HKB
60 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: history and the writing of history · translation and the transmission of texts · language, naming, and meaning · education and the training of the young · religious persecution and toleration · fate, destiny, and necessity · censorship and the press · rhetoric and persuasion · counsel and advisers to rulers · custom and the manners of a people · trade, markets, and merchants · reason and the intellect
Usually: detachment (320) · curiosity (272) · narrative (142) · argument (123) · commentary or gloss (121) · reflection (113) · skepticism (100) · letter or document (74) · praise (72) · exhortation (65)
“Sparrow, favourite of my own beloved, Whom to play with, or in her arms to fondle, She delighteth, anon with hardy-pointed Finger angrily doth provoke to bite her:” Gaius Valerius Catullus (translated by Robinson Ellis), The Poems and Fragments of Catullus · vivid
“Here I give to be thine a fair grove, an holy, Priapus, Where thy Lampsacus holds thee in chamber seemly, Priapus;” Gaius Valerius Catullus (translated by Robinson Ellis), The Poems and Fragments of Catullus · vivid
“Life is uncertain, as the preacher tells us; and what will the world say if kind, humane, and benevolent Ben. Franklin should leave his friends and the world deprived of so pleasing and profitable a work;” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · observation
“Your history is so remarkable, that if you do not give it, somebody else will certainly give it; and perhaps so as nearly to do as much harm, as your own management of the thing might do good.” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · insight
“We sometimes disputed, and very fond we were of argument, and very desirous of confuting one another, which disputatious turn, by the way, is apt to become a very bad habit, making people often extremely disagreeable in company by the contradiction that is necessary to bring it into practice.” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · observation
“Not having any copy here of what is already written, I know not whether an account is given of the means I used to establish the Philadelphia public library, which, from a small beginning, is now become so considerable, though I remember to have come down to near the time of that transaction (1730).” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · observation
“In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · insight
“There seems to me at present to be great occasion for raising a United Party for Virtue, by forming the virtuous and good men of all nations into a regular body, to be govern'd by suitable good and wise rules, which good and wise men may probably be more unanimous in their obedience to, than common people are to common laws.” Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin · insight
“Not that I With my poor verse would comprehend the whole, Nay, though a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths Were mine, a voice of iron; be thou at hand, Skirt but the nearer coast-line; see the shore Is in our grasp; not now with feigned song Through winding bouts and tedious preludings Shall I detain thee.” Virgil, The Georgics · precept
“The true college will ever have one goal,—not to earn meat, but to know the end and aim of that life which meat nourishes.” W. E. B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois), The Souls of Black Folk · precept
“The design of the present edition is partly corrective, partly supplementary: corrective, by notes, which point out (it is hoped, in a perfectly candid and dispassionate spirit with no desire but to establish the truth) such inaccuracies or misstatements as may have been detected, particularly with regard to Christianity; and which thus, with the previous caution, may counteract to a considerable extent the unfair and unfavorable impression created against rational religion: supplementary, by adding such additional information as the editor’s reading may have been able to furnish, from original documents or books, not accessible at the time when Gibbon wrote.” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · precept
“The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unacquainted with the use of letters; and the use of letters is the principal circumstance that distinguishes a civilized people from a herd of savages incapable of knowledge or reflection.” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · insight
A bibliography lists English translations of the Qur’an and related scholarship, then includes a dedication to Sir William Martin by the translator.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS. From the original Arabic by G. Sale, 1734, 1764, 1795, 1801; many later editions, which include a memoir of the translator by R. A. Davenport, and notes from Savary's version of the Koran; an edition issued by E. M. Wherry, with additional notes and commentary (Tr\du\ubner's Oriental Series), 1882, etc.; Sale's translation has also been edited in the Chandos Classics, and a…
Margoliouth describes his translation practices and sources, discussing how Arabic text and earlier European translations were collated, and then provides a specimen translation of Qur'an Sura al-‘Alaq (Clots of Blood).
