Samuel Johnson
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2008-07-16T18:18:03Z
Ottava Rima
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{{otherpeople|Samuel Johnson}}
{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]] -->
| name = Samuel Johnson [[Doctor of Laws|LLD]] [[Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin)|MA]]
| image = Samuel_Johnson_by_Joshua_Reynolds.jpg
| caption = ''Samuel Johnson'' c. 1772, <br/>painted by Sir [[Joshua Reynolds]]
| birthdate = 18 September 1709 <br>{{smaller|([[Old Style and New Style dates|O.S.]] 7 September)}}
| birthplace = [[Lichfield]], [[England]]
| deathdate = 13 December 1784 (age 75)
| deathplace = [[London]], [[England]]
| occupation = [[essayist]], [[lexicographer]] < br/> [[biographer]], [[poet]]
| spouse = [[Elizabeth Porter|Elizabeth Jervis Porter]]
}}
'''Samuel Johnson ''' (often referred to as '''Dr Johnson''') (18 September 1709 {{smaller|<nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Old Style and New Style dates|O.S.]] 7 September]}} – 13 December 1784) was an essayist, poet, biographer, [[lexicographer]] and a critic of [[English literature]]. He was born in [[Lichfield]], [[Staffordshire]] and spent many of his early years in the surrounding community. On coming of age he attended [[Pembroke College, Oxford]] for a year, before being forced to leave because he could not afford to support himself there. Lacking a degree, he struggled to find employment in the field of education, and eventually travelled to London, where he began his career as a writer. While in London he wrote essays for ''[[The Gentleman's Magazine]]'', and completed his ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language]]''.
After publication of his ''Dictionary'', Johnson enjoyed years of popularity and success. He continued to write for various London periodicals and started producing an edition of [[William Shakespeare]]'s plays. During this time, he met [[James Boswell]] along with [[Henry Thrale]] and [[Hester Thrale]], arguably the three most important people in Johnson's later life. With Boswell, he traveled to Scotland and wrote ''[[A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland]]''. Towards the end of his life, he produced his ''[[Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets]]'' series. After a series of illnesses, Johnson died on the evening of 13 December 1784; he was buried in [[Westminster Abbey]].
Although Johnson is well known for ''A Dictionary of the English Language'' and ''Lives of Poets'', he is best known from [[James Boswell]]'s biography, the ''[[Life of Johnson]]''. Boswell encouraged interest in Johnson's life, and biographies on Johnson have become their own specialized field within Johnson scholarship.<ref>{{Harvnb|Johnson|2000|p= xi}}</ref> Many of Johnson's friends, including Boswell, [[Hester Thrale|Hester Thrale Piozzi]] and [[Frances Burney|Fanny Burney]], kept detailed accounts of his life, which provided the basis for the many later critical claims about Johnson's life and works. His friends' descriptions of his behaviour and mannerisms have also informed the posthumous diagnoses of [[Tourette syndrome]] and [[OCD|obsessive-compulsive disorder]], conditions [[History of Tourette syndrome|unknown to 18th-century physicians]].
==Biography==
There are many biographies and biographers of Samuel Johnson, but James Boswell's ''Life of Samuel Johnson'' is the one best known to the general reader.<ref name="Boswell p.7">{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 7}}</ref> Opinion among 20th-century Johnson scholars such as Edmund Wilson and Donald Greene is that Boswell's ''Life'' "can hardly be termed a biography at all", being merely "a collection of those entries in Boswell's diaries dealing with the occasions during the last twenty-two years of Johnson's life on which they met ... strung together with only a perfunctory effort to fill the gaps".<ref name="Boswell p.7"/><!-- sourced from introduction --> Furthermore, Greene claimed that the work "began with a well-organized press campaign, by Boswell and his friends, of puffing and of denigration of his rivals; and was given a boost by one of Macaulay's most memorable pieces of journalistic claptrap".<ref name="Boswell p.7"/>
The cause for concern is that Boswell's original ''Life'' "corrects" many of Johnson's quotations, censors many of the more vulgar comments, and largely ignores Johnson's early years.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 25}}</ref> Modern biographers have since corrected Boswell's errors.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 26}}</ref> However, that is not to say that Boswell's work is wrong or of no use; instead, those like Walter Jackson Bate appreciate the "detail" and the "treasury of conversation" that is contained in Boswell's ''Life''.<ref name="Bate p.xx">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=xx}}</ref> All of Johnson's biographers, according to Bate , have to go through the same "igloo" of material that Boswell had to deal with: limited information from Johnson's first forty years and an extreme amount for those after.<ref name="Bate p.xx"/> Simply put, "Johnson's life continues to hold attention" and "every scrap of evidence relating to Johnson's life has continued to be examined and many more details have been added" because "it is so close to general human experience in a wide variety of ways".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=3}}</ref>
===Early life and education===
Samuel Johnson was born in [[Lichfield]], [[Staffordshire]], at 4:00 pm on Wednesday, 18 September 1709. His parents were Michael Johnson, a bookseller, and his wife, Sarah Ford.<ref name="Bate p. 5">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=5}}</ref> Michael was the first bookseller of "reputation" in the community, and when he was 40 opened a parchment factory which produced book bindings.<ref name="Lane p. 13">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p= 13}}</ref> At the age of 29 Michael had planned to marry Mary Neild, but she broke off the engagement.<ref name="Bate p. 12">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=12}}</ref> Twenty years later, in 1706, he married Sarah Ford, daughter of Cornelius Ford, from a middle-class milling and farming family. He was 49 and she was 37.<ref name="Bate p. 12"/><ref name="Lane p. 14">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=14}}</ref> Although both families had money, Johnson always 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.<ref name="Lane p. 13"/>
[[Image:Johnson house Lichfield.jpg|thumb|180px|upright|left|Johnson's birthplace in Market Square, [[Lichfield]]]]
Johnson was born in the family home above Michael's bookshop, near Market Square in Lichfield, across from St. Mary's Church.<ref name="Bate p. 5"/> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|pp=15–16}}</ref> The baby was named Samuel, after Sarah's brother Samuel Ford.<ref name="Bate p. 5"/> 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".<ref name="Watkins p.25">{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=25}}</ref> As it was feared the baby might die, the vicar of St Mary's was summoned to perform a baptism.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=16}}</ref> Two godfathers were chosen: Dr. Samuel Swynfen, a physician and graduate of Pembroke College, and Richard Wakefield, a lawyer, coroner and Lichfield town clerk.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|pp=5–6}}</ref>
Johnson's health improved and he was placed in the nursing care of Joan Marklew.<ref name="Lane pp. 16-17">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|pp=16–17}}</ref> During this period he contracted what is believed to have been [[scrofula]],<ref name="Lane pp. 16-17"/> known at that time as the "King's Evil". [[John Floyer|Sir John Floyer]], a former physician to [[Charles II]], recommended that the young Johnson should be "touched",<ref name="Lane p. 18">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=18}}</ref> which he was by [[Anne of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] on 30 March 1712, at [[St James's Palace]].<ref name="Lane pp. 19-20">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|pp=19–20}}</ref> Johnson was given a ribbon in memory of the event, which he claimed to have worn for the rest of his life.<ref name="Lane pp. 19-20"/> However, the touching was ineffective, and so an operation was performed, leaving him with permanent scarring across his face and body.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=20}}</ref> After Johnson was brought home, Sarah gave birth to a second boy named Nathaniel, which put financial strain on the family.<ref name="Lane pp. 20-21">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|pp=20–21}}</ref> Michael was unable to keep on top of the debts he had accumulated over the years, and his family was no longer able to enjoy the lifestyle that it had previously enjoyed.<ref name="Lane pp. 20-21"/>
{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 0em; font-size: 85%; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="0"
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: top; font-size: large; color: gray;" | “
|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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p=38}}</ref>
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: large; color: gray" | ”
|-
|colspan=3 style="text-align:center;" |— Boswell's ''Life of Samuel Johnson''
|}
