The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III

Various, Henry Cabot Lodge, Francis W. (Francis Whiting) Halsey

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• Publié par: infopert
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 24
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V
(of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III, by Various
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Title: The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III
Author: Various
Editor: Henry Cabot Lodge
Francis W. Halsey
Release Date: July 30, 2007 [EBook #22182]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORLD'S CLASSICS, VOL. V ***
Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Sankar Viswanathan, and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.netLAMB, MACAULAY, SCOTT, and CARLYLE

THE BEST
of the
World's Classics
RESTRICTED TO PROSE
HENRY CABOT LODGE
Editor-in-Chief
FRANCIS W. HALSEY
Associate Editor

With an Introduction, Biographical and
Explanatory Notes, etc.
IN TEN VOLUMES

Vol. V
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND—III



FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON



Copyright, 1909, by
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
The Best of the World's Classics
VOL. VGREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND—III
1740—1881
CONTENTS
Vol. V—Great Britain and Ireland—III
Page
James Boswell—(Born in 1740, died in 1795.)
I Boswell's Introduction to Johnson.
(From Boswell's "Life of Johnson") 3
II Johnson's Audience with George III.
(From Boswell's "Life of Johnson") 8
III The Meeting of Johnson and John Wilkes.
(From Boswell's "Life of Johnson") 15
IV Johnson's Wedding-Day.
(From Boswell's "Life of Johnson") 21
William Wordsworth—(Born in 1770, died in 1850.)
A Poet Defined.
(From the Preface to the second edition of "Lyrical
Ballads") 23
Sir Walter Scott—(Born in 1771, died in 1832.)
I The Arrival of the Master of Ravenswood.
(From Chapter XXXIII of "The Bride of Lammermoor") 31
II The Death of Meg Merriles.
(From Chapter LV of "Guy Mannering") 35
III A Vision of Rob Roy.
(From Chapter XXIII of "Rob Roy") 40
IV Queen Elizabeth and Amy Robsart at Kenilworth.
(From "Kenilworth") 48
V The Illness and Death of Lady Scott.
(From Scott's "Journal") 62
Samuel Taylor Coleridge—(Born in 1772, died in 1834.)
I Does Fortune Favor Fools?
(From "A Sailor's Fortune") 70
II The Destiny of the United States.
(From the "Table Talk") 76
Robert Southey—(Born in 1774, died in 1843.)
Nelson's Death at Trafalgar.
(From the "Life of Nelson") 80
Walter Savage Landor—(Born in 1775, died in 1864.)
I The Death of Hofer 87
II Napoleon and Pericles 91
Charles Lamb—(Born in 1775, died in 1834.)I Dream Children—A Reverie.
(From the "Essays of Elia") 93
II Poor Relations.
(From the "Essays of Elia") 99
III The Origin of Roast Pig.
(From the "Essays of Elia") 102
IV That We Should Rise with the Lark.
(From the "Essays of Elia") 107
William Hazlitt—(Born in 1778, died in 1830.)
Hamlet.
(From the "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays") 111
Thomas de Quincey—(Born in 1785, died in 1859.)
I Dreams of an Opium-Eater.
(From the "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater") 115
II Joan of Arc.
(From the "Biographical and Historical Essays") 123
III Charles Lamb.
(From the "Literary Reminiscences") 128
Lord Byron—(Born in 1788, died in 1824.)
I Of His Mother's Treatment of Him.
(A letter to his half-sister, Augusta) 134
II To His Wife after the Separation.
(A letter written in Italy) 138
III To Sir Walter Scott.
(A letter written in Italy) 140
IV Of Art and Nature as Poetical Subjects.
(From the "Reply to Bowles") 143
Percy Bysshe Shelley—(Born in 1792, died in 1822.)
I In Defense of Poetry.
(From an essay written some time in 1820-21) 151
II The Baths of Caracalla.
(From a letter to Thomas Love Peacock) 155
III The ruins of Pompeii.
(A letter to Thomas Love Peacock) 158
George Grote—(Born in 1794, died in 1871.)
I The Mutilation of the Hermæ.
(From Chapter LVIII of the "History of Greece") 165
II If Alexander Had Lived.
(From Chapter XCIV of the "History of Greece") 172
Thomas Carlyle—(Born in 1795, died in 1881.)
I Charlotte Corday.
(From the "History of the French Revolution") 179
II The Blessedness of Work.
(From "Past and Present") 187
