.
Alone of English poets . . . Milton has it ; he is our one . . .
first rate master in the grand style. M. ARNOLD, Mixed Essays,
p. 300.
Surging (XVIII.) : Free, surging, melodious. ROSSETTI, Life of
Keats, p. 179.
292 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Sustained (XIII.) : Jef. to present.
Sustained and continuous. HAZLITT, Eng. Poets, p. 16.
Sweeping (XIII.) : J. Wil. to present.
SWEET (X.) : Cam. to present. Much in use.
I. Often the term "sweet" denotes the pleasing and
attractive in composition attained through delicacy and
tranquil feeling, rather than by any manifestation of
strength in the thought or emotion.
llaleigh's Cynthia ... a fine and sweet invention. HARVEY,
Malone's Shakespeare, II., p. 579.
The uttering sweetly and properly the conceits of the mind . . .
is the end of speech. SIDNEY, p. 55.
Sweet expressions of love. WALTON, Lives, p. 121.
II. More usually, however, sweetness has direct ref-
erence to the sound, to the musical properties of the
composition. Sweetness represents that which in the
sound charms and attracts, a certain smoothness, a
gentle rhythm, and a harmony unbroken by jar or
discord.
Harmonious sweetness. DRYDEN, YII , p. 229.
Pope's versification is tiresome from its excessive sweetness and
uniformity. HAZLITT, Eng. Poets, p. 18.
Sweetness ... a smooth progression between variety and same-
ness, and a voluptuous sense of the continuous. HUNT, Im. &
Fancy, p. 37.
Sweet and manifold in cadence. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit.,
p. 63.
Swelling (X.) : Sid. to present.
Swelling style. DRYDEN, VI., p. 407.
Swift (XVIII.) : Campion to present.
The verse moves swiftly enough. BROOKE, Tennyson, p. 114.
Symbolical (XVI.) : External appearances . . . symbols of internal
sentiment. HAZLITT, Eng. Poets, p. 31.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 293
Symmetry (II.): Campion to present.
Symmetry more than sensation is the effect which has an attraction
for his genius. MOULTON, Shak., etc.
Sympathy (XV.) : Jef. to present.
A strange mixture of satire and sympathy in all Crabbe's produc-
tions. JEFFREY, II., p. 354.
Sympathetic humor. BURROUGHS, Birds and Poets, p. 61.
In Burns ... a sympathy so vivid and intimate as to pass con-
tinually into the domain of imagination. ROSSETTI, Lives,
p. 200.
Symphonical (X.) : Swinburne, Es. & St. p. 11.
Systematic (II.) : Systematic as a country cemetery. LOWELL, IV.,
p. 274.
Tact (V.) b : Jef. to present.
Talent (V.): S. John, to present
Tame (XII.) : Jef. to present.
Tameness and poorness of the serious style of Addison and Swift.
JEFFREY, I., p. 167-
Tangible (III.) : Eos. to present.
No stable or tangible sense. ROSSETTI, Pref. to Blake, p.
cxxii.
The pathos is more direct and tangible. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 26.
Tardy (XVIIL): Jef., How.
Tardy, laborious, and obscure. JEFFREY, II., p. 43.
TASTE (XXII.) b.
The term "taste" has always represented to a cer-
tain extent both native sensibility and an instinct which
AS a desire has been acquired and cultivated by the
and striking, study of literature already written. Until
the middle of the eighteenth century there were two
uses of the term "taste." Often the term was em-
ployed to characterize a crude preference for the more
glaring and startling features of literature, a perverse
relish for literary work which was not in accord with
294 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
the principles of literature already well established.
This was usually characterized as " false " taste.
Style seems to be an ornament adapted to vulgar tastes. ARIS-
TOTLE, Rhet., p. 204.
A wrong artificial taste . . . formed . . . upon little fanciful au-
thors and writers of epigram. 1710. ADDISON, II., p. 374.
Those intrigues and adventures to which the romantic taste has
confined modern tragedy. TICKELL, in Arber's Garner, VI.,
p. 520.
More often taste denoted the appreciation of liter-
ature in so far as it agreed with the most approved
AS a cuiti- an( * mos ^ firmly established methods of lit-
oftiM! 'pro 86 erary composition. This was "true" taste,
or merely taste without any qualifying ad-
jective. Usually, however, both a "false" and a "true"
taste were recognized and were kept distinct from each
other.
Metaphors must be constructed on principles of analogy (propor-
tion), else they will be sure to appear in bad taste. ARISTOTLE,
Rhet., p. 210.
Taste is not to conform to the art, but the art to the taste. 1710.
ADDISON, II., p. 292.
A just taste cannot be obtained without the antecedent labour of
criticism. SHAFTESBURY, III., pp. 114, 115.
It is rare to meet with a man who has a just taste without a sound
understanding. 1742. D. HUME, I., p. 278.
Tastes unformed from the true relish of possibility, propriety, sim-
plicity, and nature. 1756. J. WARTON, II., p. 21.
Taste comes from two sources :
1. Sensibility, if lacking, one wants taste.
2. Judgment, if lacking, one has bad taste. 1756. BURKE.
p. 64.
During the present century there are also two uses
of the term. Often it denotes the acquired feelings
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 295
and instincts which prompt to a judgment Asconven-
of literature in accordance with literary prin- appreciation 3 "
ciples already well established. In this sense of the
term, taste has almost uniformly been regarded as an
inadequate test of the aesthetic value of a literary pro-
duction. It is wholly conservative, and opposes all
progressive literary tendencies.
It is for the most part in our skill in manners, and in the observ-
ances of time and place, and of decency in general . . . that
what is called taste . . . consists, and which is in reality no
other than a more refined judgment. 1756. BURKE, I., p. 63.
Every author, as far as he is great and at the same time original,
has had the task of creating the taste by which he is to be en-
joyed. 1802. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 125.
Proportion and congruity . . . are subjects upon which taste may
be trusted, since . . . the mind is then passive. ID., p. 127.
Taste ... is representative of our past conscious reasonings, in-
sights, and conclusions. 1817. COLERIDGE, III., p. 428.
Classical taste and sound reason. 1838-39. HALLAM, II.,
pp. 23, 24.
Good taste is an excellent thing when it confines itself to its own
rightful province of the proprieties. 1871. LOWELL, IV.,
p. 21.
Taste ... is in reality condensed experience. . . . But the judi-
cial attitude of mind is itself a barrier to appreciation, as being
opposed to that delicacy of receptiveness which is a first condi-
tion of sensibility to impressions of literature and art. MOUL-
TON, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist pp. 6, 7.
-More often, perhaps, taste has represented both cul-
tivated instinct and native sensibility, sensibility
which is open to impressions from actual AS a culti-
vated, devel-
life as well as from literature, and which is oping appre-
ciation of
susceptible to new forms of beauty as well literature.
as to those which are already familiar. Used in this
290 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
sense, taste is the exact measure of the extent and
limits of literary art at any given stage of its de
velopment.
A strong imagination, the parent of what we call true taste. 1751.
HURD, I., p. 282.
The principal ingredient in the composition of taste is a natural
sensibility. 1761. GOLDSMITH, L, p. 324.
One . . . must have sensibility before he feels those emotions with
which taste receives the impressions of beauty. 1761. GOLD-
SMITH, I., p. 327.
Virtue and taste are built upon the same foundation of sensibility.
ID., p. 331.
Could we teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer
taste and genius. J. REYNOLDS, I., p. 56.
Taste is nothing but sensibility to the different degrees and kinds
of excellence in the works of art or nature. 1819. HAZLITT,
Sk. & Es., pp. 158, 159.
I would reverse the rule, and estimate every one's pretensions to
taste by the degree of their sensibility to the highest and most
varied excellence. 1819. ID., p. 164.
Taste relates to that which ... is calculated to give pleasure.
Now to know what is calculated to give pleasure, the way is to
inquire what does give pleasure : so that taste is, after all, much
more a matter of fact and less of theory than might be imagined.
ID., p. 170.
Taste is a sense to discern and a heart to love and reverence all
beauty, order, goodness. 1827. CARLYLE, I., p. 34.
Taste : a . . . noble sense of harmony and high poetic propriety.
1867. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 141.
Into the mind sensitive to "form," a flood of random sounds,
colours, incidents, is ever penetrating from the world without,
to become, by sympathetic selection, a part of its very structure,
and in turn, the visible vesture and expression of that other
world it sees so steadily within, nay, already, with a partial
conformity thereto, to be refined, enlarged, corrected at a hun-
dred points; and it is just there, just at those doubtful points.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 297
that the function of style, as tact or taste, intervenes. 1888.
PATER, Ap., pp. 28, 29.
The truth is that taste, however responsive to cultivation, is in-
born, as spontaneous as insight, and indeed with an insight of
its own. 1892. STEDMAN, Nat. of Poetry, p. 47.
Tautology (XIX.) b : Bentley to present. Swinburne, Es. & St.,
p. 188.
Tawdry (V.) : Haz. to present.
Frivolous and tawdry ornament. MACAULAY, IV., p. 380.
Technical : Gib. to present.
The diapason closing full in man. (Dryden.)
"Diapason" is too technical. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 324.
Technique : Sir Thomas Browne . . . stood in need of technique, of
a formed taste in literature, of a literary architecture. PATER,
Ap., etc., p. 130.
Tedious (XXII.) b : Gos. to present.
Avoid prolixity and tediousness. GASCOIGNE, pp. 39, 40.
The tedious historic style. CAMPBELL, I., p. 14.
Scott was often tediously analytic. HOWELLS, Grit. & Fiction,
p. 21.
Tedium : Bombast and tedium. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 69.
Telling : Low., Gosse.
Original and telling in construction. GOSSE, Seventeenth Cent.
St., p. 294.
TEMPERATE (XIX.) b\ Ascham, Jef. to present.
The direct significance of the term is chiefly nega-
tive. Temperance is the absence of excess in any
form. But it almost invariably denotes a moderation
of passion or feeling, and thus it becomes associated
with the judicious, with propriety, with all the terms
that might be classified under the conception of the
classical.
Temperance is a measuring of affections according to the will of
reason. T. WILSON, Tibet., p. 38.
Temperance and propriety of all the delineations of passion. . JEF-
FREY, I., p. 394.
298 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Virgil ... is temperate, chaste, judicious. LANDOR, III., p. 473.
Temperance of tone . . . makes The Deserted Village classical.
