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

With _Sphere_

Himself, And Be So Critical In other Men'S Writings. Fortune Is Fancied

Standing on A Globe, Not On A _Sphere_, As He Told Us In the First Act.

 

 

 

"Because 'Elkanah'S Similes Are The Most Unlike Things To What They Are

Compared in the World,' I'Ll Venture To Start A Simile In his Annus

Mirabilis: He Gives This Poetical Description Of The Ship Called the

London:

 

 

 

  "The Goodly London In her Gallant Trim,

  The Phoenix-Daughter Of The Vanquisht Old,

  Like A Rich Bride Does On The Ocean Swim,

  And On Her Shadow Rides In floating gold.

  Her Flag Aloft Spread Ruffling in the Wind,

  And Sanguine Streamers Seem'D The Flood To Fire:

  The Weaver, Charm'D With What His Loom Design'D,

  Goes On To Sea, And Knows Not To Retire.

  With Roomy Decks, Her Guns Of Mighty Strength,

  Whose Low-Laid Mouths Each Mounting billow Laves,

  Deep In her Draught, And Warlike In her Length,

  She Seems A Sea-Wasp Flying on The Waves.

 

 

 

"What A Wonderful Pother Is Here, To Make All These Poetical

Beautifications Of A Ship! That Is A _Phoenix_ In the First Stanza, And

But A _Wasp_ In the Last: Nay, To Make His Humble Comparison Of A _Wasp_

More Ridiculous, He Does Not Say It Flies Upon The Waves As Nimbly As A

Wasp, Or The Like, But It Seemed a _Wasp_. But Our Author At The Writing

Of This Was Not In his Altitudes, To Compare Ships To Floating palaces: A

Comparison To The Purpose, Was A Perfection He Did Not Arrive To Till His

Indian Emperor'S Days. But, Perhaps, His Similitude Has More In it Than

We Imagine; This Ship Had A Great Many Guns In her, And They, Put All

Together, Made The Sting in the Wasp'S Tail; For This Is All The Reason I

Can Guess, Why It Seem'D A _Wasp_. But, Because We Will Allow Him All We

Can To Help Out, Let It Be A _Phoenix Sea-Wasp_, And The Rarity Of Such

An Animal May Do Much Towards Heightening the Fancy.

 

 

 

"It Had Been Much More To His Purpose, If He Had Designed to Render The

Senseless Play Little, To Have Searched for Some Such Pedantry As This:

 

 

 

  "Two Ifs Scarce Make One Possibility.

  If Justice Will Take All And Nothing give,

  Justice, Methinks, Is Not Distributive.

  To Die Or Kill You, Is The Alternative.

  Rather Than Take Your Life, I Will Not Live.

 

 

 

"Observe How Prettily Our Author Chops Logick In heroick Verse. Three

Such Fustian Canting words As _Distributive, Alternative_, And _Two Ifs_,

No Man But Himself Would Have Come Within The Noise Of. But He'S A Man Of

General Learning, And All Comes Into His Play.

 

 

 

"'Twould Have Done Well Too If He Could Have Met With A Rant Or Two,

Worth The Observation; Such As,

 

 

 

  "Move Swiftly, Sun, And Fly A Lover'S Pace,

  Leave Months And Weeks Behind Thee In thy Race.

 

 

 

"But Surely The Sun, Whether He Flies A Lover'S Or Not A Lover'S Pace,

Leaves Weeks And Months, Nay, Years Too, Behind Him In his Race.

 

 

 

"Poor Robin, Or Any Other Of The Philo-Mathematicks, Would Have Given Him

Satisfaction In the Point:

 

 

 

  "If I Could Kill Thee Now, Thy Fate'S So Low,

  That I Must Stoop, Ere I Can Give The Blow.

  But Mine Is Fixt So Far Above Thy Crown,

  That All Thy Men,

  Piled on Thy Back, Can Never Pull It Down.

 

 

 

"Now Where That Is, Almanzor'S Fate Is Fixt, I Cannot Guess; But,

Wherever It Is, I Believe Almanzor, And Think That All Abdalla'S

Subjects, Piled upon One Another, Might Not Pull Down His Fate So Well As

Without Piling: Besides, I Think Abdalla So Wise A Man, That, If Almanzor

Had Told Him Piling his Men Upon His Back Might Do The Feat, He Would

Scarce Bear Such A Weight, For The Pleasure Of The Exploit; But It Is A

Huff, And Let Abdalla Do It If He Dare.

 

 

 

  "The People Like A Headlong Torrent Go,

  And Ev'Ry Dam They Break Or Overflow.

  But, Unoppos'D, They Either Lose Their Force,

  Or Wind In volumes To Their Former Course.

