1st Edition
The Complete Poems of Samuel Johnson
This definitive edition, the first since 1974, presents all the poetry of Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), including his play, Irene, with detailed, wide-ranging commentary. It has been expertly edited with attention to the extant manuscripts and all relevant printings.
The volume includes the entirety of Johnson’s verse in all its generic diversity: including satire, ode, elegy, verse drama, and verse prayer. The poems are presented in their original spelling and punctuation with extensive commentary on their literary background—biblical, classical, and modern—as well as careful explanation of unusual words, allusions to historical figures, and references to contemporary events that appear in the poems. Proceeding chronologically, this edition also situates Johnson’s verse in the context of his life from his early days in Lichfield to his career as an author in London.
Unlike all earlier editions, the present offering provides full translations of all the Latin and Greek poems on which Johnson based so much of his English verse. Correspondingly, it provides the English poems which some of his Latin verse translates. Neither in the presentation of the verse nor in the commentary does this edition assume a command of foreign languages: it aims to be useful for all students of Samuel Johnson’s poetry.
Contents
A Note from the General Editors
Preface
Abbreviations
Chronology
Johnson’s Poems
1. On a Daffodill
2. Translation of Horace, Odes, 1.22
3. Epilogue to The Distrest Mother
4. Translation from Virgil, Eclogues, 1
5. Translation from Virgil, Eclogues, 5
6. Translation of Horace, Odes, 2.9
7. Translation of Horace, Odes, 2.14
8. Translation of Horace, Odes, 2.20
9. Translation of Horace, Epodes, 2
10. Translation of Horace, Epodes, 11
11. Translation from Homer, Iliad, Book 6
12. Translation of Addison's 'Battle of the Pygmies and Cranes'
13. Festina Lente
14. Upon the Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude
15. To a Young Lady on her Birthday
16. A School or College Exercise
17. Aurora est Musis Amica
18. Mea Nec Falernae, &c
19. A Translation of Dryden’s Epigram on Milton
20. Translation of Pope's ‘Messiah’
21. The Young Author
22. To Laura
23. To Miss Hickman Playing on the Spinet
24. Ode on a Lady Leaving her Place of Abode
25. On Colley Cibber
26. On a Lady's Presenting a Sprig of Myrtle to a Gentleman
27. Ode on Friendship
28. To a Lady Who Spoke in Defence of Liberty
29. To Sylvanus Urban
30. To Richard Savage
31. On a Riddle by Eliza
32. To Elizabeth Carter
33. London
34. To Eliza Plucking Laurels in Pope's Garden
35. To Lady Firebrace
36. On Thomas Birch
37. To Posterity
38. Prologue to Garrick’s Lethe
39. Epitaph on Claudy Phillips, a Musician
40. Translation of a Welsh Epitaph on Prince Madoc
41. Translations of Two Greek Epigrams
42. Translation of Pope's Verses on His Grotto
43. Prologue Spoken at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury-Lane
44. The Vanity of Human Wishes
45. A New Prologue to ‘Comus’
46. Translations of Mottoes and Quotations in The Rambler
47. The Ant
48. Translations of Mottoes and Quotations in The Adventurer
49. Translation of Verses from Crashaw
50. Risposta del Johnson
51. On Lord Anson
52. Translations from Boethius
53. Prologue to The Good Natur'd Man
54. Translation of ‘Busy, curious, thirsty fly’
55. In Theatro
56. Parodies of The Hermit of Warkworth
57. Epitaph on Hogarth
58. Translation of Psalm 117
59. Motto for a Goat
60. Γνῶθι σεαυτόν (Gnothi seauton [Know Thyself])