LOWELL, IV., p. 370.
Tender : Dry. to present.
A delicacy and tenderness. DE QUINCEY, III., p. 37.
Tenuity : Tenuity and caprice. ROSSETTI, Pref. to Blake, p. cxxxi.
Terrible (XII.) : Scott to present.
The tragic and the terrible. DOWDEN, Shak., etc., p. 23.
Terse (XIX.) b : Dekker to present.
Weight and terseness of his maxims. JEFFREY, II., p. 349.
Theatrical: Swin., Dow.
Theatrical observance of effect. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 57.
Thin : Whip, to present.
Light and thin. WHIFFLE, Es. Rev., II., p. 57.
Thoughtful (XX.) : Whip, to present. Swinburne, Mis., p. 241.
Thrilling (XXII.): Swin., Gosse. Swinburne, A St. of B. J.,
p. 59.
Tightness : Tightness of phrase. GOSSE, Hist. Eiig. Lit., III.,
p. 286.
Timid (XIV.) : Jef. to present. Jeffrey, I., p. 45.
Tinsel (V.): Tinsel and embroidery. JEFFREY, I., p. 412.
Tiresome (XXII.) b : T. War. to present.
Tiresome harmony. STEPHEN, I., p. 135.
Titanic : A Titanic or Cyclopean style. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 98.
Tone (XIII.) : Jef. to present.
Tone, not words, is what distinguishes the master. LOWELL, III.,
p. 41.
Topographical : Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 89.
Tormented : Homer's plain thought is tormented, as the French would
say. M. ARNOLD, Gel. Lit., p. 166.
Tortuous (II.) : Haz. to present.
Tortuous, long-winded verbosities. CARLYLE, II., p. 82.
Tortured (II.) : J. War., Gosse.
Tortured, fantastical, rhetorical. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., III.,
p. 77.
Touching (XVII.) b: Blair to present.
Sweet and touching. JEFFREY, II., p. 464.
Tough: B. Jonson's tough diction. WHIFFLE, Es. & Rev., II.,
p. 33.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 299
TRAGIC (XVII.) 6: K. James to present.
I. As a purely classifying term, tragedy gradually
became widely distinguished from comedy, giving rise
to an intermediate form of the drama between them,
tragi-comedy. (See " Comedy.") As thus employed,
the tragic had no immediate critical significance.
Tragedy represents men better than they are, comedy worse.
ARISTOTLE, Rhet, p. 9.
II. Recently, the word has come somewhat into use
as an active critical term, representing that which is
both striking and strongly pathetic, which, by arousing
the imagination and sympathies of the reader, reveals
the profundity and sublimity of human character.
Dante . . . did not understand by the tragic style what we under-
stand by it, but merely the style of grand and sublime poems,
such as the jEneid. T. ARNOLD, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 498.
Humour . . . united with his tragic and imaginative powers,
makes Shakespeare. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 78.
Trailing (XVIII.): Heavy and trailing. M. ARNOLD, Gel. Lit.,
p. 147.
Transcendental : Low. to present.
In theory, the transcendental is that which can be
represented only indirectly by means of symbols or by
suggestion ; that which completely surpasses adequate
explanation or definition. In actual criticism it is usu-
ally associated with the vague and obscure.
To the transcendentalist . . . the origin and existence of Nature
is greatly simplified; the old hostility of matter is at an end, for
matter is itself annihilated. CARLYLE, II., p. 205.
All poetry must to a great extent be transcendental. WHIPPLE,
Es. & Rev., p. 229.
300 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Transcendental subtlety of " No, Time, tliou sbalt not boast that I
do change," etc. LOWELL, III., p. 61.
The word transcendental may be used in both a definite and a
vague sense ; in a definite sense as opposed to the empirical way
of thinking. . . . The transcendentalist thinker believes that the
mind contributes to its own stores ideas or forms of thought not
derived from experience. DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 47.
Transitory (XL)-' Words., Ros. Wordsworth, II., p. 63.
Translucent (III.): Simple and translucent. STEDMAN, Vic. Poets,
p. 54.
Transparent (III.) : T. War. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St.,
p. 154.
Tremulous : Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 68.
Trenchant (XX.) b : Trenchant concision of style. SWINBURNE,
Mis , p. 319.
Trite (IX.): J. War. to present.
In a court poem all sliould be trite and on an approved model.
HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 141.
Triumphant : Swinburne, Mis., p. 119.
Trivial (XI.) : Dry. to present.
Too trivial and common to excite any emotion whatever. BRYANT,
Prose, I., p. 13.
Tropical (XIX.) 6: In the Religio Medici . . . are many things de-
livered rhetorically, many expressions therein merely tropical.
1635. Sir T. BROWNE, Intr. to Religio Medici.
Trumpet-notes : Swinburne, Mis., p. 147.
Trumpet-tones (X.): Ros. Dowdeu, Shak., etc., p. 81.
TRUTH (VIII.).
Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century the
term " truth " usually represented something external
AS historical ^ ^ ne m i n( ^9 something more or less histori-
cal in its nature. In this general use of the
term, two special meanings are to be distinguished.
Often truth was associated with probability, or was
placed in opposition to fable or fiction. When thus
employed, the term signified that which had actually
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 301
occurred in the past, historical events considered ex-
ternally, rather than as to their moral and psychical
significance.
But now it may be alleged that if this imagining of matters be so
fit for the imagination, then must the historian needs surpass,
who bringeth you images of true matters, such as indeed were
done, and not such as fantastically or falsely may be suggested
to have been done. 1583. SIDNEY, p. 18. (Cook.)
The great art of poets is either the adorning and beautifying of
truth, or the inventing pleasing and probable fictions. DEY-
DEN, XV., p. 408.
For as truth is the bound of historical, so the resemblance of truth
is the utmost limit of poetical liberty. 1650. HOBBES, IV.,
pp. 451, 452.
We can always feel more than we can imagine, and . . . the most
artful fiction must give way to truth. 1753. S. JOHNSON, IV.,
p. 79.
Shakespeare's plots are generally borrowed from novels. . . . The
mind which has feasted on the luxurious wonders of fiction, has
no taste for the insipidity of truth. 1765. ID., V., p. 125.
The portrait . . . has unrivalled force and beauty, with historic
truth. 1820. HAZLITT, Age of EL, p. 129.
Occasionally, however, even to the present, truth has
denoted not something historical, but whatever exists
at any given time, and can be considered as ^ curreilt
an actually ascertained fact. But external fact *
truth as an ascertained fact, and truth as a historical
fact are almost identical with each other. The external
fact, in order to be ascertained, must represent a com-
pleted experience, and has thus become historical.
Hence it is often impossible to distinguish this use of
the term " truth " from the preceding use.
Natural, just, and true. RYMER, 2d Pt., p. 79.
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling iraagi-
302 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
nation to the help of reason. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII.,
p. 125.
I cannot agree that this exactness of detail produces heaviness ; on
the contrary, it gives an appearance of truth. 1819. HAZLITT,
Eng. Cora. Writers, p. 159.
I confess that I do not care to judge any work of the imagination
without first of all applying this test, Is it true? HOWELLS,
Grit. & Fiction, p. 99.
Since the latter portion of the eighteenth century
truth has usually indicated some capacity or power of
AS esthetic ^ e m &- I* 1 the early portion of the pres-
prmcipie. en j. cen t ur y truth very often represented the
intuitive perception of beauty, the aesthetic apprehen-
sion of more essential relations in the ordinary events
of experience than ordinary experience itself affords.
All beauty is truth. SHAFTESBURY, I., pp. 110, 111.
Not historically true, but poetically beautiful. 1756. J. WAR-
TON, I., p. 36.
In those species of poetry that address themselves to the heart,
and would obtain their end, not through the imagination, but
through the passions, there the liberty of transgressing nature
is infinitely restrained; and poetical truth is, under these cir-
cumstances, almost as severe a thing as historical. 1762.
HURD, IV., p. 325.
What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth, whether it
existed before or not. 1817. KEATS, Letters, pp. 41, 42.
To the genuine artist, truth, nature, and beauty are almost differ-
ent names for the same thing. 1817. HAZLITT, Round Table,
p. 106.
(Of Wordsworth.) The force, the originality, the absolute truth
and identity with which he feels some things makes him indif-
ferent to so many others. 1825. ID., Sp. of Age, p. 163.
During the present century truth has also denoted
the ethical principles of conduct, the instincts and ira-
A ti IS TORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 302
pulses which lead to right action. It is usually as-
sumed, and often asserted, that aesthetic truth and
moral truth are fundamentally one and the As moral
same ; that the ethical impulse to do and the v*^ 1 *'
aesthetic impulse to create are, to a certain extent at
least, identical with each other. The tendency to thus
identify aesthetic with moral truth has been more pro-
nounced during the latter portion of the century than
during the earlier portion.
To give to universally received truths a pathos and spirit, which
shall readmit them into the soul like revelations of the moment.
1811. WORDSWORTH, II., p. 63.
Rescues admitted truths from the neglect caused by the very cir-
cumstance of their universal admission. 1825. COLERIDGE, L,
p. 117.
Moral truths which find an echo in our bosoms. 1825. BRYANT,
L, p. 12.
The poetry of Burns . . . has, beyond all that ever was written,
this greatest of all merits, intense, life-pervading, and life-breath-
ing truth. 1841. WILSON, VII., p. 3.
It is astonishing how large a harvest of new truths would be
reaped simply through the accident of a man's feeling, or being
made to feel more deeply than other men. 1845. DE QUINCEY,
XL, p. 315.
Truth to nature can be reached ideally, never historically ; it must
be a study from the life, and not from the scholiasts. 1866.
LOWELL, Prose, II., p. 128.
Your historian with absolutely truthful intention . . . must needs
select, and in selecting assert something of his own humour,
something that comes not of the world without but of a vision
within. 1888. PATER, Ap., p. 5.
All beauty is in the long run only finesse of truth. ID., p. 6.
There is no beauty worthy of the name without truth. J. A.
SYMONDS, Es., Sp., & Sug., p. 104.
Tumid (XIX.) b\ T. War. to present.
Ridiculously tumid. S. JOHNSON, VIII., p. 210.
304 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Tuneful (X.) : Swin. to present. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit., p. 219.
Tuneless (X.) : Swinburne, Mis., p. 224.
Turbid (II.) : Lan. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 65.
Turgid (X.) : S. John, to present.
