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