a single week,--a rare feat of readiness and rapid
power, reminding one of Byron writing the "Corsair" in a fortnight,
and of Sir Walter Scott finishing "Guy Mannering" in three weeks.
There are perhaps more invention and more fancy in "Rasselas" than in
any of his works, although a gloom, partly the shadow of his mother's
death, and partly springing from his own temperament, rests too
heavily on its pages. He received one hundred guineas for the
copyright. In 1762, the Earl of Bute, both as a reward for past
services, and as a prepayment of future, bestowed on him a pension of
L300 for life. This raised a clamour against him, which he treated
with silent contempt.

In 1763 occurred what was really a most important event in Johnson's
life,--his acquaintance with Boswell,--who attached himself to him
with a devotion reminding one more of the canine species than of man,
sacrificed to him much of his time, his feelings, his very
individuality, and became qualified to write a biography, in which
fulness, interest, minute detail, and dramatic skill have never been
equalled or approached. In 1764, Johnson founded the celebrated
"Literary Club,"--perhaps the most remarkable cluster of distinguished
men that ever existed; and in 1765 he was created LL.D. by Trinity
College, Dublin. In 1765, too, he published his "Shakspeare;" and he
became intimate with the Thrales,--the husband being a great brewer in
Southwark; the wife, a lady of literary tastes, better known as Madame
Piozzi, the author of "Anecdotes of Dr Johnson;" both distinguished
for their attachment to him. He was often domesticated in their house
for months together. In 1767 he had an interview with George III., in
the library of the Queen's house; which, because Johnson preserved his
self-possession, and talked with his usual precision and power, has
been recounted by Boswell as if it had been a conversation with an
apostle or an angel. In 1770 he did some work for his pension in a
pamphlet entitled the "False Alarm," defending the conduct of the
Ministry in the case of the Middlesex election. In 1771 he wrote
another political pamphlet, entitled "Thoughts on the late
Transactions respecting Falklands' Islands;" and five years later
appeared "Taxation no Tyranny,"--an elaborate defence of the American
war. Johnson was too dogmatic, and too fiercely passionate for a good
political writer; and these productions added nothing to his fame, and
increased the number of