ABSTRACT
The discussion on freedom and imagination is continued through Samuel Johnson’s writings, though in terms very different from those hitherto encountered. It is also true, as Donald Greene has noted, that Johnson can be difficult at times, in that his views, even in such vulgarly whiggish areas as this, occasionally indicate a liberalism and flexibility that contrasts oddly with the general impression created by that rough contempt. The opinions of writers like James Boswell and Catherine Macaulay, too, have been sifted; few would accuse Johnson of the “lowest, fiercest, and most absurd extravagances of party spirit” or draw parallels with Squire Western, and more attention has been given to the influence of Boswell’s “Romantic Toryism”, in shaping the Johnsonian portrait. Johnson’s assaults on that “surly republican”, John Milton, have already been noted, though the quality of his verse did draw from Johnson a confession of national pride.
