ADVERTISEMENT. For the convenience of those who may be drawn to the study of the Sonnets of Shakespeare by these Re marks, the Author has given directions to print the Sonnets with them. WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., Nov. 1864. (RECAP) 3925 869695 E. A. H. REMARKS ON THE SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE. CHAPTER I. HERMETIC Writing is a species of painting; and as no artist upon canvas can be permitted to interpret his own picture, so no artistic hermetic writer can be allowed to translate into didactic statements the meaning of his own scripture or writing. It would be disgraceful for a painter to label a picture "this is a horse," to guard against its being mistaken for some other animal; and so, in like manner, if an artwriter, like Dante or Goethe, were to set about interpreting his own writings, it would be proof that his labors had fallen short of their object. But while this is true with respect to the artist himself, it is entirely proper for a critic to discuss |