The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 3Nichols and Son, 1816 - English literature |
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Page 4
... known by the term jo- cular and comick , is nothing but a turn of expres- sion , an airy phantom , that must be caught at a particular point . As we lose this point , we lose the jocularity , and find nothing but dulness in its place ...
... known by the term jo- cular and comick , is nothing but a turn of expres- sion , an airy phantom , that must be caught at a particular point . As we lose this point , we lose the jocularity , and find nothing but dulness in its place ...
Page 7
... known relating to the his- tory of comedy . Its beginnings are as comedy . obscure as those of tragedy , and there is an ap- pearance that we take these two words in a more extensive meaning ; they had both the same ori- ginal , that is ...
... known relating to the his- tory of comedy . Its beginnings are as comedy . obscure as those of tragedy , and there is an ap- pearance that we take these two words in a more extensive meaning ; they had both the same ori- ginal , that is ...
Page 11
... known . In which it may be par- * This history of the three ages of comedy , and their different characters , is taken in part from the valuable fragments of Platonius . + It will be shown how and in what sehse this was allowed ...
... known . In which it may be par- * This history of the three ages of comedy , and their different characters , is taken in part from the valuable fragments of Platonius . + It will be shown how and in what sehse this was allowed ...
Page 12
... known and real characters , so that they had now the advantage of giving a more exquisite gratification to the vanity of poets , and the malice of spectators . One had the refined pleasure of set- ting others to guess , and the other ...
... known and real characters , so that they had now the advantage of giving a more exquisite gratification to the vanity of poets , and the malice of spectators . One had the refined pleasure of set- ting others to guess , and the other ...
Page 16
... known ; what account we can give of it must therefore be had from his comedies . It can scarcely be said with certainty of what country he was : the invectives of his enemies so often called in question his qualification as a citizen ...
... known ; what account we can give of it must therefore be had from his comedies . It can scarcely be said with certainty of what country he was : the invectives of his enemies so often called in question his qualification as a citizen ...
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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.