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Wordsworth, Lamb, and the Bard
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BCD
Feb 9, 2012, 3:08:19 PM2/9/12
to
From the *Los Angeles Star* of November 14, 1863; *sic* the alternating
spellings of the Bard's name: "'Wordsworth,' said Charles Lamb, 'one
day told me he considered Shakspeare greatly overrated. "There is an
immensity of trick in all Shakespeare wrote," he said, "and people are
taken in by it. Now, if I had a mind, I could write exactly like
Shakspeare." So, you see,' proceeded Charles Lamb quietly, 'it was only
the mind that was wanting.'"
Best Wishes,
--BCD
spellings of the Bard's name: "'Wordsworth,' said Charles Lamb, 'one
day told me he considered Shakspeare greatly overrated. "There is an
immensity of trick in all Shakespeare wrote," he said, "and people are
taken in by it. Now, if I had a mind, I could write exactly like
Shakspeare." So, you see,' proceeded Charles Lamb quietly, 'it was only
the mind that was wanting.'"
Best Wishes,
--BCD
marc hanson
Feb 9, 2012, 3:44:35 PM2/9/12
to
I think it was Tolstoy,
who also didn't like Shakespeare.
I bet, some of these people
are trying to sell something - a book, etc.
And some of them I think
are just jealous of someone successful.
marc
who also didn't like Shakespeare.
I bet, some of these people
are trying to sell something - a book, etc.
And some of them I think
are just jealous of someone successful.
marc
John W Kennedy
Feb 9, 2012, 10:15:16 PM2/9/12
to
worst-designed scan viewer I have ever encountered, reading the
treasonous editorializing of a nasty little Copperhead paper and
looking for the context of the above, I find it to be nothing but a bit
of unsourced column-filling boilerplate. On further search, it seems to
have been a favorite, one that lived for decades. But I cannot find it
sourced anywhere.
--
John W Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
-- Charles Williams. "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"
John W Kennedy
Feb 9, 2012, 10:17:51 PM2/9/12
to
Tolstoy, Twain, Gilbert, and Shaw all expressed resentment of
Shakespeare.
BCD
Feb 10, 2012, 12:37:47 AM2/10/12
to
On 2/9/2012 7:15 PM, John W Kennedy wrote:
> On 2012-02-09 20:08:19 +0000, BCD said:
>
>> From the *Los Angeles Star* of November 14, 1863; *sic* the
>> alternating spellings of the Bard's name: "'Wordsworth,' said Charles
>> Lamb, 'one day told me he considered Shakspeare greatly overrated.
>> "There is an immensity of trick in all Shakespeare wrote," he said,
>> "and people are taken in by it. Now, if I had a mind, I could write
>> exactly like Shakspeare." So, you see,' proceeded Charles Lamb
>> quietly, 'it was only the mind that was wanting.'"
>
> Ugh! After spending half an hour playing hide-and-seek with the
> worst-designed scan viewer I have ever encountered, reading the
> treasonous editorializing of a nasty little Copperhead paper and looking
> for the context of the above, I find it to be nothing but a bit of
> unsourced column-filling boilerplate. On further search, it seems to
> have been a favorite, one that lived for decades. But I cannot find it
> sourced anywhere.
***Only half an hour? But surely it seemed like half a year! Yes, I
> On 2012-02-09 20:08:19 +0000, BCD said:
>
>> From the *Los Angeles Star* of November 14, 1863; *sic* the
>> alternating spellings of the Bard's name: "'Wordsworth,' said Charles
>> Lamb, 'one day told me he considered Shakspeare greatly overrated.
>> "There is an immensity of trick in all Shakespeare wrote," he said,
>> "and people are taken in by it. Now, if I had a mind, I could write
>> exactly like Shakspeare." So, you see,' proceeded Charles Lamb
>> quietly, 'it was only the mind that was wanting.'"
>
> Ugh! After spending half an hour playing hide-and-seek with the
> worst-designed scan viewer I have ever encountered, reading the
> treasonous editorializing of a nasty little Copperhead paper and looking
> for the context of the above, I find it to be nothing but a bit of
> unsourced column-filling boilerplate. On further search, it seems to
> have been a favorite, one that lived for decades. But I cannot find it
> sourced anywhere.
get to wade through that delightful viewer and that delightful
anti-Lincoln effluvia on a daily basis, the latter of which I much
resent because it crowds out much of what I'm there for, tidbits of Los
Angeles history. As you will have seen, ye editor also crowds out
worthwhile Angeleno news with non-local anecdotes of all sorts
(literary, historical, geographical...) and now- (and probably then-)
stale humor. But as I read these editorial fulminations, I say to
myself, "And this is what folks a century hence will think about today's
vehement blather about [choose current political figure/situation] and
[choose opposing current political figure/situation]!"--and go back to
looking for old Angeleno news about grasshopper invasions and the
installation of sewers. Some things have a value that is timeless.
