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

In his Own Breast.

 

 

 

Together With Those Plays He Wrote The Poems Which Are In the Present

Collection, And Translated from The French The History Of The

Triumvirate.

 

 

 

All This Was Performed before He Was Thirty-Four Years Old; For He Died

April 14, 1685, In a Manner Which I Am Unwilling to Mention. Having

Been Compelled by His Necessities To Contract Debts, And Hunted, As Is

Supposed, By The Terriers Of The Law, He Retired to A Publick House On

Tower Hill, Where He Is Said To Have Died of Want; Or, As It Is Related

By One Of His Biographers, By Swallowing, After A Long Fast, A Piece Of

Bread Which Charity Had Supplied. He Went Out, As Is Reported, Almost

Naked, In the Rage Of Hunger, And, Finding a Gentleman In a Neighbouring

Coffee-House, Asked him For A Shilling. The Gentleman Gave Him A Guinea;

And Otway, Going away, Bought A Roll, And Was Choked with The First

Mouthful. All This, I Hope, Is Not True; And There Is This Ground Of

Better Hope, That Pope, Who Lived near Enough To Be Well Informed,

Relates In spence'S Memorials, That He Died of A Fever, Caught By

Violent Pursuit Of A Thief That Had Robbed one Of His Friends. But That

Indigence, And Its Concomitants, Sorrow And Despondency, Pressed hard

Upon Him, Has Never Been Denied, Whatever Immediate Cause Might Bring him

To The Grave.

 

 

 

Of The Poems Which The Present Collection Admits, The Longest Is The

Poet'S Complaint Of His Muse, Part Of Which I Do Not Understand; And In

That Which Is Less Obscure, I Find Little To Commend. The Language Is

Often Gross, And The Numbers Are Harsh. Otway Had Not Much Cultivated

Versification, Nor Much Replenished his Mind With General Knowledge. His

Principal Power Was In moving the Passions, To Which Dryden[81], In his

Latter Years, Left An Illustrious Testimony. He Appears, By Some Of His

Verses, To Have Been A Zealous Royalist, And Had What Was In those Times

The Common Reward Of Loyalty; He Lived and Died neglected.

 

 

 

[Footnote 75: In roscius Anglicanus, By Downes, The Prompter, P. 34,

We Learn, That It Was The Character Of The King in mrs. Behn'S Forced

Marriage, Or The Jealous Bridegroom, Which Mr. Otway Attempted to

Perform, And Failed in. This Event Appears To Have Happened in the Year

1672. R.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 76: This Doubt Is, Indeed, Very Reasonable. I Know Not Where It

Is Said That Don Carlos Was Acted thirty Nights Together. Wherever It Is

Said, It Is Untrue. Downes, Who Is Perfectly Good Authority On This Point,

Informs Us, That It Was Performed ten Days Successively. M.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 77: 1681.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 78: 1684.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 79: 1682.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 80: The "Despicable Scenes Of Vile Comedy" Can Be No Bar

To Its Being a Favourite Of The Publick, As They Are Always Omitted in

The Representation. J.B.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 81: In his Preface To Fresnoy'S Art Of Painting. Dr.J.]

 

 

 

 

 

Waller

Edmund Waller Was Born On The Third Of March, 1605, At Coleshill In

Hertfordshire. His Father Was Robert Waller, Esq. Of Agmondesham, In

Buckinghamshire, Whose Family Was Originally A Branch Of The Kentish

Wallers; And His Mother Was The Daughter Of John Hampden, Of Hampden In

The Same County, And Sister To Hampden, The Zealot Of Rebellion.

 

 

 

His Father Died while He Was Yet An Infant, But Left Him A Yearly Income

Of Three Thousand Five Hundred pounds; Which, Rating together The Value

Of Money And The Customs Of Life, We May Reckon More Than Equivalent To

Ten Thousand At The Present Time.

