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About this time, as it is supposed, he composed pulpit discourses for sundry clergymen, and for these, he made no scruple of confessing, he was paid: his price, I am informed, was a moderate one, a guinea; and such was his notion of justice, that having been paid, he considered them so absolutely the property of the purchaser, as to renounce all claim to them. He reckoned that he had written about forty sermons; but, except as to some, knew not in what hands they were -"I have," said he, “ been paid for them, and have no right to inquire about them!."] [About the year 1756, time had produced a change in the situation of many of Johnson's friends, who were used to meet him in Ivy-lane. Death had taken from them M'Ghie; Barker went to settle as a practising physician at Trowbridge; Dyer went abroad; Hawkesworth was busied in forming new connexions; and Sir J. Hawkins had lately made one that removed from him all temptations to pass his evenings from home. The consequence was, that the club at the King'shead broke up, and he who had first formed it into a society was left with fewer around him than were able to support it.

Hawk. p. 360, 361.

All this while, the booksellers, who, by his own confession, were his best friends, had their eyes upon Johnson, and reflected with some concern on what seemed to them a misapplication of his talents. The furnishing magazines, reviews, and even newspapers, with literary intelligence, and the authours of books, who could not write them for themselves, with dedications and prefaces, they looked on as employments beneath him, who had attained to such eminence as a writer; they, therefore, in the year 1756, found out for him such a one as seemed to afford a prospect both of amusement and profit: this was an edition of Shakspeare's dramatic works, which, by a concurrence of circumstances, was now become necessary, to answer the increasing demand of the publick for the writings of that authour.

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In consequence of this application], he this year resumed his scheme of giving an edition of Shakspeare with notes. He issued Proposals of considerable length 2, in which he showed that he perfectly well knew what a variety of research such an undertaking required; but his indolence prevented him from pursuing it with that diligence which alone can collect those scattered facts, that genius, however acute, penetrating, and luminous, cannot discover by its own force. It is remarkable, that this time his fancied activity was for the moment so vigorous, that he promised his work should be published before Christmas, 1757. Yet nine years elapsed before it saw the light. His throes in bringing it forth had been severe and remittent; and at last we may almost conclude that the Cæsarean operation was performed by the knife of Churchill, whose upbraiding satire, I dare say, made Johnson's friend urge him to despatch.

"He for subscribers baits his hook,

And takes your cash; but where's the book?
No matter where; wise fear, you know,
Forbids the robbing of a foe;

But what, to serve our private ends,
Forbids the cheating of our friends?"

Hawk. p. 362.

A stranger to Johnson's character and temper would have thought, that the study of an authour, whose skill in the science of human life was so deep, and whose perfections were so many and various as to be above the reach of all praise, must have been the most pleasing employment that his imagination could suggest, but it was not so: in a visit that he one morning made to Sir J. Hawkins, the latter congratulated him on his being now engaged in a work that suited his genius, and that, requiring none of that severe application which his Dictionary had condemned him to, would, no doubt, be executed con amore.-) -His answer was, "I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary: it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know of."-And the event was, Sir J. Hawkins adds, evidence to him, that in this speech he declared his genuine sentiments; for neither did he set himself to collect early editions of his authour, old plays, translations of histories, and of the classics, and other materials necessary for his purpose, nor could he be prevailed on to enter into that course of reading, without which it seemed impossible to come at the sense of his authour. It was provoking to all his friends to see him waste his days, his weeks, and

the preface to his edition of Shakspeare.-Bos2 They have been reprinted by Mr. Malone in

WELL.

his months so long, that they feared a mental lethargy had seized him, out of which he would never recover. In this, however, they were happily deceived, for, after two years' inactivity, they find him roused to action, and engaged-not in the prosecution of the work, for the completion whereof he stood doubly bound, but-in a new one, the furnishing a series of periodical essays, entitled, and it may be thought not improperly, "The Idler," as his motive to the employment was aversion to a labour he had under taken, though in the execution, it must be owned, it merited a better name.]

About this period he was offered a living of considerable value in Lincolnshire, if he were inclined to enter into holy orders. It was a rectory in the gift of Mr. Langton, the father of his much-valued friend. But he did not accept of it; partly I believe from a conscientious motive, being persuaded that his temper and habits rendered him unfit for that assiduous and familiar instruction of the vulgar and ignorant, which he held to be an essential duty in a clergyman; and partly because his love of a London life was so strong, that he would have thought himself an exile in any other place, particularly if residing in the country. Whoever would wish to see his thoughts upon that subject displayed in their full force, may peruse the Adventurer, Number 126.

In 1757 it does not appear that he published any thing, except some of those articles in the Literary Magazine, which have been mentioned. That magazine, after Johnson ceased to write in it, gradually declined, though the popular epithet of Antigallican was added to it; and in July, 1758, it expired. He probably prepared a part of his Shakspeare this year, and he dictated a speech on the subject of an address to the throne, after the expedition to Rochefort, which was delivered by one of his friends, I know not in what publick meeting. It is printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1785 (p. 764), as his, and bears sufficient marks of authenticity.

By the favour of Mr. Joseph Cooper Walker, of the treasury, Dublin, I have obtained a copy of the following letter from Johnson to the venerable authour of "Dissertations on the History of Ireland."

1

TO CHARLES O'CONNOR, ESQ.' London, 9 April, 1757. "SIR,-I have lately, by the favour of Mr. Faulkner, seen your account of Ireland,

Of this gentleman, who died at his seat at Ballinegare, in the county of Roscommon, in Ireland, July 1, 1791, in his eighty-second year, some account may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine of that date. Of the work here alluded to by Dr. Johnson-" Dissertations on the History of Ireland"-a second and much im

VOL. I.

ana cannot forbear to solicit a prosecution of your design. Sir William Temple complains that Ireland is less known than any other country, as to its ancient state. The natives have had little leisure, and little encouragement for inquiry; and strangers, not knowing the language, have had no ability. "I have long wished that the Irish literature were cultivated2. Ireland is known by tradition to have been once the seat of piety and learning; and surely it would be very acceptable to all those who are curious either in the original of nations, or the affinities of languages, to be further informed of the revolution of a people so ancient, and once so illustrious.

"What relation there is between the Welsh and Irish language, or between the language of Ireland and that of Biscay, deserves inquiry. Of these provincial and unextended tongues, it seldom happens that more than one are understood by any one man; and, therefore, it seldom happens that a fair comparison can be made. I hope you will continue to cultivate this kind of learning, which has too long lain neglected, and which, if it be suffered to remain in oblivion for another century, may, perhaps, never be retrieved. As I wish well to all useful undertakings, I would not forbear to let you know how much you deserve, in my opinion, from all lovers of study, and how much pleasure your work has given to, sir, your most obliged and most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON.'

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2 The celebrated oratour, Mr. Flood, has shown himself to be of Dr. Johnson's opinion; having by his will bequeathed his estate, after the death of his wife Lady Frances, to the University of Dublin; desiring that immediately after the said estate shall come into their possession, they shall appoint two professors, one for the study of the native Erse or Irish language, and the other for the study of Irish antiquities and Irish history, and for the study of any other European language illustrative of, or auxiliary to, the study of Irish an tiquities or Irish history: and that they shall give yearly two liberal premiums for two compositions, one in verse, and the other in prose, in the Irish language.-BoSWELL.

Since the above was written, Mr. Flood's will has been set aside, after a trial at bar, in the court of exchequer in Ireland.-MALONE.

3 Now, or late, vice-chancellor.-WARTON.

"I am printing my new edition of Shakspeare.

"I long to see you all, but cannot conveniently come yet. You might write to me now and then, if you were good for any thing. But honores mutant mores. Professors forget their friends. I shall certainly complain to Miss Jones 2. I am, your, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON." "Please to make my compliments to Mr. Wise."

