ABSTRACT
For many years Swinburne admired Carlyle, but Carlyle’s opinion of Swinburne was more unfavourable than Arnold’s. William Allingham reported his saying, ‘There is not the least intellectual value in anything he writes’ (A Diary, p. 258). Since more than one person has hinted that Carlyle made harsher remarks than this, the phrasing attributed to him in an interview (first described by the editor of this volume in ‘Emerson on Swinburne: A Sensational Interview’, Modern Language Notes, March 1933, xlviii, 180–2), outrageous as it is, may be less inaccurate than one would prefer to believe. We cannot be sure that the interviewer quoted Emerson accurately, but, since he did not disavow the interview, Swinburne assumed that Emerson was responsible for what he was reported to have said.
