English - Critic | March 1, 1880 - January 21, 1932
There is something dark and wintry about the atmosphere of the later Middle Ages.
Lytton Strachey
DarkSomethingAtmosphereMiddle
The old interests of aristocracy - the romance of action, the exalted passions of chivalry and war - faded into the background, and their place was taken by the refined and intimate pursuits of peace and civilization.
PeaceWarActionPlaceCivilization
Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.
ArtIgnorancePerfectionFirstWhich
Discretion is not the better part of biography.
BetterBiographyDiscretionPart
With a very few exceptions, every word in the French vocabulary comes straight from the Latin.
VocabularyStraightWordExceptions
When the French nation gradually came into existence among the ruins of the Roman civilization in Gaul, a new language was at the same time slowly evolved.
TimeLanguageNewCivilizationSame
Though, with the ascendancy of Louis, the political power of the nobles finally came to an end, France remained, in the whole complexion of her social life, completely aristocratic.
LifePowerEndPoliticalSocialHer
In the literature of France Moliere occupies the same kind of position as Cervantes in that of Spain, Dante in that of Italy, and Shakespeare in that of England. His glory is more than national - it is universal.
LiteratureGloryKindMoreSame
English dramatic literature is, of course, dominated by Shakespeare; and it is almost inevitable that an English reader should measure the value of other poetic drama by the standards which Shakespeare has already implanted in his mind.
ValueMindLiteratureMeasureDrama
When Louis XIV assumed the reins of government France suddenly and wonderfully came to her maturity; it was as if the whole nation had burst into splendid flower.
FlowerGovernmentMaturityNation
Unlike the majority of the writers of his age, La Rochefoucauld was an aristocrat; and this fact gives a peculiar tone to his work.
WorkAgePeculiarToneMajorityHis
The stability and peace which seemed to be so firmly established by the brilliant monarchy of Francis I vanished with the terrible outbreak of the Wars of Religion.
PeaceReligionBrilliantStability
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