ENGL 3543: English Literature I

John M. Mercer, Professor of English

Northeastern State University, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Study Guide 14: Johnson, Boswell, Gray, Goldsmith

Revised 11-16-10

 

“The Emergence of New Literary Themes and Modes, 1740-85,” 2077-79

“Continuity and Revolution,” 2080

These two brief introductory readings are not assigned, but you still need to know the background material stated below.  Extra credit: Read and respond to these introductory readings.

 

The 1740s saw the death of the two greatest writers of the first half of the eighteenth century: Pope, who died in 1744, and Swift, who died in 1745.  Whereas the period 1700-40 is called the Age of Swift, the period 1740-85 is called the Age of Johnson.  Samuel Johnson, the dominant writer of this period, died in 1784.    

 

The Age of Johnson is a great “age of prose.”  Below is a list of prose genres and important writers in these genres during the period 1740-85:

·         novel: Samuel Richardson (author of Pamela, the first English novel [1740]; Henry Fielding

·         Gothic romance: Horace Walpole

·         essay and literary criticism: Samuel Johnson 

·         biography: James Boswell

·         memoir: Frances Burney

·         dictionary: Samuel Johnson

 

Introduction to Johnson, 2664

  1. What is Johnson’s chief claim to fame?
  2. How does Johnson’s prose differ from that of Swift and Addison, the great prose writers of the early eighteenth century?

 

Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson, 2781

By genre, Boswell’s Life of Johnson (as it is usually called) is biography.  It is probably the most celebrated biography in the English language.

  1. Who is the author and what is the title of the other biography we have studied in this class?
  2. According to Boswell’s “Plan of the Life,” what is his purpose in writing this biography of Johnson?  How is this purpose different from that of the other biographer we have studied?

 

The success of Boswell’s biography of Johnson is attributed to

 

3.      On what occasion does Boswell meet Johnson for the first time?  With what statement by Boswell does Johnson disagree?  How does Johnson reply?  After this first meeting with Johnson, what does Boswell fear?

4.      About what country and its people does Johnson often make negative comments?  In your assigned reading, on what specific occasions does he do this?

5.      When Boswell visits Johnson’s apartment for the first time, what details does Boswell note concerning the physical appearance of Johnson and his apartment?   

6.      What information does Boswell include about Oliver Goldsmith, author of The Deserted Village in today’s assignment? 

7.      What details does Boswell use to describe Johnson’s appearance when he is eating?  

8.      On what occasion does Johnson talk with the king?  Which king is this?  What suggestion does the king make to Johnson?

9.      What topic does Johnson not want to discuss with Boswell?  How does Johnson show his displeasure toward Boswell for bringing up this topic?

10.  What does Johnson compose not long before his death?  (In the eighteenth century it was customary to do so.)

  1. Overall, what negative character traits does Johnson have?  What specific incidents reveal each of these negative traits?
  2. Overall, what positive character traits does Johnson have?  What specific incidents reveal each of these positive traits?
  3. Overall, what are the main values by which Johnson lives?

 

Textbook’s Introduction to A Dictionary of the English Language, 2749(m)

  1. What couplet in Pope’s Essay on Criticism reflects the belief, commonly held in the eighteenth century, that the English language was changing too rapidly?
  2. Johnson’s Dictionary is the first standard English dictionary.  What is meant by “standard” in this context?
  3. When was it published?  How long did it take Johnson to write it? 
  4. How does each of the following features of Johnson’s Dictionary compare with previous dictionaries?
    1. the number of words defined
    2. the number of quotations used to illustrate the meaning of words
    3. the quality of the definitions

 

Johnson’s Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, 2750

1.      Johnson says that although his original intention in writing his Dictionary was to “fix” the English language (2750), he now realizes that is not possible.  What definition of “fix” applies here?

2.      May include extra-credit research: What are the purposes of a language academy such as the French Academy (2750b)?

3.      What is Johnson’s position on the question of whether an English academy should be established (2752)?

4.      Johnson devotes almost two full pages to a discussion of various causes of change in language.  What specific causes does Johnson identify? 

