In a preface to a book of her sonnets (1799):
Of the four [sonnets] of Milton’s, justly [disapproved of], there is one evidently a burlesque, written in sport. It begins,
A book was writ of late, call’d Tetrachordon.
Doctor Johnson has the disingenuousness, in his Folio Dictionary, under the word SONNET, to cite that Sonnet at full length, as a specimen of Milton’s style in this kind of Poetry. Johnson disliked Sonnets, and he equally disliked Blank Verse, and Odes. It is in vain to combat the prejudice of splenetic aversion.
She goes on to trash him in a footnote:
We must look for the source of his injustice in the envy of his temper. When Garrick was named a Candidate for admission into the Literary Club, Dr. Johnson told Mr. Thrale he would black-ball him. “Who, Sir? Mr. Garrick! Companion of your Youth! your acknowledged Friend!” “Why, Sir, I love my little David better than any, or all of his Flatterers love him; but surely we ought to sit in a Society like ours, ‘unelbow’d by a Gamester, Pimp, or PLAYER.” See Supplement to Dr. Johnson’s Letters, published by Mrs. Piozzi. The blended hypocrisy and malice of this sally show the man. Johnson knew, at times, how to coax without sincerity as well as to abuse without justice.
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An astonishingly wonderful writer, lost too soon: A versatile...