Books: Lives of the Poets: Gay, Thomson, Young etc.

S >> Samuel Johnson >> Lives of the Poets: Gay, Thomson, Young etc.

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The Prince of Wales, being (1737) driven from St. James's, kept a
separate court, and opened his arms to the opponents of the
Ministry. Mr. Lyttelton became his Secretary, and was supposed to
have great influence in the direction of his conduct. He persuaded
his master, whose business it was now to be popular, that he would
advance his character by patronage. Mallet was made Under
Secretary, with 200 pounds, and Thomson had a pension of 100 pounds
a year. For Thomson, Lyttelton always retained his kindness, and
was able at last to place him at ease. Moore courted his favour by
an apologetical poem called the "Trial of Selim," for which he was
paid with kind words, which, as is common, raised great hopes, that
were at last disappointed.

Lyttelton now stood in the first rank of Opposition, and Pope, who
was incited, it is not easy to say how, to increase the clamour
against the Ministry, commended him among the other patriots. This
drew upon him the reproaches of Fox, who in the House imputed to him
as a crime his intimacy with a lampooner so unjust and licentious.
Lyttelton supported his friend; and replied that he thought it an
honour to be received into the familiarity of so great a poet.
While he was thus conspicuous he married (1741) Miss Lucy Fortescue,
of Devonshire, by whom he had a son, the late Lord Lyttelton, and
two daughters, and with whom he appears to have lived in the highest
degree of connubial felicity; but human pleasures are short; she
died in childbed about five years afterwards, and he solaced his
grief by writing a long poem to her memory. He did not, however,
condemn himself to perpetual solitude and sorrow, for after a while
he was content to seek happiness again by a second marriage with the
daughter of Sir Robert Rich, but the experiment was unsuccessful.
At length, after a long struggle, Walpole gave way, and honour and
profit were distributed among his conquerors. Lyttelton was made
(1744) one of the Lords of the Treasury, and from that time was
engaged in supporting the schemes of the Ministry.

Politics did not, however, so much engage him as to withhold his
thoughts from things of more importance. He had, in the pride of
juvenile confidence, with the help of corrupt conversation,
entertained doubts of the truth of Christianity; but he thought the
time now come when it was no longer fit to doubt or believe by
chance, and applied himself seriously to the great question. His
studies, being honest, ended in conviction. He found that religion
was true, and what he had learned he endeavoured to teach (1747) by
"Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul," a treatise to which
infidelity has never been able to fabricate a specious answer. This
book his father had the happiness of seeing, and expressed his
pleasure in a letter which deserves to be inserted:--

"I have read your religious treatise with infinite pleasure and
satisfaction. The style is fine and clear, the arguments close,
cogent, and irresistible. May the King of Kings, whose glorious
cause you have so well defended, reward your pious labours, and
grant that I may be found worthy, through the merits of Jesus
Christ, to be an eye-witness of that happiness which I don't doubt
he will bountifully bestow upon you. In the meantime I shall never
cease glorifying God for having endowed you with such useful
talents, and giving me so good a son.
"Your affectionate father,
"THOMAS LYTTELTON."

A few years afterwards (1751), by the death of his father, he
inherited a baronet's title, with a large estate, which, though
perhaps he did not augment, he was careful to adorn by a house of
great elegance and expense, and by much attention to the decoration
of his park. As he continued his activity in Parliament, he was
gradually advancing his claim to profit and preferment; and
accordingly was made in time (1754) Cofferer and Privy Councillor:
this place he exchanged next year for the great office of Chancellor
of the Exchequer--an office, however, that required some
qualifications which he soon perceived himself to want. The year
after, his curiosity led him into Wales; of which he has given an
account, perhaps rather with too much affectation of delight, to
Archibald Bower, a man of whom he has conceived an opinion more
favourable than he seems to have deserved, and whom, having once
espoused his interest and fame he was never persuaded to disown.
Bower, whatever was his moral character, did not want abilities.
Attacked as he was by a universal outcry, and that outcry, as it
seems, the echo of truth, he kept his ground; at last, when his
defences began to fail him, he sallied out upon his adversaries, and
his adversaries retreated.

About this time Lyttelton published his "Dialogues of the Dead,"
which were very eagerly read, though the production rather, as it
seems, of leisure than of study--rather effusions than compositions.
The names of his persons too often enable the reader to anticipate
their conversation; and when they have met, they too often part
without any conclusion. He has copied Fenelon more than Fontenelle.
When they were first published they were kindly commended by the
"Critical Reviewers;" and poor Lyttelton, with humble gratitude,
returned, in a note which I have read, acknowledgments which can
never be proper, since they must be paid either for flattery or for
justice.

When, in the latter part of the last reign, the inauspicious
commencement of the war made the dissolution of the Ministry
unavoidable, Sir George Lyttelton, losing with the rest his
employment, was recompensed with a peerage; and rested from
political turbulence in the House of Lords.

