except a great part of his tragedy of "Irene." Mr. Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, told me that he remem Turkish History1 of him, in bered Johnson's borrowing the order to form his play from it. part of it, he read what he had done to Mr. Walmsley, who objected to his having already brought his heroine into great distress, and asked him, "How can you possibly contrive to plunge her into deeper calamity?" Johnson, in sly allusion to the supposed oppressive proceedings of the court of which Mr. Walmsley was registrar, replied, "Sir, I can put her into the Spiritual Court!" Mr. Walmsley, however, was well pleased with this proof of Johnson's abilities as a dramatic writer, and advised him to finish the tragedy, and produce it on the stage. Johnson now thought of trying his fortune in London, the great field of genius and exertion, where talents of every kind have the fullest scope and the highest encouragement. It is a memorable circumstance, that his pupil, David Garrick, went thither at the same time,' with intent to complete his educa 1 Of Knolles' History of the Turks, Johnson says, in The Rambler, No. 122: "it displays all the excellences that narration can admit, and nothing could have sunk its author in obscurity, but the remoteness and barbarity of the people whose story he relates." "Old Knolles," said Lord Byron, at Missolonghi, a few weeks before his death, "was one of the first books that gave me pleasure when a child; and I believe it had much influence on my future wishes to visit the Levant, and gave, perhaps, the oriental colouring which is observed in my poetry."-Works, vol. ix., p. 191.-Lockhart. Both of them used to talk pleasantly of this their first journey to London. Garrick, evidently meaning to embellish a little, said one day in my hearing, "We rode and tied." And the Bishop of Killaloe (Dr. Barnard) informed me, that at another time, when Johnson and Garrick were dining together in a pretty large company, Johnson humorously ascertaining the chronology of something, expressed himself thus :-" That was the year when I came to London with twopence halfpenny in my pocket.” Garrick overhearing him, exclaimed, “Eh? what do you say? with twopence halfpenny in your pocket? Johnson. "Why, yes; when I came with twopence halfpenny in my pocket, and thou, Davy, with three halfpence in thine." [First published in the additions to the second edition, vol. i., p. xxxiii.-Editor.] tion and follow the profession of the law, from which he was soon diverted by his decided preference for the stage. This joint expedition of those two eminent men to the metropolis, was many years afterwards noticed in an allegorical poem on Shakespeare's mulberry tree, by Mr. Lovibond, the ingenious author of "The Tears of Old-Mayday." They were recommended to Mr. Colson,2 an eminent mathematician and master of an academy, by the following letter from Mr. Walmsley: "DEAR SIR, TO THE REV. MR. COLSON. "Lichfield, March 2. 1736-7. "I had the favour of yours, and am extremely obliged to you; but I cannot say I had a greater affection for you upon it than I had before, being long since so much endeared to you, as well by an early friendship, as by your many excellent and valuable qualifications; and, had I a son of my own, it would be my ambition, instead of sending him to the university, to dispose of him as this young gentleman is. "He, and another neighbour of mine, one Mr. Samuel Johnson, set out this morning for London together. Davy Garrick to be with 1 Edward Lovibond was a gentlemen, residing at Hampton, whose works were little known in his own day, and are now quite neglected, though Dr. Anderson has introduced them into the Scotch edition of the British Poets, with a life of the author, in a strain of the most hyperbolical and ridiculous panegyric. He died in 1775.-Croker. 2 The Reverend John Colson was bred at Emmanuel College, in Cambridge, and in 1728, when George II. visited that University, was created Master of Arts. About that time he became first master of the Free Grammar School at Rochester, founded by Sir Joseph Williamson. In 1739 he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, on the death of Professor Sanderson, and held that office until 1759, when he died. He published Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, translated from the French of l'Abbé Nodet, 8vo., 1732, and some other tracts. Our author, it is believed, was mistaken in stating him to have been master of an academy. Garrick, probably during his short residence at Rochester, lived in his house as a private pupil. The character of Gelidus, the philosopher, in The Rambler (No. 24), was meant to represent this gentleman. See Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 49. -Malone. you early the next week, and Mr. Johnson to try his fate with a tragedy, and to see to get himself employed in some translation, either from the Latin or the French. Johnson is a very good scholar and poet, and I have great hopes will turn out a fine tragedy-writer. If it should any way lie in your way, doubt not but you would be ready to recommend and assist your countryman, "G. WALMSLEY." How he employed himself upon his first coming to London is not particularly known.' I never heard that he found any protection or encouragement by the means of Mr. Colson, to whose academy David Garrick went. Mrs. Lucy Porter told me, that Mr. Walmsley gave him a letter of introduction to Lintot, his bookseller, and that Johnson wrote some things for him; but I imagine this to be a mistake, for I have discovered no trace of it, and I am pretty sure he told me, that Mr. Cave was the first publisher by whom his pen was engaged in London. He had a little money when he came to town, and he knew how he could live in the cheapest manner. His first lodgings were at the house of Mr. Norris, a staymaker, in Exeter Street, adjoining Catherine Street, in the Strand. "I dined," said he, "very well for eight-pence, with very good company, at the Pine-Apple in New Street, just by. Several of them had travelled. They expected to meet every day; but did not know one another's names. It used to cost the rest a shilling, for they drank wine; but I had a cut of meat for sixpence, and bread for a penny, and gave the waiter a penny; so that I was quite well served, nay, better than the rest, for they gave the waiter nothing." " 2 He at this time, I believe, abstained entirely from fermented 1 One curious anecdote was communicated by himself to Mr. John Nichols. Mr. Wilcox, the bookseller, on being informed by him that his intention was to get his livelihood as an author, eyed his robust frame attentively, and, with a significant look, said, "You had better buy a porter's knot." He, however, added, “Wilcox was one of my best friends." [Second edition, vol. i., p. 78.—Editor.] 2 Cumberland, in his Memoirs, vol. i., p. 355, says that he heard the illustrious scholar (Johnson), who never varied from the truth of fact, assert, that he subsisted himself, for a considerable space of time, upon the scanty pittance of fourpence halfpenny per day.-Croker. The Simile of a letter from Filbert Walmsley to The Root Mr. Cotsion Rochesser. must Affect. hum Serv. Gilb Walmerley. Lichfield, Mar. 2.1736, |