Nothing displeases me more than to see people assenting to everything that they hear said; I at once come to the conclusion that they are either hypocrites, or there is nothing in them.

But, with respect to Shakespeare, whom I have not read for thirty years, is he not rather given to bombast, 'crackling bombast,' as I think I have said in one of my essays ?" "I daresay he is," said the youth; "but I can't help thinking him the greatest of all poets, not even excepting Homer.

I would sooner have written that series of plays, founded on the fortunes of the House of Lancaster, than the Iliad itself.

The events described are as lofty as those sung by Homer in his great work, and the characters brought upon the stage still more interesting.

I think Hotspur as much of a hero as Hector, and young Henry more of a man than Achilles; and then there is the fat knight, the quintessence of fun, wit, and rascality.