Johnson demonstrated signs of intelligence as a child, and his parents, to Johnson's later disgust, showed off his "newly acquired accomplishments".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|pp=18–19}}</ref> His initial education began at the age of three, and came from his mother who had him memorize and recite passages from the [[Book of Common Prayer]].<ref name="Bate p. 21">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=21}}</ref> When Johnson turned four, he was sent to a nearby "school" on Dam Street; 'Dame' Anne Oliver, the proprietor, gave lessons to young children in the living-room of a cottage.<ref name="Bate p. 21"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p= 25}}</ref> Johnson especially enjoyed his time with Dame Oliver, and later remembered her fondly.<ref name="Bate p. 21"/> When Johnson reached the age of six, he was sent to a retired shoemaker to continue his education.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|pp=25–26}}</ref> A year later, having demonstrated his intelligence, he was sent to [[Lichfield Grammar School]], where he excelled in Latin under Humphrey Hawkins, his teacher in the lower school.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=22}}</ref><ref name="Lane p. 26">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p= 26}}</ref> He was promoted to the upper school at the age of nine,<ref name="Lane p. 26"/> to be tutored by Edward Holbrooke.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=29}}</ref> Johnson's memories of the school differed from his experience with Dame Oliver because the school was directed by Reverend John Hunter, a man known for both his scholarship and, like Holbrooke, his brutality.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=31}}</ref><ref> {{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=27}}</ref> However, life at the school was not a complete loss, and Johnson befriended Edmund Hector, nephew of his "man-midwife" George Hector, and John Taylor, two men with whom he stayed in contact later in his life.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=23, 31}}</ref>
At the age of 16 Johnson was given the opportunity to stay with his cousins, the Fords, at [[Pedmore]], [[Worcestershire]].<ref name="Lane p. 29">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p= 29}}</ref> There he became friendly with Cornelius Ford, the son of his mother's brother, named after Johnson's grandfather.<ref name="Lane p. 29"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=43}}</ref> Ford had a successful career in academia and in society, and he knew many people such as [[Alexander Pope]].<ref name="Lane p. 30">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p= 30}}</ref> It is thought that Ford's knowledge of the classics was employed during this time for the betterment of his cousin.<ref name="Lane p. 30"/> However, Ford was a notorious alcoholic whose excesses contributed to his death, six years after Johnson's visit, in mid-August 1731.<ref name="Lane p. 30"/> Later, Johnson was to remember Ford in his ''Lives of the Poets'', saying that his abilities, "instead of furnishing convivial merriments to the voluptous and dissolute, might have enabled him to excel among the virtuous and the wise."<ref>Johnson ''Life of Fenton''</ref> After six months with his cousins Johnson returned to Lichfield, but Hunter refused to allow him to continue at the grammar school.<ref name="Lane p. 33">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p= 33}}</ref>
Unable to return to Lichfield Grammar School, Johnson was enrolled into Stourbridge Grammar School.<ref name="Lane p. 33"/> Because the school was located near Pedmore, Johnson was able to spend more time with the Fords.<ref name="Lane p. 33"/> During his time at the school he wrote many poems and produced many verse translations.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=61}}</ref> However, he spent only six months at Stourbridge before returning once again to Lichfield.<ref name="Lane p. 34"> {{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=34}}</ref> For companionship, Johnson spent time with Edmund Hector and John Taylor, two of his schoolfriends, and he soon fell in love with Hector's younger sister, Ann.<ref name="Lane p. 34"/> This first love was not to last, and Johnson later claimed to Boswell, "She was the first woman with whom I was in love. It dropped out of my head imperceptibly, but she and I shall always have a kindness for each other."<ref name="Lane p. 34"/>
During this time it was uncertain what Johnson's future would be, as although Michael Johnson was doing well, being a senior bailiff in Lichfield, he was still in debt.<ref name="Lane p. 34"/> In order to earn some money Johnson began stitching books for his father, although he was ill-suited to the work because of his poor eyesight, resulting from his childhood illness.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|pp=34–35}}</ref> It is possible that Johnson spent most of his time in his father's bookshop reading various works and building his literary knowledge.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=35}}</ref> During this time, Johnson met Gilbert Walmesley, the Registrar of the Ecclesiastical Court and a frequent visitor to the bookshop.<ref> {{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=36}}</ref> Walmesley took a liking to Johnson, and the two discussed various intellectual topics for the two years Johnson spent working in the shop.<ref name=Lane p. 38">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p= 38}}</ref> Their relationship did not last; one of Sarah Johnson's relatives, Elizabeth Harriotts, died in February 1728, leaving Sarah a bequest of £40, which was used to send Johnson back to school.<ref name=Lane p. 38"/><ref name="Bate p.87">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=87}}</ref>
===College===
On 31 October 1728, a few weeks after he turned 19, Johnson entered [[Pembroke College, Oxford]] as a fellow-commoner.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=39}}</ref> The inheritance from Mrs Harriotts did not cover all of his expenses at Pembroke, but Andrew Corbet, a friend and member of Pembroke, offered to make up the deficit.<ref name="Bate p. 88">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=88}}</ref> Corbet left Pembroke soon after Johnson arrived, so this source of aid disappeared.<ref name="Bate p. 88"/> To meet the expenses, Michael Johnson allowed his son to take a hundred books from his bookshop, at a great cost to himself.<ref name="Bate p. 88"/>
[[Image:Pembroke Lodge.jpg|thumb|180px|left|Entrance of Pembroke College, Oxford]]
On the day of Johnson's entrance interview for Pembroke, his anxious father introduced him to his future tutor, William Jorden, hoping to impress the tutor.<ref name="Bate p. 89">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=89}}</ref> During the interview, his father was "very full of the merits of his son, and told the company he was a good scholar, and a poet, and wrote latin verses", which caused Johnson significant embarrassment.<ref name="Boswell p. 44">{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p=44}}</ref> This was to be unnecessary; Johnson's interview went so well that one of the interviewers, a 26-year-old William Adams (Jorden's cousin, later Master of Pembroke), claimed that Johnson was "the best qualified for the University that he had ever known come there".<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p=43}}</ref> Throughout the interview, Johnson sat quietly while listening to his father and the interviewers, until he interrupted and quoted [[Macrobius]].<ref name="Boswell p. 44"/> The interviewers were surprised that "a School-boy should know Macrobius", and he was accepted into the school.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1969|p=23}}</ref>
While at Pembroke he made many friends, but neglected a number of mandatory lectures, and ignored calls for poems.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=90}}</ref> However, he did complete one poem, the first of his tutorial exercises, on which he spent comparably significant time (that of two rereads), and which provoked surprise and applause.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=91}}</ref> He was later asked by his tutor, William Jorden, to produce a Latin translation of [[Alexander Pope]]'s ''Messiah'' as a Christmas exercise.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp=91–92}}</ref> Johnson completed half of the translation in one afternoon and the rest the following morning.<ref name="Bate p. 92">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=92}}</ref> Although the poem brought him praise, it did not bring him the material benefit he had hoped for.<ref name="Bate p. 92"/> The poem was brought to Pope's attention; according to Sir John Hawkins, Pope claimed that he could not tell if it was the original or not.<ref name="Bate p. 92"/> However, John Taylor, his friend, dismissed this "praise" because Johnson's father had already published the translation before Johnson sent a copy to Pope, and Pope could have been remarking about it being a duplication of the published edition.<ref name="Bate p. 92"/> Regardless, Pope remarked that the work was very finely done, but that did not prevent Johnson from being violently angry at his father's actions in preempting his sending Pope a copy of the poem.<ref name="Bate p. 93">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=93}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Bate p. 93"/> Johnson spent the rest of his time studying, even over the Christmas vacation.<ref name="Bate p. 94">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p= 94}}</ref> He drafted a "plan of study" called "Adversaria", which was left unfinished,<ref name="Bate p. 94"/> and used his time to learn French while working on his knowledge of Greek.<ref name="Bate p. 94"/>
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| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: top; font-size: large; color: gray;" | “
| Dr Adams told me that Johnson, while he was at Pembroke College, 'was caressed and loved by all about him, was a gay and frolicksome fellow, and passed there the happiest part of his life.' But this is a striking proof of the fallacy of appearances, and how little any of us know of the real internal state even of those whom we see most frequently; for the truth is, that he was then depressed by poverty, and irritated by disease. When I mentioned to him this account as given me by Dr Adams, he said, 'Ah, Sir, I was mad and violent. It was bitterness which they mistook for frolick. I was miserably poor, and I thought to fight my way by my literature and my wit; so I disregarded all power and all authority.'<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 47}}</ref>
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: large; color: gray" | ”
|-
| colspan=3 style="text-align: center;" | — Boswell's ''Life of Samuel Johnson''
|}
Although he later praised Jorden, his tutor, Johnson came to odds with him over what he considered to be Jorden's "meanness" of abilities.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=95}}</ref> He discouraged his friend Taylor, who came to Pembroke in March, from having Jorden as his tutor, and Taylor was soon encouraged to go to Christ Church to be taught by Edmund Bate man.<ref name="Bate p. 96">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=96}}</ref> Johnson appreciated Bate man's skill as a lecturer, and he would often travel to meet Taylor to discuss the lectures.<ref name="Bate p. 96"/> However, Johnson lacked the funds to even replace his own shoes, and so he started to make the journey barefoot.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=104}}</ref> In response, those of Christ Church began to mock Johnson, and he soon kept to his own room for the rest of his time at Pembroke, with Taylor visiting him instead.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp=104–105}}</ref>
