Chapter XXVI: Appendix: F (5)

'The strolling tribe, a despicable race, Like wand'ring Arabs shift from place to place. Vagrants by law, to Justice open laid, They tremble, of the beadle's lash afraid, And fawning cringe, for wretched means of life, To Madam May'ress, or his Worship's Wife.'

[488] Johnson himself recognises the change in the public estimation:--'In Dryden's time,' he writes, 'the drama was very far from that universal approbation which it has now obtained.' _Works_, vii. 270.

[489] Giffard was the manager of the theatre in Goodman's Fields, where Garrick, on Oct. 19, 1741, made his first appearance before a London audience. Murphy's _Garrick_, pp. 13, 16.

[490] 'Colonel Pennington said, Garrick sometimes failed in emphasis; as, for instance, in Hamlet,

"I will speak _daggers_ to her; but use _none_;"

instead of

"I will _speak_ daggers to her; but _use_ none."'

Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 28, 1773.

[491] I suspect Dr. Taylor was inaccurate in this statement. The emphasis should be equally upon _shalt_ and _not_, as both concur to form the negative injunction; and _false witness_, like the other acts prohibited in the Decalogue, should not be marked by any peculiar emphasis, but only be distinctly enunciated. BOSWELL.

[492] This character of the _Life of Savage_ was not written by Fielding as has been supposed, but most probably by Ralph, who, as appears from the minutes of the partners of _The Champion_, in the possession of Mr. Reed of Staple Inn, succeeded Fielding in his share of the paper, before the date of that eulogium. BOSWELL. Ralph is mentioned in _The Dunciad_, iii. 165. A curious account of him is given in Benjamin Franklin's _Memoirs_, i. 54-87 and 245.

[493] The late Francis Cockayne Cust, Esq., one of his Majesty's Counsel. BOSWELL.

[494] Savage's veracity was questioned, but with little reason; his accounts, though not indeed always the same, were generally consistent. 'When he loved any man, he suppressed all his faults: and, when he had been offended by him, concealed all his virtues: but his characters were generally true so far as he proceeded; though it cannot be denied that his partiality might have sometimes the effect of falsehood.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 190.

[495] 1697. BOSWELL.

[496] Johnson's _Works_, viii. 98.

[497] The story on which Mr. Cust so much relies, that Savage was a supposititious child, not the son of Lord Rivers and Lady Macclesfield, but the offspring of a shoemaker, introduced in consequence of her real son's death, was, without doubt, grounded on the circumstance of Lady Macclesfield having, in 1696, previously to the birth of Savage, had a daughter by the Earl Rivers, who died in her infancy; a fact which was proved in the course of the proceedings on Lord Macclesfield's Bill of Divorce. Most fictions of this kind have some admixture of truth in them. MALONE. From _The Earl of Macclesfield's Case_, it appears that 'Anne, Countess of Macclesfield, under the name of Madam Smith, in Fox Court, near Brook Street, Holborn, was delivered of a male child on the 16th of January, 1696-7, who was baptized on the Monday following, the 18th, and registered by the name of Richard, the son of John Smith, by Mr. Burbridge; and, from the privacy, was supposed by Mr. Burbridge to be "a by-blow or bastard."' It also appears, that during her delivery, the lady wore a mask; and that Mary Pegler, on the next day after the baptism, took a male child, whose mother was called Madam Smith, from the house of Mrs. Pheasant, in Fox Court [running from Brook Street in Gray's Inn Lane], who went by the name of Mrs. Lee.

Conformable to this statement is the entry in the register of St. Andrew's, Holborn, which is as follows, and which unquestionably records the baptism of Richard Savage, to whom Lord Rivers gave his own Christian name, prefixed to the assumed surname of his mother:--'Jan. 1696-7. Richard, son of John Smith and Mary, in Fox Court, in Gray's Inn Lane, baptized the 18th.' BINDLEY. According to Johnson's account Savage did not learn who his parents were till the death of his nurse, who had always treated him as her son. Among her papers he found some letters written by Lady Macclesfield's mother proving his origin. Johnson's _Works_, viii. 102. Why these letters were not laid before the public is not stated. Johnson was one of the least credulous of men, and he was convinced by Savage's story. Horace Walpole, too, does not seem to have doubted it. Walpole's _Letters_, i. cv.

[498] Johnson's _Works_, viii. 97.

[499] _Ib_. p. 142.

[500] Johnson's _Works_, p. 101.

[501] According to Johnson's account (Johnson's _Works_, viii. 102), the shoemaker under whom Savage was placed on trial as an apprentice was not the husband of his nurse.

[502] He was in his tenth year when she died. 'He had none to prosecute his claim, to shelter him from oppression, or call in law to the assistance of justice.' _Ib_. p. 99.

[503] Johnson's companion appears to have persuaded that lofty-minded man, that he resembled him in having a noble pride; for Johnson, after painting in strong colours the quarrel between Lord Tyrconnel and Savage, asserts that 'the spirit of Mr. Savage, indeed, never suffered him to solicit a reconciliation: he returned reproach for reproach, and insult for insult.' [_Ib_. p. 141.] But the respectable gentleman to whom I have alluded, has in his possession a letter, from Savage, after Lord Tyrconnel had discarded him, addressed to the Reverend Mr. Gilbert, his Lordship's Chaplain, in which he requests him, in the humblest manner, to represent his case to the Viscount. BOSWELL.

[504] 'How loved, how honoured once avails thee not, To whom related, or by whom begot.'

POPE'S _Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady_.

[505] Trusting to Savage's information, Johnson represents this unhappy man's being received as a companion by Lord Tyrconnel, and pensioned by his Lordship, as if posteriour to Savage's conviction and pardon. But I am assured, that Savage had received the voluntary bounty of Lord Tyrconnel, and had been dismissed by him, long before the murder was committed, and that his Lordship was very instrumental in procuring Savage's pardon, by his intercession with the Queen, through Lady Hertford. If, therefore, he had been desirous of preventing the publication by Savage, he would have left him to his fate. Indeed I must observe, that although Johnson mentions that Lord Tyrconnel's patronage of Savage was 'upon his promise to lay aside his design of exposing the cruelty of his mother,' [Johnson's _Works_, viii. 124], the great biographer has forgotten that he himself has mentioned, that Savage's story had been told several years before in _The Plain Dealer_; from which he quotes this strong saying of the generous Sir Richard Steele, that 'the inhumanity of his mother had given him a right to find every good man his father.' [_Ib_. p. 104.] At the same time it must be acknowledged, that Lady Macclesfield and her relations might still wish that her story should not be brought into more conspicuous notice by the satirical pen of Savage. BOSWELL.

[506] According to Johnson, she was at Bath when Savage's poem of _The Bastard_ was published. 'She could not,' he wrote, 'enter the assembly-rooms or cross the walks without being saluted with some lines from _The Bastard_. This was perhaps the first time that she ever discovered a sense of shame, and on this occasion the power of wit was very conspicuous; the wretch who had without scruple proclaimed herself an adulteress, and who had first endeavoured to starve her son, then to transport him, and afterwards to hang him, was not able to bear the representation of her own conduct; but fled from reproach, though she felt no pain from guilt, and left Bath with the utmost haste to shelter herself among the crowds of London.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 141.

[507] Miss Mason, after having forfeited the title of Lady Macclesfield by divorce, was married to Colonel Brett, and, it is said, was well known in all the polite circles. Colley Cibber, I am informed, had so high an opinion of her taste and judgement as to genteel life, and manners, that he submitted every scene of his _Careless Husband_ to Mrs. Brett's revisal and correction. Colonel Brett was reported to be too free in his gallantry with his Lady's maid. Mrs. Brett came into a room one day in her own house, and found the Colonel and her maid both fast asleep in two chairs. She tied a white handkerchief round her husband's neck, which was a sufficient proof that she had discovered his intrigue; but she never at any time took notice of it to him. This incident, as I am told, gave occasion to the well-wrought scene of Sir Charles and Lady Easy and Edging. BOSWELL. Lady Macclesfield died 1753, aged above 80. Her eldest daughter, by Col. Brett, was, for the few last months of his life, the mistress of George I, (Walpole's _Reminiscences_, cv.) Her marriage ten years after her royal lover's death is thus announced in the _Gent. Mag_., 1737:--'Sept. 17. Sir W. Leman, of Northall, Bart., to Miss Brett [Britt] of Bond Street, an heiress;' and again next month--'Oct. 8. Sir William Leman, of Northall, Baronet, to Miss Brett, half sister to Mr. Savage, son to the late Earl Rivers;' for the difference of date I know not how to account; but the second insertion was, no doubt, made by Savage to countenance his own pretensions. CROKER.

[508] 'Among the names of subscribers to the _Harleian Miscellany_ there occurs that of "Sarah Johnson, bookseller in Lichfield."' _Johnsoniana_, p. 466.

[509] A brief account of Oldys is given in the _Gent. Mag_. liv. 161, 260. Like so many of his fellows he was thrown into the Fleet. 'After poor Oldys's release, such was his affection for the place that he constantly spent his evenings there.'

[510] In the Feb. number of the _Gent. Mag_. for this year (p. 112) is the following advertisement:--'Speedily will be published (price 1s.) _Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth_, with remarks on Sir T.H.'s edition of _Shakespear_; to which is affix'd proposals for a new edition of _Shakespear_, with a specimen. Printed for J. Roberts in Warwick Lane.' In the March number (p. 114), under the date of March 31, it is announced that it will be published on April 6. In spite of the two advertisements, and the title-page which agrees with the advertisements, I believe that the Proposals were not published till eleven years later (see _post_, end of 1756). I cannot hear of any copy of the _Miscellaneous Observations_ which contains them. The advertisement is a third time repeated in the April number of the _Gent. Mag_. for 1745 (p. 224), but the Proposals are not this time mentioned. Tom Davies the bookseller gives 1756 as the date of their publication (_Misc. and Fugitive Pieces_, ii. 87). Perhaps Johnson or the booksellers were discouraged by Hanmer's _Shakespeare_ as well as by Warburton's. Johnson at the end of the _Miscellaneous Observations_ says:--'After the foregoing pages were printed, the late edition of _Shakespeare_ ascribed to Sir T. H. fell into my hands.'

[511] 'The excellence of the edition proved to be by no means proportionate to the arrogance of the editor.' _Cambridge Shakespeare_, i. xxxiv.

[512] 'When you see Mr. Johnson pray [give] my compliments, and tell him I esteem him as a great genius--quite lost both to himself and the world.' _Gilbert Walmesley to Garrick_, Nov. 3, 1746. _Garrick Correspondence_, i. 45. Mr. Walmesley's letter does not shew that Johnson was idle. The old man had expected great things from him. 'I have great hopes,' he had written in 1737 (see _ante_, p. 102), 'that he will turn out a fine tragedy writer.' In the nine years in which Johnson had been in town he had done, no doubt, much admirable work; but by his poem of _London_ only was he known to the public. His _Life of Savage_ did not bear his name. His _Observations on Macbeth_ were published in April, 1745; his _Plan of the Dictionary_ in 1747 [Transcriber's note: Originally 1774, corrected in Errata.]. What was Johnson doing meanwhile? Boswell conjectures that he was engaged on his _Shakespeare_ and his _Dictionary_. That he went on working at his _Shakespeare_ when the prospect of publishing was so remote that he could not issue his proposals is very unlikely. That he had been for some time engaged on his _Dictionary_ before he addressed Lord Chesterfield is shewn by the opening sentences of the _Plan_. Mr. Croker's conjecture that he was absent or concealed on account of some difficulties which had arisen through the rebellion of 1745 is absurd. At no time of his life had he been an ardent Jacobite. 'I have heard him declare,' writes Boswell, 'that if holding up his right hand would have secured victory at Culloden to Prince Charles's army, he was not sure he would have held it up;' _post_, July 14, 1763. 'He had never in his life been in a nonjuring meeting-house;' _post_, June 9, 1784.

For the fact that he wrote very little, if indeed anything, in the _Gent. Mag_. during these years more than one reason may be given. In the first place, public affairs take up an unusual amount of room in its columns. Thus in the number for Dec. 1745 we read:--'Our readers being too much alarmed by the present rebellion to relish with their usual delight the _Debates in the Senate of Lilliput_ we shall postpone them for a season, that we may be able to furnish out a fuller entertainment of what we find to be more suitable to their present taste.' In the Preface it is stated:--'We have sold more of our books than we desire for several months past, and are heartily sorry for the occasion of it, the present troubles.' During these years then much less space was given to literature. But besides this, Johnson likely enough refused to write for the _Magazine_ when it shewed itself strongly Hanoverian. He would highly disapprove of _A New Protestant Litany_, which was written after the following fashion:--

'May Spaniards, or French, all who join with a Highland, In disturbing the peace of this our bless'd island, Meet tempests on sea and halters on dry land. We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord.'

_Gent. Mag_. xv. 551.

He would be disgusted the following year at seeing the Duke of Cumberland praised as 'the greatest man alive' (_Gent. Mag_. xvi. 235), and sung in verse that would have almost disgraced Cibber (p. 36). It is remarkable that there is no mention of Johnson's _Plan of a Dictionary_ in the _Magazine_. Perhaps some coolness had risen between him and Cave.

[513] Boswell proceeds to mention six.

[514] In Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in which this paraphrase is inserted, it is stated that the Latin epitaph was written by Dr. Freind. I do not think that the English version is by Johnson. I should be sorry to ascribe to him such lines as:--

'Illustrious age! how bright thy glories shone, When Hanmer filled the chair--and Anne the throne.'

[515] In the _Observations_, Johnson, writing of Hanmer, says:--'Surely the weapons of criticism ought not to be blunted against an editor who can imagine that he is restoring poetry while he is amusing himself with alterations like these:--

For,--This is the sergeant
Who like a good and hardy soldier fought;
--This is the sergeant who
Like a _right_ good and hardy soldier fought.

Such harmless industry may surely be forgiven, if it cannot be praised; may he therefore never want a monosyllable who can use it with such wonderful dexterity.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 93. In his Preface to _Shakespeare_ published eighteen years later, he describes Hanmer as 'A man, in my opinion, eminently qualified by nature for such studies.' _Ib_. p. 139. The editors of the _Cambridge Shakespeare_ (i. xxxii) thus write of Hanmer:--

'A country gentleman of great ingenuity and lively fancy, but with no knowledge of older literature, no taste for research, and no ear for the rhythm of earlier English verse, amused his leisure hours by scribbling down his own and his friend's guesses in Pope's _Shakespeare_.'

[516] In the _Universal Visiter_, to which Johnson contributed, the mark which is affixed to some pieces unquestionably his, is also found subjoined to others, of which he certainly was not the author. The mark therefore will not ascertain the poems in question to have been written by him. They were probably the productions of Hawkesworth, who, it is believed, was afflicted with the gout. MALONE.

It is most unlikely that Johnson wrote such poor poems as these. I shall not easily be persuaded that the following lines are his:--

'Love warbles in the vocal groves,
And vegetation paints the plain.'

'And love and hate alike implore
The skies--"That Stella mourn no more."'

'The Winter's Walk' has two good lines, but these may have been supplied by Johnson. The lines to 'Lyce, an elderly Lady,' would, if written by him, have been taken as a satire on his wife.

[517] See _post_ under Sept. 18, 1783.

[518] See Johnson's _Works_, vii. 4, 34.

[519] Boswell italicises _conceits_ to shew that he is using it in the sense in which Johnson uses it in his criticism of Cowley:--'These conceits Addison calls mixed wit; that is, wit which consists of thoughts true in one sense of the expression and false in the other.' _Ib_. vii 35.

[520] _Namby Pamby_ was the name given to Ambrose Philips by Pope _Ib_. viii. 395

[521] Malone most likely is meant. Mr. Croker says:--'Johnson has "_indifferently_" in the sense of "_without concern_" in his _Dictionary_, with this example from _Shakespeare_, "And I will look on death indifferently."' Johnson however here defines indifferently as _in a neutral state; without wish or aversion_; which is not the same as _without concern_. The passage, which is from _Julius Caesar_, i. 2, is not correctly given. It is--

'Set honour in one eye and death i' the other And I will look on both indifferently.'

We may compare Johnson's use of _indifferent_ in his Letter to Chesterfield, _post_, Feb. 7, 1755:--'The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours ... has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it.'

[522] 'Radcliffe, when quite a boy, had been engaged in the rebellion of 1715, and being attainted had escaped from Newgate.... During the insurrection [of 1745], having been captured on board a French vessel bound for Scotland, he was arraigned on his original sentence which had slumbered so long. The only trial now conceded to him was confined to his identity. For such a course there was no precedent, except in the case of Sir Walter Raleigh, which had brought shame upon the reign of James I.' Campbell's _Chancellors_ (edit. 1846), v. 108. Campbell adds, 'his execution, I think, reflects great disgrace upon Lord Hardwicke [the Lord Chancellor].'

[523] In the original _end_.

[524] "These verses are somewhat too severe on the extraordinary person who is the chief figure in them, for he was undoubtedly brave. His pleasantry during his solemn trial (in which, by the way, I have heard Mr. David Hume observe, that we have one of the very few speeches of Mr. Murray, now Earl of Mansfield, authentically given) was very remarkable. When asked if he had any questions to put to Sir Everard Fawkener, who was one of the strongest witnesses against him, he answered, 'I only wish him joy of his young wife.' And after sentence of death, in the horrible terms in cases of treason, was pronounced upon him, and he was retiring from the bar, he said, 'Fare you well, my Lords, we shall not all meet again in one place.' He behaved with perfect composure at his execution, and called out '_Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori_?'

'What joys, what glories round him wait, Who bravely for his country dies!"

FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, iii.2. 13.

BOSWELL.

'Old Lovat was beheaded yesterday,' wrote Horace Walpole on April 10, 1747, 'and died extremely well: without passion, affectation, buffoonery, or timidity; his behaviour was natural and intrepid.' _Letters_, ii. 77.

[525] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_.

[526] My friend, Mr. Courtenay, whose eulogy on Johnson's Latin Poetry has been inserted in this Work [_ante_, p. 62], is no less happy in praising his English Poetry.

But hark, he sings! the strain ev'n Pope admires; Indignant virtue her own bard inspires. Sublime as juvenal he pours his lays, And with the Roman shares congenial praise;-- In glowing numbers now he fires the age, And Shakspeare's sun relumes the clouded stage.

BOSWELL.

[527] The play is by Ambrose Philips. 'It was concluded with the most successful Epilogue that was ever yet spoken on the English theatre. The three first nights it was recited twice; and not only continued to be demanded through the run, as it is termed, of the play; but, whenever it is recalled to the stage, where by peculiar fortune, though a copy from the French, it yet keeps its place, the Epilogue is still expected, and is still spoken.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 389. See _post_, April 21, 1773, note on Eustace Budgel. The Epilogue is given in vol. v. p. 228 of Bonn's _Addison_, and the great success that it met with is described in _The Spectator_, No. 341.

[528] Such poor stuff as the following is certainly not by Johnson:--

'Let musick sound the voice of joy!
Or mirth repeat the jocund tale;
Let Love his wanton wiles employ,
And o'er the season wine prevail.'

[529] 'Dodsley first mentioned to me the scheme of an English Dictionary; but I had long thought of it.' _Post_, Oct. 10, 1779.

[530] It would seem from the passage to which Boswell refers that Pope had wished that Johnson should undertake the _Dictionary_. Johnson, in mentioning Pope, says:--'Of whom I may be justified in affirming that were he still alive, solicitous as he was for the success of this work, he would not be displeased that I have undertaken it.' _Works_, v. 20. As Pope died on May 30, 1744, this renders it likely that the work was begun earlier than Boswell thought.

[531] In the title-page of the first edition after the name of Hirch comes that of L. Hawes.

[532] 'During the progress of the work he had received at different times the amount of his contract; and when his receipts were produced to him at a tavern-dinner given by the booksellers, it appeared that he had been paid a hundred pounds and upwards more than his due.' Murphy's _Johnson_. p. 78. See _post_, beginning of 1756.

[533] 'The truth is, that the several situations which I have been in having made me long the _plastron_ [butt] of dedications, I am become as callous to flattery as some people are to abuse.' Lord Chesterfield, date of Dec. 15, 1755; Chesterfield's _Misc. Works_, iv. 266.

[534] September 22, 1777, going from Ashbourne in Derbyshire, to see Islam. BOSWELL.

[535] Boswell here says too much, as the following passages in the _Plan_ prove:--'Who upon this survey can forbear to wish that these fundamental atoms of our speech might obtain the firmness and immutability of the primogenial and constituent particles of matter?' 'Those translators who, for want of understanding the characteristical difference of tongues, have formed a chaotick dialect of heterogeneous phrases;' 'In one part refinement will be subtilised beyond exactness, and evidence dilated in another beyond perspicuity.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 12, 21, 22.

[536] Ausonius, _Epigram_ i. 12.

[537] Whitehead in 1757 succeeded Colley Cibber as poet-laureate, and dying in 1785 was followed by Thomas Warton. From Warton the line of succession is Pye, Southey, Wordsworth, Tennyson. See _post_, under June 13, 1763.

[538] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 176) likewise says that the manuscript passed through Whitehead and 'other hands' before it reached Chesterfield. Mr. Croker had seen 'a draft of the prospectus carefully written by an amanuensis, but signed in great form by Johnson's own hand. It was evidently that which was laid before Lord Chesterfield. Some useful remarks are made in his lordship's hand, and some in another. Johnson adopted all these suggestions.'

[539] This poor piece of criticism confirms what Johnson said of Lord Orrery:--'He grasped at more than his abilities could reach; tried to pass for a better talker, a better writer, and a better thinker that he was.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22, 1773. See _post_, under April 7, 1778.

[540] Birch, _MSS. Brit. Mus_. 4303. BOSWELL.

[541] 'When I survey the _Plan_ which I have laid before you, I cannot, my Lord, but confess that I am frighted at its extent, and, like the soldiers of Cæsar, look on Britain as a new world, which it is almost madness to invade.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 21.

[542] There might be applied to him what he said of Pope:--"Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings. He, indeed, who forms his opinion of himself in solitude without knowing the powers of other men, is very liable to error; but it was the felicity of Pope to rate himself at his real value." Johnson's _Works_, viii, 237.

[543] 'For the Teutonick etymologies I am commonly indebted to Junius and Skinner.... Junius appears to have excelled in extent of learning and Skinner in rectitude of understanding.... Skinner is often ignorant, but never ridiculous: Junius is always full of knowledge, but his variety distracts his judgment, and his learning is very frequently disgraced by his absurdities.' _Ib_. v. 29. Francis Junius the younger was born at Heidelberg in 1589, and died at Windsor, at the house of his nephew Isaac Vossius, in 1678. His _Etymologicum Anglicanum_ was not published till 1743. Stephen Skinner, M.D., was born in 1623, and died in 1667. His _Etymologicon Linguæ Anglicanæ_ was published in 1671. Knight's _Eng. Cycle_.

[544] Thomas Richards published in 1753 _Antiquæ Linguæ Britannicæ Thesaurus_, to which is prefixed a _Welsh Grammar_ and a collection of British proverbs.

[545] See Sir John Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_ [p. 171], BOSWELL.

[546] 'The faults of the book resolve themselves, for the most part, into one great fault. Johnson was a wretched etymologist.' Macaulay's _Misc. Writings_, p. 382. See _post_, May 13, 1778, for mention of Horne Tooke's criticism of Johnson's etymologies.

