The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes. Illustrated with Notes, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author, Volume 12

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William Miller, 1808 - English literature

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Page 12 - The third way is that of imitation, where the translator (if now he has not lost that name) assumes the liberty, not only to vary from the words and sense, but to forsake them both as he sees occasion; and taking only some general hints from the original, to run division on the groundwork, as he pleases.
Page xxviii - ... entree Was longe and streite, and gastly for to see ; And therout came a rage and swiche a vise, That it made all the gates for to rise. The northern light in at the dore shone ; For window, on the wall, ne was ther none, Thurgh which men mighten any light discerne. The dore was all of athamant eterne ; Yclenched, overthwart and endelong, With yren tough. And, for to make it strong, Every piler the temple to sustene Was tonne-gret, of yren bright and shene.
Page 349 - Happy the man, and happy he alone, He, who can call to-day his own : He who, secure within, can say, To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Page 17 - No man is capable of translating poetry who, besides a genius to that art, is not a master both of his author's language, and of his own ; nor must we understand the language only of the poet, but his particular turn of thoughts and expression, which are the characters that distinguish, and, as it were, individuate him from all other writers.
Page 111 - With leaves and bark she feeds her infant fire. It smokes ; and then with trembling breath she blows, Till in a cheerful blaze the flames arose. With brushwood and with chips she strengthens these, And adds at last the boughs of rotten trees. The fire thus formed, she sets the kettle on...
Page lxxxii - IN olde dayes of the king Artour, Of which that Bretons speken gret honour, 6440 All was this lond fulfilled of faerie ; The Elf quene, with hire joly compagnie Danced ful oft in many a grene mede. This was the old opinion as I rede...
Page 349 - Happy the man - and happy he alone He who can call today his own, He who, secure within, can say 'Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today: Be fair or foul or rain or shine, The joys I have possessed in spite of Fate are mine: Not Heaven itself upon the Past has power, But what has been has been, and I have had my hour.
Page 15 - English, and that was to be performed by no other way than imitation. But if Virgil, or Ovid, or any regular intelligible authors be thus...
Page 273 - From this sublime and daring genius of his, it must of necessity come to pass that his thoughts must be masculine, full of argumentation, and that sufficiently warm. From the same fiery temper proceeds the loftiness of his expressions and the perpetual torrent of his verse, where the barrenness of his subject does not too much constrain the quickness of his fancy.
Page 341 - So may the auspicious Queen of Love, And the Twin Stars, the seed of Jove, And he who rules the raging wind, To thee, O sacred ship, be kind ; And gentle breezes fill thy sails, s Supplying soft Etesian gales : As thou, to whom the Muse commends The best of poets and of friends, Dost thy committed pledge restore...

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