"Familiar as [Shakespeare] was with the evanescent touches of mind en dishabille, and in its innermost feelings, he could not sustain the tone of a character, penetrated with a divine enthusiasm, or fervently devoted to a generous cause, though this is truly within the compass of our nature."
— Godwin, William (1756-1836)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange; Printed by Richard Wilson
Date
1831
Metaphor
"Familiar as [Shakespeare] was with the evanescent touches of mind en dishabille, and in its innermost feelings, he could not sustain the tone of a character, penetrated with a divine enthusiasm, or fervently devoted to a generous cause, though this is truly within the compass of our nature."
Metaphor in Context
Yet there were things that Shakespear could not do. He could not make a hero. Familiar as he was with the evanescent touches of mind en dishabille, [page 70] and in its innermost feelings, he could not sustain the tone of a character, penetrated with a divine enthusiasm, or fervently devoted to a generous cause, though this is truly within the compass of our nature, and is more than any other worthy to be delineated. He could conceive such sentiments, for there are such in his personage of Brutus; but he could not fill out and perfect what he has thus sketched. He seems even to have had a propensity to bring the mountain and the hill to a level with the plain. Cæsar is spiritless, and Cicero is ridiculous, in his hands. He appears to have written his Troilus and Cressida partly with a view to degrade, and hold up to contempt, the heroes of Homer; and he has even disfigured the pure, heroic affection which the Greek poet has painted as existing between Achilles and Patroclus with the most odious imputations.
Categories
Provenance
Searching "mind" at Electronic Text Center at UVA Library
Citation
Godwin, William. Thoughts on Man. London: Richard Wilson, 1831. Online edition by Charles Keller and Christine Ruotolo, UVa Electronic Text Center, 1997. <Link to UVa's Electronic Text Center>
Date of Entry
08/11/2005
Date of Review
02/02/2008
