An Essay on Comedy: And the Uses of the Comic Spirit |
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Page 84
... look on them with the wish to appear in their likeness . Whether the puppet - show of Punch and Judy inspires our 10 street - urchins to have instant recourse to their fists in a dispute , after the fashion of every one of the actors in ...
... look on them with the wish to appear in their likeness . Whether the puppet - show of Punch and Judy inspires our 10 street - urchins to have instant recourse to their fists in a dispute , after the fashion of every one of the actors in ...
Page 93
... look on one object , namely , life , the gradual similar- ity of their impressions must bring them to some resemblance . The comic poet dares to show us men and women coming to this 20 mutual likeness ; he is for saying that when they ...
... look on one object , namely , life , the gradual similar- ity of their impressions must bring them to some resemblance . The comic poet dares to show us men and women coming to this 20 mutual likeness ; he is for saying that when they ...
Page 95
... look abroad with their own eyes -fewer still have the habit of thinking for 15 themselves . Life , we know too well , is not a comedy , but something strangely mixed ; nor is comedy a vile mask . The corrupted importation from France ...
... look abroad with their own eyes -fewer still have the habit of thinking for 15 themselves . Life , we know too well , is not a comedy , but something strangely mixed ; nor is comedy a vile mask . The corrupted importation from France ...
Page 100
... accents of the emphatic meaning to strike the eye , perforce of the crispness and cunning polish of the sentences . You have not to look over them before you confide yourself to him ; he will carry you safe . Sheridan 100 THE IDEA OF ...
... accents of the emphatic meaning to strike the eye , perforce of the crispness and cunning polish of the sentences . You have not to look over them before you confide yourself to him ; he will carry you safe . Sheridan 100 THE IDEA OF ...
Page 102
... looks as if he thought so too.— One hears the tones , and sees the sketch and color of the whole scene , in reading it . Célimène is behind Millamant in vividness . 10 An air of bewitching whimsicality hovers over the graces of this ...
... looks as if he thought so too.— One hears the tones , and sees the sketch and color of the whole scene , in reading it . Célimène is behind Millamant in vividness . 10 An air of bewitching whimsicality hovers over the graces of this ...
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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.