HomeCONTENTSHome
TXTBoydTitle; E633| Annotations to Boyd's Historical Notes on Dante t1472
TXTBoydTitle; E633| Dublin, 1785
TXTBoydTitle; E633| A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE INFERNO, with some other POEMS
TXTBoydTitle; E633| relative to the ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN NATURE
TXTBoyd35; E633| PAGE 35 [But] the most daring flights of fancy, the most
TXTBoyd35; E633| accurate delineations of character, and the most artful conduct
TXTBoyd35; E633| of fable, are [not, even] when combined together,
TXTBoyd35; E633| sufficient of themselves to make a poem interesting. [Deletions
TXTBoyd35; E633| by Blake]
TXTBoyd35; E633| PAGES 35-36 The discord of Achilles and Agamemnon may produce the
TXTBoyd35; E633| most tragical consequences; but if we, who are cool and impartial
TXTBoyd35; E633| in the affair . . . cannot enter warmly into the views of either
TXTBoyd35; E633| party, the story, though adorned with all the genius of an Homer,
TXTBoyd35; E633| will be read by us with some degree of nonchalance. The
TXTBoyd35; E633| superstition that led the Crusaders to rescue the Holy Land from
TXTBoyd35; E633| the Infidels, instead of interesting us, appear frigid, if not
TXTBoyd35; E633| ridiculous. We cannot be much concerned for the fate of such a
TXTBoyd35; E633| crew of fanatics, notwithstanding the magic numbers of a Tasso .
TXTBoyd35; E633| . . we cannot sympathise with Achilles for the loss of his
TXTBoyd35; E633| Mistress, when we feel that he gained her by the massacre of her
TXTBoyd35; E633| family.
AnnBoyd35; E633| nobody considers these things while they read Homer or
AnnBoyd35; E633| Shakespear or Dante
TXTBoyd37; E633| PAGE 37 When a man, where no interest is concerned, no
TXTBoyd37; E633| provocation given, lays a whole nation in blood merely for his
TXTBoyd37; E633| glory; we, to whom his glory is indifferent, cannot enter into
TXTBoyd37; E633| his resentment.
AnnBoyd37; E633| false All poetry gives the lie to this
TXTBoyd37; E633| PAGES 37-38 Such may be good poetical characters, of that
TXTBoyd37; E633| mixt kind that Aristotle admits; but the most beautiful mixture
TXTBoyd37; E633| of light and shade has no attraction, unless it warms <or
TXTBoyd37; E633| freezes> the heart. It must have something that engages the
TXTBoyd37; E633| sympathy, something that appeals to the [moral sense]
TXTBoyd37; E633| <passions & senses>; for nothing can thoroughly captivate the
TXTBoyd37; E633| fancy, however artfully delineated, that does not awake the
TXTBoyd37; E633| sympathy and interest the passions [that enlist on the side
TXTBoyd37; E633| of Virtue] and appeal to our native notions of right and
TXTBoyd37; E633| wrong. [Deletions and insertions by Blake]
TXTBoyd38; E633| PAGES 38-38 It is this that sets the Odyssey, in point of
TXTBoyd38; E633| sentiment, so far above the Iliad. We feel the injuries of
TXTBoyd38; E633| Ulysses; . . . we seem to feel the generous indignation of the
TXTBoyd38; E633| young Telemachus, and we tremble at the dangers of the fair
TXTBoyd38; E633| Penelope . . . we can go along with the resentment of Ulysses,
TXTBoyd38; E633| because it is just, but our feelings must tell us that Achilles
TXTBoyd38; E633| carries his resentment to a savage length, a length where we
TXTBoyd38; E633| cannot follow him.
AnnBoyd38; E633| If Homers merit was only in these Historical combinations &
AnnBoyd38; E633| Moral sentiments he would be no better than Clarissa
TXTBoyd39; E633| PAGES 39-40 ILIACOS EXTRA MUROS PECCATUR; ET INTRA. It is
TXTBoyd39; E633| a contest between barbarians, equally guilty of injustice,
TXTBoyd39; E633| rapine, and bloodshed; and we are not sorry to see the vengeance
TXTBoyd39; E633| of Heaven equally inflicted on both parties.