5.      Since Johnson believes it is impossible to “fix” the English language, what alternative goal does he propose?

6.      What kinds of errors does Johnson say will be found in his Dictionary?

7.      According to Johnson, why can “no dictionary of a living tongue ever . . .  be perfect” (2753t)?

8.      Under what difficult circumstances does Johnson say he produced the Dictionary (2753m)?  

 

Definitions from Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, 2753(b)

  1. Although most of Johnson’s definitions are clear, serious, and straightforward, many of those that are best known (and included in your textbook) reflect Johnson’s personal opinions and/or sense of humor.  Explain how Johnson’s definition of (and/or illustrative quotations for) each of the following words reflect his biases:
    1. enthusiasm
    2. oats
    3. Tory
    4. Whig
  1. Explain what is humorous about Johnson’s definition of each of the following words:  
    1. lexicographer
    2. network
  2. According to the footnote, for what word does Johnson inadvertently give a wrong definition?  What is Johnson’s definition?  According to your own college dictionary, what is the correct definition?  According to the footnote, what famous reply did Johnson make when asked why he gave this wrong definition?
  3. What writers studied in this class provide Johnson with some of the illustrative quotations that accompany the definitions in your textbook?

    

Johnson’s Preface to Shakespeare, 2755(b)

Only the textbook editors’ one-paragraph introduction to Johnson’s Shakespearean criticism on 2755(b)-56(t) is required reading.  Reading and responding to any of the criticism itself counts as extra credit. I especially recommend Johnson’s afterword on King Lear, 2764(b)-66(t).

  1. How does Johnson’s literary criticism of Shakespeare compare with that of other eighteenth-century critics? 
  2. What aspects of Shakespeare’s writing does Johnson find most praiseworthy?

 

Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” 2867(m)

Because I refer to the parts of this poem by stanza number rather than line number, please number the stanzas in your textbook.

  1. According to the textbook’s introduction to Thomas Gray (2862b), what superlative accolades have been given to Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”?  Given his own life experiences, why is it ironic that Gray produced the poem with this distinction?
  2. What is an elegy?  What other elegies have we studied in this class?
  3. The setting of this poem is the cemetery of the Anglican Church at Stoke Poges, Gray’s home village in England.  Cemeteries were customarily found in churchyards.  Extra-credit research: What information and/or pictures can you find of the church and cemetery at Stoke Poges and of Gray’s own tomb there?
  4. In summary, what descriptions of the setting are given in stanzas 1-3?
  5. In stanza 4, what words refer to the graves in the cemetery?  Who are buried in these graves?
  6. According to stanzas 5-7, what kinds of joys and delights will those buried in the cemetery never again experience?
  7. Stanzas 8-11 compare and contrast the deaths of what two groups of people?  According to stanza 9, what do both groups have in common?
  8. Stanzas 10-11 describe the impressive tombs of the wealthy, who were usually buried underneath the floor of the church and honored inside the church with beautiful marble plaques and monuments. What phrases refer to these burial practices?
  9. What is the intended answer to the rhetorical questions posed in stanza 11?  What is the speaker’s point in asking these questions?
  10. Beginning with stanza 12, the speaker turns his attention to those who are buried not inside the church but in the cemetery outside the church (“in this neglected spot”).  According to stanzas 12, 15-16, what abilities might these people have had?
  11. According to stanzas 13-14 and 17-19, why would these people have been unable to fulfill their abilities?   What is “Chill Penury” (line 51)?    
  12. The first words of stanza 19, line 73, provided late-nineteenth-century novelist Thomas Hardy with the title of one of his books.  What is this title?
  13. Stanzas 20-21 describe the monuments in the cemetery surrounding the church.  How do these monuments contrast with those inside the church?
  14. In stanza 22, what is meant by “dumb Forgetfulness”?  “This pleasing anxious being”?  Paraphrase this stanza in your own words. 
  15. According to stanza 23, for what purpose do the dead need the living? 
  16. In stanza 24, line 93, the speaker addresses himself as “thee.”  In stanzas 24-29, the speaker fantasizes about his own death and burial in the country churchyard.  He says that if someone should come to the churchyard and ask what has become of him (lines 95-96), “some hoary-headed swain” might answer.  What is a “hoary-headed swain”? 
  17. Stanzas 25-29 contain the hypothetical swain’s reply concerning the speaker of the poem. To whom does “him” (line 98) refer?  What would the swain say about the speaker’s actions and emotions?
  18. In stanza 28, according to the swain, why is the speaker of the poem not present in the churchyard?  What happens to the speaker in stanza 29?
  19. The last three stanzas of poem (30-32) comprise “The Epitaph.”  What definitions of “epitaph” apply here? 
  20. In “The Epitaph,” what does the speaker of the poem say about his background?  his education?  his temperament?  his relationships with others? his relationship with God?
  21. To what extent do you think the speaker of this poem can be identified with Thomas Gray himself?  Support your answer.
  22. How does “The Epitaph” relate to the content of the rest of the poem?

