ter history of Grub street
than any man living. His house was filled with a succession of visitors
till four or five in the evening. During the whole time he presided at
his tea-table. Tea was his favourite beverage; and, when the late Jonas
Hanway pronounced his anathema against the use of tea, Johnson rose in
defence of his habitual practice, declaring himself "in that article, a
hardened sinner, who had for years diluted his meals with the infusion
of that fascinating plant; whose tea-kettle had no time to cool; who,
with tea, solaced the midnight hour, and with tea welcomed the morning."

The proposal for a new edition of Shakespeare, which had formerly
miscarried, was resumed in the year 1756. The booksellers readily agreed
to his terms: and subscription-tickets were issued out. For undertaking
this work, money, he confessed, was the inciting motive. His friends
exerted themselves to promote his interest; and, in the mean time, he
engaged in a new periodical production, called The Idler. The first
number appeared on Saturday, April 15, 1758 and the last, April 5, 1760.
The profits of this work, and the subscriptions for the new edition of
Shakespeare, were the means by which he supported himself for four or
five years. In 1759, was published Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. His
translation of Lobo's Voyage to Abissinia, seems to have pointed out
that country for the scene of action; and Rassela Christos, the general
of sultan Sequed, mentioned in that work, most probably suggested the
name of the prince. The author wanted to set out on a journey to
Lichfield, in order to pay the last offices of filial piety to his
mother, who, at the age of ninety, was then near her dissolution; but
money was necessary. Mr. Johnston, a bookseller, who has, long since,
left off business, gave one hundred pounds for the copy. With this
supply Johnson set out for Lichfield; but did not arrive in time to
close the eyes of a parent whom he loved. He attended the funeral,
which, as appears among his memorandums, was on the 23rd of January,
1759.

Johnson now found it necessary to retrench his expenses. He gave up his
house in Gough square. Mrs. Williams went into lodgings. He retired to
Gray's inn, and soon removed to chambers in the Inner Temple lane, where
he lived in poverty, total idleness, and the pride of literature: "Magni
stat nominis umbra." Mr. Fitzherbert, the father of lord St. Helens, the
present minister at Madrid, a man dis