Lesson 21 Readings

	Annus Mirabilis by John Dryden
	Dryden's Annus Mirabilis documents two big events that happened in 1666: the St. James Day Battle and the Great Fire of London. In 1666, the British were in the midst of the Second Anglo-Dutch War (England v. Holland). At the time, Holland was a rich and sophisticated country--especially when compared to the still-developing England.
	In thriving arts long time had Holland¹ grown, Crouching at home and cruel when abroad: Scarce leaving us the means to claim our own; Our King they courted, and our merchants awed.	¹ Holland is the name of the country. The term "Dutch" refers to people or things from Holland. (Just as "English" refers to things or people from England).
(5)	Trade, which, like blood, should circularly flow, Stopp'd in their channels, found its freedom lost: Thither the wealth of all the world did go, And seem'd but shipwreck'd on so base a coast. For them alone the heavens had kindly heat;
(10)	In eastern quarries² ripening precious dew: For them the Idumæan³balm did sweat, And in hot Ceylon⁴ spicy forests grew. The sun but seem'd the labourer of the year; Each waxing moon supplied her watery store,	² a place where stones, gems, and precious metals are excavated ³ a fertile region in the Middle East, a center for trade ⁴ today, Sri Lanka; then a trade center for spices and other exotic items
(15)	To swell those tides, which from the line did bear Their brimful vessels to the Belgian shore. Thus mighty in her ships, stood Carthage⁵ long, And swept the riches of the world from far; Yet stoop'd to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong:	⁵ Carthage was a wealthy, ancient city in the Mediterranean Coast of North Africa. It dominated the region and challenged Rome. In the Second Punic War, Rome reduced Carthage's control to the city itself.
(20)	And this may prove our second Punic war. What peace can be, where both to one pretend? (But they more diligent, and we more strong) Or if a peace, it soon must have an end; For they would grow too powerful, were it long....
	King Charles II must make a decision about Holland. Does he let the Dutch continue to dominate the global economy, or risk his subjects' lives to challenge Dutch supremacy?
	This saw our King; and long within his breast His pensive counsels balanced to and fro: He grieved the land he freed should be oppress'd,
(40)	And he less for it than usurpers do. His generous mind the fair ideas drew Of fame and honour, which in dangers lay; Where wealth, like fruit on precipices⁶, grew, Not to be gather'd but by birds of prey.	How does Dryden portray the king? Hot-headed? Even-tempered? Rash? Thoughtful? ⁶ cliff tops, peaks; hard-to-reach areas
(45)	The loss and gain each fatally were great; And still his subjects call'd aloud for war; But peaceful kings, o'er martial people set, Each, other's poise and counterbalance are. He first survey'd the charge with careful eyes,
(50)	Which none but mighty monarchs could maintain; Yet judged, like vapours that from limbecks⁷ rise, It would in richer showers descend again. At length resolved to assert the watery ball, He in himself did whole Armadoes⁸ bring:	⁷ of the limbic system; related to the sense of smell ⁸ Armadas, or fleets of ships
(55)	Him aged seamen might their master call, And choose for general, were he not their king. It seems as every ship their sovereign knows, His awful summons they so soon obey; So hear the scaly herd when Proteus⁹ blows,	⁹ in Greek mythology, an old man of the sea who aided the sea god, Poseidon. He could change himself into any shape he pleased, but if he were captured, he would foretell the future.
(60)	And so to pasture follow through the sea. To see this fleet upon the ocean move, Angels drew wide the curtains of the skies; And heaven, as if there wanted lights above, For tapers made two glaring comets rise....	Recall James Thompson's "Rule Britannia." How is the tone of that poem similar to Dryden's description of the British fleet?
	The first clash between the British fleet and the Dutch forces results in the death of the first British officer, Sir Joshua Lawson. The British press on, however, and take on a second Dutch fleet returning from India.
	But since it was decreed, auspicious King, In Britain's right that thou shouldst wed the main, Heaven, as a gage, would cast some precious thing,
(80)	And therefore doom'd that Lawson should be slain. ¹⁰ Lawson amongst the foremost met his fate, Whom sea-green Sirens from the rocks lament; Thus as an offering for the Grecian state, He first was kill'd who first to battle went.	¹⁰ although God is on Britain's side, there are still some costs of war. Lawson was the first British officer to die in the battle.
