Editing James Boswell (section)

==Mature life==
[[File:George Willison - James Boswell, 1740 - 1795. Diarist and biographer of Dr Samuel Johnson - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|250px| James Boswell by [[George Willison (artist)|George Willison]] in [[Rome]] in 1765. [[Scottish National Gallery]], Edinburgh]]
Boswell returned to London in February 1766 accompanied by Rousseau's mistress [[Thérèse Levasseur]], with whom he had a brief affair on the journey home.<ref>''Correspondence of James Boswell and William Johnson Temple, Edinburgh 1997, page 140 footnote 4 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Fu7lQ2wF8DYC&pg=PA140]''</ref> After spending a few weeks in the capital, he returned to Scotland, buying (or perhaps renting) the former house of [[David Hume]] on James Court on the [[Lawnmarket]].<ref>Grant's Old and New Edinburgh vol. 1, p. 97</ref> He studied for his final law exam at [[Edinburgh University]]. He passed the exam and became an [[advocate]]. He practised the law in Edinburgh for over a decade, and most years spent his annual break in London, mingling with Johnson and many other London-based writers, editors, and printers, and furthering his literary ambitions. He contributed a great many items to newspapers and magazines, in London and Edinburgh.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tankard |first=Paul |title=Facts and Inventions: Selections from the Journalism of James Boswell |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-300-14126-9 |location=New Haven |pages=xxiv}}</ref> He found enjoyment in playing the intellectual rhyming game [[crambo]] with his peers.

In 1768 he published ''An account of Corsica, the journal of a tour to that island, and memoirs of Pascal Paoli.'' The book contained both a history and description of Corsica, as well as an account of his visit. Boswell was a major supporter of the [[Corsican Republic]]. Following the island's [[French conquest of Corsica|invasion by France]] in 1768, Boswell attempted to raise public awareness and rally support for the Corsicans. He sent arms and money to the Corsican fighters, who were ultimately defeated at the [[Battle of Ponte Novu]] in 1769. Boswell attended the [[Masquerade ball|masquerade]] held at the [[Shakespeare Jubilee]] in [[Stratford-upon-Avon]] in September 1769 dressed as a Corsican Chief.<ref>Pierce pp. 9–10</ref> He was also, much to the chagrin of his friend Johnson, a strong defender of the American Revolution.<ref> Zachary Brown,"'A High Tory and an American upon my own Principles': James Boswell, the American Revolution, and Royalist Constitutionalism, 1775–1783."''Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History'' (2022). [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03086534.2022.2118989 Online]</ref>

Some of his journal entries and letters from this period describe his amatory exploits. Thus, in 1767, in a letter to [[William Johnson Temple]], he wrote, "I got myself quite intoxicated, went to a Bawdy-house and past a whole night in the arms of a Whore. She indeed was a fine strong spirited Girl, a Whore worthy of Boswell if Boswell must have a whore."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fu7lQ2wF8DYC&pg=PA192 |title=Boswell Correspondence, letter of 26 June 1767 |access-date=2 May 2011|isbn=9780748607587 |last1=Boswell |first1=James |last2=Temple |first2=William Johnston |year=1997 }}</ref> A few years earlier, he wrote that during a night with an actress named Louisa, "five times was I fairly lost in supreme rapture. Louisa was madly fond of me; she declared I was a prodigy and asked me if this was not extraordinary for human nature."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ICpJV0LfVkkC&q=%22she+declared+I+was+a+prodigy%22+Boswell&pg=PA64 |title=''Tis Nature's Fault: Unauthorized Sexuality during the Enlightenment'' by R. P. Macubbin, page 64 |access-date=2 May 2011|isbn=9780521347686 |last1=MacCubbin |first1=Robert Purks |year=1987 |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Though he sometimes used a condom for protection,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xe2tjI-4180C&q=Boswell+%22venereal+disease%22&pg=PA141 |title=''Privacy: concealing the eighteenth-century self'' by P Spacks page 141 |date= June 2003|access-date=2 May 2011|isbn=9780226768601 |last1=Spacks |first1=Patricia Meyer |publisher=University of Chicago Press }}</ref> he contracted venereal disease at least seventeen times.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mACZIDfZEUC&q=Boswell+%22venereal+disease%22&pg=PA381 |title=''Glimpses of Glory'' by R. L Greaves page 381 |access-date=2 May 2011|isbn=9780804745307 |last1=Greaves |first1=Richard L. |year=2002 |publisher=Stanford University Press }}</ref>

