Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)

I read the first third of the book and then simply tired of it. Until then, it had its rewarding moments, despite the author’s antiquated prose---presumably designed to be old-fashioned even when Landor wrote, given that he is recording conversations between individuals from the past.
It was often clear that the sympathies of the author lay with one dialogue partner, usually the one who champions tolerance, free thought, and other liberal ideals that I share, but that doesn’t always make for interesting reading.
One notable expression of these values is the closing line of the conversation between John of Gaunt and Joanna of Kent: “when I hear the God of mercy invoked to massacres, and thanked for furthering what He reprobates and condemns---I look back in vain on any barbarous people for worse barbarism.”
Not only Joanna of Kent but many other women, for instance, Anne Boleyn in conversation with Henry VIII, are sympathetically-drawn.
Sometimes the least promising dialogues, such as that between Lord Brooke (Fulke Greville) and Sir Philip Sydney, turned up some of the best lines, as when Sydney observes “goodness does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good.” I also enjoyed the way that Diogenes punctures Plato’s arguments for the immortal soul.
After a while, however, such insightful aphorisms didn’t offer enough reward to outweigh the tedium of the style or the lack of dramatic tension in the conversations.
… (mais)

An epic poem composed by Landor when young under the influence of Milton and the French Revolution. The hero Gebir (supposedly the namesake of Gibraltar) invades Egypt but falls in love with an Egyptian princess. HIs brother Tamar settles more quietly for a sea-nymph. I learned of this poem from Abercrombie's The Epic. Abercrombie thought Landor tried almost too hard for classical concision --in some cases writing first in Latin, then in English. (He later published the poem with a Latin translation.)… (mais)