 

 

 

He Was Educated, By The Care Of His Mother, At Eton; And Removed

Afterwards To King'S College, In cambridge. He Was Sent To Parliament In

His Eighteenth, If Not In his Sixteenth Year, And Frequented the Court Of

James The First, Where He Heard A Very Remarkable Conversation, Which The

Writer Of The Life Prefixed to His Works, Who Seems To Have Been Well

Informed of Facts, Though He May Sometimes Err In chronology, Has

Delivered as Indubitably Certain:

 

 

 

"He Found Dr. Andrews, Bishop Of Winchester, And Dr. Neale, Bishop Of

Durham, Standing behind His Majesty'S Chair; And There Happened something

Extraordinary," Continues This Writer, "In The Conversation Those

Prelates Had With The King, On Which Mr. Waller Did Often Reflect. His

Majesty Asked the Bishops: 'My Lords, Cannot I Take My Subjects' Money,

When I Want It, Without All This Formality Of Parliament?' The Bishop Of

Durham Readily Answered, 'God Forbid, Sir, But You Should: You Are The

Breath Of Our Nostrils.' Whereupon The King turned and Said To The Bishop

Of Winchester, 'Well, My Lord, What Say You?' 'Sir,' Replied the Bishop,

'I Have No Skill To Judge Of Parliamentary Cases.' The King answered, 'No

Put-Offs, My Lord; Answer Me Presently.' 'Then, Sir,' Said He, 'Think It

Is Lawful For You To Take My Brother Neale'S Money; For He Offers It.'

Mr. Waller Said, The Company Was Pleased with This Answer, And The Wit Of

It Seemed to Affect The King; For, A Certain Lord Coming in soon After,

His Majesty Cried out, 'Oh, My Lord, They Say You Lig With My Lady.' 'No,

Sir,' Says His Lordship, In confusion;' But I Like Her Company, Because

She Has So Much Wit.' 'Why Then,' Says The King, 'Do You Not Lig With My

Lord Of Winchester There?'"

 

 

 

Waller'S Political And Poetical Life Began Nearly Together. In his

Eighteenth Year He Wrote The Poem That Appears First In his Works, On The

Prince'S Escape At St. Andero; A Piece Which Justifies The Observation,

Made By One Of His Editors, That He Attained, By A Felicity Like

Instinct, A Style Which, Perhaps, Will Never Be Obsolete; And That, "Were

We To Judge Only By The Wording, We Could Not Know What Was Wrote At

Twenty, And What At Fourscore." His Versification Was, In his First

Essay, Such As It Appears In his Last Performance. By The Perusal Of

Fairfax'S Translation Of Tasso, To Which, As Dryden Relates[82], He

Confessed himself Indebted for The Smoothness Of His Numbers, And By

His Own Nicety Of Observation, He Had Already Formed such A System

Of Metrical Harmony, As He Never Afterwards Much Needed, Or Much

Endeavoured, To Improve. Denham Corrected his Numbers By Experience, And

Gained ground Gradually Upon The Ruggedness Of His Age; But What Was

Acquired by Denham Was Inherited by Waller.

 

 

 

The Next Poem, Of Which The Subject Seems To Fix The Time, Is Supposed,

By Mr. Fenton, To Be The Address To The Queen, Which He Considers As

Congratulating her Arrival, In waller'S Twentieth Year. He Is Apparently

Mistaken; For The Mention Of The Nation'S Obligations To Her Frequent

Pregnancy, Proves That It Was Written, When She Had Brought Many

Children. We Have, Therefore, No Date Of Any Other Poetical Production

Before That Which The Murder Of The Duke Of Buckingham Occasioned: The

Steadiness With Which The King received the News In the Chapel, Deserved,

Indeed, To Be Rescued from Oblivion.

 

 

 

Neither Of These Pieces, That Seem To Carry Their Own Dates, Could Have

Been The Sudden Effusion Of Fancy. In the Verses On The Prince'S Escape,

The Prediction Of His Marriage With The Princess Of France Must Have

Been Written After The Event; In the Other, The Promises Of The King'S

Kindness To The Descendants Of Buckingham, Which Could Not Be Properly

Praised, Till It Had Appeared by Its Effects, Show That Time Was Taken

For Revision And Improvement. It Is Not Known That They Were Published

Till They Appeared, Long Afterwards, With Other Poems.

 

 

 

Waller Was Not One Of Those Idolaters Of Praise Who Cultivate Their Minds

At The Expense Of Their Fortunes. Rich As He Was By Inheritance, He Took

Care Early To Grow Richer, By Marrying mrs. Banks, A Great Heiress In

The City, Whom The Interest Of The Court Was Employed to Obtain For Mr.

Crofts. Having brought Him A Son, Who Died young, And A Daughter, Who Was

Afterwards Married to Mr. Dormer, Of Oxfordshire, She Died in childbed,

And Left Him A Widower Of About Five-And-Twenty, Gay And Wealthy, To

Please Himself With Another Marriage.

