Page:Boswell - Life of Johnson.djvu/267

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Aetat. 41.]

Johnson in the Green Room.

233

must allow, has more effect even upon strong minds than one should suppose, without having had the experience of it. His necessary attendance while his play was in rehearsal, and during its performance, brought him acquainted with many of the performers of both sexes, which produced a more favourable opinion of their profession than he had harshly expressed in his Life of Savage^[1]. With some of them he kept up an acquaintance as long as he and they lived, and was ever ready to shew them acts of kindness. He for a considerable time used to frequent the Green Room, and seemed to take delight in dissipating his gloom, by mixing in the sprightly chit-chat of the motley circle then to be found there^[2]. Mr. David Hume related to me from Mr. Garrick, that Johnson at last denied himself this amusement, from considerations of rigid virtue; saying, 'I'll come no more behind your scenes, David; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propensities.'

1750: ÆTAT. 41.]—In 1750 he came forth in the character for which he was eminently qualified, a majestick teacher of moral and religious wisdom. The vehicle which he chose was that of a periodical paper, which he knew had been, upon former occasions, employed with great success. Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian, were the last of the kind published in England, which had stood the test of a long trial^[3]; and such an interval had now elapsed since their publication, as made him justly think that, to many of his readers, this form

62) we have an account of a man who had longed to 'issue forth in all the splendour of embroider'. When his fine clothes were brought, 'I felt myself obstructed,' he wrote, 'in the common intercourse of civility by an uneasy consciousness of my new appearance; as I thought myself more observed, I was more anxious about my mien and behaviour; and the mien which is formed by care is commonly ridiculous.'

↑ See ante, p. 193.
↑ See Post, 1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection.
↑ The Tatler came to an end on Jan. 2, 1710-1; the first series of The spectator on Dec. 6, 1712; The Guardian on Oct. 1, 1713; and the second series of The Spectator on Dec. 20, 17 14.

of

[1] See ante, p. 193.

[2] See Post, 1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection.

[3] The Tatler came to an end on Jan. 2, 1710-1; the first series of The spectator on Dec. 6, 1712; The Guardian on Oct. 1, 1713; and the second series of The Spectator on Dec. 20, 17 14.

[1]

[2]

[3]