The Best of the Worlds Classics, Vol. V - Great Britain and Ireland III | Page 8

inspired him with a more than ordinary
passion; and she having signified her willingness to accept of his hand,
he went to Lichfield to ask his mother's consent to the marriage, which
he could not but be conscious was a very imprudent scheme, both on
account of their disparity of years, and her want of fortune. But Mrs.
Johnson knew too well the ardor of her son's temper, and was too
tender a parent to oppose his inclinations.
I know not for what reason the marriage ceremony was not performed
at Birmingham; but a resolution was taken that it should be at Derby,
for which place the bride and bridegroom set out on horseback, I
suppose in very good humor. But tho Mr. Topham Beauclerk used

archly to mention Johnson's having told him, with much gravity, "Sir, it
was a love marriage on both sides," I have had from my illustrious
friend the following curious account of their journey to church upon the
nuptial morn (9th July):
"Sir, she had read the old romances, and had got into her head the
fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her lover like a dog.
So, sir, at first she told me that I rode too fast, and she could not keep
up with me; and, when I rode a little slower, she passed me, and
complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the slave of
caprice; and I resolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore pushed on
briskly, till I was fairly out of her sight. The road lay between two
hedges, so I was sure she could not miss it; and I contrived that she
should soon come up with me. When she did, I observed her to be in
tears."
This, it must be allowed, was a singular beginning of connubial felicity;
but there is no doubt that Johnson, tho he thus showed a manly
firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to the last
moment of Mrs. Johnson's life: and in his "Prayers and Meditations,"
we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her
never ceased, even after her death.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: From Boswell's "Life of Johnson."]
[Footnote 2: The author of the "Lectures on Rhetoric," who was born in
1718 and died in 1800.]
[Footnote 3: From Boswell's "Life of Johnson."]
[Footnote 4: From Boswell's "Life of Johnson." Wilkes was the famous
publicist and political agitator who was expelled from Parliament,
imprisoned and outlawed, but afterward elected Lord Mayor of London
and allowed to sit in Parliament many years.]
[Footnote 5: From Boswell's "Life of Johnson." Johnson was married in

1734, when his age was twenty-five.]

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Born in 1770; died in 1850; graduated from Cambridge in 1791;
traveled on the Continent in 1790-92; settled at Grasmere in 1799;
married Mary Hutchinson in 1802; settled at Rydal Mount in 1813;
traveled in Scotland in 1814 and in 1832; traveled on the Continent
again in 1820 and in 1837; became poet laureate in 1843; published his
first volume in 1793 and his last, "The Prelude," in 1850.

A POET DEFINED[6]
Taking up the subject upon general grounds, I ask what is meant by the
word Poet? What is a poet? To whom does he address himself? And
what language is to be expected from him? He is a man speaking to
men: a man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more
enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human
nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be
common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and
volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that
is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as
manifested in the goings on of the universe, and habitually impelled to
create them where he does not find them. To these qualities he has
added a disposition to be affected more than other men by absent things
as if they were present; an ability of conjuring up in himself passions,
which are indeed far from being the same as those produced by real
events, yet especially in those parts of the general sympathy which are
pleasing and delightful do more nearly resemble the passions produced
by real events than anything which, from the motions of their own
minds merely, other men are accustomed to feel in themselves; whence,
and from practise, he has acquired a greater readiness and power in
expressing what he thinks and feels, and especially those thoughts and
feelings which, by his own choice, or from the structure of his own
mind, arise in him without immediate external excitement.

But whatever portion of this faculty we may suppose even the