ABSTRACT
Under the Microscope, discussing topics several critics had raised —the merits of Byron, Tennyson, Walt Whitman particularly— answered some of Swinburne’s critics—foremost among them an anonymous writer for the Quarterly Review, Alfred Austin (cf. No. 13), and, above all, Robert Buchanan, author of the article and book attacking D.G.Rossetti and the ‘fleshly school’ (for a fuller discussion see the Introduction, section IV). The following extract, part of the invective aimed at Buchanan, relies chiefly on the device of turning Buchanan’s own words against him. The text, that of my critical edition in Swinburne Replies, is used by special permission of the Syracuse University Press, owner of the copyright.
