The plays of William Shakspeare, with the corrections and illustr. of various commentators, to which are added notes by S. Johnson and G. Steevens, revised and augmented by I. Reed, with a glossarial index, Volume 1

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Page 71 - I loved the man, and do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was (indeed) honest, and of an open and free nature ; had an excellent phantasy, brave notions and gentle expressions...
Page 348 - The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our stage ! My SHAKESPEARE rise ! I will not lodge thee by Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie A little further, to make thee a room : Thou art a monument without a tomb, And art alive still while thy book doth live And we have wits to read, and praise to give.
Page 350 - And joy'd to wear the dressing of his lines! Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit, As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit. The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes, Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please; But antiquated and deserted lie, As they were not of Nature's family.
Page 80 - Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught; leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge To prick and sting her.
Page 176 - Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect Coppie.
Page 116 - Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either tragedies or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind; exhibiting the real state of sublunary nature, which partakes of good and evil, joy and sorrow, mingled with endless variety of proportion and innumerable modes of combination...
Page 71 - Sufflaminandus erat,' as Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was in his own power ; would the rule of it had been so too ! Many times he fell into those things could not escape laughter, as when he said in the person of Caesar, one speaking to him,
Page 127 - The truth is, that the spectators are always in their senses, and know, from the first act to the last, that the stage is only a stage, and that the players are only players.
Page 273 - To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light 4 Go closely in with me.] ie secretly, privately. To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess.
Page 104 - IN the name of God, Amen. I William Shakspeare of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, gent. in perfect health, and memory, (God be praised!) do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following; that is to say: First, I commend my soul into the hands of God my creator, hoping, and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting; and my body to the earth whereof it is made.

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