Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
- Author: Samuel Johnson
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More, That He Is Weary Of Enduring "The Threats Of A Rigorous Master,
And Something else, Which A Temper Like His Cannot Undergo." What Was
More Than Threat Was Probably Punishment. This Poem, Which Mentions His
Exile, Proves, Likewise, That It Was Not Perpetual; For It Concludes
With A Resolution Of Returning some Time To Cambridge. And It May Be
Conjectured, From The Willingness With Which He Has Perpetuated the
Memory Of His Exile, That Its Cause Was Such As Gave Him No Shame.
He Took Both The Usual Degrees; That Of Bachelor In 1628, And That Of
Master In 1632; But He Left The University With No Kindness For Its
Institution, Alienated either By The Injudicious Severity Of His
Governours, Or His Own Captious Perverseness. The Cause Cannot Now Be
Known, But The Effect Appears In his Writings. His Scheme Of Education,
Inscribed to Hartlib, Supersedes All Academical Instruction, Being
Intended to Comprise The Whole Time Which Men Usually Spend In
Literature, From Their Entrance Upon Grammar, "Till They Proceed, As It
Is Called, Masters Of Arts." And In his Discourse On The Likeliest Way
To Remove Hirelings Out Of The Church, He Ingeniously Proposes, That
"The Profits Of The Lands Forfeited by The Act For Superstitious Uses
Should Be Applied to Such Academies All Over The Land, Where Languages
And Arts May Be Taught Together; So That Youth May Be, At Once, Brought
Up To A Competency Of Learning and An Honest Trade, By Which Means Such
Of Them As Had The Gift, Being enabled to Support Themselves, Without
Tithes, By The Latter, May, By The Help Of The Former, Become Worthy
Preachers."
One Of His Objections To Academical Education, As It Was Then Conducted,
Is, That Men Designed for Orders In the Church Were Permitted to Act
Plays, "Writhing and Unboning their Clergy Limbs To All The Antick And
Dishonest Gestures Of Trincalos[29], Buffoons, And Bawds, Prostituting
The Shame Of That Ministry Which They Had, Or Were Near Having, To The
Eyes Of Courtiers And Court Ladies, Their Grooms And Mademoiselles."
This Is Sufficiently Peevish In a Man, Who, When He Mentions His Exile
From The College, Relates, With Great Luxuriance, The Compensation Which
The Pleasures Of The Theatre Afford Him. Plays Were, Therefore, Only
Criminal When They Were Acted by Academicks.
He Went To The University With A Design Of Entering into The Church,
But In time Altered his Mind; For He Declared, That Whoever Became A
Clergyman Must "Subscribe Slave, And Take An Oath Withal, Which, Unless
He Took With A Conscience That Could Retch, He Must Straight Perjure
Himself. He Thought It Better To Prefer A Blameless Silence, Before The
Office Of Speaking, Bought And Begun With Servitude And Forswearing."
These Expressions Are, I Find, Applied to The Subscription Of The
Articles; But It Seems More Probable That They Relate To Canonical
Obedience. I Know Not Any Of The Articles Which Seem To Thwart His
Opinions; But The Thoughts Of Obedience, Whether Canonical Or Civil,
Raised his Indignation.
His Unwillingness To Engage In the Ministry, Perhaps Not Yet Advanced to
A Settled resolution Of Declining it, Appears In a Letter To One Of His
Friends, Who Had Reproved his Suspended and Dilatory Life, Which He
Seems To Have Imputed to An Insatiable Curiosity, And Fantastick Luxury
Of Various Knowledge. To This He Writes A Cool And Plausible Answer, In
Which He Endeavours To Persuade Him, That The Delay Proceeds Not From
The Delights Of Desultory Study, But From The Desire Of Obtaining more
Fitness For His Task; And That He Goes On, "Not Taking thought Of Being
Late, So It Gives Advantage To Be More Fit."
When He Left The University He Returned to His Father, Then Residing at
Horton, In buckinghamshire, With Whom He Lived five Years; In which
Time He Is Said To Have Read All The Greek And Latin Writers. With What
Limitations This Universality Is To Be Understood, Who Shall Inform Us?
It Might Be Supposed, That He Who Read So Much Should Have Done Nothing
Else; But Milton Found Time To Write The Masque Of Comus, Which Was
Presented at Ludlow, Then The Residence Of The Lord President Of Wales,
In 1634; And Had The Honour Of Being acted by The Earl Of Bridgewater'S
Sons And Daughter. The Fiction Is Derived from Homer'S Circe[30]; But We
Never Can Refuse To Any Modern The Liberty Of Borrowing from Homer:
--"A Quo Ceu Fonte Perenni
Vatum Pieriis Ora Rigantur Aquis."
