Amenities of Literature Consisting of Sketches and Characters of English Literature

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 36298-h.htm or 36298-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/36...

The Druidical custom of unwritten instruction was ingeniously suggested by Cicero, as designed to prevent their secret doctrines from being divulged to those unworthy or ill fit...

We are told that the Britons who passed over into France carried with them "their archives." But there were other Britons who did not fly to the sixty leagues of Armorica; and o...

The history and literature of England are involved in the transactions of a people who, living in such remote times at the highest of their fortunes, never advanced beyond a sem...

The marvellous incident on which the history of Caedmon revolves may only veil a fact which has nothing extraordinary in itself when freed from the invention which disguises it....

[13] This curious literary information has been disclosed by ROGER WILLIAMS, the founder of the State of Rhode Island, who was despatched to England in 1651, to obtain the repea...

The Norman lords had courts of their own; sworn vassals to their suzerain, but kinglings to the people. Sometimes they beheld a Saxon lord, whose heart could not tear itself fro...

At the maturity of twenty and one years the late varlet, and now the esquire, stood forth a candidate to blazon his shield by knighthood--the accomplished gentleman of these Got...

ROMANCE, from the light fabliau to the voluminous fiction, has admitted, in the luxury of our knowledge and curiosity, not only of critical investigation, but of its invention,...

It is unquestionable that these martial romances of chivalry inflamed the restlessness of those numerous military adventurers who found an ample field for their chivalry after t...

The Italian literature thus burst into birth and into maturity; while it is remarkable of the other languages of Europe, that after their first efforts they fell into decrepitud...

Somewhat more than a century after the Norman invasion, about 1180, Layamon made an English version of Wace's "Brut"--that French metrical chronicle which the Anglo-Norman had d...

[3] Of this recondite writer Ellis has said, "probably Layamon never will be printed;" but we live in an age of publication, and Layamon is said to be actually in the press. [Si...

"Our own tongue should be written _clean_ and _pure_, unmixt and unmangled with borrowing of other tongues, wherein, if we take not heed, by time, ever borrowing and never payin...

If etymology often furnishes a genealogy of words through all their authentic descents, so likewise a map of provincial idioms might be constructed to indicate the localities of...

To explain some of those incredible incidents which occurred to the author himself might exercise some critical ingenuity. Mandeville's adventure in "the Valley Perilous," when...

This remark is an instance of critical sagacity. The creative faculty in Chaucer had not broken forth in his translations, which evidently were his earliest writings. The native...

[2] It has been alleged by more than one writer, that this mysterious affair relates to the election for the mayoralty of John of Northampton, a Wickliffite and a Lancastrian. B...

But this rude native genius was profound as he was sagacious, and his philosophy terminated in prophecy. At the era of the Reformation they were startled by the discovery of an...

For a storye which is not plainly told, But constreyned under _wordes few_ For lack of truth, wher they ben new or olde, Men by reporte cannot the matter shewe; These oakes grea...

The royal agent never ventured to enter the city, but by heavy bribes in a secret intercourse with the workmen, one dark night he smuggled a printer aboard a vessel, and carried...

[2] We have Caxton's own confession in his preface to "The Book of Aeneydos," or the Aeneid of Virgil, where, in soliciting the late-created poet-laureat in the University of Ox...

Warton transcribed a few lines to show this poet's "harmonious versification and clear expression;" but this short specimen may convey an erroneous notion. Our verse was yet irr...

We may suspect that our citizen and chronicler, however he might be familiar with the public acts of royalty, had no precise notions of the principles of their government. We ca...

Among the musicians of Henry we find French, Italians, and Germans; he was himself a musician, and composed several pieces which I believe are still retained in the service of t...

[3] The Political Songs of England have been recently given by Mr. Thomas Wright, to whom our literature owes many deep obligations. [In the series of volumes published by the C...

Whether Skelton really adopted the measures of the old tavern-minstrelsy used by harpers, who gave "a fit of mirth for a groat," or "carols for Christmas," or "lascivious poems...

[2] One of these, a "Dialogue between a Citizen and Uplandishman," has been reprinted by the Percy Society, under the editorship of Mr. Fairholt, who has given a digest of the o...

This famous work was written at no immature period of life, for MORE was then thirty-six years of age. The author had clear notions of the imperfections of governments, but he w...

Thus it happened that the romancer, on a misconception, constructs an imaginary fabric; the poet Drayton builds on the romancer; the sober antiquary on both; then the commentato...

Fortunate are the people who have only to pass through a single crisis. But in the wrath of Providence there may be reserved another connecting crisis in the chain of human even...

While the people were thus agitated, divided, and distracted, the same state of disorder was shaking the more intelligent classes of society. Our mutable governments during four...

These scriptural plays were known in England before 1119; they formed public performances in the metropolis in 1180. They were then confined to the monasteries, and when the aud...

[17] The reader may gratify his curiosity, and derive considerable amusement, from the skilful analysis of primitive dramas, both manuscript and printed, which Mr. COLLIER has d...

"The Schoolmaster," with its humble title, "to teach children to understand, write, and speak the Latin tongue," conveys an erroneous notion of the delight, or the knowledge whi...

There was now "a people," who might be worthy of entering into the views of the statesman; but it was a divided people. Among them, the queen knew, lay concealed her domestic en...

Were we to course the wide fields which these early "rackers of orthography" have run over, we should start, at every turn, some strange "winged words;" but they would be fantas...

