School Books, Toys 
 Base Ball Qoods, ' 
 c, S J? rtlng G ods, 
 Fishing Tackle, Etc. 
 
 Jones; Bookstore
 
 "Great Writers:' 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 ERIC S. ROBERTSON, M.A., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY IX THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB, LAHORE. 
 
 LIFE OF JOHNSON.
 
 LIFE 
 
 SAMUEL JOHNSON 
 
 BY 
 
 LIEUT.-COL. F. GRANT 
 
 LONDON 
 WALTER SCOTT 
 
 24 WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW 
 1887
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Marriage of Samuel Johnson's parents (1706) ; his birth (1709) ; 
 taken to London to be touched by the Queen "for the 
 evil" (1712) ; his brother Nathaniel ; goes to Dame Oliver's 
 school ; is taught by Tom Brown ; at Lichfield Grammar 
 School ; his Lichfield schoolfellows ; passes some time with 
 his uncle, Cornelius Ford ; goes to Stourbridge School 
 (1724) ; returns to his father's house ; his disobedience to 
 his father, and subsequent atonement ; his knowledge of 
 books ; it is resolved to send him to Oxford , . 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Johnson entered at Pembroke College, Oxford (1728); his 
 arrival at the University ; Oxford in Johnson's days ; 
 translates Pope's " Messiah " into Latin hexameters ; his 
 college career ; controversy as to the length of time he 
 remained at Oxford ; his college contemporaries ; his 
 meeting in after life, with Edwards, a fellow collegian 
 (1778); leaves Oxford (1731) ; returnshome; death of his 
 father (December, 1731) ; social position of Michael Johnson 
 (father of S. J.) ; Samuel Johnson resolves to adopt litera- 
 ture asa profession ; society at Lichfield (1731-36) ; usher 
 at Market Bosworth (1732) ; private tutor in the Whitby 
 family ; spends six months at Birmingham with E. Hector ; 
 translates Father Lobo's " Voyage to Abyssinia "; writes 
 to E. Cave, editor of Gentleman's Magazine, offering 
 
 202S806
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 literary contributions ; applies for mastership of Solihull 
 School; his marriage (1735); sets up a school at Edial 
 Hall ; resolves to go to London 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Johnson's tragedy of " Irene " commenced at Edial Hall ; goes 
 to London with David Garrick (1737) ; takes a room in 
 Exeter Street, Strand ; his manner of life in London ; 
 borrows $ of Mr. Wilcox, who advises S. J. to buy 
 a porter's knot ; goes to Greenwich ; writes to E. Cave, 
 proposing to translate Sarpi's " History of the Council of 
 Trent " ; becomes connected with The Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine ; sketch of E. Cave's career ; writers in Gentleman's 
 Magazine ; Johnson goes to Lichfield ; returns to London 
 with his wife ; his tragedy of " Irene " finished ; refused by 
 Mr. Fleetwood, patentee of Drury Lane ; becomes a regular 
 contributor to Gentleman s Magazine (1738) ; publishes his 
 poem of " London " (1738) ; receives ten guineas as copy- 
 right ; Paul Whitehead ; appearance of first of Pope's two 
 " Dialogues " ; applies for mastership of Appleby School ; 
 Lord Gower's unsuccessful attempt to procure a diploma of 
 M.A. for Johnson ; Pope's letter referring to the incident ; 
 Johnson publishes " Marmor Norfolciense " (1739) ; reports 
 parliamentary debates for Gentleman's Magazine; other 
 literary work ; Hon. Henry Hervey takes a house in 
 London ; death of Richard Savage (1743) ; sketch of 
 Savage's career ; Johnson publishes " Life of Savage " 
 (1744) ; Johnson assists in editing Gentleman's Magazine ; 
 agrees to compile an English Dictionary (1746) ; publishes 
 the " Plan " of the dictionary ; dedicates it to Lord Chester- 
 field (1747) ; Johnson and his wife visit Tunbridge Wells 
 (1748) ; publishes " The Vanity of Human Wishes "(1749) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 *' Irene " acted at Drury Lane (1749) ; description of first night 
 of the play; The Rambler commenced (1750); death 
 of Johnson's wife (1752); Mrs. Williams becomes an in 
 mate of his hovtse ; mention of Johnson and Mrs. Williams 
 in Mrs. Chapone's letter to Miss E. Carter ; second volume 
 of dictionary commenced (1753) ; dictionary finished 
 (1754) ; visits Oxford ; degree of M.A. conferred on John*
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 son ; dictionary published (April 15, 1755) '> refuses to 
 dedicate dictionary to Lord Chesterfield ; his letter to 
 Lord Chesterfield ; Johnson still in great poverty ; Idler 
 commenced (1758) ; death of Johnson's mother (1759) ; 
 writes " Rasselas " (1759); fancied resemblance between 
 " Rasselas " and Voltaire's " Candide " ; Johnson's London 
 residences ; his two letters to Baretti (1761 and 1762) ; the 
 king grants Johnson a pension of ^300 a year . . 55 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Definition of a pension in Johnson's dictionary ; political affairs 
 in Johnson's time ; death of Lucy Porter's brother ; John- 
 son's introduction to Boswell (1763); Boswell calls upon 
 Johnson ; Boswell has supper with Johnson at the Mitre ; 
 Boswell takes "minutes of what passed ;" Johnson's ap- 
 preciation of Goldsmith ; Boswell ; his supper at the 
 Mitre with Johnson and Goldsmith ; Johnson's friendship 
 for Bennet Langton ; his acquaintance with Topham 
 Beauclerk 73 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Formation of " The Club " (1764) ; Ivy Lane Club ; Johnson's 
 regard for Burke ; his close intimacy with Reynolds ; sale 
 of MS. of Goldsmith's " Vicar of Wakefield " ; makes ac- 
 quaintance with the Thrales (1765) ; character of Mrs. 
 Thrale ; visits Cambridge with Beauclerk ; publication of 
 Johnson's " Shakespeare " (1765) ; Johnson established in 
 Johnson's Court ; his letter to Langton ; Boswell arrives in 
 London (1766) ; passes the evening with Goldsmith at 
 Johnson's house ; Johnson's interview with George III. 
 (1767) ; visits Lichfield ; his farewell interview with his 
 mother's old servant, Catherine Chambers ; Boswell arrives 
 in London (1769); entertains Johnson, Reynolds, and 
 Goldsmith at a dinner in his chambers ; Johnson publishes 
 the "False Alarm" (1770); Burke's "Thoughts on the 
 Cause of the Present Discontents " ; Johnson publishes 
 his pamphlet on "Falkland's Islands" (1771); Boswell 
 dines for the first time at Johnson's house ; Johnson's 
 journey to the Hebrides ...... .
 
 8 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Johnson's Welsh tour with the Thrales (1774) ; his diary of the 
 tour; accompanies the Thrales to Paris (1775); meets a 
 niece of Arabella Fermor at the English convent of St. 
 Augustine; " Histoire du Prince Titi " ; writes the 
 " Patriot " (1774) ; writes "Taxation no Tyranny " (1775) ; 
 doctor's degree conferred on Johnson by University of 
 Oxford (1775); his quarrel with Macpherson ; variety of 
 Johnson's acquaintance ; has supper at Mrs. Abington's 
 house ; moves to Bolt Court (1776) ; description of John- 
 son's house in Bolt Court ; his trip with Boswell to Oxford, 
 Birmingham, and Lichfield ; hears of Harry Thrale's 
 death ; hastens his return to London ; meets Jack Wilkes 
 at a dinner party at Mr. Billy's house ; his controversy 
 with Mrs. Knowles 104 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Johnson writes Latin epitaph for Goldsmith's monument ; the 
 "Club "sends Round Robin suggesting that the inscrip- 
 tion should be in English ; undertakes " Lives of the 
 Poets" (1777); makes acquaintance with Fanny Burney 
 (1778); the society at Streatham ; Sophy Streat field ; 
 Johnson's kindness to poor authors ; deaths of Garrick 
 (1779), of Beauclerk (1780), of Mr. Thrale (1781) ; dinner 
 at Mrs. Garrick's ; Miss Hannah More ; visits Oxford, 
 Lichfield, Birmingham, and Ashbourne ; death of Robert 
 Levett (1782) ; Johnson struck with paralysis (1783) ; his 
 partial recovery ; death of Mrs. Williams ; Mrs. Siddons's 
 visit to Bolt Court ; meeting of survivors of Ivy Lane Club ; 
 Boswell arrives in London ; Johnson and Boswell visit 
 Oxford ; Johnson dines for last time at the Club (June 22, 
 1784) ; interview with Mary Wollstonecraft ; Bos well's 
 last farewell of Johnson (June 30) ; Mrs. Thrale announces 
 to Johnson her intended marriage ; he visits Ashbourne, 
 Lichfield, Birmingham, and Oxford ; returns to London 
 (November 17) ; is aware of his approaching death ; unre- 
 mitting attention of his friends ; his last illness ; his death 
 (December 13, 1784); his funeral 122 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Johnson's character ; his powers as a critic ; his literary judg- 
 ments ; religious feeling, and state of the Church of
 
 CONTENTS. 9 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 England during latter half of eighteenth century ; English 
 literature in Johnson's time ; Topham Beauclerk's library ; 
 Johnson lives between two brilliant literary epochs ; John- 
 son as literary dictator ; his personal appearance ; various 
 editions of Boswell's " Life " ; early biographies and notices 
 of Johnson ; Johnson a link between the Augustan and 
 Victorian eras; centenary of Johnson's death . , .150 
 
 INDEX 171
 
 I 
 
 LIFE OF JOHNSON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 N the parish register of Packwood, in Warwickshire 
 is the following entry : 
 
 MICK ELL JOHNSONES, of licit field and} 
 SARA FORD marled June y e iqt/i, ' 
 
 The bridegroom, Michael Johnson, a bookseller of 
 good repute, was fifty years of age, and the bride 
 thirty-seven. It was more than three years after this 
 marriage that their eldest child was born at Lichfield on 
 the i8th of September, 1709. He was named Samuel 
 after a maternal uncle, Samuel Ford, or perhaps after his 
 godfather, Dr. Samuel Swinfen, who, at that time, was 
 lodging with the family at the old house in the market- 
 place, opposite St. Mary's Church. Dr. Swinfen, a 
 gentleman of ancient family, who had property in the 
 neighbourhood, and latterly acquired some eminence as 
 a physician, took a warm interest in his godson's career, 
 and it may have been, partly through his advice and en- 
 couragement, that the lad was in due course sent to 
 Oxford, where he entered at Pembroke, Dr. Swinfen's
 
 12 LIFE OF 
 
 own college. This kindness was repaid in after days, 
 when Dr. Swinfen's daughter, Mrs. Desmoulins, was 
 received into Johnson's house, and found a home there 
 until the death of her host. Of Michael Johnson's 
 second son, Nathaniel, little is known. He was about 
 three years younger than Samuel, who, according to Mrs. 
 Thrale, spoke with pride of his younger brother's manly 
 spirit and powers of endurance. After the death of his 
 father, Nathaniel looked after the business, but his life 
 was comparatively short. He died in his twenty-fifth 
 year. 
 
 Young Samuel Johnson was afflicted with the hereditary 
 disease, known as the "king's evil," and, in accordance with 
 the custom of that age, his mother took him to London, 
 in 1712, when he was three years old, to be touched by 
 the Queen, who, with the form of prayer, used on those 
 occasions, placed round his neck an "angel of gold 
 noble," with St. Michael on the one side, and on the 
 reverse a ship under full sail. It is supposed that this 
 was the last time that the quaint service "for the healing," r 
 which may be found in the Common Prayer Books of 
 Queen Anne's reign, was performed in this country. Some 
 of the incidents of the journey to London are recorded 
 in his fragment of an autobiography, published in 180^, 
 and, in connection with the ceremony, Johnson throughout 
 his life retained " a confused, but somehow a solemn, 
 recollection of a lady in diamonds and a long black 
 hood." 
 
 1 In 1686, by order of James II., were published "The Ceremonies 
 for the Healing .of them that be Diseased with the King's Evil," 
 and also the " Office of Consecrating Cramp Rings."
 
 JOHNSON. 13 
 
 But the more practical business of life was now 
 to commence, and the future author of the English 
 dictionary was sent to a school kept by Dame Oliver in 
 Dam Street, at the north corner of Quonian's Lane. 
 Both these places, which have retained their original 
 names, are still (1887) in existence, and the schoolroom 
 with the Dame's residence attached, and the boys' play- 
 ing ground on the opposite side of the lane, are easily 
 identified. This curious relic of old Lichfi eld, which must 
 have been an ancient building, even in Johnson's school- 
 days, seems hitherto to have escaped notice. The school- 
 mistress declared that Johnson was the best scholar she 
 ever had, and when, some years later, he was leaving Lich- 
 field to begin his career at Oxford, she brought him a 
 present of gingerbread. " This," said Johnson, " was as 
 high a proof of merit as he could conceive." Perhaps in 
 after days he was reminded of the incident, when reading 
 the lines in Shenstone's " Schoolmistress " 
 
 " And to the well-known Chest the Dame repair, 
 
 Whence oft with sugar'd Gates she doth them greet, 
 And Gingerbread y rare." .... 
 
 After leaving Dame Oliver, the lad was placed under 
 charge of a master, of whom his pupil's chief recollection 
 was that he published a spelling-book, and dedicated it 
 to the universe. What a prize this little volume would 
 now be for an enthusiastic book hunter ! After learning all 
 that could be taught by Tom Brown, the author of the 
 spelling-book, he was sent to the Lichfield Grammar 
 School, then under Mr. Hunter, a severe disciplinarian, 
 who is said to have been " an odd mixture of the pedant
 
 14 LIFE OF 
 
 and the sportsman," and who forgave any offence to a boy, 
 who would tell him where to find a covey of partridges. 
 Johnson always remembered his master's severity, and in 
 liis old age used to say, half humorously, that he could 
 never see Miss Seward, who bore a strong resemblance to 
 her grandfather, Mr. Hunter, without a feeling of awe. 
 The place, however, had a good reputation, and at one 
 period there were five judges on the bench, who had 
 been brought up at the Lichfield Grammar School. But 
 there was a still more interesting record in its history. It 
 -was there, immediately before going to the Charterhouse, 
 that Addison received a portion of his education, and 
 Johnson states in his biography that he was the leader in 
 a " barring out." 
 
 Among Johnson's schoolfellows were some whose 
 friendship he retained throughout life. In his own form 
 vvas Charles Congreve, who was afterwards chaplain to 
 Archbishop Boulter, Swift's powerful adversary in Dublin. 
 Congreve, in later years, became a confirmed valetudi- 
 narian, and in 1776, was living in London, looked after 
 by an elderly woman, whom he called cousin. She en- 
 couraged him in drinking, in which he was very willing 
 to be encouraged, and he had become " quite unsocial," 
 and his conversation was " quite monosyllabic." When 
 Johnson, at the last recorded visit, asked him what o'clock 
 it was, that signal of departure " had so pleasing an effect 
 on him that he sprang up to look at his watch like a 
 greyhound bounding at a hare." 
 
 But of all the Lichfield I >oys, Johnson in after life was 
 most intimate with Dr. John Taylor, and Mr. Edmund 
 Hector. With the former, who subsequently became pre-
 
 JOHXSQN. 15 
 
 bendary of Westminster, he maintained to the end a 
 constant and friendly intercourse, and was frequently a 
 visitor at his patrimonial estate at Ashbourne. On the 
 death of Mrs. Johnson, he sent off immediately to Dr. 
 Taylor, who hastened to the summons, and did all that 
 was possible to calm his friend's violent grief. Next day 
 Johnson wrote again : " Let me have your company 
 and instruction. Do not live away from me; my dis- 
 tress is great." When the year before his death, he was 
 struck with palsy, he wrote at once to Taylor : " Let me 
 see you as soon as possible ; " and again on his death- 
 bed it was his old friend and schoolfellow, who read 
 prayers to the dying man, and afterwards performed the 
 funeral service over his grave in the Abbey. 
 
 Most of our knowledge of Johnson's school life is 
 derived from Edmund Hector, who appears to have been 
 the chosen companion of his early days. The two lads 
 used, in their play hours, to saunter about the fields round 
 Lichfield, and Hector was never tired of telling of his 
 friend's moral influence with his comrades, and how the 
 boys used to call at his house every morning, and carry 
 him to school on their shoulders. But it has been 
 shrewdly suggested that this ascendency was as much due 
 to Johnson's strength and courage as to his intellectual 
 superiority. Hector settled down in due course as a 
 surgeon in Birmingham, and Johnson was always de- 
 lighted when he had an opportunity of seeing his old 
 friend, whose sister, he told Boswell, was the first woman 
 he ever loved. To this object of his early admiration he 
 sent an affectionate message in a letter, written shortly 
 before his death. Mr. Hector, who was about the same
 
 10 LIFE OF 
 
 age as his friend, survived him nearly ten years, and died 
 in 1794. 
 
 Boswell mentions Dr. James, the inventor of the fever 
 powder, as another of Johnson's schoolfellows, but this 
 statement appears open to question, as James was his 
 senior by eight years ; they were, without doubt, how- 
 ever, on intimate terms, and, according to Mrs. Thrale, 
 James knew the history of his friend's early days better 
 than any one. It was probably by him that Johnson 
 was introduced to John Newbery, the publisher, at 
 whose house he must first have met Oliver Gold- 
 smith. Another Lichfield schoolfellow, Lowe, had the 
 reputation, among the boys, of being the only pupil 
 who was as good a scholar as Johnson. Lowe took 
 orders, and eventually became a Canon of Windsor. Of 
 a Joseph Simpson we hear something, through a casual 
 mention by Johnson, half a century later. He was a 
 barrister, and not wanting in ability, but fell into a dissi- 
 pated life, and lost his practice. A tragedy from his pen, 
 called " The Patriot," z was published as the work of John- 
 son the year after its author's death. Mr. Jackson, a 
 schoolfellow, whose career was not more successful than 
 Simpson's, dined with Johnson and Boswell at the inn, at 
 Lichfield, in 1776, and "seemed to be a low man, dull 
 and untaught. He had a coarse gray coat, black waist- 
 coat, greasy leather breeches, and a yellow, uncurled 
 wig; and his countenance had the ruddiness which 
 betokens one who is in no haste to 'leave his can/ 
 He drank only ale. He had tried to be a cutler at 
 
 1 " ' The Patriot : ' a Tragedy. From a Manuscript of the late Dr. 
 Johnson, corrected by himself. London, 1765."
 
 JOHNSON. 17 
 
 Birmingham, but had not succeeded ; and now he lived 
 poorly at home, and had some scheme of dressing leather 
 in a better manner than common." 
 
 After leaving Lichfield Grammar School, Johnson spent 
 some time with his relative, Cornelius Ford. It has been 
 doubted if this were an uncle or cousin of Johnson. 
 Mr. Napier, in a note to his edition of Boswell's "Life," 
 has shown that there were two persons of this name, the 
 one a brother, the other a nephew of Johnson's mother. 
 The latter was a clergyman of excellent abilities, but of 
 profligate life, and it is supposed, with some authority, 
 that he was the original of the parson in Hogarth's 
 Midnight Modern Conversation, but it was more 
 likely intended for Orator Henley, who appears in 
 another of the artist's well-known caricatures. It was to 
 his uncle that the boy was now sent to continue his 
 studies, and he remained there till he was fifteen. After 
 an attempt to be received as scholar and usher at New- 
 port, in Shropshire, he went to Stourbridge school, then 
 under the charge of a Mr. Wentworth, an able man, from 
 whom his pupil confessed to have learnt a great deal. 
 He appears to have mixed in society at Stourbridge more 
 than was usual for a boy of his age, and to have passed 
 some of his leisure hours in writing verses to the young 
 ladies in the neighbourhood. With one of these, Olivia 
 Lloyd, he imagined himself to be seriously in love. She 
 was a Quaker, and probably belonged to the same family 
 as Mr. Lloyd, whom Boswell met, when on a visit with 
 Johnson to Birmingham, in 1776. He was at Stour- 
 bridge for about a year, and then returned to his 
 father's house, where he remained till he went to Oxford,
 
 18 L1PE OF 
 
 and, during this time, he no doubt got through a good 
 deal of desultory reading. On one occasion he relates 
 that, in looking for apples in a loft, he came across a 
 folio of Petrarch, and read through a great part of the 
 book. He afterwards said, in allusion to his course of 
 reading at that time : " I had looked into a great many 
 books that were not commonly known at the university, 
 ... so that when I came to Oxford, Dr. Adams, now 
 master of Pembroke College, told me I was the best 
 qualified for the university that he had ever known come 
 there." During the two years spent at home, he pro- 
 bably helped in his father's shop, and Hawkins asserts 
 that he used to say that he was able to bind a book. 
 Michael Johnson was accustomed to open a stall on 
 market days in some of the neighbouring towns, and it 
 was perhaps about this time that the lad refused to attend 
 his father on one of these occasions to Uttoxeter market. 
 Many years later he went to the old town, and, in very 
 bad weather, remained, bareheaded, on the spot where his 
 father's stall used to be held. "In contrition I stood," 
 he said, "arid I hope the penance was expiatory." 
 This act of atonement has been commented on in 
 various ways, but it certainly shows a tender conscience; 
 and Carlyle once told Mr. Froude that he felt inclined 
 to do penance in a similar manner for some act which 
 troubled his mind. 
 
 When Johnson arrived at literary eminence, he was 
 famous, not only for his extensive reading, but also for 
 his knowledge of books. He could tell without hesitation 
 the names of the best authors on any particular subject, 
 and it seems probable that he partly acquired this know-
 
 JOHNSON. 19 
 
 ledge from assisting in his father's business. He must 
 also have learnt a good deal in after days while engaged in 
 cataloguing Lord Oxford's library for Osborne the book- 
 seller. Nothing was more remarkable than his minute 
 acquaintance with obscure literature. No one has ever 
 yet been able to ascertain the source of the lines, which 
 he repeated, on hearing a girl at Nairn singing over her 
 spinning-wheel. 
 
 " Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound ; 
 
 All at her work the village maiden sings ; 
 
 Nor, while she turns the giddy wheel around, 
 
 Revolves the sad vicissitudes of things." 
 
 On one occasion, when driving with a friend at Brighton, 
 he repeated with great precision three stanzas, afterwards 
 found among some anonymous poems in a volume of 
 Lintot's " Miscellanies." At another time Miss Seward 
 wished to know who had written some verses addressed 
 to Pope, in one of the notes of "The Dunciad," and he 
 was able immediately to name the author. 
 
 It was at length determined to send the boy to Oxford. 
 Hawkins says that the step was taken on the understand- 
 ing that he was to go to the university as tutor to Mr. 
 Andrew Corbett, the son of a gentleman in the neighbour- 
 hood, who was about to send his son to Pembroke 
 College ; but this cannot be entirely accurate, as Cor- 
 bett's name appears on the books twenty months before 
 Johnson was entered. Another suggestion, which appears 
 more probable, is that his expenses were to be defrayed 
 by Mr. Swinfen and some other residents of Lichfield ; 
 but in this case it is difficult to explain why this assist-
 
 20 LIFE OF JOHNSON. 
 
 ance should so soon have been stopped. Boswell, with 
 more tact than he usually displayed, refrained from 
 questioning his friend on the subject, about which it is, 
 now, no longer possible to obtain any definite information.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AT the age of nineteen Samuel Johnson entered at 
 Pembroke College on the 3ist of October, 1728. 
 An account of his first evening at the University wa&- 
 given by Dr. Adams, who was present on the occasion. 
 His father accompanied him, and they were introduced 
 to Mr. Jorden, who was appointed to be the lad's tutor. 
 The new undergraduate's uncouth appearance caused some 
 surprise, but he was modest and respectful, and for a 
 time took no part in the conversation. At length, how- 
 ever, he could keep silence no longer, and joined in with" 
 a quotation from Macrobius, an author who was probably 
 little known, except by name, to any other of the party. 
 Those who wish to know something of life at Oxford in 
 the early part of the last century should read the opening 
 chapter in Dr. G. Birkbeck Hill's carefully written work, 
 " Johnson, his Friends and his Critics," from which the 
 present writer has derived much valuable information. 
 
 The University at that time offered few of the advan- 
 tages which its members now enjoy. There were no 
 inducements for the undergraduates to read, and, if they 
 wished to do so, it was only in a few colleges that the tutors' 
 lectures were worth attending. A degree was conferred,
 
 22 LIFE OF 
 
 as a matter of course, after the requisite number of terms 
 had been kept. "The one very powerful incentive to 
 learning," writes Johnson, in one of his " Idlers," " is the 
 genius of the place ; " but it is not every undergraduate 
 who would be inspired by this influence, and the want of 
 good college tutors was felt long after the " Idler's" time. 
 More than a century later, a raw Yorkshire youth, " in- 
 credibly raw," as he himself says, with an ardent thirst for 
 knowledge, and destined afterwards to attain high acade- 
 mical distinction, was taken by his father to Oxford to 
 begin his University career. It is interesting to contrast 
 the account which Dr. Mark Pattison gave of his first im- 
 pression of college life with Johnson's experience on a 
 similar occasion, and it is not difficult to find certain 
 points of resemblance. Soon after he arrived at Oxford, 
 the young undergraduate, who had surprised his tutor by 
 quoting Macrobius, was asked to show his abilities as a 
 Latin poet by rendering Pope's " Messiah " into hexa- 
 meters. The style of the translation is not Virgilian, 
 though his friend, Mr. Thomas Warton, afterwards Pro- 
 fessor of Poetry at Oxford, did not venture to tell him so 
 when discussing the poem on a subsequent occasion, and 
 got out of the difficulty by speaking of one of the lines as 
 "very sonorous." Pope, to whom the translation was 
 shown by a son of his old friend, Dr. Arbuthnot, declared 
 that the " writer of this poem will leave it a question for 
 posterity whether his or mine is the original." It after- 
 wards appeared in a miscellany of poems, published at 
 Oxford in 1731, and edited by Mr. John Husband, a 
 contemporary of Johnson at Pembroke College. In the 
 preface to the volume the editor writes : "The Trans-
 
 JOHNSON. 23 
 
 lation of Mr. Pope's ' Messiah' was deliver'd to his Tutor, 
 as a College Exercise, by Mr. Johnson, a Commoner of 
 Pembroke College in Oxford, and 'tis hoped will be no 
 discredit to the excellent Original." But perhaps the 
 most curious part of the work is the circumstance, hitherto 
 unnoticed, that among the list of subscribers appears the 
 name of Richard Savage for twenty copies. This piece 
 of extravagance is very characteristic of that eccentric 
 creature, but it is not easy to explain, unless it was a 
 compliment to Johnson, with whom he was afterwards on 
 terms of great intimacy. This strange friendship, how- 
 ever, is not supposed to have commenced till some years 
 later, but any attempts to solve the difficulty would neces- 
 sarily be mere guess work. 
 
 The duration of Johnson's college career has given 
 rise to much controversy, though there is no part of 
 his life which ought to be better known. Dr. Adams, 
 who was a fellow of Pembroke College when Johnson 
 first entered, and Taylor, another Oxford contem- 
 porary, though at a different college, were both well 
 acquainted with Boswell, and furnished him with particu- 
 lars for the " Life." Boswell asserted that Johnson was 
 at Oxford for about three years, and Hawkins, whose 
 biography had previously been published, gave practically 
 the same account. Boswell's accuracy has been so often 
 proved, and his opportunities of obtaining information 
 on the subject were so exceptional, that it is difficult not 
 to accept his statement ; but Croker, from an inspection 
 of the college books, showed, almost beyond a doubt, 
 that Johnson could not have been in residence for 
 more than fourteen months. The difficulty, in this view
 
 24 LIFE OF 
 
 of the case, was to account for the fact that Johnson 
 himself spoke of his college intercourse with Taylor, who 
 matriculated on June 27, 1730, nearly six months after 
 Johnson (if Croker's view is correct) had left the Univer- 
 sity. This discrepancy has now been satisfactorily ex- 
 plained by Dr. George Birkbeck Hill, who discovered in 
 the Christ Church books the names of two John Taylors, 
 one of whom matriculated February 24, 1729, only four 
 months after Johnson. Boswell, in this instance, there- 
 fore, seems to have been mistaken, and though Johnson's 
 name does not finally disappear from the college books 
 till October, 1731, he was an actual member for only 
 fourteen months, and his residence virtually came to an 
 end in December, 1729, when he made a note, "1729. 
 Dec. S. J. Oxonio rediit." 
 
 Many stories have been told, some of them on John- 
 son's own authority, of his insubordination at college, but 
 there is reason to think that remorse induced him to ex- 
 aggerate his failings, and Boswell heard from Dr. Adams 
 that he was a regular attendant at the college lectures. 
 
 Johnson had not many opportunities in after life of 
 meeting his Oxford contemporaries, with the exception of 
 Adams and Taylor. The latter has been already referred 
 to, and Adams, who spoke of himself as Johnson's 
 " nominal tutor," continued through life his constant and 
 valued friend. He was one of those present on the first 
 night of Johnson's tragedy of " Irene," and gave Boswell 
 an account of that memorable occasion. When his old 
 pupil first revisited Oxford, in 1754, he appears to have 
 been absent, but after he became head of his college, in 
 1775, Johnson was several times a guest at the Master's
 
 JOHNSON. 25 
 
 Lodge. Dr. Adams was also rector of St. Chad's, in 
 Shrewsbury, where he received a visit from Johnson and 
 the Thrales, during their Welsh tour in 1774. He sur- 
 vived his old college friend about four years, and died in 
 1789, aged eighty-two. 
 
 Of "Honest Jack Meekeof Pembroke College," as his 
 name appears scribbled at the end of the college buttery 
 books, there is little to be said, though Johnson was, in 
 those days, very jealous of his superiority, and sat as far 
 from him as possible at college lectures, so as not to hear 
 him construe. Boswell gives an account, which he had 
 from Mr. Warton, of a very cordial meeting between the 
 former rivals, when Johnson was at Oxford in 1 7 54. During 
 a later visit to the University, in 1 776, we hear of two other 
 college companions, whose names, by this chance mention, 
 have been rescued from oblivion. " Ah, here," said John- 
 son, in the Pembroke common room, " I used to play at 
 draughts with Phil Jones and Fludyer. Jones loved beer, 
 and did not get very forward in the Church. Fludyer 
 turned out a scoundrel and a Whig, and said he was 
 ashamed of having been bred at Oxford. He had a 
 living at Putney, and got under the eye of some retainers 
 of the Court at that time, and so became a violent Whig. 
 . . ." Fludyer's change of politics was not of much 
 service to him in obtaining preferment, as it appears 
 from the parish registers that he remained perpetual 
 curate of Putney till his death, which occurred in 1773. 
 
 One of the most interesting events in Johnson's life, 
 though it did not happen till 1778, relates to his college 
 career. He himself briefly mentions the incident in the 
 "Prayers and Meditations;" but Boswell's account of the
 
 26 LIFE OF 
 
 affair is given with even more than his usual skill and 
 dramatic power. On the way home from church on 
 Good Friday, Johnson, who was accompanied by Boswell, 
 met an old fellow collegian whom he had not seen since 
 they were undergraduates together in 1729. "Mr. 
 Edwards, who was a decent-looking elderly man in grey 
 clothes and a wig of many curls, accosted him with 
 familiar confidence, knowing who he was, while Johnson 
 returned his salutation with a courteous formality as to a 
 stranger. But as soon as Edwards had brought to his 
 recollection their having been at Pembroke College to- 
 gether nine and forty years ago, he seemed much pleased, 
 asked where he lived, and said he should be glad to see 
 him at Bolt Court." Boswell whispered to Edwards that 
 the doctor was going home, and that he had better 
 accompany him. On the way thither Edwards mentioned 
 that he had practised as a solicitor in Chancery, and that 
 he lived on a little farm in Hertfordshire. The dialogue, 
 which ensued on arrival at Bolt Court, is a good example 
 of Boswell's reporting, but there is only space for some 
 extracts. Johnson, who had been talking of the respon- 
 sibilities of a clergyman's life, exclaimed abruptly 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Edwards, I'll convince you that I recollect 
 you. Do you remember our drinking together at an ale- 
 house near Pembroke Gate ? At that time you told me 
 of the Eton boy who, when verses on our Saviour's turn- 
 ing water into wine were prescribed as an exercise, brought 
 up a single line, which was highly admired 
 
 " ' Vidit et erubuit nympha puclica Deum,' 
 and I told you of another fine line in Camden's " Re-
 
 JOHNSO.\ 7 . 27 
 
 mains," an eulogy upon one of our kings, who was suc- 
 ceeded by his son, a prince of equal merit 
 
 " ' Mira cano, sol occubuit ; nox nulla secuta est.' " 
 
 After some conversation on other subjects, Edwards 
 remarked, " You are a philosopher, Dr. Johnson. I have 
 tried, too, in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't 
 know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in." Boswell 
 mentions that Burke, Reynolds, and all the eminent men, 
 to whom he mentioned this speech, thought it an exquisite 
 trait of character. The conversation then turned upon 
 wine, which Johnson said he now never drank. 
 
 "Edwards. Don't you eat supper, sir? 
 
 "Johnson, No, sir. 
 
 " Edivards. For my part, now, I consider supper as a 
 turnpike, through which one must pass in order to go to 
 bed." 
 
 Edwards meeting Johnson again, some time after, spoke 
 of The Rambler as a very pretty book, which he heard his 
 friend had written, and its author, " unwilling that he 
 should leave the world in total darkness," sent him a copy 
 of the work. Johnson's love and reverence for Oxford 
 seemed to increase as he grew older, and, to the end of 
 his life, he loved to revisit his old University, where 
 he never appeared except in correct academical costume. 
 
 Pembroke College is much changed since those days. 
 The present library, where is preserved Johnson's desk, 
 on which he wrote a portion of the " Dictionary," was 
 in his days the hall. He would scarcely recognize the 
 Master's House, occupied by that " fine Jacobite fellow," 
 Dr. Panting, when Johnson first knew it, and where he
 
 28 LIFE OF 
 
 was staying as a guest, a few months before his death. 
 The tower, also, has undergone many alterations, but the 
 rooms on the second floor, above the ancient gateway, are 
 much the same as when he lived there. The window of 
 the bedroom looks on the old quadrangle, and in the 
 rooms on the floor below, is an oriel window, facing 
 north, placed by the college in honour of its former illus- 
 trious member. 
 
 After a brief appearance at Oxford in October, 1731 
 (the last as an undergraduate), he returned home and was 
 present at his father's death in December. Michael 
 Johnson's affairs had latterly become embarrassed, and, 
 from MS. letters, preserved at Pembroke College, it 
 appears that his widow was left in great poverty. She 
 still, however, was able to keep on the business, and, 
 until his death, was helped by her younger son. An old 
 servant of the family, Catherine Chambers, too, probably 
 made herself useful in the shop, and, in later years, Lucy 
 Porter, Samuel Johnson's step-daughter, never failed to 
 assist on market days, or when there was any press of 
 business. 
 
 The position occupied by Michael Johnson had been 
 far above that of an ordinary country tradesman, and it 
 was, no doubt, improved by his marriage with a lady be- 
 longing to an old, though not a distinguished, county 
 family. He had held several important offices at Lichfield; 
 first of junior bailiff, and afterwards of sheriff; and, in 
 1725, he served as chief magistrate of the city. The only 
 bookseller in the place, and even in the neighbourhood, 
 he was largely patronized by the clergy, who, probably on 
 market days, found his shop a convenient place of resort.
 
 JOHNSON. 29 
 
 Besides books and pamphlets, Michael Johnson, like 
 the Newberys, and other old-fashioned booksellers, sold 
 patent medicines, and Hungary water, that perfume so 
 dear to our forefathers in the reign of good Queen Anne. 
 He was also a publisher, and books, with his imprint 
 on the title-page, are still met with on rare occasions. In 
 1716, Lord Gower's chaplain wrote, "Johnson, the Lich- 
 field librarian, is now here; he propagates learning all 
 over the diocese, and advanceth knowledge to its just 
 height ; all the clergy here are his pupils, and suck all 
 they have from him." 
 
 Samuel Johnson, on the death of his father, succeeded 
 to an inheritance of only twenty pounds, and his prospects 
 were not brilliant. It was necessary he should do some- 
 thing for his living, and he naturally turned to literature 
 for support. 
 
 It is necessary to say a few words about the Lichfield 
 society at that time, a point on which there has been 
 much misapprehension. A few years later, when Johnson 
 went to seek his fortunes in London, he was no doubt 
 intimate with many of the laureates of Grub Street, and 
 was compelled by poverty to mix with companions, of 
 whom he afterwards had strange stories to relate ; but, 
 during this period at Lichfield, he associated with the 
 best families of the place. 
 
 Dr. Swinfen, his godfather, was still living. He was a 
 welcome guest at the house of the Hon. Henry Hervey, 
 then a cornet of dragoons, who had married Catherine, 
 eldest sister of Sir Thomas Aston. Mrs. Garrick, the 
 mother of David Garrick, afterwards the greatest actor 
 on the English stage, was settled with her family at Lich-
 
 30 LIFE OF 
 
 field, during the absence of her husband on foreign 
 service. Her " dear life," as she calls him in her letters, 
 remained with his regiment at Gibraltar till 1736, and, 
 after an absence of five years, came back only to pass a 
 few happy months, and then to die. Other friends were 
 Mr. Levett, a gentleman of property in the county ; and 
 Gilbert Walmsley, who, a few years later, married Mrs. 
 Hervey's sister ; George, subsequently Lord Lyttelton, 
 Johnson's supposed rival in the good graces of Molly 
 Aston, was also, according to Percy, sometimes in the 
 neighbourhood ; Ashbourne, where Taylor lived, was not 
 far off, and there were the Hickmans (relatives of his 
 mother), the Meynells of Bradley, and other families, 
 where he occasionally visited. 
 
 There is some doubt as to when he first knew the 
 Astons. Mr. Croker thinks the acquaintance could 
 hardly at this time have commenced, as he supposes it 
 was made through Gilbert Walmsley, who was not mar- 
 ried to Magdalen Aston l till 1736. But Johnson was 
 by that time himself married, and it is more probable that 
 he first met them at the house of their brother-in-law, 
 Henry Hervey, whose regiment arrived in Lichfield about 
 the end of 1732. He had a great admiration for one of 
 the sisters, Molly Aston, who he said was " a beauty and 
 a scholar, a wit and a Whig," and he declared in after 
 years " she was the loveliest creature I ever saw." When 
 the Thrales asked him what was the happiest period of 
 his life, he replied, " It was that year in which I spent 
 one whole evening with Molly Aston ; that, indeed, was 
 
 1 Croker calls her Margaret Aston, but in Gilbert Walmsley's epi- 
 taph, on the tablet in Lichfield Cathedral, she is called Magdalen.
 
 JOHNSON. 31 
 
 not happiness, it was rapture ; but the thought of it sweet- 
 ened many a year." With two other sisters of Mrs. 
 Hervey, Mrs. Elizabeth Aston, and Mrs. Gastrell, who 
 eventually settled at Lichfield, Johnson remained on in- 
 timate terms till his death. Molly Aston became the wife 
 of a Captain Brodie of the navy, but she does not appear 
 after her marriage to have met her old admirer. 
 
 There is a good deal of uncertainty about much of John- 
 son's life between 1731 and 1736. After several unsuccess- 
 ful attempts to obtain a situation as usher, he at length 
 received an appointment to the school at Market Bosworth. 
 He made the journey there on foot, on the i6th of July, 
 1732, but he found the position so intolerable that his 
 stay was short, and he was once more without em- 
 ployment. It may have been about this time that an 
 incident occurred in Johnson's life, lately communi- 
 cated to Notes and Queries, 1 which had hitherto escaped 
 notice. From the following letter, written by the Rev. J. 
 Addenbroke, afterwards Dean of Lichfield, to Mr. Whitby, 
 great-grandfather of Mr. Whitby, of Creswell Hall, near 
 Stafford, it appears that Johnson was at one time acting 
 as tutor in the Whitby family. 
 
 " I have sent you enclosed Mr. Johnson's letter to Mr. 
 Levett. The sum I mentioned to Mr. Levett was as 
 little as, I thought, could be offered to a Gentleman of 
 Character for half-a-year's attendance. But his affairs, you 
 see, won't give him leave to be with your son so long. So 
 that if you'll let me know what will be agreeable to you 
 to give for that time, I'll communicate it to Mr. Levett, 
 1 Nov. 29, 1884.
 
 32 LIFE OF 
 
 and the Gentleman may wait upon you immediately. I 
 can only say, that if Mr. Johnson will do what He is 
 capable of doing in that time, He will be of more service 
 to your son than a year spent in the usual way at the 
 University. I shall be glad to know your Resolution to 
 morrow ; because I am obliged to go to Sudbury on 
 Monday, where I shall stay all the week. 
 " I am, Sir, 
 
 " Your most Obed' Serv', 
 
 " J. ADDENBROKE. 
 
 " My humble service waite upon the Family. 
 