His last literary production was his "History of Henry the Second,"
elaborated by the searches and deliberations of twenty years, and
published with such anxiety as only vanity can dictate. The story
of this publication is remarkable. The whole work was printed twice
over, a great part of it three times, and many sheets four or five
times. The booksellers paid for the first impression; but the
changes and repeated operations of the press were at the expense of
the author, whose ambitious accuracy is known to have cost him at
least a thousand pounds. He began to print in 1755. Three volumes
appeared in 1764, a second edition of them in 1767, a third edition
in 1768, and the conclusion in 1771.

Andrew Reid, a man not without considerable abilities and not
unacquainted with letters or with life, undertook to persuade
Lyttelton, as he had persuaded himself, that he was master of the
secret of punctuation; and, as fear begets credulity, he was
employed, I know not at what price, to point the pages of "Henry the
Second." The book was at last pointed and printed, and sent into
the world. Lyttelton took money for his copy, of which, when he had
paid the pointer, he probably gave the rest away; for he was very
liberal to the indigent. When time brought the History to a third
edition, Reid was either dead or discarded; and the superintendence
of typography and punctuation was committed to a man originally a
comb-maker, but then known by the style of Doctor. Something
uncommon was probably expected, and something uncommon was at last
done; for to the Doctor's edition is appended, what the world had
hardly seen before, a list of errors in nineteen pages.

But to politics and literature there must be an end. Lord Lyttelton
had never the appearance of a strong or of a healthy man; he had a
slender, uncompacted frame, and a meagre face; he lasted, however,
sixty years, and was then seized with his last illness. Of his
death a very affecting and instructive account has been given by his
physician, which will spare me the task of his moral character:--

"On Sunday evening the symptoms of his lordship's disorder, which
for a week past had alarmed us, put on a fatal appearance, and his
lordship believed himself to be a dying man. From this time he
suffered from restlessness rather than pain; though his nerves were
apparently much fluttered, his mental faculties never seemed
stronger, when he was thoroughly awake. His lordship's bilious and
hepatic complaints seemed alone not equal to the expected mournful
event; his long want of sleep, whether the consequence of the
irritation in the bowels, or, which is more probable, of causes of a
different kind, accounts for his loss of strength, and for his
death, very sufficiently. Though his lordship wished his
approaching dissolution not to be lingering, he waited for it with
resignation. He said, 'It is a folly, a keeping me in misery, now
to attempt to prolong life;' yet he was easily persuaded, for the
satisfaction of others, to do or take anything thought proper for
him. On Saturday he had been remarkably better, and we were not
without some hopes of his recovery.

"On Sunday, about eleven in the forenoon, his lordship sent for me,
and said he felt a great hurry, and wished to have a little
conversation with me, in order to divert it. He then proceeded to
open the fountain of that heart, from whence goodness had so long
flowed, as from a copious spring. 'Doctor,' said he, 'you shall be
my confessor: when I first set out in the world I had friends who
endeavoured to shake my belief in the Christian religion. I saw
difficulties which staggered me, but I kept my mind open to
conviction. The evidences and doctrines of Christianity, studied
with attention, made me a most firm and persuaded believer of the
Christian religion. I have made it the rule of my life, and it is
the ground of my future hopes. I have erred and sinned; but have
repented, and never indulged any vicious habit. In politics and
public life I have made public good the rule of my conduct. I never
gave counsels which I did not at the time think the best. I have
seen that I was sometimes in the wrong, but I did not err
designedly. I have endeavoured in private life to do all the good
in my power, and never for a moment could indulge malicious or
unjust designs upon any person whatsoever.'

"At another time he said, 'I must leave my soul in the same state it
was in before this illness; I find this a very inconvenient time for
solicitude about anything.'

"On the evening, when the symptoms of death came on, he said, 'I
shall die; but it will not be your fault.' When Lord and Lady
Valentia came to see his lordship, he gave them his solemn
benediction, and said, 'Be good, be virtuous, my lord; you must come
to this.' Thus he continued giving his dying benediction to all
around him. On Monday morning a lucid interval gave some small
hopes, but these vanished in the evening; and he continued dying,
but with very little uneasiness, till Tuesday morning, August 22,
when, between seven and eight o'clock, he expired, almost without a
groan."

His lordship was buried at Hagley, and the following inscription is
cut on the side of his lady's monument:--

"This unadorned stone was placed here by the particular
desire and express directions of the Right Honourable
GEORGE LORD LYTTELTON,
who died August 22, 1773, aged 64."

Lord Lyttelton's Poems are the works of a man of literature and
judgment, devoting part of his time to versification. They have
nothing to be despised, and little to be admired. Of his "Progress
of Love," it is sufficient blame to say that it is pastoral. His
blank verse in "Blenheim" has neither much force nor much elegance.
His little performances, whether songs or epigrams, are sometimes
sprightly, and sometimes insipid. His epistolary pieces have a
smooth equability, which cannot much tire, because they are short,
but which seldom elevates or surprises. But from this censure ought
to be excepted his "Advice to Belinda," which, though for the most
part written when he was very young, contains much truth and much
prudence, very elegantly and vigorously expressed, and shows a mind
attentive to life, and a power of poetry which cultivation might
have raised to excellence.

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