lives." once the pleasure of examining it with Mr. Edmund Burke, who confirmed me in this opinion by his superiour critical sagacity, and was, I remember, much delighted with the following specimen: ham, he borrowed it of Pembroke College. | cala, which cost two of our fathers their A part of the work being very soon done, one Osborn, who was Mr. Warren's print- Every one acquainted with Johnson's was set to work with what was ready, manner will be sensible that there is nothJohnson engaged to supply the pressing of it here; but that this sentence might py as it should be wanted; but his have been composed by any other man. nal indolence soon prevailed, and But, in the Preface, the Johnsonian style wis was at a stand. Mr. Hector, begins to appear; and though use had not knew that a motive of humanity yet taught his wing a permanent and equaThe the most prevailing argument with ble flight, there are parts of it which exhend, went to Johnson, and represent-hibit his best manner in full vigour. I had ed to him that the printer could have no ther employment till this undertaking was finished, and that the poor man and his family were suffering. Johnson, upon this, exerted the powers of his mind, though his body was relaxed. He lay in bed with the book, which was a quarto, before him, and dictated while Hector wrote. Mr. Hector carried the sheets to the press, and corrected almost all the proof sheets, very few of which were even seen by Johnson. In this manner, with the aid of Mr. Hector's active fnendship, the book was completed, and was published in 1735, with London upon the title-page, though it was in reality printed at Birmingham, a device too commen with provincial publishers. For this work he had from Mr. Warren only the sum of five guineas. This being the first prose work of Johnson, it is a curious object of inquiry how uch may be traced in it of that style such marks his subsequent writings with sach peculiar excellence with so happy an union of force, vivacity, and perspicuity. I have perused the book with this view, and have found that here, as I believe in every other translation, there is in the work itself no vestige of the translator's a style; for the language of translation being adapted to the thoughts of another person, insensibly follows their cast, and, 2s it were, runs into a mould that is ready prepared. "The Portuguese traveller, contrary to the general vein of his countrymen, has amused his reader with no romantick absurdity, or incredible fictions; whatever he relates, whether true or not, is at least probable; and he who tells nothing exceeding the bounds of probability, has a right to demand that they should believe him who cannot contradict him. "He appears, by his modest and unaffected narration, to have described things as he saw them, to have copied nature from the life, and to have consulted his senses, not his imagination. He meets with no basilisks that destroy with their eyes, his crocodiles devour their prey without tears, and his cataracts fall from the rocks without deafening the neighbouring inhabitants. "The reader will here find no regions cursed with irremediable barrenness, or blest with spontaneous fecundity; no perpetual gloom, or unceasing sunshine; nor are the nations here described, either devoid of all sense of humanity, or consummate in all private or social virtues. Here are no Hottentots without religious policy or articulate language; no Chinese perfectly polite and completely skilled in all sciences; he will discover, what will always be discovThus, for instance, taking the first sen-ered by a diligent and impartial inquirer, that tence that occurs at the opening of the Dok, p. 4: "Iûved here above a year, and completed my studies in divinity; in which time Be letters were received from the fathers 4 Ethiopia, with an account that Sultan Segoed, Emperour of Abyssinia, was converted to the church of Rome; that many of his subjects had followed his example, and that there was a great want of misExmaries to improve these prosperous beginnings. Every body was very desirous of Becoming the zeal of our fathers, and of ading them the assistance they request to which we were the more encouraged, because the emperour's letter informed our provincial that we might easily enter his unions by the way of Dancala; but, unbappily, the secretary wrote Geila for Dan wherever human nature is to be found, there is a mixture of vice and virtue, a contest of passion and reason; and that the Creator doth not appear partial in his distributions, but has balanced, in most countries, their particular inconveniences by particular favours." Here we have an early example of that brilliant and energetick expression, which, upon innumerable occasions in his subsequent life, justly impressed the world with the highest admiration. Nor can any one, conversant with the writings of Johnson, fail to discern his hand in this passage of the