Deformities of Samuel Johnson, Selected from his Works Part 1

Deformities of Samuel Johnson, Selected from his Works.

by Anonymous.

INTRODUCTION

During the early part of his literary career, James Thomson Callender (1758-1803)[1] belittled Samuel Johnson; during the later, he denigrated Thomas Jefferson. Thus his reputation as a Scots master of scurrility and a vicious scandalmonger was earned on both sides of the Atlantic.

Probably because his anonymous pamphlets about Johnson's writings--the _Deformities of Dr. Samuel Johnson, Selected from his Works_ (1782) and _A Critical Review of the Works of Dr. Samuel Johnson_ (1783)--were not both ascribed to him until 1940, Callender first came into public notice in 1792, when in Scotland he published _The Political Progress of Britain, or An Impartial Account of the Princ.i.p.al Abuses in the Government of this Country from the Revolution in 1688_. For these intemperate remarks, though anonymous, he was indicted in 1793 for sedition. He fled from Edinburgh and made his way, "with some difficulty," soon thereafter to Philadelphia.

During the first several years in Philadelphia, he was reporter of the Congressional debates for the Philadelphia _Gazette_ and did some editorial hackwork. He also published the third edition of the _Political Progress_, which was favorably noticed by Jefferson. In 1797 he published _The History of the United States for 1796: Including a Variety of Particulars Relative to the Federal Government Previous to that Period_, which brought the charge against Alexander Hamilton of "a connection with one James Reynolds for purpose of improper pecuniary speculation." Hamilton, after making preliminary preparations for a duel, came to the conclusion that he would have to sacrifice his private reputation to clear his public actions. So he calmly wrote, "My real crime is an amorous connection with his [Reynolds'] wife for a considerable time, with his privity and connivance, if not originally brought on by a combination between the husband and wife with the design to extort money from me."[2]

In _The Prospect before Us_ (1800), written under the secret patronage of Jefferson, Callender a.s.sailed John Adams and lashed through Adams at his predecessor, Washington. Ending his diatribe, he said, "Take your choice, between Adams, war and beggery and Jefferson, peace and competency." Because of his remarks about Adams, he was tried under the Sedition Law, fined $200, and sent to prison for nine months. While in prison he wrote two fiery anti-Federalist pamphlets, for which Jefferson advanced money under ambiguous terms. When Jefferson became President in 1801, he pardoned Callender (and all others convicted under the unwise Sedition Law), and Callender's fine was remitted. But Callender was not satisfied; he wanted Jefferson to appoint him postmaster of Richmond, Virginia. Jefferson refused, in spite of the tone of blackmail which now pervaded Callender's importunities. Soon he turned his political coat and began editing the most scurrilous anti-Jefferson paper in the country, the Richmond _Recorder_, to the infinite delight of the Federalists, who immediately circulated the periodical far and wide.

Callender accused Jefferson of dishonesty and cowardice, but pure malice inspired his most injurious charges.

It is well known that the man, _whom it delighted the people to honor_, keeps ... as his concubine, one of his own slaves. Her name is Sally. The name of her eldest son is Tom. His features are said to bear a striking resemblance to those of the president himself.... By this wench Sally, our President has had several children. There is not an individual in the neighborhood of Charlottesville who does not believe the story; and not a few who _know it_.... Behold the favorite! the first born of republicanism! the pinnacle of all that is good and great! If the friends of Mr. Jefferson are convinced of his innocence, they will make an appeal.... If they rest in silence, or if they content themselves with resting upon a _general denial_, they cannot hope for credit. The allegation is of a nature too _black_ to be suffered to remain in suspense. We should be glad to hear of its refutation. We give it to the world under the firmest belief that such a refutation _never can be made_. The AFRICAN VENUS is said to officiate as housekeeper at Montecello. When Mr. Jefferson has read this article, he will find leisure to estimate how much has been lost or gained by so many unprovoked attacks upon J. T.

Callender![3]

Callender's ignominious end came on 17 July 1803. The _Gentleman's Magazine_ declared (LXXIII [September 1803], 882) that he, "after experiencing many varieties of fortune as Iscariot Hackney ... drowned himself ... in James River": the coroner's jury, however, declared that his death was accidental, following intoxication.

There can be scant doubt that the _Deformities_ and _A Critical Review_[4] have a common origin. The paper, type, and makeup of the t.i.tle-pages indicate that they were issued from the same press. In the "Introduction" to _A Critical Review_, the statement is made that "The author of the present trifle was last year induced to publish a few remarks on the writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson.... Like the former essay, these pages will endeavour to ascertain the genuine importance of Dr.

