Boswell's Life of Johnson: LifeClarendon Press, 1887 - Authors, English |
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Page 2
... ? " Best's Memorials , p . 68 . 3 Such care was needless . Boswell complained ( post , June 24 , 1774 ) , that Johnson did not answer his letters , but only sent him returns . the Aetat . 56. ] Boswell in Corsica . 3 the.
... ? " Best's Memorials , p . 68 . 3 Such care was needless . Boswell complained ( post , June 24 , 1774 ) , that Johnson did not answer his letters , but only sent him returns . the Aetat . 56. ] Boswell in Corsica . 3 the.
Page 3
... answer , which I found on my arrival at Paris . A Mr. Mr. BosWELL , chez Mr. WATERS , Banquier , à Paris . ' DEAR SIR , ' Apologies are seldom of any use . We will delay till your arrival the reasons , good or bad , which have made me ...
... answer , which I found on my arrival at Paris . A Mr. Mr. BosWELL , chez Mr. WATERS , Banquier , à Paris . ' DEAR SIR , ' Apologies are seldom of any use . We will delay till your arrival the reasons , good or bad , which have made me ...
Page 5
... answer ; or , if occasion required it , was mute , officious , and ever complying .... There Johnson sat every morning , receiving visits , hearing the topics of the day , and indolently trifling away the time . Chymistry afforded some ...
... answer ; or , if occasion required it , was mute , officious , and ever complying .... There Johnson sat every morning , receiving visits , hearing the topics of the day , and indolently trifling away the time . Chymistry afforded some ...
Page 6
... answer ; but he only said , ' Sir , I did not write them , but that you may not imagine that I have wrote more than I really have , the utmost I have wrote in that poem , to the best of my recollection , is not more than eighteen lines ...
... answer ; but he only said , ' Sir , I did not write them , but that you may not imagine that I have wrote more than I really have , the utmost I have wrote in that poem , to the best of my recollection , is not more than eighteen lines ...
Page 11
... answered with a smile , ' My dear Sir , you don't call Rousseau bad company . Do you really think him a bad man ? ' JOHNSON . ' Sir , if you are talking jestingly of this , I don't talk with you . If you mean to be serious , I think him ...
... answered with a smile , ' My dear Sir , you don't call Rousseau bad company . Do you really think him a bad man ? ' JOHNSON . ' Sir , if you are talking jestingly of this , I don't talk with you . If you mean to be serious , I think him ...
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Common terms and phrases
admiration Æneid Aetat Anec April April 15 asked authority Baretti Beauclerk Beggar's Opera believe BENNET LANGTON Boswell's Hebrides Burke called character church compliments conversation Corsica Court Croker DEAR SIR dined Doctor of Medicine doubt edition England English favour Garrick gentleman give Goldsmith happy honour hope Horace Walpole humble servant Hume humour JAMES BOSWELL John Johnson King lady Langton laugh learning Letters of Boswell Lichfield live London Lord Bute Lord Monboddo manner March March 21 Memoirs mentioned mind nation never observed opinion Oxford Paoli passage perhaps Piozzi Letters pleased pleasure poem Pope publick published reason Reynolds says Scotch Scotland seems Sept shewed Sir Joshua speak Streatham suppose talked tell Temple thing thought Thrale tion told Tom Davies wish write written wrote
Popular passages
Page 344 - The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.
Page 35 - When asked by another friend, at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, whether he made any reply to this high compliment, he answered, " No, Sir. When the king had said it, it was to be so. It was not for me to bandy civilities with my sovereign.
Page 366 - It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted 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 5 - The style of Dryden is capricious and varied; that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden 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 166 - Goldsmith's Life of Parnell2 is poor ; not that it is poorly written, but that he had poor materials ; for nobody can write the life of a man, but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.
Page 319 - I wondered to hear him say of " Gulliver's Travels," " When once you have thought of big men and little men, it is very easy to do all the rest.
Page 86 - Shakespeare it is commonly a species. It is from this wide extension of design that so much instruction is derived. It is this which fills the plays of Shakespeare with practical axioms and domestic wisdom. It was said of Euripides that every verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakespeare that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence.
Page 42 - Prologue to his play, with the hopes of which he had been flattered; but it was strongly suspected that he was fretting with chagrin and envy at the singular honour Dr. Johnson had lately enjoyed. At length, the frankness and simplicity of his natural character prevailed. He sprung from the...
Page 327 - He attacked Gray, calling him " a dull fellow." BOSWELL : " I understand he was reserved, and might appear dull in company ; but surely he was not dull in poetry." JOHNSON : " Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull every where.' He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him GREAT. He was a mechanical poet.
Page 121 - Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, he said, was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise.