Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets: Dryden

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J. Nichols, 1779 - English poetry

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Page 214 - To see this fleet upon the ocean move, Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies; And heaven, as if there wanted lights above, For tapers made two glaring comets rise.
Page 253 - As only buz to Heaven with evening wings ; Strike in the dark, offending but by chance ; Such are the blindfold blows of Ignorance : They know not beings,, and but hate a name ; To them the Hind and Panther are the same.
Page 239 - From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: When nature underneath a heap of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high, Arise ye more than dead. Then cold and hot, and moist and dry, In order to their stations leap, And music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in man.
Page 178 - Of him that knows much, it is natural to suppose that he has read with diligence ; yet I rather believe that the knowledge of Dryden was gleaned from accidental intelligence and various conversation, by a quick apprehension, a judicious selection, and a happy memory, a keen appetite of knowledge, and a powerful digestion...
Page 190 - He is to exhibit his author's thoughts in such a dress of diction as the author would have given them, had his language been English...
Page 274 - Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight ; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good in vain, which the reader throws away. He only is the master, who keeps the mind in pleasing captivity...
Page 164 - To judge rightly of an author, we must transport ourselves to his time, and examine what were the wants of his contemporaries, and what were his means of supplying them.
Page 254 - Proffering the Hind to wait her half the way: That, since the sky was clear, an hour of talk Might help her to beguile the tedious walk. With much good-will the motion was embrac'd...
Page 248 - A milk-white Hind, immortal and unchang'd, Fed on the lawns, and, in the forest rang'd : Without unspotted, innocent within, She fear'd no danger, for she knew no sin. Yet had she oft been chas'd with horns and hounds, And Scythian shafts, and many winged wounds Aim'd at her heart ; was often forc'd to fly, And doom'd to death, though fated not to die.
Page 185 - There was therefore before the time of Dryden no poetical diction, no system of words at once refined from the grossness of domestic use, and free from the harshness of terms appropriated to particular arts. Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet.

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