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

Cannot Be

Produced at Will By Wit And Labour, But Must Rise Unexpectedly In some

Hour Propitious To Poetry.

 

 

 

He Appears To Have Been One Of The First That Understood The Necessity

Of Emancipating translation From The Drudgery Of Counting lines, And

Interpreting single Words. How Much This Servile Practice Obscured the

Clearest, And Deformed the Most Beautiful Parts Of The Ancient Authors,

May Be Discovered by A Perusal Of Our Earlier Versions; Some Of Them

Are The Works Of Men Well Qualified, Not Only By Critical Knowledge,

But By Poetical Genius, Who Yet, By A Mistaken Ambition Of Exactness,

Degraded, At Once, Their Originals And Themselves.

 

 

 

Denham Saw The Better Way, But Has Not Pursued it With Great Success.

His Versions Of Virgil Are Not Pleasing; But They Taught Dryden To

Please Better. His Poetical Imitation Of Tully On Old Age Has Neither

The Clearness Of Prose, Nor The Sprightliness Of Poetry.

 

 

 

The "Strength Of Denham," Which Pope So Emphatically Mentions, Is To

Be Found In many Lines And Couplets, Which Convey Much Meaning in few

Words, And Exhibit The Sentiment With More Weight Than Bulk.

 

 

 

 

On The Thames.

 

 

 

  Though With Those Streams He No Resemblance Hold,

  Whose Foam Is Amber, And Their Gravel Gold;

  His Genuine And Less Guilty Wealth T' Explore,

  Search Not His Bottom, But Survey His Shore.

 

 

 

 

On Strafford.

 

 

 

  His Wisdom Such, At Once, It Did Appear

  Three Kingdoms' Wonder, And Three Kingdoms' Fear.

  While Single He Stood Forth, And Seem'D, Although

  Each Had An Army, As An Equal Foe;

  Such Was His Force Of Eloquence To Make

  The Hearers More Concern'D Than He That Spake:

  Each Seem'D To Act That Part He Came To See,

  And None Was More A Looker-On Than He;

  So Did He Move Our Passions, Some Were Known

  To Wish, For The Defence, The Crime Their Own.

  Now Private Pity Strove With Public Hate,

  Reason With Rage, And Eloquence With Fate.

 

 

 

On Cowley.

 

 

 

  To Him No Author Was Unknown,

  Yet What He Wrote Was All His Own;

  Horace'S Wit, And Virgil'S State,

  He Did Not Steal, But Emulate!

  And, When He Would Like Them Appear,

  Their Garb, But Not Their Clothes, Did Wear.

 

 

 

As One Of Denham'S Principal Claims To The Regard Of Posterity Arises

From His Improvement Of Our Numbers, His Versification Ought To

Be Considered. It Will Afford That Pleasure Which Arises From The

Observation Of A Man Of Judgment Naturally Right, Forsaking bad Copies

By Degrees, And Advancing towards A Better Practice, As He Gains More

Confidence In himself.

 

 

 

In His Translation Of Virgil, Written When He Was About Twenty-One

Years Old, May Be Still Found The Old Manner Of Continuing the Sense

Ungracefully From Verse To Verse:

 

 

 

  Then All Those

  Who In the Dark Our Fury Did Escape,

  Returning, Know Our Borrow'D Arms, And Shape,

  And Differing dialect; Then Their Numbers Swell

  And Grow Upon Us; First Choroebus Fell

  Before Minerva'S Altar; Next Did Bleed

  Just Ripheus, Whom No Trojan Did Exceed

  In virtue, Yet The Gods His Fate Decreed.

  Then Hypanis And Dymas, Wounded by

  Their Friends; Nor Thee, Pantheus, Thy Piety,

  Nor Consecrated mitre, From The Same

  Ill Fate Could Save; My Country'S Funeral Flame

  And Troy'S Cold Ashes I Attest, And Call

  To Witness For Myself, That In their Fall

  No Foes, No Death, Nor Danger, I Declin'D,

  Did, And Deserv'D No Less, My Fate To Find.

 

 

 

From This Kind Of Concatenated metre He Afterwards Refrained, And Taught

His Followers The Art Of Concluding their Sense In couplets; Which Has,

Perhaps, Been With Rather Too Much Constancy Pursued.

 

 

 

This Passage Exhibits One Of Those Triplets Which Are Not Unfrequent In

This First Essay, But Which It Is To Be Supposed his Maturer Judgment

Disapproved, Since, In his Latter Works, He Has Totally Forborne Them.

 

 

 

His Rhymes Are Such As Seem Found Without Difficulty, By Following the

Sense; And Are, For The Most Part, As Exact, At Least, As Those Of Other

Poets, Though Now And Then The Reader Is Shifted off With What He Can

Get:

 

 

 

  O How _Transform'D!_

  How Much Unlike That Hector, Who _Return'D_

  Clad In achilles' Spoils!

