The Life of Samuel Johnson

by James Boswell

  Considering Johnson’s narrow circumstances in the early part of his life, and particularly at the interesting æra of his launching into the ocean of London, it is not to be wondered at, that an actual instance, proved by experience, of the possibility of enjoying the intellectual luxury of social life, upon a very small income, should deeply engage his attention, and be ever recollected by him as a circumstance of much importance. He amused himself, I remember, by computing how much more expence was absolutely necessary to live upon the same scale with that which his friend described, when the value of money was diminished by the progress of commerce. It may be estimated that double the money might now with difficulty be sufficient.

  Amidst this cold obscurity, there was one brilliant circumstance to cheer him; he was well acquainted with Mr. Henry Hervey,a one of the branches of the noble family of that name, who had been quartered at Lichfield as an officer of the army, and had at this time a house in London, where Johnson was frequently entertained, and had an opportunity of meeting genteel company. Not very long before his death, he mentioned this, among other particulars of his life, which he was kindly communicating to me; and he described this early friend, ‘Harry Hervey,’ thus: ‘He was a vicious man, but very kind to me. If you call a dog Hervey, I shall love him.’

  He told me he had now written only three acts of his Irene, and that he retired for some time to lodgings at Greenwich, where he proceeded in it somewhat further, and used to compose, walking in the Park; but did not stay long enough at that place to finish it.

  At this period we find the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave, which, as a link in the chain of his literary history, it is proper to insert:

  ‘To MR. CAVE

  ‘Greenwich, next door to the Golden Heart,

  Church-street, July 12, 1737.

  ‘SIR,

  ‘Having observed in your papers very uncommon offers of encouragement to men of letters, I have chosen, being a stranger in London, to communicate to you the following design, which, I hope, if you join in it, will be of advantage to both of us.

  ‘The History of the Council of Trent having been lately translated into French, and published with large Notes by Dr. Le Courayer, the reputation of that book is so much revived in England, that, it is presumed, a new translation of it from the Italian, together with Le Courayer’s Notes from the French, could not fail of a favourable reception.

  ‘If it be answered, that the History is already in English, it must be remembered, that therewasthesame objection Against Le Courayer’s undertaking, with this disadvantage, that the French had a version by one of their best translators, whereas you cannot read three pages of the English History without discovering that the style is capable of great improvements; but whether those improvements are to be expected from the attempt, you must judge from the specimen, which, if you approve the proposal, I shall submit to your examination.

  ‘Suppose the merit of the versions equal, we may hope that the addition of the Notes will turn the balance in our favour, considering the reputation of the Annotator.

  ‘Be pleased to favour me with a speedy answer, if you are not willing to engage in this scheme; and appoint me a day to wait upon you, if you are. I am, Sir, your humble servant, ‘Sam. Johnson.’

  It should seem from this letter, though subscribed with his own name, that he had not yet been introduced to Mr. Cave. We shall presently see what was done in consequence of the proposal which it contains.

  In the course of the summer he returned to Lichfield, where he had left Mrs. Johnson, and there he at last finished his tragedy, which was not executed with his rapidity of composition upon other occasions, but was slowly and painfully elaborated. A few days before his death, while burning a great mass of papers, he picked out from among them the original unformed sketch of this tragedy, in his own hand-writing, and gave it to Mr. Langton, by whose favour a copy of it is now in my possession. It contains fragments of the intended plot, and speeches for the different persons of the drama, partly in the raw materials of prose, partly worked up into verse; as also a variety of hints for illustration, borrowed from the Greek, Roman, and modern writers. The hand-writing is very difficult to read, even by those who were best acquainted with Johnson’s mode of penmanship, which at all times was very particular. The King having graciously accepted of this manuscript as a literary curiosity, Mr. Langton made a fair and distinct copy of it, which he ordered to be bound up with the original and the printed tragedy; and the volume is deposited in the King’s library. His Majesty was pleased to permit Mr. Langton to take a copy of it for himself.

  The whole of it is rich in thought and imagery, and happy expressions; and of the disjecta membra51 scattered throughout, and as yet unarranged, a good dramatick poet might avail himself with considerable advantage. I shall give my readers some specimens of different kinds, distinguishing them by the Italick character.

  ‘Nor think to say, here will I stop,

  Here will I fix the limits of transgression,

  Nor farther tempt the avenging rage of heaven.

  When guilt like this once harbours in the breast,

  Those holy beings, whose unseen direction Guides

  through the maze of life the steps of man,

  Fly the detested mansions of impiety,

  And quit their charge to horrour and to ruin.’

  A small part only of this interesting admonition is preserved in the play, and is varied, I think, not to advantage:

  ‘The soul once tainted with so foul a crime,

  No more shall glow with friendship’s hallow’d ardour,

  Those holy beings whose superior care

  Guides erring mortals to the paths of virtue,

  Affrighted at impiety like thine,

  Resign their charge to baseness and to ruin.’

  I feel the soft infection

  Flush in my cheek, and wander in my veins.

  Teach me the Grecian arts of soft persuasion.’

  ‘Sure this is love, which heretofore I conceived the dream of idle maids, and wanton poets.’

  ‘Though no comets or prodigies foretold the ruin of Greece, signs which heaven must by another miracle enable us to understand, yet might it be foreshewn, by tokens no less certain, by the vices which always bring it on.’

  This last passage is worked up in the tragedy itself, as follows:

  LEONTIUS.

  ’–––––That power that kindly spreads

  The clouds, a signal of impending showers,

  To warn the wand’ring linnet to the shade,

  Beheld, without concern, expiring Greece,

  And not one prodigy foretold our fate.

  DEMETRIUS.

  A thousand horrid prodigies foretold it;

  A feeble government, eluded laws,

  A factious populace, luxurious nobles,

  And all the maladies of sinking States.

  When publick villainy, too strong for justice,

  Shows his bold front, the harbinger of ruin,

  Can brave Leontius call for airy wonders,

  Which cheats interpret, and which fools regard?

  When some neglected fabrick nods beneath

  The weight of years, and totters to the tempest

  Must heaven despatch the messengers of light,

  Or wake the dead, to warn us of its fall?’

  MAHOMET (tO IRENE). I have tried thee, and joy to find that thou deservest to be loved by Mahomet, – with a mind great as his own. Sure, thou art an errour of nature, and an exception to the rest of thy sex, and art immortal; for sentiments like thine were never to sink into nothing. I thought all the thoughts of the fair had been to select the graces of the day, dispose the colours of the flaunting (flowing) robe, tune the voice and roll the eye, place the gem, choose the dress, and add new roses to the failing cheek, but – sparkling.’

  Thus in the tragedy:

  ‘Illustrious maid, new wonders fix me thine;

  Thy soul completes
the triumphs of thy face:

  I thought, forgive my fair, the noblest aim,

  The strongest effort of a female soul

  Was but to choose the graces of the day,

  To tune the tongue, to teach the eyes to roll,

  Dispose the colours of the flowing robe,

  And add new roses to the faded cheek.’

  I shall select one other passage, on account of the doctrine which it illustrates. Irene observes,

  ‘That the Supreme Being will accept of virtue, whatever outward circumstances it may be accompanied with, and may be delighted with varieties of worship: but is answered, That variety cannot affect that Being, who, infinitely happy in his own perfections, wants no external gratifications; nor can infinite Truth be delighted withfalshood; that though he mayguide or pity those he leaves in darkness, he abandons those who shut their eyes against the beams of day.’

  Johnson’s residence at Lichfield, on his return to it at this time, was only for three months; and as he had as yet seen but a small part of the wonders of the Metropolis, he had little to tell his townsmen. He related to me the following minute anecdote of this period: ‘In the last age, when my mother lived in London, there were two sets of people, those who gave the wall,52 and those who took it; the peaceable and the quarrelsome. When I returned to Lichfield, after having been in London, my mother asked me, whether I was one of those who gave the wall, or those who took it. Now it is fixed that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the wall, another yields it; and it is never a dispute.’a

  He now removed to London with Mrs. Johnson; but her daughter, who had lived with them at Edial, was left with her relations in the country. His lodgings were for some time in Woodstock-street, near Hanover-square, and afterwards in Castle-street, near Cavendish-square. As there is something pleasingly interesting, to many, in tracing so great a man through all his different habitations, I shall, before this work is concluded, present my readers with an exact list of his lodgings and houses, in order of time, which, in placid condescension to my respectful curiosity, he one evening dictated to me, but without specifying how long he lived at each. In the progress of his life I shall have occasion to mention some of them as connected with particular incidents, or with the writing of particular parts of his works. To some, this minute attention may appear trifling; but when we consider the punctilious exactness with which the different houses in which Milton resided have been traced by the writers of his life, a similar enthusiasm may be pardoned in the biographer of Johnson.

  His tragedy being by this time, as he thought, completely finished and fit for the stage, he was very desirous that it should be brought forward. Mr. Peter Garrick told me, that Johnson and he went together to the Fountain tavern, and read it over, and that he afterwards solicited Mr. Fleetwood, the patentee of Drury-lane theatre, to have it acted at his house; but Mr. Fleetwood would not accept it, probably because it was not patronized by some man of high rank; and it was not acted till 1749, when his friend David Garrick was manager of that theatre.

