Switch to English Switch to French

The Open University  |   Study at the OU  |   About the OU  |   Research at the OU  |   Search the OU

Listen to this page  |   Accessibility

the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
  RED International Logo

RED Australia logo


RED Canada logo
RED Netherlands logo
RED New Zealand logo

Listings for Author:  

Bolingbroke

 

Click here to select all entries:

 


  

Bolingbroke : unknown

?After having read the great champions for Christianity, I next read the works of Lord Hesbert, Tindal, Chubb, Morgan, Collins, Woolston, Annet, Mandeville, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, Williams, Voltaire, and many other Free-thinkers.? 237

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: James Lackington      Print: Book

  

Henry Saint John, Viscount Bolingbroke : Letter on the Study and Use of History

'Up by nine. Read a little this morning in Lord Bolingbroke's "Study of History". What extreme foppery! Yet what can one point out as proofs?'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: William Windham      Print: Book

  

Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke : 'Political Works'

'[Tuesday] October -- 24th. [...] Read a little of Bolingbroke's Political Works.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Claire Clairmont      Print: Book

  

Henry St John Bolingbroke : [letters to Swift]

'[Pilkington tells how Swift cut out many pages of an edition of Horace and made her paste letters between the covers instead] 'I told him, I was extreamly proud to be honoured with his Commands: "But, Sir, may I presume to make a request to you?" "Yes", says he, "but Ten to One I shall deny it". "I hope not Sir, 'tis this; may I have Leave to read the Letters as I go on?" "Why, provided you will acknowledge yourself amply rewarded for your Trouble, I don't much care if I indulge you so far; but are you sure you can read?" "I don't know Sir, I'll try". "Well then begin with this". It was a letter from Lord [italics] Bolingbroke [end italics], Dated six o'Clock in the Morning; it began with a remark, how differently that Hour appeared to him now, rising cool, serene, and temperate, to contemplate the Beauties of Nature, to what it had done in some former Parts of his Life, when he was either in the midst of Excesses, or returning Home sated with them [Pilkington continues to summarise the 'moral philosophy' of the letter and professes herself delighted with all his other letters] Nor can I be at all surprized that Mr [italics] Pope [end italics] should so often celebrate a Genius who for sublimity of Thought, and elegance of Stile, had few Equals. The rest of the Dean's Correspondents were, the Lady [italics] Masham [end italics], the Earl of [italics] Oxford [end italics] [a long list of others, ending] Mr [italics] Pope [end italics], Mr [italics] Gay [end italics], Dr [italics] Arbuthnot [end italics]; A Noble and learned Set! So my Readers may judge what a Banquet I had. I cou'd not avoid remarking to the Dean, that notwithstanding the Friendship Mr [italics] Pope [end italics] professed for Mr [italics] Gay [end italics], he cou'd not forbear a great many Satyrical, or if I might be allowed to say so, envious Remarks on the success of the [italics] Beggar's Opera [end italics] The Dean very frankly own'd, he did not think Mr [italics] Pope [end italics] was so candid to the Merits of other Writers, as he ought to be. I then ventur'd to ask the Dean, whether he thought the Lines Mr [italics] Pope [end italics] addresses him with, in the Beginning of the [italics] Dunciad [end italics], were any Compliment to...'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Laetitia Pilkington      Manuscript: Letter

  

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke : Philosophical works

'On the 6th of March came out Lord Bolingbroke's works, published by Mr David Mallet. The wild and pernicious ravings, under the name of [italics] Philosophy [end italics], which were thus ushered into the world, gave great offence to all well-principled men.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: James Boswell      Print: Book

  

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke : [alleged MS prose version of Pope's 'Essay on Man']

'shall insert as a literary curiosity. [The letter is given. It begins as follows] "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. DEAR SIR, In the year 1763, being at London, I was carried by Dr. John Blair, Prebendary of Westminster, to dine at old Lord Bathurst's; where we found the late Mr. Mallet, Sir James Porter, who had been Ambassadour at Constantinople, the late Dr. Macaulay, and two or three more. The conversation turning on Mr. Pope, Lord Bathurst told us, that "The Essay on Man" was originally composed by Lord Bolingbroke in prose, and that Mr. Pope did no more than put it into verse: that he had read Lord Bolingbroke's manuscript in his own hand-writing; and remembered well, that he was at a loss whether most to admire the elegance of Lord Bolingbroke's prose, or the beauty of Mr. Pope's verse..."'

Century:      Reader/Listener/Group: Allen, 1st Earl Bathurst      Manuscript: Unknown

  

Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke : Essays

[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 15 January 1755:] 'You have a very just opinion of St. John's works [...] As far as I have seen, and I read at Ember the last volume, which contains his essays, there is nothing in his objections but what has been published and answered over and over [...] I know not whether his system may be more properly called deistical, or atheistical; since, though in words he allows a God, he seems to make him such a one as Epicurus did; and to think that we are beneath his notice, or have very little to do with him. He laughs at all notions of revelation, or a particular providence, and reckons the present life the whole of man's existence. These essays, by the way, afford us abundant and irrefragable proof, that the plan of the Essay on Man was St. John's, and not Pope's [...] You have here the whole scheme, the thoughts and in many places the very words of the poem; and a more consistent scheme it is here, than it appears there, after the poet and the parson had laid their heads together to disguise and make it pass for a christian system [comments further].'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edwards      Print: Book

 

Click here to select all entries:

 

   
   
Green Turtle Web Design