 

 

 

And Again:

 

 

 

  From Thence A Thousand Lesser Poets _Sprung_

  Like Petty Princes From The Fall Of _Rome_.

 

 

 

Sometimes The Weight Of Rhyme Is Laid Upon A Word Too Feeble To Sustain

It:

 

 

 

  Troy Confounded falls

  From All Her Glories: If It Might Have Stood

  By Any Power, By This Right Hand It _Shou'D_.

 

 

 

  --And Though My Outward State Misfortune _Hath_

  Deprest Thus Low, It Cannot Reach My Faith.

 

 

 

  --Thus, By His Fraud And Our Own Faith O'Ercome,

  A Feigned tear Destroys Us, Against _Whom_

  Tydides Nor Achilles Could Prevail,

  Nor Ten Years' Conflict, Nor A Thousand Sail.

 

 

 

He Is Not Very Careful To Vary The Ends Of His Verses; In one Passage

The Word _Die_ Rhymes Three Couplets In six.

 

 

 

Most Of These Petty Faults Are In his First Productions, When He Was

Less Skilful, Or, At Least, Less Dexterous In the Use Of Words; And

Though They Had Been More Frequent, They Could Only Have Lessened the

Grace, Not The Strength Of His Composition. He Is One Of The Writers

That Improved our Taste, And Advanced our Language, And Whom We Ought,

Therefore, To Read With Gratitude, Though, Having done Much, He Left

Much To Do.

 

 

 

[Footnote 22: In hamilton'S Memoirs Of Count Grammont, Sir John Denham

Is Said To Have Been Seventy-Nine, When He Married miss Brook, About The

Year 1664; According to Which Statement He Was Born In 1585. But Dr.

Johnson, Who Has Followed wood, Is Right. He Entered trinity College,

Oxford, At The Age Of Sixteen, In 1631, As Appears By The Following

Entry, Which I Copied from The Matriculation Book.

 

 

 

Trin. Coll.

 

 

 

"1631. Nov. 18. Johannes Denham, Essex. Filius J. Denham De Horsley-Parva

In Com. Praedict. Militis, Annos Natus 16. Malone".]

 

 

 

[Footnote 23: In the Ninth And Tenth Chapters Of The Memoires De

Grammont, In andrew Marvell'S Works, And In aubrey'S Letters, Ii. 319,

Many Scandalous Anecdotes Respecting denham, Are Reported. Ed.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 24: It Is Remarkable That Johnson Should Not Have Recollected,

That This Image Is To Be Found In bacon. Aristoteles, More Otthomannorum,

Regnare Se Haud Tuto Posse Putabat, Nisi Fratres Suos Omnes

Contrucidasset. De Augment. Scient. Lib. 3.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 25: By Garth, In his Poem On Claremont: And By Pope, In his

Windsor Forest.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milton.

The Life Of Milton Has Been Already Written In so Many Forms, And With

Such Minute Inquiry, That I Might, Perhaps, More Properly Have Contented

Myself With The Addition Of A Few Notes On Mr. Fenton'S Elegant

Abridgment, But That A New Narrative Was Thought Necessary To The

Uniformity Of This Edition.

 

 

 

John Milton Was, By Birth, A Gentleman, Descended from The Proprietors

Of Milton, Near Thame, In oxfordshire, One Of Whom Forfeited his Estate

In The Times Of York And Lancaster. Which Side He Took I Know Not; His

Descendant Inherited no Veneration For The _White Rose._

 

 

 

His Grandfather, John, Was Keeper Of The Forest Of Shotover, A Zealous

Papist, Who Disinherited his Son, Because He Had Forsaken The Religion

Of His Ancestors.

 

 

 

His Father, John, Who Was The Son Disinherited, Had Recourse, For His

Support, To The Profession Of A Scrivener. He Was A Man Eminent For His

Skill In musick, Many Of His Compositions Being still To Be Found;

And His Reputation In his Profession Was Such, That He Grew Rich, And

Retired to An Estate. He Had, Probably, More Than Common Literature,

As His Son Addresses Him In one Of His Most Elaborate Latin Poems. He

Married a Gentlewoman Of The Name Of Caston, A Welsh Family, By Whom He

Had Two Sons, John, The Poet, And Christopher, Who Studied the Law, And

Adhered, As The Law Taught Him, To The King'S Party, For Which He Was

Awhile Persecuted, But Having, By His Brother'S Interest, Obtained

Permission To Live In quiet, He Supported himself So Honourably By

Chamber Practice, That, Soon After The Accession Of King james, He Was

Knighted, And Made A Judge; But, His Constitution Being too Weak

For Business, He Retired before Any Disreputable Compliances Became

Necessary.

