The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes. Illustrated with Notes, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author, Volume 4William Miller, 1808 - English literature |
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Common terms and phrases
Abdal ABDALLA Abdelm ABDELMELECH Aben ABENAMAR Abencerrages Almah Almahide Almanz Almanzor Amal Amalthea Arcos Arga ARGALEON Asca ASCANIO Aurelian beauty Ben Jonson Benito Benz Benzayda betwixt Boab BOABDELIN brave CAMILLO command confess Conquest of Granada court crown dare dear death DORALICE Dryden Duke Duke of ARCOS Enter Eubulus Exeunt Exit fate father favour fear fortune Fred give Guards HAMET hand happy haste hear heart heaven HERMOGENES honour hope JOHN DRYDEN king lady LAURA Leon Leonidas live look lovers Lucretia Lyndar LYNDARAXA madam MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE married MELANTHA mistress never night Ozmyn Pala Palamede Palm Palmyra pity play poet Poly prince queen revenge Rhodophil SCENE Selin shew soul speak stay sword tell thee there's thing thou art thought twas VIOLETTA virtue wife words Zegrys ZULEMA
Popular passages
Page 38 - I am as free as Nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran.
Page 229 - Melantha is as finished an impertinent as ever fluttered in a drawing-room, and seems to contain the most complete system of female foppery that could possibly be crowded into the tortured form of a fine lady.
Page 223 - The desire of imitating so great a pattern, first awakened the dull and heavy spirits of the English from their natural reservedness ; loosened them from their stiff forms of conversation ; and made them easy and pliant to each other in discourse. Thus, insensibly, our way of living became more free ; and the fire of the English wit, which was before stifled under a constrained, melancholy way of breeding, began first to display its force, by mixing the solidity of our nation with the air and gaiety...
Page 70 - If from thy hands alone my death can be, I am immortal, and a god to thee. If I would kill thee now, thy fate's so low, That I must stoop ere I can give the blow : But mine is fixed so far above thy crown, That all thy men, Piled on thy back, can never pull it down.
Page 222 - Now, if they ask me whence it is that our conversation is so much refined, I must freely, and without flattery, ascribe it to the Court; and, in it, particularly to the King, whose example gives a law to it.
Page 88 - But greatness cannot be without a slave. A monarch never can in private move. But still is haunted with officious love. So small an inconvenience you may bear; 'Tis all the fine Fate sets upon the fair. Almah. Yet princes may retire, whene'er they please, And breathe free air from out their palaces : They go sometimes unknown, to shun their state ; And then, 'tis manners not to know or wait.
Page 209 - It is therefore my part to make it clear that the language, wit, and conversation of our age are improved and refined above the last ; and then it will not be difficult to infer that our plays have received some part of those advantages.
Page 101 - And, when you would, impossible to do. If force could bend me, you might think, with shame, That I debased the blood from whence I came. My soul is soft, which you may gently lay In your loose palm; but, when 'tis pressed to stay, Like water, it deludes your grasp and slips away.
Page 28 - Under the shelter of so broad a shield. This is that hat, whose very sight did win ye To laugh and clap as though the devil were in ye. As then, for Nokes, so now I hope you'll be So dull, to laugh once more for love of me. " I'll write a play," says one, " for I have got A broad-brimmed hat, and waist-belt, towards a plot." Says t'other, " I have one more large than that.
Page 218 - He is the very Janus of poets ; he wears almost everywhere two faces; and you have scarce begun to admire the one, ere you despise the other.