The works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 51824 |
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Page 65
... tragedy . It may be affirmed , without any encomiastick fervour , that he brought to his poetick labours a mind replete with learning , and that his pages are embellished with all the ornaments which books could supply ; that he was the ...
... tragedy . It may be affirmed , without any encomiastick fervour , that he brought to his poetick labours a mind replete with learning , and that his pages are embellished with all the ornaments which books could supply ; that he was the ...
Page 107
... tragedy , beginning with the first ten lines of Satan's address to the Sun. These mysteries consist of allegorical per- sons ; such as Justice , Mercy , Faith . Of the tra- gedy or mystery of " Paradise Lost " there are two plans : The ...
... tragedy , beginning with the first ten lines of Satan's address to the Sun. These mysteries consist of allegorical per- sons ; such as Justice , Mercy , Faith . Of the tra- gedy or mystery of " Paradise Lost " there are two plans : The ...
Page 117
... tragedy . Voltaire tells a wild and unauthorized story of a farce seen by Milton in Italy , which opened thus : Let the Rainbow be the Fiddlestick of the Fiddle of Heaven . It has been already shown , that the first conception was of a ...
... tragedy . Voltaire tells a wild and unauthorized story of a farce seen by Milton in Italy , which opened thus : Let the Rainbow be the Fiddlestick of the Fiddle of Heaven . It has been already shown , that the first conception was of a ...
Page 129
... tragedy written in imitation of the Ancients , and never designed by the author for the stage . As these poems were published by another bookseller , it has been ask- ed , whether Simmons was discouraged from receiv- ing them by the ...
... tragedy written in imitation of the Ancients , and never designed by the author for the stage . As these poems were published by another bookseller , it has been ask- ed , whether Simmons was discouraged from receiv- ing them by the ...
Page 165
... tragedies , with their en- cumbrance of a chorus , to the exhibitions of the French and English stages ; and it is ... tragedy are however many particular beauties , many just sentiments and striking lines ; but it wants that power of ...
... tragedies , with their en- cumbrance of a chorus , to the exhibitions of the French and English stages ; and it is ... tragedy are however many particular beauties , many just sentiments and striking lines ; but it wants that power of ...
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Common terms and phrases
Absalom and Achitophel admired Æneid afterwards ancients appears beauties better blank verse cæsura called censure character Charles Charles Dryden Comus considered Cowley criticism death delight diction dramatick Dryden Duke Earl elegance English epick Euripides excellence fancy favour friends genius Heaven heroick honour Hudibras images imagination imitation Jacob Tonson John Dryden Juvenal kind King knowledge known labour Lady language Latin learning lines Lord Lord Roscommon Milton mind nature never NIHIL numbers opinion Paradise Lost Paradise Regained Parliament passions perhaps perusal Philips Pindar play pleasure poem poet poetical poetry pounds praise preface produced publick published reader reason relates remarks reputation rhyme satire says seems sentiments shew shewn sometimes Sprat style supposed thee thing thou thought tion tragedy translation truth Tyrannick Love verses versification Virgil virtue Waller words write written wrote
Popular passages
Page 72 - O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o'er-flowing full.
Page 161 - The want of human interest is always felt. Paradise Lost is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is. Its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure. We read Milton for instruction, retire harassed and overburdened, and look elsewhere for recreation ; we desert our master, and seek for companions.
Page 34 - To move, but doth, if th' other do. And though it in the centre sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans, and hearkens after it, And grows erect as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must Like th' other foot, obliquely run ; Thy firmness makes my circles just, And makes me end where I begun.
Page 18 - Their thoughts are often new but seldom natural; they are not obvious but neither are they just; and the reader, far from wondering that he missed them, wonders more frequently by what perverseness of industry they were ever found.
Page 59 - His spear, — to equal which, the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great ammiral, were but a wand...
Page 147 - It is a drama in the epic style, inelegantly splendid, and tediously instructive. The Sonnets were written in different parts of Milton's life, upon different occasions. They deserve not any particular criticism; for of the best it can only be said, that they are not bad; and perhaps only the eighth and the twenty-first are truly entitled to this slender commendation.
Page 385 - 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.
Page 142 - Among the flocks and copses and flowers appear the heathen deities, Jove and Phoebus, Neptune and /Eolus, with a long train of mythological imagery, such as a College easily supplies. Nothing can less display knowledge or less exercise invention than to tell how a shepherd has lost his companion and must now feed his flocks alone, without any judge of his skill in piping; and how one god asks another god what is become of Lycidas, and how neither god can tell. He who thus grieves will excite no sympathy;...
Page 200 - At the moment in which he expired, he uttered, with an energy of voice that expressed the most fervent devotion, two lines of his own version of Dies Ira : My God, my Father, and my Friend, Do not forsake me in my end.
Page 168 - The variety of pauses, so much boasted by the lovers of blank verse, changes the measures of an English poet to the periods of a declaimer ; and there are only a few skilful and happy readers of Milton, who enable their audience to perceive where the lines end or begin. Blank verse, said an ingenious critic, seems to be verse only to the eye.