Author: James Sheridan Knowles

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-26

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 9781331128762

Excerpt from The Dramatic Works of James Sheridan Knowles In a former Introduction, it has been erroneously stated, that, like Burns, Mr. Knowles was an uneducated man. In his youth he had read several of the Latin prose and poetic classics, only occasionally assisted by some friend or acquaintance. It is true, that with the classics of his own country he was little acquainted, as, from the moment that he became ambitious of authorship, he designedly abstained from reading them, lest he should be guilty of plagiarism. His intimacy with certain of our dramatists may be dated from the period when he became connected with the stage, as an actor. His turn for dramatic composition was first developed on the occasion of his taking a part in some juvenile private theatricals. Previously to this he had written numerous little pieces in rhyme; when it was his good fortune to be noticed by the late William Hazlitt, who was, then a young man, his senior by several years. This great critic and essayist, instead of sneering at the crude attempts of the would-be poet, encouraged them - kindly applauding what pleased him, and, as kindly, correcting what was faulty; while he would condescend to quote for his pupil, choice passages from established writers, and would point out to him the characteristics of their excellence. Thus, where there existed a total disparity in point of attainments, and a considerable one in point of years, a bond of love was formed between the man and the boy - a bond which tightened with the advance of life, and which, on the part of the former, was only loosened by death; while on that of the latter, it binds him still, in his old age, to the memory of his benefactor. With Shakspeare Mr. Knowles became, first, acquainted through the few extracts with which "Enfield's Speaker" was interspersed; this occurred at a very early age. In those extracts he intensely delighted. Child as he was, he felt their truthfulness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.