had a superiority of understanding and talents, as she certainly inspired him 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.

I know not for what reason the marriage ceremony was not performed at Birmingham1; 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 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

"At EDIAL, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are boarded and taught the Latin and Greek languages, by SAMUEL JOHNSON.”4

But the only pupils that were put under his care were the celebrated David Garrick and his brother George, and a Mr. Offely 5, 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,

to be satirical. Her first husband died insolvent: her sons were much disgusted with her for her second marriage, perhaps because they, being struggling to get advanced in life, were mortified to think she had allied herself to a man who had not any visible means of being useful to them; however, she always retained her affection for them. While they [Dr. and Mrs Johnson] resided in Gough Square, her son, the officer, knocked at the door, and asked the maid if her mistress was at home. She answered, 'Yes, sir, but she is sick in bed. Oh,' says he, if it's so, tell her that her son Jervis called to know how she did;' and was going away. The maid begged she might run up to tell her mistress, and, without attending his answer, left him. Mrs. Johnson, enraptured to hear her son was below, desired the maid to tell him she longed to embrace him. When the maid descended the gentieman was gone, and poor Mrs. Johnson was much agitated by the adventure: it was the only time he ever made an effort to see her. Dr. Johnson did all he could to console his wife, but told Mrs. Williams, Her son is uniformly undutiful; so I conclude, like many other sober men, he might once in his life be drunk, and in that fit nature got the better of his pride - MALONE.

To escape the angry notice of the widow's family and friends seems an obvious and sufficient reason. - CROKER. 3 For instance :"Wednesday, March 28. 1770. "This is the day [17th, O. S.] 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 befalls 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 Brighthelmstone, 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." Prayers and Med., p. 90, 91.- CROKER.

3 This project must have been formed before his marriage, for the advertisement appears in the magazine for June and July, 1736. It is possible that the obvious advantage of having a woman of experience to superintend an establishment of this kind may have had some influence with Johnson; but even Johnson's mental powers cannot excuse her having made so disproportionate an alliance.-CROKER.

4 A view of "Edial Hall, the residence of Dr. Samuel Johnson," is given in Harwood's History of Lichfield, 1809, where it is stated that "the house has undergone no material alteration since it was inhabited by this illustrious tenant."CROKER.

5 The Memoirs mention Dr. Hawkesworth as one of his pupils, and seems to imply (as, indeed, does Mr. Garrick's subsequent testimony) that there were more. -CROKER.

Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot !" 1

we must consider 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 error 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 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 key-hole, 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 fantastic in her dress, and affected both in her speech and her general behaviour. I have seen Garrick exhibit her, by his exquisite talent of mimicry, 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 is authentically ascertained by the follow

1 Thomson's 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. CROKER.

2 "As masters blandly soothe their boys to read

With cakes and sweetmeats." Hor. 1 Sat. 1. 25.
FRANCIS.

3 As Johnson kept Garrick much in awe when present, David, when his back was turned, repaid the restraint with ridicule of him and his dulcinea, which should be read with great abatement. - PERCY.

4 In Loggan's drawing of the company at Tunbridge Wells, in 1748, engraved and published in Richardson's Correspondence, 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. CROKER. 5 Mr. Boswell was mistaken in supposing this to have been

ing paper in his own handwriting, given about this period to a relation, and now in the 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 the same time to translate out of the introduction, that let them proceed to Erasmus, with an English by this means they may learn the syntax. Then translation, by the same author.

"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 learnt before, and in the afternoon learns the Latin rules of the nouns and verbs. They are examined in the rules which they have learnt, every Thursday and Saturday.

"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.

one paper. It is clear that there are two separate schemes, the first for a school-the second for the individual studies of some young friend; and surely this crude sketch for the arrangement of the lower classes of a grammar-school does not "authentically ascertain what Johnson thought the most proper course to be pursued in the instruction of youth." It may even be doubted whether it is good as far as it goes, and whether the beginning with authors of inferior latinity, and allowing the assistance of translations, be, indeed, the most 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 not to read "the latter authors till you are well versed in those of the purer ages.' CROKER.

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. Walmesley, 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 court of which Mr. Walmesley was registrar, replied, "Sir, I can put her into the Spiritual Court!"

Mr. Walmesley, however, was well pleased with this proof of Johnson's abilities as a dramatic writer, and advised him to finish the tragedy, and produce it on the stage.

CHAPTER V. 1737-1738.

Johnson goes to London with Garrick. - Lodges in Exeter Street.-. - Retires to Greenwich, and proceeds with "Irene."— Projects a Translation of

Of Knolles's History of the Turks, Johnson says, in the Rambler; "it displays all the excellences that narration can admit, and nothing could have sunk its author in obscurity, but the remoteness and barbarity of the people whose story he relates." No. 122. "Old Knolles," said Lord Byron, at Missolonghi, a few weeks before his death, “was one of the first books that gave me pleasure when a child; and I believe it had much influence on my future wishes to visit the Levant, and gave, perhaps, the oriental colouring which is observed in my poetry." Works, vol. ix. p. 141.-LOCKHART. 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, Johnson humorously ascertaining the chronology of something, expressed himself thus: -"That was the year when I came to London with twopence halfpenny in my pocket." Garrick overhearing him, exclaimed, “Eh? what do you say? with two-pence halfpenny in your pocket?"-Johnson. "Why, yes; when I came with two-pence halfpenny in my pocket, and thou, Dary, with three-halfpence in thine." BOSWELL.

