APPENDIX A.

(Page115,note4.)

There are at least three accounts of this altercation and three versions of the lines. Two of these versions nearly agree. The earliest is found in a letter by Richard Burke, senior, dated Jan. 6, 1773 (Burke Corres. i. 403); the second inThe Annual Registerfor 1776, p. 223; and the third in Miss Reynolds'sRecollections(Croker'sBoswell, 8vo. p. 833). R. Burke places the scene in Reynolds's house. Whether he himself was present is not clear. 'The dean,' he says, 'asserted that after forty-five a man did not improve. "I differ with you, Sir," answered Johnson; "a man may improve, and you yourself have great room for improvement." The dean was confounded, and for the instant silent. Recovering, he said, "On recollection I see no cause to alter my opinion, except I was to call it improvement for a man to grow (which I allow he may) positive, rude, and insolent, and save arguments by brutality."' Neither theAnnual Registernor Miss Reynolds reports the Dean's speech. But she says that 'soon after the ladies withdrew, Dr. Johnson followed them, and sitting down by the lady of the house [that is by herself, if they were at Sir Joshua's] he said, "I am very sorry for having spoken so rudely to the Dean." "You very well may, Sir." "Yes," he said, "it was highly improper to speak in that style to a minister of the gospel, and I am the more hurt on reflecting with what mild dignity he received it."' If Johnson really spoke of the Dean'smild dignity, it is clear that Richard Burke's account is wrong. But it was written just after the scene, and Boswell says there was 'a pretty smart altercation.' Miss Reynolds continues:—'When the Dean came up into the drawing-room, Dr. Johnson immediately rose from his seat, and made him sit on the sofa by him, and with such a beseeching look for pardon and with such fond gestures—literally smoothing down his arms and his knees,' &c. TheAnnual Registersays that Barnard the next day sent the verses addressed to 'Sir Joshua Reynolds & Co.' On the next page I give Richard Burke's version of the lines, and show the various readings.

MISS REYNOLD'S RICHARD BURKE'S VERSION.Annual RegisterVERSIONI lately thought no man aliveCould e'er improve past forty-five,And ventured to assert it;The observation was not new,But seem'd to me so just and true,That none could controvert it.'No, Sir,' says Johnson, ''tis not so;'TisThat'syour mistake, and I can showAn instance, if you doubt it;You who perhaps areYou, Sir, who are nearforty-eight,still Maymuchimprove, 'tis not too late;I wish you'd set about it.'Encouraged thus to mend my faults,I turn'd his counsel in my thoughts,could Which way Ishouldapply it:Genius I knew wasLearning and wit seem'dpast my reach,what none can For who can learnwhere none willteach? whenAnd wit—I could not buy it.Then come, my friends, and try your skill,may Youcan improve me, if you will; inform(My books are at a distance).With you I'll live and learn; and thenInstead of books I shall read men,Solend me your assistance. ToDear Knight of Plympton1301, teach me howunclouded To suffer withunruffledbrow,as And smile serenelikethine,and The jest uncouthortruth severe,Like thee to turnTo such applymy deafest ear, To suchAnd calmly drink my wine. I'll turnThou say'st, not only skill is gain'd,attained But genius too may beobtain'd, attainedinvitation By studiousimitation;Thy temper mild, thy genius fine,study I'llcopytill I makethemmine, theemeditation By constantapplication.Thy art of pleasing teach me, Garrick,reverest (sic) Thou whoreversestodes Pindarick1302,A second time read o'er;Oh! could we read thee backwards too,PastLastthirty years thou shouldst review,And charm us thirty more.If I have thoughts and can't express 'em,Gibbon shall teach me how to dress 'emIn terms select and terse;Jones teach me modesty—and Greek;Smith how to think;Burkehow to speak, BurkAnd Beauclerk to converse.Let Johnson teach me how to placeIn fairest light each borrowed grace,From him I'll learn to write;free and easy Copy hisclear and easystyle, clearAnd from the roughness of his file, familiarlike Growashimself—polite.' like

Horace Walpole, on Dec. 27, 1775, speaks of these verses as if they were fresh. 'They are an answer,' he writes, 'to a gross brutality of Dr. Johnson, to which a properer answer would have been to fling a glass of wine in his face. I have no patience with an unfortunate monster trusting to his helpless deformity for indemnity for any impertinence that his arrogance suggests, and who thinks that what he has read is an excuse for everything he says.' Horace Walpole's Letters,vi. 302. It is strange that Walpole should be so utterly ignorant of Johnson's courage and bodily strength. The date of Walpole's letter makes me suspect that Richard Burke dated his Jan. 6, 1775 (he should have written 1776), and that the blunder of a copyist has changed 1775 into 1773.

