Like an ill-judging beauty, his colours he spread, Of praise a mere glutton, he swallow'd what came, Ye Kenricks, ye Kellys, and Woodfalls + so grave, What a commerce was yours, while you got and you gave! How did Grub-street re-echo the shouts that you Here Hickey reclines, a most blunt pleasant creature, And slander itself must allow him good-nature : • Mr. Hugh Kelly, author of False Delicacy, A Word to the Wise, Clementina, School for Wives, &c. &c. Then what was his failing? come, tell it, and burn ye, He was, could he help it? a special attorney. Here Reynolds is laid, and, to tell you my mind, He has not left a wiser or better behind: His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand, His manners were gentle, complying, and bland; Still born to improve us in every part, His pencil our faces, his manners our heart: To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering, When they judg'd without skill he was still hard of hearing; Land stuff, When they talk'd of their Raphaels, Correggios, He shifted his trumpet ‡, and only took snuff. STANZAS ON WOMAN. FROM THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. WHEN lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy, What art can wash her guilt away? The only art her guilt to cover, SONG. O MEMORY! thou fond deceiver, And turning all the past to pain; Thou, like the world, th' opprest oppressing. In thee must ever find a foe. Sir Joshua Reynolds was so remarkably deaf + Mr. W. Woodfall, printer of the Morning as to be under the necessity of using an ear-trumChronicle. pet in company. SAMUEL JOHNSON. SAMUEL JOHNSON, a writer of great eminence, was , born in 1709 at Litchfield, in which city his father was a petty bookseller. After a desultory course of school-education, it was proposed to him, by Mr. Corbet, a neighbouring gentleman, that he I should accompany his own son to Oxford as his companion; accordingly, in his nineteenth year, he I was elected a commoner of Pembroke college. From young Corbet's departure, he was left to struggle with penury till he had completed a residence of three years, when he quitted Oxford without taking a degree. His father died, in very narrow circumstances, soon after his return from the university; and for some time he attempted to gain a maintenance by some literary projects. At length, in 1735, he thought proper to marry a widow twice his own age, and far from attractive, either in her person or manners. By the aid of her fortune he was enabled to set up a school for instruction in Latin and Greek, but the plan did not succeed; and after a year's experiment, he resolved to try his fortune in the great metropolis. Garrick, afterwards the celebrated actor, had been one of his pupils, accompanied by whom he arrived in London; Johnson having in his pocket his unfinished tragedy of Irene. The first notice which he drew from the judges of literary merit, was by the publication of " London, a Poem," in imitation of Juvenal's third satire. The manly vigour, and strong painting of this performance, placed it high among works of its kind, though it must be allowed, that its censure is coarse and exaggerated, and that it ranks rather as a party, than as a moral poem. It was published in 1738. For some years Johnson is chiefly to be traced in the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine, then conducted by Cave; and it was for this work that he gratified the public with some extraordinary pieces of eloquence which he composed under the disguise of debates in the senate of Liliput, meaning the British parliament. He likewise wrote various biographical articles for the same miscellany, of which the principal and most admired was "The Life of Savage.' The plan of his English Dictionary was laid before the public in a letter addressed to Lord Chesterfield in 1747. In the same year he furnished Garrick with a prologue on the opening of Drurylane theatre, which in sense and poetry has not a competitor among compositions of this class, excepting Pope's prologue to Cato. Another imitation of Juvenal, entitled "The Vanity of Human Wishes," was printed in 1749, and may be said to reach the sublime of ethical poetry, and to stand at the head of classical imitations. The same year, under the auspices of Garrick, brought on the stage of Drury-lane his tragedy of " Irene." It ran thirteen nights, but has never since appeared on the theatre: Johnson, in fact, found that he was not formed to excel on the stage, and made no further trials. His periodical paper, entitled "The Rambler," appeared in March 1750, and was continued till March 1752. The solemnity of this paper prevented it at first from attaining an extensive circulation; but