Boswell married his cousin, [[Margaret Montgomerie]], on 25 November 1769.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Boswell, Margaret Montgomerie [Peggie] (1738?–1789), wife of James Boswell|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-65003|access-date=2021-03-16|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/65003}}</ref> She remained faithful to Boswell, despite his frequent liaisons with prostitutes, until her death from [[tuberculosis]] in 1789. After his infidelities, he would deliver tearful apologies to her and beg her forgiveness, before again promising her, and himself, that he would reform. James and Margaret had four sons and three daughters. Two sons died in infancy; the other two were [[Sir Alexander Boswell, 1st Baronet|Alexander]] (1775–1822) and [[James Boswell (1778–1822)|James]] (1778–1822). Their daughters were Veronica (1773–1795), Euphemia (1774 – c. 1834) and Elizabeth, known as 'Betsy', (1780–1814). Boswell also had at least two extramarital children, Charles (1762–1764) and Sally (1767 – c. 1768).
[[image:JamesBoswellPlaque.png|thumb|250px|right|A commemorative plaque to Boswell at his former home at James Court, [[Royal Mile#Lawnmarket|Lawnmarket]], Edinburgh]]
Despite his relative literary success with accounts of his European travels, Boswell was only a moderately successful advocate, with the exception of the [[copyright infringement]] case of ''[[Donaldson v Beckett]]'', where Boswell represented the Scottish bookseller [[Alexander Donaldson (bookseller)|Alexander Donaldson]]. By the late 1770s, Boswell descended further and further into alcoholism and gambling addiction. Throughout his life, from childhood until death, he was beset by severe swings of mood. His depressions frequently encouraged and were exacerbated by his various vices. His happier periods usually saw him relatively vice-free. His character mixed a superficial [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] sensibility for reason and taste with a genuine and somewhat romantic love of the sublime and a propensity for occasionally puerile whimsy. The latter, along with his tendency for drink and other vices, caused many contemporaries and later observers to regard him as being too lightweight to be an equal in the literary crowd that he wanted to be a part of. However, his humour and innocent good nature won him many lifelong friends.

In 1773 Boswell bought the house of [[David Hume]] (who moved to a new house on South St David Street/St Andrew Square) on the south east corner of James Court.<ref>Williamson's Edinburgh Street Directory 1773</ref><ref>Edinburgh and District: Ward Lock Travel Guide 1930</ref> He lived there until 1786.<ref>Plaque to Boswell on James Court</ref> Boswell's residency at James Court has been well established, but not the exact location.  For example, a later edition of ''Traditions of Edinburgh'' by Robert Chambers suggests that Boswell's residence at James Court was actually in the Western wing.  His James Court flat was notable for having two levels, and although a modern renovation in the Eastern section reveals such a possibility, it is likely that Boswell's residence was a similarly equipped one in the Western section that no longer exists, having burned down in the mid 1800s.

===Earl of Dumfries===

Boswell became quite friendly with the [[Patrick McDouall-Crichton, 6th Earl of Dumfries|6th Earl of Dumfries]]. As well as seeing him in Scotland, he also visited him in Rosemount, London in 1787 and 1788.
In Boswell's journal of November 2, 1778, he writes, "[The Earl of Dumfries] was exceedingly attentive to me [...] I was upon my guard, as I well knew that he and his Countess flattered themselves that they would get from me that road through our estate which my father had refused, and which in truth I was still more positive for refusing".  He saw the Earl as ''“very attentive”''.

Having hosted the Earl, Boswell and his wife also decide to visit [[Dumfries House]] "[o]ur visit was a little awkward, as there had been no communication between the families for several of the last years of my father's life [...] I, however, wished to live on civil terms with such near neighbours".

On October 27, 1782, Boswell writes, "we looked at Lord Dumfries's gate and the famous road. [...] I showed him that granting it would make the Auchinleck improvements appear part of the Earl of Dumfries's domains. [...] If Lord Eglinton – if my Earl – were Earl of Dumfries and living at Dumfries House, he should have the road, but not to him and his heirs."

===Later life===
Boswell was a frequent guest of [[James Burnett, Lord Monboddo|Lord Monboddo]] at [[Monboddo House]], a setting where he gathered significant observations for his writings by association with [[Samuel Johnson]], [[Henry Home, Lord Kames|Lord Kames]] and other notable attendees.

After Johnson's death in 1784, Boswell moved to London to try his luck at the English [[Bar (law)|Bar]], which proved even less successful than his career in Scotland. In 1792 Boswell lobbied the Home Secretary to help gain royal pardons for four [[Botany Bay]] escapees, including [[Mary Bryant]]. He also offered to stand for Parliament but failed to get the necessary support, and he spent the final years of his life writing his ''[[Life of Samuel Johnson]]''. 

During this time his health began to fail due to [[venereal disease]] and his years of drinking. Boswell died in London in 1795. Close to the end of his life he became strongly convinced that the "[[Ireland Shakespeare forgeries|Shakespeare papers]]", including two previously unknown plays ''[[Vortigern and Rowena]]'' and ''Henry II'', allegedly discovered by [[William Henry Ireland]], were genuine. After Boswell's death they proved to be forgeries created by Ireland himself.<ref>Pierce pp. 92–93</ref> Boswell's remains were interred in the [[crypt]] of the Boswell family [[mausoleum]] in what is now the old [[Auchinleck]] [[Kirkyard]] in [[Ayrshire]]. The mausoleum is attached to the old Auchinleck [[kirk]].