distance from Lichfield. At that time book- that I shall not omit it. A young woman sellers' shops in the provincial towns of of Leek, in Staffordshire, while he served England were very rare, so that there was his apprenticeship there, conceived a violent not one even in Birmingham, in which town passion for him; and though it met with no old Mr. Johnson used to open a shop every favourable return, followed him to Lichmarket-day. He was a pretty good Latin field, where she took lodgings opposite to the scholar, and a citizen so creditable as to be house in which he lived, and indulged her made [as has been stated] one of the ma- hopeless flame. When he was informed gistrates of Lichfield; and, being a man of that it so preyed upon her mind that her good sense, and skill in his trade, he acquired life was in danger, he, with a generous hua reasonable share of wealth, of which how-manity, went to her and offered to marry ever he afterwards lost the greatest part, by her, but it was then too late: her vital engaging unsuccessfully in a manufacture power was exhausted; and she actually exof parchment. [In this underta-hibited one of the very rare instances of Gent. king, nothing prospered; they had dying for love. She was buried in the caMag. no sooner bought a large stock of thedral of Lichfield; and he, with a tender skins,than a heavy duty was laid upon that regard, placed a stone over her grave with article, and from Michael's absence by his this inscription: many avocations as a bookseller, the parchment business was committed to a faithless servant, and thence they gradually declined into strait circumstances.] He was a zealous high-church man and royalist, and retained his attachment to the unfortunate house of Stuart, though he reconciled himself by casuistical arguments of expediency and necessity, to take the oaths imposed by the prevailing power. There is a circumstance in his life somewhat? romantick, but so well authenticated Here lies the body of Mrs. ELIZABETH BLANEY, a stranger: Piozzi, p. 6. Johnson's mother [was slight in her person, and rather below than above the common size. So excellent was her character, and so blameless her life, that when an oppressive neighbour once endeavoured to take from her a little field she possessed, he could persuade no attorney to undertake the cause against a woman so beloved in her narrow circle: and it is this incident he alludes to in the line of his Vanity of Human Wishes, calling her The general favourite as the general friend. 1 [Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines "ExCISE, a hateful tax, levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but by wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid;" and in the Idler (No. 65), he calls a Commissioner of Excise "one of the lowest of all human beings." This violence of lan-Nor could any one pay more willing hoiguage seems so little reasonable, that the Editor was induced to suspect some cause of personal animosity; this mention of the trade in parchment (an exciseable article) afforded a clue, age to such a character, though she had not been related to him, than did Dr. Johnson on every occasion that offered: his disquisition on Pope's epitaph placed over Mrs. Corbet, which has led to the confirmation of that susis a proof of that preference always given picion. In the records of the Excise Board is to be found the following letter, addressed to the by him to a noiseless life over a bustling supervisor of excise at Lichfield: "July 27, one.] She was a woman of distinguished 1725.-The Commissioners received yours of the understanding. [It was not, however, Mr. 22d instant, and since the justices would not give Malone observes, much cultivated, as may judgment against Mr. Michael Johnson, the tan- be collected from Dr. Johnson's own acner, notwithstanding the facts were fairly against count. "My father and mother Account him, the Board direct that the next time he of (said he) had not much happiness of Life, fends, you do not lay an information against him, from each other. She had no value p. 14. but send an affidavit of the fact, that he may be for his relations; those indeed whom prosecuted in the Exchequer." It does not ap- we knew of were much lower than hers. pear whether he offended again, but here is a suf- This contempt began, I know not on which ficient cause of his son's animosity against Commissioners of Excise, and of the allusion in Miss Seward, that Doctor Johnson had told it. the Dictionary to the special jurisdiction under Admitting that he did so, it is to be observed that which that revenue is administered. The re- the fact happened fifteen years before his birth; luctance of the justices to convict will appear and his father may be excused if he gave to his not unnatural, when it is recollected that M. John-wife and son a romantic account of an affair of son was, this very year, chief magistrate of the city.