Johnson's literary character" (pp. iii, v). In the text on page 50, the _Deformities_ is cited in proprietary tones; and it is also mentioned in notes on pages 19, 37, 55, and 63. Moreover, the tell-tale words "deformities" and "deformity" appear (pp. 31, 43) in the text, and there is an advertis.e.m.e.nt for the _Deformities_ on page 72.

An attempt to identify the author of the _Deformities_ was made by George Steevens when it appeared. In a letter to William Cole dated 14 May 1782, he says that it was "written by a Club of Caledonian Wits."[5]

The _Critical Review_ for August 1782 (LIV, 140) surmised that "the pamphlet ... is apparently written by some angry Caledonian, who, warmed with the deepest resentment for some real or supposed injury, gives vent to his indignation, and treats every part of Dr. Johnson's character with the utmost asperity." A month later, the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (LII [September 1782], 439), "reciting the circ.u.mstance" of the origin of the _Deformities_, contended that it was a revenge pamphlet inspired by an anti-Ossian publication by William Shaw ("Nadir" Shaw, in the _Deformities_), who "'denied the existence of Gaelic poetry....'" "Dr.

Johnson was his patron; and THEREFORE this Essayist, 'by fair and copious quotations from Dr. Johnson's ponderous performances, has attempted to ill.u.s.trate'" his extraordinary defects. And in February 1783 (LXVIII, 185-186), the _Monthly Review_ briefly noted:

This seems to be the production of some ingenious but angry Scotchman, who has taken great pains to prove, what all the world knows, that there are many exceptionable pa.s.sages in the writings of Dr. Johnson. There are, however, few spots in this literary luminary now pointed out that have not been discovered before.

So that the present map must be considered rather as a monument of the delineator's malignity, than of his wit.--His _personalities_ seem to indicate personal provocation; though perhaps it may be all pure _nationality_.

Though Boswell mentions the pamphlet and quotes a letter in which Johnson comments on it,[6] neither he nor any of his editors before L.

F. Powell try to identify the incensed author. In 1815 Robert Anderson said that the _Deformities_, "an invidious contrast to 'The Beauties of Johnson,'" is "the production of Mr. Thomson Callender, nephew of Thomson the poet."[7]

When the _Deformities_ was catalogued in the Bodleian Library in 1834,[8] it was attributed to John Callander of Craigforth. In _A Critical Review of the Works of Dr. Samuel Johnson_, the statement is made (p. 4) that "Mr. Callander of Craigforth ... observes" that "'Had the laborious Johnson been better acquainted with the oriental tongues, or had he even understood the first rudiments of the northern languages from which the English and Scots derive their origin, his bulky volumes had not presented to us the melancholy truth, that unwearied industry, _devoid of settled principles_, avails only to add one error to another.'" This latter blast, taken from the "Introduction" to Callander's _Two Ancient Scottish Poems, The Gaberlunzie Man and Christ's Kirk on the Green_ (Edinburgh, 1782), may well have been the evidence that caused _A Critical Review_ to be attributed to John Callander of Craigforth; then, because of the interconnections between it and the _Deformities_ and because of their convincing similarity, the _Deformities_ was also a.s.signed to him. On the other hand, one is puzzled by the Bodleian's failure to accept the pa.s.sage from John Callander in _A Critical Review_ as conclusive evidence that he was not the author of that work.[9]

When the _Deformities_ and _A Critical Review_ were catalogued in the British Museum, in 1854 and 1862, they were likewise attributed to John Callander of Craigforth. In 1915 Courtney and Smith seemed to doubt that John Callander wrote them; for, they noticed, "strangely enough no mention of them is made by Robert Chambers in his memoir of Callander."[10] The _Catalogue of Printed Books in the Edinburgh Library_ (1918) a.s.signs _A Critical Review_ to John Callander; it does not list the _Deformities_. Arthur G. Kennedy, in _A Bibliography of Writings on the English Language_ (1927), attributes the _Deformities_ to John Callander; he lists the 1787 issue of _A Critical Review_ as anonymous. In their _Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature_ (1926-1932), Halkett and Laing a.s.sign _A Critical Review_ to John Callander on the authority of the British Museum; the _Deformities_ is also a.s.signed to him on the authority of a note by Chalmers in 1782.

Finally, L. F. Powell, _primus editorum_, in his revision of G. B.

