DR JOHNSON, THE LEXICOGRAPHER.*

Otago Witness, Volume 12, Issue 2639, 12 October 1904, Page 71

DR JOHNSON, THE LEXICOGRAPHER.*

- _ (T. P's Weekly.) Dr Johnson is the only scholar with whose name' the British masses can be said to be really familiar. His authority can be appealed to in any farmhouse, in ■any cabman's shelter, in any. canteen or fo'c'sle- * To thousand* t-Ke very idea "of books -or • mental prowess 'is more cr less ■linked to Dr Johnson- they grope for his ' hand in the -dark, they cock their ears for Ms comfortable" "name. - . Air Augustine Bir- ' rellhassaioHhat' "the transmission of John son's personality" -is* mainly due to records of his talk. - This, is true of the reading jtuhlic, but what of the millions who cab--not repeat a dozen words he ever uttered? With them it is the Dictionary.

On ihat broadband buried' , slab of learning Johnson's household, fame still rests. The making of the -Dictionary impressed the common' English mind as no other achievement^ of* scholarship T has ever. done. It 'awoke a gaping and patriotic admiration oF^ths "learning which could spell and explain every; wqr'd- in i ,tjhe"!anguage. To the man "iri.-'tfifr -street the Dictionary was the supreme display of applicable everyday knowledge.- -It a vast- extension of the familiar, rolling like the sea from h/is feet "to the horizon. It equipped him for the bar-parlour and the hustings, and provMed him with a robust referee. It was gobcT-for las "boy, too. All this went into the blood' <7i the nation, where it. continues arid circulates/ This part of . Johnson's fame is independent -of Boswell's , Life ; yet^ it provides an immense and easy welcome ior any "stories . of the Boswellian Johnson that descend "from the read to the unread public. course,' the Dictionary is'superseded or' re-incarnated, but Johnson's name is inseparable from the idea of an English dictionary, and the scholar can only approve the strength of this association, for 'lie knows that Johnson's work was an achievemest of which the greatness is rather demonstrated than diminished by tha colossal lexicography of to-day. .Boswell records the following conversation : "Dr Adams found him one -day busy at his Dictionary,, when the following dialogue ensued j

'Adams : ' This is a great work, sir. How are you to get the etymologies?' - "Johnson : ' Why, sir, here is a shelf with Jiinius and Skinner, and others ; and -there is a Welsh -gentleman who has published a collection of Welsh proverbs who wall help me with the Welsh.' "Adams.: ' But, sir, how can you do this in three years?' '•Johnson: 'Sir, I have no doubt that I -can do it in three years.' • "Adams : ' But the French Academy, ■which consists of 40 members, took 40 years to compile their dictionary.' "Johnson:. 'Sir, thus it is This is the proportion. Let me see ; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.' ''With so much ease and pleasantry could he talk of that prodigious labour which he had undertaken to execute." n. It is curious that the- best preserved residence of Dr Johnson left to us is the house in Gough Square, Fleet street, in whidi most of the Dictionary was compiled. Five booksellers contracted with the Doctor for the execution of the work. He was to have £1575. Nothing was allowed for expenses, though these were certain to be great. On the uppe^ floor of that plain brick house in Gough Square, now marked by a tablet, Johnson fitted up a room like -a' counting-house, in which his clerks and copyists worked. Their wages must have amounted to a Jarge sum in the seven years which he devoted (not exclusively, however) to his great task. BoswelPs account of his method does not read convincingly, and is to be set aside in favour of Dr Percy's. JohnsonHbegan by a tremendous

* "The Life of Samuel Johnson." By James Boswell. Edited, with Notes and a Biographical Dictionary of the Persons named in the Work, by Percy Fitzgerald, M.A.. F.S.A(Bliss, Sands." Ss 6dll'

psrusal of standard works of literature, and by marking all sentences which he intended to use as illustrative quotations. Against each, in the margin, he. wrote the first letter of the word in which it was to occur. His clerks transcribed all these sentences on separate slips. With these in hand he dictated his definitions, and supplied the etymologies from whatever sources were available. As the passage I have quoted shows, he had hoped' to be done in three years. This may not have been altogether miscalculation. He acknowledged once- that he had given more time to the Dictionary than he needed to have done. It occupied him from 1747 to" 1754; but it must be remembered tihat in those years he wrote the "Rambler," contributed to the. Gentleman's Magazine, furnished many prefaces, saw his "play_ "Irene" fail at Drury Lane," and wrote and published his fine posm. '"The Vanity of Human Wishes." So tk« thres .years became seven, and we have the well-known story of Andrew Millar, the r.ctual publisher, saying, when he received the last sheet, "Thank God, I have dono with bim, :) - and Johnson's smiling comment, "I am glad that he thanks God for anything. 1 ' The arduousness of Johnson's task can be only faintly conceived. He neither asked nor received r.£istance from scholars. He said that the only aid he got was a list •of ?.O etymologies sent to him by Dr Pearee, then unknown, but afterwards Bishop of Rochester.- Hfc net gain was trifling, but he made no complaint, when Boswell once said, "I am sorry, sir, you did not get more for your Dictionary." He answered, "I am sorry, too. But it was very well. The booksellers' are generous, liberal-minded men."

ni. - .. - Johnson needed recreation while he was compiling tbe Dictionary,- -and he sought it in vai'ious directions. In the summer of^l749^he took his wife to Tunbridge .Wells, where they cut a creditable figure | among the fashionable triflers. In London ! his hunger for good talk led him to found a little dining club in Ivy lane, Paternoster row. There were nine members. They met on Tuesday nights at the King's Head, and probably Johnson never surpassed Jiis conversational feats in these surroundings. He came, _ says Sir John Hawkins-, "with a disposition to please and be pleased." The members were better known to each other than to the world. There was a "Mr Ryland, a merchant," a "Mr Samuel Dyer, a learned young man intended for the dissenting ministry," and a young <physician, Dr Bathurst. Sir John 'Hawkins, also a member, has left us a vivid appreciation, of the tired lexicographer enjoying himself on those Tuesday evenings in Ivy lane 16-5 years age. I hope to touch on Dr Johnson as a talker shortly; in the meantime I will quote Hawkins's description, because it belongs to Johnson's Dictionary period and is valuable as a portrait of him in his prime. Some think Johnson's talk owes everything to Boswell, which is absurd. Here is a descriminating account of its effects on a choice company :

•'At these meetings I had opportunities of observing, not only that in conversation Johns-on, made it a rule to talk his best, but that on many subjects he was not uniform in" his opinions, contending as often for victory as for truth. At one time good, at another evil, was predominant in the moral constitution of the world. Upon one occasion he would deplore the non-observance of Good Friday, and on another deny that among us of the present age there is any decline of public worship. He would sometimes contradict self-evident proposi-' tions, such as that the luxury of this country has increased with its riches, and 1 that the practice of card-playing is more general than heretofore. At this versatility of temper none, however, took offence; as Alexander and Ca?sar were born for conquest, so was Johnson for the office of a syinposiarch, to preside in. all conversations, and I never yet saw the man who would venture to contest this right. "Let it not, however, be imagined' that the members of this our club met together with the temper of gladiators, or that there was wanting among them a disposition to yield to each other in all diversities of opinion; and, indeed, disputation was not, as in many asociations of this kind, the purpose of the meeting; nor were their conversations, like those of the Rota QM? k

