Essay - Letter to Chesterfield Johnson's Letter to Lord Chesterfield—a Scholar Writes...

Letter to Chesterfield

Johnson's Letter ***** Lord Chesterfield—A scholar writes to an absent patron *****d lord

During the 18th century, before the introduction of formal copyright laws and cheap mass production ***** books, it was extremely difficult for a wr*****er to make a living without a *****. S*****muel Johnson, one of the great writers of the era, was not a high-born individu*****l. However, for much of his career, Johnson did support his literary efforts through the publication of ***** own works ***** charging his readers for regular subscriptions to ***** periodicals such as The Rambler. Yet even Johnson sought patronage for one his more extended literary works, his massive seven-year project of creating a comprehensive diction*****ry ***** the English language. His own attitude towards ***** and ***** uncomfortable tension between patron ***** author can be seen a comparison of the definition of patron in the f*****al version ***** ***** Dictionary of the English Language, where Samuel ***** first defines the word as "One who countenances, supports or protects [Shakespeare]," in contrast to how he uses ***** term in his Letter ***** Lord C*****sterfield. Johnson hoped Chesterfield would become a patron of the Dictionary, but Chesterfield ***** more generous with praise than with funds.

Johnson's Dictionary def*****ition is almost curiously silent on the subject of money, as the secondary definitions merely add that the poet Spencer defines a patron as "a gu*****rdian saint," that a ***** can be an "advocate, defender, vindicator [Hooker] "or "one ***** has donation or ecclesiastical preferment [Wesley]" (528). Supp*****t, even *****ly support, is the ideal of ***** patron. But Johnson casts himself in a different light in his *****, ********** he notes how during the writing of the Dictionary he: "waited in your [Chesterfield's] outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; dur*****g which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, ********** have brought it, at last, to ***** verge of public*****ion, *****out ***** act of ass*****tance

1), one word ***** encouragement, or one smile of favour. Such treatment ***** did not expect, for I never had a ***** be*****e." Johnson stresses to Chamberlain that he ***** needed a patron before, and only sought a ***** because ***** t***** great difficulties entailed by the project of creating a dictionary, which diverted his attention from more lucrative forms of *****. Johnson's anger reveals ***** frustrations inherent to any relationship based on patr*****age and ***** wording suggests as if being treated unjustly is inevitable for a writer. Fin*****ncially, the only *****sistance Chesterfield gave ***** him after his original promise ***** that of ten pounds (according to Johnson biographer Samuel Boswell's footnote ***** the letter, this amount was not even sufficient for Johnson to mention: "so inconsiderable a sum, he thought the ***** ***** it could not properly find a place in a ***** of the kind.")

Lord ***** w*****s, in short, no patron saint, ***** "angel" to use ***** own dictionary defin*****ion of a patron (and a term