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They were recommended to Mr. Colson 1, | academy, by the following letter from Mr. an eminent mathematician and master of an Walmsley:

in that object), but whose works were little known in his own day, and are now quite neglected, though Doctor Anderson has introduced him into the Scotch edition of the British Poets, and noticed the two productions mentioned in the text in the following hyperbolic strain:

"The English language, probably, cannot boast a finer example of the power of poetry than the Tears of Old May-day;' the happy union which it exhibits of genius and of art is so truly admirable, that it may be pronounced inimitable. His Mulberry-tree,' an allegorical tale, is equally remarkable for fertility of invention, facility of expression, and propriety of application. Garrick and Dr. Johnson are characterised with equal happiness and skill!!!"-Life of Lovibond. To the editor this boasted allegory seems little better than rhymed nonsense; the meaning (if it has any) seems to be, that Shakspeare's works are a mulberry-tree, which Garrick climbs to gather the fruit, while Johnson, "less frolic," puts his mighty haunches" to the trunk and shakes

"TO THE REVEREND MR. COLSON. "Lichfield, March 2, 1737. "DEAR SIR,-I had the favour of yours, and am extremely obliged to you; but I cannot say I had a greater affection for you upon it than I had before, being long since so much endeared to you, as well by an early friendship, as by your many excellent and valuable qualifications; and, had I a son of my own, it would be my ambition, instead of sending him to the university, to dispose of him as this young gentleman is.

"He, and another neighbour of mine, one Mr. Samuel Johnson, set out this morning for London together. David Garrick is to be with you early the next week, and Mr. Johnson to try his fate with a tragedy, and 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 any way lie in "Wither'd leaves, wither'd limbs, blighted fruits, blight-dy to recommend and assist your countryyour way, doubt not but you would be rea"G. WALMSLEY."

66

down

ed flowers,'

and when "rubbish enough" has been shaken down, poor, withered, blighted, rubbishy Shakspeare is dismissed with the following elegant and complimentary salvo:

"Yet mistake me not, rabble, this tree's a good tree; Does honour, Dame Nature, to Britain and thee. And the fruit on the top, take its merit in brief, Makes a noble dessert, when the dinner's roast beef." Mr. Lovibond leaves us to guess what the roast beef is, compared to which SHAKSPEARE is but a plate of mulberries.-ED.]

The reverend John Colson was bred at Emmanuel College in 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 1751, when he died. He published Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, translated from the French of l'Abbé Nodet, 8vo. 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.-MALONE.

[Mr. Malone's note is not quite accurate. Mr. Colson was elected to Rochester school, not about 1728, but June 1, 1709; and the Abbé whose lectures Mr. Colson translated was Nollet, aud not Nodet, and his lectures were not published in Paris till 1742. Mrs. Piozzi, and after her Mr. Malone, and, of course, all subsequent editors, have stated that the character of Gelidus, in the 24th Rambler, was meant to represent Mr. Colson; but this may be doubted, for, as Mr. Colson resided constantly at Rochester till his removal to Cambridge, it is not likely that Mr. Walmesley's letter could produce any intercourse or acquaint

man,

How he employed himself upon his first coming to London is not particularly known2. I never heard that he found any protection or encouragement by the means of Mr. Colson, to whose academy David Garrick went. Mrs. Lucy Porter told me, that Mr. Walmsley gave him a letter of introduction to Lintot his bookseller, and that Johnson wrote some things for him; but I imagine this to be a mistake, for I have discovered no trace of it, and I am pretty sure he told me, that Mr. Cave was the first publisher 3 by whom his pen was engaged in London.

ance between him and Johnson: and it appears, from Davies's Life of Garrick (vol. i. p. 14), a work revised by Johnson, that Mr. Colson's character could have no resemblance to the absurdities of Gelidus. This gentleman, commonly called Professor Colson, must not be confounded with Mr. Colson, Fellow of University College, Oxford, who was, as Lord Stowell informs me, an intimate friend of Dr. Johnson's, and not a little eccentric in his habits and manners.-ED.]

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 authour, eyed his robust frame 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.

[Wilcox could only have been one of his best friends by affording him employment; perhaps this observation may lead to a discovery of some of Johnson's earlier publications.-ED.]

3 [Perhaps he meant that Cave was the first to whom he was regularly and constantly engaged; but Wilcox and Lintot may have employed him

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 Catherinestreet, 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 1."

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 2.

occasionally; and Dodsley certainly printed his

London before Cave had printed any thing of his but two or three trifles in the Gentleman's Magazine.-ED.]

[But if we may trust Mr. Cumberland's recollection, he was about this time, or very soon after, reduced still lower; "for painful as it is to relate" (says that gentleman in his Memoirs, vol. 1. p. 355), "I have heard that illustrious scholar, Dr. Johnson, assert, and he never varied from the truth of fact, that he subsisted himself for a considerable space of time upon the scanty pittance of fourpence halfpenny per day." When we find Dr. Johnson tell unpleasant truths to, or of, other men, let us recollect that he does not appear to have spared himself on occasions in which he might be forgiven for having done so.-ED.]

His OFELLUS in the Art of Living in London, 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. He 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. He allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen. He 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 coffee-house, 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 circum[At this time his abstinence from wine may, stances in the early part of his life, and parperhaps, be attributed to poverty, but in his sub- ticularly at the interesting era of his launchsequent life he was restrained from that indulgence ing into the ocean of London, it is not to by, as it appears, moral or rather medical consi- be wondered at, that an actual instance, derations. He probably found by experience that proved by experience, of the possibility of wine, though it dissipated for a moment, yet eventually aggravated the hereditary disease under enjoying the intellectual luxury of social which he suffered; and perhaps it may have life upon a very small income, should deeply been owing to a long course of abstinence that his engage his attention, and be ever recollected mental health seems to have been better in the by him as a circumstance of much importlatter than in the earlier portion of his life. He ance. He amused himself, I remember, by says, in his Prayers and Meditations, p, 73, computing how much more expense was "By abstinence from wine and suppers, I obtained absolutely necessary to live upon the same sudden and great relief, and had freedom of mind scale with that which his friend described, restored to me; which I have wanted for all this when the value of money was diminished year, without being able to find any means of ob- by the progress of commerce. It may be taining it."-See also 16th September, 1773.- estimated that double the money might Selden had the same notions; for being consulted now with difficulty be sufficient. by a person of quality whose imagination was Amidst this cold obscurity, there was strangely disturbed, he advised him "not to dis-one brilliant circumstance to cheer him; he order himself with eating or drinking; to eat very was well acquainted with Mr. Henry Herlittle supper, and say his prayers duly when he vey 1, one of the branches of the noble famwent to bed; and I (Selden) made but little question but he would be well in three or four days." -Table Talk, p. 17.

These remarks are important, because depression of spirits is too often treated on a contrary system, from ignorance of, or inattention to, what may be its real cause.—ED.]

1 The Honourable Henry Hervey, third son of the first Earl of Bristol, quitted the army and took orders. He married a sister of Sir Thomas Aston, by whom he got the Aston estate, and assumed the name and arms of that family.-Vide Collins's Peerage.-BoSWELL.

ily of that name, who had been quartered at Litchfield as an officer of the army, and had at this time a house in London, where Johnson was frequently entertained, and had an opportunity of meeting genteel company. Not very long before his death, he mentioned this, among other particulars of his life, which he was kindly communicating to me; and he described this early friend," Harry Hervey," thus: "He was a very vicious man, but very kind to me. If you call a dog HERVEY, I shall love him." He told me he had now written only 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.

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:

66

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 London, to communicate to you the following design, which, I hope, if you join in it, will be of advantage to both of us.

"The History of the Council of Trent having been lately translated into French, and published with large notes by Dr. Le Courayer, the reputation of that book is so muck revived in England, that, it is presumed, a new translation of it from the Italian 2, together with Le Courayer's notes from the French, could not fail of a favourable reception.

