Charles Jeremiah Wells

“ Wells one personally but a stranger to him can say, with a fervid conviction of the truth of his assertion, that to go from the Paradise Lost, the Samson Agonistes, the Antony and Cleopatra, to not few passages and scenes of Joseph and his Brethren, is but to sail in spirit down one and the same stream of sublime, subtle, and unsurpassed poetry. ”

“ Swinburne further remarks in a too depreciatory tone, Leigh Hunt's influence may be seen; but I think that most generous of critics would not have set any of them down as "somewhat thin and empty," but have rejoiced in their fresh luxuriance, and recognized in the writer a worthy follower and comrade. Strange indeed it seems that he, so wide and so appreciative a reader, the friend also of Keats, has not, that I can recollect, anywhere expressed even an opinion of Wells' prose or poetry! ”

“ So I came to know of Charles Wells. Here however of Joseph and his Brethren I have not to speak, and Mr. Swinburne's prefatory note, to the reprint of the drama in 1876, leaves no occasion for words of supplementary admiration. My business is with the Stories after Nature, a more important book than is suggested by Mr. Swinburne's description of it as "a puny volume, barely heavier than a pamphlet," for although in small 12mo, it occupies no fewer than two hundred and fifty-one pages. ”