6 Prol. in N.T. p. lxxviii. 7 The date of the Bab. Gemara is A.D. 530; of the Jerusalem Gamara, A.D. 430; of the Mischina A.D. 220; See Gfrörer’s Jahrhundert des Heils, pp. 11- 44. 8 Sura xlvi. 10, p. 314. 9 Sura vi. 20, p. 318. Sura ii. 13 (p. 339), verse 98, etc. 10 Sura xxv. 5, 6, p. 159. 11 Sura. vii. 156, p. 307; xxix. 47, p. 265. 12 See Dr. Sprenger’s “Life,” p. 101. 13 Or, epileptic. 14 A line…
The editor’s preface praises Samuel Pepys’s career and collections, noting his Royal Society presidency, naval contributions, Pepysian Library holdings at Magdalene College, and a long encomium of Pepys’s integrity and patronage.
and architecture. In 1684, he was elected President of the Royal Society, and held that honourable office two years. He contributed no less than 60 plates to Willoughby's HISTORIA PISCIUM. To Magdalene College, Cambridge, he left an invaluable collection of manuscript naval memoirs, of prints, and ancient English poetry, which has often been consulted by critics and commentators, and is, indeed, unrivalled of its ki…
Pepys describes the Royal Society’s book and royal patronage, losses of ships in the Straights, Dutch actions near the North Foreland and Margate Road, and plays like Volpone; he also recounts a Privy Council debate over Turkey ships.
To my Lord of Oxford's, but his Lordship was in bed at past ten o'clock: and, Lord help us! so rude a dirty family I never saw in my life. 9th. I saw the Royal Society bring their new book, wherein is nobly writ their charter and laws, and comes to be signed by the Duke as a Fellow; and all the Fellows' hands are to be entered there, and lie as a monument; and the King hath put his with the word Founder. Holmes wa…
Across February 1664/65 Pepys attends St. Lawrence church, joins Trinity House and the Royal Society, socializes with scientific and court figures, hears about sea/colonial losses, observes property-building talk, and notes committee debates on pressing men and events at court.
12th. To Church to St. Lawrence to hear Dr. Wilkins, the great scholar, for curiosity, I having never heard him: but was not satisfied with him at all. 15th. At noon, with Creed to the Trinity-house, where a very good dinner among the old jokers, and an extraordinary discourse of the manner of the loss of the Royall Oake coming home from Bantam, upon the rocks of Scilly. Thence with Creed to Gresham College, where…
From March 1 to March 20, 1664/65, Pepys records his Royal Society admission payment and scientific lectures on a comet, political proclamations about war with Holland, official business with the Duke and Navy, and his appointment/confirmation as Treasurer for Tangier.
Slaning, [Sir Nicholas Slaning K.B., married a daughter of Sir George Carteret.] were admitted of the society: and this day I did pay my admission money, 40s. to the society. 4th. William Howe come to see me, being come up with my Lord from sea: he is grown a discreet, but very conceited fellow. He tells me how little respectfully Sir W. Pen did carry it to my Lord on board the Duke's ship at sea; and that Captai…
Pepys reports Tower-checked Weekly Bill totals of deaths and plague, then tours Sir Robert Vyner’s Swakeley House and its wealth, portraits, and curiosities, and returns to Woolwich late at night.
with me; telling me that he is certainly informed, that the Dutch were not come home upon the 1st instant, and so he hopes our fleet may meet with them. 7th. To the Tower, and there sent for the Weekly Bill, and find 8252 dead in all, and of them 6978 of the plague; which is a most dreadful number, and shows reason to fear that the plague hath got that hold that it will yet continue amongst us. To Swakely [Swakele…
Pepys continues to track plague increases and decreases, fears Hamburg and naval storms, visits Covent Garden, meets Brouncker and physicians at the reopened Gresham College, and reports chariots and respiration talk.
hath been known these twenty years in the City. Through the want of people in London, is it that must make it so low below the ordinary number for Bills. 5th. I with my Lord Brouncker and Mrs. Williams by coach with four horses to London, to my Lord's house in Covent-Garden. But, Lord! what staring to see a nobleman's coach come to town. And porters every where bow to us; and such begging of beggars! And deligh…
Pepys revisits his portrait work, attends Gresham College governance meetings, then watches Catholic mass and court sacraments at Whitehall, later viewing war paintings of flaggmen and reporting royal remarks about shipbuilding and design.
great deal of do and formality in choosing of the Council and Officers. I had three votes to be of the Council, who am but a stranger, nor expected any. 15th. Walked into the Park to the Queen's chapel, and there heard a good deal of their mass, and some of their musique, which is not so contemptible, I think, as our people would make it, it pleasing me very well; and, indeed, better than the anthem I heard afterwa…
After frost breaks Pepys describes parliamentary conferences on the Irish Bill’s wording “Nusance,” Commons disputing unparliamentary proceedings in the accounts commission, and a Royal Society meeting at Arundell House.
