Johnson, Samuel
Johnson's essays
included numerous short fictions, but his only long fiction is
Rasselas (originally published as The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale),
which he wrote in 1759, during the evenings of a single week, in
order to be able to pay for the funeral of his mother. This
"Oriental tale," a popular form at the time, explores
and exposes the futility of the pursuit of happiness, a theme
that links it to The Vanity of Human Wishes. Prince Rasselas,
weary of life in the Happy Valley, where ironically all are
dissatisfied, escapes with his sister and the widely traveled
poet Imlac to experience the world and make a thoughtful "choice
of life." Yet their journey is filled with disappointment
and disillusionment.
They examine the lives of men in a wide range of occupations and
modes of life in both urban and rural settings--rulers and
shepherds, philosophers, scholars, an astronomer, and a hermit.
They discover that all occupations fail to bring satisfaction.
Rulers are deposed. The shepherds exist in grubby ignorance, not
pastoral ease. The Stoic's philosophy proves hollow when he
experiences personal loss. The hermit, miserable in his solitude,
leaves his cell for Cairo. In his "conclusion in which
nothing is concluded," Johnson satirizes the wish-fulfilling
daydreams in which all indulge. His major characters resolve to
substitute the "choice of eternity" for the "choice
of life," and to return to Abyssinia (but not the Happy
Valley) on their circular journey. Johnson never again had to
write in order to raise funds. In 1762 he was awarded a pension
of £300 a year, "not," as Lord Bute, the prime
minister, told him, "given you for anything you are to do,
but for what you have done." This in all likelihood meant
not only his literary accomplishments but also his opposition to
the Seven Years' War, which the new king, George III, and his
prime minister had also opposed. Although in his Dictionary
Johnson had added to his definition of "pension,"
"In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to
a state hireling for treason to his country," he believed
that he could accept his with a clear conscience.
Friendships and household In 1763 Johnson met the 22-year-old
James Boswell, who would go on to make him the subject of the
best-known and most highly regarded biography in English. The
first meeting with this libertine son of a Scottish laird and
judge was not auspicious, but Johnson quickly came to appreciate
the ingratiating and impulsive young man. Boswell kept detailed
journals, published only in the 20th century, which provided the
basis for his biography of Johnson and also form his own
autobiography.
Johnson participated actively in clubs. In 1764 he and his close
friend Sir Joshua Reynolds founded The Club (later known as The
Literary Club), which became famous for the distinction of its
members. The original nine members included the politician Edmund
Burke, the playwright Oliver Goldsmith, and Sir John Hawkins, the
historian of music whom Johnson was to call "unclubable."
Boswell, whose 1768 account of the Corsican struggle against
Genoese rule and its revolutionary leader, General Pasquale Paoli,
earned him a reputation throughout Europe, was admitted in 1773.
Other members elected later included Garrick, the historian
Edward Gibbon, the dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the
economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith, and the Orientalist
Sir William Jones.
In 1749 Johnson had been one of 10 members of the Ivy Lane Club,
and the year before his death he founded The Essex Head Club.
These clubs, at which he often "talked for victory,"
provided the conversation and society he desired and kept him
from the loneliness and insomnia that he faced at home.
This is not to say that his house was empty after the death of
his wife. He had living with him at various times Anna Williams,
a blind poet; Elizabeth Desmoulins, the daughter of his godfather
Dr. Samuel Swynfen, and her daughter; Poll Carmichael, probably a
former prostitute; "Dr." Robert Levett, a medical
practitioner among the poor; Francis Barber, Johnson's black
servant, whom he treated in many ways like a son and made his
heir; and Barber's wife Betsy. They were at once recipients of
Johnson's charity and providers of company, but the relationship
among them was not always amicable. In a letter of 1778 Johnson
says, "We have tolerable concord at home, but no love.
Williams hates everybody; Levett hates Desmoulins, and does not
love Williams; Desmoulins hates them both; Poll loves none of
them."
In 1765 Johnson established a friendship that soon enabled him to
call another place "home." Henry Thrale, a wealthy
brewer and member of Parliament for Southwark, and his lively and
intelligent wife, Hester, opened their country house at Streatham
to him and invited him on trips to Wales and, in 1775, to France,
his only tour outside Great Britain. Their friendship and
hospitality gave the 56-year-old Johnson a new interest in life.
Following her husband's death in 1781 and her marriage to her
children's music master, Gabriel Piozzi, Hester Thrale's and
Johnson's close friendship came to an end. His letters to Mrs.
Thrale, remarkable for their range and intimacy, helped make him
one of the great English letter writers.
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