03150cam a22004453u 4500 78556 UtSlPG 20260610134824.0 m cr n 260607r20261924utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d ca26000121 UtSlPG en iso639-1 PR Powys, Llewelyn, 1884-1939 Cup-bearers of wine and hellebore Cup-bearers of wine and hellebore (a book of intellectual rowdies) Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2026 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Little blue book no. 702 Release date is 2026-04-26 François Rabelais -- Jonathan Swift -- Matthew Prior -- William Cowper -- James Thomson -- Padraic Colum. Tim Miller, Paul Fatula and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net 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.) Originally published: Girard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1924 Authors, English -- Biography Cowper, William, 1731-1800 Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745 Rabelais, François, approximately 1490-1553? Prior, Matthew, 1664-1721 Thomson, James, 1834-1882 Colum, Padraic, 1881-1972 Haldeman-Julius, E. (Emanuel), 1888-1951 Little blue book no. 702 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78556 119274 119274