English Biography in the Eighteenth Century [Reprint 2016 ed.] 9781512803709

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ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

London : Humphrey Milford : Oxford University Press

ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY IN THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY

By MARK LONGAKER University of Pennsylvania

Ä

if

UNIVERSITY

OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A

PHILADELPHIA

: 1931

PRESS

COPYRIGHT 1931

UNIVERSITY

OF PENNSYLVANIA

Printed in the United States of America by Lancaster Press, Inc., Lancaster, Pa.

PRESS

To F. C. L. E. E. L. and

L. D. L.

PREFACE

I O G R A P H Y has become one of our most popular literary forms. Its vogue rivals that of the novel. Even Babbitt likes nothing better than a good biography. Its appeal apparently is universal. Those who read little else, read biography; and those who read novels, essays, and poetry have come to recognize biography as a literary form that demands attention.

B

Growing out of this interest in Life-writing as an art, a much-needed critical literature has begun to flourish which has provided in part that information necessary to an intelligent appraisal of the form. It is to provide additional information and to establish more firmly critical standards for the appreciation of biography that this study is presented. Its specific aim is to survey, historically and critically, the growth and maturity of English biography in the eighteenth century. It was in the century following the Restoration that the modern conception of biography had its first true exponents, and it was in this period that some of the finest illustrations of English Life-writing appeared. This study is offered in the hope that it will provide the reader with a clear notion of the forces out of which modern biography grew, and that it will supply a more thorough account of materials which have been passed over with necessary cursoriness by historians of the form who have undertaken to survey the entire field of English Lives. The scope of this work is intended to include Lives written by Englishmen during the eighteenth century. The nature of the subject-matter of the Life is not considered of primary importance; it is rather the varying degrees of skill in the authors' treatment of their subjects and the historical significance of the methods employed that receive particular emphavii

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sis. Thus Johnson's Life of Richard Savage receives more space than his account of Milton; and Defoe's pamphlet Lives of Jack Sheppard are of more value in such a survey than Mallet's Life of Bacon. Eighteenth century autobiography is sufficiently rich to warrant a treatment more exhaustive than the scope of this work permits, and the few scattered illustrations of American biography before 1800 are not considered. The manner of treatment is chronological only insofar as the nature of the subject allows. A strict time sequence in surveying the various kinds of Lives that were written in the eighteenth century cannot well be preserved if the reader is to have a clear account of the development of the different aspects of biography. Whenever possible, Lives have been associated with types, and within the type, a chronological order is generally preserved. Separate chapters are devoted to Roger North, William Mason, Samuel Johnson, and James Boswell for the obvious reason that their works defy strict identification with the types named'and considered. In the classification and description of materials, I employ terms which have often been used with considerable elasticity of connotation, but which take on a distinct—if not an individual—meaning in my use of them. I feel justified, however, in making my own definitions, not only for the sake of clarity, but also in order to help to bring the terminology of Lifewriting to a much-needed definiteness. The bibliographies, which I consider one of the most valuable features of the study, are placed at the end of each chapter. This method permits a certain amount of overlapping, but it has the virtue of identifying the various Lives with particular aspects of the development of the form. These bibliographies indicate to what extent this survey is dependent on books about books, and on my own investigations in provinces hitherto uncharted. My obligations to those who have done faithful pioneer work in the field have been many, and they have been acknowledged in the notes of the text.

ix

PREFACE

There are special obligations which gratitude causes me to mention. Miss Lillian Guthrie, of the University Library, was prompt and patient in her efforts to provide me with books that are generally labeled unavailable. It is not a conventional bow that I make to a co-worker in the field of Life-writing, Dr. Donald Stauffer of Princeton University, when I name him as one who has helped me to view the development of English biography in clear historical perspective. His English Biography Be/ore 1700 will remain a definitive reference work. To the late Geoffrey Scott, the able editor of the Boswell Manuscripts in the Malahide Collection, I am particularly indebted for much of the material on which I based my conclusions in Chapter IX. Frederick Pottle's Boswell studies have also been of considerable service. Professor C. G. Child read the first draft of the manuscript, and offered stimulating suggestions for the revision. Mr. Edward O'Neill's wide knowledge of the field and lively interest in my work were constant sources of help and encouragement. His reading of this work in manuscript was only a part of his demonstration of interest in my efforts. To Professor F. E. Schelling, whose life and works have inspired scores of men eminent in scholarship, I owe more than a phrase can express. He has been ' philosopher, guide, and friend.' M. L. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA,

April 8, 1931.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

vii

I. INTRODUCTORY: EIGHTEENTH

LIFE-WRITING CENTURY

BEFORE

THE 1

II. THE INFLUENCES WHICH MADE POSSIBLE MODERN CONCEPTION OF BIOGRAPHY

THE

III. THE GROWTH OF REALISM IN THE PAMPHLETLIVES, THE COLLECTED CHRONICLES OF CRIME, THE INTIMATE MEMOIRS, AND THE ROGUELIVES

62

94

IV. THE "PRIVATE LIFE" ELEMENT IN THE LIVES OF THE NORTHS 165 V. THE ADVANCE OF SCHOLARLY

METHODS

188

VI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF BIOGRAPHICAL LEXICOGRAPHY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 237 VII. THE METHODS OF WILLIAM MASON IN THE MEMMOIRS OF GRAY AND THE MEMOIRS OF WHITEHEAD 293 VIII. JOHNSON'S IX. BOSWELL'S

LIVES OF THE POETS

314

LIFE OF JOHNSON

407

X. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, MEMOIRS, AND COLLECTIONS OF ANECDOTES 477 INDEX

513

I

INTRODUCTORY: LIFE-WRITING BEFORE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IOGRAPHY as a distinct and recognized literary genre did not find complete illustration in England until the eighteenth century. In spite of the fact that George Cavendish's Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey (written c. 1556) has been called " the first true biography written in England," 1 there are valid objections to such a conclusion. Izaak Walton (1593-1683) has frequently been called the first professional biographer, but his five Lives by no means illustrate the complete realization of the art of Life-writing. That Dryden used the term biography as early as 1683 2 with a certain understanding of its true significance did not make his Life of Plutarch a true biography, nor did his partial recognition of the boundaries of the form have a pronounced effect on those of his contemporaries who wrote Lives.3 Carlyle called the works of the early recorders of personality vacuum biographies, a term which, in spite of its severity, tells almost the whole story. In fact, the Elizabethan and seventeenth century Lives were not biographies at all. Edmund Gosse wrote to the point when he observed that " the true conception of biography as the faithful portrait of a soul in its adventures

B

Cf. edition of 190S, Introductory Note. The term was used before Dryden employed it. Around 1660 it came into fairly frequent use. Bishop Gauden, in his Life of Richard Hooker, used the term in 1662; the same year, Thomas Fuller spoke of ' biographists' in his Worthies of England; and the following year, the author of the FlageUum: or the Life and Death of 0. Cromwell used the word. Cf. Stauffer's Biography Before 1700, Harvard Press, 1930, p. 218. 3 Dryden's translation of the Life of St. Francis Xavier of the Jesuit Bouhours and his Life of Lucian are even more remote in their approach to the form. 1 2

1

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2

BIOGRAPHY

through life is very modern. We may question whether it existed, save in rare and accidental instances, until the seventeenth century." 4 The Renaissance brought with it, among other things, the seed out of which modern biography in time sprang; but the age of Elizabeth was an age of pioneering and innovation, and the seventeenth century was a time of experiment and growth. Fulfillment and maturity came in the eighteenth century. That the commemorative instinct was alive and active during the early epochs in British literature can readily be demonstrated, but this instinct was rarely guided by motives which produce true biography. A life-size portrait in which a full record of personality appeared was no objective to be reached; to Elizabethan and Stuart writers, a man whose name was worthy of commemoration should after his death appear, if he appeared at all, as a symbol of greatness and as an example of virtue. Fulke Greville wrote his Life of Sidney " to the end that in the tribute I owe him, our Nation may see a Sea-mark, rais'd upon their own native coast, above the level of any private Pharos abroad." When Izaak Walton wrote his Lives, he believed his work to be " an honour due to the virtuous dead, and a lesson in magnanimity to those who shall succeed them." With such motives controlling the commemorative instinct, it is small wonder that biography as a distinct literary form remained generally unrecognized during the pre-eighteenth century period, and that Theophrastian ethics, hagiography, and history were the provinces in which it had an unnamed and undernourished existence. The various impulses and forms of expression which belonged to the general province of Life-writing in the manifestations of its early development have been traced elsewhere,5 but in order to view the rise of the form in the eightIn the article " Biography," Encyclopedia Briiannica. See Waldo Dunn's English Biography, New York, 1916; James Johnston's Biography: the Literature of Personality, New York, 1927; Harold Nicolson's brief treatment entitled The Development of English Biography, New York, 1928; and especially Donald Staufler's English Biography Before 1700, Harvard University Press, 1930. 4

5

INTRODUCTORY eenth century in true perspective, it is necessary to glance briefly at the trend Life-writing had taken in the centuries immediately preceding the period which witnessed and illustrated the recognition of the form as a distinct genre. The affiliations that Life-writing has had with other literary forms in its development have not been few, nor is it always possible to label the merging of biography and other literary forms with a sufficiently suggestive phrase. Only by a discriminating analysis of motives, methods, and results can a classification of Elizabethan and seventeenth century Lives be attempted, and even then the arbitrary result proves too inflexible for general use. However, for the purpose of this survey, three forms may be named which stand out most conspicuously in the pre-eighteenth century period, forms not separate and distinct, but constantly interwoven—the panegyric, the mirror of virtue, and the brief and impersonal record of biographical facts. The panegyric was the most common form that Life-writing took in Elizabethan England. In fact, it had its exponents until the end of the seventeenth century, and mild illustrations of its use appear today. Of all the various forms that result when the commemorative impulse is not well controlled, the panegyric is the most natural. Hero-worship has little respect for dispassionate judgment, and warmth of sympathy and loyalty—both excellent virtues in the biographer—make truth a difficult path to follow. T o be dispassionate in judging personality is a cultivated, not a natural instinct; and to be sympathetic and loyal, and at the same time a searching portrayer of truth, is a result that can be achieved only by those who have learned to recognize the virtue of impartiality. Among Tudor authors, panegyric was the natural result of the purpose which controlled their efforts and of the circumstances under which most Lives were written. The possible demands of posterity to know the whole truth about the great and saintly men whose lives became subjects for commemoration were not considered; to give information in a thorough way, and to temper it with sympathetic interpretation, seemed scarcely a

4

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BIOGRAPHY

fruitful occupation. It was to exalt the achievements of the great, and of those who had followed to an heroic degree the virtues of faith, hope, charity, and especially fortitude, that most of the pre-seventeenth century Lives were written. In some instances, a Life was undertaken in order to rescue a friend from calumny—to protect his character from " the innumerable lies " 6 that were broadcast by enemies. There were exceptional instances in which the author had that which was essentially a biographical aim, but over-loyalty to the memory of the man, and the general circumstances under which the record was written, made the fulfillment of that aim impossible. In aim, method, and result, Elizabethan and Stuart Lives were with few exceptions panegyrical. The panegyrical treatment of character frequently had as its natural hand-maiden ethical instruction. A Life was to be a mirror of virtue. The moral earnestness of the times was responsible to a large extent for this prevailing motive. It was in the hope that the readers would be inspired by the examples set forth to lead more righteous lives that many of these works were undertaken. Unless some direct lesson were taught, or some clear example of virtue provided, the effort lacked sufficient motive. A faithful record of a man's life in which moral lessons might be drawn by the reader himself was not enough. In some instances, a Life was written as a warning—an impressive tale of what not to do. That true biography has often taught lessons and provided examples of noble and righteous lives is an observation that needs no proof, but true biography is not a vehicle primarily for ethical instruction. Any lesson that it teaches and any example of virtue that it provides are incidental to its chief aim. The Elizabethan and Stuart writers, however, with no true biographical objective in view, found the Life a ready vehicle for ethical instruction. There were instances in which the panegyric and the mirror of virtue were neither the aim nor the result. The accounts of Tudor and Stuart men of note that are relatively free from 6

Cavendish's P r e f a c e to The Lije and Death

oj Cardinal

Wolsey.

INTRODUCTORY

5

eulogy and moralizing are to be found chiefly in the annals and compilations of biographical facts that the historians and antiquaries produced. These accounts, most of which are too brief to be called sketches, were the result of the historical and antiquarian impulse. Personality meant little to these recorders. It was to provide a series of facts about the men who were responsible for the political, religious, and literary growth of England that most of the chronicles and compilations were produced. The fragmentary nature of the accounts, and the impersonal attitude of the authors toward their subjects, eliminated in large part the inclination to eulogize and teach; but the historical impulse out of which they grew left detailed and sympathetic interpretation of personality beyond the scope of their work. The persistence of panegyric, the mirror of virtue, and the fragmentary list of biographical facts is difficult to understand when man's natural curiosity concerning the true story of human nature is taken into consideration. In 1605, Bacon in the Advancement of Learning lamented the scarcity of Lives that existed in English, and complained that those who had written Lives had done little to satisfy the questioning mind of the reader.7 Man's inquisitiveness concerning the intimate details in the lives of his fellowmen must have been at a low ebb if the records that the age produced were even fairly satisfying. A failure to recognize the significance of the small details in a man's private life, and a sense of propriety that often eliminated the possibility of utilizing the intimate details that the author knew, were undoubtedly responsible for the poverty of sixteenth and seventeenth century Life-records. The increasing prevalence of classical and continental models evidently did not suggest methods to Elizabethan and Stuart writers. Many of those who undertook to write a Life were familiar with the matter and methods of the ancients, but curiously enough, in almost all instances they failed to recognize any features in the Life-writing of the Greeks and Romans which distinguished their works from the provinces 7

Ed. 182S, pp. 132-133. 2

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of panegyric and history. As early as 1579 there was an excellent model for biography in the form of Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives. Even before this time, Plutarch had been widely read among those of scholarly and literary inclinations, if not in the Greek, in the French of Jacques Amyot. The Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius, an excellent example of the unidealized treatment of character, was translated by Philemon Holland in 1606, and it is not unreasonable to assume that it was known in the original Latin by many during Elizabeth's reign. The Life and Character of Agricola by Tacitus was widely known. Savile's translation of the Agricola went through six editions between 1591 and 1640, and Greneway's translation was distributed in 1603. Differing as they do in materials and methods, the works of Plutarch, Suetonius, and Tacitus are all examples of forms of true biography, specimens which have rarely, if ever, been surpassed. But to the Elizabethans, these works illustrated no distinct form and suggested no methods by which they might proceed in writing Lives. The unknown author of The History of that most Eminent Statesman, Sir John Perrot, Knight of the Bath, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (written c. 1600) was an interesting exception. He recognized and applied in part the principles of Plutarch. " Why the Historians of our later Times, especially those of our Englishe Nation, have not taken the lyke Paynes, or used the lyke Diligence, in publishing the general Accidents of theyr Countrie, and the particular prase-worthy Actions of theyr Countriemen " as the ancients, he could not understand. " For I am persuaded," he complained, " that even our latter Times have afforded Men of as great Magnanimitie, Corage, Wisdom and Experience, as ever the former florishing Ages of the World have afforded." 8 The preface to the account begins with a quotation from Plutarch's Life of Alexander, and in the course of the narrative, there are several allusions to the Parallel Lives. The account is by no 8

The History

p. 2.

of that

most Eminent

Statesman,

Sir John

Perrot,

. . . 1728,

INTRODUCTORY

7

means a stellar performance, but it is interesting to observe that the author recognized the wide difference between the Lives written by Plutarch and those by contemporary Englishmen. He saw what others failed to see, but owing to the fact that his manuscript lay unpublished until 1728, his work had little effect on the seventeenth century trend of Life-writing. There were also continental examples of biography that illustrated detailed and unidealized delineation of character that were available to late sixteenth century and Stuart writers. Vasari's Lives and the Autobiography were published in Italy for the second time in 1568; Jerome Cardan's De Vita Propria Liber and Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography, both interesting examples of the delineation of personality, were written before the close of the century. In spite of the fact that Vasari's Lives were not translated into English until 1719—and then only in part—it is exceptional that the Elizabethan age, which proved itself so deeply interested in Italian literary forms and culture, should be entirely ignorant of the virtues of Vasari's methods. But the age which saw an English version of even Castiglione's II Cortiere 9 evidently overlooked or failed to apply the methods for character portrayal that Renaissance Italy provided. The failure of pre-eighteenth century authors to see the differentia which existed between the works of Plutarch, Suetonius, and Tacitus, and the Renaissance Italian biographers, and their own efforts in the field of Life-writing, can be explained only by viewing the prevailing tendencies that existed in the portrayal of character. In Tudor England, the portrayal of character was definitely romantic. Save for a few of the dramatists, authors in their treatment of both real and fictional characters belonged essentially to the unrealistic school that had its foundation on the romances of chivalry, exempla, and saint-stories. That tendency, which is usually termed realism, found few exponents in an age of Cuddie and Thenot, Sir Guyon and Britomarte, Endymion and Philaster. The inclination to romanticize fictional characters had its 9

Sir Thomas Hoby's.

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BIOGRAPHY

effect on those who dealt with actual figures. With such a tendency shaping the literary mood of the age, it may be concluded that those influences which came with the Renaissance that tended toward realism in character portrayal were not strong enough to take root in a soil that was well employed in producing other things. In order to survey the state of Life-writing in the pre-eighteenth century period, the reader must examine three provinces. The first field that demands investigation is that of the detailed accounts of particular men which were generally entitled Lives. William Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More (1626), George Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey (1641), Fulke Greville's Life of Sir Philip Sidney (1652), 10 Thomas Sprat's Life of Abraham Cowley (1668), John Dryden's Life of Plutarch (1683), and Izaak Walton's Lives (1640-1678) provide a sufficiently representative group from this class. The second field that should be examined is that of History. Here, it is true, Life-writing was only an incidental aspect of the work, but there is much in the histories of the period that is of interest and significance to the student of biography. Francis Bacon's Historie of the Raigne of Henry VII (1622), Francis Godwin's Historie of the Reignes of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Mary (1630), and Clarendon's History of the Rebellion (1702) 11 illustrate the incidental treatment of character in the field of history. The third province is composed of those compilations of facts about eminent Englishmen. In this class there is little that belongs to the province of true biography, chiefly owing to the fact that the accounts are too brief to be warrantably called sketches; but in them the authors, in their attempt to provide information, were at times directed by a biographical impulse in miniature. The compilations of Leland, Bale, and Pits; Fuller's Worthies of England (1662), Winstanley's Honour of Parnassus (1687), Edward Phillips' Theatrum Poetarum (1674), Au10 The dates are those of publication. Roper's More Cavendish's Wolsey c. 1556; Greville's Sidney c. 1610. 11 Finished c. 1671.

w a s written c. 1SS7;

INTRODUCTORY

9

brey's Briej Lives (written from 1669 to 1696), and Anthony a Wood's Athenae Oxonienses (1691) are representative of the class. Of the three fields, the first, namely that of the full-length Life, is the one which demands chief attention. One of the most illustrative examples of this class is the work of William Roper, the son-in-law of Sir Thomas More. His Life of Sir Thomas More did not appear in print until 1626,12 and then in Paris, but it is recorded by a comparatively recent editor 13 that it was composed about the close of Queen Mary's reign, and was finished at the time of the publication of More's works in 1557 " at the Queen's instance." It is obvious to students of the history of the period why Roper's account did not appear during the life-time of Elizabeth, and why, when it was issued from the press, it was brought out at least presumably in France.14 William Roper was fairly well equipped to write a biography of Sir Thomas More. In the scanty records concerning his life, there is nothing to indicate that he had talents above those of others of his class, although the evidence that he married into the family of the Lord Chancellor and wrote with a certain amount of fluency proves that he was a man of considerable erudition. It is probable that he was familiar with the choicer works of the ancients, although it would be reckless to assume that he knew intimately the Lives of Plutarch, Suetonius, and Tacitus. His chief equipment for a Life of More came as the result of his marriage to More's eldest daughter, Margaret, whom he called affectionately Megge. For sixteen years he lived under Sir Thomas More's roof. In him the Lord Chancellor confided much, to him he wrote many letters, and it 12

Possibly in 1616, although the supposition for this date is founded on an ambiguous record in the Introduction to More's Life of Sir Thomas More which appeared in 1626. 13 S. W. Singer, The Life of Sir Thomas More by William Roper, Chiswick, 1817. 14 That the work was first published in France should not be too readily accepted. It is possible that an English publisher, in order to protect himself in case the work was not kindly received, tried to conceal the place of publication.

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was with him and his daughter Margaret that More talked freely in the days before his execution. Few biographers have been more adequately equipped with facts and anecdotes. Sixteen years were ample time to make observations and draw significant conclusions. When he had finished his Life, he observed in the Preface that of Sir Thomas More he knew " his dooings and minde noe man livinge so well." It was not only pride that prompted this; it was self-justification as well. In spite of the sustained nature of Roper's interest in the movements and personality of his father-in-law, his observations were not of the kind that had behind them a biographical aim. During the sixteen years in which he lived under More's roof, it is unlikely that he was assiduous in his study of the Lord Chancellor as a man. The intimacy between him and More was not considered in a sense of biographical utility. To Roper, More was a father-in-law to respect and even to revere, not a man to study deliberately. It was not until after More's death that the thought of writing a Life came to him, and then it came not out of a purely commemorative impulse, but out of a sense of loyalty to the one who, after his execution, had few advocates. When the Life appeared, it bore as its title, The Mirrour of Vertue in Worldly Greatness, or the Life of Syr Thomas More, Knight, Sometime Lo. Chancellour of England. The title is so rich in suggestion that it tells almost the whole story about the method that the author followed in his delineation of personality. Roper, in spite of all the observations and conclusions drawn during the sixteen years in which he had been intimate with More, did not write a satisfying Life. The brief sketch of More in the Dictionary of National Biography contains more substantial and detailed information, and some of the letters of Erasmus throw more light on the personality of the man than all of Roper's eulogistic anecdotes. The Life is a fervent panegyric in which the character is surrounded by an aura of apotheosis from which he never emerges to become life-like and clear. The narrative becomes truly

INTRODUCTORY

11

a mirror of virtue. In it, More is endowed with a superlative degree of generosity, fortitude, and nobility of heart and mind. The faults that Sir Thomas More probably had and that Roper had ample opportunity to observe were, with the author's loyalty to his subject, easily forgotten or concealed. Others—contemporaries and friends of the Lord Chancellor —detected with no malice some blemishes in his character. Ascham observed that he was much given to affectation; Archbishop Cranmer found him too desirous of esteem; and Erasmus, an admirer and frequent correspondent, observed that he was too fond of jest, especially in matters of grave consequence.15 His enemies, who were not few, found even greater flaws in his character, and in spite of the venom with which some of these reports were issued, a few of them in all probability had in them a grain or two of truth. The purpose of biography is by no means to record the weaknesses in the personality selected for delineation—much less to calumniate. Satire and invective are a more distant relation of biography than is panegyric. A true record of personality, however, takes into account the struggle that a man has with himself and with the world in which he has his being; and it exaggerates neither his strength nor his weakness in this struggle into which all are thrown. To recognize weakness and be understanding and forgiving are part of the biographer's art, but to conceal blemishes in the portrayal of character is an inclination that lies outside the province of the art. The sentiment of the French proverb, ' Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner ' frequently is applied in biography; but to pardon without understanding and to conceal willfully the weaknesses of man are inclinations that are foreign to the trust of the biographer. With no deliberate attempt to deceive, William Roper rejected any inclination which he might have had to tell all he knew of his father-in-law. The reasons for his scanty and idealized treatment of the character can be found in the pre1 5 See the Appendix to Singer's edition of The Life of Sir Thomas More by William Roper, 1817.

12

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vailing tendencies of the age to romanticize character and in the circumstances that were in large part responsible for his attempt to write a Life. The reports that were circulated about More during his imprisonment and after his execution were of such a nature that Roper, out of loyalty to his fatherin-law, became his advocate. It was to exonerate and defend More from calumny that the author began and finished his Life. With devotion Roper went about his work of rescue, not pausing to consider the possible demands of posterity for a full and penetrating account. All the letters that More had written to him and Margaret, and some of those which had been written to Thomas Cromwell and Erasmus, Roper had to employ as he saw fit.10 Their biographical utility, however, was likely unrecognized, and had private correspondence been considered a method for bringing a character more clearly to life, it is doubtful whether Roper would have employed the letters. A sense of propriety, and the irrelevance of their content to the objective he sought to reach would have been enough to cause him to reject the thought of their use. With a care bred of reverence, he preserved them without considering the light that they might shed on the personality of More to succeeding generations. The Life of Sir Thomas More has virtues that can easily be recognized, but in aim and result it was not biography. Under the circumstances in which it was produced, Roper's objective was both natural and admirable; and as an expression of loyalty and devotion, the Life is to be commended. A good biography would have proved more satisfying to the age and to posterity, but to Roper and others of his time, a Life meant a panegyric. The aim and the result of his account were a distant relation—if a relation at all—of the true biographical impulse that found frequent expression in the eighteenth century. There were other Lives of Sir Thomas More in the preeighteenth century stage of Life-writing, chief among which 1 0 In 1716, John Lewis collected some of the More Correspondence and placed it in the Appendix of his edition of Roper's Life. Cf. p. 196 infra.

INTRODUCTORY

13

were Stapleton's (1558), Harpsfield's (written c. 1580), More's (1626), and Hoddesdon's (1662). 17 Stapleton's account, which appeared under the title Tres Thomae,18 provided some details of More's literary work, a phase of his subject that Roper had overlooked; but the company into which Stapleton put More is sufficient evidence of the hagiological flavor of the account. More's Life is an obvious amplification of Roper's account, but it cannot be called an improvement on the earlier work.19 Of them all, however, Roper's work stands out as the most readable and as the most earnest in its devotion to the Lord Chancellor. William Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More is not completely illustrative of the tendencies in Elizabethan Life-writing. It is by no means the engaging and well-written narrative that George Cavendish produced in his Life of Cardinal Wolsey. As with Roper's More, the Life of Wolsey remained long in manuscript, for some of its passages were not flattering to the Tudors, and as a result, it could not be brought out safely during the life-time of Elizabeth. It was written about 1556, but it was not until 1641 that an anonymous editor, in order to turn its moral against Archbishop Laud, 20 took the account of Cavendish, and after making some changes to fit his purpose, presented the work for the first time to the press. It was not until 1815 that the original manuscript was carefully edited and brought out by S. W. Singer. The edition of 1905, closely following the edition of the Kelmscott Press in 1893, is, save for the alterations in spellings and archaisms, a faithful reproduction of the original manuscript. George Cavendish (1500-1561) was possessed of essentially the same kind of equipment for writing a Life as Roper. It was in 1526 that he became an attendant at the suite of Cardinal Wolsey, and for four years he remained constant in his 17

There is a record of another, written by Justice Rastell, son of Sir Thomas More's sister Elizabeth. This Life evidently existed only in MS. 18 Thomas the Apostle, Thomas & Becket, and Sir Thomas More. 19 It is interesting to note that More's Life was undertaken at a time when it was doubtful whether Roper's MS. would ever be published. 20 Cf. Singer's Introduction to the Life, 1815.

14

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service. It was during these four years that Wolsey reached the pinnacle of his power, and fell. Crowded years they were, and Cavendish, impressionable by reason of his youth and the suddenness of the transition from his quiet family life in rural England to his life in the colorful pageant of Tudor London, was by no means unaware of the opportunities of his role. Cognizant to a large extent that those with whom he came into daily contact were making history, he missed little that was trivial or significant in his observations. There are passages in his work that indicate that his interest in the movements and personality of Wolsey was of the kind which had in it some biographical intent. His interest in Wolsey was not the deliberate and aggressive interest that Boswell had in Johnson, but Cavendish was thoroughly appreciative of the role that his master was playing, and permitted little that occurred to go without reflection. " Cavendish seems deeply to have meditated the dramatic spectacle which his master's life presented," writes a recent editor, 21 " and to have taken to heart its lesson." During the thirty-one years that were left to him after Wolsey's death, he spent much time in recalling the stirring events that he had witnessed when he was at the center of an historical crisis. In that interval, as reports and stories concerning Wolsey came to his ears, he became conscious of his ability to reveal the Cardinal in his true colors. The " innumerable lies " that were broadcast by Wolsey's enemies after his death were in large part responsible for Cavendish's resolve to commit to writing that which he had observed and concluded during the four years of his attendance. With a sense for the dramatic and the pictorial, and sensible to the virtues of truth and candor, he, with his first-hand information concerning Wolsey, was well equipped to provide for posterity a readable and accurate account. The occasion that directed the writing of the Life, and the purpose which controlled the account, Cavendish explained in the Prologue: 21

Preface, edition 1905.

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15

Meseems it were no wisdom to credit every light tale, blasted abroad by the blasphemous mouth of the rude commonalty. For we daily hear how, with their blasphemous trump, they spread abroad innumerable lies, without either shame or honesty, which prima facie showeth forth a visage of truth, as though it were a perfect verity and matter indeed, whereas there is nothing more untrue. And amongst the wise sort so it is esteemed, with whom those babblings be of small force and effect. Forsooth I have read the exclamations of divers worthy and notable authors, made against such false rumours and fond opinions of the fantastical commonalty, who delighteth in nothing more than to hear strange things, and see new alterations of authorities; rejoicing sometimes in such new fantasies, which afterwards give them more occasion of repentance than joyfulness. Thus may all men of wisdom and discretion understand the temerous madness of the rude commonalty, and not give to them too hasty credit of every sudden rumour, until the truth be perfectly known by the report of some approved and credible person, that ought to have thereof true intelligence. I have heard and also seen set forth in divers printed books some untrue imaginations after the death of divers persons which in their life were of great estimation, that were invented rather to bring their honest names into infamy and perpetual slander of the common multitude, than otherwise. T h e occasion therefore that maketh me to rehearse all these things is this; forasmuch as I intend, God willing, to write here some part of the proceedings of Legate and Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and of his ascending and decending from honorous estate; whereof some part shall be of mine own knowledge, and some of other persons' information. Forsooth this cardinal was my lord and master, whom in his life I served, and so remained with him after his fall continually during the term of all his trouble until he died; as well in the south as in the north parts, and noted all his demeanour and usage in all that time; as also in his wealthy triumph and glorious estate. And since his death I have heard divers and sundry surmises and imagined tales, made of his proceedings and doings, which I myself have perfectly known to be most untrue; unto the which I could have sufficiently answered according to the truth, but, as me seemeth, it was much better for me to suffer and dissimule the matter, and the same to remain still as lies, than to reply against their untruth, of whom I might, for my boldness, sooner have kin-

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died a great flame of displeasing, than to quench one spark of their malicious untruth. Therefore I commit the truth to Him that knoweth all truth. For, whatsoever any man hath conceived in him when he lived, or since his death, thus much I dare be bold to say, without displeasure to any person, or of affection, that in my judgment I never saw this realm in better order, quietness, and obedience, than it was in the time of his authority and rule, nor justice better ministered with indifferency; as I could evidently prove, if I should not be accused of too much affection, or else that I set forth more than truth. I will therefore here desist to speak any more in his commendation, and proceed first to his original beginning, ascending by fortune's favour up to high honours, dignities, promotions, and riches.

From the Prologue it can be gathered that it was not only loyalty to Wolsey that led Cavendish to attempt a Life, but that it was also his purpose to reveal the facts as he knew them in a straightforward way. Cavendish's loyalty to his master never became a blinding devotion. He wanted the character of Wolsey to be free from all the blots that the " innumerable lies " had placed upon it, but in order to rescue him from calumny, Cavendish was not inclined to make the Cardinal a martyr and saint. He was aware of Wolsey's greatness, and of the important part that his master played in one of the most stirring dramas in history, but he saw the life of the Cardinal in sufficiently clear perspective to understand some of the reasons for Wolsey's downfall. His modesty and piety caused him to see in part the vanity of his master—and then, too, " no man is a hero to his own footman." Without the devotion which blinds, Cavendish proceeded to reveal Wolsey as he knew him by a method that makes the Life completely absorbing. The early part of the narrative, in which the author related the principal events in Wolsey's life prior to his last four exciting years, has nothing in particular to recommend it. In a simple, direct way, he recalled the significant events in Wolsey's early life. The latter part of the account, however, becomes a series of vivid pictures, in which Henry VIII, Cromwell, Master Kingston, Wolsey, and the author himself, remain in the foreground. In addition to

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the pictorial quality of the latter part of the account, there are features that are dramatic. The conversations which Cavendish overheard, and those in which he participated, were reproduced with such skill that they possess a note of complete reality. Many of these passages of conversation have in them the features of a scene from a drama. The scene at the deathbed of the Cardinal offers an excellent example. Upon Monday in the morning, as I stood by his bed-side, at about eight of the clock, the windows being close shut, having wax lights burning upon the cupboard, I beheld him, as he seemed, drawing fast to his end. He perceived my shadow on the wall by his bedside, asked who was there? ' Sir, I am here,' quoth I. ' How do you? ' quoth he to me. ' Very well, sir,' quoth I , ' if I might see your Grace well.' ' What is it of the clock? ' said he to me. ' Forsooth, sir,' said I, ' it is past eight of the clock in the morning.' ' Eight of the clock? ' quoth he,' that cannot be,' rehearsing divers times, ' eight of the clock; eight of the clock: for by eight of the clock ye shall lose your master: for my time draweth near that I must depart out of this world.' With that Master Doctor Palmes, a worshipful gentleman, being his chaplain and ghostly father, standing by, bade me secretly demand of him if he would be shriven, and to be in readiness toward God, whatsoever should chance. At whose desire I asked him that question. ' What have you to do,' quoth he, ' to ask me any such question? ' and began to be very angry with me for my presumption; until at the last Master Doctor took my part, and talked with him in Latin, and so pacified him.22 In spite of the merits that Cavendish displayed in delineating Wolsey's character, there are some valid objections to the conclusion that The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey was " the first true biography written in England." 23 The portrait is by no means full-length; much of Wolsey's personality is under-developed. Then, too, the author was much concerned with the moral lessons that the fall of Wolsey, and the lives of others illustrated. The narrative is just begun when the reader loses sight of the picture of Wolsey's boy22 23

Ed. 1905, p. 178. Ibid., Introductory Note.

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hood as the author points out what is likely to happen to such men as Sir Amyas Paulet. " Now may this be a good example and precedent to men in authority," observed Cavendish as he reflected on the case of Paulet, " which will sometimes work their will without wit, to remember in their authority, how authority must decay: and whom they punish of will more than of justice, may after be advanced in the public weal to high dignities and governance, and they based as low, who will seek the means to be revenged of old wrongs sustained wrongfully before." 24 At the end of the account, the author is still concerned with the lessons of his story. The moral of the tale must be drawn. " Here is the end and fall of pride and arrogancy of such men, exalted by fortune to honours and high dignities," he mused as soon as he had described Wolsey's death. " For I assure you, in his time of authority and glory, he was the haultest man in his proceedings that then lived, having more respect to the worldly honour of his person than he had to his spiritual profession; wherein should be all meekness, humility, and charity; the process whereof I leave to them that be learned and seen in the divine laws." 25 Still another objection may be offered to the conclusion that Cavendish was a true biographer: Wolsey was too complex a personality for Cavendish to understand fully. The author knew many of the peculiarities of Wolsey's character, it is true, but of his mind he knew and revealed little. He could recall what had happened during the four years of his attendance, but he could not interpret the significant movements in Wolsey's life in the strong light of sympathetic intellect. He was well equipped to write an engaging narrative, and this he did; but the narrative method with such a character as Wolsey, even when it becomes pictorial, does not fulfill all the requirements of true biography. A biographer must be able to interpret the role of his character in the same way, in a sense, that the great actor brings a character to life on the stage. Cardinal Wolsey was too intricate a character for 24 25

Ed. 1905, p. 4. Ibid., p. 18S.

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Cavendish to interpret with that fullness and sympathy that are necessary for biographical excellence. George Cavendish's Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey was, however, a much nearer approach to the boundaries of biography than Fulke Greville's attempt to review the major events in the life of Sir Philip Sidney. The date of the original composition of the account cannot be determined exactly, but from a passage in the text of the edition of 1652, it can be gathered that it was finished quite a few years after Sidney's death.26 There was nothing in the account that would make a publisher wary of its reception, and consequently it is reasonable to assume that the Life was circulated soon after it was finished by the author.27 The edition of 1652 bore the title: The Life of the Renown'd Sir Philip Sidney. With the true Interest of England as it then stood in Relation to all Forain Princes: and particularly for suppressing the power of Spain as Stated by Him. His Principa.ll Actions, Counsels, Designes, and Death. Fulke Greville's Life had little biographical motive behind it. It was chiefly to pay a tribute to one whom he had loved and whose memory he cherished that the author stirred up his " drooping memory, touching this man's worth, powers, ways, and designes." " For my own part," he wrote by way of explanation of his work, " I observed, honoured, and loved him so much; as with what caution soever I have passed through my dayes hitherto among the living, yet in him I challenge a kind of freedome even among the dead . . . to the end that in the tribute that I owe him, our nation may see a Sea-mark, rais'd upon their native coast, above the levell of any private Pharos abroad: and so by a right Meridian line of their own, learn to sayl through the straits of true vertue, into a calm and spacious Ocean of humane Honour." 28 26 « Yet with Nestor I am delighted in repeating old news of ages past; and will therefore stir up my drooping memory touching this man's worth, powers, ways, and designes . . . ," p. 4, ed. 16S2. 27 28

The date of its composition was c. 1610. Ed. 1652, p. 4.

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With such a professed motive directing the effort, it was only natural for Greville to produce panegyric instead of biography. A eulogistic note persists throughout the account. There are engagingly pictorial passages, as for instance the scene that the author draws of the battlefield at Zutphen,20 but even these have in them little of biographical consequence. In all of his gestures, Sidney was made a hero. It is true that Sidney had proved a likeable and brilliant figure, and his achievements can scarcely be over-estimated; but praise of his brilliance did not produce a clear portrait and a thorough record of his fascinating personality. Beyond doubt, Sidney's life was a real human struggle and experience, but " to Fulke Greville and others, he was almost a perfect man, knowing neither spot nor stain." 30 Furthermore, the account is so meagre that even its source-book value is slight. It is possible that the author did " entertaine and instruct " himself/ 1 while preparing the Life, but the entertainment and instruction that he afforded posterity are indeed slight. It was not until the second half of the seventeenth century that those accounts that were written under the title of a Life showed a marked advance toward the province of biography. Even after the Restoration, the inclination toward panegyric and ethical instruction persisted. The moral earnestness of the century, and the strong loyalties that authors had for those of their faction in the stirring days of the Commonwealth and Restoration, were in large part responsible for the trend Life-writing continued to take. No influence was sufficiently strong to effect a divorce between Life-writing and panegyric, nor did the worldly atmosphere that existed in London during the days following the return of Charles II cause men to become less concerned in the lessons that men's lives illustrated. In most instances, those who undertook to write Lives were devout men who were primarily interested in life's sermons. The same motives, and essentially the same results as those 29 30 31

Ed. 1652, p. 144. Cf. Introduction, Percy Addleshaw's Sir Philip Sidney, London, 1909. Ed. 1652, p. 247.

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of the early half of the century, were demonstrated in their works. The Life-writing of John Dryden and Izaak Walton moved away to a certain extent from the established channel, but in spite of the historical significance and intrinsic value of their accounts, their works by no means illustrated the maturity of the modern conception of biography. Their partial recognition of the boundaries of the form was not the result of a prevailing conviction; they were pioneers who demonstrated in their works motives and results that were not representative of the larger mass of Life-writing during the second half of the century. Bishop Sprat's Life of Cowley (1668) is a representative example of the persistence of panegyric during the seventeenth century. It was written and published originally in Latin as a foreword to an edition of Cowley's Latin poems, but owing to popular demand, it was translated and brought to the press shortly after the Latin edition appeared. Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More was no farther away from the province of true biography than Sprat's account. Cowley, of course, had insisted that the author " let nothing pass that might seem the least offense to Religion or Good Manners." 32 To Sprat, such caution was hardly necessary, for from all that can be gathered about the devout Bishop, he was little inclined to linger for long over the thoroughly human characteristics of any of those with whom he came into contact. Sprat knew Cowley well, he had many letters from him in his possession, and many of the poet's private documents; but in the writing of the account of the poet, he was not tempted to use any of the interesting and valuable first-hand information that he had in abundance. With no biographical impulse motivating the work, and with an overwhelming loyalty to his friend, Sprat wrote a fervent panegyric. A century later when Samuel Johnson was busily engaged in getting together materials for his sketch of Cowley for the Lives of the Poets, he went first to Sprat's record. " The Life of Cowley," he remarked, more in disappointment than in judgment, " notwithstanding the penury of English 32

Preface, Vol. II, Cowley's

3

Poems, ed. 1710.

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Biography, has been written by Dr. Sprat, an author whose Pregnancy of imagination and elegance of language have deservedly set him high in the ranks of literature; but his zeal of friendship, or ambition of eloquence, has produced a funeral oration rather than a history: he has given the character not the life of Cowley; for he writes with so little detail, that scarcely anything is known distinctly, but all is shown confused and enlarged through the mist of panegyric." 33 Prejudiced as Johnson sometimes was in his judgment of those who had approached his field, his observations concerning Sprat's account of Cowley were in no way unjust. The modern reader becomes as impatient as Johnson—if not more so—for something that approaches detail and reality. In spite of the fact that Sprat's Cowley was representative of the prevailing manner of the time, this trend in Life-writing did not sweep all into its grasp. The literary dictator of the age, John Dryden, was in advance of his time in recognizing in part the true function of biography, and in seeing its literary possibilities. Earlier in the century Francis Bacon had named Lives as one of the branches of History, but it remained for John Dryden to draw the line of demarcation between " History, properly so called, and Biographia, or the Lives of Particular Men " in a distinct and constructively critical way. His recognition of the boundaries and possibilities of the form he expressed in a critique that holds first place in the early critical literature of the form. In connection with his division of History into "Commentaries or Annals; History, properly so called; and Biographia, or the Lives of Particular Men," he dealt with the third division as follows: Biographia, or the history of particular men's lives, comes next to be considered; which in dignity is inferior to the other two, as being more confined in action, and treating of wars, and councils, and all other public affairs of nations, only as they relate to him whose life is written, or as his fortunes have a particular dependence on them, or connexion to them. All things here are circumscribed and driven to a point, so as to terminate in one; consequently, if the action or 33

Lives oj the Poets, Peter Cunningham edition, 1857.

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counsel were managed by colleagues, some part of it must be either lame or wanting, except if it be supplied by the excursion of the writer. Herein, likewise, must be less of variety, for the same reason; because the fortunes and actions of one man are related, not those of many. Thus the actions and achievements of Sylla, Lucullus, and Pompey, are all of them but the successive parts of the Mithridatic war; of which we could have no perfect image, if the same hand had not given us the whole, though at several views, in their particular lives. Yet though we allow, for the reasons above alleged, that this kind of writing is in dignity inferior to History and Annals, in pleasure and instruction it equals, or even excels, both of them. It is not only commanded by ancient practice to celebrate the memory of great and worthy men, as the best thanks which posterity can pay them, but also the examples of virtue are of more vigour, when they are thus contracted into individuals. As the sunbeams, united in a burning-glass to a point have greater force than when they are darted from plain superficies, so the virtues and actions of man, drawn together into a single story, strike upon our minds a stronger and more lively impression, than the scattered relations of many men, and many actions; and, by the same means that they give us pleasure, they afford us profit too . . . and as the reader is more concerned at one man's fortune than at those of many, so the writer is likewise more capable of making a perfect work if he confine himself to this narrow compass. The lineaments, features, and colouring of a single picture may be hit exactly: but in a history-piece of many figures, the general design, the ordonnance of disposition of it, the relation of one figure to another, the diversity of the posture, habits, shadowings, and all the other graces conspiring to an uniformity, are of so difficult performance, that neither is the resemblance of particular persons often perfect, nor the beauty of the piece complete; for any considerable errour in the parts renders the whole disagreeable and lame. Thus, then the perfection of the work, and the benefit arising from it, are both more absolute in biography than in history. . . . Biographia, or the histories of particular lives, though circumscribed in the subject, is yet more extensive in the style than the other two; for it not only comprehends them both, but has somewhat superadded, which neither of them have. The style of it is various according to the occasion. There are proper places in it for the

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plainness and nakedness of narration, which is ascribed to annals; there is also room reserved for the loftiness and gravity of general history, when the actions related shall require that manner of expression. But there is withal a descent into minute circumstances, and trivial passages of life, which are natural to this way of writing, and which the dignity of the other two will not admit. There you are conducted only into the rooms of state, here you are led into the private lodgings of the hero; you see him in his undress, and are made familiar with his most private actions and conversations. You may behold a Scipio and a Laelius gathering cockleshells on the shore, Augustus playing at bounding stones with boys, and Agesilaus riding on a hobby-horse among his children. The pageantry of life is taken away: you see the poor reasonable animal as naked as ever nature made him; are made acquainted with his passions and his follies, and find the demi-god a man. Plutarch himself has more than once defended this kind of relating little passages: for, in the Life of Alexander, he says thus: ' In writing the lives of illustrious Men, I am not tied to the law of history; nor does it follow that, because an action is great, it therefore manifests the greatness and virtue of him who did it; but, on the other side, sometimes a word, or a casual jest, betrays a man more to our knowledge of him, than a battle fought wherein ten thousand men were slain, or sacking of cities, or a course of victories.' In another place he quotes Xenophon on the like occasion: ' The sayings of great men in their familiar discourses, and amidst their wine, have somewhat in them which is worthy to be transmitted to posterity.' Our author therefore needs no excuse, but rather deserves a commendation, when he relates, as pleasant, some sayings of his heroes, which appear, ( I must confess it) very cold and insipid mirth to us. For it is not his meaning to commend the jest, but to paint the man. 34 His evident recognition of the chief boundaries of biography, however, did not make the Lives which he wrote excellent illustrations of the form.

W i t h no interest in uplifting the

morals of his age by pointing out lessons in the lives of the men about whom he wrote, and with no militant loyalty to them, he was free to a large extent from the handicaps that kept other writers of Lives away from biography. 34

The Complete

1892, Vol. X V I I .

Works of John

Dryden,

Further-

Scott-Saintsbury edition, London,

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more, he was cognizant of the virtues of the methods of Plutarch. And yet Dryden did not produce a Life of true biographical worth. A brief examination of his chief work in this field, the Lije oj Plutarch, reveals and explains the reason for his failure. In 1683, there appeared the first volume of a translation of Plutarch's Lives, executed by Richard Duke, Thomas Creech, John Caryl, John Evelyn, and a score and more of others." In the interval between the beginning of the project and the time of the appearance of the first volume, Dryden's services were sought by Tonson and some of the translators for an introduction to the translation and a sketch of Plutarch's life. He accepted the proposal, and by the time the first volume was ready for the press, he had scanned most of the available records concerning Plutarch, and had woven together a coherent narrative. That he had some of the true biographical impulse directing his work is revealed in the Dedicatory Epistle, addressed to the Duke of Ormond. " Of all historians, God deliver us from the bigots! " he exclaimed; " and of all the bigots, from our sectaries 1 Truth is never to be expected from authors whose understandings are warped by enthusiasm; for they judge all actions, and their causes, by their own perverse principles, and a crooked line can never be the measure of a straight one. . . . They are not historians of an action, but lawyers of a party; they are retained by their principles, and bribed by their interests; their narrations are an opening of their cause; and in front of their histories there ought to be written the prologue of a pleading,—' I am for the plaintiff,' or ' I am for the defendant.' " In the account proper there are passages that indicate that the author was aware of the line of demarcation between an informational, trustworthy account and a eulogistic tribute in 35 There were forty-one of them at work before the last volume was ready. This translation of Plutarch's Lives has often been erroneously called Dryden's translation. It is unlikely that Dryden translated any of the Lives. Cf. Introduction to the Life of Plutarch, Dryden's Complete Works, Scott-Saintsbury edition, London, 1892, Vol. XVII.

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which the characteristic details of personality play a small part. Dryden had much admiration for Plutarch as he knew him, and a certain lustre was made to surround the portrait of the ' Father of Biography but no fervent hymn of praise was sung, and no attempt was made to advance some design or to teach a lesson. Dryden was primarily concerned in summing up the facts that he had been able to gather into a readable narrative. With this he proceeded carefully, and in some instances, with the attitude and methods of the true scholar. For instance, while discussing the supposed letter from Plutarch to Trajan, transcribed by John of Sales (d. 1180), he weighed the evidence of its authenticity. " Whence he had it [the Letter], is not known, nor the original in Greek to be produced," he announced; " but as it passed for genuine in that age, and if not Plutarch's, is at least worthy of him, and what might be supposed a man of his character would write; for which reason I have here translated it." 80 Throughout the account, the reader feels that Dryden turned his back resolutely to panegyric; and that he was a fairly thorough investigator, a patient compiler, and a facile writer. Reliable, informational, and readable, the Life of Plutarch illustrates an advance in the field of scientific Life-writing, but it cannot be called a great contribution to the matter and method of true biography. That it belongs to his choicest prose could be established, especially were one to have a lively interest in the matter treated. It was hack-work to him, to be sure, but it was a rather inspired piece of its kind. But the distant nature of the subject, and the paucity of stuff from which biography could be constructed, made an excellent performance out of the question. The portrait of Plutarch is by no means full-length, and there is a noticeable poverty of descriptive and interpretative detail. It is possible to excuse any lack of thoroughness on the ground that authentic records were few and unavailable, but such an acquittal does not imply that the Life be considered a stellar achievement. 3C

Complete

Works,

ed. 1892, X V I I , SO.

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Dryden's other accounts, the Life of St. Francis Xavier, a translation of the account of the Jesuit Bouhours, and the Life of Lucian, are even more sketchy than the Life of Plutarch. Here, too, the distant nature of the subjects, and the paucity of available materials, made thorough records out of the question. These brief accounts possess no features of merit that are not to be found in the Life of Plutarch. In an age in which ethical instruction and panegyric were still controlling Life-writing, Dryden's efforts possess historical significance and a slight measure of intrinsic worth. The best features of the various impulses that had directed Life-writing in the period before 1700 were engagingly illustrated in the Lives of the author who has been called " the last of the hagiographers." 37 Izaak Walton was a panegyrist and at times an advocate, and he considered ethical instruction one of the major motives of Life-writing. However, in spite of the unbiographical motives that directed his efforts, he produced accounts of considerable literary charm, if not of strict biographical value. Furthermore, he was the first English author to devote the greater part of his talent to that which he came to recognize as a fertile literary field. " We are justified in thinking of him as the first deliberate biographer in English," wrote Waldo Dunn. 38 In the writing of his series of Lives—five in all—he undoubtedly realized that he was working in a province that had definite boundaries, but the province into which he directed his deliberate efforts was somewhat removed from the field of true biography. However, in the Lives there is much valuable information, sympathetically interpreted. It is with Izaak Walton's sympathetic eyes that we are permitted to view the virtues of five prominent men of the seventeenth century church and state. He was admirably equipped to offer his this view. Although he knew personally men whose lives he recorded, namely John Wotton, and Bishop Sanderson, he was well 37 38

age and posterity only three of the Donne, Sir Henry informed concern-

Stauffer's Biography Before 1700, Harvard Press, 1930, p. 118. English Biography, 1916, p. xvii.

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ing them all through hearsay, reading, and deliberate investigation. Patience, honesty, and sympathy he possessed in abundance. With a style that was free from the pompousness and refinements of insincerity, he was able to proceed directly to the portrayal of character as he thought it should be portrayed. As a strict disciple of the moral earnestness of the times, he believed that his work should be " an honour due to the virtuous dead, and a lesson in magnanimity to those who shall succeed them," but his manner of erecting memorials and teaching lessons could not become militant and aggressive. All that he wrote reflected the serenity of his well-disciplined and tranquil life. These were the chief features of the equipment that he employed in producing the Lives. That the Lives were troublesome things to him, as he tells us in his prefaces, is a statement that must not be construed too literally. In spite of the fact that he insisted that it was not from choice that he undertook to write at least four of them, it is certain that he enjoyed his chores in this field, much as he said whimsically to the contrary. In most instances his comments concerning the trouble the accounts caused him and his inability to do the task justice were only another manifestation of his modesty and his satisfaction in being aloof from the cares of authorship and the world. The Life of John Donne, the earliest of the group, was the result of Walton's association with Sir Henry Wotton in collecting facts about the life of the celebrated ecclesiastic and poet. It was Wotton's suggestion that they gather all important data, and he would piece together the results of their findings into a coherent account. Employed thus as an investigator, Walton was quite content, for with his infinite patience, he was not discouraged when materials were not immediately available. When the materials were almost sufficient for their purpose, Wotton found his strength failing, and in his last days suggested to Walton that he carry out the plan alone. Walton, modestly enough, shrank from the greatness of the task; and it was not until the sermons of Donne were printed and some account of the author's life demanded

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that he reviewed his " forsaken collections," and remembering the desire of Wotton, he resolved that " the world should see the best plain picture of the author's life that my artless pencil, guided by the hand of truth, could present to it." 39 This Life (1640) 40 in time suggested the necessity for offering a few comments concerning the one who was to have written the record; and these comments, which were intended originally to be only an explanation for his attempt to portray the life of Donne, were enlarged by his knowledge and love of his friend, and grew into the Life of Sir Henry Wotton (1651). 41 After having written these two Lives, Walton disengaged himself from' further efforts of the kind for almost fifteen years. Feeling that he had done the State a meagre service, and readily admitting his unfitness for such work, he was willing to retire from the field of Life-writing with the comforting thought that he had at least done his best to satisfy the wishes of his friends. Thus contented, he directed his efforts into scarcely less pleasant channels, until, upon reading Dr. Gauden's Life of Richard Hooker (1662), he became so annoyed at that which he termed the " dangerous mistakes " which the Lord Bishop of Exeter had made in his account that he dismissed his resolve to write no more Lives; and losing some of his gentleness and modesty for the moment, he proceeded to write the Life of Richard Hooker.*2 The Life of George Herbert (1670) followed from choice; this was, he admitted, a " free-will offering "; but the fact that the effort was directed by no desire save to please himself did in no way cause him to change his standards of sympathy and truth. In fact, to many, it is his most engaging narrative. A few years after he had completed this Life, at the urgent insistence of his friends and the attractive persuasions of the publishers, he began his Life of Dr. Robert Sanderson (1678). 39

Introduction to the Life of Donne, ed. 1864. Published originally under the title, The Life and Death of Dr. Donne, Late Deane of St. Pauls, London, as an introduction to Donne's Sermons. 41 Published originally with Reliquiae Wottonianae. 42 Published originally with The Works of Mr. Richard Hooker, 1666. 10

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It was his last and most ingenious effort, but it lacks the appeal—possibly owing to the nature of the subject—that the earlier Lives have in abundance. The Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, and Herbert, which were written, with the exception of the Life of Herbert, to serve as introductions to their works, were enlarged and collected into one volume in 1670. A second edition of this collection appeared in 1674; and it is significant to note that other editions were widely distributed before the close of the century. The necessity for additional editions gives evidence not only of the value that the age attached to Walton's efforts, but it also proves that a growing hunger for biographical accounts existed in the closing decades of the century. It is scarcely necessary in a survey of this kind to deal at length with the features of all of the Lives. A brief view of the outstanding characteristics of his work must suffice. Walton's tactics, in spite of the recurring ulterior motives which directed his efforts, were often those of the scientific biographer. Patiently he traced the genealogy of his characters, as, for instance, in the opening passages of the Life of Donne; and with a zeal uncommon at the time, he sought out materials that would give fullness and accuracy to his records. There are several letters preserved from Dr. Pierce and the Bishop of Lincoln 43 which afford evidence of his industry in his search for authentic materials. Unhurried and capitalizing the virtue truth, he proceeded to piece together skilfully the results of his investigations; and when he was confronted by a gap that could not be filled in from the data he had gathered, he confessed to the reader that he was depending on his own estimate. In his attempt to give " the world the best plain picture '' of the men who were the subject-matter of his Lives, he did not hesitate to use some of their correspondence. This device was not altogether new with him, but no writer before his time employed letters with so much dexterity and with such conviction of their biographical utility. While Bishop Sprat 43

See the Appendix of the Bell and Daldy edition of the Lives, 1864.

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was announcing to Martin Clifford that the Cowley letters which he had in his possession were not matter for publication, Walton, with little of the artificial refinement of his contemporary, proceeded to use the letters which he had gathered as he saw fit. They were made to form part of the coherent narrative, and not to swell the content of a dissociated appendix. They were placed in the text for their utility at appropriate intervals, and in transcribing them, it is unlikely that Walton tampered with their content and phrasing. Although he made no changes in them, he was careful in the selection of the correspondence he used. If he had letters that were in any way detrimental to the picture he was attempting to draw, he saw in them no particular use, and they were kept carefully away from the finished manuscript. He was not guided by the principle expressed by Montaigne " that nothing which falls from the pen of a man of genius can be unworthy of preservation "; nor did he believe " that even the idle talk of a good man ought to be regarded." 44 It is unlikely that Walton recognized fully the value of the letter as a biographical device, and if he had, his sense of propriety and his charity would have made a consistent employment of the letter-method out of the question. It was this inclination to find only good in those whose lives he recorded that kept his work away from the province of true biography. The lessons taught,—in fact, all the ulterior baggage that the records carried,—did not destroy his purpose of recording personality as he saw it. His manner of teaching was never aggressive. The lessons taught are to be gathered; rarely are they pointed out at length. But the genial and forgiving side of his nature made analytical interpretation of character impossible; gentleness forbade any severity of judgment. Walton's treatment of personality was a reflection of his own nature, for his was a smiling attitude toward his fellowmen, and he judged them perhaps too frequently in the Lives in the light of his own goodness and generosity. " His incorrigible optimism entered into his study of the character 44

Boswell's introductory comments to the Life of

Johnson.

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of his friends," observed Edmund Gosse, " and it is no part of his inexperience as a portrait painter that he mixed his colors with so much rose-water. He saw his distinguished acquaintances in that light; he saw them pure, radiant, and stately beyond a mortal guise. . . ." 45 Walton's Lives are significant in the development of English biography owing to the fact that he recognized Life-writing as a province into which he could put his chief literary effort, and in which he could express his love for truth and his vast sympathy for humankind. In the expression of his love for truth, he employed tactics that were to a large extent innovations in biographical method. In this respect Walton was a pioneer. In his expression of sympathy for humankind, however, he belonged to the prevailing tendency of the time. The Lives were a culmination of the pre-eighteenth century inclinations to pay tribute to those who had lived and died in virtue, and to keep the example of righteousness before a sin-heavy world. Into the fulfillment of these motives, Walton brought his patience, his love for truth, his literary talent, and his abiding goodness. The Lives are not true biographies, but they are lasting memorials to the lives of men distinguished in the seventeenth century church and letters, and to the talent and goodness of the author who erected them. The state of Life-writing in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cannot be determined by surveying only those works which bore the title of a Life. It is necessary for us to retrace our steps in order to examine briefly the province of history, for the Elizabethan and Stuart historians often offered fairly thorough accounts of the lives of the principal figures of the periods they reviewed. In fact, history was considered the all inclusive province to which everything that dealt with actual persons or events belonged. As has been pointed out, Dryden recognized differences between " History, properly so called, and Biographia, or the Lives of Particular Men " ; and before his time, Francis Bacon named Lives as a distinct division of history; but to most seventeenth century authors, the 45

Craik's English Prose, London, 1894, II, 341.

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line of demarcation was not clearly drawn. It is true that history and biography are often interdependent, but the impulses which direct the writing of the literature of personality are different from those which motivate the historian. In spite of the usual failure of the historians to recognize fully the differentiae that existed between the two provinces, their accounts in which personality assumed a major role were frequently a nearer approach to true biography than were those records which bore the title of a Life. The reasons for this are not difficult to find. The delineation of character was incidental to the recording of events, and as a result of the incidental nature of character portrayal, the authors were less inclined toward panegyric and ethical instruction. In their recording of events, it was not necessary for them to demonstrate their loyalty and devotion to every man whose name was prominent in the narrative. They did not set out to defend and exonerate men from calumny, nor were they primarily interested in the moral lessons that their accounts of men might hold for the reader. It is true that the historian is often addicted to the same personal inclinations as those which affect the biographer. Prejudice, over-loyalty, and a case to defend are obstacles which often defeat the recorder of events as well as the recorder of personality; but with the historian these obstacles are more easily surmounted, for it is far easier to judge events deliberately and impersonally than to judge the life of a man, especially if that man has been a friend or relative. When the lives of men play only an incidental part in the scheme of revealing the significant events of an age, it is only natural that the historian should not devote his energy to lengthy eulogies. Furthermore, the historians of the pre-eighteenth century period wrote, with few exceptions, about times and men that were not contemporary. For their matter, they frequently went to periods that were sufficiently removed to permit them to see events and men in that perspective which time affords. The political intrigues and factions that had existed in the periods which they reviewed no longer survived, with the

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result that propaganda and factionism were rarely the motives underlying their accounts. They were at times handicapped by the paucity of extant data, but that which their investigations produced they could judge dispassionately. With a good tradition for history established—one that had developed chiefly out of classic models—they were able to proceed almost unhampered into the field of fact and interpretation. Without pausing to consider the slight approach to biography in Sir Thomas More's History of King Richard III (written c. 1513), Holinshed's Chronicle (1577), and in John Hayward's First Part of the Raigne of Henry IV (c. 1599), the student of the development of Life-writing must halt for a time to survey the contributions of some of the historians of the early half of the seventeenth century. The best illustrations of incidental delineation of character are to be found in Bacon's Historic of the Raigne of Henry VII and in Francis Godwin's Historie of the Reignes of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Mary. The former appeared in 1621; and Godwin's work, written originally in Latin under the title Rerum Anglicarum Henrico VIII, Edwardo VI, et Maria Regentibus, Annates in 1616, was issued in an English version in 1630. As the titles of these accounts and the dates of their publication indicate, a considerable interval had elapsed between the time of the events and the recording of them—an interval which undoubtedly aided the authors, already disposed to the judicial, in their expression of deliberate judgment. Most obstacles to a penetrating analysis of character and events were eliminated by the passage of time, but in both cases the records are disappointing to one who seeks full and life-like portraits. Francis Bacon, as his life and works have revealed, was excellently equipped to write history and biography. His temperament was in no way a handicap to deliberate judgment. Enthusiasm and loyalty to friend or faction rarely disturbed his thoroughly rational mind. No man of the age had an intellect that so surely approached the judicial. His experiences at the courts of Elizabeth and James had done

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much to develop in him shrewdness of observation and dispassionate judgment. Allowing no emotion to color his observations and reading, he had equipped himself well to view events, men—and even kings—for what they were. In addition to this equipment, Bacon was cognizant of the value of a faithful likeness of a man, whether it appeared in an account entitled a Life or in history. " I do find strange that these times have so little esteemed the virtues of the times, as that the writing of lives be no more frequent," he reflected. " For although there be not many sovereign princes or absolute commanders, and that states are most collected into monarchies, yet there are many worthy personages that deserve better than dispersed report and barren eulogies." 46 To one of his inclinations, the kind of thing that Roper and Fulke Greville had done was valueless. But Bacon, excellently equipped as he was for great contributions to the province of history, had an additional attribute—one that was invaluable to him in most respects, but a trait that warped his efforts in his histories. He was tactful and politic in all of his gestures. That he was capable of offering a penetrating record of the reign of Henry V I I , and even of James I, cannot be doubted, but the fact remains that his judgment was at times held in check on account of those of his readers for whose pleasure and approbation he wrote. For him to have been courageous in his judgments at all times would have proved unfortunate, or at least that was his conviction. T h e History was sent in manuscript to King James in 1621, Bacon having prepared it during the early part of his retirement at Gorhambury, after his impeachment and fall. Accompanying the manuscript, there was a dedicatory epistle to Prince Charles. Boldly enough, Bacon announced in this epistle: " I have not flattered him [Henry V I I ] , but took him to life as well as I could, sitting so far off, and having no better light. It is true, Your Highness hath a Living Pattern, Incomparable, of the King Your Father. But it is not amiss for You to see also one of these Ancient Pieces." 47 48 47

Advancement of Learning, ed. 182S, p. 132. Dedicatory Epistle, ed. 1676.

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The passage in the epistle, " I have not flattered him," struck a different note from that which was so constant in the Lives of the period. In Bacon's mind there was a clear distinction between a panegyric and a Life. However, in spite of the air of courage and honesty that is conveyed in his prefatory comments, it is well while reading the narrative to remember for whom the History was written and to whom it was dedicated. " The Living Pattern, Incomparable," was not above flattery; and it was impossible for Charles and the Court to view English sovereigns of the past in other than a royal light. That Bacon was " sitting so far off," and that the light was dim, hampered his account little; but it is not unlikely that his patron's pleasure was an obstacle that made courageous fidelity to judgment and fact difficult to sustain. Although Bacon was eager for the approbation of the Court, it was impossible for him to be the writer of " a barren eulogy." The History reveals a decided inclination on the part of the author to draw a faithful likeness of the King. Henry VII becomes a man, human in most respects, even to the point of weakness at times; but no opportunity was missed to stress the complete nobility of his motives and to justify his inconsistencies by pointing out at length the difficulties, real or imaginary, which he had to surmount. Explanation and justification of the motives and actions of the character delineated are part of the true biographer's task, but any attempt at exoneration that grows out of the desire to please the reader rather than out of sympathetic understanding of character cannot be condoned. Bacon was more interested in pleasing the Court than he was in defending Henry VII. It was, however, unnecessary for him to write a fervent panegyric in order to demonstrate his sense of tact. The Court, in the late years of James' reign, had no great militant loyalty to sovereigns who had ruled a century before. Bacon understood this sufficiently well to cause him to reject any inclination he might have had toward eulogy. Furthermore, the analytical quality of his mind forbade his reciting a hymn of praise. In praise or blame, in spite of his brevity, he

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rejected the superficial. Throughout the History, his inclination toward the analytical can readily be observed, and although the author's desire to be politic can at times be detected, its manifestations are not conspicuous. Passages illustrating both the analytical and politic features of his method in delineating Henry's character can be selected almost at random. The following excerpt is illustrative: He was a Prince, Sad, Serious, and full of Thoughts, and secret Observations, and full of Notes and Memorials of his own hand, especially touching Persons. As to whom to Employ, whom to Reward, whom to Enquire of, whom to Beware of, what were the Dependencies, what were the Factions, and the like; keeping (as it were) a Journal of his Thoughts. There is to this day a merry Tale; That his Monkey (set as it was thought by one of his Chamber) tore his Principal Note-Book all to pieces, when by chance it lay forth. Whereat the Court (which liked not those pensive Accompts) was almost tickled with sport. He was indeed full of Apprehensions and Suspitions. But as he did easily take them, so he did easily check them, and master them: whereby they were not dangerous, but troubled himself more than others. It is True, his Thoughts were so many, as they could not always well stand together; but that which did good one way did hurt another. Neither did he at some times weigh them aright in their proportions. Certainly, that Rumour which did him so much Mischief (That the Duke of York should be saved, and alive) was (at first) of his own nourishing; for he would have more reason not to reign in the Right of his Wife. He was Affable, and both Well and Fair-spoken, and would use strange Sweetness and Blandishments of Words, where he desired to effect or persuade anything that he took to heart. He was rather Studious than Learned; reading most Books in the French Tongue. Yet he understood the Latin, as appeareth in that Cardinal Hadrian, and others, who could very well have written French, did use to write to him in Latin. For his Pleasures, there is no news of them. And yet by his Instructions to Marsin and Stile, touching the Queen of Naples, it seemeth he could Interrogate well touching Beauty. He did by pleasures as great Princes do by Banquets, come and look a little upon them, and turn away. For never Prince was more wholly given to his Affaires, nor in them more of himself. In so much, as in the 4

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Triumphs of Justs and Tourneys, and Balls, and Masques (which were then called Disguises) he was rather a Princely and Gentle Spectator, than seemed much to be delighted. . . . Yet take him with all his Defects, if a Man should compare him with the Kings his Concurrents, in France and Spain, he shall find him more politick than Lewis the Twelfth of France, and more Entire and Sincere than Ferdinando of Spain. But if you shall change Lewis the Twelfth, for Lewis the Eleventh, who lived a little before; then the Consort is more perfect. For that Lewis the Eleventh, Ferdinando, and Henry, may be esteemed the Tres Magi of Kings of those Ages. To conclude, If this King did no greater matters, it was long of himself; for what he minded, he compassed. 48

Such a passage undoubtedly possesses some true biographical features. Bacon's History, however, was not an attempt at a sustained record of personality. He was the historian of the reign of Henry VII, and must be judged as such. It is true that the narrative centers around the figure of the King, although long passages occur in which Henry VII is lost sight of completely. Occasional as the delineation of character was, and in spite of the politic nature of the performance, Bacon was in advance of his time in his attempt to judge character dispassionately. His account remains a source book which can be approached with considerable trust. " None of the Histories which had been written before," wrote Spedding, " conveyed any idea either of the distinctive character of the man or the real business of his reign. Every history that has been written since has derived all of its light from this, and followed its guidance in every question of importance." 4 9 Two things, however, must be considered when Bacon's portrait of Henry VII is approached: he could not be detailed in his delineation of character because he was primarily an historian, and he could not be completely faithful to his analysis of character because it was necessary for him to be discreet. Important as Bacon's contribution is to the development of incidental Life-writing in history, an equally significant ex48 49

Ed. 1676, pp. 137-138. See sub Bacon, D. N. B.

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ample in this field can be found in Francis Godwin's Historie of the Reignes of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Mary. When it was " Englished, Corrected, and Enlarged with the Author's Consent" by Morgan Godwin, the translator announced that the annals which he was now bringing into English had long passed with approbation.50 The information which the History contained, and the concise manner that the author employed in piecing together his findings, recommended the work to the age in which it was written and to subsequent students of the source-books of the age of Henry VIII. Francis Godwin (1562-1633) was well equipped to produce good incidental biography in his histories. In 1601, he finished his Catalogue of Bishops, a work which gained for him immediate recognition from Elizabeth. The greater part of his effort he spent in reading and investigating historical records, and of these, those which dealt with ecclesiastical matters were of primary importance to him. Anthony a Wood, who was sparing in his praise, described him as " an incomparable historian." 51 From all that can be gathered, it seems that his equipment for writing history was essentially the same as Bacon's. He was a shrewd observer, a prodigious reader, and one whose judgments were rarely colored by prejudice or militant loyalty. In addition to these qualifications, Godwin possessed a trait that was not evident in Bacon's life and works: he was only slightly disposed to the politic and discreet. To him, these qualities had no place in an historical record. In the Preface to his History, he defined clearly his attitude toward the historian's art. For its value as a critical document in the development of English biography, and for its revelation of a point of view concerning Life-writing in the seventeenth century, I feel justified in quoting it in large part. Among the many who have in Latin compiled the History of our Nation, Polydor Virgil in the opinion of most excelleth: not that he hath written either more truly or copiously, than many others; but more politely, and latest of any that have taken pains in this kind. 00 51

Cf. Preface, ed. 1676. Athenae Oxortienses, Bliss edition, 1813-1820, II, SSS.

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F o r indeed it could not be, that a Foreiner, an Italian, well gone in years even at his first arrival in England . . . should not often erre in the delivery of our affaires, and in regard of his mere ignorance in the English tongue, in silence bury many worthy passages recorded b y our English Writers only. I t being therefore to be wished, and is much desired, that someone versed in our Antiquities would . . . consecrate part of his learned labours to the eternity of Britain, not in reforming that obsolete Virgilian History, but in composing a new one: Our Antiquaries may be justly taxed of Sloth . . . who had rather suffer the famous acts of their Ancestors to dye eternally in silence, and so . . . defraud their Countrey of its true and deserved Glory, than bestow any the least pains in commenting; that so the examples of most eminent Virtues . . . might not want the record of their due Monuments. . . . Y e t have I thought it might prove pains-worthy, to undertake briefly in three small Commentaries to set forth the deeds of three Princes, immediate successors to Henry V I I , so far forth as I have any notice of them. And that, partly that b y touching at the Fountain I might stir up the wits of others; partly that the desires of Foreiners might in some sort be satisfied, who not without cause complain . . . that these times are not described by any. . . . And as for Polydor Virgil, he hath written either nothing or very little concerning them; and that little so false and misbeseeming the ingenuity of an Historian, that he seemeth to aim at no other end, than by bitter invectives against Henry V I I I and Cardinal Wolsey to demerit the favour of Queen M a r y . . . . I have written therefore, and so written, that although many things conducing to an Historian may be wanting in me; yet am I confident, that this my endeavour will find acceptance with many. Other writers may here have as it were a store-house, from which they may . . . furnish themselves with some matter, which may help to raise an everlasting Monument. . . . I have in this work been so observant of Impartiality, Simplicity, and Truth, that I fear nothing so much as Domestick anger for not being pious enough, because I would not be over-pious. . . . [An Historian] shall come short of his duty, who in the delivery of a history will not be at least honest, and who b y offering uncertainties and known truths, shall not yield much to his affections, so that they be joined with the love of Religion and Countrey. B u t how much do they injure Truth, who from lies and falsehood beg helps to underprop her? Avant! W e have no need of them. And had we, yet would

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it not much profit us to rely on such weak advantages; one pious lye detected proving more hurtful, than a thousand others, although so artificially contrived that they avoid discovery, can prove profitable. For example whereof seek no farther than the Papists, whose feigned Miracles, Impostures, and Legends patched up of Lyes have brought to pass, that even in those things which are true, they scarce gain belief. Wherefore, I am well content that Truth, which maugre her enemies, will at length be every where victorious, shall prevail with me. I have done to my Power. Politely, eloquently, politickly, I could not write; Truly, and fide Attica, as they say, I could. If I have done amiss in ought, it is not out of malice, but errour, which the gentle Reader will (I hope) pardon. . . In his three accounts, Godwin's fidelity to the purposes named in the Preface was abiding. In them, despite the incidental nature of the portrayal of character, there is much choice information about Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Mary. In the Historie of the Reigne of Henry VIII especially, the portrait of the King becomes fairly detailed. The others, Edward VI and Queen Mary, are only brief sketches, and do not assume the same clarity of outline and fullness of detail that are found in the earlier narrative. In them all, however, there is little of panegyrical hue, and furthermore, the observations of the author are glossed over with nothing of the politic. His patrons' pleasure was not allowed to direct the writing of the records. That he intended to provide a source book for others, who might do more thoroughly that which he had begun, caused him to feel the value of absolute truth. That he was accurate to almost the last detail, more recent histories have proved; and that his analysis of motives, events and personalities was unencumbered by the baggage of ethics and propaganda can be determined by examining his manner of portraying characters and events. There are, however, several valid objections to the conclusion that Godwin was a true biographer. The first is obvious to any who have glanced at his work. He was not sufficiently detailed in his records. All that is there is reliable, concise. S2

Morgan Godwin's translation of the author's preface, ed. 1676,

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and encouragingly impersonal, but there is too little. With some details he was sufficiently thorough, but as has been the case with later historians, his interest was often fastened on matters that were not of entirely major significance. It is possible that he was handicapped in his search for materials, and that as a consequence, he expanded that of which he had evidence, and went cursorily over those things which he could not amplify from his meagre sources. Godwin was an ecclesiastic, and naturally enough, his interests were centered more on the controversies which raged between Church and State than on the personalities of the sovereigns whose reigns he reviewed. It is likely, too, that there was more material available pertaining to the religious issues of the times than to the habits of the figures involved. In the account of Henry VIII, little was overlooked that might be of use to the student of Henry's attitude toward the Church of Rome, but the bluff King's other inclinations and movements were passed over hastily. Any account of Henry VIII that fails to take into consideration Henry's relations with Ann Boleyn can scarcely be called a sufficiently full record of personality. Godwin dismissed the situation with: Henry having put away his wife, the Emperour must needs be netled, and then the amity of France would stand him in some stead. Indeed Catherine was a noble and virtuous Lady, but she had lived so long, as to make her Husband weary of her. H e affected the Daughter of Sir T h o m a s Bolen, Treasurer of his Household. Her he intends to marry, and to be divorced from the other. 5 3

And T h e King's love brooked no delays. Whereupon on the five and twentieth of January, privately and in the presence of very few, he marrieth the Lady Ann Bolen. 5 4

Henry's later triumphs and reversals in matrimony were recorded with the same brevity. In fact, most of that which has to do with the King's private life received a cursory treat53 54

Ed. 1676, p. 40. Ibid., p. 71.

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ment or none at all. The reader is disappointed, not only because he is denied a peep through the keyhole, but because he feels that he knows too little about Henry VIII. Had Godwin been more detailed with the small peculiarities of Henry's character, his History would have approached the boundaries of biography very closely, for he was observant of the laws he had laid down in his Preface—" impartiality, simplicity, and truth." But as an historian Godwin had not learned the precept of Plutarch that " sometimes a word, a casual jest, betrays a man more to our knowledge of him, than a battle fought wherein ten thousand men were slain, or sacking of cities, or a course of victories." 55 The stirring days of the Commonwealth and the Restoration, with their constant political, social and religious upheavals, produced many histories and historical memoirs. In them, the treatment of personality was not only incidental to the motive of recording events, but frequently the portrayal of character was warped by the strong partisan bias with which the historians viewed the figures who had played important roles in the exciting scenes that followed the execution of Charles I. One of the most interesting contributions to incidental biography in the histories that the age produced is to be found in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. The History was not well planned as a unit, but many of its passages continue to afford valuable information and considerable pleasure by reason of their clear-cut characterizations of illustrious Commonwealth and Restoration figures. It is a spacious gallery, full of clearly defined characters that for a time, at least, give to the reader the impression of reality. A vividness, lacking in both Bacon and Godwin, characterizes these sketches, but the boldness of their outline does not always reveal a true and complete life. Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (1609-1674), with his regard for truth, and with a Gallic power of observation, was well equipped to produce incidental biography through history. In history, he was more interested in personalities than 85

Life of Alexander

the

Great.

