Cursory Remarks on Some of the Ancient English Poets, Particularly Milton ... |
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action admiration afford againſt appears beauties beſt better Butler called cauſe celebrated character Charles Chaucer common conduct copies couplet death died dramas Drummond Dryden edition Engliſh entirely equally example excellence fame fays fecond feems feveral fhall fhew fhould firft firſt fome formed four ftudies fubject fuch genius given gives harmony himſelf Hudibras images imitated Italian Italy James judgment King laft language latter learning lines loft Milton mind moſt muſt nature navy never obfervation occafion opinion original Otway paffage paffion particular perhaps pieces play poem poet poetical poetry powers praiſe printed probably produced publiſhed Queen reader received reign remark ridicule rule ſeems Shakspeare Spenfer ſtudy taken theſe third thofe thoſe thought tion tranflated truth turn verfes verſes volume Waller whofe whole Wife writings written wrote
Popular passages
Page 55 - O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o'er-flowing full.
Page 144 - Thus with the year Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ; But cloud instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair Presented with a universal blank Of Nature's works to me expunged and rased, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
Page 64 - Let the rich ore forthwith be melted down, And the state fixed by making him a crown ; With ermine clad and purple, let him hold A royal sceptre, made of Spanish gold.
Page 129 - Dire was the tossing, deep the groans : Despair Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch ; And over them triumphant Death his dart Shook, but delay'd to strike, though oft invoked With vows, as their chief good, and final hope.
Page 6 - Curfe on all laws but thofe which love has made? Love, free as air, at fight of human ties, Spreads his light wings; and in a moment flies.
Page 52 - O, winged joys of man, more swift than wind ! O, fond desires, which in our fancies stray ! O, traitorous hopes, which do our judgments blind! Lo! in a flash that light is gone away, Which dazzle did each eye, delight each mind ; And with that sun, from whence it came, comhin'd Now makes more radiant heav'n's eternal day.
Page 47 - On the death of Henry prince of Wales in 1612, Drummond wrote an elegy, entitled Tears on the Death of Moeliades ; a name which that prince had used in all his challenges of martial sport, as the anagram of Miles a Deo.
Page 46 - ... a civil war, he retired again ; and in this retirement he is supposed to have written his history of the five James's, successively kings of Scotland, which was not published till after his death. Having been grafted as it were on the royal family of Scotland, he was steadily attached to Charles I., but does not appear ever to have armed for him. As he had always been a laborious student, and had applied himself to history and politics, as well as to classica\ learning, his services were better...
Page 51 - I find myself to be, And think no fable Circe's tyranny, And all the tales are told of changed Jove : Virtue hath taught with her philosophy My mind unto a better course to move: Reason may chide her full, and oft reprove Affection's power ; but what is that to me, Who ever think, and never think on aught But that bright cherubim which thralls my thought...
Page 115 - Pensoroso', amidst all its variety, any more striking, than what Beaumont's second stanza affords, may also be granted. Milton's poem is among those happy works of genius, which leave a reader no choice how his mind shall be affected.