London society, Volume 111867 |
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Common terms and phrases
Agapemone amusement asked Beatrix beauty Ben Jonson better Blanche Lyon boat Bowden brother burlesque called Captain character Club course cousin Covent Garden dancing daugh daughter dear dinner Divorce Court door dress Edgar Talbot eyes face fair feeling Frank Bathurst gentleman Gertie girl give hand happy head heart Hebe Helen Hoddesdon honour husband Justice Kit-Kat Club knew lady laughing Lionel look Lord Chief manner Marian Mark Sutton marriage married ment mind Miss Lyon Miss Talbot Mohocks mother Ned Ward ness never night once organ grinder poor pretty racter replied round seemed Sir Alexander Cockburn Sir Frederick Pollock Sir James sister society Steaks Street sure talk tell thing Thornhill thought tion told tone took Trixy turned Uncle Gawler valentine Vere voice wife woman women words young
Popular passages
Page 103 - Many were the wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Jonson, which two I behold like a Spanish great galleon, and an English man-of-war ; Master Jonson (like the former) was built far higher in learning ; solid, but slow in his performances.
Page 542 - THIS is the place. Stand still, my steed, Let me review the scene, And summon from the shadowy Past The forms that once have been.
Page 232 - Our modern celebrated clubs are founded upon eating and drinking, which are points wherein most men agree, and in which the learned and illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philosopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part.
Page 458 - That respectable body, of which I have the honour of being a member, affords every evening a sight truly English. Twenty or thirty, perhaps, of the first men in the kingdom in point of fashion and fortune, supping at little tables covered with a napkin, in the middle of a coffeeroom, upon a bit of cold meat, or a sandwich, and drinking a glass of punch.
Page 233 - ... when I have displeased him. It is indeed to his exquisite talent this way, more than any philosophy I could read on the subject, that my person is very little of my care, and it is indifferent to me what is said of my shape, my air, my manner, my speech, or my address. It is to poor Estcourt I chiefly owe that I am arrived at the happiness of thinking nothing a diminution to me, but what argues a depravity of my will.
Page 239 - And business thou wouldst find and wouldst create ; Business ! the frivolous pretence Of human lusts to shake off innocence ; Business ! the grave impertinence ; Business ! the thing which I of all things hate ; Business ! the contradiction of thy fate.
Page 242 - In order to exert this principle in its full strength and perfection, they take care to drink themselves to a pitch that is beyond the possibility of attending to any motions of reason or humanity; then make a general sally, and attack all that are so unfortunate as to walk the streets through which they patrole. Some are knocked down, others stabbed, others cut and carbonadoed.
Page 238 - That a singular regard be had, upon examination, to the gibbosity of the gentlemen that offer themselves, as founders' kinsmen; or to the obliquity of their figure, in what sort soever. III. That if the quantity of any man's nose be eminently miscalculated, whether as to length or breadth, he shall have a just pretence to be elected. Lastly, That if there shall be two or more competitors for the same vacancy, cxteris paribus, he that has the thickest skin to have the preference.
Page 233 - ... which he would throw in natural and unexpected incidents to make his court to one part, and rally the other part of the company. Then he would vary the usage he gave them according as he saw them bear kind or sharp language. He had the knack to raise up a pensive temper, and mortify an impertinently gay one, with the most agreeable skill imaginable.
Page 459 - ... ruffles) ; and to guard their " eyes from the light and to prevent tumbling their hair, wore " high-crowned straw hats with broad brims and adorned with " flowers and ribbons ; masks to conceal their emotions when they