Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets, Volume 58J. Nichols, 1781 |
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Prefaces Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the English Poets Samuel Johnson Affichage du livre entier - 1781 |
PREFACES BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL TO THE WORKS OF THE ENGLISH POETS. SAMUEL JOHNSON Affichage du livre entier - 1781 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
afterwards amuſed aſſiſtance Ballad Opera becauſe Beggar's Opera beſt Broome confidered converſation deanery death defire Delany delight diction diftinguiſhed diſcovered diſpoſed Dunciad eaſe eaſy Engliſh eſtabliſhed faid fame fatire feems fent Fenton fince firſt folicitations fome foon friends friendſhip fuch fuffered fufficiently fure himſelf honour houſe hundred pounds Iliad increaſed inſtruction intereſt Ireland JONATHAN SWIFT juſtly kind laſt leſs Letters Lord Orrery maſter moſt muſt neſs never obſerves occafion Orrery paffion PARNELL paſſed Pastoral perfuaded perſon Philips pleaſe pleaſure poem poet Pope Pope's poſed praiſe preſent princeſs publick publiſhed purpoſe Queen raiſe reader reaſon refuſed reſolution reſpect ſame ſay ſchool ſecond ſee ſeems ſeized ſeldom ſent ſervice ſeveral ſhe ſhew ſhould ſome Spence ſtage ſtate ſtill ſtory ſtudy ſucceſs ſuch ſuppoſed Swift ſyſtem Theocritus theſe thoſe thought tion told tranflation Univerſity uſe verſes vifit viſited Whigs whoſe write written wrote
Fréquemment cités
Page 28 - A Pastoral of an hundred lines may be endured ; but who will hear of sheep and goats, and myrtle bowers, and purling rivulets, through five acts? Such scenes please Barbarians in the dawn of literature, and children in the dawn of life; but will be for the most part thrown away, as men grow wise, and nations grow learned.
Page 19 - But his devotional poetry is, like that of others, unsatisfactory. The paucity of its topics enforces perpetual repetition, and the sanctity of the matter rejects the ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well.
Page 21 - What wonderful productions of wit should we be deprived of, from those whose genius by continual practice hath been wholly turned upon raillery and invectives against religion, and would therefore never be able to shine or distinguish themselves upon any other subject. We are daily complaining of the great decline of wit among us, and would we take away the greatest, perhaps the only topic we have left?
Page 19 - Polly, till then obscure, became all at once the favourite of the town; her pictures were engraved, and sold in great numbers; her Life written, books of letters and verses to her published, and pamphlets made even of her sayings and jests. Furthermore, it drove out of England (for that season) the Italian Opera, which had carried all before it for ten years.
Page 5 - Here he dwelt in a family, which, for piety, order, harmony, and every virtue, was a house of God. Here he had the privilege of a country recess, the fragrant bower, the spreading lawn, the flowery garden, and other advantages to...
Page 18 - This piece was received with greater applause than was ever known. Besides being acted in London sixtythree days without interruption, and renewed the next season with equal applause, it spread into all the great towns of England; was played in many places to the thirtieth and fortieth time ; at Bath and Bristol fifty, &c.
Page 6 - ... language was copious without exuberance, exact without constraint, and easy without weakness. What such an author has told, who would tell again? I have made an abstract from his larger narrative; and have this gratification from my attempt, that it gives me an opportunity of paying due tribute to the memory of Goldsmith.
Page 12 - Every man, acquainted with the common principles of human action, will look with veneration on the writer, who is at one time -combating Locke, and at another making a catechism for children in their fourth year. A voluntary descent from the dignity of science is perhaps the hardest lesson that humility can teach.
Page 101 - ... enjoyed by the neglect of those ceremonies which custom has established as the barriers between one order of society and another. This transgression of regularity was by himself and his admirers termed greatness of soul. But a great mind disdains to hold any thing by courtesy, and therefore never usurps what a lawful claimant may take away.
Page 97 - But if you had supped with me, as in all reason you ought to have done, you must then have drank with me.