geli Politiani Poemata Latina, quibus, Notas, cum historia Latina poeseos à Petrarchæ ævo ad Politiani tempora deductâ, et vitâ Politiani fusius quam antehac enarratâ, addidit SAM. JOHNSON." 1 It appears that his brother Nathaniel had taken up his father's trade; for it is mentioned, "that subscriptions are taken in by the Editor, or N. Johnson, bookseller, of Lichfield."2 Notwithstanding the merit of Johnson, and the cheap price at which this book was offered, there were not subscribers enough to insure a sufficient sale; so the work never appeared, and, probably, never was executed. We find him again this year at Birmingham, and there is preserved the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave, the original compiler and editor of the Gentleman's Magazine.3 46 JOHNSON TO CAVE. "Nov. 25. 1734. Sir,-As you appear no less sensible than your readers of the defects of your poetical article, you will not be displeased, if, in order to the improvement of it, I communicate to you the sentiments of a person who will undertake, on reasonable terms, sometimes to fill a column. "His opinion is, that the public would not give you a bad reception, if, beside the current wit of the month, which a critical examination would generally reduce to a narrow compass, you admitted not only poems, inscriptions, &c. never printed before, which he will sometimes supply you with, but likewise short literary dissertations in Latin or English, critical remarks on authors ancient or modern, forgotten poems that deserve revival, or loose pieces, like Floyer's, worth preserving. By this method, your literary article, for so it might See Madame de Sevigne's Letter, 5 Jan. 1674. Huet, bishop of Avranche, wrote Memoirs of his own time, in Latin, from which Boswell has extracted this scrap of pedantry.- CROKER. 1 The book was to contain more than thirty sheets, the price to be two shillings and sixpence at the time of subscribing, and two shillings and sixpence at the delivery of a perfect book in quires. BoSWELL. 2 Nathaniel kept the shop as long as he lived, as did his mother, after him, till her death. Miss Seward, who in such a matter as this may perhaps be trusted, gives us an amiable still-life picture of Miss Porter, and tells us, that "from the age of twenty to her fortieth year (when she was raised to a state of competency by the death of her eldest brother), the had boarded in Lichfield with Dr. Johnson's mother, who still kept that little bookseller's shop by which her husband had supplied the scanty means of subsistence meantime Lacy Porter kept the best company in our little city, but would make no engagement on market-days, lest Granny, as she called Mrs. Johnson, should catch cold by serving in the shop. There Lucy Porter took her place, standing behind the counter, nor thought it a disgrace to thank a poor perann who purchased from her a penny battledoor."-CROKER. * Miss Cave, the grand-niece of Mr. Edw. Cave, has oblig ingly shown me the originals of this and the other letters of Dr. Johnson to him, which were first published in the Gentleman's Magazine, with notes by Mr. John Nichols, the worthy and indefatigable editor of that valuable miscellany, signed N.; some of which I shall occasionally transcribe in the course of this work. Boswell. I have felt justified, by this testimony, in doing the same.- CROKER. "A letter from the late Sir John Floyer, in recommendation of the Cold Bath." Gent. Mag. 1734, p. 197.- BOSWELL. This letter was probably sent by Johnson himself; who, a very short time before his death, pressed Mr. Nichols to give to the public some account of the life and works of Sir John Florer, "whose learning and piety," he said, "deserve recording."- See Lit. Anec., vol. v. p. 19. - WRIGHT. be called, will, he thinks, be better recommended to the public than by low jests, awkward buffoonery, or the dull scurrilities of either party. "If such a correspondence will be agreeable to you, be pleased to inform me in two posts what the conditions are on which you shall expect it. Your late offers gives me no reason to distrust your besides this paper, I have other designs to impart, generosity. If you engage in any literary projects if I could be secure from having others reap the advantage of what I should hint. "Your letter, by being directed to S. Smith, to be left at the Castle in Birmingham, Warwickshire, will reach "Your humble servant." "On Life, 5 A prize of fifty pounds for the best poem Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell." See Gent. Mag. vol. iv. p. 560,- NICHOLS. “Being," says Dr. Johnson, "but newly acquainted with wealth, and thinking the influence of fifty pounds very great, Cave expected the first authors of the kingdom to appear as competitors; and offered the allotment of the prize to the Universities. But, when the time came, no name was seen among the writers that had ever been seen before."Life of Cave. A second prize of forty pounds, and some others of inferior value, were offered by Cave, at subsequent periods, for poems on similar subjects. It seems extraordinary that Johnson, whose wants were urgent, and who was glad, so soon after, to sell his LONDON for ten pounds, did not endeavour to obtain Cave's prize. Did his dignity of mind reject such a Mecænas as Cave? or did he make the attempt, and afterwards conceal his failure in prudent silence? - CROKER. 