Sir Roger de Coverley Papers in the SpectatorMaynard Merrill, 1906 - 269 pages |
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acquainted Addison agreeable Andromache animals appear beards behavior butler called Captain Sentry Carthaginian century chaplain character club coach coffee-house court creature cries Criticise delight discourse England English epilogue Eudoxus fashion forbear fortune friend Sir Roger gentleman give Glaphyra hand head hear heard heart honest Honeycomb honor humor justice of peace kind lady Leontine letter live London look Lyon's Inn manner master merchant mind Mohocks Moll White Motto nature never numbers obliged observed occasion old friend paper particular passed passion Paul Lorrain person philosopher pin-money pleased pleasure poet reader reason RICHARD STEELE Roger de Coverley says Sir Roger servants Sir Andrew Freeport Sir Cloudesley Shovel Sir Richard Baker speak SPECTATOR Steele Tatler tell thee thou thought told town turned Virg walk Westminster Abbey Whig whole widow Wimble woman writing young
Popular passages
Page 54 - Some of them could not refrain from tears at the sight of their old master; every one of them pressed forward to do something for him, and seemed discouraged if they were not employed. At the same time the good old knight, with a mixture of the father and the master of the family, tempered the inquiries after his own affairs with several kind questions relating to themselves.
Page 80 - Sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the singing psalms, half a minute after the rest of the congregation have done with it ; sometimes when he is pleased with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces amen...
Page 141 - Roger, upon seeing me laugh, desired me to tell him truly if I thought it possible for people to know him in that disguise. I at first kept my usual silence; but upon the knight's conjuring me to tell him whether it was not still more like himself than' a Saracen, I composed my countenance in the best manner I could, and replied, that ' much might be said on both sides.
Page 231 - Knowing that you was my old master's good friend, I could not forbear sending you the melancholy news of his death, which has afflicted the whole country, as well as his poor servants, who loved him, I may say, better than we did our lives. I am afraid he caught his death the last county-sessions, where he would go to see justice done to a poor widow woman, and her fatherless children, that had been wronged by a neighbouring gentleman ; for you know, sir, my good master was always the poor man's...
Page 33 - When he has talked to this Purpose I never heard him make a sour Expression, but frankly confess that he left the World, because he was not fit for it. A strict Honesty and an even Regular...
Page 56 - Roger, found me out this gentleman; who, besides the endowments required of him, is, they tell me, a good scholar, though he does not show it. I have given him the parsonage of the parish; and because I know his value, have settled upon him a good annuity for life. If he outlives me, he shall find that he was higher in my esteem than perhaps he thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty years, and though he does...
Page 57 - I no sooner saw this venerable man in the pulpit, but I very much approved of my friend's insisting upon the qualifications of a good aspect and a clear voice ; for I was so charmed with the gracefulness of his figure and delivery, as well as the discourses he pronounced, that I think I never passed any time more to my satisfaction. A sermon repeated after this manner, is like the composition of a poet in the mouth of a graceful actor.
Page 83 - I can never come into it, but the same tender sentiments revive in my mind as if I had actually walked with that beautiful creature under these shades. I have been fool enough to carve her name on the bark of several of these trees ; so unhappy is the condition of men in love to attempt the removing of their passion by the methods which serve only to imprint it deeper. She has certainly the finest hand of any woman in the world.
Page 80 - As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in it besides himself; for if, by chance, he has been surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up and looks about him, and, if he sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his servants to them.
Page 79 - It is certain the country people would soon degenerate into a kind of savages and barbarians, were there not such frequent returns of a stated time, in which the whole village meet together with their best faces, and in their cleanliest habits, to converse with one another upon indifferent subjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join together in adoration of the Supreme Being.