Johnson had a casual acquaintance with Dodd through Edward Cave, who published some of Dodd’s early poems in 1749. Isaac Reed reported that Johnson even had a hand in correcting these poems.1 The two met only once, according to Boswell (Life, III.140), but they had other friends in common, in addition to Cave. In prison, Dodd reached out to Johnson through Edmund Allen, the printer who was Johnson’s landlord and neighbor in Bolt Court. Johnson’s first production for Dodd was a speech for his appearance in court for sentencing on 16 May 1777. A fair copy of the speech, to which someone added a short preface and postscript, survives in the Hyde Collection (MS Hyde 10 [190]). We adopt this as the copy-text because it seems to be the source of the printed versions, all of which appear hastily composed. The work was printed in several newspapers and separately on a single folio leaf entitled Dr. Dodd’s Speech which He Delivered to the Judge before He Received the Sentence of Death (1777). The text of the folio leaf was reprinted in many publications and finally appeared in Works 1788 (XIV.378–80).2 There is also, as Bibliography reports (II.1295), a manuscript copy of the speech in the Folger Library, where it is part of a pair of commonplace books full of Doddiana (m.a. 114–15).

I now stand before you, a dreadful example of human infirmity. I entered upon public life, with the expectations common to young men, whose education has been liberal, and whose abilities have been flattered. And when I became a clergyman, I considered myself, as not impairing the dignity of the order. I was not an idle, nor, I hope, an useless minister. I taught the truths of Christianity with the zeal of conviction, and the authority of innocence. My labors were approved; my pulpit became popular; and I have reason to believe, that of those who heard me, some have been preserved from sin, and some have been reclaimed.——Condescend, my lord, to think, if these considerations aggravate my crime, how much they must embitter my punishment!

Being distinguished and elated by the confidence of mankind, I had too much confidence in myself; and thinking my integrity, what others thought it, established in sincerity, and fortified by religion, I did not consider the danger of vanity, nor suspect the deceitfulness of my own heart. The day of conflict came, in which temptation surprized and overwhelmed me! I committed the crime, which, I entreat your Lordship to believe, my conscience hourly represents to me in its full bulk of mischief and malignity. Many have been overpowered by temptation, who are now among the penitent in Heaven.

To an act, now waiting the decision of vindictive justice, I will not presume to oppose the counterbalance of almost thirty years (a great part of the life of man) passed in exciting and exercising charity; in relieving such distresses as I now feel; in administering those consolations which I now want. I will not otherwise extenuate my offence, than by declaring——what many circumstances make probable, that I did not intend to be finally fraudulent. Nor will it become me to apportion my own punishment, by alledging that my sufferings have been not much less than my guilt. I have fallen from reputation, which ought to have made me cautious; and from a fortune, which ought to have given me content. I am sunk at once into poverty and scorn. My name and my crime fill the ballads in the streets; the sport of the thoughtless, and the triumph of the wicked!1

It may seem strange, my Lord, that remembering what I have lately been, I should still wish to continue what I am. But—contempt of death, how speciously soever it might mingle with heathen virtues, has nothing in it suitable to Christian penitence.

Many motives impel me to beg earnestly for life. I feel the natural horror of a violent death, and the universal dread of untimely dissolution. I am desirous to recompense the injury I have done to the clergy, to the world, and to religion; and to efface the scandal of my crime by the example of my repentance. But above all,—— I wish to die with thoughts more composed, and calmer preparation.

The gloom and confusion of a prison;—— the anxiety of a trial;——the horror of suspence;——and the inevitable vicissitudes of passion, leave not the mind in a due disposition to the holy exercises of prayer and self examination. Let not a little life be denied me, in which I may by meditation and contrition, prepare myself to stand at the tribunal of omnipotence; and support the presence of that Judge, who shall distribute to all according to their works;—— who will receive to pardon the repenting sinner;—— and from whom the mercifull shall obtaina mercy.

For these reasons, my Lord, amidst shame and misery, I yet wish to live; and most humbly implore that I may be recommended by your Lordship to the clemency of his Majesty.

On 21 May, again using Edmund Allen as his intermediary, Dodd sought Johnson’s help in making “some public declarations. . . . I shall determine myself wholly by his direction, & act, in absolute reliance, on his wisdom & judgment.”1 Johnson responded with a sermon on the text of Acts 16: 30, “What must I do to be saved?” Dodd wished to “divest this matter of its sermonic form, & reduce it to an humble address from a wretched brother convict.”2 The sermonic form was left to stand, but Dodd embellished Johnson’s work and delivered it in Newgate Chapel on 6 June. It was published on 19 June, a week before Dodd’s execution, as The Convict’s Address to His Unhappy Brethren. The text is printed in Sermons (Yale, XIV), using as copy-text the copy of the first edition that Johnson annotated for Boswell, indicating Dodd’s additions (301–13). Missing from Yale, XIV, however, is the postscript that Johnson wrote for the sermon. We add that piece here, as it survives in the Hyde Collection (MS 37 [15]) in the hand of Edmund Allen. The purpose of the postscript, which Dodd discarded, was to purify the publication of the presumption that Dodd was its author. Johnson was clearly uneasy about participating in such a deception, either for himself (though he never claimed authorship of the piece) or for Dodd, who was on the brink of having to explain this and all his other deceptions to God.

P.S. Ambition and vanity are, I hope, now at an end. I desire no praise as the authour of the foregoing discourse but I desire to leave behind me these thoughts, by whomsoever collected and expressed, as the genuine opinion of my last hour.