HKB
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Often appears with: theatre and performance · samuel johnson · richard steele/addison (as referenced) · rhetoric and persuasion · envy, jealousy, and resentment · envy and emulation
Usually: argument (1) · detachment (1) · indignation (1)
On the English theatre, Voltaire criticizes Samuel Johnson’s assessment of Shakespeare and defends Shakespeare’s genius, then contrasts it with Addison’s more dignified but colder tragedy, and turns to an entry on envy.
in his verse and in his prose. A friend of propriety and orderliness, he wanted tragedy to be written with dignity, and it is thus that his "Cato" is composed. From the very first act the verses are worthy of Virgil, and the sentiments worthy of Cato. There is no theatre in Europe where the scene of Juba and Syphax was not applauded as a masterpiece of skill, of well-developed characters, of fine contrasts, and of p…