(1843-)
"We are all hunters, skillful or skilless, in literature--hunters for
our spiritual good or for our pleasure," says Edward Dowden; and to
his earnest research and careful exposition many readers owe a more
thorough appreciation of literature. He was educated at Queen's
College, Cork (his birthplace), and then at Trinity College, Dublin,
where he received the Vice-Chancellor's prize in both English verse
and English prose, and also the first English Moderatorship in logic
and ethics. For two years he studied divinity. Then he obtained by
examination a professorship of oratory at the University of Dublin,
where he was afterwards elected professor of English literature. The
scholarship of his literary work has won him many honors. In 1888 he
was chosen president of the English Goethe Society, to succeed
Professor Mueller. The following year he was appointed first Taylorian
lecturer in the Taylor Institute, Oxford. The Royal Irish Academy has
bestowed the Cunningham gold medal upon him, and he has also received
the honorary degree LL. D. of the University of Edinburgh, and from
Princeton University.
Very early in life Professor Dowden began to express his feeling for
literature, and the instinct which leads him to account for a work by
study of its author's personality. For more than twenty years English
readers have known him as a frequent contributor of critical essays to
the leading reviews. These have been collected into the delightful
volumes 'Studies in Literature' and 'Transcripts and Studies.' His has
been called "an honest method, wholesome as sweet." He would offer
more than a mere resume of what his author expresses. He would be one
of the interpreters and transmitters of new forms of thought to the
masses of readers who lack time or ability to discover values for
themselves. Very widely read himself, he is fitted for just
comparisons and comprehensive views. As has been pointed out, he is
fond of working from a general consideration of a period with its
formative influences, to the particular care of the author with whom
he is dealing. Saintsbury tells us that Mr. Dowden's procedure is to
ask his author a series of questions which seem to him of vital
importance, and find out how he would answer them.
Dowden's style is careful, clear, and thorough, showing his
scholarship and incisive thought. His form of expression is strongly
picturesque. It is nowhere more so than in 'Shakespeare: a Study of
His Mind and Art.' This, his most noteworthy work, has been very
widely read and admired. His intimate acquaintance with German
criticism upon the great Elizabethan especially fitted him to present
fresh considerations to the public.
He has also written a brilliant 'Life of Shelley' (bitterly criticized
by Mark Twain in the North American Review, 'A Defense of Harriet
Shelley'), and a 'Life of Southey' in the English Men of Letters
Series; and edited most capably 'Southey's Correspondence with
Caroline Bowles,' 'The Correspondence of Sir Henry Taylor,'
'Shakespeare's Sonnets,' 'The Passionate Pilgrim,' and a collection
of 'Lyrical Ballads.'