...such delight, that he was content to purchase it, by the sacrifice of reason, propriety and truth. A quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it. — Samuel Johnson, "Preface to Shakespeare" Just as Euripides' story of faithful Helen's sojourn in...

...For example, take Samuel Johnson, whose famous criticism of Shakespeare's wordplay is often quoted: "A quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it."11 Cleopatra, that occult agent of femininity who stretches the boundaries of passion and discourse,...

...him such delight that he was content to purchase it, by the sacrifice of reason, propriety and truth. A quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it. [74] In this passage, frequently cited by Johnson's contemporaries, we see the firm decisiveness absent...

...Mind wholly occupied by some quibbling Scenes in Romeo and Juliet, and the Midsummer's Night's Dream! 'A Quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the World, and was content to lose it.' [p. 68] Has not Mr. J. been as culpably fond of writing upon Quibble, as Shakespeare in pursuing it?...

...Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson ranked among Shakespeare's faults his susceptibility to "the quibble": "A quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the World and was content to lose it" (Johnson, in Kermode 89). While Johnson introduces Cleopatra here simply as a local metaphor for what...

...Soseki scholars had hardly ever pointed out. As Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote, "A quibble was to Shakespeare the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world and was content to lose it"; I suggest that Shakespeare might be replaced with Soseki in this context. (Soseki was indeed a punster.)...

...beyond the point where it warranted praise hence the indulgence in quibbles, or "fatal Cleopatra[s] for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it" (p. 74). Johnson praises comedy, and he criticizes tragedy. But the scene, not the play, is the unit...

...him such delight that he was content to purchase it by the sacrifice of reason, propriety, and truth. A quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it. (Vickers, v. 68) Today Shakespeare's quibbles, often cut in production, may seem trivial and tedious;...

...clenches' (1 672; in Watson 1962: I 178-9) or Dr Johnson, a century later, censures Shakespeare, because 'a quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the world, and was content to lose it' (1765: 23-4). In lamenting Milton's propensity to pun, Addison portrays it as the vice of an age now...

...Preface, 'has some malignant power over [Shakespeare's] mind, and its fascinations are irresistible. It was to him the fatal Cleopatra, for which he lost the world and was content to lose it.' — ED. 29. past care, etc.] MALONE : ' Things past redress are now with me past care.' — Rich. II:...