Life of Johnson, Volume 6 | Page 9

drinking companions 'met with
the mob conducting Captain Porteous to be hanged; they were next day
examined about it before the Town Council, when, as Stewart used to
say, "we were found to be too drunk to have any hand in the business."
He gave an accurate account of it in the Edinburgh Magazine of that
time.'

V.
_A letter about Miss Williams, taxes due, and a journey; undated, but
perhaps written at Oxford in 1754_.[In the possession of Mr. Frederick
Barker.]
'SIR,
'I shall not be long here, but in the mean time if Miss Williams wants
any money pray speak to Mr. Millar and supply her, they write to me
about some taxes which I wish you would pay.
'My journey will come to very little beyond the satisfaction of knowing
that there is nothing to be done, and that I leave few advantages here to
those that shall come after me.
'I am Sir, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'My compliments to Mrs. Strahan.
To Mr. Strahan.'
Miss Williams came to live with Johnson after his wife's death in 1752
(ante, i. 232). The fact that Strahan is asked to supply her with money
after speaking to Mr. Millar seems to show that this letter was written
some time before the publication of the Dictionary in April 1755.
Millar 'took the principal charge of conducting its publication,' and
Johnson 'had received all the copy-money, by different drafts, a
considerable time before he had finished his task' (ante, i. 287).
His 'journey' may have been his visit to Oxford in the summer of 1754.
He went there, because, 'I cannot,' he said, 'finish my book [the
Dictionary] to my mind without visiting the libraries' (ante, i. 270).
According to Thomas Warton 'he collected nothing in the libraries for
his _Dictionary_' (ib n. 5). It is perhaps to this failure that the latter part
of the letter refers, Johnson's visit, however, was one of five weeks,

while the first line of the letter shews that he intended to be away from
London but a short time.
VI.
_A letter about 'Rasselas,' dated_ Jan. 20, 1759.[In the possession of Mr.
Frederick Barker.]
'When I was with you last night I told you of a story which I was
preparing for the press. The title will be
"The Choice of Life
or
The History of ... Prince of Abissinia."
'It will make about two volumes like little Pompadour, that is about one
middling volume. The bargain which I made with Mr. Johnson was
seventy five pounds (or guineas) a volume, and twenty five pounds for
the second edition. I will sell this either at that price or for sixty[2], the
first edition of which he shall himself fix the number, and the property
then to revert to me, or for forty pounds, and I have the profit that is
retain half the copy. I shall have occasion for thirty pounds on Monday
night when I shall deliver the book which I must entreat you upon such
delivery to procure me. I would have it offered to Mr. Johnson, but
have no doubt of selling it, on some of the terms mentioned.
[Footnote 2: 'Fifty-five pounds' written first and then scored over.]
'I will not print my name, but expect it to be known. I am Dear Sir,
Your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON. Jan. 20, 1759. Get me
the money if you can.'
This letter is of unusual interest, as it proves beyond all doubt that
Rasselas was written some weeks before Candide was published (see
ante, i. 342, n. a). Baretti, as I have shewn (i. 341, n. 3), says that 'any
other person with the degree of reputation Johnson then possessed

would have got £400 for the work, but he never understood the art of
making the most of his productions.' We see, however, by this letter
that Johnson did ask for a larger sum than the booksellers allowed him.
He received but one hundred pounds for the first edition, but he had
made a bargain for one hundred and fifty pounds or guineas. Johnson,
the bookseller, seems to have been but in a small way of business as a
publisher. I do not find in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1758 any
advertisement of books published by him, and only one in 1759 (P.
339). Cowper's publisher in 1778 was Joseph Johnson of St. Paul's
Churchyard. (Cowper's Works by Southey, i. 285; see also Nichols'
Literary Anecdotes, iii. 461-464.)
By 'little Pompadour' Johnson, no doubt, means the second and cheaper
edition of The History of the Marchioness de Pompadour. The first
edition was published by Hooper in one volume, price five shillings
(_Gent. Mag_. for October 1758, p. 493). and the second in two
volumes for three shillings and sixpence (_Gent. Mag_. for November,