"If it be answered, that the History is

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-tive, in 1744; about which time, it is believed, he entered into holy orders. MALONE. [Mr. Hervey's acquaintance and kindness Johnson probably owed to his friend Mr. Walmesley. Walmesley and Hervey, it will be recollected, married sisters.-ED.]

1

[For the excesses which Dr. Johnson characterises as vicious, Mr Hervey was, probably, as much to be pitied as blamed. He was very eccentric.-ED.]

2 [This proves that Johnson had now acquired Italian-probably directed to that study by the volume of Petrarch (mentioned ante, p. 19), the latter part of which contained his Italian poems.ED.]

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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 hand-writing, 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 hand-writing 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 deposited 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 imagery, and happy expressions; and of the disjecta 3 membra scattered throughout, and as yet unarranged, a good dramatick poet might avail himself with considerable advantage. I shall give my readers some

3 [Disjecti membræ poeta. Hor.-ED.]

specimens of different kinds, distinguishing | and art immortal; for sentiments like thine them by the Italic character.

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"Sure this is love, which heretofore I conceived the dream of idle maids, and wanton poets."

"Though no comets or prodigies foretold the ruin of Greece, signs which heaven must by another miracle enable us to understand, yet might it be foreshown, by tokens no less certain, by the vices which always bring it on."

were never to sink into nothing. I thought all the thoughts of the fair had been to select the graces of the day, dispose the colours of the flaunting (flowing) robe, tune the voice and roll the eye, place the gem, choose the dress, and add new roses to the fading cheek, but-sparkling."

Thus in the tragedy:

"Illustrious maid, new wonders fix me thine;
Thy soul completes the triumphs of thy face;
The strongest effort of a female soul,
I thought, forgive my fair, the noblest aim,
Was but to choose the graces of the day,
To tune the tongue, to teach the eyes to roll,
Dispose the colors of the flowing robe,
And add new roses to the faded cheek."

I shall select one other passage, on account of the doctrine which it illustrates.

IRENE observes, "that the Supreme Being will accept of virtue, whatever outward circumstances it may be accompanied with, and may be delighted with varieties of worship: but is answered, That variety cannot affect that Being, who, infinitely happy in his own perfections, wants no external gratifications; nor can infinite truth be delighted with falsehood; that though he may guide or pity those he leaves in darkness, he abandons those who shut their eyes against the beams of day.”

Johnson's residence at Lichfield, on his return to it at this time, was only for three months; and as he had as yet seen but a small part of the wonders of the metropolis, he had little to tell his townsmen'. He This last passage is worked up in the related to me the following minute tragedy itself, as follows:

LEONTIUS.

-That power that kindly spreads The clouds, a signal of impending showers, To warn the wand'ring linnet to the shade, Beheld, without concern, expiring Greece, And not one prodigy foretold our fate.

DEMETRIUS.

A thousand horrid prodigies foretold it;
A feeble government, eluded laws,
A factious populace, luxurious nobles,
And all the maladies of sinking states.
When public villany, too strong for justice,
Shows his bold frout, the harbinger of ruin,
Can brave Leontius call for airy wonders,
Which cheats interpret, and which fools regard?
When some neglected fabrick nods beneath
The weight of years, and totters to the tempest,
Must heaven despatch the messengers of light,
Or wake the dead, to warn us of its fall?"

MAHOMET (to IRENE). "I have tried thee, and joy to find that thou deservest to be loved by Mahomet,-with a mind great as his own. Sure, thou art an errour of nature, and an exception to the rest of thy sex,

VOL. I.

6

20 Sept.

1773.

anecdote of this period: " In the last age, when my mother lived in London, there were two sets of people, those who gave the wall, and those who took it: the peaceable and the quarelsome. When I returned to Lichfield, after having been in London, my mother asked me whether I was one of those who gave the wall, or those who took it. Now it is fixed that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the wall, another yields it; and it is never a dispute."

