 | Michael Werth Gelber - Literary Criticism - 2002 - 358 pages
...statement, which is always correct, graceful and clear, Dryden adds nobility and imaginative sweep: They have not the formality of a settled style, in...cold or languid; the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous: what is little is gay; what is great is splendid. 13 Johnson is clearly disturbed by Dryden's... | |
 | Benjamin Ifor Evans - English literature - 2006 - 520 pages
...Criticism, either didactic or defensive, occupies almost all his prose, except those pages which he has devoted to his patrons; but none of his prefaces were...cold or languid; the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous; what is little, is gay; what is great, is splendid. He may be thought to mention himself... | |
 | 62 pages
...first of May, 1700. Dryden's prefaces are justly famous. " None of his prefaces," says Dr Johnson, " were ever thought tedious. They have not the formality...cold or languid ; the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous; what is little, is gay; what is great, is splendid. He may be thought to mention himself... | |
 | Samuel Johnson - English poetry - 1821 - 474 pages
...formality of a settled style, in which the first half of the sentence betrays the other. The causes are never balanced, nor the periods modelled : every...cold or languid: the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous ; what is little, is gay ; what is great, is splendid. He may be thought to mention himself... | |
 | David Nichol Smith - DRYDEN, JOHN, 1631-1700 - 1966 - 112 pages
...better about Dryden whether as prose-writer or poet than Johnson did in his Life. The clauses [Tie saysj are never balanced, nor the periods modelled; every...into its proper place. Nothing is cold or languid; die whole is airy, animated, and vigorous. . . . Everything is excused by the play of images and the... | |
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They have not the formality of a settled style, in which the first half of the sentence betrays the other. The clauses are never balanced, nor the periods modelled : every word seems to drop by chance, though it falls into its proper place. Nothing is... 