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in events. History meant to him not only the record of the achievements and reversals of great men, but also of their characters; and when he set out to write his account, he determined that it should contain " a lively representation of persons." He had come into personal contact with many of the figures who moved in and out of the maze of political and religious controversy in the exciting days of the Commonwealth and Restoration; and during those intervals in which he was in exile from the seething political life of London, he was able to see and interpret the important figures of his age in the perspective of reflection. As early as 1644, he started with his History, but by 1648 he had put it away in order to set down some record of his own life. It was not until 1671 that the huge tome that we now know as the History of the Rebellion was completed, and not until 1702-4 that it was first published at Oxford in three folio volumes. The History, as a biographical and historical record, is of varying value. In the sixteen books, which deal with the period from 1628 to 1660, and with every person of note from Charles I to Sir John Greenvil, there is at times a treatment of character that is a near approach to short analytical biography. The vast procession of figures treated, and the multitude of incidents related, made an exhaustive portrayal of individual characters out of the question. In the brief sketches there is a poverty of biographical fact; they do not provide, for instance, dates of birth and death; and a record of the principal movements of the characters that had no direct bearing on the political issues of the day was beyond the scope of the work. The sketches, however, do provide the reader with the author's interpretation of the characters, and in this respect the accounts possess much of the flavor of analytical biography. They belong rather to that literary form which is called the character than to short biography. The seventeenth century was rich in short character sketches of its great men. Clarendon, in his large gallery, belonged essentially to the same tendency that produced the

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numerous collections of characters during the century. Joseph Hall's Characters of Vcrtues and Vices appeared in 1609, and Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters had a wide distribution in 1614. Toward the end of the century, Bishop Burnet, Sir Philip Warwick, Thomas Fuller, Samuel Butler, and John Dryden in his versified controversial works all dealt with the character as a literary form; 56 but the author who illustrated its best features was Clarendon. Even in early manhood, Clarendon was constantly interested in character. " He had the clear and unimpassioned vision which often goes with a warm temperament," wrote David Nichol Smith,57 " and could scrutinize his friends without endangering his affection for them. However deeply his feelings might be engaged, he had taken pleasure in trying to see them exactly as they were. When he came to judge his political enemies he continued the same attitude of detachment, and studiously cultivated it. . . . ' I am careful,' he said in a private letter,58 ' to do justice to every man who hath fallen in the quarrel, on which side soever.' ' I know myself,' he said in the History,59 ' to be very free from any of those passions which naturally transport men with prejudice towards the persons they are obliged to mention, and whose actions they are at liberly to censure.' It was beyond human nature for a man who had lived through what he did to be completely unprejudiced. He did not always scrupulously weigh what he knew would be no discredit to the Parliamentary leaders, nor did he ignore mere Royalist rumour, as in the character of Pym. . . . The folly of his own side is exhibited as relentlessly as the knavery of his opponents. Of no one did he write a more unfavorable character than the Earl of Arundel. He explains the failure of Laud, and he does not conceal the weakness of Charles. . . . He looked at 5 6 See Henry Morley's Character Writings of the XVII Century, David Nichol Smith's Characters oj the XVII Century, 1918. 57 Characters oj the Seventeenth Century, 1918, p. xli. 58 Ibid., p. 275. 5 9 Book ix, ed. Macray, IV, 3,

1891; and

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men from a distance which obscures what is insignificant, and shows only the essential. " All his characters are clearly defined," continues Smith.60 " We never confound them; we never have any doubt of how he understood them. He sees men as a whole before he begins to describe them, and then his only difficulty, as his manuscripts show, is to make his pen move fast enough. He does not build up characters. He does not, as many others do, start with the external features in the hope of arriving at the central facts. He starts at the center and works outwards. This is the reason of the convincingness of his characters, their dramatic truth. The dramatic sense in him is stronger than the pictorial. " He troubles little about personal appearance, or any of the traits which would enable us to visualize his men. We understand them rather than see them. Hampden, he tells us, was ' of a most civil and affable deportment' and had ' a flowing courtesy to all men, a rare temper and modesty'; it is Sir Philip Warwick who speaks of the ' scurf commonly on his face.' . . . In the characters proper, he confines himself more strictly than any of the writers to matters of character. They are characters rather than portraits." Less recent judgments of Clarendon's skill are illuminating. Evelyn, in a letter to Pepys, observed that the characters in Clarendon's History " were so just, and tempered without the least ingredient of passion or tincture of revenge, yet with such natural and lively touches as show his lordship knew not only the persons' outsides, but their very interiors." 61 More than a half-century later, Samuel Johnson remarked: " We cannot trust to the characters we find in history, unless they are drawn by those who knew the persons; as those, for instance, by Sallust and Lord Clarendon." 62 The character, however, as employed by Clarendon is a different form from short biography. Biography often em60 61 62

Ibid., p. xliii. Pepys' Diary, ed. Braybrooke, 1825, II, 280. Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill, 1887, II, 79.

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ploys the features of the character for its final analysis of a man, but the former is more minute in both descriptive and narrative detail, and explores regions of the heart and mind that the latter form cannot undertake. Biography stresses the individualizing characteristics of the man of whom it treats; it concerns itself only briefly with the type to which the individual belongs. Its task lies in differentiation rather than in identification. By reason of its thoroughness of interpretation, it is richer, and more valuable to the age and posterity. When biography became a recognized form, the character began to lose its appeal and vogue. Clarendon illustrated the character in its seventeenth century degree of perfection, and in so doing he analyzed character in a way that approached the method of the interpretative biographer. The character, as has been pointed out, was almost destitute of biographical facts. Its purpose did not include the recording of dates of births and deaths, principal movements, and works performed or written, of the men with whom it dealt. Records of such details were left to the antiquarians and the compilers of biographical information. Despite Godwin's complaint that " our Antiquaries may be justly taxed of Sloth," e3 the age which produced eulogistic Lives, histories with incidental accounts of men, and collections of characters, was not without compilations that were the precursors of the biographical dictionaries. In a subsequent chapter, the development of biographical lexicography is considered at length, but in order to complete the survey of the various aspects of Life-writing in the pre-eighteenth century period, it is necessary to glance briefly at the province of the compilations of biographical facts. In many instances, these collections of data are now little more than literary curiosities. Even as source-books, their value is not great, save for a few noteworthy exceptions. The chief explanation for the meagreness and untrustworthiness of these performances is to be found in the prevailing tendencies 6 3 Preface to the Historic Queen Mary, ed. 1676.

oj the Reignes

oj Henry VIII,

Edward

VI,

and

48

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BIOGRAPHY

of the age in investigation. The science of scholarship, which includes patience and energy in investigating all available sources of information, and which includes as well an unwillingness to accept as accurate all that is heard and read without satisfactory evidence, was in its infancy. Lack of the true investigating instinct and of a sense of discrimination in biographical values was the chief handicap under which the early compilers worked. Their collections became, as a result, somewhat barren and untrustworthy. It is, however, important to note that the early compilers were controlled by the purpose to inform rather than to uplift their readers. They had no hymns of praise to sing and no sermons to preach. In spite of the inadequacies of their compilations, they expressed a clearer biographical impulse than those who used Life-writing as a vehicle for panegyric and ethical instruction. The compilations of such antiquaries as Leland, Bale, and Pits illustrate the beginnings of biographical lexicography in England. 64 Thomas Fuller, in his Worthies oj England (1662), characterized them as follows: " Leland is the industrious Bee working Bale is the angry Wasp stinging Pits is the idle Drone stealing "

The " industrious Bee " judgment must not be taken too literally, although it can be proved that Leland was not that which Fuller called Pits. The compilations of these men, all in Latin originally, were meagre in information, and even fantastic in places. Such names as Samothes Gigas, Barbus Druydius, and Perdix Prasagus were listed—names which Fuller correctly ascribed to " fabulous antiquity, or rather fanciful fabels." 65 It is interesting to note that early seventeenth century compilers were willing to rely on these collections for some of their details. The late seventeenth century, however, showed a marked advance in the province of biographical compilations. In 64 65

See Chapter VI. Ed. 1662, Chapter X, p. 26.

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49

most instances, the same lack of patient investigation that is revealed in the compilations of the earlier period is evident here, but by the second half of the century, there were a few painstaking investigators—men who were often unwilling to accept as authentic data and reports on which there was not some concrete check. Two groups stand out among the late seventeenth century antiquarians and compilers: those who might be called in Fuller's whimsical terms " the idle Drones stealing," and those who were " the industrious Bees working." In the former class William Winstanley and Edward Phillips belong; in the latter, Thomas Fuller, John Aubrey, and Anthony a Wood. In the opinion of some, Wood was " an angry Wasp stinging," but in spite of the disagreeableness of some of his comments concerning his contemporaries, his patience and energy can rarely be called into question. The most outstanding example of the tendency of seventeenth century compilers toward the superficial is to be found in the work of William Winstanley (1628-1690?). According to his contemporary Anthony a Wood, Winstanley was a barber by trade, who in middle-age gave up the razor for the pen. " The scissors, however, he retained," observed Wood, " for he borrowed without stint, and without acknowledgement also, from his predecessors." 68 The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets, or the Honour of Parnassus appeared in 1687 in order to satisfy that which the compiler recognized as a long-felt want. With all due respect for Winstanley's lofty ambition,67 it must be admitted that he failed to offer a series of accounts that were the result of painstaking investigation. His chief difficulty arose from the fact that he tried to do too much with his limited equipment. With no true instinct for investigation and with literary perceptions that were far from keen, he attempted to provide brief accounts of the lives of the poets from Robert of Gloucester to William Wycherly. 68 It is doubtful whether more than a few of the 66 67 68

Athenae Oxcmienses, ed. Bliss, IV, 763. Cf. Preface, ed. 1687. Whicherly in the text.

50

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details he listed in the series of accounts were the result of his efforts with primary sources. Thomas Fuller's Worthies of England, which had been published in 1662, helped to suggest the possibilities of such a compilation, but it is certain that Winstanley began his work without realizing the proportions of the task in which he had become involved. Not only was his equipment deficient for the undertaking of such a task, but he was unaware of the critical standards which guided contemporary lexicographers and those of more recent times. It is small wonder that under these handicaps he failed to produce a compilation that has biographical dictionary, or even source-book value. Not only was the task too large for one man of his proclivities to undertake, but his method was also seriously at fault. To be keenly discriminating in the selection of details was essential to the partial success of his work, but Winstanley had little of this sense of discrimination. Anything at all, fact or fiction, that he had heard or read about the poets whose lives he attempted to detail, he recorded. This method might be delightful with some compilers, but Winstanley did not know much about the English poets, and that which he knew that was of consequence he had gathered from earlier compilations. Furthermore, his appreciative sense was not sufficiently alert to cause him to proportion his work satisfactorily. Barton Holyday and Cyril Turney come in for the same share of space and praise as Shakespeare and Jonson. Many important names in the procession of famous poets of England were not listed; and the lives of those poets who were selected were treated so cursorily, and with such a generous use of dashes to indicate gaps in the author's information, that the reader who finds what he wants in the compilation is indeed fortunate. To call Winstanley indolent may be over-severe, but it is certain that he was not a painstaking investigator of primary sources. The Shakespeare account, for instance, ends as follows: " This our famous Comedian died An. Dom. 16— and was buried at Stratford upon Avon, the Town of his Nativity;

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51

upon whom one hath bestowed this epitaph, though more proper had he been buried in Westminster Abbey. . . ." 6 9 For a man of Winstanley's time and professed inclinations to be unable to find the date of Shakespeare's death is now difficult to understand. However, when the reader compares Winstanley's account of Shakespeare with that of Fuller in the Worthies of England, the reason for the dash in connection with the date of Shakespeare's death is evident. The merits and inadequacies of Fuller's account are in Winstanley's, for the latter used, without acknowledgment, Fuller's sketch almost verbatim. Edward Phillips' (1630-1696) contribution to the compilations of facts about the English poets, entitled Theatrum Poetarum (1674), is also a feeble performance. Phillips, the nephew of John Milton, and his eulogist,70 was in some respects better equipped than Winstanley for the work of compiling data about poets' lives. He was more widely read, and his sense of appreciation was undoubtedly more keen than that of the author of The Honour of Parnassus. At the beginning of his account of Milton, which was issued with the State Papers in 1694, he revealed his familiarity with the forms of Lifewriting by mentioning such names as Plutarch; Cornelius Nepos; ' Machiavel, a noble Florentine, who elegantly wrote the Life of Castracano, Lord of Luca'; Fulke Greville, and Izaak Walton. In his compilation, however, he demonstrated none of the instinct of the painstaking investigator, and no sense of obligation to those whose works he used for his own accounts.71 He borrowed freely from every source that was near at hand, and he did not put himself to the trouble of trying to reject or authenticate the data that he found in others' collections. Furthermore, the accounts are all possessed of a eulogistic flavor. The figure of speech that serves as the title for the collection is, in itself, a description of the work. 69

Ed. 1687, p. 133. See his Life of Milton, prefixed to the Letters of State, 1694. 71 The Shakespeare sketch was Milton's judgment of the dramatist, although Phillips did not acknowledge it as such at the time he transcribed it for his compilation. 70

52

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BIOGRAPHY

The poets who move behind the footlights in the Theatre are unreal in the mist of panegyric with which the author surrounds them. As a literary curiosity, Theatrum Poetarum has some charm; but as a reliable and thorough compilation of facts about the English poets, the work is a failure. In spite of the prevailing tendency among compilers to work from secondary sources and to consume their space with eulogy rather than facts, there were some men in the latter part of the century who were by no means indolent, and who, while capitalizing the virtue truth, attempted to verify and reject data by consulting primary sources. They were antiquarians rather than biographical lexicographers, but their interest lay chiefly in men. Recognizing the need for compilations of facts about noteworthy Englishmen that were trustworthy, they set to work in order to satisfy this need, and to satisfy their own antiquarian instincts to investigate and authenticate data. Of these, John Aubrey (1626-1698) and Anthony a Wood (1632-1695) are outstanding. They were friends, and their association with each other carried with it perceptible advantages in their offerings to posterity. Wood was to a large extent responsible for Aubrey's entrance into the work of brief Life-writing, for he saw in Aubrey one who could assist him greatly in uncovering materials for that which was to become a colossal gallery of portraits of noteworthy Englishmen. It was in 1666 that Wood came to Aubrey with his plan, and the latter, having a considerable inclination toward antiquarianism and an unfaltering inquisitiveness about men, and having at the time little to engage his serious effort, eagerly accepted the proposal. 72 As late as 1680, he was still busily engaged, although it is unlikely, knowing Aubrey as we do, that he was constantly at work. " I am glad you put me on it," he wrote to Wood. 73 That he enjoyed uncovering material and jotting down the results of his findings cannot be doubted, for there 72 Cf. J. Britain's Life oj John Aubrey, London, 1845, p. 112; see also Masson's article in the Quarterly Review, Vol. X X I V . MS. Bonard, X I V , 131.

INTRODUCTORY

53

is a spirit in Aubrey's manner of recording facts and drawing portraits that cannot be mistaken for ennui. In 1680, Aubrey sent a sheaf of manuscript to Wood. This contained those jottings which were arranged and issued in the following century under the title Brie) Lives. Accompanying his manuscript, he defined his attitude toward his work. His sketches were to contain, he wrote, only " the naked and plaine truth." 74 It was not necessary for him to add that the brief accounts were the result of years of nosing about among primary sources, and of attentive listening to the stories and descriptions of those who had authority to speak about the men of whom he wished to write. The Brief Lives is more than a literary curiosity. Aubrey recognized the usefulness of a trustworthy series of facts. It is not unlikely that posterity was considered as he performed his investigations and jotted down the results of his findings. No motive distracted him from his purpose to be trustworthy. His nature made it impossible for him to keep himself completely out of the accounts, but his prejudices and loyalties were usually modulated by a candour that is both reassuring and delightful. In him there was little of the panegyrist, and even less of the moralist. His interest lay in facts, not in the lessons that a life illustrated. His talent was for the pictorial and the interpretative, not for fulsome praise or scorn. The brief Lives possess not only a determined candour, but they reveal as well a sense of discrimination on the part of the author. Aubrey had a sense of biographical values. In spite of the gossipy nature of most of his accounts, there is little in them that is inconsequential to the character and portrait of the man delineated. His bold brush strokes gave a fullness to most of the portraits. John Milton " was of middle stature, he had light abroun hayre, his complexion exceeding faire. he was so faire, that they called him the lady of Christ's College. ovali face, his eie a dark grey. . . . he was a Spare man." 7B Such jottings, when they were not the result of his 74 75

Andrew Clark's Introduction to Brief Lives, 1898, p. 10. Brief Lives, ed. Clark, II, 67.

5

54

ENGLISH

BIOGRAPHY

own observations, were supported by the descriptions that had been given to him by those whom he considered to be of good authority. His attempts to be reliable are everywhere in evidence. Dashes here, indicating lapses of memory or mistrust of the information given him concerning dates and places, along with a generous use of " I forgott what M r . said," cause the reader to feel that when something appears in black and white, its t r u t h has been tested by the author. Aubrey in his Brie) Lives was more t h a n a compiler. With his gift for vivid description, and with his keen sense of discrimination in biographical values, he was well equipped to produce the kind of biography that provides essential facts and brief characterization in a limited space. Only in rare instances is the reader disappointed after having consulted Aubrey's accounts. Possibly the reader does not always find exactly the detail for which he is looking, but in most instances he finds the man about whom he wants information described so vividly, and in a way t h a t is so rich in suggestion, that his disappointment is readily forgotten. T h e r e are instances in which the author's " I forgott what M r . — said " becomes exasperating; and one need not search for long to find accounts in which there is a poverty of descriptive detail and characterization. Severe judgment, however, in such instances cannot be applied. T h e Brief Lives were not intended to perform the work of a finished and exhaustive sketch. T h e y are notes about men, presented in a direct, unassuming way by a man who was a keen observer and a painstaking investigator. T h e source-book value of Aubrey's compilation is considerable; and the charm of the manner of " the Prince of Gossips " recommends the accounts to any who find interest in the illustrious figures of the seventeenth century. In the motive that directed his efforts, and in the results that he achieved, there can be found the germ of modern biography. Anthony a Wood, whose influence on Aubrey's efforts must be recognized, produced a less engaging series of sketches, b u t a far more exhaustive compilation. As early as 1674, his work was well under way; in fact, he had been collecting materials

INTRODUCTORY

55

concerning the lives of illustrious Englishmen since his early days at the University.76 In 1691, the effort of a life-time appeared in the form of a huge compilation entitled Athenae Oxotiienses.'7 The works of Winstanley, Phillips, and Aubrey sink into insignificance when their volume is compared with that of Wood's compilation. Athenae Oxonienses represents tireless energy in investigating first-hand sources. It was a marked step in the direction of good biographical lexicography. The author of this collection of brief Lives was possessed of the true investigating instinct, and his methods, which were supported by patience and care, were essentially those of the scholar. Furthermore, Wood was possessed of a critical sense that made him openly hostile to those prevailing tendencies in Life-writing which led to eulogy and ethical instruction. The hymns of praise that his contemporaries were chanting about those of whom he had seen and heard much evidently annoyed him, for he lost no opportunity to scorn the panegyrical school. The superficiality and indolence of the compilers of his time were vices that one of his energy could not condone. To borrow from earlier compilations and sources of authority without acknowledging indebtedness was to him not only indolent, but dishonest. Wood was possessed in most respects of the equipment of the true biographical lexicographer. In addition to the substantial equipment for fruitful investigation which he possessed, he had a pen that lent itself well to the expression of his observations and judgments. There is at times some of Aubrey's gossipy charm in his accounts, but generally his manner is direct and systematic. His directness lacks Aubrey's pointedness, but his accounts lack as well the unfinished quality that those of his friend possess. Wood's sketches do not have the flavor of a series of jottings; they are more formal, and they often have a completeness of outline 76

His work he originally planned to write in Latin, but he turned to English for the final draft in order to make his work useful to a wider group of readers. 77 On account of the author's frequent disagreeable observations, the collection was unpopular. For some of the libelous details that the accounts possessed, he was sued. There is a record of an affair at which the volumes were consigned in public to the flames. Cf. sub Wood, D. N. B.

56

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BIOGRAPHY

that leaves few of the essential facts unrecorded. Wood lacked Aubrey's vividness, but he made up for this deficiency in part by his comparative fullness of detail. There are at times facts that border on the inconsequential, but his sense of discrimination in biographical values can rarely be questioned. The chief fault in his manner of recording details lay in his inability to remain sufficiently objective. It is with Wood's eyes that the reader is permitted to view illustrious Oxonians. Had the compiler been less given to fault-finding, this subjectivity would have had its virtues, but it is well while consulting some of the accounts to bear in mind that Wood was not possessed of the most charitable nature. " It is no excellence in the historian to throw a veil on deformities," he insisted; and with this conviction, he proceeded frequently to stress the blemishes rather than the virtues of his fellowalumni. The prevailing tendency of the times to eulogize augmented Wood's inclination toward fault-finding. Of praise, he had a right to be suspicious, for when it occurred in the accounts of his contemporaries, it so obscured the man that little of fact was revealed. Wood's observations and reflections were often touched with misanthropy, but in few instances were his accounts directed by malice and warped by invective. In spite of all the charges of pedantry and disagreeableness that have been brought against him, Wood's contribution to the province of biographical compilations has not only historical significance, but it remains a source-book that can be approached with considerable confidence. Andrew Lang, for instance, in the chapters dealing with the seventeenth century in his History of English Literature, recognized Wood's Athenae Oxonienses as a rich store-house. Others, including lexicographers of recent date, have consulted Wood's volumes, and have seen fit to rely unreservedly on the rich results of his investigations. Anthony a Wood, working in an age in which the science of scholarship was in its infancy, by reason of his patience and industry, and his recognition of the value

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57

of primary sources, provided posterity with a compilation that possesses many of the virtues of the most recent contributions to biographical lexicography. This cursory survey of representative examples in the different provinces in which Life-writing had its existence during the pre-eighteenth century period suffices to demonstrate the conclusion that biography, as a distinct and recognized literary genre, had not as yet come into its own. It is true that much that was essentially biographical, both in motive and result, was produced before 1700, but the form in its fullness and distinctiveness had not emerged. Izaak Walton recognized Life-writing as a form both useful and artistic, but his five Lives, despite their charm, do not illustrate the true conception of biography. Bacon and Dryden were aware of a line of demarcation between biography and history, but their works which belong to the province of Life-writing reveal only in part the possibilities of the form. Aubrey and Wood contributed compilations that possess biographical value, but their works, in spite of their many virtues, were not designed to meet the demands of any save those who wanted a brief and pointed account. A complete study of personality in which the characteristic details of human experience form the underlying thread of the narrative, and in which sympathetic interpretation of the principal movements of the character, and of the character himself, makes the portrait of the man more searching and faithful, was not demanded by the seventeenth century reader of Lives. The times called for little more than they received. That subsequent generations have found the works of the early Life-writers disappointing is an observation that need not be amplified. The demands made on a literary form such as biography are susceptible to the circumstances of the times.

58

ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY (CHAPTER

ONE)

LIFE-WRITING BEFORE THE EIGHTEENTH LIVES

CENTURY

(Unless otherwise stated, the works have been consulted in the first editions)

Aubrey, John. Brief Lives. Written 1669-1690; ed. Andrew Clark, 2 vols., Oxford, 1898. Bacon, Sir Francis. Historie oj the Raigne oj King Henry the Seventh. First ed. 1622; ed. used, 1676. Bale, John. Illustrium Maioris Britanniae Scriptorum, hoc est, Angliae, Cambriae, ac Scotiae, Summarium. . . . First ed. 1548. See R. L. Poole's John Bale's Index oj British and Other Writers, Oxford, 1902. Cavendish, George. The Negotiations oj Thomas Woolsey, the Great Cardinal oj England, Containing his Life and Death. Written c. 1556; first ed. 1641; ed. used, London, 1905. (Reprint of the edition of the Kelmscott Press, London, 1893.) Dryden, John. The Life of Plutarch. First ed. 1683, published with the new translation of Plutarch's Lives; ed. used, Vol. XVII, Dryden's Complete Works, Scott-Saintsbury ed., London, 1892. Foxe, John. Actes and Monuments oj these latter and perillous dayes, touching matters oj the Church, Etc., Etc. First ed. 1563. Fuller, Thomas. The History oj the Worthies oj England. First ed. 1662; ed. used, 1662 and 1840. Gauden, John. The Works oj Mr. Richard Hooker . . . With an Account oj his Holy Lije, and Happy Death . . . , 1662. Greville, Fulke. The Lije of the Renown'd Sir Philip Sidney. With the true Interest of England as it then stood in Relation to all Forain Princes: and particularly for suppressing the power of Spain Stated by Him. His Principall Actions, Counsels, Designes, and Death. Written c. 1610; first ed. 1652. Godwin, Francis. Rerum Anglicarum Henrico VIII, Edwardo VI, et Maria Regentibus, Annates. Latin ed. 1616; ed. used, Morgan Godwin's trans., Historie of the Reignes of King Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Mary, 1676.

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59

Hall, Joseph. Characters oj the Vertues and Vices, 1609; example? in David Nichol Smith's Characters oj the Seventeenth Century, 1918. Hayward, John. The First Part oj the Lije and Raigne oj King Henry the IIII, 1599. Hoddesdon, John. The Historie oj the Lije and Death oj Sr. Thomas More. First ed. 1652. Holland, Philemon. Translated the Lives oj the Caesars by Suetonius in 1606. Holinshed, Raphael. Chronicles oj England, Scotlande, and Irelande. First ed. 1557; ed. used, 6 vols., fol., 1807-8. Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon. History oj the Rebellion. Written c. 1671; first ed., 3 vols., Oxford, 1702-4; ed. used, 1 vol., 1826.

Leland, John. Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis. Written c. 1540; ed. used, Oxford, 1709. More, Sir Thomas. Historie oj King Richard III. Written c. 1515; first ed. 1534; ed. used, Cambridge, 1883. North, Thomas. Translated Plutarch's Lives in 1579. Overbury, Sir Thomas. Characters, 1614; examples in David Nichol Smith's Characters oj the Seventeenth Century, 1918. Perrott, Sir John. The History oj That most Eminent Statesman, Sir John Perrott, Knight oj the Bath, and Lord Lieutenant oj Ireland. Written c. 1600, cf. Stauffer; ed. used, 1728. Phillips, Edward. Theatrum Poetarum, 1674. Pits, John. De Illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus. Paris, 1619. See John Berkenhout's Biographia Literaria (1777) for a description of this work. Plutarch. Parallel Lives. See Thomas North. Roper, William. The Mirrour oj vertue in worldly greatness, or the Lije oj Syr Thomas More, Knight, sometime Lo. Chancellour oj England. Written c. 1557; first ed., Paris, 1626; ed. used, S. W. Singer's, Chiswick, 1817. Saints' Lives. Adamnan. Vita S. Columbae. Written c. 700; see the translation of W. Huyshe, 1906. Bollandists. Materials in the Acta Sanctorum from its beginning in 1643 to the present. Chaucer, Geoffrey. Saints' Lives in verse, e.g., The Second Nonne's Tale, or the lyj oj Seinte Cecile. Canterbury Tales.

60

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Sprat, Thomas. The Life and Writings of Mr. Abraham Cowley, 1668; ed. used, 1710, prefixed to a new edition of Cowley's Works. Suetonius. Lives oj the Caesars. See Philemon Holland. Stapleton, Thomas. Tres Thomae (Thomas the Apostle, Thomas a Becket, Sir Thomas More), 1588. Tacitus. Life and Character of Agricola. (Savile's translation, 1591; Greneway's, 1603.) Walton, Izaak. Lives. (First ed. of four Lives, 1670. Life oj Bishop Sanderson, 1678; ed. used, London, 1864.) Winstanley, William. The Lives oj the Most Famous English Poets, or the Honour oj Parnassus, 1687. Wood, Anthony a. Athenae Oxonienses. An Exact History oj All the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in . . . Oxford from 1500, to the end oj the year 1690. First ed., 2 vols., 1691-92; ed. used, Phillip Bliss, 1813. CRITICISM OF P R E - E I G H T E E N T H C E N T U R Y L I F E - W R I T I N G

Bacon, Sir Francis. The Advancement oj Learning, 1605; ed. used, Wright, 1866. Brathwait, Richard. The Schollers Medley, 1614; reissued in 1651 and 1652 under the title A Survey of History. For excerpts and a criticism, see Matthew W. Black's Richard Brathwait, a University of Pennsylvania thesis, 1928. Dryden, John. Introduction to the Lije oj Plutarch, 1683. Dunn, Waldo. English Biography, New York, 1916. Cross, Wilbur L. An Outline oj Biography jrom Plutarch to Strachey, With a Bibliography, New York, 1924. Gerould, Gordon H. Saints' Legends, Boston, 1916. Godwin, Francis. Introduction to The Historie of the Reignes of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Mary. English ed., 1676. Holweck, F. G. A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints, With a General Introduction on Hagiology, New York, 1924. Johnston, James C. Biography: the Literature of Personality, New York, 1927. Lee, Sir Sidney. The Principles of Biography, Cambridge, 1911. Metcalf, John Calvin. The Stream of English Biography. (A brief survey of the field, and an anthology of selections.) New York, 1930.

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61

Morley, Henry. Character Writings of the Seventeenth Century, 1891. Nicolson, Harold. The Development of English Biography, New York, 1928. Smith, David Nichol. Characters of the Seventeenth Century, Oxford, 1918. Stauffer, Donald A. English Biography Before 1700, Harvard University Press, 1930.

II THE INFLUENCES WHICH MADE POSSIBLE THE MODERN CONCEPTION OF BIOGRAPHY |A|

ftfia

|Aft

|Aa

AA*

aA|

|ff»

T

»n.

«A*

HE brief survey of the forms and methods which Lifewriting took during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries offers sufficient proof that biography, as the term is now accepted, had no true and sustained exponent. Walton, Dryden, Aubrey, and Wood were pioneers in a province unnamed and uncharted; they all contributed records of personality that are fairly trustworthy and engaging, but their efforts, as has been pointed out, fell a little short of the boundaries of the form. In a few minds there existed a consciousness of the defining feature of the genre, but at the time of the death of Dryden, biography was still to a large extent confused with history, panegyric, and the motive of ethical instruction. The eighteenth century, however, by reason of a combination of circumstances saw the rapid growth and maturity of English biography. The days of the Georges produced a procession of authors whose contributions to the matter and methods of the form have never been excelled. Addison, as early as 1716, observed with some misgivings " a race of men lately sprung up . . . Grub Street biographers, who watch for the death of a great man like so many undertakers. . . . " 1 Steele, after glancing through Captain Alexander Smith's History of the Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen (1714), observed the growing "satisfaction to curiosity in knowing the adventures of the meanest of mankind." 2 I n 1 The Freeholder, April 20, 1716. 2 Preface to the revised edition of the History, 1719. 62

MODERN

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63

1759, Samuel Johnson, noticing the prevalence of the form, reported that " Biography is, of the various kinds of narrative writing, that which is most eagerly read. . . . " 3 The wide prevalence of Life-writing in the latter half of the century is little short of amazing. Biography became a fad. Few men of literary and scholarly inclinations refused the appeal to write Lives. The friends of poets and statesmen clamored for the privilege of recording their achievements. No age, with the possible exception of the last decade of our own, manifested such an interest in the form, and produced so many inspiring and varied examples. Fifty years elapsed after the death of Dryden before a real attempt was made to write his life,* but the quarter century following Pope's death produced no fewer than five Lives, not including the collections of anecdotes and letters; 5 and in the decade following Johnson's death, at least seven biographical accounts appeared, including Boswell's. So wide was the prevalence of the form that by 1770 much of the space of the Monthly Review was given over to critical discussions of recently published Lives. The latter half of the century produced so many interesting expressions of the art of Life-writing that any attempt to list them all would be not only monotonous but well-nigh impossible. 6 It was the age of William Oldys, Thomas Birch, Conyers Middleton; of Mason, Johnson, and Malone—and it was the age of James Boswell. The Elizabethan and seventeenth century models for Lifewriting had little to do with the growth of the form in the days of the Georges. They were not biographies, and the eighteenth century readers and recorders recognized this fact. Oldys, Mason, Johnson and others regarded them as models to be avoided, and as a lesson in what not to do. The century with its rapidly developing rage for reality demanded something different from the fustian panegyrics and mirrors of 3

Idler. November 24, 1759. Number 84. " Charles Wilson's " effort is hardly to be mentioned. See p. 147 infra. 5 See p. 389 infra. 6 A glance at the index of the Monthly Review from 17S0 to the end of the century provides the most satisfying evidence. 4

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virtue that had evidently satisfied the earlier age. With an energy born of the desire to know the whole truth, the scholars and antiquaries went into the seventeenth century Lives in order to reveal their inaccuracies and scoff at the ethical baggage with which they were laden. Nor were they satisfied with only warning their age and posterity that the earlier accounts were motivated by impulses foreign to biography; with a new conception of thoroughness and truth, and with methods that showed the cultivation of the instincts of the scholar, they built up records of personality that inspire trust. The age insisted on reality and truth, with the result that any attempt to romanticize character met with disapproval, for to the times, poets, statesmen, and kings were first and last men. Such a state of affairs was not the result of chance, nor was it the result of a long and necessary process of evolution. Biography as a distinct and recognized literary genre developed rapidly, even suddenly, not out of the odds and ends and main roots of earlier motives and examples of Life-writing, but out of the spirit of the times. The life and letters of the half century following the Restoration were the soil out of which modern biography grew. The eighteenth century Life was as natural a by-product of the interests of the age as was the novel, and in its development the form was constantly nourished by the trend of the times. In order to understand the literary spirit of the age which witnessed the early growth of biography, it is necessary to recognize the important rôle that France played in English affairs. During the half century following the Restoration, the English dependence on French models of art and life was considerable. Never before had the bond between France and England been so pronounced. When Charles I I crossed the Channel to ascend the throne, London began to apply itself to a studied cultivation of things French. The beau monde imitated with success the brilliance of the court life in Paris; the Comedy of Manners had a Gallic ring in its dialogue; and Boileau, L a Bruyère, Madame de Sévigné, and the Duc de Saint Simon were far from unknown. The French

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spirit became more than a brilliant veneer on British institutions; it had a perceptible influence on the English mind. A brief examination of this French baggage which came over with Charles at the time of the Restoration is decidedly pertinent to the study of the development of the modern conception of biography. In the spirited days of Louis XIV, the French mind was mundane. In past and future, it had no interest; its attention was riveted on the little world of the here and now, and on the actualities of human experience. The vague and imaginative had no appeal. Reality of content and perfection of form were the objectives of literary effort. With the lessons of life, the French mind did not concern itself directly; it saw with eyes unclouded by any motive other than seeing. In its faithful and penetrating observations, it found human features in both king and beggar. In spite of its occasional satirical smile, it was contented, for the life that it observed was interesting. The wisdom of the French mind was essentially worldly, for in its observations it followed men only insofar as they were concrete figures in a thoroughly real world.7 In England, the results of this new spirit were soon evident. Before the eighteenth century had opened, John Locke was led by the rejection of the dominance of innate ideas to make experience the absolute source of knowledge. Theologians began to bring religion out of the skies to earth in order to examine it and justify its uses by rational interpretation. In literature—in fact, in all British institutions—the intellect became the only court of appeal. Accuracy of design and fidelity to reality were the major motives to be cultivated in all the art forms. Before the first half of the century had passed, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Charles Jervas, Sir James Thornhill, and Hogarth painted portraits of men, not as they possibly should have been, but as they were. Architecture devoted itself to a frankness of line that was classic in its simplicity, and the literary arts made plain that " the proper study of mankind " 7

A m o n g other excellent illustrations of these conclusions, A n t h o n y

ton's Memoirs

of the Count

de Grammont

is t o be mentioned.

Hamil-

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was man. T h e sober ethics of an age of reason insisted on absolute reality and truth. In the past and future, and in the vague and distant, the age had little interest. London was the firmament; the here and now absorbed the attention of the times to such an extent that the insistent whisperings of nature were not heard and the bright hues of the romance of the past were passed by unseen. T o the age, beauty and reality were synonymous terms. A faithful likeness of J a c k Sheppard in his dungeon room at Newgate commanded more interest than a Botticelli Madonna, or a Salvador Rosa argosy; the R y e Plot was of greater significance than the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and a structurally perfect couplet by Pope was sweeter than a song by Robert Herrick. Such a state of affairs, in spite of the restrictions which it forced on the talented men of the age, carried with it definite advantages. T h a t tendency, which is present to a greater or less degree in all literary epochs, that insists on reality was one of the products of that which is generally termed the Age of Classicism. The age, refusing as it did the inclination toward the vague and the romantic, was responsible for the growth of a lively interest in human nature. It undoubtedly placed restriction on its talented disciples, but it insisted on a realistic treatment of man. It was, generally speaking, this growth of realism in which biography had its roots, and out of which it in time sprang. Without it, Life-writing would have followed its seventeenth century channels with little interruption. It had a direct bearing on all phases of literature, and in its development it was responsible for the birth and direction of our most popular literary forms. T h e novel, as well as biography, sprang out of this growth of realism. T h e passing of the idealistically treated Life and the passing of the romantically treated characters in fiction were the result of the same tendency. Novelists and Life-writers viewed the life of man as a real experience; to them, poets, soldiers, and kings were real men who lived in a thoroughly real world. T h e prevalence of the classic models of Plutarch, Suetonius,

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and Tacitus; and the collections of Life-records and realistically treated characters that France had produced and was producing, were undoubtedly a force which helped to direct the growth of English biography; but these influences sink into insignificance when they are compared with the effect that the manifestations of the development of realism in England had on the establishment and direction of the form. Elaborate theses might be advanced to trace the influences of Suetonius on the methods of William Oldys, or to prove that Spence's sketch of Robert Hill, entitled A Parallel in the Manner of Plutarch (1757), was only one illustration of the regard of the century for the methods of the ancients, and they would have their point; but it would be more pleasant and valuable in seeking out the influences which made possible the rise of biography to linger for a while in an early eighteenth century coffee-house to listen to stories about eminent Londoners, or to glance at the satirical pamphlets which were passed out within a stone's throw of the St. James—or of more value still, to read the diaries, the autobiographies, the published correspondences, the confession-literature, the charactersketches in the Tatler and Spectator, and the realistic novels of Defoe, Richardson, Smollett, and Fielding. Then possibly a survey of early eighteenth century Oxford and Cambridge might indicate the reasons for the inclination of the age toward accuracy. These were the places in which the early manifestations of realism flourished, and it was chiefly here that the roots of biography became strong. The influence of the coffee-houses in directing the current of realism in the treatment of character was more pronounced than is commonly supposed. The early eighteenth century coffee-house was not only a reflection of the times, but it was a directing force to the trend of the age as well. It was an intimate place, comfortable as such places go, and bright with jests and stories of various hues. Here rakes, dandies, and dilettantes moved about with studied grace, detailing scandal as glittering as their brocaded waistcoats, while country squires and the inquisitive of Grub Street nodded credulously, or

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laughed with boisterous pleasure. Here the prototypes of Mr. Tattle, Scandal, Sir Benjamin Backbite, and Will Honeycomb sat with lips parted in eager anticipation while the older generation of the Candours and Sneerwells detailed the choicest gossip in seductive half-tones. From the recent play at Covent Garden, the stories moved to actresses—-Could it be possible that Mrs. Bracegirdle . . . ? Duchesses and Kitty Clive were mentioned in the same breath. Mrs. Centlivre was surely the wife of Queen Anne's cook—and Aphra Behn— What had Mr. Pope said about her? Of course, Mr. Curll's story about the Duchess of Marlborough wasn't true—but how did Elizabeth Thomas know so much about it? Ha! Curll's a two-penny scandal-monger. . . . Poor George Farquhar! And so the stories grew and so they were flavored. From a late seventeenth century account, entitled The Character of a Coffee-House, with the Symptoms of a Town Wit,'the following spirited description is drawn: A coffee-house is a lay conventicle, good fellowship turned puritan, ill-husbandry in masquerade, whither people come after toping all day, to purchase, at the expense of their last penny, the repute of sober companions; a Rota-room, that, like Noah's ark receives animals of every sort, from the precise diminutive band, to the hectoring cravat and cuffs in folio; a nursery for training up the smaller fry of virtuosi in confident tattling, or a cabal of kitling critics, that have only learned to spit and mew; a mint of intelligence that, to make each man his pennyworth, he draws out into pretty parcels what the merchant receives in bullion; he that comes often saves two-pence a week in Gazettes, and has his news and coffee for the same charge, as at a three-penny ordinary, they give in broth to your chop of mutton.

In spite of the exaggeration that colors such a description, it is certain that much " confident tattling " went on in these places. The coffee-house served its purpose well; it was a clearing house for gossip about both great and small. In the stories that were relayed about the tables, there was little panegyrical hue, and few moral lessons were conveyed in their sparkling narratives. Those who were discussed in the little 8

See the Harleian Miscellany,

VIII, 7.

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circles that formed in the corners were rarely left with a clear title to merit. Praise for one's fellows was hardly a popular form of pastime in the atmosphere of Will's and the St. James. During the reign of James II, Sir William Jones, his Majesty's attorney-general, found that the coffee-houses were used to " nourish sedition, spread lies, scandalize great men, and the like," 9 to such an extent that he, at the King's request, tried to revoke the licenses. This measure, however, never was applied, and the coffee-houses continued to be the clearing house for all manner of stories concerning eminent Londoners. Here great men were levelled to the rank and file of ordinary human beings. In spite of all the exaggeration that occurred in the stories that were told around the tables at Button's, men were often revealed as they really were. As early as 1680, John Aubrey, in a letter to his friend Wood, observed the value of coffee-houses to the biographer. The task of writing the Minutes of Lives, he wrote, " I never thought to have undertaken till you imposed it upon me, sayeing that I was fitt for it by reason of my generall acquaintance, having now not only lived above halfe a centurie of yeares in the world, but have also been much tumbled up and down in it which hath made me much knowne; besides the modern advantage of coffee-howses in this great Citie, before which men knew not how to be acquainted, but with their owne relations, or societies." 10 Closely allied to the influence of the coffee-house on the attitude of the age toward the study of man was that of written satire. Satire and the coffee-houses were reciprocal in their influence, and together they worked toward the goal of humanizing great men. Dryden in 1686 wrote that his age was fit only for satire; and the political and personal satires which he provided for his age did not make the decades immediately following the publication of MacFlecknoe less inclined to opprobrium. Political factionism, religious controversies, bitter rivalry and jealousy among literary men, and 9 10

North's Life of Baron Guilford, ed. 1826, p. 317. June IS, 1680. Aubrey's Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark, I, 10.

6

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feeble administrators and leaders made possible the constant tendency to find fault with the movements of eminent men. In the controversies which raged, few men escaped the attacks of the factionists. Through the darts of the satirists, monarchs and nobles were reduced to dolts and hypocrites, actresses to strumpets, and poets to scandal mongers and liars. It was not an age of hero-worship; no illustrious figure remained exalted and deified for long. By the time the controversialists had finished with Charles, James, Buckingham, Shaftesbury, Shadwell and Settle, it was difficult to find them objects for panegyric. Truly, as Addison put it a quarter century later, " Censure was the tax a man paid to the public for being eminent." Satire, especially the kind that appeared in the decades following the Restoration, is a more unreliable record to follow when facts are demanded than panegyric, and little of biographical value can be found in its passages. For us to picture Settle after having read MacFlecknoe, and for us to rely on Pope's portrait of Colley Cibber in the Dunciad would be more unreasonable than to accept Winstanley's glorified picture of Barton Holyday. Truly the relationship between satire and biography is remote, for the former's demands on truth have always been small. Irritation and maliciousness distort nature more readily than does praise; fault-finding never has and never will produce a reliable portrait of a man, but to realize that men have faults is one of the first steps to take in the analysis of personality. The influence of the satirical accounts of the foibles of the great on Life study was somewhat indirect, but it had a very positive effect on the attitude of men toward the illustrious figures of their age. Rejecting completely the attitude of reverence and loyal devotion which had characterized the earlier treatments of eminent Englishmen, and being permitted by the conventions of the age to make any allusion, no matter how disagreeable, to the private lives of their victims, the satirists, following and including Dryden, helped men to see that others—even the great—were all consigned to a strug-

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gle with themselves and with society, a struggle in which they were at times wavering and faint. By heightening their effects with irony and invective, they attained an end that was definite in its bearing on the mind of the age. As a reflection of the spirit of the times, and as a force on the direction of that spirit, satire played a part in the humanizing of man that was far-reaching in its effect. Growing out of the same tendency which made possible the vogue of the coffee-house and the satirical pamphlets, several literary forms began to flourish with a motive and vigor unknown in the early half of the seventeenth century. The treatment of character in the gossip at Will's and Button's and in the controversial pamphlets aided in the establishment of these forms, and France provided inspiring models to assist in their development; but it was chiefly out of the tendency of the times to study human nature that these forms drew their motive. The inclination of the age toward realism was directly responsible for the recognition of diaries, autobiographies, published correspondences, confessions, charactersketches, and novels as distinct literary forms. These were the types of literature that helped Life-writing to throw off its ethical and romantic encumbrances and to emerge from the provinces of history and panegyric with new motives and a real name. The unromantic methods for the treatment of character that these forms took assisted Life-records to become biographies. The diaries that were produced in the age of the Restoration, especially those of Evelyn and Pepys, in spite of the fact that they were not brought immediately into print, illustrate how completely realism had found its way into character delineation before the opening of the eighteenth century. The Diaries of Evelyn and Pepys anticipated to a large extent the intimate and realistic revelation of personality of the days of the Georges. Diary literature, by its very nature, is foreign to the romantic spirit. The trivialities of human experience which form the bulk of the entries do not permit an idealized treatment of life and self. Even the most con-

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firmed egoist becomes a flesh-and-blood individual in the entries of a faithfully kept diary. Here the author reveals not only his movements from day to day, but also his individuality. " An exact Diary is a window into the heart that maketh it." 11 Self may be idealized, but the revelation of personality does not become less real. In an age in which the proper study of mankind was rapidly becoming man, interest in self found engaging expression in the works of the diarists and autobiographers. Samuel Pepys found his daily life and himself objects for constant attention. He was vain—there are many passages in his Diary to prove it—but this vanity, under the influence of the times and the form into which he cast his record of self, could not construct a highly idealized portrait. His lack of an active imaginative faculty—an increasingly prevalent characteristic of the age— assisted him in making his entries faithful to his observations, and furthermore, it is more than likely that he understood full well that he had none of the features of a romantic hero. The nature of his entries made an heroic treatment of self impossible. To put on his suit " with great skirts " and to dine " at home in the garret " on the remains of a turkey which his wife had prepared—" and in the doing of it she burned her hand " —were interesting to him. Just to live was an adventure. It was in large part this delight in the minutiae of human experience that lay behind the eighteenth century conception of the study of man. Without this delight, that richness of biographical detail which makes Georgian Lives so engaging would have been rejected as inconsequential. Essentially the same motive that caused Pepys to jot down apparent trivialities in a day's movements caused Roger North to linger over Baron Guilford's attempt to marry a rich widow, and caused Boswell to report in full what Johnson had said about Purgatory. Closely allied to the self-revelations in the diaries were the detailed records of self in the autobiographies. As a literary genre, autobiography appeared in fairly pure form earlier than 11

Prynne's Remarks on Archbishop

Laud.

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its sister art biography. By its very nature, it assumed a distinctness of outline in its early development in England that biography did not possess. Autobiography cannot be confused in motive to the same extent that biography often is; with panegyric, it has rarely been confused, for self-praise has never been popular; and for essentially the same reason, it has rarely become a mirror of virtue. The form, however, has been susceptible to prevailing literary influences, with the result that in its development it has shown varying degrees of reality and intimacy in the treatment of self. With few exceptions, autobiography before 1600 possessed an objective quality which permitted little minute and intimate selfanalysis. John Bale's The Vocacyon of Iohan Bale to the Bishoprick of Ossorie in Ireland, his Persecutions in the same, and finall Delyveraunce, published in Rome in 1553, was an account of self covering one rather full year, in which the author was more concerned with the affairs of the Church than with detailed self-analysis. In the early half of the seventeenth century, autobiography reflected the prevailing tendency of the age to romanticize character. We have the account of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, written about 1642,12 in which the author, despite his announcement that he employed only " those passages in my life which I conceive may best declare me," made of himself an heroic figure. If we accept his self-portrait as a faithful likeness, we must admit that the author was the handsomest of men and possessed of the courage of a lion. The autobiography is absorbing, but the author's self-esteem is constantly evident. The autobiography of Margaret Cavendish, Lady Marchioness of Newcastle, entitled Natures pictures drawn by fancies Pencil (1656), provides another illustration of the prevailing inclination to idealize character. We are told at the outset that all of her brothers were brave and all the sisters virtuous; and throughout the course of the narrative, the egotism of the authoress gives an heroic cast to her personality. 12

First brought to the press by Walpole in 1764.

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In this account, however, and in others that were produced in the middle and late decades of the century, there was some choice and intimate self-revelation. The Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, written about 1676, is an excellent illustration of the growing inclination of the age to reject the heroic manner in self-study. 13 Its unique arrangement and the pot-pourri of diplomatic diary notes, tributes to her husband, and other lengthy digressions from self-study, destroy the unity of the portrait; but in those passages in which she dealt with self, she was not inclined to strike up the pose of a romantic heroine. In the sections of the work in which her attention was riveted on her own movements and reflections—especially in those which recall her pleasant girlhood—there is much that is vividly real. Her allusions to self are often a little stilted, but her treatment is never heroic. The records of Mrs. Hutchinson, the Duchess of Newcastle, and Lady Fanshawe are engaging to modern readers, but they illustrate only in part the growth of the true conception of the study of man. With the advance of realism in the half century following the Restoration, autobiography became a recognized and prevalent form. Mrs. Burr, in her careful study of the development of the genre,1* has provided a list of the self-studies that were produced in the epochs of British literature. In introducing her large eighteenth century list, she makes the significant observation that among this number is " the first small group of genuinely scientific self-students." In addition to the serious self-students that the age produced, there were scores of authors who seized upon the autobiography as a literary vehicle for fiction, confessions, and other content that was foreign to the major impulse of the form; but in every instance reality was the objective sought. A brief examination of some of the early eighteenth century autobiographies indicates how complete the escape was from idealistically treated character. The century had scarcely 13

First published in 1830.

Modern edition, ed. Beatrice Marshall, London,

1905. 14

The Autobiography,

Boston, 1909.

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opened when The Life and Errours o) John Dunton made its appearance (1705). Dunton (1659-1733) was a London bookseller, possessed of no great literary talent,15 and of no great reputation among his contemporaries.16 His Life and Errours, however, illustrates the growing tendency of the age to deal with character in a realistic and intimate way. In the couplets entitled " The Author's Speaking Picture," which serve as an introduction, the autobiographer wrote as follows: Fain would the Graver here my Picture place But I myself have drawn my truer face: Reader, behold my visage in my Book; My true Idea most exactly took. My very soul may naked here be seen, Both what I was and what I should have been. Dissected thus, I stand a living Martyr grown Come read my Errours, and reform your own. In his Preface to " the Impartial Reader," he observed that he " found the world and myself had very different thoughts of John Dunton. . . ." "After all," he continued, " h a d I no better design in this performance than purely self-defense, I should have neither given the world, nor myself, the trouble of it. . . . It goes hard with the pride of human nature, and the principle of self-love, to take a Review of our past Lives, and to make a Collection of Mistakes and Errours; though it would certainly be the ready way to Amendment, and I am resolved to give the World a precedent of this nature." The " errours " about which he spoke so much were not so gross as the reader is led to suspect. He describes some enchantresses whom he met while in Boston, but he remained faithful here and elsewhere to his " dear Iris." His sins generally were not a sure passport to perdition; they were chiefly 15

His chief works were The Secret History of Weekly Writers, A Living Elegy, The Dublin Scuffle, and The Dissenting Doctors. Among the Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian Library (71, 72) there are two volumes of correspondence. 16 Cf. Pope's Dunciad.

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sins of omission. But in spite of the moderate nature of his human weaknesses, he insisted on stressing them. Such a method of revealing self had little in common with character idealization. As an autobiography, The Life and Errours is of little intrinsic worth, but it illustrates fully the tendency of the age to reject the romantic method of character delineation. Such works as the autobiographical record of Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, better known as " Corinna," and The History of Miss Katty N , Containing a Faithful and Particular Relation of Her Amours, and Various Turns of Fortune in Scotland, Ireland, Jamaica, and England,17 illustrate the extremes to which unidealized treatment of self went in the early half of the century. " Corinna," languishing in the Fleet for debt, was easily prevailed on by Edmund Curll to turn her experiences into money by detailing them for his press. With nothing to lose and much to gain, she proceeded to write down her experiences and reflections in such a way that even Curll must have been happy at the intimacy of her revelations. The History of Katty N illustrated an even more deliberate attempt to record faithfully the events in a life that was by no means exemplary. In this account, the authoress related her distressing experiences with no reluctance, nor did she appear " in the supplicating garb of a penitent." 18 In addition to these highly intimate records of self, there were the more serious efforts of John Flamsteed (1646-1719), Edmund Calamy (1671-1732), and Roger North (16531734). They were all true self-students, who, unmindful of the enticing features of Curll's press, set out deliberately to record and analyze their experiences and personalities. Flamsteed, in the account of his Life and Labours, was painstaking in his effort to record in detail the happenings in his somewhat uneventful life. Edmund Calamy's record still possesses interest, not because of its engaging revelation of self, but on account of the historical background into which he put him17 18

For a brief criticism, see the Monthly Ibid.

Review,

XVI, 178.

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self. His introduction to the narrative indicates how fully he understood the boundaries of the form into which he cast his reflections. A half hundred pages are devoted to a consideration of extant autobiographical literature. In all of his recollections and reflections there is nothing that suggests idealization of character. Roger North was aware of the value of minor details in the delineation of personality. His unfinished Autobiography shows a marked inclination to linger at times over matters that are in themselves inconsequential. From the methods of the autobiographers, students of character both real and fictional found much that could be put to excellent use in biographies and novels. The growing interest in published correspondence during the early decades of the century afforded another influence that was direct in its bearing on the treatment of both real and fictional characters. Before the century had fairly opened, John Locke, in his Essay on Education, announced that " the writing of letters has so much to do in all the occurrences of human life, that no gentleman can avoid showing himself in this kind of writing: occasions will daily force him to make use of his pen, which . . . always lays open to a severer examination of his breeding, sense, and abilities than oral discourses. . . ." The age that delighted in the gossip of the coffee-house found the personal letters of distinguished Londoners more than interesting. The delight in such intimate expressions of personality as familiar letters was only another manifestation of the tendency of the age to study man. Of all the paths to a true knowledge of personality, the personal letter is often the most direct. It goes to regions in which history and even autobiography have little time to linger. The letter gives the readers the most minute details, the most natural and spontaneous self-analysis, and the most intimate view of individuality that any form can offer. The natural chat of the letter-writer is often a more helpful index to character study than a portrait glossed over by a master hand. Correspondence, even that which has been carefully revised for publication by the author himself, presents the

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character to the reader as he would like to appear. His natural desire to present himself in the best possible light does not necessarily destroy the utility and charm of his epistles. In fact, it is an obsession that is difficult to understand when a man is eager to appear to his friends and posterity in other than his best garments. The fact that most correspondences have been revised for publications by the authors themselves or by sympathetic editors does not necessarily prove that the personality of the author is blurred, although there have been instances in which editors in their zeal to present a personality in the best possible light have garbled the text of the letters to such an extent that the original author of them becomes indistinct. 10 During the seventeenth century the biographical utility of the letter was recognized in part, but it remained for the age of Pope to demonstrate its complete usefulness. As early as 1662, Izaak Walton saw the advantage of the letter as a literary form for revealing personality. Such a practice at the time was exceptional, however, and to many it was a breach of propriety that could not be condoned. But even to that age, Walton's violation of the rules of good taste was mild, for he employed only those letters which revealed their authors in the most righteous light. Until the closing years of the century, letters were considered among those of conservative tastes of too personal a nature to be used with propriety; and furthermore, man's curiosity concerning the intimate details in the lives of his fellows had by no means reached its zenith. It was in the inquisitive decades that fostered the existence of the coffee-house that the English sense of propriety became sufficiently elastic to permit private correspondence to take its place among the literary forms for revealing character. If we are to judge by the numerous real and fictional correspondences that were issued from the press during the early half of the eighteenth century, we may readily conclude that man's curiosity in the intimate details in the lives of others had become exceedingly active. 19

Mason's revision of the Gray correspondence is an example.

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By 1720, the announcement that a volume contained personal letters was enough to insure its sale. Curll, whose eye was ever single to the desires of the London reading public, was aware of the appeal of letters and, with tactics that were often questionable, he proceeded to collect as many letters of the eminent and notorious figures of the times as his energy and ingenuity could provide. When, for instance, he learned that Elizabeth Thomas had in her possession some letters from John Dryden, he went straightway to the Fleet where she had been confined for a considerable interval to offer her an easy way out of her difficulties. All the letters that he could find by Congreve, Swift, and Pope, or that he and his assistants could pass for authentic documents, were issued from his press with the assurance that the editions would be easily distributed. In fact, so great was the desire of the age for a sight of the personal correspondence of distinguished Londoners that authors and publishers were frequently inclined to yield to the temptation to discount the authenticity of the letters which they employed. There were, however, many illustrious Londoners during the early part of the century who, directed by the trend of the times and by that which was essentially the autobiographical impulse, collected their letters, and after revising them, committed them to the press in the hope that they would be of some use to the age and posterity. Peck, Lewis, and even Pope 20 brought sheaves of correspondence to the publishers with the assurance that they would find a ready market; and Congreve, Cibber, Gay, and Swift were not reluctant to give the age and posterity an intimate view of their personalities through their correspondence. In 1724, a new edition of Familiar Letters of Love, Gallantry, and Several Other Occasions, by Wits of the Last and Present Age made its appearance, to the complete satisfaction of both reader and publisher.21 The publishers, Rivington and Osborne, urged Rich20

Pope's well known device of bringing his letters before the public was by no means unique. 21 This was a miscellany of letters in two fairly bulky volumes. Some of Dryden's letters to Tonson appeared in the collection.

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ardson in 1739 to compose for them a volume of Familiar Letters which was later issued to give untrained writers models of correspondence. All of these collections of letters did much to satisfy the curiosity of the age concerning their authors, and they illustrated methods for the study of personality that were penetrating and engaging. Of all the published correspondences which the early half of the century produced, none demonstrated the charm and utility of the letter as a vehicle for portraying personality so well as did the collection of letters by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1690-1762). 2 2 These letters remain an engaging account of the life and personality of a charming woman. At the time at which they were first issued, they were read with delight; and in the passing of time, they have become a classic. In 1792, Hannah Cowley in the preface to her play, A Day in Turkey, reported that the letters of Lady Mary were still on every hand, 23 a statement that offers sufficient evidence of their eighteenth century vogue. Others of her time illustrated the uses of the letter as a means for revealing character, but by reason of her literary personality and consummate charm, she was able to give to her correspondence a brilliance that the letters of Peck and the products of Curll's press did not possess. Her attitude toward the value and charm of the letter as a literary form is representative of the conviction of the age. While she was still actively engaged in writing letters to her friends, she read the correspondence of Madame de Sevigne. Immediately it occurred to her that her own letters might have some value to posterity. " Keep my letters," she said. " They will be as good as Madame de Sevigne's forty years hence." This consciousness of the value of her epistles to posterity did nothing to warp her delineation of self. In her series of letters to Edward Montagu, the Countess of Bute, Alexander Pope, and her sister, she left little of her portrait 22 Sarah Hale's edition of the Letters, Philadelphia, 1868, is a convenient and dependable text. 23 Dramatic Works oj Mrs. Cowley, London, 1813, Vol. III.

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underdeveloped. All the stages of her life save early childhood pass by in life-like procession. None of the accounts of her life gives half so vivid a picture of her first love as do those early letters to Edward Montagu. All the Lives of Pope, the stories of Spence, and the allusions to " Sappho " cannot reveal more accurately and engagingly her association with Alexander Pope. Her married life, her character as a wife and mother, her husband's cold and neglectful treatment, all are included. The impressions of foreign lands, of people, of London, her desires and inclinations, her successes and disappointments flit by in vivid procession. Her spirited style in portraying herself was surely no survival of the artificial and romanticized treatments of character. These letters, along with lesser examples of their kind, were undoubtedly a directing force on the methods of character portrayal during the century. The reality of their pictures did not go unobserved by those who were busily engaged in the study of man. The age which fostered the vogue of published correspondence was entirely susceptible to the influence of any device for the realistic delineation of character, and as a result, the letter immediately took its place as a useful and engaging biographical device. Fictional letters, in which at times there was a " confession " flavor, also had much to do with the methods employed by the early novelists and biographers. In the growing rage for realities, the early part of the century raised no question concerning the varying degrees of authenticity with which these intimate revelations of character were marked. Before the opening of the century, a translation from the French of the Portuguese Letters (1678) appeared in England, in which presumably a Portuguese nun addressed herself in plaintive epistles to a French cavalier. This collection remained popular for a long interval, during which time the more ingenious spirits of the age, understanding the inquisitiveness of their contemporaries, wrote replies to the nun and received answers. The Letters of Lindamira, a Lady of Quality, Written to a Friend in the Country 24 were engagingly real to contemporary 24

Second edition, 1713.

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readers. " The Lady of Quality " portrayed herself vividly in her fictional accounts of her experiences in London. The fact that most of the events existed only in the imagination of Lindamira did not destroy their semblance of reality. In her intimate and minute record of her experiences, she is almost as real as Clarissa Harlowe, and in spite of the didactic tone of some of her epistles, the record can scarcely be termed a mirror of virtue. The " Orinda " correspondence, Swift's Letters to Stella, and " Corinna's " letters to " Charles Wilson " were by no means retarding in their influences on the development of interest in the intimate aspects of personality. John Oldmixon's Amores Britannici, Epistles Historical and Gallant jrorn Several of the Most Illustrious Personages of the Times, and Pope's Eloisa and Abelard, both in heroic verse, were stimulating to the curiosity of the age to such an extent that vast piles of lovers' correspondence, both real and fictional, found a ready market. The Letters Between Silvia and Philander, in which the affair between Lady Harriet Berkeley and Lord Grey during the reign of James II was presumably laid bare, reflected and augmented the growing curiosity of the age in intimate revelations.25 Some of this correspondence had already been included in a pamphlet entitled Whoredom, Fornication, and Adultery Detected and Laid Bare. The Petticoat-Pensioners, a series of letters dealing with the devices of an unsavory lot of gentlemen, evidently had a considerable appeal.28 Toward the middle of the century, The Bath Epistles, that have passed between Miss Hazard, Lady Motherly, Etc., Etc. attempted to reveal more intimately the matter discussed in Theophilus Lucas' Lives of the Gamesters.21 It was in these fictional letters and confessions that the lesser figures of the times had their fling at realism, and in spite of the excesses that resulted, these accounts illustrated methods for a more searching study of man. As the century progressed, published correspondences, which portrayed both real and fic2 5 This work has been ascribed to Aphra Behn, cf. Monthly tember, 1749. 2 6 See Monthly Review, I, 408. 2 7 See page 100 infra.

Review,

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lional characters, became so popular that in almost every issue of the Monthly Review, articles were devoted to judgments of them. It was the age of Clarissa Harlowe and Sir Charles Grandison; of Edwin and Julia, a novel in a series of letters (17 74), 28 of Letters Between Emilia and Harriet (1762), which later became The Daughter (1775). The Blossoms of Virtue (1770), in which the author followed Richardson's manner, further illustrated the epistolary method of revealing character ; and the Letters from a Lady in Russia went through several editions before 1780. By the second half of the century, however, the value of published correspondence to the growth of biographical methods was slight, for Life-writing had adopted what it could use, and was going its way. While the letter was beginning to demonstrate its uses in biography, another literary form, the character-sketch, had come into its own in England and was illustrating realistic methods for the delineation of personality. La Bruyère (1645-1696) in France had recognized a brief realistic treatment of character as a distinct form, and had provided models for concise studies of types of people.20 The early eighteenth century English prose writers did not need much direction in this field, for the coffee-house gave them their subjects, and to a large extent their method of treatment. By 1712, Richard Steele and Joseph Addison were busily engaged with the Spectator. Knowing the interest of their clientele in London types, they set out deliberately to portray those characters with whom they had come into constant contact in the coffeehouses. With such reality were these sketches drawn that the readers engaged themselves in trying to identify coffeehouse habitués with the characters that were appearing in the paper. Sir Roger de Coverley, Will Honeycomb, Sir Andrew Freeport, and the other figures that appeared in the Spectator were real to the London readers; in fact, with the first character the authors went into such detail that the portrait assumed full-length proportions. Furthermore, after they had 28 29

See Monthly Review, LII, 361. Caractères; suivis des Caractères de Théophraste.

. . .

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told the story of his death and reflected on it, they took a retrospective view of his life and character, a method of regarding personality that had at the time few exponents. In spite of the composite nature of their people, the major figures portrayed by Steele and Addison were not only representative types, but individuals. It is not a wide gap between the character sketches in the Spectator and the portraits of character in the early novels and short biographies. In fact, were Sir Roger de Coverley to be identified as other than a composite figure, the record of his movements in the Spectator might with small inaccuracy be termed biographical. The sketches of him were penetrating and sympathetic; in their selection of details, the authors were discriminating, and in the treatment of them, they were pictorial. Their fidelity to the characteristics of their types was at least sufficient to commend the reality of their sketches to the London readers; and they treated these characteristics with literary grace. Such are the features which define in large part the biographer as well as the sketcher of types of character. When the wide-spread popularity of the Spectator in the early decades of the century is taken into consideration, it is not difficult to see how the treatment of Sir Roger de Coverley had a definite influence on those who were seeking for methods to delineate personalities that were real. At this point in a survey of the influences which directed the rise and flourishing of biography, it is necessary to watch for an interval the methods taken by the early novel, for the treatment of fictional characters revealed so clearly in the works of Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett was undoubtedly direct in its influence on the methods employed by the biographers. In fact, the tactics used by the early novelists in their portrayal of character were those of the biographer rather than those of the true novelist. Wilbur Cross, in The Development of the English Novel (1917), names biography as one of the forms which assisted the novel to throw off its romantic trappings. The birth of the novel and of true biog-

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raphy, however, were so nearly simultaneous that any great influence that the forms had on each other was exercised in the later stages of their development. Growing as they did out of the same soil, the novel and biography had marked characteristics in common during the early stages of their growth. Nevertheless, the fact remains that by the time the modern conception of biography had true exponents, the novel, or that which might be properly termed fictional biography, had become a vehicle for character delineation that was recognized and employed by the ablest literary figures of the age. While biography was waiting for an able pen during the early half of the century, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett were providing examples of methods that were effective for the treatment of personality. It was with these same methods that many of the Life-writers of the middle of the century became true biographers. Daniel Defoe 30 undoubtedly suggested some valuable methods and devices for the delineation of character to his generation. He might well be termed a pseudo-biographer. By reason of his ingenious selection of subject-matter, it was necessary for him to proceed with the caution of a biographer if he wanted to attain his ends. When Robinson Crusoe appeared in 1719, the characters in the story were regarded by most readers as real. During the days following the publication of the immortal yarn, few were inclined to doubt the actuality of the characters and events. The author gave impetus to the belief that Crusoe was a real man by announcing in his original preface to the reader that he was only the editor of the journal of a man who had gone through these harrowing experiences, but who, out of modesty and inaptitude, was not eager to make them public. He added in a tone of confidence to the reader that he believed the plain tale of the sailor. Such tactics would certainly not have been employed had the author planned to treat his character heroically. In order to attain his difficult end of verisimilitude, Defoe realized that Crusoe had to be made completely real. 30

For a treatment of Defoe's efforts in biography see page 116 infra,

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As a consequence, in spite of the exotic setting into which the character was placed, and the romantic lustre that surrounded his experiences, Crusoe was first and last a human being. On the island he was made to think first of such prosaic things as food and shelter, and even when the footprint on the sand appeared, his reactions were quite different from those of a romantic hero. Into his daily life Defoe detailed so much of the commonplace with such minuteness of detail that everything assumed a positive air of reality. In Defoe's other stories such as Captain Singleton and the Memoirs of a Cavalier, his knack of investing character and events with reality by going into minute detail with the commonplace is equally pronounced. Moll Flanders and Roxana, moving about the most disreputable sections, were certainly presented to the public in most unstudied and unromantic attitudes. Daniel Defoe might readily be termed a fictional biographer, for his tactics were of necessity those of the true writer of Lives. In his accounts of Jack Sheppard and Duncan Campbell, which will be discussed in a subsequent chapter, there was much that was biographical not only in method but in matter as well. The gap between the novel and biography was equally small with Samuel Richardson, who, in his voluminous works with their minutiae of the human heart and mind, was in method more of the biographer than the novelist. Pamela, his earliest effort (1740), was based on an authentic anecdote and expanded through a mass of minute observations of the heart into a record of personality that cannot be termed cursory. In the History of Clarissa Harlowe (1747) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753), Richardson's instinct for the minute and the real was even more pronounced. Events meant little to him; 31 his chief province was the detailed analysis of character. By employing the letter method of allowing his characters to speak for themselves concerning their movements and reflections, the author was able to portray his people through all of those little gestures that a direct narrative 31

There is a story told of how a contemporary versifier condensed the significant events of Sir Charles Grandison into a narrative of one hundred lines.

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method would not permit. Anything and in fact everying that belonged to their lives—save of course that which might possibly border on the unseemly—could readily enter into their epistles to one another, and in spite of their annoying delight in the inconsequential, they revealed themselves clearly and fully. Nothing escaped Grandison's attention; every accent, every slight change in facial expression of those with whom he had come in contact and of whom he wrote, every impulse that he experienced formed the matter for his epistles. In fact, he missed little that was significant or trifling. Grandison and Clarissa are undoubtedly full length portraits, even generous, and were it not for their exasperating goodness, they might adorn those galleries in which true humanity is revealed. In the three characters whose names form the titles for his chief works, Richardson's treatment was that of the minute recorder of personality. Had he been a more penetrating psychologist and less of a moralist, he would have made an excellent biographer, or at least a painstaking recorder of details. Fortunately, perhaps, he went to the more popular form, the novel, but his disciples were more numerous in the field of biography than in the field of the development of fictional character. The use of letters in Richardson's novels which permitted the characters to speak minutely concerning themselves was plainly an influence on the methods of his contemporaries who dealt with the actual. The realistic treatment of fictional character in Fielding and Smollett during the middle of the century was likewise marked in its effect on those who were possessed of the biographical impulse. Joseph Andrews, accentuating the realism of Richardson's novels, and Tom Jones, carved as Fielding wrote out of " Human nature," 32 were excellent examples to follow in the cultivation of the penetrating and the real. There is a life written in the author's portrait of Parson Adams, and if Tom Jones is not a vividly portrayed individual personality, then the novel, as a literary form, is devoid of real people. Roderick Random and Strap in Smollett's first 32

See Book I, Chapter I.

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novel, picaresque figures that they are as they move about in atmospheres that, vary from the squalid regions of London to the invigorating reaches of the sea, are certainly not heroic characters. In fact, they are at times as stupid in their gestures and calculations as people can be and at the same time remain normal. Roderick, working in the unromantic environment of an apothecary's shop, does not emerge triumphant as an Alger hero, nor does he while suffering on a man o' war find much occasion to dream about buried treasures and Spanish galleons. It is true that many of his experiences are quite unusual, but in time of danger he is never a hero. The circumstances surrounding his birth, in spite of their mystery, are scarcely romantic; his experience with the unfortunate Miss Williams is certainly not knightly; and the closing passages of the record in which the rotund condition of his wife leaves little to be assumed, are certainly not an illustration of the partnership of delicacy and idealization. With Fielding and Smollett realism demonstrated its utility, and in spite of the excesses into which this demonstration at times led them, the value of their methods did not go unrecognized by those who were engaged with studies of real people. The vogue of diaries, autobiographies, published correspondences, and novels, in which character was delineated realistically, was the direct result of the spirit of the age that set out deliberately to know the truth about the life of man. The age that was inquisitive about the movements in the lives of not only the famous, but its notorious criminals and charlatans as well, was out of sympathy with unreality. Essentially the same curiosity which led the Grub Street pamphleteers to Newgate to study and record the lives of contemporary criminals led those of an historical turn of mind to investigate the sources of information that were available concerning the lives of those who had done great things in the past, and to set down the results of their investigations in such a way that the characters moved in the province of reality. Among the scholars at Oxford and Cambridge, an antiquarian instinct developed that illustrated the eager curiosity of the age in the facts of

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the past. Before the middle of the century, Ashton, in a letter to Gray, observed that " the Learning of this Age, seems to be no more than comments on the Last." 33 Growing out of this curiosity, an energy unknown in earlier centuries directed increasingly large groups to investigate, verify or reject, edit and translate all manner of historical and biographical data. The desire to investigate records of the past was not a peculiarly eighteenth century development, although it was during this period that this desire demonstrated itself in such a convincing and fruitful way. There is a record of a college of antiquaries that flourished as early as 700 B. C. in Ireland, established by Tedlah, which did much to preserve for later Irish historians materials of more antiquity than those of other lands.34 During Queen Elizabeth's reign, such men as John Stow, compiler of the Annals of England and the Survey of London, Archbishop Parker, Sir Henry Saville, and Francis Godwin were antiquaries of considerable merit. In 1590, a Society of Antiquaries was formed, which had as its pillars such energetic investigators as Cambden, Sir Robert Cotton, and later Sir Henry Spelman. This Society was dissolved in 1614, when James I refused the group a charter. In the latter half of the seventeenth century, such tireless students of the past as Fuller and Wood produced valuable compilations. These men were all true antiquaries, but it remained for the eighteenth century scholars to illustrate more completely a deliberate and faithful instinct for investigating and recording the facts of the past. In 1717, a Society of Antiquaries was formed which numbered among its members more than a score of men.35 They made it their pleasure to investigate the annals of the past in order to edit, revise and augment the historical and biographical records of earlier centuries. In their work they were encouraged on all sides. At Cambridge especially there was 33 Correspondence of Gray, Wolpole, West and Ashton, ed. Paget Toynbee, 1915, I, 127. 34 See Introduction, The Antiquary's Portfolio, J. S. Forsyth, London, 1825. 35 See the Appendix to Samuel Knight's Life of Colet, 1724.

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considerable effort to bring together valuable historical documents. George I presented the University with the library of John Moore, Lord Bishop of Ely, in which there were more than 30,000 volumes of printed books and manuscripts. This valuable addition to the Cambridge library was only the beginning of those activities among the scholars to make information about the past accessible. Their energy increased with their hope of providing more accurate and exhaustive accounts of past incidents and men. The Society flourished to such an extent under the guidance and inspiration of such men as Knight, Lewis, and Oldys, that by 1751 it was granted a Royal Charter which limited its membership to one hundred and fifty. Before the century was waning, scholarship, as the term is now employed, had become a science. With the work of Edmund Malone it reached a pinnacle not attained before and rarely since. Biography, which dealt with both past and contemporary figures, profited greatly by the conviction of the times that accuracy of detail was a paramount virtue. This then was the age, and these were the forces, which made possible the growth and illustration of the modern conception of biography. The constant inclination to portray men as they really were, to investigate and verify or reject records for the sake of truth, and to analyze and interpret motives and achievements of the great without the reverence which blinds but with the sympathy that understands were the result of the inner spirit of the eighteenth century. In spite of all the charges that have been brought against the age by ingenuous and bizarre romanticists, it was the eighteenth century that directed and disciplined the healthy growth of our most popular prose forms, and of these must be mentioned biography. Realism, the banner around which the authors of the age rallied and which they followed at times when another standard might have been followed to advantage, made possible the true record of personality. Without its proper application as a creative and critical force, biography cannot exist. The eighteenth century was ruled jealously by

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this tendency, and as a result, Life-writing could not survive in its earlier channels. Something different was demanded by the times which delighted in the whispered conversations of the coffee-house and in the reality of Tom Jones and Roderick Random, and by the middle of the century, biography in its truest and most engaging form was the result. BIBLIOGRAPHY (CHAPTER TWO) T H E I N F L U E N C E S W H I C H MADE POSSIBLE T H E MODERN CONCEPTION OF BIOGRAPHY

Addison, Joseph. The Freeholder and the Spectator (issues indicated in the notes in the text). Bale, John. The Vocacyon of Johan Bale to the Bishoprick of Ossorie in Ireland, his Persecucions in the Same, and finall Delyveraunce. (Rome, IS S3; ed. used, Harleian Miscellany, Vol. VI.) Bath Epistles that have passed between Miss Hazard, Lady Motherly, Etc. Etc., London, 17S8. Blossoms of Virtue, London, 1770. Burr, Anna Robeson. The Autobiography. A Critical and Comparative Study, New York, 1909. Calamy, Edmund. An Historical Account of my own Life, with some Reflections on the Times I have lived in. (Written c. 1719; ed. used, J. T. Rutt, 2 vols., 1829.) Cavendish, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle. A True Relation of my Birth, Breeding, and Life. (Written 16S6; ed. used, Everyman.) Cherbury, Edward, Lord Herbert. Autobiography. (Written c. 1642; first brought to the press by Walpole in 1764; ed. used, 1886.) " Corinna." See Elizabeth Thomas. Cross, Wilbur L. Development of the English Novel, New York, 1917. Defoe, Daniel. Novels in the Jensen Society Edition, New York, 1907. Dunton, John. Life and Errours, 1705. Edwin and lulia, 1774. Emilia and Harriet, 1762; later re-issued as The Daughter, 1775.

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Evelyn, John. Diary. (Written 1641-1705; first published, 1818.) Familiar Letters, written for Rivington and Osborne by Samuel Richardson in 1739. Familiar Letters of Love, Gallantry, and Several Other Occasions, By Wits oj the Last and Present Age, 1724. Fanshawe, Lady Anne. Memoirs. (Written 1676; first published 1829; ed. used, Beatrice Marshall's, London, 1907.) Fielding, Henry. Novels. Flamsteed, John. Life and Labours. (Written c. 1715; first printed in Francis Bailey's Account oj Reverend John Flamsteed, 1835.) Forsyth, J. S. The Antiquary's Portfolio, 2 vols., London, 1825. Hamilton, Antony. Memoirs of the Count De Grammont. (Written 1705; translated by Horace Walpole, 1768; ed. used, New York, 1928.) Harleian Miscellany. See John Bale, and reference on page 68 in the text. History of Miss Katty N , Containing a Faithful and Particular Relation oj Her Amours . . . and Various Turns of Fortune in Scotland, Ireland, Jamaica, and England, 1758. Hutchinson, Lucy. Memoirs oj the Lije oj Colonel Hutchinson. Written c. 1670; first ed., 1806; ed. used, London, 1885. Knight, Samuel. Lije oj John Colet, 1724. La Bruyere, Jean de. Caractères; suives des Caractères de Théophraste, trans, used, London, 1847. Letters Between Sylvia and Philander, 1715. Letters From a Lady in Russia, 1778. Letters oj Lindamira, a Lady oj Quality, Written to her Friend in the Country, 1713. Locke, John. Essay on Education. (Early passages pertinent to the increasing vogue of letter-writing.) Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. Letters, 3 vols., 1763; ed. used, Sarah Hale's, Boston, 1868. Monthly Review. (Issues indicated in the notes in the text.) North, Roger. Autobiography. Written c. 1720; first ed., Alexander Jessopp's, London, 1887. Oldmixon, John. Amores Britannici, Epistles Historical and Gallant from Several oj the Most Illustrious Personages oj the Times, 1729. Pepys, Samuel. Diary. Written 1660-1669; first ed., 1825.

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Petticoat Pensioners: Being Memoirs oj the Most Remarkable of those Gentlemen in and about London and Westminster, 1749. Pope, Alexander. Eloisa and Abelard, 1717. Portuguese Letters. Translated from the French {Lettres Portugaises d'une Femme du Monde, Paris, 1669) in 1678; version used, 1704. Richardson, Samuel. Novels. Scoones, W. B. Four Centuries of English Letters, London, 1880. Sévigné, Madame de. Letters to her Daughter and Friends, 3 vols., Rouen, 1726; ed. used, Richard Aldington's, 2 vols., New York, 1927. Smollett, Tobias. Novels. Steele, Sir Richard. The Englishman and the Spectator. (Issues indicated in the notes in the text.) Saint Simon, Louis de Rouvroy. Mémoires, Scènes et Portraits . . . Louis XIV et sa Cour, 3 vols., 1788; trans, used, 1922. Swift, Jonathan. The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, ed. F. E. Ball, 6 vols., London, 1910. Thomas, Mrs. Elizabeth. Letters to " Charles Wilson " in the Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Amours of William Congreve, 1730. Whoredom, Fornication, and Adultery Detected and Laid Bare, 1714.

