Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces. ...T. Davies, 1774 |
Common terms and phrases
Affiftance againſt almoſt ancient arife Author becauſe beſt Boerhaave Cauſes Cenfure Compofition confidered Criticiſm Criticks Curiofity Defign defired Dictionary diftinct Diligence diſcover Dramatick eafily eafy English Epitaph eſtabliſhed ev'ry fafe faid fame feem feldom fent fhall fhew fhort fhould fince fingle firft firſt fome fometimes foon ftand ftill fuch fuffered fufficient fupplied fuppofe fupport fure Genius Harleian Library HERMAN BOERHAAVE Hiftory himſelf Honour hope increaſed Induſtry inferted inftruct itſelf juft juſt King Labour laft Language laſt Learning leaſt lefs leſs likewife Lord Mind moft moſt muft muſt myſelf Nature neceffary Number obfcure Obfervation Occafion Paffages paffed Paffion Perfons perhaps Plays pleafing pleaſe Pleaſure Poet Praiſe prefent preferved Profe publick publiſhed Purpoſe raiſed Reader Reaſon reft ſcarce ſeems Senfe Senſe Sfor Shakespeare ſhall ſome ſpeak thefe themſelves theſe thofe thoſe thought tion Tranflation underſtand univerfal uſed whofe Words Writers
Popular passages
Page 149 - All the images of nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously but luckily: when he describes anything you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learned; he needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inwards, and found her there.
Page 95 - THAT praises are without reason lavished on the dead, and that the honours due only to excellence are paid to antiquity, is a complaint likely to be always continued by those, who, being able to add nothing to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox...
Page 149 - He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the images of nature were still present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily : when he describes anything, you more than see it, you feel it too.
Page 103 - It is objected that by this change of scenes the passions are interrupted in their progression, and that the principal event, being not advanced by a due gradation of preparatory incidents, wants at last the power to move which constitutes the perfection of dramatic poetry.
Page 131 - ... indulgence. Let us now be told no more of the dull duty of an editor.
Page 104 - Tragedy was not in those times a poem of more general dignity or elevation than comedy; it required only a calamitous conclusion, with which the common criticism of that age was satisfied, whatever lighter pleasure it afforded in its progress.
Page 120 - The work of a correct and regular writer is a garden accurately formed and diligently planted, varied with shades, and scented with flowers; the composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend their branches, and pines tower in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelter to myrtles and to roses ; filling the eye with awful pomp, and gratifying the mind with endless diversity.
Page 96 - As among the works of nature no man can properly call a river deep, or a mountain high, without the knowledge of many mountains, • and many rivers; so in the productions of genius, nothing can be styled excellent till it has been compared with other works of the same kind.
Page 143 - ... mere improvement of the sense. For though much credit is not due to the fidelity, nor any to the judgment of the first publishers, yet they who had the copy before their eyes were more likely to read it right than we who read it only by imagination.
Page 136 - ; of whom one ridicules his errors with airy petulance, suitable enough to the levity of the controversy ; the other attacks them with gloomy malignity, as if he were dragging to justice an assassin or incendiary. The one stings like a fly, sucks a little blood, takes a gay flutter, and returns for more; the other bites like a viper, and would be glad to leave inflammations and gangrene behind him.