A new and general biographical dictionary, Volume 10

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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 501 - Caesar with a senate at his heels. In parts superior what advantage lies ? Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise ? 'Tis but to know how little can be known, To see all others...
Page 348 - Triumph, my Britain! Thou hast one to show To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. He was not of an age, but for all time; And all the muses still were in their prime When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm. Nature herself was proud of his designs And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines, Which were so richly spun and woven so fit As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit.
Page 341 - His characters are so much nature herself, that it is a sort of injury to call them by so distant a name as copies of her. Those of other poets have a constant resemblance, which...
Page 501 - Oh ! while along the stream of Time thy name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame, Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale...
Page 464 - Full little knowest thou that hast not tried, What hell it is, in suing long to bide: To lose good days, that might be better spent; To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed today, to be put back tomorrow; To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow; To have thy prince's grace, yet want her peers...
Page 483 - He Has vindicated Eloquence and Wit. His candid Stile like a clean Stream does slide, And his bright Fancy all the way Does like the Sun-shine in it play ; It does like Thames, the best of Rivers, glide, Where the God does not rudely overturn, But gently pour the Crystal Urn, And with judicious hand does the whole Current Guide. T' has all the Beauties Nature can impart, And all the comely Dress without the paint of Art.
Page 345 - I believe they meant those which had lain ever since the author's days in the playhouse, and had from time to time been cut, or added to, arbitrarily.
Page 344 - ... till after his death. The whole number of genuine plays, which we have been able to find printed in his lifetime, amounts but to eleven.
Page 338 - He had, by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company, and amongst them some that made a frequent practice of deerstealing engaged him with them more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote near Stratford.

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