A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature |
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Page 14
... plays handed down among the Greeks and Romans were abolished , partly from their reference to heathen ideas , and partly because they had degenerated into the most impudent and indecent immorality ; and they were not again revived till ...
... plays handed down among the Greeks and Romans were abolished , partly from their reference to heathen ideas , and partly because they had degenerated into the most impudent and indecent immorality ; and they were not again revived till ...
Page 15
... plays ( nataks ) hitherto known to us is the delightful Sakontala , which , notwith- standing the colouring of a foreign climate , bears in its general structure such a striking resemblance to our romantic drama , that we might be ...
... plays ( nataks ) hitherto known to us is the delightful Sakontala , which , notwith- standing the colouring of a foreign climate , bears in its general structure such a striking resemblance to our romantic drama , that we might be ...
Page 21
... plays favourably received throughout Europe , overflowing with ebullitions of good - heartedness and traits of magnanimity , and in which , notwithstanding , a mind of any penetration could not mistake the concealed aim of the writer to ...
... plays favourably received throughout Europe , overflowing with ebullitions of good - heartedness and traits of magnanimity , and in which , notwithstanding , a mind of any penetration could not mistake the concealed aim of the writer to ...
Page 31
... play was of course interrupted ; and they would much rather expose themselves to an accidental inconvenience , than , by ... plays certainly were . To have covered in the scene itself , and imprisoned gods and heroes in dark and gloomy ...
... play was of course interrupted ; and they would much rather expose themselves to an accidental inconvenience , than , by ... plays certainly were . To have covered in the scene itself , and imprisoned gods and heroes in dark and gloomy ...
Page 33
... played a principal or under part , as in the first case he came in at the main entrance , and in the second , at the ... play- ers were supposed to come : and it might naturally happen , that the principal characters were in a situation ...
... played a principal or under part , as in the first case he came in at the main entrance , and in the second , at the ... play- ers were supposed to come : and it might naturally happen , that the principal characters were in a situation ...
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Common terms and phrases
acquainted action admiration Agamemnon allowed altogether ancient appears Aristophanes Aristotle beauty Ben Jonson Cæsar Calderon character chorus circumstances Clytemnestra comic writers composition considered Corneille critics degree dignity display dramatic art dramatic poet effect Electra elevation endeavours English entertainment Eschylus Eumenides Euripides everything exhibited expression favour feeling foreign French tragedy give Goethe Grecian Greek tragedy Greeks Hence heroes heroic honour human idea imagination imitation intrigue invention Julius Cæsar labour language Lope de Vega manner masks means Menander merely Metastasio mind modern Molière moral nations nature never noble object observe old comedy Orestes original passion peculiar persons picture pieces Plautus players plays poet poetical poetry possess produce Racine representation resemblance respect Roman scene sentiments Shakspeare Shakspeare's Sophocles Spanish Spanish poetry species spectators spirit stage talent taste theatre theatrical things tion tone tragic true unity verse Voltaire whole
Popular passages
Page 334 - Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word, Macduff is fled to England. Macb. Fled to England ? Len. Ay, my good lord. Macb. Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits : The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, Unless the deed go with it : from this moment, The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand.
Page 323 - Yet nature is made better by no mean But nature makes that mean : so, over that art Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race : this is an art Which does mend nature, change it rather, but The art itself is nature.
Page 301 - element,' but the word is over-worn. \Exit. Vio. This fellow is wise enough to play the fool ; And to do that well craves a kind of wit : He must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time, And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye.
Page 196 - Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream : The genius, and the mortal instruments, Are then in council; and the state of man, Like to a little kingdom, suffers then The nature of an insurrection.
Page 282 - How absolute the knave is ! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it ; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe. How long hast thou been a grave-maker? First Clo. Of all the days i' the year, I came to 't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.
Page 298 - ... properties subsist in him peaceably together. The world of spirits and nature have laid all their treasures at his feet: in strength a demi-god, in profundity of view a prophet, in all-seeing wisdom a guardian spirit of a higher order, he lowers himself to mortals as if unconscious of his superiority, and is as open and unassuming as a child.
Page 325 - By the manner in which he has handled it, it has become a glorious song of praise on that inexpressible feeling which ennobles the soul and gives to it its highest sublimity, and which elevates even the senses themselves into soul...
Page 323 - Say there be ; Yet nature is made better by no mean But nature makes that mean : so, over that art Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes.
Page 294 - And yet Johnson has objected to Shakespeare, that his pathos is not always natural and free from affectation. There are, it is true, passages, though, comparatively speaking, very few, where his poetry exceeds the bounds of true dialogue, where a too soaring imagination, a too luxuriant wit, rendered the complete dramatic forgetfulness of himself impossible. With this exception, the censure originates only in a fanciless way of thinking, to which everything appears unnatural that does not suit its...
Page 300 - Shakespear's comic talent is equally wonderful with that which he has shown in the pathetic and tragic : it stands on an equal elevation, and possesses equal extent and profundity. All that I before wished was, not to admit that the former preponderated. He is highly inventive in comic situations and motives. It will be hardly possible to show whence he has taken any of them ; whereas in the serious part of his drama, he has generally laid hold of something already known. His comic characters are...