after it was collected into volumes, it continually rose in the public esteem, and the author had the satisfaction of seeing a tenth edition. The "Adventurer," conducted by Dr. Hawkesworth, succeeded the Rambler, and Johnson contributed several papers of his own writing. In 1755, the first edition of his "Dictionary" made its appearance. It was received by the public with general applause, and its author was ranked among the greatest benefactors of his native tongue. Modern accuracy, however, has given an insight into its defects; and though it still stands as the capital work of the kind in the language, its authority as a standard is somewhat depreciated. Upon the last illness of his aged mother, in 1759, for the purpose of paying her a visit, and defraying the expense of her funeral, he wrote his romance of " Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia," one of his most splendid performances, elegant in language, rich in imagery, and weighty in sentiment. Its views of human life are, indeed, deeply tinged with the gloom that overshadowed the author's mind; nor can it be praised for moral effect. Soon after the accession of the late king, a grant of a pension of 300l. per annum was made him by His Majesty during the ministry of Lord Bute. A short struggle of repugnance to accept a favour from the House of Hanover was overcome by a sense of the honour and substantial benefit conferred by it, and he became that character, a pensioner, on which he had bestowed a sarcastic definition in his Dictionary. Much obloquy attended this circumstance of his life, which was enhanced when he published in several of his productions, arguments which seemed directly to oppose the rising spirit of liberty. A long-promised edition of Shakspeare appeared in 1765; but though ushered in by a preface written with all the powers of his masterly pen, the edition itself disappointed those who expected much from his ability to elucidate the obscurities of the great dramatist. A tour to the Western Islands of Scotland in 1773, in which he was attended by his enthusiastic admirer and obsequious friend, James Boswell, Esq. was a remarkable incident of his life, considering that a strong antipathy to the natives of that country had long been conspicuous in his conversation. But when, two years afterwards, he His published the account of his tour, under the title of symptoms, followed; and such was the tenacity with "A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland," which he clung to life, that he expressed a great more candour and impartiality were found in it, desire to seek for amendment in the climate of than had been expected. In 1775, he was gratified, Italy. Still unable to reconcile himself to the through the interest of Lord North, with the degree thought of dying, he said to the surgeon who was of Doctor of Laws, from the University of Oxford. making slight scarifications in his swollen leg, He had some years before received the same honour" Deeper! deeper! I want length of life, and you from Dublin, but did not then choose to assume the are afraid of giving me pain, which I do not title. His last literary undertaking was the con- value." The closing scene took place on Decensequence of a request from the London booksellers, ber 13. 1785, in the 76th year of his age. who had engaged in an edition of the principal remains, attended by a respectable concourse of English poets, and wished to prefix to each a bio-friends, were interred in Westminster Abbey; and s graphical and critical preface from his hand. This monumental statue has since been placed to his he undertook; and though he will generally be memory in St. Paul's cathedral. His works were thought to have laboured under strong prejudices published collectively in eleven volumes, 8vo., with in composing the work, its style will be found, in a copious life of the author, by Sir John Hawkins great measure, free from the stiffness and turgidity A new edition, in twelve volumes, with a life, ws which marked his earlier compositions. given by Arthur Murphy. Of the conversations, and oral dictates of Johnson, a most copious collection has been published in the very entertaining volumes of Mr. Boswell. Upon the whole, it may be said, that at the time of his death, he was undoubtedly the most conspicuous literary character of his country. The concluding portion of Dr. Johnson's life was saddened by a progressive decline of health, and by the prospect of approaching death, which neither his religion nor his philosophy had taught him to bear with even decent composure. A paralytic stroke first gave the alarm; asthma, and dropsical LONDON: A POEM. IN IMITATION OF THE THIRD SATIRE OF