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Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets
Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets Author:William Howitt Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SHAKSPEARE. There are two reasons why I proposed to omit the homes and htunts of Shakspeare from the present volume; the first, because I hve found it im... more »possible to include the dramatic poets in the mpass of it, and must reserve them for a future one ; and the second, because I have already, in my Visits to Remarkable Places (vol. L), devoted a considerable article to almost the only place where his homes and haunts still remain, Stratford-upon-Avon. A very little reflection, however, convinced me that an entire omission of the hiunts of this great national poet from this work, would be received M a disappointment by a numerous class of readers. Shakspeare is not merely a dramatic poet. Great and peerless as is his dramatic Cune, the very elements not of dramatic art and fame alone, but of universal poetry, and that of the highest order, are so diffused throughout :i!l hia works, that the character of poet soars above the character of drematiBt in him, like some heaven-climbing tower above a glorious church. Every line, almost every word, is a living mass of poetry; these are scattered through the works of all authors as such exponents of their deepest sentiments as they cannot command themselves. Thej are like the branches, the buds, the flowers and leaves of a great Use of poetry making a magnificent whole, and rich and beautiful asnature itself, down to its minutest portions. To leave out Si ml. - speare were indeed to play Hamlet with the part of Hamlet himself omitted; it were to invite guests, and allow the host to absent himself. In the Walhalla of British poetry, the statue of Shakspeare must be first admitted and placed in the centre, before gradations and classifications are thought of. He is the universal genius, whose presence and spirit must and will pervade t...« less