 " STAFFORD, May io///." 
 (s.d. but probably 1732, or 1733.) 
 
 There is a superscription written in 1824, by a Mr. 
 Thomas Whitby, grandson of the gentleman to whom the 
 letter is addressed : 
 
 "CRESWELL, Nov. 18, 1824. 
 
 " This letter (i.e. Mr. A.'s) was written probably to my 
 grandfather soon after Mr.. Johnson (left?) Bosworth. I 
 have frequently heard Mrs. Wells, my father's youngest 
 sister, say, that she remembered Mr. (Dr.) Johnson being 
 at Heywood as Tutor to her brother, and that he frequently 
 instructed her in the English language. 
 
 "Tnos. WHITBY." 
 
 According to this, Johnson passed some time at Hey- 
 wood, after he left Market Bosworth, but the matter is not
 
 JOHNSON. 33 
 
 quite clear. It must have been shortly afterwards that he 
 spent six months at Birmingham with his old schoolfellow, 
 Hector, who was lodging " over against the Swan Tavern 
 in High Street," z with Thomas Warren, the first book- 
 seller established in Birmingham. Warren gave him 
 some literary work, and he received five guineas to 
 translate M. le Grand's French abridgment of Father 
 Lobo's " Voyage to Abyssinia," which he borrowed from 
 the library of Pembroke College. The Portuguese mis- 
 sionary, who relates that he saw several unicorns, can 
 hardly be considered a trustworthy historian, but, as an 
 early book of travels, it has a certain value, and some of 
 M. le Grand's dissertations, especially that on the Queen 
 of Sheba, are interesting. The English translator's pre- 
 face, as Burke pointed out to Boswell, contains passages 
 in decided Johnsonian style, but the " Voyage " itself 
 is written in fluent English, free from all Gallicisms, and 
 the reader will find no indication, from the first page to 
 the last, that it is translated from a foreign language. 
 
 Johnson's natural indolence had already begun to 
 assert itself, and a large portion of the MS. was written 
 by Mr. Hector, while the translator dictated from his 
 bed, and without this help, the work would probably 
 have been abandoned. In 1734 he appears to have 
 wandered between Lichfield and Birmingham, and 
 from the latter place he wrote in November to Mr. 
 Edward Cave, the editor of The Gentleman's Magazine, 
 offering to supply literary articles. According to Haw- 
 
 1 " Probably in one of the old half-timbered houses, pulled down 
 when the railway tunnel was made in 1850." Mr. Saml. Timmins' 
 "Johnson in Birmingham." 
 
 3
 
 34 LIFE OF 
 
 kins a favourable answer was sent, but it is not known if 
 Johnson became at that time a contributor. 
 
 In 1735, Mr. Walmsley applied on Johnson's behalf 
 for the mastership of Solihull Grammar School. The 
 reply to the application is so curious that it is worth 
 quoting. The trustees, writes Mr. Greswold, obtained 
 satisfactory information as to Johnson's scholarship ; " but 
 then," the letter goes on to say, "he has the character of 
 being a very haughty, ill-natured gent, and y' he has such 
 a way of distorting his face (w h though he can't help), y e 
 gent think it may affect some young lads. , . ." A pre- 
 vious attempt to obtain the post of assistant, at a school 
 in Brewood, had failed for the same reasons. 
 
 But he was now about to enter into an engagement 
 of a more interesting character. While living with Mr. 
 Hector at Birmingham, he had made the acquaintance 
 of Mr. Porter (a mercer) and his wife. About this time 
 Mr. Porter died, and Johnson, who was one of the exe- 
 cutors, became a candidate for the widow's hand. One 
 biographer says that it was the lady who made the first 
 advances, but, in any case, the affair was soon brought to 
 a successful issue, and the marriage took place at Derby 
 on July 9, 1735. 
 
 Boswell gives a curious account of the wedding, which 
 he heard from Johnson himself, who, though he had not 
 then edited Shakespeare's plays, was apparently well 
 acquainted with " The Taming of the Shrew ! " " Sir, 
 she had read the old romances, and had got into her 
 head the fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should 
 use her lover like a dog. So, sir, at first she told me 
 that I rode too fast, and she could not keep up with me;
 
 JOHNSON. 35 
 
 and, when I rode a little slower, she passed me, and 
 complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made 
 the slave of caprice ; and I resolved to begin as I meant 
 to end. I therefore pushed on briskly till I was fairly out 
 of her sight. The road lay between two hedges, so I 
 was sure she could not miss it, and I contrived that she 
 should soon come up with me; when she did, I observed 
 her to be in tears." This " pretty charmer," as her 
 husband sometimes called her, is thus described by 
 Garrick : " She was very fat, with a bosom of more than 
 ordinary protuberance; her swelled cheeks were of a florid 
 red, produced by thick painting, and increased by the 
 liberal use of cordials ; flaring and fantastic in her dress, 
 and affected both in her speech and general behaviour." 
 This is probably somewhat exaggerated ; and, in any case 
 there is an engraving, now extremely rare, of her as a 
 young woman, which represents a tolerably good-looking 
 person. Of the bridegroom, his step-daughter, Lucy 
 Porter, told Boswell that " his appearance was very 
 forbidding : he was then lean and lanky, so that his 
 immense structure of bone was hideously striking to the 
 eye, and the scars of scrofula were deeply visible. He 
 also wore his hair, which was straight and stiff, separated 
 behind ; and he often had seemingly convulsive starts 
 and odd gesticulations, which tended to excite at once 
 surprise and ridicule." The bride was in her forty- 
 seventh year ; the bridegroom was not quite twenty-six. 
 He told his friend Beauclerk, with much gravity, " Sir, it 
 was a love match on both sides." On one occasion, 
 when they were walking together, a gipsy examined his 
 hand, and told him his heart was divided between a
 
 36 LIFE OF 
 
 Molly and a Betty, but that though Betty loved 
 him the best, he took most delight in Molly's com- 
 pany. " When I turned about to laugh," he said, in 
 telling the story, " I saw my wife was crying. Pretty 
 charmer, she had no reason." Mrs. Johnson's name 
 was Elizabeth, and she knew of her husband's admira- 
 tion for Molly Aston. As far as can be ascertained, the 
 marriage was a happy one, and in after days he spoke 
 of his wife with fond regret. When talking of her to 
 Mrs. Thrale, he had nothing to complain of but her 
 "particular reverence for cleanliness," which seems to 
 have caused a good deal of annoyance to her husband. 
 
 But, without doubt, she was a woman of good under- 
 standing, and had a thorough appreciation of her 
 husband's worth. To the last he thought her a beauty, 
 and this may, to some extent, be explained by his im- 
 perfect vision, which toned down her high colour and 
 exuberant proportions. Apart, however, from his admira- 
 tion for her personal charms, his affection for her was very 
 deep and earnest, and in the " Prayers and Meditations * 
 her name is often mentioned with affection. 
 
 Johnson obtained with his wife a fortune of ^800, 
 but it appears from a deed, recently discovered, that 
 a part of this was lost through the insolvency of a 
 Birmingham attorney, named Perks. With the remainder 
 the newly-married pair resolved to set up a school, and 
 Edial Hall, near Lichfield, was hired for the under- 
 taking. But, notwithstanding the exertions of friends, 
 and advertisements in The Gentleman's Magazine, the 
 academy never became a success. David Garrick and 
 (according to Percy) Hawkesworth, both of them nearly
 
 JOHNSON. 37 
 
 arrived at man's estate, with George Garrick, a younger 
 brother of David, were among the pupils, but the number 
 never, at most, exceeded eight. After about a year and 
 a half the school was given up, and Johnson determined 
 to seek his fortunes in London.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WHILE Johnson was at Edial Hall he had com- 
 menced his tragedy of " Irene," founded on an 
 incident in Knolles's " History of the Turks." He had 
 shown this production to his friend Gilbert Walmsley, 
 Registrar of the Ecclesiastical Court, who pointed out 
 that the misfortunes of the heroine had begun too early 
 in the play. " How can you possibly contrive," he said, 
 "to plunge her into deeper calamity?" "Sir," said 
 Dr. Johnson, " I can put her into the Spiritual Court." 
 Mr. Walmsley, however, notwithstanding the prema- 
 ture sorrows of Irene, thought well of the piece, and 
 advised its author to finish it. With this tragedy, of 
 which only the first three acts were then written, Johnson 
 started for London, without any fixed plan, except to 
 finish " Irene," and to get it produced on the stage. 
 
 He had probably selected the branch of literature in 
 which he was least qualified to succeed, but the theatre 
 in those days offered great attractions to literary men. 
 It undoubtedly appeared the easiest road to fame and 
 fortune, and the works of writers, little conversant with 
 the drama, had achieved brilliant success on the stage. 
 Addison's "Cato" had been received with unbounded
 
 LIFE OF JOHNSON. 39 
 
 applause by the public, and the play, when published, 
 had gone through eight editions in less than six months. 
 For the "Conscious Lovers," Steele, besides the cus- 
 tomary profits, which must have been considerable, 
 received a present of five hundred guineas from the 
 king. The " Beggar's Opera " had won a popularity 
 such as no play by Congreve or Farquhar had ever 
 obtained, and Gay received for his share of the "author's 
 nights " about seven hundred pounds. It can scarcely 
 be thought surprising that a novice, about to plunge into 
 the struggles of literary life, should turn his eyes to the 
 theatre, where it was possible to obtain such profitable 
 results. 
 
 Johnson was accompanied to London by his old pupil, 
 David Garrick, who was intended to read for the Bar, 
 but of this interesting journey we have no satisfactory 
 account, though there is one humorous story on the 
 subject. "That was the year," said Johnson, at a large 
 dinner party, by way of fixing the date of some event, 
 " when I came to London with twopence-halfpenny in my 
 pocket." Garrick, who was present, overhearing him, 
 exclaimed : " Eh ! what do you say ? with twopence- 
 halfpenny in your pocket ? " " Why, yes," replied 
 Johnson, "when I came with twopence-halfpenny in my 
 pocket, and thou, Davy, with three-halfpence in thine." 
 Garrick, who could have supplied Boswell with valuable 
 information on this and other subjects, connected with 
 Johnson's early career, was dead many years before the 
 " Life " was commenced. 
 
 When the time comes for a biography to be written, it 
 is often difficult to obtain details of the hero. Many of
 
 40 LIFE OF 
 
 his youthful contemporaries are dead, and he himself, 
 having attained distinction and competence, is not always 
 willing to look back on the difficulties of his early days. 
 Mrs. Piozzi relates a story of Johnson bursting into a 
 passion of tears, as he read the lines from his own satire 
 which tell of the " ills which assail the scholar's life," and 
 which were probably founded on his own experience. 
 Boswell, the most diligent of biographers, is obliged to 
 confess that not much could be ascertained about this 
 period of Johnson's life. 
 
 On his first arrival in London, he hired a room in 
 Exeter Street, Strand, at the house of Mr. Norris, a stay- 
 maker, and we know something of his manner of living 
 from his own description. "I dined," said he, "very well 
 for eightpence, with very good company, at the 'Pine 
 Apple,' in New Street, just by. Several of them had 
 travelled. They expected to meet every day, but we did 
 <not know each other's names. It used to cost the rest a 
 shilling, for they drank wine ; but I had a cut of meat 
 for sixpence, and bread for a penny, and gave the waiter 
 a penny, so that I was quite as well served, nay, better, 
 than the rest, for they gave the waiter nothing." He had 
 previously learned, from an Irish painter, whom he had 
 known at Birmingham, the art of " living in a garret on 
 eighteen pence a week," and it was now necessary to turn 
 this knowledge to a practical use. But, notwithstanding 
 economy and self-denial, his finances began to run short, 
 and he was obliged to apply for assistance to Mr. Wilcox, 
 a bookseller in the Strand, who, seeing his burly form, 
 told him he had better buy a porter's knot. The advice 
 was not encouraging, but Wilcox proved to be one of
 
 JOHNSON. 41 
 
 Johnson's best friends, and not only advanced him money, 
 but also, it appears, found him literary work. After a few 
 months in London, he moved to Greenwich, where he had 
 rooms in Church Street, next door to the Golden Hart, 
 an old tavern that has long since disappeared. From 
 there he wrote to Edward Cave, the editor and proprietor 
 of The Gentleman's Magazine, and proposed to trans- 
 late a French version, which had lately appeared, of Paul 
 Sarpi's " History of the Council of Trent." His offer 
 was accepted, and though nothing appears to have been 
 done in the matter at that time, it brought him into con- 
 nection with a periodical which for some years afforded 
 his principal means of support. 
 
 Edward Cave had been educated at Rugby. He was 
 afterwards employed in the printing office of Alderman 
 John Barber, the friend and correspondent of Swift, and 
 had perhaps helped in printing that writer's celebrated 
 pamphlet, "The Public Spirit of the Whigs," for 
 which Barber and the publisher, Morphew, were sum- 
 moned to the bar of the House of Lords. When, 
 by diligence and economy, Cave had saved sufficient 
 money, he set up business for himself; and in 
 1732 commenced The Gentleman's Magazine, one of 
 the most useful books of reference in our language, 
 which is still continued, with the old engraving, on the 
 covers, of St. John's Gate, where he resided for many 
 years, and carried on the business of the miscellany. 
 So great was his interest in the enterprise that it was said 
 he " never looked out of the window, but with a view 
 to The Gentleman's Magazine" and when he was able to 
 afford a carriage of his own, he had painted on the door
 
 42 LIFE OF 
 
 panels a view of the ancient building. Here, through 
 his new contributor, Cave made the acquaintance of 
 Garrick, who, long before he appeared on the public 
 stage, got up a representation of Fielding's "Mock 
 Doctor," which was acted in the room over the great 
 arch. The principal character was taken by Garrick, and 
 the other parts read by the journeymen printers. 
 
 Hawkins gives an interesting account of the early 
 writers in the magazine. The best known of these was 
 Nicholas Amhurst, who had been expelled from Oxford 
 for some offence, of which his own account differed 
 considerably from that of the college authorities who 
 pronounced the sentence. He had some share in con- 
 ducting The Craftsman^ but he was eventually deserted 
 by his patrons, and died of a broken heart in 1742. His 
 funeral expenses were paid by Benjamin Franklin, the 
 printer. Another of the contributors was Samuel Boyse, 
 the poet, who was constantly in distress from his extrava- 
 gant habits. This strange character could not eat his 
 beef without ketchup sauce, and Johnson said that he 
 would lay out his last half-guinea on truffles and mush- 
 rooms, when he was confined to his bed for want of a 
 shirt He died, in 1749, at an obscure lodging in Shoe 
 Lane. But the chief glory of the magazine was Moses 
 Browne, and Johnson, as a great favour, was taken by 
 Cave to an alehouse at Clerkenwell that he might have 
 the honour of seeing in the flesh this great dignitary of 
 letters, who was found "sitting at the head of a long 
 table in a cloud of tobacco smoke." 
 
 At the end of the summer, Johnson made a short trip 
 to Lichfield, but soon returned to London accompanied
 
 JOHNSON, 43 
 
 by his wife, and took rooms first in Woodstock Street, 
 Hanover Square, and afterwards at Castle Street, in the 
 same neighbourhood. Both of these places still exist. 
 He had finished "Irene," but soon found that it is easier 
 to write a tragedy than to get it acted, and he must have 
 been much mortified when the piece was refused. It 
 required indeed little judgment to discover that it was 
 a play which could never be a favourite with the public. 
 It doubtless shows signs of a vigorous mind, not wanting 
 in imagination, and it would be possible to point out 
 passages of power and dignity which would be admired 
 in the days when Addison's " Cato " was still often given 
 at the theatre, and Blackmore's " Creation " and Glover's 
 " Leonidas " were thought to be noble poems. But, 
 whatever might be the intrinsic merits of the piece, it 
 contained none of those touches of nature which appeal 
 to the sympathy of an audience. The story may be told 
 in a few words. Mahomet the Great, Emperor of the 
 Turks, is fascinated by the charms of Irene, a Greek 
 captive, and asks her to share his throne, but the lady 
 for a time is obdurate, and turns a deaf ear to the prayers 
 of her royal lover. The closing lines of Mahomet's final 
 appeal to Irene are written in direct imitation of Pope, 
 and are not unworthy of their model. 
 
 "If greatness please thee, mount th' imperial seat, 
 If pleasure charm thee, view this soft retreat ; 
 Here ev'ry warbler of the sky shall sing ; 
 Here ev'ry fragrance breathe of ev'ry spring: 
 To deck these bow'rs each region shall combine, 
 And e'en our prophet's gardens envy thine : 
 Umpire and Love shall share the blissful day, 
 And varied life steal unperceiv'd away."
 
 44 LIFE OF 
 
 In the meanwhile a conspiracy, of which Cali, the Grand 
 Vizier, is the chief, is formed against the sovereign, but is 
 detected by the fidelity of two Turkish officers, Hasan 
 and Caraza. Cali is seized and perishes on the rack, but 
 in his dying moments he falsely denounces Irene as one 
 of the conspirators. The Greek beauty, who has just 
 consented to become Mahomet's wife, is led away to be 
 strangled, and the Sultan discovers too late he has been 
 deceived. This story, which can hardly be called a plot, 
 is worked out with little dramatic skill in five long acts, 
 and Mr. Fleetwood, the patentee of Drury Lane, was 
 certainly wise in declining to accept it. 
 
 In 1738 Johnson had become one of the regular con- 
 tributors to The Gentleman's Magazine, but his most 
 important work during that year was his " London," 
 written in imitation of the third " Satire of Juvenal," 
 and intended partly as an attack on the Ministry of 
 Walpole. The poem, as might be expected, shows 
 a want of experience of the world, and many of its 
 sentiments are opposed to those held by Johnson in 
 later days. The ruin of the nation is attributed to the 
 venality of the Government and the luxury of the great ; 
 the profligate life of the capital is contrasted with the 
 innocent pleasures of the country, and the only hope for 
 England, according to the poet, is to recover her lost 
 liberties, and return to the simple manners of the past. 
 One of the couplets must sometimes have occurred to his 
 hearers, when Johnson was indulging in his sallies against 
 the Scotch, though no one ever probably ventured to 
 quote it, at least in the author's hearing. 
 
 " For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land, 
 Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand."
 
 JOHNSON. 45 
 
 Although much inferior to his later poem, " The Vanity 
 of Human Wishes," it is a fine performance, and imme- 
 diately attracted attention. Lyttelton took it to Pope, 
 who wished to know the author's name, and declared 
 that he would soon be d'eterre. Johnson received ten 
 guineas for the copyright, and said that he might have 
 accepted less, but that "Paul Whitehead had just received 
 that sum for a poem, and he could not take less than Paul 
 Whitehead." 
 
 The poem alluded to was probably " Manners," which, 
 though published later, was written about this time, and 
 its author, a hanger-on of the notorious Bubb Doding- 
 ton, was chiefly employed in writing satires against the 
 Government, though his pen was pretty much at the 
 service of any one who would pay for his assistance. 
 Johnson had a prejudice against Whitehead, who certainly 
 bore no very favourable reputation, but it does not appear 
 that they were ever acquainted. 
 
 At the same time as the publication of Johnson's 
 "London," the first of Pope's two dialogues appeared, 
 under the title of " Seventeen Hundred and Thirty-eight." 
 It was one of his most brilliant and pointed satires, full 
 of personal allusions, introduced with extraordinary skill, 
 and showed the intimate knowledge of passing events 
 which he derived from Bolingbroke. Those who wish to 
 know something of the political history of the time, when 
 Johnson was beginning his literary career, should read 
 the admirable introduction to the dialogues, now known 
 as "The Epilogue to the Satires," in Mr. Courthope's 
 edition of Pope's Works. 
 
 From the success of his poem, Johnson derived little
 
 46 LIFE OF 
 
 advantage except fame, and he once more turned his 
 thoughts to his old occupation. The mastership of a 
 school, supposed to be that of Appleby, in Leicestershire, 
 was now vacant, but it was necessary that the office 
 should be held by a Master of Arts, and Johnson had 
 not remained long enough at Oxford to obtain a degree. 
 A letter was written by Lord Gower to some friend of 
 Swift, requesting that the Dean's influence might be used 
 with the University of Dublin to procure the necessary 
 diploma. It is not known to whom the letter was written, 
 but in any case the application was unsuccessful, and to 
 this failure has been foolishly attributed Johnson's strong 
 dislike both to Swift and Lord Gower. The latter, 
 indeed, was afterwards for other reasons mentioned, in 
 the dictionary, as an illustration of the word remgado, 
 but the printer was wise enough to strike out the name. 
 The following curious note, in Pope's writing, now in the 
 possession of Mr. S. Timmins, F.S.A., of Birmingham, 
 which was sent by the poet to Richardson, with a copy 
 of " London," refers to this incident : 
 
 " This is imitated by one Johnson, who put in for a 
 Publick School in Shropshire, but was Disappointed. 
 He has an Infirmity, of the Convulsive kind, that attacks 
 Him sometimes, so as to make Him a sad spectacle. 
 Mr. P., from the Merits of This work, which was all the 
 knowledge He had of Him, endeavour'd to serve Him 
 without his own Application ; & wrote to my L d gore, 
 but He did not Succeed. Mr. Johnson publish'd 
 after\v d another Poem, in Latin, with notes the whole 
 very Humerous, call'd The ' Norfolk Prophecy.' 
 
 " P."
 
 JOHNSON. 47 
 
 Pope seems to have forgotten the Latin translation of 
 his " Messiah," and his description of " The Norfolk 
 Prophecy " shows that he knew little of that work, which 
 had recently been published under the title of " Marmor 
 Norfolciense ; or, an Essay on an Ancient Prophetical 
 Inscription in Monkish Rhyme, lately discovered near 
 Lynne in Norfolk, by Probus Britannicus." It is a 
 satire against the Hanoverian dynasty, and relates to 
 the pretended discovery of an ancient stone with en- 
 graved characters, near Lynn, which was, of course, 
 chosen as being the nearest town to Houghton Hall, the 
 seat of Sir Robert Walpole. It is not very amusing, and 
 attracted little observation at the time, though it was 
 afterwards reprinted by some political adversary to annoy 
 its author, when he had accepted a pension from the 
 king. 
 
 From 1740 to 1743, Johnson was actively employed in 
 preparing the reports of the parliamentary debates for 
 The Gentleman 's Magazine. At first he merely revised the 
 version prepared by Guthrie, a Scotchman of great learn- 
 ing, then in Cave's employ, but afterwards he had to 
 draw up the speeches from the notes of the reporters, 
 who, by Cave's interest with the doorkeepers, managed 
 to get access to the House ; and occasionally he was only 
 supplied with the names of those who had taken part in 
 the debate. These speeches, owing to the strict regula- 
 tions against publishing anything which took place in 
 Parliament, appeared as " Debates in Magna Lilliputia," 
 and fictitious names were assigned to the speakers. The 
 reports, which showed a thorough knowledge of the sub- 
 jects under discussion, and of the style and peculiarities
 
 48 LIFE OF 
 
 of the leading statesmen, were generally accepted as 
 genuine, and their real authorship was not discovered till 
 some years later. 
 
 Mr. Murphy relates that at a dinner party at Mr. 
 Foote's, an important debate, towards the end of Sir 
 Robert Walpole's Administration, being mentioned, Dr. 
 Francis observed "that Mr. Pitt's speech on that occasion 
 was the best he had ever read." He went on to say that 
 "he had employed eight years of his life in the study of 
 Demosthenes, and finished a translation of that celebrated 
 orator, with all the decorations of style and language 
 within the reach of his capacity ; but he had met with 
 nothing equal to the speech above mentioned." Many 
 of the company remembered the debate ; and some 
 passages were cited with the approbation and applause 
 of all present. During the ardour of conversation, John- 
 son remained silent. As soon as the warmth of praise 
 subsided, he opened with these words : " That speech 
 I wrote in a garret in Exeter Street." The guests then 
 began to praise the impartiality with which reason and 
 eloquence had been equally dealt out to both parties. 
 But Johnson would not agree to this. " I saved," he 
 said, "appearances tolerably well, but I took care that 
 the Whig dogs should not have the best of it." 
 
 Besides the parliamentary reports, he wrote at this time 
 several short biographies and other contributions to the 
 magazine, and he had also a large share in preparing 
 the catalogue of Lord Oxford's library, recently pur- 
 chased by Osborne, a well-known bookseller, who had 
 the misfortune to occupy, in the later editions of "The 
 Dunciad," the place originally given to Chapman in
 
 JOHNSON. 49 
 
 the ignoble contest with Curll. While engaged in this 
 work, Johnson had an unfortunate controversy with 
 his employer, which ended in his knocking down the 
 bookseller with one of the folio volumes of the collection. 
 The* details of the quarrel are not accurately known, 
 and when questioned by Mrs. Thrale on the subject, he 
 said : " There is nothing to tell, dearest lady, but that he 
 was insolent, and I beat him ; and that he was a block- 
 head, and told of it. I have beat many a fellow, but 
 the rest had the wit to hold their tongues." 
 
 In addition to his literary work, Johnson was now a 
 good deal engaged with the business affairs of his old 
 friend, Thomas Warren, the bookseller, who had entered 
 into partnership with John Wyatt and Lewis Paul. These 
 gentlemen had established a cotton mill at Birmingham, 
 where the first essay was made at spinning by rollers. 
 Some of the letters, referring to this transaction, are given 
 in Croker's edition of the " Life," but the interesting 
 correspondence, relating to this subject, was destroyed, 
 when the Free Library at Birmingham was burnt down 
 in 1879. 
 
 The Gentleman's Magazine had now established a 
 high position, and numbered among its contributors 
 Savage, Birch, Hawkesworth, and Miss Elizabeth Carter, 
 who were all afterwards well known in the literary world. 
 With these colleagues Johnson was more or less intimate, 
 and his old Lichfield acquaintance, Henry Hervey, 
 who had married Molly Aston's sister, had now a house 
 in London, where Johnson was often a visitor. To 
 the last day of his life he was never tired of alluding to 
 the kindness received from this friend of his early days, 
 4
 
 50 LIFE OF 
 
 and only a short time before his death he said : " If you 
 call a dog Hervey, I shall love him." 
 
 In the summer of 1 743 Richard Savage, a friend of a 
 very different stamp from the polished Hervey, died in 
 Bristol, where he had been for some time detained in 
 prison for debt. Johnson undertook to write his life, and 
 announced his intention in a letter to The Gentleman's 
 Magazine. Savage had left London in July, 1739, 
 and had promised to settle quietly in Wales, on 
 the understanding that he should receive a yearly 
 allowance of $o, of which nearly half was con- 
 tributed by Pope, to whom Savage had been useful 
 in supplying information for " The Dunciad," about the 
 private lives of the Grub Street authors. It would be 
 difficult to find, even in fiction, any career more strange 
 than that of this extraordinary character. He asserted 
 that he was the son of Lord Rivers, and that his mother 
 was the Countess of Macclesfield, who, from the time of 
 his birth, had never lost an opportunity of doing him 
 every injury in her power. She had, he alleged, prevented 
 his father, on his death-bed, from making any provision 
 for his son, by falsely stating that he was no longer living ; 
 she had constantly refused either to see him or to help 
 him; and she had even endeavoured to defeat the attempts 
 of his friends to procure the royal clemency, when he lay 
 under sentence of death for killing a man in a pothouse 
 brawl. Judge Page, of whom Pope, in allusion to this 
 event, wrote, 
 
 " Hard words or hanging if your judge be Page," 
 1 " Satire," 5. 82.
 
 JOHNSON. 51 
 
 presided at the trial, and he afterwards confessed that he 
 had treated the prisoner with great harshness. A brief 
 " Life of Savage," sometimes attributed to Defoe, with all 
 the particulars of the unfortunate man's history, appeared 
 shortly after the trial, and no doubt helped to influence 
 public opinion in his favour. A pardon was at length 
 granted, and after his release he gratified his feelings of 
 revenge towards his unnatural mother by publishing " The 
 Bastard ; a Poem, incribed with all due reverence to Mrs. 
 Bret, once Countess of Macclesfield. By Richard Savage, 
 son of the late Earl Rivers." 
 
 It will probably never be known what foundation Savage 
 had for his strange story. It was, at all events, believed 
 by men like Steele and Johnson ; and Lord Tyrconnel, 
 himself a nephew of Lady Macclesfield, was one of Savage's 
 kindest patrons, till he was disgusted with his protege's 
 brutality. This profligate woman, who survived till 1753, 
 is stated by Boswell to have been of some assistance to 
 Colley Gibber in his play of " The Careless Husband,'' 
 and to have suggested to him the idea of one of its best 
 scenes from an incident in her own life. Her eldest 
 daughter by her second husband, Colonel Brett, was for a 
 short time the mistress of George I., and, after the death 
 of that sovereign, became the wife of Sir William Leman. 
 In the announcement of the marriage which appeared in 
 The Gentleman's Magazine, she is described as " Miss 
 Bret, half-sister to Mr. Savage, son to the late Earl 
 Rivers." 
 
 When Johnson first made acquaintance with Savage it 
 is, as stated in the previous chapter, impossible to ascer- 
 tain. Boswell declares it was not till after May, 1738,
 
 52 LIFE OF 
 
 but in that case, as Savage was never in London after 
 July, 1739, their personal intercourse would have lasted 
 little more than a year, which is scarcely consistent with 
 the intimacy known to have existed between them. 
 
 Johnson's " Life of Savage" appeared in 1744. Boswell 
 states that it was composed with great rapidity, and that 
 forty-eight printed octavo pages were written at one sitting; 
 but there could have been no valid reason for this haste, 
 as the work was not published for six months after it had 
 been announced. Though occasionally rather overlarded 
 with moral sentiments, and not sufficiently precise in 
 details, it is a delightful piece of biography, full of graphic 
 descriptions and curious facts, many of which the writer 
 must have related from personal knowledge. Reynolds 
 was told by Johnson that one night, "when Savage 
 and he walked round St. James's Square, for want of a 
 lodging, they were not at all depressed by their situation ; 
 but, in high spirits and brimful of patriotism, traversed 
 the square for several hours, inveighed against the 
 Ministry, and resolved they would stand by their country" 
 Johnson had a strange partiality for Savage, whose claims 
 to literary distinction were slight, and whose private life 
 was disgraced by falsehood, rapacity, and ingratitude. 
 
 "The Life of Savage" was much admired, but its 
 author was still miserably poor ; and his appearance was 
 so shabby that he was ashamed to be seen in public. A 
 story is told of his dinner being sent to him behind a 
 screen on an occasion when some friend was dining with 
 Cave ; but the conversation happened to turn on the new 
 book, and Johnson had the pleasure of hearing his work 
 highly commended.
 
 JOHNSON. 53 
 
 For the next two years he appears to have assisted in 
 editing The Gentleman's Magazine, and little is known 
 to have been written by him, except the " Miscellaneous 
 Observations on Macbeth," which were praised by 
 Warburton, " at a time," as he said, " when praise was of 
 value." 
 
 About this time he entered into an agreement with a 
 syndicate of booksellers to compile an English Dictionary 
 for the sum of fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds, 
 and the undertaking was announced to the public, in 
 1747, by his "Plan of a Dictionary of the English 
 Language," addressed to the Earl of Chesterfield. Nothing 
 could be more clear or scholarlike than the principles 
 which he had laid down for carrying out his scheme, and 
 he frequently illustrated his meaning, and showed the 
 necessity of such a work, by passages from the best-known 
 authors. But some years elapsed before the Dictionary 
 appeared, of which there will be more to say hereafter. 
 
 In 1748 a visit was paid to Tunbridge Wells, and in a 
 contemporary drawing, afterwards engraved for Mrs. 
 Barbauld's " Life of Richardson," there are portraits of 
 Johnson and his wife. She had been latterly in declining 
 health, and a part of the summer was passed by them at 
 Hampstead, where he wrote " The Vanity of Human 
 Wishes," an imitation of the third " Satire of Juvenal," 
 and it appeared early in the ensuing year. This 
 poem has never been sufficiently known or appreciated. 
 When first published, it was thought inferior to his 
 "London," and Garrick pronounced it to be hard as 
 Greek. It certainly lacks the sweetness of Goldsmith, 
 and it never attains the polished versification of Pope,
 
 54 LIFE OF JOHNSON. 
 
 but in its own manner it is unsurpassed. The tendency 
 of the satire is perhaps mournful, but scarcely more so 
 than the treatment which the subject requires. Every 
 phase of "motley life" is passed in review, and the 
 different careers of the churchman, the politician, the 
 soldier, and the statesman are touched upon with great 
 beauty and force. In each case the moral is the same, 
 " The Vanity of Human Wishes." The description of 
 the placid old age which rewards an innocent and a 
 temperate life has an especial interest. 
 
 " An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay, 
 And glides in modest innocence away ; 
 Whose peaceful day Benevolence endears, 
 Whose night congratulating Conscience cheers ; 
 The gen'ral fav'rite as the gen'ral friend : 
 Such age there is, and who shall wish its end ? " 
 
 These touching lines refer to the poet's mother, who 
 was then in her eightieth year. Those who are familiar 
 with the literature of that period will easily recognize 
 how much this poem must have influenced Goldsmith in 
 his "Traveller" and "Deserted Village," though in 
 tenderness and simplicity he undoubtedly far surpassed 
 his model.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AN important event was now to occur in Johnson's 
 life. His tragedy of " Irene " was at length to be 
 produced on the stage by Garrick, who was then manager 
 of Drury Lane Theatre. Some alterations were however 
 necessary to render the play more suited for the stage, and 
 these the author was very unwilling to allow, but Garrick 
 insisted on their being carried out. " Sir," said Johnson, 
 "the fellow wants me to make Mahomet run mad, that 
 he may have an opportunity of tossing his hands and 
 kicking his heels." But the difficulty was at length 
 overcome through the intervention of their common 
 friend, Dr. Taylor, and the piece was acted on Monday, 
 February 6, 1749, under the title of "Mahomet and 
 Irene." Everything had been done by the manager to 
 obtain success; new decorations and costumes were 
 supplied; Garrick played Demetrius and gave up the 
 part of Mahomet to Mr. Barry, to ensure the more hearty 
 co-operation of that celebrated actor; Mrs. Pritchard 
 took the part of the heroine, and Aspasia was played by 
 Mrs. Gibber, whose musical voice and classic beauty 
 gave her great advantages in tragedy. The epilogue, 
 which is bright and humorous, was said to be from the
 
 5G LIFE OF 
 
 pen of Sir William Yonge, the " Sir Billy," of Pope's 
 Satires, and was well adapted to send away the audience 
 in good humour. Johnson was present at every 
 performance in a scarlet waistcoat, trimmed with gold 
 lace, and a laced hat, which he soon afterwards discarded, 
 as he pretended " that, when in that dress, he could not 
 treat people with the same ease as when in his usual 
 plain clothes." 
 
 There are several accounts extant by those who were 
 present on the first night, but that which Dr. Adarns 
 gave Boswell is perhaps the most trustworthy. " Before 
 the curtain drew up there were catcalls whistling which 
 alarmed Johnson's friends. The prologue, which was 
 written by himself in a manly strain, soothed the audience, 
 and the play went off tolerably till it came to the conclu- 
 sion, when Mrs. Pritchard, the heroine of the piece, was 
 to be strangled on the stage, and was to speak two lines 
 with the bow-string round her neck. The audience 
 cried out "Murder! Murder!" She several times 
 attempted to speak, but in vain. At last she was obliged 
 to go off the stage alive." The author's annoyance at 
 this interruption must have been a good deal alleviated 
 by the triumph it gave him over Garrick, at whose 
 suggestion the strangling scene had been arranged. 
 
 Dr. Burney's version is more favourable, but he speaks 
 of a curious story circulated at the time of the author's 
 being " observed at the representation to be dissatisfied 
 with some of the speeches and conduct of the play 
 himself, and, like La Fontaine, expressing his disappro- 
 bation aloud." 
 
 Old Aaron Hill, one of the heroes of " The Dunciad,"
 
 JOHNSON. 57 
 
 who had composed much bad poetry and worse prose, 
 and whose critical judgment may be estimated by his 
 prediction of his own posthumous fame and of Pope's 
 speedy oblivion, wrote to Mallet : "I was at the 
 anomalous Mr. Johnson's benefit, and found the play his 
 proper representative ; strong sense, ungraced by sweet- 
 ness or decorum." Though Irene was not a great 
 success, it escaped positive failure, and Johnson received 
 from copyright and "author's nights," very nearly three 
 hundred pounds. 
 
 The year after the performance of " Irene," the first 
 number of The Rambler was published, on the 2oth March, 
 1750, and the periodical, which appeared every Tuesday 
 and Saturday, was continued without interruption for 
 two years. With the exception of four or five numbers, 
 it was entirely written by Johnson, and shows remarkable 
 fertility of mind when it is remembered that during that 
 time he was also occupied with his Dictionary besides 
 other literary work. The Rambler must be confessed 
 to come under Charles Lamb's unflattering definition, as 
 one of those books which no gentleman's library should 
 be without, and, we fear, it might be added, that its 
 volumes are seldom taken down from the shelves. The 
 wits of the day pretended that the author had used hard 
 words to make his forthcoming dictionary indispensable, 
 and Burke said that the ladies in The Rambler were 
 all " Johnsons in petticoats." This is, of course, exagge- 
 ration. The work has, perhaps, too many abstract 
 discussions on moral and religious subjects to please the 
 general reader, and there are no traces of the refined 
 humour of Addison, or of the strange pathos of Steele,
 
 58 LIFE OF 
 
 but a pleasant hour may often be passed in looking 
 through its numbers, and some are not without in- 
 terest. The papers, which contain letters from fictitious 
 correspondents, are clearly imitated from those in The 
 Tatter and Spectator; but the essayists of the time of Queen 
 Anne were chiefly men of the world and their writings 
 show an experience of life and society which a scholar of 
 limited means, with a sick wife, could scarcely be expected 
 to possess. One of the chief defects of The Rambler is 
 that little is to be learnt in it of the social life of the 
 epoch, though some of the characters show a considerable 
 knowledge of human nature, and from the sketch of 
 Suspirius in the 59th number, Goldsmith confessed that 
 he had borrowed his idea of Mr. Crook in " The Good- 
 natured Man." 
 
 Shortly after the appearance of the last number of The 
 Rambler, Mrs. Johnson died, on the 28th March, 1752, 
 and, though at last her life was said to be nothing but "per- 
 petual illness and perpetual opium," her loss was deeply felt 
 by her husband. Many years after, when his old fellow 
 collegian, Edwards, asked him if he had ever known what it 
 was to have a wife, Johnson replied, with a faltering voice : 
 " Sir, I have known what it was to have a wife, and I 
 have known what it was to lose a wife. It had almost 
 broke my heart." He had many kind friends to console 
 him in his bereavement, and soon after his wife's death, 
 Mrs. Williams became an inmate of his house ; but his 
 real solace was probably in the work of his dictionary, 
 which now seems to have engrossed the chief share of his 
 attention. 
 
 It is necessary to say a few words about Mrs. Williams,
 
 JOHNSON. 59 
 
 whose name is so familiar to all readers of Boswell's 
 " Life." This interesting person was the daughter of a 
 Welsh physician, who had some pretensions to be a man 
 of science, and laboured under a delusion that he had 
 discovered the means of ascertaining the longitude. She 
 herself had dabbled in poetry, but was blind before she 
 knew Johnson, and an operation for cataract, which she 
 underwent in his house, had been unsuccessful. Miss 
 Hawkins describes her as "a pale shrunken old lady, 
 dressed in scarlet, made in the handsome French fashion 
 of the time, with a lace cap, with two stiffened projecting 
 wings on the temples and a black lace hood over it." 
 Her temper was not always under control, but her 
 genuine worth, and excellent common sense, made her 
 a favourite with many of Johnson's friends, and Boswell 
 records with great pride the first occasion, when he was 
 taken home to drink tea with Mrs. Williams. There is 
 an engraved portrait of her from a miniature by Miss 
 Reynolds. 
 
 We have a glimpse of Johnson in a letter, written in 
 July of this year, by Mrs. Chapone to Miss Elizabeth 
 Carter, then one of the regular contributors to The 
 Gentlemaris Magazine : " We had a visit, whilst at 
 Northend, from your friend, Mr. Johnson, and poor 
 Mrs. Williams. I was charmed with his behaviour to 
 her, which was like that of a fond father to his daughter. 
 She seemed much pleased with her visit ; showed very 
 good sense, with a great deal of modesty and humility, 
 and so much patience and cheerfulness under her mis- 
 fortune, that it doubled my concern for her. Mr. 
 Johhson was very communicative and entertaining, and
 
 CO LIFE OF 
 
 did me the honour to address most of his discourse 
 to me." 
 
 The Grange, North End, Fulham, where Richardson 
 lived, is still (1887) in existence, though the part of the 
 house, which he occupied, has since been covered with 
 white stucco, but, in the other half, the red brick walls are 
 unchanged. There is an engraving of the picturesque 
 old building in vol. iv. of " Richardson's Correspon- 
 dence," 1804. 
 