There is nothing turgid in his dignity. S. JOHNSON, III.,
pp. 83, 84.
Turn: Words, to present.
Dramatic turn of plot. WORDSWORTH, III., p. 303.
Ugly (XXII.) b : Ugliness and coarseness. GOSSE, From Shak., etc.,
p. 178.
Uncertain (III.): S. John, to present. Saintsbury, Es. in Eng. Lit.,
p. 287.
Unconscious (VII.) : Jef. to present.
Composed, calm, unconscious. JEFFREY, I., p. 225.
UNDERSTANDING (XX.).
The word has perhaps never been employed as an
active critical term. It has, however, exercised a con-
siderable schematizing influence over active critical
terms, being considered as an ally, and in a sense as
the source of taste, of proportion, and of external pro-
priety. It has been placed in opposition occasionally
to reason, and always to the imagination. The word
has not been in much favor with the critics during the
present century.
It is rare to meet with a man who has a just taste without a sound
understanding. HUME, I., p. 278.
Whenever the wisdom of our Creator intended that we should be
affected with anything ... he endued it with powers and prop-
erties that prevent the understanding, and even the will ; which,
seizing upon the senses and imagination, captivate the soul be-
fore the understanding is ready either to join with them or to
oppose them. BURKE.
Enthusiasm sublimates the understanding into the imagination.
LOWELL, Lat. Lit. Es., I., p. 196.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 305
Unearthly : Mac., Whip.
Wild, weird, unearthly. WHIFFLE, Am. Lit., p. 87.
Unexpected (IX.) : J. War. to present.
Wit discloses . . . some unexpected resemblance or connection.
HUNT, Wit and Humour, p. 8.
Ungainly (II.) : Mor. Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit., II., p. 155.
Unhewn (II.): Rough and unhewn plots. SWINBURNE, Es. & St.,
p. 283.
Unicity (XIII.) : Saintsbury, Hist. Eng. Lit,, p. 291.
Uniform (II.) : Dry. to present.
There is no uniformity in the design of Spenser. DE.YDEN, XIII.,
p. 17.
The uniformity of cadence may conspire with the lusciousness of
style to produce a sense of satiety in the reader. HALLAM, II.,
p. 196.
The needful qualities for a fit prose are regularity, uniformity, pre-
cision, balance. M. ARNOLD, Cr. Es., 2d S., p. 39.
Unique (IX.) : Jef. to present.
Swift is unique and inimitable. JEFFREY, I., p. 168.
UNITY (XIII.).
Previous to the present century the term "unity"
was employed in criticism chiefly to denote certain
formal rules and methods of plot construe- AS continuity
jtion^ The action represented must be based effect,
upon a single story or fable ; the scene of the action
must not be changed ; and the time included in the
representation must be confined as nearly as possible
to a single day of twenty-four hours. These rules,
however, were always put upon the defensive in Eng-
lish criticism. The best dramatists did not conform
to them. This use of the term had more influence in
theoretical discussion than it had in actual criticism.
Unity : requires emphasis of the general plot. DRYDEN, XIII.,
p. 109.
20
306 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The old Scotch ballad Child Maurice is divine. Aristotle's best
rules are observed in it in a manner that shews the author never
had heard of Aristotle. It begins in the fifth act of the play.
You may read it two thirds through without guessing what it is
about ; and yet when you come to the end, it is impossible not
to understand the whole story. 1758. GRAY, II., p. 316.
The Faery Queen . . . has that sort of unity and simplicity which
results from its nature. 1762. HURD, IV., p. 279.
The unity of action ... is often found in Gothic fables. ID.,
p. 308.
The unity of action : The soul seeks it in all fiction and in all
truth. 1831. WILSON, VIIL, p. 397.
The " Unities " inapplicable to modern subjective literature. ID.,
pp. 402-4.
Occasionally during the latter portion of the eigh-
teenth century, and during jill of the present century,
AS continuity the term "unity" has represented an activity
of thought
and feeling, in the jpind either of the author or of the
reader; if in the mind of the author, the unifying prin-
ciple is the imagination ; if in the mind of the reader,
the unity is one of mental impression, of emotional
effect. But whether referring to the active creation
of literature, or to its more passive appreciation, unity
is never regarded as depending upon Jpj^n^ljregularity:
within the composition itself. Unity represents an
imaginative blending of the different parts of a com-
position with one ^another, a continuity of thought
fegling.
Instead of unity of action, I much prefer the words homogeneity,
proportionateness, and totality of interest. 1810. COLERIDGE,
IV., p. 110.
Lamb . . . had more sympathy with imagination where it gathers
into the intense focus of passionate phrase, than with that higher
form of it where it is the faculty that shapes, gives unity of de-
sign, and balanced gravitation of parts. 1868. LOWELL, III., p. 30.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 307
In these later plays, unity is present through the virtue of one liv-
ing force, which animates the whole. The unity is not merely
structural but vital. DOWDEN, Shak., p. 60.
That a play should impress itself upon our minds as a unity is only
another way of saying that it is a work of art : it is a different
thing when this impression of unity seems to be analy sable,
and can be wholly or partially formulated in words. 1885.
MOULTON, Shak. as a Dramatic Artist, p. 276.
Just there in that vivid single impression left on the mind when all
js over^ not in any mechanical limitation of time and place, is the
secret of the " unities " the true imaginative unity of the
drama. 1889. PATER, Ap., p. 212. ~"
Unshackled: Free and unshackled movement. SAINTSBURY, Hist.
Eng. Lit., p. 301.
Unwieldy (XVIII.) : J. Wil. to present.
Clumsy and unwieldy. WILSON, VI., p. 123.
Upright: Swinburne.
Manful, straightforward, and upright. SWINBURNE, A St. of B. J.,
p. 107.
Urbanity (V.) : Dry. to present.
Urbanity ... a style of speaking which exhibits in the choice of
words, in tone, and in manner, a certain taste of the city, and a
tincture of erudition derived from conversation with the learned ;
something, in a word, of which rusticity is the reverse. QUIN-
TILIAN, VI., p. 433.
His urbanity, that is, his good manners, are to be commended.
DRYDEN, XIII., p. 88.
Dr. Newman's works are stamped throughout with a literary qual-
ity very rare in this country, urbanity . . . the tone of the city,
of the centre, the tone which always aims at a spiritual and in-
tellectual effect, and not excluding the use of banter, never dis-
joins banter itself from politeness, from felicity. M. ARNOLD,
Or. Es., 1st S., pp. 60, 67.
Vacuity : Hal., Swin. Swinburne, Chapman, p. 92.
Vague (III.) : Words, to present.
Vague, wordy. GOSSE, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 8.
Vain (XIV.): A vain and verbose eloquence. SWINBURNE, Es. &
St., p. 270.
308 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Vapid (XII.) : Mor., Gosse.
Full of vapid conceits. GOSSE, Life of Congreve, pp. 64, 65.
Vaporous: Shelley's poetry is often vaporous and unreal. DOWDEN,
Tr. & St., p. 102.
VARIETY (IX.).
The term "variety" was much used by the critics
previous to the present century. Variety was usually
AS methodic re g ai *ded as forming no real contradiction to
irregularity. or( j er an( | regularity ill literature. It rep-
resented, so to speak, a regulated method of apparently
violating regularity, a means of avoiding complete uni-
formity and monotony. Nature was usually employed
to illustrate the relations between variety and regularity,
but nothing could be more methodic and orderly than
nature as it was conceived of during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. There is found mentioned
variety of language, of versification, of illustration, of
figures of speech, of images, of sentiments, and of plot
construction ; but whether referring to any part of the
composition, or whether referring to it as a whole,
.variety, it was usually asserted or assumed, was en-
closed and controlled by an encompassing regularity.
The order of the spheres . . . variety of the seasons. 1579.
GOSSON (Arher), p. 26.
The recreations of his youth were poetry, in which he was so happy,
as if nature and all her varieties had been made only to exercise
his sharp wit and high fancy. 1640. WALTON, Lives, p. 53.
Stany hurst . . . revived by his ragged quill such carterly variety :
Then did he make heaven's vault to rebound,
With rouuce robble bobble,
Of ruffe raffe roaring,
With thick thwack thurly bouncing.
1590. NASH, Lit. Cen., II., p. 241.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 309
Variety, as it is too often managed, is too often subject to breed
distraction. 1679. DRYDEN, VI., pp. 133, 134.
The genius of the English cannot bear too regular a play ; we are
given to variety. 1690. ID., VII., p. 313.
In the end of the sentence, chiefest regard is to be had ; because
the fall of the sentence is most marked, and therefore, lest it fall
out to be harsh and unpleasant both to the mind and ear, there
must be most variety and change. . . . Now this change must
not be above six syllables from the end, and that must be set
down in feet of two syllables. HOBBES, VI., p. 520.
Triplets and Alexandrines, inserted by caprice, are interruptions of
that constancy to which science aspires. And though the va-
riety which they produce may very justly be desired, yet, to
make our poetry exact, there ought to be some stated mode of
admitting them. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 347.
Occasionally, however, variety referred not so much
^ a ^Gi^liliX^^ as ^ a tfindeucy of
the mind. When thus employed, variety As irre(ru _
represented the overflow of native mental larity *
power and energy in literary composition, the asser-
tion of the instinctive sense of form and method as
against the rules and methods already established.
This tendency toward change was sometimes charac-
terized as "Gothic conceit," sometimes as "the exu-
berance of genius;" but so long as this change was
expressed chiefly by means of the term "variety," it
was not regarded with much favor in criticism.
And seek for that variety in his own ideas which the objects of
sense cannot afford him. 1750. S. JOHNSON, II., p. 30.
There is nothing more prejudicial to the grandeur of buildings than
to abound in angles; a fault obvious in many; and owing to an
inordinate thirst for variety, which, whenever it prevails, is sure
to leave very little true taste. 1756. BURKE, I., p. 103.
Shakespeare, to enrich his scene with that variety which his exu-
berant genius so largely supplied. 1749. HURD, I., p. 69.
310 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The great source of pleasure is variety. Uniformity must tire at
last though it be uniformity of excellence. We love to expect ;
and when expectation is disappointed or gratified, we want to be
again expecting. 1781. S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 151.
Varnished (V.) : Whip, to present.
Rhetorical varnish. WHIFFLE, Es. & Rev., II., p. 76.
Vast (XI.) : Haz. to present.
The thoughts are vast and irregular. HAZLITT, Age of El., p. 44.
