I can say only that Lanier treats verse in the terms of music;
that, according to the promise of the preface, he gives
"an account of the true relations of music and verse"; and that in so doing
he has given us the best working theory for English verse
from Caedmon to Tennyson. This is a high estimate, but it is by no means
so high as that of the lamented poet-professor, Edmund Rowland Sill,
who said of `The Science of English Verse', "It is the only work
that has ever made any approach to a rational view of the subject.
Nor are the standard ones overlooked in making this assertion."**
--
* This may be found in Professor Tolman's article,
cited in the `Bibliography'.
** Quoted by Tolman.
--
Lanier's second course of lectures at the Johns Hopkins University,
delivered in the winter and spring of 1881, was published in 1883
under the title, `The English Novel and the Principles of Its Development'.*
According to the author's statement, the purpose of the book
is "first, to inquire what is the special relation of the novel
to the modern man, by virtue of which it has become a paramount literary form;
and, secondly, to illustrate this abstract inquiry, when completed,
by some concrete readings in the greatest of modern English novelists" (p.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41