A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, Volume 1

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Page 356 - Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream : The genius, and the mortal instruments, Are then in council; and the state of man, Like to a little kingdom, suffers then The nature of an insurrection.
Page xxv - It addresses itself entirely to the imaginative faculty; and although the illusion may be assisted by the effect on the senses of the complicated scenery and decorations of modern times, yet this sort of assistance is dangerous.
Page 21 - ... at the commencement; in such a case, however interesting the conversation may be, it cannot be said to possess a dramatic interest. I shall make this clear by alluding to a more tranquil species of dialogue, not adapted for the stage, the philosophic. When, in Plato, Socrates asks the conceited sophist Hippias what is the meaning of the beautiful, the latter is at once ready with a superficial answer, but is afterwards compelled by the ironical objections of Socrates to give up his former definition,...
Page xxvi - ... scene admirably appropriate to the kind of drama, and giving, as it were, the keynote to the whole harmony. It prepares and initiates the excitement required for the entire piece, and yet does not demand any thing from the spectators, which their previous habits had not fitted them to understand.
Page 293 - ... on each other, and made to move in such a manner on a single hinge, that at the end of the play, they were wheeled round with all the spectators within them, and formed together into one circus, in which combats of gladiators were exhibited. In the pleasure of the eyes that of the ears was altogether lost ; rope dancers and white elephants were preferred to every dramatic entertainment...
Page 189 - The distinctive mark was a chorus consisting of satyrs, who accompanied the adventures of the fable with lively songs, gestures and movements. The immediate cause of this species of drama was derived from the festivals of Bacchus, where satyr-masks were a common disguise. As the chorus was thus composed of satyrs, and they performed the peculiar dances alluded...
Page 372 - Oui, Prince, je languis, je brûle pour Thésée. Je l'aime, non point tel que l'ont vu les enfers. Volage adorateur de mille objets divers, Qui va du Dieu des morts déshonorer la couche"; Mais fidèle, mais fier, et même un peu farouche.
Page 5 - European nations, who first and chiefly distinguished themselves in art and literature. It is well known that, three centuries and a half ago, the study of ancient literature, by the diffusion of the Grecian language, (for the Latin was never extinct,) received a new life: the classical authors were sought after with avidity, and made accessible by means of the press; and the monuments of ancient art were carefully dug up and preserved. All this excited the human mind in a powerful manner, and formed...
Page 122 - Sophocles enabled the latter to avail himself of the inventions of his original master, so that ^Eschylus appears as the rough designer, and Sophocles as the finished successor. The more artful construction of the dramas of the latter is easily perceived : the limitation of the chorus with respect to the dialogue, the polish of the rhythmus, and the pure Attic diction, the introduction of a greater number of characters, the increase of contrivance in the fable, the multiplication of incidents, a...
Page 121 - ... reached his ninetieth year ; and some of his greatest works were even the fruit of a still later period. There is a story of an accusation brought against him by one or more of his elder sons, of having become childish from age, because he was too fond of a grandchild by a second wife, and of being no longer in a condition to manage his own affairs. In his defence he merely read to his judges his...

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