The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected ...

Front Cover
W. Miller, 1808

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 82 - And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand.
Page 302 - I cannot do it without digression from my subject ; though it seems too strict at the first appearance, because it excludes all secret intrigues, which are the beauties of the modern stage ; for nothing can be carried on with privacy, when the Chorus is supposed to be always present. — But to proceed : I must say this to the advantage of painting, even above tragedy, that what this last represents in the space of many hours, the former shews us in one moment.
Page 207 - What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?' Remember how often Paul appeals to his holy, just, unblameable life.
Page 295 - ... are never to be made perfect, but always to be drawn with some specks of frailty and deficience ; such as they have been described to us in history, if they were real characters, or such as the poet began to shew them at their first appearance, if they were only fictitious or imaginary. The perfection of such stage-characters consists chiefly in their likeness to the deficient faulty nature, which is their original...
Page 282 - Current through ages, she would stamp for thine! Let friendship, as she caus'd, excuse the deed; With thee, and such as thee, she must succeed. But what, if fashion tempted Pope astray ? The witch has spells, and Jervas knew a day When mode-struck Belles and Beaux were proud to come And buy of him a thousand years of bloom.* Ev'n then I deem it but a venal crime : Perish alone that selfish sordid rhyme, Which flatters lawless sway, or tinsel pride ; Let black Oblivion plunge it in her tide.
Page 311 - ... cattle," says the Poet : or at best, the keepers of cattle for other men : they have nothing which is properly their own ; that is a sufficient mortification for me, while I am translating Virgil. But to copy the best author is a kind of praise if I perform it as I ought ; as a copy after Raphael is more to be commended than an original of any indifferent Painter. Under this head of invention is placed the disposition of the work, to put all things in a beautiful order and harmony, that the whole...
Page 290 - Beautiful Form. Neither is there any man of the present age equal in the strength, proportion, and knitting of his limbs, to the Hercules of Farnese, made by Glycon; or any woman who can justly be compared with the Medicean Venus of Cleomenes. And upon this account the noblest Poets and the best Orators, when they...
Page 305 - After all, it is a good thing to laugh at any rate ; and if a straw can tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness. Beasts can weep when they suffer, but they cannot laugh: and, as Sir William Davenant observes, in his Preface to Gondibert, " It is the wisdom of a government to permit plays, (he might have added farces,) as it is the prudence of a carter to put bells upon his horses to make them carry their burdens cheerfully.
Page 311 - Without invention, a painter is but a copier, and a poet but a plagiary of others. Both are allowed sometimes to copy, and translate ; but, as our author tells you, that is not the best part of their reputation. " Imitators are but a servile kind of cattle...
Page 325 - Strong and glowing colours are the just resemblances of bold metaphors, but both must be judiciously applied; for there is a difference betwixt daring and fool-hardiness. Lucan and Statius often ventured them too far ; our Virgil never. But the great defect of the Pharsalia and the Thebais was in the design; if that had been more perfect, we might have forgiven many of their bold strokes in the colouring, or at least excused them; yet some of them are such as Demosthenes or Cicero could not have...

Bibliographic information