COLL. OXFORD 3.

"28 June, 1758.

their lives. Let me know what you expected, and what you have found. At least record it to yourself before custom has reconciled you to the scenes before you, and the disparity of your discoveries to your hopes has vanished from your mind. It is a rule never to be forgotten, that whatever strikes strongly should be described while the first impression remains fresh upon the mind.

"I love, dear sir, to think on you, and therefore should willingly write more to

TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. OF TRIN. you, but that the post will not now give me leave to do more than send my compliments to Mr. Warton, and tell you that I am, dear sir, most affectionately, your very "SAM. JOHNSON." humble servant,

"DEAR SIR,-Though I might have expected to hear from you, upon your entrance into a new state of life at a new place, yet recollecting (not without some degree of shame) that I owe you a letter upon an old account, I think it my part to write first. This, indeed, I do not only from complaisance but from interest; for living on in the old way, I am very glad of a correspondent so capable as yourself, to diversify the hours. You have, at present, too many novelties about you to need any help from me to drive along your time.

"I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed. You, who are very capable of anticipating futurity, and raising phantoms before your own eyes, must often have imagined to yourself an academical life, and have conceived what would be the manners, the views and the conversation, of men devoted to letters; how they would choose their companions, how they would direct their studies, and how they would regulate

Mr. Burney having enclosed to him an extract from the review of his Dictionary in the Bibliotheque des Savans 4, and a list of subscribers to his Skakspeare, which Mr. Burney had procured in Norfolk, he wrote the following answer:

TO MR. BURNEY, IN LYNNE, NORFOLK. "Gough-square, 24 Dec. 1757. "SIR,-That I may show myself sensible of your favours, and not commit the same fault a second time, I make haste to answer the letter which I received this morning. The truth is, the other likewise was received, and I wrote an answer; but being desirous to transmit you some proposals and receipts, I waited till I could find a convenient conveyance, and day was passed after day, till other things drove it from my thoughts; yet not so, but that I remember with great pleasure your commendation of my Dictionary. Your praise was welcome, not only because I believe it was sincere, but because praise has been very scarce. A man of your candour will be surprised when I tell you that among all my 1 Mr. Warton was elected Professor of Poetry acquaintances there were only two, who, at Oxford in the preceding year.-WARTON. 2 Miss Jones lived at Oxford, and was often of upon the publication of my book, did not our parties. She was a very ingenious poetess, endeavour to depress me with threats of censure from the publick, or with objecand published a volume of poems; and, on the whole, was a most sensible, agreeable, and amia- tions learned from those who had learned ble woman. She was sister to the Reverend them from my own preface. Yours is the River Jones, chanter of Christ-church cathedral only letter of good-will that I have reat Oxford, and Johnson used to call her the chan-ceived; though, indeed, I am promised tress. I have heard him often address her in this passage from "Il Penseroso:"

"Thee, chantress, oft the woods among
I woo, &c."

She died unmarried.-WARTON.

3 [This letter is dated June, 1758, and so placed by Mr. Boswell; but it is evident that this must be a mistake; for it is written on Mr. Langton's first entrance into college life; and we shall see in the letter dated June 1, 1758 (p. 143), that Langton had been already some time the pupil of Mr. Warton. The true date, therefore, of this letter was probably June, 1757,—ED.]

something of that sort from Sweden.

"How my new edition of Shakspeare will be received I know not; the subscription has not been very successful. I shall publish about March.

"If you can direct me how to send proposals, I should wish that they were in such hands.

"I remember, sir, in some of the first letters with which you favoured me, you mentioned your lady. May I inquire after

4 Tom. III. p. 482.

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"I have sent you a bundle of proposals, which I think, do not profess more than I have hitherto performed. I have printed many of the plays, and have hitherto left very few passages unexplained: where I am quite at loss, I confess my ignorance, which is seldom done by commentators.

"I have likewise enclosed twelve receipts; not that I mean to impose upon you the trouble of pushing them with more importunity than may seem proper, but that you may rather have more than fewer than you will want. The proposals you will disseminate as there shall be an opportunity. I once printed them at length in the Chronicle, and some of my friends (I believe Mr. Murphy, who formerly wrote the Gray'sInn Journal) introduced them with a splendid encomium.

"Since the life of Browne, I have been a little engaged, from time to time, in the Literary Magazine, but not very lately. I have not the collection by me, and therefore cannot draw out a catalogue of my own parts, but will do it, and send it. Do not buy them, for I will gather all those that have any thing of mine in them, and send them to Mrs. Burney, as a small token of gratitude for the regard which she is pleased to bestow upon me. I am, sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON,"

1 [Here, in his later editions, Mr. Boswell had erroneously inserted a letter to Mr. Langton, which will be found in its real place at the beginning of the next year.-ED.]

This letter was an answer to one, in which was enclosed a draft for the payment of some subscriptions to his Shakspeare.-BoSWELL.

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Dr. Burney has kindly favoured me with the following memorandum, which I take the liberty to insert in his own genuine easy style. I love to exhibit sketches of my illustrious friend by various eminent hands.

"Soon after this, Mr. Burney, during a visit to the capital, had an interview with him in Gough-square3, where he dined and drank tea with him, and was introduced to the acquaintance of Mrs. Williams. After dinner, Mr. Johnson proposed to Mr. Burney to go up with him into his garret, which being accepted, he there found about five or six Greek folios, a deal writing-desk, and a chair and a half. Johnson giving to his guest the entire seat, tottered himself on one with only three legs and one arm. Here he gave Mr. Burney Mrs. Williams's history, and showed him some volumes of his Shakspeare already printed, to prove that he was in earnest. Upon Mr. Burney's opening the first volume, at the Merchant of Venice, he observed to him, that he seemed to be more severe on Warburton than Theobald. O poor Tib.! (said Johnson) he was ready knocked down to my hands; Warburton stands between me and him.' But sir (said Mr. Burney), you'll have Warburton upon your bones, won't you? No, sir; he'll not come out: he'll only growl in his den.'—

But you think, sir, that Warburton is a superiour critick to Theobald?'' O, sir, he'd make two-and-fifty Theobalds, cut into slices! The worst of Warburton is, that he has a rage for saying something, when there's nothing to be said.'-Mr. Burney then asked him whether he had seen the letter which Warburton had written in answer to a pamphlet addressed To the most impudent Man alive.' He answered in the negative. Mr. Burney told him it was supposed to be written by Mallet. The controversy now raged between the friends of Pope and Bolingbroke; and Warburton and Mallet were the leaders of the several parties. Mr. Burney asked him then if he had seen Warburton's book against Bolingbroke's Philosophy? No, sir; I have never read Bolingbroke's impiety, and therefore am not interested about its confutation 4."

On the fifteenth of April he began a new periodical paper, entitled "THE IDLER *,” which came out every Saturday in a weekly Newspaper, called "The Universal

3 If the error in the date of the letter to Mr. Langton, of January, 1759, had not been discovered, we might have doubted the accuracy of Dr. Burney as to his having been entertained by Johnson, in Gough-square, so late in the spring of 1758: but it is now plain that it was not till the spring of 1759 that he broke up his establishment there.-ED.]

4 [See ante, p. 115.-ED.]

.

