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son," says Mrs. Piozzi, "always retained, from the days that he lay a-bed and dictated his first publication to Mr. Hector, who acted as his amanuensis, to the moment he made me copy out those variations in Pope's Homer which are printed in the Lives of the Poets 1. And now,' said he, when I had finished it for him, 'I fear not Mr. Nichols 2 [the printer] a pin.'"]

Pr. and

In a memorandum previous to Med. p. this, he says of them: "Written, I hope, in such a manner as may tend to the promotion of piety."

174.

This is the work which, of all Dr. Johnson's writings, will perhaps be read most generally, and with most pleasure. Philology and biography were his favourite pursuits, and those who lived most in intimacy with him, heard him upon all occasions, when there was a proper opportunity, take delight in expatiating upon the various merits of the English poets: upon the niceties of their characters, and the events of their progress through the world which they contributed to illuminate. His mind was so full of that kind of information, and it was so well arranged in his memory, that in performing what he had undertaken in this way, he had little more to do than to put his thoughts upon paper; exhibiting first each poet's life, and then subjoining a critical examination of his genius and works. But when he began to write, the subject swelled in such a manner, that instead of prefaces to each poet, of no more than a few pages, as he had originally intended 3, he produced an ample, rich, and most entertaining view of them in every respect. In this he resembled Quintilian, who tells us, that in the composition of his "Institutions of Oratory," ," "Latiùs se tamen aperiente materiâ, plus quàm imponebatur oneris sponte suscepi." The booksellers, justly sensible of the great additional value of the copyright, presented him with another hundred pounds, over and above two hundred, for which his agreement was to furnish such prefaces as he thought fit.

1 [The first livraison was published in 1779. This edition of the Poets was in sixty vols. 12mo. -ED.]

[This name is misprinted Nicholson in Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes.-ED.]

3 His design is thus announced in his advertisement: "The booksellers having determined to publish a body of English poetry, I was persuaded to promise them a preface to the works of each authour; an undertaking, as it was then presented to my mind, not very tedious or difficult. My purpose was only to have allotted to every poet an advertisement, like that which we find in the French Miscellanies,' containing a few dates, and a general character; but I have been led beyond my intention, I hope by the honest desire of giving useful pleasure."-BOSWELL.

["The bargain," as Mr. Ni- Gent. Mag. chols states, " was for two hun- v. lxxxii. dred guineas, and the book- part ii. p. 54. sellers spontaneously added a third hundred; on this occasion Dr. Johnson observed to Mr. Nichols, 'Sir, I always said the booksellers were a generous set of men. Nor, in the present instance, have I reason to complain. The fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but that I have written too much.' The Lives' were soon published in a separate edition; when, for a very few corrections, the Doctor was presented with another hundred guineas."]

This was, however, but a small recompense for such a collection of biography, and such principles and illustrations of criticism, as, if digested and arranged in one system, by some modern Aristotle or Longinus, might form a code upon that subject, such as no other nation can show. As he was so good as to make me a present of the greatest part of the original, and indeed only manuscript of this admirable work, I have an opportunity of observing with wonder the correctness with which he rapidly struck off such glowing composition. He may be assimilated to the lady in Waller, who could impress with "love at first sight:"

"Some other nymphs with colours faint,
And pencil slow, may Cupid paint,
And a weak heart in time destroy ;
She has a stamp, and prints the boy."

That he, however, had a good deal of trouble 4, and some anxiety in carrying on the work, we see from a series of letters to Mr. Nichols, the printer, whose variety of literary inquiry and obliging disposition rendered him useful to Johnson. Thus :

"In the Life of Waller, Mr. Nichols will find a reference to the Parliamentary History, from which a long quotation is to be inserted. If Mr. Nichols cannot easily find the book, Mr. Johnson will send it from Streatham.

"Clarendon is here returned.

"By some accident I laid your note upon Duke Your informations have been of great use up so safely, that I cannot find it. I must beg it again, with another list of our authours, for I have laid that with the other. I have sent Stepney's

to me.

