The Works of the English Poets: Dryden

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Page 32 - Tis sufficient to say, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty. We have our forefathers and great grand-dames all before us, as they were in Chaucer's days: their general characters are still remaining in mankind, and even in England, though they are called by other names than those of Monks, and Friars, and Canons, and Lady Abbesses, and Nuns; 'for mankind is ever the same, and nothing lost out of nature, though everything is altered.
Page 27 - ... for boys and women, but little of solid meat for men. All this proceeded, not from any want of knowledge, but of judgment. Neither did he want that in discerning the beauties and faults of other poets, but only...
Page 252 - Twas time enough at last on Death to call, The precipice in sight : a shrub was all, That kindly stood betwixt to break the fatal fall. One maid she had...
Page 95 - Twas all it had, for windows there were none. The gate was adamant; eternal frame! Which, hew'd by Mars himself, from Indian quarries came, The labour of a god; and all along Tough iron plates were clench 'd to make it strong.
Page 43 - I have pleaded guilty to all thoughts and expressions of mine, which can be truly argued of obscenity, profaneness, or immorality ; and retract them. If he be my enemy, let him triumph ; if he be my friend, as I have given him no personal occasion to be otherwise, he will be glad of my repentance.
Page 230 - The diff'rence that distinguished man from man. He claim'd no title from descent of blood, But that which made him noble, made him good. Warm'd with more particles of heavenly flame, He wing'd his upward flight, and soar'd to fame ; The rest remain'd below, a tribe without a name.
Page 26 - He is a perpetual fountain of good sense ; learned in all sciences, and therefore speaks properly on all subjects. As he knew what to say, so he knows also when to leave off; a continence which is practised by few writers, and scarcely by any of the ancients excepting Virgil and Horace. One of our late great poets...
Page 31 - The matter and manner of their tales, and of their telling, are so suited to their different educations, humours and callings, that each of them would be improper in any other mouth.
Page 26 - In the first place, as he is the father of English poetry, so I hold him in the same degree of veneration as the Grecians held Homer or the Romans Virgil...
Page 69 - Of fortune, fate, or Providence complain? God gives us what he knows our wants require, And better things than those which we desire...

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