man's Magazine for April this year; but I have no authority to say they were his own. Indeed, one of the best critics of our age suggests to me that 'the word indifferently being used in the sense of without concern, and being also very unpoetical, renders it improbable that they should have been his composition.' 'ON LORD LOVAT'S EXECUTION. This year his old pupil and friend, David Garrick, having become joint patentee and manager of Drury Lane Theatre, Johnson honoured his opening of it with a Prologue [*], which, for just and manly dramatic criticism on the whole range of the English stage, as well as for poetical excellence, is unrivalled. Like the celebrated Epilogue to the Distressed Mother, it was, during the season, often called for by the audience. The most striking and brilliant passages of it have been so often repeated, and are so well recollected by all the lovers of the drama and of poetry, that it would be superfluous to point them out. In the Gentleman's Magazine for December this year he inserted an 'Ode on Winter,' which is, I think, an admirable specimen of his genius for lyric poetry. But the year 1747 is distinguished as the epoch when Johnson's arduous and important work, his DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, was announced to the world by the publication of its Plan or Prospectus. How long this immense undertaking had been the object of his contemplation I do not know. I once asked him by what means he had attained to that astonishing knowledge of our language, 1 These verses are somewhat too severe on the extraordinary person who is the chief figure in them; for he was undoubtedly brave. His pleasantry during his solemn trial (in which, by the way, I have heard Mr. David Hume observe that we have one of the very few speeches of Mr. Murray, now Earl of Mansfield, authentically given) was very remarkable. When asked if he had any questions to put to Sir Everard Fawkener, who was one of the strongest witnesses against him, he answered, 'I only wish him joy of his young wife.' And after sentence of death, in the horrible terms in such cases of treason, was pronounced upon him, and he was retiring from the bar, he said, 'Fare you well, my lords, we shall not all meet again in one place.' He behaved with perfect composure at his execution, and called out, 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.'-BOSWELL. by which he was enabled to realize a design of such extent and accumulated difficulty. He told me, that 'it was not the effect of particular study, but that it had grown up in his mind insensibly.' I have been informed by Mr. James Dodsley, that several years before this period, when Johnson was one day sitting in his brother Robert's shop, he heard his brother suggest to him that a dictionary of the English Language would be a work that would be well received by the public; that Johnson seemed at first to catch at the proposition, but after a pause said, in his abrupt, decisive manner, 'I believe I shall not undertake it.' That he, however, had bestowed much thought upon the subject before he published his Plan, is evident from the enlarged, clear, and accurate views which it exhibits; and we find him mentioning in that tract, that many of the writers whose testimonies were to be produced as authorities were selected by Pope; which proves that he had been furnished, probably by Mr. Robert Dodsley, with whatever hints that eminent poet had contributed towards a great literary project, that had been the subject of important consideration in a former reign. The booksellers who contracted with Johnson, single and unaided, for the execution of a work which in other countries has not been effected but by the co-operating exertions of many, were Mr. Robert Dodsley, Mr. Charles Hitch, Mr. Andrew Millar, the two Messieurs Longman, and the two Messieurs Knapton. The pricestipulated was fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds. The Plan was addressed to Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield, then one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State; a nobleman who was very ambitious of literary distinction, and who, upon being informed of the design, had expressed himself in terms very favourable to its success. There is, perhaps, in everything of any consequence, a secret history which it would be amusing to know, could we have it authentically communicated. Johnson told me,1 'Sir, the way in which the plan of my Dictionary came to be inscribed to Lord Chesterfield was this: I had neglected to write it by the time appointed. Dodsley suggested a desire to have it addressed to Lord Chesterfield. I laid hold of this as a pretext for delay, that it might be better done, and let Dodsley have his desire. I said to my friend, Dr. Bathurst, "Now if any good comes of my addressing to Lord Chesterfield, it will be ascribed to deep policy, when, in fact, it was only a casual excuse for laziness."" It is worthy of observation that the Plan has not only the substantial merit of comprehension, perspicuity, and precision, but that the language of it is unexceptionably excellent; it 1 September 22, 1777, going from Ashbourne in Derbyshire to see Islam.