 The Dictionary was still progressing. In 1753 the second 
 volume was begun, and in the following year the laborious 
 task was at length finished to the great joy, no less of 
 the compiler than of the publishers, whose patience 
 was nearly worn out by constant delays in the work. 
 " Thank God I have done with him ! " exclaimed Mr. 
 Millar, who had charge of the publication, when he 
 received the last sheets. "I am glad," said Johnson, 
 when he heard of the bookseller's expression, "that he 
 thanks God for anything." He always, however, spoke 
 kindly of Millar, who, he said, " had raised the price of 
 literature." 
 
 In the summer of 1754, Johnson paid a visit to Oxford, 
 which he had not seen since he left it as an undergraduate. 
 His old tutor, Mr. Jorden, was dead, and Dr. Adams 
 does not seem to have been in residence ; but he had a 
 cordial meeting with his former rival, Meeke, who had 
 now become a Fellow, and he was delighted to find him- 
 self remembered by the college servants. 
 
 Early in 1755 the degree of M.A. was conferred upon 
 him by the University, and he was no doubt especially 
 pleased that the diploma was placed in his hands by Dr.
 
 JOHNSON. Gl 
 
 William King, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, a wit and a 
 scholar, and a strong adherent of the old dynasty. Some 
 years later, when this " idol of the Jacobites " had to take 
 part at the installation of the Earl of Westmoreland as 
 Chancellor of the University, Johnson, who had been 
 present at the ceremony, wrote " I have clapped my 
 hands, till they are sore, at Dr. King's speech." 
 
 On April i5th, the Dictionary was issued to the public 
 in two folio volumes, price, bound 4 43. It had a great 
 success, went rapidly through several editions, and in 
 some form or another is to this day constantly being re- 
 printed. Its weak point is said to be in the derivations, 
 but the study of philology had in those days received 
 little attention, and to judge from the disputes among 
 its modern professors it is still anything but an exact 
 science. Some of the definitions caused much amuse- 
 ment, and certainly that, so often quoted, of Network 
 " anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances 
 with interstices between the intersections," throws little 
 light on the subject. In some cases the lexicographer 
 took the opportunity of displaying his personal feelings. 
 Oats is defined as " a grain which in England is given to 
 horses, but in Scotland supports the people." Sir Walter 
 Scott tells of the happy retort by Lord Elibank, who, 
 when he heard of Johnson's definition of " Oats," said : 
 " Yes ; and where else will you see such horses and such 
 men ? " 
 
 The illustrations of the various meanings and uses of 
 words is the most valuable part of the work, and shows 
 an extraordinary knowledge of literature. Johnson's 
 method of compilation was very simple. He began by
 
 62 LIFE OF 
 
 reading the works of those authors whom he thought to 
 be trustworthy authorities, and underlined with a pencil, 
 not the sentence, as both Dr. Percy and Boswell assert, 
 but the word 1 which he intended to use, and wrote the 
 initial letters on the margin, with vertical lines before and 
 after the passage. The sentences, where these pencil 
 marks occurred, were copied by his clerks on separate 
 slips, and pasted into an interleaved copy of some 
 old dictionary, opposite the words they were to illus- 
 trate. 
 
 The " Plan for a Dictionary," published in 1747, had 
 been, as before mentioned, dedicated to Lord Chester- 
 field, who was now anxious that his name should appear 
 as the patron of the Dictionary itself. But Johnson was 
 very indignant at the neglect with which he had been 
 treated, and was not at all conciliated by two very 
 flattering papers, written by Lord Chesterfield in The 
 World. " He had," said Johnson, " for many years 
 taken no notice of me, but when my Dictionary was 
 coming out, he fell a-scribbling in The World about 
 it. Upon which I wrote him a letter, expressed 
 in civil terms, but such as might show him that I 
 did not mind what he said and wrote, and that I had 
 done with him." The letter which he sent on that 
 occasion is, though short, one of the finest productions 
 of his pen. Its manly tone, its rugged pathos, the 
 dignity of its style, and the cold severity of the invective, 
 can never be surpassed. 
 
 1 So it appears at least to have been done in Johnson's copy 
 ofUrayton's " Polyolbion," now in the possession- of Mr. Samuel 
 Timmins, F.S.A., of Birmingham.
 
 JOHNSON. 63 
 
 " To THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. 
 
 "February 7, 1755. 
 
 "Mv LORD, I have been lately informed by the 
 proprietor of The World, that two papers, in which my 
 Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by 
 your lordship. To be so distinguished is an honour, 
 which, being very little accustomed to favours from the 
 great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms 
 to acknowledge. 
 
 "When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited 
 your lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of man- 
 kind, by the enchantment of your address, and could not 
 forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du 
 vainqueur de la terre; that I might obtain that regard 
 for which I saw the world contending ; but I found my 
 attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor 
 modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had 
 once addressed your lordship in public, I had exhausted 
 all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly 
 scholar can possess. I had done all that I could ; and 
 no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it 
 ever so little. 
 
 " Seven years, my lord, have now passed, since I 
 waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your 
 door ; during which time I have been pushing on my 
 work through difficulties, of which it is useless to com- 
 plain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of 
 publication, without one act of assistance, one word of 
 encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment 
 I did not expect, for I never had a patron before.
 
 64 LIFE OF 
 
 "The shepherd in Viigfl grew at last acquainted with 
 Love, and found him a native of the rocks. 
 
 " Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with uncon- 
 cern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when 
 he has reached ground, encumbers him with help ? The 
 notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, 
 had it been early, had been kind ; but it has been de- 
 layed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it ; till I am 
 solitary, and cannot impart it ; till I am known, and do 
 not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to 
 confess obligations where no benefit has been received, 
 or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as 
 owing that to a patron, which Providence has enabled me 
 to do for myself. 
 
 "Having carried on my work thus far with so little 
 obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be dis- 
 appointed though I should conclude, if less be possible, 
 with less ; for I have been long wakened from that dream 
 of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much 
 exultation. My Lord, your lordship's most humble, most 
 obedient servant, 
 
 "SAM. JOHNSON." 
 
 Lord Chesterfield showed uncommon wisdom in not 
 attempting a reply, but he made some efforts to appease 
 Johnson through the mediation of Sir Thomas Robinson, 
 who had been one of the puppets in the Duke of New- 
 castle's Ministry. It was an unlucky choice. Sir Thomas, 
 one of the most notorious bores in London, used to 
 pester his chief with visits, and when told his grace was 
 engaged, he would ask permission to look at the clock,
 
 JOHNSON. 65 
 
 or play with the monkey in the hall. At last even the 
 lacqueys lost patience, and one day, when Sir Thomas 
 called, the porter, without giving him time to speak, said, 
 " Sir, his grace is out, the clock has stopped, and the 
 monkey is dead." His interview with Johnson was short 
 and unsuccessful, and the Yorkshire baronet seems to 
 have narrowly escaped being shown out of the room. 
 
 In this year he renewed his correspondence with his 
 schoolfellow, Hector, to whom he wrote : " I was extremely 
 pleased to find you have not forgotten your old friend, 
 who yet recollects the evenings which we have passed 
 together at Warren's. . . . Since we have again renewed 
 our acquaintance, do not let us intermit it so long again. 
 . . . What news of poor Warren ? I have not lost all my 
 kindness for him, for when I remember you, I naturally 
 remember all our connexions, which are more pleasing 
 to me for your sake." 
 
 Johnson's financial affairs had not been improved by 
 the success of his Dictionary ; twice in the year after its 
 publication, he had to appeal to Richardson for help, 
 and, on one of these occasions, the kindness of the novelist 
 was required to release him from arrest. He seems to 
 have written little for some time after the completion 
 of his great work. The death of his friend, Cave, in 
 1754, had probably severed his close connection with The 
 Gentleman's Magazine, and he was a good deal occupied 
 with the affairs of Mr. Paul, one of the owners of the 
 cotton mill at Birmingham. 
 
 In 1758, he began a new series of essays, under the 
 name of" The Idler," the first of which appeared on April 
 1 5th, in the second number of The Universal Chronicle. 
 5
 
 66 LIFE OF 
 
 It is lighter reading, and more amusing than The 
 Rambler, though it never attained the same reputation as 
 its predecessor. One or two of the imaginary personages 
 are easily identified. Jack Whirler is taken from John 
 Newbery, the bookseller, and the writer himself is de- 
 picted under the name of Sober. The character of Dick 
 Minim, who acquired the reputation of a critic, by con- 
 stantly repeating the commonplace truisms of literature, 
 is drawn with great humour, and was probably taken 
 from life, but the original is not known. The descrip- 
 tions of social life are chiefly taken from the lower 
 classes, and are interesting from their circumstantial air 
 of truth. 
 
 The forty-first number has a very mournful reality. It 
 describes the death of the writer's mother, who had attained 
 her ninetieth year. Johnson was not able to leave London 
 at the time, but his letters show the intensity of his sorrow, 
 and it was no doubt an aggravation of his grief that he 
 could not be present at his mother's last moments, though 
 she was tenderly nursed by Lucy Porter and the faithful 
 old servant Catherine. The death of his mother severed a 
 great link in his life, and he felt acutely the loneliness of 
 his position. He writes to his step-daughter that she is 
 the only person left in the world with whom he thinks 
 himself connected, and again, " I have nobody but you.'' 
 
 Soon after this sad event, he composed "Rasselas," 
 to pay for his mother's funeral expenses. This little 
 Eastern story, the most pleasing and the best known of his 
 writings, was published on April 19, 1759, sixteen days 
 after the appearance of Goldsmith's " Enquiry into the 
 Present State of Polite Learning." It has been remarked
 
 JOHNSON. 67 
 
 as a curious coincidence that Voltaire's " Candide," and 
 " Rasselas," appeared about the same time, but far too 
 much importance has been given by critics to the fancied 
 resemblance between the two works. " Candide," which 
 is ostensibly written in ridicule of optimism, is a very 
 thinly disguised attack on religion, and holds up to bitter 
 scorn the best feelings of our nature. A husband's 
 regard for his wife's honour, the ties of family, the duties 
 of friendship, the tender feelings of love, are all treated 
 with contempt and irony. It is Voltaire's most powerful 
 satire, but the resemblance, which it bears to " Rasselas," 
 is very superficial. 
 
 Johnson's object was neither to ridicule nor to complain 
 of the decrees of fate, but to show that no condition of life 
 can be entirely free from misfortune ; and the endeavours 
 of the Eastern despot, in the story, to banish care and 
 sorrow from the happy valley are proved to be impos- 
 sible. It is difficult to refrain from quoting from this work 
 a passage of exceeding beauty, which contains one of the 
 most touching and poetic similes in the language. It 
 occurs in Imlac's conversation with the princess, when he 
 is endeavouring to console her for the loss of her beloved 
 friend, the Lady Pekuah : " The state of a mind, op- 
 pressed with a sudden calamity," said Imlac, " is like that 
 of the fabulous inhabitants of the new created earth, who, 
 when the first night came upon them, supposed that day 
 would never return. When the clouds of sorrow gather 
 over us, we see nothing beyond them, nor can imagine how 
 they will be dispelled ; yet a new day succeeded to the 
 night, and sorrow is never long without a dawn of ease." 
 
 A curious tribute of praise is given to "Rasselas" in
 
 68 LIFE OF 
 
 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes's recent novel, " A Mortal 
 Antipathy." In a lecture on Delusions, supposed to be 
 delivered by Dr. Butts, one of the characters of the story, 
 he says, " But if you ask me what reading I would recom- 
 mend to the medical student of a philosophical habit of 
 mind, you may be surprised to hear me say it would be 
 certain passages in ' Rasselas.' They are the ones 
 where the astronomer gives an account to Imlac of his 
 management of the elements, the control of which, as he 
 had persuaded himself, had been committed to him." 
 
 It may be interesting to the reader to know something 
 of the places, a few of which have been already alluded 
 to, where Johnson was living during the early part of his 
 London life. In 1748, he took a house in Gough Square, 
 where his wife died in 1752, and here he wrote The 
 Dictionary, The Rambler, the greater part of The 
 Idler, and " Rasselas." Soon after the completion of 
 this last work in 1759, he hired rooms in Staple Inn, and 
 on the 23rd of March he wrote to Lucy Porter that his 
 things were that day moved to his new abode. In 
 December, of the same year, we learn, from the heading 
 of a letter to Mrs. Montagu, that he was living in Gray's 
 Inn, which he left sometime, in 1761, for chambers on the 
 first floor of No. i, Inner Temple Lane, and he remained 
 there till 1766, when he took a house in Johnson's Court. 
 
 We learn something of Johnson's friends and manner 
 of life in 1761, and 1762, from two delightful letters 
 which he wrote to Baretti, who was then staying at 
 Milan. They are too long to quote in full, but a sum- 
 mary will give an idea of their contents. The first piece 
 of news is that Fitzherbert was elected a member of the
 
 JOHNSON. G9 
 
 new Parliament. This gentleman had married Miss 
 Meynell, one of Johnson's early friends, whom he had 
 met in former days when stopping at Ashbourne. He 
 had a great admiration for her beauty and virtues, and 
 declared she had the best understanding of any human 
 being he had ever met. A few lines further on we 
 read that the artists had just closed their second exhi- 
 bition of pictures and statues. This was held in an 
 auctioneer's room at Spring Gardens, and the catalogue 
 contained a frontispiece and tailpiece by Hogarth. There 
 was, however, a rival exhibition in the room of the Society 
 of Arts, and it may have been that to which the letter 
 alludes. He goes oftener, he writes, to the theatre, where 
 many new farces have been produced, and he has lately 
 seen Colman's last comedy of " The Jealous Wife." In 
 this piece one of the characters was taken by Mrs. Clive, 
 who, Johnson always said, was the best player he ever saw. 
 In the second letter of July 20, 1762, he tells 
 Baretti that he had sent him a copy of The Idler 
 and he was soon to send a copy of his edition of Shakes- 
 peare, whose works Baretti might explain to the Italian 
 ladies, and tell them "the story of the editor, among 
 other strange narratives with which your long residence 
 in this unknown region has supplied you." He and Mrs. 
 Williams were living " much as they did." Mrs. Porter, 
 the actress, was still with Miss Cotterel, and Charlotte was 
 now expecting her fourth child. 1 Reynolds was making 
 ^6,000 a year. Levett was lately married, not without 
 
 1 The two latter ladies were daughters of Admiral Cotterel, who 
 used to live opposite Johnson in Castle Street, Cavendish Square. 
 Charlotte was then the wife of the Rev. John Lewis.
 
 70 LIFE OF 
 
 much suspicion that he has been wretchedly cheated in 
 the match. 1 Richardson, the author, had died of an apop- 
 lexy, and his daughter was married to a merchant. The 
 next item of news is personal. The writer had been, the 
 previous winter, at Lichfield, and found that his play- 
 fellows had grown old, and he himself was no longer 
 young. Lucy Porter (whom, by a strange error, for the 
 author of a dictionary, he calls daughter-in-law) had lost 
 the beauty and gaiety of youth, but he had " met her 
 with sincere benevolence." It was probably a quarter of 
 a century since they had seen one another, and during 
 that time Lucy Porter, now forty-six years of age, had' no 
 doubt considerably changed. After five days at his 
 native town, he had seized the first opportunity of re- 
 turning to London, where he writes, " if there is not much 
 happiness, there is at least such a diversity of good and 
 evil, that slight vexations do not fix upon the heart." The 
 letter ends with a request that Baretti should show all the 
 civilities in his power to Topham Beauclerk, who had 
 always been very kind to the writer, and was then in 
 Italy. 
 
 But a great change was to take place in Johnson's life. 
 Since the completion of the Dictionary, his literary 
 labours seem to have consisted chiefly of prefaces and 
 dedications, for the works of friends, and unimportant 
 articles for the magazines. The time, however, was now 
 come when such work would no longer be necessary. He 
 was no more to be harassed by printers waiting for copy, 
 
 1 This suspicion soon became a certainty, and both parties seem 
 to have been disappointed. A separation was, however, arranged, 
 and Levett became an inmate of Johnson's house.
 
 JOHNSON. 71 
 
 or by hearing that publishers had thanked goodness that 
 they had done with him. He had long ago earned fame, 
 and its pleasant accompaniment of competence was now 
 to follow. At the time he was writing to Baretti, he had 
 already accepted a pension from the king, of ^300 a 
 year ; and, when calling on Lord Bute to thank him for 
 this mark of royal favour, the minister had expressly said 
 to him, " It is not given to you for what you are to do, 
 but for what you have done." 
 
 Such an income to a man of Johnson's temperate 
 habits not only enabled him to live in comfort, but it 
 gave him a feeling of independence, which, to a person 
 of his proud and indolent disposition, must have added a 
 new zest to life. He gained something, moreover, which 
 he would value still more ; he was now in a position to 
 relieve those cases of want and misery, which never failed 
 to excite his compassion, and how numerous those cases 
 were, not even his most intimate friends ever knew. But 
 his prosperity effected other changes in his life. He was 
 able to mix more freely in that social life, in which he 
 took such a keen delight. The poor author, whose 
 shabby dress obliged him to take his meals behind a 
 screen, when friends were dining with his employer, was 
 to be a guest at the tables of the most distinguished men 
 of the kingdom. The drudge who was " kept waiting in 
 the outer rooms," or " repulsed from the door " of his 
 patron, was, without solicitation, to be honoured by a 
 private interview with his sovereign. He was to become 
 the object of an enthusiastic hero-worship to many, and 
 especially to a young Scotchman, who was, one day, to 
 write a biography of his " illustrious friend," which was
 
 72 LIFE OF JOHNSON. 
 
 to be read wherever the English language is spoken. The 
 famous " Club," which numbered among its members 
 men like Fox and Burke, Goldsmith and Reynolds, was 
 afterwards to be inseparably associated with his name, 
 and he was soon to gather round him that brilliant circle 
 of friends, who are immortalized in the pages of Boswell.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE pension, which had been conferred upon Johnson, 
 added, without doubt, enormously to his happiness, 
 but he must occasionally have felt certain misgivings on 
 the subject. For the political opinions, which he might 
 formerly have expressed, there was no occasion to trouble 
 himself. The Minister, who advised the grant, had not 
 asked him to change his principles, or to give any 
 promises of future support. He would naturally be 
 more guarded in the expression of any partizan feelings, 
 'but to this he was quite reconciled. " It is true," he said, 
 " I cannot now curse the House of Hanover, nor would 
 it be decent for me to drink King James's health in the 
 wine, that King George gives me the money to pay for. 
 But, sir, I think that the pleasure of cursing the House 
 of Hanover, and drinking King James's health, are 
 amply compensated for by three hundred pounds a year." 
 The pension was not political ; it was especially stated 
 to have been conferred for services rendered to literature. 
 But Johnson had in his dictionary defined pension as "an 
 allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In 
 England it is generally understood to mean pay given 
 to a State hireling for treason to his country." No dis-
 
 74 LIFE OF 
 
 tinction is here drawn between political pensions and 
 those granted for more honourable services, and his 
 adversaries were not slow to take advantage of this 
 omission. 
 
 Johnson, moreover, could have had little sympathy with 
 Lord Bute, who was the ostensible mover in the affair. 
 This nobleman, with scant experience of public life, and 
 with no claims to office except his intimacy with the 
 king's mother, had obtained a seat in the Cabinet shortly 
 after the commencement of the new reign, and Pitt, who 
 found his advice no longer heeded, gave up his place 
 as Secretary of State. The Duke of Newcastle, the 
 nominal head of the Government, was delighted to get 
 rid of his brilliant colleague, but soon found that he 
 was not more powerful than before. He still, however, 
 clung to office, but the situation at length became in- 
 tolerable, and he was forced to resign. Bute immediately 
 became First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister. 
 
 Johnson was in principle a strong Tory, and his worst 
 term of abuse was to call his adversary a vile Whig, but 
 this seems to have been merely an abstract idea. Nearly 
 all his personal friends belonged to the party for which, 
 in theory, he professed such a strong aversion. He 
 appears, in fact, to have taken little interest in practical 
 politics. During the last years of the reign of George II., 
 the country had been passing through a period of glory 
 such as never was before known in our history. Our 
 armies and navies had been victorious both in the New 
 and Old World, but of these brilliant events, we find no 
 mention in Johnson's recorded conversation, or corre- 
 spondence ; and politics are never alluded to. In his
 
 JOHNSON. 75 
 
 two long letters to Baretti, referred to in the last chapter, 
 nothing is said of the struggles going on, first between 
 Bute and Pitt, and afterwards between Bute and the 
 Duke of Newcastle. Of mere party feelings, as they are 
 now understood, we could scarcely expect to hear much, 
 for the distinctive lines, which, before and since, have 
 separated the Whigs from the Tories, had then almost 
 entirely disappeared. " The great parties," writes Burke, 
 a few years afterwards, " which formerly divided and agi- 
 tated the kingdom, are known to be in a manner entirely 
 dissolved." Those, who were willing to comply with the 
 wishes of the sovereign, were called the ' king's friends' ; 
 all the rest were branded as factious. George III. hated 
 the elder Pitt as cordially as, in after days, he detested 
 Charles James Fox. "Here is a man," said Johnson, 
 the year before he died, speaking of the latter statesman, 
 "who has divided the kingdom with Caesar;" but he 
 afterwards declared, that though he was for the king 
 against Fox, he was for Fox against Pitt. Nonentities, 
 like Lord Bute, or the Duke of Newcastle, and men of 
 ability, like Lord North, were equally willing to carry on 
 the Government as mere private secretaries of the king, 
 and to issue orders and to sign decrees for measures, 
 which they knew to be fraught with evil to the country. 
 Johnson's political pamphlets will be alluded to in due 
 course, but they were only episodes in his literary career, 
 and afford little interest or information. It is time, how- 
 ever, to return to the ordinary events of his life. 
 
 In 1763, an incident occurred which gave him great 
 satisfaction. Lucy Porter, who, since the death of his 
 mother, was still living with the faithful servant, Kitty, at
 
 76 LIFE OF 
 
 Lichfield, and occupied a portion of the old house in the 
 market-place, inherited a fortune of ,10,000 from her 
 brother. It had been Johnson's intention that Lucy 
 Porter should live with him in London, as soon as he 
 was able to offer her a comfortable home ; but she was 
 now independent, and resolved to settle at Lichfield. 
 The first use that she made of her new wealth was, 
 much against Johnson's advice, to build a house, which 
 swallowed up nearly a third of her legacy. This spacious 
 and comfortable residence, on Green Hill, is still (1887) 
 almost unchanged, and here Johnson always found a 
 room during his subsequent visits to his native city. 
 
 It was in this year that Johnson was introduced to his 
 future biographer. A few years before, when travelling 
 in a post-chaise with Sir David Dalrymple, the object of 
 his first hero-worship, Bos\vell had heard some anecdotes 
 about Johnson which had inspired him with the ambition 
 of making his acquaintance. Derrick, who, in 1761, 
 had succeeded Beau Nash as "Xing of Bath" had 
 promised to introduce Boswell, during the latter's first 
 visit to London, in 1760, but no opportunity occurred. 
 Thomas Sheridan, the son of Swift's old friend, was 
 lecturing at Edinburgh in the summer of 1761, and had 
 still further excited Boswell's curiosity by many stories of 
 Johnson's eccentricities and wit; but Sheridan and 
 Johnson were now no longer on good terms. The 
 acquaintance was at length made through Mr. Thomas 
 Davies, the bookseller, formerly an actor, who afterwards 
 became an author, and wrote a "Life of Garrick." 
 Boswell's account of his first interview with Johnson is 
 one of the capital passages in his famous " Life." On
 
 JOHNSON. 77 
 
 Monday, the i6th of May, 1763, Boswell had just finished 
 drinking tea with Davies and his pretty wife, 1 when the 
 bookseller saw Johnson through the glass door of the 
 back parlour where they were sitting, and " announced 
 his awful approach somewhat in the manner of an actor 
 in the part of Horatio, when he addresses Hamlet on the 
 appearance of his father's ghost : ' Look, my Lord, he 
 comes.' . . . Mr. Davies mentioned my name, and 
 respectfully introduced me to him. I was much agitated, 
 and recollecting his prejudice against the Scotch, of 
 which I had heard much, I said to Davies, ' Don't tell 
 where I come from.' ' From Scotland,' cried Davies, 
 roguishly. 'Mr. Johnson,' said I, 'I do indeed come 
 from Scotland, but I cannot help it.' Johnson. That, 
 sir, I find is what a very great many of your countrymen 
 cannot help." This was not very encouraging, but the 
 future biographer soon laid himself open to a more angry 
 retort. " He (Johnson) then addressed himself to 
 Davies : ' What do you think of Garrick ? He has 
 refused me an order for the play for Miss Williams > 
 because he knows the house will be full, and that an 
 order would be worth three shillings ! ' Eager to take 
 any opening to get into conversation with him, I ventured 
 to say : ' O, sir, I cannot think Mr. Garrick would 
 grudge such a trifle to you.' ' Sir,' said he, with a stern 
 look, 'I have known David Garrick longer than you have 
 done, and I know no right you have to talk to me on 
 the subject.' " Boswell confessed that the check was 
 deserved, and thought he had lost all chance of obtain- 
 
 upon my life, 
 That Davies has a pretty wife." Churchill.
 
 78 LIFE OF 
 
 ing the intimacy so long the object of his ambition, but 
 he was wise enough to remain quiet, and take no further 
 part in the conversation beyond a few occasional remarks. 
 On his leaving the house, Davies followed him to the 
 door, and tried to comfort him by saying : " Don't be 
 uneasy ; I can see he likes you very well." 
 
 Some days after this not very hopeful introduction, 
 Boswell called on Johnson in his chambers, and was 
 well received. In the course of a few weeks another 
 visit was paid to Inner Temple Lane, and this was fol- 
 lowed by an accidental meeting at Clifton's eating-house, 
 in Butcher Row, a piece of old London pulled down in 
 1813. When Johnson had finished his dinner, and was 
 leaving the room, Boswell followed him out, and, after 
 some conversation, an appointment was made for a 
 supper, that evening, at the Mitre. The event is de- 
 scribed in the " Life " in enthusiastic terms : " The 
 orthodox, High Church sound of the Mitre, the figure 
 and manner of the celebrated Samuel Johnson, the 
 extraordinary power and precision of his conversation, 
 and the pride, arising from finding myself admitted as 
 his companion, produced a variety of sensations, and a 
 pleasing elevation of mind beyond what I had ever 
 before experienced." 
 
 From the first meeting at Davies's house, Boswell had 
 taken, what he called, " minutes of what passed." The 
 conversation, at the Mitre, was chiefly on literature, and 
 Johnson's criticisms were very characteristic. " Colley 
 Gibber," he said, "-was by no means a blockhead ; but, 
 by arrogating to himself too much, he was in danger of 
 losing that degree of estimation to which he was
 
 JOHNSON. 79 
 
 entitled." Speaking of the lines in one of Gibber's odes 
 to the king : 
 
 " Perch'd on the eagle's soaring wing, 
 The lowly linnet loves to sing " 
 
 he said, "Sir, he had heard something of the fable of 
 the wren sitting upon the eagle's wing, and he had applied 
 it to a linnet." These remarks applied only to Gibber's 
 poetry. Johnson had a high opinion of his powers as a 
 dramatist. 
 
 "Goldsmith," he said, "is one of the first men we 
 now have as an author." This remark, it must be noted, 
 was made before the " Vicar of Wakefield " or the 
 " Traveller " had been published. From the first, Gold- 
 smith's genius had been discerned by Johnson, who was 
 the only literary man of that day able thoroughly to 
 appreciate his friend's extraordinary talent. This first 
 supper at the Mitre was prolonged till between one and 
 two in the morning, and a couple of bottles of port were 
 finished, before the new friends left the tavern. Boswell 
 had at length succeeded in forming the intimacy, so long 
 the object of his wishes, an intimacy which was to give 
 us one of the most delightful books in the world. It 
 is needless to expatiate on the extraordinary merits 
 of a work, which everybody has read, and everybody 
 has praised. Lord Macaulay speaks of Boswell as 
 " the first of biographers. He has no second. He has 
 distanced all his competitors so decidedly that it is not 
 worth while to place them. Eclipse is first, and the rest 
 nowhere." Carlyle's description is equally enthusiastic : 
 " Out of the fifteen millions," he writes, "that then lived,
 
 80 LIFE OF 
 
 and had bed and board, in the British islands, this man 
 (Boswell) has provided us a greater pleasure than any 
 other individual at whose cost we now enjoy ourselves." 
 There is a touching allusion to the subject in a letter 
 from a lady, who writes to The Spectator of December 10, 
 1881, over the signature E. S. : "Many a time (my 
 husband dining at an eating-house) did I eat only dry 
 bread for dinner, all the while guarding and treasuring 
 up a sovereign, given me by a cousin, and which I 
 destined to the purchase of Boswell's ' Life of Johnson. 
 I had to wait five months 'ere opportunity favoured me, 
 and not, until I had been some time at the Cape of Good 
 Hope, did I triumphantly carry home my volumes. But 
 when at last I held them, as my own, in my eager hands, 
 what were exile, and poverty, and vexation, in com- 
 parison ? " 
 
 But the highest tribute, though an involuntary one, to 
 the unapproachable superiority of Boswell's work, is that, 
 notwithstanding its immense popularity, no one has ever 
 tried to imitate it. There have been many biographies 
 since, some by writers of great ability, but none of them 
 have ventured to take Boswell as a model. His style is 
 clearly recognized to be inimitable. It is not easy to 
 describe the writer to whose work Johnson owes such a 
 large portion of his fame. His character was exceedingly 
 complex, and his good and bad qualities are strangely 
 mixed. He was undoubtedly a man with " reverence for 
 wisdom," as was clearly shown by his genuine admiration 
 for Johnson, but there are records in the later part of his 
 career which show that he was occasionally a sycophant, 
 without even a pretence of self-respect. According to his
 
 JOHNSON. 81 
 
 own confession, he was a coward, and a constant regret 
 of his life was that he had not been a soldier. At one 
 time his friends feared his going over to the Roman 
 Catholic faith, and, not long afterwards, he was professing 
 a tendency to infidelity ; and in both cases he, perhaps 
 believed himself to be sincere. When quite a boy, he 
 fancied himself to be an adherent of the old cause, and 
 drank King James's health when his father was toasting 
 George III. ; but for the sake of a shilling, given to him by 
 an uncle, he at once abandoned his Jacobite ideas. He 
 called himself a Churchman and a Tory, and his dearest 
 friend in the world was Jack Wilkes. A man of the most 
 imperturbable good humour, and of a warm heart, he 
 allowed himself to be childishly jealous of all those who 
 were his rivals for Johnson's intimacy. Goldsmith is 
 rarely mentioned in the " Life " without some sneering 
 comment ; and his behaviour, after Johnson's death, to 
 Mrs. Piozzi, was unmanly and ungenerous. No scruples 
 prevented him from accepting the hospitality of Sir 
 John Hawkins, whom he afterwards accused of down- 
 right dishonesty, with little other cause but that Hawkins, 
 in his biography, had mentioned him merely as Mr. 
 James Boswell, without prefixing some epithet, like "the 
 well-known " or " the celebrated," to his name. 
 
 He had undoubtedly a sincere belief in revealed 
 religion, and tried to live in conformity with its precepts, 
 but he had so little command over himself, that he was 
 constantly indulging in excesses, which contrasted 
 strangely with his pious inclinations. After these periods 
 of debauch, he had fits of repentance, and his solemn 
 vows of reformation and amendment gave him the same 
 6
 
 82 LIFE OF 
 
 serene satisfaction, which Pepys felt when he resolved to 
 give up his flirtations with Deb. Willett He was not a 
 good husband, though he had strong feelings of love and 
 respect for his wife. His own relations, who were sin- 
 cerely attached to him, had so little pride in his literary 
 work that their first thought, after his death, was to burn all 
 his papers, which they could lay their hands on. There 
 is no doubt as to his strict veracity, but he was constantly 
 blurting out truths which he had much better have left 
 unsaid. His talents as a writer were appreciated by few 
 of his contemporaries, though his early work on Corsica 
 had exercised considerable influence on public opinion at 
 the time. Sir George Trevelyan, in a note to " The 
 Early History of Charles James Fox," writes : " How real 
 was the effect produced by Boswell's narrative upon the 
 opinion of his countrymen may be gathered from the 
 unwilling testimony of those who regretted its influence, 
 and thought little of its author ; " and further on we read 
 "that Horace Walpole credited Boswell with having 
 procured Paoli his pension of a thousand a year from 
 the British exchequer." But the members of that dis- 
 tinguished circle, which is chiefly known to us through 
 the pages of Boswell, could hardly be expected to 
 recognize his unrivalled qualities as a biographer. 
 The very weaknesses which made him to many of 
 them, at least an object of contempt and derision, were 
 of as much service to him as his literary qualities. His 
 patience, his power of observation, his accuracy, his skill 
 in narrative, his dramatic power of arranging details, his 
 gift of discerning the good points of a story, and his 
 retentive memory were scarcely more valuable to him
 
 JOHNSON. 83 
 
 in composing his " Life " than his strange candour, his 
 meanness, his inordinate curiosity, and his ignorance of 
 his own absurdities. His whole life was devoted to one 
 object, and in that object he obtained success, such as in 
 .his wildest dreams he could never have anticipated. 
 
 Boswell was at last on terms of familiarity with his hero, 
 and many pleasant evenings were passed, at which Gold- 
 smith was often present. If Johnson appreciated Gold- 
 smith's talents, the latter, one of the most warm-hearted 
 .and generous of mankind, was equally cordial in admira- 
 tion of his friend's sincere benevolence ; and he was, 
 perhaps, alone, at that time, in his recognition of the 
 human sympathy and kindness which were concealed by 
 Johnson's rugged demeanour. "He has nothing of a 
 bear but the skin," said Goldsmith ; and on surprise 
 being expressed at his kindness to some worthless 
 character, Goldsmith's touching remark was, " He has 
 now become miserable, and that ensures the protection 
 of Johnson." 
 
 An account is given by Boswell of a supper, with 
 Johnson and Goldsmith, at the Mitre. It is one of the 
 biographer's early essays at reporting, and shows how well 
 he was fitted for the task. The conversation turned on 
 literary subjects, and mention was made of Dr. John 
 Campbell, a voluminous author, now entirely forgotten, 
 whose works enjoyed considerable popularity in their 
 day. Johnson said that he used to go pretty frequently 
 to Campbell's on a Sunday evening, till he began to 
 consider that the shoals of Scotchmen who flocked about 
 him might probably say, when anything of his was well 
 -done, " Ay, ay, he has learnt this of Cawmell."
 
 84 LIFE OF 
 
 " Churchill's poetry," he observed, " had a temporary 
 currency, only from its audacity of abuse, and being filled 
 with living names, and that it would sink into oblivion." 
 
 Boswell hinted that Johnson was hardly a fair judge, as 
 Churchill had attacked him violently. 
 
 ''Johnson, Nay, sir, I am a very fair judge. He did 
 not attack me violently, till he found I did not like his 
 poetry ; and his attack on me shall not prevent me from 
 continuing to say what I think of him from an apprehen- 
 sion that it may be ascribed to resentment. No, sir, I 
 called the fellow a blockhead at first, and I will call him 
 a blockhead still." 
 
 Speaking of periodical papers, he said that The Con- 
 noisseur wanted matter, and that The World was not 
 much better. 
 
 On leaving the tavern, Johnson, as was his custom, went 
 to drink tea with Miss Williams, who then had lodgings 
 in Bolt Court. Goldsmith accompanied him, " strutting 
 away," and exciting Boswell's envy by calling to him with 
 an air of superiority, " I go to Miss Williams." But 
 Boswell's personal intercourse with Johnson was now for 
 a time to cease. By his father's desire, he was going to 
 study at Utrecht, and he was accompanied by his " re- 
 vered friend" as far as Harwich, where an affectionate 
 parting took place. 
 
 " I hope, sir," said Boswell, " you will not forget me 
 in my absence." 
 
 "Johnson. Nay, sir, it is more likely you should forget 
 me." 
 
 In the early part of 1764 Johnson paid a pleasant 
 visit to Langton, the country seat of the family of
 
 JOHNSON. 85 
 
 that name, in Lincolnshire. There was no one 
 whose society delighted him more than that of 
 Bennet Langton. His amiable disposition, his high 
 Tory principles, and his love of learning made him a 
 congenial companion, and his importance was increased 
 in Johnson's eyes by the knowledge that he belonged to 
 a good old family which had owned land in the county 
 since the days of Henry II. Langton had come up to 
 London, while still a boy, before going to the University, 
 and had managed to be introduced to Johnson by Levett. 
 The acquaintance was continued at Oxford, where John- 
 son was staying on a visit, when Langton was an under- 
 graduate at Trinity. " I see your pupil sometimes," 
 writes Johnson in 1758 to Dr. Thomas Warton, who was 
 Langton's college tutor; "his mind is as exalted as his 
 stature. I am half afraid of him, but he is no less admi- 
 rable than formidable. He will, if the forwardness of his 
 spring be not blasted, be a credit to you and to the 
 University." 
 
 Miss Hawkins, in her memoirs, gives a description of 
 Langton's personal appearance. " Oh, that we could 
 sketch him," she writes, " with his mild countenance, his 
 elegant features, and his sweet smile, sitting with one leg 
 twisted round the other, as if fearing to occupy more 
 space than was equitable." Miss Reynolds, in her anec- 
 dotes, tells us with what energy and fond delight Johnson 
 expatiated on his (Langton's) praise, giving him " every 
 excellence that nature could bestow, and every perfection 
 that humanity could acquire." Langton died at South- 
 ampton in December, 1801, and is buried in the ancient 
 church of St. Michael, where a marble tablet is erected
 
 86 LIFE OF JOHNSON. 
 
 to his memory, with the following inscription, "Sit anima 
 mea cum Langtono." These words had been once used 
 by Johnson, when speaking of the certainty of his friend's- 
 happiness in a future life, and no more beautiful epitaph 
 could have been chosen to place over his grave. 
 
 At one of his visits to Oxford, Johnson had met 
 Langton's friend, Topham Beauclerk, a great-grandson of 
 Charles II. and Nell Gywn. He was a man of dissipated 
 habits, but of too good taste and propriety to make any 
 parade of his vices, and Johnson was soon fascinated by 
 his high-bred manners and polished address. Beauclerk 
 had a remarkable gift of saying a good thing without 
 effort, and with a look of unconsciousness of its effect 
 which added immensely to the charm of his conversation. 
 He thoroughly understood Johnson, and was able to take 
 liberties with him, which no other person would have pre- 
 sumed to do. On one occasion, when staying with Beau- 
 clerk at Windsor, Johnson was enticed on a fine Sunday 
 morning to saunter about the churchyard while service was 
 going on, and at length laid down on one of the tomb- 
 stones. "Now,sir,"saidBeauclerk,"youarelike Hogarth's 
 Idle Apprentice." When Johnson was granted a pen- 
 sion, Beauclerk addressed him with a happy, and perhaps 
 too appropriate, quotation, slightly altered from Shake- 
 speare, " I hope you will now purge and live cleanly like a 
 gentleman." 
 
 Garrick, when he heard of this new friendship, said, 
 " What a coalition ! I shall have my old friend to bail 
 out of the round-house."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE most important event of the year 1 764 was the 
 formation of " The Club." " A tavern chair," John- 
 son once asserted, "was the throne of human felicity;" 
 and a club in those days combined the freedom of a 
 tavern with the advantage, not only of associating with 
 friends, but with only those friends, who had been chosen 
 for their social qualities. Johnson had formerly belonged 
 to a society which met weekly at The King's Head, in Ivy 
 Lane. Hawkins has given, in his " Life of Johnson," a 
 most interesting account of its members, among whom 
 were Hawkins himself, Samuel Dyer, Hawkesworth, and 
 Johnson's dear friend, Bathurst. Hawkins and Dyer were 
 afterwards members of the more famous " Club," and the 
 latter was one of the numerous claimants put forward for 
 the authorship of " Junius's Letters." 
 
 " The Club," as it was at first called, was formed at the 
 suggestion of Reynolds, and the number of members was 
 limited to nine, who met once a week at The Turk's 
 Head, Gerrard Street. The original members were 
 Reynolds, Johnson, Edmund Burke, Dr. Nugent (Burke's 
 father-in-law), Langton, Goldsmith, Chamier, and Sir
 
 88 LIFE OF 
 
 John Hawkins. Garrick was not a member till 1773, 
 and, later in the same year, Boswell was elected, though 
 not, as he afterwards heard from Johnson, without con- 
 siderable opposition. Charles James Fox, then only just 
 twenty-five years of age, was elected a few months later, 
 in the spring of 1774; but whether, as Sir George Trevel- 
 yan thinks, from respect for his elder companions, or from 
 other causes, he took little part in the discussions. He 
 does not appear to have been on very familiar terms with 
 Johnson, who probably was never invited within the 
 classic grounds of Holland House. Between Burke and 
 Johnson there were warm feelings of regard and mutual 
 respect. They first met at Garrick's house at a dinner 
 party on Christmas Day, 1758, and notwithstanding the 
 widest difference of opinion on political subjects, their 
 friendship continued unaltered for more than a quarter 
 of a century. 
 
 But there was one among that number with whom 
 Johnson was on still closer terms. Reynolds was nearer 
 his own age than any of the society with which he 
 generally associated. Johnson had first met the great 
 artist soon after his return from Italy, and their intimacy 
 grew closer each year. " If I should lose you," writes 
 Johnson to Reynolds in 1764, " I should lose almost the 
 only man whom I call a friend." There was no other 
 person with whom Johnson was able to feel himself on 
 distinctly equal terms, and from him only Johnson ever 
 cared to seek advice. When the offer was made of a 
 pension, Reynolds was the first person consulted. There 
 was no rivalry possible between the two men, each so 
 eminent in different ways ; and the last episode, in this
 
 JOHNSON 89 
 
 interesting friendship, was when Johnson, from his death- 
 bed, sent a messenger to Reynolds with three requests : 
 to forgive him a small pecuniary debt ; to read the Bible ; 
 and never to paint on a Sunday. Sir Joshua willingly 
 promised to comply with his friend's wishes. 
 
 But Johnson's pen during this time was not entirely 
 idle, and " The Traveller," published in December, was 
 noticed by him in The Critical Review of January, 1765. 
 " The Vanity of Human Wishes " had, as it was pointed 
 out in the previous chapter, exercised considerable in- 
 fluence on Goldsmith's poetry, and the wiseacres of the 
 time thought the greater part of his new work was written 
 by Johnson, who had in reality contributed but nine lines. 
 Two of these, 
 
 " How small of all that human hearts endure, 
 That part which laws or kings can cause or cure," 
 
 might have been detected by an acute critic; for the 
 same sentiment is expressed in "Rasselas," when the 
 astronomer speaks of " the task of a king who has the 
 care only of a few millions, to whom he cannot do much 
 good or harm." " The Traveller," one of the most exqui- 
 site gems in our language, obtained a wide popularity, 
 and induced the publishers to bring out " The Vicar ot 
 Wakefield," which its author had disposed of some time 
 previously. The sale of Goldsmith's novel, as told by 
 Boswell, is well known. "I received," said Johnson, 
 " one morning a message from poor Goldsmith that he 
 was in great distress, and as it was not in his power to 
 come to me, begging that I would come to him as soon 
 as possible. I sent him a guinea, and promised to come
 
 90 LIFE OF 
 
 to him directly. I accordingly went, as soon as I was 
 dressed, and found that his landlady had arrested him 
 for his rent, at which he was in a violent passion. I 
 perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and 
 had got a bottle of Madeira and a glass before him. I put 
 the cork in the bottle, desired he would be calm, and 
 began to talk to him of the means by which he might be 
 extricated. He then told me he had a novel ready for 
 the press, which he produced to me. I looked into it, 
 and saw its merit ; told the landlady I should soon return ; 
 and, having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty pounds. 
 I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged his 
 rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for 
 having used him so ill." There are other versions of the 
 affair, which differ only in unimportant details. Johnson, 
 had often repeated the story, and some of his hearers 
 may have retained imperfect recollections of the narrative. 
 Mrs. Piozzi relates that the incident happened when John- 
 son was dining at her own table, but this account was 
 written many years after the event took place, and her 
 ideas on the subject had probably become confused. We 
 know from a note, in Johnson's own writing, that he did 
 not make the acquaintance of the Thrales till 1765, and 
 the sale of Goldsmith's MS. took place, at the very 
 latest, in 1764. Cumberland's account differs from the 
 others in one amusing variation. He pretends that the 
 landlady (most likely Mrs. Fleming, whose portrait Hogarth 
 is said to have painted) offered to forgive Goldsmith's 
 debt if he would take his creditor to wife, but this is 
 probably a picturesque effort of the writer's imagination. 
 A very interesting entry, referring to the subject, was, not
 
 JOHNSON. 91 
 
 long ago, discovered in a ledger, marked "Account of 
 copies, their cost and value, 1764," which formerly 
 belonged to Mr. Benjamin Collins, of Salisbury, who 
 printed the first edition of the novel " ' Vicar of Wake- 
 field,' 2 vols., 12 mo., } rd. B. Collins, Salisbury, bought 
 of Dr. Goldsmith, the author, October 28, 1762. ^21.'* 
 
 This confirms Boswell's statement of the price received 
 by Goldsmith, viz., sixty pounds (which in those days 
 often meant guineas). Johnson may have sold the work 
 for that sum, and brought home one-third of the price as 
 what Mrs. Piozzi calls " a temporary relief." But it is for 
 Goldsmith's biographers to clear up these minor points 
 of difference in the story. 
 
 Johnson's acquaintance with the Thrales was com- 
 menced, as just stated, in 1765 ; and to it he was indebted, 
 as he afterwards acknowledged, for that "kindness which 
 soothed twenty years of a life radically wretched." Mrs. 
 Thrale, when she was still a little girl, saw much of 
 Hogarth, who, in his picture of The Lady's Last Stake, 
 has given us a portrait of her, as she appeared in her fif- 
 teenth year. " He was most anxious," she writes, " that I 
 should obtain the acquaintance and, if possible, the friend- 
 ship of Dr. Johnson, whose conversation was, to the talk of 
 other men, like Titian's painting compared to Hudson's, 
 he said ; ' but don't you tell people now,' continued he, 
 ' for the connoisseurs and I are at war, you know ; and 
 because I hate them, they think I hate Titian, and let 
 them ! ' " 
 
 Mrs. Thrale first saw Johnson on the second Thursday 
 of January, 1765, when he was taken by Murphy to dine 
 at Streatham, and was much pleased with his hosts and
 
 92 LIFE OF 
 
 their manner of living. " On the praises of Mrs. Thrale," 
 writes Miss Reynolds, a trustworthy witness, " he used to 
 dwell with a peculiar delight, a paternal fondness, ex- 
 pressive of conscious exultation in being so intimately 
 acquainted with her. One day, in speaking of her to 
 Mr. Harris, and expatiating on her various perfections, 
 the solidity of her virtues, the brilliancy of her wit, and 
 the strength of her understanding, he quoted some lines, 
 . . and of these I retained but the last two : 
 
 " ' Virtues of such a generous kind, 
 
 Good in the last recesses of the mind.' " 
 
 These praises of his " mistress," as Johnson used to 
 call her, were fully deserved. Her patience and womanly 
 kindness never varied, and he was always treated in her 
 house with the most assiduous attention and respect. 
 His health, about the time he made Mrs. Thrale's 
 acquaintance, was wretched, and was aggravated by the 
 morbid melancholy which he inherited from his father. 
 At one of her visits to Bolt Court, she found him in such 
 a distressing mental condition that she insisted on his 
 returning with her to Streatham, where, till their unfortu- 
 nate rupture, he found the chief comfort of his life. There 
 is a delightful portrait by Reynolds of Mrs. Thrale, but it 
 appears to be rather too flattering, if we may judge of her 
 own description of herself; and the best likeness of her, 
 in the days when she was intimate with Johnson, is pro- 
 bably a faded miniature in the Dyce and Forster collection 
 at South Kensington. 
 
 Among the events of this year (1765), was a visit to 
 Cambridge with Topham Beauclerk ; but a piece of
 
 JOHNSON. 93 
 
 literary work, undertaken many years ago, now claimed 
 his attention. Johnson's edition of Shakespeare had 
 long been promised to the public, and many subscrip- 
 tions had been paid, of which all account had been lost ; 
 but his indolence, and dislike to steady work and appli- 
 cation, had hitherto prevented him from finishing the 
 uncongenial task. The subscribers were beginning to 
 lose patience. Churchill had made some unpleasant 
 allusions to the subject, and Foote had threatened to 
 caricature Johnson on the stage. Johnson quickly gave 
 the latter satirist to understand that, if he attempted 
 anything of the kind, he would receive severe chastise- 
 ment in the face of the audience, and the idea was 
 abandoned. But his friends felt that his credit was at 
 stake, and Reynolds, who had always great influence with 
 him, managed to obtain a definite promise that the work 
 should be completed by a certain time. It was at length 
 published in October of this year. The preface, though 
 the writer speaks too slightingly of the labours of his 
 predecessor, Theobald, is excellent, and contains admir- 
 able instructions for a commentator, which are not, 
 however, entirely carried out by their author. The 
 edition has never been much valued by students of 
 Shakespeare, and it is now seldom met with. 
 
 There were some thoughts, next year, of selling the old 
 house at Lichfield, and he writes to Lucy Porter on 
 January 14, 1766 : "I was loth that Kitty should leave 
 the house till I had seen it once more, and yet for some 
 reasons I cannot well come during the session of Parlia- 
 ment. I am unwilling to sell it, yet scarcely know why." 
 The place was, however, not sold, and remained in John-
 
 34 LIFE OF 
 
 son's possession till his death, when it was bequeathed to 
 some relatives of his father. Only quite recently the 
 Corporation of Lichfield, in honour of their famous 
 citizen, renewed to the present owner the lease granted 
 first to Johnson's father, and afterwards to Johnson 
 himself, of the part of the house abutting into Sadler's 
 Lane, and a condition was made that the building should 
 be kept in good repair. 
 
 Johnson was now established in Johnson's Court, 
 Pleet Street, and from there he writes in March to Lang- 
 ton : " The Club subsists ; but we have the loss of 
 Burke's company, since he has been engaged in public 
 business, in which he has gained more reputation than 
 perhaps any man at his first appearance gained before. 
 , . . Burke is a great man by nature, and is expected 
 soon to attain civil greatness. I am grown greater too, 
 for I have maintained the newspapers these many weeks ; 
 and, what is greater still, I have risen every morning 
 since New Year's Day at about eight ... I wish you 
 were in my new study ; I am now writing my first letter 
 in it I think it looks very pretty about me. Dyer is 
 constant at the Club ; Hawkins is remiss: I am not over 
 diligent; Dr. Nugent, Dr. Goldsmith, and Mr. Reynolds 
 are very constant" 
 
 Boswell was now in London, on his return from 
 abroad, and we have full reports of Johnson's doings at 
 this time. One evening Boswell and Goldsmith went to 
 his house, and endeavoured to persuade him to come to 
 supper at The Mitre, but the " big man," as Goldsmith 
 called him, was unwilling to leave home, and they 
 remained talking over a bottle of port wine, of which the
 
 JOHNSON. 95 
 
 host (then an abstainer) could not partake. Johnson 
 -\vas asked why his pen was now idle, and replied that he 
 had dropped many of his old tastes. 
 
 " Boswell. But, sir, why don't you give us something 
 in some other way ? 
 
 " Goldsmith. Ay, sir, we have a claim upon you. 
 
 " Johnson, No, sir, I am not obliged to do any 
 more. No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. 
 A man is to have part of his life to himself. If a soldier 
 has fought a good many campaigns, he is not to be 
 blamed if he retires to ease and tranquility. A physician, 
 who has practised long in a great city, may be excused if 
 he retires to a small town and takes less practice. Now, 
 sir, the good I can do by my conversation bears the 
 same proportion to the good I can do by my writings 
 that the practice of a physician retired to a small town 
 does to his practice in a great city. 
 
 " JBoswell. But I wonder, sir, you have not more 
 pleasure in writing than in not writing. 
 
 " Johnson. Sir, you may wonder." 
 
 In the year 1767 Johnson had his celebrated interview 
 with George III. Boswell's well-known account of this 
 event is most graphic, and there can be no doubt of its 
 accuracy, as it was submitted to the king for approval. 
 Johnson acquitted himself with great propriety. "I 
 found," he said, " that his Majesty wished I should talk, 
 and I made it my business to talk." On one occasion, 
 when he was narrating the particulars of the conversation 
 at Sir Joshua Reynolds's house, and mentioned that his 
 Majesty had praised his literary work, some one asked 
 him whether he had replied to the compliment. " No,
 
 96 LIFE OF 
 
 sir," answered Johnson, " when the king had said it, it 
 was to be so it was not for me to bandy civilities with 
 my sovereign." 
 
 In the autumn he paid a long visit to Lichfield, and 
 was present at the death of his mother's faithful old 
 servant, Catherine Chambers. The affecting incident is 
 noted in the " Prayers and Meditations." 
 
 " Sunday, October 18, 1767. Yesterday, October i7th r 
 at about ten in the morning, I took my leave for ever of my 
 dear old friend, Catherine Chambers, who came to live 
 with my mother about 1 724, and has but little parted from 
 us since. She buried my father, my brother, and my 
 mother. She is now fifty-eight years old. I desired all 
 to withdraw, then told her that we were to part for ever ; 
 that, as Christians, we should part with prayer, and that 
 I would, if she were willing, say a short prayer beside 
 her. She expressed great desire to hear me, and held up 
 her poor hands, as she lay in bed, with great fervour, 
 while I prayed, kneeling by her, nearly in the following 
 words : 
 
 " ' Almighty and most merciful Father, whose loving- 
 kindness is over all Thy works, behold, visit, and relieve 
 this Thy servant, who is grieved with sickness ; grant that 
 the sense of her weakness may add strength to her faith- 
 and seriousness to her repentance ; and grant that, by 
 the help of Thy Holy Spirit, after the pains and labours of 
 this short life, we may all obtain everlasting happiness, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord, for whose sake hear our 
 prayers. AMEN. Our Father,' &c. 
 
 " I then kissed her. She told me that to part was the 
 greatest pain she had ever felt, and that she hoped we
 
 JOHNSON. 97 
 
 should meet again in a better place. I expressed, with 
 swelled eyes and great emotion of tenderness, the same 
 hopes. We kissed and parted. I humbly hope to meet 
 again and to part no more." 
 
 In 1768, and again in the following year, Boswell was 
 in London. Some extracts from his description of a 
 dinner party at his lodgings in 1769 afford a good speci- 
 men of Johnson's conversation, and of his biographer's 
 skill in reporting : 
 
 "He honoured me with his company at dinner on the 
 1 6th of October, at my lodings in Old Bond Street, with 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. 
 Murphy, Mr. Bickerstaff, and Mr. Thomas Davies, 
 Garrick played round him with a fond vivacity, taking 
 hold of the breasts of his coat and looking up in his face 
 with a lively archness, complimented him on the good 
 health which he seemed then to enjoy ; while the sage,, 
 shaking his head, beheld him with a gentle complacency. 
 One of the company, not being come at the appointed 
 hour, I proposed, as usual upon such occasions, to order 
 dinner to be served, adding, ' Ought six people to be kept, 
 waiting for one ? ' 
 
 " ' Why, yes,' answered Johnson, with a delicate 
 humanity, 'if the one will suffer more by your sitting 
 down than the six will do by waiting.' 
 
 "Goldsmith,to divert the tedious minutes, strutted about, 
 bragging of his dress, and, I believe, was seriously vain 
 of it, for his mind was wonderfully prone to such im- 
 pressions. 
 
 "'Come, come,' said Garrick, 'talk no more of that, 
 you are, perhaps, the worst eh, eh !' 
 7
 
 98 LIFE OF 
 
 " Goldsmith was eagerly attempting to interrupt him, 
 when Garrick went on, laughing ironically, ' Nay, you 
 will always look like a gentleman, but I am talking of 
 being well or /// drest? 
 
 " * Well, let me tell you,' said Goldsmith, * when my 
 tailor brought home my bloom-coloured coat, he said, 
 " Sir, I have a favour to beg of you. When anybody asks 
 you who made your clothes, 1 be pleased to mention, John 
 Filby, at 'The Harrow,' in Water Lane."' 
 
 "Johnson. Why, sir, that was because he knew the 
 strange colour would attract crowds to gaze at it, and thus 
 they might hear of him, and see how well he could make 
 a coat even of so absurd a colour. 
 
 "After dinner our conversation first turned upon Pope. 
 
 "Johnson said 'his characters of men were admirably 
 drawn, those of women not so well.' He repeated to 
 us, in his forcible melodious manner, the concluding 
 lines of ' The Dunciad.' While he was talking loudly in 
 praise of those lines, one of the company [probably 
 Boswell himself] ventured to say, ' Too fine for such a 
 poem a poem on what ? ' 
 
 " Johnson (with a disdainful look). Why, on dunces. 
 It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, sir, hadst 
 thou lived in those days ! It is not worth while being a 
 dunce now when there are no wits.' 
 
 " Bickerstaff observed, as a peculiar circumstance, that 
 Pope's fame was higher when he was alive than it was 
 then. Johnson said his Pastorals were poor things, 
 though the versification was fine. He told us, with high 
 
 1 Mr. ruby's bill for the gorgeous raiment, of which the poet was 
 so proud, is still in existence.
 
 JOHNSOX. 09 
 
 satisfaction, the anecdote of Pope's inquiring who was 
 the author of his ' London,' and saying he will soon be 
 d'eterre. He observed that in Dryden's poetry there were 
 passages drawn from a profundity Pope could never 
 reach. He repeated some fine lines on love by the 
 former, which I have now forgotten, and gave great 
 applause to the character of Zimri. Goldsmith said 
 that Pope's character of Addison showed a deep know- 
 ledge of the human heart. Johnson said that the 
 description of the temple in the ' Mourning Bride ' was 
 the finest poetical passage he had ever read ; he recol- 
 lected none in Shakespeare equal to it. 
 
 "'But,' said Garrick, all alarmed for the 'god of his 
 idolatry,' ' we know not the extent and variety of nis 
 powers. We are to suppose there are such passages 
 in his works. Shakespeare must not sutler from the 
 badness of our memories.' 
 
 "Johnson, diverted by this enthusiastic jealousy, went 
 on with great ardour : ' No, sir, Congreve has nature ' 
 (smiling on the tragic eagerness of Garrick), but, com- 
 posing himself, he added, ' Sir, this is not comparing 
 Congreve on the whole with Shakespeare on the whole, 
 but only maintaining that Congreve has one finer passage 
 than any that can be found in Shakespeare. Sir, a man 
 may have no more than ten guineas in the world, but he 
 may have those ten guineas in one piece, and so may 
 have a finer piece than a man who has ten thousand 
 pounds ; but then he has only one ten-guinea piece.' 
 
 " Talking of a barrister who had a bad utterance, some 
 one (to rouse Johnson) wickedly said that he was un- 
 fortunate in not having been taught oratory by Sheridan.
 
 100 LIFE OF 
 
 "Johnson. Nay, sir, if he had been taught by Sheridan 
 he would have cleared the room. 
 
 " Politics being mentioned, he said, 'This petitioning is 
 a new mode of distressing Government, and a mighty 
 easy one. I will undertake to get petitions either against 
 quarter guineas or half guineas, with the help of a little 
 hot wine. There must be no yielding to encourage this. 
 The object is not important enough. We are not to 
 blow up half-a-dozen palaces because one cottage is 
 burning." 
 
 In 1770 Johnson wrote "The False Alarm." The 
 whole country was at that time wild with excitement 
 about the popular hero, John Wilkes, who had been 
 three times expelled from the House of Commons, and 
 on each occasion re-elected by his constituents. The 
 pamphlet was written to prove that the House was acting 
 strictly within its legal right?, and that a sentence of 
 expulsion virtually amounted to exclusion. " A member 
 of the House," Johnson sophistically argued, " cannot 
 be cited for his conduct before any other court ; and 
 therefore, if the House cannot punish him, he may 
 attack with impunity the rights of the people and the 
 title of the king." 
 
 The pamphlet appeared on the i6th of January, and 
 before the second edition was published in February, the 
 Duke of Grafton had resigned, and Lord North became 
 Prime Minister. It is impossible to consider without 
 regret the career of that distinguished man, who, for 
 thirteen years, from a mistaken feeling of loyalty to his 
 sovereign, was employed in carrying out a policy, which 
 his own judgment condemned, and which finally lost
 
 JOHNSON. 101 
 
 England her American colonies. Lord North was not a 
 great speaker, but his high courage, his abundant common 
 sense, his ready wit, his equanimity of temper, supplied 
 the higher qualities of statesmanship, and in other times 
 he might have left behind him a reputation very different 
 from that which he now occupies in history. During his 
 long term of office he was confronted by an opposition 
 that numbered among its members Charles James Fox, 
 Burke, Dunning, and in later times the younger Pitt, and 
 against this powerful array of orators he was able to hold 
 his own. 
 
 Johnson's pamphlet was followed by many others on 
 the same subject, but there was one which soon attracted 
 universal attention. " The Thoughts on the Cause of 
 the present Discontents " appeared on the 24th of April, 
 and a second edition was issued on the 2Qth of the same 
 month. It was published anonymously, but it was 
 unnecessary to give the name of its author. There was 
 no man living at that time, who could have written such 
 a work, but Edmund Burke. It is a masterpiece of 
 political writing. Its moderation, its impartial tone, its 
 clear logic, and its powerful array of facts, made it 
 impossible to answer, and it is still the best source of 
 information for a knowledge of the history of that time. 
 
 "The False Alarm" was followed in 1771 by 
 " Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's 
 Islands." The circumstances connected with the rival 
 claims of England and Spain for the possession of these 
 barren islands have long been forgotten, and probably 
 few persons now know in what part of the world they are 
 situated. But Johnson's pamphlet is still interesting from
 
 102 LIFE OF 
 
 the excellent geographical and historical account of the 
 place, and from the powerful invective which it contains 
 against ^unius, who remained, however, silent under the 
 attack. 
 
 Johnson's health and spirits had much improved from 
 his visits to the Thrales. He mixed now a great deal in 
 society, and made pretty frequent excursions to Lichfield. 
 For some time he had meditated a journey to the 
 Hebrides, and Bos well, who was in London in 1773, 
 constantly pressed him to carry out the project. It was 
 in this year that the biographer dined at Johnson's house 
 on Easter Day. " I had gratified my curiosity much," he 
 writes, " in dining with Jean Jacques Rousseau while he 
 lived in the wilds of Neufchatel. I had a great curiosity 
 to dine with Dr. Samuel Johnson in the dusky recesses 
 of a court in Fleet Street. I supposed we should scarcely 
 have knives and forks, and only some strange, uncouth, 
 and ill-drest dish. But I found everything in very good 
 order." Foole, in allusion to Francis Barber, the negro 
 servant, suggested that the dinner would consist of black 
 broth, but the bill of fare, as given by Boswell, contained 
 soup, a boiled leg of lamb and spinach, a veal pie, and a 
 rice pudding. 
 
 Boswell left London in May, and, soon after his arrival 
 in Scotland, wrote a pressing letter to Johnson, begging 
 him to persevere in the visit to the Hebrides. Mrs. 
 Thrale, too, used her influence in the matter, and on the 
 i4th of August Johnson arrived in Edinburgh. The tour 
 extended over two months, and must have been a strange 
 experience to Johnson. He had on some occasions to 
 undergo serious hardships, and even dangers, but he
 
 JOHNSON. 103 
 
 derived no harm from his exertions, which for a man of 
 sixty-four were pretty severe. On the very day after his 
 arrival in London he wrote, " I came home last night 
 without incommodity, danger, or weariness, and am ready 
 to begin a new journey." Johnson's own account of the 
 tour was not published till January, 1775. It is a 
 plain, straightforward history of what he saw and did, 
 related in characteristic language, and with not a few 
 sarcastic sallies on the country and its inhabitants. It 
 has no great literary value, but it may still be read with 
 interest as a genuine description of the impressions 
 which a visit to the wild scenes of the Hebrides pro- 
 duced on the mind of a man who thought that " the full 
 tide of existence was at Charing Cross."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IN 1774 Johnson accompanied theThrales on a Welsh 
 tour, and on the way the party stopped at Lichfield, 
 where he introduced his travelling companions to his 
 step-daughter, Lucy Porter; to Peter Garrick, the brother 
 of the great actor; to Mrs. Elizabeth Aston, the un- 
 married sister of his former flame, Molly Aston (now 
 Mrs. Brodie) ; and to other residents of his native city. 
 From Lichfield they went to Ashbourne, and passed a 
 Sunday with Dr. Taylor. Boswell was not aware that 
 Johnson during this time kept a diary, which has been 
 since brought to light. After his death this interesting 
 manuscript came into the possession of his servant, 
 Francis Barber, and it was published by Mr. Duppa in 
 1816. 
 
 In the autumn of the following year Johnson went with 
 the Thrales to Paris, and passed several weeks in visiting 
 the sights of the place. A trip, too, was made to Ver- 
 sailles, where they saw the King and Queen at dinner, 
 and Marie Antoinette must have made Mrs. Thrale very 
 proud and happy by sending one of the gentlemen of the 
 Court to ask the name of her daughter, Queenie Thrale. 
 
 Boswell was very anxious for Johnson to publish an
 
 LIFE OF JOHNSON. 105 
 
 account of the visit to France, but he wisely refused to 
 comply with the suggestion. Such a book, he said, 
 would have an interest for Reynolds and the other 
 members of the " Club," but would contain nothing that 
 was not known already. One event, however, recorded 
 in the journal, which he kept during his stay in Paris, 
 deserves to be mentioned, on account of its literary 
 interest. At the English convent of the order of St. 
 Augustine, he had some conversation with the niece of 
 Arabella Fermor, who, under the name of "Belinda," is 
 immortalized in Pope's " Rape of the Lock." The lady 
 of the convent was not, however, proud of her aunt's 
 celebrity, and considered Pope's poem rather an insult 
 than an honour. Another incident, of no importance in 
 itself, has given rise to so much controversy that it cannot 
 be passed over in silence. A visit was paid to the house 
 of a Madame d'Argenson, and Johnson, like the Spectator 
 in Leonora's library, examined the books in the lady's 
 closet. Amongst them was the " Histoire du Prince 
 Titi," and on this Mr. Croker observes in a note, " ' The 
 history of Prince Titi ' was said to be the autobiography 
 of Frederick, Prince of Wales, but was probably written 
 by Ralph, his secretary. (See Parks' ' Royal and Noble 
 Authors,' vol. i. p. 171)." On this Lord Macaulay 
 remarks, " A more absurd note was never penned. The 
 history of Prince Titi to which Mr. Croker refers, whether 
 written by Prince Frederick or by Ralph, was certainly 
 never published. If Mr. Croker had taken the trouble to 
 read with attention the very passage in Parks' 'Royal 
 and Noble Authors ' which he cites as his authority, he 
 would have seen that the MS. was given up to the Govern-
 
 100 LIFE OF 
 
 ment. The history at which Johnson laughed was a very 
 proper companion to the ' Bibliotheque des Fe"es,' a 
 fairy tale about good Prince Titi and naughty Prince 
 Violent. Mr. Croker may find it in the 'Magasin des 
 Enfans/ the first French book which the little girls of 
 England read to their governesses." 
 
 Croker's original statement is not quite accurate. The 
 history of Prince Titi was certainly not written by Ralph, 
 but it was equally certain that the early portion of it was 
 intended as an allegorical history of Frederick, Prince of 
 Wales. Prince Titi's short allowance of money, his state 
 of dependence on the will of his parents ; the absurd but 
 appropriate names given to King Ginguet and Queen 
 Tripasse leave little doubt as to whom these characters 
 were intended to personate. The ambassador, sent to 
 the country of King Forteserre, is also clearly a portrait 
 of Sir Robert Walpole's brother, who had been the repre- 
 sentative of the English Court at Paris. He is des- 
 cribed as an echape. de Pdisan, he is le frere du premier 
 mmistre, and the narrator especially remarks on the 
 ambassador's rusticite naturelle. It is impossible that 
 this could refer to any one but old Horatio Walpole. 
 The little volume was really the work of M. Paul de 
 Themiseul, and Macaulay might have been satisfied with 
 his triumph in pointing out Mr. Croker's error in de- 
 scribing Ralph as the author. But the brilliant essayist 
 wished to give a little more finish to his satire, and talks of 
 a fairy tale about good Prince Titi and naughty Prince 
 Violent. Unfortunately there is no Prince Violent in the 
 volume, and there is, at least, one very good reason for 
 supposing that " Prince Titi " was at the time of its
 
 JOHNSON. 107 
 
 publication, supposed to be a genuine work. Two English 
 versions of it immediately appeared, one of which was 
 issued by the notorious Curll, and it is not very likely 
 that he would have thought it worth while to publish a 
 translation of a little girl's lesson book. 
 
 Johnson's literary work was now nearly finished. In 
 1774 he wrote " The Patriot," in which he endeavoured 
 to warn the people of the difference between true 
 and spurious patriotism. The former quality, he 
 writes, "is not displayed by an acrimonious and un- 
 remitting opposition to the Court. A man may hate 
 his king and not love his country. A person is not 
 a patriot who disseminates discontent, and propagates 
 reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of 
 violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. A true 
 patriot is no lavish promiser ; he undertakes not to 
 shorten Parliaments ; to repeal laws ; or to change the 
 mode of representation transmitted by our ancestors ; he 
 knows that futurity is not in his power, and that all times 
 are not favourable to change." 
 
 The pamphlet, though it contained much that was un- 
 doubtedly true, was not a great success. It was followed 
 in 1775 by "Taxation no Tyranny," an answer to the 
 resolutions and address of the American Congress. The 
 author asserts the supreme power of the community to 
 require from its subjects such contributions as are 
 necessary to the public safety or public prosperity. He 
 ridicules the powers of the Americans to resist the will 
 of the mother country, and declares that a Cornish 
 Congress might meet at Truro, and, with equal right, 
 address the other counties in the language of the
 
 108 LIFE OF 
 
 American patriots. There is much force and vigour in 
 the pamphlet, but it is impossible to read it without 
 feeling how unconscious was the writer of the great 
 changes that were going on around him. It was the last 
 time that his pen was employed for a political object, and 
 the task was probably undertaken from a praiseworthy 
 sense of duty. 
 
 In 1775 the University of Oxford conferred on Johnson 
 a Doctor's degree. He had now attained a position of 
 extraordinary dignity and reputation. His fame as a 
 writer was at its zenith, much higher indeed than it is in 
 our own day. His income was more than sufficient for 
 his own wants, and for those of his numerous pensioners. 
 His health was better than it had ever been before, and 
 death had hardly begun to thin the circle of his intimate 
 friends. It was in this year that he had the well-known 
 controversy with Macpherson, the author of the English 
 version of Ossian's poems. These were supposed to 
 have been translated from ancient Erse manuscripts, 
 but Johnson refused to believe it, and challenged the 
 translator to produce the originals. The dispute at 
 length became so fierce that Macpherson wrote with 
 threats of personal violence. To this Johnson replied 
 in the following letter, of which the original was, not 
 many years ago, sold at the auction of Mr. Lewis Pocock, 
 the owner of an unrivalled collection of " Johnsonian " 
 MSS. : 
 
 " MR. JAMES MACPHERSON, I received your foolish 
 and impudent letter. Any violence offered to me I shall 
 do my best to repel, and what I cannot do for myself the
 
 JOHNSON. 109 
 
 law shall do for me. I hope I never shall be deterred 
 from detecting what I think a cheat by the menaces of a 
 ruffian. 
 
 " What would you have me retract ? I thought your 
 book an imposture ; I think it an imposture still. For 
 this opinion I have given my reasons to the public, which 
 I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your 
 abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable; and 
 what I hear of your morals, inclines me to pay regard, 
 not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. 
 You may print this if you will. 
 
 " SAM. JOHNSON." 
 
 Johnson provided himself with a stout cudgel, but Mr. 
 Macpherson gave him no opportunity of using it. 
 
 Boswell arrived in London in March and remained till 
 May, and we have accordingly a full account of Johnson 
 during these months. Nothing is more remarkable in his 
 career than the number and variety of the persons with 
 whom he associated. One day he was dining with a 
 nobleman, and on the morrow with Mrs. Gardiner, the 
 wife of a tallow chandler, on Snow Hill. Among his 
 acquaintance were persons of every sort and condition of 
 life. One of his friends was Mrs. Abington, the most 
 charming comedian of her time, who seems to have 
 enjoyed a very exceptional position, and to have been 
 intimate with some of the great ladies of the day. Her 
 taste was unrivalled in all matters of dress, and her 
 opinions on this important subject were accepted as 
 law. She was a universal favourite, both with the public 
 and in private life. The fastidious Horace Walpole had
 
 110 LIFE OF 
 
 a great admiration for her acting, and, in defiance of all 
 his usual regulations, gave her orders for admission to 
 Strawberry Hill, with leave to bring as many friends as 
 she liked. She frequently sat to Reynolds, and we know 
 of at least four portraits of her by that great painter. At 
 her particular request, Johnson though he confessed he 
 could neither see nor hear attended her benefit this 
 year at Drury Lane, Reynolds had taken forty places in 
 the front boxes, and filled them with his friends, among 
 whom was Johnson, " wrapped up in grave abstraction." 
 A fortnight afterwards he supped with a fashionable 
 company at Mrs. Abington's house, and next day, when 
 dining at the Thrales, he humorously pretended to 
 excite the jealousy of his hostess by praising Mrs. 
 Abington's jelly. There are many more dinners at 
 that time recorded in the lively pages of Boswell, and 
 in the autumn Johnson made the journey to Paris, which 
 has been already described. 
 
 In 1776 Johnson moved into No. 8, Bolt Court, 1 which 
 he occupied till his death. The house, and its strange 
 collection of inhabitants, have often been described, and 
 sometimes with unnecessary exaggeration. Casual visitors 
 found it little different from other households of the same 
 class. The drawing-room was well furnished with a stout 
 mahogany table and chairs; friends were occasionally 
 entertained, and had no reason to complain of the fare, 
 or of the manner in which it was served. Boswell had at 
 first a room, where he could occasionally sleep when he re- 
 mained till late talking with Johnson, but it was afterwards 
 
 1 The boose still (1887) remains in the same condition, as when 
 lived in by Johnson.
 
 JOHXSOX. Ill 
 
 given up to Mrs. Desmoulins and her daughter. These 
 ladies shared it with Miss Carmichael, a strange creature 
 whom Johnson generally called "Poll." Blind Mrs. 
 Williams had her own apartment. Levett lived in an 
 attic, and sometimes a poor waif and stray would find a 
 night's lodging on his floor. Barber and his wife must 
 have slept somewhere, and there was a female servant, 
 Mrs. White, to whom Johnson left a legacy of ^100. 
 There was, as might be expected, much contention 
 between these strange companions. Mrs. Williams had 
 a great dislike to the black servant, Barber, and was con- 
 stantly making sarcastic allusions to the money which 
 had been spent on his education. When there was 
 company, Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Desmoulins took the 
 head of the table by turns. One day, on the occasion 
 of some dispute as to which of the two ladies should 
 preside, Mr. John Nichols ventured to observe that this 
 time Roxana should take the place of Statira. " Yes, sir," 
 said Johnson, "but in my family it has never been 
 decided which is Roxana and which is Statira." There 
 was one point of union however between Mrs. Williams 
 and Mrs. Desmoulins, and that was their common dislike 
 for Miss Carmichael. Johnson told Miss Burney that 
 general anarchy prevailed in the kitchen, of which Mrs. 
 Desmoulins had the nominal management. There was no 
 jack, and Mr. Thrale asked how they managed without. 
 
 " Johnson. Small joints, I believe, they manage with 
 a string, and larger are done at the tavern. I have some 
 thoughts (with a profound gravity) of buying a jack, 
 because I think a jack is some credit to a house. 
 
 " Thrale. Well, but you'll have a spit too?
 
 112 LIFE OF 
 
 11 Johnson. No, sir, no, that would be superfluous, 
 for we shall never use it, and if a jack is seen a spit will 
 be presumed." 
 
 While Johnson was living at Streatham it was his 
 custom, Mrs. Piozzi relates in her "Anecdotes," to 
 return to Bolt Court every Saturday and remain till 
 Monday night, so as to give his pensioners three good 
 dinners, " treating them with the same, or perhaps more 
 ceremonious, civility than he would have done by as 
 many people of fashion." 
 
 In March, 1776, the year after the excursion to Paris, 
 Johnson, accompanied by Boswell, with whom he de- 
 lighted to travel, made a short visit to Oxford, and the 
 biographer learnt a good deal about his friend's academical 
 career. After a few pleasant days, the journey was con- 
 tinued to Birmingham, where they met Johnson's former 
 comrade, Hector, from whom Boswell obtained some 
 particulars of Johnson's schooldays. Here, too, he saw 
 Mrs. Careless, Hector's sister, one of Johnson's early 
 flames. " On our return from Mr. Boulton's," writes 
 Boswell, " Mr. Hector took me to his house, where we 
 found Johnson sitting placidly at tea with his first love, 
 who, though now advanced in years, was a genteel woman 
 and well bred." Another friend at Birmingham was 
 Mr. Lloyd, " one of the people called Quakers," who was 
 probably a relative of Olivia Lloyd, to whom Johnson 
 wrote verses when a boy at Stourbridge school. At Mr. 
 Lloyd's house, on the north side of New Square, which 
 still (1887) stands, very little changed since that time, the 
 party were hospitably received at dinner, but an untoward 
 event occurred, which for a time rather spoilt the harmony
 
 JOHNSON. 113 
 
 of the entertainment. Boswell, who knew Johnson's 
 strong feeling against all forms of dissent, imprudently 
 asked to see a copy of Barclay's "Apology." 
 
 " Johnson laid hold of it, and the chapter on baptism 
 happening to open, Johnson remarked, ' He says there is 
 neither precept nor practice for baptism in the Scriptures; 
 that is false.' Here he was the aggressor, by no means in 
 a gentle manner, and the good Quakers had the advantage 
 of him, for he had read negligently, and had not observed 
 that Barclay speaks of infant baptism, which they calmly 
 made him perceive." This identical copy of Baskerville's 
 edition of Barclay's " Apology " is still preserved in the 
 family. One of the company objected to the observance 
 of "days, and months, and years." Johnson's answer was 
 extremely happy, "The church," he said, "does not 
 superstitiously observe days merely as days, but as 
 memorials of important facts : Christmas might be kept 
 as well upon one day of the year as another, but there 
 should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of 
 our Saviour." 
 
 Boswell wished to sleep at Birmingham, and get some 
 more information from Hector, but Johnson was anxious 
 to reach his native city, and they started that same 
 evening. At Lichfield they put up at the Three 
 Crowns, an old-fashioned tavern, next door to the house 
 where Johnson was brought up. The Three Crowns 
 is still (1887) practically unchanged, and retains an 
 interesting piece of eighteenth-century furniture, which 
 is called " Dr. Johnson's chair." The old inn does a 
 respectable business, though it is not so large or impor- 
 tant as the George, supposed to be the scene of 
 8
 
 114 LIFE OF 
 
 Farquhar's famous comedy, " The Beaux Stratagem ; " or 
 the Swan, where Johnson stayed with the Thrales in 
 1774. On the morning after their arrival Boswell was 
 introduced to Lucy Porter, then " an old maid with much 
 simplicity of manner;" and he also met Peter Garrick, who 
 bore a strong resemblance to his celebrated brother. There 
 appeared to be very little business going in the place, 
 and Boswell remarked "that the inhabitants were an, 
 idle set." " Sir," answered Johnson, " we are a city of 
 philosophers; we work with our heads, and make the 
 boobies of Birmingham work for us with their hands." 
 In the evening they drank tea with Peter Garrick, where 
 they found Molly Aston's unmarried sister. She and 
 another sister, Mrs. Gastrell, lived just outside the city, 
 on Stow Hill, in neighbouring houses, which still remain. 
 It was during this visit that Boswell first saw Anna Seward, 
 the poetess, with whom, after Johnson's death, he was to 
 have a very angry controversy. She was, as mentioned 
 in a former chapter, a daughter of Dr. Hunter, who had 
 been headmaster of the Grammar School. 
 
 At Lichfield Johnson was much shocked by the news 
 of the death of Mr. Thrale's only son, and determined 
 to hasten his return to London. On March 26th, the 
 travellers were conveyed to Ashbourne in Dr. Taylor's 
 "large roomy post-chaise, drawn by four stout, plump 
 horses, and driven by two steady, jolly postillions." 
 Boswell was again able to make substantial additions to 
 his materials for the " Life," and was much pleased at 
 seeing the cordial meeting between Johnson and his old 
 schoolfellow. On the second day of their visit some 
 of the neighbours joined the party at dinner, and Boswell
 
 JOHNSON. 115 
 
 was unlucky enough to draw upon himself a severe reproof 
 from his "illustrious friend." The company was discuss- 
 ing the advantages of fine clothes, and the guests must have 
 been a good deal amused at the following dialogue : 
 
 " Johnson. No, sir, fine clothes are good only as 
 they supply the want of other means of procuring respect. 
 Was Charles the Twelfth, think you, less respected for 
 his worn blue coat and his black stock ? and you find 
 the King of Prussia dresses plain, because the dignity of 
 his character is sufficient. 
 
 " Boswell. Would not you, sir, be the better for 
 velvet and embroidery ? 
 
 " Johnson. Sir, you put an end to all argument when 
 you introduce your opponent himself." 
 
