dern comedy, what is one of the first how is this irregularity compensated? objects which presents itself; and of it, At what are we surprised; and why? what is observed? Who are the chief What is said of Sir John Vanburgh? Spanish comedians? Of Lopez de How is this illustrated? Of Congreve, Vega, what is remarked? Of these what is observed; and what is his chief plays, what is the nature? At the same fault? How is this illustrated? What ime, what is generally admitted? kind of a writer is Farquhar? Which What apology does he himself give, are his two best plays? Why does our for the extreme irregularity of his com- author say the least exceptionable? positions? What are the general cha- How is this fully illustrated? Of the racters of the French comic theatre? censure which our author has now What writers of note has it produced? passed, what is observed; and why? Of Moliere, what is farther observed? How do foreigners speak of this? How What does Voltaire boldly pronounce is this illustrated? Of what, therefore, him? Of this decision, what is obser- is there no wonder, and what does he vea? Of what is Moliere always the say? To have what in his power, howsatirist; and what has he done? What ever, is our author happy ; and of what does he possess, and of what is he full? have we at last become ashamed? Of his comedies in verse, what is ob- What remark follows? For this reforserved; and also of those in prose, mation, to what are we indebted; and what is remarked? Together with of it what is observed? From what those high qualities what defects has does it appear that this is not altoge he? Few writers, however, have done ther a modern invention? Of the nawhat, so perfectly as he has? Which are ture of this composition, what is obseraccounted his two capital productions? ved? What comedy have we in Eng From the English theatre, what are we lish that approaches this character; naturally led to expect; and why? What and what is said of it? In French, afford full scope to the display of singu- what are there; and name them? larity of character, and to the indulgence When this form of comedy first ap of humour? What is the case in France? peared in France. how was it received? Hence, what follows; but what is ex- Why was it objected to; and what tremely unfortunate? How does it ap-was said of it? But of this, what is ob pear that the first age of English come- served? Why should not all comedies dy was not infected by this spirit? Of be formed on one precise model? Of Shakspeare's general character, par-serious and tender comedy, what is farticularly, what is observed? What is ther remarked? But when may it prove also said of Jonson? What is remarked both an interesting and an agree of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher; able species of dramatic writing? If it but in general, with what do they become insipid and drawling, to what abound? How have these comedies be- must this be imputed? What may alcome too obsolete to be very agreeable; ways be esteemed a mark of society and why? With what comedies is this advancing in true politeness? Repeat especially the case; and for what reason? the closing remark. Of Plautus, what is here observed; and what is a high proof of Shakspeare's genius? When did licentiousness seize on comedy for its province? Who then became the hero of every comedy; and upon what was the ridicule thrown? At the end of the play, what commonly took place? But for what is he set up throughout it, and what is the consequence? What remark follows; and how long did this spirit prevail upon the comic stage? What is said of Dryden? As he sought to please only, what was the consequence? Since his time, who have been the writers of greatest note? Of Cibber, what is remarked? Of the former, what is observed; and what is said of the latter? To what is it liable; and why? Butl
1. The nature of comedy. 2. Rules respecting it.
3. The scene and subjects. 4. The different kinds of comedy. 5. The characters.
6. The style.
7. The origin of comedy. 8. Greek comedy.
A. The different stages of it. 9. Spanish comedy. A. Lopez de Vera. 10. French comedy.
A. Moliere.
11. English comedy.
A. Shakspeare-Beaumont-Fletcher. B. Dryden-Cibber-Vanburgh--Con-
c. A new species of comed.
Accents, throw a farther back from the ter- mination in the English than in any oth- er language, 99. Seldom more than one in English words, 368. Govern the measure of English verse, 430. Achilles, his character in the Iliad examin- ed, 485
Action, much used to assist language in an imperfect state, 63. And by ancient ora- tors and players, 64. Fundamental rule of propriety in, 374. Caution with res- pect to, 376. In epic poetry, the requi- sites of, 474.
Acts, the division of a play into five, and arbitrary limitation, 513. These pauses in representation ought to fall proper- ly, 514.
Adam, his character in Milton's Paradise Lost, 504.
