Johnson's Lives of the the English Poets: Abridged: with Notes and Illustrations |
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Page 14
... relate , found him fufficiently verfed in ancient hiftory ; and when of his enthufiaftic friends came to advise . any or confult him , he could fometimes overhear him dif- courfing in the cant of the times ; but when he re- turned he ...
... relate , found him fufficiently verfed in ancient hiftory ; and when of his enthufiaftic friends came to advise . any or confult him , he could fometimes overhear him dif- courfing in the cant of the times ; but when he re- turned he ...
Page 27
... relates , " that he would fometimes be awake whole nights , but not a verfe could he make ; and on a fudden his poetical faculty would rush upon him with an impetus or aftrum , and his daughter was immediately called to fecure what came ...
... relates , " that he would fometimes be awake whole nights , but not a verfe could he make ; and on a fudden his poetical faculty would rush upon him with an impetus or aftrum , and his daughter was immediately called to fecure what came ...
Page 29
... relates , endure to hear " Paradife Loft ” preferred to " Paradife Regained . ' " " He now compofed a book of logic , for the initiation of students in philofophy ; and publifhed ( 1672 ) " Ar- tis Logicæ plenior inftitutio ad Petri ...
... relates , endure to hear " Paradife Loft ” preferred to " Paradife Regained . ' " " He now compofed a book of logic , for the initiation of students in philofophy ; and publifhed ( 1672 ) " Ar- tis Logicæ plenior inftitutio ad Petri ...
Page 37
... relates , was made known at court by the taste and influence of the Earl of Dorfet .. When it was known , it was neceffarily admired by all , and by no one more than by the king . In 1664 * the fecond part appeared ; and the writer was ...
... relates , was made known at court by the taste and influence of the Earl of Dorfet .. When it was known , it was neceffarily admired by all , and by no one more than by the king . In 1664 * the fecond part appeared ; and the writer was ...
Page 45
... relates , that Lord Dorfet gave him an allowance equal to the falary . " Being now no longer the court poet , he was com- pelled to look back for fupport to his former trade , that of writing for the ftage , and it was at this time ...
... relates , that Lord Dorfet gave him an allowance equal to the falary . " Being now no longer the court poet , he was com- pelled to look back for fupport to his former trade , that of writing for the ftage , and it was at this time ...
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Common terms and phrases
Addifon Æneid affiftance afterwards againſt anfwer appeared becauſe beſt cenfure comedy compofition confiderable confidered converfation Cowley death defign defired delight diction died Dryden Duke Dunciad eafily Earl Effay elegant Engliſh faid fame father fatire fays fchool fecond feems feldom fent fentiments feven feveral fhew fhort fhould firft firſt fome fometimes foon friends ftill ftudy fubject fuccefs fuch fuffered fufficient fupplied fuppofed fupport greateſt higheſt himſelf honour houfe houſe Hudibras Iliad Johnſon kindneſs King laft laſt leaſt lefs loft Lord mafter mind moft moſt muſt never numbers obferved occafion paffages paffed paffion Paradife perfon pleaſed pleaſure poem poet poetical poetry Pope pounds praife praiſe prefent produced profe publick publiſhed purpoſe Queen raiſed reafon refolved rhyme Savage ſeems Sir Robert Walpole ſtage ſtudy Swift Tatler thefe theſe thofe thoſe thought tion tragedy tranflated underſtanding univerfal uſed verfe verfification verſes vifit Waller Weſtminſter Whigs whofe write written wrote
Popular passages
Page 146 - His legs were so slender, that he enlarged their bulk with three pair of stockings, which were drawn on and off by the maid; for he was not able to dress or undress himself, and neither went to bed nor rose without help.
Page 49 - Criticism, either didactic or defensive, occupies almost all his prose, except those pages which he has devoted to his patrons; but none of his prefaces were ever thought tedious.
Page 31 - He seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and to know what it was that nature had bestowed upon him more bountifully than upon others; the power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful...
Page 239 - In the character of his Elegy I rejoice to concur with the common reader; for by the common sense of readers uncorrupted with literary prejudices, after all the refinements of subtilty and the dogmatism of learning, must be finally decided all claim to poetical honours.
Page 151 - To circumscribe poetry by a definition will only shew the narrowness of the definer, though a definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made. Let us look round upon the present time, and back upon the past; let us...
Page 49 - They have not the formality of a settled style, in which the first half of the sentence betrays the other. The clauses are never balanced, nor the periods modelled: every word seems to drop by chance, though it falls into its proper place. Nothing is cold or languid; the whole is airy, animated, and vigorous; what is little, is gay; what is great, is splendid.
Page 33 - The plan of Paradise Lost has this inconvenience, that it comprises neither human actions nor human manners. The man and woman who act and suffer are in a state which no other man or woman can ever know. The reader finds no transaction in which he can be engaged, beholds no condition in which he can by any effort of imagination place himself; he has, therefore, little natural curiosity or sympathy.
Page 238 - The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural violence. Double, double, toil and trouble. He has a kind of strutting dignity, and is tall by walking on tiptoe. His art and his struggle are too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature.
Page 148 - Thirty-eight; of which Dodsley told me, that they were brought to him by the author, that they might be fairly copied. "Almost every line...
Page xii - Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow.