...eighteenthcentury critic, thought puns (or 'quibbles' as he called them) marred Shakespeare's style: 'A quibble, poor and barren as it is, gave him such delight, that...by the sacrifice of reason, propriety, and truth'. Some readers still think puns are distracting and trivialise the language of the play. Others think...

...reviving it'. It will be remembered that Garrick's friend Dr Johnson said a quibble was Shakespeare's fatal Cleopatra, for which he lost the world and was content to lose it. He excuses himself for not having removed the references to Rosaline, as Otway and Gibber had done;...

...mire. It has some malignant power over his mind, and its fascinations are irresistible ... A quibble, poor and barren as it is, gave him such delight that...which he lost the world and was content to lose it. (Ibid., p. 68) Those words are an eloquent climax to a chorus of indictment that had been swelling...

...always a writer's duty to make the world better, and justice is a virtue independent on time or place It will be thought strange that, in enumerating the defects of this writer,26 I have not yet mentioned his neglect of the unities; his violation of those laws which have...

...adventures; it is sure to lead him out of his way, and sure to engulf him in the mire. ... A quibble, poor and barren as it is, gave him such delight, that...which he lost the world, and was content to lose it. — Samuel Johnson, "Preface to Shakespeare" Just as Euripides' story of faithful Helen's sojourn in...

...golden apple for which he will always turn aside from his career or step from his elevation. A quibble, poor and barren as it is, gave him such delight that...by the sacrifice of reason, propriety, and truth." 31 "Reason, propriety, and truth," lofty as they are, are nevertheless susceptible to the "poor and...

...For example, take Samuel Johnson, whose famous criticism of Shakespeare's wordplay is often quoted: "A quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it."11 Cleopatra, that occult agent of femininity who stretches the boundaries of passion and discourse,...

...golden apple for which he will always turn aside from his career or stoop from his elevation. A quibble, poor and barren as it is, gave him such delight that...which he lost the world, and was content to lose it. [74] In this passage, frequently cited by Johnson's contemporaries, we see the firm decisiveness absent...

...quibbling which, barren and pitiful as it is, seems to give the critic himself so much delight that he is 'content to purchase it by the sacrifice of reason, propriety and truth.' 1 Ars Poetica, 351: 'when the beauties in a poem are more in number'. To begin with the first. If we...

...has some malignant power over his mind, and its fascinations are irresistible. ... A quibble . . . gave him such delight, that he was content to purchase...by the sacrifice of reason, propriety, and truth. (Kermode 86) The irresistible fascination Johnson describes recalls the power that Cleopatra exercises...