to have undertaken, probably damped his ardour. His pamphlet, however, was highly esteemed, and was fortunate enough to obtain the approbation even of the supercilious Warburton himself, who, in the Preface to his Shakspeare, published two years afterwards, thus mentioned it: As to all those things which have been published under the titles of Essays, Remarks, Observations, etc., on Shakspeare, if you except some Critical Notes on Macbeth, given as a specimen of a projected edition, and written, as appears, by a man of parts and genius, the rest are absolutely below a serious notice.' Of this flattering distinction shown to him by Warburton, a very grateful remembrance was ever entertained by Johnson, who said, 'He praised me at a time when praise was of value to me.' the Epitaph came close together. The others are, 'To Miss -, on her giving the author a gold and silk network Purse of her own weaving;' 'Stella in Mourning;' 'The Winter's Walk;''An Ode ;' and, "To Lyce, an elderly Lady.' I am not positive that all these were his productions; but as 'The Winter's Walk' has never been controverted to be his, and all of them have the same mark, it is reasonable to conclude that they are all written by the same hand. Yet to the Ode, in which we find a passage very characteristic of him, being a learned description of the gout, 'Unhappy, whom to beds of pain Arthritick tyranny consigns,'there is the following note, 'The author being ill of the gout;' but Johnson was not attacked with that distemper till a very late period of his life. May not this, however, be a poetical fiction? Why may not a poet suppose himself to have the gout, as well as suppose himself to be in love, of which we have innumerable in In 1746 it is probable that he was still employed upon his Shakspeare, which perhaps he laid aside for a time upon account of the high expectations which were formed of Warburton's edition of that great poet. It is somewhat curi-stances, and which has been admirably ridiculed ous that his literary career appears to have been almost totally suspended in the years 1745 and 1746, those years which were marked by a civil war in Great Britain, when a rash attempt was made to restore the House of Stuart to the throne. That he had a tenderness for that unfortunate House is well known; and some may fancifully imagine, that a sympathetic anxiety impeded the exertion of his intellectual powers; but I am inclined to think that he was, during this time, sketching the outlines of his great philological work. by Johnson in his Life of Cowley? I have 'Her teeth the night with darkness dies, But as at a very advanced age he could conde Mrs. Thrale and her daughter, he may have in his earlier years composed such a piece as this. None of his letters during those years are extant, so far as I can discover. This is much to be regretted. It might afford some entertain-scend to trifle in namby-pamby rhymes to please ment to see how he then expressed himself to his private friends concerning state affairs. Dr. Adams informs me, that 'at this time a favourite object which he had in contemplation was The Life of Alfred; in which, from the warmth with which he spoke about it, he would, I believe, had he been master of his own will, have engaged himself, rather than on any other subject.' In 1747 it is supposed that the Gentleman's Magazine for May was enriched by him with five short poetical pieces, distinguished by three asterisks. The first is a translation, or rather a paraphrase, of a Latin Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer. Whether the Latin was his or not I have never heard, though I should think it probably was, if it be certain that he wrote the English; as to which my only cause of doubt is, that his slighting character of Hanmer as an editor, in his Observations on Macbeth, is very different from that in the Epitaph. It may be said that there is the same contrariety between the character of the Observations, and that in his own Preface to Shakspeare; but a considerable time elapsed between the one publication and the other, whereas the Observations and It is remarkable, that in this first edition of "The Winter's Walk,' the concluding line is much more Johnsonian than it was afterwards printed; for in subsequent editions, after praying Stella to snatch him to her arms,' he says, 'And shield me from the ills of life;' whereas in the first edition it is, And hide me from the sight of life.' A horror at life in general is more consonant with Johnson's habitual gloomy cast of thought. I have heard him repeat with great energy the following verses, which appeared in the Gentle 1 In the Universal Visitor, to which Johnson contributed, the mark which is affixed to some pieces unquestionably his, is also found subjoined to others, of which he certainly was not the author. The mark therefore will not ascertain the poems in question to have been written by him. Some of them were probably the productions of Hawkesworth, who, it is believed, was afflicted with the gout. The verses On a Purse were inserted afterwards in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, and are unquestionably Johnson's.— MALONE. man's Magazine for April this year; but I have no authority to say they were his own. Indeed, one of the best critics of our age suggests to me that the word indifferently being used in the sense of without concern, and being also very unpoetical, renders it improbable that they should have been his composition.' " ON LORD LOVAT'S EXECUTION. 