Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol. I — Part 16

The style of Johnson was, undoubtedly, much formed upon that of the great writers in the last century, Hooker, Bacon, Sanderson, Hakewell, and others; those 'GIANTS[651],' as they were well characterised by A GREAT PERSONAGE[652], whose authority, were I to name him, would stamp a reverence on the opinion.

[Page 220: The motto to the Dictionary.

A.

D.

1750. ] We may, with the utmost propriety, apply to his learned style that passage of Horace, a part of which he has taken as the motto to his _Dictionary_[653]: 'Cum tabulis animum censoris sumet honesti;

Audebit quaecumque parùm splendoris habebunt Et sine pondere erunt, et honore indigna ferentur, Verba movere loco, quamvis invita recedant, Et versentur adhuc intra penetralia Vesta.

Obscurata diu populo bonus eruet, atque Proferet in lucem speciosa vocabula rerum, Quae priscis memorala Calonibus alque Cethegis, Nunc situs informis premit et deserta velustas: Adsciscet nova, quae genitor produxerit usus: Vehemens, et liquidus, puroque simillimus amni, Fundet opes Latiumque beabit divile linguá.

[654]' [Page 221: Johnson not a coiner of words.

Ætat 41. ] To so great a master of thinking, to one of such vast and various knowledge as Johnson, might have been allowed a liberal indulgence of that licence which Horace claims in another place: 'Si forté necesse est Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum, Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis Continget, dabiturque licentia sumpta pudenter: Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem si Græco fonte cadant, parce detorta.

Quid autem Cæcilio Plautoque dabit Romanus, ademptum Virgilio Varioque?

Ego cur, acquirere pauca Si possum, invideor; cum lingua Catonis et Enni Sermonem patrium ditaverit, et nova rerum Nomina protulerit?

Licuit semperque licebit Signatum præsente notá producere nomen[655].'

Yet Johnson assured me, that he had not taken upon him to add more than four or five words to the English language, of his own formation[656]; and he was very much offended at the general licence, by no means 'modestly taken' in his time, not only to coin new words, but to use many words in senses quite different from their established meaning, and those frequently very fantastical[657].

[Page 222: Johnson's influence on style.

A.

D.

1750. ] Sir Thomas Brown[658], whose life Johnson wrote, was remarkably fond of Anglo-Latian diction; and to his example we are to ascribe Johnson's sometimes indulging himself in this kind of phraseology'.

Johnson's comprehension of mind was the mould for his language.

Had his conceptions been narrower, his expression would have been easier.

His sentences have a dignified march; and, it is certain, that his example has given a general elevation to the language of his country, for many of our best writers have approached very near to him; and, from the influence which he has had upon our composition, scarcely any thing is written now that is not better expressed than was usual before he appeared to lead the national taste.

[Page 223: Courtenay's lines on Johnson's school.

Ætat 41. ] This circumstance, the truth of which must strike every critical reader, has been so happily enforced by Mr. Courtenay, in his _Moral and Literary Character of Dr. Johnson_, that I cannot prevail on myself to withhold it, notwithstanding his, perhaps, too great partiality for one of his friends: 'By nature's gifts ordain'd mankind to rule, He, like a Titian, form'd his brilliant school;

And taught congenial spirits to excel, While from his lips impressive wisdom fell.

Our boasted GOLDSMITH felt the sovereign sway: From him deriv'd the sweet, yet nervous lay.

To Fame's proud cliff he bade our Raphael rise;

Hence REYNOLDS' pen with REYNOLDS' pencil vies.

With Johnson's flame melodious BURNEY glows, While the grand strain in smoother cadence flows.

And you, MALONE, to critick learning dear.

Correct and elegant, refin'd though clear, By studying him, acquir'd that classick taste, Which high in Shakspeare's fane thy statue plac'd. Near Johnson STEEVENS stands, on scenick ground, Acute, laborious, fertile, and profound.

Ingenious HAWKESWORTH to this school we owe.

And scarce the pupil from the tutor know.

Here early parts accomplish'd JONES sublimes, And science blends with Asia's lofty rhymes: Harmonious JONES!

who in his splendid strains Sings Camdeo's sports, on Agra's flowery plains: In Hindu fictions while we fondly trace Love and the Muses, deck'd with Attick grace.

Amid these names can BOSWELL be forgot, Scarce by North Britons now esteem'd a Scot[659]?

Who to the sage devoted from his youth, Imbib'd from him the sacred love of truth;

The keen research, the exercise of mind, And that best art, the art to know mankind.

-- Nor was his energy confin'd alone To friends around his philosophick throne;

_Its influence wide improv'd our letter'd isle.

And lucid vigour marked the general style_: As Nile's proud waves, swoln from their oozy bed.

First o'er the neighbouring meads majestick spread;

Till gathering force, they more and more expand.

And with new virtue fertilise the land.'

Johnson's language, however, must be allowed to be too masculine for the delicate gentleness of female writing.

His ladies, therefore, seem strangely formal, even to ridicule; and are well denominated by the names which he has given them as Misella[660], Zozima, Properantia, Rhodoclia.

