Murray, is the account rendered on the collection of The Idler into two small volumes, when the arrangement seems to have been that Johnson should receive two-thirds of the profits.
The Idler.
'DR. L. s. d. Paid for Advertising.. 20 0 6 Printing two vols., 1,500 41 13 0 Paper. . . . . . . 52 3 0 * * * * * L113 16 6 Profit on the edition . 126 3 6 * * * * * L240 0 0 * * * * * 'CR. L. s. d. 1,500 Sets at 16L per 100 240 0 0 * * * * * Dr. Johnson two-thirds 84 2 4 Mr. Newbery one-third. 42 1 2 * * * * * L126 3 6 * * * * *
Forster's Goldsmith, i. 204.
If this account is correctly printed, the sale must have been slow. The first edition (2 vols. 5s.) was published in Oct. 1761, (Gent. Mag. xxxi. 479). Johnson is called Dr. in the account; but he was not made an LL.D. till July 1765. Prior, in his Life of Goldsmith (i. 459), publishes an account between Goldsmith and Newbery in which the first entry is:--
'1761. Oct. 14, 1 set of The Idler. . . . . L0 50 0.'
Johnson, as Newbery's papers show, a year later bought a copy of Goldsmith's Life of Nash; ib. p. 405.
[1004] See ante, p. 306.
[1005] This paper may be found in Stockdale's supplemental volume of Johnson's Miscellaneous Pieces. BOSWELL. Stockdale's supplemental volumes--for there are two--are vols. xii. and xiii. of what is known as 'Hawkins's edition.' In this paper (Works, iv. 450) he represents in a fable two vultures speculating on that mischievous being, man, 'who is the only beast who kills that which he does not devour,' who at times is seen to move in herds, while 'there is in every herd one that gives directions to the rest, and seems to be more eminently delighted with a wide carnage.'
[1006] 'Receipts for Shakespeare.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.
[1007] 'Then of Lincoln College. Now Sir Robert Chambers, one of the Judges in India.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.
[1008] Old Mr. Langton's niece. See post, July 14, 1763.
[1009] 'Mr. Langton.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.
[1010] Boswell records:--'Lady Di Beauclerk told me that Langton had never been to see her since she came to Richmond, his head was so full of the militia and Greek. "Why," said I, "Madam, he is of such a length he is awkward and not easily moved." "But," said she, "if he had lain himself at his length, his feet had been in London, and his head might have been here eodem die."' Boswelliana, p. 297.
[1011] 'Part of the impression of the Shakespeare, which Dr. Johnson conducted alone, and published by subscription. This edition came out in 1765.' WARTON.--BOSWELL.
[1012] Stockdale records (Memoirs, ii. 191), that after he had entered on his charge as domestic tutor to Lord Craven's son, he called on Johnson, who asked him how he liked his place. On his hesitating to answer, he said: 'You must expect insolence.' He added that in his youth he had entertained great expectations from a powerful family. "At length," he said, "I found that their promises, and consequently my expectations, vanished into air.... But, Sir, they would have treated me much worse, if they had known that motives from which I paid my court to them were purely selfish, and what opinion I had formed of them." He added, that since he knew mankind, he had not, on any occasion, been the sport of such delusion and that he had never been disappointed by anyone but himself.'
[1013] This, and some of the other letters to Langton, were not received by Boswell till the first volume of the second edition had been carried through the press. He gave them as a supplement to the second volume. The date of this letter was there wrongly given as June 27, 1758. In the third edition it was corrected. Nevertheless the letter was misplaced as if the wrong date were the right one. Langton, as I have shewn (ante, p. 247), subscribed the articles at Oxford on July 7, 1757. He must have come into residence, as Johnson did (ante, p. 58), some little while before this subscription.
[1014] Major-General Alexander Dury, of the first regiment of foot-guards, who fell in the gallant discharge of his duty, near St. Cas, in the well-known unfortunate expedition against France, in 1758. His lady and Mr. Langton's mother was sisters. He left an only son, Lieutenant-Colonel Dury, who has a company in the same regiment. BOSWELL. The expedition had been sent against St. Malo early in September. Failing in the attempt, the land forces retreated to St. Cas, where, while embarking, they were attacked by the French. About 400 of our soldiers were made prisoners, and 600 killed and wounded. Ann. Reg.i.68.
[1015] See post, 1770, in Dr. Maxwell's Collectanea.
[1016] Hawkins's Life of Johnson, p. 365. BOSWELL. 'In the beginning of the year 1759 an event happened for which it might be imagined he was well prepared, the death of his mother, who had attained the age of ninety; but he, whose mind had acquired no firmness by the contemplation of mortality, was as little able to sustain the shock, as he would have been had this loss befallen him in his nonage.'
[1017] We may apply to Johnson in his behaviour to his mother what he said of Pope in his behaviour to his parents:--'Whatever was his pride, to them he was obedient; and whatever was his irritability, to them he was gentle.