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State University of New York Thurlow Terrace, Albany 1, N.Y.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-17576.
Designed by Nancy H. Dale.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Page v
In Memory of My Parents
Page vii
PREFACE
Today, Swinburne is thought of primarily as a poet. That he wrote volumes of literary criticism as well is, with relatively few exceptions, usually glossed over by the literary historians. Generally, too, whenever anyone writes or speaks of Swinburne's theory of poetry, he bases his conclusions upon an analysis of Swinburne's own poetic practice. It is my belief that this approach to Swinburne's theory of poetry is questionable, first, because it depends on someone's interpretation of what the poet was attempting to do; and, second, because too many poets have written poetry that, if measured against their own announced theories of poetry, is either a direct contradiction of those theories or a departure from them. Consider, for example, the best poetry of Wordsworth in the light of the famous Preface. What happens when one judges Arnold's poetry by his own critical standards, or when one applies Shelley's theory of the role of the poet outlined in the Defence to his own sublime lyrics?
This study is based upon the assumption that behind
Page viii
every piece of Swinburne's criticism and behind every effusion of appreciation lies a solid core of poetic theory that can be recovered by careful analysis. I have gathered the various principles of poetic theory expressed by Swinburne into topical groupings, beginning with the most general aspects of poetry and moving to a consideration of specific details applicable only to individual types of poetry. In some parts, notably in the early section devoted to general principles, I have been able to follow in the main a chronological order. Throughout the bulk of the study, however, a chronological presentation was not possible, for Swinburne unfolded his theory in no clearly organized fashion. What is striking, however, is that what emerges from a reading of Swinburne's criticism is an awareness of a very consistent and remarkably complete core of poetic theory that underlies his critical writings and belies the view of him as a wild, impulsive, and superficial appreciator.
One aspect of Swinburne's literary criticism has been completely ignored in these pages. It is the mass of effort that he spent on the attribution of questionable acts, scenes, and lines in Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. This area of his work has been deliberately excluded simply because it offers nothing to an understanding of Swinburne's theory of poetry and also because it opens a vast subject that is worthy of its own study. Similarly, I have resisted the temptation to attempt to find the sources of Swinburne's theory, except for certain close verbal parallels.
I am indebted to the late Professors Morton D. Zabel and E. K. Brown for advice and suggestions in the early phases of my study. Professor Clyde K. Hyder has offered sound advice, as has Professor Arthur Friedman.
Page ix
Chapter 1 appeared originally in a condensed form in ELH, A Journal of English Literary History, Johns Hopkins University Press, and Chapter 4 appeared much as it now stands in PMLA. I am grateful to the editors of these journals for permission to republish.
T. E. C. Buffalo, New York 1963
Page xi
CONTENTS
Preface
vii
Part IGeneral Principles
1. Le Beau Serviteur du Vrai
3
2. The Nature of the Poet and the Subject of Poetry
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