First Gravedigger in ‘Hamlet,’ Moody in ‘Sir Martin Marrall,’ Waspe in ‘Bartholomew Fair,’ and Morose in the ‘Silent Woman;’ and was, 1 Nov. 1707, the original Sir Solomon Sadlife in Cibber's ‘Double Gallant.’ With the reunited companies he reappeared at Drury Lane, 15 Jan. 1708, playing Polonius. Foresight in Congreve's ‘Love for Love,’ Caliban, Gomez in the ‘Spanish Fryer,’ Bluff in the ‘Old Bachelor,’ and Ananias in the ‘Old Bachelor’ are a few only of the parts in which he was seen in 1708 and 1709. Once more at the Haymarket he was, 12 Nov. 1709, the original Sir David Watchum in Mrs. Centlivre's ‘Man's Bewitched;’ then, in 1710, returned to Drury Lane, where, with only one further break in 1733–4, in which season he played Shallow and some other parts at the Haymarket, he remained for the rest of his career. At Drury Lane he was the original Dypthong in Charles Johnson's ‘Generous Husband,’ on 20 Jan. 1711; Common Council-man in Settle's ‘City Ramble;’ Squire Thomas in Gay's ‘What d'ye call it?’ 23 Feb. 1715; Vellum in Addison's ‘Drummer,’ 10 March 1716; Dr. Fossile in ‘Three Hours after Marriage,’ assigned to Gay, Pope, and Arbuthnot, 16 Jan. 1717. In his later years few new parts were assigned him. He acted, however, Old Gobbo in Macklin's famous revival of the ‘Merchant of Venice,’ 14 Feb. 1741. About 1700 Johnson had visited Dublin, and towards the close of his life he resented the fact that he was not again engaged to accompany Garrick to that city. He played Foresight in ‘Love for Love,’ 25 May 1742, and took part in the performance of ‘The Rehearsal’ the following evening. This is supposed by Genest to have been his last appearance. He died in the following August.
Johnson was a sound, judicious, and competent actor, who remained on the stage until his seventy-seventh year, and never lost his hold on the public. Downes praises his Morose, Corbaccio, and Hothead in ‘Sir Courtly Nice,’ which parts gained ‘applause from court and city,’ and adds: ‘He is skillful in the art of painting, which is a great adjument, very promovent to the art of true elocution’ (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 52, ed. 1708). Downes also speaks of him as a true copy of Underhill, whom Sir William D'Avenant judged ‘the truest comedian in his company.’ After the retirement of Thomas Doggett [q. v.] he was entrusted by Cibber, Booth, and Wilks with the principal parts of that actor. Davies says that ‘he was, of all comedians, the chastest and the closest observer of nature,’ and ‘never seemed to know that he was before an audience’ (Life of Garrick, i. 33–34). Elsewhere Davies calls him ‘the Hemskirk or D. Teniers of the theatre,’ and says: ‘His large speaking blue eyes he fixed steadily on the person to whom he spoke, and was never known to have wandered [allowed his eyes to wander] from the stage to any part of the theatre’ (Dram. Misc. iii. 135). Besides parts in Ben Jonson's plays, his Gravedigger, ‘a true picture of an arch-clown,’ and his Gardiner in ‘Henry VIII’ are the subject of special eulogy. Davies pronounced his Captain Bluff as complete a piece of acting as he ever saw, and his Justice Shallow was said to all but hold its own against that of Cibber. Morose appears to have been his greatest part. He was tall and thin. Lloyd, in his poem ‘The Actor,’ embodies the praise of Davies. In his very rare ‘Comparison between the Two Stages,’ 1702, Lloyd writes: ‘Then there's the Noble Ben's Namesake is or might be a good Comedian, but he has the Vice of all Actors, he's too fond of his own Merit’ (p. 199). He also says that Johnson was tried with Betterton and Mrs. Bracegirdle for using lewd and profane language on the stage and was acquitted, while his companions were found guilty.
[Books cited; Genest's Account of the English Stage; Chetwood's General History of the Stage, pp. 174–6; Cibber's Apology, ed. Lowe.]
JOHNSON, Captain CHARLES (fl. 1724–1736), was author of ‘A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, and also their Policies, Discipline, and Government from their first Rise and Settlement in 1717 to the present year, with the Adventures of the two Female Pyrates, Mary Read and Anne Bonny,’ London, Ch. Rivington and others, 1724, 8vo. The writer, whose name is most likely an assumed one, states in the preface that ‘those facts which he himself was not an eye-witness of he had from the authentick relations of the persons concerned in taking the pyrates, as well as from the mouths of the pyrates themselves, after they were taken.’ The book deals exclusively with English pirates, including Avery, Davis, Roberts, and ten others; it soon became popular. A ‘second edition, with considerable additions,’ was published in 1724, a third edition in 1725, and a fourth, with a second volume, with additional lives and an appendix, in 1726. Some of the lives are reproduced by Mr. Howard Pyle in ‘The Buccaneers and Marooners of America,’ 1891, 8vo. The first volume was translated into Dutch by Robert Hennebo, Amsterdam, 1727, 2 vols. 12mo, with new illustrations; a German version by Joachim Meyer was printed at Gosslar
