Wendy Laura Belcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793211
- eISBN:
- 9780199949700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793211.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, World Literature
Johnson was drawn to Voyage historique d'Abissinie, this chapter proposes, by its African Christianity. That is, translating it was a way of thinking about what it meant to be a Christian and how ...
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Johnson was drawn to Voyage historique d'Abissinie, this chapter proposes, by its African Christianity. That is, translating it was a way of thinking about what it meant to be a Christian and how differently Christianity could be imagined. That Johnson’s interest in the text was that of a religious explorer becomes clear when examining his reading, his religious beliefs, and his editing of Voyage historique d'Abissinie.Less
Johnson was drawn to Voyage historique d'Abissinie, this chapter proposes, by its African Christianity. That is, translating it was a way of thinking about what it meant to be a Christian and how differently Christianity could be imagined. That Johnson’s interest in the text was that of a religious explorer becomes clear when examining his reading, his religious beliefs, and his editing of Voyage historique d'Abissinie.
Wendy Laura Belcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793211
- eISBN:
- 9780199949700
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793211.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, World Literature
Johnson wrote many “oriental tales” over the same decade he wrote Rasselas, in the 1750s. Most appear to contain details that rise from Johnson’s reading about the Habasha. Some of the Habesha ...
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Johnson wrote many “oriental tales” over the same decade he wrote Rasselas, in the 1750s. Most appear to contain details that rise from Johnson’s reading about the Habasha. Some of the Habesha details in Johnson’s tales are mere geography or nomenclature, yet the amalgam of resemblances suggests a deep resonance, one informed by Habesha self-representations.Less
Johnson wrote many “oriental tales” over the same decade he wrote Rasselas, in the 1750s. Most appear to contain details that rise from Johnson’s reading about the Habasha. Some of the Habesha details in Johnson’s tales are mere geography or nomenclature, yet the amalgam of resemblances suggests a deep resonance, one informed by Habesha self-representations.
Nicholas Hudson
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112143
- eISBN:
- 9780191670671
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112143.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter discusses Samuel Johnson and his moral and religious thoughts. It is said that Johnson frequently took for granted that his audience understood the context within which his opinions and ...
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This chapter discusses Samuel Johnson and his moral and religious thoughts. It is said that Johnson frequently took for granted that his audience understood the context within which his opinions and observations were meaningful. Johnson also intended much of his best-known wisdom for an audience that was immediate and contemporary.Less
This chapter discusses Samuel Johnson and his moral and religious thoughts. It is said that Johnson frequently took for granted that his audience understood the context within which his opinions and observations were meaningful. Johnson also intended much of his best-known wisdom for an audience that was immediate and contemporary.
Jane Spencer
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199262960
- eISBN:
- 9780191718731
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199262960.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter shows how ideas of literary patrilineage were affected by the hierarchized and gendered divide between spirit and matter: with spirit associated with masculinity and paternity and matter ...
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This chapter shows how ideas of literary patrilineage were affected by the hierarchized and gendered divide between spirit and matter: with spirit associated with masculinity and paternity and matter with femininity and maternity. Through a case study of Dryden and his relation to three filial figures: his son John; his chosen poetic heir, William Congreve; and his later literary son, Alexander Pope, it demonstrates the importance of a disembodied and metaphorical father-son relationship to the creation of poetic lineage, and indicates the problematic nature of the relationship between paternal mentoring and literary inheritance. The chapter further argues that the exclusivity of the father-son relationship as a model for literary inheritance was challenged by the advent of women writers claiming metaphorical daughterhood to literary fathers. This phenomenon is examined through a case study of Samuel Johnson's mentoring of Frances Burney and the father-daughter relationship established between them.Less
This chapter shows how ideas of literary patrilineage were affected by the hierarchized and gendered divide between spirit and matter: with spirit associated with masculinity and paternity and matter with femininity and maternity. Through a case study of Dryden and his relation to three filial figures: his son John; his chosen poetic heir, William Congreve; and his later literary son, Alexander Pope, it demonstrates the importance of a disembodied and metaphorical father-son relationship to the creation of poetic lineage, and indicates the problematic nature of the relationship between paternal mentoring and literary inheritance. The chapter further argues that the exclusivity of the father-son relationship as a model for literary inheritance was challenged by the advent of women writers claiming metaphorical daughterhood to literary fathers. This phenomenon is examined through a case study of Samuel Johnson's mentoring of Frances Burney and the father-daughter relationship established between them.
