A history of English literature : $b A practical text-bookAlbert, Edward
History
A history of English literature : $b A practical text-book
Albert, Edward
English literature -- History and criticism
Each little pimple had a tear in it,
To wail the fault its rising did commit,
Who, rebel-like, with their own lord at strife,
Thus made an insurrection ’gainst his life.
Or were these gems sent to adorn his skin,
The cabinet of a richer soul within?
No comet need foretell his change drew on,
Whose corpse might seem a constellation.
_Upon the Death of the Lord Hastings_
8. Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join
The varying verse, the full resounding line,
The long majestic march, the energy divine.
POPE
From the passages already quoted give extracts to show the truth of the
above statement.
9. Use the following quotation to sketch the development of English
prose from the death of Shakespeare to the death of Dryden:
When we find Chapman, the Elizabethan translator of Homer,
expressing himself in his preface thus: “Though truth in her
very nakedness sits in so deep a pit, that from Gades to Aurora
and Ganges few eyes can sound her, I hope yet those few here
will so discover and confirm, that, the date being out of her
darkness in this morning of our poet, he shall now gird his
temples with the sun,”--we pronounce that such a prose is
intolerable. When we find Milton writing: “And long it was not
after, when I was confirmed in this opinion, that he, who would
not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable
things, ought himself to be a true poem,”--we pronounce that
such a prose has its own grandeur, but that it is obsolete and
inconvenient. But when we find Dryden telling us: “What Virgil
wrote in the vigour of his age, in plenty and at ease, I have
undertaken to translate in my declining years; struggling with
wants, oppressed with sickness, curbed in my genius, liable to
be misconstrued in all I write,” then we exclaim that here at
last we have the true English prose, prose such as we would
all gladly use if we only knew how. Yet Dryden was Milton’s
contemporary.
MATTHEW ARNOLD
10. “A good deal of the unconquerable individuality of the earlier part
of the century survives in it, and prevents monotony. After Addison
everybody tries to write like Addison; after Johnson almost everybody
tries to write like Johnson. But after Dryden everybody dare not yet
try to write like Dryden.” (Saintsbury.) Show how far this statement
applies to the prose style of the age.
11. “The characteristic feature of _The Pilgrim’s Progress_ is that it
is the only work of its kind which possesses a strong human interest.”
(Macaulay.) Show how Bunyan, in plot, characters, and style, arouses
this “strong human interest” in his allegory. From this point of view
compare him with Spenser, who, Macaulay says, does not arouse this
interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account