Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/225

Rh mind in favour of the Revolution. gave him a place in Absalom and Achitophel as "Benjochanan." After the Revolution he received a pension, but considered himself insufficiently rewarded by a Deanery, which he declined.

 Author:Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) (1709-1784).—Moralist, essayist, and lexicographer, s. of a bookseller at Lichfield, received his early education at his native town, and went in 1728 to Oxf., but had, owing to poverty, to leave without taking a degree. For a short time he was usher in a school at Market Bosworth, but found the position so irksome that he threw it up, and gained a meagre livelihood by working for a publisher in Birmingham. In 1735, being then 26, he m. Mrs. Porter, a widow of over 40, who brought him £800, and to whom he was sincerely attached. He started an academy at Ediol, near Lichfield, which, however, had no success, only three boys, one of whom was (q.v.), attending it. Accordingly, this venture was given up, and J. in 1737 went to London accompanied by Garrick. Here he had a hard struggle with poverty, humiliation, and every kind of evil, always, however, quitting himself like the true man he was. He contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine, furnishing the parliamentary debates in very free and generally much improved form, under the title of "Debates of the Senate of Lilliput." In 1738 appeared London, a satire imitated from Juvenal which, pub. anonymously, attracted immediate attention, and the notice of. His next work was the life of his unfortunate friend (q.v.) (1744); and in 1747 he began his great English Dictionary. Another satire, The Vanity of Human Wishes, appeared in 1749, and in the same year Irene, a tragedy. His next venture was the starting of the Rambler, a paper somewhat on the lines of the Spectator; but, sententious and grave, it had none of the lightness and grace of its model, and likewise lacked its popularity. It was almost solely the work of J. himself, and was carried on twice a week for two years. In 1752 his wife, "his dear Tetty" d., and was sincerely mourned; and in 1755 his Dictionary appeared. The patronage of (q.v.), which he had vainly sought, was then offered, but proudly rejected in a letter which has become a classic. The work made him famous, and Oxf. conferred upon him the degree of M.A. He had become the friend of and ;  and others were soon added. The Idler, a somewhat less ponderous successor of the Rambler, appeared in 1758-60, and Rasselas, his most popular work, was written in 1759 to meet the funeral expenses of his mother, who then d. at the age of 90. At last the tide of his fortunes turned. A pension of £300 was conferred upon him in 1762, and the rest of his days were spent in honour, and such comfort as the melancholy to which he was subject permitted. In 1763 he made the acquaintance, so important for posterity, of ; and it was probably in the same year that he founded his famous "literary club."

In 1764 he was introduced to Mr. Thrale, a wealthy brewer, and for many years spent much of his time, an honoured guest, in his family. The kindness and attentions of, described by as "a bright papilionaceous creature, whom the elephant loved to play with, and wave to and fro upon his trunk," were a refreshment and