the Court of Hanover with Lord Halifax (Johnson's date is 1705). 1708. M.P. for Lostwithiel in Cornwall (afterwards unseated). Retires from Under-Secretaryship. 1709. In Ireland as Secretary to Lord-Lieutenant Wharton. M.P. for Cavan. Steele's first 'Tatler' (April 12th, not 22nd as in Johnson): Addison writes No. 18 and others. Returned member for Malmesbury, which he represents for the rest of his life. 1710. Fall of the Whigs. Loses his Irish Secretaryship, but retains keepership of Irish Records: starts the 'Whig Examiner' (five numbers appeared). Swift and Addison drift apart in politics and friendship. 1711. The 'Tatler' dropped (January 2). The 'Spectator' begun (March 1). Frequents Button's Coffee House with a circle of associates. Buys Estate of Bilton, Warwickshire, for £10,000. 1713. Writes for the 'Guardian.' First 1712. Friendly with Pope, Ambrose Philips, and others. issue of the 'Spectator'; ends with No. 555 (December 6). 'Cato' acted with success (April 14) prologue by Pope. 'Trial of Count Tariff' (to expose treaty of commerce with France). 1714. Death of Queen Anne. Fall of the Tories. Secretary to the Lords-Justices. The 'Spectator' revived (vol. viii., 80 numbers). Secretary to Sunderland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 1715. Resigns Irish Secretaryship. Commissioner of Trade and Plantations (i.e. Colonies). The Freeholder,' an antiJacobite paper. (December 1715 till June 1716.) 1716. The 'Drummer' (a comedy), produced at Drury Lane, March 10; ran three nights. Marries the Dowager-Countess of Warwick (August 3). 1717. Secretary of State in Sunderland's Ministry. His daughter Charlotte born. Grant of £3000 secret-service money. 1718. Resigns Secretaryship (March 14) owing to failing health. Pension of £1600 (not £1500 as in Johnson). Treatise 'Of the Christian Religion.' 1719. The Old Whig' (March-April). Quarrels with Steele regarding the Peerage Bill. Dies June 17, aged forty-seven. Buried in Westminster Abbey. SELECTED BOOKS OF REFERENCE. Johnson. Works of Samuel Johnson, with his Life. Sir J. Hawkins. 15 vols. 1787-89. Works of Samuel Johnson, with Essay on his Life and Genius. A. Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. folio. 1755. 1887. Lives of the English Poets, with notes by P. Cunningham. 3 vols. 1854. Lives of the Poets With notes by Mrs Napier, introduction by Prof. Halem. 3 vols. 1890. With notes and introduction by A. Waugh. 6 vols. 1896. Letters of Samuel Johnson. Collected and edited by G. B. Hill. 2 vols. (Clarendon Press.) Johnson and his Times. Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson— First ed. 2 vols. 1791. Ed. J. W. Croker (including Mrs Piozzi's anecdotes, &c.) 5 vols. 1831. Ed. G. B. Hill. 6 vols. (Clarendon Press.) 1887. Review of edition of Boswell by Macaulay. (Critical Essays.) Essay on Johnson by Macaulay (originally contributed to 'Encyclopædia Britannica'). The Hero as Man of Letters in 'Heroes and Hero Worship.' By Carlyle. 1840. series.) Johnson. By Leslie Stephen. ("English Men of Letters" Johnson. By Col. F. Grant. With Bibliography. ("Great Writers" series.) Dr Johnson, his Friends and his Critics. By G. B. Hill. 1878. Dr Johnson and the Fair Sex: A Study of Contrasts. By N. H. Craig. 1895. James Boswell. By W. Keith Leask. ("Famous Scots" series.) 1896. Footsteps of Dr Johnson in Scotland. By G. B. Hill. (Illustrated.) 1890. A History of Eighteenth-Century Literature. By E. Gosse. 1891. Literature of the Georgian Era. By Prof. W. Minto. 1894. (Use ful for Pope's influence.) The Age of Johnson. By T. Seccombe. (Bell's "Handbooks of English Literature.") A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century. By H. A. Beers. 1899. Prose Works. Ed. J. A. St John. 5 vols. (Bell.) Life of John Milton. By Prof. Masson. 6 vols. 1859-80. Ed. Tickell. 4to. 1721. 6 vols. With notes by Hurd. 1811. 6 vols. (Based on Hurd's edition.) (Bell.) 1856. English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century. By W. M. Thack eray. 1858. Essay on Addison. By Macaulay. Addison. By W. J. Courthope. ("English Men of Letters" series.) ARGUMENT OF THE 'MILTON.' Biographical Portion. -Milton's ancestry, 3. Early tuition, 4. At Cambridge-his excellent Latin elegies, 5. Unpleasantness in college life, 6. Prejudiced against the university, 7. Objects to enter the Church, 8. At Horton-'Comus '-Lycidas, 9. Foreign travels-Paris-Italy-ambition to leave "something they should not willingly let die," 10. Italian honours, II. Differences between King and Parliament interrupt his travels-visits Galileo—at Geneva, 12. Returns to England-instructs boys, 13. Milton as educationist-attempts to broad:n education, 14. Johnson's attitude to science and literature, 15. Religious controversies, 16. Milton's recognition of his own powers-ever-present desire of noble achievement-belief in inspiration and study as essential for poets, 17. Rough humour, 18. Marriage-effect of a "philosophic" month on the Royalist bride, 19. Treatises on divorce, 20. 