'Pitied by gentle minds KILMARNOCK died; The brave, BALMERINO, were on thy side; RADCLIFFE, unhappy in his crimes of youth, Steady in what he still mistook for truth, Beheld his death so decently unmoved, The soft lamented, and the brave approved. But LOVAT's fate indifferently we view, True to no king, to no religion true: No fair forgets the ruin he has done; No child laments the tyrant of his son; No Tory pities, thinking what he was; No Whig compassions, for he left the cause; The brave regret not, for he was not brave! The honest mourn not, knowing him a knave!'1 This year his old pupil and friend, David Garrick, having become joint patentee and manager of Drury Lane Theatre, Johnson honoured his opening of it with a Prologue [*], which, for just and manly dramatic criticism on the whole range of the English stage, as well as for poetical excellence, is unrivalled. Like the celebrated Epilogue to the Distressed Mother, it was, during the season, often called for by the audience. The most striking and brilliant passages of it have been so often repeated, and are so well recollected by all the lovers of the drama and of poetry, that it would be superfluous to point them out. In the Gentleman's Magazine for December this year he inserted an 'Ode on Winter,' which is, I think, an admirable specimen of his genius for lyric poetry. But the year 1747 is distinguished as the epoch when Johnson's arduous and important work, his DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, was announced to the world by the publication of its Plan or Prospectus. How long this immense undertaking had been the object of his contemplation I do not know. I once asked him by what means he had attained to that astonishing knowledge of our language, 1 These verses are somewhat too severe on the extraordinary person who is the chief figure in them; for he was undoubtedly brave. His pleasantry during his solemn trial (in which, by the way, I have heard Mr. David Hume observe that we have one of the very few speeches of Mr. Murray, now Earl of Mansfield, authentically given) was very remarkable. When asked if he had any questions to put to Sir Everard Fawkener, who was one of the strongest witnesses against him, he answered, I only wish him joy of his young wife.' And after sentence of death, in the horrible terms in such cases of treason, was pronounced upon him, and he was retiring from the bar, he said, 'Fare you well, my lords, we shall not all meet again in one place.' He behaved with perfect composure at his execution, and called out, 'Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori.'—BOSWELL. by which he was enabled to realize a design of such extent and accumulated difficulty. He told me, that 'it was not the effect of particular study, but that it had grown up in his mind insensibly.' I have been informed by Mr. James Dodsley, that several years before this period, when Johnson was one day sitting in his brother Robert's shop, he heard his brother suggest to him that a dictionary of the English Language would be a work that would be well received by the public; that Johnson seemed at first to catch at the proposition, but after a pause said, in his abrupt, decisive manner, 'I believe I shall not undertake it.' That he, however, had bestowed much thought upon the subject before he published his Plan, is evident from the enlarged, clear, and accurate views which it exhibits; and we find him mentioning in that tract, that many of the writers whose testimonies were to be produced as authorities were selected by Pope; which proves that he had been furnished, probably by Mr. Robert Dodsley, with whatever hints that eminent poet had contributed towards a great literary project, that had been the subject of important consideration in a former reign. The booksellers who contracted with Johnson, single and unaided, for the execution of a work which in other countries has not been effected but by the co-operating exertions of many, were Mr. Robert Dodsley, Mr. Charles Hitch, Mr. Andrew Millar, the two Messieurs Longman, and the two Messieurs Knapton. The price stipulated was fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds. The Plan was addressed to Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield, then one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State; a nobleman who was very ambitious of literary distinction, and who, upon being informed of the design, had expressed himself in terms very favourable to its success. There is, perhaps, in everything of any consequence, a secret history which it would be amusing to know, could we have it authentically communicated. Johnson told me,' 'Sir, the way in which the plan of my Dictionary came to be inscribed to Lord Chesterfield was this: I had neglected to write it by the time appointed. Dodsley suggested a desire to have it addressed to Lord Chesterfield. I laid hold of this as a pretext for delay, that it might be better done, and let Dodsley have his desire. I said to my friend, Dr. Bathurst, "Now if any good comes of my addressing to Lord Chesterfield, it will be ascribed to deep policy, when, in fact, it was only a casual excuse for laziness." It is worthy of observation that the Plan has not only the substantial merit of comprehension, perspicuity, and precision, but that the language of it is unexceptionably excellent; it 1 September 22, 1777, going from Ashbourne in Derbyshire to see Islam.