The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [61]
‘Class III. Ovid’s Metamorphoses in the morning, and Caesar’s Commentaries in the afternoon.
‘Practise in the Latin rules till they are perfect in them; afterwards in Mr. Leeds’s Greek Grammar. Examined as before.
‘Afterwards they proceed to Virgil, beginning at the same time to write themes and verses, and to learn Greek; from thence passing on to Horace, &c. as shall seem most proper.
I know not well what books to direct you to, because you have not informed me what study you will apply yourself to. I believe it will be most for your advantage to apply yourself wholly to the languages, till you go to the University. The Greek authours I think it best for you to read are these: Cebes; ælian, Lucian by Leeds, Xenophon (Attick); Homer (Ionick); Theocritus (Dorick); Euripides (Attick and Dorick).
‘Thus you will be tolerably skilled in all the dialects, beginning with the Attick, to which the rest must be referred.
‘In the study of Latin, it is proper not to read the latter authours, till you are well versed in those of the purest ages; as Terence, Tully, Caesar, Sallust, Nepos, Velleius Paterculus, Virgil, Horace, Pha;drus.
‘The greatest and most necessary task still remains, to attain a habit of expression, without which knowledge is of little use. This is necessary in Latin, and more necessary in English; and can only be acquired by a daily imitation of the best and correctest authours.
‘SAM. JOHNSON.’
While Johnson kept his academy, there can be no doubt that he was insensibly furnishing his mind with various knowledge; but I have not discovered that he wrote any thing except a great part of his tragedy of Irene. Mr. Peter Garrick, the elder brother of David, told me that he remembered Johnson’s borrowing the Turkish History48 of him, in order to form his play from it. When he had finished some 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 register, 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 dramatick 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,a with intention to complete his education, 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 Shakspeare’s Mulberry Tree, by Mr. Lovibond, the ingenious authour of The Tears of Old-Mayday.
They were recommended to Mr. Colson,a an eminent mathematician and master of an academy, by the following letter from Mr. Walmsley:
‘To THE REVEREND MR. COLSON
‘DEAR SIR, ‘Lichfield, March 2, 1737.
‘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 is to be with 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