Johnson’s poetry and prose
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
Goldsmith belonged to the circle of a writer of still ampler range and outstanding intellect,
Samuel Johnson. Pope recognized Johnson’s poetic promise as it was exhibited in London
(1738), an invigorating reworking of Juvenal’s third satire as a castigation of the decadence of
contemporary Britain. Johnson’s finest poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), also takes its
cue from Juvenal, this time his 10th satire. It is a tragic meditation on the pitiful spectacle of
human unfulfillment, yet it ends with an urgent prayer of Christian hope.
Samuel Johnson's definition of “Oats”A detail of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language (1755). The definition of “Oats” is often cited as evidence of Johnson's
prejudice against Scots.
Johnson’s formidable energies
But, great poet though he was, the lion’s share of Johnson’s formidable energies was
expended on prose and on editorial work. From his early years in London, he lived by his pen
and gave himself unstintingly to satisfy the booksellers’ demands. Yet he managed to sustain a
remarkable coherence of ethical ambition and personal presence throughout his voluminous
labors. His twice-weekly essays for The Rambler (1750–52), for instance, consistently show his
powers at their fullest stretch, handling an impressive array of literary and moral topics with a
scrupulous intellectual gravity and attentiveness. Many of the preoccupations of The Vanity of
Human Wishes and the Rambler essays reappear in Rasselas (1759), which catalogues with
profound resource the vulnerability of human philosophies of life to humiliation at the hands of
life itself. Johnson’s forensic brilliance can be seen in his relentless review of Soame Jenyns’s
Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which caustically dissects the latter’s
complacent attitude to human suffering, and his analytic capacities are evidenced at their height
in the successful completion of two major projects, his innovative Dictionary of the English
Language (1755) and the great edition of Shakespeare’s plays (1765). The former of these is in
some ways his greatest work of literary criticism, for it displays the uses of words by means of
illustrations culled from the best writing in English. The latter played a major part in the
establishment of Shakespeare as the linchpin of a national literary canon. It should be noted,
however, that Johnson’s was but the most critically inspired of a series of major Shakespeare
editions in the 18th century. These include editions by Nicholas Rowe (1709), Pope (1725),
Lewis Theobald (1734), Sir Thomas Hanmer (1744), and William Warburton (1747). Others, by
Edward Capell (1768), George Steevens (1773), and Edmund Malone (1790), would follow.
Johnson was but one of those helping to form a national literature.
Johnson’s last years produced much political writing (including the humanely resonant
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland’s Islands, 1771); the socially and
historically alert Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, 1775; and the consummate Lives of
the Poets, 1779–81. The latter was the climax of 40 years’ writing of poetic biographies,
including the multifaceted An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744). These last lives,
covering the period from Cowley to the generation of Gray, show Johnson’s mastery of the
biographer’s art of selection and emphasis and (together with the preface and notes to his
Shakespeare edition) contain the most provocative critical writing of the century. Although his
allegiances lay with Neoclassical assumptions about poetic form and language, his capacity for
improvisatory responsiveness to practice that lay outside the prevailing decorums should not be
underrated. His final faith, however, in his own creative practice as in his criticism, was that the
greatest art eschews unnecessary particulars and aims toward carefully pondered and ambitious
generalization. The same creed was eloquently expounded by another member of the Johnson
circle, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his 15 Discourses (delivered to the Royal Academy between 1769
and 1790, but first published collectively in 1797).
Source of Johnson’s fame
The other prime source of Johnson’s fame, his reputation as a conversationalist of epic
genius, rests on the detailed testimony of contemporary memorialists including Burney, Hester
Lynch Piozzi, and Sir John Hawkins. But the key text is James Boswell’s magisterial Life of
Samuel Johnson (1791). This combines in unique measure a deep respect for its subject’s ethical
probity and resourceful intellect with a far from inevitably complimentary eye for the telling
details of his personal habits and deportment. Boswell manifests rich dramatic talent and a
precise ear for conversational rhythms in his re-creation and orchestration of the debates that lie
at the heart of this great biography. Another dimension of Boswell’s literary talent came to light
in the 1920s and ’30s when two separate hoards of unpublished manuscripts were discovered. In
these he is his own subject of study. The 18th century had not previously produced much
autobiographical writing of the first rank, though the actor and playwright Colley Cibber’s
flamboyant Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber (1740) and Cowper’s somber Memoir
(written about 1766, first published in 1816) are two notable exceptions. But the drama of
Boswell’s self-observations has a richer texture than either of these. In the London Journal
especially (covering 1762–63, first published in 1950), he records the processes of his dealings
with others and of his own self-imaginings with a sometimes unnerving frankness and a tough
willingness to ask difficult questions of himself.
Boswell narrated his experiences at the same time as, or shortly after, they occurred.
Edward Gibbon, on the other hand, taking full advantage of hindsight, left in manuscript at his
death six autobiographical fragments, all having much ground in common, but each telling a
subtly different version of his life. Though he was in many ways invincibly more reticent than
Boswell, Gibbon’s successive explorations of his own history yet form a movingly resolute effort
to see the truth clearly. These writings were undertaken after the completion of the great work of
his life, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). He brought to the
latter an untiring dedication in the gathering and assimilation of knowledge, an especial alertness
to evidence of human fallibility and failure, and a powerful ordering intelligence supported by a
delicate sense of aesthetic coherence. His central theme—that the destruction of the Roman
Empire was the joint triumph of barbarism and Christianity—is sustained with formidable ironic
resource.
