Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III) by Samuel Johnson (audio ebook reader txt) 📕

Summoning the Electoral Prince To Parliament, As Duke Of Cambridge.

At The Queen'S Death He Was Appointed one Of The Regents; And At The

Accession Of George The First Was Made Earl Of Halifax, Knight Of The

Garter, And First Commissioner Of The Treasury, With A Grant To His

Nephew Of The Reversion Of The Auditorship Of The Exchequer. More Was Not

To Be Had, And This He Kept But A Little While; For, On The 19Th Of May,

1715, He Died of An Inflammation Of His Lungs.

Of Him, Who From A Poet Became A Patron Of Poets, It Will Be Readily

Believed that The Works Would Not Miss Of Celebration. Addison Began

To Praise Him Early, And Was Followed or Accompanied by Other Poets;

Perhaps, By Almost All, Except Swift And Pope, Who Forbore To Flatter Him

In His Life, And After His Death Spoke Of Him, Swift With Slight Censure,

And Pope, In the Character Of Bufo, With Acrimonious Contempt[141].

He Was, As Pope Says, "Fed with Dedications;" For Tickell Affirms That No

Dedicator Was Unrewarded. To Charge All Unmerited praise With The Guilt

Of Flattery, And To Suppose That The Encomiast Always Knows And Feels The

Falsehoods Of His Assertions, Is, Surely, To Discover Great Ignorance Of

Human Nature And Human Life. In determinations Depending not On Rules,

But On Experience And Comparison, Judgment Is Always, In some Degree,

Subject To Affection. Very Near To Admiration Is The Wish To Admire.

Every Man Willingly Gives Value To The Praise Which He Receives,

And Considers The Sentence Passed in his Favour As The Sentence Of

Discernment. We Admire, In a Friend, That Understanding that Selected us

For Confidence; We Admire More, In a Patron, That Judgment Which, Instead

Of Scattering bounty Indiscriminately, Directed it To Us; And, If The

Patron Be An Author, Those Performances Which Gratitude Forbids Us To

Blame, Affection Will Easily Dispose Us To Exalt.

To These Prejudices, Hardly Culpable, Interest Adds A Power Always

Operating, Though Not Always, Because Not Willingly, Perceived. The

Modesty Of Praise Wears Gradually Away; And, Perhaps, The Pride Of

Patronage May Be In time So Increased, That Modest Praise Will No Longer

Please.

Many A Blandishment Was Practised upon Halifax, Which He Would Never Have

Known, Had He No Other Attractions Than Those Of His Poetry, Of Which A

Short Time Has Withered the Beauties. It Would Now Be Esteemed no Honour,

By A Contributor To The Monthly Bundles Of Verses, To Be Told, That, In

Strains Either Familiar Or Solemn, He Sings Like Montague.

[Footnote 139: He Left Sir Isaac Newton 200/. M.]

[Footnote 140: Mr. Reed observes, That This Anecdote Is Related by Mr.

Walpole, In his Catalogue Of Royal And Noble Authors, Of The Earl Of

Shaftesbury, Author Of The Characteristicks, But It Appears To Me To Be

A Mistake, If We Are To Understand That The Words Were Spoken By

Shaftesbury At This Time, When He Had No Seat In the House Of Commons;

Nor Did The Bill Pass At This Time, Being thrown Out By The House Of

Lords. It Became A Law In the Seventh Of William, When Halifax And

Shaftesbury Both Had Seats. The Editors Of The Biog. Brit. Adopt Mr.

Walpole'S Story, But They Are Not Speaking of This Period. The Story

First Appeared in the Life Of Lord Halifax, Published in 1715.]

[Footnote 141: Mr. Roscoe Denies That Pope'S Character Of Bufo, In the

Prologue To The Satires, Was Intended for Halifax. In evidence Of His

Assertion He Quotes Several Passages From Pope'S Poems, And The Preface

To The Iliad, All Published after That Nobleman'S Death, When The Poet

Could Hope For No Return For His Praises, When Flattery Could Not Sooth

"The Dull Cold Ear Of Death." Twenty Years After Halifax'S Decease, He Is

Thus Commemorated:

  "But Does The Court One Worthy Man Remove,

  That Moment I Declare He Has My Love:

  I Shun Their Zenith, Court Their Mild Decline;

  Thus Somers Once, And Halifax Were Mine."

