The Critical Review, Vol. 24: Or, Annals of Literature (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from The Critical Review, Vol. 24: Or, Annals of Literature

The period which this noble author has chosen for the display of his historical abilities, is as instructive and entertaining as any, perhaps, in the English annals. The life of Henry the Second contains a variety of events as wonderful as those that fill romance; and it is difficult to say, whether his personal or political adventures are the most surprising. Both are fertile of scenes that call for the utmost force of genius in writing; and we should be unfaithful critics, did we not acknowledge lord Lyttelton to be equal to the work.

But besides the great accomplishments of Henry the Second, his power, and the extent of his dominion, his lordship, in the choice he has made of his subject, had a still farther inducement and encouragement. By a happy concurrence of circumstances, the age of Henry the Second produced better writers than any who appeared for five hundred years before, or for four hundred years after; and William of Malinesbury may be considered in some measure as a classic, though he lived at a time when the greatest part of Europe was plunged in barbarism. Some other writers, of whose labours the noble author has availed himself, are likewise far above the level of monkish learning; so that, upon the whole, this period is surrounded with uncommon splendor.

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