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

Mr. Malone Has Furnished us With A Detailed account Of

Our Poet'S Circumstances, From Which It Appears, That Although He Was

Possessed of A Sufficient Income, In the Early Part Of His Life, He Was

Considerably Embarrassed at Its Close. See Malone'S Life, P. 440.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 96: Mr. Derrick'S Life Of Dryden Was Prefixed to A Very

Beautiful And Correct Edition Of Dryden'S Miscellanies, Published by

The Tonsons, In 1760,4 Vols. 8Vo. Derrick'S Part, However, Was Poorly

Executed, And The Edition Never Became Popular. C.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 97: He Went Off To Trinity College, And Was Admitted to A

Bachelor'S Degree In jan. 1653-4, And In 1657 Was Made M.A.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 98: This Is A Mistake; His Poem On The Death Of Lord Hastings

Appeared in a Volume Entitled tears Of The Muses On The Death Of Henry

Lord Hastings. 8Vo. 1649. M.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 99: The Order Of His Plays Has Been Accurately Ascertained by

Mr. Malone. C.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 100: The Duke Of Guise Was His First Attempt In the Drama, But

Laid Aside, And Afterwards New Modelled. See Malone, P. 51.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 101: See Malone, P. 91.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 102: He Did Not Obtain The Laurel Till Aug. 18, 1670, But Mr.

Malone Informs Us, The Patent Had A Retrospect, And The Salary Commenced

From The Midsummer After Davenant'S Death. C.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 103: Downes Says It Was Performed on A Very Unlucky Day, Viz.

That On Which The Duke Of Monmouth Landed in the West; And He Intimates,

That The Consternation Into Which The Kingdom Was Thrown By This Event,

Was A Reason Why It Was Performed but Six Times, And Was In general Ill

Received. H.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 104: This Is A Mistake. It Was Set To Musick By Purcell, And

Well Received, And Is Yet A Favourite Entertainment. H.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 105: Johnson Has Here Quoted from Memory. Warburton Is The

Original Relater Of This Anecdote, Who Says He Had It From Southern

Himself. According to Him, Dryden'S Usual Price Had Been _Four Guineas_,

And He Made Southern Pay _Six_. In the Edition Of Southern'S Plays, 1774,

We Have A Different Deviation From The Truth, _Five_ And _Ten_ Guineas.

M.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 106: Dr. Johnson, In this Assertion, Was Misled by Langbaine.

Only One Of These Plays Appeared in 1678. Nor Were There More Than Three

In Any One Year. The Dates Are Now Added from The Original Editions. R.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 107: It Was Published in 1672. R.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 108: This Remark, As Mr. Malone Observes, Is Founded upon

The Erroneous Dates With Which Johnson Was Supplied by Langbaine. The

Rehearsal Was Played in 1671, But Not Published till The Next Year; The

Wild Gallant Was Printed in 1669, The Maiden Queen In 1668, Tyrannick

Love In 1670; The Two Parts Of Granada Were Performed in 1669 And 1670,

Though Not Printed till 1672. Additions Were Afterwards Made To The

Rehearsal, And Among These Are The Parodies On Assignation, Which Are Not

To Be Found In buckingham'S Play As It Originally Appeared. Mr. Malone

Denies That There Is Any Allusion To Marriage A-La-Mode. See Malone, P.

100. J. B.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 109: It Is Mentioned by A. Wood, Athen, Oxon. Vol. Ii. P. 804.

2Nd Ed. C.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 110: Dryden Translated two Entire Epistles, Canace To Macareus,

And Dido To Aeneas. Helen To Paris Was Translated by Him And Lord

Mulgrave. Malone, J.B.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 111: Azaria And Hushai Was Written By Samuel Pordage, A

Dramatick Writer Of That Time.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 112: Dr. John Reynolds, Who Lived temp. Jac. I. Was At First A

Zealous Papist, And His Brother William As Earnest A Protestant; But By

Mutual Disputation Each Converted the Other. See Fuller'S Church History,

P. 47. Book X. Ii.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 113: This Is A Mistake. See Malone, P. 194, &C.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 114: All Dryden'S Biographers Have Misdated this Poem, Which

Mr. Malone'S More Accurate Researches Prove To Have Been Published on The

4Th Of Oct. 1682.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 115: Albion And Albanius Must, However, Be Excepted. R.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 116: This Story Has Been Traced to Its Source, And Clearly

Proved to Be A Fabrication, By Mr. Malone. See Malone'S Life, 347.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 117: An Earlier Account Of Dryden'S Funeral Than That Above