(85)	Their chief blown up in air, not waves, expired, To which his pride presumed to give the law: The Dutch confess'd Heaven present, and retired, And all was Britain the wide ocean saw. To nearest ports their shatter'd ships repair,	The best Dutch ships are destroyed, and the Dutch backed down and return to repair their ships.
(90)	Where by our dreadful cannon they lay awed: So reverently men quit the open air, When thunder speaks the angry gods abroad. And now approach'd their fleet from India, fraught With all the riches of the rising sun:	The battle is not yet over; more Dutch ships arrive on their way back from India.
(95)	And precious sand from southern climates brought, The fatal regions where the war begun. Like hunted castors, conscious of their store, Their waylaid wealth to Norway's¹¹ coasts they bring: There first the north's cold bosom spices bore,	¹¹ the Dutch ships were on the way to Norway.
(100)	And winter brooded on the eastern spring. By the rich scent we found our perfumed prey, Which, flank'd with rocks, did close in covert lie; And round about their murdering cannon lay, At once to threaten and invite the eye.¹²	¹² a nautical term for the extreme forward part of the upper deck at the bow of a vessel
(105)	Fiercer than cannon, and than rocks more hard, The English undertake the unequal war: Seven ships alone, by which the port is barr'd, Besiege the Indies, and all Denmark dare....
	Amidst whole heaps of spices lights a ball,¹³ And now their odours arm'd against them fly:	¹³ a cannonball
(115)	Some preciously by shatter'd porcelain fall, And some by aromatic splinters die. And though by tempests¹³ of the prize bereft, In Heaven's inclemency¹⁴ some ease we find: Our foes we vanquish'd by our valour left,	¹⁴ harshness
(120)	And only yielded to the seas and wind....
	The battle continues. Bad weather prevents the Dutch from properly organizing their fleet, and they are unable to respond effectively to the British bombardment. The Dutch realize their mistakes, and suffer humiliation.
	The night comes on, we eager to pursue
(270)	The combat still, and they ashamed to leave: Till the last streaks of dying day withdrew, And doubtful moonlight did our rage deceive. In the English fleet each ship resounds with joy, And loud applause of their great leader's fame:
(275)	In fiery dreams the Dutch they still destroy, And, slumbering, smile at the imagined flame....
	Although the British won this battle, the Dutch escaped complete destruction and were able to come back and win the war. The English and French would eventually join forces against the Dutch in the third Anglo-Dutch War. Dryden's focus shifts in the latter part of the poem. The remainder of the poem focuses on the composure and strength of the English king and people during the Great Fire of London.
(845)	Yet London, empress of the northern clime, By an high fate thou greatly didst expire; Great as the world's, which, at the death of time	¹⁵ Dryden refers to Ovid's Metamorphoses, which asserts that at the end of time, the world will be cleansed by a great fire. The Great Fire of London burned from September 2nd-6th. By September 10th, the city's most renowned architect had drawn up plans to rebuild the city on a grander scale. ¹⁶ most likely a reference to Oliver Cromwell
(850)	Must fall, and rise a nobler frame by fire.¹⁵ As when some dire usurper¹⁶ Heaven provides, To scourge his country with a lawless sway; His birth, perhaps, some petty village hides, And sets his cradle out of fortune's way:
(855)	Till fully ripe his swelling fate breaks out, And hurries him to mighty mischiefs on: His Prince, surprised at first, no ill could doubt, And wants the power to meet it when 'tis known: Such was the rise of this prodigious fire,
(860)	Which, in mean buildings first obscurely bred, From thence did soon to open streets aspire, And straight to palaces and temples spread¹⁷....	¹⁷ The fire began in a small bakery, but spread throughout the city, completely destroying the historic medieval city of London inside the old Roman City Wall.

(1170)	Me-thinks already from this chymic flame, I see a city of more precious mould:
(1175)	Rich as the town which gives the Indies name, With silver paved, and all divine with gold.¹⁸ Already labouring with a mighty fate, She shakes the rubbish from her mounting brow, And seems to have renew'd her charter's date,	¹⁸Mexico, believed to be a wealthy city with streets paved with silver and gold.
