.
Condemn'd to hope's delusive mine,
As on we toil from day to day,
By sudden blasts, or slow decline,
Our social comforts drop away.
Well tried through many a varying year,
See Levet to the grave descend;
Officious, innocent, sincere,
Of ev'ry friendless name the friend.
Yet still he fills affection's eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind;
Nor, letter'd arrogance, deny
Thy praise to merit unrefin'd.
When fainting nature call'd for aid,
And hov'ring death prepar'd the blow,
His vig'rous remedy display'd
The power of art without the show.
In misery's darkest caverns known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan,
And lonely want retir'd to die.
No summons mock'd by chill delay,
No petty gain disdain'd by pride,
The modest wants of ev'ry day
The toil of ev'ry day supplied.
His virtues walk'd their narrow round,
Nor made a pause, nor left a void;
And sure th' Eternal Master found
The single talent well employ'd.
The busy day, the peaceful night,
Unfelt, uncounted, glided by;
His frame was firm, his powers were bright,
Tho' now his eightieth year was nigh.
Then with no throbbing fiery pain,
No cold gradations of decay,
Death broke at once the vital chain,
And free'd his soul the nearest way.
On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet: Samuel Johnson, 1782
Swan Lake Nature Study Area wetlands, north of Reno, Nevada: photo by Ragesoss, 2007
8 comments:
"The power of art without the show." That's so great, as was reading about Levet and Johnson this morning. I first ventured into Dr. Johnson a few years ago when I happened to pick up the book Dr. Johnson's Prayers from a shelf at a Friends Meeting in upstate NY. (The editor of the volume was a well-known Quaker writer.) Every time I return (or am led back) to Johnson, I am richly rewarded.
Curtis,
The loss of friends, that saddest and most universal sorrow of old age, joined with illness to depress Johnson's last years.
Levet and Anna Williams, two of the humble friends to whom his charity had given a home in his house, died in 1782 and 1783. These deaths were blows to him. Thereafter he was left almost alone.
I think you can sense the real loss in this poem, which seems so much more deeply and quietly felt than most of the compulsory-gesture poetic testaments to the departed great and famous (Levet, of course, was neither).
Robert Levet died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-seven on January 17, 1782. Johnson had been his friend for thirty-five years. Only the night before Levet's passing, Johnson told Bennet Langton, he had been thinking "with uncommon earnestness, that however I might alter my mode of life, or whithersoever I might remove, I would endeavour to retain Levet about me."
We hear so much high talk about health care reform. But it would be surprising indeed were any medical school to turn up the pattern from which the Dr. Levets were once cut.
For those who are interested, by the way, more on the later life and work of Johnson can be found here and here.
Based on what I read about Dr. Levet's background and training, I very much doubt that will happen. And without (I hope) getting pretentious about it, I think the impoverishment of vocabulary used to describe and discuss this subject is a negative sign pointing to a range of worrisome outcomes.
[The mystery of the missing remarks continues to deepen... the first comment on this post was this:]
Curtis Roberts has left a new comment on your post "Samuel Johnson: On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet":
"The power of art without the show." That's so great, as was reading about Levet and Johnson this morning. I first ventured into Dr. Johnson a few years ago when I happened to pick up the book Dr. Johnson's Prayers from a shelf at a Friends Meeting in upstate NY. (The editor of the volume was a well-known Quaker writer.) Every time I return (or am led back) to Johnson, I am richly rewarded.
Posted by Curtis Roberts to TOM CLARK at 5 April 2010 08:47
Friendship: I spent all day yesterday in an extended mediatation of Drs. Johnson and Levet. As Curtis Roberts says: richly rewarding to venture in and out of the text with some internet supplemental materials while meanwhile trying to tie a few work thoughts together over here.
And how appropriate that he found Dr. Johnson during a Friends meeeting. Also: the Facebook story and comments (too many friends!)
By the way, I still see all of yesterday's comments here today.
Anon,
Yes, it's interesting, no disappearances on this one as yet; fingers cross'd. Perhaps the kindness and modesty of Dr. Levet has blest this post.
(We also recall Levet's candour. He was the only one of Johnson's friends, for instance, ever to dare pronounce the terrible truth about certain of the weaknesses of Tetty, including, especially, the problems having to do with the inroads of the drink. A bit of honesty SJ permitted and probably even expected of him, though I doubt anyone else would have had the nerve to try to get away with it.)
Now just a moment, Anon -- no disappearances you say?
Does this mean the Curtis Roberts comment which I have reposted never mysteriously disappeared at your end at all?
The deep gloom of the mystery deepens.
Were Tetty here, it might drive the poor dear into an Apodosis.
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