Dedication to John Warren, Esq. of Pembrokeshire, though it is ascribed to Warren the bookseller. "A generous and elevated mind is distin guished by nothing more certainly than an | mentioned that "subscriptions are eminent degree of curiosity; nor is that cu- by the Editor, or N. Johnson, b riosity ever more agreeably or usefully em- of Lichfield." Notwithstanding ployed, than in examining the laws and of Johnson, and the cheap price customs of foreign nations. I hope, there- this book was offered, there were fore, the present I now presume to make, scribers enough to ensure a suffici will not be thought improper; which, how- so the work never appeared, and, ever, it is not my business as a dedicator to never was executed. commend, nor as a bookseller to depreciate." It is reasonable to suppose, that his having been thus accidentally led to a particular study of the history and manners of Abyssinia, was the remote occasion of his writing, many years afterwards, his admirable philosophical tale, the principal scene of which is laid in that country. Johnson returned to Lichfield early in 1734, and in August that year he made an attempt to procure some little subsistence by his pen; for he published proposals for printing by subscription the Latin Poems of Politian 2: "Angeli Politiani Poemata Latina, quibus, Notas cum historia Latina poeseos à Petrarcha avo ad Politiani tempora deducta, et vitâ Politiani fusius quam antehac enarrata, addidit SAM. JOHNSON 3." It appears that his brother Nathanael had taken up his father's trade4; for it is 1 See Rambler, No. 103. [Curiosity is the thirst of the soul, &c.-ED.] We find him again this year at ham, and there is preserved the letter from him to Mr. Edward C original compiler and editor of th man's Magazine: "TO MR. CAVE. "Nov "SIR,-As you appear no les than your readers of the defects poetical article, you will not be d if, in order to the improvement of municate to you the sentiments of who will undertake, on reasonal sometimes to fill a column. "His opinion is, that the publ not give you a bad reception, if, current wit of the month, which examination would generally re narrow compass, you admitted poems, inscriptions, &c. never p fore, which he will sometimes s with; but likewise short literary tions in Latin or English, critic on authours ancient or modern, poems that deserve revival, or lo like Floyer's 6, worth preserving method, your literary article, for s be called, will, he thinks, be bett mended to the publick than by awkward buffoonery, or the dull of either party. "If such a correspondence will 2 May we not trace a fanciful similarity between Politian and Johnson? Huetius, speaking of Paulus Pelissonius Fontanerius, says "-in quo Natura, ut olim in Angelo Politiano, deformitatem oris excellentis ingenii præstantia compensavit." -Comment. de reb. ad eum pertin. Edit. Amstel. 1718. p. 200.-BosWELL. [In this learned masquerade of Paulus Pelissonius Fontanerius, we have some difficulty in detecting Madame de Sevigne's friend, M. Pelisson, of whom another of that lady's friends, M. de Guilleragues, used the phrase, which has since grown into a proverb, qu'il abusait de la permission qu'ont les hommes d'etre laids."-See Madame de Sevigne's letter, 5th Jan. 1674.-Huet, Bishop of Avranche, wrote Memoirs of his own time, in Latin, from which Boswell has extracted this scrap of ped-grace to thank a poor person who pur antry.-ED.] 66 3 The book was to contain more than thirty sheets; the price to be two shillings and sixpence at the time of subscribing, and two shillings and sixpence at the delivery of a perfect book in quires.-Boswell. [Nathanael kept the shop as long as he lived, as did his mother, after him, till her death, though on somewhat, it is to be presumed, of a lowered scale. Miss Seward, who, in such a matter as this, may perhaps be trusted, tells us that Miss Lucy Porter, from the age of twenty to her fortieth year (when she was raised to a state of competency by the death of her eldest brother), "had boarded in Lichfield with Dr Johnson's mother, who still kept that little bookseller's shop by which her husband had supplied the scanty means of subsistence; meantime Lucy Porter kept the best com pany in our little city, but would make ment on market-days, lest Granny, ed Mrs. Johnson, should catch cold in the shop. There Lucy Porter took standing behind the counter, nor tho her a penny battledoor."-Lett. 1. 11 5 Miss Cave, the grand-niece of Mr. has obligingly shown me the originals the other letters of Dr. Johnson to were first published in the Gentleman' with notes by Mr. John Nichols, the indefatigable editor of that valuable signed N.; some of which I shall transcribe in the course of this work. [The present editor has felt justifie many other testimonies to the accu Nichols, to admit into his notes and e text the information supplied by him. Sir John Floyer's Treatise on Gent. Mag. 1734, p. 197. 