Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
- Author: Samuel Johnson
Book online «Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗». Author Samuel Johnson
Written; And Halifax Expected the Author With His Book, And Had Prepared
To Reward Him With A Place Of Three Hundred pounds A Year. Smith, By
Pride, Or Caprice, Or Indolence, Or Bashfulness, Neglected to Attend Him,
Though Doubtless Warned and Pressed by His Friends, And, At Last, Missed
His Reward By Not Going to Solicit It.
Addison Has, In the Spectator, Mentioned the Neglect Of Smith'S Tragedy
As Disgraceful To The Nation, And Imputes It To The Fondness For Operas,
Then Prevailing. The Authority Of Addison Is Great; Yet The Voice Of The
People, When To Please The People Is The Purpose, Deserves Regard. In
This Question, I Cannot But Think The People In the Right. The Fable Is
Mythological, A Story Which We Are Accustomed to Reject As False; And The
Manners Are So Distant From Our Own, That We Know Them Not From Sympathy,
But By Study: The Ignorant Do Not Understand The Action; The Learned
Reject It As A Schoolboy'S Tale; "Incredulus Odi;" What I Cannot For A
Moment Believe, I Cannot For A Moment Behold With Interest Or Anxiety.
The Sentiments Thus Remote From Life Are Removed yet Further By The
Diction, Which Is Too Luxuriant And Splendid For Dialogue, And Envelopes
The Thoughts Rather Than Displays Them. It Is A Scholar'S Play, Such As
May Please The Reader Rather Than The Spectator; The Work Of A Vigorous
And Elegant Mind, Accustomed to Please Itself With Its Own Conceptions,
But Of Little Acquaintance With The Course Of Life.
Dennis Tells Us, In one Of His Pieces, That He Had Once A Design To Have
Written The Tragedy Of Phaedra; But Was Convinced that The Action Was Too
Mythological.
In 1709, A Year After The Exhibition Of Phaedra, Died john Philips, The
Friend And Fellow-Collegian Of Smith, Who, On That Occasion, Wrote A
Poem, Which Justice Must Place Among The Best Elegies Which Our Language
Can Show, An Elegant Mixture Of Fondness And Admiration, Of Dignity
And Softness. There Are Some Passages Too Ludicrous; But Every Human
Performance Has Its Faults.
This Elegy It Was The Mode Among His Friends To Purchase For A Guinea;
And, As His Acquaintance Was Numerous, It Was A Very Profitable Poem.
Of His Pindar, Mentioned by Oldisworth, I Have Never Otherwise Heard.
His Longinus He Intended to Accompany With Some Illustrations, And Had
Selected his Instances Of The False Sublime From The Works Of Blackmore.
He Resolved to Try Again The Fortune Of The Stage, With The Story Of Lady
Jane Grey. It Is Not Unlikely, That His Experience Of The Inefficacy And
Incredibility Of A Mythological Tale Might Determine Him To Choose An
Action From English History, At No Great Distance From Our Own Times,
Which Was To End In a Real Event, Produced by The Operation Of Known
Characters.
A Subject Will Not Easily Occur That Can Give More Opportunities
Of Informing the Understanding, For Which Smith Was Unquestionably
Qualified, Or For Moving the Passions, In which I Suspect Him To Have Had
Less Power.
Having formed his Plan, And Collected materials, He Declared, That A Few
Months Would Complete His Design; And, That He Might Pursue His Work With
Less Frequent Avocations, He Was, In june 1710, Invited, By Mr. George
Ducket To His House, At Gartham, In wiltshire. Here He Found Such
Opportunities Of Indulgence As Did Not Much Forward His Studies, And
Particularly Some Strong Ale, Too Delicious To Be Resisted. He Ate And
Drank Till He Found Himself Plethorick; And Then, Resolving to Ease
Himself By Evacuation, He Wrote To An Apothecary In the Neighbourhood A
Prescription Of A Purge So Forcible, That The Apothecary Thought It His
Duty To Delay It, Till He Had Given Notice Of Its Danger. Smith, Not
Pleased with The Contradiction Of A Shopman, And Boastful Of His Own
Knowledge, Treated the Notice With Rude Contempt, And Swallowed his Own
Medicine, Which, In july, 1710, Brought Him To The Grave. He Was Buried
At Gartham.
Many Years Afterwards, Ducket Communicated to Oldmixon, The Historian,
An Account, Pretended to Have Been Received from Smith, That Clarendon'S
History Was, In its Publication, Corrupted by Aldrich, Smalridge,
And Atterbury; And That Smith Was Employed to Forge And Insert The
Alterations.
