The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: The lives of the English poets (cont.) Lives of eminent personsG. Cowie & Company, 1825 |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 89
Page 16
... able to detect some particular falsehoods . He there- fore undertook the vindication of general Monk from some calumnies of Dr. Burnet , and some misrepresentations of Mr. Echard . This was answered civilly by Mr. Thomas Burnet and ...
... able to detect some particular falsehoods . He there- fore undertook the vindication of general Monk from some calumnies of Dr. Burnet , and some misrepresentations of Mr. Echard . This was answered civilly by Mr. Thomas Burnet and ...
Page 19
... with the fellowship , and chosen lecturer of moral philosophy , a very honour- able office . * The vicarage of Willoughby , which he resigned in 1708. N. On the accession of queen Anne he wrote another poem YALDEN . 19.
... with the fellowship , and chosen lecturer of moral philosophy , a very honour- able office . * The vicarage of Willoughby , which he resigned in 1708. N. On the accession of queen Anne he wrote another poem YALDEN . 19.
Page 27
... able to obtain no other memorials than such as are supplied by a book called Cibber's Lives of the Poets ; of which I take this opportunity to testify that it was not written , nor , I believe , ever seen by either of the Cibbers ; but ...
... able to obtain no other memorials than such as are supplied by a book called Cibber's Lives of the Poets ; of which I take this opportunity to testify that it was not written , nor , I believe , ever seen by either of the Cibbers ; but ...
Page 29
... able to say any thing that can satisfy curiosity . He was a gentleman whose estate was in Warwickshire ; his house , where he was born in 1692 , is called Edston , a seat inehrited from a long line of ancestors ; for he was said to be ...
... able to say any thing that can satisfy curiosity . He was a gentleman whose estate was in Warwickshire ; his house , where he was born in 1692 , is called Edston , a seat inehrited from a long line of ancestors ; for he was said to be ...
Page 32
... able to teach others the way to happiness , should with most certainty follow it themselves . But this expectation , however plausible , has been very frequently disappointed .. The heroes of literary as well as civil history , have ...
... able to teach others the way to happiness , should with most certainty follow it themselves . But this expectation , however plausible , has been very frequently disappointed .. The heroes of literary as well as civil history , have ...
Common terms and phrases
acquaintance Addison afterwards appeared Ascham authour blank verse Bohemia censure character considered contempt continued court criticks death declared degree desire diligence discovered Drake Dryden Dunciad easily EDWARD CAVE elegant endeavoured enemies English expected father favour fortune friends friendship gave genius Gentleman's Magazine honour hope Iliad imagination kind king of Prussia knowledge labour lady language learning letter lived lord mankind mind nature never Night Thoughts Nombre de Dios observed occasion opinion perhaps physick pinnaces pleased pleasure poem poet poetical poetry Pope Pope's pounds praise present prince printed procured publick published queen racter reader reason received Religio Medici remarkable reputation retired Savage says seems sent shew ships Silesia Sir Robert Walpole solicited sometimes soon Spaniards sufficient supposed Swift Symerons tion told translation Tyrconnel verses virtue write written wrote Young
Popular passages
Page 403 - The Church-yard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo. The four stanzas, beginning " Yet even these bones," are to me original : I have never seen the notions in any other place ; yet he that reads them here persuades himself that he has always felt them. Had Gray written often thus, it had been vain to blame, and useless to praise him.
Page 329 - Whether to plant a walk in undulating curves, and to place a bench at every turn where there is an object to catch the view; to make water run where it will be heard, and to stagnate where it will be seen; to leave intervals where the eye will be pleased, and to thicken the plantation where there is something to be hidden, demands any great powers of mind, I will not enquire: perhaps a sullen and surly speculator may think such performances rather the sport than the business of human reason.
Page 251 - The style of Dryden is capricious and varied; that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden i obeys the motions of his own mind ; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition. Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid ; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle.
Page 131 - And to urge another argument of a parallel nature: if Christianity were once abolished, how could the free-thinkers, the strong reasoners, and the men of profound learning, be able to find another subject so calculated in all points whereon to display their abilities? What wonderful productions of wit should we be deprived of, from those whose genius by continual practice hath been wholly turned upon raillery and invectives against religion, and would therefore never be able to shine or distinguish...
Page 279 - Thy reliques, Rowe, to this fair urn we trust, And, sacred, place by Dryden's awful dust ; Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies, To which thy tomb shall guide inquiring eyes. Peace to thy gentle shade, and endless rest ' Blest in thy genius, in thy love, too, blest ! One grateful woman to thy fame supplies What a whole thankless land to his denies.
Page 300 - The poet leads us through the appearances of things as they are successively varied by the vicissitudes of the year, and imparts to us so much of his own enthusiasm, that our thoughts expand with his imagery and kindle with his sentiments.
Page 325 - I have formerly said of his writings may be added, that his diction was often harsh, unskilfully laboured, and injudiciously selected. He affected the obsolete when it was not worthy of revival ; and he puts his words out of the common order, seeming to think, with some later candidates for fame, that not to write prose is certainly to write poetry.
Page 286 - Yet softer honours, and less noisy fame, Attend the shade of gentle Buckingham : In whom a race, for courage fam'd and art, Ends in the milder merit of the heart : And, chiefs or sages long to Britain given, Pays the last tribute of a saint to Heaven.
Page 206 - He was not without hopes that, by manifesting the dulness of those who had only malice to recommend them, either the booksellers would not find their account in employing them, or the men themselves, when discovered, want courage to proceed in so unlawful an occupation. This it was that gave birth to the 'Dunciad...
Page 402 - These odes are marked by glittering accumulations of ungraceful ornaments; they strike, rather than please; the images are magnified by affectation; the language is laboured into harshness. The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural violence. " Double, double, toil and trouble.