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

Voorkant
J. Templeman, 1840

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Pagina 350 - 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.
Pagina xxi - 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.
Pagina 199 - Successit vetus his comoedia, non sine multa Laude ; sed in vitium libertas excidit et vim Dignam lege regi : lex est accepta chorusque Turpiter obticuit sublato jure nocendi.
Pagina 17 - ... 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,...
Pagina xxii - ... 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.
Pagina 287 - ... 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...
Pagina 183 - 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...
Pagina 1 - 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...
Pagina 116 - 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...
Pagina 38 - ... has to purchase the enjoyment of this noble privilege at a dear rate. Earnestness, in the most extensive signification, is the direction of our mental powers to some aim. .But as soon as we begin to call ourselves to account for our actions, reason compels us to fix this aim higher and higher, till we come at last to the highest end of our existence: and here that longing for the infinite which is inherent in our being is baffled by the limits of our finite existence. All that we do, all that...

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