“I have to thank it, for that kind of reception which is best calculated to make a work go on well—praise mixed with a considerable portion of censure.”

She valued mixed criticism as healthier than unmixed praise · To the Reader, Plays on the Passions, volume two, 1802

• Criticism
• Humility
• Writing

“I have wished to leave behind me in the world a few plays, some of which might have a chance of continuing to be acted even in our canvas theatres and barns.”

She hoped even humble playhouses might keep her work alive in performance · Prefatory address, as commonly cited from her defence of stage plays

• Ambition
• Theatre
• Writing

“It has been and still is, my strongest desire to add a few pieces to the stock of what may be called our national or permanently acting plays.”

A lifelong claim that her dramas were written for the stage, not the closet · To the Reader, Miscellaneous Plays, 1804

• Ambition
• Theatre
• Writing

“There is, perhaps, no employment which the human mind will with so much avidity pursue, as the discovery of concealed passion, as the tracing the varieties and progress of a perturbed soul.”

She names hidden passion as the true subject of tragedy · Introductory Discourse, A Series of Plays, 1798

• Drama
• Mind
• Passion

“It is our best and most powerful instructor.”

Sympathetic curiosity is treated as a moral school rather than idle gazing · Introductory Discourse, A Series of Plays, 1798

• Curiosity
• Education
• Morality

“In examining others we know ourselves.”

Self-knowledge, she argues, comes through watching the passions of other people · Introductory Discourse, A Series of Plays, 1798

• Humanity
• Observation
• Self Knowledge

“From that strong sympathy which most creatures, but the human above all, feel for others of their kind, nothing has become so much an object of man's curiosity as man himself.”

Her central claim that we watch one another because fellow-feeling and curiosity are native to us · Introductory Discourse, A Series of Plays, 1798

• Curiosity
• Humanity
• Sympathy

“I will ask you only one thing, reader: to pronounce my verses well and fit your voice to their passion, and not read them in the manner of a letter.”

Original: Je te supliray seulement d'une chose, lecteur, de vouloir bien prononcer mes vers et accomoder ta voix à leur passion, et non comme quelques uns les lisent, plustost à la façon d'une missive. — Verse meant to be spoken with feeling, not scanned like prose · Preface to La Franciade (French)

• Poetry
• Reading
• Voice

“Give the name of poet to him who can make such a work, and not to the versifier, composer of epigrams, sonnets, satires, elegies and other such small scraps, where artifice cannot stretch far.”

Original: Donne-luy nom de poëte, et non au versificateur, composeur d'epigrammes, sonnets, satyres, elegies, et autres tels menus fatras, où l'artifice ne se peut estendre. — A sharp line drawn between the true poet and the mere maker of verses · Preface on the heroic poem, La Franciade (French)

• Craft
• Poetry
• Poets

“I am not so obstinate that I will not, at the first warning of a learned, unpassionate man well versed in poetry, receive every friendly correction.”

Original: Et ne suis point si opiniastre, que je ne vueille au premier admonnestement d'un homme docte, non passionné, et bien versé en la poësie, recevoir toute amiable correction. — Openness to criticism from those who know the craft · Preface to the second edition of La Franciade (French)

• Criticism
• Humility
• Learning

“It is no vice to amend oneself, but it is extreme malice to persist in one's fault.”

Original: Car ce n'est pas vice de s'amender, mais c'est extrême malice de persister en son peché. — Revision treated as a moral duty of the writer · Preface to the second edition of La Franciade (French)

• Correction
• Humility
• Writing

“It is better to serve truth than the opinion of the people, who will know only what they see.”

Original: Il vaut mieux servir à la vérité qu'à l'opinion du peuple, qui ne veut sçavoir sinon ce qu'il void. — Independence of judgement against popular taste · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Courage
• Public Opinion
• Truth

“You will first have conceptions that are high, great and beautiful, and not trailing on the ground.”

Original: Tu auras en premier lieu les conceptions hautes, grandes, belles, et non traînantes à terre. — Elevation of thought as the first duty of the poet · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Excellence
• Imagination
• Poetry

“The principal point is invention, which comes as much from a good nature as from the reading of good and ancient authors.”

Original: Car le principal poinct est l'invention, laquelle vient tant de la bonne nature, que par la leçon des bons et anciens autheurs. — Genius and study must work together · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Creativity
• Learning
• Poetry

“In the first age poetry was only an allegorical theology, to bring into the minds of coarse men, by pleasant and coloured fables, the secrets they could not grasp when truth was shown too openly.”

Original: Car la Poésie n'estoit au premier âge qu'une theologie allegorique, pour faire entrer au cerveau des hommes grossiers, par fables plaisantes et colorées, les secrets qu'ils ne pouvoient comprendre, quand trop ouvertement on leur descouvroit la vérité. — Myth and verse as a veiled way of teaching truth · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Myth
• Poetry
• Truth

“Above all things you will hold the Muses in reverence, even in singular veneration, and never make them serve dishonest things, jests, or injurious libels.”

Original: Sur toutes choses tu auras les Muses en reverence, voire en singuliere veneration, et ne les feras jamais servir à choses des-honnestes, à risées, ny à libelles injurieux. — The poet's calling is sacred and not to be cheapened · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Integrity
• Poetry
• Sacred

“Although the art of poetry cannot be grasped or taught by precepts, being more a matter of the mind than of tradition, human craft, experience and labour can still permit a few rules.”

Original: Combien que l'art de Poësie ne se puisse par preceptes comprendre ny enseigner pour estre plus mental que traditif, toutesfois d'autant que l'artifice humain, experience et labeur le peuvent permettre, j'ay bien voulu t'en donner quelques reigles icy. — Poetry treated as a gift of mind first, then of discipline · Abrégé de l'art poétique français, 1565 (French)

• Craft
• Learning
• Poetry

“Nothing can have a better influence towards the revival of poetry than the choosing of great and serious subjects, such as at once amuse the fancy, enlighten the head, and warm the heart.”

Calls for serious subject-matter as the way to restore poetry · Preface to Winter, 1726

• Imagination
• Poetry
• Purpose

“As this poem grew up under your encouragement, it has therefore a natural claim to your patronage.”

Patronage framed as the natural consequence of encouragement · Dedication letter of Spring to the Countess of Hertford, 1728

• Gratitude
• Patronage
• Poetry

“The more I see of the vanity and wickedness of the world, the more I am inclined to that sacred office.”

Written while still considering a clerical vocation · Letter to Dr Cranstoun, 1725

• Religion
• Vocation
• World

“Mr. Riccaltoun's poem on Winter, which I still have, first put the design into my head—in it are some masterly strokes which awakened me.”

Acknowledges the spark that started The Seasons · Letter to Dr Cranstoun, September 1725

• Influence
• Inspiration
• Poetry

“Nature delights me in every form; I am just now painting her in her most lugubrious dress for my own amusement, describing Winter as it presents itself.”

Early statement of the impulse behind Winter · Letter to Dr Cranstoun, Barnet, September 1725

• Creativity
• Nature
• Writing

“It is declaring against the most charming power of imagination, the most exalting force of thought, the most affecting touch of sentiment.”

Contempt of poetry treated as contempt of imagination itself · Preface to Winter, 1726

• Imagination
• Poetry
• Thought

“That any man should seriously declare against that divine art is really amazing.”

Poetry defended as a divine art against fashionable contempt · Preface to Winter, 1726

• Art
• Criticism
• Poetry