FUGITIVE REFERENCES TO JOHNSON IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPTS

• Published in: The Age of Johnson 2009-01, Vol.19, p.47
• Main Author: Dix, Robin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Akenside, Mark (1721-1770); British & Irish literature; English literature; Historical text analysis; Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
• ISSN: 0884-5816

Adams's approbation here is particularly interesting in that Garrick, despite his refusal to be impressed by Adams's talents, did apparently allow, in conversations with Adams which Adams reports to Gilbert Cooper, that the aspiring actor "spoke sensibly" and had "a thorough Knowledge of the Stage" (letter of 28 February 1749).3 2 Johnson's Dictionary is so fundamental to his achievement, to literature generally, and indeed to the development of English nationally and as a world language, that all reference to it, and any support that the project received, becomes a matter of real interest. Attention, understandably, has focused primarily on the support that Chesterfield offered, and then failed to provide; but the outline of the project, as described in Johnson's Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language (London, 1747), seized the attention of others, who reacted with genuine enthusiasm. [...]in this case, the likelihood that the review was from Akenside's pen is perhaps greater than in others, as he had a demonstrable interest in linguistic matters: both his Museum essay "On Correctness" and his 1749 poem "The Remonstrance of Shakespeare" (Odes on Several Subjects, 2.1) concentrate on the characteristics of the English language, and compare these qualities to those of French. 3 The Lives of the English Poets has been recognized as a landmark in the developing tradition of English literature for so long now that it can be hard for us to recall that, around the time of its first publication, it caused controversy and exasperation as well as admiration. In his edition, Roger Lonsdale devotes Appendix B to summarizing and quoting early reviewers, and from this material it is clear that reservations about Johnson's ability to maintain critical distance when confronted by political views with which he strongly disagreed began by clustering round the lives of Milton and Waller.6 But as time passed, and fuller responses came to be formulated, the number of biographies in which critics found these -and other-defects inevitably grew.