INTRODUCTION. I. CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE WRITING AND PRINTING 66 OF RASSELAS." VARIOUS statements have been made by the biographers of Johnson concerning the writing and printing of Rasselas. Boswell says: Soon after this event [the death of his mother, January 20 or 21, 1759] he wrote his Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia; concerning the publication of which Sir John Hawkins guesses vaguely and idly, instead of having taken the trouble to inform himself with authentic precision. Not to trouble my readers with a repetition of the Knight's reveries, I have to mention that the late Mr. Strahan the printer told me that Johnson wrote it, that with the profits he might defray the expenses of his mother's funeral, and pay some little debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds that he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in portions as it was written, and had never since read it over. Mr. Strahan, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodsley purchased it for a hundred pounds, but paid him twenty-five pounds more when it came to a second edition.1 The "guesses" of Sir John Hawkins, to which Boswell so slightingly alludes, are given in the former's life of Johnson, which appeared in 1787. 'Life of Johnson, edited by Hill, I. pp. 340-41. All references are to Hill's editions, both of the Life and the Letters, unless otherwise specified. ix Hawkins gives the following account of the writing of Rasselas : Report says, but rather vaguely, that to supply her [his mother's] necessities in her last illness, he wrote and made money of his Rasselas, a tale of his invention numbered among the best of his writings, and published in the spring of 1759, a crisis that gives credit to such a supposition. . . The fact respecting the writing and publishing the story of Rasselas is that finding the Eastern tales written by himself in the Rambler, and by Hawkesworth in the Adventurer, had been well received, he had been for some time meditating a fictitious history, of a greater extent than any that had appeared in either of those papers, which might serve as a vehicle to convey to the world his sentiments of human life and the dispensations of Providence; and having digested his thoughts on the subject, he obeyed the spur of that necessity which now pressed him, and sat down to compose the tale above mentioned, laying the scene of it in a country that he had before had occasion to contemplate in his translation of Padre Lobo's Voyage. As it was written to raise money, he did not long delay disposing of it; he gave it, as I have been told, to Mr. Baretti to sell to that bookseller who would give the most for it, but the sum he got for it is variously reported. . . The tale of Rasselas was written to answer a pressing necessity, and was so concluded as to admit of a continuation; and in fact Johnson had meditated a second part, in which he meant to marry his hero and place him in a state of permanent felicity.1 To these accounts may be added that of Baretti, which is reported by Malone as follows: When Johnson had finished his Rasselas, Baretti happened to call on him. He said he had just finished a romance-that he had no money, and pressingly required some to take to his mother who was ill at Lichfield. He therefore requested Baretti to go to 'Life of Samuel Johnson (2d edition, 1787), pp. 367–72. Dodsley the bookseller, and say he wished to see him. When he The came, Johnson asked what he would give for his romance. only question was what number of sheets would it make. On examining it, he said he would give him one hundred pounds. Johnson was perfectly contented but insisted on part of the money being paid immediately, and accordingly received seventy pounds. Any other person with the degree of reputation he then possessed would have got four hundred pounds for that work, but he never understood the art of making the most of his productions.1 Beside these statements, some of which cannot be true, we may place the most important document concerning the story, a letter by Johnson himself. On January 20, 1759, he wrote to Mr. Strahan, the publisher, as follows: SIR When I was with you last which I was preparing for the press. night I told you of a story The title will be: "The Choice of Life" or "The History of . . . Prince of Abyssinia." 3 It will make about two volumes like little Pompadour,2 that is about one middling volume. The bargain which I made with Mr. Johnson was seventy-five pounds (or guineas) a volume, and twenty-five pounds for the second edition. I will sell this either at that price or for sixty, the first edition of which he shall himself fix the number and the property then to revert to me, or for forty pounds and share the profits, that is retain half the copy. I shall have occasion for thirty pounds on Monday night when I 'Prior's Life of Malone, pp. 160-61. The History of the Marchioness de Pompadour, which had just been published in a cheap second edition. 8 Probably Mr. Johnston, whose name, with that of Dodsley, appears on the title page of the first edition. 4' Fifty-five' written first and sixty' put above. shall deliver the book, which I must entreat you upon such delivery to procure me. I would have it offered to Mr. Johnson but have no doubt of selling it on some of the terms mentioned. I will not print my name,' but expect it to be known. I am, dear sir, your most humble servant, Get me the money if you can. SAM. JOHNSON. This letter establishes certain facts beyond question, and corrects some of the reports which the biographers of Johnson have chronicled. First, instead of being written soon after his mother's death, as Boswell says, the book was practically complete on the day, or day before, Mrs. Johnson died. For, as far as can be determined, Mrs. Johnson's death occurred on the 20th or 21st of January. Next Mr. Strahan's statement regarding the purpose for which Johnson wrote Rasselas needs a grain of modification. For it is clear that Johnson had almost completed the book on the 20th, and we know that he did not hear of his mother's death till the 23d. On the other hand, the special reason for writing Rasselas seems to have been Johnson's desire of visiting his mother and comforting her in her last illness. For we know from a letter written on the same day as that to Mr. Strahan, that Johnson intended going down to Lichfield. As Mrs. Johnson's death made this unnecessary, he may have had in mind, when he sold the story, 4 'Johnson, like many others of his time, did not usually print his name on the title page of his books. |