-BOSWELL being altogether free from that inflation of style, and those uncommon but apt and energetic words, which in some of his writings have been censured with more petulance than justice; and never was there a more dignified strain of compliment than that in which he courts the attention of one who, he had been persuaded to believe, would be a respectable patron. 'With regard to questions of purity or propriety,' says he, 'I was once in doubt whether I should not attribute to myself too much in attempting to decide them, and whether my province was to extend beyond the proposition of the question, and the display of the suffrages | on each side; but I have been since determined, by your lordship's opinion, to interpose my own judgment, and shall therefore endeavour to support what appears to me most consonant to grammar and reason. Ausonius thought that modesty forbade him to plead inability for a task to which Cæsar had judged him equal: "Cur me posse negem, posse quod ille putat?" And I may hope, my lord, that since you, whose authority in our language is so generally acknowledged, have commissioned me to declare my own opinion, I shall be considered as exercising a kind of vicarious jurisdiction; and that the power which might have been denied to my own claim will be readily allowed me as the delegate of your lordship.' This passage proves that Johnson's addressing his Plan to Lord Chesterfield was not merely in consequence of the result of a report by means of Dodsley that the Earl favoured the design, but that there had been a particular communication with his lordship concerning it. Dr. Taylor told me that Johnson sent his Plan to him in manuscript for his perusal; and that when it was lying upon his table, Mr. William Whitehead happened to pay him a visit, and being shown it, was highly pleased with such parts of it as he had time to read, and begged to take it home with him, which he was allowed to do; that from him it got into the hands of a noble lord, who carried it to Lord Chesterfield. When Taylor observed this might be an advantage, Johnson replied, 'No, sir, it would have come out with more bloom if it had not been seen before by anybody.' The opinion conceived of it by another noble author appears from the following extract of a letter from the Earl of Orrery to Dr. Birch : 'CALEDON, Dec. 30, 1747. 'I have just now seen the specimen of Mr. Johnson's Dictionary, addressed to Lord Chesterfield. I am much pleased with the plan, and I think the specimen is one of the best that I have ever read. Most specimens disgust rather than prejudice us in favour of the work to follow; but the language of Mr. Johnson's is good, and the arguments are properly and modestly expressed. However, some expressions may be cavilled at, but they are trifles. I'll mention one: the barren laurel. The laurel is not barren, in any sense whatever; it bears fruits and flowers. Sed hæ sunt nugæ, and I have great expectations from the performance.' [Birch Mss. Brit. Mus. 4303.] That he was fully aware of the arduous nature of the undertaking he acknowledges, and shows himself perfectly sensible of it in the conclusion of his Plan; but he had a noble consciousness of his own abilities, which enabled him to go on with undaunted spirit. Dr. Adams found him one day busy at his Dictionary, when the following dialogue ensued: -Adams: 'This is a great work, sir. How are you to get all the etymologies?" Johnson : 'Why, sir, here is a shelf with Junius, and Skinner, and others; and there is a Welsh gentleman who has published a collection of Welsh proverbs, who will help me with the Welsh.' Adams: 'But, sir, how can you do this in three years?' Johnson: 'Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years.' Adams: 'But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years to compile their Dictionary.' Johnson: 'Sir, thus it is: this is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.' With so much ease and pleasantry could he talk of that prodigious labour which he had undertaken to execute. The public has had, from another pen,1 a long detail of what had been done in this country by prior lexicographers; and no doubt Johnson was wise to avail himself of them, so far as they went; but the learned yet judicious research of etymology, the various yet accurate display of definition, and the rich collection of authorities, were reserved for the superior mind of our great philologist. For the mechanical part he employed, as he told me, six amanuenses; and let it be remembered by the natives of North Britain, to whom he is supposed to have been so hostile, that five of them were of that country. There were two Messieurs Macbean; Mr. Shiels, who, we shall hereafter see, partly wrote the Lives of the Poets to which the name of Cibber is affixed; Mr. Stewart, son of Mr. George Stewart, bookseller at Edinburgh ; and a Mr. Maitland. The sixth of these humble assistants was Mr. Peyton, who, I believe, taught French, and published some elementary tracts. To all these painful labourers Johnson showed a never-ceasing kindness, so far as they stood in need of it. The elder Mr. Macbean had afterwards the honour of being librarian to Archi 1 See Sir John Hawkins's Life of Johnson.-Bos WELL. Sir John Hawkins's list of former English Dictionaries is, however, by no means complete.-MALONE. 