(Page238.)

Had Boswell continued the quotation from Priestley's Illustrations of Philosophical Necessityhe would have shown that though Priestley could nothatethe rioters, he could very easilyprosecutethem. He says:—

'If as a Necessarian I cease to blamemen for their vices in the ultimate sense of the word, though, in the common and proper sense of it, I continue to do as much as other persons (for how necessarily soever they act, they are influenced by a base and mischievous disposition of mind, against which I must guard myself and others in proportion as I love myself and others),' &c. Priestley'sWorks, iii. 508.

Of his interview with Johnson, Priestley, in his Appeal to the Public, part ii, published in 1792 (Works, xix. 502), thus writes, answering 'the impudent falsehood that when I was at Oxford Dr. Johnson left a company on my being introduced to it':—

'In fact we never were at Oxford at the same time, and the only interview I ever had with him was at Mr. Paradise's, where we dined together at his own request. He was particularly civil to me, and promised to call upon me the next time he should go through Birmingham. He behaved with the same civility to Dr. Price, when they supped together at Dr. Adams's at Oxford. Several circumstances show that Dr. Johnson had not so much of bigotry at the decline of life as had distinguished him before, on which account it is well known to all our common acquaintance, that I declined all their pressing solicitations to be introduced to him.'

Priestley expresses himself ill, but his meaning can be made out. Parr answered Boswell in the March number of the Gent. Mag.for 1795, p. 179. But the evidence that he brings is rendered needless by Priestley's positive statement. May peace henceforth fall on 'Priestley's injured name.' (Mrs. Barbauld'sPoems, ii. 243.)

When Boswell asserts that Johnson 'was particularly resolute in not giving countenance to men whose writings he considered as pernicious to society,' he forgets that that very summer of 1783 he had been willing to dine at Wilkes's house (ante, p. 224, note 2).

Dr. Franklin (Memoirs, ed. 1833, iii. 157) wrote to Dr. Price in 1784:—'It is said that scarce anybody but yourself and Dr. Priestley possesses the art of knowing how to differ decently.' Gibbon (Misc. Works, i. 304), describing in 1789 the honestest members of the French Assembly, calls them 'a set of wild visionaries, like our Dr. Price, who gravely debate, and dream about the establishment of a pure and perfect democracy of five and twenty millions, the virtues of the golden age, and the primitive rights and equality of mankind.' Admiration of Price made Samuel Rogers, when a boy, wish to be a preacher. 'I thought there was nothing on earth sograndas to figure in a pulpit. Dr. Price lived much in the society of Lord Lansdowne [Earl of Shelburne] and other people of rank; and his manners were extremely polished. In the pulpit he was great indeed.' Rogers'sTable Talk, p. 3.

The full title of the tract mentioned by Boswell is, A small Whole-Length of Dr. Priestley from his Printed Works. It was published in 1792, and is a very poor piece of writing.

Johnson had refused to meet the Abbé Raynal, the author of the Histoire Philosophique et Politique du Commerce des Deux Indes, when he was over in England in 1777. Mrs. Chapone, writing to Mrs. Carter on June 15 of that year, says:—

'I suppose you have heard a great deal of the Abbé Raynal, who is in London. I fancy you would have served him as Dr. Johnson did, to whom when Mrs. Vesey introduced him, he turned from him, and said he had read his book, and would have nothing to say to him.' Mrs. Chapone's Posthumous Works, i. 172.

See Walpole's Letters, v. 421, and vi. 444. His book was burnt by the common hangman in Paris. Carlyle'sFrench Revolution, ed. 1857, i. 45.

(Page 253.)

Hawkins gives the two following notes:—

'DEAR SIR,

'As Mr. Ryland was talking with me of old friends and past times, we warmed ourselves into a wish, that all who remained of the club should meet and dine at the house which once was Horseman's, in Ivy-lane. I have undertaken to solicit you, and therefore desire you to tell on what day next week you can conveniently meet your old friends.

'I am, Sir,

'Your most humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Bolt-court, Nov. 22, 1783.'

'DEAR SIR,

'In perambulating Ivy-lane, Mr. Ryland found neither our landlord Horseman, nor his successor. The old house is shut up, and he liked not the appearance of any near it; he therefore bespoke our dinner at the Queen's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-yard, where, at half an hour after three, your company will be desired to-day by those who remain of our former society.

'Your humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'Dec. 3.'

Four met—Johnson, Hawkins, Ryland, and Payne (ante, i. 243).

