Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold

~John William Colenso~ (1814-83), Bishop of Natal, published a series of treatises on the Pentateuch, extending from 1862-1879, opposing the traditional views about the literal inspiration of the Scriptures and the actual historical character of the Mosaic story. Arnold's censorious criticism of the first volume of this work is entitled The Bishop and the Philosopher (Macmillan's Magazine, January, 1863). As an example of the Bishop's cheap "arithmetical demonstrations" he describes him as presenting the case of Leviticus as follows: "'If three priests have to eat 264 pigeons a day, how many must each priest eat?' That disposes of Leviticus." The essay is devoted chiefly to contrasting Bishop Colenso's unedifying methods with those of the philosopher Spinoza. In passing, Arnold refers also to Dr. Stanley's Sinai and Palestine (1856), quotations from which are characterized as "the refreshing spots" in the Bishop's volume.

51

It has been said I make it "a crime against literary criticism and the higher culture to attempt to inform the ignorant." Need I point out that the ignorant are not informed by being confirmed in a confusion? [Arnold.]

52

Joubert's Pensées, ed. 1850, II, 102, titre 23, 54.

53

~Arthur Penrhyn Stanley~ (1815-81), Dean of Westminster. He was the author of a Life of (Thomas) Arnold, 1844. In university politics and in religious discussions he was a Liberal and the advocate of toleration and comprehension.

54

~Frances Power Cobbe~ (1822-1904), a prominent English philanthropist and woman of letters. The quotation below is from Broken Lights (1864), p. 134. Her Religious Duty (1857), referred to on p. 46, is a book of religious and ethical instruction written from the Unitarian point of view.

55

~Ernest Renan~ (1823-92), French philosopher and Orientalist. The Vie de Jésus (1863), here referred to, was begun in Syria and is filled with the atmosphere of the East, but is a work of literary rather than of scholarly importance.

56

~David Friedrich Strauss~ (1808-74), German theologian and man of letters. The work referred to is the Leben Jesu 1835. A popular edition was published in 1864.

57

From "Fleury (Preface) on the Gospel."—Arnold's Note Book.

58

Cicero's Att. 16. 7. 3.

59

~Coleridge's happy phrase~. Coleridge's Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, letter 2.

60

~Luther's theory of grace~. The question concerning the "means of grace," i.e. whether the efficacy of the sacraments as channels of the divine grace is ex opere operato, or dependent on the faith of the recipient, was the chief subject of controversy between Catholics and Protestants during the period of the Reformation.

61

~Jacques Bénigne Bossuet~ (1627-1704), French divine, orator, and writer. His Discours sur l'histoire universelle (1681) was an attempt to provide ecclesiastical authority with a rational basis. It is dominated by the conviction that "the establishment of Christianity was the one point of real importance in the whole history of the world."

62

From Virgil's Eclogues, iv, 5. Translated in Shelley's Hellas: "The world's great age begins anew."

63

Published in 1880 as the General Introduction to The English Poets, edited by T.H. Ward. Reprinted in Essays in Criticism, Second Series, Macmillan & Co., 1888.

64

This quotation is taken, slightly condensed, from the closing paragraph of a short introduction contributed by Arnold to The Hundred Greatest Men, Sampson, Low & Co., London, 1885.

65

From the Preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, 1800.

66

From the Preface to the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads, 1800.

67

~Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve~ (1804-69), French critic, was looked upon by Arnold as in certain respects his master in the art of criticism.

68

~a criticism of life~. This celebrated phrase was first used by Arnold in the essay on Joubert (1864), though the theory is implied in On Translating Homer, 1861. In Joubert it is applied to literature: "The end and aim of all literature, if one considers it attentively, is, in truth, nothing but that." It was much attacked, especially as applied to poetry, and is defended as so applied in the essay on Byron (1881). See also Wordsworth, Selections, p. 230.[Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 371 in this e-text.]

69

Compare Arnold's definition of the function of criticism, Selections, p. 52.[Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 61 in this e-text.]

70

~Paul Pellisson~ (1624-93). French author, friend of Mlle. Scudéry, and historiographer to the king.

71

Barren and servile civility.

72

~M. Charles d' Hericault~ was joint editor of the Jannet edition (1868-72) of the poems of ~Clément Marot~ (1496-1544).

73

Imitation of Christ, Book III, chap. 43, 2.

74

~Cædmon~. The first important religious poet in Old English literature. Died about 680 A.D.

75

~Ludovic Vitet~ (1802-73). French dramatist and politician.