Addison, general view of his Essay on the Pleasures of the Imagination, 31. His invocation of the muse in his Campaign censured, 48. Blemishes in his style, 115, 116, 124. Ease and perspicuity of, 127, 128, 130. His beautiful description of light and colours, 155. Instance of his use of metaphor, 165. Improper use of similes, 184. His general cha- racter as a writer, 208. Character of his Spectator, 216. Critical examina- tion of some of those papers, ibid. Re- marks on his criticism of Tasso's Amin- ta, 441, note. His tragedy of Cato cri- tically examined, 511, 518, 522, 524. Adjectives, common to all languages, 88. How they came to be classed with nouns, ibid.
Adverbs, their nature and use defined, 93. Importance of their position in a sen- tence illustrated, 115.
Eneid, of Virgil, critical examination of that poem, 489. The subject, ibid. Ac- tion, 490, is deficient in characters, ibid. Distribution and management of the subject, ibid. Abounds with awful and tender scenes, 491. The descent of Eneas into hell, 492. The poem left finished by Virgil, 493.
JEschines, a comparison between him and Demosthenes, 272.
schylus, his character as a tragic writer, 526.
Ema, remarks on Virgil's description of
that mountain, 46. And on that by Sir Richard Blackmore, ibid.
Affectation, the disadvantages of, in public speaking, 376.
Ages, four, peculiarly fruitful in learned men, pointed out, 388.
Akenside, his comparison between sublinu- ty in natural and moral objects, 36, note. Instance of his happy allusion to figures, 155. Characters of his Pleasures of the Imagination, 449.
Alphabet of letters, the consideration which led to the invention of, 76. Remote ob. scurity of this invention, ibid. The al- phabets of different nations derived from one common source, 77. Allegory, explained, 168. Anciently a fa- vourite method of conveying instruc- tions, 169. Allegorical personages im- proper agents in epic poetry, 172, 230. Ambiguity n style, from whence it pro- ceeds, 114.
Amplification in speech, what, 191. Its principal instrument, ibid. American languages, the figurative style of, 67, 152.
Anagnorisis, in ancient tragedy explained,
Annals and history, the distinction be- tween, 408.
Ancients and moderns distinguished, 388. The merits of ancient writers are now finally ascertained, 389. The progress of knowledge favourable to the moderns, in forming a comparison between them, 390. In philosophy and history, ibid The efforts of genius greater among the ancients, 391. A mediocrity of genius now more diffused, 392. Antithesis, in language explained, 188. The too frequent use of, censured, ibid. Apostrophe, the nature of this figure ex- plained, 179. Find one from Cicero, 290, note. Arabian Nights Entertainments, a charac- ter of those tales, 418. Arabian poetry, its character, 425. Arbuthnot, character of his epistolary writ ing, 416.
Architecture, sublimity in, whence it arises, 35. The sources of beauty in, 54. Arguments, the proper management of in a discourse, 353. Analytic and synthe
tic methods, 354. Arrangement of, 355. Are not to be too much multiplied, 357. Ariosto, character of his Orlando Furioso, 419, 498.
Aristotle, his rules for dramatic and epic composition, whence derived, 27. His definition of a sentence, 12. His ex- tended sense of the term metaphor, 159. Character of his style, 197, 201. His in- stitutions of rhetoric, 270, 386. His de- finition of tragedy considered, 507. His observations on tragic characters, 520. Aristophanes, character of his comedies, 537.
Arithmetical figures, universal characters, 75.
irk of the covenant, choral service per- formed in the procession of bringing it back to Mount Zion, 461. Armstrong, character of his Art of Preserv- ing Health, 419.
Art, works of, considered as a source of beauty, 54.
Articles, in language, the use of, 81. Their importance in the English language il- lustrated, ibid.
Articulation, clearness of, necessary in public speaking, 367. Associations, academical, recommended, 384. Instructions for the regulation of, 385.
Athenians, ancient character of, 266. Elo- quence of, ibid.