 After dinner the return journey was commenced. At 
 Leicester Johnson heard of the death of his school- 
 fellow, Dr. James, and said : " Since I have set out on 
 this journey I have lost an old friend and a young one. 
 Dr. James and poor Harry Thrale." 
 
 On his arrival in London he at once went to the 
 Thrales, and appears to have been rather disconcerted at 
 finding them on the point of starting for Bath, though 
 they knew that he had shortened his excursion in order 
 to come to them in their distress. 
 
 An amusing incident in Johnson's life occurred this year 
 (1776). In his political pamphlets, "The False Alarm " and 
 " The Patriot," he had treated John Wilkes with great 
 severity, and had always expressed strong disapproval 
 both of his public and private principles. " Two men 
 more different," writes Boswell, "would perhaps not be 
 selected out of all mankind," and the biographer was
 
 116 LIFE OF 
 
 now anxious to bring together these opposite characters. 
 Mr. Dilly, the bookseller of the Poultry, a Dissenter and 
 a Whig, had asked Boswell to meet his friend Wilkes at 
 dinner. The invitation was accepted, and Boswell re- 
 quested permission to bring Johnson. Mr. Dilly was 
 aghast at the proposal. " What," he said, " with Mr. 
 Wilkes ? not for the world ; Dr. Johnson would never 
 forgive me." But Boswell promised he would arrange 
 the affair, and be answerable for anything that might 
 happen. The first stage in the negotiation, and perhaps 
 the most difficult, was to convey the invitation to 
 Johnson. If a direct proposal had been made to meet 
 Jack Wilkes at dinner, Johnson, would almost certainly, 
 as Boswell suggests, have flown into a violent passion, 
 and refused in pretty strong language. The diplomatic 
 manner, in which the affair was brought about, is very 
 amusing, and the dialogue on this occasion must be 
 quoted from BoswelPs " Life" : 
 
 " Boswell. Mr. Dilly, sir, sends his respectful compli- 
 ments, and would be happy if you would do him the 
 honour to dine with him on Wednesday along with me, 
 as I must soon go to Scotland. 
 
 "Johnson. Sir, I am obliged to Mr. Dilly, I will wait 
 on him. 
 
 " Boswell. Provided, sir, I suppose, that the company 
 which he is to have is agreeable to you. 
 
 "Johnson. What do you mean, sir? What do you 
 take me for ! Do you think I am so ignorant of the 
 world as to imagine that I am to prescribe to a gentleman 
 what company he is to have at his table ? 
 
 " Boswell. I should not be surprised to find Jack 
 Wilkes there.
 
 JOHNSON. 117 
 
 "Johnson, And if Jack Wilkes should be there what 
 is that to me, sir ? " 
 
 On the appointed day, May i5th, Boswell called at 
 Bolt Court to accompany Johnson to the dinner, but 
 found he had forgotten the engagement, and had promised 
 to dine at home with Miss Williams. The lady was at 
 first very unwilling to let the doctor go, but finally yielded 
 to the solicitations of Boswell and gave her consent. As 
 soon as Miss Williams was appeased, Frank Barber was 
 ordered to bring a clean shirt, and in a few minutes 
 Johnson was dressed and seated in a hackney coach on 
 the road to Mr. Billy's house. On entering the drawing- 
 room he found that many of the company were strangers, 
 and he whispered to his host inquiring their names. 
 " And who is the gentleman in lace ? " he at last asked. 
 " Mr. Wilkes, sir," was the reply. This rather startled 
 him, and he took up a book, on which for some minutes- 
 he kept his eyes fixed. He recollected, however, his> 
 rebuke to Boswell for supposing that he could be discon- 
 certed by strange company, and was quite composed by 
 the time dinner was announced. Of this interesting 
 evening Boswell gives an excellent account, of which 
 some idea may be formed by the following extracts : 
 
 " Mr. Wilkes found himself next to Dr. Johnson, and 
 behaved to him with so much attention and politeness 
 that he gained upon him insensibly. No man eat more 
 heartily than Johnson, or loved better what was nice and 
 delicate. Mr. Wilkes was very assiduous in helping him 
 to some fine veal. ' Pray give me leave, sir, it is better 
 here a little of the brown some fat, sir a little of the 
 stuffing, some gravy. Let me have the pleasure of giving
 
 118 LIFE OF 
 
 you some butter. Allow me to recommend a squeeze 
 of this orange ; or the lemon perhaps may have more 
 zest' ' Sir, sir ; I am obliged to you, sir,' cried 
 Johnson, bowing and turning his head to him with a look 
 for some time of ' surly virtue,' but in a short while of 
 complacency. Foote being mentioned, Johnson said : 
 ' He is not a good mimic. . . . One species of wit he 
 has in an eminent degree that of escape. You drive 
 him into a corner with both hands, but he's gone, sir, 
 when you think you have got him, like an animal that 
 jumps over your head. Then he has a great range for 
 wit ; he never lets truth stand between him and a jest, 
 and he is sometimes mighty coarse. Garrick is under 
 many restraints from which Foote is free.' 
 
 " Wilkes. Garrick's wit is more like Lord Chesterfield's. 
 
 ''Johnson. The first time I was in company with 
 Foote was at Fitzherbert's. Having no good opinion 
 of the fellow I was resolved not to be pleased. I went 
 on eating my dinner pretty sullenly, affecting not to 
 mind him. But the dog was so very comical that I was 
 obliged to lay down my knife and fork, throw myself 
 back upon my chair and fairly laugh it out. No, sir, he 
 was irresistible. . . . 
 
 " Mr. Arthur Lee mentioned some Scotch who had 
 taken possession of a barren part of America, and 
 wondered why they should choose it. 
 
 ''Johnson. Why, sir, all barrenness is comparative. 
 The Scotch would not know it to be barren. 
 
 " Boswell. Come, come, he is flattering the English. 
 
 "Johnson (to Mr. Wilkes). You must know, sir, I 
 lately took my friend Boswell and showed him genuine
 
 JOHNSON. 119 
 
 civilized life in an English- provincial town. I turned 
 him loose at Lichfield, my native city, that he might 
 see for once civility ; for you know he lives among 
 savages in Scotland and rakes in London. 
 
 " Wilkes. Except when he is with grave, sober, 
 decent people like you and me. 
 
 "Johnson (smiling). And we, ashamed of him.' 1 
 
 After dinner the company was joined by Mrs. Knowles, 
 a Quaker lady famous for copying pictures in needle- 
 work. Croker asserts she was by no means attractive, 
 but the engraved portrait of her represents an extremely 
 pretty woman. 1 Johnson seems to have been rather 
 smitten with the lady's appearance. Boswell writes : 
 " Mr. Wilkes held a candle to show a fine print of a 
 beautiful female figure which hung in the room, and 
 pointed out the elegant contour of the bosom with the 
 finger of an arch connoisseur. He afterwards, in a conver- 
 sation with me, waggishly insisted that all the time Johnson 
 showed visible signs of a fervent admiration of the corres- 
 ponding charms of the fair Quaker." Boswell accom- 
 panied Johnson home to his house, and was pleased to 
 hear him tell Mrs. Williams that he had had a very 
 pleasant evening. 
 
 Two years afterwards, in 1778, Johnson again met 
 Mrs. Knowles at Mr. Billy's, and an illustration, which 
 she made use of in discussing a question of Divinity, 
 elicited Johnson's warm praise. The conversation had 
 taken a theological turn, and Johnson argued that Chris- 
 
 1 When Molly Morris of Rageby, before her marriage, she was 
 known as " the beaitty of Staffordshire," She survived her husband, 
 Dr. Knowles, for many years, and died February, 4, 1807, aged So.
 
 120 LIFE OF 
 
 tianity recommended universal benevolence. " Surely, 
 madam," he said, " your sect must approve of this, for 
 you call men friends" 
 
 11 Mrs. Knowles. We are commended to do good to 
 all men, but especially to them who are of the household 
 of faith ! 
 
 "Johnson. Well, madam, the household of faith is 
 wide enough. 
 
 " Mrs. Knowles. But, Doctor, our Saviour had twelve 
 apostles, yet there was one whom he loved. John was 
 called ' the disciple whom Jesus loved.' 
 
 "Johnson (with eyes sparkling benignantly). Very 
 well indeed, madam ; you have said very well. 
 
 " Boswell. A fine application. Pray, sir, had you 
 ever thought of it ? " 
 
 "Johnson. I had not, sir." 
 
 Mention was made of the Rev. Mr. Mason's prosecu- 
 tion of Mr. Murray, the bookseller, for having inserted in 
 a collection of " Gray's Poems " fifty lines of which Mr. 
 Mason still had the copyright. Johnson expressed his 
 strong disapprobation of the poet's conduct, and added, 
 " Mason's a Whig. 
 
 " Mrs. Knowles (who had not distinctly heard). What, 
 a prig, sir ? 
 
 "Johnson. Worse, madam, a Whig. But he's both." 
 
 A very angry controversy now rose between Mrs. 
 Knowles and Johnson, in which the former decidedly 
 gained the advantage. She mentioned that Miss Jane 
 Harry, a young lady to whom Johnson had shown kind- 
 ness, had joined the Society of Friends, and in the 
 gentlest manner entreated the Doctor's indulgence for 
 his young friend.
 
 JOHNSON. 121 
 
 1 'Johnson (frowning very angrily). Madam, she is an 
 odious wench. . . . She knew no more of the Church 
 which she left and that which she embraced, than she did 
 of the difference between the Copernican and Ptolemaic 
 systems. 
 
 " Mrs. Knowles. She had the New Testament before 
 her. 
 
 "Johnson. Madam, she could not understand the 
 New Testament, the most difficult book in the world, for 
 which the study of a lifetime is required. 
 
 " Mrs. Knowles. It is clear as to essentials. 
 
 "Johnson. But not as to controversial points. 
 
 " Mrs. Knowles. Must we, then, go by implicit 
 faith ? 
 
 "Johnson. Why, madam, the greatest part of our 
 knowledge is implicit faith. . . . 
 
 "He then," said Boswell, "rose again into passion, 
 and attacked the young proselyte in the severest terms of 
 reproach." 
 
 Mrs. Knowles published a full account 1 of the contro- 
 versy with Dr. Johnson, and it is easy to see that Boswell 
 had good reason for not giving fuller details. He was 
 much too conscientious and honourable to make the 
 least alteration in any of the conversations which he 
 reported ; but he probably thought it allowable to con- 
 dense considerably on certain occasions. 
 
 1 It appeared in The Gentleman 's Magazine for June, 1791, and 
 was afterwards issued as a pamphlet in 1799.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OLDSMITH had died in 1774, and Johnson had 
 V_T announced his death in a letter to Boswell of the 
 4th of July of that year. 
 
 " Of poor, dear Dr. Goldsmith there is little to be told 
 more than the papers have made public. He died of a 
 fever, I am afraid more violent by uneasiness of mind. 
 His debts began to be heavy, and all his resources were 
 exhausted. Sir Joshua is of opinion that he owed not 
 less than two thousand pounds. Was ever poet so trusted 
 before ? " 
 
 It had at first been contemplated to give him a public 
 funeral, but the design was abandoned, and he was buried 
 in the graveyard of the Temple Church with such privacy 
 that the site of his grave is now not known. Reynolds 
 had at this time (1776) originated the idea of a monu- 
 ment in the Abbey, and the epitaph was written by John- 
 son. A good deal of opposition was made to its being 
 in Latin, and some members of the " Club," including 
 Burke, Gibbon, Sheridan, and Reynolds, drew up a 
 remonstrance, in the form of a round robin, to the 
 following effect : " We, the Circumscribers, having read 
 with great pleasure, an intended epitaph for the monu-
 
 LIFE OF JOHXSON. 123 
 
 ment of Dr. Goldsmith, which, considered abstractedly, 
 appears to be, for elegant composition, and masterly 
 style, in every respect worthy of the pen of its learned 
 author, are yet of opinion that the character of the 
 deceased as a writer, particularly as a poet, is perhaps 
 not delineated with all the exactness which Dr. Johnson 
 is capable of giving it ; we therefore, with deference to 
 his superior judgment, humbly request that he would at 
 least take the trouble of revising it, and of making such 
 additions and alterations as he shall think proper upon a 
 farther perusal ; but if we might venture to express our 
 wishes, they would lead us to request that he would write 
 the epitaph in English rather than in Latin, as we think 
 that the memory of so eminent an English writer ought 
 to be perpetuated in the language to which his works 
 are likely to be so lasting an ornament, which we also 
 know to have been the opinion of the late Doctor him- 
 self." But the sturdy old scholar refused " to disgrace 
 the walls of Westminster Abbey with an English inscrip- 
 tion," and the Latin original was, accordingly, placed on 
 the tablet beneath the medallion of the poet's head. 
 
 In 1777, Johnson undertook a congenial work, for 
 which he was in every way fitted, and which may still be 
 read with delight and interest. The first four volumes 
 appeared, in 1779, as the "Prefaces, Biographical and 
 Critical, of the most eminent of the English Poets," and 
 the series was completed in 1781. These "Prefaces" 
 were afterwards published as " Lives of the English 
 Poets," but the former title is more correct. The 
 " Lives," admirable in their own way, are not so much 
 biographies as critical essays. Few attempts are made to
 
 124 LIFE OF 
 
 give exact details, and in some cases, where information 
 was supplied, Johnson neglected to make use of it. The 
 " Life of Savage," already referred to, is undoubtedly the 
 best of the series, but a critic once said of it that it con- 
 tained only one date, and that date incorrect. This is a 
 manifest exaggeration, but it is certainly a matter of 
 regret, that, at a time, when, for some of the " Lives," 
 it was possible to procure most valuable information, 
 no such attempt was made. 
 
 In our own day, considerable surprise would be ex- 
 pressed if the writer of a biography of Congreve were 
 bold enough to say "Of his (Congreve's) plays I cannot 
 speak distinctly, for since I inspected them many years 
 have passed ;" or whose remarks on Congreve's first novel, 
 " Incognita," were limited to a candid confession, " It is 
 praised by the biographers, I would rather praise it than 
 read it." 
 
 But Johnson's memory was so retentive, and his 
 acquaintance with English literature so extensive, that 
 he was able, from his previous knowledge, to- give an 
 excellent account of most of the works which he criticises, 
 and his remarks are often of the greatest interest and 
 value. The strange paradoxes, in which he indulged in 
 his ordinary conversation, appear rarely in the " Lives," 
 and, in many cases, where he had conceived a strong 
 prejudice against the works of certain writers, he carefully 
 discriminates between the merits and defects of their 
 separate productions. He had no admiration for Gray, 
 but he does full justice to his " Elegy," of which he 
 says, " Had Gray often written thus, it had been vain to 
 blame, and useless to praise him ;" and on one occasion,
 
 JOHNSOX. 125 
 
 in discussing " The Bard," he acknowledged the extraor- 
 dinary beauty of the two lines 
 
 " Tho' fana'd by Conquest's crimson wing 
 They mock the air with idle state." 
 
 There are probably many critics now who, with a hearty 
 admiration for Gray's exquisite choice of language, and 
 the simple beauty of his style, agree with Johnson that 
 he was a " mechanical poet." 
 
 Charles James Fox and many others, among whom 
 was William Cowper, the author of " The Task," com- 
 plained bitterly of Johnson's treatment of their favourite 
 authors. Some of the " Lives," especially those of Gray, 
 Milton, and Lyttelton, were commented on with great 
 severity, but this feeling of anger appears difficult to under- 
 stand. The biographical portion of the work contains 
 nothing to offend any sensibilities, and even in the case 
 of Milton, whose political principles Johnson detested, 
 great veneration is expressed for his abilities and his 
 personal character. The sublimity of the " Paradise 
 Lost" is admitted, but Johnson could hardly be expected 
 to praise pastoral poetry, which he disliked, especially 
 when accompanied by mythological imagery. It seemed 
 to his strong common-sense mere absurdity for a poet to 
 assume the character of a shepherd, and address another 
 poet in a similar disguise : " What image of tenderness," 
 he writes, in speaking of " Lycidas," " can be excited by 
 these lines ? 
 
 ' We drove afield, and both together heard 
 What time the gray fly winds her sultry horn, 
 Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night.'
 
 126 LIFE OF 
 
 We know that they never drove afield, and that they had 
 no flocks to batten ; and though it be allowed that the 
 representation may be allegorical, the true meaning is so 
 uncertain, and remote, that it is never sought, because it 
 cannot be known when it is found." 
 
 A small minority still agree with Johnson's want of 
 appreciation of " Lycidas," which is deservedly considered 
 as one of the gems of our language. Only quite recently a 
 poet of some University reputation, Sir Francis Doyle, 
 confessed in his " Reminiscences " that he was not able 
 to admire " Lycidas." 
 
 While preparing Lord Lyttelton's biography, Johnson 
 had addressed a polite letter to that nobleman's brother, 
 stating how glad he should be, if some member of the 
 family would undertake the narrative portion of the 
 memoir. The offer was courteously refused, but it absolves 
 Johnson from any intention of ill-feeling or spite. 
 
 In 1778 Johnson made the acquaintance of Miss 
 Eurney, who in August was staying on her first visit to 
 Streatham ; and in her " Diary," published many years 
 later, we have some lively sketches of Johnson, taken 
 from a different point of view to those from which he is 
 generally presented. He at once formed a warm friendship 
 for " little Burney," and this was most cordially returned. 
 Her novel of " Evelina " had appeared in the preceding 
 January. It was published by an unknown firm, and at 
 first attracted little attention, but it made its way by 
 degrees, and at length achieved a success, almost un- 
 precedented in the history of literature. Reynolds had 
 been so interested in its contents that he had offered 
 fifty pounds to know the name of the author ; Edmund
 
 JOHNSON. 127 
 
 Burke had sat up a whole night to read it ; Johnson pro- 
 tested there were passages in it that would do honour to 
 Richardson ; Daddy Crisp, the great friend of the Burney 
 family, had declared that in some respects it was superior 
 to Fielding. These flattering comments are related by 
 the lady herself, but there is no doubt of their authenti- 
 city, though they must cause considerable surprise to a 
 generation which knows something of the novels of Jane 
 Ansten, and of George Eliot. The work was conceived 
 in an entirely new style, and the writer is entitled to very 
 high praise for her courage in striking out a fresh line 
 in fiction, though the story itself is little superior, either in 
 design or execution, to those with which the readers of 
 The Family Herald, and other modern periodicals, are 
 familiar. But Macaulay, in his well-known essay on 
 " Madame D'Arblay," has mentioned " Evelina" in en- 
 thusiastic terms, and it will probably be known, at least 
 in name, as long as any work of that class in our lan- 
 guage. It can scarcely be thought surprising that Miss 
 Burney should feel elated at finding herself treated 
 with such extraordinary adulation, but it would have 
 been wiser if, in her diary and letters, she had been 
 a little more reticent on the subject. Johnson, 
 however, was delighted with her, and they remained 
 till his death on the most intimate and affection- 
 ate terms. He talked to her with the most delicate 
 flattery ; he wrote to her ; he tried to teach her Latin ; 
 and in his last illness, when he was too unwell for an 
 interview, he sent the kindest messages, and begged for 
 her prayers. 
 
 Miss Burney's name is rarely mentioned by Boswell,
 
 128 LIFE OF 
 
 whom she had deeply offended by her refusal to lend 
 him her letters from Johnson, or to give any information 
 on the subject. One of the most amusing passages in 
 her " Diary," is the account of her interview with the 
 biographer at Windsor in 1790. He met her at the 
 gates of the choir, and begged some of " her choice little 
 notes of the Doctor. . . . Grave Sam," he said, "and 
 great Sam, and solemn Sam, and learned Sam, all these 
 he has appeared over and over. ... I want to show 
 him as gay Sam, agreeable Sam, pleasant Sam ; so you 
 must help me with some of his beautiful billets to your- 
 self." Miss Burney tried to evade his requests, but he 
 was importunate, and followed her up to the castle gate, 
 where he insisted on reading to her a letter from Johnson 
 to himself. A crowd began to assemble, and the king 
 and queen were seen approaching from the Terrace. Miss 
 Burney made her tormentor a hasty apology, and fled to 
 her apartments. 
 
 Mr. Croker was equally unable to obtain'any assistance 
 from Madame d'Arblay(as Miss Burney had]then become). 
 There can be little doubt that her refusal was wrong, and 
 it was probably dictated by that morbid vanity which, to 
 the last, disfigured her many good qualities. Johnson, 
 when questioned on the subject, had expressly declared 
 that there could be no objection to publishing a man's 
 letters after his death ; and Madame d'Arblay must have 
 seen this statement in Boswell's " Life." An interesting 
 mention of the lady occurs in one of Disraeli's recently- 
 published letters to his sister. " ' Contarini,' he writes, 
 seems universally liked, but moves slowly. The staunchest 
 admirer I have in London, and the most discerning
 
 JOHNSON. 129 
 
 appreciator of 'Contarini,' is old Madame d'Arblay. I 
 have a long letter, which I will show you. Capital ! " 
 
 There were many of Johnson's friends, besides Miss 
 Burney, in the Streatham circle of whom we hear very 
 little in Boswell's work. There was Mrs. Cholmondeley, 
 the sister of Peg Woffington, whom Johnson must have 
 known for many years. She had a good deal of the 
 family cleverness, and joined so much sound sense to 
 her more brilliant qualities, that Miss Burney declared 
 " she would bring about a union between wit and judg- 
 ment." There was also the beautiful Mrs. Crewe, the 
 friend of Burke and of Charles James Fox; and her 
 sister, Mrs. Greville, whose " Ode to Indifference " was 
 much admired in its time ; and there were others, whose 
 names we only learn by some chance mention. But the 
 most interesting member of the coterie was Sophy Streat- 
 field, generally known as " S. S.," one of the most lovely 
 women of her day ; and Miss Burney affected to be 
 " really astonished when Mrs. Thrale hinted at my 
 becoming a rival to Miss Streatfield in the Doctor's 
 good graces." Johnson had declared that the latter was 
 a sweet creature, and he loved her much, but that Burney 
 wrote a better letter. Miss Streatfield, though she was 
 allowed, even by her rivals, to be a woman of strict 
 principles, was probably the most accomplished coquette 
 that ever breathed. Her special admiration was for 
 men who were tall and thin, but no one of the male sex 
 was safe from her attentions. Old and young, married 
 and single, noblemen, reverend very reverend and even 
 right reverend divines, were each, at times, the victim of 
 her fascinations. Nobody was supposed to be so pretty, 
 9
 
 130 LIFE OF 
 
 when she cried, as Miss Streatfield ; and one of her 
 charms was the strange power of shedding tears when- 
 ever she wished. 
 
 "Yes, do cry a little, Sophy," said Mrs. Thrale to her 
 on one occasion when she wished this uncommon art to 
 be displayed to some guests ; " pray do ! Consider now, 
 you are going to-day, and it is very hard if you won't cry 
 a little ; indeed, S. S., you ought to cry." 
 
 " Now for the wonder of wonders," adds Miss Burney. 
 "When Mrs. Thrale, in a coaxing voice, suited to a baby, 
 had run on some time while all of us, in laughter, 
 joined in the request two crystal tears came into the 
 soft eyes of the S. S., and rolled gently down her 
 cheeks." 
 
 Besides her beauty, however, she had considerable 
 intellectual attainments. She was a woman of culture, 
 an excellent Greek scholar, and had published an 
 edition of the classics. At Chiddingstone, the pic- 
 turesque family seat in Kent, there is still (1887) an 
 extremely beautiful miniature of Sophy Streatfield, attri- 
 buted to Cosway, and on the library shelves, very properly, 
 appear handsomely-bound copies of her classics. Her 
 flirtations were, unfortunately, carried on a little too long, 
 and the man, whom she really loved, proved at last to be 
 faithless. Colonel H. D. Streatfield, the present head of 
 the family, has a dim remembrance of the S. S. as a 
 feeble, withered old lady crossing over the bridge between 
 the pleasure ground and the churchyard, on her way to 
 the morning service. She died unmarried on the 3oth 
 November, 1835, in the eighty-first year of her age. 
 
 An epigrammatic description of one of Mrs. Thrale's
 
 JOHNSON. 131 
 
 parties is given in a letter written by her about this time to 
 Fanny Burney : " Yesterday I had a conversazione. Mrs. 
 Montague was brilliant in diamonds, solid in judgment, 
 critical in talk. Sophy smiled, Piozzi sung, Pepys panted 
 with admiration, Johnson was good-humoured, Lord John 
 Clinton attentive, Dr. Bowdler lame, and my master 
 not asleep. Mrs. Ord looked elegant, Lady Rothes 
 dainty, Mrs. Davenant dapper, and Sir Phillip's curls 
 were all blown about by the wind. Mrs. Byron rejoices 
 that her Admiral and I agree so well; the way to his 
 heart is connoisseurship, it seems, and for a back- 
 ground and contour who comes up to Mrs. Thrale you 
 know." 
 
 A class of persons much less agreeable than those, just 
 referred to, were the needy authors with whom Johnson 
 had much intercourse. His kindness in assisting his 
 poorer professional brethren was so well known that there 
 was scarcely a day when his opinion was not asked about 
 some literary production. Poets, historians, dramatists, 
 and writers in every branch of learning, brought their 
 manuscripts for his correction and approval ; and, though 
 he hated the task, he was always ready to help them. 
 
 On one occasion, when Boswell, in 1779, had just 
 arrived in London, he went to Bolt Court, and found 
 Johnson sitting over his breakfast with Mrs. Desmoulins, 
 Levett, and a clergyman who had come to submit some 
 poems for revision. The doctor was reading a translation 
 of " The Carmen Seculare " of Horace, and when he had 
 finished, the author wished to know his opinion, and 
 asked " if upon the whole it was a good translation." 
 Johnson, with great diplomatic skill, and with strict
 
 132 LIFE OF 
 
 adherence to truth, spared the writer's feelings by saying: 
 " Sir, I do not say that it may not be made a very good 
 translation." "A printed 'Ode to the Warlike Genius 
 of Great Britain,' " writes Boswell, "came next in review. 
 The bard was a lank, bony figure, with short black hair. 
 He was writhing himself in agitation, while Johnson read, 
 and, showing his teeth in a grin of earnestness, exclaimed 
 in broken sentences, and in a keen, sharp tone : ' Is that 
 poetry, sir ? is it Pindar ? ' Johnson : ' Why, sir, there 
 is a great deal of what is called poetry ! ' Then, turning 
 to me, the poet cried : ' My muse has not been long upon 
 the town,' and pointing to the ode, ' it trembles under 
 the hand of the great critic !'" 
 
 The elder Disraeli told Mr. Croker that he was visited 
 by a Mr. Tasker, many years afterwards, at a watering- 
 place on the coast of Devon, and was so struck by his 
 resemblance to Boswell's description, that he asked the 
 gentleman if he had ever seen Dr. Johnson ; and the 
 visitor was, as he thought, the author of " The Ode to- 
 the Warlike Genius of Great Britain." 
 
 In January, 1779, "The Club" suffered a great loss 
 by the death of Garrick, and Johnson insisted that there 
 should be a year's widowhood before a new member was 
 elected. "I saw old Samuel Johnson," writes Richard 
 Cumberland, " standing beside his (Garrick's) grave, at 
 the foot of Shakespeare's monument, and bathed in tears.'' 
 Topham Beauclerk, another intimate friend, died in March 
 of the following year, and Johnson felt his loss acutely. 
 " Poor dear Beauclerk," he writes to Boswell on the 
 8th of April, 1780 " 'nee ut soles, dabis joca' his wit. 
 and his folly, his acuteness and maliciousness, are now
 
 JOHNSON. 133 
 
 over. Such another will not often be found among 
 mankind." And he spoke of his death as "a loss that 
 perhaps the whole nation could not repair." 
 
 In 1781, Johnson's friend, Mr. Thrale, who had for 
 some time been very ill, died from a stroke of apoplexy. 
 Everything of late had been left to the management of 
 his wife, who looked after the business at Southwark, 
 superintended the household affairs, and was untiring in 
 her attentions to her husband. They were at this time 
 staying in Grosvenor Square, where a house had been 
 taken for the winter, to keep Mr. Thrale away from the 
 worry of business. On the evening of the 3rd of April, his 
 daughter Hester, better known as " Queenie " (afterwards 
 Viscountess Keith), went down to her father's room and 
 found him in a fit. From the first there was no hope, 
 and the doctor thought it unnecessary even to prescribe. 
 Johnson was sent for, and never left his friend's side till 
 all was over. " I felt," he writes in his " Prayers and 
 Meditations," " almost the last flutter of his pulse, and 
 looked for the last time upon the face that for fifteen 
 years had never been turned upon me but with respect 
 or benignity." 
 
 The death of Mr. Thrale was, as might be expected, to 
 make a great change in Johnson's relations with the 
 family, but at present things went on as usual. He had 
 been appointed one of the executors, and some amuse- 
 ment was caused by the business-like airs which he 
 assumed for the occasion. 
 
 Boswell was now again in London, and relates a 
 comical incident, which occurred after a dinner at Bolt 
 Court, on Easter Sunday, where there were present,
 
 134 LIFE OF 
 
 besides the writer himself, blind Mrs. Williams, Mrs. 
 Desmoulins, Levett, Mrs. Hall (a sister of John Wesley, 
 and very like him in figure and manner), and one or two- 
 others. Johnson made some remark, which both Mrs. 
 Williams and Mrs. Hall tried to answer at the same 
 time. The host was angry, and cried out, " Nay, when 
 you both speak together it is intolerable ; " but, thinking 
 he had been too harsh, added, " This one may say 
 though, you are ladies;" and, brightening into gay 
 humour, quoted the lines from " The Beggar's Opera " 
 
 " But two at a time there's no mortal can bear." 
 
 Boswell asked if he were going to turn Captain Mac- 
 heath. " The contrast," he writes, " between Macheath, 
 Polly, and Lucy and Dr. Samuel Johnson, blind, 
 peevish Mrs. Williams, and lean, lank, preaching Mrs. 
 Hall, was exquisite." 
 
 A few days later Johnson had a pleasant dinner at 
 Mrs. Garrick's, who still kept on the house in the 
 Adelphi, and on this occasion, for the first time since her 
 husband's death, received a few intimate friends. Among, 
 the company was the celebrated Miss Hannah More, 
 who was more enthusiastic about Johnson than even 
 Boswell. She had been introduced to him in 1773 or 
 1774, at Sir Joshua Reynolds' house, and Miss Reynolds 
 soon afterwards took her to Bolt Court, where she was 
 delighted with her reception. On another occasion 
 Hannah More had the pleasure of receiving Johnson at 
 a party at her own house, and after most of the company 
 had retired, he and Garrick began a close encounter, 
 telling old stories, " e'en from their boyish days " at
 
 JOHNSON, 135 
 
 Lichfield. The conference was only broken up by the 
 noise of a vociferous watchman, which warned them of 
 the lateness of the hour. 
 
 The other guests at Mrs. Garrick's were Johnson him- 
 self, Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, his former collaborator in The 
 Gentleman's Magazine, Boswell, Mrs. Boscawen " the 
 high-bred, elegant Boscawen " of the Streatham verses 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Dr. Burney, the father of 
 Fanny Burney. The entertainment went off very agree- 
 ably, and as Johnson and Boswell walked home together, 
 they stopped on the Adelphi Terrace, overlooking the 
 river, and talked of the two friends they had lost, Beau- 
 clerk and Garrick ; " two such friends," said Johnson, 
 tenderly, " as cannot be supplied." Mrs. Garrick sur- 
 vived this evening more than forty-one years, and was 
 buried in her wedding sheets in her husband's grave, in 
 the Abbey, on the 25th of October, 1822. There is an 
 interesting description of her, quoted in Dean Stanley's 
 "Memorials of Westminster Abbey," as "a little, broken- 
 down old woman, who went about leaning on a gold- 
 headed cane, dressed in deep widow's mourning, and 
 always talking of her dear ' Davy.' " 
 
 In the autumn Johnson was absent from London 
 some months, and paid visits to Oxford, Lichfield, Bir- 
 mingham, and Ashbourne. " Dear Dr. Johnson is at 
 length returned," writes Mrs. Thrale, on the iyth of 
 December ; " he has been a vast while away, to see his 
 country folks at Lichfield." 
 
 Early in 1782 Robert Levett, his old and faithful 
 friend, died very suddenly. This curious character had, 
 in his youth, picked up some knowledge of medicine in
 
 136 LIFE OF 
 
 Paris, and, on his return to London, took lodgings at the 
 house of an attorney, in Northumberland Court, and set 
 up as a physician. He had long been an inmate of 
 Johnson's establishment, and his particular part in the 
 routine of the household was to pour out the tea for his 
 host at breakfast, of which meal he always had a share. 
 He had an extensive practice, but among the very poorest 
 class. Johnson had a high opinion of his skill, and 
 liked his companionship. His death made a gap among 
 Johnson's friends, which he often alluded to with regret. 
 
 During this year, his intercourse with Mrs. Thrale was 
 still kept up, and there was no outward cessation of 
 friendship, but it was evident that it could not be con- 
 tinued on its former footing. Mrs. Thrale herself con- 
 fessed that, without her husband's assistance, she did not 
 feel herself able to entertain Johnson as a constant 
 inmate of her house. In the beginning of 1782, she 
 spent three months in London, but returned to Streatham 
 in April. Miss Burney had already discovered her friend's 
 tender feelings for Piozzi, but they appear, at that time, 
 not to have been remarked by Johnson. In September, 
 the place at Streatham was, from motives of economy, 
 let to Lord Shelburne, and Mrs. Thrale took a house 
 at Brighton, whither Johnson accompanied her, and re- 
 mained six weeks on the old familiar footing. On this 
 point the diary of Madame d'Arblay, who was, at that 
 time, a guest of Mrs. Thrale's, bears unimpeachable 
 evidence. It is strange that of this visit to Brighton 
 Boswell makes no mention. 
 
 The real facts of the case appear to be that Mrs. 
 Thrale was unwilling to break off her connection with
 
 JOHNSON. 137 
 
 Johnson, of which she was extremely proud, but wished 
 his visits to be less frequent, and he either did not, or 
 would not, understand her. At present, however, there 
 was nothing like an open rupture. 
 
 In March, 1783, Boswell came to town, and was 
 glad to find Johnson at Mrs. Thrale's house in Argyle 
 Street, appearances of friendship being still kept up, but 
 Boswell thought him very ill, as he undoubtedly was. 
 Asthmatic symptoms had shown themselves, and he 
 looked "pale and distressed." Hannah More, too, 
 about the same time, writes : " Poor Johnson is in a bad 
 state of health ; I fear his constitution is breaking up." 
 But he rallied somewhat in the summer, and was well 
 enough to be a most effective cicerone to Hannah More 
 during her visit to Oxford. He showed her over his old 
 college, and pointed out the rooms of his former com- 
 rades, and when they came to the common room they 
 found a large print of Johnson, framed, and hung up, that 
 very day, with a motto below it from Miss More's 
 " Sensibility : " 
 
 "And is not Johnson ours? himself a host." 
 
 The gloomy apprehensions of his friends for Johnson's 
 health were too well founded. Early in the morning of 
 the lythof June, shortly after his visit to Oxford, he had 
 a severe paralytic stroke, which deprived him of speech. 
 But he retained the full use of his senses, and was able 
 to write a few lines on a card to beg his neighbour, Mr. 
 Edmund Allen, the printer, to come and act for him "as 
 the emergencies of the case might require." He sent 
 another letter to his schoolfellow, Dr. Taylor, asking to
 
 133 LIFE OF 
 
 see him as soon as possible, and requesting that he 
 would bring with him Dr. Heberden, who, at that time, 
 was, almost, without a rival in his profession. Two 
 days later, he wrote a long account of his seizure to 
 Mrs. Thrale, then settled at Bath with her daughters. 
 On receipt of the bad news, she wished to come to 
 London, at once, to look after him. " Your offer, dear 
 madam, of coming to me," he wrote in reply, " is 
 charmingly kind j but I will lay it up for future use ; " 
 and he finished his letter " write to me very often." 
 
 Owing to his robust constitution, Johnson's health was 
 soon partially restored. He was able, early in July, to 
 dine at the " Club," and soon after to pay some visits in 
 the country ; but life had lost a good deal of its zest, 
 and there was much to sadden him at home. On the 
 5th of July, he writes to his step-daughter, Lucy Porter : " I 
 live now but in a melancholy way ; my old friend, Mr. 
 Levett, is dead, who lived with me in the house, and was 
 useful and companionable ; Mrs. Desmoulins is gone 
 away ; and Mrs. Williams is so much decayed that she 
 can add little to another's gratifications." Mrs. Desmou- 
 lins soon returned to Bolt Court, and helped to nurse 
 Johnson in his last illness, but Mrs. Williams died in 
 September. 
 
 In this autumn, 1783, Johnson received a visit at his 
 house from Mrs.Siddons,the greatest actress of the English 
 stage. Her brother, Charles Kemble, equally celebrated 
 in the same profession, left a pleasant account of his 
 sister's reception at Bolt Court. " When Mrs. Siddons 
 came into the room," he writes, " there happened to be 
 no chair ready for her, which he observing said, with a
 
 JOHNSON. 139- 
 
 smile, 'You, madam, who so often occasion a want of 
 seats to other people, will the more easily excuse the 
 want of one yourself. 5 Having placed himself by her, 
 he, with great good humour, entered upon a consideration 
 of the English drama ; and, among other inquiries, par- 
 ticularly asked her which of Shakespeare's characters 
 she was most pleased with. Upon her answering that 
 she thought the character of Queen Catherine, in Henry 
 the Eighth, the most natural ; ' I think so, too, madam,' 
 said he, ' and whenever you perform it, I will once more 
 hobble out to the theatre.' Mrs. Siddons said she 
 would do herself the honour of acting his favourite part 
 for him ; but she had no opportunity of fulfilling her 
 promise before the doctor's death." 
 
 In the winter, the survivors of the old " Ivy Lane 
 Club " dined together twice, at the Queen's Arms in St. 
 Paul's Churchyard, and later on were entertained at 
 Johnson's house. At his suggestion, another club was 
 instituted, which met at the Essex Head Tavern, in Essex 
 Street, kept by an old servant of Mrs. Thrale's. It was 
 continued for some years, and was still nourishing in 
 1792. 
 
 Boswell was very anxious, this year, for Johnson to 
 accept Mr. Wilkes's hospitality, and that gentleman, who- 
 had now retired from political life, and held a lucrative 
 municipal office, sent the doctor an invitation to dinner. 
 He was unfortunately engaged, and the entertainment 
 never came off. Johnson's reply to Mr. and Miss 
 Wilkes's invitation is preserved among the MSS. of the 
 British Museum. 
 
 In the beginning of 1784, Johnson's health appeared
 
 140 LIFE OF 
 
 somewhat improved, and Boswell, on arriving in London, 
 found him in better spirits than he had been for some 
 time. On the 5th of June, they made an excursion to 
 Oxford, where they spent nearly a fortnight as guests of 
 Johnson's fellow collegian, Dr. Adams, then master of 
 Pembroke College. On his return to London, though 
 he looked and felt far from well, he was constantly dining 
 out, and in no way following the regime of an invalid. 
 We hear of him at Mr. Billy's, the bookseller, at General 
 Paoli's, and, more than once, at Reynolds's. On the 
 22nd he dined, for the last time, at the "Club," where 
 he was much pleased with the kindness and deference 
 that was shown him by every one. 
 
 It was either during this, or the previous year, that Mary 
 Wollstonecraft, afterwards the mother of Mary Shelley, 
 paid a visit to Johnson at Bolt Court. William Godwin, 
 her husband, relates the circumstances as follows : " It 
 was also during her residence at Newington Green that 
 she was introduced to the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, 
 who was at that time considered, as in some sort, the 
 father of English literature. The doctor treated her 
 with particular kindness and attention, had a long con- 
 versation with her, and desired her to repeat her visit 
 often. This she firmly purposed to do, but the news of 
 his last illness, and then of his death, intervened to 
 prevent her seeing him a second time." 
 
 This interview has a strong suggestive interest. Mary 
 Wollstonecraft's character was in her own time mis- 
 understood and misrepresented ; and she was throughout 
 life unfortunate in her surroundings. Her father was a 
 cruel tyrant in his own family, and after her mother's
 
 JOHNSON. 141 
 
 death, Mary, then a young and beautiful woman, deter- 
 mined to support herself by her own exertions. When 
 she made the acquaintance of Johnson, she was keeping 
 a school, which was doing well, and promised to be a 
 success, but on hearing of the illness of a young 
 married lady, to whom she was tenderly attached, she 
 left the place, where she was enjoying happiness and 
 independence, to watch by the death-bed of her friend. 
 When the sad event was over, she engaged for a time 
 in literary work, and, a few years later, made the ac- 
 quaintance of a Mr. Imlay, in whose honour she 
 allowed herself to confide. This worthless scoundrel 
 entrapped her into some kind of marriage at Paris, and 
 basely deserted her, after she had borne him a child, and 
 had injured her health by her exertions to retrieve his 
 ruined fortunes. Her second husband, William Godwin,, 
 was a dull pedant, as intolerant in his political opinions- 
 as in his religious scepticism. Mary Wollstonecraft was 
 foolish enough to despise public opinion, and she hated 
 the bigotry and the religious intolerance of those formal 
 times, but no more noble-minded woman ever lived. Her 
 worst enemies have never dared to say that she had erred 
 from profligate motives, or that she had lost the innate 
 purity of her mind. From her earliest youth, her life was 
 spent in trying to help those who were unhappy or unfor- 
 tunate, and though she differed from Johnson in every 
 outward circumstance of her life and opinions, there 
 was one strong point of resemblance a great love of 
 humanity. 
 
