[60] Seeante, i. 242.
[61] There is an account of him in Sir John Hawkins's Life of Johnson. BOSWELL. Hawkins (Life, p. 246) records the following sarcasm of Ballow. In a coffee-house he attacked the profession of physic, which Akenside, who was a physician as well as poet, defended. 'Doctor,' said Ballow, 'after all you have said, my opinion of the profession of physic is this. The ancients endeavoured to make it a science, and failed; and the moderns to make it a trade, and have succeeded.'
[62] Seeante, i. 274.
[63] I have in vain endeavoured to find out what parts Johnson wrote for Dr. James. Perhaps medical men may. BOSWELL. Seeante, i. 159. Johnson, needing medicine at Montrose, 'wrote the prescription in technical characters.' Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 21, 1773.
[64] Horace Walpole, writing of May in this year, says that General Smith, an adventurer from the East Indies, who was taken off by Foote inThe Nabob, 'being excluded from the fashionable club of young men of quality at Almack's, had, with a set of sharpers, formed a plan for a new club, which, by the excess of play, should draw all the young extravagants thither. They built a magnificent house in St. James's-street, and furnished it gorgeously.'Journal of the Reign of George III, ii. 39.
[65] He said the same when in Scotland. Boswell'sHebrides, under Nov. 22, 1773. On the other hand, inThe Rambler, No. 80, he wrote:—'It is scarcely possible to pass an hour in honest conversation, without being able, when we rise from it, to please ourselves with having given or received some advantages; but a man may shuffle cards, or rattle dice, from noon to midnight, without tracing any new idea in his mind, or being able to recollect the day by any other token than his gain or loss, and a confused remembrance of agitated passions, and clamorous altercations.'
[66] 'Few reflect,' says Warburton, 'on what a great wit has so ingenuously owned. That wit is generally false reasoning.' The wit was Wycherley. See his letter xvi. to Pope in Pope'sWorks. Warburton'sDivine Legation, i. xii.
[67] 'Perhaps no man was ever more happy than Dr. Johnson in the extempore and masterly defence of any cause which, at the given moment, he chose to defend.' Stockdale'sMemoirs, i. 261.
[68] Burke, in a letter that he wrote in 1771 (Corres. i. 330), must have had in mind his talks with Johnson. 'Nay,' he said, 'it is not uncommon, when men are got into debates, to take now one side, now another, of a question, as the momentary humour of the man and the occasion called for, with all the latitude that the antiquated freedom and ease of English conversation among friends did, in former days, encourage and excuse.' H.C. Robinson (Diary, iii. 485) says that Dr. Burney 'spoke with great warmth of affection of Dr. Johnson, and said he was the kindest creature in the world when he thought he was loved and respected by others. He would play the fool among friends, but he required deference. It was necessary to ask questions and make no assertion. If you said two and two make four, he would say, 'How will you prove that, Sir?' Dr. Burney seemed amiably sensitive to every unfavourable remark on his old friend.
[69] Patrick Lord Elibank, who died in 1778. BOSWELL. See Boswell'sHebrides, Sept. 12, 1773.
[70] Yet he said of him:—'Sir, there is nothing conclusive in his talk.' Seepost, p. 57.
[71] Johnson records of this Good Friday:—'My design was to pass part of the day in exercises of piety, but Mr. Boswell interrupted me; of him, however, I could have rid myself; but poor Thrale,orbus et exspes, came for comfort, and sat till seven, when we all went to church.'Pr. and Med. p. 146.
[72] Johnson's entries at Easter shew this year, and some of the following years, more peace of mind than hitherto. Thus this Easter he records, 'I had at church some radiations of comfort…. When I received, some tender images struck me. I was so mollified by the concluding address to our Saviour that I could not utter it.'Pr. and Med. pp. 146, 149. 'Easter-day, 1777, I was for some time much distressed, but at last obtained, I hope from the God of peace, more quiet than I have enjoyed for a long time. I had made no resolution, but as my heart grew lighter, my hopes revived, and my courage increased.'Ib. p. 158. 'Good Friday, 1778. I went with some confidence and calmness through the prayers.'Ib. p. 164.
[73] 'Nunquam enim nisi navi plenâ tollo vectorem.' Lib. ii. c. vi. BOSWELL.
[74] Seeante, i. 187.
[75] Seeante, i. 232.
[76] Seeante, ii, 219.
[77] Cheyne'sEnglish Malady, or a Treatise of Nervous Diseases of All Kinds, 1733. He recommended a milk, seed, and vegetable diet; by seed he apparently meant any kind of grain. He did not take meat. He drank green tea. At one time he weighed thirty-two stones. His work shews the great change in the use of fermented liquors since his time. Thus he says:—'For nearly twenty years I continued sober, moderate, and plain in my diet, and in my greatest health drank not above a quart, or three pints at most of wine any day' (p. 235). 'For near one-half of the time from thirty to sixty I scarce drank any strong liquor at all. It will be found that upon the whole I drank very little above a pint of wine, or at most not a quart one day with another, since I was near thirty' (p. 243). Johnson a second time recommended Boswell to read this book,post, July 2, 1776. Seeante, i. 65. Boswell was not the man to follow Cheyne's advice. Of one of his works Wesley says:—'It is one of the most ingenious books which I ever saw. But what epicure will ever regard it? for "the man talks against good eating and drinking."' Wesley'sJournal, i. 347. Young, in hisEpistles to Pope, No. ii. says:—
'—three ells round huge Cheyne rails at meat.'
Dr. J. H. Burton (Life of Hume, i. 45) shews reason for believing that a very curious letter by Hume was written to Cheyne.
[78] '"Solitude," he said one day, "is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue; pleasures of some sort are necessary to the intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for the solicitations of sense are always at hand, and a dram to a vacant and solitary person is a speedy and seducing relief. Remember (continued he) that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad."' Piozzi'sAnec. p. 106.
[79] The day before he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—'Mr. Thrale's alteration of purpose is not weakness of resolution; it is a wise man's compliance with the change of things, and with the new duties which the change produces. Whoever expects me to be angry will be disappointed. I do not even grieve at the effect, I grieve only at the cause.'Piozzi Letters, i. 314. Mrs. Thrale on May 3 wrote:—'Baretti said you would be very angry, because this dreadful event made us put off our Italian journey, but I knew you better. Who knows even now that 'tis deferred for ever? Mr. Thrale says he shall not die in peace without seeing Rome, and I am sure he will go no-where that he can help without you.'Ib. p. 317.
[80] Seeante, i. 346.
[81] Seepost, July 22, 1777, note, where Boswell complains of children being 'suffered to poison the moments of festivity.'
[82] Boswell,post, under March 30, 1783, says, 'Johnson discovered a love of little children upon all occasions.'
[83] Johnson at a later period thought otherwise.Post, March 30, 1778.
[84] Pope borrowed from the following lines:—
'When on my sick bed I languish,Full of sorrow, full of anguish;Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying,Panting, groaning, speechless, dying—Methinks I hear some gentle spirit say,Be not fearful, come away.'
Campbell'sBrit. Poets, p. 301.
[85] In Rochester'sAllusion to the Tenth Satire of the First Book of Horace.