 

 

 

He Had, Likewise, A Daughter, Anne, Whom He Married with A Considerable

Fortune, To Edward Philips, Who Came From Shrewsbury, And Rose In the

Crown Office To Be Secondary: By Him She Had Two Sons, John And Edward,

Who Were Educated by The Poet, And From Whom Is Derived the Only

Authentick Account Of His Domestick Manners.

 

 

 

John, The Poet, Was Born In his Father'S House, At The Spread-Eagle, In

Bread Street, Dec. 9, 1608, Between Six And Seven In the Morning. His

Father Appears To Have Been Very Solicitous About His Education; For He

Was Instructed, At First, By Private Tuition, Under The Care Of Thomas

Young, Who Was Afterwards Chaplain To The English Merchants At Hamburgh,

And Of Whom We Have Reason To Think Well, Since His Scholar Considered

Him As Worthy Of An Epistolary Elegy.

 

 

 

He Was Then Sent To St. Paul'S School, Under The Care Of Mr. Gill; And

Removed, In the Beginning of His Sixteenth Year, To Christ'S College In

Cambridge, Where He Entered a Sizar[26], Feb. 12,1624.

 

 

 

He Was, At This Time, Eminently Skilled in the Latin Tongue; And He

Himself, By Annexing the Dates To His First Compositions, A Boast Of

Which The Learned politian Had Given Him An Example, Seems To Commend

The Earliness Of His Own Proficiency To The Notice Of Posterity. But

The Products Of His Vernal Fertility Have Been Surpassed by Many, And

Particularly By His Contemporary Cowley. Of The Powers Of The Mind It Is

Difficult To Form An Estimate: Many Have Excelled milton In their First

Essays, Who Never Rose To Works Like Paradise Lost.

 

 

 

At Fifteen, A Date Which He Uses Till He Is Sixteen, He Translated

Or Versified two Psalms, 114 And 136, Which He Thought Worthy Of The

Publick Eye; But They Raise No Great Expectations: They Would, In any

Numerous School, Have Obtained praise, But Not Excited wonder.

 

 

 

Many Of His Elegies Appear To Have Been Written In his Eighteenth Year,

By Which It Appears That He Had Then Read The Roman Authors With Very

Nice Discernment. I Once Heard Mr. Hampton, The Translator Of Polybius,

Remark, What I Think Is True, That Milton Was The First Englishman Who,

After The Revival Of Letters, Wrote Latin Verses With Classick Elegance.

If Any Exceptions Can Be Made, They Are Very Few: Haddon And Ascham, The

Pride Of Elizabeth'S Reign, However They Have Succeeded in prose, No

Sooner Attempt Verse Than They Provoke Derision. If We Produced any

Thing worthy Of Notice Before The Elegies Of Milton, It Was, Perhaps,

Alabaster'S Roxana[27].

 

 

 

Of The Exercises Which The Rules Of The University Required, Some

Were Published by Him In his Maturer Years. They Had Been Undoubtedly

Applauded; For They Were Such As Few Can Perform; Yet There Is Reason To

Suspect That He Was Regarded in his College With No Great Fondness. That

He Obtained no Fellowship Is Certain; But The Unkindness With Which He

Was Treated, Was Not Merely Negative. I Am Ashamed to Relate What I Fear

Is True, That Milton Was One Of The Last Students In either University,

That Suffered the Publick Indignity Of Corporal Correction[28].

 

 

 

It Was, In the Violence Of Controversial Hostility, Objected to Him,

That He Was Expelled: This He Steadily Denies, And It Was Apparently Not

True; But It Seems Plain, From His Own Verses To Diodati, That He Had

Incurred rustication, A Temporary Dismission Into The Country, With,

Perhaps, The Loss Of A Term:

 

 

 

  Me Tenet Urbs, Reflua Quam Thamesis Alluit Unda,

  Meque Nec Invitum Patria Dulcis Habet.

  Jam Nec Arundiferum Mihi Cura Revisere Camum,

  Nec Dudum _Vetiti_ Me _Laris_ Angit Amor.

  Nec Duri Libet Usque Minas Perferre Magistri,

  Caeteraque Ingenio Non Subeunda Meo.

  Si Sit Hoc _Exilium_ Patrios Adiise Penates,

  Et Vacuum Curis Otia Grata Sequi,

 

 

 

  Non Ego Vel _Profugi_ Nomen Sortemve Recuso,

  Laetus Et _Exilii_ Conditione Fruor.

 

 

 

I Cannot Find Any Meaning but This, Which Even Kindness And Reverence

Can Give To The Term "Vetiti Laris," A Habitation From Which He Is

Excluded; Or How