Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Brief Enquiry Into The Learning Of Shakspeare.
ciebat ; he rather affected to contemn learning , than remained in ignorance of it . N Of his contempt for learning he gives us the following proof under his own hand . LOVE ' S LABOUR LOST , ACT I . SCENE I . ' Study is like the heaven ' s glorious sun , That will not be deep-search'd with sawcy looks ;
Small have continual plodders ever won , Swve base authority from others books . Those earthly godfathers of heaven ' s lights , That give a name to every fixed star ; Have no more profit of the shining nights , Than those who wilk ai . d wot not what they ai e . ' He wasneverthelessupon the wholea good scholar ; but in his
, , , learning , as well as every thing else , he was negligently great , and admirable without accuracy . He had little , if any knowledge , of the Greek and Roman prosody , wdiich sufficiently appears in many instances . Throughout the whole play of Cymbeline , it is evident , from the structure of his versification , that he mistook Posthumus , for Posthiirnus . In Hamlet he calls Hyperion , Hypeiion ; and in another
p lay he makes Andronicus , Audroincus . But . it may be , he disdained these little niceties , or thought , perhaps , if he made the words more musical , it would justify his inaccuracy . Havino- premised these few observations , we shall present our readers with several passages which Shakspeare has borrowed from the antients . We could have greatly increased the number ; but what is here produced will sufficiently answer the end proposed .
RICHARD II . ACT III . SCENE II . ' Dear earth , I do salute thee with my hand , Tho' rebels wound thee with their horses hoofs -. As a long parted mother , with her child , Plays fondly ivilh her tears , and smiles in tueeping , So iveeping , smiting , gieet I thee . ' Tin ' s is a manifest ( and perhaps the only ) imitation of that most
beautiful passage in the Vith book of the Iliad , verse 4 84 . 'ils HTM aXo-Xpio < pi > . ys EV X ?" '^> , ' , - Xia . iV toi 1 5 " « f * IW x'linoei UE £ v . o \ ti ' ji , Aax ( vciv TsXourct . au . Mr . Pope , in his version of this place , has fallen greatly short of his , orig inal .
HICHAT . D II . ACT III . SCENE VII . „ . ' Their fortunes both are tueigh'd . In your lord ' s scale is nothing but himself , And some few vanities , that make him light ; Bur , in the balance of great Bolingbroke , Besides himself , are all the English peers , And with that odds he iveighsYSmg Richard do-iv / i . ' '
The hint of these lines was taken from the Vlllth book of the Iliad , ver . 69 . It is observable , however , that there is much more propriety in Shakspeare than in Homer , with regard to this allusion , for the latter makes the fate of the Greeks preponderating , a sign of their being discomfited .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Brief Enquiry Into The Learning Of Shakspeare.
ciebat ; he rather affected to contemn learning , than remained in ignorance of it . N Of his contempt for learning he gives us the following proof under his own hand . LOVE ' S LABOUR LOST , ACT I . SCENE I . ' Study is like the heaven ' s glorious sun , That will not be deep-search'd with sawcy looks ;
Small have continual plodders ever won , Swve base authority from others books . Those earthly godfathers of heaven ' s lights , That give a name to every fixed star ; Have no more profit of the shining nights , Than those who wilk ai . d wot not what they ai e . ' He wasneverthelessupon the wholea good scholar ; but in his
, , , learning , as well as every thing else , he was negligently great , and admirable without accuracy . He had little , if any knowledge , of the Greek and Roman prosody , wdiich sufficiently appears in many instances . Throughout the whole play of Cymbeline , it is evident , from the structure of his versification , that he mistook Posthumus , for Posthiirnus . In Hamlet he calls Hyperion , Hypeiion ; and in another
p lay he makes Andronicus , Audroincus . But . it may be , he disdained these little niceties , or thought , perhaps , if he made the words more musical , it would justify his inaccuracy . Havino- premised these few observations , we shall present our readers with several passages which Shakspeare has borrowed from the antients . We could have greatly increased the number ; but what is here produced will sufficiently answer the end proposed .
RICHARD II . ACT III . SCENE II . ' Dear earth , I do salute thee with my hand , Tho' rebels wound thee with their horses hoofs -. As a long parted mother , with her child , Plays fondly ivilh her tears , and smiles in tueeping , So iveeping , smiting , gieet I thee . ' Tin ' s is a manifest ( and perhaps the only ) imitation of that most
beautiful passage in the Vith book of the Iliad , verse 4 84 . 'ils HTM aXo-Xpio < pi > . ys EV X ?" '^> , ' , - Xia . iV toi 1 5 " « f * IW x'linoei UE £ v . o \ ti ' ji , Aax ( vciv TsXourct . au . Mr . Pope , in his version of this place , has fallen greatly short of his , orig inal .
HICHAT . D II . ACT III . SCENE VII . „ . ' Their fortunes both are tueigh'd . In your lord ' s scale is nothing but himself , And some few vanities , that make him light ; Bur , in the balance of great Bolingbroke , Besides himself , are all the English peers , And with that odds he iveighsYSmg Richard do-iv / i . ' '
The hint of these lines was taken from the Vlllth book of the Iliad , ver . 69 . It is observable , however , that there is much more propriety in Shakspeare than in Homer , with regard to this allusion , for the latter makes the fate of the Greeks preponderating , a sign of their being discomfited .