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

In Short

Written in the immediate wake of Samuel Johnson’s death, this poem functions as a retrospective assessment of his moral and literary stature. It eschews the hagiography common to the period in favor of a "vice-and-virtue" framework, acknowledging the man's abrasive quirks while celebrating his intellectual dominance. Because the text balances sharp criticism with profound admiration, it captures the genuine ambivalence felt by those who moved in Johnson’s circle. It remains a vital artifact for understanding how a towering, flawed personality was reconciled by his contemporaries.

The Story

The poem unfolds as a deliberate, two-part movement that mirrors the shifting public perception of its subject. It begins in a spirit of candid, almost detached appraisal. Eschewing the impulse to soften Johnson’s edges, the verse confronts the man’s well-known prejudices, his rigid political stances, and the sometimes suffocating weight of his personal melancholy. This opening section acts as a catalog of his perceived foibles, presenting a figure who was often difficult, dogmatic, and deeply at odds with the changing sensibilities of his time. It does not look away from the inconsistencies of a mind that could simultaneously champion human liberty and adhere to strict, even archaic, social hierarchies.

However, at line sixty-one, the tone undergoes a radical transformation. The poem pivots toward a vigorous, sustained commendation of Johnson’s intellectual and moral character. This shift is not a retraction of the earlier critiques but an expansion of the lens. The focus turns to the immense labor behind the Dictionary, the profound insights found within the Rambler, and the intellectual rigor displayed in the Lives of the Poets. By placing these achievements against the backdrop of his personal struggles—his poverty, his isolation, and his lifelong battle with mental anguish—the poem frames his work not merely as academic success, but as a triumph of sheer human persistence.

The narrative trajectory concludes by synthesizing these two impulses. It argues that Johnson’s greatness is, in fact, inseparable from his limitations. The final passages offer a tribute that is deeply human, moving away from the abstract "Great Man" archetype to honor the person who struggled with his own failures. It highlights his unexpected acts of private charity and his capacity for deep, if sometimes unspoken, affection. The poem ends not by resolving the tension between his virtues and his vices, but by asserting that this very tension is what gives his legacy its enduring vitality. It invites the reader to view Johnson as a man who, despite the heavy toll of his own nature, managed to illuminate the complexities of the human condition with an honesty that few others could achieve.

How It Unfolds

The critical opening The poem begins by cataloging Johnson’s public eccentricities, prejudices, and the formidable nature of his personality. It treats these traits as established facts of his biography, refusing to sanitize the image of the man who dominated 18th-century discourse.

The pivotal reversal At the midpoint, the verse shifts from a catalog of grievances to a celebration of intellectual labor. It signals that the subject's worth can only be measured by acknowledging both his abrasive exterior and his profound internal depth.

The synthesis of achievement The middle section explores the scope of Johnson's writing, from the Dictionary to his Latin verse. It argues that his work reflects a profound understanding of "men and manners" that was forged in personal sorrow and professional adversity.

The concluding tribute The poem ends by grounding its praise in the man's private life and his capacity for benevolence. It asserts that his true monument is found in his consistent, if often painful, commitment to truth and moral integrity.

The People

Samuel Johnson serves as the poem's singular focus, though he is viewed through the eyes of a society struggling to categorize him. He is presented as a man who, while often "sturdy" in his moral convictions, is also haunted by a melancholy that leaves his mind vulnerable to the "distraction" of his own nature. He is the central figure, but he is never passive; his life is defined by his "uniform and unbounded" benevolence toward those in need, set against the backdrop of a world that frequently misunderstood his motives.

The poet, John Courtenay, acts as the mediator. He does not claim to offer new biographical revelations, but rather serves as a voice of reason. He is the "honest" observer who refuses to ignore the "vice" in his subject, yet his own perspective is deeply shaped by his intimacy with the figures surrounding Johnson. He is not impartial, but his bias is tempered by a genuine commitment to his subject's dignity.

James Boswell appears as a constant, looming presence—though more as an intellectual peer and confidant to the poet than a character within the poem’s verses. His role is to validate the poem’s perspective, as he recognizes in Courtenay a kindred spirit capable of capturing the "manly sense" of Johnson. Together, they represent a circle of friends who, having witnessed the man’s actual life, are desperate to preserve an image of him that is both realistic and honorable.

In Its Own Voice

Regarding the difficult circumstances under which Johnson’s greatest work was produced:

"The ENGLISH DICTIONARY was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow."

Regarding the persistent, often painful nature of his religious and personal life:

"In times and regions so disjoined from each other, that there can scarcely be imagined any communication of sentiments, either by commerce or tradition, has prevailed a general and uniform expectation of propitiating GOD by corporal austerities."

What It's Really About

The central argument of the work is the necessity of an honest, "discriminative" approach to biography. It challenges the 18th-century tendency to produce hagiographic accounts that smoothed over the rougher edges of their subjects. The poem suggests that true intellectual greatness is not a polished, static quality, but a dynamic, often exhausting struggle. It asks the reader to consider the ethics of remembering a public figure: is it more respectful to sanitize their life, or to accept that their flaws were the very foundation upon which their insights were built? Ultimately, the work is a meditation on the human cost of brilliance, questioning how we ought to value a legacy when the man who created it was both deeply flawed and profoundly noble.

Why Read It Today

Reading this work today feels like stepping into a heated, ongoing conversation in an 18th-century coffee house. For those interested in the history of literary criticism, it provides a direct line to how Johnson’s contemporaries grappled with his shifting reputation immediately after his death. You will encounter a voice that is refreshingly candid; there is no attempt here to hide behind modern academic distance.

However, the reader must be prepared for the dense, rhythmic demands of 18th-century verse, which prioritizes moral clarity and rhetorical structure over modern narrative flow. The poem expects the reader to have a passing familiarity with the major works of the era, and its reliance on extensive, dense footnotes can feel like a labyrinth at times. Yet, these footnotes are perhaps the most rewarding part of the experience, as they provide the factual grit—the specific arguments about Swift, the details of Johnson’s personal rituals, and the political context of his time—that grounds the poetry in a palpable reality.

What lingers after reading is not just a deeper understanding of Johnson, but an appreciation for the struggle of writing about those we love and admire. The poem succeeds because it refuses to be simple. It captures the raw, often uncomfortable process of legacy-making, leaving you with a portrait of a man who remains, even centuries later, both frustratingly human and undeniably significant.