a staymaker, in Exeter Street, adjoining Catharine 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." (')

He at this time, I believe, abstained entirely from fermented liquors: a practice to which he rigidly conformed for many years together, at different periods of his life. (2)

(1) Painful as it is to relate, I have heard Dr. Johnson assert, that he subsisted himself, for a considerable space of time, upon the scanty pittance of four-pence halfpenny per day. - CUM

BERLAND.

(2) At this time his abstinence from wine may, perhaps, be attributed to poverty, but in his subsequent life he was restrained from that indulgence by, as it appears, moral, or rather medical, considerations. He probably found by experience that wine, though it dissipated for a moment, yet eventually aggravated the hereditary disease under which he suffered; and perhaps it may have been owing to a long course of abstinence, that his mental health seems to have been better in the latter than in the earlier portion of his life. He says, in his Prayers and Meditations, p. 73., "By abstinence from wine and suppers, I obtained sudden and great relief, and had freedom of mind restored to me; which I have wanted for all this year, without being able to find any means of obtaining it." See also Sept. 16. 1773. Selden had the same notion; for being consulted by a person of quality, whose imagination was strangely disturbed, he advised him "not to disorder himself with eating or drinking; to eat very little supper, and say his prayers duly when he went to bed; and I (Selden) made but little question but he would be well in three or four days."-Table Talk, p. 17. These remarks are important, because depression of spirits is too often treated on a contrary system, from ignorance of, or inattention to, what may be its real cause. CROKER.

VOL. I.

I

His Ofellus, in the Art of Living in London (1), I have heard him relate, was an Irish painter, whom he knew at Birmingham, and who had practised his own precepts of economy for several years in the British capital. He assured Johnson, who, I suppose, was then meditating to try his fortune in London, but was apprehensive of the expense, "that thirty pounds a year was enough to enable a man to live there without being contemptible. He allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen. He said a man might live in a garret at eighteen-pence a week; few people would enquire where he lodged; and if they did, it was easy to say, 'Sir, I am to be found at such a place. By spending three-pence in a coffeehouse, he might be for some hours every day in very good company; he might dine for sixpence, breakfast on bread and milk for a penny, and do without supper. On clean-shirt-day he went abroad, and paid visits." I have heard him more than once talk of his frugal friend, whom he recollected with esteem and kindness, and did not like to have one smile at the recital. "This man," said he, gravely, was a

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(1) ["Quæ virtus et quanta, boni, sit vivere parvo,
(Nec meus hic sermo; sed quæ præcepit Ofellus,
Rusticus, abnormis sapiens, crassaque Minerva,)
Discite, non inter lances mensaque nitentes."

HOR. Sat. ii. lib. ii.

"What, and how great, the virtue and the art
To live on little with a cheerful heart,
(A doctrine sage, but, truly, none of mine,)
Let's talk, my friends, but talk before we dine."

POPE, Imit.

The Ofellus of Horace was an honest countryman, whose patrimony had been seized by Augustus, and given to one of the soldiers that had served against Brutus and Cassius.]

very sensible man, who perfectly understood common affairs: a man of a great deal of knowledge of the world, fresh from life, not strained through books. He borrowed a horse and ten pounds at Birmingham. Finding himself master of so much money, he set off for West Chester, in order to get to Ireland. He returned the horse, and probably the ten pounds too, after he had got home."

Considering Johnson's narrow circumstances in the early part of his life, and particularly at the interesting era of his launching into the ocean of London, it is not to be wondered at, that an actual instance, proved by experience, of the possibility of enjoying the intellectual luxury of social life upon a very small income, should deeply engage his attention, and be ever recollected by him as a circumstance of much importance. He amused himself, I remember, by computing how much more expense was absolutely necessary to live upon the same scale with that which his friend described, when the value of money was diminished by the progress of commerce. may be estimated that double the money might now with difficulty be sufficient.

It

Amidst this cold obscurity, there was one brilliant circumstance to cheer him; he was well acquainted with Mr. Henry Hervey (1), one of the branches of

(1) The Hon. Henry Hervey, third son of the first Earl of Bristol, quitted the army and took orders. He married a sister of Sir Thomas Aston, by whom he got the Aston Estate, and assumed the name and arms of that family. - BOSWELL.

Mr. Hervey's acquaintance and kindness Johnson probably owed to his friend Walmesley. Hervey and Walmesley, it will be recollected, married two sisters. CROKER.

the noble family of that name, who had been quartered at Lichfield as an officer of the army, and had at this time a house in London, where Johnson was frequently entertained, and had an opportunity of meeting genteel company. Not very long before his death, he mentioned this, among other particulars of his life, which he was kindly communicating to me; and he described this early friend "Harry Hervey," thus: "He was a vicious man (1), but very kind to me. If you call a dog HERVEY I shall love him."

He told me he had now written only three acts of his IRENE, and that he retired for some time to lodgings at Greenwich, where he proceeded in it somewhat further, and used to compose, walking in the Park; but did not stay long enough at that place to finish it.

At this period we find the following letter from him to Mr. Edward Cave, which, as a link in the chain of his literary history, it is proper to insert:

LETTER 3.

TO MR. CAVE.

"Greenwich, next door to the Golden Heart, Church Street, July 12. 1737.

SIR, Having observed in your papers very uncommon offers of encouragement to men of letters, I have chosen, being a stranger in London, to communicate to you the following design, which, I hope, if you join in it, will be of advantage to both of us.

(1) For the excesses which Dr. Johnson characterises as vicious, Mr. Hervey was, probably, as much to be pitied as blamed. He was very eccentric.-ČROKER.

"The History of the Council of Trent (1) having been lately translated into French, and published with large notes by Dr. Le Courayer, the reputation of that book is so much revived in England, that, it is presumed, a new translation of it from the Italian (2), together with Le Courayer's notes from the French, could not fail of a favourable reception.

"If it be answered, that the History is already in English, it must be remembered, that there was the same objection against Le Courayer's undertaking, with this disadvantage, that the French had a version by one of their best translators, whereas you cannot read three pages of the English history without discovering that the style is capable of great improvements; but whether those improvements are to be expected from this attempt, you must judge from the specimen, which, if you approve the proposal, I shall submit to your examination.

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Suppose the merit of the versions equal, we may hope that the addition of the notes will turn the balance in our favour, considering the reputation of the

annotator.

"Be pleased to favour me with a speedy answer, if you are not willing to engage in this scheme; and appoint me a day to wait upon you, if you are. Sir, your humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."

I am,

It should seem from this letter, though subscribed with his own name, that he had not yet been introduced to Mr. Cave. We shall presently see what was done in consequence of the proposal which it contains.

(1) [The celebrated work of Father Paul Sarpi.]

(2) This proves that Johnson had now acquired Italian; probably directed to that study by the volume of Petrarch (mentioned antè, p. 55.), the latter part of which contained his Italian CROKER.

poems.