Messiah (Latin Poem) - Critical Response

Critical Response

The work was immediately favoured among students of Oxford and Husbands's Miscellany of Poems (1731) contained a list of subscribers including half of the enrolled students at Pembroke. Although the poem brought him praise, it did not bring him the material benefit he had hoped for. The poem was brought to Pope's attention by Charles Arbuthnot, the son of Pope's friend John Arbuthnot; according to Sir John Hawkins, Pope praised the work when he claimed that he could not tell if it was "the original" or not.

However, John Taylor, his friend, dismissed this incident as "praise" by claiming that "Pope said it was very finely done, but that he had seen it before, and said nothing more either of it or its Authour." Instead of Johnson being the first to send Pope a copy, Johnson's father had already published the translation before Johnson sent a copy to Pope, and Pope could have been remarking about it being a duplication of the published edition that he earlier read. This possibility is reinforced by Johnson becoming "very angry" towards his father. Johnson told Taylor, "if it had not been his Father he would have cut his throat," even though Pope did praise the poem even if it may not have been during the second time Pope saw the work. Regardless, Johnson "had gained great applause" for the poem.

20th-century criticism focused on the poem as a model of Johnson's ability to write; Walter Jackson Bate praised the work and called it a "major effort".