Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
- Author: Samuel Johnson
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And Himself Waiting, For Some Time, Without Any Corpse To Bury. The
Undertaker, After Three Days' Expectance Of Orders For Embalment Without
Receiving any, Waited on The Lord Jefferies; Who, Pretending ignorance Of
The Matter, Turned it Off With An Ill-Natured jest, Saying, That Those
Who Observed the Orders Of A Drunken Frolick Deserved no Better; That He
Remembered nothing at All Of It; And That He Might Do What He Pleased
With The Corpse. Upon This, The Undertaker Waited upon The Lady Elizabeth
And Her Son, And Threatened to Bring the Corpse Home, And Set It Before
The Door. They Desired a Day'S Respite, Which Was Granted. Mr. Charles
Dryden Wrote A Handsome Letter To The Lord Jefferies, Who Returned it
With This Cool Answer: 'That He Knew Nothing of The Matter, And Would Be
Troubled no More About It.' He Then Addressed the Lord Halifax And The
Bishop Of Rochester, Who Absolutely Refused to Do Any Thing in it. In
This Distress Dr. Garth Sent For The Corpse To The College Of Physicians,
And Proposed a Funeral By Subscription, To Which Himself Set A Most Noble
Example. At Last, A Day, About Three Weeks After Mr. Dryden'S Decease,
Was Appointed for The Interment. Dr. Garth Pronounced a Fine Latin
Oration, At The College, Over The Corpse; Which Was Attended to The Abbey
By A Numerous Train Of Coaches. When The Funeral Was Over, Mr. Charles
Dryden Sent A Challenge To The Lord Jefferies, Who Refusing to Answer It,
He Sent Several Others, And Went Often Himself; But Could Neither Get A
Letter Delivered, Nor Admittance To Speak To Him: Which So Incensed
Him, That He Resolved, Since His Lordship Refused to Answer Him Like A
Gentleman, That He Would Watch An Opportunity To Meet And Fight Off-Hand,
Though With All The Rules Of Honour; Which His Lordship Hearing, Left The
Town; And Mr. Charles Dryden Could Never Have The Satisfaction Of Meeting
Him, Though He Sought It Till His Death With The Utmost Application."
This Story I Once Intended to Omit, As It Appears With No Great Evidence;
Nor Have I Met With Any Confirmation, But In a Letter Of Farquhar; And He
Only Relates That The Funeral Of Dryden Was Tumultuary And Confused.[117]
Supposing the Story True, We May Remark, That The Gradual Change Of
Manners, Though Imperceptible In the Process, Appears Great, When
Different Times, And Those Not Very Distant, Are Compared. If, At This
Time, A Young Drunken Lord Should Interrupt The Pompous Regularity Of A
Magnificent Funeral, What Would Be The Event, But That He Would Be
Justled out Of The Way, And Compelled to Be Quiet? If He Should Thrust
Himself Into A House, He Would Be Sent Roughly Away; And, What Is Yet
More To The Honour Of The Present Time, I Believe That Those Who Had
Subscribed to The Funeral Of A Man Like Dryden, Would Not, For Such An
Accident, Have Withdrawn Their Contributions[118].
He Was Buried among The Poets In westminster Abbey, Where, Though The
Duke Of Newcastle Had, In a General Dedication Prefixed by Congreve To
His Dramatick Works, Accepted thanks For His Intention Of Erecting him
A Monument, He Lay Long Without Distinction, Till The Duke Of
Buckinghamshire Gave Him A Tablet, Inscribed only With The Name Of
Dryden.
He Married the Lady Elizabeth Howard, Daughter Of The Earl Of Berkshire,
With Circumstances, According to The Satire Imputed to Lord Somers, Not
Very Honourable To Either Party: By Her He Had Three Sons, Charles, John,
And Henry. Charles Was Usher Of The Palace To Pope Clement The Eleventh;
And, Visiting england In 1704, Was Drowned in an Attempt To Swim Across
The Thames At Windsor.