61. Verses addressed to Dr. Lawrence
62. On Recovering the Use of His Eyes
63. Ode on the Isle of Skye
64. Ode Addressed to Mrs. Thrale
65. Verses upon Inchkenneth
66. Tetrastick on Goldsmith
67. On the Duke of Marlborough
68. Translation of lines in Baretti’s Easy Phraseology
69. French Distichs
70. Translation of Verses from a French Pantomime
71. Translation of an Epigram on a Dog
72. Translations from Metastasio
73. Translation of a Distich on the Duke of Modena
74. Charade!
75. Translation of a Song in Walton's Compleat Angler
76. On Chronology
77. To Mrs. Thrale, on Her Completing Her Thirty-Fifth Year
78. Translation of the beginning of ‘Rio Verde’
79. Lines Written in Ridicule of Thomas Warton’s Poems
80. Prologue to A Word to the Wise
81. Parody of Thomas Warton
82. Burlesque of Lines by Lope de Vega
83. Translation of Lines by Brockes
84. Translation of Anacreon's ‘Dove’
85. To Dr. Lawrence
86. Epilogue to Baretti’s Carmen Seculare of Horace
87. An Extempore Elegy
88. On Seeing a Portrait of Mrs. Montagu
89. Translations from Euripides’s Medea
90. Prayer on Christmas Day
91. On Hearing Miss Thrale Deliberate about Her Hat
92. A Short Song of Congratulation
93. Translation of Robin of Doncaster’s Epitaph
94. Translation of William Walsh’s Epigram on Chloe
95. On Mrs. Thrale
96. A Summons to Dr. Lawrence
97. An Imitation of Pope
98. Translation of the Collect for Ash Wednesday
99. Jejunium et Cibus
100. On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet
101. Anapaestics Addressed to Dr. Lawrence
102. Translations of French Verses on Skating
103. Christ to the Sinner
104. On Hope
105. Prayer on Losing the Power of Speech
106. Christianus Perfectus
107. Prayers
108. Translations from the Greek Anthology
109. A Meditation (27 February 1784)
110. The Seven Ages of the World
111. A Meditation (8 August 1784)
112. On the Stream at Stowe Mill, Lichfield
113. Jactura Temporis
114. Loading a Ship
115. The Speed of Sound
116. Geographia Metrica
117. Translation of Horace, Odes, 4.7
118. Prayer (5 December 1784)
119. Irene
Johnson’s Contributions to Poems by Others
120. Epitaph on a Duck
121. Revision of Geoffrey Walmesley’s Latin Translation of John Byrom’s ‘Colin and Phebe’
122. Revision of Samuel Madden, Boulter’s Monument
123. Translation of the Epitaph for Thomas Hanmer
124. To Miss ——— on Her Gift of a Net-Work Purse
125. To Miss ——— on her Playing upon the Harpsicord
126. Stella in Mourning
127. The Winter's Walk
128. An Ode
129. To Lyce
130. On the Death of Stephen Gray
131. The Excursion
132. Reflections on a Grave Digging in Westminster Abbey
133. Verses Addressed to Samuel Richardson
134. The Traveller, or a Prospect of Society
135. The Deserted Village
136. Sir Eldred of the Bower
137. Verses by Frances Reynolds
138. Lines in Hawkesworth’s Lost Tragedy
139. The Village
Poems of Doubtful Authorship
140. Venus in Armor
141. Translation from the Song of Solomon
142. The Logical Warehouse
143. A Song
144. An Evening Ode
145. The Vanity of Wealth
146. The Happy Life
147. Epigram on Sir Thomas More, Erasmus, and Micyllus
148. A Song for Fanny Burney
149. Translation of Epigram 25 of Callimachus
Poems Wrongly Attributed to Johnson
150. A Hinted Wish
151. Ad Ornatissimam Puellam
152. Autumn. An Ode
153. City of God
154. Epilogue Spoken at Drury Lane
155. Corrections in an Ode by Cibber
156. Epitaph on Mrs. Jane Wright
157. Epitaph on Richard Children
158. Epitaph on Savage
159. In Locupletissimum ornatissimumque Syl. Urb. Thesaurum
160. Inscription on Dr. Taylor's House at Ashbourne
161. Mrs. Piozzi's Brynbella Marriage
162. Ode to Mrs. Thrale (i)
163. Ode to Mrs Thrale (ii)
164. Ode by Dr. Samuel Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, upon their supposed approaching Nuptials
165. Lines on An Hour-Glass
166. On Lord Lovat's Execution
167. On the Gin-Act
168. Οὐκ ἔστι Διὸς κλέψαι νόον
169. Quotation of Lucan in Rambler 168
170. Song
171. The Eagle and Robin Red-Breast
172. The Midsummer Wish
173. The Patriot
174. The Three Warnings
175. Threnodia
176. To A Bush Fighter
177. To a Young Lady Embroidering
178. To Delia
179. To Doctor Goldsmith, On the Success of His Comedy, Called The Mistakes of a Night.
180. To Mr. Urban, on His Compleating the XVIIIth Volume of the Gentleman's Magazine
181. To Myrtilis. The New Year's Offring.
182. Translation of an Inscription on Selden’s Birthplace
183. Translation of Latin Verses by Bubb Dodington
184. Translation of Lord Hervey’s Latin Epitaph on Queen Caroline (1737) by Henry Hervey Aston.
185. Verses in the Idler
186. Verses on A Cottage In Wales
187. Verses on Love
188. Verses on The Approach Of Winter
189. Verses to Goldsmith
190. Verses Written in a Copy of Murphy's Life of Garrick
191. Verses Wrote on a Window of an Inn at Calais
192. Winter. An Ode
193. Vile Stanhope
Lost or Unidentified Poems by Johnson
194. Somnium
195. The Glow Worm
196. Untraced Manuscripts
197. Verses in Dodsley's Collection
198. Verses on TorrŽ's Fireworks
199. Verses to Olivia Lloyd
Appendix: The Order of Johnson's Translations from the Greek Anthology
Works Cited
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines
General Index
Biography
Robert D. Brown is Professor Emeritus of Greek and Roman Studies at Vassar College. His publications include Lucretius on Love and Sex: A Commentary on De Rerum Natura IV, 1030–1287, with Prolegomena, Text and Translation (Brill, 1987), Classical Literature and Its Reception: An Anthology (with Robert DeMaria, Jr.; Wiley-Blackwell, 2006) and Europe, c.1400–1458 by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (with Nancy Bisaha; The Catholic University of America Press, 2013).
Robert DeMaria, Jr. is the Henry Noble MacCracken Professor of English Literature at Vassar College. He is the author of three monographs on Samuel Johnson: Johnson's Dictionary and the Language of Learning (Oxford, 1986); The Life of Samuel Johnson: A Critical Biography (Blackwell, 1993) and Samuel Johnson and the Life of Reading (Johns Hopkins, 1997). He is the general editor of the Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson; the co-editor of three volumes in that edition; and the editor of the Johnsonian News Letter.
