Mr.Langton afterwards went to pursue his studies at Trinity College,Oxford,where he formed an acquaintance with his fellow student,Mr.Topham Beauclerk;who,though their opinions and modes of life were so different,that it seemed utterly improbable that they should at all agree,had so ardent a love of literature,so acute an understanding,such elegance of manners,and so well discerned the excellent qualities of Mr.Langton,a gentleman eminent not only for worth and learning,but for an inexhaustible fund of entertaining conversation,that they became intimate friends.
Johnson,soon after this acquaintance began,passed a considerable time at Oxford.He at first thought it strange that Langton should associate so much with one who had the character of being loose,both in his principles and practice;but,by degrees,he himself was fascinated.Mr.Beauclerk's being of the St.Alban's family,and having,in some particulars,a resemblance to Charles the Second,contributed,in Johnson's imagination,to throw a lustre upon his other qualities;and,in a short time,the moral,pious Johnson,and the gay,dissipated Beauclerk,were companions.'What a coalition!(said Garrick,when he heard of this;)I shall have my old friend to bail out of the Round-house.'But I can bear testimony that it was a very agreeable association.Beauclerk was too polite,and valued learning and wit too much,to offend Johnson by sallies of infidelity or licentiousness;and Johnson delighted in the good qualities of Beauclerk,and hoped to correct the evil.
Innumerable were the scenes in which Johnson was amused by these young men.Beauclerk could take more liberty with him,than any body with whom I ever saw him;but,on the other hand,Beauclerk was not spared by his respectable companion,when reproof was proper.Beauclerk had such a propensity to satire,that at one time Johnson said to him,'You never open your mouth but with intention to give pain;and you have often given me pain,not from the power of what you said,but from seeing your intention.'At another time applying to him,with a slight alteration,a line of Pope,he said,'Thy love of folly,and thy scorn of fools--Every thing thou dost shews the one,and every thing thou say'st the other.'At another time he said to him,'Thy body is all vice,and thy mind all virtue.'Beauclerk not seeming to relish the compliment,Johnson said,'Nay,Sir,Alexander the Great,marching in triumph into Babylon,could not have desired to have had more said to him.'
Johnson was some time with Beauclerk at his house at Windsor,where he was entertained with experiments in natural philosophy.One Sunday,when the weather was very fine,Beauclerk enticed him,insensibly,to saunter about all the morning.They went into a church-yard,in the time of divine service,and Johnson laid himself down at his ease upon one of the tomb-stones.'Now,Sir,(said Beauclerk)you are like Hogarth's Idle Apprentice.'When Johnson got his pension,Beauclerk said to him,in the humorous phrase of Falstaff,'I hope you'll now purge and live cleanly like a gentleman.'
One night when Beauclerk and Langton had supped at a tavern in London,and sat till about three in the morning,it came into their heads to go and knock up Johnson,and see if they could prevail on him to join them in a ramble.They rapped violently at the door of his chambers in the Temple,till at last he appeared in his shirt,with his little black wig on the top of his head,instead of a nightcap,and a poker in his hand,imagining,probably,that some ruffians were coming to attack him.When he discovered who they were,and was told their errand,he smiled,and with great good humour agreed to their proposal:'What,is it you,you dogs!I'll have a frisk with you.'He was soon drest,and they sallied forth together into Covent-Garden,where the greengrocers and fruiterers were beginning to arrange their hampers,just come in from the country.Johnson made some attempts to help them;but the honest gardeners stared so at his figure and manner,and odd interference,that he soon saw his services were not relished.They then repaired to one of the neighbouring taverns,and made a bowl of that liquor called Bishop,which Johnson had always liked;while in joyous contempt of sleep,from which he had been roused,he repeated the festive lines,'Short,O short then be thy reign,And give us to the world again!'
They did not stay long,but walked down to the Thames,took a boat,and rowed to Billingsgate.Beauclerk and Johnson were so well pleased with their amusement,that they resolved to persevere in dissipation for the rest of the day:but Langton deserted them,being engaged to breakfast with some young Ladies.Johnson scolded him for 'leaving his social friends,to go and sit with a set of wretched UN-IDEA'D girls.'Garrick being told of this ramble,said to him smartly,'I heard of your frolick t'other night.You'll be in the Chronicle.'Upon which Johnson afterwards observed,'HEdurst not do such a thing.His WIFE would not LET him!'
1753:AETAT.44.]--He entered upon this year 1753with his usual piety,as appears from the following prayer,which I transcribed from that part of his diary which he burnt a few days before his death:
'Jan.1,1753,N.S.which I shall use for the future.
'Almighty God,who hast continued my life to this day,grant that,by the assistance of thy Holy Spirit,I may improve the time which thou shalt grant me,to my eternal salvation.Make me to remember,to thy glory,thy judgements and thy mercies.Make me so to consider the loss of my wife,whom thou hast taken from me,that it may dispose me,by thy grace,to lead the residue of my life in thy fear.Grant this,O LORD,for JESUS CHRIST'S sake.Amen.'
He now relieved the drudgery of his Dictionary,and the melancholy of his grief,by taking an active part in the composition of The Adventurer,in which he began to write April 10.