astounded than himself. Now from what I have said it will be evident that the liability to accidents of this character is in the direct ratio of the poetic sentiment—of the susceptibility to the poetic impressions; and in fact all literary history demonstrates that, for the most frequent and palpable plagiarisms, we must search the works of the most eminent poets.
how to improve our drama
[From The American Whig Review, August, 1845. The greater part of Poe's article on The American Drama is devoted to a detailed criticism of N. P. Willis's Tortesa and Longfellow's Spanish Student. In the July preceding he had written: "The writer of this article is himself the son of an actress—has invariably made it his boast—and no earl was ever prouder of his earldom than he of the descent from a woman who, although well-born, hesitated not to consecrate to the drama her brief career of genius and beauty." The keynote of the following extract is struck by Poe in his Marginalia: "We must neglect our models and study our capabilities."]
A biographist of Berryer calls him "l'homme qui, dans sa description, demande la plus grande quantité possible d'antithèse"—but that ever recurring topic, the decline of the drama, seems to have consumed, of late, more of the material in question than would have sufficed for a dozen prime ministers—even admitting them to be French. Every trick of thought and every harlequinade of phrase has been put in operation for the purpose "de nier ce qui est, et d'expliquer ce qui n'est pas."
