ABSTRACT
It is singular what an effect Matthew Arnold’s death has had on the public appreciation of his poetry. For himself he had long sunk the poet in the critic, and his poems, difficult to obtain, had only a select circle of admirers. In his lifetime a popular edition was not to be thought of. He had never been broadly popular, he once wrote, and could not easily bring himself to believe that he would ever become so. In fact, as he told Browning, he could not afford to write any more poetry. But no sooner was he dead than people began to exalt the poet at the expense of the critic, and to rest his best title to fame on his poetry. Since, then the tide of his reputation has steadily risen, and his publishers have now felt themselves justified in appealing to a wider public by publishing a popular edition of his poems, ranging with their one volume editions of Tennyson and Wordsworth. Their enterprise in admitting him, so far as they are able, into this honoured company is sure to be successful. With Browning popular, no fears need be felt for Matthew Arnold.
