BC_1766_EMONTAGU_EC_2

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<Q A 1766 TC EC EMONTAGU>
<X ELIZABETH MONTAGU>
 [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO ELIZABETH CARTER. 1766 JUL 19. DENTON HALL. MO 3176}]
<P1>
July y=e= 19=th= 1766
   I am not at all pleased with my dear friends account of her health. What state must she be in, when she neither understands Aristotle nor herself? The one she can read without help of a commentator, the other without [\y=e=/] hindrance of partiality & self love. I am sorry I did not bring M=r= Harris. I might scrape acquaintance with Hermes in this retirement, tho between the care of my health, vulgar business, & attention to Shakespear, I can pretty well fill my day without reading more than is some way relative to my work. What you say of the disadvantages of a quickness in learning is extreamly true, but that is not the worst part, for indeed it makes one content with a superficial knowledge, & away one runs to something else; of which too one acts into a part & this leads to error which is worse [NEXT PAGE MISSING]
<P2>
much of M=r= Johnsons work, & detesting all the ribbaldry with which he has been treated. I think, he has not in his criticisms on the plays, pointed out the peculiar excellencies of Shakespear as a (^Dramatick^) poet, this point I shall labour as I think he therin excells every one. I have been very busy in writing upon the tragedy of Macbeth, which opens a large field for criticism, as I have there taken notice of how he employs his supernatural Beings (who, (by the by, other poets have not made at all supernatural. I have compared the Manes of Darius with the Ghost of Hamlet, & have, asking y=r= pardon, spoken a little irreverently of [\the DELETED\] Minerva in the Ajax of Sophocles. How larned [\SIC\] must y=r= friend appear when she so familiarly criticises Æschylus & Sophocles You give me ardor for my work when you encourage me. I think poor Shakespear is like an unfortunate maid, whom many lovers have betrothed & none has married. The subject is a little contaminated
[\...\] still [\WORD\] I wish it had [\not/] [\WORD\]
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