AnnBoyd39; E633| Homer meant this
TXTBoyd39; E633| Aeneas indeed is a more amiable personage than Achilles; he
TXTBoyd39; E633| seems meant for a perfect character. But compare his conduct
TXTBoyd39; E633| with respect to Dido with the self-denial of Dryden's Cleomenes,
TXTBoyd39; E633| or with the conduct of Titus in the Berenice of Racine, we will
TXTBoyd39; E633| then see what is meant by making a character interesting.
AnnBoyd39; E633| Every body naturally hates a perfect character because they
AnnBoyd39; E633| are all greater Villains than the imperfect as Eneas is here
AnnBoyd39; E633| shewn a worse man than Achilles in leaving Dido
TXTBoyd45; E634| PAGES 45-46 Antecedent to and independent of all laws, a
TXTBoyd45; E634| man may learn to argue on the nature of moral obligation, and the
TXTBoyd45; E634| duty of universal benevolence, from Cumberland, Wollaston,
TXTBoyd45; E634| Shaftesbury, Hutcheson . . . but, would he feel what vice is in
TXTBoyd45; E634| itself . . . let him enter into the passions of Lear, when he
TXTBoyd45; E634| feels the ingratitude of his children; of Hamlet, when he learns
TXTBoyd45; E634| the story of his father's murder; . . . and he will know the
TXTBoyd45; E634| difference of right and wrong much more clearly than from all the
TXTBoyd45; E634| moralists that ever wrote.
AnnBoyd45; E634| the grandest Poetry is Immoral the Grandest characters
AnnBoyd45; E634| Wicked. Very Satan. Capanius Othello a murderer.
AnnBoyd45; E634| Prometheus. Jupiter. Jehovah, Jesus a wine bibber
AnnBoyd45; E634| Cunning & Morality are not Poetry but Philosophy the Poet is
AnnBoyd45; E634| Independent & Wicked the Philosopher is Dependent & Good
AnnBoyd45; E634| Poetry is to excuse Vice & show its reason & necessary
AnnBoyd45; E634| purgation
TXTBoyd49; E634| PAGE 49 The industrious knave cultivates the soil; the
TXTBoyd49; E634| indolent good man leaves it uncultivated. Who ought to reap the
TXTBoyd49; E634| harvest? . . . The natural course of things decides in favour of
TXTBoyd49; E634| the villain; the natural sentiments of men in favour of the man
TXTBoyd49; E634| of virtue.
AnnBoyd49; E634| false
TXTBoyd56; E634| PAGES 56-67 As to those who think the notion of a future
TXTBoyd56; E634| Life arose from the descriptions and inventions of the Poets,
TXTBoyd56; E634| they may just as well suppose that eating and drinking had the
TXTBoyd56; E634| same original . . . The Poets indeed altered the genuine
TXTBoyd56; E634| sentiments of nature, and tinged the Light of Reason by
TXTBoyd56; E634| introducing the wild conceits of Fancy . . . But still the root
TXTBoyd56; E634| was natural, though the fruit was wild. All thatnature
TXTBoyd56; E634| teacheis, that there is a future life, distinguished into
TXTBoyd56; E634| different states of happiness and misery.
AnnBoyd56; E634| False
AnnBoyd56; E634| Nature Teaches nothing of Spiritual Life but only of Natural
AnnBoyd56; E634| Life
TXTBoyd74; E634| HISTORICAL ESSAY OF THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE
TXTBoyd74; E634| THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES: WITH RESPECT TO
TXTBoyd74; E634| THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE
TXTBoyd74; E634| [P 74, blank at the end of "A Comparative View"]
AnnBoyd74; E634| Every Sentiment & Opinion as well as Every Principle in
AnnBoyd74; E634| Dante is in these Preliminary Essays Controverted & proved
AnnBoyd74; E634| Foolish by his Translator If I have any Judgment in Such Things
AnnBoyd74; E634| as Sentiments Opinions & Principles
TXTBoyd118; E634| PAGE 118 . . . horrors of a civil war. <dagger>--Dante was
TXTBoyd118; E634| at this time Prior of Florence and it was he who gave the advice,
TXTBoyd118; E634| ruinous to himself, and pernicious to his
TXTBoyd118; E634| country, of calling in the heads of the two factions to
TXTBoyd118; E634| Florence.
