Death of Sir Gawaine . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Thomas Malory 1

The Queen's Speech to her last
Parliament . . . . . . . . . . . . Elizabeth, Queen of England 4

Death of Cleopatra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Thomas North 8

The Vanity of Greatness . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Walter Ralegh 12

The Law of Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Richard Hooker 16

Of Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Francis Bacon 17

Meditation on Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Drummond 19

Primitive Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Hobbes 21

Character of a Plodding Student . . . . . . . . . . John Earle 24

Charity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Thomas Browne 25

The Danger of interfering with the Liberty of the Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Milton 27

Death of Falkland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Earl of Clarendon 30

The End of the Pilgrimage . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Bunyan 35

Poetry and Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir William Temple 40

A Day in the Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Samuel Pepys 42

Captain Singleton in China . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Defoe 46

The Art of Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . Jonathan Swift 51

The Royal Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Addison 56

Sir Roger de Coverley's Ancestors . . . . . . . Richard Steele 60

Partridge at the Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Fielding 65

A Journey in a Stage-coach . . . . . . . . . . . Samuel Johnson 71

Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim . . . . . . . . . . Laurence Sterne 76

The Funeral of George II . . . . . . . . . . . . Horace Walpole 79

The Credulity of the English . . . . . . . . . . Oliver Goldsmith 83

Decay of the Principles of Liberty . . . . . . . . . Edmund Burke 85

The Candidate for Parliament . . . . . . . . . . . William Cowper 89

Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Edward Gibbon 93

First Sight of Dr Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . James Boswell 94

Arrival at Osbaldistone Hall . . . . . . . . . . Sir Walter Scott 100

A Visit to Coleridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Lamb 107

Diogenes and Plato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W. S. Landor 109

An Invitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jane Austen 113

Coleridge as Preacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Hazlitt 118

A Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas de Quincey 120

The Use of Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Keats 122

The Flight to Varennes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Carlyle 124

The Trial of the Seven Bishops . . . . . . . . . . Lord Macaulay 130

The University of Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. H. Newman 135

The House of the Seven Gables . . . . . . . Nathaniel Hawthorne 140

Denis Duval's first journey to London . . . . . W. M. Thackeray 144

Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Dickens 149

Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester . . . . . . . . . . . Charlotte BrontË 153

A Hut in the Woods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H. D. Thoreau 157

A Miser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . George Eliot 159

Ships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Ruskin 163

The Child in the House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Walter Pater 168

Diving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . R. L. Stevenson 171

Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

{1}

SIR THOMAS MALORY 15th century

DEATH OF SIR GAWAINE

And so, as Sir Mordred was at Dover with his host, there came King Arthur with a great navy of ships, galleys, and carracks. And there was Sir Mordred ready waiting upon his landing, to let his own father to land upon the land that he was king of. Then was there launching of great boats and small, and all were full of noble men of arms; and there was much slaughter of gentle knights, and many a full bold baron was laid full low on both parties. But King Arthur was so courageous, that there might no manner of knight let him to land, and his knights fiercely followed him, and so they landed maugre Sir Mordred and all his power, and put Sir Mordred back, that he fled and all his people. So when this battle was done, King Arthur let bury his people that were dead. And then was the noble knight Sir Gawaine found in a great boat, lying more than half dead. When King Arthur wist that Sir Gawaine was laid so low, he went unto him; and there the king made sorrow out of measure, and took Sir Gawaine in his arms, and thrice he swooned. And when he came to himself again, he said, "Alas! my sister's son, here now thou liest, the man in the world {2} that I loved most, and now is my joy gone. For now, my nephew Sir Gawaine, I will discover me unto your person. In Sir Launcelot and you I most had my joy and mine affiance, and now have I lost my joy of you both, wherefore all mine earthly joy is gone from me." "My uncle King Arthur," said Sir Gawaine, "wit you well that my death's day is come, and all is through mine own hastiness and wilfulness, for I am smitten upon the old wound that Sir Launcelot du Lake gave me, of the which I feel that I must die; and if Sir Launcelot had been with you as he was, this unhappy war had never begun, and of all this I myself am causer; for Sir Launcelot and his blood, through their prowess, held all your cankered enemies in subjection and danger. And now," said Sir Gawaine, "ye shall miss Sir Launcelot. But alas! I would not accord with him; and therefore," said Sir Gawaine, "I pray you, fair uncle, that I may have paper, pen, and ink, that I may write unto Sir Launcelot a letter with mine own hands." And when paper and ink was brought, Sir Gawaine was set up weakly by King Arthur, for he had been shriven a little before; and he wrote thus unto Sir Launcelot: "Flower of all noble knights that ever I heard of or saw in my days, I, Sir Gawaine, King Lot's son of Orkney, sister's son unto the noble King Arthur, send unto thee greeting, and let thee have knowledge, that the tenth day of May I was smitten upon the old wound which thou gavest me before the city of Benwick, and through the same wound that thou gavest me I am come unto my death day, and I will that all the world wit that I Sir Gawaine, Knight of the Round Table, sought my death, and not through thy deserving, {3} but it was mine own seeking; wherefore I beseech thee, Sir Launcelot, for to return again unto this realm and see my tomb, or pray some prayer more or less for my soul. And that same day that I wrote this letter, I was hurt to the death in the same wound the which I had of thy hands, Sir Launcelot, for of a more nobler man might I not be slain. Also, Sir Launcelot, for all the love that ever was between us, make no tarrying, but come over the sea in all the haste that thou mayst with thy noble knights, and rescue that noble king that made thee knight, that is my lord and uncle King Arthur, for he is full straitly bestood with a false traitor, which is my half-brother Sir Mordred, and he hath let crown himself king, and he would have wedded my lady Queen Guenevere, and so had he done, if she had not put herself in the Tower of London. And so the tenth day of May last past, my lord and uncle King Arthur and we all landed upon them at Dover, and there we put that false traitor Sir Mordred to flight. And there it misfortuned me for to be stricken upon thy stroke. And the date of this letter was written but two hours and a half before my death, written with mine own hand, and so subscribed with part of my heart-blood. And I require thee, as thou art the most famost knight of the world, that thou wilt see my tomb." And then Sir Gawaine wept, and also King Arthur wept; and then they swooned both. And when they awaked both, the king made Sir Gawaine to receive his Saviour. And then Sir Gawaine prayed the king to send for Sir Launcelot, and to cherish him above all other knights. And so at the hour of noon Sir Gawaine betook his soul into the {4} hands of our Lord God. And then the king let bury him in a chapel within the castle of Dover; and there yet unto this day all men may see the skull of Sir Gawaine, and the same wound is seen that Sir Launcelot gave him in battle. Then it was told to King Arthur that Sir Mordred had pight a new field upon Barendown. And on the morrow the king rode thither to him, and there was a great battle between them, and much people were slain on both parts. But at the last King Arthur's party stood best, and Sir Mordred and his party fled into Canterbury.

(Morte Darthur.)