He is now to be considered as 'tugging at his oar,'as engaged in a steady continued course of occupation,sufficient to employ all his time for some years;and which was the best preventive of that constitutional melancholy which was ever lurking about him,ready to trouble his quiet.But his enlarged and lively mind could not be satisfied without more diversity of employment,and the pleasure of animated relaxation.He therefore not only exerted his talents in occasional composition very different from Lexicography,but formed a club in Ivy-lane,Paternoster-row,with a view to enjoy literary discussion,and amuse his evening hours.The members associated with him in this little society were his beloved friend Dr.Richard Bathurst,Mr.Hawkesworth,afterwards well known by his writings,Mr.John Hawkins,an attorney,and a few others of different professions.
1749:AETAT.40.]--In January,1749,he published the Vanity of human Wishes,being the Tenth Satire of Juvenal imitated.He,Ibelieve,composed it the preceding year.Mrs.Johnson,for the sake of country air,had lodgings at Hampstead,to which he resorted occasionally,and there the greatest part,if not the whole,of this Imitation was written.The fervid rapidity with which it was produced,is scarcely credible.I have heard him say,that he composed seventy lines of it in one day,without putting one of them upon paper till they were finished.I remember when Ionce regretted to him that he had not given us more of Juvenal's Satires,he said he probably should give more,for he had them all in his head;by which I understood that he had the originals and correspondent allusions floating in his mind,which he could,when he pleased,embody and render permanent without much labour.Some of them,however,he observed were too gross for imitation.
The profits of a single poem,however excellent,appear to have been very small in the last reign,compared with what a publication of the same size has since been known to yield.I have mentioned,upon Johnson's own authority,that for his London he had only ten guineas;and now,after his fame was established,he got for his Vanity of Human Wishes but five guineas more,as is proved by an authentick document in my possession.
His Vanity of Human Wishes has less of common life,but more of a philosophick dignity than his London.More readers,therefore,will be delighted with the pointed spirit of London,than with the profound reflection of The Vanity of Human Wishes.Garrick,for instance,observed in his sprightly manner,with more vivacity than regard to just discrimination,as is usual with wits:'When Johnson lived much with the Herveys,and saw a good deal of what was passing in life,he wrote his London,which is lively and easy.
When he became more retired,he gave us his Vanity of Human Wishes,which is as hard as Greek.Had he gone on to imitate another satire,it would have been as hard as Hebrew.'
Garrick being now vested with theatrical power by being manager of Drury-lane theatre,he kindly and generously made use of it to bring out Johnson's tragedy,which had been long kept back for want of encouragement.But in this benevolent purpose he met with no small difficulty from the temper of Johnson,which could not brook that a drama which he had formed with much study,and had been obliged to keep more than the nine years of Horace,should be revised and altered at the pleasure of an actor.Yet Garrick knew well,that without some alterations it would not be fit for the stage.A violent dispute having ensued between them,Garrick applied to the Reverend Dr.Taylor to interpose.Johnson was at first very obstinate.'Sir,(said he)the fellow wants me to make Mahomet run mad,that he may have an opportunity of tossing his hands and kicking his heels.'He was,however,at last,with difficulty,prevailed on to comply with Garrick's wishes,so as to allow of some changes;but still there were not enough.
Dr.Adams was present the first night of the representation of Irene,and gave me the following account:'Before the curtain drew up,there were catcalls whistling,which alarmed Johnson's friends.
The Prologue,which was written by himself in a manly strain,soothed the audience,and the play went off tolerably,till it came to the conclusion,when Mrs.Pritchard,the heroine of the piece,was to be strangled upon the stage,and was to speak two lines with the bowstring round her neck.The audience cried out "Murder!
Murder!"She several times attempted to speak;but in vain.At last she was obliged to go off the stage alive.'This passage was afterwards struck out,and she was carried off to be put to death behind the scenes,as the play now has it.The Epilogue,as Johnson informed me,was written by Sir William Yonge.I know not how his play came to be thus graced by the pen of a person then so eminent in the political world.
Notwithstanding all the support of such performers as Garrick,Barry,Mrs.Cibber,Mrs.Pritchard,and every advantage of dress and decoration,the tragedy of Irene did not please the publick.
Mr.Garrick's zeal carried it through for nine nights,so that the authour had his three nights'profits;and from a receipt signed by him,now in the hands of Mr.James Dodsley,it appears that his friend Mr.Robert Dodsley gave him one hundred pounds for the copy,with his usual reservation of the right of one edition.