'We dined,' Hawkins continues, 'and in the evening regaled with coffee. At ten we broke up, much to the regret of Johnson, who proposed staying; but finding us inclined to separate, he left us with a sigh that seemed to come from his heart, lamenting that he was retiring to solitude and cheerless meditation.' Hawkins's Johnson, p. 562.

Hawkins is mistaken in saying that they had a second meeting at a tavern at the end of a month; for Johnson, on March 10, 1784, wrote:—

'I have been confined from the fourteenth of December, and know not when I shall get out.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 351.

He thus describes these meetings:—

'Dec. 13. I dined about a fortnight ago with three old friends; we had not met together for thirty years, and one of us thought the other grown very old. In the thirty years two of our set have died; our meeting may be supposed to be somewhat tender.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 339.

'Jan. 12, 1784. I had the same old friends to dine with me on Wednesday, and may say that since I lost sight of you I have had one pleasant day.' Ib. p. 346.

'April 15, 1784. Yesterday I had the pleasure of giving another dinner to the remainder of the old club. We used to meet weekly, about the year fifty, and we were as cheerful as in former times; only I could not make quite so much noise, for since the paralytick affliction my voice is sometimes weak.' Ib. p. 361.

'April 19, 1784. The people whom I mentioned in my letter are the remnant of a little club that used to meet in Ivy-lane about three and thirty years ago, out of which we have lost Hawkesworth and Dyer; the rest are yet on this side the grave. Our meetings now are serious, and I think on all parts tender.' Ib. 363.

See ante, i. 191, note 5.

(Page 254.)

It is likely that Sir Joshua Reynolds refused to join the Essex Head Club because he did not wish to meet Barry. Not long before this time he had censured Barry's delay in entering upon his duties as Professor of painting.

'Barry answered:—"If I had no more to do in the composition of my lectures than to produce such poor flimsy stuff as your discourses, I should soon have done my work, and be prepared to read." It is said this speech was delivered with his fist clenched, in a menacing posture.' (Northcote's Life of Reynolds, ii. 146.)

The Hon. Daines Barrington was the author of an Essay on the Migration of Birds(ante, ii. 248) and ofObservations on the Statutes(ante, iii. 314). Horace Walpole wrote on Nov. 24, 1780 (Letters, vii. 464):—

'I am sorry for the Dean of Exeter; if he dies I conclude the leaden mace of the Antiquarian Society will be given to Judge Barrington.' (He was 'second Justice of Chester.')

For Dr. Brocklesby see ante, pp. 176, 230, 338, 400.

Of Mr. John Nichols, Murphy says that 'his attachment to Dr. Johnson was unwearied.' Life of Johnson, p. 66. He was the printer ofThe Lives of the Poets(ante, p. 36), and the author ofBiographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, Printer, 'the last of the learned printers,' whose apprentice he had been (ante, p. 369). Horace Walpole (Letters, viii. 259) says:—

'I scarce ever saw a book so correct as Mr. Nichols's Life of Mr. Bowyer. I wish it deserved the pains he has bestowed on it every way, and that he would not dub so many mengreat. I have known several of hisheroes, who were verylittlemen.'

The Life of Bowyerbeing recast and enlarged was republished under the title ofLiterary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. From 1778 till his death in 1826 theGentleman's Magazinewas in great measure in his hands. Southey, writing in 1804, says:—

'I have begun to take in here at Keswick the Gentleman's Magazine,aliastheOldwomania, to enlighten a Portuguese student among the mountains; it does amuse me by its exquisite inanity, and the glorious and intense stupidity of its correspondents; it is, in truth, a disgrace to the age and the country.' Southey'sLife and Correspondence, ii. 281.

Mr. William Cooke, 'commonly called Conversation Cooke,' wrote Lives of Macklin and Foote. Forster'sEssays, ii. 312, andGent. Mag.1824, p. 374. Mr. Richard Paul Joddrel, or Jodrell, was the author ofThe Persian Heroine, a Tragedy, which, in Baker'sBiog. Dram.i. 400, is wrongly assigned to Sir R.P. Jodrell, M.D. Nichols'sLit. Anec.ix. 2.

For Mr. Paradise see ante, p. 364, note 2.

