Selections from the Essays of Francis Jeffrey |
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Page 19
... observing , that this unsteadiness and 5 irregularity of dialogue , which gives such an air of nature to our older plays , and keeps the curiosity and attention so perpetually awake , is frequently carried to a most . blamable excess ...
... observing , that this unsteadiness and 5 irregularity of dialogue , which gives such an air of nature to our older plays , and keeps the curiosity and attention so perpetually awake , is frequently carried to a most . blamable excess ...
Page 22
... observations are generally 25 right , we have said , in substance , that they are not generally original ; for the beauties of Shakespeare are not of so dim or equivocal a nature as to be visible only to learned eyes — and undoubtedly ...
... observations are generally 25 right , we have said , in substance , that they are not generally original ; for the beauties of Shakespeare are not of so dim or equivocal a nature as to be visible only to learned eyes — and undoubtedly ...
Page 29
... observations should fail to strike of themselves , they may perhaps derive additional weight from consider- ing the very remarkable fact , that almost all the great poets of every country have appeared in an early stage of their history ...
... observations should fail to strike of themselves , they may perhaps derive additional weight from consider- ing the very remarkable fact , that almost all the great poets of every country have appeared in an early stage of their history ...
Page 34
... observation , he could not have 15 seen much of the beings who echoed this raving , without feeling for them that distrust and contempt which would have made him blush to think he had ever stretched over them the protecting shield of ...
... observation , he could not have 15 seen much of the beings who echoed this raving , without feeling for them that distrust and contempt which would have made him blush to think he had ever stretched over them the protecting shield of ...
Page 45
... observe and delineate both characters and external objects with greater minuteness and fidelity , - and others to analyse more carefully the mingling passions of the heart , and to feed and cherish a more 20 limited train of emotion ...
... observe and delineate both characters and external objects with greater minuteness and fidelity , - and others to analyse more carefully the mingling passions of the heart , and to feed and cherish a more 20 limited train of emotion ...
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absurd admiration appear beauty character characteristic Coleridge composition Crabbe Crabbe's critic delight delineations diction Die Räuber doubt dramatists Edinburgh Review edition effect emotions English poetry essay excellence excite expression familiar fancy feeling force FRANCIS JEFFREY genius George Crabbe give grace historical method human images imagination imitation impression interest introduction Jeffrey Jeffrey's John Keats Lake poets least less literary living Lord Byron Lyrical Ballads Mailing price manner merely merit mind modern moral nature never objects observation ordinary original pain passages passion peculiar perhaps persons pleasure poem poet poetical poetry political popular principles produced prose qualities readers regard representations ridicule Romanticism Scott seems Selections sense sentiments Shakespeare spirit style subjects sublime suggested Sydney Smith sympathy talent taste theory thing thought tion tone truth University venture vulgar Whig whole Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship WILLIAM MINTO Wordsworth writers
Popular passages
Page 80 - Behold the child, by nature's kindly law, Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw; Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite ; Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age ;* Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before ; Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er!
Page 196 - Further, it is the language of men who speak of what they do not understand; who talk of Poetry as of a matter of amusement and idle pleasure ; who will converse with us as gravely about a taste for Poetry, as they express it, as if it were a thing as indifferent as a taste for rope-dancing, or Frontiniac or Sherry.
Page 202 - I have taken, whether from within or without, what have they to do with routs, dinners, morning calls, hurry from door to door, from street to street, on foot or in carriage; with Mr. Pitt or Mr. Fox, Mr. Paul or Sir Francis Burdett, the Westminster election or the borough of Honiton ? In a word — for I cannot stop to make my way through the hurry of images that present themselves to me — what have they to do with endless talking about things nobody cares anything for except as far as their own...
Page 88 - ... they are flushed all over with the rich lights of fancy, and so coloured and bestrewn with the flowers of poetry, that even while perplexed and bewildered in their labyrinths, it is impossible to resist the intoxication of their sweetness, or to shut our hearts to the enchantments they so lavishly present.
Page 60 - And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth Uplifted, he, as through an instrument, „ Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls, That they might answer him.
Page 202 - It is impossible that any expectations can be lower than mine concerning the immediate effect of this little work upon what is called the public. I do not here take into consideration the envy and malevolence, and all the bad passions which always stand in the way of a work of any merit from a living poet ; but merely think of the pure, absolute, honest...
Page 61 - ... a captain of a small trading vessel, for example, who, being past the middle age of life, had retired upon an annuity, or small independent income, to some village or country town of which he was not a native, or in which he had not been accustomed to live. Such men, having nothing to do, become credulous and talkative from indolence.
Page 107 - ... sure whether there is to be one or two), is of a biographical nature ; and is to contain the history of the author's mind, and of the origin and progress of his poetical powers, up to the period when they were sufficiently matured to qualify him for the great work on which he has been so long employed. Now, the quarto before us contains an account of one of his youthful rambles in the vales of Cumberland, and occupies precisely the period of three days ! So that, by the use of a very powerful...
Page 141 - ... peculiarities of the individuals whose adventures he relates, than for any purpose of political information ; and makes us present to the times in which he has placed them, less by his direct notices of the great transactions by which they were distinguished, than by his casual intimations of their effects on private persons, and by the very contrast which their temper and occupations often appear to furnish to the colour of the national story.