Life of Johnson Volume VI Part 8

or

The History of ... Prince of Abissinia."

'It will make about two volumes like little Pompadour, that is about one middling volume. The bargain which I made with Mr. Johnson was seventy five pounds (or guineas) a volume, and twenty five pounds for the second edition. I will sell this either at that price or for sixty[2], the first edition of which he shall himself fix the number, and the property then to revert to me, or for forty pounds, and I have the profit that is retain half the copy. I shall have occasion for thirty pounds on Monday night when I shall deliver the book which I must entreat you upon such delivery to procure me. I would have it offered to Mr. Johnson, but have no doubt of selling it, on some of the terms mentioned.

[Footnote 2: 'Fifty-five pounds' written first and then scored over.]

'I will not print my name, but expect it to be known.

I am Dear Sir, Your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON.

Jan. 20, 1759.

Get me the money if you can.'

This letter is of unusual interest, as it proves beyond all doubt that _Ra.s.selas_ was written some weeks before _Candide_ was published (see _ante_, i. 342, n. a). Baretti, as I have shewn (i. 341, n. 3), says that 'any other person with the degree of reputation Johnson then possessed would have got 400 for the work, but he never understood the art of making the most of his productions.' We see, however, by this letter that Johnson did ask for a larger sum than the booksellers allowed him. He received but one hundred pounds for the first edition, but he had made a bargain for one hundred and fifty pounds or guineas.

Johnson, the bookseller, seems to have been but in a small way of business as a publisher. I do not find in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1758 any advertis.e.m.e.nt of books published by him, and only one in 1759 (P. 339). Cowper's publisher in 1778 was Joseph Johnson of St.

Paul's Churchyard. (Cowper's _Works_ by Southey, i. 285; see also Nichols' _Literary Anecdotes_, iii. 461-464.)

By 'little Pompadour' Johnson, no doubt, means the second and cheaper edition of _The History of the Marchioness de Pompadour_. The first edition was published by Hooper in one volume, price five shillings (_Gent. Mag_. for October 1758, p. 493). and the second in two volumes for three shillings and sixpence (_Gent. Mag_. for November, 1758, p. 543).

Johnson did not generally 'print his name.' He published anonymously his translation of _Lobos Voyage to Abyssinia; London; The Life of Savage; The Rambler_, and _The Idler_, both in separate numbers and when collected in volumes; _Ra.s.selas; The False Alarm; Falkland's Islands; The Patriot;_, and _Taxation no Tyranny_; (when these four pamphlets were collected in a volume he published them with the t.i.tle of _Political Tracts, by the Authour of the Rambler_). He gave his name in _The Vanity of Human Wishes, Irene_, the _Dictionary_, his edition of _Shakespeare_, the _Journey to the Western Islands_, and the _Lives of the Poets_.

VII.

_A letter about George Strahan's election to a scholarship at University College, Oxford, and about William Strahan's 'affair with the University'; dated October 24, 1764_.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick Barker.]

'SIR,

'I think I have pretty well disposed of my young friend George, who, if you approve of it, will be entered next Monday a Commoner of University College, and will be chosen next day a Scholar of the House. The Scholarship is a trifle, but it gives him a right, upon a vacancy, to a Fellowship of more than sixty pounds a year if he resides, and I suppose of more than forty if he takes a Curacy or small living. The College is almost filled with my friends, and he will be well treated.

The Master is informed of the particular state of his education, and thinks, what I think too, that for Greek he must get some private a.s.sistance, which a servitour of the College is very well qualified and will be very willing to afford him on very easy terms.

'I must desire your opinion of this scheme by the next post, for the opportunity will be lost if we do not now seize it, the Scholarships being necessarily filled up on Tuesday.

'I depend on your proposed allowance of a hundred a year, which must the first year be a little enlarged because there are some extraordinary expenses, as

Caution (which is allowed in his last quarter). . 7 0 0 Thirds. (He that enters upon a room pays two thirds of the furniture that he finds, and receives from his successor two thirds of what he pays; so that if he pays 20 he receives 13 6s. 8d., this perhaps may be) 12 0 0 Fees at entrance, matriculation &c., perhaps 2 0 0 His gown (I think) 2 10 0 ________ 23 10 0

'If you send us a Bill for about thirty pounds we shall set out commodiously enough. You should fit him out with cloaths and linen, and let him start fair, and it is the opinion of those whom I consult, that with your hundred a year and the petty scholarship he may live with great ease to himself, and credit to you.