 

 

 

Being too Young To Resist Beauty, And Probably Too Vain To Think Himself

Resistible, He Fixed his Heart, Perhaps Half Fondly And Half Ambitiously,

Upon The Lady Dorothea Sidney, Eldest Daughter Of The Earl Of Leicester,

Whom He Courted by All The Poetry In which Sacharissa Is Celebrated; The

Name Is Derived from The Latin Appellation Of Sugar, And Implies, If It

Means Any Thing, A Spiritless Mildness, And Dull Good-Nature, Such As

Excites Rather Tenderness Than Esteem, And Such As, Though Always Treated

With Kindness, Is Never Honoured or Admired.

 

 

 

Yet He Describes Sacharissa As A Sublime Predominating beauty, Of Lofty

Charms, And Imperious Influence, On Whom He Looks With Amazement Rather

Than Fondness, Whose Chains He Wishes, Though In vain, To Break, And

Whose Presence Is "Wine That Inflames To Madness." His Acquaintance With

This High-Born Dame Gave Wit No Opportunity Of Boasting its Influence;

She Was Not To Be Subdued by The Powers Of Verse, But Rejected his

Addresses, It Is Said, With Disdain, And Drove Him Away To Solace His

Disappointment With Amoret Or Phillis. She Married, In 1639, The Earl Of

Sunderland, Who Died at Newbury, In the King'S Cause; And, In her Old

Age, Meeting somewhere With Waller, Asked him, When He Would Again Write

Such Verses Upon Her; "When You Are As Young, Madam," Said He, "And As

Handsome, As You Were Then."

 

 

 

In This Part Of His Life It Was That He Was Known To Clarendon, Among The

Rest Of The Men Who Were Eminent In that Age For Genius And Literature;

But Known So Little To His Advantage, That They Who Read His Character

Will Not Much Condemn Sacharissa, That She Did Not Descend From Her Rank

To His Embraces, Nor Think Every Excellence Comprised in wit.

 

 

 

The Lady Was, Indeed, Inexorable; But His Uncommon Qualifications,

Though They Had No Power Upon Her, Recommended him To The Scholars And

Statesmen; And, Undoubtedly, Many Beauties Of That Time, However They

Might Receive His Love, Were Proud Of His Praises. Who They Were, Whom He

Dignifies With Poetical Names, Cannot Now Be Known. Amoret, According to

Mr. Fenton, Was The Lady Sophia Murray. Perhaps, By Traditions, Preserved

In Families, More May Be Discovered.

 

 

 

From The Verses Written At Penshurst, It Has Been Collected that He

Diverted his Disappointment By A Voyage; And His Biographers, From His

Poem On The Whales, Think It Not Improbable That He Visited the Bermudas;

But It Seems Much More Likely, That He Should Amuse Himself With Forming

An Imaginary Scene, Than That So Important An Incident, As A Visit To

America, Should Have Been Left Floating in conjectural Probability.

 

 

 

From His Twenty-Eighth To His Thirty-Fifth Year, He Wrote His Pieces On

The Reduction Of Sallee; On The Reparation Of St. Paul'S; To The King on

His Navy; The Panegyrick On The Queen Mother; The Two Poems To The Earl

Of Northumberland; And Perhaps Others, Of Which The Time Cannot Be

Discovered.

 

 

 

When He Had Lost All Hopes Of Sacharissa, He Looked round Him For An

Easier Conquest, And Gained a Lady Of The Family Of Bresse, Or Breaux.

The Time Of His Marriage Is Not Exactly Known. It Has Not Been Discovered

That This Wife Was Won By His Poetry; Nor Is Any Thing told Of Her, But

That She Brought Him Many Children. He, Doubtless, Praised some Whom He

Would Have Been Afraid To Marry, And, Perhaps, Married one Whom He Would

Have Been Ashamed to Praise. Many Qualities Contribute To Domestick

Happiness, Upon Which Poetry Has No Colours To Bestow; And Many Airs And

Sallies May Delight Imagination, Which He Who Flatters Them Never Can

Approve. There Are Charms Made Only For Distant Admiration. No Spectacle

Is Nobler Than A Blaze.

 

 

 

Of This Wife, His Biographers Have Recorded that She Gave Him Five Sons

And Eight Daughters.

 

 

 

During the Long Interval Of Parliament, He Is Represented as Living among

Those With Whom It Was Most Honourable To Converse, And Enjoying an

Exuberant Fortune With That Independence And Liberty Of Speech And

Conduct Which Wealth Ought Always To Produce. He Was, However, Considered

As The Kinsman Of Hampden, And Was, Therefore, Supposed by The