[547] 'The etymology, so far as it is yet known, was easily found in the volumes where it is particularly and professedly delivered ... But to COLLECT the WORDS of our language was a task of greater difficulty: the deficiency of dictionaries was immediately apparent; and when they were exhausted, what was yet wanting must be sought by fortuitous and unguided excursions into books, and gleaned as industry should find, or chance should offer it, in the boundless chaos of a living speech.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 31.

[548] See _post_, under April 10, 1776. BOSWELL.

[549] 'Mr. Macbean,' said Johnson in 1778, 'is a man of great learning, and for his learning I respect him, and I wish to serve him. He knows many languages, and knows them well; but he knows nothing of life. I advised him to write a geographical dictionary; but I have lost all hopes of his ever doing anything properly, since I found he gave as much labour to Capua as to Rome.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i, 114. See _post_ beginning of 1773, and Oct 24, 1780.

[550] Boswell is speaking of the book published under the name of _Cibber_ mentioned above, but 'entirely compiled,' according to Johnson, by Shiels. See _post_, April 10, 1776.

[551] See _Piozzi Letters_, i. 312, and _post_, May 21, 1775, note.

[552] 'We ourselves, not without labour and risk, lately discovered Gough Square.... and on the second day of search the very House there, wherein the _English Dictionary_ was composed. It is the first or corner house on the right hand, as you enter through the arched way from the North-west ... It is a stout, old-fashioned, oak-balustraded house: "I have spent many a pound and penny on it since then," said the worthy Landlord: "here, you see, this bedroom was the Doctor's study; that was the garden" (a plot of delved ground somewhat larger than a bed-quilt) "where he walked for exercise; these three garret bedrooms" (where his three [six] copyists sat and wrote) "were the place he kept his--_pupils_ in": _Tempus edax rerum!_ Yet _ferax_ also: for our friend now added, with a wistful look, which strove to seem merely historical: "I let it all in lodgings, to respectable gentlemen; by the quarter or the month; it's all one to me."--"To me also," whispered the ghost of Samuel, as we went pensively our ways.' Carlyle's _Miscellanies_, edit, of 1872, iv. 112.

[553] Boswell's account of the manner in which Johnson compiled his _Dictionary_ is confused and erroneous. He began his task (as he himself expressly described to me), by devoting his first care to a diligent perusal of all such English writers as were most correct in their language, and under every sentence which he meant to quote he drew a line, and noted in the margin the first letter of the word under which it was to occur. He then delivered these books to his clerks, who transcribed each sentence on a separate slip of paper, and arranged the same under the word referred to. By these means he collected the several words and their different significations; and when the whole arrangement was alphabetically formed, he gave the definitions of their meanings, and collected their etymologies from Skinner, Junius, and other writers on the subject. PERCY.

[554] 'The books he used for this purpose were what he had in his own collection, a copious but a miserably ragged one, and all such as he could borrow; which latter, if ever they came back to those that lent them, were so defaced as to be scarce worth owning, and yet some of his friends were glad to receive and entertain them as curiosities.' Hawkins, p. 175.

[555] In the copy that he thus marked of Sir Matthew Hale's _Primitive Origination of Mankind_, opposite the passage where it is stated, that 'Averroes says that if the world were not eternal ... it could never have been at all, because an eternal duration must necessarily have anteceded the first production of the world,' he has written:--'This argument will hold good equally against the writing that I now write.'

[556] Boswell must mean 'whose writings _taken as a whole_ had a tendency,' &c. Johnson quotes Dryden, and of Dryden he says:--'Of the mind that can trade in corruption, and can deliberately pollute itself with ideal wickedness for the sake of spreading the contagion in society, I wish not to conceal or excuse the depravity. Such degradation of the dignity of genius, such abuse of superlative abilities, cannot be contemplated but with grief and indignation. What consolation can be had Dryden has afforded by living to repent, and to testify his repentance.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 293. He quotes Congreve, and of Congreve he says: 'It is acknowledged, with universal conviction, that the perusal of his works will make no man better; and that their ultimate effect is to represent pleasure in alliance with vice, and to relax those obligations by which life ought to be regulated.' _Ib_. viii. 28. He would not quote Dr. Clarke, much as he admired him, because he was not sound upon the doctrine of the Trinity. _Post_, Dec., 1784, note.

[557] In the _Plan to the Dictionary_, written in 1747, he describes his task as one that 'may be successfully performed without any higher quality than that of bearing burdens with dull patience, and beating the track of the alphabet with sluggish resolution.' _Works_, v. 1. In 1751, in the _Rambler_, No. 141, he thus pleasantly touches on his work: 'The task of every other slave [except the 'wit'] has an end. The rower in time reaches the port; the lexicographer at last finds the conclusion of his alphabet.' On April 15, 1755, he writes to his friend Hector:--'I wish, come of wishes what will, that my work may please you, as much as it now and then pleased me, for I did not find dictionary making so very unpleasant as it may be thought.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. 111, 301. He told Dr. Blacklock that 'it was easier to him to write poetry than to compose his _Dictionary_. His mind was less on the stretch in doing the one than the other.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 17, 1773.

[558] The well-known picture of the company at Tunbridge Wells in Aug. 1748, with the references in Richardson's own writing, is given as a frontispiece to vol. iii. of Richardson's _Correspondence_. There can be no doubt that the figure marked by Richardson as Dr. Johnson is not Samuel Johnson, who did not receive a doctor's degree till more than four years after Richardson's death.

[559] 'Johnson hardly ever spoke of Bathurst without tears in his eyes.' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 56. Mrs. Piozzi, after recording an anecdote that he had related to her of his childhood, continues:--'"I cannot imagine," said he, "what makes me talk of myself to you so, for I really never mentioned this foolish story to anybody except Dr. Taylor, not even to my dear, dear Bathurst, whom I loved better than ever I loved any human creature; but poor Bathurst is dead!" Here a long pause and a few tears ensued.' Piozzi's _Anec_., p. 18. Another day he said to her:--'Dear Bathurst was a man to my very heart's content: he hated a fool, and he hated a rogue, and he hated a Whig; he was a very good hater.' _Ib_. p. 83. In his _Meditations on Easter-Day_, 1764, he records:--'After sermon I recommended Tetty in a prayer by herself; and my father, mother, brother, and Bathurst in another.' _Pr. and Med_., p. 54. See also _post_, under March 18, 1752, and 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_.

