Chapter XXXII: Appendix: F (11)

[1158] That this was a momentary sally against Garrick there can be no doubt; for at Johnson's desire he had, some years before, given a benefit-night at his theatre to this very person, by which she had got two hundred pounds. Johnson, indeed, upon all other occasions, when I was in his company, praised the very liberal charity of Garrick. I once mentioned to him, 'It is observed, Sir, that you attack Garrick yourself, but will suffer nobody else to do it.' JOHNSON, (smiling) 'Why, Sir, that is true.' BOSWELL. See _post_, May 15, 1776, and April 17, 1778.

[1159] By Henry Home, Lord Kames, 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1762. See _post_, Oct. 16, 1769. 'Johnson laughed much at Lord Kames's opinion that war was a good thing occasionally, as so much valour and virtue were exhibited in it. "A fire," says Johnson, "might as well be thought a good thing; there is the bravery and address of the firemen employed in extinguishing it; there is much humanity exerted in saving the lives and properties of the poor sufferers; yet after all this, who can say a fire is a good thing?"' Johnson's _Works_, (1787) xi. 209.

[1160] No. 45 of the _North Briton_ had been published on April 23. Wilkes was arrested under a general warrant on April 30. On May 6 he was discharged from custody by the Court of Common Pleas, before which he had been brought by a writ of _Habeas Corpus_. A few days later he was served with a subpoena upon an information exhibited against him by the Attorney-General in the Court of King's Bench. He did not enter an appearance, holding, as he said, the serving him with the subpoena as a violation of the privilege of parliament. _Parl. Hist_. xv. 1360.

[1161] Mr. Sheridan was then reading lectures upon Oratory at Bath, where Derrick was Master of the Ceremonies; or, as the phrase is, KING. BOSWELL. Dr. Parr, who knew Sheridan well, describes him 'as a wrong-headed, whimsical man.' 'I remember,' he continues, 'hearing one of his daughters, in the house where I lodged, triumphantly repeat Dryden's _Ode upon St. Cecilia's Day_, according to the instruction given to her by her father. Take a sample:--

"_None_ but the brave None but the _brave_. None _but_ the brave deserve the fair."

Naughty Richard [R. B. Sheridan], like Gallio, seemed to care nought for these things.' Moore's _Sheridan_, i. 9, 11. Sheridan writing from Dublin on Dec. 7, 1771, says:--'Never was party violence carried to such a height as in this session; the House [the Irish House of Parliament] seldom breaking up till eleven or twelve at night. From these contests the desire of improving in the article of elocution is become very general. There are no less than five persons of rank and fortune now waiting my leisure to become my pupils.' _Ib_. p. 60. See _post_, July 28, 1763.

[1162] Bonnell Thornton. See _post_ July 1, 1763.

[1163] Lloyd was one of a remarkable group of Westminster boys. He was a school-fellow not only of Churchill, the elder Colman, and Cumberland, buy also of Cowper and Warren Hastings. Bonnell Thornton was a few years their senior. Not many weeks after this meeting with Boswell, Lloyd was in the Fleet prison. Churchill in _Indepence_(_Poems_ ii 310) thus addresses the Patrons of the age:--

'Hence, ye vain boasters, to the Fleet repair And ask, with blushes ask if Lloyd is there.'

Of the four men who thus enlivened Boswell, two were dead before the end of the following year. Churchill went first. When Lloyd heard of his death, '"I shall follow poor Charles," was all he said, as he went to the bed from which he never rose again.' Thornton lived three or four years longer, Forster's _Essays_, ii 217, 270, 289. See also his _Life of Goldsmith_ i. 264, for an account how 'Lloyd invited Goldsmith to sup with some friends of Grub Street, and left him to pay the reckoning.' Thornton, Lloyd, Colman, Cowper, and Joseph Hill, to whom Cowper's famous _Epistle_ was addressed, had at one time been members of the Nonsense Club. Southey's _Cowper_, i. 37.

[1164] The author of the well-known sermons, see _post_, under Dec. 21, 1776.

[1165] See _post_, under Dec. 9, 1784.

[1166] See _post_, Feb. 7, 1775, under Dec. 24, 1783, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 10, 1773.

[1167] 'Sir,' he said to Reynolds, 'a man might write such stuff for ever, if he would _abandon_ his mind to it;' _post_, under March 30, 1783.

[1168] 'Or behind the screen' some one might have added, _ante_, i. 163.

[1169] Wesley was told that a whole waggon-load of Methodists had been lately brought before a Justice of the Peace. When he asked what they were charged with, one replied, 'Why they pretended to be better than other people, and besides they prayed from morning to night.' Wesley's _Journal_, i. 361. See also _post_, 1780, near the end of Mr. Langton's _Collection_.

[1170] 'The progress which the understanding makes through a book has' he said, 'more pain than pleasure in it;' _post_, May 1, 1783.

[1171] _Matthew_, vi. 16.

[1172] Boswell, it is clear, in the early days of his acquaintance with Johnson often led the talk to this subject. See _post_, June 25, July 14, 21, and 28, 1763.

[1173] See _post_, April 7, 1778.

[1174] He finished his day, 'however late it might be,' by taking tea at Miss Williams's lodgings; _post_, July 1, 1763.

[1175] See _post_, under Feb. 15, 1766, Feb. 1767, March 20, 1776, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 20, 1773, where Johnson says:--'I have been trying to cure my laziness all my life, and could not do it.' It was this kind of life that caused so much of the remorse which is seen in his _Prayers and Meditations_.

[1176] Horace Walpole writing on June 12, 1759 (_Letters_, iii. 231), says:--'A war that reaches from Muscovy to Alsace, and from Madras to California, don't produce an article half so long as Mr. Johnson's riding three horses at once.' I have a curious copper-plate showing Johnson standing on one, or two, and leading a third horse in full speed.' It bears the date of November 1758. See _post_, April 3, 1778.

