The Correspondence of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, and the Rev. William Mason: Now First Pub. from the Original Mss, Volume 1

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R. Bentley, 1851

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Page 294 - Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.
Page 189 - Not far from that most celebrated place, Where angry Justice shows her awful face ; Where little villains must submit to fate, That great ones may enjoy the world in state...
Page 404 - The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar; Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, And catch the manners living as they rise ; Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, But vindicate the ways of God to man.
Page 260 - Ce qu'il ya d'affreux, c'est que le monstre a un parti en France ; et, pour comble de calamité et d'horreur, c'est moi qui, autrefois, parlai le premier de ce Shakespeare ; c'est moi, qui le premier, montrai aux Français quelques perles que j'avais trouvées dans son énorme fumier.
Page 419 - Ah me ! what boots us all our boasted power, Our golden treasure, and our purple state ; They cannot ward the inevitable hour, Nor stay the fearful violence of fate.
Page 78 - Dr. Goldsmith has written a comedy — no, it is the lowest of all farces, it is not the subject I condemn, though very vulgar, but the execution. The drift tends to no moral, no edification of any kind — the situations however are well imagined, and make one laugh in spite of the grossness of the dialogue, the forced witticisms, and total improbability of the whole plan and conduct. But what disgusts me most, is that though the characters...
Page 179 - Tales,' for a true antiquary can still be zealous to settle the genuine shape of a lump of mineral from which Dryden extracted all the gold, and converted into beautiful medals. I was paid for my trouble by lighting on this couplet so applicable to her Grace of Kingston, — I graunt it well, I have of non envie, Who maidenhed preferre to bigamie.
Page 361 - The Old Baron,' a Gothic story,' professedly written in imitation of Otranto, but reduced to reason and probability! It is so probable, that any trial for murder at the Old Bailey would make a more interesting story.
Page 229 - Scotland, but a thousand degrees above his Charles; not pointed like Voltaire, but as accurate as he is inexact ; modest as he is tranchant, and sly as Montesquieu without being so recherche. The style is as smooth as a Flemish picture, and the muscles are concealed and only for natural uses, not exaggerated like Michael Angelo's to show the painter's skill in anatomy ; nor composed of the limbs of clowns of different nations, like Dr. Johnson's heterogeneous monsters. This book is Mr. Gibbon's History...
Page 260 - Il ne daigne pas même nommer Corneille et Racine ; ces deux grands hommes sont seulement enveloppés dans la proscription générale, sans que leurs noms soient prononcés. Il ya déjà deux tomes imprimés de ce Shakespeare qu'on prendrait pour des pièces de la Foire, faites il ya deux cents ans. Ce barbouilleur a trouvé le secret de faire engager le roi, la reine et toute la famille royale à souscrire à son ouvrage.

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