[86] In theMonthly Reviewfor May, 1792, there is such a correction of the above passage, as I should think myself very culpable not to subjoin. 'This account is very inaccurate. The following statement of facts we know to be true, in every material circumstance:—Shiels was the principal collector and digester of the materials for the work: but as he was very raw in authourship, an indifferent writer in prose, and his language full of Scotticisms, Cibber, who was a clever, lively fellow, and then soliciting employment among the booksellers, was engaged to correct the style and diction of the whole work, then intended to make only four volumes, with power to alter, expunge, or add, as he liked. He was also to supplynotes, occasionally, especially concerning those dramatick poets with whom he had been chiefly conversant. He also engaged to write several of the Lives; which, (as we are told,) he, accordingly, performed. He was farther useful in striking out the Jacobitical and Tory sentiments, which Shiels had industriously interspersed wherever he could bring them in:—and, as the success of the work appeared, after all, very doubtful, he was content with twenty-one pounds for his labour beside a few sets of the books, to disperse among his friends.—Shiels had nearly seventy pounds, beside the advantage of many of the best Lives in the work being communicated by friends to the undertaking; and for which Mr. Shiels had the same consideration as for the rest, being paid by the sheet, for the whole. He was, however, so angry with his Whiggish supervisor, (He, like his father, being a violent stickler for the political principles which prevailed in the Reign of George the Second,) for so unmercifully mutilating his copy, and scouting his politicks, that he wrote Cibber a challenge: but was prevented from sending it, by the publisher, who fairly laughed him out of his fury. The proprietors, too, were discontented, in the end, on account of Mr. Cibber's unexpected industry; for his corrections and alterations in the proof-sheets were so numerous and considerable, that the printer made for them a grievous addition to his bill; and, in fine, all parties were dissatisfied. On the whole, the work was productive of no profit to the undertakers, who had agreed, in case of success, to make Cibber a present of some addition to the twenty guineas which he had received, and for which his receipt is now in the booksellers' hands. We are farther assured, that he actually obtained an additional sum; when he, soon after, (in the year 1758,) unfortunately embarked for Dublin, on an engagement for one of the theatres there: but the ship was cast away, and every person on board perished. There were about sixty passengers, among whom was the Earl of Drogheda, with many other persons of consequence and property. [Gent. Mag. 1758, p. 555.]
'As to the alledged design of making the compilement pass for the work of old Mr. Cibber, the charges seem to have been founded on a somewhat uncharitable construction. We are assured that the thought was not harboured by some of the proprietors, who are still living; and we hope that it did not occur to the first designer of the work, who was also the printer of it, and who bore a respectable character.
'We have been induced to enter thus circumstantially into the foregoing detail of facts relating toThe Lives of the Poets, compiled by Messrs. Cibber and Shiels, from a sincere regard to that sacred principle of Truth, to which Dr. Johnson so rigidly adhered, according to the best of his knowledge; and which we believe,no considerationwould have prevailed on him to violate. In regard to the matter, which we now dismiss, he had, no doubt, been misled by partial and wrong information: Shiels was the Doctor's amanuensis; he had quarrelled with Cibber; it is natural to suppose that he told his story in his own way; and it is certain thathewas not "a very sturdy moralist." [The quotation is from Johnson'sWorks, ix. 116.] This explanation appears to me very satisfactory. It is, however, to be observed, that the story told by Johnson does not rest solely upon my record of his conversation; for he himself has published it in hisLife of Hammond[ib. viii. 90], where he says, "the manuscript of Shiels is now in my possession." Very probably he had trusted to Shiels's word, and never looked at it so as to compare it withThe Lives of the Poets, as published under Mr. Cibber's name. What became of that manuscript I know not. I should have liked much to examine it. I suppose it was thrown into the fire in that impetuous combustion of papers, which Johnson I think rashly executed, whenmoribundus.' BOSWELL. Mr. Croker, quoting a letter by Griffiths the publisher, says:—'The question is now decided by this letter in opposition to Dr. Johnson's assertion.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 818. The evidence of such an infamous fellow as Griffiths is worthless. (For his character see Forster'sGoldsmith, i. 161.) As theMonthly Reviewwas his property, the passage quoted by Boswell was, no doubt, written by his direction. D'Israeli (Curiosities of Literature, ed. 1834, vi. 375) says that Oldys (ante, i. 175) made annotations on a copy of Langbaine'sDramatic Poets. 'ThisLangbaine, with additions by Coxeter, was bought by Theophilus Cibber; on the strength of these notes he prefixed his name to the first collection of theLives of Our Poets, written chiefly by Shiels.'
[87] Mason'sMemoirs of Gray's Lifewas published in 1775. Johnson, in hisLife of Gray(Works, viii. 476), praises Gray's portion of the book:—'They [Gray and Horace Walpole] wandered through France into Italy; and Gray'sLetterscontain a very pleasing account of many parts of their journey.' 'The style of Madame de Sévigné,' wrote Mackintosh (Life, ii. 221), 'is evidently copied, not only by her worshipper Walpole, but even by Gray; notwithstanding the extraordinary merits of his matter, he has the double stiffness of an imitator and of a college recluse.'
[88] See ante, ii. 164.
[89] This impartiality is very unlikely. In 1757 Griffiths, the owner of theMonthly, aiming a blow at Smollett, the editor of theCritical, said thatThe Monthly Reviewwas not written by 'physicians without practice, authors without learning, men without decency, gentlemen without manners, and critics without judgement.' Smollett retorted:— 'The Critical Reviewis not written by a parcel of obscure hirelings, under the restraint of a bookseller and his wife, who presume to revise, alter, and amend the articles occasionally. The principal writers in theCritical Revieware unconnected with booksellers, un-awed by old women, and independent of each other.' Forster'sGoldsmith, i. 100. 'A fourth share inThe Monthly Reviewwas sold in 1761 for £755.'A Bookseller of the Last Century, p. 19.
[90] See ante, ii. 39.
[91] Horace Walpole writes:—'The scope of theCritical Reviewwas to decry any work that appeared favourable to the principles of the Revolution.'Memoirs of the Reign of George II, iii. 260.
[92] 'The story of this publication is remarkable. The whole book was printed twice over, a great part of it three times, and many sheets four or five times. The booksellers paid for the first impression; but the charges and repeated operations of the press were at the expense of the author, whose ambitious accuracy is known to have cost him at least a thousand pounds. He began to print in 1755. Three volumes appeared in 1764, and the conclusion in 1771. Andrew Reid undertook to persuade Lyttelton, as he had persuaded himself, that he was master of the secret of punctuation; and, as fear begets credulity, he was employed, I know not at what price, to point the pages ofHenry the Second. When time brought theHistoryto a third edition, Reid was either dead or discarded; and the superintendence of typography and punctuation was committed to a man originally a comb-maker, but then known by the style of Doctor. Something uncommon was probably expected, and something uncommon was at last done; for to the Doctor's edition is appended, what the world had hardly seen before, a list of errors in nineteen pages.' Johnson'sWorks, viii. 492. In the first edition ofThe Lives of the Poets'the Doctor' is called Dr. Saunders. So ambitious was Lord Lyttelton's accuracy that in the second edition he gave a list of 'false stops which hurt the sense.' For instance, the punctuation of the following paragraph:—'The words of Abbot Suger, in his life of Lewis le Gros, concerning this prince are very remarkable,' he thus corrects, 'after prince a comma is wanting.' Seeante, ii. 37.
[93] According to Horace Walpole, Lyttelton had angered Smollett by declining 'to recommend to the stage' a comedy of his. 'He promised,' Walpole continues, 'if it should be acted, to do all the service in his power for the author. Smollett's return was drawing an abusive portrait of Lord Lyttelton inRoderick Random.' Memoirs of the Reign of George II, iii. 259.
[94]Spectator, No. 626. Seepost, 1780, in Mr. Langton'sCollection, near the end.
[95] When Steele broughtThe Spectatorto the close of its first period, he acknowledged in the final number (No. 555) his obligation to his assistants. In a postscript to the later editions he says:—'It had not come to my knowledge, when I left offThe Spectator, that I owe several excellent sentiments and agreeable pieces in this work to Mr. Ince, of Gray's Inn.' Mr. Ince died in 1758.Gent. Mag. 1758, p. 504.
