A Complete Manual of English Literature

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Sheldon & Company, 1867 - American literature - 540 pages

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Page 328 - It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.
Page 210 - Sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression ; sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude; sometimes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection. Sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense : sometimes a scenical representation, of persons...
Page 125 - The reluctant pangs of abdicating royalty in Edward furnished hints which Shakspeare scarcely improved in his Richard the Second; and the death-scene of Marlowe's king moves pity and terror beyond any scene ancient or modern with which I am acquainted.
Page 461 - We find in it the diligence, the accuracy, and the judgment of Hallam, united to the vivacity and the colouring of Southey. A history of England, written throughout in this manner, would be the most fascinating book in the language. It would be more in request at the circulating libraries than the last novel.
Page 481 - Small productions will be more common than bulky books ; there will be more wit than erudition, more imagination than profundity ; and literary performances will bear marks of an untutored and rude vigor of thought — frequently of great variety and singular fecundity. The object of authors will be to astonish rather than to please, and to stir the passions more than to charm the taste.
Page 311 - He then resumed the study of the Law, and was called to the bar in the Temple. Meeting with no professional success, he continued his career as a dramatic writer, producing a number of pieces exhibiting vivacity and carelessness rather than any depth of ability, and also took an active part in political controversy. In numerous pamphlets and articles for...
Page 22 - French derivatives; 4. by using less inversion and ellipsis, especially in poetry. Of these the second alone, I think, can be considered as sufficient to describe a new form of language; and this was brought about so gradually, that we are not relieved...
Page 484 - ... and cast of thought — Webster, Calhoun, and Clay. The former's oration at Plymouth in 1820; his address at the laying of the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument...
Page 480 - A New Edition, with a Portrait. " His nephew has compiled his biography with singular judgment. He has followed the method of Lockhart in his Life of Scott. As far as possible, the narrative is woven with letters and diaries : the subject speaks for himself, and only such intermediate observations of the editor are given as are necessary to form a connected whole.
Page 436 - O'er all there hung a shadow and a fear ; A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, And said, as plain as whisper in the ear, The place is Haunted!

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