Than Shakespeare and Petrarch pray who are more living?
Whose words more delight us? whose touches more touch?
Leigh Hunt (1784-1859). “Blue-stocking Revels; or, the Feast of the Violets.” Canto III. Monthly Repository, 1837.
In the gravest sense it may be affirmed of Shakespeare, that he is among the modern luxuries of life.
T. De Quincey (1785-1859). “Shakespeare,” Encyclopædia Britannica, 7th ed., 1842. Written 1838.
Produce us from any drama of Shakespeare one of those leading passages that all men have by heart, and show us any eminent defect in the very sinews of the thought. It is impossible; defects there may be, but they will always be found irrelevant to the main central thought, or to its expression.
Id. “Pope,” Encyclopædia Britannica, 7th ed., 1842. Written 1839.