The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [58]
Johnson returned to Lichfield early in 1734, and in August that year he made an attempt to procure some little subsistence by his pen; for he published proposals for printing by subscription the Latin Poems of Politian:b ‘Angelt Politiani Poemata Latina, quibus, Notas cum historiä LatincB poeseos, a PetrarcbcB cbvo ad Politiani tempora deductä, et vita Politiani fusius quam antehac enarratä, addidit Sam. Johnson.’c
It appears that his brother Nathanael had taken up his father’s trade; for it is mentioned that ‘subscriptions are taken in by the Editor, or N. Johnson, bookseller, of Lichfield.’ Notwithstanding the merit of Johnson, and the cheap price at which this book was offered, there were not subscribers enough to insure a sufficient sale; so the work never appeared, and probably, never was executed.
We find him again this year at Birmingham, and there is preserved the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave,d the original compiler and editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine:
To
Mr. Cave ‘Sir, Nov. 25, 1734.
‘As you appear no less sensible than your readers of the defects of your poetical article, you will not be displeased, if, in order to the improvement of it, I communicate to you the sentiments of a person, who will undertake, on reasonable terms, sometimes to fill a column.
‘His opinion is, that the publick would not give you a bad reception, if, beside the current wit of the month, which a critical examination would generally reduce to a narrow compass, you admitted not only poems, inscriptions, &c. never printed before, which he will sometimes supply you with; but likewise short literary dissertations in Latin or English, critical remarks on authors ancient or modern, forgotten poems that deserve revival, or loose pieces, like Floyer’s,a worth preserving. By this method, your literary article, for so it might be called, will, he thinks, be better recommended to the publick than by low jests, aukward buffoonery, or the dull scurrilities of either party.
‘If such a correspondence will be agreeable to you, be pleased to inform me in two posts, what the conditions are on which you shall expect it. Your late offerb gives me no reason to distrust your generosity. If you engage in any literary projects besides this paper, I have other designs to impart, if I could be secure from having others reap the advantage of what I should hint.
‘Your letter by being directed to S. Smith, to be left at the Castle in Birmingham, Warwickshire, will reach ‘Your humble servant.’
Mr. Cave has put a note on this letter, ‘Answered Dec. 2.’ But whether any thing was done in consequence of it we are not informed.
Johnson had, from his early youth, been sensible to the influence of female charms. When at Stourbridge school, he was much enamoured of Olivia Lloyd, a young quaker, to whom he wrote a copy of verses, which I have not been able to recover; but with what facility and elegance he could warble the amorous lay, will appear from the following lines which he wrote for his friend Mr. Edmund Hector.
VERSES to a LADY, on receiving from her a SPRIG of MYRTLE.
‘What hopes, what terrours does thy gift create,
Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate:
The myrtle, ensign of supreme command,
Consign’d by Venus to Melissa’s hand;
Not less capricious than a reigning fair,
Now grants, and now rejects a lover’s prayer.
In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain,
In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain;
The myrtle crowns the happy lovers’ heads,
The unhappy lovers’ grave the myrtle spreads:
O then the meaning of thy gift impart,
And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart!
Soon must this bough, as you shall fix his doom,
Adorn Philander’s head, or grace his tomb.a
His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were, however, very transient; and it is certain that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever. Mr. Hector, who lived with him in his younger days in the utmost intimacy and social freedom, has assured me, that even at that ardent season his conduct was strictly virtuous