...czar of literature near the end of the eighteenth century, to say something about Shakespeare, thus: "He has scenes of undoubted and perpetual excellence,...work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion." Then we take the following from Taine's estimate : "This exuberant fecundity intensified...

...marking the standards of judgment of that school that he should say of Shakespeare that he has ' ' perhaps not one play which, if it were now exhibited...work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion." The pronouncement may have reached the truth surely enough for Johnson 's day, and its...

...taste.1 I cannot comprehend, for example, how it can 1Dr. Johnson frankly remarked of Shakespeare that: "He has scenes of undoubted and perpetual excellence,...work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion." be thought either reverent of Shakespeare, or agreeable, or necessary to satisfaction...

...of anomalies, which shew that he has corrupted language by every mode of depravation, but which his admirer has accumulated as a monument of honour. He...work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion. I am indeed far from thinking, that his works were wrought to his own ideas of perfection;...

...every mode of depravation, but which his admirer has accumulated as a monument of honour. He l).as scenes of undoubted and perpetual excellence, but...work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion. I am indeed far from thinking, that his works were wrought to his own ideas of perfection...

...language by every mode of depravation, but which his admirer has accumulated as a monument of honour.1 He has scenes of undoubted and perpetual excellence,...work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion.2 1 am indeed far from thinking that his works were wrought to his own ideas of perfection;...

...author's control or (especially in drama) by what the audience wants. Shakespeare is no exception. "He has scenes of undoubted and perpetual excellence,...work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion" (7: 91). Johnson's relentless catalogue of Shakespeare's faults, an exercise that upset...

...other way, in relation to Shakespeare's reception in the present: Shakespeare's work, Johnson observed, "has scenes of undoubted and perpetual excellence,...work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion."8' How much significance the gesture had for Johnson remains unclear, however, since he...

...estimate of the preface to Shakspeare The courage with which Johnson declares that not one play of his, if now exhibited as the work of a contemporary writer, would be heard to the conclusion, is very remarkable. Lord Brougham seems to doubt that Dr. Johnson wrote ninety-six pages...