Johnson has a severe stroke of palsy Some anecdotes of Johnson by Mr. Steevens His friends desire that he should winter in Italy The Lord Chancellor's answer to the application for Boswell stays a day longer in London to talk over the Johnson orders a tombstone to be placed over his Mr. Croker's treatment of Miss Burney (note by Editor) 368 Churton's remarks on Boswell's work Portraits of Johnson (note by Editor). IN SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. N 1781, Johnson at last completed his "Lives of the Poets," of which he gives this account: "Some time in March I finished the 'Lives of the Poets,' which I wrote in my usual way, dilatorily and hastily, unwilling to work, and working with vigour and haste.' In a memorandum previous to this, he says of them: "Written, I hope, in such a manner as may tend to the promotion of piety." 2 This is the work which, of all Dr. Johnson's writings, will perhaps be read most generally, and with most pleasure. Philology and biography were his favourite pursuits, and those who lived most in intimacy with him, heard him upon all occasions, when there was a proper opportunity, take delight in expatiating upon the various merits of the English poets: upon the niceties of their characters, and the events of their progress through the world which they contributed to illuminate. His mind was so full of that kind of information, and it was so well arranged in his memory, that in performing what he had undertaken in this way, he had little more to do than to put his thoughts upon paper; exhibiting first each poet's life, and then subjoining a critical examination of his genius and works. But when he began to write, the subject swelled in such a manner, that instead of prefaces to each poet, of no more 1 Prayers and Meditations, p. 184. First Edit. 2 Ibid., p. 168. than a few pages, as he had originally intended,1 he produced an ample, rich, and most entertaining view of them in every respect. In this he resembled Quintilian, who tells us, that in the composition of his "Institutions of Oratory," "Latiùs se tamen aperiente materiâ, plus quàm imponebatur oneris sponte suscepi." The booksellers, justly sensible of the great additional value of the copyright, presented him with another hundred pounds, over and above two hundred, for which his agreement was to furnish such prefaces as he thought fit.2 This was, however, but a small recompense for such a collection of biography, and such principles and illustrations of criticism, as, if digested and arranged in one system, by some modern Aristotle or Longinus, might form a code upon that subject, such as no other nation can show. As he was so good as to make me a present of the greatest part of the original, and indeed only, manuscript of this admirable work, I have an opportunity of observing with wonder the correctness with which he rapidly struck off such glowing composition. He may be assimilated to the lady in Waller, who could impress with "love at first sight: "Some other nymphs with colours faint, She has a stamp, and prints the boy." 1 His design is thus announced in his advertisement: "The booksellers having determined to publish a body of English poetry, I was persuaded to promise them a preface to the works of each author; an undertaking, as it was then presented to my mind, not very tedious or difficult. "My purpose was only to have allotted to every poet an advertisement, like that which we find in the French Miscellanies, containing a few dates, and a general character; but I have been led beyond my intention, I hope by the honest desire of giving useful pleasure." 2 He had bargained for two hundred guineas, and the booksellers spontaneously added a third hundred. On this occasion the great moralist observed to the writer of this article, "Sir, I always said, the booksellers were a generous set of men. Nor, in the present instance, have I reason to complain. The fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but that I have written too much." The Lives were soon published in a separate edition; when, for a very few corrections, he was presented with another hundred guineas.-Nichols' Anecdotes, viii. p. 416.-Editor. |
