[1348] 'Mr. Arkwright pronounced Johnson to be the only person who on a first view understood both the principle and powers of machinery.' Johnson'sWorks(1787), xi. 215. Arthur Young, who visited Birmingham in 1768, writes:—'I was nowhere more disappointed than at Birmingham, where I could not gain any intelligence even of the most common nature, through the excessive jealousy of the manufacturers. It seems the French have carried off several of their fabricks, and thereby injured the town not a little. This makes them so cautious that they will show strangers scarce anything.'Tour through the North of England, iii. 279.
[1349] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale (year not given):—'I have passed one day at Birmingham with my old friend Hector—there's a name—and his sister, an old love. My mistress is grown much older than my friend,
—-"O quid habes illius, illiusQuae spirabat amoresQuae me surpuerat mihi."'
'Of her, of her what now remains,Who breathed the loves, whocharmed the swains,And snatched me from my heart?'
FRANCIS, Horace,Odes, iv. 13. 18.Piozzi Letters, i. 290.
[1350] Some years later he wrote:—'Mrs. Careless took me under her care, and told me when I had tea enough.'Ib. ii. 205.
[1351] Seeante, ii. 362, note 3.
[1352] Johnson, in a letter to Hector, on March 7 of this year, described Congreve as 'very dull, very valetudinary, and very recluse, willing, I am afraid, to forget the world, and content to be forgotten by it, to repose in that sullen sensuality into which men naturally sink who think disease a justification of indulgence, and converse only with those who hope to prosper by indulging them … Infirmity will come, but let us not invite it; indulgence will allure us, but let us turn resolutely away. Time cannot always be defeated, but let us not yield till we are conquered.'Notes and Queries, 6th S., iii. 401.
[1353] In the same letter he said:—'I hope dear Mrs. Careless is well, and now and then does not disdain to mention my name. It is happy when a brother and sister live to pass their time at our age together. I have nobody to whom I can talk of my first years—when I do to Lichfield, I see the old places but find nobody that enjoyed them with me.'
[1354] I went through the house where my illustrious friend was born, with a reverence with which it doubtless will long be visited. An engraved view of it, with the adjacent buildings, is inThe Gent. Mag. for Feb. 1875. BOSWELL.
[1355] The scene of Farquhar'sBeaux Stratagemis laid in Lichfield. The passage in which the ale is praised begins as follows:—
'Aimwell. I have heard your town of Lichfield much famed for ale; I think I'll taste that.
'Boniface, Sir, I have now in my cellar ten tun of the best ale in Staffordshire; 'tis smooth as oil, sweet as milk, clear as amber, and strong as brandy; and will be just fourteen year old the fifth day of next March, old style.' Act i. sc. i. Seepost, April 20, 1781.
[1356] Though his letters to her are very affectionate, yet what he wrote of her to Mrs. Thrale shews that her love for him was not strong. Thus he writes:—'July 20, 1767. Miss Lucy is more kind and civil than I expected.'Piozzi Letters, i. 4. 'July 17, 1771. Lucy is a philosopher, and considers me as one of the external and accidental things that are to be taken and left without emotion. If I could learn of Lucy, would it be better? Will you teach me?'Ibp. 46. 'Aug. 1, 1775. This was to have been my last letter from this place, but Lucy says I must not go this week. Fits of tenderness with Mrs. Lucy are not common, but she seems now to have a little paroxysm, and I was not willing to counteract it.'Ibp. 293. 'Oct. 27, 1781. Poor Lucy's illness has left her very deaf, and I think, very inarticulate … But she seems to like me better than she did.'Ibii. 208. 'Oct. 31, 1781. Poor Lucy's health is very much broken … Her mental powers are not impaired, and her social virtues seem to increase. She never was so civil to me before.'Ibp. 211. On his mother's death he had written to her:—'Every heart must lean to somebody, and I have nobody but you.'Antei. 515.
[1357] Seeante, p. 311.
[1358] Seepost, iii. 131.
