I have thus endeavoured to sum up the evidence upon the case as fairly as I can; and the result seems to be, that the world must vibrate in, a state of uncertainty as to what was the truth, 啡 This digression, I trust,' will not be censured, as it relates to a matter exceedingly curious, and very intimately connected with Johnson, both as a man and an authour. He this year wrote the "Preface to the Harleian Miscellany." The selection of the pamphlets of which it was composed was made by Mr. Oldys, a man of eager curiosity, and indefatigable diligence, who first exerted that spirit of inquiry into the literature of the old English writers, by which the works of our great dramatick poet have of late been so signally illustrated. In 1745 he published a pamphlet entitled "Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with Remarks on Sir T. H.'s (Sir Thomas Hanmer's) edition of Shakspeare*." To which he affixed, proposals for a new edition of that poet. As we do not trace any thing else1 published by him during the course of this year, we may conjecture that he was occupied entirely with that work. But the little encouragement which was given by the publick to his anonymous proposals for the execution of a task which Warburton was known to have undertaken, probably damped his ardour. His pamphlet, however, was highly esteemed, and was fortunate enough to obtain the approbation even of the supercilious Warburton himself, who, in the Preface to his Shakspeare, published two years afterwards, thus mentioned it: "As to all those things which have been published under the titles of Essays, Remarks, Observations, &c. on Shakspeare, if you except some Critical Notes on Macbeth, given as a specimen of a projected edition, and written, as appears, by a man of parts and genius, the rest are absolutely below a seri ous notice." Of this flattering distinction shown to him by Warburton, a very grateful remembrance was ever entertained by Johnson, who said, "He praised me at a time when praise was of value to me." In 1746 it is probable that he was still employed upon his Shakspeare, which perhaps he laid aside for a time, upon account of the high expectations which were formed of Warburton's edition of that great poet. It is somewhat curious, that his literary career appears to have been almost tovage's life, the original libel would never have been heard of.-ED.] 1 [Upon the produce of these few and small works he, of course, could not have existed: but how he was otherwise employed, as Boswell failed to discover, we cannot now hope to ascertain: see ante, p. 64, note.-ED.] tally suspended in the years 1745 and 1746, those years which were marked by a civil war in Great Britain, when a rash attempt was made to restore the house of Stuart to the throne. That he had a tenderness for that unfortunate house is well known; and some may fancifully imagine, that a sympathetick anxiety impeded the exertion of his intellectual powers; but I am inclined to think, that he was, during this time, sketching the outlines of his great philological work. None of his letters during those years are extant, so far as I can discover. This is much to be regretted. It might afford some entertainment to see how he then expressed himself to his private friends concerning state affairs. Dr. Adams informs me, that "at this time a favourite object which he had in contemplation was, the Life of Alfred;' in which, from the warmth with which he spoke about it, he would, I believe, had he been master of his own will, have engaged himself, rather than on any other subject." In 1747 it is supposed that the Gentleman's Magazine for May (p. 239) was enriched by him with five short poetical pieces, distinguished by three asterisks 2. The first is a translation, or rather a paraphrase, of a Latin epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer. Whether the Latin was his, or not, I have never heard, though I should think it prob ably was, if it be certain that he wrote the English; as to which my only cause of doubt is, that his slighting character of Hanmer as an editor, in his Observations on Macbeth," is very different from that in the Epitaph. It may be said, that there is the same contrariety between the character in the Observations, and that in his own Preface to Shakspeare; but a considerable time elapsed between the one publication and the other, whereas the Observations and the Epitaph came close together. The others are, To Miss on her giving the Authour a gold and silk net-work Purse of her own weaving;" "Stella in Mourning;" "The Winter's Walk;" "An Ode;" and, "To Lyce, an elderly Lady." I am not positive that all these were his productions; but as "The Winter's Walk" has never been controverted to be his, and all of them have the same mark, it is reasonable to con 2 In the Universal Visiter, to which Johnson contributed, the mark which is affixed to some pieces, unquestionably his, is also found subjoined to others, of which he certainly was not the authour. The mark, therefore, will not ascertain the poems in question to have been written by him. Some of them were probably the productions of Hawkesworth, who, it is believed, was afflicted with the gout. The verses on a purse were inserted afterwards in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, and are unquestionably Johnson's.—MALONE. clude that they are all written by the same Unhappy, whom to beds of pain there is the following note, "The authour "Her teeth the night with darkness dies, She's starr'd with pimples o'er ; Her tongue like nimble lightning plies, And can with thunder roar." But as, at a very advanced age, he could condescend to trifle in namby-pamby rhymes, to please Mrs. Thrale and her daughter, he may have, in his earlier years, composed such a piece as this. It is remarkable, that in this first edition of "The Winter's Walk," the concluding line is much more Johnsonian than it was afterwards printed; for in subsequent editions, after praying Stella "to snatch him to her arms," he says, 3 "And shield me from the ills of life." Whereas in the first edition it is "And hide me from the sight of life." A horrour at life in general is more consonant with Johnson's habitual gloomy cast of thought2. I have heard him repeat with great energy the following verses, which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for April this year; but I have no authority to say they were his own. Indeed, one of the best criticks 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. The brave, BALMERINO, were on thy side; In the Gentleman's Magazine for Decem ber this year, he inserted an "Ode on Winter" (p. 588), which is, I think, an admirable specimen of his genius for lyrick poetry 2 [Johnson's habitual horrour was not of life, but of death.-ED.] 3 These verses are somewhat too severe on the extraordinary person who is the chief figure in His them; for he was undoubtedly brave. 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 1 [There is no evidence whatever that any of him, he answered, "I only wish him joy of his these were Johnson's, and every reason to sup- young wife." And after sentence of death, in the pose that they are Hawkesworth's. The ode horrible terms in such cases of treason, was prowhich Boswell doubts about, on internal evidence, nounced upon him, and he was retiring from the is the ode to Spring, which, with those on Sum-bar, he said, "Fare you well, my lords; we shall mer, Autumn, and Winter, have been of late not all meet again in one place." He bebaved published as Johnson's, and are, no doubt, all by with perfect composure at his execution, and callthe same hand. We see that Spring bears inter-ed out, " Dulce et decorum est pro patrić monal marks of being Hawkesworth's. Winter ri.”—BOSWELL. [He was a profligate villain, and Summer, Mr. Chalmers (in the preface to and deserved death for his moral, at least, as the Adventurer and in the Biog. Dict.) asserts much as for his political offences. There is in the to be his also; and (which seems quite conclusive) Gentleman's Magazine for April an account of the the index to the Gent. Mag. for 1748 attributes behaviour of Lord Lovat at his execution, the latSummer to Mr. Greville, a name known to ter part of which, censuring pleasantry in articulo have been assumed by Hawkesworth. The verses mortis, bears strong internal evidence, both in on the "Purse," and to "Stella in Mourning," matter and manner, of having been written by are certainly by the same hand as the four odes, and Johnson. The interest which he took in this the whole must therefore be assigned to Hawkes-transaction may have fixed in his memory the worth, and should be removed from their place in Johnson's works.-E.D.] lines on Lord Lovat, which certainly do not resemble his own style.-ED.] 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 dramatick 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 so well recollected by all the lovers of the drama and of poetry, that it would be superfluous to point them out. t 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 PRO SPECTUS. 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, 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 publick; 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. 66 The booksellers who contracted with 1 My friend, Mr. Courtnay, whose eulogy on Johnson's Latin poetry has been inserted in this work, is no less happy in praising his English poetry. "But hark, he sings the strain even Pope admires; And with the Roman shares congenial praise ;- And Skakspeare's sun relumes the clouded stage." BosWELL. 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 price stipulated 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 There is, perhaps, in every thing success. of any consequence, a secret history which it would be amusing to know, could we have it authentically communicated. Johnson told me 2, "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 ad dressed 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 3.'" 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 being altogether free from that inflation of style, and those uncommon, but apt and energetick 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 2 September 22, 1777, going from Ashbourne to Islam.-BOSWELL. 3 [The reader will see, in the very next page, that this account of the affair was, to say the best of it, inaccurate; but if it were correct, would it not invalidate Johnson's subsequent complaint of Lord Chesterfield's inattention and ingratitude? for, even if his lordship had neglected what was dedicated to him only by laziness and accident, be could not justly be charged with ingratitude; a dedicator who means no compliment, has no reason to complain if he be not rewarded but more of this hereafter.-Ep.] 3 the proposition of the question, and the and the arguments are properly and moadisplay of the suffrages on each side; but I estly expressed. However, some expreshave been since determined, by your lord- sions may be cavilled at, but they are triship's opinion, to interpose my own judge- fles. I'll mention one: the barren laurel. ment, and shall therefore endeavour to The laurel is not barren, in any sense whatsupport what appears to me most conso-ever; it bears fruits or flowers. Sed ha nant to grammar and reason. Ausonius thought that modesty forbade him to plead inability for a task to which Cæsar had judged him equal: sunt nuga2, and I have great expectations from the performance 3." 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. 'Cur me posse negem, posse quod ille putat?' And I 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; Dr. Adams found him one day busy at and that the power which might have been his Dictionary, when the following diadenied to my own claim, will be readily al- logue ensued:-" ADAMS. This is a great lowed me as the delegate of your lordship." work, sir. How are you to get all the etyThis passage proves, that Johnson's ad-mologies? JOHNSON. Why, sir, here is a dressing 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 any body." The opinion conceived of it by another noble authour appears from the following extract from the Earl of Orrery's note to Dr. Birch: "Caledon, Dec. 30, 1747. 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. Šir, 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 publick has had, from Sir John Hawkins 4, 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 superiour "I have just now seen the specimen of mind of our great philologist. For the meMr. Johnson's Dictionary, addressed to chanical part he employed, as he told me, Lord Chesterfield. I am much pleased six amanuenses; and let it be remembered with the plan, and I think the specimen is by the natives of North Britain, to whom one of the best that I have ever read. he is supposed to have been so hostile, that Most specimens disgust rather than pre-five of them were of that country 5. There judice us in favour of the work to follow; were two Messieurs Macbean; Mr. [Robbut the language of Mr. Johnson's is good, [This also must be inaccurate, for the plan contains numerous allusions and references to Lord Chesterfield's opinions; and there is the evidence both of Lord Chesterfield and Johnson, that Dodsley was the person who communicated with his lordship on the subject. And the remark about the bloom of the plan seems almost unintelligible. The bloom of a work, as regards the public, cannot be impaired by its being communicated to two or three private friends.-ED.] 2 [Nuga, indeed! for, though the laurel, of course, goes through the process of fructification, it is, not only in the allegorical but in the ordinary sense of the word, barren. Its flowers have neither hue nor odour, nor is its fruit edible.ED.] 3 Birch MSS. Brit. Mus. 4303.-BOSWELL. 4 Sir John Hawkins's list of former English Dictionaries is, however, by no means complete -MALONE. ert] 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. 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 authorised, 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 authour whose writings had a tendency to hurt sound religion and morality. 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 be- The necessary expense of preparing a ing Librarian to Archibald, Duke of Ar-work of such magnitude for the press must gyle, 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 Shiels' 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, Fleetstreet; 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 [It seems strange that Mr. Boswell should have stated that Shiels only partly wrote what are called "Cibber's Lives of the Poets," and intimated that Johnson contributed some choice sentences to these "Lives;" for Johnson him self, in the Life of Hammond, tells the story in a way which seems inconsistent with Mr. Boswell's assertions: "I take this opportunity to testify, that the book called Cibber's Lives of the Poets' was not written, nor, I believe, ever seen by either of the Cibbers, but was the work of Robert Shiels, a native of Scotland, a man of a very acute understanding, though with little scholastic education, who, not long after the publication of his work, died in London of a consumption. His life was virtuous and his end was pious. The ophilus Cibber, then a prisoner for debt, imparted, as I was told, his name for ten guineas. The manuscript of Shiels is now in my possession." Johnson, we see, says the whole work was Shiels', to the exclusion of himself as well as Cibber. See more on this subject post, 10th April, 1776.-ED.] have been a considerable deduction from the price stipulated to be paid for the copyright. I understand 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. Hawk p. 219. 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 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 talents in occasional composition very different from Lexicography, but formed a club [that met every Tuesday evening at the King's Head, a famous beef-steak house] in Ivy-lane, Paternoster-row, with a view to enjoy literary discussion, and amuse his evening hours. [Thither he constantly resorted, and, with a disposition to please and be pleased, would pass those hours in a free and unrestrained inter change of sentiments, which otherwise had been spent at home in painful reflection. The who composed this little sopersons ciety were nine in number: they were, the Reverend Dr. Salter, father of the late master of the Charter-house; Dr. Hawkesworth; Mr. Ryland, a merchant, a relation of his 2; Mr. John Payne, then a bookseller, but now or very lately chief accountant of the bank; Mr. Samuel Dyer, a learned young man intended for the dissenting ministry; Dr. William M'Ghie, a Scots physician; Dr. Edmund Barker, a young physician; Dr. Richard Bathurst, also a young physician; and Sir J. Hawkins 3. 2 [His brother-in-law.-ED.] 3 Hawk. p. 257. [Sir J. Hawkins gives an account of the members of this club, too diffuse to be quoted here, but which is worthy the attention of any |