 It is not the duty of a biographer to indulge in hypo- 
 thetical speculations, but it is well to consider what a
 
 142 LIFE OF 
 
 different career might have been that of Mary Wollstone- 
 craft, if the course of events had allowed this visit at 
 Bolt Court to be repeated, and the acquaintance, which 
 had given so much pleasure to both, to develop into friend- 
 ship and intimacy. 
 
 Johnson's state of health had now become so bad 
 that efforts were made by his friends to procure some 
 increase to his pension, which would enable him to travel 
 on the Continent, and try the effects of a milder climate. 
 But the project was unsuccessful, though Lord Thurlow, 
 then Lord Chancellor, had promised to exert his influence 
 in the affair, and even offered himself to advance $oo 
 on the formal security of the pension. Liberal offers of 
 pecuniary assistance were made by private friends, but 
 Dr. Brocklesby, Johnson's regular attendant, thought that 
 little advantage would be gained by a foreign residence, 
 .and the scheme was abandoned. Boswell was now 
 obliged to return to Scotland, and on the 3oth of June, 
 after a dinner at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, he drove with 
 Johnson to the entrance of Bolt Court, and took an 
 affectionate farewell. It was the last time they were to 
 meet, and Boswell had evidently some forebodings of the 
 loss he was soon to undergo. He had many kind ac- 
 quaintances, who were attracted by his geniality and good 
 nature, but of the literary circle, with which he asso- 
 ciated, there were none except Johnson, and Reynolds, 
 who entertained for him any serious feelings of regard. 
 Reynolds, undoubtedly, had a great liking for him, which 
 was always retained, and he was one of those mentioned 
 in the great painter's will, but Johnson's feelings to- 
 wards him were still warmer. He had declared that to
 
 JOHNSON. 143 
 
 lose Boswell would be like the amputation of a limb, 
 .and, notwithstanding the occasional rebukes which he 
 administered, there was no person whose society always 
 gave him so much satisfaction. It would have been well 
 for Boswell, if he had been able to form other friendships 
 of the same nature. 
 
 On the 3<Dth of June, Mrs. Thrale announced to Johnson 
 her intended marriage, which did not, however, take 
 place till the 25th of July. The news can hardly have been 
 a surprise to him, if the account is correct, which Madame 
 d'Arblay gives in her Diary of her interview with Johnson, 
 an the November of the preceding year. He replied 
 dn an angry tone, under the belief that the marriage had 
 .already taken place. In any case, however, no practical 
 result could have arisen from the correspondence, which 
 ended with a letter from Mrs. Thrale, bidding him a 
 " kind and affectionate farewell." But his wrath was not 
 to be appeased, and he never spoke of her again except 
 in language of the strongest contempt and indignation. 
 The whole dispute seems, in the present day, entirely 
 uncalled for, but the marriage offended some of Johnson's 
 strongest prejudices. He hated a fiddler, and he hated 
 a foreigner, and Piozzi was both ; and in his unreasoning 
 anger he could write in no gentler terms to the woman 
 whom he had so long "loved, esteemed, and reverenced," 
 than to tell her, " If you have abandoned your children 
 and your religion, God forgive your wickedness ; if you 
 have forfeited your fame and your country, may your folly 
 do you no further mischief." Johnson was without doubt 
 sincere in the conviction that he was acting rightly, and 
 the step which Mrs. Thrale was taking, appeared in his
 
 1 LIFE OF 
 
 eyes an unpardonable offence. " Poor Thrale," he wrote 
 to Hawkins, " I thought that either her virtue or her vice 
 [meaning by the former the love of her children and by 
 the latter her pride] would have kept her from such a 
 marriage.' 7 It was impossible that the close friendship 
 could have been continued as formerly, but those, who 
 love and honour Johnson's memory, must regret the 
 manner in which the separation took place. 
 
 Johnson was now quite aware of the gravity of his 
 illness, and he knew that the end could not be far off. 
 He was evidently desirous of arranging his affaire, and 
 one of his anxieties was to place some memorial to his 
 wife in the church at Bromley, where she was buried. 
 He wrote to the clergyman of the parish and requested 
 permission to lay a stone over her grave, and the design 
 was carried out. It is a plain recumbent slab, near the 
 middle of the centre aisle, and the inscription composed 
 by himself is (or was a few years ago) still quite legible. 
 On the isth of July, he left London and spent some weeks 
 at Ashboume. From there he went to Lichfield, and 
 his native air gave him some temporary relief. "My 
 dropsy is gone," he writes on September zgth, "and my 
 asthma is remitted, bat I have felt myself a little de- 
 clining these two days, or, at least, to-day. 37 The decline, 
 alas, was to go on very rapidly. 
 
 At Lichfield there was a gravestone erected to the 
 mauui> of Elizabeth Blaney, by Johnson's father, whom 
 the girl bad probabl known in his "prentice days/" 7 
 at Leeke, and followed to Lkhfield, where she died. 
 Johnson had this romantic memorial of his father's 
 early history repaired and restored, but it has now,
 
 JOHNSON. 145 
 
 unfortunately, disappeared. He also ordered a large 
 stone to be laid over his parents grave in St. Michael's 
 church, and composed an epitaph for it This interest- 
 ing relic was lost when the floor was repaired in 1796, and 
 quite recently some Staffordshire worthies have placed a 
 slab, with a copy of the old inscription, in the same 
 church. 
 
 Johnson never lost his affection for his native place. 
 " Its inhabitants," he said, " were more orthodox in their 
 religion, more pure in their language, and more polite in 
 their manners than any other town in the kingdom." 
 The purity of their language, or, at all events, of their 
 pronunciation, is rather questionable. Johnson to the 
 last retained some of his provincial accents ; and Boswell 
 tells us that " Garrick used to take him off squeezing a 
 lemon into a punch-bowl with uncouth gesticulations, 
 looking round the company and calling out 'Who's for 
 poonsh?'" Garrick himself, however, was not quite 
 faultless in this respect ; and, according to Dr. Burney, 
 he always said, " shupreme" " shupcrior? 
 
 There is an interesting trace of Johnson's last visit to 
 Lichfield in the library of the cathedral. His name 
 appears in the lending book as having borrowed Sir John 
 Flayer's work on the asthma, in the hope, no doubt, of 
 finding some instructions which might afford relief to his 
 own case. In a letter to Langton, written at this time, 
 he says : " nor does it [the asthma] lay very close siege 
 to life, for Sir John Floyer, whom the physical race con- 
 sider as author of one of the best books upon it, panted 
 on till ninety.'' The little volume is still carefully 
 preserved in the cathedral library. Sir John Floyer, him-
 
 146 LIFE OF 
 
 self a Lichfield man, and a physician of some note, was 
 the author of several scientific works, some of which were 
 published by Michael Johnson. 
 
 From Lichfield, Johnson went on to Birmingham, to pass 
 a short time with his old schoolfellow Hector, who wrote 
 to Boswell that their chief delight had been in recalling 
 the events of early days. On his way home, he stopped 
 a short time at Oxford, where he was again the guest of 
 Dr. Adams, and he finally returned to Bolt Court on 
 November lyth. While he was away he had kept up an 
 active correspondence with his friends, and there are 
 letters from him to Dr. Burney, Hoole, Bennet Langton, 
 Windham, Reynolds, and Tom Davies the bookseller. 
 During his absence, Edmund Allen, his intimate friend, 
 and neighbour at Bolt Court, had died, and Johnson 
 wrote to John Nichols, the antiquary : " I hope we shall be 
 much together. You must now be to me what you were 
 before, and what dear Mr. Allen was besides." 
 
 Boswell was all this time "silent and sullen." He had 
 been foolish enough to take offence at a very sensible 
 admonition that Johnson had written to him in the pre- 
 vious July, advising him to write "like a man," and "to 
 leave off affecting discontent, and indulging the vanity of 
 complaint." Two days after this letter was sent, Johnson, 
 with great kindness, wrote again, begging it might not be 
 taken amiss, but, for more than three months, he waited 
 in vain for a reply. Boswell's childish vanity was 
 wounded by a few words of merited reproof from his 
 " revered friend," now in his 76th year, and who was fast 
 sinking into the grave. 
 
 By the time Johnson arrived in London, both the
 
 JOHNSON. 147 
 
 dropsy and asthma had made rapid progress, and his 
 nights were sleepless and without rest. Nothing, how- 
 ever, could exceed the kindness of his friends, who were 
 unremitting in their attentions. Fanny Burney paid, what 
 was to be, her farewell visit on November 25th, and 
 had a long conversation with him alone. She called a 
 second time, but he was too ill to receive her. Bennet 
 Langton took a room in Fleet Street, close by, and tended 
 him with almost filial affection. Windham, then at the 
 outset of his distinguished career, forgot for a time the 
 cares and excitement of party to watch by the side of his 
 dying friend. "God bless you, dear Windham," said 
 Johnson, the day before his death, and added a wish that 
 they " might share some humble portion of that happiness 
 which God vouchsafes to repentant sinners." It was the 
 last time that Windham ever heard the sound of his 
 voice. Edmund Burke too was sometimes there, and on 
 one occasion expressed his fears that Johnson might find 
 the numbers oppressive. " No, sir," he said, " it is not 
 so, and I must be in a wretched state indeed when your 
 company would not be a delight to me." Dr. Heberden 
 and Dr. Brocklesby were in constant attendance, and 
 did everything that unwearied patience and great skill 
 could suggest to alleviate his sufferings, but refused to 
 receive any reward for their services. 
 
 At the end of November, he made his will, and ar- 
 ranged for the payment of some trifling debts. He 
 wrote an affectionate letter to his step-daughter, Lucy 
 Porter, and asked for her prayers. Nothing was left 
 for him now but to prepare to die. Though a stranger 
 to fear, in the presence of mere bodily danger, he had
 
 148 LIFE OF 
 
 never concealed his dread at the thoughts of death. He 
 was, formerly, often heard to mutter to himself the lines 
 from Shakespeare 
 
 "Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; 
 To lie in cold obstruction and to rot ; 
 This sensible warm motion to become 
 A kneaded clod." ' 
 
 " No rational man," he once said, " could die without 
 uneasy apprehension." But when his last hour came, 
 all feelings of alarm and mistrust had disappeared, and 
 he expressed his perfect faith in the merits and propitia- 
 tion of his Redeemer. His intellect was perfectly clear 
 to the last, and only a few days before his death, when the 
 doctors disapproved of some remedy, which he had tried 
 without their sanction, he repeated Swift's lines, from the 
 "Verses on the Death of Doctor Swift." 
 
 " The doctors, tender of their fame, 
 Wisely on him lay all the blame ; 
 \Ve must confess his case was nice ; 
 But he could never take advice. 
 Had he been rul'd, for aught appears, 
 He might have liv'd these twenty years." 
 
 Mr. Windham's servant, who sat up with him during 
 his last night, declared that " no man could appear more 
 collected, more devout, or less terrified at the thoughts 
 of the approaching minute." At the interval of each 
 hour, they assisted him to sit up in bed, and move his 
 legs, which were in much pain, and he urgently addressed 
 himself to fervent prayer. In the morning, he was still 
 
 1 " Measure for Measure," act ii. scene I.
 
 JOHNSON. 149 
 
 able to give his blessing to Miss Morris, the sister of the 
 beautiful girl, who sat to Reynolds for the well-known 
 picture of Hope nursing Love. When she came into 
 the room, he turned himself in his bed, and said, " God 
 bless you, my dear." They were the last words he ever 
 spoke. In the afternoon he became drowsy, and when 
 the doctors came for their usual visit, he was in a kind 
 of doze, and spoke to no one. In the evening, at about 
 a quarter past seven, he passed away without pain or un- 
 easiness on the i3th of December, 1784, in his ;6th year. 
 His last moments were so peaceful that Mrs. Desmoulins 
 and Francis Barber, who were in the same room, scarcely 
 knew the exact hour of his death. 
 
 He was buried on Monday, December 2oth, in West- 
 minster Abbey, almost at the foot of the Shakespeare 
 monument, and close to the remains of his old pupil, 
 David Garrick. The service was performed by his 
 schoolfellow, Dr. Taylor, and, among the pall-bearers, 
 were Burke, Windham, and Bennet Langton. Over his 
 grave, according to his request, was placed a plain stone, 
 with this inscription, 
 
 SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D., 
 
 Obiit xiii. die Decembris 
 
 Anno Domini 
 
 M,DCC.LXXXIV. 
 
 yEtatis suse LXXV.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JOHNSON'S character, though it contained many 
 contradictions, is not difficult to understand. Its 
 salient points were manliness, generosity, high 
 courage, humanity, and a strict adherence to truth. He 
 was singularly straightforward and upright in every action 
 of his life. He hated meanness, and had a profound con- 
 tempt for the suspicions of busybodies, who occupied 
 themselves in watching their neighbour's affairs. "Those 
 who look on the ground," he once said, " cannot avoid 
 seeing dirt." His fervid piety was undoubted, but he 
 was not entirely free from superstition. His belief in 
 spirits and apparitions, however, has been greatly ex- 
 aggerated. He thought that the universal traditions of 
 supernatural agencies, which have prevailed in all ages, 
 were an interesting subject of inquiry; and he argued 
 that a total denial of their possibility would imply an 
 opinion, adverse to the existence of the soul between 
 death and the last day. From his profound veneration 
 for the Church of England, he was intolerant of dissent, 
 which appeared to him a sign of presumption and folly ; 
 but in discussing religion, as an abstract question, he, 
 sometimes, expressed opinions which would almost be
 
 LIFE OF JOHNSON. 151 
 
 thought latitudinarian, even in our own day. " For my 
 part, sir," he declared to Boswell, "I think all Christians, 
 whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential 
 articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather 
 political than religious." His horror of infidelity was 
 extreme. He would not suffer in his presence any con- 
 troversy as to the truth of revealed religion, and this 
 seemed partly to proceed from a strange dread lest his 
 own faith might be shaken. 
 
 For mere sentimental suffering he had little sympathy, 
 and, sometimes, he expressed his opinions on the subject 
 rather harshly. His own strong constitution made him 
 unable to understand the bodily weaknesses of others 
 who were less robust. "Why do you shiver, sir?" he 
 said to Boswell, as they were returning home from 
 Greenwich by the river on a cold evening. And at 
 another time, he was indignant with his companion in a 
 post-chaise who complained of headache. " When I was 
 your age, sir," he declared angrily, "I had no head- 
 aches." But for real suffering, his compassion was un- 
 bounded, and he could never see a case of distress without 
 wishing to relieve it. He was in the habit of keeping 
 loose money in his pocket to give to the starving 
 creatures whom he met in his walks. When staying at 
 Lichfield, he used to confide to Lucy Porter a sufficient 
 sum to pay his return journey to London, so certain was 
 he to give away every farthing he had in his own 
 possession. To Mrs. Desmoulins, one of his pensioners 
 in Bolt Court, he allowed a weekly sum of ios., when his 
 whole income was only ^300 a year ; and in his early 
 days, while still wretchedly poor, he was constantly
 
 152 LIFE OF 
 
 endeavouring to help those who were poorer than him- 
 self. This genuine feeling of charity was constant 
 throughout life. He once administered a severe rebuke 
 to Mrs. Thrale, who, after a very hot summer of drought, 
 complained peevishly of the dust on the Surrey roads. 
 " I cannot bear," he said with an altered look, " when I 
 know how many poor families will perish next winter, for 
 want of that bread which the present drought will deny 
 them, to hear ladies sighing for rain, only that their 
 complexions may not suffer from the heat, or their 
 clothes be incommoded by the dust." He would have 
 been delighted with the reproof which Lord Rutherford 
 received from a Highland shepherd, near Bonaly among 
 the Pentlands. The story is told by Dean Ramsay, 
 in his "Reminiscences." His lordship was com- 
 plaining of the weather, which prevented him enjoying 
 his visit to the country, and said in a moment of un- 
 guarded haste, " What a d d mist." The shepherd, 
 
 a tall grim figure, turned sharply round on him, " What 
 ails ye at the mist, sir ? It weets the sod, it slockens the 
 yowes, and," with much solemnity, " it's God's will." 
 
 His personal courage was undoubted, and neither 
 Foote nor Macpherson cared to put it to a practical test. 
 Garrick told Mrs. Thrale of an anecdote of Johnson at the 
 Lichfield theatre. He had placed a chair for himself on 
 the stage, but during his momentary absence, it was 
 taken. On his return he requested the intruder to move, 
 and on his refusal flung both the chair and its occupier 
 into the pit. "This story," Johnson said, when questioned 
 on the subject, "was very nearly true." In his French 
 tour, when he was driving in a carriage with the Thrales,
 
 JOHNSON. 153 
 
 between Vernon and St. Denis, the horses ran away on 
 the brink of a precipice, and the escape of the party was 
 almost miraculous. But he refused to believe there had 
 been any real danger, for "nothing came out of it," he 
 said, "except that Thrale leapt out of the carriage into a 
 chalk pit, and came back looking as if he had seen a 
 ghost, and almost as white." 
 
 His colloquial powers were extraordinary. His com- 
 mand of language, his readiness, his richness of illustra- 
 tion and vast erudition made him undoubtedly one of 
 the best conversationalists of his time ; and it required 
 not only boldness, but a great deal of self-command, to 
 contest with him. Few indeed, except Burke and 
 Reynolds, ever made the attempt. One of his favourite 
 methods of argument was a flat denial of his opponent's 
 statements, and he considered that treating an adversary 
 with respect was giving him an advantage to which he was 
 not entitled. His step-daughter, Lucy Porter, once said to 
 a clergyman, who had offended her, "Why you are just like 
 Dr. Johnson, you contradict every word one speaks." 
 
 His incredulity was almost beyond belief. Hogarth said 
 he was like King David, for "he said in his haste all men 
 are liars." Two gentlemen who were dining at Streatham, 
 in 1782, were talking of Elliot's defence of Gibraltar, and 
 one of them mentioned the red-hot cannon balls, which 
 had been used on that occasion. After listening for a time, 
 Johnson said, with a cold sneer, " I would advise you, sir, 
 never to relate this story again ; you really can scarce ima- 
 gine how very poor a figure you make in the telling of it." 
 When Mrs. Thrale remonstrated with him afterwards, he 
 answered, "Why, madam, if a creature is neither capable
 
 154 LIFE OF 
 
 of giving dignity to falsehood, nor willing to remain con- 
 tented with the truth, he deserves no better treatment." 
 He seemed, however, to be quite unaware of his own 
 rudeness. He said, with perfect gravity to Boswell, " I 
 consider myself a very polite man;" and, at another time, 
 he remarked to Mrs. Thrale, in speaking of Dr. Barnard, 
 Provost of Eton, " He was the only man, too, that did 
 justice to my good breeding, and you may observe that 
 I am well-bred to a degree of needless scrupulosity. 
 No man," he continued, not observing the amazement 
 of his hearers, " is so cautious not to interrupt another ; 
 no man thinks it so necessary to appear attentive when 
 others are speaking ; no man so steadily refuses pre- 
 ference to himself, or so readily bestows it on another, 
 as I do ; nobody holds so strongly, as I do, the necessity of 
 ceremony, and the ill effects which follow the breach 
 of it; yet people think me rude, but Barnard did me 
 justice." 
 
 Johnson has never been highly estimated as a critic, 
 and on this point he has hardly received fair consideration, 
 His hasty remarks, uttered in the heat of controversy, 
 have been handed down as the result of deliberate 
 judgment, but his literary instincts were more correct 
 than has generally been imagined. Personal feelings 
 undoubtedly often influenced his opinions, and he was 
 unwilling to allow praise to writers of whose principles he 
 disapproved He could see little merit in the vigorous 
 irony of Swift, and would never acknowledge him to be 
 the author of "The Tale of a Tub!" but there is 
 scarcely any writer from whom Johnson quoted so 
 often in his dictionary. "Swift," he said, "was in
 
 JOHNSON. 155 
 
 coarse humour inferior to Arbuthnot, and in refined 
 humour inferior to Addison." Arbuthnot, indeed, 
 he thought to be first man of his time. He called 
 Fielding a " blockhead " and a " barren rascal," but he 
 confessed to having read through "Amelia" without 
 stopping, and thought the heroine one of the most 
 pleasing characters in fiction. For the delightful mixture 
 of wit and pathos in the description of " Uncle Toby " 
 he had no appreciation, and said that "Tristram Shandy" 
 would soon be forgotten. But when Goldsmith asserted 
 that Sterne was a dull fellow, he would not agree, 
 and, without further comment, blurted out, " Why, no, 
 sir." 
 
 On the other hand, he spoke too favourably of writers 
 whose personal characters he respected. Beattie he 
 loved, and he mentioned his writings in terms which now 
 appear ludicrous. He was under obligations to Richard- 
 son, and thought highly of the moral tendency of his 
 works, which in consequence he immensely over-rated, 
 but he admitted that anybody who read Richardson's 
 novels for the sake of the story would be compelled to 
 hang himself, and forgot the fact that it is exactly for the 
 sake of the story that novels are generally read, and that, 
 however excellent may be the sentiment, the reader of a 
 work of fiction will soon close the volume if there is no 
 amusement in the plot. It would be interesting to learn 
 what Johnson thought of the broad humour of "Peregrine 
 Pickle," but he is not known to have expressed any 
 opinion on Smollett as a writer, though they must, in 
 some manner, have been acquainted. It was partly 
 through Smollett's exertions that Frank Barber got his
 
 156 LIFE OF 
 
 discharge, when he was pressed on board the Stag frigate, 
 in 1759, and in after days Johnson repaid the service by 
 correcting the epitaph, composed for Smollett's monument, 
 on the banks of the Leven. Johnson had a keen appre- 
 ciation of Bunyan and Cervantes, and he thought " Don 
 Quixote " the greatest work in the world after Homer's 
 " Iliad." 
 
 His opinions of the poets are well known from his 
 "Lives," which have been already alluded to. It is 
 difficult to understand how he can have preferred 
 Akenside to Gray, but the works of the latter never 
 appealed to his feelings. They wanted earnestness and 
 pathos to suit his taste, and he was not fascinated by the 
 exquisite beauty of their language. No one probably 
 will blame him for his poor opinion of Mason and 
 Collins; but he rather unjustly depreciated Churchill, 
 whose satire is often powerful and amusing. He allowed 
 the excellence of Young, and declared that the " Night 
 Thoughts " was one of " the few poems in which blank 
 verse could not be changed for rhyme but with disadvan- 
 tage." Thomson's poetry appeared to him to contain a real 
 vein of genius, and he gave high praise to " The Seasons." 
 " The Traveller," he asserted, was the finest poem that had 
 appeared since the days of Pope, and " The Deserted 
 Village " he thought almost as good, though perhaps too 
 much an echo of it. For Pope and Dryden he had the 
 greatest admiration. The former he considered the 
 more uniformly excellent, though the latter had finer 
 passages than any written by Pope. Prior was not one 
 of his favourite authors, but he was right in saying 
 that the poet wrote of love like a man who had never
 
 JOHNSON. 157 
 
 felt it. The earlier poets were seldom alluded to in his- 
 conversation. Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales " he may 
 have liked; but he could have had little sympathy for 
 the dreamland in which Spenser appeared to live. The 
 good damsel Una, the false Duessa, the knights, and the 
 dragons of " The Fairy Queen " must have appeared to 
 him unreal, and he could hardly have been one of the 
 select few who, in the language of Macaulay, " were in , 
 at the death of the beast." 
 
 To the genius of Shakespeare he rendered due homage, 
 and he was well acquainted with his plays, but he was not 
 enthusiastic on the subject. Like the schoolboy who- 
 dislikes Horace, he had probably unpleasant recollections 
 of his protracted and uncongenial labours in preparing 
 his edition of the great poet. He appeared to have given 
 little attention to the dramatists of the Restoration period. 
 " The Rehearsal " had not, in his judgment, " wit enough 
 to preserve its vitality," and Bayes he thought a silly part 
 and not intended for Dryden. Of the later writers for 
 the stage, he admired Farquhar, though he hardly did 
 full justice to the brilliant author of "The Beaux 
 Stratagem " and " The Recruiting Officer." Of con- 
 temporary comedies, he thought that Goldsmith's " Good- 
 natured Man" was the best that had appeared since 
 "The Provoked Husband." He had too high an 
 opinion of Murphy's plays, now almost forgotten, but 
 his judgment in this case was no doubt influenced by 
 personal feelings. "The Rivals" and "The Trip to 
 Scarborough " (" The School for Scandal " had not then 
 appeared) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, were, he declared, 
 the two best comedies of the age, and this opinion has
 
 Ififl LIFE OF 
 
 been emphatically endorsed by the immense popularity 
 which they have retained to the present day. 
 
 He thought the first part of Burner's " History of his 
 Own Time * one of the most entertaining books of the 
 language. Robertson's " Histories " were, in his opinion, 
 mere verbiage, and he confessed that he had never read 
 Hume. Goldsmith's "Histories 11 he considered to be 
 extremely useful. u Goldsmith," 7 he said, "tells you 
 shortly all you want to know; and his plain narrative 
 will please again and again." He disliked Gibbon's 
 principles too heartily to pronounce an impartial opinion 
 on his writings, but his famous work, " The Decline and 
 Fall of die Roman Empire, 1 * was only completed shortly 
 before Johnson's death. Of English divines he thought 
 that Atterbury, South, Seed, Jortin, Sherlock, and Smal- 
 ridge woe in the first rank. Tfflotson was a dangerous 
 writer, he said, to imitate; but he praised Blair's sermons, 
 llMHigh the author was a Scotchman and a Presbyterian. 
 In any consideration of Johnson's views on theology, we 
 must bear in mind the period in which he lived. The 
 religious feeling of the country in those days was almost 
 as cold and inanimate as among the Buddhists of modem 
 China. The only hope of salvation was considered to 
 be in a dull and formal orthodoxy. The preaching of 
 Whitefieldandthe Wesleys had hardly begun to rouse the 
 Church of England from its long slumber. Among the 
 lower ranks of the clergy, it is scarcely possible to mention 
 more than one or two names of any eminence, either 
 in literature or in their own profession. No one has 
 ever suggested that the description of Parson TmUiber 
 was much exaggerated ; and Parson Adams, in "Joseph
 
 JOHXSOX. 159 
 
 Andrews," and Dr. Primrose, in " The \ 7 icar of Wake- 
 field," were certainly intended as very favourable specimens 
 of their class. The London pulpits were occupied by 
 preachers of so little learning or eloquence that their 
 congregations must have watched with intense anxiety the 
 sand running down the hour-glass in front of the pulpit. 
 Jt is difficult to recall the name of any incumbent of a 
 metropolitan parish, whose sermons are now remembered, 
 and the bishops, with a few exceptions, were not much 
 more distinguished than the inferior clergy. There was 
 Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester, who commenced life as 
 an attorney, and had afterwards taken orders, as Churchill 
 pretended 
 
 "thereto drawn, 
 By some faint omens of the lawn." 
 
 He had been raised to the bench for his edition of 
 Pope's Works, and had obtained a kind of reflected 
 glory from his intimacy with the poet His reading was 
 undoubtedly extensive, but a good deal of his time must 
 have been occupied in his protracted controversy with 
 his right reverend brother, Lowth, Bishop of London. 
 The dispute was alluded to by George III. in his famous 
 conversation with Johnson, and the sovereign seemed to 
 think that the argument was pretty well at an end, when 
 the two prelates had taken to call one another names. 
 But Bishop Lowth was a man of much greater moral 
 weight and sounder learning than Warburton, and his 
 Commentary on Isaiah is still a standard work. Joseph 
 Butler, Bishop of Durham, was one of the most profound 
 thinkers of his time. His "Analogy" is to this day 
 used as a text-book on Divinity, and is probably the best
 
 160 LIFE OF 
 
 work of the sort on the subject. There were other 
 eminent prelates such as Bishop Newton, who wrote on 
 prophecy, Bishop Horsley, Bishop Kurd, and Bishop 
 , Pearce, but they are now little known. 
 
 If during this period the religious annals of the 
 country were devoid of interest, its literary history was 
 still more barren, and nothing, like a love of choice 
 books or rare editions, seems to have been known. 
 Garrick was supposed to have many valuable volumes of 
 the early dramatists, and especially of Shakespeare, but 
 his interest in the subject was professional. It is curious 
 to examine the catalogue of the library, formed by 
 Topham Beauclerk, a man of culture, of refined taste, 
 and the possessor of a good income. In his vast col- 
 lection, there appears none of the first four folios of 
 Shakespeare, nor any of the original quartos. There was 
 no copy of the first edition of Spenser's "Fairy Queen," 
 no old black letter Chaucer, and not a single volume, 
 printed by Caxton, or Wynkyn de Worde. Among the 
 foreign books, there were no valuable copies of "Rabelais," 
 nor a single specimen of any first edition of Moliere ; and 
 the earliest "Don Quixote," in the collection, was of 
 1738. Among classics, which, in those times, formed 
 such an important part of a gentleman's library, there 
 was one " Editio Princeps," an Aldine copy of Aristo- 
 phanes, which at the auction, after Beauclerk's death, was 
 sold for the princely sum of i 73. The sale lasted fifty 
 days, and the entire sum realized was little more than, in 
 recent times, has been paid at Sotheby's for a single 
 volume. The only English work, which fetched anything 
 like an exceptional price, was a complete set of the original
 
 fOHNSON. Id 
 
 Spectators, which were sold for 12, about six times its 
 present value. 
 
 Johnson lived between two brilliant epochs of litera- 
 ture. When he first arrived in London in 1737, few of 
 the eminent writers of our Augustan era still remained. 
 Addison, Prior, Steele, Arbuthnot, and John Gay were 
 dead. Swift, fast sinking into a " driveller and a show," 1 
 had left England never to return, and was an exile in the 
 country for which he did so much, and which he never 
 ceased to hate and despise. Pope was still at Twicken- 
 ham, dragging on his sickly life, and in the ensuing year 
 brought out the last of his Satires, at the same time as 
 the appearance of Johnson's "London." Not long 
 afterwards Reynolds saw him for the first and only time, 
 and in later days described to Malone the personal 
 appearance of the poet. The incident occurred at a 
 crowded auction of pictures, and a whisper went through 
 the room, " Mr. Pope ! Mr. Pope ! " A passage was 
 made for him as he passed, and Reynolds, through the 
 arm of some one standing b.efore him, managed to touch 
 the poet's hand. He was " about four feet six inches 
 high ; very hump-backed and deformed. He wore a 
 black coat, and according to the fashion of that time, 
 had on a little sword. He had a large and fine eye, and 
 a long, handsome nose ; his mouth had those peculiar 
 marks which are always found in the mouths of crooked 
 persons, and the muscles which run across the cheek 
 were so strongly marked that they seemed like small 
 cords." He survived till 1744. 
 
 Bolingbroke, the brilliant orator and statesman, and 
 1 Johnson's " Vanity of Human Wishes." 
 II
 
 162 LIFE OF 
 
 unsurpassed as a political writer, was returned from 
 his banishment in France, and had now abundant 
 opportunities of enjoying that freedom from public 
 cares, which he had formerly affected to desire. 
 Though still consumed by restless ambition, he was 
 no longer in a position to exercise any influence on 
 affairs of State. His active career was finished, and 
 before long he was to retire to the family Manor House 
 at Battersea, and, a martyr to the most painful of all 
 complaints, to end his life in solitude and neglect. Part 
 of the old building is still standing, and contains one 
 room of special interest Pope, who was on most 
 intimate terms with Bolingbroke, and a frequent guest 
 under his roof, must have passed many hours in the 
 cedar wainscotted parlour which looks upon the 
 river. 
 
 On the death of Johnson, Wordsworth, the originator 
 of a new school of poetry, and, it may almost be said, 
 the founder of a new school of thought, was a boy of 
 fourteen; Walter Scott, about twelve months younger than 
 Wordsworth, was in a few years to record, both in prose 
 and verse, the ballads and traditions of his country, and to 
 arouse among its inhabitants feelings of national enthu- 
 siasm, greater than they had ever before known. Byron 
 and Shelley were not yet born, but the time was not far 
 distant, when they were to astonish the world by their 
 genius and audacity. Keats, a few years younger than 
 his two famous contemporaries, and in his own time the 
 object of bitter irony and ridicule, was to publish two 
 small volumes, which half a century later were to be 
 frequently sold for about thirty times their original cost,
 
 JO HNS OX. 163 
 
 and to obtain for the author a reputation beyond the 
 highest dreams of his ambition. 
 
 Johnson, during the latter part of his career, occupied 
 a position of remarkable eminence, and he was perhaps 
 more known and written about than any man in the 
 kingdom. Of the small circle, which then composed the 
 literary world, he was the undoubted chief, and his 
 authority was never questioned. It has been generally 
 imagined that during his lifetime, his reputation was 
 derived entirely from his writings, and that the collo- 
 quial fame on which his renown now chiefly rests, was 
 the result of Boswell's " Life." This is hardly correct. 
 Reynolds, in a short character of Johnson, which he 
 drew up, probably for Boswell, writes, " It has been 
 frequently observed that he was a singular instance of a 
 man, who had so much distinguished himself by his 
 writings, that his conversation not only supported his 
 character as an author, but, in the opinion of many, 
 was superior." There is indeed reason to believe 
 that, with the exception of "Rasselas," and "The 
 Lives of the Poets," his works, even in their own day, 
 inspired a Platonic interest, and were, in fact, more 
 talked of than read. The famous biography has un- 
 doubtedly given us many details of his manners and 
 habits, of which his most intimate companions had never 
 heard, but his great conversational powers were well 
 known many years before his death, and his witty sayings 
 and repartees were constantly recorded in the news- 
 papers and magazines of the period. In 1776, a little 
 volume was published under the title of " Johnsoniana, 
 or Bon Mots of Dr. Johnson," which, he said, was "a
 
 164 LIFE OF 
 
 mighty impudent thing," but it had a large sale. The 
 collection contained many of his sayings, not told with 
 anything approaching to the skill displayed by Bosvvell, 
 but which all were, more or less, authentic, and most of 
 them are indeed found in an improved form in Boswell's 
 own book. There are many portraits of Johnson, but by 
 far the finest is the head size by Reynolds, formerly in 
 Sir Robert Peel's collection, and now in the National 
 Gallery, of which there is a superb mezzotint engraving 
 by Doughty. Johnson's personal appearance improved 
 much in his later years. x The scars on his face had 
 . softened down, his convulsive movements were less 
 frequent, and his manner and tone were gentler. His 
 features must always have been striking and impressive, 
 and in relating an anecdote, or reciting poetry, his facial 
 expression must have been skilful and effective. He 
 generally wore a brown suit with twisted hair buttons of 
 the same colour, a large bluish grey wig, a plain shirt, 
 and black worsted stockings. The sleeves of his coat 
 were loose, and he wore no ruffles, so that his white shirt 
 sleeves were visible, as shown in the picture mentioned 
 above. As he grew older he became more careful in his 
 dress. He had metal buttons on his coat, wore better 
 wigs, and at last bought a pair of silver buckles for his 
 shoes, "at Wingman's, the well-known toy shop in St. 
 James's Street, at the corner of St. James's Place." 
 Boswell thinks the buckles were bought at Mrs. Thrale's 
 suggestion. His walk was peculiar ; he moved along 
 with a rolling motion of the head and body, and some- 
 times indulged in strange gesticulations, but the descrip- 
 tion, given of these, was, probably, often exaggerated*
 
 JOHNSON. 165 
 
 After his pension had given him the comforts afforded 
 by a competent income, and constant visits to the 
 Thrales had improved his health and spirits, many of his 
 peculiarities had either disappeared, or were much dimi- 
 nished. But he could never get over his love of late 
 hours, or, as Mrs. Piozzi put it, "his hatred of early 
 ones." This kind and patient friend spoke from personal 
 experience, as she had injured her own health by sitting 
 up with him, when there was no one else to keep him 
 company. " I lie down," said Johnson, " that my ac- 
 quaintance may sleep, but I lie down to endure oppres- 
 sive misery, and soon rise again to pass the night in 
 anxiety and pain." 
 
 Another of Johnson's incurable weaknesses was an 
 inordinate love of tea. In his review of Jonas Hanway's 
 " Essay on Tea," he speaks of himself as " a hardened 
 and shameless tea-drinker, who has for many years diluted 
 his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant ; 
 whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea 
 amuses the evening ; with tea solaces the midnights, and 
 with tea welcomes the morning." Cumberland records 
 an occasion at his own house, when Sir Joshua ventured 
 to remind Johnson that he had drunk eleven cups of tea. 
 " Sir," replied he, " I did not count your glasses of wine, 
 why should you number up my cups of tea? Sir, I 
 should have released the lady from any further trouble if 
 it had not been for your remark ; but you have reminded 
 me that I want one of the dozen, and I must request 
 Mrs. Cumberland to round up my number." 
 
 It is unsafe to prophecy in literary matters, but there 
 are many indications that Johnson's fame is destined to
 
 166 LIFE OF 
 
 last. The extraordinary interest which he inspires is not 
 quite easy to account for, though it is, no doubt, a great 
 deal due to Boswell's delightful work, which is still widely 
 read, and, in some form or another, is constantly being 
 re-issued. An excellent edition, prepared by the Rev. 
 Alexander Napier, was published in 1884, which con- 
 tained all the information on the subject, which had come 
 to light since the days of Mr. Croker. The " Reynolds 
 Edition," as it was called, appeared in 1885, edited by 
 Mr. Henry Morley, whose notes are of much greater value 
 than the engravings which illustrate the work. At the 
 close of the last volume is a short essay, called " The Spirit 
 of Johnson," from the pen of the editor, which is one 
 of the best descriptions of his character that has ever 
 been written. Another edition by Dr. George Birkbeck 
 Hill, an excellent Johnsonian scholar, is now passing 
 through the press. But no reprint of Boswell can be of 
 any value that does not contain a large proportion of 
 Mr. Croktr's notes. It is impossible to exaggerate 
 the extent and value of the information collected by 
 that indefatigable editor, and a great many of his 
 anecdotes were obtained from sources now no longer 
 available. Boswell's " Life " was fatal to the much less 
 amusing work by Sir John Hawkins, which had appeared 
 some years earlier. This author was an extremely worthy 
 person, but dull and pompous, and his character can be 
 pretty well estimated from an epitaph by a contemporary 
 
 wit 
 
 " Here lies Sir John Hawkins 
 In his shoes and stockings." 
 
 But he has received but scant justice, and his " Life of
 
 JOHNSON. 107 
 
 Johnson " is spoken of with contempt by many who have 
 never taken the trouble to do more than turn over its 
 leaves. He was certainly, as Johnson said, an unclubable 
 man, but the mere fact that he maintained the most 
 intimate relations with Johnson for about thirty years, 
 that Johnson, when dying, consulted him about testa- 
 mentary arrangements, and appointed him an executor, 
 shows that he must have had some sterling qualities. 
 The members of the " Club " doubtless found him a 
 bore, while he most likely had no very friendly feelings 
 towards them, and it must have been a relief to all when 
 he withdrew from that famous society. His knowledge 
 of the obscure literary men of his day was very ex- 
 tensive, and his pages contain a great deal of interesting 
 information about the Grub Street writers, with whom 
 Johnson associated, when he first commenced his literary 
 career. It is also valuable for the description of his 
 early life in London ; and no one, who has not read 
 it, can have a competent knowledge of the subject. 
 Hawkins died before the publication of his rival's 
 work, in which he was mentioned in no very flattering 
 terms. 
 
 The first biography of Johnson is said to have ap- 
 peared on the very day after his death. It was published 
 by Kearsley without the author's name, as " The Life of 
 Samuel Johnson, LL.D., with Occasional Remarks on his 
 Writings. . . ." It is supposed to be written by a Mr. 
 William Cooke, and contained much that was authentic. 
 " The Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Late Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson " was published not long afterwards. It 
 was also anonymous, but is attributed by Mr. Napier to a
 
 168 LIFE OF 
 
 Scotch clergyman, the Rev. William Shaw. The writer, 
 whoever he may have been, must have had access to 
 good sources of information, and the little volume is 
 interesting. There are other biographies and essays, and 
 some excellent magazine articles, of which a few derived 
 a special value from their writers' personal knowledge of 
 the subject. By far the best description of Johnson's 
 death was given in a paper, contributed to The European 
 Magazine of December, 1799, by Mr. Hoole, who was 
 with him during his last illness. 
 
