S. C. Roberts

“ Boswell realised this quite well:
"My desire of being acquainted with celebrated men of every description, had made me, much about the same time, obtain an introduction to Dr Samuel Johnson and to John Wilkes, Esq. Two men more different could perhaps not be selected out of all mankind. They had even attacked one another with some asperity in their writings; yet I lived in habits of friendship with both. I could fully relish the excellence of each.... I conceived an irresistible wish, if possible, to bring Dr Johnson and Mr Wilkes together. ”

“ Every month an average of 40 tons of printed matter leaves the Press to be delivered to London binders.
Printing is done in a wide variety of languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, Pali, Coptic, Sanskrit, Hausa, Syriac and Amharic, and the type catalogue makes a volume of about 200 pages.
Perhaps the greatest fame of the Cambridge Press rests upon its mathematical typography. To glance at a page, say, of Principia Mathematica is to realise a little—but only a little—of the minute care and skill required of the compositor, the press-reader, and the machine-minder in the production of such a book. ”

“ Mrs Thrale, she was short, plump, and brisk. She has herself given us a lively view of the idea which Johnson had of her person, on her appearing before him in a dark-coloured gown; 'You little creatures should never wear those sort of clothes, however; they are unsuitable in every way. What! have not all insects gay colours?' Mr Thrale gave his wife a liberal indulgence, both in the choice of their company, and in the mode of entertaining them. He understood and valued Johnson, without remission, from their first acquaintance to the day of his death. ”

“ Whether if the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford should be annihilated, and the revenues imployed to the publique affairs of this Commonwealth, (Religion being now out of date, and learning of no use, where men are so generally inspired,) it is not fitting that Brasen Nose College in Oxford should be exempted from that general devastation, as a memorial of the Respect they bore to Oliver late Lord Protector.
This period was not free from disputes between the university and the London Stationers. ”

“ For we that live to please, must please to live.
The truth was, as Sir Joshua Reynolds said:
"Johnson considered Garrick to be as it were his property. He would allow no man either to blame or to praise Garrick in his presence, without contradicting him."
Boswell discovered this, as we have seen, at the famous meeting in Tom Davies's back parlour.
Garrick died in 1779 and was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. His death provoked one of the most famous of all Johnson's sentences:
"That stroke of death" he wrote, "has eclipsed the gaiety of nations." ”

“ Nowadays it is difficult for us to imagine a three-year-old baby insisting on hearing a sermon, say, by the Dean of St Paul's or even a speech by the Prime Minister. But Johnson, as we shall see, was no ordinary child; and to the end of his life he was no ordinary hater of the Whigs.
Living, as he did, in the atmosphere of a bookshop, it was natural that the boy should be more inclined than others towards learning. ”

“ To return to Cambridge, we are on firmer, though not very spacious, ground, when we come to the name of John Siberch, the first Cambridge printer. "True it is," says Thomas Fuller, "it was a great while before Cambridge could find out the right knack of printing, and therefore they preferred to employ Londoners therein ... but one Sibert, University Printer, improved that mystery to good perfection." ”

“ Boswell was really interested in the things Johnson talked about and, without any pretence, enjoyed the same kind of pleasures—dining out, arguing over a good bottle of port, staying at friends' houses, examining cathedrals, wandering up and down Fleet Street, coming down late to breakfast. "No man," as Johnson said, "is a hypocrite in his pleasures."
Moreover, Johnson "loved the acquaintance of young people."
"Sir," he said "young men have more virtue than old men; they have more generous sentiments in every respect. ”

“ In the meantime the university had taken steps to ensure the suppression of heretical books. In 1529 a petition was presented to Cardinal Wolsey, begging:
that for the suppression of error, there should be three booksellers allowed in Cambridge by the King, who should be sworn not to bring in or sell any book which had not first been approved of by the censor of books in the University, that such booksellers should be men of reputation and gravity, and foreigners, (so it should be best for the prizing of books,) and that they might have the privilege to buy books of foreign merchants [14] . ”

“ We shall do better to choose one or two of the passages which should move us even now, when we picture to ourselves the years of industry and poverty in the gloomy Gough Square house: "The chief glory of every people arises from its authors: whether I shall add anything by my own writings to the reputation of English literature must be left to time." ”

“ In spite of the statement of the Syndics quoted at the end of the preceding chapter, the University Commissioners of 1850-52 reported their opinion that
it is only by associating printers or publishers in some species of co-partnership with the University, or by leasing the Press to them, that any considerable return can hereafter be expected from the capital which has been invested in it ... we are satisfied that no Syndicate, however active and well chosen, can replace the intelligent and vigilant superintendence of those whose fortune in life is dependent upon its success. ”

