The works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 6G. Offor, 1818 |
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... English Poetry , I was persuaded to promise them a Pre- face to the Works of each Author ; an undertaking , as it was then presented to my mind , not very extensive or dif- ficult . My purpose was only to have allotted to every Poet an ...
... English Poetry , I was persuaded to promise them a Pre- face to the Works of each Author ; an undertaking , as it was then presented to my mind , not very extensive or dif- ficult . My purpose was only to have allotted to every Poet an ...
Page 1
Samuel Johnson. COWLEY . THE Life of COWLEY , notwithstanding the penury of English biography , has been written by Dr. Sprat , an author whose pregnancy of imagination , and elegance of language , have deservedly set him high in the ...
Samuel Johnson. COWLEY . THE Life of COWLEY , notwithstanding the penury of English biography , has been written by Dr. Sprat , an author whose pregnancy of imagination , and elegance of language , have deservedly set him high in the ...
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... English poets , Cowley , Milton , and Pope , might be said " to lisp in numbers ; " and have given such early proofs , not only of powers of language , but of comprehension of things , as to more tardy minds seem scarcely credible . But ...
... English poets , Cowley , Milton , and Pope , might be said " to lisp in numbers ; " and have given such early proofs , not only of powers of language , but of comprehension of things , as to more tardy minds seem scarcely credible . But ...
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... English , till their works and May's poem appeared , * seemed unable to contest the palm with any other of the letter- ed nations . If the Latin performances of Cowley and Milton be compared , ( for May I hold to be superior to both ...
... English , till their works and May's poem appeared , * seemed unable to contest the palm with any other of the letter- ed nations . If the Latin performances of Cowley and Milton be compared , ( for May I hold to be superior to both ...
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... English literature , and shew such skill as rai- ses our wish for more examples . The lines from Jersey are a very curious and pleasing specimen of the familiar descending to the burlesque . His two metrical disquisitions for and ...
... English literature , and shew such skill as rai- ses our wish for more examples . The lines from Jersey are a very curious and pleasing specimen of the familiar descending to the burlesque . His two metrical disquisitions for and ...
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Absalom and Achitophel admire Æneid afterwards appears beauties better blank verse censure character Charles Charles Dryden compositions Comus considered Cowley criticism death delight diction diligence dramatick Dryden Duke Earl easily elegance English excellence fancy faults favour friends genius Georgics heroick honour Hudibras images imagination imitation Jacob Tonson John Dryden Juvenal kind King known labour Lady language Latin learning lines lived Lord Lord Conway Lord Roscommon Milton mind nature never NIHIL numbers opinion Paradise Lost Parliament passions performance perhaps Philips Pindar play pleasure poem poet poetical poetry Pope pounds praise preface produced publick published racter reader reason remarks reputation rhyme satire says seems sentiments shew sometimes Sprat supposed thee thing thou thought tion told tragedy translation truth Tyrannick Love verses versification Virgil virtue Waller words write written wrote
Popular passages
Page 312 - From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man.
Page 51 - His spear, — to equal which, the tallest pine Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast Of some great ammiral, were but a wand...
Page 60 - 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; Alike...
Page 305 - And now approach'd their fleet from India, fraught With all the riches of the rising sun ; And precious sand from southern climates brought, The fatal regions where the war begun.
Page 117 - We drove a-field, and both together heard What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn, Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, Oft till the star that rose at evening bright Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel.
Page 31 - To move, but doth if th' other do. And though it in the center sit, Yet when the .other far doth roam, It leans and hearkens after it, And grows erect as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th' other foot, obliquely run: Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.
Page 23 - On a round ball A workeman that hath copies by, can lay An Europe, Afrique, and an Asia, And quickly make that, which was nothing, All...
Page 172 - I take my subjects' money, when I want it, without all this formality of parliament?" The bishop of Durham readily answered, "God forbid, Sir, but you should: you are the breath of our nostrils." Whereupon the King turned and said to the bishop of Winchester, "Well, my Lord, what say you?" "Sir," replied the bishop, "I have no skill to judge of parliamentary cases." The King answered, "No put-offs, my Lord; answer me presently.
Page 117 - In this poem there is no nature, for there is no truth ; there is no art, for there is nothing new. Its form is that of a pastoral; easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting ; whatever images it can supply are long ago exhausted; and its inherent improbability always forces dissatisfaction on the mind.
Page 18 - What they wanted, however, of the sublime, they endeavoured to supply by hyperbole ' their amplification had no limits ; they left not only reason but fancy behind them, and produced combinations of confused magnificence that not only could not be credited, but could not be imagined.