From The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors, ed. Charles Wells Moulton, 8 vols. (London: Moulton Publishing, 1901), 1: 457.
[This section was prepared and proofread by Deborah Hill.]
A LOVER'S COMPLAINT
Of "A Lover's Complaint," marked as it is throughout with every possible sign suggestive of a far later date and a far different inspiration, I have only space or need to remark that it contains two of the most exquisitely Shakespearean verses ever vouchsafed to us by Shakespeare, and two of the most execrably euphuistic or dysphuistic lines ever inflicted on us by man. -- SWINBURNE, ALGERNON, CHARLES, 1880, A Study of Shakespare, p. 61.
The framework of "A Lover's Complaint," its picturesqueness, versification, diction, repression, tenderness, and beauty, give to it a thoroughly Spenserian character, and convey the impression that we have here an early exercise in the Spenserian style; as such the poem links itself ultimately to the exquisite "Complaints" of Spenser's great master, Geoffrey Chaucer, with their ruthful burden: "Pite is dede and buried in gentil herte." -- GOLLANCZ, ISRAEL, 1896, ed. Temple Shakespeare, Preface to Lucrece, p. vii.
If, as is possible, it be by Shakespeare, it must have been written in very early days. -- LEE, SIDNEY, 1898, A Life of William Shakespeare, p. 91.
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