A History of English Literature: In a Series of Biographical SketchesT. Nelson and Sons, 1869 - 549 pages |
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Page v
... scenes of vanished author - life , and to trace the chief steps by which a green leaf has become a printed volume . For , to know something of the dress our books have worn at various times , and the stuff of which the older ones were ...
... scenes of vanished author - life , and to trace the chief steps by which a green leaf has become a printed volume . For , to know something of the dress our books have worn at various times , and the stuff of which the older ones were ...
Page 18
... scene of triumph came . His touch on the " wood of joy " had power alike to rouse the fiery passions of the warriors or soothe their ruffled moods . He related the deeds of dead heroes , or sung the praise of their living descendants ...
... scene of triumph came . His touch on the " wood of joy " had power alike to rouse the fiery passions of the warriors or soothe their ruffled moods . He related the deeds of dead heroes , or sung the praise of their living descendants ...
Page 22
... scenes they described , it is perhaps the most valuable inheritance we have received from the native literature of our Saxon forefathers . A romance founded on the story of Apollonius of Tyre , -King Alfred's Will , -some Laws and ...
... scenes they described , it is perhaps the most valuable inheritance we have received from the native literature of our Saxon forefathers . A romance founded on the story of Apollonius of Tyre , -King Alfred's Will , -some Laws and ...
Page 40
... scenes , in which the old minstrel was most at home , to the quiet gloom of monastic life , and see what literary work went on within those thick oaken doors , studded with heavy nails , whose hinges creaked out but a churlish welcome ...
... scenes , in which the old minstrel was most at home , to the quiet gloom of monastic life , and see what literary work went on within those thick oaken doors , studded with heavy nails , whose hinges creaked out but a churlish welcome ...
Page 56
... scenes at the shrine , the tales of the return , the wind - up supper , are all untold . Two of the stories -the Tale of Melibeus and the Persones Tale - are in prose , and afford a very favourable specimen of Chaucer's power in that ...
... scenes at the shrine , the tales of the return , the wind - up supper , are all untold . Two of the stories -the Tale of Melibeus and the Persones Tale - are in prose , and afford a very favourable specimen of Chaucer's power in that ...
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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.