Hill's edition of Boswell's _Life_ (1934-1950), quoted from a letter by James Thomson Callender to John Stockdale, dated 4 October 1783, which says: "I will be greatly obliged to you, for delivering the remaining Copies of Deformities of Johnson to the bearer, and sending me his Receipt for them." Dr. Powell thinks--rightly, we believe, when all the other evidence is taken into account--that this letter "shows" that Callender "was the author of the book."[11]

Then in 1940, D. Nichol Smith, no doubt having followed the suspicion he and W. P. Courtney expressed in 1915, and having available the proof unearthed by Dr. Powell, attributed both items to J. T. Callender in the _CBEL_ (II, 627), listing two editions of the _Deformities_ in 1782 and two of _A Critical Review_ in 1783. The British Museum _Catalogue_ also now credits the same Scotsman with both works.

The information in Callender's letter to Stockdale, Anderson's identification, a fairly plausible reason that the _Deformities_ was so long attributed to John Callander, the similarity of the styles and contents of the two pamphlets, the parallel circ.u.mstances of publication, the virtual acknowledgement of the _Deformities_ in _A Critical Review_--all point to a safe conclusion that the two works were the creations of James Thomson Callender.

Though students of Johnson have frequently noticed the bitter ridicule in the _Deformities_ and _A Critical Review_, they (since the author of the pamphlets was unknown) have seldom,[12] if ever, detailed Callender's turbulent career in America. Similarly, students of American history have studied Callender's attacks on early American statesmen; but they have been completely unaware, it seems, that the pamphleteer who wrote them began his career by making fun of Samuel Johnson. Now that the authorship of these two early productions has been established, a study of them provides details that illuminate the foreground of Callender's career in America. Likewise, of course, the particulars of his activities in America illuminate the background of his career in Great Britain.

Near the conclusion of the _Deformities_, Callender relates the "circ.u.mstances which," as he says, "gave ... birth" to the work.

In 1778, Mr William Shaw published an a.n.a.lysis of the Gaelic language. He quoted specimens of Gaelic poetry, and harangued on its beauties.... A few months ago, he printed a pamphlet. He traduced decent characters. He denied the existence of Gaelic poetry, and his name was echoed in the newspapers as a miracle of candour. Is there in the annals of Grubaean impudence any parallel to this?... This incomparable bookbuilder, who writes a dictionary before he can write grammar, had previously boasted what a harvest he would reap from English credulity. He was not deceived. The bait was caught.... Mr Shaw wants only money....

But better things might have been expected from the moral and majestic author of the Rambler. He must have seen the a.n.a.lysis of the Gaelic language, for Shaw mentions him as the patron of that work. He must have seen the specimens of Celtic poetry there inserted. That he is likewise the patron of this poor scribble, no man, I suppose, will offer to deny. From this single circ.u.mstance, Dr Johnson stands convicted of _an illiberal intention to deceive_. Candour can hardly hesitate to sum up his character in the vulgar but expressive pollysyllable [pp. 86-87].

Readily available facts support some of the central a.s.sertions in this rather heated description of the inception of the _Deformities_.

Specifically, as readers of Boswell's _Life_ may recall, Johnson must be considered a--if not the--princ.i.p.al patron of the Scotsman William Shaw's _a.n.a.lysis of the Gaelic Language_: he wrote the official proposals for the work, he solicited subscribers to it, and he received from the grateful author a public acknowledgement (in the "Introduction") that "To the advice and encouragement of Dr. Johnson, the friend of letters and humanity, the public is indebted for these sheets."[13] It is probable, too, that he examined the book at least cursorily[14] and that in doing so he caught sight of one or more of the references to Ossian's poetry, perhaps including the "specimen" on pages 145-149. Moreover, in the pamphlet Callender mentions, ent.i.tled _An Enquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems Ascribed to Ossian_ (1781), Shaw, setting out to demolish the arguments favoring the ostensible origins of the purported translations, accords (p. 2) Johnson pride of place in starting "objections" to the poems and quotes (pp. 6-12) approvingly first a lengthy pa.s.sage from _A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_ (1775) and then Johnson's famous letter to James Macpherson. In addition, Boswell records Johnson's later a.s.sistance to Shaw in composing a reply to John Clark's pro-Ossian _Answer to Mr.

Shaw's Inquiry_ (1781).[15] But to admit all this is scarcely to "convict" Johnson of a deliberate "_intention to deceive_." On the contrary, since by 1778 his scepticism regarding the Ossianic writings was widely known, his _Journey_ having appeared three years earlier, it could be argued that his patronage of Shaw's _a.n.a.lysis_ revealed a degree of understanding and tolerance not always a.s.sociated with his name.