See Roscoe'S Pope, Vol. I. P. 138. Ed.]

The Life Of Dr. Parnell Is A Task Which I Should Very Willingly Decline,

Since It Has Been Lately Written By Goldsmith, A Man Of Such Variety Of

Powers, And Such Felicity Of Performance, That He Always Seemed to Do

Best That Which He Was Doing; A Man Who Had The Art Of Being minute

Without Tediousness, And General Without Confusion; Whose Language Was

Copious Without Exuberance, Exact Without Constraint, And Easy Without

Weakness.

What Such An Author Has Told, Who Would Tell Again? I Have Made An

Abstract From His Larger Narrative; And Have This Gratification From My

Attempt, That It Gives Me An Opportunity Of Paying due Tribute To The

Memory Of Goldsmith:

  'Tho Geras Esti Thanonton'

Thomas Parnell Was The Son Of A Commonwealthsman Of The Same Name, Who,

At The Restoration, Left Congleton, In cheshire, Where The Family Had

Been Established for Several Centuries, And, Settling in ireland,

Purchased an Estate, Which, With His Lands In cheshire, Descended to The

Poet, Who Was Born At Dublin, In 1679; And, After The Usual Education At

A Grammar-School, Was, At The Age Of Thirteen, Admitted into The College,

Where, In 1700, He Became Master Of Arts; And Was The Same Year Ordained

A Deacon, Though Under The Canonical Age, By A Dispensation From The

Bishop Of Derry.

About Three Years Afterwards He Was Made A Priest; And, In 1705, Dr.

Ashe, The Bishop Of Clogher, Conferred upon Him The Archdeaconry Of

Clogher. About The Same Time He Married mrs. Anne Minchin, An Amiable

Lady, By Whom He Had Two Sons, Who Died young, And A Daughter Who Long

Survived him.

At The Ejection Of The Whigs, In the End Of Queen Anne'S Reign, Parnell

Was Persuaded to Change His Party, Not Without Much Censure From Those

Whom He Forsook, And Was Received by The New Ministry As A Valuable

Reinforcement. When The Earl Of Oxford Was Told That Dr. Parnell Waited

Among The Crowd In the Outer Room, He Went, By The Persuasion Of Swift,

With His Treasurer'S Staff In his Hand, To Inquire For Him, And To Bid

Him Welcome; And, As May Be Inferred from Pope'S Dedication, Admitted him

As A Favourite Companion To His Convivial Hours, But, As It Seems Often

To Have Happened in those Times To The Favourites Of The Great, Without

Attention To His Fortune, Which, However, Was In no Great Need of

Improvement.

Parnell, Who Did Not Want Ambition Or Vanity, Was Desirous To Make

Himself Conspicuous, And To Show How Worthy He Was Of High Preferment. As

He Thought Himself Qualified to Become A Popular Preacher, He Displayed

His Elocution With Great Success In the Pulpits Of London; But The

Queen'S Death Putting an End To His Expectations, Abated his Diligence;

And Pope Represents Him As Falling from That Time Into Intemperance Of

Wine. That In his Latter Life He Was Too Much A Lover Of The Bottle, Is

Not Denied; But I Have Heard It Imputed to A Cause More Likely To Obtain

Forgiveness From Mankind, The Untimely Death Of A Darling son; Or, As

Others Tell, The Loss Of His Wife, Who Died, 1712, In the Midst Of His

Expectations.

He Was Now To Derive Every Future Addition To His Preferments From

His Personal Interest With His Private Friends, And He Was Not Long

Unregarded. He Was Warmly Recommended by Swift To Archbishop King, Who

Gave Him A Prebend In 1713; And In may, 1716, Presented him To The

Vicarage Of Finglass, In the Diocese Of Dublin, Worth Four Hundred pounds

A Year. Such Notice From Such A Man Inclines Me To Believe, That The Vice

Of Which He Has Been Accused was Not Gross, Or Not Notorious.

