"'Putting Shakespeare and his immediate followers out of the way, whom do you think the best dramatist?'
'Otway, Lee and Southern, unquestionably.'"
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Robert Maturin Print: Book
'[from the Johnsoniana imparted by Bennet Langton to Boswell in 1780] Mr. Langton, when a very young man, read Dodsley's "Cleone, a Tragedy", to him, not aware of his extreme impatience to be read to. As it went on he turned his face to the back of his chair, and put himself into various attitudes, which marked his uneasiness. At the end of an act, however, he said, "Come let's have some more, let's go into the slaughter-house again, Lanky. But I am afraid there is more blood than brains." Yet he afterwards said, "When I heard you read it, I thought higher of its power of language: when I read it myself, I was more sensible of its pathetick effect;" and then he paid it a compliment which many will think very extravagant. "Sir, (said he,) if Otway had written this play, no other of his pieces would have been remembered": Dodsley himself, upon this being repeated to him, said, "It was too much": it must be remembered, that Johnson always appeared not to be sufficiently sensible of the merit of Otway'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book
From Anne Isabella Milbanke's reminiscences of her father:
'"Of Shakespeare, Otway, Dryden, he was a devoted admirer, pointing out or reciting to me their finest passages"'.
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Ralph Milbanke Print: Book