7 [Is the use of will and shall in quite grammatical? Dr. Johnson seen to have used the word shall wher able to you, be pleased to inform me in two posts, what the conditions are on which you shall expect it. Your late of fer gives me no reason to distrust your generosity. If you engage in any literary projects besides this paper, I have other deaigns to impart, if I could be secure from having others reap the advantage o what I should hint. "Your letter by being directed to S. Smith, to be left at the Castle in Birmingham, Warwickshire, will reach "Your humble servant." Mr. Cave has put a note on this letter, Answered Dec. 2." But whether any thing was done in consequence of it we are not informed 2. Es. [In the year 1735, Mr. Walmesley's kindness endeavoured to procure him the mastership of the grammar school at Solihull in Warwickshire: this and the cause of failure appear by the following curious and characteristical letter, addressed to Mr. Walmesley, and preserved in the records of Pembroke College: more castomary to employ may: for instance, speaking of one dead, he said, "I trust he shall fnd mercy-and again, in his Prayers and Meditations" (see extract, post, p. 35), Dr. Hall (win has examined the original in the Pembroke MSS.), informs me, that no rational wish is now left but that we may meet at last," &c. was at first written that we shall meet, and afterwards al-red to may. It may seem presumptuous to der from Dr. Johnson on a grammatical point, the norma loquendi of the present day wald hardly tolerate the use of the word shall in any of the foregoing cases.-ED.] A pize of fifty pounds for the best poem on Lar, Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell." Bee Gentleman's Magazine, vol. iv. p. 560.— Nichols. [A second prize of forty pounds, and e others of inferior value, were offered by Cave, at subsequent periods, for poems on similar It seems extraordinary that Johnson, who wants were urgent, and who was glad, so s after, to sell his LONDON for ten pounds, did endeavour to obtain Cave's prize. Did his Cats of mind reject such a Mecenas as Cave? er od he make the attempt and afterwards contalks failure in prudential silence?-ED.] [ J. Hawkins, who gives us to understand that he had seen Cave's answer, says, that "he Carcepted the services of Johnson, and retamed him as a correspondent and contributor to his Magzine" (p. 29), but his subsequent corresPeace with Cave seems to negative this early zexion-ED.] time to make enquiry of ye caracter of Mr. Johnson, who all agree that he is an excellent scholar, and upon that account deserves much better than to be schoolmaster of Solihull. But then he has the caracter of being a very haughty ill-natured gent, and yt he has such a way of distorting his fface (wh though he ca'nt help) ye gent. think it may affect some young ladds; for these two reasons he is not approved on, ye late master Mr. Crompton's huffing the ffofees being stil in their memory. However we are all exstreamly obliged to you for thinking of us, and for proposeing so good a schollar, but more especially is, dear sir, your very humble servant, HENRY GRESWOLD." ED. Nichols. It was probably prior to this that a more humble attempt to obtain the situation of assistant in Mr. Budworth's school, at Brewood, had also failed, and for the same reasons. Mr. Budworth was certainly no stranger to the learning and abilities of Johnson, as he more than once lamented his having been under the necessity of declining the engagement from an apprehension that the paralytic affection under which Johnson laboured through life might become the object of imitation or ridicule amongst his pupils. This anecdote Captain Budworth, ́his grandson, confirmed to Mr. Nichols.] Johnson had, from his early youth, been sensible to the influence of female charms. When at Stourbridge school, he was much enamoured of Olivia Lloyd, a young quaker, to whom he wrote a copy of verses, which I have not been able to recover3; but with what facility and elegance he could warble the amorous lay will appea from the following lines which he wrote for his friend Mr. Edmund Hector. Verses to a Lady, on receiving from her a 3 He also wrote some amatory verses, before he left Staffordshire, which our author appears not to have seen. They were addressed "to Miss Hickman, playing on the spinet.' At the back of this early poetical effusion, of which the original copy, in Johnson's handwriting, was obligingly communicated to me [as it also was to the present editor] by Mr. John Taylor, is the following attestation: "Written by the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, on my mother, then Miss Hickman, playing on the Spinet. J. Turton." Dr. Turton, the physician, writer of this certificate, who died in April, 1806, in his 71st year, was born in 1735. The verses in question, therefore, which have been printed in some late editions of Johnson's poems, must have been written before that year.-Miss Hickman, it is believed, was a lady of Staffordshire.-MALONE. 34 The myrtle, ensign of supreme command, 1 Mrs. Piozzi gives the following account of this little composition from Dr. Johnson's own relation to her, on her inquiring whether it was rightly attributed to him." I think it is now just forty years ago, that a young fellow had a sprig of myrtle given him by a girl he courted, and asked me to write him some verses that he might present her in return. I promised, but forgot; and when he called for his lines at the time agreed on -Sit still a moment, (says I) dear Mund, and I'll fetch them thee-so stepped aside for five minutes, and wrote the nonsense you now keep such a stir about."-Anecdotes, p. 34. His juvenile attachments to the were, however, very transient: a certain, that he formed no criminal ion whatsoever. Mr. Hector, wh with him in his younger days in most intimacy and social freedom. sured me, that even at that ardent his conduct was strictly virtuous in spect; and that though he loved to rate himself with wine, he never ki intoxicated but once. In a man whom religious educa secured from licentious indulgen passion of love, when once it ha him, is exceedingly strong; bein paired by dissipation, and totally trated in one object. This was exp by Johnson, when he became the admirer of Mrs. Porter, after her band's death. Miss Porter told when he was first introduced to her his appearance was very forbidd was then lean and lank, so that mense structure of bones was striking to the eye, and the scar scrofula were deeply visible. He his hair, which was straight and separated behind; and he often h myrtle, with the date on it, 1731, wh enclosed. "The true history (which I could is as follows: Mr. Morgan Graves, the el of a worthy clergyman near Bath, wit was acquainted, waited upon a lady in bourhood, who at parting presented him He showed it me, and wished much to I applied to Job compliment in verse. was with me, and in about half an ho the verses which I sent to my friend. In my first edition I was induced to doubt the authenticity of this account, by the following circumstantial statement in a letter to me from Miss Seward of Lichfield:-"I know those verses were addressed to Lucy Porter, when he was ena-ingly, convulsive starts and odd g moured of her in his boyish days, two or three tions, which tended to excite at years before he had seen her mother, his future prise and ridicule. Mrs. Porter wife. He wrote them at my grandfather's [Mr. Hunter, the schoolmaster], and gave them to Lucy in the presence of my mother, to whom he showed them on the instant. She used to repeat them to me, when I asked her for the Verses Dr. Johnson gave her on a Sprig of Myrtle, which he had stolen or begged from her bosom. We all know honest Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying to herself a compliment not intended for her." Such was this lady's statement, which I make no doubt she supposed to be correct; but it shows how dangerous it is to trust too implicitly to traditional testimony and ingenious inference; for Mr. Hector has lately assured me that Mrs. Piozzi's account is in this instance accurate, and that he was the person [as his name Edmund additionally proves] for whom Johnson wrote those verses, which have been erroneously ascribed to Mr. Hammond. I am obliged in so many instances to notice Mrs. Piozzi's incorrectness of relation, that I glad-please of this statement. ly seize this opportunity of acknowledging, that however often, she is not always inaccurate. The authour having been drawn into a controversy with Miss Anna Seward, in consequence of the preceding statement (which may be found in "the Gentleman's Magazine," vol. lxiii. and lxiv.), received the following letter from Mr. Hector, on the subject: "DEAR SIR,-I am sorry to see you are engaged in altercation with a lady, who seems unwilling to be convinced of her errors. Surely it would be more ingenuous to acknowledge than to persevere. "Lately, in looking over some papers I meant to burn, I found the original manuscript of the "I most solemnly declare, at that t son was an entire stranger to the Por and it was almost two years after that I him to the acquaintance of Porter, who my clothes of. "If you intend to convince this ob man, and to exhibit to the publick the t narrative, you are at liberty to make w "I hope you will pardon me for ta much of your time. Wishing you m I shall subscribe myself lices annos, ed humble servant, E. HECTOR.-B Jan. 9th, 1794."-BOSWELL. [Of t attachment of Dr. Johnson to the dau wife there is no evidence whatsoever, sertion of Miss Seward, whose ane turned out to be in almost every inst than nothing; and, in this case, if it while to seek for any evidence beyon tor's, the dates would disprove Miss Sev ment, which it is but too evident tha with the view of disparaging and ri Johnson.