The Club

The Club est une assemblée littéraire et artistique fondée à Londres en février 1764 par l'écrivain Samuel Johnson et le peintre Joshua Reynolds, sur le modèle de l'Académie française.

Description

À l'origine, le Club se réunissait une fois par semaine à 19 heures pour dîner à l'auberge de la Tête de Turc, la Turk's Head Inn, dans Gerrard Street, à Soho. Plus tard, les réunions n'eurent lieu qu'une fois tous les quinze jours en raison des sessions du Parlement et se tinrent dans des salons de St James's Street. La devise du Club était Esto perpetua.

Membres

Le Club comptait neuf membres à l'origine : Hereafter membership was by unanimous election only. Existing members would submit a black ball if a nominee was disfavored. Shortly following the establishment of the original nine, Samuel Dyer became the first elected member. Hawkins left in 1768, suffering ostracism for his verbal abuse of Burke. Membership was then increased to 12; the new seats were filled by barrister Robert Chambers, and writers Thomas Percy and George Colman. A membership of 12 was deemed optimal to retain a qualitative exclusivity. Of Johnson's goal, Percy claimed:

It was intended the Club should consist of Such men, as that if only Two of them chanced to meet, they should be able to entertain each other without wanting the addition of more Company to pass the Evening agreeably.

Later member Charles Burney wrote that Johnson wanted a group "composed of the heads of every liberal and literary profession" and "have somebody to refer to in our doubts and discussions, by whose Science we might be enlightened."

The Club grew to 16 members in 1773, then to 21 in late 1775. Newly elected were: David Garrick, Adam Smith (economist, philosopher), Sir William Jones (philologist), George Steevens, (Shakespearean commentator), James Boswell (diarist, author), Charles James Fox (M.P.), George Fordyce (physician/chemist), James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont, Agmondesham Vesey, Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, Edward Gibbon (author), and Thomas Barnard.Sambrook, ODNB.

By 1791, the membership recorded by James Boswell included:

Le XIX siècle

The historian Henry Reeve recorded details of Club membership in his diaries.

Members in the 1800s included:

By 1881, the members of the club included John Tyndall, Sir Frederic Leighton, and Lord Houghton, with Henry Reeve serving as treasurer. Other prominent 19th century members included Lord Macauly, Thomas Huxley, Lord Acton, Lord Dufferin, W. H. E. Lecky, and Prime Minister Lord Salisbury.

Notes

Bibliographie

• James Boswell, Vie de Samuel Johnson, L'Âge d'homme
• Hester Thrale, Souvenirs et anecdotes sur Samuel Johnson, Anatolia/Le Rocher

• The life and selections from the correspondence of William Whewell, Janet Mary Douglas, 1881
• [ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04/nntvl10.txt Inns and Taverns of Old London], Henry C. Shelley
• Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, John Knox Laughton
• "The Clubs of London", National Review, Article III, April 1857
• James Sambrook, "Club (act. 1764-1784)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, Oxford Univ. Press, Jan. 2007 >. cited as 'Sambrook, ODNB'.

External links

• Old and New London: Volume 3 at British History Online

Catégorie:Assemblée littéraire Catégorie:Collectif d'artistes

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