Dr. Horsley was the controversialist, later on Bishop of St. David's and next of Rochester. Gibbon makes splendid mention of him (Misc. Works, i. 232) when he tells how 'Dr. Priestley's Socinian shield has repeatedly been pierced by the mighty spear of Horsley.' Windham, however, in hisDiaryin one place (p. 125) speaks of him as having his thoughts 'intent wholly on prospects of Church preferment;' and in another place (p. 275) says that 'he often lays down with great confidence what turns out afterwards to be wrong.' In the House of Lords he once said that 'he did not know what the mass of the people in any country had to do with the laws but to obey them.'Parl. Hist. xxxii. 258. Thurlow rewarded him for hisLetters to Priestleyby a stall at Gloucester, 'saying that "those who supported the Church should be supported by it."' Campbell'sChancellors, ed. 1846, v. 635.

For Mr. Windham, see ante, p. 200.

Hawkins (Life of Johnson, p. 567) thus writes of the formation of the Club:—

'I was not made privy to this his intention, but all circumstances considered, it was no matter of surprise to me when I heard that the great Dr. Johnson had, in the month of December 1783, formed a sixpenny club at an ale-house in Essex-street, and that though some of the persons thereof were persons of note, strangers, under restrictions, for three pence each night might three nights in a week hear him talk and partake of his conversation.'

Miss Hawkins (Memoirs, i. 103) says:—

'Boswell was well justified in his resentment of my father's designation of this club as a sixpenny club, meeting at an ale-house. ... Honestly speaking, I dare say my father did not like being passed over.'

Sir Joshua Reynolds, writing of the club, says:—

'Any company was better than none; by which Johnson connected himself with many mean persons whose presence he could command. For this purpose he established a club at a little ale-house in Essex-street, composed of a strange mixture of very learned and very ingenious odd people. Of the former were Dr. Heberden, Mr. Windham, Mr. Boswell, Mr. Steevens, Mr. Paradise. Those of the latter I do not think proper to enumerate.' Taylor's Life of Reynolds, ii. 455.

It is possible that Reynolds had never seen the Essex Head, and that the term 'little ale-house' he had borrowed from Hawkins's account. Possibly too his disgust at Barry here found vent. Murphy (Life of Johnson, p. 124) says:—

'The members of the club were respectable for their rank, their talents, and their literature.'

The 'little ale-house' club saw one of its members, Alderman Clarke (ante, p. 258), Lord Mayor within a year; another, Horsley, a Bishop within five years; and a third, Windham, Secretary at War within ten years. Nichols (Literary Anecdotes, ii. 553) gives a list of the 'constant members' at the time of Johnson's death.

(Page 399.)

Miss Burney's account of Johnson's last days is interesting, but her dates are confused more even than is common with her. I have corrected them as well as I can.

'Dec. 9. He will not, it seems, be talked to—at least very rarely. At times indeed he re-animates; but it is soon over and he says of himself:—"I am now like Macbeth—question enrages me."'

'Dec. 10. At night my father brought us the most dismal tidings of dear Dr. Johnson. He had thanked and taken leave of all his physicians. Alas! I shall lose him, and he will take no leave of me. My father was deeply depressed. I hear from everyone he is now perfectly resigned to his approaching fate, and no longer in terror of death.'

'Dec. 11. My father in the morning saw this first of men. He was up and very composed. He took his hand very kindly, asked after all his family, and then in particular how Fanny did. "I hope," he said, "Fanny did not take it amiss that I did not see her. I was very bad. Tell Fanny to pray for me." After which, still grasping his hand, he made a prayer for himself, the most fervent, pious, humble, eloquent, and touching, my father says, that ever was composed. Oh! would I had heard it! He ended it with Amen! in which my father joined, and was echoed by all present; and again, when my father was leaving him, he brightened up, something of his arch look returned, and he said: "I think I shall throw the ball at Fanny yet."'

'Dec. 12. [Miss Burney called at Bolt-court.] All the rest went away but a Mrs. Davis, a good sort of woman, whom this truly charitable soul had sent for to take a dinner at his house. [See ante, p. 239, note 2.] Mr. Langton then came. He could not look at me, and I turned away from him. Mrs. Davis asked how the Doctor was. "Going on to death very fast," was his mournful answer. "Has he taken," said she, "anything?" "Nothing at all. We carried him some bread and milk—he refused it, and said:—'The less the better.'"'

'Dec. 20. This day was the ever-honoured, ever-lamented Dr. Johnson committed to the earth. Oh, how sad a day to me! My father attended. I could not keep my eyes dry all day; nor can I now in the recollecting it; but let me pass over what to mourn is now so vain.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 333-339.

(Notes on Boswell's note on pages 403-405.)

[F-1] In a letter quoted in Mr. Croker's Boswell, p. 427, Dr. Johnson calls Thomas Johnson 'cousin,' and says that in the last sixteen months he had given him £40. He mentions his death in 1779. Piozzi Letters, ii. 45.

