Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
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Courtesy, Confined himself To His Question, Without Any Personal Notice
Of His Opponent.
Nothing, Hitherto, Was Committed against The Laws Of Friendship, Or
Proprieties Of Decency; But Controvertists Cannot Long Retain Their
Kindness For Each Other. The Old Whig Answered the Plebeian, And Could
Not Forbear Some Contempt Of "Little Dicky, Whose Trade It Was To Write
Pamphlets." Dicky, However, Did Not Lose His Settled veneration For His
Friend; But Contented himself With Quoting some Lines Of Cato, Which
Were At Once Detection And Reproof. The Bill Was Laid Aside During that
Session; And Addison Died before The Next, In which Its Commitment Was
Rejected by Two Hundred and Sixty-Five To One Hundred and Seventy-Seven.
Every Reader Surely Must Regret That These Two Illustrious Friends, After
So Many Years Passed in confidence And Endearment, In unity Of Interest,
Conformity Of Opinion, And Fellowship Of Study, Should Finally Part
In Acrimonious Opposition. Such A Controversy Was "Bellum Plusquam
_Civile_," As Lucan Expresses It. Why Could Not Faction Find Other
Advocates? But, Among The Uncertainties Of The Human State, We Are Doomed
To Number The Instability Of Friendship.
Of This Dispute I Have Little Knowledge But From The Biographica
Britannica. The Old Whig Is Not Inserted in addison'S Works; Nor Is It
Mentioned by Tickell In his Life; Why It Was Omitted, The Biographers,
Doubtless, Give The True Reason; The Fact Was Too Recent, And Those Who
Had Been Heated in the Contention Were Not Yet Cool.
The Necessity Of Complying with Times, And Of Sparing persons, Is The
Great Impediment Of Biography. History May Be Formed from Permanent
Monuments And Records; But Lives Can Only Be Written From Personal
Knowledge, Which Is Growing every Day Less, And In a Short Time Is Lost
For Ever. What Is Known Can Seldom Be Immediately Told; And When It Might
Be Told, It Is No Longer Known. The Delicate Features Of The Mind, The
Nice Discriminations Of Character, And The Minute Peculiarities Of
Conduct, Are Soon Obliterated; And It Is Surely Better That Caprice,
Obstinacy, Frolick, And Folly, However They Might Delight In the
Description, Should Be Silently Forgotten, Than That, By Wanton Merriment
And Unseasonable Detection, A Pang Should Be Given To A Widow, A
Daughter, A Brother, Or A Friend. As The Process Of These Narratives Is
Now Bringing me Among My Contemporaries, I Begin To Feel Myself "Walking
Upon Ashes Under Which The Fire Is Not Extinguished," And Coming to The
Time Of Which It Will Be Proper Rather To Say "Nothing that Is False,
Than All That Is True."
The End Of This Useful Life Was Now Approaching. Addison Had, For Some
Time, Been Oppressed by Shortness Of Breath, Which Was Now Aggravated
By A Dropsy; And, Finding his Danger Pressing, He Prepared to Die
Conformably To His Own Precepts And Professions.
During this Lingering decay, He Sent, As Pope Relates[190], A Message By
The Earl Of Warwick To Mr. Gay, Desiring to See Him. Gay, Who Had Not
Visited him For Some Time Before, Obeyed the Summons, And Found Himself
Received with Great Kindness. The Purpose For Which The Interview Had
Been Solicited was Then Discovered. Addison Told Him, That He Had Injured
Him; But That, If He Recovered, He Would Recompense Him. What The Injury
Was, He Did Not Explain, Nor Did Gay Ever Know, But Supposed that
Some Preferment Designed for Him Had, By Addison'S Intervention, Been
Withheld.
Lord Warwick Was A Young Man Of Very Irregular Life, And, Perhaps, Of
Loose Opinions[191]. Addison, For Whom He Did Not Want Respect, Had
Very Diligently Endeavoured to Reclaim Him; But His Arguments And
Expostulations Had No Effect. One Experiment, However, Remained to Be
Tried: When He Found His Life Near Its End, He Directed the Young Lord To
Be Called; And When He Desired, With Great Tenderness, To Hear His Last
Injunctions, Told Him: "I Have Sent For You, That You May See How A
Christian Can Die." What Effect This Awful Scene Had On The Earl, I Know
Not: He, Likewise, Died himself In a Short Time, In tickell'S Excellent
Elegy On His Friend Are These Lines:
He Taught Us How To Live; And, Oh! Too High
The Price Of Knowledge, Taught Us How To Die.
In Which He Alludes, As He Told Dr. Young, To This Moving interview.