[96]Spectator, No. 364.
[97] Sir Edward Barry, Baronet. BOSWELL.
[98] 'We form our words with the breath of our nostrils, we have the less to live upon for every word we speak.' Jeremy Taylor'sHoly Dying, ch. i. sec. 1.
[99] On this day Johnson sent the following application for rooms in Hampton Court to the Lord Chamberlain:—
'My Lord, Being wholly unknown to your lordship, I have only this apology to make for presuming to trouble you with a request, that a stranger's petition, if it cannot be easily granted, can be easily refused. Some of the apartments are now vacant in which I am encouraged to hope that by application to your lordship I may obtain a residence. Such a grant would be considered by me as a great favour; and I hope that to a man who has had the honour of vindicating his Majesty's Government, a retreat in one of his houses may not be improperly or unworthily allowed. I therefore request that your lordship will be pleased to grant such rooms in Hampton Court as shall seem proper to
'My Lord,
'Your lordship's most obedient and most faithful humble servant,
'April 11, 1776.'
'Mr. Saml. Johnson to the Earl of Hertford, requesting apartments at Hampton Court, 11th May, 1776.' And within, a memorandum of the answer:—'Lord C. presents his compliments to Mr. Johnson, and is sorry he cannot obey his commands, having already on his hands many engagements unsatisfied.' Prior'sMalone, p. 337. The endorsement does not, it will be seen, agree in date with the letter. Lord C. stands for the Lord Chamberlain.
[100] Hogarth saw Garrick in Richard III, and on the following night in Abel Drugger; he was so struck, that he said to him, 'You are in your element when you are begrimed with dirt, or up to your elbows in blood.' Murphy'sGarrick, p. 21. Cooke, in hisMemoirs of Macklin, p. 110, says that a Lichfield grocer, who came to London with a letter of introduction to Garrick from Peter Garrick, saw him act Abel Drugger, and returned without calling on him. He said to Peter Garrick: 'I saw enough of him on the stage. He may be rich, as I dare say any man who lives like him must be; but by G-d, though he is your brother, Mr. Garrick, he is one of the shabbiest, meanest, most pitiful hounds I ever saw in the whole course of my life.' Abel Drugger is a character in Ben Jonson'sAlchemist.
[101] Seepost, under Sept. 30, 1783.
[102] Lord Shelburne in 1766, at the age of twenty-nine, was appointed Secretary of State in Lord Chatham's ministry. Fitzmaurice'sShelburne, ii. 1. Jeremy Bentham said of him:—'His head was not clear. He felt the want of clearness. He had had a most wretched education.'Ib. p. 175.
[103] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Aug. 14, 1780:—'I hope you have no design of stealing away to Italy before the election, nor of leaving me behind you; though I am not only seventy, but seventy-one…. But what if I am seventy-two; I remember Sulpitius says of Saint Martin (now that's above your reading),Est animus victor annorum et senectuti cedere nescius. Match me that among your young folks.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 177.
[104] Lady Hesketh, taking up apparently a thought which Paoli, as reported by Boswell, had thrown out in conversation, proposed to Cowper the Mediterranean for a topic. 'He replied, "Unless I were a better historian than I am, there would be no proportion between the theme and my ability. It seems, indeed, not to be so properly a subject for one poem, as for a dozen."' Southey'sCowper, iii. 15, and vii. 44.
[105] Burke said:—'I do not know how it has happened, that orators have hitherto fared worse in the hands of the translators than even the poets; I never could bear to read a translation of Cicero.'Life of Sir W. Jones, p. 196.
[106] Seeante, ii. 188.
[107] Seeante, ii. 182.
[108] Seepost, under date of Dec. 24, 1783, where mention seems to be made of this evening.
[109] Seeante, note, p. 30. BOSWELL
[110] 'Thomson's diction is in the highest degree florid and luxuriant, such as may be said to be to his images and thoughts "both their lustre and their shade;" such as invest them with splendour, through which, perhaps, they are not always easily discerned.' Johnson'sWorks, viii. 378. Seeante, i. 453, and ii. 63.
[111]A Collection of Poems in six volumes by several hands, 1758.
[112]Ib. i. 116.
[113] Mr. Nicholls says, 'The Spleenwas a great favourite with Gray for its wit and originality.' Gray'sWorks, v. 36. Seepost, Oct. 10, 1779, where Johnson quotes two lines from it. 'Fling but a stone, the giant dies,' is another line that is not unknown.
[114] A noted highwayman, who after having been several times tried and acquitted, was at last hanged. He was remarkable for foppery in his dress, and particularly for wearing a bunch of sixteen strings at the knees of his breeches. BOSWELL.
[115] Goldsmith wrote a prologue for it. Horace Walpole wrote on Dec. 14, 1771 (Letters, v. 356):—'There is a new tragedy at Covent Garden calledZobeide, which I am told is very indifferent, though written by a country gentleman.' Cradock in his old age published his ownMemoirs.
[116] '"Dr. Farmer," said Johnson {speaking of this essay}, "you have done that which never was done before; that is, you have completely finished a controversy beyond all further doubt." "There are some critics," answered Farmer, "who will adhere to their old opinions." "Ah!" said Johnson, "that may be true; for the limbs will quiver and move when the soul is gone."' Northcote'sReynolds, i. 152. Farmer was Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge (ante, i. 368). In a letter dated Oct. 3, 1786, published in Romilly'sLife(i. 332), it is said:—'Shakespeare and black letter muster strong at Emanuel.'
[117] 'When Johnson once glanced at thisLiberal Translation of the New Testament, and saw how Dr. Harwood had turnedJesus weptintoJesus, the Saviour of the world, burst into a flood of tears, he contemptuously threw the book aside, exclaiming, "Puppy!" The author, Dr. Edward Harwood, is not to be confounded with Dr. Thomas Harwood, the historian of Lichfield.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 836.
[118] See an ingenious Essay on this subject by the late Dr. Moor, Greek Professor at Glasgow. BOSWELL.
[119] Seeante, i. 6, note 2.
[120] 'Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!'Jobxix. 23.
[121] 'The gradual progress which Iago makes in the Moor's conviction, and the circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully natural, that, though it will perhaps not be said of him as he says of himself, that he is "a man not easily jealous," yet we cannot but pity him, when at last we find him "perplexed in the extreme."' Johnson'sWorks, v. 178.
[122] Of Dennis's criticism of Addison'sCato, he says:—'He found and shewed many faults; he shewed them indeed with anger, but he found them with acuteness, such as ought to rescue his criticism from oblivion.'Ib. vii. 457. In a note on 'thunder rumbling from the mustard-bowl' (TheDunciad, ii. 226) it is said:—'Whether Mr. Dennis was the inventor of that improvement, I know not; but is certain that, being once at a tragedy of a new author, he fell into a great passion at hearing some, and cried, "S'death! that ismythunder."' See D'Israeli'sCalamities of Authors, i. 135, for an amplification of this story.
[123] Sir James Mackintosh thought Cumberland was meant. I am now satisfied that it was Arthur Murphy. CROKER. The fact that Murphy's name is found close to the story renders it more likely that Mr. Croker is right.
[124] 'Obscenity and impiety,' Johnson boasted in the last year of his life, 'have always been repressed in my company.'Post, June 11, 1784. See alsopost, Sept. 22, 1777.
[125] See Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 18.
[126] Seeib. Aug. 15.
[127] Seepost, April 28, 29, 1778.
[128] Seeante, Jan. 21, 1775, note.
[129] Seepost, April 28, 1778. That he did not always scorn to drink when in company is shewn by what he said on April 7, 1778:—'I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worse for it. University College has witnessed this.'
