Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson

by Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Schuyler

Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson with a selection from his Essay on Johnson. This book, "Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson," by Thomas Babington Macaulay, is a replication of a book originally published before 1903. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, 18th Century

First published January 1, 1856

About the author

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC was an English poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history. He also held political office as Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841 and Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848.

As a young man he composed the ballads Ivry and The Armada, which he later included as part of Lays of Ancient Rome, a series of very popular ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history which he composed in India and published in 1842.

During the 1840s he began work on his most famous work, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, publishing the first two volumes in 1848. At first, he had planned to bring his history down to the reign of George III. After publication of his first two volumes, his hope was to complete his work with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The third and fourth volumes, bringing the history to the Peace of Ryswick, were published in 1855. However, at his death in 1859, he was working on the fifth volume. This, bringing the History down to the death of William III, was prepared for publication by his sister, Lady Trevelyan, after his death.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard people dismiss this essay because it is not Boswell. Of course it is not Boswell. Boswell’s Life was a mammoth undertaking, written by a younger contemporary, a lawyer and friend, based upon mountains of personal notes assembled throughout many years. whereas this is a short biographical essay—little more than 15,000 words—a casual production written by a man born sixteen years after Johnson’s death, an eminent Whig historian, wealthy and prosperous in ways the impoverished Tory Sam Johnson could on only have imagined.

His life of the great lexicographer, however--unlike Boswell’s--has the gifts of concision and concentration, and is particularly good when evoking Johnson’s Grub Street days, the eccentric household of his declining years, and his ardent and pathetic attachment to the great hostess Mrs.Thrale. It can also, however, lead to exaggerated, though undeniably memorable passages, making the great man seem—by exaggerated his flaws—an extraordinarily eccentric character.

Consider the following passage, describing Johnson as a young man. I love Johnson, and have read much about him, and do not consider this a balanced portrait. Still it is vivid, memorable description, accurate in the the way a sympathetic caricature may capture the essence of a man.

Before the young man left the university, his hereditary malady had broken forth in a singularly cruel form. He had become an incurable hypochondriac. He said long after that he had been mad all his life, or at least not perfectly sane; and, in truth, eccentricities less strange than his have often been thought grounds sufficient for absolving felons, and for setting aside wills. His grimaces, his gestures, his mutterings, sometimes diverted and sometimes terrified people who did not know him. At a dinner table he would, in a fit of absence, stoop down and twitch off a lady's shoe. He would amaze a drawing-room by suddenly ejaculating a clause of the Lord's Prayer. He would conceive an unintelligible aversion to a particular alley, and perform a great circuit rather than see the hateful place. He would set his heart on touching every post in the streets through which he walked. If by any chance he missed a post, he would go back a hundred yards and repair the omission. Under the influence of his disease, his senses became morbidly torpid, and his imagination morbidly active. At one time he would stand poring on the town clock without being able to tell the hour. At another, he would distinctly hear his mother, who was many miles off, calling him by his name. But this was not the worst. A deep melancholy took possession of him, and gave a dark tinge to all his views of human nature and of human destiny. Such wretchedness as he endured has driven many men to shoot themselves or drown themselves. But he was under no temptation to commit suicide. He was sick of life; but he was afraid of death; and he shuddered at every sight or sound which reminded him of the inevitable hour. In religion he found but little comfort during his long and frequent fits of dejection; for his religion partook of his own character. The light from heaven shone on him indeed, but not in a direct line, or with its own pure splendour. The rays had to struggle through a disturbing medium; they reached him refracted, dulled and discoloured by the thick gloom which had settled on his soul; and, though they might be sufficiently clear to guide him, were too dim to cheer.

With such infirmities of body and mind, this celebrated man was left, at two-and-twenty, to fight his way through the world.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly nasty and full of insight into the lives of the generations that preceded his, Macaulay's essay influenced the perception of Johnson and Boswell for generations. Some of Macaulay's interpretations are disputed now, particularly as he didn't have access to Boswell's papers.

Whatever side one favours - and in matters of politics I'm with the Whig Macaulay but, for his generosity and wit I side with the old Tory - it's clear that Johnson and Boswell have lasted better than Macaulay.

A terrific read - "the best bad review ever written" according to one internet commentator.

[Yngvild · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought Macaulay's Life of Samuel Johnson purely to compare with the better known biography by James Boswell.

Macaulay's version is short, more of an essay than a true biography, but it gives the kind of details about Dr Johnson that only another writer would notice. This is a comment about Taxation no Tyranny, described by Macaulay as a "pitiable failure".

The arguments were such as boys use in debating societies. The pleasantry was as awkward as the gambols of a hippopotamus.

Although it is Boswell who claims to have been Johnson's close friend, it is Macaulay who gives the more intimate description of his subject.

The old philosopher is still among us in the brown coat with the metal buttons and the shirt which ought to be at wash, blinking, puffing, rolling his head, drumming with his fingers, tearing his meat like a tiger, and swallowing his tea in oceans.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this short biography because Saul Bellow referred to it in his Ravelstein. Finding it on Kindle, I downloaded it and polished it off in an hour and a half while drinking tea at the Farmers Market in Los Angeles.

Thomas Babington Macaulay covers the bases, but comes nowhere close to the incredible wit of Doctor Johnson. Boswell was there, saw it all happen, and wrote it all down. Macaulay just summarizes the main points.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this because I’d heard of Macaulay. He is a clear writer, for sure. It’s a little sparse for a biography though. Made me want to read Boswell’s Life of Johnson.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a charming old copy of this book from the year 1903. The book belonged to my grandmother's aunt. I have several other books that were hers as well that I intend to read. I first enjoyed learning about Samuel Johnson and his famed dictionary when I visited his house in London in 2004. I didn't know then that he was an ill and sometimes quite unpleasant person. Macaulay's description of him is interesting, factual and neither flatters nor criticizes excessively. This book made me want to pursue a deeper study of Johnson and his contemporaries.