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

At Thebes In the First; But To Change The Scene, As Is Done By

Rowe, In the Middle Of An Act, Is To Add More Acts To The Play, Since An

Act Is So Much Of The Business As Is Transacted without Interruption.

Rowe, By This License, Easily Extricates Himself From Difficulties; As,

In Jane Grey, When We Have Been Terrified with All The Dreadful Pomp Of

Publick Execution, And Are Wondering how The Heroine Or The Poet Will

Proceed, No Sooner Has Jane Pronounced some Prophetick Rhymes, Than--Pass

And Be Gone--The Scene Closes, And Pembroke And Gardiner Are Turned out

Upon The Stage.

 

 

 

I Know Not That There Can Be Found In his Plays Any Deep Search Into

Nature, Any Accurate Discriminations Of Kindred qualities, Or Nice

Display Of Passion In its Progress; All Is General And Undefined. Nor

Does He Much Interest Or Affect The Auditor, Except In jane Shore, Who Is

Always Seen And Heard With Pity. Alicia Is A Character Of Empty Noise,

With No Resemblance To Real Sorrow, Or To Natural Madness.

 

 

 

Whence, Then, Has Rowe His Reputation? From The Reasonableness And

Propriety Of Some Of His Scenes, From The Elegance Of His Diction, And

The Suavity Of His Verse. He Seldom Moves Either Pity Or Terrour, But

He Often Elevates The Sentiments; He Seldom Pierces The Breast, But He

Always Delights The Ear, And Often Improves The Understanding.

 

 

 

His Translation Of The Golden Verses, And Of The First Book Of Quillet'S

Poem, Have Nothing in them Remarkable. The Golden Verses Are Tedious.

 

 

 

The Version Of Lucan Is One Of The Greatest Productions Of English

Poetry; For There Is, Perhaps, None That So Completely Exhibits The

Genius And Spirit Of The Original. Lucan Is Distinguished by A Kind Of

Dictatorial Or Philosophick Dignity, Rather, As Quintilian Observes,

Declamatory Than Poetical; Full Of Ambitious Morality And Pointed

Sentences, Comprised in vigorous And Animated lines. This Character Rowe

Has Very Diligently And Successfully Preserved. His Versification,

Which Is Such As His Contemporaries Practised, Without Any Attempt At

Innovation Or Improvement, Seldom Wants Either Melody Or Force. His

Author'S Sense Is Sometimes A Little Diluted by Additional Infusions,

And Sometimes Weakened by Too Much Expansion. But Such Faults Are To

Be Expected in all Translations, From The Constraint Of Measures And

Dissimilitude Of Languages. The Pharsalia Of Rowe Deserves More Notice

Than It Obtains, And, As It Is More Read, Will Be More Esteemed[153].

 

 

 

[Footnote 144: In the Villare, _Lamerton_. Dr. J.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 145: He Was Not Elected till 1688. N.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 146: Sewell, In a Life Of Rowe, Says, That He Was Called to The

Bar And Kept Chambers In one Of The Inns Of Court, Till He Had Produced

Two Plays; That Is Till 1702, At Which Time He Was Twenty-Nine. M.]

 

 

 

 

[Footnote 147: Mr. Rowe'S Preface, However, Is Not Distinct, As It Might

Be Supposed from This Passage, From The Life. R.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 148: Spence.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 149: Spence.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 150: Jacob, Who Wrote Only Four Years Afterwards, Says, That

Tate Had To Write The First Birthday Ode After The Accession Of King

George, (Lives Of The Poets, 11. 232.) So That He Was Probably Not

Ejected to Make Room For Rowe, But Made A Vacancy By His Death, In 1716.

M.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 151: Mrs. Anne Deanes Devenish, Of A Very Good Family In

Dorsetshire, Was First Married to Mr. Rowe The Poet, By Whom She Was Left

In Not Abounding circumstances, Was Afterwards Married to Colonel Deanes,

By Whom Also She Was Left A Widow; And Upon The Family Estate, Which Was

A Good One, Coming to Her By The Death Of A Near Relation, She Resumed

The Family Name Of Devenish. She Was A Clever, Sensible, Agreeable Woman,

Had Seen A Great Deal Of The World, Had Kept Much Good Company, And Was

Distinguished by A Happy Mixture Of Elegance And Sense In every Thing she

Said Or Did. Bishop Newton'S Life By Himself, P. 32.

 

 

 

About The Year 1738, He, By Her Desire, Collected and Published mr.

Rowe'S Works, With A Dedication To Frederick Prince Of Wales. Mrs.

