Lectures on the English Comic Writers |
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Page 6
... morality , when once disarmed of their power to do hurt , become suffi- ciently ludicrous . We laugh at that in others which is a se- rious matter to ourselves ; because our self - love is stronger than our sympathy , sooner takes the ...
... morality , when once disarmed of their power to do hurt , become suffi- ciently ludicrous . We laugh at that in others which is a se- rious matter to ourselves ; because our self - love is stronger than our sympathy , sooner takes the ...
Page 25
... moral philosophy is natural history . He makes an ass bray wisdom , and a frog croak humanity . The store of moral truth , and the fund of invention in exhibiting it in eternal forms , palpable and intelligible , and delightful to ...
... moral philosophy is natural history . He makes an ass bray wisdom , and a frog croak humanity . The store of moral truth , and the fund of invention in exhibiting it in eternal forms , palpable and intelligible , and delightful to ...
Page 32
... moral constitution that refused to be roused to any keen agony of thought , and that was not very safely to be trifled with in lighter matters , though this last was allowed to pass off as the most pardonable offence against the gravity ...
... moral constitution that refused to be roused to any keen agony of thought , and that was not very safely to be trifled with in lighter matters , though this last was allowed to pass off as the most pardonable offence against the gravity ...
Page 35
... morals than many of the charac- ters . Here are knaves and fools in abundance , of the meanest order , and stripped ... moral judgment , by bribing our self- love to side with them . Not to do so , is not morality , but affec- tation ...
... morals than many of the charac- ters . Here are knaves and fools in abundance , of the meanest order , and stripped ... moral judgment , by bribing our self- love to side with them . Not to do so , is not morality , but affec- tation ...
Page 39
... moral sense , or in- dulging our personal spleen . But Tattle and Sparkish , who are fops cast not in the mould of fancy , but of fashion , who have a tribe of forerunners and followers , who catch certain diseases of the mind on ...
... moral sense , or in- dulging our personal spleen . But Tattle and Sparkish , who are fops cast not in the mould of fancy , but of fashion , who have a tribe of forerunners and followers , who catch certain diseases of the mind on ...
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Common terms and phrases
absurdity admiration affectation amusing appearance artificial beauty Beggar's Opera Ben Jonson better blank verse Boccaccio character Chaucer circumstances comedy comic common critics delight describes Don Quixote double entendre dramatic elegance equal excellence face fancy feeling flowers folly genius Gil Blas give grace heart Hogarth Hudibras human humour idea imagination imitation instance interest kind Lady language laugh less light lively look Lord Byron lover ludicrous Lycidas Lyrical Ballads manners Milton mind moral Muse nature never objects painted passion person picture play pleasure poem poet poetical poetry Pope prose reader refinement ridiculous satire scene School for Scandal seems sense sentiment Shakspeare Shakspeare's sort soul Spenser spirit story style sweet Tartuffe Tatler thee things thou thought tion Tom Jones truth turn verse vice whole words Wordsworth writer
Popular passages
Page 7 - Never, lago. Like to the Pontic sea, Whose icy current and compulsive course Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on To the Propontic and the Hellespont ; Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love. Till that a capable and wide revenge Swallow them up. — Now, by yond marble heaven, In the due reverence of a sacred vow {Kneels, I here engage my words.
Page 145 - I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy, The sleepless Soul that perished in his pride; Of Him who walked in glory and in joy Following his plough, along the mountain-side : By our own spirits are we deified : We poets in our youth begin in gladness; But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.
Page 5 - The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation, and a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination, That, if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends some bringer of that joy; Or, in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear ! Hip.
Page 107 - Attract his slender feet. The foodless wilds Pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare, Though timorous of heart, and hard beset By death in various forms, dark snares, and dogs, And more unpitying men, the garden seeks, Urged on by fearless want.
Page 73 - From Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove Sheer o'er the crystal battlements: from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, A summer's day; and with the setting sun Dropt from the zenith, like a falling star, On Lemnos, the Aegean isle.
Page 88 - Tis with our judgments as our watches, none Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
Page 208 - Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, Godlike erect, with native honour clad In naked majesty, seem'd lords of all ; And worthy seem'd : for in their looks divine The image of their glorious Maker shone, Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure, Severe, but in true filial freedom...
Page 6 - O now, for ever, Farewell the tranquil mind ! Farewell content ! Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars, That make ambition virtue ! O, farewell ! Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, The royal banner ; and all quality. Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war...
Page 62 - Why so pale and wan, fond lover? Prithee, why so pale? Will, when looking well can't move her. Looking ill prevail? Prithee, why so pale?
Page 205 - And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, The tufted crow-toe and pale jessamine, The white pink, and the pansy...