The Life of Samuel Johnson

Appendix 2

Selected MS Variants

The voluminous manuscript of The Life of Samuel Johnson was discovered as part of the great haul of Boswell’s papers recovered from Malahide Castle in Ireland and Fettercairn House in Scotland during the first half of the twentieth century by Colonel Ralph H. Isham.¹ The manuscript is currently being published as part of the ‘Yale Edition of the Private Papers of James Boswell’, and to date two volumes of a projected four have appeared, following the text up to 1776.² The studious reader who wishes to explore the Life of Johnson as a process, rather than a product, may now do so, for at least the first half of the book.

This appendix has the more modest ambition of placing before the curious reader a selection of the more striking, substantial or surprising variants in the manuscript. Each entry is keyed to the relevant passage in the text as printed above. The meaning of the various symbols employed in the transcription is explained below.

[] – material in the MS which does not appear in the printed text.

∫ – indicates an alternative word or phrase.

↑↑ – enclose a later addition to the manuscript text.

p. 47, 1731

… could maintain himself. [One of the first expedients which he thought of for raising money was to publish Politian’s poetical Works for which he solicited subscriptions at two shillings and sixpence a Book as appears from a Receipt in the possession of Mr. Levett of Lichfield given to that gentleman’s Father by Johnson; but, meeting with no great encouragement he dropped the design.] In the December…

p. 98, 1744

… herself an adulteress.’ [I am however assured by the respectable gentleman to whom I have alluded ∫ quarter that I have alluded to, that her Ladyship who was the daughter of Sir Richard Mason had on account of cruel treatment eloped from her husband then Lord Brandon within a week after their marriage and lived separate from him three and twenty years; and] But I have…

p. 139, 1753

…JESUS CHRIST. Amen.’

[Whether by beginning the second volume of his Dictionary he meant beginning to print it, or beginning to compile it is not quite clear, from the expression ‘room being left in the first’ it would seem that printing must be meant. If otherwise, he must have been uncommonly diligent ∫ laboured with extraordinary assiduity during the next two years, for, the Work was published in April 1755. Indeed it appears impossible that one half of that immense Undertaking could be both written and printed in two years. Whatever was his diligence during that period it must have been almost totally devoted to his Dictionary.]

He [however] this year…

p. 167, 1756

… subversive of the crown.

[If his maintaining such a principle should be contrasted with his ↑ afterwards ↑ beating down all popular inquiries concerning government in his False Alarm let it be considered that in his False Alarm he was saying all he could as an Advocate for a Cause which he had undertaken ↑ to defend ↑, and that a bad cause as is now generally admitted. But such an evidence of his ↑ true ↑ patriotick spirit in 1756 is highly to his honour and fully refutes the unworthy charge that he had it only in the raw ignorance of his youth.]

A still stronger…

p. 214, 25 June 1763

… did not think. [I have heard him say with a manly disdain of the idle clamour that was made upon this subject from various quarters, ‘This is my opinion. I have a right to give it. They may tell ∫ Let them shew me I am wrong.’]

Finding him…

p. 222, 1 July 1763

… only a few.’

[It must be remembered ∫ The truth is that Churchill did not at first declare war against Johnson. On the contrary in his first Poem The Rosciad he rather treated him with ↑ some ↑ respect; for, while mentioning ∫ enumerating the men of genius ∫ eminent men whom he supposes as candidates for being the Judge who should decide the merits of the various pretenders to the vacant chair of Roscius there is this passage

For JOHNSON some, but JOHNSON it was feared

Would be too grave and Sterne too loose appeared.

But when he understood that Johnson undervalued his poetry, ∫ opposed the current of fashion, he drew the following very extravagant and gross Caricatura of him which like all Caricatures]

In this depreciation…

p. 227, 14 July 1763

… any of the sciences.

[And although for a general acquisition of knowledge reading that for which we have an inclination may be best as it is most nutritive to eat that for which we have an appetite, we must consider that a stomach which has fasted ↑ very ↑ long will have no appetite for any kind of food; the longer it fasts it will be the worse; and therefore we must not wait till an appetite returns, but throw in immediately some wholesome sustenance. The stomach then may recover its tone and taste may revive. So it is with the mind when by a long course of dissipation it is quite relaxed. It must be gradually restored, and then we may better judge what study is most agreable ∫ to what study it has a propensity.] To such a degree…

pp. 229–30, 14 July 1763

… happiness as possible.’

[He told me tonight that he intended to give us some more imitations of Juvenal; that he had several of them in his head, which he had not written down. How much is it to be regretted that he did not fulfill this intention.]

[When we entered the Mitre this evening he said to me ‘We will not drink two bottles of port.’ However when one was drunk he called for another pint, and when we had got almost to the bottom of ∫ almost finished that, and I was making a shew of distributing it equally ∫ dividing it justitia distributiva ‘Come said he jollily, you need not measure it so exactly.’ ‘Sir said I it is done.’ ‘Well Sir said he, are you satisfied? or would you have another?’ ‘Would you Sir? said I.’ ‘Yes said he I think I would. I think two bottles would seem to be the quantity for us.’ Accordingly we made them ∫ it out. This little Anecdote will give a more lively conviction of his social pleasantry than pages of studied declamation ∫ narrative could do. He took me cordially by the hand and said ‘My Dear Boswell! I do love you very much.’ No Monarch ∫ King could have said any thing to me, that would have elevated me so much ∫ by which I should have been so much elevated.]

Next morning…

p. 233, 21 July 1763

… human happiness. [There is a reciprocation of ∫ reciprocal pleasure in commanding and in obeying.] Were we all…

pp. 233-4, 21 July 1763

… great Duke.’

[I was happy to hear my notions of subordination as ∫ the notions of subordination which I entertained as a zealous Monarchical man so ably defended. My zeal I thought would after this be more ‘according to knowledge.’]

He took care…

p. 236, 21 July 1763

… with low spirits. [– I felt a dignified consolation in being told ∫ knowing that so great a ∫ this great man was not exempted from a species of affliction which is aggravated by being thought by many peculiarly humiliating.]

He again insisted…

p. 244, 30 July 1763

… done at all. [It is remarkable that there was here a coincidence with a saying of my Father’s, who was a man of a strong mind and remarkable grave humour ∫ vein of humour. A person who was born blind ∫ person who had been blind from his infancy ∫ blind man took a fancy for some time to be a Clergyman and numbers of people flocked to hear him preach as is usual when any thing extraordinary is exhibited. My Father being asked what he thought of this answered ‘the learned english dog.’]

On Tuesday…

p. 260, 1765

… even affection. [I have often applied to Mrs. Thrale & him the scriptural expression ∫ expression in scripture ‘And she was with him as a daughter.’] The vivacity…

p. 260, 1765

… received with reverence. [↑ Dr. Adam Smith said of it in the hearing of Sir Joshua Reynolds ‘It is the most manly piece of Criticism I have ever read. He is not sufficient to make an authority of ↑] What he did…

p. 293, May 1768

… frame of mind. [I was elated and embracing him cried out ‘Thou great Man.’ He smiled and said ‘Don’t call names.’] As he had…

p. 389, 1 May 1773

… some other Scotchman.’ [Upon this subject he once said with exquisite wit to Dr. Barnard now Bishop of Kilaloe who expressed an apprehension that, were he to visit Ireland he might be as severe upon the irish as upon the Scotch. ‘No Sir; the irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another.’]

We drank…

p. 424, 1775

… fearless confidence. [The Account which he published of his ‘Journey,’ though almost universally admired for its profound research upon many curious topicks, its perspicuous observations, and strong as well as beautiful language has been ignorantly and virulently attacked by some ∫ individuals.] His remark…

p. 430, 1775

… in this rhapsody. [He seemed to me instead of a dexterous Champion to be a furious Bull turned loose to trample down and toss and gore the Colonists and all their friends.]

That this…

p. 436, 27 March 1775

… variety of them.’

[I half persuaded him to go with me ↑ after the Play ↑ to sup at Beauclerk’s. He went a part of the way. But suddenly stopped short and took a resolution to go home. He said with a placid look ‘But I don’t love Beauclerk the less.’ Such little circumstances may to some appear too slight ∫ may by some be thought too small. But I draw the portrait of Johnson in the style of a flemish painter. I am not satisfied with hitting the large features. I must be exact as to every line in his countenance every hair, every mole. But I am chiefly anxious not to omit any trait however slight that evinces ∫ illustrates the philanthropy of his disposition which has been so grossly misunderstood. There was an affectionate caveat in his ‘But I don’t love Beauclerk the less’ which indicated a tenderness more than common.]

At Mr. Beauclerk’s…

p. 459, 18 April 1775

… one wild beast or many?’ [But let me now observe that happily we are not under a necessity of being under either one or the other ∫ there is not the necessity for our having either one or the other. In our noble constitution as Blackstone has ably illustrated it, there is absolute power neither in one nor in many fallible men ∫ no doubt but it is lodged not in one nor in many fallible beings. It is inherent in the law of the Land.]

Johnson praised…