The Works of the English Poets: Prefaces

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Page 25 - And shoot a chilness to my trembling heart. Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice ; Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear Thy voice — my own affrights me with its echoes.
Page 25 - He who reads these lines enjoys for a moment the powers of a poet ; he feels what he remembers to have felt before ; but he feels it with great increase of sensibility ; he recognizes a familiar image, but meets it again amplified and expanded, embellished with -beauty and enlarged with majesty.
Page 19 - I must acquaint you, there is a vivacity and gaiety of disposition, almost peculiar to him, which make it impossible to part from him without that uneasiness which generally succeeds all our pleasure.
Page 43 - He shall bring with him, if you will, a young Poet, newly inspir'd, in the neighbourhood of Cooper's Hill, whom he and Walsh have taken under their Wing; his name is Pope; he is not above Seventeen or Eighteen Years of Age and promises Miracles; If he goes on as he has begun, in the Pastoral way, as Virgil first try'd his Strength, we may hope to see English Poetry vie with the Roman, and this Swan of Windsor sing as sweetly as the Mantuan.
Page 55 - All I can say for those passages, which are, I hope, not many, is, that I knew they were bad enough to please, even when I writ them...
Page 37 - WHERE bold and graceful foars, fecure of fame, The pile, now worthy great Philippa's name, Mark that old ruin, Gothic and uncouth, Where the Black Edward pafs'd his beardlefs youth ; And the Fifth Henry, for his firft renown, Out-ftripp'd each rival, in a ftudent's gown.
Page 3 - Button's coffee-house, where I used to see him almost every day — On his meeting me there one day in particular, he took me aside, and said he should be glad to dine with me, at such a tavern, if I staid till those people were gone (Budgell and Philips).
Page 22 - His scenes exhibit not much of humour, imagery, or passion : his personages are a kind of intellectual gladiators ; every sentence is to ward or strike ; the contest of smartness is never intermitted ; his wit is a meteor playing to and fro with alternate coruscations.
Page 14 - The cause of Congreve was not tenable; whatever glosses he might use for the defence or palliation of single passages, the general tenour and tendency of his plays must always be condemned. It is acknowledged, with universal conviction, that the perusal of his works will make no man better ; and that their ultimate effect is to represent pleasure in alliance with vice, and to relax those obligations by which life ought to be regulated.
Page 7 - Steele has faid againft Tickell '* in relation to this affair, make it highly probable " that there was fome underhand dealing in that bu...

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