The Works of Samuel Johnson ...: Miscellaneous piecesTalboys and Wheeler, 1825 |
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Page 113
... force of his comick scenes has suffered little dimi- nution from the changes made by a century and a half , in manners or in words . As his personages act upon princi- ples arising from genuine passion , very little modified by ...
... force of his comick scenes has suffered little dimi- nution from the changes made by a century and a half , in manners or in words . As his personages act upon princi- ples arising from genuine passion , very little modified by ...
Page 115
... force upon him , and apparently rejects those exhibitions which would be more affecting , for the sake of those which are more easy . It may be observed , that in many of his plays the latter part is evidently neglected . When he found ...
... force upon him , and apparently rejects those exhibitions which would be more affecting , for the sake of those which are more easy . It may be observed , that in many of his plays the latter part is evidently neglected . When he found ...
Page 117
... forces out , are , for the most part , striking and ener- getick ; but whenever he solicits his invention , or strains his faculties , the offspring of his throes is tumour , mean- ness , tediousness , and obscurity . In narration he ...
... forces out , are , for the most part , striking and ener- getick ; but whenever he solicits his invention , or strains his faculties , the offspring of his throes is tumour , mean- ness , tediousness , and obscurity . In narration he ...
Page 119
... mind revolts from evident falsehood , and fiction loses its force when it departs from the resemblance of reality . From the narrow limitation of time necessarily arises the contraction of place . The spectator , who knows SHAKESPEARE .
... mind revolts from evident falsehood , and fiction loses its force when it departs from the resemblance of reality . From the narrow limitation of time necessarily arises the contraction of place . The spectator , who knows SHAKESPEARE .
Page 122
... force to the soliloquy of Cato ? A play read , affects the mind like a play acted . It is , therefore , evident , that the action is not supposed to be real ; and it follows , that between the acts a longer or shorter time may be ...
... force to the soliloquy of Cato ? A play read , affects the mind like a play acted . It is , therefore , evident , that the action is not supposed to be real ; and it follows , that between the acts a longer or shorter time may be ...
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ancient appear Aristophanes Athenians Athens attempt Banquo beauty better censure character comedy comick common considered copy corruption Cratinus criticism curiosity degree dictionary died hereafter diligence discovered drama easily editions elegance endeavoured English equally errour Essay Eupolis Euripides excellence exhibit favour genius Gentleman's Magazine give Greek comedy happy Harleian library Henry honour hope human imagined imitation inquire judgment justly kind king knowledge known labour language learned less likewise lord Macbeth mankind manner means Menander ment mind Molière nation nature necessary neral never NOTE obscure observed occasion opinion Paradise Lost particular passage passions perhaps Plato Plautus play Plutarch poet Portuguese praise produced publick racters reader reason Roman scenes sense sentiments Shakespeare sometimes Sophocles suffered sufficient supposed things thought tion tragedy tragick truth words writers written
Popular passages
Page 90 - She should have died hereafter ; There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death.
Page 67 - Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty...
Page 67 - Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear ; And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown'd withal.
Page 72 - Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder, Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it.
Page 153 - I cannot say he is everywhere alike; were he so, I should do him injury to compare him with the greatest of mankind. He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating into clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great when some great occasion is presented to him...
Page 174 - Cordelia to perish in a just cause, contrary to the natural ideas of justice, to the hope of the reader, and, what is yet more strange, to the faith of chronicles.
Page 73 - The night has been unruly : where we lay, Our chimneys were blown down : and, as they say, Lamentings heard i...
Page 110 - Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either tragedies or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind; exhibiting the real state of sublunary nature, which partakes of good and evil, joy and sorrow, mingled with endless variety of proportion and innumerable modes of combination ; and expressing the course of the world, in which the loss of one is the gain of another; in which, at the same time, the reveller is hasting to his wine, and the mourner burying his friend...
Page 440 - My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
Page 124 - Every man's performances, to be rightly estimated, must be compared with the state of the age in which he lived, and with his own particular opportunities...