The Life of Samuel Johnson

At times, Boswell breaks up the strict narrative style of the book and takes opportunities to digress into other topics that illuminate Johnson and his relationships. In this section, Boswell expands the previous section’s mention of the friends that visited Johnson after Tetty’s death to discuss Johnson’s friendships in more detail.

Sir Joshua Reynolds is one of the major English painters of the era, especially noted for his portraits. Johnson meets Reynolds at the home of some mutual acquaintances, and they remain friends until Johnson’s death. Johnson respects Reynolds’ independence of mind. Bennet Langton, a young Oxford student, comes to London to meet Johnson because he greatly admires The Rambler. He finds Johnson’s appearance and manner very different from those of a “decorous philosopher,” but the two men become great friends. Johnson, Langton, and Langton’s roguish classmate Topham Beauclerk go on amusing outings throughout London and the Thames River. Dr. Charles Burney, the musicologist and music historian, is another friend of Johnson’s.

In 1753 Johnson begins a new periodical, The Adventurer, similar in style to The Rambler but more varied in subject matter and containing more essays by authors other than Johnson. Johnson also continues work on the Dictionary, laboring with “redoubled vigour” as he sees completion of the task in sight. Lord Chesterfield writes a newspaper column endorsing Johnson’s work on the Dictionary, but Johnson rebuffs Chesterfield’s patronage because he feels himself too long ignored by the nobleman.

In 1754, Johnson visits Oxford University to do research for the Dictionary. It is then, in February, that the university awards him an honorary Master of Arts degree. Johnson enjoys the company of the faculty and staff of the university, some of whom survive from his time there. Boswell reproduces several letters Johnson wrote to the fellows of the college.

Boswell uses many different techniques to bring his subject more vividly to life in the biography. One of the most prevalent throughout the Life is presenting specimens of Johnson’s writing as a way to illustrate his style and personality. Boswell’s reliance on Johnson’s own words threatens to conflate Johnson the writer with Johnson the person, making it as though Johnson did not have enough skill to separate his inner life from his work. To counteract this effect, Boswell also presents the reminiscences of Johnson’s school friends about their early years together; this reflects Boswell’s thoroughness in filling in earlier parts of Johnson’s life from before their meeting and assures readers that they are getting full perspectives on Johnson rather than just Boswell’s own conclusions.  

The awarding of the Master’s degree is a landmark event in the Life. Formerly, Johnson’s lack of a degree was an obstacle to his advancement. Now, the honorary degree is a sign of the prestige and respect he has achieved through his merit as a man of letters. Johnson has risen from being an impoverished boy in a small town whose father could not afford to send him to college, to one of the era’s great men of letters. Boswell underlines the importance of this event in the narrative by including copious correspondence relating to it, and even goes so far as to reproduce the text of the actual diploma, in Latin.