John Was Author Of A Comedy Called the Husband His Own Cuckold. He Is
Said To Have Died at Rome. Henry Entered into Some Religious Order. It Is
Some Proof Of Dryden'S Sincerity In his Second Religion, That He Taught
It To His Sons. A Man Conscious Of Hypocritical Profession In himself, Is
Not Likely To Convert Others; And, As His Sons Were Qualified, In 1693,
To Appear Among The Translators Of Juvenal, They Must Have Been Taught
Some Religion Before Their Father'S Change.
Of The Person Of Dryden I Know Not Any Account; Of His Mind, The Portrait
Which Has Been Left By Congreve, Who Knew Him With Great Familiarity, Is
Such As Adds Our Love Of His Manners To Our Admiration Of His Genius. "He
Was," We Are Told, "Of A Nature Exceedingly Humane And Compassionate,
Ready To Forgive Injuries, And Capable Of A Sincere Reconciliation With
Those Who Had Offended him. His Friendship, Where He Professed it, Went
Beyond His Professions. He Was Of A Very Easy, Of Very Pleasing, Access;
But Somewhat Slow, And, As It Were, Diffident In his Advances To Others:
He Had That In his Nature Which Abhorred intrusion Into Any Society
Whatever. He Was, Therefore, Less Known, And Consequently His Character
Became More Liable To Misapprehensions And Misrepresentations: He Was
Very Modest, And Very Easily To Be Discountenanced in his Approaches To
His Equals Or Superiours. As His Reading had Been Very Extensive, So Was
He Very Happy In a Memory Tenacious Of Every Thing that He Had Read. He
Was Not More Possessed of Knowledge Than He Was Communicative Of It; But
Then His Communication Was By No Means Pedantick, Or Imposed upon The
Conversation, But Just Such, And Went So Far As, By The Natural Turn Of
The Conversation In which He Was Engaged, It Was Necessarily Promoted
Or Required. He Was Extremely Ready And Gentle In his Correction Of The
Errours Of Any Writer Who Thought Fit To Consult Him, And Full As Ready
And Patient To Admit Of The Reprehensions Of Others, In respect Of His
Own Over-Sights Or Mistakes."
To This Account Of Congreve Nothing can Be Objected but The Fondness Of
Friendship; And To Have Excited that Fondness In such A Mind Is No Small
Degree Of Praise. The Disposition Of Dryden, However, Is Shown In this
Character Rather As It Exhibited itself In cursory Conversation, Than As
It Operated on The More Important Parts Of Life. His Placability And His
Friendship, Indeed, Were Solid Virtues; But Courtesy And Good Humour Are
Often Found With Little Real Worth. Since Congreve, Who Knew Him Well,
Has Told Us No More, The Rest Must Be Collected, As It Can, From Other
Testimonies, And Particularly From Those Notices Which Dryden Has Very
Liberally Given Us Of Himself.
The Modesty Which Made Him So Slow To Advance, And So Easy To
Be Repulsed, Was Certainly No Suspicion Of Deficient Merit, Or
Unconsciousness Of His Own Value: He Appears To Have Known, In its Whole
Extent, The Dignity Of His Character, And To Have Set A Very High Value
On His Own Powers And Performances. He Probably Did Not Offer His
Conversation, Because He Expected it To Be Solicited; And He Retired from
A Cold Reception, Not Submissive But Indignant, With Such Reverence
Of His Own Greatness As Made Him Unwilling to Expose It To Neglect Or
Violation.
His Modesty Was By No Means Inconsistent With Ostentatiousness: He Is
Diligent Enough To Remind The World Of His Merit, And Expresses, With
Very Little Scruple, His High Opinion Of His Own Powers; But His
Self-Commendations Are Read Without Scorn Or Indignation; We Allow His
Claims, And Love His Frankness.
Tradition, However, Has Not Allowed that His Confidence In himself
Exempted him From Jealousy Of Others. He Is Accused of Envy And
Insidiousness; And Is Particularly Charged with Inciting creech To
Translate Horace, That He Might Lose The Reputation Which Lucretius Had
Given Him.
