without discovering that the ftyle is capable of great improvements; but whether those improvements are to be expected from this attempt, you must judge from the fpecimen, which, if you approve the propofal, I fhall submit to your examination. Suppofe the merit of the versions equal, we may hope that the addition of the Notes will turn the balance in our favour, confidering the reputation of the Annotator. "Be pleased to favour me with a speedy answer, if you are not willing to engage in this fcheme; and appoint me a day to wait upon you, if you I am, Sir, are. 1737. Ætat. 28. "Your humble fervant, "SAM. JOHNSON." It should seem from this letter, though subscribed with his own name, that he had not yet been introduced to Mr. Cave. We fhall presently see what was done in confequence of the propofal which it contains. In the course of the fummer he returned to Lichfield, where he had left Mrs. Johnson, and there he at last finished his tragedy, which was not executed with his rapidity of compofition upon other occasions, but was flowly and painfully elaborated. A few days before his death, while burning a great mass of papers, he picked out from among them the original unformed sketch of this tragedy, in his own hand-writing, and gave it to Mr. Langton, by whofe favour a copy of it is now in my poffeffion. It contains fragments of the intended plot, and speeches for the different perfons of the drama, partly in the raw materials of profe, partly worked up into verse; as also a variety of hints for illustration borrowed from the Greek, Roman, and modern writers. The hand-writing is very difficult to be read, even by those who were beft acquainted with Johnson's mode of penmanship, which at all times was very particular. The King having graciously accepted of this manuscript as a literary curiofity, Mr. Langton made a fair and diftinct copy of it, which he ordered to be bound up with the original and the printed tragedy; and the volume is depofited in the King's library. His Majefty was pleased to permit Mr. Langton to take a copy of it for himself. The whole of it is rich in thought and imagery, and happy expreffions; and of the disjeta membra fcattered throughout, and as yet unarranged, a good dramatick poet might avail himself with confiderable advantage. I shall give my readers fome fpecimens of different kinds, diftinguishing them by the Italick character. A small part only of this interesting admonition is preserved in the play, and is varied, I think, not to advantage: Flush in my cheek, and wander in my veins. "Teach me the Grecian arts of foft perfuafion." "Sure this is love, which heretofore I conceived the dream of idle maids, and wanton poets.” "Though no comets or prodigies foretold the ruin of Greece, figns which heaven must by another miracle enable us to understand, yet might it be forefhown, by tokens no less certain, by the vices which always bring it on." This last paffage is worked up in the tragedy itself, as follows: LEONTIU S. That power that kindly spreads "The clouds, a fignal of impending fhowers, DEMETRIUS. DEMETRIUS. "A thousand horrid prodigies foretold it; MAHOMET (to IRENE). "I have tried thee, and joy to find that thou deferveft to be loved by Mahomet,-with a mind great as his own. Sure, thou art an errour of nature, and an exception to the rest of thy fex, and art immortal; for fentiments like thine were never to fink into nothing. I thought all the thoughts difpofe the colours of the of the fair had been to felect the graces of the day, flaunting (flowing) robe, tune the voice and roll the eye, place the gem, choose the drefs, and add new rofes to the fading cheek, but-sparkling.” Thus in the tragedy: "Illustrious maid, new wonders fix me thine; Difpofe the colours of the flowing robe, "And add new colours to the faded cheek." I fhall felect one other paffage, on account of the doctrine which it illuftrates. IRENE obferves, "that the Supreme Being will accept of virtue, whatever outward circumstances it may be accompanied with, and may be delighted with varieties of worship;—but is anfwered, that variety cannot affect that Being, who infinitely 1737 L 1737. infinitely happy in his own perfections, wants no external gratifications; nor can Etat, 28. infinite truth be delighted with falfhood; that though he may guide or pity thofe be leaves in darkness, he abandons those who shut their eyes against the beams of day." Johnson's refidence at Lichfield, on his return to it at this time, was only for three months; and as he had as yet feen but a small part of the wonders of the metropolis, he had little to tell his townfmen. He related to me the following minute anecdote of this period: "In the laft age, when my mother lived in London, there were two