[F-2] Hawkins (Life, p. 603) says that Elizabeth Herne was Johnson's first-cousin, and that he had constantly—how long he does not say—contributed £15 towards her maintenance.

[F-3] For Mauritius Lowe, see ante, iii. 324, and iv. 201.

[F-4] To Mr. Windham, two days earlier, he had given a copy of the New Testament, saying:—'Extremum hoc munus morientis habeto.' Windham'sDiary, p. 28.

[F-5] For Mrs. Gardiner see ante, i. 242.

[F-6] Mr. John Desmoulins was the son of Mrs. Desmoulins (ante, iii. 222, 368), and the grandson of Johnson's god-father, Dr. Swinfen (ante, i. 34). Johnson mentions him in a letter to Mrs. Thrale in 1778. 'Young Desmoulins is taken in anunder-somethingof Drury Lane; he knows not, I believe, his own denomination.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 25.

[F-7] The reference is to The Rambler, No. 41 (not 42 as Boswell says), where Johnson mentions 'those vexations and anxieties with which all human enjoyments are polluted.'

[F-8] Bishop Sanderson described his soul as 'infinitely polluted with sin.' Walton's Lives, ed. 1838, p. 396.

[F-9] Hume, writing in 1742 about his Essays Moral and Political, says:—

'Innys, the great bookseller in Paul's Church-yard, wonders there is not a new edition, for that he cannot find copies for his customers.' J.H. Burton's Hume, i. 143.

[F-10] Nichols (Lit. Anec.ii. 554) says that, on Dec. 7,

'Johnson asked him whether any of the family of Faden the printer were living. Being told that the geographer near Charing Cross was Faden's son, he said, after a short pause:—"I borrowed a guinea of his father near thirty years ago; be so good as to take this, and pay it for me."'

[F-11] Nowhere does Hawkins more shew the malignancy of his character than in his attacks on Johnson's black servant, and through him on Johnson. With the passage in which this offensive caveatis found he brings his work to a close. At the first mention of Frank (Life, p. 328) he says:—

'His first master had in great humanitymade him a Christian, and his last for no assignable reason, nay rather in despite of nature, and to unfit him for being useful according to his capacity, determined to make him a scholar.'

But Hawkins was a brutal fellow. See ante, i. 27, note 2, and 28, note

[F-12] Johnson had written to Taylor on Oct. 23 of this year:—

'"Coming down from a very restless night I found your letter, which made me a little angry. You tell me that recovery is in my power. This indeed I should be glad to hear if I could once believe it. But you mean to charge me with neglecting or opposing my own health. Tell me, therefore, what I do that hurts me, and what I neglect that would help me." This letter is endorsed by Taylor: "This is the last letter. My answer, which were (sic) the words of advice he gave to Mr. Thrale the day he dyed, he resented extremely from me."' Mr. Alfred Morrison'sCollection of Autographs, &c., ii. 343.

'The words of advice' which were given to Mr. Thrale the day beforethe fatal fit seized him, were that he should abstain from full meals.Ante, iv. 84, note 4. Johnson's resentment of Taylor's advice may account for the absence of his name in his will.

[F-13] They were sold in 650 Lots, in a four days' sale. Besides the books there were 146 portraits, of which 61 were framed and glazed. These prints in their frames were sold in lots of 4, 8, and even 10 together, though certainly some of them—and perhaps many—were engravings from Reynolds. The Catalogue of the sale is in the Bodleian Library.

(Notes on Boswell's note on page 408.)

[G-1] Mrs. Piozzi records (Anecdotes, p. 120) that Johnson told her,—

'When Boyse was almost perishing with hunger, and some money was produced to purchase him a dinner, he got a bit of roast beef, but could not eat it without ketch-up; and laid out the last half-guinea he possessed in truffles and mushrooms, eating them in bed too, for want of clothes, or even a shirt to sit up in.'

Hawkins (Life, p. 159) gives 1740 as the year of Boyse's destitution.

'He was,' he says, 'confined to a bed which had no sheets; here, to procure food, he wrote; his posture sitting up in bed, his only covering a blanket, in which a hole was made to admit of the employment of his arm.'

Two years later Boyse wrote the following verses to Cave from a spunging-house:—

'Hodie, teste coelo summo,Sine pane, sine nummo,Sorte positus infeste,Scribo tibi dolens moeste.Fame, bile tumet jecur:Urbane, mitte opem, precor.Tibi enim cor humanumNon a malis alienum:Mihi mens nee male grato,Pro a te favore dato.Ex gehenna debitoria,Vulgo, domo spongiatoria.'