[Page 224: The styles of addison and Johnson.

A.

D.

1750. ] It has of late been the fashion to compare the style of Addison and Johnson, and to depreciate, I think very unjustly, the style of Addison as nerveless and feeble[661], because it has not the strength and energy of that of Johnson.

Their prose may be balanced like the poetry of Dryden and Pope.

Both are excellent, though in different ways.

Addison writes with the ease of a gentleman.

His readers fancy that a wise and accomplished companion is talking to them; so that he insinuates his sentiments and taste into their minds by an imperceptible influence.

Johnson writes like a teacher.

He dictates to his readers as if from an academical chair.

They attend with awe and admiration; and his precepts are impressed upon them by his commanding eloquence.

Addison's style, like a light wine, pleases everybody from the first.

Johnson's, like a liquor of more body, seems too strong at first, but, by degrees, is highly relished; and such is the melody of his periods, so much do they captivate the ear, and seize upon the attention, that there is scarcely any writer, however inconsiderable, who does not aim, in some degree, at the same species of excellence.

But let us not ungratefully undervalue that beautiful style, which has pleasingly conveyed to us much instruction and entertainment.

Though comparatively weak, opposed to Johnson's Herculean vigour, let us not call it positively feeble.

Let us remember the character of his style, as given by Johnson himself[662]: 'What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetick; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates.

His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy[663].

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison[664].'

[Page 225: Boswell's projected works.

Ætat 41. ] [Page 226: The last Rambler.

A.

D.

1750. ] Though the _Rambler_ was not concluded till the year 1752, I shall, under this year, say all that I have to observe upon it.

Some of the translations of the mottos by himself are admirably done.

He acknowledges to have received 'elegant translations' of many of them from Mr. James Elphinston; and some are very happily translated by a Mr. _F.

Lewis_[665], of whom I never heard more, except that Johnson thus described him to Mr. Malone: 'Sir, he lived in London, and hung loose upon society.'

The concluding paper of his _Rambler_ is at once dignified and pathetick.

I cannot, however, but wish that he had not ended it with an unnecessary Greek verse, translated also into an English couplet[666].

It is too much like the conceit of those dramatick poets, who used to conclude each act with a rhyme; and the expression in the first line of his couplet, '_Celestial powers_', though proper in Pagan poetry, is ill suited to Christianity, with 'a conformity[667]' to which he consoles himself.

How much better would it have been, to have ended with the prose sentence 'I shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if I can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth[668].'

His friend, Dr. Birch, being now engaged in preparing an edition of Ralegh's smaller pieces, Dr. Johnson wrote the following letter to that gentleman: 'To DR. BIRCH.

'Gough-square, May 12, 1750. 'SIR, 'Knowing that you are now preparing to favour the publick with a new edition of Ralegh's[669] miscellaneous pieces, I have taken the liberty to send you a Manuscript, which fell by chance within my notice.

I perceive no proofs of forgery in my examination of it; and the owner tells me, that as _he_[670] has heard, the handwriting is Sir Walter's. If you should find reason to conclude it genuine, it will be a kindness to the owner, a blind person[671], to recommend it to the booksellers.

I am, Sir, 'Your most humble servant, 'SAM.

JOHNSON.'

[Page 227: Milton's grand-daughter.

Ætat 41. ] [Page 228: Lauder's imposition.

A.

D.

1751. ] His just abhorrence of Milton's political notions was ever strong.

But this did not prevent his warm admiration of Milton's great poetical merit, to which he has done illustrious justice, beyond all who have written upon the subject.

And this year he not only wrote a Prologue, which was spoken by Mr. Garrick before the acting of _Comus_ at Drury-lane theatre, for the benefit of Milton's grand-daughter, but took a very zealous interest in the success of the charity[672].

On the day preceding the performance, he published the following letter in the 'General Advertiser,' addressed to the printer of that paper: 'SIR, 'That a certain degree of reputation is acquired merely by approving the works of genius, and testifying a regard to the memory of authours, is a truth too evident to be denied; and therefore to ensure a participation of fame with a celebrated poet, many who would, perhaps, have contributed to starve him when alive, have heaped expensive pageants upon his grave[673].

'It must, indeed, be confessed, that this method of becoming known to posterity with honour, is peculiar to the great, or at least to the wealthy; but an opportunity now offers for almost every individual to secure the praise of paying a just regard to the illustrious dead, united with the pleasure of doing good to the living.

To assist industrious indigence, struggling with distress and debilitated by age, is a display of virtue, and an acquisition of happiness and honour.

'Whoever, then, would be thought capable of pleasure in reading the works of our incomparable Milton, and not so destitute of gratitude as to refuse to lay out a trifle in rational and elegant entertainment, for the benefit of his living remains, for the exercise of their own virtue, the increase of their reputation, and the pleasing consciousness of doing good, should appear at Drury-lane theatre to-morrow, April 5, when _Comus_ will be performed for the benefit of Mrs. Elizabeth Foster, grand-daughter to the author, and the only surviving branch of his family.