6 He also wrote some amatory verses, before he left Staffordshire, which Boswell appears not to have seen. They were addressed "to Miss Hickman, playing on the spinet." At the back of this early poetical effusion, of which the original copy, in Johnson's handwriting, was obligingly communicated to me by Mr. John Taylor, is the following attestation : — "Written by the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, on my mother, then Miss Hickman, playing on the spinet. J. Turton." Dr. Turton, the physician, writer of this certificate, who died in April, 1806, in his 71st year, was born in 1735. The verses in question, therefore, which have been printed in some late editions of Johnson's poems, must have been written before that year. Miss Hickman, it is believed, was a lady of Staffordshire. MALONE. She was probably the sister of his early friend, Mr. Hickman, the schoolmaster at Stourbridge (antè, p. 20. n.5); but the verses do not seem to have been the expression of any real feeling on the part of the writer, nor to justify the idea conveyed by Mr. Malone's epithet "amatory." CROKER. The myrtle crowns the happy lovers' heads, His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very transient; and it is certain, that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever. Mr. Hector, who lived with him in his younger days in the utmost intimacy and social freedom, has assured me, that even at that ardent season his conduct was strictly virtuous in that respect; and that, though he loved to exhilarate himself with wine, he never knew him intoxicated but once.2 In a man whom religious education has secured from licentious indulgences, the passion of love, when once it has seized him, is exceedingly strong; being unimpaired by dissipation, and totally concentrated in one object. 1 Mrs. Piozzi gives the following account of this little composition from Dr. Johnson's own relation to her, on her enquiring whether it was rightly attributed to him:-"I think it is now just forty years ago, that a young fellow had a sprig of myrtle given him by a girl he courted, and asked me to write him some verses that he might present her in return. I promised, but forgot; and when he called for his lines at the time agreed on, Sit still a moment,' says I, dear Mund, and I'll fetch them thee'so stepped aside for five minutes, and wrote the nonsense you now keep such a stir about."-Anecdotes, p. 34. In my first edition I was induced to doubt the authenticity of this account, by the following circumstantial statement in a letter to me from Miss Seward, of Lichfield: "I know those verses were addressed to Lucy Porter, when he was enamoured of her in his boyish days, two or three years before he had seen her mother, his future wife. He wrote them at my grandfather's, [Mr. Hunter, the schoolmaster,] and gave them to Lucy in the presence of my mother, to whom he showed them on the instant. She used to repeat them to me, when I asked her for the Verses Dr. Johnson gave her on a Sprig of Myrtle, which he had stolen or begged from her bosom. We all know honest Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying to herself a compliment not intended for her." Such was Miss Seward's statement, which I make no doubt she supposed to be correct; but it shows how dangerous it is to trust too implicitly to traditional testimony and ingenious inference; for Mr. Hector has lately assured me that Mrs. Piozzi's account is, in this instance, accurate, and that he was the person [as his name Edmund, which Mrs. Piozzi could not have known, clearly proves] for whom Johnson wrote those verses, which have been erroneously ascribed to Mr. Hammond. I am obliged, in so many instances, to notice Mrs. Piozzi's incorrectness of relation, that I gladly seize this opportunity of acknowledging, that however often, she is not always, inaccurate. The author having been drawn into a con. troversy with Miss Anna Seward, in consequence of the preceding statement (which may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xiii. and Ixiv.), received the following letter from Mr. Edmund Hector on the subject: — "Dear Sir, I am sorry to see you are engaged in altercation with a lady, who seems unwilling to be convinced of her errors. Surely it would be more ingenuous to acknowledge than to persevere. Lately, in looking over some papers I meant to burn, I found the original manuscript of the Myrtle, with the date on it, 1731, which I have enclosed. "The true history (which I could swear to) is as follows:-Mr. Morgan Graves, the elder brother of a worthy clergyman near Bath, [the Rev. Richard Graves, author of the " Spiritual Quixote," with whom I was acquainted, waited upon a lady in this neighbourhood, who, at parting, presented him the branch. He showed it me, and wished much to return the compliment in verse. I applied to Johnson, who was with me, and in about half an hour dictated the verses, which I sent to my friend. I most solemnly declare, at that time, Johnson was an entire stranger to the Porter family; and it was almost two years after, that I introduced him to the acquaintance of Porter, whom I bought my clothes of. "If you intend to convince this obstinate woman, and to exhibit