Atterbury, a more harmonious writer than Tillotson, 142. Critical examination of one of his sermons, 326. His exordium to a 30th of January sermon, 345. Allici and Asiani, parties at Rome, account of, 275.
Authors, petty, why no friends to criticism,
28. Why the most ancient afford the most striking instances of sublimity, 39. Must write with purity to gain esteem, 100, 101.
Bacon, his observations on romances, 417. Ballads, have great influence over the man- ners of a people, 417. Were the first vehicles of historical knowledge and in- struction, 423.
Bar, the eloquence of defined, 263 Why inore confined than the pleadings before ancient tribunals, 283. Distinction be- tween the motives of pleading at the bar, and speaking in popular assemblies, 299. In what respect ancient pleadings differ from those of modern times, ibid. Instructions for pleaders, 301, 350. Bards, ancient, the first founders of law and civilization, 424.
Barrow, Dr. character of his style, 199. Character of his sermons, 325. Beaumont and Fletcher, their characters as dramatic poets, 540. Beauty, the emotion raised by, distinguish- ed from that of sublimity, 49. Is a term
of vague application, 50. Colours, ibid. Figures, 51. Hogarth's line of beauty and line of grace considered, 51. The human countenance, 53. Works of art, ibid The influence of fitness and de- sign in our ideas of beauty, 54. Beauty in literary composition, ibid. Novelty, 55. Imitation, ibid.
Bergerus, a German critic, writes a treatise on the sublimity of Cæsar & Commenta- ries, 38.
Berkeley, bishop, character of his Dia- ogues on the existence of Matter, 413 Biography, as the class of historical com- position, characterized, 409. Blackmore, Sir Richard, remarks on his description of Mount Ætna, 46. Blackwell, his character as a writer, 210 Boileau, his character as a didactic poet, 451.
Bolingbroke, instances of inaccuracy in his style, 121, 1832. A beautiful climax from, 129. A beautiful metaphor from, 169. His general character as a politi- cian and philosopher, 160. His general character as a writer, 211, 383. Bombast, in writing described, 48. Bossu, his definition of an epic poem, 470 His account of the composition of the Iliad, 471.
Bossuet, M. instances of apostrophes to personified objects, in his funeral ora- tions, 179, note. Conclusion of his tu neral oratiou on the Prince of Conde, 364. Britain, Great, not eminent for the study of Eloquence, 280. Compared with France in this respect, 281.
Bruyere, his parallel between the elo- quence of the pulpit and the bar, 313, note.
Buchanan, his character as an historian, 407.
Building, how rendered sublime, 35. C.
Cadmus, account of his alphabet, 76. Casar's commentaries, the style of charac. terized, 38. Is considered by Bergerus as a standard of sublime writing, ibid Instance of his happy talent in historical painting, 404, note. His character of Terence the dramatist, 538. Cameons, critical examination of his Lusi- ad, 499. Confused machinery of, ibid. Campbell, Dr. his observations on English particles, 87, note.
Carmel, Mount, metaphorical allusions to in Hebrew poetry, 464. Casimir, his character as a lyric poet, 446. Catastrophe, the proper conduct of, in dra- matic representations, 514. Caudine Forks, Livy's happy description of the disgrace of the Roman army there,
Celtic language, its antiquity and charac- ter, 95. The remains of it where to be found ibid. Poetry, its character, 424.
Characters, the dangers of labouring them too much in historical works, 405. The due requ sites of, in tragedy, 519. Chinese language, character of, 64. And writing, 74.
Chivalry, origin of, 418.
Chorus, ancient, described, 509. Was the origin of tragedy, ibid. Inconveniences of, ibid. How it might properly be in troduced on the modern theatre, 503. Chronology, a due attention to, necessary
to historical compositions, 397. Chrysostom St. his oratorical character, 280.
Cibber, his character as a dramatic writer, 541.
