SAMUEL JOHNSON: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE THE CRITICAL HERITAGE SERIES General Editor: B.C.Southam The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of criticism on major figures in literature. Each volume presents the contemporary responses to a particular writer, enabling the student to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer’s work and its place within a literary tradition. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to fragments of contemporary opinion and little published documentary material, such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included in order to demonstrate fluctuations in reputation following the writer’s death. SAMUEL JOHNSON THE CRITICAL HERITAGE Edited by JAMES T.BOULTON London and New York First Published in 1971 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE & 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Compilation, introduction, notes and index © 1971 James T.Boulton All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data ISBN 0-415-13435-8 (Print Edition) ISBN 0-203-19735-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-19738-0 (Glassbook Format) General Editor’s Preface The reception given to a writer by his contemporaries and near- contemporaries is evidence of considerable value to the student of literature. On one side we learn a great deal about the state of criticism at large and in particular about the development of critical attitudes towards a single writer; at the same time, through private comments in letters, journals or marginalia, we gain an insight upon the tastes and literary thought of individual readers of the period. Evidence of this kind helps us to understand the writer’s historical situation, the nature of his immediate reading-public, and his response to these pressures. The separate volumes in the Critical Heritage Series present a record of this early criticism. Clearly, for many of the highly productive and lengthily reviewed nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers, there exists an enormous body of material; and in these cases the volume editors have made a selection of the most important views, significant for their intrinsic critical worth or for their representative quality— perhaps even registering incomprehension! For earlier writers, notably pre-eighteenth century, the materials are much scarcer and the historical period has been extended, sometimes far beyond the writer’s lifetime, in order to show the inception and growth of critical views which were initially slow to appear. In each volume the documents are headed by an Introduction, discussing the material assembled and relating the early stages of the author’s reception to what we have come to identify as the critical tradition. The volumes will make available much material which would otherwise be difficult of access and it is hoped that the modern reader will be thereby helped towards an informed understanding of the ways in which literature has been read and judged. B.C.S. Contents PREFACE page xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xii NOTE ON THE TEXT xiii INTRODUCTION 1 Johnson’s Poems 1 JOHNSON seeking a publisher for London, 1738 42 2 WILLIAM MUDFORD on London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, 1802 44 3 JOHN AIKIN on Johnson’s poems, 1804 49 Irene (1749) 4 A Criticism on Mahomet and Irene, 1749 52 5 JOHN HIPPISLEY (?), An Essay on Tragedy, 1749 57 The Rambler (1750–2) 6 Two early tributes, 1750 63 7 JOHNSON surveys his purpose and achievement, Rambler, 1752 64 8 ARTHUR MURPHY, Essay on the Life and Genius of Johnson, 1792 68 9 GEORGE GLEIG in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1797 72 10 MUDFORD on the ‘moral utility’ of the Rambler, 1802 74 11 ALEXANDER CHALMERS in British Essayists, 1802 81 12 HAZLITT on the Rambler, 1819 86 The Dictionary (1755) 13 JOHNSON’S Plan of a Dictionary, 1747 90 14 Foreign notice of the Plan, 1747 94 15 CHESTERFIELD in the World, 1754 95 16 JOHNSON writes to Thomas Warton, 1755 102 17 JOHNSON’S letter to Chesterfield, 1755 103 18 JOHNSON’S Preface, 1755 105 19 ADAM SMITH, unsigned review, Edinburgh Review, 1755 115 20 HORNE TOOKE’S Diversions of Purley, 1786 117 21 A German view of the Dictionary, 1798 118 22 An American view of the Dictionary, 1807 125 vii CONTENTS Rasselas (1759) 23 OWEN RUFFHEAD, unsigned review, Monthly Review, 1759 141 24 Unsigned notice, Annual Register, 1759 147 25 MUDFORD on Rasselas, 1802 148 26 MRS BARBAULD, The British Novelists, 1810 149 Edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare (1765) 27 JOHNSON’S Proposals for his edition of Shakespeare, 1756 155 28 From Johnson’s Preface to the first edition, 1765 157 29 GEORGE COLMAN, unsigned notice, St. James’s Chronicle, 1765 162 30 