The Life of Samuel Johnson

English poet, playwright, literary critic, and lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) is now most famous for his 1755 reference work, A Dictionary of the English Language, which Johnson assembled single-handedly and which remained the most important such work until the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary in the 19th century. Johnson’s literary criticism, particularly his editions of the works of William Shakespeare, and his biographical Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, was also quite influential in his time. These works and other critical essays about the function of biography, the structure of plays, and the ideal effects of poetry made Johnson a formidable figure of English letters, affecting the approach to literary criticism for generations to come.

Johnson’s friendship with Boswell was memorialized in the latter’s biography of the writer, which innovated the genre to include not only Johnson’s career, but to also portray the man himself: tall and ungainly, with tics and behavioral mannerisms posthumously suggested to be Tourette Syndrome. Boswell’s attention to the details of Johnson’s life popularized Johnson as the consummate conservative 18th-century intellectual, a member of the cultural elite, and a voice of wisdom commonly known as Dr. Johnson (based on an honorary doctorate from Oxford University).

The English actor and theater manager David Garrick (1717-1779) was one of Johnson’s closest friends. An incredibly influential figure in 18th-century drama, Garrick spent most of his career at the storied Drury Lane Theater in London’s West End. Garrick’s innovations included his insistence on a more naturalistic style of acting, which was seen as highly unusual at a time when overly emotive declamation was standard. Garrick also aspired to make the theater a more respectable profession.

Garrick shared Johnson’s enthusiasm for the plays of William Shakespeare, who had fallen out of favor with 18th-century audiences—Garrick’s staging of Shakespeare and his decision to commission a statue of the playwright in front of Drury Lane did much to bolster Shakespeare’s reputation. Supporting his friend, Johnson wrote an ode to commemorate Garrick, the theater, and the statue. Garrick’s other major collaboration with Johnson was staging Johnson’s play Irene in 1749. The play was not a success, but does indicate the lengths to which Johnson’s friends would go on his behalf.

Tetty (1689-1752) and her first husband, Henry Porter, became friends with Johnson in 1732. After Henry’s death, Tetty married Johnson in 1735, despite being 21 years his senior—an unusual age difference at the time. In Boswell’s biography, Tetty is remarkable for not focusing on Johnson’s odd mannerisms and behavioral quirks, which most people usually needed to get used to: Even her first time meeting Johnson, Tetty told her daughter Lucy Porter, “That is the most sensible man I ever met.” By Johnson’s account, the marriage was one of love, and he grieved tremendously at her death; however, many of his friends, such as David Garrick and Hester Thrale, derided Tetty in their memoirs for being beneath Johnson intellectually.

Francis Barber (1742-1801) was Johnson’s long-time servant and assistant. Born enslaved in Jamaica, Barber was freed in England soon after a brief career in the navy; he joined Johnson’s household in 1752, shortly after Tetty’s death. Johnson arranged for Barber to be educated when the valet was in his thirties, an opportunity few Black people had at that time. His time at school made it possible for Barber to assist Johnson with revising later editions of the Dictionary.

Boswell relied on Barber for the details of Johnson’s early life, before Boswell had met and befriended the writer. He describes the relationship between Johnson and Barber as warm and quasi-paternal, something confirmed by the fact that Johnson left Barber an annual stipend in his will—a bequest that became a mild scandal as many at the time disapproved of this kind of generosity being shown to a Black person. After Johnson’s death, Barber moved to Johnson’s birthplace of Lichfield, Staffordshire, becoming a merchant.

George III (1738-1820) ascended to the British throne in 1760. Though his reign is now most famous for his recurrent mental illness and for the many wars Britain fought during his tenure, including the Seven Years War, the War of American Independence, and the Napoleonic Wars, George III figures in Johnson’s story primarily for the favoritism and interest he showed in the arts in general and in the work of Johnson in particular.

On coming to power, the king granted Johnson a pension—something invaluable to the frequently impecunious author. The pension became grounds for a scandal, as Johnson’s critics assumed that the money came as part of a quid pro quo—that Johnson had agreed to write propaganda for the government of George III in exchange. Though Johnson’s pension was most likely not a direct bribe of this kind, it is true that Johnson wrote vociferously in favor of monarchy in general and of George III’s policies in particular, excoriating the rebelling American colonists for wanting independence.