HKB
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Often appears with: rhetoric and persuasion · the passions and the emotions · rank, class, and social order · honor, shame, and reputation · friendship and loyalty · counsel and advisers to rulers · poetry and the poets · miss cotterells · language, naming, and meaning · david garrick · walpole · tom davies dinner
Usually: detachment (8) · curiosity (5) · narrative (4) · dialogue (3) · humor (3) · argument (2) · commentary or gloss (1) · reflection (1) · ambition and its cost (1) · injustice endured (1)
“Biography is the literature of realized personality, of life as it has been lived, of actual achievements or shortcomings, of success or failure; it is not imaginary and embellished, not what might be or might have been, not reduced to prescribed or artificial forms, but it is the unvarnished story of that which was delightful, disappointing, possible, or impossible, in a life spent in this world.” James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson · insight
“We all KNOW what light is; but it is not easy to TELL what it is.” James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson · observation
Osgood argues that Johnson’s genius operated through friendships with artists and writers—Reynolds, Goldsmith, Garrick, Burke, and Boswell—stimulating their minds and shaping their creative work “by proxy.”
the consciousness of which would have turned any head less constant than his own, and with their fulsome adoration he was pleased none the less for perceiving its real value. But the most important of his friendships developed between him and such men of genius as Boswell, David Garrick, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Edmund Burke. Johnson's genius left no fit testimony of itself from his own hand. With …
Boswell describes the breadth of Johnson’s friend circle, focusing on Sir Joshua Reynolds and the Miss Cotterells near Castle Street, recounting Reynolds’s remark on gratitude and an anecdote about Johnson’s anger when high-ranking visitors enter.
course of his late and tedious breakfast. He was of a strange grotesque appearance, stiff and formal in his manner, and seldom said a word while any company was present. The circle of his friends, indeed, at this time was extensive and various, far beyond what has been generally imagined. To trace his acquaintance with each particular person, if it could be done, would be a task, of which the labour would not be rep…
Johnson dines with Boswell and prominent literary figures at Old Bond Street, delivers humane advice about serving dinner, banters with Garrick and Goldsmith, and turns to jokes about tailoring and public impressions of dress.
any discussion of the perplexed question of fate and free will, which I attempted to agitate. 'Sir, (said he,) we KNOW our will is free, and THERE'S an end on't.' He honoured me with his company at dinner on the 16th of October, at my lodgings in Old Bond-street, with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Bickerstaff, and Mr. Thomas Davies. Garrick played round him with a fond vivacity, ta…
Johnson and Boswell ride to dine with Mr. Cambridge near Twickenham with Sir Joshua Reynolds, discuss social rules about invitations, portrait painting for women, and Johnson’s self-assessment of his own “good humour,” before concluding with Boswell’s rebuttal.
like being enlivened. Waller has hit upon the same thought with you: but I don't believe you have borrowed from Waller. I wish you would enable yourself to borrow more.' He then took occasion to enlarge on the advantages of reading, and combated the idle superficial notion, that knowledge enough may be acquired in conversation. 'The foundation (said he,) must be laid by reading. General principles must be had from b…
Boswell continues conversations about poetry and biography (Goldsmith, Thomson, Dodsley, Gray), culminating in Johnson defining poetry by what it is not, and ends the excerpt with a supper at the Crown and Anchor with notable literary figures.
'Goldsmith (he said,) referred every thing to vanity; his virtues, and his vices too, were from that motive. He was not a social man. He never exchanged mind with you.' We spent the evening at Mr. Hoole's. Mr. Mickle, the excellent translator of The Lusiad, was there. I have preserved little of the conversation of this evening. Dr. Johnson said, 'Thomson had a true poetical genius, the power of viewing every thing i…
Boswell continues collecting Johnson’s sayings: discussions of Walpole, Reynolds, puns, Burke’s defense of Johnson, Johnson’s dislike of gesturing, his apologies, and his view that pleasures reveal true character.
'Though fraught with all learning kept straining his throat, To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote.' It may be worth remarking, among the minutiae of my collection, that Johnson was once drawn to serve in the militia, the Trained Bands of the City of London, and that Mr. Rackstrow, of the Museum in Fleet-street, was his Colonel. It may be believed he did not serve in person; but the idea, with all its circu…
Boswell explains a negotiation plan for Johnson’s Italy travel, focusing on raising his income through Lord Chancellor Lord Thurlow’s patronage, which Boswell arranged via Sir Joshua Reynolds without Johnson’s knowledge.
most of them completely failed. The authour of The Rambler, however, may be considered, on this occasion, as the ringleader of a successful riot, though not as a skilful pyrotechnist.' 'It has been supposed that Dr. Johnson, so far as fashion was concerned, was careless of his appearance in publick. But this is not altogether true, as the following slight instance may show:--Goldsmith's last Comedy was to be represe…
Pope’s handwritten note calling Johnson “paper-sparing” is reproduced, and Boswell reports Reynolds telling Johnson about it, after which Johnson jokes that who would not be proud that Pope inquires after him.
[Page 147: George the Second's cruelty. Ætat 30.] Johnson used to be a pretty frequent visitor at the house of Mr. Richardson, authour of *Clarissa*, and other novels of extensive reputation. Mr. Hogarth came one day to see Richardson, soon after the execution of Dr. Cameron, for having taken arms for the house of Stuart in 1745-6; and being a warm partisan of George the Second, he observed to Richardson[411], that …
Boswell recounts Johnson’s broad friendship circle, highlights his close, lifelong intimacy with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and tells how a remark about gratitude led Johnson to defend a “mind” of human nature in Reynolds’s view.
[Page 245: One of 'Dr. Johnson's school.' Ætat 43.] The circle of his friends, indeed, at this time was extensive and various, far beyond what has been generally imagined. To trace his acquaintance with each particular person, if it could be done, would be a task, of which the labour would not be repaid by the advantage. But exceptions are to be made; one of which must be a friend so eminent as Sir Joshua Reynolds, …
Johnson and others debate Burke’s wit, argue it is hard to separate a bon mot from its context, then discuss varied “definitions of man” and stories illustrating Burke’s conversational brilliance.
True wit is Nature to advantage drest; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest. but surprising allusions, brilliant sallies of vivacity, and pleasant conceits. His speeches in Parliament are strewed with them. Take, for instance, the variety which he has given in his wide range, yet exact detail, when exhibiting his Reform Bill. And his conversation abounds in wit. Let me put down a specimen. I told him, I h…
Back at Slains, Johnson quotes Latin verse, praises entails as protecting noble families from indigence and corruption, and discusses Reynolds’s portraiture and the advantageous layout of Slains compared with Mount Edgecumbe.
distinguish himself, by writing against Dr Leechman on prayer, to prove it unnecessary, as God knows best what should be, and will order it without our asking--the old hackneyed objection. When we returned to the house we found coffee and tea in the drawing-room. Lady Errol was not there, being, as I supposed, engaged with her young family. There is a bow-window fronting the sea. Dr Johnson repeated the ode, Jam sat…