76

~Chanson de Roland~. The greatest of the Chansons des Gestes, long narrative poems dealing with warfare and adventure popular in France during the Middle Ages. It was composed in the eleventh century. Taillefer was the surname of a bard and warrior of the eleventh century. The tradition concerning him is related by Wace, Roman de Rou, third part, v., 8035-62, ed. Andreson, Heilbronn, 1879. The Bodleian Roland ends with the words: "ci folt la geste, que Turoldus declinet." Turold has not been identified.

77

"Then began he to call many things to remembrance,—all the lands which his valor conquered, and pleasant France, and the men of his lineage, and Charlemagne his liege lord who nourished him."—Chanson de Roland, III, 939-42.[Arnold.]

78

"So said she; they long since in Earth's soft arms were reposing,There, in their own dear land, their fatherland, Lacedæmon." Iliad, III, 243, 244 (translated by Dr. Hawtrey).[Arnold.]

79

"Ah, unhappy pair, why gave we you to King Peleus, to a mortal? but ye are without old age, and immortal. Was it that with men born to misery ye might have sorrow?"—Iliad, XVII, 443-445.[Arnold.]

80

"Nay, and thou too, old man, in former days wast, as we hear, happy."—Iliad, XXIV, 543.[Arnold.]

81

"I wailed not, so of stone grew I within;—they wailed."– Inferno, XXXIII, 39, 40.[Arnold.]

82

"Of such sort hath God, thanked be His mercy, made me, that your misery toucheth me not, neither doth the flame of this fire strike me." —Inferno, II, 91-93.[Arnold.]

83

"In His will is our peace."—Paradiso, III, 85.[Arnold.]

84

Henry IV, part 2, III, i, 18-20.

85

Hamlet, V, ii, 361-62.

86

Paradise Lost, I, 599-602.

87

Ibid., I, 108-9.

88

Ibid., IV, 271.

89

Poetics, § 9.

90

~Provençal~, the language of southern France, from the southern French oc instead of the northern oïl for "yes."

91

Dante acknowledges his debt to ~Latini~ (c. 1230-c. 1294), but the latter was probably not his tutor. He is the author of the Tesoretto, a heptasyllabic Italian poem, and the prose Livres dou Trésor, a sort of encyclopedia of medieval lore, written in French because that language "is more delightful and more widely known."

92

~Christian of Troyes~. A French poet of the second half of the twelfth century, author of numerous narrative poems dealing with legends of the Round Table. The present quotation is from the Cligés, ll. 30-39.

93

Chaucer's two favorite stanzas, the seven-line and eight-line stanzas in heroic verse, were imitated from Old French poetry. See B. ten Brink's The Language and Meter of Chaucer, 1901, pp. 353-57.

94

~Wolfram von Eschenbach~. A medieval German poet, born in the end of the twelfth century. His best-known poem is the epic Parzival.

95

From Dryden's Preface to the Fables, 1700.

96

The Confessio Amantis, the single English poem of ~John Gower~ (c. 1330-1408), was in existence in 1392-93.

97

~souded~. The French soudé, soldered, fixed fast.[Arnold.] From the Prioress's Tale, ed. Skeat, 1894, B. 1769. The line should read, "O martir, souded to virginitee."

98

~François Villon~, born in or near Paris in 1431, thief and poet. His best-known poems are his ballades. See R.L. Stevenson's essay.

99

The name Heaulmière is said to be derived from a headdress (helm) worn as a mark by courtesans. In Villon's ballad, a poor old creature of this class laments her days of youth and beauty. The last stanza of the ballad runs thus:

"Ainsi le bon temps regretonsEntre nous, pauvres vieilles sottes,Assises bas, à croppetons,Tout en ung tas comme pelottes;A petit feu de chenevottesTost allumées, tost estainctes.Et jadis fusmes si mignottes!Ainsi en prend à maintz et maintes."

"Thus amongst ourselves we regret the good time, poor silly old things, low-seated on our heels, all in a heap like so many balls; by a little fire of hemp-stalks, soon lighted, soon spent. And once we were such darlings! So fares it with many and many a one."[Arnold.]

100

From An Essay of Dramatic Poesy, 1688.

101

A statement to this effect is made by Dryden in the Preface to the Fables.

102

From Preface to the Fables.

103

See Wordsworth's Essay, Supplementary to the Preface, 1815, and Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.

104

An Apology for Smectymnuus, Prose Works, ed. 1843, III, 117-18. Milton was thirty-four years old at this time.

105

The opening words of Dryden's Postscript to the Reader in the translation of Virgil, 1697.

106

The opening lines of The Hind and the Panther.

107

Imitations of Horace, Book II, Satire 2, ll. 143-44.

108

From On the Death of Robert Dundas, Esq.

109

~Clarinda~. A name assumed by Mrs. Maclehose in her sentimental connection with Burns, who corresponded with her under the name of Sylvander.

110

Burns to Mr. Thomson, October 19, 1794.

111

From The Holy Fair.