excellent play in all respects, but especially in divertisement, though it be a deep tragedy; which is a strange perfection in a tragedy, it being most proper here, and suitable. 9th. In a hackney-coach to White Hall, the way being most horribly bad upon the breaking up of the frost, so as not to be passed almost. I do hear by my Lord Brouncker, that for certain Sir W. Coventry hath resigned his place of Commissio…
Pepys attends multiple theatre performances, mocks the staged “Eighty Eight” under Queen Elizabeth, visits St. Bartholomew/Cree Church to check repairs, and discusses naval retrenchments and requests to lend money.
mighty content to me. Every body wonders that we have no news from Bredah of the ratification of the peace; and do suspect that there is some stop in it. 17th. To the King's playhouse, where the house extraordinary full; and there the King and Duke of York to see the new play, "Queene Elizabeth's Troubles, and the history of Eighty Eight." I confess I have sucked in so much of the sad story of Queene Elizabeth from…
Pepys attends Gresham College, dines with officials, plans merriment for his own dinner, buys household items, and discusses inventions and fashionable household life.
altar, there to lie for ever: and there was a sermon made to them upon this text, "Arida ossa, audite verbum Dei;" and a most eloquent sermon, as they say. 17th. To the Excise-office, where I met Mr. Ball, and did receive my paper I went for; and there fell in talk with him, who being an old cavalier do swear and curse at the present state of things, that we should be brought to this, that we must be undone and can…
After a diary hiatus, Pepys returns in October 1668 to manage administrative posts at Whitehall/St. James’s, attends court music and plays, and continues networking involving the Duke of York, Wren, and new appointments.
15th. This day at the Board came unexpected the warrants from the Duke of York for Mr. Turner and Hater, for the places they desire; which contents me mightily. 17th. Mr. Moore and Seamour were, with me this afternoon; who tell me that my Lord Sandwich was received mighty kindly by the King, and is in exceeding great esteem with him and the rest about him; but I doubt it will be hard for him to please both the King…
In early February 1669 Pepys visits painters and virtuosi, watches court theatre, discusses legal/artistic works at Oxford, hears about Mr. Sheres’ silver candlestick, and notes conflicts around performances.
devout manner, not elegant nor very persuasive, but seems to mean well, and that he would preach holily; and was mighty passionate against people that make a scoff of religion. 1668-69. FEBRUARY 1. Meeting Mr. Povy, he and I away to Dancre's to speak something touching the pictures I am getting him to make for me, And thence he carried me to Mr. Streeter's [Robert Streater appointed Serjeant Painter at the Restora…
A 1893 editor explains that Pepys’s Diary was only partially printed in 1825, that later editions expanded it, and that this edition publishes everything except a few unprintable passages while marking omissions.
THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS M.A. F.R.S. CLERK OF THE ACTS AND SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY MAGDALENE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE BY THE REV. MYNORS BRIGHT M.A. LATE FELLOW AND PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE (Unabridged) WITH LORD BRAYBROOKE'S NOTES EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY HENRY B. WHEATLEY F.S.A. LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS YORK ST. COVENT GARDEN CAMBRIDGE DEIGHTON BELL & CO. 1893 PREFACE Although the …
The editor describes sources for annotation, including Thomas Rugge’s “Diurnall” in the British Museum and J. E. Doyle’s Baronage, notes deciphering Pepys’s shorthand (Shelton), and thanks helpers.
pleased to illustrate his subject by quotations from Pepys, and from these books it has often been possible to find information which helps to explain difficult passages in the Diary. Much illustrative matter of value was obtained by Lord Braybrooke from the "Diurnall" of Thomas Rugge, which is preserved in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 10,116, 10,117). The following is the description of this interesting work as g…
The preface lists prior published editions of Pepys’s Diary (1825, 1828, 1848-49, 1854, 1875-79) and begins a biographical account of Pepys’s family origins, descent, and early life.
PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF THE DIARY. I. Memoirs of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James II., comprising his Diary from 1659 to 1669, deciphered by the Rev. John Smith, A.B., of St. John's College, Cambridge, from the original Shorthand MS. in the Pepysian Library, and a Selection from his Private Correspondence. Edited by Richard, Lord Braybrooke. In two volume…
The editor argues Pepys was not plebeian despite his tailor father, traces family status from medieval Cambridge and Croyland bailiffs to later gentry, recounts John Pepys’s London life, and gives a long biographical sketch.
