PENGUIN
JAMES BOSWELL (1740-95) was born in Edinburgh and studied law at Edinburgh University and at Utrecht. At the insistence of his domineering father he practised as an advocate, but he was greatly interested in politics and writing. He travelled in Europe during 1765-6, made the acquaintance of Voltaire and Rousseau, and developed an interest in Corsican affairs. His Account of Corsica (1768) and a less successful sequel (1769) brought him the fame he so desired. Boswell is best remembered for this masterly biography of Johnson. His Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides appeared in 1785, one year after Johnson’s death. The rest of Boswell’s life was dedicated to the unsuccessful pursuit of a political career.
DAVID WOMERSLEY is the Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, and a professorial fellow of St Catherine’s College. He has published widely on English literature from the Renaissance to the early nineteenth century, his most recent book being Gibbon and the ‘Watchmen of the Holy City’: The Historian and his Reputation, 1776-1815 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002). For Penguin he has edited Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Augustan Critical Writing, Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful and Other Pre-Revolutionary Writings, and Samuel Johnson’s Selected Essays. He is a general editor of The Complete Writings of Jonathan Swift (Cambridge University Press), for which he is editing the volume devoted to Gulliver’s Travels.
JAMES BOSWELL
The Life of Samuel Johnson
Edited with an introduction by
DAVID WOMERSLEY
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN CLASSICS
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First published 1791
First published in Penguin Classics 2008
1
Editorial material copyright © David Womersley, 2008
All rights reserved
The moral right of the editor has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
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ISBN: 9781101489758
978-0-14-190743-7
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chronologies
Introduction
Further Reading
A Note on the Text
THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON
Appendix 1: Selected Variants in the First Three Editions
Appendix 2: Selected MS Variants
Notes
Index of Subjects
Index of Places
Index of Literary Works and Characters
Biographical Index:
Johnson
Boswell
Others
Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to acknowledge here the contribution to the preparation of this edition made by my research assistants, Guy Bingley, Rachel Hewitt and (above all) Guy Cuthbertson. The generous grant of a term of sabbatical leave in early 2007 gave me time to prepare the final document; for that, and for various other kinds of practical support, I am very grateful to the University of Oxford, and to its Faculty of English.
St Catherine’s College, Oxford
2007
Chronologies
SAMUEL JOHNSON
1709 Born on 18 September in Lichfield; son of Michael and Sarah Johnson.
1712 Touched for the king’s evil, or scrofula, by Queen Anne.
1717–25 Attends Lichfield Grammar School.
1728 Enters Pembroke College, Oxford, in October.
1729 Leaves Oxford in December.
1731 Death of his father, Michael Johnson.
1732 Works as an usher, or assistant teacher, at Market Bosworth school.
1733 Translates Jerome Lobo’s A Voyage to Abyssinia; contributes essays to the Birmingham Journal.
1735 Marries Elizabeth Porter; opens school at Edial.
1737 Leaves for London in March, accompanied by one of his pupils, David Garrick; begins working for the publisher Edward Cave, and contributes to the Gentleman’s Magazine.
1738 Publication of London: A Poem.
1739 Publication of A Compleat Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage.
1744 Publication of The Life of Mr. Richard Savage and The Harleian Miscellany.
1746 A Dictionary of the English Language undertaken.
1747 Publication of the ‘Plan’ of the Dictionary.
1749 Publication of The Vanity of Human Wishes; Garrick produces Irene.
1750 Begins The Rambler.
1752 Death of Elizabeth Johnson; The Rambler concludes.
1753 Begins contributing to The Adventurer in March.
1754 Ceases to contribute to The Adventurer in March; publishes biography of Cave.
1755 MA, Oxford; publication of the Dictionary.
1758 Begins The Idler, published in the Universal Chronicle.
1759 Death of his mother, Sarah Johnson; publication of Rasselas.
1760 The Idler concludes.
1762 Receives pension of £300 per annum from George III.
1763 Meets James Boswell.
1764 Founding of ‘The Club’.
1765 LLD, Dublin; publication of The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare. Meets the Thrales.