Cicero, his ideas of taste, 17, note. His dis- tinction between amare and diligere, 108. His observations on style, 113. Very attentive to the beauties of climax, 129. Is the most harmonious of all writers, 135. His remarks on the power of mu- sic in orations, 137. His attention to harmony too visible, 141. Instance of his happy talent of adapting sound to sense, 113. His account of the origin of figurative language, 152. His obser- vations on suiting language to the sub- ject, 161. His rule for the use of meta- phor, 162. Instance of antithesis in, 187. The figure of speech called vision, J. His caution against bestowing profuse ornaments on an oration, 193. His dis- tinction of style, 196. His own charac- ter as a writer, 197. His character of the Grecian orators, 268. His own cha- racter as an orator, 274. Compared with Demosthenes, 276. Masterly apos- trophe in, 290, note. His method of studying the judicial causes he under- took to plead, 301. State of the prose- cution of Avitus Cluentius, 305. Analysis of Cicero's oration for him, ibid. The ex- ordium of his second oration against Rul- fus, 343. His method of preparing intro- ductions to his orations, 344. Excelled in narration, 351. His defence of Milo, ibid. 357. Instance of the pathetic in his last oration against Verres, 362 Character of his treatise de Oratore, 389. Character of his dialogues, 12 His epistles, 415. Clarendon, Lord, remarks on his style,
120. His character as an historian, 407. Clarke, Dr. the style of his sermous cha- racterized, 324. Classics, ancient, their merits now finally settles beyond controversy, 388. The study of them recommended, 393. Climar, a great beauty in composition, 129. In what it consists, 191. Cluentius, Avitns, history of his prosecu tion, 305 His cause undertaken by Ci- cero, ibid. Analysis of Cicero's oration for him, ibid.
Colours, considered as the foundation of beauty, 50.
Comedy, how distinguished from tragedy, 506, 533. Rules for the conduct of, ibid. The characters in, ought to be of our own country and our own tin:e, 534. Two kinds of, ibid. Characters ought to be distinguished, 535. Style, 536. Rise and progress of comedy, ibid. Spa- nish comedy, 638. French comedy, 539. English comedy, 540. Licentiousness of, from the era of the restoration, 541. The restoration of, to what owing, 643. General remarks, 544.
Comparison, distinguished from metaphor, 158. The nature of this figure explain- ed, 181.
Composition. See Literary composition. Congreve, the plot of his Mourning Bride
embarrassed, 513. General character of his tragedy, 532. His comedies, 541. Conjugation of verbs, the varieties of, 90. Conviction, distinguished from persuasion, 262.
Copulatives, caution for the use of them, 124.
Corneille, his character as a tragic writer,
Couplets, the first introduction of, into English poetry, 432.
Cowley, instances of forced metaphors in his poems, 162. His use of similes cen- sured, 186. His general character as a poet, 446.
Crevier, his character of several eminent French writers, 382, note. Criticism, true and pedantic distinguished, 13. Its object, 27. Its origin, 28. Why complained of by petty authors, ibid. May sometimes decide against the voice of the public, ibid. Cyphers, or arithmetical figures, a kind of universal character, 75.
David, King, his magnificent institutions for the cultivation of sacred music and poetry, 460. His character as a poet, 468.
Debate in popular assemblies, the eloquence of, defined, 262. More particularly con sidered, 285. Rules for, 287. Declamation, unsupported by sound rea- soning, false eloquence, 286. Declension of nouns considered in various languages, 84. Whether cases or pre- positions were most anciently used, 85. Which of them are most useful and beautiful, 86.
Deities, heathen, probable cause of the number of, 173. Deliberative orations what, 284. Delivery, the importance of,in public sper
ing, 292, 365. The four chief requisites in, 366. The powers of voice, ibid Articulation, 367. Pronunciation, 368. Decla- Emphasis, 369. Pauses, 370.
matory delivery, 374. Action ibid. Af- fectation 376.
Demetrius, Phaleras, the rhetorician, his character, 273.
Demonstrative orations, what, 284. Demosthenes, his eloquence characterized, 267. His expedients to surmount the disadvantages of his person and address, 271. His opposition to Philip of Ma- cedon, ibid. His rivalship with Es- chines, 272. His style and action, ibid. Compared with Cicero, 276. Why his orations still please in perusal, 286. Extracts from his Philippics, 293. His definition of the several points of orato- ry, 365.
