A History of English Literature: In a Series of Biographical Sketches |
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Page iv
... illustrative specimens , intended mainly to form the basis of lessons on variety of style , are appended to all the leading lives . Since names that cannot be passed over grow very thick towards the end , the closing chapters of the ...
... illustrative specimens , intended mainly to form the basis of lessons on variety of style , are appended to all the leading lives . Since names that cannot be passed over grow very thick towards the end , the closing chapters of the ...
Page 44
... Illustrative extract . THE earliest writer of English prose , whose work survives , was Sir John de Mandeville . He was born at St. Albans in Hertfordshire about the year 1300. Educated for the medical profession , he had scarcely ...
... Illustrative extract . THE earliest writer of English prose , whose work survives , was Sir John de Mandeville . He was born at St. Albans in Hertfordshire about the year 1300. Educated for the medical profession , he had scarcely ...
Page 46
... Illustrative extract . On a rocky point , overhanging the Tees in Yorkshire , a manor- house stood , in which once lived the Wycliffes of Wycliffe . * There , probably in 1324 , a boy was born , who has gilded tho family name with ...
... Illustrative extract . On a rocky point , overhanging the Tees in Yorkshire , a manor- house stood , in which once lived the Wycliffes of Wycliffe . * There , probably in 1324 , a boy was born , who has gilded tho family name with ...
Page 53
... Illustrative extracts . First great writer of English verse , he proudly wears the honoured title , - " Father of English Poetry ; " nor can the most brilliant of his successors feel ashamed of such a lineage . The accounts of his early ...
... Illustrative extracts . First great writer of English verse , he proudly wears the honoured title , - " Father of English Poetry ; " nor can the most brilliant of his successors feel ashamed of such a lineage . The accounts of his early ...
Page 61
... Illustrative extract . THOUGH ranking far below the great Father of English Poetry , " the moral Gower , " as his friend Chaucer calls him in the " Troilus and Creseide , " yet holds an honoured place among our earlier bards . We know ...
... Illustrative extract . THOUGH ranking far below the great Father of English Poetry , " the moral Gower , " as his friend Chaucer calls him in the " Troilus and Creseide , " yet holds an honoured place among our earlier bards . We know ...
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Addison afterwards amid Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury beauty became Bible born brilliant called Cambridge CHAPTER character Charles chief chiefly Church College colour court death died dramatic Dublin Earl early Edinburgh Edinburgh Review England English English poetry Essays Faerie Queene fame father finest France genius gentle heart Henry History honour Illustrative extract James John John Milton King Lady land Latin letters literary literature lived London Lord Milton mind minstrels night noble novel novelist Oxford paper Paradise Lost picture play poem poet poet's poetic poetry poor prose published Puritan Queen reign ROGER ASCHAM romance round royal scene Scotland Scottish Shakspere song SPECIMEN spent story style Supplementary List sweet Tatler Thomas Thomas Fuller thought took tragedy translation Trinity College University of Edinburgh verse wife WILLIAM wonderful words writer written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 324 - For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn Or busy housewife ply her evening care: No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; How jocund did they drive their team afield! How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke...
Page 149 - Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid : Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut, Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers. And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers...
Page 457 - What then I was. The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colours and their forms, were then to me An appetite; a feeling and a love, 80 That had no need of a remoter charm, By thought supplied, nor any interest Unborrowed from the eye.
Page 148 - Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Or else worth all the rest : I see thee still ; And on thy blade, and dudgeon,* gouts of blood, Which was not so before. — There's no such thing ; It is the bloody business, which informs Thus to mine eyes.
Page 92 - MAIDEN ! with the meek, brown eyes, In whose orbs a shadow lies Like the dusk in evening skies ! Thou whose locks outshine the sun, Golden tresses, wreathed in one, As the braided streamlets run ! Standing, with reluctant feet, Where the brook and river meet, Womanhood and childhood fleet...
Page 340 - In all my wanderings round this world of care, In all my griefs — and God has given my share — I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown, Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down; To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flame from wasting by repose...
Page 457 - The picture of the mind revives again : While here I stand, not only with the sense Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts That in this moment there is life and food For future years.
Page 111 - ... else, I must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure, and number, even so perfectly as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea, presently, sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, ana other ways (which I will not name for the honour I bear them) so without measure misordered, that I think myself in hell, till time come that I must go to Mr.
Page 376 - I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look tliat threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded ; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.
Page 361 - It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th of June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains.