Foreigners by Caryl Phillips Page A

Essex Head Tavern and it attracted an enthusiastic
crowd, but Dr Johnson was racked with asthma, and clearly
struggling to breathe properly, so much so that he was too
ill to return home unaided. However, the true drama of
the occasion was the doctor's behaviour during the gathering.
For some time now his friends had noticed that his
severe humour and dogmatic manner seemed to intensify
as his ailments took a firmer grip. At such moments he
would become increasingly oppressive in conversation which
caused many, including those who held him in the highest
esteem, to grow first to fear, then to abhor, his unpolished
and disagreeable irascibility. The doctor's favourite technique
of argument was usually a flat denial of his opponent's
statement, irrespective of how foolish this made him
appear, followed by a grand assault of verbal brilliance
such as one might expect from a man who had fixed the
English language and succeeded in ridding it of cant. But
sadly, these days those opponents whom he could not
vanquish by force of his admittedly large intellect, he
simply bullied into submission with a vile display of rudeness
which seemed unrelated to any quantities of drink
that he might have consumed. Thereafter, he often failed
to make amends by raising a glass to the offended person's
health or shaking his hand when he left the room, gestures
which he had long been accustomed to offering.
    After the first meeting of the new association, it was
nearly two months before the doctor was well enough to
once again venture out of his house. During this period,
Francis and his wife Betsy and the children moved their
household into Bolt Court. This caused the doctor's
friend, Sir John Hawkins, some consternation, but he
temporarily set aside his prejudices and simply urged the
great man to put his affairs in order and immediately
prepare a will. However, Dr Johnson was fearful that such
a course of action might suggest a willingness to cease
struggling with life, and as such he baulked at taking a
step that, in his rational mind, he knew to be both sensible
and natural. The very thought of his own dissolution
and eventual death was intolerable to him, but the one
issue that he admitted must be swiftly resolved was the
matter of what would happen to Francis, who had served
him faithfully for almost thirty-five years, and about
whose future he agonised. The doctor had little confidence
in Francis' powers of survival, for he understood
his servant's weaknesses and he had laboured hard to both
accommodate these faults and at the same time protect
the man. One afternoon the doctor asked his friend and
physician, Dr Brocklesby, what might be a proper annuity
to bequeath a highly regarded servant, and he was told
that fifty pounds a year might be considered a generous
amount. Dr Johnson listened carefully, and then decided
upon seventy pounds a year for Francis, whom he determined
would be his principal legatee. He instructed Sir
John Hawkins to draw up the draft of the will and to
include the generous legacy to Francis, however, Sir John
Hawkins left blanks where, in good time, he imagined
Dr Johnson would insert the names of other legatees,
but the doctor appeared to have no desire to do such a
thing. Instead he named two more executors, Sir Joshua
Reynolds and Dr William Scott, and charged them and
Sir John Hawkins with the task of disbursing sums to a
few others after his death, and then he reiterated his
desire to give 'the rest of the aforesaid sums of money
and property, together with my books, plate, and household
furniture . . . to the use of Francis Barber, my
manservant, a negro . . .'
    Sadly, Dr Johnson's recurrent battles with asthma
continued to prevent him from attending the Essex Street
Club as regularly as he wished. In fact, as he became increasingly
aware of the reality of his situation, Dr Johnson
decided to travel to Lichfield and revisit his youth, but
while there his ailments caused him to sleep long and often,
and his