Lectures on the English Comic Writers |
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Page 20
... true or false , and on their incon- sistency with certain acknowledged maxims , whether right or wrong . It is , therefore , a fair test , if not a philosophical or abstract truth , at least of what is truth according to public opinion ...
... true or false , and on their incon- sistency with certain acknowledged maxims , whether right or wrong . It is , therefore , a fair test , if not a philosophical or abstract truth , at least of what is truth according to public opinion ...
Page 22
... true and false wit . Mr. Addison , indeed , goes so far as to make it the exclu- sive test of true wit that it will bear translation into another lan- guage , that is to say , that it does not depend at all on the form of expression ...
... true and false wit . Mr. Addison , indeed , goes so far as to make it the exclu- sive test of true wit that it will bear translation into another lan- guage , that is to say , that it does not depend at all on the form of expression ...
Page 23
... true analogies . A slight cause is sufficient to produce a slight effect . To be in- different or sceptical , requires no effort ; to be enthusiastic and in earnest , requires a strong impulse , and collective power . Wit and humour ...
... true analogies . A slight cause is sufficient to produce a slight effect . To be in- different or sceptical , requires no effort ; to be enthusiastic and in earnest , requires a strong impulse , and collective power . Wit and humour ...
Page 30
... true spirit of original genius , is , in my judgment , the master - piece of Molière . The set speeches in the original play , it is true , would not be borne on the English stage , nor indeed on the French , but that they are carried ...
... true spirit of original genius , is , in my judgment , the master - piece of Molière . The set speeches in the original play , it is true , would not be borne on the English stage , nor indeed on the French , but that they are carried ...
Page 38
... true and false pretensions to taste and elegance ; its lash is laid on with the utmost severity , to drive before it the common herd of knaves and fools , not to lacerate and terrify the single stragglers . In a word , it is when folly ...
... true and false pretensions to taste and elegance ; its lash is laid on with the utmost severity , to drive before it the common herd of knaves and fools , not to lacerate and terrify the single stragglers . In a word , it is when folly ...
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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.