Life of Johnson (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: EXPLANATORY INDEX. Abyssinia: a country in eastern Africa, south of Egypt, and the pre- tended scene of Johnson's Rasselas. Addison, Joseph (1672-1719): a leading figure in the Augustan Age of English literature. Addison's classical tragedy, Cato (which Johnson called the noblest production of his genius), inspired Johnson's Irene. The Tatler and the Spectator (begun by Steele, but greatly enriched by Addison) called forth a swarm of similar periodicals, including Johnson's Rambler. (See Macaulay's Essay on Addison, this series.) Johnson's oft-quoted advice at the end of his Life of Addison was expressed more tersely in counselling a young man: " Give days and nights, sir, to the study of Addison, if you mean to be a good writer, or, what is more worth, an honest man." jEschylus (525-456 B.c.), Euripides (480-406 B.c.), Sophocles (495- 405 B.c.): the three great tragic dramatists of ancient Greece. They were contemporaries and rivals, and a thorough understand- ing of one is consequently impossible without a knowledge of the others. The period in which they flourished, the Age of Pericles, holds the same position in the history of Greece that the Age of Elizabeth holds in the history of England. Alamode beef-shops: where beef was served a la mode, i.e. stewed with vegetables, wine, spices, etc. Almon and Stockdale: leading booksellers of Johnson's time. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.): a profound philosopher of ancient Greece. His influence dominated the intellectual world for two thousand years. Attic: practically equivalent to Athenian. Athens, the leading city of ancient Greece, was situated in the district of Attica. Augustan: marked by the purity and refinement which characterized the works of the Augustan Age (31 B.C.-14 A.D.), the most illustri- o...