[130]Copyismanuscript for printing.
[131] InThe Rambler, No. 134, he describes how he had sat deliberating on the subject for that day's paper, 'till at last I was awakened from this dream of study by a summons from the press; the time was now come for which I had been thus negligently purposing to provide, and, however dubious or sluggish, I was now necessitated to write. To a writer whose design is so comprehensive and miscellaneous that he may accommodate himself with a topick from every scene of life, or view of nature, it is no great aggravation of his task to be obliged to a sudden composition.' Seeante, i. 203.
[132] Seeante, i. 428.
[133] We have here an involuntary testimony to the excellence of this admirable writer, to whom we have seen that Dr. Johnsondirectlyallowed so little merit. BOSWELL. 'Fielding's Amelia was the most pleasing heroine of all the romances,' he said; 'but that vile broken nose never cured [Amelia, bk. ii. ch. 1] ruined the sale of perhaps the only book, which being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night.' Piozzi'sAnec. p. 221. Mrs. Carter, soon after the publication ofAmelia, wrote (Corres. ii. 71):—'Methinks I long to engage you on the side of this poor unfortunate book, which I am told the fine folks are unanimous in pronouncing to be very sad stuff.' Seeante, ii. 49.
[134] Horace Walpole wrote, on Dec, 21, 1775 (Letters, vi. 298):— 'Mr. Cumberland has written anOde, as he modestly calls it, in praise of Gray'sOdes; charitably no doubt to make the latter taken notice of. Garrick read it the other night at Mr. Beauclerk's, who comprehended so little what it was about, that he desired Garrick to read it backwards, and try if it would not be equally good; he did, and it was.' It was to this reading backwards that Dean Barnard alludes in his verses—
'The art of pleasing, teach me, Garrick;Thou who reversest odes Pindaric,A second time read o'er.'
Seepost, under May 8, 1781.
[135] Mr. Romney, the painter, who has now deservedly established a high reputation. BOSWELL. Cumberland (Memoirs, i. 384) dedicated hisOdesto him, shortly after 'he had returned from pursuing his studies at Rome.' 'A curious work might be written,' says Mr. Croker, 'on the reputation of painters. Hayley dedicated his lyre (such as it was) to Romney. What is a picture of Romney now worth?' The wheel is come full circle, and Mr. Croker's note is as curious as the work that he suggests.
[136] Page 32 of this vol. BOSWELL.
[137] Thurlow.
[138] Wedderburne. Boswell wrote to Temple on May 1:—'Luckily Dr. Taylor has begged of Dr. Johnson to come to London, to assist him in some interesting business, and Johnson loves much to be so consulted and so comes up.'Letters of Boswell, p. 234. On the 14th Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—'Mr. Wedderburne has given his opinion today directly against us. He thinks of the claim much as I think.'Piozzi Letters, i. 323. InNotes and Queries, 6th S., v. 423, in a letter from Johnson to Taylor, this business is mentioned.
[139] Goldsmith wrote in 1762:—'Upon a stranger's arrival at Bath he is welcomed by a peal of the Abbey bells, and in the next place by the voice and music of the city waits.' Cunningham'sGoldsmith's Works, iv. 57. InHumphry Clinker(published in 1771), in the Letter of April 24, we read that there was 'a peal of the Abbey bells for the honour of Mr. Bullock, an eminent cow-keeper of Tottenham, who had just arrived at Bath to drink the waters for indigestion.' The town waits are also mentioned. The season was not far from its close when Boswell arrived. Melford, inHumphry Clinker, wrote from Bath on May 17:—'The music and entertainments of Bath are over for this season; and all our gay birds of passage have taken their flight to Bristol-well [Clifton], Tunbridge, Brighthelmstone, Scarborough, Harrowgate, &c. Not a soul is seen in this place, but a few broken-winded parsons, waddling like so many crows along the North Parade.' Boswell had soon to return to London 'to eat commons in the Inner Temple.' Delighted with Bath, and apparently pleasing himself with the thought of a brilliant career at the Bar, he wrote to Temple, 'Quin said, "Bath was the cradle of age, and a fine slope to the grave." Were I a Baron of the Exchequer and you a Dean, how well could we pass some time there!'Letters of Boswell, pp. 231, 234.
[140] To the rooms! and their only son dead three days over one month!
'That it should come to this!But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two.'
Hamlet, act i. sc. 2.
[141] No doubt Mr. Burke. Seeante, April 15, 1773, and under Oct. 1, 1774, note, and Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 15.
[142] Mr. E.J. Payne, criticising this passage, says:—'It is certain that Burke never thought he was deserting any principle of his own in joining the Rockinghams.' Payne'sBurke, i. xvii.
[143] No doubt Mrs. Macaulay. Seeante, i. 447. 'Being asked whether he had read Mrs. Macaulay's second volume of theHistory of England, "No, Sir," says he, "nor her first neither."' Johnson'sWorks(1787), xi. 205.
[144] 'Of this distinguished Epilogue the reputed author was the wretched Budgel, whom Addison used to denominate "the man who calls me cousin" [Spence'sAnecdotes, ed. 1820, p. 161]; and when he was asked how such a silly fellow could write so well, replied, "The Epilogue was quite another thing when I saw it first." [Ib. p. 257.] It was known in Tonson's family, and told to Garrick, that Addison was himself the author of it, and that, when it had been at first printed with his name, he came early in the morning, before the copies were distributed, and ordered it to be given to Budgel, that it might add weight to the solicitation which he was then making for a place.' Johnson'sWorks, viii. 389. Seeante, i. 181.
[145] Seepost, Jan. 20, 1782.
[146] On May 10, 1768, on which day the new parliament met, a great body of people gathered round the King's Bench prison in St. George's Fields in expectation that Wilkes would go thence to the House of Commons. Some kind of a riot arose, a proclamation was made in the terms of the Riot-Act, and the soldiers firing by order of Justice Gillam, killed five or six on the spot. The justice and one of the soldiers were on the coroner's inquest brought in guilty of wilful murder, and two other soldiers of aiding and abetting therein. With great difficulty the prisoners were saved from the rage of the populace. They were all acquitted however. At Gillam's trial the judge ruled in his favour, so that the case did not go to the jury. Of the trial of one of the soldiers 'no account was allowed to be published by authority.'Ann. Reg. 1768, pp. 108-9, 112, 136-8, 233. Professor Dicey (Law of the Constitution, p. 308) points out that 'the position of a soldier may be both in theory and practice, a difficult one. He may, as it has been well said, be liable to be shot by a court-martial if he disobeys an order, and to be hanged by a judge and jury if he obeys it.' The remembrance of these cases was perhaps the cause of the feebleness shewn in the Gordon Riots in June 1780. Dr. Franklin wrote from London on May 14, 1768 (Memoirs, iii. 315):—'Even this capital is now a daily scene of lawless riot. Mobs patrolling the streets at noon-day, some knocking all down that will not roar for Wilkes and liberty; courts of justice afraid to give judgment against him; coal-heavers and porters pulling down the houses of coal-merchants that refuse to give them more wages; sawyers destroying saw-mills; sailors unrigging all the outward-bound ships, and suffering none to sail till merchants agree to raise their pay; watermen destroying private boats, and threatening bridges; soldiers firing among the mobs and killing men, women, and children.' 'While I am writing,' he adds (ib. p. 316), 'a great mob of coal-porters fill the street, carrying a wretch of their business upon poles to be ducked for working at the old wages.' See alsoib. p. 402. Hume agreed with Johnson about the 'imbecility' of the government; but he drew from it different conclusions. He wrote on Oct. 27, 1775, about the addresses to the King:—'I wish they would advise him first to punish those insolent rascals in London and Middlesex, who daily insult him and the whole legislature, before he thinks of America. Ask him, how he can expect that a form of government will maintain an authority at 3000 miles' distance, when it cannot make itself be respected, or even be treated with common decency, at home.' J. H. Burton'sHume, ii. 479. On the 30th of this month of April—four days after the conversation in the text—John Home recorded:—'Mr. Hume cannot give any reason for the incapacity and want of genius, civil and military, which marks this period.'Ib. p. 503.
