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 9
... moral lesson : it is one of the striking weaknesses and greatest happinesses of our nature . That which excites so lively and lasting an interest in itself , even though it should not be wisdom , is not despicable in the sight of reason ...
... moral lesson : it is one of the striking weaknesses and greatest happinesses of our nature . That which excites so lively and lasting an interest in itself , even though it should not be wisdom , is not despicable in the sight of reason ...
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 ...
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Common terms and phrases
absurdity admiration affectation appearance artificial beauty Beggar's Opera Ben Jonson 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 living 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 reason 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 wild words Wordsworth writer
Popular passages
Page 116 - The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields; All that the genial ray of morning gilds, And all that echoes to the song of even, All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields, And all the dread magnificence of heaven, O how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven ! X.
Page 133 - At thirty man suspects himself a fool ; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan ; At fifty chides his infamous delay, Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve; In all the magnanimity of thought Resolves and re-resolves; then dies the same.
Page 187 - But Nature, in due course of time, once more Shall here put on her beauty and her bloom. "She leaves these objects to a slow decay, That what we are, and have been, may be known ; But at the coming of the milder day These monuments shall all be overgrown.
Page 74 - What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome?
Page 132 - tis madness to defer: Next day the fatal precedent will plead ; Thus on, till wisdom is push'd out of life. Procrastination is the thief of time ; Year after year it steals, till all are fled, And to the mercies of a moment leaves The vast concerns of an eternal scene.
Page 91 - Villiers lies — alas ! how changed from him, That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim ! Gallant and gay, in Cliveden's proud alcove, The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love ; Or just as gay at council, in a ring Of mimic statesmen and their merry King.
Page 189 - The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre, Observe degree, priority, and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, Office, and custom, in all line of order...
Page 96 - By a daisy whose leaves spread Shut when Titan goes to bed ; Or a shady bush or tree, She could more infuse in me, Than all Nature's beauties can, In some other wiser man.
Page 158 - Kate soon will be a woefu' woman! Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg, And win the key-stane of the brig; There, at them thou thy tail may toss, A running stream they dare na cross! But ere the key-stane she could make, The fient a tail she had to shake: For Nannie, far before the rest, Hard upon noble Maggie prest, And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle; But little wist she Maggie's mettle!
Page 193 - Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness in the brain.