Vaulting (XVIIL): Dowden.
Vehemence (XII.) : T. Wil. to present.
Vehemence of words full often helps the matter forward. T. WIL-
SON, Rhet., p. 140.
The affection arousing the mind excites a large stock of spirit and
vehemence. HUME, I., p. 262.
More vehemence than truth, more heat than light. M. ARNOLD,
Cr. Es., 1st S., p. 270.
Veracity (VIII.) : Emerson to present.
Veracity, the truthfulness to fact. DOWDEN, St. in Lit., p. 277.
Verbiage (XIX.) b \ Poe to present.
Prolixity and verbiage. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 146.
Verbose (XIX.) b : Put. to present.
Long-winded verbosities. CARLYLE, II., p. 82.
Verisimilitude (VIII.) : Scott to present. (See Truth.)
Swift possessed the art of verisimilitude. 1814. SCOTT, Life of
Swift, p. 457.
Verisimilitude or interest. JEFFREY, I., p. 211.
Historical verisimilitude. DOWDEN, Shak., etc., p. 262.
Vernacular (I.): Haz. to present.
Spenser ... a deliberate estrangement from the vernacular, which
is of itself a fault. SATNTSBURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 93.
Versatile : Jef. to present.
Spontaneous versatility of genius. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 32.
Verve (XII.) : Dry. to present.
Verve, as the French call it. DRYDEN, XIV., p. 206.
Natural verve and imagination. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit.,
p. 212.
Much descriptive verve. GOSSE, Seventeenth Cent. St.
Vicious (XIV.) : Words, to present.
Flaccid, crude, and vicious. Gosse, From Shak., etc., p. 218.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. oil
VIGOUR (XII.).
The term "vigour" has been frequently employed
throughout all English criticism, yet there are no defi-
nitely marked periods in its history. As AS effective-
ness of
applying to the language of a composition, language.
vigour requires that it be simple and offer no difficul-
ties to the ready comprehension of the thought, and
that the sound, " tone colour," and nature of the words
chosen be such as to be suggestive of movement and
power.
The French set up purity for the standard of their language ; a
masculine vigour is that of ours. 1696. DRYDEN, XIV.,
p. 209.
This vault of air, this congregated ball,
Self-centred sun and stars, that rise and fall.
This is vigorous. 1756. J. WARTON, II., p. 327.
Simplicity, ease, and vigour. MACAULAY, IV., p. 80.
Simple, vigorous, clear. LANDOR, III., p. 441.
As applying to the thought of a composition, vigour
represents a strength of conception and vividness of
portrayal which is the result of moral sin- As po wer of
cerity, of enthusiasm, of imagination, of pas-
sion, of some mental power other than mere intellect.
The songs of Comus are vigorous and full of imagery. 1781.
S. JOHNSON, VII., p. 124.
The following quatrain is vigorous and animated :
The ghosts of traitors from the bridge descend,
With bold fanatic spectres to rejoice, etc.
ID., p. 321.
Vigour and originality. COLERIDGE, III., p. 589.
Fertility and vigour. ID., IV., p. 190.
There was no freshness and no variety, and in the absence of va-
riety and freshness that of vigour was necessarily implied. 1882.
SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 33,
312 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Vigour reveals the tragedy of life. To one who exists languidly
from day to day . . . the cross and passion of any human heart
cannot be intelligible. . . . The heart must be all alive and sen-
sitive before the imagination can conceive. DOWDEN, Shak.,
pp. 25, 26.
Vile (XIV.) : Vile in taste. SWINBURNE, Mis., p. 92.
Violent (XII.) : Pope to present. Pope, VII., p. 401.
Virile (XII.) : Sted. to present.
Virile barytone quality. STEDMAN, Vic. Poets, p. 111.
Visionary (VIII.) : Haz. to present. Hazlitt, El. Lit., p. 119.
Vital (VII.) : Low. to present. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 126.
Vivacious (XII.) : S. John, to present.
Vivid (III.) : Blair to present.
Spenser's descriptions are exceedingly vivid . . . not picturesque
. . . but composed of a wondrous series of images, as in our
dreams. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 249.
Vociferous: Stilted but not vociferous. GOSSE, From Shak., etc.,
p. 86.
Volatile (XVIII.) : Lan., Gosse.
Volatile and sparkling. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 67.
Volcanic : Volcanic style. SAINTSBURY, Hist. Fr. Lit., p. 575.
Voluble (XIX.) b ; Campion to present.
Volubility and levity. S. JOHNSON, II., p. 447.
Volume (XIII.) b : Howells to present. M. Arnold, Gel. Lit., p.
292.
Voluptuous (XIV.): Camp, to present.
A voluptuous sense of the continuous. HUNT, Im. & Fancy,
p. 37.
VULGAR (V.): Har. to present.
I. A lack of refinement, delicacy, and purity in the
use of language, and in the expression of thought and
emotion.
Gallicism or vulgarity. HALLAM, III., p. 374.
The vulgarity which is dead to form. PATER, Ap., p. 264.
II. Obscenity ; an utter want of purity in the ex-
pression of feeling and emotion.
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 313
It is not fastidiousness, but manliness and good feeling, which are
outraged by such vulgarities. DE QUINCEY, XL, p. 340.
Vulgarism (I.) : Gold, to present. Landor, IV., p. 62.
Wandering (XVIII.) : Jef. to present.
Interminable wanderings. JEFFREY, II., p. 373.
Wanton: Webbe, Add. to present.
Ovid in his most wanton books of love. WEBBE, p. 44.
There is a wantonness of diablerie in this incident. DOWDEN,
Shak., etc., p. 186.
Warmth (XVIII.) : Dry. to present.
Warmth of circumstance. BAGEHOT, I., p. 120.
Waspish (XIV.): Waspish sentiments. GOSSE, Life of Congreve,
p. 28.
Wasteful : Jeffrey, II., p. 456.
Weak (XII.) : Ascham to present.
The abuse of strength is harshness and heaviness ; the reverse of
it is weakness. HUNT, Im. & Eancy, p. 34.
Weighty (XL) : T. Wil. to present.
Milton condenses weight into heaviness. HUNT, Im. & Fancy,
p. 47.
Weird: Poe to present. Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 48.
Well-considered (XIX.) 6: Gosse, Seventeenth Cent. St., p. 279.
Well-languaged : Well-languaged Daniel. WHIPPLE, El. Lit., p. 362.
Well-sounding (X.) : Sidney, p. 47.
Whimsical (XIX.) : Camp, to present. Gosse, Hist. Eng. Lit., III.,
p. 27. .
Wholesome (XIV.) : Lamb to present. Lowell, III., p. 270.
Width (XIII.) b: Swin., Saints. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 161.
Wild (XIX.) : Dry. to present. J. Warton. I., p. 8.
Wilful (XIX.) : Jef. to present. Rossetti, Lives, p. 361.
Wire-drawn: Lengthy and wire-drawn. GOSSE, Hist. Eng. Lit.,
III., p. 250.
Wise (XX.) a: Sted. Swinburne, Es. & St., p. 19.
WIT (XXIIL).
Previous to the present century four general shades
of meaning may be distinguished in the use of the
term " wit." Wit, as indicating the general As j^^^
knowing power of the mind, did not come Ofthou8:llt '
314 ^1 HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
into use as a critical term. But__wit, as representing
that portion of the knowing power which results in
propriety of QQinposition, is a common use of the term
until the latter portion of the eighteenth century. Wit
represented a sort of instinctive judgment which was
wholly controlled by the sense of propriety and culti-
vated taste.
Wit is a propriety of thoughts and words; or in other terms
thoughts and words elegantly adapted to the subject. 1674.
DRYDEN, V., p. 124.
True wit may be defined as a justness of thought and a facility of
expression. 1704. POPE, VI., p. 16.
In the better notion of wit considered as propriety, surely method
is necessary for perspicuity and harmony of parts. 1707. ID.,
p. 34.
Wit seems to be one of those undetermined sounds to which we
affix scarce any precise idea. It is something more than judg-
ment, genius, taste, talent, penetration, grace, delicacy, and yet
it partakes somewhat of each. It may be properly defined in-
genious reason. 1759. GOLDSMITH, II., p. 356.
Wit, that which is at once natural and new, that which not
obvious, is upon its first production acknowledged to be just.
1781. S. JOHNSON, VII, p. 15.
It is apparent that wit has two meanings ; and that what is wanted,
though called wit, is, truly, judgment 1781. ID., VIII.,
p. 241.
Until the latter portion of the eighteenth century
the term "wit" was often employed as a more or less
AS fane and com P^ e te synonym for the imagination, as
imagination. ^ imagination was then understood. Wit
was the fundamental detection of resemblances, and
the consequent power of making new combinations of
thoughts and images. It was regarded as a mental
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 315
process rather than as a literary product. It was al-
ways native, often wayward, but when inspired with
a purpose indicative of great power.
The poet . . . lifted up with the vigor of his own invention doth
grow in effect into another nature . . . freely ranging within
the zodiac of his own wit. 1583. SIDNEY, p. 7.
Wit is the faculty of imagination in the writer. 1666. DRYDEN,
IX., pp. 95, 96.
Jonson is the more correct poet, bnt Shakespeare is the greater
wit. 1668. ID., XV., p. 347.
Wit lies most in the assemblage of ideas, and putting those to-
gether with quickness and variety. (Quoted from Locke.)
1710. ADDISON, II, p. 357.
Wit and passion are entirely incompatible. When the affections
are moved, there is no place for the imagination. 1742. HUME,
I., p. 242.
No man can say Shakespeare ever had a fit subject for his wit, and
did not then raise himself high above the rest of poets. 1765.
S.JOHNSON, V., p. 153.
It is no more to be required that wit should always be blazing than
that the sun should always stand at noon. . . . Milton, when he
has expatiated in the sky, may be allowed sometimes to revisit
earth. 1781. ID., VII., p. 138.
During the eighteenth century the imagination in
literature was chiefly confined to the production of or-
naments and conceits. Wit, likewise, came AS an
_ . ornamented
to be regarded, at its worst, as something conceit,
which falsified truth and violated simplicity for the
sake of glitter and polish : at its best it was a play of
fancy, which softened the rigid outlines of historical
fact.
Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty. . . . There is a
certain majesty in simplicity, which is far above all the quaint-
ness of wit. 1706. POPE, VI., p. 51.
