Authors:
  • Criticism is now become mere hangman's work, and meddles only with the faults of authors ; nay, the critic is disgusted less with their absurdities than excellence ; and you cannot displease him more than in leaving him little room for his malice.

    John Dryden, John Mitford (1836). “The Works of John Dryden: In Verse and Prose, with a Life”, p.424