There have been many broader and more scholarly Englishmen, but there never walked the streets of London a man who battled more courageously for what he thought was right. The more we know of him, the more certain are we to agree with this closing sentence from Macaulay"s _Life of Johnson_: "And it is but just to say that our intimate acquaintance with what he would himself have called the anfractuosities of his intellect and of his temper serves only to strengthen our conviction that he was both a great and a good man."
A Great Converser and Literary Lawgiver.--By nature Johnson was fitted to be a talker. He was happiest when he had intelligent listeners. Accordingly, he and Sir Joshua Reynolds, the artist, founded the famous Literary Club in 1764. During Johnson"s lifetime this had for members such men as Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, Charles James Fox, James Boswell, Edward Gibbon, and David Garrick.
Macaulay says: "The verdicts p.r.o.nounced by this conclave on new books were speedily known over all London, and were sufficient to sell off a whole edition in a day, or to condemn the sheets to the service of the trunk maker and the pastry cook... To predominate over such a society was not easy; yet even over such a society Johnson predominated."
He was consulted as an oracle on all kinds of subjects, and his replies were generally the pith of common sense. So famous had Johnson become for his conversations that George III. met him on purpose to hear him talk. A committee from forty of the leading London booksellers waited on Johnson to ask him to write the _Lives of the English Poets_. There was then in England no other man with so much influence in the world of literature.
Boswell"s Life of Johnson.--In 1763 James Boswell (1740-1795), a Scotchman, met Johnson and devoted much time to copying the words that fell from the great Doctor"s lips and to noting his individual traits.
We must go to Boswell"s _Life of Johnson_, the greatest of all biographies, to read of Johnson as he lived and talked; in short, to learn those facts which render him far more famous than his written works.
[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES BOSWELL.]
Leslie Stephen saw: "I would still hope that to many readers Boswell has been what he has certainly been to some, the first writer who gave them a love of English literature, and the most charming of all companions long after the bloom of novelty has departed. I subscribe most cheerfully to Mr. Lewes"s statement that he estimates his acquaintances according to their estimate of Boswell."
A Champion of the Cla.s.sical School.--Johnson was a powerful adherent of cla.s.sicism, and he did much to defer the coming of romanticism. His poetry is formal, and it shows the cla.s.sical fondness for satire and aversion to sentiment. The first two lines of his greatest poem, _The Vanity of Human Wishes_--
"Let observation with extensive view Survey mankind from China to Peru,"
show the cla.s.sical couplet, which he employs, and they afford an example of poetry produced by a sonorous combination of words.
"Observation," "view," and "survey" are nearly synonymous terms. Such conscious effort centered on word building subtracts something from poetic feeling.
His critical opinions of literature manifest his preference for cla.s.sical themes and formal modes of treatment. He says of Shakespeare: "It is incident to him to be now and then entangled with an unwieldy sentiment, which he cannot well express ... the equality of words to things is very often neglected."
Although there is much sensible, stimulating criticism in Johnson"s _Lives of the Poets_, yet he shows positive repugnance to the pastoral references--the flocks and shepherds, the oaten flute, the woods and desert caves--of Milton"s _Lycidas_. "Its form," says Johnson, "is that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting."
General Characteristics.--While he is best known in literary history as the great converser whose full length portrait is drawn by Boswell, Johnson left the marks of his influence on much of the prose written within nearly a hundred years after his death. On the whole, this influence has, for the following reasons, been bad.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CHESHIRE CHEESE INN, FLEET STREET, LONDON.]
First, he loved a ponderous style in which there was an excess of the Latin element. He liked to have his statements sound well. He once said in forcible Saxon: "_The Rehearsal_! has not wit enough to keep it sweet," but a moment later he translated this into: "It has not sufficient vitality to preserve it from putrefaction." In his _Dictionary_ he defined "network" as "anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances with interstices between the intersections." Some wits of the day said that he used long words to make his _Dictionary_ necessary.
