Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 by Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

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In the 'forward' references in the notes to other passages in the book,
the reader may be surprised at finding that while often I only give the
date under which the reference will be found, frequently I am able to
quote the page and volume. The explanation is a simple one: two sets of
compositors were generally at work, and two volumes were passing through
the press simultaneously.

In the selection of the text which I should adopt I hesitated for some
time. In ordinary cases the edition which received the author's final
revision is the one which all future editors should follow. The second
edition, which was the last that was brought out in Boswell's life-time,
could not, I became convinced, be conveniently reproduced. As it was
passing through the press he obtained many additional anecdotes and
letters. These he somewhat awkwardly inserted in an Introduction and an
Appendix. He was engaged on his third edition when he died. 'He had
pointed out where some of these materials should be inserted,' and 'in
the margin of the copy which he had in part revised he had written
notes[36].' His interrupted labours were completed by Edmond Malone, to
whom he had read aloud almost the whole of his original manuscript, and
who had helped him in the revision of the first half of the book when it
was in type[37]. 'These notes,' says Malone, 'are faithfully preserved.'
He adds that 'every new remark, not written by the author, for the sake
of distinction has been enclosed within crotchets[38].' In the third
edition therefore we have the work in the condition in which it would
have most approved itself to Boswell's own judgment. In one point only,
and that a trifling one, had Malone to exercise his judgment. But so
skilful an editor was very unlikely to go wrong in those few cases in
which he was called upon to insert in their proper places the additional
material which the author had already published in his second edition.
Malone did not, however, correct the proof-sheets. I thought it my duty,
therefore, in revising my work to have the text of Boswell's second
edition read aloud to me throughout. Some typographical errors might, I
feared, have crept in. In a few unimportant cases early in the book I
adopted the reading of the second edition, but as I read on I became
convinced that almost all the verbal alterations were Boswell's own.
Slight errors, often of the nature of Scotticisms, had been corrected,
and greater accuracy often given. Some of the corrections and additions
in the third edition that were undoubtedly from his hand were of
considerable importance.

I have retained Boswell's spelling in accordance with the wish that he
expressed in the preface to his _Account of Corsica_. 'If this work,' he
writes, 'should at any future period be reprinted, I hope that care will
be taken of my orthography[39].' The punctuation too has been preserved.

I should be wanting in justice were I not to acknowledge that I owe much
to the labours of Mr. Croker. No one can know better than I do his great
failings as an editor. His remarks and criticisms far too often deserve
the contempt that Macaulay so liberally poured on them. Without being
deeply versed in books, he was shallow in himself. Johnson's strong
character was never known to him. Its breadth and length, and depth and
height were far beyond his measure. With his writings even he shows few
signs of being familiar. Boswell's genius, a genius which even to Lord
Macaulay was foolishness, was altogether hidden from his dull eye. No
one surely but a 'blockhead,' a 'barren rascal[40],' could with scissors
and paste-pot have mangled the biography which of all others is the
delight and the boast of the English-speaking world. He is careless in
small matters, and his blunders are numerous. These I have only noticed
in the more important cases, remembering what Johnson somewhere points
out, that the triumphs of one critic over another only fatigue and
disgust the reader. Yet he has added considerably to our knowledge of
Johnson. He knew men who had intimately known both the hero and his
biographer, and he gathered much that but for his care would have been
lost for ever. He was diligent and successful in his search after
Johnson's letters, of so many of which Boswell with all his persevering
and pushing diligence had not been able to get a sight. The editor of
Mr. Croker's _Correspondence and Diaries_[41] goes, however, much too
far when, in writing of Macaulay's criticism, he says: 'The attack
defeated itself by its very violence, and therefore it did the book no
harm whatever. Between forty and fifty thousand copies have been sold,
although Macaulay boasted with great glee that he had smashed it.' The
book that Macaulay attacked was withdrawn. That monstrous medley reached
no second edition. In its new form all the worst excrescences had been
cleared away, and though what was left was not Boswell, still less was
it unchastened Croker. His repentance, however, was not thorough. He
never restored the text to its old state; wanton transpositions of
passages still remain, and numerous insertions break the narrative. It
was my good fortune to become a sound Boswellian before I even looked at
his edition. It was not indeed till I came to write out my notes for the
press that I examined his with any thoroughness.

