The Beauties of Shakspeare Regularly Selected from Each Play: With a General Index, Digesting Them Under Proper Heads (Classic Reprint)Excerpt from The Beauties of Shakspeare Regularly Selected From Each Play: With a General Index, Digesting Them Under Proper Heads I slam. Not attem'p't anzul'abored encomiums on Shaman, to set rth perfections, at a time when such universal and just applause is paid him, and when every tongue ts big with his boundless fame. He himself tells us, To 'ld refined ld, to paint the lily, ' To ow a e me on the violet, smooth 0 ice, or add mother hue Unto the rainbow, or with wiper-light To seek the beauteous eye 0 beav n to'garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. And wasteful and ridiculous indeed it would be, to say raise, when presenting the world with saunas as perhaps is no where to be met With, and, I may very safely aflirm, cannot be parallelet from the productions of any other single author, ancient or modern. E is scarcely a topic, common with other writers, on which be has not excelled them all; there are many nobly peculiar to unrivalled, and, like the eagle, proper emblem of his dar' \genius, soars beyond the common Nsch, andgaus undazzle on the sun. His flights are sometinms to hold, frigid criticism almost dares to disapprove them; and 'hose narrow minds which are incapable of elevating their ideas t0 the sublimity of their author's, are willing to bring them down lo a level with their own. Hence many fine passages have condemned in Shakspeare, as rant and fustian, intolerable but, and turgid nonsense, which, if read with the least glow of same im ation that warmed the writer's bosom, would 5100 in the of sublimity, and obtain the commendations of Longinus. And, unless some of the same spirit that elevated the M, elevate the reader too, he must not presume to talk of taste he will prove a languid reader, an indlfl'erent far more indid'erent critic and commentator. Time since I first proposed publishing this collection; f shakspeare was ever, of all modern authors, my chief favour and during m relaxations from my more severe and neces undies at col age, I never omitted to read and indulge myself In the rapturous flights of this delightfiil and sweetest child of he}: and when my im 'nation has been heated by the our of his ligcommonm. Have never failed to lament. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. |