On the Art of Writing · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in On the Art of Writing by Arthur Quiller-Couch.
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Unknown
major
Also known as me, mine, myself
He addresses his audience as 'Gentlemen,' building his argument lecture by lecture from the plain claim that Literature is a living art, and therefore must be personal. His distinctive tension is between reverence for the great dead and the insistence that the living must practise writing themselves, not merely admire. That conviction drives the book's early arc, as he moves from defining what Style is not toward the harder demand that his listeners master its secret for themselves.
Shakespeare
major
Also known as Man, The Man Shakespeare, a Shakespeare, Mr. Shakespeare, sweet Mr. Shakespeare
He presides over the lectures as the supreme example of writing that stays alive because it is personal, various, and true to human feeling rather than to ornament. The narrator invokes him not as a monument to be admired but as a standard to match, warning students against dwindling out his large utterance. His presence anchors the argument that style is individuality, and that even slang and neologism may be justified by the occasion, since literature must take account of all manner of writers, audiences, and moods.
Homer
supporting
Also known as The great Homer
He stands at the far origin of the argument, the poet who wished for a thousand tongues and a thousand hands not to dip pens in inkpots but to sing and pluck the wires. His example lets the narrator trace verse back to its musical accompaniments and conclude that its natural language must be keyed higher than prose. He matters because he grounds the book's historical claim that verse precedes prose, giving the lectures a firm stepping-stone rather than a mere assertion.
Milton
supporting
He appears as a touchstone of the heights English writing can reach, named alongside Shakespeare and Burke as a model students should study for guidance rather than mere admiration. His presence also carries a warning: Samuel Johnson could damn Milton because he hated Milton's politics, proof that even great critics let passion make injustice their daily food. He matters to the lectures as both an aspiration and a caution about how personal prejudice can distort judgment.
Samuel Johnson
supporting
Also known as Johnson, Samuel
He is offered as the counterweight to the notion that critics are artificial in phrase and pedantic in judgment, a man who could be wrongheaded and perverse yet could not let a well-turned but lifeless phrase pass. His willingness to damn Milton for political hatred shows the flaw, while his refusal to tolerate what was false to life shows the virtue. He matters because he embodies the book's central test: that writing lives only when it stays true to human experience.
Chaucer
supporting
He is invoked in the lecture that urges students to treat English Literature as an art with a living, improvable language, and therefore to practise writing themselves rather than embalm the past in a hortus siccus. The narrator sets the great writers of the past before his audience not for their own sakes alone but for guidance, so that they might say what they have to say worthily. Chaucer matters as one of those portraits looking down from college halls, meant to lift hearts and move students to match their manhood to its inheritance.
Professor Saintsbury
minor
Contemporary literary critic referenced in the lectures.
Wordsworth
supporting
Wordsworth hovers over these lectures as a test case in a running argument: is poetic language a set of rules to be obeyed, or the pulse of a man speaking to men? Quiller-Couch summons his verse against the pedants who would fence literature about with notice-boards, insisting that a poem lives because it is personal and various, not because it is correct. For the reader, Wordsworth becomes the hinge on which the whole question of diction turns — and the reason to keep reading.
Plato
minor
Greek philosopher invoked in discussions of rhetoric and style.
Virgil
minor
Roman poet used as an example of epic verse craftsmanship.
Ben Jonson
minor
Also known as Jonson, Ben
Elizabethan playwright and poet cited for his critical views.
Cardinal Newman
minor
Also known as Newman
Victorian prose stylist discussed for his clarity and rhythm.
Gray
minor
Poet mentioned in relation to poetic diction and elegy.
Browning
minor
Victorian poet cited for dramatic monologue and style.
Aristotle
minor
Greek philosopher whose Poetics informs discussions of drama.
Coleridge
minor
Romantic poet and critic quoted on imagination and language.
Edmund Spenser
minor
Also known as Spenser
Elizabethan poet discussed for his allegorical epic The Faerie Queene.
Tennyson
minor
Victorian poet laureate mentioned for his lyrical verse.
Sappho
minor
Ancient Greek lyric poet cited for her emotional intensity.
Bede
minor
Anglo-Saxon historian referenced in literary lineage.
Malory
minor
Author of Le Morte d'Arthur discussed as a prose stylist.
Sir Joshua Reynolds
minor
Also known as Reynolds
Painter and writer on art, quoted on general principles.
Professor Freeman
minor
Also known as the late Professor Freeman
Historian referenced in discussions of historical style.
Carlyle
minor
Victorian essayist and historian cited for his prose energy.
Izaak Walton
minor
Also known as Isaak Walton
Angler and biographer, praised for his simple prose.
Sir Thomas Browne
minor
Also known as Sir Thomas, Browne
17th-century physician and writer on style and meditation.
