Lives of the English Poets | Page 2

Dame Oliver, who kept a school
for little children, in Lichfield, first taught him to read; and, as he
delighted to tell, when he was going to the University, brought him a
present of gingerbread, in token of his being the best scholar her
academy had ever produced. His next instructor in his own language
was a man whom he used to call Tom Browne; and who, he said,
published a Spelling Book, and dedicated it to the universe. He was
then placed with Mr. Hunter the head master of the grammar school in
his native city, but, for two years before he came under his immediate

tuition, was taught Latin by Mr. Hawkins, the usher. It is just that one,
who, in writing the lives of men less eminent than himself, was always
careful to record the names of their instructors, should obtain a tribute
of similar respect for his own. By Mr. Price, who was afterwards head
master of the same school, and whose name I cannot mention without
reverence and affection, I have been told that Johnson, when late in life
he visited the place of his education, shewed him a nook in the
school-room, where it was usual for the boys to secrete the translations
of the books they were reading; and, at the same time, speaking of his
old master, Hunter, said to him, "He was not severe, Sir. A master
ought to be severe. Sir, he was cruel." Johnson, however, was always
ready to acknowledge how much he was indebted to Hunter for his
classical proficiency. At the age of fifteen, by the advice of his mother's
nephew, Cornelius Ford, a clergyman of considerable abilities, but
disgraced by the licentiousness of his life, and who is spoken of in the
Life of Fenton, he was removed to the grammar-school of Stourbridge,
of which Mr. Wentworth was master. Here he did not remain much
more than a twelvemonth, and, as he told Dr. Percy, learned much in
the school, but little from the master; whereas, with Hunter, he had
learned much from the master, and little in the school. The progress he
made was, perhaps, gained in teaching the other boys, for Wentworth is
said to have employed him as an assistant. His compositions in English
verse indicate that command of language which he afterwards attained.
The two following years he accuses himself of wasting in idleness at
home; but we must doubt whether he had much occasion for
self-reproach, when we learn that Hesiod, Anacreon, the Latin works of
Petrarch, and "a great many other books not commonly known in the
Universities," were among his studies.
His father, though a man of strong understanding, and much respected
in his line of life, was not successful in business. He must, therefore,
have had a firm reliance on the capacity of his son; for while he chided
him for his want of steady application, he resolved on making so great
an effort as to send him to the University; and, accompanying him
thither, placed him, on the 31st of October, 1728, a commoner at
Pembroke College, Oxford. Some assistance was, indeed, promised
him from other quarters, but this assistance was never given; nor was

his industry quickened by his necessities. He was sometimes to be seen
lingering about the gates of his college; and, at others, sought for relief
from the oppression of his mind in affected mirth and turbulent gaiety.
So extreme was his poverty, that he was prevented by the want of shoes
from resorting to the rooms of his schoolfellow, Taylor, at the
neighbouring college of Christ Church; and such was his pride, that he
flung away with indignation a new pair that he found left at his door.
His scholarship was attested by a translation into Latin verse of Pope's
Messiah; which is said to have gained the approbation of that poet. But
his independent spirit, and his irregular habits, were both likely to
obstruct his interest in the University; and, at the end of three years,
increasing debts, together with the failure of remittances, occasioned by
his father's insolvency, forced him to leave it without a degree. Of
Pembroke College, in his Life of Shenstone, and of Sir Thomas
Browne, he has spoken with filial gratitude. From his tutor, Mr. Jorden,
whom he described as a "worthy man, but a heavy one," he did not
learn much. What he read solidly, he said, was Greek; and that Greek,
Homer and Euripides; but his favourite study was metaphysics, which
we must suppose him to have investigated by the light of his own
meditation, for he did not read much in it. With Dr. Adams, then a
junior fellow, and afterwards master of the College, his friendship
continued till his death.
Soon after his return