Dr. Johnson An Introduction

1. Literary Criticism 2nd March 2011 10:30- 11:25 Dr. Johnson An Introduction

2. Dr. Johnson Samuel Johnson

5. Johnson a Multi-faceted Personality • Poet • Essayist • Critic • Biographer • Conversationalist • Lexicographer

6. Life of Johnson • Birth • Education • Career • Family • Death

7. Birth • Son of a bookseller • Born at Litchfield • Born on 18th September,1709 • Born to Michael Johnson and Sarah Ford • Poverty marred his childhood • As his father grew huge debt • ILL health affected his childhood

8. Education • As a child displayed great intelligence • His education began at his age of three • At four he was sent to nearby school • Age of six sent to a shoemaker • At seven attended Litchfield Grammar School • Went to Pembroke College, Oxford

9. Career 1 • Worked as a teacher at the Grammar School in Market Bosworth • Published his first essays in the Birmingham Journal • Started a school at Edial but a failure • Johnson worked with Edward Cave, the founder of The Gentleman’s Magazine • In 1747 began Dictionary Project

10. Career 2 • The Vanity of Human Wishes appeared in 1749 • It was his longest poem • Irene, his tragedy appeared in the same year • The Dictionary of The English Dictionary was finally published in 1755 • Published Essays • Wrote number of political articles • The Lives of the Poets was published in 1781

11. Family • Married Mrs.Elisabeth Porter in 1735 • She was a widow 20 years older than Johnson • Hester Thrale came close to him after his wife’s death

12. Death • On 13th December 1784 death visited him • In the form of pneumonia • Was Buried in Westminster Abbey • Before death Johnson threw letters, manuscripts and personal writings in to fire

13. Works of Johnson 1 • LONDON, 1738 • MARMOR NORFOLCIENSE, 1739 • THE COMPLEANT VINDICATION OF THE LICENSERS OF THE STAGE, 1739 • AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF MR. RICHARD SAVAGE, 1744 • THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES, 1749 • THE RAMBLER, 1750-1752 (208 nos., in 6 vols. 1752)

14. Works of Johnson 2 • THE ADVENTURER , 1752-1759 (with others, 140 nos., 2 vols. in 1753-54) • DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 1755 • THE PRINCE OF ABISSINIA / RASSELAS, 1759 • THE PLAYS OF William Shakespeare, 1765, (ed. 8 vols.) • THE FALSE ALARM, 1770 • THOUGHTS ON FALKLAND'S ISLANDS, 1771

15. Works of Johnson 3 • AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF MR. RICHARD SAVAGE, 1774 • A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND, 1775 • TAXATION NO TYRANNY, 1775 • THE LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT ENGLISH POETS, 1777-81 • PREFACES, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL, TO THE WORKS OF THE ENGLISH POETS, 1779-81 (10 vols., as The Lives of the English Poets, 1781, rev. ed. 1783, 1905, 1972, ed. by J.P. Hardy)

16. Works of Johnson 4 • PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS, 1785 • THE WORKS, 1787

17. Relax for a while

26. Back to Johnson

27. Johnson as a Critic • Did not produce any great singular work on criticism • Exerted a great influence on English criticism never before • The last of neo-classicists • Practical criticism • Literature is governed by the writer’s age and environment

28. Johnson’s Works as a Critic • A dozen papers in Rambler • Remarks on poetry in Rasselas • Preface to the Plays of Shakespeare • Lives of the Poets

29. Johnson’s Criticism 1 • Conformity to nature and reason is the basic test of literary excellence • Not for rigidity in rules • Historical estimate is an important factor in the real estimation of author • Poetry affords pleasure • Poetry imitates truth or life

30. Johnson’s Criticism 2 • Poetry is an imitation of life through particular they present universal • Imitation should be of general nature • That is, what people of most ages do • Pleases many and pleases long • Morality and truth are the two requirements of poetry

31. Johnson’s Criticism 3 • Considered epic superior to all other forms of verse • Among the unities Johnson found only the unity of action is justified by reason • Johnson was the first critic to attempt practical criticism in a systematic way.

32. To Be Continued