Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 1, 1894 - Miscellanies, Volume I

A HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE
ture ; but to talk at all fruitfully of any branch of
art, it is needful to build our definitions on some
more fundamental ground than binding. Why, then,
are we to add ' in prose ' ? The Odyssey appears to
me the best of romances ; The Lady of the Lake to
stand high in the second order ; and Chaucer's tales
and prologues to contain more of the matter and art
of the modern English novel than the whole treasury
of Mr. Mudie. Whether a narrative be written in
blank verse or the Spenserian stanza, in the long
period of Gibbon or the chipped phrase of Charles
Reade, the principles of the art of narrative must be
equally observed. The choice of a noble and swell-
ing style in prose affects the problem of narration
in the same way, if not to the same degree, as the
choice of measured verse ; for both imply a closer
synthesis of events, a higher key of dialogue, and a
more picked and stately strain of words. If you are
to refuse D071 Juan, it is hard to see why you should
include Zanoni or (to bracket works of very different
value) The Scarlet Letter ; and by what discrimina-
tion are you to open your doors to The Pilgrims
Progress and close them on The Faery Queeni
To bring things closer home, I will here propound
to Mr. Besant a conundrum. A narrative called
Paradise Lost was written in English verse by one
John Milton ; what was it then ? It was next
translated by Chateaubriand into French prose ;
and what was it then ? Lastly, the French trans-
lation was, by some inspired compatriot of George
Gilfillan (and of mine) turned bodily into an English
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