[147] SeeDr. Johnson, His Friends, &c., p. 252.
[148] It was published in 1743.
[149] I am sorry that there are no memoirs of the Reverend Robert Blair, the author of this poem. He was the representative of the ancient family of Blair, of Blair, in Ayrshire, but the estate had descended to a female, and afterwards passed to the son of her husband by another marriage. He was minister of the parish of Athelstanford, where Mr. John Home was his successor; so that it may truely be called classick ground. His son, who is of the same name, and a man eminent for talents and learning, is now, with universal approbation, Solicitor-General of Scotland. BOSWELL. Dr. A. Carlyle (Auto. p. 94) describes Blair 'as so austere and void of urbanity as to make him quite disagreeable to young people.'
[150] In 1775 Mrs. Montagu gave Mrs. Williams a small annuity. Croker'sBoswell, pp. 458, 739. Miss Burney wrote of her:—'Allowing a little for parade and ostentation, which her power in wealth and rank in literature offer some excuse for, her conversation is very agreeable.' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, i. 325. Seepost, April 7, 1778, note.
[151]
'Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.'
Pope,Sat. Ep. i. 135.
[152] Johnson refers to Jenyns'sView of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion, published this spring. Seepost, April 15, 1778. Jenyns had changed his view, for in hisOrigin of Evilhe said, in a passage quoted with applause by Johnson (Works, vi. 69), that 'it is observable that he who best knows our formation has trusted no one thing of importance to our reason or virtue; he trusts to our vanity or compassion for our bounty to others.'
[153] Mr. Langton is certainly meant. It is strange how often his mode of living was discussed by Johnson and Boswell. Seepost, Nov. 16, 1776, July 22, and Sept. 22, 1777, March 18, April 17, 18, and 20, May 12, and July 3, 1778.
[154] Baretti made a brutal attack on Mrs. Piozzi in theEuropean Mag. for 1788, xiii. 313, 393, and xiv. 89. He calls her 'the frontless female, who goes now by the mean appellation of Piozzi; La Piozzi, as my fiddling countrymen term her; who has dwindled down into the contemptible wife of her daughter's singing-master.' His excuse was the attacks made on him by her in the correspondence just published between herself and Johnson (seePiozzi Letters, i. 277, 319). He suspected her, and perhaps with reason, of altering some of these letters. Other writers beside Baretti attacked her. To use Lord Macaulay's words, grossly exaggerated though they are, 'She fled from the laughter and hisses of her countrymen and countrywomen to a land where she was unknown.' Macaulay'sWritings and Speeches, ed. 1871, p. 393. According to Dr. T. Campbell (Diary, p. 33) Baretti flattered Mrs. Thrale to her face. 'Talking as we were at tea of the magnitude of the beer vessels, Baretti said there was one thing in Mr. Thrale's house still more extraordinary; meaning his wife. She gulped the pill very prettily—so much for Baretti.' Seepost, Dec. 21, 1776.
[155] Likely enough Boswell himself. On three other occasions he mentions Otaheité;ante, May 7, 1773,post, June 15, 1784 and in hisHebrides, Sept. 23, 1773. He was fond of praising savage life. Seeante, ii. 73.
[156] Chatterton said that he had found in a chest in St. Mary Redcliffe Church manuscript poems by Canynge, a merchant of Bristol in the fifteenth century, and a friend of his, Thomas Rowley. He gave some of these manuscripts to George Catcot, a pewterer of Bristol, who communicated them to Mr. Barret, who was writing a History of Bristol. Rose'sBiog. Dict. vi. 256.
[157] See Boswell'sHebrides, Sept. 22.
[158] Seeante, i. 396.
[159] 'Artificially. Artfully; with skill.' Johnson'sdictionary.
[160] Mr. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Warton, Mr. Malone. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote on May 16:—'Steevens seems to be connected with Tyrwhitt in publishing Chatterton's poems; he came very anxiously to know the result of our inquiries, and though he says he always thought them forged, is not well pleased to find us so fully convinced.'Piozzi Letters, i. 326.
[161] Catcot had been anticipated by Smith the weaver (2Henry VI. iv. 2)—'Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it; therefore deny it not.'
[162] Horace Walpole says (Works, iv. 224) that when he was 'dining at the Royal Academy, Dr. Goldsmith drew the attention of the company with an account of a marvellous treasure of ancient poems lately discovered at Bristol, and expressed enthusiastic belief in them; for which he was laughed at by Dr. Johnson, who was present…. You may imagine we did not at all agree in the measure of our faith; but though his credulity diverted me, my mirth was soon dashed; for, on asking about Chatterton, he told me he had been in London, and had destroyed himself.'
[163] Boswell returned a few days earlier. On May 1 he wrote to Temple: —'Luckily Dr. Taylor has begged of Dr. Johnson to come to London, to assist him in some interesting business; and Johnson loves much to be so consulted, and so comes up. I am now at General Paoli's, quite easy and gay, after my journey; not wearied in body or dissipated in mind. I have lodgings in Gerrard Street, where cards are left to me; but I lie at the General's, whose attention to me is beautiful.'Letters of Boswell, p. 234. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on May 6:—'Tomorrow I am to dine, as I did yesterday, with Dr. Taylor. On Wednesday I am to dine with Oglethorpe; and on Thursday with Paoli. He that sees before him to his third dinner has a long prospect.'Piozzi Letters, i. 320.
[164] Seeante, May 12, 1775.
[165] In theDramatis Personæof the play are 'Aimwell and Archer, two gentlemen of broken fortunes, the first as master, and the second as servant.' Seeante, March 23, 1776, for Garrick's opinion of Johnson's 'taste in theatrical merit.'
[166] Johnson is speaking of theRespublicæ Elzevirianæ, either 36 or 62 volumes. 'It depends on every collector what and how much he will admit.' Ebert'sBibl. Dict. iii. 1571. Seeante, ii. 7.
[167] Seepost, under Oct. 20, 1784, for 'the learned pig.'
[168] In the first edition Mme. de Sévigné's name is printed Sevigné, in the second Sevigé, in the third Sevigne. Authors and compositors last century troubled themselves little about French words.
[169] Milton had put the same complaint into Adam's mouth:—
'Did I request thee, Maker, from my clayTo mould me man? …… As my willConcurred not to my being,' &c.
Paradise Lost, x. 743.
[170] Seeante, April 10, 1775.
[171] Fielding in theCovent Garden Journalfor June 2, 1752 (Works, x. 80), says of the difficulty of admission at the hospitals:—'The properest objects (those I mean who are most wretched and friendless) may as well aspire at a place at Court as at a place in the Hospital.'
[172] 'We were talking of Dr. Barnard, the Provost of Eton. "He was the only man," says Mr. Johnson quite seriously, "that did justice to my good breeding; and you may observe that I am well-bred to a degree of needless scrupulosity. No man," continued he, not observing the amazement of his hearers, "no man is so cautious not to interrupt another; no man thinks it so necessary to appear attentive when others are speaking; no man so steadily refuses preference on himself, or so willingly bestows it on another, as I do; no man holds so strongly as I do the necessity of ceremony, and the ill effects which follow the breach of it; yet people think me rude; but Barnard did me justice."' Piozzi'sAnec. p. 36. On p. 258, Mrs. Piozzi writes:—'No one was indeed so attentive not to offend in all such sort of things as Dr. Johnson; nor so careful to maintain the ceremonies of life; and though he told Mr. Thrale once, that he had never sought to please till past thirty years old, considering the matter as hopeless, he had been always studious not to make enemies by apparent preference of himself.' See Boswell'sHebrides, Oct. 27, 1773, where Johnson said:—'Sir, I look upon myself as a very polite man.'
