XI Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2019

Samuel Johnson was an english critic, biographer, essayist, poet, and lexicographer, regarded as one of the greatest figures of 18th-century life and letters. He was born in 1709 in Lichfield, Staffordshire. It's hard to believe that son of a book seller became one of the greatest figures of the eighteenth century, and compile a Dictionary of the English Language.

Poverty and illness followed Johnson for much of his life. He contracted scrofula (also known as the King’s Evil) as a baby, which resulted in poor hearing and eyesight and left him noticeably scarred. Johnson attended the local grammar school in Lichfield and went on to Pembroke College, Oxford. However, he was to leave after just 13 months as his parents could no longer afford the fees. In 1735, he married a widow, Elizabeth Porter, and set up a school at Edial; it failed within months. With this behind him, Johnson took one of the few remaining pupils - the soon-to-be star of the London stage, David Garrick - and walked to the capital to seek fame and fortune. Johnson worked as a hack writer for many years, writing and editing articles for Edward Cave’s Gentleman’s Magazine. 

He received some critical success with his early poem London (1738) and his biography of the wayward poet, Richard Savage (1744) but Johnson’s big opportunity came in 1746 with the commission to write the Dictionary. Johnson lived in 17 different places in London, but moved to Gough Square in order to work on the Dictionary, which was finally published in 1755. From then on Johnson’s fame was assured and he was known as 'Dictionary Johnson', although he still suffered some financial difficulty.

Johnson's dictionary was not the first, nor was it unique. It was, however, the most commonly used and imitated for the 150 years between its first publication and the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928. Other dictionaries, such as Nathan Bailey's Dictionarium Britannicum, included more words,and in the 150 years preceding Johnson's dictionary about twenty other general-purpose monolingual "English" dictionaries had been produced. However, there was open dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period. In 1741, David Hume claimed: "The Elegance and Propriety of Stile have been very much neglected among us. We have no Dictionary of our Language, and scarce a tolerable Grammar."Johnson's Dictionary offers insights into the 18th century and "a faithful record of the language people used". It is more than a reference book; it is a work of literature.

Johnson’s written work was immense and varied. He completed a critical edition of the works of William Shakespeare and created biographies and critical appraisals of 52 English poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for his Lives of thePoets. He also wrote literary criticism and was a prolific essayist, for two years being the almost sole contributor to The Rambler, as well as writing for The Idler and The Adventurer.

Johnson gained a pension from George III in 1762, allowing him a more comfortable lifestyle. He could now spend more time travelling and talking: Johnson was well known for his robust character and challenging and often hilarious conversation. He was a sociable man, being a member of several Clubs and his circle of friends included the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, the literary hostess Hester Thrale and the writer Oliver Goldsmith. Johnson’s life inspired many biographies, the most famous of which, by his great friend, the Scottish lawyer James Boswell, was published in 1791.

Johnson's works, especially his Lives of the Poets series, describe various features of excellent writing. He believed that the best poetry relied on contemporary language, and he disliked the use of decorative or purposefully archaic language. He was suspicious of the poetic language used by Milton, whose blank verse he believed would inspire many bad imitations. Also, Johnson opposed the poetic language of his contemporary Thomas Gray. His greatest complaint was that obscure allusions found in works like Milton's Lycidas were overused; he preferred poetry that could be easily read and understood. In addition to his views on language, Johnson believed that a good poem incorporated new and unique imagery.

In his smaller poetic works, Johnson relied on short lines and filled his work with a feeling of empathy, which possibly influenced Housman's poetic style. In London, his first imitation of Juvenal, Johnson uses the poetic form to express his political opinion and, as befits a young writer, approaches the topic in a playful and almost joyous manner.  However, his second imitation, The Vanityof Human Wishes, is completely different; the language remains simple, but the poem is more complicated and difficult to read because Johnson is trying to describe complex Christian ethics.These Christian values are not unique to the poem, but contain views expressed in most of Johnson's works. In particular, Johnson emphasises God's infinite love and shows that happiness can be attained through virtuous action.

Today, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Johnson is the second most-quoted Englishman.  He most famously said ‘...when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life’.

Johnson, Samuel (1952), Chapman, R. W., ed., Letters, Oxford: Clarendon, ISBN 0-19-818538-3.

Johnson, Samuel (2000), Greene, Donald, ed., Major Works, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-284042-8.

Leavis, FR (1944), "Johnson as Critic", Scrutiny, 12: 187–204.

Stephen, Leslie (1898), "Johnsoniana", Studies of a Biographer, 1, London: Duckworth and Co., pp. 105–146