Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 45

It is however older than his time.

[142] See Johnson's _Works_, vii. 134, 212, and viii. 386.

[143] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 452) writes of Johnson's '_Billingsgate on Milton_.' A later letter shows that, like so many of Johnson's critics, he had not read the _Life_. _Ib_. p. 508.

[144] _Works_, vii. 108.

[145] Thirty years earlier he had written of Milton as 'that poet whose works may possibly be read when every other monument of British greatness shall be obliterated.' _Ante_, i. 230. See _ante_, ii. 239.

[146] Earl Stanhope (_Life of Pitt_, ii. 65) describes this Society in 1790, 'as a Club, till then of little note, which had a yearly festival in commemoration of the events of 1688. It had been new-modelled, and enlarged with a view to the transactions at Paris, but still retained its former name to imply a close connection between the principles of 1688 in England, and the principles of 1789 in France.' The Earl Stanhope of that day presided at the anniversary meeting on Nov. 4, 1789. Nov. 4 was the day on which William III. landed.

[147] See _An Essay on the Life, Character, and writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson_, London, 1787; which is very well written, making a proper allowance for the democratical bigotry of its authour; whom I cannot however but admire for his liberality in speaking thus of my ill.u.s.trious friend:--

'He possessed extraordinary powers of understanding, which were much cultivated by study, and still more by meditation and reflection. His memory was remarkably retentive, his imagination uncommonly vigorous, and his judgement keen and penetrating. He had a strong sense of the importance of religion; his piety was sincere, and sometimes ardent; and his zeal for the interests of virtue was often manifested in his conversation and in his writings. The same energy which was displayed in his literary productions was exhibited also in his conversation, which was various, striking, and instructive; and perhaps no man ever equalled him for nervous and pointed repartees.'

'His _Dictionary_, his moral Essays, and his productions in polite literature, will convey useful instruction, and elegant entertainment, as long as the language in which they are written shall be understood.' BOSWELL.

[148] Boswell paraphrases the following pa.s.sage:--'The King, with lenity of which the world has had perhaps no other example, declined to be the judge or avenger of his own or his father's wrongs; and promised to admit into the Act of Oblivion all, except those whom the Parliament should except; and the Parliament doomed none to capital punishment but the wretches who had immediately co-operated in the murder of the King.

Milton was certainly not one of them; he had only justified what they had done.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 95.

[149]

'Though fall'n on evil days, On evil days though fall'n and evil tongues, In darkness, and with dangers compast round.'

_Paradise Lost_, vii. 26.

[150] Johnson's _Works_, vii. 105.

[151] 'His political notions were those of an acrimonious and surly republican.' _Ib_. p. 116.

[152] 'What we know of Milton's character in domestick relations is, that he was severe and arbitrary.' _Ib._ p. 116.

[153] 'His theological opinions are said to have been first, Calvinistical; and afterwards, perhaps when he began to hate the Presbyterians, to have tended towards Arminianism.... He appears to have been untainted by any heretical peculiarity of opinion.' _Ib._ p. 115.

[154] Mr. Malone things it is rather a proof that he felt nothing of those cheerful sensations which he has described: that on these topicks it is the _poet_, and not the _man_, that writes. BOSWELL.

