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

He Was Soon So Much Distinguished

By His Conversation And Accomplishments, As To Obtain Very Extensive

Practice; And, If A Pamphlet Of Those Times May Be Credited, Had The

Favour And Confidence Of One Party, As Radcliffe Had Of The Other.

 

 

 

He Is Always Mentioned as A Man Of Benevolence; And It Is Just To

Suppose, That His Desire Of Helping the Helpless Disposed him To So Much

Zeal For The Dispensary; An Undertaking of Which Some Account, However

Short, Is Proper To Be Given.

 

 

 

Whether What Temple Says Be True, That Physicians Have Had More Learning

Than The Other Faculties, I Will Not Stay To Inquire; But, I Believe,

Every Man Has Found In physicians Great Liberality And Dignity Of

Sentiment, Very Prompt Effusion Of Beneficence, And Willingness To Exert

A Lucrative Art Where There Is No Hope Of Lucre. Agreeably To This

Character, The College Of Physicians, In july, 1687, Published an

Edict, Requiring all The Fellows, Candidates, And Licentiates, To Give

Gratuitous Advice To The Neighbouring poor.

 

 

 

This Edict Was Sent To The Court Of Aldermen; And, A Question Being made

To Whom The Appellation Of The _Poor_ Should Be Extended, The College

Answered, That It Should Be Sufficient To Bring a Testimonial From The

Clergyman Officiating in the Parish Where The Patient Resided.

 

 

 

After A Year'S Experience, The Physicians Found Their Charity Frustrated

By Some Malignant Opposition, And Made, To A Great Degree, Vain By The

High Price Of Physick; They, Therefore, Voted, In august, 1688, That The

Laboratory Of The College Should Be Accommodated to The Preparation Of

Medicines, And Another Room Prepared for Their Reception; And That The

Contributors To The Expense Should Manage The Charity.

 

 

 

It Was Now Expected, That The Apothecaries Would Have Undertaken The Care

Of Providing medicines; But They Took Another Course. Thinking the Whole

Design Pernicious To Their Interest, They Endeavoured to Raise A Faction

Against It In the College, And Found Some Physicians Mean Enough To

Solicit Their Patronage, By Betraying to Them The Counsels Of The

College. The Greater Part, However, Enforced by A New Edict, In 1694,

The Former Order Of 1687, And Sent It To The Mayor And Aldermen, Who

Appointed a Committee To Treat With The College, And Settle The Mode Of

Administering the Charity.

 

 

 

It Was Desired by The Aldermen, That The Testimonials Of Churchwardens

And Overseers Should Be Admitted; And That All Hired servants, And All

Apprentices To Handicrafts-Men, Should Be Considered as Poor. This,

Likewise, Was Granted by The College.

 

 

 

It Was Then Considered who Should Distribute The Medicines, And Who

Should Settle Their Prices. The Physicians Procured some Apothecaries To

Undertake The Dispensation, And Offered that The Warden And Company Of

The Apothecaries Should Adjust The Price. This Offer Was Rejected; And

The Apothecaries Who Had Engaged to Assist The Charity Were Considered as

Traitors To The Company, Threatened with The Imposition Of Troublesome

Offices, And Deterred from The Performance Of Their Engagements. The

Apothecaries Ventured upon Publick Opposition, And Presented a Kind Of

Remonstrance Against The Design To The Committee Of The City, Which The

Physicians Condescended to Confute; And, At Last, The Traders Seem To

Have Prevailed among The Sons Of Trade; For The Proposal Of The College

Having been Considered, A Paper Of Approbation Was Drawn Up, But

Postponed and Forgotten.

 

 

 

The Physicians Still Persisted; And, In 1696, A Subscription Was Raised

By Themselves, According to An Agreement Prefixed to The Dispensary. The

Poor Were, For A Time, Supplied with Medicines; For How Long A Time, I

Know Not. The Medicinal Charity, Like Others, Began With Ardour, But Soon

Remitted, And, At Last, Died gradually Away.

 

 

 

About The Time Of The Subscription Begins The Action Of The Dispensary.

The Poem, As Its Subject Was Present And Popular, Cooperated with

Passions And Prejudices Then Prevalent, And, With Such Auxiliaries To Its

Intrinsick Merit, Was Universally And Liberally Applauded. It Was On

The Side Of Charity Against The Intrigues Of Interest, And Of Regular

Learning against Licentious Usurpation Of Medical Authority; And Was,

Therefore, Naturally Favoured by Those Who Read And Can Judge Of Poetry.

