Preface to Shakespeare • Paragraph 7
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It is the real defect of Shakspeare that he had no knowledge of men in the most perfect manner; he knew them only as they are: and therefore he often gives their passions the ascendancy over their understandings. He sometimes admits improbable events, and sometimes suffers characters to act inconsistently: but these faults arise from his partiality to strong images, and his impatience of minute operation.