James Boswell (1740–1795), the son of a lowland Law Lord, made a Grand Tour.
When in Switzerland he charmed both Voltaire and Rousseau, who gave him an
introduction to the Corsican hero Paoli. His Account of Corsica made him famous:
he wore the headband of a Corsican patriot, and was known as Corsica Boswell. At
23, the lion-hunter contrived an introduction to Johnson, but his introducer
mentioned him as coming from Scotland.
‘Mr. Johnson, (said I) I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it.’ I am willing
to flatter myself that I meant this as light pleasantry to sooth and conciliate him, and not
as an humiliating abasement at the expence of my country. But however that might be,
this speech was somewhat unlucky; for with that quickness of wit for which he was so
remarkable, he seized the expression ‘come from Scotland,’ which I used in the sense of
being of that country, and, as if I had said that I had come away from it, or left it,
retorted, ‘That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help.’
This stroke stunned me a good deal ....Although including his hero’s faults (for which he was much criticized), Boswell will
make himself look foolish in order to draw Johnson out. Indeed, he goes out of his way
to look comic: ‘Amid some patriotick groans, somebody (I think the Alderman) said,
“Poor old England is lost.” JOHNSON: “Sir, it is not so much to be lamented that Old
England is lost, as that the Scotch have found it.” ’ Boswell adds a footnote: ‘It would
not bec ome me to expatiate on this strong and pointed remark, in which a very great
deal of meaning is condensed.’ Such notes can reduce devotees to helpless laughter.
But the Life is a wor k of scholarship as well as affection, fully documented with
letters to and from Johnson, prayers and epitaphs composed by Johnson, and his
answers to moral and legal questions put to him by Boswell over twenty-one years.
We get a picture of Johnson’s circle and the life of the age. But we do not take our
ey es off the man himself, so full of passion, humour, melancholy, fears and quirks,
as well as sense, honesty and reasoned judgement.
His mind resembled the vast amphitheatre, the Colosseum at Rome. In the centre stood
his judgment,which, like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions, that like
the wild beasts of the arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After
a conflict, he drove them back into their dens; but not killing them, they were still
assailing him.Boswell knew Johnson as a bear-leader knew his bear, and could play upon him
as wel l as with him. Aware that Johnson ‘was sometimes a little actuated by the spirit
of contradiction’, he manœuvred him into a dinner where he knew his political
opposite John Wilkes would be. They talked without falling out, and Johnson
thawed. Boswell: ‘Mr Burke gave me much credit for this successful “negotiation”;
and pleasantly said that there was nothing to equal it in the whole history of the
Corps Diplomatique.’ ‘Bozzy’ also persuaded Johnson at 64 to go to Scotland, to ride
through the Highlands and to risk the Hebrides in autumn in an open boat. Their
accounts of their experiences are now available in one volume, and the comparison
improves understanding of the skill with which Boswell enlivened Johnson’s life;
each book is masterly. Johnson showed his ability to go from the detail to the univer-
sal: after looking at the construction of windows in Banff he makes the following
generalization:
The true state of every nation is the state of common life. The manners of a people are
not to be found in the schools of learning, or the palaces of greatness, where the nationalTHE AGE OF JOHNSON 217