JUVENAL. Quis ineptæ THO' grief and fondness in my breast rebel, For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land, While Thales waits the wherry that contains Queen Elizabeth, born at Greenwich. Behold her cross triumphant on the main, A transient calm the happy scenes bestow, Since worth, he cries, in these degenerate days Some secret cell, ye pow'rs, indulgent give, Let such raise palaces, and manors buy, Heroes, proceed! what bounds your pride shall To such, the plunder of a land is giv'n, For what but social guilt the friend endears? The cheated nation's happy fav'rites, see! Illustrious Edward! from the realms of day, Of France the mimic, and of Spain the prey. On Britain's fond credulity they prey. They sing, they dance, clean shoes, or cure a clap: All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows, Besides, with justice, this discerning age Well may they venture on the mimic's art, Your taste in snuff, your judgment in a whore ; For arts like these preferr'd, admir'd, caress'd, They first invade your table, then your breast; Explore your secrets with insidious art, Watch the weak hour, and ransack all the heart; Then soon your ill-plac'd confidence repay, Commence your lords, and govern or betray. By numbers here from shame or censure free, Wakes from his dream, and labours for a joke; [cries But hark! th' affrighted crowd's tumultuous Roll through the streets, and thunder to the skies: Rais'd from some pleasing dream of wealth and pow'r, Some pompous palace or some blissful bower, And spread his flaming palace on the ground, See! while he builds, the gaudy vassals come, Could'st thou resign the park and play content, And stretch thy prospects o'er the smiling land, Direct thy rivulets, and twine thy bowers; There ev'ry bush with Nature's music rings, And bless thine evening walk and morning toil. Scarce can our fields, such crowds at Tyburn die, A single jail, in ALFRED'S golden reign, Could half the nation's criminals contain; Fair Justice, then, without constraint ador'd, Held high the steady scale, but sheath'd the sword; No spies were paid, no special juries known, Blest age! but ah! how diff'rent from our own! Much could I add,-but see the boat at hand, The tide retiring calls me from the land: [spent, Farewell!-When youth, and health, and fortune Thou fly'st for refuge to the wilds of Kent; And, tir'd like me with follies and with crimes, In angry numbers warns't succeeding times; Then shall thy friend, nor thou refuse his aid, Still foe to vice, forsake his Cambrian shade; In virtue's cause once more exert his rage, Thy satire point, and animate thy page. THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES, IN IMITATION OF THE TENTH SATIRE OF JUVENAL LET observation with extensive view, How nations sink by darling schemes oppress'd, But, scarce observ'd, the knowing and the bold Fall in the gen'ral massacre of gold; Wide wasting pest! that rages unconfin'd, And crowds with crimes the records of mankind: For gold his sword the hireling ruffian draws, For gold the hireling judge distorts the laws; Wealth heap'd on wealth, nor truth nor safety buys, The dangers gather as the treasures rise. Let hist'ry tell where rival kings command, And dubious title shakes the madded land, When statutes glean the refuse of the sword, How much more safe the vassal than the lord; Low sculks the hind beneath the rage of power, And leaves the wealthy traitor in the Tower, Untouch'd his cottage, and his slumbers sound, Tho' confiscation's vultures hover round. The needy traveller, serene and gay, Walks the wild heath and sings his toil away. Does envy seize thee? crush th' upbraiding joy, Increase his riches, and his peace destroy; Now fears in dire vicissitude invade, The rustling brake alarms, and quiv'ring shade, Nor light nor darkness bring his pain relief, One shows the plunder, and one hides the thief. Yet still one gen'ral cry the skies assails, And gain and grandeur load the tainted gales; Few know the toiling statesman's fear or care, Th' insidious rival and the gaping heir. Once more, Democritus, arise on Earth, With cheerful wisdom and instructive mirth, See motley life in modern trappings dress'd, And feed with varied fools th' eternal jest: Thou who could'st laugh, where want enchain'd caprice, Toil crush'd conceit, and man was of a piece; Where wealth unlov'd without a mourner dy'd; And scarce a sycophant was fed by pride; Where ne'er was known the form of mock debate, Or scen a new-made mayor's unwieldy state; Where change of fav'rites made no change of laws, And senates heard before they judg'd a cause; How would'st thou shake at Britain's modish tribe, Dart the quick taunt, and edge the piercing gibe? |