attained to greater variety of employment, and the speeches were more and more enriched by the accession of Johnson's genius, it was resolved that he should do the whole himself, from the scanty notes furnished by persons employed to attend in both houses of Parliament. Sometimes, however, as he himself told me, he had nothing more communicated to him than the names of the several speakers, and the part which they had taken in the debate[1].
Thus was Johnson employed during some of the best years of his life, as a mere literary labourer 'for gain, not glory[2],' solely to obtain an honest support. He however indulged himself in occasional little sallies, which the French so happily express by the term Jeux d'esprit, and which will be noticed in their order, in the progress of this work.
'But what first displayed his transcendent powers, and 'gave the world assurance of the Man[3],' was his London, a Poem, in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal: which came out in May this year, and burst forth with a splendour, the rays of which will for ever encircle his name. Boileau had imitated the same satire with great success, applying it to Paris; but an attentive comparison will satisfy every reader, that he is much excelled by the English Juvenal. Oldham had also imitated it, and applied it to London; all which performances concur to prove, that great cities, in every age, and in every country, will furnish similar topicks of satire[4]. Whether Johnson had previously read Oldham's imitation, I do not know; but it is not a little remarkable,
- ↑ See Appendix A.
- ↑ Pope, Imitations of Horace, . i. 71.
- ↑ 'To give the world assurance of a man.' Hamlet, Act iii. sc. 4.
- ↑ In his Life of Pope Johnson says: 'This mode of imitation . . . was first practised in the reign of Charles II. by Oldham and Rochester; at least I remember no instances more ancient. It is a kind of middle composition between translation and original design, which pleases when the thoughts are unexpectedly applicable and the parallels lucky. It seems to have been Pope's favourite amusement, for he has carried it farther than any former poet.' Johnson's Works, viii. 295.
