Chapter 17

[15]

'When thou didst not, savage,Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble likeA thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposesWith words that made them known.'The Tempest, act i. sc. 2.

[16]Secretary to the British Herring Fishery, remarkable for an extraordinary number of occasional verses, not of eminent merit. BOSWELL. See ante, i. 115, note i. Lockman was known in France as the translator of Voltaire'sLa Henriade. See Marmontel's Preface. Voltaire'sWorks, ed. 1819, viii. 18.

[17]Lukevii. 50. BOSWELL.

[18]Miss Burney, describing him in 1783, says:—'He looks unformed in his manners and awkward in his gestures. He joined not one word in the general talk.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 237. Seeante, ii. 41, note 1.

[19]By Garrick.

[20]See ante, i. 201.

[21]See post, under Sept. 30, 1783.

[22]The actor. Churchill introduces him in The Rosciad(Poems, i. 16):—'Next Holland came. With truly tragic stalk, He creeps, he flies. A Hero should not walk.'

[23]In a letter written by Johnson to a friend in 1742-43, he says: 'I never see Garrick.' MALONE.

[24]See ante, ii. 227.

[25]The Wonder! A Woman keeps a Secret, by Mrs. Centlivre. Acted at Drury Lane in 1714. Revived by Garrick in 1757. Reed'sBiog. Dram. iii. 420.

[26]In Macbeth.

[27]Mr. Longley was Recorder of Rochester, and father of Archbishop Longley. To the kindness of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Newton Smart, I owe the following extract from his manuscript Autobiography:—'Dr. Johnson and General Paoli came down to visit Mr. Langton, and I was asked to meet them, when the conversation took place mentioned by Boswell, in which Johnson gave me more credit for knowledge of the Greek metres than I deserved. There was some question about anapaestics, concerning which I happened to remember what Foster used to tell us at Eton, that the whole line to theBasis Anapaesticawas considered but as one verse, however divided in the printing, and consequently the syllables at the end of each line were not common, as in other metres. This observation was new to Johnson, and struck him. Had he examined me farther, I fear he would have found me ignorant. Langton was a very good Greek scholar, much superior to Johnson, to whom nevertheless he paid profound deference, sometimes indeed I thought more than he deserved. The next day I dined at Langton's with Johnson, I remember Lady Rothes [Langton's wife] spoke of the advantage children now derived from the little books published purposely for their instruction. Johnson controverted it, asserting that at an early age it was better to gratify curiosity with wonders than to attempt planting truth, before the mind was prepared to receive it, and that therefore,Jack the Giant-Killer, Parisenus and Parismenus, andThe Seven Champions of Christendomwere fitter for them than Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer.' Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 16) says:—'Dr. Johnson used to condemn me for putting Newbery's books into children's hands. "Babies do not want," said he, "to hear about babies; they like to be told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and stimulate their little minds." When I would urge the numerous editions ofTommy PrudentorGoody Two Shoes; "Remember always," said he, "that the parents buy the books, and that the children never read them.'" For Johnson's visit to Rochester, seepost, July, 1783.

[28]See post, beginning of 1781, afterThe Life of Swift, and Boswell'sHebrides, Oct. 15.

[29]See ante, under Sept. 9, 1779.

[30]Johnson wrote of this grotto (Works, viii. 270):—'It may be frequently remarked of the studious and speculative that they are proud of trifles, and that their amusements seem frivolous and childish.'

[31]See ante, i. 332.

[32]Epilogue to the Satires, i. 131. Dr. James Foster, the Nonconformist preacher. Johnson mentions 'the reputation which he had gained by his proper delivery.'Works, viii. 384. InThe Conversations of Northcote, p. 88, it is stated that 'Foster first became popular from the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke stopping in the porch of his chapel in the Old Jewry out of a shower of rain: and thinking he might as well hear what was going on he went in, and was so well pleased that he sent all the great folks to hear him, and he was run after as much as Irving has been in our time.' Dr. T. Campbell (Diary, p. 34) recorded in 1775, that 'when Mrs. Thrale quoted something from Foster'sSermons, Johnson flew in a passion, and said that Foster was a man of mean ability, and of no original thinking.' Gibbon (Misc. Works, v. 300) wrote of Foster:—'Wonderful! a divine preferring reason to faith, and more afraid of vice than of heresy.'

[33]It is believed to have been her play of The Sister, brought out in 1769. 'The audience expressed their disapprobation of it with so much appearance of prejudice that she would not suffer an attempt to exhibit it a second time.'Gent. Mag.xxxix. 199. It is strange, however, if Goldsmith was asked to hiss a play for which he wrote the epilogue. Goldsmith'sMisc. Works, ii. 80. Johnson wrote on Oct. 28, 1779 (Piozzi Letters, ii. 72):—'C—— L—— accuses —— of making a party against her play. I always hissed away the charge, supposing him a man of honour; but I shall now defend him with less confidence.' Baretti, in a marginal note, says that C—— L—— is 'Charlotte Lennox.' Perhaps —— stands for Cumberland. Miss Burney said that 'Mr. Cumberland is notorious for hating and envying and spiting all authors in the dramatic line.' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, i. 272.

