Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
- Author: Samuel Johnson
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He Left Several Children By His Second Wife; Of Whom, His Daughter Was
Married to Dr. Birch. Benjamin, The Eldest Son, Was Disinherited, And
Sent To New Jersey, As Wanting common Understanding. Edmund, The Second
Son, Inherited the Estate, And Represented agmondesham In parliament,
But, At Last, Turned quaker. William, The Third Son, Was A Merchant In
London. Stephen, The Fourth, Was An Eminent Doctor Of Laws, And One Of
The Commissioners For The Union. There Is Said To Have Been A Fifth, Of
Whom No Account Has Descended.
The Character Of Waller, Both Moral And Intellectual, Has Been Drawn By
Clarendon, To Whom He Was Familiarly Known, With Nicety, Which Certainly
None To Whom He Was Not Known Can Presume To Emulate. It Is, Therefore,
Inserted here, With Such Remarks As Others Have Supplied; After Which,
Nothing remains But A Critical Examination Of His Poetry.
"Edmund Waller," Says Clarendon, "Was Born To A Very Fair Estate, By The
Parsimony, Or Frugality, Of A Wise Father And Mother: And He Thought It
So Commendable An Advantage, That He Resolved to Improve It With His
Utmost Care, Upon Which, In his Nature, He Was Too Much Intent; And, In
Order To That, He Was So Much Reserved and Retired, That He Was Scarce
Ever Heard Of, Till, By His Address And Dexterity, He Had Gotten A Very
Rich Wife In the City, Against All The Recommendation And Countenance And
Authority Of The Court, Which Was Thoroughly Engaged on The Behalf Of
Mr. Crofts, And Which Used to Be Successful, In that Age, Against Any
Opposition. He Had The Good Fortune To Have An Alliance And Friendship
With Dr. Morley, Who Had Assisted and Instructed him In the Reading many
Good Books, To Which His Natural Parts And Promptitude Inclined him,
Especially The Poets; And, At The Age When Other Men Used to Give Over
Writing verses, (For He Was Near Thirty Years When He First Engaged
Himself In that Exercise, At Least That He Was Known To Do So,) He
Surprised the Town With Two Or Three Pieces Of That Kind; As If A Tenth
Muse Had Been Newly Born To Cherish Drooping poetry. The Doctor, At That
Time, Brought Him Into That Company Which Was Most Celebrated for Good
Conversation; Where He Was Received and Esteemed with Great Applause And
Respect. He Was A Very Pleasant Discourser, In earnest And In jest, And,
Therefore, Very Grateful To All Kind Of Company, Where He Was Not The
Less Esteemed for Being very Rich.
"He Had Been Even Nursed in parliaments, Where He Sat When He Was Very
Young; And So, When They Were Resumed again, (After A Long Intermission,)
He Appeared in those Assemblies With Great Advantage; Having a Graceful
Way Of Speaking, And By Thinking much On Several Arguments, (Which His
Temper And Complexion, That Had Much Of Melancholick, Inclined him To,)
He Seemed often To Speak Upon The Sudden, When The Occasion Had Only
Administered the Opportunity Of Saying what He Had Thoroughly Considered,
Which Gave A Great Lustre To All He Said; Which Yet Was Rather Of Delight
Than Weight. There Needs No More Be Said To Extol The Excellence And
Power Of His Wit, And Pleasantness Of His Conversation, Than That It Was
Of Magnitude Enough To Cover A World Of Very Great Faults; That Is, So To
Cover Them, That They Were Not Taken Notice Of To His Reproach; Viz. A
Narrowness In his Nature To The Lowest Degree; An Abjectness And Want Of
Courage To Support Him In any Virtuous Undertaking; An Insinuation And
Servile Flattery To The Height, The Vainest And Most Imperious Nature
Could Be Contented with; That It Preserved and Won His Life From Those
Who Were Most Resolved to Take It, And In an Occasion In which He Ought
To Have Been Ambitious To Have Lost It; And Then Preserved him Again From
The Reproach And Contempt That Was Due To Him For So Preserving it, And
For Vindicating it At Such A Price; That It Had Power To Reconcile Him To
Those Whom He Had Most Offended and Provoked; And Continued to His Age
With That Rare Felicity, That His Company Was Acceptable Where His Spirit
Was Odious; And He Was, At Least, Pitied where He Was Most Detested."
Such Is The Account Of Clarendon; On Which It May Not Be Improper To Make
Some Remarks.
