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

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Page 85 - And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria : for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.
Page 84 - 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. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.
Page 282 - With thee on Raphael's monument I mourn, Or wait inspiring dreams at Maro's urn : With thee repose where Tully once was laid...
Page 323 - Preserved; but I must bear this testimony to his memory, that the passions are truly touched in it, though, perhaps there is somewhat to be desired both in the grounds of them, and in the height and elegance of expression ; but nature is there, which is the greatest beauty.
Page 325 - Friar, as fond as otherwise I am of it, from this imputation ; for though the comical parts are diverting, and the serious moving, yet they are of an unnatural mingle : for mirth and gravity destroy each other, and are no more to be allowed for decent, than a gay widow laughing in a mourning habit.
Page 314 - Painter should be conformable to the text of ancient authors, to the custom and the times ;" and this is exactly the same in Poetry : Homer and Virgil are to be our guides in the Epic ; Sophocles and Euripides in Tragedy ; in all things we are to imitate the customs and the times of those persons and things which we represent : not to make new rules of the Drama, as Lopez de Vega has attempted unsuccessfully to do, but to be content to follow our masters, who understood nature better than we.
Page 209 - 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 297 - The perfection of such stage-characters consists chiefly in their likeness to the deficient faulty nature, which is their original ; only, as it is observed more at large hereafter, in such cases there will always be found a better likeness and a worse, and the better is constantly to be chosen ; I mean in tragedy, which represents the figures of the highest form amongst mankind. Thus in portraits, the painter will not take that side of the face, which...
Page 313 - ... 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 324 - Poetry : in the character of an hero, as well as in an inferior figure, there is a better or worse likeness to be taken ; the better is a panegyric, if it be not false, and the worse is a libel. Sophocles, says Aristotle, always drew men as they ought to be; that is, better than they were. Another, whose name I have forgotten, drew them worse than naturally they were. Euripides altered nothing in the character, but made them such as they were represented by History, Epic Poetry, or Tradition. Of...

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