[155] See _ante_, i. 427, ii. 124, and iv. 20, for Johnson's condemnation of blank verse. This condemnations was not universal. Of Dryden, he wrote (_Works_, vii. 249):--'He made rhyming tragedies, till, by the prevalence of manifest propriety, he seems to have grown ashamed of making them any longer.' His own _Irene_ is in blank verse; though Macaulay justly remarks of it:--'He had not the slightest notion of what blank verse should be.' (Macaulay's _Writings and Speeches_, ed. 1871, p. 380.) Of Thomson's _Seasons_, he says (_Works_, vii. 377):--'His is one of the works in which blank verse seems properly used.' Of Young's _Night Thoughts_:--'This is one of the few poems in which blank verse could not be changed for rhyme but with disadvantage.' _Ib_. p. 460. Of Milton himself, he writes:--'Whatever be the advantages of rhyme, I cannot prevail on myself to wish that Milton had been a rhymer; for I cannot wish his work to be other than it is; yet, like other heroes, he is to be admired rather than imitated.' _Ib_. vii. 142. How much he felt the power of Milton's blank verse is shewn by his _Rambler_, No. 90, where, after stating that 'the n.o.blest and most majestick pauses which our versification admits are upon the fourth and sixth syllables,' he adds:--' Some pa.s.sages [in Milton] which conclude at this stop [the sixth syllable] I could never read without some strong emotions of delight or admiration.' 'If,' he continues, 'the poetry of Milton be examined with regard to the pauses and flow of his verses into each other, it will appear that he has performed all that our language would admit.' Cowper was so indignant at Johnson's criticism of Milton's blank verse that he wrote:--'Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pocket.' Southey's _Cowper_, iii. 315.

[156] One of the most natural instances of the effect of blank verse occurred to the late Earl of Hopeton. His Lordship observed one of his shepherds poring in the fields upon Milton's _Paradise Lost_; and having asked him what book it was, the man answered, 'An't please your Lordship, this is a very odd sort of an authour: he would fain rhyme, but cannot get at it.' BOSWELL. 'The variety of pauses, so much boasted by the lovers of blank verse, changes the measures of an English poet to the periods of a declaimer; and there are only a few skilful and happy readers of Milton, who enable their audience to perceive where the lines end or begin. "Blank verse," said an ingenious critick, "seems to be verse only to the eye."' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 141. In the _Life of Roscommon_ (_ib_. p. 171), he says:--'A poem frigidly didactick, without rhyme, is so near to prose, that the reader only scorns it for pretending to be verse.'

[157] Mr. Locke. Often mentioned in Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_.

[158] See vol. in. page 71. BOSWELL.

[159] It is scarcely a defence. Whatever it was, he thus ends it:-'It is natural to hope, that a comprehensive is likewise an elevated soul, and that whoever is wise is also honest. I am willing to believe that Dryden, having employed his mind, active as it was, upon different studies, and filled it, capacious as it was, with other materials, came unprovided to the controversy, and wanted rather skill to discover the right than virtue to maintain it. But inquiries into the heart are not for man; we must now leave him to his judge.' Works, vii. 279.

[160] In the original _fright_. _The Hind and the Panther_, i. 79.

[161] In this quotation two pa.s.sages are joined. _Works_, vii. 339, 340.

[162] 'The deep and pathetic morality of the _Vanity of Human Wishes_'

says Sir Walter Scott, 'has often extracted tears from those whose eyes wander dry over the pages of professed sentimentality.' CROKER. It. drew tears from Johnson himself. 'When,' says Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 50), 'he read his own satire, in which the life of a scholar is painted, he burst into a pa.s.sion of tears. The family and Mr. Scott only were present, who, in a jocose way, clapped him on the back, and said:--"What's all this, my dear Sir? Why you, and I, and Hercules, you know, were all troubled with melancholy." He was a very large man, and made out the triumvirate with Johnson and Hercules comically enough. The Doctor was so delighted at his odd sally, that he suddenly embraced him, and the subject was immediately changed.'

[163] In Disraeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, iv. 180, is given 'a memorandum of Dr. Johnson's of hints for the _Life of Pope_.'

[164] _Works_, viii. 345.

[165] 'Of the last editor [Warburton] it is more difficult to speak.

Respect is due to high place, tenderness to living reputation, and veneration to genius and learning; but he cannot be justly offended at that liberty of which he has himself so frequently given an example, nor very solicitous what is thought of notes which he ought never to have considered as part of his serious employments.' _Works_, v. 140. See _post_, June 10,1784.

[166] The liberality is certainly measured. With much praise there is much censure. _Works_, viii. 288. See _ante_, ii. 36, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 23.

