He was fond of questions of
logic, and of explaining his systems and opinions by means of diagrams;
but his projects were seldom consummated; and his talk (sometimes) and his
prose writing (often) were tedious and diffuse. His "Christabel," from
which he derived much of his fame, remained, after a lapse of more than
thirty years, incomplete at his death. He gained much reputation from the
"Ancient Mariner" (which is perhaps his best poem); but his translation of
Schiller's "Wallenstein" is the only achievement that shows him capable of
a great prolonged effort. Lamb used to boast that he supplied one line to
his friend in the fourth scene of that tragedy, where the description of
the Pagan deities occurs. In speaking of Satan, he is figured as "an old
man melancholy." "That was _my_ line," Lamb would say, exultingly. I
forget how it was originally written, except that it had not the extra (or
eleventh) syllable, which it now possesses.
There is some beautiful writing in this fourth scene, which may be read
after Mr. Wordsworth's equally beautiful reference to the Olympian gods
and goddesses, in the fourth book of the "Excursion," entitled
"Despondency Corrected.
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