...when he cared less to keep on the mask.—Clarendon. SHAKESPEARE. To begin then, with Shakspeare. He was the man, who, of all modern, and perhaps ancient...them not laboriously, but luckily. When he describes anything, you more than see it—you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give...

...so well excelled himself, says: " He was a man of all the moderns and perhaps the ancient poets who had the largest and most comprehensive soul. All the...them, not laboriously, but luckily. When he describes anything, you more than see it, you feel it too. Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give...

...dramatist.64 In the "Essay of Dramatic Poesy," for instance, Dryden writes of Shakespeare as the author who "of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient Poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul."65 The usage appeared in the fourteenth century and continued through most of the eighteenth...

...English Poetry" (II, 4), while Dryden, in the encomium in the Essay of Dramatic Poesy, commends him as "the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets had the largest and most comprehensive soul" — "soul" being the seat of inspiration and thus of poetic greatness. Such eulogizing presents Shakespeare...

...the regulatory and formulaic Corneille and other French writers: To begin then with Shakespeare. He was the man who, of all modern and perhaps ancient...him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily. . . . Those who accuse him to have wanted learning give him the greater commendation. He was naturally...

...What Dryden, in his Essay on Dramatic Poesy, said concerning Shakespeare applies equally to Handel: "All the images of nature were still present to him,...them, not laboriously but luckily: when he describes anything, you more than see it, you feel it too." Yet while Handel describes a landscape or a bucolic...

...acknowledgement of a Shakespearean archetype. We are in some sense back with Dryden's claim that Shakespeare: 'was the man who of all Modern, and perhaps Ancient...comprehensive soul. All the Images of Nature were present to him, and he drew them not laboriously, but luckily'." I will now turn to another species...

...and with little Latin, Shakespeare is claimed by Dryden not to have written with anything in mind: "Those who accuse him to have wanted learning, give him the greater commendation: he was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of Books to read Nature; he look'd inwards, and found her there."16...

...the mind and its powers inspires almost all his praise. Like Dryden, whose tribute to Shakespeare as "the man, who, of all modern and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul" is saved for the end of the "Preface," he especially values how much that mind could take in.64 Others...

...proportion in the name of the disegno interno, the inward drawing, or idea. 36 ) Shakespeare, says Dryden, was "the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient...him, and he drew them, not laboriously, but luckily " 37 The distinction between luck and labor, made by Dryden in favor of luck and Shakespeare, exploited...