JOHNSON.

SAMUEL JOHNSON was the eldest son of Michael Johnsen, a bookseller at Lichfield, in which city this great man was born on the 7th day of September, 1709. The chief part of his education he received under Mr. Hunter, master of the free-school of his native city. On the 31st of October, 1728, he was admitted of Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was entered as a commoner.

He remained in the University about three years in the whole, when the inability of his father to support him longer compelled him to quit the place without a degree. To maintain himself, he condescended to accept the office of under-master, or usher, of a free grammar-school at Market-Bosworth in Leicestershire, which he relinquished in a very short time. He resided in 1733 at Birmingham, and there is supposed to have been first introduced to Mis. Porter, who about the year 1736 became his wife.

With the small property he acquired with this lady, he attempted to establish a boarding-school for young gentlemen at Edial near Lichfield, but without success. On this disappointment he quitted the country in March 1737, in company with Mr. Garrick, and came to London, where he remained during the rest of his life.

In London he had to contend with all the inconveniencies which a stranger, poor and friendless, could encounter; and for the greater part of his life, had no other income than what arose from his writings; which, how ́ever excellent, afforded but a scanty and even precarious subsistence. In this state, often struggling with adversity, he passed twenty-four years from his arrival in the metropolis.

An uniformity of life so unbroken can only be marked by the publication of his works; the principal of which shall be enumerated. On his arrival in town he engaged to write for "The Gentleman's Magazine;" and in 1738 published "London, a Poem," in imitation of Juvenal. About 1743 he was employed by Osborn, the bookseller, in compiling the "Catalogue of "the Harleian Library." In 1744 the "Life of Savage" appeared; and in

1746 he undertook to compile the "Dictionary of the English language," which was not compleated until the year 1755.

He did not confine himself entirely to this work. In January 1749, "The "Vanity of Human Wishes," his second imitation of Juvenal, was published. In February " Irene" was acted at Drury-lane. In 1750 he began "The Rambler," which was continued unti! March 1752.

In that year he lost his wife, whose memory he has perpetuated by the excellent Sermon written on her Death." In 1755 his Dictionary was published; and the next year he put forth Proposals for publishing Shakspeare, with notes. In 1758 he began "The Idler;" and the next year produced "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia."

The beginning of his present Majesty's reign was favourable to the fortune of Dr. Johnson. He was amongst the first to whom a pension was offered. His acceptance of it released him from the necessity of continual application, and gave him a respite from literary drudgery. Soon afterwards he was introduced to the family of Mr. Thrale, in which he passed much of his time, until the death of that gentleman.

In 1765 he published his edition of Shakspeare;" and about the same time had the degree of Doctor of Laws conferred on him by the University of Dublin. He had before had the degree of Master of Arts given him, unasked by the University of Oxford. In 1773 he travelled into Scotland; and two years afterwards published the Narrative of his Tour. He several times undertook the defence of Administration against the opponents of the Minister; and it has been asserted, that it was once in contemplation to pro cure him a seat in parliament.

When the work, now reprinted, was undertaken, he engaged to furnish the Lives of the several Poets. These were published at two different times, in 1779 and 1781, and were his last productions. His health had been some time declining; he lingered about a year, and died on the 13th of December, 1784. He was buried in Westminster Abbey; where a monument is about to be erected to his memory.

W. WHITEHEAD.

ILLIAM WHITEHEAD was born at Cambridge, in the beginning of the year 1714-15. His father was a baker in that town, who, through indolence and dissipation, left nothing behind him but some debts, which his son very honorably discharged. His mother was a very amiable, prudent, and exemplary woman.

Mr. Whitehead received the first rudiments of his education at some common school at Cambridge; but at the age of fourteen, July 6, 1728, he was removed to Winchester, having obtained a nomination into that College by means of Mr. Bromley. At school he was always of a delicate turn, and though obliged to go to the hills with the other boys, he spent his time there in reading either plays or poetry; and was also particularly fond of the "Atalantis," and all other books of private history or character. He very early exhibited his taste for poetry; for, while other boys were contented with shewing up twelve or fourteen lines, he would fill half a sheet, but always with English verse. When he was sixteen he wrote a whole comedy.

In the year 1733, the Earl of Peterborough having Mr. Pope at his house, near Southampton, carried him to Winchester, to shew him the collegeschool. The Earl gave ten guineas to be disposed of in prizes amongst the boys; and Mr. Pope set then a subject to write upon, viz. PETERBOROUGH. Prizes of a guinea each were given to six of the boys, of whom Whitehead was one. The remaining sum was laid out for other boys in subscriptions to Pine's Horace, then about to be published. He enjoyed for some little time a lucrative place in the college, that of prepositor of the hall.

