The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 08

Оглавление

Samuel Johnson. The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes, Volume 08

PRIOR

CONGREVE

BLACKMORE

FENTON

GAY

GRANVILLE

YALDEN

TICKELL

HAMMOND

SOMERVILE

SAVAGE.47

SWIFT

BROOME

POPE

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

PITT

THOMSON

WATTS

A. PHILIPS

WEST

COLLINS

DYER

SHENSTONE

YOUNG

MALLET

AKENSIDE

GRAY

LYTTELTON

Отрывок из книги

William Congreve descended from a family in Staffordshire, of so great antiquity that it claims a place among the few that extend their line beyond the Norman conquest; and was the son of William Congreve, second son of Richard Congreve, of Congreve and Stratton. He visited, once, at least, the residence of his ancestors; and, I believe, more places than one are still shown, in groves and gardens, where he is related to have written his Old Bachelor.

Neither the time nor place of his birth are certainly known: if the inscription upon his monument be true, he was born in 167215. For the place; it was said by himself, that he owed his nativity to England, and by every body else that he was born in Ireland. Southern mentioned him with sharp censure, as a man that meanly disowned his native country. The biographers assign his nativity to Bardsa, near Leeds, in Yorkshire, from the account given by himself, as they suppose, to Jacob.

.....

Of this play, acted, printed, and dedicated, the accumulated profits arose to a hundred pounds, which he thought at that time a very large sum, having been never master of so much before.

In the dedication65, for which he received ten guineas, there is nothing remarkable. The preface contains a very liberal encomium on the blooming excellencies of Mr. Theophilus Cibber, which Mr. Savage could not in the latter part of his life see his friends about to read without snatching the play out of their hands. The generosity of Mr. Hill did not end on this occasion; for afterwards, when Mr. Savage’s necessities returned, he encouraged a subscription to a Miscellany of Poems in a very extraordinary manner, by publishing his story in the Plain Dealer 66, with some affecting lines, which he asserts to have been written by Mr. Savage upon the treatment received by him from his mother, but of which he was himself the author, as Mr. Savage afterwards declared. These lines, and the paper in which they were inserted, had a very powerful effect upon all but his mother, whom, by making her cruelty more publick, they only hardened in her aversion.

.....