"He Was Very Little Known Till He Had Obtained a Rich Wife In the City."
He Obtained a Rich Wife About The Age Of Three-And-Twenty; An Age Before
Which Few Men Are Conspicuous Much To Their Advantage. He Was Known,
However, In parliament And At Court; And, If He Spent Part Of His Time
In Privacy, It Is Not Unreasonable To Suppose, That He Endeavoured the
Improvement Of His Mind, As Well As Of His Fortune.
That Clarendon Might Misjudge The Motive Of His Retirement Is The More
Probable, Because He Has Evidently Mistaken The Commencement Of His
Poetry, Which He Supposes Him Not To Have Attempted before Thirty. As
His First Pieces Were, Perhaps, Not Printed, The Succession Of His
Compositions Was Not Known; And Clarendon, Who Cannot Be Imagined to
Have Been Very Studious Of Poetry, Did Not Rectify His First Opinion By
Consulting waller'S Book.
Clarendon Observes, That He Was Introduced to The Wits Of The Age By Dr.
Morley; But The Writer Of His Life Relates That He Was Already Among
Them, When, Hearing a Noise In the Street, And Inquiring the Cause, They
Found A Son Of Ben Jonson Under An Arrest. This Was Morley, Whom Waller
Set Free, At The Expense Of One Hundred pounds, Took Him Into The Country
As Director Of His Studies, And Then Procured him Admission Into The
Company Of The Friends Of Literature. Of This Fact Clarendon Had A Nearer
Knowledge Than The Biographer, And Is, Therefore, More To Be Credited.
The Account Of Waller'S Parliamentary Eloquence Is Seconded by Burnet,
Who, Though He Calls Him "The Delight Of The House," Adds, That "He Was
Only Concerned to Say That Which Should Make Him Be Applauded; He Never
Laid The Business Of The House To Heart, Being a Vain And Empty, Though A
Witty Man."
Of His Insinuation And Flattery It Is Not Unreasonable To Believe That
The Truth Is Told. Ascham, In his Elegant Description Of Those Whom, In
Modern Language, We Term Wits, Says, That They Are "Open Flatterers, And
Privy Mockers." Waller Showed a Little Of Both, When, Upon Sight Of The
Dutchess Of Newcastle'S Verses On The Death Of A Stag, He Declared that
He Would Give All His Own Compositions To Have Written Them; And, Being
Charged with The Exorbitance Of His Adulation, Answered, That "Nothing
Was Too Much To Be Given, That A Lady Might Be Saved from The Disgrace Of
Such A Vile Performance." This, However, Was No Very Mischievous Or Very
Unusual Deviation From Truth: Had His Hypocrisy Been Confined to Such
Transactions, He Might Have Been Forgiven, Though Not Praised; For Who
Forbears To Flatter An Author Or A Lady.
Of The Laxity Of His Political Principles, And The Weakness Of His
Resolution, He Experienced the Natural Effect, By Losing the Esteem Of
Every Party. From Cromwell He Had Only His Recall; And From Charles The
Second, Who Delighted in his Company, He Obtained only The Pardon Of His
Relation Hampden, And The Safety Of Hampden'S Son.
As Far As Conjecture Can Be Made From The Whole Of His Writing, And His
Conduct, He Was Habitually And Deliberately A Friend To Monarchy. His
Deviation Towards Democracy Proceeded from His Connexion With Hampden,
For Whose Sake He Prosecuted crawley With Great Bitterness; And The
Invective Which He Pronounced on That Occasion Was So Popular, That
Twenty Thousand Copies Are Said, By His Biographer, To Have Been Sold In
One Day.
It Is Confessed that His Faults Still Left Him Many Friends, At Least
Many Companions. His Convivial Power Of Pleasing is Universally
Acknowledged; But Those Who Conversed with Him Intimately, Found Him Not
Only Passionate, Especially In his Old Age, But Resentful; So That The
Interposition Of Friends Was Sometimes Necessary.
His Wit And His Poetry Naturally Connected him With The Polite Writers
Of His Time: He Was Joined with Lord Buckhurst In the Translation Of
Corneille'S Pompey; And Is Said To Have Added his Help To That Of Cowley
In The Original Draught Of The Rehearsal.
