33.]--In 1742 he wrote . . . 'Proposals for Printing
Bibliotheca Harleiana, or a Catalogue of the Library of the Earl of
Oxford.' He was employed in this business by Mr. Thomas Osborne the
bookseller, who purchased the library for 13,000l., a sum which Mr.
Oldys says, in one of his manuscripts, was not more than the binding of
the books had cost; yet, as Dr. Johnson assured me, the slowness of
the sale was such, that there was not much gained by it. It has been
confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day
knocked Osborne down in his shop, with a folio, and put his foot upon
his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. 'Sir, he was
impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in
my own chamber.'
1744: AETAT. 35.]--He produced one work this year, fully sufficient to
maintain the high reputation which he had acquired. This was The Life
of Richard Savage; a man, of whom it is difficult to speak impartially,
without wondering that he was for some time the intimate companion of
Johnson; for his character was marked by profligacy, insolence, and
ingratitude: yet, as he undoubtedly had a warm and vigorous, though
unregulated mind, had seen life in all its varieties, and been much in
the company of the statesmen and wits of his time, he could communicate
to Johnson an abundant supply of such materials as his philosophical
curiosity most eagerly desired; and as Savage's misfortunes and
misconduct had reduced him to the lowest state of wretchedness as
a writer for bread, his visits to St.
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