-ED.] this nature. Such delicacy of sentiment and conduct as is here ascribed to these young and humble lovers is, it is to be feared, very rare in persons of any age or station, and would seem to require better authentication than can be found for the details of this story.-ED.] side, very early; but as my father was little at home it had not much effect. They seldom conversed; for my father could not bear to talk of his affairs; and my mother, being unacquainted with books, cared not to talk of any thing else. Had my mother been more literate, they had been better companions. She might have sometimes introduced her unwelcome topick with more success, if she could have diversified her conversation. Of business she had no distinct conception; and therefore her discourse was composed only of complaint, fear, and suspicion. Neither of them ever tried to calculate the profits of trade, or the expenses of living. My mother concluded that we were poor, because we lost by some of our trades; but the truth was, that my father, having in the early part of his life contracted debts, never had trade sufficient to enable him to pay them, and to maintain his family: he got something, but not enough. My father considered tea as very expensive, and discouraged my mother from keeping company with the neighbours, and from paying visits and receiving them. She lived to say, many years after, that if the time were to pass again, she would not comply with such unsocial injunctions. It was not till about 1768, that I thought to calculate the returns of my father's trade, and by that estimate his probable profits. This, I believe, my parents never did."] I asked his old school-fellow, Mr. Hector, surgeon of Birmingham, if she was not vain of her son. He said, "she had too much good sense to be vain, but she knew her son's value." Her piety was not inferior to her understanding; and to her must be inscribed those early impressions of religion upon the mind of her son, from which the world afterwards derived so much benefit. He told me, that he remembered distinctly having had the first notice of heaven, "a place to which good people went," and hell, "a place to which bad people went," communicated to him by her, when a little child in bed with her; and that it might be the better fixed in his memory, she sent him to repeat it to Thomas Jackson, their man-servant 2; he not being in the way, this was not done; but there was no occasion for any artificial aid for its preservation. [When he related this circumstance to Mrs. Piozzi, he added, that little people should be en ' [This is told nearly in the same words in the Account of the Life, and is an additional proof of the authenticity of that little work.-ED.] p. 21, 22. couraged always to tell whatever Piozzi, In following so very eminent a man from his cradle to his grave, every minute particular, which can throw light on the progress of his mind, is interesting. That he was remarkable, even in his earliest years, may easily be supposed; for to use his own words in his Life of Sydenham, "That the strength of his understanding, the accuracy of his discernment, and the ardour of his curiosity, might have been remarked from his infancy, by a diligent observer, there is no reason to doubt. For there is no instance of any man, whose history has been minutely related, that did not in every part of life discover the same proportion of intellectual vigour." In all such investigations it is certainly unwise to pay too much attention to incidents which the credulous relate with eager satisfaction, and the more scrupulous or witty inquirer considers only as topicks of ridicule: yet there is a traditional story of the infant Hercules of Toryism, so curiously characteristick, that I shall not withhold it. It was communicated to me in a letter from Miss Mary Adye, of Lichfield. "When Dr. Sacheverel was at Lichfield, Johnson was not quite three years old. My grandfather Hammond observed him at the cathedral perched upon his father's shoulders, listening and gaping at the much celebrated preacher. Mr. Hammond asked Mr. Johnson how he could possibly think of bringing such an infant to church, and He anin the midst of so great a crowd. swered, because it was impossible to keep him at home; for, young as he was, he be lieved he had caught the publick spirit and zeal for Sacheverel, and would have stayed for ever in the church, satisfied with beholding him 3." Nor can I omit a little instance of that jealous independence of spirit, and impetuosity of temper, which never forsook him, The fact was acknowledged to me by him [The gossiping anecdotes of the Lichfield ladies are all apocryphal. Sacheverel, by his sentence pronounced in Feb. 1710, was interdicted for three years from preaching; so that he could not have preached at Lichfield while Johnson was under three years of age. But what decides the falsehood of Miss Adye's story is, that Sacheverel's triumphal progress through the midland 2 [Mrs. Piozzi says a workman, and, in this counties was in 1710; and it appears by the books instance, her account is more likely to be accu- of the corporation of Lichfield, that he was receivrate than Boswell's. This trifle is observed to jus- ed in that town and complimented by the attendtify thus early the editor's opinion, that even in ance of the corporation," and a present of three the small matters in which Boswell delights to dozen of wine, on the 16th June, 1710; when accuse Mrs. Piozzi of inaccuracy, she is somethe " infant Hercules of toryism" was just times probably as correct as he is.—Ev.] nine months old.-ED.] self, upon the authority of his mother. | One day, when the servant who used to be sent to school to conduct him home had not come in time, he set out by himself, though he was then so near-sighted, that he was obliged to stoop down on his hands and knees to take a view of the kennel before he ventured to step over it. His schoolmistress, afraid that he might miss his way, or fall into the kennel, or be run over by a cart, followed him at some distance. He happened to turn about and perceive her. Feeling her careful attention as an insult to his manliness, he ran back to her in a rage, and beat her, as well as his strength would permit 1. Of the power of his memory, for which he was all his life eminent to a degree almost incredible, the following early instance was told me in his presence at Lichfield, in 1776, by his step-daughter, Mrs. Lucy Porter, as related to her by his mother. When he was a child in petticoats, and had learnt to read, Mrs. Johnson one morning put the common prayer-book into his hands, pointed to the collect for the day, and said, "Sam, you must get this by heart." She went up stairs, leaving him to study it: but by the time she had reached the second floor, she heard him follow her. "What's the matter?" said she. "I can say it," he replied, and repeated it distinctly, though he could not have read it more than twice. Piozzi, p. 8, 9. "That them for his child's. He added, "my fa- Young Johnson had the misfortune to be much afflicted with the scrophula, or king'sThere has been another story of his in- evil, which disfigured a countenance naturalfant precocity generally circulated, and gen- ly well formed, and hurt his visual nerves erally believed, the truth of which I am to so much, that he did not see at all with one refute upon his own authority. It is told, of his eyes, though its appearance was litthat, when a child of three years old, he tle different from that of the other. There chanced to tread upon a duckling, the elev- is amongst his prayers, one inscribed enth of a brood, and killed it; upon which," When my EYE was restored to its use," it is said, he dictated to his mother the following epitaph: "Here lies good master duck, Whom Samuel Johnson trod on; There is surely internal evidence that this [This story seems also disproved by internal evidence, for if Johnson was so blind as not to be able to see a kennel without stooping on his hands and knees, how could he distinguish a person following him at some distance?—ED.] which ascertains a defect that many of his friends knew he had, though I never perceived it 3. I supposed him to be only near-sighted; and indeed I must observe, that in no other respect could I discern any defect in his vision; on the contrary, the force of his attention and perceptive quickness made him see and distinguish all manner of objects, whether of nature or of art, with a nicety that is rarely to be found. When he and I were travelling in the Highlands of Scotland, and I pointed out to him a mountain, which I observed resembled a cone, he corrected my inaccuracy, by show [This anecdote of the duck, though disproved by internal and external evidence, is one of those the authenticity of which Miss Seward persisted in asserting; and she maintained a very wrongheadand a similar subject (The verses on a sprig of ed hostility and paper war with Boswell on this myrtle), in which, as we shall see more fully hereafter, she was wrong every way.-ED.] 3 Speaking himself of the imperfection of one of his eyes, he said to Dr. Burney, "the dog was never good for much."-BURNEY. p. 11. in allusion to the political principles in which he was educated, and of which he ever retained some odour, that "his mother had not carried him far enough; she should have taken him to ROME 3" [The following is his own recollection o. this journey.-"I was taken to London to be touched for the evil Account by queen Anne. I always retain- p. 16. of Life, ed some memory of this journey, though I was then but thirty months old. I remember a boy crying at the palace when I went to be touched. My mother was at Nicholson's, the famous bookseller in Little Britain. I remember a little dark room behind the kitchen, where the jackweight fell through a hole in the floor, into which I once slipped my leg. We ing me, that it was indeed pointed at the top, but that one side of it was larger than the other. And the ladies with whom he was acquainted agree, that no man was more nicely and minutely critical in the elegance of female dress. When I found that he saw the romantick beauties of Ilam, in Derbyshire, much better than I did, I told him that he resembled an able performer upon a bad instrument. How false and contemptible then are all the remarks which have been made to the prejudice either of his candour or of his philosophy, founded upon a supposition that he was almost blind. It has been said that he contracted this grievous malady from his nurse. [His own acAccount count was, that Dr. Swinfen 1 told of Life, him, that the scrofulous sores which afflicted him proceeded from the bad Being asked, on which side of the shop humours of his nurse, whose son had the was the counter?' I answered, 'on the same distemper, and was likewise short-left from the entrance,' many years after, and sighted, but both in a less degree (than he). spoke not by guess but by memory. His mother thought his diseases derived went in the stage-coach, and returned in from her family 2. She visited him every the waggon, as my mother said, because my day, and used to go different ways, that cough was violent. The hope of saving a her assiduity might not expose her to few shillings was no slight motive; for ridicule, and often left her fan or glove be- she, not having been accustomed to money, hind, that she might have a pretence for was afraid of such expenses as now seem coming back unexpected, but she never dis- very small. She sewed two guineas in her covered any token of neglect. In ten weeks petticoat, lest she should be robbed. he was taken home a poor diseased infant, almost blind. Dr. Swinfen used to say, that he never knew any child reared with so much difficulty.] His mother,-yielding to the superstitious notion which, it is wonderful to think, prevailed so long in this country, as to the virtue of the regal touch; a notion which our kings encourAccount aged, and to which a man of such inquiry and such judgment as Carte could give credit-carried him to London [in Lent, 1712], where he was actually touched by queen Anne. Mrs. Johnson indeed, as Mr. Hector informed me, acted by the advice of the celebrated Sir John Floyer, then a physician in Lichfield. Johnson used to talk of this very frankly; and Mrs. Piozzi has preserved his very picturesque description of the scene, as it remained upon his fancy. Being asked if he could remember queen Anne,— "He had (he said) a confused, but somehow a sort of solemn recollection of a lady in diamonds, and a long black hood." This touch, however, was without any effect. I ventured to say to him, of Life, p. 16. Piozzi, p. 10. 1 [Samuel Swinfen, who took a degree of doctor of medicine from Pembroke College in 1712. -HALL.] 2 [His mother and Dr. Swinfen were both perhaps wrong in their conjecture as to the origin of the disease; he more probably inherited it from his father, with the morbid melancholy which is so commonly an attendant on scrofulous habits.F.D.] "We were troublesome to the passengers; but to suffer such inconveniences in the stage-coach was common in these days, to persons in much higher rank. She bought me a small silver cup and spoon, marked SAM. J., lest if they had been marked S. J., (Sarah being her name), they should, upon her death, have been taken from me. She bought me a speckled linen frock, which I knew afterwards by the name of my London frock. The cup was one of the last pieces of plate which dear4 Tetty sold in our distress. I have now the spoon. She bought at the same time two teaspoons, and till my manhood she had no more 5."] He was first taught to read English by Dame Oliver, a widow, who kept a school for young children in Lichfield. He told 3 [To the Pretender.-ED.] 4 [His wife, whom he called by this familiar contraction of Elizabeth.-ED.] 5 [When Dr. Johnson, at an advanced age, recorded all these minute circumstances, he contemplated, we are told, writing the history of his own life, and probably intended to develope, from his own infant recollections, the growth and powers of the faculty of memory, which he possessed in so remarkable a degree. From the little details of his domestic history he perhaps meant also to trace the progressive change in the habits of the middle classes of society. But whatever may have been his motive, the Editor could not properly omit what Johnson thought worth preserving.