Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 eBook

Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 by Samuel Johnson

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Table of Contents

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POEMATA

Prefatory observations to the history of Rasselas

Rasselas, prince of Abissinia

Letters.

I. To Mr. James Elphinston

II. to XL.  To Mrs. Thrale

XLI.  To Mr. Thrale

XLII. to LIII.  To Mrs. Thrale

LIV.  To Mrs. Piozzi

An essay
on
the life and genius
of
Samuel Johnson, ll.D.

When the works of a great writer, who has bequeathed to posterity a lasting legacy, are presented to the world, it is naturally expected that some account of his life should accompany the edition.  The reader wishes to know as much as possible of the author.  The circumstances that attended him, the features of his private character, his conversation, and the means by which he arose to eminence, become the favourite objects of inquiry.  Curiosity is excited; and the admirer of his works is eager to know his private opinions, his course of study, the particularities of his conduct, and, above all, whether he pursued the wisdom which he recommends, and practised the virtue which his writings inspire.  A principle of gratitude is awakened in every generous mind.  For the entertainment and instruction which genius and diligence have provided for the world, men of refined and sensible tempers are ready to pay their tribute of praise, and even to form a posthumous friendship with the author.

In reviewing the life of such a writer, there is, besides, a rule of justice to which the public have an undoubted claim.  Fond admiration and partial friendship should not be suffered to represent his virtues with exaggeration; nor should malignity be allowed, under a specious disguise, to magnify mere defects, the usual failings of human nature, into vice or gross deformity.  The lights and shades of the character should be given; and if this be done with a strict regard to truth, a just estimate of Dr. Johnson will afford a lesson, perhaps, as valuable as the moral doctrine that speaks with energy in every page of his works.

The present writer enjoyed the conversation and friendship of that excellent man more than thirty years.  He thought it an honour to be so connected, and to this hour he reflects on his loss with regret; but regret, he knows, has secret bribes, by which the judgment may be influenced, and partial affection may be carried beyond the bounds of truth.  In the present case, however, nothing needs to be disguised, and exaggerated praise is unnecessary.  It is an observation of the younger Pliny, in his epistle to his friend Tacitus, that history ought never to magnify matters of fact, because worthy actions require nothing but the truth:  “nam nec historia debet egredi veritatem, et honeste factis veritas sufficit.”  This rule, the present biographer promises, shall guide his pen throughout the following narrative.

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It may be said, the death of Dr. Johnson kept the public mind in agitation beyond all former example.  No literary character ever excited so much attention; and, when the press has teemed with anecdotes, apophthegms, essays, and publications of every kind, what occasion now for a new tract on the same thread-bare subject?  The plain truth shall be the answer.  The proprietors of Johnson’s works thought the life, which they prefixed to their former edition, too unwieldy for republication.  The prodigious variety of foreign matter, introduced into that performance, seemed to overload the memory of Dr. Johnson, and, in the account of his own life, to leave him hardly visible.  They wished to have a more concise, and, for that reason, perhaps, a more satisfactory account, such as may exhibit a just picture of the man, and keep him the principal figure in the foreground of his own picture.  To comply with that request is the design of this essay, which the writer undertakes with a trembling hand.  He has no discoveries, no secret anecdotes, no occasional controversy, no sudden flashes of wit and humour, no private conversation, and no new facts, to embellish his work.  Every thing has been gleaned.  Dr. Johnson said of himself, “I am not uncandid, nor severe:  I sometimes say more than I mean, in jest, and people are apt to think me serious[a].”  The exercise of that privilege, which is enjoyed by every man in society, has not been allowed to him.  His fame has given importance even to trifles; and the zeal of his friends has brought every thing to light.  What should be related, and what should not, has been published without distinction:  “dicenda tacenda locuti!” Every thing that fell from him has been caught with eagerness by his admirers, who, as he says in one of his letters, have acted with the diligence of spies upon his conduct.  To some of them the following lines, in Mallet’s poem on verbal criticism, are not inapplicable: 

  “Such that grave bird in northern seas is found. 
  Whose name a Dutchman only knows to sound;
  Where’er the king of fish moves on before,
  This humble friend attends from shore to shore;
  With eye still earnest, and with bill inclined,
  He picks up what his patron drops behind,
  With those choice cates his palate to regale,
  And is the careful Tibbald of a whale.”

After so many essays and volumes of Johnsoniana, what remains for the present writer?  Perhaps, what has not been attempted; a short, yet full, a faithful, yet temperate, history of Dr. Johnson.

Samuel Johnson was born at Lichfield, September 7, 1709, O. S[b].  His father, Michael Johnson, was a bookseller in that city; a man of large, athletic make, and violent passions; wrong-headed, positive, and, at times, afflicted with a degree of melancholy, little short of madness.  His mother was sister to Dr. Ford, a practising physician, and father of Cornelius Ford, generally known by the name of parson

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Johnson derived from his parents, or from an unwholesome nurse, the distemper called the king’s evil.  The Jacobites at that time believed in the efficacy of the royal touch, and, accordingly, Mrs. Johnson presented her son, when two years old, before queen Anne, who, for the first time, performed that office, and communicated to her young patient all the healing virtue in her power[c].  He was afterwards cut for that scrophulous humour, and the under part of his face was seamed and disfigured by the operation.  It is supposed, that this disease deprived him of the sight of his left eye, and also impaired his hearing.  At eight years old, he was placed under Mr. Hawkins, at the free school in Lichfield, where he was not remarkable for diligence or regular application.  Whatever he read, his tenacious memory made his own.  In the fields, with his schoolfellows, he talked more to himself than with his companions.  In 1725, when he was about sixteen years old, he went on a visit to his cousin Cornelius Ford, who detained him for some months, and, in the mean time, assisted him in the classics.  The general direction for his studies, which he then received, he related to Mrs. Piozzi.  “Obtain,” says Ford, “some general principles of every science:  he who can talk only on one subject, or act only in one department, is seldom wanted, and, perhaps, never wished for; while the man of general knowledge can often benefit, and always please.”  This advice Johnson seems to have pursued with a good inclination.  His reading was always desultory, seldom resting on any particular author, but rambling from one book

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On Johnson’s return from Cornelius Ford, Mr. Hunter, then master of the free school at Lichfield, refused to receive him again on that foundation.  At this distance of time, what his reasons were, it is vain to inquire; but to refuse assistance to a lad of promising genius must be pronounced harsh and illiberal.  It did not, however, stop the progress of the young student’s education.  He was placed at another school, at Stourbridge in Worcestershire, under the care of Mr. Wentworth.  Having gone through the rudiments of classic literature, he returned to his father’s house, and was probably intended for the trade of a bookseller.  He has been heard to say that he could bind a book.  At the end of two years, being then about nineteen, he went to assist the studies of a young gentleman, of the name of Corbet, to the university of Oxford; and on the 31st of October, 1728, both were entered of Pembroke college; Corbet as a gentleman-commoner, and Johnson as a commoner.  The college tutor, Mr. Jordan, was a man of no genius; and Johnson, it seems, shewed an early contempt of mean abilities, in one or two instances behaving with insolence to that gentleman.  Of his general conduct at the university there are no particulars that merit attention, except the translation of Pope’s Messiah, which was a college exercise imposed upon him as a task by Mr. Jordan.  Corbet left the university in about two years, and Johnson’s salary ceased.  He was, by consequence, straitened in his circumstances; but he still remained at college.  Mr. Jordan, the tutor, went off to a living; and was succeeded by Dr. Adams, who afterwards became head of the college, and was esteemed through life for his learning, his talents, and his amiable character.  Johnson grew more regular in his attendance.  Ethics, theology, and classic literature, were his favourite studies.  He discovered, notwithstanding, early symptoms of that wandering disposition of mind, which adhered to him to the end of his life.  His reading was by fits and starts, undirected to any particular science.  General philology, agreeably to his cousin Ford’s advice, was the object of his ambition.  He received, at that time, an

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From the university, Johnson returned to Lichfield.  His father died soon after, December, 1731; and the whole receipt out of his effects, as appeared by a memorandum in the son’s handwriting, dated 15th of June, 1732, was no more than twenty pounds[d].  In this exigence, determined that poverty should neither depress his spirits nor warp his integrity, he became under-master of a grammar school at Market Bosworth, in Leicestershire.  That resource, however, did not last long.  Disgusted by the pride of sir Wolstan Dixie, the patron of that little seminary, he left the place in discontent, and ever after spoke of it with abhorrence.  In 1733, he went on a visit to Mr. Hector, who had been his schoolfellow, and was then a surgeon at Birmingham, lodging at the house of Warren, a bookseller.  At that place Johnson translated a Voyage to Abyssinia, written by Jerome Lobo, a Portuguese missionary.  This was the first literary work from the pen of Dr. Johnson.  His friend, Hector, was occasionally his amanuensis.  The work was, probably, undertaken at the desire of Warren, the bookseller, and was printed at Birmingham; but it appears, in the Literary Magazine, or history of the works of the learned, for March, 1735, that it was published by Bettesworth and Hitch, Paternoster row.  It contains a narrative of the endeavours of a company of missionaries to convert the people of Abyssinia to the church of Rome.  In the preface to this work, Johnson observes, “that the Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general view of his countrymen, has amused his readers with no romantick absurdities, or incredible fictions.  He appears, by his modest and unaffected narration, to have described things, as he saw them; to have copied nature from the life; and to have consulted his senses, not his imagination.  He meets with no basilisks, that destroy with their eyes; his crocodiles devour their prey, without tears; and his cataracts fall from the rock, without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants.  The reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness, or blessed with spontaneous fecundity; no perpetual gloom, or unceasing sunshine; nor are the nations,

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“Father Lobo, the Portuguese missionary, embarked, in 1622, in the same fleet with the count Vidigueira, who was appointed, by the king of Portugal, viceroy of the Indies.  They arrived at Goa; and, in January 1624, father Lobo set out on the mission to Abyssinia.  Two of the Jesuits, sent on the same commission, were murdered in their attempt to penetrate into that empire.  Lobo had better success; he surmounted all difficulties, and made his way into the heart of the country.  Then follows a description of Abyssinia, formerly the largest empire of which we have an account in history.  It extended from the Red sea to the kingdom of Congo, and from Egypt to the Indian sea, containing no less than forty provinces.  At the time of Lobo’s mission, it was not much larger than Spain, consisting then but of five kingdoms, of which part was entirely subject to the emperour, and part paid him a tribute, as an acknowledgment.  The provinces were inhabited by Moors, Pagans, Jews, and Christians.  The last was, in Lobo’s time, the established and reigning religion.  The diversity of people and religion is the reason why the kingdom was under different forms of government, with laws and customs extremely various.  Some of the people neither sowed their lands, nor improved them by any kind of culture, living upon milk and flesh, and, like the Arabs, encamping without any settled habitation.  In some places they practised no rites of worship, though they believed that, in the regions above, there dwells a being that governs the world.  This deity they call, in their language, Oul.  The christianity, professed by the people in some parts, is so corrupted with superstitions, errours, and heresies, and so mingled with ceremonies borrowed from the Jews, that little, besides the name of christianity, is to be found among them.  The Abyssins cannot properly be said to have either cities

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“Of the river Nile, which has furnished so much controversy, we have a full and clear description.  It is called, by the natives, Abavi, the Father of Water.  It rises in Sacala, a province of the kingdom of Goiama, the most fertile and agreeable part of the Abyssinian dominions.  On the eastern side of the country, on the declivity of a mountain, whose descent is so easy, that it seems a beautiful plain, is that source of the Nile, which has been sought after, at so much expense and labour.  This spring, or rather these two springs, are two holes, each about two feet diameter, a stone’s cast distant from each other.  One of them is about five feet and a half in depth.  Lobo was not able to sink his plummet lower, perhaps, because it was stopped by roots, the whole place being full of trees.  A line of ten feet did not reach the bottom of the other.  These springs are supposed, by the Abyssins, to be the vents of a great subterraneous lake.  At a small distance to the south, is a village called Guix, through which you ascend to the top of the mountain, where there is a little hill, which the idolatrous Agaci hold in great veneration.  Their priest calls them together to this place once a year; and every one sacrifices a cow, or more, according to the different degrees of wealth and devotion.  Hence we have sufficient proof, that these nations always paid adoration to the deity of this famous river.

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“As to the course of the Nile, its waters, after their first rise, run towards the east, about the length of a musket-shot; then, turning northward, continue hidden in the grass and weeds for about a quarter of a league, when they reappear amongst a quantity of rocks.  The Nile, from its source, proceeds with so inconsiderable a current that it is in danger of being dried up by the hot season; but soon receiving an increase from the Gemma, the Keltu, the Bransa, and the other smaller rivers, it expands to such a breadth in the plains of Boad, which is not above three days’ journey from its source, that a musket-ball will scarcely fly from one bank to the other.  Here it begins to run northward, winding, however, a little to the east, for the space of nine or ten leagues, and then enters the so-much-talked-of lake of Dambia, flowing with such violent rapidity, that its waters may be distinguished through the whole passage, which is no less than six leagues.  Here begins the greatness of the Nile.  Fifteen miles farther, in the land of Alata, it rushes precipitately from the top of a high rock, and forms one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world.  Lobo says, he passed under it without being wet, and resting himself, for the sake of the coolness, was charmed with a thousand delightful rainbows, which the sunbeams painted on the water, in all their shining and lively colours[e].  The fall of this mighty stream, from so great a height, makes a noise that may be heard at a considerable distance:  but it was not found, that the neighbouring inhabitants were deaf.  After the cataract, the Nile collects its scattered stream among the rocks, which are so near each other, that, in Lobo’s time, a bridge of beams, on which the whole imperial army passed, was laid over them.  Sultan Sequed has since built a stone bridge of one arch, in the same place, for which purpose he procured masons from India.  Here the river alters its course, and passes through various kingdoms, such as Amhara, Olaca, Choaa, Damot, and the kingdom of Goiama, and, after various windings, returns within a short day’s journey of its spring.  To pursue it through all its mazes, and accompany it round the kingdom of Goiama, is a journey of twenty-nine days.  From Abyssinia, the river passes into the countries of Fazulo and Ombarca, two vast regions little known, inhabited by nations entirely different from the Abyssins.  Their hair, like that of the other blacks in those regions, is short and curled.  In the year 1615, Rassela Christos, lieutenant-general to sultan Sequed, entered those kingdoms in a hostile manner; but, not being able to get intelligence, returned without attempting any thing.  As the empire of Abyssinia terminates at these descents, Lobo followed the course of the Nile no farther, leaving it to rage over barbarous kingdoms, and convey wealth and plenty into Aegypt, which owes to the annual inundations of this river its envied fertility[f].  Lobo knows nothing of

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“As to the causes of the inundations of the Nile, Lobo observes, that many an idle hypothesis has been framed.  Some theorists ascribe it to the high winds, that stop the current, and force the water above its banks.  Others pretend a subterraneous communication between the ocean and the Nile, and that the sea, when violently agitated, swells the river.  Many are of opinion, that this mighty flood proceeds from the melting of the snow on the mountains of Aethiopia; but so much snow and such prodigious heat are never met with in the same region.  Lobo never saw snow in Abyssinia, except on mount Semen, in the kingdom of Tigre, very remote from the Nile; and on Namara, which is, indeed, nor far distant, but where there never falls snow enough to wet, when dissolved, the foot of the mountain.  To the immense labours of the Portuguese mankind is indebted for the knowledge of the real cause of these inundations, so great and so regular.  By them we are informed, that Abyssinia, where the Nile rises, is full of mountains, and, in its natural situation, is much higher than Aegypt; that in the winter, from June to September, no day is without rain; that the Nile receives in its course, all the rivers, brooks, and torrents, that fall from those mountains, and, by necessary consequence, swelling above its banks, fills the plains of Aegypt with inundations, which come regularly about the month of July, or three weeks after the beginning of the rainy season in Aethiopia.  The different degrees of this flood are such certain indications of the fruitfulness or sterility of the ensuing year, that it is publickly proclaimed at Cairo how much the water hath gained during the night.”

Such is the account of the Nile and its inundations, which, it is hoped, will not be deemed an improper or tedious digression, especially as the whole is an extract from Johnson’s translation.  He is, all the time, the actor in the scene, and, in his own words, relates the story.  Having finished this work, he returned in February, 1734, to his native city; and, in the month of August following, published proposals for printing, by subscription, the Latin poems of Politian, with the history of Latin poetry, from the aera of Petrarch to the time of Politian; and also the life of Politian, to be added by the editor, Samuel Johnson.  The book to be printed

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The undertaking proved abortive.  Johnson, having now abandoned all hopes of promoting his fortune in the country, determined to become an adventurer in the world at large.  His young pupil, Garrick, had formed the same resolution; and, accordingly, in March, 1737, they arrived in London together.  Two such candidates for fame, perhaps never, before that day, entered the metropolis together.  Their stock of money was soon exhausted.  In his visionary project of an academy, Johnson had probably wasted his wife’s substance; and Garrick’s father had little more than his half-pay.—­The two fellow-travellers had the world before them, and each was to choose his road to fortune and to fame.  They brought with them genius, and powers of mind, peculiarly formed by nature for the different vocations to which each of them felt himself inclined.  They acted from the impulse of young minds, even then meditating great things, and with courage anticipating success.  Their friend, Mr. Walmsley, by a letter to the reverend Mr. Colson, who, it seems, was a great mathematician, exerted his good offices in their favour.  He gave notice of their intended journey:  “Davy Garrick,” he said, “will be with you next week; and Johnson, to try his fate with a tragedy, and to get himself employed in some translation, either from the Latin or French.  Johnson is a very good scholar and a poet, and, I have great hopes, will turn out a fine tragedy-writer.  If it should be in your way, I doubt not but you will be ready to recommend and assist your countrymen.”  Of Mr. Walmsley’s merit, and the excellence of his character, Johnson has left a beautiful testimonial at the end of the life of Edmund Smith.  It is reasonable to conclude, that a mathematician, absorbed in abstract speculations, was not able to find a sphere of action for two men, who were to be the architects of their own fortune.  In three or four years afterwards, Garrick came forth with talents that astonished the public.  He began his career at Goodman’s fields, and there, “monstratus fatis Vespasianus!” he chose a lucrative profession, and, consequently, soon emerged from all his difficulties.  Johnson was left to toil in the humble walks of literature.  A tragedy, as appears by Walmsley’s letter, was the whole of his stock.  This, most probably, was Irene; but, if then finished, it was doomed to wait for a more happy period.  It was offered to Fleetwood, and rejected.  Johnson looked round him for employment.  Having, while he remained in the country, corresponded with Cave, under a feigned name, he now thought it time to make himself known to a man, whom he considered as a patron of literature.  Cave had announced, by public advertisement, a prize of fifty pounds for the best poem on life, death, judgment, heaven, and hell; and this circumstance diffused an idea of his liberality.  Johnson became connected with him in business, and in a close and intimate acquaintance.  Of Cave’s character it is unnecessary to say any thing in this place, as Johnson

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Page 13

  “Though grief and fondness in my breast rebel,
  When injur’d Thales bids the town farewell;
  Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend;
  I praise the hermit, but regret the friend: 
  Resolv’d, at length, from vice and London far,
  To breathe, in distant fields, a purer air;
  And, fix’d on Cambria’s solitary shore,
  Give to St. David one true Briton more.”

Johnson, at that time, lodged at Greenwich.  He there fixes the scene, and takes leave of his friend; who, he says in his life, parted from him with tears in his eyes.  The poem, when finished, was offered to Cave.  It happened, however, that the late Mr. Dodsley was the purchaser, at the price of ten guineas.  It was published in 1738; and Pope, we are told, said, “The author, whoever he is, will not be long concealed;” alluding to the passage in Terence, “Ubi, ubi est, diu celari non potest.”  Notwithstanding that prediction, it does not appear that, besides the copy-money, any advantage accrued to the author of a poem, written with the elegance and energy of Pope.  Johnson, in August, 1738, went, with all the fame of his poetry, to offer himself a candidate for the mastership of the school at Appleby, in Leicestershire.  The statutes of the place required, that the person chosen should be a master of arts.  To remove this objection, the then lord Gower was induced to write to a friend, in order to obtain for Johnson a master’s degree in the university of Dublin, by the recommendation of Dr. Swift.  The letter was printed in one of the magazines, and was as follows: 

Sir,—­Mr. Samuel Johnson, author of London, a satire, and some other poetical pieces, is a native of this county, and much respected by some worthy gentlemen in the neighbourhood, who are trustees of a charity-school, now vacant; the certain salary of which is sixty pounds per year, of which they are desirous to make him master; but, unfortunately, he is not capable of receiving their bounty, which would make him happy for life, by not being a master of arts, which, by the statutes of the school, the master of it must be.

Now these gentlemen do me the honour to think, that I have interest enough in you, to prevail upon you to write to dean Swift, to persuade the university of Dublin to send a diploma to me, constituting this poor man master of arts in their university.  They highly extol the man’s learning and probity; and will not be persuaded, that the university will make any difficulty of conferring such a favour upon a stranger, if he is recommended by the dean.  They say, he is not afraid of the strictest examination, though he is of so long a journey; and yet he will venture it, if the dean thinks it necessary, choosing rather to die upon the road, than to be starved to death in translating for booksellers, which has been his only subsistence for some time past.

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I fear there is more difficulty in this affair than these good-natured gentlemen apprehend, especially as their election cannot be delayed longer than the eleventh of next month.  If you see this matter in the same light that it appears to me, I hope you will burn this, and pardon me for giving you so much trouble about an impracticable thing; but, if you think there is a probability of obtaining the favour asked, I am sure your humanity and propensity to relieve merit, in distress, will incline you to serve the poor man, without my adding any more to the trouble I have already given you, than assuring you, that I am, with great truth, sir,

Your faithful humble servant,

Trentham, Aug. 1st.  Gower.

This scheme miscarried.  There is reason to think, that Swift declined to meddle in the business; and, to that circumstance, Johnson’s known dislike of Swift has been often imputed.

It is mortifying to pursue a man of merit through all his difficulties; and yet this narrative must be, through many following years, the history of genius and virtue struggling with adversity.  Having lost the school at Appleby, Johnson was thrown back on the metropolis.  Bred to no profession, without relations, friends, or interest, he was condemned to drudgery in the service of Cave, his only patron.  In November, 1738, was published a translation of Crousaz’s Examen of Pope’s Essay on Man; containing a succinct view of the system of the fatalists, and a confutation of their opinions; with an illustration of the doctrine of free will; and an enquiry, what view Mr. Pope might have in touching upon the Leibnitzian philosophy, and fatalism:  by Mr. Crousaz, professor of philosophy and mathematics at Lausanne.  This translation has been generally thought a production of Johnson’s pen; but it is now known, that Mrs. Elizabeth Carter has acknowledged it to be one of her early performances.  It is certain, however, that Johnson was eager to promote the publication.  He considered the foreign philosopher as a man zealous in the cause of religion; and with him he was willing to join against the system of the fatalists, and the doctrine of Leibnitz.  It is well known, that Warburton wrote a vindication of Mr. Pope; but there is reason to think, that Johnson conceived an early prejudice against the Essay on Man; and what once took root in a mind like his, was not easily eradicated.  His letter to Cave on this subject is still extant, and may well justify sir John Hawkins, who inferred that Johnson was the translator of Crousaz.  The conclusion of the letter is remarkable:  “I am yours, Impransus.”  If by that Latin word was meant, that he had not dined, because he wanted the means, who can read it, even at this hour, without an aching heart?

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With a mind naturally vigorous, and quickened by necessity, Johnson formed a multiplicity of projects; but most of them proved abortive.  A number of small tracts issued from his pen with wonderful rapidity; such as Marmor Norfolciense; or an essay on an ancient prophetical inscription, in monkish rhyme, discovered at Lynn, in Norfolk.  By Probus Britannicus.  This was a pamphlet against sir Robert Walpole.  According to sir John Hawkins, a warrant was issued to apprehend the author, who retired, with his wife, to an obscure lodging near Lambeth marsh, and there eluded the search of the messengers.  But this story has no foundation in truth.  Johnson was never known to mention such an incident in his life; and Mr. Steele, late of the treasury, caused diligent search to be made at the proper offices, and no trace of such a proceeding could be found.  In the same year (1739) the lord chamberlain prohibited the representation of a tragedy, called Gustavus Vasa, by Henry Brooke.  Under the mask of irony, Johnson published, A Vindication of the Licenser from the malicious and scandalous Aspersions of Mr. Brooke.  Of these two pieces, sir John Hawkins says, “they have neither learning nor wit; nor a single ray of that genius, which has since blazed forth;” but, as they have been lately reprinted, the reader, who wishes to gratify his curiosity, is referred to the fourteenth volume of Johnson’s works, published by Stockdale[h].  The lives of Boerhaave, Blake, Barratier, father Paul, and others, were, about that time, printed in the Gentleman’s Magazine.  The subscription of fifty pounds a year for Savage was completed; and, in July 1739, Johnson parted with the companion of his midnight hours, never to see him more.  The separation was, perhaps, an advantage to him, who wanted to make a right use of his time, and even then beheld, with self-reproach, the waste occasioned by dissipation.  His abstinence from wine and strong liquors began soon after the departure of Savage.  What habits he contracted in the course of that acquaintance cannot now be known.  The ambition of excelling in conversation, and that pride of victory, which, at times, disgraced a man of Johnson’s genius, were, perhaps, native blemishes.  A fierce spirit of independence, even in the midst of poverty, may be seen in Savage; and, if not thence transfused by Johnson into his own manners, it may, at least, be supposed to have gained strength from the example before him.  During that connexion, there was, if we believe sir John Hawkins, a short separation between our author and his wife; but a reconciliation soon took place.  Johnson loved her, and showed his affection in various modes of gallantry, which Garrick used to render ridiculous by his mimicry.  The affectation of soft and fashionable airs did not become an unwieldy figure:  his admiration was received by the wife with the flutter of an antiquated coquette; and both, it is well known, furnished matter for the lively genius of Garrick.

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It is a mortifying reflection, that Johnson, with a store of learning and extraordinary talents, was not able, at the age of thirty, to force his way to the favour of the public: 

  “Slow rises worth by poverty depress’d.”

“He was still,” as he says himself, “to provide for the day that was passing over him.”  He saw Cave involved in a state of warfare with the numerous competitors, at that time, struggling with the Gentleman’s Magazine; and gratitude for such supplies as Johnson received, dictated a Latin ode on the subject of that contention.  The first lines,

  “Urbane, nullis fesse laboribus,
  Urbane, nullis victe calumniis,”

put one in mind of Casimir’s ode to Pope Urban: 

  “Urbane, regum maxime, maxime
  Urbane vatum.”—­

The Polish poet was, probably, at that time, in the hands of a man, who had meditated the history of the Latin poets.  Guthrie, the historian, had, from July, 1736, composed the parliamentary speeches for the magazine; but, from the beginning of the session, which opened on the 19th of November, 1740, Johnson succeeded to that department, and continued it from that time to the debate on spirituous liquors, which happened in the house of lords, in February, 1742-3.  The eloquence, the force of argument, and the splendor of language, displayed in the several speeches, are well known, and universally admired.  That Johnson was the author of the debates, during that period, was not generally known; but the secret transpired several years afterwards, and was avowed, by himself, on the following occasion.  Mr. Wedderburne, now lord Loughborough[i], Dr. Johnson, Dr. Francis, the translator of Horace, the present writer, and others, dined with the late Mr. Foote.  An important debate, towards the end of sir Robert Walpole’s administration, being mentioned, Dr. Francis observed, “that Mr. Pitt’s speech, on that occasion, was the best he had ever read.”  He added, “that he had employed eight years of his life in the study of Demosthenes, and finished a translation of that celebrated orator, with all the decorations of style and language within the reach of his capacity; but he had met with nothing equal to the speech above mentioned.”  Many of the company remembered the debate, and some passages were cited, with the approbation and applause of all present.  During the ardour of conversation, Johnson remained silent.  As soon as the warmth of praise subsided, he opened with these words:  “That speech I wrote in a garret in Exeter street.”  The company was struck with astonishment.  After staring at each other in silent amaze, Dr. Francis asked, “how that speech could be written by him?” “Sir,” said Johnson, “I wrote it in Exeter street.  I never had been in the gallery of the house of commons but once.  Cave had interest with the door-keepers.  He, and the persons employed under him, gained admittance; they brought away the subject of discussion, the names

Page 17

In 1743-4, Osborne, the bookseller, who kept a shop in Gray’s inn, purchased the earl of Oxford’s library, at the price of thirteen thousand pounds.  He projected a catalogue in five octavo volumes, at five shillings each.  Johnson was employed in that painful drudgery.  He was, likewise, to collect all such small tracts as were, in any degree, worth preserving, in order to reprint and publish the whole in a collection, called The Harleian Miscellany.  The catalogue was completed; and the miscellany, in 1749, was published in eight quarto volumes.  In this business Johnson was a day-labourer for immediate subsistence, not unlike Gustavus Vasa, working in the mines of Dalecarlia.  What Wilcox, a bookseller of eminence in the Strand, said to Johnson, on his first arrival in town, was now almost confirmed.  He lent our author five guineas, and then asked him, “How do you mean to earn your livelihood in this town?” “By my literary labours,” was the answer.  Wilcox, staring at him, shook his head:  “By your literary labours!  You had better buy a porter’s knot.”  Johnson used to tell this anecdote to Mr. Nichols:  but he said, “Wilcox was one of my best friends, and he meant well.”  In fact, Johnson, while employed in Gray’s inn, may be said to have carried a porter’s knot.  He paused occasionally to peruse the book that came to his hand.  Osborne thought that such curiosity tended to nothing but delay, and objected to it with all the pride and insolence of a man who knew that he paid daily wages.  In the dispute that of course ensued, Osborne, with that roughness which was natural to him, enforced his argument by giving the lie.  Johnson seized a folio, and knocked the bookseller down.  This story has been related as an instance of Johnson’s ferocity; but merit cannot always take the spurns of the unworthy with a patient spirit[k].

Page 18

That the history of an author must be found in his works is, in general, a true observation; and was never more apparent than in the present narrative.  Every aera of Johnson’s life is fixed by his writings.  In 1744, he published the life of Savage; and then projected a new edition of Shakespeare.  As a prelude to that design, he published, in 1745, Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with remarks on sir Thomas Hanmer’s edition; to which were prefixed, Proposals for a new Edition of Shakespeare, with a specimen.  Of this pamphlet, Warburton, in the preface to Shakespeare, has given his opinion:  “As to all those things, which have been published under the title of essays, remarks, observations, &c. on Shakespeare, if you except some critical notes on Macbeth, given as a specimen of a projected edition, and written, as appears, by a man of parts and genius, the rest are absolutely below a serious notice.”  But the attention of the public was not excited; there was no friend to promote a subscription; and the project died to revive at a future day.  A new undertaking, however, was soon after proposed; namely, an English dictionary upon an enlarged plan.  Several of the most opulent booksellers had meditated a work of this kind; and the agreement was soon adjusted between the parties.  Emboldened by this connexion, Johnson thought of a better habitation than he had hitherto known.  He had lodged with his wife in courts and alleys about the Strand; but now, for the purpose of carrying on his arduous undertaking, and to be nearer his printer and friend, Mr. Strahan, he ventured to take a house in Gough square, Fleet street.  He was told, that the earl of Chesterfield was a friend to his undertaking; and, in consequence of that intelligence, he published, in 1747, The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language, addressed to the right honourable Philip Dormer, earl of Chesterfield, one of his majesty’s principal secretaries of state.  Mr. Whitehead, afterwards poet laureate, undertook to convey the manuscript to his lordship:  the consequence was an invitation from lord Chesterfield to the author.  A stronger contrast of characters could not be brought together; the nobleman, celebrated for his wit, and all the graces of polite behaviour; the author, conscious of his own merit, towering in idea above all competition, versed in scholastic logic, but a stranger to the arts of polite conversation, uncouth, vehement, and vociferous.  The coalition was too unnatural.  Johnson expected a Maecenas, and was disappointed.  No patronage, no assistance followed.  Visits were repeated; but the reception was not cordial.  Johnson, one day, was left a full hour, waiting in an antichamber, till a gentleman should retire, and leave his lordship at leisure.  This was the famous Colley Cibber.  Johnson saw him go, and, fired with indignation, rushed out of the house[l].  What lord Chesterfield thought of his visitor may be seen in a passage in one of that nobleman’s

Page 19

In the course of the year 1747, Garrick, in conjunction with Lacy, became patentee of Drury lane playhouse.  For the opening of the theatre, at the usual time, Johnson wrote, for his friend, the well-known prologue, which, to say no more of it, may, at least, be placed on a level with Pope’s to the tragedy of Cato.  The playhouse being now under Garrick’s direction, Johnson thought the opportunity fair to think of his tragedy of Irene, which was his whole stock on his first arrival in town, in the year 1737.  That play was, accordingly, put into rehearsal in January, 1749.  As a precursor to prepare the way, and to awaken the public attention, The Vanity of human Wishes, a poem in imitation of the tenth satire of Juvenal, by the author of London, was published in the same month.  In the Gentleman’s Magazine, for February, 1749, we find that the tragedy of Irene was acted at Drury lane, on Monday, February the 6th, and, from that time, without interruption, to Monday, February the 20th, being in all thirteen nights.  Since that time, it has not been exhibited on any stage.  Irene may be added to some other plays in our language, which have lost their place in the theatre, but continue to please in the closet.  During the representation of this piece, Johnson attended every night behind the scenes.  Conceiving that his character, as an author, required some ornament for his person, he chose, upon that occasion, to decorate himself with a handsome waistcoat, and a gold-laced hat.  The late Mr. Topham Beauclerc, who had a great deal of that humour, which pleases the more

Page 20

There may, perhaps, be a degree of sameness in this regular way of tracing an author from one work to another, and the reader may feel the effect of a tedious monotony; but, in the life of Johnson, there are no other landmarks.  He was now forty years old, and had mixed but little with the world.  He followed no profession, transacted no business, and was a stranger to what is called a town life.  We are now arrived at the brightest period, he had hitherto known.  His name broke out upon mankind with a degree of lustre that promised a triumph over all his difficulties.  The life of Savage was admired, as a beautiful and instructive piece of biography.  The two imitations of Juvenal were thought to rival even the excellence of Pope; and the tragedy of Irene, though uninteresting on the stage, was universally admired in the closet, for the propriety of the sentiments, the richness of the language, and the general harmony of the whole composition.  His fame was widely diffused; and he had made his agreement with the booksellers for his English dictionary at the sum of fifteen hundred guineas; a part of which was to be, from time to time, advanced, in proportion to the progress of the work.  This was a certain fund for his support, without being obliged to write fugitive pieces for the petty supplies of the day.  Accordingly we find that, in 1749, he established a club, consisting of ten in number, at Horseman’s, in Ivy lane, on every Tuesday evening.  This is the first scene of social life to which Johnson can be traced, out of his own house.  The members of this little society were, Samuel Johnson; Dr. Salter, father of the late master of the Charter house; Dr. Hawkesworth; Mr. Ryland, a merchant; Mr. Payne, a bookseller, in Paternoster row; Mr. Samuel Dyer, a learned young man; Dr. William M’Ghie, a Scotch physician; Dr. Edmund Barker, a young physician; Dr. Bathurst, another young physician; and sir John Hawkins.  This list is given by sir John, as it should seem, with no other view than to draw a spiteful and malevolent character of almost every one of them.  Mr. Dyer, whom sir John says he loved with the affection of a brother, meets with the harshest treatment, because

Page 21

Having invoked the special protection of heaven, and by that act of piety fortified his mind, he began the great work of the Rambler.  The first number was published on Tuesday, March the 20th, 1750; and from that time was continued regularly every Tuesday and Saturday, for the space of two years, when it finally closed on Saturday, March 14, 1752.  As it began with motives of piety, so it appears that the same religious spirit glowed, with unabating ardour, to the last.  His conclusion is:  “The essays professedly serious, if I have been able to execute my own intentions, will be found exactly conformable to the precepts of christianity, without any accommodation to the licentiousness and levity of the present age.  I, therefore, look back on this part of my work with pleasure, which no man shall diminish or augment.  I shall never envy the honours which wit and learning obtain in any other cause, if I can be numbered among the writers who have given ardour to virtue, and confidence to truth.”  The whole number of essays amounted to two hundred and eight.  Addison’s, in the Spectator, are more in number, but not half in point of quantity:  Addison was not bound to publish on stated days; he could watch the ebb and flow of

Page 22

In the beginning of 1750, soon after the Rambler was set on foot, Johnson was induced, by the arts of a vile impostor, to lend his assistance, during a temporary delusion, to a fraud not to be paralleled in the annals of literature[o].  One Lauder, a native of Scotland, who had been a teacher in the university of Edinburgh, had conceived a mortal antipathy to the name and character of Milton.  His reason was, because the prayer of Pamela, in sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, was, as he supposed, maliciously inserted by the great poet in an edition of the Eikon Basilike, in order to fix an imputation of impiety on the memory of the murdered king.  Fired with resentment, and willing to reap the profits of a gross imposition, this man collected, from several Latin poets, such as Masenius the jesuit, Staphorstius, a Dutch divine, Beza, and others, all such passages as bore any kind of resemblance to different places in the Paradise Lost; and these he published, from time to time, in the Gentleman’s Magazine, with occasional interpolations of lines, which he himself translated from Milton.  The public credulity swallowed all with eagerness; and Milton was supposed to be guilty of plagiarism from inferior modern writers.  The fraud succeeded so well, that Lauder collected the whole into a volume, and advertised it under the title of An Essay on Milton’s Use and Imitation of the Moderns, in his Paradise Lost; dedicated to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.  While the book was in the press, the proof-sheets were shown to Johnson, at the Ivy lane club, by Payne, the bookseller, who was one of the members.  No man in that society was in possession of the authors from whom Lauder professed to make his extracts.  The charge was believed, and the

Page 23

Page 24

—­“Diram qui contudit Hydram
  Notaque fatali portenta labore subegit.”

But the pamphlet, entitled, Milton vindicated from the Charge of Plagiarism brought against him by Mr. Lauder, and Lauder himself convicted of several forgeries, and gross impositions on the public, by John Douglas, M.A. rector of Eaton Constantine, Salop, was not published till the year 1751.  In that work, p. 77, Dr. Douglas says, “It is to be hoped, nay, it is expected, that the elegant and nervous writer, whose judicious sentiments, and inimitable style, point out the author of Lauder’s preface and postcript, will no longer allow a man to plume himself with his feathers, who appears so little to have deserved his assistance; an assistance which, I am persuaded, would never have been communicated, had there been the least suspicion of those facts, which I have been the instrument of conveying to the world.”  We have here a contemporary testimony to the integrity of Dr. Johnson, throughout the whole of that vile transaction. 

Page 25

In March, 1752, he felt a severe stroke of affliction in the death of his wife.  The last number of the Rambler, as already mentioned, was on the 14th of that month.  The loss of Mrs. Johnson was then approaching, and, probably, was the cause that put an end to those admirable periodical essays.  It appears that she died on the 28th of March, in a memorandum, at the foot of the Prayers and Meditations, that is called her Dying Day.  She was buried at Bromley, under the care of Dr. Hawkesworth.  Johnson placed a Latin inscription on her tomb, in which he celebrated her beauty.  With the singularity of his prayers for his deceased wife, from that time to the end of his days, the world is sufficiently acquainted.  On Easter day, 22nd April, 1764, his memorandum says:  “Thought on Tetty, poor dear Tetty! with my eyes full.  Went to church.  After sermon I recommended Tetty in a prayer by herself; and my father, mother, brother, and Bathurst, in another.  I did it only once, so far as it might be lawful for me.”  In a prayer, January 23, 1759, the day on which his mother was buried, he commends, as far as may be lawful, her soul to God, imploring for her whatever is most beneficial to her in her present state.  In this habit he persevered to the end of his days.  The reverend Mr. Strahan, the editor of the Prayers and Meditations, observes, “that Johnson, on some occasions, prays that the Almighty may have had mercy on his wife and Mr. Thrale; evidently supposing their sentence to have been already

Page 26

  “Shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it.”

Mrs. Johnson left a daughter, Lucy Porter, by her first husband.  She had contracted a friendship with Mrs. Anne Williams, the daughter of Zachary Williams, a physician of eminence in South Wales, who had devoted more than thirty years of a long life to the study of the longitude, and was thought to have made great advances towards that important discovery.  His letters to lord Halifax, and the lords of the admiralty, partly corrected and partly written by Dr. Johnson, are still extant in the hands of Mr. Nichols[q].  We there find Dr. Williams, in the eighty-third year of his age, stating, that he had prepared an instrument, which might be called an epitome or miniature of the terraqueous globe, showing, with the assistance of tables, constructed by himself, the variations of

Page 27

During the two years in which the Rambler was carried on, the Dictionary proceeded by slow degrees.  In May, 1752, having composed a prayer, preparatory to his return from tears and sorrow to the duties of life, he resumed his grand design, and went on with vigour, giving, however, occasional assistance to his friend, Dr. Hawkesworth, in the Adventurer, which began soon after the Rambler was laid aside.  Some of the most valuable essays in that collection were from the pen of Johnson.  The Dictionary was completed towards the end of 1754; and, Cave being then no more, it was a mortification to the author of that noble addition to our language, that his old friend did not live to see the triumph of his labours.  In May, 1755, that great work was published.  Johnson was desirous that it should come from one who had obtained academical honours; and for that purpose his friend, the rev.  Thos.  Warton, obtained for him, in the preceding month of February, a diploma for a master’s degree, from the university of Oxford.—­Garrick, on the publication of the Dictionary, wrote the following lines: 

  “Talk of war with a Briton, he’ll boldly advance,
  That one English soldier can beat ten of France. 
  Would we alter the boast, from the sword to the pen,
  Our odds are still greater, still greater our men. 
  In the deep mines of science, though Frenchmen may toil,
  Can their strength be compar’d to Locke, Newton, or Boyle? 
  Let them rally their heroes, send forth all their powers,
  Their versemen and prosemen, then match them with ours. 
  First Shakespeare and Milton, like gods in the fight,
  Have put their whole drama and epic to flight. 
  In satires, epistles, and odes would they cope? 
  Their numbers retreat before Dryden and Pope. 
  And Johnson, well arm’d, like a hero of yore,
  Has beat forty French, and will beat forty more.”

Page 28

It is, perhaps, needless to mention, that forty was the number of the French academy, at the time when their dictionary was published to settle their language.

In the course of the winter, preceding this grand publication, the late earl of Chesterfield gave two essays in the periodical paper, called The World, dated November 28, and December 5, 1754, to prepare the public for so important a work.  The original plan, addressed to his lordship in the year 1747, is there mentioned, in terms of the highest praise; and this was understood, at the time, to be a courtly way of soliciting a dedication of the Dictionary to himself.  Johnson treated this civility with disdain.  He said to Garrick and others:  “I have sailed a long and painful voyage round the world of the English language; and does he now send out two cockboats to tow me into harbour?” He had said, in the last number of the Rambler, “that, having laboured to maintain the dignity of virtue, I will not now degrade it by the meanness of dedication.”  Such a man, when he had finished his Dictionary, “not,” as he says himself, “in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow, and without the patronage of the great,” was not likely to be caught by the lure, thrown out by lord Chesterfield.  He had, in vain, sought the patronage of that nobleman; and his pride, exasperated by disappointment, drew from him the following letter, dated in the month of February, 1755.

  “To the right honourable the earl of Chesterfield.

My lord,—­I have been lately informed, by the proprietors of The World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the publick, were written by your lordship.  To be so distinguished is an honour which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.

When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address, and could not forbear to wish, that I might boast myself “le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre;” that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending.  But I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it.  When I had once addressed your lordship in publick, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing, which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess.  I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

Seven years, my lord, have now passed, since I waited in your outward room, or was repulsed from your door; during which time, I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour.  Such treatment I did not expect; for I never had a patron before.

  The shepherd in Virgil grew acquainted with love, and found him a
  native of the rocks.

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Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?  The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed, till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.  I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations, where no benefit has been received; or to be unwilling that the publick should consider me as owing that to a patron, which providence has enabled me to do for myself.

Having carried on my work, thus far, with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed, though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself, with so much exultation,

    My lord,
      your lordship’s most humble
        and most obedient servant,
          Samuel Johnson.”

It is said, upon good authority, that Johnson once received from lord Chesterfield the sum of ten pounds.  It were to be wished that the secret had never transpired.  It was mean to receive it, and meaner to give it.  It may be imagined, that for Johnson’s ferocity, as it has been called, there was some foundation in his finances; and, as his Dictionary was brought to a conclusion, that money was now to flow in upon him.  The reverse was the case.  For his subsistence, during the progress of the work, he had received, at different times, the amount of his contract; and, when his receipts were produced to him at a tavern dinner, given by the booksellers, it appeared, that he had been paid a hundred pounds and upwards more than his due.  The author of a book, called Lexiphanes[s], written by a Mr. Campbell, a Scotchman, and purser of a man of war, endeavoured to blast his laurels, but in vain.  The world applauded, and Johnson never replied.  “Abuse,” he said, “is often of service:  there is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence; his name, like a shittlecock [Transcriber’s note:  sic], must be beat backward and forward, or it falls to the ground.”  Lexiphanes professed to be an imitation of the pleasant manner of Lucian; but humour was not the talent of the writer of Lexiphanes.  As Dryden says, “he had too much horse-play in his raillery.”

It was in the summer, 1754, that the present writer became acquainted with Dr. Johnson.  The cause of his first visit is related by Mrs. Piozzi, nearly in the following manner:—­Mr. Murphy being engaged in a periodical paper, the Gray’s inn Journal, was at a friend’s house in the country, and, not being disposed to lose pleasure for business, wished to content his bookseller by some unstudied essay.  He, therefore, took up a French Journal Litteraire, and, translating something he liked, sent

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  Know yourself. 
  (After revising and enlarging the English lexicon, or dictionary.)

  When Scaliger, whole years of labour past,
  Beheld his lexicon complete at last,
  And weary of his task, with wond’ring eyes,
  Saw, from words pil’d on words, a fabric rise,
  He curs’d the industry, inertly strong,
  In creeping toil that could persist so long;
  And if, enrag’d he cried, heav’n meant to shed
  Its keenest vengeance on the guilty head,
  The drudgery of words the damn’d would know,
  Doom’d to write lexicons in endless woe[t].

  Yes, you had cause, great genius, to repent;
  “You lost good days, that might be better spent;”
  You well might grudge the hours of ling’ring pain,
  And view your learned labours with disdain. 
  To you were given the large expanded mind,
  The flame of genius, and the taste refin’d. 
  ’Twas yours, on eagle wings, aloft to soar,
  And, amidst rolling worlds, the great first cause explore,
  To fix the aeras of recorded time,
  And live in ev’ry age and ev’ry clime;
  Record the chiefs, who propt their country’s cause;
  Who founded empires, and establish’d laws;
  To learn whate’er the sage, with virtue fraught,
  Whate’er the muse of moral wisdom taught. 
  These were your quarry; these to you were known,
  And the world’s ample volume was your own.

    Yet, warn’d by me, ye pigmy wits, beware,
  Nor with immortal Scaliger compare. 
  For me, though his example strike my view,
  Oh! not for me his footsteps to pursue. 
  Whether first nature, unpropitious, cold,
  This clay compounded in a ruder mould;
  Or the slow current, loit’ring at my heart,
  No gleam of wit or fancy can impart;
  Whate’er the cause, from me no numbers flow,
  No visions warm me, and no raptures glow. 
  A mind like Scaliger’s, superior still,
  No grief could conquer, no misfortune chill. 
  Though, for the maze of words, his native skies
  He seem’d to quit, ’twas but again to rise;
  To mount, once more, to the bright source of day,
  And view the wonders of th’ ethereal way. 
  The love of fame his gen’rous bosom fir’d;
  Each science hail’d him, and each muse inspir’d. 
  For him the sons of learning trimm’d the bays,
  And nations grew harmonious in his praise.

    My task perform’d, and all my labours o’er,
  For me what lot has fortune now in store? 
  The listless will succeeds, that worst disease,
  The rack of indolence, the sluggish ease. 
  Care grows on care, and o’er my aching brain
  Black melancholy pours her morbid train. 
  No kind relief, no lenitive at hand,
  I seek, at midnight clubs, the social band;
  But midnight clubs, where wit with noise conspires,
  Where Comus revels, and where wine inspires,

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    What then remains?  Must I, in slow decline,
  To mute inglorious ease old age resign? 
  Or, bold ambition kindling in my breast,
  Attempt some arduous task?  Or, were it best,
  Brooding o’er lexicons to pass the day,
  And in that labour drudge my life away?

Such is the picture for which Dr. Johnson sat to himself.  He gives the prominent features of his character; his lassitude, his morbid melancholy, his love of fame, his dejection, his tavern-parties, and his wandering reveries, “Vacuae mala somnia mentis,” about which so much has been written; all are painted in miniature, but in vivid colours, by his own hand.  His idea of writing more dictionaries was not merely said in verse.  Mr. Hamilton, who was at that time an eminent printer, and well acquainted with Dr. Johnson, remembers that he engaged in a Commercial Dictionary, and, as appears by the receipts in his possession, was paid his price for several sheets; but he soon relinquished the undertaking.  It is probable, that he found himself not sufficiently versed in that branch of knowledge.

He was again reduced to the expedient of short compositions, for the supply of the day.  The writer of this narrative has now before him a letter, in Dr. Johnson’s handwriting, which shows the distress and melancholy situation of the man, who had written the Rambler, and finished the great work of his Dictionary.  The letter is directed to Mr. Richardson, the author of Clarissa, and is as follows: 

“Sir,—­I am obliged to entreat your assistance.  I am now under an arrest for five pounds eighteen shillings.  Mr. Strahan, from whom I should have received the necessary help in this case, is not at home; and I am afraid of not finding Mr. Millar.  If you will be so good as to send me this sum, I will very gratefully repay you, and add it to all former obligations.  I am, sir,

  Your most obedient,

Page 33

  and most humble servant,

  Samuel Johnson.

  Gough square, 16 March.”

In the margin of this letter, there is a memorandum in these words:  “March 16, 1756, sent six guineas.  Witness, Wm. Richardson.”  For the honour of an admired writer it is to be regretted, that we do not find a more liberal entry.  To his friend, in distress, he sent eight shillings more than was wanted.  Had an incident of this kind occurred in one of his romances, Richardson would have known how to grace his hero; but in fictitious scenes, generosity costs the writer nothing.

About this time Johnson contributed several papers to a periodical miscellany, called The Visiter, from motives which are highly honourable to him, a compassionate regard for the late Mr. Christopher Smart.  The criticism on Pope’s epitaphs appeared in that work.  In a short time after, he became a reviewer in the Literary magazine, under the auspices of the late Mr. Newbery, a man of a projecting head, good taste, and great industry.  This employment engrossed but little of Johnson’s time.  He resigned himself to indolence, took no exercise, rose about two, and then received the visits of his friends.  Authors, long since forgotten, waited on him, as their oracle, and he gave responses in the chair of criticism.  He listened to the complaints, the schemes, and the hopes and fears of a crowd of inferior writers, “who,” he said, in the words of Roger Ascham, “lived men knew not how, and died obscure, men marked not when.”  He believed, that he could give a better history of Grub street than any man living.  His house was filled with a succession of visitors till four or five in the evening.  During the whole time he presided at his tea-table.  Tea was his favourite beverage; and, when the late Jonas Hanway pronounced his anathema against the use of tea, Johnson rose in defence of his habitual practice, declaring himself “in that article, a hardened sinner, who had for years diluted his meals with the infusion of that fascinating plant; whose tea-kettle had no time to cool; who, with tea, solaced the midnight hour, and with tea welcomed the morning.”

The proposal for a new edition of Shakespeare, which had formerly miscarried, was resumed in the year 1756.  The booksellers readily agreed to his terms:  and subscription-tickets were issued out.  For undertaking this work, money, he confessed, was the inciting motive.  His friends exerted themselves to promote his interest; and, in the mean time, he engaged in a new periodical production, called The Idler.  The first number appeared on Saturday, April 15, 1758 and the last, April 5, 1760.  The profits of this work, and the subscriptions for the new edition of Shakespeare, were the means by which he supported himself for four or five years.  In 1759, was published Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia.  His translation of Lobo’s Voyage to Abissinia, seems to have pointed out that country for the scene

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Johnson now found it necessary to retrench his expenses.  He gave up his house in Gough square.  Mrs. Williams went into lodgings.  He retired to Gray’s inn, and soon removed to chambers in the Inner Temple lane, where he lived in poverty, total idleness, and the pride of literature:  “Magni stat nominis umbra.”  Mr. Fitzherbert, the father of lord St. Helens, the present minister at Madrid, a man distinguished, through life, for his benevolence and other amiable qualities, used to say, that he paid a morning visit to Johnson, intending, from his chambers, to send a letter into the city; but, to his great surprise, he found an author by profession, without pen, ink, or paper.  The present bishop of Salisbury was also among those who endeavoured, by constant attention, to sooth the cares of a mind, which he knew to be afflicted with gloomy apprehensions.  At one of the parties made at his house, Boscovich, the jesuit, who had then lately introduced the Newtonian philosophy at Rome, and, after publishing an elegant Latin poem on the subject, was made a fellow of the Royal Society, was one of the company invited to meet Dr. Johnson.  The conversation, at first, was mostly in French.  Johnson, though thoroughly versed in that language, and a professed admirer of Boileau and La Bruyere, did not understand its pronunciation, nor could he speak it himself with propriety.  For the rest of the evening the talk was in Latin.  Boscovich had a ready current flow of that flimsy phraseology, with which a priest may travel through Italy, Spain, and Germany.  Johnson scorned what he called colloquial barbarisms.  It was his pride to speak his best.  He went on, after a little practice, with as much facility as if it was his native tongue.  One sentence this writer well remembers.  Observing that Fontenelle, at first, opposed the Newtonian philosophy, and embraced it afterwards, his words were:  “Fontinellus, ni fallor, in extrema senectute, fuit transfuga ad castra Newtoniana.”

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We have now travelled through that part of Dr. Johnson’s life, which was a perpetual struggle with difficulties.  Halcyon days are now to open upon him.  In the month of May, 1762, his majesty, to reward literary merit, signified his pleasure to grant to Johnson a pension of three hundred pounds a year.  The earl of Bute was minister.  Lord Loughborough, who, perhaps, was originally a mover in the business, had authority to mention it.  He was well acquainted with Johnson; but, having heard much of his independent spirit, and of the downfal of Osborne, the bookseller, he did not know but his benevolence might be rewarded with a folio on his head.  He desired the author of these memoirs to undertake the task.  This writer thought the opportunity of doing so much good the most happy incident in his life.  He went, without delay, to the chambers, in the Inner Temple lane, which, in fact, were the abode of wretchedness.  By slow and studied approaches the message was disclosed.  Johnson made a long pause:  he asked if it was seriously intended:  he fell into a profound meditation, and his own definition of a pensioner occurred to him.  He was told, “that he, at least, did not come within the definition.”  He desired to meet next day, and dine at the Mitre tavern.  At that meeting he gave up all his scruples.  On the following day, lord Loughborough conducted him to the earl of Bute.  The conversation that passed, was, in the evening, related to this writer, by Dr. Johnson.  He expressed his sense of his majesty’s bounty, and thought himself the more highly honoured, as the favour was not bestowed on him for having dipped his pen in faction.  “No, sir,” said lord Bute, “it is not offered to you for having dipped your pen in faction, nor with a design that you ever should.”  Sir John Hawkins will have it, that, after this interview, Johnson was often pressed to wait on lord Bute, but with a sullen spirit refused to comply.  However that be, Johnson was never heard to utter a disrespectful word of that nobleman.  The writer of this essay remembers a circumstance, which may throw some light on this subject.  The late Dr. Rose, of Chiswick, whom Johnson loved and respected, contended for the pre-eminence of the Scotch writers; and Ferguson’s book on Civil Society, then on the eve of publication, he said, would give the laurel to North Britain.  “Alas! what can he do upon that subject?” said Johnson:  “Aristotle, Polybius, Grotius, Puffendorf, and Burlemaqui, have reaped in that field before him.”  “He will treat it,” said Dr. Rose, “in a new manner.”  “A new manner!  Buckinger had no hands, and he wrote his name with his toes, at Charing Cross, for half a crown a piece; that was a new manner of writing!” Dr. Rose replied:  “If that will not satisfy you, I will name a writer, whom you must allow to be the best in the kingdom.”  “Who is that?” “The earl of Bute, when he wrote an order for your pension.”  “There, sir,” said Johnson, “you have me in the toil:  to lord Bute I must allow whatever praise you claim for him.”  Ingratitude was no part of Johnson’s character.

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Being now in the possession of a regular income, Johnson left his chambers in the temple, and, once more, became master of a house in Johnson’s court, Fleet street.  Dr. Levet, his friend and physician in ordinary[u], paid his daily visits, with assiduity; made tea all the morning, talked what he had to say, and did not expect an answer.  Mrs. Williams had her apartment in the house, and entertained her benefactor with more enlarged conversation.  Chymistry was a part of Johnson’s amusement.  For this love of experimental philosophy, sir John Hawkins thinks an apology necessary.  He tells us, with great gravity, that curiosity was the only object in view; not an intention to grow suddenly rich by the philosopher’s stone, or the transmutation of metals.  To enlarge this circle, Johnson, once more, had recourse to a literary club.  This was at the Turk’s head, in Gerard street, Soho, on every Tuesday evening through the year.  The members were, besides himself, the right honourable Edmund Burke, sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Nugent, Dr. Goldsmith, the late Mr. Topham Beauclerc, Mr. Langton, Mr. Chamier, sir J. Hawkins, and some others.  Johnson’s affection for sir Joshua was founded on a long acquaintance, and a thorough knowledge of the virtuous and amiable qualities of that excellent artist.  He delighted in the conversation of Mr. Burke.  He met him, for the first time, at Mr. Garrick’s, several years ago.  On the next day he said:  “I suppose, Murphy, you are proud of your countryman:  ’Cum talis sit, utinam noster esset!’” From that time, his constant observation was, “that a man of sense could not meet Mr. Burke, by accident, under a gateway, to avoid a shower, without being convinced, that he was the first man in England.”  Johnson felt not only kindness, but zeal and ardour for his friends.  He did every thing in his power to advance the reputation of Dr. Goldsmith.  He loved him, though he knew his failings, and particularly the leaven of envy, which corroded the mind of that elegant writer, and made him impatient, without disguise, of the praises bestowed on any person whatever.  Of this infirmity, which marked Goldsmith’s character, Johnson gave a remarkable instance.  It happened that he went with sir Joshua Reynolds and Goldsmith, to see the fantoccini, which were exhibited, some years ago, in or near the Haymarket.  They admired the curious mechanism by which the puppets were made to walk the stage, draw a chair to the table, sit down, write a letter, and perform a variety of other actions, with such dexterity, that “though nature’s journeymen made the men, they imitated humanity,” to the astonishment of the spectator.  The entertainment being over, the three friends retired to a tavern.  Johnson and sir Joshua talked with pleasure of what they had seen; and, says Johnson, in a tone of admiration:  “How the little fellow brandished his spontoon!” “There is nothing in it,” replied Goldsmith, starting up with impatience, “give me a spontoon; I can do it as well myself.”

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Enjoying his amusements at his weekly club, and happy in a state of independence, Johnson gained, in the year 1765, another resource, which contributed, more than any thing else, to exempt him from the solicitudes of life.  He was introduced to the late Mr. Thrale and his family.  Mrs. Piozzi has related the fact, and it is, therefore, needless to repeat it in this place.  The author of this narrative looks back to the share he had in that business, with self-congratulation, since he knows the tenderness which, from that time, soothed Johnson’s cares at Streatham, and prolonged a valuable life.  The subscribers to Shakespeare began to despair of ever seeing the promised edition.  To acquit himself of this obligation, he went to work unwillingly, but proceeded with vigour.  In the month of October, 1765, Shakespeare was published; and, in a short time after, the university of Dublin sent over a diploma, in honourable terms, creating him a doctor of laws.  Oxford, in eight or ten years afterwards, followed the example; and, till then, Johnson never assumed the title of doctor.  In 1766, his constitution seemed to be in a rapid decline; and that morbid melancholy, which often clouded his understanding, came upon him with a deeper gloom than ever.  Mr. and Mrs. Thrale paid him a visit in this situation, and found him on his knees, with Dr. Delap, the rector of Lewes, in Sussex, beseeching God to continue to him the use of his understanding.  Mr. Thrale took him to his house at Streatham, and Johnson, from that time, became a constant resident in the family.  He went, occasionally, to the club in Gerard street, but his headquarters were fixed at Streatham.  An apartment was fitted up for him, and the library was greatly enlarged.  Parties were constantly invited from town; and Johnson was every day at an elegant table, with select and polished company.  Whatever could be devised by Mr. and Mrs. Thrale to promote the happiness, and establish the health of their guest, was studiously performed from that time to the end of Mr. Thrale’s life.  Johnson accompanied the family, in all their summer excursions, to Brighthelmstone, to Wales, and to Paris.  It is but justice to Mr. Thrale to say, that a more ingenuous frame of mind no man possessed.  His education at Oxford gave him the habits of a gentleman; his amiable temper recommended his conversation; and the goodness of his heart made him a sincere friend.  That he was the patron of Johnson, is an honour to his memory.

In petty disputes with contemporary writers, or the wits of the age, Johnson was seldom entangled.  A single incident of that kind may not be unworthy of notice, since it happened with a man of great celebrity in his time.  A number of friends dined with Garrick on a Christmas day.  Foote was then in Ireland.  It was said, at table, that the modern Aristophanes (so Foote was called) had been horsewhipped by a Dublin apothecary, for mimicking him on the stage.  “I wonder,” said Garrick, “that any man should

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Dr. Johnson’s fame excited the curiosity of the king.  His majesty expressed a desire to see a man of whom extraordinary things were said.  Accordingly, the librarian at Buckingham house invited Johnson to see that elegant collection of books, at the same time giving a hint of what was intended.  His majesty entered the room, and, among other things, asked the author, “if he meant to give the world any more of his compositions.”  Johnson answered:  “that he thought he had written enough.”  “And I should think so too,” replied his majesty, “if you had not written so well.”

Though Johnson thought he had written enough, his genius, even in spite of bodily sluggishness, could not lie still.  In 1770 we find him entering the lists, as a political writer.  The flame of discord that blazed throughout the nation, on the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, and the final determination of the house of commons, that Mr. Luttrell was duly elected by two hundred and six votes, against eleven hundred and forty-three, spread a general spirit of discontent.  To allay the tumult, Dr. Johnson published the False Alarm.  Mrs. Piozzi informs us, “that this pamphlet was written at her house, between eight o’clock on Wednesday night and twelve on Thursday night.”  This celerity has appeared wonderful to many, and some have doubted the truth.  It may, however, be placed within the bounds of probability.  Johnson has observed, that there are different methods of composition.  Virgil was used to pour out a great number of verses in the morning, and pass the day in retrenching the exuberances, and correcting inaccuracies; and it was Pope’s custom to write his first thoughts in his first words, and gradually to amplify, decorate, rectify, and refine them.  Others employ, at once, memory and invention, and, with little intermediate use of the pen, form and polish large masses by continued meditation, and write their productions only, when, in their opinion, they have completed them.  This last was Johnson’s method.  He never took his pen in hand till he had well weighed his subject, and grasped, in his mind, the sentiments, the train of argument, and the arrangement of the whole.  As he often thought aloud, he had, perhaps, talked it over to himself.  This may account for that rapidity with which, in general, he despatched his sheets to the press, without being at the trouble of a fair copy.  Whatever may be the logic or eloquence of the False Alarm, the house of commons have since erased the resolution from the journals.  But whether they have not left materials for a future controversy may be made a question.

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In 1771, he published another tract, on the subject of Falkland islands.  The design was to show the impropriety of going to war with Spain for an island, thrown aside from human use, stormy in winter, and barren in summer.  For this work it is apparent, that materials were furnished by direction of the minister.

At the approach of the general election in 1774, he wrote a short discourse, called The Patriot, not with any visible application to Mr. Wilkes; but to teach the people to reject the leaders of opposition, who called themselves patriots.  In 1775, he undertook a pamphlet of more importance, namely, Taxation no Tyranny, in answer to the Resolutions and Address of the American congress.  The scope of the argument was, that distant colonies, which had, in their assemblies, a legislature of their own, were, notwithstanding, liable to be taxed in a British parliament, where they had neither peers in one house, nor representatives in the other.  He was of opinion, that this country was strong enough to enforce obedience.  “When an Englishman,” he says, “is told that the Americans shoot up like the hydra, he naturally considers how the hydra was destroyed.”  The event has shown how much he and the minister of that day were mistaken.

The account of the Tour to the Western Islands of Scotland, which was undertaken in the autumn of 1773, in company with Mr. Boswell, was not published till some time in the year 1775.  This book has been variously received; by some extolled for the elegance of the narrative, and the depth of observation on life and manners; by others, as much condemned, as a work of avowed hostility to the Scotch nation.  The praise was, beyond all question, fairly deserved; and the censure, on due examination, will appear hasty and ill founded.  That Johnson entertained some prejudices against the Scotch must not be dissembled.  It is true, as Mr. Boswell says, “that he thought their success in England exceeded their proportion of real merit, and he could not but see in them that nationality which no liberal-minded Scotsman will deny.”  The author of these memoirs well remembers, that Johnson one day asked him, “have you observed the difference between your own country impudence and Scotch impudence?” The answer being in the negative:  “then I will tell you,” said Johnson.  “The impudence of an Irishman is the impudence of a fly, that buzzes about you, and you put it away, but it returns again, and flutters and teases you.  The impudence of a Scotsman is the impudence of a leech, that fixes and sucks your blood.”  Upon another occasion, this writer went with him into the shop of Davies, the bookseller, in Russell street, Covent garden.  Davies came running to him, almost out of breath with joy:  “The Scots gentleman is come, sir; his principal wish is to see you; he is now in the back parlour.”  “Well, well, I’ll see the gentleman,” said Johnson.  He walked towards the room.  Mr. Boswell was the person.  This writer followed, with no small curiosity.  “I find,” said Mr. Boswell, “that I am come to London, at a bad time, when great popular prejudice has gone forth against us North Britons; but, when I am talking to you, I am talking to a large and liberal mind, and you know that I cannot help coming from Scotland.”  “Sir,” said Johnson, “no more can the rest of your countrymen[x].”

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He had other reasons that helped to alienate him from the natives of Scotland.  Being a cordial well-wisher to the constitution in church and state, he did not think that Calvin and John Knox were proper founders of a national religion.  He made, however, a wide distinction between the dissenters of Scotland and the separatists of England.  To the former he imputed no disaffection, no want of loyalty.  Their soldiers and their officers had shed their blood with zeal and courage in the service of great Britain; and the people, he used to say, were content with their own established modes of worship, without wishing, in the present age, to give any disturbance to the church of England.

This he was, at all times, ready to admit; and, therefore, declared, that, whenever he found a Scotchman, to whom an Englishman was as a Scotchman, that Scotchman should be as an Englishman to him.  In this, surely, there was no rancour, no malevolence.  The dissenters, on this side the Tweed, appeared to him in a different light.  Their religion, he frequently said, was too worldly, too political, too restless and ambitious.  The doctrine of cashiering kings, and erecting, on the ruins of the constitution, a new form of government, which lately issued from their pulpits, he always thought was, under a calm disguise, the principle that lay lurking in their hearts.  He knew, that a wild democracy had overturned kings, lords, and commons; and that a set of republican fanatics, who would not bow at the name of Jesus, had taken possession of all the livings, and all the parishes in the kingdom.  That those scenes of horror might never be renewed, was the ardent wish of Dr. Johnson; and, though he apprehended no danger from Scotland, it is probable, that his dislike of calvinism mingled, sometimes, with his reflections on the natives of that country.  The association of ideas could not be easily broken; but it is well known, that he loved and respected many gentlemen from that part of the island.  Dr. Robertson’s History of Scotland, and Dr. Beattie’s Essays, were subjects of his constant praise.  Mr. Boswell, Dr. Rose, of Chiswick, Andrew Millar, Mr. Hamilton, the printer, and the late Mr. Strahan, were among his most intimate friends.  Many others might be added to the list.  He scorned to enter Scotland as a spy; though Hawkins, his biographer, and the professing defender of his fame, allowed himself leave to represent him in that ignoble character.  He went into Scotland to survey men and manners.  Antiquities, fossils, and minerals, were not within his province.  He did not visit that country to settle the station of Roman camps, or the spot, where Galgacus fought the last battle for public liberty.  The people, their customs, and the progress of literature, were his objects.  The civilities which he received in the course of his tour, have been repaid with grateful acknowledgment, and, generally, with great elegance of expression.  His crime is, that he found the

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The poems of Ossian made a part of Johnson’s inquiry, during his residence in Scotland and the Hebrides.  On his return to England, November, 1773, a storm seemed to be gathering over his head; but the cloud never burst, and the thunder never fell.—­Ossian, it is well known, was presented to the public, as a translation from the Erse; but that this was a fraud, Johnson declared, without hesitation.  “The Erse,” he says, “was always oral only, and never a written language.  The Welsh and the Irish were more cultivated.  In Erse, there was not in the world a single manuscript a hundred years old.  Martin, who, in the last century, published an account of the Western Islands, mentions Irish, but never Erse manuscripts, to be found in the islands in his time.  The bards could not read; if they could, they might, probably, have written.  But the bard was a barbarian among barbarians, and, knowing nothing himself, lived with others that knew no more.  If there is a manuscript from which the translation was made, in what age was it written, and where is it?  If it was collected from oral recitation, it could only be in detached parts, and scattered fragments:  the whole is too long to be remembered.  Who put it together in its present form?” For these, and such like reasons, Johnson calls the whole an imposture.  He adds, “The editor, or author, never could show the original, nor can it be shown by any other.  To revenge reasonable incredulity, by refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence with which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt.”  This reasoning carries with it great weight.  It roused the resentment of Mr. Macpherson.  He sent a threatening letter to the author; and Johnson answered him in the rough phrase of stern defiance.  The two heroes frowned at a distance, but never came to action.

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In the year 1777, the misfortunes of Dr. Dodd excited his compassion.  He wrote a speech for that unhappy man, when called up to receive judgment of death; besides two petitions, one to the king, and another to the queen; and a sermon to be preached by Dodd to the convicts in Newgate.  It may appear trifling to add, that, about the same time, he wrote a prologue to the comedy of a Word to the Wise, written by Hugh Kelly.  The play, some years before, had been damned by a party on the first night.  It was revived for the benefit of the author’s widow.  Mrs. Piozzi relates, that when Johnson was rallied for these exertions, so close to one another, his answer was, “When they come to me with a dying parson, and a dead stay-maker, what can a man do?”

We come now to the last of his literary labours.  At the request of the booksellers, he undertook the Lives of the Poets.  The first publication was in 1779, and the whole was completed in 1781.  In a memorandum of that year, he says, some time in March he finished the Lives of the Poets, which he wrote in his usual way, dilatorily and hastily, unwilling to work, yet working with vigour and haste.  In another place, he hopes they are written in such a manner, as may tend to the promotion of piety.  That the history of so many men, who, in their different degrees, made themselves conspicuous in their time, was not written recently after their deaths, seems to be an omission that does no honour to the republic of letters.  Their contemporaries, in general, looked on with calm indifference, and suffered wit and genius to vanish out of the world in total silence, unregarded and unlamented.  Was there no friend to pay the tribute of a tear?  No just observer of life to record the virtues of the deceased?  Was even envy silent?  It seemed to have been agreed, that if an author’s works survived, the history of the man was to give no moral lesson to after-ages.  If tradition told us that Ben Jonson went to the Devil tavern; that Shakespeare stole deer, and held the stirrup at play-house doors; that Dryden frequented Button’s coffee-house; curiosity was lulled asleep, and biography forgot the best part of her function, which is, to instruct mankind by examples taken from the school of life.  This task remained for Dr. Johnson, when years had rolled away; when the channels of information were, for the most part, choked up, and little remained besides doubtful anecdote, uncertain tradition, and vague report.

  “Nunc situs informis premit et deserta vetustas.”

The value of biography has been better understood in other ages, and in other countries.  Tacitus informs us, that to record the lives and characters of illustrious men, was the practice of the Roman authors, in the early periods of the republic.  In France, the example has been followed.  Fontenelle, D’Alembert, and monsieur Thomas, have left models in this kind of composition.  They have embalmed the dead.  But it is true, that they had incitements and advantages,

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We now take leave of Dr. Johnson, as an author.  Four volumes of his Lives of the Poets were published in 1778, and the work was completed in 1781.  Should biography fall again into disuse, there will not always be a Johnson to look back through a century, and give a body of critical and moral instruction.  In April, 1781, he lost his friend Mr. Thrale.  His own words, in his diary, will best tell that melancholy event.  “On Wednesday, the 11th of April, was buried my dear friend Mr. Thrale, who died on Wednesday, the 4th, and with him were buried many of my hopes and pleasures.  About five, I think, on Wednesday morning, he expired.  I felt almost the last flutter of his pulse, and looked, for the last time, upon the face, that, for fifteen years before, had never been turned upon me but with respect and benignity.  Farewell:  may God, that delighteth in mercy, have had mercy on thee!  I had constantly prayed for him before his death.  The decease of him, from whose friendship I had obtained many opportunities of amusement, and to whom I turned my thoughts, as to a refuge from misfortunes, has left me heavy.  But my business is with myself.”—­From

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The few remaining occurrences may be soon despatched.  In the month of June, 1783, Johnson had a paralytic stroke, which affected his speech only.  He wrote to Dr. Taylor, of Westminster; and to his friend Mr. Allen, the printer, who lived at the next door.  Dr. Brocklesby arrived in a short time, and by his care, and that of Dr. Heberden, Johnson soon recovered.  During his illness, the writer of this narrative visited him, and found him reading Dr. Watson’s Chymistry.  Articulating with difficulty, he said, “From this book, he who knows nothing may learn a great deal; and he who knows, will be pleased to find his knowledge recalled to his mind in a manner highly pleasing.”  In the month of August he set out for Lichfield, on a visit to Mrs. Lucy Porter, the daughter of his wife by her first husband; and, in his way back, paid his respects to Dr. Adams, at Oxford.  Mrs. Williams died, at his house in Bolt court, in the month of September, during his absence.  This was another shock to a mind like his, ever agitated by the thoughts of futurity.  The contemplation of his own approaching end was constantly before his eyes; and the prospect of death, he declared, was terrible.  For many years, when he was not disposed to enter into the conversation going forward, whoever sat near his chair, might hear him repeating, from Shakespeare,

  “Aye, but to die, and go we know not where;
  To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;
  This sensible warm motion to become
  A kneaded clod, and the delighted spirit
  To bathe in fiery floods”—­

And from Milton,

—­“Who would lose,
  For fear of pain, this intellectual being?”

By the death of Mrs. Williams he was left in a state of destitution, with nobody but Frank, his black servant, to sooth his anxious moments.  In November, 1783, he was swelled from head to foot with a dropsy.  Dr. Brocklesby, with that benevolence with which he always assists his friends, paid his visits with assiduity.  The medicines prescribed were so efficacious, that, in a few days, Johnson, while he was offering up his prayers, was suddenly obliged to rise, and, in the course of the day, discharged twenty pints of water.

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Johnson, being eased of his dropsy, began to entertain hopes that the vigour of his constitution was not entirely broken.  For the sake of conversing with his friends, he established a conversation club, to meet on every Wednesday evening; and, to serve a man whom he had known in Mr. Thrale’s household for many years, the place was fixed at his house, in Essex street, near the Temple.  To answer the malignant remarks of sir John Hawkins, on this subject, were a wretched waste of time.  Professing to be Johnson’s friend, that biographer has raised more objections to his character, than all the enemies to that excellent man.  Sir John had a root of bitterness that “put rancours in the vessel of his peace.”  Fielding, he says, was the inventor of a cant phrase, “Goodness of heart, which means little more than the virtue of a horse or a dog.”  He should have known, that kind affections are the essence of virtue:  they are the will of God implanted in our nature, to aid and strengthen moral obligation; they incite to action:  a sense of benevolence is no less necessary than a sense of duty.  Good affections are an ornament, not only to an author, but to his writings.  He who shows himself upon a cold scent for opportunities to bark and snarl throughout a volume of six hundred pages, may, if he will, pretend to moralise; but goodness of heart, or, to use that politer phrase, “the virtue of a horse or a dog,” would redound more to his honour.  But sir John is no more:  our business is with Johnson.  The members of his club were respectable for their rank, their talents, and their literature.  They attended with punctuality, till about Midsummer, 1784, when, with some appearance of health, Johnson went into Derbyshire, and thence to Lichfield.  While he was in that part of the world, his friends, in town, were labouring for his benefit.  The air of a more southern climate, they thought, might prolong a valuable life.  But a pension of three hundred pounds a year was a slender fund for a travelling valetudinarian, and it was not then known that he had saved a moderate sum of money.  Mr. Boswell and sir Joshua Reynolds undertook to solicit the patronage of the chancellor.  With lord Thurlow, while he was at the bar, Johnson was well acquainted.  He was often heard to say, “Thurlow is a man of such vigour of mind, that I never knew I was to meet him, but—­I was going to say, I was afraid, but that would not be true, for I never was afraid of any man; but I never knew that I was to meet Thurlow, but I knew I had something to encounter.”  The chancellor undertook to recommend Johnson’s case; but without success.  To protract, if possible, the days of a man, whom he respected, he offered to advance the sum of five hundred pounds.  Being informed of this at Lichfield, Johnson wrote the following letter: 

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“My lord,—­After a long, and not inattentive observation of mankind, the generosity of your lordship’s offer raises in me not less wonder than gratitude.  Bounty, so liberally bestowed, I should gladly receive, if my condition made it necessary; for to such a mind who would not be proud to own his obligations?  But it has pleased God to restore me to so great a measure of health, that, if I should now appropriate so much of a fortune destined to do good, I could not escape from myself the charge of advancing a false claim.  My journey to the continent, though I once thought it necessary, was never much encouraged by my physicians; and I was very desirous that your lordship should be told it, by sir Joshua Reynolds, as an event very uncertain; for, if I grew much better, I should not be willing; if much worse, I should not be able to migrate.  Your lordship was first solicited without my knowledge; but when I was told that you were pleased to honour me with your patronage, I did not expect to hear of a refusal; yet, as I have had no long time to brood hopes, and have not rioted in imaginary opulence, this cold reception has been scarce a disappointment; and from your lordship’s kindness I have received a benefit which only men, like you, are able to bestow.  I shall now live mihi carior, with a higher opinion of my own merit.

  I am, my lord,

  Your lordship’s most obliged,

  Most grateful, and most humble servant,

  Samuel Johnson.

  September, 1784.”

We have, in this instance, the exertion of two congenial minds; one, with a generous impulse, relieving merit in distress; and the other, by gratitude and dignity of sentiment, rising to an equal elevation.

It seems, however, that greatness of mind is not confined to greatness of rank.  Dr. Brocklesby was not content to assist with his medical art; he resolved to minister to his patient’s mind, and pluck from his memory the sorrow which the late refusal from a high quarter might occasion.  To enable him to visit the south of France, in pursuit of health, he offered, from his own funds, an annuity of one hundred pounds, payable quarterly.  This was a sweet oblivious antidote, but it was not accepted, for the reasons assigned to the chancellor.  The proposal, however, will do honour to Dr. Brocklesby, as long as liberal sentiment shall be ranked among the social virtues.

In the month of October, 1784, we find Dr. Johnson corresponding with Mr. Nichols, the intelligent compiler of the Gentleman’s Magazine, and, in the languor of sickness, still desirous to contribute all in his power to the advancement of science and useful knowledge.  He says, in a letter to that gentleman, dated Lichfield, October 20, that “he should be glad to give so skilful a lover of antiquities any information.”  He adds, “At Ashbourne, where I had very little company, I had the luck to borrow Mr. Bowyer’s

Page 48

In that languid condition he arrived, on the 16th of November, at his house in Bolt court, there to end his days.  He laboured with the dropsy and an asthma.  He was attended by Dr. Heberden, Dr. Warren, Dr. Brocklesby, Dr. Butter, and Mr. Cruikshank, the eminent surgeon.  Eternity presented to his mind an awful prospect, and, with as much virtue as, perhaps, ever is the lot of man, he shuddered at the thought of his dissolution.  His friends awakened the comfortable reflection of a well-spent life; and, as his end drew near, they had the satisfaction of seeing him composed, and even cheerful, insomuch that he was able, in the course of his restless nights, to make translations of Greek epigrams from the Anthologia; and to compose a Latin epitaph for his father, his mother, and his brother Nathaniel.  He meditated, at the same time, a Latin inscription to the memory of Garrick; but his vigour was exhausted.

His love of literature was a passion that stuck to his last sand.  Seven days before his death he wrote the following letter to his friend Mr. Nichols: 

“Sir,—­The late learned Mr. Swinton, of Oxford, having one day remarked, that one man, meaning, I suppose, no man but himself, could assign all the parts of the Ancient Universal History to their proper authors, at the request of sir Robert Chambers, or myself, gave the account which I now transmit to you, in his own hand, being willing that of so great a work the history should be known, and that each writer should receive his due proportion of praise from posterity.

  I recommend to you to preserve this scrap of literary intelligence, in
  Mr. Swinton’s own hand, or to deposit it in the Museum[y], that the
  veracity of this account may never be doubted.

  I am, sir,

Your most humble servant,

Sam.  Johnson.

Dec. 6, 1784.”

Mr. Swinton.

The History of the Carthaginians. 
—­Numidians. 
—­Mauritanians. 
—­Gaetulians. 
—­Garamantes. 
—­Melano-Gaetulians. 
—­Nigritae. 
—­Cyrenaica. 
—­Marmarica. 
—­Regio Syrtica. 
—­Turks, Tartars, and Moguls. 
—­Indians. 
—­Chinese. 
The Dissertation on the peopling of America. 
The Dissertation on the Independency of the Arabs. 
The Cosmogony, and a small part of the History immediately following. 
By Mr. Sale. 
To the Birth of Abraham.  Chiefly by Mr. Shelvock. 
History of the Jews, Gauls, and Spaniards.  By Mr. Psalmanazai. 
Xenophon’s Retreat.  By the same. 
History of the Persians, and the Constantinopolitan Empire.  By Dr.
Campbell. 
History of the Romans.  By Mr. Bower[z].

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On the morning of December 7, Dr. Johnson requested to see Mr. Nichols.  A few days before, he had borrowed some of the early volumes of the magazine, with a professed intention to point out the pieces which he had written in that collection.  The books lay on the table, with many leaves doubled down, and, in particular, those which contained his share in the parliamentary debates.  Such was the goodness of Johnson’s heart, that he then declared, that “those debates were the only parts of his writings which gave him any compunction:  but that, at the time he wrote them, he had no conception that he was imposing upon the world, though they were, frequently, written from very slender materials, and often from none at all, the mere coinage of his own imagination.”  He added, “that he never wrote any part of his work with equal velocity.”  “Three columns of the magazine in an hour,” he said, “was no uncommon effort; which was faster than most persons could have transcribed that quantity.  In one day, in particular, and that not a very long one, he wrote twelve pages, more in quantity than ever he wrote at any other time, except in the Life of Savage, of which forty-eight pages, in octavo, were the production of one long day, including a part of the night.”

In the course of the conversation, he asked whether any of the family of Faden, the printer, were living.  Being told that the geographer, near Charing Cross, was Faden’s son, he said, after a short pause, “I borrowed a guinea of his father near thirty years ago; be so good as to take this, and pay it for me.”

Wishing to discharge every duty, and every obligation, Johnson recollected another debt of ten pounds, which he had borrowed from his friend, Mr. Hamilton, the printer, about twenty years before.  He sent the money to Mr. Hamilton, at his house in Bedford row, with an apology for the length of time.  The reverend Mr. Strahan was the bearer of the message, about four or five days before Johnson breathed his last.

Mr. Sastres, whom Dr. Johnson esteemed and mentioned in his will, entered the room, during his illness.  Dr. Johnson, as soon as he saw him, stretched forth his hand, and, in a tone of lamentation, called out, “Jam moriturus!” But the love of life was still an active principle.  Feeling himself swelled with the dropsy, he conceived that, by incisions in his legs, the water might be discharged.  Mr. Cruikshank apprehended that a mortification might be the consequence; but, to appease a distempered fancy, he gently lanced the surface.  Johnson cried out, “Deeper, deeper!  I want length of life, and you are afraid of giving me pain, which I do not value.”

On the 8th of December, the reverend Mr. Strahan drew his will, by which, after a few legacies, the residue, amounting to about fifteen hundred pounds, was bequeathed to Frank, the black servant, formerly consigned to the testator by his friend Dr. Bathurst.

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The history of a death-bed is painful.  Mr. Strahan informs us, that the strength of religion prevailed against the infirmity of nature; and his foreboding dread of the divine justice subsided into a pious trust, and humble hope of mercy, at the throne of grace.  On Monday, the 13th day of December, the last of his existence on this side the grave, the desire of life returned with all its former vehemence.  He still imagined, that, by puncturing his legs, relief might be obtained.  At eight in the morning he tried the experiment, but no water followed.  In an hour or two after, he fell into a doze, and about seven in the evening expired without a groan.

On the 20th of the month his remains, with due solemnities, and a numerous attendance of his friends, were buried in Westminster abbey, near the foot of Shakespeare’s monument, and close to the grave of the late Mr. Garrick.  The funeral service was read by his friend, Dr. Taylor.

A black marble over his grave has the following inscription: 

     Samuel Johnson, ll.D.
 obiit XIII die Decembris,
      Anno Domini
      MDCCLXXXIV. 
   Aetatis suae LXXV.

If we now look back, as from an eminence, to view the scenes of life, and the literary labours in which Dr. Johnson was engaged, we may be able to delineate the features of the man, and to form an estimate of his genius.

As a man, Dr. Johnson stands displayed in open daylight.  Nothing remains undiscovered.  Whatever he said is known; and without allowing him the usual privilege of hazarding sentiments, and advancing positions for mere amusement, or the pleasure of discussion, criticism has endeavoured to make him answerable for what, perhaps, he never seriously thought.  His diary, which has been printed, discovers still more.  We have before us the very heart of the man, with all his inward consciousness; and yet neither in the open paths of life, nor in his secret recesses, has any one vice been discovered.  We see him reviewing every year of his life, and severely censuring himself, for not keeping resolutions, which morbid melancholy, and other bodily infirmities, rendered impracticable.  We see him, for every little defect, imposing on himself voluntary penance, going through the day with only one cup of tea without milk, and to the last, amidst paroxysms and remissions of illness, forming plans of study and resolutions to amend his life[aa].  Many of his scruples may be called weaknesses; but they are the weaknesses of a good, a pious, and most excellent man.

His person, it is well known, was large and unwieldy.  His nerves were affected by that disorder, for which, at two years of age, he was presented to the royal touch.  His head shook, and involuntary motions made it uncertain that his legs and arms would, even at a tea-table, remain in their proper place.  A person of lord Chesterfield’s delicacy might, in his company, be in a fever.  He would, sometimes,

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Johnson was born a logician; one of those, to whom only books of logic are said to be of use.  In consequence of his skill in that art, he loved argumentation.  No man thought more profoundly, nor with such acute discernment.  A fallacy could not stand before him; it was sure to be refuted by strength of reasoning, and a precision, both in idea and expression, almost unequalled.  When he chose, by apt illustration, to place the argument of his adversary in a ludicrous light, one was almost inclined to think ridicule the test of truth.  He was surprised to be told, but it is certainly true, that, with great powers of mind, wit and humour were his shining talents.  That he often argued for the sake of triumph over his adversary, cannot be dissembled.  Dr. Rose, of Chiswick, has been heard to tell of a friend of his, who thanked him for introducing him to Dr. Johnson, as he had been convinced, in the course of a long dispute, that an opinion, which he had embraced as a settled truth, was no better than a vulgar error.  This being reported to Johnson, “Nay,” said he, “do not let him be thankful, for he was right, and I was wrong.”  Like his uncle Andrew, in the ring at Smithfield, Johnson, in a circle of disputants, was determined neither to be thrown nor conquered.  Notwithstanding all his piety, self-government or the command of his passions in conversation, does not seem to have been among his attainments.  Whenever he thought the contention was for superiority, he has been known to break out with violence, and even ferocity.  When the fray was over, he generally softened into repentance, and, by conciliating measures,

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It was late in life, before he had the habit of mixing, otherwise than occasionally, with polite company.  At Mr. Thrale’s he saw a constant succession of well-accomplished visiters.  In that society he began to wear off the rugged points of his own character.  He saw the advantages of mutual civility, and endeavoured to profit by the models before him.  He aimed at what has been called, by Swift, the “lesser morals,” and by Cicero, “minores virtutes.”  His endeavour, though new and late, gave pleasure to all his acquaintance.  Men were glad to see that he was willing to be communicative on equal terms and reciprocal complacence.  The time was then expected, when he was to cease being what George Garrick, brother to the celebrated actor, called him, the first time he heard him converse, “a tremendous companion.”  He certainly wished to be polite, and even thought himself so; but his civility still retained something uncouth and harsh.  His manners took a milder tone, but the endeavour was too palpably seen.  He laboured even in trifles.  He was a giant gaining a purchase to lift a feather.

It is observed, by the younger Pliny, that “in the confines of virtue and great qualities, there are, generally, vices of an opposite nature.”  In Dr. Johnson not one ingredient can take the name of vice.  From his attainments in literature, grew the pride of knowledge; and from his powers of reasoning, the love of disputation and the vain glory of superior vigour.—­His piety, in some instances, bordered on superstition.  He was willing to believe in preternatural agency, and thought it not more strange, that there should be evil spirits than evil men.  Even the question about second sight held him in suspense.  “Second sight,” Mr. Pennant tells us, “is a power of seeing images impressed on the organs of sight, by the power of fancy; or on the fancy, by the disordered spirits operating on the mind.  It is the faculty of seeing spectres or visions, which represent an event actually passing at a distance, or likely to happen at a future day.  In 1771, a gentleman, the last who was supposed to be possessed of this faculty, had a boat at sea, in a tempestuous night, and, being anxious for his freight, suddenly started up, and said his men would

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Since virtue, or moral goodness, consists in a just conformity of our actions to the relations, in which we stand to the supreme being and to our fellow-creatures, where shall we find a man who has been, or endeavoured to be, more diligent in the discharge of those essential duties?  His first prayer was composed in 1738; he continued those fervent ejaculations of piety to the end of his life.  In his Meditations we see him scrutinizing himself with severity, and aiming at perfection unattainable by man.  His duty to his neighbour consisted in universal benevolence, and a constant aim at the production of happiness.  Who was more sincere and steady in his friendships?  It has been said, that there was no real affection between him and Garrick.  On the part of the latter, there might be some corrosions of jealousy.  The character of Prospero, in the Rambler, No. 200, was, beyond all question, occasioned by Garrick’s ostentatious display of furniture and Dresden china.  It was surely fair to take, from this incident, a hint for a moral essay; and, though no more was intended, Garrick, we are told, remembered it with uneasiness.  He was also hurt, that his Lichfield friend did not think so highly of his dramatic art, as the rest of the world.  The fact was, Johnson could not see the passions, as they rose, and chased one another, in the varied features of that expressive face; and, by his own manner of reciting verses, which was wonderfully impressive, he plainly showed, that he thought, there was too much of artificial tone and measured cadence, in the declamation of the theatre.  The present writer well remembers being in conversation with Dr. Johnson, near the side of the scenes, during the tragedy of King Lear:  when Garrick came off the stage, he said, “You two talk so loud, you destroy all

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After a long acquaintance with this excellent man, and an attentive retrospect to his whole conduct, such is the light in which he appears to the writer of this essay.  The following lines of Horace, may be deemed his picture in miniature: 

  “Iracundior est paulo? minus aptus acutis
  Naribus horum hominum? rideri possit, eo quod
  Rusticius tonso toga defluit, et male laxus
  In pede calceus haeret?  At est bonus, ut melior vir
  Non alius quisquam:  at tibi amicus:  at ingenium ingens
  Inculto latet hoc sub corpore.”

  “Your friend is passionate, perhaps unfit
  For the brisk petulance of modern wit. 
  His hair ill-cut, his robe, that awkward flows,
  Or his large shoes, to raillery expose
  The man you love; yet is he not possess’d
  Of virtues, with which very few are blest? 
  While underneath this rude, uncouth disguise,
  A genius of extensive knowledge lies.”

Francis’s Hor. book i. sat. 3.

It remains to give a review of Johnson’s works; and this, it is imagined, will not be unwelcome to the reader.

Like Milton and Addison, he seems to have been fond of his Latin poetry.  Those compositions show, that he was an early scholar; but his verses have not the graceful ease, that gave so much suavity to the poems of Addison.  The translation of the Messiah labours under two disadvantages:  it is first to be compared with Pope’s inimitable performance, and afterwards with the Pollio of Virgil.  It

Page 55

His English poetry is such as leaves room to think, if he had devoted himself to the muses, that he would have been the rival of Pope.  His first production, in this kind, was London, a poem in imitation of the third satire of Juvenal.  The vices of the metropolis are placed in the room of ancient manners.  The author had heated his mind with the ardour of Juvenal, and, having the skill to polish his numbers, he became a sharp accuser of the times.  The Vanity of Human Wishes, is an imitation of the tenth satire of the same author.  Though it is translated by Dryden, Johnson’s imitation approaches nearest to the spirit of the original.  The subject is taken from the Alcibiades of Plato, and has an intermixture of the sentiments of Socrates, concerning the object of prayers offered up to the deity.  The general proposition is, that good and evil are so little understood by mankind, that their wishes, when granted, are always destructive.  This is exemplified in a variety of instances, such as riches, state-preferment, eloquence, military glory, long life, and the advantages of form and beauty.  Juvenal’s conclusion is worthy of a christian poet, and such a pen as Johnson’s.  “Let us,” he says, “leave it to the gods to judge what is fittest for us.  Man is dearer to his creator than to himself.  If we must pray for special favour, let it be for a sound mind in a sound body.  Let us pray for fortitude, that we may think the labours of Hercules, and all his sufferings, preferable to a life of luxury, and the soft repose of Sardanapalus.  This is a blessing within the reach of every man; this we can give ourselves.  It is virtue, and virtue only, that can make us happy.”  In the translation, the zeal of the christian conspired with the warmth and energy of the poet; but Juvenal is not eclipsed.  For the various characters in the original, the reader is pleased, in the English poem, to meet with cardinal Wolsey, Buckingham stabbed by Felton, lord Strafford, Clarendon, Charles the twelfth of Sweden; and for Tully and Demosthenes, Lydiat, Galileo, and archbishop Laud.  It is owing to Johnson’s delight in biography, that the name of Lydiat is called forth from obscurity.  It may, therefore, not be useless to tell, that Lydiat was a learned divine and mathematician in the beginning of the last century.  He attacked the doctrine of Aristotle and Scaliger, and wrote a number of sermons on the harmony of the evangelists.  With all his merit, he lay in the prison of Bocardo, at Oxford, till bishop Usher, Laud, and others, paid his debts.  He petitioned Charles the first to be sent to Ethiopia, to procure manuscripts.  Having spoken in favour of monarchy and bishops, he was plundered by the puritans, and twice carried away, a prisoner, from his rectory.  He died, very poor, in 1646.

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The tragedy of Irene is founded on a passage in Knolles’s History of the Turks; an author highly commended in the Rambler, No. 122.  An incident in the life of Mahomet the great, first emperor of the Turks, is the hinge on which the fable is made to move.  The substance of the story is shortly this:  In 1453, Mahomet laid siege to Constantinople, and having reduced the place, became enamoured of a fair Greek, whose name was Irene.  The sultan invited her to embrace the law of the prophet, and to grace his throne.  Enraged at this intended marriage, the janizaries formed a conspiracy to dethrone the emperor.  To avert the impending danger, Mahomet, in a full assembly of the grandees, “catching with one hand,” as Knolles relates it, “the fair Greek by the hair of her head, and drawing his falchion with the other, he, at one blow, struck off her head, to the great terror of them all; and, having so done, said unto them:  ’Now by this, judge whether your emperor is able to bridle his affections or not.’” The story is simple, and it remained for the author to amplify it, with proper episodes, and give it complication and variety.  The catastrophe is changed, and horror gives place to terror and pity.  But, after all, the fable is cold and languid.  There is not, throughout the piece, a single situation to excite curiosity, and raise a conflict of passions.  The diction is nervous, rich, and elegant; but splendid language, and melodious numbers, will make a fine poem—­not a tragedy.  The sentiments are beautiful, always happily expressed, but seldom appropriated to the character, and generally too philosophic.  What Johnson has said of the tragedy of Cato, may be applied to Irene:  “It is rather a poem in dialogue than a drama; rather a succession of just sentiments, in elegant language, than a representation of natural affections.  Nothing excites or assuages emotion.  The events are expected without solicitude, and are remembered without joy or sorrow.  Of the agents we have no care; we consider not what they are doing, nor what they are suffering; we wish only to know, what they have to say.  It is unaffecting elegance, and chill philosophy.”  The following speech, in the mouth of a Turk, who is supposed to have heard of the British constitution, has been often selected from the numberless beauties with which Irene abounds: 

  “If there be any land, as fame reports,
  Where common laws restrain the prince and subject;
  A happy land, where circulating power
  Flows through each member of th’ embodied state,
  Sure, not unconscious of the mighty blessing,
  Her grateful sons shine bright with ev’ry virtue;
  Untainted with the lust of innovation;
  Sure, all unite to hold her league of rule,
  Unbroken, as the sacred chain of nature,
  That links the jarring elements in peace.”

These are British sentiments.  Above forty years ago, they found an echo in the breast of applauding audiences; and to this hour they are the voice of the people, in defiance of the metaphysics, and the new lights of certain politicians, who would gladly find their private advantage in the disasters of their country; a race of men, “quibus nulla ex honesto spes.”

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The prologue to Irene is written with elegance, and, in a peculiar style, shows the literary pride and lofty spirit of the author.  The epilogue, we are told, in a late publication, was written by sir William Yonge.  This is a new discovery, but by no means probable.  When the appendages to a dramatic performance are not assigned to a friend, or an unknown hand, or a person of fashion, they are always supposed to be written by the author of the play.  It is to be wished, however, that the epilogue, in question, could be transferred to any other writer.  It is the worst jeu d’esprit that ever fell from Johnson’s pen[cc].

An account of the various pieces contained in this edition, such as miscellaneous tracts, and philological dissertations, would lead beyond the intended limits of this essay.  It will suffice to say, that they are the productions of a man, who never wanted decorations of language, and always taught his reader to think.  The life of the late king of Prussia, as far as it extends, is a model of the biographical style.  The review of the Origin of Evil was, perhaps, written with asperity; but the angry epitaph which it provoked from Soame Jenyns, was an ill-timed resentment, unworthy of the genius of that amiable author.

The Rambler may be considered, as Johnson’s great work.  It was the basis of that high reputation, which went on increasing to the end of his days.  The circulation of those periodical essays was not, at first, equal to their merit.  They had not, like the Spectators, the art of charming by variety; and, indeed, how could it be expected?  The wits of queen Anne’s reign sent their contributions to the Spectator; and Johnson stood alone.  A stagecoach, says sir Richard Steele, must go forward on stated days, whether there are passengers or not.  So it was with the Rambler, every Tuesday and Saturday, for two years.  In this collection Johnson is the great moral teacher of his countrymen; his essays form a body of ethics; the observations on life and manners, are acute and instructive; and the papers, professedly critical, serve to promote the cause of literature.  It must, however, be acknowledged, that a settled gloom hangs over the author’s mind; and all the essays, except eight or ten, coming from the same fountain-head, no wonder that they have the raciness of the soil from which they sprang.  Of this uniformity Johnson was sensible.  He used to say, that if he had joined a friend or two, who would have been able to intermix papers of a sprightly turn, the collection would have been more miscellaneous, and, by consequence, more agreeable to the generality of readers.  This he used to illustrate by repeating two beautiful stanzas from his own ode to Cave, or Sylvanus Urban: 

  “Non ulla musis pagina gratior,
  Quam quae severis ludicra jungere
    Novit, fatigatamque nugis
      Utilibus recreare mentem.

  Texente nymphis serta Lycoride,
  Rosae ruborem sic viola adjuvat
    Iramista, sic Iris refulget
      Aethereis variata fucis.”

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It is remarkable, that the pomp of diction, which has been objected to Johnson, was first assumed in the Rambler.  His Dictionary was going on at the same time, and, in the course of that work, as he grew familiar with technical and scholastic words, he thought that the bulk of his readers were equally learned; or, at least, would admire the splendour and dignity of the style.  And yet it is well known, that he praised, in Cowley, the ease and unaffected structure of the sentences.  Cowley may be placed at the head of those who cultivated a clear and natural style.  Dryden, Tillotson, and sir William Temple followed.  Addison, Swift, and Pope, with more correctness, carried our language well nigh to perfection.  Of Addison, Johnson was used to say, “he is the Raphael of essay writers.”  How he differed so widely from such elegant models, is a problem not to be solved, unless it be true, that he took an early tincture from the writers of the last century, particularly sir Thomas Browne.  Hence the peculiarities of his style, new combinations, sentences of an unusual structure, and words derived from the learned languages.  His own account of the matter is:  “When common words were less pleasing to the ear, or less distinct in their signification, I familiarized the terms of philosophy, by applying them to popular ideas.”  But he forgot the observation of Dryden:  “If too many foreign words are poured in upon us, it looks, as if they were designed, not to assist the natives, but to conquer them.”  There is, it must be admitted, a swell of language, often out of all proportion to the sentiment; but there is, in general, a fulness of mind, and the thought seems to expand with the sound of the words.  Determined to discard colloquial barbarisms and licentious idioms, he forgot the elegant simplicity that distinguishes the writings of Addison.  He had, what Locke calls, a round-about view of his subject; and, though he never was tainted, like many modern wits, with the ambition of shining in paradox, he may be fairly called an original thinker.  His reading was extensive.  He treasured in his mind whatever was worthy of notice, but he added to it from his own meditation.  He collected, “quae reconderet, auetaque promeret.”  Addison was not so profound a thinker.  He was “born to write, converse, and live with ease;” and he found an early patron in lord Somers.  He depended, however, more upon a fine taste than the vigour of his mind.  His Latin poetry shows, that he relished, with a just selection, all the refined and delicate beauties of the Roman classics; and, when he cultivated his native language, no wonder that he formed that graceful style, which has been so justly admired; simple, yet elegant; adorned, yet never over-wrought; rich in allusion, yet pure and perspicuous; correct, without labour; and though, sometimes, deficient in strength, yet always musical.  His essays, in general, are on the surface of life; if ever original, it was in pieces of humour.  Sir Roger de Coverly, and the

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  “Vultu, quo coelum tempestatesque serenat.”

Johnson is Jupiter Tonans:  he darts his lightning and rolls his thunder, in the cause of virtue and piety.  The language seems to fall short of his ideas; he pours along, familiarizing the terms of philosophy, with bold inversions, and sonorous periods; but we may apply to him, what Pope has said of Homer:  “It is the sentiment that swells and fills out the diction, which rises with it, and forms itself about it:  like glass in the furnace, which grows to a greater magnitude, as the breath within is more powerful, and the heat more intense.”

It is not the design of this comparison to decide between these two eminent writers.  In matters of taste every reader will choose for himself.  Johnson is always profound, and, of course, gives the fatigue of thinking.  Addison charms, while he instructs; and writing, as he always does, a pure, an elegant, and idiomatic style, he may be pronounced the safest model for imitation.

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The essays written by Johnson in the Adventurer, may be called a continuation of the Rambler.  The Idler, in order to be consistent with the assumed character, is written with abated vigour, in a style of ease and unlaboured elegance.  It is the Odyssey, after the Iliad.  Intense thinking would not become the Idler.  The first number presents a well-drawn portrait of an Idler, and from that character no deviation could be made.  Accordingly, Johnson forgets his austere manner, and plays us into sense.  He still continues his lectures on human life, but he adverts to common occurrences, and is often content with the topic of the day.  An advertisement in the beginning of the first volume informs us, that twelve entire essays were a contribution from different hands.  One of these, No. 33, is the journal of a senior fellow, at Cambridge, but, as Johnson, being himself an original thinker, always revolted from servile imitation, he has printed the piece with an apology, importing, that the journal of a citizen, in the Spectator, almost precluded the attempt of any subsequent writer.  This account of the Idler may be closed, after observing, that the author’s mother being buried on the 23rd of January, 1759, there is an admirable paper occasioned by that event, on Saturday, the 27th of the same month, No. 41.  The reader, if he pleases, may compare it with another fine paper in the Rambler, No. 54, on the conviction that rushes on the mind at the bed of a dying friend.

“Rasselas,” says sir John Hawkins, “is a specimen of our language scarcely to be paralleled; it is written in a style refined to a degree of immaculate purity, and displays the whole force of turgid eloquence.”  One cannot but smile at this encomium.  Rasselas, is, undoubtedly, both elegant and sublime.  It is a view of human life, displayed, it must be owned, in gloomy colours.  The author’s natural melancholy, depressed, at the time, by the approaching dissolution of his mother, darkened the picture.  A tale, that should keep curiosity awake by the artifice of unexpected incidents, was not the design of a mind pregnant with better things.  He, who reads the heads of the chapters, will find, that it is not a course of adventures that invites him forward, but a discussion of interesting questions; reflections on human life; the history of Imlac, the man of learning; a dissertation upon poetry; the character of a wise and happy man, who discourses, with energy, on the government of the passions, and, on a sudden, when death deprives him of his daughter, forgets all his maxims of wisdom, and the eloquence that adorned them, yielding to the stroke of affliction, with all the vehemence of the bitterest anguish.  It is by pictures of life, and profound moral reflection, that expectation is engaged, and gratified throughout the work.  The history of the mad astronomer, who imagines that, for five years, he possessed the regulation of the weather, and that the sun passed, from tropic

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The Dictionary does not properly fall within the province of this essay.  The preface, however, will be found in this edition.  He who reads the close of it, without acknowledging the force of the pathethic and sublime, must have more insensibility in his composition, than usually falls to the share of a man.  The work itself, though, in some instances, abuse has been loud, and, in others, malice has endeavoured to undermine its fame, still remains the mount Atlas of English literature.

  “Though storms and tempests thunder on its brow,
  And oceans break their billows at its feet,
  It stands unmov’d, and glories in its height.”

That Johnson was eminently qualified for the office of a commentator on Shakespeare, no man can doubt; but it was an office which he never cordially embraced.  The public expected more than he had diligence to perform; and yet his edition has been the ground, on which every subsequent commentator has chosen to build.  One note, for its singularity, may be thought worthy of notice in this place.  Hamlet says, “For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god-kissing carrion.”  In this Warburton discovered the origin of evil.  Hamlet, he says, breaks off in the middle of the sentence; but the learned commentator knows what he was going to say, and, being unwilling to keep the secret, he goes on in a train of philosophical reasoning, that leaves the reader in astonishment.  Johnson, with true piety, adopts the fanciful hypothesis, declaring it to be a noble emendation, which almost sets the critic on a level with the author.  The general observations at the end of the several plays, and the preface, will be found in this edition.  The former, with great elegance and precision, give a summary view of each drama.  The preface is a tract of great erudition and philosophical criticism.

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Johnson’s political pamphlets, whatever was his motive for writing them, whether gratitude for his pension, or the solicitation of men in power, did not support the cause for which they were undertaken.  They are written in a style truly harmonious, and with his usual dignity of language.  When it is said that he advanced positions repugnant to the “common rights of mankind,” the virulence of party may be suspected.  It is, perhaps, true, that in the clamour, raised throughout the kingdom, Johnson overheated his mind; but he was a friend to the rights of man, and he was greatly superior to the littleness of spirit, that might incline him to advance what he did not think and firmly believe.  In the False Alarm, though many of the most eminent men in the kingdom concurred in petitions to the throne, yet Johnson, having well surveyed the mass of the people, has given, with great humour, and no less truth, what may be called, “the birth, parentage, and education of a remonstrance.”  On the subject of Falkland’s islands, the fine dissuasive from too hastily involving the world in the calamities of war, must extort applause even from the party that wished, at that time, for scenes of tumult and commotion.  It was in the same pamphlet, that Johnson offered battle to Junius, a writer, who, by the uncommon elegance of his style, charmed every reader, though his object was to inflame the nation in favour of a faction.  Junius fought in the dark; he saw his enemy, and had his full blow; while he himself remained safe in obscurity.  “But let us not,” said Johnson, “mistake the venom of the shaft, for the vigour of the bow.”  The keen invective which he published, on that occasion, promised a paper war between two combatants, who knew the use of their weapons.  A battle between them was as eagerly expected, as between Mendoza and Big Ben.  But Junius, whatever was his reason, never returned to the field.  He laid down his arms, and has, ever since, remained as secret as the man in the mask, in Voltaire’s history.

The account of his journey to the Hebrides, or western isles of Scotland, is a model for such as shall, hereafter, relate their travels.  The author did not visit that part of the world in the character of an antiquary, to amuse us with wonders taken from the dark and fabulous ages; nor, as a mathematician, to measure a degree, and settle the longitude and latitude of the several islands.  Those, who expected such information, expected what was never intended.  “In every work regard the writer’s end.”  Johnson went to see men and manners, modes of life, and the progress of civilization.  His remarks are so artfully blended with the rapidity and elegance of his narrative, that the reader is inclined to wish, as Johnson did, with regard to Gray, that “to travel, and to tell his travels, had been more of his employment.”

As to Johnson’s Parliamentary Debates, nothing, with propriety, can be said in this place.  They are collected, in two volumes, by Mr. Stockdale, and the flow of eloquence which runs through the several speeches, is sufficiently known.

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It will not be useless to mention two more volumes, which may form a proper supplement to this edition.  They contain a set of sermons, left for publication by John Taylor, ll.D.  The reverend Mr. Hayes, who ushered these discourses into the world, has not given them, as the composition of Dr. Taylor.  All he could say for his departed friend was, that he left them, in silence, among his papers.  Mr. Hayes knew them to be the production of a superior mind; and the writer of these memoirs owes it to the candour of that elegant scholar, that he is now warranted to give an additional proof of Johnson’s ardour in the cause of piety, and every moral duty.  The last discourse in the collection was intended to be delivered by Dr. Taylor, at the funeral of Johnson’s wife; but that reverend gentleman declined the office, because, as he told Mr. Hayes, the praise of the deceased was too much amplified.  He, who reads the piece, will find it a beautiful moral lesson, written with temper, and nowhere overcharged with ambitious ornaments.  The rest of the discourses were the fund, which Dr. Taylor, from time to time, carried with him to his pulpit.  He had the largest bull[dd] in England, and some of the best sermons.

We come now to the Lives of the Poets, a work undertaken at the age of seventy, yet, the most brilliant, and, certainly, the most popular, of all our author’s writings.  For this performance he needed little preparation.  Attentive always to the history of letters, and, by his own natural bias, fond of biography, he was the more willing to embrace the proposition of the booksellers.  He was versed in the whole body of English poetry, and his rules of criticism were settled with precision.  The dissertation, in the life of Cowley, on the metaphysical poets of the last century, has the attraction of novelty, as well as sound observation.  The writers, who followed Dr. Donne, went in quest of something better than truth and nature.  As Sancho says, in Don Quixote, they wanted better bread than is made with wheat.  They took pains to bewilder themselves, and were ingenious for no other purpose than to err.  In Johnson’s review of Cowley’s works, false wit is detected in all its shapes, and the Gothic taste for glittering conceits, and far-fetched allusions, is exploded, never, it is hoped, to revive again.

An author who has published his observations on the Life and Writings of Dr. Johnson, speaking of the Lives of the Poets, says, “These compositions, abounding in strong and acute remark, and with many fine, and even sublime, passages, have, unquestionably, great merit; but, if they be regarded, merely as containing narrations of the lives, delineations of the characters, and strictures of the several authors, they are far from being always to be depended on.”  He adds:  “The characters are sometimes partial, and there is, sometimes, too much malignity of misrepresentation, to which, perhaps, may be joined no inconsiderable portion of erroneous criticism.”  The several clauses of this censure deserve to be answered, as fully as the limits of this essay will permit.

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In the first place, the facts are related upon the best intelligence, and the best vouchers that could be gleaned, after a great lapse of time.  Probability was to be inferred from such materials, as could be procured, and no man better understood the nature of historical evidence than Dr. Johnson; no man was more religiously an observer of truth.  If his history is any where defective, it must be imputed to the want of better information, and the errors of uncertain tradition.

  “Ad nos vix tenuis famae perlabitur aura.”

If the strictures on the works of the various authors are not always satisfactory, and if erroneous criticism may sometimes be suspected, who can hope, that in matters of taste, all shall agree?  The instances, in which the public mind has differed, from the positions advanced by the author, are few in number.  It has been said, that justice has not been done to Swift; that Gay and Prior are undervalued; and that Gray has been harshly treated.  This charge, perhaps, ought not to be disputed.  Johnson, it is well known, had conceived a prejudice against Swift.  His friends trembled for him, when he was writing that life, but were pleased, at last, to see it executed with temper and moderation.  As to Prior, it is probable that he gave his real opinion, but an opinion that will not be adopted by men of lively fancy.  With regard to Gray, when he condemns the apostrophe, in which father Thames is desired to tell who drives the hoop, or tosses the ball, and then adds, that father Thames had no better means of knowing than himself; when he compares the abrupt beginning of the first stanza of the bard, to the ballad of Johnny Armstrong, “Is there ever a man in all Scotland;” there are, perhaps, few friends of Johnson, who would not wish to blot out both the passages.

It may be questioned, whether the remarks on Pope’s Essay on Man can be received, without great caution.  It has been already mentioned, that Crousaz, a professor in Switzerland, eminent for his Treatise of Logic, started up a professed enemy to that poem.  Johnson says, “his mind was one of those, in which philosophy and piety are happily united.  He looked, with distrust, upon all metaphysical systems of theology, and was persuaded, that the positions of Pope were intended to draw mankind away from revelation, and to represent the whole course of things, as a necessary concatenation of indissoluble fatality.”  This is not the place fur a controversy about the Leibnitzian system.  Warburton, with all the powers of his large and comprehensive mind, published a vindication of Pope; and yet Johnson says, that, “in many passages, a religious eye may easily discover expressions not very favourable to morals, or to liberty.”  This sentence is severe, and, perhaps, dogmatical.  Crousaz wrote an Examen of the Essay on Man, and, afterwards, a commentary on every remarkable passage; and, though it now appears, that Mrs. Elizabeth Carter translated the foreign critic, yet it is certain, that

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  “All spread their charms, but charm not all alike,
  On different senses different objects strike: 
  Hence different passions more or less inflame,
  As strong or weak the organs of the frame. 
  And hence one master-passion in the breast,
  Like Aaron’s serpent, swallows up the rest.”

Brumoy says, Pascal, from his infancy, felt himself a geometrician; and Vandyke, in like manner, was a painter.  Shakespeare, who, of all poets, had the deepest insight into human nature, was aware of a prevailing bias in the operations of every mind.  By him we are told, “Masterless passion sways us to the mood of what it likes or loathes.”

It remains to inquire, whether, in the lives before us, the characters are partial, and too often drawn with malignity of misrepresentation?  To prove this, it is alleged, that Johnson has misrepresented the circumstances relative to the translation of the first Iliad, and maliciously ascribed that performance to Addison, instead of Tickell, with too much reliance on the testimony of Pope, taken from the account in the papers left by Mr. Spence.  For a refutation of the fallacy imputed to Addison, we are referred to a note in the Biographia Britannica, written by the late judge Blackstone, who, it is said, examined the whole matter with accuracy, and found, that the first regular statement of the accusation against Addison, was published by Ruffhead, in his life of Pope, from the materials which he received from Dr. Warburton.  But, with all due deference to the learned judge, whose talents deserve all praise, this account is by no means accurate.

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Sir Richard Steele, in a dedication of the comedy of the Drummer, to Mr. Congreve, gave the first insight into that business.  He says, in a style of anger and resentment:  “If that gentleman (Mr. Tickell) thinks himself injured, I will allow I have wronged him upon this issue, that, if the reputed translator of the first book of Homer shall please to give us another book, there shall appear another good judge in poetry, besides Mr. Alexander Pope, who shall like it.”  The authority of Steele outweighs all opinions, founded on vain conjecture, and, indeed, seems to be decisive, since we do not find that Tickell, though warmly pressed, thought proper to vindicate himself.

But the grand proof of Johnson’s malignity, is the manner in which he has treated the character and conduct of Milton.  To enforce this charge has wearied sophistry, and exhausted the invention of a party.  What they cannot deny, they palliate; what they cannot prove, they say is probable.  But why all this rage against Dr. Johnson?  Addison, before him, had said of Milton: 

  “Oh! had the poet ne’er profan’d his pen,
  To varnish o’er the guilt of faithless men!”

And had not Johnson an equal right to avow his sentiments?  Do his enemies claim a privilege to abuse whatever is valuable to Englishmen, either in church or state? and must the liberty of unlicensed printing be denied to the friends of the British constitution?

It is unnecessary to pursue the argument through all its artifices, since, dismantled of ornament and seducing language, the plain truth may be stated in a narrow compass.  Johnson knew that Milton was a republican:  he says, “an acrimonious and surly republican, for which it is not known that he gave any better reason than, that a popular government was the most frugal; for the trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.”  Johnson knew that Milton talked aloud “of the danger of readmitting kingship in this nation;” and when Milton adds, “that a commonwealth was commended, or rather enjoined, by our Saviour himself, to all christians, not without a remarkable disallowance, and the brand of gentilism upon kingship,” Johnson thought him no better than a wild enthusiast.  He knew, as well as Milton, “that the happiness of a nation must needs be firmest and certainest in a full and free council of their own electing, where no single person, but reason only, sways;” but the example of all the republicks, recorded in the annals of mankind, gave him no room to hope, that reason only would be heard.  He knew, that the republican form of government, having little or no complication, and no consonance of parts, by a nice mechanism forming a regular whole, was too simple to be beautiful, even in theory.  In practice it, perhaps, never existed.  In its most flourishing state, at Athens, Rome, and Carthage, it was a constant scene of tumult and commotion.  From the mischiefs of a wild democracy, the progress

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The peace and happiness of society were what Dr. Johnson had at heart.  He knew that Milton called his defence of the regicides, a defence of the people of England; but, however glossed and varnished, he thought it an apology for murder.  Had the men, who, under a show of liberty, brought their king to the scaffold, proved, by their subsequent conduct, that the public good inspired their actions, the end might have given some sanction to the means; but usurpation and slavery followed.  Milton undertook the office of secretary, under the despotic power of Cromwell, offering the incense of adulation to his master, with the titles of “director of public councils, the leader of unconquered armies, the father of his country.”  Milton declared, at the same time, “that nothing is more pleasing to God, or more agreeable to reason, than that the highest mind should have the sovereign power.”  In this strain of servile flattery, Milton gives us the right divine of tyrants.  But it seems, in the same piece, he exhorts Cromwell “not to desert those great principles of liberty which he had professed to espouse; for, it would be a grievous enormity, if, after having successfully opposed tyranny, he should himself act the part of a tyrant, and betray the cause that he had defended.”  This desertion of every honest principle the advocate for liberty lived to see.  Cromwell acted the tyrant; and, with vile hypocrisy, told the people, that he had consulted the Lord, and the Lord would have it so.  Milton took an under part in the tragedy.  Did that become the defender of the people of England?  Brutus saw his country enslaved; he struck the blow for freedom, and he died with honour in the cause.  Had he lived to be a secretary under Tiberius, what would now be said of his memory?

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But still, it seems, the prostitution with which Milton is charged, since it cannot be defended, is to be retorted on the character of Johnson.  For this purpose, a book has been published, called Remarks on Dr. Johnson’s Life of Milton; to which are added, Milton’s Tractate of Education, and Areopagitica.  In this laboured tract we are told, “There is one performance, ascribed to the pen of the Doctor, where the prostitution is of so singular a nature, that it would be difficult to select an adequate motive for it, out of the mountainous heap of conjectural causes of human passions, or human caprice.  It is the speech of the late unhappy Dr. William Dodd, when he was about to hear the sentence of the law pronounced upon him, in consequence of an indictment for forgery.  The voice of the public has given the honour of manufacturing this speech to Dr. Johnson; and the style, and configuration of the speech itself, confirm the imputation.  But it is hardly possible to divine what could be his motive for accepting the office.  A man, to express the precise state of mind of another, about to be destined to an ignominious death, for a capital crime, should, one would imagine, have some consciousness, that he himself had incurred some guilt of the same kind.”  In all the schools of sophistry, is there to be found so vile an argument?  In the purlieus of Grub street, is there such another mouthful of dirt?  In the whole quiver of malice, is there so envenomed a shaft?

After this, it is to be hoped, that a certain class of men will talk no more of Johnson’s malignity.  The last apology for Milton is, that he acted according to his principles.  But Johnson thought those principles detestable; pernicious to the constitution, in church and state, destructive of the peace of society, and hostile to the great fabric of civil policy, which the wisdom of ages has taught every Briton to revere, to love, and cherish.  He reckoned Milton in that class of men, of whom the Roman historian says, when they want, by a sudden convulsion, to overturn the government, they roar and clamour for liberty; if they succeed, they destroy liberty itself:  “Ut imperium evertant, libertatem praeferunt; si perverterint, libertatem ipsam aggredientur.”  Such were the sentiments of Dr. Johnson; and it may be asked, in the language of Bolingbroke, “Are these sentiments, which any man, who is born a Briton, in any circumstances, in any situation, ought to be ashamed, or afraid to avow?” Johnson has done ample justice to Milton’s poetry:  the criticism on Paradise Lost is a sublime composition.  Had he thought the author as good and pious a citizen as Dr. Watts, he would have been ready, notwithstanding his nonconformity, to do equal honour to the memory of the man.

It is now time to close this essay, which the author fears has been drawn too much into length.  In the progress of the work, feeble as it may be, he thought himself performing the last human office to the memory of a friend, whom he loved, esteemed, and honoured: 

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  “His saltern accumulem donis, et fungar inani
  Munere.”—­

The author of these memoirs has been anxious to give the features of the man, and the true character of the author.  He has not suffered the hand of partiality to colour his excellencies with too much warmth; nor has he endeavoured to throw his singularities too much into the shade.  Dr. Johnson’s failings may well be forgiven, for the sake of his virtues.  His defects were spots in the sun.  His piety, his kind affections, and the goodness of his heart, present an example worthy of imitation.  His works still remain a monument of genius and of learning.  Had he written nothing but what is contained in this edition, the quantity shows a life spent in study and meditation.  If to this be added, the labour of his Dictionary, and other various productions, it may be fairly allowed, as he used to say of himself, that he has written his share.  In the volumes here presented to the public the reader will find a perpetual source of pleasure and instruction.  With due precautions, authors may learn to grace their style with elegance, harmony, and precision; they may be taught to think with vigour and perspicuity; and, to crown the whole, by a diligent attention to these books, all may advance in virtue.

Footnotes
[a] Boswell’s Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p. 465, 4to. edit.
[b] This appears in a note to Johnson’s Diary, prefixed to the first of
    his Prayers.  After the alteration of the style, he kept his birthday
    on the 18th of September, and it is accordingly marked September
    7/18
[c] The impression which this interview left on Johnson’s fancy, is
    recorded by Mrs. Piozzi in her anecdotes; and Johnson’s description
    of it is picturesque and poetical.  Being asked if he could remember
    queen Anne, “he had (he said) a confused, but somehow a sort of
    solemn recollection of a lady in diamonds, and a long black hood.” 
—­Ed.
[d] The entry of this is remarkable for his early resolution to preserve
    through life a fair and upright character. “1732, Junii 15.  Undecim
    aureos deposui, quo die, quidquid ante matris funus (quod serum sit
    precor) de paternis bonis sperare licet, viginti scilicet libras,
    accepi.  Usque adeo mihi mea fortuna fingenda est.  Interea, ne
    paupertate vires animi languescant, nec in flagitia egestas abigat,
    cavendum.”
[e] This, Mr. Bruce, the late traveller, avers to be a downright
    falsehood.  He says, a deep pool of water reaches to the very foot of
    the rock; and, allowing that there was a seat or bench (which there
    is not) in the middle of the pool, it is absolutely impossible, by
    any exertion of human strength, to have arrived at it.  But it may be
    asked, can Mr. Bruce say what was the face of the country in the
    year 1622, when Lobo saw the magnificent sight which he has

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[Transcriber’s Note:  There is no Footnote [j]]

[k] Mr. Boswell says, “The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. 
    ’Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him.  But it was not in
    his shop:  it was in my own chamber.’”
[l] Dr. Johnson denies the whole of this story.  See Boswell’s Life, vol.
    i. p. 128. oct. edit. 1804.
[m] Letter 212. [n] See Gent.  Mag. vol. lxxi. p. 190. [o] It has since been paralleled, in the case of the Shakespeare MSS. by
    a yet more vile impostor.
[p] Life of Johnson, vol. i. p.328. 4to. edit. [q] See Gentleman’s Magazine for Nov. and Dec. 1787. [r] See Gentleman’s Magazine for Dec. 1787, p. 1042. [s] This work was not published until the year 1767, when Dr. Johnson’s
    Dictionary was fully established in reputation.
[t] See Scaliger’s epigram on this subject, (communicated, without
    doubt, by Dr. Johnson,) Gent.  Mag. 1748, p. 8.
[u] See Johnson’s epitaph on him, in this volume, p. 130.

[Transcriber’s note:  There is no Footnote [v] or Footnote [w]]

[x] Mr. Boswell’s account of this introduction is very different from
    the above.  See his Life of Johnson, vol. i. p. 360. 8vo. edit. 1804.
[y] It is there deposited.
[z] Before this authentic communication, Mr. Nichols had given, in the
    volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine, for 1781, p. 370, the following
    account of the Universal History.  The proposals were published
    October 6, 1729; and the authors of the first seven volumes were,

Vol.  I. Mr. Sale, translator of the Koran.  IV.  The same as vol. iii. 
    II.  George Psalmanazar.  V. Mr. Bower. 
   III.  George Psalmanazar.  VI.  Mr. Bower. 
        Archibald Bower.  Rev. John Swinton. 
        Captain Shelvock.  VII.  Mr. Swinton. 
        Dr. Campbell.  Mr. Bower.

[aa] On the subject of voluntary penance, see the Rambler, No. 110.
[bb] It is to be regretted, that he was not encouraged in this
     undertaking.  The assistance, however, which he gave to Davies, in
     writing the Life of Garrick, has been acknowledged, in general
     terms, by that writer, and, from the evidence of style, appears to
     have been very considerable.

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Poems.

PREFATORY OBSERVATIONS

TO THE IMITATIONS OF THE

Third and tenth satires of Juvenal.

We will not examine here Johnson’s poetical merits, since that discussion will more properly introduce his Lives of the Poets, but merely offer some few biographical remarks.  In the poem of London, Mr. Boswell was of opinion, that Johnson did not allude to Savage, under the name of Thales, and adds, for his reason, that Johnson was not so much as acquainted with Savage when he wrote his London.  About a month, however, before he published this poem, he addressed the following lines to him, through the Gentleman’s Magazine, for April, 1738.

  Ad RICARDUM savage.

  Humanani studium generis cui pectore fervet
    O colat humanum te, foveatque, genus!

We cannot certainly infer, from this, an intimacy with Savage, but it is more probable, that these lines flowed from a feeling of private friendship, than mere admiration of an author, in a public point of view; and they, at any rate, give credibility to the general opinion, that, under the name of Thales, the poet referred to the author of the Wanderer, who was, at this time, preparing for his retreat to Wales, whither he actually went in the ensuing year.

The names of Lydiat, Vane, and Sedley, which are brought forward in the poem on the Vanity of Human Wishes, as examples of inefficiency of either learning or beauty, to shield their possessors from distress, have exercised inquiry.  The following is the best account of them we can collect: 

Thomas Lydiat was born in 1572.  After passing through the studies of the university of Oxford, with applause, he was elected fellow of New college; but his defective utterance induced him to resign his fellowship, in order to avoid entering holy orders, and to live upon a small patrimony.  He was highly esteemed by the accomplished and unfortunate prince Henry, son of James the first.  But his hopes of provision in that quarter were blasted by that prince’s premature death; and he then accompanied the celebrated Usher into Ireland.  After two or three years, he returned to England, and poverty induced him now to accept the rectory of Okerton, near Banbury, which he had before declined.  Here he imprudently became security for the debts of a relation, and, being unable to pay, was imprisoned for several years.  He was released, at last, by his patron, Usher, sir W.

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The Vane, who told, “what ills from beauty spring,” was not Lady Vane, the subject of Smollett’s memoirs, in Peregrine Pickle, but, according to Mr. Malone, she was Anne Vane, mistress to Frederick prince of Wales, and died in 1736, not long before Johnson settled in London.  Some account of her was published, under the title of the Secret History of Vanella, 8vo. 1732, and in other similar works, referred to in Boswell, i. 173.  In Mr. Boswell’s Tour to the Hebrides, we find lord Hailes objecting to the instances of unfortunate beauties selected by Johnson, and suggesting, in place of Vane and Sedley, the names of Shore and Valiere.

Catherine Sedley was daughter of sir Charles Sedley, mistress of king James the second, who created her countess of Dorchester.  She was a woman of a sprightly and agreeable wit, which could charm without the aid of beauty, and longer maintain its power.  She had been the king’s mistress before he ascended the throne, and soon after (January 2, 1685-6) was created countess of Dorchester.  Sir C. Sedley, her father, looked on this title, as a splendid indignity, purchased at the expense of his daughter’s honour; and when he was very active against the king, about the time of the revolution, he said, that, in gratitude, he should do his utmost to make his majesty’s daughter a queen, as the king had made his own a countess.  The king continued to visit her, which gave great uneasiness to the queen, who employed her friends, particularly the priests, to persuade him to break off the correspondence.  They remonstrated with him on the guilt of the commerce, and the reproach it would bring on the catholic religion; she, on the contrary, employed the whole force of her ridicule against the priests and their counsels.  They, at length, prevailed, and he is said to have sent her word to retire to France, or that her pension of 4,000_l_. a year should be withdrawn.  She then, probably, repented of having been the royal mistress, and “cursed the form that pleased the king.”

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See Manning and Bray’s Surrey, ii. 788. where the countess’s issue is also given.  See, also, Christian’s note on Blackstone’s Com. iv. p. 65.  It is remarkable, that when Johnson was asked, at a late period of his life, to whom he had alluded, under the name of Sedley, he said, that he had quite forgotten.  See note on Idler, No. 36.—­Ed.

London; A poem: 

IN IMITATION OF

THE THIRD SATIRE OF JUVENAL

Written in 1738.

—­Quis ineptae
Tam patiens urbis, tam ferreus ut teneat se?  JUV.

[a]Though grief and fondness in my breast rebel,
When injur’d Thales bids the town farewell,
Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend,
I praise the hermit, but regret the friend;
Resolv’d at length, from vice and London far,
To breathe, in distant fields, a purer air,
And, fix’d on Cambria’s solitary shore,
Give to St. David one true Briton more.
[b]For who would leave, unbrib’d, Hibernia’s land,
Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand? 
There none are swept by sudden fate away,
But all, whom hunger spares, with age decay: 
Here malice, rapine, accident, conspire,
And now a rabble rages, now a fire;
Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,
And here the fell attorney prowls for prey;
Here falling houses thunder on your head,
And here a female atheist talks you dead.
   [c]While Thales waits the wherry, that contains
Of dissipated wealth the small remains,
On Thames’s banks, in silent thought, we stood
Where Greenwich smiles upon the silver flood;
Struck with the seat that gave Eliza[A] birth,
We kneel, and kiss the consecrated earth;
In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew,
And call Britannia’s glories back to view;
Behold her cross triumphant on the main,
The guard of commerce, and the dread of Spain,
Ere masquerades debauch’d, excise oppress’d
Or English honour grew a standing jest. 
   A transient calm the happy scenes bestow,
And, for a moment, lull the sense of woe. 
At length awaking, with contemptuous frown,
Indignant Thales eyes the neighb’ring town.
   [d] Since worth, he cries, in these degen’rate days,
Wants ev’n the cheap reward of empty praise;
In those curs’d walls, devote to vice and gain,
Since unrewarded science toils in vain;
Since hope but sooths to double my distress,
And ev’ry moment leaves my little less;
While yet my steady steps no [e]staff sustains,
And life, still vig’rous, revels in my veins;
Grant me, kind heaven, to find some happier place,
Where honesty and sense are no disgrace;
Some pleasing bank where verdant osiers play,
Some peaceful vale, with nature’s paintings gay;
Where once the harass’d Briton found repose,
And, safe in poverty, defied his foes;
Some secret cell, ye pow’rs, indulgent give,

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FOOTNOTES

[a]
Quamvis digressu veteris confusus amici,
Laudo, tamen, vacuis quod sedem figere Cumis
Destinet atque unum civcm donare Sibyllae.

[b]
—­Ego vel Prochytam praepono Suburae. 
Nam quid tam miserum, tam solum vidimus, ut non
Deterius credas horrere incendia, lapsus
Tectorum assiduos, ae mille pericula saevae
Urbis et Augusto recitantes mense poetas

[c]
Sed dum tota domus reda componitur una,
Substitit ad veteres arcus—­

[d]
Hic tunc Umbricius; Quando artibus, inquit, honestis
Nullus in urbe locus, nulla emolumenta laborum,
Res hodie minor est, here quam fuit, atque eadem eras
Deteret exiguis aliquid:  proponimus illue
Ire, fatigatas ubi Daedalus exuit alas,
Dum nova canities,—­

[e] —­et pedibus me Porto meis, nullo dextram subeunte bacillo.

[f]
Cedamus patria:  vivant Artorius istic
Et Catulus:  maneant, qui nigrum in candida vertunt.

[g]
Queis facile est aedem conducere, flumina, portus,
Siccandam eluviem, portandum ad busta cadaver,—­
Munera nunc edunt.

[h] Quid Romae faciam?  Mentiri nescio:  librum, Si malus est, nequeo laudare et poscere:—­

[i]
—­Ferre ad nuptam, quae mittit adulter,
Quae mandat, norunt alii; me nemo ministro
Fur erit, atque ideo nulli comes exeo,—­

[Transcriber’s note:  There is no Footnote [j]]

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[k]
Quis nune diligitur, nisi conscius?—­
Carus erit Verri, qui Verrem tempore, quo vult,
Acuusare potest.—­

[l]
—­Tanti tibi non sit opaci
Omnis arena Tagi, quodque in mare volvitur aurum,
Ut somno careas—­

[m] Quae nunc divitibus gens acceptissima nostris Et quos praecipue fugiam, properabo fateri.

[n]
—­Non possum ferre, Quirites,
Graecam urbem:—­

[o] Rusticus ille tuus sumit trechedipna, Quirine, Et ceromatico fert niceteria collo.

[p]
Ingenium velox, audacia perdita, sermo
Promptus—­

[q] Augur, schoenobates, medicus, magus:  omnia novit.  Graeculus esuriens in coelum, jusseris, ibit.

[r] Usque adeo nihil est, quod nostra infantia coelum Hausit Aventinum?—­

[s] Quid? quod adulandi gens prudentissima laudat Sermonem indocti, faciem deformis amici?

[t] Haec eadem licet et nobis laudare:  sed illis Creditur.—­

[u] Natio comoeda est.  Rides? majore cachinno Coneutitur, &c.

[Transcriber’s note:  There is no Footnote [v] or Footnote [w]]

[x]
Non sumus ergo pares:  melior, qui semper et omni
Nocte dieque potest alienum sumere vultum,
A facie jactare manus, laudare paratus,
Si bene ructavit, si rectum minxit amicus.—­

[y] Scire volunt secreta domus atque inde timeri.

[z] —­Materiam praebet causasque jocorum Omnibus hic idem, si foeda et scissa lacerna, &c.

[aa] Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se, Quam quod ridiculos homines facit.—­

[bb] —­Agmine facto, Debuerant olim tenues migrasse Quirites.

[cc]
Haud facile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat
Res angusta domi; sed Romae; durior illis
Conatus:—­
             —­Omnia Romaae
Cum pretio.—­
Cogimur, et cultis augere peculia servis.

[dd]
—­Ultimus autem
Aerumnae cumulus, quod nudum et frustra rogautem
Nemo cibo, nemo hospitio tectoque juvabit.

[ee] Si magna Asturii cecidit domus, horrida mater:  Pullati proccres,—­

[ff]
—­Jam accurrit, qui marmora donet,
Conferat impensas:  hic &c.

[gg] Hic modium argenti.  Meliora, ac plura reponit Persicus orborum lautissimus—­

[hh]
Si potes avelli Circensibus, optima Sorae,
Aut Fabrateriae domus, aut Frusinone paratur,
Quanti nunc tenebras unum conducis in annum. 
Hortulus hic—­
Vive bidentis amans et culti villicus horti;
Unde epulum possis centum dare Pythagoreis.

[ii]
—­Possis ignavus haberi
Et subiti casus improvidus, ad coenam si
Intestatus eas.—­

[Transcriber’s note:  There is no Footnote [jj]]

[kk]
Ebrius, ac petulans, qui nullum forte cecidit,
Dat poenas, noetem patitur lugentis amicum
Pelidae.—­

[ll]
—­Sed, quamvis improbus annis,
Atque mero fervens, cavet hunc, quem coccina lae [Transcriber’s note: 
     remainder of word illegible]
Vitari jubet, et comitum longissimus ordo,
Multum praeterca flammarum, atque aenca lampas,

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[mm] Nec tamen hoc tantum metuas:  nam qui spoliet te, Non deerit, clausis domibus, &c.

[nn] Maximus in vinclis ferri modus, ut timeas, ne Vomer deficiat, ne marrae et sarcula desint.

[oo]
Felices proavorum atavos, felicia dicas
Saecula, quae quondam sub regibus atque tribunis
Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam.

[pp] His alias poteram, et plures subnectere causas:  Sed jumenta vocant—­

[qq]
—­Ergo vale nostri memor et, quoties te
Roma tuo refici properantem reddet Aquino,
Me quoque ad Helvinam Cererem vestramque Dianam
Convelle a Cumis.  Satirarum ego, ni pudet illas,
Adjutor gelidos veniam caligatus in agros.

[A] Queen Elizabeth, born at Greenwich. [B] The invasions of the Spaniards were defended in the houses of
    parliament.
[C] The licensing act was then lately made. [D] Our silenc’d. [E] The paper which, at that time, contained apologies for the court. [F] H—­y’s jest. [G] And what their armies lost, their cringes gain [H] And gain a kick. [I] The Spaniards at this time were said to make claim to some of our
    American provinces.
[J] This was by Hitch, a bookseller.  Justly observed to be no picture of
    modern manners, though it might be true at Rome.  MS. note in Dr.
    Johnson’s hand-writing.
[K] And, while thy beds. [L] And plants unseen. [M] A cant term in the house of commons for methods of raising money. [N] The nation was discontented at the visits made by the king to
    Hanover.
[O] Sustain’d the balance, but resign’d the sword.

THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES;

IN IMITATION OF

  THE TENTH SATIRE OF JUVENAL.

Let[a] observation, with extensive view,
Survey mankind, from China to Peru;
Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife,
And watch the busy scenes of crowded life;
Then say, how hope and fear, desire and hate
O’erspread with snares the clouded maze of fate,
Where wav’ring man, betray’d by vent’rous pride
To tread the dreary paths, without a guide,
As treach’rous phantoms in the mist delude,
Shuns fancied ills, or chases airy good;
How rarely reason guides the stubborn choice,
Rules the bold hand, or prompts the suppliant voice. 
How nations sink, by darling schemes oppress’d,
When vengeance listens to the fool’s request. 
Fate wings with ev’ry wish th’ afflictive dart,
Each gift of nature, and each grace of art;
With fatal heat impetuous courage glows,
With fatal sweetness elocution flows,
Impeachment stops the speaker’s pow’rful breath,
And restless fire precipitates on death.
[b]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;

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FOOTNOTES [a] Ver. 1—­11. [b] Ver. 12—­22. [c] In the first edition, “the bonny traitor!” an evident
    allusion to the Scotch lords who suffered for the rebellion in 1745.
[d] Clang around. [e] New fears. [f] Ver. 23-37. [g] Yet still the gen’ral cry. [h] Ver. 28-55. [i] Ver. 56—­107. [Transcriber’s note:  There is no Footnote [j]] [k] The richest landlord. [l] Ver. 108—­113. [m] Ver. 114—­132. [n]
  Resistless burns the fever of renown,
  Caught from the strong contagion of the gown.

    Mr. Boswell tells us, that when he remarked to Dr. Johnson, that
    there was an awkward repetition of the word spreads in this passage,
    he altered it to “Burns from the strong contagion of the gown;” but
    this expression, it appears, was only resumed from the reading in
    the first edition.
[o] There is a tradition, that the study of friar Bacon, built on an
    arch over the bridge, will fall, when a man greater than Bacon shall
    pass under it.  To prevent so shocking an accident, it was pulled
    down many years since.
[p] And sloth’s bland opiates shed their fumes in vain. [q] The garret and the

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[Transcriber’s note:  There is no Footnote [v] or Footnote [w]]

[x] O’er love or force. [y] Ver. 168—­187. [z] And all the sons. [aa] Ver. 188—­288. [bb] And yield. [cc] An age that melts in. [dd] Could wish its end. [ee] Ver. 289-345. [ff] Ver. 346-366. [gg]
     Yet, with the sense of sacred presence press’d,
     When strong devotion fills thy glowing breast.

[hh] Thinks death.

PROLOGUE,

SPOKEN BY MR. GARRICK, AT THE OPENING OF THE
THEATRE-ROYAL, DRURY LANE, 1747.

When learning’s triumph o’er her barb’rous foes
First rear’d the stage, immortal Shakespeare rose;
Each change of many-colour’d life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagin’d new: 
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting time toil’d after him in vain: 
His pow’rful strokes presiding truth impress’d,
And unresisted passion storm’d the breast. 
  Then Jonson came, instructed from the school
To please in method, and invent by rule;
His studious patience and laborious art,
By regular approach, assail’d the heart: 
Cold approbation gave the ling’ring bays;
For those, who durst not censure, scarce could praise: 
A mortal born, he met the gen’ral doom,
But left, like Egypt’s kings, a lasting tomb. 
  The wits of Charles found easier ways to fame,
Nor wish’d for Jonson’s art, or Shakespeare’s flame: 
Themselves they studied, as they felt, they writ;
Intrigue was plot, obscenity was wit;
Vice always found a sympathetick friend;
They pleas’d their age, and did not aim to mend. 
Yet bards, like these, aspir’d to lasting praise,
And proudly hop’d to pimp in future days. 
Their cause was gen’ral, their supports were strong;
Their slaves were willing, and their reign was long: 
Till shame regain’d the post that sense betray’d,
And virtue call’d oblivion to her aid. 
  Then, crush’d by rules, and weaken’d, as refin’d,
For years the pow’r of tragedy declin’d;
From bard to bard the frigid caution crept,
Till declamation roar’d, while passion slept;
Yet still did virtue deign the stage to tread,
Philosophy remain’d, though nature fled. 
But forced, at length, her ancient reign to quit,
She saw great Faustus lay the ghost of wit;
Exulting folly hail’d the joyful day,
And pantomime and song confirm’d her sway. 
  But who the coming changes can presage,

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[a] Hunt, a famous boxer on the stage; Mahomet, a ropedancer, who had
    exhibited at Covent garden theatre the winter before, said to be a
    Turk.

PREFATORY NOTICE TO

THE TRAGEDY OF IRENE.

The history of this tragedy’s composition is interesting, as affording dates to distinguish Johnson’s literary progress.  It was begun, and considerably advanced, while he kept a school at Edial, near Lichfield, in 1736.  In the following year, when he relinquished the task of a schoolmaster, so little congenial with his mind and disposition, and resolved to seek his fortunes in the metropolis, Irene was carried along with him as a foundation for his success.  Mr. Walmsley, one of his early friends, recommended him, and his fellow-adventurer, Garrick, to the notice and protection of Colson, the mathematician.  Unless Mrs. Piozzi is correct, in rescuing the character of Colson from any identity with that of Gelidus, in the Rambler[a], Johnson entertained no lively recollection of his first patron’s kindness.  He was ever warm in expressions of gratitude for favours, conferred on him in his season of want and obscurity; and from his deep silence here, we may conclude, that the recluse mathematician did not evince much sympathy with the distresses of the young candidate for dramatic fame.  Be this, however, as it may, Johnson, shortly after this introduction, took lodgings at Greenwich, to proceed with his Irene in quiet and retirement, but soon returned to Lichfield, to complete it.  The same year that saw these successive disappointments, witnessed also Johnson’s return to London, with his tragedy completed, and its rejection by Fleetwood, the patentee, at that time, of Drury lane theatre.  Twelve years elapsed, before it was acted, and, after many alterations by his pupil and companion, Garrick,

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“The tragedy of Irene,” says Mr. Murphy, “is founded on a passage in Knolles’s History of the Turks;” an author highly commended in the Rambler, No. 122.  An incident in the life of Mahomet the great, first emperor of the Turks, is the hinge, on which the fable is made to move.  The substance of the story is shortly this:—­In 1453, Mahomet laid siege to Constantinople, and, having reduced the place, became enamoured of a fair Greek, whose name was Irene.  The sultan invited her to embrace the law of the prophet, and to grace his throne.  Enraged at this intended marriage, the janizaries formed a conspiracy to dethrone the emperor.  To avert the impending danger, Mahomet, in a full assembly of the grandees, “catching, with one hand,” as Knolles relates it, “the fair Greek by the hair of her head, and drawing his falchion with the other, he, at one blow, struck off her head, to the great terror of them all; and, having so done, said unto them, ’Now, by this, judge whether your emperor is able to bridle his affections or not[c].’” We are not unjust, we conceive, in affirming, that there is an interest kept alive in the plain and simple narrative of the old historian, which is lost in the declamatory tragedy of Johnson.

It is sufficient, for our present purpose, to confess that he has failed in this his only dramatic attempt; we shall endeavour, more fully, to show how he has failed, in our discussion of his powers as a critic.  That they were not blinded to the defects of others, by his own inefficiency in dramatic composition, is fully proved by his judicious remarks on Cato, which was constructed on a plan similar to Irene:  and the strongest censure, ever passed on this tragedy, was conveyed in Garrick’s application of Johnson’s own severe, but correct critique, on the wits of Charles, in whose works

  “Declamation roar’d, while passion slept."[d]

“Addison speaks the language of poets,” says Johnson, in his preface to Shakespeare, “and Shakespeare of men.  We find in Cato innumerable beauties, which enamour us of its author, but we see nothing that acquaints us with human sentiments, or human actions; we place it with the fairest and the noblest progeny which judgment propagates by conjunction with learning; but Othello is the vigorous and vivacious offspring of observation, impregnated by genius.  Cato affords a splendid exhibition of artificial and fictitious manners, and delivers just and noble sentiments, in diction easy, elevated and harmonious; but its

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But, while we thus pronounce Johnson’s failure in the production of dramatic effect, we will not withhold our tribute of admiration from Irene, as a moral piece.  For, although a remark of Fox’s on an unpublished tragedy of Burke’s, that it was rather rhetorical than poetical, may be applied to the work under consideration; still it abounds, throughout, with the most elevated and dignified lessons of morality and virtue.  The address of Demetrius to the aged Cali, on the dangers of procrastination[e]; Aspasia’s reprobation of Irene’s meditated apostasy[f]; and the allusive panegyric on the British constitution[g], may be enumerated, as examples of its excellence in sentiment and diction.

Lastly, we may consider Irene, as one other illustrious proof, that the most strict adherence to the far-famed unities, the most harmonious versification, and the most correct philosophy, will not vie with a single and simple touch of nature, expressed in simple and artless language.  “But how rich in reputation must that author be, who can spare an Irene, and not feel the loss [h].”

FOOTNOTES [a] Rambler, No. 24, and note. [b] Boswell’s Life, i. [c] Murphy’s Essay on the Life and Genius of Dr. Johnson. [d] Prologue at the opening of Drury lane theatre, 1747. [e] Act iii. scene ii.  “To-morrow’s action!” &c. [f] Act iii. scene viii.  “Reflect, that life and death,” &c. [g] Act i. scene ii.  “If there be any land, as fame reports,” &c. [h] Dr. Young’s remark on Addison’s Cato.  See his Conjectures on
    Original Composition.  Works, vol. v.

PROLOGUE.

Ye glitt’ring train, whom lace and velvet bless,
Suspend the soft solicitudes of dress! 
From grov’ling bus’ness and superfluous care,
Ye sons of avarice, a moment spare! 
Vot’ries of fame, and worshippers of power,
Dismiss the pleasing phantoms for an hour! 
Our daring bard, with spirit unconfin’d,
Spreads wide the mighty moral for mankind. 
Learn here, how heaven supports the virtuous mind,
Daring, though calm; and vig’rous, though resign’d;
Learn here, what anguish racks the guilty breast,
In pow’r dependant, in success depress’d. 
Learn here, that peace from innocence must flow;
All else is empty sound, and idle show.

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If truths, like these, with pleasing language join;
Ennobled, yet unchang’d, if nature shine;
If no wild draught depart from reason’s rules;
Nor gods his heroes, nor his lovers fools;
Intriguing wits! his artless plot forgive;
And spare him, beauties! though his lovers live.

Be this, at least, his praise, be this his pride;
To force applause, no modern arts are try’d. 
Should partial catcals all his hopes confound,
He bids no trumpet quell the fatal sound. 
Should welcome sleep relieve the weary wit,
He rolls no thunders o’er the drowsy pit;
No snares, to captivate the judgment, spreads,
Nor bribes your eyes to prejudice your heads. 
Unmov’d, though witlings sneer, and rivals rail,
Studious to please, yet not asham’d to fail,
He scorns the meek address, the suppliant strain,
With merit needless, and without it vain. 
In reason, nature, truth, he dares to trust: 
Ye fops, be silent:  and, ye wits, be just!

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.

  MEN.

MAHOMET, Emperour of the Turks, Mr. BARRY.

CALI BASSA, First vizier, Mr. BERRY.

MUSTAPHA, A Turkish aga, Mr. SOWDEN.

ABDALLA, An officer, Mr. HAVARD.

HASAN, \ / Mr. USHER,
             Turkish captains,
CARAZA, / \ Mr. BURTON.

DEMETRIUS, \ / Mr. GARRICK,
             Greek noblemen,
LEONTIUS, / \ MR. BLAKES.

MURZA, An eunuch, Mr. KING.

WOMEN.

ASPASIA, \ / Mrs. GIBBER,
             Greek ladies,
IRENE, / \ Mrs. PRITCHARD.

Attendants on IRENE.

ACT I.—­SCENE I.

DEMETRIUS and LEONTIUS, in Turkish habits.

LEONTIUS. 
And, is it thus Demetrius meets his friend,
Hid in the mean disguise of Turkish robes,
With servile secrecy to lurk in shades,
And vent our suff’rings in clandestine groans?

DEMETRIUS. 
Till breathless fury rested from destruction,
These groans were fatal, these disguises vain: 
But, now our Turkish conquerors have quench’d
Their rage, and pall’d their appetite of murder,
No more the glutted sabre thirsts for blood;
And weary cruelty remits her tortures.

LEONTIUS. 
Yet Greece enjoys no gleam of transient hope,
No soothing interval of peaceful sorrow: 
The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest;
—­The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless,
The last corruption of degen’rate man! 
Urg’d by th’ imperious soldiers’ fierce command,
The groaning Greeks break up their golden caverns,
Pregnant with stores, that India’s mines might envy,
Th’ accumulated wealth of toiling ages.

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DEMETRIUS. 
That wealth, too sacred for their country’s use! 
That wealth, too pleasing to be lost for freedom! 
That wealth, which, granted to their weeping prince,
Had rang’d embattled nations at our gates! 
But, thus reserv’d to lure the wolves of Turkey,
Adds shame to grief, and infamy to ruin. 
Lamenting av’rice, now too late, discovers
Her own neglected in the publick safety.

LEONTIUS. 
Reproach not misery.—­The sons of Greece,
Ill fated race! so oft besieg’d in vain,
With false security beheld invasion. 
Why should they fear?—­That pow’r that kindly spreads
The clouds, a signal of impending show’rs,
To warn the wand’ring linnet to the shade,
Beheld without concern expiring Greece;
And not one prodigy foretold our fate.

DEMETRIUS. 
A thousand horrid prodigies foretold it: 
A feeble government, eluded laws,
A factious populace, luxurious nobles,
And all the maladies of sinking states. 
When publick villany, too strong for justice,
Shows his bold front, the harbinger of ruin,
Can brave Leontius call for airy wonders,
Which cheats interpret, and which fools regard? 
When some neglected fabrick nods beneath
The weight of years, and totters to the tempest,
Must heav’n despatch the messengers of light,
Or wake the dead, to warn us of its fall?

LEONTIUS. 
Well might the weakness of our empire sink
Before such foes of more than human force: 
Some pow’r invisible, from heav’n or hell,
Conducts their armies, and asserts their cause.

DEMETRIUS. 
And yet, my friend, what miracles were wrought
Beyond the pow’r of constancy and courage? 
Did unresisted lightning aid their cannon? 
Did roaring whirlwinds sweep us from the ramparts? 
’Twas vice that shook our nerves, ’twas vice, Leontius,
That froze our veins, and wither’d all our pow’rs.

LEONTIUS. 
Whate’er our crimes, our woes demand compassion. 
Each night, protected by the friendly darkness,
Quitting my close retreat, I range the city,
And, weeping, kiss the venerable ruins;
With silent pangs, I view the tow’ring domes,
Sacred to pray’r; and wander through the streets,
Where commerce lavish’d unexhausted plenty,
And jollity maintain’d eternal revels—­

DEMETRIUS. 
—­How chang’d, alas!—­Now ghastly desolation,
In triumph, sits upon our shatter’d spires;
Now superstition, ignorance, and errour,
Usurp our temples, and profane our altars.

LEONTIUS. 
From ev’ry palace bursts a mingled clamour,
The dreadful dissonance of barb’rous triumph,
Shrieks of affright, and waitings of distress. 
Oft when the cries of violated beauty
Arose to heav’n, and pierc’d my bleeding breast,
I felt thy pains, and trembled for Aspasia.

DEMETRIUS. 
Aspasia!—­spare that lov’d, that mournful name: 
Dear, hapless maid—­tempestuous grief o’erbears
My reasoning pow’rs—­Dear, hapless, lost Aspasia!

Page 92

LEONTIUS. 
Suspend the thought.

DEMETRIUS. 
All thought on her is madness;
Yet let me think—­I see the helpless maid;
Behold the monsters gaze with savage rapture,
Behold how lust and rapine struggle round her!

LEONTIUS. 
Awake, Demetrius, from this dismal dream;
Sink not beneath imaginary sorrows;
Call to your aid your courage and your wisdom;
Think on the sudden change of human scenes;
Think on the various accidents of war;
Think on the mighty pow’r of awful virtue;
Think on that providence that guards the good.

DEMETRIUS. 
O providence! extend thy care to me;
For courage droops, unequal to the combat;
And weak philosophy denies her succours. 
Sure, some kind sabre in the heat of battle,
Ere yet the foe found leisure to be cruel,
Dismiss’d her to the sky.

  LEONTIUS. 
                        Some virgin martyr,
Perhaps, enamour’d of resembling virtue,
With gentle hand, restrain’d the streams of life,
And snatch’d her timely from her country’s fate.

DEMETRIUS. 
From those bright regions of eternal day,
Where now thou shin’st among thy fellow-saints,
Array’d in purer light, look down on me: 
In pleasing visions and assuasive dreams,
O! sooth my soul, and teach me how to lose thee.

LEONTIUS. 
Enough of unavailing tears, Demetrius: 
I come obedient to thy friendly summons,
And hop’d to share thy counsels, not thy sorrows: 
While thus we mourn the fortune of Aspasia,
To what are we reserv’d?

DEMETRIUS. 
To what I know not: 
But hope, yet hope, to happiness and honour;
If happiness can be, without Aspasia.

LEONTIUS. 
But whence this new-sprung hope?

DEMETRIUS. 
From Cali bassa,
The chief, whose wisdom guides the Turkish counsels. 
He, tir’d of slav’ry, though the highest slave,
Projects, at once, our freedom and his own;
And bids us, thus disguis’d, await him here.

LEONTIUS. 
Can he restore the state he could not save? 
In vain, when Turkey’s troops assail’d our walls,
His kind intelligence betray’d their measures;
Their arms prevail’d, though Cali was our friend.

DEMETRIUS. 
When the tenth sun had set upon our sorrows,
At midnight’s private hour, a voice unknown
Sounds in my sleeping ear, ’Awake, Demetrius,
Awake, and follow me to better fortunes.’ 
Surpris’d I start, and bless the happy dream;
Then, rousing, know the fiery chief Abdalla,
Whose quick impatience seiz’d my doubtful hand,
And led me to the shore where Cali stood,
Pensive, and list’ning to the beating surge. 
There, in soft hints, and in ambiguous phrase,
With all the diffidence of long experience,
That oft had practis’d fraud, and oft detected,
The vet’ran courtier half reveal’d his project. 
By his command, equipp’d for speedy flight,
Deep in a winding creek a galley lies,
Mann’d with the bravest of our fellow-captives,
Selected by my care, a hardy band,
That long to hail thee chief.

Page 93

LEONTIUS. 
But what avails
So small a force? or, why should Cali fly? 
Or, how can Call’s flight restore our country?

DEMETRIUS. 
Reserve these questions for a safer hour;
Or hear himself, for see the bassa comes.

SCENE II.

DEMETRIUS, LEONTIUS, CALI.

CALI. 
Now summon all thy soul, illustrious Christian! 
Awake each faculty that sleeps within thee: 
The courtier’s policy, the sage’s firmness,
The warriour’s ardour, and the patriot’s zeal. 
If, chasing past events with vain pursuit,
Or wand’ring in the wilds of future being,
A single thought now rove, recall it home.—­
But can thy friend sustain the glorious cause,
The cause of liberty, the cause of nations?

DEMETRIUS. 
Observe him closely, with a statesman’s eye,
Thou, that hast long perus’d the draughts of nature,
And know’st the characters of vice and virtue,
Left by the hand of heav’n on human clay.

CALI. 
His mien is lofty, his demeanour great;
Nor sprightly folly wantons in his air;
Nor dull serenity becalms his eyes. 
Such had I trusted once, as soon as seen,
But cautious age suspects the flatt’ring form,
And only credits what experience tells. 
Has silence press’d her seal upon his lips? 
Does adamantine faith invest his heart? 
Will he not bend beneath a tyrant’s frown? 
Will he not melt before ambition’s fire? 
Will he not soften in a friend’s embrace? 
Or flow dissolving in a woman’s tears?

DEMETRIUS. 
Sooner the trembling leaves shall find a voice,
And tell the secrets of their conscious walks;
Sooner the breeze shall catch the flying sounds,
And shock the tyrant with a tale of treason. 
Your slaughter’d multitudes, that swell the shore
With monuments of death, proclaim his courage;
Virtue and liberty engross his soul,
And leave no place for perfidy, or fear.

LEONTIUS. 
I scorn a trust unwillingly repos’d;
Demetrius will not lead me to dishonour;
Consult in private, call me, when your scheme
Is ripe for action, and demands the sword. [Going.

DEMETRIUS. 
Leontius, stay.

CALI. 
Forgive an old man’s weakness,
And share the deepest secrets of my soul,
My wrongs, my fears, my motives, my designs.—­
When unsuccessful wars, and civil factions
Embroil’d the Turkish state, our sultan’s father,
Great Amurath, at my request, forsook
The cloister’s ease, resum’d the tott’ring throne,
And snatch’d the reins of abdicated pow’r
From giddy Mahomet’s unskilful hand. 
This fir’d the youthful king’s ambitious breast: 
He murmurs vengeance, at the name of Cali,
And dooms my rash fidelity to ruin.

DEMETRIUS. 
Unhappy lot of all that shine in courts,
For forc’d compliance, or for zealous virtue,
Still odious to the monarch, or the people.

Page 94

CALI. 
Such are the woes, when arbitrary pow’r
And lawless passion hold the sword of justice. 
If there be any land, as fame reports,
Where common laws restrain the prince and subject,
A happy land, where circulating pow’r
Flows through each member of th’ embodied state;
Sure, not unconscious of the mighty blessing,
Her grateful sons shine bright with every virtue;
Untainted with the lust of innovation,
Sure, all unite to hold her league of rule
Unbroken, as the sacred chain of nature
That links the jarring elements in peace.

LEONTIUS. 
But say, great bassa, why the sultan’s anger,
Burning in vain, delays the stroke of death?

CALI. 
Young, and unsettled in his father’s kingdoms,
Fierce as he was, he dreaded to destroy
The empire’s darling, and the soldier’s boast;
But now confirm’d, and swelling with his conquests,
Secure, he tramples my declining fame,
Frowns unrestrain’d, and dooms me with his eyes.

DEMETRIUS. 
What can reverse thy doom?

CALI. 
The tyrant’s death.

DEMETRIUS. 
But Greece is still forgot.

CALI. 
On Asia’s coast,
Which lately bless’d my gentle government,
Soon as the sultan’s unexpected fate
Fills all th’ astonish’d empire with confusion,
My policy shall raise an easy throne;
The Turkish pow’rs from Europe shall retreat,
And harass Greece no more with wasteful war. 
A galley mann’d with Greeks, thy charge, Leontius,
Attends to waft us to repose and safety.

DEMETRIUS. 
That vessel, if observ’d, alarms the court,
And gives a thousand fatal questions birth: 
Why stor’d for flight? and why prepar’d by Cali?

CALI. 
This hour I’ll beg, with unsuspecting face,
Leave to perform my pilgrimage to Mecca;
Which granted, hides my purpose from the world,
And, though refus’d, conceals it from the sultan.

LEONTIUS. 
How can a single hand attempt a life,
Which armies guard, and citadels enclose?

CALI. 
Forgetful of command, with captive beauties,
Far from his troops, he toys his hours away. 
A roving soldier seiz’d, in Sophia’s temple,
A virgin, shining with distinguish’d charms,
And brought his beauteous plunder to the sultan—­

DEMETRIUS. 
In Sophia’s temple!—­What alarm!—­Proceed.

CALI. 
The sultan gaz’d, he wonder’d, and he lov’d: 
In passion lost, he bade the conqu’ring fair
Renounce her faith, and be the queen of Turkey. 
The pious maid, with modest indignation,
Threw back the glitt’ring bribe.

DEMETRIUS. 
Celestial goodness! 
It must, it must be she;—­her name?

CALI. 
Aspasia.

DEMETRIUS. 
What hopes, what terrours, rush upon my soul! 
O lead me quickly to the scene of fate;
Break through the politician’s tedious forms;
Aspasia calls me, let me fly to save her.

Page 95

LEONTIUS. 
Did Mahomet reproach, or praise her virtue?

CALI. 
His offers, oft repeated, still refus’d,
At length rekindled his accustomed fury,
And chang’d th’ endearing smile, and am’rous whisper
To threats of torture, death, and violation.

DEMETRIUS. 
These tedious narratives of frozen age
Distract my soul;—­despatch thy ling’ring tale;
Say, did a voice from heav’n restrain the tyrant? 
Did interposing angels guard her from him?

CALI. 
Just in the moment of impending fate,
Another plund’rer brought the bright Irene;
Of equal beauty, but of softer mien,
Fear in her eye, submission on her tongue,
Her mournful charms attracted his regards,
Disarm’d his rage, and, in repeated visits,
Gain’d all his heart; at length, his eager love
To her transferr’d the offer of a crown,

LEONTIUS. 
Nor found again the bright temptation fail?

CALI. 
Trembling to grant, nor daring to refuse,
While heav’n and Mahomet divide her fears,
With coy caresses and with pleasing wiles
She feeds his hopes, and sooths him to delay. 
For her, repose is banish’d from the night,
And bus’ness from the day:  in her apartments
He lives—­

LEONTIUS. 
And there must fall.

CALI. 
But yet, th’ attempt
Is hazardous.

LEONTIUS. 
Forbear to speak of hazards;
What has the wretch, that has surviv’d his country,
His friends, his liberty, to hazard?

CALI. 
Life.

DEMETRIUS. 
Th’ inestimable privilege of breathing! 
Important hazard!  What’s that airy bubble,
When weigh’d with Greece, with virtue, with Aspasia?—­
A floating atom, dust that falls, unheeded,
Into the adverse scale, nor shakes the balance.

CALI. 
At least, this day be calm—­If we succeed,
Aspasia’s thine, and all thy life is rapture.—­
See!  Mustapha, the tyrant’s minion, comes;
Invest Leontius with his new command;
And wait Abdalla’s unsuspected visits: 
Remember freedom, glory, Greece, and love.
[Exeunt Demetrius and Leontius.

SCENE III.

CALI, MUSTAPHA.

MUSTAPHA. 
By what enchantment does this lovely Greek
Hold in her chains the captivated sultan? 
He tires his fav’rites with Irene’s praise,
And seeks the shades to muse upon Irene;
Irene steals, unheeded, from his tongue,
And mingles, unperceiv’d, with ev’ry thought.

CALI. 
Why should the sultan shun the joys of beauty,
Or arm his breast against the force of love? 
Love, that with sweet vicissitude relieves
The warriour’s labours and the monarch’s cares. 
But, will she yet receive the faith of Mecca?

MUSTAPHA. 
Those pow’rful tyrants of the female breast,
Fear and ambition, urge her to compliance;
Dress’d in each charm of gay magnificence,
Alluring grandeur courts her to his arms,
Religion calls her from the wish’d embrace,
Paints future joys, and points to distant glories.

Page 96

CALI. 
Soon will th’ unequal contest be decided. 
Prospects, obscur’d by distance, faintly strike;
Each pleasure brightens, at its near approach,
And ev’ry danger shocks with double horrour.

MUSTAPHA. 
How shall I scorn the beautiful apostate! 
How will the bright Aspasia shine above her!

CALI. 
Should she, for proselytes are always zealous,
With pious warmth receive our prophet’s law—­

MUSTAPHA. 
Heav’n will contemn the mercenary fervour,
Which love of greatness, not of truth, inflames.

CALI. 
Cease, cease thy censures; for the sultan comes
Alone, with am’rous haste to seek his love.

SCENE IV.

MAHOMET, CALI, MUSTAPHA.

CALI. 
Hail! terrour of the monarchs of the world;
Unshaken be thy throne, as earth’s firm base;
Live, till the sun forgets to dart his beams,
And weary planets loiter in their courses!

MAHOMET. 
But, Cali, let Irene share thy prayers;
For what is length of days, without Irene? 
I come from empty noise, and tasteless pomp,
From crowds, that hide a monarch from himself,
To prove the sweets of privacy and friendship,
And dwell upon the beauties of Irene.

CALI. 
O may her beauties last, unchang’d by time,
As those that bless the mansions of the good!

MAHOMET. 
Each realm, where beauty turns the graceful shape,
Swells the fair breast, or animates the glance,
Adorns my palace with its brightest virgins;
Yet, unacquainted with these soft emotions,
I walk’d superiour through the blaze of charms,
Prais’d without rapture, left without regret. 
Why rove I now, when absent from my fair,
From solitude to crowds, from crowds to solitude,
Still restless, till I clasp the lovely maid,
And ease my loaded soul upon her bosom?

MUSTAPHA. 
Forgive, great sultan, that intrusive duty
Inquires the final doom of Menodorus,
The Grecian counsellor.

MAHOMET. 
Go, see him die;
His martial rhet’rick taught the Greeks resistance;
Had they prevail’d, I ne’er had known Irene.

[Exit Mustapha.

SCENE V.

MAHOMET, CALI.

MAHOMET. 
Remote from tumult, in th’ adjoining palace,
Thy care shall guard this treasure of my soul: 
There let Aspasia, since my fair entreats it,
With converse chase the melancholy moments. 
Sure, chill’d with sixty winter camps, thy blood,
At sight of female charms, will glow no more.

CALI. 
These years, unconquer’d Mahomet, demand
Desires more pure, and other cares than love. 
Long have I wish’d, before our prophet’s tomb,
To pour my pray’rs for thy successful reign,
To quit the tumults of the noisy camp,
And sink into the silent grave in peace.

Page 97

MAHOMET. 
What! think of peace, while haughty Scanderbeg,
Elate with conquest, in his native mountains,
Prowls o’er the wealthy spoils of bleeding Turkey! 
While fair Hungaria’s unexhausted valleys
Pour forth their legions; and the roaring Danube
Rolls half his floods, unheard, through shouting camps! 
Nor could’st thou more support a life of sloth
Than Amurath—­

CALI. 
Still, full of Amurath! [Aside.

MAHOMET. 
Than Amurath, accustom’d to command,
Could bear his son upon the Turkish throne.

CALI. 
This pilgrimage our lawgiver ordain’d—­

MAHOMET. 
For those, who could not please by nobler service.—­
Our warlike prophet loves an active faith. 
The holy flame of enterprising virtue
Mocks the dull vows of solitude and penance,
And scorns the lazy hermit’s cheap devotion. 
Shine thou, distinguish’d by superiour merit;
With wonted zeal pursue the task of war,
Till ev’ry nation reverence the koran,
And ev’ry suppliant lift his eyes to Mecca.

CALI. 
This regal confidence, this pious ardour,
Let prudence moderate, though not suppress. 
Is not each realm, that smiles with kinder suns,
Or boasts a happier soil, already thine? 
Extended empire, like expanded gold,
Exchanges solid strength for feeble splendour.

  MAHOMET. 
Preach thy dull politicks to vulgar kings,
Thou know’st not yet thy master’s future greatness,
His vast designs, his plans of boundless pow’r. 
  When ev’ry storm in my domain shall roar,
  When ev’ry wave shall beat a Turkish shore;
  Then, Cali, shall the toils of battle cease,
  Then dream of pray’r, and pilgrimage, and peace.
                                [Exeunt.

ACT II.—­SCENE I. ASPASIA, IRENE.

IRENE. 
Aspasia, yet pursue the sacred theme;
Exhaust the stores of pious eloquence,
And teach me to repel the sultan’s passion. 
Still, at Aspasia’s voice, a sudden rapture
Exalts my soul, and fortifies my heart;
The glitt’ring vanities of empty greatness,
The hopes and fears, the joys and pains of life,
Dissolve in air, and vanish into nothing.

ASPASIA. 
Let nobler hopes and juster fears succeed,
And bar the passes of Irene’s mind
Against returning guilt.

IRENE. 
When thou art absent,
Death rises to my view, with all his terrours;
Then visions, horrid as a murd’rer’s dreams,
Chill my resolves, and blast my blooming virtue: 
Stern torture shakes his bloody scourge before me,
And anguish gnashes on the fatal wheel.

ASPASIA. 
Since fear predominates in ev’ry thought,
And sways thy breast with absolute dominion,
Think on th’ insulting scorn, the conscious pangs,
The future mis’ries, that wait th’ apostate;
So shall timidity assist thy reason,
And wisdom into virtue turn thy frailty.

Page 98

IRENE. 
Will not that pow’r, that form’d the heart of woman,
And wove the feeble texture of her nerves,
Forgive those fears that shake the tender frame?

ASPASIA. 
The weakness we lament, ourselves create;
Instructed, from our infant years, to court,
With counterfeited fears, the aid of man,
We learn to shudder at the rustling breeze,
Start at the light, and tremble in the dark;
Till, affectation ripening to belief,
And folly, frighted at her own chimeras,
Habitual cowardice usurps the soul.

IRENE. 
Not all, like thee, can brave the shocks of fate. 
Thy soul, by nature great, enlarg’d by knowledge,
Soars unincumber’d with our idle cares,
And all Aspasia, but her beauty’s man.

ASPASIA. 
Each gen’rous sentiment is thine, Demetrius,
Whose soul, perhaps, yet mindful of Aspasia,
Now hovers o’er this melancholy shade,
Well pleas’d to find thy precepts not forgotten. 
Oh! could the grave restore the pious hero,
Soon would his art or valour set us free,
And bear us far from servitude and crimes.

IRENE. 
He yet may live.

ASPASIA. 
Alas! delusive dream! 
Too well I know him; his immoderate courage,
Th’ impetuous sallies of excessive virtue,
Too strong for love, have hurried him on death.

SCENE II.

ASPASIA, IRENE, CALI, ABDALLA.

CALI to ABDALLA, as they advance. 
Behold our future sultaness, Abdalla;—­
Let artful flatt’ry now, to lull suspicion,
Glide, through Irene, to the sultan’s ear. 
Would’st thou subdue th’ obdurate cannibal
To tender friendship, praise him to his mistress.

[To IRENE.]

Well may those eyes, that view these heav’nly charms,
Reject the daughters of contending kings;
For what are pompous titles, proud alliance,
Empire or wealth, to excellence like thine?

ABDALLA. 
Receive th’ impatient sultan to thy arms;
And may a long posterity of monarchs,
The pride and terrour of succeeding days,
Rise from the happy bed; and future queens
Diffuse Irene’s beauty through the world!

IRENE. 
Can Mahomet’s imperial hand descend
To clasp a slave? or can a soul, like mine,
Unus’d to pow’r, and form’d for humbler scenes,
Support the splendid miseries of greatness?

CALI. 
No regal pageant, deck’d with casual honours,
Scorn’d by his subjects, trampled by his foes;
No feeble tyrant of a petty state,
Courts thee to shake on a dependant throne;
Born to command, as thou to charm mankind,
The sultan from himself derives his greatness. 
Observe, bright maid, as his resistless voice
Drives on the tempest of destructive war,
How nation after nation falls before him.

ABDALLA. 
At his dread name the distant mountains shake
Their cloudy summits, and the sons of fierceness,
That range uncivilized from rock to rock,
Distrust th’ eternal fortresses of nature,
And wish their gloomy caverns more obscure.

Page 99

ASPASIA. 
Forbear this lavish pomp of dreadful praise;
The horrid images of war and slaughter
Renew our sorrows, and awake our fears.

ABDALLA. 
Cali, methinks yon waving trees afford
A doubtful glimpse of our approaching friends;
Just as I mark’d them, they forsook the shore,
And turn’d their hasty steps towards the garden.

CALI. 
Conduct these queens, Abdalla, to the palace: 
Such heav’nly beauty, form’d for adoration,
The pride of monarchs, the reward of conquest! 
Such beauty must not shine to vulgar eyes.

SCENE III.

CALI, solus.

How heav’n, in scorn of human arrogance,
Commits to trivial chance the fate of nations! 
While, with incessant thought, laborious man
Extends his mighty schemes of wealth and pow’r,
And towers and triumphs in ideal greatness;
Some accidental gust of opposition
Blasts all the beauties of his new creation,
O’erturns the fabrick of presumptuous reason,
And whelms the swelling architect beneath it. 
Had not the breeze untwin’d the meeting boughs,
And, through the parted shade, disclos’d the Greeks,
Th’ important hour had pass’d, unheeded, by,
In all the sweet oblivion of delight,
In all the fopperies of meeting lovers;
In sighs and tears, in transports and embraces,
In soft complaints, and idle protestations.

SCENE IV.

CALI, DEMETRIUS, LEONTIUS.

CALI. 
Could omens fright the resolute and wise,
Well might we fear impending disappointments.

LEONTIUS. 
Your artful suit, your monarch’s fierce denial,
The cruel doom of hapless Menodorus—­

DEMETRIUS. 
And your new charge, that dear, that heav’nly maid—­

LEONTIUS. 
All this we know already from Abdalla.

DEMETRIUS. 
Such slight defeats but animate the brave
To stronger efforts and maturer counsels.

CALI. 
My doom confirm’d establishes my purpose. 
Calmly he heard, till Amurath’s resumption
Rose to his thought, and set his soul on fire: 
When from his lips the fatal name burst out,
A sudden pause th’ imperfect sense suspended,
Like the dread stillness of condensing storms.

DEMETRIUS. 
The loudest cries of nature urge us forward;
Despotick rage pursues the life of Cali;
His groaning country claims Leontius’ aid;
And yet another voice, forgive me, Greece,
The pow’rful voice of love, inflames Demetrius;
Each ling’ring hour alarms me for Aspasia.

CALI. 
What passions reign among thy crew, Leontius? 
Does cheerless diffidence oppress their hearts? 
Or sprightly hope exalt their kindling spirits? 
Do they, with pain, repress the struggling shout,
And listen eager to the rising wind?

LEONTIUS. 
All there is hope, and gaiety, and courage,
No cloudy doubts, or languishing delays;
Ere I could range them on the crowded deck,
At once a hundred voices thunder’d round me,
And ev’ry voice was liberty and Greece.

Page 100

DEMETRIUS. 
Swift let us rush upon the careless tyrant,
Nor give him leisure for another crime.

LEONTIUS. 
Then let us now resolve, nor idly waste
Another hour in dull deliberation.

CALI. 
But see, where destin’d to protract our counsels,
Comes Mustapha.—­Your Turkish robes conceal you. 
Retire with speed, while I prepare to meet him
With artificial smiles, and seeming friendship.

SCENE V.

CALI, MUSTAPHA.

CALI. 
I see the gloom, that low’rs upon thy brow;
These days of love and pleasure charm not thee;
Too slow these gentle constellations roll;
Thou long’st for stars, that frown on human kind,
And scatter discord from their baleful beams.

MUSTAPHA. 
How blest art thou, still jocund and serene,
Beneath the load of business, and of years!

CALI. 
Sure, by some wond’rous sympathy of souls,
My heart still beats responsive to the sultan’s;
I share, by secret instinct, all his joys,
And feel no sorrow, while my sov’reign smiles.

MUSTAPHA. 
The sultan comes, impatient for his love;
Conduct her hither; let no rude intrusion
Molest these private walks, or care invade
These hours, assign’d to pleasure and Irene.

SCENE VI.

MAHOMET, MUSTAPHA.

MAHOMET. 
Now, Mustapha, pursue thy tale of horrour. 
Has treason’s dire infection reach’d my palace? 
Can Cali dare the stroke of heav’nly justice,
In the dark precincts of the gaping grave,
And load with perjuries his parting soul? 
Was it for this, that, sick’ning in Epirus,
My father call’d me to his couch of death,
Join’d Cali’s hand to mine, and falt’ring cried,
Restrain the fervour of impetuous youth
With venerable Cali’s faithful counsels? 
Are these the counsels, this the faith of Cali? 
Were all our favours lavish’d on a villain? 
Confest?—­

MUSTAPHA. 
Confest by dying Menodorus. 
In his last agonies, the gasping coward,
Amidst the tortures of the burning steel,
Still fond of life, groan’d out the dreadful secret,
Held forth this fatal scroll, then sunk to nothing.

MAHOMET. examining the paper. 
His correspondence with our foes of Greece! 
His hand! his seal!  The secrets of my soul,
Conceal’d from all but him!  All, all conspire
To banish doubt, and brand him for a villain! 
Our schemes for ever cross’d, our mines discover’d,
Betray’d some traitor lurking near my bosom. 
Oft have I rag’d, when their wide-wasting cannon
Lay pointed at our batt’ries yet unform’d,
And broke the meditated lines of war. 
Detested Cali, too, with artful wonder,
Would shake his wily head, and closely whisper,
Beware of Mustapha, beware of treason.

MUSTAPHA. 
The faith of Mustapha disdains suspicion;
But yet, great emperour, beware of treason;
Th’ insidious bassa, fir’d by disappointment—­

Page 101

MAHOMET. 
Shall feel the vengeance of an injur’d king. 
Go, seize him, load him with reproachful chains;
Before th’ assembled troops, proclaim his crimes;
Then leave him, stretch’d upon the ling’ring rack,
Amidst the camp to howl his life away.

MUSTAPHA. 
Should we, before the troops, proclaim his crimes,
I dread his arts of seeming innocence,
His bland address, and sorcery of tongue;
And, should he fall, unheard, by sudden justice,
Th’ adoring soldiers would revenge their idol.

MAHOMET. 
Cali, this day, with hypocritick zeal,
Implor’d my leave to visit Mecca’s temple;
Struck with the wonder of a statesman’s goodness,
I rais’d his thoughts to more sublime devotion. 
Now let him go, pursu’d by silent wrath,
Meet unexpected daggers in his way,
And, in some distant land, obscurely die.

MUSTAPHA. 
There will his boundless wealth, the spoil of Asia,
Heap’d by your father’s ill-plac’d bounties on him,
Disperse rebellion through the eastern world;
Bribe to his cause, and list beneath his banners,
Arabia’s roving troops, the sons of swiftness,
And arm the Persian heretick against thee;
There shall he waste thy frontiers, check thy conquests,
And, though at length subdued, elude thy vengeance.

MAHOMET. 
Elude my vengeance!  No—­My troops shall range
Th’ eternal snows that freeze beyond Maeotis,
And Africk’s torrid sands, in search of Cali. 
Should the fierce north, upon his frozen wings,
Bear him aloft, above the wond’ring clouds,
And seat him in the pleiads’ golden chariots,
Thence shall my fury drag him down to tortures;
Wherever guilt can fly, revenge can follow.

MUSTAPHA. 
Wilt thou dismiss the savage from the toils,
Only to hunt him round the ravag’d world?

MAHOMET. 
Suspend his sentence—­Empire and Irene
Claim my divided soul.  This wretch, unworthy
To mix with nobler cares, I’ll throw aside
For idle hours, and crush him at my leisure.

MUSTAPHA. 
Let not th’ unbounded greatness of his mind
Betray my king to negligence of danger. 
Perhaps, the clouds of dark conspiracy
Now roll, full fraught with thunder, o’er your head. 
Twice, since the morning rose, I saw the bassa,
Like a fell adder swelling in a brake,
Beneath the covert of this verdant arch,
In private conference; beside him stood
Two men unknown, the partners of his bosom;
I mark’d them well, and trac’d in either face
The gloomy resolution, horrid greatness,
And stern composure, of despairing heroes;
And, to confirm my thoughts, at sight of me,
As blasted by my presence, they withdrew,
With all the speed of terrour and of guilt.

MAHOMET. 
The strong emotions of my troubled soul
Allow no pause for art or for contrivance;
And dark perplexity distracts my counsels. 
Do thou resolve:  for, see, Irene comes! 
At her approach each ruder gust of thought
Sinks, like the sighing of a tempest spent,
And gales of softer passion fan my bosom.
[Cali enters with Irene, and exit [Transcriber’s note:  sic] with
Mustapha.

Page 102

SCENE VII.

MAHOMET, IRENE.

MAHOMET. 
Wilt thou descend, fair daughter of perfection,
To hear my vows, and give mankind a queen? 
Ah! cease, Irene, cease those flowing sorrows,
That melt a heart impregnable till now,
And turn thy thoughts, henceforth, to love and empire. 
How will the matchless beauties of Irene,
Thus bright in tears, thus amiable in ruin,
With all the graceful pride of greatness heighten’d,
Amidst the blaze of jewels and of gold,
Adorn a throne, and dignify dominion!

IRENE. 
Why all this glare of splendid eloquence,
To paint the pageantries of guilty state? 
Must I, for these, renounce the hope of heav’n,
Immortal crowns, and fulness of enjoyment?

MAHOMET. 
Vain raptures all—­For your inferiour natures,
Form’d to delight, and happy by delighting,
Heav’n has reserv’d no future paradise,
But bids you rove the paths of bliss, secure
Of total death, and careless of hereafter;
While heaven’s high minister, whose awful volume
Records each act, each thought of sov’reign man,
Surveys your plays with inattentive glance,
And leaves the lovely trifler unregarded.

IRENE. 
Why then has nature’s vain munificence
Profusely pour’d her bounties upon woman? 
Whence, then, those charms thy tongue has deign’d to flatter,
That air resistless, and enchanting blush,
Unless the beauteous fabrick was design’d
A habitation for a fairer soul?

MAHOMET. 
Too high, bright maid, thou rat’st exteriour grace: 
Not always do the fairest flow’rs diffuse
The richest odours, nor the speckled shells
Conceal the gem; let female arrogance
Observe the feather’d wand’rers of the sky;
With purple varied, and bedrop’d with gold,
They prune the wing, and spread the glossy plumes,
Ordain’d, like you, to flutter and to shine,
And cheer the weary passenger with musick.

IRENE. 
Mean as we are, this tyrant of the world
Implores our smiles, and trembles at our feet. 
Whence flow the hopes and fears, despair and rapture,
Whence all the bliss and agonies of love?

MAHOMET. 
Why, when the balm of sleep descends on man,
Do gay delusions, wand’ring o’er the brain,
Sooth the delighted soul with empty bliss? 
To want, give affluence? and to slav’ry, freedom? 
Such are love’s joys, the lenitives of life,
A fancy’d treasure, and a waking dream.

IRENE. 
Then let me once, in honour of our sex,
Assume the boastful arrogance of man. 
Th’ attractive softness, and th’ endearing smile,
And pow’rful glance, ’tis granted, are our own;
Nor has impartial nature’s frugal hand
Exhausted all her nobler gifts on you. 
Do not we share the comprehensive thought,
Th’ enlivening wit, the penetrating reason? 
Beats not the female breast with gen’rous passions,
The thirst of empire, and the love of glory?

Page 103

MAHOMET. 
Illustrious maid, new wonders fix me thine;
Thy soul completes the triumphs of thy face. 
I thought (forgive, my fair,) the noblest aim,
The strongest effort of a female soul,
Was but to choose the graces of the day;
To tune the tongue, to teach the eyes to roll,
Dispose the colours of the flowing robe,
And add new roses to the faded cheek. 
Will it not charm a mind, like thine, exalted,
To shine, the goddess of applauding nations;
To scatter happiness and plenty round thee,
To bid the prostrate captive rise and live,
To see new cities tow’r, at thy command,
And blasted kingdoms flourish, at thy smile?

IRENE. 
Charm’d with the thought of blessing human kind,
Too calm I listen to the flatt’ring sounds.

MAHOMET. 
O! seize the power to bless—­Irene’s nod
Shall break the fetters of the groaning Christian;
Greece, in her lovely patroness secure,
Shall mourn no more her plunder’d palaces.

IRENE. 
Forbear—­O! do not urge me to my ruin!

  MAHOMET. 
To state and pow’r I court thee, not to ruin: 
Smile on my wishes, and command the globe. 
Security shall spread her shield before thee,
And love infold thee with his downy wings. 
  If greatness please thee, mount th’ imperial seat;
  If pleasure charm thee, view this soft retreat;
  Here ev’ry warbler of the sky shall sing;
  Here ev’ry fragrance breathe of ev’ry spring: 
  To deck these bow’rs each region shall combine,
  And e’en our prophet’s gardens envy thine: 
  Empire and love shall share the blissful day,
  And varied life steal, unperceiv’d, away.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.—­SCENE I.

CALI, ABDALLA.

[CALI enters, with a discontented air; to him enters ABDALLA.]

CALI. 
Is this the fierce conspirator, Abdalla? 
Is this the restless diligence of treason? 
Where hast thou linger’d, while th’ incumber’d hours
Fly, lab’ring with the fate of future nations,
And hungry slaughter scents imperial blood?

ABDALLA. 
Important cares detain’d me from your counsels.

CALI. 
Some petty passion! some domestick trifle! 
Some vain amusement of a vacant soul! 
A weeping wife, perhaps, or dying friend,
Hung on your neck, and hinder’d your departure. 
Is this a time for softness or for sorrow? 
Unprofitable, peaceful, female virtues! 
When eager vengeance shows a naked foe,
And kind ambition points the way to greatness.

ABDALLA. 
Must then ambition’s votaries infringe
The laws of kindness, break the bonds of nature,
And quit the names of brother, friend, and father?

CALI. 
This sov’reign passion, scornful of restraint,
E’en from the birth, affects supreme command,
Swells in the breast, and, with resistless force,
O’erbears each gentler motion of the mind: 
As, when a deluge overspreads the plains,
The wand’ring rivulet, and silver lake,
Mix undistinguish’d with the gen’ral roar.

Page 104

ABDALLA. 
Yet can ambition, in Abdalla’s breast,
Claim but the second place:  there mighty love
Has fix’d his hopes, inquietudes, and fears,
His glowing wishes, and his jealous pangs.

CALI. 
Love is, indeed, the privilege of youth;
Yet, on a day like this, when expectation
Pants for the dread event—­But let us reason—­

ABDALLA. 
Hast thou grown old, amidst the crowd of courts,
And turn’d th’ instructive page of human life,
To cant, at last, of reason to a lover? 
Such ill-tim’d gravity, such serious folly,
Might well befit the solitary student,
Th’ unpractis’d dervis, or sequester’d faquir. 
Know’st thou not yet, when love invades the soul,
That all her faculties receive his chains? 
That reason gives her sceptre to his hand,
Or only struggles to be more enslav’d? 
Aspasia, who can look upon thy beauties? 
Who hear thee speak, and not abandon reason? 
Reason! the hoary dotard’s dull directress,
That loses all, because she hazards nothing! 
Reason! the tim’rous pilot, that, to shun
The rocks of life, for ever flies the port!

CALI. 
But why this sudden warmth?

ABDALLA. 
Because I love: 
Because my slighted passion burns in vain! 
Why roars the lioness, distress’d by hunger? 
Why foam the swelling waves, when tempests rise? 
Why shakes the ground, when subterraneous fires
Fierce through the bursting caverns rend their way?

CALI. 
Not till this day, thou saw’st this fatal fair;
Did ever passion make so swift a progress? 
Once more reflect; suppress this infant folly.

ABDALLA. 
Gross fires, enkindled by a mortal hand,
Spread, by degrees, and dread th’ oppressing stream;
The subtler flames, emitted from the sky,
Flash out at once, with strength above resistance.

CALI. 
How did Aspasia welcome your address? 
Did you proclaim this unexpected conquest? 
Or pay, with speaking eyes, a lover’s homage?

ABDALLA. 
Confounded, aw’d, and lost in admiration,
I gaz’d, I trembled; but I could not speak;
When e’en, as love was breaking off from wonder,
And tender accents quiver’d on my lips,
She mark’d my sparkling eyes, and heaving breast,
And smiling, conscious of her charms, withdrew.

[Enter Demetrius and Leontius.

CALI. 
Now be, some moments, master of thyself;
Nor let Demetrius know thee for a rival. 
Hence! or be calm—­To disagree is ruin.

SCENE II.

CALI, DEMETRIUS, LEONTIUS, ABDALLA.

DEMETRIUS. 
When will occasion smile upon our wishes,
And give the tortures of suspense a period? 
Still must we linger in uncertain hope? 
Still languish in our chains, and dream of freedom,
Like thirsty sailors gazing on the clouds,
Till burning death shoots through their wither’d limbs?

Page 105

CALI. 
Deliverance is at hand; for Turkey’s tyrant,
Sunk in his pleasures, confident and gay,
With all the hero’s dull security,
Trusts to my care his mistress and his life,
And laughs, and wantons in the jaws of death.

LEONTIUS. 
So weak is man, when destin’d to destruction!—­
The watchful slumber, and the crafty trust.

CALI. 
At my command, yon iron gates unfold;
At my command, the sentinels retire;
With all the license of authority,
Through bowing slaves, I range the private rooms,
And of to-morrow’s action fix the scene.

DEMETRIUS. 
To-morrow’s action!  Can that hoary wisdom,
Borne down with years, still dote upon to-morrow? 
That fatal mistress of the young, the lazy,
The coward, and the fool, condemn’d to lose
An useless life, in waiting for to-morrow,
To gaze with longing eyes upon to-morrow,
Till interposing death destroys the prospect! 
Strange! that this gen’ral fraud, from day to day,
Should fill the world with wretches undetected. 
The soldier, lab’ring through a winter’s march,
Still sees to-morrow drest in robes of triumph;
Still to the lover’s long-expecting arms
To-morrow brings the visionary bride. 
But thou, too old to bear another cheat,
Learn, that the present hour alone is man’s.

LEONTIUS. 
The present hour, with open arms, invites;
Seize the kind fair, and press her to thy bosom.

DEMETRIUS. 
Who knows, ere this important morrow rise,
But fear or mutiny may taint the Greeks? 
Who knows, if Mahomet’s awaking anger
May spare the fatal bowstring till to-morrow?

ABDALLA. 
Had our first Asian foes but known this ardour,
We still had wander’d on Tartarian hills. 
Rouse, Cali; shall the sons of conquer’d Greece
Lead us to danger, and abash their victors? 
This night, with all her conscious stars, be witness,
Who merits most, Demetrius or Abdalla.

DEMETRIUS. 
Who merits most!—­I knew not, we were rivals.

CALI. 
Young man, forbear—­the heat of youth, no more—­
Well,—­’tis decreed—­This night shall fix our fate. 
Soon as the veil of ev’ning clouds the sky,
With cautious secrecy, Leontius, steer
Th’ appointed vessel to yon shaded bay,
Form’d by this garden jutting on the deep;
There, with your soldiers arm’d, and sails expanded,
Await our coming, equally prepar’d
For speedy flight, or obstinate defence. [Exit Leont.

SCENE III.

CALI, ABDALLA, DEMETRIUS.

DEMETRIUS. 
Now pause, great bassa, from the thoughts of blood,
And kindly grant an ear to gentler sounds. 
If e’er thy youth has known the pangs of absence,
Or felt th’ impatience of obstructed love,
Give me, before th’ approaching hour of fate,
Once to behold the charms of bright Aspasia,
And draw new virtue from her heav’nly tongue.

Page 106

CALI. 
Let prudence, ere the suit be farther urg’d,
Impartial weigh the pleasure with the danger. 
A little longer, and she’s thine for ever.

DEMETRIUS. 
Prudence and love conspire in this request,
Lest, unacquainted with our bold attempt,
Surprise o’erwhelm her, and retard our flight.

CALI. 
What I can grant, you cannot ask in vain—­

DEMETRIUS. 
I go to wait thy call; this kind consent
Completes the gift of freedom and of life. [Exit Dem.

SCENE IV.

CALI, ABDALLA.

ABDALLA. 
And this is my reward—­to burn, to languish,
To rave, unheeded; while the happy Greek,
The refuse of our swords, the dross of conquest,
Throws his fond arms about Aspasia’s neck,
Dwells on her lips, and sighs upon her breast. 
Is’t not enough, he lives by our indulgence,
But he must live to make his masters wretched?

CALI. 
What claim hast thou to plead?

ABDALLA. 
The claim of pow’r,
Th’ unquestion’d claim of conquerors and kings!

CALI. 
Yet, in the use of pow’r, remember justice.

ABDALLA. 
Can then th’ assassin lift his treach’rous hand
Against his king, and cry, remember justice? 
Justice demands the forfeit life of Cali;
Justice demands, that I reveal your crimes;
Justice demands—­but see th’ approaching sultan! 
Oppose my wishes, and—­remember justice.

CALI. 
Disorder sits upon thy face—­retire.

[Exit Abdalla; enter Mahomet.

SCENE V.

CALI, MAHOMET.

CALI. 
Long be the sultan bless’d with happy love! 
My zeal marks gladness dawning on thy cheek,
With raptures, such as fire the pagan crowds,
When, pale and anxious for their years to come,
They see the sun surmount the dark eclipse,
And hail, unanimous, their conqu’ring god.

MAHOMET. 
My vows, ’tis true, she hears with less aversion;
She sighs, she blushes, but she still denies.

CALI. 
With warmer courtship press the yielding fair: 
Call to your aid, with boundless promises,
Each rebel wish, each traitor inclination,
That raises tumults in the female breast,
The love of pow’r, of pleasure, and of show.

MAHOMET. 
These arts I try’d, and, to inflame her more,
By hateful business hurried from her sight,
I bade a hundred virgins wait around her,
Sooth her with all the pleasures of command,
Applaud her charms, and court her to be great.

[Exit Mahomet.

SCENE VI.

CALI, solus.

Page 107

He’s gone—­Here rest, my soul, thy fainting wing;
Here recollect thy dissipated pow’rs.—­
Our distant int’rests, and our diff’rent passions. 
Now haste to mingle in one common centre. 
And fate lies crowded in a narrow space. 
Yet, in that narrow space what dangers rise!—­
Far more I dread Abdalla’s fiery folly,
Than all the wisdom of the grave divan. 
Reason with reason fights on equal terms;
The raging madman’s unconnected schemes
We cannot obviate, for we cannot guess. 
Deep in my breast be treasur’d this resolve,
When Cali mounts the throne, Abdalla dies,
Too fierce, too faithless, for neglect or trust.

[Enter Irene with attendants.

SCENE VII.

CALI, IRENE, ASPASIA, &c.

CALI. 
Amidst the splendour of encircling beauty,
Superiour majesty proclaims thee queen,
And nature justifies our monarch’s choice.

IRENE. 
Reserve this homage for some other fair;
Urge me not on to glitt’ring guilt, nor pour
In my weak ear th’ intoxicating sounds.

CALI. 
Make haste, bright maid, to rule the willing world;
Aw’d by the rigour of the sultan’s justice,
We court thy gentleness.

  ASPASIA. 
                        Can Cali’s voice
Concur to press a hapless captive’s ruin?

CALI. 
Long would my zeal for Mahomet and thee
Detain me here.  But nations call upon me,
And duty bids me choose a distant walk,
Nor taint with care the privacies of love.

SCENE VIII.

IRENE, ASPASIA, attendants.

ASPASIA. 
If yet this shining pomp, these sudden honours,
Swell not thy soul, beyond advice or friendship,
Nor yet inspire the follies of a queen,
Or tune thine ear to soothing adulation,
Suspend awhile the privilege of pow’r,
To hear the voice of truth; dismiss thy train,
Shake off th’ incumbrances of state, a moment,
And lay the tow’ring sultaness aside,

Irene signs to her attendants to retire.

While I foretell thy fate:  that office done,—­
No more I boast th’ ambitious name of friend,
But sink among thy slaves, without a murmur.

IRENE. 
Did regal diadems invest my brow,
Yet should my soul, still faithful to her choice,
Esteem Aspasia’s breast the noblest kingdom.

ASPASIA. 
The soul, once tainted with so foul a crime,
No more shall glow with friendship’s hallow’d ardour: 
Those holy beings, whose superiour care
Guides erring mortals to the paths of virtue,
Affrighted at impiety, like thine,
Resign their charge to baseness and to ruin[a].

[a] In the original copy of this tragedy, given to Mr. Langton, the
     above speech is as follows; and, in Mr. Boswell’s judgment, is
     finer than in the present editions: 

Page 108

     “Nor think to say, here will I stop;
     Here will I fix the limits of transgression,
     Nor farther tempt the avenging rage of heaven. 
     When guilt, like this, once harbours in the breast,
     Those holy beings, whose unseen direction
     Guides, through the maze of life, the steps of man. 
     Fly the detested mansions of impiety,
     And quit their charge to horrour and to ruin.”

     See Boswell, i. for other compared extracts from the first sketch. 
     —­ED.

IRENE. 
Upbraid me not with fancied wickedness;
I am not yet a queen, or an apostate. 
But should I sin beyond the hope of mercy,
If, when religion prompts me to refuse,
The dread of instant death restrains my tongue?

ASPASIA. 
Reflect, that life and death, affecting sounds! 
Are only varied modes of endless being;
Reflect, that life, like ev’ry other blessing,
Derives its value from its use alone;
Not for itself, but for a nobler end,
Th’ Eternal gave it, and that end is virtue. 
When inconsistent with a greater good,
Reason commands to cast the less away: 
Thus life, with loss of wealth, is well preserv’d,
And virtue cheaply say’d, with loss of life.

IRENE. 
If built on settled thought, this constancy
Not idly flutters on a boastful tongue,
Why, when destruction rag’d around our walls,
Why fled this haughty heroine from the battle? 
Why, then, did not this warlike amazon
Mix in the war, and shine among the heroes?

ASPASIA. 
Heav’n, when its hand pour’d softness on our limbs,
Unfit for toil, and polish’d into weakness,
Made passive fortitude the praise of woman: 
Our only arms are innocence and meekness. 
Not then with raving cries I fill’d the city;
But, while Demetrius, dear, lamented name! 
Pour’d storms of fire upon our fierce invaders,
Implor’d th’ eternal pow’r to shield my country,
With silent sorrows, and with calm devotion.

IRENE. 
O! did Irene shine the queen of Turkey,
No more should Greece lament those pray’rs rejected;
Again, should golden splendour grace her cities,
Again, her prostrate palaces should rise,
Again, her temples sound with holy musick: 
No more should danger fright, or want distress
The smiling widows, and protected orphans.

ASPASIA. 
Be virtuous ends pursued by virtuous means,
Nor think th’ intention sanctifies the deed: 
That maxim, publish’d in an impious age,
Would loose the wild enthusiast to destroy,
And fix the fierce usurper’s bloody title;
Then bigotry might send her slaves to war,
And bid success become the test of truth: 
Unpitying massacre might waste the world,
And persecution boast the call of heaven.

IRENE. 
Shall I not wish to cheer afflicted kings,
And plan the happiness of mourning millions?

ASPASIA. 
Dream not of pow’r, thou never canst attain: 
When social laws first harmoniz’d the world,
Superiour man possess’d the charge of rule,
The scale of justice, and the sword of power,
Nor left us aught, but flattery and state.

Page 109

IRENE. 
To me my lover’s fondness will restore
Whate’er man’s pride has ravish’d from our sex.

ASPASIA. 
When soft security shall prompt the sultan,
Freed from the tumults of unsettled conquest,
To fix his court, and regulate his pleasures,
Soon shall the dire seraglio’s horrid gates
Close, like th’ eternal bars of death, upon thee. 
Immur’d, and buried in perpetual sloth,
That gloomy slumber of the stagnant soul,
There shalt thou view, from far, the quiet cottage,
And sigh for cheerful poverty in vain;
There wear the tedious hours of life away,
Beneath each curse of unrelenting heav’n,
Despair and slav’ry, solitude and guilt.

IRENE. 
There shall we find the yet untasted bliss
Of grandeur and tranquillity combin’d.

ASPASIA. 
Tranquillity and guilt, disjoin’d by heaven,
Still stretch in vain their longing arms afar;
Nor dare to pass th’ insuperable bound. 
Ah! let me rather seek the convent’s cell;
There, when my thoughts, at interval of prayer,
Descend to range these mansions of misfortune,
Oft shall I dwell on our disastrous friendship,
And shed the pitying tear for lost Irene.

IRENE. 
Go, languish on in dull obscurity;
Thy dazzled soul, with all its boasted greatness,
Shrinks at th’ o’erpow’ring gleams of regal state,
Stoops from the blaze, like a degen’rate eagle,
And flies for shelter to the shades of life.

ASPASIA. 
On me should providence, without a crime,
The weighty charge of royalty confer;
Call me to civilize the Russian wilds,
Or bid soft science polish Britain’s heroes;
Soon should’st thou see, how false thy weak reproach,
My bosom feels, enkindled from the sky,
The lambent flames of mild benevolence,
Untouch’d by fierce ambition’s raging fires.

IRENE. 
Ambition is the stamp, impress’d by heav’n
To mark the noblest minds; with active heat
Inform’d, they mount the precipice of pow’r,
Grasp at command, and tow’r in quest of empire;
While vulgar souls compassionate their cares,
Gaze at their height, and tremble at their danger: 
Thus meaner spirits, with amazement, mark
The varying seasons, and revolving skies,
And ask, what guilty pow’r’s rebellious hand
Rolls with eternal toil the pond’rous orbs;
While some archangel, nearer to perfection,
In easy state, presides o’er all their motions,
Directs the planets, with a careless nod,
Conducts the sun, and regulates the spheres.

ASPASIA. 
Well may’st thou hide in labyrinths of sound
The cause that shrinks from reason’s pow’rful voice. 
Stoop from thy flight, trace back th’ entangled thought,
And set the glitt’ring fallacy to view. 
Not pow’r I blame, but pow’r obtain’d by crime;
Angelick greatness is angelick virtue. 
Amidst the glare of courts, the shout of armies,
Will not th’ apostate feel the pangs of guilt,
And wish, too late, for innocence and peace,
Curst, as the tyrant of th’ infernal realms,
With gloomy state and agonizing pomp?

Page 110

SCENE IX.

IRENE, ASPASIA, MAID.

MAID. 
A Turkish stranger, of majestick mien,
Asks at the gate admission to Aspasia,
Commission’d, as he says, by Cali bassa.

IRENE. 
Whoe’er thou art, or whatsoe’er thy message, [Aside. 
Thanks for this kind relief—­With speed admit him.

ASPASIA. 
He comes, perhaps, to separate us for ever;
When I am gone, remember, O! remember,
That none are great, or happy, but the virtuous.

[Exit Irene; enter Demetrius.

SCENE X.

ASPASIA, DEMETRIUS.

DEMETRIUS. 
’Tis she—­my hope, my happiness, my love! 
Aspasia! do I, once again, behold thee? 
Still, still the same—­unclouded by misfortune! 
Let my blest eyes for ever gaze—­

  ASPASIA. 
                              Demetrius!

DEMETRIUS. 
Why does the blood forsake thy lovely cheek? 
Why shoots this chilness through thy shaking nerves? 
Why does thy soul retire into herself? 
Recline upon my breast thy sinking beauties: 
Revive—­Revive to freedom and to love.

ASPASIA. 
What well-known voice pronounc’d the grateful sounds,
Freedom and love?  Alas!  I’m all confusion;
A sudden mist o’ercasts my darken’d soul;
The present, past, and future swim before me,
Lost in a wild perplexity of joy.

DEMETRIUS. 
Such ecstasy of love, such pure affection,
What worth can merit? or what faith reward?

ASPASIA. 
A thousand thoughts, imperfect and distracted,
Demand a voice, and struggle into birth;
A thousand questions press upon my tongue,
But all give way to rapture and Demetrius.

DEMETRIUS. 
O say, bright being, in this age of absence,
What fears, what griefs, what dangers, hast thou known? 
Say, how the tyrant threaten’d, flatter’d, sigh’d! 
Say, how he threaten’d, flatter’d, sigh’d in vain! 
Say, how the hand of violence was rais’d! 
Say, how thou call’dst in tears upon Demetrius!

ASPASIA. 
Inform me rather, how thy happy courage
Stemm’d in the breach the deluge of destruction,
And pass’d, uninjur’d, through the walks of death. 
Did savage anger and licentious conquest
Behold the hero with Aspasia’s eyes? 
And, thus protected in the gen’ral ruin,
O! say, what guardian pow’r convey’d thee hither.

DEMETRIUS. 
Such strange events, such unexpected chances,
Beyond my warmest hope, or wildest wishes,
Concurr’d to give me to Aspasia’s arms,
I stand amaz’d, and ask, if yet I clasp thee.

ASPASIA. 
Sure heav’n, (for wonders are not wrought in vain!)
That joins us thus, will never part us more.

SCENE XI.

DEMETRIUS, ASPASIA, ABDALLA.

Page 111

ABDALLA. 
It parts you now—­The hasty sultan sign’d
The laws unread, and flies to his Irene.

DEMETRIUS. 
Fix’d and intent on his Irene’s charms,
He envies none the converse of Aspasia.

ABDALLA. 
Aspasia’s absence will inflame suspicion;
She cannot, must not, shall not, linger here;
Prudence and friendship bid me force her from you.

DEMETRIUS. 
Force her! profane her with a touch, and die!

ABDALLA. 
’Tis Greece, ’tis freedom, calls Aspasia hence;
Your careless love betrays your country’s cause.

DEMETRIUS. 
If we must part—­

ASPASIA. 
No! let us die together.

DEMETRIUS. 
If we must part—­

ABDALLA. 
Despatch; th’ increasing danger
Will not admit a lover’s long farewell,
The long-drawn intercourse of sighs and kisses.

DEMETRIUS. 
Then—­O! my fair, I cannot bid thee go. 
Receive her, and protect her, gracious heav’n! 
Yet let me watch her dear departing steps;
If fate pursues me, let it find me here. 
Reproach not, Greece, a lover’s fond delays,
Nor think thy cause neglected, while I gaze;
New force, new courage, from each glance I gain,
And find our passions not infus’d in vain. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.—­SCENE I.

DEMETRIUS, ASPASIA, enter as talking.

ASPASIA. 
Enough—­resistless reason calms my soul—­
Approving justice smiles upon your cause,
And nature’s rights entreat th’ asserting sword. 
Yet, when your hand is lifted to destroy,
Think, but excuse a woman’s needless caution,—­
Purge well thy mind from ev’ry private passion,
Drive int’rest, love, and vengeance, from thy thoughts;
Fill all thy ardent breast with Greece and virtue;
Then strike secure, and heav’n assist the blow!

DEMETRIUS. 
Thou kind assistant of my better angel,
Propitious guide of my bewilder’d soul,
Calm of my cares, and guardian of my virtue!

ASPASIA. 
My soul, first kindled by thy bright example,
To noble thought and gen’rous emulation,
Now but reflects those beams that flow’d from thee.

DEMETRIUS. 
With native lustre and unborrow’d greatness,
Thou shin’st, bright maid, superiour to distress;
Unlike the trifling race of vulgar beauties,
Those glitt’ring dewdrops of a vernal morn,
That spread their colours to the genial beam,
And, sparkling, quiver to the breath of May;
But, when the tempest, with sonorous wing,
Sweeps o’er the grove, forsake the lab’ring bough,
Dispers’d in air, or mingled with the dust.

ASPASIA. 
Forbear this triumph—­still new conflicts wait us,
Foes unforeseen, and dangers unsuspected. 
Oft, when the fierce besiegers’ eager host
Beholds the fainting garrison retire,
And rushes joyful to the naked wall,
Destruction flashes from th’ insidious mine,
And sweeps th’ exulting conqueror away. 
Perhaps, in vain the sultan’s anger spar’d me,
To find a meaner fate from treach’rous friendship—­
Abdalla!—­

Page 112

  DEMETRIUS. 
                Can Abdalla then dissemble! 
That fiery chief, renown’d for gen’rous freedom,
For zeal unguarded, undissembled hate,
For daring truth, and turbulence of honour!

ASPASIA. 
This open friend, this undesigning hero,
With noisy falsehoods, forc’d me from your arms,
To shock my virtue with a tale of love.

DEMETRIUS. 
Did not the cause of Greece restrain my sword,
Aspasia should not fear a second insult.

ASPASIA. 
His pride and love, by turns, inspir’d his tongue,
And intermix’d my praises with his own;
His wealth, his rank, his honours, he recounted,
Till, in the midst of arrogance and fondness,
Th’ approaching sultan forc’d me from the palace;
Then, while he gaz’d upon his yielding mistress,
I stole, unheeded, from their ravish’d eyes,
And sought this happy grove in quest of thee.

DEMETRIUS. 
Soon may the final stroke decide our fate,
Lest baleful discord crush our infant scheme,
And strangled freedom perish in the birth!

ASPASIA. 
My bosom, harass’d with alternate passions,
Now hopes, now fears—­

  DEMETRIUS. 
                        Th’ anxieties of love.

ASPASIA. 
Think, how the sov’reign arbiter of kingdoms
Detests thy false associates’ black designs,
And frowns on perjury, revenge, and murder. 
Embark’d with treason on the seas of fate,
When heaven shall bid the swelling billows rage,
And point vindictive lightnings at rebellion,
Will not the patriot share the traitor’s danger? 
Oh! could thy hand, unaided, free thy country,
Nor mingled guilt pollute the sacred cause!

DEMETRIUS. 
Permitted oft, though not inspir’d, by heaven,
Successful treasons punish impious kings.

ASPASIA. 
Nor end my terrours with the sultan’s death;
Far as futurity’s untravell’d waste
Lies open to conjecture’s dubious ken,
On ev’ry side confusion, rage, and death,
Perhaps, the phantoms of a woman’s fear,
Beset the treach’rous way with fatal ambush;
Each Turkish bosom burns for thy destruction,
Ambitious Cali dreads the statesman’s arts,
And hot Abdalla hates the happy lover.

DEMETRIUS. 
Capricious man! to good and ill inconstant,
Too much to fear or trust is equal weakness. 
Sometimes the wretch, unaw’d by heav’n or hell,
With mad devotion idolizes honour. 
The bassa, reeking with his master’s murder,
Perhaps, may start at violated friendship.

ASPASIA. 
How soon, alas! will int’rest, fear, or envy,
O’erthrow such weak, such accidental virtue,
Nor built on faith, nor fortified by conscience!

DEMETRIUS. 
When desp’rate ills demand a speedy cure,
Distrust is cowardice, and prudence folly.

ASPASIA. 
Yet, think a moment, ere you court destruction,
What hand, when death has snatch’d away Demetrius,
Shall guard Aspasia from triumphant lust.

Page 113

DEMETRIUS. 
Dismiss these needless fears—­a troop of Greeks,
Well known, long try’d, expect us on the shore. 
Borne on the surface of the smiling deep,
Soon shalt thou scorn, in safety’s arms repos’d,
Abdalla’s rage and Cali’s stratagems.

ASPASIA. 
Still, still, distrust sits heavy on my heart. 
Will e’er a happier hour revisit Greece?

DEMETRIUS. 
Should heav’n, yet unappeas’d, refuse its aid,
Disperse our hopes, and frustrate our designs,
Yet shall the conscience of the great attempt
Diffuse a brightness on our future days;
Nor will his country’s groans reproach Demetrius. 
But how canst thou support the woes of exile? 
Canst thou forget hereditary splendours,
To live obscure upon a foreign coast,
Content with science, innocence, and love?

ASPASIA. 
Nor wealth, nor titles, make Aspasia’s bliss. 
O’erwhelm’d and lost amidst the publick ruins,
Unmov’d, I saw the glitt’ring trifles perish,
And thought the petty dross beneath a sigh. 
Cheerful I follow to the rural cell;
Love be my wealth, and my distinction virtue.

DEMETRIUS. 
Submissive, and prepar’d for each event,
Now let us wait the last award of heav’n,
Secure of happiness from flight or conquest;
Nor fear the fair and learn’d can want protection. 
The mighty Tuscan courts the banish’d arts
To kind Italia’s hospitable shades;
There shall soft leisure wing th’ excursive soul,
And peace, propitious, smile on fond desire;
There shall despotick eloquence resume
Her ancient empire o’er the yielding heart;
There poetry shall tune her sacred voice,
And wake from ignorance the western world.

SCENE II.

DEMETRIUS, ASPASIA, CALI.

CALI. 
At length th’ unwilling sun resigns the world
To silence and to rest.  The hours of darkness,
Propitious hours to stratagem and death,
Pursue the last remains of ling’ring light.

DEMETRIUS. 
Count not these hours, as parts of vulgar time;
Think them a sacred treasure lent by heaven,
Which, squander’d by neglect, or fear, or folly,
No prayer recalls, no diligence redeems. 
To-morrow’s dawn shall see the Turkish king
Stretch’d in the dust, or tow’ring on his throne;
To-morrow’s dawn shall see the mighty Cali
The sport of tyranny, or lord of nations.

CALI. 
Then waste no longer these important moments
In soft endearments, and in gentle murmurs;
Nor lose, in love, the patriot and the hero.

DEMETRIUS. 
’Tis love, combin’d with guilt alone, that melts
The soften’d soul to cowardice and sloth;
But virtuous passion prompts the great resolve,
And fans the slumbering spark of heavenly fire. 
Retire, my fair; that pow’r that smiles on goodness,
Guide all thy steps, calm ev’ry stormy thought,
And still thy bosom with the voice of peace!

Page 114

ASPASIA. 
Soon may we meet again, secure and free,
To feel no more the pangs of separation! [Exit.

DEMETRIUS, CALI.

DEMETRIUS. 
This night alone is ours—­Our mighty foe,
No longer lost in am’rous solitude,
Will now remount the slighted seat of empire,
And show Irene to the shouting people: 
Aspasia left her, sighing in his arms,
And list’ning to the pleasing tale of pow’r;
With soften’d voice she dropp’d the faint refusal,
Smiling consent she sat, and blushing love.

CALI. 
Now, tyrant, with satiety of beauty
Now feast thine eyes; thine eyes, that ne’er hereafter
Shall dart their am’rous glances at the fair,
Or glare on Cali with malignant beams.

SCENE III.

DEMETRIUS, CALI, LEONTIUS, ABDALLA.

LEONTIUS. 
Our bark, unseen, has reach’d th’ appointed bay,
And, where yon trees wave o’er the foaming surge,
Reclines against the shore:  our Grecian troop
Extends its lines along the sandy beach,
Elate with hope, and panting for a foe.

ABDALLA. 
The fav’ring winds assist the great design,
Sport in our sails, and murmur o’er the deep.

CALI. 
’Tis well—­A single blow completes our wishes;
Return with speed, Leontius, to your charge;
The Greeks, disorder’d by their leader’s absence,
May droop dismay’d, or kindle into madness.

LEONTIUS. 
Suspected still!—­What villain’s pois’nous tongue
Dares join Leontius’ name with fear or falsehood? 
Have I for this preserv’d my guiltless bosom,
Pure as the thoughts of infant innocence? 
Have I for this defy’d the chiefs of Turkey,
Intrepid in the flaming front of war?

CALI. 
Hast thou not search’d my soul’s profoundest thoughts? 
Is not the fate of Greece and Cali thine?

LEONTIUS. 
Why has thy choice then pointed out Leontius,
Unfit to share this night’s illustrious toils? 
To wait, remote from action, and from honour,
An idle list’ner to the distant cries
Of slaughter’d infidels, and clash of swords? 
Tell me the cause, that while thy name, Demetrius,
Shall soar, triumphant on the wings of glory,
Despis’d and curs’d, Leontius must descend
Through hissing ages, a proverbial coward,
The tale of women, and the scorn of fools?

DEMETRIUS. 
Can brave Leontius be the slave of glory? 
Glory, the casual gift of thoughtless crowds! 
Glory, the bribe of avaricious virtue! 
Be but my country free, be thine the praise;
I ask no witness, but attesting conscience,
No records, but the records of the sky.

LEONTIUS. 
Wilt thou then head the troop upon the shore,
While I destroy th’ oppressor of mankind?

DEMETRIUS. 
What canst thou boast superiour to Demetrius? 
Ask, to whose sword the Greeks will trust their cause,
My name shall echo through the shouting field: 
Demand, whose force yon Turkish heroes dread,
The shudd’ring camp shall murmur out Demetrius.

Page 115

CALI
Must Greece, still wretched by her children’s folly,
For ever mourn their avarice or factions? 
Demetrius justly pleads a double title;
The lover’s int’rest aids the patriot’s claim.

LEONTIUS. 
My pride shall ne’er protract my country’s woes;
Succeed, my friend, unenvied by Leontius.

DEMETRIUS. 
I feel new spirit shoot along my nerves;
My soul expands to meet approaching freedom. 
Now hover o’er us, with propitious wings,
Ye sacred shades of patriots and of martyrs! 
All ye, whose blood tyrannick rage effus’d,
Or persecution drank, attend our call;
I And from the mansions of perpetual peace
Descend, to sweeten labours, once your own!

  CALI. 

SCENE IV.

CALI, ABDALLA.

ABDALLA. 
How the new monarch, swell’d with airy rule,
Looks down, contemptuous, from his fancy’d height,
And utters fate, unmindful of Abdalla!

CALI. 
Far be such black ingratitude from Cali! 
When Asia’s nations own me for their lord,
Wealth, and command, and grandeur shall be thine!

ABDALLA. 
Is this the recompense reserv’d for me? 
Dar’st thou thus dally with Abdalla’s passion? 
Henceforward, hope no more my slighted friendship;
Wake from thy dream of power to death and tortures,
And bid thy visionary throne farewell.

CALI. 
Name, and enjoy thy wish—­

ABDALLA. 
I need not name it;
Aspasia’s lovers know but one desire,
Nor hope, nor wish, nor live, but for Aspasia.

CALI. 
That fatal beauty, plighted to Demetrius,
Heaven makes not mine to give.

ABDALLA. 
Nor to deny.

CALI. 
Obtain her, and possess; thou know’st thy rival.

ABDALLA. 
Too well I know him, since, on Thracia’s plains,
I felt the force of his tempestuous arm,
And saw my scatter’d squadrons fly before him. 
Nor will I trust th’ uncertain chance of combat;
The rights of princes let the sword decide,
The petty claims of empire and of honour: 
Revenge and subtle jealousy shall teach
A surer passage to his hated heart.

CALI. 
Oh! spare the gallant Greek, in him we lose
The politician’s arts, and hero’s flame.

  ABDALLA. 
When next we meet, before we storm the palace,
The bowl shall circle to confirm our league;
Then shall these juices taint Demetrius’ draught,
                                        [Showing a phial. 
And stream, destructive, through his freezing veins: 
Thus shall he live to strike th’ important blow,
And perish, ere he taste the joys of conquest.

Page 116

SCENE V.

MAHOMET, MUSTAPHA, CALI, ABDALLA.

MAHOMET. 
Henceforth, for ever happy be this day,
Sacred to love, to pleasure, and Irene! 
The matchless fair has bless’d me with compliance;
Let every tongue resound Irene’s praise,
And spread the gen’ral transport through mankind.

CALI. 
Blest prince, for whom indulgent heav’n ordains,
At once, the joys of paradise and empire,
Now join thy people’s and thy Cali’s prayers;
Suspend thy passage to the seats of bliss,
Nor wish for houries in Irene’s arms.

MAHOMET. 
Forbear—­I know the long-try’d faith of Cali.

CALI. 
Oh! could the eyes of kings, like those of heav’n,
Search to the dark recesses of the soul,
Oft would they find ingratitude and treason,
By smiles, and oaths, and praises, ill disguis’d. 
How rarely would they meet, in crowded courts,
Fidelity so firm, so pure, as mine.

MUSTAPHA. 
Yet, ere we give our loosen’d thoughts to rapture,
Let prudence obviate an impending danger: 
Tainted by sloth, the parent of sedition,
The hungry janizary burns for plunder,
And growls, in private, o’er his idle sabre.

MAHOMET. 
To still their murmurs, ere the twentieth sun
Shall shed his beams upon the bridal bed,
I rouse to war, and conquer for Irene. 
Then shall the Rhodian mourn his sinking tow’rs,
And Buda fall, and proud Vienna tremble;
Then shall Venetia feel the Turkish pow’r,
And subject seas roar round their queen in vain.

ABDALLA. 
Then seize fair Italy’s delightful coast,
To fix your standard in imperial Rome.

MAHOMET. 
Her sons malicious clemency shall spare,
To form new legends, sanctify new crimes;
To canonize the slaves of superstition,
And fill the world with follies and impostures,
Till angry heav’n shall mark them out for ruin,
And war o’erwhelm them in their dream of vice. 
O! could her fabled saints and boasted prayers
Call forth her ancient heroes to the field,
How should I joy, midst the fierce shock of nations,
To cross the tow’rings of an equal soul,
And bid the master-genius rule the world! 
Abdalla, Cali, go—­proclaim my purpose.
                               [Exeunt Cali and Abdalla.

SCENE VI.

MAHOMET, MUSTAPHA.

MAHOMET. 
Still Cali lives:  and must he live to-morrow? 
That fawning villain’s forc’d congratulations
Will cloud my triumphs, and pollute the day.

MUSTAPHA. 
With cautious vigilance, at my command,
Two faithful captains, Hasan and Caraza,
Pursue him through his labyrinths of treason,
And wait your summons to report his conduct.

  MAHOMET. 

Page 117

SCENE VII.

Mahomet, Solus.

Whome’er the hope, still blasted, still renew’d,
Of happiness lures on from toil to toil,
Remember Mahomet, and cease thy labour. 
Behold him here, in love, in war, successful;
Behold him, wretched in his double triumph! 
His fav’rite faithless, and his mistress base. 
Ambition only gave her to my arms,
By reason not convinc’d, nor won by love. 
Ambition was her crime; but meaner folly
Dooms me to loathe, at once, and dote on falsehood,
And idolize th’ apostate I contemn. 
If thou art more than the gay dream of fancy,
More than a pleasing sound, without a meaning,
O happiness! sure thou art all Aspasia’s.

SCENE VIII.

MAHOMET, MUSTAPHA, HASAN, CARAZA.

MAHOMET. 
Caraza, speak—­have ye remark’d the bassa?

CARAZA. 
Close, as we might unseen, we watch’d his steps: 
His hair disorder’d, and his gait unequal,
Betray’d the wild emotions of his mind. 
Sudden he stops, and inward turns his eyes,
Absorb’d in thought; then, starting from his trance,
Constrains a sullen smile, and shoots away. 
With him Abdalla we beheld—­

  MUSTAPHA. 
                         Abdalla!

MAHOMET. 
He wears, of late, resentment on his brow,
Deny’d the government of Servia’s province.

CARAZA. 
We mark’d him storming in excess of fury,
And heard, within the thicket that conceal’d us,
An undistinguish’d sound of threat’ning rage.

MUSTAPHA. 
How guilt, once harbour’d in the conscious breast,
Intimidates the brave, degrades the great;
See Cali, dread of kings, and pride of armies,
By treason levell’d with the dregs of men! 
Ere guilty fear depress’d the hoary chief,
An angry murmur, a rebellious frown,
Had stretch’d the fiery boaster in the grave.

  MAHOMET. 

SCENE IX.

HASAN, CARAZA.

HASAN. 
Shall then the Greeks, unpunish’d and conceal’d,
Contrive, perhaps, the ruin of our empire;
League with our chiefs, and propagate sedition?

CARAZA. 
Whate’er their scheme, the bassa’s death defeats it,
And gratitude’s strong ties restrain my tongue.

HASAN. 
What ties to slaves? what gratitude to foes?

Page 118

CARAZA. 
In that black day, when slaughter’d thousands fell
Around these fatal walls, the tide of war
Bore me victorious onward, where Demetrius
Tore, unresisted, from the giant hand
Of stern Sebalias, the triumphant crescent,
And dash’d the might of Asam from the ramparts. 
There I became, nor blush to make it known,
The captive of his sword.  The coward Greeks,
Enrag’d by wrongs, exulting with success,
Doom’d me to die with all the Turkish captains;
But brave Demetrius scorn’d the mean revenge,
And gave me life.—­

HASAN. 
Do thou repay the gift,
Lest unrewarded mercy lose its charms. 
Profuse of wealth, or bounteous of success,
When heav’n bestows the privilege to bless,
Let no weak doubt the gen’rous hand restrain;
For when was pow’r beneficent in vain? [Exeunt.

ACT V.—­SCENE I.

ASPASIA, sola.

In these dark moments of suspended fate,
While yet the future fortune of my country
Lies in the womb of providence conceal’d,
And anxious angels wait the mighty birth;
O! grant thy sacred influence, pow’rful virtue! 
Attentive rise, survey the fair creation,
Till, conscious of th’ encircling deity,
Beyond the mists of care thy pinion tow’rs. 
This calm, these joys, dear innocence! are thine: 
Joys ill exchang’d for gold, and pride, and empire.

[Enter Irene and attendants.

SCENE II.

ASPASIA, IRENE and attendants.

IRENE. 
See how the moon, through all th’ unclouded sky,
Spreads her mild radiance, and descending dews
Revive the languid flow’rs; thus nature shone
New from the maker’s hand, and fair array’d
In the bright colours of primeval spring;
When purity, while fraud was yet unknown,
Play’d fearless in th’ inviolated shades. 
This elemental joy, this gen’ral calm,
Is, sure, the smile of unoffended heav’n. 
Yet! why—­

MAID. 
Behold, within th’ embow’ring grove
Aspasia stands—­

IRENE. 
With melancholy mien,
Pensive, and envious of Irene’s greatness. 
Steal, unperceiv’d, upon her meditations
But see, the lofty maid, at our approach,
Resumes th’ imperious air of haughty virtue. 
Are these th’ unceasing joys, th’ unmingled pleasures,
[To Aspasia. 
For which Aspasia scorn’d the Turkish crown? 
Is this th’ unshaken confidence in heav’n? 
Is this the boasted bliss of conscious virtue? 
When did content sigh out her cares in secret? 
When did felicity repine in deserts?

ASPASIA. 
Ill suits with guilt the gaieties of triumph;
When daring vice insults eternal justice,
The ministers of wrath forget compassion,
And snatch the flaming bolt with hasty hand.

IRENE. 
Forbear thy threats, proud prophetess of ill,
Vers’d in the secret counsels of the sky.

Page 119

ASPASIA. 
Forbear!—­But thou art sunk beneath reproach;
In vain affected raptures flush the cheek,
And songs of pleasure warble from the tongue,
When fear and anguish labour in the breast,
And all within is darkness and confusion. 
Thus, on deceitful Etna’s flow’ry side,
Unfading verdure glads the roving eye;
While secret flames, with unextinguish’d rage,
Insatiate on her wasted entrails prey,
And melt her treach’rous beauties into ruin.
                                          [Enter Demetrius.

SCENE III.

ASPASIA, IRENE, DEMETRIUS.

DEMETRIUS. 
Fly, fly, my love! destruction rushes on us,
The rack expects us, and the sword pursues.

ASPASIA. 
Is Greece deliver’d? is the tyrant fall’n?

DEMETRIUS. 
Greece is no more; the prosp’rous tyrant lives,
Reserv’d for other lands, the scourge of heav’n.

ASPASIA. 
Say, by what fraud, what force, were you defeated? 
Betray’d by falsehood, or by crowds o’erborne?

DEMETRIUS. 
The pressing exigence forbids relation. 
Abdalla—­

  ASPASIA. 
          Hated name! his jealous rage
Broke out in perfidy—­Oh! curs’d Aspasia,
Born to complete the ruin of her country! 
Hide me, oh hide me from upbraiding Greece;
Oh, hide me from myself!

  DEMETRIUS. 
                    Be fruitless grief
The doom of guilt alone, nor dare to seize
The breast, where virtue guards the throne of peace. 
Devolve, dear maid, thy sorrows on the wretch,
Whose fear, or rage, or treachery, betray’d us!

  IRENE. aside. 

ASPASIA. 
Yet tell.

DEMETRIUS. 
To tell or hear were waste of life.

ASPASIA. 
The life, which only this design supported,
Were now well lost in hearing how you fail’d.

DEMETRIUS. 
Or meanly fraudulent or madly gay,
Abdalla, while we waited near the palace,
With ill tim’d mirth propos’d the bowl of love. 
Just as it reach’d my lips, a sudden cry
Urg’d me to dash it to the ground, untouch’d,
And seize my sword with disencumber’d hand.

ASPASIA. 
What cry?  The stratagem?  Did then Abdalla—­

DEMETRIUS. 
At once a thousand passions fir’d his cheek! 
Then all is past, he cry’d—­and darted from us;
Nor, at the call of Cali, deign’d to turn.

ASPASIA. 
Why did you stay, deserted and betray’d? 
What more could force attempt, or art contrive?

DEMETRIUS. 
Amazement seiz’d us, and the hoary bassa
Stood, torpid in suspense; but soon Abdalla
Return’d with force that made resistance vain,
And bade his new confed’rates seize the traitors. 
Cali, disarm’d, was borne away to death;
Myself escap’d, or favour’d, or neglected.

Page 120

ASPASIA. 
Oh Greece! renown’d for science and for wealth,
Behold thy boasted honours snatch’d away.

  DEMETRIUS. 
Though disappointment blast our general scheme,
Yet much remains to hope.  I shall not call
The day disastrous, that secures our flight;
Nor think that effort lost, which rescues thee.
          
                                      [Enter Abdalla.

SCENE IV.

IRENE, ASPASIA, DEMETRIUS, ABDALLA.

ABDALLA. 
At length, the prize is mine—­The haughty maid,
That bears the fate of empires in her air,
Henceforth shall live for me; for me alone
Shall plume her charms, and, with attentive watch,
Steal from Abdalla’s eye the sign to smile.

DEMETRIUS. 
Cease this wild roar of savage exultation;
Advance, and perish in the frantick boast.

ASPASIA. 
Forbear, Demetrius, ’tis Aspasia calls thee;
Thy love, Aspasia, calls; restrain thy sword;
Nor rush on useless wounds, with idle courage.

DEMETRIUS. 
What now remains?

  ASPASIA. 
               It now remains to fly!

DEMETRIUS. 
Shall, then, the savage live, to boast his insult;
Tell, how Demetrius shunn’d his single hand,
And stole his life and mistress from his sabre?

ABDALLA. 
Infatuate loiterer, has fate, in vain,
Unclasp’d his iron gripe to set thee free? 
Still dost thou flutter in the jaws of death;
Snar’d with thy fears, and maz’d in stupefaction?

DEMETRIUS. 
Forgive, my fair; ’tis life, ’tis nature calls: 
Now, traitor, feel the fear that chills my hand.

ASPASIA. 
’Tis madness to provoke superfluous danger,
And cowardice to dread the boast of folly.

ABDALLA. 
Fly, wretch, while yet my pity grants thee flight;
The pow’r of Turkey waits upon my call. 
Leave but this maid, resign a hopeless claim,
And drag away thy life, in scorn and safety,
Thy life, too mean a prey to lure Abdalla.

  DEMETRIUS. 

  ABDALLA. 

SCENE V.

ASPASIA, IRENE, DEMETRIUS.

IRENE. 
Abdalla fails; now, fortune, all is mine. [Aside.  Haste, Murza, to the palace, let the sultan
[To one of her attendant
Despatch his guards to stop the flying traitors,
While I protract their stay.  Be swift and faithful.
[Exit Murza. 
This lucky stratagem shall charm the sultan, [Aside.  Secure his confidence, and fix his love.

Page 121

DEMETRIUS. 
Behold a boaster’s worth!  Now snatch, my fair,
The happy moment; hasten to the shore,
Ere he return with thousands at his side.

ASPASIA. 
In vain I listen to th’ inviting call
Of freedom and of love; my trembling joints,
Relax’d with fear, refuse to bear me forward. 
Depart, Demetrius, lest my fate involve thee;
Forsake a wretch abandon’d to despair,
To share the miseries herself has caus’d.

DEMETRIUS. 
Let us not struggle with th’ eternal will,
Nor languish o’er irreparable ruins;
Come, haste and live—­Thy innocence and truth
Shall bless our wand’rings, and propitiate heav’n.

IRENE. 
Press not her flight, while yet her feeble nerves
Refuse their office, and uncertain life
Still labours with imaginary woe;
Here let me tend her with officious care,
Watch each unquiet flutter of the breast,
And joy to feel the vital warmth return,
To see the cloud forsake her kindling cheek,
And hail the rosy dawn of rising health.

ASPASIA. 
Oh! rather, scornful of flagitious greatness,
Resolve to share our dangers and our toils,
Companion of our flight, illustrious exile,
Leave slav’ry, guilt, and infamy behind.

IRENE. 
My soul attends thy voice, and banish’d virtue
Strives to regain her empire of the mind: 
Assist her efforts with thy strong persuasion;
Sure, ’tis the happy hour ordain’d above,
When vanquish’d vice shall tyrannise no more.

DEMETRIUS. 
Remember, peace and anguish are before thee,
And honour and reproach, and heav’n and hell.

ASPASIA. 
Content with freedom, and precarious greatness.

DEMETRIUS. 
Now make thy choice, while yet the pow’r of choice
Kind heav’n affords thee, and inviting mercy
Holds out her hand to lead thee back to truth.

IRENE. 
Stay—­in this dubious twilight of conviction,
The gleams of reason, and the clouds of passion,
Irradiate and obscure my breast, by turns: 
Stay but a moment, and prevailing truth
Will spread resistless light upon my soul.

DEMETRIUS. 
But, since none knows the danger of a moment,
And heav’n forbids to lavish life away,
Let kind compulsion terminate the contest.
[Seizing her hand. 
Ye christian captives, follow me to freedom: 
A galley waits us, and the winds invite.

IRENE. 
Whence is this violence?

DEMETRIUS. 
Your calmer thought
Will teach a gentler term.

IRENE. 
Forbear this rudeness,
And learn the rev’rence due to Turkey’s queen: 
Fly, slaves, and call the sultan to my rescue.

DEMETRIUS. 
Farewell, unhappy maid; may every joy
Be thine, that wealth can give, or guilt receive!

  ASPASIA.

Page 122

SCENE VI.

[IRENE walks at a distance from her attendants.]

After a pause. 
Against the head, which innocence secures,
Insidious malice aims her darts in vain,
Turn’d backwards by the pow’rful breath of heav’n. 
Perhaps, e’en now the lovers, unpursu’d,
Bound o’er the sparkling waves.  Go, happy bark,
Thy sacred freight shall still the raging main. 
To guide thy passage shall th’ aerial spirits
Fill all the starry lamps with double blaze;
Th’ applauding sky shall pour forth all its beams,
To grace the triumph of victorious virtue;
While I, not yet familiar to my crimes,
Recoil from thought, and shudder at myself. 
How am I chang’d!  How lately did Irene
Fly from the busy pleasures of her sex,
Well pleas’d to search the treasures of remembrance,
And live her guiltless moments o’er anew! 
Come, let us seek new pleasures in the palace,
                                [To her attendants, going off. 
Till soft fatigue invite us to repose.

SCENE VII.

[Enter MUSTAPHA, meeting and stopping her.]

MUSTAPHA. 
Fair falsehood, stay.

  IRENE. 
                What dream of sudden power
Has taught my slave the language of command? 
Henceforth, be wise, nor hope a second pardon.

MUSTAPHA. 
Who calls for pardon from a wretch condemn’d?

IRENE. 
Thy look, thy speech, thy action, all is wildness—­
Who charges guilt, on me?

  MUSTAPHA. 
                        Who charges guilt! 
Ask of thy heart; attend the voice of conscience—­
Who charges guilt! lay by this proud resentment
That fires thy cheek, and elevates thy mien,
Nor thus usurp the dignity of virtue. 
Review this day.

  IRENE. 
                Whate’er thy accusation,
The sultan is my judge.

  MUSTAPHA. 
                That hope is past;
Hard was the strife of justice and of love;
But now ’tis o’er, and justice has prevail’d. 
Know’st thou not Cali? know’st thou not Demetrius?

IRENE. 
Bold slave, I know them both—­I know them traitors.

MUSTAPHA. 
Perfidious!—­yes—­too well thou know’st them traitors.

IRENE. 
Their treason throws no stain upon Irene. 
This day has prov’d my fondness for the sultan;
He knew Irene’s truth.

MUSTAPHA. 
The sultan knows it;
He knows, how near apostasy to treason—­
But ’tis not mine to judge—­I scorn and leave thee. 
I go, lest vengeance urge my hand to blood,
To blood too mean to stain a soldier’s sabre.
[Exit Mustapha.

IRENE, to her attendants. 
Go, blust’ring slave—­He has not heard of Murza. 
That dext’rous message frees me from suspicion.

Page 123

SCENE VIII.

Enter HASAN, CARAZA, with mutes, who throw the black robe upon IRENE, and sign to her attendants to withdraw.

HASAN. 
Forgive, fair excellence, th’ unwilling tongue,
The tongue, that, forc’d by strong necessity,
Bids beauty, such as thine, prepare to die.

IRENE. 
What wild mistake is this!  Take hence, with speed,
Your robe of mourning, and your dogs of death. 
Quick from my sight, you inauspicious monsters;
Nor dare, henceforth, to shock Irene’s walks.

HASAN. 
Alas! they come commanded by the sultan,
Th’ unpitying ministers of Turkish justice,
Nor dare to spare the life his frown condemns.

IRENE. 
Are these the rapid thunderbolts of war,
That pour with sudden violence on kingdoms,
And spread their flames, resistless, o’er the world? 
What sleepy charms benumb these active heroes,
Depress their spirits, and retard their speed? 
Beyond the fear of ling’ring punishment,
Aspasia now, within her lover’s arms,
Securely sleeps, and, in delightful dreams,
Smiles at the threat’nings of defeated rage.

CARAZA. 
We come, bright virgin, though relenting nature
Shrinks at the hated task, for thy destruction. 
When summon’d by the sultan’s clam’rous fury,
We ask’d, with tim’rous tongue, th’ offender’s name,
He struck his tortur’d breast, and roar’d, Irene! 
We started at the sound, again inquir’d;
Again his thund’ring voice return’d, Irene!

IRENE. 
Whence is this rage; what barb’rous tongue has wrong’d me? 
What fraud misleads him? or what crimes incense?

HASAN. 
Expiring Cali nam’d Irene’s chamber,
The place appointed for his master’s death.

IRENE. 
Irene’s chamber!  From my faithful bosom
Far be the thought—­But hear my protestation.

CARAZA. 
’Tis ours, alas! to punish, not to judge,
Not call’d to try the cause, we heard the sentence,
Ordain’d the mournful messengers of death.

IRENE. 
Some ill designing statesman’s base intrigue! 
Some cruel stratagem of jealous beauty! 
Perhaps, yourselves the villains that defame me:—­
Now haste to murder, ere returning thought
Recall th’ extorted doom.—­It must be so: 
Confess your crime, or lead me to the sultan;
There dauntless truth shall blast the vile accuser;
Then shall you feel, what language cannot utter,
Each piercing torture, ev’ry change of pain,
That vengeance can invent, or pow’r inflict.
             [Enter Abdalla:  he stops short and listens.

SCENE IX.

IRENE, HASAN, CARAZA, ABDALLA.

ABDALLA, aside. 
All is not lost, Abdalla; see the queen,
See the last witness of thy guilt and fear,
Enrob’d in death—­Despatch her, and be great.

Page 124

CARAZA. 
Unhappy fair! compassion calls upon me
To check this torrent of imperious rage: 
While unavailing anger crowds thy tongue
With idle threats and fruitless exclamation,
The fraudful moments ply their silent wings,
And steal thy life away.  Death’s horrid angel
Already shakes his bloody sabre o’er thee. 
The raging sultan burns, till our return,
Curses the dull delays of ling’ring mercy,
And thinks his fatal mandates ill obey’d.

ABDALLA. 
Is then your sov’reign’s life so cheaply rated,
That thus you parley with detected treason? 
Should she prevail to gain the sultan’s presence,
Soon might her tears engage a lover’s credit;
Perhaps, her malice might transfer the charge;
Perhaps, her pois’nous tongue might blast Abdalla.

IRENE. 
O! let me but be heard, nor fear from me
Or flights of pow’r, or projects of ambition. 
My hopes, my wishes, terminate in life,
A little life, for grief, and for repentance.

ABDALLA. 
I mark’d her wily messenger afar,
And saw him sculking in the closest walks: 
I guess’d her dark designs, and warn’d the sultan,
And bring her former sentence new-confirmed.

  HASAN. 

IRENE. 
O, name not death!  Distraction and amazement,
Horrour and agony are in that sound! 
Let me but live, heap woes on woes upon me;
Hide me with murd’rers in the dungeon’s gloom;
Send me to wander on some pathless shore,
Let shame and hooting infamy pursue me,
Let slav’ry harass, and let hunger gripe.

  CARAZA. 

ABDALLA. 
Despatch, ye ling’ring slaves; or nimbler hands,
Quick at my call, shall execute your charge;
Despatch, and learn a fitter time for pity.

IRENE. 
Grant me one hour.  O! grant me but a moment,
And bounteous heav’n repay the mighty mercy,
With peaceful death, and happiness eternal.

CARAZA. 
The pray’r I cannot grant—­I dare not hear. 
Short be thy pains. [Signs again to the mutes.

IRENE. 
Unutterable anguish! 
Guilt and despair, pale spectres! grin around me,
And stun me with the yellings of damnation! 
O, hear my pray’rs! accept, all-pitying heav’n,
These tears, these pangs, these last remains of life;
Nor let the crimes of this detested day
Be charg’d upon my soul.  O, mercy! mercy!
[Mutes force her out.

Page 125

SCENE X.

ABDALLA, HASAN, CARAZA.

ABDALLA, aside. 
Safe in her death, and in Demetrius’ flight,
Abdalla, bid thy troubled breast be calm. 
Now shalt thou shine, the darling of the sultan,
The plot all Cali’s, the detection thine.

HASAN to CARAZA. 
Does not thy bosom (for I know thee tender,
A stranger to th’ oppressor’s savage joy,)
Melt at Irene’s fate, and share her woes?

CARAZA. 
Her piercing cries yet fill the loaded air,
Dwell on my ear, and sadden all my soul. 
But let us try to clear our clouded brows,
And tell the horrid tale with cheerful face;
The stormy sultan rages at our stay.

ABDALLA. 
Frame your report with circumspective art: 
Inflame her crimes, exalt your own obedience;
But let no thoughtless hint involve Abdalla.

CARAZA. 
What need of caution to report the fate
Of her, the sultan’s voice condemn’d to die? 
Or why should he, whose violence of duty
Has serv’d his prince so well, demand our silence?

ABDALLA. 
Perhaps, my zeal, too fierce, betray’d my prudence;
Perhaps, my warmth exceeded my commission;
Perhaps—­I will not stoop to plead my cause,
Or argue with the slave that sav’d Demetrius.

CARAZA. 
From his escape learn thou the pow’r of virtue;
Nor hope his fortune, while thou want’st his worth.

HASAN. 
The sultan comes, still gloomy, still enraged.

SCENE XI.

HASAN, CARAZA, MAHOMET, MUSTAPHA, ABDALLA.

MAHOMET. 
Where’s this fair traitress?  Where’s this smiling mischief,
Whom neither vows could fix, nor favours bind?

HASAN. 
Thine orders, mighty sultan, are perform’d,
And all Irene now is breathless clay.

MAHOMET. 
Your hasty zeal defrauds the claim of justice,
And disappointed vengeance burns in vain. 
I came to heighten tortures by reproach,
And add new terrours to the face of death. 
Was this the maid, whose love I bought with empire? 
True, she was fair; the smile of innocence
Play’d on her cheek—­So shone the first apostate—­
Irene’s chamber!  Did not roaring Cali,
Just as the rack forc’d out his struggling soul,
Name for the scene of death, Irene’s chamber?

MUSTAPHA. 
His breath prolong’d, but to detect her treason,
Then, in short sighs, forsook his broken frame.

MAHOMET. 
Decreed to perish in Irene’s chamber! 
There had she lull’d me with endearing falsehoods,
Clasp’d in her arms, or slumb’ring on her breast,
And bar’d my bosom to the ruffian’s dagger.

SCENE XII.

HASAN, CARAZA, MAHOMET, MUSTAPHA, MURZA, ABDALLA.

MURZA. 
Forgive, great sultan, that, by fate prevented,
I bring a tardy message from Irene.

Page 126

MAHOMET. 
Some artful wile of counterfeited love! 
Some soft decoy to lure me to destruction! 
And thou, the curs’d accomplice of her treason,
Declare thy message, and expect thy doom.

MURZA. 
The queen requested, that a chosen troop
Might intercept the traitor Greek, Demetrius,
Then ling’ring with his captive mistress here.

MUSTAPHA. 
The Greek, Demetrius! whom th’ expiring bassa
Declar’d the chief associate of his guilt!

MAHOMET. 
A chosen troop—­to intercept—­Demetrius—­
The queen requested—­Wretch, repeat the message;
And, if one varied accent prove thy falsehood,
Or but one moment’s pause betray confusion,
Those trembling limbs—­Speak out, thou shiv’ring traitor.

MURZA. 
The queen requested—­

MAHOMET.  Who? the dead Irene? 
Was she then guiltless!  Has my thoughtless rage
Destroy’d the fairest workmanship of heav’n! 
Doom’d her to death, unpity’d and unheard,
Amidst her kind solicitudes for me! 
Ye slaves of cruelty, ye tools of rage,
[To Hasan and Caraza. 
Ye blind, officious ministers of folly,
Could not her charms repress your zeal for murder? 
Could not her pray’rs, her innocence, her tears,
Suspend the dreadful sentence for an hour? 
One hour had freed me from the fatal errour! 
One hour had say’d me from despair and madness.

CARAZA. 
Your fierce impatience forc’d us from your presence,
Urg’d us to speed, and bade us banish pity,
Nor trust our passions with her fatal charms.

MAHOMET. 
What hadst thou lost, by slighting those commands? 
Thy life, perhaps—­Were but Irene spar’d,
Well, if a thousand lives like thine had perish’d;
Such beauty, sweetness, love, were cheaply bought
With half the grov’ling slaves that load the globe.

MUSTAPHA. 
Great is thy woe!  But think, illustrious sultan,
Such ills are sent for souls, like thine, to conquer. 
Shake off this weight of unavailing grief,
Rush to the war, display thy dreadful banners,
And lead thy troops, victorious, round the world.

MAHOMET. 
Robb’d of the maid, with whom I wish’d to triumph,
No more I burn for fame, or for dominion;
Success and conquest now are empty sounds,
Remorse and anguish seize on all my breast;
Those groves, whose shades embower’d the dear Irene,
Heard her last cries, and fann’d her dying beauties,
Shall hide me from the tasteless world for ever.
[Mahomet goes back, and returns. 
Yet, ere I quit the sceptre of dominion,
Let one just act conclude the hateful day—­
Hew down, ye guards, those vassals of destruction,
[Pointing to Hasan and Caraza. 
Those hounds of blood, that catch the hint to kill,
Bear off, with eager haste, th’ unfinished sentence,
And speed the stroke, lest mercy should o’ertake them.

Page 127

CARAZA. 
Then hear, great Mahomet, the voice of truth.

MAHOMET. 
Hear! shall I hear thee! didst thou hear Irene?

CARAZA. 
Hear but a moment.

MAHOMET. 
Hadst thou heard a moment,
Thou might’st have liv’d, for thou hadst spar’d Irene.

CARAZA. 
I heard her, pitied her, and wish’d to save her.

MAHOMET. 
And wish’d—­be still thy fate to wish in vain.

CARAZA. 
I heard, and soften’d, till Abdalla brought
Her final doom, and hurried her destruction.

MAHOMET. 
Abdalla brought her doom!  Abdalla brought it! 
The wretch, whose guilt, declar’d by tortur’d Cali,
My rage and grief had hid from my remembrance: 
Abdalla brought her doom!

  HASAN. 
                         Abdalla brought it,
While yet she begg’d to plead her cause before thee.

  MAHOMET. 
O, seize me, madness—­Did she call on me! 
I feel, I see the ruffian’s barb’rous rage. 
He seiz’d her melting in the fond appeal,
And stopp’d the heav’nly voice that call’d on me. 
My spirits fail; awhile support me, vengeance—­
Be just, ye slaves; and, to be just, be cruel;
Contrive new racks, imbitter ev’ry pang,
Inflict whatever treason can deserve,
Which murder’d innocence that call’d on me.
                [Exit Mahomet; Abdalla is dragged off.

SCENE XIII.

HASAN, CARAZA, MUSTAPHA, MURZA.

MUSTAPHA to MURZA. 
What plagues, what tortures, are in store for thee,
Thou sluggish idler, dilatory slave! 
Behold the model of consummate beauty,
Torn from the mourning earth by thy neglect.

MURZA. 
Such was the will of heav’n—­A band of Greeks,
That mark’d my course, suspicious of my purpose,
Rush’d out and seiz’d me, thoughtless and unarm’d,
Breathless, amaz’d, and on the guarded beach
Detain’d me, till Demetrius set me free.

MUSTAPHA. 
So sure the fall of greatness, rais’d on crimes! 
So fix’d the justice of all conscious heav’n! 
When haughty guilt exults with impious joy,
Mistake shall blast, or accident destroy;
Weak man, with erring rage, may throw the dart,
But heav’n shall guide it to the guilty heart.

EPILOGUE.

BY SIR WILLIAM YONGE.

Marry a Turk! a haughty, tyrant king! 
Who thinks us women born to dress and sing
To please his fancy! see no other man! 
Let him persuade me to it—­if he can;
Besides, he has fifty wives; and who can bear
To have the fiftieth part, her paltry share?

’Tis true, the fellow’s handsome, straight, and tall,
But how the devil should he please us all! 
My swain is little—­true—­but, be it known,
My pride’s to have that little all my own. 
Men will be ever to their errours blind,
Where woman’s not allow’d to speak her mind. 
I swear this eastern pageantry is nonsense,
And for one man—­one wife’s enough in conscience.

Page 128

In vain proud man usurps what’s woman’s due;
For us, alone, they honour’s paths pursue: 
Inspir’d by us, they glory’s heights ascend;
Woman the source, the object, and the end. 
Though wealth, and pow’r, and glory, they receive,
These are all trifles to what we can give. 
For us the statesman labours, hero fights,
Bears toilsome days, and wakes long tedious nights;
And, when blest peace has silenc’d war’s alarms;
Receives his full reward in beauty’s arms.

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

PROLOGUE; SPOKEN BY MR. GARRICK, APRIL 5, 1750, BEFORE THE MASQUE OF COMUS.

Acted at Drury lane theatre, for the benefit of Milton’s granddaughter[a].

Ye patriot crowds, who burn for England’s fame,
Ye nymphs, whose bosoms beat at Milton’s name;
Whose gen’rous zeal, unbought by flatt’ring rhymes,
Shames the mean pensions of Augustan times;
Immortal patrons of succeeding days,
Attend this prelude of perpetual praise;
Let wit, condemn’d the feeble war to wage
With close malevolence, or publick rage;
Let study, worn with virtue’s fruitless lore,
Behold this theatre, and grieve no more. 
This night, distinguish’d by your smiles, shall tell,
That never Britain can in vain excel;
The slighted arts futurity shall trust,
And rising ages hasten to be just. 
  At length, our mighty bard’s victorious lays
Fill the loud voice of universal praise;
And baffled spite, with hopeless anguish dumb,
Yields to renown the centuries to come;
With ardent haste each candidate of fame,
Ambitious, catches at his tow’ring name;
He sees, and pitying sees, vain wealth bestow
Those pageant honours, which he scorn’d below;
While crowds aloft the laureate bust behold,
Or trace his form on circulating gold. 
Unknown, unheeded, long his offspring lay,
And want hung threat’ning o’er her slow decay,
What, though she shine with no Miltonian fire,
No fav’ring muse her morning dreams inspire;
Yet softer claims the melting heart engage,
Her youth laborious, and her blameless age;
Her’s the mild merits of domestick life,
The patient sufferer, and the faithful wife. 
Thus, grac’d with humble virtue’s native charms,
Her grandsire leaves her in Britannia’s arms;
Secure with peace, with competence, to dwell,
While tutelary nations guard her cell. 
Yours is the charge, ye fair, ye wise, ye brave! 
’Tis yours to crown desert—­beyond the grave.

[a] See Life of Milton.

PROLOGUE TO THE COMEDY OF THE GOOD-NATUR’D MAN, 1769,

Page 129

Prest by the load of life, the weary mind
Surveys the gen’ral toil of human kind;
With cool submission joins the lab’ring train,
And social sorrow loses half its pain: 
Our anxious bard, without complaint, may share
This bustling season’s epidemick care;
Like Caesar’s pilot, dignify’d by fate,
Tost in one common storm with all the great;
Distrest alike the statesman and the wit,
When one a borough courts, and one the pit. 
The busy candidates for pow’r and fame
Have hopes, and fears, and wishes, just the same;
Disabled both to combat or to fly,
Must hear all taunts, and hear without reply. 
Uncheck’d on both loud rabbles vent their rage,
As mongrels bay the lion in a cage. 
Th’ offended burgess hoards his angry tale,
For that blest year, when all that vote may rail;
Their schemes of spite the poet’s foes dismiss,
Till that glad night, when all that hate may hiss. 
“This day the powder’d curls and golden coat,”
Says swelling Crispin, “begg’d a cobbler’s vote.” 
“This night our wit,” the pert apprentice cries,
“Lies at my feet; I hiss him, and he dies.” 
The great, ‘tis true, can charm th’ electing tribe;
The bard may supplicate, but cannot bribe. 
Yet, judg’d by those whose voices ne’er were sold,
He feels no want of ill persuading gold;
But, confident of praise, if praise be due,
Trusts, without fear, to merit and to you.

PROLOGUE
TO THE COMEDY OF A WORK TO THE WISE[a]
SPOKEN BY MR. HULL.

This night presents a play, which publick rage,
Or right, or wrong, once hooted from the stage[b]. 
From zeal or malice, now, no more we dread,
For English vengeance wars not with the dead. 
A gen’rous foe regards, with pitying eye,
The man whom fate has laid, where all must lie. 
To wit, reviving from its author’s dust,
Be kind, ye judges, or at least be just. 
For no renew’d hostilities invade
Th’ oblivious grave’s inviolable shade. 
Let one great payment ev’ry claim appease;
And him, who cannot hurt, allow to please;
To please by scenes, unconscious of offence,
By harmless merriment, or useful sense. 
Where aught of bright, or fair, the piece displays,
Approve it only—­’tis too late to praise. 
If want of skill, or want of care appear,
Forbear to hiss—­the poet cannot hear. 
By all, like him, must praise and blame be found,
At best a fleeting gleam, or empty sound. 
Yet, then, shall calm reflection bless the night,
When lib’ral pity dignify’d delight;
When pleasure fir’d her torch at virtue’s flame,
And mirth was bounty with an humbler name.

[a] Performed at Covent garden theatre in 1777, for the benefit of Mrs.
    Kelly, widow of Hugh Kelly, esq. (the author of the play,) and her
    children.

[b] Upon the first representation of this play, 1770, a party assembled
    to damn it, and succeeded.

Page 130

SPRING; AN ODE.

Stern winter now, by spring repress’d,
  Forbears the long-continued strife;
And nature, on her naked breast,
  Delights to catch the gales of life. 
Now o’er the rural kingdom roves
  Soft pleasure with the laughing train,
Love warbles in the vocal groves,
  And vegetation plants the plain. 
Unhappy! whom to beds of pain,
  Arthritick[a] tyranny consigns;
Whom smiling nature courts in vain,
  Though rapture sings, and beauty shines. 
Yet though my limbs disease invades,
  Her wings imagination tries,
And bears me to the peaceful shades,
  Where—­s humble turrets rise;
Here stop, my soul, thy rapid flight,
  Nor from the pleasing groves depart,
Where first great nature charm’d my sight,
  Where wisdom first inform’d my heart. 
Here let me through the vales pursue
  A guide—­a father—­and a friend,
Once more great nature’s works renew,
  Once more on wisdom’s voice attend. 
From false caresses, causeless strife,
  Wild hope, vain fear, alike remov’d,
Here let me learn the use of life,
  When best enjoy’d—­when most improv’d. 
Teach me, thou venerable bower,
  Cool meditation’s quiet seat,
The gen’rous scorn of venal power,
  The silent grandeur of retreat. 
When pride, by guilt, to greatness climbs,
  Or raging factions rush to war,
Here let me learn to shun the crimes,
I can’t prevent, and will not share. 
  But, lest I fall by subtler foes,
Bright wisdom, teach me Curio’s art,
  The swelling passions to compose,
And quell the rebels of the heart.

[a] The author being ill of the gout.

MIDSUMMER; AN ODE.

O Phoebus! down the western sky,
  Far hence diffuse thy burning ray,
Thy light to distant worlds supply,
  And wake them to the cares of day. 
Come, gentle eve, the friend of care,
  Come, Cynthia, lovely queen of night! 
Refresh me with a cooling air,
  And cheer me with a lambent light: 
Lay me, where o’er the verdant ground
  Her living carpet nature spreads;
Where the green bow’r, with roses crown’d,
  In show’rs its fragrant foliage sheds;
Improve the peaceful hour with wine;
  Let musick die along the grove;
Around the bowl let myrtles twine,
  And ev’ry strain be tun’d to love. 
Come, Stella, queen of all my heart! 
  Come, born to fill its vast desires! 
Thy looks perpetual joys impart,
  Thy voice perpetual love inspires. 
Whilst, all my wish and thine complete,
  By turns we languish and we burn,
Let sighing gales our sighs repeat,
  Our murmurs—­murmuring brooks return,
Let me, when nature calls to rest,
  And blushing skies the morn foretell,
Sink on the down of Stella’s breast,
  And bid the waking world farewell.

Page 131

AUTUMN; AN ODE.

Alas! with swift and silent pace,
  Impatient time rolls on the year;
The seasons change, and nature’s face
  Now sweetly smiles, now frowns severe,
’Twas spring, ’twas summer, all was gay,
  Now autumn bends a cloudy brow;
The flow’rs of spring are swept away,
  And summer-fruits desert the bough. 
The verdant leaves, that play’d on high,
  And wanton’d on the western breeze,
Now, trod in dust, neglected lie,
  As Boreas strips the bending trees. 
The fields, that way’d with golden grain,
  As russet heaths, are wild and bare;
Not moist with dew, but drench’d with rain,
  Nor health, nor pleasure, wanders there. 
No more, while through the midnight shade,
  Beneath the moon’s pale orb I stray,
Soft pleasing woes my heart invade,
  As Progne pours the melting lay. 
From this capricious clime she soars,
  Oh! would some god but wings supply! 
To where each morn the spring restores,
  Companion of her flight I’d fly. 
Vain wish! me fate compels to bear
  The downward season’s iron reign;
Compels to breathe polluted air,
  And shiver on a blasted plain. 
What bliss to life can autumn yield,
  If glooms, and show’rs, and storms prevail,
And Ceres flies the naked field,
  And flowers, and fruits, and Phoebus fail? 
Oh! what remains, what lingers yet,
  To cheer me in the dark’ning hour! 
The grape remains! the friend of wit,
  In love, and mirth, of mighty pow’r. 
Haste—­press the clusters, fill the bowl;
  Apollo! shoot thy parting ray: 
This gives the sunshine of the soul,
  This god of health, and verse, and day. 
Still—­still the jocund strain shall flow,
  The pulse with vig’rous rapture beat;
My Stella with new charms shall glow,
  And ev’ry bliss in wine shall meet.

WINTER; AN ODE.

No more tire morn, with tepid rays,
  Unfolds the flow’r of various hue;
Noon spreads no more the genial blaze,
  Nor gentle eve distils the dew. 
The ling’ring hours prolong the night,
  Usurping darkness shares the day;
Her mists restrain the force of light,
  And Phoebus holds a doubtful sway. 
By gloomy twilight, half reveal’d,
  With sighs we view the hoary hill,
The leafless wood, the naked field,
  The snow-topp’d cot, the frozen rill. 
No musick warbles through the grove,
  No vivid colours paint the plain;
No more, with devious steps, I rove
  Through verdant paths, now sought in vain. 
Aloud the driving tempest roars,
  Congeal’d, impetuous show’rs descend;
Haste, close the window, bar the doors,
  Fate leaves me Stella, and a friend. 
In nature’s aid, let art supply
  With light and heat my little sphere;
Rouse, rouse the fire, and pile it high,
  Light up a constellation here. 

Page 132

THE WINTER’S WALK.

Behold, my fair, where’er we rove,
  What dreary prospects round us rise;
The naked hill, the leafless grove,
  The hoary ground, the frowning skies! 
Nor only through the wasted plain,
  Stern winter! is thy force confess’d;
Still wider spreads thy horrid reign,
  I feel thy pow’r usurp my breast. 
Enliv’ning hope, and fond desire,
  Resign the heart to spleen and care;
Scarce frighted love maintains her fire,
  And rapture saddens to despair. 
In groundless hope, and causeless fear,
  Unhappy man! behold thy doom;
Still changing with the changeful year,
  The slave of sunshine and of gloom. 
Tir’d with vain joys, and false alarms,
  With mental and corporeal strife,
Snatch me, my Stella, to thy arms,
  And screen me from the ills of life[a].

[a] And hide me from the sight of life. 1st edition.

TO MISS ****
ON HER GIVING THE AUTHOR A GOLD AND SILK NETWORK PURSE OF HER OWN
WEAVING[a].

Though gold and silk their charms unite
To make thy curious web delight,
In vain the varied work would shine,
If wrought by any hand but thine;
Thy hand, that knows the subtler art
To weave those nets that catch the heart.

Spread out by me, the roving coin
Thy nets may catch, but not confine;
Nor can I hope thy silken chain
The glitt’ring vagrants shall restrain. 
Why, Stella, was it then decreed,
The heart, once caught, should ne’er be freed?

[a] Printed among Mrs. Williams’s Miscellanies.

TO MISS ****
ON HER PLAYING UPON THE HARPSICHORD, IN A ROOM HUNG WITH FLOWER-PIECES
OF HER OWN PAINTING[a].

When Stella strikes the tuneful string,
In scenes of imitated spring,
Where beauty lavishes her pow’rs
On beds of never-fading flow’rs,
And pleasure propagates around
Each charm of modulated sound;
Ah! think not, in the dang’rous hour,
The nymph fictitious as the flow’r;
But shun, rash youth, the gay alcove,
Nor tempt the snares of wily love. 
When charms thus press on ev’ry sense,
What thought of flight, or of defence? 
Deceitful hope, and vain desire,
For ever flutter o’er her lyre,
Delighting, as the youth draws nigh,
To point the glances of her eye,
And forming, with unerring art,
New chains to hold the captive heart. 

Page 133

[a] Printed among Mrs. Williams’s Miscellanies.

EVENING; AN ODE.  TO STELLA.

Ev’ning now from purple wings
Sheds the grateful gifts she brings;
Brilliant drops bedeck the mead,
Cooling breezes shake the reed;
Shake the reed, and curl the stream,
Silver’d o’er with Cynthia’s beam;
Near the checquer’d, lonely grove,
Hears, and keeps thy secrets, love. 
Stella, thither let us stray,
Lightly o’er the dewy way. 
Phoebus drives his burning car
Hence, my lovely Stella, far;
In his stead, the queen of night
Round us pours a lambent light;
Light, that seems but just to show
Breasts that beat, and cheeks that glow. 
Let us now, in whisper’d joy,
Ev’ning’s silent hours employ;
Silence best, and conscious shades,
Please the hearts that love invades;
Other pleasures give them pain,
Lovers all but love disdain.

TO THE SAME.

Whether Stella’s eyes are found
Fix’d on earth, or glancing round,
If her face with pleasure glow,
If she sigh at others’ woe,
If her easy air express
Conscious worth, or soft distress,
Stella’s eyes, and air, and face,
Charm with undiminish’d grace. 
  If on her we see display’d
Pendent gems, and rich brocade;
If her chints with less expense
Flows in easy negligence;
Still she lights the conscious flame,
Still her charms appear the same;
If she strikes the vocal strings,
If she’s silent, speaks, or sings,
If she sit, or if she move,
Still we love, and still approve. 
  Vain the casual, transient glance,
Which alone can please by chance;
Beauty, which depends on art,
Changing with the changing heart,
Which demands the toilet’s aid,
Pendent gems and rich brocade. 
I those charms alone can prize,
Which from constant nature rise,
Which nor circumstance, nor dress,
E’er can make, or more, or less.

TO A FRIEND.

Page 134

No more thus brooding o’er yon heap,
With av’rice, painful vigils keep;
Still unenjoy’d the present store,
Still endless sighs are breath’d for more. 
Oh! quit the shadow, catch the prize,
Which not all India’s treasure buys! 
  To purchase heav’n has gold the power? 
Can gold remove the mortal hour? 
In life, can love be bought with gold? 
Are friendship’s pleasures to be sold? 
No—­all that’s worth a wish—­a thought,
Fair virtue gives unbrib’d, unbought. 
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind,
Let nobler views engage thy mind. 
  With science tread the wondrous way,
Or learn the muses’ moral lay;
In social hours indulge thy soul,
Where mirth and temp’rance mix the bowl;
To virtuous love resign thy breast,
And be, by blessing beauty—­blest. 
  Thus taste the feast, by nature spread,
Ere youth, and all its joys are fled;
Come, taste with me the balm of life,
Secure from pomp, and wealth, and strife. 
I boast whate’er for man was meant,
In health, and Stella, and content;
And scorn! oh! let that scorn be thine! 
Mere things of clay that dig the mine.

STELLA IN MOURNING.

When lately Stella’s form display’d
The beauties of the gay brocade,
The nymphs, who found their pow’r decline,
Proclaim’d her not so fair as fine. 
“Fate! snatch away the bright disguise,
And let the goddess trust her eyes.” 
Thus blindly pray’d the fretful fair,
And fate malicious heard the pray’r;
But, brighten’d by the sable dress,
As virtue rises in distress,
Since Stella still extends her reign,
Ah! how shall envy sooth her pain? 
  Th’ adoring youth and envious fair,
Henceforth, shall form one common prayer: 
And love and hate, alike, implore
The skies—­“That Stella mourn no more.”

TO STELLA.

Not the soft sighs of vernal gales,
The fragrance of the flow’ry vales,
The murmurs of the crystal rill,
The vocal grove, the verdant hill;
Not all their charms, though all unite,
Can touch my bosom with delight.

Not all the gems on India’s shore,
Not all Peru’s unbounded store,
Not all the power, nor all the fame,
That heroes, kings, or poets claim;
Nor knowledge, which the learn’d approve;
To form one wish my soul can move.

Yet nature’s charms allure my eyes,
And knowledge, wealth, and fame I prize;
Fame, wealth, and knowledge I obtain,
Nor seek I nature’s charms in vain;
In lovely Stella all combine;
And, lovely Stella! thou art mine.

VERSES,
WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF A GENTLEMAN, TO WHOM A LADY HAD GIVEN A SPRIG
OF MYRTLE [a].

Page 135

What hopes, what terrours, does thy gift create! 
Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate! 
The myrtle (ensign of supreme command,
Consign’d by Venus to Melissa’s hand)
Not less capricious than a reigning fair,
Oft favours, oft rejects, a lover’s pray’r. 
In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain,
In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain. 
The myrtle crowns the happy lovers’ heads,
Th’ unhappy lovers’ graves the myrtle spreads. 
Oh! then, the meaning of thy gift impart,
And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart. 
Soon must this bough, as you shall fix its doom,
Adorn Philander’s head, or grace his tomb.

[a] These verses were first printed in the Gentleman’s Magazine for
    1768, p. 439, but were written many years earlier.  Elegant as they
    are, Dr. Johnson assured me, they were composed in the short space
    of five minutes.—­N.

TO LADY FIREBRACE[a]. 
AT BURY ASSIZES.

At length, must Suffolk beauties shine in vain,
So long renown’d in B—­n’s deathless strain? 
Thy charms, at least, fair Firebrace, might inspire
Some zealous bard to wake the sleeping lyre;
For, such thy beauteous mind and lovely face,
Thou seem’st at once, bright nymph, a muse and grace.

[a] This lady was Bridget, third daughter of Philip Bacon, esq. of
    Ipswich, and relict of Philip Evers, esq. of that town.  She became
    the second wife of sir Cordell Firebrace, the last baronet of that
    name, to whom she brought a fortune of 25,000 pounds, July 26, 1737. 
    Being again left a widow, in 1759, she was a third time married,
    April 7, 1762, to William Campbell, esq. uncle to the late duke of
    Argyle, and died July 3, 1782.

TO LYCE, AN ELDERLY LADY.

Ye nymphs, whom starry rays invest,
By flatt’ring poets given;
Who shine, by lavish lovers drest,
In all the pomp of heaven;

Engross not all the beams on high,
  Which gild a lover’s lays;
But, as your sister of the sky,
  Let Lyce share the praise.

Her silver locks display the moon,
  Her brows a cloudy show,
Strip’d rainbows round her eyes are seen,
  And show’rs from either flow.

Her teeth the night with darkness dies,
  She’s starr’d with pimples o’er;
Her tongue, like nimble lightning, plies,
  And can with thunder roar.

But some Zelinda, while I sing,
  Denies my Lyce shines;
And all the pens of Cupid’s wing
  Attack my gentle lines.

Yet, spite of fair Zelinda’s eye,
  And all her bards express,
My Lyce makes as good a sky,
  And I but flatter less.

ON THE DEATH OF
MR. ROBERT LEVET[a],
A PRACTISER IN PHYSICK.

Condemn’d to hope’s delusive mine,
  As on we toil, from day to day,
By sudden blasts, or slow decline,
  Our social comforts drop away.

Page 136

Well try’d, through many a varying year,
  See Levet to the grave descend,
Officious, innocent, sincere,
  Of ev’ry friendless name the friend.

Yet still he fills affection’s eye,
  Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind;
Nor, letter’d arrogance, deny
  Thy praise to merit unrefined.

When fainting nature call’d for aid,
  And hov’ring death prepar’d the blow,
His vig’rous remedy display’d
  The pow’r of art, without the show.

In mis’ry’s darkest cavern known,
  His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless anguish pour’d his groan,
  And lonely want retir’d to die.

No summons, mock’d by chill delay,
  No petty gain, disdain’d by pride;
The modest wants of ev’ry day
  The toil of ev’ry day supply’d.

His virtues walk’d their narrow round,
  Nor made a pause, nor left a void;
And sure the eternal master found
  The single talent well-employ’d.

The busy day—­the peaceful night,
  Unfelt, uncounted, glided by;
His frame was firm—­his pow’rs were bright,
  Though now his eightieth year was nigh.

Then, with no fiery throbbing pain,
  No cold gradations of decay,
Death broke, at once, the vital chain,
  And freed his soul the nearest way.

[a] These stanzas, to adopt the words of Dr. Drake, “are warm from the
    heart; and this is the only poem, from the pen of Johnson, that has
    been bathed with tears.”  Levet was Johnson’s constant and attentive
    companion, for near forty years; he was a practitioner in physic,
    among the lower class of people, in London.  Humanity, rather than
    desire of gain, seems to have actuated this single hearted and
    amiable being; and never were the virtues of charity recorded in
    more touching strains.  “I am acquainted,” says Dr. Drake, “with
    nothing superior to them in the productions of the moral muse.”  See
    Drake’s Literary Life of Johnson; and Boswell, i. ii. iii. iv.—­ED.

EPITAPH ON CLAUDE PHILLIPS, AN ITINERANT MUSICIAN[a].

Phillips! whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty pow’r, and hapless love,
Rest here, distress’d by poverty no more,
Find here that calm thou gay’st so oft before;
Sleep, undisturb’d, within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee, with a note like thine.

[a] These lines are among Mrs. Williams’s Miscellanies:  they are,
    nevertheless, recognised as Johnson’s, in a memorandum of his
    handwriting, and were probably written at her request.  This Phillips
    was a fiddler, who travelled up and down Wales, and was much
    celebrated for his skill.  The above epitaph, according to Mr.
    Boswell, won the applause of lord Kames, prejudiced against Johnson
    as he was.  It was published in Mrs. Williams’s Miscellanies, and

Page 137

EPITAPHIUM[a]
IN
THOMAM HANMER, BARONETTUM.

Honorabilis admodum THOMAS HANMER,
Baronnettus,

Augustus still survives in Maro’s strain,
And Spenser’s verse prolongs Eliza’s reign;
Great George’s acts let tuneful Gibber sing;
For nature formed the poet for the king.

Wilhelmi Hanmer armigeri, e Peregrina Henrici
North
De Mildenhall, in Com.  Suffolciae, baronetti sorore
et haerede,
Filius;
Johannis Hanmer de Hanmer baronetti
Haeres patruelis
Antiquo gentis suae et titulo et patrimonio successit. 
Duas uxores sortitus est;
Alteram Isabellam, honore a patre derivato, de
Arlington comitissam,
Deinde celsissimi principis, ducis de Grafton, viduam
dotariam: 
Alteram Elizabetham, Thomae Foulkes de Barton, in
Com.  Suff. armigeri
Filiam et haeredem. 
Inter humanitatis studia feliciter enutritus,
Omnes liberalium artium disciplinas avide arripuit,
Quas morum suavitate baud leviter ornavit,
Postquam excessit ex ephebis,
Continuo inter populares suos fama eminens,
Et comitatus sui legatus ad parliamentum missus,
Ad ardua regni negotia, per annos prope triginta,
se accinxit: 
Cumque, apud illos amplissimorum virorum ordines,
Solent nihil temere effutire,
Sed probe perpensa diserte expromere,
Orator gravis et pressus,
Non minus integritatis quam eloquentiae laude
commendatus,
Aeque omnium, utcunque inter se alioqui dissidentium,
Aures atque arrimos attraxit. 
Annoque demum M.DCC.XIII. regnante Anna,
Felicissimae florentissimaeque memoriae regina,
Ad prolocutoris cathedram,
Communi senatus universi voce, designatus est: 
Quod munus,
Cum nullo tempore non difficile,
Tum illo certe, negotiis
Et variis, et lubricis, et implicatis, difficillimum,
Cum dignitate sustinuit. 
Honores alios, et omnia quae sibi in lucrum cederent
munera,
Sedulo detrectavit,
Ut rei totus inserviret publicae;
Justi rectique tenax,
Et fide in patriam incorrupta notus. 
Ubi omnibus, quae virum civemque bonum decent,
officiis satisfecisset,
Paulatim se a publicis consiliis in otium recipiens,
Inter literarum amoenitates,
Inter ante-actae vitae baud insuaves recordationes,
Inter amicorum convictus et amplexus,
Honorifice consenuit;
Et bonis omnibus, quibus charissimus vixit,
Desideratissimus obiit. 
Hie, juxta cineres avi, suos condi voluit, et curavit
Gulielmus Bunbury B’ttus, nepos et haeres.

Page 138

PARAPHRASE OF THE ABOVE EPITAPH. 
BY DR. JOHNSON (b).

Thou, who survey’st these walls with curious eye,
Pause at the tomb, where Hanmer’s ashes lie;
His various worth, through vary’d life, attend,
And learn his virtues, while thou mourn’st his end. 
  His force of genius burn’d, in early youth,
With thirst of knowledge, and with love of truth;
His learning, join’d with each endearing art,
Charm’d ev’ry ear, and gain’d on ev’ry heart. 
  Thus early wise, th’ endanger’d realm to aid,
His country call’d him from the studious shade;
In life’s first bloom his publick toils began,
At once commenc’d the senator and man. 
In bus’ness dext’rous, weighty in debate,
Thrice ten long years he labour’d for the state;
In ev’ry speech persuasive wisdom flow’d,
In ev’ry act refulgent virtue glow’d: 
Suspended faction ceas’d from rage and strife,
To hear his eloquence, and praise his life. 
Resistless merit fix’d the senate’s choice,
Who hail’d him speaker, with united voice. 
Illustrious age! how bright thy glories shone,
When Hanmer fill’d the chair—­and Anne the throne! 
Then, when dark arts obscur’d each fierce debate,
When mutual frauds perplex’d the maze of state,
The moderator firmly mild appear’d—­
Beheld with love—­with veneration heard. 
This task perform’d—­he sought no gainful post,
Nor wish’d to glitter, at his country’s cost: 
Strict on the right he fix’d his steadfast eye,
With temp’rate zeal and wise anxiety;
Nor e’er from virtue’s paths was lur’d aside,
To pluck the flow’rs of pleasure, or of pride. 
Her gifts despis’d, corruption blush’d, and fled,
And fame pursu’d him, where conviction led. 
Age call’d, at length, his active mind to rest,
With honour sated, and with cares oppress’d;
To letter’d ease retir’d, and honest mirth,
To rural grandeur and domestick worth;
Delighted still to please mankind, or mend,
The patriot’s fire yet sparkled in the friend. 
Calm conscience, then, his former life survey’d,
And recollected toils endear’d the shade,
Till nature call’d him to the gen’ral doom,
And virtue’s sorrow dignified his tomb.

[a] At Hanmer church, in Flintshire.
[b] This paraphrase is inserted in Mrs. Williams’s Miscellanies.  The
    Latin is there said to be written by Dr. Freind.  Of the person whose
    memory it celebrates, a copious account may be seen in the appendix
    to the supplement to the Biographia Britannica.

TO MISS HICKMAN[a],
PLAYING ON THE SPINET.

Bright Stella, form’d for universal reign,
Too well you know to keep the slaves you gain;
When in your eyes resistless lightnings play,
Aw’d into love our conquer’d hearts obey,
And yield reluctant to despotick sway: 
But, when your musick sooths the raging pain,
We bid propitious heav’n prolong your reign,
We bless the tyrant, and we hug the chain. 

Page 139

[a] These lines, which have been communicated by Dr. Turton, son to Mrs.
    Turton, the lady to whom they are addressed by her maiden name of
    Hickman, must have been written, at least, as early as 1734, as that
    was the year of her marriage:  at how much earlier a period of Dr.
    Johnson’s life they might have been written, is not known.

PARAPHRASE OF PROVERBS, CHAP.  VI.  VERSES 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard[a].”

Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes,
Observe her labours, sluggard, and be wise: 
No stern command, no monitory voice,
Prescribes her duties, or directs her choice;
Yet, timely provident, she hastes away,
To snatch the blessings of the plenteous day;
When fruitful summer loads the teeming plain,
She crops the harvest, and she stores the grain. 
How long shall sloth usurp thy useless hours,
Unnerve thy vigour, and enchain thy pow’rs;
While artful shades thy downy couch inclose,
And soft solicitation courts repose? 
Amidst the drowsy charms of dull delight,
Year chases year with unremitted flight,
Till want now following, fraudulent and slow,
Shall spring to seize thee like an ambush’d foe.

[a] First printed in Mrs. Williams’s Miscellanies.

HORACE, LIB.  IV.  ODE VII.  TRANSLATED.

The snow, dissolv’d, no more is seen,
The fields and woods, behold! are green;
The changing year renews the plain,
The rivers know their banks again;
The sprightly nymph and naked grace
The mazy dance together trace;
The changing year’s successive plan
Proclaims mortality to man;
Rough winter’s blasts to spring give way,
Spring yields to summer’s sov’reign ray;
Then summer sinks in autumn’s reign,
And winter chills the world again;
Her losses soon the moon supplies,
But wretched man, when once he lies
Where Priam and his sons are laid,
Is nought but ashes and a shade. 
Who knows if Jove, who counts our score,
Will toss us in a morning more? 
What with your friend you nobly share,
At least you rescue from your heir. 
Not you, Torquatus, boast of Rome,
When Minos once has fixed your doom,
Or eloquence, or splendid birth,
Or virtue, shall restore to earth. 
Hippolytus, unjustly slain,
Diana calls to life in vain;
Nor can the might of Theseus rend
The chains of hell that hold his friend. 
Nov. 1784.

Page 140

The following translations, parodies, and burlesque verses, most of them extempore, are taken from Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, published by Mrs. Piozzi.

ANACREON, ODE IX.

Lovely courier of the sky,
Whence and whither dost thou fly? 
Scatt’ring, as thy pinions play,
Liquid fragrance all the way: 
Is it business? is it love? 
Tell me, tell me, gentle dove. 
Soft Anacreon’s vows I bear,
Vows to Myrtale the fair;
Grac’d with all that charms the heart,
Blushing nature, smiling art. 
Venus, courted by an ode,
On the bard her dove bestow’d: 
Vested with a master’s right,
Now Anacreon rules my flight;
His the letters that you see,
Weighty charge, consign’d to me: 
Think not yet my service hard,
Joyless task without reward;
Smiling at my master’s gates,
Freedom my return awaits;
But the lib’ral grant in vain
Tempts me to be wild again. 
Can a prudent dove decline
Blissful bondage such as mine? 
Over hills and fields to roam,
Fortune’s guest without a home;
Under leaves to hide one’s head
Slightly shelter’d, coarsely fed: 
Now my better lot bestows
Sweet repast and soft repose;
Now the gen’rous bowl I sip,
As it leaves Anacreon’s lip: 
Void of care, and free from dread,
From his fingers snatch his bread;
Then, with luscious plenty gay,
Round his chamber dance and play;
Or from wine, as courage springs,
O’er his face extend my wings;
And when feast and frolick tire,
Drop asleep upon his lyre. 
This is all, be quick and go,
More than all thou canst not know;
Let me now my pinions ply,
I have chatter’d like a pie.

LINES
WRITTEN IN RIDICULE OF CERTAIN POEMS
PUBLISHED IN 1777.

Wheresor’er I turn my view,
All is strange, yet nothing new;
Endless labour all along,
Endless labour to be wrong;
Phrase that time hath flung away,
Uncouth words in disarray,
Trick’d in antique ruff and bonnet,
Ode, and elegy, and sonnet.

PARODY OF A TRANSLATION.  FROM THE MEDEA OF EURIPIDES.

Err shall they not, who resolute explore
Times gloomy backward with judicious eyes;
And, scanning right the practices of yore,
Shall deem our hoar progenitors unwise.

They to the dome, where smoke, with curling play,
Announc’d the dinner to the regions round,
Summon’d the singer blithe, and harper gay,
And aided wine with dulcet-streaming sound.

The better use of notes, or sweet or shrill,
By quiv’ring string or modulated wind;
Trumpet or lyre—­to their harsh bosoms chill
Admission ne’er had sought, or could not find.

Oh! send them to the sullen mansions dun,
Her baleful eyes where sorrow rolls around;
Where gloom-enamour’d mischief loves to dwell,
And murder, all blood-bolter’d, schemes the wound.

Page 141

When cates luxuriant pile the spacious dish,
And purple nectar glads the festive hour;
The guest, without a want, without a wish,
Can yield no room to musick’s soothing pow’r.

TRANSLATION
FROM THE MEDEA OF EURIPIDES, V. 196[a]

The rites deriv’d from ancient days,
With thoughtless reverence we praise;
The rites that taught us to combine
The joys of musick and of wine,
And bade the feast, and song, and bowl
O’erfill the saturated soul: 
But ne’er the flute or lyre applied
To cheer despair, or soften pride;
Nor call’d them to the gloomy cells
Where want repines and vengeance swells;
Where hate sits musing to betray,
And murder meditates his prey. 
To dens of guilt and shades of care,
Ye sons of melody repair,
Nor deign the festive dome to cloy
With superfluities of joy. 
Ah! little needs the minstrel’s power
To speed the light convivial hour. 
The board, with varied plenty crown’d,
May spare the luxuries of sound[b].

[a] The classical reader will, doubtless, be pleased to see the
    exquisite original in immediate comparison with this translation;
    we, therefore, subjoin it, and also Dr. J. Warton’s imitation of
    the same passage.

[Greek:] skaious de legon kouden ti sophous tous prosthe brotous, ouk an amartois oitines umnous epi men thaliais, epi d’eilapinais kai para deipnois euronto biou terpnas akoas stugious de broton oudeis pulas eureto mousae kai poluchordois odais pauein, exon thanatoi deinai te tuchai sphallonsi domous kaitoi tade men kerdos akeisthai molpaisi brotous ina d’endeipnoi daites ti mataen teinousi boan to paron gar echei terpsin aph auton daitos plaeroma brotaoisin
                        MEDEA, 193—­206.  ED. PORS

Queen of every moving measure,
Sweetest source of purest pleasure,
Music! why thy pow’rs employ
Only for the sons of joy;
Only for the smiling guests,
At natal or at nuptial feasts? 
Rather thy lenient numbers pour
On those, whom secret griefs devour,
Bid be still the throbbing hearts
Of those whom death or absence parts,
And, with some softly whisper’d air,
Sooth the brow of dumb despair.

[b] This translation was written by Johnson for his friend Dr. Burney,
    and was inserted, as the work of “a learned friend,” in that
    gentleman’s History of Musick, vol. ii. p. 340.  It has always been
    ascribed to Johnson; but, to put the matter beyond a doubt, Mr.
    Malone ascertained the fact by applying to Dr. Burney himself.  J. B.

TRANSLATION
OF THE FIRST TWO STANZAS OF THE SONG “RIO
VERDE, RIO VERDE,” PRINTED IN BISHOP PERCY’S
RELIQUES OF ANCIENT ENGLISH POETRY.

AN IMPROMPTU.

Glassy water, glassy water,
  Down whose current, clear and strong,
Chiefs confused in mutual slaughter,
  Moor and Christian roll along.

Page 142

IMITATION OF THE STYLE OF ****.

Hermit hoar, in solemn cell
  Wearing out life’s ev’ning grey,
Strike thy bosom, sage, and tell
  What is bliss, and which the way.

Thus I spoke, and speaking sigh’d,
  Scarce repress’d the starting tear,
When the hoary sage reply’d,
  Come, my lad, and drink some beer.

BURLESQUE
OF THE FOLLOWING LINES OF LOPEZ DE VEGA. 
AN IMPROMPTU.

Se a quien los leones vence
  Vence una muger hermosa,
O el de flaco avergonze,
  O ella di ser mas furiosa.

If the man who turnips cries,
Cry not when his father dies,
’Tis a proof, that he had rather
Have a turnip than his father.

TRANSLATION
OF THE FOLLOWING LINES AT THE END OF BARETTI’S
EASY PHRASEOLOGY.

AN IMPROMPTU.

Viva, viva la padrona! 
Tutta bella, e tutta buona,
La padrona e un’ angiolella
Tutta buona e tutta bella;
Tutta bella e tutta buona;
Viva! viva la padrona!

Long may live my lovely Hetty! 
Always young, and always pretty;
Always pretty, always young,
Live, my lovely Hetty, long! 
Always young, and always pretty,
Long may live my lovely Hetty!

IMPROVISO TRANSLATION
OF THE FOLLOWING DISTICH ON THE DUKE OF MODENA’S
RUNNING AWAY FROM THE COMET IN 1742 OR 1743.

Se al venir vostro i principi sen’ vanno
Deh venga ogni di—­durate un’ anno.

If at your coming princes disappear,
Comets! come every day—­and stay a year.

IMPROVISO TRANSLATION OF THE FOLLOWING LINES OF M. BENSERADE A SON LIT.

Theatre des ris, et des pleurs,
Lit! ou je nais, et ou je meurs,
Tu nous fais voir comment voisins
Sont nos plaisirs, et nos chagrins.

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry,
And, born in bed, in bed we die;
The near approach a bed may show
Of human bliss to human woe.

EPITAPH FOR MR. HOGARTH.

The hand of him here torpid lies,
  That drew th’ essential form of grace;
Here clos’d in death th’ attentive eyes,
  That saw the manners in the face.

TRANSLATION
OF THE FOLLOWING LINES, WRITTEN UNDER A PRINT
REPRESENTING PERSONS SKATING.

Sur un mince cristal l’hiver conduit leurs pas,
  Le precipice est sous la glace: 
  Telle est de nos plaisirs la legere surface: 
Glissez, mortels; n’appuyez pas.

O’er ice the rapid skater flies,
  With sport above, and death below;
Where mischief lurks in gay disguise,
  Thus lightly touch and quickly go.

IMPROMPTU TRANSLATION OF THE SAME.

O’er crackling ice, o’er gulfs profound,
  With nimble glide the skaters play;
O’er treach’rous pleasure’s flow’ry ground
  Thus lightly skim, and haste away.

Page 143

TO MRS. THRALE,
ON HER COMPLETING HER THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR. 
AN IMPROMPTU.

Oft in danger, yet alive,
We are come to thirty-five;
Long may better years arrive,
Better years than thirty-five! 
Could philosophers contrive
Life to stop at thirty-five,
Time his hours should never drive
O’er the bounds of thirty-five. 
High to soar, and deep to dive,
Nature gives at thirty-five. 
Ladies, stock and tend your hive,
Trifle not at thirty-five;
For, howe’er we boast and strive. 
Life declines from thirty-five. 
He that ever hopes to thrive
Must begin by thirty-five;
And all, who wisely wish to wive,
Must look on Thrale at thirty-five.

IMPROMPTU TRANSLATION
OF AN AIR IN THE CLEMENZA DI TITO OF
METASTASIO,
BEGINNING “DEH SE PIACERMI VUOI.”

Would you hope to gain my heart,
Bid your teasing doubts depart;
He, who blindly trusts, will find
Faith from ev’ry gen’rous mind: 
He, who still expects deceit,
Only teaches how to cheat.

TRANSLATION
OF A SPEECH OF AQUILEIO, IN THE ADRIANO OF METASTASIO,
BEGINNING “TU CHE IN CORTE INVECCHIASTI[a].”

Grown old in courts, thou surely art not one
Who keeps the rigid rules of ancient honour;
Well skill’d to sooth a foe with looks of kindness,
To sink the fatal precipice before him,
And then lament his fall, with seeming friendship: 
Open to all, true only to thyself,
Thou know’st those arts, which blast with envious praise,
Which aggravate a fault, with feign’d excuses,
And drive discountenanc’d virtue from the throne;
That leave the blame of rigour to the prince,
And of his ev’ry gift usurp the merit;
That hide, in seeming zeal, a wicked purpose,
And only build upon another’s ruin.

[a] The character of Cali, in Irene, is a masterly sketch of the old and
    practised dissembler of a despotic court,—­ED.

BURLESQUE
OF THE MODERN VERSIFICATIONS OF ANCIENT
LEGENDARY TALES.  AN IMPROMPTU.

The tender infant, meek and mild,
  Fell down upon the stone: 
The nurse took up the squealing child,
  But still the child squeal’d on.

FRIENDSHIP;
AN ODE[a].

Friendship, peculiar boon of heaven,
  The noble mind’s delight and pride,
To men and angels only given,
  To all the lower world deny’d.

While love, unknown among the blest,
  Parent of thousand wild desires[b],
The savage and the human breast
  Torments alike with raging fires[c];

With bright, but oft destructive, gleam,
  Alike, o’er all his lightnings fly;
Thy lambent glories only beam
  Around the fav’rites of the sky.

Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys
  On fools and villains ne’er descend;
In vain for thee the tyrant sighs[d],
  And hugs a flatt’rer for a friend.

Directress of the brave and just[e],
  O! guide us through life’s darksome way! 
And let the tortures of mistrust
  On selfish bosoms only prey.

Page 144

Nor shall thine ardours cease to glow[f],
  When souls to blissful climes remove: 
What rais’d our virtue here below,
  Shall aid our happiness above.

[a] This ode originally appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1743. 
    See Boswell’s Life of Johnson, under that year.  It was afterwards
    printed in Mrs. Williams’s Miscellanies, in 1766, with several
    variations, which are pointed out, below.—­J.B.
[b] Parent of rage and hot desires.—­Mrs. W.
[c] Inflames alike with equal fires.
[d] In vain for thee the monarch sighs.
[e] This stanza is omitted in Mrs. William’s Miscellanies, and instead
    of it, we have the following, which may be suspected, from internal
    evidence, not to have been Johnson’s: 

    When virtues, kindred virtues meet,
    And sister-souls together join,
    Thy pleasures permanent, as great,
    Are all transporting—­all divine.

[f] O! shall thy flames then cease to glow.

ON SEEING A BUST OF MRS. MONTAGUE.

Had this fair figure, which this frame displays,
Adorn’d in Roman time the brightest days,
In every dome, in every sacred place,
Her statue would have breath’d an added grace,
And on its basis would have been enroll’d,
“This is Minerva, cast in virtue’s mould.”

IMPROVISO ON A YOUNG HEIR’S COMING OF AGE

Long expected one-and-twenty,
  Ling’ring year, at length is flown;
Pride and pleasure, pomp and plenty,
  Great——­, are now your own.

Loosen’d from the minor’s tether,
  Free to mortgage or to sell;
Wild as wind, and light as feather,
  Bid the sons of thrift farewell.

Call the Betseys, Kates, and Jennies,
  All the names that banish care;
Lavish of your grandsire’s guineas,
  Show the spirit of an heir.

All that prey on vice or folly
  Joy to see their quarry fly: 
There the gamester light and jolly,
  There the lender grave and sly.

Wealth, my lad, was made to wander,
  Let it wander as it will;
Call the jockey, call the pander,
  Bid them come, and take their fill.

When the bonny blade carouses,
  Pockets full, and spirits high—­
What are acres? what are houses? 
  Only dirt, or wet or dry.

Should the guardian friend, or mother
  Tell the woes of wilful waste;
Scorn their counsel, scorn their pother,
  You can hang or drown at last.

EPITAPHS.

AT LICHFIELD. 
H. S. E.
MICHAEL JOHNSON,

VIR impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum patientissimus; fiducia christiana fortis, fervidusque; paterfamilias apprime strenuus; bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et negotiis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi nec suis defuerit; lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel pias vel castas laesisset, aut dolor vel voluptas unquam expresserit.

Page 145

Natus Cubleiae, in agro Derbiensi, anno MDCLVI; obijt
MDCCXXXI.

Apposita est SARA, conjux,

Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate praecellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem:  aeternitati semper attentam, omne fere virtutis nomen commendavit.

Nata Nortoniae Regis, in agro Varvicensi, anno
MDCLXIX; obijt MDCCLIX.

Cum NATHANAELE, illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII. cum vires et animi et corporis multa pollicerentur, anno MDCCXXXVII. vitam brevem pia morte finivit.

IN BROMLEY CHURCH. 
HIC conduntur reliquae
ELIZABETHAE
Antiqua JARVISIORUM gente
Peatlingae, apud Leicestrenses, ortae;
Formosae, cultae, ingeniosae, piae;
Uxoris, primis nuptiis, HENRICI PORTER,
secundis, SAMUELIS JOHNSON,
Qui multum amatam, diuque defletam,
Hoc lapide contexit. 
Obijt Londini, mense Mart. 
A. D. MDCCLIII.

IN WATFORD CHURCH.

In the vault below are deposited the remains of JANE BELL[a], wife of JOHN BELL, esq. who, in the fifty-third year of her age, surrounded with many worldly blessings, heard, with fortitude and composure truly great, the horrible malady, which had, for some time, begun to afflict her, pronounced incurable; and for more than three years, endured with patience, and concealed with decency, the daily tortures of gradual death; continued to divide the hours not allotted to devotion, between the cares of her family, and the converse of her friends; rewarded the attendance of duty, and acknowledged the offices of affection; and, while she endeavoured to alleviate by cheerfulness her husband’s sufferings and sorrows, increased them by her gratitude for his care, and her solicitude for his quiet.  To the testimony of these virtues, more highly honoured, as more familiarly known, this monument is erected by JOHN BELL.

[a] She died in October, 1771.

IN STRETHAM CHURCH.

Juxta sepulta est HESTERA MARIA,
Thomae Cotton de Combermere, baronetti Cestriensis,
filia,
Johannis Salusbury, armigeri Flintiensis, uxor,
Forma felix, felix ingenio;
Omnibus jucunda, suorum amantissima. 
Linguis artibusque ita exeulta,
Ut loquenti nunquam deessent
Sermonis nitor, sententiarum flosculi,
Sapientiae gravitas, leporum gratia: 
Modum servandi adeo perita,
Ut domestica inter negotia literis oblectaretur;
Literarum inter delicias, rem familiarem sedulo curaret. 
Multis illi multos annos precantibus
diri carcinomatis venene contabuit,
nexibusque vitae paulatim resolutis,
e terris, meliora sperans, emigravit. 
Nata 1707.  Nupta 1739.  Obijt 1773.

IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Page 146

OLIVARII GOLDSMITH,
Poetae, Physici, Historici,
Qui nullum fere scribendi genus
Non tetigit,
Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit: 
Sive risus essent movendi,
Sive lacrimae,
Affectuum potens, at lenis, dominator: 
Ingenio sublimis, vividus, versatilis,
Oratione grandis, nitidus, venustus: 
Hoc monumento memoriam coluit
Sodalium amor,
Amicorum fides,
Lectorum veneratio. 
Elfiniae, in Hibernia, natus MDCCXXIX. 
Eblauae literis institutus: 
Londini obijt MDCCLXXIV [a].

[a] This is the epitaph, that drew from Gibbon, sir J. Reynolds, Sheridan, Joseph Warton, &c. the celebrated Round Robin, composed by Burke, intreating Johnson to write an English epitaph on an English author.  His reply was, in the genuine spirit of an old scholar, “he would never consent to disgrace the walls of Westminster abbey with an English inscription.”  One of his arguments, in favour of a common learned language, was ludicrously cogent:  “Consider, sir, how you should feel, were you to find, at Rotterdam, an epitaph, upon Erasmus, in Dutch!” Boswell, iii.  He would, however, undoubtedly have written a better epitaph in English, than in Latin.  His compositions in that language are not of first rate excellence, either in prose or verse.  The epitaph, in Stretham church, on Mr. Thrale, abounds with inaccuracies; and those who are fond of detecting little blunders in great men, may be amply gratified in the perusal of a review of Thrale’s epitaph in the Classical Journal, xii. 6.  His Greek epitaph on Goldsmith, is not remarkable in itself, but we will subjoin it, in this place, as a literary curiosity.

[Greek:]
Thon taphon eisoraas thon OLIBARIOIO, koniaen
  Aphrosi mae semnaen, xeine, podessi patei. 
Oisi memaele phusis, metron charis, erga palaion,
  Klaiete poiaetaen, istorikon, phusikon. 
                                     —­ED.

IN STRETHAM CHURCH.

Hie conditur quod reliquum est
HENRICI THRALE,
Qui res seu civiles, seu domesticas, ita egit,
Ut vitam illi longiorem multi optarent;
Ita sacras,
Ut quam brevem esset habiturus praescire videretur;
Simplex, apertus, sibique semper similis,
Nihil ostentavit aut arte fictum, aut cura
elaboratum. 
In senatu, regi patriaeque
Fideliter studuit,
Vulgi obstrepentis contemptor animosus;
Domi, inter mille mercaturae negotia,
Literarum elegantiam minime neglexit. 
Amicis, quocunque modo laborantibus,
Consiliis, auctoritate, muneribus, adfuit. 
Inter familiares, comites, convivas, hospites,
Tam facili fuit morum suavitate
Ut omnium animos ad se alliceret;
Tam felici sermonis libertate,
Ut nulli adulatus, omnibus placeret. 
Natus 1724.  Obijt 1781. 
Consortes tumuli habet Rodolphum, patrem, strenuum
fortemque virum, et Henricum, filium unicum, quem
spei parentum mors inopiua decennem proripuit. 
Ita
Domus felix et opulenta quam erexit
Avus, auxitque pater, cum nepote decidit. 
Abi, Viator,
Et, vicibus rerum humanarum perspectis,
Aeternitatem cogita!

Page 147

POEMATA

MESSIA [a].

Ex alieno ingenio poeta, ex suo tantum versificator. 
SCALIG.  Poet.

Tollite concentum, Solymaeae tollite nymphae,
Nil mortale loquor; coelum mihi carminis alta
Materies; poscunt gravius coelestia plectrum. 
Muscosi fontes, sylvestria tecta, valete,
Aonidesque deae, et mendacis somnia Pindi: 
Tu, mihi, qui flamma movisti pectora sancti
Siderea Isaiae, dignos accende furores! 
  Immatura calens rapitur per secula vates
Sic orsus—­Qualis rerum mihi nascitur ordo! 
Virgo! virgo parit!  Felix radicibus arbor
Jessaeis surgit, mulcentesque sethera flores
Coelestes lambunt animae, ramisque columba,
Nuncia sacra Dei, plaudentibus insidet alis. 
Nectareos rores, alimentaque mitia coelum
Praebeat, et tacite foecundos irriget imbres. 
Hue, foedat quos lepra, urit quos febris, adeste,
Dia salutares spirant medicamina rami;
Hic requies fessis:  non sacra sacvit in umbra
Vis boreae gelida, aut rapidi violeutia solis. 
Irrita vanescent priscae vestigia fraudis,
Justitiaeque manus, pretio intemerata, bilancem
Attollet reducis; bellis praetendet olivas
Compositis pax alma suas, terrasque revisens
Sedatas niveo virtus lucebit amictu.—­
Volvantur celeres anni! lux purpuret ortum
Expectata diu! naturae claustra refringens,
Nascere, magne puer! tibi primas, ecce, corollas
Deproperat tellus, fundit tibi munera, quicquid
Carpit Arabs, hortis quicquid frondescit Eois;
Altius, en!  Lebanon gaudentia culmina tollit;
En! summo exultant nutantes vertice sylvae: 
Mittit aromaticas vallis Saronica nubes,
Et juga Carmeli recreant fragrantia coelum. 
Deserti laeta mollescunt aspera voce: 
Auditur Deus! ecce Deus! reboantia circum
Saxa sonant, Deus! ecce Deus! deflectitur aether,
Demissumque Deum tellus capit; ardua cedrus,
Gloria sylvarum, dominum inclinata salutet: 
Surgite convalles, tumidi subsidite montes! 
Sternite saxa viam, rapidi discedite fluctus;
En! quem turba diu cecinerunt enthea, vates,
En! salvator adest; vultus agnoscite, caeci,
Divinos, surdos sacra vox permulceat aures. 
Ille cutim spissam visus hebetare vetabit,
Reclusisque oculis infundet amabile lumen;
Obstrictasque diu linguas in carmina solvet. 
Ille vias vocis pandet, flexusque liquentis
Harmoniae purgata novos mirabitur auris. 
Accrescunt teneris tactu nova robora nervis: 
Consuetus fulcro innixus reptare bacilli
Nunc saltu capreas, nunc cursu provocat euros. 
Non planctus, non moesta sonant suspiria; pectus
Singultans mulcet, lachrymantes tergit ocellos. 
Vincla coercebunt luctantem adamantina mortem,
Aeternoque orci dominator vuluere languens
Invalidi raptos sceptri plorabit honores. 
Ut, qua dulce strepunt scatebrse, qua lasta virescunt
Pascua, qua blandum spirat purissimus aer,

Page 148

Page 149

[a] This translation has been severely criticised by Dr. Warton, in his
    edition of Pope, vol. i. p. 105, 8vo. 1797.  It certainly contains
    some expressions that are not classical.  Let it be remembered,
    however, that it was a college exercise, performed with great
    rapidity, and was, at first, praised, beyond all suspicion of
    defect—­This translation was first published in a Miscellany of
    Poems by several hands.  Published by J. Husbands, A.M. fellow of
    Pembroke college, Oxon. 8vo.  Oxford, 1731.  Of Johnson’s production,
    Mr. Husbands says, in his preface, “The translation of Mr. Pope’s
    Messiah was delivered to his tutor as a college exercise, by Mr.
    Johnson, a commoner of Pembroke college in Oxford, and ’tis hoped
    will be no discredit to the excellent original.”  Mr. Husbands died
    in the following year.

[Jan. 20, 21, 1773.]
  Vitae qui varias vices
Rerum perpetuus temperat arbiter,
  Laeto cedere lumini
Noctis tristitiam qui gelidae jubet,
  Acri sanguine turgidos,
Obductosque oculos nubibus humidis
  Sanari voluit meos;
Et me, cuncta beaus cui nocuit dies,
  Luci reddidit et mihi. 
Qua te laude, Deus, qua prece prosequar? 
  Sacri discipulis libri
Te semper studiis utilibus colam: 
  Grates, summe pater, tuis
Recte qui fruitur muneribus, dedit.

[Dec. 25, 1779.]
Nunc dies Christo memoranda nato
Fulsit, in pectus mihi fonte purum
Gaudium sacro fluat, et benigni
      Gratia coeli!

Christe, da tutam trepido quietem,
Christe, spem praesta stabilem timenti;
Da fidem certam, precibusque fidis
      Annue, Christe.

[In lecto, die passionis, Apr. 13, 1781.]
Summe Deus, qui semper amas quodcunque creasti;
  Judice quo, scelerum est poenituisse salus: 
Da veteres noxas animo sic flere novato,
  Per Christum ut veniam sit reperire mihi.

[In lecto, Dec. 25, 1782.]
Spe non inani confugis,
Peccator, ad latus meum;
Quod poscis, hand unquam tibi
Negabitur solatium.

(Nocte, inter 16 et 17 Junii, 1783[a])
Summe pater, quodcunque tuum[b] de corpore Numen[c]
Hoc statuat[d], precibus[e] Christus adesse velit: 
Ingenio parcas, nee sit mihi culpa rogasse[f],
Qua solum potero parte, placere[g] tibi.

[a] The night, above referred to by Dr. Johnson, was that, in which a
    paralytic stroke had deprived him of his voice; and, in the anxiety
    he felt, lest it should, likewise, have impaired his understanding,
    he composed the above lines, and said, concerning them, that he
    knew, at the time, that they were not good, but then, that he deemed
    his discerning this to be sufficient for quieting the anxiety before
    mentioned, as it showed him, that his power of judging was not
    diminished.
[b] Al. tuae.
[c] Al. leges.
[d] Al. statuant.
[e] Al. votis.
[f] Al. precari.
[g] Al. litare.

Page 150

[Cal.  Jan. in lecto, ante lucem, 1784.]
Summe dator vitae, naturae aeterne magister,
  Causarum series quo moderante fluit,
Respice quem subiget senium, morbique seniles,
  Quem terret vitae meta propinqua suae,
Respice inutiliter lapsi quem poenitet aevi;
  Recte ut poeniteat, respice, magne parens.

Pater benigne, summa semper lenitas,
Crimine gravatam plurimo mentem leva: 
Concede veram poenitentiam, precor,
Concede agendam legibus vitam tuis. 
Sacri vagantes luminis gressus face
Rege, et tuere; quae nocent pellens procul: 
Veniam petenti, summe, da veniam, pater;
Veniaeque sancta pacis adde gaudia: 
Sceleris ut expers, omni et vacuus metu,
Te, mente pura, mente tranquilla colam,
Mihi dona morte haec impetret Christus sua.

[Jan. 18, 1784.]
Summe pater, puro collustra lumine pectus,
  Anxietas noceat ne tenebrosa mihi. 
In me sparsa manu virtutum semina larga
  Sic ale, proveniat messis ut ampla boni. 
Noctes atque dies animo spes laeta recurset;
  Certa mihi sancto flagret amore fides;
Certa vetat dubitare fides, spes laeta timere;
  Velle vetet cuiquam non bene sanctus amor. 
Da, ne sint permissa, pater, mihi praemia frustra,
  Et colere, et leges semper amare tuas. 
Haec mihi, quo gentes, quo secula, Christe, piasti,
  Sanguine, precanti promereare tuo!

[Feb. 27, 1784.]
Mens mea, quid quereris? veniet tibi mollior hora,
  In summo ut videas numine laeta patrem;
Divinam insontes iram placavit Iesus;
  Nunc est pro poena poenituisse reis.

CHRISTIANUS PERFECTUS.

Qui cupit in sanctos, Christo cogente, referri,
Abstergat mundi labem, nec gaudia carnis
Captans, nec fastu tumidus, semperque futuro
Instet, et evellens terroris spicula corde,
Suspiciat tandem clementem in numine patrem. 
  Huic quoque, nec genti nec sectae noxius ulli,
Sit sacer orbis amor, miseris qui semper adesse
Gestiat, et, nullo pietatis limite clausus,
Cunctorum ignoscat vitiis, pictate fruatur. 
Ardeat huic toto sacer ignis pectore, possit
Ut vitam, poscat si res, impendere vero. 
  Cura placere Deo sit prima, sit ultima; sanctae
Irruptum vitae cupiat servare tenorem;
Et sibi, delirans quanquam et peccator in horas
Displiceat, servet tutum sub pectore rectum: 
Nec natet, et nunc has partes, nunc eligat illas,
Nec dubitet quem dicat herum, sed, totus in uno,
Se fidum addicat Christo, mortalia temnens. 
  Sed timeat semper, caveatque ante omnia, turbae
Ne stolidae similis, leges sibi segreget audax
Quas servare velit, leges quas lentus omittat,
Plenum opus effugiens, aptans juga mollia collo,
Sponte sua demens; nihilum decedere summae
Vult Deus, at qui cuncta dedit tibi, cuncta reposcit. 
Denique perpetuo contendit in ardua nisu,
Auxilioque Dei fretus, jam mente serena
Pergit, et imperiis sentit se dulcibus actum. 
Paulatim mores, animum, vitamque refingit,
Effigiemque Dei, quantum servare licebit,
Induit, et, terris major, coelestia spirat.

Page 151

Aeterne rerum conditor,
Salutis aeternae dator;
Felicitatis sedibus
Qui nec scelestos exigis,
Quoscumque scelerum poenitet;
Da, Christe, poenitentiam,
Veniamque, Christe, da mihi;
Aegrum trahenti spiritum
Succurre praesens corpori;
Multo gravatam crimine
Mentem benignus alleva.

Luce collustret mihi pectus alma,
Pellat et tristes animi tenebras,
Nec sinat semper tremere ac dolere,
Gratia Christi.

Me pater tandem reducem benigno
Summus amplexu foveat, beato
Me gregi sanctus socium beatum
Spiritus addat.

JEJUNIUM ET CIBUS.

Serviat ut menti corpus jejunia serva,
Ut mens utatur corpore, sume cibos.

AD URBANUM[a], 1738. 
Urbane, nullis fesse laboribus,
Urbane, nullis victe calumniis,
  Cui fronte sertum in erudita
    Perpetuo viret, et virebit;
Quid moliatur gens imitantium,
Quid et minetur, solicitus parum,
  Vacare solis perge musis,
    Juxta animo, studiisque foelix. 
Linguae procacis plumbea spicula,
Fidens, superbo frange silentio;
  Victrix per obstantes catervas
    Sedulitas animosa tendet. 
Intende nervos fortis, inanibus
Risurus olim nisibus emuli;
  Intende jam nervos, habebis
    Participes opera Camoenas. 
Non ulla musis pagina gratior,
Quam quae severis ludicra jungere
  Novit, fatigatamque nugis
    Utilibus recreare mentem. 
Texente nymphis serta Lycoride,
Rosae ruborem sic viola adjuvat
  Immista, sic Iris refulget
    Aethereis variata fucis.

[a] See Gent.  Mag. vol. viii. p. 156; and see also the Introduction to
    vol. liv.

IN RIVUM A MOLA STOANA LICHFELDIAE DIFFLUENTEM.

Errat adhuc vitreus per prata virentia rivus,
  Quo toties lavi membra tenella puer;
Hic delusa rudi frustrabar brachia motu,
  Dum docuit, blanda voce, natare pater. 
Fecerunt rami latebras, tenebrisque diurnis
  Pendula secretas abdidit arbor aquas. 
Nunc veteres duris periere securibus umbrae,
  Longinquisque oculis nuda lavacra patent. 
Lympha, tamen, cursus agit indefessa perennis,
  Tectaque qua fluxit, nunc et aperta fluit. 
Quid ferat externi velox, quid deterat aetas,
  Tu quoque securus res age, Nise, tuas.

[Greek:  GNOTHI SEAUTON][a] [Post Lexicon Anglicanum auctum et emendatum.]

Lexicon ad finem longo luctamine tandem
Scaliger ut duxit, tenuis pertaesus opellae,
Vile indignatus studium, nugasque molestas
Ingemit exosus, scribendaque lexica mandat
Damnatis, poenam pro poenis omnibus unam. 
  Ille quidem recte, sublimis, doctus et acer,
Quem decuit majora sequi, majoribus aptum,
Qui veterum modo facta ducum, modo carmina vatum,
Gesserat, et quicquid virtus, sapientia quicquid
Dixerat, imperiique vices, coelique meatus,

Page 152

[a] For a translation of this poem, see Murphy’s Essay on the Life and
    Genius of Dr. Johnson, prefixed to the present volume.

AD THOMAM LAURENCE, MEDICUM DOCTISSIMUM,

Cum filium peregre agentem desiderio nimis tristi prosequeretur.

Fateris ergo, quod populus solet
Crepare vecors, nil sapientiam
  Prodesse vitae, literasque
    In dubiis dare terga rebus.

Tu, queis laborat sors hominum, mala
Nec vincis acer, nee pateris pius;
  Te mille succorum potentem
    Destituit medicina mentis.

Per caeca noctis taedia turbidae,
Pigrae per horas lucis inutiles,
  Torpesque, languescisque, curis
    Solicitus nimis heu! paternis.

Tandem dolori plus satis est datum,
Exsurge fortis, nunc animis opus,
  Te, docta, Laurenti, vetustas,
    Te medici revocant labores.

Page 153

Permitte summo quicquid habes patri,
Permitte fidens; et muliebribus,
  Amice, majorem querelis
    Redde tuis, tibi redde, mentem.

IN THEATRO, MARCH 8, 1771.

Tertii verso quater orbe lustri,
Quid theatrales tibi, Crispe, pompae? 
Quam decet canos male litteratos
                       Sera voluptas!

Tene mulceri fidibus canoris? 
Tene cantorum modulis stupere? 
Tene per pictas, oculo elegante,
                       Currere formas?

Inter aequales, sine felle liber,
Codices, veri studiosus, inter
Rectius vives.  Sua quisque carpat
                       Gaudia gratus.

Lusibus gaudet puer otiosis,
Luxus oblectat juvenem theatri,
At seni fluxo sapienter uti
                       Tempore restat.

INSULA KENNETHI, INTER HEBRIDAS.

Parva quidem regio, sed religione priorum
  Clara, Caledonias panditur inter aquas. 
Voce ubi Cennethus populos domuisse feroces
  Dicitur, et vanos dedocuisse deos. 
Huc ego delatus placido per caerulea cursu,
  Scire locus volui quid daret iste novi. 
Illic Leniades humili regnabat in aula,
  Leniades, magnis nobilitatus avis. 
Una duas cepit casa cum genitore puellas,
  Quas amor undarum crederet esse deas. 
Nec tamen inculti gelidis latuere sub antris,
  Accola Danubii qualia saevus habet. 
Mollia non desunt vacuae solatia vitae,
 Sive libros poscant otia, sive lyram. 
Fulserat ilia dies, legis qua docta supernae
  Spes hominum et curas gens procul esse jubet. 
Ut precibus justas avertat numinis iras,
  Et summi accendat pectus amore boni. 
Ponte inter strepitus non sacri munera cultus
  Cessarunt, pietas hic quoque cura fuit: 
Nil opus est aeris sacra de turre sonantis
  Admonitu, ipsa suas nunciat hora vices. 
Quid, quod sacrifici versavit foemina libros. 
  Sint pro legitimis pura labella sacris—­
Quo vagor ulterius? quod ubique requiritur hic est;
  Hic secura quies, hic et honestus amor.

SKIA.

Ponti profundis clausa recessibus,
Strepens procellis, rupibus obsita,
Quam grata defesso virentem,
Skia, sinum nebulosa pandis!

His cura, credo, sedibus exulat;
His blanda certe pax habitat locis;
  Non ira, non moeror quietis
    Insidias meditatur horis.

At non cavata rupe latescere,
Menti nec aegrae montibus aviis
  Prodest vagari, nec frementes
    In specula numerare fluctus.

Humana virtus non sibi sufficit;
Datur nec aequum cuique animum sibi
  Parare posse, utcunque jactet
    Grandiloquus nimis alta Zeno.

Exaestuantis pectoris impetum,
Rex summe, solus tu regis, arbiter;
  Mentisque, te tollente, fluctus;
    Te, resident, moderante fluctus.

Page 154

ODE DE SKIA INSULA.

Permeo terras, ubi nuda rupes
Saxeas miscet nebulis ruinas,
Torva ubi rident steriles coloni
        Rura labores.

Pervagor gentes hominum ferorum,
Vita ubi nullo decorata cultu
Squallet informis, tugurique fumis
        Foeda latescit.

Inter erroris salebrosa longi,
Inter ignotae strepitus loquelae,
Quot modis, mecum, quid agat, requiro,
        Thralia dulcis?

Seu viri curas pia nupta mulcet,
Seu fovet mater sobolem benigna,
Sive cum libris novitate pascit
        Sedula mentem.

Sit memor nostri, fideique solvat
Fida mercedem, meritoque blandum
Thraliae discant resonare nomen
        Littora Skiae.

SPES.

Apr. 16, 1783.

Hora sic peragit citata cursum;
Sic diem sequitur dies fugacem! 
Spes novas nova lux parit, secunda
Spondens omnia credulis homullis;
Spes ludit stolidas, metuque caeco
Lux angit, miseros ludens homullos.

VERSUS COLLARI CAPRAE DOMINI BANKS INSCRIBENDI.

Perpetui, ambita bis terra, praemia lactis
  Haec habet, altrici capra secunda Jovis.

AD FOEMINAM QUANDAM GENEROSAM QUAE LIBERTATIS CAUSAE IN SERMONE PATROCINATA FUERAT.

Liber ut esse velim, suasisti, pulchra Maria: 
  Ut maneam liber, pulchra Maria, vale.

JACTURA TEMPORIS.

Hora perit furtim laetis, mens temporis aegra
  Pigritiam incusat, nec minus hora perit.

Quas navis recipit, quantum sit pondus aquarum,
   Dimidrum tanti ponderis intret onus.

Quot vox missa pedes abit, horae parte secunda? 
   Undecies centum denos quater adde duosque.

[Greek:  Eis BIRCHION][a]

[Greek:]
Eiden Alaetheiae proaen chairousa graphonta
  Haeroon te bious Birchion, aede sophon
Kai bion, eipen, hotan rhipsaes thanatoio belessi,
  Sou pote grapsomenon Birchion allon echois.

[a] The rev.  Dr. Thomas Birch, author of the History of the Royal
    Society, and other works of note.

[Greek:] Eis to taes ELISSAES peri ton oneiron ainigma.[a]
Tae kallous dunamei ti telos; Zeus panta dedoken
  Kupridi, und’ autou skaeptra memaele theo. 
Aek Dios estin Onap, theios pot’ egrapsen Homaeros,
  Alla tod’ eis thnaetous Kupris epempsen onar
Zeus mounos phlogoenti poleis ekperse kerauno,
  Ommasi lampra Dios Kupris oista pherei.

[a] When Johnson had composed this Greek epigram to Mrs. Elizabeth
    Carter, he said, in a letter to Cave, “I think she ought to be
    celebrated in as many different languages as Louis le grand.”  His
    admiration of her learning was so great, that when he wished to

Page 155

IN ELIZAE AENIGMA.

Quis formae modus imperio?  Venus arrogat audax
  Omnia, nec curae sunt sua sceptra Jovi. 
Ab Jove Maeonides descendere somnia narrat: 
  Haec veniunt Cypriae somnia missa Deae. 
Jupiter unus erat, qui stravit fulmine gentes;
  Nunc armant Veneris lumina tela Jovis.

[a]O!  Qui benignus crimina ignoscis, pater,
  Facilisque semper confitenti ades reo,
Aurem faventem precibus O! praebe meis;
  Scelerum catena me laborantem grave
Aeterna tandem liberet clementia,
  Ut summa laus sit, summa Christo gloria.

Per vitae tenebras rerumque incerta vagantem
  Numine praesenti me tueare, pater! 
Me ducat lux sancta, Deus, lux sancta sequatur;
  Usque regat gressus gratia fida meos. 
Sic peragam tua jussa libens, accinctus ad omne
  Mandatum vivam, sic moriarque tibi.

Me, pater omnipotens, de puro respice coelo,
  Quem moestum et timidum crimina dira gravant;
Da veniam pacemque mihi, da, mente serena,
  Ut tibi quae placeant, omnia promptus agam. 
Solvi, quo Christus cunctis delicta redemit,
  Et pro me pretium, tu patiare, pater.

[a] This and the three following articles are metrical versions of
    collects in the liturgy; the first, of that, beginning, “O God,
    whose nature and property”; the second and third of the collects for
    the seventeenth and twenty-first Sundays after Trinity; and the
    fourth, of the first collect in the communion service.

[Dec. 5, 1784.][a]
Summe Deus, cui caeca patent penetralia cordis;
  Quem nulla anxietas, nulla cupido fugit;
Quem nil vafrities peccantum subdola celat;
  Omnia qui spectans, omnia ubique regis;
Mentibus afflatu terrenas ejice sordes
  Divino, sanctus regnet ut intus amor: 
Eloquiumque potens linguis torpentious affer,
  Ut tibi laus omni semper ab ore sonet: 
Sanguine quo gentes, quo secula cuncta piavit,
  Haec nobis Christus promeruisse velit!

[a] The day on which he received the sacrament for the last time; and
    eight days before his decease.

PSALMUS CXVII.

Anni qua volucris ducitur orbita,
Patrem coelicolum perpetuo colunt
    Quo vis sanguine cretae
      Gentes undique carmine.

Patrem, cujus amor blandior in dies
Mortales miseros servat, alit, fovet,
    Omnes undique gentes,
      Sancto dicite carmine.

Page 156

[a]Seu te saeva fames, levitas sive improba fecit,
  Musca, meae comitem, participemque dapis,
Pone metum, rostrum fidens immitte culullo,
  Nam licet, et toto prolue laeta mero. 
Tu, quamcunque tibi velox indulserit annus,
  Carpe diem; fugit, heu, non revocanda dies! 
Quae nos blanda comes, quae nos perducat eodem,
  Volvitur hora mihi, volvitur hora tibi! 
Una quidem, sic fata volunt, tibi vivitur aestas,
  Eheu, quid decies plus mihi sexta dedit! 
Olim praeteritae numeranti tempora vitae,
  Sexaginta annis non minor unus erit.

[a] The above is a version of the song, “Busy, curious, thirsty fly.”

[b]Habeo, dedi quod alteri;
Habuique, quod dedi mihi;
Sed quod reliqui, perdidi.

[b] These lines are a version of three sentences that are said, in the
    manuscript, to be “On the monument of John of Doncaster;” and which
    are as follow: 

    What I gave, that I have;
    What I spent, that I had;
    What I left, that I lost.

[a]E WALTONI PISCATORE PERFECTO EXCERPTUM.

Nunc, per gramina fusi,
Densa fronde salicti,
Dum defenditur imber,
Molles ducimus horas. 
Hic, dum debita morti
Paulum vita moratur,
Nunc rescire priora,
Nunc instare futuris,
Nunc summi prece sancta
Patris numen adire est. 
Quicquid quraeitur ultra,
Caeco ducit amore,
Vel spe ludit inani,
Luctus mox pariturum.

[a] These lines are a translation of part of a song in the Complete
    Angler of Isaac Walton, written by John Chalkhill, a friend of
    Spenser, and a good poet in his time.  They are but part of the last
    stanza, which, that the reader may have it entire, is here given at
    length: 

If the sun’s excessive heat
  Make our bodies swelter,
To an osier hedge we get
  For a friendly shelter! 
    Where in a dike,
    Perch or pike,
    Roach or dace,
    We do chase,
Bleak or gudgeon,
    Without grudging,
      We are still contented. 
Or we sometimes pass an hour
  Under a green willow,
That defends us from a shower,
  Making earth our pillow;
    Where we may
    Think and pray,
    Before death
    Stops our breath: 
    Other joys
    Are but toys,
      And to be lamented.

[a]Quisquis iter tendis, vitreas qua lucidus undas
Speluncae late Thamesis praetendit opacae;
Marmorea trepidant qua lentae in fornice guttae,
Crystallisque latex fractus scintillat acutis;
Gemmaque, luxuriae nondum famulata nitenti
Splendit, et incoquitur tectum sine fraude metallum;
Ingredere O! rerum pura cole mente parentem;
Auriferasque auri metuens scrutare cavernas. 
Ingredere!  Egeriae sacrum en tibi panditur antrum! 
Hic, in se totum, longe per opaca futuri
Temporis, Henricum rapuit vis vivida mentis: 
Hic pia Vindamius traxit suspiria, in ipsa
Morte memor patriae; hic Marmonti pectore prima
Coelestis fido caluerunt semina flammae. 
Temnere opes, pretium sceleris, patriamque tueri
Fortis, ades; tibi, sponte, patet venerabile limen.

Page 157

[a] The above lines are a version of Pope’s verses on his own grotto,
    which begin, “Thou, who shall stop where Thames’ translucent wave.”

GRAECORTUM EPIGRAMMATUM VERSIONES METRICAE.

Pag. 2.  Brodaei edit.  Bas. ann. 1549. 
Non Argos pugilem, non me Messana creavit;
Patria Sparta mihi est, patria clara virum. 
Arte valent isti, mihi robo revivere solo est,
Convenit ut natis, inclyta Sparta, tuis.

Br. 2. 
Quandoquidem passim nulla ratione feruntur,
Cuncta cinis, cuncta et ludicra, cuncta nihil.

Br. 5. 
Pectore qui duro, crudos de vite racemos,
Venturi exsecuit vascula prima meri,
Labraque constrictus, semesos, jamque terendos
Sub pedibus, populo praetereunte, jacit. 
Supplicium huic, quoniam crescentia gaudia laesit,
Det Bacchus, dederat quale, Lycurge, tibi. 
Hae poterant uvae laeto convivia cantu
Mulcere, aut pectus triste levare malis.

Br. 8. 
Fert humeris claudum validis per compita caecus,
Hic oculos socio commodat, ille pedes.

Br. 10. 
Qui, mutare vias ausus terraeque marisque,
Trajecit montes nauta, fretumque pedes,
Xerxi, tercentum Spartae Mars obstitit acris
Militibus; terris sit pelagoque pudor!

Br. 11. 
Sit tibi, Calliope, Parnassum, cura, tenenti,
Alter ut adsit Homerus, adest etenim alter Achilles.

Br. 18. 
Ad musas Venus haec:  Veneri parete, puellae,
In vos ne missus spicula tendat amor. 
Haec musae ad Venerem:  sic Marti, diva, mineris,
Hue nunquam volitat debilis iste puer.

Br. 19. 
Prospera sors nec te strepitoso turbine tollat,
Nec menti injiciat sordida cura jugum;
Nam vita incertis incerta impellitur auris,
Omnesque in partes tracta, retracta fluit;
Firma manet virtus; virtuti innitere, tutus
Per fluctus vitae sic tibi cursus erit.

Br. 24. 
Hora bonis quasi nunc instet suprema fruaris,
Plura ut victurus secula, parce bonis: 
Divitiis, utrinque cavens, qui tempore parcit,
Tempore divitiis utitur, ille sapit.

Br. 24. 
Nunquam jugera messibus onusta, aut
Quos Gyges cumulos habebat auri;
Quod vitae satis est, peto, Macrine,
Mi, nequid nimis, est nimis probatum.

Br. 24. 
Non opto aut precibus posco ditescere, paucis
Sit contenta mihi vita, dolore carens.

Br. 24
Recta ad pauperiem tendit, cui corpora cordi est
Multa alere, et multas aedificare domos.

Br. 24. 
Tu neque dulce putes alienae accumbere mensae;
Nec probrosa avidae grata sit offa gulae;
Nec ficto fletu, fictis solvere cachinnis,
Arridens domino, collacrymansque tuo;
Laetior hand tecum, tecum neque tristior unquam,
Sed Miliae ridens, atque dolens Miliae.

Br. 26. 
Nil non mortale est mortalibus; omne quod est hie
Praetereunt, aut hos praeterit omne bonum.

Page 158

Br. 26. 
Democrite, invisas homines majore cachinno;
Plus tibi ridendum secula nostra dabunt. 
Heraclite, fluat lacrymarum crebrior imber;
Vita hominum nunc plus quod misereris habet. 
Interea dubito; tecum me causa nec ulla
Ridere, aut tecum me lacrymare jubet.

Br. 26. 
Elige iter vitae, ut possis:  rixisque, dolisque,
Perstrepit omne forum; cura molesta domi est;
Rura labor lassat; mare mille pericula terrent;
Verte solum, fient causa timoris opes;
Paupertas misera est; multae, cum conjuge, lites
Tecta ineunt; coelebs omnia solus ages. 
Proles aucta gravat, rapta orbat; caeca juventae est
Virtus; canities cauta vigore caret. 
Ergo optent homines, aut nunquam in luminis oras
Venisse, aut visa luce repente mori.

Elige iter vitae, ut mavis:  prudenua, lausque,
  Permeat omne forum; vita quieta domi est;
Rus ornat natura; levat maris aspera lucrum,
  Verte solum, donat plena crumena decus;
Pauperies latitat; cum conjuge, gaudia multa
  Tecta ineunt; coelebs impediere minus;
Mulcet amor prolis, sopor est sine prole profundus;
  Praecellit juvenis vi, pietate senex. 
Nemo optet, nunquam venisse in luminis oras,
  Aut periisse; scatet vita benigna bonis.

Br. 27. 
Vita omnis scena est ludusque:  aut ludere disce
Seria seponens, aut mala dura pati.

Br. 27. 
Quae, sine morte, fuga est vitae, quam turba malorum
Non vitanda gravem, non toleranda facit? 
Dulcia dat natura quidem, mare, sidera, terras,
Lunaque quas, et sol, itque reditque vias. 
Terror inest aliis, moerorque, et siquid habebis,
Forte, boni, ultrices experiere vices.

Br. 27. 
Terram adii nudus, de terra nudus abibo. 
Quid labor efficiet? non, nisi nudus, ero.

Br. 27. 
Natus eram lacrymans, lacrymans e luce recedo: 
Sunt quibus a lacrymis vix vacat ulla dies. 
Tale hominum genus est, infirmum, triste, misellum,
Quod mors in cineres solvit, et abdit humo.

Br. 29. 
Quisquis adit lectos, elata uxore, secundos,
Naufragus iratas ille retentat aquas.

Br. 30. 
Foelix ante alios nullius debitor aeris;
Hunc sequitur coelebs; tertius, orbe, venis. 
Nee male res cessit, subito si funere sponsam,
Didatus magna dote, recondis humo. 
His sapiens lectis, Epicurum quaerere frustra
Quales sint monades, qua fit inane, sinas.

Br. 31. 
Optarit quicunque senex sibi longius aevum,
Dignus, qui multa in lustra senescat, erit. 
Cum procul est, optat, cum venit, quisque senectam,
Incusat, semper spe meliora videt.

Br. 46. 
Omnis vita nimis brevis est felicibus, una
Nox miseris longi temporis instar habet.

Br. 55. 
Gratia ter grata est velox, sin forte moretur,
Gratia vix restat nomine digna suo.

Br. 56. 
Seu prece poscatur, seu non, da, Jupiter, omne,
Magne, bonum; omne malum, et poscentibus, abnue nobis.

Page 159

Br. 60. 
Me, cane vitato, canis excipit alter; eodem
In me animo tellus gignit et unda feras,
Nec mirum; restat lepori conscendere coelum,
Sidereus tamen hie territat, ecce canis!

Br. 70. 
Telluri arboribus ver frondens, sidera coelo,
Graeciae et urbs, urbi est ista propago, decus.

Br. 75. 
Impia facta patrans, homines fortasse latebis,
Non poteris, meditans prava, latere deos.

Br. 75. 
Antiope satyrum, Danae aurum, Europa juvencum,
Et cycnum fecit Leda petita, Jovem.

Br. 92. 
Aevi sat novi quam sim brevis; astra tuenti,
Per certas; stabili lege, voluta vices,
Tangitur haud pedibus tellus:  conviva deorum
Expleor ambrosiis, exhilarorque cibis.

Br. 96. 
Quod nimium est sit ineptum, hinc, ut dixere priores,
Et melli nimio fellis amaror inest.

Br. 103. 
Puppe gubernatrix sedisti, audacia, prima
Divitiis acuens aspera corda virum;
Sola rates struis infidas, et dulcis amorem
Lucri ulciscendum mox nece sola doces. 
Aurea secla hominum, quorum spectandus ocellis
E longinquo itidem pontus et orcus erat.

Br. 126. 
Ditescis, credo, quid restat? quicquid habebis
In tumulum tecum, morte jubente, trahes? 
Divitias cumulas, pereuntes negligis horas;
Incrementa aevi non cumulare potes.

Br. 120. 
Mater adulantum, prolesque, pecunia, curae,
Teque frui timer est, teque carere dolor.

Br. 126. 
Me miserum sors omnis habet; florentibus annis,
Pauper eram, nummis diffluit area senis;
Queis uti poteram quondam, fortuna negavit,
Queis uti nequeo, nunc mihi praebet, opes.

Br. 127. 
Mnemosyne, ut Sappho, mellita voce, canentem
Audiit, irata est, ne nova musa foret.

Br. 152. 
Cum tacet indoctus, sapientior esse videtur,
Et morbus tegitur, dum premit ora pudor.

Br. 155. 
Nunc huic, nunc aliis cedens, cui farra Menippus
Credit, Achaemenidae nuper agellus eram. 
Quod nulli proprium versat fortuna, putabat
Ille suum stolidus, nunc putat ille suum.

Br. 156. 
Non fortuna sibi te gratum tollit in altum;
At docet, exemplo, vis sibi quanta, tuo.

Br. 162. 
Hic, aurum ut reperit, laqueum abjicit; alter ut aurum
Non reperit, nectit quem reperit, laqueum.

Br. 167. 
Vive tuo ex ammo:  vario rumore loquetur
De te plebs audax, hic bene, et ille male.

Br. 168. 
Vitae rosa brevis est; properans si carpere nolis,
Quaerenti obveniet mox sine flore rubus.

Br. 170. 
Pulicibus morsus, restincta lampade, stultus
Exclamat:  nunc me cernere desinitis.

Br. 202,
Mendotum pinxit Diodorus, et exit imago,
Praeter Menodotura, nullius absimilis.

Br. 205. 
Haud lavit Phido, haud tetigit, mihi febre calenti
In mentem ut venit nominis, interii.

Br. 210. 
Nycticorax cantat lethale; sed ipsa, canenti
Demophilo auscultans, Nycticorax moritur.

Page 160

Br. 212. 
Hermem deorum nuncium, pennis levem,
Quo rege gaudent Arcades, furem boum,
Hujus palestrae qui vigil custos stetit,
Clam nocte tollit Aulus, et ridens ait: 
Praestat magistro saepe discipulus suo.

Br. 223. 
Qui jacet hic servus vixit:  nunc, lumine cassus,
Dario magno non minus ille potest.

Br. 227. 
Funus Alexandri mentitur fama; fidesque
Si Phoebo, victor nescit obire diem.

Br. 241. 
Nauta, quis hoc jaceat, ne percontere, sepulchro,
Eveniat tantum mitior unda tibi!

Br. 256. 
Cur opulentus eges? tua cuncta in foenore ponis: 
Sic aliis dives, tu tibi pauper agis.

Br. 262. 
Qui pascis barbam, si crescis mente, Platoni,
Hirce, parem nitido te tua barba facit.

Br. 266. 
Clarus Ioannes, reginae affinis, ab alto
Sanguine Anastasii; cuncta sepulta jacent: 
Et pius, et recti cultor:  non illa jacere
Dicam; stat virtus non subigenda neci.

Br. 267. 
Cunctiparens tellus, salve, levis esto pusillo
Lysigeni, fuerat non gravis ille tibi.

Br. 285. 
Naufragus hic jaceo; contra, jacet ecce colonus! 
Idem orcus terras, sic, pelagoque subest.

Br. 301. 
Quid salvere jubes me, pessime?  Corripe gressus;
Est mihi quod non te rideo, plena salus.

Br. 304. 
Et ferus est Timon sub terris; janitor orci,
Cerbere, te morsu ne petat ille, cave.

Br. 307. 
Vitam a terdecimo sextus mihi finiet annus,
Astra mathematicos si modo vera docent. 
Sufficit hoc votis, flos hic pulcherrimus aevi est,
Et senium triplex Nestoris urna capit.

Br. 322. 
Zosima, quae solo fuit olim corpore serva,
Corpore nunc etiam libera facta fuit.

Br. 326. 
Exiguum en!  Priami monumentum; hand ille meretur
Quale, sed hostiles, quale dedere manus.

Br. 326. 
Hector dat gladium Ajaci, dat balteum et Ajax
Hectori, et exitio munus utrique fuit.

Br. 344. 
Ut vis, ponte minax, modo tres discesseris ulnas
Ingemina fluctus, ingeminaque sonum.

Br. 344. 
Naufragus hic jaceo, fidens tamen utere velis;
Tutum aliis aequor, me pereunte, fuit.

Br. 398. 
Heraclitus ego; indoctae ne laedite liuguae
Subtile ingenium, quaero, capaxque mei;
Unus homo mihi pro soxcentis, turba popelli
Pro nullo, clamo nunc tumulatus idem.

Br. 399. 
Ambraciota, vale lux alma, Cleombrotus infit,
Et saltu e muro ditis opaca petit: 
Triste nihil passus, animi at de sorte Platonis
Scripta legens, sola vivere mente cupit.

Br. 399. 
Servus, Epictetus, mutilato corpore, vixi,
Pauperieque Irus, curaque summa deum.

Br. 445. 
Unde hic Praxiteles? nudam vidistis, Adoni,
Et Pari, et Anchisa, non alius, Venerem.

Br. 451. 
Sufflato accendis quisquis carbone lucernam,
Corde meo accendens; ardeo totus ego.

Page 161

Br. 486. 
Jupiter hoc templum, ut, siquando relinquit Olympum,
Atthide non alius desit Olympus, habet.

Br. 487. 
Civis et externus grati; domus hospita nescit
Quaerere, quis, cujus, quis pater, unde venis.

POMPEII.

Br. 487. 
Cum fugere haud possit, fractis victoria pennis
Te manet, imperii, Roma, perenne decus.

Br. 488. 
Latrones, alibi locupletum quaerite tecta,
Assidet huic, custos, strenua pauperies.

Fortunae malim adversae tolerare procellas;
  Quam domini ingentis ferre supercilium.

En, Sexto, Sexti meditatur imago, silente;
  Orator statua est, statuaeque orator imago.

Pulchra est virgiuitas intacta, at vita periret,
  Omnes si vellent virginitate frui;
Nequitiam fugiens, servata contrahe lege
  Conjugium, ut pro te des hominem patriae.

Fert humeris, venerabile onus, Cythereius heros
  Per Trojae flammas, densaque tela, patrem: 
Clamat et Argivis, vetuli, ne tangite; vita
  Exiguum est Marti, sed mihi grande, lucrum.

Forma animos hominum capit, at, si gratia desit,
  Non tenet; esca natat pulchra, sed hamus abest,

Cogitat aut loquitur nil vir, nil cogitat uxor,
  Felici thalamo non, puto, rixa strepit.

Buccina disjecit Thebarum moenia, struxit
  Quae lyra, quam sibi non concinit harmonia!

Mente senes olim juvenis, Faustine, premebas,
  Nunc juvenum terres robore corda senex. 
Laevum at utrumque decus, juveni quod praebuit olim
  Turba senum, juvenes nunc tribuere seni.

Exceptae hospitio, musae tribuere libellos
  Herodoto, hospitii praemia, quaeque suum.

Stella mea, observans stellas, dii me aethera faxint
  Multis ut te oculis sim potis aspicere.

Clara Cheroneae soboles, Plutarche, dicavit
  Hanc statuam ingenio, Roma benigna, tuo. 
Das bene collatos, quos Roma et Graecia jactat,
  Ad divos, paribus passibus, ire duces;
Sed similem, Plutarche, tuae describere vitam
  Non poteras, regio non tulit ulla parem.

Dat tibi Pythagoram pictor; quod ni ipse tacere
  Pythagoras mallet, vocem habuisset opus.

Prolem Hippi, et sua qua meliorem secula nullum
  Videre, Archidicen, haec tumulavit humus;
Quam, regum sobolem, nuptam, matrem, atque sororem
  Fecerunt nulli sors titulique gravem.

Cecropidis gravis hic ponor, Martique dicatus,
  Quo tua signantur gesta, Philippe, lapis. 
Spreta jacet Marathon, jacet et Salaminia laurus,
  Omnia dum Macedum gloria et arma premunt. 
Sint Demosthenica ut jurata cadavera voce,
  Stabo illis qui sunt, quique fuere, gravis.

Floribus in pratis, legi quos ipse, coronam
  Contextam variis, do, Rhodoclea, tibi: 
Hic anemone humet, confert narcissus odores
  Cum violis; spirant lilia mista rosis. 
His redimita comas, mores depone superbos,
  Haec peritura nitent; tu peritura nites!

Page 162

Murem Asclepiades sub tecto ut vidit avarus,
  Quid tibi, mus, mecum, dixit, amice, tibi? 
Mus blandum ridens, respondit, pelle timorem: 
  Hic, bone vir, sedem, nori alimenta, peto.

Saepe tuum in tumulum lacrymarum decidit imber,
  Quem fundit blando junctus amore dolor;
Charus enim cunctis, tanquam, dum vita manebat,
  Cuique esses natus, cuique sodalis, eras. 
Heu quam dura preces sprevit, quam surda querelas
  Parca, juventutem non miserata tuam!

Arti ignis lucem tribui, tamen artis et ignis
  Nunc ope, supplicii vivit imago mei. 
Gratia nulla hominum mentes tenet, ista Promethei
  Munera muneribus, si retulere fabri.

Illa triumphatrix Graium consueta procorum
  Ante suas agmen Lais habere fores,
Hoc Veneri speculum; nolo me cernere qualis
  Sum nunc, nec possum cernere qualis eram.

Crethida fabellas dulces garrire peritam
  Prosequitur lacrymis filia moesta Sami: 
Blandam lanifici sociam sine fine loquacem,
  Quam tenet hic, cunctas quae manet, alta quies.

Dicite, Causidici, gelido nunc marmore magni
  Mugitum tumulus comprimit Amphiloci.

Si forsan tumulum quo conditur Eumarus aufers,
  Nil lucri facies; ossa habet et cinerem.

EPICTETI.

Me, rex deorum, tuque, due, necessitas,
Quo, lege vestra, vita me feret mea. 
Sequar libenter, sin reluctari velim,
Fiam scelestus, nec tamen minus sequar.

E THEOCRITO.

Poeta, lector, hic quiescit Hipponax,
Si sis scelestus, praeteri, procul, marmor: 
At te bonum si noris, et bonis natum,
Tutum hic sedile, et si placet, sopor tutus.

EUR.  MED. 193—­203.

Non immerito culpanda venit
Proavum vecors insipientia,
Qui convivia, lautasque dapes,
Hilarare suis jussere modis
Cantum, vitae dulce levamen. 
At nemo feras iras hominum
Domibus claris exitiales,
Voce aut fidibus pellere docuit;
Queis tamen aptam ferre medelam
Utile cunctis hoc opus esset;
Namque, ubi mensas onerant epulae,
Quorsum dulcis luxuria soni? 
Sat laetitia sine subsidiis,
Pectora molli mulcet dubiae
Copia coenae.

[Greek:] Tois Araes brotoloighos enhi ptolemoisi memaene, Kahi toios Paphiaen plaesen eroti thean.

The above is a version of a Latin epigram on the famous John duke of
Marlborough, by the abbe Salvini, which is as follows: 

  Haud alio vultu fremuit Mars acer in armis: 
    Haud alio Cypriam percutit ore deam.

The duke was, it seems, remarkably handsome in his person, to which the second line has reference.

SEPTEM AETATES.

Page 163

Prima parit terras aetas; siccatque secunda;
Evocat Abramum dein tertia; quarta relinquit
Aegyptum; templo Solomonis quinta supersit;
Cyrum sexta timet; laetatur septima Christo.
[a]His Tempelmanni numeris descripseris orbem,
[b]Cum sex ceiituriis Judaeo millia septem. 
Myrias[c] AEgypto cessit his septima pingui. 
Myrias adsciscit sibi nonagesima septem
Imperium qua Turca[d] ferox exercet iniquum. 
  Undecies binas decadas et millia septem
Sortitur[e] Pelopis tellus quae nomine gaudet. 
  Myriadas decies septem numerare jubebit
Pastor Arabs:  decies octo sibi Persa requirit. 
Myriades sibi pulchra duas, duo millia poscit
Parthenope. [f]Novies vult tellus mille Sicana.
[g]Papa suo regit imperio ter millia quinque. 
Cum sex centuriis numerat sex millia Tuscus[h]. 
Centuria Ligures[i] augent duo millia quarta. 
Centuriae octavam decadem addit Lucca[j] secundae. 
Ut dicas, spatiis quam latis imperet orbi
[k]Russia, myriadas ter denas adde trecentis.
[l]Sardiniam cum sexcentis sex millia complent. 
  Cum sexagenis, dum plura recluserit aetas,
Myriadas ter mille homini dat terra[m] colendas. 
  Vult sibi vicenas millesima myrias addi,
Vicenis quinas, Asiam[n] metata celebrem. 
  Se quinquagenis octingentesima jungit
Myrias, ut menti pateat tota Africa[o] doctae. 
  Myriadas septem decies Europa[p] ducentis
Et quadragenis quoque ter tria millia jungit. 
  Myriadas denas dat, quinque et millia, sexque
Centurias, et tres decades Europa Britannis[q]. 
  Ter tria myriadi conjungit millia quartae,
Centuriae quartae decades quinque[r] Anglia nectit. 
  Millia myriadi septem foecunda secundae
Et quadragenis decades quinque addit Ierne[s]. 
  Quingentis quadragenis socialis adauget
Millia Belga[t] novem. 
  Ter sex centurias Hollandia jactat opima. 
Undecimum Camber vult septem millibus addi.

[a] To the above lines, (which are unfinished, and can, therefore, be
    only offered as a fragment,) in the doctor’s manuscript, are
    prefixed the words “Geographia Metrica.”  As we are referred, in the
    first of the verses, to Templeman, for having furnished the
    numerical computations that are the subject of them, his work has
    been, accordingly, consulted, the title of which is, a new Survey of
    the Globe; and which professes to give an accurate mensuration of
    all the empires, kingdoms, and other divisions thereof, in the
    square miles that they respectively contain.  On comparison of the
    several numbers in these verses, with those set down by Templeman,
    it appears that nearly half of them are precisely the same; the rest
    are not quite so exactly done.—­For the convenience of the reader,
    it has been thought right to subjoin each number, as it stands in
    Templeman’s works, to that in Dr. Johnson’s verses which refers to

Page 164

TRANSLATION OF DRYDEN’S EPIGRAM ON MILTON.

Quos laudat vates, Graecus, Romanus, et Anglus,
  Tres tria temporibus secla dedere suis.

Sublime ingenium Graecus; Romanus habebat
  Carmen grande sonans; Anglus utrumque tulit. 
Nil majus natura capit:  clarare priores
  Quae potuere duos tertius unus habet.

EPILOGUE TO THE CARMEN SAECULARE OF HORACE; PERFORMED AT FREEMASONS’ HALL.

Quae fausta Romae dixit Horatius,
Haec fausta vobis dicimus, Angliae
  Opes, triumphos, et subacti
    Imperium pelagi precantes.

  Such strains as, mingled with the lyre,
Could Rome with future greatness fire,
Ye sons of England, deign to hear,
Nor think our wishes less sincere. 
  May ye the varied blessings share
Of plenteous peace and prosp’rous war;
And o’er the globe extend your reign,
Unbounded masters of the main!

TRANSLATION OF A WELSH EPITAPH (IN HERBERT’S TRAVELS) ON PRINCE MADOCK.

Inclytus hic haeres magni requiescit Oeni,
  Confessas tantum mente, manuque, patrem;
Servilem tuti cultum contempsit agelli,
Et petiit terras, per freta longa, novas.

Page 165

THE HISTORY
OF
RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABISSINIA.

PREFATORY OBSERVATIONS.

The following incomparable tale was published in 1759; and the early familiarity with eastern manners, which Johnson derived from his translation of father Lobo’s travels into Abissinia, may be presumed to have led him to fix his opening scene in that country; while Rassela Christos, the general of sultan Sequed, mentioned in that work, may have suggested the name of his speculative prince.  Rasselas was written in the evenings of a single week, and sent to the press, in portions, with the amiable view of defraying the funeral expenses of the author’s aged mother, and discharging her few remaining debts.  The sum, however, which he received for it, does not seem large, to those who know its subsequent popularity.  None of his works has been more widely circulated; and the admiration, which it has attracted, in almost every country of Europe, proves, that, with all its depression and sadness, it does utter a voice, that meets with an assenting answer in the hearts of all who have tried life, and found its emptiness.  Johnson’s view of our lot on earth was always gloomy, and the circumstances, under which Rasselas was composed, were calculated to add a deepened tinge of melancholy to its speculations on human folly, misery, or malignity.  Many of the subjects discussed, are known to have been those which had agitated Johnson’s mind.  Among them is the question, whether the departed ever revisit the places that knew them on earth, and how far they may take an interest in the welfare of those, over whom they watched, when here.  We shall elsewhere have to contemplate the moralist, standing on the border of his mother’s grave, and asking, with anxious agony, whether that dark bourn, once passed, terminated for ever the cares of maternity and love[a].  The frivolous and the proud, who think not, or acknowledge not, that there are secrets, in both matter and mind, of which their philosophy has not dreamed, may smile at what they may, in their derision, term such weak and idle inquiries.  But on them, the most powerful minds that ever illuminated this world, have fastened, with an intense curiosity; and, owning their fears, or their ignorance, have not dared to disavow their belief[b].

It is not to be denied, that Rasselas displays life, as one unvaried series of disappointments, and leaves the mind, at its close, in painful depression.  This effect has been considered an evil, and regarded even as similar to that produced by the doctrines of Voltaire, Bolingbroke, and Rousseau, who combined every thing venerable on earth with ridicule, treated virtue and vice, with equal contemptuous indifference, and laid bare, with cruel mockery, the vanity of all mortal wishes, prospects, and pursuits.  Their motive, for all this, we need not pause, in this place, to examine.  But a distinction may be made between

Page 166

Page 167

FOOTNOTES
[a] See Idler, No. 41, and his letter to Mr. Elphinstone, on the death
    of his mother.
[b] Aristot.  Ethic.  Nich. lib. i. c. 10, 11.  In Barrow’s sermon on the
    “the least credulous or fanciful of men.”
[c] See Drake’s Speculator, 1790, No. 1.

THE HISTORY

OF

RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABISSINIA.

CHAP.  I.

DESCRIPTION OF A PALACE IN A VALLEY.

Ye, who listen, with credulity, to the whispers of fancy, and pursue, with eagerness, the phantoms of hope; who expect, that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas, prince of Abissinia.

Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty emperour, in whose dominions the father of waters begins his course; whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt.

According to the custom, which has descended, from age to age, among the monarchs of the torrid zone, Rasselas was confined in a private palace, with the other sons and daughters of Abissinian royalty, till the order of succession should call him to the throne.

The place, which the wisdom, or policy, of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abissinan princes, was a spacious valley in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded, on every side, by mountains, of which the summits overhang the middle part.  The only passage, by which it could be entered, was a cavern that passed under a rock, of which it has been long disputed, whether it was the work of nature, or of human industry.  The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth, which opened into the valley, was closed with gates of iron, forged by the artificers of ancient days, so massy, that no man could, without the help of engines, open or shut them.

From the mountains, on every side, rivulets descended, that filled all the valley with verdure and fertility, and formed a lake in the middle, inhabited by fish of every species, and frequented by every fowl, whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water.  This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream, which entered a dark cleft of the mountain, on the northern side, and fell, with dreadful noise, from precipice to precipice, till it was heard no more.

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The sides of the mountains were covered with trees; the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers; every blast shook spices from the rocks; and every month dropped fruits upon the ground.  All animals that bite the grass, or browse the shrub, whether wild or tame, wandered in this extensive circuit, secured from beasts of prey, by the mountains which confined them.  On one part, were flocks and herds feeding in the pastures; on another, all the beasts of chase frisking in the lawns; the sprightly kid was bounding on the rocks, the subtle monkey frolicking in the trees, and the solemn elephant reposing in the shade.  All the diversities of the world were brought together, the blessings of nature were collected, and its evils extracted and excluded.

The valley, wide and fruitful, supplied its inhabitants with the necessaries of life; and all delights and superfluities were added, at the annual visit which the emperour paid his children, when the iron gate was opened to the sound of musick; and during eight days every one, that resided in the valley, was required to propose whatever might contribute to make seclusion pleasant, to fill up the vacancies of attention, and lessen the tediousness of time.  Every desire was immediately granted.  All the artificers of pleasure were called to gladden the festivity; the musicians exerted the power of harmony, and the dancers showed their activity before the princes, in hope that they should pass their lives in this blissful captivity, to which those only were admitted, whose performance was thought able to add novelty to luxury.  Such was the appearance of security and delight, which this retirement afforded, that they, to whom it was new, always desired, that it might be perpetual; and, as those, on whom the iron gate had once closed, were never suffered to return, the effect of long experience could not be known.  Thus every year produced new schemes of delight, and new competitors for imprisonment.

The palace stood on an eminence, raised about thirty paces above the surface of the lake.  It was divided into many squares or courts, built with greater or less magnificence, according to the rank of those for whom they were designed.  The roofs were turned into arches of massy stone, joined by a cement that grew harder by time, and the building stood, from century to century, deriding the solstitial rains and equinoctial hurricanes, without need of reparation.

This house, which was so large, as to be fully known to none, but some ancient officers, who successively inherited the secrets of the place, was built, as if suspicion herself had dictated the plan.  To every room there was an open and secret passage, every square had a communication with the rest, either from the upper stories, by private galleries, or, by subterranean passages, from the lower apartments.  Many of the columns had unsuspected cavities, in which a long race of monarchs had reposited their treasures.  They then closed up the opening with marble, which was never to be removed, but in the utmost exigencies of the kingdom; and recorded their accumulations in a book, which was itself concealed in a tower not entered, but by the emperour, attended by the prince, who stood next in succession.

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CHAP.  II.

THE DISCONTENT OP RASSELAS IN THE HAPPY VALLEY.

Here the sons and daughters of Abissinia, lived only to know the soft vicissitudes of pleasure and repose, attended by all that were skilful to delight, and gratified with whatever the senses can enjoy.  They wandered in gardens of fragrance, and slept in the fortresses of security.  Every art was practised, to make them pleased with their own condition.  The sages, who instructed them, told them of nothing but the miseries of publick life, and described all beyond the mountains, as regions of calamity, where discord was always raging, and where man preyed upon man.

To heighten their opinion of their own felicity, they were daily entertained with songs, the subject of which was the happy valley.  Their appetites were excited, by frequent enumerations of different enjoyments, and revelry and merriment was the business of every hour, from the dawn of morning, to the close of even.

These methods were, generally, successful; few of the princes had ever wished to enlarge their bounds, but passed their lives in full conviction, that they had all within their reach that art or nature could bestow, and pitied those, whom fate had excluded from this seat of tranquillity, as the sport of chance, and the slaves of misery.

Thus, they rose in the morning, and lay down at night, pleased with each other and with themselves, all but Rasselas, who, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, began to withdraw himself from their pastimes and assemblies, and to delight in solitary walks, and silent meditation.  He often sat before tables, covered with luxury, and forgot to taste the dainties that were placed before him:  he rose abruptly in the midst of the song, and hastily retired beyond the sound of musick.  His attendants observed the change, and endeavoured to renew his love of pleasure:  he neglected their officiousness, repulsed their invitations, and spent day after day, on the banks of rivulets, sheltered with trees; where he sometimes listened to the birds in the branches, sometimes observed the fish playing in the stream, and anon cast his eyes upon the pastures and mountains filled with animals, of which some were biting the herbage, and some sleeping among the bushes.

This singularity of his humour made him much observed.  One of the sages, in whose conversation he had formerly delighted, followed him secretly, in hope of discovering the cause of his disquiet.  Rasselas, who knew not that any one was near him, having, for some time, fixed his eyes upon the goats that were browsing among the rocks, began to compare their condition with his own.  “What,” said he, “makes the difference between man and all the rest of the animal creation?  Every beast, that strays beside me, has the same corporal necessities with myself:  he is hungry, and crops the grass, he is thirsty and drinks the stream, his thirst and hunger are appeased,

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After this, he lifted up his head, and seeing the moon rising, walked towards the palace.  As he passed through the fields, and saw the animals around him, “Ye,” said he, “are happy, and need not envy me, that walk thus among you, burdened with myself; nor do I, ye gentle beings, envy your felicity; for it is not the felicity of man.  I have many distresses, from which ye are free; I fear pain, when I do not feel it; I sometimes shrink at evils recollected, and sometimes start at evils anticipated:  surely the equity of providence has balanced peculiar sufferings with peculiar enjoyments.”

With observations like these, the prince amused himself, as he returned, uttering them with a plaintive voice, yet with a look, that discovered him to feel some complacence in his own perspicacity, and to receive some solace of the miseries of life, from consciousness of the delicacy with which he felt, and the eloquence with which he bewailed them.  He mingled, cheerfully, in the diversions of the evening, and all rejoiced to find, that his heart was lightened.

CHAP.  III.

THE WANTS OF HIM THAT WANTS NOTHING.

On the next day, his old instructor, imagining that he had now made himself acquainted with his disease of mind, was in hope of curing it by counsel, and officiously sought an opportunity of conference, which the prince, having long considered him, as one whose intellects were exhausted, was not very willing to afford:  “Why,” said he, “does this man thus obtrude upon me? shall I be never suffered to forget those lectures, which pleased, only while they were new, and to become new again, must be forgotten?” He then walked into the wood, and composed himself to his usual meditations, when, before his thoughts had taken any settled form, he perceived his pursuer at his side, and was, at first, prompted, by his impatience, to go hastily away; but, being unwilling to offend a man, whom he had once reverenced, and still loved, he invited him to sit down with him on the bank.

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The old man, thus encouraged, began to lament the change, which had been lately observed in the prince, and to inquire, why he so often retired from the pleasures of the palace, to loneliness and silence.  “I fly from pleasure,” said the prince, “because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely, because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud, with my presence, the happiness of others.”

“You, sir,” said the sage, “are the first who has complained of misery in the happy valley.  I hope to convince you, that your complaints have no real cause.  You are here in full possession of all that the emperour of Abissinia can bestow; here is neither labour to be endured, nor danger to be dreaded, yet here is all that labour or danger can procure or purchase.  Look round, and tell me which of your wants is without supply:  if you want nothing, how are you unhappy?”

“That I want nothing,” said the prince, “or that I know not what I want, is the cause of my complaint; if I had any known want, I should have a certain wish; that wish would excite endeavour, and I should not then repine to see the sun move so slowly towards the western mountain, or lament when the day breaks, and sleep will no longer hide me from myself.  When I see the kids and the lambs chasing one another, I fancy, that.  I should be happy, if I had something to pursue.  But, possessing all that I can want, I find one day and one hour exactly like another, except that the latter is still more tedious than the former.  Let your experience inform me, how the day may now seem as short as in my childhood, while nature was yet fresh, and every moment showed me what I never had observed before.  I have already enjoyed too much; give me something to desire.”

The old man was surprised at this new species of affliction, and knew not what to reply, yet was unwilling to be silent.  “Sir,” said he, “if you had seen the miseries of the world, you would know how to value your present state.”  “Now,” said the prince, “you have given me something to desire; I shall long to see the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is necessary to happiness.”

CHAP.  IV.

THE PRINCE CONTINUES TO GRIEVE AND MUSE.

At this time the sound of musick proclaimed the hour of repast, and the conversation was concluded.  The old man went away, sufficiently discontented, to find that his reasonings had produced the only conclusion which they were intended to prevent.  But, in the decline of life, shame and grief are of short duration; whether it be, that we bear easily what we have borne long, or that, finding ourselves in age less regarded, we less regard others; or that we look with slight regard upon afflictions, to which we know that the hand of death is about to put an end.

The prince, whose views were extended to a wider space, could not speedily quiet his emotions.  He had been before terrified at the length of life which nature promised him, because he considered, that in a long time much must be endured; he now rejoiced in his youth, because in many years much might be done.

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This first beam of hope, that had been ever darted into his mind, rekindled youth in his cheeks, and doubled the lustre of his eyes.  He was fired with the desire of doing something, though he knew not yet, with distinctness, either end or means.

He was now no longer gloomy and unsocial; but, considering himself as master of a secret stock of happiness, which he could enjoy only by concealing it, he affected to be busy in all schemes of diversion, and endeavoured to make others pleased with the state, of which he himself was weary.  But pleasures never can be so multiplied or continued, as not to leave much of life unemployed; there were many hours, both of the night and day, which he could spend, without suspicion, in solitary thought.  The load of life was much lightened:  he went eagerly into the assemblies, because he supposed the frequency of his presence necessary to the success of his purposes; he retired gladly to privacy, because he had now a subject of thought.

His chief amusement was to picture to himself that world which he had never seen; to place himself in various conditions; to be entangled in imaginary difficulties, and to be engaged in wild adventures:  but his benevolence always terminated his projects in the relief of distress, the detection of fraud, the defeat of oppression, and the diffusion of happiness.

Thus passed twenty months of the life of Rasselas.  He busied himself so intensely in visionary bustle, that he forgot his real solitude, and, amidst hourly preparations for the various incidents of human affairs, neglected to consider, by what means he should mingle with mankind.

One day, as he was sitting on a bank, he feigned to himself an orphan virgin, robbed of her little portion by a treacherous lover, and crying after him, for restitution and redress.  So strongly was the image impressed upon his mind, that he started up in the maid’s defence, and ran forward to seize the plunderer, with all the eagerness of real pursuit.  Fear naturally quickens the flight of guilt:  Rasselas could not catch the fugitive with his utmost efforts; but, resolving to weary, by perseverance, him whom he could not surpass in speed, he pressed on till the foot of the mountain stopped his course.

Here he recollected himself, and smiled at his own useless impetuosity.  Then, raising his eyes to the mountain, “This,” said he, “is the fatal obstacle that hinders, at once, the enjoyment of pleasure, and the exercise of virtue.  How long is it that my hopes and wishes have flown beyond this boundary of my life, which, yet, I never have attempted to surmount!”

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Struck with this reflection, he sat down to muse; and remembered, that, since he first resolved to escape from his confinement, the sun had passed twice over him in his annual course.  He now felt a degree of regret, with which he had never been before acquainted.  He considered, how much might have been done in the time which had passed, and left nothing real behind it.  He compared twenty months with the life of man.  “In life,” said he, “is not to be counted the ignorance of infancy, or imbecility of age.  We are long, before we are able to think, and we soon cease from the power of acting.  The true period of human existence may be reasonably estimated at forty years, of which I have mused away the four and twentieth part.  What I have lost was certain, for I have certainly possessed it; but of twenty months to come, who can assure me?”

The consciousness of his own folly pierced him deeply, and he was long before he could be reconciled to himself.  “The rest of my time,” said he, “has been lost, by the crime or folly of my ancestors, and the absurd institutions of my country; I remember it with disgust, yet without remorse:  but the months that have passed, since new light darted into my soul, since I formed a scheme of reasonable felicity, have been squandered by my own fault.  I have lost that which can never be restored:  I have seen the sun rise and set for twenty months, an idle gazer on the light of heaven:  in this time, the birds have left the nest of their mother, and committed themselves to the woods and to the skies:  the kid has forsaken the teat, and learned, by degrees, to climb the rocks, in quest of independent sustenance.  I only have made no advances, but am still helpless and ignorant.  The moon, by more than twenty changes, admonished me of the flux of life; the stream, that rolled before my feet, upbraided my inactivity.  I sat feasting on intellectual luxury, regardless alike of the examples of the earth, and the instructions of the planets.  Twenty months are passed; who shall restore them?”