of the branches of the noble family of that name, who had been quartered at Lichfield as an officer of the army, and had at this time a house in London, where Johnson was frequently entertained, and had an opportunity of meeting genteel company. Not very long before his death, he mentioned this, among other particulars of his life, which he was kindly communicating to me; and he described this early friend "Harry Hervey," thus: "He was a vicious man', but very kind to me. If you call a dog HERVEY, I shall love him." He told me he had now written only three acts of his IRENE, and that he retired for some time to lodgings at Greenwich, where he proceeded in it somewhat further, and used to compose, walking in the Park; but did not stay long enough at that place to finish it. scribed with his own name, that he had not yet been introduced to Mr. Cave. We shall presently see what was done in consequence of the proposal which it contains. In the course of the summer he returned to Lichfield 2, where he had left Mrs. Johnson, and there he at last finished his tragedy, which was not executed with his rapidity of composition upon other occasions, but was slowly 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 handwriting, and gave it to Mr. Langton, by whose favour a copy of it is now in my possession. It contains fragments of the intended plot, and speeches for the different persons of the drama, partly in the raw materials of prose, partly worked up into verse; as also a variety of hints for illustration, borrowed from the Greek, Roman, and modern writers. The handwriting is very difficult to be read, even by those who were best 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 curiosity, Mr. SIR, Having observed in your papers very uncommon offers of encouragement to men of let-Langton made a fair and distinct copy of it, which he ordered to be bound up with the original and the printed tragedy; and the volume is deposited in the King's library.3 His Majesty was pleased to permit Mr. Lang ton to take a copy of it for himself. At this period we find the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave, which, as a link in the chain of his literary history, it is proper to insert : — JOHNSON TO CAVE. "Greenwich, next door to the Golden Heart, Church Street, July 12. 1737. ters, I have chosen, being a stranger in London, to communicate to you the following design, which, I hope, if you join in it, will be of advantage to both of us. unarranged, a good dramatic poet might avail himself with considerable advantage. I shall give my readers some specimens of different kinds, distinguishing them by the italic cha "The History of the Council of Trent having been lately translated into French, and published The whole of it is rich in thought and imwith large notes by Dr. Le Courayer, the repu- agery, and happy expressions; and of the distation of that book is so much revived in England,jecta membra scattered throughout, and as yet that, it is presumed, a new translation of it from the Italian, together with Le Courayer's notes from the French, could not fail of a favourable reception. “If it be answered, that the History is already in English, it must be remembered that there was the same objection against Le Courayer's undertaking, with this disadvantage, that the French had a version by one of their best translators, whereas you cannot read three pages of the English history without discovering that the style is capable of great improvements; but whether those improvements are to be expected from this attempt, you must judge from the specimen, which, if you approve the proposal, I shall submit to your examination. "Suppose the merit of the versions equal, we may hope that the addition of the notes will turn the balance in our favour, considering the repu tation of the annotator. "Be pleased to favour me with a speedy answer, if you are not willing to engage in this scheme; and appoint me a day to wait upon you, if you are. I am, Sir, your humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." It should seem from this letter, though sub edition of London contained a sneer at Lord Hervey (Henry's brother), for whose name that of Clodio was afterwards substituted. CROKER. For the excesses which Dr. Johnson justly characterises as vicious, Mr. Hervey was, perhaps, as much to be pitied as bmed. He was very eccentric. See antè, p. 5. n. 1. His eldest brother was the celebrated Lord Hervey, Pope's Sprus; the next, Thomas, of whom we shall see more here racter. "Nor think to say, here will I stop, Here will I fix the limits of transgression, And quit their charge to horror and to ruin.” A small part only of this interesting admothink, not to advantage: nition is preserved in the play, and is varied, I "The soul once tainted with so foul a crime, No more shall glow with friendship's hallow'd Those holy beings whose superior care Resign their charge to baseness and to ruin." after (Oct. 1766), was also very clever but very mad. CROKER. 2 Or more probably to Edial, where it seems Mrs. Johnson had remained. CROKER. 3 The library of King George III was given, as I always have thought, under very erroneous advice, by George IV., to the British Museum. Surely the Sovereign should not have been left without a private library.- CROKER. "That power that kindly spreads "A thousand horrid prodigies foretold it; MAHOMET (to IRENE). "I have tried thee, and joy to find that thou deservest to be loved by Mahomet, with a mind great as his own. Sure, thou art an error of nature, and an exception to the rest of thy sex, and art immortal; for sentiments like thine were never to sink into nothing. I thought all the thoughts of the fair had been to select the graces of the day, dispose the colours of the flaunting (flowing) robe, tune the voice and roll the eye, place the gem, dress, and add new roses to the fading cheek, but sparkling." Thus in the tragedy: — choose the "Illustrious maid, new wonders fix me thine; I shall select one other passage, on account of the doctrine which it illustrates. Ing observes, "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 answered, That variety cannot affect that Being, who, infinitely happy in his own perfections, wants no external gratifications; nor though he may guide or pity those he leaves in darkcan infinite truth be delighted with falsehood; that ness, he abandons those who shut their eyes against the beams of day." Johnson's residence at Lichfield, on his return to it at this time, was only for three months; and as he had as yet seen but a small part of the wonders of the metropolis, he had little to tell his townsmen. He related to me [Sept. 20. 1773] the following minute anecdote of this period:- "In the last age, when my mother lived in London, there were two sets of people, those who gave the wall and those who took it; the peaceable and the quarrelsome. 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 dispute." 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 some time in Woodstock Street, near Hanover Square, and afterwards in Castle Street, near Cavendish Square. As there is something pleasingly interesting, to many, in tracing so great a man through all his different habitations, I shall [here] present my readers with an exact list of his lodgings and houses, in order of time, which, in placid condescension to my respectful cu. riosity, he one evening [Oct. 10. 1779] dictated to me, but without specifying how long he lived at each. 1. Exeter-street, Catherine-street, Strand [1737]. 2. Greenwich [1797. 3. Woodstock-street, near Hanover-square [1737). 4. Castle-street, Cavendish-square, No. 6. [1738]. 5. Boswell-court. 6. Strand. discovered it, the year in which Johnson first appears in any of these residences.- CROKER 3 In a letter dated March 31. 1741, Johnson states that be has recently removed to the Black Boy in the Strand, over against Durham Yard."- CHOKER. ticular parts of his works. To some, this minute attention may appear trifling; but when we consider the punctilious exactness with which the different houses in which Milton resided have been traced by the writers of his life, a similar 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 desirous that it should be brought forward. Mr. Peter Garrick told me, that Johnson and he went together to the Fountain tavern, and read it over, and that he afterwards solicited Mr. Fleetwood, the patentee of Drury Lane theatre, to have it acted at his house; 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 Garrick was manager of that theatre. 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 saw St. John's Gate, the place where that deservedly popular miscellany was originally printed, he "beheld it with reverence." I suppose, indeed, that every young author has had the same kind of feeling for the magazine or periodical publication which has first entertained him, and in which he has first had an opportunity to see himself in print, without the risk of exposing his name. I myself recollect such impressions from the Scots Magazine, which was begun at Edinburgh in the year 1739, and has been ever conducted with judgment, 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 still greater lustre by the various admirable essays which he wrote for it. Though Johnson was often solicited by his friends to make a complete list of his writings, and talked of doing it, I believe with a serious intention that they should 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 remembered every one of them, as they were so numerous, so various, and scattered in such a multiplicity of unconnected publications; nay, several of them published under the names of other persons, to whom he liberally contributed from the abundance of his mind. We must, therefore, be content to discover them, partly from occasional information given by him to his friends, and partly from internal evidence.2 His first performance in the Gentleman's Magazine, which for many years was his principal source of employment and support, was a copy of Latin verses, in March, 1738, addressed to the editor in so happy a style of compliment, that Cave must have been destitute both of taste and sensibility, had he not felt himself highly gratified.3 Ad URBANUM.❤ URBANE, nullis fesse laboribus, URBANE, nullis victe calumniis, Cui fronte sertum in erudità Perpetuò viret et virebit; Quid moliatur gens imitantium, Quid et minetur, solicitus parùm, Vacare solis perge Musis, Juxta animo studiisque felix. Linguæ procacis plumbea spicula, Fidens, superbo frange silentio ; Victrix per obstantes catervas Sedulitas animosa tendet. Intende nervos, fortis, inanibus Risurus olim nisibus æmuli; Intende jam nervos, habebis Participes operæ Camœnas. Non ulla Musis pagina gratior, Quam quæ severis ludicra jungere Novit, fatigatamque nugis Utilibus recreare mentem. 1 Johnson never could have said seriously that he looked at St. John's Gate as the printing-office of Cave, with reverence. The Gentleman's Magazine had been, at this time, but six years before the public, and its contents were, even when JohnBon himself had contributed to improve it, not much entitled to reverence: Johnson's reverence would have been more justly excited by the recollections connected with the ancient Gate itself, the last relic of the once extensive and magnificent Priory of the heroic knights of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, suppressed at the Dissolution, and destroyed by successive dilapidations? Its last prior, Sir William Weston, though compensated with the annual pension (enormous in those days) of 10007., died of a broken heart, on Ascensionday, 1540, the very day the house was suppressed. - CROKER, 1831. I learn with pleasure that this relique of antiquity, which is much dilapidated, is about to be carefully restored. -CROKER, 1846. 2 While, in the course of my narrative, I enumerate his writings, I shall 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 asterisk (*) those 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 ascribed to him I shall give my reasons. BOSWELL. 3 Taste and sensibility were very certainly not the distinguishing qualities of Cave; but was this ode, indeed, "a happy style of compliment?" Are "fronte sertum in erudita Lingue plumbea spicula" - Victrix per obstantes catervas " Lycoris and Iris — the rose-the violet-and the rainbow-in any way appropriate to the printer of St. John's Gate, his magazine, or his antagonists? How Johnson would in later life have derided, in another, such misapplied pedantry! Mr. Murphy surmises that "this ode may have been suggested to the mind of Johnson, who had meditated a history of the modern Latin poets (see antè, p. 22.), by Casimir's ode to Pope Urban, 'Urbane regum maxime, maxime Urbane vatum.'"-CROKER. Texente nymphis serta Lycoride, Ethereis variata fucis.1 S. J. be respectably recorded in the literary annals of this country. He was descended of an ancient family in Scotland; but having a small patrimony, and being an adherent of the unIt appears that he was now enlisted by Mr. fortunate house of Stuart, he could not accept Cave as a regular coadjutor in his magazine, of any office in the State; he therefore came by which he probably obtained a tolerable to London, and employed his talents and livelihood. At what time, or by what means, learning as an "author by profession." His he had acquired a competent knowledge both writings in history, criticism, and politics, of French and Italian, I do not know; but had considerable merit. He was the first he was so well skilled in them, as to be suf- English historian who had recourse to that ficiently qualified for a translator. That part authentic source of information, the Parliaof his labour which consisted in emendation mentary Journals; and such was the power of and improvement of the productions of other his political pen, that, at an early period, contributors, like that employed in levelling government thought it worth their while to ground, can be perceived only by those who keep it quiet by a pensions, which he enjoyed till his death. Johnson esteemed him enough had an opportunity of comparing the original with the altered copy. What we certainly to wish that his life should be written. The know to have been done by him in this way debates in Parliament, which were brought was the debates in both houses of Parliament, home and digested by Guthrie, whose memory, under the name of "The Senate of Lilliput,' ,"3 though surpassed by others who have since sometimes with feigned denominations of the followed him in the same department, was yet several speakers, sometimes with denominations very quick and tenacious, were sent by Cave to Johnson for his revision; and, after some formed of the letters of their real names, in the manner of what is called anagram, so that time, when Guthrie had attained to greater they might easily be deciphered. Parliament variety of employment, and the speeches were then kept the press in a kind of mysterious more and more enriched by the accession of awe, which made it necessary to have re- Johnson's genius, it was resolved that he should course to such devices. In our time it has do the whole himself, from the scanty notes acquired an unrestrained freedom, so that the furnished by persons employed to attend in people in all parts of the kingdom have a fair, both houses of Parliament. Sometimes, howopen, and exact report of the actual proceed- ever, as he himself told me, he had nothing ings of their representatives and legislators, more communicated to him than the names of the several speakers, and the part which they which in our constitution is highly to be valued; though, unquestionably, there has of late been had taken in the debate. too much reason to complain of the petulance with which obscure scribblers have presumed to treat men of the most respectable character and situation. This important article of the Gentleman's Magazine was, for several years, executed by Mr. William Guthrie, a man who deserves to 1 A translation of this Ode, by an unknown correspondent, appeared in the Magazine for the month of May following. "Hall, Urban! indefatigable man," &c. &c.- BOSWELL. The following translation, attributed by Mr. Nichols to Mr. Jackson of Canterbury, is less vapid than that quoted by Boswell, and appeared in the year of Johnson's death, 1784: — "Urban, whom neither toll profound Fatigues, nor calumnies o'erthrow ;- Of what they threaten or prepare; Thy hours still let the muses share. Thy vigorous diligence shall rise. Approach the muses' fav'ring train. Where grave with sprightly themes are join'd; And recreate the wearied mind. CHAPTER VI. Thus the pale violet to the rose Adds beauty 'midst the garland's dyes! Its varied splendours o'er the skies."- CROKER. As to 3 They appeared under this title, for the first time, in June 1738; but as to Johnson's share in them, we shall see more presently. CROKER. 4 How much poetry he wrote I know not; but he informed me that he was the author of the beautiful little piece, "The Eagle and Robin Redbreast," in the collection of poems entitled, "The Union," though it is there said to be written by Alexander Scott, before the year 1600.- BosWELL. Mr. P. Cunningham has seen a letter of Jos. Warton's, which states that this poem was written by his brother Tom, who edited the volume.-CROKER. 1846. 5 See, in D'Israeli's Calamities of Authors, vol. i. p. 5., a letter from Guthrie to the minister, dated June 3, 1762. stating that a pension of 2007. a-year had been regularly and quarterly" paid him ever since the year 1745-6. Guthrie was born at Brechin, in 1708, and died in 1770. CROKER. THUS was Johnson employed during some of the best years of his life, as a mere literary labourer “for gain, not glory," solely to obtain an honest support. He, however, indulged himself in occasional little sallies, which the French so happily express by the term jeux d'esprit, and which will be noticed in their order, in the progress of this work. But what first displayed his transcendent powers, and "gave the world assurance of the man," was his "London, a Poem, in imitation of the third Satire of Juvenal;" which came out in May this year, and burst forth with a splendour, the rays of which will for ever encircle his name. Boileau had imitated the same satire with great success, applying it to Paris; but an attentive comparison will satisfy every reader, that he is much excelled by the English Juvenal. Oldham had also imitated it, and applied it to London; all which performances concur to prove, that great cities, in every age, and in every country, will furnish similar topics of satire. Whether Johnson had previously read Oldham's imitation I do not know; but it is not a little remarkable, that there is scarcely any coincidence found between the two performances, though upon the very same subject. The only instances are, in describing London as the sink of foreign worthlessness: "the common shore, There are in Oldham's imitation, many prosaic verses and bad rhymes, and his poem sets out with a strange inadvertent blunder: 66 Though much concern'd to leave my old dear friend, I must, however, his design commend It is plain he was not going to leave his friend; his friend was going to leave him. A young lady at once corrected this with good critical sagacity, to "Though much concern'd to lose my old dear friend." There is one passage in the original better transfused by Oldham than by Johnson: "Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se, Quàm quod ridiculos homines facit —” which is an exquisite remark on the galling meanness and contempt annexed to poverty. Johnson's imitation is, "Of all the griefs that harass the distrest, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.' Oldham's, though less elegant, is more just,— Nothing in poverty so ill is borne, As its exposing men to grinning scorn." Where or in what manner this poem was composed, I am sorry that I neglected to ascertain with precision from Johnson's own authority. He has marked upon his corrected copy of the first edition of it, "Written in 1738;" and, as it was published in the month of May in that year, it is evident that much time was not employed in preparing it for the press. The history of its publication I am Where France does all her filth and ordure pour." enabled to give in a very satisfactory manner; and judging from myself, and many of my friends, I trust that it will not be uninteresting to my readers. We may be certain, though it is not expressly named in the following letters to Mr. Cave, in 1738, that they all relate to it: JOHNSON TO CAVE. "Castle Street, Wednesday Morning. [March, 1738.] "SIR,When I took the liberty of writing to you a few days ago, I did not expect a repetition of this same pleasure so soon; for a pleasure I shall always think it, to converse in any manner with an ingenious and candid man: but having the enclosed poem in my hands to dispose of for the benefit of the author (of whose abilities I shall say nothing, since I send you his performance), I believe I could not procure more advantageous terms from shield from the sneer of English ridicule, what was, some time ago, too common a practice in my native city of Edin burgh! "If what I've said can't from the town affright, D |