“ Johnson, for his part, never quite got rid of his feeling of contempt for the actor's profession. He often discussed it with Boswell:
"Boswell. 'Sir ..., you never will allow merit to a player.' Johnson. 'Merit, Sir! what merit? Do you respect a rope-dancer, or a ballad-singer?' Boswell. 'No, Sir: but we respect a great player, as a man who can conceive lofty sentiments and can express them gracefully.' Johnson. ”

“ We should now expect to see a steady continuance of university printing. But, in spite of the King's letters patent, the history of Cambridge printing for nearly fifty years is a blank. It is true that the university immediately availed itself of [21] the privilege conferred upon it, and the "three stationers and printers or sellers of books residing within the university" who were appointed were Nicholas Speryng, Garrett Godfrey, and Segar Nicholson, whose careers have been sketched above. ”

“ What he insisted on was that men should not deceive themselves and others by thinking foolishly. "Clear your mind" he said "of cant."
"Such," to quote Boswell for the last time, "was Samuel Johnson." Though he was the foremost man of letters of his generation, it is not for his scholarship or his writings, but rather for his pluck and his patriotism, his humour and his oddities, his blunt common-sense and his large humanity, and, above all, for the expression of these qualities in his talk, that he is best loved and remembered. For to appreciate Johnson's talk one need not be literary ”

“ The business of the Press was defined as consisting of the printing of bibles, testaments, and prayer-books; of printing work for the university and colleges; of printing books edited for the Syndics; of book and job printing for the members of the university; of printing works published by the Parker and other learned societies; and of "such Book work, as, subject to the 'Imprimatur' of the Vice-Chancellor, may be offered by Publishers and other connexions of the Press." ”

“ Johnson having enquired after him, said, 'Mr Strahan, let me have five guineas on account, and I'll give this boy one. Nay, if a man recommends a boy, and does nothing for him, it is sad work. Call him down.' I followed him into the court-yard, behind Mr Strahan's house.... 'Well, my boy, how do you go on?'—'Pretty well, Sir; but they are afraid I an't strong enough for some parts of the business.' Johnson. 'Why, I shall be sorry for it; for when you consider with how little mental power and corporeal labour a printer can get a guinea a week, it is a very desirable occupation for you. ”

“ One of the most important of the Syndics' undertakings towards the end of the last century was The Cambridge Modern History. Lord Acton had been elected Regius Professor of Modern History in 1895 and early in 1896 the Syndics approached him with a view to the compilation of a great English universal history. In his report of 15 July, 1896 Lord Acton wrote:
Universal history is not the sum of all particular histories, and ought to be contemplated, first, in its distinctive [149] essence, as Renaissance, Reformation, Religious Wars, Absolute Monarchy, Revolution, etc. ”

“ So, in his last illness in November 1784, he came to London to die. A month later he was buried in Westminster Abbey; Edmund Burke and Bennet Langton helped to bear the pall and Dr Taylor read the service. His monument, which Reynolds did not wish to see in the overcrowded Abbey, was erected in St Paul's Cathedral, and it is fitting that the nation's memorial of Dr Johnson should be within sound of Fleet Street.
If London meant life to Johnson, it meant the life of England. ”

“ My opinion of this Island hath always been, that it is the very face, and beauty of all Europe, in which both true Religion is faithfully professed without superstition, and (if on earth) true Learning sweetly flourishes without ostentation: and what are the two eyes of this Land, but the two Universities ... and truly I should forget myself, if I should not call Cambridge the right eye.
In the same year there was printed for David Owen, Fellow of Clare Hall, a controversial work entitled Herod and Pilate reconciled. ”

“ From the accounts we have of Mrs Williams we cannot imagine her to have been an easy companion. Her blindness made her peevish and quarrelsome and we may wonder, with Boswell, at Johnson's patience with her. But she was a good talker and that was a great merit in Johnson's eyes. He made many efforts to brighten her life and increase her tiny income; Garrick was induced to give her a benefit performance and Mrs Montagu to provide her with a small pension. ”

“ Parker retired in 1854 and, in spite of the serious fluctuations in the bible trade, the first half of the [141] nineteenth century must be regarded as a period of expansion in building, in machinery, and in business. For the first time the chief servant of the Syndics was a man with an intimate knowledge of the book trade, who served the university as publisher as well as printer. The assumption by the Syndics themselves of the full responsibilities of a publishing firm was reserved for the later half of the century. ”

“ He had no settled plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a desultory manner, without any scheme of study, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them. He used to mention one curious instance of his casual reading, when but a boy. Having imagined that his brother had hid some apples behind a large folio upon an upper shelf in his father's shop, he climbed up to search for them. ”