EDWARD YOUNG, 1759
(1683-1765)
Who knows whether Shakespeare might not have thought less, if he had read more? Who knows if he might not have laboured under the load of Jonson’s learning, as Enceladus under Ætna? His mighty genius, indeed, though the most mountainous oppression, would have breathed out some of his inextinguishable fire; yet possibly he might not have risen up into that giant, that much more than common man, at which we now gaze with amazement and delight. Perhaps he was as learned as his dramatic province required; for whatever other learning he wanted, he was master of two books unknown to many of the profoundly read, though books which the last conflagration alone can destroy: the book of Nature, and that of Man.
Conjectures on Original Composition. 1759.
MARK AKENSIDE, c. 1760
(1721-1770)
“An Inscription.”
O youths and virgins: O declining eld:
O pale misfortune’s slaves: O ye who dwell
Unknown with humble quiet; ye who wait