A History of English Literature, in a Series of Biographical Sketches |
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Page 11
... literary jealousy of the Egyptians stopped the supply of papyrus , caused his subjects to write on sheep - skins , hence called Pergamena or parchment . Vellum , a finer material , is prepared calf - skin . Besides these , a common form ...
... literary jealousy of the Egyptians stopped the supply of papyrus , caused his subjects to write on sheep - skins , hence called Pergamena or parchment . Vellum , a finer material , is prepared calf - skin . Besides these , a common form ...
Page 16
... literary forgeries , executed by their clever but not very scrupulous editor . The ancient manuscripts , from which he professed to have trans- lated these graphic pictures of old Celtic life , have never been produced . A narrative in ...
... literary forgeries , executed by their clever but not very scrupulous editor . The ancient manuscripts , from which he professed to have trans- lated these graphic pictures of old Celtic life , have never been produced . A narrative in ...
Page 21
... literary toil . Both sword and pen were familiar tools in that cunning right 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 ...
... literary toil . Both sword and pen were familiar tools in that cunning right 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 ...
Page 40
... literary career . Dr. Craik thus sums up the leading facts in the history of English metrical romance : — 1. At least the first examples of it were translations from the French . 2. If any such were produced so early as before the close ...
... literary career . Dr. Craik thus sums up the leading facts in the history of English metrical romance : — 1. At least the first examples of it were translations from the French . 2. If any such were produced so early as before the close ...
Page 84
... Literary character . Illustrative extract . WILLIAM TYNDALE is celebrated among our writers as a translator of the New Testament into English . What Wycliffe had done for his countrymen in the fourteenth century , Tyndale undertook ...
... Literary character . Illustrative extract . WILLIAM TYNDALE is celebrated among our writers as a translator of the New Testament into English . What Wycliffe had done for his countrymen in the fourteenth century , Tyndale undertook ...
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Common terms and phrases
Addison afterwards amid Anglo-Saxon appeared Archbishop of Canterbury beauty became Bible born brilliant called Cambridge CHAPTER Charles chief chiefly Church College coloured court death died drama Dublin Earl early Edinburgh Edinburgh Review England English English poetry Essays Faerie Queene fame father finest France genius gentle heart Henry History honour Illustrative extract James John John Milton King Lady land Latin letters literary literature lived London Lord Milton mind minstrels night noble novel novelist Oxford paper Paradise Lost picture play poem poet poet's poetic poetry poor prose published Puritan Queen reign ROGER ASCHAM romance round royal Saxon 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 wonderful words writer written wrote young
Popular passages
Page 493 - Kent. Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer.
Page 149 - Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers. And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers...
Page 148 - Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There's no such thing: It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes.
Page 392 - Almighty's form Glasses itself in tempests ; in all time, — Calm or convulsed, in breeze or gale or storm, Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 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, fathomless, alone.
Page 209 - The other Shape — If shape it might be called that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb ; Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, For each seemed either — black it stood as Night, 670 Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, And shook a dreadful dart : what seemed his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on.
Page 211 - Almighty hath not built Here for his envy ; will not drive us hence : Here we may reign secure, and, in my choice, To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven...
Page 378 - It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision.
Page 391 - And monarchs tremble in their capitals, The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make Their clay creator the vain title take Of lord of thee and arbiter of war,— These are thy toys, and, as the snowy flake, They melt into thy yeast of waves, which mar Alike the Armada's pride or spoils of Trafalgar.
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 berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains.
Page 210 - Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," Said then the lost Archangel, "this the seat That we must change for Heaven ? this mournful gloom For that celestial light? Be...