to the public the truth of your narrative, you are at liberty to make what use you please of this statement. I hope you will pardon me for taking up so much of your time. This was experienced by Johnson, when he became the fervent admirer of Mrs. Porter, after her first husband's death. Miss Porter told me, that when he was first introduced to her mother, his appearance was very forbidding: he was then lean and lank, so that his immense structure of bones was hideously striking to the eye, and the scars of the scrofula were deeply visible. He also wore his hair, which was straight and stiff, and separated behind; and he often had, seemingly, convulsive starts and odd gesticulations, which tended to excite at once surprise and ridicule. Porter was so much engaged by his conversation, that she overlooked all these external disadvantages, and said to her daughter, "This is the most sensible man that I ever saw in my life." Mrs. Though Mrs. Porter was double the age of Johnson, and her person and manner, as described to me by the late Mr. Garrick, were by no means pleasing to others 5, she must have Wishing you multos et felices annos, I shall subscribe myself your obliged humble servant, E. HECTOR. Birmingham, Jan. 9. 1794."- BOSWELL. 2 In 1735 Mr. Walmesley endeavoured to procure Johnson the mastership of the grammar-school at Solihull, in Warwickshire. This and the cause of failure appear by the following curious letter, addressed to Mr. Walmesley, and preserved in the records of Pembroke College: "Solihull, ye 30 August, 1735. Sir, I was favoured with yours of ye 13th inst. in due time, but deferred answering it til now, it takeing up some time to informe the ffofees [of the school] of the contents thereof; and before they would return an Answer, desired some time to make enquiry of ye caracter of Mr. Johnson, who all agree that he is an excellent scholar, and upon that account deserves much better than to be schoolmaster of Solihull. But then he has the caracter of being a very haughty, ill-natured gent., and yt he has such a way of distorting his fface (wh though he can't help) ye gent. think it may affect some young ladds; for these two reasons he is not approved on, ye late master Mr. Crompton's huffing the ffoeofees being stil in their memory. However we are all exstreamly obliged to you for thinking of us, and for proposeing so good a schollar, but more especially is, dear sir, your very humble servant, HENRY GRESWOLD." It was probably prior to this that an attempt to obtain the situation of assistant in Mr. Budworth's school, at Brewood, had also failed, and for the same reasons. Mr. Budworth lamented his having been under the necessity of declining the engagement from an apprehension that the paralytic affection under which Johnson laboured might become the object of imitation or ridicule amongst his pupils. This anecdote Captain Budworth, his grandson, (who afterwards married Miss Palmer, and took her name), confirmed to Mr. Nichols. -CROKER. 3 Johnson's countenance, when in a good humour, was not disagreeable: - his face clear, his complexion good, and his features not ill-formed, inany ladies have thought they might not be unattractive when he was young. Much misrepresentation has prevailed on this subject. — PERCY. 4 Though there was a great disparity of years between her and Dr. Johnson, she was not quite so old as she is here represented, being only at the time of her marriage in her forty-eighth year, as appears by the following extract from the parish register of Great Peatling, in Leicestershire: "Anno Dom. 1688-9. Elizabeth, the daughter of William Jervis, Esq. and Mrs. Anne his wife, was born the 4th day of February and mané, baptized 16th day of the same month, by Mr. Smith, Curate of Little Peatling. John Allen, Vicar.” - MALONE. Johnson's size, hard features, and decided manners, probably made him look older than he really was, and diminished the apparent disproportion. - CROKER. 5 That in Johnson's eyes she was handsome, appears from the epitaph which he caused to be inscribed on her tombstone, not long before his own death, and which will be found in a subsequent page, under the year 1752. The following account of Mrs. Johnson, and her family, is copied from a paper. written by Lady Knight, at Rome, and transmitted by her to Mr. Hoole, the translator of Metastasio, &c. :— "Mrs. Williams's account of Mrs. Johnson was, that she had a good understanding, and great sensibility, but inclined had a superiority of understanding and talents, as she certainly inspired him with more than ordinary passion; and she having signified her willingness to accept of his hand, he went to Lichfield to ask his mother's consent to the marriage; which he could not but be conscious was a very imprudent scheme, both on account of their disparity of years, and her want of fortune. But Mrs. Johnson knew too well the ardour of her son's temper, and was too tender a parent to oppose his inclinations. 