Shakespeare
Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world; by the peculiarities of studies or professions, which can operate but upon small numbers; or by the accidents of transient fashions or temporary opinions: they are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. His persons act and speak by the influnce of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated, and the whole system of life is continued in motion. In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species. Except from The Major Works by Sammuel Johnson 參考譯文 莎士比亞的才華高於一切作家，至少高於當今的所有作家。他是一位自然的詩人，他的作品將人間百態真實地展現在讀者眼前。他的人物塑造並不拘泥於隻為一部分人所遵循的某個特定地區的習俗，也不局限於一小部分人所從事的特定的研究或職業，也不追隨短暫的潮流或暫時的思想觀點：他們據有人們一貫具備的、普遍的人性特點。就像世界能永不竭地供應，眼睛能永不停地發現。他筆下人物的一言一行都受那些能夠觸動所有人的大眾化的情感和能使整個生命體係得以延續的普遍原則所影響。在其他詩人的作品中，一個人物往往就是一個個體，而莎翁筆下的人物通常代表著一類人。
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