Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, Volume 1Weeks, Jordan & Company, 1840 - English essays |
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Page 25
... a finished picture , or play for a mere passive listener . He sketches , and leaves others to fill up the outline . He VOL . I. 3 so clear a light that it The works of Milton strikes the key - note , and expects his hearer MILTON . 25.
... a finished picture , or play for a mere passive listener . He sketches , and leaves others to fill up the outline . He VOL . I. 3 so clear a light that it The works of Milton strikes the key - note , and expects his hearer MILTON . 25.
Page 27
... Plays . There are perhaps no two kinds of composition so essentially dissimilar , as the drama and the ode . The business of the dramatist is to keep himself out of sight , and to let nothing appear but his characters . As soon as he ...
... Plays . There are perhaps no two kinds of composition so essentially dissimilar , as the drama and the ode . The business of the dramatist is to keep himself out of sight , and to let nothing appear but his characters . As soon as he ...
Page 28
... plays , his works are absurd : considered as choruses , they are above all praise . If , for instance , we examine the address of Clytemnestra to Agamemnon on his return , or the de- scription of the seven Argive chiefs , by the ...
... plays , his works are absurd : considered as choruses , they are above all praise . If , for instance , we examine the address of Clytemnestra to Agamemnon on his return , or the de- scription of the seven Argive chiefs , by the ...
Page 29
... play . We cannot identify ourselves with the poet , as in a good ode . The conflicting in- gredients , like an acid and an alkali mixed , neutralize each other . We are by no means insensible to the merits of this celebrated piece , to ...
... play . We cannot identify ourselves with the poet , as in a good ode . The conflicting in- gredients , like an acid and an alkali mixed , neutralize each other . We are by no means insensible to the merits of this celebrated piece , to ...
Page 63
... good- breeding for which the court of Charles II . was celebrate d . But , if we must make our choice , we shall , like Bassanio * Gerusalemme Liberata , xv . 57 . in the play , turn from the specious caskets , MILTON . 63.
... good- breeding for which the court of Charles II . was celebrate d . But , if we must make our choice , we shall , like Bassanio * Gerusalemme Liberata , xv . 57 . in the play , turn from the specious caskets , MILTON . 63.
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absurd admiration appear army beauty Bunyan Catholic century character Charles Church civil conceive considered constitution critics Cromwell Dante Divine Comedy doctrines doubt Dryden Edinburgh Review effect eminent enemies England English evil excited executive government favor feelings genius Greeks Hallam Herodotus historians honor House human imagination imitation interest Italy King language less liberty literary literature lived Livy Long Parliament Lord Byron Machiavelli manner means ment merit Milton mind moral nature never noble opinion Othello Paradise Lost Parliament party passions peculiar persecution person Pilgrim's Progress poems poet poetry political Pope Prince principles produced Puritans reason reign religion rendered resembled respect Revolution Roundheads royal prerogative scarcely seems Shakspeare society sophisms Southey Southey's spirit statesmen Strafford strong style Tacitus talents taste thought Thucydides tion truth tyrant virtues wealth Whigs whole writers
Popular passages
Page 56 - Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom.
Page 137 - Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer; "why, I could act as well as he myself. I am sure if I had seen a ghost I should have looked in the very same manner, and done just as he did.
Page 73 - It is, to borrow his own majestic language, " a sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping symphonies.
Page 31 - But now my task is smoothly done: I can fly, or I can run Quickly to the green earth's end, Where the bowed welkin slow doth bend, And from thence can soar as soon To the corners of the moon. Mortals, that would follow me, Love Virtue; she alone is free. She can teach...
Page 227 - The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Page 21 - ... human actions, it is by no means certain that it would have been a good one. It is extremely improbable that it would have contained half so much able reasoning on the subject as is to be found in the Fable of the Bees.
Page 21 - fine frenzy " which he ascribes to the poet, — a fine frenzy doubtless, but still a frenzy. Truth, indeed, is essential to poetry ; but it is the truth of madness. The reasonings are just; but the premises are false. After the first suppositions have been made...
Page 255 - In favour and pre-eminence, yet fraught With envy against the Son of God, that day...
Page 23 - And, as the magic lantern acts best in a dark room, poetry effects its purpose most completely in a dark age. As the light of knowledge breaks in upon its exhibitions, as the outlines of certainty become more and more definite, and the shades of probability...
Page 26 - Milton cannot be comprehended or enjoyed unless the mind of the reader co-operate with that of the writer. He does not paint a finished picture or play for a mere passive listener. He sketches, and leaves others to fill up the outline. He strikes the key-note, and expects his hearer to make out the melody.