Whitaker, Revd John (1735–1808), historian; author of The History of Manchester (2 vols., 1771–5); challenged Macpherson on the Ossian controversy; rector of Ruan Lanyhorn, Cornwall (1777); implicated in a later historical controversy by publishing Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated (1787); wrote variously in reaction to the French Revolution: 316 n. a, 704
White, Dr William (1748–1836), Protestant Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania: 371
White, Mrs, S.J.’s servant: 989 n. a
White, Revd Henry (1761–1836): 971
Whitefield, Revd George (1714–70), Calvinistic Methodist leader; clashed with Wesley on the question of predestination, sceptical of his fellow Methodist’s ‘free grace’; preached from New England to Georgia (1739–41) and provided the prompt for the Great Awakening; chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon; condemned public amusements of all kinds; idolized and criticized in equal measure: 46, 302, 616, 744
Whitefoord, Caleb (1734–1810), wine merchant and diplomatist; author of a New Method of Reading Newspapers (1766) that amused and engaged Horace Walpole, S.J. and Goldsmith; friend of Reynolds and involved with the Royal Academy; friend of Franklin and acted as an intermediary between him and the British government in France (1782): 941
Whitehead, Paul (1710–74), satirist; author of The State Dunces (1733), a work both indebted and influential to Pope’s Dunciad, and the pugilist mock epic The Gymnasiad (1744); put into custody for his anti-Walpole satire Manners (1739); member of the Hell Fire Club; close friend of Hogarth; held in low esteem by S.J.: 73–4
Whitehead, William (1715–85), poet and playwright; employed by Pope to translate the first epistle of the Essay on Man into Latin verse; fellow of Clare College, Cambridge; author of the commercially successful tragedy The Roman Father (Drury Lane, 1750); Poet Laureate (1757), publishing Birthday Odes to the King; esteemed by Horace Walpole, Mason and Gray; minor writer, but less of a cipher than other Poets Laureate of the era: 22, 105, 213, 826
Whiting, Ann (nee Johnson) (b. 1736), S.J.’s cousin and wife of William Whiting: 989 n. a
Wilcox, J. (?John, fl. 1721–62), bookseller in London: 60 n. b
Wilkes, Dr Richard (1691–1760), physician and antiquary: 86
Wilkes, Friar (fl. 1775–7), of the English Benedictine Convent in Paris: 476
Wilkes, John (1727–97), politician; member of the Royal Society (1749), the Beef Steak Club (1754) and the Hell Fire Club; founder of the North Briton (1762), a political weekly designed to attack Bute’s ministry; published the scandalous North Briton, no. 45, denouncing George III’s judgement; Alderman, for the ward of Farringdon Without (1769); subject of the Middlesex election saga (1768-9); came to blows with the government in the Printer’s case, the controversy over the printing of parliamentary debates (1771); highly popular Mayor of London (1774-6); lost public support after perceived endorsement of American independence, becoming instead a parliamentary radical; constant thorn in the side of Westminster, spokesman for ‘Liberty’, womanizer, blasphemer and scandal-merchant: 78, 163, 186 and n. e, 187, 210, 266, 299, 318, 552, 553–61, 622, 632, 645, 697, 731, 755–6, 779, 790–92, 819–22, 882, 955 n. a
Wilkins, J., landlord of the Three Crowns, Lichfield: 511, 745
Wilks, Robert (1665?-1732), actor and theatre manager; strongly associated with the part of Sir Harry Wildair in Farquhar’s The Constant Couple; quarrelled with Christopher Rich over payment and Drury Lane and moved to the Queen’s Theatre at Haymarket (1706-8) before becoming a co-manager of that theatre in 1709; tender and graceful tragedian but better remembered as a sprightly comic actor: 791–2
Willes, Sir John (1685–1761), judge and politician; loyal supporter of Walpole; Chief Justice of Chester (1729); Attorney General (1733); Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (1737); Chief Commissioner of the Great Seal (1756); able judge but career faltered when he refused to pander for preferment: 820, 1062 n. 1035
William III (1650–1702), king of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Prince of Orange; son of the eldest daughter of Charles I, Mary (1631–1660), and hence nephew of Charles II and James II; invaded Britain and seized the Stuart crown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688–9, citing legal rather than religious motivations: 397, 431, 445, 952