"A Noate written out of an ould Booke of my uncle William Pepys." "William Pepys, who died at Cottenham, 10 H. 8, was brought up by the Abbat of Crowland, in Huntingdonshire, and he was borne in Dunbar, in Scotland, a gentleman, whom the said Abbat did make his Bayliffe of all his lands in Cambridgeshire, and placed him in Cottenham, which William aforesaid had three sonnes, Thomas, John, an…
This passage continues Pepys’s family biography: it details John Pepys’s will, his wife Margaret’s death at Brampton, Samuel’s birth date (place uncertain), and his schooling and Cambridge entry as a sizar.
was a citizen of London in 1650, when his son Samuel was admitted to Magdalene College, but at an earlier period he appears to have had business relations with Holland. In August, 1661, John Pepys retired to a small property at Brampton (worth about L80 per annum), which had been left to him by his eldest brother, Robert Pepys, where he died in 1680. The following is a copy of John Pepys's will: "MY FATHER'S WILL.…
It explains Pepys’s executor and heir arrangements, unpaid debts from the Crown, the fate of his books and the Diary manuscript, and his detailed will for preserving the Bibliotheca Pepysiana at Cambridge.
of Pepys's effects, for with them was the manuscript of the immortal Diary. The following are the directions for the disposition of the library, taken from Harl. MS., No. 7301: "For the further settlement and preservation of my said library, after the death of my nephew. John Jackson, I do hereby declare, That could I be sure of a constant succession of heirs from my said nephew, qualified like himse…
Continuing Pepys’s library directives, the passage specifies rules preventing books from leaving the designated college room, requiring covenants, and establishing mutual checks and forfeiture for covenant breaches.
only. "11. That before my said library be put into the possession of either of the said colleges, that college for which it shall be designed, first enter into covenants for performance of the foregoing articles. "12. And that for a yet further security herein, the said two colleges of Trinity and Magdalen have a reciprocal check upon one another; and that college which shall be in presen…
Lowell’s speech continues by interpreting Pepys as a ‘Philistine’ type whose naivete and sincerity make the Diary uniquely valuable, likened partly to Falstaff and compared with L’Estoile.
the highest pretender. Discharging his duty to his Prince and country with a religious application and perfect integrity, he feared no one, courted no one, and neglected his own fortune.' "That was a character drawn, it was true, by a friendly hand, but to those who were familiar with the life of Pepys, the praise hardly seemed exaggerated. As regarded his official life, it was unnecessary to dilate …
The editor concludes with a discussion of how ‘Pepys’ was pronounced, listing competing spellings and reported family pronunciations (Peps, Peeps, Peppis) and offering a historical phonetic explanation.
the eager eyes of Pepys. It was not Pepys the official who had brought that large gathering together that day in honour of his memory: it was Pepys the Diarist." In concluding this account of the chief particulars of Pepys's life it may be well to add a few words upon the pronunciation of his name. Various attempts appear to have been made to represent this phonetically. Lord Braybrooke, in quoting the entry of deat…
Butcher and Lang argue that translation is always relative to each age’s tastes, so Homer can’t have a final English rendering; verse translators inevitably add period-style “tags,” while prose can preserve Homer’s historical truth and avoid unnecessary modern ornament.
meaning, that can be rendered in English verse. There still, however, seems an aspect Homeric poems, and a demand in connection with Homer to be recognised, and to be satisfied. Sainte-Beuve says, with reference probably to M. Leconte de Lisle’s prose version of the epics, that some people treat the epics too much as if they were sagas. Now the Homeric epics are sagas, but then they are the sagas of the divine heroi…
They further claim there can be no final English Homer translation because each must mix Greek truth with modern, temporary elements; their prose aims to be “plain and old,” retaining even double and recurring epithets.
the student of the age of Anne, looks for in verse; and without tags of this sort, a translation of Homer in verse cannot well be made to hold together. There can be then, it appears, no final English translation of Homer. In each there must be, in addition to what is Greek and eternal, the element of what is modern, personal, and fleeting. Thus we trust that there may be room for “the pale and far-off shadow of a p…
Du Bois describes Atlanta University’s campus routine and curriculum as a “green oasis,” argues university education should aim at knowing life’s ends, and critiques hurried, unequal schooling elsewhere.