[1177] In the impudent _Correspondence_ (pp. 63, 65) which Boswell and Andrew Erskine published this year, Boswell shows why he wished to enter the Guards. 'My fondness for the Guards,' he writes, 'must appear very strange to you, who have a rooted antipathy at the glare of scarlet. But I must inform you, that there is a city called London, for which I have as violent an affection as the most romantic lover ever had for his mistress.... I am thinking of the brilliant scenes of happiness, which I shall enjoy as an officer of the guards. How I shall be acquainted with all the grandeur of a court, and all the elegance of dress and diversions; become a favourite of ministers of state, and the adoration of ladies of quality, beauty, and fortune! How many parties of pleasure shall I have in town! How many fine jaunts to the noble seats of dukes, lords, and members of parliament in the country! I am thinking of the perfect knowledge which I shall acquire of men and manners, of the intimacies which I shall have the honour to form with the learned and ingenious in every science, and of the many amusing literary anecdotes which I shall pick up,' etc. Boswell, in his _Hebrides_ (Aug. 18, 1773), says of himself:--'His inclination was to be a soldier; but his father, a respectable Judge, had pressed him into the profession of the law.'

[1178] A row of tenements in the Strand, between Wych Street and Temple Bar, and 'so called from the butchers' shambles on the south side.' (_Strype_, B. iv. p. 118.) Butcher Row was pulled down in 1813, and the present Pickett Street erected in its stead. P. CUNNINGHAM. In _Humphry Clinker_, in the letter of June 10, one of the poor authors is described as having been 'reduced to a woollen night-cap and living upon sheep's-trotters, up three pair of stairs backward in Butcher Row.'

[1179] Cibber was poet-laureate from 1730 to 1757. Horace Walpole describes him as 'that good humoured and honest veteran, so unworthily aspersed by Pope, whose _Memoirs_, with one or two of his comedies, will secure his fame, in spite of all the abuse of his contemporaries.' His successor Whitehead, Walpole calls 'a man of a placid genius.' _Reign of George II_, iii. 81. See _ante_, pp. 149, 185, and _post_, Oct. 19, 1769, May 15, 1776, and Sept. 21, 1777.

[1180] The following quotations show the difference of style in the two poets:--

COLLEY GIBBER.

'When her pride, fierce in arms,
Would to Europe give law;
At her cost let her come,
To our cheer of huzza!
Not lightning with thunder more terrible darts,
Than the burst of huzza from our bold _British_ hearts.'

_Gent. Mag_. xxv. 515.

WM. WHITEHEAD.

'Ye guardian powers, to whose command,
At Nature's birth, th' Almighty mind
The delegated task assign'd
To watch o'er Albion's favour'd land,
What time your hosts with choral lay,
Emerging from its kindred deep,
Applausive hail'd each verdant steep,
And white rock, glitt'ring to the new-born day!'

_Ib_. xxix. 32.

[1181] See _ante_, p. 167.

[1182] 'Whitehead was for some while Garrick's "reader" of new plays for Drury-lane.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 41. See _post_, April 25, 1778, note. The verses to Garrick are given in Chalmers's _English Poets_, xvii. 222.

[1183] 'In 1757 Gray published _The Progress of Poetry_ and _The Bard_, two compositions at which the readers of poetry were at first content to gaze in mute amazement. Some that tried them confessed their inability to understand them.... Garrick wrote a few lines in their praise. Some hardy champions undertook to rescue them from neglect; and in a short time many were content to be shown beauties which they could not see.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 478. See _post_, March 28, and April 2, 1775, and 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. Goldsmith, no doubt, attacked Gray among 'the misguided innovators,' of whom he said in his _Life of Parnell_:--'They have adopted a language of their own, and call upon mankind for admiration. All those who do not understand them are silent, and those who make out their meaning are willing to praise to show they understand.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, iv. 22.

[1184] Johnson, perhaps, refers to the anonymous critic quoted by Mason in his notes on this Ode, who says:--'This abrupt execration plunges the reader into that sudden fearful perplexity which is designed to predominate through the whole.' Mason's _Gray_, ed. 1807, i. 96.

[1185] 'Of the first stanza [of _The Bard_] the abrupt beginning has been celebrated; but technical beauties can give praise only to the inventor. It is in the power of any man to rush abruptly upon his subject that has read the ballad of _Johnny Armstrong_.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 485.

[1186] My friend Mr. Malone, in his valuable comments on Shakspeare, has traced in that great poet the _disjecta membra_ of these lines. BOSWELL. Gray, in the edition of _The Bard_ of the year 1768, in a note on these lines had quoted from _King John_, act v. sc. 1:--'Mocking the air with colours idly spread.' Gosse's _Gray_, i. 41. But Malone quotes also from _Macbeth_, act i. sc. 2:--

'Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold.'

'Out of these passages,' he said, 'Mr. Gray seems to have framed the first stanza of his celebrated _Ode_.' Malone's _Shakespeare_, xv. 344.

[1187] Cradock records (_Memoirs_, 1.230) that Goldsmith said to him:--'You are so attached to Kurd, Gray, and Mason, that you think nothing good can proceed but out of that formal school;--now, I'll mend Gray's _Elegy_ by leaving out an idle word in every line.

"The curfew tolls the knell of day, The lowing herd winds o'er the lea The ploughman homeward plods his way And---"

Enough, enough, I have no ear for more.'

[1188] So, less than two years later, Boswell opened his mind to Paoli. 'My time passed here in the most agreeable manner. I enjoyed a sort of luxury of noble sentiment. Paoli became more affable with me. I made myself known to him.' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 167.

[1189] See _ante_, p. 67.

[1190] See _post_, Sept. 22, 1777.

[1191] See _post_, March 30, 1778, where in speaking of the appearance of spirits after death he says:--'All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.' See also _ante_, p. 343, and _post_, April 15, 1778, under May 4, 1779, April 15, 1781, and June 12, 1784.

[1192] The caricature begins:--

'Pomposo, insolent and loud Vain idol of a _scribbling_ crowd, Whose very name inspires an awe Whose ev'ry word is Sense and Law.'