Williams, Anna (1706–83), poet and companion of S.J.; daughter of Zachariah Williams; lived with S.J. in various residences from 1748, except for the period 1759–65; published a polished if uninspired Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (1766); eyesight impaired by cataracts; greatly cared for by S.J.: 15, 85, 126 n. a, 133, 138, 176–7, 276, 286, 301, 310, 337, 340, 347, 372–4, 380, 383, 389, 404, 415, 429, 441, 452, 454, 467, 482, 497, 522, 532, 541, 546, 554, 561, 569–70, 575, 587, 591, 593, 594, 637, 639, 642, 644–5, 668, 692, 708, 720, 728, 759, 814–16, 842, 859, 879, 891, 895, 904, 913
Williams, Helen Maria (1762–1827), writer; committed abolitionist; keen observer of the French Revolution, publishing her Letters from France (1790-96) and later admirer of Napoleon in Sketches of the French Republic (1801); sometime translator: 919
Williams, Sir Charles Hanbury (1708–59), writer and diplomatist; Paymaster of Marines (1737); custos rotulorum of Herefordshire (1741); Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire (1741-4); satirist of the Whig opposition then the Tories, in the mode of Pope, if more prolix and less artful; diplomat to the Prussia, The Hague, Poland and Russia (1747–57): 281
Williams, Zachariah (1673?-1755), experimental philosopher; father of Anna Williams; developed a method for ascertaining longitude using a theoretically derived table of the earth’s magnetic variation, but his ideas were rejected with no financial gain; bedridden from 1748; financially and intellectually assisted by S.J.: 13, 149 n. a, 163, 164 n. b
Wilson, Father (fl. 1775), of the English Benedictine Convent, Paris: 470
Wilson, Florence, see Volusene, Florence
Wilson, Revd Thomas (1747–1813), schoolmaster: 854–5
Wilson, Thomas (c. 1727–99), fellow of Trinity College, professor of natural philosophy, Dublin: 257
Windham, William (1750–1810), politician; friend of Burke, Fox and Johnson; pallbearer at S.J.’s funeral; Chief Secretary to the Irish viceroy, Lord Northington (1783); Secretary at War (1794–1801); resigned as an MP in 1807 over the Catholic question: 252, 426, 585, 715, 866, 873, 874, 887 and n. b, 903, 916, 953, 960–61, 965, 989 n. a, 992, 995, 997, 999 and n. a
Wirgman, Peter, the younger (1718–1801), London jeweller: 698
Wirtemberg, Prince of: 356
Wise, Revd Francis (1695–1767), librarian and antiquary; under-keeper of the Bodleian Library (1719); keeper of the university archives (1726); fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1749); numismatist and catalogued the coins in the Bodleian Library (1750); undertook some relatively important work in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Latin fields; visited by S.J. and J.B. (1754): 147–52, 154, 158, 159, 173
Woffington, Peg (1714?–60), actress; developed a considerable repertory in Dublin before migrating to perform at Covent Garden in 1740; played Lady Anne to Garrick’s Richard III at Drury Lane in 1742, establishing a famous partnership; visited by S.J. and Fielding; stayed at Drury Lane through the actors’ protest over Fleetwood’s management; a comic virtuoso, continually seeking to extend her repertory and improve her art: 666
Wolsey, or Wolson, Florence, see Volusene, Florence
Wood, Anthony (1632–95), antiquary; author of the Historia et antiquitates Univ. Oxon. (2 vols., 1674) and, consequently, regarded as the then definitive historian of the University of Oxford; close friend of Ashmole and Aubrey; followed up with a biographical register of the university’s celebrated authors, Athenae Oxonienses (1691); dry, brusque and factual style with little pretence to literary merit; work has proved indispensable to modern publications such as the Dictionary of National Biography: 39, 854
Woodhouse, James (1735–1820), ‘the poetical shoemaker’: 327
Wotherspoon, John (d. 1776), see Index of Subjects: Apollo Press
Woty, William (1731?–91), poet and literary editor
; first collected works, The Shrubs of Parnassus (1760), subscribed to by S.J., J.B. and Smollett; largely a satirist; apparently had a strong interest in the London theatre: 203
Xenophon (fl. 5th century bc), soldier, adventurer, historian and author: 59, 570, 722
Xerxes, king of Persia after Darius; led a series of massive military expeditions against Greece, which ultimately ended in failure after decisive Greek victories at Salamis and Plataea, and concerning which we derive ‘our knowledge’ overwhelmingly from Herodotus: 631
Yalden, Dr Thomas (1670–1736), poet and Church of England clergyman; Tory and High Churchman; chaplain of Bridewell Hospital, London (1713); included in S.J.’s Lives of the Poets although a fairly unremarkable poet, contributing a few pieces to Tonson’s Miscellanies but little else: 724
Yonge, Sir William (d. 1755), politician; firm Whig; a commissioner of Irish revenue (1723-4); a lord of the Treasury (1724-7, 1730–35); a lord of the Admiralty (1728); Secretary at War (1735–46); fellow of the Royal Society (1748); one of the most effective speakers on the ministerial side in the Commons and close lieutenant of Walpole: in, 346
Young, Arthur (1741–1820), agricultural reformer and writer; founder of the magazine the Universal Museum (1761), discontinued on S.J.’s advice; author of A Tour in Ireland (1780), numerous other agricultural works, upon which reputation he established the Annals of Agriculture (1784–1815); Travels in France (1793), observing much of the activity around the Revolution, became of greater historical value; helped to establish the government board of agriculture (1793), becoming its secretary; the best-known agricultural reformer and publicist of his time: 610
Young, Dr Edward (1683–1765), writer; patronized by Steele and Addison; author of the seven satires entitled The Universal Passion (1725-8) and what was arguably the century’s greatest long poem –Night-Thoughts (1742-6), read closely by Wordsworth and Coleridge; made an important contribution to literary self-consciousness; friend of Pope, S.J. and Richardson: 120, 611 n. b, 659, 689, 795, 796 and n. a, 829–30, 928
Young, Frederick (b. c. 1732), son of the above: 829–30 and n. a
Young, Prof. John (c. 1746–1820), professor of Greek, Glasgow: 984
Zeck, George and Luke: 264
Zelide, see Zuylen, Isabella de
Zon, Mr (fl. 1754), Venetian resident in London: 149
Zuylen, Isabella de (1740–1805), ‘Zelide’, Mme de Charriere: 292, 511
a See Mr. Malone’s Preface to his edition of Shakspeare.
a I do not here include his Poetical Works; for, excepting his Latin Translation of Pope’s Messiah, his London, and his Vanity of Human Wishes imitated from Juvenal; his Prologue on the opening of Drury-Lane Theatre by Mr. Garrick, and his Irene, a Tragedy, they are very numerous, and in general short; and I have promised a complete edition of them, in which I shall with the utmost care ascertain their authenticity, and illustrate them with notes and various readings.
a See Dr. Johnson’s letter to Mrs. Thrale, dated Ostick in Skie, September 30, 1773: – ‘Boswell writes a regular Journal of our travels, which I think contains as much of what I say and do, as of all other occurrences together; “for such a faithful chronicler is Griffith.””’
a Idler, No. 84.
b The greatest partofthis book was written while Sir John Hawkins was alive; andIavow, that one object of my strictures was to make him feel some compunction for his illiberal treatment of Dr. Johnson. Since his decease, I have suppressed several of my remarks upon his work. But though I would not ‘war with the dead’ offensively, I think it neces-sarytobe strenuous in defence of myillustrious friend, which I cannot bewithout strong animadversions upon a writer who has greatly injured him. Let me add, that though I doubt I should not have been very prompt to gratify Sir John Hawkins with any compliment in his life-time, I do now frankly acknowledge, that, in my opinion, his volume, however inadequate and improper as a life of Dr. Johnson, and however discredited by unpardonable inaccuracies in other respects, contains a collection of curious anecdotes and observations, which few men but its author could have brought together.
a Brit. Mus. 4320, Ayscough’s Catal., Sloane MSS.
a Rambler, No. 60.
a Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, Langhorne’s Translation.
a Rambler, No. 60.
a Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, Book 1.
a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 213 {16 Sept.}.
b Extract of a letter, dated ‘Trentham, St. Peter’s day, 1716,’ written by the Rev. George Plaxton, Chaplain at that time to Lord Gower, which may serve to show the high estimation in which the Father of our great Moralist was held: ‘Johnson, the Litchfield Librarian, is now here; he propagates learning all over this diocese, and advanceth knowledge to its just height; all the Clergy here are his Pupils, and suck all they have from him; Allen cannot make a warrant without his precedent, nor our quondam John Evans draw a recognizance sine directione Michaelis.’ Gentleman’s Magazine, October, 1791.
a Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, by Hester Lynch Piozzi, p. 11. Life of Dr. Johnson, by Sir John Hawkins, p. 6.
b This anecdote of the duck, though disproved by internal and external evidence, has nevertheless, upon supposition of its truth, been made the foundation of the following ingenious and fanciful reflections of Miss Seward, amongst the communications concerning Dr. Johnson with which she has been pleased to favour me: ‘These infant numbers contain the seeds of those propensities which through his life so strongly marked his character, of that poetick talent which afterwards bore such rich and plentiful fruits; for, excepting his orthographick works, every thing which Dr. Johnson wrote was Poetry, whose essence consists not in numbers, or in jingle, but in the strength and glow of a fancy, to which all the stores of nature and of art stand in prompt administration; and in an eloquence which conveys their blended illustrations in a language “more tuneable than needs or rhyme or verse to add more harmony.” ‘The above little verses also shew that superstitious bias which “grew with his growth, and strengthened with his strength,” and, of late years particularly, injured his happiness, by presenting to him the gloomy side of religion, rather than that bright and cheering one which gilds the period of closing life with the light of pious hope.’
This is so beautifully imagined, that I would not suppress it. But like many other theories, it is deduced from a supposed fact, which is, indeed, a fiction.
a Prayers and Meditations, p. 27.
b [Speaking himself of the imperfection of one of his eyes, he said to Dr. Burney, ‘the dog was never good for much.’]
c Anecdotes, p. 10.
a [Johnson’s observation to Dr. Rose, on this subject, deserves to be recorded. Rose was praising the mild treatment of children at school, at a time when flogging began to be less practised than formerly: ‘But then, (said Johnson,) they get nothing else: and what they gain at one end, they lose at the other.’ B.]
a He is said to be original of the parson in Hogarth’s Modern Midnight Conversation.
a As was likewise the Bishop of Dromore many years afterwards.
a Mr. Hector informs me, that this was made almost impromptu, in his presence.
a This he inserted, with many alterations, in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1743 {p. 378}.
b Some young ladies at Lichfield having proposed to act The Distressed Mother,25 Johnson wrote this, and gave it to Mr. Hector to convey it privately to them.
a Athen. Oxon. edit. 1721, i. 627.
b Oxford, 20th March, 1776.
c It ought to be remembered that Dr. Johnson was apt, in his literary as well as moral exercises, to overcharge his defects. Dr. Adams informed me, that he attended his tutor’s lectures, and also the lectures in the College Hall, very regularly.
a Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of Dr. Johnson, by John Courtenay, Esq., M.P.
a Mrs. Piozzi has given a strange fantastical account of the original of Dr. Johnson’s belief in our most holy religion. ‘At
the age of ten years his mind was disturbed by scruples of infidelity, which preyed upon his spirits, and made him very uneasy, the more so, as he revealed his uneasiness to none, being naturally (as he said) of a sullen temper, and reserved disposition. He searched, however, diligently, but fruitlessly, for evidences of the truth of revelation; and, at length, recollecting a book he had once seen [I suppose at five years old] in his father’s shop, intitled De veritate Religionis,32 etc., he began to think himself highly culpable for neglecting such a means of information, and took himself severely to task for this sin, adding many acts of voluntary, and, to others, unknown penance. The first opportunity which offered, of course, he seized the book with avidity; but, on examination, not finding himself scholar enough to peruse its contents, set his heart at rest; and not thinking to enquire whether there were any English books written on the subject, followed his usual amusements and considered his conscience as lightened of a crime. He redoubled his diligence to learn the language that contained the information he most wished for; but from the pain which guilt [namely having omitted to read what he did not understand] had given him, he now began to deduce the soul’s immortality [a sensation of pain in this world being an unquestionable proof of existence in another], which was the point that belief first stopped at; and from that moment resolving to be a Christian, became one of the most zealous and pious ones our nation ever produced.’ Anecdotes, p. 17.
a [He told Dr. Burney that he never wrote any of his works that were printed, twice over. Dr. Burney’s wonder at seeing several pages of his Lives of the Poets, in Manuscript, with scarce a blot or erasure, drew this observation from him.]
a I had this anecdote from Dr. Adams, and Dr. Johnson confirmed it. Bramston, in his Man of Taste, has the same thought:
‘Sure, of all blockheads, scholars are the worst.’
a See Nash’s History of Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 529.
a Mr. Warton informs me, ‘that this early friend of Johnson was entered a Commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, aged seventeen, in 1698; and is the authour of many Latin verse translations in the Gent. Mag. (vol. xv. 102). One of them is a translation of
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