 

 

 

"A Very Pretty Allusion, Contrary To All Sense Or Reason. Torrents, I

Take It, Let Them Wind Never So Much, Can Never Return To Their Former

Course, Unless He Can Suppose That Fountains Can Go Upwards, Which Is

Impossible; Nay, More, In the Foregoing page He Tells Us So Too; A Trick

Of A Very Unfaithful Memory:

 

 

 

  "But Can No More Than Fountains Upward Flow;

 

 

 

"Which Of A _Torrent_, Which Signifies A Rapid Stream, Is Much More

Impossible. Besides, If He Goes To Quibble, And Say That It Is Possible

By Art Water May Be Made Return, And The Same Water Run Twice In one And

The Same Channel: Then He Quite Confutes What He Says; For It Is By Being

Opposed, That It Runs Into Its Former Course; For All Engines That Make

Water So Return, Do It By Compulsion And Opposition. Or, If He Means A

Headlong Torrent For A Tide, Which Would Be Ridiculous, Yet They Do Riot

Wind In volumes, But Come Foreright Back, (If Their Upright Lies Straight

To Their Former Course,) And That By Opposition Of The Sea-Water, That

Drives Them Back Again.

 

 

 

"And For Fancy, When He Lights Of Any Thing like It, 'Tis A Wonder If It

Be Not Borrowed. As Here, For Example Of, I Find This Fanciful Thought In

His Ann. Mirab.

 

 

 

  "Old Father Thames Rais'D Up His Rev'Rend Head;

  But Fear'D The Fate Of Simoeis Would Return:

  Deep In his Ooze He Sought His Sedgy Bed;

  And Shrunk His Waters Back Into His Urn.

 

 

 

"This Is Stolen From Cowley'S Davideis, P. 9.

 

 

 

  "Swift Jordan Started, And Strait Backward Fled,

  Hiding amongst Thick Reeds His Aged head.

  And When The Spaniards Their Assault Begin,

  At Once Beat Those Without And Those Within.

 

 

 

"This Almanzor Speaks Of Himself; And, Sure, For One Man To Conquer An

Army Within The City, And Another Without The City, At Once, Is Something

Difficult; But This Flight Is Pardonable To Some We Meet With In granada:

Osmin, Speaking of Almanzor,

 

 

 

  "Who, Like A Tempest That Outrides The Wind,

  Made A Just Battle, Ere The Bodies Join'D.

 

 

 

"Pray, What Does This Honourable Person Mean By A 'Tempest That Outrides

The Wind?' A Tempest That Outrides Itself. To Suppose A Tempest Without

Wind, Is As Bad As Supposing a Man To Walk Without Feet; For If He

Supposes The Tempest To Be Something distinct From The Wind, Yet, As

Being the Effect Of Wind Only, To Come Before The Cause Is A Little

Preposterous; So That, If He Takes It One Way, Or If He Takes It The

Other, Those Two _Ifs_ Will Scarce Make One _Possibility_." Enough Of

Settle.

 

 

 

Marriage A-La-Mode, 1673, Is A Comedy Dedicated to The Earl Of Rochester;

Whom He Acknowledges Not Only As The Defender Of His Poetry, But The

Promoter Of His Fortune. Langbaine Places This Play In 1673. The Earl Of

Rochester, Therefore, Was The Famous Wilmot, Whom Yet Tradition Always

Represents As An Enemy To Dryden, And Who Is Mentioned by Him With Some

Disrespect In the Preface To Juvenal.

 

 

 

The Assignation, Or Love In a Nunnery, A Comedy, 1673, Was Driven Off The

Stage, "Against The Opinion," As The Author Says, "Of The Best Judges."

It Is Dedicated, In a Very Elegant Address, To Sir Charles Sedley; In

Which He Finds An Opportunity For His Usual Complaint Of Hard Treatment

And Unreasonable Censure.

 

 

 

Amboyna, 1673, Is A Tissue Of Mingled dialogue In verse And Prose, And

Was, Perhaps, Written In less Time Than The Virgin Martyr; Though The

Author Thought Not Fit, Either Ostentatiously Or Mournfully, To Tell How

Little Labour It Cost Him, Or At How Short A Warning he Produced it. It

Was A Temporary Performance, Written In the Time Of The Dutch War,

To Inflame The Nation Against Their Enemies; To Whom He Hopes, As He

Declares In his Epilogue, To Make His Poetry Not Less Destructive Than

That By Which Tyrtaeus Of Old Animated the Spartans. This Play Was

Written In the Second Dutch War, In 1673.

 

 

 

Troilus And Cressida, 1679, Is A Play Altered from Shakespeare; But So

Altered, That, Even In langbaine'S Opinion, "The Last Scene In the Third

Act Is A Masterpiece." It Is Introduced by A Discourse On The Grounds

Of Criticism In tragedy, To Which I Suspect That Rymer'S Book Had Given

Occasion.