[34]See ante, i. 255.

[35]In The Rambler, No. 195, Johnson describes rascals such as this man. 'They hurried away to the theatre, full of malignity and denunciations against a man whose name they had never heard, and a performance which they could not understand; for they were resolved to judge for themselves, and would not suffer the town to be imposed upon by scribblers. In the pit they exerted themselves with great spirit and vivacity; called out for the tunes of obscene songs, talked loudly at intervals of Shakespeare and Jonson,' &c.

[36]See ante, ii. 469.

[37]Dr. Percy told Malone 'that they all at the Club had such a high opinion of Mr. Dyer's knowledge and respect for his judgment as to appeal to him constantly, and that his sentence was final.' Malone adds that 'he was so modest and reserved, that he frequently sat silent in company for an hour, and seldom spoke unless appealed to. Goldsmith, who used to rattle away upon allsubjects, had been talking somewhat loosely relative to music. Some one wished for Mr. Dyer's opinion, which he gave with his usual strength and accuracy. "Why," said Goldsmith, turning round to Dyer, whom he had scarcely noticed before, "you seem to know a good deal of this matter." "If I had not," replied Dyer, "I should not, in this company, have said a word upon the subject."' Burke described him as 'a man of profound and general erudition; his sagacity and judgment were fully equal to the extent of his learning.' Prior'sMalone, pp. 419, 424. Malone in hisLife of Dryden, p. 181, says that Dyer wasJunius. Johnson speaks of him as 'the late learned Mr. Dyer.'Works, viii. 385. Had he been alive he was to have been the professor of mathematics in the imaginary college at St. Andrews. Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 25. Many years after his death, Johnson bought his portrait to hang in 'a little room that he was fitting up with prints.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 639.

[38]Memoirs of Agriculture and other Oeconomical Arts, 3 vols., by Robert Dossie, London, 1768-82.

[39]See ante, ii. 14.

[40]Here Lord Macartney remarks, 'A Bramin or any cast of the Hindoos will neither admit you to be of their religion, nor be converted to yours;—a thing which struck the Portuguese with the greatest astonishment, when they first discovered the East Indies.' BOSWELL.

[41]See ante, ii. 250.

[42]See ante, Aug. 30, 1780.

[43]John, Lord Carteret, and Earl Granville, who died Jan. 2, 1763. It is strange that he wrote so ill; for Lord Chesterfield says (Misc. Works, iv.Appendix, p. 42) that 'he had brought away with him from Oxford, a great stock of Greek and Latin, and had made himself master of all the modern languages. He was one of the best speakers in the House of Lords, both in the declamatory and argumentative way.'

[44]Walpole describes the partiality of the members of the court-martial that sat on Admiral Keppel in Jan. 1779. One of them 'declared frankly that he should not attend to forms of law, but to justice.' So friendly were the judges to the prisoner that 'it required the almost unanimous voice of the witnesses in favour of his conduct, and the vile arts practised against him, to convince all mankind how falsely and basely he had been accused.' Walpole, referring to the members, speaks of 'the feelings of seamen unused to reason.' Some of the leading politicians established themselves at Portsmouth during the trial. Journal of the Reign of George III, ii. 329

[45]See ante, ii. 240.

[46]In all Gray's Odes, there is a kind of cumbrous splendour which we wish away.... The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural violence. "Double, double, toil and trouble." He has a kind of strutting dignity, and is tall by walking on tip-toe. His art and his struggle are too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature.' Johnson'sWorks, viii. 484-87. Seeante, i. 402, and ii. 327, 335.

[47]One evening, in the Haymarket Theatre, 'when Foote lighted the King to his chair, his majesty asked who [sic] the piece was written by? "By one of your Majesty's chaplains," said Foote, unable even then to suppress his wit; "and dull enough to have been written by a bishop."' Forster's Essays, ii. 435. Seeante, i. 390, note 3.

[48]Bk. v. ch. 1.

[49]See ante, ii. 133, note 1; Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 27, and Oct. 28.

[50]The correspondent of The Gentleman's Magazine[1792, p. 214] who subscribes himself SCIOLUS furnishes the following supplement:—

'A lady of my acquaintance remembers to have heard her uncle sing those homely stanzas more than forty-five years ago. He repeated the second thus:—

She shall breed young lords and ladies fair,And ride abroad in a coach and three pair,And the best, &c.And have a house, &c.

And remembered a third which seems to have been the introductory one, and is believed to have been the only remaining one:—

When the Duke of Leeds shall have made his choiceOf a charming young lady that's beautiful and wise,She'll be the happiest young gentlewoman under the skies,As long as the sun and moon shall rise,And how happy shall, &c.

