Outlines of English Literature |
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Page vi
... merits to which it can have any claim are somewhat of novelty in its plan , and the attempt to render it as little dry - as read- able , in short as was consistent with accuracy and com- prehensiveness . CONTENTS . ― CHAPTER I. THE ...
... merits to which it can have any claim are somewhat of novelty in its plan , and the attempt to render it as little dry - as read- able , in short as was consistent with accuracy and com- prehensiveness . CONTENTS . ― CHAPTER I. THE ...
Page 39
... merit of their own than to illustrate his great contemporary , the smoothness and art of his versification had doubtless a considerable influence in developing and perfecting the language . It was in the reign of Edward III . that the ...
... merit of their own than to illustrate his great contemporary , the smoothness and art of his versification had doubtless a considerable influence in developing and perfecting the language . It was in the reign of Edward III . that the ...
Page 52
... merits obtain very different success . The poet then enters the house or labyrinth of Rumour . It was built of wil- low twigs , like a cage , and therefore admitted every sound . From this house issue tidings of every kind , like ...
... merits obtain very different success . The poet then enters the house or labyrinth of Rumour . It was built of wil- low twigs , like a cage , and therefore admitted every sound . From this house issue tidings of every kind , like ...
Page 53
... merits of the most various and opposite kinds . It is a finished picture , delineating almost every variety of human cha- racter , crowded with figures , whose lineaments no lapse of time , no change of manners , can render faint or ...
... merits of the most various and opposite kinds . It is a finished picture , delineating almost every variety of human cha- racter , crowded with figures , whose lineaments no lapse of time , no change of manners , can render faint or ...
Page 60
... merits of the various tales ; or more dramatic than the affected bashfulness of some , when called upon to contribute to the amusement of their companions , and the squabbles and satirical jests made by others . These passages , in ...
... merits of the various tales ; or more dramatic than the affected bashfulness of some , when called upon to contribute to the amusement of their companions , and the squabbles and satirical jests made by others . These passages , in ...
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admirable adventures ancient appeared Bacon beautiful burlesque Byron Canterbury Tales character charm Chaucer classical comedy comic composition criticism degree delineation drama dramatists Dryden Dunciad eloquence England English English language English literature exhibited expression exquisite Faery Queen feeling fiction French French language genius give glory grace Greek Hudibras human humour idea illustrated immortal impressive inimitable intellectual intense interest language learning less literary literature manner merit Middle Ages Milton mind mock-heroic modern moral narrative nature noble novels octavo original Paradise Lost passages passion pathos peculiar perhaps period personages persons Petrarch philosophy picture picturesque poem poet poetical poetry political Pope popular possessed principles productions prose racter reader religious remarkable rich romantic satire Saxon scenery scenes Scotland Scott sentiment Shakspeare singular society species Spenser spirit splendour style sublime sympathy tale taste thought tion tone Trouvères true verse versification words writings written
Popular passages
Page 243 - Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike...
Page 157 - With antique pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light. There let the pealing organ blow, To the full-voiced quire below, In service high and anthems clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.
Page 236 - I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives, to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.
Page 246 - Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
Page 168 - Homer, and those other two of Virgil and Tasso, are a diffuse, and the book of Job a brief model: or whether the rules of Aristotle herein are strictly to be kept, or nature to be...
Page 191 - Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of mercy on mankind ; The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.
Page 243 - Like Cato, give his little senate laws, And sit attentive to his own applause ; While wits and templars every sentence raise, And wonder with a foolish face of praise ; Who but must laugh if such a man there be ? Who would not weep if Atticus were he? What though my name stood rubric on the walls, Or plaster'd posts, with claps, in capitals ? Or smoking forth, a hundred hawkers...
Page 123 - You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry 'Hold, hold!
Page 114 - Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, And burned is Apollo's laurel bough, That sometime grew within this learned man. Faustus is gone : regard his hellish fall, Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise Only to wonder at unlawful things, Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits To practise more than heavenly power permits.
Page 268 - The successors of Charles V. may disdain their brethren of England: but the romance of 'Tom Jones,' that exquisite picture of human manners, will outlive the palace of the Escurial and the Imperial Eagle of Austria.