 

 

 

In 1697, Garth Spoke That Which Is Now Called the Harveian Oration; Which

The Authors Of The Biographia Mention With More Praise Than The Passage

Quoted in their Notes Will Fully Justify. Garth, Speaking of The

Mischiefs Done By Quacks, Has These Expressions: "Non Tamen Telis

Vulnerat Ista Agyrtarum Colluvies, Sed theriaca Quadam Magis Perniciosa;

Non Pyrio, Sed pulvere Nescio Quo Exotico Certat; Non Globulis Plumbeis,

Sed pilulis Aeque Lethalibus Interficit." This Was Certainly Thought Fine

By The Author, And Is Still Admired by His Biographer. In october, 1702,

He Became One Of The Censors Of The College.

 

 

 

Garth, Being an Active And Zealous Whig, Was A Member Of The Kit-Cat

Club, And, By Consequence, Familiarly Known To All The Great Men Of That

Denomination. In 1710, When The Government Fell Into Other Hands, He Writ

To Lord Godolphin, On His Dismission, A Short Poem, Which Was Criticised

In The Examiner, And So Successfully Either Defended or Excused by Mr.

Addison, That, For The Sake Of The Vindication, It Ought To Be Preserved.

 

 

 

At The Accession Of The Present Family His Merits Were Acknowledged and

Rewarded. He Was Knighted with The Sword Of His Hero, Marlborough; And

Was Made Physician In ordinary To The King, And Physician General To The

Army. He Then Undertook An Edition Of Ovid'S Metamorphoses, Translated

By Several Hands; Which He Recommended by A Preface, Written With More

Ostentation Than Ability; His Notions Are Half-Formed, And His Materials

Immethodically Confused. This Was His Last Work. He Died jan. 18,

1717-18, And Was Buried at Harrow-On-The-Hill.

 

 

 

His Personal Character Seems To Have Been Social And Liberal. He

Communicated himself Through A Very Wide Extent Of Acquaintance; And

Though Firm In a Party, At A Time When Firmness Included virulence, Yet

He Imparted his Kindness To Those Who Were Not Supposed to Favour His

Principles. He Was An Early Encourager Of Pope, And Was, At Once, The

Friend Of Addison And Of Granville. He Is Accused of Voluptuousness And

Irreligion; And Pope, Who Says, That "If Ever There Was A Good Christian,

Without Knowing himself To Be So, It Was Dr. Garth," Seems Not Able To

Deny What He Is Angry To Hear, And Loath To Confess.

 

 

 

Pope Afterwards Declared himself Convinced, That Garth Died in the

Communion Of The Church Of Rome, Having been Privately Reconciled. It Is

Observed by Lowth, That There Is Less Distance Than Is Thought Between

Skepticism And Popery; And That A Mind, Wearied with Perpetual Doubt,

Willingly Seeks Repose In the Bosom Of An Infallible Church.

 

 

 

His Poetry Has Been Praised, At Least, Equally To Its Merit. In the

Dispensary There Is A Strain Of Smooth And Free Versification; But Few

Lines Are Eminently Elegant. No Passages Fall Below Mediocrity, And Few

Rise Much Above It. The Plan Seems Formed without Just Proportion To The

Subject; The Means And End Have No Necessary Connexion. Resnel, In his

Preface To Pope'S Essay, Remarks, That Garth Exhibits No Discrimination

Of Characters; And That What Any One Says Might, With Equal Propriety,

Have Been Said By Another. The General Design Is, Perhaps, Open To

Criticism; But The Composition Can Seldom Be Charged with Inaccuracy Or

Negligence. The Author Never Slumbers In self-Indulgence; His Full Vigour

Is Always Exerted; Scarcely A Line Is Left Unfinished; Nor Is It Easy

To Find An Expression Used by Constraint, Or A Thought Imperfectly

Expressed. It Was Remarked by Pope, That The Dispensary Had Been

Corrected in every Edition, And That Every Change Was An Improvement. It

Appears, However, To Want Something of Poetical Ardour, And Something

Of General Delectation; And, Therefore, Since It Has Been No Longer

Supported by Accidental And Extrinsick Popularity, It Has Been Scarcely

Able To Support Itself.

 

 

 

 

Rowe

Nicholas Rowe Was Born At Little Beckford, In bedfordshire, In 1673. His

Family Had Long Possessed a Considerable Estate, With A Good House, At

Lambertoun, In devonshire[144]. The Ancestor From Whom He Descended, In a

Direct Line, Received the Arms Borne By His Descendants For His Bravery

In The Holy War. His Father, John Rowe, Who Was The First That Quitted

His Paternal Acres To Practise Any Art Of Profit, Professed the Law, And

Published benlow'S And Dallison'S Reports, In the Reign Of James The

Second, When In opposition To The Notions, Then Diligently Propagated,

Of Dispensing power, He Ventured to Remark How Low His Authors Rated the

Prerogative. He Was Made A Sergeant, And Died april 30, 1692. He Was

Buried in the Temple Church.