316 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Some to conceit alone their taste confine,
And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at every 'line ;
Pleased with a work where nothing 's just or fit,
One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit.
1711. ID., II., p. 50.
The mind, in perusing a work overstocked with wit, is fatigued
and disgusted with the constant endeavor to shine and surprise.
1742. HUME, I., p. 241.
Wit should be used with caution in works of dignity, as it is only
at best an ornament. 1759. GOLDSMITH, II., p. 357.
The fourth use of the term " wit " is the one which,
with some slight variation, has continued throughout
AS the the P resen t century. Wit was distinguished
comical. from the judging power of the mind even in
the beginning of English criticism. Wit furnished the
materials for judgment; it was more instinctive; it
was " sharpness of conceit " or of fancy, which always
produced some combination of ideas or images more
or less surprising to the judgment. When the surprise
was very great, and the combination was seen at once
to be merely the work of fancy, a sense of the comical
was produced, which was called wit or humor. Hence
wit, when denoting the comical, includes not only the
primary activity of wit in revealing unexpected analo-
gies and contrasts, but also the immediate reaction of
the judgment against the momentary surprise and de-
ception, occasioned by the apparent analogies and
contrasts.
His wit shall be new set on work ; his judgment for right choice
truly tried. ASCHAM, III., p. 169.
Wit and acuteness of fancy. 1668. DIIYDEN, XV., p. 351.
Wit in the stricter sense, that is, sharpness of conceit. . . . Jon-
A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS. 317
son_ was not free from the lowest and most grovelling kind of
wik which we call clenches. 1670. ID., IV., p. 237.
If wit be pleasantry, Ovid has it to excess. 1693. ID., XII.,
p. 62.
There is in Othello some burlesque, some humour and ramble of
comical wit. HYMER, 3d Pt, p. 146.
We have seen in our time the decline and ruin of a false sort of
wit. . . . All humour had something of the quibble. SHAETES-
BURY, I., p. 48.
During the present century wit has been more closely
defined both in its own nature and in its ethical rela-
tions. Wit, as such, has uniformly been Astheimsym . q
considered as a spontaneous, and chiefly, if ^h^incon-
no t wholly, intellectual process. When wit 8
as such is merely used in the interest of some ethical
purpose, it becomes .satire. When the unexpected con-
trast or similarity surprises, and is reacted against, not
so much by a fixed habit of judgment derived from the
past, as by ideals which are projected into the future,
then wit passes over into humor.
Wit consists in presenting thoughts or images in an unusual con-
nection with each other for the purpose of exciting pleasure by
the surprise. This connection may be real ; and there is in fact
a scientific wit. . . . But usually the connection is only apparent
and transitory, and may be by thoughts (Butler), by words
(Voltaire), by images (Shakespeare) ; the latter usually called
fancy. 1810. COLERIDGE, IV., p. 75.
In such periods as that of Charles II., wit succeeds to humour;
we laugh from self-complacency and triumph, instead of pleasure.
1821. SHELLEY, VII., p. 117.
Whilst wit is a purely intellectual thing, into every act of the hu-
morous mood there is an influx of the moral nature. 1821. DE
QUINCEY, XI., p. 270.
Home Tooke . . . was a wit, and a formidable one : yet it may
818 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
be questioned whether his wit was anything more than an excess
of his logical faculty : it did not consist in the play of fancy, but
in close and cutting combinations of the understanding. 1825.
HAZLITT, Sp. of Age, p. 80.
Humour is wit appertaining to character, and indulges in breadth
of drollery rather than in play and brilliancy of point. 1826.
LANDOR, IV., pp. 270, 271.
Voltaire's wit ranks essentially among the lowest species even of
ridicule. It is at all times mere logical pleasantry ; a gaiety of
the head, not of the heart ; there is scarcely a twinkle of humour
in. the whole of his numberless sallies. 1829. CARLYLE, II.,
p. 167.
The living spirit of wit, its poetic and imaginative power . . .
never had a medium of expression comparable to the verse of
Byron. 1869. SWINBURNE, Es. & St., p. 306.
The proper antithesis to humour is satire ; wit is commoii to both.
1872. MINTO, Man. of Eng. Lit., p. 23.
Milton has flashes of wit, though not many ; his indignation of
itself sometimes makes him really sarcastic. But humorous he
is never. SAINTS BURY, Hist. Eng. Lit., p. 324.
Witticism (XVII.) : Dry. to present.
I have heard, says a critic, of anchovies dissolved in sauce ; but
never of an angel in hallelujahs. A mighty witticism (if you will
pardon a new word). DRYDEN, V., p. 122.
Wooden (VII.) : Conventional and wooden. SAINTSBURY, Es. in
Eng. Lit., p. 347.
Wordy (XIX.) bi Jef. to present. Jeffrey, II., p. 404.
Yonkerly : Your Latin farewell is a goodly, brave, yonkerly piece of
work. HARVEY, Letters, p. 24.
Youthfulness : Saintsbury, Hist. Fr. Lit,, p. 208.
Zest (XV.) : Stedman, Vic. Poets, p. 111.
APPENDIX.
1
THE HISTORICAL GROUPING OF THE TERMS.
TT will be recognized by even the most casual student
of the history of criticism that certain general features
of literary composition have at some times been empha-
sized more than at other times. Thus, speaking broadly,
during the first century of English criticism the attention
of the critics was occupied Chiefly with the language and
mechanical construction of literary composition, and also
with a . vague aesthetic sense of proportion and decorum ;
during the next century, with the thought or sentiment
of literature, and also with a conservative aesthetic sense
of fitness or propriety^; then, for nearly a century, with
the imagery of__a_composition, and also with a vigorous
aesthetic sensibility and passion ; and finally, for more
than half a century, -with the jeality of a composition,
its correspondence to actual life, and also with a refined
aesthetic an d_ artis tic sen sibil ity. an d f e el i n g.
These conceptions or principles of literature and criti-
cism, and such as these, as they have risen into promi-
nence, have exerted an organizing influence over the entire
critical vocabulary. Any critical term or principle which
occupies for any length of time the foreground of atten-
tion compels other critical terms or principles to come
320 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
into some sort of relation to it. By methods explained
in the Introduction, by synonymous use, by contrast and
by inclusion, critical terms thus historically organize them-
selves. E. g. :
Superseding Shakespeare's wild beauties and Milton's rugged-ness by
establishing the reign of classic elegance, polish, and correctness.
(Quoted from "Extract Book.") T. ARNOLD, Man. of El. Lit.,
p. 306.
The following lists are intended to gather up the results
of this historical grouping of terms, a grouping which
was controlled more or less by the immediate feeling for
some concrete portion of literature rather than by an ab-
stract theory of how the terms ought to be grouped. The
lists are the result of much painstaking comparison as to
the actual use of critical terms. The organizing concep-
tion for most of the groups is very evident in criticism.
For historical reasons, however, many groups have been
divided which could otherwise have been classified together.
It has also been impossible to classify with any degree
of accuracy many sporadic and figurative terms, whose
critical significance has not as yet been definitely deter-
mined by their actual application to literature.
The first column of each list is composed of positive
terms, those which represent some positive literary qual-
ity or characteristic ; the second and third columns are
composed of negative terms, those which deny the pres-
ence of the positive literary quality or characteristic.
Some positive terms may have two negatives, one of
"deficiency" and one of "excess." The terms denoting
a deficiency of some literary quality are placed in the
second column, those denoting an excess in the third
column. The negative terms are usually to be consid-
APPENDIX
321
ered, not so much as the direct opposite to any one pos-
itive term, as to the general conception represented by
all the positive terms.
I. PURITY. CORRECTNESS. GRAMMATICAL.
Positive. Deficient. Excess.
Chaste. Archaic. Purism.
Clean. Barbarism.
Correct. Colloquial.
English. Corrupt.
Grammatical. Gallic.
Idiomatic. Germanisms.
Marble-pure. Hebraism.
Mot-propre. Ink-horn.
Pure. Latinism.
Vernacular. Licentious.
Obsolete.
Provincial.
Slangy.
- Solecism.
Vulgarism.
Roger Ascham's " Scholemaster," written in 1557, was
an innovation in more ways than one. It marks the be-
ginning in England QL_pedagogical_ discussion, of a schol-
arly prose literature, and of criticism. The criticism which
it contains is incidental to the pedagogical discussion of
certain Latin authors, who are recommended for study.
The prose style in which it is written gives constant evi-
dence of the Latin influence ; the separate words only are
English ; the Latin order and idiom are paramount. In
fact, more than half a century after the publication of
Ascham's "Scholemaster," Bacon, utterly distrusting the
native tongue as a means of scholarly expression, wrote
his Novum Organum in Latin. This overpowering influ-
21
322 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
ence of Latin scholarship in composition gradually gave
way to the English idiorn. But the process was a slow
one. The native idiom was crude and unrefined, and the
improvement of the language of literary composition was
perhaps the most fundamental problem with which Eng-
lish criticism had to deal during the first century of its
development.
II. ORDER. PROPORTION. REGULARITY.
Positive.
Antithetical.
Balanced.
Consecutive.
Equal.
Even.
Form.
Methodic.
Order.
Periodic.
Poised.
Proportion.
Regular.
Symmetry.
Systematic.
Deficient.
Amorphous.
Intricate.
Arabesque.
Invertebrate.
Blundering.
Involved.
Changeful.
Jagged.
Chaotic.
Motley.
Clumsy.
Perplexed.
Complicated.
Rough.
Confused.
Rough-hewii.
Contorted.
Roundabout.
Convolution.
Scabrous.
Crabbed.
Shapeless.
Crooked.
Sinuous.
Cumbrous.
Spasmodic.
Distorted.
Straggling.
Eccentric.
Tortuous.
Erratic.
Tortured.
Fantastic.
Turbid.
Fitful.
Ungainly.
Inchoate.
Unhewn.
Insouciance.
Excess.
Mannered.
Monotony.
Sameness.
Sing-song.
Uniformity.
This list of terms refers to the methodic ^arrangement )
** \ _ " '
of the parts of a literary production, of the sounds,
syllables, words, phrases, sentences, and occasionally
of the plot or fable, this methodic arrangement to
APPENDIX
323
take place perhaps to a certain extent in accordance
with the native sense of harmony in the mind, but more
usually in accordance with certain given rules of compo-
sition. Incidentally, the terms may indicate a sufficient
logical arrangement of the argument or thought to avoid
confusion or contradiction. Method in composition grew
very largely out of the attempt to purify the language,
and to elevate it by analogy with Greek and Roman lit-
erature ; and hence most of the terms of the present list
were in great favor during the first two centuries of
English criticism.
