The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, Esq: Containing All His Original Poems, Tales, and Translations ...

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J. and R. Tonson, 1767 - English poetry

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Page 263 - Look round the habitable world, how few Know their own good, or knowing it pursue.
Page 204 - ... him those manners which are familiar to us. But I defend not this innovation; it is enough if I can excuse it. For (to speak sincerely) the manners of nations and ages are not to be confounded; we should either make them English or leave them Roman.
Page 134 - I had intended to have put in practice, though far unable for the attempt of such a poem, and to have left the stage, to which my genius never much inclined me, for a work which would have taken up my life in the performance of it. This too I had intended chiefly for the honour of my native country, to which a poet is particularly obliged.
Page 134 - King Arthur conquering the Saxons, which, being farther distant in time, gives the greater scope to my invention; or that of Edward the Black Prince, in subduing Spain, and restoring it to the lawful prince, though a great tyrant, Don Pedro the cruel...
Page 105 - till all the matter gone The flames no more ascend; for Earth supplies...
Page 126 - ... words may then be laudably revived, when either they are more sounding or more significant than those in practice ; and when their obscurity is taken away, by joining other words to them which clear the sense, according to the rule of Horace, for the admission of new words.
Page 177 - Scaliger says, only shows his white teeth, he cannot provoke me to any laughter. His urbanity, that is, his good manners, are to be commended, but his wit is faint; and his salt, if I may dare to say so, almost insipid.
Page 125 - But Prince Arthur, or his chief patron Sir Philip Sidney, whom he intended to make happy by the marriage of his Gloriana, dying before him, deprived the poet both of means and spirit to accomplish his design.
Page 281 - That all things weighs, and nothing can admire : That dares prefer the toils of Hercules To dalliance, banquet, and ignoble ease.
Page 267 - Nothing of this ; but our old Caesar sent A noisy letter to his parliament. Nay, sirs, if Caesar writ, I ask no more ; He's guilty, and the question's out of door. How goes the mob ? (for that's a mighty thing,) When the king's trump, the mob are for the king : They follow fortune, and the common cry Is still against the rogue condemn'd to die. But the same very mob, that rascal crowd, Had cried Sejanus, with a shout as loud, Had his designs (by fortune's favour blest) Succeeded, and the prince's...

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