Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett | Page 3

degree, left suddenly
fatherless in Lichfield. But he had a number of warm friends in his
native place, such as Captain Garrick, father of the actor, and Gilbert
Walmsley, Registrar of the Ecclesiastical Court, who would not suffer
him to starve outright. He had learning and genius; and he had,

moreover, under all his indolence and all his melancholy, an
indomitable resolution, which needed only to be roused to make all
obstacles melt before it. He knew that he was great and strong, and
would yet struggle into recognition. At first, however, nothing offered
save the post of usher in a school at Market-Bosworth, which he
occupied long enough to learn to loathe the occupation with all his
heart and soul, and mind and strength, but which he soon resigned, and
was again idle. He was invited next to spend some time with Mr Hector,
an early friend, who was residing in Birmingham. Here he became
acquainted with one Porter, a mercer, whose widow he afterwards
married. Here, too, he executed his first literary work,--a translation of
Lobo's "Voyage to Abyssinia," which was published in 1735, and for
which he received the munificent sum of five guineas! He had
previously, without success, issued proposals for an edition of the Latin
poems of Politian; and, with a similar result, offered the service of his
pen to Edward Cave, the editor and publisher of the Gentleman's
Magazine, to which he afterwards became a leading contributor.
Shortly after this, Porter dying, Johnson married the widow--a lady
more distinguished for sense, and particularly for the sense to
appreciate his talents, than for personal charms, and who was twice her
husband's age. It does not seem to have been a very happy match,
although, probably, both parties loved each other better than they
imagined. He was now assisted by his wife's portion, which amounted
to £800, and opened a private academy at Echal, near Lichfield, but
obtained only three pupils,--a Mr Offely, who died early, the celebrated
David Garrick, and his brother George. At the end of a year and a half,
disgusted alike with the duties of the office, and with his want of
success in their discharge, Johnson left for London, with David Garrick
for his companion, and reached it with one letter of introduction from
Gilbert Walmsley, three acts of the tragedy of "Irene," and (according
to his fellow-traveller) threepence-halfpenny in his pocket!
To London he had probably looked as to the great mart of genius, but at
first he met with mortifying disappointment. He made one influential
friend, however, in an officer named Henry Hervey, of whom he said,
"He was a vicious man, but very kind to me; were you to call a dog

Hervey, I shall love him." In summer he came back to Lichfield, where
he stayed three months, and finished his tragedy. He returned to
London in autumn, along with his wife, and tried, but in vain, to get
"Irene" presented on the stage. This did not happen till 1749, when his
old pupil David Garrick had become manager of Drury Lane Theatre.
In March 1738, he began to contribute to the Gentleman's Magazine, a
magazine he had long admired, and the original printing-place of
which--St John's Gate--he "beheld with reverence" when he first passed
it. Amidst the variety of his contributions, the most remarkable were
his "Debates in the Senate of Lilliput"--vigorous paraphrases of the
parliamentary discussions--of which Johnson finding the mere skeleton
given him by the reporters, was at the pains of clothing it with the flesh
and blood of his own powerful diction. In May of the same year
appeared his noble imitation of Juvenal, "London," which at once made
him famous. After it had been rejected by several publishers, it was
bought by Dodsley for ten guineas. It came out the same morning with
Pope's satire, entitled "1738," and excited a much greater sensation.
The buzzing question ran, "What great unknown genius can this be?"
The poem went to a second edition in a week; and Pope himself, who
had read it with pleasure, when told that its author was an obscure man
named Johnson, replied, "He will soon be _déterré_."
Famous as he had now become, he continued poor; and tired to death of
slaving for the booksellers, he applied, through the influence of Pope
and Lord Gower, to procure a degree from Dublin, that it might aid him
in his application for a school at Appleby, in Leicestershire. In this,
however, he failed, and had to persevere for many years more in the
ill-paid drudgery of authorship--meditating a translation of "Father
Paul's History," which was never executed--writing in the Gentleman's
Magazine lives of Böerhaave and Father Paul, &c., &c., &c.--and
published separately "Marmor Norfolciense," a disguised invective
against Sir Robert Walpole, the obnoxious