Having given Directions To Mr. Tickell For The Publication Of His Works,
And Dedicated them On His Deathbed to His Friend Mr. Craggs, He Died june
17, 1719, At Holland-House, Leaving no Child But A Daughter[192].
Of His Virtue It Is A Sufficient Testimony, That The Resentment Of Party
Has Transmitted no Charge Of Any Crime. He Was Not One Of Those Who Are
Praised only After Death; For His Merit Was So Generally Acknowledged,
That Swift, Having observed that His Election Passed without A Contest,
Adds, That, If He Had Proposed himself For King, He Would Hardly Have
Been Refused.
His Zeal For His Party Did Not Extinguish His Kindness For The Merit Of
His Opponents: When He Was Secretary In ireland, He Refused to Intermit
His Acquaintance With Swift.
Of His Habits, Or External Manners, Nothing is So Often Mentioned as That
Timorous Or Sullen Taciturnity, Which His Friends Called modesty, By Too
Mild A Name. Steele Mentions, With Great Tenderness, "That Remarkable
Bashfulness, Which Is A Cloak That Hides And Muffles Merit;" And Tells
Us, "That His Abilities Were Covered only By Modesty, Which Doubles The
Beauties Which Are Seen, And Gives Credit And Esteem To All That Are
Concealed." Chesterfield Affirms, That "Addison Was The Most Timorous
And Awkward Man That He Ever Saw." And Addison, Speaking of His Own
Deficiency In conversation, Used to Say Of Himself, That, With Respect To
Intellectual Wealth, "He Could Draw Bills For A Thousand Pounds, Though
He Had Not A Guinea In his Pocket."
That He Wanted current Coin For Ready Payment, And, By That Want, Was
Often Obstructed and Distressed; That He Was Oppressed by An Improper And
Ungraceful Timidity; Every Testimony Concurs To Prove; But Chesterfield'S
Representation Is, Doubtless, Hyperbolical. That Man Cannot Be Supposed
Very Unexpert In the Arts Of Conversation And Practice Of Life, Who,
Without Fortune Or Alliance, By His Usefulness And Dexterity, Became
Secretary Of State; And Who Died at Forty-Seven, After Having not Only
Stood Long In the Highest Rank Of Wit And Literature, But Filled one Of
The Most Important Offices Of State.
The Time In which He Lived had Reason To Lament His Obstinacy Of Silence;
"Or He Was," Says Steele, "Above All Men In that Talent Called humour,
And Enjoyed it In such Perfection, That I Have Often Reflected, After
A Night Spent With Him Apart From All The World, That I Had Had The
Pleasure Of Conversing with An Intimate Acquaintance Of Terence And
Catullus, Who Had All Their Wit And Nature, Heightened with Humour More
Exquisite And Delightful Than Any Other Man Ever Possessed." This Is The
Fondness Of A Friend; Let Us Hear What Is Told Us By A Rival: "Addison'S
Conversation[193]," Says Pope, "Had Something in it More Charming than
I Have Found In any Other Man. But This Was Only When Familiar; Before
Strangers, Or, Perhaps, A Single Stranger, He Preserved his Dignity By A
Stiff Silence."
This Modesty Was By No Means Inconsistent With A Very High Opinion Of
His Own Merit. He Demanded to Be The First Name In modern Wit; And, With
Steele To Echo Him, Used to Depreciate Dryden, Whom Pope And Congreve
Defended against Them[194]. There Is No Reason To Doubt, That He Suffered
Too Much Pain From The Prevalence Of Pope'S Poetical Reputation; Nor Is
It Without Strong Reason Suspected, That By Some Disingenuous Acts He
Endeavoured to Obstruct It; Pope Was Not The Only Man Whom He Insidiously
Injured, Though The Only Man Of Whom He Could Be Afraid.
His Own Powers Were Such As Might Have Satisfied him With Conscious
Excellence. Of Very Extensive Learning he Has, Indeed, Given No Proofs.
He Seems To Have Had Small Acquaintance With The Sciences, And To Have
Read Little Except Latin And French; But, Of The Latin Poets, His
Dialogues On Medals Show That, He Had Perused the Works With Great
Diligence And Skill. The Abundance Of His Own Mind Left Him Little
Need of Adventitious Sentiments; His Wit Always Could Suggest What The
Occasion Demanded. He Had Read, With Critical Eyes, The Important Volume
Of Human Life, And Knew The Heart Of Man From The Depths Of Stratagem To
The Surface Of Affectation.
