Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson LLD MA
Samuel Johnson c. 1772, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Born	18 September 1709 (O.S. 7 September) Lichfield, England
Died	13 December 1784 (age 75) London, England
Occupation	essayist, lexicographer, biographer, poet
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Jervis Porter

Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September 1709 [O.S. 7 September] – 13 December 1784) was an English author. Beginning as a Grub Street journalist, he made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history".^[1] He is also the subject of one of the most celebrated biographies in English, James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. Boswell's Life, along with other biographies, documented Johnson's behaviour and mannerisms in such detail that they have informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS).^[2]

Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and attended Pembroke College, Oxford for a year before he was forced to leave due to lack of funds. After working as a teacher he moved to London, where he began to write essays for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage and the poem The Vanity of Human Wishes.

After nine years of work, his Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755, bringing him popularity and success; it was viewed, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later, as the preeminent British dictionary.^[3] In the following years, he published essays, an influential annotated edition of William Shakespeare's plays, and the well-read novel Rasselas. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland; Johnson's travel narrative A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland described the journey. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, which includes biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets. After a series of illnesses, Johnson died on the evening of 13 December 1784; he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and education 1.2 Early career 1.3 A Dictionary of the English Language 1.4 Later career 1.5 Final works 1.6 Final years 2 Critical theory 3 Character sketch 4 Health 5 Legacy 6 Major works 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and education

Main article: Samuel Johnson's early life

Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, on 18 September 1709. His parents were Michael Johnson, a bookseller, and his wife, Sarah Ford.^[4] Although both families had money, Johnson often claimed that he grew up in poverty. It is uncertain what happened between Michael and Sarah's marriage and the birth of Samuel just three years later to provoke such a change in fortune.^[5] Johnson was born in the family home above his father's bookshop, near Market Square in Lichfield, across from St Mary's Church.^[4] His mother, Sarah, was 40 when she gave birth, a matter for sufficient concern that George Hector, a "man-midwife" and a surgeon of "great reputation", was brought in to assist during the birth.^[6] He did not cry and, with doubts surrounding the newborn's health, his aunt claimed "that she would not have picked such a poor creature up in the street".^[7] As it was feared the baby might die, the vicar of St Mary's was summoned to perform a baptism.^[8] Two godfathers were chosen: Samuel Swynfen, a physician and graduate of Pembroke College, and Richard Wakefield, a lawyer, coroner, and Lichfield town clerk.^[9]

Johnson's health improved and he was placed in the nursing care of Joan Marklew. During this period he contracted what is believed to have been scrofula,^[10] known at that time as the "King's Evil". Sir John Floyer, a former physician to Charles II, recommended that the young Johnson should receive the "royal touch",^[11] which he received from Queen Anne on 30 March 1712 at St James's Palace. However, the ritual was ineffective and an operation was performed that left him with permanent scars across his face and body.^[12] With the birth of the Johnson's brother, Nathaniel, Michael was unable to keep on top of the debts he had accumulated over the years, and his family was no longer able to maintain the lifestyle it had previously enjoyed.^[13]

“	When he was a child in petticoats, and had learned to read, Mrs Johnson one morning put the common prayer-book into his hands, pointed to the collect for the day, and said, 'Sam, you must get this by heart.' She went up stairs, leaving him to study it: But by the time she had reached the second floor, she heard him following her. 'What's the matter?' said she. 'I can say it,' he replied; and repeated it distinctly, though he could not have read it over more than twice.[14]	”
– Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

Johnson demonstrated signs of great intelligence as a child, and his parents, to his later disgust, would show off his "newly acquired accomplishments".^[15] His initial education began at the age of three, and came from his mother who had him memorise and recite passages from the Book of Common Prayer.^[16] When Johnson turned four, he was sent to a nearby school, and, when he reached the age of six, he was sent to a retired shoemaker to continue his education.^[17] A year later, Johnson was sent to Lichfield Grammar School, where he excelled in Latin.^[18] During this time, Johnson started to exhibit the tics that would influence how people viewed him in his later years, and which formed the basis for his posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome. Although TS caused problems in his private and public life, it lent Johnson "great verbal and vocal energy".^[19] He excelled in his education and was promoted to the upper school at the age of nine.^[18] During this time, he befriended Edmund Hector, nephew of his "man-midwife" George Hector, and John Taylor, with whom he remained in contact for the rest of his life.^[20]

At the age of 16, Johnson was given the opportunity to stay with his cousins, the Fords, at Pedmore, Worcestershire.^[21] There he bonded with Cornelius Ford, who employed his knowledge of the classics to tutor Johnson while he was not attending school.^[22] Ford was a successful, well-connected academic, but was also a notorious alcoholic whose excesses contributed to his death six years after Johnson's visit.^[23] Having spent six months with his cousins, Johnson returned to Lichfield, but Hunter, "angered by the impertinence of this long absence", refused to allow him to continue at the grammar school.^[24] Unable to return to Lichfield Grammar School, Johnson was enrolled into the King Edward VI grammar school at Stourbridge.^[22] Because the school was located near Pedmore, Johnson was able to spend more time with the Fords, and he began to write poems and verse translations.^[24] However, he spent only six months at Stourbridge before returning once again to his parents' home in Lichfield.^[25]

During this time, Johnson's future was uncertain as his father was deeply in debt.^[26] To earn money, Johnson began to stitch books for his father, and it is possible that Johnson spent most of his time in his father's bookshop reading various works and building his literary knowledge. His condition would not change until Sarah Johnson's cousin, Elizabeth Harriotts, died in February 1728 and left enough money to send Johnson to college.^[27] On 31 October 1728, a few weeks after he turned 19, Johnson entered Pembroke College, Oxford.^[28] The inheritance did not cover all of his expenses at Pembroke, but Andrew Corbet, a friend and student at Pembroke, offered to make up the deficit.^[29]

At Pembroke, Johnson made many friends, but neglected a number of mandatory lectures, and ignored calls for poems. He did complete one poem, the first of his tutorial exercises, on which he spent comparable time, and which provoked surprise and applause.^[30] He was later asked by his tutor to produce a Latin translation of Alexander Pope's Messiah as a Christmas exercise.^[31] Johnson completed half of the translation in one afternoon and the rest the following morning. Although the poem brought him praise, it did not bring the material benefit he had hoped for.^[32] The poem later appeared in Miscellany of Poems (1731), edited by John Husbands, a Pembroke tutor, and was the earliest surviving publication of any of Johnson's writings. Johnson spent the rest of his time studying, even over the Christmas vacation. He drafted a "plan of study" called "Adversaria", which was left unfinished, and used his time to learn French while working on his knowledge of Greek.^[33]

After thirteen months, poverty forced Johnson to leave Oxford without a degree, and he returned to Lichfield.^[34] During his last weeks at Oxford, Jorden left Pembroke, and Johnson was given William Adams as a tutor in his place. He enjoyed Adams as a tutor, but by December, Johnson was already a quarter behind in his student fees, and he was forced to return home. He left behind many of the books that his father had previously lent him because he could not afford the expense of transporting all of them and as a symbolic gesture that he hoped to return to the school soon.^[35]

He eventually received a degree: just before the publication of his Dictionary in 1755, Oxford University awarded Johnson the degree of Master of Arts.^[36] He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1765 by Trinity College Dublin and in 1775 by Oxford University.^[37] In 1776, he returned to Pembroke with Boswell and toured the school with his previous tutor Adams, who was then the school's Master. He used that visit to recount his time at the college, his early career, and to express his later fondness for Jorden.^[38]

[edit] Early career

There is little record of Johnson's life between the end of 1729 and 1731; he most likely lived with his parents when experiencing bouts of mental anguish and physical pain.^[39] After these years of illness, his tics and gesticulations associated with TS became more noticeable and were "commented on by many observers".^[40] To further complicate Johnson's life, his father was deeply in debt by 1731 and had lost much of his standing in Lichfield. An usher's position became available at Stourbridge Grammar School, but Johnson's lack of a degree saw him passed over, on 6 September 1731.^[39] At about the same time, Johnson's father became ill; he developed an "inflammatory fever", which ended his life in December 1731.^[41] Johnson tried to start a career and eventually found employment as undermaster at a school in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire. The school was run by Sir Wolstan Dixie, who allowed Johnson to teach even though he did not have a degree.^[42] Although the arrangement may seem congenial, Johnson was treated as "a kind of domestick chaplain".^[43] Still, Johnson found pleasure in teaching even though he thought it boring. By June 1732, he had returned home, and, after a fight with Dixie, quit the school.^[44]

Johnson spent the rest of his time at Lichfield looking for a position at the other local schools, and, after being turned down for a position in Ashbourne, he spent his time with his friend who lived in the home of Thomas Warren. Warren was at that time starting his Birmingham Journal, and he enlisted Johnson's help.^[45] His connection with Warren continued to grow, and Johnson proposed to translate Jeronimo Lobo's account of the Abyssinians.^[46] Johnson read Abbe Joachim Le Grand's French translations, and he thought that a shorter version might be "useful and profitable".^[47] He managed to finish a section but ran into problems. In order to finish the rest, Johnson dictated directly to Hector, who then took the copy to the printer and made any corrections, and, after a year later, his A Voyage to Abyssinia was finally published.^[47] Johnson returned to Lichfield in February 1734, where he began an annotated edition of Poliziano's Latin poems, along with a history of Latin poetry from Petrarch to Poliziano. Johnson began on 15 June 1743 and printed a Proposal, but the project did not receive enough funds and was soon brought to an end.^[48]

Johnson was close to a man named Harry Porter, and remained with him during his terminal illness.^[49] Porter died on 3 September 1734, having left his wife, Elizabeth Jervis Porter (otherwise known as "Tetty"), widowed at the age of 41, with three children.^[50] Months later, Johnson began to court the widow; Reverend William Shaw claims that "the first advances probably proceeded from her, as her attachment to Johnson was in opposition to the advice and desire of all her relations".^[51] Johnson was inexperienced in such relationships, but the well-to-do widow encouraged him and promised to provide for him with her substantial savings.^[52] Johnson married Elizabeth on 9 July 1735, at St. Werburgh's Church in Derby.^[53] The Porter family did not approve of the match, partly because Johnson was 25 and Elizabeth was 21 years his elder. His mother's marriage to Johnson so disgusted her son Jervis that he stopped talking to her.^[54] However, her daughter, Lucy, had accepted Johnson from the start, and her other son, Joseph, was later willing to finally accept the marriage.^[55]

During the previous June, Johnson, while working as a tutor for Thomas Whitby's children, applied for the position of headmaster at Solihull School.^[56] Walmesley lent his support to Johnson's application, but Johnson was passed over because the school's directors thought he was "a very haughty, ill-natured gent., and that he has such a way of distorting his face (which though he can't help) the gent[s] think it may affect some lads".^[57] With the encouragement of Walmesley, Johnson decided that he could be a successful teacher if he ran his own school.^[58] In the autumn of 1735, Johnson opened a private academy at Edial, near Lichfield. The building, Edial Hall, was a large house with a pyramid-shaped roof and a unique design; a back room served as the schoolroom while the rest housed Johnson's family. He had only three pupils, David Garrick, George Garrick and Lawrence Offley; David Garrick—18 at the time—went on to become one of the most famous actors of his day.^[57] The venture was unsuccessful however and cost Tetty a substantial portion of her fortune, and instead of trying to keep up with the failing school, Johnson began to write his first major work, the historical tragedy Irene.^[59]

On 2 March 1737, penniless, Johnson left for London with his former pupil David Garrick. To make things worse, Johnson received word that his brother had died on the day they left. Fortunately, Garrick had connections in London, and the two would stay with his distant relative, Richard Norris.^[60] Johnson did not stay there long, and set out for Greenwich near the Golden Hart Tavern to finish Irene.^[61] During that time, he wrote to Edward Cave on 12 July 1737 and proposed a translation for Paolo Sarpi's The History of the Council of Trent (1619), which Cave did not accept until months later.^[62] In October 1737, Johnson brought his wife to London, and he soon found employment with Cave as a writer for The Gentleman's Magazine.^[63] His work for the magazine and other publishers during this time "is almost unparalleled in range and variety", and "so numerous, so varied and scattered" that "Johnson himself could not make a complete list".^[64]

In May 1738, his first major work, a poem called London, was published anonymously.^[65] The work was based on Juvenal's Satire III and describes the character Thales's leaving for Wales to escape the problems of London.^[66] In particular, the poem describes how London is a place of crime, corruption, and the neglect of the poor. Johnson could not bring himself to regard the poem as granting him any merit as a poet;^[67] however, Alexander Pope claimed that the author "will soon be déterré" (brought to light, become well known), although it did not immediately happen.^[65]

In August, Johnson was denied a position as master of the Appleby Grammar School because a Masters degree from Oxford or Cambridge was required. To ensure that he would not suffer rejection again, Pope asked John Gower, a man with influence in the Appleby community, to have a degree awarded to Johnson.^[7] Gower petitioned Oxford for an honorary degree to be awarded to Johnson, but he was told that it was "too much to be asked".^[68] Gower then asked a friend of Jonathan Swift to plead with Swift to use his influence at the University of Dublin to have a Masters degree awarded to Johnson, which could then be used to justify a masters awarded to Johnson from Oxford.^[68] However, Swift refused to act on Johnson's behalf.^[69]

Between 1737 and 1739, Johnson became close to Richard Savage.^[70] Feeling guilty for his own poverty, Johnson stopped living with his wife and spent time with Savage.^[71] Together, they would roam the streets at night without enough money to stay in taverns or sleep in "night-cellars".^[72] Eventually, Savage's friends tried to help him by convincing him to move to Wales. Savage ended up in Bristol however, and once again fell into debt. He was put into debtor's prison and died in 1743.^[73] A year later, Johnson wrote Life of Mr Richard Savage (1744), a "moving" work that, according to Walter Jackson Bate, "remains one of the innovative works in the history of biography".^[74]

[edit] A Dictionary of the English Language

See also: A Dictionary of the English Language, The Rambler, The Vanity of Human Wishes, and Irene (play)

In 1746, a group of publishers approached Johnson about creating a dictionary.^[65] On the morning of 18 June 1746, Johnson signed a contract for 1500 guineas with William Strahan and associates to produce an authoritative dictionary of the English language.^[75] Johnson claimed that he could finish the project in three years. In comparison, the Académie Française had forty scholars spending forty years to complete their dictionary, which prompted Johnson to claim, "This is the proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman".^[65] Although he did not succeed in completing the work in three years, he did manage to finish it in nine, justifying his boast.^[65]

Johnson's dictionary was not the first, nor was it unique. It was, however, the most commonly used and imitated for the 150 years between its first publication and the appearance of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928. Other dictionaries, such as Nathan Bailey's Dictionarium Britannicum, were much larger,^[3] and in the 150 years preceding Johnson's dictionary about twenty other "English" dictionaries had been produced.^[76] However, there was open dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period. In 1741, David Hume claimed: "The Elegance and Propriety of Stile have been very much neglected among us. We have no Dictionary of our Language, and scarce a tolerable Grammar".^[77] What Johnson's dictionary offers are insights into the 18th century and "a faithful record of the language people used".^[3] Johnson's Dictionary is more than a reference book; it serves as a work of literature unto itself.^[76]

Throughout the decade, he constantly worked on the Dictionary, which caused his and Tetty's living conditions to suffer; Johnson had to employ multiple assistants for copying and mechanical work, which filled the house with incessant noise and clutter. He was always busy with his work, and kept hundreds of books around at any given time.^[78] John Hawkins described the scene: "The books he used for this purpose were what he had in his own collection, a copious but a miserably ragged one, and all such as he could borrow; which latter, if ever they came back to those that lent them, were so defaced as to be scarce worth owning".^[79] Johnson was also distracted by Tetty's health, as she started to show signs of a terminal illness.^[78] To accommodate both his wife and his work, he moved to Gough Square near his printer, William Strahan.^[80]

To prepare for the work, Johnson wrote a Plan for the Dictionary. This Plan was patronised by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield but not to Johnson's pleasure.^[81] Chesterfield did not care about praise, but was instead interested by Johnson's abilities. Seven years after first meeting Johnson to go over the work, Chesterfield wrote two anonymous essays in The World that recommended the Dictionary.^[82] He complained that the English language was lacking structure and argued in support of the dictionary. Johnson did not appreciate the tone of the essay, and he felt that Chesterfield did not fulfill his obligations as the work's patron.^[83] Johnson wrote a letter expressing this view and harshly criticised Chesterfield, but Chesterfield accepted it without any ill will and, impressed by the language, he kept the letter displayed on a table for anyone to read.^[84]

During his work on the dictionary, Johnson made many appeals for financial help in the form of subscriptions: patrons would get a copy of the first edition as soon as it was printed in compensation for their support during its compilation. The appeals ran until 1752. The Dictionary was finally published in September 1755, with the title page acknowledging that Oxford had awarded Johnson a Master of Arts degree in anticipation of the work.^[85] The published dictionary was a huge book. With pages nearly 1½ feet (46 cm) tall and 20 inches (51 cm) wide, it contained 42,773 entries, to which only a few more were added in subsequent editions. It sold for the extravagant price of £4 10s, the equivalent of about £350 today.^[86] An important innovation of Johnson's was to illustrate the meanings of his words by literary quotation, of which there are around 114,000. The authors most frequently cited by Johnson include Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden.^[87] It was years before "Johnson's Dictionary", as it came to be known, turned a profit. Author's royalties were unknown at that time, and Johnson, once his contract to deliver the book was fulfilled, received no further monies from its sale. Years later, many of its quotations would be repeated by various editions of the Webster's Dictionary and the New English Dictionary.^[88]

Besides working on the Dictionary, Johnson also wrote various essays, sermons, and poems during these nine years.^[89] He decided to produce a series of essays under the title The Rambler that would run every Tuesday and Saturday for twopence each. Explaining the title years later, he told his friend, the painter Joshua Reynolds: "I was at a loss how to name it. I sat down at night upon my bedside, and resolved that I would not go to sleep till I had fixed its title. The Rambler seemed the best that occurred, and I took it".^[90] These essays, often on moral and religious topics, tended to be more grave than the title of the series would suggest; his first comments in The Rambler were to ask "that in this undertaking thy Holy Spirit may not be withheld from me, but that I may promote thy glory, and the salvation of myself and others".^[90] The popularity of The Rambler took off once the issues were collected as a volume; they were reprinted nine times during Johnson's life. Writer and printer Samuel Richardson, enjoying the essays greatly, questioned the publisher as to who wrote the works; only he and a few of Johnson's friends were told of Johnson's authorship.^[91] One friend, the female novelist Charlotte Lennox, includes a defense of The Rambler in her novel The Female Quixote (1752). In particular, the character Mr. Glanville says, "you may sit in Judgment upon the Productions of a Young, a Richardson, or a Johnson. Rail with premeditated Malice at the Rambler; and for the want of Faults, turn even its inimitable Beauties into Ridicule" (Book VI, Chapter XI). Later, she claims Johnson as "the greatest Genius in the present Age".^[92]

“	His necessary attendance while his play was in rehearsal, and during its performance, brought him acquainted with many of the performers of both sexes, which produced a more favourable opinion of their profession than he had harshly expressed in his Life of Savage ... He for considerable time used to frequent the Green Room, and seemed to take delight in dissipating his gloom, by mixing in the sprightly chit-chat of the motley circle than to be found there. Mr David Hume related to me from Mr Garrick, that Johnson at last denied himself this amusement, from considerations of rigid virtue; saying, "I'll come no more behind your scenes, David; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propensities".[93]	”
– Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

However, not all of his work was confined to The Rambler. One such work, The Vanity of Human Wishes, was written with such "extraordinary speed" that Boswell claimed Johnson "might have been perpetually a poet".^[94] The poem is an imitation of Juvenal's Satire X and claims that "the antidote to vain human wishes is non-vain spiritual wishes".^[95] In particular, Johnson emphasises "the helpless vulnerability of the individual before the social context" and the "inevitable self-deception by which human beings are led astray".^[96] The poem was critically celebrated but it failed to become popular, and sold less than London.^[97] In 1749, Garrick made good on his promise that he would produce Irene, but its title was altered to Mahomet and Irene to make it "fit for the stage".^[98] The show eventually ran for nine nights.^[99]

Tetty Johnson spent most of her time in London ill, and in 1752 she decided to return to the countryside while Johnson was busy working on his Dictionary. She died on 17 March 1752, and, at word of her death, Johnson wrote a letter to his old friend Taylor, which according to Taylor "expressed grief in the strongest manner he had ever read".^[100] He wrote a sermon in her honour, to be read at her funeral, but Taylor refused to read it. This only exacerbated Johnson's feelings of being lost, and his despair after the death of his wife, and John Hawkesworth had to take over organising the funeral. Johnson felt guilty about the poverty in which he believed he had forced Tetty to live, and blamed himself for neglecting her. He became outwardly discontent, and his diary was filled with prayers and laments over her death until his own. She was his primary motivation, and her death hindered his ability to complete his work.^[101]

[edit] Later career

See also: The Plays of William Shakespeare, The Idler (1758–1760), and The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

On 16 March 1756, Johnson was arrested for an outstanding debt of £5 18s. Unable to contact anyone else, he wrote to the writer and publisher Samuel Richardson. Richardson, who had previously lent Johnson money, sent him six guineas to show his good will, and the two became friends.^[102] Soon after, Johnson met and befriended the painter Joshua Reynolds, who impressed Johnson sufficiently to declare Reynolds "almost the only man whom I call a friend".^[103] Reynolds' younger sister Frances observed during their time together "that men, women and children gathered around him [Johnson], laughing" at his gestures and gesticulations.^[104] Johnson's only other friend who was present at the time, Bennet Langton, had just returned home and later set off to school in 1757.^[105]

To occupy himself, Johnson began to work on The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review, the first issue of which was printed on 19 March 1756. Philosophical disagreements erupted over the purpose of the publication when the Seven Years' War began and Johnson started to write political essays about his dislike of the fighting. After the war began, the Magazine included many reviews, at least 34 of which were written by Johnson.^[106] When not working on the Magazine, Johnson wrote a series of prefaces for other writers, such as Giuseppe Baretti, William Payne and Charlotte Lennox.^[107] Johnson's relationship with Lennox and her works was particularly close during these years, and she relied so heavily upon Johnson that he was "the most important single fact in Mrs Lennox's literary life".^[108] He would later attempt to produce a new edition of her works, but even with his support, they were unable to find enough interest to follow through with its publication.^[109] To help Johnson around the house while he was busy with his various projects, Richard Bathurst, a physician and a member of Johnson's Club, pressured him to take on a free slave, Francis Barber, as his servant.^[110]

These efforts, however, consumed only a small portion of his time; his work on Edition of Shakespeare took up the rest. On 8 June 1756, Johnson published his Proposals for Printing, by Subscription, the Dramatick Works of William Shakespeare, which argued that the previous editions of Shakespeare were edited incorrectly and needed to be corrected.^[111] However, Johnson's progress on the work slowed as the months passed, and he told music historian Charles Burney in December 1757 that it would take him until the following March to complete it. Before that could happen, he was arrested again, for a debt of £40, in February 1758. The debt was soon repaid by Jacob Tonson, who had contracted Johnson to publish Shakespeare, and Johnson was soon motivated to finish his edition to repay the favour. Although it took him another seven years to finish, Johnson completed a few volumes of his Shakespeare to prove his commitment to the project.^[112]

In 1758, Johnson began to write a weekly series, The Idler, which ran from 15 April 1758 to 5 April 1760, as a way to avoid finishing his Shakespeare. This series was shorter and lacked many features of The Rambler. Unlike his independent publication of The Rambler, The Idler was published in a weekly news journal The Universal Chronicle, a publication supported by John Payne, John Newbery, Robert Stevens and William Faden.^[113] The Idler did not take up all of Johnson's time, and he was able to publish his philosophical novella Rasselas on 19 April 1759. The "little story book", as Johnson described it, describes the life of Prince Rasselas and Nekayah, his sister, who are kept in a place called the Happy Valley. In the land of Abyssinia, the Happy Valley is a place free of problems, where any desire is quickly satisfied. The constant pleasure does not lead to satisfaction, though, and Rasselas escapes, with the help of a philosopher named Imlac, explores the world to witness how all aspects of society and life in the outside world are filled with suffering. They return to Abyssinia, but do not wish to return to the state of constantly fulfilled pleasures found in the Happy Valley.^[114] Rasselas was written in one week to pay for his mother's funeral, and to settle her debts; it became so popular that there was a new English edition of the work almost every year. It appeared in many works of fiction, mainly in descriptions of what the characters were reading, including Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables. Its fame was not limited to English-speaking nations, and Rasselas was immediately translated into five languages (French, Dutch, German, Russian and Italian), and later into another nine.^[115]

By 1762, however, Johnson had gained a notoriety for dilatory writing; contemporary poet Charles Churchill teased Johnson for the delay in producing his long-promised edition of Shakespeare: "He for subscribers baits his hook / and takes your cash, but where's the book?"^[116] The comments soon motivated Johnson to finish his Shakespeare, and, after receiving the first payment from a government pension on 20 July 1762, he was able to dedicate most of his time towards this goal.^[116] Earlier that July, the 24-year-old King George III granted Johnson an annual pension of £300 in appreciation for the Dictionary.^[37] While the pension did not make Johnson wealthy, it did allow him a modest yet comfortable independence for the remaining 22 years of his life.^[117] The award came largely through the efforts of Thomas Sheridan and the Earl of Bute. When Johnson questioned if the pension would force him to promote a political agenda or support various officials, he was told by Bute that the pension "is not given you for anything you are to do, but for what you have done".^[118]

On 16 May 1763, Johnson first met 22-year-old James Boswell—who would later become Johnson's first major biographer—in the book shop of Johnson's friend, Tom Davies. They quickly became friends, although Boswell would return to his home in Scotland or travel abroad for months at a time.^[119] Around the spring of 1763, Johnson formed "The Club", a social group that included his friends Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, Topham Beauclerk, Bennet Langton, Christopher Nugent, Burke's father-in-law, John Hawkins, and Anthony Chamier (although the membership would vary over the next few decades, expanding to allow individuals such as Adam Smith and Edward Gibbon to join). They decided to meet every Monday at 7:00 pm at the Turk's Head in Gerrard Street, Soho, and these meetings would continue until long after the deaths of the original members.^[120]

“	During the whole of the interview, Johnson talked to his Majesty with profound respect, but still in his firm manly manner, with a sonorous voice, and never in that subdued tone which is commonly used at the levee and in the drawing-room. After the King withdrew, Johnson shewed himself highly pleased with his Majesty's conversation and gracious behaviour. He said to Mr Barnard, 'Sir, they may talk of the King as they will; but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen.'[121]	”
– Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

During the summer of 1754, Johnson met Arthur Murphy after Murphy came to Johnson about the accidental republishing of the Rambler No. 190, and the two became friends.^[122] On 9 January 1765, Murphy introduced Johnson to Henry Thrale, a wealthy brewer and Member of Parliament, and his wife, Hester. They bonded instantly; Johnson was treated as a member of the family, and was motivated to work on his Shakespeare again.^[123] Afterwards, Johnson stayed with the Thrales for 17 years until Henry's death in 1781, sometimes staying in rooms at Thrale's Anchor Brewery in Southwark.^[124] Hester Thrale's documentation of Johnson's life during this time, in her Thraliana and correspondence, became an important source of biographical information on Johnson after his death.^[125]

Johnson's edition of Shakespeare was finally published on 10 October 1765 as The Plays of William Shakespeare, in Eight Volumes … To which are added Notes by Sam. Johnson in a printing of one thousand copies. The first edition sold quickly and a second was soon printed.^[126] The plays themselves were of a version that Johnson felt most true to the original based on his analysis of the manuscript editions of Shakespeare's plays. Johnson's strength, and what made his edition revolutionary, was to create a set of corresponding notes that allow readers to identify the meaning behind many of Shakespeare's more complicated passages or ones that may have been transcribed incorrectly over time.^[127] Included within the notes are occasional attacks upon rival editors of Shakespeare's works and their editions.^[128] Years later, Edmond Malone, an important Shakespearean scholar and friend of Johnson's, would say that Johnson's "vigorous and comprehensive understanding threw more light on his authour than all his predecessors had done".^[129]

In February 1767 Johnson was granted a special meeting with King George III. This took place at the library of the Queen's house, and it was organised by the king's librarian, Frederick Augusta Barnard.^[130] The king himself, after hearing that Johnson would visit the library, commanded Barnard to introduce him to Johnson.^[131] They mutually impressed each other, and Johnson later told Boswell that the king "is the finest gentleman I have ever seen".^[121]

[edit] Final works

See also: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets

On 6 August 1773, eleven years after first meeting Boswell, Johnson set out to visit his friend in Scotland, to begin "a journey to the western islands of Scotland", as Johnson's 1775 account of their travels would put it.^[133] The work was intended to discuss the social problems and struggles that affected the Scottish people, but it also praised many of the unique facets of Scottish society, such as a school in Edinburgh for the deaf and mute.^[134] Also, Johnson used the work to enter into the dispute over the authenticy of James Macpherson's Ossian poems, claiming they could not have been translations of ancient Scottish literature on the grounds that "in those times nothing had been written in the Earse [i.e. Gaelic] language".^[135] There were heated exchanges between the two, and according to one of Johnson's letters, MacPherson threatened physical violence.^[136] Boswell's account, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1786), was a preliminary attempt at a biography before his Life of Johnson. Included were various quotes and descriptions of events, including anecdotes such as Johnson swinging around a broadsword while wearing Scottish garb, or dancing a Highland jig.^[137]

In the 1770s, Johnson, who had tended to be an opponent of the government early in life, published a series of pamphlets in favour of various government policies. In 1770 he produced The False Alarm, a political pamphlet attacking John Wilkes. In 1771, his Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands cautioned against war with Spain.^[138] In 1774 he printed The Patriot, a critique of what he viewed as false patriotism. On the evening of 7 April 1775, he made the famous statement, "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."^[139] This line was not, as widely believed, about patriotism in general, but the false use of the term "patriotism" by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (the patriot-minister) and his supporters; Johnson opposed "self-professed Patriots" in general, but valued what he considered "true" patriotism.^[140]

The last of these pamphlets, Taxation No Tyranny (1775), was a defence of the Coercive Acts and a response to the Declaration of Rights of the First Continental Congress of America, which protested against taxation without representation.^[141] Johnson argued that in emigrating to America, colonists had "voluntarily resigned the power of voting", but they still had "virtual representation" in Parliament. In a parody of the Declaration of Rights, Johnson suggested that the Americans had no more right to govern themselves than the Cornish people. If the Americans wanted to participate in Parliament, said Johnson, they could move to England and purchase an estate.^[142] Johnson denounced English supporters of America as "traitors to this country", and hoped that the matter would be settled without bloodshed, but that it would end with "English superiority and American obedience".^[143] Years before, Johnson had advocated that the English and the French were just "two robbers" who were stealing land from the natives, and that neither deserved to live there.^[106] After the signing of the 1783 Peace of Paris treaties, marking the colonists' defeat of the English, Johnson was "deeply disturbed" with the "state of this kingdom".^[144]

“	Mr Thrale's death was a very essential loss to Johnson, who, although he did not foresee all that afterwards happened, was sufficiently convinced that the comforts which Mr Thrale's family afforded him, would now in great measure cease.[145]	”
– Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

On 3 May 1777, while Johnson was trying to save Reverend William Dodd from execution, he wrote to Boswell that he was busy preparing a "little Lives" and "little Prefaces, to a little edition of the English Poets".^[146] Tom Davies, William Strahan and Thomas Cadell had asked Johnson to create this final major work, the Lives of the English Poets, for which he asked 200 guineas, an amount significantly less than the price he could have demanded.^[147] The Lives, which were critical as well as biographical studies, appeared as prefaces to selections of each poet's work, and they were quite larger than originally expected.^[148] The work was finished in March 1781 and the whole collection was published in six volumes. As Johnson justified in the advertisement for the work, "my purpose was only to have allotted to every Poet an Advertisement, like those which we find in the French Miscellanies, containing a few dates and a general character."^[149]

Johnson was unable to enjoy this success because Henry Thrale, the dear friend with whom he lived, died on 4 April 1781.^[150] Life changed quickly for Johnson, and Hester Thrale became interested in the Italian singing teacher Gabriel Mario Piozzi, which forced Johnson to move on from his previous lifestyle.^[151] After returning home and then travelling for a short period, Johnson received word that his dear friend, Robert Levet, had died on 17 January 1782.^[152] Johnson was shocked by Levet's death. Shortly afterwards he caught a cold which turned into bronchitis, lasting for several months.^[153]

[edit] Final years

Although he had recovered his health by August, he experienced emotional trauma when he was given word that Hester Thrale would sell the residence that Johnson shared with the family. What hurt Johnson the most was the possibility that he would be left without her constant company.^[154] Months later, on 6 October 1782, Johnson attended church for the final time in his life, to say goodbye to his former residence and life. The walk to the church strained him, but he managed the journey unaccompanied.^[155] While there, he wrote a prayer for the Thrale family:

To thy fatherly protection, O Lord, I commend this family. Bless, guide, and defend them, that they may pass through this world, as finally to enjoy in thy presence everlasting happiness, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.^[156]

Hester Thrale did not completely abandon Johnson, and asked him to accompany the family on a trip to Brighton.^[155] He agreed, and was with them from 7 October until 20 November 1782.^[157] On his return, his health began to fail him, and he was left alone following Boswell's visit on 29 May 1783 until he travelled to Scotland.^[158]

On 17 June 1783, Johnson had a stroke that was caused by poor circulation^[159] and he wrote to his neighbour, Edmund Allen, that he had lost the ability to speak.^[160] Two doctors were brought in to aid Johnson; he regained his ability to speak two days later.^[161] Johnson feared that he was dying, and wrote:

The black dog I hope always to resist, and in time to drive, though I am deprived of almost all those that used to help me. The neighbourhood is impoverished. I had once Richardson and Lawrence in my reach. Mrs. Allen is dead. My house has lost Levet, a man who took interest in everything, and therefore ready at conversation. Mrs. Williams is so weak that she can be a companion no longer. When I rise my breakfast is solitary, the black dog waits to share it, from breakfast to dinner he continues barking, except that Dr. Brocklesby for a little keeps him at a distance. Dinner with a sick woman you may venture to suppose not much better than solitary. After dinner, what remains but to count the clock, and hope for that sleep which I can scarce expect. Night comes at last, and some hours of restlessness and confusion bring me again to a day of solitude. What shall exclude the black dog from an habitation like this?^[162]

By this time he was sick and gout-ridden. Surgery was performed to relieve Johnson's gout, and his remaining friends, including novelist Fanny Burney (the daughter of Charles Burney), came to keep him company.^[163] He was confined to his room from 14 December 1783 to 21 April 1784.^[164]

His health had begun to improve by May 1784, and he travelled to Oxford with Boswell on 5 May 1784.^[164] By July, many of Johnson's friends were either dead or gone; Boswell had left for Scotland and Hester Thrale had become engaged to Piozzi. With nobody to visit, Johnson expressed a desire to die in London and arrived there on 16 November 1784. On 25 November 1784, he allowed Burney to visit him and expressed an interest to her that he should leave London; he soon left for Islington to George Strahan's home.^[165] His final moments were filled with mental anguish and delusions; when his physician, Thomas Warren, visited and asked him if he were feeling better, Johnson burst out with: "No, Sir; you cannot conceive with what acceleration I advance towards death."^[166]

“	A few days before his death, he had asked Sir John Hawkins, as one of his executors, where he should be buried; and on being answered, "Doubtless, in Westminster Abbey," seemed to feel a satisfaction, very natural to a Poet.[167]	”
– Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

Many visitors came to see Johnson as he lay sick in bed, but he preferred only Langton's company.^[166] Burney waited for word of Johnson's condition, along with Windham, Strahan, Hoole, Cruikshank, Des Moulins and Barber.^[168] On 13 December 1784, Johnson met with two others: a young woman, Miss Morris, whom Johnson blessed, and Francesco Sastres, an Italian teacher, who was given some of Johnson's final words: "Iam Moriturus" ("I who am about to die").^[169] Shortly afterwards he fell into a coma, and died at 7:00 pm.^[168]

Langton waited until 11:00 pm to tell the others, which led to John Hawkins' becoming pale and overcome with "an agony of mind", along with Seward and Hoole describing Johnson's death as "the most awful sight".^[170] Boswell remarked, "My feeling was just one large expanse of Stupor ... I could not believe it. My imagination was not convinced."^[169] William Gerard Hamilton joined in and stated, "He has made a chasm, which not only nothing can fill up, but which nothing has a tendency to fill up. -Johnson is dead.- Let us go to the next best: There is nobody; -no man can be said to put you in mind of Johnson."^[168]

He was buried on 20 December 1784 at Westminster Abbey with an inscription that reads:

Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

Obiit XIII die Decembris,

Anno Domini

M.DCC.LXXXIV.

Ætatis suœ LXXV.^[171]

[edit] Critical theory

Main article: Samuel Johnson's literary criticism

Johnson's literature, especially his Lives of the Poets series, is marked by various opinions on what would make a poetic work excellent. He believed that the best poetry relied on contemporary language, and he disliked the use of decorative or purposefully archaic language.^[172] In particular, he was suspicious of John Milton's language, whose blank verse would mislead later poets, and could not stand the poetic language of Thomas Gray.^[173] His greatest complaint was the overuse of obscure allusion found in works like Milton's Lycidas, and he preferred poetry that could be easily read.^[174] In addition to his views on language, Johnson believed that a good poem would incorporate new and unique imagery.^[175]

In his shorter works, Johnson preferred shorter lines and to fill his work with a feeling of empathy, which possibly influenced Alfred Edward Housman's poetry.^[176] In London, his first imitation of Juvenal, Johnson uses the form to express his political opinion. It is a poem of his youth and deals with the topic in a playful and almost joyous manner.^[177] However, his second imitation, The Vanity of Human Wishes, is completely different; the language remains simple, but the poem is more complicated and difficult to read because Johnson is trying to describe Christian ethics.^[178] These Christian values are not unique to the poem, but are part of Johnson's works as a whole. In particular, Johnson emphasises God's infinite love and that happiness can be attained through virtuous action.^[179]

In terms of biography, Johnson did not agree with Plutarch's model of using biographies to teach morals and compliment the subjects. Instead, Johnson believed in portraying the subjects accurately, including any negative aspects of an individual's life. Although revolutionary and more accurate as a biographer, Johnson had to struggle with his beliefs against a society that was unwilling to hear of details that may be viewed as tarnishing a reputation.^[180] In Rambler 60, Johnson put forth why he thought society could not be comfortable with hearing the negative truth of individuals that they admire:^[181] Also, Johnson did not feel that biography should be limited to the most important people, but felt that the lives of lesser individuals could be deemed the most significant.^[182] In his Lives of the Poets, he chose great and lesser poets, and throughout all of his biographies, he always insisted on included what others may consider as trivial details in order to fully describe the lives of his subjects.^[183] When it came to autobiography, and diaries including his own, Johnson considered that genre of work as one having the most significance; he explains this in Idler 84, when he described how a writer of an autobiography would be the least likely to distort their own life.^[184]

Johnson's thoughts on biography and on poetry found their union in his understanding of what would make a good critic. His works were dominated with his intent to used them for literary criticism, including his Dictionary to which he wrote: "I lately published a Dictionary like those compiled by the academies of Italy and France, for the use of such as aspire to exactness of criticism, or elegance of style".^[185] Although the smaller dictionary was written for the masses and become the common household dictionary, Johnson's original dictionary was an academic tool that examined how words were used, especially those uses that were found in literary works. To achieve this purpose, Johnson included quotations from Bacon, Hooker, Milton, Shakespeare, Spenser, and many others from the literary fields that Johnson thought were most important: natural science, philosophy, poetry, and theology. These quotes and usages were all compared and carefully studied, so that others could understand what words meant in literature.^[186]

Later critics would attempt to create theories to analyze the aesthetics of literature, but Johnson was not a theorist and he used his ideas only for the practical purpose in order to better read the works.^[187] When it came to Shakspeare's plays, Johnson emphasised the role of a reader in understanding language when he wrote, "If Shakespeare has difficulties above other writers, it is to be imputed to the nature of his work, which required the use of common colloquial language, and consequently admitted many phrases allusive, elliptical, and proverbial, such as we speak and hear every hour without observing them".^[188]

His works on Shakespeare were not devoted just to Shakespeare, but to critical theory as a whole, and, in his Preface to Shakespeare, Johnson rejects the previous belief of the classical unities and instead believed that drama should be faithful to life.^[189] However, Johnson did not just defend Shakespeare; he was willing to discuss Shakespeare's faults, especially his lack of morality, his vulgarity, his carelessness in crafting plots, and his sometimes inattentiveness when choosing words or word order.^[190] As well as direct literary criticism, Johnson emphasised the need to establish a text that accurately reflects what an author wrote. Shakespeare's plays, in particular, had multiple editions, each of which contained errors caused by the printing process. This problem was compounded by careless editors who deemed difficult words as incorrect, and changed them in later editions. Johnson believed that an editor should not alter the text in such a way.^[191]

[edit] Character sketch

Main articles: Samuel Johnson's politics and Samuel Johnson's ethical views

“	After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, 'I refute it thus.'[192]	”
– Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

His tall and robust figure combined with his odd gestures were confusing to some; when William Hogarth first saw Johnson standing near a window in Samuel Richardson's house, "shaking his head and rolling himself about in a strange ridiculous manner", Hogarth thought Johnson an "ideot, whom his relations had put under the care of Mr. Richardson".^[193] Hogarth was quite surprised when "this figure stalked forwards to where he and Mr. Richardson were sitting and all at once took up the argument ... [with] such a power of eloquence, that Hogarth looked at him with astonishment, and actually imagined that this ideot had been at the moment inspired".^[193] Not everyone was misled by Johnson's appearance; Adam Smith claimed that "Johnson knew more books than any man alive",^[194] while Edmund Burke thought that if Johnson were to join Parliament, he "certainly would have been the greatest speaker that ever was there".^[195] Johnson relied on a unique form of rhetoric, and he is well known for his "refutation" of Bishop Berkeley's immaterialism and his claim that matter did not actually exist but only seemed to exist:^[196] during a conversation with Boswell, Johnson powerfully stomped a nearby stone and proclaimed of Berkeley's theory, "I refute it thus!"^[192]

