It is the same with the rest of
Byron's dramas. Over and above the beauty of detached passages, there
is in each one of them a large and universal meaning, or rather meaning
within meaning, precisely the same for no reader, but none the less
certain, and as inexhaustible as the meanings of Nature. This is one
reason why the wisdom of a selection from Byron is so doubtful. The
worth of "Cain," of "Sardanapalus," of "Manfred," of "Marino Faliero,"
is the worth of an outlook over the sea; and we cannot take a sample of
the scene from a cliff by putting a pint of water into a bottle. But
Byron's critics and the compilers tell us of failures, which ought not
to survive, and that we are doing a kindness to him if we suppress these
and exhibit him at his best. No man who seriously cares for Byron will
assent to this doctrine. We want to know the whole of him, his weakness
as well as his strength; for the one is not intelligible without the
other. A human being is an indivisible unity, and his weakness IS his
strength, and his strength IS his weakness.
Pages:
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137