Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III) - Samuel Johnson (classic books to read txt) 📗

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Literatia, Vol. Viii. See Also Warton'S Preface To Milton'S Juvenile

Poems. Ed.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 13: 1663.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 14: Here Is An Error In the Designation Of This Comedy, Which

Our Author Copied from The Title Page Of The Latter Editions Of Cowley'S

Works: The Title Of The Play Itself Is Without The Article, "Cutter Of

Coleman Street," And That, Because A Merry Sharking fellow About The

Town, Named cutter, Is A Principal Character In it.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 15: L'Allegro Of Milton. Dr. J.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 16: About Three Hundred pounds Per Annum. See Campbell'S Poets,

Iv.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 17: Now In the Possession Of Mr. Clark, Alderman Of London.

Dr. J.--Mr. Clark Was, In 1798, Elected to The Important Office Of

Chamberlain Of London; And Has Every Year Since Been Unanimously

Reelected. N.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 18: For Metaphysical Poets, See Brydges' Restituta, Vol. Iv.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 19: It Is But Justice To The Memory Of Cowley, To Quote Here An

Exquisite Stanza Which Johnson Has Inserted in the Idler, No. 77, Where

He Says; "Cowley Seems To Have Possessed the Power Of Writing easily

Beyond Any Other Of Our Poets; Yet His Pursuit Of Remote Thought Led him

Often Into Harshness Of Expression." The Stanza Is To A Lady Elaborately

Dressed:

 

 

 

  Th' Adorning thee With So Much Art

  Is But A Barb'Rous Skill,

  'Tis Like The Pois'Ning of A Dart

  Too Apt Before To Kill.    Ed.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 20: Dodsley'S Collection Of Poems, Vol. V. R.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 21: First Published in quarto, 1669, Under The Title Of Carmen

Pindaricum In theatrum Sheldonianum In solennibus Magnifici Operis

Encaeniis. Recitatum Julii Die 9, Anno 1669, A Corbetto Owen, A. B. Aed.

Chr. Alumno, Authore. R.]

 

 

 

 

 

Denham

Of Sir John Denham Very Little Is Known But What Is Related of Him By

Wood, Or By Himself.

 

 

 

He Was Born At Dublin, 1615[22]; The Only Son Of Sir John Denham, Of

Little Horsley, In essex, Then Chief Baron Of The Exchequer In ireland,

And Of Eleanor, Daughter Of Sir Garret More, Baron Of Mellefont.

 

 

 

Two Years Afterwards, His Father, Being made One Of The Barons Of The

Exchequer In england, Brought Him Away From His Native Country, And

Educated him In london.

 

 

 

In 1631 He Was Sent To Oxford, Where He Was Considered "As A Dreaming

Young Man, Given More To Dice And Cards Than Study:" And, Therefore,

Gave No Prognosticks Of His Future Eminence; Nor Was Suspected to

Conceal, Under Sluggishness And Laxity, A Genius Born To Improve The

Literature Of His Country.

 

 

 

When He Was, Three Years Afterwards, Removed to Lincoln'S Inn, He

Prosecuted the Common Law With Sufficient Appearance Of Application;

Yet Did Not Lose His Propensity To Cards And Dice; But Was Very Often

Plundered by Gamesters.

 

 

 

Being severely Reproved for This Folly, He Professed, And, Perhaps,

Believed, Himself Reclaimed; And, To Testify The Sincerity Of His

Repentance, Wrote And Published an Essay Upon Gaming.

 

 

 

He Seems To Have Divided his Studies Between Law And Poetry; For, In

1636, He Translated the Second Book Of The Aeneid. Two Years After, His

Father Died; And Then, Notwithstanding his Resolutions And Professions,

He Returned again To The Vice Of Gaming, And Lost Several Thousand

Pounds That Had Been Left Him.

 

 

 

In 1641, He Published the Sophy. This Seems To Have Given Him His First

Hold Of The Publick Attention; For Waller Remarked, "That He Broke Out

Like The Irish Rebellion, Three Score Thousand Strong, When Nobody Was

Aware, Or In the Least Suspected it;" An Observation Which Could Have

Had No Propriety Had His Poetical Abilities Been Known Before.

 

 

 

He Was After That Pricked for Sheriff Of Surrey, And Made Governour

Of Farnham Castle For The King; But He Soon Resigned that Charge, And

Retreated to Oxford, Where, In 1643, He Published cooper'S Hill.

 

 

 

This Poem Had Such Reputation As To Excite The Common Artifice By Which

Envy Degrades Excellence. A Report Was Spread, That The Performance Was

Not His Own, But That He Had Bought It Of A Vicar For Forty Pounds. The

Same Attempt Was Made To Rob Addison Of His Cato, And Pope Of His Essay

On Criticism.