-BOSWELL. being altogether free from that inflation of style, and those uncommon but apt and energetic words, which in some of his writings have been censured with more petulance than justice; and never was there a more dignified strain of compliment than that in which he courts the attention of one who, he had been persuaded to believe, would be a respectable patron. 'With regard to questions of purity or propriety,' says he, 'I was once in doubt whether I should not attribute to myself too much in attempting to decide them, and whether my province was to extend beyond the proposition of the question, and the display of the suffrages on each side; but I have been since determined, by your lordship's opinion, to interpose my own judgment, and shall therefore endeavour to support what appears to me most consonant to grammar and reason. Ausonius thought that modesty forbade him to plead inability for a task to which Cæsar had judged him equal: "Cur me posse negem, posse quod ille putat?" And I may hope, my lord, that since you, whose authority in our language is so generally acknowledged, have commissioned me to declare my own opinion, I shall be considered as exercising a kind of vicarious jurisdiction; and that the power which might have been denied to my own claim will be readily allowed me as the delegate of your lordship.' This passage proves that Johnson's addressing his Plan to Lord Chesterfield was not merely in consequence of the result of a report by means of Dodsley that the Earl favoured the design, but that there had been a particular communication with his lordship concerning it. Dr. Taylor told me that Johnson sent his Plan to him in manuscript for his perusal; and that when it was lying upon his table, Mr. William Whitehead happened to pay him a visit, and being shown it, was highly pleased with such parts of it as he had time to read, and begged to take it home with him, which he was allowed to do; that from him it got into the hands of a noble lord, who carried it to Lord Chesterfield. When Taylor observed this might be an advantage, Johnson replied, 'No, sir, it would have come out with more bloom if it had not been seen before by anybody.' The opinion conceived of it by another noble author appears from the following extract of a letter from the Earl of Orrery to Dr. Birch : 'CALEDON, Dec. 30, 1747. 'I have just now seen the specimen of Mr. Johnson's Dictionary, addressed to Lord Chesterfield. I am much pleased with the plan, and I think the specimen is one of the best that I have ever read. Most specimens disgust rather than prejudice us in favour of the work to follow; but the language of Mr. Johnson's is good, and the arguments are properly and modestly expressed. However, some expressions may be cavilled at, but they are trifles. I'll mention one: the barren laurel. The laurel is not barren, in any sense whatever; it bears fruits and flowers. Sed hæ sunt nuga, and I have great expectations from the performance.' [Birch MSS. Brit. Mus. 4303.] That he was fully aware of the arduous nature of the undertaking he acknowledges, and shows himself perfectly sensible of it in the conclusion of his Plan; but he had a noble consciousness of his own abilities, which enabled him to go on with undaunted spirit. Dr. Adams found him one day busy at his Dictionary, when the following dialogue ensued: Adams: This is a great work, sir. How are you to get all the etymologies?' Johnson : Why, sir, here is a shelf with Junius, and Skinner, and others; and there is a Welsh gentleman who has published a collection of Welsh proverbs, who will help me with the Welsh.' Adams: But, sir, how can you do this in three years?' Johnson: Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years.' Adams: 'But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years to compile their Dictionary.' Johnson: Sir, thus it is: this is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.' With so much ease and pleasantry could he talk of that prodigious labour which he had undertaken to execute. The public has had, from another pen,1 a long detail of what had been done in this country by prior lexicographers; and no doubt Johnson was wise to avail himself of them, so far as they went; but the learned yet judicious research of etymology, the various yet accurate display of definition, and the rich collection of authorities, were reserved for the superior mind of our great philologist. For the mechanical part he employed, as he told me, six amanuenses; and let it be remembered by the natives of North Britain, to whom he is supposed to have been so hostile, that five of them were of that country. There were two Messieurs Macbean; Mr. Shiels, who, we shall hereafter see, partly wrote the Lives of the Poets to which the name of Cibber is affixed;2 Mr. Stewart, son of Mr. George Stewart, bookseller at Edinburgh; and a Mr. Maitland. The sixth of these humble assistants was Mr. Peyton, who, I believe, taught French, and published some elementary tracts. To all these painful labourers Johnson showed a never-ceasing kindness, so far as they stood in need of it. The elder Mr. Macbean had afterwards the honour of being librarian to Archi See Sir John Hawkins's Life of Johnson.