[173] The younger Colman in his boyhood met Johnson and Gibbon. 'Johnson was in his rusty brown and his black worsteds, and Gibbon in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword. He condescended, once or twice in the course of the evening, to talk with me;—the great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to the capacity of the boy; but it was done more sua [sic]; still his mannerism prevailed; still he tapped his snuff-box; still he smirked, and smiled, and rounded his periods with the same air of good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men. His mouth, mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole, nearly in the centre of his visage.'Random Records, i. 121.
[174] Samuel Sharp'sLetters from Italywere published in 1766. Seeante, ii. 57, note 2, for Baretti's reply to them.
[175] It may be observed, that Mr. Malone, in his very valuable edition of Shakspeare, has fully vindicated Dr. Johnson from the idle censures which the first of these notes has given rise to. The interpretation of the other passage, which Dr. Johnson allows to bedisputable, he has clearly shown to be erroneous. BOSWELL. The first note is on the line inHamlet, act v. sc. 2—
'And many such like as's of great charge.'
Johnson says:—'A quibble is intended betweenasthe conditional particle, andassthe beast of burthen.' On this note Steevens remarked:—'Shakespeare has so many quibbles of his own to answer for, that there are those who think it hard he should be charged with others which perhaps he never thought of.' The second note is on the opening of Hamlet's soliloquy in act iii. sc. i. The line—
'To be, or not to be, that is the question,'
is thus paraphrased by Johnson:—'Before I can form any rational scheme of action under this pressure of distress, it is necessary to decide whether, after our present state, we are to be or not to be.'
[176] Seepost, March 30, April 14 and 15, 1778, and Boswell'sHebrides, Oct. 25.
[177] Wesley wrote on Jan. 21, 1767 (Journal, iii. 263):—'I had a conversation with an ingenious man who proved to a demonstration that it was the duty of every man that could to be "clothed in purple and fine linen," and to "fare sumptuously every day;" and that he would do abundantly more good hereby than he could do by "feeding the hungry and clothing the naked." O the depth of human understanding! What may not a man believe if he will?' Much the same argument Johnson, thirty-three years earlier, had introduced in one of hisDebates(Works, xi. 349). He makes one of the speakers say:—'Our expenses are not all equally destructive; some, though the method of raising them be vexatious and oppressive, do not much impoverish the nation, because they are refunded by the extravagance and luxury of those who are retained in the pay of the court.' Seepost, March 23, 1783. The whole argument is nothing but Mandeville's doctrine of 'private vices, public benefits.' Seepost, April 15, 1778.
[178] Seeante, iii. 24.
[179] Johnson no doubt refers to Walpole in the following passage (Works, viii. l37):—'Of one particular person, who has been at one time so popular as to be generally esteemed, and at another so formidable as to be universally detested, Mr. Savage observed that his acquisitions had been small, or that his capacity was narrow, and that the whole range of his mind was from obscenity to politicks, and from politicks to obscenity.' This passage is a curious comment on Pope's lines on Sir Robert—
'Seen him I have, but in his happier hourOf social pleasure, ill-exchanged for power.'
Epilogue to the Satires, i. 29.
[180] Most likely Boswell himself. Seeante, March 25, 1776, andpost, April 10, 1778, for Johnson's dislike of questioning. See alsoante, ii. 84, note 3.
[181] Seeante, April 14, 1775.
[182] Seeante, May 12, 1774.
[183] A Gallicism, which has it appears, with so many others, become vernacular in Scotland. The French call a pulpit,la chaire de vérité. CROKER.
[184] As a proof of Dr. Johnson's extraordinary powers of composition, it appears from the original manuscript of this excellent dissertation, of which he dictated the first eight paragraphs on the 10th of May, and the remainder on the 13th, that there are in the whole only seven corrections, or rather variations, and those not considerable. Such were at once the vigorous and accurate emanations of his mind. BOSWELL.
[185] It is curious to observe that Lord Thurlow has here, perhaps in compliment to North Britain, made use of a term of the Scotch Law, which to an English reader may require explanation. Toqualifya wrong, is to point out and establish it. BOSWELL.
[186]
'Quaeque ipse miserrima vidi,Et quorum pars magna fui.'
'Which thing myself unhappy did behold,Yea, and was no small part thereof.'
Morris,Aeneids, ii. 5.
[187] In the year 1770, inThe False Alarm, Johnson attacked Wilkes with more than 'some asperity.' 'The character of the man,' he wrote, 'I have no purpose to delineate. Lampoon itself would disdain to speak ill of him, of whom no man speaks well.' He called him 'a retailer of sedition and obscenity;' and he said:—'We are now disputing … whether Middlesex shall be represented, or not, by a criminal from a gaol.'Works, vi. 156, 169, 177. InThe North Briton, No. xii, Wilkes, quoting Johnson's definition of a pensioner, asks:—'Is the said Mr. Johnson adependant? or is hea slave of state, hired by a stipend to obey his master? There is, according to him, no alternative.—As Mr. Johnson has, I think, failed in this account, may I, after so great an authority, venture at a short definition of so intricate a word? Apensionthen I would calla gratuity during the pleasure of the Prince for services performed, or expected to be performed, to himself, or to the state. Let us consider the celebrated Mr.Johnson, and a few other late pensioners in this light.'
[188] Boswell, in hisLetter to the People of Scotland(p. 70), mentions 'my old classical companion, Wilkes;' and adds, 'with whom I pray you to excuse my keeping company, he is so pleasant.'
[189] When Johnson was going to Auchinleck, Boswell begged him, in talking with his father, 'to avoid three topicks as to which they differed very widely; whiggism, presbyterianism, and—Sir John Pringle.' Boswell'sHebrides, Nov 2, 1773. See alsoib. Aug 24. 'Pringle was President of the Royal Society—"who sat in Newton's chair, And wonder'd how the devil he got there."' J. H. Burton'sHume, i. 165. He was one of Franklin's friends (Franklin'sMemoirsiii. III), and so was likely to be uncongenial to Johnson.
[190] No 22. CROKER. At this house 'Johnson owned that he always found a good dinner.'Post, April 15, 1778.
[191] This has been circulated as if actually said by Johnson; when the truth is, it was onlysupposedby me. BOSWELL.
[192] 'Don't let them bepatriots,' he said to Mr. Hoole, when he asked him to collect a city Club.Post, April 6, 1781.
[193] See p. 7 of this volume. BOSWELL.
[194] 'Indifferent in his choice to sleep or die.' Addison'sCato, act v. sc. 1.
[195] Seeante, i. 485.
[196] He was at this time 'employed by Congress as a private and confidential agent in England.' Dr. Franklin had arranged for letters to be sent to him, not by post but by private hand, under cover to his brother, Mr. Alderman Lee. Franklin'sMemoirs, ii. 42, and iii. 415.
[197] When Wilkes the year before, during his mayoralty, had presented An Address, 'the King himself owned he had never seen so well-bred a Lord Mayor.' Walpole'sJournal of the Reign of George III, i. 484.
[198] Johnson'sLondon, a Poem, v. 145. BOSWELL—
'How when competitors like these contend,Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend.'
[199] Seeante, ii. 154.
[200] Johnson had said much the same at a dinner in Edinburgh. See Boswell'sHebrides, Nov. 10, 1773. Seeante, March 15, 1776, andpost, Sept. 21, 1777.
