Gotthold Ephraim Lessing - "Nathan the Wise"

John Lothrop Motley - "History of the United Netherlands, 1586"

John Lothrop Motley - "The Life of John of Barneveld, 1613 15"

Samuel Johnson - "Lives of the Poets: Gay, Thomson, Young etc."

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: Lives of the Poets: Waller, Milton, Cowley

S >> Samuel Johnson >> Lives of the Poets: Waller, Milton, Cowley




AND OVER-RUNS THE NEIGHB'RING FIELDS WITH VIOLENT COURSE.

"In the second book:

DOWN A PRECIPICE DEEP, DOWSE HE CASTS THEM ALL -

"And,

AND FELL A-DOWN HIS SHOULDERS WITH LOOSE CARE.

"In the third,

BRASS WAS HIS HELMET, HIS BOOTS BRASS, AND O'ER
HIS BREAST A THICK PLATE STRONG BRASS HE WORE.

"In the fourth,

LIKE SOME FAIR PINE O'ER-LOOKING ALL THE IGNOBLER WOOD.

"And,

SOME FROM THE ROCKS CAST THEMSELVES DOWN HEADLONG.

"And many more: but it is enough to instance in a few. The thing
is, that the disposition of words and numbers should be such, as
that, out of the order and sound of them, the things themselves may
be represented. This the Greeks were not so accurate as to bind
themselves to; neither have our English poets observed it, for aught
I can find. The Latins (qui musas colunt severiores) sometimes did
it; and their prince, Virgil, always: in whom the examples are
innumerable, and taken notice of by all judicious men, so that it is
superfluous to collect them."


I know not whether he has, in many of these instances, attained the
representation or resemblance that he purposes. Verse can imitate
only sound and motion. A "boundless" verse, a "headlong" verse, and
a verse of "brass" or of "strong brass," seem to comprise very
incongruous and unsociable ideas. What there is peculiar in the
sound of the line expressing "loose care," I cannot discover; nor
why the "pine" is "taller" in an Alexandrine than in ten syllables.

But, not to defraud him of his due praise, he has given one example
of representative versification, which perhaps no other English line
can equal:


Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise:
He, who defers this work from day to day,
Does on a river's bank expecting stay
Till the whole stream that stopp'd him shall be gone,
WHICH RUNS, AND, AS IT RUNS, FOR EVER SHALL RUN ON.


Cowley was, I believe, the first poet that mingled Alexandrines at
pleasure with the common heroic of ten syllables, and from him
Dryden borrowed the practice, whether ornamental or licentious. He
considered the verse of twelve syllables as elevated and majestic,
and has therefore deviated into that measure when he supposes the
voice heard of the Supreme Being.

The author of the "Davideis" is commended by Dryden for having
written it in couplets, because he discovered that any staff was too
lyrical for an heroic poem; but this seems to have been known before
by May and Sandys, the translators of the "Pharsalia" and the
"Metamorphoses."

In the "Davideis" are some hemistichs, or verses left imperfect by
the author, in imitation of Virgil, whom he supposes not to have
intended to complete them; that this opinion is erroneous, may be
probably concluded, because this truncation is imitated by no
subsequent Roman poet; because Virgil himself filled up one broken
line in the heat of recitation; because in one the sense is now
unfinished; and because all that can be done by a broken verse, a
line intersected by a coesura, and a full stop, will equally effect.

Of triplets in his "Davideis" he makes no use, and perhaps did not
at first think them allowable; but he appears afterwards to have
changed his mind, for in the verses on the government of Cromwell he
inserts them liberally with great happiness.

After so much criticism on his poems, the essays which accompany
them must not be forgotten. What is said by Sprat of his
conversation, that no man could draw from it any suspicion of his
excellence in poetry, may be applied to these compositions. No
author ever kept his verse and his prose at a greater distance from
each other. His thoughts are natural, and his style has a smooth
and placid equability, which has never yet obtained its due
commendation. Nothing is far-sought, or hard-laboured; but all is
easy without feebleness, and familiar without grossness.

It has been observed by Felton, in his Essay on the Classics, that
Cowley was beloved by every Muse that he courted; and that he has
rivalled the ancients in every kind of poetry but tragedy.

It may be affirmed, without any encomiastic fervour, that he brought
to his poetic labours a mind replete with learning, and that his
pages are embellished with all the ornaments which books could
supply; that he was the first who imparted to English numbers the
enthusiasm of the greater ode, and the gaiety of the less; that he
was equally qualified for sprightly sallies, and for lofty flights;
that he was among those who freed translation from servility, and,
instead of following his author at a distance, walked by his side;
and that, if he left versification yet improvable, he left likewise
from time to time such specimens of excellence as enabled succeeding
poets to improve it.