At the election in September 1735, he was treated with singular injustice, for through the force of superior interest he was placed so low on the roll, that it was scarcely possible for him to succeed to New College. Being now superannuated he left Winchester of course, deriving no other advantage from the college than a good education.

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Two months after his disappointment at Winchester, he removed to the place of his nativity, where the peculiar circumstances of his being the orphan son of a baker of Cambridge gave him an unexceptionable claim to one of the scholarships founded at Clare-Hall, by Mr. Thomas Pyke of that trade and town. His mother accordingly admitted him a sizer of this college, under the tuition of Mess. Curling, Goddard, and Hopkinson, November 26, 1735.

The first pieces he published were verses on public occasions, the mar riage of the Prince of Wales in 1736, and the birth of his son the present king in 1738. In 1741 appeared his epistle "On the Danger of writing "Verse," which was followed by "Atys and Adrastus" in 1743; and that by the "Epistle from Aun Boleyn in the Tower to King Henry the Eighth," the same year. His next poem was his " Essay on Ridicule," which also appeared in 1743; and to that succeeded "Nobility, an Epistle to the Earl of Ashburnham." During the time of his being an under-graduate, he lived a very studious life, observing the strictest frugality possible, that he might be the less burthensome to an affectionate mother. After taking a very creditable degree, and being emancipated from those mathematical studies for which young men of his tribe seldom have much relish, he wrote, as we have seen, rapidly, though not carelessly for the press; but this rapidity, as it did not continue through life, probably arose at the time rather from a laudable desire of self-maintenance, than any undue eagerness forpoetical fame.

In June 1742 he was elected fellow of Clare-Hall. In April 1743 he lost his mother; and in the same year commenced Master of Arts. His intention at that time was to take orders; and with that view he prepared him self for the Church; but shortly afterwards a circumstance occurred, which led him to defer putting this design in practice, and in the end occasioned his relinquishing the idea entirely. The late Earl of Jersey was making enquiries after a proper person to take the private tuition of his second son, now become his only hope from the death of his elder brother; on which account probably he durst not trust him to the dangers of a public education, as his constitution appeared to be very delicate. Fortunately for the young Viscount, Mr. Whitehead was recommended to his father, by Mr. Commissary Graves, as a person fully qualified for this important charge. His recommendation was successful; and Mr. Whitehead, when the offer was made, did not hesitate to accept it. He therefore in the summer of 1745 removed to the Earl's house, where he was placed upon the most liberal footing.

At Michaelmas 1746 he resigned his fellowship; and, having now many intervals of leisure, he employed himself in writing "The Roman Father," which was acted in 1750. In 1754 he collected his works into a volume, and in the same year produced "Creusa Queen of Athens." The exhibition of this play was hardly over, before he was called upon to attend his pupil, and Lord Viscount Nuneham, son to the Earl of Harcourt, in their travels, After as their joint Governor.

After passing through Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, he returned to Harwich in September 1756. During his absence he had received the badges of secretary and register of the order of the Bath; and in 1757 his finances were further improved by the appointment of Poet Laureat. On his arrival in England he was pressed to continue in the family of Lord Jersey; and there and in the house of Lord Harcourt he resided for fourteen years.

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In 1762 he produced "The school for Lovers," and in the same year his Charge to the Poets." In 1770 " The trip to Scotland" was acted; and in 1774 he again collected his performances into two volumes. "Variety" was published in 1776; and "The Goat's Beard" in 1777. He also employed himself in other dramas, some of which finished, and others imperfect, he left behind him in manuscript. He died at his lodgings in Charlesstreet, Grosvenor-Square, April 14, 1785; and was buried in South Audley Chapel.

"Thus having completed," says Mr. Mason, from whom all the particulars of the preceding account are taken, his seventieth year, he died, retaining all his faculties more perfectly than is usually the lot of persons who live to such an age. Of these his memory was the most remarkable, which, being always strong, continued to that late period with no diminution of vigour. And, as his reading and observations had been far more extensive and various than he had occasion to exhibit in that mode of writing which he chiefly employed to convey his sentiments, this accurate retention of what he had by study acquired made him a living library, always open to communicate its treasures to his acquaintance, without obtruding itself upon them by any ostentatious display or assumed superiority.

JENYNS.