A public favourite is ‘kept like an apple in the jaw of an ape, first mouthed to be afterwards swallowed. When they need what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.’* At first they think only of the pleasure or advantage they receive: but, on reflection, they are mortified at the superiority implied in this involuntary concession, and are determined to be even with you the very first opportunity. What is the prevailing spirit of modern literature? To defame men of letters. What are the publications that succeed? Those that pretend to teach the public that the persons they have been accustomed unwittingly to look up to as the lights of the earth are no better than themselves, or a set of vagabonds, miscreants that should be hunted out of society. Hence men of letters, losing their self-respect, become government tools, and prostitute their talents to the most infamous purposes, or turn dandy scribblers,* and set up for gentlemen authors in their own defence.
Abridged.
From ‘On Reading New Books’, written at Florence in 1825 and collected in ‘The Works of William Hazlitt, Volume II: Sketches and Essays’ (1902) by William Hazlitt (1778-1830).
* A reference to a conversation in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, between the Prince and his father’s courtier Rozenkrantz. There are two confused themes (Hamlet, we recall, is in mental turmoil after accidentally killing Polonius). First, Rozenkrantz is a sponge because the King allows him to soak up rewards and powers, and then squeezes them back out whenever he wants, leaving the sponge dry again. Second, he is like nuts bulging in an ape’s cheek, kept there until the ape is ready to swallow them. Hazlitt applies this to a critic and any author he praises. The author soaks up plaudits from the public, which the critic then squeezes out for his own glory until the author is dry. And he keeps the author only so long as he is useful. Later, he will swallow him down.
* Hazlitt would later dedicate a whole essay to ‘the dandy school’, in the Examiner for November 18th, 1827. A dandy writer writes as a dandy dresser dresses: ostentatiously, fashionably, and to be admired by the kind of people who matter. He pours contempt on anyone serious-minded or ordinary, who does not watch fashionable shows, eat fashionable dishes or wear fashionable clothes, and encourages his readers to think only about these trivial things. Hazlitt believed that the Government used them as a way to manipulate opinion and soothe public dissatisfaction. By 1939, very little had changed: see Question More by NL Clay.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Précis
With a nod to ‘Hamlet’, Walton suggested that critics kept authors as a king keeps a counsellor, to be squeezed for anything he can get from him, and then gobbled up. The literate public watched on fascinated as favourites were first made and then destroyed, leaving discarded writers to sell their pen to anyone who would pay. (57 / 60 words)
With a nod to ‘Hamlet’, Walton suggested that critics kept authors as a king keeps a counsellor, to be squeezed for anything he can get from him, and then gobbled up. The literate public watched on fascinated as favourites were first made and then destroyed, leaving discarded writers to sell their pen to anyone who would pay.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, just, may, not, or, ought, whereas.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Do. Merit. Prevail.
2 General. Light. Literary.
3 Prostitute. Set. Than.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
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