(1180)	Which Heaven will to the death of time allow. More great than human now, and more August¹⁹, Now deified she from her fires does rise: Her widening streets on new foundations trust, And, opening, into larger parts she flies.	¹⁹ Here Dryden notes that London's old name was Augusta.
	Before, she like some shepherdess did show, Who sat to bathe her by a river's side; Not answering to her fame, but rude and low, Nor taught the beauteous arts of modern pride.
(1185)	Now, like a maiden queen, she will behold, From her high turrets, hourly suitors come; The East with incense, and the West with gold, Will stand, like suppliants, to receive her doom! ²⁰ The silver Thames²¹, her own domestic flood,	²⁰ judgment or decree ²¹ the river that runs through London
(1190)	Shall bear her vessels like a sweeping train; And often wind (as of his mistress proud) With longing eyes to meet her face again. The wealthy Tagus, and the wealthier Rhine,²² The glory of their towns no more shall boast;	²² Rivers that run through powerful cities and countries. Tagus runs through Portugal and Spain. The Rhine runs through Switzerland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
(1195)	And Seine²³, that would with Belgian rivers join, Shall find her lustre stained, and traffic lost. The venturous merchant, who design'd more far,²⁴ And touches on our hospitable shore, Charm'd with the splendour of this northern star,	²³ The Seine runs through France, most famously, the city of Paris. ²⁴ who had intended to go further
(1200)	Shall here unlade him, and depart no more. Our powerful navy shall no longer meet, The wealth of France or Holland to invade; The beauty of this Town, without a fleet, From all the world shall vindicate²⁵ her trade.	²⁵ defend, protect
(1205)	And while this famed emporium²⁶ we prepare, The British ocean shall such triumphs boast, That those who now disdain our trade to share, Shall rob like pirates on our wealthy coast. Already we have conquer'd half the war,²⁷	²⁶ a city of important commerce²⁷ the "battle" to make others see how great England and London truly is
(1210)	And the less dangerous part is left behind: Our trouble now is but to make them dare, And not so great to vanquish as to find. Thus to the Eastern wealth through storms we go, But now, the Cape once doubled,²⁸ fear no more;	²⁸ sailed around
(1215)	A constant trade-wind will securely blow, And gently lay us on the spicy shore.

	From The Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys* *EDITOR'S NOTE: Samuel Pepys kept this diary in his own hand and, it is presumed, for his own eyes. Paragraph breaks have been altered for clarity and ease of reading.
	In this excerpt from 1666, Pepys chronicles the effect of the Great Fire on London and its people. Note the casual tone of his writing, as well as the contrast between his entry on September first and his entry on the second.
	September 1st, 1666 Up and at the office all the morning, and then dined at home. Got my new closet¹ made mighty clean against to-morrow. Sir W. Pen and my wife and Mercer and I to "Polichinelly,"² but were there horribly frighted to see Young Killigrew³ come in with a great many more young sparks; but we hid ourselves, so as we think they did not see us. By and by, they went away, and then we were at rest again; and so, the play being done, we to Islington, and there eat and drank and mighty merry; and so home singing, and, after a letter or two at the office, to bed.	¹ a small private room or study ² an Italian puppet play ³ an acquaintance of Pepys's and one of the most disliked and mistrusted members of the king's court
	2nd (Lord's day).
	Some of our maids sitting up late last night to get things ready against our feast to-day, Jane called us up about three in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the City. So I rose and slipped on my nightgowne, and went to her window, and thought it to be on the backside of Marke-lane at the farthest; but, being unused to such fires as followed, I thought it far enough off; and so went to bed again and to sleep. About seven rose again to dress myself, and there looked out at the window, and saw the fire not so much as it was and further off. So to my closet to set things to rights after yesterday's cleaning. By and by Jane comes and tells me that she hears that above 300 houses have been burned down to-night by the fire we saw, and that it is now burning down all Fish-street, by London Bridge.
	So I made myself ready presently⁴, and walked to the Tower, and there got up upon one of the high places, Sir J. Robinson's little son going up with me; and there I did see the houses at that end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other side the end of the bridge; which, among other people, did trouble me for poor little Michell and our Sarah⁵ on the bridge. So down, with my heart full of trouble, to the Lieutenant of the Tower, who tells me that it begun this morning in the King's baker's' house in Pudding-lane, and that it hath burned St. Magnus's Church and most part of Fish-street already.	⁴ immediately⁵ William Michell and his wife Betty (whom Pepys used to date) lived near London Bridge. Sarah had been a maid of the Pepyses'.