It is with pleasure I add that this stanza could never be more truly applied than at this present time. BOSWELL. This note was added to the second edition.

[51]See ante, i. 115, note 1.

[52]See ante, i. 82.

[53]Baretti, in a MS. note on Piozzi Letters, i. 121, says:—'Johnson was a realtrue-born Englishman. He hated the Scotch, the French, the Dutch, the Hanoverians, and had the greatest contempt for all other European nations; such were his early prejudices which he never attempted to conquer.' Reynolds wrote of Johnson:—'The prejudices he had to countries did not extend to individuals. In respect to Frenchmen he rather laughed at himself, but it was insurmountable. He considered every foreigner as a fool till they had convinced him of the contrary.' Taylor'sReynolds, ii. 460. Garrick wrote of the French in 1769:—'Theirpolitessehas reduced their character to such a sameness, and their humours and passions are so curbed by habit, that, when you have seen half-a-dozen French men and women, you have seen the whole.'Garrick Corres. i. 358.

[54]'There is not a man or woman here,' wrote Horace Walpole from Paris (Lettersiv. 434), 'that is not a perfect old nurse, and who does not talk gruel and anatomy with equal fluency and ignorance.'

[55]'"I remember that interview well," said Dr. Parr with great vehemence when once reminded of it; "I gave him no quarter." The subject of our dispute was the liberty of the press. Dr. Johnson was very great. Whilst he was arguing, I observed that he stamped. Upon this I stamped. Dr. Johnson said, "Why did you stamp, Dr. Parr?" I replied, "Because you stamped; and I was resolved not to give you the advantage even of a stamp in the argument."' This, Parr said, was by no means his first introduction to Johnson. Field's Parr, i. 161. Parr wrote to Romilly in 1811:—'Pray let me ask whether you have ever read some admirable remarks of Mr. Hutcheson upon the wordmerit. I remember a controversy I had with Dr. Johnson upon this very term: we began with theology fiercely, I gently carried the conversation onward to philosophy, and after a dispute of more than three hours he lost sight of my heresy, and came over to my opinion upon the metaphysical import of the term.'Life of Romilly, ii. 365. When Parr was a candidate for the mastership of Colchester Grammar School, Johnson wrote for him a letter of recommendation. Johnstone'sParr, i. 94.

[56]'Somebody was praising Corneille one day in opposition to Shakespeare. "Corneille is to Shakespeare," replied Mr. Johnson, "as a clipped hedge is to a forest."' Piozzi's Anec. p. 59.

[57]Johnson, it is clear, discusses here Mrs. Montagu's Essay on Shakespeare. She compared Shakespeare first with Corneille, and then with Aeschylus. In contrasting the ghost inHamletwith the shade of Darius inThe Persians, she says:—'The phantom, who was to appear ignorant of what was past, that the Athenian ear might be soothed and flattered with the detail of their victory at Salamis, is allowed, for the same reason, such prescience as to foretell their future triumph at Plataea.' p. 161.

[58]Caution is required in everything which is laid before youth, to secure them from unjust prejudices, perverse opinions, and incongruous combinations of images. In the romances formerly written, every transaction and sentiment was so remote from all that passes among men, that the reader was in very little danger of making any applications to himself.' The Rambler, No. 4.

[59]Johnson says of Pope's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day:—'The next stanzas place and detain us in the dark and dismal regions of mythology, where neither hope nor fear, neither joy nor sorrow can be found.'Works, viii. 328. Of Gray'sProgress of Poetry, he says:—'The second stanza, exhibiting Mars' car and Jove's eagle, is unworthy of further notice. Criticism disdains to chase a school-boy to his common-places.'Ib. p. 484.

[60]See ante, ii. 178.

[61]

'A Wizard-Dame, the Lover's ancient friend,With magic charm has deaft thy husband's ear,At her command I saw the stars descend,And winged lightnings stop in mid career, &c.'

Hammond. Elegy, v. In Boswell'sHebrides(Sept. 29), he said 'Hammond'sLove Elegieswere poor things.'

[62]Perhaps Lord Corke and Orrery. Ante, iii. 183. CROKER.

[63]Colman assumed that Johnson had maintained that Shakespeare was totally ignorant of the learned languages. He then quotes a line to prove 'that the author of The Taming of the Shrewhad at least read Ovid;' and continues:—'And what does Dr. Johnson say on this occasion? Nothing. And what does Mr. Farmer say on this occasion? Nothing.' Colman'sTerence, ii. 390. For Farmer, seeante, iii. 38.

[64]'It is most likely that Shakespeare had learned Latin sufficiently to make him acquainted with construction, but that he never advanced to an easy perusal of the Roman authors.' Johnson's Works, V. 129. 'The style of Shakespeare was in itself ungrammatical, perplexed, and obscure.'Ib. p. 135.

