-
Articles/Ads
Article Untitled Article ← Page 6 of 7 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
^ vere not considered worthy of being reported . In these days reporters are admitted into the banqueting-room , and we may ask ourselves if they hear oftentimes more sense , and less nonsense , than they might have heard in a bannered hall two hundred years ago , in which the monarch and Hudibras , or some other genial spirits
had quaffed a bottle too much ? Do we possess in these enlightened days superior wisdom , with greater intellect , as well as the courage which inspired the heroes of old , or are we left , as Charles Kingsley says , " with puny arms , and polished leather boots , and a considerable taint of hereditary disease , to sit in club-houses , and celebrate the progress of the species ?" "Was Samuel Butler fond of a pun ? The following lines ( p . 464 )
answer in some measure the query : — a For fear does things so like a witch , 'Tis hard t ' nnriddle which is which . "
There are several interesting words in the second volume of Hudibras , which occur occasionally in the first volume : " caprich , " for instance , derived from " capriccio , " which has now become " caprice , " losing the letter " h . " Upon the introduction of the French word " chandelle , " we learn that those who made it were called " chandeliers ; " they are now called " chandlers , " the letters " e" and " 1 " being dropped for the sake of rendering the word short enough to please our silent tongues .
Among many curious words we have " gossips , " ( Grob sibs , or persons related on behalf of Gk > d , ) who were sponsors at baptism ; whence our modern word " gossip ; " " guerpo , " a waistcoat ; " leech , " a physician ; " dully , " an adjective , signifying rather
dull ; " efficaci , " a coined word ( service ); and " jobbernole , a blockhead , derived from " jobbe , " a Flemish word , signifying stupid , and the Anglo-Saxon word , " hnol , " head . That Butler might have been a greater poet than he is we firmly believe , for every here and there we meet with passages , eloquent
and simple , that shine forth amid coarse and objectionable ideas , like stars in a murky night . Comedy is not the highest style of poetry ; but one who had the sparkling wit and genial humour which the author of " Hudibras " possessed , might have tried his hand successfully in other fields of literature . If Shakespeare had only written the " Merchant of Venice'' and the " Merry Wives of
"Windsor " we should have called him a great writer and a poet , and lamented that he had not given us other works surpassing these in excellence . Shakespeare , happily for ourselves and for the world , gave us a " Hamlet , " a " Lear , " and a " Macbeth , " and became thereby not merely a poet , but the poet , the English poet , and also
the world poet , the hero who , by his sublime thoughts and pure words , has alone truly adorned the English stage . We do not intend to compare the author of " Hudibras " with the author of " Macbeth , " but merely to remark , that of those who give us proofs of excellence like Butler , we expect more . To many authors of the time we say ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
^ vere not considered worthy of being reported . In these days reporters are admitted into the banqueting-room , and we may ask ourselves if they hear oftentimes more sense , and less nonsense , than they might have heard in a bannered hall two hundred years ago , in which the monarch and Hudibras , or some other genial spirits
had quaffed a bottle too much ? Do we possess in these enlightened days superior wisdom , with greater intellect , as well as the courage which inspired the heroes of old , or are we left , as Charles Kingsley says , " with puny arms , and polished leather boots , and a considerable taint of hereditary disease , to sit in club-houses , and celebrate the progress of the species ?" "Was Samuel Butler fond of a pun ? The following lines ( p . 464 )
answer in some measure the query : — a For fear does things so like a witch , 'Tis hard t ' nnriddle which is which . "
There are several interesting words in the second volume of Hudibras , which occur occasionally in the first volume : " caprich , " for instance , derived from " capriccio , " which has now become " caprice , " losing the letter " h . " Upon the introduction of the French word " chandelle , " we learn that those who made it were called " chandeliers ; " they are now called " chandlers , " the letters " e" and " 1 " being dropped for the sake of rendering the word short enough to please our silent tongues .
Among many curious words we have " gossips , " ( Grob sibs , or persons related on behalf of Gk > d , ) who were sponsors at baptism ; whence our modern word " gossip ; " " guerpo , " a waistcoat ; " leech , " a physician ; " dully , " an adjective , signifying rather
dull ; " efficaci , " a coined word ( service ); and " jobbernole , a blockhead , derived from " jobbe , " a Flemish word , signifying stupid , and the Anglo-Saxon word , " hnol , " head . That Butler might have been a greater poet than he is we firmly believe , for every here and there we meet with passages , eloquent
and simple , that shine forth amid coarse and objectionable ideas , like stars in a murky night . Comedy is not the highest style of poetry ; but one who had the sparkling wit and genial humour which the author of " Hudibras " possessed , might have tried his hand successfully in other fields of literature . If Shakespeare had only written the " Merchant of Venice'' and the " Merry Wives of
"Windsor " we should have called him a great writer and a poet , and lamented that he had not given us other works surpassing these in excellence . Shakespeare , happily for ourselves and for the world , gave us a " Hamlet , " a " Lear , " and a " Macbeth , " and became thereby not merely a poet , but the poet , the English poet , and also
the world poet , the hero who , by his sublime thoughts and pure words , has alone truly adorned the English stage . We do not intend to compare the author of " Hudibras " with the author of " Macbeth , " but merely to remark , that of those who give us proofs of excellence like Butler , we expect more . To many authors of the time we say ,