fair flower of Freedom which, despite the jeers of latter-day striplings, sprung from our fathers’ blood, must that too degenerate into a dusty quest of gold,—into lawless lust with Hippomenes? The hundred hills of Atlanta are not all crowned with factories. On one, toward the west, the setting sun throws three buildings in bold relief against the sky. The beauty of the group lies in its simple unity:—a broad lawn o…
He describes how training-schools evolved from common/grammar into high schools and by 1900 some offered college-grade studies, while debating whether higher education was overdone or prematurely granted.
generation they put thirty thousand black teachers in the South; they wiped out the illiteracy of the majority of the black people of the land, and they made Tuskegee possible. Such higher training-schools tended naturally to deepen broader development: at first they were common and grammar schools, then some became high schools. And finally, by 1900, some thirty-four had one year or more of studies of college grade…
Du Bois describes how Atlanta’s racial segregation prevents real intellectual exchange between Black and white people, despite everyday contact, and argues the South’s color-line blocks otherwise well-meaning social and philanthropic efforts.
of public opinion swings down for a moment, as when the other day a black man and a white woman were arrested for talking together on Whitehall Street in Atlanta. Now if one notices carefully one will see that between these two worlds, despite much physical contact and daily intermingling, there is almost no community of intellectual life or point of transference where the thoughts and feelings of one race can come …
This passage presents editorial and structural notes for an English Bible edition, stating Tyndale’s Pentateuch translation was published in 1530, with the text retaining wording but modernizing spelling and noting variants from Coverdale or Matthew’s Bible.
The Pentateuch first translated from Hebrew to English by William Tyndale, published in 1530. This edition has the same wording, but modernized spelling. Words found in {[Braquets]} are variants from either Coverdale 1535 or Matthew's Bible 1537. CONTENTS TO GO STRAIGHT TO The First Book of Moses, called Genesis The Second Book of Moses, called Exodus The Third Book of Moses, called Leviticus The Fourth Book of M…
Tyndale introduces the English New Testament translation and begins the prologue, urging learned translators to amend errors and explaining that the work aims at spiritual edifying and consolation.
"The king came in, to visit the guests, and spied there a man which had not on a wedding garment, and said unto him: friend, how camest thou in hither, and" The rest of the New Testament is from the Worms octavo edition of 1526; Also with some few variants [in] {brackets} from W.T. 1534 edition. {Editor's notes at bottom.} (Proloque from the Cologne quarto 1525.) The Prologue. I have here translated (brethren an…
Tyndale asks learned Christians to consider the work’s limitations, explains it was produced amid necessity, promises future revisions and aids for readers, and ends with a request to pray for him.
and be negligent) and all threatenings shall be forgiven thee for Christ's blood's sake to whom commit thyself altogether without respect either of thy good deeds or of thy bad. Them that are learned Christianly I beseech forasmuch as I am sure, and my conscience beareth me record, that of a pure intent, singly and faithfully I have interpreted it, as far forth as God gave me the gift of knowledge and understanding …
Luke’s Gospel begins with an introduction to writing for Theophilus, then narrates Zechariah’s service in the temple, the angel Gabriel’s announcement of John’s birth, and Mary’s annunciation.
The .xvj. Chapter. And when the saboth day was past, Mary Magdalen, and Mary Iacobi, and Salome, bought ointments, that they might come and anoint him. And early in the morning the next day after the saboth day, they came unto the sepulchre, when the sun was risen. And they said one to another: who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they beheld it, they saw how the stone was rolled…
In Federalist No. 43, Madison lists fourth-class congressional powers, including copyright for authors and inventors and exclusive federal control over a district seat of government and federal facilities.
all places purchased by the consent of the legislatures of the States in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings." The indispensable necessity of complete authority at the seat of government, carries its own evidence with it. It is a power exercised by every legislature of the Union, I might say of the world, by virtue of its general supremacy. …
In his opening chapter Equiano anticipates criticism of writing memoirs, argues he is not a saint or hero, then begins describing “that part of Africa” called Guinea and his birthplace in Eboe, Benen.
_The author's account of his country, and their manners and customs--Administration of justice--Embrenche--Marriage ceremony, and public entertainments--Mode of living--Dress--Manufactures Buildings--Commerce--Agriculture--War and religion--Superstition of the natives--Funeral ceremonies of the priests or magicians--Curious mode of discovering poison--Some hints concerning the origi…
Washington’s preface explains the book grew from articles in the Outlook, aims for a simple truthful autobiography, and notes his Tuskegee work and Max Bennett Thrasher’s help made completion possible.