He now removed to London with Mrs. Johnson; but her daughter, who had lived with them at Edial, was left with her relations in the country. His lodgings were for some time in Woodstock-street, near Hanover-square, and afterwards in Castle

[On the contrary, if he lived after the manner of his Ofellus, he probably saw more of common life than when he was, in his subsequent residence, constrained by the presence of Mrs. Johnson to more domestic and regular habits.ED.]

[She very soon, it appears, resided with old Mrs. Johnson. See, ante p. 32. ED.]

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The Gentleman's Magazine, begun and carried on by Mr. Edward Cave, under the name of Sylvanus Urban, had attracted the notice and esteem of Johnson, in an eminent degree, before he came to London as an adventurer in literature. He told me, that when he first saw St. John's Gate, the place where that deservedly popular miscellany was originally printed, he "beheld it with reverence." I suppose, indeed, that every young authour has had the same kind of feeling for the magazine or periodical publication which has first entertained him, and in which he has first had an opportunity to see himself in print, without the risk of exposing his name. self recollect such impressions from "The Scots Magazine," which was begun at Edinburgh in the year 1739, and has been ever conducted with judgment, accuracy, and propriety. I yet cannot help thinking of it with an affectionate regard. Johnson has dignified the Gentleman's Magazine by

I my

11. Holborn again [at the Golden An- the importance with which he invests the

chor, Holborn-bars, 1748].

12. Gough-square [1748].
13. Staple-inn [1758].
14. Gray's-inn.

15. Inner Temple-lane, No. 1 [1760].
16. Johnson-court, Fleet street, No. 7
[1765].

17. Bolt-court, Fleet-street, No. 8 [1777].

In the progress of his life I shall have occasion to mention some of them as connected with particular incidents, or with the writing of particular parts of his works. To some, this minute attention may appear trifling; but when we consider the punctilious exactness with which the different houses in which Milton resided have been traced by the writers of his life, a similar enthusiasm may be pardoned in the biographer of Johnson.

His tragedy being by this time, as he thought, completely finished and fit for the stage, he was very desirous that it should be brought forward. Mr. Peter Garrick

told me, that Johnson and he went togeth

life of Cave; but he has given it still greater lustre by the various admirable Essays which he wrote for it.

Though Johnson was often solicited by his friends to make a complete list of his writings, and talked of doing it, I believe with a serious intention that they should all be collected on his own account, he put it off from year to year, and at last died without having done it perfectly. I have one in his own hand-writing, which contains a certain number; I indeed doubt if he could have remembered every one of them, as they were so numerous, so various, and scattered in such a multiplicity of unconnected publications; nay, several of them published under the names of other persons, to whom he liberally contributed from the abundance of his mind. We must, therefore, be content to discover them, partly from occasional information given by him

2 [If, as Mr. Boswell supposes, Johnson lookCave, surely a less emphatical term than revered at St. John's Gate as the printing office of

er to the Fountain tavern, and read it over, and that he afterwards solicited Mr. Fleet-man's Magazine had been at this time but six ence would have been more just. The Gentlewood, the patentee of Drury-lane theatre, to have it acted at his house; but Mr. Fleet-years before the publick, and its contents were, until Johnson himself contributed to improve it, wood would not accept it, probably because entitled to any thing rather than reverence; but it was not patronized by some man of high it is much more probable that Johnson's reverrank; and it was not acted till 1749, when ence was excited by the recollections connected his friend David Garrick was manager of with the ancient gate itself, the last relique of the that theatre. once extensive and magnificent priory of the heroic knights of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, suppressed at the dissolution, and destroyed by successive dilapidations. Its last prior, Sir William Weston, though compensated with the annual pension (enormous in those days) of 10007. died of a broken heart, on Ascension-day, 1540, the very day the house was suppressed.-ED.]

1 [This list Mr. Boswell placed under the date at which it was dictated to him. It seems more conveniently introduced here, and the editor has added, as far as he has discovered, the year in which Johnson first appears in any of these residences.-ED.]

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