The proposal for a new edition of Shakspeare, which had formerly miscarried 1 , was resumed in the year 1756. The bookseller readily agreed to his terms, and subscription-tickets were issued out 2 . For undertaking this work, money, he con fessed, was the inciting motive 3 . His friends exerted themselves to promote his interest ; and, in the mean time, he engaged in a new periodical production called THE IDLER 4 . The first number appeared on Saturday, April 15, 1758 ; and the last, Apri 5, 1760. The profits of this work, and the subscrip tions for the new edition of Shakspeare, were the means by was published Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. His translation of Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia seems to have pointed out that country for the scene of action ; and Rassila Christos 5 , the General of Sultan Segiied, mentioned in that work, most prob ably suggested the name of the prince. The author wanted to set out on a journey to Lichfield, in order to pay the last offices of filial piety to his mother, who, at the age of ninety, was then near her dissolution ; but money was necessary. Mr. Johnston, a bookseller who has long since left off business, gave one hundred pounds for the copy 6 . With this supply Johnson set out for Lichfield ; but did not arrive in time to close the eyes of a parent whom he loved. He attended the funeral, which, as
1 unmanly thirst for tea.' He men- sellers who ' found out for him ' this
tions however without dispraise the piece of work.
fact that 'Bishop Burnet for many 4 Johnson had 'promised his Shake- years drank sixteen large cups of it speare should be published before every morning.' Hawkins, p. 355. Christmas, 1757' four months before Bentham in his old age described he began The Idler. Life, i. 319. tea as ' that fountain of faculties.' 5 Rassela Christos. Bentham's Works, x. 506. 6 According to Boswell, ' Mr. Stra- 1 Ante, p. 381. han, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodsley, " Life, i. 318. One of these tickets purchased it for ^100, but afterwards I give in a note on the Letters, i. paid him ^25 more when it came to 68. a second edition.' Life, i. 341. But 3 On finishing it he wrote to Dr. Johnson wrote to Strahan : ' The Warton : ' To tell the truth as I felt bargain which I made with Mr. John- no solicitude about this work I re- son \sic\ was seventy-pounds (or ceive no great comfort from its guineas) a volume, and twenty-five conclusion.' Ib. i. 123. According pounds for the second edition/ to Hawkins (p. 361) it was the book- Letters, i. 80.
appears
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