Ill THE GROWTH OF REALISM IN THE PAMPHLET-LIVES, THE COLLECTED CHRONICLES OF CRIME, THE INTIMATE MEMOIRS, AND THE ROGUE-LIVES

H E early stages of the growth of realism produced some curious literature. Out of the increasing tendency of the early decades of the century to reject the romantic treatment of character, there developed a form of Life-writing that was as scurrilous as it was intriguing. Opprobrium and scandal were the by-products of the attempt to refuse the heroic method for treating personality; realism, misapplied and to a certain extent misunderstood, was a mode that fascinated those who undertook to delineate character. The curious results of the growing urge to bring things to reality can best be seen in the scores of Lives that had an ephemeral existence in the early decades of the century. They were in small way true biographies, but in their refusal of the idealized treatment of character they made plain the path of reality to subsequent novelists and recorders, and demonstrated the advantages— and at times the vices—of an unheroic method. With an energy unknown in the earlier century, London began to observe not only its famous but also its notorious people, not to detect traits of virtue, but rather to delight in the sensational and unseemly features with which most Londoners of note were amply possessed. That the age cherished scandal, and that it was eager to be led to the keyhole to witness what was going on behind the door, were directing forces on the efforts of a susceptible generation of authors. They realized that if they could give the public a peep through the keyhole,

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or at least make it believe it was getting an intimate or surreptitious view, their success was assured, for the age not only followed the gossiper but it also flattered him by its undivided attention. A curiosity that approached the vulgar made possible the vogue of all manner of sensational revelations. The demand for intimate views of the boudoirs and hang-outs of court beauties and footpads produced a vast collection of scurrilous Lives and Memoirs, and of these, those dealing with the notorious exceeded by far in numbers those which dealt with the eminent and righteous. Such a state of affairs can readily be understood when man's curiosity is taken into consideration; it existed when Suetonius wrote his Lives of the Famous Courtesans—it exists conspicuously today. When the public fails to show interest in notorious criminals and ingenious impostors, then human nature has changed; and when the sales records show that the Life of a clergyman rivals the Memoirs of a brazen café-chantant dancer, then modern Lady Godivas can move safely about our streets with no " Peeping Toms " to cause embarrassment. The indiscreet and indecorous in mankind, especially when they appear in the lives of those who have distinguished themselves in some way, have an appeal to the curiosity of man that cannot be denied. The contemporary vogue of intimate revelations of human weaknesses has always been great. When Tennyson innocently demanded, " What right has the public to know of Byron's excesses? ", the answer was likely simple and direct. " The public is interested " is enough to account for the prevalence of all manner of reports concerning the private lives of those who have attained eminence or notoriety. The inclination in human nature which causes such a state of affairs to exist cannot be commended, but in instances in which its manifestations are not too pronounced, it can be understood if not condoned. Evidence of the curiosity of the early eighteenth century in the criminal and charlatan class can readily be produced. No age has had more inquisitiveness concerning the criminal class

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—with the exception of our own. All London, from Mayfair to Tyburn, was interested in Jack Sheppard, " Blueskin " Blake, and Jonathan Wild. " There haven't been so many ladies in the Lodge since the days of Claude Du Val, the gentleman highwayman," remarked Mrs. Spurling at the trial of Jack Sheppard, " and they all declare that it'll break their hearts if he's scragged." 1 Poems, plays, stories, and catchpenny biographies reflected and augmented the interest of London in such reckless law-breakers. Tradition has it that the most brilliant men of the age, among whom may be mentioned Gay and Hogarth, came to see Sheppard during the last days of his confinement at Newgate. Sir James Thornhill, who had done the portrait of Queen Anne, rushed with his easel to Newgate to ask Sheppard to sit for a portrait. Two hundred thousand people were at Tyburn on the day of his execution. At Drury Lane, only a few months after Sheppard had been led to the gallows, a play was produced entitled The Harlequin Sheppard,' by John Thurmond, which was one of the most popular stage spectacles of the season. In the month following Sheppard's inglorious end, Defoe's pamphlet entitled A Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes, . . . of John Sheppard (1724) was issued by Applebee in seven large editions to satisfy public demand. Less than a year later the same publisher found it profitable to provide London with three editions of Defoe's True, Genuine and Perfect Account of the Life of Jonathan Wild (1725) within a few months. Newgate and Tyburn assumed unusual importance, and the names of such vicious figures as Poll Maggott, " Edgeworth " Bess, and " Blueskin " Blake were on almost every tongue. A wild, dare-devil crew they were who carved their names deep in the stone walls of the Roundhouse, and who quaffed their last bowls of ale at St. Giles as they rode in the wagon from Newgate to the triple-tree at Tyburn. The deplorable state of civil affairs in London was to a 1

This, of course, is a fictional speech, but it may be accepted as a fairly reliable statement of the situation. See Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard. 2 Published 8vo, 1725.

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large extent responsible for the wide-spread interest in the movements of criminals. Hitchin, the City Marshal, in a pamphlet entitled The Discovery of the Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers, which was published in 1718 as a direct attack on the criminal devices of Jonathan Wild, reported that " it was the general complaint of the taverns, the coffee-houses, the shop-keepers, and others that many of their customers are afraid when it is dark to come to their houses and shops, for fear that their hats and wigs should be snatched from their heads, or their swords taken from their sides, or that they may be blinded, knock'd down, cut or stabb'd." Other records bear out the statement that the authorities were unable to cope with the rapidly growing criminal class. A pamphlet entitled Street Robberies Considered, usually attributed to Defoe, appeared in 1728, in which the author made plain the deplorable conditions and offered suggestions for eliminating them. Such a state of affairs suggested the need for searching revelations of the lives and movements of criminals, and it was presumably as a protective agency that some authors announced that they would provide London with a series of accounts of the movements and devices employed by footpads and housebreakers. It is likely that some readers were forearmed by reason of their perusal of these accounts of the criminal class, although it was by no means to arm itself that London welcomed so enthusiastically the large number of rogue-lives. There was, as Sir Richard Steele expressed it, a growing " satisfaction to curiosity in knowing the adventures of the meanest of mankind." 3 In order to satisfy the curiosity of the age concerning the movements of its much-discussed criminals, a generation of pamphleteers appeared, who, understanding what the public wanted, produced short, exciting accounts of the lives and sensational movements of those law-breakers who were in the public eye. These pamphlets were so popular that some of the more discerning authors and publishers recognized that 3 Preface to the 1719 edition of Captain Alexander Smith's History Lives of Ike Most Notorious Highwaymen, Etc.

of the

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collections of brief accounts of the lives of many criminals would likely insure even greater sales. It was not a shortsighted conclusion that they reached. The appetite of the reading public for intimate revelations about cut-throats was ravenous; the more complete the collection was, the greater was its appeal. In order to appease this growing hunger, authors and publishers began to issue with startling rapidity collected chronicles of the lives of all manner of criminals. Some of the larger collections contained accounts of as many as seventy-five criminals. The sketches were essentially of the hue and construction of the pamphlet accounts, although as a general rule they were shorter and more trustworthy. A narrative element prevailed which did not necessarily eliminate the possibility of character analysis. In spite of the fact that the authors of these sketches were possessed of few of the qualifications of the true biographer, they gave the public what it wanted, and, in order to do this, they portrayed character realistically and with that minuteness of detail which the scope of their work would permit. They were at times prone to moralize, but the motive of ethical instruction almost invariably was lost in the authors' interest in the startling events in the lives of those whom they selected. As full-length biographies, these accounts in the collections are not to be judged, but as interesting examples of what the eighteenth century demanded in rogue-biography, and as illustrations of the development of realism in character delineation, they are significant both historically and intrinsically to the student of Life-writing. Soon after the opening of the century, The Tyburn Calendar, or the Malefactors' Bloody Register made its appearance, 4 to be followed a little later by The Chronicle of Tyburn, or Villainy Display'd in All its Branches (1720). Even before this last named collection appeared, Theophilus Lucas's Memoirs of the Lives, Intrigues and Comical Adventures of the Most Famous Sharpers . . . (1714), and Captain Alexander 4 It was published originally, according to Chandler, by G. Swindells, Hanging Bridge, Manchester. Cf. The Literature of Roguery, 1907, Vol. I, p. 178.

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Smith's Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes . . . (1714) were issued in several editions to satisfy public demand. Encouraged by his success with the History of the Highwaymen, Smith wrote four other collections that were exceedingly popular during the 20's and 30's.5 Esquemeling's De Americaenische Zee-Roovers, published originally in Dutch in Amsterdam in 1678, went through English editions during the early decades of the century, and likely suggested to Captain Charles Johnson the need for his History of the Lives of the Pirates (1724). Daniel Defoe, although not the author of a large collection of Lives of criminals, lent his talent to the producing of short accounts about such figures as Gow, Sheppard, Wild, and the Cartoucheans while he was associated with Applebee. These narratives, published originally in pamphlet form, belong to the general province of the accounts in the collected chronicles. In 1731, Applebee issued a History of Executions, and immediately following its publication, The Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals (1732) came from the same press. The substance and even the form at times in some of the accounts in this last named collection were Defoe's. There were other collections of short Lives of criminals that appeared in the early decades of the century, but these are sufficiently representative to illustrate the biographical tendencies which the collected chronicles possess. It was to these accounts that Robert Sanders went for much of his material for his six-volume Newgate Calendar that was issued in 1764. Villette's Annals of Newgate (1776) and Knapp and Baldwin's Criminal Chronology, or New Newgate Calendar (1810), 6 relied frequently for their matter dealing with early eighteenth century criminals on those chronicles which Applebee and others published in the 20's and 30's. One of the earliest eighteenth century collections which dealt with the seamy side of London life was Theophilus Lu5

See p. 102

6

In later editions called merely The Newgate

infra.

Calendar, vid. edition of 1824.

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cas's Memoirs of the Lives, Intrigues, and Comical Adventures of the most Famous Gamesters and Celebrated Sharpers in the Reigns of Charles II, James II, William III, and Queen Anne. It appeared in 1714, went immediately through a second edition, and as late as 1744 a large third edition was offered to satisfy public demand. 7 Concerning the author's identity little can be determined. Theophilus Lucas was likely a pseudonym, although the prevalence of nom-de-plumes among those who wrote semi-fictional accounts is the only basis for such an assumption. In his Preface to the Memoirs, the author informed the reader that he had inherited an estate that yielded two thousand pounds a year, which he squandered regularly at games of chance. In addition to this choice information, on which only the ingenuous rely, he reported in his Preface that he had undertaken the writing of the Memoirs in order to put his son and others on their guard against the tricks of sharpers. The younger Lucas, we are informed, had fifteen hundred pounds a year to devote to chance. The directions in the Memoirs were to include " the meridians of London, Bath, Tunbridge, and the Groom Porters." 8 As a warning to young men who were free with their money at games of chance, the Memoirs possibly served a purpose. Those who were of a trusting nature and who were blinded by their confidence in their own discernment possibly found the work of some practical value. In the twenty-six accounts, deceits practised by sharps at the gaming table and by others who lived by their wits were associated with men who were probably well known in the gambling circles during the reign of Queen Anne. If the ruses and schemes resorted to by those on whom Lucas fixed his attention did not serve as a warning to the reader, they were at least entertaining, and it was chiefly to entertain that the Memoirs existed. Not all of the space in the collection was given over to gaming-table habitués and their deceits. Any kind of clever 7 The name of the author does not appear on the title page of this edition, although the material contained therein is substantially that of the earlier edition. 8 Sub-title, edition of 1714.

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imposition or ingenious cheat was considered appropriate subject-matter for the accounts. Possibly Charles Cotton's Compleat Gamester, which had appeared in 1674, suggested some of the descriptions of games to Lucas, although it is not improbable that the author of the Memoirs was a first-hand authority on games of chance.9 The deceits and ruses practised by all manner of cheats and impostors, Lucas identified with actual men in such a way that the narratives have the flavor of reality. He was probably in error in much of this identification, either wilfully or as the result of misinformation, for the deceits employed by his group of cheats had been associated with men other than those whom he included. It is to be observed, however, that card-sharps of different nations and different generations are prone to resort to the same tricks over and over again. How faithful Lucas was to the facts in his accounts of the movements of tricksters of course cannot be determined. The general flavor of the stories causes the reader to feel that truth was not his principal objective. Twenty-six characters form the content of the Memoirs. The biographical quality in the accounts is slight. The " Intrigues " and " Comical Adventures " of these cheats take up far more space than that which deals particularly with their " Lives." The figures are types, emerging only at rare intervals in the form of true individuals. The portraits and personalities remain underdeveloped by reason of the prevailing narrative element in the accounts. It must be observed, however, that there is nothing of the heroic manner in the delineation of these figures. They are portrayed through entertaining stories in a way that is not unpicturesque, and the brush strokes are at times vivid and bold. Cursory as the sketches were, the manner in which Lucas delineated his procession of 9 The artide in the D. N. B. sub Lucas suggests that Lucas knew nothing of Cotton's work, but a comparison of the two provides fairly conclusive evidence that Lucas knew passages in the Compleat Gamester, either directly or indirectly, for which he had use. Both Cotton and Lucas were indebted to Leather-More (1668). Cf. Note I, p. 172, Vol. I, in Chandler's The Literature of Roguery, 1907.

8

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cheats recommended the Memoirs to a generation of readers who were increasingly curious about the lives of all manner of men. Of even more interest to the lover of the curious, and of more significance in the direction of the current of realism in Life-writing were the large collections of Lives written by the man who called himself " Captain " Alexander Smith. In the scanty records concerning his life, there is nothing to give evidence that he had a military career. It is chiefly from his writings that we can gather that he was an habitué of the criminal courts and the more disreputable houses around Tyburn, but only as an observer. There is nothing to indicate that the Captain was an unwilling inmate at Newgate or that he was a participant in any of the nefarious trades about which he wrote so copiously. Sir Richard Steele, commenting on the enlarged edition of The History of the Lives of the Most Noted Highwaymen, Etc., called Smith " the learned author," 10 but Steele's phrase must not be taken too literally. Erudition was not one of Smith's outstanding qualities. There is, however, ample evidence that he was well read, especially in the literature of roguery. Shakespeare's plays, the tales of Boccaccio, and a considerable amount of continental picaresque literature he had occasion to refer to in his writing. In addition to such reading, he was continually engaged in scanning the sensationally written pamphlets which were hawked about Tyburn at every hanging and at every striking violation of the nation's laws. With an imagination that was by no means sluggish, and with a pen that showed at times signs of discipline, he was well equipped to write stories about the lives of the criminal class. Understanding the cravings of the public, he occupied himself from 1714 to 1730 in giving an increasingly inquisitive group of readers intimate revelations of the lives and movements of the notorious. In this interval, five large works appeared, most of which went through enlarged editions soon after their original publication. Of these, the collection entitled A Complete 10

Preface, Lives of the Highwaymen,

ed. 1719.

History

of the

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Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats of Both Sexes in and about London and Westminster was the first and most popular. It appeared in 1714, and its immediate success caused the author to enlarge it for a second edition at once. A fifth edition composed of three generous volumes appeared in 1719. In 1715, The Secret History of the Most Famous Beauties, Ladies of Quality, and Jilts, From Fair Rosamund Down to this Time appeared. Eight years elapsed, during which time the author was enlarging and correcting—or rather " improving " his accounts in the early collections, before The Comical and Tragical History of the Lives and Adventures of the Most Noted Bayliffs in and about London and Westminster was brought out—first as a short, paper-backed pamphlet, but enlarged and more permanently bound in the same year. In 1726, a halfyear after Wild's execution, The Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Famous Jonathan Wild, together with the Lives of Modern Rogues made its timely appearance. Four years later, Court Intrigues, or an Account of the Secret Memoirs of the British Nobility and Others rounded out Smith's career as a writer. If these titles sound fascinating to our modern generation, it can easily be surmised how alluring they must have been to early eighteenth century London. Here undoubtedly were real peeps through the keyhole. Nor was the reader completely deceived, for in spite of the fact that many of the accounts were out-and-out fabrications, they were presented in such a way that the public, save with few exceptions, was more than satisfied. His treatment of those figures who were contemporary was especially choice in the intimacy and directness of its revelations, and his knack of making the fictional sound like the biographical—a knack on which he often relied—was eclipsed in his time only by Daniel Defoe. The first of the collections, namely The History of the Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, etc., is representative of Smith's contribution to the current of realistically written Lives. His purpose in writing the sketches of highwaymen

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and footpads was in large part, he assured the reader, to put people on their guard against the deceits and villainies practised by the criminal class, and to paint vice in such colors that those who were inclined toward crime would be deterred. In his Preface to the Reader, he wrote as follows: Since preceding generations have made it their grand care and labour not only to communicate to posterity the lives of good and honest men, that thereby men might fall in love with the smooth and beautiful face of virtue, but have also taken the same pains to recount the actions of criminals and wicked persons, that by the dreadful aspects of vice they may be deterred from embracing her illusions; we here present the public with ' A History of the Lives of the Most Noted Highwaymen, Footpads, Housebreakers, Shoplifts, and other Malefactors of both sexes, which have been executed in and about London, and other parts of Great Britain, for above a hundred years last past: With a whole Discovery of the Art and Mystery of Theft, to the end all honest people may be prevented from being robbed for the future. . . .' Furthermore, the Biography or Book of lives of the most unaccountable offenders has met with such a general reception in the world that it has now met with five impressions, with additions of above two hundred robberies committed by the latest villains which have been executed at Tyburn. And still to make this History more complete, we have added to it the Thieves ' New Canting Dictionary,' which explains the most mysterious words, newest terms, significant phrases, and proper idioms, used at our time among our modern villains whereby travellers may oftentimes save both their lives and money. As for the order of time wherein these most notorious criminals suffered death, we have not confined ourselves to that exactness; but have given them precedency according as they excelled one another in villainy. In their several characters the reader will find the most unaccountable relations of irregular actions as ever were heard; penned all from their own mouths, not borrowed from the account given of the malefactors by any of the Ordinaries of Newgate; wherefore, at the request of several worthy gentlemen, we have been persuaded to print them, as being the first impartial piece of this nature which ever appeared in Europe. If we have here and there brought in some of these wicked of-

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fenders venting a profane oath or curse, which is dashed, it is to paint them in their proper colours, whose words are always so odious, detestable and foul, that some (as little acquainted with God as they) would be apt to conclude that Nature spoiled them in the making, by setting their mouths at the wrong end of their bodies. Indeed we have been at no small pains to collect the lives of these sinful wretches, being very punctual not only in deciphering their canting language, but also divulging their covert engagements, cunning flatteries, treacherous compositions, and underhand compliances, in all their illegal enterprizes. Besides, we do not only set forth, the place of birth, parentage, education, trade, and age of these malefactors who made their exit in the country but likewise of them who suffered at Tyburn, or elsewhere about London; when many of them would not acquaint the Ordinaries of Newgate with such particular circumstances touching their lives and conversation and private offenses because they would not have their friends and relations exposed by these papers which are dispersed abroad under the title, ' An Account of the Behaviour, last Dying Speeches, and Confessions of the Malefactors who were executed this day at Tyburn.' For this reason they have been silent in the most material passage and minute occurrences of their wicked transactions, as being also informed by persons better knowing in theological matters than themselves, that they were obliged to confess their faults in particular to none but the Almighty, who knew the secrets of all men's hearts. And had they been sensible that these papers, after some years, as they were cut off by the hand of Justice, would have been made public to the world, they would not have been so free as they were, when in the land of the living, of declaring their enormous crimes to us. However, we do not expose the memory of those offending wretches with any design of making them the sport and ridicule of vain, idle fellows, who only laugh at the misfortunes of such dying men, but rather revive their manifold transgressions for a means to instruct and convert the wicked and profane persons of this licentious age; and earnestly hope they will observe this advice of the poet: Felis quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum. As the Polypus is said to be always of the same colour with the neighboring object, or as the looking-glass reflects as many different faces as are set against its own superficies; so, nowadays, a man here

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and there (I will not blame all) may be said not to be properly one person but to partake of the opinion, and the humour, and the fashion of his wicked companions, as near as his own weakness will permit him to imitate them; therefore, this book is recommended for his instruction, as fearing all his vices, whatever deformity the dull eye of the world may apprehend to be in them, his over-weaning temper may look upon the most absolute of all virtues. Moreover, it shows every honest gentleman how to travel the road, and the citizen to secure his home with more safety than heretofore: and likewise how other honest people may escape being imposed on by the unknown cheats of these criminals, which are fully discovered in the relation of their ignominious lives. Though it was the sad fate of these unfortunate creatures to commence and take degrees in vanity and wickedness to the very date of their deaths, yet I upbraid not their miserable catastrophe with rash and uncharitable censures, but only set forth how they laboured to show the world what a latitude there is in villainy.11 An examination of the sketches which appear in the History reveals how successfully the author attained his professed ends, and how justifiably he called his collection " a Biography or Book of Lives." In the edition of 1719 there are one hundred and thirty-five sketches, each of about fifteen hundred words in length—although some greatly exceed that number—besides many shorter sketches of the accomplices of the arch-villains. T h e names of the ne'er-do-wells range from Sir John Falstaff, who, according to Smith, was a highwayman in the time of Henry VII, to Stephen Margrove, John Wood, and Richard Williams, footpads and sodomites who were executed at T y b u r n on June 18, 1719. "Villainy Displayed in all of its Branches " would be a good sub-title for a collection of stories that would make even a modern tabloid paper reader dread the long hours after twilight. I t is safe to say that no work in the English language has in it a more alarming group of villains. T h e accounts are lively, and told with such vividness and minuteness of detail that even the most inquisitive investigators of the blood-curdling and heinous should not be disappointed. T h e whole collection has a Smollett flavor, 11

Edition of 1719.

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although the author of Roderick Random was not so consistently indecent. For no reason other than to satisfy the public appetite for the unseemly, the author interspersed his accounts of criminals with stories about men who were suave violators of the commandment that forbids adultery. The advantages—and the disadvantages—of calling a spade a spade are fully demonstrated. Here is realism of the drabber sort, perhaps appropriately applied when it is recognized that the author's procession of cut-throats and strumpets was in no way possessed of refinement in thought and speech. That the purpose in his deliberate use of the obscene was to deter his readers from " embracing the illusion of vice " would be difficult to establish. He was giving his eighteenth century London readers what they wanted. It is, however, not with the ethical side of Smith's work that we are chiefly concerned. The biographical aspect is ample for present consideration. The student of biography has his confidence shattered in the whole performance as biography in the first sketch. The character is Sir John Falstaff, and. interestingly enough, it is Shakespeare's Falstaff that Smith presents to the reader in the early part of the account. For his materials, the author went to the two plays of Henry IV— chronicles which, in spite of their literary excellence, cannot be termed sourcebooks for biography. Even the speeches that Shakespeare gave to Falstaff were quoted as if they were based on definite historical authority. Toward the end of the sketch, the author left the Shakespearean character to observe that the dramatist employed poetic license when he made Falstaff the greatest of cowards—" when indeed we find in authentic history that he was quite the reverse." The " authentic history " on which he based the remainder of the account can in small way be relied on. As a biographical sketch, the record fails completely. The outstanding virtue of the account is that it recalls a character of whom students of literature will ever be fond. With later figures, however, Smith was better equipped to offer records that were trustworthy. But even here, in most

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instances, he was willing to rely on apocryphal stories and on his ever fertile imagination. The sketches of those famous pirates, Captain Kidd and Captain Avery, were almost entirely fictional. In the account of Captain Kidd, the place and date of his execution are to be relied on; otherwise the sketch is little more than a good story. Esquemeling's Buccaneers of America (1678) was evidently his chief source of information, for there are passages in Smith's account that can be found in substance and phrase in the earlier work. The Avery yarn was equally untrustworthy. 12 In the account of Claude Du Vail, " the Gentleman Highwayman," the author put himself to no trouble to authenticate the data he transcribed, in most places verbatim, from a quarto pamphlet entitled The Memoirs of Du Vail; containing the History of his Life and Death,13 which had appeared shortly after the bandit's execution in 1670. In this instance Smith was fortunate to have a record which was relatively trustworthy, but Smith's account is reliable only insofar as the earlier account was. Even at Smith's time, the English birth of Du Vail had been disproved. His indolence, his lively imagination, and his familiarity with the rogue literature of both England and the Continent were constant handicaps to any biographical end that he possibly had. Furthermore, Smith was of Defoe's time, and while he lacked the aptness of the latter at verisimilitude, he was by no means unaware of his skill in that direction. At times he was detected by his contemporaries, some of whom were drastic in their judgment of his honesty. " If you find a story, or but one sentence in all of his scribbling that is even tolerable, depend on it, he stole it," announced the author of The Highland Rogue.™ Such an extreme report was possibly in part the result of a rival's envy, for Smith was a popular author, but evidence 12

Cf. Johnson's History of the Pirates. See Harleian Miscellany, Vol. III. 14 This story appeared in 1723. Its authorship is uncertain. It is D e f o e like and has frequently been ascribed to him, but Scott in his Introduction to Rob Roy observed that he felt that Defoe had nothing to do with it. 13

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bears out the conclusion that Smith's Histories are not only full of apocryphal stories, but also that they are full of stories that had been told of rogues other than those in his procession. It is easily understood how some stories may be told appropriately about a number of different men; and in rogue literature especially, anecdotes are frequently made to serve for situations far different from those with which they were originally identified. Chandler, in his Literature of Roguery, investigated the parallels between Smith and continental authors with such care and noteworthy results that additional effort seems unnecessary. " In the account of Arthur Chambers," observes Chandler, " it is said that he stole the oxen two countrymen were driving by appearing hanged in a tree at one place and then slipping forward and appearing to hang from another. When the countrymen disputed as to its being the same man, and returned to investigate, Arthur drove off with his booty, concluding a trick recorded centuries before in Don Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor and somewhat later in Eulenspiegel. He employs, too, the cheat related in Desordenada Codicia of a pickpocket caught in the act, who has a crier call the article as found, at which the victim releases his prisoner. More noteworthy is the plagiarism from Solórzano's Garduña de Sevilla in which Chambers is shown holding up a dummy figure upon a ladder against a house, whereupon the proprietor, a miser, comes out and shoots it for a thief. Then while he is burying it in fear, Chambers goes in and helps himself to jewels. He also deceives the miser's wife into thinking him her husband, and she does not discover this until her lord returns, a finale borrowed doubtless from Boccaccio's story of King Agilulf and the horse-courser." 16 Of course, it is possible that Smith's rogues devised the same stratagems that earlier impostors employed, especially the less complicated ones such as the pickpocket's having a crier. But in many instances in which the cunning amounts to genius, it is unlikely that more than one man could devise and perform such feats with such satisfactory results. On " I , 173.

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the other hand, rogues had and have their cheats for centuries, and it is reckless to assume that such an accomplished knight of the road as Claude du Vail could not perform feats with the same success as those earlier members of his fraternity whose performances he likely knew. It is chiefly the fact that there are complete passages that are lifted from earlier accounts that causes the reader to conclude that in most instances the records were not the result of the author's attempt to verify or reject extant accounts. Fidelity to fact was not Smith's paramount objective. The conclusion that he was an out-and-out fabricator, or that his narratives were drawn from earlier records, however, cannot be applied to all of his accounts. In the shorter records of those malefactors who were executed at Tyburn during the interval in which Smith had his History under way, his statements were perforce more trustworthy. Even here it is not wise to rely on the author too implicitly, but in most instances it was just as easy for him to avail himself of the extant bona-fide data as for him to tax his ingenuity for a narrative that would sound plausible. Furthermore, it was a wiser policy for him to remain faithful to fact in most of the accounts that dealt with contemporary figures, for the facts in the lives of the ne'er-do-wells who were executed at the time that the Histories were appearing were well known, especially among Smith's class of readers. That the author had a special knack of drawing stories from the inmates at Newgate was probably the case. Most of those who were about to take their last ride by St. Giles were not afraid of a little publicity, and Smith was undoubtedly a very attentive listener to any tales that the inmates of the Lower Ward were likely to tell. Here truth was stranger than fiction. But to try to prove that the accounts of William Ward and Stephen Margrove, both executed at Tyburn in 1719, are strictly reliable borders on the impossible. The Sessions Papers bear out the details of offense, sentence, and punishment; but otherwise Smith's accounts are the only monuments to these men who swung on the triple tree. When all is con-

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sidered, in spite of the vast leaven of the apocryphal with which most of the accounts are filled, it is not unreasonable to assume that those sketches which deal with malefactors who were executed in the decade following 1710 had in them much information that was trustworthy. Alexander Smith's contribution to the field of true biography must, however, be termed indirect. Lack of reliability, a method prevailingly narrative which permitted little analysis of personality, and a style that showed only fair discipline cause the History to fall without the province of good biography. But his manner of bringing characters to life by means of minute and vivid detail was a definite contribution to the ever-widening current of realism in character portrayal. After the public had tasted the highly flavored offerings of pens such as Smith's, it could not find satisfaction in the less spicy offerings of those who had portrayed character idealistically. Here was something that had the tart flavor of the intimate and real; here were human beings, thoroughly subject to the grossest of human weaknesses, and not heroes with features made uncertain by a halo of eulogy. Sir Richard Steele, whose judgment may be termed representative of the more conservative of the age, wrote of Smith's History as follows: " I had this day sent me two volumes under the remarkable title of ' The History of the Most Noted Highwaymen.' I have not had time to peruse this curious piece of biography, but indeed my curiosity is extremely raised by a table of all the memorable passages contained in this history. There is a satisfaction to curiosity in knowing the adventures of the meanest of mankind. . . ." 16 Smith, Defoe and other writers of rogue-lives left, at times, the squalid sections of London in order to satisfy the lively curiosity of the age concerning such reckless sea-robbers as Captain Avery and John Gow; but it remained for Captain Charles Johnson to subscribe his name to a collection of Lives that dealt exclusively with those notorious pirates whose very 16 Quoted from The Englishman History.

in the Preface to the 1719 edition of the

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names struck terror into the hearts of honest sailors. In 1724, a small octavo volume was offered to the public which bore the enticing title, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates From their First Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence to the Present Year. The popularity of the History made a second edition necessary at once; in 1725, a third; and in 1726, a fourth edition, revised and enlarged, appeared to satisfy public demand. 17 Of Captain Johnson, even less can be gathered than of Captain Smith. That he was not the Charles Johnson who wrote the play The Successful Pirate (1712) is a conclusion that does not demand the conclusive internal evidence that exists to support it. As Arthur Hayward suggests, 18 the name Captain Charles Johnson was likely a pseudonym. That the author of the General History knew the sea, and the geographical settings for the operations of eighteenth century pirates, is evident in every sketch. Nautical terms, many of which are now obsolete, give a sea-faring tang to the work and help to reassure the reader of the author's authority. It is not unlikely that Johnson followed the sea at some time during his life, and that he was possessed of much first-hand information concerning some of the movements of those whose lives he recorded. The capes and bays that run out and in from the coast lines of Jamaica, Barbadoes, and even Madagascar, he evidently knew either from his own observations or from a careful study of charts and nautical geography. If he knew the sea only through hearsay, he managed to put up a remarkable front of authority. Furthermore, he was well-read, not only in the rogue-lives of the period and the accounts of Magadoxa, but also in the records of the ancients. In his Preface to the fourth edition, he revealed his familiarity with Plutarch as follows: " I presume we need not make an apology for giving the name of a 17 There is a m o d e m edition of the History which follows that of 1726 with f e w changes save those in spelling and punctuation. Arthur L. Hayward, editor of Captain Smith's History of the Highwaymen, and The Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, edited Johnson's General History of the Pirates in 1926. 18 Editor's N o t e in the edition of 1926.

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History to the following sheets, though they contain nothing but the actions of a parcel of robbers. It is bravery and stratagem in war which makes actions worthy of record; in which sense the adventures here related will be thought deserving that name. Plutarch is very circumstantial in relating the actions of Spartacus, the Slave, and makes the conquest of him one of the greatest glories of Marcus Crassus; and it is probable that if this slave had lived a little longer Plutarch would have given us his Life in full. . . ." Such a passage from the Preface and recurring statements in the sketches proper lead the reader to believe that Johnson was not unaware of the responsibilities and demands of Life-writing. " That he was accurate, even to the smallest particular," observes Hayward, " is attested by every English or American historian who has had occasion to corroborate his stories from other sources." 19 It is, however, reckless to conclude that Johnson made no errors in his records of the lives of so many pirates. Trustworthy information concerning them all was not always available; and furthermore, tales concerning the movements of pirates are not easily verified. It is probable that the author was at times forced to rely on yarns that had in them only a few grains of truth. Anything that had the semblance of fact was sufficiently engaging to London readers to make them welcome a work that would satisfy their curiosity concerning pirates even in part. Johnson belonged to the age of Smith, Defoe and Edmund Curll—an age that insisted on reality but that could not always recognize the difference between fiction and truth. The difficulty of authenticating stories that were current concerning pirates, and the lax methods of investigation that were employed by the pamphleteers of the early eighteenth century, made absolute trustworthiness an objective that Johnson did not reach. It is true that others have corroborated some of his accounts from sources other than those from which he worked, but sources of information concerning the movements of pirates in waters that were relatively unfamiliar to the eighteenth 19

Editor's Note, edition 1926.

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century Englishman are not, as a rule, the most trustworthy. However, that Johnson was earnest in his attempt to give his readers the most truthful account of the lives of the men about whom he wrote that fairly thorough investigation would provide is a conclusion which can be to a certain extent established. He was not possessed of the imagination of Defoe, or even of Smith; his pen lacked the vividness of the former, and his standards of truth were different from those of the author of The Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen. Furthermore, the major events in the lives of the pirates whom he selected for his work were too well known in London for him to become an out-and-out fabricator. The actual events in the lives of buccaneers were sufficiently stimulating to the reader's interest to cause the author to reject any temptation that he might have had to invent stories about them. Instead of relying on his imagination to invent accounts that would possess the semblance of reality, he tried, with an earnestness unknown among the contemporary authors of rogue-lives, to get as near to the truth as he could with such capricious subject-matter. In an appendix to the first volume of the fourth edition, he reassures the reader of his eagerness to be trustworthy by announcing that his former account of Captain Worley and his Crew which had appeared in the first edition was in large part the result of mis-information. " The history of the Pirates being an undertaking of great length and variety," he apologized, " the author readily owns that in some parts he may not be so exact as they who have been occasionally on the spot when these particular incidents happened. But in any circumstances he has omitted or misrepresented, he applies to such persons for better information, which correction or addition (as several others have been) shall be inserted as a supplement to the whole. And he hereby acknowledges himself much obliged to the worthy gentleman who sent him the following letter, for his kind assistance in promoting his chief design, which is to render as complete as possible, a work of so difficult a nature." The letter, which iu

Appendix to Vol. I, ed. 1726.

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Johnson quoted in full, pointed out and corrected an error in one of the accounts of the earlier edition. The quoting of this letter, and the author's general manner, indicate that he was seeking not only to establish his authority with the reader, but that he was also attempting to be genuinely trustworthy. Johnson realized the doubt that would exist in the minds of some of his readers concerning the truth of some of his accounts, but his conviction of his faithfulness to fact is constantly evident. " As to the lives of our two female Pirates," he observed, " we must confess that they may appear a little extravagant, yet they are never the less [sic] true for seeming so; but as they were publicly tried for their piracies, there are living witnesses enough to justify what we have laid down concerning them. It is certain that we have produced some particulars which were not so publicly known. The reason is, we were more inquisitive into the circumstances of their past lives than other people who had no other design than of gratifying their own private curiosity. . . ." 2 1 The reasonableness of such observations does much to convince the reader that Johnson, in spite of the handicaps under which he worked with his subject-matter and his lack of scientific methods of investigation, was earnest in his attempt to record the lives of the pirates in a way that was reliable. To call him a true biographer, however, is the whim of a zealously loyal editor or of the overly sympathetic reader of blood-curdling tales of those whose lives breathe adventure. The General History is a compilation of facts and apocryphal stories concerning thirty-six of the most reckless sea-robbers that ever roamed the Main. Of these, thirty-five dealt with pirates that were at large from 1710 to 1725. The sketch of Captain Avery is the only account that dealt with a pre-eighteenth century figure, and even here, the account was justifiably placed in the History, for Avery was widely discussed in London until at least 1730. " I come now to the Pirates that have rose since the Peace of Utrecht," 22 announced the author after 21 22

P. x, Preface, ed. Arthur Hayward, N. Y., 1926. 1713.

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he had completed the Avery sketch. Martel, Roberts, Teach, Kidd, Bellamy, and North—all widely discussed pirates during the early decades of the century—lead the procession. The sketches range from seven to eighty-eight pages in length, but even in the longer sketches there is not sufficient space for a full-length portrait. Furthermore, there is no stress placed on the delineation of personality. The narrative element persists throughout. It is true that there are passages that are rich in pictorial and interpretative quality, but they are not sustained. The accounts of Captain Howel Davis and of Captain Bartholomew Roberts are the nearest approach to the plane of biography. They are thoroughly absorbing stories, but, as with the shorter accounts, there is little stress placed on characterization. Davis and Roberts are typical pirates, with little individualizing detail employed in their portrayal. If, however, one should want to have a series of small, though fairly distinct and faithful pictures of eighteenth century pirates, he would find Captain Johnson's General History a picturesque monument to those reckless sea-robbers who were possessed of a courage for which the unprudish will ever find admiration. Furthermore, the lessons that these accounts illustrate are not pointed out in such a way that the reader feels conscious of the imminence of the pulpit. Johnson's delight in recording these events made ethical instruction incidental, and his sympathetic interest in the pirates whose lives formed the content of his History gave to his accounts a vigor and charm that the reader finds completely absorbing. The age that was responsible for the great interest in Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild, and in Captain Alexander Smith's collections of rogue stories, was responsible for much of the work of Daniel Defoe. His contributions to the satisfying of the curiosity of the age in ne'er-do-wells and charlatans were considerable; in fact, many of the accounts of the lives and adventures of the criminal class that appeared in

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the 20's were the products of his pen.23 With his inveterate interest in vulgar wonders, Defoe illustrated the extent to which the curiosity of the age had gone. Such figures as the Cartoucheans, Captain Avery, John Gow, Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild, and Duncan Campbell—all widely discussed characters in early eighteenth century London—were some of the personalities on which Defoe's interest was fastened. To him certainly there was " a satisfaction to curiosity in knowing the adventures of the meanest of mankind." This inclination, augmented by his association with publishers who capitalized the lively inquisitiveness of the age, was responsible for Defoe's assortment of narratives that detailed the exploits of charlatans and Newgate celebrities. That the reader must approach Defoe's stories with a willingness to be deceived or with a disregard for the truth contained in them is a commonplace to students of his works. To give his narratives the semblance of truth was often enough to insure success, and as a result, verisimilitude, cunningly employed, often took the place of truth. In spite of all the conjecture and evidence that have been advanced in order to demonstrate the actuality of some of the happenings in Robinson Crusoe, Captain Singleton, Memoirs of a Cavalier, and Moll Flanders, these engaging stories can hardly be regarded as reliable records of actual events. Even the Journal of the Plague Year, which has taken its place in the history section of many of our libraries, cannot be considered an altogether accurate account of that eventful time. In most instances, especially in his major works, his treatment of character and events has proved sufficiently fictional to put him into the class of the early realistic novelists, and in this class he primarily belongs. In some of his accounts, however, and certainly in his methods, Defoe was essentially a biographer. To discount 23

For evidence of Defoe's authorship of some of the anonymously issued pamphlets, see Lee's Daniel Defoe; his life, and recently discovered Writings, 1869; and Maynadier's Introductions in the Jensen Society edition of Defoe, 1907. 9

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his authority and reliability in all instances is both unfair and unsound. With such characters as Crusoe and Singleton, the author could employ as much of the fictional as his well-disciplined imagination would provide; but with such positive actualities as Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild—names that were household words in London during the 20's—he could not rely on his imagination to any great extent. Even his skill at verisimilitude—a skill which he himself recognized—could not be used to satisfy a class of reader that was already possessed of a knowledge of the major facts. The biographical impulse to commemorate, and to delineate character faithfully and sympathetically, was not the motive out of which Defoe's fidelity to fact grew. Fear of detection, a lively interest in actual experiences, and a journalistic sense of responsibility in revealing characters and events as he knew them forced on him a considerable amount of the trustworthiness and general attitude of the biographer. His attitude toward character and his tactics for obtaining reliable data for his narratives were those of the journalist rather than those of the professional biographer. The personalities about whom he wrote fascinated him for the moment; they never had his all-consuming interest. The temporary nature of his interest in the men about whom he wrote was directly responsible for the journalistic methods that he employed in gathering material for his accounts. In the early part of the century, journalists and pamphleteers did not employ the same aggressive and untiring methods of uncovering facts that those of our present generation employ, nor were they possessed of that sense of accuracy that was beginning to demonstrate itself in the works of the antiquaries and scholars. The fine points in the art of hounding a man for his story were recognized and employed by only a few; and patience, meticulous care with details, and the interpretative spirit in delineating character were virtues that were rare among those who visited Newgate and followed the cart to the triple tree at Tyburn. Journalists were primarily concerned in getting a salable story from their interviews and

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investigations, and as a result, they were frequently satisfied with anything that would bear the semblance of truth. In order to fill in the gaps that remained after all bona-fide material had been utilized, writers often found it necessary to rely on their imaginations. A lively sense of what might have happened was a necessary part of the journalists' equipment. In this respect, Defoe was admirably endowed. In spite of the fact that Defoe's interest in character and his tactics for obtaining data concerning character were definitely journalistic, he possessed talents that made his accounts of the criminal class not only more engaging than the others of his age, but also of more significance to the student of biography. His temporary interest in personality was more aggressive than that of his colleagues who wrote rogue-lives, and he had a far more fluent pen. With a skill unparalleled in his age, he wove together the real and the fictional, using where he could, the real, and casting over his story a hue of complete plausibility and truth. The result was at times pseudo-biography, but the methods he employed even with content that was composed largely of fiction were those of the true biographer. An examination of a few of Defoe's pieces in which he dealt with actual characters indicates that he contributed much to both the matter and method of biography. Even were all of his content to be rejected as apocryphal, the accounts of Captain Avery, John Gow, Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild, and Duncan Campbell would remain significant in the development of biographical method. In these accounts, most of which are little more than sketches, Defoe employed devices for establishing his authority and for inspiring trust that were to a large extent an innovation in the field of Life-writing. Furthermore, with his talent for vivid detail, he was able to bring to life those figures on whom his interest was fastened. In some instances the portraits assume full-length proportion in spite of the brevity of the sketches. How faithful the likenesses were to the actual characters cannot be determined, owing to the fact that data and full accounts of these figures

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are rare and often confused with fiction; but whether faithful or not to the original, the characters were delineated by a hand that made them living and thoroughly real. One of the first pamphlets that Defoe wrote in which an actual criminal was the chief character was the account of Captain Avery, entitled The King of Pirates: Being an Account of the Famous Enter prizes of Captain Avery, the Mock King of Madagascar ; with his Rambles and Piracies wherein all the Sham Accounts formerly published of him are detected. In two Letters from himself, one during his Stay at Madagascar, and one since his Escape from thence. This pamphlet was published in 1719, the same year that Crusoe appeared. The piracies of Avery had been a topic for discussion and semifictional pamphlets for over twenty years. In 1709 an account appeared entitled The Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery, written at least presumably by a Dutch sailor, Adrian Van Broeck, who had been captured by Avery and who had learned much about the pirate while he was a prisoner. In 1712, a play was produced at Drury Lane entitled The Successful Pirate, written by Charles Johnson, in which Avery was the principal character. These accounts and others were available to Defoe, along with scores of stories that tradition preserved among sailors and water-front habitués. 24 Little of real biographical worth was extant, even at Defoe's time; in fact, during the twenty years that had elapsed since Avery had committed his crimes on the high seas, the few reports about him that had biographical value originally had become so badly garbled that no one was able to determine what was truth or fiction. Such a situation was ideal for one of Defoe's inclinations. With no more actual facts at his command than others of his time, he proceeded to write an account of Avery that had all of the features of a biographical narrative. Relying on the extant stories of the pirate's exploits for the framework of his sketch, and on his sense of probability to 24 Captain Charles Johnson's account in the History was fairly accurate, was not available as early as 1719.

of the Pirates,

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fill in gaps and to make a few changes in the narratives that were of doubtful veracity, he seized upon a method which gave to his account that note of authority and that minuteness of detail which were irresistible to a class of reader that was hungry for an intimate record of Avery's life. Avery, he determined, should become his own biographer. A half century after Defoe's pamphlet appeared, William Mason was called a great innovator when he wrote his Memoirs of Gray (1775) by " allowing Gray to be his own biographer." Gray's correspondence was edited; the poet's own letters were to delineate his personality. Defoe, in 1719, saw the advantages of such a device. " There is always a great difference between what men say of themselves, and what others say for them, when they come to write historically of the transactions of their lives," he declared in his Preface to the Reader. In order to show the public how it had been " imposed upon in the former ridiculous and extravagant accounts which had been put upon the world," he would employ some of the pirate's letters, and thus permit Avery to tell his own story. All of this was plausible, for Avery, according to report, was still alive, though in straitened circumstances in the Levant, and eager for contact with his native land. To whom these letters were addressed and how he managed to obtain them, Defoe did not reveal. Such fine points in establishing his authority were possibly not needed; the letters were to be accepted as bona-fide by the public without question. This method of revealing the chief movements in the life of the pirate was only another demonstration of Defoe's cunning. The letters, supposedly from Avery, were two in number, and presumably quoted verbatim from the originals which the publisher had in his possession. As a device, it was excellent; but the performance became ineffective to a certain extent by reason of the way Defoe " quoted " the letters. In the first epistle, the pirate was made to declare his resentment at the publication of a scurrilous account entitled My Life and Adventures, the authorship of which he flatly denied. The letters which were now being issued from the press, he inti-

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mated, were written in order to correct the false impressions that the earlier pamphlet had left. Such a show of resentment was possibly natural, although a pirate's insistence on truth in the matter of ascribing authorship may easily sound paradoxical. These letters were to contain the " true " account of his adventures. The first epistle runs to seventy-three pages in a duodecimo volume—a rather long letter for a pirate —even an early eighteenth century pirate. The second epistle is of more usual length—ten pages. It is, however, not the length of the letters that makes the reader pause in doubt: in both of them, the diction, the structure, and the flavor are unmistakably those of a trained writer. Even a casual reader would have cause to wonder at the pirate who could describe his exploits so elegantly. At the time of the appearance of the pamphlet, many were suspicious of the verbatim nature of the letters; but the account was by no means unsuccessful as a publisher's venture. Had Defoe been so ingenious with the phrasing of the letters as he was with the selection of a method, the King of Pirates would have been a brilliant illustration of biographical methods in fiction. It was while he was connected with Applebee's Original Weekly Journal that Defoe went again to actual pirates and the sea for his subject-matter, this time for a narrative entitled An Account oj the Conduct and Proceedings oj the late John Gow, alias Smith, Captain oj the late Pirates, executed for Murther and Piracy, committed aboard the George Galley, afterwards called the Revenge; with a Relation oj all the horrid Murthers committed in Cold Blood. Also of their being taken at the Islands of Orkney, and sent up Prisoners to London. This pamphlet appeared in 1725, the year that Gow and his confederates were hanged. Gow, or Goffe, or Smith, as he was variously called, was much talked about in London during the middle 20's; he was, as Defoe expressed it, "indeed a superlative, capital rogue, and had been so even before he came to embark." The term pirate carries with it a suggestion altogether too attractive to be employed for such a sneak and cut-throat as John Gow. At the time that Defoe's pam-

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phlet appeared, no sustained account of Gow's piracies and murders was before the public. There were articles in the journals, and much discussion and conjecture about his exploits, but Defoe was the first to produce a fairly complete narrative. By reason of the fact that Gow was a strictly contemporary figure, the author could not rely on his imagination and sense of probability to the same extent as he had in his sketch of Avery. Many of the pirate's actual experiences were well known in London; sea-captains stood around Tilbury telling of their hair-breadth escapes from Gow's fleet of robbers. They knew the kinds of ships he sailed, the strength of his crew, and the waters in which he conducted his exploits. The Bay of Biscay, the Western Mediterranean, and the Orkney Islands were the chief scenes of the pirate's operations—seas sufficiently near and real to Englishmen to make accuracy of detail necessary. When Gow and his crew were seized, all London knew the events which led to the capture; and at the trial, much information was disclosed that had been hitherto unrevealed or conjectural. Defoe, with his eye ever single to the interests of the public, followed the Gow case zealously. His connection with Applebee's Journal was in part responsible for some of his interest in the exploits of the pirate, although he was not the one to allow his curiosity to go unsatisfied when such a cut-throat as Gow could be observed. It is possible that he interviewed the pirate after his capture, and witnessed the hanging. In writing his account of Gow's exploits, he was undoubtedly well equipped with reliable information, and recognizing the necessity for truth, he became biographical in matter as well as in method. It is reasonable to conclude that the account was substantially trustworthy. All later records of the pirate's life support the conclusion that Defoe was faithful to the facts as he knew them. When in 1735, the authors and editors of the enlarged edition of the Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals investigated the details in Gow's life for their brief account, they found no record that was more complete and

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satisfactory than Defoe's. Proof of their confidence in the reliability of the earlier account can be produced by comparing their sketch with the one issued by Applebee in 1725. In some passages they quoted generously from Defoe, and the details of the narratives are essentially the same. The method that Defoe employed in this account was direct and simple. All of the usual preliminaries that he employed in order to gain the confidence of the reader in other accounts, he found no need for here. There was no long and elaborate preface to reassure the reader of the veracity of the narrative, nor was the account shaped into an ingenious design that would make it sound more authoritative, as was the case in the sketch of Avery. There were no insinuations, either bold or subtle, about the complete trustworthiness of the performance. Here Defoe needed no device to lure readers on—the title of the pamphlet was enticing enough, and the facts, as he knew them, were quite as stimulating to the interest of his readers as any fiction. The directness of the narrative, however, gave the account a perceptible episodic quality, and did not permit the details in the delineation of personality to become minute. Possibly in order to give the character that fullness that his accounts of other criminals possess, he needed additional facts, and unwilling to supply much from his imagination, he permitted the narrative to shape itself from the materials that were at his disposal. Defoe's characterization of John Gow becomes, if not a full-length portrait, at least a free-hand sketch in which there is much revelation of personality. In his two accounts of Jack Sheppard, Defoe produced his best biographical sketches. In spite of their brevity there is a completeness in these two accounts that leaves little of the personality of the clever rogue underdeveloped. Jack Sheppard—" a youth both in age and person, though an old man in sin "—was, in spite of his criminal record, a London favorite. His youth, the circumstances which led to his life of crime, and his remarkable cleverness in escaping several times from the heavy-walled dungeons of Newgate, aroused

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not only the interest of the public, but also the sympathy. Murder he never committed; he was confined to Newgate and finally hanged for housebreaking and robberies, some of which were so deftly executed that they were little short of amazing. He was loyal to his friends, possessed of unparalleled courage among a group of reckless footpads, clever to the point of genius, and wistful when he reflected on the circumstances that had led him into a life of crime. It is small wonder that plays were written about him,20 and that even during the nineteenth century, the historical romancer Ainsworth should select Sheppard as the chief character for one of his most engaging stories. It was while Defoe was connected with Applebee's Original Weekly Journal that Sheppard was performing his most spectacular feats. With little urging from Applebee, Defoe made the clever rogue the principal object of his interest. As a representative of the Journal, he made frequent trips to Newgate, a place with which he was already familiar. Here, with his lively interest in those who had done something out of the ordinary, he was in an element to which he was singularly adapted. His role at Newgate was not that of reformer or professional philanthropist. He approached the inmates in a way that caused them to speak freely; they considered his visits an unmixed good. With no care for the publicity that would ensue—in fact, some of them were pleased at the prospect—they told stories of their exploits and the circumstances which led to their capture. To say that Defoe was not interested in their souls would not be exactly the case, although his attention undoubtedly was fixed on what they had done and what they were, rather than on what was to become of them. To their stories he listened with sympathy and at times with amusement. He was not the one to fail to find delight in the stories Jack Sheppard told him of his escape from the Castle at Newgate. Few men visited the Lower Ward and the Middle Stone Room who were better able to get interesting facts. 26 Thurmond's The Harlequin Sheppard was a popular spectacle during the late 20's.

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While Sheppard was confined at Newgate before his last and most remarkable escape, Defoe visited him frequently. The result of these visits appeared in the Original Weekly Journal in sixteen spirited articles, all of which were fairly trustworthy accounts that were built from the data he had obtained at Newgate. While these articles were helping Applebee to increase the sale of his Journal, Sheppard, after obtaining the choice information that the chief-keepers were at the Sessions-house, opened the padlock on his ball and chain with a nail, and by doing damage estimated at fifty pounds to the walls of the six rooms through which he went, made his escape over the housetops. Five days after this feat, Sheppard presumably wrote a note to a friend in which he explained some of the tactics to which he had resorted in making his escape, and sent the epistle by a waterman, who was, he declared, " Very merry upon me, and says he would not be in my jacket." This note, which was possibly by Sheppard, Defoe used to close a narrative of pamphlet length which Applebee published under the title The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard; containing a Particular Account of his Many Robberies and Escapes, Etc., Etc. Including his last Escape from the Castle at Newgate. For this account, Defoe was well equipped with facts. He knew Sheppard well, he was on hand when the keepers at Newgate investigated the probable manner in which the boy had escaped, and he had the salable distinction of having received a note from the rogue in which Sheppard sent him his " Kind love." All of the stories and data that had appeared in the articles which the Journal had published Defoe utilized for this compact account, and in addition to a spirited résumé of Sheppard's earlier exploits, he provided a vivid story of the last escape from Newgate. The pamphlet was not only a timely narrative; it was a substantially trustworthy account of the major events in the rogue's life, and it was well written. This pamphlet appeared on October 19, 1724—only a few days after Sheppard's escape. On the night of October 31,

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the boy, after having visited his mother and with her drunk three quarterns of brandy, went to the public houses near Clare Market to drink with his friends. They warned him of his danger, but, his senses numbed by drink, he continued to move about the houses in Maypole Alley until he was apprehended. On November 16 he was led to Tyburn and hanged before a crowd of two hundred thousand people. During the interval between his escape from the Castle at Newgate and his last confinement and hanging, Defoe and Applebee, in spite of the success of the pamphlet of October 19, were still alert to the possibilities of another account. Defoe was among those who came to see Sheppard during his last days in the Middle Stone Room, and on those visits he gathered additional facts and stories. It was on one of these trips to Newgate that the author, possibly directed by Applebee, suggested a scheme to Sheppard that would help the unfortunate boy in no way save to give him additional publicity. Sheppard, with nothing to lose, and surely fond of Defoe, readily consented to play a part in the clever scheme for advertising a second account. On the day of the execution, Defoe or Applebee—both have been named—was invited into the hangman's wagon to receive before that vast throng that had gathered to witness the execution what at least appeared to be a package of manuscript from Sheppard. The day following the execution, Applebee issued a pamphlet entitled A Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes, Etc. of John Sheppard, Giving an exact Description of the Manner of His Wonderful Escape from the Castle in Newgate, and of the Methods He took afterwards for his Security. Written by Himself during his confinement in the Middle Stone Room, after his being retaken in Drury Lane. To Which is Prefix'd a true Representation of his Escape, from the condemned Hold, Curiously Engraven on a Copper Plate. The whole Published at the particular request of the Prisoner. This account went through seven editions within a month. The advertising scheme that was executed so successfully on the day of the execution was in part responsible for the un-

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paralleled sale of such a narrative, but there were other more substantial features that recommended the pamphlet to London readers. The device of providing an autobiographical record was an effective stroke. Sheppard presumably was allowed to tell his own story. He was made to point out an error in the earlier narrative published by Applebee—a reassuring passage undoubtedly to those who were inclined to be suspicious of the autobiographical nature of the performance. But the autobiographical method had advantages of greater importance than that of reassuring the doubting Thomases of the veracity of the account. Sheppard, while narrating his story, was made to reflect on the circumstances that led to his life of crime. Half bitterly, as if he realized how cruel circumstance had been to him, he recalled his association with Edgeworth Bess and Poll Maggot. A wistful, unobtrusive ego plays in and out of the whole account. His loyalty to " Blueskin," a partner in his crimes, his thankfulness to those who tried to help him mend his ways, his sorrow at the thought of his " poor, distressed mother " are all brought in by an author who knew how to arouse sympathy for his character. The reader is made to marvel at the boy's cunning on one page, to pity him on the next; he chuckles now at the boy's ingenuity, then becomes sad as the shadow of Tyburn comes into the picture. That Defoe exaggerated Sheppard's unselfishness in order to arouse sympathy for his character may be to a certain extent the case, but as evidence of the boy's willingness to help others when he himself would have no profit, we have merely to look at the scene at Tyburn on the day of the execution, when he, remembering the man who had visited him at Newgate, helped Defoe with a scheme to sell pamphlets. Such a boy was no worse morally than Defoe painted him. These two accounts of Jack Sheppard illustrate Defoe at his best with biographical content and method. The accounts are trustworthy. All extant records which have been investigated are substantially parallel to Defoe's. But they have more than trustworthiness to recommend them to those who

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find delight in rogue biographies. From the two sketches, Sheppard emerges a clear, even vivid personality—an individual who reflected in a half-pathetic way the grossest of human weaknesses. The picture is complete; twenty-two years flit by, filled with drab backgrounds and the shadows of Newgate, but the attention is always centered on the movements and personality of the misguided boy. No writer of rogue-lives in the eighteenth century produced a more vivid delineation of character and a more engaging narrative. The notorious Jonathan Wild was the next figure on whom Defoe and Applebee fixed their attention. Even while Sheppard was the chief object of their zeal, this man had come in for a share of their interest. Jonathan Wild was the most out-and-out scoundrel that the inefficient legislative and judicial system of early eighteenth century London produced. He was a menace to shop-keeper and thief alike. Few forms of vice were without his province. He oppressed the weak, trained pick-pockets, and operated bawdy-houses; but criminal as all of his practices were, his most diabolic role was that of thief-taker. A thief and ne'er-do-well himself, he was employed by Hitchin, the City Marshal—a man none too upright for a city official—to catch footpads and housebreakers. Thus vested with authority, Wild made a handsome living by giving freedom to those thieves who paid him regular dividends, and by sending to Newgate and the gallows those who were rebellious to his crafty scheme or those who were unable to pay him off promptly. Those who were among his contributors, he assisted to new crimes, always, however, demanding a heavy toll from those who were under his malicious guidance and protection. The City Marshal, who carried on the same practice on a smaller scale, in time became unwilling to be outdone by one who was hired merely as an assistant, and, as a result, a quarrel ensued between them. Hitchin, eager to disclose the manner in which Wild was performing his duties as thief-catcher, but unwilling to condemn himself, wrote a pamphlet entitled The True Discovery of the Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers, which appeared in 1718. Al-

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most immediately a reply was framed by Wild himself, which was printed and distributed under the title An Answer to a Late Insolent Libel. Such information as was contained in these tracts and in others that were current at the time was not enough to convict Wild. He managed to keep within the letter of the law until finally he was detected in a situation that even the law could not construe as honest. After a short confinement at Newgate, he was hanged on May 24, 1725. During the ten years in which Wild carried on his operations, he was widely discussed in the journals. While he was confined at Newgate and immediately after his execution, numerous accounts of his life and movements were written, in some instances by those who knew the facts, but often by authors who were alert to the commercial value of anything that had the semblance of truth concerning Wild. A ballad entitled Newgate's Garland26 appeared soon after " Blueskin " (Joseph Blake) had made an attempt on the thief-taker's life, in which the details of that episode were described in lurid colors. A pamphlet which bore the title of The Life of Jonathan Wild from his Birth to his Death, written by a clerk of court, 27 appeared while the echoes from the crowd at the hanging at Tyburn were still heard about London. This account, aiming as it did at completeness, fell short of its mark, although its content was substantially trustworthy. Even Captain Alexander Smith offered a narrative to the public about the life of the criminal—a generous sketch entitled The Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Famous Jonathan Wild . . . in which the enterprising author of the Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen was forced into a kind of reliability. There are records of other memoirs and accounts, chief among which may be mentioned the anonymous True Life of Jonathan Wild (172S), and An Authentick History of the Parentage, Life, Adventures . . . of Jonathan Wild (1725). The authors of these pamphlets were rivals with whom Defoe had to compete, but none was better qualified than he to 26 27

See Swift's Miscellanies. The initials H. D . throw no light on the name of the author.

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produce an account that was both trustworthy and engaging. He had followed the career of Wild from the time that the thief-taker began to attract attention; and when Wild was imprisoned, the author proceeded straightway to Newgate to get material for timely articles for the Journal. Applebee's staff and press were in favor among the officials and inmates of Newgate, and the great success of the Sheppard pamphlets had given Defoe and his publisher a considerable reputation among the reading public. As a result, they were willing to proceed deliberately with an account of Jonathan Wild in order to provide a narrative that would make the hastily and sensationally written pamphlets seem definitely inferior. It was in June, 1725, a few weeks after Wild's execution, that Defoe's pamphlet appeared, bearing the characteristically inviting title The True, Genuine and Perfect Account of the Life of Jonathan Wild. Taken From good Authority, and from his own Writings. The account, prefaced by the usual Defoe introduction in which his complete authority and fidelity to fact were stressed, was a concise narrative of the outstanding events in Wild's life, in the course of which some penetrating characterization appeared. But in spite of its definitely biographical features, the account of Wild is not of the same high level as the Sheppard sketches. The notorious thief-taker, despite his ugliness, becomes real, it is true, but the portrait that Defoe produced lacks the vividness of feature and the warmth of coloring that the picture of Jack Sheppard possesses. The explanation for this lies in the different types of interest that Defoe had while studying the two characters. His interest in Sheppard was sympathetic; it is not unreasonable to conclude that he liked the boy, and out of his sympathy and fondness there grew a kind of understanding. Jonathan Wild no one could like. It was only a professional interest that Defoe had in him; he was a man about whom the public wanted information, not one whom the author could view with sympathetic understanding. The subjective thread which he wove so skilfully into the second account of Sheppard appears infrequently in the

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fabric of the Wild narrative. The account has much the flavor of an encyclopaedia article—accurate and compact— with little besides its information to recommend it to the reader. An examination of one of his longer works provides more significant evidence of Defoe's contribution to the matter and methods of biography. The so-called Lives of Avery, Gow, Sheppard, and Wild were merely sketches, shaped to a large extent in length and method by Applebee's press. 28 In his longer accounts Defoe's nearest approach to true biography was with the once-popular History of the Life and Surprising Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell (1720). This cannot be called a sketch; its proportions are those of a full-length Life. Two hundred and fifty pages provide ample space for more than a cursory narrative of outstanding events. The kind of character that Defoe selected for this account warranted no more space than such lively figures as Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild, but the author was less hampered by time and the other demands that journalists must satisfy. The eighteenth century cherished its fads for long intervals. Duncan Campbell was in no imminent danger of being led to Tyburn; interest in him and his movements was not likely to wane in a few months. So long as he continued to astonish London, it made no difference if an account of his life appeared in July or in September. Furthermore, it was for Curll's press that Defoe prepared this account, and Curll usually demanded more than a cursory narrative. The man on whom Defoe fastened his interest was the most widely discussed fortune-teller and healer of the early decades of the century. He made the deaf and dumb to converse in many tongues, he would write the name of any stranger who approached him, and he could cast out devils and divine the future with uncanny accuracy. At least, so report had it. H e was laughed at by some, revered by many, and exposed by none. Few men of the age were the topic for such conjecture and discussion. In spite of the fact that authentic 28

The account of Captain Avery was not published by Applebee.

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records concerning his life and achievements are meagre, it can be proved satisfactorily that such a man lived and that he was widely discussed. Allusions to his achievements can be found in the Tatler and Spectator,29 in official registers, and in several sustained accounts of his accomplishments such as Eliza Heywood's A Spy Upon the Conjuror (1724), and an account by an anonymous author entitled The Dumb Projector (1725). 30 In addition to this positive evidence of the actuality of the man, all manner of references were made to him in the letters, news items, and anecdotes of the time. Here was choice subject-matter for one of Defoe's interests and literary inclinations. With his inveterate interest in vulgar wonders, the author found the charlatan an exceedingly valuable addition to his growing gallery of human curiosities; and with his eye fixed on the tastes of the London reading public, he readily determined to make Campbell's life subjectmatter for his pen. A London that made possible, four years later, seven editions of a Life of Jack Sheppard in less than a month was ready for a detailed account of the experiences of a fortune-teller. That Defoe knew the charlatan intimately seems reasonable, for there was nothing to cause him to refuse to satisfy his curiosity concerning this singular man. It is even probable that the fortune-teller, after noticing Defoe's interest in him, was eager to help the author with his project of writing an account of his life and cures for the free advertising that such a narrative would bring him. Even if The Address to the Ladies and Gentlemen of Great Britain, which prefaced the account and which was supposedly written by Campbell himself, be rejected as unauthentic, it is certain that the charlatan had a knowledge of the contents of the account before it went to the press. Two days after it was published, " Mr. Campbell, the Deaf and Dumb Gentleman . . . kiss'd the King's hand, and presented to his Majesty The History of his Life and 29 See Number 14 of the Tatler, M a y 12, 1709; and Numbers 323, March 11, 1712; SOS, October 9, 1712; and S60, J u n e 28, 1714, of the Spectator. 30 This has been attributed incorrectly t o D e f o e ; cf. Lee's Daniel Defoe.

10

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Adventures, which was by his Majesty most graciously received." 31 Knowing the author's intention, and encouraging it, Campbell was surely willing to provide Defoe with all necessary information, truthful or to suit his purposes. Both were to profit by the publication of the account, so there was no reason for the charlatan to resist Defoe's attempts to get data for a story. That Defoe exaggerated his intimacy with the fortune-teller in the early passages of the narrative is a conclusion that can readily be drawn. It was only natural that the author, eager to pose as a trustworthy authority, should attempt to convince the reader that his acquaintance with Campbell was of long and familiar standing. It was hardly pride in his intimacy that directed such exaggeration—although he was capable of being proud of such an acquaintanceship)—it was chiefly his eagerness to establish his complete authority. When and under what circumstances he met Campbell cannot be determined accurately, but that he knew the family of the charlatan, and the events in his life from the time that Campbell was three years old,32 are comments that cannot be accepted at their face value. Nor can the incomparable piece of verisimilitude in which he described his first sight of Campbell in London be credited. 33 The manner, however, in which this acquaintanceship was described is always reassuring. Were we not to have other examples of Defoe's cunning fabrications, all his reports concerning his friendship with Duncan Campbell might readily be accepted, without considering the necessity for investigation. The most casual search, however, will reveal that Defoe's intimacy with the fortune-teller was of short duration. Of the major facts in Campbell's life, the author was probably a fairly trustworthy authority. Positive assertions in this connection cannot be made. The one who attempts to prove convincingly that Defoe was the true biographer of 31 32 33

Daily Post, May 4, 1720. Jensen Society, 1907, p. 3. Ibid., p. 106.

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Duncan Campbell will be confronted by obstacles that can be surmounted only by the dubious device of conjecture. As has been observed, the authentic records of Duncan Campbell that are extant are exceedingly meagre, and of such a nature that they cannot provide a satisfactory check on such a full account as Defoe's. Furthermore, the stories that the journals of the time contained can scarcely be used to prove or disprove the truth of any man's record. That Defoe did not verify the statements he made concerning the cures that Campbell effected can readily be understood, if not excused, on the ground that such performances could not be exactly verified. With details for which there is some kind of a concrete check, it seems that Defoe's account was substantially truthful, for with the major events in Campbell's life Defoe was confronted by the same necessity for truth as he was in the accounts of Sheppard and Wild. The charlatan was too well known in London to permit the author to write an out-and-out fictional account of him. Defoe's trustworthiness, however, is an aspect of his contribution to the field of biography that should not receive much emphasis. The methods, however, that he employed in recording the life of Campbell are worthy of observation. The devices that he used in order to establish his authority, and to bring Campbell to life as a vivid and real personality, were essentially those of the trained biographer. That he was cognizant of the demands of biography, and of its value, is apparent in his Introduction to the account. " Of all the writings delivered in an historical manner to the world," he observed, " none certainly were ever held in greater esteem than those which give us the lives of distinguished private men at full length; and, as I may say, to the life. Such curious fragments of biography are the rarities which great men seek after with eager industry, and when found, prize them as the chief jewels and ornaments that enrich their libraries; and deservedly, for they are the beauties of the greatest men's lives handed down to posterity, and commonly handed down likewise by the greatest men. . . . It is a wonder to me," he

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continued, " that when any man's life has something in it peculiarly great and remarkable in its kind, it should not move some more skilful writer than myself to give the public a taste of it, because it must be at least vastly entertaining, if it be not, which is next to impossible, immensely profitable and instructive withal." 3 4 His expressed convictions concerning his work were undoubtedly those of the biographer. In order to meet the demands of biography, or at least to pose as an earnest Life-writer, he proceeded to employ methods that belong definitely to the form. He never permitted his narrative to take on the semblance of a fictional account. In connection with the stories that dealt with the manifestations of Campbell's occult " gift," he provided lists of names of those who had witnessed the demonstrations of the charlatan's skill—evidence that was quite as convincing as that which is still found in the patent medicine testimonials. When the author related the story of the wonderful cure of Susanna Johnson, he provided the reassuring information that she was the daughter of Captain Johnson, who lived at " a place adjacent to Romford in Essex." 35 Susanna Johnson, of whom no additional record can be found, it seems was possessed of a virulent devil, which, through the devices of Campbell, was cast precipitously out. Defoe admitted that he had not witnessed this cure, but he named some who had, and in his inimitable way proceeded to give a most realistic and detailed account of the performance " exactly as it had been related " to him. In addition to such un-fictionlike tactics, he gave to his narrative a ring of authority and reality by employing some letters and notices that were written by Campbell or about him. Realizing the doubt that might exist in the minds of some readers concerning the authenticity of the letters, he offered the reassuring information that he would present the letters " word for word as they were given into my hands . . . in all of which I am assured, by very credible persons and undoubted authorities, there are not the least alterations but 34

3

Jensen Society edition, 1907.

»Ibid., p. 212.

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what the version of them from the then Scotch manner of expression in a more modern English dress made absolutely necessary." 36 The modern reader, of course, would like to know who the " very credible persons and undoubted authorities " were, so that there might be some concrete check on the validity of the author's remark. But evidently to Defoe and his age, the comment that there were authorities was enough. If it had not been enough to disarm the readers' suspicions, and had the author felt that additional assurance was necessary, he was sufficiently resourceful to have produced it. Quotations from current periodicals concerning Campbell he employed with evident satisfaction. " I must take notice of one letter sent him [Campbell] to the Spectator, in the year 1712, which was at a time a lady wanted him after he had removed from Monmouth Street to Drury Lane," he announced," and straightway proceeded to quote the letter in full and the Spectator's reply.38 Throughout the account, no opportunity was lost to inspire confidence in the reader, and to give to the narrative all of the features of a thorough, trustworthy, and sympathetic study of a singular man. The Life of Duncan Campbell reveals more than an attempt on Defoe's part to narrate in a seemingly authoritative way the major events in the career of the fortune-teller. It is true that the narrative element is always uppermost; page after page was given over to stories which, in spite of their relevance to Campbell, have little in them that aids in the delineation of personality. Furthermore, there are chapters that interrupt the narrative to consider second-sight and other aspects of occultism—chapters that have no definite bearing on the personality of the man. But to say that Defoe drew a type, and surrounded him with a series of stories that might have been told about any fortune-teller, is by no means the case. The Life and Surprising Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell is a study of a " particular " man and of a fully developed in36 37 38

Ibid., p. 9. Ibid., p. 207. See Number 474.

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dividual. Defoe's interest in Campbell was to a large extent sympathetic. I n it, there was no trace of suspicion or scorn; there was f r a n k wonder at times, and that which suggests ingenuous admiration, but wonder and admiration did not blind the author to the complete reality of the man. Defoe's interest in the man himself could not be submerged in his wonder at Campbell's " gifts." T h e account is not well organized as a unit and there are conspicuous violations of the principles of Life-writing, but D u n c a n Campbell emerges a real fortuneteller and, in most respects, a real man. How faithful a likeness the portrait is to the real Campbell cannot be determined, although there is much that gives evidence that Defoe portrayed him as he and others knew him. In his pamphlet accounts of Sheppard and Wild, and in such a narrative as the Life of Duncan Campbell, Defoe illustrates the state to which realistic character delineation of actual men had gone. As a great biographer he is not to be named, in spite of the entertainment and information that he has given generations of readers concerning such figures as J a c k Sheppard and J o n a t h a n Wild. T h e nature of Defoe's subjectmatter made great biography almost impossible. For such men as those on whom his attention was fastened, Defoe could not have that interest and sympathy that make great biography possible. Defoe's interest in criminals and charlatans was journalistic, not biographical. I t was the interest of a moment, not the sustained force that directed M a s o n , Johnson, and Boswell. His thoughts probably returned to such figures as Sheppard and Wild long after they had been led to the gallows and after his accounts of their lives had appeared, b u t his reflections did not stimulate him to revise and amplify his earlier narratives. Of them, he had said enough. Furthermore, the commercial value of an expanded and belated account of Sheppard was doubtful, and Defoe knew it. I t is, however, to Defoe that the student of Life-writing must go in order to see the firm establishment of realistic methods in character portrayal. W i t h Defoe, who experimented with all manner of devices for making his accounts sound authoritative

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and for making his characters seem real, biographical methods struck out new paths and reached new objectives. The year after Defoe's death, Applebee issued a collection of lives of criminals entitled The Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals (1732), which was the most complete and trustworthy thing of its kind. Who the author or authors were has not been satisfactorily determined. Arthur L. Hayward, in his Introduction to a modern edition of the work,39 hazards no guess. The work was a compilation rather than a collection of original accounts, and it claimed on the title page of the edition of 1735 that its materials were " collected from Original Papers and Authentick Memoirs." A comparison of the accounts of Sheppard, Wild, and Gow with the accounts of these criminals by Defoe reveals that the editors were willing to rely on Defoe's sketches for the substance and at times even the phrasing of their narratives. Their other sources of information were the amplifications of the Sessions Papers of the proceedings at Old Bailey, and earlier collections and pamphlets on which there was some kind of check. Knapp and Baldwin in their four-volume Criminal Chronology (1810) —later The Newgate Calendar (1824)—relied on The Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals as a trustworthy source-book. A comparison of some of their sketches with those in the earlier compilation shows little difference in substance and phrasing. While treating the lives of almost two hundred criminals, the early eighteenth century compilers were at times forced to rely on sources of information that were not always reliable, but, in spite of the goodly number of errors that resulted, their collection is the most authoritative of the collected chronicles of crime that appeared during the 20's and 30's. The biographical quality of the accounts is of a higher level than that of most of the sketches of their kind at the time. In spite of the prevailing narrative element in them, searching analysis frequently enters in order to reveal personality. At times, the accounts begin in the manner of a lesson, but this is 39 1927, Dodd, Mead and Company. Edited from the three-volume edition that was published and sold by John Osborn, Paternoster Row, in 1735.

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soon lost in the exciting narration of events.

A sense of dis-

crimination in the selection of biographical detail is constantly evident.

In fact, in spite of the cursory nature of the sketches,

the portraits drawn frequently present an individual

rather

than a type, and in their vivid lines a life is revealed.

The

brief account of the misguided M a t t h e w Clark is illustrative of the features of the sketches; it represents the state of L i f e writing in the middle 30's in the province of short criminal biographies. T H E L I F E OF M A T T H E W C L A R K , A FOOTPAD AND M U R D E R E R

Perhaps there is nothing to which we may more justly attribute those numerous executions which so disgrace our country, than the false notions which the meaner sort, especially, imbibe in their youth as to love and women. This unhappy person, Matthew Clark, of whom we are now to speak, was a most remarkable instance of the truth of this observation. He was born at St. Albans, of parents in but mean circumstances, who thought they had provided very well for their son when they had procured his admission into the family of a neighborhood gentleman, equally distinguished by the greatness of his merit and fortune. In this place, certainly, had Matthew been inclined in any degree to good, he might have acquired from the favour of his master all the advantages, even of a liberal education; but proving an incorrigible, lazy and undutiful servant, the gentleman in whose service he was, after bearing with him for a long time, turned him out of his family. H e then went to the plough and cart, and such other country work, but though he had been bred to this and was never in any state from which he could reasonably hope better, yet was he so restless and uneasy at these hardships which he fancied were p u t upon him, that he chose rather to rob than to labour; and leaving the farmer in whose service he was, used to skulk about Bushey Heath, and watch all opportunities to rob passengers. Matthew was a perfect composition of all the vices that enter into low life. He was idle, inclined to drunkenness, cruel and a coward; nor would he have had spirit enough to attack anybody on the road had it not been to supply him with money for merry meetings and dancing bouts, to which he was carried by his prevailing passion for loose women. And these expeditions keeping him continually bare,

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robbing and junketting, desire of pleasure and fear of the gallows were the whole round of both his actions and his thoughts. At last the matrimonial maggot bit his brain, and after a short courtship, he prevailed on a young girl in the neighborhood to go up with him to London, in order to their marriage. When they were there, finding his stock reduced so low that he had not even money to purchase the wedding ring, he pretended that a legacy of fifteen pounds was just left him in the country, and with a thousand promises of a quick return, set out from London to fetch it. When he left the town, full of uneasy thoughts, he travelled towards Neasden and Willesden Green, where formerly he had lived. He intended to have lurked there till he had an opportunity of robbing as many persons as to make up fifteen pounds from their effects. In pursuance of this resolution, he designed in himself to attack every passenger he saw, but whenever it came to the push, the natural cowardice of his temper prevailed and his heart failed him. While he loitered about there, the master of an alehouse hard by took notice of him and asked him how he came to idle about in haytime, when there was so much work, offering at the same time to hire him as a servant. Upon this discourse Clark immediately recollected that all the persons belonging to this man's house must be out haymaking, except the maid, who served his liquors and waited upon his guests. As soon, therefore, as he had parted from the master and saw he was gone into the fields, he turned back and went into his house, where renewing his former acquaintance with the maid, and to whom he formerly had been a sweetheart, he sat near an hour drinking and talking in that jocose manner which is usual between people of their condition in the country. B u t in the midst of all of his expressions of affection, he meditated how to rob the house, his timorous disposition supposing a thousand dangers from the knowledge the maid had of him. He resolved, in order absolutely to secure himself, to murder her out of the way; upon which, having secretly drawn his knife out of its sheath, and hiding it under his coat, he kissed her, designing at the same time to dispatch her; but his heart failed him the first time. However, getting up and kissing her a second time, he darted it into her windpipe; but its edge being very dull, the poor creature made a shift to mutter his name, and endeavoured to scramble after him. Upon which he returned, and with the utmost inhumanity cut her neck to the bone quite round; after which he robbed the house of

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some silver, but being confounded and astonished did not carry off much. H e went directly into the London Road, and came as far as T y burn, the sight of which filled him with so much terror that he was not able to pick up courage enough to go by it. Returning back into the road again, he met a waggon, which, in hopes of preventing all suspicion, he undertook to drive up to town (the man who drove it having hurt his leg). B u t he had not gone far before the persons who were in pursuit of the murderer of Sarah Goldington (the maid before mentioned) came up with him, and enquired whether he had seen anybody pass by his waggon who looked suspicious, or was likely to have committed the fact. T h e enquiry put him into so much confusion that he was scarce able to make an answer, which occasioned their looking at him more narrowly and thereby discovering the sleeve of his shirt to be all bloody. At first he affirmed with great confidence that a soldier meeting him upon the road had insulted him, and that in fighting with him he had made the soldier's mouth bleed, which had so stained his shirt. But in a little time perceiving that this excuse would not prevail, but that they were resolved to carry him back, he fell into a violent agony and confessed the fact. At the next sessions at Old Bailey he was convicted, and after receiving sentence of death, endeavoured all he could to comfort and compose himself during the time he lay under condemnation. His father, who was a very honest and industrious man came to see him, and after he was gone Matthew spoke with great concern of an expression that his father had made use of, viz., T h a t if he had been to die for any other offense, he would have made all the interest and friends he could to have served for his life, but that the murder which he had committed was so cruel, that he thought that nothing could atone for it but his blood. T h e inhumanity and cruel circumstances of it did indeed in some degree affect this malefactor himself, but he seemed much more disturbed with the apprehension of being hanged in chains, a thing which from the weakness of vulgar minds terrifies more than death itself, and the use of which I confess I do not see, since it serves only to render the poor wretches uneasy in their last moments, and instead of making suitable impressions on the minds of the spectators, affords a pretence for servants and other young persons to idle away their time in going to see a body so exposed on a gibbet.

