...Voltaire played the parts suited to his years; his declamation, Gibbon thought, was old-fashioned, and "he expressed the enthusiasm of poetry rather than the feelings of nature." "The parts of the young and fair," he said, "were distorted by Voltaire's fat and ugly niece." Despite...

...characters best adapted to his years, " Lusignan, Alvardz, Benassar, Euphemon. His declamation was " fashioned to the pomp and cadence of the old stage...of poetry, rather than the feelings of " nature. My ardor, which soon became conspicuous, seldom " failed of procuring me a ticket. The habits of pleasure...

...Orosmane. Voltaire himself played the part of Lusignan at Lausanne in J73N1758. " His declamation was fashioned to the pomp and "cadence of the old stage;...of " poetry, rather than the feelings of nature," writes Gibbon, who was one of the spectators. ("Miscellaneous Works," Edition 1796: Vol. I. at p. 73.)...

..." — " Shakespeare, or the Poet," in " Representative Men." i "That taste [for the French Theatre] has perhaps abated my idolatry for the gigantic genius...which is inculcated from our infancy as the first duty of an Englishman." — Gibbon, "Memoirs of my Life." Hume blames in Shakespeare " his total ignorance...

...sake, read Shakespeare but get Racine and Sophocles by heart'33 while Gibbon remarked in his Memoirs: 'taste has perhaps abated my idolatry for the Gigantic...which is inculcated from our infancy as the first duty of an Englishman'.34 Gibbon was so great a poet of history, however, that while he professed his...

...characters best adapted to his years — Lusignan, Alvarez, Benassar, Euphemon ; his declamation was fashioned to the pomp and cadence of the old stage,...which is inculcated from our infancy as the first duty of an Englishman. The wit and philosophy of Voltaire, his table and theatre, refined in a visible...