...heavy spirits of the English from their natural reserv'dness; loosen'd them from their stiff forma of conversation, and made them easy and pliant to...the English wit, which was before stifled under a constrain'd, melancholy way of breeding, began first to display its force, by mixing the solidity of...

...conversation of his tune was much unproved over the conversation of Elizabethan tunes, that in his tune the fire of the English wit, which was before stifled...under a constrained, melancholy way of breeding, began 1 Dryden's Amphitryon, ii. 2 (p. 50 f.). first to display its force, by mixing the solidity of our...

...thought it had effected a great improvement over the discourse of an earlier age ; he maintained that "the fire of the English wit, which was before stifled...force, by mixing the solidity of our nation with the air and gaiety of our neighbors." II If we examine the comedies of the period we find the striving...

...first awakened the dull and heavy spirits of the English from their native reservedness; loosened them from their stiff forms of conversation, and made them...force by mixing the solidity of our nation with the air and gaiety of our neighbours. This being granted to be true, it would be a wonder if the poets,...

...awakened the dull and heavy spirits of the English from their natural reservedness ; loosened them from their stiff forms of conversation, and made them...our way of living became more free ; and the fire of English wit, which was before stifled under a constrained melancholy way of breeding, began first to...

...Dryden in his Defence of the Epilogue (1672), 'of imitating so great a pattern loosened' the English 'from their stiff forms of conversation, and made them easy and pliant to each other in discourse.' And, of Charles II, Halifax says that his wit ' consisted chiefly in the quickness of his apprehension.'...

...awakened the dull and heavy spirits of the English from their natural reservedness ; loosened them from their stiff forms of conversation, and made them...under a constrained melancholy way of breeding, began to display its force by mixing the solidity of our nation with the air and gayety of our neighbours."...

...reserv'dness: loosen'd them, from their stiff forms of conversation; and made them easy and plyant to each other in discourse. Thus, insensibly, our...the English wit, which was before stifled under a constrain'd melancholy way of breeding, began first to display its force: by mixing the solidity of...

...the King, whose example gives a law to it" (1:178,1 81). 4 Under Charles H's influence, wrote Dryden, "our way of living became more free: and the fire...force, by mixing the solidity of our nation with the air and gaiety of our neighbours" (1:182). The Defence of the Epilogue ( 1 672) , in which Dryden makes...

...natural reserv'dness: loosen'd them from their stiff forms of conversation; and made them easy and plyant to each other in discourse. Thus, insensibly, our...became more free: and the fire of the English wit . . . began first to display its force by mixing the solidity of our Nation, with the air and gayety...