Cited, Though Without The Circumstances That Preceded it, Is Given By

Edward Ward, Who, In his London Spy, Published in 1706, Relates, That On

The Occasion There Was A Performance Of Solemn Musick At The College,

And That At The Procession, Which Himself Saw, Standing at The End

Of Chancery Lane, Fleet Street, There Was A Concert Of Hautboys And

Trumpets. The Day Of Dryden'S Interment, He Says, Was Monday, The 13Th Of

May, Which, According to Johnson, Was Twelve Days After His Decease,

And Shows How Long His Funeral Was In suspense. Ward Knew Not That

The Expense Of It Was Defrayed by Subscription; But Compliments Lord

Jefferies For So Pious An Undertaking. He Also Says, That The Cause Of

Dryden'S Death Was An Inflammation In his Toe, Occasioned by The Flesh

Growing over The Nail, Which, Being neglected, Produced a Mortification

In His Leg. H.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 118: In the Register Of The College Of Physicians, Is The

Following entry: "May 3, 1700. Comitiis Censoriis Ordinariis. At The

Request Of Several Persons Of Quality, That Mr. Dryden Might Be Carried

From The College Of Physicians To Be Interred at Westminster, It Was

Unanimously Granted by The President And Censors."

 

 

 

This Entry Is Not Calculated to Afford Any Credit To The Narrative

Concerning lord Jefferies. R.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 119: See What Is Said On This Head With Regard To Cowley And

Addison, In their Respective Lives.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 120: Preface To Ovid'S Metamorphoses. Dr. J.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 121: We Are Not About To Attempt A Justification Of Dryden'S

Strange Use, In the Above Stanzas, Of Nautical Phrases, But We Must

Remark, That Johnson'S Antipathy To Ships, And Every Thing connected

With Them, Made Him Unusually Sensitive Of Any Thing like Naval

Technicalities. And Yet Surely The Occasional And Judicious Use Of Them

In Description Is Quite As Allowable As The Introduction Of Allusions To

The Printing office Or Bookseller'S Shop, With Which Johnson Happened to

Be Familiar, And, Therefore, Did Not Disapprove. St. Paul Did Not Disdain

To Adopt Naval Phraseology In his Exquisite Narrative Of His Own Perils

By Sea. Ed.]

 

 

 

[Footnoteb 122: A Heart-Sinking and Painful Depression Has Been

Experienced by Most Of Us On Concluding a Favourite Author; But The

Sensation Has Never Been More Vividly Portrayed in language, Than In the

Above Passage. Ed.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 123: I Cannot See Why Johnson Has Thought There Was Any Want Of

Clearness In this Passage Even In prose. Addison Has Given Us Almost The

Very Same Thought In very Good Prose: "If We Look Forward To Him [The

Deity] For Help, We Shall Never Be In danger Of Falling down Those

Precipices Which Our Imagination Is Apt To Create. Like Those Who Walk

Upon A Line, If We Keep Our Eye Fixed upon One Point, We May Step Forward

Securely; Whereas An Imprudent Or Cowardly Glance On Either Side Will

Infallibly Destroy Us." Spectator, No. 615. J.B.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 124: This Is An Error. The Alexandrine Inserted among Heroick

Lines Of Ten Syllables Is Found In many Of The Writers Of Queen

Elizabeth'S Reign. It Will Be Sufficient To Mention Hall, Who Has Already

Been Quoted for The Use Of The Triplet:

 

 

 

  As Tho' The Staring world Hang'D On His Sleeve.

  Whenever He Smiles To Laugh, And When He Sighs To Grieve.

 

 

 

Hall'S Sat. Book I. Sat. 7.

 

 

 

Take Another Instance:

 

 

 

  For Shame! Or Better Write Or Labeo Write None.

 

 

 

Hall'S Sat. Book Ii. Sat 1. J.B.]

 

 

 

 

 

Smith

Edmund Smith Is One Of Those Lucky Writers Who Have, Without Much Labour,

Attained high Reputation, And Who Are Mentioned with Reverence, Rather

For The Possession, Than The Exertion Of Uncommon Abilities.

 

 

 

Of His Life Little Is Known; And That Little Claims No Praise But What

Can Be Given To Intellectual Excellence, Seldom Employed to Any Virtuous

Purpose. His Character, As Given By Mr. Oldisworth, With All The

Partiality Of Friendship, Which Is Said, By Dr. Burton, To Show "What

Fine Things One Man Of Parts Can Say Of Another," And Which, However,

Comprises Great Part Of What Can Be Known Of Mr. Smith, It Is Better To

Transcribe, At Once, Than To Take By Pieces. I Shall Subjoin Such Little

Memorials As Accident Has Enabled me To Collect.