-Bos WELL. Sir John Hawkins's list of former English Dictionaries is, however, by no means complete.-MALONE. 2 April 20, 1776. D bald Duke of Argyle for many years, but was left without a shilling. Johnson wrote for him a preface to A System of Ancient Geography; and, by the favour of Lord Thurlow, got him admitted a poor brother of the Charter House. For Shiels, who died of a consumption, he had much tenderness; and it has been thought that some choice sentences in the Lives of the Poets were supplied by him. Peyton, when reduced to penury, had frequent aid from the bounty of Johnson, who at last was at the expense of burying him and his wife. While the Dictionary was going forward, Johnson lived part of the time in Holborn, part in Gough Square, Fleet Street; and he had an upper room fitted up like a counting-house for the purpose, in which he gave to the copyists their several tasks. The words, partly taken from other dictionaries, and partly supplied by himself, having been first written down with spaces left between them, he delivered in writing their etymologies, definitions, and various significations. The authorities were copied from the books themselves, in which he had marked the passages with a black lead pencil, the traces of which could easily be effaced. I have seen several of them in which that trouble had not been taken, so that they were just as when used by the copyists. It is remarkable, that he was so attentive in the choice of the passages in which words were authorized, that one may read page after page of his Dictionary with improvement and pleasure; and it should not pass unobserved, that he has quoted no author whose writings had a tendency to hurt sound religion and morality. The necessary expense of preparing a work of such magnitude for the press must have been a considerable deduction from the price stipulated to be paid for the copyright. I understand that nothing was allowed by the booksellers on that account; and I remember his telling me that a large portion of it having, by mistake, been written upon both sides of the paper, so as to be inconvenient for the compositor, it cost him twenty pounds to have it transcribed upon one side only. He is now to be considered as 'tugging at his oar,' as engaged in a steady, continued course of occupation, sufficient to employ all his time for some years, and which was the best preventive of that constitutional melancholy which was ever lurking about him, ready to trouble his quiet. But his enlarged and lively mind could not be satisfied without more diversity of employment, and the pleasure of animated relaxation.' He therefore not only exerted his 1 For the sake of relaxation from his literary labours, and probably also for Mrs. Johnson's health, he this summer visited Tunbridge Wells, then a place of much greater resort than it is at present. Here he met Mr. Cibber, Mr. Garrick, Mr. Samuel Richardson, Mr. Whiston, Mr. Onslow (the Speaker), Mr. Pitt, Mr. talents in occasional composition, very different from lexicography, but formed a club in Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, with a view to enjoy literary discussion and amuse his evening hours. The members associated with him in this little society were-his beloved friend Dr. Richard Bathurst; Mr. Hawkesworth, afterwards well known by his writings; Mr. John Hawkins, an attorney; and a few others of different professions. In the Gentleman's Magazine for May of this year he wrote a 'Life of Roscommon'[*] with Notes, which he afterwards much improved (indenting the notes into text), and inserted amongst his Lives of the English Poets. Mr. Dodsley this year brought out his Preceptor, one of the most valuable books for the improvement of young minds that has appeared in any language; and to this meritorious work Johnson furnished 'The Preface' [*], containing a general sketch of the book, with a short and perspicuous recommendation of each article ; as also, The Vision of Theodore, the Hermit, found in his Cell [*], a most beautiful allegory of human life, under the figure of ascending the mountain of Existence. The Bishop of Dromore heard Dr. Johnson say that he thought this was the best thing he ever wrote. In January 1749 he published The Vanity of Human Wishes, being the Tenth Satire of Juvenal imitated [*]. He, I believe, composed it the preceding year. Mrs. Johnson, for the sake of country air, had lodgings at Hampstead, to which he resorted occasionally, and there the greatest part, if not the whole, of this Imitation was written. The fervid rapidity with which it was produced is scarcely credible. I have heard him say that he composed seventy lines of it in one day, without putting one of them upon paper till they were finished. I remember, when I once regretted to him that he had not given us more of 'Juvenal's Satires,' he said he probably should give more, for he had Lyttleton, and several other distinguished persons. In a print representing some of the remarkable characters' who were at Tunbridge Wells in 1748, and copied from a drawing of the same size (see Richardson's Correspondence), Dr. Johnson stands the first figure.- MALONE. 1 He was afterwards for several years Chairman of the Middlesex Justices; and, upon occasion of presenting an address to the King, accepted the usual offer of knighthood. He is author of A History of Music, in five volumes in quarto. By assiduous attendance upon Johnson in his last illness, be obtained the office of one of his executors; in consequence of which the booksellers of London employed him to publish an edition of Dr. Johnson's Works, and to write his Life.