Learn about The life of Samuel Johnson, who compiled the dictionary, at his museum, not to be confused with Shakespeare's buddy Ben Jonson

 

Samuel Johnson (1775) showing his intense concentration and the weakness of his eyes; he did not want to be depicted as "Blinking Sam." This unique portrait showing his nearsightedness is in the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, USA.

Samuel Johnson's birthplace Museum which you can visit in Lichfield, England.

Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 [OS 7 September] – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson.

Johnson's travelling companion and biographer, Boswell.

I always used to muddle up the two Jonsons and their spelling but now I have got it clear. Samuel Johnson has the longer first name and family name. As befits the writer of a dictionary. 

But Ben Jonson, who lived earlier, at the time of Shakespeare, shortened the name Benjamin to Ben and abbreviated his surname to Jonson,  and was a humorous playwright. After Shakespeare Ben was second most popular with the general public as well as influential on other writers during the reign of James !. (James united England and Scotland, hence the union Jack flag, after the deaths of childless Protestant Elizabeth I and his mother Catholic Mary Queen of Scots.

Benjamin Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637^[2]) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's  exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour^[3] (1598), Volpone, or The Fox (c. 1606), The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614) and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry. "

He wrote, to Celia:

Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup
And I'll not look for wine.

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