...renown, and little regard is due to that bigotry which sets candor higher than truth. 20 His first defect is that to which may be imputed most of the evil in...his writings, indeed, a system of social duty may be selected, 25 for he that thinks reasonably must think morally: but his precepts and axioms drop casually...

...reading of the doctrine of the stage as a mirror), he complains that Shakespeare neglects poetic justice 'and is so much more careful to please than to instruct,...that he seems to write without any moral purpose'; that the poet is carried away by his love of 'a quibble'; and that he is often careless in plot construction,...

...is always a writer's duty to make the world better." On this count he holds Shakespeare defective. "He sacrifices virtue to convenience, and is so much...that he seems to write without any moral purpose." Johnson objects that Shakespeare "makes no just distribution of good or evil, nor is always careful...

...renown; and little regard is due to that bigotry which sets candor higher than truth. His first defect is that to which may be imputed most of the evil in...his writings indeed a system of social duty may be selected, for he that thinks reasonably must think morally; but his precepts and axioms drop casually...

...renown; and little regard is due to that bigotry which sets candour1 higher than truth. His first defect is that to which may be imputed most of the evil in...is so much more careful to please than to instruct 2 'Analogy': '1. Resemblance between things with regard to some circumstances or effects'; 3. 'By grammarians,...

...didacticism (like Irene) nor wanting in morals. What he says (somewhat controversially) is that Shakespeare "sacrifices virtue to convenience and is so much more...that he seems to write without any moral purpose" (p. 71). "Seems" is the operative word in this sentence: there are many occasions in the notes where...

...from which the author of Irene was free. According to the "Preface to Shakespeare," "his first defect is that to which may be imputed most of the evil in...that he seems to write without any moral purpose" (7: 71). The urge to please is the great pitfall of theater, the fatal Cleopatra for which it loses...

...true mirror of life that he exhibits 'the real state of sublunary nature' - and the judgement that he 'is so much more careful to please than to instruct,...that he seems to write without any moral purpose'. The incompatibility between moral purpose, which entails a 'duty to make the world better' by enforcing...

...Shakespeare's faults cannot be excused even allowing for the barbarity of the age in which he lived; he 'sacrifices virtue to convenience, and is so much...that he seems to write without any moral purpose'. Johnson may have felt this to be especially true of the tragedies: 'In his tragick scenes there is...

...into Characters of Shakespear's Plays.) While Dr Johnson had found fault with Shakespeare for being ' so much more careful to please than to instruct, that he seems to write without any moral purpose', Hazlitt praises him for this very characteristic.3 Remarking that the 'moral perfection' of Hamlet...