| Citation |
NM.767.025
13 Apr 1767:11 (449)
London, January 12. Voltaire is a wonderful compound of a
man, half infidel, half papist; he seems to have no regard
for Christianity, yet compliments popery, at the expence of
his understanding . . . and denies Shakespeare almost every
dramatic excellence, though in his Mahomet he pilfers from
Macbeth almost every capital scene; Shakespeare, who
furnishes our more elegant, pleasing, and interesting
entertainment in his plays than all the other dramatic
writers, ancient and modern, have been able to do; and,
without observing any one unity but that of character, for
ever diverts and instructs, by the variety of his incidents,
the propriety of his sentiments, the luxuriancy of his
fancy, and the purity and strength of his dialogue!
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