Chaucer's characters are sufficiently distinct from one another, but they are too little varied in themselves, too much like ident...ical propositions.... Chaucer's characters are narrative, Shakespeare's dramatic, Milton's epic. That is, Chaucer told only as much of his story as he pleased, as was required for a particular purpose. He answered for his characters himself. In Shakespeare they are introduced upon the stage, are liable to be asked all sorts of questions, and are forced to answer for themselves. In Chaucer we perceive a fixed essence of character. In Shakespeare there is a continual composition and decomposition of its elements, a fermentation of every particle in the whole mass, by its alternate affinity to other principles which are brought in contact with it. Till the experiment is tried, we do not know the result, the turn which the character will take in its new circumstances.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Since the quarrel Will bear no color for the thing he is,... Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented, Would run to these and these extremities.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My father's spirit in arms! All is not well. I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!... Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »