Table of Contents
London by Samuel Johnson Questions and Answers
Short-Answers Questions (SAQ)
Q. 1. What is an epigraph? What is its function in a poem?
Ans. An epigraph means a quotation or motto placed at the beginning of a chapter or poem as an indication of its theme. The term also refers to an inscription on a monument. It can serve different purposes, such as it can be used as a summary, introduction or to denote the theme. Moreover, an epigraph is also a short piece of poem that is set at the beginning of a document.
Q. 2. “Quisineptæ / Tam patiensurbis, tam ferreusutteneat se”? What is the English meaning of the lines used in the epigraph in Johnson’s London?
Ans. The source of the epigraph is Juvenal’s Third Satire. The English meaning of the quoted lines are “Who can endure this monstrous city? Who is so iron-willed he can bear it?”
Q. 3. Who is Thales in London?
Ans. Samuel Johnson’s London prominently features the character of Thales, whose discontent with London is causing him to leave imminently. Thales and his friend, the poem’s narrator, are in London on the banks of the River Thames waiting for a boat to take Thales away. He is headed for Wales on the southwestern edge of Britain. As they wait, the two converse about the current state of English society and politics.
Q. 4. What role does Thales play in the poem London?
Thales feels disillusioned about the dreadful conditions that he feels compelled to escape. He names a range of ills from petty vices through systemic corruption. As a young man, he sees no future fulfilment will be possible. The poet uses this character as the mouthpiece for his critique of English society, especially the Tory government of Robert Walpole. Ans.
Q. 5. What does Hibernia’s land mean in the line”For who would leave, unbrib’d, Hibernia’s land”?
Ans. “Hibernia’s land” refer to the Latin and poetic name for the island of Ireland. The name Hibernia was taken from Greek geographical accounts.
Q. 6. Locate and annotate:
“Or English honour grew a standing jest”. (Line 30)
Ans. “English honour grew a standing jest” alludes to the peaceful policies of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. His opponents called them cowardly” Walpole’s “alleged failure to protect British merchant ships from depredations by Spanish coast guards” was a standard topic of Opposition rhetoric.
Q. 7. Locate and annotate:
Thou fly’st for refuge to the wilds of Kent (1. 57)
Ans. The line is quoted from Samuel Johnson’s poem London. Here ‘the wilds of Kent’ mean the Weald, sometimes spelled ‘Wild’ of Kent, which is a large wooded area covering a part of Surrey and Sussex.
Q. 8. Locate and annotate:
And, fix’d on Cambria’s solitary shore,
Give to St. David one true Briton more. (LI.77-8)
Ans. Cambria is the ancient name for Wales. St. David is the patron saint of Wales. He further says that now he will live in Cambria forever. Cambria is named for Wales here. That place is full of peace and solitude.
Q. 9. Locate and annotate:
“And strive in vain to laugh at H-y’s jest”. (Line 74) with the non-specific names of Thales, Orgilio, and Balbo.
Ans. “H-y’s jest” probably stands for “the Revd John ‘Orator’ Henley, a public buffoon and a supporter of Walpole. He was “an eccentric preacher noted for his crude jests at the Opposition. Pope called him “Preacher at once, and zany of thy age” (DunciadIII.206). The allusion was earlier identified as directed at John Lord Hervey (1696-1743), supporter of Walpole and confidant of the Queen but McAdam later accepts the argument in favour of Henley.
Q.10. “All Marlb’rough hoarded, or all Villiers spent” (Line 86). Who are referred to as “Marlb’rough and Villiers”?
Ans. The great general, John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), made an immense financial profit during his campaigns against the French in the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-11)
George Villiers is 2nd Duke of Buckingham [1628-87] who wasted a fortune and died in squalor. Villiers is none but Zimri in Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel.
Q.11. What does ‘the French metropolis’ stand for in the poem?
Ans. London is known as the French metropolis because its customs imitate French ones.
Q.12. What does Dog-daysmean in the line “To shake in dog-days, in December sweat.”?(L. 143)
Ans. Dog-days mean the late summer days when Sirius (the Dog Star) was prominent.
Q.13. Locate and annotate:
“And lisp the tale of Henry’s victories”.
(Line 120. Explain ‘Henry’s victories’.
Ans. Henry’s victories mean the victories of Henry V (1387-1422) over the French. The image of Henry V’s victory over the French also serves as an image to view against Britain’s current relationship with the French. Johnson lambasts the import of French culture and affectations in the English circles of power and influence
Q.14. Which line in the poem is written in the upper case? What does the line mean?
Ans. The only one line written in the upper case is “SLOW RISES WORTH, BY POVERTY DEPRESS’D”. This is the most famous line in the poem that can be taken as Johnson’s motto at the time. The line in Capital letters highlights the pain felt by Johnson as a poet who had his dreams of advancement being abbreviated due to inadequate funds.
Q.15. Locate and annotate:
“No peacefuldesart yet unclaim’d by Spain”(L. 173)
Ans. The line is quoted from Samuel Johnson’s poem London. The Spaniards at that time were said to make claim to some of our American provinces. Again, Johnson’s discourse, in keeping with the typical British outlook of the time, reverses the actual situation: the British colony of Georgia and before that traders and settlers from the Carolinas, encroached onto territory long claimed by the Spanish as Guale-to say nothing of its native inhabitants, such as the Yamasee and Santee Indians, who had been extirpated by the British after the Yamasee war of 1715.
Q.16. “Scarce can our fields, such crowds at Tyburndie. (1. 242) With hemp the gallows and the fleet supply”. What are Tyburn and gallows?
Ans. Tyburn was the customary place of execution in eighteenth-. century London. The gallows stand for a structure, typically of two uprights and a crosspiece, for the hanging of criminals.
Q.17. Locate and annotate:
“A single jail, in Alfred’s golden reign” (Line 248).
Who is King Alfred?
Ans. Here Alfred stands for Alfred the Great who was King of the West Saxons (849-899). He prevented England from falling to the Danes and promoted learning and literacy. The compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle began during his reign in 890. Hence his reign is regarded as the golden one.
Q.18. Define heroic couplet. What is its function in a poem?
Ans. Heroic couplet denotes a rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines. It can serve different purposes, such as it can be used as a major English verse form for narrative and other kinds of non-dramatic poetry. It dominated English poetry of the 18th century, notably in the closed couplets of Johnson and Pope before declining in importance in the early 19th century.
Q.19. What is the subtitle of the poem?
Ans. The subtitle of the poem Londonis A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal. Indeed, Juvenal’s Third Satire is the source of the poem of Johnson.
Q.20. Where was Queen Elizabeth born? Why is she referred to here?
Ans. Queen Elizabeth was born at Greenwich.
Elizabeth I was a heroine for the Opposition to Walpole because of her success against the
Spanish. Greenwich on Thames was then an outlying village and is now a district of London. Johnson was lodging at Greenwich when he wrote the poem.
Q.21. Which persona does the speaker refer to in this poem?
Ans. Thales is referred to in this poem. Thales imagines receding into the beauty and peacefulness of nature where the poet seems to search for a domain which is unspoiled by Greed and Mercantilism.
Q.22. What is the source of the poem London?
Ans. Juvenal’s Third Satire is the source of the poem London. Harriet Raghunathan observes that the classical atmosphere affords a kind of Augustan respectability to the poem which endowed it with weight and universality which made it general rather than merely topical.
Q.23. Who is the protagonist of Juvenal’s Third Satire?
Ans. Umbricius is the protagonist of Juvenal’s Third Satire.
Q.24. Who is the protagonist of Johnson’s London?What does the poet criticize here?
Ans. Thales is the protagonist of Johnson’s London. He wants to go to Wales in order to escape from the problem of London city. Thales imagines receding into the beauty and peacefulness of nature where the poet seems to search for a domain which is unspoiled by Greed and Mercantilism. a state of constant unhappiness in
Johnson seems to highlight the existence of man is a mercantilist society.
Q.25. “Where Greenwich smiles upon the silver flood,” What does the line refer to inJohnson’s London?
Ans. London is situated on the bank of the river Thames. Here silver flood refers to the water of the river. The poem London starts with the description of a man named Thales. He wants to go to Wales in order to escape from the problem of London city. Therefore, he is standing on the banks of the river the Thames and waiting for the boat to take him to Wales. The Thames is a river that flows through London. Thus Thales is ready for rural place in wales to get peace and solitude.
leave to some
Q.26. What does Cambriain Johnson’s London allude to?
Q.27. “All Marlb’rough hoarded, or all Villiers spent.” Who was
Ans. Cambria in Johnson’s London alludes to Wales. As Cambria is idealized by Juvenal, Wales is also here. That place is full of peace and solitude. The speaker says that one more British also going to settle there in the place near S.t David who also left Hibernia’s land for peace. There nobody is thrown away by the sudden fate. But hunger can torture them as they grow old.
Q.27. “All Marlb’rough hoarded, or all Villiers spent.” Who was the first Duke of Marlborough inJohnson’s London?
Ans. Villiers was the first Duke of Marlborough in Johnson’s London.
Q.28. “Could’st thou resign the park and play content.” Which park is referred to here in Johnson’s London?
Ans. St. James Park is referred to here in Johnson’s London.it is at the heart of ceremonial London. It is a walking, rambling and promenading ground of the ladies and gentlemen in eighteenth century.
****************************
READ MORE….
London by Samuel Johnson Questions and Answers London by Samuel Johnson Questions and Answers London by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and Answers
London by Samuel Johnson Questions and Answers London by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and Answers
London by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and AnswersLondon by Samuel Johnson Questions and Answers