He adds that he hopes to have his Ode on the British Nationdone that day. ThisOde, which is given in theGent. Mag.1742, p. 383, contains the following verse, which contrasts sadly with the poor poet's case:—

'Thou, sacred isle, amidst thy ambient main,Enjoyst the sweets of freedomall thy own.'

[G-2] It is not likely that Johnson called a sixpence 'a serious consideration.' He who in his youth would not let his comrades say prodigious(ante/, in. 303) was not likely in his old age so to misuse a word.

[G-3] Hugh Kelly is mentioned ante, ii. 48, note 2, and iii. 113.

[G-4] It was not on the return from Sky, but on the voyage from Sky to Rasay, that the spurs were lost. Post, v. 163.

[G-5] Dr. White's Bampton Lecturesof 1784 'became part of the triumphant literature of the University of Oxford,' and got the preacher a Christ Church Canonry. Of theseLecturesDr. Parr had written about one-fifth part. White, writing to Parr about a passage in the manuscript of the last Lecture, said:—'I fear I did not clearly explain myself; I humbly beg the favour of you to make my meaning more intelligible.' On the death of Mr. Badcock in 1788, a note for £500 from White was found in his pocket-book. White pretended that this was remuneration for some other work; but it was believed on good grounds that Badcock had begun what Parr had completed, and that these famousLectureswere mainly their work. Badcock was one of the writers in theMonthly Review. Johnstone'sLife of Dr. Parr, i. 218-278. For Badcock's correspondence with the editor of theMonthly Review, seeBodleianMS.Add.

C. 90.

[G-6] 'Virgilium vidi tantum.' Ovid, Tristia, iv. 10. 51.

[G-7] Mackintosh says of Priestley:—'Frankness and disinterestedness in the avowal of his opinion were his point of honour.' He goes on to point out that there was 'great mental power in him wasted and scattered.' Life of Mackintosh, i. 349. Seeante, ii. 124, and iv. 238 for Johnson's opinion of Priestley.

[G-8] Badcock, in using the term 'index-scholar,' was referring no doubt to Pope's lines:—

'How Index-learning turns no student pale,Yet holds the eel of science by the tail.'

Dunciad, i. 279.

(Notes on Boswell's note on pages 421-422.)

[H-1] The last lines of the inscription on this urn are borrowed, with a slight change, from the last paragraph of the last Rambler/. (Johnson'sWorks, iii. 465, andante, i. 226.) Johnson visited Colonel Myddelton on August 29, 1774, in his Tour to Wales. Seepost, v. 453.

[H-2] Johnson, writing to Dr. Taylor on Sept. 3, 1783, said:—'I sat to Opey (sic) as long as he desired, and I think the head is finished, but it is not much admired.' Notes and Queries, 6th S. v. 481. Hawkins (Life of Johnson, p. 569) says that in 1784 'Johnson resumed sitting to Opie, but,' he adds, 'I believe the picture was never finished.'

[H-3] Of this picture, which was the one painted for Beauclerk (ante, p. 180), it is stated in Johnson'sWork, ed. 1787, xi. 204, that 'there is in it that appearance of a labouring working mind, of an indolent reposing body, which he had to a very great degree.'

[H-4] It seems almost certain that the portrait of Johnson in the Common Room of University College, Oxford, is this very mezzotinto. It was given to the College by Sir William Scott, and it is a mezzotinto from Opie's portrait. It has been reproduced for this work, and will be found facing page 244 of volume iii. Scott's inscription on the back of the frame is given on page 245, note 3, of the same volume.

(Page424.)

Boswell most likely never knew that in the year 1790 Mr. Seward, in the name of Cadell the publisher, had asked Parr to write a Life of Johnson. (Johnstone'sLife of Parr, iv. 678.) Parr, in his amusing vanity, was as proud of thisLifeas if he had written it. '"It would have been," he said, "the third most learned work that has ever yet appeared. The most learned work ever published I consider BentleyOn the Epistles of Phalaris; the next SalmasiusOn the Hellenistic Language." Alluding to Boswell's Life he continued, "Mine should have been, not the droppings of his lips, but the history of his mind."' Field'sLife of Parr, i. 164.

In the epitaph that he first sent in were found the words 'Probabili Poetae.'

'In arms,' wrote Parr, 'were all the Johnsonians: Malone, Steevens, Sir W. Scott, Windham, and even Fox, all in arms. The epithet was cold. They do not understand it, and I am a Scholar, not a Belles-Lettres man.'