 

 

 

Nicholas Was First Sent To A Private School At Highgate; And, Being

Afterwards Removed to Westminster, Was, At Twelve Years[145], Chosen One

Of The King'S Scholars. His Master Was Busby, Who Suffered none Of His

Scholars To Let Their Powers Lie Useless; And His Exercises In several

Languages Are Said To Have Been Written With Uncommon Degrees Of

Excellence, And Yet To Have Cost Him Very Little Labour.

 

 

 

At Sixteen He Had, In his Father'S Opinion, Made Advances In learning

Sufficient To Qualify Him For The Study Of Law, And Was Entered a Student

Of The Middle Temple, Where, For Some Time, He Read Statutes And Reports

With Proficiency Proportionate To The Force Of His Mind, Which Was

Already Such That He Endeavoured to Comprehend Law, Not As A Series

Of Precedents, Or Collection Of Positive Precepts, But As A System Of

Rational Government, And Impartial Justice.

 

 

 

When He Was Nineteen, He Was, By The Death Of His Father, Left More To

His Own Direction, And, Probably, From That Time Suffered law Gradually

To Give Way To Poetry[146]. At Twenty-Five He Produced the Ambitious

Step-Mother, Which Was Received with So Much Favour, That He Devoted

Himself, From That Time, Wholly To Elegant Literature.

 

 

 

His Next Tragedy, 1702, Was Tamerlane, In which, Under The Name Of

Tamerlane, He Intended to Characterize King william, And Lewis The

Fourteenth Under That Of Bajazet. The Virtues Of Tamerlane Seem To Have

Been Arbitrarily Assigned him By His Poet, For I Know Not That History

Gives Any Other Qualities Than Those Which Make A Conqueror. The Fashion,

However, Of The Time Was, To Accumulate Upon Lewis All That Can Raise

Horrour And Detestation; And Whatever Good Was Withheld From Him, That It

Might Not Be Thrown Away, Was Bestowed upon King william.

 

 

 

This Was The Tragedy Which Rowe Valued most, And That Which, Probably By

The Help Of Political Auxiliaries, Excited most Applause; But Occasional

Poetry Must Often Content Itself With Occasional Praise. Tamerlane Has

For A Long Time Been Acted only Once A Year, On The Night When King

William Landed. Our Quarrel With Lewis Has Been Long Over; And It Now

Gratifies Neither Zeal Nor Malice To See Him Painted with Aggravated

Features, Like A Saracen Upon A Sign.

 

 

 

The Fair Penitent, His Next Production, 1703, Is One Of The Most Pleasing

Tragedies On The Stage, Where It Still Keeps Its Turns Of Appearing, And

Probably Will Long Keep Them, For There Is Scarcely Any Work Of Any Poet,

At Once, So Interesting by The Fable And So Delightful By The Language.

The Story Is Domestick, And, Therefore, Easily Received by The

Imagination, And Assimilated to Common Life; The Diction Is Exquisitely

Harmonious, And Soft Or Sprightly As Occasion Requires.

 

 

 

The Character Of Lothario Seems To Have Been Expanded by Richardson Into

Lovelace; But He Has Excelled his Original In the Moral Effect Of The

Fiction. Lothario, With Gaiety Which Cannot Be Hated, And Bravery Which

Cannot Be Despised, Retains Too Much Of The Spectator'S Kindness. It

Was In the Power Of Richardson Alone To Teach Us, At Once, Esteem And

Detestation; To Make Virtuous Resentment Overpower All The Benevolence

Which Wit, Elegance, And Courage, Naturally Excite; And To Lose, At Last,

The Hero In the Villain.

 

 

 

The Fifth Act Is Not Equal To The Former; The Events Of The Drama Are

Exhausted, And Little Remains But To Talk Of What Is Past. It Has Been

Observed that The Title Of The Play Does Not Sufficiently Correspond

With The Behaviour Of Calista, Who, At Last, Shows No Evident Signs

Of Repentance, But May Be Reasonably Suspected of Feeling pain From

Detection Rather Than From Guilt, And Expresses More Shame Than Sorrow,

And More Rage Than Shame.

 

 

 

His Next, 1706,