Devenish, I Believe, Died about The Year 1758. She Was, I Think, The

Person Meant By Pope In the Line,

 

 

 

  Each Widow Asks It For Her Own Good Man. M.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 152: Sewell, Who Was Acquainted with Howe, Speaks Very Highly

Of Him: "I Dare Not Venture To Give You His Character, Either As A

Companion, A Friend, Or A Poet. It May Be Enough To Say, That All Good

And Learned men Loved him; That His Conversation Either Struck Out Mirth,

Or Promoted learning or Honour Whereever He Went; That The Openness Of A

Gentleman, The Unstudied eloquence Of A Scholar, And The Perfect Freedom

Of An Englishman, Attended him In all His Actions." Life Of Rowe Prefixed

To His Poems. M.

 

 

 

That The Author Of Jane Shore Should Have No Heart; That Addison Should

Assert This, Whilst He Admitted, In the Same Breath, That Rowe Was

Grieved at His Displeasure; And That Pope Should Coincide In such An

Opinion, And Yet Should Have Stated in his Epitaph On Rowe,

 

 

 

'That Never Heart Felt Passion More Sincere,'

 

 

 

Are Circumstances That Cannot Be Admitted, Without Sacrificing to The

Veracity Of An Anecdote, The Character And Consistency Of All The Persons

Introduced. Roscoe'S Life Of Pope, Prefixed to His Works, Vol. I. P.

250.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 153: Rowe'S Lucan, However, Has Not Escaped without Censure.

Bentley Has Criticised it With Great Severity In his Philoleutheros

Lipsiensis. J.B.

 

 

 

The Life Of Rowe Is A Very Remarkable Instance Of The Uncommon Strength

Of Dr. Johnson'S Memory. When I Received from Him The Ms. He Complacently

Observed, "That The Criticism Was Tolerably Well Done, Considering that

He Had Not Read One Of Rowe'S Plays For Thirty Years!" N.]

 

 

Addison

Joseph Addison Was Born On The 1St Of May, 1672, At Milston, Of Which

His Father, Launcelot Addison, Was Then Rector, Near Ambrosebury, In

Wiltshire, And Appearing weak And Unlikely To Live, He Was Christened

The Same Day[154]. After The Usual Domestick Education, Which, From The

Character Of His Father, May Be Reasonably Supposed to Have Given Him

Strong Impressions Of Piety, He Was Committed to The Care Of Mr. Naish,

At Ambrosebury, And Afterwards Of Mr. Taylor, At Salisbury.

 

 

 

Not To Name The School Or The Masters Of Men Illustrious For Literature,

Is A Kind Of Historical Fraud, By Which Honest Fame Is Injuriously

Diminished: I Would, Therefore, Trace Him Through The Whole Process Of

His Education. In 1683, In the Beginning of His Twelfth Year, His Father,

Being made Dean Of Lichfield, Naturally Carried his Family To His New

Residence, And, I Believe, Placed him, For Some Time, Probably Not Long,

Under Mr. Shaw, Then Master Of The School At Lichfield, Father Of The

Late Dr. Peter Shaw. Of This Interval His Biographers Have Given No

Account, And I Know It Only From A Story Of A Barring-Out, Told Me, When

I Was A Boy, By Andrew Corbet, Of Shropshire, Who Had Heard It From Mr.

Pigot His Uncle.

 

 

 

The Practice Of Barring-Out Was A Savage License, Practised in many

Schools To The End Of The Last Century, By Which The Boys, When The

Periodical Vacation Drew Near, Growing petulant At The Approach Of

Liberty, Some Days Before The Time Of Regular Recess, Took Possession

Of The School, Of Which They Barred the Doors, And Bade Their Master

Defiance From The Windows. It Is Not Easy To Suppose That On Such

Occasions The Master Would Do More Than Laugh; Yet, If Tradition May Be

Credited, He Often Struggled hard To Force Or Surprise The Garrison. The

Master, When Pigot Was A Schoolboy, Was Barred-Out At Lichfield; And The

Whole Operation, As He Said, Was Planned and Conducted by Addison.

 

 

 

To Judge Better Of The Probability Of This Story, I Have Inquired when He

Was Sent To The Chartreux; But, As He Was Not One Of Those Who Enjoyed

The Founder'S Benefaction, There Is No Account Preserved of His

Admission. At The School Of The Chartreux, To Which He Was Removed either

From That Of Salisbury Or Lichfield, He Pursued his Juvenile Studies

Under The Care Of Dr. Ellis, And Contracted that Intimacy With

Sir Richard Steele, Which Their Joint Labours Have So Effectually

Recorded[155].

