The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [820]
a A translation of this Ode, by an unknown correspondent, appeared in the Magazine for the month of May following:
‘Hail, Urban! indefatigable man,
Unwearied yet by all thy useful toil!
Whom num’rous slanderers assault in vain;
Whom no base calumny can put to foil.
But still the laurel on thy learned brow
Flourishes fair, and shall for ever grow.
What mean the servile imitating crew,
What their vain blust’ring, and their empty noise,
Ne’er seek; but still thy noble ends pursue,
Unconquer’d by the rabble’s venal voice.
Still to the Muse thy studious mind apply,
Happy in temper as in industry.
The senseless sneerings of an haughty tongue,
Unworthy thy attention to engage,
Unheeded pass: and tho’ they mean thee wrong,
By manly silence disappoint their rage.
Assiduous diligence confounds its foes,
Resistless, tho’ malicious crouds oppose.
Exert thy powers, nor slacken in the course,
Thy spotless fame shall quash all false reports:
Exert thy powers, nor fear a rival’s force,
But thou shalt smile at all his vain efforts:
Thy labours shall be crown’d with large success;
The Muse’s aid thy Magazine shall bless.
No page more grateful to th’ harmonious nine
Than that wherein thy labours we survey;
Where solemn themes in fuller splendour shine,
(Delightful mixture,) blended with the gay,
Where in improving, various joys we find,
A welcome respite to the wearied mind.
Thus when the nymphs in some fair verdant mead,
Of various flow’rs a beauteous wreath compose,
The lovely violet’s azure-painted head
Adds lustre to the crimson-blushing rose.
Thus splendid Iris,53 with her varied dye,
Shines in the æther, and adorns the sky. BRITON.’
a How much poetry he wrote, I know not: but he informed me, that he was the authour of the beautiful little piece, The Eagle and Robin Redbreast, in the collection of poems entitled The Union, though it is there said to be written by Archibald Scott, before the year 1600.
a I own it pleased me to find amongst them one trait of the manners of the age in London, in the last century, to shield from the sneer of English ridicule, which was some time ago too common a practice in my native city of Edinburgh: –
‘If what I’ve said can’t from the town affright,
Consider other dangers of the night;
When brickbats are from upper stories thrown,
And emptied chamberpots come pouring down
From garret windows.”
a His Ode Ad Urbanum probably. Nichols.
a A poem, published in 1737, of which see an account under April 30, 1773.
b The learned Mrs. Elizabeth Carter.
a Sir John Hawkins, p. 86, tells us ‘The event is antedated, in the poem of London; but in every particular, except the difference of a year, what is there said of the departure of Thales, must be understood of Savage, and looked upon as true history.’ This conjecture is, I believe, entirely groundless. I have been assured, that Johnson said he was not so much as acquainted with Savage when he wrote his London. If the departure mentioned in it was the departure of Savage, the event was not antedated but foreseen; for London was published in May, 1738, and Savage did not set out for Wales till July, 1739. However well Johnson could defend the credibility of second sight, he did not pretend that he himself was possessed of that faculty.
b P. 269.
a Sir Joshua Reynolds, from the information of the younger Richardson.
b It is, however, remarkable, that he uses the epithet, which undoubtedly, since the union between England and Scotland, ought to denominate the natives of both parts of our island: –
a In a billet written by Mr. Pope in the following year, this school is said to have been in Shropshire; but as it appears from a letter from Earl Gower, that the trustees of it were ‘some worthy gentlemen in Johnson’s neighbourhood,’ I in my first edition suggested that Pope must have, by