Medical lectures and aphorisms / by Samuel Gee ; with recollections by J. Wickham Legg.
- Samuel Gee
- Date:
- 1915
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Medical lectures and aphorisms / by Samuel Gee ; with recollections by J. Wickham Legg. Source: Wellcome Collection.
399/426 (page 385)
![back upon his life, to have provided such a fund of wholesome amusement for mankind as Sir Walter had done. One night he took up my volume of Matthew Arnold’s poems, and lighting upon Thyrsis, he began to read, and stumbled over: How changed is here each spot man makes or fills! Why, he said, you cannot read it: there are too many important words in the line. He denounced Matthew Arnold as the poet of despair. After he had read Dr. Mandell Creighton’s Cardinal Wolsey he said he did not like every sentence be¬ ginning: So. He must have gone through all those somewhat wearisome plays of Dryden, for his commonplace book shows extracts with annotations. On a loose leaf of paper he has written what may be his own opinions about Dryden. The most characteristic plays of Dryden, and the most interesting, are his heroic plays: Indian Emperor, Conq. Granada, Aurungzebe. Add : All for love, Don Sebast. Dryden’s characters, Montezuma, Almanzor, Maximin, resemble Dryden himself, like Milton’s Satan [? Sam¬ son]. Dryden’s vigour and swing : apt to become rant. His best poems : Abs. and Ach., MacFlecnoe, Epistle to Jno. Driden, Alex. Feast, Transl. of Horace (Od. iii. 29), Epist. to Congreve, Fables. Congreve’s Comedies are a truthful picture of fashion¬ able society, saving the style and wit, which are Con¬ greve’s own. In one of his commonplace books he has written out his opinion of Milton and Burke’s prose writings. GEE C Q](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31355912_0399.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