What He Knew He Could Easily Communicate. "This," Says Steele, "Was
Particular In this Writer, That, When He Had Taken His Resolution, Or
Made His Plan For What He Designed to Write, He Would Walk About A Room,
And Dictate It Into Language, With As Much Freedom And Ease As Any One
Could Write It Down, And Attend To The Coherence And Grammar Of What He
Dictated."
Pope[195], Who Can Be Less Suspected of Favouring his Memory, Declares
That He Wrote Very Fluently, But Was Slow And Scrupulous In correcting;
That Many Of His Spectators Were Written Very Fast, And Sent Immediately
To The Press; And That It Seemed to Be For His Advantage Not To Have Time
For Much Revisal.
"He Would Alter," Says Pope, "Any Thing to Please His Friends, Before
Publication; But Would Not Retouch His Pieces Afterwards: And, I Believe,
Not One Word In cato, To Which I Made An Objection, Was Suffered to
Stand."
The Last Line Of Cato Is Pope'S, Having been Originally Written,
And, Oh! 'Twas This That Ended cato'S Life.
Pope Might Have Made More Objections To The Six Concluding lines. In the
First Couplet The Words, "From Hence," Are Improper; And The Second Line
Is Taken From Dryden'S Virgil. Of The Next Couplet, The First Verse Being
Included in the Second, Is, Therefore, Useless; And In the Third, Discord
Is Made To Produce Strife.
Of The Course Of Addison'S Familiar Day[196], Before His Marriage, Pope
Has Given A Detail. He Had In the House With Him Budgell, And, Perhaps,
Philips. His Chief Companions Were Steele, Budgell, Philips, Carey,
Davenant, And Colonel Brett. With One Or Other Of These He Always
Breakfasted. He Studied all Morning; Then Dined at A Tavern; And Went
Afterwards To Button'S.
Button Had Been A Servant In the Countess Of Warwick'S Family; Who, Under
The Patronage Of Addison, Kept A Coffee-House On The South Side Of Russel
Street, About Two Doors From Covent Garden. Here It Was That The Wits Of
That Time Used to Assemble. It Is Said, That When Addison Had Suffered
Any Vexation From The Countess, He Withdrew The Company From Button'S
House.
From The Coffee-House He Went Again To A Tavern, Where He Often Sat Late,
And Drank Too Much Wine. In the Bottle, Discontent Seeks For Comfort,
Cowardice For Courage, And Bashfulness Tot Confidence. It Is Not Unlikely
That Addison Was First Seduced to Excess By The Manumission Which He
Obtained from The Servile Timidity Of His Sober Hours. He That Feels
Oppression From The Presence Of Those To Whom He Knows Himself Superiour,
Will Desire To Set Loose His Powers Of Conversation; And Who, That Ever
Asked succours From Bacchus, Was Able To Preserve Himself From Being
Enslaved by His Auxiliary?
Among Those Friends It Was That Addison Displayed the Elegance Of His
Colloquial Accomplishments, Which May Easily Be Supposed such As Pope
Represents Them. The Remark Of Mandeville, Who, When He Had Passed an
Evening in his Company, Declared that He Was A Parson In a Tie-Wig, Can
Detract Little From His Character; He Was Always Reserved to Strangers,
And Was Not Incited to Uncommon Freedom By A Character Like That Of
Mandeville.
From Any Minute Knowledge Of His Familiar Manners, The Intervention Of
Sixty Years Has Now Debarred us. Steele Once Promised congreve And The
Publick A Complete Description Of His Character; But The Promises Of
Authors Are Like The Vows Of Lovers. Steele Thought No More On His
Design, Or Thought On It With Anxiety That At Last Disgusted him, And
Left His Friend In the Hands Of Tickell.
One Slight Lineament Of His Character Swift Has Preserved. It Was His
Practice, When He Found Any Man Invincibly Wrong, To Flatter His Opinions
By Acquiescence, And Sink Him Yet Deeper In absurdity. This Artifice
Of Mischief Was Admired by Stella; And Swift Seems To Approve Her
Admiration.
His Works Will Supply Some Information. It Appears, From His Various
Pictures Of The World, That, With All His Bashfulness, He Had Conversed
With Many Distinct Classes Of Men, Had Surveyed their Ways With Very
Diligent Observation, And Marked, With Great Acuteness, The Effects
Of Different Modes Of Life. He Was A Man In whose Presence Nothing
Reprehensible Was Out Of Danger; Quick In discerning whatever Was Wrong
Or Ridiculous, And Not Unwilling to Expose It. "There Are," Says Steele,
"In His Writings Many Oblique Strokes Upon Some Of The Wittiest Paen Of
The Age." His Delight Was More To Excite Merriment Than Detestation; And
He Detects Follies Rather Than Crimes.
If Any Judgment Be Made, From
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