III Cromwell.
(From "Heroes and Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History") 190
IV In Praise of Those Who Toil.
(From "Sartor Resartus") 201
V The Certainty of Justice.
(From "Past and Present") 202VI The Greatness of Scott.
(From the essay on Lockhart's "Life of Scott") 206
VII Boswell and His Book.
(From the essay on Croker's edition of Boswell) 214
VIII Might Burns Have Been Saved?
(From the essay on Burns) 223
Lord Macaulay—(Born in 1800, died in 1859.)
I Puritans and Royalists.
(From the essay on Milton) 233
II Cromwell's Army.
(From Chapter I of the "History of England") 238
III The Opening of the Trial of Warren Hastings.
(From the essay on Hastings) 242
IV The Gift of Athens to Man.
(From the essay on Mitford's "History of Greece") 248
V The Pathos of Byron's Life.
(From the essay on Moore's "Life of Byron") 251
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND—III
1740—1881
[3]JAMES BOSWELL
Born in 1740, died in 1795; son of a Scottish judge; admitted to the
bar in 1766; recorder of Carlisle in 1788; removed to London in
1789; visited Corsica in 1766; first met Dr. Johnson in 1763; went
with him to the Hebrides in 1773; published his "Life of Johnson" in
1791.
I
BOSWELL'S INTRODUCTION TO DR.
JOHNSON[1]
Mr. Thomas Davies the actor, who then kept a bookseller's shop in Russell
street, Covent Garden, told me that Johnson was very much his friend, and
came frequently to his house, where he more than once invited me to meet him;
but by some unlucky accident or other he was prevented from coming to us.
Mr. Thomas Davies was a man of good understanding and talents, with the
advantage of a liberal education. Tho somewhat pompous, he was an
entertaining companion; and his literary performances have no inconsiderable
share of merit. He was a friendly and very hospitable man. Both he and his wife
(who has been celebrated for her beauty), tho upon the stage for many years,
maintained a uniform decency of character; and Johnson esteemed them, andlived in as easy an intimacy with them as with any family which he used to visit.
[4]Mr. Davies recollected several of Johnson's remarkable sayings, and was one
of the best of the many imitators of his voice and manner, while relating them.
He increased my impatience more and more to see the extraordinary man
whose works I highly valued, and whose conversation was reported to be so
peculiarly excellent.
At last, on Monday the 16th of May, when I was sitting in Mr. Davies' back
parlor, after having drunk tea with him and Mrs. Davies, Johnson unexpectedly
came into the shop; and Mr. Davies having perceived him through the glass
door in the room in which we were sitting, advancing toward us, he announced
his awful approach to me, somewhat in the manner of an actor in the part of
Horatio, when he addresses Hamlet on the appearance of his father's ghost
—"Look, my lord, it comes." I found that I had a very perfect idea of Johnson's
figure from the portrait of him painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds soon after he had
published his Dictionary, in the attitude of sitting in his easy chair in deep
meditation; which was the first picture his friend did for him, which Sir Joshua
very kindly presented to me, and from which an engraving has been made for
this work. Mr. Davies mentioned my name, and respectfully introduced me to
him. I was much agitated, and recollecting his prejudice against the Scotch, of
which I had heard much, I said to Davies, "Don't tell where I came from." "From
Scotland," cried Davies, roguishly. "Mr. Johnson" (said I), "I do indeed come
from Scotland, but I can not help it." I am willing to flatter myself that I meant this
[5]as light pleasantry to soothe and conciliate him, and not as an humiliating
abasement at the expense of my country. But however that might be, this
speech was somewhat unlucky; for with that quickness of wit for which he was
so remarkable, he seized the expression "come from Scotland," which I used in
the sense of being of that country; and as if I had said that I had come away
from it, or left it, retorted, "That, sir, I find is what a very great many of your
countrymen can not help." This stroke stunned me a good deal; and when he
had sat down, I felt myself not a little embarrassed, and apprehensive of what
might come n