Curiosities of Literature: Consisting of Anecdotes, Characters, Sketches, and Observations, Literary, Critical, and Historical, Volume 2Murray and Highley, 1698 - Anecdotes |
Common terms and phrases
Abbé Abridgers addreffed aëre againſt alfo alſo amongſt ancient anecdote anſwer appeared Bayle becauſe Brantome cauſe cenfure compofed compofition Crebillon criticiſm curious defirous diſplay Domitian Engliſh expreffed expreffions faid falute fame fatire fays ferves feveral fhall fhew fhould fimilar fince fingular firft firſt fome foon French friends ftudies fubject fuch fuffered fufficient fuperior genius greateſt hiftory himſelf honour huſband inftance ingenious itſelf juſt King laft laſt learned leaſt lefs letters literary literature Lord marriage moft moſt muſt myſelf obferves occafion paffages paffed paffion pamphlet perfons pleaſe pleaſure poem poet poetical poetry Pope prefent preferved Prince profe publiſhed purpoſe Queen Quintilian racters reafon reprefented republic of letters Romances Saint ſays Scarron ſcholars ſeveral ſhall ſhe ſome ſtate Taffo tafte taſte thefe themſelves theſe thofe thoſe thouſand tion tranflation uſed verfes verſes Voltaire volumes whofe whoſe wife writer written
Popular passages
Page 81 - Poeta non fit, sed nascitur (one is not made, but born a poet). Indeed his learning was very little; so that, as Cornish diamonds are not polished by any lapidary, but are pointed and smoothed even as they are taken out of the earth, so nature itself was all the art which was used upon him.
Page 16 - I being young when your lordship married me, could not have much knowledge of the world; but it pleased God to command his servant Nature to endue me with a poetical and philosophical genius, even from my birth; for I did write some books in that kind before I was twelve years of age, which for want of good method and order I would never divulge.
Page 351 - But in the art of weapons (in which he has a method beyond all that ever was famous in it, found out by his own ingenuity and practice-) he never taught any body but the now Duke of Buckingham, whose guardian he hath been, and his own two sons. The rest of his time he Spends in music, poetry, architecture, and the like.
Page 51 - In the year 1437, when Conrad Bayer, bishop of Metz, caused the Mystery of ' The Passion' to be represented on the plain of Veximel near that city, God was an old gentleman, named Mr. Nicholas Neufchatel of Touraine, curate of Saint Victory of Metz, and who was very near expiring on the cross had he not been timely assisted. He was so enfeebled, that it was agreed another priest should be placed on the cross the next day, to finish the representation of the person crucified, and which was done ;...
Page 83 - Leave things so prostitute, And take the Alcaic lute ; Or thine own Horace, or Anacreon's lyre ; Warm thee by Pindar's fire : And though thy nerves be shrunk, and blood be cold, Ere years have made thee old, Strike that disdainful heat Throughout, to their defeat, As curious fools, and envious of thy strain, May, blushing, swear no palsy's in thy brain.
Page 350 - He accoutres his person according to the fashion, if it be one that is not troublesome and uneasy for men of heroic exercises and actions. He is neat and cleanly ; which makes him to be somewhat long in dressing, though not so long as many effeminate persons are.
Page 83 - The stagers and the stage-wrights too, your peers, Of larding your large ears With their foul comic socks, Wrought upon twenty blocks ; Which if they are torn, and turn'd, and patch'd enough, The gamesters share your gilt, and you their stuff. Leave things so prostitute, And take the Alcaic lute ; Or thine own Horace...
Page 185 - Je sais ce que je vaux, et crois ce qu'on m'en dit. Pour me faire admirer je ne fais point de ligue : J'ai peu de voix pour moi , mais je les ai sans brigue ; Et mon ambition, pour faire plus de bruit, Ne les va point quêter de réduit en réduit ; Mon travail sans appui monte sur le théâtre; Chacun en liberté l'y blâme ou l'idolâtre : Là, sans que mes amis prêchent leurs...
Page 87 - Cause moles will have no eyes: This only in my Ben I faulty find, He's angry, they'll not see him that are blind.
Page 80 - Indeed his parts were not so ready to run of themselves, as able to answer the spur ; so that it may be truly said of him that he had an elaborate wit wrought out by his own industry.