'Notes,' says Johnson, 'are often necessary, but they are necessary
evils[42].' To the young reader who for the first time turns over
Boswell's delightful pages I would venture to give the advice Johnson
gives about Shakespeare:--

'Let him that is yet unacquainted with the powers of Shakespeare, and
who desires to feel the highest pleasure that the drama can give, read
every play from the first scene to the last with utter negligence of all
his commentators. When his fancy is once on the wing, let it not stoop
at correction or explanation. When his attention is strongly engaged let
it disdain alike to turn aside to the name of Theobald and of Pope. Let
him read on through brightness and obscurity, through integrity and
corruption; let him preserve his comprehension of the dialogue and his
interest in the fable. And when the pleasures of novelty have ceased let
him attempt exactness and read the commentators[43].'

So too let him who reads the _Life of Johnson_ for the first time read
it in one of the _Pre-Crokerian_ editions. They are numerous and good.
With his attention undiverted by notes he will rapidly pass through one
of the most charming narratives that the world has ever seen, and if his
taste is uncorrupted by modern extravagances, will recognise the genius
of an author who, in addition to other great qualities, has an admirable
eye for the just proportions of an extensive work, and who is the master
of a style that is as easy as it is inimitable.

Johnson, I fondly believe, would have been pleased, perhaps would even
have been proud, could he have foreseen this edition. Few distinctions
he valued more highly than those which he received from his own great
University. The honorary degrees that it conferred on him, the gown that
it entitled him to wear, by him were highly esteemed. In the Clarendon
Press he took a great interest[44]. The efforts which that famous
establishment has made in the excellence of the typography, the quality
of the paper, and the admirably-executed illustrations and facsimiles to
do honour to his memory and to the genius of his biographer would have
highly delighted him. To his own college he was so deeply attached that
he would not have been displeased to learn that his editor had been
nursed in that once famous 'nest of singing birds.' Of Boswell's
pleasure I cannot doubt. How much he valued any tribute of respect from
Oxford is shown by the absurd importance that he gave to a sermon which
was preached before the University by an insignificant clergyman more
than a year and a half after Johnson's death[45]. When Edmund Burke
witnessed the long and solemn procession entering the Cathedral of St.
Paul's, as it followed Sir Joshua Reynolds to his grave, he wrote:
'Everything, I think, was just as our deceased friend would, if living,
have wished it to be; for he was, as you know, not altogether
indifferent to this kind of observances[46].' It would, indeed, be
presumptuous in me to flatter myself that in this edition everything is
as Johnson and Boswell would, if living, have wished it. Yet to this
kind of observances, the observances that can be shown by patient and
long labour, and by the famous press of a great University, neither man
was altogether indifferent.

Should my work find favour with the world of readers, I hope again to
labour in the same fields. I had indeed at one time intended to enlarge
this edition by essays on Boswell, Johnson, Mrs. Thrale, and perhaps on
other subjects. Their composition would, however, have delayed
publication more than seemed advisable, and their length might have
rendered the volumes bulky beyond all reason. A more favourable
opportunity may come. I have in hand a _Selection of the Wit and Wisdom
of Dr. Johnson_. I purpose, moreover, to collect and edit all of his
letters that are not in the _Life_. Some hundreds of these were
published by Mrs. Piozzi; many more are contained in Mr. Croker's
edition; while others have already appeared in _Notes and Queries_[47].
Not a few, doubtless, are still lurking in the desks of the collectors
of autographs. As a letter-writer Johnson stands very high. While the
correspondence of David Garrick has been given to the world in two large
volumes, it is not right that the letters of his far greater friend
should be left scattered and almost neglected. 'He that sees before him
to his third dinner,' says Johnson, 'has a long prospect[48].' My
prospect is still longer; for, if health be spared, and a fair degree of
public favour shown, I see before me to my third book. When I have
published my _Letters_, I hope to enter upon a still more arduous task
in editing the _Lives of the Poets_.

