'Read Fazio - Love and madness. & some of Rienzi - work - in the evening finish the antiquary'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Godwin Print: Book
'[Croft's 'Life of Young, adapted by Johnson for his 'Life'] has always appeared to me to have a considerable share of merit, and to display a pretty successful imitation of Johnson's style. When I mentioned this to a very eminent literary character [Edmund Burke], he opposed me vehemently, exclaiming, "No, no, it is not a good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force; it has all the nodosities of the oak without its strength". This was an image so happy, that one might have thought he would have been satisfied with it; but he was not. And setting his mind again to work, he added, with exquisite felicity, "It has all the contortions of the Sybil, without the inspiration".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Edmund Burke Print: Book
'[Croft's 'Life of Young, adapted by Johnson for his 'Life'] has always appeared to me to have a considerable share of merit, and to display a pretty successful imitation of Johnson's style. When I mentioned this to a very eminent literary character [Edmund Burke], he opposed me vehemently, exclaiming, "No, no, it is not a good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force; it has all the nodosities of the oak without its strength". This was an image so happy, that one might have thought he would have been satisfied with it; but he was not. And setting his mind again to work, he added, with exquisite felicity, "It has all the contortions of the Sybil, without the inspiration".'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell Print: Book
'[present at tea on June 12th was] the Reverend Herbert Croft, who, I am afraid, was somewhat mortified by Dr. Johnson's not being highly pleased with some "Family Discourses", which he had printed; they were in too familiar a style to be approved of by so manly a mind'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book
