I suppose, indeed, that every young author has had the same kind of feeling for the magazine or periodical publication which has first entertained him, and in which he has first had an opportunity to see himself in print, without the risk of exposing his name. I myself recollect such impressions from the Scots Magazine, which was begun at Edinburgh in the year 1739, and has been ever conducted with judgment, accuracy, and propriety. I yet cannot help thinking of it with an affectionate regard. Johnson has dignified the Gentleman's Magazine by the importance with which he invests the life of Cave; but he has given it still greater lustre by the various admirable essays which he wrote for it. Though Johnson was often solicited by his friends to make a complete list of his writings, and talked of doing it, I believe with a serious intention that they should all be collected on his own account, he put it off from year to year, and at last died without having done it perfectly. I have one in his own handwriting, which contains a certain number; I indeed doubt if he could have remembered every one of them, as they were so numerous, so various, and scattered in such a multiplicity of unconnected publications; nay, several of them published under the names of other persons, to whom he liberally contributed from the abundance of his mind. We must, therefore, be content to discover them, partly from occasional information given by him to his friends, and partly from internal evidence.1 His first performance in the Gentleman's Magazine, which for many years was his principal source of employment and support, was a copy of Latin verses, in March, 1738, addressed to the editor Cave, surely a less emphatical term than reverence would have been more just. The Gentleman's Magazine had been, at this time, but six years before the public, and its contents were, until Johnson himself contributed to improve it, entitled to anything rather than reverence; but it is much more probable that Johnson's reverence was excited by the recollections connected with the ancient gate itself, the last relic of the once extensive and magnificent priory of the heroic knights of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, suppressed at the dissolution, and destroyed by successive dilapidations. Its last prior, Sir William Weston, though compensated with the annual pension (enormous in those days) of £1000, died of a broken heart, on Ascension-day, 1540, the very day the house was suppressed.-CROKER. 1 While, in the course of my narrative, I enumerate his writings, I shall take care that my readers shall not be left to waver in doubt, between certainty and conjecture, with regard to their authenticity; and, for that purpose, shall mark with an asterisk (*) those which he acknowledged to his friends, and with a dagger (†) those which are ascertained to be his by internal evidence. When any other pieces are ascribed to him, I shall give my reasons. in so happy a style of compliment, that Cave must have been destitute both of taste and sensibility, had he not felt himself highly gratified. Ad URBANUM.* Urbane, nullis fesse laboribus, Quid moliatur gens imitantium, Juxta animo studiisque felix. Linguæ procacis plumbea spicula, Intende nervos, fortis, inanibus Non ulla Musis pagina gratior, Texente nymphis serta Lycoride, Immista, sic Iris refulget It appears that he was now enlisted by Mr. Cave as a regular coadjutor in his Magazine, by which he probably obtained a tolerable livelihood. At what time, or by what means, he had acquired a competent knowledge both of French and Italian, I do not know; but he was so well skilled in them, as to be sufficiently qualified for a translator. That part of his labour which consisted in emenda tion and improvement of the productions of other contributors, like that employed in levelling ground, can be perceived only by those who had an opportunity of comparing the original with the altered copy. What we certainly know to have been done by him in this way was the debates in both houses of Parliament, under the name of "The Senate of Lilliput," sometimes with feigned denominations of the several speakers, sometimes with denominations formed of the letters of their real names, in the manner of what is called anagram, so that they might easily be deciphered. Parliament then kept the press in a kind of mysterious awe, which made it necessary to have recourse to such devices. In our time it has acquired an unrestrained freedom, so that the people in all parts of the kingdom have a fair, open, and exact report of the actual proceedings of their representatives and legislators, which in our constitution is highly to be valued; though, unquetsionably, there has of late been too much reason to complain of the petulance with which obscure scribblers have presumed to treat men of the most respectable character and situation. This important article of the Gentleman's Magazine was, for several years, executed by Mr. William Guthrie, a man who deserves to be recorded in the literary annals of this country. He was descended of an ancient family in Scotland; but, having a small patrimony, and being an adherent of the unfortunate house of Stuart, he could not accept any office in the State; he therefore came to London, and employed his talents and learning as an "author by profession." His writings in history, criticism, and politics, had considerable merit.' He was the first English historian who had recourse to that authentic source of information, the Parliamentary Journals; and such was the power of his political pen, that, at an early period, government thought it worth their while to keep it quiet by a pension, which he enjoyed till his death. Johnson esteemed him enough to wish that his life should be written. The debates in Parliament, which were brought home and digested by Guthrie, whose memory, 1 How much poetry he wrote, I know not; but he informed me that he was the author of the beautiful little piece, "The Eagle and Robin Redbreast," in the collection of poems entitled "The Union," though it is there said to be written by Alexander Scott, before the year though surpassed by others who have since followed him in the same department, was yet very quick and tenacious, were sent by Cave to Johnson for his revision; and, after some time, when Guthrie had attained to greater variety of employment, and the speeches were more and more enriched by the accession of Johnson's genius, it was resolved that he should do the whole himself, from the scanty notes furnished by persons employed to attend in both houses of Parliament. Sometimes, however, as he himself told me, he had nothing more communicated to him than the names of the several speakers, and the part which they had taken in the debate. CHAPTER VI. 1738-1741. Johnson publishes "London, a Poem"-Letters to Cave relating thereto-Endeavours, without Success, to obtain the Degree of Master of Arts-Recommended by Pope to Earl Gower -The Earl's Letter on his Behalf-Begins a Translation of Father Paul Sarpi's HistoryPublishes "A Complete Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage," and "Marmor Norfolciense"-Pope's Note to Richardson concerning him-Characteristic Anecdotes-Writes the Debates in Parliament, under the Disguise of "the Senate of Lilliput." THUS was Johnson employed during some of the best years of his life, as a mere literary labourer "for gain, not glory," solely to obtain an honest support. He, however, indulged himself in occasional little sallies, which the French so happily express by the term jeux d'esprit, and which will be noticed in their order, in the progress of this work. But what first displayed his transcendent powers, and “ "gave the world assurance of the man," was his "London, a Poem, in Imita. tion of the Third Satire of Juvenal;" which came out in May this year, and burst forth with a splendour, the rays of which will for ever encircle his name. Boileau had imitated the same satire with great success, applying it to Paris; but an attentive comparison will satisfy every reader, that he is much excelled by the English Juvenal.1 Oldham had also imitated it, and applied it to London; all which performances concur to prove, that great cities, in every age, and in every country, will furnish similar topics of satire. Whether Johnson had previously read Oldham's imitation, I do not know; but it is not a little remarkable, that there is scarcely any coincidence found between the two performances, though upon the very 1 It is hardly fair to compare the poems in this hostile way: Boileau's was a mere badinage, complaining of, or laughing at, the personal dangers and inconveniences of Paris. Johnson's object was to satirise the moral depravity of a great city.-CRoker. |