  The Gentleman’s Magazine, begun and carried on by Mr. Edward Cave, under the name of Sylvanus Urban, had attracted the notice and esteem of Johnson, in an eminent degree, before he came to London as an adventurer in literature. He told me, that when he first saw St. John’s Gate, the place where that deservedly popular miscellany was originally printed, he ‘beheld it with reverence.’ I suppose, indeed, that every young authour has had the same kind of feeling for the magazine or periodical publication which has first entertained him, and in which he has first had an opportunity to see himself in print, without the risk of exposing his name. I myself recollect such impressions from The Scots Magazine, which was begun at Edinburgh in the year 1739, and has been ever conducted with judgement, accuracy, and propriety. I yet cannot help thinking of it with an affectionate regard. Johnson has dignified the Gentleman’s Magazine, by the importance with which he invests the life of Cave; but he has given it still greater lustre by the various admirable Essays which he wrote for it.

  Though Johnson was often solicited by his friends to make a complete list of his writings, and talked of doing it, I believe with a serious intention that they should all be collected on his own account, he put it off from year to year, and at last died without having done it perfectly. I have one in his own hand-writing, which contains a certain number; I indeed doubt if he could have remembered every one of them, as they were so numerous, so various, and scattered in such a multiplicity of unconnected publications; nay, several of them published under the names of other persons, to whom he liberally contributed from the abundance of his mind. We must, therefore, be content to discover them, partly from occasional information given by him to his friends, and partly from internal evidence.a

  His first performance in the Gentleman’s Magazine, which for many years was his principal resource for employment and support, was a copy of Latin verses, in March 1738, addressed to the editor in so happy a style of compliment, that Cave must have been destitute both of taste and sensibility had he not felt himself highly gratified.

  ’ AdURBANUM.∗

  ‘URBANE, nullis fesse laboribus,

  URBANE, nullis victe calumniis,

  Cut fronte sertum in eruditä

  Perpetuö viret et virebit;

  Quid moliatur gens imitantium,

  Quid et minetur, solicitus parüm,

  Vacare solis perge Musis,

  Juxta animo studiisque felix.

  Linguce procacis plumbea spicula,

  Fidens, superbo frange silentio;

  Victrix per obstantes catervas

  Sedulitas animosa tendet.

  Intende nervös, fortis, inanibus

  Risurus olim nisibus cemuli;

  Intende jam nervös,

  babebis Participes opens Camcenas.

  Non ulla Musis pagina gratior,

  Quam quce sevens ludicra jüngere

  Novit, fatigatamque nugis

  Utilibus recreare mentem.

  Texente Nympbis serta Lycoride,

  Rosa; ruborem sic viola adjuvat

  Immista, sic Iris refulget

  Athereis variata fuas.a S. J.

  It appears that he was now enlisted by Mr. Cave as a regular coadjutor in his magazine, by which he probably obtained a tolerable livelihood. At what time, or by what means, he had acquired a competent knowledge both of French and Italian, I do not know; but he was so well skilled in them, as to be sufficiently qualified for a translator. That part of his labour which Consistedinemendation and Improvement of the Productions of other contributors, like that employed in levelling ground, can be perceived only by those who had an opportunity of comparing the original with the altered copy. What we certainly know tohave been doneby him in this way, was the Debates in both houses of Parliament, under the name of ‘The Senate of Lilliput,’ sometimes with feigned denominations of the several speakers, sometimes with denominations formed of the letters of their real names, in the manner of what is called anagram, so that they might easily be decyphered. Parliament then kept the press in a kind of mysterious awe, which made it necessary to have recourse to such devices. In our time it has acquired an unrestrained freedom, so that the people in all parts of the kingdom have a fair, open, and exact report of the actual proceedings of their representatives and legislators, which in our constitution is highly to be valued; though, unquestionably, there has of late been too much reason to complain of the petulance with which obscure scribblers have presumed to treat men of the most respectable character and situation.

  This important article of the Gentleman’s Magazine was, for several years, executed by Mr. William Guthrie, a man who deserves to be respectably recorded in the literary annals of this country. He was descended of an ancient family in Scotland; but having a small patrimony, and being an adherent of the unfortunate house of Stuart, he could not accept of any office in the state; he therefore came to London, and employed his talents and learning as an ‘Authour by profession.’ Hi
s writings in history, criticism, and politicks, had considerable merit.a He was the first English historian who had recourse to that authentick source of information, the Parliamentary Journals; and such was the power of his political pen, that, at an early period, Government thought it worth their while to keep it quiet by a pension, which he enjoyed till his death. Johnson esteemed him enough to wish that his life should be written. The debates in Parliament, which were brought home and digested by Guthrie, whose memory, though surpassed by others who have since followed him in the same department, was yet very quick and tenacious, were sent by Cave to Johnson for his revision; and, after some time, when Guthrie had attained to greater variety of employment, and the speeches were more and more enriched by the accession of Johnson’s genius, it was resolved that he should do the whole himself, from the scanty notes furnished by persons employed to attend in both houses of Parliament. Sometimes, however, as he himself told me, he had nothing more communicated to him than the names of the several speakers, and the part which they had taken in the debate.