'Areopagitica,' 21. Latin and English poems published-Milton's nephew will not have him a mere "pedagogue," 22. Johnson pokes fun at the nephew—‘Tenure of Kings,' 23. 'Iconoclastes,' 24. Milton and Salmasius, 25, 26. Johnson thinks Cromwell's protectorate usurpation and Milton's secretaryship "slavery," 27. Blindness-second marriage, 28. Milton's 'Defensio Secunda' attacks the wrong man-praise of Cromwell, 29, 30. Resumes work on epic, history, Latin dictionary, 31. First sketch of 'Paradise Lost' as a drama, 32, 33. Second sketch, 34, 35. Milton's poetic equip ment, 36. End of secretaryship, 37. 'Act of Oblivion,' 38. Was Milton in danger? 39. Third marriage, 40. Milton under the Restoration devotes himself to literature, 41. Milton favours the Italian, Johnson the English, pronunciation of Latin, 42. Personal appearance, 43. How 'Paradise Lost' was composed, 44. Johnson disbelieves in the influence of weather on the mind, 45, 46. "Frosty grovellers”—the poetic œstrum, 47. Blank verse, 48. Personal notes in poetry-Elwood's suggestion leads to 'Paradise Regained,' 49. 'Paradise Lost' licensed, 50. Why not immediately popular, 51, 52. Milton's studies- two daughters, demned to the performance of reading," 53. 'History of England,'— cannot please "-'Paradise Lost' and 'Samson Agonistes' printed, 54. Milton would not have 'Paradise Lost' preferred to 'Paradise Regained,' 55. Logic-fresh polemics, 56. Death, 57. "The con lady of his college "-habits, 58. Fortune, 59. Learning, 60. Theology, 61. Politics, 62. The Milton family, 63, 64. Critical Portion.—Juvenile poems in Italian, Latin, and English, 65. Lycidas,' "diction harsh, rhymes uncertain, numbers unpleasing," 66. "No nature, no art," 67. "Sacred truths" mingled with "trifling fictions" in Lycidas'-'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso,' every man reads with pleasure, 68. Contrast of mood in the two poems, 69. 'Comus,' greatest of the juvenile poems, shows the dawn of 'Paradise Lost,' 70. Action of 'Comus' improbable, 71. Sarcastic account of the drama-songs in 'Comus' -'Sonnets'-the best are not bad," 72. 66 Criticism on 'Paradise Lost,' 73-90. Epic genius the highest— Johnson's definition of poetry—various elements of epic drawn from history, drama, ethics, psychology, nature-Bossu's opinion that poetry needs a moral-epic with a purpose-Milton's subject, "the fate of worlds," 74. Elevated persons to fit elevated subjectcharacters, 75. Angels heavenly and fallen-skill in delineating Satan-human agents, 76. Probable and marvellous identical in 'Paradise Lost'-the poem perpetually interesting-machinery, 77. The two episodes are justifiable--completeness of design-is the action a unity?—who is the hero? 78. Sentiments and diction, 79. Imagination—sublimity-Milton's peculiar power to astonish, 80. But Milton "must sometimes revisit earth”—“nature through the spectacles of books"-similes, 81. Moral sentiments-the two human beings, 82. Little opportunity for the pathetic-defects and faults of 'Paradise Lost,' 83. Verbal inaccuracies-the situations awake little curiosity, 84. "The good and evil of eternity too ponderous for the wings of wit "-Milton's marvellous power of expansion, 85. A book of universal knowledge-want of human interest-describing the indescribable, 86. Confusion of spirit and matter-allegorical persons, 87. Allegory of sin and death faulty, 88. Inconsistencies in narrative-"flats," 89. 'Paradise Regained,' "a dialogue without action," has been too much depreciated—‘Samson Agonistes' has been too much admired -why Milton chose Greek tragedy as a model, 90. Milton no dramatist-style formed by "a perverse and pedantic principle," 91. Versification, 92. Blank verse easier than rhyme, 93. Milton "to be admired rather than imitated"-his position as an epic poetof all borrowers from Homer, Milton is least indebted-"his work is not the greatest of heroic poems only because it is not the first," 94. |