The poem was finished, as appears by a manufcript note of the author in his own corrected copy, in 1738. While he was writing it, he lodged in an upper room of a house in Exeter street, behind Exeter 'change, inhabited by one Norris, a stay-maker; a particular which would have been hardly worth noticing, but that it, in fome measure, bespeaks his circumstances at the time, and accounts for his having, more than once, mentioned in the poem, and that with feeming abhorrence, the dungeons of the Strand. It is not unlikely that his aversion to fuch an abode was increafed by the reflection on that distress, which by this time had brought his wife to town, and obliged her to participate in the inconveniences of a dwelling too obscure to invite refort, and to be a witness of the difficulties with which he was struggling.

Having completed his poem, he looked round for a bookfeller, to whom, with a likelihood of obtaining the value of it, he might treat for the fale of it. His friend Cave, in respect of publications, was a haberdasher of small wares; the greatest of his undertakings being a translation of Du Halde's History of China, which was never completed.

Johnson thinking him a man for his purpose, made him an offer of his poem, in a letter in which, with great art, but without the least violation of truth, he conceals that himself was the author of it. The letter I here insert, as also another of his on the same subject.

'SIR,

When I took the liberty of writing to you a few

* days ago, I did not expect a repetition of the fame • pleasure pleasure fo foon, for a pleasure I shall always think it to converse in any manner with an ingenious and ' candid man ; but having the inclosed poem in my ' hands to dispose of for the benefit of the author (of • whose abilities I shall say nothing since I send you ' his performance,) I believed I could not procure • more advantageous terms from any person than from you, who have so much diftinguished yourself by your generous encouragement of poetry, and whose judgment of that art, nothing but your commenda

،

* tion of my trifle can give me any occasion to call • in question. I do not doubt but you will look over ' this poem with another eye, and reward it in a diffe

rent manner from a mercenary bookseller, who counts 'the lines he is to purchase, and confiders nothing but ' the bulk. I cannot help taking notice that, be• fides what the author may hope for on account of • his abilities, he has likewife another claim to your regard, as he lies at present under very disadvantageous circumstances of fortune. I beg, therefore, that you will favour me with a letter to-morrow, that I may know what you can afford to allow him, that he may either part with it to you, or find out (which I ' do not expect) some other way more to his fatisfac' tion.

'I have only to add, that I am sensible I have transcribed it very coarsely, which, after having altered it, I was obliged to do. I will, if you please ' to tranfmit the sheets from the press, correct it for

you, and will take the trouble of altering any stroke ' of fatire which you may dislike.

،

By exerting on this occafion your usual generosity,

you will not only encourage learning and relieve ' distress,

• distress, but (though it be in comparison of the other ' motives of very small account) oblige in a very sen'sible manner, Sir,

،

SIR,

Your very humble servant,

SAM. JOHNSON.'

Monday, No. 6, Castle-street.

'I am to return you thanks for the present you

were so kind to fend me, and to intreat that you ' will be pleased to inform me, by the Penny-Post, ' whether you refolve to print the poem. If you

،

please to fend it me by the post, with a note to Dodsley, I will go and read the lines to him, that we may have his consent to put his name in the title page. As to the printing, if it can be set immediately about, I will be so much the author's 'friend, as not to content myself with mere folicita' tions in his favour. I propose, if my calculation be

near the truth, to engage for the reimbursement of

• all that you shall lose by an impression of 500, pro'vided, as you very generously propose, that the pro

fit, if any, be set aside for the author's use, excepting ' the present you made, which, if he be a gainer, it is 'fit he should repay. I beg you will let one of your ' servants write an exact account of the expence of fuch

،

an impression, and send it with the poem, that I may know what I engage for. I am very sensible, 'from your generofsity on this occafion, of your regard

to learning, even in its unhappiest state; and cannot ' but think such a temper deserving of the gratitude

of those, who fuffer so often from a contrary difpo• fition.

' I am, Sir,

Your most humble servant,

SAM. JOHNSON.'

Johnfon

Johnfon and Dodsley were foon agreed; the price asked by the one and affented to by the other, was, as I have been informed, fifty pounds; a reward for his labour and ingenuity, that induced Johnson ever after to call Dodsley his patron. It is pretty certain that in his offer of the poem to Dodsley, Cave stipulated for the printing of it, for it came abroad in the year abovementioned with the name of Cave as the printer, though without that of the author. Lord Lyttelton, the instant it was published, carried it in rapture to Mr. Pope, who, having read it, commended it highly, and was very importunate with Dodsley to know the author's name; but, that being a fecret the latter was bound not to reveal, Pope affured him that he could not long be unknown, recollecting, perhaps, a passage recorded of Milton, who, feeing a beautiful young lady pass him whom he never had feen before, turned to look at her, and faid, 'Whoever thou art, thou 'canft not long be concealed.'

The topics of this spirited poem, fo far as it respects this country, or the time when it was written, are evidently drawn from those weekly publications, which, to answer the view of a malevolent faction, firft created, and for fome years supported, a distinction between the interests of the government and the people, under the feveral denominations of the court and the country parties: these publications were carried on under the direction of men, profeffing themselves to be whigs and friends of the people, in a paper intitled; 'The Country Journal or the Craftsman,' now defervedly forgotten, the end whereof was, to blow the flame of national discontent, to delude the honeft and well-meaning people of this country into a belief that the minifter

was

was its greatest enemy, and that his opponents, only, meant its welfare. To this end it was necessary to furnish them with fubjects of complaint, and these were plentifully diffeminated among them, the chief of them were, that science was unrewarded, and the arts neglected; that the objects of our politics were peace and the extenfion of commerce; that the wealth of the nation was unequally divided, for that, while fome were poor, others were able to raise palaces and purchase manors; that restraints were laid on the stage; that the land was plundered, and the nation cheated; our fenators hirelings, and our nobility venal; and, lastly, that in his visits to his native country, the king drained this of its wealth.

That Johnson has adopted these vulgar complaints, his poem must witness. I shall not take upon me to demonftrate the fallacy of most of the charges contained in it, nor animadvert on the wickedness of those, who, to effect their own ambitious designs, scruple not to oppofe the best endeavours of the person in power, nor shall I mark the folly of those who fuffer themselves to be so deluded: the fucceffion of knave to knave, and fool to fool, is hereditary and interminable: our fathers were deceived by the pretenfions of false patriots; the delusion stopped not with their children, nor will it with our's.

The publication of this poem was of little advantage to Johnson, other than the relief of his immediate wants: it procured him fame, but no patronage. He was therefore disposed to embrace any other prospect of advantage that might offer; for, a short time after, viz. in August 1738, hearing that the master