The Press. — London, England, 1854-11-25 00:00:00

1120 Yittraturt. Lives of the English Poets ; with Critical Observa tions on their Works. By Samuel Johnson. With Notes, Corrective and Explanatory, by Peter Cunningham, F.S.A. In Three Volumes. Vols. I. and 11. (Murray's British Classics.) London : Murray. THE " Lives of the Poets " by Johnson has al ways enjoyed great popularity ; and, though obnoxious to the criticism of those who have formed their standard of taste in the school of the Schlegels, its sustained power and the masterly writing of several passages raise it to a classical level iu our literature. " Those " are the best books which make a reader think," said Voltaire ; and even those disposed to de preciate the judicial powers of Johnson as a censor cannot but admire the mental energy and practical knowledge of the art of author ship as displayed in this last and best known of his literary performances. Through all the vicissitudes of taste the work has steadily held its position, nor is it likely to be displaced. But there never was a work which more im peratively demanded an appropriate editor than Johnson's " Lives of the Poets." Com posed more in a critical than in a biographical spirit, it owes its fame to the merits of its disquisitions rather than to its personal delineations. Of the men described we can get more lively pictures elsewhere, but of the authors it would be impossible to find a more collectively impartial survey. The opiniona tive tone which reigns throughout its pages is the source of its beauties and defects. The vigour of the language is too often intensified by the antipathies of the writer. In the style, also, there is much inequality, and for the criti cism of some departments of poetry Johnson was entirelyunsuited. Apart from these faults, we must recollect that the " Lives of the Poets " was essentially a work of the last century. Since then there have been great revolutions in the world of criticism. The German thinkers have swayed the literary opinions of Europe, and, without reference to the effect of the periodical essayists, " whose name is legion," the taste of English readers has been vastly influenced by the critical writings of Coleridge, Jeffrey, Hazlitt, Hallam, Macaulay, and Car lyle. The knowledge of foreign literature has also increased in au age of rapid locomotion : and those familiar with the works of Eichorne, Tiraboschi, the Schlegels, and Goethe, must necessarily find many of the views of Johnson prejudiced, insular, and obsolete. In editing this work, however, it is evident that Mr. Cunningham only proposed to himself the topics of personal allusion. He is an anno tator on the gossip of Johnson's " Lives," not a critical assistant in the elucidation of dis puted judgments. What his " Handbook of London " is to the traveller in the metropolis his notes to the " Lives " are intended to be for the reader. Untiring as a compiler, he is inexpert at generalisation, and candidly states that he has sought to substantiate doubtful information and to cor• rect what is wrong in matters of fact, leaving points of taste as much as possible to the reader's own good judg• went to receive or to reject. In his amusing preface, the editor fails to give an exact list of the various editions of this often-reprinted work, nor is it stated what edition he has followed. There is a curious anecdote in connection with this work that we are surprised never struck so ardent a collector as the editor. It seems, accor ding to Chalmers (Biog. Diet., v. xix., p. 71) that in 1783 a new edition of the " Lives " was published, and the numerous correc tions were printed separately, and offered gratis to the purchasers of the former edition, but scarcely any copies of the list of corrigenda were called for ! But, as he gives us no list of the previous editions of the " Lives," neither does Mr. Cunningham investigate whether they were translated into foreign languages; and we may here remark that he has entirely omitted, from first to last, the information as to the continental translations of the various poets recorded—a defect especially noticeable n the case of Milton. On that point knowledge dE THE PRESS. could be easily procured, and the absence of it is a blemish in the present edition. It is in the " Life of Milton" that the defect of Mr. Cunningham's plan of editing is most con spicuous. The justice or injustice of John son's mode of dealing with the facts of Mil ton's life is avoided in the corrective notes ; but in the preface the editor writes : Passing over the political objections to the life—for man- kind (I fear) will long differ and dispute about the political character of Milton—l would venture to affirm that no one has written finer or truer things about " Paradise Lost " than Johnson in this life. His alleged virulence is indeed always more in the manner of his matter than the matter itself. He had no inclination to narrate the events of Milton's career; and tells us, in the very outset of the memoir, that he would have contented himself with the addition of a few notes to Fenton's elegant abridgment, but that a new narrative for uniformity's sake was thought necessary. This is an awkward passage in every sense, not only in its " matter," but also in " the manner of its matter." It is not only for its political acrimony that Johnson's life of Milton is liable to censure. There is a grossness of tone in his sneering comments on Milton that are positively offensive. Mr. Cunningham has probably never seen what Coleridge has written on the " Satan" of Milton, else he would not assert that "no one had written " truer or finer things" (!) than Johnson on " Paradise Lost." But it was by what he wrote on the minor poems of Milton that Johnson, as Mr. Hallam emphatically expresses it, " committed his reputation." He could ap preciate "town poetry," and was fit to decide on the school of Dryden or Pope, but he had no ear to catch the exquisite melodies of the peculiar rhythm of Milton's versification. Even his canons of criticism as applied to " minor poems " are essentially wrong. Thus John son says that " all that short compositions " can commonly obtain is neatness and " elegance " (vol. i., p. 139)—a position suffi ciently refuted by the poetic fire and brilliancy of effect of the Greek audiology, the Odes of Horace,and by lyrical poetry in general. The dic tum has, since Johnson's death, been also deci sively overturned byßurns,Moore,Campbell,and Beranger. When, in critisising "minor poems," Johnson laid down so erroneous a rule, we can scarcely be surprised at his " committing his reputation " by the depreciation of " Lycidas " and " Comus," the latter of which, according to Johnson, is "inelegantly splendid and te " diously instructive." It is for comments of that sort on these charming minor pieces, and not for his remarks on " Paradise Lost" (as Mr. Cunningham supposes), that an outcry has been raised at the " Life of Milton." Mr. Cunning ham then proceeds to show "the hold of "Johnson's memoir of Milton upon mankind" by quoting a stanza from " Don Juan "—as if Lord Byron and mankind were identical. But let us turn to another point. The reli gion of Milton is surely a subject that might attract the careful notice of an editor after the discovery of Milton's treatise of " Christian Doctrine.' In alluding to that work, the editor writes Milton's theological opinions were determined in 182.3 by the discovery in the State Paper-office of his " Treatise on Christian Doctine," written in Latin, and printed in 1824 by command of George IV. Milton was an Arian. "It is said that the discovery of Milton's Arianism in this rigid generation has already impaired the sale of 'Paradise Lost.' "—Hallam's Lit. Hist. iii. 474, third ed. A " corrective and explanatory " note would be here required. The editor ought surely to inform the present readers of Johnson's life what were the opinions of Milton on so grave a subject as Christianity. The word " arian " is vague and indeterminate, and in our times is interpreted as Rationalist, and this point is deserving of special notice, as Mr. Hallam's observation (quoted by Mr. Cunningham) is based on fact. Great discomfort was really experienced in the religious world when with jubilant strains the literary Unitarians pro claimed that Milton was an arian of their mode of belief. The fact is, that Milton was heterodox as to his conception of the " Trinity in Unity," but he was not sceptical quoad the Atonement ; and that such a mind as his had faith in vicarious redemption or (as he expresses it) of " life by life,' is well worth recording. So far from being a Rationalist, Milton was in many things positively su perstitious, and believed in the personal SATURDAY, interposition of Providence to an ex• tent that would astound our contemporary " Arians " and neologists. Surely such a note as we have cited is not adequate to the important topic of the religious opinions of so great a man. Again, on the subject of Milton's prose works, we find the following note : The admirers of Milton's political opinions, and some, too, who comprehend his poetry, have -found his prose style, Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, structure onge ofr co his con fined But musical as is Apollo's lute. sTehnites,heos is wevgeern,eraislly umnoc tth bers ec o as m e e .. T vi be he When l fined to numbers, he is as awkward and unwieldy as a swan out of water. What Donne is in poetic pauses Milton is in the euphony of prose. He is behind the best of his con temporaries—behind Taylor, and not to be compared for a moment with either Hobbes or Cowley. /n his reply to the Eikon, whatever advantage he may have in argument is not assisted by his style, for Gauden has at least the better of him in the easy gracefulness of a good style. Here one with such a love for minutite as the editor ought to have been more particular in his references. The prose writings of Milton are noble productions, despite of their cumbrous rhetoric. They are impassioned with the moral power of a mighty genius, and we feel while reading them that we are in presence of a master-spirit. The admirers of his prose writings read them for their loftiness of thought and the genuine character of their overwhelming vehemence. It is chiefly in the opening passages that he is involved, but his prose writings deserve their fame ; and, though we do not sympathise with their opinions, we admire the Saxon sturdiness and muscularity of grasp visible in those truly great productions. The manner in which Mr. Cunningham treats his literary contemporaries is not very compli mentary. The question whether Dryden was sincere in his perversion to Romanism has be come of considerable interest since Mr.Macauiay vilified him in the most scornful language in his " History of England." One would think that the editor of Johnson's " Lives " ought to be anxious to rescue so great a man as Dryden from the foul stains that would rest on his memory if he had been a mercenary apostate. Johnson wrote favourably towards Dryden on the subject, and Sir Walter Scott supported the same view. Here is Mr. Cunningham's note on this important point : The reader who would pursue the subject thus admir ably handled by Johnson should consult Scott's " Life of Dryden ;" Southey's Life of Cowper," ii. 131 ; and Macaulay's " History." Both Scott and Southey acquit Dryden of being biassed by motives of temporary con venience; but Mr. Macauley is painfully positive that his conversion was a mere money matter. Now. surely this is not a proper mode of annotation. Mr. Cunningham may if he please ignore what Mr. Hallam or Mr. Bell have written upon the point, but he might cite in corroboration of Johnson's pathetic remarks the following affecting confession of sentiments from a private letter of Dryden, addressed to his relative, Mrs. Stewart, written late in 1699 : The court rather speaks kindly of me than does anything for me, though they promise largely ; and perhaps they think I will advance as they go backward, in which they will be mush deceiv'd : for I cannot go au inch beyond my conscience and my honour I know not what church to go to, if I leave the Catholique ; they are all so divided amongst themselves in matters of faith, necessary to salvation, and yet all assuming the name of Protestants , . May God be pleas'd to open your eyes, as he h as open d mine ! Truth is but one ; and they who have once heard of it can plead no excuse, if they do not embrace it. But these are things too serious for a trifling letter. Johnson did not know of that letter at the time of his writing Dryden's life, else he would have quoted it. Even without any reference to that remarkable letter, Mr. Hallam has re marked that the vigour with which Dryden wrote for Popery shows that he fancied him self on the side of truth. His words are worth quoting. " It. is such an answer as a candid " man may well admit to any doubts of " Dryden's sincerity. He who could argue so " powerfully as the Hind, may well be allptve4 , "to have thought himself in the right. (Hallam's Introd. Lit. Europe , vol. i ii., p. 476.) Mr. Bell, in his " Annotated Edition of the Poets," has devoted nearly one hundred pages of small type to Dryden's personal history. On the question of his sincerity iu beco m ing a Papist Mr. Bell has brought forward curious facts, highly corroborative of the views taken by Johnson, Scott, and Hallam, but of this re- Ok