...high, He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit, AVould steer too nigh the sands, to boast his wit. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide.' Or, in the lines which he sent to Tonson the publisher as a specimen of what he could do in the way...

...high He sought the storms ; but, for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands, to boast his wit. Great wits are, sure, to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide : Else, why should he, with wealth and honours blest. Refuse his age the needful hours of rest ? Punish...

...indifferently, and might have convinced the authors, that the charm of " Absalom and Achitophel " lav 1 f " Great wits are sure to madness near allied. And thin partitions do their bounds divide ; Else, why should he, with wealth and honour blest. Refuse his age the needful hours of rest ; Punish...

...high, He sought the storms ; but, for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide ; Else why should he, with wealth and honour blest, Refuse his age the needful hours of rest ? Punish...

...went high He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to show his wit. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide: Else, why should he, with wealth and honors blest, Refuse his age the needful hours of rest? Punish...

...high, He sought the storms ; but, for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide ; Else why should he, with wealth and honour blesl, Refuse his age the needful hours of rest •I Punish...

...its way, Fretted, the pigmy body to decay, And o'er informed the tenement of clay. part \. Line 156. Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide.* Part i. Line 163. And all to leave what with his toil he won, To that unfeather'd two-legg'd thing,...

...about him, who are too lethargic, apathetic, or stupid to feel as he does. John Uryden has said — " Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide." Still there is no true connection between wit and madness. Shakespeare, though he seemed to have the...

...ever since Plato and Aristotle and encapsulated in Dryden's couplet in Absolom and Achitophel (1680): Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide. A prime irony of the human condition, moralists had long noted, was that though speech raised man above...

...remark is so shocking that it does full justice to his mental condition. We are reminded of Dryden's, "Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide." The madman is spontaneity personified. Even more than die cripple, he can get away with saying what...