614. William Shakespeare. 1564-1616. John Bartlett, comp. 1919. Familiar Quotations, 10th ed.

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.


NUMBER:	614
AUTHOR:	William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
QUOTATION:	The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact: One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic, Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt: The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination, That if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends some bringer of that joy; Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
ATTRIBUTION:	A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act v. Sc. 1. [text]
BIOGRAPHY:	Columbia Encyclopedia.
WORKS:	William Shakespeare Collection.