a young gentleman of good fortune who died early. As yet, his name had nothing of that celebrity which afterwards commanded the highest attention and respect of mankind. Had such an advertisement appeared after the publication of his London, or his Rambler, or his Dictionary, how would it have burst upon the world! with what eagerness would the great and the wealthy have embraced an opportunity of putting their sons under the learned tuition of Samuel Johnson! The truth, however, is, that he was not so well qualified for being a teacher of elements, and a conductor in learning by regular gradations, as men of inferior powers of mind. His own acquisitions had been made by fits and starts, by violent irruptions into the regions of knowledge; and it could not be expected that his impatience would be subdued, and his impetuosity restrained, so as to fit him for a quiet guide to novices. The art of communicating instruction, of whatever kind, is much to be valued; and I have ever thought that those who devote themselves to this employment, and do their duty with diligence and success, are entitled to very high respect from the community, as Johnson himself often maintained. Yet I am of opinion, that the greatest abilities are not only not required for this office, but render a man less fit for it. While we acknowledge the justness of Thomson's beautiful remark, "Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, And teach the young idea how to shoot!" we must consider 1 that this delight is perceptible only by "a mind at ease," a mind at once calm and clear; but that a mind gloomy and impetuous, like that of Johnson, cannot be fixed for any length of time in minute attention, and must be so frequently irritated by unavoidable slowness and errour in the advances of scholars, as to perform the duty, with little pleasure to the teacher, and no great advantage to the pupils. Good temper is a most essential requisite in a preceptor. Horace paints the character as bland: -Ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi Doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima." Johnson was not more satisfied with his situation as the master of an academy, than with that of the usher of a school; we need not wonder, therefore, that he did not keep his academy above a year and a half. From Mr. Garrick's account he did not appear to [Thomson's beautiful remark is just, only because the poet applies it to the first education of a child by its own fond parents, and not to the drudgery of hired instruction in the advanced stages of learning.-ED.] have been profoundly reverenced by his pupils. His oddities of manner, and uncouth gesticulations, could not but be the subject of merriment to them; and in particular, the young rogues used to listen at the door of his bedchamber, and peep through the keyhole, that they might turn into ridicule his tumultuous and awkward fondness for Mrs. Johnson, whom he used to name by the familiar appellation of Tetty or Tetsey, which, like Betty or Betsey, is provincially used as a contraction for Elizabeth, her christian name, but which to us seems ludicrous, when applied to a woman of her age and appearance. Mr. Garrick described her to me as very fat, with a bosom of more than ordinary protuberance, with swelled cheeks, of a florid red, produced by thick painting, and increased by the liberal use of cordials; flaring and fantastick in her dress, and affected both in her speech and her general behaviour 2. I have seen Garrick exhibit her, by his exquisite talent of mimickry, so as to excite the heartiest bursts of laughter; but he, probably, as is the case in all such representations, considerably aggravated the picture. That Johnson well knew the most proper course to be pursued in the instruction of youth 3, is authentically ascertained by the following paper in his own hand-writing, given about this period to a relation, and now in possession of Mr. John Nichols: "Scheme for the Classes of a Grammar School. "When the introduction, or formation of nouns and verbs, is perfectly mastered, let them learn "Corderius by Mr. Clarke, beginning at 2 [In Loggan's drawing of the company at Tonbridge Wells, in 1748, engraved and published in Richardson's Correspondence, vol. 3, Mrs Johnson's figure is not inferior to that of the other ladies (some of whom were fashionable beauties) either in shape or dress; but it is a slight sketch, and too small and indistinct to be relied upon for details: but she must have been a silly woman to have contracted so disproportionate an alliance.-ED.] 3 [That this crude sketch, for the arrangement of the lower classes of a grammar school " authentically ascertains that Johnson well knew struction of youth," is a bold and illogical asthe most proper course to be pursued in the insertion. It may even be doubted whether it is good as far as it goes, and whether the beginning the assistance of translations, be indeed the most with authors of inferior latinity, and allowing proper course of classical instruction; nor are we, while ignorant of the peculiar circumstances for which the paper was drawn up, entitled to conclude that it contains Dr. Johnson's mature and general sentiments, on even the narrow branch of education to which it refers. Indeed, in the second paper, Johnson advises his friend not to read "the latter authours till you are well versed in those of the purer ages."-ED.] the same time to translate out of the intro- Class II. learns Eutropius and Cornelius Nepos, or Justin, with the translation. "N. B. The first class gets for their part every morning the rules which they have learned before, and in the afternoon learns the Latin rules of the nouns and verbs. They are examined in the rules which they have learned, every Thursday and Sat urday. The second class does the same whilst they are in Eutropius, afterwards their part is in the irregular nouns and verbs, and in the rules for making and scanning verses. They are examined as the first. "Class III. Ovid's Metamorphoses in the morning, and Cæsar's Commentaries in the afternoon. "Practise in the Latin rules till they are perfect in them; afterwards in Mr. Leeds' Greek Grammar. Examined as before. "Afterwards they proceed to Virgil, beginning at the same time to write themes and verses, and to learn Greek; from thence passing on to Horace, &c. as shall seem most proper 1. "Theocritus. "Euripides. "Thus you will be tolerably skilled in all the dialects, beginning with the Attick, to which the rest must be referred. While Johnson kept his academy, there can be no doubt that he was insensibly furnishing his mind with various knowledge; but I have not discovered that he wrote any thing except a great part of his tragedy of IRENE. Mr. Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, told me that he remembered Johnson's borrowing the Turkish History of him, in order to form his play from it. When he had finished some part of it, he read what he had done to Mr. Walmsley, who objected to his having already brought his heroine into great distress, and asked him, "how can you possibly contrive to plunge her into deeper calamity!" Johnson, in sly allusion to the supposed oppressive proceedings of the courts of which Mr. Walmsley was registrar, replied, can put her into the Spiritual Court!" Sir, I Mr. Walmsley, however, was well pleased with this proof of Johnson's abilities as a dramatick writer, and advised him to finish the tragedy, and produce it on the stage. Johnson now thought of trying his fortune in London, the great field of genius and exertion, where talents of every kind have the fullest scope, and the highest encouragement. It is a memorable circumstance that his pupil David Garrick went thither at the same time 2, with intent to complete his education, and follow the profession of the law, from which he was soon diverted by his decided preference for the stage. This joint expedition of these two eminent men to the metropolis, was many years afterwards noticed in an allegorical poem on Shakspeare's Mulberry-tree, by Mr. Lovibond 3, the ingenious authour of " the Tears of Old May-day." 66 2 Both of them used to talk pleasantly of this their first journey to London. Garrick, evidently meaning to embellish a little, said one day in my hearing, We rode and tied." And the Bishop of Killaloe (Dr. Barnard) informed me, that at another time, when Johnson and Garrick were dining together in a pretty large company, John son humorously ascertaining the chronology of something, expressed himself thus: "That was "In the study of Latin, it is proper not to the year when I came to London with twopence read the latter authours, till you are well halfpenny in my pocket." Garrick, overhearversed in those of the purest ages; as Ter-ing him, exclaimed, "Eh? what do you say? ence, Tully, Cæsar, Sallust, Nepos, Vel- with twopence halfpenny in your pocket?" le Paterculus, Virgil, Horace, Phædrus. JOHNSON: Why, yes; when I came with twoThe greatest and most necessary task pence halfpenny in my pocket, and thou, Davy, still remains, to attain a habit of expression, with three halfpence in thine."-BoswELL. Without which knowledge is of little use. [This may have been said in raillery, but could This is necessary in Latin, and more neces- not have been true. Indeed Boswell, in the next sary in English; and can only be acquired by page, acknowledges that Johnson had a little a daily mutation of the best and correctest money at his arrival; but, however that may be, authours. "SAM. JOHNSON." Garrick, a young gentleman coming to town, not as an adventurer, but to complete his education and prepare for the bar, could not have been in such indigent circumstances.-Ed.] [Mr. Boswell and all subsequent editors have printed these as one paper; but it seems clear that they are two separate schemes, the first for a wchool, the second for the individual studies of e young friend.-ED.] They were recommended to Mr. Colson 1, | academy, by the following letter from Mr. an eminent mathematician and master of an Walmsley: in that object), but whose works were little known in his own day, and are now quite neglected, though Doctor Anderson has introduced him into the Scotch edition of the British Poets, and noticed the two productions mentioned in the text in the following hyperbolic strain: "TO THE REVEREND MR. COLSON. "Lichfield, March 2, 1737. "DEAR SIR,-I had the favour of yours, and am extremely obliged to you; but I cannot say I had a greater affection for you upon it than I had before, being long since so much endeared to you, as well by an early friendship, as by your many excellent and valuable qualifications; and, had I a son of my own, it would be my ambition, instead of sending him to the university, to dispose of him as this young gentleman is. "The English language, probably, cannot boast a finer example of the power of poetry than the "Tears of Old May-day; the happy union which it exhibits of genius and of art is so truly admirable, that it may be pronounced inimitable. His 'Mulberry-tree,' an allegorical tale, is equally remarkable for fertility of invention, facility of He, and another neighbour of mine, expression, and propriety of application. Gar- one Mr. Samuel Johnson, set out this mornrick and Dr. Johnson are characterised with equaling for London together. David Garrick happiness and skill!!!"-Life of Lovibond. is to be with you early the next week, and To the editor this boasted allegory seems little Mr. Johnson to try his fate with a tragedy, better than rhymed nonsense; the meaning (if it and to get himself employed in some translahas any) seems to be, that Shakspeare's works are tion, either from the Latin or the French. a mulberry-tree, which Garrick climbs to gath- Johnson is a very good scholar and poet, er the fruit, while Johnson, "less frolic," puts his and I have great hopes will turn out a fine mighty haunches" to the trunk and shakes tragedy-writer. If it should any way lie in your way, doubt not but you would be rea"Wither'd leaves, wither'd limbs, blighted fruits, blight-dy to recommend and assist your country"G. WALMSLEY." down ed flowers," and when "rubbish enough" has been shaken down, poor, withered, blighted, rubbishy Shakspeare is dismissed with the following elegant and complimentary salvo: "Yet mistake me not, rabble, this tree's a good tree; Does honour, Dame Nature, to Britain and thee. And the fruit on the top, take its merit in brief, Makes a noble dessert, when the dinner's roast beef." Mr. Lovibond leaves us to guess what the roast beef is, compared to which SHAKSPEARE is but a plate of mulberries.-ED.] The reverend John Colson was bred at Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and in 1728, when George the Second visited that university, was created master of arts. About that time he became first master of the free school at Rochester, founded by Sir Joseph Williamson. In 1739, he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, on the death of Professor Sanderson, and held that office till 1751, when he died. He published Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, translated from the French of l'Abbé Nodet, 8vo. 1732, and some other tracts. Our author, it is believed, was mistaken in stating him to have been master of an academy. Garrick, probably, during his short residence at Rochester, lived in his house as a private pupil.-MALONE. [Mr. Malone's note is not quite accurate. Mr. Colson was elected to Rochester school, not about 1728, but June 1, 1709; and the Abbé whose lectures Mr. Colson translated was Nollet, and not Nodet, and his lectures were not published in Paris till 1742. Mrs. Piozzi, and after her Mr. Malone, and, of course, all subsequent editors, have stated that the character of Gelidus, in the 24th Rambler, was meant to represent Mr. Colson; but this may be doubted, for, as Mr. Colson resided constantly at Rochester till his removal to Cambridge, it is not likely that Mr. Walmesley's letter could produce any intercourse or acquaint man, How he employed himself upon his first coming to London is not particularly known2. I never heard that he found any protection or encouragement by the means of Mr. Colson, to whose academy David Garrick went. Mrs. Lucy Porter told me, that Mr. Walmsley gave him a letter of introduction to Lintot his bookseller, and that Johnson wrote some things for him; but I imagine this to be a mistake, for I have discovered no trace of it, and I am pretty sure he told me, that Mr. Cave was the first publisher 3 by whom his pen was engaged in London. ance between him and Johnson: and it appears, from Davies's Life of Garrick (vol. i. p. 14), a work revised by Johnson, that Mr. Colson's character could have no resemblance to the absurdities of Gelidus. This gentleman, commonly called Professor Colson, must not be confounded with Mr. Colson, Fellow of University College, Oxford, who was, as Lord Stowell informs me, an intimate friend of Dr. Johnson's, and not a little eccentric in his habits and manners.-ED.] 2 One curious anecdote was communicated by himself to Mr. John Nichols. Mr. Wilcox, the bookseller, on being informed by him that his intention was to get his livelihood as an authour, eyed his robust frame attentively, and with a significant look, said, "You had better buy a porter's knot." He, however, added, "Wilcox was one of my best friends."-BOSWELL. [Wilcox could only have been one of his best friends by affording him employment; perhaps this observation may lead to a discovery of some of Johnson's earlier publications.-ED.] [Perhaps he meant that Cave was the first to whom he was regularly and constantly engaged; but Wilcox and Lintot may have employed him He had a little money when he came to town, and he knew how he could live in the cheapest manner. His first lodgings were at the house of Mr. Norris, a staymaker, in Exeter-Street, adjoining Catherinestreet, in the Strand. "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 did not know one another'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 peany; so that I was quite well served, nay, better than the rest, for they gave the waiter nothing !." He at this time, I believe, abstained entirely from fermented liquors: a practice to which he rigidly conformed for many years together, at different periods of his life 2. occasionally; and Dodsley certainly printed his London before Cave had printed any thing of his but two or three trifles in the Gentleman's MagaThe-ED.] [But if we may trust Mr. Cumberland's recollection, he was about this time, or very soon after, reduced still lower; "for painful as it is to relate" (ays that gentleman in his Memoirs, vol. 1 p. 355), "I have heard that illustrious scholar, Dr. Johnson, assert, and he never varied from the truth of fact, that he subsisted himself for a considerable space of time upon the scanty pittance of fourpence halfpenny per day." When we find Dr. Johnson tell unpleasant truths to, or of, other men, let us recollect that he does not appear to have spared himself on occasions in which he be forgiven for having done so.-ED.] [At this time his abstinence from wine may, perhaps, be attributed to poverty, but in his subquent life he was restrained from that indulgence by, as it appears, moral or rather medical considerations. He probably found by experience that His OFELLUS in the Art of Living in London, I have heard him relate, was an Irish painter, whom he knew at Birmingham, and who had practised his own precepts of economy for several years in the British capital. He assured Johnson, who, I suppose, was then meditating to try his fortune in London, but was apprehensive of the expense, "that thirty pounds a year was enough to enable a man to live there without being contemptible. He allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen. He said a man might live in a garret at eighteenpence a week; few people would inquire where he lodged; and if they did, it was easy to say, 'Sir, I am to be found at such a place. By spending threepence in a coffee-house, he might be for some hours every day in very good company; he might dine for sixpence, breakfast on bread and milk for a penny, and do without supper. On clean-shirt-day he went abroad, and paid visits." I have heard him more than collected with esteem and kindness, and did once talk of his frugal friend, whom he renot like to have one smile at the recital. "This man (said he, gravely) was a very sensible man, who perfectly understood common affairs: a man of a great deal of knowledge of the world, fresh from life, not strained through books. He borrowed a horse and ten pounds at Birmingham. Finding himself master of so much money, he set off for West Chester, in order to get to Ireland. He returned the horse, and probably the ten pounds too, after he got home." 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 expense 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. though it dissipated for a moment, yet eventry aggravated the hereditary disease under wich he suffered; and perhaps it may have been owing to a long course of abstinence that his mental health seems to have been better in the letter than in the earlier portion of his life. He Ein his Prayers and Meditations, p, 73, By altmence from wine and suppers, I obtained sadden and great relief, and had freedom of mind restored to me; which I have wanted for all this year, without being able to find any means of obng it-See also 16th September, 1773.Seaden had the same notions; for being consulted by a person of quality whose imagination was Amidst this cold obscurity, there was strangely disturbed, he advised him "not to dis-one brilliant circumstance to cheer him; he erder himself with eating or drinking; to eat very was well acquainted with Mr. Henry Herhale supper, and say his prayers duly when he vey 1, one of the branches of the noble famwent to bed; and I (Selden) made but little quesan but he would be well in three or four days." -Table Talk, p. 17. These remarks are important, because depreson of spirits is too often treated on a contrary ystem, frora ignorance of, or inattention to, what may be its real cause.-ED.] 1 The Honourable Henry Hervey, third son of the first Earl of Bristol, quitted the army and took orders. He married a sister of Sir Thomas Aston, by whom he got the Aston estate, and assumed the name and arms of that family.-Vide Collins's Peerage. BosWELL. ily of that name, who had been quartered at Litchfield 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 very viciousman, 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 2, together with Le Courayer's notes from the French, could not fail of a favourable reception. already in English, it must be remembered, that there was the same 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 this 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 be 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. [For the excesses which Dr. Johnson char-Langton to take a copy of it for himself. acterises as vicious, Mr Hervey was, probably, as much to be pitied as blamed. He was very eccentric.-ED.] "If it be answered, that the History is The Honourable Henry Hervey was nearly of the same age with Johnson, having been born about nine months before him, in the year 1709. He married Catherine, the sister of Sir Thomas Aston, in 1739; and as that lady had seven sisters, she probably succeeded to the Aston estate on the death of her brother under his will. Mr. Hervey took the degree of master of arts at Cambridge, at the late age of thirty-five, in 1744; about which time, it is believed, he entered into holy orders. MALONE. [Mr. Hervey's acquaintance and kindness Johnson probably owed to his friend Mr. Walmesley.-Walmesley and Hervey, it will be recollected, married sisters.-ED.] 2 [This proves that Johnson had now acquired Italian-probably directed to that study by the volume of Petrarch (mentioned ante, p. 19), the latter part of which contained his Italian poems.ED.] The whole of it is rich in thought and imagery, and happy expressions; and of the disjecta 3 membra scattered throughout, and as yet unarranged, a good dramatick poet might avail himself with considerable advantage. I shall give my readers some 3 [Disjecti membræ poeta. Hor.-ED.] |