Word: background
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...thus is avoided that fault which appears in some of Shakspere's historical plays, where the medley of sentiments and incidents is such that we are bewildered as by a rumbling and unintelligible noise. In the great tragedies, except Lear, this element, although constantly appearing as a living background for the principal figures, is kept distinctly subordinate: Othello is almost classic in its unity and continuity; Macbeth, although less compact, still turns on a single event; while Hamlet draws its variety and intricacy from the character of the hero, and not from any great admixture of foreign matter...
...confidence were placed in the good sense of the undergraduates, as is done in more weighty matters, no harm could result. Only one fire would in such a case be built, probably in the broad open space in front of University. The proctors might keep themselves in the background to see that the fire did not become too large. The wood which was used-taken from the college wood-yard, would be cheerfully paid for by the nine. Such a course would have been in accordance with the general policy and traditions of the university, and it would have caused...
...result is that the belief which had already been entertained has been strengthened. Ideality in academic study, unselfish devotion to science for its own sake, and that unshackled activity of thought which is at once the condition and the consequence of such devotion, retire more and more into the background as the classical groundwork of our mental life found in the Gymnasium is withdrawn from the pre-university course. This is, to be sure, in the first instance, only a personal belief drawn from personal experience; but I will not omit to say that I have had abundant opportunity...
...looking in at the open door, he will see a confused mass of little human bodies squatted on the floor, rocking back and forth in well-kept measure, and repeating, parrot-like, the lesson of the day, each viewing with the others as a lung-tester; while in the background, squatted likewise on the pedagogical mat, is the instructor, whose chief business seems to be to keep up the rhythmical rocking and Babel of sound to its highest pitch. This he does by occasional adjuration, strengthened by applications of a long cane, which seems to be the chief badge...
...hand, the other holds the drapery which comes from the shoulders and covers the lower portion of the body and the lower limbs. The modeling of the chest and limb is masterful, the pose of the head majestic. The pale dull red, green and yellow of the background, and the Graeco-Roman details of the decorative panels above and below the figure, are the same in both halves of the window. In nothing else does the glass in which Virgil is portrayed resemble Homer, save in the fillet of bays which encircles the brows of both poets...