In my work I have received much kind assistance, not only from friends,
but also from strangers to whom I had applied in cases where special
knowledge could alone throw light on some obscure point. My
acknowledgments I have in most instances made in my notes. In some
cases, either through want of opportunity or forgetfulness, this has not
been done. I gladly avail myself of the present opportunity to remedy
this deficiency. The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres I have to thank for
so liberally allowing the original of the famous Round Robin, which is
in his Lordship's possession, to be reproduced by a photographic process
for this edition. It is by the kindness of Mr. J.L.G. Mowat, M.A.,
Fellow and Bursar of Pembroke College, Oxford, that I have been able to
make a careful examination of the Johnsonian manuscripts in which our
college is so rich. If the vigilance with which he keeps guard over
these treasures while they are being inspected is continued by his
successors in office, the college will never have to mourn over the loss
of a single leaf. To the Rev. W.D. Macray, M.A., of the manuscript
department of the Bodleian, to Mr. Falconer Madan, M.A., Sub-Librarian
of the same Library, and to Mr. George Parker, one of the Assistants, I
am indebted for the kindness with which they have helped me in my
inquiries. To Mr. W.H. Allnutt, another of the Assistants, I owe still
more. When I was abroad, I too frequently, I fear, troubled him with
questions which no one could have answered who was not well versed in
bibliographical lore. It was not often that his acuteness was baffled,
while his kindness was never exhausted. My old friend Mr. E.J. Payne,
M.A., Fellow of University College, Oxford, the learned editor of the
_Select Works of Burke_ published by the Clarendon Press, has allowed
me, whenever I pleased, to draw on his extensive knowledge of the
history and the literature of the eighteenth century. Mr. C.G. Crump,
B.A., of Balliol College, Oxford, has traced for me not a few of the
quotations which had baffled my search. To Mr. G.K. Fortescue,
Superintendent of the Reading Room of the British Museum, my most
grateful acknowledgments are due. His accurate and extensive knowledge
of books and his unfailing courtesy and kindness have lightened many a
day's heavy work in the spacious room over which he so worthily
presides. But most of all am I indebted to Mr. C.E. Doble, M.A., of the
Clarendon Press. He has read all my proof-sheets, and by his almost
unrivalled knowledge of the men of letters of the close of the
seventeenth and of the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, he has
saved my notes from some blunders and has enriched them with much
valuable information. In my absence abroad he has in more instances than
I care to think of consulted for me the Bodleian Library. It is some
relief to my conscience to know that the task was rendered lighter to
him by his intimate familiarity with its treasures, and by the deep love
for literature with which he is inspired.

There are other thanks due which I cannot here fittingly express. 'An
author partakes of the common condition of humanity; he is born and
married like another man; he has hopes and fears, expectations and
disappointments, griefs and joys like a courtier or a statesman[49].' In
the hopes and fears, in the expectations and disappointments, in the
griefs and joys--nay, in the very labours of his literary life, if his
hearth is not a solitary one, he has those who largely share.

I have now come to the end of my long labours. 'There are few things not
purely evil,' wrote Johnson, 'of which we can say without some emotion
of uneasiness, _this is the last_[50].' From this emotion I cannot feign
that I am free. My book has been my companion in many a sad and many a
happy hour. I take leave of it with a pang of regret, but I am cheered
by the hope that it may take its place, if a lowly one, among the works
of men who have laboured patiently but not unsuccessfully in the great
and shining fields of English literature.

G. B. H.

CLARENS, SWITZERLAND:
_March_ 16, 1887.

ERRATA.

Vol. I, page 140, _n_. 5, l. 2, _read 'of.'_
" " 176, _n_. 2, l. 22, _for_ 1774 _read_ 1747.
" " 262, _n_. 3 of p. 261, l. 3, _for_ guineas _read_ pounds.
" " 480, l. 20, _for_ language, _read_ language.'

Vol. II, page 34, _n_. 1, l. 40, _for_ proper. _read_ proper.'
" " 445, l. 8, _for_ Masters _read_ Master

Vol. III, page 18, l. 13, _read_ accessary.
" " 81, _n_. 1, l. 2, _for_ 1784, _read_ 1784.
" " 312, _n_. 1, l. 1, _for_ Mrs. Burney _read_ Miss Burney

Vol. IV, page 323, _n_. 1, l. 21, _for_ Wharton _read_ Warton
" " 379, l. 19, _read_ after

Vol. V, page 49, _n_. 4, l. 2, _for 'Boswell' read 'Johnson.'_
Vol. VI. " 74, col. 2, _insert_ Eccles, Rev. W., i. 360.

