1709-1784
[Sidenote: Boswell’s _Life of Dr. Johnson_.]
“Miss Porter told me, that when he was first introduced to her mother,
his appearance was very forbidding; he was then lean and lank, so
that his immense structure of bones was hideously striking to the
eye, and the scars of the scrofula were deeply visible. He also wore
his hair, which was straight and stiff, and separated behind; and he
often had, seemingly, convulsive starts and odd gesticulations, which
tended to excite at once surprise and ridicule. Mrs. Porter was so much
engaged by his conversation that she overlooked all these external
disadvantages, and said to her daughter, ‘This is the most sensible man
that I ever saw in my life.’”--1731.
[Sidenote: Boswell’s _Life of Dr. Johnson_.]
“His chambers were on the first floor of No. 1 Inner Temple Lane....
He received me very courteously; but it must be confessed that his
apartment and furniture and morning dress was sufficiently uncouth.
His brown suit of clothes looked very rusty; he had on a little old
shrivelled unpowdered wig, which was too small for his head; his shirt
neck and knees of his breeches were loose, his black worsted stockings
ill drawn up, and he had a pair of unbuckled shoes by way of slippers.
But all these slovenly peculiarities were forgotten the moment he began
to talk.”--1763.
[Sidenote: Croker’s _Johnsoniana_.]
“The day after I wrote my last letter to you I was introduced to Mr.
Johnson by a friend. We passed through three very dirty rooms to a
little one that looked like an old counting-house, where this great
man was sat at breakfast.... I was very much struck with Mr. Johnson’s
appearance, and could hardly help thinking him a madman for some time,
as he sat waving over his breakfast like a lunatic. He is a very large
man, and was dressed in a dirty brown coat and waistcoat, with breeches
that were brown also (although they had been crimson), and an old black
wig; his shirt collar and sleeves were unbuttoned; his stockings were
down about his feet, which had on them, by way of slippers, an old pair
of shoes.... We had been with him some time before he began to talk,
but at length he began, and, faith, to some purpose; everything he says
is as _correct_ as a _second edition_; ’tis almost impossible to argue
with him, he is so sententious and so knowing.”--1764.