[1359] Boswell varies Johnson's definition, which was 'a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.'ante, i. 294, note 8.
[1360] '"I remember," said Dr. Johnson, "when all thedecentpeople in Lichfield got drunk every night."' Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 19. Seepost, iii. 77.
[1361] He had to allow that in literature they were behind the age. Nearly four years after the publication ofEvelina, he wrote:—'Whatever Burney [by Burney he meant Miss Burney] may think of the celerity of fame, the name ofEvelinahad never been heard at Lichfield till I brought it. I am afraid my dear townsmen will be mentioned in future days as the last part of this nation that was civilised. But the days of darkness are soon to be at an end; the reading society ordered it to be procured this week.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 221.
[1362] Seeante, ii. 159.
[1363] Garrick himself, like the Lichfieldians, always said—shupreme, shuperior. BURNEY.
[1364] Johnson did not always speak so disrespectfully of Birmingham. In hisTaxation no Tyranny(Works, vi. 228), he wrote:—'The traders of Birmingham have rescued themselves from all imputation of narrow selfishness by a manly recommendation to Parliament of the rights and dignity of their native country.' Theboobiesin this case were sound Tories.
[1365] This play was Gibber'sHob; or The Country Wake, with additions, which in its turn was Dogget'sCountry Wakereduced. Reed'sBiog. Dram. ii. 307.
[1366] Boswell says,post, under Sept. 30, 1783, that 'Johnson had thought more upon the subject of acting than might be generally supposed.'
[1367] A nice observer of the female form. CROKER. Terence,Eun. iii. 5.
[1368] In Farquhar's Comedy ofSir Harry Wildair.
[1369] Gilbert Walmesley,ante, i. 81
[1370] Seeante, i. 83.
[1371] Cradock (Memoirsi. 74) says that in the Cathedral porch, a gentleman, 'who might, perhaps, be too ambitious to be thought an acquaintance of the great Literary Oracle, ventured to say, "Dr. Johnson, we have had a most excellent discourse to day," to which he replied, "That may be, Sir, but it is impossible for you to know it."'
[1372]The Tempest, act iv., sc. 1.
[1373] Seepost, iii. 151.
[1374] Johnson, in 1763, advising Miss Porter to rent a house, said:—'You might have the Palace for twenty pounds.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 145.
[1375] Boswell, after his book was published, quarrelled with Miss Seward. He said that he was forced to examine these communications 'with much caution. They were tinctured with a strong prejudice against Johnson.' His book, he continued, was meant to be 'areal historyand not anovel,' so that he had 'to suppress all erroneous particulars, however entertaining.' He accused her of attacking Johnson with malevolence.Gent. Mag. 1793, p. 1009. For Boswell's second meeting with her, seepost, iii. 284.
[1376] A Signor Recupero had noticed on Etna, the thickness of each stratum of earth between the several strata of lava. 'He tells me,' wrote Brydone, 'he is exceedingly embarrassed by these discoveries in writing the history of the mountain. That Moses hangs like a dead weight upon him, and blunts all his zeal for inquiry; for that really he has not the conscience to make his mountain so young as that prophet makes the world. The bishop, who is strenuously orthodox—for it is an excellent see—has already warned him to be upon his guard, and not to pretend to be a better natural historian than Moses.' Brydone'sTour, i. 141.
[1377] He wrote:—'Mr. Boswell is with me, but I will take care that he shall hinder no business, nor shall he know more than you would have him.' Mr. Morison'sCollection of Autographs, vol. ii.
[1378] 'March 23, 1776. Master Thrale, son of Mr. Thrale, member for the Borough, suddenly before his father's door.'Gent. Mag. 1776, p. 142.
[1379] Seepost, iii. 95.
[1380] 'Sir,' he said, 'I would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save Beauclerk' (post, 1780, in Mr. Langton'sCollection). He had written of the boy the previous summer:—'Pray give my service to my dear friend Harry, and tell him that Mr. Murphy does not love him better than I do.'Piozzi Letters, i. 262.
[1381] See an accurate and animated statement of Mr. Gastrel's barbarity, by Mr. Malone, in a note onSome account of the Life of William Shakspeare, prefixed to his admirable edition of that poet's works, vol. i. p. 118. BOSWELL.
[1382] See Prior'sLife of Malone, p. 142.
[1383]Piozzi Letters, i. 307.
[1384] Seepost, iii. 18, note 1.
[1385] Mr. Hoole wrote of Johnson's last days:—'Being asked unnecessary and frivolous questions, he said he often thought ofMacbeth[act iii. sc. 4]—"Question enrages him."' Croker'sBoswell, p. 843. Seepost, iii. 57, 268.
[1386] Sir Fletcher Norton, afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons, and in 1782 created Baron Grantley. MALONE. For Norton's ignorance, seeante, ii. 91. Walpole (Letters, iv. 124) described him as 'a tough enemy; I don't mean in parts or argument, but one that makes an excellent bull-dog.' When in 1770 he was made Speaker, Walpole wrote:—'Nothing can exceed the badness of his character, even in this bad age.'Ibv. 217. In hisMemoirs of the Reign of George III, i. 240, Walpole says:—'It was known that in private causes he took money from both parties.' Horne (afterwards Horne Tooke) charged Norton with this practice;Parl. Hist. xvii. 1010; and so did Junius in hisLetterxxxix. Churchill, inThe Duellist(Poems, ed. 1766, ii. 87), writing of him, says:—
'How often… Hath he ta'en briefs on false pretence, and undertaken the defence of trusting fools, whom in the end He meant to ruin, not defend.'
Lord Eldon said that 'he was much known by the name of Sir Bull-face Double Fee.' He added that 'he was not a lawyer.' Twiss'sEldon, iii. 98. 'Acting, it was supposed from resentment, having been refused a peerage,' he made on May 7, 1777, a bold speech to the King on presenting the Civil List Bill. 'He told him that his faithful Commons, labouring under burthens almost too heavy to be borne, had granted him a very great additional revenue—great beyond example, great beyond his Majesty's highest wants.'Parl. Hist. xix. 213, and Walpole'sJournal of the Reign of George III, ii. 113.
[1387] Burns's Holy Willie, like Boswell, was an Ayrshire man.
[1388] Johnson, on May 16, wrote of him to Mrs. Thrale:—'He has his head as full as yours at an election. Livings and preferments, as if he were in want with twenty children, run in his head. But a man must have his head on something, small or great.'Piozzi Letters, i. 325.
[1389] Johnson wrote on May 25, 1780 (Piozzi Letters, ii. 136):'—— is come to town, brisk and vigorous, fierce and fell, to drive on his lawsuit. Nothing in all life now can be moreprofligaterthan what he is; and if, in case, that so be, that they persist for to resist him, he is resolved not to spare no money, nor no time.' Taylor, no doubt, is meant, and Baretti, in a marginal note, says:—'This was the elegant phraseology of that Doctor.' Seepost, iii. 180.
[1390] Seeante, p. 460.
[1391] He did not hold with Steele, who inThe Spectator, No. 153, writes:—'It was prettily said, "He that would be long an old man must begin early to be one."' Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 275) says that 'saying of the old philosopher, that he who wants least is most like the gods who want nothing, was a favourite sentence with Dr. Johnson, who required less attendance, sick or well, than ever I saw any human creature.'
[1392] Dr. Butter, of Derby, is mentionedpost, iii. 163, and under May 8, 1781.
[1393] Andrew Stuart'sLetters to Lord Mansfield(ante, ii. 229).
[1394] Johnson was thinking of Charles's meeting with the King of Poland. 'Charles XII. était en grosses bottes, ayant pour cravate un taffetas noir qui lui serrait le cou; son habit était, comme à l'ordinaire, d'un gros drap bleu, avec des boutons de cuivre doré.' Voltaire'sWorks, ed. 1819, xx. 123.