 

 

 

Of This Memorable Friendship The Greater Praise Must Be Given To Steele.

It Is Not Hard To Love Those From Whom Nothing can Be Feared; And Addison

Never Considered steele As A Rival; But Steele Lived, As He Confesses,

Under An Habitual Subjection To The Predominating genius Of Addison, Whom

He Always Mentioned with Reverence, And Treated with Obsequiousness.

 

 

 

Addison[156], Who Knew His Own Dignity, Could Not Always Forbear To Show

It, By Playing a Little Upon His Admirer; But He Was In no Danger Of

Retort: His Jests Were Endured without Resistance Or Resentment.

 

 

 

But The Sneer Of Jocularity Was Not The Worst. Steele, Whose Imprudence

Of Generosity, Or Vanity Of Profusion, Kept Him Always Incurably

Necessitous, Upon Some Pressing exigence, In an Evil Hour, Borrowed a

Hundred pounds Of His Friend, Probably Without Much Purpose Of Repayment;

But Addison, Who Seems To Have Had Other Notions Of A Hundred pounds,

Grew Impatient Of Delay, And Reclaimed his Loan By An Execution. Steele

Felt, With Great Sensibility, The Obduracy Of His Creditor, But With

Emotions Of Sorrow Rather Than Of Anger[157].

 

 

 

In 1687 He Was Entered into Queen'S College In oxford, Where, In 1689,

The Accidental Perusal Of Some Latin Verses Gained him The Patronage

Of Dr. Lancaster, Afterwards Provost Of Queen'S College; By Whose

Recommendation He Was Elected into Magdalen College As A Demy, A Term By

Which That Society Denominates Those Which Are Elsewhere Called scholars;

Young Men, Who Partake Of The Founder'S Benefaction, And Succeed in their

Order To Vacant Fellowships[158]. Here He Continued to Cultivate Poetry

And Criticism, And Grew First Eminent By His Latin Compositions, Which

Are, Indeed, Entitled to Particular Praise. He Has Not Confined himself

To The Imitation Of Any Ancient Author, But Has Formed his Style From

The General Language, Such As A Diligent Perusal Of The Productions Of

Different Ages Happened to Supply.

 

 

 

His Latin Compositions Seem To Have Had Much Of His Fondness, For He

Collected a Second Volume Of The Musae Anglicanae, Perhaps, For A

Convenient Receptacle, In which All His Latin Pieces Are Inserted, And

Where His Poem On The Peace Has The First Place. He Afterwards Presented

The Collection To Boileau, Who, From That Time, "Conceived," Says

Tickell, "An Opinion Of The English Genius For Poetry." Nothing is Better

Known Of Boileau, Than That He Had An Injudicious And Peevish Contempt Of

Modern Latin, And, Therefore, His Profession Of Regard Was, Probably, The

Effect Of His Civility Rather Than Approbation.

 

 

 

Three Of His Latin Poems Are Upon Subjects On Which, Perhaps, He Would

Not Have Ventured to Have Written In his Own Language. The Battle Of The

Pygmies And Cranes; The Barometer; And A Bowling-Green. When The Matter

Is Low Or Scanty, A Dead Language, In which Nothing is Mean Because

Nothing is Familiar, Affords Great Conveniencies; And, By The Sonorous

Magnificence Of Roman Syllables, The Writer Conceals Penury Of Thought

And Want Of Novelty, Often From The Reader, And Often From Himself.

 

 

 

In His Twenty-Second Year He First Showed his Power Of English Poetry

By Some Verses Addressed to Dryden; And Soon Afterwards Published a

Translation Of The Greater Part Of The Fourth Georgick Upon Bees; After

Which, Says Dryden, "My Latter Swarm Is Hardly Worth The Hiving."

 

 

 

About The Same Time He Composed the Arguments Prefixed to The Several

Books Of Dryden'S Virgil; And Produced an Essay On The Georgicks,

Juvenile, Superficial, And Uninstructive, Without Much Either Of The

Scholar'S Learning or The Critick'S Penetration.

 

 

 

His Next Paper Of Verses Contained a Character Of The Principal English

Poets, Inscribed to Henry Sacheverell, Who Was Then, If Not A Poet, A

Writer Of Verses[159]; As Is Shown By His Version Of A Small Part Of

Virgil'S Georgicks, Published in the Miscellanies; And A Latin Encomium

On Queen Mary, In the Musae Anglicanae. These Verses Exhibit All The

Fondness Of Friendship; But, On One Side Or The Other, Friendship Was

Afterwards Too Weak For The Malignity Of Faction.

 

 

 

In This Poem Is A Very Confident And Discriminative Character Of