Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗

Now At An End; Criticism Is No Longer Softened by

His Bounties, Or Awed by His Splendour; And, Being able To Take A More

Steady View, Discovers Him To Be A Writer That Sometimes Glimmers, But

Rarely Shines; Feebly Laborious, And, At Best, But Pretty. His Songs Are

Upon Common Topicks; He Hopes, And Grieves, And Repents, And Despairs,

And Rejoices, Like Any Other Maker Of Little Stanzas: To Be Great, He

Hardly Tries; To Be Gay, Is Hardly In his Power[209].

 

 

 

In The Essay On Satire He Was Always Supposed to Have Had The Help Of

Dryden. His Essay On Poetry Is The Great Work For Which He Was Praised by

Roscommon, Dryden, And Pope; And, Doubtless, By Many More, Whose Eulogies

Have Perished.

 

 

 

Upon This Piece He Appears To Have Set A High Value; For He Was All His

Life Improving it By Successive Revisals, So That There Is Scarcely Any

Poem To Be Found Of Which The Last Edition Differs More From The First.

Amongst Other Changes, Mention Is Made Of Some Compositions Of Dryden,

Which Were Written After The First Appearance Of The Essay.

 

 

 

At The Time When This Work First Appeared, Milton'S Fame Was Not Yet

Fully Established, And, Therefore, Tasso And Spenser Were Set Before Him.

The Two Last Lines Were These. The Epick Poet, Says He,

 

 

 

  Must Above Milton'S Lofty Flights Prevail,

  Succeed where Great Torquato, And Where Greater Spenser, Fail.

 

 

 

The Last Line In succeeding editions Was Shortened, And The Order Of

Names Continued; But Now Milton Is At Last Advanced to The Highest Place,

And The Passage Thus Adjusted:

 

 

 

  Must Above Tasso'S Lofty Flights Prevail,

  Succeed where Spenser, And Ev'N Milton, Fail.

 

 

 

Amendments Are Seldom Made Without Some Token Of A Rent: _Lofty_ Does Not

Suit Tasso So Well As Milton.

 

 

 

One Celebrated line Seems To Be Borrowed. The Essay Calls A Perfect

Character,

 

 

 

  A Faultless Monster Which The World Ne'Er Saw.

 

 

 

Scaliger, In his Poems, Terms Virgil "Sine Labe Monstrum." Sheffield Can

Scarcely Be Supposed to Have Read Scaliger'S Poetry; Perhaps He Found The

Words In a Quotation.

 

 

 

Of This Essay, Which Dryden Has Exalted so Highly, It May Be Justly

Said, That The Precepts Are Judicious, Sometimes New, And Often Happily

Expressed; But There Are, After All The Emendations, Many Weak Lines, And

Some Strange Appearances Of Negligence; As, When He Gives The Laws Of

Elegy, He Insists Upon Connexion And Coherence; Without Which, Says He,

 

 

 

  'Tis Epigram, 'Tis Point, 'Tis What You Will;

  But Not An Elegy, Nor Writ With Skill,

  No Panegyrick, Nor A Cooper'S Hill.

 

 

 

Who Would Not Suppose That Waller'S Panegyrick And Denham'S Cooper'S Hill

Were Elegies?

 

 

 

His Verses Are Often Insipid; But His Memoirs Are Lively And Agreeable;

He Had The Perspicuity And Elegance Of An Historian, But Not The Fire And

Fancy Of A Poet.

 

 

 

[Footnote 207: His Mother Was Elizabeth, One Of The Daughters Of Lionel

Cranfield, Earl Of Middlesex. M.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 208: In the Earliest Editions Of The Duke'S Works He Is Styled

Duke Of Buckingham; And Walpole, In his Catalogue Of Noble Authors,

Mentions A Wish, Cherished by Sheffield, To Be Confounded with His

Predecessor In the Title; "But He Would More Easily," Remarks Walpole,

Sarcastically, "Have Been Mistaken With The Other Buckingham, If He Had

Not Written At All." Burnet Also, And Other Authorities, Speak Of Him

Under The Title Of Duke Of Buckingham. His Epitaph, Being in latin, Will

Not Settle The Point. It Is To Be Regretted, Therefore, That Johnson

Adduced no Better Evidence For His Doubt Than His Own Unsupported

Assertion. Ed.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 209: "The Life Of This Peer Takes Up Fourteen Pages And A Half

In Folio, In the General Dictionary, Where It Has Little Pretensions To

Occupy A Couple: But His Pious Relict Was Always Purchasing places For

Him, Herself, And Their Son, In every Suburb Of The Temple Of Fame; A

Tenure, Against Which, Of All Others, Quo-Warrantos Are Sure To Take

Place. The Author Of The Article In the Dictionary Calls The Duke One Of

The Most Beautiful Prose Writers, And Greatest Poets, Of His Age: Which

Is Also, He Says, Proved by The Finest Writers, His Contemporaries;

Certificates That Have Little Weight, Where The Merit Is Not Proved by

The Author'S Own Works. It Is Certain, That His Grace'S Compositions In

Prose Have Nothing extraordinary In them; His Poetry Is Most Indifferent,

And The Greatest Part Of Both Is Already Fallen Into Total Neglect."

Walpole'S Noble Authors, Vol. I. P. 436 Of His Works.]

 

Imprint

Publication Date: 09-05-2014

All Rights Reserved