 

 

 

In 1647, The Distresses Of The Royal Family Required him To Engage In

More Dangerous Employments. He Was Intrusted, By The Queen, With A

Message To The King; And, By Whatever Means, So Far Softened the

Ferocity Of Hugh Peters, That, By His Intercession, Admission Was

Procured. Of The King'S Condescension He Has Given An Account In the

Dedication Of His Works.

 

 

 

He Was, Afterwards, Employed in carrying on The King'S Correspondence;

And, As He Says, Discharged this Office With Great Safety To The

Royalists: And, Being accidentally Discovered by The Adverse Party'S

Knowledge Of Mr. Cowley'S Hand, He Escaped happily Both For Himself And

His Friends.

 

 

 

He Was Yet Engaged in a Greater Undertaking. In april, 1648, He Conveyed

James, The Duke Of York, From London Into France, And Delivered him

There To The Queen And Prince Of Wales. This Year He Published his

Translation Of Cato Major. He Now Resided in france, As One Of The

Followers Of The Exiled king; And, To Divert The Melancholy Of Their

Condition, Was Sometimes Enjoined by His Master To Write Occasional

Verses; One Of Which Amusements Was Probably His Ode, Or Song, Upon The

Embassy To Poland, By Which He And Lord Crofts Procured a Contribution

Of Ten Thousand Pounds From The Scotch, That Wandered over The Kingdom.

Poland Was, At That Time, Very Much Frequented by Itinerant Traders,

Who, In a Country Of Very Little Commerce And Of Great Extent, Where

Every Man Resided on His Own Estate, Contributed very Much To The

Accommodation Of Life, By Bringing to Every Man'S House Those Little

Necessaries Which It Was Very Inconvenient To Want, And Very Troublesome

To Fetch. I Have Formerly Read, Without Much Reflection, Of The

Multitude Of Scotchmen That Travelled with Their Wares In poland; And

That Their Numbers Were Not Small, The Success Of This Negotiation Gives

Sufficient Evidence.

 

 

 

About This Time, What Estate The War And The Gamesters Had Left Him Was

Sold, By Order Of The Parliament; And When, In 1652, He Returned to

England, He Was Entertained by The Earl Of Pembroke.

 

 

 

Of The Next Years Of His Life There Is No Account. At The Restoration He

Obtained that Which Many Missed, The Reward Of His Loyalty; Being made

Surveyor Of The King'S Buildings, And Dignified with The Order Of The

Bath. He Seems Now To Have Learned some Attention To Money; For Wood

Says, That He Got By This Place Seven Thousand Pounds.

 

 

 

After The Restoration, He Wrote The Poem On Prudence And Justice, And,

Perhaps, Some Of His Other Pieces; And As He Appears, Whenever Any

Serious Question Comes Before Him, To Have Been A Man Of Piety, He

Consecrated his Poetical Powers To Religion, And Made A Metrical Version

Of The Psalms Of David. In this Attempt He Has Failed; But In sacred

Poetry Who Has Succeeded?

 

 

 

It Might Be Hoped that The Favour Of His Master, And Esteem Of The

Publick, Would Now Make Him Happy. But Human Felicity Is Short And

Uncertain; A Second Marriage Brought Upon Him So Much Disquiet, As, For

A Time, Disordered his Understanding; And Butler Lampooned him For His

Lunacy. I Know Not Whether The Malignant Lines Were Then Made Publick,

Nor What Provocation Incited butler To Do That Which No Provocation Can

Excuse.

 

 

 

His Phrensy Lasted not Long[23]; And He Seems To Have Regained his Full

Force Of Mind; For He Wrote Afterwards His Excellent Poem Upon The Death

Of Cowley, Whom He Was Not Long To Survive; For, On The 19Th Of March,

1668, He Was Buried by His Side.

 

 

 

Denham Is Deservedly Considered as One Of The Fathers Of English Poetry.

"Denham And Waller," Says Prior, "Improved our Versification, And

Dryden Perfected it." He Has Given Specimens Of Various Compositions,

Descriptive, Ludicrous, Didactick, And Sublime.

 

 

 

He Appears To Have Had, In common With Almost All Mankind, The Ambition

Of Being, Upon Proper Occasions, _A Merry Fellow_, And, In common With

Most Of Them, To Have Been By Nature, Or By Early Habits, Debarred from

It. Nothing is Less Exhilarating than The Ludicrousness Of Denham; He

Does Not Fail For Want Of Efforts; He Is Familiar, He Is Gross; But He

Is Never Merry, Unless The Speech Against Peace In the Close Committee

Be Excepted. For Grave Burlesque, However, His Imitation Of Davenant

Shows Him To Have Been Well Qualified.