III. PERSPICUITY. CLEARNESS. SIMPLICITY.
Positive.
Deficient.
Clarity.
Pellucid.
Clear.
Perspicacity.
Clear-cut.
Perspicuous.
Definable.
Photographic.
Definite.
Pictorial.
Distinct.
Plain.
Exact.
Precision.
Explicit.
Simple.
Graphic.
Tangible.
Intelligible.
Translucent.
Lucid.
Transparent.
Luminous.
Vivid.
Obvious.
Abstruse. Inexplicable.
Ambiguous. Misty.
Cloudy. Mystical.
Complex.
Covert.
Dark.
Difficult.
Dim.
Hard.
Indefinable.
Obscure.
Opaque.
Puzzling.
Turbid.
Uncertain.
Vague.
The terms of this list represent the general require-
ment that the language of a composition shall be so
arranged that the reader may most readily and vividly
comprehend the thought expressed. The terms designate
a general result, which is produced by a complex multi-
plicity of means, and the history of the different terms
is to be traced by indicating the general change which
324 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
has taken place in the means by which this general re-
sult is thought to be best brought about. For this ready
comprehension of the thought, the early English critics
laid chief stress upon the choice of words and the gram-
matical construction of sentences. From about the middle
of the seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth
century, the logical arrangement of the sentences was con-
sidered as the chief means for attaining this ready com-
prehension of the thought. During the latter half of the
eighteenth and the early portion of the present century,
the chief emphasis was laid upon the distinctness and viv-
idness of the mental imagery employed. But during the
greater portion of the present century it has been very
frequently recognized that the thought can be readily
comprehended only in so far as it is truthful to the facts
represented, as it corresponds to reality. Most of the
terms of the list given above have been very perceptibly
affected by this general change of view as to the method
by which the thought could be most efficiently expressed
in language.
IV. PROPRIETY.
Positive
Deficient.
Excess.
Adaptation.
Fitness.
Anachronism.
Ceremonious.
Appropriate.
Happy.
Ancient.
Conventional.
Apt.
Keeping (in).
Antiquated.
Fastidious.
Becoming.
Meetely.
Barbarous.
Formality.
Choice.
Modern.
Effete.
Prudery.
Chosen.
Proper.
Far-fetched.
Prim.
Concinnity.
Propriety.
Ill-placed.
Mannerism.
Congruous.
Pertinent.
Incongruous.
Over-castigated.
Consentaneity.
Seasonable.
License.
Over-mannered.
Decent.
Seemly.
Pseudo-antique.
Decorum.
Suitable.
Unseemly.
Fashionable.
Well-chosen.
Felicity.
''
APPENDIX.
325
The general conception of this list of terms is the
jiarmomous adaptation of the various characteristics of a
(composition to one_ another, of the subject chosen,
the language employed, the figures of speech, the senti-
ments, the characters, especially their moral deportment t \
-all these to be in conformity with the nature of thft
audience addressed, and with the personal character of the
author himself. In tracing the history of the different
terms of the lis, the chief interest arises from the change
which has taken place in the means by which the fitness
or adaptation of the different parts of a composition is
determined; a secondary interest arises from the varia-
tion as regards the part of the composition to which the
term especially refers. The terms were in greatest use
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
V. ORNAMENT. ELEGANCE. COLOR.
Positive. Deficient. Excess.
(a.) Adorned.
Jaunty.
Bare.
Aniline.
Artifice.
Lambent.
Base.
Arabesque.
Bright.
Many-colored.
Blunt.
Dazzling.
Brilliant.
Monumental.
Coarse.
Elaborate.
Brocaded.
Neat.
Crude.
Embroidery.
Chiselled.
Nicety.
Dead-colored.
Finery.
Color.
Nobby.
Gross.
Finical.
Costly.
Ornament.
Homely.
Flamboyant.
Courteous.
Ornate.
Horse-play.
Flashy.
Courtly.
Point
Mean.
Floribund.
Decorative.
Polished.
Pale.
Florid.
Elegance.
Polite.
Pallid.
Flowery.
Embellished.
Quality.
Rude.
Frippery.
Figured.
Refinement.
Rugged.
Gaudy.
Finish.
Shining.
Rustic.
Glaring.
Gentleman-like.
Splendor.
Sombre.
Gorgeous.
Gentlemanly.
Urbanity.
Vulgar.
High-colored.
Glider.
Varnished.
Meretricious.
Glossy.
Over-jewelled.
326 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Positive. Deficient. Excess.
(b.) Skill, etc. Over-shining.
Ability. Execution. Abortive. Painted.
Accomplished. Expert. Parade.
Adroit. Skill. Plebeian.
Alacrity. Smart. Pretty.
Artful. Subtle. Showy.
Capacity. Tact. Sumptuous.
Clever. Talent. Tawdry.
Cunning. Technique. Tinsel.
Dextrous.
The terms of this list indicate in general such a selection
of facts and such a method of expressing them as shall give
evidence of brilliant fancy and cultured feeling. The facts
selected must be capable of entering, as it were, into good
society ; they must not offend by their crudeness ; they must
conform to good usage. The language must be slightly
heightened above what is necessary for a plain statement of
the facts, but still it must not be heightened so much as to
become "extravagant," "florid," or "rhetorical." The posi-
tive and active use of these terms in English criticism is
confined chiefly to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
VI. ANCIENT TECHNICAL TERMS.
Character. Ethos.
Elocution. Manners.
Sentiment.
Many of the technical terms of the ancient critical vo-
cabulary became active naturalized expressions in Eng-
lish criticism. A few terms, however, occurring usually
in dramatic criticism, failed to assimilate, so to speak,
with the vocabulary of English criticism. They have
scarcely ever been employed as active critical terms, nor
do they exercise much schematizing influence upon other
terms. Still they have helped to shape the general lines
APPENDIX.
327
of discussion in English criticism, even to the present
time, and a brief account of the changes of meaning which
have taken place in the use of these words is imperative.
VII.
NATURE. NATURAL. SINCERE.
Positive.
Deficient.
Artless.
Naivete.
Affected.
Falsetto.
Effortless.
Genuine.
Native.
Natural.
Artificial.
Bastard.
Far-sought.
Forced.
Home-bred.
Nature.
Bookish.
Labored.
Home-spun.
Honest.
Organic.
Sincere.
Cant.
Conceited.
Literary.
Mechanical.
Ingenuous.
Instinctive.
Living.
Naive.
Spontaneous.
Unconscious.
Vital.
Conscious.
Dilettantesque.
Dissembled.
Excrementitious.
Morbid.
Pedantic.
Stilted.
Studied.
Exotic.
Wooden.
Factitious.
Whatever is not consciously elaborated is included in
a more or less vague manner by the general conception
of this list of terms. They represent the "twilight of
the mind/ 7 the " fringe " of conscious life, that which seems
to be given to man, to come unsought from without and
from within. Hence these terms indicate, on the one hand,
the most simple and primary native powers of the mind
brought into play in the production of literature ; on the
other hand, they denote accuracy to the most simple and
primary apprehension of external facts.
VIII. PROBABILITY. TRUTH. REALITY.
Positive.
Deficient.
(a.) Accurate.
Actual.
Authentic.
Exact.
Faithful.
Fidelity.
Historic.
Inevitable.
Life-like.
Plausible.
Possibility.
Probability.
Caricature.
Deceit.
Delusive.
Discutable.
False.
Fictitious.
Figurative.
Heightened.
Exaggerated. Histrionic.
Excessive. Hyperbolical.
328 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Positive.
Deficient.
Real.
Truth-like.
Hypocrisy.
Questionable.
Realism.
Undeniable.
Incredible.
Spurious.
Reality.
Veracity.
Mendacious.
Visionary.
Sure.
Verisimilitude.
Metaphorical.
Truth.
Paradoxical.
(b.) Circumstantial.
Abstract.
Concrete.
Generality.
Detailed.
Minute.
Particular.
The terms of this list denote whatever in actual life can
be accepted ^as fact, whatever can be most depended upon,
and is most permanent in the interests of any individual
or of any number of individuals. "Fact" in criticism
consists in whatever is considered as most essential for
literary representation. Before the present century, when
the dominant type of literature was the epic, fact was
thought to be attained by accuracy to historical events.
In the present century, when poetry is chiefly lyrical,
fact is supposed to be represented by the thoughts and
feelings with which lyrical poetry deals.
IX. VARIETY. NOVELTY. GOTHIC. ROMANTIC.
Positive.
Deficient. Excess.
Bizarre.
Relief.
Common. Monstrous.
Curious.
Romantic.
Commonplace.
Distinction.
Singular.
Hackneyed.
Extraordinary.
Startling.
Magazinish.
Fresh.
Strange.
Old-fashioned.
Gothic.
Striking.
Ordinary.
Grotesque.
Sudden.
Stale.
New.
Unexpected.
Trite.
Novelty.
Unique.
Odd.
Variety.
Quaint.
Weird.
Rare.
Wonderful.
APPENDIX.
329
The early critics found it necessary to insist upon reg-
ularity in composition in order to counteract the native
tendency of English writers toward variety and novelty.
This sense of variety, of constant change, of the develop-
ing movement in literature, was strong in the beginning
of English criticism, and it has grown stronger and stronger
until the present time. It is this conception of constant
change and development, viewed as to its most general
manifestation both in the mind and in the composition,
that is represented by the present list of terms.
X. HARMONY. RHYTHMICAL. MUSICAL.
Positive.
Alliteration.
Ambling.
Antiphonal.
Assonant.
Barytone.
Cadence.
Canorous.
Clarion- versed.
Dactylic.
Euphonious.
Mute-like.
Harmony.
Hymnal.
Intonation.
Lilting.
Limpid.
Liquid.
Measured.
Mellifluous.
Melody.
Melting.
Metrical.
Modulation.
Monochordic.
Musical.
Numbers.
Numerous.
Organ-like.
Resonance.
Rhythmical.
Rolling.
Smooth.
Soft.
Sonorous.
Sounding.
Spondaic.
Sweet.
Swelling.
Symphonical.
Trumpet- tone.
Tuneful.
Well-sounding.
Deficient.
Cacophonous.
Clang.
Clangour.
