Word: countrymen
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Dates: during 1873-1873
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...would be an easy matter to find similar remarks on English in the writings of French authors. M. Taine claims to appreciate our language and literature at least as fully as any of his countrymen; but in his remarks on Shakespeare you can see, if you examine at all closely, a lurking pity for the poor islanders who have found nothing better than an extremely improbable and barbarous language to express their ideas...
...objected that the English language is no more peculiar in its sounds than any other; and certainly a man is inclined to find any language surprising and ridiculous which is not his own. This point is well illustrated by Montesquieu, who makes nis countrymen ask their visitor from the East, "Comment peut-on etre Persan?" But Heine, whom we quoted above, was above the influence of this prejudice, as he knew Italian and French very thoroughly, and never found anything ludicrous in the sound of these languages. Since this is so, we must conclude that there was to him something...