DEDICATION.

_TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS_.

MY DEAR SIR,

Every liberal motive that can actuate an Authour in the dedication of
his labours, concurs in directing me to you, as the person to whom the
following Work should be inscribed.

If there be a pleasure in celebrating the distinguished merit of a
contemporary, mixed with a certain degree of vanity not altogether
inexcusable, in appearing fully sensible of it, where can I find one, in
complimenting whom I can with more general approbation gratify those
feelings? Your excellence not only in the Art over which you have long
presided with unrivalled fame, but also in Philosophy and elegant
Literature, is well known to the present, and will continue to be the
admiration of future ages. Your equal and placid temper[51], your variety
of conversation, your true politeness, by which you are so amiable in
private society, and that enlarged hospitality which has long made your
house a common centre of union for the great, the accomplished, the
learned, and the ingenious; all these qualities I can, in perfect
confidence of not being accused of flattery, ascribe to you.

If a man may indulge an honest pride, in having it known to the world,
that he has been thought worthy of particular attention by a person of
the first eminence in the age in which he lived, whose company has been
universally courted, I am justified in availing myself of the usual
privilege of a Dedication, when I mention that there has been a long and
uninterrupted friendship between us.

[Page 2: Dedication.]

If gratitude should be acknowledged for favours received, I have this
opportunity, my dear Sir, most sincerely to thank you for the many happy
hours which I owe to your kindness,--for the cordiality with which you
have at all times been pleased to welcome me,--for the number of
valuable acquaintances to whom you have introduced me,--for the _noctes
coenaeque Deum_[52], which I have enjoyed under your roof[53].

If a work should be inscribed to one who is master of the subject of it,
and whose approbation, therefore, must ensure it credit and success, the
_Life of Dr. Johnson_ is, with the greatest propriety, dedicated to Sir
Joshua Reynolds, who was the intimate and beloved friend of that great
man; the friend, whom he declared to be 'the most invulnerable man he
knew; whom, if he should quarrel with him, he should find the most
difficulty how to abuse[54].' You, my dear Sir, studied him, and knew him
well: you venerated and admired him. Yet, luminous as he was upon the
whole, you perceived all the shades which mingled in the grand
composition; all the little peculiarities and slight blemishes which
marked the literary Colossus. Your very warm commendation of the
specimen which I gave in my _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, of my
being able to preserve his conversation in an authentick and lively
manner, which opinion the Publick has confirmed, was the best
encouragement for me to persevere in my purpose of producing the whole
of my stores[55].

In one respect, this Work will, in some passages, be different from the
former. In my _Tour_, I was almost unboundedly open in my
communications, and from my eagerness to display the wonderful fertility
and readiness of Johnson's wit, freely shewed to the world its
dexterity, even when I was myself the object of it. I trusted that I
should be liberally understood, as knowing very well what I was about,
and by no means as simply unconscious of the pointed effects of the
satire. I own, indeed, that I was arrogant enough to suppose that the
tenour of the rest of the book would sufficiently guard me against such
a strange imputation. But it seems I judged too well of the world; for,
though I could scarcely believe it, I have been undoubtedly informed,
that many persons, especially in distant quarters, not penetrating
enough into Johnson's character, so as to understand his mode of
treating his friends, have arraigned my judgement, instead of seeing
that I was sensible of all that they could observe.

It is related of the great Dr. Clarke[56], that when in one of his
leisure hours he was unbending himself with a few friends in the most
playful and frolicksome manner, he observed Beau Nash approaching; upon
which he suddenly stopped:--'My boys, (said he,) let us be grave: here
comes a fool.' The world, my friend, I have found to be a great fool, as
to that particular, on which it has become necessary to speak very
plainly. I have, therefore, in this Work been more reserved[57]; and
though I tell nothing but the truth, I have still kept in my mind that
the whole truth is not always to be exposed. This, however, I have
managed so as to occasion no diminution of the pleasure which my book
should afford; though malignity may sometimes be disappointed of its
gratifications.

[Page 4: Dedication.]

I am,

My dear Sir,

Your much obliged friend,

And faithful humble servant,

JAMES BOSWELL.

London,

April 20, 1791.

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE

FIRST EDITION.

