The Life of Samuel Johnson

Johnson is born in the English town of Lichfield, Staffordshire, on September 18, 1709, to Michael and Sarah Johnson. He has one brother, Nathaniel, who will die at the age of 25. Johnson’s father is a bookseller who passes his “melancholy” and “gloomy” nature on to his son. Johnson is often sick as a child and has scrofula which affects the sight in one of his eyes and affects his appearance somewhat. Johnson’s mother goes so far as to bring him to London to be touched by Queen Anne—it was believed the “king’s evil” could be cured with a royal touch—but to no avail. This disease prevents Johnson from enjoying sports along with other boys and contributes to his “dismal inertness of disposition” (36).

On the other hand, Johnson is brilliant in school, with an excellent memory and an early talent for literature and Latin. His headmasters in the school he attends are harsh and often administer corporal punishment; Johnson will come to value “the rod” as a means of motivating children to excel and work hard. Johnson himself is so industrious in school that his classmates respect him highly and treat him with “submission and deference” (35). Boswell sees the adult Johnson in the child he chronicles, concluding that “the boy is the man in miniature” (35) and that many traits of Johnson’s adult character were formed early. Johnson’s “jealous independence of spirit, and impetuosity of temper” (29) are shown when, as a small boy, he insists on finding his way home after school despite his poor eyesight.

Analyzing this section of the biography, the readers see that Boswell’s account of Johnson’s early years shows his determination to get at the root of what made Johnson who he was as a man of letters and colorful personality of varied interests. As he will throughout the book, Boswell relies on anecdotes to illustrate Johnson’s character and enliven the narrative. Here, for example, Boswell describes Johnson writing a poem on the death of a duck—a dour subject that gives us a glimpse of the gloomy and death-focused disposition that will recur in the adult Johnson. Boswell also points out Johnson’s resentment of a particularly punitive teacher and the corporal punishment at school which will inform Johnson’s attitudes toward morality and education. Johnson’s strongly independent, intellectual, serious, and moralistic nature is already in evidence during the earliest period of his life.