A Literary-Critical Tragedy: The Interpretive Turn in the Life of Savage

Johnson first used his literary-critical value judgements in a biographical genre, the Life of Savage, originally published in 1744. Chapter Two examines this earliest instance of Johnson’s extensive use of his evaluative genre method. Thirty-seven years later, he included the biography of Savage in the Lives of the Poets, the only long life containing the same literary commentary as that previously published. Within the Lives, the Life of Savage changes genre; no longer an apology for Savage’s life, it is now a preface to his poetry. Yet the text remains unchanged but for stylistic details because the evaluative genre method serves both purposes. The methodology first devised for the biography of Savage to elucidate poetic tragedy serves to evaluate poetry throughout the Lives.