Volume 3 — SONNET LXVII. ON DOCTOR JOHNSON’S UNJUST CRITICISMS IN HIS LIVES OF THE POETS.[93]

Could aweful Johnson want poetic ear, Fancy, or judgment?—no! his splendid strain, In prose, or rhyme, confutes that plea.—The pain Which writh’d o’er Garrick’s fortunes, shows us clear Whence all his spleen to Genius.—Ill to bear A friend’s renown, that to his own must reign, Compared, a meteor’s evanescent train, To Jupiter’s fix’d orb, proves that each sneer, Subtle and fatal to poetic sense, Did from insidious Envy meanly flow, Illumed with dazzling hues of eloquence, And sophist-wit, that labour to o’er-throw Th’ awards of Ages, and new laws dispense That lift the Mean, and lay the Mighty low.