PLAYS AND POEMS OF SHAKSPEARE, WITH A LIFE, GLOSSARIAL NOTES, AND ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY ILLUSTRATIONS EDITED BY A. J. VALPY, M.A. LATE FELLOW OF PEMB. COLL., OXFORD BIBER IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY A. J. VALPY, AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 1832. 3. adds, El. e.35 Sweet swan of Avon, what a sight it were, To see thee in our waters yet appear; And make those flights upon the banks of Thames, BEN JONSON. If ever any author deserved the name of an original, it was Shakspeare. Homer himself drew not his art so immediately from the fountains of Nature; it proceeded through Egyptian strainers and channels, and came to him not without some tincture of the learning, or some cast of the models, of those before him. The poetry of Shakspeare was inspiration indeed: he is not so much an imitator as an instrument of Nature; and it is not so just to say that he speaks from her, as that she speaks through him. РОРЕ. |