-ED.] much engaged by his conversation that she overlooked all these external disadvantages, and said to her daughter, "this is the most sensible man that I ever saw in my life." Though Mrs. Porter was double the age of Johnson 1, and her person and manner, as described to me by the late Mr. Garrick, were by no means pleasing to others2, she must have had a superiority of understanding and talents, as she certainly inspired hira with more than ordinary passion; and she having signified her willingness to accept of his hand, he went to Lichfield to ask his mother's consent to the marriage; which he could not but be conscious was a very imprudent scheme, both on account of their disparity of years, and her want of fortune. But Mrs. Johnson knew too well the ardour of her son's temper, and was too tender a parent to oppose his inclinations 3. I know not for what reason the marriage ceremony was not performed at Birmingham; but a resolution was taken that it should be at Derby, for which place the bride and bridegroom set out on horseback, I suppose in very good humour. But though Mr. Topham Beauclerk used archly to mention Johnson's having told him with much gravity, "Sir, it was a love-marriage on both sides," I have had from my illustrious friend the following curious account of their journey to church upon the nuptial morn: (9th July)- 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; and, when I rode a little slower, she passed me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was Though there was a great disparity of years between her and Dr. Johnson, she was not quite sold as she is here represented, having only completed her forty-eighth year in the month of February preceding her marriage, as appears by the lowing extract from the parish-register of Great Peathing, in Leicestershire, which was obligingly made at my request, by the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Ryder, rector of Lutterworth, in that county: Arno Dom. 1688-9, Elizabeth, daughter of William Jervis, Esq. and Mrs. Anne, his wife, was born the 4th day of February and man, baptized 16th day of the same month by Mr. Smith, curate Late Peatling. "John Allen, Vicar."-MALONE. [Johnson's size, hard features, and decided ter, probably made him look older than he may was, and diminished the apparent dispropertion-ED.] That in Johnson's eyes she was handsome, appears from the epitaph which he caused to be scribed on her tomb-stone not long before his own death, and which may be found in a subsegent page, under the year 1752.-MALONE. [See ante, p. 11, N.-ED.] 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, it must be allowed, was a singular beginning of connubial felicity; but there is no doubt that Johnson, though he thus showed a manly firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to the last moment of Mrs. Johnson's life: and in his "Prayers and Meditations," we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceased, even after her death. [For instance: "Wednesday, March 28, 1770. "This is the day on which, in 1752, I was deprived of poor dear Tetty. Having left off the practice of thinking on her with some particular combinations, I have recalled her to my mind of late less frequently; but when I recollect the time in which we lived together, my grief for her departure is not abated; and I have less pleasure in any good that befals me, because she does not partake it. On many occasions, I think what she would have said or done. When I saw the sea at Brighthelmistone, I wished for her to have seen it with me. But with respect to her, no rational wish is now left, but that we may meet at last where the mercy of God shall make us happy, and perhaps make us instrumental to the happiness of each other. It is now eighteen years." He now set up a private academy, for which purpose he hired a large house, well situated near his native city. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 17364, there is the following advertisement: "At Edial, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are boarded and taught the Latin and Greek languages, by SAMUEL JOHNSON 5." But the only pupils that were put under his care were the celebrated David Garrick and his brother George, and a Mr. Offely, his marriage, for the advertisement appears in the 4 [This project must have been formed before Magazine for June and July, 1736. Is it not possible, that the obvious advantage of having a woman of experience to superintend an establishment of this kind may have contributed to a match so disproportionate in point of age?-ED.] [It may be observed, as an additional proof of the public respect for, and curiosity about, Dr. Johnson, that one of the few plates in Harwood's History of Lichfield is a view of " Edial Hall, the residence of Dr. Samuel Johnson;" and Mr. Harwood adds, " the house has undergone no material alteration since it was inhabited by this illustrious tenant."-Har. Hist. Lich. p. 564.-ED.] |