fets of people, those who gave the wall, and those who took it; the peaceable and the quarrelfome. When I returned to Lichfield, after having been in London, my mother asked me, whether I was one of those who gave the wall, or those who took it. Now it is fixed that every man keeps to the right; or, if one is taking the wall, another yields it; and it is never a difpute 4." He now removed to London with Mrs. Johnson; but her daughter, who had lived with them at Edial, was left with her relations in the country. His lodgings were for fome time in Woodstock-street, near Hanoverfquare, and afterwards in Castle-street, near Cavendish-square. As there is fomething pleasingly interefting, to many, in tracing fo great a man through all his different habitations, I fhall, before this work is concluded, present my readers with an exact lift of his lodgings and houses, in order of time, which, in placid condefcenfion to my refpectful curiofity, he one evening dictated to me, but without specifying how long he lived at each. In the progrefs of his life I fhall have occafion to mention some of them as connected with particular incidents, or with the writing of particular parts of his works. To fome, this minute attention may appear trifling; but when we confider the punctilious exactnefs with which the different houfes in which Milton resided have been traced by the writers of his life, a fimilar enthusiasm may be pardoned in the biographer of Johnson. His tragedy being by this time, as he thought, completely finished and fit for the stage, he was very defirous that it should be brought forward. Mr. Peter Garrick told me, that Johnfon and he went together to the Fountain tavern, and read it over, and that he afterwards folicited Mr. Fleetwood, the patentee of Drury-lane theatre, to have it acted at his houfe; but Mr. Fleetwood would not accept it, probably because it was not patronised by some man of high rank; and it was not acted till 1749, when his friend David 1738. Garrick was manager of that theatre. Atat. 29. "THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE," begun and carried on by Mr. Edward Cave, under the name of SYLVANUS URBAN, had attracted the notice and esteem of Johnson, in an eminent degree, before he came to London as an adventurer in literature. He told me, that when he first faw St. John's Gate, the place where that defervedly popular mifcellany was originally printed, he "beheld it with reverence." I fuppofe, indeed, that every young authour has had the fame kind of feeling for the magazine or periodical publication which has first entertained him, and in which he has first had an opportunity to fee himself in print, without the risk of expofing his name. I myself recollect fuch impreffions from "THE SCOTS MAGAZINE," which was begun at Edinburgh in the year 1739, and has been ever conducted with judgement, accuracy, and propriety. I yet cannot help thinking of it with an affectionate regard. Johnson has dignified the Gentleman's Magazine, by the importance with which he invests the life of Cave; but he has given it ftill greater luftre by the various admirable Effays which he wrote for it. Though Johnson was often folicited by his friends to make a complete list of his writings, and talked of doing it, I believe with a ferious intention that they fhould all be collected on his own account, he put it off from year to year, and at last died without having done it perfectly. I have one in his own handwriting, which contains a certain number; I indeed doubt if he could have recollected every one of them, as they were fo numerous, fo various, and fcattered in such a multiplicity of unconnected publications; nay, several of them published under the names of other perfons, to whom he liberally contributed from the abundance of his mind. We must, therefore, be content to discover them, partly from occafional information given by him to his friends, and partly from internal evidence'. His first performance in the Gentleman's Magazine, which for many years was his principal resource for employment and support, was a copy of Latin verses, in March, 1738, addreffed to the editor in so happy a style of compliment, that Cave must have been destitute both of taste and sensibility, had had he not felt himfelf highly gratified. 5 While in the course of my narrative I enumerate his writings, I fhall take care that my readers shall not be left to waver in doubt, between certainty and conjecture, with regard to their authenticity; and, for that purpose, shall mark with an afterisk (*) thofe which he acknowledged to his friends, and with a dagger (†) those which are ascertained to be his by internal evidence. When any other pieces are afcribed to him, I fhall give my reafons. *Ad |