The Lives of the Poets (review)

In his “Life of Pope” Johnson commented on the amount of time, “somewhat more than five years,” Pope needed to complete his Homer: “It is natural to suppose, that as much as has been done to-day may be done to-morrow; but on the morrow some difficulty emerges, or some external impediment obstructs. . . . Perhaps no extensive and multifarious performance was ever effected within the term originally fixed in the undertaker’s mind. He that runs against Time, has an antagonist not subject to casualties.” The Yale edition of Johnson’s works, begun with the publication of the first volume in 1958, nears its conclusion with these volumes, numbers 21–23. Not surprisingly, not a single member of the editorial committee in 1958 appears on the current list, and others have come and gone in the interim. Expected to replace G. B. Hill’s 1905 edition as the standard text, the Yale Lives now finds itself in competition with Roger Lonsdale’s four-volume 2006 Oxford edition, an unavoidable albeit perhaps unfair comparison. Coincidentally, both Hill’s and Mr. Middendorf’s editions were published posthumously, two and three years, respectively, after their deaths. The general editor in the present case, Robert DeMaria, Jr., assumes responsibility for any mistakes, but I suspect he contributed to the excellencies here as well.

Anyone discussing Johnson’s Lives must admit that length is important. Readers of this journal may be interested that of the 52 biographies—more properly “Prefaces, Biographical and Critical”—the longest is of Pope, followed by Dryden, Milton, Young, and Addison. (I omit Savage, otherwise the third longest, since Johnson simply recycled the biography he had published separately almost four decades earlier.) The finest of all is the “Life of Pope,” but a scholar writing on any of the Scriblerians or Kit-Cats should not ignore Johnson’s comments, this despite Mr. Middendorf’s stated aim: “I have . . . intended this primarily to be an edition of Johnson, and not of the poets he writes about.” We are reminded of the enormousness of Johnson’s task in modern notes which reveal him searching for additional information and documents about his subjects. In one case, the “Life of Young,” he simply printed a “letter” from Herbert Croft as ninety percent of his preface, with proper credit of course. So there is strong precedent for the use of five contributing editors in the present edition: Stephen Fix (Milton); J. A. V. Chapple (Dryden); James L. Battersby (Addison); James Gray (Savage); and James E. May (Young).

Although early volumes in the Yale Johnson were sometimes textual disasters, those of the last several decades have adopted modern, accepted standards, as does the present edition. There is more to say about the explanatory notes. For the most part this edition avoids the charge Johnson leveled at Addison’s later critics: “It is not uncommon for those who have grown wise by the labour of others to add a little of their own, and overlook their masters.” G. B. Hill’s work is cited frequently, although a procedure used in a few instances, of simply quoting Hill’s note directly, could have been used more often. A comparison of these two editions makes vividly clear the change that has occurred in scholarly editing, as tracing back (to sources) remains while tracing forward (to subsequent literary reactions or later analogues) has completely disappeared. At this point the elephant in the room, the Lonsdale edition, can no longer be ignored.

The aims of the Yale Johnson from the beginning, as currently represented on its webpage, have been to “include all his writings, present texts based on the best editorial practice, and supply annotation adequate for general use,” and the present volumes accomplish all three. But one wonders if Lonsdale’s unabashedly scholarly edition is not ultimately more valuable. Indeed, the inclusiveness of the Yale edition will mean that it provides convenience in citation when scholars refer to a variety of Johnson’s works. But a scholar writing only...