Johnson's Lives of the the English Poets: Abridged: with Notes and Illustrations |
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Page 53
... present to his mind an idea of pure perfection , nor compare his works , fuch as they were , with what they might be made . He knew to whom he fhould be oppofed . He had more mufick thạn Waller , more vigour than Denham , and more ...
... present to his mind an idea of pure perfection , nor compare his works , fuch as they were , with what they might be made . He knew to whom he fhould be oppofed . He had more mufick thạn Waller , more vigour than Denham , and more ...
Page 63
... present times , and per- haps few will be found where the parallelifm is better preferved than in this . The verfification is indeed fometimes carelefs , but it is fometimes vigorous and weighty . The strongest effort of his muse is his ...
... present times , and per- haps few will be found where the parallelifm is better preferved than in this . The verfification is indeed fometimes carelefs , but it is fometimes vigorous and weighty . The strongest effort of his muse is his ...
Page 207
... from place to place celebrating its excellencies . Thomfon obtained likewife the notice of Aaron Hill . The poem was dedicated to Sir Spencer Compton , who , through the the exertions of Hill , made the author a present THOMSON . 207.
... from place to place celebrating its excellencies . Thomfon obtained likewife the notice of Aaron Hill . The poem was dedicated to Sir Spencer Compton , who , through the the exertions of Hill , made the author a present THOMSON . 207.
Page 208
... present of twenty guineas . Thomson's credit was now high , and every day brought him more friends .--- The next year ( 1727 ) he diftinguifhed himself by three publications ; of " Sum- . mer , in purfuance of his plan ; of " a Poem on ...
... present of twenty guineas . Thomson's credit was now high , and every day brought him more friends .--- The next year ( 1727 ) he diftinguifhed himself by three publications ; of " Sum- . mer , in purfuance of his plan ; of " a Poem on ...
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Common terms and phrases
Addifon Æneid affiftance afterwards againſt anfwer appeared becauſe beſt cenfure comedy compofition confiderable confidered converfation Cowley death defign defired delight diction died Dryden Duke Dunciad eafily Earl Effay elegant Engliſh faid fame father fatire fays fchool fecond feems feldom fent fentiments feven feveral fhew fhort fhould firft firſt fome fometimes foon friends ftill ftudy fubject fuccefs fuch fuffered fufficient fupplied fuppofed fupport greateſt higheſt himſelf honour houfe houſe Hudibras Iliad Johnſon kindneſs King laft laſt leaſt lefs loft Lord mafter mind moft moſt muſt never numbers obferved occafion paffages paffed paffion Paradife perfon pleaſed pleaſure poem poet poetical poetry Pope pounds praife praiſe prefent produced profe publick publiſhed purpoſe Queen raiſed reafon refolved rhyme Savage ſeems Sir Robert Walpole ſtage ſtudy Swift Tatler thefe theſe thofe thoſe thought tion tragedy tranflated underſtanding univerfal uſed verfe verfification verſes vifit Waller Weſtminſter Whigs whofe write written wrote
Popular passages
Page 146 - His legs were so slender, that he enlarged their bulk with three pair of stockings, which were drawn on and off by the maid; for he was not able to dress or undress himself, and neither went to bed nor rose without help.
Page 49 - Criticism, either didactic or defensive, occupies almost all his prose, except those pages which he has devoted to his patrons; but none of his prefaces were ever thought tedious.
Page 31 - He seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and to know what it was that nature had bestowed upon him more bountifully than upon others; the power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful...
Page 239 - In the character of his Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical honours.
Page 151 - To circumscribe poetry by a definition will only shew the narrowness of the definer, though a definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made. Let us look round upon the present time, and back upon the past; let us...
Page 49 - They have not the formality of a settled style, in which the first half of the sentence betrays the other. The clauses are never balanced, nor the periods modelled: every word seems to drop by chance, though it falls into its proper place. Nothing is cold or languid; the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous; what is little, is gay; what is great, is splendid.
Page 33 - The plan of Paradise Lost has this inconvenience, that it comprises neither human actions nor human manners. The man and woman who act and suffer are in a state which no other man or woman can ever know. The reader finds no transaction in which he can be engaged, beholds no condition in which he can by any effort of imagination place himself; he has, therefore, little natural curiosity or sympathy.
Page 238 - The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural violence. Double, double, toil and trouble. He has a kind of strutting dignity, and is tall by walking on tiptoe. His art and his struggle are too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature.
Page 148 - Thirty-eight; of which Dodsley told me, that they were brought to him by the author, that they might be fairly copied. "Almost every line...
Page xii - Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow.