178

ENGLISH LITERATURE

movement toward democracy. Johnson looked over to France and caught not even a glimpse of the same tendency there, which was to culminate five years after his death in the fall of the Bastille.

Early Life.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, 1709-1784

Johnson was born at Lichfield, a cathedral town in Staffordshire, about a hundred miles from London.

His father, Michael
Johnson, was a book-

seller by occupation, a

College

siderab

and cheris

ave been

131 with "Miserab

have bee

able to with his f

LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL.

High Churchman and

Tory in politics, some

A Strug returned bered esta

time magistrate and

of the tw

of the sl

World H

but found

sheriff. The son's early
education was very dis-
connected, including

some years at Lichfield
Grammar School, one
year at Stourbridge in
the adjoining county of
Worcestershire, some
years not consecutive
under private teachers,
and some years of mis-
cellaneous reading in
his father's bookshop.
From his schooldays
the

accomplishment

that stands out most

notably is his marvellous memory, which, says Boswell,

was so tenacious that he never forgot anything that he either heard or read."

66

a year and a half before failing utterly. Then came the memorable fortune-seeking journey to London, in company with a pupil, David Garrick, destined soon to become the greatest actor and stage-manager of his day.

For ten years he engaged in various kinds of literary hackwork. The year 1747 may be taken as the turning-point in his life; for in that year he issued the plan for a dictionary of the English language, a work which would surely not have been intrusted to any man not possessed of evident and unusual powers. Before the completion of the work Mrs. Johnson died; and the husband adopted the only solace open to a man of his character hard work.

The "Dictionary."-The dictionary appeared in 1755; and though it raised Johnson's reputation immensely, it did not make him financially comfortable, for the reason that the large sum due him for his labor had been drawn in advance of publication. The dictionary had many shortcomings. It showed the author's prejudices ("oats, a grain which in England is given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people "); it showed the compiler's fondness for high-sounding words ("network, anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections"); it showed the author's ignorance of the Teutonic languages, from which so much of the English

to Lord Chesterfield.

When the work was first undertaken, Johnson, on advice, sought this nobleman's patronage. Discouraged in his advances, he desisted. Just before the work appeared, Chesterfield realized its importance, and wrote two advance notices commending the author. The latter would have none of his commendation, and addressed to Chesterfield a note which for exquisitely polite and scathing satire has never been surpassed. "Is not a patron, my Lord,

It was and whore gefter day that. If you gore Aplendid faction. So a hand to literat in diftilidity, I hope, nobody will croy the pass of re you

one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached the ground encumbers him with help?" So writes the "writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge," and signs himself "Your Lordship's most humble, most obedient servant."

1 His definition of "lexicographer."

Johnson's edition of Shakspere and his Lives of the Poets appeared in 1765 and 1779-1781. The Lives, despite the critical bias already mentioned (see page 177), are valuable because of facts not elsewhere accessible, and because of the generally sane criticism of the greater poets dealt with. The Shakspere has no independent value, either for text or

comment.

"Rasselas.'

One other work, written somewhat earlier, may be noticed at this point. This is Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, characterized above as a "didactic treatise in the form of a novel." In theme it resembles his Vanity of Human Wishes, stated thus at the close of Chapter XI of Rasselas: "Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed." The book as a whole is Johnson's answer to the boundless optimism of his day. The philosopher Imlac, whom one is often tempted to identify with Johnson, deals interestingly with many problems; and curiously anticipates some, as, for example, the problem of artificial flight in Chapter VI. An incidental interest attaches to Rasselas from the fact that it was composed in the evenings of a single week, to defray the expenses of his mother's funeral.

A Pensioner. After the publication of the dictionary Johnson's financial condition was never uncomfortable. It was further improved soon after the accession of George III by a pension of £300 a year. Since in his dictionary he had defined pension as "pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country," he was in many quarters condemned for accepting the gift. No stain, however, could possibly attach to his conduct; for he had been assured that the pension was in recognition of past services, and not in anticipation of future ones. One sentence in his letter of