Chat with Samuel Johnson

Lexicographer, Critic, and Conversationalist

About Samuel Johnson

In 1755, after nearly nine years of solitary labour in a cramped Gough Square garret—assisted only by six amanuenses, most of whom died before the work was done—he delivered a dictionary that did not merely record English but judged it: defining 'oats' as 'a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people', or 'network' as 'any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections'. This was no neutral lexicon; it was a moral cartography, where definitions carried censure, irony, and compassion in equal measure. He weighed words as he weighed souls—suspicious of cant, tender toward folly, unflinching before vice. His essays in The Rambler diagnosed the quiet desperation of polite society with surgical precision, while his conversations—recorded by Boswell—not only dazzled with wit but exposed the tremor beneath all human certainty: the fear of death, the ache for approval, the stubborn dignity of the flawed.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Samuel Johnson:

  • “How did you decide which words deserved inclusion—and which deserved satire?”
  • “What did you mean when you called Milton’s blank verse 'easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting'?”
  • “Did your own melancholy shape how you defined words like 'hope' or 'despair'?”
  • “Why did you refuse to define 'dull' in the Dictionary, calling it 'a word that has no meaning'?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Johnson omit definitions for words like 'dull' and 'bore'?
He deliberately excluded them as acts of rhetorical protest—words he deemed too vacuous or self-evident to dignify with definition. In marginalia and conversation, he explained that 'dull' had no fixed referent, serving only as a lazy epithet for whatever displeased the speaker. His omission was not oversight but critique: a challenge to readers to examine their own imprecision.
Did Johnson ever revise the Dictionary during his lifetime?
Yes—he oversaw four authorized editions between 1755 and 1773, each incorporating hundreds of corrections, new etymologies, and expanded illustrative quotations. The 1773 edition notably added over 200 entries drawn from Pope’s translations and contemporary periodicals, though he resisted adding slang or ephemeral coinages, insisting lexicography must anchor language, not chase it.
What role did his physical ailments play in his writing process?
Johnson suffered from severe tics, involuntary gestures, and probable Tourette syndrome, alongside near-blindness and chronic bronchial illness. He composed much of the Dictionary dictating to amanuenses while pacing or rocking violently—his bodily restlessness inseparable from his mental rhythm. Boswell observed that his physical suffering deepened his empathy for human limitation, making his moral judgments both stern and strangely forgiving.
How did Johnson reconcile his Tory politics with his fierce advocacy for literary meritocracy?
He upheld hierarchy in state and church yet insisted talent alone should govern literary reputation—praising Shakespeare above Dryden despite political differences, defending Garrick’s genius regardless of class, and mentoring young writers like Goldsmith without regard to patronage. For him, intellectual sovereignty was distinct from civil authority: truth and excellence answered to no crown, only to reason and usage.
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Topics

literatureenglishlexicography18th-centurywit

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