Johnson was a devout, conservative Anglican and a compassionate man who supported a number of poor friends under his own roof even when unable to fully provide for himself.^[37] Johnson's Christian morality permeated his works, and he would write on moral topics with such authority and in such a trusting manner that, Walter Jackson Bate claims, "no other moralist in history excels or even begins to rival him".^[197] However, Johnson's moral writings do not contain, as Donald Greene points out, "a predetermined and authorized pattern of 'good behavior'" even though Johnson does emphasise certain kinds of conduct.^[198] He also would not let his own faith prejudice himself against others, and would respect those of other denominations who demonstrated a commitment to Christ's teachings.^[199] Although Johnson respected John Milton's poetry, he could not tolerate Milton's Puritan and Republican beliefs, feeling that they were contrary to England and Christianity.^[200] He was an opponent of slavery on moral grounds, and once proposed a toast to the "next rebellion of the negroes in the West Indies".^[201] Beside his beliefs concerning humanity, Johnson is also known for his love of cats,^[202] especially his own two cats, Hodge and Lily.^[202] Boswell wrote, "I never shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat."^[203]

Although Johnson was also known as a staunch Tory, he admitted to sympathies for the Jacobite cause during his younger years but, by the reign of George III, he came to accept the Hanoverian Succession.^[204] It was Boswell who gave people the impression that Johnson was an "arch-conservative", and it was Boswell, more than anyone else, who determined how Johnson would be seen by people years later. However, Boswell was not around for two of Johnson's most political active periods: during Walpole's control over British Parliament and during the Seven Year's war. Although Boswell was present with Johnson during the 1770s and describes four major pamphlets written by Johnson, he neglects to discuss them because he is more interested in their travels to Scotland. This is compounded by the fact that Boswell held an opinion contradictory to two of these pamphlets, The False Alarm and Taxation No Tyranny, and so attacks Johnson's views in his biography.^[205]

In his Life of Samuel Johnson Boswell referred to Johnson as Dr Johnson so often that Johnson would always be known as Dr Johnson, even though Johnson hated being called such. In addition to this, Boswell's emphasis on Johnson's later years depicted Johnson as only an old man who would involve himself in taverns, although this depiction is appealing.^[206] Although Boswell, a Scotsman, was a close companion and friend to Johnson during many important times of his life, Johnson, like many of his fellow Englishmen, had a reputation for depising Scotland and its people. Even during their journey together through Scotland, Johnson "exhibited prejudice and a narrow nationalism".^[207] Hester Thrale, in summarising Johnson's nationalistic views and his anti-Scottish prejudice, said, "We all know how well he loved to abuse the Scotch, & indeed to be abused by them in return".^[208]

[edit] Health

Main article: Samuel Johnson's health

Johnson had several health problems, including childhood tuberculous scrofula, gout, testicular cancer, and a stroke in his final year that left him unable to speak; his autopsy indicated that he had pulmonary fibrosis along with cardiac failure probably due to hypertension, a condition then unknown. Although Johnson overall was probably as healthy as others of his generation,^[210] he had two notable conditions: depression and Tourette syndrome.

It is widely accepted that Johnson had Tourette syndrome (TS),^[211] a condition unknown during Johnson's lifetime. Johnson displayed signs of TS as described by the writings of Boswell, who mentions a number of tics and other involuntary movements.^[212][213] According to Boswell "he commonly held his head to one side ... moving his body backwards and forwards, and rubbing his left knee in the same direction, with the palm of his hand.... [H]e made various sounds" like "a half whistle" or "as if clucking like a hen", and "... all this accompanied sometimes with a thoughtful look, but more frequently with a smile. Generally when he had concluded a period, in the course of a dispute, by which time he was a good deal exhausted by violence and vociferation, he used to blow out his breath like a Whale."^[214] There are many similar accounts; in particular, Johnson was said to "perform his gesticulations" at the threshold of house or in doorways.^[215] When asked by a little girl why he made such noises and acted in that way, Johnson responded: "From bad habit."^[214]

A 1967 report^[216] was the first to diagnosis Johnson with the syndrome;^[217] the posthumous diagnosis is based on various accounts of Johnson displaying physical tics, "involuntary vocalisations" and "compulsive behaviour".^[218] TS researcher Arthur K. Shapiro declared, "Samuel Johnson ... is the most notable example of a successful adaptation to life despite the liability of Tourette syndrome".^[219] Details provided by the writings of Boswell, Hester Thrale, and others reinforce the diagnosis, with one paper concluding:

... he also displayed many of the obsessional-compulsive traits and rituals which are associated with this syndrome. ... It may be thought that without this illness Dr Johnson's remarkable literary achievements, the great dictionary, his philosophical deliberations and his conversations may never have happened; and Boswell, the author of the greatest of biographies would have been unknown.^[220]

There are many accounts of Johnson suffering from bouts of depression and what Johnson thought might be madness. As Walter Jackson Bate puts it, "one of the ironies of literary history is that its most compelling and authoritative symbol of common sense—of the strong, imaginative grasp of concrete reality—should have begun his adult life, at the age of twenty, in a state of such intense anxiety and bewildered despair that, at least from his own point of view, it seemed the onset of actual insanity".^[221] To overcome these feelings, Johnson tried to constantly involve himself with various activities, but this did not seem to help. Taylor said that Johnson "at one time strongly entertained thoughts of Suicide".^[222][223] Boswell claimed that Johnson "felt himself overwhelmed with an horrible melancholia, with perpetual irritation, fretfulness, and impatience; and with a dejection, gloom, and despair, which made existence misery".^[224]

Early on, when Johnson was unable to pay off his debts, he began to work with professional writers and identified his own situation with theirs.^[225] During this time, Johnson witnessed Christopher Smart's decline into "penury and the madhouse", and feared that he might share the same fate.^[225] Hester Thrale Piozzi claimed, in a discussion on Smart's mental state, that Johnson was her "friend who feared an apple should intoxicate him".^[125] To Hester Thrale, what separated Johnson from others who were placed in asylums for madness—like Christopher Smart—was his ability to keep his concerns and emotions to himself.^[125]

[edit] Legacy

Johnson was, in the words of Steven Lynn, "more than a well-known writer and scholar"; he was a celebrity.^[226] The events during his later years were constantly reported in various journals and newspapers, and when there were no credible sources, some papers decided to make up an account.^[227] Immediately following Johnson's death in December 1784, many accounts of his life were published by his contemporaries and friends: Thomas Tyers wrote A Biographical Sketch of Dr Samuel Johnson, the first posthumous short-biography of Johnson, for the December 1784 issue of The Gentleman's Magazine;^[228] James Boswell immediately followed this with his The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, his companion piece to Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, in 1785; Hester Thrale relied on her diary, titled Thraliana,^[229] and other notes to write the Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, published on 26 March 1786, although the more important Thraliana remained unpublished for over 100 years;^[230] John Hawkins published his Life of Samuel Johnson, the first full-length biography of Johnson, which was included with a collection of Johnson's Works in March 1787;^[231] Boswell finally published his Life of Samuel Johnson in 1791; and, in 1792, Arthur Murphy replaced Hawkins's biography as the lead to a collection of Johnson's Works with his biography and critical review An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson.^[232] Another important source was Fanny Burney, who described Johnson as "the acknowledged Head of Literature in this kingdom" and kept a diary containing details missing from other biographies.^[233] Above all, Boswell's work, along with Boswell's portrayal of Johnson, is one of the most celebrated biographies in history and the biography on Johnson best known by general readers. Although critics like Donald Greene argue about its status as a true biography, the work became successful as Boswell and his friends promoted it at the expense of the many other works on Johnson's life.^[234]

