The Cambridge History of English Literature: The age of JohnsonSir Adolphus William Ward, Alfred Rayney Waller The University Press, 1913 |
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2nd edn 3rd edn Anon bibliography born Boswell Burney chap Chapter character Charles church Clara Reeve Clarissa collected comedy controversy Covent garden criticism David Garrick death dissent drama Drury lane Earl Edinburgh edition Edward Gibbon eighteenth century England English Essay Fanny Burney Fielding's France French Garrick genius George George Lillo Gibbon Goldsmith Gray Gray's Henry Fielding History Horace Walpole Hume influence James James Boswell John Joseph Journal Junius Lady later letters Lillo literary literature London Lord Magazine Memoirs Miscellaneous moral nature North Briton novel novelists original Oxford Pamela pamphlets plays poem poet Poetical poetry political Preface printed prose published reader remarkable Richardson Roman Rptd Samuel Foote Samuel Johnson satire sentimental Shakespeare Smollett stage Sterne story style Theatre Theatre Royal Theatre-Royal Thomas Thomas Warton Thomson thought Tom Jones tragedy translated verse vols Voltaire volumes Walpole's Warton Wilkes William writings written wrote
Popular passages
Page 173 - I have laboured to refine our language to grammatical purity, and to clear it from colloquial barbarisms, licentious idioms, and irregular combinations. Something, perhaps, I have added to the elegance of its construction, and something to the harmony of its cadence.
Page 160 - The reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness, or blest with spontaneous fecundity ; no perpetual gloom, or unceasing sunshine ; nor are the nations here described either devoid of all sense of humanity, or consummate in all private and social virtues ; here are no Hottentots without religion, polity or articulate language ; no Chinese perfectly polite, and completely skilled in all sciences...
Page 498 - An inquiry into the share, which King Charles i. had in the transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan...
Page 208 - But me, not destined such delights to share, My prime of life in wandering spent and care ; Impell'd, with steps unceasing, to pursue Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view ; That, like the circle bounding earth and skies, Allures from far, yet, as I follow, flies ; My fortune leads to traverse realms alone, And find no spot of all the world my own.
Page 174 - ... no dictionary of a living tongue ever can be perfect, since, while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding, and some falling away...
Page 266 - THE angel ended, and in Adam's ear So charming left his voice, that he awhile Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear...
Page 328 - If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number'} No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.
Page 306 - The eight sessions that I sat in parliament were a school of civil prudence, the first and most essential virtue of an historian.
Page 347 - the doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness.
Page 83 - The Tragedy of Tragedies; or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great...