James G. Basker
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182887
- eISBN:
- 9780191673900
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182887.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter explores the unexpected but profoundly important presence of Samuel Johnson in the mind and writings of Mary Wollstonecraft. It has two aims: first, to map the intertextual connections ...
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This chapter explores the unexpected but profoundly important presence of Samuel Johnson in the mind and writings of Mary Wollstonecraft. It has two aims: first, to map the intertextual connections between them and thus show the extent to which Johnson informs Wollstonecraft’s mind and work; and, second, to examine three areas in which their affinity seems most remarkable — Wollstonecraft’s deliberate affiliation with Johnson as critical authority; as commentator on the condition of women; and, in her own life, as kindred spirit and consoling presence during moments of personal crisis and depression.Less
This chapter explores the unexpected but profoundly important presence of Samuel Johnson in the mind and writings of Mary Wollstonecraft. It has two aims: first, to map the intertextual connections between them and thus show the extent to which Johnson informs Wollstonecraft’s mind and work; and, second, to examine three areas in which their affinity seems most remarkable — Wollstonecraft’s deliberate affiliation with Johnson as critical authority; as commentator on the condition of women; and, in her own life, as kindred spirit and consoling presence during moments of personal crisis and depression.
Wendy Laura Belcher
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199793211
- eISBN:
- 9780199949700
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793211.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, World Literature
As a very young man, one of the most celebrated English authors of the eighteenth century translated a tome about Ethiopia. This experience permanently marked Samuel Johnson, leaving traces of the ...
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As a very young man, one of the most celebrated English authors of the eighteenth century translated a tome about Ethiopia. This experience permanently marked Samuel Johnson, leaving traces of the African discourse he encountered in that text in his drama Irene;several of his short stories; and his most famous fiction, Rasselas. This book provides a much needed perspective in comparative literature and postcolonial studies on the power of the discourse of the other to infuse European texts. This book illuminates how the Western literary canon is globally produced by developing the powerful metaphor of spirit possession to posit some texts in the European canon as energumens, texts that are spoken through. The model of discursive possession offers a new way of theorizing transcultural intertextuality, in particular how Europe’s others have co-constituted European representations. Through close readings of primary and secondary sources in English, French, Portuguese, and Gəʿəz, the book challenges conventional wisdom on Johnson’s work, from the inspiration for the name Rasselas and the nature of Johnson’s religious beliefs to what makes Rasselas so strange.Less
As a very young man, one of the most celebrated English authors of the eighteenth century translated a tome about Ethiopia. This experience permanently marked Samuel Johnson, leaving traces of the African discourse he encountered in that text in his drama Irene;several of his short stories; and his most famous fiction, Rasselas. This book provides a much needed perspective in comparative literature and postcolonial studies on the power of the discourse of the other to infuse European texts. This book illuminates how the Western literary canon is globally produced by developing the powerful metaphor of spirit possession to posit some texts in the European canon as energumens, texts that are spoken through. The model of discursive possession offers a new way of theorizing transcultural intertextuality, in particular how Europe’s others have co-constituted European representations. Through close readings of primary and secondary sources in English, French, Portuguese, and Gəʿəz, the book challenges conventional wisdom on Johnson’s work, from the inspiration for the name Rasselas and the nature of Johnson’s religious beliefs to what makes Rasselas so strange.
Simon Jarvis
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182955
- eISBN:
- 9780191673924
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182955.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
The fullest account of the social and political significance of Samuel Johnson's writings about language – that by John Barrell in his Equal, Wide, Survey – points to an apparent contradiction in ...
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The fullest account of the social and political significance of Samuel Johnson's writings about language – that by John Barrell in his Equal, Wide, Survey – points to an apparent contradiction in Johnson's account of English usage. Barrell argues that Johnson ‘regards the national language as derived from a world apart from and above the languages of those who follow particular callings’, but also refuses to specify any group of language users who might be thought to inhabit such a world. These suggestions are significant, both for the way in which Johnson thought about and used the illustrative quotations which were the decisively new feature of his Dictionary, and for the close relationship in Johnson's philological career between lexicography and textual criticism. A problem of circularity attends any attempt to define a community of authoritative users of a language, and Johnson's is no exception.Less
The fullest account of the social and political significance of Samuel Johnson's writings about language – that by John Barrell in his Equal, Wide, Survey – points to an apparent contradiction in Johnson's account of English usage. Barrell argues that Johnson ‘regards the national language as derived from a world apart from and above the languages of those who follow particular callings’, but also refuses to specify any group of language users who might be thought to inhabit such a world. These suggestions are significant, both for the way in which Johnson thought about and used the illustrative quotations which were the decisively new feature of his Dictionary, and for the close relationship in Johnson's philological career between lexicography and textual criticism. A problem of circularity attends any attempt to define a community of authoritative users of a language, and Johnson's is no exception.
