Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/40

 in Exeter Street, Strand, occasionally retiring to Greenwich, and lived with the utmost economy and temperance. A friend told him that he could live for 30l. a year without being contemptible. He found a patron, it seems, in Henry Hervey, third son of the Earl of Bristol, who had been in a regiment quartered at Lichfield. Hervey, as he said to Boswell in his last years, ‘though a vicious man, was very kind to me. If you call a dog Hervey I shall love him.’ Johnson, however, had to gain independence by literary work. The profession of authorship was beginning to be a recognised, though still a very unprofitable, pursuit. Cave's foundation of the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ in 1731 had opened new prospects of employment, and Johnson now applied to Cave (12 July) proposing a new translation of the ‘History of the Council of Trent.’ He returned in the summer to Lichfield, where he finished ‘Irene’ (he afterwards gave the manuscript to Langton, who presented it to the King's Library, now in the British Museum), and, after three months' stay, returned with his wife to London, leaving Lucy Porter at Lichfield, and took lodgings in Woodstock Street, Hanover Square, and afterwards in Castle Street, Cavendish Square. Lucy Porter lodged with Johnson's mother at Lichfield till her fortieth year, when the death of a brother improved her means, and she lived at Lichfield till her death, 13 Jan. 1786. Johnson was always indulgent to her, allowed her to scold him ‘like a schoolboy, and kept up constant communications with her till his death’ (, Letters, i. 116). He offered ‘Irene,’ without success, to Fleetwood, patentee of Drury Lane. In March 1738 a Latin ode by him to ‘Sylvanus Urban’ appeared in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and he soon became a regular contributor. He beheld St. John's Gate, the printing-office of the magazine, ‘with reverence.’ He still had illusions about authors. Hawkins (p. 49) tells of his introduction by Cave to an ale-house where he could see the great Mr. Browne smoking a pipe. Malone (, i. 63) gives a similar account of his dining behind a screen at Cave's to hear Walter Harte [q. v.]'s conversation without exposing his shabbiness. If Harte, as is said, praised the life of Savage, this was as late as 1744. Johnson's employment upon the parliamentary debates began about 1738, when they were given, with fictitious names, as debates in the ‘Senate of Lilliput.’ They were written by William Guthrie (1708–1770) [q. v.], and only corrected by Johnson at this period (ib. i. 136). He wrote those published in the ‘Magazine’ from July 1741 to March 1744. The debates were often delayed till some time after the session, in order to avoid a breach of privilege, and the last report by Johnson was of a debate on 22 Feb. 1743. Johnson was never in the gallery himself, but had some assistance from persons employed by Cave. Some of the debates, however, were ‘the mere coinage of his own imagination’ (ib. iv. 409). They evidently bear a very faint resemblance to the real debates, as Mr. Birkbeck Hill shows by a comparison with Secker's notes. In fact it is not conceivable that all the speakers confined themselves to sonorous generalities in the true Johnsonian style. At the time, however, they were often regarded as genuine, and Johnson near his death (ib.) expressed some compunction for the deception. Murphy describes a dinner at Foote's when Johnson claimed a speech attributed to Pitt and compared by the elder Francis to Demosthenes. He took care, he added, that the ‘whig dogs should not have the best of it.’ One debate was translated into French, German, and Spanish, as was stated in the ‘Magazine’ for February 1743; and Johnson's immediate cessation is plausibly regarded by Mr. Hill as a confirmation of his statement to Boswell that he stopped reporting because he ‘would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood’ (ib. i. 152; see a full discussion by Mr. Birkbeck Hill,, i. App. A.) In May 1738 Johnson published ‘London,’ in imitation of the third satire of ‘Juvenal.’ It was offered to Cave, who seems to have received it favourably, but was finally published by Dodsley, who gave ten guineas for the copyright. Johnson was determined not to take less than had been given to Paul Whitehead, whom he despised. Though Boswell denies it, the ‘Thales’ of the poem may perhaps refer to Savage (see Mr. Hill's note on, i. 125). It appeared on the same day as Pope's ‘Epilogue,’ originally called ‘1738,’ and reached a second edition in a week. Though without the consummate polish of the ‘Epilogue,’ one of Pope's most finished pieces, it showed a masculine force of thought, which caused the unknown writer to be welcomed as a worthy follower of the chief poet of the day. Many passages expressed the patriotic sentiment which then stimulated the growing opposition to Walpole, both among tories and malcontent whigs. Pope himself inquired the author's name, and hearing his obscurity said, ‘He will soon be déterré.’ Johnson, however, was still poor enough to apply in 1739 for the mastership of a school at Appleby. The salary was 60l. a year, and it was required that masters should have the degree of M.A. Pope, knowing nothing of Johnson, it is said, but his