His Next Production Was Lycidas, An Elegy, Written In 1637, On The Death
Of Mr. King, The Son Of Sir John King, Secretary For Ireland In the
Time Of Elizabeth, James, And Charles. King was Much A Favourite At
Cambridge, And Many Of The Wits Joined to Do Honour To His Memory.
Milton'S Acquaintance With The Italian Writers May Be Discovered by A
Mixture Of Longer And Shorter Verses, According to The Rules Of Tuscan
Poetry, And His Malignity To The Church By Some Lines Which Are
Interpreted as Threatening its Extermination.
He Is Supposed about This Time To Have Written His Arcades; For, While
He Lived at Horton, He Used sometimes To Steal From His Studies A Few
Days, Which He Spent At Harefield, The House Of The Countess Dowager Of
Derby, Where The Arcades Made Part Of A Dramatick Entertainment.
He Began Now To Grow Weary Of The Country, And Had Some Purpose Of
Taking chambers In the Inns Of Court, When The Death Of His Mother Set
Him At Liberty To Travel, For Which He Obtained his Father'S Consent,
And Sir Henry Wotton'S Directions; With The Celebrated precept Of
Prudence, "I Pensieri Stretti, ed il Viso Sciolto;" Thoughts Close, And
Looks Loose.
In 1638 He Left England, And Went First To Paris; Where, By The Favour
Of Lord Scudamore, He Had The Opportunity Of Visiting grotius, Then
Residing at The French Court, As Ambassadour From Christina Of Sweden.
From Paris He Hasted into Italy, Of Which He Had, With Particular
Diligence, Studied the Language And Literature; And, Though He Seems
To Have Intended a Very Quick Perambulation Of The Country, Staid Two
Months At Florence; Where He Found His Way Into The Academies, And
Produced his Compositions With Such Applause, As Appears To Have Exalted
Him In his Own Opinion, And Confirmed him In the Hope, That, "By Labour
And Intense Study, Which," Says He, "I Take To Be My Portion In this
Life, Joined with A Strong Propensity Of Nature," He Might "Leave
Something so Written To Aftertimes, As They Should Not Willingly Let It
Die." It Appears, In all His Writings, That He Had The Usual Concomitant
Of Great Abilities, A Lofty And Steady Confidence In himself, Perhaps
Not Without Some Contempt Of Others; For Scarcely Any Man Ever Wrote So
Much, And Praised so Few. Of His Praise He Was Very Frugal; As He Set
Its Value High, And Considered his Mention Of A Name, As A Security
Against The Waste Of Time, And A Certain Preservative From Oblivion.
At Florence He Could Not, Indeed, Complain That His Merit Wanted
Distinction: Carlo Dati Presented him With An Encomiastick Inscription,
In The Tumid Lapidary Style; And Francini Wrote Him An Ode, Of Which The
First Stanza Is Only Empty Noise; The Rest Are, Perhaps, Too Diffuse On
Common Topicks; But The Last Is Natural And Beautiful.
From Florence He Went To Sienna, And From Sienna To Rome, Where He Was
Again Received with Kindness By The Learned and The Great. Holstenius,
The Keeper Of The Vatican Library, Who Had Resided three Years At
Oxford, Introduced him To Cardinal Barberini; And He, At A Musical
Entertainment, Waited for Him At The Door, And Led him By The Hand Into
The Assembly. Here Selvaggi Praised him In a Distich, And Salsilli In a
Tetrastick; Neither Of Them Of Much Value. The Italians Were Gainers
By This Literary Commerce; For The Encomiums With Which Milton Repaid
Salsilli, Though Not Secure Against A Stern Grammarian, Turn The Balance
Indisputably In milton'S Favour.
Of These Italian Testimonies, Poor As They Are, He Was Proud Enough To
Publish Them Before His Poems; Though He Says, He Cannot Be Suspected
But To Have Known That They Were Said, "Non Tam De Se, Quam Supra Se."
At Rome, As At Florence, He Staid Only Two Months; A Time, Indeed,
Sufficient, If He Desired only To Ramble With An Explainer Of Its
Antiquities, Or To View Palaces And Count Pictures; But Certainly Too
Short For The Contemplation Of Learning, Policy, Or Manners.
