Deformities of Samuel Johnson, Selected from His Works

101

Ibid.

102

Churchill's Apology.

103

Vide Life of Cowley. His impressions had been very slight, for Crowley has nothing of the melody, or magnificence of the Fairy Queen. Of its great author we know little but that he was praised, and neglected, unfortunate, and poor: and, from his epitaph, that he died young. His subject is not happy, his words are often obsolete, and his stanza can hardly please us long. But we may presume that he wanted leisure to study the great models of antiquity: That he wanted that tranquillity of mind so requisite to the success of a poet: And that his defects are owing to the bad taste of his age, and the hardships of his life. Had he lived longer, and had he enjoyed that competence which a prudent shoeblack seldom fails to enjoy, Spenser would have been second in fame to Shakespeare only.

104

Dr Johnson on Cymbeline. The same sentiment is started in his account of Pope, 'To the particular species of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet, or predominant humour, but by the first book which they read, some early conversation which they heard, or some accident which excited ardour and emulation.' – The Doctor is in this passage censuring Pope's ignorance of human nature – while his own marvellous and extreme stupidity makes him almost beneath censure. The reader will not realize Montesquieu's remark, That when we attempt to prove things so evident we are sure never to convince.

105

Annual Register 1779, Part II. p. 148. I abridge his words, but give their full meaning.

106

Life of Waller.

107

Life of Rowe.

108

Life of Milton.

109

Life of Swift.

110

Preface to Shakespeare.

111

Ibid.

112

Preface to Shakespeare.

113

'He has scenes of undoubted and perpetual excellence.' Ibid. Is there not some inconsistency in these various assertions.

114

See in the same style his observations on Prior, Akenside, and others.

115

Quere. Did ever Shakespeare, or any other man, compose a single page, or even a single line, on any subject, without either straining his faculties, or at least soliciting his invention. It is very possible that the Doctor did not suspect the full extent of his expression.

116

Vide Dictionary.

117

Life of Pope.

118

Ibid.

119

Pope's life.

120

Eloisa, Letter 83.

121

Pope's life.

122

Preface to Shakespeare.

123

Pope's life.

124

Ibid.

125

Rambler, No. 36.