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    A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson (1786)
    A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson (1786)
    A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson (1786)
    Ebook101 pages47 minutes

    A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson (1786)

    By Robert E. Kelley and John Courtenay

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 15, 2013
    A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson (1786)

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      Book preview

      A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson (1786) - Robert E. Kelley

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral

      Character of the late Samuel Johnson (1786), by John Courtenay

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson (1786)

      Author: John Courtenay

      Editor: Robert E. Kelley

      Release Date: July 5, 2009 [EBook #29324]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMUEL JOHNSON ***

      Produced by Chris Curnow, Stephanie Eason, Joseph Cooper

      and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

      http://www.pgdp.net

      The Augustan Reprint Society

      John Courtenay

      A

      POETICAL REVIEW

      OF THE LITERARY

      AND MORAL CHARACTER

      OF THE LATE

      SAMUEL JOHNSON

      (1786)

      Introduction by

      Robert E. Kelley

      PUBLICATION NUMBER 133

      WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY

      University of California, Los Angeles

      1969

      GENERAL EDITORS

      William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

      George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles

      Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles

      ASSOCIATE EDITOR

      David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles

      ADVISORY EDITORS

      Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan

      James L. Clifford, Columbia University

      Ralph Cohen, University of Virginia

      Vinton A. Dearing, University of California, Los Angeles

      Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago

      Louis A. Landa, Princeton University

      Earl Miner, University of California, Los Angeles

      Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota

      Everett T. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles

      Lawrence Clark Powell, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

      James Sutherland, University College, London

      H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles

      Robert Vosper, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

      CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

      Edna C. Davis, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

      EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

      Mary Kerbret, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

      INTRODUCTION

      The eighteenth century was an age addicted to gossiping about its literary figures. This addiction was nowhere better demonstrated than by the countless reflections, sermons, poems, pamphlets, biographical sketches, and biographies about Samuel Johnson. The most productive phase of this activity commenced almost immediately after Johnson's death in December, 1784, and continued into the next century.

      One item of Johnsoniana which seems to have been neglected, perhaps because Birkbeck Hill did not include it in his Johnsonian Miscellanies, is A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the Late Samuel Johnson, L.L.D., with Notes. This poem of three hundred and four lines was written by John Courtenay (1741-1816). First published in the spring of 1786 by Charles Dilly, the poem went through three editions in the same year. Its popularity was determined less by Courtenay's poetic talent than by public interest in the Johnsoniana that flooded the market. Courtenay's literary output, though scanty, was diverse; he wrote light verse, character sketches, and essays, including two controversial pieces in support of the French Revolution.¹ It is apparent, however, that for him writing was hardly more than an avocation.

      Despite his notoriety as a controversial member of Parliament, as a first-rate wit, and as an intimate friend of Boswell, Courtenay remains a shadowy figure. References to him occur often in the last volumes of Boswell's journal, but few of them are particularly revealing. Courtenay evidently never met Johnson; indeed, the anonymous author of A Poetical Epistle from the Ghost of Dr. Johnson to His Four Friends: The Rev. Mr. Strahan. James Boswell, Esq. Mrs. Piozzi. J. Courtenay, Esq. M.P. (1786) censures Courtenay for writing about a man whom he did not know. Although a member of the Literary Club, Courtenay did not join this group until four years after Johnson died. He was proposed on 9 December 1788, by Sir Joshua Reynolds (Boswell seconded), and elected two weeks later, on 23 December, during the same meeting at which it was decided to erect a monument

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