2 April 20, 1776. D bald Duke of Argyle for many years, but was left without a shilling. Johnson wrote for him a preface to A System of Ancient Geography; and, by the favour of Lord Thurlow, got him admitted a poor brother of the Charter House. For Shiels, who died of a consumption, he had much tenderness; and it has been thought that some choice sentences in the Lives of the Poets were supplied by him. Peyton, when reduced to penury, had frequent aid from the bounty of Johnson, who at last was at the expense of burying him and his wife. While the Dictionary was going forward, Johnson lived part of the time in Holborn, part in Gough Square, Fleet Street; and he had an upper room fitted up like a counting-house for the purpose, in which he gave to the copyists their several tasks. The words, partly taken from other dictionaries, and partly supplied by himself, having been first written down with spaces left between them, he delivered in writing their etymologies, definitions, and various significations. The authorities were copied from the books themselves, in which he had marked the passages with a black lead pencil, the traces of which could easily be effaced. I have seen several of them in which that trouble had not been taken, so that they were just as when used by the copyists. It is remarkable, that he was so attentive in the choice of the passages in which words were authorized, that one may read page after page of his Dictionary with improvement and pleasure; and it should not pass unobserved, that he has quoted no author whose writings had a tendency to hurt sound religion and morality. The necessary expense of preparing a work of such magnitude for the press must have been a considerable deduction from the price stipulated to be paid for the copyright. I under stand that nothing was allowed by the booksellers on that account; and I remember his telling me that a large portion of it having, by mistake, been written upon both sides of the paper, so as to be inconvenient for the compositor, it cost him twenty pounds to have it transcribed upon one side only. talents in occasional composition, very different from lexicography, but formed a club in Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, with a view to enjoy literary discussion and amuse his evening hours. The members associated with him in this little society were-his beloved friend Dr. Richard Bathurst; Mr. Hawkesworth, afterwards well known by his writings; Mr. John Hawkins, an attorney; and a few others of different professions. In the Gentleman's Magazine for May of this year he wrote a 'Life of Roscommon' [*] with Notes, which he afterwards much improved (indenting the notes into text), and inserted amongst his Lives of the English Poets. Mr. Dodsley this year brought out his Preceptor, one of the most valuable books for the improvement of young minds that has appeared in any language; and to this meritorious work Johnson furnished 'The Preface' [*], containing a general sketch of the book, with a short and perspicuous recommendation of each article; as also, The Vision of Theodore, the Hermit, found in his Cell [*], a most beautiful allegory of human life, under the figure of ascending the mountain of Existence. The Bishop of Dromore heard Dr. Johnson say that he thought this was the best thing he ever wrote. In January 1749 he published The Vanity of Human Wishes, being the Tenth Satire of Juvenal imitated [*]. He, I believe, composed it the preceding year.2 Mrs. Johnson, for the sake of country air, had lodgings at Hampstead, to which he resorted occasionally, and there the greatest part, if not the whole, of this Imitation was written. The fervid rapidity with which it was produced is scarcely credible. I have heard him say that he composed seventy lines of it in one day, without putting one of them upon paper till they were finished. I remember, when I once regretted to him that he had not given us more of 'Juvenal's Satires,' he said he probably should give more, for he had Lyttleton, and several other distinguished persons. In a print representing some of 'the remarkable characters' who were at Tunbridge Wells in 1748, and copied from a drawing of the same size (see Richardson's Correspondence), Dr. Johnson stands the first figure. MALONE. He is now to be considered as 'tugging at his oar,' as engaged in a steady, continued course of occupation, sufficient to employ all his time for some years, and which was the best preventive of that constitutional melancholy which senting an address to the King, accepted the usual them all in his head: by which I understood that he had the originals and correspondent allusions floating in his mind, which he could, when he pleased, embody and render permanent without much labour. Some of them, however, he observed, were too gross for imitation. was ever lurking about him, ready to trouble his quiet. But his enlarged and lively mind could not be satisfied without more diversity of employment, and the pleasure of animated relaxation. He therefore not only exerted his 1 For the sake of relaxation from his literary labours, and probably also for Mrs. Johnson's health, he this summer visited Tunbridge Wells, then a place of much greater resort than it is at present. Here he met Mr. Cibber, Mr. Garrick, Mr. Samuel Richardson, Mr. Whiston, Mr. Onslow (the Speaker), Mr. Pitt, Mr. 1 He was afterwards for several years Chairman of the Middlesex Justices; and, upon occasion of pre offer of knighthood. He is author of A History of Music, in five volumes in quarto. By assiduous attendance upon Johnson in his last illness, be obtained the office of one of his executors; in consequence of which the booksellers of London employed him to publish an edition of Dr. Johnson's Works, and to write his Life. -BOSWELL. 2 Sir John Hawkins, with solemn inaccuracy, represents this poem as a consequence of the indifferent reception of his tragedy. But the fact is, that the poem was published on the 9th of January, and the tragedy was not acted till the 6th of the February following.-BOSWELL. The profits of a single poem, however excellent, appear to have been very small in the last reign, compared with what a publication of the same size has since been known to yield. I have mentioned, upon Johnson's own authority, that for his London he had only ten guineas; and now, after his fame was established, he got for his Vanity of Human Wishes but five guineas more, as is proved by an authentic Gocument in my possession.1 It will be observed that he reserves to himself the right of printing one edition of this satire, which was his practice upon occasion of the sale of all his writings; it being his fixed intention to publish at some period, for his own profit, a complete collection of his works. His Vanity of Human Wishes has less of common life, but more of a philosophic dignity, than his London. More readers, therefore, will be delighted with the pointed spirit of London, than with the profound reflection of The Vanity of Human Wishes. Garrick, for instance, observed in his sprightly manner, with more vivacity than regard to just discrimination, as is usual with wits: 'When Johnson lived much with the Herveys, and saw a good deal of what was passing in life, he wrote his London, which is lively and easy; when he became more retired, he gave us his Vanity of Human Wishes, which is as hard as Greek. Had he gone on to imitate another satire, it would have been as hard as Hebrew.2 But The Vanity of Human Wishes is, in the opinion of the best judges, as high an effort of ethic poetry as any language can show. The instances of variety of disappointment are chosen so judiciously, and painted so strongly, that, the moment they are read, they bring conviction to every thinking mind. That of the scholar must have depressed the too sanguine expectations of many an ambitious student.3 1. Νοv. 25, 1748, I received of Mr. Dodsley fifteen guincas, for which I assign to him the right of copy of an Imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal, written by me, reserving to myself the right of printing one edition. SAM. JOHNSON.' 'London, 29 June 1786.-A true copy, from the original in Dr. Johnson's handwriting. JAS. DODSLEY.'-BOSWELL. 2 From Mr. Langton.-BOSWELL. That of the warrior, Charles of Sweden, is, I think, as highly finished a picture as can possibly be conceived. Were all the other excellences of this poem annihilated, it must ever have our grateful reverence from its noble conclusion; in which we are consoled with the assurance that happiness may be attained, if we 'apply our hearts' to piety: 'Where, then, shall hope and fear their objects find? Garrick being now vested with theatrical power by being manager of Drury Lane Theatre, sages extracted from Johnson's poem were inserted, and it should have been added in the subsequent editions:- A very learned divine and mathematician, Fellow of New College, Oxon, and Rector of Okerton, near Banbury. He wrote, among many others, a Latin treatise, De Natura Cæli, etc., in which he attacked the sentiments of Scaliger and Aristotle, not bearing to hear it urged that some things are true in philosophy, and false in divinity. He made above six hundred sermons on the Harmony of the Evangelists. Being unsuccessful in publishing his works, he lay in the prison of Bocardo at Oxford, and in the King's Bench, till Bishop Usher, Dr. Laud, Sir William Boswell, and Dr. Pink released him by paying his debts. He petitioned King Charles 1. to be sent into Ethiopia, etc. to procure Mss. Having spoken in favour of monarchy and bishops, he was plundered by the Parliament forces, and twice carried away prisoner from his rectory; and afterwards had not a shirt to shift him in three months, without he borrowed it, and died very poor in 1646.'-BOSWELL. 1 In this poem, a line in which the danger attending on female beauty is mentioned, has very generally, I 3 In this poem one of the instances mentioned of believe, been misunderstood: unfortunate learned men is Lydiat: 'Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end." The history of Lydiat being little known, the following account of him may be acceptable to many of my readers. It appeared as a note in the Supplement to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1748, in which some pas Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring, And Sedley curs'd the form that pleas'd a king.' The lady mentioned in the first of these verses was not the celebrated Lady Vane, whose memoirs were given to the public by Dr. Smollett, but Anne Vane, who was mistress to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and he kindy and generously made use of it to bring out Johnson's tragedy, which had been long kept back for want of encouragement. But in this benevolent purpose he met with no small difficulty from the temper of Johnson, which could not brook that a drama which he had formed with much study, and had been obliged to keep more than the nine years of Horace, should be revised and altered at the pleasure of an actor. Yet Garrick knew well, that without some alterations it would not be fit for the stage. A violent dispute having ensued between them, Garrick applied to the Rev. Dr. Taylor to interpose. Johnson was at first very obstinate. 