Dr Samuel Johnson - ‘pointing a moral to adorn a tale’
We need to return to the 18th century to make good a glaring omission
- Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), a dangerous man, as they say, to
disagree with, still more to neglect.
The sheer volume of his great predecessor, Pope, tends to overshadow
Johnson’s relatively small poetic output as does, in fact, the rest of
the literary output of one who may safely be regarded as the greatest
man of letters todate in English. Yet, his longer poems, “London” and
“The Vanity of Human Wishes”, are some of the finest poetry of the
century and the latter represents the art of poetic satire at its
fullest development The two poems were actually produced before
Johnson’s other major achievements as essayist, lexocographer, critic
and novelist.
Of the Latin poets whom it was the literary convention of the
Augustan Age to imitate, Johnson’s model was Juvenal rather than Pope’s
Horace. This itself ensured a difference of approach, since Juvenal’s
satire was more indignantly censorious than Horace’s gayer brand of
raillery. Correspondingly, we find the brilliance of Pope replaced by
the seriousness of Johnson, albeit with no loss of that sine qua non of
effective satire, namely wit. This is evident from the very opening
lines of “London”, which consists of the fulminations against the city
and all it stands for by Johnson’s fictional friend, Thales, who is
about to depart in disgust for the salubriousness of Wales:
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Dr Samuel
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“Tho’ Grief and Fondness in my Breast rebel, When injur’d Thales bids
the Town farewell, Yet still my calmer Thoughts his Choice commend, I
praise the Hermit, but regret the Friend, Resolved at length, from Vice
and London far, To breathe in distant Fields a purer Air.. “Here Malice,
Rapine, Accident, conspire, And now a Rabble Rages, now a Fire; Their
Ambush here relentless Ruffians lay, And here the fell Attorney prowls
for Prey; Here falling Houses thunder on your Head, And here a female
Atheist talks you dead.”
It will be noted that Johnson easily adapts the heroic couplet
perfected by Pope to his own purpose, and in the process imparts to it a
heavier tread and a more sombre tone. Apart from the sheer danger to
life and limb posed by London’s living conditions, the poem bewails the
difficulties of making an honest living amid its corruption. Its most
famous couplet declares: “This mournful Truth is ever’y where confest,
Slow rises worth, by poverty deprest:” but is followed by this
qualification, “But here more slow, where all are Slaves to Gold, Where
Looks are Merchandise, and Smiles are sold, Where won by Bribes, by
Flatteries implor’d, The Groom retails the Favours of his Lord.”
An interesting feature of “London” is the perspective of the
comparatively glorious Elizabethan past from which the present
sordidness of the city and its politics are viewed. “In pleasing Dreams
the blissful Age renew, And call Britannia’s Glories back to view etc”
This seems to have influenced the technique of Eliot in the “Waste Land”
where the recollections of a more dignified past, (including that of
“Elizabeth and Leicester” sailing down the Thames), intensify the sense
of the “unreal city” that 20th century London.has become. More
importantly, however, the strongly remonstrative tone of “London”
an:ticipates the harshly condemnatory tone of that little but deadly
poem of the same name by Blake, and reflects the seriousness of
Johnson’s satirical purpose.
That seriousness does tend to be dissipated somewhat by Johnson’s
political preoccupations in “London. But this is not the case with “The
Vanity of Human Wishes” which appeared over ten years later. The
expansive opening, “Let Observation with extensive view Survey Mankind,
from China to Peru”, belies the poem’s condensed treatment of the folly
of human ambitions, specifically for fame, power, learning, longevity
and beauty, in the light of the disillusionment that follows their
realisation. The social dimension which “London” opened up here deepens
into a moral one, taking “Vanity” even further beyond the scope of
Pope’s satire. We realise that the influence behind this poem is not
only Juvenal but the Bible book of Ecclesiastes which, with its
catch-phrase “Everything is vanity”, must surely have influenced the
title. Here are some of the most famous lines in English poetry:
“Condemn’d a needy Supplicant to wait, While Ladies interpose, and
Slaves debate.....His Fall (ie.that of Charles of Sweden) was destin’d
to a barren Strand, A petty Fortress, and a dubious Hand; He left the
Name, at which the World grew pale, To point a Moral, or adorn a Tale.”
(This could equally well be applied to Napoleon in the following
century.)
“Deign on the passing World to turn thine Eyes, And pause awhile from
Learning to be wise; There mark what Ills the Scholar’s Life assail,
Toil, Envy, Want, the Patron, and the Jail.” (Here Johnson was writing
from personal experience – he once burst into tears when reading aloud
this section of the poem in company).
It is interesting to observe how, vis a vis “London”, the greater
starkness and pathos of the above lines go hand in hand with a greater
wit, ie.elegance and ironic precision, of expression. In this poem
Johnson’s poetic vision and expression achieve their potential together.
And when we read the account of the beauty who yields to temptation (as
Johnson’s contemporary, Goldsmith’s, “lovely woman yields to folly”), we
realise something more about the Johnsonian vision of life: “Ye Nymphs
of rosy Lips and radiant Eyes, Whom Pleasure keeps too busy to be
wise.....Here Beauty falls, betray’d, despis’d, disress’d, And hissing
Infamy proclaims the rest.’’ Ultimately, the satirical vision yields to
one of tragic realism, - it was, in fact, in connection with Johnson
that one first heard MI Kuruvilla use this apt expression.- the impact
of which is further deepened by the religious gravity and controlled
passion of the final lines:
“Must helpless Man, in Ignorance sedate, Swim darkling down the
Current of his Fate? Must no Dislike alarm, no Wishes rise, No Cries
attempt the Mercies of the Skies?.....Enquirer, cease, Petitions yet
remain, Which Heav’n may hear, nor deem Religion vain, Still raise for
Good the supplicating Voice, But leave to Heav’n the Measure and the
Choice....Pour forth thy Fervours for a healthful Mind, Obedient
Passions and a Will resign’d....For Faith, that panting for a happier
Seat, Thinks Death kind Nature’s Signal of Retreat;....With these
celestial Wisdom calms the Mind, And makes the Happiness she does not
find.”
Johnson defined poetry as the art of bringing imagination to the help
of truth. In “The Vanity of Human Wishes” we see him giving effect to
that definition.
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