[65]

'May I govern my passion withan absolute sway,And grow wiser and better, asmy strength wears away,Without gout or stone by agentle decay.'

The Old Man's Wishwas sung to Sir Roger de Coverley by 'the fair one,' after the collation in which she ate a couple of chickens, and drank a full bottle of wine.Spectator, No. 410. 'What signifies our wishing?' wrote Dr. Franklin. 'I have sung thatwishing songa thousand times when I was young, and now find at fourscore that the three contraries have befallen me, being subject to the gout and the stone, and not being yet master of all my passions.' Franklin'sMemoirs, iii. 185.

[66]He uses the same image in The Life of Milton(Works, vii. 104):—'He might still be a giant among the pigmies, the one-eyed monarch of the blind.' Cumberland (Memoirs, i. 39) says that Bentley, hearing it maintained that Barnes spoke Greek almost like his mother tongue, replied:—'Yes, I do believe that Barnes had as much Greek and understood it about as well as an Athenian blacksmith.' Seeante, iii 284. A passage in Wooll'sLife of Dr. Warton(i. 313) shews that Barnes attempted to prove that Homer and Solomon were one and the same man. But I. D'Israeli says that it was reported that Barnes, not having money enough to publish his edition ofHomer, 'wrote a poem, the design of which is to prove that Solomon was the author of theIliad, to interest his wife, who had some property, to lend her aid towards the publication of so divine a work.'Calamities of Authors, i. 250.

[67]'The first time Suard saw Burke, who was at Reynolds's, Johnson touched him on the shoulder and said, "Le grand Burke."' Boswelliana, p. 299. See ante, ii. 450.

[68]Miss Hawkins (Memoirs, i. 279, 288) says that Langton told her father that he meant to give his six daughters such a knowledge of Greek, 'that while five of them employed themselves in feminine works, the sixth should read a Greek author for the general amusement.' She describes how 'he would get into the most fluent recitation of half a page of Greek, breaking off for fear of wearying, by saying, "and so it goes on," accompanying his words with a gentle wave of his hand.'

[69]See post, p. 42.

[70]See ante, i. 326.

[71]This assertion concerning Johnson's insensibility to the pathetick powers of Otway, is too round. I once asked him, whether he did not think Otway frequently tender: when he answered, 'Sir, he is all tenderness.' BURNEY. He describes Otway as 'one of the first names in the English drama.'Works, vii. 173.

[72]See ante, April 16, 1779.

[73]Johnson; it seems, took up this study. In July, 1773, he recorded that between Easter and Whitsuntide, he attempted to learn the Low Dutch language. 'My application,' he continues, 'was very slight, and my memory very fallacious, though whether more than in my earlier years, I am not very certain.' Pr. and Med.p. 129, and ante, ii. 263. On his death-bed, he said to Mr. Hoole:—'About two years since I feared that I had neglected God, and that then I had not amindto give him; on which I set about to readThomas à Kempisin Low Dutch, which I accomplished, and thence I judged that my mind was not impaired, Low Dutch having no affinity with any of the languages which I knew.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 844. See ante, iii. 235.

[74]See post, under July 5, 1783.

[75]See ante, ii. 409, and iii. 197.

[76]One of Goldsmith's friends 'remembered his relating [about the year 1756] a strange Quixotic scheme he had in contemplation of going to decipher the inscriptions on the written mountains, though he was altogether ignorant of Arabic, or the language in which they might be supposed to be written.' Goldsmith'sMisc. Works, ed. 1801, i. 40. Percy says that Goldsmith applied to the prime minister, Lord Bute, for a salary to enable him to execute 'the visionary project' mentioned in the text. 'To prepare the way, he drew up that ingenious essay on this subject which was first printed in theLedger, and afterwards in hisCitizen of the World[No. 107].'Ib. p. 65. Percy adds that the Earl of Northumberland, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, regretted 'that he had not been made acquainted with his plan; for he would have procured him a sufficient salary on the Irish establishment.' Goldsmith, in his review of Van Egmont'sTravels in Asia, says:—'Could we see a man set out upon this journey [to Asia] not with an intent to consider rocks and rivers, but the manners, and the mechanic inventions, and the imperfect learning of the inhabitants; resolved to penetrate into countries as yet little known, and eager to pry into all their secrets, with an heart not terrified at trifling dangers; if there could be found a man who could unite this true courage with sound learning, from such a character we might hope much information.' Goldsmith'sWorks, ed. 1854, iv. 225. Johnson would have gone to Constantinople, as he himself said, had he received his pension twenty years earlier.Post, p. 27.

[77]It should be remembered, that this was said twenty-five or thirty years ago, [written in 1799,] when lace was very generally worn. MALONE. 'Greek and Latin,' said Porson, 'are only luxuries.' Rogers's Table Talk, p. 325.

[78]See ante, iii. 8.

[79]Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Cowley, says, that these are 'the only English verses which Bentley is known to have written.' I shall here insert them, and hope my readers will apply them.

'Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill,And thence poetick laurels bring,Must first acquire due force and skill,Must fly with swan's or eagle's wing.Who Nature's treasures would explore,Her mysteries and arcana know;Must high as lofty Newton soar,Must stoop as delving Woodward low.Who studies ancient laws and rites,Tongues, arts, and arms, and history;Must drudge, like Selden, days and nights,And in the endless labour die.Who travels in religious jars,(Truth mixt with errour, shades with rays;)Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars,In ocean wide or sinks or strays.But grant our hero's hope, long toilAnd comprehensive genius crown,All sciences, all arts his spoil,Yet what reward, or what renown?Envy, innate in vulgar souls,Envy steps in and stops his rise,Envy with poison'd tarnish foulsHis lustre, and his worth decries.He lives inglorious or in want,To college and old books confin'd;Instead of learn'd he's call'd pedant,Dunces advanc'd, he's left behind:Yet left content a genuine Stoick he,Great without patron, rich without South Sea.' BOSWELL.

In Mr. Croker's octavo editions, artsin the fifth stanza is changed intohearts. J. Boswell, jun., gives the following reading of the first four lines of the last stanza, not fromDodsley's Collection, but from an earlier one, calledThe Grove.

'Inglorious or by wants inthralled,To college and old books confined,A pedant from his learning called,Dunces advanced, he's left behind.'

[80]Bentley, in the preface to his edition of Paradise Lost, says:—

'Sunt et mihi carmina; me quoque dicuntVatem pastores: sed non ego credulus illis.'

[81]The difference between Johnson and Smith is apparent even in this slight instance. Smith was a man of extraordinary application, and had his mind crowded with all manner of subjects; but the force, acuteness, and vivacity of Johnson were not to be found there. He had book-making so much in his thoughts, and was so chary of what might be turned to account in that way, that he once said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he made it a rule, when in company, never to talk of what he understood. Beauclerk had for a short time a pretty high opinion of Smith's conversation. Garrick, after listening to him for a while, as to one of whom his expectations had been raised, turned slyly to a friend, and whispered him, 'What say you to this?—eh? flabby, I think.' BOSWELL. Dr. A. Carlyle (Auto. p. 279), says:—'Smith's voice was harsh and enunciation thick, approaching to stammering. His conversation was not colloquial, but like lecturing. He was the most absent man in company that I ever saw, moving his lips, and talking to himself, and smiling in the midst of large companies. If you awaked him from his reverie and made him attend to the subject of conversation, he immediately began a harangue, and never stopped till he told you all he knew about it, with the utmost philosophical ingenuity.' Dugald Stewart (Life of Adam Smith, p. 117) says that 'his consciousness of his tendency to absence rendered his manner somewhat embarrassed in the company of strangers.' But 'to his intimate friends, his peculiarities added an inexpressible charm to his conversation, while they displayed in the most interesting light the artless simplicity of his heart.'Ib. p. 113. See also Walpole'sLetters, vi. 302, andante, ii. 430, note 1.

[82]Garrick himself was a good deal of an infidel: see ante, ii. 85, note 7.

[83]Ante, i. 181.

[84]The Tempest, act iv. sc. i. In The Rambler, No. 127, Johnson writes of men who have 'borne opposition down before them, and left emulation panting behind.' He quotes (Works, vii. 261) the following couplet by Dryden:—

'Fate after him below with pain did move,And victory could scarce keep pace above.'

Young in The Last Day, book I, had written:—

'Words all in vain pant after the distress.'

[85]I am sorry to see in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. ii,An Essay on the Character of Hamlet, written, I should suppose, by a very young man, though called 'Reverend;' who speaks with presumptuous petulance of the first literary character of his age. Amidst a cloudy confusion of words, (which hath of late too often passed in Scotland forMetaphysicks,) he thus ventures to criticise one of the noblest lines in our language:—'Dr. Johnson has remarked, that "time toil'd after him in vain." But I should apprehend, that this isentirely to mistake the character. Time toils afterevery great man, as well after Shakspeare. Theworkingsof an ordinary mindkeep pace, indeed, with time; they move no faster;they have their beginning, their middle, and their end; but superiour natures canreduce these into a point. They do not, indeed,suppressthem; but theysuspend, or theylock them up in the breast.' The learned Society, under whose sanction such gabble is ushered into the world, would do well to offer a premium to any one who will discover its meaning. BOSWELL.

[86]'May 29, 1662. Took boat and to Fox-hall, where I had not been a great while. To the old Spring Garden, and there walked long.' Pepys's Diary, i. 361. The place was afterwards known as Faux-hall and Vauxhall. Seeante, iii. 308.

[87]'One that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar.' King Lear, act ii. sc. 2.