For the irate Callender, however, such "shameful" conduct demanded countermeasures--even by "a private individual, without interest or connections." The self-appointed champion both of "virtue" and also of "a world ... weary of" the culprit's "arrogant pedantry" and "officious malice," he hoped "to humble and reform" Johnson by "glean[ing] the t.i.the of" his "absurdities," which, Callender declares, ill.u.s.trate, among other defects, Johnson's "prolixity," "corruptions of our language," "want of general learning," "antipathy to rival merit,"

"paralytick reasoning," "adherence to contradictions," "defiance of decency," and "contempt of truth" (pp. 87-88).

After garnering the supposed proofs of these mult.i.tudinous "deformities," Callender published his book at Edinburgh (where it was sold by "W. Creech") in the early part of 1782.[16] The pamphlet, priced at a shilling and consisting of a two-page introduction and sixty-three pages of text, was also sold at London by "T. Longman, and J.

Stockdale."[17] Towards the end of the same year (probably in December),[18] encouraged by the initial "reception," he brought out a second, enlarged edition of the work, which he had "perused ... with honest attention, from the first line to the last, that he might endeavour to supply its deficiencies, and to correct its errors" (p.

vi). Selling for "eighteen pence"[19] and appearing at both Edinburgh and London, this edition includes a separate preface and comes to a total of eighty-nine pages. We have chosen it as the text for the present reproduction of the _Deformities_.

Callender's very limited powers of ridicule and exposure reside largely in his ama.s.sment of material, not in his ability to arrange and synthesize that material. Indeed, one looks in vain at the work for anything more than the most obvious and elementary form of organization.

The Preface begins with brief general remarks on "man's" incapacity to "reform" his "follies" and the "prejudice" and "good nature" of the "public" respecting this human frailty, offers "Dr. Samuel Johnson" as a capital example of the general observation, proceeds to "enquire" how "such a man crawled to the summit of cla.s.sical reputation," and concludes, rather abruptly, with a short postcript on the second edition of the _Deformities_ itself. The Introduction stresses the enormous differences that, according to Callender, often exist between a man's words and deeds--particularly, so the reader is told repeatedly if a bit obliquely, between Johnson's writings (especially the _Dictionary_) and actions.

The body of the pamphlet may be divided into five unequal parts. In the first (pp. 11-15), Callender launches a freewheeling attack on Johnson, accusing him of "ill-nature," a revengeful spirit, peevishness, and insolence (among other lamentable traits), and announces his chosen mode of chastis.e.m.e.nt: "From the Doctor's volumes I am to select some pa.s.sages, ill.u.s.trate them with a few observations, and submit them to the reader's opinion." In the second (pp. 15-47), he presents a disconnected string of quotations drawn from a number of Johnson's works and embellished with caustic strictures on their creator's presumed moral, intellectual, and literary shortcomings. In the third and longest section (pp. 47-82), separated from the second by a small printer's device, Callender, after "quoting [pp. 47-51] the remarks already made by a judicious friend,[20] on this subject," begins a series of disjointed, angry comments on the supposed weaknesses of "the Doctor's English Dictionary." Thirty-one pages later, having vented his ire on the choice and definitions of hundreds of words in the _Dictionary_, he "take[s] leave" of the "enormous compilation,"

stigmatized as "perhaps ... the strangest farrago which pedantry ever produced," and "return[s]" briefly, in part four (pp. 82-86; set off from part three by another small device), "to the rest of" Johnson's publications, extracts from which he again employs as a means of exhibiting his subject's supposed faults. Finally, he brings the rambling essay to a close (pp. 86-89) by recounting its origins, repeating his princ.i.p.al charges against Johnson, and rea.s.serting his hopes for the Doctor's "reformation."