This Story Was Published triumphantly By Oldmixon, And May Be Supposed
To Have Been Eagerly Received; But Its Progress Was Soon Checked; For,
Finding its Way Into The Journal Of Trevoux, It Fell Under The Eye Of
Atterbury, Then An Exile In france, Who Immediately Denied the Charge,
With This Remarkable Particular, That He Never, In his Whole Life, Had
Once Spoken To Smith[129]; His Company Being, As Must Be Inferred, Not
Accepted by Those Who Attended to Their Characters.
The Charge Was Afterwards Very Diligently Refuted, By Dr. Burton, Of
Eton, A Man Eminent For Literature, And, Though Not Of The Same Party
With Aldrich And Atterbury, Too Studious Of Truth To Leave Them Burdened
With A False Charge. The Testimonies Which He Has Collected have
Convinced mankind, That Either Smith Or Ducket Was Guilty Of Wilful And
Malicious Falsehood.
This Controversy Brought Into View Those Parts Of Smith'S Life, Which,
With More Honour To His Name, Might Have Been Concealed.
Of Smith I Can Yet Say A Little More. He Was A Man Of Such Estimation
Among His Companions, That The Casual Censures Or Praises, Which He
Dropped in conversation, Were Considered, Like Those Of Scaliger, As
Worthy Of Preservation.
He Had Great Readiness And Exactness Of Criticism, And, By A Cursory
Glance Over A New Composition, Would Exactly Tell All Its Faults And
Beauties.
He Was Remarkable For The Power Of Reading with Great Rapidity, And Of
Retaining, With Great Fidelity, What He So Easily Collected.
He, Therefore, Always Knew What The Present Question Required; And, When
His Friends Expressed their Wonder At His Acquisitions, Made In a State
Of Apparent Negligence And Drunkenness, He Never Discovered his Hours Of
Reading, Or Method Of Study, But Involved himself In affected silence,
And Fed his Own Vanity With Their Admiration And Conjectures.
One Practice He Had, Which Was Easily Observed: If Any Thought Or Image
Was Presented to His Mind, That He Could Use Or Improve, He Did Not
Suffer It To Be Lost; But, Amidst The Jollity Of A Tavern, Or In the
Warmth Of Conversation, Very Diligently Committed it To Paper.
Thus It Was That He Had Gathered two Quires Of Hints For His New Tragedy;
Of Which Howe, When They Were Put Into His Hands, Could Make, As He Says,
Very Little Use, But Which The Collector Considered as A Valuable Stock
Of Materials.
When He Came To London, His Way Of Life Connected him With The Licentious
And Dissolute; And He Affected the Airs And Gaiety Of A Man Of Pleasure;
But His Dress Was Always Deficient; Scholastick Cloudiness Still Hung
About Him; And His Merriment Was Sure To Produce The Scorn Of His
Companions.
With All His Carelessness And All His Vices, He Was One Of The Murmurers
At Fortune; And Wondered why He Was Suffered to Be Poor, When Addison Was
Caressed and Preferred; Nor Would A Very Little Have Contented him; For
He Estimated his Wants At Six Hundred pounds A Year.
In His Course Of Reading it Was Particular, That He Had Diligently
Perused, And Accurately Remembered, The Old Romances Of Knight-Errantry.
He Had A High Opinion Of His Own Merit, And Was Something contemptuous In
His Treatment Of Those Whom He Considered as Not Qualified to Oppose Or
Contradict Him. He Had Many Frailties; Yet It Cannot But Be Supposed that
He Had Great Merit, Who Could Obtain To The Same Play A Prologue From
Addison, And An Epilogue From Prior; And Who Could Have At Once The
Patronage Of Halifax, And The Praise Of Oldisworth.
For The Power Of Communicating these Minute Memorials, I Am Indebted
To My Conversation With Gilbert Walmsley[130], Late Registrar Of The
Ecclesiastical Court Of Lichfield, Who Was Acquainted both With Smith And
Ducket; And Declared, That, If The Tale Concerning clarendon Were Forged,
He Should Suspect Ducket Of The Falsehood, "For _Rag_ Was A Man Of Great
Veracity."
Of Gilbert Walmsley, Thus Presented to My Mind, Let Me Indulge Myself In
The Remembrance. I Knew Him Very Early: He Was One Of The First Friends
That Literature Procured me, And I Hope That, At Least, My Gratitude Made
Me Worthy Of His Notice.
He Was Of An Advanced age, And I Was Only Not A Boy; Yet He Never
Received my Notions With Contempt. He Was A Whig, With All The Virulence
And Malevolence Of His Party; Yet Difference Of Opinion Did Not Keep Us
Apart. I Honoured him, And He Endured me.
He Had Mingled with The Gay World, Without Exemption From Its Vices Or
Its Follies, But Had Never Neglected the Cultivation Of His Mind; His
Belief Of Revelation Was Unshaken; His Learning preserved his Principles;
He Grew First Regular, And Then Pious.