After thirteen months, poverty forced Johnson to leave Oxford without taking a degree, and he returned to Lichfield.<ref name="Bate p. 87">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=87}}</ref> During Johnson's last weeks at Oxford, Jorden left Pembroke, and Johnson was given William Adams as a tutor in his place.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=106}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=107}}</ref>
Just before the publication of his ''Dictionary'' in 1755, [[Oxford University]] awarded Johnson the degree of Master of Arts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|pp=128–129}}</ref> He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1765 by [[Trinity College Dublin]] and in 1775 by [[Oxford University]].<ref name="Bate Achievement p. 36">{{Harvnb|Bate|1955|p=36}}</ref> In 1776, he returned to Pembroke with Boswell and toured the school with his previous tutor Adams, who was then the school's Master.<ref name="Bate p. 99">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=99}}</ref> He used that visit to recount his time at the college, his early career, and to express his later fondness for Jorden.<ref name="Bate p. 99"/>
===Early career ===
[[Image:GoughSquare-No.17.jpg|thumb|right|180px|[[Dr Johnson's House]], 17 Gough Square, London]]
There is little record of Johnson's life between 1730 and 1731; he most likely lived with his parents while experiencing bouts of mental anguish.<ref name="Bate p. 127">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=127}}</ref> By 1731 his father was deeply in debt, and had lost much of his standing in Lichfield.<ref name="Bate p. 127"/> 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.<ref name="Bate p. 127"/> Instead, he stayed at the home of Gregory Hickman, Cornelius Ford's half brother, writing poetry.<ref name="Bate p. 128">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=128}}</ref> During that time, he heard news that Cornelius had died in London, on 22 August 1731, which devastated him;<ref name="Bate p. 128"/> later, in his personal "Annales", he claimed that moment as one of the most important of his life.<ref name="Bate p. 128"/>
At about the same time, Johnson's father became ill, and had developed an "inflammatory fever" by the end of the year.<ref name="Bate p. 129">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=129}}</ref> He died in December 1731 and was buried at St. Michael's Church on 7 December 1731.<ref name="Bate p. 129"/> There was no will, and Johnson received only £20 out of Michael's estate of £60.<ref name="Bate p. 129"/> In an act "almost like religious penance", Johnson honoured his father's memory 50 years later by returning to his father's bookstall in Uttoxeter to make amends for his refusal to work the stall while his father lay dying.<ref name="Bate p. 129"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=56}}</ref> Richard Warner kept Johnson's account of the scene:
{{quote|... a postchaise to Uttoxeter, and going into the market at the time of high business, uncovered my head, and stood with it bare an hour before the stall which my father had formerly used, exposed to the sneers of the standers-by and the inclemency of the weather.<ref>{{Harvnb|Warner|1802|p=105}}</ref>}}
Johnson eventually found employment as undermaster at a school in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire.<ref name="Bate p. 130">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=130}}</ref> He was paid £20 a year, enough to support himself.<ref name="Bate p. 130"/> The school was run by Sir Wolstan Dixie, who allowed Johnson to teach even though he did not have a degree.<ref name="Bate p. 130"/> The unconventional Dixie allowed Johnson to live at his own mansion, Bosworth Hall.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp=130–131}}</ref> Although the arrangement may seem congenial, Johnson was treated as:
{{quote|... a kind of domestick chaplain, so far, at least, as to say grace at table, but was treated with what he represented as intolerable harshness; and, after suffering for a few months such complicated misery, he relinquished a situation which all his life afterwards he recollected with the strongest aversion, and even a degree of horrour."<ref>{{Harvnb|Hopewell|1950|p=53}}</ref>
[[Image:Johnson Wife.jpg|thumb|180px|left|Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter, Johnson's wife]]
However, the actual profession of teaching was more pleasing to Johnson even though he thought it boring.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=131}}</ref> By June 1732, he had returned home, and, after a fight with Dixie, quit the school and stayed at Lichfield while searching for a new opening at the local schools.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=132}}</ref>
After being turned down for a position in Ashbourne, Johnson spent time with his friend, Hector.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp=132–134}}</ref> Hector lived in the home of [[Thomas Warren]], on High Street Birmingham, and Johnson was invited to stay there as a guest in the autumn of 1732.<ref name="Bate p. 134">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=134}}</ref> Warren was at that time starting his ''[[Birmingham Journal (eighteenth century)|Birmingham Journal]]'', and he enlisted Johnson's help to produce the paper.<ref name="Bate p. 134"/> Johnson wrote essays for the paper, but no copies survive.<ref name="Bate p. 134"/> His stay with Hector and Warren was not to last, and Johnson moved into the house of a man named Jarvis on 1 June 1733.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=136}}</ref> During this time, Johnson started to slip into a "state of 'absence'" and he began to treat his friends with "abuse".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=137}}</ref>
His connection with Warren continued to grow, and Johnson proposed to translate [[Jeronimo Lobo]]'s account of the Abyssinians.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp=137–138}}</ref> Johnson read Abbe Joachim Le Grand's French translations, and he thought that a shorter version might be "useful and profitable".<ref name="Bate p. 138">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=138}}</ref> Johnson began work on his edition and finished a section of the work which was taken to be printed during the winter of 1733–1734.<ref name="Bate p. 138"/> To finish the rest, Johnson dictated directly to Hector, who then took the copy to the printer and made any corrections.<ref name="Bate p. 138"/> Johnson was paid £5 for what amounted to a month's work.<ref name="Bate p. 138"/> A year later in 1735, Johnson's ''A Voyage to Abyssinia'' was finally published.<ref name="Bate p. 138"/>
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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp=140–141}}</ref> Johnson began on 15 June 1743 and printed a ''Proposal'' for the work on 5 August 1734.<ref name="Bate p. 141">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=141}}</ref> However, the project did not receive enough funds and it was soon brought to an end.<ref name="Bate p. 141"/>
[[Image:Edial Hall School.jpg|thumb|240px|right|[[Edial Hall School]]]]
Johnson was close to a man named Harry Porter, and remained with him during his terminal illness.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=144}}</ref> Porter died on 3 September 1734, leaving his wife, [[Elizabeth Porter|Elizabeth Jervis Porter]] (otherwise known as "Tetty"), widowed at the age of 41, with three children.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=143}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1969|p=88}}</ref> Johnson was inexperienced in terms of relationships, but the well-to-do widow encouraged him and provided for him with her substantial savings.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=145}}</ref> Johnson married Elizabeth on 9 July 1735, at St. Werburgh's Church in Derby.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=147}}</ref> The Porter family did not approve of the match, partly because Johnson was 25 and Elizabeth was 21 years his elder.<ref name="Bate p. 146">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=146}}</ref> His mother's marriage to Johnson so disgusted her son Jervis that he stopped talking to her.<ref name="Bate p. 146"/> However, her other son, Joseph, later accepted the marriage, and her daughter, Lucy, accepted Johnson from the start.<ref name="Bate p. 146"/>
Johnson decided in June 1735 that he could be a successful teacher if he ran his own school.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=153}}</ref> In the autumn of 1735, Johnson opened a [[Edial Hall School|private academy]] at [[Edial]], near Lichfield.<ref name="Bate p. 154">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=154}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Bate p. 154"/> 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.<ref name="Bate p. 154"/> In the June and July (1736) editions of the ''Gentleman's Magazine'', Johnson advertised the school:
{{quote|At Edial, near Litchfield, in Staffordshire, Young Gentlemen are Boarded, and Taught the Latin and Greek Languages, by Samuel Johnson}}
However, this proved fruitless, and Johnson began writing his first major work, the historical tragedy ''Irene'', in hopes of earning money; the play did not earn Johnson the money he had hoped for until it was produced by Garrick in 1749.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=156}}</ref><ref name="Lane p. 114">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=114}}</ref>
{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="0"
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: top; font-size: large; color: gray;" | “
| From Mr Garrick's account he did not appear to have been profoundly reverenced by his pupils. His oddities of manner, and uncouth gesticulations, could not but be the subject of merriment to them; and in particular, the young rogues used to listen at the door of his bed-chamber, and peep through the key-hole that they might turn into ridicule his tumultuous and awkward fondness for Mrs Johnson, whom he used to name by the familiar appellation of ''Tetty'' or ''Tetsey''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p=52}}</ref>
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: large; color: gray" | ”
|-
| colspan=3 style="text-align: center;" | — Boswell's ''Life of Samuel Johnson''
|}
On 2 March 1737, penniless, Johnson left for London with his former pupil David Garrick.<ref name="Bate p. 164">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=164}}</ref> Besides being poor, the journey became worse when Johnson received word that his brother, Nathaniel, had died when they first began their trip to London.<ref name="Bate p. 164"/> However, their prospects were not completely hopeless, as Garrick was set to inherit £1,000 when he reached the age of 21, in one year's time.<ref name="Bate p. 164"/> Garrick also had connections in London, and the two would stay with his distant relative, Richard Norris, who lived on Exeter Street.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=165}}</ref> Johnson did not stay there long, and set out to Greenwich near the Golden Hart Tavern to finish ''Irene''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp=168–169}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=169}}</ref> In October 1737, Johnson brought his wife to London; they first lived at Woodstock Street and then moved to 6 Castle Street.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp=169–170}}</ref> Soon, Johnson found employment with Cave, and wrote for his ''[[The Gentleman's Magazine]]''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=170}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1955|p=14}}</ref>
In May of 1738, his first major work, a poem called ''London'', was published anonymously.<ref name="Dictionary p. 5">{{Harvnb|Johnson|2003|p= 5}}</ref> The work was based on [[Satires of Juvenal#Satire III: There is no Room in Roma for a Roman|Juvenal's Third Satire]] and replaces the "Spokesman" for "Thales" who travels to Wales in order to escape from the problems of London.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=172}}</ref> Although critics such as [[T. S. Eliot]] took the work as evidence that Johnson was a major poet, and [[Sir Walter Scott]] wrote that the poem "has often extracted tears from those whose eyes wander dry over pages profoundly sentimental", Johnson could not bring himself to regard the poem as granting him any merit as a poet.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1955|p=18}}</ref> Alexander Pope claimed that the author "will soon be déterré", although it did not immediately happen.<ref name="Dictionary p. 5"/>
Soon after, in August, Johnson was denied a position as master of a school at Appleby because a Masters degree was required for candidates to be eligible for the position.<ref name="Watkins p.25">{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=25}}</ref> To ensure that he would not suffer rejection again, Pope asked Lord Gower to have a degree from Dublin awarded to Johnson.<ref name="Watkins p.25"/> Lord Gower then wrote to Jonathan Swift, but Swift refused to act on Johnson's behalf.<ref>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|pp=25–26}}</ref> Regardless of Swift's motivation in not acting on Johnson's behalf, or how Johnson reacted to Swift's actions, it is known that Johnson did not appreciate Swift as a poet, writer, or a satirist.<ref>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=26}}</ref> There is, however, one exception, and that is for Swift's ''[[Tale of a Tub]]'', to which he doubted Swift's authorship.<ref>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=27}}</ref>
Between 1737 and 1739, Johnson became close to [[Richard Savage]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p= 51}}</ref> Feeling guilty for his own poverty, Johnson stopped living with his wife and spent time with Savage.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=178}}</ref> Together, they would roam the streets at night without enough money to stay in taverns or sleep in "night-cellars".<ref name="Bate p. 179">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=179}}</ref> Savage was both a poet and a playwright, and Johnson was reported to enjoy spending time and discussing various topics with him, along with drinking and other merriment.<ref name="Bate p. 179"/> However, poverty eventually caught up with Savage, and Pope, along with Savage's other friends, gave him an "annual pension" in return for him agreeing to move to Wales.<ref name="Bate p. 181">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=81}}</ref> Savage ended up in Bristol however, and once again fell into debt by reliving his former London lifestyle.<ref name="Bate p. 181"/> He was soon in debtor's prison and died in 1743.<ref name="Bate p. 181"/> A year later, Johnson wrote ''Life of Savage'' (1744), a "moving" work that, according to Walter Jackson Bate , "remains one of the innovative works in the history of biography".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=180}}</ref>
===A Dictionary===
{{main|A Dictionary of the English Language}}
[[Image:Dictionary2.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Johnson's ''Dictionary'' Vol. 1 (1755) title page]]
Although it is commonly thought that Johnson's dictionary was ''the'' dictionary, his was not the first English dictionary or one that was particularly unique.<ref name="Dictionary p. 1">{{Harvnb|Johnson|2003|p=1}}</ref> Furthermore, other dictionaries, like Nathan Bailey's ''Dictionarium Britannicum'', were much larger.<ref name="Dictionary p. 1"/> In the preceding 150 years there had been about twenty "English" dictionaries produced. The first, published in 1538, was a small Latin–English dictionary by [[Thomas Elyot|Sir Thomas Elyot]].<ref name="Dictionary p. 2">{{Harvnb|Johnson|2003|p=2}}</ref> [[Robert Cawdrey]]'s ''Table Alphabeticall'', published in 1604, was the first monolingual English dictionary.<ref name="Hitchings"/> In the 18th century, dictionaries became expensive, and the various dictionaries, like John Kersey's ''A New English Dictionary'' (1702), began to offer shorter definitions.<ref name="Dictionary p. 3">{{Harvnb|Johnson|2003|p=3}}</ref> The dictionaries that stood out against this trend were Nathan Bailey's ''An Universal Etymological English Dictionary'' (1721) and ''Dictionarium Britannicum'' (1730), which attempted to describe the origins of various English words.<ref>{{Harvnb|Johnson|2003|pp=3–4}}</ref>
Although many dictionaries were available, there was open dissatisfaction with them.<ref name="Dictionary p. 4">{{Harvnb|Johnson|2003|p=4}}</ref> 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."<ref name="Dictionary p. 4"/> What Johnson's dictionary does offer are insights into the 18th century and "a faithful record of the language people used".<ref name="Dictionary p. 1"/> Furthermore, Johnson's ''Dictionary'' is more than a reference book; it serves as a work of literature unto itself.<ref name="Dictionary p. 2"/>
In 1746, a group of publishers approached Johnson about creating a dictionary.<ref name="Dictionary p. 5"/> On the morning of 18 June 1746, Johnson, over breakfast at the Golden Anchor tavern in London, signed a contract with [[William Strahan]] and associates to produce an authoritative dictionary of the English language. The contract stated that Johnson was to be paid 1,500 [[Guinea (British coin)|guinea]]s (£1,575),<ref name="Hitchings">{{Harvnb|Hitchings|2005|p=}}</ref><ref name="Dictionary p. 5"/> the equivalent of about £135,000 in modern terms,<ref name=CC>{{cite web |title=Currency converter |publisher=The National Archives | url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/}} Retrieved on 13 July 2008.</ref> in instalments based on delivery of manuscript pages; all expenses relating to the project—ink, paper, assistants, etc.—to be Johnson's responsibility and to be paid for by him.<ref name="Hitchings"/> Johnson claimed that he could finish the project in three years.<ref name="Dictionary p. 5"/> 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."<ref name="Dictionary p. 5"/> Although he did not succeed in completing the work in three years, he managed to finish it in nine, justifying his boast.<ref name="Dictionary p. 5"/>
[[Image:Dictionary3.jpg|left|thumb|180px|Johnson's ''Dictionary'' Vol. 2 (1755) title page]]
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 constant noise and clutter.<ref name="Lane p. 109">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=109}}</ref> He was constantly busy with his work, and kept hundreds of books around at any given time.<ref name="Lane p. 109"/> John Hawkins described the scene as: "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."<ref>{{Harvnb|Hawkins|1787|p=175}}</ref> However, Johnson was also distracted by Tetty's health, as she started to show signs of a terminal illness.<ref name="Lane p. 109"/> In order to accommodate both his wife and his work, he moved to Gough Square near his printer, William Strahan.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=110}}</ref>
To prepare for the work, Johnson wrote a ''Plan'' for the ''Dictionary''. This ''Plan'' was patronized by [[Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield]] but not to Johnson's pleasure.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|pp=117–118}}</ref> Chesterfield did not care about praise, but was instead interested by Johnson's abilities.<ref name="Lane p. 118">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=118}}</ref> Seven years after first meeting Johnson to go over the work, Chesterfield wrote two anonymous essays in ''The World'' that recommended the ''Dictionary''.<ref name="Lane p. 118"/> He complained that the English language was lacking structure and argued in support of the dictionary.<ref name="Lane p. 121">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=121}}</ref> Johnson did not appreciate the tone of the essay, and he felt that Chesterfield did not fulfill his obligations as the work's patron.<ref name="Lane p. 121"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Johnson|1952|pp=}} No. 56</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=257}}</ref>
