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William Hazlitt, Essayist and Critic; Selections From His Writings, With a Memoir, Biographical and Critical
William Hazlitt Essayist and Critic Selections From His Writings With a Memoir Biographical and Critical Author:William Hazlitt General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1889 Original Publisher: F. Warne and co. Subjects: Fiction / Classics Literary Collections / General Literary Collections / Essays Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / American / General Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh ... more » Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: ff There is no class of society whom so many persons regard with affection as actors. We greet them on the stage; we like to meet them in the streets; they almost always recall to us pleasant associations; and we feel our gratitude excited without the uneasiness of a sense of obligation. The very gaiety and popularity, however, which surround the life of a favourite performer make the retiring from it a very serious business. It glances a mortifying reflection on the shortness of human life and the vanity of human pleasures. Something reminds us that " all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." [Characters of Shakspeare's Plays, 1817. Five Editions of this work have appeared in England, and more than one in the United States,] MACBETH. " The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling Doth glance from heaven to earth, from oarth to heaven; And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name." Q V'« less