UP FROM SLAVERY: Preface This volume is the outgrowth of a series of articles, dealing with incidents in my life, which were published consecutively in the Outlook. While they were appearing in that magazine I was constantly surprised at the number of requests which came to me from all parts of the country, asking that the articles be permanently preserved in book form. I am most grateful to the Outlook for permiss…
He portrays Mrs. Ruffner as a supportive mentor, describes winter schooling opportunities and his homemade first library, then recounts deciding to go to Hampton in the fall of 1872 with little money and help from his mother and brother John.
to paint or whitewash it, or a button off one’s clothes, or a grease-spot on them or on a floor, that I do not want to call attention to it. From fearing Mrs. Ruffner I soon learned to look upon her as one of my best friends. When she found that she could trust me she did so implicitly. During the one or two winters that I was with her she gave me an opportunity to go to school for an hour in the day during a portio…
Plutarch describes Lucullus’s lifelong love of liberal studies and philosophy, his early promise to write about the Marsian war, and his career steps after Pompey’s conflict and through the Marsian and Mithridatic wars.
Dried up and perished with the want of wit; but even in his younger days he addicted himself to the study, simply for its own sake, of the liberal arts; and when advanced in years, after a life of conflicts, he gave his mind, as it were, its liberty, to enjoy in full leisure the refreshment of philosophy; and summoning up his contemplative faculties, administered a timely check, after his difference with Pompey, to …
Lucullus’s library and patronage of philosophy earn praise, especially his attachment to the Academy under Antiochus of Ascalon, and his later political distance after accusations in Rome.
much amaze Pompey and Cicero, as the rapidity of the outlay. One might believe Lucullus thought his money really captive and barbarian, so wantonly and contumeliously did he treat it. His furnishing a library, however, deserves praise and record, for he collected very many and choice manuscripts; and the use they were put to was even more magnificent than the purchase, the library being always open, and the walks an…
Alexander rewards gifts and religious offerings with frankincense and myrrh to Leonidas, keeps Homer’s Iliad in a precious casket, and later builds a city at Pharos after seeing a vision of a grey-headed man’s verses.
An island lies, where loud the billows roar, Pharos they call it, on the Egyptian shore. Alexander upon this immediately rose up and went to Pharos, which, at that time, was an island lying a little above the Canobic mouth of the river Nile, though it has now been joined to the main land by a mole. As soon as he saw the commodious situation of the place, it being a long neck of land, stretching like an isthmus betw…
In an appendix, Paine explains publication delays and argues that parts of his tax-reduction plan resemble Mr. Pitt’s parliamentary proposals, narrating how printing was halted and publication rescheduled.
APPENDIX As the publication of this work has been delayed beyond the time intended, I think it not improper, all circumstances considered, to state the causes that have occasioned delay. The reader will probably observe, that some parts in the plan contained in this work for reducing the taxes, and certain parts in Mr. Pitt's speech at the opening of the present session, Tuesday, January 31, are so much alike as to…
He details logistics: the work was drafted for publication before Parliament, Pitt had reviewed proofs yet then stopped printing without warning, forcing Paine to find another printer and fear suppression or truncation.
to a regular system in this work. But as Mr. Pitt's speech contains some of the same things respecting taxes, I now come to give the circumstances before alluded to. The case is: This work was intended to be published just before the meeting of Parliament, and for that purpose a considerable part of the copy was put into the printer's hands in September, and all the remaining copy, which contains the part to which M…
Paine explains how printing delays and refusals arose from suspicious book-trade maneuvers, and he says he avoided adding a soldier-pay note to preempt charges of vanity or government foreknowledge.
declaration. There are many ways by which proof sheets may be procured by other persons before a work publicly appears; to which I shall add a certain circumstance, which is, A ministerial bookseller in Piccadilly who has been employed, as common report says, by a clerk of one of the boards closely connected with the ministry (the board of trade and plantation, of which Hawkesbury is president) to publish what he ca…
The introduction explains how little was known about Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra after early readers joked for generations, and summarizes later biographical work—especially Navarrete’s—drawing on sparse evidence and separating fact from conjecture.