Churchill's _Poems_, i. 216.

[1193] The chief impostor, a man of the name of Parsons, had, it should seem, set his daughter to play the part of the ghost in order to pay out a grudge against a man who had sued him for a debt. The ghost was made to accuse this man of poisoning his sister-in-law, and to declare that she should only be at ease in her mind if he were hanged. 'When Parsons stood on the Pillory at the end of Cock Lane, instead of being pelted, he had money given him.' _Gent. Mag_. xxxii. 43, 82, and xxxiii. 144.

[1194] Horace Walpole, writing on Feb. 2, 1762 (_Letters_, iii. 481), says:--'I could send you volumes on the Ghost, and I believe, if I were to stay a little, I might send its _life_, dedicated to my Lord Dartmouth, by the Ordinary of Newgate, its two great patrons. A drunken parish clerk set it on foot out of revenge, the Methodists have adopted it, and the whole town of London think of nothing else.... I went to hear it, for it is not an _apparition_, but an _audition_, ... the Duke of York, Lady Northumberland, Lady Mary Coke, Lord Hertford, and I, all in one Hackney-coach: it rained torrents; yet the lane was full of mob, and the house so full we could not get in.' See _post_, April 10, 1778.

[1195] Described by Goldsmith in _Retaliation_ as 'The scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks.' See _ante_, p. 229.

[1196] The account was as follows:--'On the night of the 1st of February [1762] many gentlemen eminent for their rank and character were, by the invitation of the Reverend Mr. Aldrich, of Clerkenwell, assembled at his house, for the examination of the noises supposed to be made by a departed spirit, for the detection of some enormous crime.

'About ten at night the gentlemen met in the chamber in which the girl, supposed to be disturbed by a spirit, had, with proper caution, been put to bed by several ladies. They sat rather more than an hour, and hearing nothing, went down stairs, when they interrogated the father of the girl, who denied, in the strongest terms, any knowledge or belief of fraud.

'The supposed spirit had before publickly promised, by an affirmative knock, that it would attend one of the gentlemen into the vault under the Church of St. John, Clerkenwell, where the body is deposited, and give a token of her presence there, by a knock upon her coffin; it was therefore determined to make this trial of the existence or veracity of the supposed spirit.

'While they were enquiring and deliberating, they were summoned into the girl's chamber by some ladies who were near her bed, and who had heard knocks and scratches. When the gentlemen entered, the girl declared that she felt the spirit like a mouse upon her back, and was required to hold her hands out of bed. From that time, though the spirit was very solemnly required to manifest its existence by appearance, by impression on the hand or body of any present, by scratches, knocks, or any other agency, no evidence of any preter-natural power was exhibited.

'The spirit was then very seriously advertised that the person to whom the promise was made of striking the coffin, was then about to visit the vault, and that the performance of the promise was then claimed. The company at one o'clock went into the church, and the gentleman to whom the promise was made, went with another into the vault. The spirit was solemnly required to perform its promise, but nothing more than silence ensued: the person supposed to be accused by the spirit, then went down with several others, but no effect was perceived. Upon their return they examined the girl, but could draw no confession from her. Between two and three she desired and was permitted to go home with her father.

'It is, therefore, the opinion of the whole assembly, that the child has some art of making or counterfeiting a particular noise, and that there is no agency of any higher cause.' BOSWELL. _Gent. Mag_. xxxii. 81. The following MS. letter is in the British Museum:--

'REVD. SIR,

The appointment for the examination stands as it did when I saw you last, viz., between 8 and 9 this evening. Mr. Johnson was applied to by a friend of mine soon after you left him, and promised to be with us. Should be glad, if convenient, you'd show him the way hither. Mrs. Oakes, of Dr. Macauley's recommendation, I should be glad to have here on the occasion; and think it would do honour to the list of examiners to have Dr. Macauley with us.

I am, Dear Sir, your most obedient servant, STE. ALDRICH.

If Dr Macauley can conveniently attend, should be glad you'd acquaint Lord Dartmouth with it, who seemed to be at loss to recommend a gentleman of the faculty at his end of the town.

St. John's Square. Monday noon.

To the Revd. Dr. Douglas.'

Endorsed 'Mr. Aldrich, Feb. 1762, about the Cock Lane ghost.--Examination at his house.'

[1197] Boswell was with Paoli when news came that a Corsican under sentence of death 'had consented to accept of his life, upon condition of becoming hangman. This made a great noise among the Corsicans, who were enraged at the creature, and said their nation was now disgraced. Paoli did not think so. He said to me:--"I am glad of this. It will be of service. It will contribute to form us to a just subordination. As we must have Corsican tailours, and Corsican shoemakers, we must also have a Corsican hangman."' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 201. See _post_, July 20 and 21, 1763, April 13, 1773, and March 28, 1775.

[1198] 'Mallet's Dramas had their day, a short day, and are forgotten.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 468.

[1199] See _ante_, p. 384, note.

[1200] 'A man had heard that Dempster was very clever, and therefore expected that he could say nothing but good things. Being brought acquainted, Mr. Dempster said to him with much politeness, "I hope, Sir, your lady and family are well." "Ay, ay, man," said he, "pray where is the great wit in that speech?"' _Boswelliana_, p. 307. Mr. Dempster is mentioned by Burns in _The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer to the Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons_:--'Dempster, a true-blue Scot I'se warran.' In 1769 he was elected member for the Forfar Boroughs. _Parl. Hist_. xvi. 453.

[1201] _The Critical Review_, in which Mallet himself sometimes wrote, characterised this pamphlet as 'the crude efforts of envy, petulance and self conceit.' There being thus three epithets, we, the three authours, had a humourous contention how each should be appropriated. BOSWELL.

[1202] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 86) talks of the chiefs 'gradually degenerating from patriarchal rulers to rapacious landlords.' In Boswell's _Hebrides_, the subject is often examined.

[1203] See _ante_, i. 365.

