HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [197 



our great Moralist expressed his disapprobation of this practice, 

 as inconsistent with truth. 



In the spring of 1738, he offered his " London," a poem, to Mr. 

 Cave, as the production of an author who was under very disad- 

 vantageous circumstances of fortune. " I will," says he in his 

 letter to Cave, " if you please to transmit the sheets from the press, 

 correct it for you, and will take the trouble of altering any stroke 

 of satire which you may dislike." Cave sent a present to John- 

 son's poor friend, and recommended Dodsley as a purchaser, who 

 paid our author ten guineas for the copyright of the poem. It was 

 published in May 1738, on the same morning with Pope's Satire of 

 " Seventeen Hundred and Thirty-eight ;" and such was the rapi- 

 dity of the sale, that a second edition was called for by the public 

 in less than a week. The approbation of Pope contributed not a 

 little to the success of Johnson's London ; it was certainly a happy 

 prelude to the author's greater productions, and as such is memo- 

 rable in his history. 



Besides his " London," published in 1738, Johnson in 1739 

 published two satirical tracts, one entitled " A complete Vindica- 

 tion of the Licensers of the Stage from the malicious and scandalous 

 aspersions of Mr. Brooke, author of Gustavus Vasa ;" and the other 

 " Marmor Norfolciense," &c. The latter /was a severe attack on 

 the administration of Sir Robert Walpole. 



Among other literary adventurers with whom Johnson became 

 acquainted at this time, the unfortunate Richard Savage was dis- 

 tinguished for the peculiar circumstances of his life, particularly the 

 unnatural cruelty of his mother, the infamous Countess of Maccles- 

 field. Johnson, naturally compassionate, sympathized with this in- 

 genious but imprudent young gentleman, and even joined him in 

 some of his nocturnal frolics, which were scarcely reconcileable to 

 the moral principles by which our author was generally guided. 

 On the demise of Savage, his friend Johnson wrote his Life in 1744, 

 and a more masterly as well as instructive piece of biography, is 

 perhaps not to be found in the English language. 



The confidence of Johnson seemed now to increase with his in- 

 creasing reputation. In 1745 he published " Miscellaneous Obser- 

 vations on the Tragedy of Macbeth, with Remarks on Sir Thomas 

 Hanmer's edition of Shakspeare ;" and at the same time offered 

 proposals for a new edition of that dramatic poet. To this plan, 

 which for some time met with but little encouragement, he seems to 

 have devoted his attention, 



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