Great Writers.”

EDITED BY

ERIC S. ROBERTSON, M.A.,

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB, LAHORE.

LIFE OF JOHNSON.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Marriage of Samuel Johnson's parents (1706); his birth (1709);

taken to London to be touched by the Queen "for the

evil" (1712); his brother Nathaniel; goes to Dame Oliver's

school; is taught by Tom Brown; at Lichfield Grammar

School; his Lichfield schoolfellows; passes some time with

his uncle, Cornelius Ford; goes to Stourbridge School

(1724); returns to his father's house; his disobedience to

his father, and subsequent atonement; his knowledge of

books; it is resolved to send him to Oxford

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CHAPTER II.

Johnson entered at Pembroke College, Oxford (1728); his
arrival at the University; Oxford in Johnson's days;
translates Pope's "Messiah" into Latin hexameters; his
college career; controversy as to the length of time he
remained at Oxford; his college contemporaries; his
meeting in after life, with Edwards, a fellow collegian
(1778); leaves Oxford (1731); returns home; death of his
father (December, 1731); social position of Michael Johnson
(father of S. J.); Samuel Johnson resolves to adopt litera-
ture as a profession; society at Lichfield (1731–36); usher
at Market Bosworth (1732); private tutor in the Whitby
family; spends six months at Birmingham with E. Hector;
translates Father Lobo's "Voyage to Abyssinia"; writes
to E. Cave, editor of Gentleman's Magazine, offering