WILLIAM KENRICK, unsigned review, Monthly Review, 1765 164 31 WILLIAM KENRICK, Review of Johnson’s Shakespeare, 1765 181 32 JAMES BARCLAY, Examination of Mr. Kenrick’s Review, 1766 189 33 VOLTAIRE, ‘Art Dramatique’, in Questions sur l’Encylopédie, 1770 194 34 SCHLEGEL, Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, 1808 195 35 COLERIDGE on Johnson’s Shakespeare, 1811–16 197 36 HAZLITT, Characters of Shakespear’s Plays, 1817 199 Political Pamphlets (1770–5) 37 Unsigned review of The False Alarm, Critical Review, 1770 204 38 Unsigned review of The False Alarm, Monthly Review, 1770 207 39 PERCIVAL STOCKDALE, The Remonstrance, 1770 209 40 JOHN WILKES, A Letter to Samuel Johnson LL.D., 1770 211 41 JOSEPH TOWERS, A Letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1775 216 42 Anonymous, Tyranny Unmasked, 1775 225 Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) 43 ROBERT FERGUSSON, ‘To Dr. Samuel Johnson’, 1773 231 44 RALPH GRIFFITHS, unsigned review, Monthly Review, 1775 234 45 Anonymous, Remarks on a Voyage to the Hebrides, 1775 237 46 JAMES MCINTYRE, ‘On Samuel Johnson, who wrote against Scotland’, 1775 240 47 DONALD MCNICOL, Remarks on Dr. Samuel Johnsons Journey to the Hebrides, 1779 242 Lives of the English Poets (1779–81) 48 EDWARD DILLY to James Boswell, 1777 250 49 Advertisement to the Lives, 1779 252 viii CONTENTS 50 EDMUND CARTWRIGHT, unsigned review, Monthly Review, 1779–82 253 51 Unsigned review, Critical Review, 1779–81 270 52 WILLIAM COWPER’S opinions of the Lives, 1779–91 273 53 FRANCIS BLACKBURNE, Remarks on Johnson’s Life of Milton, 1780 278 54 WALPOLE on the Life of Pope, 1781 284 55 WILLIAM FITZTHOMAS, Dr. Johnson’s Strictures on the Lyric Performances of Gray, 1781 285 56 Unsigned review, Annual Register, 1782 293 57 ROBERT POTTER, Inquiry, 1783 295 58 SIR JOHN HAWKINS, Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D., 1787 303 59 ROBERT POTTER, The Art of Criticism, 1789 306 60 ANNA SEWARD’S opinions of the Lives, 1789–97 311 61 DEQUINCEY, ‘Postscript respecting Johnson’s Life of Milton’, 1859 313 Johnson’s Prose Style 62 ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, Lexiphanes, 1767 317 63 JOHNSON defends his style, 1777 323 64 WALPOLE, ‘General Criticism of Dr. Johnson’s Writings’, c. 1779 324 65 ROBERT BURROWES, on ‘the Stile of Doctor Samuel Johnson’, 1786 326 66 ANNA SEWARD on Johnson’s prose style, 1795 343 67 NATHAN DRAKE on the influence of Johnson’s style, 1809 344 68 SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH, private journal, 1811 349 69 COLERIDGE’S opinions on Johnson’s style, 1818–33 355 Biographical and General 70 CHARLES CHURCHILL, ‘Pomposo’ in The Ghost, 1762 357 71 JOHN WILKES, North Briton, 1762 360 72 BLAKE, ‘An Island in the Moon’, c. 1784 363 73 JOHN COURTENAY, A Poetical Review, 1786 364 74 JOSEPH TOWERS, An Essay, 1786 371 75 BOSWELL, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D., 1791 383 76 ANNA SEWARD’S general estimate of Johnson, 1796 412 77 GEORGE MASON, Epitaph on Johnson, 1796 415 78 RICHARD CUMBERLAND, Memoirs, 1807 416 79 SCOTT, Lives of the Novelists, 1821–4 420 ix CONTENTS 80 MACAULAY, review of Croker’s edition of Boswell’s Life, Edinburgh Review, 1831 423 81 CARLYLE, review of Croker’s edition of Boswell’s Life, Fraser’s Magazine, 1832 432 BIBLIOGRAPHY 449 SELECT INDEX 451 x Preface The purpose of this volume is to document the development of Johnson’s reputation by extracts from criticism written (with one exception, No. 61) during his lifetime and up to 1832. The terminal date is significant: by that time both Macaulay and Carlyle had published their reviews of Croker’s edition of Boswell’s Life of Johnson; in their essays was found authoritative expression of views about Johnson which remained virtually unchallenged almost until the present century. Extracts are grouped chronologically under each of Johnson’s major publications. Since his critics gave considerable attention to his style a separate section is devoted to that. Further, some extracts are most conveniently collected under the heading ‘Biographical and General’, either because they have historical significance without having exclusive reference to any single work by Johnson, or because of the scope of their authors’ inquiry. The main principles of selection were interest, historical importance, and representativeness. Literary or critical excellence was not the first criterion. Much critical writing in Johnson’s lifetime and immediately after it was not distinguished; but his work had to endure criticism which ranges from the crude to the sensitive, and his character to tolerate both savage denigration and panegyric. The collection of extracts must therefore be qualitatively wide-ranging. In some cases, as with James Callender’s notorious Deformities of Dr.