Age of Johnson

 The age of Johnson is also often referred as the age of sensibility which ranged from the middle of the eighteenth century until 1798. Ending the age of Johnson, the Romantic period arrived in 1798 with the publication of Lyrical Ballads by poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College, Oxford for just over a year, but lack of funds forced him to leave.

He worked as a teacher and then moved to London where he wrote for The Gentleman's Magazine.

Literary Career and Works : 

Johnson was the most famous poet, critic and playwright and fictional writer. He wielded considerable influence over this era with works that focussed on Neo-classical aesthetics (the study of natural and artistic beauty with an eye toward the great classical writers).

Writers of the age of Johnson focussed on qualities of intellect, reason, balance and order. Notable publications of the age of Johnson include Burke's A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), Johnson's The Rambler (1750-52) and Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).

About a hundred papers of Dr Johnson were contributed to the Idler, which appeared between 1758 and 1760, which were shorter and lighter than the essays of the Rambler. The Rambler appeared twice a week, between 1750 and 1752. These essays were serious with ponderous English, lack of humour and unrelieved gravity, making it a heavy reading therefore not very popular.

His greatest contribution as a prose writer is his Preface to his Dictionary, various periodicals, his philosophical novel Rasselas and his critical works Lives of the Poets and Preface to Shakespeare. Dr Johnson has to his credit the making of the English Dictionary with witty meanings and comments that he added to 40,000 words in 1755. His style though vigorous and direct is heavy and learned with a name called. 'Johnsonese' which Chamber's dictionary defines as "Johnsonion style of idiom, diction or an imitation of it-ponderous English, full of antithesis, balanced triads and words of classical origin."

Johnson's only play Irene is a Neo-classical Tragedy written between 1726 and 1749, and was first performed on 6th February, 1749 in a production by his friend and former pupil, David Garrick. The play was a commercial success and earned Johnson more money than anything else he had written up to that point. However, it was never revived during his lifetime or any time later, making it one of the most unsuccessful plays ever written by a major author and considered his greatest failure by Johnson himself.

After creating an indelible mark and a prestigious place for himself in English Literature, Johnson died on 13th December, 1784 and was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Important Points

• Drama remains the most well known literary genre from the age. Within drama the best work from the 1660-1700 period is in comedy, even though a large number of tragedies were also written and staged. Among the tragedians are Thomas Otway, George Lillo Nicholas Rowe and John Dryden. The main type of Restoration tragedy was the heroic drama. The tragic play was characterised by a high level of melodrama and dramatic speeches.
• Restoration comedy, mostly set in and around London, dealt with follies, eccentricities and attitudes of the upper classes. Three main forces of Restoration comedy were: comedy of manner, of humour and of intrigue.
• The 'Big Five' of Restoration Comedy were George Etherege, William Congreve, William Wycherley, George Farquhar, and Sir John Vanbrugh exposed the hypocrisies of upper class society by showing how the mask of virtue concealed envy, corruption and immorality. The comedies are full of intrigues, regarding marriage and morals. Cuckoldry and amorous pursuits are standard devices here. Adultery is a common theme and gossip is a major subject of condensation.