They regard the poet as the creator, the inventor, the maker _par
excellence_, and he who can imagine or make the greatest _eidolon_ is
the greatest poet.
excellence_, and he who can imagine or make the greatest _eidolon_ is
the greatest poet.
Byron
The
question, the inevitable question, arises--What was, what is, the secret
of Byron's Continental vogue? and why has his fame gone out into all
lands? Why did Goethe enshrine him, in the second part of _Faust_, "as
the representative of the modern era . . . undoubtedly to be regarded as
the greatest genius of our century? " (_Conversations of Goethe_, 1874,
p. 265).
It is said, and with truth, that Byron's revolutionary politics
commended him to oppressed nationalities and their sympathizers; that he
was against "the tramplers"--Castlereagh, and the Duke of Wellington,
and the Holy Alliance; that he stood for liberty. Another point in his
favour was his freedom from cant, his indifference to the pieties and
proprieties of the Britannic Muse; that he had the courage of his
opinions. Doubtless in a time of trouble he was welcomed as the champion
of revolt, but deeper reasons must be sought for an almost exclusive
preference for the works of one poet and a comparative indifference to
the works of his rivals and contemporaries. He fulfilled another,
perhaps a greater ideal. An Englishman turns to poetry for the
expression in beautiful words of his happier and better feelings, and he
is not contented unless poetry tends to make him happier or
better--happier because better than he would be otherwise. His favourite
poems are psalms, or at least metrical paraphrases, of life. Men of
other nations are less concerned about their feelings and their souls.
They regard the poet as the creator, the inventor, the maker _par
excellence_, and he who can imagine or make the greatest _eidolon_ is
the greatest poet. _Childe Harold_ and _The Corsair_, _Mazeppa_ and
_Manfred, Cain_ and _Sardanapalus_ were new creations, new types, forms
more real than living man, which appealed to their artistic sense, and
led their imaginations captive. "It is a mark," says Goethe (_Aus meinem
Leben: Dichtung und Wahreit_, 1876, iii. 125), "of true poetry, that, as
a secular gospel, it knows how to free us from the earthly burdens which
press upon us, by inward serenity, by outward charm. . . . The most lively,
as well as the gravest works have the same end--to moderate both
pleasure and pain through a happy mental representation. " It is passion
translated into action, the pageantry of history, the transfiguration
into visible lineaments of living moods and breathing thoughts which are
the notes of this "secular gospel," and for one class of minds work out
a secular redemption.
It was not only the questionable belief that he was on the side of the
people, or his ethical and theological audacities, or his prolonged
Continental exile, which won for Byron a greater name abroad than he has
retained at home; but the character of his poetry. "The English may
think of Byron as they please" (_Conversations of Goethe_, 1874, p.
171), "but this is certain, that they can show no poet who is to be
compared to him. He is different from all the others, and, for the most
part, greater. " The English may think of him as they please! and for
them, or some of them, there is "a better oenomel," a _vinum Daemonum_,
which Byron has not in his gift. The evidence of a world-wide fame will
not endear a poet to a people and a generation who care less for the
matter than the manner of verse, or who _believe_ in poetry as the
symbol or "_credo_" of the imagination or the spirit; but it should
arrest attention and invite inquiry.
question, the inevitable question, arises--What was, what is, the secret
of Byron's Continental vogue? and why has his fame gone out into all
lands? Why did Goethe enshrine him, in the second part of _Faust_, "as
the representative of the modern era . . . undoubtedly to be regarded as
the greatest genius of our century? " (_Conversations of Goethe_, 1874,
p. 265).
It is said, and with truth, that Byron's revolutionary politics
commended him to oppressed nationalities and their sympathizers; that he
was against "the tramplers"--Castlereagh, and the Duke of Wellington,
and the Holy Alliance; that he stood for liberty. Another point in his
favour was his freedom from cant, his indifference to the pieties and
proprieties of the Britannic Muse; that he had the courage of his
opinions. Doubtless in a time of trouble he was welcomed as the champion
of revolt, but deeper reasons must be sought for an almost exclusive
preference for the works of one poet and a comparative indifference to
the works of his rivals and contemporaries. He fulfilled another,
perhaps a greater ideal. An Englishman turns to poetry for the
expression in beautiful words of his happier and better feelings, and he
is not contented unless poetry tends to make him happier or
better--happier because better than he would be otherwise. His favourite
poems are psalms, or at least metrical paraphrases, of life. Men of
other nations are less concerned about their feelings and their souls.
They regard the poet as the creator, the inventor, the maker _par
excellence_, and he who can imagine or make the greatest _eidolon_ is
the greatest poet. _Childe Harold_ and _The Corsair_, _Mazeppa_ and
_Manfred, Cain_ and _Sardanapalus_ were new creations, new types, forms
more real than living man, which appealed to their artistic sense, and
led their imaginations captive. "It is a mark," says Goethe (_Aus meinem
Leben: Dichtung und Wahreit_, 1876, iii. 125), "of true poetry, that, as
a secular gospel, it knows how to free us from the earthly burdens which
press upon us, by inward serenity, by outward charm. . . . The most lively,
as well as the gravest works have the same end--to moderate both
pleasure and pain through a happy mental representation. " It is passion
translated into action, the pageantry of history, the transfiguration
into visible lineaments of living moods and breathing thoughts which are
the notes of this "secular gospel," and for one class of minds work out
a secular redemption.
It was not only the questionable belief that he was on the side of the
people, or his ethical and theological audacities, or his prolonged
Continental exile, which won for Byron a greater name abroad than he has
retained at home; but the character of his poetry. "The English may
think of Byron as they please" (_Conversations of Goethe_, 1874, p.
171), "but this is certain, that they can show no poet who is to be
compared to him. He is different from all the others, and, for the most
part, greater. " The English may think of him as they please! and for
them, or some of them, there is "a better oenomel," a _vinum Daemonum_,
which Byron has not in his gift. The evidence of a world-wide fame will
not endear a poet to a people and a generation who care less for the
matter than the manner of verse, or who _believe_ in poetry as the
symbol or "_credo_" of the imagination or the spirit; but it should
arrest attention and invite inquiry.
