[56] 'Somebody was praising Corneille one day in opposition to Shakespeare. "Corneille is to Shakespeare," replied Mr. Johnson, "as a clipped hedge is to a forest."' Piozzi's Anec. p. 59.

[57] Johnson, it is clear, discusses here Mrs. Montagu's Essay on Shakespeare. She compared Shakespeare first with Corneille, and then with Aeschylus. In contrasting the ghost in Hamlet with the shade of Darius in The Persians, she says:—'The phantom, who was to appear ignorant of what was past, that the Athenian ear might be soothed and flattered with the detail of their victory at Salamis, is allowed, for the same reason, such prescience as to foretell their future triumph at Plataea.' p. 161.

[58] Caution is required in everything which is laid before youth, to secure them from unjust prejudices, perverse opinions, and incongruous combinations of images. In the romances formerly written, every transaction and sentiment was so remote from all that passes among men, that the reader was in very little danger of making any applications to himself.' The Rambler, No. 4.

[59] Johnson says of Pope's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day:—'The next stanzas place and detain us in the dark and dismal regions of mythology, where neither hope nor fear, neither joy nor sorrow can be found.' Works, viii. 328. Of Gray's Progress of Poetry, he says:—'The second stanza, exhibiting Mars' car and Jove's eagle, is unworthy of further notice. Criticism disdains to chase a school-boy to his common-places.' Ib. p. 484.

[60] See ante, ii. 178.

[61]

'A Wizard-Dame, the Lover's ancient friend,
With magic charm has deaft thy husband's ear,
At her command I saw the stars descend,
And winged lightnings stop in mid career, &c.'

Hammond. Elegy, v. In Boswell's Hebrides (Sept. 29), he said 'Hammond's Love Elegies were poor things.'

[62] Perhaps Lord Corke and Orrery. Ante, iii. 183. CROKER.

[63] Colman assumed that Johnson had maintained that Shakespeare was totally ignorant of the learned languages. He then quotes a line to prove 'that the author of The Taming of the Shrew had at least read Ovid;' and continues:—'And what does Dr. Johnson say on this occasion? Nothing. And what does Mr. Farmer say on this occasion? Nothing.' Colman's Terence, ii. 390. For Farmer, see ante, iii. 38.