AnnBoyd118; E634| <dagger>Dante was a Fool or his Translator was Not That is
AnnBoyd118; E634| Dante was Hired or Tr was Not
AnnBoyd118; E634| It appears to Me that Men are hired to Run down Men of
AnnBoyd118; E634| Genius under the Mask of Translators, but Dante gives too much
AnnBoyd118; E634| Caesar he is not a Republican
AnnBoyd118; E634| Dante was an Emperors <a Caesars> Man Luther also left the
AnnBoyd118; E634| Priest & joind the Soldier
TXTBoyd129; E634| PAGES 129-130 The fervours of religion have often actuated
TXTBoyd129; E634| the passions to deeds of the wildest fanaticism. The booted
TXTBoyd129; E634| Apostles of Germany, and the Crusades of Florence, carried their
TXTBoyd129; E634| zeal to a very guilty degree. But the passion for any thing
TXTBoyd129; E634| laudable will hardly carry men to a proper pitch, unless it be so
TXTBoyd129; E634| strong as sometimes to push them beyond the golden mean.
AnnBoyd129; E634| How very Foolish all this Is
TXTBoyd131; E635| PAGE 131 Such were the effects of intolerance even in the
TXTBoyd131; E635| extreme. In a more moderate degree, every well-regulated
TXTBoyd131; E635| government, both ancient and modern, wereso far
TXTBoyd131; E635| intolerantas not to admit the pollutions of every
TXTBoyd131; E635| superstition and every pernicious opinion. It was from
TXTBoyd131; E635| a regard to the morals of the people, that the Roman Magistrates
TXTBoyd131; E635| expelled the Priest of Bacchus, in the first and most virtuous
TXTBoyd131; E635| ages of the republic. It was on this principle that the
TXTBoyd131; E635| Persians destroyed thetemples of Greece wherever
TXTBoyd131; E635| they came
AnnBoyd131; E635| If Well regulated Governments act so who can tell so well as
AnnBoyd131; E635| the hireling Writer whose praise is contrary to what he Knows to
AnnBoyd131; E635| be true
AnnBoyd131; E635| Persians destroy the Temples & are praised for it
TXTBoyd133; E635| PAGES 133-134. The Athenians and Romans kept a watchful
TXTBoyd133; E635| eye, not only over the grosser superstitions, but over impiety . . .
TXTBoyd133; E635| Polybius plainly attributes the fall of freedom in Greece to
TXTBoyd133; E635| the prevalence of atheism . . . It was not till the republic was
TXTBoyd133; E635| verging to its fall, that Caesar dared in open senate to laugh at
TXTBoyd133; E635| the SPECULATIVE opinion of a future state. These were the times
TXTBoyd133; E635| of universal toleration, when every pollution, from every clime,
TXTBoyd133; E635| flowed to Rome, whence they had carefully been kept out
TXTBoyd133; E635| before.
AnnBoyd133; E635| What is Liberty without Universal Toleration
TXTBoyd135; E635| PAGES 135-136 I leave it to these who are best acquainted
TXTBoyd135; E635| with the spirit of antiquity, to determine whether a species of
TXTBoyd135; E635| religion . . . had or had not a very principal share in raising
TXTBoyd135; E635| those celebrated nations to the summit of their glory: their
TXTBoyd135; E635| decline and fall, at least, may be fairly attributed to
TXTBoyd135; E635| irreligion, and to the want of some general standard of morality,
TXTBoyd135; E635| whose authority they all allowed, and to which they all appealed.
TXTBoyd135; E635| The want of this pole-star left them adrift in the boundless
TXTBoyd135; E635| ocean of conjecture; the disputes of their philosophers were
TXTBoyd135; E635| endless, and their opinions of the grounds of morality were as
TXTBoyd135; E635| different as their conditions, their tastes, and their
TXTBoyd135; E635| pursuits.
AnnBoyd135; E635| Yet simple country Hinds are Moral Enthusiasts Indignant
AnnBoyd135; E635| against Knavery without a Moral criterion other than Native
AnnBoyd135; E635| Honesty untaught while other country Hinds are as indignant
AnnBoyd135; E635| against honesty & Enthusiasts for Cunning & Artifice
TXTBoyd145; E635| PAGE 148 . . . but there are certain bounds even to
TXTBoyd145; E635| liberty . . .
AnnBoyd145; E635| If it is thus the extreme of black is white & of sweet sower
AnnBoyd145; E635| & of good Evil & of Nothing Something