Dr Johnson:his Life & Times

Astonishingly, Johnson married Mr Porter's widow, Elizabeth (Tettie), a woman

of twice his age, and reputedly odd manners, possibly brought about by alcoholism or laudanum addiction.

In pursuit of an income Dr. Johnson now founded an academy at Edial, but gained only 3 pupils, one of whom was David Garrick, later to achieve fame on the stage. Unsurprisingly the school failed, and Doctor Johnson went to London in search of employment. Garrick went with him intending to study law, but was soon diverted to a career on the stage, and became the greatest actor (by general assent) of his age. For some years, Johnson supported himself as a journeyman hack, including some quite reputable works on Mr Edward Cave's "The Gentleman's Magazine'.

The Age of Enlightenment progressed and in 1747 he published his plan to produce a "Dictionary of the English Language", an undertaking backed, amongst others, by the Longman brothers. His wife died in 1752, but the work progressed. The work was eventually published in 1755, doing much to standardise English spelling and grammar (in Britain, at least). Ironically, having set out to regulate and prescribe, Johnson had the intellect and humility to realise that the English language predated his dictionary, and that he was engaged in a task of description, not prescription, and for this reason is possibly the first scientific linguist, an honour normally accorded to the Grimm brothers or Jespersen. He successfully defended the English language against the dangers of a prescriptive English Academy on the French model, as propounded by Swift years earlier.

His work earned him a pension of 300 pounds a year from the King, and made him a celebrity (sorry to use that word). This meant that he was now free from danger of poverty, and free to indulge in literary and dramatic undertakings, as well as social and geographical adventures.

It should be mentioned that he had an unusual relationship with the Thrale family, wealthy brewers. Henry Thrale, the husband and father, was much concerned with business, and seemed unconcerned by Johnson's intimate (in one sense or another) relationship with his wife Hester (Hettie). The couple are

shown to the left. Hester Thrale is one of the more enigmatic characters in Johnson's life. He was certainly in love with her, and there was a strong element of sex in his attitude to her, although he was not afraid to

rebuke her for excessive spanking of her daughter Queeney and her other children, and, at the end of their relationship, for her contoversial second marriage and abandonment of her children.