SHAKESPEARE AND BYRON.
That Byron wrote best when he wrote of himself and of his own, has proba- bly been already made sufficiently ap- parent. In this respect he stands alone and apart from all other poets and this pecullarity extended much farther over all his works, than merely to those which may be said to have required him to be thus personal. The great distinction, indeed, of his merits consits in that sin gularity. Shakespeare, in drawing the materials of his dramas from tales and history, has, with wonderful art, given from his own invention and imagination the httest and most appropriate senti- ments and language; and admiration at the perfection with which he has accom- plished this, can never be exhausted. The difference between Byron and Shakespeare consists in the curious acci- dent, fit may be so called, by which the former was placed in circumstances which taught him to feel in himself the very sentiments that he has ascribed to his characters. Shakespeare created the feelings of his, and with such ex- eellenee, that they are not only proba- ble to the situations, but give to the per- sonifeations the individuality of living persons. Byron's are scarcely less 50; but with him there was no invention. only experience, and when he attenps to express more thar he has himself known, he is always comparatively fee hle.-Gah.