HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [207 



Thrale, then one of the most eminent brewers in 'London, and 

 Member of Parliament for the Borough of South wark. Arthur 

 Murphy was then high in his reputation as a dramatic poot 

 and essayist, and was intimate with Mr. Tlirale and his lady, who 

 was distinguished for her literary taste ; by his praise of Johnson 

 he so strongly excited the curiosity of Mrs. Thrale, that the lite- 

 rary colossus received an invitation to dinner, when his conversa- 

 tion proved so agreeable to Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, that reiterated 

 invitations terminated in our author's acceptance of apartments in 

 the town-house of his new friends, and their country-house at 

 Streatham, where he was completely at home. Dr. Johnson became 

 an inmate at the hospitable board of Mr. Thrale in 1765, and spent 

 a considerable portion of several subsequent years in the society 

 of the elegant, the witty, and the wise, who visited his friends in 

 their pleasant country residence during the summer months. In- 

 deed so great was his influence ever the mind of Mr. Thrale, that 

 he had a suit of apartments for himself both at the town and coun- 

 try-house, formed a library principally of his own selection, and 

 directed the education of the young ladies so much to the satis- 

 faction of their father, that he bequeathed ^200. to his learned 

 friend, and appointed him one of his executors. His edition of 

 Shakspeare was published in October 1765; and previous to a 

 convivial meeting of his friends, on the night before the publica- 

 tion, Tonson the publisher, desired a gentleman to ask the Doc 

 tor for a list of the subscribers. " Why, Sir," said Johnson, " I 

 have two material reasons against it : in the first place, I have 

 lost all their names ; and in the second, I have spent all the mo- 

 ney." In his criticisms on Shakspeare, he displayed that original 

 and vigorous conception, and beautiful diction, for which he was so 

 remarkable, and which constitutes the excellence of his great cri- 

 tical work, " The Lives of Eminent English Poets," written seve- 

 ral, years afterwards. In his masterly preface to the edition of 

 Shakspeare, he has displayed the excellencies and defects of the 

 Avonian bard wilh a power of discrimination never surpassed, and 

 a beauty and harmony of style never equalled. Yet such was 

 the manliness and candour of his mind, that when a lady told him 

 she thought it excelled Pope's Preface to the Iliad, the Doctor 

 replied, " I'm afraid not, Madam ; the little fellow did wonders !" 

 In 1766, he wrote the preface to Miss Williams's poems. This 

 lady still continued an inmate of his house, of which she might be 

 said to be absolute mistress, for such was Johnson's compassion 