Description, the great test of a poet's ima- gination, 452. Selection of circum- stances, ibid. Inanimate objects should be enlivened, 455. Choice of epithets, 456.
Description and imitation, the distinction between, 56.
Des Brosses, his speculations on the ex- pressive power of radical letters and syllables, 61, note.
Dialogue writing, the properties of, 411. Is very difficult to execute, 412. Mo- dern dialogues characterized, ibid. Didactic poetry, its nature explained, 447. The most celebrated productions in this class specified, ibid. Rules for composi tions of this kind, 448. Proper embel- lishments of, ibid.
Diderot, M. his character of English co- medy, 543.
Dido, her character in the Æneid examin- ed, 490.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, his ideas of excellency in a sentence, 136 His dis- tinction of style, 196. Character of his treatise on Grecian oratory, 269. His comparison between Lysias and Iso- crates, 270, nole. His criticism on Thu- cydides, 397. Discourse. See Oration. Dramatic poetry, the origin of, 425. Dis-
tinguished by its objects, 505. See Tra- gedy and Comedy.
Dryden, one of the first reformers of our style, 200. Johnson's character of his prose style, ibid, note. His character as a poet, 432. His character of Shak- speare, 530, note. His own character as a dramatic writer, 531, 541.
Du Bos, Abbé, his remark on the theatri- cal compositions of the ancients, 137. E. Education, liberal and essential requisite for eloquence, 380.
Egypt, the style of the hieroglyphical writ- ing of, 73. This an early stage of the art of writing, ibid. The alphabet pro- bably invented in that country, 76. Emphasis, its importance in public speak- ing, 369. Rule for, ibid.
Eloquence, the several objects of considera-
tion under this head, 261. Definition of
the term, 262, 377. Fundamental max- ims of the art, 262. Defended agains: the objection of the abuse of the art vi persuasion, ibid. Three kinds of elo quence distinguished, 263. Oratory, the highest degree of, the offspring of pas sion, 264. Requisites for eloquence, ibia. French eloquence, 265. Grecian, 266 Rise and character of the rhetoricians of Greece, 268. Roman, 274. The attici and asiani, 276. Comparison between Cicero and Demosthenes, ibid. The schools of the declaimers, 279. The eloquence of the primitive fathers of the church, 280. General remarks on mod. ern eloquence, ibid. Parliament, 283. The bar and pulpit, ibid. The three kinds of orations distinguished by the ancients, 284. These distinctions how far cortes- pondent with those made at present, 285. Eloquence of popular assemblies considered, ibid The foundation of elo- quence, 286. The danger of trusting to prepared speeches at public meetings, 287. Necessary premeditation pointed out, ibid. Method, 288. Style and ex- pression, ibid. Impetuosity, 289. tention to decorums, 290. Delivery, 292, 366. Summary, 292. See Cicero, Demosthenes, Oration, and Pulpit. English language, the arrangement of words in, inore refined than that of an- cient languages, 70. But more limited, ibid. The principles of general grammar seldom applied to it, 78. The important use of articles in, 81. All substantive nouns of inanimate objects of the neuter gender, 82. The place of declension in, supplied by prepositions, 85. The va- rious tenses of English verbs, 91. His- torical view of the English language, 95. The Celtic the primitive language of Sritain, ibid. The Teutonic tongue the basis of our present speech, 96. Its ir regularities accounted for, ibid. Its copiousness, ibid. Compared with the French language, 97. Its style charac- terized, ibid. its flexibility, 98. Is more harmonious than is generally allowed, ibid. Is rather strong than graceful, 99. Accent thrown farther back in English words, than in those of any other lan guage, ibid. General properties of the English tongue, ibid. Why so loosely and inaccurately written, 100. fundamental rules of syntax, common both to the English and Latin, ibid. No author can gain esteem if he does not write with purity, 101. Grammati cal authors recommended, ibid, nole. Epic poetry, the standards of, 393. Is the highest effort of poetical genius, 470 The characters of, obscured by critics, ibid. Examination of Bossu's account of the formation of the Iliad, ibid. Epic poetry considered as to its moral tenden-
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