 

 

 

Of His More Elevated occasional Poems, There Is, Perhaps, None That Does

Not Deserve Commendation. In the Verses To Fletcher, We Have An Image

That Has Since Been Often Adopted[24]:

 

 

 

  But Whither Am I Stray'D? I Need not Raise

  Trophies To Thee From Other Men'S Dispraise;

  Nor Is Thy Fame On Lesser Ruins Built,

  Nor Need thy Juster Title The Foul Guilt

 

 

 

  Of Eastern Kings, Who, To Secure Their Reign,

  Must Have Their Brothers, Sons, And Kindred, Slain.

 

 

 

After Denham, Orrery, In one Of His Prologues,

 

 

 

  Poets Are Sultans, If They Had Their Will;

  For Ev'Ry Author Would His Brother Kill.

 

 

 

And Pope,

 

 

 

  Should Such A Man, Too Fond To Rule Alone,

  Bear Like The Turk No Brother Near The Throne.

 

 

 

But This Is Not The Best Of His Little Pieces: It Is Excelled by His

Poem To Fanshaw, And His Elegy On Cowley.

 

 

 

His Praise Of Fanshaw'S Version Of Guarini Contains A Very Sprightly And

Judicious Character Of A Good Translator:

 

 

 

  That Servile Path Thou Nobly Dost Decline,

  Of Tracing word By Word And Line By Line.

  Those Are The Labour'D Births Of Slavish Brains,

  Not The Effect Of Poetry But Pains;

  Cheap Vulgar Arts, Whose Narrowness Affords

  No Flight For Thoughts, But Poorly Stick At Words,

  A New And Nobler Way Thou Dost Pursue,

  To Make Translations And Translators Too,

  They But Preserve The Ashes; Thou The Flame,

  True To His Sense, But Truer To His Fame.

 

 

 

The Excellence Of These Lines Is Greater, As The Truth Which They

Contain Was Not, At That Time, Generally Known.

 

 

 

His Poem On The Death Of Cowley Was His Last, And, Among His Shorter

Works, His Best Performance: The Numbers Are Musical, And The Thoughts

Are Just.

 

 

 

Cooper'S Hill Is The Work That Confers Upon Him The Rank And Dignity Of

An Original Author. He Seems To Have Been, At Least Among Us, The Author

Of A Species Of Composition That May Be Denominated _Local Poetry_,

Of Which The Fundamental Subject Is Some Particular Landscape, To Be

Poetically Described with The Addition Of Such Embellishments As May Be

Supplied by Historical Retrospection, Or Incidental Meditation.

 

 

 

To Trace A New Scheme Of Poetry, Has, In itself, A Very High Claim To

Praise, And Its Praise Is Yet More, When It Is Apparently Copied by

Garth And Pope[25]; After Whose Names Little Will Be Gained by An

Enumeration Of Smaller Poets, That Have Left Scarcely A Corner Of The

Island Not Dignified either By Rhyme Or Blank Verse.

 

 

 

Cooper'S Hill, If It Be Maliciously Inspected, Will Not Be Found Without

Its Faults. The Digressions Are Too Long, The Morality Too Frequent, And

The Sentiments, Sometimes, Such As Will Not Bear A Rigorous Inquiry.

 

 

 

The Four Verses, Which, Since Dryden Has Commended them, Almost Every

Writer For A Century Past Has Imitated, Are Generally Known:

 

 

 

  O Could I Flow Like Thee, And Make Thy Stream

  My Great Example, As It Is My Theme!

  Though Deep, Yet Clear; Though Gentle, Yet Not Dull;

  Strong Without Rage, Without O'Erflowing full.

 

 

 

The Lines, Are, In themselves, Not Perfect; For Most Of The Words,

Thus Artfully Opposed, Are To Be Understood Simply On One Side Of The

Comparison, And Metaphorically On The Other; And, If There Be Any

Language Which Does Not Express Intellectual Operations By Material

Images, Into That Language They Cannot Be Translated. But So Much

Meaning is Comprised in so Few Words; The Particulars Of Resemblance Are

So Perspicaciously Collected, And Every Mode Of Excellence Separated

From Its Adjacent Fault By So Nice A Line Of Limitation; The Different

Parts Of The Sentence Are So Accurately Adjusted; And The Flow Of

The Last Couplet Is So Smooth And Sweet; That The Passage, However

Celebrated, Has Not Been Praised above Its Merit. It Has Beauty Peculiar

To Itself, And Must Be Numbered among Those Felicities Which