ABSTRACT
Literature mattered a great deal to Boswell. Boswell called on Johnson at his chambers in the Temple. Boswell’s image is indeed a happy one. Boswell is available for his friends in every way, —if in no other, then they can laugh at him—as long as they like him, let them laugh as much as they please. Boswell was ridiculous from the cradle to the grave, and he knew it, for he too had a sense of humour. Johnson used to tell Boswell he was “the most unscottified ” of his countrymen, that his pronunciation was “not offensive,” and so forth, and Boswell had a wild preference for England. With the death of Johnson the history of Boswell ends for most readers, though he lived for eleven more years, and spent seven of them on his great task with the steady aid of Malone.
