Boswell's Life of Johnson: LifeClarendon Press, 1887 - Authors, English |
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Page 3
... DEAR SIR , ' Apologies are seldom of any use . We will delay till your arrival the reasons , good or bad , which have made me such a sparing and ungrateful correspondent . Be assured , for the present , that nothing has lessened either ...
... DEAR SIR , ' Apologies are seldom of any use . We will delay till your arrival the reasons , good or bad , which have made me such a sparing and ungrateful correspondent . Be assured , for the present , that nothing has lessened either ...
Page 4
... dear Sir , " Your affectionate humble servant , ' Johnson's Court , Fleet - street , ' SAM . JOHNSON . ' January 14 , 1766. ' I returned to London in February , and found Dr. Johnson in ' Tell your Court , ' said Paoli to Boswell ...
... dear Sir , " Your affectionate humble servant , ' Johnson's Court , Fleet - street , ' SAM . JOHNSON . ' January 14 , 1766. ' I returned to London in February , and found Dr. Johnson in ' Tell your Court , ' said Paoli to Boswell ...
Page 10
... Sir , I never was near enough to great men , to court them . You may be prudently attached to great men and yet independent . You are not to do what you think wrong ; and , Sir , you are to calculate , and not pay too dear for what you ...
... Sir , I never was near enough to great men , to court them . You may be prudently attached to great men and yet independent . You are not to do what you think wrong ; and , Sir , you are to calculate , and not pay too dear for what you ...
Page 11
... Sir , you have kept very good company abroad , Rousseau and Wilkes ! ' Thinking it enough to defend one at a time , I said nothing as to my gay friend , but answered with a smile , ' My dear Sir , you don't call Rousseau bad company ...
... Sir , you have kept very good company abroad , Rousseau and Wilkes ! ' Thinking it enough to defend one at a time , I said nothing as to my gay friend , but answered with a smile , ' My dear Sir , you don't call Rousseau bad company ...
Page 16
... DEAR SIR , ' What your friends have done , that from your departure till now nothing has been heard of you , none of us are able to inform the rest ; but as we are all neglected alike , no one thinks himself entitled to the privilege of ...
... DEAR SIR , ' What your friends have done , that from your departure till now nothing has been heard of you , none of us are able to inform the rest ; but as we are all neglected alike , no one thinks himself entitled to the privilege of ...
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Common terms and phrases
admiration Aetat Anec answered ante April April 15 April 28 asked authority Baretti Beauclerk believe BENNET LANGTON Boswell's Hebrides Burke Burney called character church compliments conversation Corsica Court Croker DEAR SIR dined edition England English favour Garrick gentleman give Goldsmith happy honour hope Horace Walpole humble servant Hume J. H. Burton JAMES BOSWELL John Johnson King lady Langton laugh learning Letters of Boswell Lichfield live London Lord Bute Lord Mansfield manner March March 21 Memoirs mentioned mind nation never observed opinion Oxford Paoli passage perhaps Piozzi Letters pleased pleasure poem Pope publick published reason Reynolds SAMUEL JOHNSON says Scotch Scotland seems Sept shewed Sir Joshua speak Streatham suppose talked tell thing thought Thrale tion told wish write written wrote
Popular passages
Page 317 - There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
Page 78 - I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften and concluded to give the coppers.
Page 338 - The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write : a man will turn over half a library to make one book.
Page 3 - The style of Dryden is capricious and varied; that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition. Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle.
Page 119 - Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, he said, was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise.
Page 360 - It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter,* that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.
Page 313 - I wondered to hear him say of " Gulliver's Travels," " When once you have thought of big men and little men, it is very easy to do all the rest.
Page 84 - Shakespeare it is commonly a species. It is from this wide extension of design that so much instruction is derived. It is this which fills the plays of Shakespeare with practical axioms and domestic wisdom. It was said of Euripides that every verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakespeare that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence.
Page 321 - He attacked Gray, calling him " a dull fellow." BOSWELL : " I understand he was reserved, and might appear dull in company ; but surely he was not dull in poetry." JOHNSON : " Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull every where.' He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him GREAT. He was a mechanical poet.
Page 446 - ... house, as if it were his own. Whereas, at a tavern, there is a general freedom from anxiety. You are sure you are welcome: and the more noise you make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you call for, the welcomer you are. No...