4 [The reader has, however, seen some instances, and many others might be produced, in which Dr. Johnson, when he published a new edition, utterly disregarded the corrections of errors of which he was apprised. The truth is, he began the work as a thing that might be done in a few weeks, and was surprised and fatigued at the length to which he found it expand: and it is not wonderful that at so advanced an age he was not very anxious to purchase minute accuracy by the labour of revision.-ED.]

Epitaph. Let me have the revises as soon | much room in this work; yet I shall make can be. Dec. 1778. a few observations upon some of them, and insert a few various readings.

"I have sent Philips, with his Epitaphs, to be inserted. The fragment of a preface is hardly worth the impression, but that we may seem to do something. It may be added to the Life of Philips. The Latin page is to be added to the Life of Smith. shall be at home to revise the two sheets of Milton. March 1, 1779.

"Please to get me the last edition of Hughes's Letters; and try to get Dennis upon Blackmore and upon Cato, and any thing of the same writer against Pope. Our materials are defective.

"As Waller professed to have imitated Fairfax, do you think a few pages of Fairfax would enrich our edition? Few readers have seen it, and it may please them. But it is not necessary.

"An Account of the Lives and Works of some of the most eminent English Poets, by, &c. The English Poets, biographically and critically considered, by Sam. Johnson.' Let Mr. Nichols take his choice, or make another to his mind. May,

1781.

"You somehow forgot the advertisement for the new edition. It was not inclosed. Of Gay's Letters I see not that any use can be made, for they give no information of any thing. That he was a member of a philosophical society is something; but surely he could be but a corresponding member. However, not having his Life here, I know not how to put it in, and it is of little importance 1."

Mr. Steevens appears, from the papers in my possession, to have supplied him with some anecdotes and quotations; and I observe the fair hand 2 of Mrs. Thrale as one of his copyists of select passages. But he was principally indebted to my steady friend, Mr. Isaac Reed, of Staple-inn, whose extensive and accurate knowledge of English literary history I do not express with exaggeration, when I say it is wonderful; indeed his labours have proved it to the world; and all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance can bear testimony to the frankness of his communications in private society.

It is not my intention to dwell upon each of Johnson's "Lives of the Poets," or attempt an analysis of their merits, which, were I able to do it, would take up too

1 See several more in " The Gentleman's Magazine," 1785. The editor of that miscellany, in which Johnson wrote for several years, seems justly to think that every fragment of so great a man is worthy of being preserved.-BoSWELL.

[A fair hand, in more than one sense-her writing is an almost perfect specimen of calligraphy; and this power remained unimpaired to the Last years of her long life.--ED.]

Hawk.

p. 538.

The Life of Cowley he himself considered as the best of the whole, on account of the dissertation which it contains on the Metaphysical Poets. [And he also gave it the preference as containing a nicer investigation and discrimination of the characteristics of wit, than is elsewhere to be found.] Dryden, whose critical abilities were equal to his poetical, had mentioned them in his excellent Dedication of his Juvenal, but had barely mentioned them. Johnson has exhibited them at large, with such happy illustration from their writings, and in so luminous a manner, that indeed he may be allowed the full merit of novelty, and to have discovered to us, as it were, a new planet in the poetical hemisphere.

It is remarked by Johnson, in considering the works of a poet 3, that "amendments are seldom made without some token of a rent;" but I do not find that this is applicable to prose 4. We shall see that though his amendments in this work are for the better, there is nothing of the pannus assutus; the texture is uniform; and indeed, what had been there at first, is very seldom unfit to have remained.

VARIOUS READINGS5 IN THE LIFE OF

COWLEY.

"All [future votaries of that after pant for solitude

may here

"To conceive and execute the [agitation or perception] pains and the pleasures of other minds.

"The wide effulgence of [the blazing] a summer noon."

In the Life of Waller, Johnson gives a distinct and animated narrative of publick affairs in that variegated period, with strong yet nice touches of character; and having a fair opportunity to display his political principles, does it with an unqualified manly confidence, and satisfies his readers how nobly he might have executed a Tory History of his country.

So easy is his style in these Lives, that I do not recollect more than three uncommon or learned words: one, when giving an account of the approach of Waller's mortal disease, he says, "he found his legs grow 3 Life of Sheffield.-BOSWELL.