Nicholas Hudson
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112143
- eISBN:
- 9780191670671
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112143.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter discusses mostly the Christian Epicureanism and how it is different from other doctrines both before and after the eighteenth century. The difference of this doctrine from utilitarianism ...
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This chapter discusses mostly the Christian Epicureanism and how it is different from other doctrines both before and after the eighteenth century. The difference of this doctrine from utilitarianism is of great significance to the study of Samuel Johnson.Less
This chapter discusses mostly the Christian Epicureanism and how it is different from other doctrines both before and after the eighteenth century. The difference of this doctrine from utilitarianism is of great significance to the study of Samuel Johnson.
Anne Stott
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199274888
- eISBN:
- 9780191714962
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199274888.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Hannah More was a public figure at a time when the ideology of separate spheres relegated women to the private and the domestic. She was a friend of many notable writers, artists, and intellectuals ...
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Hannah More was a public figure at a time when the ideology of separate spheres relegated women to the private and the domestic. She was a friend of many notable writers, artists, and intellectuals of the late Georgian period, including David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Horace Walpole, and the women of the bluestocking circle. Following her religious conversion she became a friend of William Wilberforce and the members of the Evangelical Clapham sect. Her career as playwright, bluestocking, educationalist, anti-slavery campaigner, political writer, and novelist made her one of the most influential women of the period. Using previously unpublished sources, in particular her letters, this book shows that Hannah More was a complex and contradictory figure, a conservative who was accused of political and religious subversion, an ostensible anti-feminist who opened up new opportunities for female activism.Less
Hannah More was a public figure at a time when the ideology of separate spheres relegated women to the private and the domestic. She was a friend of many notable writers, artists, and intellectuals of the late Georgian period, including David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Horace Walpole, and the women of the bluestocking circle. Following her religious conversion she became a friend of William Wilberforce and the members of the Evangelical Clapham sect. Her career as playwright, bluestocking, educationalist, anti-slavery campaigner, political writer, and novelist made her one of the most influential women of the period. Using previously unpublished sources, in particular her letters, this book shows that Hannah More was a complex and contradictory figure, a conservative who was accused of political and religious subversion, an ostensible anti-feminist who opened up new opportunities for female activism.
Nicholas Hudson
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112143
- eISBN:
- 9780191670671
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112143.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
Although there are many books on Samuel Johnson's moral and religious thought, none has provided a detailed analysis of his relationship with the ethics and theology of the eighteenth century. This ...
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Although there are many books on Samuel Johnson's moral and religious thought, none has provided a detailed analysis of his relationship with the ethics and theology of the eighteenth century. This study fills the gap, examining the background to Johnson's views on a wide range of issues debated by the philosophers and divines of his age. Avoiding deceptive generalizations concerning the overall character of the century, the author emphasizes the ambivalence and contradiction inherent in the orthodoxy which Johnson espoused. Yet this book also challenges the assumption that Johnson's religious beliefs were unstable and filled with anxiety. Whatever the weakness of his positions, he gleaned strength and confidence from the belief that he upheld an eminent tradition in Christian philosophy.Less
Although there are many books on Samuel Johnson's moral and religious thought, none has provided a detailed analysis of his relationship with the ethics and theology of the eighteenth century. This study fills the gap, examining the background to Johnson's views on a wide range of issues debated by the philosophers and divines of his age. Avoiding deceptive generalizations concerning the overall character of the century, the author emphasizes the ambivalence and contradiction inherent in the orthodoxy which Johnson espoused. Yet this book also challenges the assumption that Johnson's religious beliefs were unstable and filled with anxiety. Whatever the weakness of his positions, he gleaned strength and confidence from the belief that he upheld an eminent tradition in Christian philosophy.