[1204] 'Dr. Burney spoke with great warmth of affection of Dr. Johnson; said he was the kindest creature in the world when he thought he was loved and respected by others. He would play the fool among friends, but he required deference. It was necessary to ask questions and make no assertion. If you said two and two make four, he would say, "How will you prove that, Sir?" Dr. Burney seemed amiably sensitive to every unfavourable remark on his old friend.' H. C. Robinson's _Diary_, iii. 485.

[1205] See _post_, April 24, 1777, note, and Oct. l0, 1779, where he consults Johnson about the study of Greek. He formed wishes, scarcely plans of study but never studied.

[1206] See _post_, Feb. 18, 1777. It was Graham who so insulted Goldsmith by saying:--''Tis not you I mean, Dr. _Minor_; 'tis Dr. _Major_ there.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 24, 1773.

[1207] See _post_, Sept. 19, 1777.

[1208] Of Mathematics Goldsmith wrote:--'This seems a science to which the meanest intellects are equal.' See _post_, March 15, 1776, note.

[1209] In his _Present State of Polite Learning_, ch. 13 (_Misc. Works_, i. 266), Goldsmith writes:--'A man who is whirled through Europe in a post-chaise, and the pilgrim who walks the grand tour on foot, will form very different conclusions. _Haud inexpertus loquor_.' The last three words are omitted in the second edition.

[1210] George Primrose in the _Vicar of Wakefield_ (ch. 20), after describing these disputations, says:--'In this manner I fought my way towards England.'

[1211] Dr. Warton wrote to his brother on Jan. 22, 1766:--'Of all solemn coxcombs Goldsmith is the first; yet sensible--but affects to use Johnson's hard words in conversation.' Wooll's _Warton_, p. 312.

[1212] It was long believed that the author of one of Goldsmith's early works was Lord Lyttelton. '"Whenever I write anything," said Goldsmith, "I think the public _make a point_ to know nothing about it." So the present book was issued as a _History of England in a series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son_. The persuasion at last became general that the author was Lord Lyttelton, and the name of that grave good lord is occasionally still seen affixed to it on the bookstalls.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 301. The _Traveller_ was the first of his works to which he put his name. It was published in 1764. 16. p. 364.

[1213] Published in 1759.

[1214] Published in 1760-1.

[1215] See his Epitaph in Westminster Abbey, written by Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL.

'Qui nullum fere scribendi genus Non tetigit, Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.'

_Post_, under June 22, 1776.

[1216] In allusion to this, Mr. Horace Walpole, who admired his writings, said he was 'an inspired ideot;' and Garrick described him as one

'----for shortness call'd Noll, Who wrote like an angel, and talk'd like poor Poll.'

Sir Joshua Reynolds mentioned to me that he frequently heard Goldsmith talk warmly of the pleasure of being liked, and observe how hard it would be if literary excellence should preclude a man from that satisfaction, which he perceived it often did, from the envy which attended it; and therefore Sir Joshua was convinced that he was intentionally more absurd, in order to lessen himself in social intercourse, trusting that his character would be sufficiently supported by his works. If it indeed was his intention to appear absurd in company, he was often very successful. But with due deference to Sir Joshua's ingenuity, I think the conjecture too refined. BOSWELL.

Horace Walpole's saying of the 'inspired ideot' is recorded in Davies's _Garrick_, ii. 151. Walpole, in his _Letters_, describes Goldsmith as 'a changeling that has had bright gleams of parts,' (v. 458); 'a fool, the more wearing for having some sense,' (vi. 29); 'a poor soul that had sometimes parts, though never common sense,' (_ib_. p. 73); and 'an idiot, with once or twice a fit of parts,' (_ib_. p. 379). Garrick's lines--

'Here lies Nolly Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll, Who wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll,'

are his imaginary epitaph on Goldsmith, which, with the others, gave rise to _Retaliation_. Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 405.

[1217] Rousseau accounting for the habit he has 'de balbutier promptement des paroles sans idées,' continues, 'je crois que voilà de quoi faire assez comprendre comment n'étant pas un sot, j'ai cependant souvent passé pour l'être, même chez des gens en état de bien juger.... Le parti que j'ai pris d'écrire et de me cacher est précisément celui qui me convenait. Moi présent on n'aurait jamais su ce que je valois, on ne l'aurait pas soupconné même.' _Les Confessions_, Livre iii. See _post_, April 27, 1773, where Boswell admits that 'Goldsmith was often very fortunate in his witty contests, even when he entered the lists with Johnson himself:' and April 30, 1773, where Reynolds says of him: 'There is no man whose company is more liked.'

[1218] Northcote, a few weeks before his death, said to Mr. Prior:--'When Goldsmith entered a room, Sir, people who did not know him became for a moment silent from awe of his literary reputation; when he came out again, they were riding upon his back.' Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 440. According to Dr. Percy:--'His face was marked with strong lines of thinking. His first appearance was not captivating; but when he grew easy and cheerful in company, he relaxed into such a display of good humour as soon removed every unfavourable impression.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 117.

[1219] 'Dr. Goldsmith told me, he himself envied Shakespeare.' Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 379. Boswell, later on (_post_, May 9, 1773), says:--'In my opinion Goldsmith had not more of it [an envious disposition] than other people have, but only talked of it freely.' See also _post_, April 12, 1778. According to Northcote, 'Sir Joshua said that Goldsmith considered public notoriety or fame as one great parcel, to the whole of which he laid claim, and whoever partook of any part of it, whether dancer, singer, slight of hand man, or tumbler, deprived him of his right.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 248. See _post_, April 7, 1778, where Johnson said that 'Goldsmith was not an agreeable companion, for he talked always for fame;' and April 9, 1778.

[1220] Miss Hornecks, one of whom is now married to Henry Bunbury, Esq., and the other to Colonel Gwyn. BOSWELL.

