Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson

by Hester Lynch Piozzi, S.C. Roberts (Introduction)

Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson by Hesther Lynch Piozzi was originally published in 1786. It proved to be enormously popular and in 1925 the Cambridge University Press produced an edition of the work with an introduction by S. C. Roberts. It was later included in the Cambridge Miscellany series in 1932 with only the biographical portion of Roberts' introduction, and it is that edition which is re-issued here. The volume offers a forthright biography of Samuel Johnson by one of his closest acquaintances.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

196 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1786

About the author

Hester Lynch Piozzi, née Salusbury, also called (1763 - 84) Harriet Lynch Thrale, byname Mrs. Thrale, English writer and friend of Samuel Johnson.

In 1763 she married a wealthy brewer named Henry Thrale. In January 1765 Samuel Johnson was brought to dinner, and the next year, following a severe illness, Johnson spent most of the summer in the country with the Thrales. Gradually, he became part of the family circle, living about half the time in their homes. A succession of distinguished visitors came there to see Johnson and socialize with the Thrales.

In 1781 Thrale died, and his wife was left a wealthy widow. To everyone’s dismay, she fell in love with her daughter’s music master, Gabriel Piozzi, an Italian singer and composer, married him in 1784, and set off for Italy on a honeymoon. Dr. Johnson openly disapproved. The resulting estrangement saddened his last months of life.

When news reached her of Johnson’s death, she hastily compiled and sent back to England copy for Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D., during the last Twenty Years of his Life (1786), which thrust her into open rivalry with James Boswell. The breach was further widened when, after her return to England in 1787, she brought out a two-volume edition of Letters to and from the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1788). Although less accurate in some details than Boswell’s, her accounts show other aspects of Johnson’s character, especially the more human and affectionate side of his nature.

When many old friends remained aloof, Mrs. Piozzi drew around her a new artistic circle, including the actress Sarah Siddons. Her pen remained active, and thousands of her entertaining, gossipy letters have survived. She retained to the end her unflagging vivacity and zest for life.

Reviews

[Jeff Crompton]

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Samuel Johnson. Hester Thrale (later Piozzi) was Johnson's friend, confidant, and something of a caregiver for much of the last twenty years of his life. Piozzi was certainly not the writer that Johnson was, though, and this is a rambling, somewhat disorganized narrative. Many of the stories require a knowledge of then-current events (and Latin!) that I don't have. But there is much to enjoy here; Piozzi is the source for some of our most well-known bits of Johnsonia.

I've always loved the conservative Johnson's response to someone who objected to giving money to beggars, because "they only lay it out in gin or tobacco."

And why should they be denied such sweeteners of their existence? It is surely very savage to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we delight in stripping it still barer, and are not ashamed to shew even visible displeasure if ever the bitter taste is taken from their mouths.

And I'm glad Mrs. Piozzi recorded his comment on a recently deceased, irreligious gentleman from Jamaica: "He will not, whither he is now gone, find much difference, I believe, either in the climate or the company."

There are hints of Johnson's darker side here. Piozzi says, "No one had however higher notions of the hard task of true Christianity than Johnson, whose daily terror lest he had not done enough, originated in piety, but ended in little less than disease." And she briefly refers to promises of secrecy on "so strange a subject" that her husband, Henry Thrale, was horrified. Mrs. Piozzi does not reveal what this subject is, but we now know that Johnson apparently asked her to restrain him with chains and locks, although we don't know whether that was for purposes of sexual gratification or to keep him from harming himself.

In any case, after the death of Henry Thrale, his widow found Johnson more and more difficult and hard to bear, and eventually the friendship was broken off. Johnson didn't live much longer after the estrangement. Piozzi's portrait of a difficult, rude, brilliant, and ultimately troubled man is painted with equal parts affection and exasperation. I'm glad we have it.

[Avis Black]

A book that ought to be read alongside Boswell, but rarely seems to be. Hester Thrale was a family friend of Dr. Johnson, and her account makes it plain she was a lot less enamored of the Great Man than Boswell was. Johnson may have had an impressive mind, but he was often unbearable to deal with as a person, according to Thrale.

Boswell is generally given credit for writing the first great modern biography. But Thrale published her book about Johnson 4 years before Boswell published his, and yet Thrale is not given much credit for producing a remarkable and innovative character study not influenced by Boswell, but which in turn appears to have influenced the viewpoint and approach of her rival biographer.