Samuel Johnson, aka Dr. Johnson, (1709-1784) was the compiler of the first comprehensive English dictionary. He is also known as an essayist, literary critic and novelist, and above all as the subject of James Boswell's "Life of Johnson" (the whole thing comes also in one very big file from Project Gutenberg and broken down year by year as far as 1763, or alternatively abridged audio download).
As well as using quotations from Juvenal's Satires (our book for 21 November 2007) as epigraphs for some of his essays in The Rambler (The University of Virginia has Nos. 1-54, Nos. 55-112, and Nos. 171-208, but not Nos. 113-170 for some reason), Johnson published two poems in imitation of Juvenal. (Selected Essays, Penguin Classics)
The first was "London: A Poem" (in imitation of Juvenal's Third Satire -- Latin and English). Boswell (about an eighth of the way down this page, starting at But what first displayed his transcendent powers) explains how the poem came to be published, giving Johnson’s letters to Edward Cave, the printer, and informing us that Johnson was paid 10 guineas for the copyright by the publisher. Boswell comments:
To us who have long known the manly force, bold spirit, and masterly versification of this poem, it is a matter of curiosity to observe the diffidence with which its authour brought it forward into publick notice, while he is so cautious as not to avow it to be his own production; and with what humility he offers to allow the printer to "alter any stroke of satire which he might dislike." That any such alteration was made, we do not know. If we did, we could but feel an indignant regret; but how painful is it to see that a writer of such vigorous powers of mind was actually in such distress, that the small profit which so short a poem, however excellent, could yield, was courted as a "relief."
He then goes on to record the positive critical reviews the poem got on its publication, the first edition being sold out within a week, necessitating a second edition.
Johnson's second Juvenal imitation was "The Vanity of Human Wishes", based on Juvenal's Tenth Satire -- English and Latin. Boswell's comments on the poem and its composition (top of this page) include this remark on further imitations of Juvenal:
I remember when I once regretted to him that he had not given us more of Juvenal's Satires, he said, he probably should give more, for he had them all in his head; by which I understood, that he had the originals and correspondent allusions floating in his mind, which he could, when he pleased, embody and render permanent without much labour. Some of them, however, he observed were too gross for imitation.
