��Essay on
��a book I . At the end of two years, being then about nineteen, he went to assist the studies of a young gentleman, of the name of Corbet, to the University of Oxford ; and on the 3ist of October, 1728, both were entered of Pembroke College; Corbet as a gentleman-commoner, and Johnson as a commoner 2 . The college tutor, Mr. Jordan, was a man of no genius ; and Johnson, it seems, shewed an early contempt of mean abilities, in one or two instances behaving with insolence to that gentleman 3 . Of his general conduct at the university there are no particulars that merit attention, except the translation of Pope's Messiah, which was a college exercise imposed upon him as a task by Mr. Jordan 4 . Corbet left the university in about two years, and Johnson's salary ceased 5 . He was, by consequence, straitened in his circumstances ; but he still remained at college. Mr. Jor dan, the tutor, went off to a living ; and was succeeded by Dr. Adams, who afterwards became head of the college, and was esteemed through life for his learning, his talents, and his amiable character. Johnson grew more regular in his attendance. Ethics, theology, and classic literature were his favourite studies 6 . He
��1 Life, i. 56, n. 2 ; Letters, ii. 89.
2 Corbet had entered the year before. Life, i. 58, n. i.
3 Ante, p. 164. ' He had a love and respect for Jorden, not for his literature, but for his worth. " When ever (said he) a young man becomes Jorden's pupil, he becomes his son.'" Life, i. 61.
4 Boswell recorded in his note book in March 1776: 'Mr. Hector told me that the Master of Pem broke used to see him idling away his time in the quadrangle, and that he set him a task to turn Pope's Messiah into Latin (wrong, he was asked very civilly by Jorden to do it) upon which Mr. Johnson produced his admirable version of that poem.' Morrison Allographs, 2nd Series, i. 368. See Life, i. 61.
5 Murphy gets this statement from Hawkins, p. 9. Dr. Taylor told
��Boswell that though Corbet's father had promised to support Johnson at Oxford ' in the character of his son's companion, in fact he never received any assistance whatever from that gentleman.' Life, i. 58.
Corbet, as the books of the College show, entered in 1727. In October, 1728, his charges became irregular, and ceased altogether in the following December, when no doubt he left College. Johnson, as I have shown, was only fourteen months in Col lege, leaving in December, 1729. Ib. i. 78, n. 2. Adams was only ' his nominal tutor.' Ib. p. 79.
6 Hawkins, p. II. 'He told me what he read solidly at Oxford was Greek . . . that the study of which he was the most fond was Meta- physicks, but he had not read much even in that way.' Life, i. 70.
discovered,
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