Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century: Comprizing Biographical Memoirs of William Bowyer, Printer, F.S.A., and Many of His Learned Friends; an Incidental View of the Progress and Advancement of Literature in this Kingdom During the Last Century; and Biographical Anecdotes of a Considerable Number of Eminent Writers and Ingenious Artists; with a Very Copious Index, Volume 1

Front Cover

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 54 - Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.
Page 358 - Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. 24 And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.
Page 399 - Nov. 2, 1713, Dr. Swift came into the coffeehouse, and had a bow from every body but me, who, I confess, could not but despise him.
Page 342 - I have pleaded guilty to all thoughts and expressions of mine which can be truly argued of obscenity, profaneness, or immorality, and retract them. If he be my enemy, let him triumph ; if he be my friend, as I have given him no personal occasion to be otherwise, he will be glad of my repentance.
Page 78 - It is unpleasant to relate that the bookseller, after all his hopes and all his liberality, was, by a very unjust and illegal action, defrauded of his profit '. An edition of the English Iliad...
Page 286 - His character is finely drawn by the Marquis of Halifax : one paragraph of which is too remarkable to be omitted : " His indifference for preferment ; his contempt not only of splendour, but of all unnecessary plenty; his degrading himself...
Page 53 - Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither : the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Page 111 - My lord would carry on the jest, And down to Windsor takes his guest. Swift much admires the place and air, And longs to be a canon there ; In summer round the park to ride, In winter — never to reside. A canon ! that's a place too mean : No, doctor, you shall be a dean ; Two dozen canons round your stall, And you the tyrant o'er them all : You need but cross the Irish seas, To live in plenty, power, and ease.
Page 42 - He's an animal of a most deplored understanding, without reading and conversation. His being is in a twilight of sense, and some glimmering of thought, which he can never fashion into wit or English. His style is boisterous and rough-hewn, his rhyme incorrigibly lewd, and his numbers perpetually harsh and ill-sounding.
Page 400 - if the courtiers give me a watch that won't go right?' Then he instructed a young nobleman that the best poet in England was Mr. Pope (a Papist), who had begun a translation of Homer into English verse, for which, he said, he must have them all subscribe. 'For,' says he, 'the author shall not begin to print till I have a thousand guineas for him.

Bibliographic information