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At the place of execution, Clark was extremely careful to inform the people that he was so far from having any malice against the woman whom he had murdered that he really had a love for her. A report, too, of his having designed to sell the young girl he had brought out of his country into Virginia had weight enough with him to occasion his solemn denying of it at the tree, though he acknowledged at the same time that he had resolved to leave her. He declared also, to prevent any aspersions on some young men who had been his companions, that no person was ever present with him, or privy to any of the robberies he had committed; and having thus far discharged his conscience, he suffered on the 28th of July, 1721, in the twenty-fourth year of his age. 40

While Defoe was making Applebee's press a popular London institution with his accounts of Sheppard and Wild, and while Captain Alexander Smith was satisfying the curiosity of a wide circle of readers by detailing " the adventures in the lives of the meanest of mankind," a press was flourishing in London, headed by Edmund Curll (1675-1747), which was both a reflection of the age and a directing force to its interests. Curll was possessed of small literary talent, but his interest in intimate and scurrilous accounts of his contemporaries evidently knew no bounds. It was he who was directly responsible for the scores of prettily bound books whose contents were as glittering in their revelations as the gilt lettering on their covers.41 He was not the author of all of these accounts, but by reason of his shrewd business instinct he was able to pay handsome sums to those who could provide his press with intimate narratives of the contemporary illustrious and notorious. It was easy for him to pay his authors well, for after his reputation was established in London, any volume that came from his press was hailed with delight by a public whose curiosity concerning the private lives of nobles, playwrights, and ladies of Mrs. Freelove's inclinations was exceedingly lively. It was in 1708 that Curll became a printer.42 40

As was the

Transcribed from the edition of 1927, which follows that of 173S. It was he who issued Defoe's Life and Surprising Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell. 42 An Explication of a Famous Passage in the Dialogue of St. Justin Martyr with Tryphon was his modest enterprise. See the Apology for Walter Moyle, in which he called the Explication,' the first book I ever printed.' 41

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case among some of the booksellers of the time, he sold patentmedicines, as well as quack biographies. Two years after he had set himself up as a printer and bookseller, the Sacheverell controversy raged in London, 43 and he, alert to the interests of the public, either wrote or had written a little volume entitled Some Account of the Family of Sacheverell (1710), which, published so opportunely, had an enormous sale. From the time of the success of this narrative until his last years, he gave the people what they wanted. Taking advantage of the growing inquisitiveness of the public in things scandalous, he established a press that was one of London's most popular or notorious institutions. In spite of the appeal of his press to the reading public, Curll's energy in producing the scurrilous led him into occasional difficulty. In 1728, he was fined for publishing The Nun in Her Smock,** and for an hour " he stood in the Pillory at Charing Cross, but was not pelted or ill-used." 45 Frequent derogatory allusions concerning him can be found in the works of almost every distinguished literary man of the age.46 " Curllicism " became a term much used by the controversialists to suggest the unreliable and indecent.47 " Dauntless Curll," as Pope called him,48 in his attempt to give the people what they wanted, was in no way discouraged by these attacks. His shop remained the bureau for the dispensing of the choicest scandal. He and his knot of assistants—including such curious personalities as Oldmixon and " Corinna "•—were possessed of an industry that surmounted all obstacles that scorners thrust in their way. In spite of the fact that Curll wrote little himself after his press had become popular, 40 he assisted 43

See the Antiquary Magazine, VII, 157-159. Who the author of this work was I have been unable to determine. To my knowledge, no copies of the work are available. 45 State Trials, XVII, 160. 46 Hence Miscellanies spring, the weekly boast Of Curll's chaste press, and Lintot's rubric post. Dunciad, I, 39-40. 47 See, for instance, The Weekly Journal, or Saturday Post, April 5, 1718. 48 Dunciad, II, 58. 49 For a fairly complete list of his works, see Tedder's article, sub Curll, D. N. B. 44

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most of his authors to collect material and to phrase it in such a way that it would appeal to a scandal-loving public. He was directly responsible for a mass production of unreliable biographies, and for that reason his name and the intimate accounts of the lives of early eighteenth century figures will always be associated. Of Curll's significance in the development of biography, Walter Raleigh wrote as follows: " I t occurred to him that, in a world governed by the law of mortality, men might be handsomely entertained on one another's remains. He lost no time in putting his theory into practice. During the years of his activity, he published some forty or fifty separate Lives, intimate, anecdotal, scurrilous sometimes, of famous and notorious persons who had the ill-fortune to die during his life-time. He had learned the wisdom of the gravedigger in Hamlet, and knew that there are many rotten corpses nowadays, that will scarcely hold the laying in. So he seized upon them before they were cold, and commemorated them in batches. One of his titles runs: The Lives of the Most Eminent Persons who died in the years 1711, 12, 13, 14, 15, in 4 vols. 8vo. His books commanded a large sale, and modern biography was established." 50 Of the fifty odd Lives that Edmund Curll brought out from 1715 to 1735, the curious assortment of letters, documents, and miscellaneous matter entitled the Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Amours of William Congreve Esq. (1730), written by the man or woman who employed the nom-de-plume " Charles Wilson," provides an interesting and representative example. " Charles Wilson's" identity is far from clear. John Oldmixon (1673-1742) is a possible answer to the riddle, for he was one of Curll's most valued sources of information, and he knew Congreve. That " Charles Wilson " was in large part Curll himself seems quite likely, for it is sure that if Oldmixon were the author, Curll assisted him in gathering his material. The suggestion that " Charles Wilson " was Congreve—at least for the " Memoirs of Dryden " section 50

Six Essays on Johnson,

1910, p. 117.

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which forms a considerable part of the work 01—is not completely reassuring, in spite of the fact that the odds and ends about Dryden were included under Congreve's works. Of "Charles Wilson," however, this much can be determined: he admired Dryden, he was intimate with Elizabeth Thomas, who was the " Corinna " of the second part of the work, he was friendly with Rochester, and he condemned Pope. In addition to this information, the reader can readily determine that he was not a painstaking investigator and a coherent writer, and that his use of a pseudonym was a protection that he could not well be without. In the Dedicatory Epistle to the Honourable George Duckett and in the Preface to the Reader, it can easily be gathered that " Charles Wilson " was not without enemies, one of whom—a certain lady to whom Congreve " bequeath'd a handsome Legacy "—protested that he had no authority to write and have published Congreve's Life. That the author was equipped with sufficient facts to produce a valuable contribution to Congreve biography seems doubtful, in spite of his assertion that it was not from papers and gossip that he had worked but from an intimate acquaintance with the playwright that had lasted for thirty years." Curll—if we accept the possibility that he was in part " Charles Wilson "—had some data about the playwright in his possession which he had sought out long before Congreve's death. As early as 1719, while Curll was printing the first volume of The Poetical Register, or the Lives oj the Poets, he had written to Congreve about his plan to print a series of Lives, to which Congreve, at least presumably, replied as follows: Surrey-street, July 7, 1719. Sir, I much approve the Usefulness of your Work; any Morning, about Eleven, I shall be very ready to give you the Account of my own poor Trifles and Self, or anything else that has fallen within 51 52

Cf. W. Draper's William Mason, New York University Press, 1924, p. 271. Cf. Author's Preface.

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the compass of my Knowledge, relating to any of my Friends.

147 Poetical

I am, Sir, Your Humble Servant, William Congreve."

" Charles Wilson's " " thirty years of intimate acquaintance " and Curll's calls at " eleven " did not produce a sufficient amount of reliable material for a valuable contribution to Congreve biography. How thoroughly the playwright gave Curll the account of his own " poor Trifles and Self" cannot be determined, nor can the intimacy of " Charles Wilson's " acquaintance be established, for the information they insisted they had rarely found its way into the Memoirs. The author belonged essentially to that group of Life-writers of whom Addison said, " They fetch their only authentic records out of the Doctors' Commons, and when they have got a copy of his Last Will and Testament, they fancy themselves furnished with sufficient materials for his history." 54 The author, after devoting a few cursory paragraphs to Congreve's birth and early training, skipped to a consideration of his first play, The Old Bachelor. Following this elaborate critique, there were introduced a few of Congreve's letters to his friends, which were possessed of small biographical significance. This section of the work was followed by an appreciation of the tragedy The Mourning Bride. Eight letters by Congreve which dealt chiefly with the Jeremy Collier pamphlet were thrust in next. These have some biographical value, although their self-revelations are almost lost in the controversial nature of their text. Of these, the playwright's letter to Walter Moyle 55 was justifiably employed as a revelation of personality. The entire second book of the Memoirs bore as its title The Memoirs of John Dry den. It is only by consulting the title page at the beginning of the first book that the reader 5S 54 55

Introduction, ed. 1730. The Freeholder, April 20, 1716. Of Modern Historians. Ed. 1730, p. 21.

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learns that these Memoirs of Dryden were written by Congreve, and consequently they form part of the " Writings " of the playwright. The announcement of the title page, naming these observations concerning the life of Dryden as the work of Congreve, cannot be trusted; for in spite of the author's use of them as a part of Congreve's work, the reader is justified in feeling that " Charles Wilson " is chiefly responsible for the greater part of the Dryden section. This was an instance of which Addison spoke when he observed that there were authors who, in order to swell the volume of their work, ascribed to poets and playwrights things they never wrote.56 The author of the Memoirs oj Dryden, supposedly Congreve, wrote that his information concerning the poet was communicated to him by a lady with whom John Dryden had corresponded, and to whom he had given the name " Corinna." " Corinna," so the author implied, had received many letters from Dryden 57 and had enjoyed an intimate friendship with the poet. 58 " C o r i n n a " (Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas), who was " Charles Wilson's " source of information for the Memoirs oj Dryden, was a gentlewoman of good birth and some talent, who became acquainted with Dryden only shortly before his death. She had applied to the poet by letter for advice in some of her literary ventures, and Dryden had replied. It appears from her own account r,,J that she was put into the Fleet in 1727, where she continued until a short interval before her death in 1731. While she was in prison, it was suggested to her by Curll that she might possibly obtain funds by telling all she knew about Dryden. As a result, she immediately sent a long letter to the author of the Memoirs oj Dryden in which she detailed the things she knew about the poet, and this letter and those which followed, the author of the Memoirs put into his text. The letters which she had from the poet, she discreetly kept 56

Cf. The Freeholder, Number 35. Malone could find only three. Cf. Life of Dryden, London, 1800, p. 347. 58 Malone was able to find little evidence to support " Charles Wilson's " report of their intimacy. Cf. p. 340 ct seq. 59 Memoirs of my Life, published by Curll in 1731. 57

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to herself,00 preferring evidently to write letters of her own about Dryden which the author of the Memoirs could use. That " Corinna " drew much of her information concerning the poet from gossip rather than from the letters she had received from him is quite evident in her first letter, which was quoted verbatim in the Memoirs. In it she related at length that story of Dryden's funeral which she had probably gathered from Tom Browne's scurrilous poem entitled A Description of John Dryden's Funeral, which had been printed in the Postman on January 22, 1700. Farquhar's letter, and other gossipy accounts of the proceedings following the poet's death, were also at her disposal. The veracity of this story has been questioned by every critic and biographer since the time of its publication in 1730, but the account made its way into the biographical dictionaries of the first half of the century; and Johnson, in his " Life of Dryden " in the Lives of the Poets, quoted it verbatim from the " Corinna " letter. 61 The story, full of details that can appeal only to the mind that craves the morbid and the sensational, illustrates the extent to which Curll's writers went in order to satisfy their readers. Truth was not the major prerequisite for a record from Curll's press, and " Corinna " and the author of the Memoirs knew it. The closing passage of the detailed account is illustrative of the hue of the whole story: Dr. Garth pronounced a fine Latin oration over the corpse at the College; but the audience being numerous, and the room large, it was requisite that the orator be elevated, that he might be heard; but as it unluckily happened, there was nothing at hand but an old beerbarrel, which the Doctor with much good-nature mounted; and in the midst of the oration, beating time to the accent with his foot, the head broke in; which occasioned the malicious report of his enemies, that he was turned tub-preacher. However, he finished the 60 Transcriptions of these are annexed to Pope's Familiar Letters to Henry Cromwell, Vol. I, p. ISO. The three that Malone could authenticate he quoted in Vol. II of his Life and Works of Dryden. 61 He confessed, however, that he did not understand why he had reported it, since it was surely a story that was unreliable.

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oration with superior grace and genius, to the loud acclamations of mirth, which inspired the mixed or rather mob-auditors. The procession began to move; a numerous train of coaches attended the hearse; but Good God! in what disorder, can only be expressed by a six-penny pamphlet, soon after published, entitled Dryden's funeral. At last the corpse arrived at the Abbey, which was all unlighted. No organ played, no anthem sung; only two of the singing boys preceded the corpse, who sung an Ode of Horace, with each a small candle in their hand. The butchers and other mob broke in, like a deluge, so that only eight or ten gentlemen could gain admission; and those forced to cut their way with drawn swords. The coffin in this disorder was let down into Chaucer's grave, with as much confusion, and as little ceremony as possible; everyone was glad to save themselves from the gentlemen's swords or the clubs of the mob. When the funeral was over, Mr. Charles sent a challenge to Lord Jefferies, who refusing to answer it, he sent several others, and went often himself, but could neither get a letter delivered, nor admittance to speak with him. . . . 62 T h a t the disorder at Dryden's funeral was much exaggerated by " Corinna," Malone has shown convincingly.* 3 The air of piety with which the story was written and with which she closed her account of the disagreeable affair was enough, however, to lead anyone to suppose that the details were narrated only by reason of her clear love for truth. " This is the true State of the C a s e , " she wrote in closing, " and surely no reflection to the Manes of this Great Man. This it is very plain, that his being buried by Contribution, was owing to a vile drunken Frolic of the Lord Jefferies, as I have related." This story was only a part of " Corinna's " first letter. In a postscript, after all the choice gossip had been related, she wrote: " M r . Dryden was educated at Westminster School under the great D r . Busby, being one of the King's scholars upon the Royal Foundation." Despite the fact that no Life of Dryden had as yet been produced, the details of the poet's life at Westminster and Cambridge were not considered of 62

Dryden section, Memoirs

63

Life of Dryden,

of Congreve,

1730, Letter I.

London, 1800, 319 et seq.

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sufficient consequence and interest to record them. Pages were devoted to an apocryphal account of his funeral, for in such a narrative the intimate and sensational could play a part; for an account of his schooling, " Corinna " evidently had no choice tid-bits to delight a class of reader who demanded intimate revelations above all else. Immediately following the first letter from " Corinna," the author of the Memoirs, supposedly Congreve, developed a generous criticism of All For Love, after which a few Imitations of Horace's Odes by Dryden and Nicholas Rowe were thrust in. " Corinna's " second letter came next. To Curll and his readers, this second letter must have been a considerable letdown, for she had no sustained story to reveal. Interspersed with the remaining communications from " Corinna "—none of which was so detailed and intimate as the first—there was a jumble of critiques, poems, prologues, essays, and letters signed by nom-de-plumes. After all the odds and ends concerning Dryden had been brought together with no regard for that which preceded and followed, " Charles Wilson " again engaged himself with the Memoirs of Congreve. The Essay Concerning Humour in Comedy was quoted in full, his short prose romance Incognita followed with ample critical observations, then verses by a half-dozen minor literary figures of the age were listed, most of which had no direct bearing on Congreve. This section was followed by a series of letters between Congreve and Addison and Steele, and by some of the latter's correspondence that was addressed to others and that failed to mention Congreve in its contents.64 A poetic soliloquy by Congreve immediately preceded that which is called " A True Copy of the Last Will and Testament of William Congreve." Appropriately enough, after the Last Will, a few paragraphs were introduced concerning Congreve's last days and death. An appendix and index follow, which defy, for a time, even the most intuitive reader. 64 The bona-fide nature of these letters has been verified. The Memoirs of Congreve apparently was the only receptacle available for their immediate use.

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As a performance of biographical worth, The Memoirs of Congreve is a failure. The thin narrative thread of the account is constantly broken by all manner of details that are extraneous to the purpose of recording and revealing a life; and when the broken strands are pieced together, they form an incoherent and sketchy narrative. The title of the performance is a misnomer. The " Writings " of Congreve were treated in part, but the " Life " and " Amours " receive small space. In fact, the " Amours " were overlooked entirely by the author, although Curll was aware of the enticement that a title which contained such a term would have for the reader. However, despite the fact that its biographical matter was scanty, and that the literary quality of the performance approached the zero point, The Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Amours of William Congreve illustrates the tendency of the authors of the age to muster together all the odds and ends about celebrated men that their energy and ingenuity could provide. Such conglomerations of data were the natural byproduct of a consuming interest in man. In order to satisfy this interest, Curll and his authors went to extremes demanded by an age in whose mind there was rapidly growing a true conception of biography. Toward the middle of the century, the public's appetite for short criminal lives and scandal-laden memoirs was in part appeased. The newspaper, increasing its scope rapidly, became the receptacle for reports of various hues about those in the public eye. As a result of the growing scope and prevalence of the newspaper, the popularity of the catch-penny pamphlets, collections of criminal Lives and libelous memoirs began to wane. Henry Fielding's Life of the Late Jonathan Wild the Great appeared in 1743 to deal an additional blow to the pamphleteers who were still lingering around Newgate. The novelist's satiric account of one who bore the same name as the scoundrel who had been studied so intently by the staff of Applebee's press was an indication that the criminal pamphlets were nearing their end. The curiosity of man and the inadequacy of the newspapers

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in detailing at length all the scurrilous reports that a talkative age demanded did not permit brief pamphlets about the more unseemly episodes in the lives of the illustrious and notorious to meet a sudden death. In fact, until the close of the century, brief biographical accounts continued to appear in order to supplement the information that the newspapers provided about those whose movements were irregular. The FrenchBite: or the Genuine Narrative of the Exploits of the Marquis Del-Bruce, during his six weeks residence in England (1749) supplemented the information about this ingenious impostor which had been offered to the London readers in the British Magazine for October 1749, by giving some account of his life, in addition to a more detailed narrative of his movements in London. This " genuine narrative" was supposedly taken from the mouth of a servant who had attended a French impostor who had posed successfully as a Marquis, and who as such had equipped himself with the finest raiment and the most elegant equipage—all on credit. The newspapers were full of stories about this man who had been feted even at the Court. It was from the accounts in the journals and a few additional stories that could be gathered from those who were victims of the Marquis' cheat that this pamphlet undoubtedly obtained its materials. No attempt was made to provide more than a brief biographical account of the ingenious foreigner. Other pamphlet narratives which supplemented the accounts in the journals appeared in order to satisfy the curiosity of the age about its disciples of unrighteousness. The Petticoat Pensioners: Being Memoirs oj the Most Remarkable oj those Gentlemen in and about London and Westminster (1749) was issued in twelve installments, written by one S. F. Philomath—a pseudonym for an author who wanted to increase his income by giving the people what they wanted. These Memoirs were cast into the form of letters, in which a gentleman from the city wrote to a friend in the country about men who were conspicuous as go-betweens among the ladies and gentlemen of the gay world. An Authentick and Faithjul History oj that Arch Pyrate Tulagee Angria: with a curious narrative of the

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Siege and Taking of Geriah, Etc. . . . In a Letter to a Merchant in London, from his Brother, A Factor in Bombay, who was present at the late Expedition (1757) had much of the flavor of the semi-fictional pamphlets of the early decades of the century. A Narrative of the Life of Damien the Assassin (1757) and The Genuine Memoirs of Damien, issued the same year, caused the Monthly Reviewer to exclaim, " We have seen enough of Damien already in the Newspapers; and hope these rival Biographers will excuse our declining the trouble of reviewing anything upon this subject." 65 The History of Miss Katty N : Containing a faithful and particular Relation of her Amours, Adventures, and Various Turns of Fortune, in Scotland, Ireland, Jamaica, and England, supposedly written by herself, but written probably by a scandal-monger who had some sense for style, had an ephemeral existence in 1758. In this fairly long narrative, the events of a misspent life were revealed in a manner that recalls Captain Alexander Smith. The lives of those who were in the public eye in the criminal courts continued to have a place as supplements to the newspaper accounts. The Trials of Admiral Byng,6n issued in no less than ten different pamphlets, had an enormous sale in the last years of the 50's; and the Perreau-Rudd affair brought out a half dozen pamphlet Lives of the principal figures in the trial that kept London interested in the middle 70's. The Case of the Duchess of Kingston (1776) is also illustrative of the kind of pamphlet Life that the dramatic episodes of a trial produced. Collections of criminal Lives as well as single pamphlets which dealt with erring humanity continued to appear in the latter half of the century. In 1764, Robert Sanders issued a six-volume Newgate Calendar, in which accounts were taken from the earlier collections, and new Lives added in order to bring the work up to date. John Villette, 67 chaplain at the prison, produced a collection entitled Annals of Newgate, or 65

Monthly Review, XVI, 459. According to Malone [see the Catalogue in the Life of Johnson, ed. 1860], Johnson wrote three reviews of these pamphlets for The Literary Magazine in 1756. 67 Vid. Boswell's comment, Life o) Johnson, ed. I860, p. 533. 66

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the Malefactors' Register in 1776. These collections show no great improvement as compilations of biographical sketches over the earlier Calendars. They were more trustworthy as a general rule, but they were more charged with moral purpose than the exciting tales of Smith and Johnson. As a " beacon to warn the rising generation " they undoubtedly failed. Furthermore, the sketches often lack the spirited style that Smith and Defoe brought into their accounts. They are harrowing wastes of vice and execution. While pamphlet Lives and compilations of sketches continued to have a sporadic existence, full-length accounts of men whose lives were irregular began to grow in favor. An age that could follow Richardson's exhaustive delineation of Sir Charles Grandison and Smollett's Roderick Random demanded more than a cursory narrative of the lives of its wayward sons. With the newspapers rapidly taking over the materials of the early century criminal pamphlets, and the insistence of the times on detail, the full length Life was the natural result. An Authentick Account of the Life of Paul Wells, Gent., Who was Executed at Oxford, September 1, 1749, for Forgery, " written by a Gentleman of Corpus Christi College, Oxford," illustrates the passing of the short account to the more detailed and analytical criminal Life. Who the author was cannot be determined with accuracy, but from his "harrative it can be gathered that he was not of the tradition of the Grub Street scandal mongers, and that he had a sympathetic interest in the life of the wayward young man about whom he wrote. He was not a spirited writer, although the narrative possesses some truly dramatic passages, especially in that part of the account in which Wells is languishing in prison, waiting for a pardon through the intervention of Lord Chief Justice Willes. Despite the prevailing narrative quality of the Life, there is a study of personality here. The Life of Paid Wells illustrates the beginning of detailed criminal biography, in which the man, as well as the events in his life, became the object of attention. Of the longer accounts that dealt with those whose lives were irregular, the various narratives that detailed the movements

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of Bamfylde-Moore Carew (1693-1758?) were most popular, and may be called representative of the longer rogue biographies. The first of these appeared in 1745 under the title The Life and Adventures of Bamfylde-Moore Carew. In 1749, the London publisher Owen issued a longer narrative entitled An Apology for the Life of Bamfylde-Moore Carew (Son to the Rev. Mr. Carew of Bickley) commonly known throughout the West of England by the Title of King of the Beggars; and Dog-merchant-general. Containing an Account of his leaving Tiverton School at the Age of 15, and entering into a Society of Gypsies; his many and comical Adventures, more particularly a full and faithful Relation of his Travels twice thro' a great Part of America, his manner of living with the wild Indians, his bold Attempt in swimming the River Delaware, and many other extraordinary Incidents; his Return home, and Travels since, in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The whole taken from his own mouth. In 1750, Owen issued another Apology, with a sub-title quite as long as that of the earlier narrative, and with a more detailed account of the exploits of Carew. Other editions and versions, varying in content and manner of presentation, continued to appear until 1779, and reprints of the narrative were made well into the nineteenth century. 08 The Life of Carew as it was written by the authors of the middle of the century was not without biographical charm and virtue. The subject of these accounts was born in 1693 near Tiverton, Devonshire, the son of a parish minister. " Never was there known a more splendid gathering of gentlemen and ladies of the first rank and quality at any baptism in the West of England than at his." After a pleasant and somewhat uneventful childhood, the boy was sent to the Tiverton School, where he applied himself so diligently to his studies that his parents entertained hopes of seeing him become an erudite ecclesiastic. However, by the time that he was about to finish the last form at the school in Tiverton, he became intimate 68 An 1811 edition, reprinted in large part from that of 17S0, is most commonly found.

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with a group of reckless blades who, in school and out, went about seeking excitement. With them, Bamfylde brought down a deer that belonged to the preserve of a Colonel Nutcombe. The consequences of their escapade became so serious to their boyish minds that they, rather than take the punishment with which they were threatened, joined a band of gypsies that was for the time being in the neighborhood. To Bamfylde, the experience of being with the gypsies was novel and exciting, and finding himself well treated, he determined to cast his lot with them. After weeks had passed, his parents discovered his whereabouts and managed to detach him for an interval from the band. But at home the boy was dissatisfied. He had learned to love the roving, care-free life of the gypsies; and soon, in spite of all the obstacles that his parents put in his way, he took flight in order to go back to them. His ingenuity he immediately put to use; all manner of clever impositions he practiced in order to keep his wallet filled and in order to satisfy his craving for excitement. Once he played the rôle of a plain farmer who had lost all his property in a flood, and who had a wife and seven children for whom to provide. For this stratagem he received on the average a guinea a day. When he tired of taking people's money by playing this rôle, he pleased himself by adopting the rôle of a madman. " B y these means," observed the author, " he had a better opportunity of seeing the world, and knowing mankind, than most of our youths who make the grand tour. . . . He saw in little and plain houses hospitality, charity, and compassion, the children of frugality; and found under gilded and spacious roofs, littleness, uncharitableness, and inhumanity, the offspring of luxury and riot." England soon became too small for one of his adventuresome nature. He journeyed to Newfoundland, returned to marry a girl of good estate at Bath, and at the death of " the good old king of the mendicants," Clause Patch, Carew " exhibited to the electors so long a list of bold and ingenious stratagems which he had executed " that he was promptly proclaimed king. After demonstrating his right to such a position by

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numerous impositions on both the clever and the ingenuous in England, he moved about the northern part of the continent— Copenhagen, Riga, Stockholm, and Dantzig—in order to determine differences in national traits by employing his singular method. Later he went to America, to live for an interval with the Indians, and to practise his schemes on the Quakers of Philadelphia. When old age finally overtook him, he settled in a countryhouse in Devonshire, where he lived, according to the author, " Respected best by those who knew him best." The entertainment that such a narrative affords was readily recognized by the age in which it was produced. There was nothing out-and-out criminal about his actions, and still his rogue existence provided a narrative that was spicy enough to assure its popularity. Throughout the narrative 69 the author sought to prove that Carew's exploits were directed primarily by the desire of satisfying his curiosity concerning the ways of men. " It has been remarked that curiosity, or the desire of knowledge, is that which most distinguishes men from brutes," he observed, " and that the greater the mind is, the more insatiable is that passion; we may, without flattery, say that this was beyond doubt proved by our hero; for not satisfied with the observations he had made in England and Wales (which we are well assured were many more than are usually made by gentlemen before they travel into foreign parts), he now resolved to see other countries and manners." It is interesting, however, to note that the author insisted that the account, was " not given as worthy of imitation, but as a record of curious adventures, undertaken at first to gratify a roving disposition, and ending in a fixed determination to do what he considered his duty to the people with whom he had associated himself." The author of the article which appeared in the Monthly Review for October, 1749,70 was convinced that such narratives might best remain unwritten unless they pointed out a strict 69

I speak of the accounts which appeared in 1749 and 1750. I, 457.

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moral. " The long title page this extraordinary piece carries," he wrote in reviewing the Apology of 1749, " is sufficient to let the public know what they are to expect from it. Therefore, we shall only add, that the book is not a meer romance; as there really is in being such a person as Bamfylde-Moor Carew, a noted beggar in the West of England; but how far his exploits may be heightened in the colouring thrown on them by his ingenious biographer, we cannot pretend to say. Indeed all the incidents in the book have very much the air of truth; but then they are of such a nature as cannot be expected to please every reader; for every one will not descend to interest himself in the sharping tricks and impositions of a common beggar. Thus far, indeed, it may be serviceable to everyone that reads it, viz. that it will very much strengthen and confirm the common remark ' that there is neither wisdom nor true charity in relieving idle vagrant beggars '; a class of people who are only kept up and maintained from one generation to another, by the mistaken benevolence of the unthinking and irresolute, who cannot withstand the pressing solicitations of artful adepts, well practiced in the science they are born and educated into, or voluntarily chuse, before the more industrious methods of gaining a subsistence. If all would unite in refusing to give, the beggar's trade would soon fail, and in a few years there would not be one of those loathsome objects to be seen, that now throng the streets, the fields, and every public place, to such a degree, as cannot but render it very disagreeable, and not seldom dangerous, to stir anywhere abroad." That the accounts of Carew were written in the spirit of supporting the opinion that ' there is neither wisdom nor true charity in relieving idle vagrant beggars' is not the case. " The satisfaction to curiosity in knowing the adventures of the meanest of mankind " of which Steele spoke in connection with Captain Alexander Smith's Lives of the Highwaymen was responsible for the vogue of the narratives about Carew. It was the author's consuming interest in the life and personality of a particular man that served as the controlling purpose for his effort. It was not to put people on their guard—as had

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been professed the case with Smith—nor was it to paint vice in its blackest colors so that it would become so hideous that it would not be embraced as the authors of the pamphlet Lives of the criminals had announced. The Apology for the Life of Bamfylde-Moore Carew was written as a biography, and as such it attained as high a level as the nature of the subjectmatter would permit. Of the longer rogue Lives, the 1750 version of the Life of Carew, and those that appeared until 1779, are studies in personality that belong to the upper class of biographies which deal with the " meanest of mankind." Other narratives that dealt at fair length with men whose lives were not exemplary appeared at frequent intervals as the century progressed. A Complete History of the Life and Robberies of James Maclean appeared in 1750, and the same year a Reverend Allen wrote an Account of the Behaviour of Mr. James Maclaine. The Life of Mr. John Van, a Clergyman's Son of Woody, Hampshire, &, &, Written by his friend and Acquaintance, G. S. Green filled two volumes with the events in the life of a young man whose career was marked by the violation of at least seven of the ten commandments. A contemporary reviewer called it " a cheese-monger's history, written in a cheese-monger's style; and rightly so, as the book is only fit for a cheese-monger's use." 71 In 1763, The Life, Travels, Exploits, Frauds and Robberies of Charles Speckman appeared, in which the flavor of the Bamfylde-Moore Carew accounts is quite noticeable. Many others, which drew their materials chiefly from the newspapers, and which relied on the author's sense of probability to fill in the gaps, had an ephemeral existence. It is significant to note that the demands of the age were for biography, and not for the short scandal-laden narratives that had delighted and satisfied the readers of the early decades of the century. By 1750, a sharp line of demarcation had been formed between such brief accounts as The French Bite: or a Genuine Narrative of the Exploits of the Marquis Del-Bruce and the longer narratives in which there was true delineation of personality such as the Life of Bamfylde-Moore Carew. 71

Monthly Review, March 17S7.

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By the time the Carew narratives were popular, biography had made its escape from panegyric and, to a large extent, from ethical instruction as well. The vogue of the criminal Lives undoubtedly had a direct bearing on this escape. Such curiosities as Lucas's History of the Lives of the Most Famous Gamesters, Captain Alexander Smith's accounts of highwaymen and footpads, the numerous Lives of Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild, and Edmund Curll's fifty odd publications have rarely been considered as significant contributions to the growth of English biography. Their historical importance, however, should not be underestimated. They represent the beginnings of realistic biography. T o the age, a realistic account of Jack Sheppard's relations with " Edgeworth " Bess was far more satisfying than any panegyrical account of George I. In spite of the excesses to which authors went in their attempt to satisfy the cravings of the age for that which was intimate and real, it was the spirit behind this attempt which made possible the growth and illustration of the modern conception of biography. In the early decades of the century, realism was in its infancy as a literary mood; it was misunderstood by many, but all the scurrilous accounts that appeared were part of the development of its true application. Without this development, biography would have remained confused with panegyric and the idealized treatment of personality. The curious manifestations of the growth of realism do not possess great intrinsic literary value, but they helped to make possible the recognition and use of a form of Life-writing that plumbs the depths of the nature of man. BIBLIOGRAPHY (CHAPTER THREE) THE

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IN

THE

PAMPHLET-LIVES,

ETC.,

ETC.

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Jack Sheppard, an historical novel, 1876. Angria, Tulagee. An Authentick and Faithful History of that Arch Pyrate Tulagee Angria, 1757. Avery, Captain John. See Defoe. Campbell, Duncan. See Defoe.

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Carew, Bamfylde-Moore. An Apology for the Life of BamfyldeMoore Carew . . . Commonly Known throughout the West of England as the King of the Beggars. . . . First version, 1745; sixth edition, considerably enlarged and revised, 1765. Case of the Duchess of Kingston, The, 1776. Chandler, F . W. The Literature of Roguery, 2 vols., New York, 1907. Chronicle of Tyburn, The; or Villainy Display'd in all of its Branches, 1720. " Corinna." See Elizabeth Thomas. Cotton, Charles. The Compleat Gamester, 1673. Curll, Edmund. The Lives of the Most Eminent Persons who died in the Years 1711, 12, 13, 14, 15 . . . , A vols., 1716. See also " Charles Wilson." Damien. Genuine Memoirs of Damien, 1757. A Narrative of the Life of Damien the Assassin, 1757. Defoe, Daniel. The King of Pirates; Being an Account of the Famous Enterprizes of Captain Avery . . . . 1719. The History of the Life and Surprising Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell . . . , 1720. An Account of the Late John Gow, alias Smith, Captain of the Late Pirates . . . , 1725. The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard . . . , 1725. A Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes, Etc. of John Sheppard . . . , 1725. The True, Genuine and Perfect Account of the Life of Jonathan Wild . . . , 1726. (Reprints from the first editions of these pamphlets are to be found in the edition of Defoe's works, published by the Jensen Society, New York, 1907.) Du Val (Du Vail), Claude. The Memoirs of Du Vail; the History of his Life and Death. (In Harleian Vol. I I I . )

containing Miscellany,

Esquemeling (Esquemelin), A. O. Die Americaenische Zee-Roovers, Amsterdam, 1678; trans., 1684-85; modern ed., The Buccaneers of America, New York, 1910. Fielding, Henry. Life of the Late Jonathan Wild the Great, 1743. French-Bite, The: Being the Memoirs of the Marquis Del-Bruce, 1749. Gow (Goffe, Smith), Captain John. See Defoe. Green, G. S. The Life of Mr. John Van, a Clergyman's Son, 1757. Heywood, Eliza. A Spy Upon the Conjuror, 1724.

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Highland Rogue, The, 1724. Attributed incorrectly to Defoe. Cf. Scott's Introduction to Rob Roy. History of Executions, The, 1731. History of Miss Katty N : . . . A Relation of her Amours and Various Turns of Fortune in Scotland, Ireland, Jamaica, and England . . . , 1758. Johnson, Charles. The Successful Pirate, a play dealing with Captain Avery's exploits, 1712. Johnson, Capt. Charles. A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates . . . , 1724; enlarged ed., 1726; modern ed., Hayward, New York, 1926. Knapp and Baldwin. Criminal Chronology, or the New Newgate Calendar, 1810; ed. 1824 called merely The Newgate Calendar. Lee, William. Daniel Defoe; his Life and recently discovered Writings, extending from 1716 to 1729, 3 vols., London, 1869. Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals, 1732; second ed., enlarged, 3 vols., 1735; modern ed., Hayward, New York, 1927. Lucas, Theophilus. Memoirs of the Lives, Intrigues, and Comical Adventures of the Most Famous Gamesters . . . , 1714, third ed., 1744. Maclean, James. A Complete History of the Life and Robberies of James Maclean, 1750. Newgate's Garland. A verse-narrative. (See Swift's Miscellanies.) Petticoat-Pensioners, The: Being Memoirs of the Most Remarkable of those Gentlemen in and about London and Westminster, " b y Mr. Philomath," 1749. Sheppard, Jack. See Defoe. Sanders, Robert. Newgate Calendar, 6 vols., 1764. Smith, Capt. Alexander. A Complete History of the Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts . . . , 1714; modern ed., Hayward, New York, 1925. The Secret History of the Most Famous Beauties, Ladies of Quality, Jilts . . . from fair Rosamund down to the Present Time, 1715. The Comical and Tragical History of the Lives and Adventures of the Most Noted Baylifis in and about London and Westminster . . . and particularly the Life of Jacob Broad of merry Memory, 1723. The Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Famous Jonathan Wild . . . , 1726. Court Intrigues, or an Account of the Secret Memoirs of the British Nobility and Others . . . , 1730.

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Speckman, Charles. The Life, Travels, Exploits . . . and Robberies of Charles Speckman, alias Brown, who was Executed 23rd November, 1763 . . . Written by Himself, 1763. Street Robberies Considered, 1728. Attributed to Defoe. Thomas, Mrs. Elizabeth. The " Corinna" of the Letters to the author of the Memoirs of Congreve, 1730. Thurmond, John. The Harlequin Sheppard, a play, 1725. Trent, W. P. Daniel Defoe, How to Know Him, New York, 1916. Villette, John. Annals of Newgate, or the Malefactors' Register, 1776. Wells, Paul. An Authcntick Account of the Life of Paul Wells, Gent., who was executed at Oxford, September 1, 1749, for Forgery . . . , 1749. " Wilson, Charles." Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Amours of William Congreve, 1730. Wild, Jonathan. See Defoe and Smith.

IV

THE "PRIVATE LIFE" ELEMENT IN THE LIVES OF THE NORTHS F more intrinsic worth in the province of biography than the pamphlet Lives of the criminals and the accounts that were issued from Curll's press, and of far more charm than the scholarly records produced by Samuel Knight, John Lewis, and William Oldys,1 were Roger North's Lives of three of his brothers. Roger North (1653-1734) offered the greatest contribution to the matter and method of the form between Walton's Lives and Johnson's Life of Savage. A product of the age which saw the beginning of the growth of realism, he, by reason of his affection for his brothers in whose company he had spent so many pleasant years, was directed to record their lives as he knew them. He survived them all and, during the years following their deaths, regretfully he watched their names begin to sink into an oblivion which he felt was undeserved. Out of gratitude for the pleasure that their companionship had afforded him, and in order to correct any false notions that were current concerning the nobility of their intentions while they performed their great roles, he determined, without much thought of success as a Life-writer, to attempt to preserve their names to posterity. Feeling somewhat alone after his brothers were absent, he found comfort in recalling the details of their lives by writing them down. It was out of this spirit that there developed The Lives of Baron Guilford, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Charles II and James II; of Sir Dudley North, Commissioner of the Customs, and Afterwards of the Treasury to King Charles II; and of the Honourable and Reverend Doctor John North, Master of Trinity

O

1

See Chapter V infra. 12

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College, Cambridge, and Clerk of the Closet to King Charles II. These Lives were finished as early as 1715, but it was not until 1740 and 1742, almost a decade after the author had died, that they were edited and brought into print by Montagu North, son of the biographer. 2 The first Life, that of Francis North, Baron Guilford, went through several editions during the century, but the other two Lives became comparatively rare. In 1826, Roscoe edited all three of the Lives, and had them published in three volumes 3 with a valuable preface and ample notes. The author of these accounts was well equipped to delineate the lives and times of three men, two of whom played important roles in the stirring drama of Restoration history. From his unfinished Autobiography 4 and from the brief notices of his life that appear in the biographical dictionaries 5 there can be gathered sufficient information concerning his training and movements. The subjective quality of his Lives of the three brothers offers an additional source of information concerning his interests and his personality. His early training was that accorded to young men of high birth of royalist families. In 1667, he was enrolled at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he came under the tutelage of his elder brother John, whose Life he later wrote. When he had finished at the University, he came under the guidance of his brother Francis to begin his career as a lawyer. Shortly after Francis was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, he was made solicitor-general to the Duke of York. This commission entitled him to an intimate connection with the court; and during the last days of Charles I I and the reign of James II, he was active in those political circles which were loyal to the Crown. Here he witnessed much that was happening behind the scenes of the drama that preceded and followed the final appearance of the Stuarts. He 2

Published originally in two volumes, 4to, in 1740 and 1742. Henry Colburn, London. 4 Edited and brought into print for the first time in 1887 by Alexander Jessopp. 5 See especially Alexander Jessopp's article sub Roger North in D. N. B. 3

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never rose to the eminence of his brother Francis, but he was in definite touch with all of the political movements of the times. Shortly after the retirement of James II, he, with the savings of an income that amounted at times to as much as four thousand pounds a year, made his exit from public life. It was during the interval from 1700 to 1715 that, while contemplating that which had occurred, he wrote the Lives of his brothers. The various histories and memoirs that began to appear at the beginning of the century that dealt with the troublous days following the Restoration, he regarded for a time with complacency. When White Kennett's Complete History of England (1706) came to his attention, however, he detected such a strong bias and so many errors in it that he was stirred into activity. He immediately set to work in order to vindicate Charles II and his brother Francis from the calumny of Kennett. This defense, entitled The Examen was in part responsible for his determination to continue his commentary on the Stuart regime. The most natural path to follow was to write a Life of the Lord Keeper Guilford, in which the movements of his brother Francis, who had been so involved in the political transactions of the times, would be revealed in a true light. The account, however, was not intended to be an out-and-out defense of his brother; it was to portray him fully and faithfully, in both public and private life. The pleasure that he derived in recalling the incidents in the life of his " best brother " suggested the other Lives. Dudley and John North had not attained the high eminence of Baron Guilford, and as a result they were not the victims of contemporary censure to the same extent as Francis. Their names were in need of preservation rather than protection. Any protection that the name of Dudley North needed was given in The Examen; and John North, the scholar of the family, was not sufficiently known to have enemies among the historians. The biographical impulse which directed the Lives of Dudley and John North was more purely expressed than it was in the Life of Baron Guilford. For all of the 6

Published in 1740.

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Lives, he was well equipped to offer detailed and accurate information, for he had observed the movements of the Norths with brotherly interest and respect. It is necessary before attempting any estimate of Roger North's attitude toward biography to recognize the barriers to strict impartiality that were in his way. The circumstances under which he wrote made an unbiased record impossible. For him to be completely open-minded in his judgment of the public events in which his brothers and he, himself, had taken such an active part was almost out of the question. From the time that Charles had returned from France until William and Mary were placed on the throne left so abruptly by James II, the country was split into many factions. There were those that still cherished silently the notion of Cromwell and the Commonwealth, many who were openly hostile to the Royalists, and in the court circle itself, cliques existed which made governmental unity impossible. When the issue of succession became ominous in the late days of the reign of Charles II, the court party began to divide itself into two main factions. One of these supported the right of succession of the Catholic Duke of York; the other, composed chiefly of the supporters of the Church of England, remained Royalist in sympathy, but they did not relish the prospect of a Catholic Crown. It was to this faction of the court party that the Norths belonged. Baron Guilford was one of its most powerful leaders. Late seventeenth and early eighteenth century England cherished its opinions concerning the events and men of the Stuart regime with an ardor that did not allow partisanship and prejudice to die. Long after the Revolution, historians in treating the events of the times took sides. Literary forms were in many instances employed chiefly as vehicles for the expression of party sympathies, and of these, history and biography were by their very nature most susceptible to the inroads of partisanship. Most authors were party writers; the events preceding and following the Revolution were too well remembered and too far reaching in their results to be recalled with complacency, especially by those who had participated in them.

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It was in an age that supported so vigorously its judgments of the events immediately past that Roger North undertook to record the lives of his three brothers. He had not been an idle by-stander during the upheaval; in fact, he had been so associated in the schemes of Baron Guilford's faction that he could not recall that which had happened with the complacency that is the result of detachment. His sympathies were naturally those of his party; and his loyalties to his brothers and friends were only the result of circumstances over which he had little control. His point of view was not conducive to a searching investigation of the vices of his faction, and to an attempt to ferret out the facts about the practices that his brothers had resorted to in order to gain some of their ends. In the opposing party, he was able to detect all manner of corruption. His militant sympathies led him to construct an unfavorable and inaccurate picture of Sir Matthew Hale, but to give to his brothers and those who had been of the right party the benefit of all doubt. As a partisan commentary of the political movements of the years preceding the Revolution, the Lives of the Norths— especially that of Baron Guilford—are of considerable value. The point of view which the accounts disclose is in itself valuable. " The party views, which he takes of public events," observed Roscoe, 7 " ought perhaps to be regarded as conferring an additional value upon his pages; for in every historical inquiry, the state of parties and of public feeling is one of the most material and difficult objects of research." It might be added that impartiality has at times become the sole virtue of those authors whose meagre information is the result of a distant view of the events portrayed, or of other than first-hand information. Nor does the party spirit in which some of the passages were written eliminate the possibility of historical accuracy. The misrepresentations in the Lives of the Norths which were the result of the author's sympathies are few when the large scope of the accounts is taken into consideration. Bishop Burnet's Memoirs of My Own 7

Editor's Preface, ed. 1826, Vol. I.

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Time, written before the close of the century, and the accounts of the contemporary diarists and historians, have scarcely more worth as trustworthy source-books. It is not, however, the value of these records as histories that concerns us chiefly here. They were not meant to be histories, and any assistance that they lent to history was largely incidental to the purpose of the author. " I would have them understood to be rather instructions, than history," announced the author in his preface to the Life of Baron Guilford. Equipped as he was to detail the private lives of his brothers, and moved by a true commemorative impulse, he wanted to write biography. How fully he recognized the boundaries of the form can be determined by observing his comments in the early passages of the Life of the Lord Keeper. " My design is to leave behind me all that I can remember or warrantably collect concerning the life of Lord Keeper North. . . . If I am wanting in the capacity to write as the subject deserves, I am capable of informing others who may do it better. . . . It was my good fortune to be so nearly allied to him, and, by circumstances of education and profession, so closely attached to his person, that we were almost inseparable. Therefore on the strength of the latter of these qualifications, which, in sense of my own inability, I forbear to claim, I am induced to undertake this great work. . . . It may be thought I have here touched too much on the panegyric, but I have not formalised upon what I am fully possessed is most true. . . . And if some things that are set down which many think too trivial, let it be considered, that the smaller incidents in the life of a busy man are often as useful to be known, though not so diverting as the greater; and profit must share with entertainment: and let this be the apology for some light passages that will be found related in the course of this work. . . . His lordship left many papers wrote with his own hand, some more perfect than others, and very few entirely so; and those which are finished, or nearly completed as he intended them, I have put together in collections. . . . " 8 8

Ed. 1826, Vol. I, pages 1 to 9.

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Later in the work, he returned to reiterate his convictions concerning the aim of his biography. " And although I may by this means introduce many passages, which, to some, may seem of lower importance than what are proper to have place in a life of so great consequence," he announced in connection with his minute account of his brother's attempts at matrimony, " yet, I am almost of the opinion, that most persons will look into such a catalogue as readily as any other in the whole undertaking. If the history of a life hangs altogether upon great importances, such as concern the church and state, and drops the peculiar economy and private conduct of the person that gives title to the work, it may be a history, and a very good one; but of anything rather than of that person's life. Some may think that designs, of that nature, to be, like the plots of Mr. Bays, good only to bring in fine things: but a life should be a picture; which cannot be good, if the peculiar features, whereby the subject is distinguished from all others, are left out. Nay, scars and blemishes, as well as beauties, ought to be expressed; otherwise, it is but an outline filled up with lilies and roses. And, to this intent, what I have to produce here, will be found more conducing than all incidents of state, law, and justice, to be found in the other parts of the work; and that will engage me to be more solicitous and declaratory than elsewhere." 9 Undoubtedly, some notes are sounded in these declarations of purpose and justifications of the methods by which he proceeded that were new in the province of Life-writing. None of the critical literature that dealt with the form that was produced in the seventeenth century revealed such a clear recognition of the aims of biography. The author's conclusion that a good Life depended not only on a record of the principal movements in the life of the subject, but also on an account of those characteristic details in his private and domestic life, was a decided step toward the realization of the true purpose of biography. Roper and Cavendish, in their accounts of More and Wolsey, were in the same position to be informed of the 9

Ed. 1826, Vol. I, p. 154.

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details of the private lives of their subjects, but it did not occur to them to record those events which appeared on the surface to be of little consequence. Sprat knew Cowley, and Edward Phillips knew Milton with sufficient intimacy to be informed of the characteristic movements in the private lives of their subjects, but here, too, only those events that had bearing on the public careers of those men were considered of biographical importance. Even the rogue-lives that began to flourish in abundance during the early decades of the century devoted little of their space to incidents other than those which finally brought the subject to T y b u r n . All of these accounts indicate that a record of events, and not a delineation of personality, was the primary aim of Life-writing. Roger North, however, recognized the biographical worth of the little things in a man's private and domestic life. Remembering his brothers not only in their full robes of authority, but also in garbs that did not conceal their human qualities, he concluded correctly that the little things in their public and domestic careers would be of service in revealing to posterity the true nature of his brothers. For his pleasure in recording that which he termed trivial, he apologized at frequent intervals to his readers, but even the thought that his accounts might be loaded with material that was inconsequential did not alter his conviction that such a method would delineate personality more fully and faithfully than the method of narrating only the outstanding events in the public careers of his brothers. Of his literary limitations he was aware, but his treatment of his materials in the Lives shows that such a consciousness did nothing to destroy the enthusiasm which he had for his work. It was with real pleasure that he recalled the more human incidents in his brothers' lives. A t times he was inclined to linger over episodes that gave him occasion to smile. A frank geniality, which even his party sympathies did not destroy, marks many of the passages in the narratives. Of brotherly affection he had much, but there are none of the whimperings of sentimentality in those lines in which he said

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farewell to his brothers for the last time. His recollections of them were not tinged with sadness. In them, he saw men who had lived their lives in such a way that there was little cause for regret. While recalling their inconsistencies and weaknesses, he smiled with complete forgiveness. Mild irony appears at times, but there is no lack of sympathy in his manner of dealing with their faults. He was cognizant of the pit-falls into which his personal sentiment for his brothers might lead him and of the probable reaction of his readers to the characters which he gave his brothers. When he wrote, " It may be thought I have here touched too much on the panegyric," he indicated that he was familiar with the difference in purpose between eulogy and biography. The biased accounts that Kennett and other historians had given of the Lord Keeper and Sir Dudley North made panegyric an easy path for him to follow in order to stamp out earlier portraits, but his purpose was not merely to defend his brothers: it was to delineate their lives and characters as fully and faithfully as posterity would demand. With the events in his brothers' public careers, his judgments were at times warped by his party sympathies, but with those details of their private lives that he employed in order to reveal their personalities, his observations were remarkably impartial. With the richness of information that he had to offer, and with excellent standards for Life-writing guiding his efforts, Roger North, despite his party sympathies and family loyalties, was well equipped to write biography. A brief examination of the three Lives indicates with what success he attained his end of producing lasting memorials to his brothers' names. The first Life, that of his brother Francis, is the most engaging of the three. He called Francis his best brother, and knowing him best and apparently loving him most, he recorded his life and personality with an enthusiasm that is not so evident in the other Lives. The Life of Baron Guilford may be considered Roger North's greatest contribution to the matter and method of biography. By reason of the nature of the subject, it is the Life that is best known. It

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is ingeniously organized, it is searching and intimate in its revelation of personality, and its historical and intrinsic value in the province of biography is by no means slight. The author's methods for organizing his material were the result of his attempt to make his narrative thoroughly coherent. It is not unlikely that Francis North's public life and private life were so different that one could not well be made to fit naturally into the other. The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and the Francis North of private life were to a certain extent two different personalities. As has been the case in the lives of greater men, his public career and his private life were dissociated. Realizing the difficulty of providing a coherent narrative under such circumstances, especially when there was much incident to record in both the public and private life of his subject, the author proceeded to arrange the events in his brother's life in such a way that the reader would have no difficulty in understanding the sequence. " It will be hard to lead a thread, in good order of time, through his Lordship's whole life," he announced in one of the early passages; " for there are so many and various incidents to be remembered, which will interfere, and make it necessary to step back some times, and then again forwards." In order to give the reader some notion of the manner in which the narrative was to proceed, the author outlined at the outset four main divisions in the Lord Keeper's life, and subdivided each division into two parts, one dealing with the public life and the other with the private. Objections may be raised to such a method, for a dual kind of personality frequently results by keeping the two aspects of a man's life thus dissociated; and if the intervals devoted to the separate divisions are long, the time sequence suffers. On the other hand, the strict application of the law of the sequence of time in narrative writing is often unsatisfactory. To interrupt the narrative of events in which the Lord Keeper participated in connection with the Rye Plot in order to recall a strictly contemporary fondness for beefsteak, may, of course, follow the true sequence of events, but most narrative writers have found it advantageous

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to follow a chronological arrangement only insofar as associated events demand. No arbitrary rule can be offered concerning the arrangement of events in Life-writing. When deviations from a strict time sequence do not confuse the reader, there is no objectionable violation of the principles of narrative writing. Roger North's chief difficulty lay in arranging his material in such a way that a chronological method could be followed without interrupting the two main courses of events. Had he made his divisions less sharp and the intervals in which he dealt with one aspect less sustained, the result would have been more satisfactory. As the narrative stands, the public life is so distinct from the private life of the subject that the reader has the impression at times that he is surveying the lives of two different men. However, when the account comes to an end—the time at which any narrative is to be judged—the reader who has followed the two dissociated aspects of Francis North's life can with small difficulty see and understand a single personality. The record of events in the public life of Baron Guilford has much biographical worth, although there are instances in which the political transactions of the times were detailed so minutely that the account becomes interesting primarily to the student of history. The political events of the age and Baron Guilford's public career, however, were so definitely intertwined that the line of demarcation between history and biography becomes indistinct. Such a circumstance is not uncommon. There are frequent instances in which history and biography work together for a mutual end despite the fact that their major aims are different. It was not to write history that Roger North undertook his Life of Baron Guilford, but he undoubtedly understood that any attempt to detail the life of his brother that did not take into consideration the political transactions in which he had been involved would result in an underdeveloped delineation of life and character. Had he devoted his account only to the historical setting and the events in his brother's public career, his effort would fall short of biography. It was in his narrative of Baron Guil-

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ford's private and domestic life that he illustrated his conviction concerning the proper aim of the Life-writer. His conclusion that " If the history of a life hangs altogether upon great importances, such as concern church and state, it may be a history, and a very good one; but of anything rather than that person's life," 10 was not only a critical judgment of the purpose of biography; it was a judgment that found frequent application in his Life. And throughout the account, his conviction that " the smaller incidents in the life of a busy man are often as useful to be known, though not so diverting as the greater " was amply illustrated. In recalling " the smaller incidents," he demonstrated a keen sense of discrimination in the selection of events. In spite of their apparent triviality, these " smaller incidents " provided the stuff out of which a clear portrait of Francis North developed. Nor was the author's memory always given to recall only the " lilies and roses " in his brother's movements; " nay, the scars and blemishes " were revealed as well. With a smile untinged with irony, he allowed his memory to bring back some of the episodes of human weakness that had been a part of Baron Guilford's private life. It is true that he excused him for any of his excesses and blunders, and that he was always interested in giving Francis a clean bill of character, but with a smile of amusement that was sly as well as brotherly, he recalled some of those events in which the Lord Keeper was not exactly a hero. Pleasantly the author told of how on an evening his Lordship had gone out with a company, among which was his clerk Lucas, who was " a very drunken fellow." At the end of a perfect evening, his Lordship, barely able to mount his horse, started with the group, presumably homeward. The horse on which the Lord Keeper was astride, finding his master's authority excessively mild, galloped away at full speed. After evading all pursuers, the horse settled down to a more moderate pace, until upon becoming thirsty and seeing a large pond by the roadside, he moved, with his rider fast asleep on his back, far into the water, and 10

Ed. 1826, Vol. I, p. 154.

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remained there until he and his unconscious rider were discovered hours later by some of the party. The author continued: They took him into a public house nigh at hand, and left him to the care of his man; but so dead drunk, that he knew nothing that happened to him. He was put into a bed; and the rest of the company went on. Next morning, when his Lordship awaked, he found himself in a strange place, and that, at a fire-side in that room, there were some women talking softly (for talk they must): he sent out all his senses to spy, if he could, what the matter was. He could just perceive they talked of him. Then he called for Lucas, and bade all go out of the room but him; and then, " Lucas," said he, " where am I? " He was glad that the danger of which Lucas gave him a sensible account was over, and got him up to go after his fellows.

The passages in which the author recalls his brother's experiences in trying to get married are even more full of intimate revelation. So great a lover of regularity was the Lord Keeper that he was unsatisfied until he could have a wife and home. Without a large estate of his own, Baron Guilford searched high and low for someone whose resources he could share through marriage. With a zeal that amused his brother, Francis pursued in turn no less than six ladies, all of whom seemed completely worthy, at least as far as estate was concerned. The first was the daughter of an old usurer who was enormously wealthy. His Lordship got a sight of her, and did not dislike her, but when her father demanded what portion of the North estate would be given to her, the enterprise immediately collapsed. His second venture was with the widow of Edward Palmer, reputedly very wealthy, and in other ways as well a very suitable match. He had many rivals, but he felt encouraged to persist in his suit. After some months had passed, during which time hope ran high, the widow ran away from all of her wooers, and married a man of good estate in the country. " There were many comical passages in this wooing," said the author, " which his Lordship, without much pleasantry, used to remember, and however fit for a stage, would not muster well in an historical relation; for which

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reason, as his lordship dropped them, I drop them." The other ventures, save the last, were reported with equal humor, especially the Lord Keeper's attempt to win the hand of the daughter of Sir John Lawrence, Lord Mayor of London. The fortune of the daughter, so Francis had been told, was to be six thousand pounds. When he approached the Lord Mayor with his proposal, the Lord Mayor cut down the amount to five thousand. This so angered the suitor that he gave the matter up with a great show of spirit. Later when Sir John Lawrence offered him ten thousand pounds, the Lord Keeper refused. When finally the Lord Keeper found the father of Lady Frances Pope susceptible to his plan for a union, the author reported with amusement the manner in which his brother raised a sufficient sum to make a striking appearance and an honorable proposition. " Six hundred pounds, he borrowed of a friend . . . and after this, he ventured with a decent equipage and attendance, and, in less than a fortnight, fixed his point with the lady, and appointed another time to come and finish what was so auspiciously begun." The preparations and festivities surrounding the wedding were all treated with an intimacy of detail that leaves little of the portrait of Francis North at the time of his nuptials undeveloped. I t is this intimacy of detail that makes The Life of Baron Guilford interesting and amusing to the modern reader who finds human nature as engaging as history. Throughout the entire record, the illustrious Lord Keeper is always a man, susceptible to human weaknesses, and life-like in his gestures. Much of the delineation of his character is expository and subjective, and although such a method permitted slight inaccuracies of judgment to develop by reason of the personal sentiment of the author, it made possible a sympathetic interpretation of personality rather than a cold narration of events. The admiration which the author had for his brother had small effect on the analysis of character. Roger North understood his brother too thoroughly to allow his admiration to blind him to the Lord Keeper's true nature. " This character, which I

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have given," he concluded, " is not out of my opinion, humour, or any means of fame whatever, but the result of my own personal knowledge and proof; and, at the hour of death, I can veritably swear to every article in it." Such a recommendation of his faithfulness to fact was hardly necessary. In his spontaneous, anecdotal manner of recording events there is an ingenuousness that is in itself an indication of his trustworthiness. The Life of Baron Guilford, illustrates one of the first attempts to bring a man completely to life. It is a study of the personality of an interesting man in which the author took a true biographical attitude and employed methods that were in advance of the time. It is undoubtedly one of the first good English biographies. The Life of Sir Dudley North is to the general reader not so absorbing and instructive as that of Baron Guilford. Dudley North was a successful merchant, and only late in life was he concerned in the important political transactions of his time. At the time of the dispute between the city of London and the Court, he was one of the Court sheriffs who stood out prominently on the side of the Crown. In the Life, his connection with the important issues of government was treated cursorily, owing to the fact that in the author's earlier work, The Examen, Dudley North's part in the civil affairs of London had been discussed at considerable length. The role that he played as a merchant in London and in the Levant occupies the greater part of the narrative, and despite the fact that he was not a principal actor in the drama of the reign of Charles II, the account of his life is in places completely engaging. Of Dudley North, the author saw less than of Francis, for the former spent much of his time in Smyrna and Constantinople. It was through his letters, most of which were addressed to Francis, and the reports that he offered of himself after his return to London that the author was able to trace his movements abroad in a fairly thorough way. In his late years, after he had left the Levant, he spent much time with the brother who was later to write his Life, and it was during this interval that the author learned to know him and admire

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him. The account of his life which was produced indicates that the author was supplied amply with information. Furthermore, most of the work of protecting Dudley North's name from malevolent reports had been done in The Examcn, with the result that the author was able to proceed directly to the narrative of events and delineation of character without feeling the need for rescuing his brother from the calumnies of the historians. With ample information to record, and with a commemorative impulse that was unhampered by the weight of factionism seeking expression, North was equipped to produce a Life of his brother Dudley that would illustrate good biography. He succeeded, however, only in part. The early passages of the narrative, in which the youth and early manhood of his brother are described, form a straightforward and coherent sequence of events in which much penetrating characterization occurs. When the narrative comes to the point at which Dudley started on his travels, the author supplies the reader with interesting information concerning his brother's movements and reflections by inserting a series of letters, written by Dudley to Francis, in many of which there are passages of considerable biographical value. At times, however, these letters, of which there are many in the course of the Life, aid the reader only slightly in his attempt to understand the man who wrote them, for frequently they describe the Levant so minutely and objectively that the personality of the author is for the time being forgotten. The discussion of Turkish customs through the letters and through Roger North's amplifications of reports gathered from his brother's tales is interesting, for it provides an excellent study of the Levant in the seventeenth century, but the biographical part of the work suffers. At times, an anecdote about the merchant recalls the reader to the fact that he is reading a Life and not a detailed account of manners and customs in Turkey. Over a third of the Life is devoted to matters that were not of biographical significance. At the point in the account at which Dudley North returns to London, the narrative again devotes itself primarily to the subject of the Life.

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In those passages in which the author concerns himself with the delineation of his brother's movements and personality, there are excellent illustrations of penetrating characterization. The " scars and blemishes," as well as the " beauties " of character, of which he spoke in the Life of Baron Guilford, were revealed here. Brotherly affection did not lead the author into eulogy. That the author was willing to forgive his brother his moments of weakness is evident, but the candor of some of his observations causes the reader to conclude that there was no attempt to conceal blemishes. His manner of revealing and forgiving is illustrated in the passage which deals with Dudley's movements in Venice. " I should have mentioned before," he wrote, " that on his return from Smyrna, he stopped at Venice, and stayed there about a month, in which time he sated himself with the delights of that city; he kept his gondolo, which is like a coach in London, and, with that coursed about the city, as the way of travellers and strangers there is. And I make no doubt that he informed himself thoroughly of the courtezans, and their way of living; which in that city, is an entertainment so far from being scandalous, that the most reverend of the senators use it. This was one of his once-and-away entertainments, with which he said a man might sometime gratify himself; a person that is very brisk and airy, can scarce settle close to business, until he hath an excursion or two; and that, he said, was pur cavar il capricio, that is to gratify the fancy." 11 There is much character delineation in such a passage, and in those which deal with Dudley North's audience with the Sultan, and his attempts to cultivate Turkish mannerisms. We are told that once he sat on his legs in the Levantine fashion while talking to a Stamboul dignitary until, when he attempted to rise, he found that his legs would not support him. We are given a picture of him, grown portly with good fare, " well-whiskered " and making an appearance " such as the Turks approve of most of all in a man." 12 His acumen in 11 Lives of the Norths, ed. 1826, Vol. II, p. 366. i-Ibid., p. 417.

13

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matters of commerce, his fondness for wine, his quick temper, and his notions of square-dealing are all revealed to us through well-written anecdotes. By the time the reader comes to the end of the account, he has seen Dudley North in so many characteristic garbs that he feels that he knows the man. The likeness that the author drew of his brother, if we are to judge from his manner, was both faithful and fairly complete. With this Life, North did not follow the plan of separating the public life from the private life of his subject as he had done in the account of the Baron Guilford. In the earlier Life, Baron Guilford and Francis North became to a certain extent two personalities; here, however, Dudley North, merchant in London and Constantinople, court-sheriff, and traveller, is the same man. Here all of the aspects of a versatile life were woven together with a skill that made possible a coherent portrait. The inclination which caused the author in the Life of his brother Francis to record events that were of no direct importance to the narrative found even finer expression here, chiefly owing to the fact that the private life of Dudley North formed the major part of the narrative. No detail was too insignificant. Even the methods that Dudley employed to rid himself of insomnia were made the matter of a detailed discussion. Were fifty or more of the interesting pages about seventeenth century Turkey eliminated from the narrative and published under a separate title, The Life of Sir Dudley North would be a better illustration of biography. However, in spite of this digression, the account has much to commend it to those who are interested in the matter and manner of Life-writing. It is free from panegyric, it is intimate and detailed, and the analysis of personality is penetrating and sympathetic. The third Life, that of John North, is the shortest of the three, but it is free from the digressions about politics and foreign lands that take up considerable space in the other Lives. The Life of the Honourable and Reverend Doctor John North is a straightforward narration of the major events and characteristic movements in the life of a seventeenth century scholar. To the general reader, it lacks the interest that

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the other Lives possess by reason of the fact that it deals with a man whose life was unmarked by action, and whose role was not of the same importance as those enacted by Baron Guilford and Sir Dudley North. However, to the one who is interested in the state of scholarship among the men who offered instruction at Cambridge during the late seventeenth century, this account of a man who for a time was Head Master at Trinity College is fairly engaging. I n the opening passages the author defined his purpose as follows: My design in these papers is to frame a short history of the life of an honourable person, some time since deceased, and to represent his character as near to truth as my stock of materials will enable me. Works of this kind may be useful to such as had rather profit by the example of others, than apply any invention, or industry, of their own, towards a moral improvement; or it may be, to wear away some heavy hours of reading. As for the importance of the present subject, I shall hang out no bush, but submit to the peruser the determination, whether there was need of such a proverbial signal, or not. Some have affected to write the lives of persons long since dead and gone, and their names preserved only by some formal remains, and (ever) dubious traditions. So painters copy from obscure draughts half obliterated, whereof no member, much less the entire resemblance is to be found. But fiction, supported on seeming probability, must fill up the blanks, and supply all defects. In this manner some lives have become redivival, but with partial views, tending either to panegyric, the advance of some favourite opinions, or factious intrigues; which are fiercely pursued, while the life scraps come out thin and meagre. And, after great length of time, how should it come off better? My choice is of what the present undertaking aims at, the life of a person known to some yet living, and done by a close acquaintance and frequent companion, who hath neither inclination nor temptation to court the public, or flatter the private. The moral intent here is to do justice to the person and service to his family; both which may result from the present endeavour to retrieve his character. And this is no slight task, because he took express care that nothing should remain, whereby, in aftertimes, he might be remembered; and my memory is now the repository of most

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that may be recovered of him. Therefore I think it not unreasonable for me to let such an ornament to his family, and example of virtue, be wholly forgot and lost; or perhaps only his name remain, and that confined to a petit cycle in some musty genealogy. . . Such a declaration of purpose offers convincing evidence that North was cognizant of the true impulse out of which biography grows. When the reader learns that the author plans to " proceed in a style of familiar conversation, and as one engaged to answer such questions concerning our Doctor, as may obviously be demanded," he is led to believe that this Life will be the most engaging illustration of Life-writing of the three accounts. Here there was " Little or nothing of the public, or state's matters, which may require a nice retrospection." As a piece of biographical composition this Life is superior to the others. It fulfills all the purposes that the author declared in his introduction to the account. Here he had " neither inclination nor temptation to court the public, or flatter the private," nor was he eager to " advance some favourite opinion." With the Life of John North, the author was not a party writer, for his brother's movements were in large part detached from the political transactions of the times. Nothing that could possibly form matter for a lengthy digression suggested itself here, save perhaps the state of affairs at Cambridge before and during his brother's life there, and this the author rejected. The reader never loses sight of John North. The narrative remains a straightforward and concise statement of biographical facts, made penetrating at times by succinct analysis. The " style of familiar conversation " of which the author spoke in one of his opening passages is only rarely evident. Throughout the Life the author's attention was so fixed on the subject that his manner of delineating John North's life and character was direct at times to the point of abruptness. As an uninterrupted study of character, this Life stands on a plane higher than the others. For intrinsic worth and literary charm, however, the ac13

Ed. 1826, Vol. I l l , p. 273 et seq.

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count of John North is decidedly inferior to the earlier Lives. Few are interested to know of the Doctor's proficiency in Greek, and there are few indeed who feel that there is any virtue in knowing the names of all the distressing maladies to which John North was victim in his last years. The fame and achievements of the subject of the Life were so meagre that it is hardly worth our while to study his uneventful life. In principle biography is not snobbish. It selects the high and low, the virtuous and the criminal for its content; but it rarely selects the commonplace and the middle-class. When it does, it must delineate personality in such a way that the commonplace is made interesting, and the middle-class of humanity made worthy of observation. Life-writing succeeds most easily when the subject of the account has distinguished himself in such a way that his achievements commend him to our interest. For this reason, the Life of Baron Guilford, in spite of the fact that it lacks the compositional excellence of the Life of John North, occupies a place in the province of biography that the account of John North can never fill. Furthermore, this account possesses little of the literary charm that the earlier Lives hold for the reader. John North was evidently not the author's " best brother," although there is no evident lack of sympathy in the author's delineation of his life and character. But there is none of that geniality and sly smiling that appear at frequent intervals in the earlier accounts. The narrative lacks the warmth and the spirit of the others. It is likely that John North's weak physical constitution, and his lack of aggressiveness, which his brothers possessed in abundance, were directly responsible for the author's manner of treating the events of his life. Here he could not smile with good humor at his brother's faults, for in so many instances they were the direct result of his miserable body that good taste, if not pity, forbade any semblance of humour. Were we to have no other examples of Roger North's methods in biographical writing, this account, if by chance it survived, would prove interesting historically in the development of Life-writing. Without being unsympathetic

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to the least of the Norths, whose Life was so faithfully delineated, we may conclude that the memorial that exists to his name deserves our respect, but not our sustained attention. As a Life-writer who exercised a powerful influence on the growth of biography during the early half of the century, Roger North cannot be mentioned. His works were of interest to the age—especially the account of Baron Guilford— but it was chiefly as history that the narratives were read. His biographical manner was not made the subject of study; to the times, it was only another manifestation of the tendency away from panegyric and toward reality. The party feelings of the latter part of the earlier century were still active, and to many the Lives of the Norths suggested a defense of the Stuart court. Furthermore, by 1740 and 1742, when Montagu North brought the Lives to the press, there were other works that illustrated more conspicuously—if not so excellently—the demands of the age for reality in character delineation. It was chiefly during the nineteenth century, when the dust of the factionism of the reigns of the Stuarts had settled, that the true value of these works was recognized. It was not as an editorial exercise that William Roscoe brought the Lives of the Norths to the press for a new edition in 1826. He and others understood their value both as history and biography. Since that time, these accounts have served a definite purpose as historical source-books, and as biographies of men whose roles were not small in a period described by Fox as " one of the most singular and important in our history." When the time at which these Lives were written is considered, their significance in the development of English biography is immediately recognized. As early as 1715, Roger North was a pioneer in a province whose value and charm he understood. Before his time, Life-writing concerned itself primarily with the public life of the subject; the private life was rejected as unimportant, or as an aspect of a man's life that should not in good taste be treated. But North had no qualms of conscience in revealing the private life of his brothers, and in spite of his apologies for lingering over the little

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details of their experiences, he recognized the biographical value of those gestures which on the surface seemed inconsequential. He felt with Plutarch: " Nor is it always in the most distinguished achievements that men's virtues or vices may be best discerned; but very often an action of small note, a short saying, or a jest, shall distinguish a person's real character more than the greatest sieges, or the most important battles." 14 With such a principle guiding his fertile pen, he wrote his Lives, and made of them excellent illustrations of the delineation of personality as well as valuable commentaries on the times. BIBLIOGRAPHY ( C H A P T E R F O U R ) T H E LIVES OF THE NORTHS

Burnet, Gilbert. The Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale . . . , 1682; ed. used, London, 1805. Kennett, White. A Complete History of England, 1706. North, Roger. Autobiography. Written c. 1720; edited by Alexander Jessopp and first published in 1887. Examen, The. Written c. 1710; first ed., 1740. The Lives of Baron Guilford, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Charles II and James II; of Sir Dudley North, Commissioner of the Customs, and Afterwards of the Treasury to King Charles II; and of the Honourable and Reverend Doctor John North, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Clerk of the Closet to King Charles II. Written before 1715; first ed., 2 vols., 4to, 1740-1742; ed. used, William Roscoe's, 3 vols., 4to, London, 1826. 14

From the Life of Alexander the Great.

V THE ADVANCE OF SCHOLARLY METHODS

B

I O G R A P H Y , especially that which deals with a subject that is not contemporary, depends to a large extent on that form of thorough investigation which is now known as scholarship. In general terms, scholarship is a deliberate and systematic search for facts. Its application is essential to the success of any historical survey. In records that deal with men and events far removed from the age in which they are written, literary skill becomes incidental to historical accuracy. T h e finest expression of a literary personality will not of itself produce a satisfactory narrative. T h e so-called historical romances, novels, and dramas are often excellent literature, but they are frequently inadequate as histories and biographies. In them, accuracy becomes incidental to the expression of literary personality. T h e strict preservation of historical t r u t h lies not in the hands of gifted writers, but in the hands of those who have been patient in the search—the faithful scholars. Biography recognizes scholarship as its most valuable ally.

T h e final result of scholarship, however, is not always literature. T h e r e are countless pieces of excellent research t h a t have as little literary charm as a card-catalogue or the usual run of Doctorate theses. T h e r e are, on the other hand, some splendid illustrations of the union between literature and scholarship. E d w a r d Dowden's Life of Shelley is an example. Biography that aims only at scholarly accuracy, or only at literary charm, rarely finds a place among the great Lives. Good biography demands this union. True, a faithful historical record is ever valuable, and will be preserved for those who 188

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would be informed; but the faithful record that is possessed of literary charm has an appeal that is not subject to a specialized interest. It is read not only for the trustworthy information it contains, but as often for the manner in which the information is presented. As Roger N o r t h expressed it in his P r e f a c e to the Life of Baron Guilford (1740), 1 " Profit must share with enjoyment." T h e eighteenth century conviction concerning the proper object of the historical recorder is clearly expressed in an article which appeared in the Monthly Review for June, 1757. When the Historian relates events far removed from the age in which he writes, when evidence is become scarce, and authorities are rendered doubtful, from the obscurities which time has thrown upon them, he ought, above all things, to be careful that his narration be as amply authenticated as the nature of his researches will allow. Strictly speaking, the eye-witness alone should take upon him to transmit facts to posterity; and as for the Historians, the Copyists and the Annotators, who may follow him, if possessed of no new and genuine materials, instead of strengthening, they will only diminish the authority of their guide: for, in proportion as History removes from the first witnesses, it may recede also from truth,—as, by passing thro' the prejudices, or the mistakes of subsequent Compilers, it will be apt to imbibe what tincture they may chance to give it. The later Historian's only way, therefore, to prevent the ill effects of that decrease of evidence which the lapse of years necessarily brings with it, must be, by punctually referring to the spring-head from whence the stream of his narration flows; which at once will cut off all appearance of partiality, or misrepresentation. As in law, the rectitude of a person's character is not alone sufficient to establish the truth of a fact, so in history, not merely the Writer's testimony, be our opinion of his veracity ever so great, but collateral evidence is also required, to determine every thing of a questionable nature. . . . There were of old, and still are, indolent Readers, who turn to an Author with the design rather of killing than improving their time; and who, scared at the serious face of instruction, are rather attracted by the lively, florid style of a Floras, than the more substantial disquisitions of a Polybius. With such Readers, every step an Historian takes toward determining the weight of evidence, or the degree 1

Ante, p. 170.

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of credibility, is an excursion into the regions of dulness; but while the Writer proceeds in his narrative, without reflection, they continue to read without reflecting: and his history enlightens them just as much as a romance would have done: for they are equally unconcerned about truth in either. Truth should be the main object of the Historian's pursuit; Elegance is only its ornament: if, therefore, we see a Writer of this class plume himself upon his excelling in the last, and at the same time slighting the evidences that ought to ascertain and support the first, suspicion will naturally arise, and the Author's credit will sink in proportion. 2

From such an article, and from many of the Lives that were produced even during the early part of the century, it may readily be gathered that accuracy in biography, even to the smallest detail, was rapidly becoming of paramount importance. To those who sought patiently for truth, a tribute should be paid. It is in the spirit of examining the methods that the eighteenth century scholars took, and of giving them their due, that the survey in this chapter is undertaken. As great biographers these men are not to be mentioned; even the word author is in some instances a misnomer. But they deserve attention, for by their patience and energy they laid the foundation for narratives written with more literary charm. Furthermore, the Lives which they produced in an age in which systematic scholarship was in its infancy helped to give to the century standards of accuracy; and they illustrated methods of investigation that were of great significance in the healthy growth of biography. There were scholars in Life-writing before the eighteenth century. Dry den's Life of Plutarch 3 was not exactly an unscholarly performance, nor were Wood's sketches in Athenae Oxonienses examples of indolence in research. Among the antiquaries and lexicographers, of whom Fuller might be mentioned, 4 there were frequent illustrations of patience and energy in seeking out and corroborating facts. It was, however, 2 3 4

Vol. XVI, p. S30. Ante, p. 25. See Chapter V I

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in the eighteenth century that true scholarship began to thrive as a substantial ally to biography. An age that was so insistent in its demands for reality was fertile soil for the steady growth of scholarly methods. Deliberate investigation of sources of information was the only satisfactory method by which to proceed in order to give the century what it wanted. The Society of Antiquaries was established in 1717 in order to answer the questions of those who were becoming more and more inquisitive about the facts of the past. By 1751, the membership of the Society had to be limited to one hundred and fifty. With these men, few of the earlier records went unexamined; nothing was taken for granted; they relied only on those authorities that had been proved trustworthy through their own investigations. Footnotes, employed in order to support the authority of the text, grew in volume as the century progressed; and pages were given over to points of conjecture and to balancing evidence. Plagiarism became a heinous offense; when the shears were employed, their use was admitted far more frequently than it was in the days of Winstanley. The age that detected Lauder's cheat, 0 Middleton's plagiarism,8 and " Corinna's" apocryphal reports; the age that frankly told Captain Alexander Smith that he stole most of his stories, and that made even such a cunning fabricator as Daniel Defoe decide to stick to the facts in his account of John Gow, was not lax in its demands on truth. Much fiction passed as truth, to be sure, especially in the early half of the century, but that was more the result of authors' skill than the indifference of the age. Georgian England knew the difference between authenticated facts and unattested rumors. The demands of the age for absolute truth caused Defoe at times to become a pseudo-scholar, and helped to develop such true scholars as William Oldys and Edmund Malone. As a result of the prevailing tendency of the age toward reality, there developed among the scholars of the early half of the century a kind of objectivity in recording events and 6

See p. 379 infra.

