A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature

W. Schlegel has given a course of Dramatic Literature at Vienna, which comprises every thing remarkable that has been composed for the theatre, from the time of the Grecians to our own days. It is not a barren nomenclature of the works of the various authors: he seizes the spirit of their different sorts of literature with all the imagination of a poet. We are sensible that to produce such consequences extra ordinary studies are required: but learning is not perceived in this work, except by his perfect knowledge of the chefs-d'wuvre of composition. In 9 few pages we reap the fruit of the labour of a whole life; every Opinion formed by the author, every epithet given to the writers of whom he speaks, is beautiful and just, concise and animated. He has found the art of treating the finest pieces of poetry as so many wonders of nature, and of painting them in lively colours, which do not injure the justness of the outline; for we cannot repeat too often, that imagination, far from being an enemy to truth, brings it forward more than any other faculty of the mind; and all those who depend upon it as an excuse for indefinite terms or exaggerated expressions, are at least as destitute of poetry as of good sense.

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