In France the same attempt encountered the same fate. A few scholars, Jodelle, Passerat, and others, had the intrepidity to versify in French with the ancient metres; and, what...

In the work itself the writer has interspersed many allusions to himself, from his nursery to his court-days. His nurse, a right-lined ancestor of the garrulous nurse of the Cap...

The volume abounds with many strange incidents, which its singular subject involved. The solitary witch of the homestead was not the poetic witch uttering her incantations at he...

Two of the numerous writings ascribed to Parsons, one before the Armada, and the other subsequent to it, are remarkably connected with our national history; the ability of the w...

[1] At Rome there was "The English Hospital," founded by two of the kings of our Saxon Heptarchy; a thousand years had consecrated that small domicile for the English native; bu...

The elaborate preface of Hooker is a tract of itself; it is the secret history of nonconformity, and of the fiery Calvin. Yet was it from positions here laid down that James the...

Though little is circumstantially related, yet frequent outbreakings, scattered throughout the writings of Spenser, commemorate the main incidents of his existence. His emotions...

_Wrong'd, yet not daring to express my pain_ To you, good lord! the causer of my care, In cloudy tears my case _I thus complain Unto yourself, that only privy are_. But if that...

Warton and Hurd observe that Spenser copied real _manners of his time_ as much as Homer. We must here distinguish an essential difference, if Homer really represented the manner...

The poet himself announced that the "Faery Queen" was "a continued allegory or dark conceit;" and he was so strongly convinced that "all allegories are doubtfully construed," th...

In this first tragedy in our language, cast in the mould of classical antiquity, we find a division of scenes and a progressive plot carried on, though somewhat heavily, through...

The pleasures of the people were not, however, yet those of their grave seignors. The puritanic spirit of the anti-dramatists, which sometimes divided the councils of the queen,...

[3] At the inferior playhouses the admission was as low as a penny for "the groundlings" who stood in the roofless pit, which still retained the name of "the yard"--evidently fr...

"The absolute Johannes Factotum," "the only shake-scene," and "the crow beautified with their feathers," are one person; but "the tyger's heart wrapt in a player's hide," partic...

Alas! where were these "original copies?" The precious autographs could not have endured through many a season the thumbings of "the book-holder" or the prompter. The playhouse...

The Popeians now sunk the sole merit of the laborious sagacity of "the restorer," as Mr. Pope affectionately called him, to that of "a word-catcher." But "piddling Theobald," br...

Mrs. MONTAGUE was the Minerva, for so she was complimented on this occasion, whose celestial spear was to transfix the audacious Gaul. Her "Essay on the Writings and Genius of S...

[26] COXETER, after a search of thirty years, faithfully collating the best of our old plays, tells us he happened to communicate his scheme to one who now invades it; but for w...

The author of the "Poly-olbion" may truly be considered as the inventor of a class of poems peculiar to our country, and which, when I was young, were popular or fashionable. Th...

An intrigue of less guiltiness than these dark machinations of heartless men banished Rawleigh from court. In the dalliance of the ladies of the privy-chamber, through the long...

His digressions are never more agreeable than when they become dissertations; the most ordinary events of history assumed a new face by the noble speculations which he builds on...

[15] The Dean of Westminster was astonished at Rawleigh's cheerfulness on the day of his execution, who "made no more of his death than if he had been to take a journey." The di...

E. K. "Now I see beyond like a furnace-mouth as big as four or five gates of a city, as if it were a quarter of a mile off, with a horrible smother of smoke coming out of it; an...

[2] A catalogue of Dr. Dee's library, in his own handwriting, may be found in Harl. MSS. 1879. Four thousand volumes, "abounding with a curious harvest of books illustrative of...

The writings of Fludd are all composed in Latin; it is remarkable that the works of an English author, residing in England, should be printed at Frankfort, Oppenheim, and Gouda....

In my youth, the illustrious name of Lord Bacon was more familiar to readers than his works, and they were more frequently reminded of the Lord Chancellor by the immortal verse...

[1] Sir Simonds d'Ewes feelingly describes in his will, his "precious library." "It is my inviolable injunction that it be kept entire, and not sold, divided, or dissipated." It...

"Oft in my laughing rimes I name a GULL, But this _new terme_ will many questions breed; Therefore, at first, I will expresse at full Who is a true and perfect Gull indeed."

[4] "Phoenix Britannicus,"--"Oldys' Dissertation upon Pamphlets," p. 556. Oldys drew up an account of these pamphlets from "The Memoirs of the Curious," published in 1701. He sa...

A single day of treason sufficed to terminate this immortal commonwealth of Venice, with all its "ballotings" and "its rotations," and its hidden and horrible dictature, where s...

The ambiguity of the term _Commonwealth_ soon caused it to be perverted by the advocates of popular government, who do not distinguish the State from the people; this appears as...

[2] A remarkable expression, which we supposed was peculiar to the more enlarged views of our own age. But who can affix precise notions to general terms? Cudworth'a notion of "...

The manuscript which Calamy saw at the press shows that the transcript, however fair, had required corrections, and probably some confusion had sometimes occurred in transferrin...

Anterior to the invention of printing, there flourished a craft or trade who were denominated _Stationers_; they were scribes and limners, and dealers in manuscript copies, and...

And whatever either the advocates or the adversaries of the freedom of the press may allege, this problem in the science of government remains as insoluble at this day as at any...