	So I down to the water-side, and there got a boat and through bridge, and there saw a lamentable fire. Poor Michell's house, as far as the Old Swan,⁶ already burned that way, and the fire running further, that in a very little time it got as far as the Steeleyard, while I was there. Everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river or bringing them into lighters⁷ that layoff; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the water-side to another. And among other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loathe to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconies till they were, some of them burned, their wings, and fell down.	⁶ a tavern on Thames Street, near the source of the fire ⁷ barges
	Having staid, and in an hour's time seen the fire rage every way, and nobody, to my sight, endeavoring to quench it, but to remove their goods, and leave all to the fire, and having seen it get as far as the Steele-yard, and the wind mighty high and driving it into the City; and every thing, after so long a drought, proving combustible, even the very stones of churches, and among other things the poor steeple by which pretty Mrs.--------⁸ lives, and whereof my old school-fellow Elborough is parson, taken fire in the very top, an there burned till it fell down: I to White Hall⁹ (with a gentleman with me who desired to go off from the Tower, to see the fire, in my boat); to White Hall, and there up to the Kings closet in the Chappell, where people come about me, and did give them an account dismayed them all, and word was carried in to the King.	⁸ Mrs. Horsely, a London beauty; pursued by Pepys ⁹ a palace in central London
	So I was called for, and did tell the King and Duke of Yorke what I saw, and that unless his Majesty did command houses to be pulled down nothing could stop the fire. They seemed much troubled, and the King commanded me to go to my Lord Mayor¹⁰ from him, and command him to spare no houses, but to pull down before the fire every way. The Duke of York bid me tell him that if he would have any more soldiers he shall; and so did my Lord Arlington afterwards, as a great secret.	¹⁰ a city official, Sir Thomas Bludworth
	Here meeting, with Captain Cocke, I in his coach,¹¹ which he lent me, and Creed with me to Paul's,¹² and there walked along Watlingstreet, as well as I could, every creature coming away loaden¹³ with goods to save, and here and there sicke people carried away in beds. Extraordinary goods carried in carts and on backs.	¹¹ carriage, horse and buggy ¹² St. Paul's Cathedral, later ruined in the fire ¹³ laden, carrying
	At last met my Lord Mayor in Canningstreet, like a man spent, with a handkercher¹⁴ about his neck. To the King's message he cried, like a fainting woman, "Lord! what can I do? I am spent: people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses; but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it." That he needed no more soldiers; and that, for himself, he must go and refresh himself, having been up all night.	¹⁴ handkerchief
	So he left me, and I him, and walked home, seeing people all almost distracted, and no manner of means used to quench the fire. The houses, too, so very thick thereabouts, and full of matter for burning, as pitch and tar, in Thames-street; and warehouses of oil, and wines, and brandy, and other things. Here I saw Mr. Isaake Houblon, the handsome man, prettily dressed and dirty, at his door at Dowgate, receiving some of his brothers' things, whose houses were on fire; and, as he says, have been removed twice already; and he doubts¹⁵ (as it soon proved) that they must be in a little time removed from his house also, which was a sad consideration.	¹⁵ fears
	And to see the churches all filling with goods by people who themselves should have been quietly there at this time. By this time it was about twelve o'clock; and so home, and there find my guests, which was Mr. Wood and his wife Barbary Sheldon, and also Mr. Moons: she mighty fine, and her husband; for aught I see, a likely¹⁶ man. But Mr. Moone's design and mine, which was to look over my closet and please him with the sight thereof, which he hath long desired, was wholly disappointed; for we were in great trouble and disturbance at this fire, not knowing what to think of it. However, we had an extraordinary good dinner, and as merry, as at this time we could be.	¹⁶ promising
	While at dinner Mrs. Batelier come to enquire after Mr. Woolfe and Stanes (who, it seems, are related to them), whose houses in Fish-street are all burned; and they in a sad condition. She would not stay in the fright.
	Soon as dined, I and Moone away, and walked, through the City, the streets full of nothing but people and horses and carts loaden with goods, ready to run over one another, and, removing goods from one burned house to another. They now removing out of Canning-streets (which received goods in the morning) into Lumbard-streets, and further; and among others I now saw my little goldsmith, Stokes, receiving some friend's goods, whose house itself was burned the day after.
