340 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
acquaintance, the information of which was grateful to the Doctor. It may probably be engraved for some monthly re pository \ The print and the original dwelling may become as eminent as the mansion of Shakspeare at Stratford, or of Erasmus at Rotterdam. He certainly must have had a good school education. He was entered of Pembroke College, Oxford, Oct. 31, 1728, and continued there for several terms. By whose bounty he was supported, may be known to enquiry 2 . While he was there, he was negligent of the College rules and hours, and absented himself from some of the lectures, for which when he was reprimanded and interrogated, he replied with great rudeness and contempt of the lecturer 3 . Indeed he displayed an overbearing disposition that would not brook control, and shewed that, like Caesar, he was fitter to command than to obey. This dictatorial spirit was the leading feature in his deportment to his contemporaries. His college themes and declamations are still remembered ; and his elegant translation of Pope's Messiah into Latin verse found its way into a volume of poems published by one Husbands 4 . In 1735, after having been some time an usher to Anthony Blackwall 5 , his friends assisted him to set up an academy near Lichfield 6 . Here he formed an acquaintance with the late Bishop Green, then an usher at Lichfield 7 , and
1 In the Gentleman's Magazine and a half.' That he left it a few
for February, 1785, a view was given days before July 27, 1732, we know
of Johnson's birthplace. from a letter Malone had seen. Life,
3 Life, i. 58 ; ante, i. 362. i. 85, n. I. Hawkins (p. 20) says
3 Ante, i. 164. that it was in March, 1732, that he
4 Fellow of Pembroke College, went to the school. The entry in Life, i. 6i,. 3. See ante, i. 459. his Diary l Julii 16 [1732] Bosvor-
5 Boswell denies the truth of this tiam pedes petit* probably, as Dr. statement, on the ground that ' Black- Westby-Gibson says, refers to his wall died on April 8, 1730, more than return after the summer vacation. a year before Johnson left the Uni- That he was not there on Oct. 30, versity.' As Johnson left it in 1731, is shown by a letter written December, 1729, the proof is value- from Lichfield on that day, in which less. Life, i. 78, n. 2, 84. Dr.Westby- he says, ' I am yet unemployed.' Gibson, in his article on Blackwall Letters, i. i.
in the Diet. Nat. Biog., argues 6 It was most likely with his wife's in favour of the statement, and money that he set up his academy, says, ' We may conclude Johnson Ante, i. 367 ; Life, i. 95, n. 3. taught in the school for two years 7 Life, i. 45.
with
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