Samuel Johnson 1709-1783

1. Samuel Johnson1709-1783 The Age of Johnson: A style of balance, simple elegance and great symmetry.

2. Childhood • Born to older parents, sickly, too weak to cry • Nursed by a wet-nurse • Contracted a tubercular infection called scrofula • Taken to Queen Anne • Early school and gingerbread

3. Youth • Overcame physical ailments • Father loses bookstore • Start and stop genius: Hamlet • Scholarship becomes avenue to success • Boxer Uncle taught him to fight—he would later fend off four robbers and hold them at bay until the police arrive • He became an avid swimmer, ice skater and climber-continued into his 70’s

4. University Schooling • Legacy provides funds • Proclivity for debate • Oxford University—attended only one year due to limited funds. Never graduated • Converts to Christianity

5. Next Stages • He is heavy, ugly and brilliant • Floundered in deep depression for several years. • Marries a woman 15 years older • Moves to London with Garrick • Begins to write at the encouragement of friends

6. Companions and Friends • David Garrick • Sir Joshua Reynolds • Alexander Pope • William Hogarth

7. Johnson produces alone over 9 years with the help of 5 runners French employ 40 men who spent 40 years to produce. Johnson provides definition, pronunciation, diction and illustrates the word from literature Dictionary—43,000 definitions and 110,000 citations Publication and Canals Dictionary of the English Language

9. Literary Accomplishments • Poetry— London written in imitation of Juvenal’s satire on Rome Here malice, rapine, accident conspire,And now a rabble rages, now a fire;their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,and here the fell attorney prowls for prey;here falling houses thunder on your head,and here a female atheist talks you dead....This mournful truth is everywhere confessed,Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed.

10. Shakespearean Commentary • The work of a correct and regular writer is a garden accurately formed and diligently planted, varied with shades and scented with flowers; the composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend their branches, and pines tower in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelter to myrtles and to roses; filling the eye with awful pomp, and gratifying the mind with endless diversity.

11. The Rambler 13: The invalidity of all excuses for betraying secrets.     64: The requisites to true friendship.   90: The pauses in English poetry adjusted. 134: Idleness an anxious and miserable state. 156: The laws of writing not always indisputable. 159: The nature and remedies of bashfulness. 183: The influence of envy and interest compared. 207: The folly of continuing too long upon the stage.

12. Rasselas • In the spring of 1759 he wrote a short novel, The History ofRasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.

13. Meets James Boswell • The Scotsman would befriend Dr. Johnson and eventually author the greatest biography ever written. • Contains vignettes of the “stuff Dr. Johnson’s life was made of.”

14. Deep devotion to God Struggle with depression; found solace in the presence of friends. Love for the poor. “And just as he would give all the silver in his pocket to the poor who watched him as he left the house, so, on returning late at night, he for years had been putting pennies into the hands of children lying asleep on thresholds so that they could buy breakfast in the morning.” His latter years

16. Dr Samuel Johnson, critic, poet, essayist, biographer and conversationalist is one of England's best-known literary figures and dominated 18th century London's literary life. He was also known for his great wit and aphorisms, and after Shakespeare, with more than a thousand quotes to his name, Johnson became the most quoted of English writers.