	We parted at Paul's; he home, and I to Paul's Wharf, where I had appointed a boat to attend me, and took in Mr. Carcasse and his brother, whom I met in the streets and carried them below and above bridge to and again to see the fire, which was now got further, both below and above and no likelihood of stopping it.
	Met with the King and Duke of York in their barge, and with them to Queenhith and there called Sir Richard Browne¹⁷ to them. Their order was only to pull down houses apace, and so below bridge the water-side; but little was or could be done, the fire coming upon them so fast. Good hopes there was of stopping it at the Three Cranes above, and at Buttolph's Wharf below bridge, if care be used; but the wind carries it into the City so as we know not by the water-side what it do there. River full of lighters and boats taking in goods, and good goods swimming in the water, and only I observed that hardly one lighter or boat in three that had the goods of a house in, but there was a pair of virginalls¹⁸ in it.	¹⁷ Sir Richard Browne, a former lord mayor.¹⁸ a table-sized harpsichord, similar to a small piano
	Having seen as much as I could now, I away to White Hall by appointment, and there walked to St. James's Parks, and there met my wife and Creed and Wood and his wife, and walked to my boat; and there upon the water again, and to the fire up and down, it still encreasing, and the wind great. So near the fire as we could for smoke; and all over the Thames, with one's face in the wind, you were almost burned with a shower of firedrops. This is very true; so as houses were burned by these drops and flakes of fire, three or four, nay, five or six houses, one from another.
	When we could endure no more upon the water; we to a little ale-house on the Bankside, over against the 'Three Cranes, and there staid till it was dark almost, and saw the fire grow; and, as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire.
	Barbary¹⁹ and her husband away before us. We staid till, it being darkish, we saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other side the bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an arch of above a mile long: it made me weep to see it. The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once; and a horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses at their ruins.	¹⁹ another of Pepys's mistresses, the actress Elizabeth Knepp. He calls her "Barbary" because she first caught his eye by singing the ballad "Barbara Allen" (see Lesson 5).
	So home with a sad heart, and there find every body discoursing and lamenting the fire; and poor Tom Hater come with some few of his goods saved out of his house, which is burned upon Fish-streets Hall. I invited him to lie²⁰ at my house, and did receive his goods, but was deceived in his lying there,²¹ the news coming every moment of the growth of the fire; so as we were forced to begin to pack up our own goods; and prepare for their removal; and did by moonshine (it being brave²² dry, and moonshine, and warm weather) carry much of my goods into the garden, and Mr. Hater and I did remove my money and iron chests into my cellar, as thinking that the safest place. And got my bags of gold into my office, ready to carry away, and my chief papers of accounts also there, and my tallies²³ into a box by themselves. So great was our fear, as Sir W. Batten hath carts come out of the country to fetch away his goods this night. We did put Mr. Hater, poor man, to bed a little; but he got but very little rest, so much noise being in my house, taking down of goods.	²⁰ stay ²¹ mistaken in asking him to stay ²² clear²³ business reciepts

	From A Dictionary of the English Language From the Preface by Samuel Johnson
	A large work is difficult because it is large, even though all its parts might singly be performed with facility; where there are many things to be done, each must be allowed its share of time and labour, in the proportion only which it bears to the whole; nor can it be expected that the stones which form the dome of a temple should be squared and polished like the diamond of a ring.
	Of the event of this work, for which, having laboured it with so much application, I cannot but have some degree of parental fondness, it is natural to form conjectures. Those who have been persuaded to think well of my design will require that it should fix¹ our language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance have hitherto been suffered to make in it without opposition. With this consequence I will confess that I flattered myself for a while;² but now begin to fear that I have indulged expectation which neither reason nor experience can justify. When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change sublunary³ nature, and clear the world at once from folly, vanity and affectation.	¹ stabilize ² Johnson's Plan (1747) called for "a dictionary by which the pronunciation of our language may be fixed, and its attainment facilitated; by which its purity may be preserved, its use ascertained, and its duration lengthened."³ literally "under the moon"; the air above the moon was believed to be heavenly. The air under the moon was dirty, and human.
	With this hope, however, academies have been instituted, to guard the avenues of their languages, to retain fugitives, and repulse intruders; but their vigilance and activity have hitherto been vain; sounds are too volatile and subtile for legal restraints; to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride, unwilling to measure its desires by its strength. The French language has visibly changed under the inspection of the academy⁴; the style of Amelot's translation of father Paul is observed by Le Courayer to be un peu passé;⁵ and no Italian will maintain, that the diction of any modern writer is not perceptibly different from that of Boccace, Machiavel, or Caro.⁶	⁴ The French established an academy to purify their language; they produced a dictionary in 1694, but it had to be revised a few years later. ⁵ a bit out of date, or out of style. ⁶ Like Boccaccio (14th c) and Machiavelli (15th-16th c), Annibale Caro (16th c) was a classic Italian writer whose work provided a foundation for the first Italian dictionary.
	Total and sudden transformations of a language seldom happen; conquests and migrations are now very rare: but there are other causes of change, which, though slow in their operation, and invisible in their progress, are perhaps as much superiour to human resistance as the revolutions of the sky, or intumescence⁷ of the tide. Commerce, however necessary, however lucrative, as it depraves the manners, corrupts the language; they that have frequent intercourse with strangers, to whom they endeavour to accommodate themselves, must in time learn a mingled dialect, like the jargon which serves the traffickers⁸on the Mediterranean and Indian coasts. This will not always be confined to the exchange, the warehouse, or the port, but will be communicated by degrees to other ranks of the people, and be at last incorporated with the current speech.	Here Johnson explains external forces that affect a country's language. ⁷swelling ⁸ traders
	There are likewise internal causes equally forcible. The language most likely to continue long without alteration would be that of a nation raised a little, and but a little, above barbarity, secluded from strangers, and totally employed in procuring the conveniences of life; either without books, or, like some of the Mahometan⁹ countries, with very few: men thus busied and unlearned, having only such words as common use requires, would perhaps long continue to express the same notions by the same signs.	Here Johnson explains internal forces that affect language. ⁹ Muslim; this term is now considered by some to be offensive, but in Johnson's day it was not
	But no such constancy can be expected in a people polished by arts, and classed by subordination, where one part of the community is sustained and accommodated by the labour of the other. Those who have much leisure to think, will always be enlarging the stock of ideas, and every increase of knowledge, whether real or fancied, will produce new words, or combinations of words. When the mind is unchained from necessity, it will range after convenience; when it is left at large in the fields of speculation, it will shift opinions; as any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate speech in the same proportion as it alters practice.	Johnson explains his opinion of the nature of language change.
	As by the cultivation of various sciences, a language is amplified, it will be more furnished with words deflected from their original sense; the geometrician will talk of a courtier's zenith, or the eccentric virtue of a wild hero, and the physician of sanguine expectations and phlegmatic delays.¹⁰ Copiousness of speech will give opportunities to capricious choice, by which some words will be preferred, and others degraded; vicissitudes¹¹ of fashion will enforce the use of new, or extend the signification of known terms. The tropes¹² of poetry will make hourly encroachments, and the metaphorical will become the current sense: pronunciation will be varied by levity or ignorance, and the pen must at length comply with the tongue; illiterate writers will, at one time or other, by public infatuation, rise into renown, who, not knowing the original import of words, will use them with colloquial licentiousness, confound distinction, and forget propriety. As politeness increases, some expressions will be considered as too gross and vulgar for the delicate, others as too formal and ceremonious for the gay and airy; new phrases are therefore adopted, which must, for the same reasons, be in time dismissed. Swift, in his petty treatise on the English language,¹³ allows that new words must sometimes be introduced, but proposes that none should be suffered to become obsolete. But what makes a word obsolete, more than general agreement to forbear it? and how shall it be continued, when it conveys an offensive idea, or recalled again into the mouths of mankind, when it has once by disuse become unfamiliar, and by unfamiliarity unpleasing.	¹⁰ Johnson is describing how specific vocabularies enter the mainstream language. During the Middle Ages, "sanguine" simply meant the presence of blood. "Phlegmatic" meant the presence of phlegm. By Johnson's day, "sanguine" had come to mean "cheerfully optimistic or flushed, ruddy." Likewise, "phlegmatic" had come to mean "sluggish, slow-to-move, or calm."¹¹ changing trends ¹² "A change of a word from its original significance" (Johnson's Dictionary) Note Johnson's discussion of the connotations of words and their appropriateness for different situations. ¹³ Jonathan Swift's pamphlet, "A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue." Here "petty" means "little."
	There is another cause of alteration more prevalent than any other, which yet in the present state of the world cannot be obviated. A mixture of two languages will produce a third distinct from both, and they will always be mixed, where the chief part of education, and the most conspicuous accomplishment, is skill in ancient or in foreign tongues. He that has long cultivated another language, will find its words and combinations crowd upon his memory; and haste or negligence, refinement or affectation, will obtrude borrowed terms and exotic expressions.¹⁴	¹⁴ In other words, one who knows several languages may have difficulty sticking to one to explain a situation; he will most likely use "exotic" expressions and sayings from different languages in everyday speech.
	The great pest of speech is frequency of translation. No book was ever turned from one language into another, without imparting something of its native idiom; this is the most mischievous and comprehensive innovation; single words may enter by thousands, and the fabric of the tongue continue the same; but new phraseology changes much at once; it alters not the single stones of the building, but the order of the columns. If an academy¹⁵ should be established for the cultivation of our style, which I, who can never wish to see dependence multiplied, hope the spirit of English liberty will hinder or destroy, let them, instead of compiling grammars and dictionaries, endeavour, with all their influence to stop the license of translators, whose idleness and ignorance, if it be suffered to proceed, will reduce us to babble a dialect of France.	Johnson believes that each language has its own character. ¹⁵ Johnson is referring to Jonathan Swift's proposal (Lesson 22) that the English establish a language academy, based on the model of the French and Italian academies for monitoring the national language.
	If the changes that we fear be thus irresistible, what remains but to acquiesce with silence, as in the other insurmountable distresses of humanity? It remains that we retard what we cannot repel, that we palliate what we cannot cure.¹⁶ Life may be lengthened by care, though death cannot be ultimately defeated: tongues¹⁷, like governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration; we have long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for our language.	¹⁶ We must slow what we cannot stop, and relieve what we cannot cure. ¹⁷ languages
	In hope of giving longevity to that which its own nature forbids to be immortal, I have devoted this book, the labour of years, to the honour of my country, that we may no longer yield the palm of philology without a contest to the nations of the continent. The chief glory of every people arises from its authors: whether I shall add anything by my own writings to the reputation of English literature, must be left to time. Much of my life has been lost under the pressures of disease; much has been trifled away; and much has always been spent in provision for the day that was passing over me; but I shall not think my employment useless or ignoble, if by my assistance foreign nations, and distant ages, gain access to the propagators of knowledge, and understand the teachers of truth; if my labours afford light to the repositories of science,¹⁸ and add celebrity to Bacon, to Hooker, to Milton, and to Boyle¹⁹....	¹⁸ knowledge in general ¹⁹ famed British men; a philosopher, clergyman, writer, and physicist, respectively
	In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the author, and the world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the faults of that which it condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it, that the English Dictionary was written with little assistance of the learned, and without any patronage of the great;²⁰ not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow: and it may repress the triumph of malignant criticism to observe, that if our language is not here fully displayed, I have only failed in an attempt which no human powers have hitherto completed. If the lexicons of ancient tongues, now immutably fixed, and comprised in a few volumes, be yet, after the toil of successive ages, inadequate and delusive; if the aggregated knowledge, and co-operating diligence of the Italian academicians did not secure them from the censure of Beni;²¹ if the embodied critics of France, when fifty years had been spent upon their work, were obliged to change its economy, and give their second edition another form, I may surely be contented without the praise of perfection, which, if I could obtain, in this gloom of solitude, what would it avail me? I have protracted my work till most of those, whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave,²² and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I, therefore, dismiss it with frigid tranquility, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.	²⁰ This is a dig at Lord Chesterfield, a wealthy aristocrat from whom Johnson sought patronage. When Johnson went to see Chesterfield, he was kept waiting all day because Chesterfield had company. When the door finally opened, and out came several people Johnson despised, he left in a fit of anger and never went back. ²¹ Paolo Beni's L'Anticrusca scathingly critiqued the first edition of the Italian dictionary.²² Johnson's wife passed away three years earlier.