Best Wishes,
--BCD
John W Kennedy
Feb 10, 2012, 1:55:33 PM2/10/12
to
On 2012-02-10 05:37:47 +0000, BCD said:
> On 2/9/2012 7:15 PM, John W Kennedy wrote:
>> On 2012-02-09 20:08:19 +0000, BCD said:
>>
>>> From the *Los Angeles Star* of November 14, 1863; *sic* the
>>> alternating spellings of the Bard's name: "'Wordsworth,' said Charles
>>> Lamb, 'one day told me he considered Shakspeare greatly overrated.
>>> "There is an immensity of trick in all Shakespeare wrote," he said,
>>> "and people are taken in by it. Now, if I had a mind, I could write
>>> exactly like Shakspeare." So, you see,' proceeded Charles Lamb
>>> quietly, 'it was only the mind that was wanting.'"
>>
>> Ugh! After spending half an hour playing hide-and-seek with the
>> worst-designed scan viewer I have ever encountered, reading the
>> treasonous editorializing of a nasty little Copperhead paper and looking
>> for the context of the above, I find it to be nothing but a bit of
>> unsourced column-filling boilerplate. On further search, it seems to
>> have been a favorite, one that lived for decades. But I cannot find it
>> sourced anywhere.
>
> ***Only half an hour? But surely it seemed like half a year!
Yes, but I wanted to be objective. It was educational in that I had no
> On 2/9/2012 7:15 PM, John W Kennedy wrote:
>> On 2012-02-09 20:08:19 +0000, BCD said:
>>
>>> From the *Los Angeles Star* of November 14, 1863; *sic* the
>>> alternating spellings of the Bard's name: "'Wordsworth,' said Charles
>>> Lamb, 'one day told me he considered Shakspeare greatly overrated.
>>> "There is an immensity of trick in all Shakespeare wrote," he said,
>>> "and people are taken in by it. Now, if I had a mind, I could write
>>> exactly like Shakspeare." So, you see,' proceeded Charles Lamb
>>> quietly, 'it was only the mind that was wanting.'"
>>
>> Ugh! After spending half an hour playing hide-and-seek with the
>> worst-designed scan viewer I have ever encountered, reading the
>> treasonous editorializing of a nasty little Copperhead paper and looking
>> for the context of the above, I find it to be nothing but a bit of
>> unsourced column-filling boilerplate. On further search, it seems to
>> have been a favorite, one that lived for decades. But I cannot find it
>> sourced anywhere.
>
> ***Only half an hour? But surely it seemed like half a year!
idea there was significant Copperhead activity in California, though,
what with there being a colorable argument that the war was ultimately
about Arizona and New Mexico, I suppose I shouldn't have been
surprised. (Indeed, if the Gold Rush had not vastly increased the
Yankee population, I suppose California itself might have been on the
table.)
> Yes, I get to wade through that delightful viewer and that delightful
> anti-Lincoln effluvia on a daily basis, the latter of which I much
> resent because it crowds out much of what I'm there for, tidbits of Los
> Angeles history. As you will have seen, ye editor also crowds out
> worthwhile Angeleno news with non-local anecdotes of all sorts
> (literary, historical, geographical...) and now- (and probably then-)
> stale humor. But as I read these editorial fulminations, I say to
> myself, "And this is what folks a century hence will think about
> today's vehement blather about [choose current political
> figure/situation] and [choose opposing current political
> figure/situation]!"--and go back to looking for old Angeleno news about
> grasshopper invasions and the installation of sewers. Some things have
> a value that is timeless.
anything I can learn about my mother and her parents (my mother is
mentioned surprisingly often for her activities with the Camp Fire
Girls), so, yeah, I know how it goes.
BCD
Feb 13, 2012, 2:57:36 PM2/13/12
to
Buckle*] told a good story against Wordsworth, contained in a letter
from Lamb to Talfourd, which the latter showed to Buckle, but had
considered among the things too personal to be published. Wordsworth
was decrying Shakspeare. 'Pooh!' he said, 'it is all very easy: I could
write like Shakspeare myself, if I had a mind to!' 'Precisely so,'
rejoined Lamb,--'*if you had a mind to*'," from article "Personal
Reminiscences of the late Henry Thomas Buckle," *Atlantic Monthly*, v.
11, p. 490 (1863).
***Link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=n6xIAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA490&dq=wordsworth+%22i+could+write+like%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9mg5T-W5DYXniAKE0LX1BQ&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=wordsworth%20%22i%20could%20write%20like%22&f=false
Best Wishes,
--BCD
John W Kennedy
Feb 13, 2012, 9:37:42 PM2/13/12
to
matter, and now find myself puzzling over whether "The Borderers" or
Tennysson's "The Foresters" is the greater blot upon the corpus of
English drama.
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