less demoralising incentive than emulation. His force of mind and character already secured respect, and three of his schoolfellows used regularly to carry him to school. One of them, named Hector, survived to give information to Boswell. He was indolent and unwieldy, unable to join in games, and ‘immoderately fond’ of reading the old romances, a taste which he retained through life. In the autumn of 1725 (Hawkins) he visited an uncle, Cornelius Ford, a clergyman, who wasted considerable ability by convivial habits (Johnson, Life of Fenton). Ford was struck by the lad's talents, and kept him till the next Whitsuntide. He was then excluded from the Lichfield school, and sent, by Ford's advice, to a school at Stourbridge under a Mr. Wentworth, whom he is also said to have assisted in teaching. After a year he returned home, and spent two years in ‘lounging.’ It was at this time probably that he refused, out of pride, to attend his father to Uttoxeter market. On the same day some fifty years later he performed penance for this offence by visiting Uttoxeter market and standing bareheaded for an hour in the rain on the site of his father's bookstall (Boswell, iv. 373; R. Warner, Tour through the Northern Counties; for some slight discrepancies in these statements see Notes and Queries, 6th ser. xi. 1, 91, 193). He read a great deal in a desultory fashion, and said afterwards (Boswell, Letters, p. 34) that he knew as much at eighteen as he did at fifty-two. He had written verses, of which Boswell gives specimens (one of them inserted in the Gent. Mag. for 1743, p. 378), and had no doubt made a reputation among his father's customers at Lichfield. A ‘neighbouring gentleman, Mr. Andrew Corbet,’ according to Hawkins (p. 9), offered to send Johnson to Oxford to read with his son, who had entered Pembroke College in 1727. Johnson was entered as a commoner on 31 Oct. 1728. According to Hawkins a disagreement with Corbet followed, and Johnson's supplies from this source were stopped after a time. The dates, however, are confused. Hawkins and Boswell say that Johnson remained three years at Oxford. The college books show him to have resided continuously till 12 Dec. 1729, after which he only resided for a few brief periods, and his name was removed on 8 Oct. 1731 (see appendix to Hill's Dr. Johnson, his Friends and his Critics). Johnson's tutor was a Mr. Jorden. He despised Jorden's lectures, though he respected the kindliness of the lecturer. Johnson seems to have surprised the college authorities by the extent of his reading, and a Latin translation of Pope's ‘Messiah,’ performed as a Christmas exercise, spread his reputation in the university, and was printed in 1731 in an Oxford ‘Miscellany’ brought out by J. Husbands, a fellow of Pembroke. Pope, to whom it was shown by George, son of Dr. Arbuthnot, is said to have paid it a high compliment (Hawkins, p. 13). Johnson was said by William Adams (1706–1789) [q. v.], who succeeded Jorden as tutor, to have been a ‘gay and frolicsome fellow,’ and generally popular at Oxford. Johnson told Boswell, upon hearing this, that he was only ‘mad and violent.’ He was ‘miserably poor,’ meant to ‘fight his way by his literature and wit, and so disregarded all authority.’ He was occasionally insubordinate (Boswell, i. 59, 271), but amenable to kindness. He suffered from hypochondria, of which (ib. p. 63) he had a violent attack at Lichfield during the vacation of 1729. He frequently, says Boswell, walked from Lichfield to Birmingham and back in order to overcome his melancholy by violent exertion. He wrote an account of his case in Latin, and laid it before his godfather, Dr. Swinfen, who was so much struck by its ability that, to Johnson's lasting offence, he showed it to several friends. While at Oxford he took up the ‘Serious Call’ of William Law [q. v.], by which he was profoundly affected. He had previously fallen into indifference to religious matters, and was even ‘a lax talker against religion.’ From this time his religious sentiments were always strong, though he continued to reproach himself with carelessness in practice. His poverty exposed him to vexations. His schoolfellow, John Taylor, afterwards J. Taylor of Ashbourne, proposed to become his companion at Pembroke, but upon Johnson's advice went to Christ Church to be under a Mr. Bateman, regarded as the best tutor at Oxford. Johnson used to get Bateman's lectures from Taylor, till he observed that the Christ Church men laughed at his worn-out shoes. Some one placed a new pair of shoes at his door, when he ‘threw them away with indignation.’ Johnson read Greek and ‘metaphysics’ at Oxford in his usual desultory fashion, and, in spite of his sufferings, retained a warm regard for his college and the university.
Johnson's poverty no doubt caused his premature departure. He returned at the end of 1729 to Lichfield, where his father died in December 1731. The father was on the verge of bankruptcy, though not actually bankrupt. Johnson in July 1732 received 20l. from the estate, all that he could expect until his mother's death, and had therefore to ‘make his own fortune’ (Diary, quoted by Boswell, i. 80). He had some friends at Lichfield, especially Dr. Swinfen, Garrick's father, and