In the second place, Johnson loved formal balance so much that he used too many ant.i.theses. Many of his balancing clauses are out of place or add nothing to the sense. The following shows excess of ant.i.thesis:--
"If the flights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden"s fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope"s the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpa.s.ses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight."
As a rule, Johnson"s prose is too abstract and general, and it awakens too few images. This is a characteristic failing of his essays in _The Rambler_ and _The Idler_. Even in _Ra.s.selas_, his great work of fiction, he speaks of pa.s.sing through the fields and seeing the animals around him; but he does not mention definite trees, flowers, or animals. Shakespeare"s wounded stag or "winking Mary-buds" would have given a touch of life to the whole scene.
Johnson"s latest and greatest work, _Lives of the English Poets_, is comparatively free from most of these faults. The sentences are energetic and full of meaning. Although we may not agree with some of the criticism, shall find it stimulating and suggestive. Before Johnson gave these critical essays to the world, he had been doing little for years except talking in a straightforward manner. His constant practice in speaking English reacted on his later written work. Unfortunately this work has been the least imitated.
SUMMARY
The second part of the eighteenth century was a time of changing standards in church, state, and literature. The downfall of Walpole, the religious revivals of Wesley, the victories of Clive in India and of Wolfe in Canada, show the progress that England was making at home and abroad. Even her loss of the American colonies left her the greatest maritime and colonial power.
There began to be a revolt against the narrow cla.s.sical standards in literature. A longing gradually manifested itself for more freedom of imagination, such as we find in _Ossian, The Castle of Otranto_, Percy"s _Reliques_, and translations of the Norse mythology. There was a departure from the hackneyed forms and subjects of the preceding age and an introduction of more of the individual and ideal element, such as can be found in Gray"s _Elegy_ and Collins"s _Ode to Evening_. Dr.
Johnson, however, threw his powerful influence against this romantic movement, and curbed somewhat such tendencies in Goldsmith, who, nevertheless, gave fine romantic touches to _The Deserted Village_ and to much of his other work. This period was one of preparation for the glorious romantic outburst at the end of the century.
In prose, the most important achievement of the age was the creation of the modern novel in works like Richardson"s _Pamela_ and _Clarissa Harlowe_, Fielding"s _Tom Jones_, Sterne"s _Tristram Shandy_, Smollett"s _Humphrey Clinker_, and Goldsmith"s _Vicar of Wakefield_.
There were also noted prose works in philosophy and history by Hume and Gibbon, in politics by Burke, in criticism by Johnson, and in biography by Boswell. Goldsmith"s comedy of manners, _She Stoops to Conquer_, won a decided victory over the insipid sentimental drama.
REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY
HISTORICAL
For contemporary English history, consult Gardiner,[3] Green, Walker, or Cheney. For the social side, see Traill, V. Lecky"s _History of the Eighteenth Century_ is specially full.
LITERARY
_The Cambridge History of English Literature_.
Courthope"s _History of English Poetry_, Vol. V.
Seccombe"s _The Age of Johnson_.
Gosse"s _History of English Literature in the Eighteenth Century_.
Stephen"s _English Literature in the Eighteenth Century_.
Minto"s _Manual of English Prose Literature_.
Symons"s _The Romantic Movement in English Poetry_.
Beers"s _English Romanticism_.
Phelps"s _Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement_.
Nutt"s _Ossian and Ossianic Literature_.
Jusserand"s _The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare_.
Cross"s _The Development of the English Novel_.
Minto"s _Defoe_ (E.M.L.)
Dobson"s _Samuel Richardson_. (E.M.L.)
Dobson"s _Henry Fielding_. (E.M.L.)
G.o.dden"s _Henry Fielding, a Memoir_.
Stephen"s _Hours in a Library_ (Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding).
Thackeray"s _English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century_ (Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, Goldsmith).
Gosse"s _Life of Gray_. (E.M.L.)
Huxley"s _Life of Hume_. (E.M.L.)
Morrison"s _Life of Gibbon_. (E.M.L.)
Woodrow Wilson"s _Mere Literature_ (Burke).