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portraying character that made panegyric out of the question. With them, Bishop Sprat's Life of Cowley was an illustration of what not to do. As early as 1698, Toland in his Life of Milton announced that he would be no panegyrist; and as the eighteenth century progressed, the conviction was held and demonstrated that Life-writing and panegyric were different forms, and that the former would profit by a complete divorce from the latter. Owing to the fact that the early eighteenth century scholars dealt with figures who were far removed from their own time, the danger of lapsing into eulogy was slight. They had veneration for those about whom they wrote, but their accounts could not well become colored with their own personal sympathies. Consequently, their records of the great men of the past became at times cold, unspirited collections of facts in which the motive of historical accuracy predominated. Lack of subjective interpretation of events and personality made of their records storehouses of trustworthy information, but eliminated the possibility of literary charm which is essential to great biography. The men who illustrated this growth of objectivity in Lifewriting in the early part of the century were chiefly clergymen, who, after long sojourns at the universities, found time, in addition to their ecclesiastical activities, to devote to a search for first-hand data concerning England's great, and to present in written form the results of their findings. For this work, their training and equipment were adequate. As a class, they were familiar with the ancient tongues; they were endowed with patience in abundance; and they had an unfaltering respect for truth. In addition to these virtues, they possessed a curiosity concerning the lives of men of earlier centuries that was impelling. With an air of triumph that was often justifiable, they exhibited the results of their investigations to an age that was constantly hungry for facts. In spite of the fact that the instincts which guided them were those of the antiquary rather than those of the biographer, they considered themselves biographers, and as such they may be judged.

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Of chief importance among this group in the early part of the century were Samuel Knight, John Lewis, William Oldys and Conyers Middleton. David Mallet deserves mention in this group for his Life of Francis Bacon. In the latter part of the century, William Hayley and Edmund Malone stand out as representative scholars who devoted much of their effort to Life-writing. With varying capabilities, and with an energy that can be termed only commendable, these men set themselves to the task of investigating their favorite provinces in order to provide reliable records of facts that had hitherto lain concealed or gone unobserved. Some of them realized at least in part that they were not offering the final word on the subjects which they recorded; often the results of their investigations were offered in the hope that their achievements would clear the way for subsequent biographers. In their efforts to provide the age with facts concerning the lives of men of earlier centuries, they produced much that continues to possess intrinsic value for those of specialized interests; and the historical significance of their methods, in a century in which scholarship was in its infancy, cannot go unrecognized by the student of biography. The Lives by Samuel Knight (1675-1746) failed to reach a high biographical level only by reason of the fact that he was of mediocre literary personality. Otherwise he had all the equipment that was necessary to fulfill the role of biographer. During his sojourn at Trinity College, Cambridge (17001706), he developed a marked inclination toward antiquarianism, and, while still a young man, he found much satisfaction in disproving and verifying the accounts that were extant concerning the humanists. With a zeal unknown among the scholars of the earlier century, he set out deliberately to uncover and investigate all available records that dealt with the English Reformation. In 1717, when the Society of Antiquaries was founded, he was one of the dynamic figures.7 In his later years, his ecclesiastical sympathies gained for him 7

In the Appendix to the 1724 edition of The Life of Colet, account of the founding of the Society.

Knight gave an

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the appointment of chaplain to George II, 8 but even in this role, he continued to demonstrate his interest in the humanists and in recording the results of his investigations. The Life of John Colet (1724) 9 was his first noteworthy contribution to the province of Life-writing. He knew White Kennett's (1660-1728) account of Colet in the History of England (1703), and it is possible that he relied on the earlier work for some of his details; but it can readily be established that the author was prepared to reject any inaccuracies that might have occurred in Kennett's brief narrative. His dependence on the earlier account is scarcely to be observed, for he had by reason of his own investigation of first-hand data much information that had gone unrecorded. However, even with the additional material that he had to present, the record was by no means full, especially in those matters which dealt with the details of Colet's private life. Without a sufficiently large amount of biographical data that could be verified, and without a highly inspired pen, Knight realized his inability to make a long and vivid story of the life of Colet. In his introduction, he implied that he had only started a work which he hoped others of more perspicacity than he would finish. In his account, Colet becomes by no means a living figure, but were an exhaustive biography of the great Dean to be undertaken, Knight's Life would be a valuable record to consult for reliable facts. 10 The Life of Erasmus (1726) showed no marked advance in biographical method over that in the account of Colet. Some facts which had been unknown were revealed in Knight's record, but the story of Erasmus's life is sketchy and incomplete. Only that part of the life of Erasmus in which he was in England received the attention of the author, chiefly owing to the fact that authentic material concerning his movements out of England was unavailable or difficult to obtain. The meagreness of biographical material in the record warrants the as8 See John Nichols' Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, second edition, London, 1812, V, 357. 9 Second edition, 1823. 10 Of the 433 pages, 233 were devoted to the Life and 200 to the Appendix.

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sumption that the facts which are there can be accepted as absolute truth, for Knight was not in sympathy with a full record in which the volume gained weight by unverified and fictional passages. In addition to the somewhat meagre series of facts concerning the actual life of the famous scholar, Knight offered some reliable observations concerning the friends of Erasmus and the state of religion and learning at Oxford and Cambridge during the early sixteenth century. These comments he could present with a clear conscience, for they were the result of his investigations. The author's attitude toward accuracy in this and the earlier record is to be commended to all generations of Life-writers, but the results of this attitude and of his patient investigations are valuable only to those who are seeking for a short series of facts concerning Colet and Erasmus.11 John Lewis (1675-1747) was another churchman who, in addition to the performance of his ecclesiastical duties, found occasion to investigate original records and write Lives. Part of an autobiography is extant in a manuscript copy 12 which gives a cursory account of his life up to 1738. From it and his works, and from the brief accounts that appear in such collections as Nichols' Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century,13 a fair estimate can be obtained of his inclinations and attainments. He was associated with both Universities; after having finished his A.B. at Exeter, Oxford, in 1697, he continued to be so interested in scholarly investigation that in 1711 he was at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, delving in the books and manuscripts which the Library at Cambridge was collecting with unfaltering zeal. It was here that he came 11 In addition to these two lives, Knight left t w o manuscript sketches, one of Symon Patrick, Bishop of Ely, and the other of John Strype. They are to be found in the Cambridge University Library. Peck, in the Preface to Desiderata Curiosa (1743), mentioned two other Lives: The Life of Bishop Grossetete and The Life of Bishop Overall. These seem to be lost. Such a loss is not to be much lamented, for the subject-matter is of small appeal, and it is unlikely that the author's methods were much of an improvement over those employed in those records which are at our disposal. 12 British Museum Addition, MS. 28651. 13 Ed. 1812.

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into contact with those who were later to band themselves into the Society of Antiquaries, and from them he received a passion for investigating early sixteenth century data. When he left Cambridge to engage himself in the activities of a clergyman, he carried with him his interest in antiquarianism. Contemporary ecclesiastical matters consumed little of his time, apparently, for in addition to his work as editor of many sixteenth century documents and manuscripts, he had opportunity to investigate sufficient first-hand material to write four fairly long Lives. It was Lewis who found William Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More in need of careful editing, for no one had attempted to refute the authenticity of the few pirated copies that were in existence, and the Hearne Manuscript of the Life was considered too illegible a document for any scholar's effort. Lewis, however, by methods that were inculcated in him during his stay at Cambridge, found manuscripts other than Hearne's, and after careful comparisons, he was able in 1729 to bring out an edition of Roper's Life of More that has served all subsequent editors. Of these, Singer, editor of the 1817 edition of Roper's work, found much to criticize in Lewis's effort. According to the later editor, Lewis was negligent and inaccurate in almost all of his citations; but a comparison of Singer's edition with the earlier work indicates that Singer used the text of Lewis for the groundwork of his edition; and employed the Appendix of Letters, the genealogy of Roper, and the marginal illustrations that he found in the earlier work. In addition to his comment that Lewis was inaccurate in almost all of his citations, Singer censured him for the air of superiority that had come into his observations concerning his use of the Hearne Manuscript—a copy of the Life of More that was sufficiently bona-fide, but illegible and confused. The later editor, however, quoted all of Lewis's preface as a judgment of Roper's Life on which he could not improve. When all that Singer and others have said concerning Lewis's negligence as an editor has been considered, the fact remains that his efforts in this field were sufficiently thorough to provide the groundwork for much subsequent editing.

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As an investigator of first-hand material for his Lives, Lewis was equally painstaking. Until he set to work to discover available material concerning the lives of Caxton and Wyclif, information about these men was rare and often unreliable. Lewis recognized the advantage to be gained by the direct use of the material which his research had produced, with the result that his works contain a relatively generous supply of original letters, notices and historical data which he had been able to identify and authenticate. That he was proud of his discoveries is apparent in his prefaces and the texts, but in most instances his pride was justifiable, for he found much that had been considered non-existent or inaccessible. The History of the Life and Sufferings of John Wicliffe, with a Collection of Papers relating to said History, never before Printed appeared in 1723. In 1737, The Life of Mayster Wyllyatn Caxton, the First Printer in England was published. The Life of Dr. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, ' containing an Appendix of Illustrative Documents and Papers' was in manuscript by 1738.14 In 1744, The Life of Reynold Peacocke, Bishop of St. Asaph and Chichester . . . ' being a sequel of the Life of Dr. John Wiclif, in order to an Introduction to a History of the English Reformation ' came to the press.15 In addition to these book-length records, there were several brief sketches of figures who were associated with the beginnings of Episcopacy that remained in manuscript or in time found their way into the antiquarian journals. 10 In the four Lives, Lewis found receptacles for presenting to his age and to posterity the substance of his scholarly investigations. The Life of Wyclif and the Life of Caxton, by reason of their subject-matter, are more engaging to the modern reader than the others; and for a survey of Lewis's methods, they may be considered representative. In them, the author used the Life as a receptacle for any material that was uncovered in his search for facts concerning the lives of the 14 It is possible that it was not published until 18SS, at which time an edition of the Life appeared in two volumes. " S e c o n d edition, Oxford, 1820. 16 These accounts are to be found in the Cambridge University Library.

14

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translator and the printer. His sense of relevance can easily be questioned at times, for in both records information is offered that borders on the extraneous. In the human features of the objects of his investigations, he had little interest or no results to present. His strong Protestant sympathies kept his work from being strictly impersonal; otherwise, the two Lives are cold series of biographical and historical facts. In the Life of Wyclif, the appendix is full of authenticated documents, many of which have little to do with the actual life of Wyclif. Likewise in the Lije of Caxton, after the author had run over the major events in the life of the first printer in England, he went into a survey of the rise and progress of the art of printing during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. 17 Lewis prefaced his account of Caxton in part as follows: The Collector of these Papers has had it for some Time in his Thoughts and Wishes, to attempt to do Justice to the Memory of a Man, who, he thinks, deserved so well of his Country, in so early introducing into it an Art of such publick Use and Benefit as is that of Printing. . . . But his Situation in a remote Corner of this Shire, divided from the Continent, and distant from Libraries and the Conversation of Learned Men, and particularly such as were skill'd in this Subject, quite discouraged him. In this State of Despondency the learned and ingenious Dr. Conyers Middleton, principal Librarian of the famous University of Cambridge, was so kind and generous as to make the Collector a Present of his curious Dissertation Concerning the Origin oj Printing in England, Cambridge: Printed for W. Thurlbourn, over against the Senate House, M D C C X X X V . The Perusal of this served to revive the Thoughts of his former Design, and gave him Hopes, that he should be able, in some tolerable Measure, to compleat and execute it, with the Assistance of the Dissertation of Mr. Mattaire's Annates Typographici, reprinted at Amsterdam, 1733, and of some Friends and Acquaintances he had in London, and the two famous Universities, who favoured Researches of this Kind: and it is with these Helps that the Collector has been able to finish these Papers in the Manner he has done. 17

The greater part of this was later inserted by Didbin in his edition of Ames's Typographical Antiquities.

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Mr. Caxton's Memory has not been treated with the greatest Candour and Benevolence; however, considering the public Usefulness of the Man, and the little Provocation he has given in his Writings of such Usage, Bishop Bale represented him as a man not quite stupid, nor benumbed with Sloth; which intimates as if he thought him almost so: and this Unfair Character has been implicitly transcribed by following Writers. One of them asks, with an Air of Scorn and Contempt, if it will be any Kind of Inducement to peruse the Works of an Author so recommended. . . . However, they who have made so free with his Character should, one would think, have taken some care of their own, and not in their Accounts of him written Things that confute themselves, and shew the Inventors to be surrounded with a Darkness that may even be felt. . . . It seems a very just Observation that has been made by a late sensible and ingenious Writer, That it is not to be thought, that the Readers of such Accounts as they thought tended much to the Honour of their Country, have not been over scrupulous in examining nicely into the Truth and Probability of them: Though it is very commendable to enquire honestly into them, and renounce all such as appear fabulous and inconsistent with the Truth of History. This, it's hoped, will excuse the attempts of this Collector, in the following Papers, honestly and faithfully to shew the true Character of our First Printer, and the particular Instances of his Probity and Diligence. In doing this the Collector has had opportunities enough to expose the Negligences, Ignorances, and Prejudices of some of the most learned Writers of the Last Age; and could he have allowed himself, with the late Monsieur Baile, and others, to divert and make himself and his Readers merry with the Mistakes of Men much better, and more knowing, in other Respects, than himself, he would not have wanted sufficient Matter and Occasion. . . . The Writer presumes to add, That he is not so vain and conceited as to imagine that he has made no Blunders or Mistakes, or, that his Guesses are always right: But he hopes he shall be treated with Candour. It's a fine, as well as a necessary Observation, made by an excellent and learned Writer, that we should even scruple to expose some kind of Faults. ' A Man,' says he, ' has spent his Life in Study: He has plowed up fallow Grounds, or untilled Lands. The narrow Bands of Human Minds sometimes, even in Advertency, occasioned by a strict Application to what was most essential to his Subject, made him fall into a Mistake of Small Moment. It may be

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that he has fifty Volumes lying open around him: This Multitude of Objects happens to dazzle and confound him. He fancies he sees and reads in one Author what is really in Another, and so quotes the wrong Writer. Ought anyone to exclaim against such a Writer as a Lyer, or expose him as ignorant? Should we not rather pity such a Distraction, than be pleased with the Discovery of a Mistake, which we ourselves might have made, had our Minds been but as much bent and upon the Stretch? This seems offending against the Laws of Justice and Christian Charity, and even those of Worldly Decency and common Civility.' 18 That Lewis's errors were regarded with " Christian Charity," and that the value of the work was recognized by those who admired probity and diligence are indicated by the following couplets, entitled To the Reverend Mr. Lewis, Upon his Writing the Life of Mr. Caxton, which were printed in Cambridge soon after the Life appeared: Industrious C A X T O N ' S Name in Time to come Had buried been in dark Oblivion's Tomb, Had you with-held your generous Aid to save That Name which now will never find a Grave. Sacred the Labour, Righteous is your Pains, Thus to collect the Artist's true Remains. K E N T owes to you her Thanks upon this Score: And not on this alone, but many more. More watchful you than E G Y P T ' S boasting Seers: For there a Pyramid now huge appears; Yet lost forever is its Builder's Name, To our Surprise, and their eternal Shame.19 That Lewis did much to rescue the name of Caxton from " dark Oblivion's Tomb " can be established, for many of the materials from which he worked were bordering on extinction; but the same objection that has been made to Samuel Knight's Life of Colet and Life of Erasmus can be offered here. In his records of the lives of Wyclif and Caxton, Lewis produced source-books that are reliable and comparatively full, but no attempt was made to draw a coherent, full-length portrait of 18 19

Ed. 1737, Preface. Introduction to the Life, ed. 1737.

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the characters, nor was there any effort to give them life. The author was cognizant of the virtues of the impersonal method he employed; in his preface to his edition of Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More, he judged severely the errors of those writers who were led by personal sentiments to warp the truth, and in his introduction to the Life of Wyclif he announced that the passage of time had aided him in his clear view of the inspired translator. The truth of the matter is that any view which he had of Wyclif and Caxton he could not offer to the reader on account of his literary limitations and the fact that he saw them not as men, but as objects about which he could list some facts. It is significant, however, to note that Lewis offered a bibliography of all the available materials that dealt with Caxton, and that he recognized the value of supporting the authority of his texts by naming his sources of information in marginal notes. His energy in seeking out letters and original records, and his methods for establishing his authority, are to be commended, but his inability to weave biographical facts into a vivid portrait was a serious deficiency in the author who considered himself a biographer. With William Oldys (1696-1761), 2 0 however, the proper application of objectivity began to be demonstrated. Oldys was of innate antiquarian instinct, and his training was in no way at cross-purposes with his inclinations. From boyhood he was in touch with men of scholarly interests and attainments. His father had been a proctor at Oxford, and during the boy's most impressionable years he was among books in the rectory at Adderbury, Oxfordshire. When he was still comparatively young, he was associated intimately with book-sellers and dealers in historical documents and manuscripts. It was only natural that such contacts should provide an influence on his interests, and cause him to develop considerable energy in historical investigation. Before he was in his thirties, he prepared and had published an essay on epistolary writings, and was amplifying and annotating Gerard Langbaine's Dramatick 20 See James Yeowell's Memoir of William Oldys in the January and February issues of Notes and Queries, London, 1862.

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Poets. When Dr. Knowler needed assistance in editing the Earl of Strafforde's Letters and Despatches, he found Oldys a willing and capable colleague. By 1730, by reason of his constant association with editors and antiquaries, he had amassed a valuable library composed of all manner of historical and biographical documents and manuscripts, many of which had been in the Earl of Clarendon's possession. His rooms he had decorated with busts of the ancients and with rare specimens of the early products of the printing press, while on his tables there were stacks of royal letters and odds and ends of state papers. No man of the early part of the century had so great a delight in amassing and investigating historical data. When the Harleian Miscellany was undertaken in 1744, it was Oldys who was indefatigable in his selection and editing of most of the pamphlets for that famous collection of odds and ends of history and literature. Johnson, whose share in the work of the Miscellany was small, willingly relied on the older man's judgments and suggestions, and in Oldys' methods of investigation he learned much that he immediately put to good use. In 1747, the Biographia Britannica was begun, with Oldys as editor and chief contributor. From that time until 1760, the year before his death, he contributed twentytwo exhaustive articles to its pages, all of which have considerable biographical value. " It may safely be said that no one of the contributors to the Biographia Britannica has produced a richer proportion of unedited facts than William Oldys," Bolton Corney observed in the Curiosities of Literature Illustrated..21 Even the reliable Birch must take second place when painstaking investigation and editing are the issues for consideration; in fact, Birch learned much from his industrious colleague.22 Osborne, and even the self-sufficient Edmund Curll,23 called for editors who were disciples of 21

Ed. 1838, p. 177. For a treatment of Oidys and Birch as literary lexicographers, see the following chapter. 23 It was to Curl! that Oidys brought his early biographical effort, The Life oj Nell Cwynne. 22

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Oldys' methods. When in 1734 the publishers wished to put Raleigh's History of the World through a new edition, they came to Oldys with the suggestion and an attractive inducement to edit the text of the History and to write a Life of Raleigh to preface the edition. He accepted, and when in 1736 the new edition of the History of the World appeared, it was accompanied by a 282 page Life of its author. It was chiefly through his Life of Raleigh that Oldys became well known in London. Report has it that after the Life appeared, he was consulted regularly in his chambers at Gray's Inn on obscure and obsolete writers by the most eminent men of the age. Of its kind, the Life of Raleigh 24 is a good thing. Those wide gaps which occurred in the records of events in the Lives of Colet, Wyclif, and Caxton by Knight and Lewis did not appear here. A thoroughness that is not apparent in these earlier Lives stands out in Oldys' account. It is possible that materials concerning Raleigh were more accessible and more easily authenticated, although there is little to use as evidence for such an assumption. The difference between the results of Oldys' investigations and those of Knight and Lewis depended on their difference of attitude toward Life-writing and, in part, on the degrees of energy that were employed. Knight and Lewis, as has been pointed out, were satisfied to offer an incomplete story, with all the narrative details verified to the best of their ability. With Oldys, the purpose of a Life was different; he wanted to tell the whole story of at least the more significant events in the life of Raleigh. To him, Life-writing meant completeness of detail, not a series of facts concerning a man, and an appendix of pertinent documents. Furthermore, his notion of completeness demanded that there be an attempt made to weave facts together into some kind of coherent narrative, even though some slight error might occur in the telling of the story. This conviction he expressed as follows: "Architects are seldom censured for small mistakes in their estimates, if the structure they proposed to erect be 24

Second edition, 1740; Oxford edition, 1829.

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but uniform and complete: besides, a palace finished at once is always cheaper, as well as more beautiful, t h a n when helped out by additional buildings made necessary f r o m the cramping of the first design." 25 The conviction that the record should be complete and not an ill arranged series of facts followed by an appendix of original documents, he exemplified in his Life of Raleigh. In his preface, he did not announce that he was only breaking the ground for subsequent biographers; this was to be a " palace finished at once." In fact, so thoroughly did he investigate and record the details of his subject t h a t Gibbon, a halfcentury later, after contemplating an a t t e m p t to write a Life of Raleigh, looked at the account of Oldys, and immediately gave up the design. " Nothing new, save the uncertain merit of style and sentiment, can be offered to the subject," he reported. It is true that some of the aspects of Raleigh's checkered life are noticeably underdeveloped, b u t there are no great gaps in the narrative. In Oldys' Life of Raleigh a story is coherently and completely told. T h e passages dealing with the last days of the famous Elizabethan are especially thorough, although in the account there is small revelation of the more intimate things in Raleigh's undulating history. In spite of the author's attempt to m a k e out of his Life a complete story, no effort was made to give vividness to the narrative by subjective treatment. So antagonistic was the author to " high-flown panegyrics and outrageous satires " 20 that his style remained impersonal. T h i s had its advantages, but it also deprived the account of true sympathetic interpretation of character. H a d Oldys been of greater literary personality, and of a more aggressive disposition in revealing the human features of his subject, his Life of Raleigh would remain an authoritative and engaging biography. As it is, it is sufficiently reliable and thorough, b u t its style is by no means exemplary for biographical effort. 25 Preface to Volume I of the Biograpkia Britannica, p. 15; London, 1747. The article is not followed by his initials, but it seems most likely that Oldys wrote it. 2fi Biograpkia Britannica, Preface to Vol. I, p. 12; London, 1747.

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The most significant contribution to the development of biographical methods among the scholars in the early half of the century was Conyers Middleton's Life of Cicero (1741). 2 7 Middleton ( 1 6 8 3 - 1 7 5 0 ) first came into prominence in the Bentley controversy, which raged at Cambridge in 1706, but even before this time he had been prominent in the circles of young scholars by reason of his interest in the ancients. He became a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1707, and during his long sojourn at the University, he started with those investigations, the results of which were later to be recorded in part of his Collected Works (1750). Owing to his marked scholarly interests and attainments, he was appointed principal Librarian at Cambridge in the year that the Library attained the most considerable addition to its resources since its beginning. Among this valuable collection of books, documents and manuscripts, Middleton found much to engage his interests, but it was chiefly in the Age of Cicero that he found the most absorbing matter for his investigations. In 1724 and 1725 he was in Rome, following his interests in Augustan life and letters. Some of his attention was given to contemporary ecclesiastical affairs, and many of his friends lamented the fact that he had not been made a bishop; but Middleton's refuge in the classics caused this disappointment to be easily forgotten. When, at his third marriage, Bishop Gooch told Mrs. Middleton facetiously that " he was glad she did not dislike the Antients so much as her husband did," she replied in the same vein that " she hoped his Lordship did not reckon Dr. Middleton among the Antients yet." 28 The Greek and Roman orators were his chief field for investigation, and of these, Cicero absorbed the greater part of his attention. His Life of Demosthenes was never finished. The Life of Cicero, published originally by subscription in 1741, went through three editions within the decade, and remained the authoritative work on Cicero until Forsyth's Life Fourth edition, 1750; American edition, Boston, 1818. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, V, 422. 27

28

London, 1812,

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appeared in 1863.

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Its completeness—there are three large

volumes—its objectivity, and the combination of scholarly and literary methods that the author employed gave the work a contemporary vogue that was greater than that of any work of its kind.

As a direct influence on the methods of subse-

quent eighteenth century biographers, the Life

of Cicero

de-

serves careful study, nor is its value only historical in English biography. Middleton's attitude toward Life-writing was definitely in advance of that of contemporary scholars.

In his Preface, he

defined his stand, and incidentally provided a valuable critical estimate of the art.

After a brief treatment of the value of

biography, the Preface continues: There is one great fault, which is commonly observed in the writers of particular lives; that they are apt to be partial and prejudiced in favour of their subject, and to give us panegyric instead of history. They work up their characters as painters do their portraits; taking the praise of their art to consist, not in copying, but in adorning nature; not in drawing a just resemblance, but in giving a fine picture; or exalting a man into a hero: And this indeed seems to flow from the nature of the thing itself, where the very inclination to write is generally grounded on a prepossession and an affection already contracted for the person, whose history we are attempting; and when we sit down to it with the disposition of a friend, it is natural for us to cast a shade over his failings; to give a strong colouring to his virtues; and out of good character, to endeavor to draw a perfect one. I am sensible that this is the common prejudice of Biographers, and have endeavored therefore to divest myself of it, as far as I was able; yet dare not take upon me to affirm, that I have kept myself wholly clear from it; but shall leave the decision of that point of judgment to the Reader; for I must be so ingenuous as to own, that, when I formed the plan of this work, I was previously possessed of a very favourable opinion of Cicero; which, after the strictest scrutiny, has been greatly confirmed and heightened in me; and in the case of a shining character such as Cicero's, I am persuaded, will appear to be, it is certainly more pardonable to exceed rather in our praises of it, out of zeal for illustrious merit, than to be reserved in doing justice to it, through a fear of being partial. But, that I might guard myself equally from both extremes, I have taken care always to leave

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the facts to speak for themselves, and to affirm nothing of any moment without an authentick testimony to support it; which yet, if consulted in the original at its full length, will commonly add more light and strength to what is advanced, than the fragments quoted in the margin, and the brevity of notes would admit.

Aware of the readiness with which the people with whom he dealt might run to mere types, the author determined at the outset on a plan by which this condition might be avoided: In drawing the characters of a number of persons, who all lived in the same city, at the same time, trained by the same discipline, and engaged in the same pursuits,—as there must be many similar strokes, and a general resemblance in them all, so the chief difficulty will be, to prevent them from running into too great an uniformity. This I have endeavoured to do, not by forming ideal pictures, or such as would please or surprise, but by attending to the particular facts which history has delivered of the men, and tracing them to the source, or of those correspondent affections from which they derived their birth; for these are the distinguishing features of the several persons, which, when duly represented and placed in their proper light, will not fail to present that precise difference in which the peculiarity of each character consists.

Cicero's own rules for the writing of history, Middleton found valuable. The fundamental laws laid down by the Roman were " that the writer should not dare to affirm what was false, or to suppress what was true; nor give any suspicion either of favour or disaffection: That in the relation of facts, he should observe the order of time, and sometimes add the description of places; should first explain the councils; then the acts; and lastly, the events of things:—That, in the councils, he should interpose his own judgment on the merit of them; in the acts, relate not only what was done, but how it was done; in the events, show what share chance, or rashness, or prudence had in them: That he should describe likewise the particular characters of all the great persons who bare any considerable part in the story; and should dress up the whole in a clear and equable style, without affecting any ornament, or seeking any other praise but of perspicuity."

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With such principles considered, and with his attitude toward his work clearly defined. Middleton was ready to proceed deliberately to fulfill his aim. His first work, he reported, was to read over all of Cicero's works, especially the Familiar Letters to Atticus. His original intention to extract those passages from the letters and documents pertaining to Cicero and by Cicero and employ them in notes and appendices he rejected as he proceeded with his investigations, for he was well aware of the lack of coherence into which this would lead his narrative. 29 As he proceeded with his reading of all the available documents by and concerning Cicero, the notion came to him, or was suggested by others, that instead of attempting to develop a clear narrative from the abstracts of the materials which he had investigated, he would translate the letters to the best of his ability and employ the translations not in an appendix, but in the body of his text. Of this device, he wrote in his Preface: In my use of these materials, I have chosen to insert as many of them as I could into the body of my work, imagining that it would give both a lustre and authority to a sentiment, to deliver it in the person and in the very words of Cicero; especially if they could be managed so as not to appear to be sewed on like splendid patches, but woven originally into the text, as genuine parts of it. With this view, I have taken occasion to introduce several of his Letters, with large extracts from such of his Orations as give any particular light into the facts, or customs, or characters described in the history, or which seemed on any other account to be curious or entertaining. The frequent introduction of many of these may be charged to laziness, and a design of shortening my pains by filling up my story with Cicero's words instead of my own: But that was not the case, nor has that part of the task been the easiest to me; as those will readily believe who have ever attempted to translate the classical writers of Greece and Rome, where the difficulty is not so much to give their sense, as to give it in their language; that is in such as is analagous to it, or what might be supposed to speak if they were living at this time, since a splendour of style, as well as of sentiments, is necessary to support the idea of a fine writer. 29 That he was familiar with the Lives of Samuel Knight and John Lewis is more than likely.

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This plan of weaving letters into the text " as a genuine part of it " was a definite advance in biographical methods. Izaak Walton had attempted it sparingly, but with small effect, while Knight and Lewis used as much documentary material as they could get together—but it was always placed away from the actual narrative. In every instance, the effect of the earlier authors to employ letters was that which Middleton described —the letters seemed " t o be sewed on like splendid patches." Middleton, if we are to take all of his observations in the preface literally, was the most painstaking, thorough-going investigator of first-hand and even second and third-hand materials that an increasingly scholarly age produced. Not only did he go into all the works of Cicero and of those Augustans who might have in their extant works some allusion to him, but he reported that he surveyed carefully all of the works of those which had a bearing on the age. " After I had gone through my review of Cicero's writings, my next recourse was to the other ancients, both Greeks and Romans, who had treated on the affairs of that age." Such sources of information, he observed, aided him in filling the gaps that existed in the record which he could construct from only Cicero's writings. In the accounts of Plutarch, Appian, and Dio, he found much that he courageously called inaccurate. Plutarch's work Middleton found superficial and imperfect, and " the sketch rather than the completion of a great design." In it, he reported that he found marks of haste and a general inadequacy of information. " He [Plutarch] huddles over Cicero's greatest acts in a summary and negligent manner, yet dwells on his dreams and jests, which for the greatest part, were probably spurious; and in the last scene of his life, which was of all the most glorious, when the whole councils of the empire, and the fate and liberty of Rome, rested on his shoulders, there he is more particularly trifling and empty. . . ." Concerning the accounts of Cicero by Appian and Dio, Middleton was even more decisive in his criticism. He reported that Appian copied most of his narrative from Plutarch, save

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for a few additional stories that were probably spurious; and that Dio's malevolence led him into a treatment of Cicero that was inaccurate and scandalous. As evidence of this, Middleton quoted those passages from Dio concerning Cicero's lowly birth and of his infamous relations with his own daughter. Later, in the text of his narrative, Middleton attempted to refute Dio's account by producing substantial evidence for the conclusions he sought to establish. Throughout the preface and the account proper, he supported his statements in such a way that the reader feels that the work depended on rather thorough investigation of all authoritative sources. After he had read and translated all the pertinent letters and works of Cicero, and had compared the information which he drew from them with the accounts of Plutarch, Appian and Dio, Middleton finished the first draught of his Life. Purposely he avoided looking into the narratives of modern writers for fear that there should develop in him some prejudice for or against the great Roman. T o form a distinct impression of the real facts as they appeared in the original records was a virtue which he recognized and decided to employ. " In writing history, as in travels, instead of transcribing the reactions of those who have trodden the same ground before us, we should exhibit a series of observations peculiar to ourselves." Such a sentiment cannot be overemphasized, especially in the field of biography, for impressions of the thing itself are of more intrinsic value than the echoes of others' reactions. Middleton, according to his announcement, kept all other records save those of the ancients away, with the result that his mind was prepared during the writing of the first draught to react only to the thing itself. When, after he had drawn up his rough copy, he looked into those accounts of Cicero which had been written by Renaissance and seventeenth century recorders, he was surprised to find the number so large. Those which he consulted, he reported were almost worthless, save for the records of Francisco Fabricio and Sebastiani Corradi. These, he admitted, were of some use to him, especially in his attempt to vindicate

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Cicero from the calumny of Dio. The others he found trifling panegyrics on Cicero's achievements, or imperfect abstracts of the principal events in his life. From his own detailed statement of the principles which guided him in preparing his work, and from the Life itself, we can readily conclude that Middleton was admirably equipped for the writing of the Life. The work was undoubtedly a great improvement over that of his contemporaries, both in fullness of material and in method and style. Not only were the important features of Cicero's public career listed in the proper sequence of time, but many of the details of his private life entered into the account as well. A note that borders on the panegyrical enters at intervals, and frequently the author assumes the role of advocate, but these discrepancies in the biographical manner are not conspicuous or sustained. Middleton was sufficiently objective in his treatment of character to keep his record comparatively free from any great inaccuracies that might have developed out of his sentiment of reverence or loyalty. In addition to the relatively exhaustive and scholarly quality of the work, the Life of Cicero was well written. Middleton had literary graces that most of the scholars of the age did not possess. The compiler of the Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century considered his prose style second only to Addison's. Such a judgment was not altogether extravagant. Middleton's style was lucid, direct, and often engagingly pictorial. In those passages in which he had a point to establish, he became spirited without being highly polemic. Historically, the work was of greater significance to biographical methods that any Life or collection of Lives in the early half of the century, and even to the modern reader it is thoroughly readable. Numerous criticisms, and some serious charges, however, have been brought against Middleton's Life of Cicero, most of which are just. Forsyth, in the preface to his Life of Cicero (1863), was unduly severe in his judgments:

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The faults of his [Middleton's] work are not inconsiderable. It is disfigured by a blind and indiscriminating tone of panegyric which is the language of flattery rather than truth. It is almost entirely occupied with Cicero as a politician and an orator, and does not sufficiently enter into the details of his private and domestic life, which, in my opinion, form the chief charm of biography. . . . Middleton's work is also overlaid and encumbered with too much of the history of the time, so that the character of individuality is often lost. It is in fact, as the title seems to imply, an historical composition in which Cicero is the principal figure, but it is not the portrait of the man himself, with details properly subordinated to accessories so as to form the background of the picture. Besides the style is heavy and tedious; and I think that DeQuincey is not far from the truth when he says, that, ' by weeding away from it all that is colloquial, you would strip of it all that is characteristic; and if you should remove its slang vulgarisms, you would remove its whole principle of vitality.'

The objection that the Victorian author made concerning the panegyrical style of Middleton's work cannot be completely granted. That the Life possessed ' the language of flattery rather than truth ' is hardly the case. It is true that Middleton placed the most charitable construction on the details of Cicero's life, but the account is not disfigured " by a blind and indiscriminating tone of panegyric," as a careful examination of the text will prove. The second objection that Forsyth raised can be readily granted; it is true that Middleton's account does not enter sufficiently into the private and domestic life of the orator, and that the delineation of Cicero's character is frequently submerged in the narrative of the history of the times. The criticism of DeQuincey concerning the style of the piece seems quite unjust. To be sure, the style was unmistakably that of the early eighteenth century, but the " slang vulgarisms " of which DeQuincey spoke are indeed rare; and Forsyth's adjectives " heavy and tedious " in describing Middleton's manner are hardly apt. The prose style of the nineteenth century and of our own is more sprightly, but for an

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eighteenth century narrative, the style of the Life of Cicero is peculiarly light and engaging. 30 T h e criticism of DeQuincey and Forsyth, however, is of small consequence when it is compared with the charge that W a r t o n and Samuel Parr brought against the author. D r . P a r r , whose integrity and sound scholarship cannot be questioned, proved beyond any doubt t h a t Middleton was a plagiarist. His report in the Preface to Bellendenus speaks for itself: Of the nature of these suspicions directed against the fame of Middleton, I had often and seriously reflected with myself, and disputed with others. I constantly found that they who hated Middleton the most, were least of all able to satisfy me. . . . Very few indeed had seen the work of Bellendenus; and not one, except Mr. Warton, had ever taken the pains to compare it with Middleton's performance. Having however myself collated the two compositions with fidelity and diligence, I am at length able to speak decisively on the subject. Middleton was a man of no common attainments: his learning was elegant and profound, his judgment acute and polished; he had a fine and correct taste; and his style was so pure and so harmonious, so vigorously flowing without being inflated, that Addison alone excepted, he seems to me without a rival. As to his mind, I am compelled with grief and reluctance to confess it was neither ingenuous nor faithful. . . . To conclude the whole—whatever Middleton ostentatiously declares it his wish and duty to do, had already been done to his hands, faithfully and skilfully, by Bellendenus. from the beginning of the work to its final conclusion.81 T h e evidence seems to be against Middleton. In the Preface to Bellendenus, P a r r fastened the crime of plagiarism on the author of the Life of Cicero by proof that is convincing. T h a t the whole Bellenden m a t t e r was the ingenious result of the envy and maliciousness t h a t T h u r m o n d , Warton, and Parr 30 Those passages which deal with Cicero's travels in Greece and Asia Minor, with his friendship with Atticus, and with his early orations at the bar, are especially representative of his grace of style. In fact, it is not difficult to pick at random passages that have little of " the heavy and tedious " and nothing that can be termed " slang vulgarisms." 31

William Beloe's translation of Parr's Preface to Bellendenus, London, 1788

15

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might have had in their natures is out of the question. It seems that William Bellenden (died c. 1633) had written two works on Cicero in Latin, Cicerottis Princeps; De Statu Principis et Imperii, and Ciceronis Consul, Senator, Senatusque Romanus; De Statu Reip. et Urbis Imperantis Or bis, which during the seventeenth century had become exceedingly rare. 32 These works of Bellenden, Middleton had discovered either among the new assortment of rare books that had come to Cambridge while he was Librarian, or while he was investigating materials concerning Cicero on the Continent. Realizing their rarity, Middleton possibly decided on a bold course. He would use them as fully as was necessary without mentioning his indebtedness to the earlier author. 33 When John Thurmond questioned the authenticity of some of the data in Middleton's Life, the scholars began to become suspicious of the whole performance. It was not until after his death that the complete evidence was brought against him, and since the time that Parr published the results of his investigations, criticism has been generally against him.34 Parr's observation, however, that Middleton's Life " from the beginning of the work to its final conclusion " had been borrowed from Bellenden can in no way be established when we must rely on only the few bits of evidence that Warton and Parr produced. 35 Much as Middleton took from the records of Bellenden, he still had a large task before him to translate and edit the letters and materials in the earlier account for his Life of Cicero. The fact that he had work to do in addition to his borrowing does not purge him from the stigma of plagiarism, but it does prove that he was interested sufficiently 32 There is an unverified record that all save a few of the copies were thrown into the sea. 33 In his preface he vaguely mentions some records dealing with the Age of Cicero which had helped him, but the name Bellenden does not appear in any of his acknowledgments. 34 Interestingly enough, Forsyth did not know of Middleton's deception, or it is possible that he chose to remain silent on the disagreeable matter. 35 Bellenden's work seems to be more rare than it was in Middleton's time. The abstracts that are extant are not enough to make a sufficiently sustained comparison between tjie earlier work and Middleton's.

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in Cicero and in biography to contribute a record that helped many to a clearer understanding of the life and character of the famous Roman. Whoever was responsible for the work in the Life—and in spite of the few wisps of available evidence against him, I continue to support Middleton 36—some one deserves credit for a thorough and well-written piece of work. Even before Conyers Middleton's Life of Cicero was published, David Mallet [Malloch] (1705?-1765) 37 produced a Life of Francis Bacon (1740). Mallet was not the painstaking investigator that Oldys was, nor were his pursuits so scholarly as those of Middleton; in fact, the Life of Bacon was the only work that indicates that he was actively interested in scholarly pursuits. At the University of Edinburgh, he was indolent as a student, and left after a brief sojourn without taking a degree. Later he received a Master's degree from Edinburgh at his own request. After he had dabbled in literature for an interval in London, he went up to Oxford, there to remain as a fairly faithful student until he had obtained both a Bachelor's and Master's degree (1734). Back in London, he devoted his effort to the writing of poetry and plays, in which there was no outstanding merit. Johnson's judgment of his talent was just; 38 and Cooke, who reviewed a collection of his verses for the Gentlemen's Magazine in 1791,39 announced with no compromise that " h e was a whiffler in poetry." Additional evidence of his indifferent manner of fulfilling his obligations to his chosen profession can readily be produced. The Duchess of Marlborough offered Glover and Mallet 1,000 pounds to write a Life of her illustrious husband. Glover refused; but Mallet, after receiving the fee, proceeded merely to act as if he were busily engaged in erecting a fine monument to the memory of the Duke. Not a line was written, although according to Davies,40 36 A thorough survey of early seventeenth century Life-writing in England and on the Continent has helped to support me in the conviction that no man w h o died in 1633 wrote Middleton's Life of Cicero. 37 See Johnson's sketch in The Lives of the Poets. 38 Cf. Lives of the Poets. 39 X I , 1181. 40 Life of Garrick, II, 55.

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he professed to be " eternally fatigued with preparing and arranging materials." The commission of writing a Life of Marlborough was offered him by reason of his apparent interest in the field of biography with the Life of Bacon. In the account of the great Lord Chancellor, Mallet had done a valuable piece of work. The meagre and scattered narratives of Bacon's life were not adequate to fill the demands of an age that was increasingly curious concerning the great men of the past. During his sojourn at Oxford in the early 30's, Mallet recognized the need for a trustworthy and exhaustive Life of Bacon. From 1734 until 1740, he worked slowly, although not assiduously, on the Life, investigating with considerable patience the sources of information that were available, and arranging his findings into a coherent narrative. When the Life appeared, he described his convictions concerning the duties of a biographer in his dedicatory epistle. " The first and most valuable quality of an Historian," he announced, " is a scrupulous attachment to truth. Without this, all other qualities deserve little consideration; or rather are highly blameable: they serve only to mislead the reader, whom they pretend to inform and direct. . . . I have endeavoured, in the following sheets, to guide myself by this principle. . . ." " The antient Egyptians," he continued at the beginning of the Life proper, " had a law, which ordained that the actions and characters of their Dead should be solemnly canvassed before certain Judges; in order to regulate what was due their memory. No quality, however exalted, no abilities, however eminent, could exempt the possessors from this last and impartial trial. To ingenuous minds this was a powerful incentive, in the pursuit of virtue: and a strong restraint on the most abandoned, in their career of vice. Whoever undertakes to write the life of any person, deserving to be remembered by posterity, ought to look upon this law as prescribed to him. He is fairly to record the faults as well as the good qualities, the failings as well as the perfections, of the Dead; with this great View, to warn and improve the Liv-

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ing. For this reason, tho' I shall dwell with pleasure on the shining part of my Lord Bacon's character, as a writer, I shall not dare either to conceal or palliate his blemishes, as a man. It equally concerns the public to be made acquainted with both." 41 It was with a seventeenth century account in mind—Rawley's Life of Bacon—that the author expressed his conviction concerning the difference between panegyric and biography. Mallet's account is a definite improvement on Rawley's Life, not only in that it reveals a more purely biographical motive at work, but also in that it reveals a faithful effort on the part of the author to bring together in a coherent way facts that his investigations had verified. His researches were fairly thorough. In preparing his account, he consulted not only the earlier narrative of Rawley and the notices in the biographical dictionaries, but he read also Bacon's Letters, Tennison's Baconiana, the Cabala, and all of those passages pertinent to his subject in the memoirs and collections of Melvil, Wilson, Stephens, Rushworth, Sir Anthony Welding, Osborne, Hacket, and others. The papers of the State Trials he scanned with evident care for his survey of the evidence in Bacon's deposition. All of these sources were of course obvious places in which to look for information, but it is significant to notice that the author, who had no great urge toward antiquarianism, proceeded in a manner that the age was only beginning to demand. The authority of the text, Mallet consistently supported by marginal notes in which the sources from which he had drawn his information were mentioned and their value estimated. Few important details in the narrative of events in the life of Bacon were allowed to stand without specific and substantial support. At the end of the work, the author made a praiseworthy effort to enumerate all of Bacon's works in a chronological catalogue. Undoubtedly such tactics indicated a step forward in the province of scholarly biography. To the age for which the Life was written, the account served a definite purpose, although there were few words of 41

Ed. 1740, pp. 1, 2.

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praise bestowed upon it. Boswell, while discussing Johnson's forsaken intention of writing a Life of Bacon, reported that " Mallet's Life has not inconsiderable merit as an acute and elegant dissertation relative to its subject; but Mallet's mind was not comprehensive enough to embrace the vast extent of Lord Verulam's genius and research." 42 Warburton observed that " Mallet in his Life of Bacon had forgotten that he was a philosopher." 43 This judgment was frequently quoted during the age 44 with small justice to Mallet, for he, in connection with his treatment of the philosophical writings of Bacon, stated specifically that " this account will be only a rude and imperfect sketch; consisting of a few detached particulars, without much order or method." 45 With later generations, Mallet's work has justly been relegated to an obscure corner in the libraries. It is not sufficiently exhaustive to satisfy the earnest student of Bacon's life, and the objective manner of the author did not allow a sympathetic interpretation of personality to ensue. In justice to Mallet, however, it must be observed that he, by pointing out sources of information, and by collecting scattered facts, made the work of later biographers of Bacon much easier. The tendency of the advancing century to investigate the archives of the past and to compile volumes of facts concerning the lives of those who had contributed to the early glory of England became so pronounced during the 50's and 60's that few of the Lives written in earlier periods were allowed to stand as authoritative narratives. Ashton observed that " the Learning of this Age, seems to be no more than comments on the Last." 46 The reviewers reported that a race of biographers had sprung up who were little more than " industrious drudges " and who afflicted their readers with vast piles of facts about men and events far removed from their own time.47 42 43 44 45 46

Life of Johnson, ed. Philadelphia, 1860, p. 3S0. Ibid. See Mason's Preface to the Memoirs oj Gray, 1775. Ed. 1740, p. 131. Correspondence of Gray, Waipole, West, Ashton, ed. Toynbee, Vol. I, p.

127. 47

Cf. Monthly

Review,

X X , 445.

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A glance at the publication notices that appeared in the contemporary periodicals offers sufficient proof that scholarship was playing an important role in biography in the middle of the century. Most of the Lives that these painstaking investigators and compilers produced have been supplanted by accounts which have been written in the light of more recent scholarship, but the efforts of those men who were patient in the search and who tried to be trustworthy above all else saved many a choice biographical fact from oblivion, and laid a substantial foundation for subsequent records. Indolence in investigating sources of information, and carelessness in transcribing the slightest detail, became the exception rather than the rule. No effort was spared among most of this group to support the authority of their texts with substantial evidence. Conjectural points were named as such, and then became the matter for exhaustive discussion pro and con. As a result of their attempt to support their statements in a thorough way, they frequently lost sight of the major objective of the true biographer. Few of them wrote anything that approached literature. " There are requisites which learning cannot give," observed the reviewer, " or industry acquire." 48 Among these Lives, Warner's Life of Sir Thomas More (1758) and Jortin's Life of Erasmus (1758) are representative of the efforts of the mid-century scholars to augment the information contained in earlier accounts, and to disprove the statements of those authors who had not been so patient and so successful in their investigations. Both of these accounts were fairly thorough pieces of work. They were at best, however, little more than a chronological record of facts in which no attempt at penetrating character delineation was made. The authors were that which the reviewer called the school— industrious drudges. Jortin was " too sparing of his comment, for want of which the narrative is, in many places, dry and tedious." 49 The modern reader is prone to reiterate this judgment with increased vigor. 48

Ibid. «» Monthly Review, XIX, 64.

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Walter H a r t e ' s Life of Gustavus Adolphus (1759) was another painstaking performance. T h a t the author was industrious in his search for facts is easily determined by poring through the two generous volumes of the Life. In his Preface, he informed the reader that " every day of the King's Life, after he entered Germany, cost me more than a treble day in recording its performances; for Gustavus Adolphus conquered the empire in thrice less time than I composed the History of his conquests." 50 T h e work has more than its trustworthiness to recommend it. T h e early part of the account is stiff and long-winded, but after the narrative is well under way there are passages that possess dramatic force and literary grace. Derrick's Life of Dry den (1760) can hardly be termed a contribution to either biography or scholarship. " Poor Derrick," as Johnson called him, was handicapped in his effort to gather materials for a life of the poet. H e was not a Malone, nor was he a Johnson. T h e result of his efforts was a work that added few facts to Dryden biography and that offered no penetrating criticism of his works. Bicknell's Life of Alfred the Great (1777) was even a thinner performance. Only a most patient investigator could hope to succeed here, and the author had neither the equipment nor the patience for his task. Owen Ruffhead's Life of Pope (1769) was a mediocre effort to gather together the few first-hand materials that had not been seized by earlier writers, and to expand the comments of those who had written brief Lives of the poet immediately after his death. Johnson's observation that " Ruffhead knew nothing of Pope and nothing of poetry " 51 must not be taken too literally. There is much of value about Pope in the account, although as a thorough and painstaking effort it cannot be named. With the advance of scholarly methods in Life-writing, there grew u p a school of biographers whose chief aim in writing a Life was to find fault with the earlier accounts which had appeared. Rival publishing houses, in their attempts to make a 50 61

Ed. 1759. Bos well's Life oj Johnson, ed. 1860, p. 190.

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new edition of a poet's works attractive, literally hired authors of talent to write a Life of the poet which would be more thorough and engaging than those already in print. Entering into the spirit of rivalry with their employers, these authors per mitted a true biographical aim to become secondary; their primary aim was to show wherein an earlier author's work was inadequate. As a result, their efforts became controversial rather than biographical. It is only fair to the subject of a Life for the biographer to point out errors in an account that has been readily accepted, but when criticism of an earlier author's work becomes the chief objective of a Life, biography suffers. Boswell found fault with Hawkins and Mrs. Piozzi, but his Life of Johnson was far more than an attempt to reveal the inaccuracies in the accounts by his rivals. There were instances, however, in the late years of the century in which a militant critical attitude on the part of the biographer toward earlier accounts caused the Life to become little more than a vehicle for controversy. William Hayley's Life of Milton is an example. William Hayley (1745-1820) was one of the most versatile and talented dilettantes that the century produced. 52 He was a poet, a dramatist, a translator, a critic, a scribbler of newspaper verse, and a biographer. In addition to his Life of Milton, he wrote a Life of Cowper (1803) and a Life of Romney (1809). He was interested in painting, in music, and in travel; but his chief efforts were directed into the field of literature. Southey wrote that " everything about the man was good except his poetry." 63 His training at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and later at the Middle Temple in London, combined with his active interest in things artistic, made him a man of considerable erudition. In 1792, when he was well known in London for his talent in verse and for his critical acumen, he was approached by representatives of the publishing house of Boydell and Nicols with the proposal to write a Life of Milton for their new edi52 53

His life is fairly well revealed in his Memoirs, edited by J. Johnson in 1823. Quarterly Review, X X X I , 263.

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tion of the poet's works. The inducements that the publishers offered were sufficiently attractive, so Hayley accepted the commission and began to work at once. He was well started when he learned that William Cowper, a man for whom he had long expressed admiration, was engaged by a rival publishing house to produce a Life of Milton. He promptly wrote a long letter to Cowper, and addressed a sonnet to him, in which he expressed his willingness to retire from the field in favor of his rival.54 This was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until Cowper died. Cowper, after determining what his correspondent's attitude toward Milton was, retired; and as Hayley proceeded with his Life, he gave him encouragement and help. In 1794 the Life appeared, prefixed to the Boydell and Nicols edition of Milton's works. Two years later, a separate and enlarged edition was issued by the same publishers; and in 1799, a third edition was issued in Basel. That Hayley was a thorough Milton scholar is doubtful. His account does not convince the modern reader, at least, that he was patient in his search for new facts, or for anything that would shed new light on the poet's life. He knew the accounts of Phillips, of Toland, and of Fenton; Richardson's Explanatory Notes were familiar to him, and all of the accounts in the dictionaries were at his disposal. But the one work with which he was especially familiar was Samuel Johnson's " Life of Milton " in the Lives of the Poets. Furthermore, he had read all of the pamphlets that Johnson's unsympathetic account had provoked.55 From these, he was able to gather much information concerning those passages in which Johnson had erred in both fact and judgment. The critics had shown so thoroughly wherein Johnson was wrong that it was not necessary for Hayley to delve deep into primary sources in order to make out a case against Johnson. Hayley loved Milton, and it is not unlikely that he was one of those who was justly incensed when Johnson's account appeared; but at the time of the appearance of the account, there 54 65

Cf. Southey's Lije oj Cowper, ed. 1839, p. 189. See p. 385 infra.

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was no effort on his part to refute Johnson's judgment. However, when he was confronted by the task of writing a Life of the poet, his veneration for Milton was not the chief force out of which the account grew; to refute many of the passages in Johnson's Life became the controlling purpose. In the dedicatory epistle, he struck the note which resounds at frequent intervals throughout the Life. " I have endeavoured to preserve in my own mind," he wrote, " and to express on every proper occasion, my unshaken regard for the rare faculties and virtues of a late extraordinary biographer, whom it has been my lot to encounter continually as a bitter, and sometimes, I think, an insidious enemy to the great poet, whose memory I have fervently wished to rescue from indignity and detraction. The asperity of Johnson towards Milton has often struck the fond admirers of the poet in various points of view; in one moment it excites laughter, in another indignation. . . . I have presumed to say, that Johnson sometimes appears as an insidious enemy to the poet. Is there not some degree of insidious hostility in his introducing into his dictionary, under the article Sonnet, the very sonnet of Milton, which an enemy would certainly chuse, who wished to represent Milton as a writer of verses entitled to scorn and derision. . . " The great aim of the subsequent account is to render full and perfect justice to the general character of Milton," he announced in an early passage of the Life proper. In order to do this, he devoted at least a third of the space in the narrative to a refutation of Johnson. The frequency of his return to the earlier author's observations causes the reader to feel that the Life is a criticism of Johnson's account rather than a biography of Milton.57 His manner of proving Johnson wrong was generally mild. His usual way of observing and correcting the earlier author's errors is illustrated in the following passage: Dedication, ed. 1799, p. vii et seq. " S e e pp. 16, 17, 18, 20, 47, 52 , 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 72, 87, 102, 119, 146, 147, 148, 149, 16? 174, 175, 242, 248, 251, 256, etc., etc. 86

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An idle story has been circulated concerning his [Milton's] treatment in College. ' I am ashamed,' says Dr. Johnson, 1 to relate what I fear is true, that Milton was the last student in either University that suffered the public indignity of corporal punishment.' In confirmation of this incident, which appears improbable, though supported by M r . Warton, the biographical critic alledges the following passage from the first Elegy: Nor zeal nor duty now my steps impel T o reedy Cam and my forbidden cell; 'Tis time that I a pedant's threats disdain, And fly from wrongs my soul will ne'er sustain. 5 8 Dr. Johnson considers these expressions as an absolute proof, that Milton was obliged to undergo this indignity; but they may suggest a very different idea. From all the light that we can obtain concerning this anecdote, it seems most probable, that Milton was threatened, indeed, with what he considered as a punishment, not only dishonourable but unmerited; that his manly spirit disdained to submit to it; and that he was therefore obliged to acquiesce in a short exile from Cambridge. 6 0

T o contribute to Milton biography, save by refuting Johnson, Hayley was ill equipped. In his dedicatory epistle, he informed the reader that it was his lot " to live in a little sequestered village . . . away from a city amply furnished with books. Had it suited me to devote much time and labor to extensive researches in the public and private libraries of London, it is possible that I might have discovered some latent anecdotes relating to Milton; yet after the patient inquiries of the patient and indefatigable Dr. Birch, and after the final discovery of your more successful brother, 00 little novelty could be expected to reward the toil of such investigation, and perhaps a writer too eager to make new discoveries on this beaten ground, might be hurried by such eagerness into the censurable temerity or Peck the antiquarian, who in his memoirs of the 58

A translation from the original Latin verse which appears as well in the

text. 59

E d . 1799, p. 20.

60

Thomas W a r t o n is meant here.

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poet, has affixed the name of Milton to a portrait and a poem that do not belong to him." Hayley realized that his manner of writing biography was liable to censure. " I lament that the necessity of investigating many misrepresentations, and correcting much asperity against him, has frequently obliged me to speak rather in the tone of an advocate, than of a common biographer," he wrote in a closing passage. On this score, the author had little to fear from contemporary critics. There were indeed few who held the conviction that Johnson's Life should be allowed to stand as a satisfactory interpretation of the poet's character. The author of the article which appeared in the Monthly Review for February, 1795,61 stated that Hayley's censure of Johnson's Life was intemperate, but that " he who violates candour in his treatment of others, has little right to expect that the rules of candour will always be scrupulously observed toward himself." The critic was evidently on Hayley's side. Other contemporary judgments of the work were chiefly favorable. When the separate and enlarged edition of the Life appeared in 1796, the reviewer called the work " an elegant and interesting piece of biography." 62 Cowper, the retired rival, who had exclaimed when Johnson's Life of Milton appeared, " I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pocket," now sat back, evidently satisfied that the poet's name was rescued from all malevolence. It* we are to judge by contemporary criticisms of the Life, we may conclude that Hayley's work was named the winner in the rivalry of eighteenth century Milton biographies. Its reputation, however, has not survived the passing of years. The nineteenth century produced so many excellent accounts of John Milton that Hayley's work, at present, is known only by those who have followed the undulating line of Milton biography. It served a definite purpose in its age by rescuing Milton from the unsympathetic pen of Johnson, but its value ended there. It cannot be called a source-book, 61 62

Vol. XVI, p. 121. Vol. XIX, p. 252.

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for it revealed little that was new; nor can it be called good biography. The biographer who would have his work assume permanent value must not devote his attention primarily to a criticism of an earlier Life. A far more scholarly and biographical attitude was taken by Malone in his Life of Dryden (1800). The eighteenth century produced no greater scholar than Edmund Malone (1741-18 1 2). 63 The fact that he came from a family of lawyers, and that he himself was called to the bar, accounts in part for his instinct in establishing evidence in his critical and biographical works. He was well trained in the rudiments of investigation not only at Trinity College, Dublin, but also while he was a student at the Inner Temple in London during the early 60's. As a lawyer in Ireland, he met with only fair success; as early as 1770, he had already developed an inquisitiveness about the facts in men's lives and works that his role in the legal profession could not satisfy. When in 1776 he began his edition of Goldsmith's Works, 64 he undoubtedly had much satisfaction in seeking out data and verifying reports. It was not until the late 70's that he began his permanent residence in London. Here he found things to his liking. The literary club of which Johnson and Reynolds were members welcomed him into their midst, for they saw in him one whose judgments were deliberate and whose personality was not without charm. Boswell found him an amiable man and an energetic worker. In 1779, Malone had published the first fruits of that which was to become a bountiful harvest in his brief work entitled An Attempt to Ascertain the Order in which the Plays of Shakespeare Were Written. The following year, a considerable supplement to Johnson's edition of Shakespeare came as the result of additional investigations in the province of Shakespearean texts. Ten years later, the eleven volume edition of Shakespeare's works, with copious notes, appeared. It was a huge piece of work that was creditably finished by reason of the editor's systematic methods and untiring energy. 63 61

See Prior's Life of Malone, L o n d o n , 1860. Published in L o n d o n , 1780.

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No finer performance in editing was produced in the century. Burke and Walpole, who were sparing in their commendation of others' efforts, praised the work. Walpole called Malone's researches " indefatigable." " Mercy on the poor gentleman's patience," he exclaimed. " Amongst his other indefatigable researches, he has discovered some lists of effects in the custody of the property man to the Lord Admiral's company of players, in 1598. Of these effects, he has given eight pages. . . ." 65 Later Ritson alleged only thirteen errors, and in five of these, he was mistaken.60 Of the 100,000 lines of text he collated, he made 1,654 emendations. Nor was the editing of Shakespeare's works the total of his big achievements. Without the assistance of Malone, Boswell, in getting the Life of Johnson ready for the press, would have had much difficulty.67 " I cannot sufficiently acknowledge my obligations to my friend Mr. Malone," wrote Boswell in the advertisement to the first edition of the Life (1791), " who was so good as to allow me to read to him almost the whole of my manuscript, and make such remarks as were greatly for the advantage of the work. . . ." 68 For the third edition of the Life, Malone distributed in their proper places all the details that Boswell had planned to insert in later editions. In addition to this edition, Malone edited the fourth (1804), the fifth (1807), and the sixth (1811), with that care that had always demonstrated itself in his editing. While he was assisting Boswell with the revision of the Life, he found time to edit the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and have them published with a Memoir in 1797; he helped Bishop Percy with some of his investigations; and he began the huge work of editing Dryden's prose works and of gathering together materials for that which became a 549-page Life of the author. The Life of Dryden may be considered representative of Malone's scholarly methods in Life-writing. 86

Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, 1857, I X , p. 326. Cf. Sidney Lee in D. N. B. sub Malone. 67 The valuable documents in the Malahide collection which have recently been published indicate how fully Boswell was dependent on Malone. 68 Advertisement of the Life, ed. I860, p. 4. 66

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As early as 1791, Malone began to work on his edition of Dryden's prose and a Life of the author. The century was closing before he was ready to present the results of his investigations to the press. During the entire century, the conviction had existed that many of the details of Dryden's life were lost to posterity. Derrick's Life of Dryden (1760) was a meagre, apologetic performance; and Johnson's account in the Lives of the Poets began by admitting that " nothing therefore can be known beyond what casual mention and uncertain tradition have supplied." The few wisps of information in " Charles Wilson's " Memoirs, supposedly supplied by Elizabeth Thomas to Congreve, were a Life in neither purpose nor result. But Malone, by employing the tactics of a deliberate and systematic scholar, produced a multitude of facts about Dryden's life that proved beyond any doubt to the age and posterity that a proper investigation often supplies materials other than those of " casual mention and uncertain tradition." In his advertisement to the first edition of the Life, he explained in part his method of procedure. " On reviewing the received accounts of his Life," he wrote, " I found so much inaccuracy and uncertainty, that I soon resolved to take nothing upon trust, but to consider the subject as wholly new; and I have abundant reason to be satisfied with my determination on this head; for by inquiries and researches in every quarter where information was likely to be obtained, I have procured more materials than my most sanguine expectations had promised; which, if they do not exhibit so many particulars concerning this great poet as could be desired, have yet furnished us with some curious and interesting notices, and cleared away much confusion and errour; and enabled me to ascertain several circumstances of his life and fortunes, which were either unknown, or for almost a century the subject of uncertain speculation and conjecture." In the opening passages of the Life proper, he amplified his reasons for undertaking a biography of Dryden. " So few are the notices which have been transmitted to us concerning the great poet whose prose works are here collected, that Dr.

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Johnson, who at an early period had meditated writing his Life, soon abandoned the project, in despair of finding materials sufficient for his purpose. 69 . . . Unfortunately, all the accounts of Dryden and his works were one continued tissue of inaccuracy, errour and falsehood. Very little had been handed down, and of that little, the greater part was untrue. With the aid, therefore, of original and authentick documents, to rectify these misstatements, to illustrate the history of our author's life and writings by such intelligence as I have been able to procure, and to dispel the mist of confusion and errour in which it has been involved, shall be the principal object of the following pages." The account is scarcely under way before the reader is aware of the author's intensive manner. The first paragraph is illustrative. J O H N DRYDEN, the eldest son of Erasmus Driden, and Mary, daughter of the Rev. Henry Pickering, is supposed, on no satisfactory evidence, to have been born on the 9th of August, 1631. He has himself told us, that he was born in a village belonging to the Earl of Exeter; and according to Anthony Wood, that village was Aldwinckle, in Northamptonshire, which was also the birth-place of Thomas Fuller, the Historian. I have in vain endeavoured to ascertain the precise time of his baptism; the registers of both churches (for there are two parishes, one denominated Aldwinckle All-Saints, and the other Aldwinckle St. Peter's) having been carefully examined for this purpose. The latter, with which we have less concern, is perfect, but contains no baptism of any of the Driden family; and the ancient register of the parish of All-Saints is unfortunately either lost or mislaid; the earliest now extant commencing in the year 1650. The constant tradition, however, has been, that John Dryden was born in the parsonage house of Aldwinckle All-Saints; a tradition which probably arose from his mother's father having been some time Rector of that parish: but the history of his preferment does not exactly suit with this account; for Mr. Pickering was not possessed of the benefice till sixteen years after Dryden's birth. He might, however, have been Curate of the Aldwinckle All-Saints, at that period, and perhaps then rented the parsonage from the Rector. Were it not inconsistent with the notices which the poet himself has 69

See p. 375 infra for the immediate continuation of this quotation. 16

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left us, I should much rather have supposed him to have been born at Tichmarch, where Sir Gilbert Pickering had an ancient seat, and where Erasmus Driden resided in consequence of his connexion with a branch of that house.

Seven footnotes, most of which run to over a hundred words, support the authority of the text, weigh evidence, and discuss points of conjecture in the first paragraph. The note to which the reader is sent concerning the spelling of the poet's name is an example of Malone's thoroughness with details. Our author's grandfather, Sir Erasmus, and his father wrote— Driden, and so the poet's name is spelt in the Register of Trinity College, Cambridge, and in the University Register. H e was, I believe, the first who altered the spelling of the name to Dryden, which is found thus annexed to some of his earliest verses, printed 1650. His cousin-german, John Driden, of Chesterton, always adhered to the old spelling of the family name, as did his elder brother Sir Robert, the third Baronet; who was offended at our author's departure from the ancient mode. During the present century, the different branches of this family have followed the poet's orthography.—In some books of the last age the name is sometimes inaccurately written Dreyden, and sometimes Dreydon

In the five hundred and forty-nine pages of the Life proper there are at least a thousand footnotes, most of which are of the same hue as the one that has been quoted. Their presence and content convince any reader that Malone was tireless in authenticating his statements. Despite the fact that Malone, by reason of his industry, was able to provide a more thorough and accurate record than the earlier biographers of the poet, he was never caustic in his judgment of their errors—save those of " Corinna." He pointed out the errors in Derrick and Johnson with no air of superiority, but for " Corinna " Thomas he had no sympathy. Thirty-five pages, profusely supplied with footnotes, he employed in order to prove convincingly that " Corinna's " account of John Dryden's funeral 7 1 was " manifestly found on 70 71

Ed. 1800, p. 3, Note 3. Ante, p. 149.

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a passage in one of Farquhar's letters [Farquhar's letter is quoted in a note], and a ludicrous poem, entitled ' A Description of Mr. Dryden's Funeral,' which was probably written by his old antagonist, Tom Brown, and published in June, 1700." 72 After the events in the poet's life had been treated in such a way that there could be no doubt in the reader's mind concerning the thoroughness of the biographer's investigation, Malone drew his narrative to a close by observing: " Such is the amount of information which I have been able to obtain concerning this great writer. . . . From the various inquiries and researches that have been made for this work, I trust it will be easily perceived, that if the notices which have been procured of his private life and domestick manners have fallen short of the wishes of his admirers, the defect cannot justly be ascribed to a want of zeal or diligence in his biographer. To make Dryden better known to his countrymen than he has hitherto been; to delineate the man rather than the poet, by collecting from every quarter, and from sources hitherto unexplored, whatever might contribute to throw new light on his character, and illustrate the history of his works, has been the principal object of the preceding pages." 73 The age in which the work appeared was not altogether ready to recognize the complete virtue of Malone's intensive methods. Hair-splitters have always been unpopular among the mentally indolent; and even among the thoughtful, the exhaustive balancing of evidence that supports such petty details as the middle name of a poet's great-aunt becomes exasperating and, at times, amusing. In scholarship, however, exhaustiveness in treating evidence for supporting details has definite uses. The end almost always justifies intensiveness. In biography, the balancing of evidence must never become so exhaustive that it obscures the man whose life is delineated. There were some readers of Malone's Dry72 All the versions of this piece of doggerel Malone enumerated, and quoted from one at length. P. 363, et seq. 73 P. 548.

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den w h o f o u n d his m e t h o d s t o o i n t e n s i v e , and w h o r e g a r d e d h i m as a curious m a c h i n e that d e v o t e d its time to f e r r e t i n g out inconsequential i n f o r m a t i o n . A m o n g this g r o u p w a s G e o r g e H a r d i n g e , a K i n g ' s Counsel, and one of the W e l s h j u d g e s . t h e Life

Soon a f t e r the first edition of

a p p e a r e d , H a r d i n g e p r o d u c e d a one hun-

of Dryden

d r e d and fifty p a g e p a m p h l e t , e n t i t l e d , The or, the " Beauties his immortal lished; count

Work,

and (with of

the

" of that fascinating

Life

in 569

Pages,

his accustomed and

Writings

Essence

Writer,

of

Malone,

extracted

and a quarter'*

just

felicity)

entitled

"Some

of John

Dryden

! ! "

w o r k is u n d o u b t e d l y g o o d burlesque.

from pubAcThis

H a r d i n g e listed a series

of canons w h i c h , he stated f a c e t i o u s l y , w e r e to be e m p l o y e d b y all w h o w o u l d attain the " beauties " of M a l o n e .

Canon

three, f o r instance, stated that " a b i o g r a p h e r cannot be t o o minute in w h a t relates to his h e r o . " lone's a p p l i c a t i o n of

I n o r d e r to satirize M a -

the canon, H a r d i n g e w r o t e a t r a v e s t y ,

w h i c h reads in p a r t as f o l l o w s : Dryden was born at Aldwinckle, in the county of Northampton. Fuller, the historian, was born at the same place. W h o would think Aldwinckle a generic name, with branches and varieties that are full of intricacy! yet we shall find that ' dignum vindice nodum,' before we are much older. Tradition says, that he was born at the parsonage House of Aldwinckle* All-Saints. H e ( D r y d e n himself) has told us, that he was born in a village belonging to the Earl of Exeter. That village must have been Aldwinckle, St. Peter's. But Dryden might not have known i t ! ! ! i.e. might have thought it was the estate of Lord Exeter, when it was not! Y e t Aldwinckle-All-Saints, has tradition for it (besides the author's assertion, which, if he had not been a poet, would have had its weight). This tradition, however, may have arisen from the fact, that Pickering, his maternal grandfather, was Rector of that parish;— 74

Hardinge included the Appendix.

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but he did not obtain his preferment till 16 years after Dryden's birth! He might, however, have been curate of Aldwinckle-All-Saints, and perhaps rented the Parsonage house from the Rector! What luminous doubts are these! and how they jump over sticks backwards and forwards! No certainty can equal the effect of such perhapses, mays, and mights! But let us resume the village! It is a village—if indeed it should not be called villages—upper and lower. It is on the western bank of the Nen. It has two hundred families! It comprehends a part of the two villages of Aldwinckle St. Peter's and Aldwinckle All Saints. Mark the delightful intricacy of these branches from the generic tree! Aldwinckle—the genus. 1st. Species—upper and lower Aldwinckle. 2nd. Aldwinckle All-Saints—Aldwinckle St. Peter's. 1st. Subdivision of the first and second branch. The parts of All-Saints and St. Peter's, lying in upper aiid lower Aldwinckle. Subdivision 2nd. Parts of A. All Saints, and A. St. Peter's, not in upper nor in lower Aldwinckle. It is about a mile and a half distant from Tichmarsh. But near five miles from Oundle!!! Who would now conceive that Malone doubted of Dryden's birth in some one of these Aldwinckles? 75 The critic who wrote the article for the Monthly Review for February, 1801, was in sympathy with the conviction of Hardinge that Malone had made too much of trifles, but in his judgment of the satire, he was able to detect many instances of undue acrimony. " Though the manner of the censure is playful and light, something of a more serious nature seems to lurk beneath the surface." This judgment becomes more convincing when we learn that in 1801, Hardinge wrote a second pamphlet entitled Another Essence of Malone, in 75

Taken from the Monthly

Review,

X X X I V , 143.

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which the " playful " quality of the earlier travesty is not pronounced. The same reviewer in an article concerning Malone's Dryden found little to commend in the performance. " We may now proceed to give some account of the biography prefixed to the work," he began. " We can readily grant that Mr. Malone has succeeded, in proportion to the labour he has bestowed, in ascertaining dates, in settling the orthography of the name of Dryden, and in other particulars: but we must doubt whether the object was of sufficient importance to justify the length of his inquiry; and we are certain that the perusal of his investigations has been extremely uninteresting and tiresome. Too many pages also, in several instances, are employed in deciding the year of the publication of works which their want of merit has long caused to be forgotten. We cannot but regret an excessive accumulation ' of all such reading as is never read.' We sat down to this piece of biography with expectation, and we rose from the perusal of it with weariness. It is impossible that much anxiety can exist respecting the period at which the Driden family assumed the name of Dryden, or when Sir Charles Sidley was called Sedley; and it is equally impossible to feel any interest in the dull, monotonous accounts given of our poet's ancestors, both paternal and maternal. We are indeed indebted to them for having produced such a man as Dryden: but our gratitude is too heavily taxed when we are compelled to give attention to so many pages, which are totally unworthy of it." 76 Later judgments of Malone's Dryden have been more favorable. Walter Scott, in his Life of the poet, announced in an early passage that " it would be hard to produce facts which had escaped the accuracy of Malone, whose industry has removed the clouds which so long hung over the events in Dryden's life." Certainly to Malone's industry no word of commendation is sufficiently high. But he was an antiquary rather than a critic—a scholar rather than a biographer. Standing as he did in an age in which scholarship was only ™ xxxrv, 135.

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235

beginning to demonstrate its uses in biography, Malone illustrated methods for obtaining facts that had a direct bearing on subsequent Life-writing. Since 1800, biography has recognized scholarship as its most valuable ally. It is true that there is little literature in Malone's Dryden, but it is also true that the literary biographers of Dryden, among whom Scott is outstanding, were dependent on Malone's investigations. It is to such men as Malone that those who enjoy success by popularizing biography should pay tribute, for scholarship is the mother of much biography. BIBLIOGRAPHY (CHAPTER FIVE) T H E A D V A N C E OF SCHOLAKLY M E T H O D S

Bicknell, Alexander. Life of Alfred the Great, King of the AngloSaxons, 1777. History of Edward, Prince of Wales, Commonly Termed the Black Prince, 1777. Derrick, Samuel. Life of Dryden, 1760. Hardinge, George. The Essence of Malone, or, the " Beauties " of that Fascinating Writer, 1800. Harris, William. Life of Oliver Cromwell, 1762. Life of Charles II, 1766. Harte, Walter. Life of Gustavus Adolphus, 1759. Hayley, William. Life of Milton, 1794; second ed., 1796; third ed., Basel, 1799. Life of Cowper, 1803. Life of Romney, 1809. Henderson, Andrew. Life of William the Conqueror, 1764. Jortin, John. Life of Erasmus, 1758. Knight, Samuel. Life of John Colet, 1724; second ed., 1823. Life of Erasmus, 1726. Lewis, John. The History of the Life and Sufferings of John Wicliffe, with a Collection of Papers relating to said History, never before printed, 1723. The Life of Mayster Wyllyam Caxton, the First Printer in England, 1737. Editor of Roper's Life of More in 1729. Mallet, David. Life of Francis Bacon, 1740. Malone, Edmund. Life of Dryden, 1800. Middleton, Conyers. Life of Cicero, 1741; fourth ed., 1750; American ed., Boston, 1818. Collected Works, 1850. Monthly Review. Issues indicated in notes in the text.

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Nichols, John. Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Oldys, William. Life of Raleigh, 1736; second ed., Oxford, 1829. Parr, Samuel. Preface to Bellendenus. (William tion, 1788.) Ruffhead, Owen. Life of Pope, 1769. Warner, Ferdinando. Memoirs of the Life of Sir 1758.

Century, 1812. 1740; third ed., Beloe's transla-

Thomas

More,

VI THE DEVELOPMENT OF BIOGRAPHICAL LEXICOGRAPHY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY H E usefulness of that form of Life-writing which is found in the biographical dictionaries is so obvious that the matter needs little discussion. To the student of history and literature, such compilations of data concerning the lives of the eminent and of those who have only approached greatness arc almost indispensable. Comparatively few men who have attained distinction have had a Boswell or a Lockhart, and furthermore, there are frequent instances in which the student has no immediate need for all the details that a full-length biography offers. It is for information concerning those men who have had no biographer, and for a compact series of facts concerning those men whose lives have been written at length that the student finds the biographical dictionary valuable. It is chiefly to serve these purposes that such compilations exist. For a study of the life of Johnson, the student is able to go to the great mass of material provided by Hawkins, Mrs. Piozzi, and Boswell; but if by chance he wants to know something about the life of Edmund Curll, he can go only to a biographical dictionary. If such a name is not there, then the problem becomes difficult. In spite of the minor significance of such a figure, the lexicographers have given him a place. Furthermore, if the date of Johnson's birth has slipped the memory, the student need not leaf over the pages of Boswell's Life in order to find the one bit of information that he wants at the moment. Works which serve such definite purposes are without doubt valuable.