'Sir,' said he, 'the fellow wants me to make "Mahomet" run mad, that he may have an opportunity of tossing his hands and kicking his heels.' He was, however, at last with difficulty prevailed on to comply with Garrick's wishes, so as to allow of some changes; bus still there were not enough. Dr. Adams was present the first night of the representation of Irene, and gave me the following account:-'Before the curtain drew up, there were catcalls whistling, which alarmed Johnson's friends. The Prologue, which was written by himself in a manly strain, soothed the audience, and the play went off tolerably, till it came to the conclusion, when Mrs. Pritchard, the heroine of the piece, was to be died in 1736, not long before Johnson settled in London. Some account of this lady was published under the title of The Secret History of Vanella, 8vo, 1732. See also Vanella in the Straw, 4to, 1732. In Mr. Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides (p. 37, 4th edition) we find some observations respecting the lines in question: In Dr. Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes there is the following passage : "The teeming mother, anxious for her race, Lord Hailes told him [Johnson] he was mistaken in the instances he had given of unfortunate fair ones, for neither Vane nor Sedley had a title to that description.'-His lordship therefore thought that the lines should rather have run thus: Yet Shore could tell And Valière curs'd' Our friend (he added in a subsequent note, addressed to Mr. Boswell on this subject) chose Vane, who was far from being well-look'd, and Sedley, who was so ugly that Charles II. said his brother had her by way of penance. '-MALONE. Mahomet' was in fact played by Mr. Barry, and 'Demetrius' by Mr. Garrick; but probably at this time the parts were not yet cast.-BOSWELL. 2 The expression used by Dr. Adams was 'soothed." I should rather think the audience was awed by the extraordinary spirit and dignity of the following lines : 'Be this at least his praise, be this his pride, She strangled upon the stage, and was to speak two lines with the bowstring round her neck. The audience cried out "Murder! Murder!" several times attempted to speak; but in vain. At last she was obliged to go off the stage alive.' This passage was afterwards struck out, and she was carried off to be put to death behind the scenes, as the play now has it. The Epilogue, as Johnson informed me, was written by Sir William Yonge. I know not how his play came to be thus graced by the pen of a person then so eminent in the political world. Notwithstanding all the support of such performers as Garrick, Barry, Mrs. Cibber, Mrs. Pritchard, and every advantage of dress and decoration, the tragedy of Irene did not please the public. Mr. Garrick's zeal carried it through for nine nights, so that the author had his three nights' profit; and from a receipt signed by him, now in the hands of Mr. James Dodsley, it appears that his friend Mr. Robert Dodsley gave him one hundred pounds for the copy, with his usual reservation of the right of one edition. Irene, considered as a poem, is entitled to the praise of superior excellence. Analyzed into parts, it will furnish a rich store of noble sentiments, fine imagery, and beautiful language; but it is deficient in pathos, in that delicate power of touching the human feelings which is No snares to captivate the judgment spreads, -BOSWELL. This shows how ready modern audiences are to condemn in a new play what they have frequently endured very quietly in an old one. Rowe has made 'Moneses'in Tamerlane die by the bowstring, without offence.-MALONE. 2 I know not what Sir John Hawkins means by the cold reception of Irene. I was at the first representation, and most of the subsequent. It was much applauded the first night, particularly the speech on tomorrow. It ran nine nights at least. It did not indeed become a stock play, but there was not the least opposition during the representation, except the first night in the last act, where 'Irene' was to be strangled on the stage, which John could not bear, though a dramatic poet may stab or slay by hundreds. The bowstring was not a Christian nor an ancient Greek or Roman death. But this offence was removed after the first night, and 'Irene' went off the stage to be strangled. Many stories were circulated at the time, of the author's being observed at the representation to be dissatified with some of the speeches and conduct of the play himself; and, like La Fontaine, expressing his disapprobation aloud.BURNEY. Mr. Murphy, in his Life of Johnson, p. 53, says: The amount of the three benefit nights for the tragedy of Irene, it is to be feared, were not very |