“René of Anjou [(1409-80)] painted a picture of his mistress's corpse as he found it eaten by worms on having it [her tomb] openedon his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This [is] another instance of the strange mixture of religion and gallantry in those ages.” AgeReligionFoundStrangeReturnInstanceWormsMixturesMistressCorpsesTombsJerusalemPilgrimageGallantry Author:Horace Walpole
“Shakespeare had no tutors but nature and genius. He caught his faults from the bad taste of his contemporaries. In an age still less civilized Shakespeare might have been wilder, but would not have been vulgar.” Has BeensStillsMightAgeGeniusTasteFaultsCaughtCivilizedVulgarMight Have BeenBad TasteWilderTutor Author:Horace Walpole
“When Shakespeare copied chroniclers verbatim, it was because he knew they were good enough for his audiences. In a more polished age he who could so move our passions, could surely have performed the easier task of satisfying our taste.” EnoughAgeMovingPassionAudienceEasierTasteTasksGood EnoughSatisfyingPolished Author:Horace Walpole
“Shakespeare, with an improved education and in a more enlightened age, might easily have attained the purity and correction of Racine; but nothing leads one to suppose that Racine in a barbarous age would have attained the grandeur, force and nature of Shakespeare.” MightAgeForcePurityEnlightenedGrandeurCorrections Author:Horace Walpole
“King René of Anjou [(1409-80)]was a strange compound of amiable, great and trifling qualities. He was so excellent a sovereign as to acquire the surnom of the Good. He was brave in war, delighted in tournaments and wrote on them, instituted festivals and processions, partly religious and partly burlesque, was a fond husband, a romantic lover, a good painter for that age, and a true philosopher.” WarAgeReligiousQualityStrangeKingsLoversHusbandBravePhilosopherPainterExcellentAcquireRomantic LoveSovereignFestivalsRoyaltyDelightedTournamentsCompoundsTriflingAmiableProcessionBurlesque Author:Horace Walpole
“Alexander at the head of the world never tasted the true pleasure that boys of his own age have enjoyed at the head of a school.” WorldAgeSchoolPleasureBoysPowerEnjoyed Author:Horace Walpole
“I avoid talking before the youth of the age as I would dancing before them: for if one's tongue don't move in the steps of the day, and thinks to please by its old graces, it is only an object of ridicule.” IfsThinkingAgeMovingTalkingStepsGraceGenerationsObjectsYouthPleaseDancingTongueRidicule Book:The letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford: including numerous letters now first published from the original manuscripts Source: The letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford: including numerous letters now first published from the original manuscripts
“One's mind suffers only when one is young and while one is ignorant of the world. When one has lived for some time, one learns that the young think too little and the old too much, and one grows careless about both.” ThinkingWorldMindLittlesAgeYoungSufferingGrowsToo MuchIgnorantCareless Book:The letters of Horace Walpole, earl of Orford Source: The letters of Horace Walpole, earl of Orford
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveler from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.” GivingAgeLastsNextSidesNew YorkDiscoveryEnglandRuinsCuriousDawnDescriptionMexicoTravelerBostonNewtonPeru Author:Horace Walpole
