Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
PREFACE.
An investigation of the language of Swinburne hardly
needs any special justification.
In the first place he was the last of the great
Victorian poets; the chain of famous names beginning with
Tennyson and Browning finds its last link in him: and
there is hardly any difference of opinion as to his lasting
place in the literature of his country.
The following pages should, in my opinion, give
another reason for this study. The fact is that when I
began to collect my notes and to make my conclusions I
did not yet realise what they really meant. I did not then
know Franz’ careful and methodical survey of
Shakespeare’s language. When I later began to study this part of
English more thoroughly, and especially the work of Franz
just quoted, I was instantly struck, on the one point after
the other, by the minute resemblance with my own notes
of Swinburne’s language. In a word, this is perhaps the
most complete attempt at a revival of a dead stage of a
language by means of artificial respiration ever made.
Swinburne’s work is as well-known for its bulk as t^
for its beauty. The whole sum of his poetry amounts to
some 5000 closely printed pages, in the collected edition
divided by himself into two sections — one lyrical and
epic and one dramatic. There is hardly any question as
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
