Chapter I: Preface

The literature of the Johnsonian period has assumed, in spite of the lexicographer's own dislike of that adjective, prodigious dimensions. After the critical labours of Malone, Murphy, Croker, J. B. Nichols, Macaulay, Carlyle, Rogers, Fitzgerald, Dr Hill and others, it may appear hazardous to venture upon such a well-ploughed field where the pitfalls are so numerous and the materials so scattered. I cannot, however, refrain from the expression of the belief that in this biography of Boswell will be found something that is new to professed students of the period, and much to the class of general readers that may lead them to reconsider the verdict at which they may have arrived from the brilliant but totally misleading essay by Lord Macaulay. At least, the writer cherishes the hope that it will materially add to the correct understanding and the enjoyment of Boswell's great work, _the Life of Johnson_.

My best thanks are due to J. Pearson & Co., 5 Pall Mall Place, London, for the use of unpublished letters by Boswell and of his boyish common-place book. And if "our Boswell" could indulge an honest pride in availing himself of a dedication to Sir Joshua Reynolds, as to a person of the first eminence in his department, so may I entertain the same feeling in inscribing this sketch to Dr Hill who, amid the pressure of other Johnson labours, has yet found time to revise the proof sheets of my book.

W. K. L.

_ABERDEEN, December 1896._

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

EARLY DAYS--MEETS JOHNSON--1740-63 9

CHAPTER II

THE CONTINENT--CORSICA--1763-66 35

CHAPTER III

EDINBURGH BAR--STRATFORD JUBILEE--1766-69 54

CHAPTER IV

LOVE AFFAIRS--LITERARY CLUB--1766-73 76

CHAPTER V

TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES--1773 88

CHAPTER VI

EDINBURGH LIFE--DEATH OF JOHNSON--1773-84 113

CHAPTER VII

THE ENGLISH BAR--DEATH--1784-95 122

CHAPTER VIII

IN LITERATURE 143

JAMES BOSWELL