SAMUEL JOHNSON ON TAVERNS.

SAMUEL JOHNSON ON TAVERNS. Samuel Johnson’s insight that “a tavern-chair [is] the throne of human felicity” is familiar. Adam Gopnik in an article in the New Yorker for December 8, 2008 had a different quote from Johnson which explained some of his reasoning. I was surprised to see that he related some of the advantages of the tavern over an entertainment in a private house to the tensions that people experience in society: “The master of the [private] house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests are anxious to be agreeable to him….Whereas, at a tavern, there is a general freedom from anxiety. You are sure that you are welcome: and the more noise you make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you call for, the welcomer your are.”