 

 

 

The Spanish Fryar, 1681, Is A Tragicomedy, Eminent For The Happy

Coincidence And Coalition Of The Two Plots. As It Was Written Against The

Papists, It Would Naturally, At That Time, Have Friends And Enemies; And

Partly By The Popularity Which It Obtained at First, And Partly By The

Real Power Both Of The Serious And Risible Part, It Continued long A

Favourite Of The Publick.

 

 

 

It Was Dryden'S Opinion, At Least For Some Time, And He Maintains It In

The Dedication Of This Play, That The Drama Required an Alternation Of

Comick And Tragick Scenes; And That It Is Necessary To Mitigate, By

Alleviations Of Merriment, The Pressure Of Ponderous Events, And The

Fatigue Of Toilsome Passions. "Whoever," Says He, "Cannot Perform Both

Parts, Is But Half A Writer For The Stage."

 

 

 

The Duke Of Guise, A Tragedy, 1683, Written In conjunction With Lee, As

Oedipus Had Been Before, Seems To Deserve Notice Only For The Offence

Which It Gave To The Remnant Of The Covenanters, And In general To The

Enemies Of The Court, Who Attacked him With Great Violence, And Were

Answered by Him; Though, At Last, He Seems To Withdraw From The Conflict,

By Transferring the Greater Part Of The Blame Or Merit To His Partner. It

Happened that A Contract Had Been Made Between Them, By Which They Were

To Join In writing a Play; And "He Happened," Says Dryden, "To Claim The

Promise Just Upon The Finishing of A Poem, When I Would Have Been Glad Of

A Little Respite. _Two_-Thirds Of It Belonged to Him; And To Me Only The

First Scene Of The Play, The Whole Fourth Act, And The First Half, Or

Somewhat More, Of The Fifth."

 

 

 

This Was A Play Written Professedly For The Party Of The Duke Of York,

Whose Succession Was Then Opposed. A Parallel Is Intended between The

Leaguers Of France, And The Covenanters Of England: And This Intention

Produced the Controversy.

 

 

 

Albion And Albanius, 1685, Is A Musical Drama Or Opera, Written, Like

The Duke Of Guise, Against The Republicans. With What Success It Was

Performed, I Have Not Found[103].

 

 

 

The State Of Innocence And Fall Of Man, 1675, Is Termed, By Him, An

Opera: It Is Rather A Tragedy In heroick Rhyme, But Of Which The

Personages Are Such As Cannot Decently Be Exhibited on The Stage. Some

Such Production Was Foreseen By Marvel, Who Writes Thus To Milton:

 

 

 

  Or If A Work So Infinite Be Spann'D,

  Jealous I Was, Lest Some Less Skilful Hand

  (Such As Disquiet Always What Is Well,

  And By Ill-Imitating would Excel,)

  Might Hence Presume The Whole Creation'S Day

  To Change In scenes, And Show It In a Play.

 

 

 

It Is Another Of His Hasty Productions; For The Heat Of His Imagination

Raised it In a Month.

 

 

 

This Composition Is Addressed to The Princess Of Modena, Then Dutchess Of

York, In a Strain Of Flattery Which Disgraces Genius, And Which It Was

Wonderful That Any Man, That Knew The Meaning of His Own Words, Could Use

Without Self-Detestation. It Is An Attempt To Mingle Earth And Heaven, By

Praising human Excellence In the Language Of Religion.

 

 

 

The Preface Contains An Apology For Heroick Verse And Poetick License; By

Which Is Meant Not Any Liberty Taken In contracting or Extending words,

But The Use Of Bold Fictions And Ambitious Figures.

 

 

 

The Reason Which He Gives For Printing what Was Never Acted, Cannot Be

Overpassed: "I Was Induced to It In my Own Defence, Many Hundred copies

Of It Being dispersed abroad Without My Knowledge Or Consent, And Every

One Gathering new Faults, It Became, At Length, A Libel Against Me."

These Copies, As They Gathered faults, Were Apparently Manuscript; And

He Lived in an Age Very Unlike Ours, If Many Hundred copies Of Fourteen

Hundred lines Were Likely To Be Transcribed. An Author Has A Right To

Print His Own Works, And Needs Not Seek An Apology In falsehood; But He

That Could Bear To Write The Dedication, Felt No Pain In writing the

Preface.

 

 

 

Aureng Zebe, 1676, Is A Tragedy Founded on The Actions Of A Great Prince

Then Reigning, But Over Nations Not Likely To Employ Their Criticks Upon

The Transactions Of The English Stage. If He Had Known And Disliked

His Own Character, Our Trade Was Not In those Times Secure From His

Resentment. His Country Is At Such A Distance, That The Manners Might Be

Safely Falsified, And The Incidents Feigned;