JOHNSON. 



201 



probably engaged it times, during two years, in pre- 

 paring for the undertaking, as, in 1745 and 17*6, his 

 periodical contributions to the Magazine were suspend. 

 eel. The notice of the public, however, was not excited 

 to his anonymous proposals, for the execution of a 

 task which Warburton was known to have undertaken ; 

 and the project died at the present, though to revive 

 at a future period. The year 17+7 was remarkable, in 

 his life, for the production of one of his best pieces of 

 poetry, namely the prologue which he supplied to Gar- 

 rick at the opening of Drury Lane theatre, and the un- 

 dertaking of his grand work, a Dictionary of the Eng- 

 lish language. A plan of the Dictionary, written with 

 uncommon comprehension, perspicuity, and precision, 

 was addreued to the Earl of Chesterfield. The pro- 

 fession* of Cberterfield as a Ma-cenas in this business, 

 and his subsequent neglect of Johnson, are but too 

 well known. The price for which Johnson agreed 

 with the booksellers for his Dictionary was 1575. 

 At the outset, he flattered himselt that he should be 

 able to finish it in three years, but it employed him, 

 though many intermissions, for eight years. With a 

 view to the completion of his great task, he hired a 

 house in Go-igh Square, Fleet Street, where a room 

 was fitted up for the amanuenses, who were to execute 

 the laborious part of the business. 



At intervals he exerted his talents in compositions 

 very different from lexicography, and, probably antici- 

 pating easier circumstances from the credit with bis 

 booksellers which his compilation afforded him, be 

 devoted a regular portion of his time to social amuse- 

 ments with selected friends. Of these he formed a 

 club, that met at Horseman's Chop-house, in Ivy-lane, 

 Paternoster How, every Tuesday evening, with a view 

 to enjoy literary conversation. The members, associa- 

 ted with him in this club, were his beloved friend Dr. 

 Richard Bathurst, a physician ; Dr. liawkrs worth . Dr. 

 Salter ; Mr. Ryland, a rths.nt ; Mr. John i'ayne, then 

 a bookseller in Paternoster Row ; Mr. Samuel Dyer, a 

 learned young man intended for the dissenting minis' 

 try ; Dr. M-Ghie. a Scotch physician: Dr. 1. Jmund Bar- 

 ker, another physician ; and Sir John Hawkins. The 

 endowments of Dyer are represented by Sir John Haw- 

 kins) as of so superior a kino, that Johnson might almost 

 be said to have looked up to him. They u*ed to dis- 

 > in this club about the moral tense and fitness of 

 but Johnson was not uniform in his opinions), 

 ; as often for victory as for truth. This fail- 



1*1 him through life, 

 n January 1740. he published with his name The 

 l'c*ttii of Hmmai HuA'i, being ike Tenth Satire of J*. 



Criticism seems always to have the fair- 

 est right to establish comparisons between one work of 

 an author and another of a similar nature. Lomnm, 

 and Tht fmrnty of Human Wunu. have, therefore, been 

 often compared. The general opinion has agreed, that 

 there is more of the charm of common life in the poem 

 London, and a higher tone of reflective moral eloquence 

 in Tin Vanity oj Human H'idiet. The description of 

 the scholar's disappointed hopes, in the latter poem, is 

 peculiarly eloquent. 



In the same year, his tragedy of Irene, which, to use 

 his own phrase respecting one of Thomson's poems, 

 might have been expected, in its long state of repose, 

 to hare gathered dust and harboured spiders, was 

 brought upon the stage of Drury-laue by the kindness 

 of Garrick. Sensibly as Johnson ought to have frit 

 obliged to Garrirk for his assistance, he at first resist- 

 ed, with violent irritation, all the alterations which the 



VOL. Xlk PART I. 



manager suggested for adapting his piece for theatric Johnson, 

 effect. " The fellow," he said of Garrick, " wants me Samuel. 

 to make Mahomet run mad, that he may have an op- y ""~"V""*"" 

 portunity of tossing his hands and kicking his heels." 

 He was at last, with difficulty, prevailed upon to com- 

 ply with Garrick's wishes, and to allow of some changes; 

 but still these wire not enough. Irene was accordingly 

 brought upon the boards, but, though supported by the 

 finest acting, and by every advantage of dress and deco- 

 ration, it failed to captivate the public. Garrick's zeal, 

 nevertheless, carried it through for nine nights ; so that 

 the author had his three nights profits ; and Dodsley gave 

 him 100 for the copy right When asked how he felt 

 upon the bad success of his tragedy, he replied, " Like 

 the monument." Such magnanimity is, probably, as rare- 

 ly to be found, as the power of writing a tolerable tragedy. 

 In the year 1750, he came forward in the character 

 fur which he was eminently qualified, that of a de- 

 claimer on moral and religious subjects. The vehicle 

 which he choe was a periodical paper, denominated, 

 (with no great felicity of title,) The Rambler. This 

 title has been ludicrously translated, in the Italian ver 

 bion of the work, literally, // I'aoabondo. The first pa- 

 ]>er of The Rambler was published on Tuesday the 20th 

 of March 1750, and he was enabled to continue it, 

 without interruption, every Tuesday and Friday, till 

 Saturday the 17th of March 1752, on which it closed. 

 Many of those papers were written in haste, as the mo- 

 ment pressed, without ever being read over by him 

 before they were printed. He received, in the course 

 of the work, no assistance, except four billets in NM. 

 10, by Miss Mulso, afterwards Mrs. Chapone; No. SO, 

 bv Mr*. Catherine Talbot ; No. 97, by the famous Sa- 

 muel Richardson, and No. 44, and 100, by Mr*. Eli- 

 tabeth Carter. The first reception of The Rambler 

 was not highly favourable. Its popularity was of slow 

 growth. 



In the following year, he was involved in the con. 

 troversy that arose from Lauder's attack upon the me- 

 mory of Milton. The history of Lauder's forgeries 

 need not be here detailed. It may be necessary, how- 

 ever, to notice, that the extraordinary attempt of that 

 impostor was no sudden effort. He had brooded over 

 it for many years ; and, considering the difficulty of 

 the task, came wonderfully well prepared for the exe- 

 cution of it. The depth and artifice of Lauder, and the 

 seeming improbability of my man being capable of 

 such gratuitous and unprincipled malice towards the 

 memory of an author who had been fourscore years in 

 his grave, form some apology for Johnnon having been, 

 in tlie first instance, the dupe of Lauder. Vet it is im- 

 possible to advert to the cheerful promptitude with 

 which Johnson lent his pen to the first support of the 

 forger, without a suspicion that he was well pleased at 

 the prospect of Milton's reputation sustaining a reverse* 

 Sir John Hawkins says, " he could all along observe, 

 that Johnson seemed to approve, not only of Lauder's 

 design, but of the argument ; and seemed to exult in a 

 persuasion that the reputation of Milton was likely to 

 nuffcr by this discovery." Lauder, after having from 

 time to time publihe<f his fabrications in the Gentle- 

 man's Magazine, ventured at last to collect them into a 

 pamphlet, entitled, an Essay on Milton's use and imi- 

 tation of the Moderns in Paradise Lost. To this pam- 

 phlet, Johnson wrote a preface, expressing a full con- 

 viction of Lauder's arguments. But the Rev. Dr. 

 Douglas having clearly detected the impostor's for- 

 geries, Johnson dictated a letter for Lauder, addressed 

 to Dr. Douglas, and acknowledging his fraud in terms 



c 