This must have been mere raillery. Indeed, Boswell, in the next page, acknowledges that Johnson had a little money at his arrival; but, however that may be, Garrick, a young gentleman coming to town, not as an adventurer, but

the History of the Council of Trent.— Returns to Lichfield, and finishes “Irene.”. Removes to London with his Wife.- List of Residences.-Becomes a Writer in the Gentleman's Magazine.

It is a

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. memorable circumstance, that his pupil, David Garrick, went thither at the same time, 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 those two eminent men to the metropolis was many years afterwards noticed in an allegorical poem on Shakspeare's mulberry tree, by Mr. Lovibond, the ingenious author of "The Tears of Old-Mayday."3

They were recommended to Mr. Colson*, an eminent mathematician and master of an

academy, by the following letter from Mr. Walmesley: —

TO THE REV. JOHN COLSON.

"Lichfield, March 2. 1736-7. "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.

"He, and another neighbour of mine, one Mr. Samuel Johnson, set out this morning for London together. Davy Garrick to be with you early the next week, and Mr. Johnson to try his fate with the tragedy, and to see to get himself employed in some translation, either from the Latin or the French. Johnson is a very good scholar and poet, and I have great hopes will turn out a fine tragedy-writer. If

to complete his education and prepare for the bar, could not have been in such indigent circumstances.-CROKER.

3 Edward Lovibond was a gentleman, residing at Hampton, whose works were little known in his own day, and are now quite and deservedly neglected, though Dr. Anderson has introduced them into the Scotch edition of the British Poets, with a life of the author, in a strain of the most hyperbolical and ridiculous panegyric. He died in 1773. - CROKER.

4 The Rev. John Colson, educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, became, in 1709, first master of the free school at Rochester. In 1739, he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, and died in December, 1759. Mrs. Piozzi, and after her Mr. Malone, have stated that the character of Gelidus, in the 24th Rambler, was meant to represent Mr. Colson; but this is a mistake. It does not appear that Johnson ever saw Professor Colson, who resided at Rochester; but there was, as we shall see hereafter, a Mr. Coulson, an ac. quaintance of Johnson's, fellow of University College, Oxford, and a very eccentric man, who, I at first supposed, might have afforded Johnson some characteristic traits for his Gelidus. But my venerable friend, Dr. Fisher, formerly of University College, and latterly Master of the Charter House, who was intimate with both Johnson and Coulson, informed me that the character of Gelidus had no resemblance to this Mr. Colson, whom, moreover, Johnson had never seen till after he had written the Rambler.— CROKER, 1846.

it should any way lie in your way, doubt not but you would be ready to recommend and assist your

countryman,

"G. WALMESLEY."

How he employed himself upon his first coming to London is not particularly known. 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. Walmesley 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 by whom his pen was engaged in London.2

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 Catherine Street, in the Strand. "I dined," said he, "very well for eight-pence, 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 penny; so that I was quite well served, nay, better than the rest, for they gave the waiter nothing." 3

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. +

His Ofellus, in the Art of Living in London 5, 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

1 Mr. P. Cunningham observes, that this letter must have been to the son of the celebrated Bernard Lintot, the latter having died 3d Feb. 1736.-CROKER, 1846.

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 author, eyed his robust frame attentively, and, with a sig. nificant look, said, You had better buy a porter's knot." He, however, added, "Wilcox was one of my best friends." -BOSWELL. Perhaps he meant that Cave was the first to whom he was regularly and constantly engaged; but Wilcox and Lintot may have employed him occasionally; and Dodsley certainly printed his London before Cave had printed any thing of his but two or three trifles in the Gentleman's Magazine. - CROKER.

3 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," (says that gentleman in his Memoirs, vol. i. 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 four-pence halfpenny per day." "CROKER.

At this time his abstinence from wine may, perhaps, be attributed to poverty, but in his subsequent life he was restrained from that indulgence by, as it appears, moral, or rather medical considerations. He found by experience that wine, though it dissipated for a moment, yet eventually

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 three-pence 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." 6 I have heard him more than once talk of his frugal friend, whom he recollected with esteem and kindness, and did not like to have one smile at the recital. "This man," said he, gravely, 66 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 had got home."

Considering Johnson's narrow circumstances in the early part of his life, and particularly at the interesting era 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.

Amidst this cold obscurity, there was one brilliant circumstance to cheer him; he was well acquainted with Mr. Henry Hervey7, one

aggravated the hereditary disease under which 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 latter than in the earlier portion of his life. He says, in his Prayers and Meditations, (17 Aug. 1767,) “By abstinence from wine and suppers, I obtained sudden 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 obtaining it." See also post, Sept. 16. 1773. These remarks are important, because depression of spirits is too often treated on a contrary system, from ignorance of, or inattention to, what may be its real cause. - CROKER. 3 Ofellus was a Roman rustic whom Horace introduces as giving precepts for frugal living. Boswell, therefore, calls this Irish professor of economy Johnson's Ofellus. - CROKER. 6 This species of economy was not confined to indigence. Swift, I think, talks of making visits on shaving-day and clean-shirt-day. CROKER.

7 The Hon. Henry Hervey, third [fourth] son of the first Earl of Bristol, [born 1700,] quitted the army and took orders. He married [in 1730, Catherine the eldest] sister of Sir Thomas Aston, by whom he got the Aston Estate, and assume name and arms of that family.. -BOSWELL. Mr. Hervey's acquaintance and kindness Johnson owed, no doubt, to his friend Mr. Walmesley; who, it will be recollected, married Mrs. Hervey's sister, Margaret Aston. But I doubt whether Mr. Boswell does not antedate this intimacy with Hervey and Johnson's love of that name by a couple of years, -for the first