[560] Of Hawkesworth Johnson thus wrote: 'An account of Dr. Swift has been already collected, with great diligence and acuteness, by Dr. Hawkesworth, according to a scheme which I laid before him in the intimacy of our friendship. I cannot therefore be expected to say much of a life concerning which I had long since communicated my thoughts to a man capable of dignifying his narrations with so much elegance of language and force of sentiment.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 192. Hawkesworth was an imitator of Johnson's style; _post_, under Jan. 1, 1753.

[561] He was afterwards for several years Chairman of the Middlesex justices, and upon occasion of presenting an address to the King, accepted the usual offer of Knighthood. He is authour of 'A History of Musick,' in five volumes in quarto. By assiduous attendance upon Johnson in his last illness, he obtained the office of one of his executors; in consequence of which, the booksellers of London employed him to publish an edition of Dr. Johnson's works, and to write his Life. BOSWELL. This description of Hawkins, as 'Mr. John Hawkins, an attorney,' is a reply to his description of Boswell as 'Mr. James Boswell, a native of Scotland.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 472. According to Miss Hawkins, 'Boswell complained to her father of the manner in which he was described. Where was the offence? It was one of those which a complainant hardly dares to embody in words; he would only repeat, "Well, but _Mr. James Boswell_, surely, surely, _Mr. James Boswell_"' Miss Hawkins's _Memoirs_, i. 235. Boswell in thus styling Hawkins remembered no doubt Johnson's sarcasm against attorneys. See _post_, 1770, in Dr. Maxwell's _Collectanea_. Hawkins's edition of _Johnson's Works_ was published in 1787-9, in 13 vols., 8vo., the last two vols. being edited by Stockdale. In vol. xi. is a collection of Johnson's sayings, under the name of _Apothegms_, many of which I quote in my notes.

[562] Boswell, it is clear, has taken his account of the club from Hawkins, who writes:--'Johnson had, in the winter of 1749, formed a club that met weekly at the King's Head, a famous beef-steak house in Ivy Lane, near St. Paul's, every Tuesday evening. Thither he constantly resorted with a disposition to please and be pleased. Our conversations seldom began till after a supper so very solid and substantial as led us to think that with him it was a dinner.

'By the help of this refection, and no other incentive to hilarity than lemonade, Johnson was in a short time after our assembling transformed into a new creature; his habitual melancholy and lassitude of spirit gave way; his countenance brightened.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, pp. 219, 250. Other parts of Hawkins's account do not agree with passages in Johnson's letters to Mrs. Thrale written in 1783-4. 'I dined about a fortnight ago with three old friends [Hawkins, Ryland, and Payne]; we had not met together for thirty years. In the thirty years two of our set have died.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 339. 'We used to meet weekly about the year fifty.' _Ib_. p. 361. '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.' _Ib_. p. 363. Hawkins says the club broke up about 1756 (_Life_, p. 361). Johnson in the first of the passages says they had not met at all for thirty years--that is to say, not since 1753; while in the last two passages he implies that their weekly meetings came to an end about 1751. I cannot understand moreover how, if Bathurst, 'his beloved friend,' belonged to the club, Johnson should have forgotten it. Bathurst died in the expedition to the Havannah about 1762. Two others of those given in Hawkins's list were certainly dead by 1783. M'Ghie, who died while the club existed (_Ib_. p. 361), and Dr. Salter. A writer in the _Builder_ (Dec. 1884) says, 'The King's Head was burnt down twenty-five years ago, but the cellarage remains beneath No. 4, Alldis's dining-rooms, on the eastern side.'

[563] Tom Tyers said that Johnson 'in one night composed, after finishing an evening in Holborn, his _Hermit of Teneriffe_.' _Gent. Mag_. for 1784, p. 901. The high value that he set on this piece may be accounted for in his own words. 'Many causes may vitiate a writer's judgment of his own works.... What has been produced without toilsome efforts is considered with delight, as a proof of vigorous faculties and fertile invention.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 110. He had said much the same thirty years earlier in _The Rambler_ (No. 21).

[564] 'On January 9 was published, long wished, another satire from Juvenal, by the author of _London.' Gent. Mag_. xviii. 598, 9.

[565] Sir John Hawkins, with solemn inaccuracy, represents this poem as a consequence of the indifferent reception of his tragedy. But the fact is, that the poem was published on the 9th of January, and the tragedy was not acted till the 6th of the February following. BOSWELL. Hawkins perhaps implies what Boswell says that he represents; but if so, he implies it by denying it. Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 201.

[566] 'I wrote,' he said, 'the first seventy lines in _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ in the course of one morning in that small house beyond the church at Hampstead.' _Works_ (1787), xi. 212.

[567] See _post_ under Feb. 15, 1766. That Johnson did not think that in hasty composition there is any great merit, is shewn by _The Rambler_, No. 169, entitled _Labour necessary to excellence_. There he describes 'pride and indigence as the two great hasteners of modern poems.' He continues:--'that no other method of attaining lasting praise [than _multa dies et multa litura_] has been yet discovered may be conjectured from the blotted manuscripts of Milton now remaining, and from the tardy emission of Pope's compositions.' He made many corrections for the later editions of his poem.

[568] 'Nov. 25, 1748. I received of Mr. Dodsley fifteen guineas, for which assign to him the right of copy of an imitation of the _Tenth Satire of Juvenal_, written by me; reserving to myself the right of printing one edition. SAM. JOHNSON.'

'London, 29 June, 1786. A true copy, from the original in Dr. Johnson's handwriting. JAS. DODSLEY. BOSWELL.

