Samuel Johnson, London

Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1738

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

London (May 1738) was Samuel Johnson’s first major publication and is one of the eighteenth century’s foremost verse satires. Johnson had moved to the capital from his native Lichfield a year earlier and was working for Edward Cave’s Gentleman’s Magazine. Progress on his tragedy, Irene, was slow, so Johnson turned to an “imitation” of the Roman poet Juvenal’s Third Satire, a virulent attack on second-century Rome. The “imitation” – a genre popularised by Oldham, Dryden, and Pope – required the poet to translate a classical source, but also to update its topical references. As Johnson later wrote: “This mode of imitation, in which the ancients are familiarised, by adapting their sentiments to m…

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1414 words

Citation: Seager, Nicholas. "London". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 September 2015 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3905, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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