 Johnson, as just stated, owes a great deal to Boswell, 
 but in any case his marked individuality, and even his 
 eccentricities, made him a good subject for a biography. 
 There is much that is attractive, and even picturesque, in 
 his character. The strange contrast between his rugged, 
 burly figure and the womanly tenderness of his heart, his 
 manly self-respect, his haughty bearing in the presence 
 of his superiors, his touching kindness and considera- 
 tion to those who were the objects of his charity, and 
 even his defects, such as his love of argument, his refusal 
 to acknowledge defeat, his rudeness, sometimes expressed 
 in quaint and unexpected turns of speech, all make up 
 that striking and original figure which stands out in bold 
 relief among his contemporaries. 
 
 In the present day Johnson derives a peculiar interest 
 as a link between recent times and the early part of the 
 eighteenth century. When quite a child, he was taken 
 into the presence of Queen Anne, of whose personal 
 appearance he had to the last a dim recollection, and, 
 some seventy years later, he saw and conversed with the 
 Prince of Wales, nftenvards George IV., then a youth
 
 JOHNSON. 1G9 
 
 under the charge of Mrs. Percy. Johnson asked him 
 what books he was reading, examined him in Scripture 
 history, and was much pleased with the intelligence shown 
 by the future king. Johnson had been brought into indirect 
 communication with Pope and Swift. He must often have 
 seen Walpole, Carteret, and Pulteney ; and at the house of 
 Henry Hervey, who married Catherine Aston, he might, 
 perhaps, have met Pulteney's adversary in the famous duel, 
 John Lord Hervey, the " Sporus " of Pope's " Satires," and 
 the husband of Pope's friend, the beautiful Mary Lepel. 
 And yet there are many still living, who have met those 
 personally acquainted with Johnson. The present writer, 
 in his schoolboy days, heard from an eye-witness a de- 
 scription of Johnson at a dinner party at the Thrales', 
 and the narrator had a vivid recollection of his appear- 
 ance and conversation. Martin Routh, the famous 
 president of Magdalen College, Oxford, who survived till 
 1854, was probably the last person of note, who could 
 speak of Johnson from personal recollection. 
 
 The centenary of Johnson's death occurred in Decem- 
 ber, 1884. There was no public, or formal, celebration of 
 the event, but many of the newspapers and periodicals 
 had articles alluding to the subject ; and there was 
 an interesting memorial service at St. Clement Danes, 
 which Johnson, in his lifetime, was in the habit of attend- 
 ing. The empty pew in the gallery, where he used to sit, 
 was draped in violet, and a cast of his bust, by Nollekens, 
 was placed on the ledge in front. Those, who were present 
 on the occasion, will not easily forget it, or the excellent 
 practical address in which the rector, Dr. Lindsay, pointed 
 out that the example of Johnson's career was not only
 
 170 LIFE OF JOHNSON. 
 
 intended for his contemporaries, but that those who came 
 afterwards, and read the story of his life, might imitate 
 his sturdy veracity, his uprightness, his consistency, and 
 his blameless moral conduct.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 Abington, Mrs., the actress, 109- 
 
 10 
 Adams, Rev. Dr. W., Master of 
 
 Pembroke College, Oxford, 18, 
 
 21, 23, 60, 140, 146 
 Aston, Molly, 30, 31, 36 
 
 B. 
 
 Barber, Francis (Johnson's black 
 servant), 102, 104, in, 117, 149 
 
 Beauclerk, Topham, 35, 70 ; his 
 character, 86 ; his death, 132 ; 
 his library, 160 
 
 Boswell, Jas., his introduction to 
 Johnson, 76-78 ; his character, 
 80-83 ; his life of Johnson, 79- 
 80, 166 ; his farewell interview 
 with Johnson, 142, 146 
 
 Burke, Right Hon. E., 88, 147 
 
 Burney, Fanny, afterwards Ma- 
 dame d'Arblay, 126-9, T 47 
 
 C. 
 
 Cave, Edward, 33, 41, 65 
 Chambers, Catherine (servant of 
 
 Johnson's mother), 28, 66, 75 ; 
 
 her death, 96-97 
 
 Chesterfield, fourth Earl of, 53; 
 
 Johnson's quarrel with, 62-5 
 " Club,'' The, 72 ; its formation, 
 
 87 ; Johnson dines there for the 
 
 last time, 140 
 
 D. 
 
 Da vies, Tom, the bookseller, 76-8 
 Desmoulins, Mrs., 12, no, HI, 
 
 138, 149 
 
 Dictionary, Johnson's, 53, 62-5 
 Dilly, Charles, the bookseller. 
 
 Johnson dines at his house t 
 
 meet Wilkes, 116-9 
 
 Edwards, Mr. J., Johnson's fellow 
 collegian, 26-7 
 
 F. 
 
 " False Alarm," The, 100 
 "Falkland's Islands, Thoughts 
 
 on the late transactions respec* 
 
 ting," 101 
 Fox, Right Hon. C. J., 88
 
 172 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 G. 
 
 Garrick, David, zg, 36, 39, 42, 98, 
 
 132 
 Gentleman's Magazine, 33, 36, 41, 
 
 44. 47, 49. 53 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 16, 54, 58, 79 ; 
 
 sale of Vicar of Wakefield, 89, 
 
 98 ; his death, 122 ; his epitaph, 
 
 123 
 
 H. 
 
 Hector, Edmund (Johnson's 
 
 schoolfellow), 14, 15, 33, 34, 65, 
 
 112-13, J 4^ 
 Hervey, Hon. H., 49 
 Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, on 
 
 " Rasselas," 68 
 Husband's " Miscellany," 22 
 Hogarth, William, his high opinion 
 
 of Johnson, 91 
 
 Idler, TJte, 65-6 
 
 " Irene," 24, 38, 43-44 ; its pro- 
 duction on the stage, 55-7 
 
 J- 
 
 Johnson, Michael (Johnson's 
 father), his marriage, n ; his 
 death, his social position, 28 
 
 Johnson, Mrs. (Johnson's mother), 
 n, 28, 54, 66 
 
 Johnson, Mrs.Qohnson's wife), her 
 marriage with Johnson, 34-6, 
 53.58 
 
 Johnson, Samuel, his birth, n ; 
 touched "for the evil," 12; 
 goes to school, 13 ; entered at 
 Pembroke College, Oxford, 21 ; 
 leaves Oxford, 24 ; goes to Mar- 
 
 ket Bosworth School as usher, 
 is tutor with the Whitby family, 
 31 ; translates Father Lobo's 
 "Voyage to Abyssinia," 33; 
 his marriage, 34 ; sets up a 
 school at Edial Hall, 36 ; goes 
 to London, 37 ; his tragedy of 
 "Irene," 38; it is refused by 
 the patentee of Drury Lane, 44 ; 
 reports Parliamentary Debates, 
 47 ; undertakes the English Dic- 
 tionary, 53 ; dictionary pub- 
 lished, 61 ; his quarrel with Lord 
 Chesterfield, 62-65 his London 
 residences, 68 ; the king grants 
 him a pension, 71 ; introduced 
 to Boswell, 77 ; makes acquain- 
 tance with the Thrales, 91 ; 
 publishes his edition of Shake- 
 speare, 93 ; his interview with 
 George III., 95; writes the 
 " False Alarm, 1 ' 100 ; his pam- 
 phlet on ' ' Falkland's Islands, " 
 101 ; his journey to the Heb- 
 rides, 102 ; his tour in Wales, 
 104 ; accompanies the Thrales 
 to Paris, 104 ; writes the 
 "Patriot," and "Taxation 
 no Tyranny," 107 ; moves into 
 Bolt Court, no ; description of 
 his household, in ; visits Lich- 
 field with Boswell, 113-4; meets 
 Wilkes at Mr. Dilly 's house, 1 17 ; 
 writes the " Lives of the English 
 Poets," 123 ; struck with para- 
 lysis, 137 ; his last illness, 147 ; 
 his death and funeral, 149 ; his 
 character, 150 ; his critical 
 judgments, 154-158 ; centenary 
 of his death, 169
 
 INDEX. 
 
 173 
 
 "Journey to the Western Islands 
 of Scotland," 103 
 
 K. 
 
 Knowles, Mrs., the Quaker, 119 
 
 L, 
 
 Langton, Bennet, 85-6, 147 
 Levett, Robert, 69, 135-6 
 Lichfield, Johnson's birthplace, 
 
 ii ; society at, 29 ; Lucy Porter's 
 
 house, 76 ; Johnson's house, 93- 
 
 4 ; his last visit, 144 
 "Lives of the English Poets, 1 ' 
 
 123-6 
 " London," Johnson's poem, 44 
 
 " Macbeth, Miscellaneous Ob- 
 servations on," 53 
 
 Macpherson, James, his contro- 
 versy with Johnson, 108 
 
 " Marmor Norfolciense," 47 
 
 More, Hannah, 134, 137 
 
 O. 
 
 Oxford in Johnson's day, 21, his 
 love for, 27 ; his last appearance 
 as an undergraduate, 28 ; re- 
 visits it, 60 ; stays there for the 
 last time, 146 
 
 P. 
 
 " Patriot, "The, Johnson's pamph- 
 let, 107 
 
 Piozzi, Mrs. See Mrs. Thrale 
 Porter, Lucy, Johnson's step- 
 daughter, 28, 35, 66, 68, 70, 75, 
 76, 93, 104, 147 
 
 R. 
 
 Rambler, The, 57-8 
 "Rasselas,"66-8 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 69, 88 
 Richardson, the novelist, 60, 65, 70 
 
 Savage, Richard, 23, 50-2 
 
 Shakespeare's Plays, Johnson's 
 edition of, 93 
 
 Siddons, Mrs., her visit to John- 
 son, 138-9 
 
 Streatfield, Sophy, 129-30 
 
 T. 
 
 Taylor, Rev. Dr. J., 14, 15, 23, 
 
 24, 104, 114, 137, 149 
 " Taxation no Tyranny," 107 
 Thrale, Mr., death of, 133 
 Thrale, Mrs. (afterwards Mrs. 
 Piozzi), 36, 40, 49 ; makes John- 
 son's acquaintance, 91, 112, 115, 
 131, 136, 137 ; her final rupture 
 with Johnson, 143 
 
 " Vanity of Human Wishes," The, 
 53-4 
 
 W. 
 
 " Wales, Journey into North,' 1 by 
 Johnson, 104 
 
 Wilkes, John, 115,139 
 
 Williams, Mrs. Anna, 58-9, 69, 
 84, in, 117, 134, 138 
 
 Wollstonecraft, Mary, her inter- 
 view with Johnson, 140-2
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN P. ANDERSON 
 (British Museum). 
 
 1. WORKS. 
 
 H. POETICAL WORKS. 
 (II. SELECTIONS. 
 IV. SINGLE WORKS. 
 
 V. MISCELLANEOUS. 
 VI. APPENDIX 
 
 Biography and Criticisn 
 Magazine Articles. 
 VII. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST 
 WORKS. 
 
 I. WORKS. 
 
 The Works of Samuel Johnson, 
 together with his life, and notes 
 on his Lives of the Poets, by Sir 
 J. Hawkins. 15 vols. London, 
 1787-9, 8vo. 
 
 Originally published in 11 vols., 
 the last 4 vols. being an addition. 
 
 Another edition, with an 
 
 Essay on his Life and Genius, 
 by Arthur Murphy. 12 vols. 
 London, 1792, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. 6 vols 
 
 Dublin, 1793, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition, with an 
 
 Essay on his life and genius, 
 by Arthur Murphy. 12 vols. 
 London, 1796, 8vo. 
 
 Vol i. has a special title-page as 
 follows : " An essay ou the life and 
 genius of S. J.," etc. 
 
 Another edition. 12 vols. 
 
 London, 1801, 8vo. 
 Another edition. 12 vols. 
 London, 1805, 8vo. 
 
 The Works of Samuel Johnson. 
 
 Another edition. [Edited by 
 
 A. Chalmers.] London, 1810, 
 
 8vo. 
 Another edition. [Edited by 
 
 A. Chalmers.] 12 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1816, 12mo. 
 Another edition. 11 vols. 
 
 Oxford, 1825, 8vo. 
 
 With half-titles, reading " Oxford 
 
 English Classics," etc. 
 Another edition. Edited by 
 
 R. Lynam. 6 vols. London, 
 
 1825, 8vo. 
 Another edition. 10 vols. 
 
 London, 1818, 12mo. 
 Another edition, in double 
 
 columns. 2 vols. London, 1850. 
 8vo. 
 
 II. POETICAL WORKS. 
 
 The Poetical Works of S. J., now 
 first collected, in one vol. Lon- 
 don, 1785, 12mo.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The Poetical Works of S. J. 
 Another edition. Dublin, 
 
 1785, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition, enlarged. 
 [Edited by G. Kearsley.] Lon- 
 don, 1789, 8vo. 
 
 Cooke's edition. London 
 [1797 ?], 12mo. 
 
 The Poetical Works of S. J., to 
 which is prefixed the life of 
 the author. (Anderson's Poets 
 of Great J3ritain t vol. xi.) 
 Edinburgh, 1795, 8vo. 
 
 The " Life" occupies pp. 779-836. 
 
 The Poetical Works of S. J., col- 
 lated with the best editions: 
 bv Thomas Paik. London, 
 1805, 16nio. 
 
 In vol. 37 of " The Works of the 
 British Poeta," by Thomas Park. 
 In vol. 6 of the Supplement some 
 additional poems of S. J. are given. 
 
 The Poems of Dr. S. J.,.to which 
 is prefixed a life of the author, 
 by F. W. Blagdon. (The 
 Laurel.) London, 1808, 24mo. 
 
 The I'oems of S. J. (Chalmers' 
 Works of the English Poets, vol. 
 xvi ) London, 1810, 8vo. 
 
 With a Life of Johnson by Mr. 
 Chalmers, pp. 549-570. 
 
 Select Poems of Dr. S. J., with a 
 life of the author. ("The Works 
 of the British Poets," edited by 
 R. Walsh, vol. xxxi.) Phila- 
 delphia, 1822, 12mo. 
 
 Ths Po.tical Works of Oliver 
 Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, 
 Samuel Johnson, etc. Illus- 
 trated by John Gilbert. (Kout- 
 led.yr's British Poets. ) London, 
 1S53, 8vo. 
 
 The Poetical Works of Johnson, 
 Parnell, Gray and Smollett. 
 With memoirs, critical disser- 
 tations, and explanatory notes, 
 by the Rev. G. Gilfillan. Edin- 
 burgh, 1855, 8vo. 
 
 The Poetical Works of Johnson, 
 etc. Another edition. The text 
 edited by C. C. Clarke. Lou- 
 don [1878], 8vo. 
 
 Part of "Cassell's Library of 
 British Poets." 
 
 The Poetical Works of Oliver 
 Goldsmith, Tohias Smollett. S. 
 J., etc. With biographic A! 
 notices and notes. Loudoo 
 [1881], 8vo. 
 
 London: a poem (by S. J.) in 
 imitation of the third Satire of 
 Juvenal. London, 1738, fol. 
 
 Second edition. London, 
 
 1738, fol. 
 
 London : a poem. Fourth edition. 
 London, 1739, fol. 
 
 The Vanity of Human Wishes. 
 The tenth Satire of Juvenal, 
 imitated by S. J. London, 
 1749, 4to. 
 
 Juvenal, translated by Charles 
 Badham. With an appendix, 
 containing imitations of the 
 Third and Tenth Satires. By 
 Dr. S. J. London, 1831, 16mo. 
 
 Dr. Johnson's Satires. London, 
 and the Vanity of Human 
 Wishes, with notes, historical 
 and biographical, bv I. P. Fle- 
 ming. London, 1876, 16mo. 
 
 The Sixteenth Ode of the Third 
 Book of Horace imitated [by 
 S. J.]. London, 1777, 4to. 
 
 III. SELECTIONS. 
 
 The Beauties of Johnson. Consist- 
 ing of maxims and observations, 
 moral, critical, and nii-<c-.-llaii- 
 eous, accurately extracted from 
 the works of Dr. S. J., and 
 arranged in alphabetical order. 
 Enlarged. 2 vols. London, 
 1782, 12mo. 
 
 Two other editions were published 
 the same year.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The Beauties of Johnson. A new 
 edition, beiug the seventh. 
 The Beauties of S. J. To 
 which are now added biograph- 
 ical anecdotes of the Doctor, 
 etc. London, 1787, 12mo. 
 
 The Beauties ot S. J. To 
 
 which are now added biograph- 
 ical anecdotes of the Doctor, 
 selected from the works of Mrs. 
 Piozzi, Mr. Boswell, and other 
 testimonies ; also the speech 
 and sermon he wrote for Dr. 
 Dodd. A new edition. Lon- 
 don, 1828, 18mo. 
 
 The Beauties of Johnson, 
 
 consisting of selections from his 
 works, by A. Howard. Lon- 
 don [1834?], 12mo. 
 
 Deformities ot Dr. S. J. Selected 
 from his works. Edinburgh, 
 1782, 8vo. 
 
 Second edition. London, 
 
 1782, 8vo. 
 
 The Life and Writings of S. J. 
 [The life abridged from Giflbrd.] 
 Selected and arranged by W. P. 
 Page. 2 vols. New York, 
 1842-43, 12mo. 
 
 The Wisdom of the Rambler, 
 Adventurer and Idler. By S. 
 J. London, 1848, 16mo. 
 
 Wisdom and Genius of Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson. Selected from his 
 prose writings, by W. A. Clous- 
 ton. (Library of Thoughtful 
 Books.) London [1876], 8vo. 
 
 IV. SINGLE WORKS. 
 
 An Account of the Life of Mr. 
 
 Richard Savage, etc. [By S. J.] 
 
 London, 1744, 8vo. 
 Second edition. London, 
 
 1748, 8vo. 
 The Life of Mr. R. Savage. The 
 
 third edition, to which are 
 
 added the Lives of Sir Francis 
 Drake, and Admiral Blake, etc. 
 [By S. J.] London, 1767, 8vo. 
 
 The Life of Mr. R. fearage. Fourth 
 edition, etc. London, 1769, 8vo. 
 
 Fourth edition. London. 
 
 1777, 12ino. 
 
 The Works of R. Savage, with an 
 account of the life and writings 
 of the author, by S. J. 2 vols. 
 London, 1775, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. ? y l s . 
 
 Dublin, 1777, 12mo. 
 
 An Account of the Life of S. J. 
 from his birth to his eleventh 
 year, written by himself; to- 
 which are added, original letters 
 to Dr. S. J., by Miss H. 
 Booth by ; published from M3S. 
 in the possession of R. Wright 
 [the editor]. London, 1805, 
 8vo. 
 
 The celebrated Letter from S. J. 
 to P. D. Stanhope, Earl of 
 Chesterfield, now first published, 
 with notes, by J. Boswell. 
 London, 1790, 4to. 
 
 A Compleat Vindication of the 
 Licensers of the Stage from the 
 malicious and scandalous asper- 
 sions of Mr. Brooke. By an 
 Impartial Hand [.., S. J.] 
 London, 1739, 4to. 
 
 A Conversation between His Most 
 Sacred Majesty George III. and 
 S. J. Illustrated with observa- 
 tions, by James Boswell. Lon- 
 don. 1790, fol. 
 
 The Convict's Address, etc. 
 [Written by Dr. J.]. London, 
 1777], 8vo. 
 
 Second edition. London, 
 1777, Svo. 
 
 Another edition. Salisbury, 
 
 1777, 12mo. 
 
 12
 
 Iv 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Thoughts in Prison, to which are 
 added the Convict's Address, 
 etc. Third edition. London, 
 1779, 12mo. 
 
 Debates in Parliament, by S. J. 
 2 vols. London, 1787, 8vo. 
 
 These two volumes are supple- 
 mentary to all the collected editions 
 of Johnson's works. 
 
 A Diary of a Journey into North 
 Wales in 1774, edited, with 
 illustrative notes [and an Itiner- 
 ary of Wales,] by R. Duppa. 
 (Appendix.) London, 1816, 8vo. 
 
 The Plan of a Dictionary of the 
 English Language, addressed to 
 the Right Hon. Philip Dormer, 
 Earl of Chesterfield. London, 
 1747, 4to. 
 
 A Dictionary of the English 
 Language, in which the words 
 are deduced from their originals, 
 and illustrated in their different 
 significations by examples from 
 the best writers. To which are 
 prefixed a history of the 
 language, and an English gram- 
 mar. 2 vols. London, 1755, 
 fol. 
 
 This is the original edition of 
 Johnson's Dictionary, for which he 
 received 1576 from the booksellers. 
 
 Second edition. 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1755, fol. 
 
 Another edition. 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1755, fol. 
 
 The copy in the British Museum 
 Library formerly belonged to 
 Edmund Burke. 
 
 Another edition, abstracted 
 
 from the folio edition, by the 
 author. 2 vols. London, 1756, 
 8vo. 
 
 . Third edition. 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1765, fol. 
 
 There is a copy of this edition in 
 the British Museum Library with 
 MS. additions and corrections in 
 the autograph of Dr. J. 
 
 A Dictionary of the English Lan- 
 guage. Fourth edition, revised 
 by the author. 2 vols. London, 
 1773, fol. 
 
 Fifth edition. 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1773, 8vo. 
 
 Fourth edition. 2 vols. Dub- 
 lin, 1775, 4to. 
 
 One of the copies of this edition 
 in the Library of the British Mu- 
 seum contains copious MS. notes 
 and additions [by E. Malone]. 
 
 Sixth edition. 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1778, 8vo. 
 
 Sixth edition. 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1785, 4to. 
 
 Among the numerous other edi- 
 tions are the following: London, 
 1805, 8vo., with a Life of S. J. by J. 
 Aikin ; London, 1818, 4to, in 4 vols., 
 with additions by H. J. Todd ; Lon- 
 don, 1855, 18mo, by P. A. Nuttall ; 
 London, 1806-70, 4to, in 2 vols., by 
 B. G. Latham. 
 
 The False Alarm. [By S. J.] 
 London, 1770, 8vo. 
 
 Second edition. London, 
 
 1770, 8vo. 
 
 The Idler. [By S. J. and others.] 
 2 vols. London, 1761, 8vo. 
 
 Originally published in The Uni- 
 ve-rsal Chronicle or Weekly Gazette. 
 No. i. appeared April 15, 1758 ; No. 
 ciii. April 5, 1760. 
 
 Another edition. 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1795, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (Harrisons 
 
 British Classicks, vol. 8. ) Lon- 
 don, 1795, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. Cooke's 
 edition, with engravings. Lon- 
 don, 1799, 12mo. 
 Another edition. London, 
 1807, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (British 
 Classics, vols. 23, 24.) 2 vols. 
 London, 1810, 8vo. 
 Another edition. (The Bri- 
 tish Essayists, by A, Chalmers, 
 vol. 33.) London, 1817, 12ino.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 'The Idler. Another edition. (The 
 British Essayists, \>yA. Chalmers, 
 vol. 27.) London, 1823, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (The Bri- 
 tish Essayists, by James Fergu- 
 son, vol. 19.) London, 1823, 
 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1S24, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (The Bri- 
 tish Essayists, by Lynam, vol. 
 20.) London, 1827, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (The Bri- 
 tish Essayists, by A. Chalmers, 
 vol. 27.) Boston [U.S.], 1856, 
 8vo. 
 
 Irene ; a tragedy [in five acts and 
 in verse]. London, 1749, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1781, 8vo. 
 
 tlrene ; a tragedy [in five acts and 
 in veise] as performed at the 
 Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. 
 (Bell's British Theatre, vol. 25.) 
 London, 1796, 8vo. 
 
 Iiene. (Modern British Drama, 
 vol. 2.) London, 1811, 8vo. 
 
 .A Journey to the Western Islands 
 of Scotland. [By S. J.] Lon- 
 don, 1775, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. Dublin, 
 
 1775, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1791, Svo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1792, 12mo. 
 
 ~ Another edition. Edinburgh, 
 
 1798, Svo. 
 - Another edition. Alnwick, 
 
 1800, 12mo. 
 Another edition. Glasgow, 
 
 1811, 12mo. 
 - Another edition. London, 
 
 ISlti, 12mo. 
 -- Another edition. Edinburgh, 
 
 181'J, 12mo. 
 
 A Journey to the Western Islands 
 of Scotland. Another edition, 
 London, 1876, Svo. 
 
 The Works of the English Poets. 
 With prefaces, biographical and 
 critical, by S. J. 68 vols. 
 London, 1779-81, Svo. 
 
 The Works of the Poets are in 5<J 
 yols., the Lives in 10, and the Index 
 in 2, each series numbered separ- 
 ately. 
 
 Another edition. 75 vols. 
 
 London, 1790-80, Svo. 
 The index in two vols. bearing date 
 1780, is part of, and adapted to, 
 another edition. 
 
 Prefaces, biographical and 
 
 critical, to the Works of the 
 English Poets. 10 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1779-81, 12mo. 
 
 This, the first edition, forma 
 under the title of prefaces a portion 
 of the works of the English Poets in 
 68 vols. The first four vols. appeared 
 in 1779. The greater number of the 
 proof sheets, with S. J.'s MS. cor- 
 rections, are in the South Kensington 
 Museum. 
 
 The Works of the English Poets, 
 with prefaces, biographical and 
 critical, by Dr. S. J. 21 vols. 
 London, 1810, Svo. 
 
 The British Poets, including trans- 
 lations [and lives by S. John- 
 son, S. W. Singer, R. A. 
 Davenport, and others]. 100 
 vols. Chiswick, 1822, I2mo. 
 
 The Lives of the most eminent 
 English Poets, with critical 
 observations on their works. 
 4 vols. London, 1781, Svo. 
 
 Another edition. 4 vola. 
 
 London, 1783, Svo. 
 
 There is an interleaved copy of 
 this edition in the Library of the 
 British Museum, with MS. Notes, 
 by Sir Egerton fit-rages, and anothe 
 with some MS. Notes by the Re 
 Sir Herbert Croft, with two Auto 
 graph Letters to the same viz., < nft 
 by Dr. Johnson, and one by Mrs. 
 Montagu.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The Lives of the most eminent 
 
 of Dr. Johnson. London, 1797,. 
 
 English Poets. Another edition. 
 
 12mo. 
 
 4 vols. London, 1790-91, Svo. 
 
 The Six Chief Lives from John- 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. 
 
 son's "Lives of the Poets," with 
 
 London, 1793, 8vo. 
 
 Macaulay's " Life of Johnson." 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. 
 
 Edited, with a preface, by M. 
 
 Montrose, 1800, 12mo. 
 
 Arnold. London, 1878, Svo. 
 
 Another edition. 3 vols. 
 
 Another edition. Lon- 
 
 London, 1801, Svo. 
 
 don, 1886, Svo. 
 
 Another edition. 7 vols. 
 
 The Life of I. Watts [ex- 
 
 London, 1805-6, 16mo. 
 
 tracted from Johnson's "Lives- 
 
 Another edition. 3 vols. 
 
 of the English Poets."] Witli 
 
 London, 1806, Svo. 
 
 notes, etc. London, 1785, Svo. 
 
 Another Edition (Encyclo- 
 pedia of British Literature, vol. 
 
 The Lives of Dryden and 
 Pope, with critical observations 
 
 1). London, 1819, Svo. 
 
 on their works. [Extracted from 
 
 Another edition. 2 vols. 
 
 "The Lives of the English 
 
 London, 1826, 12mo. 
 Part of a series entitled " Dove's 
 English Classics." There is a second 
 title-page, which is engraved. 
 
 Poets."] Oxford, 1876, 12mo. 
 The Lives of Dryden, 
 Pope, and Addison, etc. [Ex- 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 tracted from "The Lives of th& 
 
 1840, Svo. 
 
 English Poets."] Oxford, 1877,. 
 
 Another edition. Aberdeen, 
 
 12ino. 
 
 1847, 12mo. 
 
 Poetical Works of John, 
 
 The copy in the Library of the 
 
 Dryden. [With Life by S. J.]t 
 
 British Museum contains copious 
 
 4 vols. London, 1811, Svo. 
 
 MS. notes by J. D. Williams. 
 Another edition, completed 
 by W. Hazlitt. 4 vols. Lon- 
 
 The life comprises pp. i.-cxxiv., 
 vol. i. The proof sheets b and f of" 
 J.'s Life of Dryden, with his MS. 
 
 don, 1854, Svo. 
 
 corrections, are in the Library of 
 
 Another edition, with notes 
 corrective and explanatory, by 
 P. Cunningham. 3 vols. Lon- 
 
 the British Museum. 
 Johnson. Select Works, 
 edited, with introduction and 
 notes, by Alfred Milnes. Lives 
 
 Another edition. (Tauchnitz 
 Edition, vols. 418, 419.) Leipzig, 
 1858 16mo 
 
 of Dryden and Pope, and 
 Rasselas. (Clarendon Press 
 Series). Oxford, 1879, Svo. 
 
 Another edition. 3 vols. 
 Oxford [printed], London, 
 1864-65, ISmo. 
 One of a series entitled " Oxford 
 
 Johnson : Lives of 
 Dryden and Pope. Edited, with 
 introduction and notes, by 
 Alfred Milnes. ( Clarendon Press 
 
 English Classics." 
 
 Series.) Oxford, 1885, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 Select British Poets ; 
 
 1868, Svo. 
 
 containing the entire works of" 
 
 Johnson's Lives of the 
 
 Milton, Young, Thomson, etc. 
 
 English Poets abridged, with 
 
 With lives (by S. Johnson) and 
 
 notes and illustrations. To 
 
 portraits. 8 parts. London, 
 
 which is prefixed some account 
 
 1810-08, Svo.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 vit 
 
 Mariner Norfolciense ; or, an 
 essay on an ancient prophetical 
 inscription, in monkish rhyme, 
 lately discover'd near Lynn, in 
 Norfolk. By Probus Britannicus 
 [?>., Dr. S. Johnson]. London, 
 1739, 8vo. 
 
 A new edition, with notes, 
 
 and a Dedication to S. J., by 
 Tribunus. London, 1775, 8vo. 
 
 Memoirs of Charles Frederick, 
 King of Prussia. (The first 
 part written) by S. J., with 
 notes and a continuation by 
 Mr. Harrison. To which are 
 added, translations of select 
 poems written by the King of 
 Prussia. London, 1786, 8vo. 
 
 Miscellaneous Observations on the 
 Tragedy of Macbeth, with re- 
 marks on Sir T. H[anmer]'s 
 edition of Shakespear. To 
 which is affix'd Proposals for a 
 new edition of Shakeshear [sic] 
 with a specimen. [By S. J.] 
 London, 1745, 12mo. 
 
 The Patriot. Addressed to the 
 Electors of Great Britain. [By 
 S. J.] London, 1774, 8vo. 
 
 Third edition. London, 1775, 
 
 8vo. 
 
 Political Tracts [by S. J.] contain- 
 ing The False Alarm, Falk- 
 land's Islands, The Patriot, and 
 Taxation no Tyranny. London, 
 1776, 8vo. 
 
 Prayers and Meditations composed 
 by S. J. Published Irom his 
 manuscripts by G. Strahan. 
 London, 1785, 8vo. 
 
 Second edition. London, 
 
 1785, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1806, 12tno. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1513, 12mo. 
 
 Prayers and Meditations. Fifth 
 edition. London, 1817, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. Glasgow, 
 
 1823, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. Glasgow, 
 
 1826, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1836, 24mo. 
 
 Another edition ; with a pre- 
 face by W. Gresley. Lichfield, 
 1860, 8vo. 
 
 The Prince of Abissinia [., 
 Rasselas]. A Tale, in two 
 volumes. (First edition). Lon- 
 don, 1759, 8vo. 
 
 This work has been translated 
 into Bengalee, Dutch, French, 
 German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, 
 Modern G reek, and Spanish. 
 
 Second edition. 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1759, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. 2 vols. 
 
 Dublin, 1759, 8vo. 
 
 Third edition. 2 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1760, 12ino. 
 Fifth edition. London, 1775, 
 12mo. 
 
 Sixth edition. London, 1783, 
 12mo. 
 
 The History of Rasselas, Prince of 
 Abissinia. A Tale. London, 
 1787, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1787, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. Edinburgh, 
 
 1789, 12mo. 
 
 Ninth edition. London, 1793, 
 
 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1794, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. 1795, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. [With 
 
 illustrations.] London, 1801, 
 8vo. 
 
 New mode of printing. 
 
 Rasselas. Printed with patent 
 types, in a manner never before
 
 viii 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 attempted. Rusher's edition. 
 Banbury, 1804, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. "With en- 
 gravings by A. Raimbach, from 
 pictures by R. Smirke. Lon- 
 don, 1805, 4to. 
 
 This edition was republished in 
 1819. 
 
 Rasselas, etc. (Hunt's Classic 
 
 Ta'cs, Tol. 3.) London, 1806, 
 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1807, 12nio. 
 
 Another edition. Frederick- 
 Town, 1S10, 12uio. 
 
 Rasselas (British Novelists, vol. 
 26). London, 1810, 12mo. 
 
 A notice on Johnson by Mrs. 
 Barbauld, pp. i.-xiii. ; Rasselas, pp. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1812, 12mo. 
 Another edition. Edinburgh, 
 
 1812, 12mo. 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1815, 24mo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1816, 12mo. 
 
 Rasselas, a tale. Dinarbas ; 
 
 a tale : being a continuation of 
 
 Rasselas [by E. C. Knight]. 
 
 London, 1817, 12mo. 
 Rasselas [with a memoir of the 
 
 author by Sir Walter Scott]. 
 
 London, 1823, 8vo. 
 
 Part of vol. v. of the " Novelists' 
 
 Library." 
 The History of Rasselas. By 
 
 S. J. (British Novelist). Lon- 
 don, 1823, 8vo. 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1835, 32mo. 
 
 One of Tilt's Miniature Classical 
 
 Library. 
 Another edition. The Hague, 
 
 1838, 12mo. 
 Another edition. Gouda, 
 
 1845, 8vo. 
 
 Rasselas. Rasselas and 
 
 Poems. Edited by A. J. E., i.e., 
 A. J. Ellis. Phonetically 
 Printed. [London] 1849, 16mo. 
 
 Rasselas. ( Classic Tales, etc. > 
 
 London, 1852, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1855, 32mo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1858, 32mo. 
 
 Another edition. London,. 
 
 I860, 12mo. 
 
 The Histori ov Raselas, etc. 
 
 In thereportin stil ov Fonograti. 
 London, 1867, 8vo. 
 
 Rnsselas. (Masterpieces of Fiction 
 by Eminent Authors.) London 
 [1868], 8vo. 
 
 Rasselas, etc. New York, 
 
 1SG9, 16mo. 
 
 Another edition ; with an 
 
 introduction, by the Rev. W. 
 West. London, 1869, 1 61110. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1870, 32mo. 
 
 Another edition. London 
 
 [1879], 16mo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1880, 24mo. 
 
 Classic Tales : comprising 
 
 Johnson's Rasselas, etc. (Bohn's 
 Standard Library. ) London, 
 1882, 8vo. 
 
 The Vicar of Wakefield, 
 
 Rasselas, etc. With illustra- 
 tions. London [1882], 8vo. 
 
 The History of the Caliph 
 
 Vathek, by William Beckford ; 
 also Rasselas, Prince of Abys- 
 sinia, by S. J. London, 1883, 
 8vo. 
 
 The History of Rasselas, etc. 
 
 London, 1883, 18mo. 
 
 Another edition. London 
 
 [1883], 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1884, 8vo.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 VoHaire's Candide; or, th 
 Optimist, and Rasselas, Princ 
 of Abyssinia, by S. J. (Morley 1 
 Universal Library.) London 
 1884, 8vo. 
 
 The Rambler. [By S. J.] 2 vols 
 London, 1750-52, fol. 
 
 Commenced on Tuesday, Marcl 
 20, 1749-50, and ended March 14, 
 
 1752. There are two copies in th 
 Library of the British Museum 
 vols. i. and ii. of one copy are datet 
 
 1753, and vols. i. and ii. of the other 
 1753, 1751 respectively. 
 
 Another edition. 6 vols 
 
 London, 1752, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. 6 vols 
 
 Dublin, 1752, 12rno. 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. 
 
 London, 1767, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. 
 
 London, 1779, 12mo. 
 
 Eleventh edition. 4 vols. 
 
 London, 1789, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (Harrison's 
 
 British Classicks, vol. 1.) 4 vols. 
 London, 1796, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. 
 
 London, 1799-93, 12mo. 
 
 Vol. ii. is without a title-page ; 
 vols. iii. and iv. are dated 1793. 
 
 Another edition. (The 
 
 British Classics, vols. 15-18.) 
 4 vols. London, 1809, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. (The 
 
 British Essayists, by A. Chal- 
 mers, vols. 19-22.) London. 
 1817, 12mo. 
 
 Vols. 16-18. London, 
 
 1823, 12mo. 
 
 Vols. 16-18. Boston 
 
 [U. S.], 1856, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. (The 
 
 British Essayists, by James 
 Ferguson, vols. 16-18.) Lon- 
 don, 1823, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. (The British 
 
 Essayists, by Lynam, vols. 12, 
 13.) London, 1827, 12mo. 
 
 The Rambler. Another edition. 
 With a sketch of the author's 
 life by Sir Walter Scott. 2 
 vols. London [1876], 8vo. 
 
 The Review of a Free Enquiry 
 [by S. Jenyns] into the Nature 
 and Origin of Evil [by S. John- 
 son.]. London, 1759, 8vo. 
 A Sermon [on John xi. 25, 26], 
 written by the late S. J. for the 
 funeral of his wife. Published 
 by S. Hayes. London, 1788, 
 8vo. 
 
 Sermons on different subjects 
 [attributed to S. Johnson], left 
 for publication by John Taylor, 
 LL.D. Published by S. Hayes. 
 To which is added a sermon 
 written by S. J. for the funeral 
 of his wife. 2 vols. London, 
 1788-89, 8vo. 
 
 Second edition. 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1790-92, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 1793, 8vo. 
 
 Fourth edition. 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1800, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. Walpole, 
 
 N. H., 1806, 8vo. 
 
 Fifth edition. London, 1S12, 
 
 8vo. 
 ^axation no Tyranny ; an Answer 
 
 to the Resolutions and Address 
 
 of the American Congress. [By 
 
 S. J.] London, 1775, 8vo. 
 
 houghts on the late transactions 
 
 respecting Falkland's Islands. 
 
 [By S. J.]. London, 1771, Svo. 
 \. Voyage to Abyssinia, by Father 
 
 Jerome Lobo. From the French 
 
 [by S. J.]. London, 1735, 
 
 8vo. 
 This was the first prose work of 
 
 Dr. Johnson. It was printed at 
 
 Birmingham, and published anony- 
 mously.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 A Voyage to Abyssinia, con tinned 
 down to the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, with fifteen 
 dissertations on various sub- 
 jects. Translated from the 
 French by S. J., etc. London, 
 1789, Svo. 
 
 Y. MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Aa account of an attempt to 
 ascertain the longitude at sea, 
 l>y an exact theory of the varia- 
 tion of the needle, etc. By 
 Zachariah Williams. [Written 
 by S. J.] London, 1755, 4to. 
 
 An account of the Life of John 
 Philip Barretier, who was 
 master of five languages at the 
 age of nine years. [Written by 
 S. J.] London, 1744, 8vo. 
 
 Originally appeared in the 
 Gentleman's Hayazinc, 1740-1742. 
 
 The Adventurer. [By Dr. John 
 Hawkesworth, S. Johnson, and 
 others.] 2 vols. London, 1753- 
 54, fol. 
 
 The first number of The Adven- 
 turer appeared on Nov. 7, 176'2, and 
 JoLnsou's first paper is dated March 
 3, 1753. It is stated that he contri- 
 buted twenty-nine papers. 
 
 Third edition. 4 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1756, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. 2 vols. 
 
 Dublin, 1760, 12mo. 
 
 Fifth edition. London, 1766, 
 
 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. Lon- 
 don, 1770, 12nio. 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. 
 London, 1778, 12mo. 
 Numerous other Editions. 
 
 Catalosus Bibliothecfe Harleianae. 
 [By S. J., etc.] 5 vols. Lon- 
 dini, 1743-45, 8vo. 
 
 An account of the Harleian 
 Library, pp. 1-8 ; Preface to the 
 Catalogue, vol. iii., by S. J. 
 
 Christian Morals: by Sir Thomas 
 Browne. With a Life of the 
 Author, by S. J. Second 
 edition. London, 1756, 12mo. 
 
 A Commentary, with Notes on the 
 Four Evangelists and the Acts 
 of the Apostles, etc, [With a 
 Dedication to the King, and 
 add.tion.s to the life by" 8. J.] 
 By Zachary Pearce. "2 vols. 
 London, 1777, 4to. 
 
 A complete system of Astrono- 
 mical Chronology, unfolding the 
 Scriptures. [With Dedication 
 to the King, by S. J.] By 
 John Kennedy. London, 1762, 
 4to. 
 
 A Dictionary of Ancient Geo- 
 graphy, explaining the local 
 appellations in Sacred, Grecian, 
 and Roman History. [The 
 Preface written by S". J.] By 
 Alexander Macbean. London, 
 1773, 8vo. 
 
