aether. Beauclerk, with his lively exaggeration, used to describe
Johnson at breakfast, throwing his crusts to Levett after he had eaten
the crumb. The pathetic verses written by Johnson on his death, which
happened suddenly three years before his own, shew with what tenderness
of affection he regarded Levett. Some time after (1778), to this couple,
who did not live in much harmony together, were added Mrs. Desmoulins,
the daughter of Dr. Swinfen his god-father, and widow of a
writing-master; Miss Carmichael, and, as Boswell thought, a daughter
also of Mrs. Desmoulins, all of whom were lodged in his house. To the
widow he allowed half-a-guinea a week, the twelfth part, as Boswell
observes, of his pension. It was sometimes more than he could do, to
reconcile so many jarring interests. "Williams," says he, in a letter to
Mrs. Thrale, "hates every body: Levett hates Desmoulins and does not love
Williams: Desmoulins hates them both. Poll loves none of them." Poll was
Miss Carmichael, of whom I do not find that any thing else is recorded.
Boswell ventured to call this groupe the seraglio of Johnson, and
escaped without a rebuke.

From these domestic feuds he would sometimes withdraw himself to the
house of Mr. Thrale, at Streatham, an opulent brewer, with whom his
acquaintance had begun in 1765. With this open-hearted man he was always
sure of a welcome reception for as long a time as he chose; and the
mistress of the house, though after the death of her first husband and
her subsequent marriage to an Italian she somewhat ungraciously
remembered the petty annoyances which Johnson's untoward habits had
occasioned her, was evidently pleased by his hearty expressions of
regard, and flattered by his conversation on subjects of literature, in
which she was herself well able to take a part.

In this year, his long promised edition of Shakspeare made its