Lives of the English Poets: Smith-Savage

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Clarendon Press, 1905 - English poetry

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Page 150 - Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
Page 276 - We were all, at the first night of it, in great uncertainty of the event ; till we were very much encouraged by overhearing the Duke of Argyle, who sat in the next box to us, say, ' It will do — it must do ! I see it in the eyes of them.
Page 34 - ... a true account and declaration of the horrid conspiracy against the late king...
Page 146 - Addison is now despised by some who perhaps would never have seen his defects but by the lights which he afforded them.
Page 149 - His prose is the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not formal, on light occasions not grovelling; pure without scrupulosity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always equable, and always easy, without glowing words or pointed sentences. Addison never deviates from his track to snatch a grace; he seeks no ambitious ornaments, and tries no hazardous innovations. His page is always luminous, but never blazes in unexpected splendour.
Page 230 - Whistling through hollows of this vaulted aisle. We'll listen— Leon. Hark! Aim No, all is hush'd, and still as death — 'tis dreadful ! How reverend is the face of this tall pile, Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads, To bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof, By its own weight made stedfast and immovable, Looking tranquillity. It strikes an awe And terror on my aching sight ; the tombs And monumental caves of death look cold, And shoot a dullness to my trembling heart.
Page 434 - Savage did not exempt him; or if those who in confidence of superior capacities or attainments disregard the common maxims of life, shall be reminded that nothing will supply the want of prudence; and that negligence and irregularity, long continued, will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible.
Page 117 - Lord Warwick was a young man of very irregular life, and perhaps of loose opinions. Addison, for whom he did not want respect, had very diligently endeavoured to reclaim him ; but his arguments and expostulations had no effect. One experiment, however, remained to be tried: when he found his life near its end, he directed the young Lord to be called; and when he desired, with great tenderness, to hear his last injunctions, told him, I have sent for you that you may see how a Christian can die.
Page 253 - The incessant attacks of his enemies, whether serious or merry, are never discovered to have disturbed his quiet, or to have lessened his confidence in himself.
Page 249 - Blackmore led him to gratify, and he produced (1721) a new Version of the Psalms of David, fitted to the Tunes used in Churches...

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