[88]Yet W.G. Hamilton said:—'Burke understands everything but gaming and music. In the House of Commons I sometimes think him only the second man in England; out of it he is always the first.' Prior's Burke, p. 484. Seeante, ii. 450. Bismarck once 'rang the bell' to old Prince Metternich. 'I listened quietly,' he said, 'to all his stories, merely jogging the bell every now and then till it rang again. That pleases these talkative old men.' DR. BUSCH, quoted in Lowe'sPrince Bismarck, i. 130.

[89]See ante, i. 470, for his disapproval of 'studied behaviour.'

[90]Johnson had perhaps Dr. Warton in mind. Ante, ii. 41, note 1.

[91]See ante, i. 471, and iii. 165.

[92]'Oblivion is a kind of annihilation.' Sir Thomas Browne's Christian Morals, sect. xxi.

[93]'Nec te quaesiveris extra.' Persius, Sat. i. 7. We may compare Milton's line,

'In himself was all his state.'Paradise Lost, v. 353.

[94]See ante,iii. 269.

[95]'A work of this kind must, in a minute examination, discover many imperfections; but West's version, so far as I have considered it, appears to be the product of great labour and great abilities.' Johnson's Works,viii. 398.

[96]See Boswell's Hebrides,Aug. 25, 1773.

[97]See ante,i. 82, and ii. 228.

[98]See ante,i. 242.

[99]See Boswell's Hebrides, under Nov. 11.

[100]A literary lady has favoured me with a characteristick anecdote of Richardson. One day at his country-house at Northend, where a large company was assembled at dinner, a gentleman who was just returned from Paris, willing to please Mr. Richardson, mentioned to him a very flattering circumstance,—that he had seen his Clarissalying on the King's brother's table. Richardson observing that part of the company were engaged in talking to each other, affected then not to attend to it. But by and by, when there was a general silence, and he thought that the flattery might be fully heard, he addressed himself to the gentleman, 'I think, Sir, you were saying something about,—' pausing in a high flutter of expectation. The gentleman provoked at his inordinate vanity, resolved not to indulge it, and with an exquisitely sly air of indifference answered, 'A mere trifle Sir, not worth repeating.' The mortification of Richardson was visible, and he did not speak ten words more the whole day. Dr. Johnson was present, and appeared to enjoy it much. BOSWELL.

[101]

'E'en in a bishop I can spy desert;Seeker is decent, Rundel has a heart.'

Pope, Epil. to Sat. ii. 70. Horace Walpole wrote on Aug. 4,1768 (Letters, v. 115):—'We have lost our Pope. Canterbury [Archbishop Seeker] died yesterday. He had never been a Papist, but almost everything else. Our Churchmen will not be Catholics; that stock seems quite fallen.'

[102]Perhaps the Earl of Corke. Ante, iii. 183.

[103]Garrick perhaps borrowed this saying when, in his epigram on Goldsmith, speaking of the ideas of which his head was full, he said:—

'When his mouth opened all were in a pother,Rushed to the door and tumbled o'er each other,But rallying soon with all their force again,In bright array they issued from his pen.'

Fitzgerald's Garrick, ii. 363. Seeante, ii. 231.

[104]See ante, i. 116, and ii. 52.

[105]Horace Walpole (Letters, ix. 318) writes of Boswell'sLife of Johnson:—'Dr. Blagden says justly, that it is a new kind of libel, by which you may abuse anybody, by saying some dead person said so and so of somebody alive.'

[106]See ante, ii. III. In theGent. Mag.1770, p. 78, is a review ofA Letter to Samuel Johnson, LL.D., 'that is generally imputed to Mr. Wilkes.'

[107]'Do you conceive the full force of the word CONSTITUENT? It has the same relation to the House of Commons as Creator to creature.' A Letter to Samuel Johnson, LL.D., p. 23.

[108]His profound admiration of the GREAT FIRST CAUSE was such as to set him above that 'Philosophy and vain deceit' [Colossians, ii. 8] with which men of narrower conceptions have been infected. I have heard him strongly maintain that 'what is right is not so from any natural fitness, but because GOD wills it to be right;' and it is certainly so, because he has predisposed the relations of things so as that which he wills must be right. BOSWELL. Johnson was as much opposed as the Rev. Mr. Thwackum to the philosopher Square, who 'measured all actions by the unalterable rule of right and the eternal fitness of things.'Tom Jones, book iii. ch. 3.

[109]In Rasselas(ch. ii.) we read that the prince's look 'discovered him to receive some solace of the miseries of life, from consciousness of the delicacy with which he felt, and the eloquence with which he bewailed them.' Seeante, April 8, 1780.

[110]I hope the authority of the great Master of our language will stop that curtailing innovation, by which we see critic, public, &c., frequently written instead ofcritick, publick, &c. BOSWELL. Boswell had always been nice in his spelling. In the Preface to hisCorsica, published twenty-four years beforeThe Life of Johnson, he defends his peculiarities, and says:—'If this work should at any future period be reprinted, I hope that care will be taken of my orthography.' Mr. Croker says that in a memorandum in Johnson's writing he has found 'cubicfeet.'