66 I know not for what reason the marriage ceremony was not performed at Birmingham; but a resolution was taken that it should be at Derby, for which place the bride and bridegroom set out on horseback, I suppose in very good humour. But though Mr. Topham Beauclerk used archly to mention Johnson's having told him, with much gravity, “Sir, it was a love-marriage on both sides," I have had from my illustrious friend the following curious account of their journey to church upon the nuptial morn [9th July]:- Sir, she had read the old romances, and had got into her head the fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her lover like a dog. So, sir, at first she told me that I rode too fast, and she could not keep up with me; and, when I rode a little slower, she passed me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the slave of caprice; and I resolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore pushed on briskly, till I was fairly out of her sight. The road lay between two hedges, so I was sure she could not miss it; and I contrived that she should soon come up with me. When she did, I observed her to be in tears." This, it must be allowed, was a singular beginning of connubial felicity; but there is no doubt, that Johnson, though he thus showed a manly firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to the last moment of Mrs. Johnson's life; and in his "Prayers and Meditations," we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceased even after her death.2 He now set up a private academy, for which purpose he hired a large house, well situated near his native city.3 In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1736 there is the following advertisement: "At EDIAL, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are boarded and taught the Latin and Greek languages, by SAMUEL JOHNSON.”4 But the only pupils that were put under his care were the celebrated David Garrick and his brother George, and a Mr. Offely 5, a young gentleman of good fortune, who died early. As yet, his name had nothing of that celebrity which afterwards commanded the highest attention and respect of mankind. Had such an advertisement appeared after the publication of his London, or his Rambler, or his Dictionary, how would it have burst upon the world! with what eagerness would the great and the wealthy have embraced an opportunity of putting their sons under the learned tuition of Samuel Johnson! The truth, however, is, that he was not so well qualified for being a teacher of elements and a conductor in learning by regular gradations, as men of inferior powers of mind. His own acquisitions had been made by fits and starts, by violent irruptions into the regions of knowledge; and it could not be expected that his impatience would be subdued, and his impetuosity restrained, so as to fit him for a quiet guide to novices. The art of communicating instruction, of whatever kind, is much to be valued; and I have ever thought that those who devote themselves to this employment, and do their duty with diligence and success, are entitled to very high respect from the community, as Johnson himself often maintained. Yet I am of opinion, that the greatest abilities are not only not required for this office, but render a man less fit for it. While we acknowledge the justness of Thomson's beautiful remark, to be satirical. Her first husband died insolvent: her sons were much disgusted with her for her second marriage, perhaps because they, being struggling to get advanced in life, were mortified to think she had allied herself to a man who had not any visible means of being useful to them; however, the always retained her affection for them. While they [Dr. and Mrs. Johnson] resided in Gough Square, her son, the oficer, knocked at the door, and asked the maid if her mistress was at home. She answered, Yes, sir, but she is sick ta bed. Oh,' says he,' if it's so, tell her that her son Jervis Cailed to know how she did;' and was going away. The maid begged she might run up to tell her mistress, and, without attending his answer, left him. Mrs. Johnson, enraptured to bear her son was below, desired the maid to tell him she longed to embrace him. When the maid descended the gentleman was gone, and poor Mrs. Johnson was much agitated by the adventure: it was the only time he ever made an effort to see her. Dr. Johnson did all he could to console his wife, but told Mrs. Williams, Her son is uniformly undutiful; so I conclude, like many other sober men, he might once in his life be drunk, and in that fit nature got the better of his pride."- MALONE. To escape the angry notice of the widow's family and friends seems an obvious and sufficient reason. - CROKER. * For instance :"Wednesday, March 28. 1770. This is the day [17th, O. S.] on which, in 1752, I was deprived of poor dear Tetty. Having left off the practice of thinking on her with some particular combinations, I have recalled her to my mind of late less frequently; but when I recollect the time in which we lived together, my grief for her departure is not abated; and I have less pleasure in any good that befalls me, because she does not partake it. On many occasions, I think what she would have said or done. When I saw the sea at Brighthelmstone, I wished for her to have seen it with me. But, with respect to her, no rational wish is now left, but that we may meet at last where the mercy of God shall make us happy, and perhaps make us instrumental to the happiness of each other. It is now eighteen years." Prayers and Med., p. 90, 91.- CROKER. 