00076--Describe those factors which were responsible for the rise of Romantic Criticism.

            'Love of Liberty' is ingrained in the English temperament.    Hence it is that the English could not servilely follow for any length of time the neo-classical rules.  Englishmen are too individualistic for any slavish imitation.  An under-current of liberalism is noticeable even at the time when neo-classicism was at its height.

            This temperamental leaning towards liberalism was fed and nourished by Longinus whose essay, 'On the sublime', had been translated into French towards the close of the 17^th century and was widely read in English.  His emphasis on 'transport' and enthusiasm had a far reaching impact both on creative and critical literature.  The French Revolution and the American War of Independence fostered the spirit of free thinking.  Love of political independence led to the rise of the spirit of free enquiry.  The pseudo-classical rules were questioned and their limitations exposed.  Writers liked to create unhampered by rules and conventions.  The critics liked to judge according to their own light.

            The medievalisation movement about the middle of the 18^th century, led to a revival of interest in old English masters.  There was also the growth of a new historical out look following the publication of Gibbson's monumental work, 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'.  Literature-ancient, medieval and modern-was viewed as a whole.  This enlarged the horizon and widened the outlook.  The rise of romantic criticism was also helped by the Reviews.  The Reviewers judged works of literature on the basis f their own likes and dislikes, and not on the basis of rules.  No doubt, much of their criticism is prejudiced, but they paved the way for the rise of impressionism and individualism which is the keynote of romantic criticism.

            Increasingly 'men of genius' like 'Wordsworth and Coleridge', voiced their protest against Neo-classicism and through their critical pronouncements laid the foundations of romantic criticism.  They gave a definite programme and consciousness to the romantic movement.

            Thus under the superficial claim of the 18^th century, new forces were brewing, an under-current of change was flowing, which burst into life with the publication of Wordsworth's preface to the Lyrical Ballads.  Hence it is true to say, as Atkins points put, that the foundations of 19^th century criticism were laid in the 18^th century.