The Letters of Joseph Ritson, Esq, Volume 1W. Pickering, 1833 - Antiquarians |
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acquaintance affectionate brother affectionate uncle agreeable ancient appear believe Bishop Bishop Percy certainly Christopher collated collection compliments confess copy curious DEAR JACK DEAR MAT DEAR ROWNTREE DEAR SIR DEAR SISTER desire Durham edition editor endeavour English English Poetry esteem expect favour fellow flatter friendship gentleman give glad Grays Grays Inn happy HARRISON Hartlepool hear Herbert Croft Hernhill honour hope humble servant Ibid inclosed Irish Irish Poetry Johnson Jonathan Wild JOSEPH RITSON justice kind King Arthur late least liberty literary live Lord Lord Mansfields mean Memoirs merit misprision of treason nephew never Newcastle obliged occasion opinion perhaps person pleasure Poetry printed racter Ralph Hoar Remarks render respect Scotish Songs Scotland Shakspeare sincerely sorry Steevens Stockton suppose sure tell thing tion trouble truth WADESON Walker Warton wish write
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Page lix - Poetica,' being a catalogue of English poets of the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries; a Collection (in three volumes) of Ancient English Metrical Romances ; and ' An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty,' which was his last production.
Page xlii - ... familiar address to the curious in English Poetry, more particularly to the readers of Shakspeare. By Thersites Literarius, London, 1784.
Page lxiii - For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right...
Page xii - ... in your old age in return for the education and indulgence you bestowed on me in my youth I am sorry to hear Mr. Robinson should refuse the small comfort of having your affairs in some degree settled : on such an occasion as this his behavior is unfeeling and inhuman to the highest degree. . . . . My heart bleeds to think of the distressed situation the whole family is in. I would to God I could be with you for a day — but alas! I should only add to your confusion. May heaven assist you with...
Page 5 - My heart bleeds to think of the distressed situation the whole family is in. I would to god I could be with you for a day — but alas! I should only add to your confusion. May heaven assist you with patience and resignation in your afflictions. I crave your blessing and earnestly commend myself to your remembrance, hoping withal many a year after this to put you in mind of, cjeaf g,^,. Your very affectionate son, J. Ritson" The pious wish was not realized.
Page lxx - I loved poor Ritson, with all his singularities ; he was always kind and indulgent to me. He had an honesty of principle about him, which, if it went to ridiculous extremities, was still respectable from the soundness of the foundation. I don't believe the world could have made Ritson say the thing he did not think. I wish we had his like at present.
Page xlvi - I have been persuaded that he has not on every occasion been so scrupulously attentive to his original, as I think the work required, I shall be very glad to find the idea unfounded, and readily confess that what you have been so obliging as to tell me about the folio MS. has in a great measure removed my prejudice on that head. The limits of a letter will not permit me to enter fully into the discussion of a question upon which I believe a good deal may be said.
Page lviii - My complaint is neither a fever nor a consumption : but it renders my existence miserable, and I have no hope of getting the better of it. As, at the same time, I can eat and drink and walk about, it would be difficult to convince "Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o nights" that any thing is the matter with me: and, indeed, it is a subject upon which I do not like to explain myself; and wish nobody to enquire after. I am apprehensive of an entire loss of memory; as I am daily forgetting the most...
Page liv - The excellent author looks down upon me ; on the other side of the fire-place hangs the sarcastic Voltaire; while the enlightened and enlightening Thomas fronts the door: which is probably the reason, by the way, that scarce anybody has entered it since he made his appearance.
Page lxii - You know my sentiments with regard to other worlds, which, I believe, are not likely to change. My health is much impaired, my frame disordered, and my spirits depressed; so that I have no hopes for myself of an eternal existence; and am rather, in fact, disposed to wonder that I have already lived so long: having had the mortification to see many whom I loved and esteemed drop from time to time around me at a much more immature age.