A History of English Literature: In a Series of Biographical Sketches |
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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 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 ...
Page 64
... Illustrative extract . His poor THE romantic story of this royal poet is well known . father , Robert III . , whose heart had been well - nigh broken by the murder of his darling son Rothesay , put his only remaining son , James , on ...
... Illustrative extract . His poor THE romantic story of this royal poet is well known . father , Robert III . , whose heart had been well - nigh broken by the murder of his darling son Rothesay , put his only remaining son , James , on ...
Page 78
... Illustrative extract . THOMAS MORE , who takes rank as the leading writer during this second era of our literature , was born in Milk Street , London , in 1480. Having learned some Latin in Threadneedle Street from Nicholas Hart , he ...
... Illustrative extract . THOMAS MORE , who takes rank as the leading writer during this second era of our literature , was born in Milk Street , London , in 1480. Having learned some Latin in Threadneedle Street from Nicholas Hart , he ...
Page 84
... Illustrative extract . WILLIAM TYNDALE is celebrated among our writers as a translator of the New Testament into English . What Wycliffe had done for his countrymen in the fourteenth century , Tyndale undertook during the troubled reign ...
... Illustrative extract . WILLIAM TYNDALE is celebrated among our writers as a translator of the New Testament into English . What Wycliffe had done for his countrymen in the fourteenth century , Tyndale undertook during the troubled reign ...
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Addison afterwards amid Anglo-Saxon appeared Archbishop of Canterbury beauty became Bible born brilliant called Cambridge century CHAPTER character Charles chief chiefly Church College coloured court death died dramatic Dublin Earl early Edinburgh Edinburgh Review England 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 lived London Lord Milton mind minstrels night noble novel novelist Oxford paper Paradise Lost picture play poem poet poet's poetic poetry political 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 words writer written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 210 - The other shape, If shape it might be called that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint or limb; Or substance might be called that shadow seemed; For each seemed either; black it stood as night, Fierce as ten furies, terrible as Hell, And shook a dreadful dart; what seemed his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on...
Page 211 - Hail, horrors ! hail, Infernal world ! and thou, profoundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor ! one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
Page 212 - No sooner had the Almighty ceased but — all The multitude of Angels, with a shout Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from blest voices, uttering joy — Heaven rung With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled The eternal regions.
Page 379 - It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision.
Page 243 - That every man with him was God or devil. In squandering wealth was his peculiar art; Nothing went unrewarded but desert. Beggared by fools, whom still he found too late ; He had his jest, and they had his estate.
Page 190 - For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and climb above the clouds : but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant — descending more at every breath of the tempest, than it could recover by the...
Page 243 - He sought the storms ; but, for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.
Page 227 - I' th' middle of his speech, or cough, H' had hard words ready to show why, And tell what rules he did it by ; Else, when with greatest art he spoke, You'd think he talked like other folk.
Page 447 - Who gave you your invulnerable life, Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, Unceasing thunder and eternal foam ? And who commanded — and the silence came — Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest...
Page 149 - Yet his real power is not shown in the splendour of particular passages, but by the progress of his fable and the tenor of his dialogue ; and he that tries to recommend him by select quotations will succeed like the pedant in Hierocles, who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen.