Johnson: Going for a roll

What with cleaning and yardwork in preparation for the 4th, I have not made much progress, though I am down to the last 200 pages or so. Boswell's depiction is so detailed and affectionate that I actually feel sad as the end approaches. How could anyone read the Life and not come out loving Johnson? Even the way he sometimes makes me think of Ignatius Reilly is in the end charming. Apparently Boswell censored some of Johnson's low humor, which is both a surprise, given what he included, and a shame, since the way Johnson told low jokes would have to show a lot about him. I was just going to say that Johnson was very dignified, but though he often was, he could also be wonderfully goofy. Once, in his 50s or 60s, when he came to a grassy hill, he said something like "I haven't been for a roll in a long time," and rolled down the hill. Another time, in his late 40s or early 50s, he got talked into staying out all night drinking and running around, and when morning came he and a friend went out boating I think, and made fun of Boswell for being too responsible to come. Boswell does not give enough of that sort of thing for me to have a feel for how that playfulness fitted in with the rest of his personality, but at any rate it is very appealing.