[1221] 'Standing at the window of their hotel [in Lisle] to see a company of soldiers in the Square, the beauty of the sisters Horneck drew such marked admiration, that Goldsmith, heightening his drollery with that air of solemnity so generally a point in his humour and so often more solemnly misinterpreted, turned off from the window with the remark that elsewhere _he_ too could have his admirers. The Jessamy Bride, Mrs. Gwyn, was asked about the occurrence not many years ago; remembered it as a playful jest; and said how shocked she had subsequently been "to see it adduced in print as a proof of his envious disposition."' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 217.

[1222] Puppets.

[1223] He went home with Mr. Burke to supper; and broke his shin by attempting to exhibit to the company how much better he could jump over a stick than the puppets. BOSWELL. Mr. Hoole was one day in a coach with Johnson, when 'Johnson, who delighted in rapidity of pace, and had been speaking of Goldsmith, put his head out of one of the windows to see they were going right, and rubbing his hands with an air of satisfaction exclaimed:--"This man drives fast and well; were Goldsmith here now he would tell us he could do better."' Prior's _Goldsmith_, ii. 127.

[1224] See _post_, April 9, 1773; also April 9, 1778, where Johnson says, 'Goldsmith had no settled notions upon any subject.'

[1225] I am willing to hope that there may have been some mistake as to this anecdote, though I had it from a Dignitary of the Church. Dr. Isaac Goldsmith, his near relation, was Dean of Cloyne, in 1747. BOSWELL. This note first appears in the second edition.

[1226] Mr. Welsh, in _A Bookseller of the Last Century_, p. 58, quotes the following entry from an account-book of B. Collins of Salisbury, the printer of the first edition of the _Vicar_:--'_Vicar of Wakefield_, 2 vols. 12mo., 1/3rd. B. Collins, Salisbury, bought of Dr. Goldsmith, the author, October 28, 1762, £21.' Goldsmith, it should seem from this, as Collins's third share was worth twenty guineas, was paid not sixty pounds, but sixty guineas. Collins shared in many of the ventures of Newbery, Goldsmith's publisher. Mr. Welsh says (_ib_. p. 61) that Collins's accounts show 'that the first three editions resulted in a loss.' If this was so, the booksellers must have been great bunglers, for the book ran through three editions in six or seven months. Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 425.

[1227] The Traveller (price one shilling and sixpence) was published in December 1764, and _The Vicar of Wakefield_ in March 1766. In August 1765 the fourth edition of _The Traveller_ appeared, and the ninth in the year Goldsmith died. He received for it £21. Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 364, 374, 409. See _ante_, p. 193, note i.

[1228] '"Miss Burney," said Mrs. Thrale [to Dr. Johnson], "is fond of _The Vicar of Wakefield_, and so am I. Don't you like it, Sir?" "No, madam, it is very faulty; there is nothing of real life in it, and very little of nature. It is a mere fanciful performance."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 83. 'There are a hundred faults in this Thing,' said Goldsmith in the preface, 'and a hundred things might be said to prove them beauties. But it is needless. A book may be amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity.' See _post_, April 25, 1778.

[1229] _Anecdotes of Johnson_, p. 119. BOSWELL.

[1230] _Life of Johnson_, p. 420. BOSWELL.

[1231] In his imprudence he was like Savage, of whom Johnson says (_Works_, viii. 161):--'To supply him with money was a hopeless attempt; for no sooner did he see himself master of a sum sufficient to set him free from care for a day, than he became profuse and luxurious.' When Savage was 'lodging in the liberties of the Fleet, his friends sent him every Monday a guinea, which he commonly spent before the next morning, and trusted, after his usual manner, the remaining part of the week to the bounty of fortune.' _Ib_. p. 170.

[1232] It may not be improper to annex here Mrs. Piozzi's account of this transaction, in her own words, as a specimen of the extreme inaccuracy with which all her anecdotes of Dr. Johnson are related, or rather discoloured and distorted:--'I have forgotten the year, but it could scarcely, I think, be later than 1765 or 1766 that he was _called abruptly from our house after dinner_, and returning _in about three hours_, said he had been with an enraged authour, whose landlady pressed him for payment within doors, while the bailiffs beset him without; that he was _drinking himself drunk_ with Madeira, to drown care, and fretting over a novel, which, when _finished_, was to be his _whole fortune_, but _he could not get it done for distraction_, nor could he step out of doors to offer it for sale. Mr. Johnson, therefore, sent away the bottle, and went to the bookseller, recommending the performance, and _desiring some immediate relief_; which when he brought back to the writer, _he called the 'woman of the house directly to partake of punch, and pass their time in merriment.' Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson_, p. 119. BOSWELL. The whole transaction took place in 1762, as is shown, _ante_, p. 415, note 1; Johnson did not know the Thrales till 1764.

[1233] Through Goldsmith Boswell became acquainted with Reynolds. In his _Letter to the People of Scotland_ (p. 99), he says:--'I exhort you, my friends and countrymen, in the words of my departed _Goldsmith_, who gave me many nodes _Atticae_, and gave me a jewel of the finest water--the acquaintance of Sir Joshua Reynolds.'

[1234] See _post_, July 30, 1763.

[1235] See _post_, March 20, 1776, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 17, 1773.

[1236] See _post_, March 15, 1776.

[1237] 'Dr. Campbell was an entertaining story-teller, which [_sic_] sometimes he rather embellished; so that the writer of this once heard Dr. Johnson say:--"Campbell will lie, but he never lies on paper."' _Gent. Mag_. for 1785, p. 969.

[1238] I am inclined to think that he was misinformed as to this circumstance. I own I am jealous for my worthy friend Dr. John Campbell. For though Milton could without remorse absent himself from publick worship [Johnson's _Works_, vii. 115] I cannot. On the contrary, I have the same habitual impressions upon my mind, with those of a truely venerable Judge, who said to Mr. Langton, 'Friend Langton, if I have not been at church on Sunday, I do not feel myself easy.' Dr. Campbell was a sincerely religious man. Lord Macartney, who is eminent for his variety of knowledge, and attention to men of talents, and knew him well, told me, that when he called on him in a morning, he found him reading a chapter in the Greek New Testament, which he informed his Lordship was his constant practice. The quantity of Dr. Campbell's composition is almost incredible, and his labours brought him large profits. Dr. Joseph Warton told me that Johnson said of him, 'He is the richest authour that ever grazed the common of literature.' BOSWELL.

