Mr. Johnson's Preface to His Edition of Shakespear's PlaysJ. and R. Tonson, H. Woodfall, J. Rivington, R. Baldwin, L. Hawes, Clark and Collins, T. Longman, W. Johnston, T. Caslon, C. Corbet, T. Lownds, and the executors of B. Dodd, 1765 - 72 pages |
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action ariſe aſſiſtance authour becauſe beſt cauſe cenſure comedy comick compoſition confidered conjecture copies criticism curioſity cuſtoms defire deſign deſpiſe dialogue diftinguiſhed diligence diſcovered diſplay drama dramatick eaſily eaſy edition editor emendations endeavoured English errour eſtimate excellence exerciſed faid falſe fame feldom filent firſt fome fuch fuffered fure hiſtories human illuſtrate imitation impoſſible inſerted inſtruct intereſt juſt labour language laſt learning leaſt leſs mind modes moſt muſt nature neceſſary neral numbers obſcure obſerved paffions paſs paſſages paſſes paſſion perhaps perſonal peruſing Plautus plays pleaſe pleaſure poet Pope poſitions poſſible praiſe preſent preſerved propoſed publiſhed purpoſe queſtion racter raiſed reader reaſon repreſented reſt reſtoration ſame ſay ſcarce ſcenes ſeems ſenſe ſentence ſentiments Shakespeare ſhall ſhew ſhewn ſhould ſkill ſome ſometimes ſpeak ſpectator ſpeeches ſtage ſtand ſtate ſtory ſtudy ſubjects ſuch ſufficient ſupplied ſuppoſe ſyſtem theſe thoſe thour tion tragedy truth unſkilful uſe verſe Voltaire whoſe wiſh writers
Popular passages
Page xxiii - A quibble is the golden apple for which he will always turn aside from his career, or stoop from his elevation. A quibble, poor and barren as it is, gave him such delight that he was content to purchase it by the sacrifice of reason, propriety and truth. A quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it.
Page xxviii - It is credited, whenever it moves, as a just picture of a real original ; as representing to the auditor what he would himself feel, if he were to do or suffer what is there feigned to be suffered or to be done. The reflection that strikes the heart is not, that the evils before us are real evils, but that they are evils to which we ourselves may be exposed.
Page xliv - He has scenes of undoubted and perpetual excellence ; but perhaps not one play, which, if it were now exhibited as the work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion.
Page xxiii - A quibble is to Shakespeare what luminous vapours are to the traveller : he follows it at all adventures ; it is sure to lead him out of his way, and sure to engulf him in the mire.
Page v - THAT praises are without reason lavished on the dead, and that the honours due only to excellence are paid to antiquity, is a complaint likely to be always continued by those, who, being able to add nothing to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox ; or those, who, being forced by disappointment upon consolatory expedients, are willing to hope from posterity what the present age refuses, and flatter themselves that the regard which is yet denied by envy, will be at last bestowed by...
Page xxvi - The objection arising from the impossibility of passing the first hour at Alexandria and the next at Rome supposes that, when the play opens, the spectator really imagines himself at Alexandria, and believes that his walk to the theatre has been a voyage to Egypt, and that he lives in the days of Antony and Cleopatra. Surely he that imagines this may imagine more.
Page xvii - Shakespeare engaged in dramatick poetry with the world open before him ; the rules of the ancients were yet known to few; the publick judgment was unformed; he had no example of such fame as might force him upon imitation, nor criticks of such authority as might restrain his extravagance: he therefore indulged his natural disposition, and his disposition, as Rymer has remarked, led him to comedy.
Page xx - ... in the virtuous a disapprobation of the wicked. He carries his persons indifferently through right and wrong, and at the close dismisses them without further care, and leaves their examples to operate by chance. This fault the barbarity of his age cannot extenuate, for it is always a writer's duty to make the world better, and justice is a virtue independent on time or place.
Page viii - Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirrour of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world; by the peculiarities of studies or professions, which can operate but upon small numbers; or by the accidents of transient fashions or temporary opinions: they...