His Studies Had Been So Various, That I Am Not Able To Name A Man Of
Equal Knowledge. His Acquaintance With Books Was Great: And What He Did
Not Immediately Know, He Could, At Least, Tell Where To Find. Such Was
His Amplitude Of Learning, And Such His Copiousness Of Communication,
That It May Be Doubted whether A Day Now Passes In which I Have Not Some
Advantage From His Friendship.
At This Man'S Table I Enjoyed many Cheerful And Instructive Hours, With
Companions Such As Are Not Often Found; With One Who Has Lengthened, And
One Who Has Gladdened life; With Dr. James, Whose Skill In physick
Will Be Long Remembered; And With David Garrick, Whom I Hoped to Have
Gratified with This Character Of Our Common Friend; But What Are The
Hopes Of Man! I Am Disappointed by That Stroke Of Death, Which Has
Eclipsed the Gaiety Of Nations, And Impoverished the Publick Stock Of
Harmless Pleasure.
In The Library At Oxford Is The Following ludicrous Analysis Of
Pocockius:
Ex Autographo.
[Sent By The Author To Mr. Urry.]
Opusculum Hoc, Halberdarie Amplissime, In lucem Proferre Hactenus
Distuli, Judicii Tui Acumen Subveritus Magis Quam Bipennis. Tandem
Aliquando Oden Hanc Ad Te Mitto Sublimem, Teneram, Flebilem, Suavem,
Qualem Demum Divinus (Si Musis Vacaret) Scripsisset Gastrellus: Adeo
Scilicet Sublimem Ut Inter Legendum Dormire, Adeo Flebilem Ut Ridere
Velis. Cujus Elegantiam Ut Melius Inspicias, Versuum Ordinem Et Materiam
Breviter Referam. 1Mus Versus De Duobus Praeliis Decantatis. 2Dus Et 3Us
De Lotharingio, Cuniculis Subterraneis, Saxis, Ponto, Hostibus, Et
Asia. 4Tus Et 5Tus De Catenis, Sudibus, Uncis, Draconibus, Tigribus Et
Crocodilis. 6Us, 7Us, 8Us, 9Us De Gomorrha, De Babylone, Babele, Et
Quodam Domi Suae Peregrine. 10Us, Aliquid De Quodam Pocockio. 11Us, 12Us,
De Syria, Solyma. 13Us, 14Us, De Hosea, Et Quercu, Et De Juvene Quodam
Valde Sene. 15Us, 16Us, De Aetna, Et Quomodo Aetna Pocockio Sit Valde
Similis. 17Us, 18Us, De Tuba, Astro, Umbra, Flammis, Rotis, Pocockio Non
Neglecto. Caetera, De Christianis, Ottomanis, Babyloniis, Arabibus, Et
Gravissima Agrorum Melancholia; De Caesare, _Flacco_[131], Nestore,
Et Miserando Juvenis Cujusdam Florentissimi Fato, Anno Aetatis Suae
Centesimo Praemature Abrepti. Quae Omnia Cum Accurate Expenderis, Necesse
Est Ut Oden Hanc Meam Admiranda Plane Varietate Constare Fatearis.
Subito Ad Batavos Proficiscor, Lauro Ab Illis Donandus. Prius Vero
Pembrochienses Voco Ad Certamen Poeticum. Vale.
Illustrissima Tua Deosculor Crura.
E. Smith.
[Footnote 125: Dr. Ralph Bathurst, Whose Life And Literary Remains Were
Published in 1761, By Mr. Thomas Warton. C.]
[Footnote 126: By His Epitaph He Appears To Have Been Forty-Two Years Old
When He Died. He Was, Consequently, Born In the Year 1668. R.
He Was Born In 1662, As Appears From The Register Of Matriculations Among
The Archives Of The University Of Oxford.]
[Footnote 127: He Was Elected to Cambridge, 1688; But, As Has Been Before
Stated, Went To Oxford. J.B.]
[Footnote 128: Cowley On Sir R. Wotton. L. B.]
[Footnote 129: See Bishop Atterbury'S Epistolary Correspondence, 1799,
Vol. Iii. Pp. 126, 133. In the Same Work, Vol. I. P. 325, It Appears That
Smith Was At One Time Suspected, By Atterbury, To Have Been The Author Of
The Tale Of A Tub. N. See Idler, No. 65.]
[Footnote 130: See Prefatory Remarks To Irene, Vol. I. P. 25.]
[Footnote 131: Pro _Flacco_, Animo Paulo Attentiore, Scripsissem
_Marone_.]
Duke
Of Mr. Richard Duke I Can Find Few Memorials. He Was Bred at
Westminster[132] And Cambridge; And Jacob Relates, That He
Comments (0)