Parr had wished to pass over all notice of Johnson's poetical character. To this, Malone said, none of his friends of the Literary Club would agree. He pointed out also that Parr had not noticed 'that part of Johnson's genius, which placed him on higher ground than perhaps any other quality that can be named—the universality of his knowledge, the promptness of his mind in producing it on all occasions in conversation, and the vivid eloquence with which he clothed his thoughts, however suddenly called upon.' Parr, regardless of Johnson's rule that 'in lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath' (ante, ii. 407), replied, that if he mentioned his conversation he should have to mention also his roughness in contradiction, &c. As for the epithetprobabili, he 'never reflected upon it without almost a triumphant feeling in its felicity.' Nevertheless he would change it into 'poetae sententiarum et verborum ponderibus admirabili.' Yet these words, 'energetic and sonorous' though they were, 'fill one with a secret and invincible loathing, because they tend to introduce into the epitaph a character of magnificence.' With every fresh objection he rose in importance. He wrote for the approbation of real scholars of generations yet unborn. 'That the epitaph was written by such or such a man will, from the publicity of the situation, and the popularity of the subject, be long remembered.' Johnstone'sLife of Parr, iv. 694-712. No objection seems to have been raised to the five pompous lines of perplexing dates and numerals in which no room is found even for Johnson's birth and birth-place.

'After I had written the epitaph,' wrote Parr to a friend, 'Sir Joshua Reynolds told me there was a scroll. I was in a rage. A scroll! Why, Ned, this is vile modern contrivance. I wanted one train of ideas. What could I do with the scroll? Johnson held it, and Johnson must speak in it. I thought of this, his favourite maxim, in the Life of Milton, [Johnson's Works, vii. 77],

"[Greek: Otti toi en megaroisi kakon t agathon te tetuktai.]."

In Homer [Odyssey, iv. 392] you know—and shewing the excellence of Moral Philosophy. There Johnson and Socrates agree. Mr. Seward, hearing of my difficulty, and no scholar, suggested the closing line in theRambler[ante, i. 226, note 1]; had I looked there I should have anticipated the suggestion. It is the closing line in Dionysius'sPeriegesis,

"[Greek: Anton ek makaron antaxios eiae amoibae.]."

I adopted it, and gave Seward the praise. "Oh," quoth Sir William Scott, "[Greek: makaron]is Heathenish, and the Dean and Chapter will hesitate." "The more fools they," said I. But to prevent disputes I have altered it.

"[Greek: En makaressi ponon antaxios ein amoibae]."Johnstone's Life of Parr, iv. 713.

Though the inscription on the scroll is not strictly speaking part of the epitaph, yet this mixture of Greek and Latin is open to the censure Johnson passed on Pope's Epitaph on Craggs.

'It may be proper to remark,' he said, 'the absurdity of joining in the same inscription Latin and English, or verse and prose. If either language be preferable to the other, let that only be used; for no reason can be given why part of the information should be given in one tongue and part in another on a tomb more than in any other place, or on any other occasion.' Johnson's Works, viii. 353.

Bacon the sculptor was anxious, wrote Malone, 'that posterity should know that he was entitled to annex R.A. to his name.' Parr was ready to give his name, lest if it were omitted 'Bacon should slily put the figure of a hog on Johnson's monument'; just as 'Saurus and Batrachus, when Octavia would not give them leave to set their names on the Temples they had built in Rome, scattered one of them [Greek: saurai] [lizards], and the other [Greek: batrachoi] [frogs] on the bases and capitals of the columns.' But as for the R.A., the sculptor 'very reluctantly had to agree to its omission.' Johnstone's Parr, iv. 705 and 710.

[1]Nothing can compensate for this want this year of all years. Johnson's health was better than it had been for long, and his mind happier perhaps than it had ever been. The knowledge that in his Lives of the Poets, he had done, and was doing good work, no doubt was very cheering to him. At no time had he gone more into society, and at no time does he seem to have enjoyed it with greater relish. 'How do you think I live?' he wrote on April 25. 'On Thursday, I dined with Hamilton, and went thence to Mrs. Ord. On Friday, with much company at Reynolds's. On Saturday, at Dr. Bell's. On Sunday, at Dr. Burney's; at night, came Mrs. Ord, Mr. Greville, &c. On Monday with Reynolds, at night with Lady Lucan; to-day with Mr. Langton; to-morrow with the Bishop of St. Asaph; on Thursday with Mr. Bowles; Friday ——; Saturday, at the Academy; Sunday with Mr. Ramsay.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 107. On May 1, he wrote:—'At Mrs. Ord's, I met one Mrs. B—— [Buller], a travelled lady, of great spirit, and some consciousness of her own abilities. We had a contest of gallantry an hour long, so much to the diversion of the company that at Ramsay's last night, in a crowded room, they would have pitted us again. There were Smelt, [one of the King's favourites] and the Bishop of St. Asaph, who comes to every place; and Lord Monboddo, and Sir Joshua, and ladies out of tale.'Ib. p. 111. The account that Langton gives of the famous evening at Mrs. Vesey's, 'when the company began to collect round Johnson till they became not less than four, if not five deep (ante, May 2, 1780), is lively enough; but 'the particulars of the conversation' which he neglects, Boswell would have given us in full.

