THE ROMANTIC ELEMENTS IN DR. JOHNSON

Abstract

Is 'romantic' so heterogeneous with Johnson? The present article is an attempt to consider the significance of romantic elements found in Johnson's natural inclination and his literary writings. It is well known that Johnson loved to live in London. Indeed the Town was his element. And according to Macaulay he was a stay-at-home Londoner. Johnson, however, was also a Wanderer and much inclined to set out on a journey. After the Pension, he made a journey out of town almost every year. No doubt the main object of his travel was to see much of a new world with a view of understanding men and out of town almost every year. No doubt the main object of his travel was to see much of a new world with a view of understanding men and society more profoundly and comprehensively. Yet we can perceive a romantic desire behind his intention of traveling. Although it is said that nature was to Johnson "a closed book", he was never blind to the beauty of nature. See, for instance, the description of Hawkstone pard, which was drafted during his travel through North Wales with the Thrales: in it we can observe him enjoying the pleasing horror of the wilderness. In reality Johnson was impressionable to the unknown and imaginative pleasure. He thought imagination vain and dangerous, as stated in The Rambler or in Rasselas, chiefly from the ethical point of view. On the other hand, in The Lives of the English Poets, he was much interested in imagination as the source of novelty and originality in literary works, and that was from the aesthetic viewpoint. Above all he was delighted in the quick flight of imagination, shown by what he called metaphysical poets. In considering Johnson's romantic elements we cannot forget his famous defence, in Preface to Shakespeare, of Shakespeare's violation of the unities of time and place. In the essay Johnson criticized the rules of classical drama by pointing out the magic function of imagination, taking the greatest dramatist's side, though we should admit that the defence was essentially based on the classical conception of Nature and Reason. There, of course, he did not intend to be revolutionary to the classical tradition of drama. But Stendhal, deeply impressed by Johnson's interpretation of dramatic imagination, went so far as to name Johnson "le pere du romanticisme". This is very suggestive. Then, what is the significance of these romantic elements in Johnson? He was largely limited his activity as a poet or a writer through his own moralistic view of life, firm religious mind, and classical idea of poetry. Nevertheless he always endeavoured indefatigably" to rise to general and transcendental truths". In this spiritual progress Johnson was incessantly driven forward to pursuing a newworld by some demoniac power. Such vitality the present writer considers the essence of the romantic spirit, which revealed itself in form of various romantic elements here and there in this great English classicist.