[201] 'To convince any man against his will is hard, but to please him against his will is justly pronounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human abilities.'The Rambler, No. 93.
[202] Foote told me that Johnson said of him, 'For loud obstreperous broadfaced mirth, I know not his equal.' BOSWELL.
[203] In Farquhar'sBeaux-Stratagem, Scrub thus describes his duties: —'Of a Monday I drive the coach, of a Tuesday I drive the plough, on Wednesday I follow the hounds, a Thursday I dun the tenants, on Friday I go to market, on Saturday I draw warrants, and a Sunday I draw beer.' Act iii. sc. 3.
[204] Seeante, i. 393, note 1.
[205] Seepost, April 10, 1778, and April 24, 1779.
[206] Seeante, i. 216, note 2.
[207] Seeante, March 20, 1776, and Boswell'sHebrides, Sept. 22.
[208] Dryden had been dead but thirty-six years when Johnson came to London.
[209] 'Owen MacSwinny, a buffoon; formerly director of the play-house.' Horace Walpole,Letters, i. 118. Walpole records one of his puns. 'Old Horace' had left the House of Commons to fight a duel, and at once 'returned, and was so little moved as to speak immediately upon theCambrick Bill, which made Swinny say, "That it was a sign he was notruffled."'Ib. p. 233. See also,ib. vi. 373 for one of his stories.
[210] A more amusing version of the story, is inJohnsoniana(ed. 1836, p. 413) on the authority of Mr. Fowke. '"So Sir," said Johnson to Cibber, "I find you know [knew?] Mr. Dryden?" "Know him? O Lord! I was as well acquainted with him as if he had been my own brother." "Then you can tell me some anecdotes of him?" "O yes, a thousand! Why we used to meet him continually at a club at Button's. I remember as well as if it were but yesterday, that when he came into the room in winter time, he used to go and sit by the fire in one corner; and in summer time he would always go and sit in the window." "Thus, Sir," said Johnson, "what with the corner of the fire in winter and the window in summer, you see that I gotmuchinformation from Cibber of the manners and habits of Dryden.'" Johnson gives, in hisLife of Dryden(Works, vii. 300), the information that he got from Swinney and Cibber. Dr. Warton, who had written on Pope, found in one of the poet's female-cousins a still more ignorant survivor. 'He had been taught to believe that she could furnish him with valuable information. Incited by all that eagerness which characterised him, he sat close to her, and enquired her consanguinity to Pope. "Pray, Sir," said she, "did not you write a book about my cousin Pope?" "Yes, madam." "They tell me t'was vastly clever. He wrote a great many plays, did not he?" "I have heard of only one attempt, Madam." "Oh no, I beg your pardon; that was Mr. Shakespeare; I always confound them."' Wooll'sWarton, p. 394.
[211] Johnson told Malone that 'Cibber was much more ignorant even of matters relating to his own profession than he could well have conceived any man to be who had lived nearly sixty years with players, authors, and the most celebrated characters of the age.' Prior'sMalone, p. 95. Seeante, ii. 92.
[212] 'There are few,' wrote Goldsmith, 'who do not prefer a page of Montaigne or Colley Cibber, who candidly tell us what they thought of the world, and the world thought of them, to the more stately memoirs and transactions of Europe.' Cunningham'sGoldsmith's Works, iv. 43.
[213]Essay on Criticism, i. 66.
[214] 'Cibber wrote as bad Odes (as Garrick), but then Gibber wroteThe Careless Husband, and his ownLife, which both deserve immortality.' Walpole'sLetters, v. 197. Pope (Imitations of Horace, II. i. 90), says:—
'All this may be; the people's voice is odd,It is, and it is not, the voice of God.To Gammer Gurton if it give the bays,And yet denyThe Careless Husbandpraise,Or say our fathers never broke a rule;Why then, I say, the public is a fool.'
Seeante, April 6, 1775.
[215] See page 402 of vol. i. BOSWELL.
[216] Milton'sL'Allegro, 1. 36.
[217] 'CATESBY. My Liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken. RICHARD. Off with his head. So much for Buckingham.' Colley Gibber'sRichard III, iv. I.
[218] _Ars Poetica, i. 128.
[219] My very pleasant friend himself, as well as otherswho remember old stories, will no doubt be surprised, when I observe thatJohn Wilkeshere shews himself to be of the WARBURTONIAN SCHOOL. It is nevertheless true, as appears from Dr. Hurd the Bishop of Worcester's very elegant commentary and notes on the 'Epistola ad Pisones.'
It is necessary to a fair consideration of the question, that the whole passage in which the words occur should be kept in view:
'Si quid inexpertum scenae committis, et audesPersonam formare novam, servetur ad imumQualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.Difficile est propriè communia dicere: tuqueRectiùs Iliacum carmen deducis in actus,Quàm si proferres ignota indictaque primus,Publica materies privati juris erit, siNon circa vilem patulumque moraberis orbem,Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidusInterpres; nee desilies imitator in artumUnde pedem proferre pudor vetat aut operis lex.'
The 'Commentary' thus illustrates it: 'But the formation of quitenew charactersis a work of great difficulty and hazard. For here there is no generally received and fixedarchetypeto work after, but every onejudgesof common right, according to the extent and comprehension of his own idea; therefore he advises to labour and refitold characters and subjects, particularly those made known and authorised by the practice of Homer and the Epick writers.'
The 'Note' is,
'DifficileEST PROPRIE COMMUNIA DICERE.' Lambin's Comment is, 'Communia hoc loco appellat Horatius argumenta fabularum à nullo adhuc tractata: et ita, quae cuivis exposita sunt et in medio quodammodo posita, quasi vacua et à nemine occupata.' And that this is the true meaning ofcommuniais evidently fixed by the wordsignota indictaque, which are explanatory of it; so that the sense given it in the commentary is unquestionably the right one. Yet, notwithstanding the clearness of the case, a late critick has this strange passage: 'Difficile quidem esse propriè communia dicere, hoc est, materiam vulgarem, notam et è medio petitam, ita immutare atque exornare, ut nova et scriptori propria videatur, ultra concedimus; et maximi procul dubio ponderis ista est observatio. Sed omnibus utrinque collatis, et tum difficilis, tum venusti, tam judicii quam ingenii ratione habitá, major videtur esse gloria fabulam formare penitùs novam, quàm veterem, utcunque mutatam, de novo exhibere. (Poet. Prael. v. ii. p. 164.) Where, having first put a wrong construction on the wordcomnmnia, he employs it to introduce an impertinent criticism. For where does the poet prefer the glory of refittingoldsubjects to that of inventing new ones? The contrary is implied in what he urges about the superiour difficulty of the latter, from which he dissuades his countrymen, only in respect of their abilities and inexperience in these matters; and in order to cultivate in them, which is the main view of the Epistle, a spirit of correctness, by sending them to the old subjects, treated by the Greek writers.'
For my own part (with all deference for Dr. Hurd, who thinks thecase clear,) I consider the passage, 'Difficile est propriè communia dicere,' to be acruxfor the criticks on Horace.
The explication which My Lord of Worcester treats with so much contempt, is nevertheless countenanced by authority which I find quoted by the learned Baxter in his edition of Horace: 'Difficile est propriè communia dicere, h.e. res vulgares disertis verbis enarrare, vel humile thema cum dignitate tractare.Difficile est communes res propriis explicare verbis. Vet. Schol.' I was much disappointed to find that the great critick, Dr. Bentley, has no note upon this very difficult passage, as from his vigorous and illuminated mind I should have expected to receive more satisfaction than I have yet had.