Bacon
minor
Elizabethan philosopher and essayist cited for aphoristic style.
Lucian
minor
Greek satirist mentioned for his dialogue form.
Aristophanes
minor
Greek comic playwright cited for his verbal wit.
Gabriel Harvey
minor
Elizabethan scholar and friend of Spenser, mentioned in context.
Dr. Courthope
minor
Literary historian cited in lectures on English literature.
Beowulf
minor
Old English epic poem discussed as a foundational text.
Alcuin
minor
Anglo-Saxon scholar and advisor to Charlemagne, mentioned in lineage.
Abelard
minor
Medieval philosopher and theologian cited in passing.
Duchess
minor
Title character in a literary example or anecdote.
Adonis
minor
Mythological figure referenced in poetic allusions.
Marlowe
minor
Elizabethan dramatist referenced for his blank verse.
Matthew Arnold
minor
Also known as Arnold
Critic and poet referenced on the function of criticism.
Byron
minor
Also known as Byron Byron
Romantic poet discussed for his satirical verse and style.
Keats
minor
Also known as these three Keats , who died young , cut off in his prime
Romantic poet admired for his sensuous imagery and early death.
Dryden
minor
Restoration poet and critic cited for his prose style.
Dante
minor
Also known as Dante Lord Buckhurst
Italian poet referenced as a master of vernacular epic.
Goethe
minor
Also known as The shrewder Goethe
German writer cited for his views on world literature.
Alexander Pope
minor
Also known as Pope
Augustan poet referenced for his heroic couplets and satire.
Sir Thomas Wyatt
minor
Also known as Wyat
Tudor poet and courtier, early sonneteer in English.
Rossetti
minor
Pre-Raphaelite poet and painter mentioned for style.
Petrarch
minor
Also known as the Earl of Surrey
Italian poet whose sonnets influenced English Renaissance.
Cicero
minor
Roman orator referenced as a model of prose rhythm.
Quintilian
minor
Roman rhetorician cited on education and style.
Herodotus
minor
Greek historian referenced as a narrative stylist.
Pliny
minor
Roman author referenced for his epistolary style.
Tertullian
minor
Early Christian writer noted for his rhetorical force.
Lessing
minor
German critic and dramatist discussed in comparative context.
Flaubert
minor
French novelist cited for his pursuit of le mot juste.
Carducci
minor
Italian poet and critic referenced in literary lineage.
John Jenkins
minor
Minor figure referenced in a literary anecdote.
Mr. Lloyd George
minor
Contemporary politician mentioned in a stylistic example.
Arthur John Butler
minor
Also known as Arthur
Scholar and translator referenced in academic context.
Sir Philip Sidney
minor
Also known as Philip Sidney, Sidney, G. Gascoyn
Elizabethan poet and critic, author of An Apology for Poetry.
Benvenuto Cellini
minor
Italian Renaissance artist and autobiographer mentioned for style.
Barbour
minor
Scottish poet, author of The Bruce, cited in literary history.
Ascham
minor
Tudor scholar and author of The Schoolmaster, referenced for style.
Daniel
minor
Elizabethan poet and historian mentioned in literary context.
Giraud de Borneil
minor
Occitan troubadour mentioned in discussion of lyric poetry.
Sainte-Beuve
minor
French literary critic referenced for his critical method.
Pope Gregory the Great
minor
Also known as St. Gregory, Gregory, Pope
Pope and Doctor of the Church, mentioned in historical context.
William Tyndale
minor
Also known as Tyndale
Biblical translator and Protestant reformer, cited for prose.
Wolfe
minor
General James Wolfe, mentioned in a historical allusion.
Lord Brougham
minor
Also known as Brougham, Lord Chancellor Brougham
British statesman and orator, referenced for rhetorical style.
Mr. Frederick Lamond
minor
Also known as Mr. Lamond, Beethoven Mr. Frederick Lamond, Beethoven
Pianist mentioned in an analogy about performance and style.
Captain Oates
minor
Also known as Oates
Antarctic explorer cited as an example of understatement.
the stranger
minor
Generic figure used in illustrative examples of narrative.
Apollo
minor
Greek god of poetry, invoked in classical references.
Zeus
minor
King of the gods in Greek mythology, mentioned in passing.
Venus
minor
Also known as Alma Venus
Goddess of love, referenced in poetic contexts.
Athene
minor
Greek goddess of wisdom, mentioned in classical allusion.
Minos
minor
Mythological king of Crete, referenced in literary example.
Demonax
minor
Greek philosopher cited in a rhetorical illustration.
Belisarius
minor
Byzantine general mentioned in a historical analogy.
Parmenides
minor
Pre-Socratic philosopher referenced in philosophical context.