Selections from the English Poets: Wit and humorHazard, 1854 |
Common terms and phrases
animal spirits Apho Aphobus Aristophanes Bacurius Ben Jonson Bessus brother call'd captain character Charles Lamb Chaucer Colax comedy Corb Corv courtepy courtier cried Dean Deil devil Don Quixote doth duke exquisite eyes fairy Falstaff fancy fear fool Friar Gent gentleman give grace hath head hear heart Heaven hire honor horse Hudibras Igno Jaques Kate Kath KATHARINA kick'd king Lady laugh laughter lord Macaronic madam master mind mock-heroic Molière Mosca nature never night Panurge Petruchio poem poet poetry poor pray prose quod quoth Rabelais rhymes satire servant Shakspeare Sompnour soul spleen summoner sure sylph Tartuffe tell thee ther things thou thought twas twelf Uncle Toby unto verse Volp VOLPONE whan wife Wit and Humor word write
Popular passages
Page 156 - Why so pale and wan, fond lover? Prithee, why so pale? Will, when looking well can't move her, Looking ill prevail? Prithee, why so pale?
Page 214 - Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault and hesitate dislike...
Page 214 - Like Cato, give his little senate laws, And sit attentive to his own applause ; While wits and templars every sentence raise, And wonder with a foolish face of praise— Who but must laugh if such a man there be ? Who would not weep, if Atticus were he ? What though my name stood rubric on the walls, Or plaster'd posts, with claps, in capitals ? Or smoking forth, a hundred hawkers...
Page 85 - Out of my grief and my impatience, Answer'd neglectingly I know not what, He should, or he should not; for he made me mad, To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet, And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman...
Page 49 - Toby, rising from his chair, and going across the room, with the fly in his hand,— —I'll not hurt a hair of thy head: — Go, says he, lifting up the sash, and opening his hand as he spoke, to let it escape; — go, poor devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee? This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.
Page 176 - And rooks committee-men and trustees ; He'd run in debt by disputation, And pay with ratiocination. All this by syllogism, true In mood and figure, he would do. For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth but out there flew a trope ; And when he happened to break off I' th' middle of his speech, or cough, . H...
Page 4 - For, wit lying most in the assemblage of ideas, and putting those together with quickness and variety wherein can be found any resemblance or congruity, thereby to make up pleasant pictures and agreeable visions in the fancy...
Page 248 - Here Cumberland lies, having acted his parts, The Terence of England, the mender of hearts ; A flattering painter, who made it his care, To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are. His gallants are all faultless, his women divine, And Comedy wonders at being so fine ; Like a tragedy queen he has dizen'd her out, Or rather like Tragedy giving a rout. His fools have their follies so lost in a crowd Of virtues and feelings, that Folly grows proud ; And coxcombs, alike in their failings alone,...
Page 104 - Such duty as the subject owes the prince Even such a woman oweth to her husband ; And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour, And not obedient to his honest will, What is she but a foul contending rebel, And graceless traitor to her loving lord ? I am ashamed that women are so simple To offer war where they should kneel for peace ; Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway, When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Page 246 - OF old, when Scarron his companions invited, Each guest brought his dish and the feast was united ; If our landlord ' supplies us with beef, and with fish, Let each guest bring himself, and he brings the best dish : Our Dean...