3 This project must have been formed before his marriage, for the advertisement appears in the magazine for June and July, 1736. It is possible that the obvious advantage of having a woman of experience to superintend an establishment of this kind may have had some influence with Johnson; but even Johnson's mental powers cannot excuse her having made so disproportionate an alliance. - CROKER. 4 A view of "Edial Hall, the residence of Dr. Samuel Johnson," is given in Harwood's History of Lichfield, 1809, where it is stated that "the house has undergone no material alteration since it was inhabited by this illustrious tenant."— CROKER. 5 The Memoirs mention Dr. Hawkesworth as one of his pupils, and seems to imply (as, indeed, does Mr. Garrick's subsequent testimony) that there were more. - CROKER. 66 "Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot !" 1 we must consider that this delight is perceptible only by a mind at ease," a mind at once calm and clear; but that a mind gloomy and impetuous, like that of Johnson, cannot be fixed for any length of time in minute attention, and must be so frequently irritated by unavoidable slowness and error in the advances of scholars, as to perform the duty, with little pleasure to the teacher, and no great advantage to the pupils. Good temper is a most essential requisite in a preceptor. Horace paints the character as bland: Ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi Doctores, elementa velint ut discere prima." Johnson was not more satisfied with his situation as the master of an academy, than with that of the usher of a school; we need not wonder, therefore, that he did not keep his academy above a year and a half. From Mr. Garrick's account, he did not appear to have been profoundly reverenced by his pupils. His oddities of manner, and uncouth gesticulations, could not but be the subject of merriment to them; and, in particular, the young rogues used to listen at the door of his bedchamber, and peep through the key-hole, that they might turn into ridicule his tumultuous and awkward fondness for Mrs. Johnson, whom he used to name by the familiar appellation of Tetty or Tetsey, which, like Betty or Betsey, is provincially used as a contraction for Elizabeth, her Christian name, but which to us seems ludicrous, when applied to a woman of her age and appearance. Mr. Garrick described her to me as very fat, with a bosom of more than ordinary protuberance, with swelled cheeks, of a florid red, produced by thick painting, and increased by the liberal use of cordials; flaring and fantastic in her dress, and affected both in her speech and her general behaviour.3 I have seen Garrick exhibit her, by his exquisite talent of mimicry, so as to excite the heartiest bursts of laughter; but he, probably, as is the case in all such representations, considerably aggravated the picture.+ That Johnson well knew the most proper course to be pursued in the instruction of youth is authentically ascertained by the follow 1 Thomson's remark is just only because the poet applies it to the first education of a child by its own fond parents, and not to the drudgery of hired instruction in the advanced stages of learning. - CROKER. 2 As masters blandly soothe their boys to read With cakes and sweetmeats.' Hor. 1 Sat. 1. 25. FRANCIS. 3 As Johnson kept Garrick much in awe when present, David, when his back was turned, repaid the restraint with ridicule of him and his dulcinea, which should be read with great abatement. - PERCY. 4 In Loggan's drawing of the company at Tunbridge Wells, in 1748, engraved and published in Richardson's Correspondence, Mrs. Johnson's figure is not inferior to that of the other ladies (some of whom were fashionable beauties) either in shape or dress; but it is a slight sketch, and too small and indistinct to be relied upon for details. CROKER. 5 Mr. Boswell was mistaken in supposing this to have been one paper. It is clear that there are two separate schemes, the first for a school-the second for the individual studies of some young friend; and surely this crude sketch for the ar rangement of the lower classes of a grammar-school does not "authentically ascertain what Johnson thought the most proper course to be pursued in the instruction of youth." It may even be doubted whether it is good as far as it goes, and whether the beginning with authors of inferior latinity. and allowing the assistance of translations, be, indeed, the most proper course of classical instruction; nor are while ignorant of the peculiar circumstances for which the paper was drawn up, entitled to conclude that it contains Dr. Johnson's mature and general sentiments on even the narrow branch of education to which it refers. Indeed, in the second paper, Johnson advises not to read "the latter authors till you are well versed in those of the purer ages. CROKER. dialects, beginning with the Attic, to which the rest must be referred. "In the study of Latin, it is proper not to read the latter authors, till you are well versed in those of the purest ages; as Terence, Tully, Cæsar, Sallust, Nepos, Velleius Paterculus, Virgil, Horace, Phædrus. "The greatest and most necessary task still remains, to attain a habit of expression, without which knowledge is of little use. This is necessary in Latin, and more necessary in English; and can only be acquired by a daily imitation of the best and correctest authors. "SAM. JOHNSON." While Johnson kept his academy, there can be no doubt that he was insensibly furnishing his mind with various knowledge; but I have not discovered that he wrote any thing except a great part of his tragedy of IRENE. Mr. Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, told me that he remembered Johnson's borrowing the Turkish History of him, in order to form his play from it. When he had finished some part of it, he read what he had done to Mr. Walmesley, who objected to his having already brought his heroine into great distress, and asked him, "How can you possibly contrive to plunge her into deeper calamity?" Johnson, in sly allusion to the supposed oppressive proceedings of the court of which Mr. Walmesley was registrar, replied, "Sir, I can put her into the Spiritual Court! Mr. Walmesley, however, was well pleased with this proof of Johnson's abilities as a dramatic writer, and advised him to finish the tragedy, and produce it on the stage. Of Knolles's History of the Turks, Johnson says, in the Rambler; " it displays all the excellences that narration can admit, and nothing could have sunk its author in obscurity, but the remoteness and barbarity of the people whose story be relates." No. 122. "Old Knolles," said Lord Byron, at Misaolonghi, a few weeks before his death," was one of the first books that gave me pleasure when a child; and I believe it had much influence on my future wishes to visit the Levant, and gave, perhaps, the oriental colouring which observed in my poetry." Works, vol. ix. p. 141.-LOCKHART. Both of them used to talk pleasantly of this their first journey to London. Garrick, evidently meaning to embellish a Lutte, said one day in my hearing," We rode and tied." And the Bishop of Killaloe (Dr. Barnard) informed me, that it another time, when Johnson and Garrick were dining toother in a pretty large company, Johnson humorously ascersing the chronology of something, expressed himself thus: -"That was the year when I came to London with twopence halfpenny in my pocket." Garrick overhearing him, exclaimed, Eh? what do you say? with two-pence halfpay in your pocket?"-Johnson. "Why, yes; when I e with two-pence halfpenny in my pocket, and thou, Dary, with three-halfpence in thine."- Boswell. This must have been mere raillery. Indeed, Boswell, in the next page, acknowledges that Johnson had a little money at his arrival; but, however that may be, Garrick, a young gentleman coming to town, not as an adventurer, but the History of the Council of Trent.— Returns to Lichfield, and finishes "Irene.”- Removes to London with his Wife.-List of Residences.Becomes a Writer in the Gentleman's Magazine. JOHNSON now thought of trying his fortune in London, the great field of genius and exertion, where talents of every kind have the fullest scope and the highest encouragement. It is a memorable circumstance, that his pupil, David Garrick, went thither at the same time, with intent to complete his education and follow the profession of the law, from which he was soon diverted by his decided preference for the stage. men to the metropolis was many years afterThis joint expedition of those two eminent wards noticed in an allegorical poem on Shakspeare's mulberry tree, by Mr. Lovibond, the ingenious author of "The Tears of Old-Mayday."3 They were recommended to Mr. Colson*, an eminent mathematician and master of an academy, by the following letter from Mr. Walmesley : TO THE REV. JOHN COLSON. "Lichfield, March 2, 1736–7. "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. Davy Garrick to be with you early the next week, and Mr. Johnson to try his fate with the tragedy, and to see 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 to complete his education and prepare for the bar, could not have been in such indigent circumstances. - CROKER. 3 Edward Lovibond was a gentleman, residing at Hampton, whose works were little known in his own day, and are now quite and deservedly neglected, though Dr. Anderson has introduced them into the Scotch edition of the British Poets, with a life of the author, in a strain of the most hyperbolical and ridiculous panegyric. He died in 1773. — CROKER. 4 The Rev. John Colson, educated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, became, in 1709, first master of the free school at Rochester. In 1739, he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, and died in December, 1759. Mrs. Piozzi, and after her Mr. Malone, have stated that the character of Gelidus, in the 24th Rambler, was meant to represent Mr. Colson; but this is a mistake. It does not appear that Johnson ever saw Professor Colson, who resided at Rochester; but there was, as we shall see hereafter, a Mr. Coulson, an acquaintance of Johnson's, fellow of University College, Oxford, and a very eccentric man, who, I at first supposed, might have afforded Johnson some characteristic traits for his Gelidus. But my venerable friend, Dr. Fisher, formerly of University College, and latterly Master of the Charter House, who was intimate with both Johnson and Coulson, informed me that the character of Gelidus had no resemblance to this Mr. Coulson, whom, moreover, Johnson had never seen till after he had written the Rambler.— CROKER, 1846. |