From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty Authors |
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Page 9
... England , in the eleventh century , made a break in the natural growth of the English language and literature . The ... England . Norman French was the birth- tongue of the upper classes and English of the lower . When the latter got the ...
... England , in the eleventh century , made a break in the natural growth of the English language and literature . The ... England . Norman French was the birth- tongue of the upper classes and English of the lower . When the latter got the ...
Page 10
... England in 1224 , became intermediaries between the high and the low . They went about French words . preaching to the poor , and in their sermons they inter- mingled French with English . In their hands , too , was almost all the ...
... England in 1224 , became intermediaries between the high and the low . They went about French words . preaching to the poor , and in their sermons they inter- mingled French with English . In their hands , too , was almost all the ...
Page 11
... England with tual impulse the Continent . Lanfranc and Anselm , the first two communicated Norman archbishops of Canterbury , were learned and Normans . splendid prelates of a type quite unknown to the Anglo - Saxons . They introduced ...
... England with tual impulse the Continent . Lanfranc and Anselm , the first two communicated Norman archbishops of Canterbury , were learned and Normans . splendid prelates of a type quite unknown to the Anglo - Saxons . They introduced ...
Page 12
... England began to be once more English and truly national in the hands of Chaucer and his contempo- raries , but it was the literature of a nation cut off from its own past by three centuries of foreign rule . Continuity of the national ...
... England began to be once more English and truly national in the hands of Chaucer and his contempo- raries , but it was the literature of a nation cut off from its own past by three centuries of foreign rule . Continuity of the national ...
Page 14
... England , " written in prose in 1463-64 , hardly anything of it is left . In history as in literature the English had forgotten their past and had turned to foreign sources . It is noteworthy that Shakspere , who borrowed his subjects ...
... England , " written in prose in 1463-64 , hardly anything of it is left . In history as in literature the English had forgotten their past and had turned to foreign sources . It is noteworthy that Shakspere , who borrowed his subjects ...
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Popular passages
Page 293 - Heaven lies about us in our infancy. Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing boy; But he beholds the light and whence it flows, He sees it in his joy. The youth who daily farther from the East Must travel, still is Nature's priest, And, by the vision splendid, Is on his way attended. At length the man perceives it die away And fade into the light of common day.
Page 285 - 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 270 - And bring all Heaven before mine eyes. And may at last my weary age Find out the peaceful hermitage, The hairy gown and mossy cell Where I may sit and rightly spell Of every star that heaven doth shew, And every herb that sips the dew ; Till old experience do attain To something like prophetic strain.
Page 278 - Peace to all such! But were there one whose fires True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires; Blest with each talent and each art to please. And born to write, converse, and live with ease: Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne; View him with scornful, yev with jealous eyes.
Page 284 - At church, with meek and unaffected grace, His looks adorned the venerable place; Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.
Page 272 - Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine...
Page 297 - BREATHES there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land ? Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned, From wandering on a foreign strand...
Page 100 - What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid! Heard words that have been So nimble and so full of subtle flame As if that every one from whence they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And had resolved to live a fool the rest Of his dull life.
Page 286 - 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 304 - Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? And, little town, thy streets for evermore Will silent be ; and not a soul to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.