In January, 1749, he published “Vanity of Human Wishes, being the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Imitated”; and on February 6 Garrick brought out his tragedy at Drury Lane.  Dr. Adams was present at the first night of the representation of “Irene,” and gave me the following account.  “Before the curtain drew up, there were catcalls and whistling, which alarmed Johnson’s friends.  The prologue, which was ’written by himself in a manly strain, soothed the audience, and the play went off tolerably till it came to the conclusion, when Mrs. Pritchard, the heroine of the piece, was to be strangled on the stage, and was to speak two lines with the bow-string around her neck.  The audience cried out ‘Murder!  Murder!’ She several times attempted to speak, but in vain.  At last she was obliged to go off the stage alive.”  This passage was afterwards struck out, and she was carried off to be put to death behind the scenes, as the play now has it.

Notwithstanding all the support of such performers as Garrick, Barry, Mrs. Pritchard, and every advantage of dress and decoration, the tragedy of “Irene” did not please the public.  Mr. Garrick’s zeal carried it through for nine nights, so that the author had his three nights’ profit; and from a receipt signed by him it appears that his friend Mr. Robert Dodsley gave him one hundred pounds for the copy, with his usual reservation of the right of one edition.

On occasion of his play being brought upon the stage, Johnson had a fancy that as a dramatic author his dress should be more gay than he ordinarily wore; he therefore appeared behind the scenes, and even in one of the side boxes, in a scarlet waistcoat, with rich gold lace and a gold laced hat.  His necessary attendance while his play was in rehearsal, and during its performance, brought him acquainted with many of the performers of both sexes, which produced a more favourable opinion of their profession than he had harshly expressed in his “Life of Savage.”  With some of them he kept up an acquaintance as long as he and they lived, and was ever ready to show them acts of kindness.  He for a considerable time used to visit the green room, and seemed to take delight in dissipating his gloom by mixing in the sprightly chit-chat of the motley circle then to be found there.  But at last—­as Mr. David Hume related to me from Mr. Garrick—­he denied himself this amusement from considerations of rigid virtue.

V.—­“The Rambler” and New Acquaintance

In 1750 Johnson came forth in the character for which he was eminently qualified, a majestic teacher of moral and religious wisdom.  The vehicle he chose was that of a periodical paper, which he knew had, upon former occasions—­those of the “Tattler,” “Spectator,” and “Guardian”—­been employed with great success.

The first paper of “The Rambler” was published on Tuesday, March 20, 1750, and its author was enabled to continue it without interruption, every Tuesday and Friday, till Saturday, March 17, 1752, on which day it closed.  During all this time he received assistance on four occasions only.