Johnson's Lives of the Poets — Volume 2 by Samuel Johnson
page 45 of 193 (23%)
page 45 of 193 (23%)
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of Addison, he has copied--at least, has resembled--Tickell.
"Let joy salute fair Rosamonda's shade, And wreaths of myrtle crown the lovely maid. While now perhaps with Dido's ghost she roves, And hears and tells the story of their loves, Alike they mourn, alike they bless their fate, Since Love, which made them wretched, made them great. Nor longer that relentless doom bemoan, Which gained a Virgil and an Addison."--TICKELL. "Then future ages with delight shall see How Plato's, Bacon's, Newton's, looks agree; Or in fair series laurelled bards be shown, A Virgil there, and here an Addison."--POPE. He produced another piece of the same kind at the appearance of Cato, with equal skill, but not equal happiness. When the Ministers of Queen Anne were negotiating with France, Tickell published "The Prospect of Peace," a poem of which the tendency was to reclaim the nation from the pride of conquest to the pleasures of tranquillity. How far Tickell, whom Swift afterwards mentioned as Whiggissimus, had then connected himself with any party, I know not; this poem certainly did not flatter the practices, or promote the opinions, of the men by whom he was afterwards befriended. Mr. Addison, however he hated the men then in power, suffered his |
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