Evidence: |
'Of course you have read Kenilworth Castle, and i trust, liked it. I greatly prefer it to the Monastery, & am almost as much pleased with it as with the Abbot: but not quite; the catastrophe is painful, & Elizabeth figures not so appropriately in a Romance, as her beautiful Rival; neither is the false varnish given to Leicester's character capable of making one forget his historical turpitude. The introduction of Raleigh is a delightful relief; and I wanted Sir Philip Sidney to boot; and more about several others only incidentally mentioned. It would perhaps have been too hazardous to bring in dear Shakespear: I cannot, however, but wish that he had adventured it. May be, I am a fool, and Scott's enemy for desiring it: but with his versatility of power; his happy embodyings of fictitious characters, he might surely have given form and pressure (if any man could) to the realities of Shakespear mind, and manners, & person. - At all events, Raleigh being so well delineated, I hope he will soon take some other historical personage in hand.' |