Mark A. Noll
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195151114
- eISBN:
- 9780199834532
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195151119.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
By 1790, American Christians also embraced the “new moral philosophy,” a way of understanding their faith through “commonsense moral reasoning.” Because they came to believe that God had created ...
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By 1790, American Christians also embraced the “new moral philosophy,” a way of understanding their faith through “commonsense moral reasoning.” Because they came to believe that God had created humans with a capacity for moral reasoning, American Christians largely gave up the traditional, hierarchical arbiters of truth found in the established churches of Europe and took into their own hands the determination of religious truth and control of the churches.Less
By 1790, American Christians also embraced the “new moral philosophy,” a way of understanding their faith through “commonsense moral reasoning.” Because they came to believe that God had created humans with a capacity for moral reasoning, American Christians largely gave up the traditional, hierarchical arbiters of truth found in the established churches of Europe and took into their own hands the determination of religious truth and control of the churches.
Nicholas Hudson
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112143
- eISBN:
- 9780191670671
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112143.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter discusses doctrinal controversy, including the 1739 controversy on perfectionism that Samuel Johnson had some incidental connection. This debate involved Law's doctrine, but the Church ...
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This chapter discusses doctrinal controversy, including the 1739 controversy on perfectionism that Samuel Johnson had some incidental connection. This debate involved Law's doctrine, but the Church of England was also forced to give official notice that perfection, understood in a particular way, must be the objective of all good Christians. As such, perfectionism became a major issue with the rise of Methodism in the late 1730s.Less
This chapter discusses doctrinal controversy, including the 1739 controversy on perfectionism that Samuel Johnson had some incidental connection. This debate involved Law's doctrine, but the Church of England was also forced to give official notice that perfection, understood in a particular way, must be the objective of all good Christians. As such, perfectionism became a major issue with the rise of Methodism in the late 1730s.
Christine Gerrard
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129820
- eISBN:
- 9780191671869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129820.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
By 1742, Robert Walpole had gone, only to be replaced by ‘politics as usual’, a Whig party reshuffle which in time came to include previous Patriot Whigs who abandoned their commitment to ...
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By 1742, Robert Walpole had gone, only to be replaced by ‘politics as usual’, a Whig party reshuffle which in time came to include previous Patriot Whigs who abandoned their commitment to broad-bottom principles in pursuit of government places. Some of the most scathing definitions of Patriots, patriotism, and Whigs are supplied by Samuel Johnson. Patriot Whiggery and Jacobitism deployed overlapping sets of images and metaphors, especially those of redemptive kingship. But Patriot Whigs were rarely Jacobites. Patriot Whigs were remarkably consistent with their support for the House of Hanover, even if that support focused on the heir to the throne rather than its present occupant. This is not to deny that a few figures involved in Patriot politics later dabbled with Jacobite intrigue. But the fundamental tenet cherished by most opposition Whigs — defence of the Protestant succession — was ultimately irreconcilable with Jacobitism. Johnson's unusual oscillation between Whig Patriot idealism and stubborn Jacobite resentment was also characteristic of Richard Savage, perhaps the dominant influence on the young Johnson during his first years in London.Less
By 1742, Robert Walpole had gone, only to be replaced by ‘politics as usual’, a Whig party reshuffle which in time came to include previous Patriot Whigs who abandoned their commitment to broad-bottom principles in pursuit of government places. Some of the most scathing definitions of Patriots, patriotism, and Whigs are supplied by Samuel Johnson. Patriot Whiggery and Jacobitism deployed overlapping sets of images and metaphors, especially those of redemptive kingship. But Patriot Whigs were rarely Jacobites. Patriot Whigs were remarkably consistent with their support for the House of Hanover, even if that support focused on the heir to the throne rather than its present occupant. This is not to deny that a few figures involved in Patriot politics later dabbled with Jacobite intrigue. But the fundamental tenet cherished by most opposition Whigs — defence of the Protestant succession — was ultimately irreconcilable with Jacobitism. Johnson's unusual oscillation between Whig Patriot idealism and stubborn Jacobite resentment was also characteristic of Richard Savage, perhaps the dominant influence on the young Johnson during his first years in London.
Julian North
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199571987
- eISBN:
- 9780191722363
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571987.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, Poetry
For Johnson, biography should reveal the ‘domestick privacies’ of the great man. This chapter proposes that a helpful way to understand biography, as it developed in the eighteenth and early ...
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For Johnson, biography should reveal the ‘domestick privacies’ of the great man. This chapter proposes that a helpful way to understand biography, as it developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, is as an ideologically driven representation and publication of domestic life. It looks at the work of Johnson and Boswell in conjunction with collective female biographies, by Mary Hays and others, in the context of the development of a middle‐class domestic ideology. Boswell's Life of Johnson was received as gossip – a discourse that transgressed boundaries of class and gender by moving disconcertingly between public and private life. Collective female biography presented a more overtly ideological vision of domestic life. The chapter concludes by looking at how the expansion of publishing from the,1780s, and the market success of biography, contributed to a shift in thinking about what it meant to be ‘published’ as a biographical subject.Less
For Johnson, biography should reveal the ‘domestick privacies’ of the great man. This chapter proposes that a helpful way to understand biography, as it developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, is as an ideologically driven representation and publication of domestic life. It looks at the work of Johnson and Boswell in conjunction with collective female biographies, by Mary Hays and others, in the context of the development of a middle‐class domestic ideology. Boswell's Life of Johnson was received as gossip – a discourse that transgressed boundaries of class and gender by moving disconcertingly between public and private life. Collective female biography presented a more overtly ideological vision of domestic life. The chapter concludes by looking at how the expansion of publishing from the,1780s, and the market success of biography, contributed to a shift in thinking about what it meant to be ‘published’ as a biographical subject.
Howard Erskine-Hill
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121770
- eISBN:
- 9780191671296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121770.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Samuel Johnson was born and raised in the established Church of England, in which communion he remained from conviction throughout his life. Nothing in his background of any formal or serious nature ...
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Samuel Johnson was born and raised in the established Church of England, in which communion he remained from conviction throughout his life. Nothing in his background of any formal or serious nature could prompt suspicion of political disaffection. Nothing in his early circumstances obliged him to become an opposition writer. Johnson could have written excellent satire dedicated to King George and Walpole. If he sought his readiest way to rise in the world he would have been well advised to do so. Yet Johnson chose the more dangerous course in his first published poem. Different as London is from anything from the pen of Pope, it shares with Pope a recognizable opposition and political standpoint. Johnson springs fully armed upon the stage as warrior of the opposition. London is an eloquent and energetic denunciation of a capital city and land allegedly decadent.Less
Samuel Johnson was born and raised in the established Church of England, in which communion he remained from conviction throughout his life. Nothing in his background of any formal or serious nature could prompt suspicion of political disaffection. Nothing in his early circumstances obliged him to become an opposition writer. Johnson could have written excellent satire dedicated to King George and Walpole. If he sought his readiest way to rise in the world he would have been well advised to do so. Yet Johnson chose the more dangerous course in his first published poem. Different as London is from anything from the pen of Pope, it shares with Pope a recognizable opposition and political standpoint. Johnson springs fully armed upon the stage as warrior of the opposition. London is an eloquent and energetic denunciation of a capital city and land allegedly decadent.
Howard Erskine-Hill
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121770
- eISBN:
- 9780191671296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121770.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
The Vanity of Human Wishes is a highly political poem showing a deep concern with the processes of history. It explores two ways in which a state might suddenly change or be ...
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The Vanity of Human Wishes is a highly political poem showing a deep concern with the processes of history. It explores two ways in which a state might suddenly change or be changed: the fall of a Favourite or a revolution brought about by military invasion. Johnson employs the literary mode of oblique allusion, practised by Dryden and Pope, to reflect on the British experience of the 1740s. The Vanity of Human Wishes is not a poem of generality in the sense that it excluded recent historical events, but is comprehensive in assimilating them to famous examples of the past. The long view thus constructed displays not least the vanity of human wishes as the tragedy of political hope. It is a vision of the world from which one may turn either to Stoic or Christian doctrine to find a faith with which to live. Johnson's text turns to the Christian religion, though he has at least in common with Juvenal the rejection of chance and the advocacy of virtue.Less
The Vanity of Human Wishes is a highly political poem showing a deep concern with the processes of history. It explores two ways in which a state might suddenly change or be changed: the fall of a Favourite or a revolution brought about by military invasion. Johnson employs the literary mode of oblique allusion, practised by Dryden and Pope, to reflect on the British experience of the 1740s. The Vanity of Human Wishes is not a poem of generality in the sense that it excluded recent historical events, but is comprehensive in assimilating them to famous examples of the past. The long view thus constructed displays not least the vanity of human wishes as the tragedy of political hope. It is a vision of the world from which one may turn either to Stoic or Christian doctrine to find a faith with which to live. Johnson's text turns to the Christian religion, though he has at least in common with Juvenal the rejection of chance and the advocacy of virtue.
Freya Johnston and Lynda Mugglestone (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199654345
- eISBN:
- 9780191745003
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654345.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
In 1819, William Hazlitt condemned Samuel Johnson's prose style as ‘a species of rhyming’ in which ‘the close of the period follows as mechanically as the oscillation of a pendulum, the sense is ...
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In 1819, William Hazlitt condemned Samuel Johnson's prose style as ‘a species of rhyming’ in which ‘the close of the period follows as mechanically as the oscillation of a pendulum, the sense is balanced with the sound.’ Predictable, formulaic, and unresponsive, Hazlitt's Johnson was a ‘complete balance-master,’ incapable of latitude and compromise, a mere automaton who rebounded from one position to its opposite extreme. Johnson, Hazlitt argued, ‘never encourages hope, but he counteracts it by fear; he never elicits a truth, but he suggests some objection in answer to it.’ This volume sets out to challenges Hazlitt's influential reading of the Johnsonian pendulum in a variety of ways. Rather than being trapped within a set of oppositions, Johnson emerges from these chapters as a writer who engages imaginatively and vigorously with flux, dynamism, and inconclusiveness. Johnson's life and writings embody the critical and creative play of ideas, a form of interaction with the world which is shaped by instability, contradiction, and combat. On the one hand, ‘Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed;’ on the other, ‘To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.’ Individual chapters present new perspectives on Johnson's work, life, and reception, addressing questions of style, authority, language, lexicography, and biography across a range of writings from the early poetry to the late prose.Less
In 1819, William Hazlitt condemned Samuel Johnson's prose style as ‘a species of rhyming’ in which ‘the close of the period follows as mechanically as the oscillation of a pendulum, the sense is balanced with the sound.’ Predictable, formulaic, and unresponsive, Hazlitt's Johnson was a ‘complete balance-master,’ incapable of latitude and compromise, a mere automaton who rebounded from one position to its opposite extreme. Johnson, Hazlitt argued, ‘never encourages hope, but he counteracts it by fear; he never elicits a truth, but he suggests some objection in answer to it.’ This volume sets out to challenges Hazlitt's influential reading of the Johnsonian pendulum in a variety of ways. Rather than being trapped within a set of oppositions, Johnson emerges from these chapters as a writer who engages imaginatively and vigorously with flux, dynamism, and inconclusiveness. Johnson's life and writings embody the critical and creative play of ideas, a form of interaction with the world which is shaped by instability, contradiction, and combat. On the one hand, ‘Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed;’ on the other, ‘To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.’ Individual chapters present new perspectives on Johnson's work, life, and reception, addressing questions of style, authority, language, lexicography, and biography across a range of writings from the early poetry to the late prose.
Simon Jarvis
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182955
- eISBN:
- 9780191673924
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182955.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
Among the earliest editors of William Shakespeare were several of the eighteenth century's most powerful writers. This book demonstrates how much was at stake for these writers in the editing of ...
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Among the earliest editors of William Shakespeare were several of the eighteenth century's most powerful writers. This book demonstrates how much was at stake for these writers in the editing of English texts. It examines not only eighteenth-century texts of Shakespeare, but also sources as disparate as Alexander Pope's Dunciad, eighteenth-century classical and scriptural editing, and Samuel Johnson's Dictionary to show the importance of politically contested representations of scholars and scholarship for the formation of British public literary culture. Offering an account of both editorial theory and philological practice during the period, the book throws new light on a wide variety of issues, from the debates over the possibility of a polite and settled national language to the epistemological and cultural presuppositions of editorial method.Less
Among the earliest editors of William Shakespeare were several of the eighteenth century's most powerful writers. This book demonstrates how much was at stake for these writers in the editing of English texts. It examines not only eighteenth-century texts of Shakespeare, but also sources as disparate as Alexander Pope's Dunciad, eighteenth-century classical and scriptural editing, and Samuel Johnson's Dictionary to show the importance of politically contested representations of scholars and scholarship for the formation of British public literary culture. Offering an account of both editorial theory and philological practice during the period, the book throws new light on a wide variety of issues, from the debates over the possibility of a polite and settled national language to the epistemological and cultural presuppositions of editorial method.