Chronicle, or Weekly Gazette," published | in so eminent a degree. In No. 11, he by Newbery 1. These essays were continued till April 5, 1760. Of one hundred and three, their total number, twelve were contributed by his friends; of which, Numbers 33, 93, and 96, were written by Mr. Thomas Warton; No. 67, by Mr. Langton; and No. 76, 79, and 82, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; the concluding words of No. 82, "and pollute his canvas with deformity,' being added by Johnson; as Sir Joshua informed me.

treats with the utmost contempt the opinion that our mental faculties depend, in some degree, upon the weather; an opinion, which they who have never experienced its truth are not to be envied, and of which he himself could not but be sensible, as the effects of weather upon him were very visible. Yet thus he declaims: "Surely noth"ing is more reproachful to a being endowed with reason, than to resign its powers to the influence of the air, and live in dependence on the weather and the wind for the only blessings which nature has put into our power, tranquillity and benevolence.This distinction of seasons is produced only by imagination operating on luxury. To temperance, every day is bright; and every hour is propitious to diligence. He that shall resolutely excite his faculties, or exert his virtues, will soon make himself superiour to the seasons; and may set at defiance the morning mist and the evening damp, the blasts of the east, and the clouds of the south."

The IDLER is evidently the work of the same mind which produced the RAMBLER, but has less body and more spirit. It has more variety of real life, and greater facility of language. He describes the miseries of idleness, with the lively sensations of one who has felt them; and in his private memorandums while engaged in it, we find "This year I hope to learn diligence." Many of these excellent essays were written as hastily as an ordinary letter. Mr. Langton remembers Johnson, when on a visit at Oxford, asking him one evening how long it was till the post went out; and Alas! it is too certain, that where the on being told about half an hour, he ex-frame has delicate fibres, and there is a fine claimed, "then we shall do very well." sensibility, such influences of the air are irHe upon this instantly sat down and finish-resistible. He might as well have bid defied an Idler, which it was necessary should ance to the ague, the palsy, and all other be in London the next day. Mr. Langton bodily disorders. Such boasting of the having signified a wish to read it," Sir, mind is false elevation: (said he) you shall not do more than I have done myself." He then folded it up, and

sent it off.

"I think the Romans call it Stoicism." But in this number of his Idler his spirits seem to run riot 2; for in the wantonness of his disquisition he forgets, for a moment, even the reverence for that which he held in high respect; and describes "the attendant on a court 3," as one "whose business is to watch the looks of a being, weak and fool

Yet there are in the Idler several papers which show as much profundity of thought, and labour of language, as any of this great man's writings. No. 14, Robbery of Time;" No. 24, "Thinking;" No. 41, "Death of a Friend;" No. 43, "Flight of Time;" No. 51, "Domestic greatness un-ish as himself." attainable;" No. 52, "Self-denial;" No. 58,"Actual, how short of fancied, excellence;" No. 89,"Physical evil moral good;" and his concluding paper on "The horrour of the last," will prove this assertion. I know not why a motto, the usual trapping of periodical papers, is prefixed to very few of the Idlers, as I have heard Johnson commend the custom; and he never could be at a loss for one, his memory being stored with innumerable passages of the classicks. In this series of essays he exhibits admirable instances of grave humour, of which he had an uncommon share. Nor on some occasions has he repressed that power of sophistry which he possessed

This is a slight mistake. The first number of "The Idler" appeared on the 15th of April, 1758, in No. 2 of the Universal Chronicle, &c., which was published by J. Payne, for whom also the Rambler had been printed. On the 29th of April this newspaper assumed the title of Payne's Universal Chronicle, &c.-MALONE.

His unqualified ridicule of rhetorical gesture or action is not, surely, a test of truth; yet we cannot help admiring how well it is adapted to produce the effect which he wished. "Neither the judges of our laws, nor the representatives of our people, would be much affected by laboured gesticulations, or believe any man the more because he rolled his eyes, or puffed his cheeks, or spread abroad his armis, or stamped the ground, or thumped his breast; turned his eyes sometimes to the ceiling and sometimes to the floor."

2 [This doctrine of the little influence of the weather, however, seems to have been his fixed opinion he often repeated it in conversation. See post, 9th July, 1763.—ED.]

3 [See ante, p. 132. Mr. Boswell seems resolved to forget that Johnson's reverence for the court had not yet commenced. George II. was still alive, whom Johnson always abused, and sometimes very indecently. See ante, p. 57, and post, 6th April, 1775.—ED.]

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