The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 3Nichols and Son, 1816 - English literature |
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Page 4
... force upon my present subject . Though ridicule , which is the business of comedy , be not less uniform in all times , than the passions which are moved by tragick compositions ; yet , if diversity of manners may sometimes disguise the ...
... force upon my present subject . Though ridicule , which is the business of comedy , be not less uniform in all times , than the passions which are moved by tragick compositions ; yet , if diversity of manners may sometimes disguise the ...
Page 5
... force of argument , we had never been told of the Trojan war . On the other side , Aristophanes is an author more considerable than one would imagine . The History of Greece could not pass over him , when it comes to touch upon the ...
... force of argument , we had never been told of the Trojan war . On the other side , Aristophanes is an author more considerable than one would imagine . The History of Greece could not pass over him , when it comes to touch upon the ...
Page 21
... force from his power of copying .. " His Misanthrope is , in my opinion , the most 66 66 complete , and likewise the most singular cha- " racter that has ever appeared upon the stage : " but the disposition of his comedies is always de ...
... force from his power of copying .. " His Misanthrope is , in my opinion , the most 66 66 complete , and likewise the most singular cha- " racter that has ever appeared upon the stage : " but the disposition of his comedies is always de ...
Page 35
... force and fire . Whe- ther they are right , or no , is another question ; all that I mean to advance is , that we are to fix it as a conclusion , that comick authors must grow obso- lete with the modes of life , if we admit any one age ...
... force and fire . Whe- ther they are right , or no , is another question ; all that I mean to advance is , that we are to fix it as a conclusion , that comick authors must grow obso- lete with the modes of life , if we admit any one age ...
Page 38
... force of time . The Muse of Moliere has almost made both of them forgotten , and would still be walking the stage , if the desire of novelty did not in time make us weary of that which we have too fre- quently admired . Those who have ...
... force of time . The Muse of Moliere has almost made both of them forgotten , and would still be walking the stage , if the desire of novelty did not in time make us weary of that which we have too fre- quently admired . Those who have ...
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Common terms and phrases
adventures Alcibiades amuse ancient appear Aristophanes Athenians Athens beauty censure CHAP character comedy comick considered Cratinus danger delight desire discovered easily endeavoured envy equally Eschylus Eupolis Euripides evil expect eyes favour fear felicity Floretta folly fortune genius give Greek Greek comedy happiness happy valley honour hope human imagination imitation Imlac inquire justly kind knowledge labour laugh learned less likewise Lilinet live mankind manner Menander ment merriment mind misery Moliere mountains nation nature Nekayah ness never NUMB observed once opinion OVID passed passions Pekuah perhaps perpetual Plato Plautus pleased pleasure Plutarch poet praise present prince PRINCE OF ABISSINIA princess publick racter Rasselas reason ridicule scarcely sentiments Socrates solitude sometimes Sophocles success suffered suppose surely taste terrour Thespis thing thought Tibullus tion tragedy tragick truth virtue weary wish writers
Popular passages
Page 301 - YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope ; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow ; attend to the history of Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia.
Page 388 - I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which perhaps prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth : those, that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little...
Page 330 - He must divest himself of the prejudices of his age or country ; he must consider right and wrong in their abstracted and invariable state ; he must disregard present laws and opinions, and rise to general and transcendental truths, which will always be the same...
Page 364 - The prince soon found that this was one of the sages whom he should understand less as he heard him longer. He therefore bowed and was silent; and the philosopher, supposing him satisfied and the rest vanquished, rose up and departed with the air of a man that had co-operated with the present system.
Page 128 - Just in the gate and in the jaws of hell, Revengeful Cares and sullen Sorrows dwell, And pale Diseases, and repining Age, Want, Fear, and Famine's unresisted rage; Here Toils, and Death, and Death's half-brother, Sleep, Forms terrible to view, their sentry keep; With anxious Pleasures of a guilty mind, Deep Frauds before, and open Force behind; The Furies' iron beds; and Strife, that shakes Her hissing tresses and unfolds her snakes.
Page 424 - Praise, said the sage, with a sigh, is to an old man an empty sound. I have neither mother to be delighted with the reputation of her son, nor wife to partake the honours of her husband.
Page 110 - The gates of hell are open night and day ; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way : But, to return, and view the cheerful skies — In this the task and mighty labour lies.
Page 300 - Johnson wrote it, that with the profits he might defray the expense of his mother's funeral, and pay some little debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over.
Page 309 - The old man was surprised at this new species of affliction, and knew not what to reply, yet was unwilling to be silent. "Sir," said he, " if you had seen the miseries of the world, you would know how to value your present state." " Now," said the prince, " you have given me something to desire ; I shall long to see the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is necessary to happiness.
Page 354 - He had now learned the power of money, and made his way by a piece of gold to the inner apartment, where he found the philosopher in a room half darkened, with his eyes misty, and his face pale. " Sir, said he, you are come at a time when all human friendship is useless ; what I suffer cannot be remedied, what I have lost cannot be supplied. My daughter, my only daughter, from whose tenderness I expected all the comforts of my age, died last night of a fever.