[1239] See _post_, April 7, 1778. Campbell complied with one of the _Monita Padagogica_ of Erasmus. 'Si quem praeteribis natu grandem, magistratum, sacerdotem, doctorem.... memento aperire caput.... Itidem facito quum praeteribis asdem sacram.' Erasmus's _Colloquies_, ed. 1867, i. 36.

[1240] Reynolds said of Johnson:--'He was not easily imposed upon by professions to honesty and candour; but he appeared to have little suspicion of hypocrisy in religion.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 459. Boswell, in one of his penitent letters, wrote to Temple on July 21, 1790:--'I am even almost inclined to think with you, that my great oracle Johnson did allow too much credit to good principles, without good practice.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 327.

[1241] Campbell lived in 'the large new-built house at the north-west-corner of Queen Square, Bloomsbury, whither, particularly on a Sunday evening, great numbers of persons of the first eminence for science and literature resorted for the enjoyment of conversation.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 210.

[1242] Churchill, in his first poem, _The Rosciad_ (Poems, i. 4), mentions Johnson without any disrespect among those who were thought of as judge.

'For Johnson some, but Johnson, it was feared, Would be too grave; and Sterne too gay appeared.'

In The Author (ib. ii. 36), if I mistake not, he grossly alludes to the convulsive disorder to which Johnson was subject. Attacking the pensioners he says--the italics are his own:--

'Others, _half-palsied_ only, mutes become, And what makes Smollett write makes Johnson dumb.'

[1243] See _post_, April 6, 1772, where Johnson called Fielding a blockhead.

[1244] Churchill published his first poem, _The Rosciad_, in March or April 1761 (_Gent. Mag_. xxxi. 190); _The Apology_ in May or June (_Ib_. p. 286); _Night_ in Jan. 1762 (_Ib_. xxxii. 47); The First and Second Parts of The Ghost in March (_ib_. p. 147); The Third Part in the autumn (_ib_. p. 449); _The Prophecy of Famine _in Jan. 1763 (_ib_. xxxiii. 47), and _The Epistle to Hogarth_ in this month of July (_ib_. p. 363). He wrote the fourth part of _The Ghost_, and nine more poems, and died on Nov. 4, 1764, aged thirty-two or thirty-three.

[1245] 'Cowper had a higher opinion of Churchill than of any other contemporary writer. "It is a great thing," he said, "to be indeed a poet, and does not happen to more than one man in a century; but Churchill, the great Churchill, deserved that name." He made him, more than any other writer, his model.' Southey's _Cowper_, i. 87, 8.

[1246] Mr. Forster says that 'Churchill asked five guineas for the manuscript of _The Rosciad_ (according to Southey, but Mr. Tooke says he asked twenty pounds).' Finding no purchaser he brought the poem out at his own risk. Mr. Forster continues:--'The pulpit had starved him on forty pounds a year; the public had given him a thousand pounds in two months.' Forster's _Essays_, ii. 226, 240. As _The Rosciad _was sold at one shilling a copy, it seems incredible that such a gain could have been made, even with the profits of _The Apology_ included. 'Blotting and correcting was so much Churchill's abhorrence that I have heard from his publisher he once energetically expressed himself, that it was like cutting away one's own flesh.' D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, iii. 129. D'Israeli 'had heard that after a successful work he usually precipitated the publication of another, relying on its crudeness being passed over by the public curiosity excited by its better brother. He called this getting double pay, for thus he secured the sale of a hurried work.'

[1247] In the opening lines of _Gotham,_ Bk. iii, there is a passage of great beauty and tenderness.

[1248] In 1769 I set Thornton's burlesque _Ode_. It was performed at Ranelagh in masks, to a very crowded audience, as I was told; for I then resided in Norfolk. BURNEY. Dr. Burney's note cannot be correct. He came to reside in London in 1760 (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. 133) The Ode is in the list of 'new books, published' in the _Gent. Mag_. for June 1763, and is described as having been performed at Ranelagh.

[1249] _The Connoisseur_ was started by Thornton and Colman in 1754. Cowper and Lloyd were contributors. Southey's _Cowper_, i. 46, 49, 65.

[1250] See _ante_, p. 350, note.

[1251] See _post_, Aug. 2, 1763, and Oct. 26, 1769.

[1252] See _post_. Sept. 20, 1777, note.

[1253] The northern bard mentioned page 421. When I asked Dr. Johnson's permission to introduce him, he obligingly agreed; adding, however, with a sly pleasantry, 'but he must give us none of his poetry.' It is remarkable that Johnson and Churchill, however much they differed in other points, agreed on this subject. See Churchill's _Journey_.

['Under dark Allegory's flimsy veil
Let Them with Ogilvie spin out a tale
Of rueful length,'
Churchill's _Poems_, ii. 329.]

It is, however, but justice to Dr. Ogilvie to observe, that his _Day of Judgement_ has no inconsiderable share of merit. BOSWELL.

[1254] 'Johnson said:--"Goldsmith should not be for ever attempting to _shine_ in conversation."' _Post_, April 27, 1773. See also _post_, May 7, 1773.

[1255] Fifteen years later Lord George Germaine, Secretary of State, asserted in a debate 'that the King "was his own Minister," which Charles Fox took up admirably, lamenting that His Majesty "was his own _unadvised_ Minister."' Walpole's _Journal of the Reign of George III_, ii. 314.

[1256] 'The general story of mankind will evince that lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed.... Men are easily kept obedient to those who have temporal dominion in their hands, till their veneration is dissipated by such wickedness and folly as can neither be defended nor concealed.' _The Rambler_, No. 50. See _post_, March 31, 1772.

[1257] 'It is natural to believe ... that no writer has a more easy task than the historian. The philosopher has the works of omniscience to examine.... The poet trusts to his invention.... But the happy historian has no other labour than of gathering what tradition pours down before him, or records treasure for his use.' _The Rambler_, No. 122.

