24 chapters
5 hour read
Selected Chapters
24 chapters
_INCLUDING BOSWELL'S JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES
_INCLUDING BOSWELL'S JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES
— Quò fit ut OMNIS Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella VITA SENIS.— * * * * * This Edition Is Dedicated LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, &c. 1. SAMUEL JOHNSON, after the Picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds in the National Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece to VOL. I. 2. FACSIMILE OF JOHNSON'S HANDWRITING IN HIS 20TH YEAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VOL. I, p. 60. 3. FACSIMILE OF A LETTER OF JOHNSON relating to Rasselas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PREFACE.
PREFACE.
Fielding, it is said, drank confusion to the man who invented the fifth act of a play. He who has edited an extensive work, and has concluded his labours by the preparation of a copious index, might well be pardoned, if he omitted to include the inventor of the Preface among the benefactors of mankind. The long and arduous task that years before he had set himself to do is done, and the last thing that he desires is to talk about it. Liberty is what he asks for, liberty to range for a time where
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
Every liberal motive that can actuate an Authour in the dedication of his labours, concurs in directing me to you, as the person to whom the following Work should be inscribed. If there be a pleasure in celebrating the distinguished merit of a contemporary, mixed with a certain degree of vanity not altogether inexcusable, in appearing fully sensible of it, where can I find one, in complimenting whom I can with more general approbation gratify those feelings? Your excellence not only in the Art o
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
I at last deliver to the world a Work which I have long promised, and of which, I am afraid, too high expectations have been raised[58]. The delay of its publication must be imputed, in a considerable degree, to the extraordinary zeal which has been shewn by distinguished persons in all quarters to supply me with additional information concerning its illustrious subject; resembling in this the grateful tribes of ancient nations, of which every individual was eager to throw a stone upon the grave
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ADVERTISMENT
ADVERTISMENT
That I was anxious for the success of a Work which had employed much of my time and labour, I do not wish to conceal: but whatever doubts I at any time entertained, have been entirely removed by the very favourable reception with which it has been honoured[69]. That reception has excited my best exertions to render my Book more perfect; and in this endeavour I have had the assistance not only of some of my particular friends, but of many other learned and ingenious men, by which I have been enab
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Several valuable letters, and other curious matter, having been communicated to the Author too late to be arranged in that chronological order which he had endeavoured uniformly to observe in his work, he was obliged to introduce them in his Second Edition, by way of ADDENDA , as commodiously as he could. In the present edition these have been distributed in their proper places. In revising his volumes for a new edition, he had pointed out where some of these materials should be inserted; but un
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A
A
[N.B. To those which he himself acknowledged is added acknowl . To those which may be fully believed to be his from internal evidence, is added intern. evid .] 1735. Abridgement and translation of Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia, acknowl . 1738. Part of a translation of Father Paul Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent. acknowl . [N.B. As this work after some sheets were printed, suddenly stopped, I know not whether any part of it is now to be found.] For the Gentleman's Magazine . Preface. intern.
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE LIFE OF
THE LIFE OF
To write the Life of him who excelled all mankind in writing the lives of others, and who, whether we consider his extraordinary endowments, or his various works, has been equalled by few in any age, is an arduous, and may be reckoned in me a presumptuous task. Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given[85], that every man's life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and ele
2 hour read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX A
( Pages 118 and 150.) The publication of the 'Debates' in the Gentleman's Magazine began in July 1732. The names of the speakers were not printed in full; Sir Robert Walpole was disguised—if a disguise it can be called—as Sir R——t W——le, and Mr. Pelham as Mr. P—lh—m. Otherwise the report was open and avowed. During the first few years, however, it often happened that no attempt was made to preserve the individuality of the members. Thus in a debate on the number of seamen ( Gent. Mag . v. 507),
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX B.
APPENDIX B.
JOHNSON'S LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER AND MISS PORTER IN 1759. ( Page 340 .) Malone published seven of the following letters in the fourth edition, and Mr. Croker the rest. 'The account which Miss [Porter] gives me of your health pierces my heart. God comfort and preserve you and save you, for the sake of Jesus Christ. 'I would have Miss read to you from time to time the Passion of our Saviour, and sometimes the sentences in the Communion Service, beginning " Come unto me, all ye that travail and are
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
JOHNSON AT CAMBRIDGE.
JOHNSON AT CAMBRIDGE.
(Page 487.) The following is the full extract of Dr. Sharp's letter giving an account of Johnson's visit to Cambridge in 1765:— 'Camb. Mar. 1, 1765. 'As to Johnson, you will be surprised to hear that I have had him in the chair in which I am now writing. He has ascended my aërial citadel. He came down on a Saturday evening, with a Mr. Beauclerk, who has a friend at Trinity. Caliban, you may be sure, was not roused from his lair before next day noon, and his breakfast probably kept him till night
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX D.
APPENDIX D.
(Page 489.) 'Among the names subscribed to the degree which I have had the honour of receiving from the university of Dublin, I find none of which I have any personal knowledge but those of Dr. Andrews and yourself. 'Men can be estimated by those who know them not, only as they are represented by those who know them; and therefore I flatter myself that I owe much of the pleasure which this distinction gives me to your concurrence with Dr. Andrews in recommending me to the learned society. 'Havin
51 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX E.
APPENDIX E.
(Page 490.) In a little volume entitled Parliamentary Logick , by the Right Hon. W.G. Hamilton, published in 1808, twelve years after the author's death, is included Considerations on Corn , by Dr. Johnson ( Works , v. 321). It was written, says Hamilton's editor, in November 1766. A dearth had caused riots. 'Those who want the supports of life,' Johnson wrote, 'will seize them wherever they can be found.' ( Ib . p. 322.) He supported in this tract the bounty for exporting corn. If more than a y
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX F.
