Vulgar words in The Present State of Wit (1711) - In a Letter to a Friend in the Country (Page 1)
This book at a glance
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~ ~ ~ Sentence 239 ~ ~ ~
* I think the _Learned_, and _Unlearned Blockhead_ pretty Equal: For 'tis all one to me, whether a Man talk _Nonsense_, or _Unintelligible Sense_.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 264 ~ ~ ~
He ventures to write for the Play-Houses, but having his stol'n, ill-patch'd fustian Plays Damn'd upon the Stage, he ransacks _Bossu_, _Rapin_, and _Dacier_, to arraign the ill-taste of the Town.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 283 ~ ~ ~
To be plain, whoever Disputes _Aristotle_ and _Horace_, Rules does as good as call the _Scaligers_, _Vossii_, _Rapins_, _Bossu's_, _Daciers_, _Corneilles_, _Roscommons_, _Normanby's_ and _Rymers_, _Blockheads_: A man must have a great deal of Assurance, to be so free with such illustrious Judges.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 308 ~ ~ ~
But mark the fallacy of _Vanity_ and _Self-conceit_: The Play is acted, and casts the Audience into such a Lethargy, that They are fain to damn it with _Yawning_, being in a manner deprived of the Use of their _hissing_ Faculty.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 321 ~ ~ ~
The Business of a Dramatick Poet is to _copy Nature_, and represent things as they are; Let our Peers give over _whoring_ and _drinking_; the Citizens, _Cheating_; the Clergy, their _Quarrels, Covetousness and Ambition_; the Lawyers, their _ambi-dextrous dealings_; and the Women _intriguing_, and the stage will reform of Course.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 325 ~ ~ ~
"I doubt whether a Man of Sense would ever give himself the trouble of writing for the Stage, if he had before his Eyes the fatigue of Rehearsals, the Pangs and Agonies of the first day his Play is Acted, the Disappointments of the third, and the Scandal of a Damn'd Poet.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 368 ~ ~ ~
'Tis to no great purpose that a Man seeks to make himself admir'd by his Composures: Blockheads, indeed, may oftentimes admire him but then they are but Blockheads; and as for _Wits_ they have in themselves the seeds or hints of all the good and fine things that can possibly be thought of or said; and therefore they seldom admire any thing, but only approve of what hits their Palate.