Selected Prose Works of G.E. Lessing |
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according action actor Ćgisthus Ćneid ancient artists antique appear Aristotle awaken beauty become believe called Caylus certainly character comedy Corneille critic Dacier deemed Diderot dramatic Essex Euripides excite expression eyes fable father faults feel figure French genius Greek hand Herr Winckelmann Homer Hyginus idea Iliad imagination imitation invention Kresphontes Laokoon least less Maffei matter means Menander Merope Messene Moličre monument moral murderer nature never object pain painter painting passage passion Pausanias person personages Pheidias Philoktetes Philostratus picture Plautus play Pliny poet poetical poetry Polydorus Polyphontes prove quć queen reason regard render represent Death representation reversed torch Rodogune says scene shield skeleton Sleep Sophokles speak spectator Spence stage Statius suffering taste theatre thing thought tion Tournemine tragedy tragic translation true truth ugliness Virgil Voltaire whole Winckelmann wish words Zaire δὲ ἐν καὶ
Popular passages
Page 135 - But I, that am not shap'd for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty, To strut before a wanton ambling nymph: I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up ; And that so lamely and unfashionable, That dogs bark at me, as I halt by them...
Page 236 - Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue : but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines.
Page 236 - Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently ; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings...
Page 134 - The curiosity of nations to deprive me, For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take More composition and fierce quality, Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, Got 'tween asleep and wake?...
Page 99 - Optima torvae Forma bovis, cui turpe caput, cui plurima cervix, Et crurum tenus a mento palearia pendent; Tum longo nullus lateri modus ; omnia magna, Pes etiam, et camuris hirtae sub cornibus aures.
Page 135 - And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover. To entertain these fair well-spoken days, I am determined to prove a villain And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Page 441 - These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd, Make and maintain the balance of the mind: The lights and shades, whose well accorded strife Gives all the strength and colour of our life.
Page 119 - Quanto me' finger san pittori industri; Con bionda chioma lunga et annodata: Oro non č che piů risplenda e lustri. Spargeasi per la guancia delicata Misto color di rose e di ligustri: Di terso avorio era la fronte lieta, Che lo spazio finia con giusta meta.
Page 135 - Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them — Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to see my shadow in the sun And descant on mine own deformity.
Page 36 - ... bis medium amplexi, bis collo squamea circum terga dati, superant capite et cervicibus altis. ille simul manibus tendit divellere nodos, 220 perfusus sanie vittas atroque veneno, clamores simul horrendos ad sidera tollit : quales mugitus, fugit cum saucius aram taurus, et incertam excussit cervice securim.