restrained to particular topics. On the contrary, it may ba said that with the gravest discourses was intermingled ' mirth, that after no repenting drays s ' (Milton) ; for not only in Johnson's melancholy there were lucid intervals, but he was a great contributor to the mirth of conversation by the many witty sayings he uttered and fche many excellent stories Avhich his memory had treasured up, and he would on occasion relate ; so that those nre greatly mistaken who infer, either from the general tendency of his writings, or that appearance of" hebetude which marked his countenance when living, and is discernible n the pictures and' prints of him, that le could only reason and discuss dictate, and control. " In the talent of humour there hardly ever was his equal, except, perhaps, among the old comedians, such as Tarleton, and a few otliers mentioned by Cibbcr. By moans of this he was enabled to give lo any relation that required it the graces and aids of expression, and to discriminate, with the nicest exactness, the characters of those whom it concerned. In aping this faculty, I have seen Warburtroi disconcerted, and when he would fain have been thought a man- of pleasantry, not a little out of countenance." Such were Johnson's hours, of relaxation while he was passings the English language in review. But he had another playground, nearer than Tunbridge Wells and nearer than Ivy law. He disported himself occasionally it. the Dictionary itself I am not sure whether a complete list has ever been made of-thc words to which, in sport or~ petulance, "Johnson attached indefensible significations. The most famous instance, perhaps, is his definition of Oats, which he acknowledged afterwards he had inserted in order to give annoyance to Scots : '"a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." This bvought forth the admirable retort-co-urt°ous : "True, and where will you find such horses or su± men?" His definitions of Pension and Pensioner were destined to cause him considerable embarrassment. A pension, he stated, was "an allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In. England it '3 generally understood to mean pay given to a State hireling for treason to his country." A pensioner, in the first eddtion if the Dictionary, was "a slave of State, hired by a stipend* to obey his master.' It is no wonder that when, a few ye^rs later, j George HI granted Johnson a 'pension of j £300 a year the lexicographer was seriously disturbed. He consulted' his friends as to the propriety of his accepting the royal offer after the definitions which he had given of thes9 words. Sir Joshua Reynolds was emphatic in his opinion that he might accept a pension for literary merit, | and that in any case the definitions in the j Dictionary could never be applied to their ; author. Johnson was satisfied, and still ! more so whs-n Lord But© said to him ex- i pressly, "It is not given you for anything you are to do, but for what you have done. Another of Johnson's fantastic definitions got him into immediate hot water. The j Commissioners of Excise were indignant at lug definition of Excise as "a -hateful tax '• levied) upon commodities and adjudged nor by the common judges of property, but by wretches hired by those to wbom excise is paid." The reckless malice of this had, { it is thought, its origin in the harshness of i the excise authorities to old Michael John- j son 25 years earlier, an incident reinem- . bered and resented by his son. The com- j missi oners submitted Johnson's definition to - Lord Mansfield, then Attorney-general, ask- J ing -whether it did not amount to a libel, and whether proceedings could properly bo taken. Lord" Mansfield was of opinion that ! it was a libel, but advised the commissioners to give Johnson an opportunity of altering his definition. This was done, and in the next (the 1756) edition of the Dictionary the more offensive part disappeared, but it crept back into various later edition*. Dr Johnson was nob the first English writer to abuse the excise. In, his "Last Instructions to^ a Painter" Andrew Marvell writes of Excise as "a monster" : A thousand hands she has, and thousand eyes, Breaks into shops and into cellars pries. With hundred rows of teeth the shark exceeds, And on all trades like Oasiwar she feeds. T. Johnson's eccentric definitions -were made the subject of a fairly clever skit called "Lexiphanes," in which a Frenchman complains of the traps and troubles lie fell into through trusting the great Dictionary. The" Excise definition was his first misfortune : "But no sooner me set foote on shore,

but de grande vilain come, and he do searche me, and he take from me my lace. 1 ask him vat Diable be you, and vy you robe me? He tell me he be one Officer de Excise, and he do not more dan his duty. Den I say. dis be de 'hateful taxe levied upon the cOmmodite,' and you be de 'wretch hire by dose to vom Excise be paye.' Den he 'enter in a grand colere, and he strike me and breake my head. I tell him all dat be in de Dictionnaire of de Docteur Johnson, but he dam me and de Docteur bote."

Some of the humours of the Dictionary were unconscious. Thus Johnson dufined "pastern" as "the knee of a horse.' Asked by a lady how he came to do this, he replied with admirable frankness, "Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance." Similar frankness, on another Dccasion, was more injurious to his interviewer. Soon after the Dictionary appeared Garrick, being asked by Johnson what people said of it, replied that among other things it was objected that he had quoted authors whose style was beneath the dignity of such a work, as^ for instance, Samuel Richardson. " ' "Nay," said Johnson, "1 have done worse than that ; I have cited thee, David." Once, indeed, the Dictionary proved to be a better authority than its author. Johnson was walking along the Strand when a gentleman, with a napkin in his hand and hatless, stepped straight out of a tavern and saidT very civilly, "I beg your pardon, sir; but you sire Dr Johnson, I believe." "Yes, sir." lf We have a wager depending on your reply ; pray, sir, is it 'irreparable' or 'irrepairable' that one should .say?" "The last, I think,'* "answered .Johnson, -"but you had better consult my Dictionary than me, for that was the result of more thought than you will now give me time for." "Nay," replied the half-dined gentleman, "the book I have no certainty at all of ; but here is the author to whom I have referred ; I have won my twenty guineas quite fairly, and am much obliged to you, sir." Shaking hands with the doctor, he returned to his table ; he had good reason to be pleased, for Johnson had decided the. matter against his own Dictionary, and the Dictionary was right. Such are a few of the incidents and humours of Johnson's majestic task. The language which 'had been moulded by Shakespeare and Milton, the language which was to serve Byron and Meredith, found in his Dictionary its first roll-call and parade. — John o' London.