From Rome He Passed on To Naples In company Of A Hermit, A Companion
From Whom Little Could Be Expected; Yet To Him Milton Owed his
Introduction To Manso, Marquis Of Villa, Who Had Been Before The Patron
Of Tasso. Manso Was Enough Delighted with His Accomplishments To Honour
Him With A Sorry Distich, In which He Commends Him For Every Thing but
His Religion: And Milton, In return, Addressed him In a Latin Poem,
Which Must Have Raised an High Opinion Of English Elegance And
Literature.
His Purpose Was Now To Have Visited sicily And Greece; But, Hearing of
The Differences Between The King and Parliament, He Thought It Proper To
Hasten Home, Rather Than Pass His Life In foreign Amusements, While His
Countrymen Were Contending for Their Rights. He, Therefore, Came Back To
Rome, Though The Merchants Informed him Of Plots Laid Against Him By The
Jesuits, For The Liberty Of His Conversations On Religion. He Had Sense
Enough To Judge That There Was No Danger, And, Therefore, Kept On His
Way, And Acted as Before, Neither Obtruding nor Shunning controversy. He
Had, Perhaps, Given Some Offence By Visiting galileo, Then A Prisoner In
The Inquisition For Philosophical Heresy; And At Naples He Was Told By
Manso, That, By His Declarations On Religious Questions, He Had Excluded
Himself From Some Distinctions Which He Should Otherwise Have Paid Him.
But Such Conduct, Though It Did Not Please, Was Yet Sufficiently Safe;
And Milton Staid Two Months More At Rome, And Went On To Florence
Without Molestation.
From Florence He Visited lucca. He Afterwards Went To Venice; And,
Having sent Away A Collection Of Musick And Other Books, Travelled to
Geneva, Which He, Probably, Considered as The Metropolis Of Orthodoxy.
Here He Reposed, As In a Congenial Element, And Became Acquainted with
John Diodati And Frederick Spanheim, Two Learned professors Of Divinity.
From Geneva He Passed through France; And Came Home, After An Absence Of
A Year And Three Months.
At His Return He Heard Of The Death Of His Friend Charles Diodati; A
Man, Whom It Is Reasonable To Suppose, Of Great Merit, Since He Was
Thought, By Milton, Worthy Of A Poem, Entitled epitaphium Damonis,
Written With The Common, But Childish, Imitation Of Pastoral Life.
He Now Hired a Lodging at The House Of One Russet, A Tailor, In st.
Bride'S Church-Yard, And Undertook The Education Of John And Edward
Philips, His Sister'S Sons. Finding his Rooms Too Little, He Took A
House And Garden In aldersgate Street[31], Which Was Not Then So Much
Out Of The World As It Is Now; And Chose His Dwelling at The Upper End
Of A Passage, That He Might Avoid The Noise Of The Street. Here He
Received more Boys, To Be Boarded and Instructed.
Let Not Our Veneration For Milton Forbid Us To Look With Some Degree
Of Merriment On Great Promises And Small Performance, On The Man Who
Hastens Home, Because His Countrymen Are Contending for Their Liberty,
And, When He Reaches The Scene Of Action, Vapours Away His Patriotism In
A Private Boarding-School. This Is The Period Of His Life From Which All
His Biographers Seem Inclined to Shrink. They Are Unwilling that Milton
Should Be Degraded to A Schoolmaster; But, Since It Cannot Be Denied
That He Taught Boys, One Finds Out That He Taught For Nothing, And
Another, That His Motive Was Only Zeal For The Propagation Of Learning
And Virtue; And All Tell What They Do Not Know To Be True, Only To
Excuse An Act Which No Wise Man Will Consider As In itself Disgraceful.
His Father Was Alive; His Allowance Was Not Ample; And He Supplied its
Deficiencies By An Honest And Useful Employment.
It Is Told, That In the Art Of Education He Performed wonders; And A
Formidable List Is Given Of The Authors, Greek And Latin, That Were Read
In Aldersgate Street, By Youth Between Ten And Fifteen Or Sixteen Years
Of Age. Those Who Tell Or Receive These Stories Should Consider, That
Nobody Can Be Taught Faster Than He Can Learn. The Speed of The Horseman
Must Be Limited by The Power Of The Horse. Every Man, That Has Ever
Undertaken To Instruct Others, Can Tell What Slow Advances He Has Been
Able To Make, And How Much Patience It Requires To Recall Vagrant
Inattention, To Stimulate Sluggish Indifference, And To Rectify Absurd
Misapprehension.
The Purpose Of Milton, As It Seems, Was To Teach Something more Solid
Than The Common Literature Of Schools,
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