A History of English Dramatic Literature to the Death of Queen Anne, Volume 2

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Macmillan and Company, 1875 - English drama - 643 pages

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Page 230 - Hence, all you vain delights, As short as are the nights, Wherein you spend your folly : There's nought in this life sweet If man were wise to see't, But only melancholy, O sweetest Melancholy...
Page 527 - O gracious God! how far have we Profaned thy heavenly gift of Poesy! Made prostitute and profligate the Muse, Debased to each obscene and impious use, Whose harmony was first ordained above, For tongues of angels and for hymns of love!
Page 204 - All, all of a piece throughout ; Thy chase had a beast in view : Thy wars brought nothing about ; Thy lovers were all untrue. 'Tis well an old age is out, And time to begin a new.
Page 78 - Shakspeare have neither child of their own, nor seem to be descended from any parent. They are foul Anomalies, of whom we know not whence they are sprung, nor whether they have beginning or ending. As they are without human passions, so they seem to be without human relations. They come with thunder and lightning, and vanish to airy musiC. This is all we know of them. Except Hecate, they have no names ; which heightens their mysteriousness.
Page 77 - Those originate deeds of blood and begin bad impulses to men. From the moment that their eyes first meet with Macbeth's, he is spell-bound. That meeting sways his destiny. He can never break the fascination. These witches can hurt the body ; those have power over the soul.

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