Contents

Introduction ix
 
The Perfect Critic 1
 
Imperfect Critics—  
Swinburne as Critic 15
A Romantic Aristocrat 22
The Local Flavour 29
A Note on the American Critic 34
The French Intelligence 39
 
Tradition and the Individual Talent 42
 
The Possibility of a Poetic Drama 54
 
Euripides and Professor Murray 64
 
Rhetoric and Poetic Drama 71
 
Notes on the Blank Verse of Christopher Marlowe 78
 
Hamlet and His Problems 87
 
Ben Jonson 95
 
Phillip Massinger 112
 
Swinburne as Poet 131
 
Blake 137
 
Dante 144