CERVANTES Four generations had laughed over “Don Quixote” before it occurred to anyone to ask, who and what manner of man was this Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra whose name is on the title-page; and it was too late for a satisfactory answer to the question when it was proposed to add a life of the author to the London edition published at Lord Carteret’s instance in 1738. All traces of the personality of Cervantes had…
It describes mid-sixteenth-century Alcalá de Henares as a university and book-producing town, then speculates about Cervantes’ education, citing uncertain matriculation evidence and instead stressing his lack of student-life references.
flood of romances of chivalry that had continued to pour from the press ever since Garci Ordoñez de Montalvo had resuscitated “Amadis of Gaul” at the beginning of the century. For a youth fond of reading, solid or light, there could have been no better spot in Spain than Alcalá de Henares in the middle of the sixteenth century. It was then a busy, populous university town, something more than the enterprising rival …
The passage explains how Don Quixote was printed and spread via publishers and later copyrights, then outlines early reception among different literary factions and Cervantes’ court summons in Valladolid.
conclusive that he conceived the idea of the book, and wrote the beginning of it at least, in a prison, and that he may have done so is extremely likely. There is a tradition that Cervantes read some portions of his work to a select audience at the Duke of Bejar’s, which may have helped to make the book known; but the obvious conclusion is that the First Part of “Don Quixote” lay on his hands some time before he cou…
It describes Don Quixote’s growing popularity through multiple foreign editions (Brussels, Milan) and Cervantes’ delay in writing a second part, focusing instead on Novelas Exemplares (published 1613) and renewed dramatic ambition.
Saavedra already mentioned, his sister Andrea, now a widow, her daughter Constanza, a mysterious Magdalena de Sotomayor calling herself his sister, for whom his biographers cannot account, and a servant-maid. Meanwhile “Don Quixote” had been growing in favour, and its author’s name was now known beyond the Pyrenees. In 1607 an edition was printed at Brussels. Robles, the Madrid publisher, found it necessary to meet …
The passage claims many interpreters overlook the book’s underlying incongruity, including illustrators who misrepresent a venta as an elaborate fountain, thus dulling Cervantes’ intended comedy.
victims of oppression, and the rest of the incongruities between Don Quixote’s world and the world he lived in, between things as he saw them and things as they were. It is strange that this element of incongruity, underlying the whole humour and purpose of the book, should have been so little heeded by the majority of those who have undertaken to interpret “Don Quixote.” It has been completely overlooked, for examp…
In the Preface, Cervantes-as-narrator laments that his ‘dry’ wit came from prison-like misery, fears public criticism for lacking quotes, sonnets, and learned apparatus, and plans to keep Don Quixote buried.
the story of “Don Quixote,” which so troubled me that I had a mind not to make any at all, nor even publish the achievements of so noble a knight. “For, how could you expect me not to feel uneasy about what that ancient lawgiver they call the Public will say when it sees me, after slumbering so many years in the silence of oblivion, coming out now with all my years upon my back, and with a book as dry as a rush, dev…
The friend continues listing how to pad erudition with stock references—naming the Tagus, using legends of Cacus and figures like Lamia and Circe—and ends with the plan to leave insertions to him.
a Philistine whom the shepherd David slew by a mighty stone-cast in the Terebinth valley, as is related in the Book of Kings_—in the chapter where you find it written. “Next, to prove yourself a man of erudition in polite literature and cosmography, manage that the river Tagus shall be named in your story, and there you are at once with another famous annotation, setting forth—_The river Tagus was so called after a …
The friend advises Cervantes to avoid real scholarship by using an alphabetised catalogue of authors for further ‘authority,’ then argues the book is meant to destroy chivalric romance rather than imitate learned genres.
to me to insert the annotations and quotations, and I swear by all that’s good to fill your margins and use up four sheets at the end of the book. “Now let us come to those references to authors which other books have, and you want for yours. The remedy for this is very simple: You have only to look out for some book that quotes them all, from A to Z as you say yourself, and then insert the very same alphabet in you…
In the Alcana of Toledo, the narrator buys Arabic pamphlets about Don Quixote, hires a Morisco interpreter to translate them, and obtains the story from “Cid Hamete Benengeli” via a translation completed in about a month and a half.
of an entertainment and pleasure that for a couple of hours or so may well occupy him who shall read it attentively. The discovery of it occurred in this way. One day, as I was in the Alcana of Toledo, a boy came up to sell some pamphlets and old papers to a silk mercer, and, as I am fond of reading even the very scraps of paper in the streets, led by this natural bent of mine I took up one of the pamphlets the boy …
Vivaldo argues that Ambrosio should not follow Chrysostom’s unreasonable order to burn his writings, asks to save some papers, reads “Lay of Despair,” and prompts the group to gather around for the poem.
of man, as these papers which you see could fully prove, had he not commanded me to consign them to the fire after having consigned his body to the earth.” “You would deal with them more harshly and cruelly than their owner himself,” said Vivaldo, “for it is neither right nor proper to do the will of one who enjoins what is wholly unreasonable; it would not have been reasonable in Augustus Cæsar had he permitted the…
When Cardenio mentions Luscinda’s love of chivalric books, Don Quixote praises her and boasts about his own library; he then breaks the no-interruption promise, causing Cardenio’s focus to shift to a belief about Master Elisabad and Queen Madasima.
