The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: The lives of the most eminent English poets

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J. Buckland [and 40 others], 1787

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Seite 396 - This tranfgreffion of regularity was by himfelf and his admirers termed greatnefs of foul. But a great mind difdains to hold any thing by courtefy, and therefore never ufurps what a lawful claimant may take away, He that encroaches on another's dignity, puts himfelf in his power; he is either repelled with helplefs
Seite 87 - wickednefs often profpers in real life, the poet is certainly at liberty to give it profperity on the ftage. For if poetry has an imitation of reality, how are its laws broken by exhibiting the world in its true form ? The Stage may fometimes gratify our wifhes; but, if it be truly the mirror of
Seite 84 - of Addifon's genius. Of a work fo much read, it is difficult to fay any thing new. About things on which the publick thinks long, it commonly attains to think right; and of Cato it has been not unjuftly determined, that it is rather a poem in dialogue than a drama,
Seite 381 - made; It was read by the high and the low, the learned and illiterate. Criticifm was for a while loft in wonder ; no rules of judgement were applied to a book written in open defiance of truth and regularity. But when diftinctions came to be made, the part which gave leaft
Seite 236 - E. IT has been obferved in all ages, that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happinefs ; and that thofe whom the fplendour of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the fummits of human life, have not often given anyjuft
Seite 194 - as love writing for writing fake, & w d rather fhow their own Fine Parts, y" Report the valuable ones of any other man. So the Elegy I renounce. I condole with you from my heart, on the lofs of fo worthy a man, and a Friend to us both. Now he is gone, I
Seite 331 - The fcheme propofed for this happy and independent fubfiftence was, that he fhould retire into Wales, and receive an allowance of fifty pounds a year, to be raifed by a fubfcription, on which he was to live privately in a cheap place, without afpiring any more to affluence, -or having any farther care of reputation. This
Seite 68 - To this the lords would naturally agree; and the king, who was yet little acquainted with his own prerogative, and, as is now well known, almoft indifferent to the poffeffions of the Crown, had been perfuaded to confent. The only difficulty was found among the commons, who were not likely to approve the perpetual
Seite 203 - jefts. Furthermore, it drove out of England (for ** that feafon) the Italian Opera, which had carried all " before it for ten years." Of this performance, when it was printed, the reception was different, according to the different opinion of its readers. Swift commended it for the excellence of its morality, as a piece that placed all kinds of vice in
Seite 40 - Latin, and therefore his profeffion of regard was probably the effect of his civility rather than approbation. Three of his Latin poems are upon fubjects on which perhaps he would not have ventured to have written in his own language. The Battle of tie

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