[1258] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 21, 1773.

[1259] 'Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright and active imagination; a scholar with great brilliancy of wit; a wit, who in the crowd of life retained and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 296.

[1260] Goldsmith wrote from Edinburgh in 1753:--'Shall I tire you with a description of this unfruitful country, where I must lead you over their hills all brown with heath, or their vallies scarce able to feed a rabbit? Man alone seems to be the only creature who has arrived to the natural size in this poor soil. Every part of the country presents the same dismal landscape.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 433.

[1261] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 10, 1773.

[1262] Johnson would suffer none of his friends to fill up chasms in conversation with remarks on the weather: 'Let us not talk of the weather.' BURNEY.

[1263] See _ante_, p. 332.

[1264] Boswell wrote to Temple on Sept. 9, 1767:--'How unaccountable is it that my father and I should be so ill together! He is a man of sense and a man of worth; but from some unhappy turn in his disposition he is much dissatisfied with a son whom you know. I write to him with warmth, with an honest pride, wishing that he should think of me as I am; but my letters shock him, and every expression in them is interpreted unfavourably. To give you an instance, I send you a letter I had from him a few days ago. How galling is it to the friend of Paoli to be treated so! I have answered him in my own style; I will be myself.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 110. In the following passage in one of his _Hypochondriacks_ he certainly describes his father. 'I knew a father who was a violent Whig, and used to attack his son for being a Tory, upbraiding him with being deficient in "noble sentiments of liberty," while at the same time he made this son live under his roof in such bondage, that he was not only afraid to stir from home without leave, like a child, but durst scarcely open his mouth in his father's presence. This was sad living. Yet I would rather see such an excess of awe than a degree of familiarity between father and son by which all reverence is destroyed.' _London Mag_. 1781, p. 253.

[1265] Boswell, the day after this talk, wrote:--'I have had a long letter from my father, full of affection and good counsel. Honest man! he is now very happy: it is amazing to think how much he has had at heart, my pursuing the road of civil life.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 25.

[1266] Gray, says Nicholls, 'disliked all poetry in blank verse, except Milton.' Gray's _Works_, ed. 1858, v. 36. Goldsmith, in his _Present State of Polite Learning_ (ch. xi.), wrote in 1759:--'From a desire in the critic of grafting the spirit of ancient languages upon the English have proceeded of late several disagreeable instances of pedantry. Among the number, I think, we may reckon blank verse. Nothing but the greatest sublimity of subject can render such a measure pleasing; however, we now see it used upon the most trivial occasions.' On the same page he speaks of 'the tuneless flow of our blank verse.' See _post_, 1770, in Dr. Maxwell's _Collectanea_ and the beginning of 1781, under _The Life of Milton_, for Johnson's opinion of blank verse.

[1267] 'Johnson told me, that one day in London, when Dr. Adam Smith was boasting of Glasgow, he turned to him and said, "Pray, Sir, have you ever seen Brentford?'" Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 29, 1773. See _post_, April 29, 1778.

[1268] 'He advised me to read just as inclination prompted me, which alone, he said, would do me any good; for I had better go into company than read a set task. He said, too, that I should prescribe to myself five hours a day, and in these hours gratify whatever literary desires may spring up.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 28. The Editor of these _Letters_ compares Tranio's advice:--

'No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en: In brief, Sir, study what you most affect.'

_Taming of the Shrew_, act i. sc. I.

'Johnson used to say that no man read long together with a folio on his table. "Books," said he, "that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all."' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 197. See also _The Idler_, No. 67, and _post_, April 12, 1776, and under Sept. 22, 1777.

[1269] Wilkes, among others, had attacked him in Aug. 1762 in _The North Briton_, Nos. xi. and xii.

[1270] When I mentioned the same idle clamour to him several years afterwards, he said, with a smile, 'I wish my pension were twice as large, that they might make twice as much noise.' BOSWELL.

[1271] In one thing at least he was changed. He could now indulge in the full bent, to use his own words (_Works_, viii. l36), 'that inquisitiveness which must always be produced in a vigorous mind, by an absolute freedom from all pressing or domestick engagements.'

[1272] See _post_, April 13, 1773, Sept. 17 and 19, 1777, March 21, 1783, and June 9, 1784. Lord Shelburne says:--'After the Revolution the Tory and Jacobite parties had become almost identified by their together opposing the Court for so many years, and still more by the persecution which they suffered in common, for it was the policy of Sir Robert Walpole to confound them as much as possible, so as to throw the Jacobite odium upon every man who opposed government.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 35. Lord Bolingbroke (_Works_, iii. 28) complains that the writers on the side of the ministry 'frequently throw out that every man is a friend to the Pretender who is not a friend of Walpole.'

[1273] See _post_, April 6, 1775

[1274] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 402 [Nov. 10]. BOSWELL.

[1275] Mr. Walmsley died in 1751 (_ante_, p. 81). Johnson left Lichfield in 1737. Unless Mr. Walmsley after 1737 visited London from time to time, he can scarcely be meant.

[1276] See _ante_, p. 336.

[1277] He used to tell, with great humour, from my relation to him, the following little story of my early years, which was literally true: 'Boswell, in the year 1745, was a fine boy, wore a white cockade, and prayed for King James, till one of his uncles (General Cochran) gave him a shilling on condition that he should pray for King George, which he accordingly did. So you see (says Boswell) that _Whigs of all ages are made the same way_.' BOSWELL. Johnson, in his _Dictionary_ under _Whiggism_, gives only one quotation, namely, from Swift: 'I could quote passages from fifty pamphlets, wholly made up of whiggism and atheism.' See _post_, April 28, 1778, where he said: 'I have always said, the first _Whig_ was the Devil;' and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 21 and Nov. 8, 1773. To Johnson's sayings might be opposed one of Lord Chatham's in the House of Lords: 'There are some distinctions which are inherent in the nature of things. There is a distinction between right and wrong--between Whig and Tory.' _Parl. Hist_. xvi. 1107.

