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Select Collection Of Old Plays, A (12 Volumes) (BCL1-PR English Literature)
Select Collection Of Old Plays A - 12 Volumes - BCL1-PR English Literature Author:Robert Dodsley 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: Mr. REED'S PREFACE. The Works of our ancient dramatic writers have suffered a very long, and, some few excepted, a very general neglect. Though possessed of i... more »nnumerable beauties, they have been known in so imperfect a manner, that their very names have almost escaped the readers of the present times. The merits of writers are not always to be estimated from the reputation which they bear with the public. Accident and caprice contribute to advance some authors above their due rank; and the same causes as frequently depress below their proper stations, others who are entitled to a superior degree of regard. The truth of these observations might be illustrated by instances without number. Many productions have been at first coldly received, which afterwards have met with the highest applause. Some have been praised and neglected; while others, from a concurrence of circumstances in which excellence hath had no concern, have for a time acquired a share of favour which they have been unable to retain. Such hathbeen the revolution of taste, that not a few works have been both applauded and condemned by the same persons; and this will be esteemed the less extraordinary, when it is considered how many, who pronounce on the beauties or defects of authors, decide without any previous knowledge of what they approve or censure, how many rely on the opinion of others, and how few are capable of exercising any judgment of their own. To whatever cause it is to be ascribed, there can be no question but that the works of those who flourished in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and her successor were not until lately much studied; and the dramatic poets were not less neglected than their contemporary brethren. Even those who are now held in the greatest reverence were not exempt from the same co...« less