Lives of the English Poets | Page 5

designated by fictitious
names, under which they were easily discoverable; and their speeches
in both Houses of Parliament, which was entitled the Senate of Lilliput,
were in this manner imparted to the nation in the periodical work
above-mentioned. At first, Johnson only revised these reports; but he
became so dexterous in the execution of his task, that he required only
to be told the names of the speakers, and the side of the question to be
espoused, in order to frame the speeches himself; an artifice not wholly
excusable, which afterwards occasioned him some self-reproach, and
even at the time pleased him so little, that he did not consent to
continue it. The whole extent of his assistance to Cave is not known.
The Lives of Paul Sarpi, Boerhaave, Admirals Drake and Blake,
Barretier, Burman, Sydenham, and Roscommon, with the Essay on
Epitaphs, and an Essay on the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess
of Marlborough, were certainly contributed to his Miscellany by
Johnson. Two tracts, the one a Vindication of the Licenser of the Stage
from the Aspersions of Brooke, Author of Gustavus Vasa; the other,
Marmor Norfolciense, a pamphlet levelled against Sir Robert Walpole
and the Hanoverian succession, were published by him, separately, in
1739.
For his version of Sarpi's History, he had received from Cave, before
the 21st of April in this year, fifty pounds, and some sheets of it had

been committed to the press, when, unfortunately, the design was
stopped, in consequence of proposals appearing for a translation of the
same book, by another person of the same name as our author, who was
curate of St. Martin's in the Fields, and patronized by Dr. Pearce, the
editor of Longinus. Warburton [3] afterwards expressed a wish that
Johnson would give the original on one side, and his translation on the
other. His next engagement was to draw up an account of the printed
books in the Earl of Oxford's library, for Osborne, the bookseller, who
had purchased them for thirteen thousand pounds. Such was the
petulant impatience of Osborne, during the progress of this irksome
task, that Johnson was once irritated so far as to beat him.
In May, 1738, appeared his "London," imitated from the Third Satire of
Juvenal, for which he got ten guineas from Dodsley. The excellence of
this poem was so immediately perceived, that it reached a second
edition in the course of a week. Pope having made some ineffectual
inquiries concerning the author, from Mr. Richardson, the son of the
painter, observed that he would soon be deterre. In the August of 1739,
we find him so far known to Pope, that at his intercession, Earl Gower
applied to a friend of Swift to assist in procuring from the University
the degree of Master of Arts, that he might be enabled to become a
candidate for the mastership of a school then vacant; the application
was without success.
His own wants, however pressing, did not hinder him from assisting his
mother, who had lost her other son. A letter to Mr. Levett, of Lichfield,
on the subject of a debt, for which he makes himself responsible on her
account, affords so striking a proof of filial tenderness, that I cannot
refuse myself the pleasure of transcribing it.
December, 1, 1743.
Sir,--I am extremely sorry that we have encroached so much upon your
forbearance with respect to the interest, which a great perplexity of
affairs hindered me from thinking of with that attention that I ought,
and which I am not immediately able to remit to you, but will pay it (I
think twelve pounds) in two months. I look upon this, and on the future
interest of that mortgage, as my own debt; and beg that you will be

pleased to give me directions how to pay it, and not mention it to my
dear mother. If it be necessary to pay this in less time, I believe I can do
it; but I take two months for certainty, and beg an answer whether you
can allow me so much time. I think myself very much obliged for your
forbearance, and shall esteem it a great happiness to be able to serve
you. I have great opportunities of dispersing any thing that you may
think it proper to make public. I will give a note for the money payable
at the time mentioned, to any one here that you shall appoint.
I am, Sir, your most obedient,
and most humble servant,
SAM. JOHNSON.
At Mr. Osborne's, Bookseller, in Gray's Inn.
In the following year (1744) he produced his Life of Savage, a work
that gives the charm of a romance to a narrative of real [**re in original]
events; and which, bearing the stamp of that eagerness [**ea ness in
original]