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Title: A Book of English Prose Part II, Arranged for Secondary and High Schools
Author: Percy Lubbock
Release Date: November 14, 2006 [EBook #19811]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF ENGLISH PROSE ***
Produced by Al Haines
A Book of English Prose
Part IIArranged for Secondary and High Schools
BY PERCY LUBBOCK, M.A. KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGECambridge:
at the University Press
1913
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS PREFATORY NOTEThe Editor desires to record his thanks to Messrs Macmillan & Co., Ltd., Messrs Chatto & Windus and Messrs Longmans, Green & Co., for their respective permission to include in this volume passages from Walter Pater's Miscellaneous Studies, from R. L. Stevenson's Random Memories and from Newman's Historical Sketches.
P. L.October 1913
CONTENTS PAGEDeath of Sir Gawaine . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Thomas Malory 1
The Queen's Speech to her last
Parliament . . . . . . . . . . . . Elizabeth, Queen of England 4
Death of Cleopatra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Thomas North 8
The Vanity of Greatness . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Walter Ralegh 12
The Law of Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Richard Hooker 16
Of Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Francis Bacon 17
Meditation on Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Drummond 19
Primitive Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Hobbes 21
Character of a Plodding Student . . . . . . . . . . John Earle 24
Charity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Thomas Browne 25
The Danger of interfering with the Liberty of the Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Milton 27
Death of Falkland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Earl of Clarendon 30
The End of the Pilgrimage . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Bunyan 35
Poetry and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir William Temple 40
A Day in the Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Samuel Pepys 42
Captain Singleton in China . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Defoe 46
The Art of Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . Jonathan Swift 51
The Royal Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Addison 56
Sir Roger de Coverley's Ancestors . . . . . . . Richard Steele 60
Partridge at the Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Fielding 65
A Journey in a Stage-coach . . . . . . . . . . . Samuel Johnson 71
Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim . . . . . . . . . . Laurence Sterne 76
The Funeral of George II . . . . . . . . . . . . Horace Walpole 79
The Credulity of the English . . . . . . . . . . Oliver Goldsmith 83
Decay of the Principles of Liberty . . . . . . . . . Edmund Burke 85
The Candidate for Parliament . . . . . . . . . . . William Cowper 89
Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Edward Gibbon 93
First Sight of Dr Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . James Boswell 94
Arrival at Osbaldistone Hall . . . . . . . . . . Sir Walter Scott 100
A Visit to Coleridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Lamb 107
Diogenes and Plato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W. S. Landor 109
An Invitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jane Austen 113
Coleridge as Preacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Hazlitt 118
A Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas de Quincey 120
The Use of Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Keats 122
The Flight to Varennes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Carlyle 124
The Trial of the Seven Bishops . . . . . . . . . . Lord Macaulay 130
The University of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. H. Newman 135
The House of the Seven Gables . . . . . . . Nathaniel Hawthorne 140
Denis Duval's first journey to London . . . . . W. M. Thackeray 144
Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Dickens 149
Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte Brontë 153
A Hut in the Woods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H. D. Thoreau 157
A Miser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . George Eliot 159
Ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Ruskin 163
The Child in the House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walter Pater 168
Diving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R. L. Stevenson 171
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
{1}
SIR THOMAS MALORY 15th century
DEATH OF SIR GAWAINEAnd so, as Sir Mordred was at Dover with his host, there came King Arthur with a great navy of ships, galleys, and carracks. And there was Sir Mordred ready waiting upon his landing, to let his own father to land upon the land that he was king of. Then was there launching of great boats and small, and all were full of noble men of arms; and there was much slaughter of gentle knights, and many a full bold baron was laid full low on both parties. But King Arthur was so courageous, that there might no manner of knight let him to land, and his knights fiercely followed him, and so they landed maugre Sir Mordred and all his power, and put Sir Mordred back, that he fled and all his people. So when this battle was done, King Arthur let bury his people that were dead. And then was the noble knight Sir Gawaine found in a great boat, lying more than half dead. When King Arthur wist that Sir Gawaine was laid so low, he went unto him; and there the king made sorrow out of measure, and took Sir Gawaine in his arms, and thrice he swooned. And when he came to himself again, he said, "Alas! my sister's son, here now thou liest, the man in the world {2} that I loved most, and now is my joy gone. For now, my nephew Sir Gawaine, I will discover me unto your person. In Sir Launcelot and you I most had my joy and mine affiance, and now have I lost my joy of you both, wherefore all mine earthly joy is gone from me." "My uncle King Arthur," said Sir Gawaine, "wit you well that my death's day is come, and all is through mine own hastiness and wilfulness, for I am smitten upon the old wound that Sir Launcelot du Lake gave me, of the which I feel that I must die; and if Sir Launcelot had been with you as he was, this unhappy war had never begun, and of all this I myself am causer; for Sir Launcelot and his blood, through their prowess, held all your cankered enemies in subjection and danger. And now," said Sir Gawaine, "ye shall miss Sir Launcelot. But alas! I would not accord with him; and therefore," said Sir Gawaine, "I pray you, fair uncle, that I may have paper, pen, and ink, that I may write unto Sir Launcelot a letter with mine own hands." And when paper and ink was brought, Sir Gawaine was set up weakly by King Arthur, for he had been shriven a little before; and he wrote thus unto Sir Launcelot: "Flower of all noble knights that ever I heard of or saw in my days, I, Sir Gawaine, King Lot's son of Orkney, sister's son unto the noble King Arthur, send unto thee greeting, and let thee have knowledge, that the tenth day of May I was smitten upon the old wound which thou gavest me before the city of Benwick, and through the same wound that thou gavest me I am come unto my death day, and I
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