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Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.

John Dryden

A farce is that in poetry which grotesque (caricature) is in painting. The persons and actions of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners false, that is, inconsistent with the characters of mankind; and grotesque painting is the just resemblance of this.
JOHN DRYDEN

Character Kind Man Natural Painting Person Poetry
Tis a good thing to laugh at any rate; and if a straw can tickle a man, it is an instrument of happiness.
JOHN DRYDEN

Goodness Happiness Instrument Laughter Man Rate
Since a true knowledge of nature gives us pleasure, a lively imitation of it, either in poetry or painting, must produce a much greater; for both these arts are not only true imitations of nature, but of the best nature.
JOHN DRYDEN

Best Give Up Knowledge Nature Production True
He who would pry behind the scenes oft sees a counterfeit.
JOHN DRYDEN

Himself Scene
Some of our philosophizing divines have too much exalted the faculties of our souls, when they have maintained that by their force mankind has been able to find out God.
JOHN DRYDEN

Divine Faculty Force God Kind Man Philosophy
For truth has such a face and such a mien, as to be loved needs only to be seen.
JOHN DRYDEN

Face Need See Truth
Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne’er pardon who have done wrong.
JOHN DRYDEN

Forgiveness Injury Wrong
Satire among the Romans, but not among the Greeks, was a bitter invective poem.
JOHN DRYDEN

Bitter Poem Satire
Griefs assured are felt before they come.
JOHN DRYDEN

Assurance Feeling Grief
But love’s a malady without a cure.
JOHN DRYDEN

Cure Love
Freedom which in no other land will thrive, Freedom an English subject’s sole prerogative.
JOHN DRYDEN

Freedom Subject Thrive
Shakespeare was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets;Jonson was theVirgil, the pattern of elaborate writing; I admire him, but I love Shakespeare.
JOHN DRYDEN

Admire Drama Father Himself Home Poet Writing
Imagining is in itself the very height and life of poetry, which, by a kind of enthusiasm or extraordinary emotion of the soul, makes it seem to us that we behold those things which the poet paints.
JOHN DRYDEN

Emotion Enthusiasm Height Imagination Paint Poet Soul
Secret guilt is by silence revealed.
JOHN DRYDEN

Guilty Reveal Secret Silence
They first condemn that first advised the ill.
JOHN DRYDEN

Advise Sick
Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries, See the Furies arise!
JOHN DRYDEN

Fury Revenge See

Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.

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Him of the western dome, whose weighty sense Flows in fit words and heavenly eloquence.

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