Of This Charge We Immediately Discover That It Is Merely Conjectural;
The Purpose Was Such As No Man Would Confess; And A Crime That Admits No
Proof, Why Should We Believe?
He Has Been Described as Magisterially Presiding over The Younger
Writers, And Assuming the Distribution Of Poetical Fame; But He Who
Excels Has A Right To Teach, And He Whose Judgment Is Incontestable, May,
Without Usurpation, Examine And Decide.
Congreve Represents Him As Ready To Advise And Instruct; But There
Is Reason To Believe That His Communication Was Rather Useful Than
Entertaining. He Declares Of Himself That He Was Saturnine, And Not
One Of Those Whose Sprightly Sayings Diverted company; And One Of His
Censurers Makes Him Say:
Nor Wine Nor Love Could Ever See Me Gay;
To Writing bred, I Knew Not What To Say[119].
There Are Men Whose Powers Operate Only At Leisure And In retirement, And
Whose Intellectual Vigour Deserts Them In conversation; Whom Merriment
Confuses, And Objection Disconcerts; Whose Bashfulness Restrains Their
Exertion, And Suffers Them Not To Speak Till The Time Of Speaking is
Past; Or Whose Attention To Their Own Character Makes Them Unwilling to
Utter At Hazard What Has Not Been Considered, And Cannot Be Recalled.
Of Dryden'S Sluggishness In conversation It Is Vain To Search Or To Guess
The Cause. He Certainly Wanted neither Sentiments Nor Language; His
Intellectual Treasures Were Great, Though They Were Locked up From His
Own Use. "His Thoughts," When He Wrote, "Flowed in upon Him So Fast, That
His Only Care Was Which To Choose, And Which To Reject." Such Rapidity Of
Composition Naturally Promises A Flow Of Talk; Yet We Must Be Content To
Believe What An Enemy Says Of Him, When He, Likewise, Says It Of Himself.
But, Whatever Was His Character As A Companion, It Appears That He Lived
In Familiarity With The Highest Persons Of His Time. It Is Related by
Carte Of The Duke Of Ormond, That He Used often To Pass A Night With
Dryden, And Those With Whom Dryden Consorted: Who They Were Carte Has
Not Told; But Certainly The Convivial Table At Which Ormond Sat Was Not
Surrounded with A Plebeian Society. He Was, Indeed, Reproached with
Boasting of His Familiarity With The Great; And Horace Will Support Him
In The Opinion, That To Please Superiours Is Not The Lowest Kind Of
Merit.The Merit Of Pleasing must, However, Be Estimated by The Means. Favour
Is Not Always Gained by Good Actions Or Laudable Qualities. Caresses And
Preferments Are Often Bestowed on The Auxiliaries Of Vice, The Procurers
Of Pleasure, Or The Flatterers Of Vanity. Dryden Has Never Been Charged
With Any Personal Agency Unworthy Of A Good Character: He Abetted vice
And Vanity Only With His Pen. One Of His Enemies Has Accused him Of
Lewdness In his Conversation; But, If Accusation Without Proof Be
Credited, Who Shall Be Innocent?
His Works Afford Too Many Examples Of Dissolute Licentiousness And Abject
Adulation; But They Were, Probably, Like His Merriment, Artificial And
Constrained; The Effects Of Study And Meditation, And His Trade Rather
Than His Pleasure.
Of The Mind That Can Trade In corruption, And Can Deliberately Pollute
Itself With Ideal Wickedness, For The Sake Of Spreading the Contagion In
Society, I Wish Not To Conceal Or Excuse The Depravity. Such Degradation
Of The Dignity Of Genius, Such Abuse Of Superlative Abilities, Cannot Be
Contemplated but With Grief And Indignation. What Consolation Can Be Had,
Dryden Has Afforded, By Living to Repent, And To Testify His Repentance.
Of Dramatick Immorality He Did Not Want Examples Among His Predecessors,
Or Companions Among His Contemporaries; But, In the Meanness And
Servility Of Hyperbolical Adulation, I Know Not Whether, Since The Days
In Which The Roman Emperours Were Deified, He Has Been Ever Equalled,
Except
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