Studies in Modern History General Editor: Jonathan Clark, Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Distinguished Professor of British History, University of Kansas Titles include: James B. Bell A WAR OF RELIGION Dissenters, Anglicans and the American Revolution James B. Bell THE IMPERIAL ORIGINS OF THE KING’S CHURCH IN EARLY AMERICA 1607–1783 Joe Bord SCIENCE AND WHIG MANNERS Science and Political Style in Britain, c.1790–1850 Jonathan Clark and Howard Erskine-Hill (editors) SAMUEL JOHNSON IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT Jonathan Clark and Howard Erskine-Hill (editors) THE INTERPRETATION OF SAMUEL JOHNSON Jonathan Clark and Howard Erskine-Hill (editors) THE POLITICS OF SAMUEL JOHNSON Edward Corp THE JACOBITES AT URBINO An Exiled Court in Transition Eveline Cruickshanks and Howard Erskine-Hill THE ATTERBURY PLOT Diana Donald and Frank O’Gorman (editors) ORDERING THE WORLD IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Richard D. Floyd CHURCH, CHAPEL AND PARTY Religious Dissent and Political Modernization in Nineteenth-Century England Richard R. Follett EVANGELICALISM, PENAL THEORY AND THE POLITICS OF CRIMINAL LAW REFORM IN ENGLAND, 1808–30 Andrew Godley JEWISH IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NEW YORK AND LONDON 1880–1914 William Anthony Hay THE WHIG REVIVAL 1808–1830 Mark Keay WILLIAM WORDSWORTH’S GOLDEN AGE THEORIES DURING THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND, 1750–1850 Kim Lawes PATERNALISM AND POLITICS The Revival of Paternalism in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain Marisa Linton THE POLITICS OF VIRTUE IN ENLIGHTENMENT FRANCE Karin J. MacHardy WAR, RELIGION AND COURT PATRONAGE IN HABSBURG AUSTRIA The Social and Cultural Dimensions of Political Interaction, 1521–1622 James Mackintosh VINDICIÆ GALLICÆ Defence of the French Revolution: A Critical Edition Robert J. Mayhew LANDSCAPE, LITERATURE AND ENGLISH RELIGIOUS CULTURE, 1660–1800 Samuel Johnson and Languages of Natural Description Jeremy C. Mitchell THE ORGANIZATION OF OPINION Open Voting in England, 1832–68 Paul Monod, Murray Pittock and Daniel Szechi (editors) LOYALTY AND IDENTITY Jacobites at Home and Abroad Marjorie Morgan NATIONAL IDENTITIES AND TRAVEL IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN James Muldoon EMPIRE AND ORDER The Concept of Empire, 800–1800 F. D. Parsons THOMAS HARE AND POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN Julia Rudolph WHIG POLITICAL THOUGHT AND THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION James Tyrrell and the Theory of Resistance Lisa Steffen TREASON AND NATIONAL IDENTITY Defining a British State, 1608–1820 Lynne Taylor BETWEEN RESISTANCE AND COLLABORATION Popular Protest in Northern France, 1940–45 Anthony Waterman POLITICAL ECONOMY AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY SINCE THE ENLIGHTEN- MENT Essays in Intellectual History Doron Zimmerman THE JACOBITE MOVEMENT IN SCOTLAND AND IN EXILE, 1746–1759 Studies in Modern History Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–333–79328–2 (Hardback) 978–0–333–80346–2 (Paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of diffi culty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England This page intentionally left blank The Catafalque of James II in the Chapel of St Edmund’s Priory, Paris. Engraving by F. Guérard, c.1702 (Ashmolean Musuem, Oxford) The Politics of Samuel Johnson Edited by Jonathan Clark and Howard Erskine-Hill Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion © Jonathan Clark and Howard Erskine-Hill 2012 All remaining chapters © their respective authors 2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-35599-6 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-34727-8 ISBN 978-1-137-26532-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137265326 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The politics of Samuel Johnson / edited by Jonathan Clark, Howard Erskine-Hill. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-349-34727-8 1. Johnson, Samuel, 1709–1784—Political and social views. 2. Politics and literature—Great Britain—History—18th century. 3. Great Britain— Politics and government—18th century. I. Clark, J. C. D. II. Erskine-Hill, Howard. PR3537.P6P65 2012 828'.609—dc23 2012010261 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 Contents List of Illustrations viii Acknowledgements ix Notes on Contributors x Preface xi List of Abbreviations xii Introduction 1 Howard Erskine-Hill 1 The Nature of Johnson’s Toryism 9 Thomas Kaminski 2 Cultures and Coteries in Mid-Century Toryism: Johnson in Oxford and London 57 Gabriel Glickman 3 Johnson’s Touch-piece and the ‘Charge of Fame’: Personal and Public Aspects of the Medal in Eighteenth-century Britain 90 Neil Guthrie 4 ‘Ask for the Old Paths’: Johnson and the Nonjurors 112 Matthew M. Davis 5 Samuel Johnson: The Last Choices, 1775–1784 168 Jonathan Clark Conclusion 223 Jonathan Clark Index 227 vii List of Illustrations 1 Cover and frontispiece: The Catafalque of James II in the Chapel of St Edmund’s Priory, Paris. Engraving by F. Guérard, c.1702 (Ashmolean Musuem, Oxford) iv 2 The title page of Memoirs of the Marshal Duke of Berwick (2 vols., London, 1779) (Private collection) 191 viii Acknowledgements This volume and its companion are the result of a collaborative enter- prise, prepared for and anticipated over many years in the recent scholarly rethinking of Johnson, but executed within a shorter period of cooperation and exchange between its authors. In no sense do the chapters express a single position, agreed in advance. Rather, they reflect a common desire to question and challenge received interpre- tations, and to test and explore further the interpretations of fellow participants, who have exchanged drafts with each other during the process of composition and revision. The authors whose essays are included here therefore owe a debt of gratitude to each other, as well as to the wider community of historians and literary scholars whose diverse researches, in recent decades, have made this project of research and discovery possible. Matthew Davis’s chapter on the Nonjurors was first published in volume 17 of The Age of Johnson (2006 AMS Press, Inc. All rights reserved), and is reprinted, in revised form, with the courteous agreement of that yearbook; the remaining essays have been specially commissioned for this volume. ix