Besides working on the ''Dictionary'', Johnson also wrote various essays, sermons, and poems during these nine years.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=113}}</ref> He decided to produce a series of essays under the title ''[[The Rambler]]'' that would run every Tuesday and Saturday for twopence each.<ref name="Lane p. 115">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=115}}</ref> When explaining the title, he told 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."<ref name="Lane p. 115"/> These essays, often on moral and religious topics, tended to be more grave than the title of the series would suggest;<ref name="Lane p. 115"/> his first comments in ''The Rambler'' were to state "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".<ref name="Lane p. 115"/> The popularity of ''The Rambler'' took off once the issues were collected as a volume as they were reprinted nine times during Johnson's life.<ref name="Lane p. 116">{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=116}}</ref> Richardson, enjoying the essays greatly, questioned the publisher as to who wrote the works, and he, with a few of Johnson's friends, was given the knowledge as to Johnson's authorship.<ref name="Lane p. 116"/>
{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="0"
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: top; font-size: large; color: gray;" | “
| 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.'<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p=67}}</ref>
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: large; color: gray" | ”
|-
| colspan=3 style="text-align: center;" | — Boswell's ''Life of Samuel Johnson''
|}
However, not all of his work was confined to ''The Rambler''.<ref name="Bate Achievement p. 22">{{Harvnb|Boswell|1955|p=22}}</ref> One such work, ''The Vanity of Human Wishes'', was written with such "extraordinary speed" that Boswell claimed Johnson "might have been perpetually a poet."<ref name="Bate Achievement p. 22"/> The poem was critically celebrated but it failed to become popular.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|pp=113–114}}</ref> He was paid only 15 guineas for the poem and it sold less than his ''London''.<ref name="Lane p. 114"/> 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".<ref name="Lane p. 114"/> The show ran for nine nights.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1955|p=17}}</ref> Although the production's run had a rough start, Johnson received nearly £300 in total for the manuscript and the performances.<ref name="Lane p. 114"/>
Johnson's wife died shortly after the final issue appeared. 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 a title page noting the fact that Oxford had awarded Johnson a Master of Arts degree in anticipation of the work.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=256, 318}}</ref> The published dictionary was a huge book. With pages nearly 1½ feet (46 cm) tall and {{convert|20|in|cm|0}} wide, it contained 42,773 words. It sold for the huge price of £4 10s, the equivalent of about £350 today.<ref name=CC /> 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]]''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1955|p=25}}</ref>
===Later career===
On 16 March 1756, Johnson was arrested for an outstanding debt of £5 18[[Shilling|s]].<ref name="Bate p. 321">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=321}}</ref> Unable to contact anyone else, he wrote to [[Samuel Richardson]] to ask for money.<ref name="Bate p. 321"/> Richardson previously lent money to Johnson and sent him six guineas (more than enough money to pay the debt) to show his good will.<ref name="Bate p. 321"/> Soon after, Johnson met and befriended [[Joshua Reynolds]], and this new relationship impressed Johnson enough that he declared Reynolds "almost the only man whom I call a friend".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=324}}</ref> Johnson's only other friend who was present at the time, [[Bennet Langton]], just returned home and later set off to school in 1757.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=325}}</ref>
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To occupy himself, Johnson began working on ''The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review'', the first issue of which was printed on 19 March 1756.<ref name="Bate p. 328">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=328}}</ref> Philosophical disagreements erupted over the purpose of the publication when the [[Seven Years' War]] began and Johnson started writing political essays about his dislike over the fighting.<ref name="Bate p. 328"/> After the start of the war, the ''Magazine'' started to include many reviews, at least thirty-four written by Johnson.<ref name="Bate p. 328"/> While not working on the ''Magazine'', Johnson wrote a series of prefaces for others writers, such as Guiseppe Baretti, William Payne, and [[Charlotte Lennox]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=329}}</ref> However, these only amounted to a small portion of his time as his ''Edition of Shakespeare'' took up the rest.<ref name="Bate p. 330">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=330}}</ref>
With the amount of time he dedicated to his ''Shakespeare'', he was able to publish a ''Proposal'' for it on 8 June 1756.<ref name="Bate p. 330"/> However, Johnson slowed on the work as the months passed, and he told [[Charles Burney]] in December 1757 that it would take him until the following March to complete it.<ref name="Bate p. 332"/> Before that could happen, he was arrested again, for a debt of £40, in February 1758.<ref name="Bate p. 332">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=332}}</ref> The debt was soon repaid by Jacob Tonson, who had contracted Johnson to publish ''Shakespeare'', and Johnson was soon motivated to finish his edition in order to repay the favour.<ref name="Bate p. 332"/> Although it took him another seven years to finish, Johnson completed a few volumes of his ''Shakespeare'' in order to prove his commitment to the project.<ref name="Bate p. 332"/>
In 1758, Johnson began to write a weekly series, ''The Idler'', which ran from from 15 April 1758 to 5 April 1760, as a way to avoid having to finish his ''Shakespeare''.<ref name="Bate p. 334">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=334}}</ref> This series was shorter and lacked many features of ''The Rambler''.<ref name="Bate p. 334"/> 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.<ref name="Bate p. 334"/> ''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.<ref name="Bate p. 337">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=337}}</ref> ''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.<ref name="Bate p. 337"/> Its fame was not limited to English-speaking nations, and ''Rasselas'' was immediately translated into five different languages (French, Dutch, German, Russian and Italian), and later into another nine.<ref name="Bate p. 337"/>
[[Image:Johnson004.jpg|thumb|180px|right|[[James Boswell]] at 25]]
By 1762, however, Johnson had gained a notoriety for dilatory writing; contemporary poet [[Charles Churchill (satirist)|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?"<ref name="Bate p. 391">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=391}}</ref> The comments soon motivated Johnson to begin finishing his ''Shakespeare'', and, after receiving the first payment on a government pension on 20 July 1762, he was able to dedicate most of his time towards this goal.<ref name="Bate p. 391"/> Earlier that July, the 24-year-old King [[George III]] granted Johnson an annual pension of £300 in appreciation for the ''Dictionary''.<ref name="Bate Achievement p. 36"/> While not making Johnson rich, it allowed him a modest yet comfortable independence for the remaining 22 years of his life.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=356}}</ref> The award came largely through the efforts of [[Thomas Sheridan]] and the [[John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute|Earl of Bute]].<ref name="Bate p. 354-356">{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp=354–356}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Bate p. 354-356"/>
On 16 May 1763, Johnson met 22-year-old [[James Boswell]], a man who would later become Johnson's first major biographer, for the first time in the book shop of Johnson's friend, Tom Davies.<ref name="Bate p. 360">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=360}}</ref> They quickly became friends, although Boswell would return to his home in Scotland or travel abroad for months at a time.<ref name="Bate p. 360"/> Around the spring of 1763, Johnson formed "[[The Club (dining club)|The Club]]", a social group that included his friends Joshua Reynolds, [[Edmund Burke]], [[David Garrick]], [[Oliver Goldsmith]], Topham Beauclerk, Bennet Langton, Dr. 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).<ref name="Bate p. 366">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=366}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Bate p. 366"/>
{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="0"
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: top; font-size: large; color: gray;" | “
| 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.'<ref name="Boswell p. 135">{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 135}}</ref>
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: large; color: gray" | ”
|-
| colspan=3 style="text-align: center;" | — Boswell's ''Life of Samuel Johnson''
|}
Johnson met [[Henry Thrale]], a wealthy brewer and [[Member of Parliament]], and his wife, [[Hester Thrale|Hester]], on 9 January 1765.<ref name="Bate p. 393">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=393}}</ref> They quickly became friends; Johnson was treated as a member of the family, and was motivated to work on his ''Shakespeare'' again.<ref name="Bate p. 393"/> The work 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 1,000 copies.<ref name="Bate p. 395">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=395}}</ref> The edition sold quickly and a second edition was soon printed.<ref name="Bate p. 395"/> Afterwards, Johnson stayed with the Thrales for 15 years until Henry's death in 1781, sometimes staying in rooms at Thrale's [[Anchor Brewery, Southwark|Anchor Brewery]] in [[Southwark]].<ref name="Bate p. 395"/> Hester Thrale's reminiscences of Johnson, together with her diaries and correspondence, are an important source of biographical information on Johnson.<ref name="Keymer p. 186">{{Harvnb|Keymer|1999|p=186}}</ref>
