Chapter IV: In Grub Street

Today we call Grub Street by the name Bohemia. There, as in college, Johnson “fought his way by his literature and his wit.” There were days of destitution and nights when he and his new-found friend Savage walked the streets, too poor to pay for a night’s lodging yet both full of poetry and patriotism. In 1738, Johnson was “enlisted by Mr. Cave (proprietor of the Gentleman’s Magazine) as a regular coadjutor in his magazine,” yet, for a time no problem was solved. Indeed, being invited to dine at Cave’s house one day when there was prosperous company, Johnson was in such woful case as to raiment, that he could not make his appearance at table, so sat in the dining room behind a screen where he had his meal handed to him.

There were other dark days, many of them, and Johnson shared many queer lodgings. His chief companion for some time was the poet Richard Savage, already mentioned, who claimed to be the illegitimate son of the Countess of Macclesfield. To Johnson, Savage was a hero and he shared part at least of his hero’s miseries: “on a bulk, in a cellar, or in a glass house, among thieves and beggars.” Savage at last died in a debtor’s prison. In 1744 Johnson published his Life of Savage, not only a labor of love, but a work of intrinsic merit and autobiographical interest.

From November, 1740, to February, 1742, Johnson did much hack work and actually wrote many of the speeches attributed to the statesman Pitt and others. The publisher Cave employed men to attend the debates in the House of Lords and the House of Commons who took notes of the speeches. These notes were then put into shape by Johnson, and the putting into shape was in reality composing them. It was a deception which Johnson regretted to the end of his days, though it would seem that at first he wrote from a mere delight in authorship. As soon as he found that the speeches as printed were taken as genuine, he ceased to write saying that he “would not be accessory to the propagation of falsehood.” At a dinner, years afterwards, Francis, father of Junius, mentioned a speech of Pitt’s, saying that it was the most eloquent he had ever read, and superior to anything in Demosthenes. “I wrote that speech, in a garret in Exeter Street,” said Johnson. Someone in the company then praised Johnson for his impartiality. “That is not true,” said he. “I saved appearances tolerably well, but I took care that the Whig dogs should not have the best of it.”

Leaping over the years until Johnson began work on his Dictionary, his literary activities may be thus summarized:

1738. London--an imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal.

1741. Composition of the Parliamentary Debates in the Gentleman’s
Magazine.

1744. Life of Savage.

1747. Plan for a Dictionary of the English Language, addressed to
Lord Chesterfield.

1749. The Vanity of Human Wishes. Irene--a Tragedy.

1750. The periodical, The Rambler, first published.

1752. The Rambler ceased publication.

1753. Contributed to Hawkesworth’s Adventurer.

For London, a poem, he received ten guineas and for the Vanity of Human Wishes fifteen guineas. His tragedy Irene brought him a hundred pounds and when his old pupil, Garrick, who had become manager of the Drury Lane theater, produced it for nine nights, he handed Johnson a hundred and ninety-seven pounds and seventeen shillings as the author’s share of the profits. Johnson, if not entirely free from the fear of poverty, was at least in a way to give his attention to matters close to his heart.