[111]'Disorders of intellect,' answered Imlac, 'happen much more often than superficial observers will easily believe. Perhaps, if we speak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state.' Rasselas, ch. 44.

[112]See ante, i. 397, for Kit Smart's madness in praying.

[113]Yet he gave lessons in Latin to Miss Burney and Miss Thrale. Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i. 243. In Skye he said, 'Depend upon it, no woman is the worse for sense and knowledge.' Boswell'sHebrides, Sept. 19.

[114]See ante, iii, 240.

[115]Nos. 588, 601, 626 and 635. The first number of the Spectatorwas written by Addison, the last by Grove. Seeante, iii. 33, for Johnson's praise of No. 626.

[116]Sterne is of a direct contrary opinion. See his Sentimental Journey, Article, 'The Mystery.' BOSWELL. Sterne had been of the same opinion as Johnson, for he says that the beggar he saw 'confounded all kind of reasoning upon him.' 'He passed by me,' he continues, 'without asking anything—and yet he did not go five steps farther before he asked charity of a little woman—I was much more likely to have given of the two. He had scarce done with the woman, when he pulled his hat off to another who was coming the same way.—An ancient gentleman came slowly—and, after him, a young smart one—He let them both pass, and asked nothing; I stood observing him half an hour, in which time he had made a dozen turns backwards and forwards, and found that he invariably pursued the same plan.'Sentimental Journey, ed. 1775, ii. 105.

[117]Very likely Dr. Warton. Ante, ii. 41.

[118]I differ from Mr. Croker in the explanation of this ill-turned sentence. The shieldthat Homer may hold up is the observation made by Mrs. Fitzherbert. It was this observation that Johnson respected as a very fine one. For his high opinion of that lady's understanding, seeante, i. 83.

[119]In Boswelliana(p. 323) are recorded two more of Langton's Anecdotes. 'Mr. Beauclerk told Dr. Johnson that Dr. James said to him he knew more Greek than Mr. Walmesley. "Sir," said he, "Dr. James did not know enough of Greek to be sensible of his ignorance of the language. Walmesley did."' Seeante, i. 81. 'A certain young clergyman used to come about Dr. Johnson. The Doctor said it vexed him to be in his company, his ignorance was so hopeless. "Sir," said Mr. Langton, "his coming about you shows he wishes to help his ignorance." "Sir," said the Doctor, "his ignorance is so great, I am afraid to show him the bottom of it."'

[120]Dr. Francklin. See ante, iii. 83, note 3. Churchill attacked him inThe Rosciad(Poems, ii. 4). When, he says, it came to the choice of a judge,

'Others for Francklin voted; but 'twas known,He sickened at all triumphs but his own.'

[121]See ante, iii. 241, note 2.

[122]Pr. and Med. p.190. BOSWELL.

[123]Ib. 174. BOSWELL.

[124]'Mr. Fowke once observed to Dr. Johnson that, in his opinion, the Doctor's literary strength lay in writing biography, in which he infinitely exceeded all his contemporaries. "Sir," said Johnson, "I believe that is true. The dogs don't know how to write trifles with dignity."'—R. Warner's Original Letters, p. 204.

[125]His design is thus announced in his Advertisement: 'The Booksellers having determined to publish a body of English Poetry, I was persuaded to promise them a Preface to the works of each authour; an undertaking, as it was then presented to my mind, not very tedious or difficult.

'My purpose was only to have allotted to every poet an Advertisement, like that [in original those] which we find in the French Miscellanies, containing a few dates, and a general character; but I have been led beyond my intention, I hope by the honest desire of giving useful pleasure.' BOSWELL.

[126]Institutiones, liber i, Prooemium 3.

[127]'He had bargained for two hundred guineas, and the booksellers spontaneously added a third hundred; on this occasion Dr. Johnson observed to me, "Sir, I always said the booksellers were a generous set of men. Nor, in the present instance, have I reason to complain. The fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but that I have written too much." The Liveswere soon published in a separate edition; when, for a very few corrections, he was presented with another hundred guineas.' Nichols'sLit. Anec.viii. 416. Seeante, iii. 111. In Mr. Morrison'sCollection of Autographs&c., vol. ii, 'is Johnson's receipt for 100l., from the proprietors ofThe Lives of the Poetsfor revising the last edition of that work.' It is dated Feb. 19, 1783. 'Underneath, in Johnson's autograph, are these words: "It is great impudence to putJohnson's Poetson the back of books which Johnson neither recommended nor revised. He recommended only Blackmore on the Creation, and Watts. How then are they Johnson's? This is indecent."' The poets whom Johnson recommended were Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden.Ante, under Dec. 29, 1778.