 

 

 

Mr. Edmund Smith Was The Only Son Of An Eminent Merchant, One Mr. Neale,

By A Daughter Of The Famous Baron Lechmere. Some Misfortunes Of His

Father, Which Were Soon Followed by His Death, Were The Occasion Of The

Son'S Being left Very Young In the Hands Of A Near Relation, (One Who

Married mr. Neale'S Sister,) Whose Name Was Smith.

 

 

 

This Gentleman And His Lady Treated him As Their Own Child, And Put Him

To Westminster School, Under The Care Of Dr. Busby; Whence, After The

Loss Of His Faithful And Generous Guardian, (Whose Name He Assumed and

Retained,) He Was Removed to Christ Church, In oxford, And There, By His

Aunt, Handsomely Maintained till Her Death; After Which He Continued a

Member Of That Learned and Ingenious Society, Till Within Five Years Of

His Own; Though, Some Time Before His Leaving christ Church, He Was

Sent For By His Mother To Worcester, And Owned and Acknowledged as

Her Legitimate Son; Which Had Not Been Mentioned, But To Wipe Off The

Aspersions That Were Ignorantly Cast By Some On His Birth. It Is To Be

Remembered, For Our Author'S Honour, That, When At Westminster Election

He Stood A Candidate For One Of The Universities, He So Signally

Distinguished himself By His Conspicuous Performances, That There Arose

No Small Contention, Between The Representative Electors Of Trinity

College, In cambridge, And Christ Church, In oxon, Which Of Those Two

Royal Societies Should Adopt Him As Their Own. But The Electors Of

Trinity College Having the Preference Of Choice That Year, They

Resolutely Elected him; Who Yet, Being invited, At The Same Time, To

Christ Church, Chose To Accept Of A Studentship There. Mr. Smith'S

Perfections, As Well Natural As Acquired, Seem To Have Been Formed upon

Horace'S Plan, Who Says, In his Art Of Poetry:

 

 

 

  Ego Nec Studium Sine Divite Vena,

  Nec Rude Quid Prosit Video Ingenium; Alterius Sic

  Altera Poscit Opem Res, Et Conjurat Amice.

 

 

 

He Was Endowed by Nature With All Those Excellent And Necessary

Qualifications Which Are Previous To The Accomplishment Of A Great Man.

His Memory Was Large And Tenacious, Yet, By A _Curious Felicity, Chiefly_

Susceptible Of The Finest Impressions It Received from The Best Authors

He Read, Which It Always Preserved in their Primitive Strength And

Amiable Order.

 

 

 

He Had A Quickness Of Apprehension, And Vivacity Of Understanding, Which

Easily Took In and Surmounted the Most Subtile And Knotty Parts Of

Mathematicks And Metaphysicks. His Wit Was Prompt And Flowing, Yet

Solid And Piercing; His Taste Delicate, His Head Clear, And His Way Of

Expressing his Thoughts Perspicuous And Engaging. I Shall Say Nothing of

His Person, Which Yet Was So Well _Turned_, That No Neglect Of Himself In

His Dress Could Render It Disagreeable; Insomuch, That The Fair Sex, Who

Observed and Esteemed him, At Once Commended and Reproved him By The Name

Of The _Handsome_ Sloven. An Eager But Generous And Noble Emulation Grew

Up With Him; Which (As It Were A Rational Sort Of Instinct) Pushed him

Upon Striving to Excel In every Art And Science That Could Make Him A

Credit To His College, And That College The Ornament Of The Most

Learned and Polite University; And It Was His Happiness To Have Several

Contemporaries And Fellow-Students Who Exercised and Excited this Virtue

In Themselves And Others, Thereby Becoming so Deservedly In favour With

This Age, And So Good A Proof Of Its Nice Discernment. His Judgment,

Naturally Good, Soon Ripened into An Exquisite Fineness And

Distinguishing sagacity, Which As It Was Active And Busy, So It

Was Vigorous And Manly, Keeping even Paces With A Rich And Strong

Imagination, Always Upon The Wing, And Never Tired with Aspiring. Hence

It Was, That, Though He Writ As Young As Cowley, He Had No Puerilities;

And His Earliest Productions Were So Far From Having any Thing in them

Mean And Trifling, That, Like The Junior Compositions Of Mr. Stepney,

They