[2]In 1792, Miss Burney, after recording that Boswell told some of his Johnsonian stories, continues:—'Mr. Langton told some stories in imitation of Dr. Johnson; but they became him less than Mr. Boswell, and only reminded me of what Dr. Johnson himself once said to me—"Every man has some time in his life an ambition to be a wag."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, v. 307.

[3]Stephanorum Historia, vitas ipsorum ac libros complectens. London,

1709.

[4]Seniliawas published in 1742. The line to which Johnson refers is, 'Mel, nervos, fulgur, Carteret, unus, habes,' p. 101. In another line, the poet celebrates Colley Cibber's Muse—theMusa Cibberi: 'Multa Cibberum levat aura.' p. 50. See Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1843, i. 367.

[5]Graecae Linguae Dialecti in Scholae Westmonast. usum, 1738.

[6]Giannone, an Italian historian, born 1676, died 1748. When he published his History of the Kingdom of Naples, a friend congratulating him on its success, said:—'Mon ami, vous vous êtes mis une couronne sur la tête, mais une couronne d'épines.' His attacks on the Church led to persecution, in the end he made a retractation, but nevertheless he died in prison.Nouv. Biog. Gén.xx. 422.

[7]See ante, ii. 119.

[8]'There is no kind of impertinence more justly censurable than his who is always labouring to level thoughts to intellects higher than his own; who apologises for every word which his own narrowness of converse inclines him to think unusual; keeps the exuberance of his faculties under visible restraint; is solicitous to anticipate inquiries by needless explanations; and endeavours to shade his own abilities lest weak eyes should be dazzled with their lustre.' The Rambler, No. 173.

[9]Johnson, in his Dictionary, definesAnfractuousnessasFulness of windings and turnings.Anfractuosityis not given. Lord Macaulay, in the last sentence in hisBiography of Johnson, alludes to this passage.

[10]See ante, iii. 149, note 2.

[11]'My purpose was to admit no testimony of living authors, that I might not be misled by partiality, and that none of my contemporaries might have reason to complain; nor have I departed from this resolution, but when some performance of uncommon excellence excited my veneration, when my memory supplied me from late books with an example that was wanting, or when my heart, in the tenderness of friendship, solicited admission for a favourite name.' Johnson's Works, v. 39. He cites himself underimportant, Mrs. Lennox undertalent, Garrick undergiggler; from Richardson'sClarissa, he makes frequent quotations. In the fourth edition, published in 1773 (ante, ii. 203), he often quotes Reynolds; for instance, undervulgarism, which word is not in the previous editions. Beattie he quotes underweak, and Gray underbosom. He introduces also many quotations from Law, and Young. In the earlier editions, in his quotations fromClarissa, he very rarely gives the author's name; in the fourth edition I have found it rarely omitted.

[12]In one of his Hypochondriacks(London Mag.1782, p. 233) Boswell writes:—'I have heard it remarked by one, of whom more remarks deserve to be remembered than of any person I ever knew, that a man is often as narrow as he is prodigal for want of counting.'

[13]'Sept. 1778. We began talking of Irene, and Mrs. Thrale made Dr. Johnson read some passages which I had been remarking as uncommonly applicable to the present time. He read several speeches, and told us he had not ever read so much of it before since it was first printed.' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, i. 96. 'I was told,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'that a gentleman called Pot, or some such name, was introduced to him as a particular admirer of his. The Doctor growled and took no further notice. "He admires in especial yourIreneas the finest tragedy modern times;" to which the Doctor replied, "If Pot says so, Pot lies!" and relapsed into his reverie.'Croker Corres.ii. 32.

[14]Scrupulositywas a word that Boswell had caught up from Johnson. Sir W. Jones (Life, i. 177) wrote in 1776:—'You will be able to examine with the minutestscrupulosity, as Johnson would call it.' Johnson describes Addison's prose as 'pure without scrupulosity.'Works, vii. 472. 'Swift,' he says, 'washed himself with oriental scrupulosity.'Ib.viii. 222. Boswell (Hebrides, Aug. 15) writes of 'scrupulosity of conscience.'

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