A History of English Literature: In a Series of Biographical SketchesT. Nelson and Sons, 1869 - 549 pages |
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Page 13
... hand grasping a couple of arrows . Before this grim warrior at the top of the scroll lie a shield and a bundle of spears . Face and feet are painted a dull yellow . Before his second effigy we have four smaller heads , with closed eyes ...
... hand grasping a couple of arrows . Before this grim warrior at the top of the scroll lie a shield and a bundle of spears . Face and feet are painted a dull yellow . Before his second effigy we have four smaller heads , with closed eyes ...
Page 21
... hand . Alfred the Great was born in 848 , at Wantage in Berkshire . Two visits to Rome in his early days gave him a wider range of observation and thought than Anglo - Saxon children commonly enjoyed . When he had reached his twelfth ...
... hand . Alfred the Great was born in 848 , at Wantage in Berkshire . Two visits to Rome in his early days gave him a wider range of observation and thought than Anglo - Saxon children commonly enjoyed . When he had reached his twelfth ...
Page 35
... hands of the Minstrels and the Monks . The minstrel , roaming through the land , sang ballads of love and war ; the ... hand to the Church . So it happened that the cloister doors were too often shut in the faces of the wearied gleemen ...
... hands of the Minstrels and the Monks . The minstrel , roaming through the land , sang ballads of love and war ; the ... hand to the Church . So it happened that the cloister doors were too often shut in the faces of the wearied gleemen ...
Page 37
... hand turned a handle , while the other touched the keys of the instrument . The minstrel's dress , of which an idea may be gathered from the fol- lowing passage , bore some resemblance to that of the monks . An old letter , written by a ...
... hand turned a handle , while the other touched the keys of the instrument . The minstrel's dress , of which an idea may be gathered from the fol- lowing passage , bore some resemblance to that of the monks . An old letter , written by a ...
Page 42
... hand , traces in black ink the thick perpendicular strokes of that old English text - hand , which has given their name to our black - letter manuscripts . While the right hand guides the pen , the left holds a knife , whose point ...
... hand , traces in black ink the thick perpendicular strokes of that old English text - hand , which has given their name to our black - letter manuscripts . While the right hand guides the pen , the left holds a knife , whose point ...
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Common terms and phrases
Addison Æneid afterwards amid Anglo-Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury beauty became Bible born brilliant called Cambridge century CHAPTER Charles chief chiefly Church College coloured court death died dramatic Dublin Earl early Edinburgh Edinburgh Review England English literature English poetry Essays Faerie Queene fame father finest France genius gentle Greek heart Henry History honour Illustrative extract James John King Lady land Latin letters literary lived London Lord Milton mind minstrels night noble novel novelist Oxford paper Paradise Lost picture play poem poet poet's poetic poetry political poor prose published Puritan Queen reign ROGER ASCHAM romance round royal scene Scotland Scottish Shakspere song SPECIMEN spent story style Supplementary List sweet Tatler Thomas Thomas Fuller thought took tragedy translation Trinity College University of Edinburgh verse WILLIAM words writer written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 392 - Dark-heaving; boundless, endless, and sublime, — The image of Eternity, the throne Of the Invisible : even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made ; each zone Obeys thee ; thou goest forth, dread, iathomless, alone.
Page 378 - ... little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour, and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.
Page 350 - Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help ? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early had been kind ; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it ; till I am solitary. and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.
Page 446 - Ye Ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow Adown enormous ravines slope amain Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge! Motionless torrents! silent cataracts! Who made you glorious as the Gates of Heaven Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the sun Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet? GOD! let the torrents, like a shout of nations, Answer! and let the ice-plains echo, GOD!
Page 324 - For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn Or busy housewife ply her evening care : No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ; How jocund did they drive their team afield ! How...
Page 148 - Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
Page 189 - For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and climb above the clouds : but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant — descending more at every breath of the tempest, than it could recover by the...
Page 210 - What matter where, if I be still the same And what I should be, all but less than he Whom thunder hath made greater...
Page 391 - His steps are not upon thy paths, thy fields Are not a spoil for him, — thou dost arise And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields For earth's destruction thou dost all despise, Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies, And send'st him, shivering in thy playful spray And howling, to his gods, where haply lies His pretty hope in some near port or bay, And dashest him again to earth: — there let him lay.
Page 363 - It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th of June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berccau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains.