Biography of two english poets

1779–81 book by Samuel Johnson

Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779–81), alternatively known by the shorter title Lives of the Poets, is a work by Samuel Johnson comprising short biographies and critical appraisals of 52 poets, most of whom lived during the eighteenth century.

These were arranged, approximately, by date of death.

From the close of the 18th century, expanded editions and updates of Johnson's work began to appear.

Background

Johnson began writing individual biographical pieces in 1740, the first being devoted to Jean-Philippe Baratier, Robert Blake, and Francis Drake.

In 1744 he wrote his first extended literary biography, the Life of Mr Richard Savage, in honour of a friend who had died the year before.

Various accounts are given of how Johnson came to write his Lives of the Poets during an episode of anti-Scottish sentiment in England.^[1] As related in the preface to the 1891 editi