 

Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village, 2877

  1. What is the verse form of this poem?  What other works in this unit have the same verse form?
  2. At the beginning of the poem, what changes does the speaker find in the village of Auburn?
  3. What specific passages throughout the poem concern the causes of the changes in the village?  What causes are identified?   
  4. What does the speaker of The Deserted Village reveal about himself?  Where did he grow up?  Where has he lived as an adult?  Where is he now?
  5. What is the contrast between the sounds of the village in the past and in the present (lines 113 ff.)?
  6. Who is now the only remaining resident of the village (lines 129 ff.)?
  7. What were the main activities and character traits of the village preacher (lines 140 ff.)?
  8. What were the main activities and character traits of the village schoolmaster (lines 196 ff.)?
  9. What were the main activities in the village tavern (lines 221 ff.)?  Why is the tavern now called “the tottering mansion” (line 238)?
  10. What does the speaker say about the role of the wealthy in the demise of the village?
  11. Although this poem is not an epic, it uses an epic simile to describe the plight of the countryside (lines 287 ff.).  What is the literal term of this epic simile?  What is the figurative term? 
  12. What does the speaker say about the enclosure of public lands (lines 305 ff.)?  What are the effects of enclosure?  (See also the footnote at the beginning of the poem.)
  13. According to the speaker, what happens to male and female village residents who are forced to move to the city (lines 309 ff.)?
  14. What happens to the village residents who are forced to emigrate to the New World (lines 341 ff.)?  What unfavorable conditions do these emigrants from rural England face in America? In your opinion, how accurate and objective is the speaker’s description of the conditions in eighteenth-century colonial America?
  15. What description does the speaker give of the emigrants’ farewell to their village (363 ff.)?
  16. What does the speaker mean by “luxury” (line 385)?  Why does he denounce it?
  17. What specific “rural Virtues” does the speaker believe are being lost (line 398 ff.)?    

 

Comparison/Contrast of Gray’s “Elegy” with Goldsmith’s Deserted Village

  1. Similarities between the two poems
    1. To which of the following categories of poetry do both poems belong: narrative (telling a story), dramatic (in the form of a play), lyric (expressing emotion), didactic (intended to teach), or satiric (ridiculing human weakness)?  Justify your answer. 
    2. Both poems include what is called the poetry of natural description.  How are the settings of the two poems similar? 
    3. What emotions do both poems express?
    4. Do you see any other significant similarities between these two poems?
  2. Differences between the two poems
    1. Whereas one poem presents a completely idealized view of rural life, the other poem is less idealized, including some negative aspects of rural life.  Which poem is which?  What negative aspects of rural life does one poem identify?
    2. Whereas one poem is generally consistent in its melancholy tone, the other poem has some passages with a melancholy tone and others with an angry, bitter tone.  Which poem is which?  Against whom or what is the angry tone directed in one poem?