Lives of the Poets, vol 1

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1, by Samuel
Johnson
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Title: Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1
Author: Samuel Johnson
Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9823]
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF
THE POETS, VOL. 1 ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jayam Subramanian
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Distributed Proofreaders
DR. JOHNSON'S WORKS.
LIVES OF THE POETS.
VOL. I.
THE
WORKS
OF
SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
IN NINE VOLUMES.
VOLUME THE SEVENTH.
MDCCCXXV.
CONTENTS OF THE SEVENTH VOLUME.
THE LIVES OF THE ENGLISH POETS.
Cowley
Denham
Milton
Butler
Rochester
Roscommon

Otway
Waller
Pomfret
Dorset
Stepney
J. Philips
Walsh

Dryden
Smith
Duke
King
Sprat
Halifax
Parnell
Garth

Rowe
Addison
Hughes
Sheffield, duke of Buckinghamshire
PREFATORY NOTICE
TO
THE LIVES OF THE POETS.

Such was the simple and unpretending advertisement that announced
the Lives of the English Poets; a work that gave to the British nation a
new style of biography. Johnson's decided taste for this species of
writing, and his familiarity with the works of those whose lives he has
recorded, peculiarly fitted him for the task; but it has been denounced
by some as dogmatical, and even morose; minute critics have detected
inaccuracies; the admirers of particular authors have complained of an
insufficiency of praise to the objects of their fond and exclusive regard;
and the political zealot has affected to decry the staunch and unbending
champion of regal and ecclesiastical rights. Those, again, of high and
imaginative minds, who "lift themselves up to look to the sky of poetry,
and far removed from the dull-making cataract of Nilus, listen to the
planet-like music of poetry;" these accuse Johnson of a heavy and
insensible soul, because he avowed that nature's "world was brazen,
and that the poets only delivered a golden[1]."
But in spite of the censures of political opponents, private friends, and
angry critics, it will be acknowledged, by the impartial, and by every
lover of virtue and of truth, that Johnson's honest heart, penetrating
mind, and powerful intellect, has given to the world memoirs fraught
with what is infinitely more valuable than mere verbal criticism, or
imaginative speculation; he has presented, in his Lives of the English
Poets, the fruits of his long and careful examination of men and
manners, and repeated in his age, with the authoritative voice of
experience, the same dignified lessons of morality, with which he had
instructed his readers in his earlier years. And if these lives contained
few merits of their own, they confessedly amended the criticism of the
nation, and opened the path to a more enlarged and liberal style of
biography than had, before their publication, appeared.
The bold manner in which Johnson delivered what he believed to be the
truth, naturally provoked hostile attack, and we are not prepared to say,
that, in many instances, the strictures passed upon him might not be just.
We will call the attention of our readers to some few of the charges
brought against the work now before us, and then leave it to their
candid and unbiased judgment to decide, whether the deficiencies
pointed out are but as dust in the balance, when brought to weigh

against the sterling excellence with which this last and greatest
production of our Moralist abounds.
He has been accused of indulging a spirit of political animosity, of an
illiberal and captious method of criticism, of frequent inaccuracies, and
of a general haughtiness of manner, indicative of a feeling of
superiority over the subjects of his memorial.
In the life of Milton his political prejudices are most apparent. It is not
our duty, neither our inclination, in this place, to discuss the accuracy
of Johnson's political wisdom. We cannot, however, but respect the
integrity with which he clung to the instructions of his youth, amidst
poverty, and all those inconveniencies which usually drive men to a
discontent with things as they are.
Those who censure him without qualification or reserve, are as bad, or