In criticism, Johnson had a lasting influence, although not everyone viewed him favourably. Some, like Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, regarded Johnson as an idiot savant who produced some respectable works, and others, like the Romantic poets, were completely opposed to Johnson's views on poetry and literature, especially in regards to John Milton.^[235] However, not every Romantic felt this way as Stendhal's Racine et Shakespeare is based in part on Johnson's views of Shakespeare.^[189] Later, Johnson's works came into favour, and Matthew Arnold, in his Six Chief Lives from Johnson's "Lives of the Poets", considered the Lives of John Milton, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, Jonathan Swift, and Thomas Gray as "points de repère" or "points which stand as so many natural centres, and by returning to which we can always find our way again."^[236]

More than one hundred years after Johnson's death, literature figures such as George Birkbeck Norman Hill and T. S. Eliot came to regard Johnson as a serious critic. They began to study Johnson's works with an increasing focus on the critical analysis found in his edition of Shakespeare and Lives of the Poets.^[235] Yvor Winters claimed that "A great critic is the rarest of all literary geniuses; perhaps the only critic in English who deserves that epithet is Samuel Johnson".^[237] F. R. Leavis agreed and, on Johnson's criticism, said, "When we read him we know, beyond question, that we have here a powerful and distinguished mind operating at first hand upon literature. This, we can say with emphatic conviction, really is criticism".^[238] Edmund Willson claimed that "The Lives of the Poets and the prefaces and commentary on Shakespeare are among the most brilliant and the most acute documents in the whole range of English criticism".^[239] It is no wonder that his philosophical insistence that the language within literature must be examined became a prevailing mode of literary theory during the mid-20th century.^[240]

Johnson has made many appearances in fiction since his death. In 1923, John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir wrote the novel Midwinter, which depicted a fictional moment in Johnson's life when he went to fight for the Jacobites during Second Jacobite Rebellion.^[241] In 1987, Johnson (played by Robbie Coltrane) was featured in the third series of the BBC television show Blackadder (in the episode titled Ink and Incapability) presenting his A Dictionary of the English Language to Prince George for his patronage, resulting in it being thrown on a fire by the servant Baldrick, to serve as kindling.^[242] In 1993, Coltrane played Johnson again, in the BBC Two movie Boswell & Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles.^[243] In 1999, the BBC Four television channel started the Samuel Johnson Prize, an award for non-fiction.^[244]

There are many societies formed around and dedicated to the study and enjoyment of Samuel Johnson's life and works. They include: The Johnson Society (of Lichfield, England); The Johnson Society of London; The Johnsonians (in the eastern US); The Johnson Society of the Central Region (a combination of the Johnson Society of the Great Lakes Region and the Johnson Society of the Midwest); The Johnson Society of the North West (comprising the western Canadian provinces and the northwest United States); The Johnson Society of Evansville (in Indiana); The Johnson Society of Southern California; and The Johnson Society of India. On the bicentennial of Johnson's death in 1984, Oxford University held a week-long conference featuring fifty papers, and the Arts Council of Great Britain held an exhibit of "Johnsonian portraits and other memorabilia". The London Times and Punch produced parodies of Johnson's style for the occasion.^[245]

[edit] Major works

	Essays, pamphlets, periodicals, sermons
1732–33	Birmingham Journal
1747	Plan for a Dictionary of the English Language
1750–52	The Rambler
1753–54	The Adventurer
1756	Universal Visiter
1756-	The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review
1758–60	The Idler (1758–1760)
1770	The False Alarm
1771	Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands
1774	The Patriot
1775	A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
	Taxation No Tyranny
1781	The Beauties of Johnson
	Poetry
1728	Messiah, a translation into Latin of Alexander Pope's Messiah
1738	London
1747	Prologue at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury Lane
1749	The Vanity of Human Wishes
	Irene, a Tragedy
	Biographies, criticism
1744	Life of Mr Richard Savage
1745	Miscellanious Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth
1756	"Life of Browne" in Thomas Browne's Christan Morals
	Proposals for Printing, by Subscription, the Dramatick Works of William Shakespeare
1765	Preface to the Plays of William Shakespeare
	The Plays of William Shakespeare
1779–81	Lives of the Poets
	Dictionary
1755	Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language
	A Dictionary of the English Language
	Novellas
1759	The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Samuel Johnson at the Open Directory Project
• Life Of Johnson by James Boswell, abridged by Charles Grosvenor Osgood in 1917 "... omitt[ing] most of Boswell's criticisms, comments and notes, all of Johnson's opinions in legal cases, most of the letters, ..." (Project Gutenberg)
• Samuel Johnson Page, links collected by Rutgers scholar Jack Lynch.
• The Samuel Johnson Project and sculpture initiative in Lichfield.
• The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page, comprehensive collection of Samuel Johnson quotations
• Works by or about Samuel Johnson in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Works by Samuel Johnson at Project Gutenberg

v • d • e Samuel Johnson Topics Early life  · Ethical views  · Health  · Literary criticism  · Politics People Francis Barber  · James Boswell  · David Garrick  · John Hawkins  · Arthur Murphy  · Elizabeth Porter  · Henry Thrale  · Hester Thrale  · Hodge Essays and periodicals Birmingham Journal  · The Gentleman's Magazine  · The Idler  · The Rambler Biography and criticism Life of Mr Richard Savage  · Lives of the Poets  · Miscellaneous Observations or Miscellanious Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth  · Proposals for an Edition of Shakespeare  · Preface to Shakespeare  · The Plays of William Shakespeare Misc. Prose A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland  · A Dictionary of the English Language  · Fiction and poetry Messiah  · London  · Irene  · The Vanity of Human Wishes  · The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia Other A Dictionary of the English Language  · Letter to Chesterfield  · A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland Contemporary accounts A Biographical Sketch of Dr Samuel Johnson (1784)  · The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)  · Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson (1786)  · Life of Samuel Johnson (1787)  · Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)  · An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson (1792)  · Thraliana (1942)

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v • d • e Topics related to Tourette syndrome Main Causes and origins · History · Sociological and cultural aspects · Treatment Terms Coprolalia · Copropraxia · Echolalia · Echopraxia · Palilalia · Sensory phenomena · Tic · Tic disorder · Tourettism History Jean-Martin Charcot  · Georges Gilles de la Tourette  · Jean Marc Gaspard Itard  · Arthur K. Shapiro Organizations Tourette Syndrome Association · Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada · Tourettes Action Media I Have Tourette's but Tourette's Doesn't Have Me · John's Not Mad · The Tic Code · "Le Petit Tourette" · Motherless Brooklyn Notable people Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf · Howard Ahmanson, Jr · Pete Bennett · Brad Cohen · Jim Eisenreich · Tim Howard · Samuel Johnson · Andre Malraux · Tobias Picker · Nick van Bloss · Michael Wolff

Persondata
NAME	Johnson, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dr Johnson
SHORT DESCRIPTION	English poet, biographer,, essayist, lexicographer
DATE OF BIRTH	September 18 [O.S. September 7] 1709
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lichfield, England
DATE OF DEATH	December 13, 1784
PLACE OF DEATH	London, England