[167] Of Johnson's conduct towards Warburton, a very honourable notice is taken by the editor of _Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian, not admitted into the Collection of their respective Works_. After an able and 'fond, though not undistinguishing,' consideration of Warburton's character, he says, 'In two immortal works, Johnson has stood forth in the foremost rank of his admirers. By the testimony of such a man, impertinence must be abashed, and malignity itself must be softened. Of literary merit, Johnson, as we all know, was a sagacious but a most severe judge. Such was his discernment, that he pierced into the most secret springs of human actions; and such was his integrity, that he always weighed the moral characters of his fellow-creatures in the "balance of the sanctuary." He was too courageous to propitiate a rival, and too proud to truckle to a superiour. Warburton he knew, as I know him, and as every man of sense and virtue would wish to be known,--I mean, both from his own writings, and from the writings of those who dissented from his principles, or who envied his reputation. But, as to favours, he had never received or asked any from the Bishop of Gloucester; and, if my memory fails me not, he had seen him only once, when they met almost without design, conversed without much effort, and parted without any lasting impressions of hatred or affection. Yet, with all the ardour of sympathetic genius, Johnson has done that spontaneously and ably, which, by some writers, had been before attempted injudiciously, and which, by others, from whom more successful attempts might have been expected, has not _hitherto_ been done at all.

He spoke well of Warburton, without insulting those whom Warburton despised. He suppressed not the imperfections of this extraordinary man, while he endeavoured to do justice to his numerous and transcendental excellencies. He defended him when living, amidst the clamours of his enemies; and praised him when dead, amidst the _silence of his friends_.'

Having availed myself of this editor's eulogy on my departed friend, for which I warmly thank him, let me not suffer the l.u.s.tre of his reputation, honestly acquired by profound learning and vigorous eloquence, to be tarnished by a charge of illiberality. He has been accused of invidiously dragging again into light certain writings of a person respectable by his talents, his learning, his station and his age, which were published a great many years ago, and have since, it is said, been silently given up by their authour. But when it is considered that these writings were not _sins of youth_, but deliberate works of one well-advanced in life, overflowing at once with flattery to a great man of great interest in the Church, and with unjust and acrimonious abuse of two men of eminent merit; and that, though it would have been unreasonable to expect an humiliating recantation, no apology whatever has been made in the cool of the evening, for the oppressive fervour of the heat of the day; no slight relenting indication has appeared in any note, or any corner of later publications; is it not fair to understand him as superciliously persevering? When he allows the shafts to remain in the wounds, and will not stretch forth a lenient hand, is it wrong, is it not generous to become an indignant avenger? BOSWELL. Boswell wrote on Feb. 16, 1789:--'There is just come out a publication which makes a considerable noise. The celebrated Dr. Parr, of Norwich, has--wickedly, shall we say?--but surely wantonly--published Warburton's _Juvenile Translations and Discourse on Prodigies_, and Bishop Kurd's attacks on Jortin and Dr. Thomas Leland, with his _Essay on the Delicacy of Friendship_.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 275. The 'editor,' therefore, is Parr, and the 'Warburtonian' is Hurd. Boswell had written to Parr on Jan. 10, 1791:--'I request to hear by return of post if I may say or guess that Dr. Parr is the editor of these tracts.' Parr's _Works_, viii. 12. See also _ib_. iii. 405.

[168] In Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 213, it is said, that this meeting was 'at the Bishop of St. ----'s [Asaph's]. Boswell, by his 'careful enquiry,' no doubt meant to show that this statement was wrong.

Johnson is reported to have said:--' Dr. Warburton at first looked surlily at me; but after we had been jostled into conversation he took me to a window, asked me some questions, and before we parted was so well pleased with me that he patted me.'

[169] 'Warburton's style is copious without selection, and forcible without neatness; he took the words that presented themselves; his diction is coa.r.s.e and impure; and his sentences are unmeasured.'

Johnson's _Works_, viii. 288.

[170] Churchill, in _The Duellist (Poems_ ed. 1766, ii. 85), describes Warburton as having

'A heart, which virtue ne'er disgraced; A head where learning runs to waste.'

[171] _Works_, viii. 230.

[172] 'I never,' writes Mrs. Piozzi, 'heard Johnson p.r.o.nounce the words, "I beg your pardon, Sir," to any human creature but the apparently soft and gentle Dr. Burney.' Burney had asked her whether she had subscribed 100 to building a bridge. '"It is very comical, is it not, Sir?" said I, turning to Dr. Johnson, "that people should tell such unfounded stories." "It is," answered he, "neither comical nor serious, my dear; it is only a wandering lie." This was spoken in his natural voice, without a thought of offence, I am confident; but up bounced Burney in a towering pa.s.sion, and to my much amaze put on the hero, surprising Dr. Johnson into a sudden request for pardon, and protestation of not having ever intended to accuse his friend of a falsehood.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 312.

[173] In the original, '_nor_.' _Works_, viii. 311.

[174] In the original, '_either_ wise or merry.'

[175] In the original, '_stands upon record_'.

[176] _Works_, viii. 316. Surely the words 'had not much to say' imply that Johnson had heard the answer, but thought little of its wit.

According to Mr. Croker, the repartee is given in Ruffhead's _Life of Pope_, and this book Johnson had seen. _Ante_, ii. 166.

[177] Let me here express my grateful remembrance of Lord Somerville's kindness to me, at a very early period. He was the first person of high rank that took particular notice of me in the way most flattering to a young man, fondly ambitious of being distinguished for his literary talents; and by the honour of his encouragement made me think well of myself, and aspire to deserve it better. He had a happy art of communicating his varied knowledge of the world, in short remarks and anecdotes, with a quiet pleasant gravity, that was exceedingly engaging.

Never shall I forget the hours which I enjoyed with him at his apartments in the Royal Palace of Holy-Rood House, and at his seat near Edinburgh, which he himself had formed with an elegant taste. BOSWELL.

[178] _Ante_, iii. 392.

[179] Boswell, I think, misunderstands Johnson. Johnson said (_Works_, viii. 313) that 'Pope's admiration of the Great seems to have increased in the advance of life.' His _Iliad_ he had dedicated to Congreve, but 'to his latter works he took care to annex names dignified with t.i.tles, but was not very happy in his choice; for, except Lord Bathurst, none of his n.o.ble friends were such as that a good man would wish to have his intimacy with them known to posterity; he can derive little honour from the notice of Cobham, Burlington, or Bolingbroke.' Johnson, it seems clear, is speaking, not of the n.o.blemen whom Pope knew in general, but of those to whom he dedicated any of his works. Among them Lord Marchmont is not found, so that on him no slight is cast.

[180] Neither does Johnson actually say that Lord Marchmont had 'any concern,' though perhaps he implies it. He writes:--'Pope left the care of his papers to his executors; first to Lord Bolingbroke; and, if he should not be living, to the Earl of Marchmont: undoubtedly expecting them to be proud of the trust, and eager to extend his fame. But let no man dream of influence beyond his life. After a decent time, Dodsley the bookseller went to solicit preference as the publisher, and was told that the parcel had not been yet inspected; and, whatever was the reason, the world has been disappointed of what was "reserved for the next age."' _Ib_. p. 306. As Bolingbroke outlived Pope by more than seven years, it is clear, from what Johnson states, that he alone had the care of the papers, and that he gave the answer to Dodsley.

Marchmont, however, knew the contents of the papers. _Ib_. p. 319.

[181] This neglect did not arise from any ill-will towards Lord Marchmont, but from inattention; just as he neglected to correct his statement concerning the family of Thomson the poet, after it had been shewn to be erroneous (_ante_, in. 359). MALONE.