1. Dr Gehan M. Anwar Lectuer of English Liteature and Tanslation
Cassius Longinus
Dr Gehan M. Anwar
Lectuer of English Liteature and Tanslation

2. Cassius Longinus
Roman critic. Also known as Dionysius Longinus, and Pseudo-Longinus First Century
“Pastoral Landscape” (1638) by Claude Lorraine

3. Major Works
Longinus' treatise Peri Hypsos [On the Sublime] (100) directly influenced poets such as John Dryden and Alexander Pope.
On the Sublime is now considered one of the most important works of ancient literary theory.
The idea of the sublime played a central role in the work of the Romantic movement of the 18th and 19th centuries.

4. On the Sublime
By its nature the sublime, “produced by greatness of soul, imitation, or imagery,” cannot be contained in words, and Longinus often refers to its heights as reached by journey, or flight:
“Our soul is uplifted by the true sublime; it takes a proud flight, and is filled with joy and vaunting, ...”
The figurative language is a vehicle for such flight, and
It is not just the writer who is transported by sublimity, but the reader as well.
According to Longinus, the sublime issues from five sources:
grandeur of thought,
strong emotion,
effective use of figures of speech,
noble diction, and (arrangement of words)
elevated composition. (harmony and rhythm appeal to the soul)

5. On the Sublime
Longinus has not used the word 'sublime' in its modern, narrow and limited sense. What he means by the word 'sublime' is 'elevation' or 'loftiness'.
Thus by sublimity Longinus means, “a certain distinction and excellence in composition." The effect of this quality is not mere persuasion or pleasure.
Unlike Aristotle, he is not interested in the natural history of literature, or in the tragedy or the epic. He is interested in the phrase or passage. Form in the larger sense is not important.
Longinus recommends, as a way to the sublime, "the imitation of previous great poets and writers" (a move which puts him more clearly into alignment with the Aristotelian view of poetry as an object-in-itself than to the Platonic view of poetry--and any other "mimetic" art--as 3x removed from reality).

6. name the author of these lines
Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism (1709)
Poets, like painters, thus unskilled to trace
The naked nature and the living grace,
with gold and jewels cover every part,
And hide with ornaments their want of art.
True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed;
...
But true expression, like the unchanging sun,
Clears and improves whate’er it shines upon;
It gilds all objects, but it alters none.
Expression is the dress of thought, and still
Appears more decent as more suitable.
(Part II, ll and )
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.
(Part II, ll. 362f.)
name the author of these lines

7. name the author of these lines
Alexander Pope, ‘Windsor Forest’ (1713)
The Groves of Eden, vanish’d now so long,
Live in Description, and look green in Song:
These, were my breast inspired with equal Flame,
Like them in Beauty, should be like in Fame.
Here Hills and Vales, the Woodland and the Plain,
Here Earth and Water seem to strive again,
Not Chaos-like together crush’d and bruis’d,
But as the World, harmoniously confus’d:
Where order in variety we see,
And where, tho’ all things differ, all agree.

8. Name the author of these lines. Name the poem.
Poets, like painters, thus unskilled to trace
The naked nature and the living grace,
with gold and jewels cover every part,
And hide with ornaments their want of art.
True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed;
...
But true expression, like the unchanging sun,
Clears and improves whate’er it shines upon;
It gilds all objects, but it alters none.
Name the author of these lines.
Name the poem.
You can criticize the poem according to the theory of a certain critic? Who is he? What is his theory?
Apply the literary theory of such a critic on these lines.

9. The Groves of Eden, vanish’d now so long,
Live in Description, and look green in Song:
These, were my breast inspired with equal Flame,
Like them in Beauty, should be like in Fame.
Here Hills and Vales, the Woodland and the Plain,
Here Earth and Water seem to strive again,
Not Chaos-like together crush’d and bruis’d,
But as the World, harmoniously confus’d:
Where order in variety we see,
And where, tho’ all things differ, all agree.
Name the author of these lines.
Name the poem.
You can criticize the poem according to the theory of a certain critic? Who is he? What is his theory?
Apply the literary theory of such a critic on these lines.

11. Assessment Questions
What were the major contributions of Longinus' On the Sublime to the history of literary criticism?

12. Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesie
[True poets] most properly do imitate to teach & delight : and to imitate, borrow nothing of what is, hath been, or shall be : but range [...] into the divine consideration of what may be and should be.
[T]he poet, he nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lieth. [...] [T]he poet never maketh any Circles about your imagination, to conjure you to beleeve for true what he writeth: he citeth not authorities of other histories, but even for his entrie, calleth the sweete Muses to inspire unto him a good invention.
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesie (1595). Reprint Cambridge: Cambridge UP,1904.