...ORRERY. THIS worthless Present was design'd you, long before it was a Play; When it was only a confus'd Mass of Thoughts, tumbling over one another in the...Sleeping Images of things towards the Light, there to be Distinguish'd, and then either chosen or rejected by the Judgment: It was Yours, my Lord, before I...

...vivid imagery when he described the composition of a play as beginning "when it was only a confused mass of thoughts, tumbling over one another in the...and then either chosen or rejected by the judgment." Nor are such claims confined to artistic creators, for similar reports come from scientific creators,...

...a confus'd Mass of Thoughts, tumbling over one another in the Dark: When the Fancy [or imagination] was yet in its first Work, moving the Sleeping Images of things towards the Light, there to be Disguish'd, and then either chosen or rejected by the Judgment... 69 Poet and audience may then share...

...dedication: "This worthless present was designed you, long before it was a play: when it was only a confused mass of thoughts, tumbling over one another in the dark; when the fancy was yet in its fust work, moving the sleeping images of things towards the light, there to be distinguished, and then...

...poem'.3 0 This formula is endorsed when Dryden, for instance, describes the gestation of composition as 'when the fancy was yet in its first work, moving...distinguished, and then either chosen or rejected by the judgement'; and it also underlies Swift's famous admonition in A Tale of a Tub about a 'Man's Fancy...