The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.L. Hansard, 1806 |
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Page 5
... suffered my imagination to flatter me with any other encouragement , when I found that design had been thought by your Lordship of importance sufficient to attract your favour . my How far this unexpected distinction can be rated among ...
... suffered my imagination to flatter me with any other encouragement , when I found that design had been thought by your Lordship of importance sufficient to attract your favour . my How far this unexpected distinction can be rated among ...
Page 14
... suffered to increase it . When the orthography and pronunciation are adjusted , the etymology , or derivation , is next to be considered , and the words are to be distin guished according to the different classes , whether simple , as ...
... suffered to increase it . When the orthography and pronunciation are adjusted , the etymology , or derivation , is next to be considered , and the words are to be distin guished according to the different classes , whether simple , as ...
Page 31
... Dictionary of the English language , which , while it was employed in the cultivation of every species of literature , has itself been hi- therto neglected ; suffered to spread , under the direction Preface to the English Dictionary.
... Dictionary of the English language , which , while it was employed in the cultivation of every species of literature , has itself been hi- therto neglected ; suffered to spread , under the direction Preface to the English Dictionary.
Page 32
Samuel Johnson Arthur Murphy. therto neglected ; suffered to spread , under the direction of chance , into wild exuberance ; resign- ed to the tyranny of time and fashion ; and expo- sed to the corruptions of ignorance , and caprices of ...
Samuel Johnson Arthur Murphy. therto neglected ; suffered to spread , under the direction of chance , into wild exuberance ; resign- ed to the tyranny of time and fashion ; and expo- sed to the corruptions of ignorance , and caprices of ...
Page 46
... suffered to pass for empty sounds , of no other use than to fill a verse , or to modulate a period , but which are easily perceived in living tongues to have power and emphasis , though it be sometimes such as no other form of ...
... suffered to pass for empty sounds , of no other use than to fill a verse , or to modulate a period , but which are easily perceived in living tongues to have power and emphasis , though it be sometimes such as no other form of ...
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Popular passages
Page 85 - ... the real state of sublunary nature, which partakes of good and evil, joy and sorrow, mingled with endless variety of proportion and innumerable modes of combination, and expressing the course of the world, in which the loss of one is the gain of another; in which, at the same time, the reveler is hasting to his wine, and the mourner burying his friend...
Page 84 - He was inclined to show an usurper and a murderer not only odious but despicable; he therefore added drunkenness to his other qualities, knowing that kings love wine like other men, and that wine exerts its natural power upon kings. These are the petty cavils of petty minds; a poet overlooks the casual distinction of country and condition, as a painter, satisfied with the figure, neglects the drapery.
Page 99 - If there be any fallacy, it is not that we fancy the players, but that we fancy ourselves, unhappy for a moment ; but we rather lament the possibility than suppose the presence of misery, as a mother weeps over her babe when she remembers that death may take it from her. The delight of tragedy proceeds from our consciousness of fiction; if we thought murders and treasons real they would please no more.
Page 90 - The polite are always catching modish innovations, and the learned depart from established forms of speech in hope of finding or making better; those who wish for distinction forsake the vulgar when the vulgar is right. But there is a conversation above grossness and below refinement, where propriety resides and where this poet seems to have gathered his comic dialogue.
Page 94 - Not that always where the language is intricate the thought is subtle, or the image always great where the line is bulky; the equality of words to things is very often neglected, and trivial sentiments and vulgar ideas disappoint the attention, to which they are recommended by sonorous epithets and swelling figures.
Page 151 - Falstaff is a character loaded with faults, and with those faults which naturally produce contempt. He is a thief, and a glutton, a coward, and a boaster, always ready to cheat the weak, and prey upon the poor ; to terrify the timorous and insult the defenceless. At once obsequious and malignant, he satirises in their absence those whom he lives by flattering.
Page 102 - ... the enquiry, how far man. may extend his designs, or how high he may rate his native force, is of far greater dignity than in what rank we shall place any particular performance, curiosity is always busy to discover the instruments, as well as to survey the workmanship, to know how much is to be ascribed to original powers, and how much to casual and adventitious help.
Page 93 - In tragedy his performance seems constantly to be worse, as his labour is more. The effusions of passion which exigence forces out are for the most part striking and energetic; but whenever he solicits his invention, or strains his faculties, the offspring of his throes is tumour, meanness, tediousness, and obscurity.
Page 169 - The fiery openness of Othello, magnanimous, artless, and credulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent in his affection, inflexible in his resolution, and obdurate in his revenge ; the cool malignity of lago, silent in his resentment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his interest and his vengeance...
Page 82 - To bring a lover, a lady, and a rival into the fable ; to entangle them in contradictory obligations, perplex them with oppositions of interest, and harass them with violence of desires inconsistent with each other; to make them meet in rapture, and part in agony ; to fill their mouths with hyperbolical joy and outrageous sorrow ; to distress them as nothing human ever was distressed; to deliver them as nothing human ever was delivered; is the business of a modern dramatist. For this, probability...