16 ON THE WORLD. a stern resolve to test their value, the London of dreams into the London of fact-in which his fame is to be won, his work to be done, and his strong and tender and manly heart at last stilled to rest. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will." MARRIED. 17 CHAPTER III. MARRIED-OFF TO LONDON-EARLY STRUGGLES. (1734-1740.) THE ninth of July, 1734, was a memorable day in the history of the young scholar; for on that day he was married. The woman of his choice was Mrs. Elizabeth Porter, a widow, with whom he had become acquainted about three years before the above date. Her age was nearly double that of her husband, and, if Garrick is to be believed, her personal attractions must have been somewhat limited. The wag used to describe the lady as "very fat, with a bosom of more than ordinary protuberance, with swelled cheeks, of a florid red, produced by thick painting, and increased by the liberal use of cordials; flaring and fantastic in her dress, and affected both in her speech and her general behaviour." This portrait must doubtless be taken as more than slightly caricatured ; but, in any case, the bridegroom himself seems to have thought his spouse handsome, if we may judge from a little circumstance which will be set down in its proper place. Besides, we must not forget that Johnson knew nothing, and thought nothing, of that Ideal Beauty which puts us nineteenth-century lovers in such ecstasies; he was all his life long the sternest of Realists, and no doubt found in his wife what he had chiefly desired : "A creature not too bright or good What the poor student required was a wife who should acquit herself well on the working-days, and not one, as Beatrice says, "too costly to wear every day." Moreover, Johnson's own ap C 18 : MARRIED. pearance was far from prepossessing about this period of his life. Here is the portrait of the lover when paying his first visit to his future bride lean, lank, and hideously bony; the scrofulous scars deeply visible in his face; his hair straight and stiff, and separated behind; and the whole accompanied by convulsive starts and odd gesticulations. These "convulsive starts and odd gesticulations occasioned surprise to all who ever knew Johnson, and have been differently accounted for by different persons. Some have imagined them to be an actual disease, of the St. Vitus-dance order; Sir Joshua Reynolds, on the other hand, an acute observer, attributed them to bad habit. "He could sit motionless," says Reynolds, "when he was told so to do, as well as any other man." According to this view, Johnson's extraordinary motions were peculiar effects resulting from absence of mind and an awkward custom of accompanying his thoughts, when alone, with untoward actions. We give the following illustrative anecdote in Sir Joshua's own words: "When he and I took a journey together into the West, we visited the late Mr. Banks, of Dorsetshire; the conversation turning upon pictures, which Johnson could not well see, he retired to a corner of the room, stretching out his right leg as far as he could reach before him, then bringing up his left leg, and stretching his right still further on. The old gentleman observing him, went up to him and in a very courteous manner assured him, though it was not a new house, the flooring was perfectly safe. The Doctor started from his reverie, like a person waked out of his sleep, but spoke not a word." Hogarth first met Johnson at the house of Richardson, author of "Pamela," &c. While Hogarth and the novelist were talking, the former observed a person standing at a window in the room, shaking his head, and rolling himself about in a strange ridiculous He thought the fellow must be a born idiot; but the moment the stranger struck into the conversation, Hogarth began to change his mind and to judge that he was at least an idiot inspired. manner. Johnson himself seems to have set the surprising contortions down to the influence of overmastering use and wont. For, when a young girl once ventured to ask him, "Pray, Dr. Johnson, "From why do you make such strange gestures ?" he replied, bad habit. Do you, my dear, take care to guard against bad habits." But it reflects infinite credit upon the lady's intellect and heart that she looked right through all this ungainly exterior into the man's great soul; that she saw her future husband's “visage in his mind;" and, on his departure, said to her daughter, “This is the most sensible man that I ever saw in my life." Johnson had paid a special visit to Lichfield to ask his aged mother's consent to the marriage, which he must have felt to be an imprudent one, in his present circumstances. The old woman loved her son too fondly, and also knew too well his firmness of character (call it stubbornness in this case, if you will) to protest; so she gave her consent and her blessing. For some mysterious reason, known only to themselves, the loving pair had determined to be married, not at Birmingham, where they then were, but at Derby. Their ride thither, which we give in the bridegroom's own words, is perhaps the most richly comic bit of literary history on record: "Sir, she had read the old romances, and had got into her head the fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her lover like a dog. So, Sir, at first she told me that I rode too fast, and she could not keep up with me: and, when I rode a little slower, she passed me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the slave of caprice; and I resolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore pushed on briskly, till I was fairly out of her sight. The road lay between two hedges, so I was sure she could not miss it; and I contrived that she should soon come up with me. When she did, I observed her to be in tears." This is surely the most remarkable Derby Race that ever fell to be chronicled in authentic story. His marriage having been thus consummated, Johnson once more turned to teaching for a livelihood. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1736 there is the following advertisement : "At EDIAL, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are boarded and taught the Latin and Greek languages, by SAMUEL JOHNSON.” 20 OFF TO LONDON. But only three pupils were forthcoming: David Garrick and his brother George, and another whom we need not name. The duties of his new position did not prove more agreeable than his former labours at Market-Bosworth; the establishment was therefore broken up in about eighteen months. The young rogues, his pupils, were vastly more struck by their teacher's peculiarities of manner than awed by his superior learning or won by his genuine worth. They used to listen at the door of his room, and peep through the keyhole, that they might enjoy the sight of his uncouth displays of fondness for his newly-acquired bride. The furtive observation of these "touslings" (to use a capital Scotch word which has no good English equivalent) of their master's beloved "Tetty," gave the rascals huge delight, and remained vividly in their memories long after every trace of the Latin and Greek they learned at Edial had faded out of their minds. In the midst of all these unsuccessful attempts to gain a satisfactory livelihood, Johnson's thoughts had been constantly gravitating towards London, as the only place in Great Britain in which he was likely to find sufficient elbow-room. These thoughts at last took definite shape in a resolution to set out for the capital without delay, and tempt the mighty ocean in company with the many other literary adventurers there. Accordingly, on the 2nd of March, 1737, he and one of his late pupils-David Garrick, afterwards so famous as an actor and writer for the stage-put forth together, with a springtide of hope in their hearts, but rather low water in their pockets. Garrick used to say, speaking of this journey, "we rode and tied." And Johnson once remarked, when trying to fix the date of some event, "That was the year when I came to London with twopence-halfpenny in my pocket." Garrick, overhearing him, exclaimed, "Eh? what do you say? with twopence-halfpenny in your pocket?" JOHNSON: "Why, yes; when I came with twopence-halfpenny in my pocket, and thou, Davy, with three halfpence in thine." This must be held, however, as referring to their loose pocket-money; for although neither of them was by any means flush of cash, their pecuniary resources can hardly have been quite so narrow as the above anecdote might lead the reader to suppose. The only literary stock-in-trade with |