'Let me hear as soon as is possible.

'In your affair with the university, I shall not be consulted, but I hear nothing urged against your proposal.

'I am, Sir, 'Your humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Oct. 24, 1764.

'My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.

'To Mr. Strahan, Printer, in New Street, Shoe-lane, London.'

My friend, Mr. C. J. Faulkner, Fellow and Tutor of University College, has given me the following extracts from the College records:--

'Oct. 30-31, 1764. Candidatis examinatis electi sunt Gulielmus Jones et Georgius Strahan in vacuas Exhibitiones Dmi Simonis Benet Baronetti.'

Gulielmus Jones is the famous oriental scholar, Sir William Jones, whose portrait adorns the Hall of his ancient College (_ante_, ii. 25, n. 2).

On April 16, 1767, is found the election of 'Georgium Strahan, sophistam in perpetuum hujus Collegii Socium.'

He vacated his fellowship in 1773.

The value of a Bennet scholarship in 1764 was ten pounds a year, with rooms added, the rent of which was reckoned as equal to two pounds more.

A fellowship on the same foundation was worth about twenty pounds, with a yearly dividend added to it that amounted to about thirty pounds.

'Fines' (_ante_, iii. 323) and other extra payments might easily raise the value to more than sixty pounds.

The 'caution' is the sum deposited by an undergraduate with the College Bursar or Steward as a security for the payment of his 'battells' or account. Johnson in 1728 had to pay at Pembroke College the same sum (seven pounds) that George Strahan in 1764 had to pay at University College. _Ante_, i. 58, n. 2.

Johnson wrote four letters to George Strahan, when he was a boy at school, and one letter when he was at College. (See Croker's _Johnson_, pp. 129, 130, 161, 168.) In this last letter, dated May 25, 1765, he writes: 'Do not tire yourself so much with Greek one day as to be afraid of looking on it the next; but give it a certain portion of time, suppose four hours, and pa.s.s the rest of the day in Latin or English.

I would have you learn French, and take in a literary journal once a month, which will accustom you to various subjects, and inform you what learning is going forward in the world. Do not omit to mingle some lighter books with those of more importance; that which is read _remisso animo_ is often of great use, and takes great hold of the remembrance.

However, take what course you will, if you be diligent you will be a scholar.'

George Strahan attended Johnson on his death-bed, and published the volume called _Prayers and Meditations composed by Samuel Johnson_.

_Ante_, i. 235, n. i; iv. 376, n. 4.

William Strahan's 'affair with the University' was very likely connected with the lease of the University Printing House. From the 'Orders of the Delegates of the Press,' 1758, I have been permitted to copy the following entry, which bears a date but six days later than that of Johnson's letter.

'Tuesday, Oct. 30, 1764. At a meeting of the Delegates of the Press.

'Ordered,

'That the following articles be made the foundation of the new lease to be granted of the moiety of the Printing House; that a copy of them be delivered to Mr. Baskett and Mr. Eyre, and that they be desired to give in their respective proposals at a meeting to be held on Tuesday the sixth of November.' (P. 41.)

The chief part of the lease consisted of the privilege to print Bibles and Prayer Books. I conjecture that Strahan had hoped to get a share in the lease.

VIII.

_A letter about a cancel in Johnson's 'Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland', dated Nov. 30_, 1774.[In the possession of Messrs. Pearson and Co., 46, Pall Mall.]

'SIR,

'I waited on you this morning having forgotten your new engagement; for this you must not reproach me, for if I had looked upon your present station with malignity I could not have forgotten it. I came to consult you upon a little matter that gives me some uneasiness. In one of the pages there is a severe censure of the clergy of an English Cathedral which I am afraid is just, but I have since recollected that from me it may be thought improper, for the Dean did me a kindness about forty years ago. He is now very old, and I am not young. Reproach can do him no good, and in myself I know not whether it is zeal or wantonness.

Can a leaf be cancelled without too much trouble? tell me what I shall do. I have no settled choice, but I would not wish to allow the charge.

To cancel it seems the surer side. Determine for me.

'I am, Sir, Your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Nov. 30, 1774.