The Works, Volume 9Houghton, Mifflin, 1883 |
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Common terms and phrases
acquaintance believe better Bickerstaff called coffeehouse colonel common conversation court Derbyshire desire discourse drink Egad England English entertainment Faith farther favour folly fool Footman fortune French friends genius gentlemen give greatest hand hear heard heard em say honour hope humour hundred husband incurable Isaac Bickerstaff John Perrot JONATHAN SWIFT Julius Cæsar kind King kingdom Lady Answ Lady Answerall Lady Smart ladyship language laugh learning least live lord lordship madam maids manner married matter mean mind Miss moidore nature never Neverout observe occasion opinion paper perhaps persons poet polite Pray present pretend quadrille reader reason ridicule servant shew Sir John Sir William Temple Sparkish speak Swift TATLER tell thee there's thing thought tion tongue town wherein whole words writings young
Popular passages
Page 121 - ... his green boughs, and left him a withered trunk : he then flies to art, and puts on a periwig, valuing himself upon an unnatural bundle of hairs, (all covered with powder,) that never grew on his head ; but now, should this our broomstick pretend to enter the...
Page 121 - THIS single stick, which you now behold ingloriously lying in that neglected corner, I once knew in a flourishing state in a forest; it was full of sap, full of leaves, and full of boughs; but now, in vain does the busy art of man pretend to...
Page 340 - A Complete Collection Of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, According to the Most Polite Mode and Method Now Used At Court, and in the Best Companies of England.
Page 275 - This day, being Sunday, January 28th, 1727-8, about eight o'clock at night, a servant brought me a note, with an account of the death of the truest, most virtuous, and valuable friend, that I, or perhaps any other person ever was blessed with.
Page 362 - But every single character in Shakespeare is as much an individual, as those in life itself; it is as impossible to find any two alike; and such as from their relation or affinity in any respect appear most to be twins, will upon comparison be found remarkably distinct.
Page 362 - ... had all the speeches been printed without the very names of the persons, I believe one might have applied them with certainty to every speaker.
Page 141 - ... and even then our best writings might probably' be preserved with care, and grow into esteem, and the authors have a chance for immortality.
Page 223 - What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not we are told expressly, that they neither marry, nor are given in marriage.
Page 143 - From the civil war to this present time, I am apt to doubt, whether the corruptions in our language have not at least equalled the refinements of it ; and these corruptions very few of the best authors in our age have wholly escaped.
Page 137 - My lord, I do here, in the name of all the learned and polite persons of the nation, complain to your lordship, as first minister, that our language is extremely imperfect; that its daily improvements are by no means in proportion to its daily corruptions; that the pretenders to polish and refine it, have chiefly multiplied abuses and absurdities; and that in many instances it offends against every part of grammar.