John Cannon
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204527
- eISBN:
- 9780191676321
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204527.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Political History
This is a reinterpretation of the Georgian political order. Samuel Johnson's life (1709–84) spans most of the 18th century. His contacts in the literary and cultural, scholarly, and political worlds ...
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This is a reinterpretation of the Georgian political order. Samuel Johnson's life (1709–84) spans most of the 18th century. His contacts in the literary and cultural, scholarly, and political worlds were wide, including Gibbon, Goldsmith, Fox, Burke, Reynolds, Adam Smith, and many others. This book uses Johnson's career as a point of entry into Hanoverian England. The book explores major contemporary issues, such as education, the poor, capital punishment, the colonies, and Toryism. He challenges many assumptions about Johnson's own attitudes, and offers a substantial modification to the traditional picture of Johnson and the political world of the 18th century.Less
This is a reinterpretation of the Georgian political order. Samuel Johnson's life (1709–84) spans most of the 18th century. His contacts in the literary and cultural, scholarly, and political worlds were wide, including Gibbon, Goldsmith, Fox, Burke, Reynolds, Adam Smith, and many others. This book uses Johnson's career as a point of entry into Hanoverian England. The book explores major contemporary issues, such as education, the poor, capital punishment, the colonies, and Toryism. He challenges many assumptions about Johnson's own attitudes, and offers a substantial modification to the traditional picture of Johnson and the political world of the 18th century.
Christine Gerrard
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129820
- eISBN:
- 9780191671869
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129820.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This book is a full-length study of the so-called Patriot opposition to Robert Walpole, which reached its height during the clamour for war against Spain at the turn of the 1730s. The book examines ...
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This book is a full-length study of the so-called Patriot opposition to Robert Walpole, which reached its height during the clamour for war against Spain at the turn of the 1730s. The book examines the inter-relationship between patriotism, politics, and poetry in the period 1724-1742. It investigates the growing Patriot opposition during the Walpolian oligarchy, and asks whether a broad credo united all of Walpole's political opponents, or whether there was a distinction between Whig and Tory Patriots. The role of Frederick Prince of Wales as the campaign's cultural and political figurehead is discussed, as are the poetry and drama of such authors as James Thomson, Alexander Pope, and the young Samuel Johnson, who were all drawn to the heady idealism of the young Boy Patriots. Thomson's Rule Britannia and Johnson's London exploit the appeal to British history so central to the emotive propaganda of the Patriot campaign. Drawing on the literature, prints, architecture, and statuary of the 1730s, the book also discusses two of the decade's most powerful romantic patriotic myths — Gothic liberty, and Elizabethan greatness — and reveals that in its nationalistic emphasis upon Nordic and Celtic traditions, the figure of the ancient British Druid, and native ‘bards’, Patriot literature anticipates the ‘Gothic’ strain emerging in the poetry of Gray, Collins, and the Wartons only a few years later.Less
This book is a full-length study of the so-called Patriot opposition to Robert Walpole, which reached its height during the clamour for war against Spain at the turn of the 1730s. The book examines the inter-relationship between patriotism, politics, and poetry in the period 1724-1742. It investigates the growing Patriot opposition during the Walpolian oligarchy, and asks whether a broad credo united all of Walpole's political opponents, or whether there was a distinction between Whig and Tory Patriots. The role of Frederick Prince of Wales as the campaign's cultural and political figurehead is discussed, as are the poetry and drama of such authors as James Thomson, Alexander Pope, and the young Samuel Johnson, who were all drawn to the heady idealism of the young Boy Patriots. Thomson's Rule Britannia and Johnson's London exploit the appeal to British history so central to the emotive propaganda of the Patriot campaign. Drawing on the literature, prints, architecture, and statuary of the 1730s, the book also discusses two of the decade's most powerful romantic patriotic myths — Gothic liberty, and Elizabethan greatness — and reveals that in its nationalistic emphasis upon Nordic and Celtic traditions, the figure of the ancient British Druid, and native ‘bards’, Patriot literature anticipates the ‘Gothic’ strain emerging in the poetry of Gray, Collins, and the Wartons only a few years later.
