3 Review(s)

Writing on Algernon Charles Swinburne’s readings of Shakespeare in The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism, T.S. Eliot wrote Swinburne had mastered his material, and “he is more reliable to them than Hazlitt, Coleridge, or Lamb: and his perception of relative values is almost always correct.” Swinburne, a prominent Victorian poet and litterateur, dissects the world of 16th century English writing in a manner that is accessible and virtually effortless, taking stock of Shakespeare’s star, which continued to rise for many years after his demise.