which glorified the sun-set of his illustrious predecessor: but yet,
Protestant as I am, I cannot discover that it is in the least obscure.
Faith, Hope, Charity, the Five Senses, Heresy, Judaism, Paganism,
Atheism, and the like, which in inferior hands must have been mere lay
figures, are there instinct with a dramatic life and energy such as
beforehand I could hardly have supposed possible. Moreover, in spite of
Dr. Lorinzer's odd encomiums, each allegory as it rises is more neatly
rounded off, and shows a finer grain, than any of the personifications
of Spenser; so that the religious effect and the theological effect
intended by the writer, are both amply produced--yes, produced upon us,
his heretical admirers. Hence, even if there be mysterious treasures of
beauty below the surface, to which we aliens must remain blind for ever,
this expression, which broke from the lips of one to whom I was eagerly
reading [Mr. Mac-Carthy's translation of] the play, 'Why, in the
original this must be as grand as Dante', tends to show that such merits
as do come within our ken are not likely to be thrown away upon any
fair-minded Protestant. Dr. Newman, as a Catholic, will have entered, I
presume, more deeply still into the spirit of these extraordinary
creations; his life, however, belongs to a different era and to a
colder people. And thus, however much he may have been directed to the
choice of a subject by the old Mysteries and Moralities (of which these
Spanish Autos must be taken as the final development and bright
consummate flower), he has treated that subject, when once undertaken by
him, entirely from his own point of view. 'Gerontius' is meant to be
studied and dwelt upon by the meditative reader. The Autos of Calderon
were got ready by perhaps the most accomplished playwright that ever
lived, to amuse and stimulate a thronging southern population.
'Gerontius' is, we may perhaps say for Dr. Newman in the words of
Shelley,