Literary Criticism (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Literary Criticism

Than his own, which was an age Of collapse. But in the England Of Shakspeare, as in the Athens Of Aristophanes, the surface of society in cities still rocked, or at least undulated, with the ground swcll surviving from periods of intestine tumult and insecurity. The times were still martial and restless; men still wore swords in pacific assemblies; the intellect Of the age was a fermenting intellect; it was a revolutionary intellect. And comedy itself, colored by the moving pageantries Of life, was more sinewy, more audacious in its movements; spoke with something more Of an impassioned tone; and was hung with draperies more rich, more voluminous, more picturesque. On the other hand, the age of the Athenian Menander, or the English Congreve, though still an unsettled age, was far less insecure in its condition Of police, and far less showy in its exterior aspect. In England it is true that a pictur esque costume still prevailed the whole people were still draped1 professionally; each man's dress pro claimed his calling; and so far it might be said, natio comoedia est. But the characteristic and dividing spirit had fled, whilst the forms survived; and those middle men had universally arisen whose equivocal relations to different employments broke down the strength Of contrast between them. Com edy, therefore, was thrown more exclusively upon the interior man upon the nuances Of his nature, Or upon the finer spirit of his manners. It was now the acknowledged duty of comedy to fathom the coy nesses Of human nature, and to arrest the fleeting phenomena of human demeanor.

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