In the same year his ''Shakespeare'' was published, Johnson received an [[honorary doctorate|honourary doctorate]] from [[Trinity College, Dublin]], followed by one from Oxford 10 years later.<ref name="Bate Achievement p. 36"/> These were not the only special events during this time of his life; in February 1767 he was granted a special meeting with King George III.<ref name="Boswell p. 133">{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 133}}</ref> This happened at the library of the Queen's house, and it was organized by the king's librarian, Frederick Augusta Barnard.<ref name="Boswell p. 133"/> The king himself, after hearing that Johnson would visit the library, commanded Barnard to introduce him to Johnson.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 134}}</ref> After the visit, Johnson told Boswell the king "is the finest gentleman I have ever seen".<ref name="Boswell p. 135"/>
===Final works===
[[Image:Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds 2.png|thumb|right|180px|Johnson (1775) showing his intense concentration and the weakness of his eyes; he did not want to be depicted as "Blinking Sam"<ref>{{Harvnb|Yung|1984|p=14}}</ref>]]
On 6 August 1773, eleven years after he had first met [[James Boswell|Boswell]], Johnson set out to visit him in Scotland, in order to begin "a journey to the western islands of Scotland", later used as the title of Johnson's 1775 account of their travels.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=463}}</ref> 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 dumb.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=471}}</ref> Johnson attacked the claim that [[James Macpherson]]'s ''[[Ossian]]'' poems were translations of ancient Scottish literature on the grounds that "in those times nothing had been written in the [[Earse]] language".<ref>{{Harvnb|Johnson|1970|pp=104–5}}</ref> This claim brought swift reaction from Macpherson, who threatened to physically attack Johnson.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|pp=520–21}}</ref> Boswell's account, ''[[The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides]]'', was published in 1786, as a preliminary to his ''[[Life of Johnson]]''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Johnson|1970|pp=}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=469}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=443}}</ref> In 1770 he produced ''The False Alarm'', a political pamphlet attacking [[John Wilkes]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=444}}</ref> In 1771, his ''Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands'' cautioned against war with [[Spain]].<ref>Johnson, Samuel. [http://www.samueljohnson.com/falklands.html ''Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands''.] Samueljohnson.com. Retrieved on 9 December 2006 </ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=445}}</ref> 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."<ref>Boswell, Vol II, p. 253</ref><ref name="Bate p. 446">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=446}}</ref> This line was not, as widely believed, about patrotism in general, but the false use of the term "patriotism" by [[John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute]] (the patriot-minister) and his supporters.<ref name="Griffin p. 21">{{Harvnb|Griffin|2005|p=21}}</ref> Johnson opposed "self-professed Patriots" in general, but valued what he considered "true" patriotism.<ref name="Griffin p. 21"/>
The last of these pamphlets, ''Taxation No Tyranny'' (1775), was a defence of the [[Coercive Acts]] and a response to the [[Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress|Declaration of Rights]] of the [[First Continental Congress]] of America, which was protesting against [[No taxation without representation|taxation without representation]].<ref name="Taxation">Johnson, Samuel. [http://www.samueljohnson.com/tnt.html "Taxation No Tyranny".] Samueljohnson.com. Retrieved on 28 June 2008</ref><ref name="Bate p. 446"/> Johnson argued that by emigrating to America, colonists had "voluntarily resigned the power of voting", but they still had "[[virtual representation]]" in Parliament.<ref name="Taxation"/> In a parody of the Declaration of Rights, Johnson suggested that the Americans had no more right to govern themselves than the [[Cornish people]].<ref name="Taxation"/> If the Americans wanted to participate in Parliament, said Johnson, they could move to England and purchase an estate.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ammerman|1974|p=13}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Taxation"/> 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.<ref name="Bate p. 328"/> After the signing of the [[Peace of Paris (1783)|1783 Peace of Paris]] treaties, marking the colonists' defeat of the English, Johnson was "deeply disturbed" with the "state of this kingdom".<ref>{{Harvnb|Griffin|2005|p=15}}</ref>
{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="0"
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: top; font-size: large; color: gray;" | “
| 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 273}}</ref>
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: large; color: gray" | ”
|-
| colspan=3 style="text-align: center;" | — Boswell's ''Life of Samuel Johnson''
|}
On 3 May 1777, while Johnson was trying to save [[William Dodd (clergyman)|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".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=525}}</ref> Johnson was asked by Tom Davies, William Strahan and Thomas Cadell to create this final major work, the ''[[Lives of the English Poets]]''.<ref name="Bate p. 526">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=526}}</ref> Johnson asked for 200 guineas, an amount significantly lower than the price he could have demanded.<ref name="Bate p. 526"/> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=527}}</ref> The work was finished in March 1781 and the whole collection was published in six volumes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=546}}</ref> Johnson was unable to enjoy this success because Henry Thrale, the dear friend with whom he lived, died on 4 April 1781. His funeral was on 11 April 1781.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=547}}</ref> Life changed quickly for Johnson, and Mrs. Thrale became interested in the Italian singing teacher Gabriel Mario Piozzi, which forced Johnson to move on from his previous lifestyle.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=557, 561}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=562}}</ref> Johnson was shocked by Levet's death. Shortly afterwards he caught a cold which turned into bronchitis, lasting for several months.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=564}}</ref>
===Final moments===
[[Image:Johnson003.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Hester Thrale]] and her daughter Queeny]]
Although he had recovered his health by August, he experienced emotional trauma when he was given word that Mrs Thrale would sell the residence that Johnson shared with the family.<ref name="Bate p. 566">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=566}}</ref> What hurt Johnson the most was the possibility that he would be left without her constant company.<ref name="Bate p. 566"/> 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.<ref name="Bate p. 569">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=569}}</ref> The walk to the church strained him, but he managed the journey unaccompanied.<ref name="Bate p. 569"/> While there, he wrote a prayer for the Thrale family:
{{quote|To thy fatherly protection, O Lord, I comment this family. Bless, guide, and defend them.<ref name="Bate p. 569"/>}}
Mrs Thrale did not completely abandon Johnson, asking if he would accompany the family on a trip to Brighton.<ref name="Bate p. 569"/> He agreed, and was with them from 7 October until 20 November 1782.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=570}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=575}}</ref>
On 17 June 1783, Johnson wrote to his neighbour, Edmund Allen, that he had lost the ability to speak.<ref>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p= 71}}</ref> Two doctors were brought in to aid Johnson; he regained his ability to speak two days later.<ref>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|pp=71–72}}</ref> Johnson feared that he was dying, and wrote:
{{quote|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?<ref>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=72}}</ref>}}
By this time he was sick and gout-ridden.<ref name="Watkins p.73">{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=73}}</ref> Surgery was performed to remove Johnson's gout, and his remaining friends, including [[Frances Burney|Fanny Burney]] (the daughter of Charles Burney), came to keep him company.<ref name="Watkins p.73"/> He was confined to his room from 14 December 1783 to 21 April 1784.<ref name="Watkins p.74">{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=74}}</ref>
His health had begun to improve by May 1784, and he travelled to Oxford with Boswell on 5 May 1784.<ref name="Watkins p.74"/> By July, many of Johnson's friends were either dead or gone; Boswell had left for Scotland and Mrs Thrale had become engaged to Piozzi.<ref name="Watkins p.76">{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=76}}</ref> With nobody to visit, Johnson expressed a desire to die in London and arrived there on 16 November 1784.<ref name="Watkins p.76"/> On 25 November 1784, he allowed Burney to visit him and expressed an interest to her that he should leave London.<ref name="Watkins p.76"/> He soon left for Islington to visit Rev. Strahan.<ref>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p= 77}}</ref> His final moments were filled with mental anguish and delusions; when Dr. 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."<ref name="Watkins p.78">{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=78}}</ref>
{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="0"
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: top; font-size: large; color: gray;" | “
| 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p=341}}</ref>
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: large; color: gray" | ”
|-
| colspan=3 style="text-align: center;" | — 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.<ref name="Watkins p.78"/> Burney waited for word of Johnson's condition, along with Windham, Strahan, Hoole, Cruikshank, Des Moulins and Frank Barber.<ref name="Watkins p.79">{{Harvnb|Watkins|1960|p=79}}</ref> 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: "''I am Moriturus''" ("I who am about to die").<ref name="Bate p. 599">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=599}}</ref> Shortly afterwards he fell into a coma, and died at 7:00 pm.<ref name="Watkins p.79"/>