112

From Epistle: To a Young Friend.

113

From Address to the Unco' Quid, or the Rigidly Righteous.

114

From Epistle: To Dr. Blacklock.

[Footnote 4: See his Memorabilia.][Transcriber's note: The reference for this footnote is missing from the original text.]

115

From Winter: A Dirge.

116

From Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, III, iv, last line.

117

Ibid., II, v.

118

Reprinted (considerably revised) from the Nineteenth Century, August, 1882, vol. XII, in Discourses in America, Macmillan & Co., 1885. It was the most popular of the three lectures given by Arnold during his visit to America in 1883-84.

119

Plato's Republic, 6. 495, Dialogues, ed. Jowett, 1875, vol. 3, p. 194.

120

~working lawyer~. Plato's Theoetetus, 172-73, Dialogues, IV, 231.

121

~majesty~. All editions read "majority." What Emerson said was "majesty," which is therefore substituted here. See Emerson's Literary Ethics, Works, Centenary ed., I, 179.

122

"His whole soul is perfected and ennobled by the acquirement of justice and temperance and wisdom. … And in the first place, he will honor studies which impress these qualities on his soul and will disregard others."—Republic, IX, 591, Dialogues, III, 305.

123

See The Function of Criticism, Selections, p. 52.[Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 61 in this e-text.]

124

Delivered October 1, 1880, and printed in Science and Culture and Other Essays, Macmillan & Co., 1881.

125

See The Function of Criticism, Selections, pp. 52-53. [Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 61 in this e-text.]

126

See L'Instruction supérieur en France in Renan's Questions Contemporaines, Paris, 1868.

127

~Friedrich August Wolf~ (1759-1824), German philologist and critic.

128

See Plato's Symposium, Dialogues, II, 52-63.

129

~James Joseph Sylvester~ (1814-97), English mathematician. In 1883, the year of Arnold's lecture, he resigned a position as teacher in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, to accept the Savilian Chair of Geometry at Oxford.

130

Darwin's famous proposition. Descent of Man, Part III, chap. XXI, ed. 1888, II, 424.

131

~Michael Faraday~ (1791-1867), English chemist and physicist, and the discoverer of the induction of electrical currents. He belonged to the very small Christian sect called after ~Robert Sandeman~, and his opinion with respect to the relation between his science and his religion is expressed in a lecture on mental education printed at the end of his Researches in Chemistry and Physics.

132

Eccles. VIII, 17.[Arnold.]

133

Iliad, XXIV, 49.[Arnold.]

134

Luke IX, 25.

135

Macbeth, V, iii.

136

A touching account of the devotion of ~Lady Jane Grey~ (1537-54) to her studies is to be found in Ascham's Scholemaster, Arber's ed., 46-47.

137

Reprinted from the Cornhill Magazine, vol. VIII, August, 1863, in Essays in Criticism, 1st series, 1865.

138

Written from Paris, March 30, 1855. See Heine's Memoirs, ed. 1910, II, 270.

139

The German Romantic school of ~Tieck~ (1773-1853), ~Novalis~ (1772-1801), and ~Richter~ (1763-1825) followed the classical school of Schiller and Goethe. It was characterized by a return to individualism, subjectivity, and the supernatural. Carlyle translated extracts from Tieck and Richter in his German Romance (1827), and his Critical and Miscellaneous Essays contain essays on Richter and Novalis.

140

From English Fragments; Conclusion, in Pictures of Travel, ed. 1891, Leland's translation, Works, III, 466-67.

141

~Heine's~ birthplace was not ~Hamburg~, but ~Düsseldorf~.

142

~Philistinism~. In German university slang the term Philister was applied to townsmen by students, and corresponded to the English university "snob." Hence it came to mean a person devoid of culture and enlightenment, and is used in this sense by Goethe in 1773. Heine was especially instrumental in popularizing the expression outside of Germany. Carlyle first introduced it into English literature in 1827. In a note to the discussion of Goethe in the second edition of German Romance, he speaks of a Philistine as one who "judged of Brunswick mum, by its utility." He adds: "Stray specimens of the Philistine nation are said to exist in our own Islands; but we have no name for them like the Germans." The term occurs also in Carlyle's essays on The State of German Literature, 1827, and Historic Survey of German Poetry, 1831. Arnold, however, has done most to establish the word in English usage. He applies it especially to members of the middle class who are swayed chiefly by material interests and are blind to the force of ideas and the value of culture. Leslie Stephen, who is always ready to plead the cause of the Philistine, remarks: "As a clergyman always calls every one from whom he differs an atheist, and a bargee has one or two favorite but unmentionable expressions for the same purpose, so a prig always calls his adversary a Philistine." Mr. Matthew Arnold and the Church of England, Fraser's Magazine, October, 1870.

143

The word ~solecism~ is derived from[Greek: soloi], in Cilicia, owing to the corruption of the Attic dialect among the Athenian colonists of that place.

144

The "~gig~" as Carlyle's symbol of philistinism takes its origin from a dialogue which took place in Thurtell's trial: "I always thought him a respectable man." "What do you mean by 'respectable'?" "He kept a gig." From this he coins the words "gigman," "gigmanity," "gigmania," which are of frequent occurrence in his writings.

145

English Fragments, Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 464.

146

See The Function of Criticism, Selections, Note 2, p. 42. [Transcriber's note: This is Footnote 42 in this e-text.]

147

English Fragments, chap. IX, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 410-11.

148

Adapted from a line in Wordsworth's Resolution and Independence.

149

~Charles the Fifth~. Ruler of The Holy Roman Empire, 1500-58.

150

English Fragments, Conclusion, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 468-70.

151

A complete edition has at last appeared in Germany.[Arnold.]

152

~Augustin Eugène Scribe~ (1791-1861), French dramatist, for fifty years the best exponent of the ideas of the French middle class.

153

~Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte~ (Napoleon III), 1808-73, son of Louis Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon I, by the coup d'état of December, 1851, became Emperor of France. This was accomplished against the resistance of the Moderate Republicans, partly through the favor of his democratic theories with the mass of the French people. Heine was mistaken, however, in believing that the rule of Louis Napoleon had prepared the way for Communism. An attempt to bring about a Communistic revolution was easily crushed in 1871.

154

~J.J. von Goerres~ (1776-1848), ~Klemens Brentano~ (1778-1842), and ~Ludwig Achim von Arnim~ (1781-1831) were the leaders of the second German Romantic school and constitute the Heidelberg group of writers. They were much interested in the German past, and strengthened the national and patriotic spirit. Their work, however, is often marred by exaggeration and affectation.

155

From The Baths of Lucca, chap. X, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 199.

156

Cf. Function of Criticism, Selections, p. 26.[Transcriber's note: This approximates to the section following the text reference for Footnote 27 in this e-text.]

157

Job XII, 23: "He enlargeth the nations and straiteneth them again."

158

Lucan, Pharsalia, book I, 135: "he stands the shadow of a great name."

159

From Ideas, in Pictures of Travel, Works, II, 312-13.

160

~Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh~ (1769-1822), as Foreign Secretary under Lord Liverpool, became the soul of the coalition against Napoleon, which, during the campaigns of 1813-14, was kept together by him alone. He committed suicide with a penknife in a fit of insanity in August, 1822.

161

From Ideas, in Pictures of Travel, Works, II, 324.

162

From English Fragments, 1828, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 340-42.

163

Song in Measure for Measure, IV, i.

164

[Transcriber's note: "From The Dying One: for translation see p. 142." in original. Please see reference in text for Footnote 180.]

165

From Mountain Idyll, Travels in the Hartz Mountains, Book of Songs. Works, ed. 1904, pp. 219-21.

166

Published 1851.

167

~Rhampsinitus~. A Greek corruption of Ra-messu-pa-neter, the popular name of Rameses III, King of Egypt.

168

~Edith with the Swan Neck~. A mistress of King Harold of England.

169

~Melisanda of Tripoli~. Mistress of Geoffrey Rudel, the troubadour.

170

~Pedro the Cruel~. King of Castile (1334-69).

171

~Firdusi~. A Persian poet, author of the epic poem, the Shahnama, or "Book of Kings," a complete history of Persia in nearly sixty thousand verses.

172

~Dr. Döllinger~. A German theologian and church historian (1799-1890).

173

Spanish Atrides, Romancero, Works, ed. 1905, pp. 200-04.

174

~Henry of Trastamare~. King of Castile (1369-79).

175

~garbanzos~. A kind of pulse much esteemed in Spain.

176

Adapted from Rom. VIII, 26.

177

From The Baths of Lucca, chap. IX, in Pictures of Travel, Works, III, 184-85.

178

Romancero, book III.

179

Romancero, book III.

180

~Laura~. The heroine of Petrarch's famous series of love lyrics known as the Canzoniere.

181

~Court of Love~. For a discussion of this supposed medieval tribunal see William A. Neilson's The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love, Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, Boston, 1899, chap. VIII.

182

Disputation, Romancero, book III.

183

The Dying One, Romancero, book II, quoted entire.

184

Written from Paris, September 30, 1850. See Memoirs, ed. 1910, II, 226-27.

185

Reprinted from The Victoria Magazine, II, 1-9, November, 1863, in Essays in Criticism, 1865.

186

~John Stuart Mill~ (1806-73), English philosopher and economist. On Liberty (1859) is his most finished writing.