-ED.] me she could read the black letter, and asked | him to borrow for her, from his father, a bible in that character. When he was going to Oxford, she came to take leave of him, brought him, in the simplicity of her kindness, a present of gingerbread, and said he was the best scholar she ever had. He delighted in mentioning this early compliment; adding, with a smile, that "this was as high a proof of his merit as he could conceive." His next instructor in English was a master, whom when he spoke of him to me, he familiarly called Tom Brown, who, said he, "published a spelling-book, and dedicated it to the UNIVERSE; but, I fear, no copy of it can now be had." Account of Life, would ask a boy a question, and if he did not answer it, he would beat him, without considering whether he had an opportunity of knowing how to answer it. For instance, he would call up a boy and ask him Latin for a candlestick, which the boy could not expect to be asked. Now, sir, if a boy could answer every question, there would be no need of a master to teach him." It is, however, but justice to the memory of Mr. Hunter to mention, that though he might err in being too severe, the school of Lichfield was very respectable in his time. The late Dr. Taylor, Prebendary of Westminster, who was educated under him, told me that "he was an excellent master, He began to learn Latin with Mr. Haw- and that his ushers were most of them men kins, usher or under-master of Lichfield of eminence; that Holdbrook, one of the school," a man (said he) very skilful in his most ingenious men, best scholars, and best little way.' With him he continued two preachers of his age, was usher during the years, and [perhaps, four months. greatest part of the time that Johnson was "The time," he added, “ till I had at school. Then came Hague, of whom as P 25, 26. computed it, appeared much longer much might be said, with the addition that by the multitude of incidents and of he was an elegant poet. Hague was sucnovelties which it supplied, than many im-ceeded by Green, afterwards Bishop of portant thoughts which it produced. Per- Lincoln, whose character in the learned haps it is not possible that any other period world is well known. In the same form can make the same impression on the memo- with Johnson was Congreve, who afterry." In the spring of 1719, his class was wards became chaplain to Archbishop removed to the upper school, and put under Boulter, and by that connexion obtained Holbrook, a peevish and ill-tempered man. good preferment in Ireland. He was They were removed sooner than had been younger son of the ancient family of Conthe custom, for the head-master, intent on greve, in Staffordshire, of which the poet his boarders, generally left the town-boys was a branch. His brother sold the estate. too long in the lower school; the earlier There was also Lowe, afterwards Canon removal of Johnson's class was caused by a of Windsor. reproof of the town-clerk; and Hawkins complained that he had lost half his profit. At this removal Johnson says that he cried, but the rest were indifferent. He] then rose to be under the care of Mr. Hunter', the head-master, who, according to his account, "was very severe, and wrong-headedly severe. He used (said he) to beat us unmercifully; and he did not distinguish between ignorance and negligence; for he would beat a boy equally for not knowing a thing, as for neglecting to know it. He 1 ["Mr. Hunter was an odd mixture of the pedant and the sportsman; he was a very severe disciplinarian and a great setter of game. Happy was the boy who could inform his offended master where a covey of partridges was to be found; this notice was a certain pledge of his pardon.' Davies' Life of Garrick, vol. i. p. 3. He was a prebendary in the Cathedral of Lichfield, and grandfather to Miss Seward. One of this lady's complaints against Johnson was, that he, in all his works, never expressed any gratitude to his preceptor. It does not appear that he owed him much; for besides the severity of his discipline, seems that he was inattentive to that class of boys to which Johnson belonged, and it also appears, that he refused to readmit him after one of the vacations, on some pretence now forgotten.-ED.] it a Indeed Johnson was very sensible how much he owed to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Langton one day asked him how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of Latin, in which, I believe, he was exceeded by no man of his time: he said, "My master whipt me very well. Without that, sir, I should have done nothing." He told Mr. Langton, that while Hunter was flogging his boys unmercifully, he used to say, "And this I do to save you from the gallows." Johnson, upon all occasions, expressed his approbation of enforcing instruction by means of the rod 2. "I would rather (said he) have the rod to be the general terror to all, to make them learn, than tell a child, if you do thus or thus, you will be more esteemed than your brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect which terminates in itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his task, and there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation and comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting mischief: you make brothers and sisters hate each other." 2 Johnson's observations to Dr. Rose, on this subject, may be found in a subsequent part of this work, near the end of the year 1775.-BURNEY. |