T

237

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T h e value of the sketches which appear in such compilations is of necessity different f r o m that of full-length biographies. T h e difference is not only in length, but in quality. T h e dictionary account has as its primary motive the offering of reliable information in a compact way; the full-length biography offers more than a series of facts. It entertains, it interprets, and it aims to bring to life the man of whom it treats. All of these things the dictionary account must forsake; by reason of the limited space at its disposal, it must provide a series of highly significant facts, and leave the reader to construct—if he wishes—his own portrait from the outline which has been provided. Conciseness is the virtue to which all else must be sacrificed. Any temptation that the author experiences to become anecdotal or subjectively analytical must be spurned, with the result that his literary style—if he be so fortunate as to possess such a talent—cannot demonstrate itself to advantage. An ever-alert sense of discrimination must guide the author in his selection of details, for space takes on an exaggerated value, and no phrase whose worth is not readily apparent may enter. In addition to the careful selection of facts and the concise expression of them, the lexicographer should offer references to the reader who wants to know more about the subject than the sketch can offer. I t is for these references which the author lists that most students consult his work. Of this aspect of the compiler's task, Sir Leslie Stephen, first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, and a frequent contributor to its pages, wrote as follows: " A dictionary ought in the first place, to supply you with sufficient indication of all that has been written upon the subject; it should state briefly the result of the last researches; explain what appears to be the present opinion among the most qualified experts, and what are the points which still seem to be open; and above all, should give a full reference to all the best and most original sources of information. The most important and valuable part of a good dictionary is often that dry list of authorities which frequently costs

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a n a m o u n t of skilled labor not a p p a r e n t on the s u r f a c e , a n d not a l w a y s , it is feared, recognized with d u e g r a t i t u d e . "

1

The painstaking investigation of material in order to supply these references, the care that is necessary in the selection of details for the sketch proper, and the ever-present need to condense all important data into a brief space make the work of the biographical lexicographer altogether unenviable. " Every other author may aspire to praise," announced Samuel Johnson; "the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has yet been granted to very few." It is the opinion of some who have given the matter little thought that the contributor to the biographical compilations is a kind of second-rate hack-writer, who, by reason of his inability to do anything more worthy, becomes a lexicographer. Leslie Stephen in his essay on National Biography2 wrote of the experience of poor Simon Brown, who lost his wife and only son, and who, as a result of his misfortune, became sufficiently unbalanced to believe that he was a mere empty shell, a body without a soul. Under such circumstances, feeling that he was unfitted for other tasks, he decided to become a lexicographer. Piously he concluded the report of the circumstances which led him to the selection of his life-work: "Thank God for everything, and therefore for dictionary-makers." Such a sentiment has often been echoed by students possibly less fortunate than Simon Browne. To the compilers of the biographical dictionaries— Stephen, Bullen, Seccombe, Lee, Allibone, and a host of others including those who are at work with the American Dictionary —should be offered more than the negative recompense of which Johnson spoke. Their performances, once recognized at their full value, are deserving of praise. It is, however, a wide gap between the early compilations of biographical data and the Dictionary of National Biography. 1

Studies oj a Biographer, New York, 1907, Vol. I, p. 18. See Vol. I of the Studies of a Biographer. This essay is essentially a preface to the Dictionary oj National Biography, in which there is no introduction or preface. 2

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The biographical dictionary, like full-length biography, did not come into its own until the eighteenth century. As a recognized source-book for information concerning the lives of arbitrarily or carelessly selected groups of men, it was a comparatively early development in the history of Life-writing. The motive which underlay the productions of the early collections of Lives was in most instances a nearer approach to the manifestation of the true biographical impulse than that which directed the writing of single Lives. As has been pointed out in an early chapter, the Lives which were written at considerable length about a single figure were, with few exceptions, warped by the authors' inclinations toward panegyric and ethical instruction; but the collections of Lives that were produced either by a single author or a group had as their major purpose the offering of information concerning the figures who came within the scope of the work. This purpose, however, was frequently confused with the motive of eulogy and ethical instruction as the authors proceeded with their work, and at times gross inaccuracies appeared in their records by reason of their inability to distinguish between rumor and fact, and by their evident lack of the true investigating instinct. Furthermore, their sense of values in the selection of material was seriously at fault. Often their sketches are worthless, owing to the fact that the space was filled with matter of little or no biographical significance. T h e arrangement of the sketches, too, is often puzzling; an alphabetical order was rarely followed, nor was the less satisfactory chronological order employed consistently. The methods of arrangement of the sketches were frequently so arbitrary and singular that even the most intuitive reader must spend considerable time in finding what he wants. T h e earliest authors of collections of brief Lives such as Leland, Bale, and Pits offered records 3 that possess a certain value, although their accounts are not only meagre but often fanciful and unreliable. John Leland's Commentarii de Scrip3

Originally written in Latin.

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241

toribus Britannicis,4 John Bale's Illustrium Maioris Britantiiae Scriptorum, hoc est, Angriae, Cambriae, ac Scotiac, Sumtnarium . . . (1548), 5 and John Pits' De Illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus (Paris, 1619) 6 were among the earliest collections of this kind in England. Owing to the fact that they were apparently full of information that was the result of observation and investigation, they were used considerably during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries as source-books. To find the same reports concerning a man in two collections reassured many of the readers of the accuracy of the material, but all too frequently this confidence was short-sighted, for Bale copied Leland's data so generously that dashes—indicating a lack of definite information—errors, and occasionally facts were all transcribed. The printed word was rarely questioned, with the result that much unreliable biographical data developed out of the inaccuracies of Bale and Pits. It was not until Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) set to work on The History of the Worthies of England (1662) that the inadequacies of the early compilations were recognized and a more reliable form of biographical lexicography appeared. He was fairly well equipped for his work. According to Aubrey, he had a memory so good that " he would repeat forwards and backwards all the signes from Ludgate to Charing Crosse." 7 Patience he had in abundance, and he had an unfaltering respect for truth. In an early chapter of the Worthies, he provided a judgment of the available collections of Lives that is descriptive and authoritative. " Being to handle this subject, let not the reader expect that I will begin their * An Qxfofd edition, 1709. This work was originally in MS. folio, until much of its material was taken by Bale in 1S48. 5 Of this compilation, Bcrkenhout reported in his Biographia Literaria (1777): " Except what he borrowed from Leland's manuscript, there is nothing valuable in the book. At the end of the life of each author he pretends to give a catalogue of their works, with which he was in general so little acquainted, that he frequently multiplies each book into five or six, by mistaking the title of a chapter for that of a book." 6 Berkenhout reported that " his book abounds with mistakes, and his list of works is exceedingly erroneous." ' Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark, 1898.

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catalogue [of writers] from fabulous antiquity, or rather fanciful fables. For if the first century of J. Bale and J. Pits their British writers were garbled, four parts out of five would be found to be trash; such as—1. Samothes Gigas: 2. Magus Samotheus: 3. Sarron Magius: 4. Druys Sarronius: 5. Bardus Druydius: 6. Albion Mareoticus: 7. Brytus Julius: 8. Gerion Augur: 9. Aquila Septonius: 10. Perdix Praesagus: 11. Cambra Formosa: 12. Plenidius Sagax, etc. " Of these some were never men; others, if men, never were writers; others, if writers, never left works continuing to our age, though some manuscript mongers may make as if they perused them. It is well they had so much modesty, as not to pretend inspection into the book of life, seeing all other books have come under their omnividency." 8 Of those who had undertaken collections of sketches of saints' Lives, he offered the specific criticisms: " 1. Want of honest hearts in the biographists of these saints, which betrayed their pens to such abominable untruths. 2. Want of able heads, to distinguish rumours from reports, reports from records; not choosing, but gathering; or rather not gathering, but scraping what could come to their hands. 3. Want of true matter, to furnish out those lives in any proportion. As cooks are sometimes fain to lard lean meat, not for fashion, but necessity, as which otherwise would hardly be eatable for the dryness thereof; so these, having little of these saints more than their names, and dates of their deaths, and those sometimes not certain, do plump up their emptiness with such fictious additions. 4. Hope of gain; so bringing in more custom of pilgrims to the shrines of their saints. 5. Lastly, for the same reason for which Herod persecuted St. Peter (for I count such lies a persecuting of the saints' memories) merely because they saw it pleased the people." 9 With such standards shaping his judgments of the works of the compilers of biographical data who had preceded him, Fuller was prepared to proceed with his collection of sketches 6 9

Edition of 1840, Chapter X , p. 37. Chapter III, p. 11.

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243

in a way that showed a marked advance in the development of this phase of Life-writing. His effort in The History of the Worthies o) England had much to commend it to his contemporaries and to immediately subsequent lexicographers. The purpose of the work he defined as follows: " Know then that I propound five ends to myself in this Book: first, to gain some glory to God: secondly, to preserve the memories of the dead: thirdly, to present examples to the living: fourthly, to entertain the reader with delight: and lastly (which I am not ashamed publicly to profess), to procure some honest profit to myself." Of the fourth end, he wrote: " I confess, the subject is dull in itself, to tell the time and places of men's birth, and deaths, their names, with the names and number of their books; and therefore this bare skeleton of time, place, and person must be fleshed with some pleasant passages. To this purpose I have interlaced (not as meat, but as condiment) many delightful stories, that so the reader, if he do not arise (which I hope and desire) religiosior and doctior, with more piety or learning, at least he may depart jucundior, with more pleasure and lawful delight." 10 After a long series of introductory remarks in which he discussed the design of his work, general rules for the convenience of author and reader, the authorities from which his material was derived,11 and an apology for involuntary omissions, he proceeded to organize his material chorographically by devoting a chapter to each English county. Such an arrangement insured an orderly and thorough survey of pertinent matter. This plan, however, made it necessary for the reader to know beforehand which county was the birthplace of the man about whom he sought information. For instance, the chapter devoted to Devonshire was outlined as follows: 10

Chapter One. " . . . I come now to give in the particulars whence I have derived my information, knowing full well, quantus author tanta fides. These may be referred to three heads: first, Printed Books; secondly, Records in Public Offices; thirdly, Manuscripts in the possession of private gentlemen. To which may be added a fourth, viz., Instructions received from the nearest relations to those persons who lives we have presented." Ed. 1840, Chapter X X I I I , p. 90. 11

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Boundaries, Etc.—Natural Commodities: Silver, Tin, Herrings, Strawberries, Hurtberries.—Manufactures: Bone-lace—Buildings: Bedifordbridge—Wonders: the Gubbings—Proverbs—Saints: St. Wenfride Boniface, St. Willibald—Martyrs: Agnes Pirest—Confessors: John Molle—Cardinals: Wm. Courtney—Prelates: Robert Chichester, Gilb. Foliot, Wm. Brewer, William de Raleigh, Rich. Courtney, Jas. Cary, John Stanberry, Pet. Courtney, John Jewel, John Prideaux—Statesmen: Sir Arthur Chichester—Capital Judges: Sir Wm. Herle, Sir John Cary, Sir Wm. Hankford, Sir John Fortescue, Sir Lewis Pollard, Sir John Doderig—Soldiers: Sir Richard Greenvil, James Lord Audley, Thos. Stuckley, Geo. Monck—Seamen: Wm. Wilford, Sir Humph. Gilbert, Cock, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh—Civilians: John Cowel, Arthur Duck—Writers: Roger the Cistercian, John de Ford, Rich. Fishaker, John Cut-clif, Rich. Chichester, Robt. Plympton, Nic. Upton, Rich. Hooker, John Reynolds, Nath. Carpenter. 12

Such an arrangement of material indicates that the author gave some attention to the prevision and organization of his work. By dividing his compilation into chapters, and by naming the various categories with which Worthies were to be identified in each shire that formed the title of the chapter, Fuller was able to follow a definite plan for presenting his materials about eminent Englishmen. However, in spite of the care that he exercised in his effort to catalogue his materials systematically, his method has serious drawbacks. The reader who is not informed of the county in which the man about whom he is seeking data was born, 'must go to the table of contents and scan the names which appear under the various shires before he can turn to the page he needs. Furthermore, the reader often has difficulty in associating the man about whom he wishes information with the category to which Fuller has assigned him. Once it is determined that Sir Walter Raleigh was of Devonshire, the reader scarcely expects to find his life treated in the section dealing with seamen. There is much excellent biographical material in the collection, but the 12

Etc., Etc. through Benefactors, Memorable Persons, Sheriffs until all the categories in which Worthies were to be found were named and representatives selected.

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patience of the reader is frequently taxed when he attempts to find a sketch immediately. Fuller's method was at least careful, but his care was to a certain extent misdirected. A strict alphabetical order in treating his Worthies would have proved far more convenient. His ineffective method for the arrangement of the material, however, is offset by the virtue of the material itself. In spite of Berkenhout's observation that Fuller " constantly seems to wish rather to make his readers merry than wise," 13 the sketches generally contain information that is choice; and in the age in which they were produced, they were especially valuable. No collection of facts about noteworthy Englishmen before this compilation was so trustworthy, so complete, and so systematically arranged. The reader feels that here there is more than a series of transcriptions. In the author there was a strong inclination to deal with primary sources. Cognizant in part of the errors into which his precursors had fallen by their readiness to transcribe data from earlier works, Fuller viewed secondary sources with a justifiable mistrust. Once he had verified his material, he proceeded to treat it in a way that has its charm even to the modern reader. An author in the Biographia Britannica (begun 1747)—probably William Oldys—wrote of Fuller as follows: Though our author was very diligent in collecting his materials for this work; yet, when several parts of it were written, he had the disadvantage of being unsettled, remote from proper libraries, and intelligent conversation, being as it were a travelling writer, and forced to leave blank spaces, especially for dates; wherein he has sometimes modestly left his reader rather uninformed than misinformed; and again sometimes filled them up conjecturally, and without any supposed need of nice recollection, as he designed to be more exact upon better opportunities of examination; in several whereof he was prevented by death. But though he looked upon dates as so many little sparkling gems in history, that would reflect the clearest and most sudden light a great way off, he still found or thought them very slippery wares, liable, by the smallest and most imperceptible variations, to lead us greatly astray from truth; and speaks of Chro13

Biographia Literaria, Introduction, 1777. 17

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nology, in one of his books, as of a surly little animal, that was apt to bite the fingers of those who handled it with greater familiarity than was absolutely necessary; yet he knew there was no giving of satisfactory intelligence without it, especially in the writing of Lives. . . . As to the historical particulars of these Lives, no man could pretend to be very circumstantial, in a work that proposed to revive the famous men in a whole nation; such an undertaking can or should give but a general and compendious view of them. T o recognize the full value of Fuller's Worthies of England as a contribution to the advancement of the matter and methods of compilations of biographical facts, it is necessary to survey some of the collections that were produced before the close of the century. Fuller's work, which appeared in 1662, was a more trustworthy and thorough compilation than those of Winstanley and Edward Phillips. In 1687, William Winstanley brought out his Lives of the Most Famous English Poets, or the Honour of Parnassus. It is safe to say that Winstanley's work would never have been compiled—at least not in the form in which it was written—if it had not been for Fuller's Worthies. Winstanley borrowed generously from Fuller, copying his dashes and errors, as well as his facts, without acknowledging his indebtedness in other t h a n a vague statement in his Preface. His sketch of Shakespeare, for instance, was in large part a verbatim transcript f r o m the earlier recorder's account. Fuller left a dash for the d a t e of Shakespeare's death; Winstanley, relying almost solely on secondary sources, transcribed it. T h e whole performance, in fact, was an indolent, malproportioned effort. I t showed no contribution to the development of biographical lexicography. Edward Phillips' Theatrum Poetarum ( 1 6 9 4 ) was also a thin performance. T h e scope of the province which Phillips selected was so wide that only by life-long effort and faithful assistance could he expect to make his compilation approach completeness. T h e volume is small, b u t in it the author attempts to provide information about not only eminent English poets but also about the ancients. As a result, the compilation is full of unaccountable omissions. T h e possibility of finding

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an account of a fourteenth century poet who attained distinction is small; in fact, the reader can go to the compilation with little confidence that the man about whom he wishes information is listed among the group so arbitrarily selected. In addition to this drawback, Phillips was more of a eulogist than a concise recorder of facts. Significant biographical details were frequently kept out of the accounts in order to allow the author to hymn the praises of those who formed his procession. Although this compilation was not composed of a series of transcriptions from earlier recorders, 14 it contributed little to the development of biographical lexicography. Contemporary with Fuller, Winstanley and Phillips, there were two men, who, by reason of aptitude, inborn and cultivated, produced compilations of biographical facts that continue to have value to students of the seventeenth century. Aubrey and Wood, although antiquaries rather than biographers, contributed much to the materials and methods of subsequent biographical dictionaries. One of the reasons for their success lay in their ability to limit their province. T h e y realized that with their inclinations and available materials they could not succeed with the kind of thing that Winstanley and Phillips attempted. With their provinces sufficiently narrowed and with no elaborate scheme for the organization of material, they investigated first-hand documents and registers with that which approached the instinct of the true scholar. T h a t Aubrey was at times indolent, and that Wood was a fault-finder cause their collections to lose some merit, but these recurrent vices did not destroy the intrinsic worth of their records. In fact, students of the seventeenth century continue to go to Aubrey's Minutes of Lives and to Wood's Athenae Oxonienses, and in them they find a veritable storehouse of information concerning the eminent figures of Stuart and Commonwealth England. In addition to the choice information with which the brief sketches are replete, there is a spirited quality in the style with which they were written that 1 4 Some generous borrowing was done, however. The Shakespeare account was in large part John Milton's appreciation of the poet.

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the compactness does not destroy. Aubrey is especially pleasant. His ability to discriminate between the highly characteristic detail and the fact of lesser suggestiveness is constantly marked. Few men, before or since his time, have been able to bring men to life in so short a space. Of the two, Wood was the more painstaking investigator; his work continues to remain a source-book for those who want information concerning seventeenth century Englishmen. The Minutes oj Lives and Athenac Oxonienses showed marked advances in the brief handling of biographical data, and although they were not biographical dictionaries in purpose or result, they provided matter and methods of easily recognized worth for subsequent lexicographers. Such was the state of biographical compilations before the eighteenth century. The efforts of the compilers from the Restoration to the close of the century were by no means negligible, but they did not produce that which may be justifiably called biographical dictionaries. The century following the interval which produced the collections of Fuller, Aubrey, and Wood, however, with its attention centered on the study of man, with its delight in antiquarianism, and with its rapidly developing national pride, was able to produce compilations that show marked advances in materials and methods over those of the earlier century. By the time of the accession of the first George, an increasingly large group of men were giving their serious attention to biographical lexicography. The age that witnessed the flourishing of a Society of Antiquaries that had to limit its membership to one hundred and fifty by 1755, and that saw scholarly accuracy grow out of the untiring inquiries of men who were unwilling to rely on the meagre authority of such compilers as Winstanley, made possible the true conception and illustration of the biographical dictionary. It was the age of Giles Jacob, of Thomas Birch, of William Oldys; by the end of the century there were twelve-volume compilations of national biography, surpassed in materials and methods only by the collections in present use.

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Without pausing to consider at length the early eighteenth century emendations of Gerard Langbaine's An Account oj the English Dramatick Poets (1691) and of Charles Gildon's The Lives and Characters oj the English Dramatick Poets (1698), the student of biographical lexicography may pass on to those compilations which begin to reflect the growing tendency of the age toward discrimination in the selection of data and accuracy of treatment. Langbaine and Gildon, especially the former, were rather thoroughgoing investigators, and many of the collections of Lives that were produced during the early part of the century acknowledged their indebtedness to the material in An Account oj the English Dramatick Poets. Nor is it necessary to pause for long with the compilations of Jeremy Collier and John Downes. Collier's two huge folio volumes entitled A Supplement to the Great Historical, Geographical, Genealogical, and Poetical Dictionary appeared in 1701.15 The work was professedly a "curious Miscellany of Sacred and Profane History. Containing in Short, the Lives and Most Remarkable Actions of the Patriarchs, Judges, and Kings of the Jews; . . . of Emperours, Kings, Illustrious Princes and Great Generals; of Ancient and Modern Authors, Etc., Etc. Collected from the best Historians, Chronologers, and Lexicographers; as Calvisius, Helvicus, Isaacson, . . . Hoffman, Lloyd, Chevreau, and others: but more especially out of Lewis Morrery, D.D., his eighth edition, corrected and enlarged by Monsieur Le Clerc." To the modern reader, the collection is little more than a curiosity; and even at the time of its appearance, it contributed no real part to the development of biographical lexicography. In spite of the elaborate design of the compiler, the " Curious Miscellany " is a hodgepodge from which little of biographical worth can be gleaned. In fact, the biographical aspect of the work is so submerged in all manner of details foreign to men's lives that it appears only at rare intervals. The work is an encyclopaedia of proper names in which Guelph and Gilbert, Zanzibar and Zwingli, Goshen and Hezekiah are treated in a fashion so 15

An edition, enlarged but scarcely improved, appeared in 1705.

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cursory that little information can be gathered about anything. The miscellany belongs to the early development of the encyclopaedia, not to the province of biographical lexicography, and although there are points of similarity in the two kinds of composition, the latter has requirements that the former need not possess. John Downes' (1652-1710) Roscius Anglicanus, or an Historical Review of the Stage (1708) 16 is another compilation of facts, some of which are biographical, which appeared in an age that was increasingly hungry for information. Downes was a prompter at the Duke's Theatre for over a score of years. From a letter in the Tatler, July 4, 1710, it can be gathered that " he had been bred up behind the curtain and had been a prompter from the time of the Restoration." Here he came into contact with actors, playwrights, and Green Room habitués constantly; and toward the end of his life, realizing that he knew much about those brilliant people of the Restoration theatre, he undertook a record in the form of a miscellany. He was interested in the figures whom he treated, however, only insofar as they were associated with the theatre; and he was more occupied with the plays in which they appeared, or which they wrote, than in their lives. Some choice anecdotes can be found concerning well-known Restoration stage-folk, but there is nothing in the work that can be called a biographical sketch. As a source-book for facts concerning the late seventeenth century theatre, the record possesses considerable value; beyond that Roscius Anglicanus did not go. It is not reckless to assume, however, that it was for its recurrent biographical data that Downes' work became popular. That it was facts about men, rather than facts about books, plays, geography, and whatnot, that early eighteenth century readers wanted, is proved convincingly by the vogue of the collections of brief Lives that appeared before the decade of the 20's. The popularity of such works as The Lives of the Most Eminent Persons Who Died in the Years 1711, 12, 10 Later reprinted by Waldron in his Literary Museum. It was again reprinted in 1886, after having been carefully edited by Joseph Knight.

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13, 14, and 15; 17 the Lives of the Gamesters by Theophilus Lucas; and the Lives of highwaymen, footpads, shoplifts, jilts, court beauties, and bailiffs by Alexander Smith, was an indication that compilations of brief sketches were much in demand. It was to satisfy the curiosity of the age in all manner of men who had distinguished themselves in some way that humankind was divided into categories and authors undertook to record the facts in the lives of the representatives of their chosen groups by following a chronological order. Alexander Smith, for instance, in his Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, began with Sir John Falstaff and brought his accounts down to strictly contemporary figures. Such collections continued to appear, but before the middle of the century, the inconvenience of having men's lives recorded in various categories was recognized by compilers and publishers, and dictionaries of national and universal biography in which the lives of all eminent men, irrespective of time and profession, were produced. Of the early compilations which recorded the lives of men in a limited category, Giles Jacob's (1686-1744) Poetical Register, or the Lives and Characters of the English Dramatic Poets was the nearest approach in both matter and method to the true biographical dictionary. It showed a considerable advance over those compilations which had preceded it. This series of brief accounts appeared in two volumes in 1719-1720, and went through a second and improved edition in 1723.18 Most editors and lexicographers from Oldys to A. H. Bullen agree that Giles Jacob was a diligent compiler. Berkenhout's observation that the work was " a trifling performance " 19 has nothing to support it; and Walter Raleigh's remark that the Poetical Register " belongs rather to the large family of trade circulars and letters of introduction " 2 0 is hardly a just de17

Four vols., 1715; published by Curll. The second edition had as its sub-title, " or the Lives and Characters of All the English Poets, with an Account of their Writings." " Dramatic Poets," the term used in the sub-title of the first edition, was almost synonymous with the term " All the English Poets." Few additions were made. 19 Cf. Biograptua Literaria, 1777. 20 Six Essays on Johnson, Oxford, 1910, p. 118. 18

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scription. For much of his material, it is true, Jacob went to earlier lexicographers, especially to Langbaine; but he was more than a transcriber. To all of those from whom he borrowed, he paid due acknowledgment. " The foundation of the Work [the compilation] is owing to Mr. Langbain," he announced in the Preface; " who was the first that brought these Memoirs into any tolerable form; and as he was the Master of a great deal of Learning and much Curiosity, his Work was received with a general Applause. However he had his Faults, and from particular Prejudices has bore a little too severely upon some of our best Poets; he is a little too fanciful in his Conjectures, from whence Authors drew their Plots, and having read much himself, imagin'd that every one else had done so too. What occasional use I have made of him, I always freely acknowledge." That he tried to authenticate the data which he found in the miscellanies of the earlier compilers by painstaking investigation of all primary sources is not unlikely, for he possessed the true investigating spirit. He remarked that he had the opportunity of looking into a great many catalogues of plays which his predecessors never saw; and for his sketches of contemporary figures, he reported that most of the material which he employed, save that which " related to the Fame of their Writings," was communicated to him by the authors themselves. His energy in his effort to make his sketches reliable and his honesty in his attempt to get at the facts cannot be questioned. These virtues, however, are not so marked as his alert sense of discrimination. In this respect Jacob contributed much to the method of biographical lexicography. He was aware of the limited space at his disposal for the treatment of each author, and with a sense of biographical values that most of the earlier compilers did not possess, he proceeded to include in his accounts only those facts of real significance. Furthermore, in the prevision of his work as a whole, he applied a nice sense of proportion, which was to a large extent the result of his respect for literary values. Authors were allotted space

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proportionate to their importance, not in proportion to the amount of data that he had been able to find and verify. For instance, the sketch of Phillip Massinger takes up three pages in the Register, while the account of Shakespeare runs to over ten. There are instances in which, while dealing with contemporary figures, he devoted more space to the accounts than the names deserved, but even here his errors in proportionate allotment of space are not pronounced. In his account of Shakespeare, as well as in many of the others, Jacob demonstrated his superiority over the earlier compilers such as Fuller and Langbaine. Nicholas Rowe's Account of Life, Etc. of Mr. William Shakespeare had appeared in 1709,21 and this account Jacob found useful; but his sketch was by no means a transcript or a condensation of Rowe's Life. T o compare this account in the Poetical Register with those about Shakespeare in the seventeenth century compilations provides sufficient evidence that Jacob contributed something valuable to the matter and method of biographical lexicography. It reads as follows: Mr. William Shakespear. He was the Son of Mr. John Shakespear, and was born at Stratford upon Avon, in Warwickshire, in April 1S64. His Family, as appears by the Register and publick Writings relating to that Town, were of good Figure and Fashion there, and are mention'd as Gentlemen. His Father, who was a considerable Dealer in Wool, had so large a Family, Ten Children in all, that, though he was his eldest Son, he could give him no better Education than his own Employment. He had bred him for some time at a Free-School, where he acquir'd the Knowledge of the Latin Tongue; but the Narrowness of his Circumstance at Home, fore'd his Father to withdraw him from thence, and unhappily prevented his farther Proficiency in Learning. Upon his leaving School, he seems to have given intirely into that way of living which his Father propos'd to him; and in order to settle in the World, he, while very young, married the Daughter of Mr. Hathaway, a substantial Yeoman in the Neighbourhood of Stratford. 21

Prefixed to the first eighteenth century edition of Shakespeare's Plays.

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In this kind of Settlement he continued for some time, 'till an Extravagance that he was guilty of, forc'd him both out of his Country and that way of living which he had taken up; and tho' it seem'd at first to be a Blemish upon his good Manners, and a Misfortune to him, yet it afterwards happily prov'd the Occasion of exerting one of the greatest Genius's that ever was known in Dramatick Poetry. He was severely prosecuted by Sir Thomas Lucy of Cherlecot, near Stratford, for joining with some young Fellows, more than once, in robbing his Park. T h i s Prosecution oblig'd him to shelter himself in London; and it was upon this Accident, that he is said to have made his first Acquaintance in the Playhouse, wherein he was receiv'd at first in a very mean R a n k ; but his admirable W i t , and the natural Turn of it to the Stage, soon distinguish'd him, if not as an extraordinary Actor, yet as an excellent Writer. I could never meet with any farther Account of him, as to the Parts he us'd to play, than that the T o p of his Performance was Ghost in his own Hamlet. I t would be a great Pleasure to see and know what was the first Essay of a F a n c y like Shakespear's. M r . Dryden seems to think that Pericles is one of his first Plays; but tho' the Order of Time, in which the several Pieces were written, be generally uncertain, yet there are Passages in some of them which seem to fix their Dates. Whatever the particular T i m e s of his Writing were, the People of his Age could not but be highly pleas'd to see a Genius arise amongst them of so pleasurable, so rich a Vein, and so plentifully capable of furnishing their favourite Entertainments. Besides the Advantages of his Wit, he was himself a good-natur'd M a n , and an agreeable Companion; so that it is no wonder he made himself acquainted with the best Conversations of those Times. Queen Elizabeth had several of his Plays acted before her, and gave him many gracious Marks of her Favour: W h a t Grace soever the Queen conferr'd upon him, it was not to her only he ow'd the Fortune which the Reputation of his W i t made. He had the Honour to meet with many great and uncommon M a r k s of Favour and Friendship from the Earl of Southampton, (famous in the Histories of that T i m e for his Friendship to the unfortunate Earl of E s s e x ) to whom he Dedicated two Poems, Venus and Adonis, and Tarquin and Lucrece. F o r the Former of which Dedications, that Noble L o r d gave him a Thousand Pounds, which uncommon Bounty M r . Shakespear gratefully acknowledg'd in the Dedication to the Latter. W h a t particular Friendships he contracted with private Men, I have not been able to learn, more than that every one who had a true

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Taste of Merit, had generally a just Value and Esteem for him. Mr. Spenser speaks of him in his Tears of the Muses, not only with the Praises due to a good Poet, but even lamenting his Absence with the Tenderness of a Friend. His Plays are properly to be distinguish'd only into Comedies and Tragedies. Those which are call'd Histories, and even some of his Comedies, are really Tragedies with a Mixture of Comedy amongst them. That way of Tragi-Comedy was the common Mistake of that Age, and is indeed become so agreeable to the English Taste, that tho' the severer Criticks among us cannot bear it, yet the generality of our Audiences seem to be better pleas'd with it than with an exact Tragedy. There is certainly a great deal of Entertainment in his Comical Humours; and a pleasing and well distinguish'd Variety in those Characters which he thought fit to meddle with. His Images are indeed every where so lively, that the Thing he would represent stands full before you, and you possess every Part of it. His Tales were seldom invented, but rather taken either from true History, or Novels and Romances; and he commonly made use of them in that Order, with those Incidents, and that extent of Time in which he found them in the Authors from whence he borrow'd them. Almost all his Historical Plays comprehend a great length of Time, and very different and distinct Places: But in recompence for his Carelessness in this Point, when he comes to another Part of the Drama,—The Manners of his Characters, in Acting or Speaking what is proper for them, may in very many Places be greatly commended. His Sentiments are great and natural, and his Expression just, and rais'd in proportion to his Subject and Occasion. The latter part of his Life was spent, as all Men of good Sense will wish theirs may be, in Ease, Retirement, and the Conversation of his Friends. He had the good Fortune to gather an Estate equal to this Occasion, and in that to his Wish; and is said to have spent some Years before his Death at his Native Stratford. His pleasurable Wit and good Nature engag'd him in the Acquaintance, and intitul'd him to the Friendship of the Gentlemen of the Neighbourhood. The Plays he has written, are publish'd in the following Order, viz. [Here follows a list of Shakespeare's dramatic works, which, save for the last six entries, is quite accurate. Critical comments, probable sources for the plays, and observations concerning their vogue in the eighteenth century are offered briefly.]

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The Character of Mr. Shakespear is best seen in his Writings. But since Ben Jonson has made a sort of essay towards it in his Discoveries, tho' he was not very cordial in his Friendship, I will venture to give it in his words: [A long passage from Jonson's judgment of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is here inserted.] As for the passage which he [Jonson] mentions out of Shakespear, there is somewhat like it in Julius Caesar, Vol. VI. p. 194, but without the Absurdity; nor did I ever meet with it in any edition that I have seen, as quoted by Mr. Jonson. Besides his plays in this Edition, there are two or three ascrib'd to him by Mr. Langbain, which I have never seen, and know nothing of. As to the character given him by Ben Jonson, there is a good deal true in it: But I believe it may be as well express'd by what Horace says of the first Romans, who wrote Tragedy upon the Greek Models (or indeed translated 'em) in his Epistle to Augustus, Natura sublimis et Acer Nam spirat Tragicum satis et facliciter Audet, Sed turpem putat in Chartis metuita; Lituram. Mr. Dryden was an Admirer of our Author, and, indeed, he owed him a great deal, as those who have read them both may easily observe. And I think in Justice to 'em both, I should not on this occasion omit what Mr. Dryden has said of him, in his Prologue to the Tempest, alter'd. Shakespear, who, taught by none, did first impart, [et seq.] The Works of Mr. Shakespear, consisting of his Plays and Poems, are now printed in Nine Volumes, duodecimo. 22 This, without doubt, is a considerable improvement over those accounts in the Worthies of England, the Honour of Parnassus, and An Account of the English Dramatick Poets. There are inadequacies, to be sure, which stand out conspicuously in the light of two additional centuries of intensive scholarship, and at times the author's critical standards do not coincide with those of the modern generation; but withal, the account has in it much valuable information, presented in an orderly and concise way. Furthermore, the sketch can immediately be found. The names are listed alphabetically within two major classes, early and modern authors. 22

Edition of 1723, Vol. II, pp. 226-236.

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In spite of the fact that Jacob contributed much to the development of the biographical dictionary, his work was by no means a finished product. The instances are too frequent in which he left the author's life at the time at which his first play appeared and devoted the remainder of the space to a list of the works of the author and a judgment of them. As a result, the later life and the date of death are often omitted. Often the compiler was in such an evident hurry to get to an appreciation of the works of the author that the biographical part of the account suffered. The work at times becomes little more than a catalogue of the plays the authors wrote. The date of Nicholas Rowe's birth was omitted, and the details of his life were treated with undue brevity; but over a page was devoted to a list of his plays. Such inadequacies occur frequently in the Poetical Register, but it is important to observe that in the more thorough sketches, Jacob was definitely in advance of those who had preceded him. It was in 1734 that the early volumes of another dictionary began to appear which took the place of the Poetical Register by reason of its greater exhaustiveness and superior methods. This was the General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, published in ten volumes from 1734 to 1741. The size of this compilation indicates one of its chief contributions to the development of biographical lexicography. Jacob's compilation, with its province limited to men of letters, came out in two meagre volumes; the General Dictionary, with its ten volumes, each one of approximately eight hundred pages, indicated that either the scope had been widened or that the material selected had been treated more thoroughly. The increased volume was the result of both of these factors. Jacob had confined himself to the English poets, but the compilers of the General Dictionary dealt with ancient and modern figures who had attained distinction in any worthy activity. This new Dictionary was professedly " an accurate translation of that of the celebrated Mr. Bayle," but it was " interspersed with several thousand Lives never before published." Bayle was not the only authority into whom the compilers looked.

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For matters dealing with the ancients, and with Italy and France, they found his work exceedingly valuable; but with English figures, they constantly had recourse to other sources and to their own untiring investigations. The compilers were John Peter Bernard, John Lockman, and Thomas Birch. 23 Bernard's share in the work was small, at least as far as the writing of the sketches went,24 but he was constantly authenticating data and providing materials for his colleagues. John Lockman did some careful work in this collection, notably in his account of Samuel Butler. 25 No initials are attached to the sketches which appear, but it is reasonable to assume that most of the work was done by Thomas Birch. Of Birch's ability to gather and authenticate material, nothing but praise can be offered. According to Walpole, he was " a worthy, good-natured soul, full of industry and activity, and running about like a young setting dog in quest of anything new or old." 26 Dr. Johnson reported that Birch had more anecdotes than any man; and that he was " as brisk as a bee in conversation, but as soon as he took up his pen, it became a torpedo to him and numbed all his faculties." 27 It is true that Birch was not an inspired writer, but in spite of Johnson's judgment, his biographical sketches were considered so valuable in the age for which they were written, that his accounts of Milton, Raleigh, Chillingworth, and others, were expanded and prefixed to eighteenth century editions of their works. Few men, not excepting modern lexicographers, have been so completely possessed of the investigating instinct, and few have put their efforts to better use. Despite Carlyle's lament that English biography was full of " poor Birches, Kippises and Pecks; the whole bunch of whom, moreover, is 23

Hawkins mentions a fourth, George Sale, well known to the age as the translator of the Koran. Cf. Life of Johnson, Dublin, 1787, p. 185. 24 S e e his letter to Birch in the British Museum, Additional MS. (Birch), 4301. 25 Cf. Notes and Queries, second series, XI, 102. 28 Letters, Paget Toynbee edition, XI, p. 122. 27 Hawkins' Life of Johnson, Dublin ed., 1787, p. 187.

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now extinct," 28 Birch, by reason of his painstaking investigations, retentive memory, and sense for biographical values, produced works that were of a level rarely attained by antiquarians and scholars during the middle of the century.29 He was still under thirty when he undertook with Bernard and Lockman the work of compiling the General Dictionary, but even at that stage of his career as a compiler, he was well equipped to perform his role as contributor well. That he was informed concerning the state of biographical lexicography is evident in the preface to the Dictionary. This preface contains a brief but comparatively inclusive history of the development of biographical compilations in England up to the time of Gerard Langbaine. Fuller, Winstanley, Wood, Whitelocke, Clarendon, Le Clerc, Jacob, and especially Bayle were the authorities in his province whose works he knew intimately and judged intelligently. In addition to his knowledge of these compilations, he was familiar with those early records of Bale and Pits, and with the works of such historians as Selden, Godwin, and Kennett.30 Birch was undoubtedly well equipped with information; he knew how and where to go to look for biographical facts; and with his tireless energy in investigating first-hand sources and verifying secondary records, he was prepared to offer a noteworthy contribution to the development of biographical lexicography. Johnson's report that " as soon as he took up his pen, it became a torpedo to him and numbed all of his faculties " is generally borne out in the manner in which Birch wrote his accounts. He had small literary talent; his pen was neither inspired nor facile. His major difficulty lay in organizing his In the essay entitled " Biography," 1832. In addition to his work with the General Dictionary, he wrote the sketches in the Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain (1752); the Life of Robert Boyle (1744) ; the Life of Archbishop TUlotson (17S2); and the Life of Henry, Prince of Wales (1760). From 17S2 until the year before his death, he was secretary of the Royal Society. 3 0 His references to authorities, listed fully in the footnotes and marginal notes of the General Dictionary and in the Heads of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain, provide an excellent source-book for the bibliographer of biography before 1725. 28

29

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material in such a way that a compact, coherent narrative would result. However, even had Birch possessed a literary personality, such an asset could not have demonstrated itself to advantage in the kind of work he undertook. With his eye constantly leveled on cold facts, and with an objectivity of manner that was a natural development for one of his inclinations, he illustrated the difference that often exists between the scholar and the man of letters. The two types are not hostile to each other, but it is only in rare instances that the fusion is complete. Birch represented no such fusion in his contributions to the General Dictionary; his sketches are generally accurate, fairly compact, and amply supplied with references which, by reason of their constant and conspicuous appearance, often destroy the continuity of the narrative, but which to the reader are often exceedingly valuable. Little more is to be expected of a lexicographer. Birch's method of handling the material in his sketches may be illustrated by quoting a few passages from the Shakespeare account. A comparison of these passages with those concerning Shakespeare in the dictionaries which preceded and followed indicates to what extent Birch's methods were an improvement over those of earlier compilers, and in what respects they failed to attain excellence. For the early passages, he was admittedly indebted to Rowe and Jacob. The first few paragraphs are so nearly identical with those in the Poetical Register 31 that they need not be re-quoted. The remainder of the account is as follows: It was at this time [immediately after his departure from Stratford], and upon this accident [the Sir Thomas Lucy affair], that he is said to have made his first acquaintance in the Play-house. H e was received into the Company then in being, at first in a very mean rank; but his admirable wit, and the natural turn of it to the stage, soon distinguished him, if not as an extraordinary actor, yet as an excellent writer. His name is printed, as the custom was in those times, amongst those of the other Players, before some old Plays, but without any particular account 31

Ante, p. 253.

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of what sort of parts he used to play; and Mr. Rowe tells us, that he could never meet with any farther account of him in this way, than that the top of his performance was the Ghost in his own Hamlet (c). We have no certain authority which was his first Play (D). He was highly esteemed by Queen Elizabeth ( E ) ; and received many great and uncommon marks of favour and friendship from the Earl of Southampton, famous in the histories of that time for his friendship to the unfortunate Earl of Essex. It was to that noble Lord that he dedicated his Poem of Venus and Adonis. There is a very remarkable instance of the generosity of this Patron of Shakespeare, related by Mr. Rowe upon the authority of Sir William Davenant; which was, that the Earl of Southampton at one time gave him a thousand pounds to enable him to go through with a purchase, which he had heard he had a mind to. His Dramatic Writings are very numerous ( F ) . There is no certain account when he quitted the stage for a private life. Some have thought, that Spenser's Thalia in his Tears of the Muses, where she laments the loss of her Willy in the comic scene, relates to our author's abandoning the stage. But it is well known that Spenser himself died in the year 1598; and five years after this, we find Shakespeare's name among the actors in Ben Johnson's Sejanus, which first made its appearance in 1603. Nor surely could he then have any thoughts of retiring, since, that very year, a license under the Privy Seal (d) was granted by James I to him and Fletcher, Burbage, Philippes, Hemmings, Condel, Etc. authorizing them to exercize the art of playing Comedies, Tragedies, Etc. as well at their usual house called the Globe on the other side of the water, as in any other parts of the Kingdom, during his Majesty's pleasure. Besides it is certain that Shakespeare did not exhibit his Macbeth, till after the Union was brought about, and till after King James I had begun to touch for the evil; for he has not inserted compliments on both these accounts, upon his Royal Master in that Tragedy. Nor indeed could the number of these dramatic pieces, which he produced, admit of his retiring so early as that period. So that what Spenser there says, if it relates at all to Shakespeare, must hint at some occasional recess he made for a time upon a disgust taken; or the Willy there mentioned must relate to some other favourite poet. Mr. Theobald is of the opinion (e), that he had not quitted the Stage in the year 1610; for in his Tempest our author makes mention of the Bermuda Islands, which were unknown to the English, till in 1609 Sir John Summers made a voyage to North America, and 18

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discovered them; and afterwards invited some of his countrymen to settle a plantation there. The latter part of Shakespeare's life was spent in ease, retirement, and the conversation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an estate equal to his occasion, and, in that, to his wish; and is said to have spent some years before his death at his native Stratford, His Pleasurable Wit and good nature engaged him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship of the Gentlemen of the neighbourhood (G). He died in 1616 in the fifty third year of his age, and lyes interred on the north side of the chancel in the Great Church at Stratford, where a monument is erected to him, and placed against the wall (H); but another more considerable one is intended to be raised to his memory in Westminster-Abbey at the public expense (I). 32 Thirteen pages in a generous folio volume were given to this account. Of this space, at least two-thirds was taken up by exhaustive footnotes. In addition to the footnotes, there are marginal references to the page, volume, and date of publication of the works from which the writer drew his material and authority. The general scheme followed in the Dictionary was to indicate sources of information in the margins by placing a letter after the statement in the text thus ( a ) ; footnotes were reserved for a discussion of points of conjecture, and for the illustration of points by expanded concrete evidence. They were indicated in the text by the use of a capital letter after the point in question (A). Letters, and quotations from earlier works about Shakespeare, some of which run to two thousand words, were constantly introduced in order to support fully the authority of the text. The Shakespeare sketch, which is illustrative of the most of the accounts in the Dictionary, despite its blemishes in condensation and accuracy of content, showed a marked advance over the meagre and undocumented narrative in Giles Jacob's Poetical Register. Accounts of such fullness gave an age that was hungry for facts and references that which it wanted; the General Dictionary, Historical and Critical was well received. Birch's 32

The remainder of the account—about four times the length of the passage that has been quoted—was devoted to an estimate of the dramatist's works. See Vol. IX, pp. 186-199.

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share in the work did not go unappreciated, for immediately after the early volumes appeared, he was a much sought authority on historical and biographical data. When in 1747 an enterprising group of publishers headed by Osborne collected a large series of engravings for a book, they offered Birch the work of writing short biographical sketches to accompany each engraving.33 This collection was entitled Heads of Illustrious Persons oj Great Britain. In the interval between the time of his contributions to the General Dictionary and the time that he began to work on the sketches for the Illustrious Heads (1747), Birch had developed a more concise manner of presenting his materials. The foundation of the later sketches was in his accounts in the General Dictionary, so his task was chiefly that of abridgment. As examples of condensation, the sketches in the Illustrious Heads are excellent. These brief accounts, none of which runs to more than three pages in a folio volume,34 are full of biographical detail that is valuable. The sketch of Shakespeare, which accompanies the fine engraving of the poet by Vertue, does not contain the long critical discussion of the plays that was attached to the account in the General Dictionary, but all the essential facts of the life are there. It is concise, accurate, and informational. Later eighteenth century sketches that were confined to three pages showed little improvement. The work as a whole was not well arranged, for the engravings and sketches followed an order that was neither alphabetical nor strictly chronological.35 The scope of the work, however, was not large; approximately one hundred and fifty names were included, and hence the reader's patience is not sorely taxed by the unsystematic arrangement of the brief lives. This type of compilation became quite popular during the latter half of the century. The engravings were the chief 33 These engravings were done chiefly by Houbraken and Vertue. The second edition of the work, London, 1813, is one of the most decorative pieces of publishing in existence. 34 This includes references, although the author did not supply such ample references here as in the earlier compilation. 35 For a criticism of the work, see Monthly Review, VII, 25S.

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charm of such volumes, and in them England began to develop an unprecedented interest. It was to satisfy this interest and to offer additional biographical data concerning eminent Englishmen that James Granger (1723-1776) brought out his Biographical History oj England in 1769. The scope of this work was much wider than that of the Illustrious Heads, its province ranging from Egbert the Great to James II. It contained no engravings—if we except the frontispiece which is of the compiler himself-—but it attempted to locate the various portraits and prints of eminent Englishmen, and to describe briefly their lives.36 The compilation was professedly an attempt to bring biographical lexicography to a system as well as to provide a reliable catalogue of extant prints. " As painters and engravers of portraits have met with encouragement in England, I flatter myself that this first attempt towards a methodical catalogue of English heads will meet with pardon, if not with approbation from the curious,' 1 wrote the author. 37 Concerned with the interesting task of considering the extant engravings of great men along with the facts of their lives, Granger produced a work that has interest, if not true biographical worth. That he was well equipped for his task, in spite of the fact that he lived " in the obscurity of the country," is evident to the one whose interest in prints and biographical data leads him to the work. Johnson, Walpole, 38 and others called him dependable and commended him for his industry. The facts of personal history and the brief anecdotes which he added, he " studied to make as concise as possible: they sufficiently answer the purpose if they give the reader a general idea of the character of each person, and afford a hint to some abler hand to reduce biography to a system." . . . " I did not think myself obliged to quote my authors upon every Occasion; but have always endeavoured to apply to such as are of best Au36 T h e price of prints increased five-fold after the publication of this work. Cf. Walpole's Letters, ed. Toynbee, V I I , 379. 37 Preface, p. 12 from the beginning in the edition of 1767. The pages in the Preface are not numbered. 38 The work was dedicated to Walpole.

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thority, both for my Collections and Anecdotes." 39 With dates, he announced that he had been particularly careful. With a well-developed sense of biographical values and with an energy that was tireless in discovering data that had not already been employed by the lexicographers, Granger was prepared to offer a compilation that would afford, as he hoped, " a hint to some abler hand to reduce our biography to a system." The Biographical History of England, however, in spite of the elaborate attempt of the author to arrange his catalogues and sketches in a methodical way, was not an important contribution to the development of biographical lexicography. Johnson was " entertained exceedingly " by it,40 and others have found much pleasure and information in its pages, but the work shows no advance in matter or method of arrangement. In fact, the arrangement of material was as unsatisfactory as that in Fuller's Worthies. The method employed was sufficiently orderly, but it was not a practical arrangement for this type of work. The author divided those figures whom he selected for treatment into eleven classes: 1. Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses, etc. of the Royal Family. 2. Great Officers of the State, and of the Household. 3. Peers, ranked according to their precedence, and such Commoners as have titles of Peerage; namely, sons of Dukes, etc., and Irish Nobility. 4. Archbishops and Bishops, Dignitaries of the Church and inferior Clergymen. 5. Commoners who have borne great Employments; namely, Secretaries of State, Ambassadors, and such Members of the House of Commons as do not fall under other classes. 6. Men of the Robe; including Chancellours, Judges, and all Lawyers. 7. Men of the Sword; all Officers in the Army and Navy. 8. Sons of Peers without Titles, Baronets, Knights, and Ordinary Gentlemen, and those who have enjoyed inferior Civil Employments. 39 40

Preface, ten pages from the beginning in the edition of 1767. Boswell's Uje of Johnson, ed. 1860, p. 31S.

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9. Physicians, Poets, and other ingenious persons, who have distinguished themselves by their writings. 10. Painters, Artificers, Mechanics, and all of the inferior professions, not included in the other classes. 11. Ladies, and Others of the Female Sex, according to their Rank, Etc.

After such an elaborate classification of humankind, the author proceeded to arrange his materials chronologically by dividing the entire work into chapters, each dealing with the reign of an English sovereign. Thus, within each reign, figures representing the eleven classes were treated, not alphabetically, but in Class I to X I order. Within the classes themselves, no apparent order was followed, unless it was the sequence of major to minor. T o the author, it was evidently enough to assign the figure to a class within a reign without attempting further system. In addition to the general inconvenience of such an elaborate arrangement, the reader soon detects a serious inadequacy in this kind of classification. For instance, when a poet's life extended through two reigns, the biographical account is divided into two parts, the second part at times appearing a hundred pages farther along in the book, or inconveniently enough, in another volume. The early part of the Shakespeare sketch comes under Class I X in Elizabeth's reign, but to view the remainder, the reader must go to the category of physicians and poets in the First James' reign, exactly a hundred pages away. To find the sketch of Sir Philip Sidney, the reader must look through all eleven classes in the section devoted to Queen Elizabeth, for he is not in Class I X with physicians and poets. The account is finally discovered among those in Class VII, Men of the Sword. The disadvantages of such an arrangement can be appreciated only when one tries to find data without delay. Granger's elaborate scheme is little short of exasperating. The sketches themselves, whether in one part or divided, have no consistent biographical value. That the compiler had much information to offer concerning the lives of the men

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whom he had selected must be assumed, for rarely is there a series of facts that is of service to the student who needs a biographical dictionary. What the author says is generally good; the sketches are analytical and at times richly interpretative, but they are not sufficiently descriptive. The reader might look in vain for an important event in a poet's life, and possibly would find a judgment of one of his works or of a phase of his temperament. At times, dates, events, influences, and attainments are listed in an orderly, objective way; but more frequently a subjective analysis of a minor aspect of the man appears. It is difficult to know what to expect in the sketches before they are read. Granger evidently followed no scheme in this respect, save that of trying to record something that earlier lexicographers had not used.41 The Shakespeare sketch, for instance, reads as follows: Though Shakespeare be a writer of mixed character, he will ever be ranked in the first class of our English poets. His beauties are his own, and in the strictest sense, original. The faults found in him are chiefly those of the age in which he lived, his transcribers and his editors. He not only excelled in copying nature, but his imagination carried him beyond it. He had all the creative powers of fancy to create new characters, viz. his Caliban, Fairies, etc.; and was more an original genius than any other writer. He, like other great poets, has had the felicity of having his faults admired, for the sake of his beauties. See the next reign.42

This, the reader is led to believe, is only an introduction to that which will be recorded concerning the poet in the chapter dealing with the great figures of the reign of James I. Consequently, the reader turns hopefully forward to find only an epigram by Ben Jonson about Shakespeare, and a few quotations from the inscriptions that had appeared under the por41 Walpole found much of his interpretation eulogistic. " Have you seen Mr. Granger's Supplement ? " he inquired in a letter to Reverend William Cole, dated Oct. 11, 1774. " M e thinks it grows too diffuse. I have hinted to him that fewer panegyrics from funeral sermons would not hurt it." Letters, Paget Toynbee's' edition, I X , 65. 42 Class I X , Elizabeth's reign, ed. 1769, page 186. A long list of then extant engravings of Shakespeare precedes this paragraph.

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traits and engravings of the poet. 43 The brief sketch of Samuel Daniel, however, illustrates the manner of a lexicographer. Here the important events in the life of the poet were listed in a comparatively full and orderly way. If the compiler concluded that biographical data concerning Shakespeare was well known, and that concerning Daniel unknown, and as a result rejected an amplified account of Shakespeare in favor of a more detailed sketch of Daniel, then the reason for the fragmentary nature of the Shakespeare account can be understood, if not justified. The compiler's professed intention, however, " to reduce biography to a system," was by no means satisfactorily fulfilled. Two decades before Granger's Biographical Dictionary of England appeared—in fact, only a few years after the General Dictionary of Birch, Bernard and Lockman was brought out— that compilation which was to become the most exhaustive and widely used biographical reference work of the middle of the century was under way. Biographia Britannica 44 (174 7— 1766) was a considerable contribution to the province of diligent lexicography. In matter, including references, and in its authoritative and concise manner, it was an improvement on the General Dictionary and on all compilations of its kind that had preceded it. The sub-title of the work defined its scope: " or the Lives of the Most Eminent Persons who have Flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the Earliest Ages down to the Present Times: Collected from the Best Authorities, Both Printed and Manuscript, and Digested in the Manner of Mr. Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary." In the Preface to the first volume of the work, the editor pointed out " the cruelty, we might even say the impiety, of sacrificing the glory of great characters to trivial circumstances and conveniency," and attacked " the timid and scrupulous superficiality " of those who had undertaken sketches of eminent men " while omitting those characteristic details which 43

Ibid., p. 286. Many eighteenth century judgments of the volumes and editions of this work are to be found in the Monthly Review. See XVII, 577; XXIII, 160; XXVIII, 46; X X X , 252; LIX, 252. 44

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give definition to the portrait." . . . " It was with this view that the Biographia Britannica was undertaken; it was in order to collect into one body, without any restriction of time or place, profession or condition, the memoirs of such of our countrymen as have been eminent, and by their performances of any kind deserve to be remembered. We judged that this would be a most useful service to the publick, a kind of general monument erected to the most deserving of all ages, an expression of gratitude due to their services, and the most probable means of exciting, in succeeding times, a spirit of emulation which might prompt men to an imitation of their virtues. This was the first and great motive to the attempting such a collection, towards which, indeed, we saw that there were considerable materials ready prepared, though no sign of such buildings being ever traced, or that there had ever been a thought, either as to the expediency or possibility of erecting such a structure: a British Temple of Honour, sacred to the piety, learning, valour, publick-spirit, loyalty, and every other glorious virtue of our ancestours, and ready also for the reception of the worthies of our own time, and the heroes of posterity." 48 The three chief compilers who undertook to erect this British Temple of Honour were John Campbell (1708-1775), Thomas Broughton (1704-1774), and William Oldys (16961761). Campbell, the friend of Johnson and Boswell, was known among his contemporaries as a man of diligence and ability. When Horace Walpole inquired for a true genealogy of the Bentleys, Campbell, who was among those present, assured him that he would put it into the next edition of the Biographia Britannica.4S Sir John Hawkins reported that he was " a learned, ingenious and pious man." 47 In fact, his efforts had been given over so entirely to historical research that he was considered a reliable authority on the less frequented paths of history. At the age of eighteen, he had pro45 46

Preface, p. viii. Letters, Paget Toynbee's edition, III, 281. Life of Johnson, Dublin edition, 1787, p. 188.

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duced a Military History of the late Prince Eugene and the late John, Duke of Marlborough. About 1740, he had begun to contribute articles to the Universal History (1740-1744).4, For the Modern Universal History he provided articles dealing with sections in the histories of Spain, Portugal, Holland, Sweden, and France. In addition to these contributions, he wrote the Lives of the English Admirals and Other Great Seamen in four volumes. When the Biographia Britannica was begun in 1747, Campbell was equipped to offer much to its pages. Although his chief province lay in the treatment of distinguished members of British noble families, he recorded data concerning a wide variety of characters. His articles were usually signed with an E or an X. Thomas Broughton contributed the sketches marked T. Sir John Hawkins, Horace Walpole, and Nichols reported that he was a man of great diligence and ingenuity. For a time during his literary development, he undertook works which approached the fictional quality of the biographical efforts of Defoe, but before he had settled himself in such a field, he came in contact with men who were painstaking in their endeavors to record only the truth. Their influence was stimulating, with the result that he forsook completely the lure of the semi-fictional Life. His share in the work of the Biographia Britannica was comparatively small, but there is nothing to disprove the conclusion that he was a resourceful and diligent colleague. The most important figure in the compilation of the dictionary was William Oldys. From the time that his Life of Raleigh (1736) appeared, 49 Oldys was recognized as a trustworthy authority in the wide provinces of history and biography. Boswell called him " a man of eager curiosity and indefatigable diligence, who first exerted that spirit of inquiry into the literature of the old English writers, by which the works of our great dramatic poet have of late been so signally 45 Cosmogony is the only article consistently attributed to him. edition of the Biographia Britannica (1778). 49

Ante,

p. 203.

Cf. second

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illustrated." 50 Hawkins was even more laudatory; 51 and Walpole, who found the second edition of the Biograpkia Britannica insufferably partial, had nothing but praise for the volumes in which Oldys was a contributor. More recent criticism has sustained the judgments of the eighteenth century concerning Oldys' work in this dictionary. Edmund Gosse reported that Oldys was the first to speak out boldly against the highly artificial and rhetorical form of Life-writing of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries,62 and while this is by no means the case, the statement at least places Oldys in the right class of biographer. Before he began his work on the Biograpkia Britannica, in addition to his Life of Raleigh (1736), he had worked with Mattaire on the British Librarian (1738), 53 and had done the major share of the work on the Harleian Miscellany (1744). 54 According to Boswell, it was Oldys and not Johnson who selected and edited this valuable collection of early manuscripts and pamphlets with such scrupulous care.65 His constant industry in investigating old pamphlets and manuscripts, and his care in arranging the results of his researches, were excellent equipment for the work involved in biographical lexicography. When in 1747 the publishers for whom he had been working saw the need for a compilation to take the place of the General Dictionary, Oldys' services were sought at once. He accepted bo Life of Johnson, 1860, Philadelphia, p. 44. 51 Cf. Life of Johnson, Dublin ed., 1787, p. 120. 52 Encyclopaedia Britannica sub " Biography." 53 The catalogue Librorum Manuscriptum Angliae et Hiberniae. 51 " At what part of the catalogue Oldys' labours ended and Johnson's begin, I have no express authority for saying: It is related by Johnson, by a person who w'as very likely to know the fact, that he was employed by Osborne to make a catalogue of the Harleian Library, and if not to make such remarks on the books as are above inserted, an ordinary hand would have done as well; but it required the learning of a scholar to furnish such intelligence as the catalogue contains. This is one of the facts on which I ground my assertion that Johnson worked on the catalogue; to discriminate between his notes and those of Oldys, is not easy; as literary curiosities, and as a specimen of a great work, they nevertheless deserve attention." Hawkins' Life of Johnson, ed. Dublin, 1787, p. 121. 55 Cf. Life of Johnson, ed. Philadelphia, 1860, p. 44.

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the commission, and proceeded immediately to define the object of the dictionary in the light of past compilations and his own tireless energy for accuracy. From 1747 to 1761 he was the figure around whom the compilers gathered, and to him they looked for suggestions and criticism. H e contributed only twenty-two sketches to the dictionary, but his presence as editor was responsible for much of the merit of many of the other accounts. It may readily be assumed that he wrote the preface which appeared in the first volume, and that most of the contributions were shaped according to his standards. His twenty-two sketches are thorough, meaty, and amply furnished with references. 68 The account of Shakespeare, although possibly not directly from Oldys' hand, 57 is representative of the quality of work that the Biographia Britannica attained. A comparison of this account with those which preceded it illustrates the advance in method and matter in biographical lexicography during the middle of the century. William Shakespeare was descended of a gentleman's family, at Stratford upon Avon, in the county of Warwick; but his father entering into the wool-trade, dealt considerably that way. He married the daughter and one of the heirs of Robert Arden, of Wellingcote in the same county. This gentlewoman brought him ten children, of whom our poet was the eldest, being born in April, 1564. At a proper age he was put to the free-school in Stratford, where he acquired the rudiments of Grammar-learning. Whether he discovered at this time any extraordinary genius or inclination for the Classics, is very uncertain; to make the best of any, he might be endued with, in that kind, was not the point in his father's view. He had no design to make a scholar of his son, but, on the contrary, took him early from school into his own business. He did not continue very long in this employ, as a minor, under the immediate guidance of his father; he resolved to write man sooner than ordinary, and at seventeen years of age married a woman of twenty-five. However, in respect to fortune, it was no imprudent match; and thus young Shake56 Edgerton Brydges found made " a perpetual impediment biography, I, 99. 57 Internal evidence, which sketches, aids in the attempt to

the footnotes so full and frequent that t h e y to reading the narrative consecutively." Autois a poor guide in identifying prove that the sketch w a s his.

biographical

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speare not only commenced master of a family, but became father 01 two if not three children, before he was out of his minority. So settled, he had no other thoughts than of pursuing the wool-trade, when happening to fall into the acquaintance of some persons, who followed the practice of deer-stealing, he was prevailed upon to engage with them in robbing Sir Thomas Lucy's park, at Cherlcot near Stratford. The injury being repeated more than once, that gentleman was provoked to enter a prosecution against the delinquents; and Shakespeare in revenge made him the subject of a ballad, which tradition says (for unluckily the piece is lost) was pointed with so much bitterness, that it became unsafe for the author to stay any longer in the country. To escape the hands of the Law, he fled to London, where, as might be expected from a man of wit and humour in his circumstances, he threw himself among the players. Thus, at length, this grand luminary was driven, by a very untoward accident, into his genuine and proper sphere of shining in the universe. His first admission into the playhouse was suitable to his appearance; a stranger, unacquainted and uninformed in this art, he was glad to be taken into the company in a very mean rank. Neither did his performance recommend him to any distinguished notice. The part of an actor neither engaged nor deserved his attention; it was far from filling, or being adequate to, the prodigious powers of his mind: he turned the advantage which that situation afforded him, to a higher and nobler use; and having, by practice and observation, acquainted himself with the mechanical part of the theatre, his native genius inspired all the other most essentially superior qualities of a playwright. But the whole view of this first attempt in stage-poetry being to procure a subsistence, he directed his endeavours solely to hit the taste and humour that then prevailed among the meaner sort of people, of whom the audience was generally composed; and therefore his images of life were drawn from those of that rank. These had no notion of the rules of writing, or the model of the Ancients. Shakespeare also set out without the advantage of education, and without the advice or assistance of the learned; equally without the patronage of the better sort, as without any acquaintance among them. But when his performances had merited the protection of his Prince, and the encouragement of the Court had succeeded to that of the Town, the works of his riper years are manifestly raised above those of his former. The dates of his plays sufficiently evidence, that his productions improved, in proportion to the respect he had for his

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auditors. In this way of writing he was an absolute original, and of such a peculiar cast, as hath perpetually raised and confounded the emulation of his successors; a compound of such very singular blemishes as well as beauties, that these latter have not more mocked the toil of every aspiring undertaker to emulate them than the former, as flaws intimately united to the diamonds, have baffled every attempt of the cunningest artists to take them out, without spoiling the whole. Queen Elizabeth, who shewed Shakespeare many marks of her favour, was so much pleased with the delightful character of Sir John Falstaff, in the two parts of Henry I V . that she commanded the author to continue it for one play more, and to shew the Knight in love, which he executed inimitably in the M e r r y Wives of Windsor. Among his other patrons, the E a r l of Southampton is particularly honoured by him, in the dedications of two poems, Venus and Adonis, and Lucrece; in the latter especially he expresses himself in such terms, as gives countenance to what is related of that patron's distinguished generosity to him. In the beginning of K i n g James the First's reign (if not sooner) he was one of the principal managers of the play-house, and continued in it several years afterwards; till having acquired such fortune as satisfied his moderate wishes and views in life, he quitted the stage, and all other business, and passed the remainder of his time in an honourable ease, among the conversation of his friends, at his native town of Stratford, with the gentlemen of the neighbourhood, to whom his pleasurable and good nature rendered him very agreeable. He lived in a very handsome house of his own purchasing to which he gave the name of New Place; and he had the good fortune to save it from the flames, in the dreadful fire that consumed the greater part of the town, in 1614. I t is very probable, he did not exercize his talent in poetry much, after his retirement. In the beginning of the year 1616 he made his Will, wherein he testified his respect to his quondam partners in the theatre; he appointed his youngest daughter, jointly with her husband, his executors, and bequeathed to them the best part of his estate, which they came into possession of not long after. He died on the 23rd of April following, being the fifty-third year of his age, and was interred among his ancestors, on the north side of the Chancel, in the great church of Stratford, where there is a handsome monument erected for him, inscribed with a simple elegiac distich in Latin ( T h e remainder of the account—about five hundred words—deals with the plays.)

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The first edition of the Biographia Britannica, running slowly and carefully until 1766, was a more noteworthy achievement than the unfinished second edition. In 1778, Johnson was asked by the publishers of the earlier compilation to edit an improved and enlarged second edition, but being occupied at the time, and having had enough of lexicography with his Dictionary of the English Language, he refused the offer, but in time regretted that he had declined the commission.58 The publishers then went to Andrew Kippis (17251795), who, after little deliberation, accepted the editorship. Kippis was a good scholar, but his strong Whig sympathies and his waning industry toward the end of his life caused the work to be mediocre. That he was well equipped with workable materials and with an investigating spirit cannot be doubted. In his youth he had read all the accounts in the ten large volumes of the General Dictionary; 59 and the works of Birch, Cibber, and Oldys were thoroughly familiar to him. By a cumulative process he had much biographical data gathered at the time the editorship was offered him, but save for the sketches of those who were his contemporaries, he was willing to rely on secondary sources. When the volumes of the second edition began to appear, they were not received with the same approbation as that accorded the earlier compilation. Owing to the fact that he was constantly suspected of political and denominational partiality, the compilation was greeted with only mild approval and at times with open hostility. Kippis had one reliable assistant for his work, Joseph Towers, who signed his articles T , while Kippis used the first letter of his name. Of Towers, the ever-observing Boswell reported that in spite of his " Whiggish democratical notions and propensities," he was " ingenious, knowing and convivial." 60 Of Kippis the same recorder observed that he was discharging his task in the editing of the Biographia Britannica " judiciously, distinctly, and with more impartiality than might have been 58

Bos well's Life, Philadelphia, 1860, p. 364. Gentleman's Magazine, 1795, II, 803. Life of Johnson, ed. 1860, p. 238.

69Vid. 60

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expected from a Separatist." 61 Walpole, prejudiced at the beginning by reason of the political sympathies of Kippis and Towers, and especially by a sketch that the former had drawn of his father, Sir Robert Walpole, 62 demanded: " What credit can a Biographia Britannica, which ought to be a standard work, deserve, when the editor is a mercenary writer, who runs about to relatives for directions, and adopts any tale they deliver to him? " In a letter written the year following the publication of the volume which contained the disturbing sketch of his father, he wrote: I have been turning over the new second volume of the Biographia, and find the additions very poor and lean performances. The lives entirely new are partial and flattering, being contributions of the friends of those whose lives are recorded. This publication, made at a time when I have lived to see several of my contemporaries deposited in this national Temple of Fame, has made me smile, and reflect that many preceding authors, who have been installed there with much respect, may have been as trifling personages as those we have known and now behold consecrated to memory. . .

These varying judgments of Boswell and Walpole offer an idea of the way in which the second edition of the compilation was received. The dictionary ran to only five volumes, ending abruptly with the field covered only in part.""' In these five volumes there is much that is taken verbatim from the earlier edition, and often instead of re-writing sketches in which changes were to be made, the compilers transcribed the accounts, and in footnotes made their corrections and amplifications—a scheme which is hardly satisfactory. The additions which the new edition contained were not of large volume, and as Walpole observed, the sketches were frequently contributed by the friends of the men whose lives were recorded, and as 61 62 63 64

Ibid., 343. Letters, ed. Toynbee, X, 264. Ibid:, 315.

Letters, ed. Toynbee, X I , 122. The remainder of the letter concerns itself with some of Kippis's partialities and errors. 65 Lack of approbation and the death of Kippis were responsible for the abrupt ending of the compilation.

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a result, the accounts were little more than tributes. Walpole found such an indiscriminate partiality in the compiler's work that he called it " Vindicato Britannia." Incomplete, and showing little advance in matter and none in method over the earlier dictionary, the second edition of the Biographia Britannica cannot be called a valuable reference work, or even a contribution to the development of biographical lexicography. The first edition remained a standard reference, commended by many, until the close of the century. So great was the interest in biographical compilations during the middle of the century that every London publisher who was ambitious to gain reputation and remuneration was eager to undertake the publication of a dictionary. It was chiefly a publisher's enterprise which produced The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the Time of Dean Swift in 1753. This work was professedly " compiled from ample materials scattered in a variety of books, and especially from the MS. notes of the late ingenious Mr. Coxeter and others." The " others " were William Oldys; Coxeter's chief source of information was Oldys' annotated copy of Langbaine's Dramatick Poets. This was the extent of the MS. notes; the rest of the material of biographical significance, save for a few exceptions, was gathered from the Poetical Register, the General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, and the early volumes of the Biographia Britannica. As a remunerative venture, and as a contribution to the province of valuable biographical reference, the four volumes of the Lives were a failure. Under the sub-title of the work was written " by Mr. Cibber." Colley Cibber, whose reputation as a man of literary accomplishment was increasing rather than waning, had been dead for a considerable interval at the time of the publication of the dictionary; but his son, Theophilus Cibber (17031758), who had by no means attained the same level of distinction, was dabbling occasionally in the lesser forms of writing. In 1752, when he was evidently not as yet in the King'sbench prison for debt, he started a work entitled The Lives and Characters of the most eminent Actors and Actresses of Great 19

278

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Britain and Ireland. A Life of Barton Booth, however, and a familiar epistle to his father's enemy, Warburton, were as far as his industry carried him. Immediately following this furtive effort, or even possibly while he was at work on it, he was confined for debt. It was during this confinement that he was approached by the publishers with their project for a dictionary of Lives of the poets. " For a gratuity of ten guineas, Theophilus Cibber suffered to be printed with his name, a book of no authority other than that which it derives from Winstanley, Langbaine and Jacob, and in other respects of little worth; but concerning which it is fit that the following fact should be made known: Cibber at the time of making this bargain, was under confinement for debt in the king's-bench prison, and with a view to deceive the public into a belief that the book was of his father's writing, it was concerted between the negotiators of it and himself to suppress his christian name, and that it should be printed as a work of Mr. Cibber." 60 The circulation of this report began with those men who listened attentively to Samuel Johnson, and believed every word that came from his lips. Boswell repeated the account of Hawkins with few variations in his first edition of the Life of Johnson. " He [Johnson] told us that the book, entitled The Lives of the Poets, by Mr. Cibber, was entirely supplied by Mr. Shiels, a Scotchman, one of his amanuenses. ' The booksellers,' said he, ' gave Theophilus Cibber, who was then in prison, ten guineas to allow Mr. Cibber to be put on the title-page, as the author; by this a double imposition was intended: in the first place, that it was the work of a Cibber at all; and, in the second place, that it was the work of old Cibber.' " 6 7 However, before a second edition of Boswell's Life appeared (1793), the Monthly Review for May, 1792, offered the following judgment of Johnson's statement and the circulation of it by Hawkins and Boswell: ®« Hawkins' Life of Johnson, Dublin, 1787, 183. 67 Life of Johnson, Philadelphia, 1860, 296-7.

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This account is very inaccurate. The following statement of facts we know to be true, in every material circumstance:—Shiels was the principal collector and digester of the materials for the work: but as he was very raw in authorship, an indifferent writer in prose, and his language full of Scotticisms. Cibber, who was a clever, lively fellow, and then soliciting employment among the booksellers, was engaged to correct the style and diction of the whole work, then intended to make only four volumes, with power to alter, expunge, or add as he liked. He was also to supply notes, occasionally, especially concerning those dramatic poets with whom he had been chiefly conversant. He also engaged to write several of the Lives; which (as we are told) he accordingly performed. He was farther useful in striking out the Jacobitical and Tory sentiments which Shiels had industriously interspersed wherever he could bring them in:—and as the success of the work appeared after all very doubtful, he was content with 21 pounds for his labour, besides a few sets of the books to disperse among his friends. . . . The proprietors were discontented in the end on account of Mr. Cibber's unexpected industry; for his corrections and alterations in the proof sheets were so numerous and considerable, that the printer made for them a grievous addition to his bill; and in fine, all parties were dissatisfied. . . . As to the alleged design of making the compilement pass for the work of old Mr. Cibber, the charges seem to be founded on a somewhat uncharitable construction. We are assured that the thought was not harboured by some of the proprietors, who are still living; and we hope that it did not occur to the first designer of the work, who was also the printer of it, and who bore a respectable character. . . . Shiels was the Doctor's amanuensis: he had quarrelled with Cibber; it is natural to suppose that he told his story in his own way; and it is certain that he was ' not a very sturdy moralist.' 6 8 T h e article of the Monthly Review contains the true statement of the case. T h e fact, however, that Cibber really contributed something besides his attractive name to the compilation does not make it a great performance. T h e sketches are superficial and pompously written; of biographical value there is little that cannot be found in the earlier compilations. The 68

In the second edition of the Life,

Johnson's statement.

B o s w e l l q u o t e d the article in a n o t e t o

A s proof of his eagerness t o be accurate, there is his

observation f o l l o w i n g the q u o t a t i o n : " T h i s explanation appears t o m e t o be v e r y satisfactory."

Edition 1860, p. 296.

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name C I B B E R standing on the title pages did not rescue it from inferiority even at the time of its publication, nor did the frequent flamboyance of its style cause anyone to commend its professed literary merit. A contemporary critic, who was often more bitter than just, observed with much truth, " It is, to say no worse of it, an insignificant performance." B0 The interest of the age in all manner of compilations found even the fastidious Walpole ready for a contribution to the rapidly growing province. With all due respect for Walpole the letter-writer, it cannot be said that he was a tireless antiquarian and a careful scholar. Even as a Gothic romancer, he was little interested in accuracy of atmosphere and history. When, however, the growing interest in biographical compilations came to his attention, a plan suggested itself to him to attempt a dictionary of his own, the matter and province to be limited, and of course appropriate to one of his rank. The result was A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, With Lists of their Works. The catalogue appeared in two little volumes in 1758; and a second edition, corrected and enlarged, was brought out in London in 1759, the earlier work having been printed at Strawberry Hill. The scope of the work included kings, queens, and peers who had literary ability from Richard I to George Booth, Earl of Warrington (d. 1758). Realizing that the term " Authors " needed some definition for a work of this kind, Walpole, in his Preface, wrote as follows: " I n compiling this Catalogue, I have not inserted persons as authors, of whom there is nothing extant but letters or speeches. Such pieces show no intention in the writers to have been authors, and would swell this treatise to an immense magnitude. Bishop Tanner has erected many Kings and Queens into authors on these and still slenderer pretensions, in which he surpasses even his bountiful predecessor Bale. According to the former even Queen Elanor was an author for letters she is said to have written; and Edward the Third for his writs and precepts to Sheriffs. But 69

Berkenhout, Biographia

Literaria,

1777.

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281

this is ridiculous." 70 Furthermore, Royal and Noble Authors were defined in only their strictest sense by the author; knights such as Sidney and Raleigh were not eligible for admission. With the province thus narrowed, Walpole proceeded to develop his catalogue. The classification of material was simple and practical. Volume I was intended to house the material that dealt with Royal Authors, and Volume II, with Noble Authors. The Royal Authors, however, were not sufficiently numerous to fill the first book, so a few peers were brought in to augment the volume. The biographical accounts were arranged chronologically, but such a method causes slight inconvenience to the reader, for the volumes are small, neither running to more than 250 pages. The sketches range in length from fifteen pages (Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is the longest) to a single sentence, as in the instance of Mildmay Fane, Earl of Westmoreland, of whom the author wrote: " All I can say of this Lord, is, that he wrote ' a very small book of poems ' which he gave to and is still preserved in the library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge." 71 The longer accounts often contain genealogical diagrams and some choice wisps of information. Berkenhout's observations that " the matter it contains is curious and important; the language polished, nervous, and pointed; the sentiments impartial, liberal, noble," 72 are a bit deceiving. That the material is often curious is true enough, but its importance can at times be questioned. The author's impartiality is always evident; in fact, there was rarely enough space devoted to a man to allow panegyric or severe criticism to develop. The brevity of the accounts eliminated any inclination on the author's part toward partiality, but it eliminated substantial information as well. It is with small confidence that a reader who seeks information about a prince's literary talents can go to the work, for the treatment of mate70 71 72

Preface, edition of 17S9, p. iv. Vol. I, p. 231. Biograpkia Literaria, 1777.

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rial is so brief and fragmentary that the accounts have little value. There are no gross omissions in the selection of royal and noble authors, but within the sketches there are often unaccountable gaps. Francis Bacon, for instance, is presented thus: " T h e Prophet of Arts, which Newton was sent afterwards to reveal. It would be impertinent to the reader to enter into any account of this amazing genius or his works: Both will be universally admired as long as Science exists. . . . As long as ingratitude and adulation are despicable, so long shall we lament the depravity of this great Man's heart. . . . Alas! that HE, who could command immortal fame, should have stooped to the little ambition of power! " 73 The compilation is a decorative little thing, the kind of catalogue that would be expected of Horace Walpole, but it is not recommended as a reference work to students who are seeking biographical facts concerning the literary inclinations of English royalty and nobility. In fact, its biographical value is so small that it cannot justifiably be named among those works which present the essential facts of a man's life. When only a limited phase of national biography is undertaken, the reader expects the material to be more thoroughly treated than in the general dictionaries. Walpole's interesting phase of national biography reveals none of this thoroughness, and as a result, it is little more than a curiosity. When Francis Bacon belongs to the selection of material, then whether it is impertinent to the reader or not, there should be more than a lament for his " stooping to the little ambition of power." Biographical compilations that are afraid of insulting the intelligence of the reader are not correctly motivated. Walpole's purpose in producing his catalogue was not that of a compiler of a serviceable dictionary, and hence he cannot be judged as other than a dilettante in a field in which there is small room for dabblers. During the decades following the appearance of Cibber's Lives and Walpole's brief compilation, there was considerable activity among those of scholarly inclinations in the field of 73

Vol. I, p. 181.

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283

biographical lexicography. Floyd's Biblioteca Biographia appeared in three volumes in 1760, and Harwood's Biographia Classica, compiled in the late sixties, was issued in an enlarged two-volume edition in 1778. Floyd's work has little to commend it. The earlier compilations were his chief sources of information, and his manner of presenting his materials showed no improvement on earlier works of the kind. Harwood's effort, with its province limited, was an interesting and faithful piece of work. A succinctness of manner that differs completely from the fragmentary quality of Walpole's entries, and a nice sense of discrimination in the lists of biographical facts, made the work a useful contribution to the dictionaries of the age. Even before Harwood's compilation appeared, an extremely useful work was produced, entitled The Companion to the Playhouse: or an Historical Account of All the Dramatic Writers (And Their Works) that have appeared, in Great Britain and Ireland, From the Commencement of our Theatrical Exhibitions, down to the Present Year 1764. Composed in the Form of a Dictionary, for the more readily turning to any particular Author, or Performance (1764). No name appears on the title-page, but from later editions of the work,74 it can readily be gathered that the compiler was David Erskine Baker (1730-1767). The Introduction to the first volume contained a forty-two page critical account of the rise and progress of the English stage. This survey does much to assure the reader that the material which follows is the work of a writer whose knowledge of the theatre was exhaustive and intimate. An examination of the contents of the two volumes confirms the judgment formed while reading the Introduction concerning the author's capabilities. The Companion to the Playhouse is divided into two parts, volume one, listing alphabetically " every Tragedy, Comedy, Farce, Etc. in the English Language," and a brief critical account of the merits of each 74 A second edition entitled Biographia Dramatica, with the sub-title The Companion to the Playhouse, edited by Isaac Reed, appeared in 1782. In 1811, Stephen Jones edited a third edition.