APPENDIX F.
( Page 490.) Johnson ( Pr. and Med . p. 191) writes:—'My first knowledge of Thrale was in 1765.' In a letter to Mrs. Thrale, he says:—'You were but five-and-twenty when I knew you first.' ( Piozzi Letters , i. 284). As she was born on Jan. 16/27, 1741, this would place their introduction in 1766. In another letter, written on July 8, 1784, he talks of her 'kindness which soothed twenty years of a life radically wretched.' ( Ib . ii. 376). Perhaps, however, he here spoke in round numbers. Mrs. Pi
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
Being disappointed in my hopes of meeting Johnson this year, so that I could hear none of his admirable sayings, I shall compensate for this want [1] by inserting a collection of them, for which I am indebted to my worthy friend Mr. Langton, whose kind communications have been separately interwoven in many parts of this work. Very few articles of this collection were committed to writing by himself, he not having that habit; which he regrets, and which those who know the numerous opportunities h
53 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX A.
APPENDIX A.
( Page 115, note 4.) There are at least three accounts of this altercation and three versions of the lines. Two of these versions nearly agree. The earliest is found in a letter by Richard Burke, senior, dated Jan. 6, 1773 ( Burke Corres . i. 403); the second in The Annual Register for 1776, p. 223; and the third in Miss Reynolds's Recollections (Croker's Boswell , 8vo. p. 833). R. Burke places the scene in Reynolds's house. Whether he himself was present is not clear. 'The dean,' he says, 'asse
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX B.
APPENDIX B.
(Page 238.) Had Boswell continued the quotation from Priestley's Illustrations of Philosophical Necessity he would have shown that though Priestley could not hate the rioters, he could very easily prosecute them. He says:— 'If as a Necessarian I cease to blame men for their vices in the ultimate sense of the word, though, in the common and proper sense of it, I continue to do as much as other persons (for how necessarily soever they act, they are influenced by a base and mischievous disposition
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX C.
APPENDIX C.
(Page 253 .) Hawkins gives the two following notes:— 'As Mr. Ryland was talking with me of old friends and past times, we warmed ourselves into a wish, that all who remained of the club should meet and dine at the house which once was Horseman's, in Ivy-lane. I have undertaken to solicit you, and therefore desire you to tell on what day next week you can conveniently meet your old friends. 'I am, Sir, 'Your most humble servant, 'Bolt-court, Nov. 22, 1783.' 'In perambulating Ivy-lane, Mr. Ryland
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX D.
APPENDIX D.
(Page 254 .) It is likely that Sir Joshua Reynolds refused to join the Essex Head Club because he did not wish to meet Barry. Not long before this time he had censured Barry's delay in entering upon his duties as Professor of painting. 'Barry answered:—"If I had no more to do in the composition of my lectures than to produce such poor flimsy stuff as your discourses, I should soon have done my work, and be prepared to read." It is said this speech was delivered with his fist clenched, in a menac
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX E.
APPENDIX E.
(Page 399.) Miss Burney's account of Johnson's last days is interesting, but her dates are confused more even than is common with her. I have corrected them as well as I can. 'Dec. 9. He will not, it seems, be talked to—at least very rarely. At times indeed he re-animates; but it is soon over and he says of himself:—"I am now like Macbeth—question enrages me."' 'Dec. 10. At night my father brought us the most dismal tidings of dear Dr. Johnson. He had thanked and taken leave of all his physician
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX F.
APPENDIX F.
(Notes on Boswell's note on pages 403-405 .) [F-1] In a letter quoted in Mr. Croker's Boswell, p. 427, Dr. Johnson calls Thomas Johnson 'cousin,' and says that in the last sixteen months he had given him £40. He mentions his death in 1779. Piozzi Letters , ii. 45. [F-2] Hawkins (Life , p. 603) says that Elizabeth Herne was Johnson's first-cousin, and that he had constantly—how long he does not say—contributed £15 towards her maintenance. [F-3] For Mauritius Lowe, see ante , iii. 324, and iv. 201
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX G.
APPENDIX G.
(Notes on Boswell's note on page 408 .) [G-1] Mrs. Piozzi records (Anecdotes , p. 120) that Johnson told her,— 'When Boyse was almost perishing with hunger, and some money was produced to purchase him a dinner, he got a bit of roast beef, but could not eat it without ketch-up; and laid out the last half-guinea he possessed in truffles and mushrooms, eating them in bed too, for want of clothes, or even a shirt to sit up in.' Hawkins (Life , p. 159) gives 1740 as the year of Boyse's destitution. '
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX H.
APPENDIX H.
(Notes on Boswell's note on pages 421-422 .) [H-1] The last lines of the inscription on this urn are borrowed, with a slight change, from the last paragraph of the last Rambler/ . (Johnson's Works , iii. 465, and ante , i. 226.) Johnson visited Colonel Myddelton on August 29, 1774, in his Tour to Wales. See post , v. 453. [H-2] Johnson, writing to Dr. Taylor on Sept. 3, 1783, said:—'I sat to Opey (sic) as long as he desired, and I think the head is finished, but it is not much admired.' Notes an
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX I.
(Page 424.) Boswell most likely never knew that in the year 1790 Mr. Seward, in the name of Cadell the publisher, had asked Parr to write a Life of Johnson . (Johnstone's Life of Parr , iv. 678.) Parr, in his amusing vanity, was as proud of this Life as if he had written it. '"It would have been," he said, "the third most learned work that has ever yet appeared. The most learned work ever published I consider Bentley On the Epistles of Phalaris ; the next Salmasius On the Hellenistic Language ."
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter