The Rambler, a twopenny sheet issued twice weekly in London by the publisher John Payne between 1750 and 1752, each issue containing a single anonymous essay; 208 such periodical essays appeared, all but four written by Samuel Johnson. Johnson’s intention in this project was that of a moralist aware of his duty to make the world better. This sense of responsibility determined the style of his Rambler essays, a majority of which deal with the disappointments inherent in life and with the setbacks to ambition. Many of the titles reflect this: “Happiness not Local”; “The Frequent Contemplation of Death Necessary to Moderate the Passions”; “The Luxury of Vain Imagination.” The Rambler, in short, is of fundamental importance in any estimate of Johnson’s approach to literature itself: though shot through with mournful humour, it was written to instruct and chasten. For the most part Johnson was a detached and generalizing commentator, the essays bearing little relation to current events or current literature, even though they contain much acute literary criticism. They do, however, reflect the social and literary conditions of the time.
Johnson’s immediate incentive in contributing The Rambler essays was to keep the wolf from the door (“No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money”). He was in his 40s, at work on his Dictionary, and had little in the way of regular income. He was paid two guineas for each paper. The Rambler did not sell well as a periodical, however, though it was an immense success after being reissued, with the essays revised, in volume form in 1753. It also inspired other periodicals, notably John Hawkesworth’s The Adventurer (1752–54), Edward Moore’s lively The World (1753–56), George Colman’s and Bonnell Thornton’s The Connoisseur (1754–56), and Henry Mackenzie’s Scottish periodical, The Mirror (1779–80).