In the general style of their writings, they bear a strong family resemblance to Shakespeare; and indeed many of the peculiar merits of their great prototype may be found scattered among his various contemporaries, and in some instances carried to a height little inferior to that found in his writings. THOS. B. SHAW. PREFACE. THE little volume here presented to the 66 reader, contains a cluster, at random strung," of short extracts, poetical, suggestive, and beautiful, from the writings of the great British Dramatists. The collection, though limited in extent, is extremely catholic, and embraces a littie of nearly all varieties of subject, from the dignity of Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger, the pathos and tragic emotion of Ford and Webster, the humour and sprightliness of Ben Jonson, down to the deep poetry |