The works of the English poets. With prefaces, biographical and critical, by S. Johnson, Volum 21790 |
Frases i termes més freqüents
againſt almoſt anſwer becauſe caufe cenfure Charles Dryden compofition confeffed confidered converfation criticiſm criticks defign defired diſcover dramatick Dryden duke Duke of Lerma eafily Earl elegant Engliſh excellence fafe faid fame fatire favour fays fecond feems feldom fenfe fent fentiments ferved fhall fhew fhould fince firft firſt fome fomething fometimes foon ftyle fubject fuch fuffer fupply fuppofed fure genius himſelf honour intereft itſelf John Dryden Juvenal King labour Lady laft laſt leaſt lefs Lord Lord Conway mind moft moſt muft muſt neceffary never numbers obferved occafion paffages paffions perfon perhaps play pleafing pleaſe pleaſure poem poet poetical poetry praife praiſe preface prefent profe publick publiſhed purpoſe racter raiſe reaſon reft reprefented rhyme ſays ſeems ſhall ſhould ſome Sophocles ſtudy ſuppoſed thefe themſelves theſe thing thofe thoſe thought tion tragedy tranflation Tyrannick Love uſe verfes verfion verſes Virgil Waller whofe whoſe writing written
Passatges populars
Pàgina 263 - 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. Then cold and hot, and moist and dry, In order to their stations leap, And music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began : From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in man.
Pàgina 232 - 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 cold or languid; the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous; what is little, is gay; what is great, is splendid.
Pàgina 222 - To judge rightly of an author, we must transport ourselves to his time, and examine what were the wants of his contemporaries, and what were his means of supplying them.
Pàgina 247 - Peace is not freed from labour, but from noise ; And war more force, but not more pains employs...
Pàgina 284 - Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight ; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good in vain, which the reader throws away. He only is the master, who keeps the mind in pleasing captivity; whose pages are perused with eagerness, and in hope of new pleasure are perused again ; and whose conclusion is perceived with an eye of sorrow, such as the traveller casts upon departing day.
Pàgina 251 - Which, flank'd with rocks, did close in covert lie ; And round about their murdering cannon lay, At once to threaten and invite the eye. Fiercer than cannon, and than rocks more hard, The English undertake th' unequal war : Seven ships alone, by which the port is barr'd, Besiege the Indies, and all Denmark dare.
Pàgina 47 - There needs no more be said to extol the excellence and power of his wit, and pleasantness of his conversation, than that it was of magnitude enough to cover a world of very great faults; that is, so to cover them, that they were not taken notice of to his reproach, viz..
Pàgina 222 - Learning once made popular is no longer learning ; it has the appearance of something which we have bestowed upon ourselves, as the dew appears to rise from the field which it refreshes.
Pàgina 66 - The topics of devotion are few, and being few are universally known ; but, few as they are, they can be made no more ; they can receive no grace from novelty of sentiment, and very little from novelty of expression.
Pàgina 68 - The ideas of Christian theology are too simple for eloquence, too sacred for fiction, and too majestic for ornament; to recommend them by tropes and figures, is to magnify by a concave mirror the sidereal hemisphere.