Although it contains some lively reading (with the author himself being the center of our interest about as often as his subject) and should certainly be readily accessible to students of eighteenth-century literature, the _Deformities_ merits only restricted attention as a valid critique of Johnson's character and writings. Ostensibly employing, by and large, an inductive argument, it professes to demonstrate the p.r.o.nounced ethical and mental flaws of the Great Cham, who enjoys, so Callender freely confesses, an unrivalled reputation among his contemporaries for his achievements in letters and lexicography. Besides the deplorable qualities mentioned above and excluding for the moment a consideration of those most evident in the _Dictionary_, Johnson's faults are alleged to include dishonesty, pride, vulgarity, slovenliness, dullness, contempt for other persons, prejudice (especially against the Scots), ingrat.i.tude, "gross expressions," turgid language, and, above all, ignorance, "nonsense," and countless inconsistencies. To this sweeping broadside of invective, the modern reader must respond with steady, sometimes amused, sometimes annoyed disbelief. He recognizes, to be sure, certain points of likeness between Callender's abusive imputations and (say) Boswell's highly laudatory portrait. But the former's accusations are so irresponsible and intemperate, so obviously the outburst of a quivering Scotsman's intense indignation, and the evidence adduced is so often wrenched from its context and misapplied, that the reader inevitably finds himself a partisan of Johnson even when he might be occasionally inclined to admit the tenability of Callender's criticism.

Among Johnson's works, the _Dictionary_, as already indicated, bears the brunt of Callender's heaviest, most sustained a.s.sault. Its princ.i.p.al "deformities," to judge from the amount of s.p.a.ce devoted to them, occur in its definitions and word-list. In Callender's opinion, "most of the definitions ... may be divided into three cla.s.ses; the erroneous, oenigmatical, and superfluous" (p. 58); many of them explicate "indecent," "blackguard" expressions (pp. 54, 74); and some, exemplifying the lexicographer's "political tenets," are downright "seditious and impudent" (p. 13). Of the word-list itself, probably "two thousand" members, comprising a "profusion of trash," are "not to be found at all in any other book" (p. 70).

A short introduction is scarcely the place to examine the presumed existence of these defects in the _Dictionary_. Nevertheless, a few facts, based on a random sampling of pa.s.sages in the _Deformities_, may provide a partial historical perspective for Callender's censures. Of the group of 210 words on pages 71-72 whose real currency he doubts or denies, 190 also appear in the second edition (1736) of Nathan Bailey's _Dictionarium Britannic.u.m_, a copy of which Johnson interleaved and used as he compiled his own _Dictionary_. Equally revealing, the _OED_ includes 204 of the 210, the second edition of _Webster's International_ 158, and the third edition 108. Again, of the 65 words on pages 51-53 whose definitions Callender objects to, 48 also appear, with comparable explanations, in Bailey's dictionary. Finally, an unsystematic comparison of Bailey's and Johnson's works reveals a much higher incidence of so-called "indecent"--at least s.e.xual--terms in the former than in the latter. The author of the _Deformities_, it is quite obvious, knew what he disliked about the _Dictionary_; when pressing his strictures against the book, however, as when mounting his other attacks on Johnson, his violent pa.s.sions rode roughshod over his faint pretensions to fairness and objectivity.

University of Chicago Findlay College

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

1. The _DNB_ and the _DAB_ both contain accounts of Callender (complete, of course, with lists of their primary sources) to which we are indebted for various details in our own sketch of his life. However, neither mentions his pamphlets on Johnson.

2. Quoted from Hamilton by David Loth in _Alexander Hamilton: Portrait of a Prodigy_ (New York, 1939), p. 249.

3. From the Richmond _Recorder_ as printed in the New York _Evening Post_, 10 September 1802; quoted from _Jefferson Reader_, ed. Francis Coleman Rosenberger (New York, 1953), pp. 109-111.

4. There were apparently three editions of _A Critical Review_: (1) Edinburgh: Printed for J. d.i.c.kson, and W. Creech, 1783. (2) Second Edition. London. Printed for the Author, and sold by T. Cadell and J.

Stockdale; at Edinburgh, by J. d.i.c.kson and W. Creech, 1783. (3) London.

Printed for R. Rusted, 1787. We are indebted to the Pierpont Morgan Library for a photographic reproduction of its copy of the first edition of the pamphlet.

5. Brit. Mus. Addit. MS 6401, f. 175 b. Part of this letter is quoted by L. F. Powell in Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, IV, 499 (cited hereafter as _Life_).

6. Writing to Boswell on 28 March 1782, Johnson remarks: "The Beauties of Johnson are said to have got money to the collector; if the 'Deformities' have the same success, I shall be still a more extensive benefactor" (_The Letters of Samuel Johnson_, ed. R. W. Chapman [Oxford, 1952], II, 475).

7. _Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. With Critical Observations on His Works_ (3rd ed.; Edinburgh, 1815), p. 231. Anderson is apparently incorrect in saying that Callender was Thomson's nephew.

8. There is apparently no copy of _A Critical Review_ in the Bodleian.