Vulgar words in Literary Remains, Volume 2 (Page 1)

This book at a glance

ass x 3
bastard x 3
blockhead x 1
buffoon x 2
damn x 5
            
whore x 1
            

Page 1

~   ~   ~   Sentence 15   ~   ~   ~

Lear Hamlet Notes on Macbeth Notes on the Winter's Tale Notes on Othello NOTES ON BEN JONSON Whalley's Preface Whalley's Life of Jonson Every Man out of His Humour Poetaster Fall of Sejanus Volpone Epicène The Alchemist Catiline's Conspiracy Bartholomew Fair The Devil is an Ass The Staple of News The New Inn NOTES ON BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER Harris's Commendatory Poem on Fletcher Life of Fletcher in Stockdale's Edition.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 277   ~   ~   ~

For instance,--to express woods, not on a plain, but clothing a hill, which overlooks a valley, or dell, or river, or the sea,--the trees rising one above another, as the spectators in an ancient theatre,--I know no other word in our language, (bookish and pedantic terms out of the question,) but 'hanging' woods, the 'sylvæ superimpendentes' of Catullus [2]; yet let some wit call out in a slang tone,--"the gallows!" and a peal of laughter would damn the play.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 455   ~   ~   ~

Shakspeare never intended to exhibit him as a buffoon; for although it was natural that Hamlet,--a young man of fire and genius, detesting formality, and disliking Polonius on political grounds, as imagining that he had assisted his uncle in his usurpation,--should express himself satirically,--yet this must not be taken as exactly the poet's conception of him.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 913   ~   ~   ~

It would be, I own, an audacious and unjustifiable change of the text; but yet, as a mere conjecture, I venture to suggest 'bastards,' for ''bated.'

~   ~   ~   Sentence 915   ~   ~   ~

Why should the king except the then most illustrious states, which, as being republics, were the more truly inheritors of the Roman grandeur?--With my conjecture, the sense would be;--'let higher, or the more northern part of Italy--(unless 'higher' be a corruption for 'hir'd,'--the metre seeming to demand a monosyllable) (those bastards that inherit the infamy only of their fathers) see, &c.' The following 'woo' and 'wed' are so far confirmative as they indicate Shakspeare's manner of connexion by unmarked influences of association from some preceding metaphor.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,550   ~   ~   ~

This belongs to human nature as such, independently of associations and habits from any particular rank of life or mode of employment; and in this consist Shakspeare's vulgarisms, as in Macbeth's-- The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,805   ~   ~   ~

The Fool is no comic buffoon to make the groundlings laugh,--no forced condescension of Shakspeare's genius to the taste of his audience.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 1,831   ~   ~   ~

Edmund's speech:- He replied, Thou unpossessing bastard!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,083   ~   ~   ~

The spirit that I have seen, May be a devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps Out of my weakness, and my melancholy, (As he is very potent with such spirits) Abuses me to damn me.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,428   ~   ~   ~

I think Tyrwhitt's reading of 'life' for 'wife'-- A fellow almost damn'd in a fair _wife_-- the true one, as fitting to Iago's contempt for whatever did not display power, and that intellectual power.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,802   ~   ~   ~

THE DEVIL IS AN ASS.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,818   ~   ~   ~

Meercraft's speech:-- Sir, money's a whore, a bawd, a drudge.-- I doubt not that 'money' was the first word of the line, and has dropped out:-- Money!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,858   ~   ~   ~

Such a scene as this was enough to damn a new play; and Nick Stuff is worse still,--most abominable stuff indeed!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 2,881   ~   ~   ~

you may be, and I trust you are, an angel; but you were an ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,161   ~   ~   ~

Seward's note and alteration to-- 'Twixt the cold bears, far from the raging lion-- This Mr. Seward is a blockhead of the provoking species.

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