 A Dictionary of the English and 
 Italian Languages, etc. [Dedi- 
 cation by S. J.] By Giuseppe 
 Baretti. 2 vols. London, 1760, 
 4to. 
 
 Easy Phraseology, for the use of 
 Young Ladies, etc. By Joseph 
 Baretti. (Preface by S. J.) 
 London, 1775, Svo. 
 
 The English W'orks of Roger 
 Ascharn, etc. , by James Bennet. 
 [Life and Dedication by S. J.] 
 London, 1761, 4to. 
 
 Another edition. [With Life 
 
 by S. J.] London, 1815, Svo. 
 
 An Essay on Milton's use and 
 imitation of the moderns, in 
 his Paradise Lost. By William 
 Lander. [With a preface by 
 S. J.] London, 1750, Svo.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The Female Quixote ; or, the 
 Adventures of Arabella. [Dedi- 
 cation to the Earl of Middlesex 
 by S. J.] By Charlotte Lennox. 
 2 vols. London, 1752, 12ruo. 
 
 The Gentleman's Magazine for 
 1733. [Preface by S. J.] Lon- 
 don, 1738, 8ro. 
 
 The Good Natur'd Man: A 
 Comedy as performed at the 
 Theatre Royal in Coven t Garden. 
 By Mr. Goldsmith. [Prologue 
 written by 8. J.] London, 1763, 
 8vo. 
 
 The Greek Theatre of Father 
 Brumoy. Translated by Mrs. 
 C. Lennox [assisted by Dr. S. 
 J. etc.] 3 vols. London, 1759, 
 4 to. 
 
 The Harleian Miscellany : a col- 
 lection of scarce, curious, and 
 entertaining pamphlets and 
 tracts, etc. [Introduction writ- 
 ten by S. J.] 8 vols. London, 
 1744-46, 4to. 
 
 An Introduction to the Game of 
 Draughts. [The Dedication and 
 Preface written, by S. J.] By 
 William Payne. London, 1756, 
 8vo. 
 
 Jerusalem Delivered, an heroic 
 poem ; translated from the 
 Italian of Torquato Tasso, by 
 John Hoole. [The Dedication 
 to the Queen, written by S. J.] 
 2 vols. London, 1762, 8vo. 
 
 betters to and from the late 
 Samuel Johnson, etc. [Pub- 
 lished by H. L. Piozzi]. 2 vols. 
 London, 1788, 8vo. 
 
 There is a copy in the Library of 
 the BritishMuseum.withMS. Notes, 
 by G. Baretti, and newspaper cut- 
 tines and engraved portraits of 
 Johnson, Baretti, and Mr. Thrale 
 inserted. 
 
 The Literary Magazine for 1756. 
 [Preface by S. J.] London, 1756, 
 bvo. 
 
 London and Westminster im- 
 
 Eved, illustrated by plans, etc. 
 dication by S. J.] By John 
 ynn. London, 1766, 4to. 
 
 A Medicinal Dictionary, including 
 physic, surgery, anatomy, etc. 
 [Dedication by S. J.] By Robert 
 James. 3 vols. London, 1743- 
 45, foL 
 
 Miscellaneous and fugitive pieces 
 [containing several acknow- 
 ledged and anonymous writings 
 of Dr. J.]. 3 vols. London, 
 1774, 8vo. 
 
 Miscellanies in prose and verse, 
 by Anna Williams [including 
 some pieces, with an advertise- 
 ment, by Dr. J.]. London, 1766, 
 4to. 
 
 A Miscellany of Poems by several 
 Hands. Punished by J. 
 Husbands, A.M., Fellow of 
 Pembroke College, Oxon. Ox- 
 ford, 1731, 8vo. 
 
 This work is rare, and is interest- 
 ing, as it contains Dr. Johnson's 
 first printed composition. Mr. 
 Husbands, in his preface, says, 
 "The translation of Mr. Pope's 
 Messiah was delivered to his tutor 
 as a college exercise by Mr. John- 
 son, a commoner of Peuibroke 
 College in Oxford, and 'tis hoped 
 will be no discredit to the excellent 
 original." 
 
 A New Dictionary of Trade and 
 Commerce, compiled from the 
 information of the most eminent 
 merchants. [The Preface written 
 by S. J.] By Mr. Rolt. London, 
 1756, fol. 
 
 A New Prologue, spoken by Mr. 
 Garrick, April 5, 1750, at the 
 representation of Conui*, etc. 
 [By S. J.] London, 1750, fol. 
 
 New Tables of Interest. [Preface 
 by S. J.] By John Payne. Lon- 
 don, 1758, obi. 16mo. 
 
 Original Letters from Richard 
 Baxter, ... Dr. S. JoLuson,
 
 xii ' BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 etc. Edited by Rebecca War- 
 
 new celestial and terrestrial 
 
 ner. Bath, 1817, Svo. 
 
 globes, by George Adams. [With 
 
 Parliamentary Logick : by the 
 
 Dedication by S. J.] London, 
 
 Right Hon. W. G. Hamilton. 
 
 1766, Svo. 
 
 "With an appendix, containing 
 
 Westminster Abbey, with other 
 
 considerations on the Corn Laws, 
 
 occasional poems, and a free 
 
 by S. J. Never before printed. 
 London, 1803, 8vo. 
 
 translation of the (Edipus Tyran- 
 nus [by T. Maurice ; with a 
 
 The Plays of William Shakespeare, 
 
 Preface by Dr. J.] London, 
 
 with the corrections and illustra- 
 
 1S13, Svo. 
 
 tions of various Commentators. 
 
 A Word to the Wise, a Comedy, 
 
 To which are added notes by 
 
 written by Hugh Kelly [with 
 
 [the editor] S. Johnson. 8 vols. 
 
 an address to the public by Dr. 
 
 London, 17C5, 8vo. 
 
 J.]. London, 1770, Svo. 
 
 Mr. Johnson's Preface to his edition 
 
 The World Displayed, or a curious 
 
 of Shakespeare's Plays. Lon- 
 
 collection of Voyages and Tra- 
 
 don, 1765, 8vo. 
 
 vels, selected from Writers of 
 
 The Preceptor, etc., by R. Dods- 
 
 all Nations. [The Introduc- 
 
 ley. [With a Preface by Dr. J.] 
 
 tion written by S. J.] 20 vols. 
 
 Vol. 1. London, 1748, Svo. 
 
 London, 1759, 12mo. 
 
 Numerous editions. 
 
 
 The Secretary, and complete letter 
 writer ; to which is added, An 
 
 VI. APPENDIX. 
 
 Essay on Letter Writing by Dr. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM. 
 
 S. J., and an Introduction to 
 
 
 English Grammar. Birming- 
 
 Adelung, John C. Three Philo- 
 
 ham, 1S03, 12mo. 
 
 logical Essays, chiefly trans- 
 
 Shakespear illustrated ; or the 
 
 lated from the German of J. C. 
 
 Novels and Histories on which 
 
 A. by A. F. M. Willich. London, 
 
 the Plays of Shakespear are 
 
 1798, Svo. 
 
 founded, etc. [With Dedication 
 to John, Earl of Orrerv, by 
 S. J.] By the author of the 
 Female Quixote [Charlotte Len- 
 nox]. 8 vols. London, 1753, 
 
 The Third Essay " On the relative 
 merits and demerits of Johnson's 
 English Dictionary," pp. 169-186. 
 Agutter, Rev. William. On the 
 Difference between the deaths of 
 the Righteous and the Wicked, 
 
 Svo. 
 Stenography; or Short-hand im- 
 proved ... By John Angel. 
 [With Dedication by Dr. S. J.] 
 London [1759?], 8vo. 
 Thoughts on the Coronation of his 
 
 illustrated in the instance of Dr. 
 Samuel Johnson and Davkt 
 Hume. A Sermon, preached 
 before the University of Oxford, 
 at St. Mary's Church, July 23, 
 
 present Majesty King George 
 the Third [with corrections and 
 improvements by S. J.]. Lon- 
 
 i\r*<n 1 7A1 frtl 
 
 1786. London, 1800, Svo. 
 Allibone, S. Austin. A Critical 
 Dictionary of English Litera- 
 ture, etc. 2 vols. Philadel- 
 
 (1011, 1/01, lOl, 
 
 A Treatise describing and explain- 
 ing the construction and use of 
 
 phia, 1859, 8vo. 
 Samuel Johnson, ToL L, pp. 971-
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 xiii 
 
 Anderson, Robert. The Life o 
 Samuel Johnson, with critical 
 observations on his works. Lon 
 don, 1795, Svo. 
 
 Third edition. Edinburgh, 
 
 1815, 8vo. 
 
 Andrews, Samuel. Our Great 
 Writers ; or, popular chapters 
 on some leading authors. Lon 
 don, 1884, 8vo. 
 Samuel Johnson, pp. 188-206. 
 
 Baseom, John. Philosophy of 
 
 English Literature ; a course of 
 
 lectures delivered in the Lowell 
 
 Institute. New York, 1874, 8vo. 
 
 Johnson, pp. 199-208. 
 
 Blackburne, F. Remarks on 
 Johnson's Life of Milton [by 
 F. Blackburne], etc. London, 
 1780, 16mo. 
 
 Biographical Magazine. Lives of 
 the Illustrious. (The Biogra- 
 phical Magazine.) Vol. 4. Lon- 
 don, 1853, 8vo. 
 Samuel Johnson, pp. 1-12. 
 
 Bolton, Sarah X. Lives of Poor 
 Boys who became famous. New 
 York [1886], Svo. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson, with portrait, 
 pp. 83-S9. 
 
 Boswell, James. The Journal of 
 a Tour to the Hebrides with 
 Samuel Johnson, LL.D., con- 
 taining some poetical pieces 
 relative to the Tour, a Series of 
 his Conversation, etc. London, 
 1785, Svo. 
 
 Second edition, revised, etc. 
 
 London, 1785, Svo. 
 
 Third edition, revised, etc, 
 
 London, 1786, Svo. 
 
 Fifth edition. London, 1812, 
 
 12m* 
 
 Sixth edition. London, 1813, 
 
 Svo. 
 
 Fur other editions of the Journal 
 of a Tour to the Hebrides, see " The 
 Liie of S. Johnson," by BoswelL 
 
 Boswell, James. Pindar, Peter, 
 pseud, [i.e., J. WolcotJ. A Poet- 
 ical and Congratulatory Epistle 
 to J. B., on his Journalof a Tour 
 to the Hebrides, etc. 1876. 4to. 
 Several Editions. 
 
 Verax. Remarks on the 
 
 Journal of a Tour to the 
 Hebrides, in a letter to J. B., 
 Esq. [Signed Verax]. [1785] Svo. 
 A Defence of Mr. Bos- 
 well's Journal, in a Letter to 
 the Author of the Remarks, 
 etc. London, 1786, Svo. 
 
 The Remarker remarked, 
 
 or a Parody on the Letter to 
 Mr. Boswell, on his Tour, etc. 
 London, 1786, Svo. 
 
 [Twenty Caricatures by 
 
 T. Rowlandson, in illustration 
 of Boswell's Journal of a Tour 
 to the Hebrides.] [London], 
 1786, fol. 
 
 Originally published in paper 
 wrappers (now very rare) with the 
 title " Picturesque Beauties of Bos- 
 well." 
 
 The Life of Samuel Johnson, 
 LL.D., comprehending an 
 account of his studies and 
 numerous works in chrono- 
 logical order ; a series of his 
 Epistolary Correspondence and 
 Conversations, and various- 
 original pieces of his composi- 
 tion never before published, 
 etc. 2 vols. London, 1791, 
 4to. 
 
 Theprincipal Corrections 
 
 and Additions to the first 
 
 edition of Mr. Boswell's Life of 
 
 Dr. Johnson. London, 1793, 
 
 4to. 
 
 Second edition, revised and 
 
 augmented. 3 vols. London, 
 
 1793, Svo. 
 
 Third edition, augmented. 
 
 4 vols. London, 1799, Svo.
 
 xiv 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Boswell, James. Fourth edition, 
 
 augmented. 4 vols. London, 
 
 1804, 8vo. 
 Fifth edition, augmented. 
 
 4 vols. London, 1807, 8vo. 
 The copy in the Library of the 
 
 British Museum contains a few MS. 
 
 Notes by AI alone and liaslewood. 
 Sixth edition, augmented. 
 
 4 vols. London, 1811, 8vo. 
 Seventh edition, augmented. 
 
 5 vols. London, 1811, 12mo. 
 Eighth edition, augmented. 
 
 4 vols. London, 1816, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. 
 
 London, 1819, 12rno. 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. 
 
 London, 1822, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. 4 vols. 
 
 Oxford, 1826, 8vo. 
 
 Forms part of the " Oxford 
 English Classics." 
 
 Another edition. With copious 
 
 notes and biographical illustra- 
 tions by E. Malone. London, 
 1830, 8vo. 
 
 The Life of S. J., including a 
 
 Journal of a Tour to the 
 Hebrides by J. B. A new 
 edition, with numerous addi- 
 tions and notes by J. Wilson 
 Croker. 5 vols. London, 1831, 
 8vo. 
 
 Mr. Croker has reprinted Malone's 
 Notes to his edition of the Life, and 
 has incorporated with the present 
 work Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes of Dr. 
 Johnson, Dr. Johnson's Tour in 
 Wales, edited with notes by B. 
 Duppa, and Courtenay's poetical 
 Review of the character of Dr. 
 Johnson. 
 
 Another edition. To which are 
 
 added Anecdotes by Hawkins, 
 Piozzi, Murphy, Tyers, Rey- 
 nolds, Steevcns, etc., and notes 
 by various hands (E. Malone, 
 A. Chalmers, J. Wilson Croker, 
 etc.). 10 vols. London, 1835, 
 8vo. 
 
 Boswell, James. Another edition, 
 revised, with much aiklitional 
 matter. By J. Wilsoii Croker. 
 London, 1843, 8vo. 
 
 The Life of S. J. (The 
 
 Journal of a Tour to the 
 Hebrides, with introduct'on and 
 notes by R. Carruthers. A 
 new edition, illustrated, etc. 
 (National Illustrated Library.) 
 5 vols. London [1851-2], 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. By J. Wil- 
 son Croker, revised and'enlarged 
 by J. Wright. Illustrated with 
 engravings, etc. (Johns-oniana : 
 a collection of miscellaneous 
 anecdotes and sayings of Dr. S. 
 J. , etc.) (Bohris Shilling Series.) 
 10 vols. London, 1859, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. By J. Wil- 
 son Croker. With portraits. 10 
 pts. London, 1860, 8vo. 
 
 The Life of S. J. Edited, with 
 
 copious notes, by E. Malone. 
 Unabridged edition. London 
 [1865], 8vo. 
 
 A new edition, elucidated by 
 
 copious notes. With illustra- 
 tions by J. Portch. London, 
 1867, 8vo. 
 
 Another edition. Edited by 
 
 E. Malone. Unabridged edition. 
 London [1868], 8vo. 
 
 Another edition . (Black- 
 wood's Universal Library of 
 Standard Authors.) London 
 [1872], 8vo. 
 
 New edition, revised. Edited, 
 
 with notes, by W. Wallace. 
 Edinburgh, 1873, 8vo. 
 
 The Life of S. J. Together 
 
 with a Journal of a Tour to the 
 Hebrides. A reprint of the 
 first edition. To which are 
 added Mr. BcswelPs corrections 
 and additions, issued in 1792 ; 
 the variations of the second
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 edition, with some of the 
 author's notes prepared for the 
 third : the whole edited, with 
 new notes, by Percy Fitzgerald, 
 etc. 3 vols. London, 1874, 
 8vo. 
 
 New edition. By J. Wilson 
 
 Croker. With portraits. Lon- 
 don, 1876, 8vo. 
 
 The Life of S. J. , including a 
 Journal of a Tour to the 
 Hebrides. 3 vols. London 
 [18S3], 8vo. 
 
 The Life of Samuel Johnson, 
 
 LL.D. Together with the 
 Journal of a Tour to the 
 Hebrides. New editions, with 
 notes and appendices by A. 
 Napier. (Johnsoniana : Anec- 
 dotes of Samuel Johnson by 
 Mrs. Fiozzi and others; together 
 with the diary of Dr. Campbell 
 and extracts from that of 
 Madame D'Arblay. Newly col- 
 lected and edited by A. Napier.) 
 5 vols. London, 1884, 8vo. 
 
 Vol. 5 is not numbered, but issued 
 as an appendix to vols. i.-iv. 
 
 Another edition. 6 vols. 
 
 London, 1884, Svo. 
 
 Centenary edition. London 
 
 [1SS4], Svo. 
 
 The Life of Dr. Samuel 
 
 Johnson, carefully abridged 
 from Mr. Boswell's large work. 
 By F. Thomas, Esq. London, 
 1792, 12mo. 
 
 The Life of S. J., chiefly 
 
 compiled from " Boswell's 
 Johnson." By M. A. Donne. 
 Published under the direction 
 of the Society for Promoting 
 Christian Knowledge. London 
 [1S63], 16mo. 
 
 Life and Conversation of Dr. 
 
 S. J. (founded chiefly upon 
 Bosweli). By A. Main. With 
 
 a preface by G. H. Lewes. 
 London, 1874, Svo. 
 
 The Life of S. J., comprising an 
 account of Ids studies and 
 numerous works, etc. [Abridged 
 from Boswell's "Life of S. 
 J.," etc.] Otley [1877], 16mo. 
 
 ' ' Extracts from the 
 
 Monthly Review" of London, 
 accompanied by Boswell's Life 
 of Dr. Johnson. [Proposals, by 
 Messrs. Andrews and Blake, for 
 publishing a new edition of 
 the Life, criticising the work.} 
 [Charlestown, Mass., 1807], Svo. 
 
 Answers to Mr. Macau- 
 lay's Criticism in the Edinburgh 
 Review on Mr. Croker's edition- 
 of Boswell's Life of Johnson. 
 Selected from Blackwood's Mag- 
 azine. London, 1856, Svo. 
 
 Bosweli again, etc. [A 
 
 defence of J. B. against Ma- 
 caulay's attack in his review of 
 the Life of Johnson.] By 
 Philalethes. London, 1878, Svo. 
 
 A Letter to James Bosweli, 
 
 Esq., with some Remarks on 
 Johnson's Dictionary and on 
 Language, etc. London, 1792, 
 Svo. 
 
 -Epistle to James Bosweli, 
 Esq. ; occasioned by his long 
 expected and now speedily to- 
 be published Life of Dr. John- 
 son. London, 1790, 4to. 
 
 Johnsoniana; or, Supplement 
 
 to Bosweli; being Anecdotes 
 and Sayings of Dr. Johnson,, 
 etc. London, 1836, Svo. 
 
 Another edition. 2 vols. 
 
 London, 1848, 12mo. 
 
 Another edition. 2 vols, 
 
 London, 3859, 12mo. 
 
 Boswelliana. The Common- 
 place Book of J. Bosweli. Wii h 
 a Memoir and Annotations by
 
 KVl 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 the Rev. Charles Rogers , etc. 
 London, 1874, 8vo. 
 
 Printed for the Grampian Club. 
 British Poets. Biographical 
 Sketches of Eminent British 
 Poets, etc. Dublin, 1851, 8vo. 
 
 Samuel Johnson, pp. 326-340. 
 Brough, William. Easselas, 
 Prince of Abyssinia ; or, the 
 Happy Valley. An Extrava- 
 ganza founded on Dr. Johnson's 
 well-known tale, etc. London 
 [1863], 12mo. 
 
 In vol. 57 of "Lacy's Acting 
 Edition of Plays." 
 
 Brougham, Lord. Lives of Men 
 of Letters and Science, who 
 flourished in the time of George 
 III. 2 vols. London, 1846, 
 8vo. 
 
 Johnson, with portrait, voL it, 
 pp. 1-85. 
 
 Works of Henry, Lord 
 
 Brougham. Edinburgh, 1872, 
 8vo. 
 
 Johnson, vol. ii., pp. 304-377. 
 Buokland, Anna. The Story of 
 English Literature. London, 
 1882, 8vo. 
 
 Samuel Johnson and his friends, 
 pp. 442-457. 
 
 Burney, afterwards D'Arblay, 
 Frances. Diary and Letters. 
 7 vols. London, 1832-46, 8vo. 
 
 Contains numerous anecdotes of, 
 and references to Dr. Johnson. 
 Campbell, Archibald. Lexi- 
 phanes, a dialogue imitated 
 from Lucian. Being an attempt 
 to expose the hard words of our 
 English Lexiphanes, the Ram- 
 bler [S. J.]. By A. Campbell. 
 London, 1767, 12mo. 
 Carlyle, Thomas. Biographical 
 Essays, by T. C. No. 1, 
 Samuel Johnson. London, 
 1853, 8vo. 
 
 Critical and Miscellaneous 
 
 Essays, etc. 6 vola. London 
 [1885], 8vo. 
 
 Bos well's Life of Johnson, vol. iv., 
 pp. 25-106. Reprinted from Fraaer't 
 Magazine, vol. v. 
 
 Gary, Henry Francis. Lives of 
 English Poets, from Johnson to 
 Kirke White, designed as a 
 continuation of Johnson's Lives. 
 London, 1846, 8vo. 
 Samuel Johnson, pp. 1-93. 
 
 Clark, F. L. Golden Friendships, 
 etc. London, 1SS4, 8vo. 
 
 Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith, pp. 
 74-91. 
 
 Courtenay, John. A Poetical 
 Review of the Literary and 
 Moral Character of the late S. 
 J. With Notes. London, 
 1786, 4to. 
 
 Craik, George L. A Compendious 
 History of English Literature, 
 etc. 2 vols. London, 1861, 
 8vo. 
 Johnson, vol. ii., pp. 306-310. 
 
 A Manual of English Litera- 
 ture, etc. Ninth edition. 
 London [1883], Svo. 
 Johnson, pp. 404-408. 
 
 Cunningham, George Godfrey. 
 The English Nation ; a History 
 of England, with Lives of 
 Englishmen. 5 vols. Edin- 
 burgh [1863-68], 4to. 
 
 Samuel Johnson, vol. iv.,"pp. 208- 
 220, with portrait. 
 
 Dawson, George. Biographical 
 Lectures, by George Dawson, 
 M.A. London, 1886, Svo. 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson, pp. 159-171. 
 
 Drake, Nathan. Essays, bio- 
 graphical, critical, and histor- 
 ical, illustrative of the Rambler, 
 Adventurer, and Idler, etc. 
 2 vols. Buckingham, printed. 
 London, 1809-10, 16mo. 
 
 The Literary Life of Dr. J., rol, i., 
 pp. 111-499. 
 
 Drake, Samuel Adams. Onr Great
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 xvil 
 
 Benefactors ; short biographies, 
 
 ant and valuable anecdotes, etc. 
 
 etc. Boston [U.S.], 1884, 4to. 
 
 London, 1787, 8vo. 
 
 Samuel Johnson, illustrated, pp. 
 
 Frost, John. Lives of Eminent 
 
 43-46. 
 Dulcken, H. W. Worthies of the 
 
 Christians. Philadelphia, 1852. 
 
 World, a series of historical 
 and critical sketches, etc. 
 London [1881], 8vo. 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson, with por- 
 trait, pp. 97-112. 
 
 8vo. 
 S. Johnson, pp. 323-331. 
 Gilfilkn, George. Galleries of 
 Literary Portraits. 2 vols. 
 Edinburgh, 1857, 8vo. 
 
 t)umout (de Monteux). Lettre a 
 
 Dr. Johnson, vol. ii. pp. 217-226. 
 
 Mons, A Latour sur 1'etat pa- 
 
 Gisborne, Thomas. Reflections 
 
 thologique de Samuel Johnson. 
 
 on recent occurrences at Lich- 
 
 (L' Union Medicale, torn, xi., 
 
 field ; including an illustration 
 
 1857, pp. 297-298, and 321-323.) 
 
 of the opinion's of S. J. on 
 
 Duyckinck, Evert A. Portrait 
 
 Slavery, etc. London, 1826, 
 
 Gallery of Eminent Men and 
 
 8vo. 
 
 Women, etc. New York [1875], 
 
 Hacho, King. The fatal effects of 
 
 4to. 
 
 Luxury and Indolence, exempli- 
 
 Samuel Johnson, with portrait, 
 
 fied in the History of Hacho, 
 
 vol. i., pp. 5-27. 
 Encycloptedia Britannica. Ency- 
 clopaedia Britannica. Eighth 
 
 King of Lapland. A tale of Dr. 
 S. Johnson's versified. Chester- 
 field, 1778, 4to. 
 
 edition. Edinburgh, 1863-60, 
 
 Hawkins, Sir John. The Life of 
 
 4 to. 
 Article Johnson, by Lord 
 ^Macaulay, vol. xii., pp. 793-804 " 
 
 Samuel Johnson, by Sir John 
 Hawkins. London, 1787, 8vo. 
 
 reprinted in the 9th edition. 
 
 Second edition corrected. 
 
 Essay. An Essay upon the King's 
 
 London, 1787, 8vo. 
 
 Friends, with an account of 
 
 Another edition. Dublin, 
 
 some discoveries made in Italy, 
 
 1787, 8vo. 
 
 and found in a Virgil, concern- 
 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Tales, 
 
 ing the Tories. To Dr. S 1 
 
 Sketches, and other papers, by 
 
 J n. London. 1776, 8vo. 
 
 N. Hawthorne. Boston [U.S.], 
 
 Essays. Critical and Miscel- 
 
 1883, 8vo. 
 
 laneous Essays. By an Octo- 
 
 Samuel Johnson, pp. 166-176. 
 
 genarian. 2 vols. Cork, 1851, 
 8vo. 
 
 Hazlitt, William. Johnson's 
 Lives of the British Poets, com- 
 
 Johnson, his contemporaries and 
 
 pleted by W. H. 4 vols. Lon- 
 
 biographers, pp. 312-348. 
 
 don, 1854, 8vo. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Percy. Croker's 
 
 Samuel Johnson, illustrated, pp. 
 
 Boswell and Boswell. Studies 
 
 70-93. 
 
 in the Life of Johnson. London, 
 
 Hazlitt, W. Carew. Offspring of 
 
 18 SO, 8vo. 
 
 Thought in Solitude. Modern 
 
 Fordyce, James. Addresses to the 
 Deity. London, 1785, 8vo. 
 Address VI., On the Death of Dr. 
 
 Essays. London, 1884, 8vo. 
 Essay on Dr. Johnson, pp. 47-56. 
 Henderson, Andrew. A Letter to 
 
 Samuel Johnson, pp. 209-232. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Johnson, on hia 
 
 Francis, Barber. More last words 
 
 Journey to the Western Isles, 
 
 of Dr. J., consisting of import- 
 
 etc London [1775], 8vo.
 
 xviil 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Henderson, Andrew. A Second 
 Letter to Dr. S. J., in which 
 his wicked and opprobrious 
 invectives [in his "Journey to 
 the Hebrides "] are shewn, etc. 
 London [1775], 8vo. 
 
 Hewlett, J. T. Dr. Johnson: his 
 religious life and his death. 
 By the author of "Dr. Hook- 
 well," etc. Londou, 1850, 
 12mo. 
 
 Hill, George Birkbeck. Dr. 
 Johnson, his friends and his 
 critics. London, 1878, 8vo. 
 
 Hobhouse, Thomas. Elegy to the 
 Memory of Doctor Samuel 
 Johnson. London, 1785, 4to. 
 
 Howe, J., Lord Ched worth. 
 Notes upon some of the obscure 
 passages in Shakespeare's plays; 
 with remarks upon the explana- 
 tions and amendments of the 
 commentators in the editions of 
 1785, 1790, 1793 [Dr. Johnson, 
 G. Steevens, etc.]. London, 
 1805, 8vo. 
 
 Hutton, Laurence. Literary 
 Landmarks of London. London 
 [18S5], 8vo. 
 Samuel Johnson, pp. 155-171. 
 
 Ivimey, Joseph. John Milton, his 
 life and times ; with an appen- 
 dix containing animadversions 
 upon Dr. J.'s Life of Milton, 
 etc. London, 1833, 8vo. 
 
 Johnson, Samuel. A letter to S. 
 J. [in reply to "The False 
 Alarm"]. [London] 1770, 8vo. 
 
 The Constitution defended, 
 
 and Pensioner exposed ; in 
 remarks on the " False Alarm." 
 [A pamphlet by Dr. J .] London, 
 1770, 8vo. 
 
 History and Defence of Magna 
 
 Charta. London, 1772, 8vo. 
 
 This work was not written by 
 Samuel Johnson, although his name 
 appears on the title-page. 
 
 Johnson, Samuel. Magna Charta* 
 with its history and defence. 
 With the Bill of Rights, Scots'" 
 Claim of Rights, Habeas Corpus- 
 Act, and an introductory dis- 
 course, with an essay on Parlia- 
 ments. Edinburgh, 1794, 12mo. 
 
 The Pamphlet, entitled 
 
 "Taxation no Tyranny" [by 
 S. J.]. candidly considered, and 
 its arguments and pernicious- 
 doctrines exposed and refuted. 
 London [1775,] 8vo. 
 
 Tyranny Unmasked ; an 
 
 answer to a late pamphlet,, 
 entitled Taxation no Tyranny 
 [by S. J.]. London, 1775, 8vo. 
 
 An Answer to a Pamphlet, 
 
 entitled Taxation no Tyranny,, 
 addressed to the Author [S. J.]. 
 London, 1775, 8vo. 
 
 Taxation, Tyranny. Ad- 
 
 dresed to S. Johnson, LL.D. 
 London, 1775, 8vo. 
 
 Remarks on the Patriot. [A 
 
 pamphlet by S. J.] Including- 
 some hints respecting the 
 Americans ; with an address to- 
 the Electors of Great Britain. 
 London, 1775, 8vo. 
 
 Remarks on a Voyage to the- 
 
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 Johnsoniana ; or, a Collection, 
 
 of Bon Mots by Dr. Johnson 
 and others. Together with 
 the choice sentences of Publiua 
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 12mo. 
 
 A Cursory Examination of Dr. 
 
 Johnson's Strictures on the* 
 Lyric performances of Gray. 
 London, 1781, 8vo. 
 
 Remarks on Dr. Johnson's 
 
 Life, and critical observations'
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. xix 
 
 on the works of Mr. Gray. 
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 fore published. London, 1785, 
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 Observations on Dr. Johnson's 
 
 An Ode on the much-lament- 
 
 life of Hammond. Londonil782, 
 
 ed Death of Dr. Samuel John- 
 
 4to. 
 
 son. Written the 18th of 
 
 Remarks on Dr. Johnson's 
 
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 Lives of the most eminent 
 
 4to. 
 
 Poets. By a Yorkshire Free- 
 
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 Samuel Johnson. London, 
 
 A Criticism on the Elegy 
 written in a Country Church- 
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 Attributed to Mr. Young, Pro- 
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 1785, 4to. 
 A poetical epistle from the 
 ghost of Dr. Johnson to his 
 lour friends: The Rev. Mr. 
 Strahan, J. Boswell, Esq., Mrs. 
 Piozzi, J. Courtenay, Esq. , M. P. , 
 from the original copy in the 
 
 Second edition. Edinburgh, 
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 possession of the editor. With 
 notes, critical, biographical, 
 
 Ode by Dr. S. Johnson to Mrs. 
 Thrale upon their supposed 
 approaching nuptials. [Asatire.] 
 
 historical, and explanatory. 
 London, 1786, 4to. 
 A Monody on the much- 
 lamented Death of Samuel John- 
 
 London, 1784, 4to. 
 
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 A Dialogue between Dr. 
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 the shades, relative to the 
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 Pope, Milton, and Gray. Lon- 
 
 Anecdotes of the Learned Pig, 
 with notes, critical and explana- 
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 Johnson's Laurel; or, Contest 
 
 A Critical Review of the Works of 
 
 of the Poets ; a poem. London, 
 
 S. J., containing a particular 
 
 1785, 4to. 
 
 vindication of several eminent 
 
 Memoirs of the Life and 
 
 characters. London, 1783, 8vo. 
 
 Writings of S. J., containing 
 
 Another edition. London, 
 
 original letters and anecdotes 
 
 1787, 8vo. 
 
 both of his literary and social 
 
 Letter to Dr. Johnson on the 
 
 connections. London, 1785, 
 
 subject of a Future State, by 
 
 8vo. 
 
 Taylor. 1787. 
 
 The Life of S. J., with 
 
 The Art of Criticism; as 
 
 occasional Remarks on his 
 
 exemplified in Dr. Johnson's 
 
 Writings, an authentic copy of 
 
 Lives of the most eminent 
 
 his Will, and a Catalogue of his 
 
 English Poets. London, 1789, 
 
 Works ; to which are added 
 
 8vo. 
 
 some papers written by Dr. 
 
 Reflections on the last scene of the 
 
 J. in behalf of a late unfortunate 
 
 late Dr. Johnson's Life ; as 
 
 character [Dr. Dodd] never be- 
 
 exhibited by his biographer. 
 
 13
 
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 Sir John Hawkins; also 
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 The Character of Dr. J. 
 
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 Dr. Johnson's Table Talk, 
 
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 Another edition. London, 
 
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 The Table Talk of S. J. 
 
 Edinburgh [1868], 16mo. 
 
 A Dialogue between Dr. J. 
 
 and Mrs. Knowles. [On the 
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 A Critical Inquiry into the 
 
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 Two New Dialogues of the 
 
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 The Life of Dr. Johnson. 
 
 (Select Biography, voL 6). 
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 Graphic Illustrations of the 
 
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 Dr. Johnson on his Death- 
 
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 Kenrick, William. An Epistle to 
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 A Review of Dr. Johnson's 
 
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 Knox, John. Extracts from the 
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 Lady. A Journey to the High- 
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 Samuel Johnson, pp. 235-249. 
 
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 XXIV 
 
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 1864, pp. 199-202. 
 
 Letters of Miss Hill Boothby 
 
 to. Christian Observer, vol. 32, 
 1832, pp. 6-10. 
 
 Life of. Edinburgh Review, 
 
 by F. Jeffrey, vol. 7, 1806, pp. 
 436-441. Museum of Foreign 
 Literature, vol. 6, p. 97, etc. 
 Port Folio (portrait), vol. 10, 
 4th Series, 1820, pp. 148-163. 
 Englishman's Magazine, vol. 2, 
 1842, pp. 97-107. 
 
 Life and Times of. National 
 
 Magazine, vol. 3, pp. 18, 295, 
 etc. 
 
 Life and Writings of. Lon- 
 don Magazine, vol. 8, 1823, pp. 
 57-69 and 169-185. Quarterly 
 Review, vol. 105, 1859, pp. 
 176-233 ; same article, Littell's
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 xxvii 
 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel. 
 
 Living Age, vol. 60, 1859, pp. 
 777-809. 
 
 Lives of the Poets. Mac- 
 
 millan's Magazine, by M. 
 Arnold, vol. 38, 1878, pp. 153- 
 160 ; same article, LiUell's 
 Living Age, vol. 138, pp. 86 62, 
 and Sup. to Popular Science 
 Monthly, vol 3, pp. 281, etc. 
 Bentley's Miscellany, vol. 36, 
 
 1854, pp. 445, 446. New 
 Monthly Magazine, vol. 103, 
 
 1855, pp. 18-27. LittelPs 
 Living Age (from the Saturday 
 Review), vol. 66, 1860, pp. 240- 
 243. Monthly Review, vol. 61, 
 1779, pp. 1-10, 81-92, 186-191. 
 
 Monument of, in St. Paul's 
 
 Cathedral. Saturday Review, 
 vol. 58, 1884. 436, 437. 
 
 Notes on John Wilkes and 
 
 Boswell's Life of. Walford's 
 Antiquarian Magazine, vol. 11, 
 January 1887. 
 
 Observations on. Methodist 
 
 Magazine, vol. 43, 1820, pp. 
 660-671. 
 
 Painted by Reynolds. Anti- 
 quarian Magazine, by E. Wai- 
 ford, vol 4, 1883, pp. 1-8. 
 
 Religious Friends of. Christ- 
 ian Observer, vol. 31, 1831, pp. 
 1-13, and vol. 32, pp. 1-5. 
 
 Relifjious Life of. (Hewlett's}. 
 
 Quarterly Review, vol. 87, 1850, 
 pp. 59-68 ; same article, Lit- 
 tell's Living Age, vol. 26, 1850, 
 pp. 337-341. 
 
 Religious Life and Death of. 
 
 Hogg's Instructor, vol. 5, 1850, 
 pp, 200-203 and 214-217. Dub- 
 lin University Magazine, vol. 
 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel. 
 
 36, 1850, pp. 477-489. 
 
 Bentley's Miscellany, vol. 27, 
 
 1850, pp. 397-399. 
 Religious Opinions of. Month, 
 
 by Charles E. Ryder, vol. 38, 
 
 1880, pp. 418-436. 
 
 Religious Principles of. 
 
 Methodist Magazine, vol. 56, 
 1833, pp. 92-97. 
 
 Reminiscences of (Captain 
 
 Thompson's). Cornhill Maga- 
 zine, vol. 17, 1868, pp. 622 629. 
 
 Style of. Port Folio, vol. 11, 
 
 fourth series, 1821, pp. 300- 
 309; vol. 12, pp. 32-42. 
 
 Taxation no Tyranny. 
 
 Monthly Review, vol. 52, 1775, 
 pp. 253-261. 
 
 Unpublished Episodes in the 
 
 Life of. Gentleman's Maga- 
 zine, by Llewellyn Jewitt, vol. 
 243, 1878, pp. 692-712. 
 
 loithout Boswell. Contem- 
 porary Review, by William 
 Cyples, vol. 32, 1878, pp. 707- 
 727 ; same article, LittelPa 
 Living Age, vol. 138, pp. 541- 
 553. 
 
 Works and Reviewers of. 
 
 Evangelical Review, by S. A. 
 Allibone, voL 15, 1864, pp. 141- 
 155. 
 
 Worship of. Nation, by A. 
 
 V. Dicey, vol. 27, 1878, pp. 
 318, 319. 
 
 Writings of. Cornhill Maga- 
 zine, by Leslie Stephen, vol. 29, 
 1874, pp. 280-297; same article, 
 Eclectic Magazine, vol. 19, N.S., 
 pp. 527-539 ; Littell's Living 
 Age, vol. 121, pp. 91-102, and 
 Every Saturday, vol. 16, pp. 
 349, etc.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS. 
 
 A Voyage to Abyssinia, by 
 Father Jerome Lobo. 
 
 
 A Journey to the Western 
 Islands of Scotland . 1775 
 
 (Trans.) 
 
 1735 
 
 The Convict's Address . 1777 
 
 London : a Poem 
 
 1738 
 
 Works of the English 
 
 A Compleat Vindication of 
 
 
 Poets . . . 1779-81 
 
 the Licensers of the Stage 
 
 1739 
 
 (Prefaces, biographical and 
 
 Marmor Norfolciense 
 
 1739 
 
 critical.) 
 
 Life of Richard Savage 
 
 1744 
 
 
 
 Miscellaneous Observations 
 
 
 
 ' on the Tragedy of Mac- 
 
 
 Poetical Works . . . 1785 
 
 beth ... . 
 
 1745 
 
 The Life of Isaac Watts . 1785 
 
 The Plan of a Dictionary of 
 the English Language . 
 The Vanity of Human 
 
 1747 
 
 Prayers and Meditations . 1785 
 Memoirs of Charles Fred- 
 erick, King of Prussia . 1786 
 
 Wishes 
 
 1749 
 
 Debates in Parliament . 1787 
 
 Irene .... 
 
 1749 
 
 The Works of Samuel 
 
 The Rambler . . 1750-52 
 
 Johnson . . . 1787 
 
 Dictionary of the English 
 Language 
 
 1755 
 
 Sermon written for the 
 Funeral of his Wife . 1788 
 
 The Prince of Abissinia 
 
 
 Letters to and from the late 
 
 (Rasselas) 
 
 1759 
 
 Samuel Johnson . . 1788 
 
 The Review of a Free In- 
 
 
 Sermons on different sub- 
 
 ThTlSer ! 
 
 1759 
 1761 
 
 jects . . . 1788-89 
 Letter to the Earl of 
 
 Preface to his edition of 
 
 
 Chesterfield . . . 1790 
 
 Shakespeare . 
 
 1765 
 
 A Conversation between 
 
 The False Alarm 
 
 1770 
 
 King George III. and 
 
 Thoughts on the late trans- 
 actions respecting Falk- 
 
 
 Dr. Johnson . . . 1790 
 Life of Samuel Johnson, 
 
 land's Islands 
 
 1771 
 
 written by himself. . 1805 
 
 The Patriot 
 
 1774 
 
 A Diary of a Journey into 
 
 Taxation no Tyranny 
 
 1775 
 
 North Wales . . . 1816 
 
 Printed by WALTER SCOTT, Felling, Ncwcastle-on-Tyne.
 
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