Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/169

 ANECDOTES OF JOHNSON

PUBLISHED BY G. KEARSLEY*

��MR. JOHNSON was not unacquainted with Savage's frailties ; but. as he has not long since said to a friend on this subject, * he knew his heart, and that was never intentionally abandoned ; for though he generally mistook the love for the practice of virtue, he was at all times a true and sincere believer a .'

Savage living very intimately with most of the wits of what is called our Augustan age, gave Mr. Johnson many anecdotes, with which he has since enriched his Biographical Prefaces 3. The following, however, I believe, has never appeared in print before.

Sir Richard Steele 4, Phillips 5 , and Savage, spending the night together, at a tavern, in Gerard-street 6, Soho, they sallied out in the morning all very much intoxicated with liquor when they were accosted by a tradesman, going to his work, at the top of

1 This Life is said to be by William of mankind.' Works, viii. 190. Cooke, known as ' Conversation For principles and practice see Cooke.' Nichols, Lit. Hist. vii. 467. Life, i. 418 ; ii. 341 ; v. 210, 359. He derived his name from his poem ' No man's religion ever survives On Conversation. Ib. He was a his morals.' South's Sermons, ed. member of the Essex Head Club. 1823,1.291.

Life, iv. 437. 3 The Lives of the Poets. Life, iv.

2 Johnson in his Life of Savage 35, n. I.

says that ' in cases indifferent [where 4 For anecdotes of Steele and the

friends or enemies were not con- bailiffs see Works, viii. 104.

cerned] he was zealous for virtue, s No doubt Ambrose Philips, who

truth and justice; he knew very knew Steele. Works, viii. 388.

well the necessity of goodness to 6 At the Turk's Head in this

the present and future happiness street the Literary Club met at first.

VOL. II. M Hedge-lane

�� �