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Thomson Kati
THE LITERATURE OF SOCIETY.
BY
GRACE WHARTON,
46
ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF "THE QUEENS OF SOCIETY," AND THE WITS AND BEAUX OF SOCIETY."
With an Entroductory Chapter on the Origin of Fiction.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18 CATHERINE STREET,
STRAND.
1862.
[The right of Translation is reserved.]
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Dryden's best Patron, Sir Robert Howard.-Risks incurred by the Poet.-Anecdote of
Wilmot, Earl of Rochester.-Dryden's Marriage.-Mrs. Reeves.-State of the
Stage.-Love of Charles II. for it.—Prosperity of Dryden interrupted by the Fire
of London. Origin and Progress of the Fire.-Presence of Mind of Charles II.—
State of the City and of the Court.-Change in Dryden's Style of Writing p. 1
CHAPTER II.
Dryden's Circumstances.—Is made Poet Laureate.-His Prologue-making.—His
Enemies.-Southerne; his Singular Fate.-His Love of Music.-Settle; his
Tragedy of The Empress of Morocco.'-Dryden's Criticism on him.-George
Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham; his Play of 'The Rehearsal.'-Dryden's
Revenge on Villiers.-The Earl of Rochester's Outrage on the Poet.-Lord
Mulgrave, the real Author of the Essay on Satire.'-The Lines on Saunt'ring
Charles.' Absalom and Achitophel;' extracts from that Poem.-Dryden's
Conversion to Romanism.-Retirement from Public Life.-Dies in Indigence.-
The Story of his Burial.-His Character
CHAPTER III.
.
p. 21
Resorts of the Wits.-Knowle House.-Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset.—
His Life and Character.-Knowle House and its Coterie.-Edmund Waller.-His
Career. Anecdotes of Cromwell.-Waller's Minor Poems.-His love for Lady
Dorothy Sydney.-Lines on his Disappointment.-Anecdote of Lady Sutherland
and Waller.—An Account of Waller's Plot.-After his Trial Waller goes to Paris.
-The Reigning Belle at the Court of France.-Returns to England.-The Poet's
Panegyric on Cromwell.-Sir Philip Warwick's Description of Cromwell's Court.
-Death of the Protector.-Waller's Verses On His Majesty's Happy Return.'—
Charles's Remark thereon.-His Interview with King James.-Waller's Death.—
Extracts from his Poems
p. 51
Matthew Prior.-His Career and Poems.-Mouse Montague.-His Proposal for the
National Debt Projects the Bank of England, and a new East India Company.—
His Success in Life.-His Abjuration of Poetry.-Montague's Passion for Mrs
Barton, the Niece of Sir Isaac Newton.-Bequeaths Five Thousand Pounds to her
at his Death.-Anthony Hamilton.-His Life.-His Memoirs of Count de
Grammont.'-Decline of Lord Dorset.-His relative Anne, Countess of Dorset.-
His Death. The Clique around him broken up.-Beginning of the Augustan
Age.
p. 81
CHAPTER V.
Periodical Literature.-Queen Anne's reign.-The Increase of Public Journals.-The
Inferior Education of Women alluded to by Addison.-One Design of the Tatler
and Spectator to improve this.-The Tatler; its Origin.-The Spectator.-
Steele and Addison.-The London Gazette.-Character of Sir Roger de Coverley.
-Steele's Famous Expedition to Scotland.-Anecdote by Sir Walter Scott.-
Steele's Character.-Cibber's Description of Steele.-His Wife's Conduct to his
Natural Daughter.-Her Death.-His Remorse.-Anecdotes of his Extravagance.
-Specimens of Steele's Style of Writing. His latter Days.-Death
p. 108
CHAPTER VI.
Addison; Bilton his residence.-Description of it.-Addison's Daughter, Charlotte;
her deficiencies.Addison's Life and its Errors.-The Facility with which he
penned his Essays.-His Strictures on Women.-Afra Behn; her Immorality,
her Plays, and her Letters.-Addison's Answer to a Lady's advances.-His
Merits as a Writer.-His refined Taste and Love of Nature.-Dr. Johnson's
Opinion of Addison.
P. 135
Daniel Defoe.-Anecdote of Harley's Patronage.-Defoe in Prison.-He visits Scot-
land.' History of the Great Plague.'-Dies in Cripplegate in 1731.-Jonathan
Swift; his Birth, Parentage, and Education.-Becomes Amanuensis to Sir
William Temple.-Swift's Personal Appearance.-His Acquaintance with Stella.
-Makes a capital Country Clergyman.-Gets introduced to Addison's Little
Senate.'-Tale of a Tub.'-Dr. South's Ballad of the Sailor and the Soldier.-
Esther Vanhomrigh; Swift's treatment of her.-His Private Marriage with
Stella. Her melancholy End
p. 151
Swift's Works and Private Life.--His first Works supposed to lay the foundation of
his subsequent Fortunes.-His Pindaric Odes.'-Anecdote of Dryden.-His
Political Works.-Anecdote of Lord Carteret.-Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels.'-
His Death.-Gay; his Origin.-His connection with the South Sea Scheme.-
His Fables. His Beggar's Opera.'-His Friendship for Pope.-Pope's 'Rape of
the Lock.'-Extracts
6
p. 195
CHAPTER IX.
The Letter-writers of Society: Lord Chesterfield; his Letters.-Those of Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu; of Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu; of Horace Walpole.-Samuel
Richardson; makes Letters the Vehicle of Fiction; his Tea Table; his Pamela,
Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison.-Richardson's Death.-Fielding, Smollett,
and Sterne.-Their Characters and Works
CHAPTER X.
-
Goldsmith.
p. 227
- Miss
Literary Society.-Taking the Form of Cliques. — Johnson. ·
Burney; her Evelina' and 'Camilla.'-Mrs. Piozzi.-Miss Seward and the
Edgeworths.—Darwin; his Poems.-Day; his ‘Sandford and Merton.'—Mr.
Edgeworth.-Savile.-Miss Seward's Works and Letters.-Sir Walter Scott's
Tribute to her Memory.-False Taste in her Poems and in those of Darwin, p. 255
CHAPTER XI.
Ansley's New Bath Guide;' Extracts from it.-Bath in Olden Times.-Colman and
his Broad Grins.'-George the Fourth and Colman.-The Duke of Welling-
ton.-George Colman's Censorship.-Laurence Sterne; his Life.-His Grand-
father the Archbishop.-Sterne's Carelessness of his Duties.-His 'Tristram
Shandy. Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.' - Sterne's Plagiarisms. — His
Passion for Eliza.-Her Picture.-Mrs. Radcliffe.-Mrs. Inchbald.-Charlotte
Smith.-Miss Austin
CHAPTER XILL.
p. 279
Origin of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews.-Their respective Characters and
Principles. Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Brougham, Horner, Murray, &c.-The Effect
produced by the appearance of the Edinburgh Review.'-Edinburgh Society sixty
years ago.-Lord Cockburn; his Life of Jeffrey.-Jeffrey and Southey.—Mrs.
Grant of Laggan; her 'Letters from the Mountains.'-Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton;
her 'Cottagers of Glenburnie.'-William Gifford; his Birth and Early Struggles
-The Quarterly Review.'-Increase of Newspapers.—Conclusion
p. 299