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piece; and volume two, dealing with the "Lives and Productions of every Dramatic Writer for the English and Irish Theatres, including not only those Memoirs which have been formerly written, but also a great number of new Lives and Curious Anecdotes never before communicated to the Public." In addition to these Lives, there are sketches of actors who were likewise authors and adapters. Neither volume is so inclusive as the terms " every Tragedy " and " every Dramatic Writer " suggest, but for its size—approximately five hundred pages of small print to each volume—the compilation is quite comprehensive. The second volume, containing the biographical sketches, with its province limited to those authors who wrote for the stage, is remarkably complete. Few omissions occur between George Adams, author of the Lije and Death of Sophocles, an historical play, and Robert Yarrington and Edward Young. In the Biographia Liter aria (1777) Berkenhout reported that the work was " a better and more comprehensive account of our dramatic poets and their works, than any other book in the English language." In this instance, Berkenhout's judgment may be taken literally; with its scope narrowed to playwrights, Baker's compilation covered the province in such a complete and accurate way that the age for which it was produced was justified in commending it. The sketches, most of which were shorter than those in the contemporary dictionaries, contained no footnotes, and only meagre reference material in the text; but the author, seeking to make his work practical by keeping it unencumbered by names of sources and amplifications of points of conjecture, relied completely on the confidence which his readers might have in his authority and reliability. For instance, in the Shakespeare sketch, Baker, without hinting that he had a definite authority for his data, transcribed word for word the account in the Biographia Britannica and added a carefully verified list of the dramatist's plays. Evidently it was enough for him to have confidence in the account of the earlier compilation, and without mentioning his particular indebtedness to

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285

the compiler in the Biographia Britannica, he passed on that account which he knew was accurate. In the sketch of George Peele, however, he offered an account that was different from those of the earlier lexicographers, and in his list of Peele's dramatic works, he pointed out the errors into which Wood, Winstanley, and others had fallen in their lists. On the other hand, in his account of Dryden, he condensed the inaccurate report of the poet's funeral without questioning the veracity of " Charles Wilson's " story.75 Langbaine and Jacob were often mentioned in connection with his lists of plays, at times as compilers on whom he relied implicitly, and again as investigators who fell into inaccuracies. But the compilation employed no consistent plan in its small effort to associate Baker's statements with his sources of information; the accuracy of the data is vested almost completely in the authority of the author. The absence of notes to indicate sources of information does not destroy the authoritative quality of the work, but it leaves the compilation destitute of that reference material which is often reassuring to the reader, and which he often sorely needs.78 While Baker was at work with his Companion to the Playhouse, another biographical dictionary was well under way. In 1761, the early volumes of A New and General Biographical Dictionary, professedly " containing an Historical and Critical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in every Nation; particularly the British and Irish; from the Earliest Accounts of Time to the Present Period," made their appearance. Before the close of the decade, twelve large volumes were compiled." The chief sources of information were admittedly Wood's Athenae Oxonienses, Pierre Bayle's Dictionary, The General Dictionary (Bernard, Lockman, and 75

See Chapter III, ante, p. 149. The later editions of this work, the one edited by Reed in 1782, the other by Jones in 1811, were equally deficient in this respect, and their additions in attempting to bring the work up to date were meagre and often inaccurate. 77 In 1798 a new edition, enlarged and corrected, appeared. It showed no marked advance over the earlier edition save in the matter of bringing the work up to date. 76

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B i r c h ) , The Historical Dictionary (Le Clerc's edition and that of Collier), and the Biographia Britannica. Baker's compilation was frequently recommended to the readers of the New Dictionary for reliable lists of authors' dramatic works. In addition to the information which the editors gathered from these earlier compilations, they had gathered a considerable sheaf of manuscripts and letters from reliable sources, and on these they frequently based their accounts. As is indicated in the sub-title, the scope of the work included not only Englishmen, but also eminent persons of all nations, and with this latter class the editors were forced to rely chiefly on the authority of Le Clerc and Bayle. T h e content of the work and its purpose are defined by the editors as follows: This contains some account of every life that has been sufficiently distinguished to be recorded; not indeed a list of all the Names that are to be found in chronological and regal tables, for of many nominal rulers both of Church and State it can only be said that they lived and died; but a judicious narrative of the actions and writings, the honours and disgraces of all those whose Virtues, Parts, Learning or even Vices, have preserved them from Oblivion in any records, of whatever age, and in whatever language. This work will therefore naturally include a history of the most remarkable and interesting transactions, an historical account of the progress of learning, and an abstract of all opinions and principles by which the world has been influenced in all its extent and duration. We have been particularly careful to do justice to the learned and ingenious of our own country, whose works are justly held in the highest esteem; and we have also been attentive to the instruction and amusement of the ladies, not only by decorating this Work with the Names of those who have done honour to the sex, but by making our account of others sufficiently particular to excite and gratify curiosity; and, where the subject would admit, to interest the passions, without wearying attention, by minute prolixity or idle speculations. In the execution of this plan we have not had recourse merely to dictionaries, nor contented ourselves with supplying the defects of one dictionary from another, and cutting off the redundancies of all, but we have collected from every performance in every language that

BIOGRAPHICAL had a n y relation to our Design.

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287

For the lives of the A u t h o r s , we

h a v e h a d recourse to their w o r k s ; and for the lives of others, to the best memoirs that are extant concerning them.

W e shall, however,

notwithstanding the extent of our undertaking, and the labour and expense necessary to the execution of it, comprize this w o r k within T w e l v e volumes in octavo, and sell them for Six shillings a v o l u m e ; so that the price of the whole will be no more than T h r e e pounds t w e v e shillings when bound. 7 8

Eighteenth century letters have offered no specific information concerning the names of the chief compilers of this work; to scan the pages of Boswell, Hawkins, Johnson, Walpole, Frederic Reynolds, and others who observed much that was going on around them, especially such things as biographical dictionaries, will yield no satisfactory clue concerning the identity of the men who produced this work. Berkenhout reported that a group of booksellers, " without the assistance of an author, or even a transcriber," were responsible for the compilation.79 Evidently the booksellers who offered their time to this work were so well equipped as lexicographers that there was no need for professional authors and transcribers. The work was " printed for T . Osborne, J. Whiston, B. White, W. Strahan, T . Payne, W. Owen, W. Johnson, S. Crowder, B. Law, T . Field, T . Durham, J. Robson, R. Goadby, and E. Baker." In this group there are familiar names to the student of eighteenth century letters. Osborne, the bibliophile; William Owen and William Johnson, antiquaries; and Samuel Crowder, a scholar and friend of the Wartons, were prepared to undertake such a work. The sketches in the compilation were not signed, but it is certain that Osborne had at his command a group of diligent investigators and transcribers who understood the value of reliable biographical information, concisely phrased. Had the work been a trifling performance, then the absence of specific information concerning its compilers would be a matter of small consequence. The New and General Bio78 78

Preface, p. vi et seq., 1761. Cf. Biographia Literaria, 1777.

288

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graphical Dictionary, however, was an excellent piece of work, and its editors deserve credit for producing a more comprehensive and valuable compilation than any that was current during the late decades of the century. The early volumes were more thorough and painstaking than those toward the end. Possibly the scope was too wide to run over the entire province with the same thoroughness that was evident in the accounts that were devoted to names of the early part of the alphabet. The letter A occupies the entire first volume, but by the time the alphabet was approaching Z, four and five letters were included in a volume. This was possibly the result of the varying degrees of diligence in the different editors, or possibly the entire group of lexicographers became a little weary as the work progressed. Had the compilation continued as it started with the letter A, it would have developed into a work of considerable magnitude. But as it stands in twelve volumes, there is much to commend it as a contribution to the method and matter of biographical lexicography. The sketches are alphabetically arranged, regardless of the nationality, occupation and rank of the subject—a method which is after all more satisfactory than those elaborate schemes of classifying mankind according to the whim of the compiler. In addition to this merit in the arrangement of the material, the editors followed a consistent plan for the listing of authorities and references. In the margins, the authorities are given, even to the page of the work and often to the date of the edition. At the bottom of the page are the ample footnotes, in which material definitely pertinent to issues raised in the text appears. Here quotations from authorities are listed and points of conjecture are discussed, all in modest point type that does not insist by its size that it be read at once. The inconvenience in the earlier compilations of the constantly recurring footnotes which by position, volume, and type demanded immediate attention is not encountered here. Furthermore, the material in the sketches is logically and compactly arranged, and in the accounts there is much biographical fact.

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289

The sketches dealing with English figures are justifiably of greater length than those of ancient or continental celebrities, although in both instances the accounts are succinct and amply supplied with references. Aeschylus and Abelard, Alexander of Naples and Alfred, all are presented in sufficient detail, in both sketch proper and marginal references and footnotes. Gaps occur in the selection of figures and in the sequence of the events in the individual sketches, but the omissions cannot be called gross, especially when the wideness of the province of the work is taken into consideration. It is a compilation to which even the modern student can go with a certain assurance that the information which he needs is to be found, and to be found without inconvenience. Original contributions of material were not frequent. The men who undertook the work were rarely inclined toward rewriting that which they could authenticate in the works of earlier compilers. A t times, facts were added to the verbatim transcripts, but more generally the sketches which were included are to be found in earlier works. T h e sketch of Shakespeare, for instance, is in large part a word for word transcript from the account in the Biographia Britannica, or more specifically from The Companion to the Playhouse in which Baker had taken over the Biographia sketch. There were, however, a few improvements in the account in the New Dictionary; the day of the month of Shakespeare's birth appeared, and the mulberry-tree story was eliminated in favor of additional data concerning the eighteenth century editions of the plays. Instead of a critical list of the plays, the compilers nec

Ed. 1788, p. 2. Ed. 1788, p. 129.

For a continuation of this quotation, vid. infra, p. 402.

METHODS

OF WILLIAM

MASON

313

His apparently sound justification for the brevity of the account does not make the Memoirs of Whitehead a better illustration of Life-writing. A modern estimate of the value of the work corresponds to that judgment made by Boswell in 1790: " The Life of Whitehead is not a life at all." 46 Later, in the Life of Johnson, Boswell remarked that in the Memoirs of William Whitehead, " there is literally no Life, but a mere dry narrative of facts." 47 In both matter and method, the Memoirs of Thomas Gray was a far more significant contribution to the province of biography. BIBLIOGRAPHY (CHAPTER SEVEN) T H E METHODS OF W I L L I A M

MASON

Boswell, James. Letters to Temple, London, 1908; Life of Johnson, 1791. (Contain Boswell's judgment of Mason's Lives.) Draper, John William. William Mason: A Study in Eighteenth Century Culture, New York University Press, 1924. Gosse, Edmund. Works of Thomas Gray, 4 vols., London, 1885. Gray's Letters and Poems. New York, 1827. (Letters follow the text in Mason's Memoirs of Gray.) Mason, William. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Gray, 1775. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Whitehead, 1788. Complete Works, 4 vols., London, 1811. Mitford, John. Correspondence of Thomas Gray and William Mason . . . , London, 1853. Monthly Review. For criticism of Mason's Memoirs of Gray, see Vol. LII, p. 337; Vol. LIII, pp. 9, 10, 101 et seq. Toynbee, Paget. The Correspondence of Gray, Walpole, West, and Ashton, 2 vols., Oxford University Press, 1915. Walpole, Horace. Letters of Horace Walpole, 9 vols., ed. Peter Cunningham, London, 1857. 40 47

Letters to Temple, ed. London, 1908, p. 218. Introductory passage to the Life of Johnson.

VIII JOHNSON'S LIVES OF THE POETS

I

N 1777, while biographical compilations were illustrating the steady development of scholarly investigation and accuracy, and while full-length biography was rapidly coming into its own as a popular literary form, an epoch was marked in the development of critical biography. It was the year of the beginning of Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets. The Life of Cowley was sent to the press in December, 1777, and in March, 1781, the last of the Lives—that of Thomas Gray —was finished.1 No work of the century in the province of biography aroused so much interest among readers and critics, and it is safe to say that no series of biographical accounts has been so frequently consulted and so consistently used for quotation by students of literature. For information and judgments concerning poets from Cowley (1618-1667) to Gray (1716-1771), the Lives of the Poets has served, and will continue to serve, its purpose well. By 1777, Samuel Johnson was admirably equipped to undertake the writing of a series of Lives of the poets. He was approaching his seventieth year when he began to commit to writing those observations and reflections concerning several generations of authors, some of whom he had personally known, and all of whom he had studied. Forty years of his life were given over to pursuits which were definitely in line with his last great undertaking. Even before he came to London as a young man of twenty-eight, he was interested in poets and their art. The years which followed found his interest in authors increasing. His employment with Cave, editor of the Gentleman's Magazine; his association with all manner of 1

Boswell, reprint of the Malone edition, Philadelphia, 1860, p. 439. 314

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Grub Street personalities; and his efforts with the Rambler and the Idler all contributed to the fund of information concerning men of letters which his mind accumulated and his memory retained. Critic, hack-writer, poet, dramatist, lexicographer, and biographer were roles that he filled constantly during his early and middle years. To him there came much gossip and fact concerning both great and small in the realm of letters; and he, by reason of his consuming interest in those of literary inclinations, absorbed it all, and made many firsthand observations of his own. No man of the eighteenth century had his finger more firmly on the pulse of the age. In an age which saw Pope at his zenith, and in which Thomson, Collins, Young, and Gray made their bid for fame, Samuel Johnson, with eye alert, observed and judged that which was going on about him. " Those who lived most in intimacy with him,'' wrote Boswell, " heard him upon all occasions, when there was a proper opportunity, take delight on expatiating upon the various merits of the English poets, upon the niceties of their characters, and the events of their progress through the world which they contribute to illuminate." 2 Johnson always was fond of " expatiating upon the various merits of English poets," but during his early and middle years in London, he was more the observer and listener than the well informed talker that Boswell knew. His duties as hack-writer and critic during the early years of his life in London did much to cultivate in him a careful observation of men. To a certain extent, his interest in men was professional, for his activities were often under Cave's direction. Furthermore, the age in which he lived was not unobservant of "the niceties of men's characters"; the " proper study of mankind " was man, and Johnson was not a rebel to the prevailing conviction of the time. During his early life, he liked company, not only for the outlet which those of his kind afforded him, but also for the satisfaction that he obtained in observing them. Late in life, his interest in his fellows began to wane, but during the four decades pre2

Boswell, p. 439.

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ceding 1777, he was as much the observer as the observed. His assignments and contributions to Cave's periodical demanded a study of men, and as a result of such training, his natural inquisitiveness was augmented, and his observations of the significant details of personality became habitual. His own aspirations and his sufferings during the early years of his career in London had much to do with his understanding of authors' hearts and minds. He knew the ins and outs of Grub Street, its trials and disappointments, and its triumphs. During these years he was not only the untiring student of books; it was he who walked the streets of London at night with Savage, and who read with satisfaction the commendation that the illustrious Pope had offered one of his own translations. 3 His coming to London was not much different from that of James Thomson; and the character of William Shenstone, " wishing for money, for fame, and other distinctions," 1 was not incomprehensible to him. Those who read the Lives of the Poets are often inclined to forget the Johnson who in the 40's sheltered " whole nests of people in his house," and who befriended beggars and who knew the squalid aspects of city life. Years later, when his reputation was established as a literary dictator, his admirers wondered at the breadth of his knowledge of human nature. At the sumptuous board of Mrs. Thrale, he praised her wit; " ' And yet,' continued the doctor, with the most comical look, ' I have known all the wits, from Mrs. Montagu down to Bet Flint! '—1 Bet Flint! ' cried Mrs. Thrale; ' pray who is she? '—' O, a fine character, Madam! She was habitually a slut and a drunkard, and occasionally a thief and a harlot.'—' And for Heaven's sake, how came you to know her? '—' Why, Madam, she figured in the literary world, too.' " 5 3

Johnson translated Pope's Messiah

4

Gray to Nicholls, June 24, 1769.

into Latin verse while he was at Oxford. Correspondence

o) Gray and Nicholls,

ed.

Mitford, 1843. 5

Autobiography,

Letters

ward, Boston, 1861, p. 38. with Bet Flint, Lije, p. 461.

and Literary

Remains

of Mrs. Piozzi,

ed. A. H a y -

See also Boswell's version of Johnson's association

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Walter Raleigh, in the last of his Six Essays on Johnson, offered a penetrating judgment of Johnson's interest in people. " His delight in human creatures gave zest to his biographical labors," observed the distinguished author, " and his long familiarity with the rudiments of life gave sanity and clarity to his judgments. Some of the good qualities which he found in his friend Savage were also in himself, and were perhaps no small part of the bond between them. ' Compassion,' he says, 'was the distinguishing quality of Savage; he never appeared inclined to take advantage of weakness, to attack the defenceless, or to press upon the falling: whoever was distressed was certain at least of his good wishes; and when he could give no assistance to extricate them from misfortunes, he endeavoured to soothe them by sympathy and tenderness.' Intellectual curiosity must have been as strong a tie," continued Raleigh. " When Savage conversed with those who were conspicuous at the time, ' he watched their looser moments,' says his biographer, ' and examined their domestick behaviour with that acuteness which nature had given him, and which the uncommon variety of his life had contributed to increase, and that inquisitiveness which must always be produced in a vigorous mind by an absolute freedom from all pressing or domestic engagements.' " 6 Johnson's interest in men began to direct itself into a literary channel shortly after his arrival in London. From the time that he wrote a " Life of Father Paul Sarpi " for the Gentleman's Magazine in 1738, he recognized biography as a literary form that was worthy of his efforts. To him, Lifewriting was one of the most valuable phases of literature. According to Boswell, " Philology and biography were his favourite pursuits." 7 Sir John Hawkins reported that " Biography was a kind of writing he delighted in; it called forth his powers of reflection, and gave him occasion to contemplate human life and manners." 8 As early as 1759, Johnson an6 7 8

Oxford Press, 1910, p. 171. Boswell, p. 439. Life of Johnson, Dublin edition, 1787, p. 136.

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nounced in one of the issues of the Idler that " Biography is of the various kinds of narrative writing that which is most eagerly read, and most easily applied to the purposes of life." While he and Boswell were discussing Bayle's Dictionary, Johnson remarked: " Bayle's Dictionary is a very useful work for those to consult who love the biographical part of literature, which is what I love most." 10 His reading in the province of Life-writing that was extant in England at the time was well-nigh all-inclusive. Boswell reported scores of judgments that Johnson offered concerning those who had written Lives. Walton, 11 Cibber,12 Birch/ 1 Ruffhead, 14 Derrick, 15 Granger,16 and Mason 17 were only a few of the authors of Lives with whom Johnson was intimate. Long before he accepted the proposal of the booksellers to write the Lives of the Poets, he was familiar with all of those biographical accounts that had been written about Cowley, Dryden, Pope, and the rest. It is safe to say that there were surprisingly few sustained biographical accounts of the poets which were in print at the time that he did not know.18 In addition to his familiarity with the form, and his recognition of its value, he understood clearly the defining features of good Life-writing. When Boswell inquired about the necessity for absolute truth in biographical accounts, Johnson's reply was simple and direct. " The value of any story depends on its being true. A story is a picture either of an individual or of human nature in general; if it be false, it is nothing." 19 A short time later Boswell made the observation 9

November 24, 17S9. Boswell, p. 117. 11 P. 258. 12 P. 296. 13 P. 42.

Number 84.

10

!*P. 126. 15

P. 126. P. 280. 17 Pp. 243, 382. 18 To my knowledge, he did not miss an extant Life of any importance in his gathering of materials for the fifty-two Lives of the Poets. 19 Boswell, p. 275. 16

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that " in writing a life, a man's peculiarities should be mentioned, because they mark his character." To this Johnson replied as follows: " Sir, there is no doubt as to peculiarities: the question is, whether a man's vices should be mentioned; for instance, whether it should be mentioned that Addison and Parnell drank too freely; for people will probably more easily indulge in drinking from knowing this; so that more ill may be done by the example than good by telling the whole truth. . . ." " If a man is to write a panegyric," he explained in a conversation with Boswell and Lord Hailes, " he may keep vices out of sight; but if he professes to write a Life, he must represent it really as it was." 20 " Nobody," he once told Boswell, when the latter asked him for a judgment of Goldsmith's Life of Parnell, " can write the life of a man, but those who have eat, and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him." 21 He often reiterated the advantages of intimacy between biographer and subject. " They only who live with a man can write his life with any genuine exactness and discrimination; and few people who have lived with a man know what to remark about him. The chaplain of a late Bishop, whom I was to assist in writing some Memoirs of his Lordship, could tell me scarcely any thing." 22 These critical dicta concerning the form are only a part of Johnson's standards for biography. A survey of the speeches that he made concerning Life-writing as Boswell and others reproduced them, of articles in the Idler and Rambler in which biography was discussed,2' and of his judgments of the form in the various Lives of the poets, reveals that he was not only familiar with the field, but that he was also well equipped to judge the contributions to it. Forty years before he undertook the writing of the Lives of the Poets, Johnson wrote biography. His experience with his early attempts was invaluable to him as his interest in the form increased. These early accounts were written between 1738 and 1756, and with few exceptions they appeared originally in 20

Boswell, p. 337. Boswell, p. 190. 22 Boswell, p. 278. 23 See especially Number 60 of the Rambler. 21

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the Gentleman's Magazine, or the Literary Magazine, or as prefixes to the works of authors whose efforts were first coming to the press or undergoing a new edition. In most instances, these narratives were out-and-out hack-work, but in spite of their lack of inspiration, they illustrate the materials and methods of Johnson as an experimental biographer. The subject-matter of these narratives lacks the appeal to students of literature that the accounts in the Lives of the Poets possess, and the manner of the author is only at intervals the engaging manner that is associated with the later biographies of the poets. The value of these sketches, however, must be recognized by those who would study Johnson primarily as a biographer. The first of these was a brief " Life of Father Paul Sarpi," which was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1738." The following year, the same periodical issued the " Life of Dr. Herman Boerhaave." In 1740, the " L i f e of Admiral B l a k e " appeared. In 1741, Johnson finished his account of John Philip Barretier, and a fairly voluminous " Life of Sir Francis Drake." 25 The " Life of Peter Burman " was printed in 1742, and in the same year, prefixing John Swan's new translation of Sydenham's works, was a " Life of Thomas Sydenham." The Student issued Johnson's brief account of Francis Cheynel in 1751, and a " Life of Edward Cave " was written for the Gentleman's Magazine in 1754. A somewhat detailed narrative of Charles Frederick, King of Prussia, appeared in the Literary Magazine in 1756. Brief sketches of Sir Thomas Browne and of Roger Ascham were prefixed to new editions of their works in 1752 and 1763 respectively. 20 This polyglot assortment of Italians, Dutchmen, Germans, Elizabethan, and eighteenth century admirals and savants 24 This was Johnson's first contribution to the Gentleman's Magazine. The account was originally intended to be a full-length Life. Cf. Hawkins' Life of Johnson, Dublin edition, 1787, p. 81. 25 These were published in installments in the Gentleman's Magazine. 26 Cf. Malone's " Chronological Catalogue " in his edition of Boswell's Life. Mention was made of these accounts in the Monthly Review, XIV, 448 [Browne] and X X X V I I I , 147 [Aschaml.

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formed part of the twelfth volume in the Collected Works of 1796.27 As early as 1739, Johnson in his account of Boerhaave, announced that " we could have made it [the Life] much larger, by adopting flying reports, and inserting unattested facts; a close adherence to certainty has contracted our narrative, and hinders it from swelling to that bulk, at which modern histories generally arrive."28 This " close adherence to certainty" guided Johnson in all of his earlier accounts. The truth that the narratives contained was almost their only recommendation; and Johnson, eager to establish himself as a trustworthy authority, was, it would seem, primarily concerned with their fidelity to fact. That subjectivity, choiceness of phrase, and penetrating interpretation of character that many of the later accounts possess are not evident here. He was still a comparatively young man, energetic and impressionable, and possessed of little of the richness of experience and sureness of style that were in time to characterize his work. He was coming under influences that made his literary vocation uncertain. His talents lay in many directions, but none of them was great and outstanding. Under the influence of such diligent antiquaries and biographical lexicographers as Birch and Oldys—men whom he admired—he was well on the road to be a scholar. His association with Cave's periodical suggested the path of a hack-writer, or at best a reviewer. The literary aspirations which he cherished, and the men of letters with whom he was intimate, indicated that he was to become a middle-class poet or dramatist. All of these paths were open to him in the decade of the 40's, and he was cognizant of the ends to which they led. Equipped by talent and training to take any of them, and hindered by circumstances and an early inclination toward procrastination, Johnson took no distinct path, but managed to direct his efforts during the interval from 1740 to 1780 into all of them with a measure of success. But of all of the forms of literary activity that en2

Usually called the Arthur Murphy edition, 8 Ed. 1796, XII, 11.

322

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gaged him, biography was the province in which his interest was most consistent. In a sense, his whole life was a practical training for his greatest work, the Lives of the Poets. There is ample evidence to support the observation that the idea of writing a series of Lives of the English poets was in his mind long before the work was undertaken. But Johnson in 1740— even in 1760—was not equipped to produce such accounts as those which he offered to the publishers in 1777-1781. Johnson, the author of the fifty odd Lives in the Lives of the Poets, was not the young man who contributed articles to Cave's periodical. An examination of one of the early biographical accounts illustrates to what extent Johnson had come into his own as a Life-writer in 1740 and the deficiencies in his manner that time and training were to eliminate. The " Life of Admiral Blake," which was written for the Gentleman's Magazine in 1740, may be considered representative. The purpose which controlled his selection of subject-matter, and his method of treatment, the author announced in his opening paragraph. " At a time when a nation is engaged in a war with an enemy, whose insults, ravages, and barbarities, have long called for vengeance, an account of such English commanders as have merited the acknowledgments of posterity, by extending the power and raising the honour of their country, seems no improper entertainment for our readers. We shall therefore attempt a succinct narration of the life and actions of Admiral Blake, in which we have nothing farther in view than to do justice to his bravery and conduct, without intending any parallel between his atchievements [sic] and those of our present admirals." The account which followed was probably " no improper entertainment " for the reader, and it was " a succinct narration of the life and actions " of the Admiral. The account is far too brief to provide a full-length portrait of the man, and the prevailing narrative quality of the sketch leaves little room for analysis and interpretation. About twenty pages in a volume of duodecimo size—a length determined in large part

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by the periodical for which it was written—were not enough for a thorough and searching record of personality, and as yet Johnson had not learned to condense. The account has much the flavor of an encyclopaedia article; it is fairly compact and impersonal. There is little in it that does not belong to literary and biographical mediocrity. The subjective quality of the later accounts is absent. Johnson, as yet, was not given to a frequent expression of opinion. When these early Lives appeared, the author was not considered an oracle, or even one whose personal convictions were of great value. Of this he was doubtless aware; and furthermore, it is likely that he had little to observe in addition to the facts that his reading and investigations had produced. The Samuel Johnson who wrote the " Life of Admiral Blake " in 1740 was not the Doctor Johnson who wrote the " Life of Pope " in 1779. There are, however, some passages that suggest the later Johnson. The account lacks that stimulating positiveness and subjectivity that the later narratives possess, but the story is told directly and with no air of compromise to suggest superficiality. Some Johnsonian touches appear at intervals to indicate that a mind with firm convictions was directing an already disciplined pen. " Of his earliest years," he observed of Blake, " we have no account, and therefore can amuse the reader with none of those prognosticks of his future actions, so often met with in memoirs." 29 When Sir Henry Savil, warden of the college, refused Blake preferment for " want of stature," Johnson could not refrain from saying, " So much do the greatest events owe sometimes to accident and folly." " When the Civil War broke out," continued the author, " Blake, in conformity with his avowed principles, declared for the parliament; and thinking a bare declaration for right not all the duty of a good man, raised a troop of dragoons for his party, and appeared in the field with so much bravery, that he was in a short time advanced, without meeting any of those obstructions which he had encountered in the university." 30 In the w Ed. 1796, XII, 41. 30 Ibid., p. 43.

324

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closing passages of the account, after the funeral of the Admiral had been described, Johnson observed in a manner with which we are familiar: " N o r is it without regret that I am obliged to relate the treatment his body met a year after the Restoration, when it was taken by express command, and buried in a pit in St. Margaret's Churchyard. Had he been guilty of the murder of Charles I, to insult his body had been a mean revenge; but as he was innocent, it was, at least, inhumanity, and perhaps, ingratitude. ' Let no man,' says the oriental proverb, ' pull a dead lion by the beard.' " 31 These are touches of the Johnson whom many readers were to like and respect. Nor were these flashes of the style that was later to become completely engaging the only features that recommended the account to Cave's readers. The author's manner of employing useful facts that he had drawn from Wood, Clarendon, Rapin, and the author of Lives, English and Foreign, is noteworthy. While not relying completely on their accounts for the substance of his narrative, he used their testimony deftly in the development of his account. The later Lives rarely illustrated a more skilful use of quotation. Furthermore, the figure of Blake is always in plain view. Naval engagements occur, Cromwell directs in London, Dutch ships move toward the Baltic; but Blake is not submerged in the record of historical events in which he played a part. Johnson was a better judge of poets than of admirals, but the " Life of Robert Blake," in spite of its insignificance to modern readers, indicates that a biographer was in the making in 1740. Were it not for the fact that Johnson's career as a biographer reached a kind of climax in 1744, it would be interesting and valuable to trace the manifestations of his rapidly developing genius through all of those Lives that were written between the " Life of Blake " in 1740 and the " Life of the King of P r u s s i a " in 1756. Such a survey, however, is unnecessary. In 1744, Johnson's genius as a biographer reached a pinnacle; the Life of Richard Savage was not only a significant event in his career as a Life-writer, but it was also a mile-stone in Eng31

Ibid., p. 60.

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lish biography. The Life of Savage, later reprinted with a few alterations in the Lives of the Poets, was the greatest contribution to the matter and method of the form in the early half of the century. As an example of pure biography, it belongs to a plane higher than that of the fifty-one other accounts that later formed the Lives of the Poets. At the time of the death of Savage, on July 31, 1743, Johnson determined to write his Life. In a letter to Cave written soon after Savage's death, he informed the editor that he was ready to start to work. " And in Great Primer, and Pica notes," he continued, " I reckon on sending in half a sheet a day; but the money for that shall likewise lie by in your hands till it is done. . . . Towards Mr. Savage's Life, what more have you got? I would willingly have his trial, etc., and know whether his defense be at Bristol and would have his collection of poems, on account of the Preface; 'The Plain Dealer,' all the magazines that have anything of his or relating to him. . . ." 32 From August until February he was engaged in gathering data and writing the Life. " I wrote 48 of the printed octavo pages of the Life of Savage at a sitting; but then I sat up all night." 33 Report had it that the actual writing of the Life was done in 36 hours.34 According to Boswell, in order that " an authentic and favourable account should first get possession of the public attention," 35 he wrote a note to the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine which was printed in August of the year preceding the publication of the Life. The letter, unsigned, but doubtless by Johnson, follows: Mr. Urban: As your collections shew how often you have owed the ornaments of your poetical pages to the correspondence of the unfortunate and ingenious Mr. Savage, I doubt not but you have so much regard to his memory as to encourage any design that may have a tendency to the preservation of it from insults or calumnies; and therefore, with 32 33 34 35

Letter to Cave, no date. Cf. Boswell, ed. Malone, 1860, p. 38. Boswell, p. 41. Hawkins' Life of Johnson, p. 137. Boswell, p. 41. 22

ENGLISH

326

BIOGRAPHY

some degree of assurance, entreat you to inform the public, that his life will speedily be published b y a person who was favoured with his confidence, and received from himself an a c c o u n t of most of the transactions which he proposes to mention, to the time of his retirement to Swansea in W a l e s . F r o m that period, to his death in the prison a t B r i s t o l , the account will be continued from materials still less liable to o b j e c t i o n ; his own letters, and those of his friends, some of which will be inserted in the work, and a b s t r a c t s of others subjoined in the margin. I t may be reasonably imagined, t h a t others m a y have the same design; but as it is not credible that they can o b t a i n the same materials, it must be expected they will supply from invention the want of intelligence; and that under the title of ' T h e L i f e of S a v a g e , ' they will publish only a novel, filled with imaginary amours and romantic adventures.

Y o u may therefore, perhaps, gratify the lovers of truth

and wit, by giving me leave to inform them in y o u r M a g a z i n e , t h a t m y account will be published in 8vo. b y M r . R o b e r t s , in W a r w i c k Lane.30

In February, 1744, the work was issued from the press of Roberts " between whom and Johnson I have not traced any connexion, except the casual one of this publication." 37 According to Macaulay, " The Life of Savage was anonymous; but it was well known in literary circles that Johnson was the writer." 3S The reason for Johnson's withholding his name can readily be understood when it is remembered that the Countess of Macclesfield, the selfish and cruel mother of Savage, and her relatives, were still alive. The fact that the work was published anonymously did not undermine its chances for a wide reception. The nature of the subject matter was completely enticing, not only to those who were interested in Savage the poet, but also to those who were curious about the irregularities that marked his life. By reason of the wideness of interest in Savage, and of its masterly treatment, the Life was exceedingly popular. The author was commended on all sides. " This pamphlet is, without flattery to 36

Quoted from Boswell, p. 41.

" Ibid. 33 Life oj Samuel Johnson.

3

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the author, as just and well written a piece, as of its kind I ever saw," reported the editor of The Champion.39 Other contemporary judgments indicate that the account was recognized as a real contribution to Life-writing, and time has proved that all the commendation that Johnson received was deserved. The reasons for Johnson's success with the Life of Savage are not difficult to explain. He was well equipped to write such a Life. He knew Savage intimately and, in spite of all his weaknesses and inconsistencies, he loved him. When they parted, Johnson to remain in London, Savage to go to the west of England, it was probably, as Macaulay observed, " not without tears." Their mutual interests, their loneliness, and the distressing financial conditions in which they both were, did much to foster friendship. Those nights that Johnson and Savage wandered together through the London streets, sometimes depressed, and again " resolved that they would stand by their country " 4 0 when their spirits were revived by tankards of ale, were enough to strengthen the bond of friendship and to reach some sympathetic understanding. It was on those nights that Savage told Johnson of the ill treatment he had received at the hands of his mother and of the distress that was forced on him by those who were his natural protectors. In his more communicative moments, it is not unlikely that he told his friend of his various escapades unblushingly, for Johnson was of an understanding and forgiving nature. The unreality of Savage's life became real as they ate tallowy mutton at a dingy inn and wandered aimlessly around dimly-lighted streets. After they had parted, and the news came to Johnson of his friend's death in the prison at Bristol, it is small wonder that he was eager to protect the name of Savage from insult and calumny, and to express his loyalty and reveal his understanding of the man in the form of a Life. That he arrived at the determination to write a Life of Savage on account of his own straitened circumstances is a thought 39

Henry Fielding was possibly the editor, although cf. Malone's note, Bos-

well's Life o) Johnson, 40

Boswell, p. 41.

ed. Philadelphia, 1860, p. 42.

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that no intelligent reader of the Life will express. It is true that Savage's life was a salable product, and Johnson knew it; but it is the conviction of the present author that the Life of Savage illustrates perfectly a work of love. Yes, " it is melancholy to reflect," as the feeling Boswell observed, " that Johnson and Savage were sometimes in such extreme indigence, that they could not pay for a lodging "; 41 but this was part of Johnson's equipment for a sympathetic and searching study of his friend. That Johnson understood Savage is plain in the entire Life. The interval of their intimate association was brief, but it was not a matter of how long he had known Savage; it was rather a matter of how well he had known him. In that interval, the heart and mind and temperament of his friend were laid bare before his sympathetic eyes. The experience of that association impressed him deeply. The friendship with Savage was an important event in his life. For five years, his pen had traced somewhat unfeelingly the events in the lives of such men as Father Paul, Herman Boerhaave, Robert Blake, and Philip Barretier—men about whom he had read, and who had left his compassion and sympathy for his fellow-men to a large extent untouched; but now he knew a man, not through the indirect revelations of books and references, but through the strong light of life itself. When the news of Savage's death reached him, it is small wonder that he was seized with a restlessness that was far different from the slight mental and emotional disturbances that he experienced while uncovering materials for a " Life of Peter Burman." The letter to Mr. Urban that was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine in August of the year preceding the publication of the Life is only one indication that Johnson was convinced that he had something of real value under way. The octavo volume that was issued by Roberts in 1744 contained one hundred and eighty pages—Johnson's longest biographical account. That he could have made the narrative much longer " by adopting flying reports " is certain, but that 41

Boswell, p. 41.

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same " close adherence to certainty " and his convictions concerning Life-writing which had directed his earlier accounts played an important part here. The one hundred and eighty pages were enough. Few authors, before or since, have brought a man to life so effectively in twice the space of the Life of Savage. It is an excellent study in biographical balance. All of the events that were significant in the life of the man were presented in bold, clear pictures. A dramatic quality develops in the narrative as the ill-used son of the Countess of Macclesfield seeks the protection and provision of the home that has selfishly been denied him. And as the touching pictures move by in vivid procession, the author tints them with sympathetic understanding. When at last the account draws to a close, and the reader hears the now subdued voice of the biographer say, " Such were the life and death of Richard Savage, a man equally distinguished by his virtues and vices, and at once remarkable for his weaknesses and abilities," he who has watched intently the movements of the figure, and who has been caught in the spell of their interpretation, has seen and understood a life. In spite of the judgment of Boswell that the author " exhibits the genius of Savage to the best advantage, in the specimens of his poetry which he has selected," 42 there is no panegyrical note in the Life, and little that warrants the observation that it was an expression of over-loyalty. It is not unlikely that Johnson recalled the nights which he had spent with his friend on the London streets with mingled emotions of love and charity, but he was not blinded to the weaknesses that Savage's life illustrated so amply. " His actions, which were generally precipitate, were often blameable," he remarked; 43 and there are other instances in which the inconsistencies of Savage were revealed with true candour. Eulogy was a tempting path under the circumstances in which Johnson wrote, but he had the conviction that biography was the path Boswell, p. 42. Life of Savage, Peter Cunningham's edition of the Lives of the Poets, 1854, I, 167. 42 43

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to be followed, and he recognized the demands of the form throughout his account. The author's conviction of the complete truth of his narrative is written into every line of the Life. " Johnson's partiality for Savage made him entertain no doubt of his story, however extraordinary and improbable," said Boswell. " It never occurred to him to question his being the son of the Countess of Macclesfield." 44 It is possible that Johnson was swept into the conviction that all of Savage's stories were true by reason of his love and compassion for his friend, although such an assumption is unlikely when his intimacy with the rudiments of life, and with Savage, is taken into consideration. Johnson's mind, and his experiences with life, equipped him well to distinguish between the true and the false. Savage, finding in Johnson one to whom he could open his heart, related stories to him that were colored by the distressing memory of what had occurred; but Johnson, in spite of his charity, knew men too well to accept literally everything that Savage told him. Any errors that Johnson made in the Life were the result of misinformation concerning particular events; in his evaluation of Savage's character and personality, he did not err. The events in the life of Savage, as he knew them, and his judgment and interpretation of them, were not written in the spirit of producing a good story, but in the spirit of understanding and truth. Nor was he primarily concerned in the moral that the life of Savage illustrated. The Life of Savage has frequently been termed a Life with a moral purpose. The French critic who observed that " it is the best possible lesson on the danger of having to do with poets—on their utter lack of principle and morals " 43 was, in a sense, correct. It is, however, unlikely that Johnson intended the purpose of the Life to be thus construed. Were that his intention, he might have done that which the same French critic suggested—satirized his hero, and " the work would have been delicious." But Johnson ** Boswell, p. 42. 45 Six Essays on Johnson,

Walter Raleigh, ed. Oxford, 1910, p. 172.

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loved Savage and poets in general too well to write a Life that would be governed by the purpose of showing the danger of having to do with poets and of showing their " utter lack of principle and morals." It is true that the closing paragraph suggests a definite moral purpose. " This relation will not be wholly without its use, if those who languish under any part of his sufferings shall be enabled to fortify their patience by reflecting that they feel only those afflictions from which the abilities of Savage did not exempt them; or those who, in the confidence of superior capacities and attainments, disregard the common maxims of life, shall be reminded that nothing will supply the want of prudence; and that negligence and irregularity, long continued, will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible." 46 Such a passage, coming as it does at the end of the account, has led some readers to observe that the Life of Savage is proof that biography and ethical instruction were still a happy union in the early half of the eighteenth century. The account undoubtedly provides some excellent lessons, but they play only an incidental part. An appreciative reading of the Life indicates that Johnson was more interested in Savage, the man, than in all of the lessons which his life illustrated. Eighteenth century critical estimates of the work reveal clearly that the Life was not only well received, but that this was the kind of Life-writing that the intelligent class of reader wanted. The editor of The Champion, who, according to Hawkins, was none other than Henry Fielding,47 closed his article on the Life by adding: " The author's observations are short, significant and just, as his narrative is remarkably smooth and well disposed. His reflections open to all the recesses of the human heart: and in a word, a more just or pleasant, a more engaging or more improving, treatise on all the excellencies and defects of human nature, is scarce to be found in our own, or perhaps any other, language." 48 When 46 47 48

Peter Cunningham's edition of The Lives of the Poets, 18S4, II, 214. Hawkins' Life o} Johnson, Dublin edition, 1787, p. 140. Boswell, p. 42.

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the Works of Richard Savage appeared in that which the reviewer called an "elegant edition" in 1775, the critic who judged the work observed that the attention of the readers was greatly heightened by the inclusion of " those admirable Memoirs, long known to the learned world, and here reprinted: Dr. Johnson's Life of Savage being, indeed, deservedly esteemed one of the most excellent pieces of biography in the English language." 49 Sir John Hawkins, whose judgments were representative of the prevailing opinions of the time, praised the Life in enthusiastic terms; 50 and the editor of the Monthly Review, in his criticism of the ninth volume of the Lives of the Poets, reported that the volume opened " with that well-known specimen of elegant Biography, the life of Savage." 51 Nineteenth and twentieth century critics join in the judgment that the Life of Savage was an excellent performance. Macaulay, in his Life of Johnson, after finding fault with the ease and variety of the style, announced that " the little work, with all of its faults, was a masterpiece. No finer specimen of literary biography existed in any language, living or dead; and a discerning critic might have confidently predicted that the author was destined to be the founder of a new school of English eloquence." Peter Cunningham, the careful editor of the Lives of the Poets, reported in his Introduction that " from the interest of its story, and the admirable manner in which that story is told, [it] is deservedly looked upon as one of the best biographies in the English language." In the last of his Six Essays on Johnson, Walter Raleigh wrote: "Johnson's prose had not yet run clear when he wrote it, yet for delicacy and power it is one of the few great Lives in English. It is an apology for the poetic temperament—the truest and most humane apology that has ever been written or conceived." 51 To continue the list of appreciations is scarcely necessary, nor 48 00 51 52 53

Monthly Review, July, 1776 (LV, 71). Lije of Johnson, Dublin edition, 1787, p. 138, et seq. Dec., 1781 ( L X V , 408). Introduction, ed. of 1857, I, xxi. Ed. 1910, p. 172.

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is it necessary for the present author to echo with complete conviction the favorable judgments that others have offered. It might, however, be added that so long as men are interested in their fellows, the Life of Richard Savage will continue to be a moving account of a man who, long since forgotten, symbolized in a half-pathetic way the weaknesses and strength of human-kind. It belongs not only to the limited field of good biography, but it belongs as well to the exclusive field of great literature. When the Life of Savage brought from the reviewers such enthusiastic praise, Johnson was a man of thirty-five. A milestone had been passed in his career, but he was still not the Johnson whom Boswell knew and whom we know in the Lives of the Poets. In spite of the fact that he had attracted attention among the critics and the reading public with this account, his literary reputation was by no means established. Furthermore, he was still confronted by the necessity of making a living. The Life of Savage had brought him more fame than guineas—fifteen guineas were his monetary reward for the Life. Although the success of the account and the remuneration it brought pleased him, he realized that his performance was not of such magnitude that he could rest on his laurels. Much remained for him to accomplish before the London booksellers applied to him for prefaces to an edition of the British poets and the privilege of using his name. In the interval immediately following the publication of the Life of Savage, biography did not occupy much of his attention—at least, not as a field for creative effort. It was not until 1748 that he again wrote a biographical account, this time a Life of Roscommon,54 which was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, and which drew from readers and critics little applause. Again three years elapsed before the Life of Francis Cheynel was written for The Student; and in addition to this account, during the decade of the 50's, Lives of Sir Thomas Browne (1752), Edward Cave (1754), and the King of Prussia (1756), appeared at infrequent intervals. The Life 54

Later employed for the Lives

of the

Poets.

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of Roger Aschatn appeared in 1763. In none of these narratives did he approach the same high level to which he had risen in the Life of Savage. They illustrate, however, the slow evolution of the biographical manner that Johnson was later to employ. They are more subjective than those early accounts of Father Paul, Boerhaave, and Burman; and their style suggests that resonance and vigor that are to be found in the Lives of the Poets. His judgment of Frederick's literary inadequacies caused Voltaire, who was then on unfriendly terms with his erstwhile patron and host, to exclaim, " An honest fellow! " 55 Other interesting contemporary judgments were offered concerning the various Lives, but in no instance were these appreciations so reassuring to the author as those that had been given the account of Savage. These Lives had little to do with the making of the Samuel Johnson who wrote the Lives of the Poets, and the information that they contain scarcely recommends them to the reader who wants a thorough chronological table of facts and a sympathetic delineation of personality. Their sporadic occurrence, however, during the decade of the 50's indicates that Johnson's interest in biography was by no means dead. During the interval from 1744 to 1777, Johnson became the Dr. Johnson of the Lives of the Poets by reason of his activities in fields other than that of Life-writing. The Johnson of 1777 was not the result of a successful Life of Savage, and a series of Lives that were little more than hack-work. Had these been the total of his efforts, the Lives of the Poets would not have been written—at least, not as we have them. The author who was approached in 1777 by the London booksellers for a series of prefaces to a new edition of the British poets was not only the biographer who had written a half-dozen Lives of varying merit; he was the author of the Preface to the Harleian Miscellany, the compiler of a dictionary, the author of Rasselas, and the editor of The Rambler and The Idler. He was the friend not only of Grub Street habitués, but he was also the friend of the Wartons, of Dr. Burney, of Mrs. Thrale, 55

Bos well, p. 120

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and of the choicest literary spirits of the age. He was no longer the indigent hackwriter of Cave's periodical; he was the pensioned literary dictator of a literary age. The changes which took place in Johnson the man between 1744 and 1777 made possible the Lives of the Poets. His innate positiveness and strength of conviction were augmented by the roles he performed and the plaudits he received in the decades following his success with the Life of Savage. His style, never watery, grew more robust; and the pinnacle to which he was raised by his widening circle of admirers supported his courage and widened his perspective. Many men have had firm convictions that are the result of sound literary taste, but few have been able to express those convictions clearly and boldly to an unsympathetic group of listeners or readers. By 1777, Johnson had the assurance that his observations were cherished by many, and accepted by all as worthy of attention. Out of this assurance there developed that confidence which made possible the expression of both hearty prejudice and sound, rugged precept. The inherent courage and positiveness that he possessed were bolstered up by his conviction that his judgments were respected. The heartiness of his convictions demonstrated itself chiefly in his oral discourses with his friends, but it became in time no small part in his manner of writing. The worshipful attention of Boswell, and the lively interest of Mrs. Thrale and a score of others in his comments, played a considerable part in the development of his manner. Truly, the Johnson of 1777 was a different man from the drudge of the Gentleman's Magazine. His success with the Dictionary, which was completed in 1755, was the first great step in Johnson's rise. Seven years of work, which must have been to a large extent uninspiring to him, had their reward. The " harmless drudge " (as he defined a lexicographer) received fifteen hundred guineas for his work and the plaudits of the town. Even Lord Chesterfield's aloofness did not undermine Johnson's conviction that he had completed a great work well. H e had proved to himself that he was equal to the task. In spite of the fact that " it had not

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satisfied his own expectations," r,fi the completing of the Dictionary assured him that he was not without sustained energy. T h a t " the world contemplated with wonder so stupendous a work achieved by one man " 57 undoubtedly pleased him. His observation that he would " therefore dismiss it [the matter of the Dictionary] with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise " was, as the searching Boswell remarked, " rather a temporary than a habitual feeling." 58 Six years before the Dictionary was completed, the first paper of The Rambler was published. 59 From 1749 until 1752, every Tuesday and Saturday without interruption. Johnson had printed articles that reveal clearly the rapid growth of his critical faculties in life and letters. Six years elapsed between the final issue of The Rambler and the beginning of The Idler. From April 5, 1758, until April 5, 1760, his articles appeared uninterruptedly. " The Idler," wrote Boswell, " is undoubtedly the work of the same mind which produced The Rambler, but has more body and spirit. It has more variety of real life, and greater facility of language." 60 In spite of the fact that Macaulay observed that the public received The Rambler at first " very coldly," the little paper became quite popular before Johnson had finished with it. When the sheets were collected and issued in volume form, Johnson had the satisfaction of seeing that the reading public was thoroughly interested in his work. B y the time The Idler was being issued, London readers had come to recognize the author of the articles as a man of great literary perceptions and a lucid style. With the success of The Rambler and The Idler, Johnson's second great step toward eminence was made. These periodicals brought the name of Samuel Johnson before the public in as effective a manner as the Dictionary. 50 57 58 50 60

Boswell, p. 78. Ibid. Boswell, p. 80. March 20, 1749. Boswell, p. 88.

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His third great conquest of the reading public came with Rasselas. Macaulay remarked that the little book was written within a week in order to defray the costs of the funeral of the author's mother. This is not a clear statement of the facts, but whatever the purpose that guided the author, the work was successful. A hundred pounds was Johnson's reward, but the popularity of the work far exceeded the hopes of both author and publisher. Passages of it were quoted by a lively generation of readers, and while some critics found it pedantic, the majority of the readers and reviewers proclaimed the author great. Johnson gained much in assurance by the success of the Dictionary, The Rambler and The Idler, and Rasselas; but in 1762, an event occurred in his life that had in it the tangible matter for the development of self-confidence. This positive demonstration of the regard in which he was held by those of the Court and by those whose opinions he cherished is not to be overlooked in a survey of those influences which made possible the Doctor Johnson of the Lives of the Poets. During the time that he was working with the Dictionary and the periodicals, he was by no means free from pecuniary distress. He was, however, already intimate with such men as Murphy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the elder Sheridan, and many others who were both interesting and influential. His fondness for talk about matters of political and literary importance, and the keenness of his judgments, had already gained for him a circle of friends who not only respected him, but who were interested in his welfare. The money which he had received from his work on the Dictionary had been spent before the task was completed; and the income from the periodicals, and the hundred guineas for Rasselas, were hardly ample to keep him in the necessities of life. He was a man of fifty-three in 1762, beginning to show signs of age, and constantly suffering from those physical afflictions which for long had been a drain on his energy and good spirits. It is not unlikely that his friends saw and understood his suffering, and moved not by pity, but by the desire to see one of such talents rewarded, they

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t o o k it u p o n t h e m s e l v e s t o see t o it t h a t J o h n s o n r e c e i v e d

a

pension from the Crown. Boswell described the situation as follows: T h e accession of George the Third to the throne of these kingdoms opened a new and brighter prospect to men of literary merit, who had been honoured with no mark of royal favour in the preceding reign.

His present Majesty's education in this country, as well as

his taste and beneficence, prompted him to be the patron of science and the arts; and early this year Johnson having been represented to him as a very learned and good man, without a n y certain provision, his Majesty was pleased to grant him a pension of three hundred pounds a year. . . . M r . Murphy and the late M r . Sheridan severally contended for the distinction of having been the first who mentioned to M r . W e d derburne that Johnson ought to have a pension.

When I spoke of

this to Lord Loughborough, wishing to know if he recollected the prime mover in the business, he said, ' All his friends assisted ':

and

when I told him that M r . Sheridan strenuously asserted his claim to it, his Lordship said, ' H e rang the bell.'

And it is but just to add,

that M r . Sheridan told me, that when he communicated to Dr. J o h n son that a pension was to be granted him, he replied in a fervour of gratitude, ' T h e English language does not afford me terms adequate to my feelings on this occasion. I am pénétré

I must have recourse to the F r e n c h .

with his Majesty's goodness.'

W h e n I repeated this

to Dr. Johnson, he did not contradict it. 6 1 A l t h o u g h it m i g h t b e c o n t e n d e d t h a t a y e a r l y p r o v i s i o n

of

t h r e e h u n d r e d p o u n d s h a d a n u n f o r t u n a t e effect o n t h e a u t h o r who

was

already

inclined

to

be

dilatory,

the

pension

un-

d o u b t e d l y g a v e J o h n s o n t h e m e r i t e d c o n v i c t i o n of t h e e s t e e m in w h i c h h e w a s held b y m e n w h o s e o p i n i o n s w e r e o f w o r t h . I t w a s t h e y e a r a f t e r t h e a n n o u n c e m e n t of t h e p e n s i o n

that

B o s w e l l m e t h i m for t h e first t i m e in T o m D a v i e s ' b a c k p a r l o r . The

Johnson

Scotchman,

whom

Boswell

saw,

and who

" Sir, I h a v e k n o w n D a v i d

told

the

young

G a r r i c k longer

than

you have done; and I know no right y o u h a v e to talk to m e on the s u b j e c t , " was essentially the J o h n s o n of 1 7 7 7 .

It was

this J o h n s o n w h o t o l d t h e g r o u p a t t h e B o a r ' s H e a d t h a t h e 81

Pp. 102, 103.

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had heard a good story, but, he added seriously, " Since you will not understand it, I shall not repeat it." Inwardly, few more modest men have lived and written; outwardly, positiveness of conviction gave to his manner a dictatorial hue that was insufferable to his enemies. His manner had always been earnest, and his judgments decisive, but with the passing of years and his own recognition of the worth of his statements, he offered his observations with a positiveness that suggested no compromise. This is the Johnson that Boswell knew, and whom we know. It is Boswell's Johnson who wrote the Lives of the Poets, not the man who drudged for Cave and who wrote a Life of Herman Boerhaave. In the years following 1762, it was Dr. Johnson, the oracle, the dictator, the admired judge of all that belonged to the realm of letters. His success with the Dictionary, with the periodicals, with Rasselas; and the recognition that had been given him by the Crown were in large part responsible for his manner in judging Milton and Gray, and for the clarity and vigor which resulted from self-confidence in the Lives of Cowley and Pope. Additional honors were given Johnson before he began the Lives of the Poets. In 1765, Trinity College, Dublin, conferred on him the highest academic distinction by creating him Doctor of Laws. The degree of Master of Arts had been conferred on him by the University which he had selected as his Alma Mater at the time that his Dictionary made its appearance; and in 1775, the same University, Oxford, which he had left without a degree, but which he had never ceased to love and admire, presented him with the honorary title of Doctor of Laws. " He did not vaunt his new dignity," said the observant Boswell, " but I understood that he was highly pleased with it." 62 Such rewards did not cause him to feel that it was time for him to rest on his laurels; but his age, and his fast declining energy for sustained literary effort, were indications that the rest of his life was to be devoted chiefly to talk. Furthermore, he liked company, and while a constant circle of friends 62

Boswell, p. 242.

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is an agreeable situation for one of Johnson's proclivities, it is rarely conducive to sustained literary effort. Had it not been for his last great effort in the Lives of the Poets, the Johnson whom Boswell would have known and the Johnson whom we should have, would be only the author of the Life of Savage, of The Rambler and The Idler, of Rasselas and Irene, of The Vanity of Human Wishes, and an engaging talker. The literary fame of Johnson would hang on a somewhat slender thread; we should know him through Boswell and praise him for the Life of Savage; but for the rest, with the exception of The Vanity of Human Wishes, we should find him a man who was a middle-class performer, and one who denied posterity the light of his judgments and experiences either through indolence or through inability to surmount obstacles that confronted him in his declining years. We should feel that here was another instance of an author who had something to offer to his age and to posterity, but who was a victim of circumstance and his own nature—and we should dread the fifty-year mark as a time to sit back while those younger worked with the energy that was no longer ours. The Lives of the Poets, however, written while Johnson was approaching and passing his seventieth year, exonerates him from any serious charge of weakness of purpose and indolence. The experiences and observations of four decades spent in the realm of letters were not denied the age and posterity. Johnson's long life had equipped him to write the Lives of the Poets, and fortunately, before his energy had completely waned, he directed his last and greatest effort into a work for which he was admirably prepared. The thought of writing a series of Lives of the British poets did not come to Johnson late in life. It was in his mind, dormant at times, as early as 1750. The scale of the work he had not considered, nor had he thought of a selection of poets. But a long series of Lives, especially of those poets whose works were his chief literary nourishment, undoubtedly suggested itself to him again and again. He was aware of his equipment for such a work, and, on occasion, events oc-

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curred which increased his desire to start a series of Lives. But no pressure was brought to bear for the growth of the idea, and he was more and more given to procrastination. In 1767—ten years before the booksellers came to him with their proposal—Johnson thought of writing a " literary biography " of his country. The notion of writing a series of Lives of the eminent poets was crystallized by an experience that he had with the King. Johnson, with his insatiate desire to read, went to all places where books were to be found, including the library of the Queen's house. One day while he was reading in a corner of that library, he was approached by Mr. Barnard, the librarian, who whispered, " Sir, here is the King." Johnson started up, and with that deference to royalty that was both the cause and result of his Tory sympathies, he awaited the greeting of George III. His Majesty was still a young man, and this, combined with his courteous manner and his professed interest in things literary, caused Johnson to speak freely. The King, who was well aware of his guest's literary attainments, asked him many questions which Johnson answered with great respect, but in his usual positive manner. They talked of Oxford and Cambridge, of Lord Lyttelton's History, of the contemporary reviews, and finally of biography. Before the conversation was ended, the King expressed a desire to have the literary biography of England ably executed, and proposed that Johnson undertake it. Such a suggestion, coming as it did from the King, caused Johnson to give serious thought to a series of Lives of the greater poets. That vague ambition to be the biographer of a group of poets was clarified. It would be a splendid work, a much-needed work, and one that he was qualified to perform. Little investigation and research would be necessary. Thirtyfive years of reading, of intimate association with the realm of letters and the rudiments of life were enough to qualify him for such a work. But he was tired: after his assiduous effort with the Dictionary, and after his many contributions to The Rambler and The Idler, he was ready for a work less enormous —for the long evenings of chat with his friends—for the adula23

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tion of those at Mrs. Thrale's table at Streatham. He had much to occupy his attention without undertaking so difficult a task. Age was rapidly undermining his patience and his strength of purpose. He was unwilling to start something that he felt he could not finish creditably. Gradually the project became less enticing; and in the glorious evenings with Reynolds, Goldsmith, Sheridan and Boswell, and in the admiring glances of those in the salon of the " Queen of the Blue Stockings," he forgot what the King had said, and what he had seriously planned to do. But the idea was not completely banished from his mind. It was still an ambition—an achievement whose value he never underestimated. But its fulfillment became more and more indistinct. Ten years passed—Johnson's happiest years, during which, in spite of his physical ailments, he was in the center of an admiring group. Boswell's attention and affection; the happy laughter and admiring glances of Fanny Burney, Hannah More, and Mrs. Thrale, and the substantial delight of friendship with such illustrious men as Garrick, Lord Hailes, Reynolds, and Dr. Burney undoubtedly gave him much satisfaction. During this interval, he did little to augment his equipment as a biographer. It was a period of waiting, of feeling his strength over and over again, of realizing his capacities and attainments. The thought of writing a literary biography of England became dormant as he roared his convictions to an ever widening circle of listeners. On the night before Easter in 1777, he was stirred out of his complacency by the visit of a group of well-known London booksellers. The idea of writing a series of observations about the Lives of the English poets, which had been dormant and active in turn, again came to the foreground—this time to stay. It is unlikely that Johnson considered their visit on Easter eve an insult to his piety; he listened to their proposal and, with little hesitancy, accepted it. A letter dated September 26, 1777, from Edward Dilly to Boswell, describes the particulars of Johnson's conclusion to attempt the work. After the usual amenities of eighteenth century letter-writing had been offered, Dilly wrote as follows:

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. . . . The first cause that gave rise to this undertaking [The Lives of the Poets], I believe, was owing to the little trifling edition of the Poets, printing by the Martins in Edinburgh, and to be sold by Bell in London. Upon examining the volumes which were printed, the type was found so extremely small, that many persons could not read them; not only this inconvenience attended it, but the inaccuracy of the press was very conspicuous. These reasons, as well as the idea of an invasion of what we call our Literary Property, induced the London Booksellers to print an elegant and accurate edition of all the English poets of reputation, from Chaucer to the present time. Accordingly, a select number of the most respectable booksellers met on the occasion; and on consulting together, agreed, that all the proprietors of copyright in the various poets should be summoned together; and when their opinions were given, to proceed immediately on the business. Accordingly, a meeting was held, consisting of about forty of the most respectable booksellers of London, when it was agreed that an elegant and uniform edition of ' The English Poets ' should be immediately printed, with a concise account of the life of each author, by Dr. Samuel Johnson; and that three persons should be deputed to wait upon Dr. Johnson, to solicit him to undertake the Lives, viz. T. Davies, Strahan, and Cadell. The Doctor very politely undertook it, and seemed exceedingly pleased with the proposal. As to the terms, it was left entirely to the Doctor to name his own; he mentioned two hundred guineas: it was immediately agreed to; and a further compliment, I believe, will be made him. A committee was likewise appointed to engage the best engravers, viz. Bartolozzi, Sherwin, Hall, etc.83 T. Davies, Strahan, and Cadell evidently approached Johnson with the proposal in just the right way. It is not unlikely that the edition that was being issued in Edinburgh was mentioned during the early part of their visit with the intention of arousing Johnson's loyalty to strictly English institutions. The Scotch were not one of Johnson's joys; he rarely missed an opportunity to make slighting remarks about Boswell's country, much as he seemed at times to like it. The spirit of rivalry he was not too old to feel, and as a result, the thought of an English edition of the poets that would excel that of 63

Bos well, p. 322.

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Martins was stimulating to him. It was to be a big thing; forty London booksellers were involved in order to quell this invasion of their " Literary Property," including those who were the proprietors of the various copyrights. And this English edition they wanted him to help make a success. It was left to him to name his own terms; his name and judgments would add much to the superior order of the edition. Johnson was not unsusceptible to flattery, and the manner and remarks of the committee undoubtedly caused him to feel that his services were invaluable to the success of the edition. The sincerity of those who spoke with him was unmistakable, and Johnson was easily led to the conclusion that he was the man to undertake the work as they outlined it. Had he been aware that the task was to become a thing of such magnitude, it is unlikely that he would have made his conclusion so rapidly. The committee, however, phrased the proposal well. They wanted only brief prefatory notes for the edition; of sustained biographical accounts they said nothing. It is possible that they wanted only brief prefaces, although it is just as likely that they knew Johnson sufficiently well to feel that if they once got him started, he would provide more than the brief notes of which they spoke. Had they proposed a series of Lives such as those which were finally produced, Johnson would have regarded the task as beyond his energy. Brief prefaces, however, he could write, he felt— and without much effort. There would be no great tax on his energy to jot down that which was already well in mind. In a letter to Boswell, dated May 3, 1777, he described his idea of the scope of the work that he had consented to undertake by saying, " I am engaged to write little Lives and little Prefaces to a little edition of the English poets." 04 The "little Lives and little Prefaces " became the Lives of the Poets. Once at work, Johnson was not willing to fulfill his task in a perfunctory manner. Furthermore, his memory was so full of matters that had been gathered by reading, hearsay, and observation; and his critical sense was so alert 04

Boswell, p. 321.

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to the possibilities of judging men and their works for what they were worth, that " little Prefaces " were out of the question. Rapidly the work began to take on a seriousness and magnitude to him. The fulfillment of this work could become at least an approach to that series of Lives about which the King had spoken, and about which he had often thought. Despite the handicaps that age and procrastination thrust on him, he determined while writing the early Lives to produce something of more value than a series of brief introductory notes. The result was that he began to develop a substantial contribution to literature. Furthermore, as he began to realize the scope of his work, he was not content to lend his hand to an edition of the poets that would illustrate a poor selection of authors. At the outset he believed that his part of the work lay only in providing that which the booksellers selected as appropriate for the edition. Here he had not taken his natural dictatorship into consideration. As early as May 3, 1777, in a letter to Boswell, he remarked with satisfaction: " I think that I have persuaded the booksellers to insert something of Thomson; and if you could give me some information about him . . . I should be glad." 65 When Boswell inquired, " Would you write about any dunce's works if they asked you? " Johnson replied, " Yes, Sir, and say that he was a dunce." 66 Blackmore, Pomfret, Yalden, and Watts were included in the edition at Johnson's suggestion, but there is no evidence to indicate that he was instrumental in the selection of others save these four and Thomson. His employers, happy to have his name and his work included in the edition, offered no protest at any suggestion that he offered. In March, 1779, the first four volumes of the edition were issued, containing " Prefaces, biographical and critical, to the most eminent of the English Poets," by Dr. Johnson. According to Peter Cunningham, whose patience and care in editing the Lives of the Poets must not go unobserved, " the first life 65 66

Boswell, p. 321. Boswell, p. 331.

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written was that of Cowley, sent to press in December, 1777. Waller, Denham, and Butler immediately followed. . . . Milton, begun in January, 1779, was finished in six weeks. The other Lives included in the first issue were sixteen in number, and being very short, were soon written." 67 The first volume of the original edition contained the sketches of Cowley and Waller; the second, Milton and Butler; the third was given over entirely to Dryden; and the fourth contained the brief accounts of Denham, Sprat, Roscommon, Rochester, Yalden, Otway, Duke, Dorset, Halifax, Stepney, Walsh, Garth, King, J. Philips, Smith, Pomfret, and Hughes. In the summer of 1781, six additional volumes of the edition, including thirty Lives, were distributed. The last of the Lives—that of Thomas Gray—was finished in March, 1781, four years after Johnson had accepted the booksellers' proposal. The six volumes were apportioned as follows: the first —Addison, Blackmore, and Sheffield; the second—Granville, Rowe, Tickell, Congreve, Fenton, and Prior; the third was given over entirely to Pope; the fourth—Swift, Gay, Broome, Pitt, Parnell, A. Philips, and Watts; the fifth—Savage, Somerville, Thomson, Hammond, and Collins; in the last volume were the Lives of Young, Dyer, Mallet, Shenstone, Akenside, Lyttelton, West, and Gray. This order has not always been followed in subsequent editions of the Lives oj the Poets, nor can this order of the original publication be always considered the order in which the Lives were written. In some instances, a time can be assigned to the writing of some of the accounts, but it is scarcely necessary or worth while to try to prove that the Life of West was written before the Life of Mark Akenside, or vice-versa. These fifty-two Lives, 68 begun as the author wrote " only to have alloted to every poet an Advertisement, like that which we find in the French Miscellanies, containing a few dates, and a general character," were written " by the honest desire of 67

I n t r o d u c t i o n , Lives oj the Poets, ed. C u n n i n g h a m , N e w Y o r k , 18S7, p. xi. A f e w m u s t be eliminated in t h e c o u n t , f o r t h e Life of Savage, the Life of Roscommon, a n d t h e Life of Young, w h i c h w a s w r i t t e n for J o h n s o n b y H e r b e r t C r o f t , do n o t p r o p e r l y belong t o his effort f o r t h e Lives of the Poets. 68

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giving useful Pleasure." 69 They were written in some instances with enthusiasm, and at times with evident lassitude. In the large series, there are Lives that show the stamp of biographical and critical genius, and there are accounts which are uninspired and weary. It is the work that reveals Johnson to us as a man, a critic, and a biographer—the work that corroborates Boswell. It is both an expression and a revelation of the inner spirit of the eighteenth century, a performance that has justly been called great. It is, however, not to add an additional testimonial of praise to the already large mass that exists that this survey of Johnson's Lives of the Poets is undertaken. It is rather to study Johnson, the biographer, the author of fifty-two Lives. At the outset, it must be clearly understood that Johnson was not a biographer in the sense that Boswell was, or as Lockhart, Carlyle, and Froude were in the following century. Nor was he a biographical lexicographer. Johnson's interest in particular men was not the sustained and painstaking interest that Boswell illustrated, and he was not a patient scholar. His work in the Lives of the Poets did not aim at full-length portraiture or at scholarly accuracy. In the demonstration of the fulfillment of these ends he was interested, but chiefly in a critical way. For presenting facts, and for judging character and poetry, he was well trained; but the nature of his commission with the London booksellers made exhaustive accounts out of the question. Furthermore, his interests in men were so wide and so numerous that it was impossible for him to center his attention on one man for a long and uninterrupted interval. The reader who seeks a full-length portrait, and the other features that are included in pure biography, will rarely find them in the Lives. The result was that he proceeded to produce a form of Life-writing that is a combination of an expanded form of biographical lexicography, concise character-analysis, and literary criticism. In varying degrees, the Lives illustrate the science of the scholar, the talent of the delineator of personality, and the art of the critic. The com69

Boswell, note 2, p. 439.

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bination is a highly satisfactory one, especially for those who prefer compactness to a thorough, detail-by-detail narrative. T h i s combination has generally been called critical biography, a term which is at least rich in suggestion. In the Lives oj the Poets, Johnson illustrated a form of Life-writing that has been followed by those editors who, in connection with an edition of an author's works, write an introductory biographical-critical note. It is a form of biography which, if not pure, is definitely useful and engaging. T h e three main elements of the combination that Johnson employed, although not always distinct, are the first aspect of his biographical manner to be examined. T h e early part of each account contains generally a series of outstanding events, chronologically arranged, in the life of the poet. It is with this part of any biographical account that the science of scholarship plays an important role. Painstaking investigation of all sources of information in order to provide the reader with an authentic record, a careful weighing of the testimonies of authorities, and accuracy to the last detail in passing along an account of the events in a man's life are demanded of the biographer. T h e Life-writer who minimizes the importance of authenticity is not completely faithful to his trust. He may, of course, arrive at the truth in his delineation of personality, but his record frequently results in the broadcasting of apocryphal anecdotes and inaccurate information. Johnson understood the necessity for truth. " The value of every story depends on its being true," he told Boswell. " A story is a picture either of an individual or of human nature in general: if it be false, it is nothing." 70 When he accepted the proposal of the booksellers, he felt that his memory would be of considerable service in recalling biographical facts; and the details of which he had not been informed, or which his memory had not retained, he could gather without great effort. In this, he was deceived. His memory retained many facts, but it was not so retentive that he could rely on it exclusively. He had no sooner started with ™ Boswell, p. 275.

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his work than he understood the necessity for considerable investigation of sources of information. In a letter to Boswell of May 3, 1777, a few months after he had started on the Lives, he inquired for information about James Thomson. The Memoir of Thomson which had been written by Murdoch was not sufficiently full for his purpose. The account in the Biographia Britannica, which was chiefly an abridgment of Murdoch's Memoir; and the other accounts in the Britannica about the poets, he found too meagre. An examination of Johnson's letters 71 which were written during the interval in which he was gathering materials for the Lives proves that the author was eager to get as much reliable data as he could for a faithful fulfillment of his task. As late as May 25, 1780, when he was beginning to tire of his work, he addressed the following request in a letter to Dr. Farmer at Cambridge: I know your disposition to second any literary attempt,72 and therefore venture upon the liberty of entreating you to procure from the College or University registers, all the dates or other information which they can supply relating to Ambrose Philips, Broome, and Gray, who were all of Cambridge, and of whose lives I am to give such accounts as I can gather. . . ,7* However, in spite of his efforts to be trustworthy to the last detail, Johnson at seventy was not possessed of that patience and energy which make possible absolute accuracy. Age had brought with it a richness of experience and a strength of conviction—excellent virtues for a biographer—but age had undermined his eagerness to investigate all matters thoroughly. For dates he had little patience, and frequently he admitted it, if not directly, indirectly in the text of his narratives. In the Life of Dryden, he announced by way of apology for some of his slips in the recording of detail that " to adjust the minute events of literary history is tedious and troublesome; it 71 See especially the collection entiUed Letters of Samuel Johnson, admirably edited by George Birkbeck Hill, Oxford Press, 1892. 72 Dr. Farmer had assisted him with the Shakespeare edition, and with some of the earlier Lives. 73 Boswell, p. 423.

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requires indeed no great force of understanding, but often depending on inquiries which there is no opportunity of making, or is to be fetched from books and pamphlets not always at hand." Johnson at seventy represented that type of mind which refuses to concern itself in the hair-splittings of intensive scholarship and in the lengthy establishment of evidence. His mind sought facts, and cherished them as such and for their use, but he could not be the " harmless drudge " of which he spoke in his definition of a lexicographer. He recognized the value of scholarly accuracy, but it was not his master. His waning energy and his tendency toward procrastination supported him in the conclusion that his time might well be spent on matters other than a painstaking search for primary sources. His indolence in investigation, however, is not conspicuous when the reader recalls the wide scope of his work. To get together material for the Lives of a half-hundred poets is hardly one man's work. That he consulted most of the available sources for the information that he offered in the Lives can easily be established. The biographical dictionaries, including the work of Langbaine, Downes, Jacob, Birch, Granger, Oldys, and Cibber, were all known to him. The Lives that had been written about the poets who were on his list were household words. Sprat's Life of Cowley, Atterbury's Life of Waller, Oldisworth's Life of Smith; Ay re, Ruffhead, Warton, Warburton, and Spence on Pope; Derrick's Life of Dryden, and even " Corinna's " letters about him; Goldsmith's Life of Parnell; Richardson, Edward Philips, Fenton, and Toland on Milton; Orrery's Remarks on Swift; Warton on Christopher Pitt; Murdoch's Memoir of Thomson; Mason's Life of Gray; and, in fact, all the extant Lives of the poets he scanned in order to equip himself with information and to refresh his memory. It was chiefly from these earlier Lives, and from the accounts in the dictionaries, that Johnson drew his material for the record of events. A careful comparison of these works with Johnson's accounts frequently reveals that Johnson added

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little or nothing of actual biographical fact in his sketches. For instance, the account of Edmund Smith takes over most of the facts of William Oldisworth's Life of Smith in one generous quotation. In many cases, the events in the lives of the poets who form the list can be found—with considerable effort, it is true—elsewhere. Johnson was not the plodding investigator of primary sources that many of his readers have construed him. Research was not his forte, and when Herbert Croft consented to help Johnson with his account of Edward Young, the author was happy to allow the " gentleman, who had better information than I could easily have obtained " to write the whole Life. To his sources of information, Johnson paid due acknowledgment. The footnotes in the original edition were meagre, but they were in most instances ample to support the authority of the text. Not only did he acknowledge information that he had gathered from books and letters, but he frequently mentioned the names of those who had told him stories, or who had said this or that about the poets from Cowley to Gray. In the brief account of Broome, he mentions Ford, Lintot, Langton, Warburton, and Spence as authorities for the few straws of information that the account possesses. Any details that were conjectural or of doubtful authority he usually rejected, or considered them briefly in the text. There is no ground for the assumption that Johnson was not willing to announce his obligations to others. The instance out of which this assumption has grown is trifling. Spence's Anecdotes were in manuscript in the possession of the Duke of Newcastle, and these Johnson had frequent occasion to use and quote. He acknowledged that " great assistance " had been given him by the collection of Mr. Spence, but Boswell complained that Johnson was forgetful of his major obligation. " But he has not owned to whom he was obliged," wrote Boswell; "so that the acknowledgment is unappropriated to his Grace." 74 Such a failure to acknowledge the assistance of the Duke of Newcastle, who had allowed Johnson to consult the MS., was surely 71

P. 449.

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the result of forgetfulness, not of unwillingness to give credit where it was due. He had much first-hand information of his own, and too much strength of character to begrudge the forgotten Mr. Ford and the obscure Mr. Langton their authority. In spite of Johnson's fairly thorough methods of investigation and his conviction of the value of accuracy, he made many errors in the recording of biographical fact. The mistakes which occur were the result of Johnson's waning energy and the gossipy spirit of the times. Peter Cunningham classified the errors as those " attributable to the imperfect information of the period, and those due to his own neglect." This editor, with no air of malice or superiority, pointed cut the chief mistakes as follows: ". . . In the first written of the Lives, that of Cowley, he tells us in one place that Cowley's unfinished epic is in three books, and in another (a few pages on) that it is in four. We may safely suspect that he had never read Cowley's Comedy—for he mistakes its title. In his ' Waller,' he finds fault with Fenton for an error made by himself, from confounding two poems. In the same life he calls Hampden the uncle of Waller instead of the cousin. In his ' life of Milton ' he cites Philips (Milton's nephew) for a remarkable statement not to be found in Philips, and attributes to Ellwood (Milton's Quaker friend) the preservation of a doubtful story said to have come from Milton's own lips, which is certainly not in Ellwood; while he states oddly enough ' that " Paradise Lost " originally published in ten books, was made into twelve by dividing the seventh and the twelfth,' meaning of course the seventh and the tenth. Where his preparations had been greater, he is still more inaccurate. Thus he says of Dryden's ' King Arthur ' what is true of Albion and Albanius; mistakes the origin of ' MacFlecknoe,' and the date of its appearance; informs his readers that King James and not King Charles made Dryden historiographer; assigns Dryden's translation of Maimbourg to a period subsequent to his conversion, when it is well known that it appeared while Charles the Second was yet alive; states positively—and in two places—that Dryden translated only one of Ovid's Epistles, whereas he translated

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at least two; attributes to Settle what is by Pordage; and from not looking into Burnet for himself, makes Dryden the author of an answer actually written by Varillas. " Let me continue, though briefly, the enumeration. He is altogether wrong about Cowley's parentage. He makes Lord Roscommon live into King James's reign; calls Lord Rochester's daughter his sister; refers to Palaprat's ' Alcibiade,' when there is no such production; makes ' Venice Preserved ' the last of Otway's plays, which it is far from being; writes the ' Life of the Earl of Dorset' and in three places advances him to a dukedom, which he never obtained; ascribes to Walsh what was written by Chetwood; asserts that Addison never printed his poem to Sacheverell, whereas it is to be seen with his other earliest printed productions in so common a book as Tonson's Miscellany: confounds Sir Richard Steele with Dicky Norris the actor; attributes a discovery to Congreve— that Pindaric odes were regular—when the discovery is to be found in Ben Jonson and Philips's ' Theatrum Poetarum'; taxes Warburton with making an arrangement of Pope's Epistles, which Pope himself had made; informs us in the ' Life of Pope ' that the Pastorals of Philips and Pope appeared for the first time in the same Miscellany, but forgets his information when he comes to the life of Philips. While he is wrong in the years of birth of Savage, Somerville, Yalden, and Collins, he is equally incorrect respecting the dates of death of Dryden, Garth, Parnell, and Collins." 75 Milnes, in his Introductory Note in Johnson's Select Works, remarked that the Lives " regarded as a collection of facts . . . are full of errors. Few of the dates are accurately given, and many of the incidents are founded upon mere hearsay evidence, and do not bear a moment's examination." 76 To add evidence—even if it could be easily produced—that Johnson made many errors is hardly necessary. The list enumerated by Peter Cunningham is sufficiently large to indicate that Johnson's mistakes in recording biographical fact were not few. 75

Introduction, Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, New York, 1857, p. xv. Introduction to Mrs. Napier's edition of the Lives of the Poets, London, 1908, p. 17. 76

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Boswell was annoyed that his friend should take no pains with the detail work in the record of events, and half bitterly he complained that even when errors were pointed out to the author, he took no steps to change the text for subsequent editions of the Lives. Boswell's annoyance was justifiable, for in many instances Johnson's stubbornness and apparent indolence made even slight changes impossible. The reader is disappointed when, at the beginning of the Life of Fenton, the author announces: " T h e brevity with which I am to write the account of Elijah Fenton is not the effect of indifference or negligence. I have sought intelligence among his relations in his country, but have not obtained it." And the reader is equally disappointed when he finds at the beginning of the sketch of Gilbert West that " Gilbert West is one of the writers of whom I regret my inability to give a sufficient account; the intelligence which my inquiries have obtained is general and scanty." But when the reader finds, in the Life of Congreve, " O f Congreve's plays, I cannot speak distinctly; for since I inspected them many years have passed; but what remains upon my memory is, that his characters are commonly fictitious . . . ," 77 he is not only disappointed but exasperated. Surely, the reader reflects, an author who attempts a Life of Congreve might reread a few plays in order to refresh his memory. But Johnson was in no humor to go into some of the aspects of his work thoroughly. When Lord Marchmont was suggested to him by Boswell as a man who could supply some choice information about Pope, Johnson did not care to be troubled. Mrs. Thrale, who was present when Boswell made the suggestion, saw the latter's discomfiture, and reproved Johnson by saying, " I suppose, Sir, Mr. Boswell thought, that as you are to write Pope's Life, you would wish to know about h i m " ; at which Johnson retorted, " W i s h ! Why yes. If it rained knowledge, I'd hold out my hand; but I would not give myself the trouble to go in quest of it." 78 The author's analysis of the comedies is, however, a searching judgment. Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains oj Mrs. Piozzi, ed. Boston, J861, p. 26. 77 78

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Johnson's unwillingness to correct errors which were pointed out to him, and his indolence in refreshing his memory and investigating sources of information, are not to be passed over indulgently by reason of our reverence for Johnson. Such tactics are positive vices in the field of biography. However, if these deficiencies in Johnson's work can not be condoned, they can, at least, be understood. A man of seventy, inclined toward indolence, and needing a much deserved rest, is usually not the one to start on such an appalling task as a thorough investigation and check of all primary and later sources of information for the Lives of a half-hundred poets. Johnson had slaved as a hack-writer for Cave; he had been a drudge for seven years with his Dictionary, and at seventy he was in no humor to go through such performances again. Furthermore, he had an assurance that bred supreme confidence in the value of what he had written. There were errors possibly, but there were compensating features in his work. When Boswell told him of the outcry which was raised by some of the readers at some of his observations in the Lives, there was a nobility of gesture in Johnson's sharp retort, " Sir, I considered myself entrusted with a certain portion of truth. I have given my opinion sincerely." 79 In spite of the fact that errors occur in the narrative of events, the source-book value of the Lives of the Poets is considerable. As has been observed, much of the information that the Lives contain can be found in earlier eighteenth century records, but the reader is indeed unfortunate who must try to find it. It is distributed over all of the provinces of literature, and is frequently to be found in such obscure corners that only the most painstaking investigator will come upon it. More than two generations of poets move by in the Lives, from Cowley to Gray, and to each there is attached at least a general description of his life and worth. The errors which occur do not destroy our confidence in the reliability of the information that is provided, nor do they cause the student of biography to reject the Lives as a great contribution to the field of 19

Boswell, p. 449.