Sanadonthus treats of it: 'Propriè communia dicere; c'est à dire, qu'il n'est pas aisé de former à ces personnages d'imagination, des caractêres particuliers et cependant vraisemblables. Comme l'on a eté le maitre de les former tels qu'on a voulu, les fautes que l'on fait en cela sont moins pardonnables. C'est pourquoi Horace conseille de prendre toujours des sujets connus tels que sont par exemple ceux que l'on peut tirer des poèmes d'Homere.'
AndDacierobserves upon it, 'Apres avoir marqué les deux qualités qu'il faut donner aux personnages qu'on invente, il conseille aux Poêtes tragiques, de n'user pas trop facilement de cette liberté quils ont d'en inventer, car il est três difficile de reussir dans ces nouveaux caractêres. Il est mal aisé, dit Horace, de traiter proprement,c'st à direconvenablement,dessujets communs;c'est à dire, des sujets inventés, et qui n'ont aucun fondement ni dans l'Histoire ni dans la Fable; et il les appellecommuns,parce qu'ils sont en disposition à tout le monde, et que tout le monde a le droit de les inventer, et qu'ils sont, comme on dit, au premier occupant.' See his observations at large on this expression and the following.
After all, I cannot help entertaining some doubt whether the words,Difficile est propriè communia dicere, may not have been thrown in by Horace to form aseparatearticle in a 'choice of difficulties' which a poet has to encounter, who chooses a new subject; in which case it must be uncertain which of the various explanations is the true one, and every reader has a right to decide as it may strike his own fancy. And even should the words be understood as they generally are, to be connected both with what goes before and what comes after, the exact sense cannot be absolutely ascertained; for instance, whetherproprièis meant to signifyin an appropriated manner, as Dr. Johnson here understands it, or, as it is often used by Cicero,with propriety, orelegantly. In short, it is a rare instance of a defect in perspicuity in an admirable writer, who with almost every species of excellence, is peculiarly remarkable for that quality. The length of this note perhaps requires an apology. Many of my readers, I doubt not, will admit that a critical discussion of a passage in a favourite classick is very engaging. BOSWELL. Boswell's French in this tedious note is left as he printed it.
[220] Johnson, after describing Settle's attack on Dryden, continues (Works, vii. 277):—'Such are the revolutions of fame, or such is the prevalence of fashion, that the man whose works have not yet been thought to deserve the care of collecting them, who died forgotten in an hospital, and whose latter years were spent in contriving shows for fairs … might with truth have had inscribed upon his stone:—
"Here lies the Rival and Antagonist of Dryden."'
Pope introduces him inThe Dunciad, i. 87, in the description of theLord Mayor's Show:—
'Pomps without guilt, of bloodless swords and maces,Glad chains, warm furs, broad banners and broad faces.Now night descending the proud scene was o'er,But lived in Settle's numbers one day more.'
In the third book the ghost of Settle acts the part of guide in theElysian shade.
[221] Johnson implies, no doubt, that they were both Americans by birth. Trecothick was in the American trade, but he was not an American. Walpole'sMemoirs of the Reign of George III, iii. 184, note. Of Beckford Walpole says:—'Under a jovial style of good humour he was tyrannic in Jamaica, his native country.'Ib. iv. 156. He came over to England when young and was educated in Westminster School. Stephens'sHorne Tooke, ii. 278. Cowper describes 'a jocular altercation that passed when I was once in the gallery [of the House], between Mr. Rigby and the late Alderman Beckford. The latter was a very incorrect speaker, and the former, I imagine, not a very accurate scholar. He ventured, however, upon a quotation from Terence, and delivered it thus,Sine Scelere et Baccho friget venus. The Alderman interrupted him, was very severe upon his mistake, and restored Ceres to her place in the sentence. Mr. Rigby replied, that he was obliged to his worthy friend for teaching him Latin, and would take the first opportunity to return the favour by teaching him English.' Southey'sCowper, iii. 317. Lord Chatham, in the House of Lords, said of Trecothick:—'I do not know in office a more upright magistrate, nor in private life a worthier man.'Parl. Hist. xvi. 1101. Seepost, Sept. 23, 1777.
[222]
'Oft have I heard thee mourn the wretched lotOf the poor, mean, despised, insulted Scot,Who, might calm reason credit idle tales,By rancour forged where prejudice prevails,Or starves at home, or practises through fearOf starving arts which damn all conscience here.'
Churchill'sProphecy of Famine, Poems, i. 105.
[223] For Johnson's praise of Lichfield seeante, March 23, 1776. For the use of the wordcivility, seeanteii. 155.
[224] Seeante, i. 447.
[225] Seeante, April 18, 1775.
[226] Seepost, April 15, 1778.
[227] It would not become me to expatiate on this strong and pointed remark, in which a very great deal of meaning is condensed. BOSWELL.
[228] 'Mr. Wilkes's second political essay was an ironical dedication to the Earl of Bute of Ben Jonson's play,The Fall of Mortimer. "Let me entreat your Lordship," he wrote, "to assist your friend [Mr. Murphy] in perfecting the weak scenes of this tragedy, and from the crude labours of Ben Jonson and others to give us acomplete play. It is the warmest wish of my heart that the Earl of Bute may speedily complete the story of Roger Mortimer."' Almon'sWilkes, i. 70, 86.
[229] Yet Wilkes within less than a year violently attacked Johnson in parliament. He said, 'The two famous doctors, Shebbeare and Johnson, are in this reign the state hirelings called pensioners.' Their names, he continued, 'disgraced the Civil List. They are the known pensioned advocates of despotism.'Parl. Hist. xix. 118. It is curious that Boswell does not mention this attack, and that Johnson a few months after it was made, speaking of himself and Wilkes, said:—'The contest is now over.'Post, Sept 21, 1777.
[230] The next day he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—'For my part, I begin to settle and keep company with grave aldermen. I dined yesterday in the Poultry with Mr. Alderman Wilkes, and Mr. Alderman Lee, and Counsellor Lee, his brother. There sat you the while, so sober, with your W——'s and your H——'s, and my aunt and her turnspit; and when they are gone, you think by chance on Johnson, what is he doing? What should he be doing? He is breaking jokes with Jack Wilkes upon the Scots. Such, Madam, are the vicissitudes of things.'Piozzi Letters, i. 325.
[231] Seeante, March 20, 1776.
[232] If he had said this on a former occasion to a lady, he said it also on a latter occasion to a gentleman—Mr. Spottiswoode.Post, April 28, 1778. Moreover, Miss Burney records in 1778, that when Johnson was telling about Bet Flint (post, May 8, 1781) and other strange characters whom he had known, 'Mrs. Thrale said, "I wonder, Sir, you never went to see Mrs. Rudd among the rest." "Why, Madam, I believe I should," said he, "if it was not for the newspapers; but I am prevented many frolics that I should like very well, since I am become such a theme for the papers."' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, i. 90.
[233] Pope,Essay on Man, ii. 2.
[234] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on May 14 (Tuesday):—'——goes away on Thursday, very well satisfied with his journey. Some great men have promised to obtain him a place, and then a fig for my father and his new wife.'Piozzi Letters, i. 324. He is writing no doubt of Boswell; yet, as Lord Auchinleck had been married more than six years, it is odd his wife should be callednew. Boswell, a year earlier, wrote to Temple of his hopes from Lord Pembroke:—'How happy should I be to get an independency by my own influence while my father is alive!'Letters of Boswell, p. 182. Johnson, in a second letter to Mrs. Thrale, written two days after Boswell left, says:—'B—— went away on Thursday night, with no great inclination to travel northward; but who can contend with destiny? … He carries with him two or three good resolutions; I hope they will not mould upon the road.'Piozzi Letters, i. 333.