-BOSWELL. 2 Sir John Hawkins, with solemn inaccuracy, represents this poem as a consequence of the indifferent reception of his tragedy. But the fact is, that the poem was published on the 9th of January, and the tragedy was not acted till the 6th of the February following.-BoSWELL. them all in his head: by which I understood that he had the originals and correspondent allusions floating in his mind, which he could, when he pleased, embody and render permanent without much labour. Some of them, however, he observed, were too gross for imitation. The profits of a single poem, however excellent, appear to have been very small in the last reign, compared with what a publication of the same size has since been known to yield. I have mentioned, upon Johnson's own authority, that for his London he had only ten guineas; and now, after his fame was established, he got for his Vanity of Human Wishes but five guineas more, as is proved by an authentic document in my possession.1 It will be observed that he reserves to himself the right of printing one edition of this satire, which was his practice upon occasion of the sale of all his writings; it being his fixed intention to publish at some period, for his own profit, a complete collection of his works. His Vanity of Human Wishes has less of common life, but more of a philosophic dignity, than his London. More readers, therefore, will be delighted with the pointed spirit of London, than with the profound reflection of The Vanity of Human Wishes. Garrick, for instance, observed in his sprightly manner, with more vivacity than regard to just discrimination, as is usual with wits: When Johnson lived much with the Herveys, and saw a good deal of what was passing in life, he wrote his London, which is lively and easy; when he became more retired, he gave us his Vanity of Human Wishes, which is as hard as Greek. Had he gone on to imitate another satire, it would have been as hard as Hebrew.'2 But The Vanity of Human Wishes is, in the opinion of the best judges, as high an effort of ethic poetry as any language can show. The instances of variety of disappointment are chosen so judiciously, and painted so strongly, that, the moment they are read, they bring conviction to every thinking mind. That of the scholar must have depressed the too sanguine expectations of many an ambitious student.3 1. Nov. 25, 1748, I received of Mr. Dodsley fifteen guineas, for which I assign to him the right of copy of an Imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal, written by me, reserving to myself the right of printing one edition. 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 'London, 29 June 1786.-A true copy, from the eriginal in Dr. Johnson's handwriting. Jas. DODSLEY.-BOSWELL. * From Mr. Langton.-BOSWELL. That of the warrior, Charles of Sweden, is, I think, as highly finished a picture as can possibly be conceived. Were all the other excellences of this poem annihilated, it must ever have our grateful reverence from its noble conclusion; in which we are consoled with the assurance that happiness may be attained, if we apply our hearts' to piety: 'Where, then, shall hope and fear their objects find? Garrick being now vested with theatrical power by being manager of Drury Lane Theatre, sages extracted from Johnson's poem were inserted, and it should have been added in the subsequent editions:- A very learned divine and mathematician, Fellow of New College, Oxon, and Rector of Okerton, near Banbury. He wrote, among many others, a Latin treatise, De Natura Cali, etc., in which he attacked the sentiments of Scaliger and Aristotle, not bearing to hear it urged that some things are true in philosophy, and false in divinity. He made above six hundred sermons on the Harmony of the Evangelists. Being unsuccessful in publishing his works, he lay in the prison of Bocardo at Oxford, and in the King's Bench, till Bishop Usher, Dr. Laud, Sir William Boswell, and Dr. Pink released him by paying his debts. He petitioned King Charles 1. to be sent into Ethiopia, etc. to procure MSS. Having spoken in favour of monarchy and bishops, he was plundered by the Parliament forces, and twice carried away prisoner from his rectory; and afterwards had not a shirt to shift him in three months, without he borrowed it, and died very poor in 1646.'-BOSWELL. 1 In this poem, a line in which the danger attending on female beauty is mentioned, has very generally, I "In this poem one of the instances mentioned of believe, been misunderstood: unfortunate learned men is Lydiat: 'Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end.' The history of Lydiat being little known, the following account of him may be acceptable to many of my readers. It appeared as a note in the Supplement to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1748, in which some pas 'Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring, And Sedley curs'd the form that pleas'd a king.' The lady mentioned in the first of these verses was not the celebrated Lady Vane, whose memoirs were given to the public by Dr. Smollett, but Anne Vane, who was mistress to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and |