Samuel Johnson

Beginning with John Dryden, writers had imitated the verse forms and genres of Roman poets

English writers after the Restoration came to model their writing after what they thought were the rational virtues of Roman authors

saw England with its growing global colonies as inheriting the status of the Roman Empire at its most expansive point under the Emperor Augustus

Critics call much of the literature written until the late 18th century Augustan Literature, in acknowledgement of this fact

Samuel Johnson (1709−1784)
famous for writing several excellent poems, essays, and a dictionary

-known for his literary criticism, especially of Shakespeare
-as the subject of James Boswell's biography

-originally gone to Oxford University
-until his father's financial troubles forced him to leave without a degree

met and married a well-to-do widow 20 years his senior with whom he opened a school

When the school failed, He and his wife and a pupil, David Garrick (who would become a famous Shakespearean actor), went to London

Johnson spent his first years in what he called "hack work," writing for the new journalistic periodicals

-Conceiving a plan for what would become the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language in 1747
-Johnson spent 8 years working until its publication in 1755

amount of work and the quality of the dictionary made his literary reputation

-continued to write essays and literary criticism
-always saw writing as a craft instead of a calling

-Once he was pensioned by the king in 1762

-wrote as little as he decently could

often called the great generalizer

works usually began with an abstract statement, which he then supported with specific concrete illustrations

prose style was complex...
-using parallel grammatical structures
-rhythm
-words with Latin roots
-other rhetorical devices

James Boswell

doubtful that Johnson would have been as famous as he is had not James Boswell been around to write about his life

essay on the art of biography, insisted on truth as a standard of excellence

put this principle to use in his series of short biographies, Lives of the Poets

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. is often talked about as the first modern biography, as well as a literary memoir of the 18th century

the son of a Scottish judge, was technically a gentleman, but he was temperamental and excessive

After attending the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Boswell embarked on a grand tour of continental Europe and wrote about his travels, publishing a moderately successful memoir

made an acquaintance with Johnson in 1763
began a tour of Scotland with him in 1773

1788

-moved to London
-set up a law practice
-began to write his biography of Johnson with the help of Edward Malone

strength of this biography is that it describes the good and bad sides of both Johnson and Boswell

Conclusion

Augustan literature was rational


its authors tended to see writing as a craft which could be done well


as long as one followed the rules for creating good literature

-rationalistic approach to writing dominated literature throughout the 18th century

-ultimately prompted the reaction of the Romantic Movement, which begins the next English Literature Survey course, ENG270

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