The Care Of His Fortune, Which Clarendon Imputes To Him, In a Degree
Little Less Than Criminal, Was Either Not Constant Or Not Successful;
For, Having inherited a Patrimony Of Three Thousand Five Hundred pounds A
Year In the Time Of James The First, And Augmented it, At Least, By One
Wealthy Marriage, He Left, About The Time Of The Revolution, An Income Of
Not More Than Twelve Or Thirteen Hundred; Which, When The Different Value
Of Money Is Reckoned, Will Be Found, Perhaps, Not More Than A Fourth Part
Of What He Once Possessed.
Of This Diminution, Part Was The Consequence Of The Gifts Which He Was
Forced to Scatter, And The Fine Which He Was Condemned to Pay At The
Detection Of His Plot; And If His Estate, As Is Related in his Life, Was
Sequestered, He Had Probably Contracted debts When He Lived in exile;
For We Are Told, That At Paris He Lived in splendour, And Was The Only
Englishman, Except The Lord St. Albans, That Kept A Table.
His Unlucky Plot Compelled him To Sell A Thousand A Year; Of The Waste
Of The Rest There Is No Account, Except That He Is Confessed, By His
Biographer, To Have Been A Bad Economist. He Seems To Have Deviated from
The Common Practice; To Have Been A Hoarder In his First Years, And A
Squanderer In his Last.
Of His Course Of Studies, Or Choice Of Books, Nothing is Known More Than
That He Professed himself Unable To Read Chapman'S Translation Of Homer,
Without Rapture. His Opinion Concerning the Duty Of A Poet Is Contained
In His Declaration, That "He Would Blot From His Works Any Line That Did
Not Contain Some Motive To Virtue."
* * * * *
The Characters, By Which Waller Intended to Distinguish His Writings, Are
Sprightliness And Dignity; In his Smaller Pieces, He Endeavours To Be
Gay; In the Larger, To Be Great. Of His Airy And Light Productions, The
Chief Source Is Gallantry, That Attentive Reverence Of Female Excellence
Which Has Descended to Us From The Gothick Ages. As His Poems Are
Commonly Occasional, And His Addresses Personal, He Was Not So Liberally
Supplied with Grand As With Soft Images; For Beauty Is More Easily Found
Than Magnanimity.
The Delicacy Which He Cultivated, Restrains Him To A Certain Nicety
And Caution, Even When He Writes Upon The Slightest Matter. He Has,
Therefore, In his Whole Volume, Nothing burlesque, And Seldom Any Thing
Ludicrous Or Familiar. He Seems Always To Do His Best; Though His
Subjects Are Often Unworthy Of His Care. It Is Not Easy To Think Without
Some Contempt On An Author Who Is Growing illustrious In his Own Opinion
By Verses, At One Time, To A Lady Who Can Do Any Thing but Sleep When She
Pleases; At Another, To A Lady Who Can Sleep When She Pleases; Now, To A
Lady On Her Passing through A Crowd Of People; Then, On A Braid Of Divers
Colours, Woven By Four Fair Ladies; On A Tree Cut In paper; Or, To A
Lady, From Whom He Received the Copy Of Verses On The Paper Tree, Which
For Many Years Had Been Missing.
Genius Now And Then Produces A Lucky Trifle. We Still Read The Dove Of
Anacreon, And Sparrow Of Catullus; And A Writer Naturally Pleases Himself
With A Performance, Which Owes Nothing to The Subject. But Compositions
Merely Pretty Have The Fate Of Other Pretty Things, And Are Quitted in
Time For Something useful: They Are Flowers Fragrant And Fair, But Of
Short Duration; Or They Are Blossoms To Be Valued only As They Foretell
Fruits. Among Waller'S Little Poems Are Some Which Their Excellency Ought
To Secure From Oblivion; As, To Amoret, Comparing the Different Modes
Of Regard, With Which He Looks On Her And Sacharissa; And The Verses On
Love, That Begin, "Anger In hasty Words Or Blows."
In Others He Is Not Equally Successful; Sometimes His Thoughts Are
Deficient, And Sometimes His Expression.
The Numbers Are Not Always Musical; As,
Fair Venus, In thy Soft Arms
The God Of Rage Confine:
For Thy Whispers Are The Charms
Which Only Can Divert His Fierce Design.
What Though He Frown, And To Tumult Do Incline;
Thou The Flame
Kindled in his Breast Canst Tame
With That Snow Which Unmelted lies On Thine.
He Seldom, Indeed, Fetches An Amorous Sentiment From The Depths Of
Science; His Thoughts Are, For The Most Part, Easily Understood, And His
Images Such As The Superficies Of Nature Readily Supplies; He
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