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".<ref>{{Harvnb|Hill|1897|p=160 (Vol. 2)}}</ref> Boswell remarked, "My feeling was just one large expanse of Stupor ... I could not believe it. My imagination was not convinced."<ref name="Bate p. 599"/> 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''."<ref name="Watkins p.79"/>
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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|pp. 341–342}}</ref>
==Character sketch==
{| class="toccolours" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="0"
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: top; font-size: large; color: gray;" | “
| 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''.'<ref name="Boswell p. 122">{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p= 273}}</ref>
| style="text-align: left; font-family:'Times New Roman',serif; font-weight:bold; padding:0px 5px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: large; color: gray" | ”
|-
| colspan=3 style="text-align: center;" | — Boswell's ''Life of Samuel Johnson''
|}
His figure was 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".<ref name="Bate Achievement p. 16">{{Harvnb|Bate|1955|p=16 quoting from Boswell}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Bate Achievement p. 16"/> Not everyone was misled by Johnson's appearance; [[Adam Smith]] claimed that "Johnson knew more books than any man alive"<ref name="Hill p. 423b">{{Harvnb|Hill|1897|p=423 (Vol. 2)}}</ref>, while Edmund Burke thought that if Johnson were to join Parliament, he "certainly would have been the greatest speaker that ever was there".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1955|pp=15–16}}</ref>
Johnson relied on a unique form of rhetoric, and he is well known for his "refutation" of [[George Berkeley|Bishop Berkeley's]] [[Idealism#George Berkeley|idealism]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=316}}</ref> During a conversation with his biographer, Johnson became infuriated at the suggestion that Berkeley's idealism could not be refuted. In his anger, Johnson powerfully stomped a nearby stone and proclaimed of Berkeley's theory, "I refute it ''thus''!"<ref name="Boswell p. 122"/>
Johnson was a devout, conservative [[Anglicanism|Anglican]], a staunch [[Tory]] and a compassionate man, supporting a number of poor friends under his own roof.<ref name="Bate Achievement p. 36"/> He was an opponent of slavery, and once proposed a toast to the "next rebellion of the negroes in the West Indies". He had a black manservant, [[Francis Barber]] (Frank), whom Johnson made his heir.<ref>Boswell Aetat. 75 transcribes Johnson's will</ref> He admitted to sympathies for the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] cause but by the reign of [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]] he had come to accept the [[Act of Settlement 1701|Hanoverian Succession]]. Although Johnson respected [[John Milton]]'s poetry, he could not tolerate Milton's Puritan and Republican beliefs.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=537}}</ref>
Beside his beliefs concerning humanity, Johnson is also known for his love of cats.<ref name="Skargon">{{Harvnb|Skargon|1999|p=}}</ref> In particular, he was fond of his own two cats, [[Hodge (cat)|Hodge]] and Lily.<ref name="Skargon"/> Boswell claimed: "I never shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat."<ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1986|p=294}}</ref>
===Depression===
There are many accounts of Johnson suffering from possible bouts of depression or what he himself 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".<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1955|p=7}}</ref> After leaving Pembroke College, Johnson began to experience "feelings of intense anxiety" along with "feelings of utter hopelessness" and lassitude.<ref name="Bate p. 115">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=115}}</ref>
[[Image:Johnson 1769.jpg|thumb|180px|left|Reynold's 1769 portrait depicting Johnson's "odd gesticulations"<ref>{{Harvnb|Lane|1975|p=103}}</ref>]]
He told Dr John Paradise, a friend, that he "could stare at the town clock without being able to tell the hour".<ref name="Bate p. 115"/> In order to overcome these feelings, Johnson tried to constantly involve himself with various activities, but this did not seem to help.<ref name="Bate p. 116">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=116}}</ref> Taylor, in reflecting on Johnson's states, said that Johnson "at one time strongly entertained thoughts of Suicide".<ref name="Bate p. 116"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Boswell|1969|p=468}}</ref> Because of these feelings, Johnson feared becoming insane.<ref name="Bate p. 116"/> 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".<ref name="Bate p. 117">{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=117}}</ref> However, Boswell blamed the common understanding of what was "sane" for Johnson's worries over being insane.<ref name="Bate p. 117"/>
Johnson was constantly afraid of losing his sanity, but he kept that anxiety to himself throughout his life. There were, however, occasional outbursts that worried his friends.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bate|1977|p=407}}</ref> In June 1766, Johnson was on his knees before Dr Delap, a clergyman, "beseeching God to continue to him the use of his understanding" in a "wild" manner that provoked Johnson's friend, Henry Thrale to "involuntarily [lift] up one hand to shut his mouth".<ref name="Hill p. 423">{{Harvnb|Hill|1897|p=423 (Vol. 1)}}</ref> The Thrales were afraid for his mental health, and took Johnson into their home in Streatham for a few months, in the hope that might aid his recovery.<ref name="Hill p. 423"/> Thrale's experience similar to many other accounts, and James Anderson reported Adam Smith as telling him:
<blockquote>"I have seen that creature bolt up in the midst of a mixed company; and, without any previous notice, fall upon his knees behind a chair, repeat the Lord's Prayer and then resume his seat at table. He has played this freak over and over, perhaps five or six times in the course of an evening. It is not hypocrisy, but madness."<ref name="Hill p. 423b"/></blockquote> Although this claim is similar to what the Thrales reported, Boswell wrote, "There is, I am convinced, great exaggeration in this, not probably on Smith's part, who was one of the most truthful of men, but on his reporter's."<ref>{{Harvnb|Hill|1897|p=424 (Vol. 2)}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Pittock p. 159">{{Harvnb|Pittock|2004|p=159}}</ref> During this time, Johnson witnessed [[Christopher Smart]]'s decline into "penury and the madhouse", and feared that he might share the same fate.<ref name="Pittock p. 159"/> In joking about Christopher Smart's madness, his writing for the ''Universal Visiter'', and his own contributions, Johnson claimed: "for poor Smart, while he was mad, not then knowing the terms on which he was engaged to write ... I hoped his wits would return to him. Mine returned to me, and I wrote in 'the Universal Visitor' no longer".<ref>{{Harvnb|Keymer|1999|p=188}}</ref> The truth was that Johnson wrote for the ''Universal Visiter'' as an "act of charity" to the ailing Smart.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pittock|2004|p=163}}</ref>
[[Hester Thrale|Hester Thrale Piozzi]], in her ''British Synonymy'' Book 2, did not joke about Johnson's possible madness, and claimed, in a discussion on Smart's mental state, that Johnson was her "friend who feared an apple should intoxicate him".<ref name="Keymer p. 186"/> She made it clear who she was referring to when she wrote in ''Thraliana'' that "I don't believe the King has ever been much worse than poor Dr Johnson was, when he fancied that eating an Apple would make him drunk."<ref name="Keymer p. 186"/> To Mrs 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.<ref name="Keymer p. 186"/>
===Tourette syndrome===
Johnson displayed signs consistent with several diagnoses described in the ''[[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]]''. He had a number of [[tic]]s and other [[movement disorder|involuntary movements]]; the signs described by Boswell and others suggest that Johnson had [[Tourette syndrome]] (TS).<ref name="Pearce p. 396">{{Harvnb|Pearce|1994|p=396}}</ref><ref name="Murray p. 1610">{{Harvnb|Murray|1979|p=1610}}</ref> In 1994, J. M. S. Pearce analysed—in a ''[[Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine]]'' report—the details provided by Boswell, Mrs Thrale, and others, in an attempt to understand Johnson's physical and mental condition.<ref name="Pearce p. 396"/> Based on their anecdotal evidence, Pearce compiled a list of movements and tics which Johnson was said to have demonstrated.<ref name="Pearce p. 396"/> From that list, he determined it was possible that Johnson was affected by [[History of Tourette syndrome|Tourette syndrome as described]] by [[Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette|Georges Gilles de la Tourette]].<ref name="Pearce p. 398">{{Harvnb|Pearce|1994|p=398}}</ref> Pearce concluded that the "case of Dr Johnson accords well with current criteria for the Tourette syndrome; he also displayed many of the obsessional-compulsive traits and rituals which are associated with this syndrome".<ref name="Pearce p. 398"/> Pearce was not alone in diagnosing Johnson as having Tourette syndrome; T. J. Murray had come to the same conclusion in a 1979 ''[[British Medical Journal]]'' paper.<ref name="Murray p. 1610"/> Murray based his diagnosis on various accounts of Johnson displaying physical tics, "involuntary vocalisations" and "compulsive behaviour".<ref>{{Harvnb|Murray|1979|p=1611–1612}}</ref> In a 2007 journal analysis, Thomas Kammer discusses the "documented evidence" of Johnson's tics, saying that Johnson was "known to have suffered from TS";<ref>{{Harvnb|Kammer|2007|p=9}}</ref> in 1996, Vijai P. Sharma described Johnson as exhibiting [[obsessive-compulsive disorder]].<ref>Sharma, Vijai P. (1996), [http://www.mindpub.com/art067.htm Obsessive Thinking, Compulsive Behaviors.] Mind Publications. Retrieved on 30 January 2007 </ref> According to [[Oliver Sacks]], other speculative posthumous diagnoses of TS are not "... as entirely convincing ... [as] the case for Samuel Johnson having TS ...".<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20050407060420/http://www.tsa-usa.org/what_is/Mozart.html Did Mozart really have TS?] and [http://web.archive.org/web/20050407083830/http://www.tsa-usa.org/what_is/johnson.html Samuel Johnson.] [[Tourette Syndrome Association]], Archived version of 7 April 2005. Also [[Oliver Sacks|Sacks O.]] (1992), "Tourette's syndrome and creativity". ''[[British Medical Journal]].'' '''305'''(6868):1515–6. PMID 1286364</ref> Pearce concludes:{{quote|It is not without interest that periodic boundless mental energy, imaginative outbursts of inventiveness and creativity, are, characteristic of certain Tourette patients. 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.<ref name="Pearce p. 398"/>}}