_London_ was sold at a shilling a copy. Johnson was paid at the rate of about 9-1/2_d_. a line for this poem; for _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ at the rate of about 10_d_. a line. Dryden by his engagement with Jacob Tonson (see Johnson's _Works_, vii. 298) undertook to furnish 10,000 verses at a little over 6_d_. a verse. Goldsmith was paid for _The Traveller_ £21, or about 11-1/2_d_. a line.

[569] He never published it. See _post_ under Dec. 9, 1784.

[570] 'Jan. 9, 1821. Read Johnson's _Vanity of Human Wishes_,--all the examples and mode of giving them sublime, as well as the latter part, with the exception of an occasional couplet. I do not so much admire the opening. The first line, 'Let observation,' etc., is certainly heavy and useless. But 'tis a grand poem--and so _true_!--true as the Tenth of Juvenal himself. The lapse of ages changes all things--time--language-- the earth--the bounds of the sea--the stars of the sky, and everything "about, around, and underneath" man, _except man himself_. The infinite variety of lives conduct but to death, and the infinity of wishes lead but to disappointment.' _Byron_, vol. v. p. 66. WRIGHT. Sir Walter Scott said 'that he had more pleasure in reading _London_, and _The Vanity of Human Wishes _than any other poetical composition he could mention.' Lockhart's _Scott_, iii. 269. Mr. Lockhart adds that 'the last line of MS. that Scott sent to the press was a quotation from _The Vanity of Human Wishes_.' Of the first lines

'Let observation with extensive view Survey mankind from China to Peru,'

De Quincey quotes the criticism of some writer, who 'contends with some reason that this is saying in effect:--"Let observation with extensive observation observe mankind extensively."' De Quincey's _Works_, x. 72.

[571] From Mr. Langton. BOSWELL.

[572] In this poem one of the instances mentioned of unfortunate learned men is _Lydiat_:

'Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end.'

The history of Lydiat being little known, the following account of him may be acceptable to many of my readers. It appeared as a note in the Supplement to the _Gent. Mag_. for 1748, in which some passages extracted from Johnson's poem were inserted, and it should have been added in the subsequent editions.--A very learned divine and mathematician, fellow of New College, Oxon, and Rector of Okerton, near Banbury. He wrote, among many others, a Latin treatise _De Natura call_, etc., in which he attacked the sentiments of Scaliger and Aristotle, not bearing to hear it urged, _that some things are true in philosophy and false in divinity_. He made above 600 Sermons on the harmony of the Evangelists. Being unsuccessful in publishing his works, he lay in the prison of Bocardo at Oxford, and in the King's Bench, till Bishop Usher, Dr. Laud, Sir William Boswell, and Dr. Pink, released him by paying his debts. He petitioned King Charles I. to be sent into Ethiopia, etc., to procure MSS. Having spoken in favour of Monarchy and bishops, he was plundered by the parliament forces, and twice carried away prisoner from his rectory; and afterwards had not a shirt to shift him in three months, without he borrowed it, and died very poor in 1646. BOSWELL.

[573] Psalm xc. 12.

[574] In the original _Inquirer_.

[575] '... nonumque prematur in annum.' Horace, _Ars Poet_. l. 388.

[576] 'Of all authors,' wrote Johnson, 'those are the most wretched who exhibit their productions on the theatre, and who are to propitiate first the manager and then the public. Many an humble visitant have I followed to the doors of these lords of the drama, seen him touch the knocker with a shaking hand, and after long deliberation adventure to solicit entrance by a single knock.' _Works_, v. 360.

[577] Mahomet was, in fact, played by Mr. Barry, and Demetrius by Mr. Garrick: but probably at this time the parts were not yet cast. BOSWELL.

[578] The expression used by Dr. Adams was 'soothed.' I should rather think the audience was _awed_ by the extraordinary spirit and dignity of the following lines:

'Be this at least his praise, be this his pride, To force applause no modern arts are tried: Should partial catcalls all his hopes confound, He bids no trumpet quell the fatal sound; Should welcome sleep relieve the weary wit, He rolls no thunders o'er the drowsy pit; No snares to captivate the judgement spreads, Nor bribes your eyes to prejudice your heads. Unmov'd, though witlings sneer and rivals rail, Studious to please, yet not asham'd to fail, He scorns the meek address, the suppliant strain, With merit needless, and without it vain; In Reason, Nature, Truth, he dares to trust; Ye fops be silent, and ye wits be just!'

BOSWELL.

[579] Johnson said of Mrs. Pritchard's playing in general that 'it was quite mechanical;' _post_, April 7, 1775. See also _post_ under Sept. 30, 1783.

[580] 'The strangling of Irene in the view of the audience was suggested by Mr. Garrick.' Davies's _Garrick_, i. 128. Dryden in his _Essay of Dramatick Poesie_ (edit. 1701, i. 13), says:--'I have observed that in all our tragedies the audience cannot forbear laughing when the actors are to die; 'tis the most comick part of the whole play.' 'Suppose your Piece admitted, acted; one single ill-natured jest from the pit is sufficient to cancel all your labours.' Goldsmith's _Present State of Polite Learning_, chap. x.

[581] In her last speech two of the seven lines are very bad:--

'Guilt and despair, pale spectres! grin around me, And stun me with the yellings of damnation!'

Act v. sc. 9.

[582] Murphy referring to Boswell's statement says:--'The Epilogue, we are told in a late publication, was written by Sir William Young. This is a new discovery, but by no means probable. When the appendages to a Dramatic Performance are not assigned to a friend, or an unknown hand, or a person of fashion, they are always supposed to be written by the author of the Play.' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 154. He overlooks altogether the statement in the _Gent. Mag_. (xix. 85) that the Epilogue is 'by another hand.' Mr. Croker points out that the words 'as Johnson informed me' first appear in the second edition. The wonder is that Johnson accepted this Epilogue, which is a little coarse and a little profane. Yonge was Secretary at War in Walpole's ministry. Walpole said of him 'that nothing but Yonge's character could keep down his parts, and nothing but his parts support his character.' Horace Walpole's _Letters_, i. 98, note.

[583] I know not what Sir John Hawkins means by the _cold reception_ of _Irene_. (See note, p. 192.) I was at the first representation, and most of the subsequent. It was much applauded the first night, particularly the speech on _to-morrow_ [Act iii. sc. 2]. It ran nine nights at least. It did not indeed become a stock-play, but there was not the least opposition during the representation, except the first night in the last act, where Irene was to be strangled on the stage, which _John_ could not bear, though a dramatick poet may stab or slay by hundreds. The bow-string was not a Christian nor an ancient Greek or Roman death. But this offence was removed after the first night, and Irene went off the stage to be strangled.--BURNEY.

[584] According to the _Gent. Mag_. (xix. 76) 'it was acted from Monday, Feb. 6, to Monday, Feb. 20, inclusive.' A letter in the _Garrick Corres_, (i. 32), dated April 3, 1745, seems to shew that so long a run was uncommon. The writer addressing Garrick says:--'You have now performed it [_Tancred_] for nine nights; consider the part, and whether nature can well support the frequent repetition of such shocks. Permit me to advise you to resolve not to act upon any account above three times a week.' Yet against this may be set the following passage in the _Rambler_, No. l23:--'At last a malignant author, whose performance I had persecuted through the nine nights, wrote an epigram upon Tape the critic, which drove me from the pit for ever.' Murphy writing in 1792 said that _Irene_ had not been exhbited on any stage since its first representation. Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 52.

[585] Mr. Croker says that 'it appears by a MS. note in Isaac Reed's copy of Murphy's Life, that the receipts of the third, sixth, and ninth nights, after deducting sixty guineas a night for the expenses of the house, amounted to £195 17s.: Johnson cleared therefore, with the copyright, very nearly £300.' _Irene_ was sold at the price of 1s. 6d. a copy (_Gent. Mag_. xix. 96); so that Dodsley must have looked for a very large sale.

[586] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_ for Johnson's estimate of _Irene_ in later life.

[587] Aaron Hill (vol. ii. p. 355), in a letter to Mr. Mallett, gives the following account of _Irene_ after having seen it: 'I was at the anomalous Mr. Johnson's benefit, and found the play his proper representative; strong sense ungraced by sweetness or decorum.' BOSWELL.

[588] See _ante_, p. 102

[589] Murphy (_Life_, p. 53) says that some years afterwards, when he knew Johnson to be in distress, he asked Garrick why he did not produce another tragedy for his Lichfield friend? Garrick's answer was remarkable: "When Johnson writes tragedy, declamation roars, and passion sleeps: when Shakespeare wrote; he dipped his pen in his own heart." Johnson was perhaps aware of the causes of his failure as a tragedy-writer. In his criticism of Addison's _Cato_ he says: 'Of _Cato_ it has been not unjustly determined that it is rather a poem in dialogue than a drama, rather a succession of just sentiments in elegant language than a representation of natural affections, or any state probable or possible in human life ... The events are expected without solicitude, and are remembered without joy or sorrow.... Its success has introduced or confirmed among us the use of dialogue too declamatory, of unaffecting elegance and chill philosophy.' _Works_, vii. 456. 'Johnson thought: _Cato_ the best model of tragedy we had; yet he used to say, of all things the most ridiculous would be to see a girl cry at the representation of it.' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 207. _Cato_, if neglected, has added at least eight 'habitual quotations' to the language (see Thackeray's _English Humourists_, p. 98). _Irene_ has perhaps not added a single one. It has neverthingless some quotable lines, such as--

'Crowds that hide a monarch from
himself.' Act i. sc. 4.
'To cant ... of reason to a lover.'
Act iii. sc. 1.
'When e'en as love was breaking
off from wonder,
And tender accents quiver'd on my
lips.' Ib.
'And fate lies crowded in a narrow
space.' Act iii. sc. 6.
'Reflect that life and death, affecting
sounds,
Are only varied modes of endless
being.' Act ii. sc. 8.
'Directs the planets with a careless
nod.' Ib.
'Far as futurity's untravell'd waste.'
Act iv. sc. 1.
'And wake from ignorance the
western world.' Act iv. sc. 2.
'Through hissing ages a proverbial
coward,
The tale of women, and the scorn
of fools.' Act iv. sc. 3.
'No records but the records of the
sky.' Ib.
'... thou art sunk beneath reproach.'
Act v. sc. 2.
'Oh hide me from myself.'
Act v. sc. 3.

[590] Johnson wrote of Milton:--'I cannot but conceive him calm and confident, little disappointed, not at all dejected, relying on his own merit with steady consciousness, and waiting without impatience the vicissitudes of opinion, and the impartiality of a future generation.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 108.

[591]

'Genus irritabile vatum.' 'The fretful tribe of rival poets.'

Francis, _Horace_, Ep. ii. 2. 102.

[592] This deference he enforces in many passages in his writings; as for instance:--'Dryden might have observed, that what is good only because it pleases, cannot be pronounced good till it has been found to please.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 252. 'The authority of Addison is great; yet the voice of the people, when to please the people is the purpose, deserves regard.' _Ib_. 376. 'About things on which the public thinks long, it commonly attains to think right.' _Ib_. 456. 'These apologies are always useless: "de gustibus non est disputandum;" men may be convinced, but they cannot be pleased against their will.' _Ib_. viii. 26. 'Of things that terminate in human life, the world is the proper judge; to despise its sentence, if it were possible, is not just; and if it were just, is not possible.' _Ib_. viii. 316. Lord Chesterfield in writing to his son about his first appearance in the world said, 'You will be tried and judged there, not as a boy, but as a man; and from that moment _there is no appeal for character_.' Lord Chesterfield's _Letters_, iii. 324. Addison in the _Guardian_, No. 98, had said that 'men of the best sense are always diffident of their private judgment, till it receives a sanction from the public. _Provoco ad populum_, I appeal to the people, was the usual saying of a very excellent dramatic poet, when he had any disputes with particular persons about the justness and regularity of his productions.' See _post_, March 23, 1783.