'N. B.

There will be a new prologue on the occasion, written by the author of _Irene[674], and spoken by Mr. Garrick; and, by particular desire, there will be added to the Masque a dramatick satire, called _Lethe_, in which Mr. Garrick will perform.'

[Page 229: Douglas's MILTON NO PLAGIARY.

Ætat 42. ] 1751: ÆTAT.

42. --In 1751[675] we are to consider him as carrying on both his _Dictionary_ and _Rambler_.

But he also wrote _The Life of Cheynel_[676],[*] in the miscellany called _The Student_; and the Reverend Dr. Douglas having, with uncommon acuteness, clearly detected a gross forgery and imposition upon the publick by William Lauder, a Scotch schoolmaster, who had, with equal impudence and ingenuity, represented Milton as a plagiary from certain modern Latin poets, Johnson, who had been so far imposed upon as to furnish a Preface and Postscript to his work, now dictated a letter for Lauder, addressed to Dr. Douglas, acknowledging his fraud in terms of suitable contrition.

[677] [Page 230: Johnson tricked by Lander.

A.

D.

1751. ] This extraordinary attempt of Lauder was no sudden effort.

He had brooded over it for many years: and to this hour it is uncertain what his principal motive was, unless it were a vain notion of his superiority, in being able, by whatever means, to deceive mankind.

To effect this, he produced certain passages from Grotius, Masenius, and others, which had a faint resemblance to some parts of the _Paradise Lost_.

In these he interpolated some fragments of Hog's Latin translation of that poem, alledging that the mass thus fabricated was the archetype from which Milton copied.

[678] These fabrications he published from time to time in the _Gentleman s Magazine_; and, exulting in his fancied success, he in 1750 ventured to collect them into a pamphlet, entitled _An Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns in his Paradise Lost_.

To this pamphlet Johnson wrote a Preface[679], in full persuasion of Lauder's honesty, and a Postscript recommending, in the most persuasive terms[680], a subscription for the relief of a grand-daughter of Milton, of whom he thus speaks: 'It is yet in the power of a great people to reward the poet whose name they boast, and from their alliance to whose genius, they claim some kind of superiority to every other nation of the earth; that poet, whose works may possibly be read when every other monument of British greatness shall be obliterated; to reward him, not with pictures or with medals, which, if he sees, he sees with contempt, but with tokens of gratitude, which he, perhaps, may even now consider as not unworthy the regard of an immortal spirit.'

[Page 231: Johnson's admiration of Milton.

Ætat 42. ] Surely this is inconsistent with 'enmity towards Milton,' which Sir John Hawkins[681] imputes to Johnson upon this occasion, adding, 'I could all along observe that Johnson seemed to approve not only of the design, but of the argument; and seemed to exult in a persuasion, that the reputation of Milton was likely to suffer by this discovery.

That he was not privy to the imposture, I am well persuaded; but that he wished well to the argument, may be inferred from the Preface, which indubitably was written by Johnson.'

Is it possible for any man of clear judgement to suppose that Johnson, who so nobly praised the poetical excellence of Milton in a Postscript to this very 'discovery,' as he then supposed it, could, at the same time, exult in a persuasion that the great poet's reputation was likely to suffer by it?

This is an inconsistency of which Johnson was incapable; nor can any thing more be fairly inferred from the Preface, than that Johnson, who was alike distinguished for ardent curiosity and love of truth, was pleased with an investigation by which both were gratified.

That he was actuated by these motives, and certainly by no unworthy desire to depreciate our great epick poet, is evident from his own words; for, after mentioning the general zeal of men of genius and literature 'to advance the honour, and distinguish the beauties of _Paradise Lost_', he says, 'Among the inquiries to which this ardour of criticism has naturally given occasion, none is more obscure in itself, or more worthy of rational curiosity, than a retrospect[682] of the progress of this mighty genius in the construction of his work; a view of the fabrick gradually rising, perhaps, from small beginnings, till its foundation rests in the centre, and its turrets sparkle in the skies; to trace back the structure through all its varieties, to the simplicity of its first plan; to find what was first projected, whence the scheme was taken, how it was improved, by what assistance it was executed, and from what stores the materials were collected; whether its founder dug them from the quarries of Nature, or demolished other buildings to embellish his own.'

Is this the language of one who wished to blast the laurels of Milton[683]?

[Page 232: Mrs. Anna Williams.

A.

D.

1751. ] Though Johnson's circumstances were at this time far from being easy, his humane and charitable disposition was constantly exerting itself.

Mrs. Anna Williams, daughter of a very ingenious Welsh physician, and a woman of more than ordinary talents and literature, having come to London in hopes of being cured of a cataract in both her eyes, which afterwards ended in total blindness, was kindly received as a constant visitor at his house while Mrs. Johnson lived; and after her death, having come under his roof in order to have an operation upon her eyes performed with more comfort to her than in lodgings, she had an apartment from him during the rest of her life, at all times when he had a house[684].

[Page 233: Johnson's pleasure in her company.

Ætat 43. ]