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Life-writing. T h e mistakes that occur are at times serious, but few readers have been badly misled by them. Scholarly accuracy was not the forte of this author who lived in an age in which the science of scholarship was still young, but the fact remains that the Lives of the Poets has served its purpose of giving substantial information concerning fifty-two poets, and will continue to serve that purpose well. In spite of its inaccuracies, the work is heartily recommended to those who would know late seventeenth and eighteenth century poets. Although an accurate chronological table of events is a large part of the biographer's work, it is not the only end to be reached in good Life-writing. Delineation of personality and analysis of character are a major part of biography, and in this Johnson was at his best. This part of his work demanded no painstaking investigation of sources and no care with such elusive details as dates. Here Johnson's age was in no way a handicap. All of that richness of experience that he had had during forty years of association with the realm of letters, and all of the observations that he had made of poets and their art, were at his command. Patience and energy were not necessary with this part of his work; maturity of judgment, resulting from an intimacy of long standing with the rudiments of life, was the chief requirement. In this respect, Johnson was admirably equipped for his Lives. N o man of the age understood more clearly the varying nature of the personalities of poets. It was with this element of his work that Johnson rose to supreme heights. Walter Raleigh observed to the point when he wrote, " T h e Lives of the Poets is more than a collection of facts; it is a book of wisdom and experience, a treatise on the conduct of life, a commentary on human destiny." 80 T h e worth of his judgments about poets and life has rarely been questioned. W e feel and know their value without entering into an analysis of the reason for their appeal. It remained for the French to question the worth of Johnson's observations on life, and to wonder at the wide appeal that he continues to make to the English mind. " W e wish to know 80

Six Essays on Johnson, ed. 1910, p . 26.

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what ideas have made him popular," wrote Taine. " Here the astonishment of the Frenchman redoubles. We vainly turn over the pages of his Dictionary, his eight volumes of essays, his ten volumes of biographies, his numberless articles, his conversation so carefully collected; we yawn. His truths are loo true; we already knew his precepts by heart. We learn from him that life is short, and we ought to improve the few moments accorded to us; that a mother ought not to bring up her son to be a dandy; that a man ought to repent of his crimes, and yet avoid superstition; that in everything we ought to be active, and not hurried. We thank him for these sage counsels, but we mutter to ourselves that we could have done very well without them. We should like to know who could have been the lovers of ennui who have bought up thirteen thousand copies." The French critic's analysis of the Englishman's partiality for Johnson's precepts is not only interesting, but a valuable commentary on the English mind. " We discover," continued Taine, in his attempt to determine the reason for " the 13,000 copies," " that men of reflection do not need bold or striking ideas, but palpable and profitable truths. They demand to be furnished with a useful provision of authentic documents on man and his existence, and demand nothing more. No matter if the idea is vulgar; meat and bread are vulgar too, and are no less good. They wish to be taught the kinds and degrees of happiness and unhappiness, the varieties and results of characters and conditions, the advantages and inconveniences of town and country, knowledge and ignorance, wealth and poverty, because they are moralists and utilitarians; because they look in a book for knowledge to turn them from folly, and motives to confirm them in uprightness; because they cultivate in themselves sense, that is to say, practical reason. . . . This substantial food only needs a very simple seasoning. It is not the novelty of the dishes, nor dainty cookery, but solidity and wholesomeness, which they seek. For this reason the Essays [and he meant the biographies as well] are a national food. It is because they are insipid and dull that they suit the taste 24

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of an Englishman. We understand now why they take for a favourite the respectable, the unbearable Samuel Johnson." 81 To the English mind, Johnson's precepts and interpretations of life through specific characters are at times warped, but they are never insipid. Taine exaggerated the vogue of Johnson among English readers, but few have found him dull. Most of the yawning that has been done over the Lives of the Poets has been done on the south side of the English channel by those whose taste has been shaped by a less substantial diet than " meat and bread." The specific for insomnia of which Taine spoke has failed in its application on a half-dozen generations of Englishmen, and until the English mind changes, the specific will continue to fail. We may know his precepts by heart, but we cherish them because we find application for them daily. We know " that to doubt whether a man of eminence has told the truth about his own birth, is, in appearance, to be very deficient in candour; yet nobody can live long without knowing that falsehoods of convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no evil immediately visible ensues, except the general degradation of human testimony, are very lightly uttered, and once uttered as sullenly supported." 82 All of this of course we know, but we like it crystallized for us—even in such a long sentence—and we have satisfaction in applying it to our immediate lives. We want those interpretations of life that are the result of others' observations; life to most Englishspeaking peoples is a deductive experience. T o profit by the light of the experience of others—even by their mistakes—is our legitimate end; and the literature that affords us this light is not passed over without recognizing its worth. Johnson's talent in judging humankind was not that of Balzac—or of the great English dramatists and novelists. Nor was he a profound philosopher, seeking the cause and effect of human destiny. His observations in the Lives of the Poets were not the result of a life given over to reflection about the inner significance of things. His mental and spiritual experi81 82

English Literature, Life of Congreve.

ed. 1879, Book III, p. 189.

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ences were not those of Herr Teufelsdrock. Life to him was too real an event for him to consider it in a detached way. He belonged to an age that was observing rather than reflective. The immediate details of human experience concerned him most; it was the here-and-now of life that completely absorbed him. When Boswell talked of death, Johnson told him to desist. He recalled Savage as a man with whom he had eaten and walked, not as one who was the victim of a malign Fate, or a small cog in the wheels of destiny. Everything that was upon the earth was real to him, and he did not concern himself greatly about other things. No, to Johnson we do not go when we are seeking for a proper adjustment with the firmament and with Deity. It is with the matter of fact things that his precepts deal. He had observed much, and felt much, and his mind was capable of putting to use his impressions. The judgments of a man who for forty years had watched men as real, flesh-and-blood inhabitants of a real world are worthy of our attention and respect. It is not out of veneration for his age that we cherish the precepts in the Lives; it is not an honor we pay to age when we scan his works. His judgments possess all of the sagacity of age, but they possess more. They are not the comments of a man who has attained three score and ten, and who as a result demands the prerogative of warning the younger generation of the pitfalls that he has seen, and by dint of righteousness and determination escaped. His judgments are wider in their application than that, and in most instances more practical. Sympathetic understanding of the poets' mind and heart, of his trials and triumphs, his ambitions and the forces that motivated him, and the circumstances which aided or handicapped him, was not gained by being the casual observer of life. From early manhood he had not only observed poets and their ways, but he had suffered with them, and shared with them the undulating experiences of their lives. The lessons that their lives illustrated were his lessons. His delineation of character reveals the pointed and sympathetic observations of a man who had seen and known life as a thoroughly real event.

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His judgments of life through specific characters find applications without number. Examples of Johnson's wisdom can be selected almost at random in the Lives. A few illustrations will suffice. He that runs against Time has an antagonist not subject to casualties. Life of Pope. He that is pleased with himself easily imagines that he shall please others. Life of Pope. Poverty, like other rigid powers, is sometimes too hastily accused. Life of Dryden. That conversion will always be suspected that apparently concurs with interest. Life of Dryden. A man conscious of hypocritical profession in himself is not likely to convert others. Life of Dryden. Great events can be hastened or retarded only by persons of elevated dignity. Life of Milton. He that changes his party by his humour is not more virtuous than he that changes it by his interest; he loves himself rather than truth. Life of Milton. Our powers owe much of their energy to our hopes. Life of Milton. Imagination is useless without knowledge: nature gives in vain the power of combination, unless study and observation supply materials to be combined. Life of Butler. Great thoughts are always general, and consist in positions not limited by exceptions, and in descriptions not descending to minuteness. Life of Cowley. When such comments are made in connection with the analysis of character, the study of personality is charged with meaning. In those passages in which Johnson dealt with the characters of the poets, all of the richness of his experience, and his penetrating observations of men, come to the foreground. It is in these passages that Johnson attains a particularly high level. In some respects, these paragraphs which usually stand at the end of the narrative of events, or at the end of the account, have the features of that type of writing so popular in the seventeenth century, " the character." With a few bold brush-strokes, the author portrayed searchingly the man. The

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delineation of personality, however, almost always escapes from the type to the individual. There is no similarity in the features of the poets as Johnson portrayed them. The character of Thomson cannot be mistaken for that of his countryman Mallet; and Cowley and Waller, frequently associated by reason of the similarity of their literary inclinations, are definite individuals. The last paragraphs in the Life of Milton, and in fact all of those passages in the Lives that are given over to character analysis, illustrate Johnson's consummate skill in delineating personality in a compact and penetrating way. In addition to the value of the Lives as fairly accurate narratives of biographical fact, and as compact and penetrating delineations of individual personalities, these accounts possess much worth for their judgments of the works of the poets. This element in the combination that Johnson employed in the Lives is not exclusively within the province of a survey of Johnson the biographer, for it is essentially Johnson the critic that we find here. The line of demarcation, however, between the biographer of a poet and the critic of a poet must not be drawn too sharply. The Life-writer who fails to take into consideration what a poet has written, who concerns himself only with the domestic and public events in the man's life, forgets that biography must not only reveal the works through the man, but it must also reveal the man through the works. A Life of Shelley, for instance, which does not concern itself with some analysis of the poet's art in Queen Mab and Prometheus Unbound cannot reveal Shelley in a thorough and satisfying way. The works of the poet are frequently the poet, and they reveal the man who wrote them often more clearly than a series of choice anecdotes and a long discussion of the influences under which he came in adolescence and early manhood. It is not unlikely that Johnson recognized the inter-relationship of the lives of the poets and the works of the poets while organizing his material for the accounts. It is only in rare instances that we lose sight of the poet in the author's criticism of his works.

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In spite of this fact, however, Johnson's critical proclivities frequently were exercised at the expense of biography. Instances of a disproportionate allotment of space to the critical part of the account are numerous. The reader who is interested primarily in biography is often disappointed to find that after he has read ten pages of matter that is essentially biographical, he is confronted by twenty remaining pages in the sketch devoted to criticism. In several instances the reader gets the impression that the author's manner is hurried in the purely biographical part of the account, but that no detail is too trivial for space in the critique. The Cowley sketch, for instance, devotes thirteen pages to the life of the poet, and over forty pages to a criticism of his works. The accounts of Dryden and Addison are chiefly critical. Many of the shorter sketches devote a page or so to a cursory survey of biographical detail, and the remaining pages are devoted to a critique. In these accounLs in which biography is submerged by criticism, the true student of biography experiences disappointment that often amounts to irritation. The reasons for this allotment of space to criticism are not difficult to find. Johnson knew more about the works of the poets in most instances than he knew about their lives, and, furthermore, his commission did not demand a purely biographical account. He was to write Lives and Prefaces, and he was evidently at liberty to allot his space as he saw fit. Only the biographical zealot, however, laments the circumstances that led Johnson to pass at times hastily over the Life to get to the Works. Some of the finest passages in English literary criticism occur here. The account of Cowley, with its meagre allotment of space to the poet's life, contains the most penetrating analysis of the Metaphysical School that criticism has produced. No keener appreciations of the poetry of Dryden and Pope are to be found; and the critique of Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the finest things in all criticism. It is to Johnson's Lives of the Poets that we are indebted for many of our critical phrases and quotations. The Metaphysical School, the frequently repeated comment on Addison's

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style, the neatly worded judgments about Collins and Thomson, and the excellent contrast between the styles of Dryden and Pope are household phrases among students of literature. The reader who begrudges criticism its share in the Lives of the Poets out of loyalty to biography need not be taken seriously. The three component parts of the Lives, namely, the record of biographical facts, the delineation of character, and the criticism of works of the poet, form at times a coherent and unified whole. There are instances—as in the Life of Cowley —in which the transition between the early two parts and the criticism is not well marked; and instances—as in the Life of Dryden—in which they are so mixed together that they cannot be dissociated. In the account of Milton, the appreciation of Paradise Lost seems to be brought in when to all intents the Life is complete. The best illustration of Johnson's ability to bring fact, character analysis, and criticism together—if we except the Life of Savage—is in the short account of James Thomson. But the sketches that show consummate skill in the blending of the three elements are comparatively few. So long as the narrative of events is under consideration, a time sequence is usually followed, at times to be interrupted by a digression on the publication of a poem or drama, and a brief criticism of the piece; but when the time sequence can no longer be followed, the matters both biographical and critical are presented in a way that often suggests a noticeable lack of prevision. There are few examples of conspicuous lack of organization of material, but in many of the sketches there is a looseness that indicates that Johnson's work on the Lives did not go on without many interruptions. The style of the accounts, too, is not consistently high. There are passages which rise to the highest level of eighteenth century prose, and a fair number that suggest mediocrity. The manner, however, is always clear, often vivid, usually positive and resonant, and at times inspired. It is the style of the Johnson that Boswell knew, of the man who spoke engagingly to Fanny Burney and Mrs. Thrale, and who roared at

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Goldsmith and the Club. There is supreme confidence in his manner; his pen shows the discipline and some of the weariness of four decades of writing. His dictatorship in the conversations in which he indulged found frequent expression in his writing. A sense of superiority is revealed in many passages. But with all of its dictatorial tone, it can never be called pompous. The six-syllable words which were his pride in the 40's are rarely found here, nor are his sentences the long, breath-taking periods of The Rambler. Any literary affectations which he employed while seeking favor from Cave's readers were forgotten, or employed with that naturalness which comes from long use. A brevity that contradicts the current suggestion of the term Johnsonian is frequently encountered. In those accounts which he enjoyed—and the appreciative reader knows which they are—his style " truly reaches its maturity of vigour and ease." 83 In the others in which he found little interest and small enjoyment, a weariness is evident that suggests neither vigour nor ease. In the account of Gilbert West, for instance, a poet about whom he knew little and cared less, he wrote in such a tired way that the reader can hear Johnson heaving a mighty sigh of relief when the last phrase has been written. That judgment which Coleridge offered of Wordsworth's poetry—" that no author profits more by selection "—might easily be applied to Johnson's style in the Lives of the Poets. Were the Lives of Dyer, West, Mallet, Akenside, and even the accounts of Swift and Thomas Gray to be the total contribution of Johnson to the world of biography and letters, his fame as a biographer and stylist would hang on a very slender thread. At this point in the survey of the Lives of the Poets it is necessary to leave the general and deal with specific aspects of some of the more representative Lives. At the outset, a classification of the accounts will be of service. Roughly speaking, there are two main classes of Lives: those that he wanted to write, and those which he wrote to fulfill his contract with the booksellers. Those that he enjoyed writing 53

Six Essays on Johnson,

by Walter Raleigh, ed. 1910, p. 18.

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show the stamp of inspiration and genius; they reflect the Johnson that we know and cherish. The accounts which he wrote in order to fulfill his contract are, with few exceptions, uninspired pieces of hack-work. Of the large number, the Life of Savage, written thirty-five years before the Lives of the Poets began to appear, remains the best illustration of pure biography. In the later Lives the author at times approached the high level of the account of Savage, but it was never completely gained. An examination of all the accounts is hardly necessary; at present, such a survey would prove too lengthy, and a certain redundance of comment would undoubtedly ensue. However, to examine a few of the Lives that were written after 1777 will illustrate Johnson's final—if not his best—biographical manner. From the large number, the Lives of Cowley, Dryden, Milton, Pope, Thomson, and Gray may be chosen as representative. This list does not include an example drawn from the large number of three to five page accounts which dealt with " the mob of Gentlemen " of which the reviewer spoke.84 These short accounts were written to fulfill the contract with the booksellers, and were written, with few exceptions, in that spirit. To bear in mind the fact that there were such Lives in the collection is enough. The first account which he wrote for the collection was that of Abraham Cowley. Of the series of Lives, Johnson considered this the best. The reasons for the author's preference are not difficult to determine. In December, 1777, at which time he sent the Life to the press, his enthusiasm for the " little Lives " was still high. His patience as yet had not been taxed; he was still full of the project. Furthermore, the kind of thing that Cowley had written appealed to Johnson. The nature of his mind and his training caused him to find Cowley completely interesting. His preference for this Life, however, did not grow out of his consuming love for Cowley the man, although he admired him for both his party affiliations and his genius. He liked the Cowley sketch undoubtedly as Boswell observed 84

Monthly

Review,

September, 1779, LXI, 186.

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" on account of the dissertation which it contains on the Metaphysical Poets." 85 The narrative of events in the poet's life was drawn chiefly from Sprat, 86 from the brief observations of Aubrey, Wood, Barnes, 87 Downes, 88 Peck, 80 and from autobiographical passages in Cowley's works. 90 The narrative of events, however, is more than a skilful piecing together of quotations from earlier authorities. The brief narrative was a definite improvement on Sprat's Lije, in spite of the comparative fullness of the earlier work; and Wood's short account was by no means so illuminating. " The courtly S p r a t " and " the morose Wood," as Johnson called his two chief sources of information, were constantly applied to for facts, but Sprat's Cowley and Wood's Cowley are not the clear portraits that Johnson produced. There is little of Sprat's eulogy in Johnson's manner, and none of Wood's moroseness. The narrative is a straightforward account of the outstanding events in the life of the poet, in which occasional subjectivity enters that gives vividness and depth to the delineation of character. We see Cowley, though briefly, leaving Cambridge after having already distinguished himself with his pen, to go to St. John's, Oxford, there to remain until the University was surrendered to the New Parliament. We follow him with interest to France, and feel some of his agitation over the state of affairs in England at the time of the civil war. We see him as the trusted secretary of Lord Jermyn, writing such letters " as the royal cause required." We are told that he was really in love but once, and " then never had the resolution to tell his passion." We watch his return to England with some anxiety, for the usurping powers were still in control, and see his discomfiture at his imprisonment. When he takes upon himself the character of a physician in order " to dissemble the main 85 86 87 88 88 00

Boswell, p. 440. Life of Cowley, 1668. Bamesti Anacreontem, Cambridge, 1705. Roscius Anglicanus, 1780. Appendix to the Life of Cromwell, 1740. For instance, the essay Of Myself. Vid. Complete

Works, ed. 1831.

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design of his coming over," we see the author of The Resurrection in a new light, and find him more human and likeable. A quiet, capable man, avoiding " the hum of men " ; in time, after his retirement to Chertsey in Surrey, to receive a grant of land which " afforded him an ample income " ; an amiable man, possessed of fine perceptions and talent, and of sufficient shrewdness to be employed in a position of highest confidence among the Royalists—all of this is brought to the reader clearly and compactly. When the reader, after thirteen pages, comes to the end of the narrative, he knows Cowley fairly well. The portrait is not full-length by any means, but the features that are drawn are so clear that the intervening spaces may be filled in with small danger of misrepresentation. " I must therefore recommend the perusal of his work," concluded the author, " to which my narration can be considered only as a slender supplement." Then follows the justly famous dissertation on the Metaphysical Poets. It is true that at times Cowley is lost sight of in the elaborate analysis that ensues in which Donne and Denham enter for the purpose of comparison and contrast. Quotation follows quotation from the works of Cowley and Donne to illustrate points that the author seeks to establish and clarify. By the time the critique is ended, and the reader has grasped the full significance of the author's judgments, the poet Cowley is a distinct and well-developed individual personality. It is through this critical part of the Life that we comprehend Cowley's mind and art. To the student of biography, the account is satisfying and engaging. Our only wish is that the narrative of events were more detailed. But in the brief space that Johnson employed, he revealed Cowley admirably. Not only do we know Cowley the man better after having read Johnson's account, but we are made to feel much of that inner spirit of the seventeenth century which made possible such men and such poets. This end could be reached only by a discriminating selection of biographical details and by a true gift of interpretation. In spite of the brevity of the account, Cowley, the man and the poet, is a clear personality.

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Eighteenth century readers found the Life a substantial contribution chiefly to the province of criticism. The critic in the Monthly Review for July, 1779,01 wrote that " In the narrative of Cowley's Life there is little, except the manner in which it is told, that is new; but this deficiency, which was not in the Biographer's power to remedy, is fully compensated for in the review of his writings, which abounds in original criticism." Readers of later generations have found the Life equally valuable as a biography on account of the fact that Sprat, Wood and the others who were Johnson's sources of information are not so well known as they were in the eighteenth century. To most present day readers, not only the manner but the matter is sufficiently new to be of considerable biographical value. It is Johnson's analysis of Cowley's character that has stood out against time as a sound and penetrating revelation of the poet. The Life of Dryden, unlike the account of Cowley, was regarded in the eighteenth century as a substantial contribution to biography as well as to criticism. Subsequent generations, however, have paid comparatively little attention to Johnson's observations on Dryden's life. Owing to the fact that there have been several excellent Lives of John Dryden written since Johnson's account appeared, the sketch in the Lives of the Poets has suffered by just comparison. Malone and Scott, among others, have given us more faithful and detailed portraits of the poet, with the result that Johnson's Life is of secondary importance among present-day students of Dryden biography. At the time that Johnson's account appeared, however, there was no good Life of Dryden. Derrick's Life (1760), and the few biographical passages that appeared in "Charles Wilson's" Memoirs of Congreve (1730), entitled the Memoirs of John Dryden,02 were the only fairly sustained attempts at a record of the poet's life. The accounts in the dictionaries were not only meagre, but frequently inaccurate. " Poor Derrick," as Johnson usually called him, produced a second-rate performance. 93 Johnson had helped him with his " LXI, 1. 92 93

Vid. ante, p. 147. Vid. ante, p. 220.

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account. Some time after the Life appeared, he reported to Boswell, '' I sent Derrick to Dryden's relations to gather materials for his life; and I believe he got all that I myself should have got." 91 But Johnson's help evidently did not assist Derrick greatly. The biographical value of the Memoirs of Dryden in " Charles Wilson's " slip-shod volume approaches the zero-point. The only result that this account produced was to mislead most of the biographical lexicographers until the close of the century. A good Life of Dryden was sorely needed during the eighteenth century, for few poets were more discussed. When Johnson's account appeared, it answered in part this long-felt need, and it was justly numbered among his better Lives by those whose interest in the poet had not waned. For a Life of Dryden, Johnson was fairly well equipped. Events in the poet's life remained a topic for discussion far into the eighteenth century, and Johnson, attentive to all rumors that were circulated about men of letters, undoubtedly heard much about Dryden during his forty years in London. Furthermore, Dryden's prose and poetry were well known to him. It is doubtful whether any poet, with the possible exception of Pope, was so well known. He admired Dryden, and loved him. In him Johnson saw something of himself, and was, as a result, singularly adapted to judge the man whom he felt he understood so clearly. Out of his admiration for the poet, he was eager to attempt his Life. While he was still working for Cave, Johnson wanted to write a Life of Dryden, and even went so far as to apply to the elder Cibber and " old Swinney " —the two men alive at the time who had seen Dryden—for first-hand information.95 When Derrick began to work on a Life, Johnson was eager to help him, but as time passed, the thought of producing an account himself went further into the background. But with the commission of writing a series of Lives, his interest in the project of an account of Dryden was revived. It was undoubtedly one of the Lives that he enjoyed most. 84 95

Boswell, p. 126. Vid. Boswell, p. 309.

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His enjoyment of his work in preparing the account, however, did not make the Life so fine a piece of composition as the Life of Cowley or some of the less pleasurable narratives. His enthusiasm for the subject did not cause him to fail to recognize the difficult nature of the work he had undertaken. In the opening paragraph of the Life, he announced: " Of the great poet whose life I am about to delineate, the curiosity which his reputation must excite will require a display more ample than can now be given. His contemporaries, however they reverenced his genius, left his life unwritten; and nothing therefore can be known beyond what casual mention and uncertain tradition have supplied." Johnson's assumption that nothing would be known was hardly sound, as Malone later proved; but at seventy, he was not pleased at the thought of devoting years to a thorough investigation of sources of information for a brief account. The largeness of the subject and the willingness to rely on " casual mention and uncertain tradition " were barriers in his way to an excellent biographical performance. The narrative thread that runs through the early part of the account is difficult to pick up. Of Dryden's youth and early manhood we learn nothing. We see him as he became a " public candidate for f a m e " with the Heroic Stanzas to Cromwell, and we learn that his change to Royalist sympathies was an inconstancy that was " shared with such numbers, that it produced neither hatred nor disgrace." After a criticism of some of the passages in Astrea Redux, and a few brief comments on the early plays, we learn that Dryden was " now so distinguished that in 1668 he succeeded Sir William Davenant as Poet-Laureate." Why he was " now so distinguished," we are left to surmise, or to seek elsewhere for our information. We are told, even before we learn that Dryden was distinguished, that it is a thankless job for a biographer to run over twenty-eight plays, and that " in settling the order of his works there is some difficulty." Then follows a cursory description of the plays, during the lengthy course of which—for each one is mentioned—the man and the poet are forgotten by reason of

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the fact that the descriptions are so general that they might apply to the plays of Wycherly, or to those of Settle himself. After a discussion of Buckingham's caricature of Dryden as Bayes in The Rehearsal, the author pauses to observe apologetically that " to adjust the minute events in literary history is tedious and troublesome." In the Life of Dryden it evidently was. The Essay on Dramatic Poesie is considered at comparative length, after which a lengthy quotation from Dryden's judgment of Settle's Empress of Morocco is offered. Then, after other works of the most versatile and voluminous poet of the seventeenth century have been enumerated and described briefly, the narrative of the poet's life draws to an end with " the time is now at hand which was to put an end to all his schemes and labors. On the first of May, 1700 . . . he died in Gerrard street, of a mortification of the leg." After this information has been offered, the author devotes three precious pages to a description of Dryden's funeral, quoted verbatim from no less doubtful authority than Curll's " Corinna." 96 For this story, which even at the time was not accepted as authentic, Johnson apologized by saying: " This story I once intended to omit, as it appears with no great evidence; nor have I met with any confirmation, but in a letter of Farquhar; and he only relates that the funeral of Dryden was tumultuary and confused." 97 This last generous quotation and the apology for it leave us annoyed at the manner of the biographer. Space was at a premium for so large a subject, and still the author wilfully gave over three pages to a yarn that has little to do with a delineation of Dryden, and that he might have known, had he traced its origin, was largely apocryphal. Furthermore, it is with considerable disappointment that the student of biography comes to the end of the narrative of events. Of Dryden the man there is next to nothing. Of course, the events in his life were almost entirely literary; little of significance happened to 96

aries. 97

Johnson possibly got this passage from one of the biographical dictionSeveral of them copied " Corinna's " story. For " Corinna's " story, vid. ante, p. 147.

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him outside the realm of letters. The fact remains, however, that through Johnson's narrative of events we see Dryden not as a man or poet, but as some kind of literary machine that produced at the touch of a spring a huge assortment of plays, poems, translations and essays. The cursory descriptions that accompany that which is more of an enumeration of works than a biographical account reveal little of the man who was behind the works by reason of the general quality of the observations. The small narrative thread that appears at intervals is promptly broken by a judgment of a play or an essay. There are no pauses at regular intervals to view Dryden as he was when he wrote All for Love or Absalom and Achitophel. Apparently it is the same man who had experienced no change who wrote Astrea Redux and The Essay on Dramatic Poesie. Despite the fact that Dryden was in some respects a literary machine, such versatility of talent as he demonstrated needs some explanation. In the narrative of events there is little that aids us in picturing or understanding the poet. However, in those passages that lie between the narrative of events and the critique of the poet's works there are some penetrating character analysis and clear portraiture. After Johnson had finished with the scurrilous account of Dryden's funeral, his capabilities with character delineation came to the fore. It is here that we catch some clear glimpses of Dryden. We learn that the poet considered " the great as entitled to encomiastic homage," and that " he brought praise rather as a tribute than a gift "•—that " he was more delighted with the fertility of his invention, than mortified by the prostitution of his judgment." When we are told in connection with his change to Roman Catholicism that " he did not pretend to have received any new conviction of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity," we have only to think of the thousands who have found certain church affiliations profitable both socially and commercially, and we understand. We are satisfied to know that those works which " afford too many examples of dissolute licentiousness and abject adulation . . . were probably, like his merriment, artificial and constrained; the effects of study

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and meditation, and his trade rather than his pleasure." We are told that " his placability and his friendship were indeed solid virtues," and that " his modesty was by no means inconsistent with ostentatiousness; he is diligent enough to remind the world of his merit, and expresses with very little scruple his high opinion of his own powers; but his self-condemnations are read without scorn or indignation; we allow his claims, and love his frankness." We are beginning to feel that we know Dryden when the passages of character delineation end with the comment: " So slight and so scanty is the knowledge which I have been able to collect concerning the private life and domestic manners of a man whom every English generation must mention with reverence as a critic and poet." In the criticism of the works which occupies the remainder —about half—of the sketch, there are passages that are justly famous. They are valuable both to criticism and biography. No more substantial judgment has been offered concerning the poet's versification; and all subsequent criticism has corroborated Johnson's observation that " upon all occasions that were presented, he studied rather than felt, and produced sentiments not such as nature enforces, but meditation supplied." It is after the critical part of the account has been considered carefully that the reader recognizes the biographical value of the Life. In the passages of the critique, Dryden becomes a definite literary personality. The Life as a whole is a loose-jointed performance. There is much about Dryden in the one hundred page account that is informational and rich in characterization; in fact, the Life is a store-house of all manner of odds and ends about the poet, but as is the case with many store-houses which are used for keeping the sundry gatherings of a lifetime, Johnson's materials are not well arranged. Furthermore, much that is essential to good biography is missing. The Life is rather a Miscellany of odds and ends about the poet than a coherent and thorough delineation of his life and personality. Painstaking effort with the prevision of his material evidently did not concern the author, for with his miscellaneous information, a CQ25

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herent narrative in which one detail led directly to another was well-nigh impossible. Careful application, however, to the composition of the Life would have undoubtedly made it a better kind of biography. The author's judgment of Dryden's manner is applicable to his own. " He was no lover of labour,'' wrote Johnson. " What he thought sufficient he did not stop to make better; and allowed himself to leave many parts unfinished, in confidence that the good lines would overbalance the bad. What he had once written, he dismissed from his thoughts; and I believe there is no example to be found of any correction or improvement made by him after publication. The hastiness of his productions might be the effect of necessity; but his subsequent neglect could hardly have any other cause than impatience of study." The Monthly Review for September, 17 7 9,98 judged the account in part as follows: " T h e Life of Dryden, the particulars of which are traced with great minuteness, contains, besides many curious and interesting anecdotes, much of the literary history of his time; and the critical labour and attention that have been devoted to his works, do credit as well to the diligence as to the abilities of the learned Reviewer." It is true that diligence was applied to Johnson's appreciation of the works, but to the modern student of Life-writing this virtue does not stand out conspicuously in the strictly biographical part of the account. With the works of Malone and Scott accessible, Johnson's Life of Dryden, as a Life, must take a second place. To his account Johnson did not give the years of effort that Malone gave to his Life, nor did Johnson write with the lively pen that Walter Scott employed. Edmund Malone, whose painstaking investigations became the foundation for all subsequent Dryden accounts," in the early passages of his thorough study of the Life of the poet, 100 offered a judgment of Johnson's Life that is noble in its generosity and penetrating in its criticism. " So few are the notices which have been transmitted to us concerning the great poet whose »8 L X I , 186. 80 Vid. ante, p. 226. 100 Some Account o) the Life and Writings

oj John Dryden,

London, 1800.

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Prose Works are here collected," wrote Malone, " that Dr. Johnson, who at an early period had meditated writing his Life, soon abandoned the project, in despair of finding materials sufficient for his purpose. Many years afterwards, however, having undertaken a general review of the lives of the most eminent English Poets, he enriched his volumes of biography with an account of this author, in which are displayed such comprehension of mind and accuracy of criticism, such vigour of expression and luxuriance of imagery, that of the various masterly Lives in his admirable work, that of Dryden is perhaps the most animated and splendid; so splendid, indeed, that a competition with such excellence can be sought only by him who is actuated by a degree of confidence in himself, which I beg leave most strenuously to disclaim. Having, however, as he himself told me, made no preparation for that difficult and extensive undertaking, not being in the habit of extracting from books and committing to paper those facts on which the accuracy of literary history in a great measure depends, and being still less inclined to go through the tedious and often unsatisfactory process of examining ancient registers, offices of record, and those sepulchres of literature, public repositories of manuscripts, he was under the necessity of trusting much to his own most retentive memory, which furnished him with many curious and interesting particulars concerning the most famous English Poets, collected during the course of a long life; but he was frequently, as in the present instance, obliged to rely for incidents and dates, on such information as had been transmitted by preceding biographers. Unfortunately, all the accounts of Dryden and his works were one continued tissue of inaccuracy, errour, and falsehood. Very little had been handed down, and of that little the greater part was untrue." It is this judgment of Malone's that must be applied when Johnson's Life of Dryden is considered critically by students of biography. The Life of Milton, too, has ceased to be a substantial authority and to excite comment. To modern readers this Life is of interest on account of its splendid appreciation of Paradise

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Lost and on account of its clear revelation of the occasional bias of Johnson's mind. It rivals with the account of Gray for first place as an example of Johnson's militant prejudices. In spite of all that the author's friends said to the contrary, Johnson was unsympathetic to the poet Milton. There is no doubt about his lack of insight into the true nature of the poet's life. His sound and even inspired judgment of some of the works of Milton, however—especially Paradise Lost— cannot be questioned. The Life of Milton is an excellent illustration of the author's ability to dissociate his personal antipathy for the man from a clear and appreciative analysis of his greatest work. The Life of Milton exemplifies both the prejudices and the clear, impartial understanding of Johnson's mind. Even those who were aroused to anger over the author's antipathetic portrait of the poet were willing to admit that Johnson's appreciation of Milton's poetry was both just and sympathetic. Towers, who among others was incensed at Johnson's delineation of Milton, allowed that " Johnson has spoken in the highest terms of the abilities of that great poet, and has bestowed on his principal poetical compositions the most honourable encomiums." 101 The strictly biographical part of the Life and the critical part can, to a large extent, be dissociated. In the former, Johnson sank to the depths of personal antipathy; in the latter, he rose to the supreme heights of impartial and inspired appreciation. Unfortunately, it is chiefly with Johnson's " Life " of Milton that the student of biography is concerned. In this, the author did not add to his fame either in the eighteenth century or in later periods. " I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pocket," announced the angered Cowper.102 Cowper's judgment was by no means the total of bitter criticism that the Life drew. " Against his Life of Milton, the hounds of Whiggism have opened in full cry," reported Boswell.103 In 1780, Dilly published in octavo a small volume 101

An Essay on the Uje,

Character and Writings

1787. 103

Cowper's Letters, ed. Everyman, P. 441.

p. 288.

oj Dr. Samuel

Johnson,

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entitled Remarks on Johnson's Life of Milton, written by an irate Miltonian who struck at Johnson with considerable effect. In his essay, the author traced the reasons for Johnson's antipathy toward Milton in a clear and decisive way. The Monthly Review for June, 1780,104 upheld the author of the Remarks as follows: " The acrimony with which Dr. Johnson has permitted himself to treat the character of Milton is well known. Those parts of his Narrative which seemed to be particularly obnoxious were pointed out, so far at least as the nature of our work and the limits assigned to each individual article would admit of, in the Review for August 1779. The present Writer takes a larger field. He enters into a minute and ample vindication of the injured bard, not without recrimination on his learned historian. I f , perhaps, he may be less acrimonious, his Remarks are not without a due portion of asperity: he has certainly given his antagonist a Rowland for his Oliver." As late as 1799, William Hayley in his Dedication in the third edition of his Life of Milton 105 reiterated the late eighteenth century conviction of the injustice of Johnson's account. " I have endeavoured to preserve in my own mind, and to express on every proper occasion," he wrote, " my unshaken regard for the rare faculties and virtues of a late extraordinary biographer, whom it has been my lot to encounter continually as a very bitter, and sometimes, I think, an insidious enemy to the great poet, whose memory I have fervently wished to rescue from indignity and detraction. The asperity of Johnson towards Milton has often struck the fond admirers of the poet in various points of view; in one moment it excites laughter, in another indignation. . . ." 106 This Life by Hayley was the only great and sustained effort to offset the impression of Milton that Johnson had given many readers; but there were scores of criticisms, many of which appeared in print, which attempted to point out the L X I , 479. Basel, 1799. i » « Dedication, ed. Basel, 1799, p. vii et seq. 104

105

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author's errors, and thus to bring Milton away from the brink to which Johnson had pushed him. Johnson's name carried with it considerable force, and the loyal admirers of the poet realized that such a delineation of Milton's character as Johnson had offered could not be allowed to stand. The result was that during the decades of the 80's and 90's, a large amount of work was done on the life of the poet as a direct consequence of Johnson's account. In this indirect and scarcely commendable way, Johnson was responsible to a large extent for the firm foundation on which Milton biography came to rest. The reasons for Johnson's unsympathetic portrayal of Milton were the result of his inadequate information and of pure, unadulterated prejudice. Of the events in Milton's life he had considerable information, much of which he had obtained from Edward Phillips' Life, and from the works of Toland, 1 " 7 Fenton, 108 Whitelocke and a few others who had offered to posterity some observations concerning the poet. 100 How early Johnson began to put an unfavorable construction on some of the events in Milton's life that he had gathered from his reading and hearsay can not be determined accurately, but his prejudice against Milton was not a sudden development in connection with his work with the Lives oj the Poets. This prejudice was of long standing. Long before the Life was written, Joseph Warton, among others, had heard Johnson " advance in conversation an opinion against Milton, even more severe than the detractive sarcasms with which his life of the great poet abounds." 110 Others, including Sir John Hawkins, had detected his prejudice against the poet as early as 1750. 1)1 The first positive manifestation of Johnson's dislike for Milton appeared in connection with the Lauder controversy. William Lauder, a native of Scotland and educated at the University of Edinburgh, had, in a way unknown save through 107

Life of John Milton, 1698. Life of John Milton, 172S. 108 These Lives have been given a modern edition by W. H. Hulme. Western Reserve University Bulletin, August, 1924, Vol. XXVII, No. 8. 110 Vid. Hayley, Life of Milton, ed. 1799, p. x. 111 Vid. Hawkins' Life oj Johnson, ed. 1787, p. 245. 108

Vid.

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conjecture, developed a malignant hatred for Milton. His malevolence directed him, soon after his arrival in London, to formulate a scheme to prove Milton a plagiarist. In order to do this with some semblance of honesty and accuracy, he collected some passages from Masenius the Jesuit, Grotius, Staphorstius the Dutch Divine, and from a few other obscure seventeenth century poets who wrote in Latin, which had a faint resemblance to the matter in Paradise Lost. These passages he interwove skilfully with passages from Hog's Latin translation of Paradise Lost. The evidence thus constructed was employed in order to prove that Milton had stolen much of Paradise Lost from other poets. The quotations which Lauder used in order to establish his point were passable forgeries. His startling revelation and bitter invective against Milton were introduced in part originally in the columns of the Gentleman's Magazine. In 17S0 he published in octavo An Essay on Milton's Use of and Imitation oj the Moderns in his ' Paradise Lost,' ' Dedicated to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.' Johnson, intimate at the time with all manner of men of letters, including impostors, evidently was on friendly terms with Lauder. The startling nature of Lauder's discovery undoubtedly had a strong appeal to him, and he, eager to have his finger in such an important matter as the question of Milton's honesty, wrote the preface to Lauder's forgeries. That he was aware of his friend's cheat is most unlikely. Even as a young man, Johnson was neither a sensationalist nor an advocate of deception. But the tone of the preface was malevolent; here was an opportunity for a writer as yet unknown to fame 112 to distinguish himself by being an accomplice in an important discovery. To be forgiving was not part of his role. To Lauder's pamphlet, however, he wrote a Postscript, in which, to use Boswell's words, " he recommended, in the most persuasive terms, a subscription for the relief of the granddaughter of Milton." 113 The Postscript, interestingly enough, 112 113

The Dictionary was not compiled at this time. P. 60.

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has none of the malevolence of the Preface; in fact, in it the whole matter of Milton's dishonesty is forgotten, and the poet becomes " an immortal spirit." While the proof-sheets of Lauder's work were being passed around among those Londoners who were attentive to startling revelations from the press, Sir John Hawkins observed that " all along . . . Johnson seemed to approve, not only of the design, but of the argument, and seemed to exult in a persuasion, that the reputation of Milton was likely to suffer by this discovery." 114 Boswell, on the other hand, suggested that Johnson's " ardent curiosity and love for truth " were responsible for his part in the affair—that it was his love for truth and not his antipathy toward Milton that lay behind his manner in the Preface and in his judgment of the work. Johnson's later offerings to the subject of Milton's character, however, prove that there was more than a love for truth behind his share in the Lauder controversy. Lauder's Essay, along with Johnson's Preface, was sufficiently startling to gain much attention. The large host of Milton admirers were too dumbfounded to reply at once. It remained for Dr. John Douglas, a loyal Miltonian, to investigate Lauder's evidence of Milton's plagiarism; and he, much to his satisfaction, discovered that Lauder's work was a totally dishonest performance. By comparing the texts of the poets whom Milton's enemy had mentioned and the passages in Paradise Lost that were condemned, Douglas discovered that which he had suspected—that Lauder was a forger. This discovery Douglas presented promptly to London readers in a pamphlet entitled Milton Vindicated From, the Charge of Plagiarism, Brought against Him by Mr. Lauder, etc.U5 The forger, brought to bay, was in time forced to admit his miserable design. Johnson, according to Hawkins, 116 was one of those who told Lauder that it would be to his best interest to make an ample confession of his guilt. After considerable 114 115 1,0

Life of Johnson, Dublin, 1787, p. 24S. 8vo, 17S0. Vid. Life of Johnson, Dublin, 1787, p. 247.

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protest, Lauder signed his name to a letter, addressed to Douglas and published in quarto in 1751, which was written by Johnson.117 The note of contrition that the letter contained expressed the author's sentiments more than Lauder's, but some of the latter's hostility found expression as well. Johnson was sufficiently implicated in the performance by reason of his Preface to feel some of the scourge of those who were attacking Lauder. It was a humiliating situation. Johnson, even as a young man, was not a good loser, and to be on the side of those who were being scorned on all sides did little to gladden his heart. To what extent he was implicated in the controversy that continued to rage until Douglas's second pamphlet appeared 118 need not occupy our attention. It is sufficient to say that Johnson was stubborn, and that his part in the disagreeable business was no incentive to a love for Milton. His share in the controversy had humiliated him and left him near disgrace.118 The very name of Milton must have had a disagreeable connotation to him. Such an experience was not good training for a potential biographer of Milton. There were other reasons for Johnson's antipathy toward Milton, some of which were behind that exultation that Hawkins detected when Lauder's evidence of Milton's plagiarism went to the press. From youth, Johnson was a staunch Tory. His party principles demanded a respect for the established order of church and state. Milton's attachment to Cromwell, and his Commonwealth sympathies, were to one of Johnson's creed a blot on the poet's character. Milton's ideas on divorce and on personal and public liberty were by no means Johnson's. Boswell's analysis is illuminating. " That a man, who venerated the church and monarchy as Johnson did," wrote Boswell, " should speak with just abhorrence of Milton as a politician, or rather as a daring foe to good polity, was surely to be expected; and to those who censure him, I would The substance of this letter appears in Hawkins's Life. Vid. p. 247 et seq. Milton No Plagiary, or a Detection of the Forgeries Contained in Lauder's Essay; 4to, 1756. 1 1 9 Lauder left the country after Douglas's second attack to escape disgrace. 117 118

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recommend his commentary on Milton's celebrated complaint of his situation, when by the lenity of Charles II, ' a lenity of which (as Johnson well observes) the world has had perhaps no other example, he, who had written in justification of the murder of his Sovereign, was safe under an Act oj Oblivion.' " The " acrimonious and surly Republican " was certainly not of Johnson's party or kind.120 Furthermore, Johnson's critical dogmas were not of the kind that would uphold the merits of the poet who illustrated " the last of the Elizabethan tradition." The age of which he was a vigorous disciple and a pillar of support taught him that il Passion plucks no berries from the myrtle and the ivy, nor calls upon Arethuse and Mincius, nor tells of rough satyrs and jauns with cloven heel." 121 The critical tenets of the age made a sympathetic appreciation of the fanciful and the highly imaginative almost impossible. It was the spirit of the age that supported Johnson in his judgment that Comus was " inelegantly splendid, and tediously dull." 122 Reared in an age in which the heroic couplet expressed neatly " the proper study of mankind," Johnson quite naturally found blank verse that was full of fanciful imagery artificial and dull. It is unlikely that he read much of Milton for the sheer love of it. Johnson's part in the Lauder controversy, his party principles, and his critical dogmas did much to undermine any true biographical impulse that he might have possessed for a Life of Milton. Age brought with it no diminution of antipathy. Johnson found little pleasure in writing the Life, save for the critique of Paradise Lost, which, in a half-detached way, stands at the end. In fact, at seventy, Johnson was so firmly entrenched in his prejudice against Milton that it is remarkable that he delineated Milton's life as fairly as he did. He spent six weeks on the Life; 123 it was ready for the press in February, 1779. A note that suggests that the whole subject was 120

Boswell, p. 441.

121

Life of Milton. Ibid. Cf. Peter Cunningham's Introduction to the Lives

122 123

p.

xi.

of the Poets,

ed. 1857.

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distasteful to him appears in the first paragraph. " The Life of Milton has already been written in so many forms, and with such minute inquiry, that I might perhaps more properly have contented myself with the addition of a few notes to Mr. Fenton's elegant Abridgement, but that a new narrative was thought necessary to the uniformity of this edition," he began. Not much enthusiasm there. The weariness soon disappears as the account gets under way, and the author warms up to his conviction. The narrative is scarcely begun before the author observes, in connection with the report of the poet's early proficiency in Latin, that " he himself, by annexing the dates to his own compositions . . . seems to commend the earliness of his own proficiency to the notice of posterity." There are kinder ways to judge a natural pride in precocity. After a brief interval, during which a narrative thread is perfunctorily maintained, the episode of Milton's chastisement at Cambridge and his " rustication " is described in considerable detail. All of the " kindness and reverence " of which he speaks in his interpretation of vetiti laris cannot convince the reader that he was kind and reverent. The words seem ironical. Milton's chastisement remained a subject for much controversial discussion among later critics and biographers, and the balance of evidence indicates that Milton was not forced to submit to the public indignity of a flogging. The point, however, is that Johnson did not treat the episode—which he undoubtedly believed to be true—in that sympathetic manner that we expect from one of his attainments. A little later in the account we are told that we are not to " let our veneration for Milton forbid us to look with some degree of merriment on great promises and small performances." Milton, we are informed, returned post-haste from Italy to be of service to his countrymen who were contending for liberty, and when he reached the scene of action, he allowed his patriotism to vapour away in a private boarding school. The enthusiasm of a young man for big projects is not an unnatural circumstance, nor is it a cause for merriment. The situation, sympathetically construed,

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provokes no smile; but Johnson, suspecting our veneration, is eager to make us believe that there is something highly amusing about Milton's earning a living by teaching at a boarding school instead of leading an army against the Crown. A little later, the author calls into question Milton's proficiency as a teacher. Milton's students, we are told from other sources, progressed rapidly under the excellent tutoring they received. To this Johnson retorts that " the speed of the horseman must be limited by the power of his horse." A contemporary reviewer observed to the point, that were " Dr. Johnson to ride a fox-chase, he would find that his speed would depend not only upon the power of his horse, but also on his choice of ground." 124 Later we are told in connection with the poet's separation from his wife that " he was much too busy to miss her "; and after Milton's marriage to Catherine Woodcock is recorded, Johnson offers the choice information that " she died, within a year, of childbirth, or some distemper that followed it; and her husband honoured her memory with a poor sonnet." Such observations make the reader feel that Milton has fallen among enemies. The suggestion that is left by such a remark pictures Milton as not only heartless but inhuman. How heartless Milton was in his relationships with those whom he wed cannot be accurately determined, but we may be assured that it was not so bad as Johnson would have us believe. Later, when Milton's enmity toward the Presbyterians is mentioned, the reader is left to infer that the poet loved himself " rather than truth." To continue the list of Johnson's unsympathetic judgments of Milton is neither necessary nor inspiring. It is sufficient to say that there are passages that can easily be construed as malignant. It is chiefly this antipathy toward the character of the poet that undermines the Life as a valuable biography. Biography and eulogy are a happier and more successful pair than are biography and expressed or implied malevolence. We can understand and even condone the error of the biographer who, in order to show the character in his best garb, 124

Monthly Review,

August, 1779, LXI, 81.

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misses for a moment the narrow path of truth; but that Lifewriter who employs biography as a vehicle for derogatory observations about his subject, or to air his personal prejudices, is to be considered unfaithful to his trust. To condemn a man to posterity is a disagreeable responsibility that few Lifewriters have assumed. In spite of the pleas of Boswell and others that Johnson was fond of Milton, save for his party principles, and that he was able to judge the poet's character, the fact remains that the Life of Milton is a biased performance, and as such it fails as a good biography. The portrait is not only unsympathetic, but also meagre. The narrative of events and the passages of character portrayal form a compact whole, in spite of the interruptions that frequently cause the reader to lose sight of the poet for a brief interval; but as in the case of the Life of Dry den, this account of Milton—even if we disregard the bias—suffers by comparison. Hayley's Life in the eighteenth century, Todd's, Mitford's, Masson's and Sir Edgerton Brydges' Lives in the nineteenth century are all more satisfactory for both thoroughness of information and for sympathetic character delineation than Johnson's brief Life. The critique of Paradise Lost will remain a permanent contribution to Milton criticism, for it illustrates the appreciative mind and genius of the Johnson that we admire; the biographical part of the work, however, is properly relegated to the class of second-rate Life-writing. To marshal together contemporary and later judgments of the Life of Milton is hardly necessary. The long article in the Monthly Review for August, 1779,125 is the most enlightening and substantial of the eighteenth century criticisms. Hayley's judgment of the Life in the Introduction to his account of Milton 126 and in many of the passages of the work 127 is searching and thorough. It was Hayley, however, who, after finding all manner of fault with Johnson's account, could say, " As a critical biographer of the poets, he [Johnson] often excites my LXI, 81. i 2 « Life of Milton, 2d ed., Basel, 1799. i 2 7 See especially pp. 42, 52, 64, 67, 68, 69, 72, 87, 174, 17S,

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transient indignation; but as an eloquent teacher of morality, he fills me with more lasting reverence and affection." The only nineteenth century judgment that has come to the present author's attention, save those which appear in the Lives of Milton, is that of Southey, who in the columns of the Quarterly Review1'" remarked: " A life of Milton is yet a desideratum in our literature. Johnson hated his democratic principles, and despised his impracticable philosophy: the severity with which he handled him was only restrained by a veneration for his piety, and perhaps ignorance of his Arianism; but the bias of his mind is not more discoverable in the sternness of his criticism than in his selecting for his Dictionary, as an example of a sonnet, that very one by Milton which he pronounces ' contemptible.' " The Life of Milton, of which Southey spoke, has been supplied, fortunately, by post-Johnsonian biographers. The Life of Pope illustrates a much finer expression of the biographical impulse. Of the longer Lives, this account possesses the most consummate balance. It is not tinged with the malignity of personal prejudice, nor is it a near relation of eulogy. Here Johnson struck a medium that commends his clear recognition of the aim of biography. There are errors in both fact and judgment in the narrative, but they are insignificant when compared with the searching analysis of the character of the poet. Later Lives of Pope, including Roscoe's (1824), Courthope's (1886), and Mr. Pope, His Life and Times by George Paston, 129 have delineated the life of the poet in greater detail and with more accuracy; but the character which Johnson portrayed has suffered little by comparison. Johnson's Pope is the poet we know—the poet that is corroborated in his works. It is the finest example of critical biography in the Lives oj the Poets. The Life of Pope was written undoubtedly as Boswell observed, " con amore." 110 Here the true expression of the biographical impulse was unhampered. Johnson's attitude toX X X V I , 42. 129 130

Putnam, 1909, 2 vols. Boswell, p. 443.

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ward Pope and his Life was not shaped by circumstances such as those which directed his Life of Milton. For Pope, he had no enmity. The party principles and the critical dogmas of the author of the Essay on Criticism, were in large part Johnson's. Furthermore, the thought of Pope brought with it no unpleasant memories. There was no Lauder affair in Johnson's associations with this poet. In fact, everything had contributed to cause Johnson to view the life and works of Pope with an interest that was both searching and sympathetic. While he was still a young man at Pembroke, he translated Pope's Messiah into Latin verse, and for this he received not only the plaudits of the University, but also the approbation of Pope himself.131 " The writer of this poem will leave it a question for posterity, whether his or mine be the original," Pope is reported to have exclaimed.132 The verses by Johnson were placed in a Miscellany which was published at Oxford in 1731, much to the author's satisfaction. Such an experience with an early interest in the poet could do nothing save increase Johnson's fondness for Pope and his works. The passing of time did not cause his interest to wane. It is not unlikely that after the death of Pope in 1744 Johnson was eager to attempt his Life, but so many accounts appeared immediately after 1744 that he, still a comparatively young man, felt in no position to compete with rival biographers. With his rise to eminence, however, there developed the conviction that he was well equipped to judge Pope, and to evaluate the various Lives and criticisms about him. As early as 1743, an article appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine entitled " Considerations on the Dispute Between Crousaz and Warburton on Pope's Essay on Man," which was from Johnson's pen.133 In 1756, "A Dissertation on the Epitaphs Written by Pope " was inserted in The Visitor."* All the accounts 13

1 Cf. Boswell, p. 11. Hawkins' Life of Johnson, 1787, p. 12. 133 Cf. Malone's " Chronological Catalogue " which is prefixed to his editions of Boswell's Lije. 134 This article was in substance later issued in the collected edition of The Idler, and also in the account in the Lives of the Poets. 132

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about Pope that appeared, he felt it his prerogative to judge. Of Owen Ruffhead, who had written a Life of Pope (1769), he told Boswell that the author " knew nothing of Pope, and nothing of poetry." 135 William Ayre's Life (1745) and those judgments of the poet by Warburton 136 and Warton, 137 he frequently discussed critically with his friends. In few instances were his remarks about Pope disparaging. Boswell recalled having heard him say, " Sir, a thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with the power of versification of Pope." 138 By the time that Johnson undertook the account for the Lives of the Poets, there had grown up a generation of poets and critics who were the advance guard of that which is usually termed the Romantic Movement in English Poetry. Among them the question " Was Pope a poet? " was raised, and answered in most instances in the negative. Out of this inquiring and answering, the sentiment of the reading public toward Pope began to change. The place of eminence on which he had stood for a half-century was being stormed so effectively that by 1780 his fame was rapidly waning. Johnson, representing the tradition of neo-classicism, contemplated the situation with an unusually passive mien. When the occasion presented itself in the Lives of the Poets, however, he was ready with a vigorous and decisive expression of his convictions concerning Pope's genius. In a sense, he was Pope's advocate, but his loyalty to the cause of the poet's literary merits did not blind him to some of the weaknesses in Pope's art and character. Johnson's success with the Life was the direct result of his true biographical attitude toward his subject and of his thorough equipment for such an account. He admired Pope too much to be ironic in the portrayal of his inconsistencies, and he understood the principles of Life-writing too well to be a eulogist. Furthermore, Johnson had so much assurance of his 136

Boswell, p. 190. A Vindication oj Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, 1739. 137 Essay on the Genius and Writings oj Pope, 1762138 Boswell, p. 443, 138

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own worth that he could hardly become any poet's panegyrist. In some of the accounts, this assurance became a serious fault. The biographer who treats the subject of his Life as one on whom he can look down with a kind of exalted pity, or as one inferior to him in intellect and virtue, should give up Lifewriting for the least popular of all forms of discourse, selfpraise. None of this tone of superiority enters the Life of Fope. For Pope, he held a kind of veneration that made possible a well balanced biographical attitude. His equipment for offering a substantial narrative of the major events in the life of the poet, and for revealing his character, was more complete than it was for any of the authors whose lives made the matter of the series of accounts.110 It is unlikely that Johnson ever knew Pope personally, in spite of the fact that he was in London for seven years while the poet still lived. However, even at that time the literary world of London was sufficiently large to permit several strata. Cave's contributors and Alexander Pope moved in different circles. But Johnson, interested as he was in the great poet, certainly missed no opportunity to be informed of his movements while Pope lived. After his death, a number of Lives appeared, all of which Johnson read. In 1744 there appeared The Life of Alexander Pope, Esq. with Remarks on his Works; to which is added his Last Will.1*0 In 1745 there was issued in two octavo volumes William Ayre's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Alexander Pope, Esq., with Critical Observations. Shortly after this Life appeared, a pamphlet was issued from M. Cooper's, Paternoster Row, entitled Remarks on ' Squire Ayre's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Pope, in a letter to Mr. Edmund Curll, bookseller, with authentick Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the said E. C. In 1759, there appeared a small volume entitled The Life of Alexander Pope, Esq. with a view of his Writings, and many Curious Anecdotes of his noble Patrons, as well as of his contemporary wits, 139 w e must, of course, except Savage. 140

It was printed for Weaver Beckerton, in the Temple Exchange-passage, in Fleet Street. 26

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friends, and /ocs. 141 Ten years later, Owen Ruffhead's Life of Pope was offered to the public. In addition to these accounts, there were collected correspondences and anecdotes, most of which were accessible in the middle of the century. Among these, the collection of Spence's Anecdotes was of great value. 142 Add to this list of sources of information which were available to Johnson the scores of anecdotes that were preserved among the friends of the poet, and the various critiques of his work, and the sources from which the biographer drew his material are fairly complete. When a friend of Boswell's wanted to offer additional information about Pope,14:1 Johnson expressed no willingness to be informed. He evidently felt that he had enough data for a Life. He undoubtedly did have ample information, but the fact remains that that section of the Life which was given over to the narrative of events in the poet's life is somewhat meagre. Space, of course, forbade any attempt at detail; but his allotment of the space that was at his disposal was not always discriminating. In connection with the event of the publication of the Iliad, the author devoted six of his precious pages to quotations from the work. Other lengthy quotations and critical judgments, which belong properly to the critique that follows the biographical account, interrupt the narrative thread and keep the " Life " element for intervals in the background. Ruffhead, who " knew nothing of Pope, and nothing of poetry," offered a more thorough narrative of events. The one who wishes to know the true state of affairs in Pope's association with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, or who would know a little more about Pope and Martha Blount, will find Johnson's account disappointing. The reader feels an un111

By W. H. Dilworth. According to Roscoe [cf. Life of Pope, 1824], Dr. Lowth, one of the executors of Spence's estate, had this collection until it was given, prior to his decease, to his secretary, a Mr. Foster. It passed through several hands during the eighteenth century, until finally it came into Singer's possession. His edition of the Anecdotes was one of the greater achievements of a painstaking editor. 143 Cf. ante, p. 3S4. 142

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mistakable haste in the author's manner in the narrative of events. Here, it was not the result of lack of information. Evidently " the adjustment of details " of which he spoke in the Life of Dryden was consistently distasteful to him. Johnson, even here, in a Life for which he had ample information, is not to be recommended to the student of biography who wants a detailed and substantial sequence of events. In the section of the work that deals with the analysis of character, however, Johnson rose to considerable heights. It is here that the Life of Pope became great. We learn that " in all his intercourse with mankind he had a great delight in artifice, and endeavoured to attain all his purposes by indirect and unsuspected methods. ' He hardly drank tea without a stratagem.' If, at the house of his friends, he wanted any accommodation, he was not willing to ask for it in plain terms, but would mention it remotely as something convenient; though, when it was procured, he soon made it appear for whose sake it had been recommended. Thus he teased Lord Orrery until he obtained a screen. He practiced his arts on such small occasions, that Lady Bolingbroke used to say, in a French phrase, that ' he played the politician about cabbages and turnips.' His unjustifiable impression of ' The Patriot King,' as it can be imputed to no particular motive, must have proceeded from his general habit of secrecy and cunning; he caught an opportunity of a sly trick, and pleased himself with the thought of outwitting Bolingbroke. " In familiar or convivial conversation it does not appear that he excelled. He may be said to have resembled Dryden, as being not one that was distinguished by vivacity in company. It is remarkable that, so near his time, so much should be known of what he has written and so little of what he has said: traditional memory retains no sallies of raillery nor sentences of observation; nothing either pointed or solid, either wise or merry. One apothegm only stands on record. When an objection raised against his inscription for Shakespeare was defended by the authority of Patrick, he replied—' horresco referens '—that ' he would allow the publisher of a Dictionary

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to know the meaning of a single word, but not of two words put together.' " He was fretful and easily displeased, and allowed himself to be capriciously resentful. He would sometimes leave Lord Oxford silently, no one could tell why, and was to be courted back by more letters and messages than the footmen were willing to carry. The table was indeed infested by Lady Mary Wortley, who was the friend of Lady Oxford, and who, knowing his peevishness, could by no entreaties be restrained from contradicting him, till their disputes were sharpened to such asperity that one or the other quitted the house. . . . " Of his domestic character frugality was a part eminently remarkable. Having determined not to be dependent, he determined not to be in want, and therefore wisely and magnanimously rejected all the temptations to expense unsuitable to his fortune. This general care must be universally approved; but it sometimes appeared in petty artifices of parsimony, such as the practice of writing his compositions on the back of letters, as may be seen in the remaining copy of the ' Iliad,' by which perhaps in five years five shillings were saved; or in a niggardly reception of his friends and scantiness of entertainment, as, when he had two guests in his house, he would set at supper a single pint upon the table; and having himself taken off two small glasses, would retire and say, ' Gentlemen, I leave you to your wine.' Yet he tells his friends that ' h e has a heart for all, a house for all, and, whatever they may think, a fortune for all! ' " 144 But we are told that he sometimes made a splendid dinner, " that wanted no part of the skill and magnificence which such performances require." We learn that Pope was fond of enumerating the men of high rank with whom he was acquainted, but we are promptly told that " h e never set genius to sale; he never flattered those whom he did not love, or praised those whom he did not esteem. . . . He passed over peers and statesmen to inscribe the 1 Iliad ' to Congreve. . . ." And we are told that if an estimate is to be made of his social qualities from his letters, 144

Cf. Cunningham's note, ed. 1854, II, 309.

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" an opinion too favourable cannot easily be formed; they exhibit a perpetual and unclouded effulgence of general benevolence and particular fondness. There is nothing but liberality, gratitude, constancy, and tenderness." We are informed that " he was accused of loving money, but his love was eagerness to gain, not solicitude to keep it." The author's contrast between Dryden's manner of writing and Pope's was a master stroke of analysis. Dryden wrote, we are told, "and professed to write merely for the people; and when he pleased others, he contented himself. He spent no time in struggles to rouse latent powers; he never attempted to make better that which was already good, nor often to mend what he must have known to be faulty. He wrote, as he tells us, with very little consideration; when occasion or necessity called upon him, he poured out what the present moment happened to supply, and, when once it had passed the press, ejected it from his mind; for when he had no pecuniary interest, he had no further solicitude." But " Pope was not content to satisfy; he desired to excel, and therefore always endeavoured to do his best: he did not court the candour, but dared the judgment of his reader, and, expecting no indulgence from others, he showed none to himself. He examined lines and words with minute and punctilious observation, and retouched every part with indefatigable diligence, till he had left nothing to be forgiven." It is through such passages as those which have been quoted that Pope is revealed to us. It is true that we have not learned how he spent all of his time, and what his relationships were with those who stand in the reflected light of his fame; but much of this we can fill out satisfactorily from that which Johnson has given us. A life is portrayed in those clear judgments. They penetrate the exterior of a personality that was of necessity forced at times into artifice; they linger only briefly with that external part of Pope which the eighteenth century knew well. Far under the stays that supported his frail body, Johnson searched for and found the heart and mind of the poet. He was more interested in causes than effects.

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It was the reason why that concerned him chiefly in his analysis of the character of Pope. No finer justification of the eighteenth century literary mind has been produced. Truly, those passages that the author devoted to an analysis of the poet's mind and art illustrate great biography. Eighteenth century judgments of the Life were in most instances commendatory. The public and the critics were evidently pleased with Johnson's delineation. The author of the article in the Monthly Review for November, 1781,145 began his evaluation of the Pope sketch by saying: " We are now arrived at a character, which, as a poet, Dr. Johnson seems 10 have contemplated with singular complacency. . . . In summing up the intellectual character of Pope, Dr. Johnson's usual acuteness and discernment have by no means deserted him." Cowper, still irate over the Milton account, was not satisfied. " What vanity, what petulance in Pope! " he lamented. " How painfully sensible of censure, and yet how restless in provocation! " 146 Dr. Warton, however, in his Life of Pope which prefixed the edition of the poet's works in 1797, was satisfied to rely on Johnson's characterization. Bowles' Life in 1806 was another demonstration of the regard in which Johnson's account was held. In the Preface, Bowles announced that " as the life of this distinguished poet has already been written by persons so eminent for literary talents and critical acumen as Johnson and Warton, all further attempts to illustrate the incidents of his fortune, or the character of his mind, must appear superfluous." Over the Bowles controversy that raged during the early years of the new century, Johnson's name entered at times, as a well recognized authority. William Roscoe, in his Life of Pope which prefixed the 1824 edition of the poet's works, after observing that Johnson's " assumption of superiority over the subjects of his labours " diminished the idea of their talents, announced that he was " the most eminent of Pope's biographers." 147 Peter 145 146 147

L X V , 353. Cowper's Letters, ed. J. Johnson, 1824. Cf. Preface, ed. 1824, I, x n .

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Cunningham, writing in the middle of the nineteenth century, with vision unimpaired by all the dust that was raised over the Pope controversies that raged during the decades immediately following Johnson's Life, wrote as follows: " T h e ' L i f e of Pope,' for the facts it contains—facts first found in Johnson— is certainly the most important of the Lives. It is indeed a noble specimen of biography—and I will add (in spite of some few words) of English. That I have partly formed my opinion from Mr. Croker (whose knowledge of Pope is undoubted) will I am sure in no way detract from the value of my judgment in this particular." 148 Cunningham's judgment is supported by twentieth century criticism. The Life of Pope remains a valuable commentary on the character of the poet. It lacks, of course, the scholarly accuracy and fullness of detail that Courthope's Life (1886) possesses, and it is not the engaging narrative that Mr. Pope, His Life and Times (1909) by George Paston has proved to be; but the student of Pope will sooner or later come to Johnson's Life, and find there an analysis of the true nature of the poet that leaves little to be desired. An intelligent reading of Johnson's account is the first step to a sound estimate of Pope. Of the shorter narratives in the Lives, the Life of James Thomson is the most engaging and best illustration of a well guided biographical impulse. Why Johnson was eager to include Thomson in the series is a matter for conjecture. The kind of thing that the poet wrote in the Seasons, The Castle of Indolence, and the four or five plays, certainly had no great appeal to Johnson. Furthermore, Thomson was a Scot, and Johnson's loyalties to the north-country were by no means pronounced. The fact remains, however, that shortly after he had accepted the proposal of the London booksellers to write a series of Lives, he took steps to make possible the inclusion of Thomson. 149 As early as 1777, he was applying for information for his Life of Thomson,1™ although it is unlikely that the account was finished before December, 1780. 148 149

Lives of the Poets, ed. 1857, Introduction, I, xxi. See a letter to Boswell, Boswell's Life, p. 321. Ibid.

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This Life is interesting to students of biography by reason of the fact that the author concerned himself almost entirely with the " life " of the poet. There was only a small part of the account given over to a critique of the works. Less than two pages of the fifteen deal with a judgment of the poems. Here Johnson felt that the poet's character was not to be revealed through his works. Savage, who knew Thomson well, had told Johnson that he had heard a lady remark that " she could gather from [Thomson's] works three parts of his character: that he was ' a great lover, a great swimmer, and rigorously abstinent.' " Savage's report that the poet was none of these probably had much to do with Johnson's method of writing this Life. Whatever the reason for the author's unusual allotment of space, a glance at the account shows conclusively that he was more interested in the man than in his works. He evidently had heard much about Thomson that amused him. The poet's indolence, his humor, and the various experiences of the " man who Loved to be in Distress," undoubtedly had a strong appeal to the author who had suffered in much the same way. He could well afford to smile at the stories of Thomson's coming to London, and to be sympathetic in his judgment of the man who bore a certain resemblance to himself. Patrick Murdoch's Memoir oj Thomson (1762) he knew thoroughly, but in its serious lines he undoubtedly saw much that not only informed him, but entertained as well. It was with a smiling and ever sympathetic countenance that Johnson portrayed the life and character of the poet. The narrative of events is completely absorbing by reason of the author's genial manner of following the major movements in Thomson's life. We see the young Scotchman, about to take up the duties of a minister at Edinburgh, but we learn that while he was performing his probationary exercise by explaining a psalm, he employed phrases " so poetically splendid that Mr. Hamilton, the Professor of Divinity, reproved him for speaking language unintelligible to a popular audience; and he censured one of his expressions as indecent, if not profane." Soon we see Thomson, a rebel to such restrictions

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on his manner of expression, walking about the streets of London, " with the gaping curiosity of a newcomer," and with his few belongings tied up in a handkerchief. It is with a not unsympathetic smile that we learn that his belongings were stolen while he gazed with open-mouthed wonder at the sights of the town. When we are told that his first want in London " was a pair of shoes," we become more sympathetic and more interested. Surely this young man who has come to London to set himself up as a poet will " make good." It is with anxiety that we see him give his manuscript Winter to Mr. Millan, and we share a little of the poet's elation when Mr. Millan is persuaded to give the author three guineas for it. When Sir Spencer Compton finally receives him and gives him a hundred guineas, we are glad. We catch glimpses of the man " more fat than bard beseems," as he sits in the upper gallery of the theatre, watching the production of his play Agamemnon 151 and reciting along with the actors the lines until " a friendly hint frightened him into silence "; and we laugh outright when we learn that while Thomson watched his play, he perspired so profusely that he disordered his wig. In no instance is the picture made unpleasant or indistinct by irony. It is quite evident that Johnson was fond of the man " who often felt the inconveniences of idleness, but never cured it." At the end, we are satisfied that the author, who could smile so genially at all of his subject's amiable inconsistencies, was eager to observe that Thomson " is entitled to one praise of the highest kind: his mode of thinking, and of expressing his thoughts, is original." In spite of the critic's petty objection in the Monthly Review ir>2 to a passage about Thomson's keenness of observation,153 the Life was generally well received. It was a decided improvement on Murdoch's brief Memoir, and it was a much richer and more penetrating contribution to Thomson biogCibber wrote that it was Sophonisba. Cf. Cunningham's note, and Cibber's Lives oj the Poets, 1753. 152 December, 1781, LXV, 408. 153 « There are no evils arising from the tyranny of arbitrary governments, or Thomson was a man of no observation." 151

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raphy than any of the accounts in the dictionaries. In spite of the brevity of Johnson's account, Thomson is clearly revealed. The genial manner of the author is a decided virtue. The account is not a good illustration of Johnson's profound critical genius at work; it is rather an illustration of his humanity. To my knowledge, no more amiable picture of James Thomson has ever been drawn. It is the Thomson we know—in fact, despite later Lives, the only Thomson we know. As a short biography, it is on a plane that has rarely been excelled. The brief account of Thomas Gray was the last Life that Johnson wrote. That this distorted, meagre portrait should be the last of his contributions to biography is an unfortunate coincidence. For one who was so fair to a score of poets of lesser fame to be so given to fault-finding with such a mild figure as Gray is hardly to be expected. The reasons, however, for Johnson's failure to judge Gray fairly can be explained. For such a robust and thoroughly human man as Thomson, Johnson could have sympathy that extended to fondness; for Gray, reserved and delicate, he had little understanding. Johnson was indisputably an admirer of those poets whose genius was masculine. To him, art was didactic, not aesthetic. Had Shelley, Keats, and Swinburne belonged to his list, critics of Johnson would have more to say about his narrow critical dogmas. That he did fair justice to William Collins is surprising. Art to Johnson found its chief illustrations in the works of Cowley, Dryden, and Pope. In small way was he attuned to offer a sound estimate of Gray and his works. A man who could travel with Walpole, and like William Mason— and a man who could let his fancy start into lines that were too exquisite to have a direct appeal to the intellect—could not be numbered among Johnson's favorites. To him Mason was an upstart of a clergyman who talked more than he had a right to—and Gray was the author of such phrases as the daisied bank and the honied Spring. It is hardly necessary to say that Johnson's associations with daisies and honey were not provocative of any great emotional disturbances. He was by no means incapable of seeing beauty in lines that had an appeal

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to the senses and the emotions, for he " rejoiced to concur with the common reader " that the Elegy was a good poem, but his tastes were not formed to enjoy to the fullest the lace-like fragments of the romantic mind. For Gray the man he expressed no malevolence. " His character I am willing to adopt," he wrote, " as Mr. Mason has done, from a letter written to my friend Mr. Boswell by the Rev. Mr. Temple; 154 and am as willing as his warmest wellwishers to believe it true." But after Temple's characterization of Gray had been quoted, the author observed: " Gray's Poetry is now to be considered; and I hope not to be looked on as an enemy to his name, if I confess that I contemplate it with less pleasure than his life." His depreciating opinions concerning Gray's poetry were not the result of judgments hastily formed for the account in the Lives of the Poets. As early as 1763, he argued with Boswell, who had a fondness for Gray's poetry, that the poet should not be considered great. " Sir," he concluded, " I do not think Gray a first-rate poet. He has not a bold imagination, nor much command of words. The obscurity in which he has involved himself will not persuade us that he is sublime. His Elegy in a Church-yard has a happy selection of images, but 1 don't like what are called his great things." l i B When Boswell, a few years later, announced that there was soon to appear a Life of Gray by William Mason, Johnson retorted, " I think we have had enough of Gray." 166 At the Thrale dinner-table, when Boswell took issue with his friend's comment that Gray was " a dull fellow," Johnson interrupted him to say: " Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull everywhere. He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great. He was a mechanical poet." 157 After Mason's Memoirs were published, Johnson told Murphy in Boswell's presence that he had forced himself to read the work, " only because it was a common topic of conversation . . . I found it 154 155 156 187

Affixed to Mason's Memoirs of Gray, 1775. Boswell, p. 111. P. 189. P. 241.

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mighty dull," he continued; " and as to the style, it is fit for the second table." 159 That envy of Gray's fame lay behind his dislike for the poems is unlikely. Boswell wrote to the point when he said: " Alas! ye little short-sighted critics, could Johnson be envious of the talents of any of his contemporaries? That his opinion on the subject was what in private and in public he uniformly expressed, regardless of what others might think, we may wonder, and perhaps regret; but it is shallow and unjust to charge him with expressing what he did not think." 159 Undoubtedly Johnson was sincere in his judgment of the poems. As has been pointed out, his standards for judging poetry were such that it can be readily understood why he could not like and commend the Odes. The narrative of events in the Life is meagre and perfunctory. It is so cursory that the subjectivity that is prevalent in most of the Lives enters in only one sustained instance. This occurs in connection with the separation of Walpole and Gray in Italy. From the passage it is easy to see where the author's sympathies lay. " If we look, however, without prejudice on the world," he wrote in summing up the situation, " we shall find that men whose consciousness of their own merit sets them above the compliances of servility, are apt enough in their association with superiors to watch their own dignity with troublesome and punctilious jealousy, and in the fervour of independence to exact that attention which they refuse to pay." This is the only instance in the narrative of events in which there is a definite expression of opinion. That the author was willing to accept Temple's character of Gray " as his warmest well-wisher," is, however, hard to believe. When Johnson wished a poet well, his observations concerning his life were never perfunctory. Gray undoubtedly was a " dull fellow " to him. The account was not well received by the critics and public. Shortly after its appearance, a little volume was issued under 158

159

P. 297. P . 111.

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the title A Cursory Examination of Dr. Johnson's Strictures on the Lyric Performances of Gray.1"0 This was followed by Remarks on Dr. Johnson's Life, and Critical Observations on the Works of Mr. Gray.161 In both of these criticisms of Johnson's account, the authors took a positive stand against his judgments, and pointed out wherein the Life, and especially the critique of the works, fell short. The critic in the Monthly Review supported those who had risen in the defense of Gray's merits. " The partial and uncandid mode of criticism adopted by Samuel Johnson in his Remarks on Gray seems to have given general, and indeed just offense to the numerous admirers of that exquisite poet," observed the reviewer. 162 The judgments of the eighteenth century have been justly sustained in later periods. Macaulay called the account his worst Life. The same conviction is supported in the twentieth century. Johnson's Gray is fortunately not our only source of information about the poet. Were it to be the total of Gray biography and criticism, the poet's fame would hardly survive. Biography plays an important role in making great men great, and in keeping them great. It is through Life-writing that many a poet's verses continue to be read. Happily the depreciating tone of Johnson's account of Gray was not catching. Mason, and other admirers of the poet 1 6 3 produced more lasting memorials to his name; in their editions of his letters, and in their expressed regard for his works, we find a clear picture of the Gray whom we know and love. Johnson's Life has the scarcely commendable distinction of having stimulated additional investigation of the poet's life and works. As a series of biographical accounts, the Lives of the Poets was the most outstanding effort in the province of Life-writing in the century. No Life, including those biographies of the author by Hawkins, Mrs. Piozzi, and even Boswell; and no series of Lives were so widely known and discussed. By the 8vo. ( 1781. 8vo., 1782. 1 6 2 L X V I , 133. 163 Mitford, especially, in the nineteenth century. 1