[1278] _Letter to Rutland on Travel_, 16mo. 1569. BOSWELL. This letter is contained in a little volume entitled, _Profitable Instructions; describing what special observations are to be taken by travellers in all nations, states and countries; pleasant and profitable. By the three much admired, Robert, late Earl of Essex, Sir Philip Sidney, and Secretary Davison. London. Printed for Benjamin Fisher, at the Sign of the Talbot, without Aldersgate_. 1633. (Lowndes gives the date of 1613, but the earliest edition seems to be this of 1633.) The letter from which Boswell quotes is entitled, _The late E. of E. his advice to the E. of R. in his Travels_. It is dated Greenwich, Jan. 4, 1596. Mr. Spedding (Bacon's _Works_, ix. 4) suggests that 'it may have been (wholly or in part) written by Bacon.'

[1279] Boswell (_Boswelliana_, p. 210) says that this 'impudent fellow' was Macpherson.

[1280] Boswell repeated this saying and some others to Paoli. 'I felt an elation of mind to see Paoli delighted with the sayings of Mr. Johnson, and to hear him translate them with Italian energy to the Corsican heroes.' Here Boswell describes the person as 'a certain authour.' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 199

[1281] Boswell thus takes him off in his comic poem _The Court of Session Garland_:--

'"This cause," cries Hailes, "to judge I can't pretend, For _justice_, I percieve, wants an _e_ at the end."'

Mr. R. Chambers, in a note on this, says:--'A story is told of Lord Hailes once making a serious objection to a law-paper, an in consequence to the whole suit, on account of the word _justice_ being thus spelt. _Traditions of Edinburgh_, ii. 161. Burke says that he 'found him to be a clever man, and generally knowing.' Burke's _Corres_. iii. 301. See _ante_ p. 267, and _post_ May 12, 1774 and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 17, 1773.

[1282] 'Ita feri ut se mori sentiat.' Suetonius, _Caligula_, chap. xxx.

[1283] Johnson himself was constantly purposing to keep a journal. On April 11, 1773, he told Boswell 'that he had twelve or fourteen times attempted to keep a journal of his life,' _post_, April 11, 1773. The day before he had recorded:--'I hope from this time to keep a journal.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 124. Like records follow, as:--'Sept. 24, 1773. My hope is, for resolution I dare no longer call it, to divide my time regularly, and to keep such a journal of my time, as may give me comfort in reviewing it.' _Ib_. p. 132. 'April 6, 1777. My purpose once more is To keep a journal.' _Ib_. p. 161. 'Jan. 2, 1781. My hope is To keep a journal.' _Ib_. p. 188. See also _post_, April 14, 1775, and April 10, 1778.

[1284] Boswell, when he was only eighteen, going with his father to the [Scotch] Northern Circuit, 'kept,' he writes, 'an exact journal.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 8. In the autumn of 1762 he also kept a journal which he sent to Temple to read. _Ib_. p. 19.

[1285] 'It has been well observed, that the misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 333. 'The main of life is indeed composed of small incidents and petty occurrences.' _Ib_. ii. 322. Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, i. 199) says:--'Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.'

[1286] Boswell wrote the next day:--'We sat till between two and three. He took me by the hand cordially, and said, "My dear Boswell, I love you very much." Now Temple, can I help indulging vanity?' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 27. Fourteen years later Boswell was afraid that he kept Johnson too late up. 'No, Sir,' said he, 'I don't care though I sit all night with you.' _Post_, Sept. 23, 1777. See also _post_, April 7, 1779, where Johnson, speaking of these early days, said to Boswell, 'it was not the _wine_ that made your head ache, but the sense that I put into it.'

[1287] Tuesday was the 19th.

[1288] 'The elder brother of the first Lord Rokeby, called long Sir Thomas Robinson, on account of his height, and to distinguish him from Sir Thomas Robinson, first Lord Grantham. It was on his request for an epigram that Lord Chesterfield made the distich:--

"Unlike my subject will I make my song, It shall be witty, and it shan't be long,"

and to whom he said in his last illness, "Ah, Sir Thomas, it will be sooner over with me than it would be with you, for I am dying by inches." Lord Chesterfield was very short.' CROKER. Southey, writing of Rokeby Hall, which belonged to Robinson, says that 'Long Sir Thomas found a portrait of Richardson in the house; thinking Mr. Richardson a very unfit personage to be suspended in effigy among lords, ladies, and baronets, he ordered the painter to put him on the star and blue riband, and then christened the picture Sir Robert Walpole.' Southey's _Life_, iii. 346. See also _ante_, p. 259 note 2, and _post_, 1770, near the end of Dr. Maxwell's _Collectanea_.

[1289] Johnson (_Works_, vi. 440) had written of Frederick the Great in 1756:--'His skill in poetry and in the French language has been loudly praised by Voltaire, a judge without exception if his honesty were equal to his knowledge.' Boswell, in his _Hypochondriacks_, records a conversation that he had with Voltaire on memory:--'I asked him if he could give me any notion of the situation of our ideas which we have totally forgotten at the time, yet shall afterwards recollect. He paused, meditated a little, and acknowledged his ignorance in the spirit of a philosophical poet by repeating as a very happy allusion a passage in Thomson's _Seasons_--"Aye," said he, "Where sleep the winds when it is calm?"' _London Mag_. 1783, p. 157. The passage is in Thomson's _Winter_, l. 116:--

'In what far-distant region of the sky, Hush'd in deep silence, sleep ye when 'tis calm?'

[1290] See _post_, ii. 54, note 3.

[1291] Bernard Lintot, the father, published Pope's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_. Over the sale of the _Odyssey_ a quarrel arose between the two men. Johnson's _Works_, viii. 251, 274. Lintot is attacked in the _Dunciad_, i. 40 and ii. 53; He was High-Sheriff for Sussex in 1736--the year of his death. _Gent. Mag_. vi. 110. The son is mentioned in Johnson's _Works_, viii. 282.