maintenance than paying for his commons; while the remittances from his own family were scanty and irregular, that he could no longer make a decent external appearance. In short, his shoes were so much decayed, that his feet appeared through them; yet so averse was he to being considered as an object of eleemosynary contribution, that a new pair having been placed at his door by an unknown hand, he indignantly flung them away.

At this period of his distress he seemed indifferent to fame, and, according to Dr. Percy," he might be seen lounging at the college gate, with a circle of young students, whom he was entertaining with his wit, and keeping from their studies, if not spiriting them up to rebellion against the college discipline, which in his maturer years he so much extolled."

For another year he continued to struggle under all the disadvantages of poverty; and professed a desire to prac

tise either of the civil or common law; but his debts increasing, in consequence of his remittances from Litchfield having failed altogether, by the insolvency of his father, he was compelled to quit the college in the autumn of 1731. He had resided at it little more than three years, which circumstance prevented him from obtaining a settlement, from which at a future period of his life he might have derived a subsistence.

On returning to Litchfield, the knowledge of his talents procured him a kind reception in several of the most respectable families at that place.

In December 1731, his father died in the 79th year of his age; when, after his mother was provided for, the portion of the effects which fell to his share amounted only to 201.

He then found himself obliged to accept the situation of usher in the school of Market Bosworth, in Leicestershire, to which he travelled on foot; he resided

in the house of the patron of the school, Sir W. Dixie, who treated him with intolerable harshness; and this situation proved the most irksome to him of any which he met with in the course of his existence.

Having relinquished this employment, he went on a visit to Mr. Hector, of Birmingham, who had been his schoolfellow, and here he performed his first literary work, which was a translation from the French of "Lobo's Voyage to Abyssinia." It was published in 1735, by Bettesworth and Hicks, of Paternoster-row; and for this task Johnson received only five guineas.

In August 1734, he published proposals for printing by subscription the Latin Poems of Politian, but for want of encouragement the work never made its appearance, though it was to consist of 30 octavo sheets, for the small price of five shillings. In the same year being hardly driven to procure subsistence, hẹ

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wrote under the name of S. Smith, to Mr. Cave, the proprietor of the Gentleman's Magazine, proposing," on reasonable terms," to supply him with a variety of literary matter, never printed before. Mr. Cave answered his letter, but it does not appear that any advantage at that time resulted from it.

He

His juvenile attachments to the fair sex were various and transient. paid his addresses while at Stourbridge school, to Miss Olivia Lloyd, a young Quaker; and next to Lucy Porter, whose mother he married in 1735. Mrs. P. was the widow of Mr. Porter, a mercer, of Birmingham. It was a love match to both sides, inspired not by the beauty of form, but by a mutual admiration of each other's minds. Johnson's appearance was certainly very forbidding, as, at that time, he was lean and tall, and the scars of the scrophula made his physiognomy hideous. Mrs. Porter was double his age, was very corpulent, had

an uncommonly large bosom; and according to Garrick, "she had florid red cheeks, produced by thick painting, and a liberal use of cordials." She was worth about 800l. which rendered her to a man in Johnson's circumstances, a desirable acquisition. He immediately hired a large house at Edial, near Litchfield, set up a private classical academy, and advertised for scholars; but the plan proved abortive, for the only pupils he acquired were the celebrated Garrick, then about 18, his brother George, and a Mr. Offely, who died before he had completed his studies.

About this time he commenced his tragedy of Irene; and in the spring of 1737, he resolved to try his fortune in London, being then in the 28th year of his age. Young Garrick came to town at the same time, with the intention of studying the profession of the law. Johnson, on his arrival, was much reduced in his circumstances, and was