Cup-bearers of wine and hellebore by Llewelyn Powys
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Cup-bearers of wine and hellebore by Llewelyn Powys is a collection of literary essays written in the early 20th century. The book presents vivid, interpretive portraits of notable writers, blending biography and criticism to explore how temperament, belief, and circumstance shape art; its likely topic is the moral and imaginative lives behind great literature. Powys profiles six figures. François Rabelais appears as an earthy celebrant of life whose bawdy exuberance conceals deep
wisdom and a hatred of hypocrisy. Jonathan Swift is drawn as a brilliant, tormented satirist—proud, inhibited, misanthropic—whose entanglements with Stella and Vanessa and gradual collapse into madness crown a career of ferocious clarity. Matthew Prior emerges as the urbane diplomat-poet of light, amorous verse and deft opportunism, charming yet often shallow. William Cowper is shown as a gentle craftsman of homely, exact nature-poetry, hounded by religious terror under John Newton’s influence, descending into desolation. James Thomson (B.V.) stands for uncompromising pessimism: the City of Dreadful Night, insomnia, poverty, drink, and defiant atheism. Padraic Colum, by contrast, embodies the soul of Ireland—fresh, lyrical, and autochthonous—catching “wild earth” moods, Celtic cadences, and a tender, haunted romanticism. Throughout, Powys interweaves anecdote, quotation, and bold judgment to pour both “wine” (rapture) and “hellebore” (bitter medicine) for the reader. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Powys, Llewelyn, 1884-1939 |
|---|---|
| Editor | Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951 |
| LoC No. | ca26000121 |
| Title | Cup-bearers of wine and hellebore |
| Alternate Title | Cup-bearers of wine and hellebore (a book of intellectual rowdies) |
| Original Publication | Girard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1924. |
| Series Title | Little blue book no. 702 |
| Contents | François Rabelais -- Jonathan Swift -- Matthew Prior -- William Cowper -- James Thomson -- Padraic Colum. |
| Credits | Tim Miller, Paul Fatula and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Authors, English -- Biography |
| Subject | Cowper, William, 1731-1800 |
| Subject | Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745 |
| Subject | Rabelais, François, approximately 1490-1553? |
| Subject | Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721 |
| Subject | Thomson, James, 1834-1882 |
| Subject | Colum, Padraic, 1881-1972 |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78556 |
| Release Date | Apr 26, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 351 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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