Page:Under the Microscope - Swinburne (1899).djvu/82

 need hardly be added that the dog returns to his vomit, and has in the end to be restrained by authority from venting "divers and sundry calumnies" against the victim aforesaid "or any other eminent man transcending him in merit, whom his envy shall find cause to work upon, either for that, or for keeping himself in better acquaintance, or enjoying better friends;" and the play is aptly wound up by his public exposure and ignominious punishment. The title of this admirable comedy is "The Poetaster; or, His Arraignment;" and the prologue is spoken by Envy.

It is really to be regretted that the new fashion of self-criticism should never have been set till now. How much petty trouble, how many paltry wrangles and provocations, what endless warfare of the cranes and pigmies might have been prevented—and by how simple a remedy! How valuable would the applauding comments of other great poets on their own work have been to us for all time! All students of poetry must lament that it did not occur to Milton for example to express in public his admiration of "Paradise Lost." It might have helped to support the reputation of that poem against the severe sentence passed by Mr. Buchanan on its frequently flat and prosaic quality. And, like all truly great discoveries, this one looks so easy now we have it before us, that we cannot but wonder it was reserved for Mr. Buchanan to