But His Prosperity Did Not Last Long. His End, Whatever Was Its Cause,

Was Now Approaching. He Enjoyed his Preferment Little More Than A Year;

For In july, 1717, In his Thirty-Eighth Year, He Died at Chester, On His

Way To Ireland.

He Seems To Have Been One Of Those Poets Who Take Delight In writing. He

Contributed to The Papers Of That Time, And Probably Published more Than

He Owned. He Left Many Compositions Behind Him, Of Which Pope Selected

Those Which He Thought Best, And Dedicated them To The Earl Of Oxford. Of

These Goldsmith Has Given An Opinion, And His Criticism It Is Seldom Safe

To Contradict. He Bestows Just Praise Upon The Rise Of Woman, The Fairy

Tale, And The Pervigilium Veneris; But Has Very Properly Remarked, That

In The Battle Of Mice And Frogs, The Greek Names Have Not In english

Their Original Effect.

He Tells Us, That The Bookworm Is Borrowed from Beza; But He Should Have

Added, With Modern Applications; And, When He Discovers That Gay Bacchus

Is Translated from Augurellus, He Ought To Have Remarked, That The Latter

Part Is Purely Parnell'S. Another Poem, When Spring comes On, Is, He

Says, Taken From The French. I Would Add, That The Description Of

Barrenness, In his Verses To Pope, Was Borrowed from Secundus; But Lately

Searching for The Passage, Which I Had Formerly Read, I Could Not Find

It. The Night-Piece On Death Is Indirectly Preferred by Goldsmith To

Gray'S Church-Yard; But, In my Opinion, Gray Has The Advantage In

Dignity, Variety, And Originality Of Sentiment. He Observes, That The

Story Of The Hermit Is In more'S Dialogues And Howell'S Letters, And

Supposes It To Have Been Originally Arabian.

Goldsmith Has Not Taken Any Notice Of The Elegy To The Old Beauty, Which

Is, Perhaps, The Meanest; Nor Of The Allegory On Man, The Happiest Of

Parnell'S Performances. The Hint Of The Hymn To Contentment[142] I

Suspect To Have Been Borrowed from Cleiveland.

The General Character Of Parnell Is Not Great Extent Of Comprehension, Or

Fertility Of Mind. Of The Little That Appears, Still Less Is His Own. His

Praise Must Be Derived from The Easy Sweetness Of His Diction: In his

Verses There Is More Happiness Than Pains; He Is Sprightly Without

Effort, And Always Delights, Though He Never Ravishes; Every Thing is

Proper, Yet Every Thing seems Casual. If There Is Some Appearance Of

Elaboration In the Hermit, The Narrative, As It Is Less Airy, Is Less

Pleasing[143]. Of His Other Compositions It Is Impossible To Say Whether

They Are The Productions Of Nature, So Excellent As Not To Want The Help

Of Art, Or Of Art So Refined as To Resemble Nature.

This Criticism Relates Only To The Pieces Published by Pope. Of The Large

Appendages, Which I Find In the Last Edition, I Can Only Say, That I Know

Not Whence They Came, Nor Have Ever Inquired whither They Are Going. They

Stand Upon The Faith Of The Compilers.

[Footnote 142: Parnell'S "Exquisite Hymn To Contentment, Is Manifestly

Formed on The Divine _Psalmodia_ Of Cardinal Bona--This Imitation Has

Escaped the Notice Of Dr. Johnson, And, It Is Believed, Of All Other

Critics And Commentators." Dr. Jebb'S Sermons, Second Edition, P. 94.]

[Footnote 143: Dr. Warton Asks, "Less Than What?"]

Samuel Garth Was Of A Good Family In yorkshire, And, From Some School In

His Own Country, Became A Student At Peter-House, In cambridge, Where He

Resided till He Became Doctor Of Physick, On July The 7Th, 1691. He Was

Examined before The College At London, On March The 12Th, 1691-2, And

Admitted fellow, July 26Th, 1693.