==Major works==
{|
| ||'''Essays, pamphlets, periodicals, sermons'''
|-
|
|-
| 1732–1733 || ''[[Birmingham Journal (eighteenth century)|Birmingham Journal]]''
|-
| 1741 || ''The Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist'' (a sermon)
|-
| 1742 || ''An Explanation of Scripture Prophecies Both Typical and Literature''
|-
| 1747 || ''Plan for a Dictionary of the English Language''
|-
| 1750–1752 || ''[[The Rambler]]''
|-
| 1753–1754 || ''The Adventurer''
|-
| 1756 || ''Universal Visitor''
|-
| 1756- ||''The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review''
|-
| 1758–1760 || ''[[The Idler (1758-1760)]]''
|-
| 1770 || ''The False Alarm''
|-
| 1771 || ''Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands''
|-
| 1774 || ''The Patriot''
|-
|rowspan=2 valign=top| 1775 || ''[[A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland]]''
|-
|| ''Taxation No Tyranny''
|-
| 1781 || ''The Beauties Johnson''
|-
|
|-
| ||'''Poetry'''
|-
|
|-
| 1738 || ''London''
|-
| 1747 || ''Prologue at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury Lane''
|-
|rowspan=2 valign=top| 1749 || ''The Vanity of Human Wishes''
|-
|| ''Irene, a Tragedy''
|-
|
|-
| ||'''Biographies, criticism'''
|-
| 1744 || ''[[Life of Mr Richard Savage]]''
|-
| 1756 || "Life of Browne" in Thomas Browne's ''Christan Morals''
|-
| 1765 || ''Preface to the Plays of William Shakespeare''
|-
| 1765 || ''The Plays of William Shakespeare''
|-
| 1779–1781 || ''[[Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets|Lives of the Poets]]''
|-
|
|-
| ||'''Dictionary'''
|-
|
|-
|rowspan=2 valign=top| 1755 || ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language|Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language]]''
|-
|| ''[[A Dictionary of the English Language]]''
|-
|
|-
| ||'''Novellas'''
|-
| 1759 || ''[[The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia]]''
|-
|}
==See also==
* [[Samuel Johnson Prize]]
==References==
===Notes===
{{reflist|3}}
===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation|last= Ammerman|first= David |title=In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774 |location= New York |publisher= Norton |year= 1974}}
* {{citation |last=Bate |first=Walter Jackson |authorlink=Walter Jackson Bate |title=Samuel Johnson |year=1977 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|location=New York |isbn=0151792607}}
* {{citation |last=Bate |first=Walter Jackson |title=The Achievement of Samuel Johnson |year=1955 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |oclc=355413}}
* {{citation |last=Boswell |first=James |title=Correspondence and Other Papers of James Boswell Relating to the Making of the Life of Johnson |publisher= Ed. Marshall Waingrow |location= New York |year= 1969}}
* {{citation |last=Boswell |first=James |title=The Life of Samuel Johnson |year=1986 |editor-last=Hibbert |editor-first=Christopher |publisher=Penguin Classics |location=New York |isbn=0140431160}}
* {{citation |last=Griffin |first=Dustin |title=Patrotism and Poetry in Eighteenth-Century Britain |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year= 2005|isbn=0521009596}}
* {{citation | last= Hawkins |first= John |title= Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. |location= London |year= 1787}}
* {{citation |last=Hitchings |first=Henry |authorlink=Henry Hitchings |title=Defining the World: the extraordinary story of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |year=2005 |isbn=0374113025}}
* {{citation |last=Hill |first=G. Birkbeck, editor |title=Johnsonian Miscellanies |publisher=Oxford |year=1897}}.
* {{citation |last=Hopewell |first=Sydney |title=The Book of Bosworth School, 1320–1920 |year=1950 |location=Leicester |publisher=W. Thornley & Son |oclc=6808364}}
* {{citation |last= Johnson |first= Samuel |title=Letters | editor-last = Chapman | editor-first = R. W. |year= 1952 |location= Oxford |publisher= Clarendon |isbn= 0198185383}}
* {{citation |last=Johnson |first = Samuel |title= Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides |editor-last= Chapman |editor-first= R. W. |location= Oxford |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 1970 |isbn= 0192810723 }}
* {{citation |last=Johnson |first= Samuel |title=Major Works |year=2000 |editor-last=Greene |editor-first= Donald |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0192840428}}
* {{citation |last=Johnson |first= Samuel |title=Samuel Johnson's Dictionary |year=2003 |editor-last=Lynch |editor-last=Jack |publisher=Walker & Co |location=New York |isbn=0802714218}}
* {{Citation | last = Kammer | first = T | year = 2007 | title = Mozart in the neurological department—who has the tic? (PDF) | periodical = Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience | volume = 22 | pages = 184–92 | url = http://www.uni-ulm.de/~tkammer/pdf/Kammer_2007_Mozart_preprint.pdf | doi = 10.1159/0000102880 | accessdate = 12 July 2008 }} PMID 17495512
* {{citation |last= Keymer |first= Thomas |year= 1999 |contribution= Johnson, Madness, and Smart |title= Christopher Smart and the Enlightenment |editor1-last=Hawes |editor1-first= Clement |location= New York, NY |publisher= St. Martin's Press|isbn=0312213697 }}
* {{citation |last=Lane |first= Margaret |title=Samuel Johnson & his World |year=1975 |publisher=Harpers & Row Publishers |location=New York |isbn=0060124962}}
* {{citation |last= Murray |first= T.J. |year= 1979 |url= http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1599158&blobtype=pdf |title= Dr Samuel Johnson's movement disorder. (PDF) |periodical= [[British Medical Journal]] |volume= 1 |issue= 6178 |pages=1610–4 |accessdate= 10 July 2008}} PMID 380753
* {{citation |last= Pearce |first= J.M.S. |year= 1994 |url= http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1294650&blobtype=pdf |title= Doctor Samuel Johnson: 'the great convulsionary' a victim of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome. (PDF) |periodical= [[Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine]] |volume= 87 |pages= 396–399 |accessdate= 10 July 2008}} PMID 8046726
* {{citation |last= Pittock |first= Murray |year=2004 |contribution= Johnson, Boswell, and their circle | title= The Cambridge companion to English literature from 1740 to 1830 |editor1-last= Keymer |editor1-first= Thomas |editor2-last= Mee |editor2-first= Jon | pages= 157–172 |location= Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn=052100757}}
* {{citation |last= Skargon |first= Yvonne |title= Lily and Hodge and Dr. Johnson |publisher= Primrose Hill Press |date= 1999|isbn=1901648176 }}
* {{citation |last=Watkins |first= W. B. C. |title=Perilous Balance: The Tragic Genius of Swift, Johnson, and Sterne |year=1960 |publisher=Walker-deBerry, Inc. |location=Cambridge [Mass.] |oclc=40318001}}
* {{citation |last=Yung |first=Kai Kin |title=Samuel Johnson, 1709–84 |last2=Wain |first2=John |last3=Robson |first3=W. W. |last4=Fleeman |first4=J. D. |publisher=Herbert Press |location=London |year= 1984 |isbn=090696945X}}
{{refend}}
== Further reading ==
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Do we need all of these ???
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* {{citation|last=Baldwin |first = Barry |authorlink = Barry Baldwin |title=The Latin & Greek Poems of Samuel Johnson |location = London |publisher= Duckworth |year= 1995|isbn=0715626558}}
* {{citation |last=Hibbert |first=Christopher |authorlink=Christopher Hibbert |title=The personal history of Samuel Johnson |location=New York |publisher=Penguin |date=1984}}.
* {{citation |last=Parrott |first=T. M. |authorlink=Thomas Marc Parrott |title=Samuel Johnson, Philosopher and Autocrat |date=1903 |location=Philadelphia}}
* {{citation |last=Quinney |first=Laura |title=Literary Power and the Criteria of Truth |date=1995 |publisher=University Press of Florida |location=Gainesville}}
* {{citation |last=Reddick |first=Alan |title=The Making of Johnson's Dictionary |date=1990 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge}}
* {{citation |last=Wain |first=John (ed.)|authorlink=John Wain |title=Johnson on Johnson |date=1976 |publisher=Dent |location=London}}
* {{citation |last=Warner |first=Richard |title=Tour through the Northern Counties |date=1802 |location=Bath}}
* {{citation |last=Wharton |first=T. F. |title=Samuel Johnson and the Theme of Hope |date=1984 |publisher=St Martin's Press |location=New York}}
==External links==
{{Wikisource author|Samuel Johnson}}
{{wikiquote|Samuel Johnson}}
{{Commons|Samuel Johnson}}
*{{dmoz|Arts/Literature/Authors/J/Johnson,_Samuel/}}
*[http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Johnson/ Samuel Johnson Page]. Links collected by Rutgers scholar Jack Lynch.
*{{gutenberg author| id=Samuel+Johnson | name=Samuel Johnson}}
*''[http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/1564 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]])
*[http://www.johnsonsocietyoflondon.org/ Johnson Society of London:] a society based in London with regular meetings about Johnson.
*[http://www.samueljohnsonproject.com The Samuel Johnson Project] and sculpture initiative in Lichfield.
{{Samuel Johnson|state=collapsed}}
{{Enlightenment}}
{{Topics related to Tourette syndrome}}
<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME= Johnson, Samuel
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Dr Johnson
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= English [[poet]], [[biographer]],, [[essayist]], [[lexicographer]]
|DATE OF BIRTH= {{OldStyleDate|September 18|1709|September 7}}
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Lichfield]], [[England]]
|DATE OF DEATH= [[December 13]], [[1784]]
|PLACE OF DEATH= [[London]], [[England]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Samuel}}
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