4 See, however, p. 116 of this volume, where the same remark is made, and Johnson is there speaking of prose. In his Life of Dryden, his observations on the opera of "King Arthur." furnish a striking instance of the truth of this remark.—MALONE.

5. The original reading is enclosed in brackets, and the present one is printed in italicks.--Bos

WELL.

Indeed even Dr. Towers, who may be considered as one of the warmest zealots of The Revolution Society itself, allows, that "Johnson has spoken in the highest terms of the abilities of that great poet, and has bestowed on his principal poetical compositions the most honourable encomiums"

tumid;" by using the expression his legs swelled, he would have avoided this; and there would have been no impropriety in its being followed by the interesting question to his physician, "What that swelling meant?" Another, when he mentions that Pope had emitted proposals; when published or issued would have been more readily That a man, who venerated the church understood; and a third, when he calls Or- and monarchy as Johnson did, should speak rery and Dr. Delaney writers both undoubt- with a just abhorrence of Milton as a politi edly veracious; when true, honest, or faith-cian, or rather as a daring foe to good poli ful, might have been used. Yet, it must be owned, that none of these are hard or too big words; that custom would make them seem as easy as any others; and that a language is richer and capable of more beauty of expression, by having a greater variety of synonymes.

His dissertation upon the unfitness of poetry for the awful subjects of our holy religion, though I do not entirely agree with him, has all the merit of originality, with uncommon force and reasoning.

VARIOUS READINGS IN THE LIFE OF

WALLER.

"Consented to [the insertion of their names] their own nomination.

"[After] paying a fine of ten thousand pounds.

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Congratulating Charles the Second on his [coronation] recovered right.

ty, was surely to be expected; and to those who censure him, I would recommend his commentary on Milton's celebrated com plaint of his situation, when by the lenity of Charles the Second, "a lenity of which, as Johnson well observes, "the world has had perhaps no other example, he, who had written in justification of the murder of his sovereign, was safe under an Act of Oblivion." "No sooner is he safe than he finds himself in danger, fallen on evil days and evil tongues, with darkness and with dangers compassed round. This darkness, had his eyes been better employed, had undoubtedly deserved compassion; but to add the mention of danger was ungrateful and unjust. He was fallen, indeed, on evil days; the time was come in which regicides could no longer boast their wickedness. But of evil tongues for Milton to complain, required impudence at least equal to his other powers; Milton, whose warinest advocates must allow, that he never spared any asper

"He that has flattery ready for all whom the vicissitudes of the world happen to exalt, must be [confessed to degrade his pow-ity of reproach, or brutality of insolence." ers] scorned as a prostituted mind.

The characters by which Waller intended to distinguish his writings are [elegance] sprightliness and dignity.

"Blossoms to be valued only as they [fetch] foretell fruits.

"Images such as the superficies of nature [easily] readily supplies.

66

I have, indeed, often wondered how Milton, an acrimonious and surly republican 2," "a man who in his domestick relations was so severe and arbitrary 3,” and

1 See "An Essay on the Life, Character, and which is very well written, making a proper alWritings of Dr. Samuel Johnson," London, 1787 lowance for the democratical bigotry of its authour: whom I cannot however but admire for his liber

[His] Some applications [are sometimes] may be thought too remote and un-ality in speaking thus of my illustrious friend:consequential.

"His images are [sometimes confused] not always distinct."

"He possessed extraordinary powers of understanding, which were much cultivated by study, and still more by meditation and reflection. His memory was remarkably retentive, his imagination uncommonly vigorous, and his judgment keen and penetrating. He had a strong sense of the importance of religion; his piety was sincere, and

virtue was often manifested in his conversation

Against his Life of Milton, the hounds of whiggism have opened in full cry. But of Milton's great excellence as a poet, where shall we find such a blazon as by the hand of Johnson? I shall select only the follow-sometimes ardent; and his zeal for the interests of ing passage concerning "Paradise Lost: " "Fancy can hardly forbear to conjecture with what temper Milton surveyed the silent progress of his work, and marked his reputation stealing its way in a kind of subterraneous current, through fear and silence. I cannot but conceive him calm and confident, little disappointed, not at all dejected, relying on his own merit with steady consciousness, and waiting, without impatience, the vicissitudes of opinion, and the impartiality of a future generation."

and in his writings. The same energy which
was displayed in his literary productions was ex-
hibited also in his conversation, which was vari-
ous, striking, and instructive; and perhaps no man
ever equalled him for nervous and pointed repar-
tees. His Dictionary, his Moral Essays, and his
instruction, and elegant entertainment, as long as
productions in polite literature, will convey useful
the language in which they are written shall be
understood."-Boswell.

