Scheme for ary. language, living or dead; and a discerning critic might have confidently predicted that the author was destined to be the founder of a new school of English eloquence.1 18. The Life of Savage was anonymous; but it was well known in literary circles that Johnson was the 5 writer. During the three years which followed, he the Diction- produced no important work; but he was not, and indeed could not be, idle. The fame of his abilities and learning continued to grow. Warburton pronounced him a man of parts and genius; and the praise of War- 10 burton was then no light thing. Such was Johnson's reputation that, in 1747, several eminent booksellers combined to employ him in the arduous work of preparing a Dictionary of the English Language, in two folio volumes. The sum which they agreed to pay him was 15 only fifteen hundred guineas; and out of this sum he had to pay several poor men of letters who assisted him in the humbler parts of his task. Efforts to secure a 19. The prospectus 2 of the Dictionary he addressed to the Earl of Chesterfield. Chesterfield had long been 20 celebrated for the politeness of his manners, the brilliancy of his wit, and the delicacy of his taste. patron. He was acknowledged to be the finest speaker in the House of Lords. He had recently governed Ireland, at a momentous conjuncture, with eminent firmness, wis- 25 dom, and humanity; and he had since become Secretary of State. He received Johnson's homage with the most winning affability, and requited it with a few guineas, bestowed doubtless in a very graceful manner, but was by 1 List of Works, 5, p. xxviii.; Johnson's Ideals, § 5, p. xxii. no means desirous to see all his carpets blackened with the London mud, and his soups and wines thrown to right and left over the gowns of fine ladies and the waistcoats of fine gentlemen, by an absent, awkward scholar, 5 who gave strange starts and uttered strange growls, who dressed like a scarecrow, and ate like a cormorant. During some time Johnson continued to call on his patron, but, after being repeatedly told by the porter that his lordship was not at home, took the hint, and ceased to 10 present himself at the inhospitable door. Second satire : Human Wishes. 20. Johnson had flattered himself that he should have completed his Dictionary by the end of 1750; but it was not till 1755 that he at length gave his huge volumes to the world. During the seven years which 15 he passed in the drudgery of penning definitions Vanity of and marking quotations for transcription, he sought for relaxation in literary labour of a more agreeable kind. In 1749 he published the Vanity of Human Wishes," an excellent imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal.° 20 It is in truth not easy to say whether the palm belongs to the ancient or to the modern poet. The couplets in which the fall of Wolsey is described, though lofty and sonorous, are feeble when compared with the wonderful lines which bring before us all Rome in tumult on the 25 day of the fall of Sejanus,° the laurels on the doorposts, the white bull stalking towards the Capitol, the statues rolling down from their pedestals, the flatterers of the disgraced minister running to see him dragged with a hook through the streets, and to have a kick at his 1 Note, p. 61. 2 List of Works, 7, p. xxviii.; Johnson's Ideals, § 1, p. xix. carcase before it is hurled into the Tiber.' It must be owned too that in the concluding passage the Christian moralist has not made the most' of his advantages, and has fallen decidedly short of the sublimity of his Pagan model. On the other hand, Juvenal's Hannibal must 5 yield to Johnson's Charles; and Johnson's vigorous and pathetic enumeration of the miseries of a literary life 3 must be allowed to be superior to Juvenal's lamentation over the fate of Demosthenes and Cicero.° 2 21. For the copyright of the Vanity of Human 10 Wishes Johnson received only fifteen guineas. Relations rick. 22. A few days after the publication of this poem, his tragedy, begun many years before, was brought on the stage. His pupil, David Garrick, had, in 1741, with Gar- made his appearance on a humble stage in Good- 15 man's Fields, had at once risen to the first place among actors, and was now, after several years of almost uninterrupted success, manager of Drury Lane Theatre. The relation between him and his old preceptor was of a very singular kind. They repelled each other strongly, 20 and yet attracted each other strongly. Nature had made them of very different clay; and circumstances had fully brought out the natural peculiarities of both. Sudden prosperity had turned Garrick's head. Continued adversity had soured Johnson's temper. Johnson saw, with 25 more envy than became so great a man, the villa, the plate, the china, the Brussels carpet which the little mimic had got by repeating, with grimaces and gesticulations, what wiser men had written; and the exquisitely sensitive vanity of Garrick was galled by the thought that, 30 1 Note, p. 62. 2 Note, p. 63. 3 Note, p. 63. while all the rest of the world was applauding him, he could obtain from one morose cynic, whose opinion it was impossible to despise, scarcely any compliment not acidulated with scorn. Yet the two Lichfield men had 5 so many early recollections in common, and sympathised with each other on so many points on which they sympathised with nobody else in the vast population of the capital, that, though the master was often provoked by the monkey-like impertinence of the pupil, and the pupil 10 by the bearish rudeness of the master, they remained friends till they were parted by death. Garrick Tragedy: now brought Irene1 out, with alterations sufficient Irene. to displease the author, yet not sufficient to make the piece pleasing to the audience. The public, however, 15 listened with little emotion, but with much civility, to five acts of monotonous declamation. After nine representations the play was withdrawn. It is, indeed, altogether unsuited to the stage, and, even when perused in the closet, will be found hardly worthy of the author. 20 He had not the slightest notion of what blank verse should be. A change in the last syllable of every other line would make the versification of the Vanity of Human Wishes closely resemble the versification of Irene. The poet, however, cleared, by his benefit nights, and by the 25 sale of the copyright of his tragedy, about three hundred pounds, then a great sum in his estimation. 23. About a year after the representation of Irene, he began to publish a series of short essays on morals, manners, and literature. This species of composition 30 had been brought into fashion by the success of the 1 List of Works, 8, p. xxviii.; Johnson's Ideals, § 2, p. xx. Tatler,1 and by the still more brilliant success of the Spectator. A crowd of small writers had vainly attempted to rival Addison. The Lay Monastery, essays: The the Censor, the Freethinker, the Plain Dealer, Rambler; the Champion,1 and other works of the same kind, 5 Periodical had had their short day. None of them had obtained ΙΟ 24. From the first the Rambler was enthusiastically 15 admired by a few eminent men. Richardson, when only five numbers had appeared, pronounced it equal, its rating by contem- if not superior, to the Spectator. Young and poraries Hartley expressed their approbation not less 3 warmly. Bubb Dodington, among whose many faults 20 |