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Lectures On The English Poets, And The English Comic Writers
Lectures On The English Poets And The English Comic Writers Author:William Hazlitt Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTUEE IV. Vi/ ! ON WYCHERLEY, CONGREVB, VANBRUGH, AND F/ Comedy is a " graceful ornament to the civil order; the Corinthian capital of polished societ... more »y." Like the mirrors which have been added to the sides of one of our theatres, it reflects the images of grace, of gaiety, and pleasure double, and completes the perspective of human life. To read a good comedy is to keep the best company in the world, where the best things are said, and the most amusing happen. The wittiest remarks are always ready on the tongue, and the luckiest occasions are always at land to give birth to the happiest conceptions. Sense makes strange havoc of nonsense. Eefinement acts as a foil to affectation, and affectation to ignorance. Sentence after sentence tells. We don't know which to admire most, the observation or the answer to it. We would give our fingers to be able to talk so ourselves, or to hear others talk so. In turning over the pages of the best comedies, we are almost transported to another world, and escape from'this dull age to one that was all life, and whim, and mirth, and humour. The curtain rises, and a gayer scene presents itself, as on the canvas of Watteau. We are admitted behind the scenes like spectators at court, on a levee or birthday; but it is the court, the gala day of wit and pleasure, of gallantry and Charles II! What an air breathes from the name! what a rustling of silks and waving of plumes ! what a sparkling of diamond earrings and shoe-buckles ! What bright eyes (Ah, those Covent Garden, where the writer was accustomed to occupy what was known as the Looking-glass Box.—Ed. were Waller's Sacharissa's as she passed.) ! what killing looks and graceful motions ! How the faces of the whole ring are dressed in smiles! how the repartee goes round ! how wit an...« less