An Essay on Comedy: And the Uses of the Comic Spirit |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 26
Page 21
... light of Athene over the head of Achilles ' without reminding us that the source of his figure is the Iliad . Or again , he writes a page and a half on two comedies of Augier with- out naming either them or their author . His style may ...
... light of Athene over the head of Achilles ' without reminding us that the source of his figure is the Iliad . Or again , he writes a page and a half on two comedies of Augier with- out naming either them or their author . His style may ...
Page 22
... light , storm , with magic truth and fasci- nation for background and illumination to his stage . He lived at every hour of day and night with all the sounds and shades of nature open to his sensitive perception . These di- vine and ...
... light , storm , with magic truth and fasci- nation for background and illumination to his stage . He lived at every hour of day and night with all the sounds and shades of nature open to his sensitive perception . These di- vine and ...
Page 77
... light for them . It is but one step from being agelastic to misogelastic , and the mobyeλws , the laughter - hating , soon learns to dignify his dislike as an objection in morality . 5 We have another class of men who are pleased to ...
... light for them . It is but one step from being agelastic to misogelastic , and the mobyeλws , the laughter - hating , soon learns to dignify his dislike as an objection in morality . 5 We have another class of men who are pleased to ...
Page 78
... light of Athene over the head of Achilles illuminates the birth of Greek tragedy . But comedy rolled in shouting under the divine 15 protection of the Son of the Wine - jar , as Dionysus is made to proclaim himself by Aristophanes . Our ...
... light of Athene over the head of Achilles illuminates the birth of Greek tragedy . But comedy rolled in shouting under the divine 15 protection of the Son of the Wine - jar , as Dionysus is made to proclaim himself by Aristophanes . Our ...
Page 80
... ponderousness shall fail to rec- ognize him in that light and airy shape . When she has frolicked through her five acts , to surprise you with the information that Mr. Aimwell is converted by a sudden death in 80 THE IDEA OF COMEDY.
... ponderousness shall fail to rec- ognize him in that light and airy shape . When she has frolicked through her five acts , to surprise you with the information that Mr. Aimwell is converted by a sudden death in 80 THE IDEA OF COMEDY.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Acharnians agelasts Alceste allusion Aristophanes Athenian Athens Atta Troll better Book Carlyle Célimène chapter character Cleon Clodd Comedy of Manners comic idea comic perception comic poet Comic Spirit comic writers common sense Compare Congreve Congreve's Cratinus critics Croiset dialogue Dulness edition English Essay on Comedy Eunuchus Eupolis Euripides farce Femmes Savantes Frate Timoteo French Frogs genius George Meredith Goethe Greek Comedy Heauton Timorumenos hero homme humor humorist idea of comedy irony Italian Jean Paul Jonathan Wild Knights l'École des Femmes Lady laugh Le Misanthrope Le Tartuffe Legrand literary literature Littérature Littré London Menander ment Meredith reads Meredith's footnote Millamant mind Misanthrope Molière Molière's moral Morley ness novel Paris Pasquier Plautus play Plutarch poetic Poetry political Prince quotation Rabelais realism ridiculous Sainte-Beuve satire says scene sentimental Shakespeare society style Tartuffe Terence thoughtful laughter tion tophanes tragedy translation wife women word Wycherley
Popular passages
Page 248 - Why, so can I ; or so can any man : But will they come, when you do call for them ? Glend.
Page 280 - Who in their nightly watchful spheres Lead in swift round the months and years. The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, Now to the moon in wavering morrice move; And on the tawny sands and shelves Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves.
Page 210 - ... the more he will engage his attention, and the more he will charm him. As a genius of the highest rank observes in his fifth chapter of the Bathos, " The great art of all poetry is to mix truth with fiction, in order to join the credible with the surprising.
Page 215 - I have fostered, thou bosom traitress that I raised from nothing! Begone, begone, begone, go, go; that I took from washing of old gauze and weaving of dead hair, with a bleak blue nose, over a chafing-dish of starved embers, and dining behind a traver's rag, in a shop no bigger than a bird-cage.
Page 280 - In regions mild of calm and serene air, Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care.
Page 142 - Men's future upon earth does not attract s it; their honesty and shapeliness in the present does; and whenever they wax out of proportion, overblown, affected, pretentious, bombastical, hypocritical, pedantic, fantastically delicate; whenever it sees them selfdeceived or hoodwinked, given to run riot in idolatries, drifting into vanities, congregating in absurdities, planning short-sightedly, plotting dementedly...
Page 192 - And for a discerning man, somewhat too passionate a lover; for I like her with all her faults, nay, like her for her faults. Her follies are so natural, or so artful, that they become her, and those affectations which in another woman would be odious serve but to make her more agreeable.
Page 281 - OBSCUREST night involved the sky, The Atlantic billows roared, When such a destined wretch as I, Washed headlong from on board, Of friends, of hope, of all bereft, His floating home for ever left. No braver chief could Albion boast Than he with whom he went, Nor ever ship left Albion's coast With warmer wishes sent. He loved them both, but both in vain, Nor him beheld, nor her again. Not long beneath the whelming brine, Expert to swim, he lay ; Nor soon he felt his strength decline...
Page 171 - ... general use among the members or open to the public, of public museums and galleries of...
Page 181 - D'Urfey, with a view to recommend him to the public notice for a benefitplay, tells us, that he remembered king Charles II. leaning on Tom D'Urfey's shoulder more than once, and humming over a song with him.