JB/110/125/003

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The secret One principal cause of the little comparative merit excellence of the French stage
may be found no doubt in the difficulty of adapting its language to
the higher characters of poetry – To who can deny uncommon merit to
Racine, & especially to Corneille – men who in spite of the f intolerable
trammels of a prejudiced hyper-criticism have produced some the most
magnificent declamation, & sometimes even the most impassioned poetry?
But it was too much to expect And what they might they not have
been – and what might they not have done, could they have written
in the free language of our Dramatists?

Maudit soit le premier dont la verve insensée
Dans les bornes d'un vers renferma la pensée
Et, donnant à ses mots une étroite prison
Voulut avec la rime enchaîner la raison!

Add to this the additional difficulty of finding male & fem masculine &
feminine rhymes, the dull uniformity of scenery – the necessary
concentration of the most important events into the space of a few hours
(a fiction, by the way, as unreal as most that are objected to against) the
restrained & eternal struggle, so constantly intruding itself between
the high spirit of nature & the freezing technicalities of art – the
constraint – the coldness – declamation for passion – antithesis for strength
stiffness for beauty – jingle for harmony – & it is rather a subject of wonder
that the Tragic Poets of France have effected so much than that they
have effected no more.

Identifier: | JB/110/125/003 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 110.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	110	Main Headings
Folio number	125	Info in main headings field
Image	003	Titles
Category	collectanea	Number of Pages	6
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	36115
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