[128]Gibbon says of the last five quartos of the six that formed his History:—'My first rough manuscript, without any intermediate copy, has been sent to the press.'Misc. Works, i. 255. In theMemoir of Goldsmith, prefixed to hisMisc. Works, i. 113, it is said:—'In whole quires of hisHistories,Animated Nature, &c., he had seldom occasion to correct or alter a single word.' Seeante, i. 203.

[129]From Waller's Of Loving at First Sight. Waller'sPoems, Miscellanies, xxxiv.

[130]He trusted greatly to his memory. If it did not retain anything exactly, he did not think himself bound to look it up. Thus in his criticism on Congreve (Works, viii. 31) he says:—'Of his plays I cannot speak distinctly; for since I inspected them many years have passed.' In a note on hisLife of Rowe, Nichols says:—'ThisLifeis a very remarkable instance of the uncommon strength of Dr. Johnson's memory. When I received from him the MS. he complacently observed that the criticism was tolerably well done, considering that he had not read one of Rowe's plays for thirty years.'Ib. vii. 417.

[131]Thus:—'In the Life of Waller, Mr. Nichols will find a reference to theParliamentary Historyfrom which a long quotation is to be inserted. If Mr. Nichols cannot easily find the book, Mr. Johnson will send it from Streatham.'

'Clarendon is here returned.'

'By some accident, I laid yournote upon Duke up so safely, that I cannot find it. Your informations have been of great use to me. I must beg it again; with another list of our authors, for I have laid that with the other. I have sent Stepney's Epitaph. Let me have the revises as soon as can be. Dec. 1778.'

'I have sent Philips, with his Epitaphs, to be inserted. The fragment of a preface is hardly worth the impression, but that we may seem to do something. It may be added to the Life of Philips. The Latin page is to be added to theLife of Smith. I shall be at home to revise the two sheets of Milton. March 1, 1779.'

'Please to get me the last edition of Hughes's Letters; and try to getDennis upon Blackmore, and upon Calo, and any thing of the same writer against Pope. Our materials are defective.'

'As Waller professed to have imitated Fairfax, do you think a few pages of Fairfax would enrich our edition? Few readers have seen it, and it may please them. But it is not necessary.'

'An account of the Lives and works of some of the most eminent English Poets. By, &c.—"The English Poets, biographically and critically considered, by SAM. JOHNSON."—Let Mr. Nichols take his choice, or make another to his mind. May, 1781.'

'You somehow forgot the advertisement for the new edition. It was not inclosed. Of Gay's LettersI see not that any use can be made, for they give no information of any thing. That he was a member of the Philosophical Society is something; but surely he could be but a corresponding member. However, not having his life here, I know not how to put it in, and it is of little importance.'

See several more in The Gent. Mag., 1785. The Editor of that Miscellany, in which Johnson wrote for several years, seems justly to think that every fragment of so great a man is worthy of being preserved. BOSWELL. In the original MS. in the British Museum,Yourin the third paragraph of this note is not in italics. Johnson writes his correspondent's nameNichols,Nichol, andNicol. In the fourth paragraph he writes, firstPhilips, and nextPhillips. His spelling was sometimes careless,ante, i. 260, note 2. In theGent. Mag.for 1785, p. 10, another of these notes is published:—'In reading Rowe in your edition, which is very impudently called mine, I observed a little piece unnaturally and odiously obscene. I was offended, but was still more offended when I could not find it in Rowe's genuine volumes. To admit it had been wrong; to interpolate it is surely worse. If I had known of such a piece in the whole collection, I should have been angry. What can be done?' In a note, Mr. Nichols says that this piece 'has not only appeared in theWorksof Rowe, but has been transplanted by Pope into theMiscellanieshe published in his own name and that of Dean Swift.'

[132]He published, in 1782, a revised edition of Baker's Biographia Dramatica. Baker was a grandson of De Foe.Gent. Mag.1782, p. 77.

[133]Dryden writing of satiric poetry, says:—'Had I time I could enlarge on the beautiful turns of words and thoughts, which are as requisite in this as in heroic poetry itself; of which the satire is undoubtedly a species. With these beautiful turns I confess myself to have been unacquainted, till about twenty years ago, in a conversation which I had with that noble wit of Scotland, Sir George Mackenzie, he asked me why I did not imitate in my verses the turns of Mr. Waller, and Sir John Denham. ... This hint, thus seasonably given me, first made me sensible of my own wants, and brought me afterwards to seek for the supply of them in other English authors. I looked over the darling of my youth, the famous Cowley.' Dryden's Works, ed. 1821, xiii. III.

[134]In one of his letters to Nichols, Johnson says:—'You have now all Cowley. I have been drawn to a great length, but Cowley or Waller never had any critical examination before.' Gent. Mag.1785, p.9.

[135]Life of Sheffield. BOSWELL. Johnson'sWorks, vii. 485.

[136]See, however, p.11 of this volume, where the same remark is made and Johnson is there speaking of prose. MALONE.

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