2 Johnson's Life of Milton.-BOSWELL
Ibid.-BosWELL.

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'whose head was filled with the hardest and most dismal tenets of Calvinism, should have been such a poet; should not only have written with sublimity, but with beauty, and even gaiety; should have exquisitely painted the sweetest sensations of which our nature is capable; imaged the delicate raptures of connubial love; nay, seemed to be animated with all the spirit of revelry. It is a proof that in the human mind the departments of judgment and imagination, perception and temper, may sometimes be divided by strong partitions; and that the light and shade in the same character may be kept so distinct as never to be blended 1. Murph. [Mr. Nichols, whose attachment to his illustrious friend was unwearied, showed him, in 1780, a book called Remarks on Johnson's Life of Milton, in which the affair of Lauder was renewed with virulence, and a poetical scale in the Literary Magazine, 1758 (when Johnson had ceased to write in that collection), was urged as an additional proof of deliberate malice. He read the libellous passage with attention, and instantly wrote on the margin: "In the business of Lauder I was deceived, partly by thinking the man too frantic to be fraudulent. Of the poetical scale, quoted from the Magazine, I am not the authour. I fancy it was put in after I had quitted that work; for I not only did not write it, but I do not remember it."]

Essay,

p. 66.

In the Life of Milton, Johnson took occasion to maintain his own and the general opinion of the excellence of rhyme over blank verse, in English poetry; and quotes this apposite illustration of it by "an ingenious critick," that it seems to be verse only to the eye 2. The gentleman whom he thus characterises is (as he told Mr. Seward) Mr. Lock, of Norbury Park, in Surrey, whose knowledge and taste in the fine arts is universally celebrated; with whose elegance of manners the writer of the present work has felt himself much impressed, and to whose virtues a common friend, who has known him long, and is not much addicted to flattery, gives the highest testimony.

VARIOUS READINGS IN THE LIFE OF MILTON. "I cannot find any meaning but this which [his most bigoted advocates] even kindness and reverence can give

1 Mr. Malone thinks it is rather a proof that he felt nothing of those cheerful sensations which he has described: that on these topicks it is the poet, and not the man, that writes.-BosWELL. 2 One of the most natural instances of the effect of blank verse occurred to the late Earl of Hopeton. His lordship observed one of his shepherds poring in the fields upon Milton's "Paradise Lost;" and having asked him what book it the man answered, An't please your lordship, this is a vey odd sort of an authour: he would fain rhyme, but cannot get at it."-BoswELL.

6

was,

"[Perhaps no] scarcely any man ever wrote so much, and praised so few. "A certain [rescue] preservative from oblivion.

"Let me not be censured for this digression, as [contracted] pedantick or paradoxical.

"Socrates rather was of opinion, that what we had to learn was how to [obtain and communicate happiness] do good and avoid evil.

"Its elegance [who can exhibit?] is less attainable."

3

I could, with pleasure, expatiate upon the masterly execution of the Life of Dryden, which we have seen was one of Johnson's literary projects at an early period, and which it is remarkable, that after desisting from it, from a supposed scantiness of materials, he should, at an advanced age, have exhibited so amply.

p. 43.

[Though Johnson had the highest opinion of Pope 4 as a writer, his Piozzi, superiour reverence for Dryden notwithstanding still appeared in his talk as in his writings; and when some one mentioned the ridicule thrown on him in the "Rehearsal," as having hurt his general character as an authour," On the contrary," says Dr. Johnson, "the greatness of Dryden's reputation is now the only principle of vitality which keeps the Duke of Buckingham's play from putrefaction."

It was not very easy however for people not quite intimate with Dr. Johnson, to get exactly his opinion of a writer's merit, as though he would sometimes divert himself by confounding those who thought themselves safe to say to-morrow what he had said yesterday; and even Garrick, who ought to have been better acquainted with his tricks, professed himself mortified, that one time when he was extolling Dryden in a rapture that perhaps disgusted his friend, Dr. Johnson suddenly challenged him to produce twenty lines in a series that would not disgrace the poet and his admirer. Garrick produced a passage that he had once heard the Doctor commend, in which he now found, as Mrs. Piozzi remembered, Sixteen faults, and made Garrick look silly at his own table.]

His defence of that great poet against the illiberal attacks upon him, as if his embeen a time-serving measure, is a piece of bracing the Roman Catholic communion had reasoning at once able and candid. Indeed, Dryden himself, in his "Hind and Panther," hath given such a picture of his mind, that they who know the anxiety for repose as to

3 See unte, p. 74.-BoswELL.

4

["When a lady at Mr. Thrale's talked of his preface to Shakspeare as superior to Pope's, he said, 'I fear not, madam: the little fellow has done wonders.'"'—Anecd. p. 42.-ED.]

the awful subject of our state beyond the grave, though they may think his opinion ill-founded, must think charitably of his

sentiment:

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1

"He [sometimes displays] descends to display his knowledge with pedantick ostentation.

"French words which [were then used in] had then crept into conversation."

But, gracious God, how well dost thou provide
For erring judgments an unerring guide!
Thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light,
A blaze of glory that forbids the sight.
O! teach me to believe thee thus conceal'd,
And search no farther than thyself reveal'd;
But Her alone for my director take,
Whom thou hast promised never to forsake.
My thoughtless youth was wing'd with vain de-lowing triumphant eulogium:-" After all

The Life of Pope 2 was written by Johnson con amore, both from the early possesIsion which that writer had taken of his mind, and from the pleasure which he must have felt, in forever silencing all attempts to lessen his poetical fame, by demonstrating his excellence, and pronouncing the fol

sires;

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In drawing Dryden's character, Johnson has given, though I suppose unintentionally, some touches of his own. Thus: "The power that predominated in his intellectual operations was rather strong reason than quick sensibility. Upon all occasions that were presented, he studied rather than felt; and produced sentiments not such as nature enforces, but meditation supplies. With the simple and elemental passions, as they spring separate in the mind, he seems not much acquainted. He is, therefore, with all his variety of excellence, not often pathetick1, and had so little sensibility of the power of effusions purely natural, that he did not esteem them in others." It may indeed be observed, that in all the numerous writings of Johnson, whether in prose or verse, and even in his tragedy, of which the subject is the distress of an unfortunate princess, there is not a single passage that ever drew a tear.

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this, it is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, Wheth er Pope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in return, if Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found? To circumscribe poetry by a definition, will only show the narrowness of the definer; though a definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made. Let us look round upon the present time, and back upon the past; let us inquire to whom the voice of mankind has decreed the wreath of poetry; let their productions be examined, and their claims stated, and the pretensions of Pope will be no more disputed."

1

I remember once to have heard Johnson say, "Sir, a thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope." That power must undoubtedly be allowed its due share in enhancing the value of his captivating composition.

Johnson, who had done liberal justice tc Warburton in his edition of Shakspeare, which was published during the life of that powerful writer, with still greater liberality took an opportunity, in the Life of Pope, of paying the tribute due to him when he was no longer in " high place," but numbered with the dead 3.

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2 ["Mr. D'Israeli," as Mr. Chalmers observes, "has in the third volume of his Literary Curiosities,' favoured the public with an original memorandum of Dr. Johnson's, of hints for the Life of Pope,' written down as they were suggested to his mind in the course of his researches. This is none of the least of those gratifications which Mr. D'Israeli has so frequently administered to the lovers of literary history."-ED.]

3 Of Johnson's conduct towards Warburton, a

very honourable notice is taken by the editor of "Tracts by Warburton, and a Warburtonian, not admitted into the collection of their respective works." After an able and " fond, though not undistinguishing,' consideration of Warburton's character, he says, "In two immortal works, Johnson has stood forth in the foremost rank of his admirers. By the testimony of such a man, impertinence must be abashed, and malignity itself must be softened. Of literary merit, Johnson, as we all know, was a sagacious but a most severe judge. Such was his discernment, that he pierced into the most secret springs of hu

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