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 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 heard 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 his regard and fondness for her never ceased, even after her death. 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 1736 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.' But the only pupils that were put under his care were the celebrated David Garrick and his brother George, and a Mr. Offely, a young gentleman of good fortune, who died early. As yet his name had nothing of that calebrity 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 in 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 Esq., the translator of Metastasio, etc., by whom it was inserted in the European Magazine for October 1799: 'Mrs. Williams' account of Mrs. Johnson was, that she had a good understanding, and great sensibility, but inclined 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 gentleman 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."' The following anecdotes of Dr. Johnson are recorded by the same lady: 'One day that he came to my house to meet many others, we told him that we had arranged our party to go to Westminster Abbey: would not he go with us? 'No," he replied, "not while I can keep out." 'Upon our saying that the friends of a lady had been in great fear lest she should make a certain match, he said, "We that are his friends have had great fears for him.” Dr. Johnson's political principles ran high, both in Church and State. He wished power to the King and to the heads of the Church, as the laws of England have established; but I know he disliked absolute power. And I am very sure of his disapprobation of the doctrines of the Church of Rome ; because, about three weeks before we came abroad, he said to my Cornelia, "You are going where ** ostentatious pomp of church ceremonies imagination; but if they want to change, you must remember tha faith, you may be persuade these were not the word press meaning.'-MALO kind, is much to be valued: Ha thought that those who demite this employment, and do ther gence and success, are entitet o spect from the community, as often maintained. Yet I am t 'Delightful task! to rear the tele we must consider that this dea Horace pain Ut pueris olim dant crasti Doctores, elementa velint ut disse Johnson was not more satisfied v tion as the master of an academy that of the usher of a school; we der, therefore, that he did not keep above a year and a half. From r account, he did not appear to ha foundly reverenced by his pupils of manner and uncouth gestici not but be the subject of merrimen and in particular, the young rugam listen at the door of his bed-chamb through the keyhole, that they ridicule his tumultuous and awkw for Mrs. Johnson, whom he used the familiar appellation of Te which, like Betty or Betsey, is prove as a contraction for Elizabeth, b name, but which to us seems l applied to a woman of her age and Mr. Garrick described her to me with a bosom of more than ordina ance, with swelled cheeks, of a f duced by thick painting, and the liberal use of cordials; flaring a in her dress, and affected both in and her general behaviour. I have exhibit her by his exquisite talent so as to excite the heartiest burst but he, probably, as presentations, cor Job: which knowledge is of little use. This is neces- They were recommended to Mr. Colson,' an eminent mathematician and master of an academy, by the following letter from Mr. Walmesley : 'TO THE REVEREND MR. COLSON. While Johnson kept his academy, there can 'LICHFIELD, March 2, 1737. be no doubt that he was insensibly furnishing 'DEAR SIR,-I had the favour of yours, and his mind with various knowledge; but I have am extremely obliged to you; but I cannot say not discovered that he wrote anything except I had a greater affection for you upon it than I a great part of his tragedy of Irene. Mr. had before, being long since so much endeared Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, told to you, as well by an early friendship as by me that he remembered Johnson's borrowing your many excellent and valuable qualifications; the Turkish History of him, in order to form his and had I a son of my own, it would be my play from it. When he had finished some part ambition, instead of sending him to the uniof it, he read what he had done to Mr. Walmes-versity, to dispose of him as this young gentleley, who objected to his having already brought his heroine into great distress, and asked him, 'How can you 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. 1737-1741. 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,' 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. 1 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 twopence halfpenny in your pocket?' Johnson: Why, yes; when I came with twopence halfpenny in my pocket, and thou, Davy, with three halfpence in thine.'-BOSWELL. man is. 'He, and another neighbour of mine, one Mr. Samuel Johnson, set out this morning for London together. Davy Garrick is to be with you early the next week, and Mr. Johnson to try his fate with a 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 it should in any way lie in your way, doubt not but you would be ready to recommend and assist your countryman. 'G. WALMESLEY.' 1 The Reverend John Colson was bred at Emanuel College, 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 1759, when he died. He published Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, translated from the French of l'Abbé Nodet, Svo, 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.BOSWELL. The character of Gelidus, the philosopher, in the Rambler (No. 24), was meant to represent this gentleman. See Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes, etc., p. 49.— MALONE. 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 sure he told me that Mr. Cave was the first publisher by whom his pen was engaged in London. 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 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 penny; 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. He He 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. Amidst this cold obscurity, there was one brilliant circumstance to cheer him; he was well acquainted with Mr. Henry Hervey,' 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 entertained, and had an opportunity of meeting genteel company. Not very long before his death, he mentioned this, among other particu. lars 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 only written 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. His Ofellus,' in the Art of Living in Lon-house in London, where Johnson was frequently don, 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. 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. allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen. 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 coffeehouse, 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 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, '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 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. 1 Ofellus was a philosophic countryman, commemorated by Horace, Sat. ii. lib. 2.-BOSWELL. 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 Lon first Earl of Bristol, quitted the army and took orders. 1 The Honourable Henry Hervey, third son of the He married a sister of Sir Thomas Ayston, by whom he got the Aston estate, and assumed the name and arms of that family.-BOSWELL. 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. don, to communicate to you the following design, which, I hope, if you join in it, will be of advantage to both of us. 1 posited 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 ima "The History of the Council of Trent having been lately translated into French, and pub-gery, and happy expressions; and of the disjecta lished 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 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 handwriting, 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 handwriting 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 de membra scattered throughout, and as yet unarranged, a good dramatic poet might avail himself with considerable advantage. I shall give my readers some specimens of different kinds, distinguishing them by the italic character: Nor think to say here will I stop, Here will I fix the limits of transgression, And quit their charge to horror 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, Flush in my cheek, and wander in my veins. Greece, signs which heaven must by another miracle enable 'Though no comets or prodigies foretold the ruin of us to understand, yet it might be foreshown, 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 DEMETRIUS. A thousand horrid prodigies foretold it; 1 The King's library' (that of George 111.) was given by his son and successor, George Iv., to the British Museum.-MALONE. |