Don Quixote no sooner heard a book of chivalry mentioned, than he said: “Had your worship told me at the beginning of your story that the Lady Luscinda was fond of books of chivalry, no other laudation would have been requisite to impress upon me the superiority of her understanding, for it could not have been of the excellence you describe had a taste for such delightful reading been wanting; so, as far as I am con…
The landlord lets the curate and Cardenio copy and read a manuscript titled “Novel of the Ill-advised Curiosity,” while Dorothea and others ask the curate to begin reading aloud to pass the time.
“With all my heart,” replied the host. While they were talking Cardenio had taken up the novel and begun to read it, and forming the same opinion of it as the curate, he begged him to read it so that they might all hear it. “I would read it,” said the curate, “if the time would not be better spent in sleeping.” “It will be rest enough for me,” said Dorothea, “to while away the time by listening to some tale, for m…
The landlord gives the curate papers found in a valise containing “The Ill-advised Curiosity,” leading the curate and barber to ride masked behind the cart, guarding the caged Don Quixote.
marriage, Zoraida’s baptism, Don Luis’s affair, and Luscinda’s return to her home. The curate promised to comply with his request carefully, and they embraced once more, and renewed their promises. The landlord approached the curate and handed him some papers, saying he had discovered them in the lining of the valise in which the novel of “The Ill-advised Curiosity” had been found, and that he might take them all aw…
With the canon riding ahead, the curate gives him a full account of Don Quixote’s madness and planned cure, and the canon delivers a lengthy critique of chivalric books as harmful nonsense.
throw false dice with me; and as to the enchantment of my master, God knows the truth; leave it as it is; it only makes it worse to stir it.” The barber did not care to answer Sancho lest by his plain speaking he should disclose what the curate and he himself were trying so hard to conceal; and under the same apprehension the curate had asked the canon to ride on a little in advance, so that he might tell him the my…
The curate agrees with the canon, explains he burned many of Don Quixote’s books, and claims chivalric reading still offers authors a chance for wide-ranging skills that blend instruction and pleasure.
arguments, absurd in their travels, and, in short, wanting in everything like intelligent art; for which reason they deserve to be banished from the Christian commonwealth as a worthless breed.” c47c.jpg (300K) Full Size The curate listened to him attentively and felt that he was a man of sound understanding, and that there was good reason in what he said; so he told him that, being of the same opinion himself, an…
The canon describes how he considered writing a chivalric book adhering to artistic rules, but stopped because foolish audiences outnumbered the wise and popular plays reward nonsense.
IN WHICH THE CANON PURSUES THE SUBJECT OF THE BOOKS OF CHIVALRY, WITH OTHER MATTERS WORTHY OF HIS WIT c48a.jpg (80K) Full Size “It is as you say, señor canon,” said the curate; “and for that reason those who have hitherto written books of the sort deserve all the more censure for writing without paying any attention to good taste or the rules of art, by which they might guide themselves and become as famous in pro…
The narrator claims he cannot find authentic documents for Don Quixote’s third sally to Saragossa, but reports tradition and a leaden box of Gothic manuscripts, whose deciphered verses are presented.
kept in anxiety and dread lest their uncle and master should give them the slip the moment he found himself somewhat better, and as they feared so it fell out. But the author of this history, though he has devoted research and industry to the discovery of the deeds achieved by Don Quixote in his third sally, has been unable to obtain any information respecting them, at any rate derived from authentic documents; trad…
A sequence of epitaphs and sonnets attributed to academicians of Argamasilla praises Dulcinea, Rocinante, Don Quixote, and Sancho Panza, while stating only worm-eaten writing remained for conjectural interpretation.
SONNET On that proud throne of diamantine sheen, Which the blood-reeking feet of Mars degrade, The mad Manchegan’s banner now hath been By him in all its bravery displayed. There hath he hung his arms and trenchant blade Wherewith, achieving deeds till now unseen, He slays, lays low, cleaves, hews; but art hath made A novel style for our new paladin. If Amadis be the proud boast of Gaul, If by his progeny the fame o…