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Life and Conversations of Dr. Samuel Johnson: (Founded Chiefly Upon Boswell).
Life and Conversations of Dr Samuel Johnson - Founded Chiefly Upon Boswell Author:James Boswell, Alexander Main Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MARRIED. 17 CHAPTER III. MARRIED—OFF TO LONDON—EARLY STRUGGLES. (1734—1/40.) The ninth of July, 1734, was a memorable day in the history of the young... more » scholar ; for on that day he was married. The woman of his choice was Mrs. Elizabeth Porter, a widow, with whom he had become acquainted about three years before the above date. Her age was nearly double that of her husband, and, if Garrick is to be believed, her personal attractions must have been somewhat limited. The wag used to describe the lady as " very fat, with a bosom of more than ordinary protuberance, with swelled cheeks, of a florid red, produced by thick painting, and increased by the liberal use of cordials; flaring and fantastic in her dress, and affected both in her speech and her general behaviour." This portrait must doubtless be taken as more than slightly caricatured ; but, in any case, the bridegroom himself seems to have thought his spouse handsome, if we may judge from a little circumstance which will be set down in its proper place. Besides, we must not forget that Johnson knew nothing, and thought nothing, of that Ideal Beauty which puts us nineteenth-century lovers in such ecstasies ; he was all his life long the sternest of Realists, and no doubt found in his wife what he had chiefly desired : " A creature not too bright or good For human natures daily food." What the poor student required was a wife who should acquit herself well on the working-days, and not one, as Beatrice says, "too costly to wear every day." Moreover, Johnson's own ap 'i8 MARRIED. pearance was far from prepossessing about this period of his life. Here is the portrait of the lover when paying his first visit to his future bride : lean, lank, and hideously bony; the scrofulous scars deeply visible in his face ; h...« less