I at last deliver to the world a Work which I have long promised, and of
which, I am afraid, too high expectations have been raised[58]. The delay
of its publication must be imputed, in a considerable degree, to the
extraordinary zeal which has been shewn by distinguished persons in all
quarters to supply me with additional information concerning its
illustrious subject; resembling in this the grateful tribes of ancient
nations, of which every individual was eager to throw a stone upon the
grave of a departed Hero, and thus to share in the pious office of
erecting an honourable monument to his memory[59].

[Page 6: Advertisement to the First Edition.]

The labour and anxious attention with which I have collected and
arranged the materials of which these volumes are composed, will hardly
be conceived by those who read them with careless facility[60]. The
stretch of mind and prompt assiduity by which so many conversations were
preserved[61], I myself, at some distance of time, contemplate with
wonder; and I must be allowed to suggest, that the nature of the work,
in other respects, as it consists of innumerable detached particulars,
all which, even the most minute, I have spared no pains to ascertain
with a scrupulous authenticity, has occasioned a degree of trouble far
beyond that of any other species of composition. Were I to detail the
books which I have consulted, and the inquiries which I have found it
necessary to make by various channels, I should probably be thought
ridiculously ostentatious. Let me only observe, as a specimen of my
trouble, that I have sometimes been obliged to run half over London, in
order to fix a date correctly; which, when I had accomplished, I well
knew would obtain me no praise, though a failure would have been to my
discredit. And after all, perhaps, hard as it may be, I shall not be
surprized if omissions or mistakes be pointed out with invidious
severity. I have also been extremely careful as to the exactness of my
quotations; holding that there is a respect due to the publick which
should oblige every Authour to attend to this, and never to presume to
introduce them with,--'_I think I have read_;'--or,--'_If I remember
right_;'--when the originals may be examined[62].

I beg leave to express my warmest thanks to those who have been pleased
to favour me with communications and advice in the conduct of my Work.
But I cannot sufficiently acknowledge my obligations to my friend Mr.
_Malone_, who was so good as to allow me to read to him almost the whole
of my manuscript, and make such remarks as were greatly for the
advantage of the Work[63]; though it is but fair to him to mention, that
upon many occasions I differed from him, and followed my own judgement.

I regret exceedingly that I was deprived of the benefit of his revision,
when not more than one half of the book had passed through the press;
but after having completed his very laborious and admirable edition of
_Shakspeare_, for which he generously would accept of no other reward
but that fame which he has so deservedly obtained, he fulfilled his
promise of a long-wished-for visit to his relations in Ireland; from
whence his safe return _finibus Atticis_ is desired by his friends here,
with all the classical ardour of _Sic te Diva potens Cypri_[64]; for
there is no man in whom more elegant and worthy qualities are united;
and whose society, therefore, is more valued by those who know him.

It is painful to me to think, that while I was carrying on this Work,
several of those to whom it would have been most interesting have died.
Such melancholy disappointments we know to be incident to humanity; but
we do not feel them the less. Let me particularly lament the Reverend
_Thomas Warton_, and the Reverend Dr. _Adams_. Mr. _Warton_, amidst his
variety of genius and learning, was an excellent Biographer. His
contributions to my Collection are highly estimable; and as he had a
true relish of my _Tour to the Hebrides_, I trust I should now have been
gratified with a larger share of his kind approbation. Dr. _Adams_,
eminent as the Head of a College, as a writer[65], and as a most amiable
man, had known _Johnson_ from his early years, and was his friend
through life. What reason I had to hope for the countenance of that
venerable Gentleman to this Work, will appear from what he wrote to me
upon a former occasion from Oxford, November 17, 1785:--'Dear Sir, I
hazard this letter, not knowing where it will find you, to thank you for
your very agreeable _Tour_, which I found here on my return from the
country, and in which you have depicted our friend so perfectly to my
fancy, in every attitude, every scene and situation, that I have thought
myself in the company, and of the party almost throughout. It has given
very general satisfaction; and those who have found most fault with a
passage here and there, have agreed that they could not help going
through, and being entertained with the whole. I wish, indeed, some few
gross expressions had been softened, and a few of our hero's foibles had
been a little more shaded; but it is useful to see the weaknesses
incident to great minds; and you have given us Dr. Johnson's authority
that in history all ought to be told[66].'