Clashing.
Discord.
Dissonance.
Harsh.
Hurtling.
Jarring.
Jingle.
Jumping.
Rattling.
Rumbling.
Shrill.
Tuneless.
Turgid.
Wheezing.
The terms of this list represent the simple principles
of music which' are made use of in the composition of
SCO A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
literature, the sense of rhythm and of harmony in sound.
Previous to the present century the terms were referred
for explanation chiefly to the composition itself; during
the present century, to the mind of the author or reader.
XII. VIGOUR. ENERGY. FORCE.
Positive.
Deficient.
Excess.
Aggressive.
Abortive.
Audacity.
Ambitious.
Anti climax.
Cut-and-thrust.
Animated.
Childish.
Ebullient.
Bold.
Effeminate.
Ferocious.
Cogent.
Effortless.
Fierce.
Daring.
Emasculate.
Fiery.
Emphatic.
Exhausted.
Furious.
Energy.
Feeble.
Impetuous.
Fearless.
Feminine.
Impulsive.
Fire.
Flaccid.
Intense.
Force.
Flat.
Intrepidity.
Full-blooded.
Inanity.
Rash.
Full-bodied.
Indolence.
Savage.
Hearty.
Infantile.
Stormy.
Life.
Insipid.
Strained.
Lively.
Jejune.
Terrible.
Lusty.
Languid.
Terrific.
Masculine.
Lax.
Tumultuous.
Momentum.
Meagre.
Vehement.
Muscular.
Mincing.
Violent.
Nervous.
Nerveless.
Persistent.
Operoseness.
Positive.
Otiose.
Potent.
Paucity.
Power.
Penury.
Quick.
Platitude.
Racy.
Poor.
Resilient.
Poverty.
Robust.
Puerile.
APPENDIX. 331
Positive. Deficient.
Sedulous.
Senile.
Self-assertive.
Slack.
Sinewy.
Stagnant.
Speed.
Tame.
Spirit.
Torpid.
Stirring.
Vapid .
Strength.
Weak.
Strenuous.
Weary.
Stress.
Verve.
Vigour
Virile.
Vivacious.
The terms of this list were very prominent in English
criticism from about the middle of the eighteenth century
until within the early portion of the present century.
Although the words do not have much history, which
is peculiar to them as critical terms, their constant and
frequent mention would seem to indicate that they must
represent some fundamental artistic impulse or literary
instinct of the mind.
XI. MAJESTY. DIGNITY. SUBLIMITY.
Positive. Deficient.
(a.) August. Heroic. Babyish.
Cyclopean. High. Bathos.
Dense. Immense. Childish.
Dignity. Imperial. Drivelling.
Elevation. Imposing. Ephemeral.
Exalted. Impressive. Evanescent.
Firm. Large. Flippant.
Gigantic. Lofty. Frivolous.
Grand. Magnificent. Fugitive.
Grandeur. Majestic. Little.
332 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
Positive. Deficient.
Massive. Staid. Niaiserie.
Might. Stately. Paltry.
Noble. Steady. Petty.
Oceanic. Stolid. Quibbling.
Ponderous. Sublime. Rubbishy.
Spacious. Vast. Transient.
Stable. Weighty. Transitory.
(b.) Abundance. Copy. Trifling.
Affluent. Exuberance. Trivial.
Ample. Fulness.
Amplitude. Opulent.
Copious. Rich.
There are few English critics who do not make their
sense of power one of the chief means by which to test
the merits of literary work. The subject must be so viv-
idly conceived of by the author, and portrayed so effec-
tively, that it shall seem to the reader to be a moving
portion of real life. Thus, as to the drama, English taste
required, not declamation concerning action, but action
itself; in regard to descriptive poetry, it delights not in
the immediate object so much as in the distant prospect,
suggestive always of movement; and in poetry dealing
with the states of the mind, it demands that the shades
of character portrayed, however subtle they may be, shall
be immediately related to the central interests of human
life and human destiny. Now, energy may be repre-
sented as active at the time, or it may be represented, so
to speak, as resisting itself, as self-contained, as display-
ing a vast capability of power without any immediate
exercise of that power. These divisions of energy, which
in philosophy and physics are known as dynamic and
latent energy, are perhaps enough applicable to criticism
APPENDIX.
333
to justify the classification of the terrns denoting energy
into two separate groups.
XIII. UNITY.
Positive.
Coherence.
Linked.
Compact.
Motive.
Complete.
Solid.
Connected.
Sustained.
Consistency.
Tone.
Continuity.
Unicity.
Fused.
Unity.
Homogeneous.
Body.
Profound.
Breadth.
Range.
Compass.
Reach.
Comprehensive.
Scope.
Depth.
Sweeping.
Expansive.
Thorough.
Extensive.
Volume.
Grasp.
Width.
Deficient.
Abrupt.
Broken.
Diverse.
Eclectic.
Composite.
Digressive.
Disconnected.
Discursive.
Disjointed.
Excursive.
Indigested.
Loose-jointed.
Loose-hung.
Sketchy.
Limited.
Narrow.
Restricted.
The terms of this list are closely related on the one
hand to the general conception of regularity, and on the
other hand to those mental activities by means of which
the unity of a literary production is apprehended and held
in mind during the process of composition. Tn so far as
the terms refer to regularity, they represent literary prin-
ciples or features which are capable of exact definition,
of being reduced to method and rule. In so far as the
terms refer to mental activities, they are not capable of
such exact definition. The general change of meaning in
the terms has been from the standpoint of regularity to
that of the psychical activities.
334 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
XIV. MORAL.
Positive.
Amenity.
Amiable.
Grave.
Grim.
Candor.
Healthful.
Catholic.
Human.
Cheerful.
Innocence.
Congenial.
Conscientious.
Joyous.
Liberal.
Cordial.
Devout.
Disinterested.
Manly.
Melancholy.
Moral.
Earnest.
Pensive.
Ethical.
Plaintive.
Frank.
Sad.
Gay.
Generous.
Serious.
Solemn.
Genial.
Sombre.
Gloomy.
Good-tempered.
Gracious.
Sunny.
Timid.
Tolerant.
Grateful.
Wholesome.
Deficient.
Acerbity.
Immoral.
Acrid.
Indignant.
Acrimony.
Insolence.
Asservity.
Levity.
Bawdry.
Low.
Biting.
Obscene.
Bitter.
Querulous.
Carping.
Rancid.
Caustic.
Rancour.
Corrupt.
Ribald.
Cynical.
Sensual.
Debased.
Servile.
Distrustful.
Sickly.
Egotistic.
Scurrilous.
Far-grasping.
Vain.
Fawning.
Vicious.
Filthy.
Vile.
Foul.
Voluptuous.
Fulsome
Waspish.
Ignoble
There are very few critical terms which do not possess
more or less ethical significance. The present list is com-
posed of those terms the ethical significance of which is
most immediate and direct. Literature, it is universally
agreed, must not be immoral ; but as to the manner in
which it is to conduce to morality, there is no such uni-
versal agreement. Hence the unity of the present list is
to be found in the negative rather than in the positive
terms. It was near the beginning of the present century
that morality and literature were first fundamentally iden-
tified with each other. This fact gives the historical set-
ting for this list of terms.
APPENDIX.
886
XV. PASSION. IMPASSIONED. PEELING
Positive. Deficient. Excess.
Affectionate. Arctic. Adolescent.
Amorous. Austere. Feverish.
Ardent. Cold. Flame.
Ardor. Cold-blooded. Frantic.
Ecstasy. Dry. Frenzy.
Emotion. Frigid. Hectic.
Enthusiastic. Indifferent. Hysterical.
Erotic. Marble-cold. Lachrymose.
Feeling. Neutral. Lascivious.
Fervent. Scholastic. Mawkish.
Fervors. Namby-pamby.
Gusto. Pothery.
Heat. Prurient.
Impassioned. Rabid.
Inspired. Raving.
Passion . Sensational .
Rapture. Sensuous.
Sensibility. Sentimental.
Sympathy.
Warmth.
Zest.
The terms of this list are closely related to those de-
noting strength, morality, and aesthetic feeling. ^Esthetic
ideals continually become moral purposes, and frpm
strength and persistency of impulse to realize these ideals
and purposes there results passion or emotion, as it has
usually been employed in criticism. In so far as the
impulse receives emphasis, emotion or passion tends to
become mere appetite. In so far as the ideal is empha-
sized, emotion becomes poetical, refined, artistic.
336 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
XVI. PICTURESQUE. SUGGESTION.
Deficient.
Arid.
Bald.
Barren.
Naked.
Sterile.
Positive.
Allusive.
Pithey.
Conspicuous.
Plentiful.
Expressive.
Pregnant.
Fecundity.
Prolific.
Fertile.
Prophetic.
Fruitful.
Salient.
Interpretative.
Significant.
Latent.
Suggestive.
Memorable.
Symbolical.
Picturesque.
The terms of this list represent in general the use of
the association of ideas in the mind as the chief means
of producing literary effects. The mind of the reader is
filled more with a sense of what he does not directly see
than of what he does. The author feels the depth and
sincerity of human life, and with one masterly touch he
strikes a chord which echoes far and wide within the
realm of unexpressed memories, ideals, and longings. The
immediate image becomes in a sense a symbol for the re-
mote, the far-off, the mysterious. This reaching out of
human thought toward the unlimited, the infinite, has
been marked during the whole of the present century,
especially was it prominent during the early portion of
the century.
XVII. PATHOS. HUMOR.
Positive. Deficient.
Amusing. Buffoonery. Droll.
Archness. Burlesque. Dry.
Bon-mot. Clench. Dry-stick.
APPENDIX
337
Comical.
Repartee.
Cunning.
Ridiculous.
Cynical.
Salt.
Diverting.
Sarcastic.
Farcical.
Satire.
Humor.
Sportive.
Incongruous.
Witticism.
Irony.
Ludicrous.
Affecting.
Mirth.
Moving.
Pleasantry. .
Pathetic.
Poignant.
Touching.
Raillery.
Tragic.
The contrast between actual conditions and ideal possi-
bilities gives rise to a feeling or "passion/' which, during
the present century, has been called pathos and humor,
pathos being relatively the more passive, humor the
more active phase of the same sympathetic activity of the
mind. Both terms, however, have an extended history,
and were formerly used with meanings and relations quite
other than those which they now possess. The terms of
this list have their apparent unity in the simple feeling
of the incongruous; they have their real unity in the
idealizing tendencies, by means of which this feeling of
the incongruous is rendered possible.
XVIII. EASY. RAPID. DIRECT.
Positive.
Deficient.
Action.
Brisk.
Circuitous.
\
Constricted.
Airy.
Buoyant.
Club-footed.
Crabbed.
Blithe.
Crisp.
Constrained.
Creeping.
22
338 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
p
ositive.
Currant.
Plastic.
Direct.
Plajfc*.
Ductile.
Pliant.
Ease.
Progression.
Elastic.
Racy.
Facility.
Rapid.
Flexible.
Skipping.
Flow.
Slipper.
Fluent.
Sportive.
Fluid.
Sprightly.
Free.
Straight-forward.
Leaping.
Supple.
Light.
Surging.
Lithe.
Swift.
Motion.
Trippingly.
Movement.
Vaulting.
Nimble.
Volatile.
Pert.
Deficient.
Desultory.
Dragging.
Embarrassed.
Flagging.
Floundering.
Halting,
Heavy.
Hobbling.
Lame.
Limping.
Lumbering.
Pedestrian.
Rambling.
Shuffling.
SUp-shod.
Slow.
Sprawling.
Stiff.
Stumbling.
Tardy.
Trailing.
Unwieldy.
Wandering.
The requirement of perspicuity and clearness in style,
when joined with that of strength, or at least of move-
ment, forms the general conception for the list of terms
given above. Clearness as such, the mere desire of ren-
dering the thought of a composition intelligible to others,
may lead to loquacity and wordiness. The general con-
ception of the present list of terms, however, assumes
that the reader is, as it were, within the literary work
itself; not waiting to be impressed by it, but actively
participating in its movement, and demanding only that
this movement shall not be unnecessarily retarded, whether
from combinations of sound, from logical arrangement,
from the flow of mental imagery, or from plot development.
APPENDIX.
339
XIX. CLASSICAL. TEMPERANCR
Positive.
Deficient.
Calm.
Abstinence.
Adventurous.
Eii'usive.
Equable.
Adequate.
Awkward.
Elliptical.
Equanimity.
Careful.
Blundering.
Extravagant.
Gentle.
Cautious.
Capricious.
Fustian.
Mild.
Chaste.
Careless.
Garrulity.
Placid.
Chastised.
Clownish.
Grandiloquent.
Quiet.
Classical.
Flighty.
Grandiose.
Repose.
Composed.
Hasty.
Grandity.
Sedate.
Guarded.
Hurried.
Gush.
Serene.
Moderation.
Inconstant.
Gusty.
Tranquil.
Modest.
Loud.
High-flown.
Reserved.
Negligent.
Inflated.
Restrained.
Restless.
Long-winded.
Scrupulous.
Slovenly.
Loquacity.
Sculpturesque.
Whimsical.
Luxuriant.
Self-control.
Wild.
Magniloquence.
Severe.
Wilful.
Noisy.
Sober.
Oriental.
Statuesque.
Ostentatious.
Subdued.
Pomp.
Temperate.
Pretentious.
Well-considered.
Profuse.
Prolix.
Rant.
Brevity.
Amplified.
Redundant.
Compression.
Asiatic.
Rhetorical.
Concentrated.
Bluster.
Superfluous.
Concise.
Boisterous.
Tautological.
Condensed.
Bombast.
Tropical.
Laconic.
Brazen.
Tumid.
Terse.
Declamatory.
Verbiage.
Diffuse.
Verbose.
Dilatation.
Voluble.
Dilation.
Wordy.
Dilution.
340 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
The general conception of temperance or moderation in
composition which this group of terms represents is in-
timately related to purity, regularity, clearness, and pro-
priety. The most casual glance at the association of terms
in the quotations given under the different terms of this
list will make this fact evident. On the other hand, the
general conception of temperance is connected in a scarcely
less intimate manner with energy^ power, and strength of
style in a composition. The requirement is that this
power in some manner be restrained. If the restraint is
^externally imposed, as it were, either immediately or me-
diately from custom and precedent, thej^tem^firAUiia-tends^
toward the proprieties. If the restraint is in a sense self-,
imposed, then temperance becomes dignity and grandeur.
XX. JUDICIOUS. INTELLECTUAL.
Positive. Deficient.
Folly.
Foolish.
Nonsense.
Preposterous.
Silly.
Simpleness.
Superficial.
Unmeaning.
Absurd.
Critical.
Reasonable.
Good-sense.
Sense.
Instructive.
Sensible.
Judicious.
Understanding.
Just.
Wise.
Rational.
Academic.
Logical.
Analytic.
Meditative.
Brooding.
Philosophical.
Contemplative.
Reflective.
Erudite.
Studious.
Intellectual.
Thoughtful.
Learned.
APPENDIX. 341
Positive. Deficient.
Acumen. Pungent. Dull.
Acute. Sagacity. Obtuse.
Cutting. Sanity. Stupid.
Discriminative. Sharp.
Edge. Shrewd.
Incisive. Succinct.
Keen. Subtle.
Penetrative. Trenchant.
Piercing.
The use of intellectual and more or .less logical terms
in criticism was especially pronounced during the greater
portion o^: the eighteenth century and during the latter por-
tion 'of the present century. There is an important dif-
ference, however, in the nature of the intellectual terms
employed during these two periods. In the eighteenth
century the intellectual activities represented in crrEi^
cism were chiefly deliberative^ such terms as " judi-
cious" and "understanding" being in great favor. During
the present century the intellectual terms which have
been most employed in criticism represent native and
unelaborated activities or capacities of the mind, terms
which either characterize the general mental tempera-
ment of the author as reflected in his work, or represent
his native intellectual acuteness and penetration.
XXI. CLASSIFYING TERMS.
Allegorical. Idyllic.
Bucolic. Invective.
Choral. Lyrical.
Comedy. Narrative.
Didactic. Panegyrical.
Dramatic. Pastoral.
Elegiac. Picaresque.
Epic. Rhapsodical.
Farce. Romance.
342 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
This list is composed of those terms which originally
denoted certain forms or divisions of literature without
any reference whatever to the critical significance of
the different literary forms or divisions thus designated.
But for reasons given in the Introduction it was impos-
sible for these terms to preserve their critical neutrality.
They have been used chiefly during the present century,
and the numerous theoretical discussions relative to the
"species" or divisions of literature have given these terms
far more critical significance than they formerly possessed.
XXII. AESTHETIC TERMS,
I. MERE APPROVAL.
Positive. Deficient.
Absolute.
Admirable.
Adorable.
Brave.
Choice.
Commendable.
Competence.
Conclusive.
Consummate.
Creditable.
Distinguished.
Effective.
Eminent.
Excellent.
Exhaustive.
Faultless.
Final.
Flawless.
Great.
Immortal.
Impeccable.
Iiiavertible.
Incomparable.
Inimitable.
Marvelous.
Masterly.
Meritorious.
Miraculous.
Model.
Peerless.
Perfect.
Readable.
Sovereign/
Speckless.
Superb.
Supreme.
Typical.
Unsurpassed.
Defective.
Futile.
APPENDIX.
343
II. jEsTHETic TEEMS PROPER.
Positive.
Negative.
Aerial.
Fragrant.
^Esthetic.
Graceful.
Affinity.
Handsome,
Agreeable.
Heavenly.
Airy.
Ineffable.
Art.
Interesting.
Artistic.
Irresistible.
Attractive.
Lovely.
Beauty.
Luscious.
Charm.
Magical.
Cogency.
Magnetic.
Comely.
Palpable.
Convincing.
Persuasive.
Dainty.
Pleading.
Delicate.
Pleasing.
Delicious.
Poetical.
Delightful.
Redolent.
Divine.
Seductive.
Enchanting.
Soul.
Engaging.
Spiritual.
Entertaining.
Splendid.
Ethereal.
Stimulating.
Exquisite.
Stinging.
Facetious.
Suavity.
Fascinating.
Taste.
Fine.
Thrilling.
Flavor.
Balderdash.
Brutish.
Cloying.
Detestable.
Doggerel.
Dreary.
Empty.
Gibberish.
Gruesome.
Hideous.
Horrible.
Horrid.
Impalpable.
Nauseous.
Offensive.
Oppressive.
Philistinism.
Prosaic.
Repulsive.
Revolting.
Tedious.
Tiresome.
ugly-
The terms which have been hitherto classified represent
active qualities or principles, which tend to differentiate
literature into its component parts, and to give to each
part a more or less distinct valuation. The terms of the
present list, on the contrary, tend to express the unified
artistic effect which the literary work produces upon the
344 A HISTORY OF ENGLISH CRITICAL TERMS.
d of the reader. They indicate a complete acceptance
of the literary work, or else they denote a complete re-
jection of it. No qualitative distinctions are set up. The
aesthetic term as predicate, and the literary work as sub-
ject, are by definition coextensive and identical. In actual
criticism, however, this identity is often by no means
complete; and this variation, together with the changing
limits of literary art itself, give the two points of view
from which the history of the different terms may be
traced.
XXIII. ELEMENTARY ARTISTIC TERMS.
Architectonics. Imagination.
Conceit. Imitation.
Constructive. Ingenious.
Creative. Insight.
Design. Invention.
Device. Mimetic.
Fancy. -Original.
Fantasy. Selection.
Genius. Wit.
Ideality.
All critical terms, in so far as they are critical, except,
perhaps, those of the preceding list, refer more or less
directly to the active process of construction in composi-
tion, to the mental capacities by which any given form
of literature is rendered possible. Many of these terms,
however, do not refer to processes that are elementary.
Thus, humor and pathos presuppose the exercise of the
ideal making power of the mind. Many critical terms,
also, such as " proportion" and "simplicity." are usually
thought of as characterizing the literary work when con-
sidered as a completed product. Hence they tend to be-
APPENDIX. 345
come more or less subject tojixed _ruleSj by the application
of which it is supposed the qualities of literature desig-
nated by the terms can always be attained. In this man-
ner the process ceases to be elementary.
It is not claimed that the list of terms given above is
a complete one, or even a representative one. After all
the critical terms had been classified, as far as possible,
according to their historical rise and development, certain
terms remained, which represent some of the more pri-
mary activities of the mind that are brought into exercise
in the production of literature. These terms constitute
the present list, and in a sense they indicate the evolu-
tion of the fundamental artistic processes which has taken
place during the different periods of English criticism.
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