The Life of Samuel Johnson

In September 1777, Boswell and Johnson travel to Ashbourne, where they stay at the home of Dr. Taylor, a schoolmate of Johnson’s. Boswell observes that Johnson during the Ashbourne trip is “more uniformly social, cheerful, and alert, than I had almost ever seen him” (867).

Johnson and Boswell engage in extensive conversation while at Dr. Taylor’s house. Boswell defends acting as a fine art—in his performances, David Garrick “can represent exalted characters, and touch the noblest passions” (863). Johnson makes a mockery of this idea, claiming that acting is not a high art and is something that anyone can do. Johnson’s disdain for actors is a motif throughout the Life.

In this instance, Boswell comes away from the conversation certain that he has “the best side of the argument” and that Johnson is merely using mockery and “fallacious reasoning” (863) to make his point. As presented by Boswell, this exchange illustrates Johnson’s occasional propensity to rely on bombast and faulty reasoning in his arguments, as well as Boswell’s confidence in his own views. Boswell’s writing here creates an exclusive bond with his readers, and he gives the impression of confiding in them, sure that they will see the correctness of his view.

The two men discuss the case of an enslaved Black man, Joseph Knight, who is attempting to claim his freedom at the Court of Session in Scotland. This case will be referred to numerous times from here on. Johnson puts forth a detailed argument against slavery:

It may be doubted whether slavery can ever be supposed the natural condition of man. It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original state were equal; and very difficult to imagine how one would be subjected to another but by violent compulsion […] No man is by nature the property of another: The defendant is, therefore, by nature free (877-78).

Johnson’s conviction put him at odds with many others in the society of his day and also feeds into his dislike for the American colonists, many of whom accepted the institution of slavery. Johnson’s support of the rights of Black people is illustrated in Joseph Knight’s case as well as in his treatment of Francis Barber.

Boswell, addressing the readers, disagrees with Johnson’s view and puts forth an argument in favor of slavery and the slave trade. He argues that slavery is a “status, which in all ages God has sanctioned, and man has continued” and that Africans have been rescued from “massacre, or intolerable bondage in their own country” (878) by being brought to the Americas. To abolish the slave trade, Boswell says, would constitute “robbery to an innumerable class of our fellow-subjects” (878). Boswell’s opposing view illustrates the entrenched support for slavery that many abolitionists of the time had to face. Boswell’s support for slavery contrasts with his accepting and friendly attitude toward Francis Barber.

Johnson, as a lexicographer, is “at all times jealous of infractions upon the genuine English language,” and criticizes a number of “colloquial barbarisms” (873) that have crept into the language. This shows Johnson’s concerns for maintaining the purity of the English language as he sees it, a project to which his Dictionary contributed.

During the Ashbourne episode, Boswell interrupts the narrative to tell us of Johnson’s efforts to help Dr. William Dodd, a clergyman sentenced to prison for obtaining money by forgery to support his extravagant lifestyle (827-835). Although Johnson writes an elaborate paper in Dodd’s defense and appeals are made to the king for his pardon, these appeals are not successful, and Dodd is executed in June 1777. Boswell’s extensive reporting of this incident shows his perspective as someone interested in legal issues and court trials.