Eighteenth Century Vignettes
Format: Paperback
ISBN13: 9780217468886
Paperback|9780217468886
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IN COWPER'S ARBOUR. A MONG its many drawbacks controversy has this in particular, that it sometimes embroils us with our closest friends. Writing recently of Lord Chesterfield, we found occasion to comment upon certain couplets which the poet of the ' Progress of Error' addressed to his Lordship concerning his celebrated ' Letters.' What was said amounted to no more than that Cowper, in this instance at least, had not proved himself a Juvenal, ? a sentiment which, seeing that his most modern biographer, Mr. Goldwin Smith, accuses him, as a satirist, of brandishing a whip without a lash, could scarcely be regarded as extravagant condemnation. Not the less, it has lain sorely upon our conscience. Of all the lettered figures of the eighteenth century, none is more dear to us than the gentle recluse of the sleepy little town by the Ouse. What 1 ? the captivating letter- writer, the inventor of the immortal ' John Gilpin, ' the delightful ' divagator' of the ' Task' and the tea-urn, the kindly proprietor of those' canonized pets of literature, ' Puss and Bess and Tiney ? how, upon such a theme, could one excusably utter things harsh or censorious 1 It is impossible to picture him, when the curtains had fallen over those two windows that looked upon the three-cornered market-place at Olney, ? his head decorated (it may be) with the gaily ribboned cap which had been worked for him by his cousin Lady Hesketh,1 his eyes milder than they seem in Romney's famous portrait, and placidly reading the ' Public Advertiser' to the click-click of Mrs. Unwin's stocking-needles, ?without being smitten by a feeling of remorse. And opportunity for the expression of such remorse arrives pleasantly with an old-fashioned octavo which supplies the pretext for a palinode in prose. Its title, 'writ large.
| ISBN-13 | 9780217468886 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217468888 |
| Weight | 0.47 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.32 In |
| List Price | $19.99 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 136 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
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